Faith That Moves
Good morning!
Welcome to Grace River Church online at home!
My name is Jacob, and I am the next generation pastor here at Grace River!
Today I have the special opportunity to share with you out of the Bible.
As a result of today, my prayer is that each and every one of us would take a next step in our spiritual journey!
One quick thing to note is that if you are watching live right now, be prepared for some changes next week!
We are moving to three services as a church, because we are growing so much as a church and moving to three services will help more people have the opportunity to meet, know and follow Jesus!
With that being said, we are also moving our livestream time to 8:30, and as always you can still watch on demand whenever and wherever you would like!
Today we are going to be looking at one of my favorite parables!
If you don’t know what a parable is, it is a simple story to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson given by Jesus.
In Jesus’ life, he used these things called parables to teach a lesson through imagery that is familiar.
Something to know about Jesus is that he is a masterful storyteller.
Do you know someone who is terrible at telling stories?
Well you’re looking at one right now. I am so bad at telling stories. My problem is that I tell details to a story that are cool to me, but nobody else cares about.
That wasn’t Jesus! Jesus was a master storyteller!
When Jesus would teach parables, he would often use visuals, which I love!
I am a visual learner!
Science proves that visuals help people retain more information than just words.
Carmine Gallo one said, “Scientists have produced a mountain of evidence showing back concepts presented as pictures instead of words are more likely to be recalled. Put simply, visuals matter- a lot. If you hear information you’re likely to remember about 10% of that information three days later. Add a picture however and your recall rate will soar to 65%, to put that in the context, a picture will help you remember six times more information than listening to the words alone.”
We all understand this because we say things like, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Here is a little secret in the church world for you. The reason why Chris and many pastors use visuals, or pictures is so that you have a greater chance at remembering what they have to say.
Jesus understood this and took it to another level!
Again, he is the greatest communicator ever.
Jesus would tell stories to teach people and would use visuals from everyday life so that when people would see that thing being played out they would be reminded of the words that Jesus gave.
The parable or story we are going to look at today is the parable of the mustard seed.
A visual of a mustard seed would’ve been something that the disciples would have been all too familiar with in that time, so it is only fitting that Jesus would use the seed as an example.
READ Matthew 13:31-32 31 Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”
To help us understand how small the mustard seed is, I have a container of mustard seeds.
SHOW CONTAINER
We can all agree that this is pretty small, but Jesus teaches that it grows into something great.
ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever felt small, in comparison to the things around you?
Maybe you felt that way when you went to the grand canyon or you were climbing a mountain.
For me, I experienced this while I was in college. Our college sent 50 students to go help with hurricane relief in Texas a few years ago. I just remember when we got there, the destruction was so bad, and I remember thinking, we aren’t even going to make a dent in this even with 50 students. It was so bad. In that moment, we all felt so small, like what relief could we even bring to these people.
USE PICTURES
Even though we felt small with little to no impact, the people that we helped were eternally grateful!
But Jesus teaches in this parable that there is power even in things that are small!
Again this seed can grow into something massive!
SHOW PICTURE OF FULL-GROWN PLANT
The potential for growth is amazing!
Again, today we are going to be talking about faith. And maybe today, your faith in God is the size of this mustard seed!
Don’t think for a second that God can’t use that for something great.
A few chapters later in Matthew, Jesus says this about a mustard seed to his disciples:
Matthew 17:20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
Jesus drops the hammer on his disciples in these verses, saying you don’t have enough faith!
If you can remember back to last week’s sermon, Chris shared the story of Peter walking on water because of faith, but when he looks around at his circumstances he falls, and Jesus asks, “Why are you so afraid? You have so little faith.”
What impresses Jesus is our faith!
- Even Scripture tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
What I love is that Jesus has illustrated to his disciples already how small a mustard seed is, and how it can grow to be one of the largest garden plants, and in these verses he says you can move mountains even with a faith the size of a mustard seed.
Jesus wasn’t saying that they would literally be able to move mountains obviously, but I believe that he used this illustration of a mountain to compare it to the emotional, spiritual, financial, relationship and physical mountains in our lives.
You see, Jesus shared this story 2,000 years ago, because people were struggling to see how God was moving in the midst of their world because it felt like their world had descended into chaos.
I believe the same is true for us today. We can all agree that our world is a little chaotic.
Some of us have experienced the craziest roller coaster of a year.
With the pandemic, political unrest, afghanistan tragedy, even personal issues.
It’s easy to sit back and ask God, are you moving in the midst of all of this?
It’s easy to get discouraged because we don’t see the immediate fruit of what God is doing in a situation.
But we have to adopt a faith that says, even though I don’t see it, God I know that you are working. Even if it is a faith the size of a mustard seed!
ILLUSTRATION: Some of you may know the story of Beethoven, some maybe not, but in his mid-20s he actually began to go deaf, and by the time he was in his mid-40s he had become completely deaf.
In fact some of the most well-known works of Beethoven that were performed ended in some of the most thunderous claps, yet he couldn’t hear a single thing, and he still continued to compose.
He continued to compose in the silence!
And what I love about this story is that it connects for me, what God is talking about here in this parable!
When we question, is God moving in the midst of the storm going on in my life, when we see no light at the end of the tunnel, what does it look like for us to compose in the silence?
It looks like continuing to be faithful to God. To continue to trust God. That’s what faith is!
You can trust that through the small acts of faith that you are doing, they can have a BIG impact!
Most if not all of us have experienced a time where we have worked so hard at something, and feel like nothing is to be shown for it.
Like nothing is happening despite all of our hard work.
ILLUSTRATION: For me, it’s working out. I work out and eat really healthy for a week, and I get mad because I dont have 6 pack abs and a nice jawline. I want immediate results.
We all have something in our lives that we want to see immediate fruit from.
And what happens? We get discouraged because it takes forever.
When it comes to faith, we have to view faith as a journey, not a destination.
The danger of viewing our faith as a destination is that we enter into the belief that if I just had a certain amount of faith, I would be good.
We tend to think of faith as a measuring cup, letting us know where we stand spiritually. My soul is only ¼ of the way full. I better get to church!
When we fall into this trap of viewing faith as a destination, we just tell ourselves that if I do better and try harder then I’ll be good enough!
But faith is a journey! You never achieve a trophy for the amount of faith that you have.
It’s a daily commitment to decide that you are going to follow God!
It’s a journey of mountain tops and valley lows, hardship, and rejoicing, all the while God still being in control through it all.
And what I love about this parable is that God says even a small amount of faith is still faith and God can still use that for his good.
Maybe today, you feel like the mountain in your life is too large. You are watching this, thinking I have no more faith to give to God.
You feel like your faith is all dried up.
You’re living through a divorce, and you’re saying, Jacob, I have no more faith to give.
You may be going through health problems, or someone you love is going through health problems and nothing is seeming to get better, and you feel like your faith to believe is gone.
I want you to know today whatever storm or valley that you may be in, God promises that he uses even the smallest amounts of faith.
Even faith the size of a mustard seed!
To quote the very famous Lloyd off of Dumb and Dumber, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!
With God, there is always a chance.
Again, what matters in our faith is not the amount but the attitude!
We think if you have a little money you buy a little and if you have a lot of money you can buy a lot. But faith is not like that.
Faith is a relationship. Faith is trust in God.
Today you might be
- 99% unsure of God’s presence,
- 99% full of doubts,
- 99% convinced that God doesn’t care about you
But there’s still hope! There is still that one percent, and that’s all God needs.
God can work with that to make amazing things happen.
We see it over and over again in scripture: Jesus works with two loaves and five fish to feed a crowd.
Jesus journeys with 12 followers who swing between moments of faith and faithlessness.
Jesus provides healing for people who say, “I believe, help my unbelief!”
None of their measuring cups of faith were full, and neither is ours.
But Jesus tells us in these parables it’s not the amount of faith that matters, it’s whether or not we trust God can work with what we have.
So do you believe that today!
Be faithful with what God has given you, and let God do the rest!
Next Steps:
- Plant the Seed!
- In these parables Jesus has referred to seed as faith. And maybe today you are holding on to that seed because of doubt, or disbelief. A seed only grows in soil.
- Maybe today you need to stop holding onto your seed and plant it for the very first time.
- Commit to letting God use even the smallest amount of faith in him! Let God do a new thing in your life!
- Commit to letting God use your mustard seed size faith
Maybe you have planted that seed, but you can relate to what we talked about earlier. You are living in 99% doubt, and you are 99% sure that God doesn’t love you.
- I would encourage you to let God use the little amount of faith in your life to do something greater than you could ever imagine!
- Feed your seed.
Since getting married, I am into growing plants. One thing to know is that you have to water and feed your plant for it to survive.
- When we refer to a seed as faith, it is important that we nurture it and take care of it so that it doesn’t die.
- A mustard seed kind of faith is faith that isn’t content to stay small, but one that buries itself in the soil of God’s Word takes root and grows and grows and grows into something great.
- Create habits of growth in your relationship with God that will help you sustain through the storms of life.