This past Sabbath I preached the first message of a 6 part series called The Certainty Box. The message was from Mark 9:14-29 and it was called Help My Unbelief.
Our faith experience includes both “I believe” and “help my unbelief”. We need to recognize the “help my unbelief” category in ourselves. And when we recognize it we must resist the temptation to stuff it into our Certainty Box. We don’t ignore it, we get help with it. And Jesus will help us with our unbelief. Faith is vital but faith is not certainty. God is certain but certainty can become and idol. Our goal is not to be 100% certain that what we already believe is true but to follow the Holy Spirit into all truth. Our goal is not to know it all but to know God!
Here’s what I forgot to say….
Well, there’s a lot. I really got into this study. So I have about 6 pages of notes that I didn’t have time to share. Here is one thought that intrigued me.
Jesus was troubled by a “faithless generation” (v 19). Which part of their unbelief troubled him more, their doubt or their certainty? Doubt is the answer I have always heard. The disciples didn’t have strong enough faith, the crowd was skeptical, the father wavered. But there is some troubling certainty also. When Jesus shows up the scribes are arguing with the disciples and the crowd (vv.14-16). Presumably, they are arguing over faith… why the boy had the demon… why disciples couldn’t cast it out. The fact that they were arguing shows a level of certainty. Each side thought they understood what was happening with more certainty than the other. Perhaps they made statements of certainty like, “This son is possessed because he or his father has sinned” (John 9:2), or “it’s by the prince of demons that they try to drive out demons” (Matthew 9:34). When Jesus showed up it could have been their unbelieving lack of faith that caused him to say, “O faithless generation”. But it also might have been their abundance of certainty. Perhaps their certainty about how faith works closed their minds to how God works and Jesus was weary of their Certainty Box.