MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH
Mark 11:22-24
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever the saith.
24Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Matthew 17:20
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Introduction: Webster dictionary defines “faith” as: “Trust; belief; belief without proof; promise; loyalty.” In our everyday Christian language, we use the word “faith” and every Christian at one time or other said something about faith. How many of us have the kind of “faith” Jesus spoke about, the kind that would move mountains? This sounds like an awful lot of faith, so let’s consider the kind of “faith” most of us have.
I. WHAT KIND OF FAITH DOES IT TAKE TO MOVE MOUNTAINS?
1. Matthew 17:20 states that only the amount of the size of a grain of mustard seed is enough.
- The mustard seed was the smallest seed of all in the time of Jesus.
- When the mustard seed was fully grown, it would be tall enough for a bird to build its nest in its branches.
2. God expects all of us to have at least a "speck" of faith and a speck is all that is needed to move mountains.
- With only the speck of faith attached to the belief in Jesus, we can do anything we want to for God.
3. It doesn't take a great man or woman of God to have this kind of faith.
- The Syrophonecian woman's daughter had a devil in her and was healed. (Mark 7:25-30)
- The Centurion whose servant was sick, was healed. (Matthew 8:5-14)
- The ten lepers were healed. (Luke 17:11-19)
- The man let down through the roof was healed. (Mark 2:3-5)
- The woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment in the street was healed. (Luke 8:40-48)
- The lame, blind and the insane were all healed.
- All of these nameless people were not great followers of Jesus, not all were regular worship attendees, nor upright, respectable citizens, but all exercised that little speck of faith and were healed.
4. A tiny speck of faith can and will grow like the mustard plant, but it, unlike the mustard plant must be cultivated and cared for and it will grow to gigantic height.
II. WHY DON'T MORE HAVE THAT KIND OF FAITH?
1. Matthew 17:14-20 is the main reason. The very same reason the disciples could not heal the man's son.....unbelief.
- We don't believe that God really hears our prayers.
- We don't believe that God will even answer our prayers.
- We don't believe in what we ask God to do for us enough.
2. We are like the Pharisees of the days of Jesus in lots of ways.
- We don't need God's help except in emergencies.
- We don't have a spirit of charity.
- We don't have love for our fellow man, only for a few carefully chosen friends.
- We don't have a burning heart for the lost and for the cold Christian brother/sister.
- We don't have a prayer life at all.
- We don't read our Bible at all.
- We simply don't care for spiritual things except when we are in trouble, etc.
3. We try to bring God down to our human limitations.
- We are limited in knowledge, reasoning and understanding, but it is in truth a self-limitation.
- Because of this we try to place God under the same limitations, the same possibilities and impossibilities.
- Whatever limits us, whatever we cannot understand, whatever we cannot do, we place upon God these same limitations.
4. This is where all of us go wrong.
- This is why we worry about our finances.
- This is why we worry about our attendance.
- This is why we worry about this and that.
- We are limiting God and have no faith that He is different.
III. HOW CAN WE GET THE KIND OF FAITH JESUS SPEAKS ABOUT?
1. The first step is to become as little children.
- We must submit ourselves to God's commands.
- We must completely abandon all thought of self.
- We must trust only in God, exactly as little children trust in their parents.
2. We must establish a prayer life.
- Prayer goes hand in hand with faith. If you have plenty of prayer life, then you will have plenty of faith.
- One who does not talk with the Master, who does not know Him, how can he place his trust in one he does not know?
- How can we say "I have faith in God" and never call on Him except in emergencies and difficult times?
- How can we expect our prayers to be answered when we are not even sure or believe that they will be heard?
3. We must read the Bible seriously and very frequently. Most read their daily Bible readings and five minutes later don't remember what was read. There must be a love for God's Word.
- Jesus could quote verses of scripture on and on.
- We learn about Jesus and God's promises in the Bible.
- How can we trust someone we know nothing about?
- The Bible tells us of God, of Jesus, of Heaven, of Hell and it gives us standards to live by, rules for living, examples to follow and it answers thousands of our questions.
- The Bible tells us that if we will only seek, we will find and this includes FAITH.
4. The most important thing of all is BELIEF. We must believe:
- That Christ is who the Bible says He is.
- That God will answer our prayers.
- That God will care for us.
- That we can do all things.
- That through God we can overcome the world.
IV. WHAT KIND OF RESULTS DOES THIS KIND OF FAITH BRING?
1. It brings peace:
- of mind.
- of soul.
- with God.
2. It assures us of our future home in heaven.
- It confirms what we have read in the Bible about Heaven.
- It calms all our fears of dying.
- It gives us confidence of life after death.
3. It gives us boldness.
- We are no longer timid or backward Christians afraid to talk to the lost or afraid to visit the backslidden church member to try to get them back in church.
- We are not afraid to step out on new church programs.
- We can plan budgets without worry and fear of not being able to meet that budget.
- We are no longer afraid to speak for Christ, no longer to say "AMEN' in church.
4. We will have lots of works for the Lord.
- Our lives will no longer be barren, fruitless, empty, have no meaning, no goals.
- We will win the lost and bring back the backslidden Christian.
- Our attendance will grow and grow.
- We will find that we have no financial difficulties.
- We will grow in grace, faith, love and in knowledge.
CONCLUSION:
1. There are no limitations to an individual or to a church family once this tiny speck of faith is gained.
2. Right now, let's place our individual lives and future as well as that of our church into the hands of almighty God, believing that He can do all things.
