Latest / The Daily Word / October 4 – It’s Not the Size of Your Faith
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, it is October 4th. It's Pastor Jenny here, and we are in Luke chapter 17 today. And I want to talk to us, to you perhaps today, on the subject of faith. Because that's what Jesus talked to his apostles about. And again, I've only got two verses for you today. Man. What a difference from some of the verses I was sharing just a few weeks back when I felt like I was reading a whole chapter. But Jesus didn't have to say a lot to teach us a lot. And so faith, where are you at when it comes to the life of faith? The subject of faith? I know for me, on when it comes to the topic of faith, and it seems like it was even an important subject to the apostles, or in other words the twelve disciples. they wanted to talk about faith as well. We see it here in this passage in Luke 17 verses five through six. You know, faith it can be, I want to say, a tricky, tricky thing. People want to say I hear things like, Well, I just don't know if I have as much faith as you to others, or maybe I don't know if my faith is enough. I don't know if I have faith. These are all questions that I think I would say are normal or people definitely ask of themselves or can ask from time to time. So let's see, what did the apostles say? Verse 5, the apostles actually said to the Lord, Increase our faith. And it's so very interesting to me what the Lord said, because his response to them was really almost a non-response, because he didn't say I will increase or no, I'm not gonna do that. Listen to what he says in verse six. According to Luke, Jesus said If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and plant it in the sea, and it would obey you. And then that's just kind of the end of that, and we move on to something else entirely. And I thought, Huh. Now, why would Jesus not even acknowledge the question? Because not but just a couple chapters before the disciples said, Jesus, teach us to pray. Jesus went on and taught him to pray. There were many times the disciples asked him to do something. He was their teacher after all. so he he taught them, he did things for them. And so it Would seem almost natural if the disciples or the apostles said, Increase our faith. It seems like a perfectly logical, good question to ask, but that's not what Jesus responds. He doesn't say, Okay, I'll do that for you. He says, If you had faith, like a grain of mustard seed. Now, if you were with us at Served Team Conference last year, Pastor Brandon actually handed out mustard seeds. But maybe you weren't. So If you've never seen a mustard seed, it is the tiniest tiniest. I mean it's it's bigger than a grain of sand, but I can't say it's much bigger. It is the tiniest little seed you've ever seen. And Jesus says, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to the small berry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. So as I'm reading this, I I Really kind of asked the Lord, Lord, why would you say this? Are you 'cause I know that you wouldn't shame the disciples, you wouldn't respond in such a way to embarrass them and say, Psh, well, if you if you even had a little bit of faith, you could do something. I don't think he was trying to point out the size of their faith. And I think that was the whole point of Jesus' response. Because, see, I think what Jesus was trying to get across is that they were really asking the wrong question. I think they were looking at the size of their faith. And Jesus said, the size of your faith is irrelevant. You need to understand if you just have faith, essentially nothing is impossible. Remember the scripture that with God all things are possible? So you think it's the size of your faith That's doing something. It's not the size of your faith. It's the size of your God that's making all things possible. See, for just a moment, the apostles had decided to put their focus on themselves, and they had taken their focus off of Jesus. They had put their focus on their faith and taken their focus off of God. How many times have we maybe been guilty of the same thing? Do we find ourselves in a situation and we think, maybe this hasn't come to pass because my faith, what I'm doing isn't good enough. It's not big enough. I haven't done my devotions enough time this week. I haven't spent enough time in my devotions. I haven't spent enough time in prayer. I didn't go to church enough times in the last year. Or in the last six months, whatever it may be, check off the box. And see, suddenly we find ourselves putting numbers and statistics on the size of our faith. When that's not the question Jesus ever asked. When really all he asked us to do was to have faith. We come to Jesus and He says, Do you believe? If you look all throughout the Gospels. If you believe, if only you will believe, that's what he said to Mary when Lazarus was to be raised from the dead. Really he said I I believe to Martha. If you believe, if you believe. So it's not a matter of the size of our faith. It's about whether or not we have any faith at all. So I hope you can be encouraged today that if you ever have the temptation to compare your faith or to compare your walk with someone else, or maybe even with yourself, maybe you look at your faith of the faith you had yesterday. Or the faith you hope to have for the future. Remember, our faith is in God, not in our own faith. We don't look at what we hope to be or hope to have. Does that mean we aren't growing in our faith? No. Because just as I grow in my relationship with my husband, and I'm growing in relationship with my children, I believe we'd certainly grow in our relationship with God, and we are growing up in our faith. From glory to glory. But it's not the size of our faith that dictates the size of our God. So let me pray for us today. Lord, I thank you that you are so much bigger and great greater and mightier than I am. I thank you that you're bigger and greater and mightier than my faith. Lord, that it's not the prayer is not increase our faith, but Lord. Sometimes maybe the prayer is just give us faith. Lord, if there's anyone out there listening that needs that today, that they need faith, would you give them faith today? Lord, we do ask for those moments where we where we have no faith and we say, Lord, we need faith. We sometimes that happens. But Lord, we're so grateful for the gift of faith. You have gifted us that. Thank you, Jesus, that you love us, that you've gone before us. So we thank you for the opportunity to walk in relationship with you, to walk in trusting that you are our God, to walk in trusting that it's not us that has walked out the cross, the journey of the cross. It is not us that completes the finished work of the cross. Only you did that, Jesus. Only you paid for healing. Only you paid. For reconciliation. Only you wiped away every debt. Only you bring complete healing and freedom. And so it is by your blood, Jesus, that we receive every good and perfect gift. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of relationship. We thank you for the gift of faith. So, Holy Spirit, as we go into our day, help us to do all things. And we thank you that through you and by you all things are possible. In Jesus' name. Amen.