Keith Battle - A House of Pain - Part 4

Mark chapter 9 is where I'd like you to direct your attention today, and I want to read a story about another family who was experiencing pain in their household, beginning at verse 14. I'm going to read down through verse 29 from the New Living Translation. Please bear with me as I may make some comments while I'm reading that may not appear in the text; I'm emotionally attached to this passage as I've been reading it, so bear with me. Verse 14 says, "When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them." Verse 15 says, "When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him." "What is all this arguing about?" Jesus asked. Verse 17 says, "One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, 'Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He’s 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, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid.'" Help us, Lord! "So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn't do it." Jesus said, "You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." So they brought the boy, but when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. Verse 21 says, "How long has this been happening?" Jesus asked the boy's father. He replied, "Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can." "What do you mean, 'If I can'?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father instantly cried out, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!" When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. "Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak," he said, "I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again." Then the spirit screamed, threw the boy into another violent convulsion, and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. Afterwards, 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." It would be an understatement to say that this family, represented by this boy and his father, was living in a house of pain. They didn't just have normal pain; they had demonic pain. They weren't just dealing with financial problems, sibling rivalry, or failure to communicate in the marriage; they had a devil they were fighting. Some of you do too. Your pain in your household is not medical; the medical issues were the fruit of the problem. This boy's pain was demonic at its root, manifesting medically through seizures, convulsions, and the inability to speak or hear. But at the root of it, it was a demon. The reality is that there’s someone I’m assigned to talk to this week, and you're not just dealing with normal problems; you're dealing with a demon. It is an evil spirit, and that doesn't make you a bad person. Evil spirits don’t just leave when their welcome is over; they go where their agenda is threatened. The reason why you're fighting a devil is that you’re anointed. You can take this to the bank: wherever there's a spiritual fight, there is an anointing. I'll say that again: wherever there is a spiritual fight, there is an anointing. The reason why there is an evil spirit you're fighting in your house is that your house is anointed. There’s an anointing in your home. You wouldn’t be fighting that spirit if you weren't anointed; that's why you're in the fight. You pose a threat to the kingdom of darkness, which is why you're facing this kind of battle. If you weren’t anointed, you would face regular problems. If you weren’t anointed, you would have normal problems like everybody else. But you don’t just have normal problems; on top of those, you have a devil to fight. It’s a spirit you’re fighting against, and I'm on assignment to talk to you about it. Now, when you come to this passage, this family has been fighting this devil for years, since the boy was a little child. They have been struggling with this, but on this day in the text, the pain came to an end. I declare to you that for some of you, your pain is about to come to an end because God is going to show you how to fight this battle. The ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark has two extremes in it. The first 13 verses paint one picture, while verses 14 to 29 paint a different picture. So the first 29 verses actually present two extremes for us. On the one hand, it starts off in verses 2 to 13 talking about Peter, James, and John joining Jesus on a pinnacle. They go to a place called the Mount of Transfiguration, and there they…