Hey everyone this is Troy. I want to talk about faith and specifically about faith
that is the size of a mustard seed. When I was growing up, I would hear this verse
all the time where Jesus talks about having faith the size of a mustard seed,
and there is two occurrences that I can think of. One is in Luke 17:5-6 and
the other one is in Matthew 17:20.
I am going to go ahead and read Matthew 17:20. It says, "and he said to them, 'because of
the littleness of your faith, for truly I say to you if you have faith the size of
a mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it
will move and nothing will be impossible to you.'" When I heard this verse
growing up I always put so much emphasis on the mustard seed. And in
my mind I thought "Okay, so Jesus is setting the standard. If you want to
do great things in the kingdom of God and you want to do great
things for the Lord you have to have this mustard seed sized faith."
The only problem with that is I feel like I was taking the illustration too
far, and i think it is easy to do that. We can not really measure faith by a mustard
seed standard. There is no like saying, "Okay, you have three mustard seeds
of faith. I have two mustard seeds of faith."
That is not what he meant. He was using an illustration to make a point,
and the way we know what his point was is by the question that the disciples
were asking Him.
They were saying, "Lord, increase our faith."
And so when Jesus said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed
you can tell this mountain to be moved into the sea, what he was saying was
even with the small amount of faith that you have, even if it is the size of a
mustard seed (this tiny little thing),
God can still use you to do great things. And I think the emphasis is less on
getting to this size or this ratio or whatever faith that we can
measure out and more on whatever little faith you have God is going to use
that if you will begin to walk in it.
In Romans 12:3, Paul talks about how God has given each of us a measure of faith,
and specifically in this verse he's talking about
the gifts of the Spirit, but I think that we can also apply this in general to
our faith in God and in his word. Because I do not believe that we all have the
same amount of faith or that we all start out with the same amount of faith. God is
more interested in you using your faith and walking in faith then he is the
measure you have been given.
And no matter what that measure is, if you are using it like a muscle - when it is
used it grows - your faith is going to grow. And I think that is why Jesus used the
illustration of a seed. It might be small right now, but God can use it
where it is right now and as you use it it begins to grow. Even if you are doing
amazing things for the kingdom of God,
ultimately it's not you who is at work.
It is the power of God. It is his power not ours.
So, if we are walking in faith and we are seeing things happen,
we need to keep in mind that we are not the ones who are ultimately in control.
It is him as God who is doing it, and he is using us because we are willing to
believe his word.
Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of
Christ." When we believe the word that he has spoken
we are walking in faith. When we respond appropriately to what he has, in
obedience,
then we are using that faith that we have no matter how small it might be.
I am reminded of Gideon in that he was this man that God called to lead Israel
to victory in war to lead them to freedom, and yet
Gideon was the most unlikely person to be a leader because he was the lowest of
the low as far as his status went. But the reason I believe that God picked
him was because even though he had this tiny amount of faith, and we see that
because he asked God for a sign that that it was actually God telling him to
do these things
three times, not just one sign, he needed multiple signs to
know that it was God saying the words, but as soon as he believed that God was
the one who said the words he did it.
I think that goes to show that he had this tiny amount of faith and probably a
tiny amount of faith in his own abilities too because he was not
qualified, but it didn't matter to God. It did not matter that he had this great
faith.
The only thing that mattered was that when God spoke to him he was willing to
believe the word and he was willing to use the faith that he had. I want to read
Romans 10:8-10. It says, "But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your
mouth and in your heart' (that is, the Word of Faith which we are preaching); that if
you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
This is the word that we read about earlier in verse 17 where it says, "So faith
comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ."
The word is that,
"If you confess with your mouth
Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved."
This is the gospel. If you have never taken your first step of faith,
if you have never used that tiny amount of faith that you have been given, no matter
how small it might be, if you have never taken that first step
I want to challenge you to take it right now. And the way you take that step is by
believing that Jesus Christ is Lord, by confessing that with your mouth, and
believing it in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And when you do that
the Word of God says, "you will be saved." And if that is where you are right now
and you decide to take that step
there is no better place that you can be. And as soon as you take that step of
faith you are going to begin to see that your faith is going to grow.
Because when you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God responds and
he gives you that salvation that he promised.
But if you are a believer and if you have taken that first step of faith,
maybe even a long time ago, but you feel like now your faith is stagnant,
I challenge you. Go read the Word of God. Go seek the Lord in prayer and see what
he is wanting to say to you today.
And then when he begins to speak to you through his word and through the Holy Spirit,
I just challeng you to take that next step of faith and to
respond out of obedience. And if you do that, you will begin to see your faith grow.