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ILLUS: Tell about a time I did believe God. Tell about a time I didn’t believe God.
Luke 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
OK, what are they asking him to do? What is it they want him to tell them?
How to have more faith, right? Like, give me a faith increasing step-by-step plan. Give me a formula, give me a
At least that’s what it looks like they’re asking, to me.
And that seems like a great question to me, because I’ve asked the Lord many times, even just recently, for more faith. And I know Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing the word of God” but as I meditated over this issue, I realized that Romans 10 is talking specifically about SAVING faith, the faith in Jesus as the Christ, that comes by preaching of the Gospel.
So, I am excited coming to this verse – I’m with the disciples:
Teach me, Jesus, teach me to have more faith. And, this is what Jesus says.
6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.”
Now, is it just me, or did he totally NOT ANSWER the question?
He didn’t tell them how to have more faith, he just told them what would happen IF THEY DID have it, what they could do IF THEY DID get more faith.
Right?!
Jesus had this way of sometimes dodging questions that is pleasantly disconcerting.
But it made me wonder: Why did he not answer it?
And honestly, I’m not sure of the answer to that.
Is it because…
• Faith isn’t something you can just systematically build? It doesn’t fit a system?
What if faith is something you either have or do not have. It’s not on a graduated system.
Either you believe God, or you do not.
You don’t believe him 60% or 20% or 90%.
You might believe him for small things, but maybe that just means that you don’t believe him for big things.
So how do you know if you believe? How do you know if you’ve got faith for something? (Something that you believe God wants done, of course – it’s always in His will, not ours. Surrender to God’s will is just a ticket to the game, tho.)
I think what Jesus is teaching us here is this: Faith isn’t something you get by degrees. (“I think I’m 60% of the way to faith for God to heal through me.”)
ILLUS: If you decide to go skydiving, you will need faith in your parachute. What can you do to build your faith in your parachute?
Well, I suppose there are some things you can do before faith.
You could take a class on parachutes. You could visit a parachute factory, and meet the people who make them. You could interview people who have skydived and lived through it. But you know in your heart that your stomach will probably still churn while you strap on your chute. You know that in your mind will go thoughts…
I have said for years that I want to go skydiving. But it’s relatively easy to talk about it standing here. I can say I want to, but that doesn’t mean I have faith.
How do I know when I’ve got faith to skydive?
I think its WHEN I JUMP.
There comes a time where your feet have to leave the plane.
Until you have leaped and placed yourself in a position that says “If this doesn’t work, I’m toast…” you don’t have faith.
Think about it.
Big faith means the possibility of big failure.
You have to be willing to look entirely stupid if it doesn’t work out.
The guy who has faith in a chair that breaks, risks looking a little stupid.
The guy who has faith that God will part the Red Sea in front of a whole nation risks looking a lot stupid.
• SUN, STAND STILL” (Joshua 10:12)
• “WATERS, PART!” (Exodus 14)
• “This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll cut off your head…” (1 Samuel 17)
• “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.” (Acts 3)
• “You will be blind for a season.” (Acts 13:11)
• “Stand upright on your feet!” (Acts 14:9-10)
Imagine with me for a moment how awkward it would be if you said one of these and it didn’t happen.
So we don’t. Because we don’t have faith for it.
I think this might be SOME of the problem:
I think “LORD, INCREASE MY FAITH” really means - - -
I want to know I’ve got faith before I say anything, because I don’t want to look stupid.
It sure seems like it would have helped me if I knew I had faith before I walked into that hospital room. I think what I wanted was to know that there was no way I was going to look stupid. To not give false hope to a family, to not slink away like a guilty dog if it didn’t happen.
But isn’t that self-centered instead of Jesus-centered? Isn’t that worrying more about my glory, than about God’s glory?
Instead, what if you felt convinced that something would glorify God, and you went and spoke that it would happen.
Maybe when you speak your faith… maybe THAT’S when you have faith, and maybe THAT’S when the mountain moves.
What do you need to speak in faith in your life… today?
I meet people all the time who want to know they’ve got faith that they’re not going to fail, BEFORE THEY GET SAVED.
ILLUS: Missionary who saw a lion coming toward he and some others as he was about to preach. He stepped forward and said to the lion “In Jesus name, fall down and die!” And the lion did. Then he stood on the lion’s body and preached the Gospel.
Imagine if it didn’t, and he was chased by it, running and screaming away like a little girl.
UNTIL YOU LEAP, YOU DON’T HAVE FAITH.
So Jesus’ response is entirely appropriate. He can’t tell you a faith workout program. There aren’t faith weights that you can benchpress.
POSSIBLE ILLUS: Star Wars “I’ll try.” “No… DO. Or do not, there is no try.”
In college I was asked to prepare a lesson to teach my speech class. We were to be graded on our creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of my talk was, "The Law of the Pendulum." I spent 20 minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.
I attached a 3-foot string to a child's toy top and secured it to the top of the blackboard with a thumbtack. I pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where I let it go. Each time it swung back I made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When I finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved my thesis. I then asked how many people in the room BELIEVED the law of the pendulum was true. All of my classmates raised their hands, so did the teacher. He started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had just begun. Hanging from the steel ceiling beams in the middle of the room was a large, crude but functional pendulum (250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500-pound test parachute cord.).
I invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with the back of his head against a cement wall. Then I brought the 250 pounds of metal up to his nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from his face, I once again explained the law of the pendulum he had applauded only moments before, "If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger." After that final restatement of this law, I looked him in the eye and asked, "Sir, do you believe this law is true?" There was a long pause. Huge beads os sweat formed on his upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, "Yes." I released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back. I never saw a man move so fast in my life. He literally dived from the table. Deftly stepping around the still-swinging pendulum, I asked the class, "Does he believe in the law of the pendulum?"
The students unanimously answered, "NO!"
Ken Davis, How To Speak To Youth, pp 104-106.
HANDOUT:
Luke 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.”
Now, is it just me, or did he just _____________________ the question?
Why?
Faith is something you either ___________________________________ _________________. It’s not on a graduated system.
Big ______________________ means the possibility of big __________________________. You have to be willing to look entirely stupid if it doesn’t work out.
The guy who has faith in a chair that breaks, risks looking a ________ stupid.
The guy who has faith that God will part the Red Sea in front of a whole nation risks looking a __________ stupid.
Think about these statements of huge faith from the Bible:
• “SUN, STAND STILL” (Joshua 10:12)
• “WATERS, PART!” (Exodus 14)
• “This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll cut off your head…” (1 Samuel 17)
• “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.” (Acts 3)
• “You will be blind for a season.” (Acts 13:11)
• “Stand upright on your feet!” (Acts 14:9-10)
Imagine with me for a moment how awkward it would be if you said one of these and it _____________________________.
I think this might be SOME of the problem: I want to know I’ve got faith _______________________________________________, because I don’t want to look stupid.
UNTIL YOU _________________, YOU DON’T HAVE FAITH.
