MUSTARD SEED FAITH
Lk. 13:18-19
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: ENGLISH LESSON
1. ABSTRACT NOUN
"An abstract noun," the teacher said," is something you can think of, but you can't touch it. Can you give me an example of one?"
"Sure," a teenage boy replied. "My father's new car."
2. DIRECT OBJECT
a. Sammy's class was having an English lesson, and the teacher called on Sammy to recite a sentence with a direct object.
b. Sammy stood, thought, and then said, "Teacher, everybody thinks you’re beautiful."
c. "Why thank you, Sammy," the teacher said, blushing. "But what is the direct object?"
d. "A good report card next month," he replied.
B. TEXT
“18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” Luke 13:18-19.
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Mt. 17:20.
C. THESIS
1. We all know that faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9), that every believer is given the measure of faith (Rom. 12:6) to walk by faith and carry out the will of God.
2. “All things happen by faith and nothing without it.” That’s why Jesus often said, "According to your faith be it unto you.” Our use of our faith produces a proportional response of God’s blessing to us.
3. Tonight we’re looking at the Mustard Seed in Scripture. We’re looking at what the Mustard Seed is, contrasting the Mountains and the Seed, and learning how to Reap from the Seed.
4. The title of tonight’s message is “Mustard Seed Faith.”
I. WHAT IS THE MUSTARD SEED?
A. THE SEED = THE WORD OF GOD
1. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said, “The seed is the Word of God” Lk. 8:11. This applies to the mustard seed in Lk. 13:18-19.
2. The Word of God, when planted in our souls/minds, inspires faith in us: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ” Rom. 10:17.
B. ONLY THE WORD OF GOD CAN IMPART LIFE
1. The Seed/Word seems a very simple thing. But a seed, though very small, is a living thing. Life slumbers in that Seed.
2. That’s the same way life slumbers in the Word! How that Life exists we can’t tell. It’s a mystery. The Word has something in it not readily discoverable by the worldly thinker.
3. A religious idea may have a measured influence on a person in some direction, but rarely have you ever heard of someone’s whole character being transformed by an observation from Confucius or Socrates.
4. Human teachings are barren. But within the Word of God there’s a divine life and that life makes all the difference.
5. Human words may seem to be wiser and more attractive, but there’s no heavenly life in them. Within God’s Word there dwells an omnipotence like that of God from whose lips it came.
C. WHAT’S IN THE SEED?
1. What’s in the mustard seed? The answer: all that will ever come out of it. Every branch, leaf, flower and every seed -- is all within the seed. It only needs to be developed.
2. God’s life lies concentrated in the Seed! Within the Word lies regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal, consecration, perfection. Heaven hides itself away within the spoken Word. We may not at first see all its results, yet it’s all there.
3. Just as when Jesus was a Baby in Bethlehem and simultaneously the Eternal God, so within the simple Words of the Bible are all the promises that the People of God will ever need. The Word is all comprehensive!
4. We must stick to the Word, because people can come up with all kinds of crazy ideas.
D. HUMOR: PREACHER’S DECLARATION
1. One day, when little Johnny was 3 years old, he was sitting in his mother's lap at Church.
2. A guest speaker was in the middle of a very loud sermon when he bent over the podium and with great emphasis exclaimed, "God is eternal!"
3. Little Johnny got very serious, thinking about what the speaker had just said. Without realizing he was still in Church, he suddenly exclaimed, "Momma, I didn't know God was a turtle."
4. Needless to say, he had 3 rows of pews cracking up with laughter in the middle of the guest speaker's sermon.
II. CONTRASTING MOUNTAINS AND THE SEED
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Mt. 17:20.
A. WHAT GOD’S WORD CAN GROW INTO
1. It grew into a great tree. The outcome of faith is something huge and staggering!
2. The mustard seed parable reminds us that only a small amount of faith can produce a “mountain” of external results.
3. The mustard seed is one of the smallest things on earth; the mountain is one of the biggest things on earth. What an amazing thing to say, that the smallest will move the biggest!
4. Most of the believers of the Old & New Testament GREW into miraculous faith. This assures the average Christian that their faith can attain the miraculous!
5. We’d need not fear that we have insufficient faith. Many have received miracles in spite of an imperfect faith, like the demonized boy’s father who exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
6. The key to the miraculous is always to know that God loves us, wants to heal and help us, and has made many promises of such miraculous intervention and also given us many examples in Scripture and in people we know, of his willingness to step in and perform the miraculous in answer to faith and believing prayer.
B. WHAT MOUNTAINS DO YOU HAVE?
1. Mountains really are hard to climb. That’s why they’ve come to symbolize the hardships and difficulties of life. They’re problems to be solved, obstacles to be overcome, crosses to be carried, burdens to be borne, troubles to be triumphed over, and difficulties to be dealt with.
2. Mountains are problems. Death is a mountain. Sickness is a mountain. Troubles are mountains. Hardships are mountains. Family crises are mountains.
3. Life is filled with mountains. But Jesus reminds us in our scripture today that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will have to obey you.
4. Jesus wants you as a believer or as a person to know that your faith need not be same as the size of your problem. Faith can move mountains because faith enlarges the possibilities of life.
C. BECAME A SHELTER OF BEAUTY
1. This great tree became a shelter: “the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.”
2. Mustard in the East can be found 8-10 feet high, but there is one kind which grow almost like a forest tree.
3. When the tree grew, the birds came to it, the winged wanderers, & made a happy connection. Our mustard seed can affect many others!
4. But what do we hear in this mustard tree? Music! The birds are singing! When we sow the Seed, we reap songs!
III. HOW TO REAP FROM THE SEED
A. THIS MAN HAD A GARDEN
1. This man’s garden was his personal sphere of service. Many Christians have the Word, but they don’t apply it to their personal needs.
2. Many Christians like to be entertained by preacher’s stories, and have their minds tickled by interesting and clever speeches, but to actually believe for a miracle for themselves seems impossible.
3. It is the duty of every believer in Christ, like the first man, Adam, to have a garden and to plant and harvest it spiritually.
B. TRUTH REMAINS DORMANT UNTIL IT’S PLANTED IN SOIL
1. Just as the man sowed his seed, so we must put the Word into practice (“Do what it says,” James 1:22).
2. If you leave a seed in a bottle, it will lay there year after year, without growth, until it’s planted. But when the naked seed comes into contact with the naked soil, then it will take root and grow.
3. It’s the same with the Word of God. The Gospel is the thought of God; in and of itself it’s the message which the soul needs. The Word is what will take root and grow.
C. THE MAN SOWED HIS SEED
How do you sow the Seed of the Word?
1. Get all HINDRANCES out-of-the-way: Confess and forsake any known sin.
2. Find a PROMISE in the Word of God that speaks to your need, say, healing for you personally for instance.
3. STUDY the Promise(s). "I am the Lord who heals YOU!" What does "YOU" mean? God says, "By whose stripes YOU were healed." Who is "You" referring to? The Bible says, "Who heals all YOUR diseases." Who is the "Your" talking about?
4. PRAY. Ask the Father to cause your body to come into conformity with His Word in Jesus Name. Stand on the Promises. Claim them as your own. Faith possesses, takes.
5. The POINT OF CONTACT. The “point of contact” is picking the moment and place you’re asking God to start the miracle in. Mark 11:24 suggests it be "WHEN YOU PRAY.”
6. Begin to PRAISE God in advance for your healing; praise and confession strengthen and confirm faith.
7. HOLD ON TO RECEIVE. Do not let anything dissuade you from your healing, even if you don't immediately see any improvement. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise” Heb. 10:35-36.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Have you ever heard of the nineteenth century British minister, George Mueller?
2. One day he looked down the streets of Bristol, England, & saw 100’s of homeless children. He was so moved by God with concern for them that he decided that something had to be done.
3. He had only two cents in his pocket. In 60 years, beginning with two cents, George Mueller took care of 10,000 orphans.
4. He looked out and saw homeless kids. He could have said, "But, I don’t have any money. But, there is no way to care for them, to meet their needs, to buy the food."
5. Instead, he looked at them and said, "God wants their needs met and I believe He will use me to do it.”
6. He was an amazing man of faith; he supported his orphanages entirely through prayer. He never asked anyone for a contribution but simply prayed to God about his circumstances and the needs of the orphans he cared for. 7. Someone once observed, “It looks like a hand-to-mouth proposition.” Mueller responded, “Yes, it is. But it is God’s hand and my mouth.”
8. He refused to limit God and God rewarded his faith with more than 30,000-recorded answers to prayer.
B. THE CALL
1. What “mountain” do you have in your life? Do you have a hardship? A family problem? A financial or physical need?
2. Let’s make sure we don’t have a hindrance, find a promise in the Word we can stand on to claim God’s provision, go to God in prayer, and receive by faith the answer to our needs! Let’s PRAY!
3. Now go forth expecting your need to be met and if you’ve already received from the Lord, don’t let the enemy take away your provision that God’s given!
[This message contains a number of thoughts from Spurgeon’s sermon on the Mustard Seed from Luke 13:18-19.]
