Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move

Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move is a sermon lesson based on the concept that all things are possible for him who believes. We'll learn important factors of real faith in this lesson.

Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move

Harmony Of The Gospels Series-25, Mk 9:14-29 Mt 17:14-22

For more information about Jesus see these books on the History of Jesus Christ.

For detailed discussion, see these top-selling books on Moving Mountains With Mustard Seed Faith.

When I first accepted Jesus and started hanging around other Christians, I began to get that God always answers prayer. That's true! What it meant to me at age 14, and what it means now are completely different. Then, I thought I could say to my heavenly Father, "Give me cherry pie with chocolate ice cream for dinner", and He'd do it. I now know sometimes His answer is, "I have something better for you. Here's some green salad, broccoli, mashed potatoes and a baked pork chop. Eat that, then we'll talk about dessert." Of course, when God gave me something I needed, rather than something I wanted, I thought my prayer hadn't been answered. Since the Bible says, 'if you have enough faith, God will move mountains for you, nothing is impossible', I felt the Bible was untrue. Well, let's take a look at this thing called faith, or belief as it relates to God answering prayer. That's what our story is about, today. Read Mk 9:14-29 and Mt 17:14-22.

All of us fall into this logic trap if we listen to enough people. If we don't get the answer we expect from God, there are only 2 places we typically go with it: 1. I'm spiritually inferior, lacking even a mustard seed of faith. 2. The Bible is wrong about God. Have you ever wondered about that? One person wrote us yesterday, claiming to not have enough faith because their problem seemed to get worse after they received Jesus. They were taught that way of thinking by someone, but not by God. What our story teaches us was true then and is true now, but it isn't logical.

All things are possible for him who believes.

Let's do some investigating and see how this bold statement can make more sense to us.

1. Unbelieving Believers: Vs 16-17 Jesus' disciples were unable to cast the demon out. These were the cream of the crop. The chosen few. They were the same disciples who had been sent out 2 by 2 to drive out demons and heal people. They had marveled at how demons obeyed them, now they were troubled that a demon didn't obey. What's up? Why can't I do what I did before? I believe Jesus was directing his comments at the disciples when He said, "O unbelieving generation." Jesus had just come back from a meeting with God (the Father), Moses and Elijah. He was stoked! He probably got a reminder of what He'd been missing, living in human form with us. He was probably frustrated that those who had followed Him for so long still didn't get it. They still weren't ready to move to "Miracle 1B" in their training. When we look at the whole Gospel story, we realize He was on the downside of his ministry. The mountaintop experience He had just come from led Him to remind His Disciples that He was about to be tortured and executed. How much better it would have been for Him to have just been taken to heaven, like Enoch and Elijah, before. That wasn't His Father's will, though, his mission was to become a sacrifice for all of us, and that's what He was determined to do.

We must all seem pretty stupid to God. Humans haven't changed much in 2,000 years. Oh, sure, we've got cars, and hospitals, and computers. We can land a man on the moon, send robot ships out into space. We can change energy from the sun that was stored in a plant, into a beam of light that we can split into 500 different telephone "lines", but we've yet to make a sun, or a moon, or a plant. We think we're somethin'. We've got it all figured out. We think we know the Bible's wrong about how long God took to make us, yet we can't make anything; we just rearrange things He made. Sometimes I think the disciples couldn't cast the demon out of that boy because, having done all those miracles before, they got to thinking, "Ain't I sumthin'!" Maybe they no longer had the faith to do it because their faith had moved from faith in God to faith in themselves. Ever caught yourself living there? I catch me there often. Jesus asked, 'Will I find faith when I return?' Good question! God has a good sense of irony, because He teaches about faith with a man who admits he has no faith.

Continued at Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move-2

Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move

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Love & Hugs,
Glen

Mustard Seed Faith-Mountain Move is a sermon lesson based on the concept that all things are possible for him who believes. We'll learn important factors of real faith in this lesson.