This week we will study Mark 9:14-29 and talk about “Connecting Our Inadequacy To God’s Adequacy.”

Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John, are coming down from the mountain, where Jesus has been gloriously transfigured. But immediately they are hit in the face by the brokenness of this world.

There is a boy who is suffering terribly, afflicted by a demon who is using a severe form of epilepsy as a tool to torture him. The boy’s father has asked the other nine disciples to heal him, and they were unable.

Why not? We saw in chapter 6 that Jesus had given the disciples authority over demons, and 6:13 tells us that they had successfully “cast out many demons.” Why can’t they cast this one out?

Jesus answers this question in 9:29, when he says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

How can our inadequacy be connected to God’s adequacy? The answer is prayer.

Why don’t we pray more? It is because of our pride and self-reliance. This Sunday we are going to talk about how to battle that pride and self-reliance, and cultivate a radical dependence on God in all things.

I hope to see you there, with a Bible in your hand and a friend who needs Christ at your side.

See you this Sunday!

Dr. Thurman Hayes, Jr.