# Faith as a mustard seed

Key Passage: Luke 17:4-6
Date: June 7, 2024

Luke chapter number 17, if you would, please. Good to see some folks slip in back there. Good to have y’all come in. That’s great. We’re glad to see y’all back there. That’s wonderful. Brother Bill Sr. said he gave up all of his Taylor Swift records today, albums, and so that’s a good thing. Amen for that. I checked Miss Patty. She said it’s true. It’s true. So I’m glad about that. That’s a good thing.

I hope they don’t mind, but I love those that are in her Christian school; some great kids in there. We have one of our students who comes Sunday morning a lot of times, but they’re here with us tonight. Nora, would you mind standing up and let everybody see? Would you stand up for just a second, Nora back there in the back? Norah’s in her school back there. I hope she doesn’t mind doing that. I’m thrilled to see them in here tonight. That’s great. And praise the Lord for it.

Luke chapter 17. For just a bit tonight, we’re going to talk about putting your mustard seed to use. Put your mustard seed to use for just a bit tonight. In Luke chapter 17, I want you to get the gist of the context a little bit before we really get to where we’re going. He starts off talking about offenses, and they are going to come. Woe unto them that offenses come by, but they’re going to come. We’ll pick it up in verse number four of Luke 17. If you’re able, would you please stand as we read God’s word together tonight? Luke 17, we’ll start in verse number four.

And the Bible says, “And if he trespasses against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.” Now that’s pretty tough, seven times in the day. Seven is the number of completion. It’s almost like, if he comes back, and he’s getting it right, and he’s saying sorry, just forgive him.

I think the apostles were very wise in the next thing they said. Look at the next verse. The apostles said, “Lord, increase our faith.” The bottom line of any trial really is faith. It’s interesting over there in James, “Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations,” knowing this: the trying of your faith. You can boil it down to it’s going to end up just being a trial of our faith. It’s going to be about our faith, and how much faith we have in God that He is working, controlling, allowing, and doing something. So they asked a wise question, in my opinion: “Lord, increase our faith.” But watch what the Lord says, verse number six. “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of a mustard seed.” Wow.

You might say to this sycamine—you know, I’m from Tennessee country, I always think sycamore, but that’s not what it says, sycamine. It’s different. You might say to this sycamine tree, “Be thou plucked up by the root.” Everything in the Bible was there for a reason: plucked up by the root. By the way, he’s talking about bitterness and forgiveness and all these things. Remember over there in Hebrews, the root of bitterness that many be defiled thereby? That root of bitterness will get down and hurt a whole lot of people. And it’s talking about over here, that sycamine tree, by the context of forgiveness and bitterness and all these, it would be plucked up by the root. Pretty amazing. If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, “Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea,” and it should obey you. Pretty amazing. Let’s just go to the Lord in prayer as we get started today. Father, help me just say everything you want me to say, Lord. I yield to you. Lord, I realize if any good thing happens, it won’t be me; it’ll be you from you, Lord. Would you take control of me? Lord, I pray you to give a hunger to the hearts and the ears of the listeners tonight. Father, give us what we need from your word; challenge us to be more of what you’d have us to be. Father, we’ll thank you for what you do. We ask for these things in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

The sycamine tree. Several things about that type of a tree: it has massive roots. It’s one of these trees where the root system you can see on the surface; it kind of spreads out in many, many roots, and then grows down. It’s just a massive root system. By the way, bitterness does that. Bitterness will affect every area of your life, every area. And by it, many will be defiled, the Bible says. But it says if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed—by the way, let’s go back to that tree for just a second here. They say in Bible times that was one of the favorite trees for caskets. It may be this bitterness has to do with the death of a loved one. Someone died. Maybe your mom and dad died when you were a young child, whatever may be, I don’t know. They say that tree often produces a little bit, kind of like a fig-like fruit that’s very bitter. Life sometimes can just yield some bitter things to you. This is an interesting thing—this is not good for me to talk about right now—but they say that this tree is only pollinated by wasps. Man alive, I don’t like wasps right now. They won one for them, zero for me. A wasp, boy, they sting. They hurt. Last week at the cowboy carnival, two little ones got stung. I had a lot of yellow jackets out there last week, and they’re just bad right now. Maybe the rain helped a little bit. But the sting and the hurt and the pain in life—there could be some things that hurt. But God says if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you can say to this tree with its root system, all that’s going on, “Be thou plucked up by the root,” by the root. That’s key.

Now here’s the thing. He uses this; he says, “Faith is a grain of a mustard seed.” That’s very, very small. When I think about a small seed, I think about an okra seed. How many have ever had a garden? Have you ever had a garden before? Any kind of a garden? How many have ever planted okra before? Okra has a little bit, a little bit smaller than a BB-type little seed there. They’re hard to get to come up; soak them in water overnight before you plant it. That’s the key. But a mustard seed is even smaller than that. If you ever plant collard greens—we’re really getting country now—or mustard greens, that’s just a little bitty tiny seed. They say the mustard seed used in the Bible lands was even smaller. Years ago, someone—I can’t remember, maybe Mr. Jackson—brought in a little plastic Ziploc-type bag, but it was more commercialized. He said, “This is from the Holy Land. This is a mustard seed that they used over there.” I was like, “Where’s the seed at?” If I remember right, he said, “Don’t open that, Pastor, you’ll lose it.” I said, “You’re right. I won’t open it,” because I can’t even see that thing hardly in there. Now, of all the seeds Jesus uses, He says, “faith as a grain of a mustard seed”—just a tiny, itsy-bitsy speck of a seed. Amazing.

Now look over, if you will, in Matthew 17. While you’re turning there, stick with me. Jesus in this chapter has just been up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Him and Peter, James, and John were up there having a prayer meeting, and Jesus began to shine, glisten; He kind of transferred over into His glorified body—the Mount of Transfiguration, we call it. Peter had to say, “Ah, we need to build tabernacles and all that.” He said, “No, no, no.” The voice of the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

At the Mount of Transfiguration, while they were up there, something was going on down here. A father of a demon-possessed boy—I just imagine what all that meant. That stuff going on there in the Bible lands was very demonic. This boy was tearing himself up and putting himself in fires and all this stuff going on. So the dad brought the son to the apostles for them to cast the demon out. Jesus is up here on the mount with Peter, James, and John, and down here are the other nine apostles. The dad brings this boy there, and they try to cast the demon out. They cannot. Then Jesus comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration. Let’s pick this thing up in Matthew 17, starting in verse number 17, please, if you would.

“Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.’” And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, “Why could not we cast them out?” Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief.”

Now watch this, watch this. “For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed”—just a tiny little bit of old seed. He’s not talking about the tree that it forms later on; He’s talking about the seed, just a tiny little speck. If you have faith, there’s a grain of a mustard seed, “ye shall say unto this mountain.” Now, think about it: this mountain. Where is it at? It was on the Mount of Transfiguration; they came down off of it. That’s typically what most everyone who has studied this thinks is Mount Tabor. It’s a huge mountain, one of those mountains where there’s nothing really around it much, but all of a sudden, you just see this massive mountain. Jesus is saying, if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you should say to this mountain—Mount Tabor—“Remove hence to yonder place,” and it shall remove.

Let me just say a word about that. You might say, “Well, I don’t need to move a mountain.” Apply that: that mountain represents that mountain in your life right now. Whatever that mountain is—your marriage, your grandchild getting right with the Lord, God working in your finances, or whatever it may be—you apply that. That’s the mountain. This mountain there is Mount Tabor; the mountain in your life can be a lot of different things.

He said, if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you say, “Remove hence to yonder place,” and it shall remove. Watch what He says. Amazing. That last little bit here: “And nothing”—wow—“nothing”—wow—“nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Amen. Wow. That’s amazing.

Let me just say a word about that. I’m kind of getting off here and there, but faith comes from the Bible. Faith comes from the Holy Spirit. That’s one of the nine fruits of the Spirit—faith is. So you say, “Well, that’s a pretty open, blank check.” There’s a little bit of safeguard, if you will. God gives you the faith for what He wants you to do. You have a choice whether you use it or not, but you’re not going to have the faith to do something against God’s will—true faith. God gives you the faith; it’s just a matter of you using it.

I want to talk to you just a little bit about using your mustard seed. Here’s what happens so often: Satan comes along and says, “Well, your faith is so small and so minute and so little. Your faith is so puny.” That kind of intimidates us—that our faith is so small. Do you know what happens? We never use that little bitty seed. God, in both places—Jesus, God in flesh—doesn’t say, “Well, you’ve got to have this great big, huge faith.” He just says you’ve got to have a little bitty speck of faith, if you will. But if you’re not careful, if you don’t use that, if you let Satan intimidate you, you will never use that little bit. Listen, friend, you’ve got a little bit of faith in God; just use what you have.

Can I say this? Don’t compare your faith with someone else. Don’t do that. The Bible says comparing themselves among themselves is not wise. When I think about a man of faith, I often think about Lester Roloff. I believe he was a man of faith. He had all those children’s homes. I’ve heard stories about how he found a lot that he thought God wanted them to have—it would be perfect for the children’s home when they had several of them. He walked over and prayed over it and said, “We’re going to claim this lot. God’s going to give us this lot right here.” People were like, “Yeah, whatever.” He prayed over it. Sure enough, God gave it to them. I like that; that can encourage me and help my faith. But can I be honest? Sometimes it can intimidate me. I don’t have faith like that. But I don’t have to have faith like that. I don’t have to have that great big, huge faith. Jesus said—we’ll go by what Jesus says—you just have to have a mustard seed.

I can never be a soul winner… Well, maybe you have a little mustard seed that God can use to see someone saved somewhere and use that little bit of seed. If you’re not careful, you’ll look at all your doubt, all your bad, how much you don’t have. God’s not really concerned about what you don’t have. God’s concerned about what you’re doing with what you have. So take your little bit of seed of faith and whatever God’s leading you to do and use that thing. That’s the key. Satan will try to belittle your faith so much that you’ll say, “Well, I don’t want to use it.” No, no, no. Take your little bit of faith in whatever God is leading you about, and use it. When the devil says, “Well, you don’t have much faith,” you just stick your tongue out at the devil and say, “Devil, I don’t have to have all that faith. I just have to have a little bit of mustard seed of faith.” That’s all Jesus said.

There’s a story about a lady who had some real silverware. I’m not talking about Walmart silverware, Goodwill silverware—somebody say amen. She had real silverware, silver silverware. Because it was so nice, she didn’t want to use it. She made this statement: “I just can’t keep that silverware from tarnishing.” Someone said, “You’re not going to be able to unless you use it.” That’s what you’ve got to do with your faith. Wherever you’re at, you say, “I should be way up here. I should be grown. I should be this, this, this.” Hey, don’t worry about all that. Just start where you are. Use the faith you have where you are, even if it’s a little bit of tiny mustard seed, just use it. That’s so key, so very important. By the way, sometimes we make such an emphasis on our faith that we’re putting our faith in our faith.

No, no, no, no. You heard about the two fellas. They were up north—don’t tell anybody—but they were in Yankee land. They were going to go ice fishing. That just sounds cold to me. Oh, I see those Michiganers over there, Brother Patterson, giving me a mean look right now. No, I’m joking. It was early in the winter, but there had been, honestly, plenty of hard freezes at nighttime. It was frozen solid. Brother Patterson, Brother Adam from New York—anyway, he is smiling. It was frozen solid, but he was nervous and scared and worried. He thought, “Man, I don’t know if it’s solid enough.” He said, “Well, maybe it is.” So they went out there, but he was worried all day long. They cut that hole in the ice and fished, but he was scared all day long. The honest and simple truth is, the ice was probably thick enough to drive a truck on. It was solid, and they were fine.

A little bit later on, winter had happened, and spring was coming. They said, “Well, it was a hard winter. Even though there have been some warm days, it’s frozen solid, it’s thick. We’re going to go out there and fish on that ice today.” They had a lot of faith that day. But the honest, simple truth was there had been some sunny days. That sun gets up, beating down on that ice; it can melt a whole lot of ice. They went on the ice. That day they had a whole lot of faith: “Man, this is solid ice!” They went out and cut a hole in the ice, it started cracking, and they fell in.

Now here’s the moral of the story: Sometimes, friend, it’s not about so much faith you have; it’s about what your faith is in.

Jesus said over there in John 14, “If you believe in me… the works that I do, shall you do, and greater than these shall you do because I go to the Father.” If your faith is in Jesus and what He did on the cross for you and the grace He has earned for you, friend, that’s what matters right there. Someone—there’s a lady known as a great lady of faith. Somebody met her and said, “Hey, are you the lady of great faith?” She said, “No, I’m the lady of a little bit of faith in a great God.” See? So take your little bitty seed, however small it is. If you’re a young person, a teenager, don’t be intimidated, thinking, “Well, I’m not an adult.” Just take your little bitty seed wherever you’re at and say, “Hey, listen, I’m just going to use what I have where I’m at,” because Jesus just said, “You just need a mustard seed.” That’s all. That’s it.

Now, let me say something else about this saying very quickly. Look over Matthew 13, if you would, please. This is another place where He is talking about the mustard seed. It’s not quite the same context, but He is talking about a mustard seed. I want you to see how He speaks about a mustard seed in the Bible. The Bible talks very highly about a mustard seed. Matthew 13:31: “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened to a grain of a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.”

Look at Mark chapter 4, if you would please. It’s the same thing, not the same context, but it is talking about a mustard seed. I want you to see what it says about it over here. Mark 4:31: “It is like a grain of a mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth.”

Luke 13, very quickly. We’re just trying to pull out one thing here, and we can get it from what we’ve read already, but I just wanted to point out where it’s in several different locations of the Bible. Luke 13, verse number 19: “It is like a grain of a mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.”

Now here’s what I’m getting at: That seed is no good unless you take it out and put it in the garden. I used to have a garden for years and years. Then Brother Frank started growing a garden. His garden was better than mine anyway; he was doing the work for me, amen, because he would bring fruit in and give it to us all. So for years I haven’t had a garden. I said, “Praise the Lord, Brother Frank’s doing the work. I don’t have to do the work. I can get stuff out of the garden.” Hey, praise the Lord, Brother Frank, no need for me to have a garden. Somebody say amen. Amen. That’s good preaching. Then, Brother Frank—can you believe it?—he stopped having a garden. What in the world? Goodness gracious, Brother Frank, you got us depending on you, and then you left us hanging. He’s only 35. I don’t know why he quit having a garden.

Here’s the thing: Years ago, when I had my garden, I would often store my seed in a shed. Some of the seed had been out there for years. It’s amazing; I came into the shed right about the time when gardens should be coming up, and those seeds were over here in a shelf, in a toolbox sometimes. Plants just started growing out of that—okra, squash, and zucchini. No, it didn’t work like that. That seed in that shed just sat there. It wasn’t good for anybody or anything; it just sat there and, if you will, just sat there. It’s the same thing if I don’t get that mustard seed out and put it in the earth, put it into the garden.

Friend, you say, “Well, I don’t have enough faith.” No, the problem is I’m not using it; I’m not getting that seed out and putting it into the ground. Jesus said you’ve got just a mustard seed. You can take that sycamine tree, all those roots of bitterness and hurts and pains, and Jesus said it would be plucked up by the root—just a little bit of old seed. That big old mountain of problems, with thousands of tons of weight, He said that thing could be picked up and moved, and nothing shall be impossible to you. But you’re going to have to use it. You’re going to have to take that seed out and plant it. You’ve got to put it in the ground. It’s not going to do any good in the shed.

You’re going to apply that to your life. You say, “How do I do that?” Here’s a good way: Maybe get you a Bible verse and claim it. Maybe it’s finances; I don’t know what the mountain is in your life. Maybe you go to Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory.” Maybe go to Malachi 3 where He says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now herewith.” That’s about the only time God says, “Prove me.” I don’t know what it might be for you, but maybe you need to claim a Bible verse. All about when we moved here, we didn’t have a place to live, and we were trying to find a place. We were staying in a motel; we didn’t know anybody there 24 years ago. We got down on our knees in that motel—Sarah was two years old at the time, and John was four. We got those verses out where He says, “If you’ve left houses and mothers and brothers and sisters and lands for my sake and the gospel’s sake, it will be restored to you a hundredfold in this life,” and I’m paraphrasing there. We got on our knees, opened the Bible up, and claimed those verses. Did you have great faith? I don’t know, probably not that much, but we said we’re going to use our little mustard seed. Get your Bible verse about whatever’s going on in your life, and claim it; you’re using your mustard seed, whatever it may be.

Now here’s a hard thing. Y’all still with me out there tonight? Here’s a hard thing about it, honestly. We take our mustard seed—I wish I’d have brought a mustard seed or some kind of seed tonight. Can I use a cough drop as a mustard seed? That worked for you? That’s a little bit big of a mustard seed, for sure. Here’s the thing: We want to take our mustard seed and put it in the ground, and we want tomorrow for it to be a great tree. Brother Frank, you’re a better gardener than I am. Have you ever put a seed in the ground and it comes up in an hour? About 24 hours? It takes time. We are such an instant generation. We don’t even brew our coffee anymore; we want the Keurig, boom. I got on Brother Jim’s level for sure right there. I like it quick, but I like that old brewed taste, brother.

It doesn’t always work like that. You may have to put that seed in the ground for some time. It may take time for that grandchild to get right with the Lord. It may take time for God to work on your marriage. It may take time for God to straighten your finances out. God can do it, boom—yes, He is God. He may just do like that and be done, but typically God values patience. When you put that seed in the ground, friend, it takes time to grow a good garden. But you keep that seed in there.

How many have heard over the years of people who kept putting their faith… Can I say this? Faith is more than just a feeling. What does Hebrews 11 say? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” It’s substance. It’s something you can feel; it’s tangible. Faith is that. Been praying for someone to get saved for 30 years. How many times have you heard about someone who came to the altar every service praying for someone to get saved, and after years they got saved? The faith was they were doing so. It’s the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Evidence is something you can enter in a court case. They’ve been witnessing that work for 10 years; that’s some evidence right there. They’ve been passing out gospel tracts for years and years. It takes time, is what I’m saying. You plant that seed, and God, in His time, brings forth the fruit.

One last thing, we’re done. Let’s just talk about the mustard seed for just a moment here to finish it up. Look over in Luke 13. You may still be there. Luke 13, verse number 19. Notice what he says: “It is like a grain of a mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.” It starts off so very small, but it grows, and before you know it, it’s a great tree. Fowls—that means, I think it has to do with other people who come and rest in the faith that God’s given you. Your children, your grandchildren, maybe coworkers—they need you to stand for the Lord, and they can kind of rest a little bit in your faith. You’re helping them grow in the Lord. But here’s the thing: It starts off so very, very small, but it grows.

Interestingly, one of the ninefold fruit of the Spirit is faith. You work for the flesh, but the fruit—you don’t work for the fruit; it grows in you. It takes time for it to grow. The thing about a mustard seed is it takes time for it to grow.

You’ve heard me tell some of these stories, and I hope you don’t get bored with my same old stories. Remember when I was a little boy, we lived in Jacksonville, Florida. My dad was a bit of a shade tree mechanic. Dad had taken two old cars and kind of made one good car out of it for the most part. But you can’t take two tires and make one good tire. We needed a tire. Mom and Dad got us all into praying for a tire. I really think it was the first time in my life that I realized you can pray to God for things, and God hears your prayers. We took our time; we prayed, “Lord, give us that tire.” At nighttime before we went to sleep, we prayed for that tire.

I’ll never forget as a boy, walking down the railroad tracks—I know you can’t do all these things now; it was a different day and time back then—we were going pop bottle hunting. Anybody ever been pop bottle hunting? If you’ve never been pop bottle hunting, you are deprived. Back in the day, you’d cash those in and get some money for candy to rot your teeth out, amen. We were walking down the road, going pop bottle hunting. My best friend at the time, Jamie McCallie, was with me. I said, “Hey, Jamie, hold up for a second.” I looked down in the ditch, real deep down far end over there, and it looked like a tire. We ran down there and checked it out. It was brand-spanking new. There’s a difference between brand new and brand-spanking new. Brand new is just new to you, but brand-spanking new is new to everybody—it had the paper, the little knobs on it. It was brand-spanking new. We grabbed that tire up. We rolled it home and took it to my dad and said, “Dad, look at this here.” I can’t remember everything Dad did, but I imagine Dad probably said, “Oh, boy, you found an old, dry-rotted tire; it ain’t going to hold air.” I was like, “No, Dad, it’s new.” Dad came out, and the amazing thing is, out of all the different tires, that was the exact tire we needed for that car. That was God beginning my little bitty mustard seed.

A little bit later on, God called me to go off to Bible College. In my freshman year, I had a roommate named Bob. Bob was double-jointed; he could take his arm up over his head, down underneath his chin, and scratch his ear. Really good. He was a crazy nut of a guy. Bob needed $125 to make his payment, and I felt like the Lord said, “Paul, I want you to pay that bill.” The problem was I needed that $125. But I remembered way back there, God took care of me. I had a little bit of faith that started off, but that faith grew a little bit with the tire. So I gave him that $125; I just went and paid his bill. He didn’t know where it came from. Lo and behold, I thought, “Lord, I need $125 now.” I needed to pay my bill. I went to my mailbox one day at the college post office, opened it up, and there was a letter with a check for $125. Oh, praise the Lord! Now I got a little bit more faith. God gave me some more faith there.

Now, Bible College—I got a little bit more faith because God answered prayer there. Then we got married, and God called us down to—you’ve heard me say—L.A., Lower Alabama, as youth directors. We found out it was $125 a week plus $50 a month to help with rent. Oh, boy, that was a blessing. I’m joking there. It helped us with gas; the church had an account at the gas station. But at $125 a week, how were we going to live? We were a young married couple.

We went there with a bomb of a car. At one point, it got to the point where you had to crank the car with a screwdriver. You go out there, you bang on the starter, or you take the screwdriver down there and cross it over—sparks flying everywhere. That’s the way that car was towards the end. Here’s what I’m saying: We were there, had a child there—John was born while we were there. We upgraded cars while we were there. I remember at one point, we lived in a trailer. Our hot water heater broke down and gave up the ghost. Lo and behold, a widow lady in the church had that exact hot water heater we needed. I’m saying God took care of us. We never wanted for anything there, and God grew our faith a little bit more.

Friend, that’s what we’re talking about. We have faith as a grain of a mustard seed. Now here’s what we do for just a moment: You’ve got answers to prayer God has given to you. You could stand up and testify what all God has done for you. Faith is a grain of a mustard seed; it starts off so small, but it grows. Remember what He has done for you. Think about the times He has taken care of you. Think about the times when you were out of the will of God and how God took care of you. Think about the times you coasted into the gas station when you should have run out of gas five miles back. Think about the times God has provided for you, the answers to prayer He has given you—the big ones, the little ones, and all that. That is part of you growing from a little bit of a mustard seed, a little bit bigger and bigger and bigger. God says, “Get to the point where nothing is impossible to you.” Would you just tonight say, “All right, Lord, I’ll take my little bitty seed and I’ll get it out. I won’t let Satan intimidate me. I’m going to use it. I’m going to apply it. And Lord, I’m going to put it in the ground.” Then I want to see what You do, and I want that to build and grow my faith. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a bit tonight?

Maybe here tonight you say, “Preacher, I really need to thank Him and remember what He’s done. He’s done so much for me.” Sometimes all I see is the mountain and the tree, and I need to remember. It’s just a good night for us during the invitation time just to thank Him and love on Him. “Thank you, Lord. You’ve been so good to me all these years.” It’s amazing what that will do for your faith.

Maybe you’re here tonight and say, “Preacher, I just need to thank Him and remember. I need to rejoice in what He’s done and let that grow my faith. I need to thank Him and remember what He’s done for me.” If that’s you tonight, slip your hand up. “Preacher, I need to do that.” Just thank Him and rejoice in what He’s done. He’s been so good to me and to all of us. Let’s just do that.

Maybe you’re here tonight and said, “Preacher, I need to use what I have, instead of Satan intimidating me and saying, ‘You ought to be way over there, and you’re not even there so far.’” I need to forget all that wherever I’m at. I need to just take my faith, however big or small it is, and I’m just going to use it. I’m just going to put that little bit of seed in the ground. God spoke to my heart; I just need to use the faith God’s giving me." If that’s you, raise your hand. “That’s me.” God bless you. That’s good. All of us. Me too, me too. God bless you.

Would you please stand tonight? We will have a word of prayer. Would you spend some time with the Lord? If He’s tugging at you, coming down to the invitation altar, would you do that? Just be obedient to the Lord. Whatever He asks you to do, would you do that? Father, thank you. We are frail. I fail you so many times. Lord, I’m so grateful you said just a mustard seed. Father, sometimes I feel like that’s all I have, but help me take my little bitty seed and put it in the ground where you have me. Lord, thank you so many times you’ve blessed, answered, taken care of, and supplied. Father, help me remember all those times how you’ve led us this far. Lord, thank you for giving me faith for where you’re going to lead in the future. Bless these few minutes. Help us to do real business with you. Help us to draw close to you. We love you. Thank you for what you’ve done. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

We’ll just spend some time with them as the ends were playing.

Here’s an interesting thought: Maybe those times when we are weak—remember that His strength is made perfect in our weakness—when we think our faith is so small, yet when we take our little bit of mustard seed of faith and put it in the Lord, that may be when it takes the greatest faith. Faith is what pleases Him. Maybe when we take our little bitty mustard seed and say, “Lord, I’m going to give it to you. I don’t have much, and I’ve got all kinds of problems and doubts and worries,” but I’m just going to take the little bit of faith that I have and put it in You. Maybe that’s when God smiles the most; He is very pleased with it. Just spend some time loving Him and thanking Him. Tell Him you will use your faith in Him. Tell Him that.

Glad you are in church on a Sunday night. Honored to see every person here. I appreciate you being faithful in the house of the Lord. I don’t know about you, but that’s encouraging me because sometimes I feel like my faith is so little bitty. That’s all I have to have. Put it in faith. Put it in the Lord. He’ll take care of it; He’ll grow it up that way, too. I’m glad you’re in church tonight. Praise the Lord, Bill Sr. I can’t believe he’s giving up Taylor Swift. Wow, what about that? We’ve got to be careful on the internet saying these things. I’m glad you’re here tonight, amen. I still got my elbows right. Well, I know one I’m going to preach on next Sunday. Amen. Amen. Amen. Glad you’re in church tonight, every person. I’m thrilled to hear. What a blessing. Good to have folks slip in back there. That’s just awesome. I appreciate it very, very much. I appreciate Brother Farfan teaching the Foundations class. I think they’re a little halfway, a little over halfway through that. So praise the Lord for that. I’m glad they’re doing a good job in that. That’s wonderful. Brother Juan, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer, please? Is Jennifer okay? Not really, but she slipped out like 20 minutes after. Oh, really? So she…

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Faith as a mustard seed - Sunday PM 11122023