weekly sermon

                                 4-20-08

Less Is Best

Before we start this weeks message, I would like to tell you a funny little story that I heard about a man trying to get into Heaven. A man dies and goes to heaven. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in." "Okay," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart." "That's wonderful," says St. Peter, "that's worth three points!" "Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service." "Terrific!" says St. Peter. "That's certainly worth a point." "One point!?!!" "I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in AA shelter for homeless veterans." "Fantastic, that's good for two more points," he says. "Two points!?!! "Exasperated, the man cries. "At this rate the only way I'll get into heaven is by the grace of God." "Bingo, 100 points! Come on in!"

This man was trying to think about all of these things that, in his mind, would be magnificent and large in the eyes of God. God's mind does not work in the same way our minds work. Things we see magnificent or important are simple small things in the eyes of God. The things we think are important, God may think very insignificant, and the things we think nothing about, may be the things very important in God's eyes. This man was trying to give St. Peter examples of mighty things that he had done on earth when all the man needed to do was have the simple faith instead of the mighty works. Just as it states in Galatians 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the WORKS of the law, but by the FAITH of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the FAITH of Christ, and not by the WORKS of the law: for by the WORKS of the law shall no flesh be justified." It is paraphrased saying, not by works but by My faith says the Lord. One man may have the ability to do a certain work whereas another may not have that ability, and another man may have an ability that another may not. Works are not equal according to flesh as one may have abilities that others do not and visa versa. But when it comes to faith, this is equal ground. Every man no matter abilities or inabilities come to the Father the same way and have ability to have the same faith. Some do not have the same faith obviously or this would be a perfect world we live in with all believing in God as it should be and all going to Heaven. If that was the case I would be out of a ministry, which I would more than gladly give up, if all were saved and living in the true faith of God.

Turn with me if you will to Matthew 17:20, "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

This verse is the whole center of our message today. If you really look at this verse, it is one of the simplest verses in the entire Bible and one of the hardest ones to understand. I say it this way because if folks could just look at this verse just as it is written and not try to figure it out then it would be a simple verse. Well, folks can not do that, they all must try to figure out what MORE they have to do to make this verse work. That is a common mistake among most, "I must do something to have it this good". This would lead us back up to the works verses faith things that we discussed previously. This is a child like faith. The mustard seed is the least of all seeds in size but when it produces a plant it is the largest of all the herbs. The smallest produces the biggest, or less is best. This is the same as the child like faith I mentioned. The knowledge in the mind of a child is far less than that of an adult, yet the child can see more things than the adult can. Our minds eye is blurred with the world, and the child's minds eye is filled with clear thoughts.

If you have this faith as described here in Matthew then you have the ability to tell the mountain to be removed and it shall be removed. Has there ever been mountains in your life? Has there ever been barricades in your life? After all this time you had the ability to remove them with one simple thing, faith. Faith will not only move mountains, it will also give us power beyond compare. Look at the last sentence in that verse, "and nothing shall be impossible unto you." The word nothing is the key word in this part of this verse. Nothing as we have discussed before means exactly that, nothing. There is not one thing period that you can not do if you have the faith. Remember Jesus said we will do the works He did and even greater. All we need is that child like faith to be able to do these works. The disciples raised folks from the dead, walked on water, healed the sick, made the blind see, and made the deaf hear, just as Jesus had done. There is only one thing that separates us from the disciples, their faith and ours. They had the faith that they could do these things. Most of us hope we can. Hope is defined as "to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence". Hope is a desire that could possibly be achieved by reasonable confidence. Faith on the other hand MAKES things happen, it does not hope things happen. Hope is like thunder, whereas it makes noise and things might happen from it, and faith is like lightening, whereas something does happen. Look in Hebrew 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." If the hope you had made something out of that reasonable confidence even though you could not see the something that was made, that is called faith.

The disciples had to have a great faith to be able to perform the works that Jesus performed, but I believe the faith that we have to have is a more profound faith. How can I make this statement? The disciples walked with God in the flesh, they could actually see Him in action and knew what He could do. We have no way to see that things actually happened. All we have is our faith to know that these things happened and that we can do them just as Jesus. This to me is a more profound faith because we can not see the things we are about to perform in Jesus name, we just have to simply believe. Remember less is best.

Do you have a child like faith such as this? Could you perform the works of Christ? Do you even have the simplest faith of salvation? If you can answer yes to these questions that is fantastic, but if you can not, then all you would need to do is put on a simple mind and say a short little prayer with me.

Dear Lord, take over my life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.

If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.

With Love in Christ,

Pastor Stone