Title: “Have faith in God.”

Scripture Reading: Mark 11:20-24
“Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Main idea: Believing faith taps into God’s power to accomplish His purpose.

Genuine faith results in answered prayer
When they passed the fig tree the next day morning, the fig tree dried up from the roots (Mark 11:20). Any sympathy for a dried-up tree in our day is badly misplaced and says much about our sentimental culture and its tragic perversion of real values. God had told Jonah to weep over lost people, not a plant (Jonah 4:10-11). Peter, an eyewitness to all that has happened, remembers our Lord’s words (Mark 11:14) and says “Rabbi, look! the fig tree which You cursed has withered away” (Mark 11:21). Following verse implies, he was unable to understand how it had been possible to bring about such a radical change, and that within so short a time.

Jesus warns us in, John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

“Have faith in God”
In response Jesus said to them “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). Unlike an unfortunate amount of teaching today that seems to encourage believers to have faith in faith, the object of our faith is God. And God is good (Psalm 73:1). The tense used in the original shows that abiding faith is meant. Faith is the human response to God’s faithfulness: a complete trust and reliance on him, including the confident expectation that he will hear and respond to our prayers. Without faith, our prayers are empty words. Faith was the means of Abraham’s justification (Gen 15:6). “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God” (Hebrews 11:24-25). Faith was the force that overthrew Jericho’s wall (Josh 6:20). Faith was the secret that enabled Ruth to make her confession (Ruth 1:16, 17). Faith was the muzzle that closed the mouths of Daniel’s lions (Dan 6:19–23). Faith was the reason that cured the centurion’s servant and many others (Matt. 8:10, 13).

Had not Peter “by faith” walked on the water? (Matt. 14:29). Did not the disciples said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17). Jesus promised, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father (John 14:12). Does not the entire book of Acts prove that what Jesus said here in Mark 11:22, 23 was true? “Have faith in God.” The great missionary Hudson Taylor said, “God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on Him.”

“whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea”
“This mountain” is the Mount of Olives; “the sea” is the Dead Sea. For this mountain literally to be lifted up and cast into the sea would mean a sudden plunge altogether. Have mountain-moving faith that does not doubt but asks in prayer. The “mountain” is a hyperbole, an arresting exaggeration, similar to that about the camel and the needle’s eye in Mark 10:25. It represents what appears to be impossible, immovable, beyond our finite ability. “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain,” referring to a mountain of difficulties that would disappear (Zech. 4:7). Jesus’ point was that in their petitions to God they must believe without doubting (that is, without wavering in their confidence in God). The kind of prayer Jesus meant was not the arbitrary wish to move a mountain; instead, he was referring to prayers that the disciples would need to endlessly pray as they faced mountains of opposition to their gospel message in the years to come. Every act of faith must rest on the promise of God.

The power of prayer
Jesus’ followers are to pray with the utter confidence of children who know their Father hears even before they ask (Isa 65:24; Matt 6:8; 1 John 3:22; 5:14-15). The Greek reads literally, “believe that you have received it.” Prayer is not imposing our will on God but opening up our lives to God’s will. True prayer is not an endeavor to get God to change his will but an endeavor to release that will in our own lives. In prayer we should draw ourselves to God and not try to pull God down to us. We are to pray confidently. When we pray with confident faith that our prayers will have power, we can, overcome the mountain type difficulties. Nothing is impossible. Prayer is to be founded on the goodness of God as a loving parent and lays hold on God’s benevolence. When we are living in touch with the Lord and praying in the Spirit, we can have the assurance of answered prayer before the answer actually comes.

Moses who led the people of Israel, Elijah on Mount Carmel and Paul in the Philippian prison might confidently expect miraculous intervention in answer to prayer.

Application
Why did Jesus tell us to speak to the mountain? Why does Paul tell us to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9, 10)? Why does the writer of Hebrews tell us that when a promise is given to us we are to boldly speak it out (Hebrews 13:5, 6)? Because that’s when faith is in action. There is no step of faith, no risk involved if I don’t speak. What mountain bothering you? Is it fear concerning your children? or a bondage or an addiction you want to get rid of? Maybe you’re praying intensely and hoping passionately that a certain problem or a certain situation will somehow be solved. But the fact is, Jesus said it’s not enough to simply hope or even to pray. Rather, you must speak in faith verbally, “Be gone. Be removed. Be cast into the sea.” We should pray with faith in God’s goodness and generosity toward His children, and we should pray together with other believers in a spirit of love, forgiveness, and unity.

Let’s pray together
Heavenly Father, There is power in prayer. Forgive our prayerlessness. Help us Lord take everything to you in prayer. You are a prayer answering God. In Jesus Name Amen.