Your Mountain Can Move | Discussion Guide

Published July 5, 2026
A light blue background with white text that reads 'Your Mountain Can Move, Matthew 17:14-20' next to a church steeple with a cross against a cloudy sky.

Summary

In this sermon, the pastor draws from Matthew 17 to address the mountains in our lives, those long-standing, seemingly immovable struggles that have left us feeling hopeless and defeated. Using the account of a desperate Father who brings His suffering son to Jesus, the pastor explores how prolonged trials can cause us to drift from hoping to merely coping, and how God calls us back to a place of desperate, active faith.  The sermon emphasizes that biblical faith is not about the size of our belief or a prosperity-gospel formula, but about the object of our faith: the person and promises of Jesus Christ. Through honest reflection on spiritual warfare, the nature of hope, and the power of desperate prayer, the pastor challenges the congregation to stop coping and start hoping again, trusting that God can move the mountains in their lives as they cry out to Him in faith.

Intro Prayer

Heavenly Father, we come before You today with open hearts and honest souls. We acknowledge that some of us are carrying heavy burdens, mountains that have stood for far too long. As we gather together in this group, we ask that You would quiet the whispers of doubt and fear, and open our hearts to what You want to speak to each of us today. Help us to be vulnerable with one another and with You. May this time together draw us closer to You and to each other. In Jesus' name, amen.

Ice Breaker

What is one place in nature, whether a mountain, a beach, a forest, or somewhere else, where you feel most at peace, and why?

Key Verses

  • Matthew 17:14-20
  • Psalm 27:13
  • Proverbs 13:12
  • John 10:10
  • Psalm 50:15

Questions

  • The pastor described the difference between 'hoping' and 'coping.' Which of those two words best describes where you are right now in your most difficult area of life, and why?
  • Biblical hope is defined in the sermon as 'the confident expectation that God is at work in my situation for the glory of God and for the good of my soul.' How does that definition challenge or encourage you personally?
  • The Father in Matthew 17 prayed one of the most honest prayers in the Bible: 'I do believe, help my unbelief.' Have you ever found yourself in that place? What did that season look like for you?
  • The pastor said that the hardest part of any trial is not the depth of the trial but the duration of it. Do you agree with that? How has the length of a struggle in your life affected your faith?
  • The sermon touched on spiritual warfare and the reality that there is an enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. How does recognizing the spiritual dimension of your struggles change the way you approach them?
  • The pastor pointed out that Jesus told the Father to bring His son to Him, even though Jesus could have healed from a distance. What does that tell us about the role of human initiative and obedience in experiencing God's work in our lives?
  • The pastor shared a personal story about praying for his mother for nearly 20 years before she came to Christ. How does that story speak to an area of your life where you may have moved from passionate prayer to passive resignation?
  • The sermon warned that churches with strong biblical knowledge can sometimes have deficient faith, knowing the principles but lacking the power. How do we guard against that in our own spiritual lives and in our small group?

Life Application

This week, identify the one mountain in your life that you have been coping with rather than hoping about. Set aside intentional time each day to pray over it with desperate, specific faith. If possible, get on your knees as a physical act of surrender and cry out to God using the Father's prayer from Matthew 17 as a model: 'Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. Have mercy on my situation.' Write down the specific request and the date, and trust that God hears the passionate prayer of His people.

Key Takeaways

  • Prolonged trials can cause us to drift from hoping to coping, but God calls us back to biblical hope, which is the confident expectation that He is still at work in our situation.
  • The hardest part of any trial is not its depth but its duration, and we must resist the temptation to let our hearts grow hard and our prayers grow cold over time.
  • Biblical faith is not about the size of our belief or a prosperity-gospel formula. It is about the object of our faith: the person and promises of Jesus Christ.
  • Spiritual warfare is real, and we must make room in our theology for the reality that an enemy is actively working to steal, kill, and destroy what is good and precious in our lives.
  • God often calls us to a step of obedience before we see His miracle, and desperate, honest prayer is the vehicle through which mountain-moving faith is expressed and God's glory is revealed.

Ending Prayer

Lord, we thank You for this time together and for the truth of Your Word. We confess that many of us have been coping when You have been calling us back to hoping. We bring before You now the mountains in our lives, the broken relationships, the prodigals, the health battles, the habits we cannot break, and the prayers we have nearly given up on. We say together, like the Father in Matthew 17, we do believe. Help our unbelief. We trust that You are not indifferent to our pain, and we choose today to cast our anxieties on You because You care for us. Give us the courage to pray with desperation and the faith to believe that nothing is impossible for You. May Your name be glorified in every mountain that moves. In Jesus' name, amen.