I Believe, Help My Unbelief

Proofread Broadcast Transcript

Reading from Mark chapter 9, verse 24, I believe, help my unbelief. That was Mark chapter 9, verse 24.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exult his name together. It's Monday, September 21st, 2026, and welcome to Mark & Friends.

I believe, help my unbelief. Maybe you've prayed something like that yourself. Today, Pastor Jason Epperson of CU Church takes us into Mark chapter 9, where a desperate father, struggling disciples, and a hurting son remind us that faith isn't ultimately about what we can accomplish, it's about who we are trusting.

Here's Pastor Jason on the Monday edition of Mark & Friends. There is lots of us in this room, at varying degrees, that are walking in this moment and we're desperate. We're desperate for healing, because we're sick or we're injured, or someone that we know or love is sick, and just honestly, they just need healed.

There's people in this room that are desperate because they just want to connect to a God that they've never really been able to connect with, and they don't even really know if they believe in Him. There's people that are desperate because they just desire a relationship, or they just desire a child, or they just desire for one of those things to go better. There's desperation in this room with a job, there's desperation with finances, there's desperation with sickness, there's desperation with culture, there's desperation with government, there's desperation with education system.

I don't need to do the whole list, right? But we can just nod our heads, and all of us recognize at times we walk in, in every crowd, it just depends on what you find us thinking about, right? Because even in our minds, we can find something to be desperate about, what, pretty quick. Another person in a crowd is someone who really knows the answers, but is so afraid of failure, they're unwilling to try. There's people that actually know, here's where the hope is found, here's where the answer is found, here's where love is found, but they're so afraid of rejection, they're so afraid of, because they've done something, they're unwilling to take a step of faith, of like, the willingness to just say, hey, are you okay? We're in that crowd too.

There's also people in that crowd that are just haters. They just hate everything, and the reason they hate everything is they've been desperate so long, they've given up hope. It's not that they were born a hater.

They just are tired of failure, they're tired of other people telling them there is hope, and so they just hate on everything. They're just haters. And then there's people who are so arrogant, they think they can fix everything, and they do everything in their own power, and all they do is frustrate everyone around them because they actually don't make any change, they just talk about it all the time.

Now, there's more people than that in the crowd, but I would guess that all of us can identify with at least one of those things, if not what? All of those things. Jesus walks up on a crowd. And when Jesus walks up on this crowd, he's coming down off this mountain, he walks up on this crowd, hear me say, every single thing that I just mentioned was present in that crowd.

And here's the beauty is, you're going to watch God in this moment interact with all of those things, and at the end of this message today, you're going to know, no matter where you're at in this room, this is what God is saying to you. That's awesome, isn't it? It starts this way. It says, and when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.

So, you've got who in the crowd? You've got disciples in the crowd, you've got the crowd itself, you've got scribes, which when you hear the word scribe in the Bible, it's basically religious leaders, okay? The religious leaders would have been defined in two different, actually more than two groups, but simply put, two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were a group of people that believed in the resurrection of the dead, but they also didn't like Jesus very much because he was tearing down these religious legalism around them, and it made them feel insecure, and so they didn't like that. And the Sadducees were like the political elite that only really believed God was there to elevate them, okay? And so those are your two ruling powers, and so those would all be part of the scribes, just these religious leaders, arguing with them, and immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, when they saw Jesus, were greatly amazed, they went up to him and greeted him, and he asked them, what are y'all arguing about? Remember what's just happened, and this has happened to all of us.

We just had a group of high school students who just went to a week of camp, or it's when you have a retreat and someone goes away in your family, they come back from just a weekend of just spending time with Jesus, and it's like, ah-ha-ha-ha, like it's so nice to shut all the stupidity out around you, and just focus on Jesus for a second, and then you walk back in the room. I remember for me, I was in India, and when I was in India, I was there for like 16 days, and I saw all this crazy, God-cool stuff that was happening. There was also hard things that happened of like, holding children as they were dying because they just were so hungry, or seeing leprosy camps, but also watching people convert to Jesus that have cursed his name forever, and I remember coming back to the States, and I hadn't slept because you fly and you're on trains, and I walked into a gymnasium, and I remember walking into a gymnasium and watching two kids fight over a dodgeball, and I just thought, where am I? Where am I? Because I was on this moment here with the Lord, and the next moment, it was like, I've got two 12-year-olds fighting over a dodgeball, and halfway around the world, they can't even get food.

But in my brain, it's like, this don't make sense. Jesus, and Peter, James, and John are coming off an incredible experience, they're walking into an experience, and they watch the disciples, they watch the religious leaders, and they watch the crowd, and everyone is arguing, and Jesus just says this, y'all, y'all, what are we fighting about? In this crowd, let's just define it here as we go forward, it'll be easier. The scribes were mocking the disciples, mocking Jesus' dudes, like his people, because they couldn't heal the boy.

You have a father who is there in the room, you're going to hear about him in a second, a father who is desperate for his son to be what? Healed. And then you have a crowd of people that are looking for answers, and they're not finding any answers in the disciples, they're not finding any answers in the haters, like, they're just everywhere. And so it goes on and says these words.

And someone from the crowd answered him, teacher? So Jesus said, why are y'all fighting? And then the father says this, hey teacher, I brought my son to you, free as a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams, and he grinds his teeth, and he's rigid. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able, and so then Jesus answered this man, and he says these words.

He looks at his disciples, he looks at the scribes, he looks at the crowd, and he says these words. O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I here to bear all of these things? You have disciples who couldn't do it. Why does he call them faithless? Do they have faith? They do have faith.

So let's define this. The disciples had faith, but obviously there's something wrong with the faith in this moment. The father who brought the boy had faith because he's bringing the boy to be healed.

The scribes, listen to me, the scribes knew how to cast out demons. This time in history, religious people could cast out demons. But why wouldn't they do it? You gotta know a little bit of Jewish history to know this.

Jewish people believed that you couldn't cast out a demon unless you knew the demon's name. And so if the boy was mute, if he couldn't speak because of the demon, they thought there's no shot at casting out the demons, so they didn't what? Try. And then you have a crowd full of people.

So why could the disciples not do it? We're gonna get there, he says you faithless generation. But I think ultimately it's this is, you guys know earlier in the book of Mark, earlier in the ministry of Jesus, what power did Jesus give them? You remember this? Jesus said, I'm going to give you the power to cast out demons and to heal the sick, to heal the... Jesus gave them that power. And then they went out and what did they do? Do you remember? They cast out demons.

They healed the sick, like they did all those things. So this guy comes up, this father comes up with his son, they walk up, they see Jesus, and in the moment they see Jesus they're like, hey, Jesus isn't there, so the disciples are like, hey, my son is demon possessed, or my son is sick, who can help them? And all the disciples are like this, oh, I got this. I got this on locks.

I remember like three months ago I was casting out, boom, boom, boom, I was like the demon caster router. That's what they thought. And then they said what they had said before probably, right? Man, if you play that song after the sermon, it's gonna work.

Oh, if you can just follow these four steps of evangelism and read this card, God gonna move. Oh, if you can read this book on how to be a husband, on how to be a wife, on how to be single, and you can follow these ten points, life is easy. Yeah, we've all thought it, and it hadn't worked for any of us.

But that's where the disciples are at. It's not the disciples didn't have faith, it's that their faith was in themselves. So I'm gonna ask you a couple questions.

First question is this, what do you believe God can do? What do you believe? What do you believe God can do in your life? What do you believe the creator of the universe, if I ask it this way, it's like cheat code, what do you believe the creator of the universe can do? Next question, are you willing to ask? And when you're willing to ask, do you really believe He can do it? It goes on and says it this way, verse 20. It says, bring Him to me, Jesus says, and they brought the boy to Him. When the spirit saw Him, immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth.

I'm gonna stop here and talk about this just for a second because I don't know if you've had these experiences in your life, but when a demon was in the presence of God, so you've got two powers in this world. Let me just make this really simple. It's like old school, you've got good, you've got what? Evil.

The way the world works. We can act like that's not the case, we can act like there's not evil, but hear me say this, there's evil. God is the author of life, He's the creator of all things, and what evil tries to do is kill, destroy, distort, and destroy God's creation.

Whether that's you or whether that's the creation around you. That's what's going on in the world around us. And so what happens here is Jesus is walking into an environment and the demon recognizes who? Him.

All through the New Testament, all throughout history, when demons are in the presence of someone who knows who they are and who He is, they don't want to be around those people. There's been lots of moments in my life, that's why when Jesus walks up, this demon starts to do crazy stuff because the demon knows what? My days are numbered and so the demon's going to try to do what? Do as much damage to this boy as I can before I'm cast out. I remember getting ready to preach at a conference and I walked up on the stage at the conference, and I don't pray this all the time, you know that, but sometimes I do pray this, and I was backstage, I was praying and someone was praying over me, I walked into this room and there's thousands and thousands of teenagers in this room and I walked up on the stage and God really in that moment, like, I felt very convicted that there's things going on in this room that are above my pay grade.

Does that make sense? I realized, man there's like, some of these kids in this room are struggling with like real darkness. And so I just prayed. The prayer I prayed was this, is God in this room, and I've prayed this before, if there is spirits or there is something in this room that's holding someone back from seeing who you are, right? I pray that sometimes here.

Then I pray you remove those things or I pray those things will flee or I pray that those people can get help, but that was the prayer I prayed. And then I prayed in the power of the name of Jesus, amen. After I prayed that prayer, literally there was like six to eight students in the room as I'm preaching and you look over a room, it just, boom, started popping up and literally running out the door.

We had leaders in the hallways and police officers to protect people and when they got out of the hallways, these kids got out of the hallways and they started to ask for help and they said, hey, something in my head told me I had to get out of that room. Well hey, let's talk, let's pray. Well then those kids got prayed over, those kids got ministered to in that moment because there was something oppressing them, there was something in their world that was holding them back from seeing who? The creator of the universe.

It's real. There's also been moments in my life, and this happens more often than you would think. I remember I was walking down the street one day and as I was walking down the street, I'd prayed the night before, God, I pray that you'll just bring people to me that need you.

So I prayed. Because God, I'm not too smart, sometimes I need help. And so then later on that evening, we had a church service, and as the church service was getting ready to start, someone walked in the room, and they walk in the room, and they walk up and one of our church people, one of you guys were with them, and they said, hey, Jason, this person is looking for you.

And I was like, okay, sounds good. And so I walk up and they say to me, are you Jason Epperson? I said, yeah, I'm Jason Epperson. And this is what they said.

This is what they said. Well, there's this voice in my head that keeps telling me I need to talk to you. I was like, okay.

Well, what's the voice saying? The voice is telling me to talk to you. I said, okay, well then let's talk. And then my next question is, is there any other voices in your head? I did, I asked that.

And then this is what they said. Yes. And then they said, I sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes because the other voices in my head kept telling me that you would hurt me, that you wanted to tell me I was crazy, tell me I was bad, that I didn't belong, that I wasn't good enough to walk in, that everyone would judge me.

Ever had those thoughts? And then I got to spend the next 20 to 30 minutes just praying over this person and talking with this person. And then this person finds freedom. Guys, the reason I'm talking to you about this stuff is because that's what's happening right here in the Bible, but that also happens in our world today.

You've walked into rooms before that you thought something ain't right. And the spirit inside of you is like, there's real darkness. And in that moment, instead of trying to figure it out, we need to go to the Lord and say, hey God, help whoever's in this room to see the light.

In the powerful name of Jesus, Lord, we don't want to deal with any of these things. We cast these things away from your presence, because guess where his presence is? Listen to me now. It's right here now.

So that's what's happening. It goes on and says these words. And Jesus asked the father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood, and as often cast him into the fire and into water to destroy him.

Did you hear that? To destroy him. But if you can, this is what the dad says, but if you can, like if you can help him, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And then Jesus says these words.

And Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible for one who believes. Now I don't think this is Jesus, like I just want to tell you, I don't think this is Jesus mocking someone. Because I don't know about you, but in my life, I've had moments with my children, I've had moments in my own life, I've had moments with you in this room.

Literally, I have sat by the bed with you holding your hand, and we have cried out to God. And sometimes in those moments when we're that desperate, we're that beat down, we've tried everything. Are you with me? We've tried everything.

The way we approach God is, God, if you could do this, that'd be great. And it's not me, not like, this father believed enough in God, believed enough in Jesus to ask the question. Jesus is not pointing his finger and saying, hey dumb dumb.

That's not what Jesus is saying. He's saying, oh man, if you can. It's like, if my kid in the morning is like, hey dad, my car broke down, can you come get me? But I wouldn't say if I can, like, hey dummy, of course I can drive my car.

No, I'd be like, son, I'll move heaven and earth to get you off the interstate. And so then Jesus says, if you can. I need to point this in, this man was not denying God's power, he wasn't denying God's power, he desired to understand it better.

Does that make sense? Like, for you in this room, you're not getting a spanking today, because sometimes we don't know if, like, we believe at all. What he's saying is, there's more. And it goes on and says this way, then immediately, so this man says it, then immediately the man, when Jesus says, if I can, this is what the man says, immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe, like, I believe help me in my what? Unbelief.

Ooh, ye boy. That'll preach right there. That's me.

Maybe I'm the only one. I believe! How do you know you have faith? I'm going to say that again, because if you want to write it down, you can write it down. If you just want to listen, you can listen.

How do you know you have faith? When you know you need more of it. People that don't have faith don't know they need more of it. People that have faith that they have trusted in God, they recognize, I need more of this.

I need to trust you with this. Like, you've trusted God with this segment of your life, but you know you need to trust God with what? More of it. You've seen the fruit of what God can do in this part, and you know He can do more in the other part, and the truth is you want to trust Him, and you're just like God, help me in my what? Unbelief.

When my wife and I have conversations that every married couple has, and we're having these conversations, and the truth is I love my wife. I promise you you don't love your wife more than I love my wife. You tracking? I love that girl.

Only boy I love her. But this is what I pray sometimes. God, help me to know how to love, because I don't.

God, I know I can tell her, I know I can do this, I know I can do this, but God, in my love, help me in the areas I don't know how to love. In my belief, help my unbelief. Every single Sunday, you guys see me, some of you come talk to me, and I'm sitting down here, and me and Kevin are hanging out, and I'm getting ready to walk on this stage.

When I walk up on this stage, I'm telling you that 99% of the time, I have a partnership with the Lord that is so unique. This is a crazy thing. I'm going to tell you guys this.

The most intimate moment I have with the Lord all week is with you. It just is. I don't quite understand it.

Most preachers and I, we disagree. I'm just telling you. I spend lots of time with just me and Jesus.

But when I'm up here, me and the Lord, the trust I have for God, that He is going to deliver a message in this room, that this room needs to hear, is unequivocally, I trust it. Now, I haven't always trusted it that much. When I first sat down in a chair when I was 22 years old, or 25 years old, and I walked onto a stage and said, Hey God, help me not to suck.

And the truth is, and there's still moments that you catch yourself thinking about yourself before you do things that God, only God can do. Just like the disciples. You think, Well, I've done this every week.

I've done this every week. Yeah, God, that's what you do. The reason, like if you'd have asked me, I've said this before, if you'd have asked me 10 years ago, Man, Jason, God really uses you in preaching.

I'd be, Oh, well, thanks. I would have like, had a little, I would have had false, hear me say this, false humility, and not said absolutely. But do you know why I would have said that? Because I still thought I was doing some of it.

Right now, I can stand right here, in front of a thousand people and tell you this right now. I know God uses me when I walk on a stage to talk about who He is. I know it ain't me.

And I can say that very easily. You know why? Because I know it ain't me. But there's a lot of times in my life I still thought I was a part of it, so I was arrogant enough to not be able to say it.

Do you know what else is cool? Is the more I trust Him, the more He uses me. But you know, I'm just now figuring out in the last three to four years that I was like the disciples in this passage as a husband and as a father, and as a friend. I knew what I was supposed to do, and I did it.

But I didn't walk up into my living room every single day recognizing the only way that's through this is through the Holy Spirit and His power over me. The only way I could love my wife is if I'm loving Jesus and He's showing me how. The only way I could talk to my kids is if I trusted God with my words instead of myself.

The only way I could work with athletes is if I trusted God in the words I needed to say. Like a sermon is not separate from my life. My life is a sermon.

And y'all are preaching with me. But my arrogance, my pride, my lack of trust keeps me or kept me from loving my wife, from loving my kids, and from loving you well. Not because I was mean or bad.

It's because I just trusted what I know what I'm supposed to do. And so I just did it. Family, what in your life right now are you doing all the right things, but it's just wrong still.

And here's the crazy thing. I can't tell you how to fix this because it's not yours to fix. I'm going to say a word, and the word is you've got to trust Him.

And really what that means is stop trying to figure it out and start trying to love Him. It's like evangelism. I walk in rooms in this town and it's like, oh Jason, he's an evangelist.

Jason, how do you do it? I know him. I love them. Y'all, if it was rocket science, I wouldn't be leading the effort.

It goes on and says this. I command you to come out of him and never enter him again. And crying out, convulsing him terribly, it came out of the boy, and they said he is dead.

So the enemy once again tried to hurt the boy, and then Jesus took his hand and lifted him up, and the boy arose. I need to say this very clearly. What evil does in this world is it destroys, it dilutes, and it deceives.

It literally changes like evil can't create. Does that make sense? Evil can't create. It can just change what is.

And that's what evil wants to do in your life. Evil can't create. Evil tries to dilute, it tries to deceive, it tries to destroy what God has created.

It's the same with creation all around us. Listen to me. Creation is good because God created it.

The enemy tries to deceive, it tries to destroy, it tries to like manipulate, it tries to do all those things with it, and because of that, there's bad things that happen. But y'all, he knows he's done. He knows his goose is cooked.

But also don't forget this, that what the enemy wants to destroy and wants to hurt, what can God do with it? He heals it. Can I say that to you? Some of you in this room are desperate for emotional healing, you're desperate for physical healing, you're desperate for even social healing, and he wants to heal you, he doesn't want to hurt you. But you gotta ask him.

And it's not if you can, it's when you do. And then he goes on and says when he entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, so he heals the boy, they asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting. So the disciples are like, Jesus, we've done this a thousand times! Like, why couldn't it happen? Like, their hearts in it, hear me say, their hearts in it were good, we wanted to do this, we wanted to help, why couldn't we do it? Like, Jesus, give us the rules, give us the rhythm, give us the thing.

And Jesus looks at him and said, you have to pray and you have to fast. What's he saying by praying? Does he mean if they would've prayed, they would've done it? No! What he's saying is, through prayer and through fasting, you recognize the clarity of God is the only one that creates, he's the only one that heals, he's the only one that offers life, he's the only one that speaks to the hearts of men and women, he's the only one that, like, he's the only way to build the house when the house won't come down. He's all we got.

And you recognize that through prayer, and you recognize that through fasting. Why? Because fasting is the removal of other things we have our hope in, it's fasting is the removal of other ways in which we receive information, and when we cut those things out and we just spend time with the Lord, we have mountaintop experiences and those experiences tell you is God is, it's him. The reason the disciples couldn't do it is because they were trying to do it versus trusting God to do it.

The reason why at times in my life I fail as a husband is because I'm trying to be a husband versus trusting God. The reason why I fail as a father, or the reason why you fail as a mother, is because we're trying to do our list of good things versus connect to the creator of the universe who actually understands the heart and mind of your kid. The reason why we fail in our singleness is because we try to figure out how to interact with everyone else so that we can, we want to give love so we receive love, and the reality is the only way you can give love to someone that's meaningful is knowing what they need, and the only way you're going to know what they need is by connecting with the creator of the universe.

Like y'all, the only shot we got is him. And him is Jesus, listening friend. He's the one we need to connect with daily, to love, trust, and depend upon.

Maybe your prayer today simply needs to be, Jesus I believe, help my unbelief. If you missed part of today's broadcast or want to continue growing, visit the Mark & Friends tab at GreatNewsRadio.org or WLUJ.org Thanks for listening, thanks for being a part of our radio listening family. This is Mark Burns with the Ministry of Great News Media.

God bless you, and have a great day and night.