Mark Chapter 11 Verses 20 – 21

• I wish we could bottle that up! My back yard is full of weeds man. In fact they’re just welcome now. We have so little grass…at least the weeds are green! HA! But I remember back in Virginia, we had a sidewalk in our back yard that went from our driveway to our deck and that sidewalk was cracked. Little weeds would constantly pop up and April would declare war!
• She’d go get the Round-Up from the store and blast ‘em and when they came back she started to get innovative! She got online! Da da duuuuuum! HA! And found out that vinegar…pure vinegar will kill the junk out some weeds and so she drowned them! I got home from work, my backyard smelled like a rotten salad!! HA! And it would take days for them to die! This is supernatural man!
• Best weed killer ever! WWJD Weed Killer! On sale today on our website! Seriously though, one day! One day and the fig tree is completely withered away? Yes! And man I’ve seen that happen with people’s faith. One day praising God and loving a Bible study and just so alive and then the next, the bottom just drops out. Why?
• Because it was just religion…no real fruit. Unless we have a personal relationship with God, the first time something goes wrong…if we’re just practicing religion…when something takes place in our lives which takes our eyes off of Him…we will wither away man! Think about it! The same folks that called out “Hosanna” called out “Crucify Him” a week later.
• Leaves are a type, a symbol of religion in the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do? They tried to cover themselves…with what? Leaves! That is what religion seeks to do…cover oneself…but relationship, intimacy with God…that seeks to do the opposite…expose it all man…lay it all out and call upon Jesus as Savior! Just be the mess that you are man…and quit the hiding…
• Closeness with someone never happens when you hold back…don’t hold back with Jesus…He didn’t hold back from you…and once that real deal relationship is in place…walking with Him and knowing Him and closeness with Him…fruit will be there and there will be no withering! You can survive the worst of vinegar showers! HA!

Mark Chapter 11 Verses 22 – 24

• Ok how many records in history have we seen or how many people do you know that have actually spoken to a mountain and its rolled off into the sea? Right, zero! So does that mean that there has never been anyone with belief in their heart that is without doubting? Of course there has! Jesus is not saying specifically move a bunch of Rocky Mountains, what He’s saying is that with faith in God, trusting in God…literally even the toughest of tests in your life will just roll on man…the mountains as it were…cast them into the waters…into the Word of God and lean on Him…
• And this statement of, “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive, and you will have…” You see the translators add them twice there because they were and we are so quick to materialize this…why? Because we pray for things when it’s not things we need…what we need is simply more of Him…but even aside from that, this verse set has given rise to an entire bit of false doctrine that says if you have enough faith then God will answer your prayers….well problem…that makes YOU God!
• Who is Jesus talking to here? The crowds? The Pharisees? The people? No! He’s talking to His disciples. And know this. A disciple of God…what constitutes a disciple of God? Denial of self! Taking up the cross, a personal cross and living in such a way to glorify God! And so the implication here is not that the pastors of Los Angeles can pray for a new multi-million dollar mansion and as long as they are faithful they get it! That exalts them!   So backwards…as people look on and admire their physical possessions and say, “wow he must be faithful!”
• Do you see that? Does that make sense? Those close to God…their hearts will beat with the same love for others…with the same desire to bring glory to God and God alone and therefore they can pray in utter faith and confidence man!!! The next lesson is similar…check it out….

Mark Chapter 11 Verses 25 – 26

• This trips folks up all over the place but man it’s so simple…Jesus says, “if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses…or your sins.” I’ve heard that used against people in marital arguments or in counseling…that’s not the right application of this verse. Unforgiveness is a symptom, not an action! Forgiveness is something you do man…it is an action but unforgiveness is a symptom…why?
• Because a spirit of forgiveness simply resides in the child of God. And look we all struggle with forgiveness because we have this sappy view of it…that when we forgive someone we have to like almost love that they hurt us…that’s not it at all…the truth is found in the details of the scriptures (as it always is by the way). The word used for forgive is aphiemi which we find 146 times in the New Testament but only 47 times out of 146 is it translated forgive. It most literally means simply move on, turn the page, leave it behind, abandon it and quit giving it power, leave it destitute…
• When the disciples in Matthew 4:22 were called by Jesus they simply left their nets behind and followed Him. Same word. Translated there left behind and moved on man. So child of God, your heart will be for peace, for love, for unity and for reconciliation with anyone and everyone…and yet you’ve been sold a lie that we are not even capable of most times…to turn that pain pill of what has happened into a love bomb…not your job. Your job is to leave those nets behind…just move on man and follow Jesus. Quit thinking about it…quit holding it against them…quit letting it come between you and them…get over yourself! And when you do…the turning it into a love bomb, just blasts love all over the place…that’s Jesus’ job. And He always finishes what He starts!

• And so this thought that God won’t forgive you if you don’t forgive others…it’s simply this…your sin isn’t forgiven period! You haven’t yielded your life to God so God can’t take your sin away…you won’t give it to Him. Jesus said, “A new command I give you, love one another.” John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love…”

• Simple and plain right? It isn’t an action. It is the state of one’s heart man…and if that is not your heart then I would examine it more closely to see if you are in fellowship, in relationship with God…maybe you need to go back to square one and get saved…

Mark Chapter 11 Verses 27 – 28

• It’s another trap. They’re trying to snare Him in the eyes of the people so that they can openly murder Him with the peoples’ approval. Jerks. But you know what? This happens even all the time to us. Folks say one thing…yet they mean another. They have a goal in mind…a vision…and their question and your answer is just a means to an end…we need to be able to discern truth…(video).

Mark Chapter 11 Verses 29 – 33

• It’s awesome what we just saw…Jesus sniffs out their plot and levitates right over their trap…but His aim wasn’t to publically humiliate them…it was to save them. What He does here, whether they see it or not, He makes them realize…they don’t know. I mean they even say it! “Only the Sanhedrim can cleanse the temple! What or who gives you the authority?” Jesus knows they can’t even handle the truth man even if He told them…it would be wasted…it would lead to hate…so He withholds the truth from them and turns their attention to their own shortcomings…why? To maybe prepare them to hear the truth! OF COURSE! He does this today!!!

• If John’s ministry was of divine origin, then they as the spiritual leaders should have been the first to believe him!! If however John’s ministry was of human origin then they would publically declare him an imposter and the people would have turned on them because that was obviously not true! So they were stuck saying (maybe for the first time in their lives)…”we don’t know…we don’t have the answer…”

• Enter opportunity. I wonder today if that would be us. If we would be placed in the same position as these where we would have to honestly say…all that happens, who I am, why I exist, why things happen as they do…why God You love me so much…I don’t have the answer…I turn to you…these Pharisees didn’t and in less than a week they cried out “crucify Him!” But those that did turn to Jesus…in a week and three days, they would cry out, “YES! We are free! He lives!!!”