Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Chaj podcast.
[00:00:09] There's something very special about our giving and worship.
[00:00:14] Don't underestimate this. This touches the Lord's heart. You see it page after page in the script.
[00:00:31] In fact, Joel, what you could do, just move back a bit and they'll go, they'll keep following you.
[00:00:36] Because I realize I'm running out of time, so we're going to carry on. It's funny when you're going through different things, you know, how you decide what to teach on. And Rachel and I were talking just at the beginning this morning. You know, it's often the things you're going through or the things you're learning. And so I've been over the summer just reading through the Gospels, and I was reading a bit about faith this week. You know, lord, give me more faith. Increase my faith. Because we. We need to see it, see a miracle. And it's. It's interesting, the questions the disciples ask Jesus.
[00:01:15] You know, they. They ask him to teach them to pray, and they ask him to increase their. Their faith.
[00:01:23] So you'd have thought they'd say, teach us to raise the dead or to heal the sick, but actually they say, teach us to pray and increase our faith. Because they see something in Jesus that's so different from everything else they've seen. They see a relationship that Jesus has with the Father and that the way he holds himself, the way he walks, the way he conducts himself, and their desire is, we want to be like that.
[00:01:53] That's what we've been looking for all our life.
[00:01:57] And it's interesting. The thing that sparks the faith conversation is when Jesus teaches about forgiveness.
[00:02:05] And I think forgiveness or not taking offense is one of the most difficult things we have to deal with as Christians, right?
[00:02:15] Anyone have trouble with forgiveness? Own up. Come on. Does anyone here ever take offense at something? Come on, own up. You're just. Yeah, I mean, you're just like. Just like me.
[00:02:26] Which is why Jesus gave a new commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. And this is what he says. He says, take heed to yourself. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him.
[00:02:39] And if he repents, forgive him.
[00:02:42] So what he's saying is, if someone sins against you, say, stop it. Don't do that. And if he says, oh, I'm so sorry, then you forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.
[00:03:00] And their response to this is, lord, increase our faith.
[00:03:07] Why because this kind of living is so different from the world.
[00:03:11] It's so hard to forgive when we feel we've been cheated or wronged or we're in pain.
[00:03:20] And they say we need more faith.
[00:03:24] I don't know if you're anything like me. How many of you have prayed for more faith ever? Yeah, all of us, right? Yeah. And the trouble is, when I'm praying for more faith, what I'm thinking about is. Is faith muscles, right? What I'm thinking about is powerful faith. Lord, would you do something in me that would give me muscles? Like, you know, like Joel. Joel works out in the gym, you know? And I've often looked at him a little envious and thought, if only I had. I don't even know what they're called, but arms like that. I've never had arms like that, not when I was even young. And somehow we think when we pray for more faith that we somehow God takes us into the faith gym and there's a treadmill and we're on the faith treadmill and we're lifting things up and down. And I guess there's a way that that could be. But actually what Jesus does is tell a story. So when they ask for more faith, he tells a parable. So if you've got your Bible, find Luke chapter 17, and we're going to start at verse five. Why don't you stand up? As we read the scriptures?
[00:04:38] So the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.
[00:04:43] So the Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, which is the tiniest of seeds, right? You can say to this mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.
[00:04:59] And he is.
[00:05:01] He's picked a tree that they would all know. And the mulberry tree, apparently, according to Chatgpt, has deep roots, okay? And it's very, very hard to dig out.
[00:05:18] But what he also says is, he says, then it will be planted in the sea.
[00:05:24] Excuse me. And they would have gone, oh, that's ridiculous. No mulberry tree can survive planted in the sea. So what? Jes. Jesus is taking two impossible situations and bringing them together.
[00:05:37] And then he goes on.
[00:05:41] And which of you, having a servant ploughing or tending sheep, will say to him, when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat? But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and. And afterwards you will eat and drink?
[00:06:02] Does he thank that servant, because he did the things that were commanded him. I think not.
[00:06:08] So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.
[00:06:21] Grab a seat.
[00:06:27] What is Jesus saying?
[00:06:29] I think Jesus is saying, you don't need more faith, you need a different type of faith.
[00:06:37] He's saying, if you have the tiniest amount of the right kind of faith, you can move impossible situations.
[00:06:48] And that's why he speaks this parable. And the important thing about this parable is where do we fit in it?
[00:06:54] You know, who are we in the story that Jesus is telling? Often, if you want to understand parables, you've got to figure out which bit am I, which bit is he and which bit am I. And in this one, I think we are the servants and he is the master. So he is sending the servants out to plow and tend the sheep, which is really hard work.
[00:07:18] And so what he's saying is, in order for you to understand faith, if you want more faith, you need to understand this story and see where you fit in.
[00:07:30] So this is what he says to which of you, having a servant ploughing or tending sheep, will say to him, when he's come in from the field, he's done everything he's supposed to do, come, sit down and eat. Will he not rather say, now, now you've done the field and the sheep, come and prepare my supper and gird yourself, get yourself ready to serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and after you can then go and eat and drink.
[00:07:59] And then does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? And Jesus says, I think not. That's not how it works.
[00:08:11] So likewise you, when you have done those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty. You see, what Jesus is doing is he's moving powerful faith to faithful faith.
[00:08:30] He's moving the idea that somehow I need to be powerful to faithfulness.
[00:08:39] What Jesus wants us to understand about faith is that we are his servants doing his work.
[00:08:49] So we are faithful as long as we are walking with him.
[00:08:55] And it is his powerful word that produces the miracles. And we are simply being faithful to his command. So Jesus himself says, I say to you, the Son talking about himself can do nothing by himself. But what he sees the Father does, he also does, the Son does. In like manner he says, so he's saying, I don't do anything by myself. I'm simply watching what the Father's doing. And as I watch what the Father's doing, I imitate him.
[00:09:27] You do likewise.
[00:09:30] Let's talk about forgiveness. You see, if your brother sins and he repents, forgive him. What Jesus is saying is, you don't need much faith for that.
[00:09:43] What you need is obedience.
[00:09:50] And you go, but, yeah, but I'm so hurt.
[00:09:53] I'm wounded.
[00:09:55] You don't understand my pain.
[00:09:59] How can I forgive? And Jesus is saying, it wasn't a request, it was a command.
[00:10:06] You have been forgiven.
[00:10:08] Therefore forgive. This is what faithful disciples do. You imagine, a little chat amongst the disciples. Lord Peter never follows through on what he does. He's always, you know, he's always at the front saying, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. But then he denies you three times, Lord, why are you. All that investment you put into Peter, and it was totally wasted. And Jesus comes to Peter and he forgives. He reinstates him. Peter, do you love me?
[00:10:48] Feed my sheep.
[00:10:50] Jesus is modeling forgiveness.
[00:10:55] All the input that he put into Peter and the catastrophic end it came to, he models forgiveness. You know, it happens here. You know, I never get a good slot on the worship rotor. Joel hogs all the good ones. They just give me the bad ones. Or what about, you know, Steve just gives me the bankology to preach when he's on holiday. It's not fair, Jonathan sitting down there, you know, he puts me in the car park when there's a conference and it's really busy and everyone wants to park and it's grass. It's not fair.
[00:11:32] You see, we can so quickly take offense.
[00:11:36] But Jesus says, you want to move a mountain?
[00:11:39] Don't ask for more faith. Be faithful.
[00:11:44] And as you are faithful, you will see the mulberry tree not only uproot, but be planted in the sea. And the word planted really means to plant and establish.
[00:11:59] You see, the miracle God does through faithfulness is he doesn't discard something in the sea. He's not saying, oh, we're just going to throw that thing in the sea. He says that actually it's going to be planted somewhere.
[00:12:16] Impossible.
[00:12:18] Faith doesn't discard. It creates life and hope.
[00:12:23] That's what Jesus wants to do in us.
[00:12:25] So when you forgive, the very thing that couldn't survive in the sea becomes healthy. Not only you, but the person you forgive, there is hope of becoming healthy. You see, Peter is forgiven and becomes the rock on which the church is built on.
[00:12:45] Or how about Saul the murderer who becomes Paul the Apostle and writes most of the New Testament. Why? Because he was forgiven.
[00:12:57] Or how about you?
[00:12:59] Because you're forgiven?
[00:13:02] What will you become? You become miracle workers.
[00:13:08] And then Jesus goes on, he says, there's more.
[00:13:11] I don't only want to add faithfulness, but I want to add humility.
[00:13:16] Jesus is saying, I've sent you out to plow and tend the sheep, and it's really hard work.
[00:13:23] Your faith is demonstrated by your trust and your obedience.
[00:13:27] You see, there's going to be tons of impossible situations that you're going to walk with Jesus.
[00:13:33] The question is, how are you going to approach them?
[00:13:35] How are you going to approach the mulberry tree that's in front of you?
[00:13:40] Where is your heart going to be postured?
[00:13:43] You know, there will be things that are so deep you think, we can never move this.
[00:13:52] But Jesus says, if you will do what I say, if you will obey me, if you are faithful, it will throw itself in the sea.
[00:14:02] And it isn't the amount of faith. You don't need more faith, but you need a posture of faithfulness.
[00:14:10] I'm doing this because my heart is faithful to towards you. Jesus, he is the master and I am the servant. John Wimber used to say I'm small change in his pocket to be spent as he will.
[00:14:27] That in a sense that we're in the Lord's pocket, each one of us. Not that he doesn't value us. There's lots of other stories that talk about how much he values us, but we're not these important big things.
[00:14:44] We're his servants in this story. If we want more faith. And he spends us as he wills. He leads us into situations. And as we understand that, the miracles start to break out. You know, someone's sick in your office and you can't heal anyone. Right?
[00:15:03] You know, I said it this morning, pocket's empty. There's nothing there.
[00:15:11] But we have been sent to heal the sick.
[00:15:15] That's what Jesus said, Go heal the sick. Cast out devils, raise the dead.
[00:15:20] Go do it.
[00:15:22] So we're in that situation and we, you know, we ask, would it be okay if I prayed for you?
[00:15:28] And they go, oh, sure. And you go now, and what do you mean now? What are you going to do? Well, I'm going to place my hand on you.
[00:15:36] Oh, I don't know about that. What's going. How you, you know, don't worry. I'm just going to put my hand on you and pray.
[00:15:44] You see, you don't need that great faith just to stretch your hand and place it on the person.
[00:15:52] You need a little faith and a heart that is postured to obedience because that's what Jesus has told us to do.
[00:16:00] And you stretch out your hand and it might be shaking, not because of the Holy Spirit, but because people are watching and you place it on someone, but what happens next is in his hands.
[00:16:14] And as you pray, and you might pray nervously and you may not pray the best joined up prayer, but they're healed.
[00:16:24] And yet then suddenly you're excited, we got one, we got one. And you know, we're all excited about it. And Jesus gives a warning because he says, we often think that our faith has done something and so that we applaud it and somehow our faith raises our stature. So now I get to sit at more important tables because I've made it, I've done it, I'm a big faith person. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not how it works. He says, you might pray for someone and see a miracle. You might forgive someone who deeply hurts you. You might preach and see hundreds or even thousands saved.
[00:17:12] You might give sacrificially, you might exercise that mustard seed faith and see something extraordinary happen.
[00:17:23] But he said after, afterwards, this is what you say.
[00:17:27] You don't you. The disciple doesn't say, look at what my faith accomplished.
[00:17:32] The disciple says, I simply obeyed my master.
[00:17:35] I'm small change in his pocket.
[00:17:38] We are unprofitable servants. We have done what our duty is to do. You see this, for me, this is really helpful because Jesus is redefining faith.
[00:17:53] He's saying, listen for my voice.
[00:17:57] And when you hear it, it might feel scary and you might go, I don't know if I can do this. So you pray, increase my faith, Lord, come and help me do what you're asking me to do.
[00:18:09] And he says, excuse me, all you need is a tiny bit of faith, a mustard seed so that you can step into impossible obedience and humble service.
[00:18:26] And when you do that, you open up the door for a miracle.
[00:18:33] You see, Jonathan's just sitting down there. Jonathan just, you know, put your hand on faith to pray for her. Gone. It didn't take any faith at all to do that. And name's Faith.
[00:18:46] But you didn't take. He just did it. Why did he do it it? Because I asked him to do it.
[00:18:52] Do you see? Do you get it? The Lord just says, you're in a place. And the Lord says, just do that. Just do this. Forgive that person, love that person, go and pay that person's Bill, put your hand on that person.
[00:19:05] And what Jesus is saying, it doesn't take any faith to do that. It's tiny mustard seed.
[00:19:15] Because the kind of faith you need is obedience and trust that as you step out and do what he says, he will back up what you're doing.
[00:19:28] You see, the disciples, they think they need this enormous reservoir of faith before they can obey Jesus.
[00:19:35] Somehow they need big muscles. But Jesus saying, that's not the issue.
[00:19:39] Small, genuine of faith obeys.
[00:19:43] It produces faithful people. And when that obedient faith produces extraordinary results, it doesn't become proud of it. It just says, that was our duty. That's what he called us to do. So perhaps the summary of this parable is great faith isn't primarily about feeling powerful. It's about trusting Jesus enough to obey him.
[00:20:08] It's about remaining humble when obedience produces incredible results.
[00:20:14] You know, all of you guys faithfully serving at Chosen, you know, I watched them in the kitchen. It was one of the hottest days of the year. They're making food.
[00:20:27] I said to them, I said to them, I said, you know, now you've done all this cooking, are you at the point where you could never look at food again? And one of the guys stood up and said, have you seen this body? Does this look like a body that hates food?
[00:20:40] And they'll just say, this is what we love.
[00:20:45] This is what we do. And so they served and they trusted Jesus. And what happened? Miracles start to break out because they're cooking food. Other people are building cages not to put the kids in to play football.
[00:21:01] And there's different people worshiping. There's different people.
[00:21:05] And as we serve and are faithful to the Lord, miracles start to break out, and the impossible, impossible situations start to move. And he establishes his love in people's lives.
[00:21:17] But then, and this is where it really helps me on this parable, some of you who served, like, every night and all day then went to work on Saturday.
[00:21:29] You just got up and went and did your, like, everyday job. That's what Jesus is talking about. That's what disciples do because their hearts are postured.
[00:21:40] And that's why you see the incredible results. That's why you see the miracles, because your heart is postured to serve Jesus.
[00:21:49] That makes sense. Yeah. Okay, I'm really nearly done. Do you know, with this building, I knew this was impossible without a miracle. But we know with God all things are possible, right?
[00:22:02] Okay. So we have been as faithful as possible.
[00:22:07] We walk the journey with Jesus, and whether the miracle happens is completely out of My control. All I can do is trust him because I'm a servant, but because he has commanded us to do it.
[00:22:25] I don't need to fear failure because I'm simply doing what he's told me to do. And you see, again, one of the things that stops us is fear. Well, what if I fail?
[00:22:37] Servants don't think about failing. Servants do what they're told.
[00:22:42] Jesus is shifting how we view faith.
[00:22:47] So, you know, if we exchange or default this week, it's all in his hands. All I can do is.
[00:22:53] Is walk with him and do what he said.
[00:22:57] I am his servant. I've done what was my duty. We've done what was our duty. We've given, we have prayed, we have walked with him. Now, Lord, it's up to you.
[00:23:08] The prayer, lord, increase my faith becomes the prayer, lord, help me trust enough to become increasingly faithful to what you've asked me to do.
[00:23:20] Let me say that again.
[00:23:22] The prayer, Lord, increase my faith becomes a new prayer, Lord, help me trust you enough to become increasingly faithful to do what you've asked me to do.
[00:23:34] And as we do that, the miracles start to break out. No one gets healed here because of my great faith. They get healed because of faithfulness, week in, week out, which opens the door for miracles.
[00:23:50] The mustard seed faith opens the door for the Holy Spirit to lead us into his miraculous plan.
[00:23:57] You see, without it, fear will hold us back, pride will hold us back.
[00:24:06] But when we ask Jesus to increase our faith, we become faithful disciples.
[00:24:14] And as we hear his voice, we trust his plan for our lives and we respond to his will. Lord, will you increase my faith?
[00:24:27] And we find as we do it both individually and together, we find ourselves almost. It's like in his river.
[00:24:43] And as we get into the flow of what God is doing, we are carried in that and that there is a change. And that's what we've seen here, and that's what we are seeing here. That as we're faithful in all of the little things, just, you know, with just his small change doing what he wants, we're gathering around your presence. We're loving you. We're speaking the gospel. We're praying for the sick. We're believing you to do more. Lord, miracles start breaking out.
[00:25:12] All the people that serving and putting the chairs out and parking cars and cleaning up after, you know, 200 teenagers, you should have seen what this place looked like and what it looked like.
[00:25:24] I mean, I didn't know they were even here. I mean, they cleaned it and we become faithful.
[00:25:34] So the Lord says to each one of us, it's fine to ask for your faith to be increased, but understand, if you pray that prayer, I'm going to lead you into a life of faithfulness with me.
[00:25:49] Deal?
[00:25:51] Done. Why don't you stand?
[00:25:54] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship, and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
