Messages

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Looking at Deuteronomy 7:9, Raquel reminds us that our God is a faithful God and is loyal to us no matter what the circumstances.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Devotional Manuscript: What Happens When God’s People Don’t Pray
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, February 2, 2021, Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 

Hey church family. The last couple of devotionals I’ve shared with you have been on the subject of prayer. I want to continue that today, as we look at . . . What Happens When God’s People Don’t Pray? And to introduce that question, I want to share with you one of my favorite Bible promises. It’s found in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB) and it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
That promise looks to be pretty straight-forward. Trust God completely. Put him first in all you do. Include him in every decision. And He will provide the direction and guidance that you need along the road of life.
What could be clearer? And yet do we do that? No . . . least not often enough. There’s a tragic example of the problem of prayerlessness that’s recorded for us in Joshua chapter 9.
There we’re told about a time when Joshua was leading the Israelites into the promised land – the land that God had given them. And Joshua and his men were fighting battle after battle, and achieving victory after victory. Some of the people in that land – a people called the Gibeonites –  realized how successful Joshua and his men were being in battle. They knew there was no way that they could stand up against them in traditional warfare, so they set about to perpetrate a deception. . . A deception that began with a masquerade. They dressed up in worn-out clothes. They put worn-out sandals on their feet. Worn out sacks on their donkeys, and worn-out wineskins in their sacks. The lunches they packed as part of this deception, didn’t consist of bread that was fresh from the oven, but rather bread that was old and dry and crumbled. And then they traveled to meet Joshua.
Upon meeting him they said .. . . We have travelled a long, long way from a far off country. And we want you to make a treaty with us, promising us that as you conquer this land, you won’t cross over into our land and attack us. . . because we have heard of the power of your God, and how he has given all this land in to your hands. Joshua asked them . . . “How do we really know that what you’re telling us is true?” “How do we know that you’ve come from a far-off country?” “Maybe you’re living right here in this land and you’re trying to trick us into making a treaty with you.” And the Gibeonites said to Joshua . . . “Check us out for yourself….
The Gibeonites told Joshua . . . This bread that we’ve got here in our packs . It was fresh from the oven when we packed it. Look at it now. . . It’s old and dry and crumbled. These wineskins we’re carrying were brand new when we filled them. Look at them now. They are split open. And the clothes and the sandals we’re wearing – – they’ve still got the tags on them somewhere. We just got them at TJ Maxx, before we left out homeland but now, they’re worn out from the very long journey.” Joshua, “Check all of this out for yourself”
Use the common sense that God has given you. Lean on your own understanding and make your own decision. And that’s exactly what Joshua and his men did. Joshua 9:14-15 (NLT) tells us . . . “So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath.”  Joshua and his people were deceived by their enemies. Why?
Because they knew it was important to look to God on what they regarded to be the really really big challenges they faced. But when it came to the smaller stuff – – – they could just lean on their own understanding. Not a good idea. Not for Joshua and not for you and me. I pray that God would be teaching us to be people who . . . “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Amen!!!
 

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” When you feel the need to vent, where do you go? Judy Mandl challenges us to take the advice of the Psalmist (Psalm 61:1-4) and find our place of refuge in God.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Devotional Manuscript: What Happens When God’s People Pray
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, February 1, 2021, Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 

Hey church family. The last couple of daily devotionals I’ve sent your way have dealt with the subject of prayer, and specifically about the importance of faith as it relates to the prayers that we offer. But anytime you discuss those two things in tandem – faith and prayer – it begs the question . . . Do I have enough faith to see my prayers answered?
To address that question I want to share with you a story from what happened during a prayer meeting in the early church. You can read all about it – and I would encourage you to do that – in Acts chapter 12. By the time we get to Acts chapter 12 – Persecution had broken out against the young church. Acts 12:1-4 (NLT) tells us, “About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword. When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.)”
Verse 4 provides us with some of the details regarding Peter’s imprisonment. It says . . . “Then (King Herod Agrippa) imprisoned (Peter), placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover.” Don’t miss that. Peter is in prison, and 16 soldiers. . . Four squads of four soldiers have been assigned to guard him, just to make sure that he stays in prison.
But the story continues and tells us . . . “But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him” (Acts 12:5). The verses that follow, tell us how God responded to that prayer. We read…
“The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate.
Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.
Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening.
They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said.
“The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”  Acts 12:6-11
Stop there for a moment. Peter had been in prison. The church had been praying earnestly for his release. Peter, no doubt, from his prison cell, had also been praying for his release. And yet, when God sends an answer to that prayer, does Peter believe it? Does Peter receive it? No, he thinks he must be having a vision, or a dream, or something else. It’s not until he’s outside the prison, on the street, that he realizes that what had happened to him, had really happened to him.
Not exactly a demonstration of mountain-moving faith. But the story gets even better. “When (Peter) realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.  When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”  Acts 12:12-14
What was the response of those in that prayer meeting? Did they jump up out of their seats saying, “Praise God for answered prayer?” Not exactly. What they said to that servant girl upon hearing that news was . . . “You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.” Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place. // How much faith does it take to see answers to prayer?
Based on this story, you’d have to conclude that the answer to that question is “Not a whole lot.” When the church prayed . . . And God sent an answer in the form of an angel, to release Peter from prison. . . Peter didn’t believe it was really happening to him. When the church prayed for Peter’s release, and Peter showed up at their door, the people praying didn’t believe it had really happened. And yet it had.
And the take-away for you and me is that even a little bit of faith in a big big God, can produce big big results. Maybe for us the limiting factor in our prayers, is not the size of our faith, but rather the fact that we’re not praying. When it came to the subject of prayer, James wrote. . . “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it” (James 4:2).
When it comes to prayer, one thing you can count on is that God will not answer those prayers that are not prayed. May he be teaching you and me to grow as people of prayer – Amen
 

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” As people, we are prone to grumbling and murmuring and complaining among ourselves. It’s not something we have to work at, it just comes naturally to us. Looking at Philippians 2:14​-15, Judy Mandl reminds us that when we fight that natural tendency we have an opportunity to shine like stars.

A message from the series “Living In The Goodness Of God.” Sermon Manuscript: Living In The Goodness Of God Message 1- When I Forget God’s GoodnessSermon preached by Dr. Rick Mandl, Eagle Rock Baptist Church, January 30 & 31, 2021
 
Hey E.R.B.C. family. Great to you welcome you as we gather for worship and as we begin a new teaching series based on Psalm 23 called “Living In The Goodness Of God.”
 
Psalm 23 may be the best known Bible passage of all time. I read this passage of Scripture at every funeral service that I’ve ever led. So many times when I read this passage, whether I’m surrounded by mourners who are churched folk, or non-churched folk. . . I’ve noticed that as I start reading this Psalm, within the crowd I’ll usually spot someone whose lips are moving as they’re mouthing the words along with me as I read them because it’s that familiar.
 
I’d like to start my message this morning by having us read it together. The words are on the back of your study notes. And I’ve printed it out from the King James Version, which is not the version that I most often teach from. And the only reason for that is that most of the people I’m teaching to, don’t speak King James English. The KJV was written over 400 years ago. But because this is probably the most familiar version when it comes to this Psalm, I’ve chosen that version for us to read it together.
 
Psalm 23 – verses 1-6. Would you read it with me?
1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
 
Amen! The 23rd Psalm is a psalm about the goodness of God, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about over these next weeks. And so I want to start by showing you why why focusing on God’s goodness is so important in your life, maybe more important and more of a challenge today than it’s ever been before. And then I just want us to look at the first five words of the Psalm and give an overview of where we’re going to be going in that Psalm in the coming weeks. . .
 
So first on the front of your notes. . What happens when I forget God’s goodness? The Bible tells us that, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…” (James 1:17). God showers gifts on you every single day.
 
When you forget his goodness, you lose sight of that fact. And even worse. . . I start claiming credit for God’s gifts, I start claiming credit for the gifts he’s given me and the things he’s done for me. I start saying things like, “I built this business with my own two hands.” So you did, but who gave you your hands? Or you might say, I got where I am today by the sweat of my brow.” Who gave you your brow and who gave you your sweat? Everything you have in your life, you owe to God. If it wasn’t for the goodness of God, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now. If it wasn’t for the goodness of God, you wouldn’t be alive.
 
In Luke, chapter 12, Jesus tells the story of a very rich man who had been very successful, a man who had made a lot of money and amassed a lot of wealth. One day this man is surveying his business empire. This guy says, “Look at what I’ve done with my life. Look at all of what I’ve accomplished. Look at all of the wealth that I’ve amassed. Whatever will I do with all my stuff. I’ve got more than I could ever spend, so what will I do?” And then he has his Eureka moment. He says “I know what I’ll do, I’ll just build bigger barns to store it all in.”
 
He didn’t give God any of the credit. He takes all the glory for himself. The Bible tells us that God says, to that rich man, “You fool. You fool.” He said, “Tonight, you’re going to die and everything you’ve accumulated will be given to someone else.” And that’s what happened.
 
If I were to ask you, what is the worst sin you could commit? I wonder how you’d answer. I wonder what would be on your top 10 list of worst sins. Some of you might say, “Well, it’s some sexual sin.” Or some of you might say, “Maybe it’s being greedy, and abusing other people in order to get more money and things like that.” You know what the number one worst sin is in God’s eyes? It’s Prideful ingratitude. It’s Not being grateful to God for his goodness. The Bible talks about this over and over and over. Pride is the sin that got Satan kicked out of heaven. When I stop being grateful to God for all the good in my life, then I get into trouble. 1 Corinthians 4:7 asks the question, “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why do you act as if you’re so great as though you accomplished it all on your own?”
 
Prideful ingratitude, not being grateful to God, for his goodness, is a very serious issue. And the more people are ungrateful, the unhappier they are because they see nothing as a gift of grace, they see everything in their lives in terms of either “I earned that….” Or if they don’t have it, they fee like “I deserve to have that.” And so either way they’re not happy.
 
When I forget God’s goodness . . . I start claiming credit for his gifts and then second. . . I stop asking God for help. When I forget how good God is, and how He wants to help me, I stop asking for things in prayer and I start depending on myself. Over 20 times in the New Testament it tells us to ask. We’re commanded in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you’ll find. Knock and the door will be opened.”
 
The Bible says you have not because you ask not, over and over, God wants you to ask for whatever you need in prayer. You say, I only want to give God the big stuff. I don’t want to bother him with the small stuff. Here’s something for you to think about. . . Everything you bring to God is small stuff. In light of who he is and his power, it’s all small stuff to God. None of your requests are big to Him. And He wants you to bring them to Him.
 
The Bible pictures God as a good, good father. Jesus said it this way, “If you as imperfect parents, know how to give good gifts to your own children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who….. What? Ask him” Luke 11:13 (NLT).
 
In His Sermon on the Mount . . . Jesus draws a contrast between the believer and the non-believer. He talks about the wants and needs we have in life and he says . . . When it comes to those things. . . He says I understand why the people who don’t know God would be deeply concerned about those things . . . But He says . . . That’s not you.
 
You have a loving father, who loves to give good gifts to those who ask Him, which is why the scripture tells us, to not be timid, but rather . . . “To come boldly to the throne of our good and gracious God. Where we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
 
When we forget His goodness, we stop asking Him for help. And he wants us to ask. And when we ask, he wants us to wait patiently, trusting his time. Trusting that He will deliver the right answer.
 
A third thing that happens when I forget God’s goodness is that  . . . I stop Trusting God In Difficult Times. God is good, all the time. . . All the time. . . God is good. And that means He’s good even in the Bad times. .  God has a good purpose, has a good plan, has a good reason. That’s why the Apostle Paul was able to write. . . “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials…”
 
Why? Why could he rejoice when he ran into problems and trials? Was it because he wanted those things in his life? No. He could rejoice because He knew how God was able to use them, to produce good things. Things like . . . endurance, and character and hope and patience.
 
In Romans 8:28, he wrote that, “And we know that God causes everything [not just some things, not just the good things,] but… God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” Romans 8:28 (NLT). If I’m living in the goodness of God then I know that even when times are tough, I know God’s good. I know he has a good purpose, a good plan, and he’s working it all out for good. Not everything that happens in your life is good. There’s a lot of bad. God can take even the bad and then bring good out of it, and that builds trust in him.
 
Again, when I forget God’s goodness. . . I start claiming credit for things that God did, I stop asking God for help, I stop trusting God in difficult times, and the fourth thing that happens when I forget God’s goodness, is I Become Pessimistic About The Future. When you forget how good God really is, you become pessimistic about the future. You lose hope, because hope is based on the goodness of God. If God isn’t good, there is no basis for you to have hope.
 
In Psalm 27, David points us to the connection between hope and the goodness of God. In Psalm27:13-14 he says this: “I would have despaired. . . He said, “I would have been desperate, I would have been in total despair unless I had believed that I’d see the goodness. . . There it is . . . the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He said, “Man, there would be no hope if God was not a good God. We’d be up a creek without a paddle. I would have been in despair,” but he did know that God was a good God. So he says . . . “Instead, I thought, ‘wait for the Lord!… [I don’t see the answer right now; I’m going to wait for the Lord.] Be strong, let your heart take courage! Yes, wait for the Lord!’”
 
Just because life is not good does not mean God is not good. Don’t confuse life with God. We’re not pantheists. Life can be very difficult at times. But God is good all the time. And God knows what’s best all the time. And I can trust that I will see the goodness of God even though it doesn’t make sense to me right now. Why? Because God is good… All the time. . . And all the time . . . God is good. This whole psalm is about The goodness of God. And David, the one who wrote the psalm, chose to communicate that goodness of God through the imagery of a shepherd and the way that he care for his sheep.
 
God is the shepherd. We are the sheep. That’s the metaphor that David uses. And today, we’re not going to go any further than the first five words of the Psalm . . “The Lord is my shepherd…” And then in the weeks to follow we’ll look at the rest of the psalm, phrase by phrase. The whole psalm is about a shepherd and his sheep. But that’s a problem for us. Because most of us have never really been around any sheep. And most of us do not know any shepherds. How many of you have ever been a shepherd? Can I see a show of hands? Anyone? We got one person over here. That’s it. There’s one.
 
At the time the psalm was written, it was written in an agrarian society. So everybody in those days knew somebody who took care of sheep. But because we’re not them, the danger for us is that the whole central metaphor of Psalm 23 can just sail right past us.
 
The first thing you and I need to know about sheep is that when the Bible. . . When God, likens us to sheep, it’s not a compliment. Let me give you. .  Three words to describe sheep . . . Not on your notes but you might want to jot them down . . .
 
First sheep are DIRTY. Almost every other animal will clean itself. Cats give themselves baths. Do we have any cat owners here? Cats clean themselves. Dogs clean themselves. Raccoons, you know, wash their hands, Elephants take baths. Even birds take baths. Not sheep. They literally cannot take care of themselves. They get filthy, and so they need a shepherd just to cleanse them, By the way, that is not a shepherd spray-painting that sheep. That is a shepherd hosing off that sheep, because that’s how dirty they get. Sheep are DIRTY.
 
Second Sheep are DUMB. In case you had any doubts, sheep are just not exactly the Einsteins of the animal kingdom. I read a quote from one Shepherd Ed Winton who’s a shepherd out in West Texas and he summed it up nicely. He said . . .“Sheep are just born looking for a way to die.” In other words, if there is a way to get themselves killed, they will find it. They get into predicaments they cannot get out of by themselves. They need rescue constantly. We’re gonna be telling you some of those stories in this series.
 
So sheep are dirty. Sheep are dumb. And Sheep are DEFENSELESS. Did you know that sheep are one of the only animals in all of creation without any defense mechanism? I mean, look at this… there is nothing about this creature that is intimidating in any way. Just big soft prey for any predator. That’s why sheep need a shepherd because shepherds care for sheep. That’s what shepherds do because sheep can’t take care of themselves.
 
We’re going to look at that as we move through Psalm 23. Next week, what does David mean when he says that because the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. In weeks ahead, how he makes me rest. How He renews my strength. How he leads me and guides me. How he’s with me when I go through dark valleys. . .
 
I hope you’ll accept our challenge over these coming weeks to commit this Psalm to memory. I know that won’t be much of a challenge for some of you because you memorized it long ago. But the familiarity that some of us have with this Psalm can in itself, be a challenge. This Psalm for some has what you might call “The Pledge Of Allegiance Factor.” And what I mean by that is, just like the Pledge of Allegiance that we memorized long ago, we say the words of this Psalm now, and they just roll off our tongue without us even thinking about them. I like what the author Dallas Willard said about the 23rd Psalm… “Unfortunately, The Lord is my shepherd is a sentiment that’s carved on tombstones… more often that it is a reality written into lives.” And that’s my prayer for all of us as we go through this study together. . . That the words of this Psalm would be written into our lives.
 
David wrote this Psalm toward the end of his life. David, had started out as the obscure youngest child in a family full of notable sons. When the Prophet Samuel came to anoint the next king. . . He came to the house of Jesse, and all the sons of Jesse were there except for David. David hadn’t been regarded as being good enough, to be considered as a future king. They eventually had to go out and find him in the field where he was working as a shepherd.
 
Starting from there he goes on to slay Goliath, which made him the most popular human being in the country. He’d gone from zero to hero. . . Which if you know the story did not sit particularly well in the face of a jealous King, King Saul. And then David goes from being this guy that everybody’s loving, to being a guy who is running for his life – – – hiding out in caves. At one point, he actually acted like he was insane, so that he could keep from being killed.
 
Finally he becomes King, and he is a great king. But he’s got a few problems. His son tries to take the throne. There’s that whole mess with Bathsheba And so as great of a king as he was, you could not say that his was an easy or a good, or a wonderful life. Near the end of his life. . . Looking at what he had experienced through the lenses of both the good and bad, David could declare with confidence . . . “The Lord is my shepherd!!”
 
I wonder, can you and I say the same thing? Is “The Lord Your Shepherd?” As we move forward into this new year, we have two choices in 2021. We can focus on our needs, or we can focus on our shepherd. The choice is ours. Jesus said, there are all kinds of shepherds you can follow. . . In John chapter 10 Jesus said there are a lot of false shepherds out there. . .  He described them as “thieves and robbers.” “The true sheep did not listen to them. . . The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life” (John 10:8-10). He goes on and he says . . . “I am the good shepherd.
 
The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock” (John 10:11-12). He said . . I’m not a temporary Savior. I’m not a temporary Shepherd. I’m not a temporary solution for your problems. At the time Jesus spoke these words it was not unusual for a shepherd to hire some help. Nothing wrong with that except . . . When that hired help face danger, maybe a wolf or a bear attacking the flock like David experienced. If it’s a hired hand watching those sheep, well, they’re not his sheep so he’s out of there, he doesn’t have a personal investment in the flock, like the shepherd did.
 
Jesus, as our good shepherd, sacrificed his life for the sheep. And he calls us to respond by following him as our shepherd. There was a story from some years back of a famous actor who was at a social gathering. And this actor was a Shakespearian actor, a stage actor, an actor who was know for his great skills in oratory. And because he was well-known people were gathered around him asking him to recite different famous passages, and he was doing it. And there was also an old preacher in that gathering that day. And the preacher put in his request to the actor He said, “Please, sir, would you recite the 23rd Psalm? And the actor said, Well, I will, if you will.
 
And the pastor agreed, so the actor stood up and began to recite the 23rd Psalm in the way you would think an actor would do it. Very skilled oratory His voice, rising and falling, and all the dramatic elements. And it was just very beautiful and very elegant. And when he was done, everybody applauded. It was amazing. And then he said, to the preacher, now it’s your turn. And the preacher got up to speak and his voice was cracking. And he didn’t have really any eloquence at all. But he spoke as if it was a prayer. And it came right out of the depths of his soul. “The Lord is my shepherd. . . . And when he was done, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.
 
Someone asked later, “What was the difference between those two?” To which somebody else wisely said, well, the actor knew the Psalm. But the pastor knows the shepherd. That’s what we want for you, Let’s pray . . .
 
Dear God. 2021 needs this song, I need this song. I need you to be my shepherd. And for the people listening, I pray that this will be a day when they say, Hey, you know what, I’m going to stop listening to all the other dumb shepherds. And I’m only going to listen to you it’s going to start with the Lord, the yawei, the God of the universe, is my personal Shepherd cares for me, loves me, died for me. Seems like everything else that flows out of that should be okay. It’s in your name that we pray.
 
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Devotional Manuscript: How Much Faith Does It Take To Move A Mountain?
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, January 29, 2021, Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 

Hey church family. Today, I want to talk to you once again about prayer. And I’d like to ask you to consider the question . . . “How much faith does it take to move a mountain?” Some of you hear that, and your immediate reaction is? “How much faith does it take to move a mountain?” Pastor Rick, you said you wanted to talk about prayer Shouldn’t the question be “How much prayer does it take to move a mountain?”
The reason I’ve linked these two things – faith & prayer – is because Jesus, in his teaching linked them together. Yesterday I shared with you a story from Mark chapter 9 of one of the failures that Jesus’ disciples experienced during their ministry. It had to do with their failure to be able to cast a demon out from a demon-possessed boy. The boy’s father brought his son to Jesus, and told him that his son had been tormented by a demon, and Jesus disciples had not been successful in casting that demon out. Jesus, following that father’s urgent plea, cast the demon out of the boy and returned the boy to his father.
Following that miracle, Jesus disciples took Jesus aside privately and asked Jesus to tell them . . .WHY? Why had Jesus successfully cast out the demon from the boy, while the disciples had not been able to. And Jesus told them, that the answer was “Prayer” Specifically he said. . .  “This kind can be cast out only by prayer” (Mark 9:28-29). Well, I want to continue with that story today, because there is more to the story.
Jesus didn’t just say that what was missing was “prayer.” In Matthew’s gospel – the gospel writer Matthew, gives us his record of that same encounter, and he says, “Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
And Jesus told them – – – the issue is faith . . . “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”  Matthew 17:19-20
You look at that and you think . . . Wait a second, in Mark’s Gospel, the writer records that Jesus told his disciples that what was missing that kept them from casting out the demon was prayer. They had left prayer out of the equation. Yet in Matthew, when the writer records that same conversation – Jesus told His disciples that what they were lacking was “faith” So which was it, faith or prayer?
The answer is… “Yes.” It is the prayer offered in faith. Even the tiniest amount of faith, backing up a prayer that is offered to our big, big, God can bring about amazing results. Bottom line is, it’s not the size of our faith… It’s the size of our God.
And to drive that point home, Jesus gave his disciples the example of the mustard seed. He said if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. It’s worth noting that the example that Jesus used, “Faith as small as a mustard seed” is significant because “the mustard seed” was one of the smallest seeds known at that time.
Maybe the idea of “Faith big enough to move a mountain” intimidates you. How about the idea of “Faith as tiny as a mustard seed. . . But that tiny bit of faith being placed in a big big God? There’s an old song. . . And I won’t sing it for you, but I will share the lyrics with you. It says. . . Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains, you cannot tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible And He can do what no other power can do. Amen.
 

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl looks at Galatians 5:22-23 and encourages us to use these verses as a measuring rod to see to what degree we’re growing to become more and more like Jesus.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Devotional Manuscript: No Prayer, No Power
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, January 28, 2021, Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 

Hey church family. One of the strangest stories that you can read about during Jesus time on earth, had to do with a failure that was experienced by his disciples. It’s a story that you’ll find recorded in three of the gospels. It’s found in Matthew chapter 17, Mark chapter 9, and Luke Chapter 9.
It’s the story of a time when a father came to Jesus asking Jesus to heal his son. This father tells Jesus, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it” (Mark 9:17-18 NLT).
I’d encourage you to read the rest of this story for yourself, so that you can see everything that happened during this encounter. But I’ll give you the summary, which is that Jesus heals this boy. He casts out the evil spirit and then he gives the boy back to a very grateful father. It’s a wonderful miracle of compassionate healing, but to me the most interesting part of the story is what happens after the miracle that Jesus performed.
The disciples were puzzled. Not by the fact that Jesus could heal the boy. They certainly had seen him perform many healings, and many other miracles. The specific thing that puzzled them was how it was that Jesus was able to heal this boy, when they who had been performing different signs and wonders and miracles in his power, weren’t able to do it. And so when they had a private moment, away from the eyes and ears of others, they asked Jesus about it. In Mark 9:28 we read, “Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer” (Mark 9:28-29).
Don’t miss those last words. . . “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.” Apparently, Jesus disciples were able to have some degree of success doing ministry in His name, and in His power, even without praying about each of the specific things they were doing. And they were successful up until the point where they weren’t. Up until the point where they came face to face with a problem that could not be solved without prayer.
If you want to sum up the main message that Jesus passed on to his followers that day, I think you can sum it up in four words. And the four words are . . . “No Prayer, No Power.” It would be awesome if God gave us a template that we could use as we went through our lives, that told us . . . These problems you can probably handle just fine, even if you don’t stop to pray. These others ones . . .you can’t. Because no template like that exists, the best approach that we can take as his followers is to pray about everything.
From the example of Jesus, we know that the busier he became in ministry, the more he would make sure to take times to withdraw from the crowds and pray. It was his habit. Luke 5:15-16 tells us, “The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.  But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:15-16).
If Jesus needed to spend time often in prayer, how much more do you and I? May it become a habit for each of us, Amen.
 

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Raquel Blanchard reflects on Psalm 17:6 and 1 Chronicles 5:20 and reminds us that God is listening, and that when we call out to Him in prayer, trusting that He will respond, we will see answers to our prayers.