The Limitless Power of Faith

Introduction:

Last week in part one of our By Faith sermon series I spoke about the meaning of faith as defined by Hebrews 11. That sermon is on our One Light Church YouTube channel for anyone who missed it or would like to watch again or share with someone else.

Today in part two of our By Faith Sermon series I want to speak with you about the limitless power of your faith.

Matthew 17:14-21

Matthew 17:14–21 ESV

14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Setting:

The setting of today’s narrative Caesarea Philippi.

Jesus and the Disciples had been there for six days when Jesus took Peter, James and John to a high mountain by themselves and was transfigured before them.

This is an immensely powerful portion of scripture and one of my favorite sections of Scripture as it blesses us with so much hope and information of what it will be like when we have our spiritual bodies.

Hallelujah! Aren’t you glad we serve a living God this morning somebody give Him praise!

Verses 9-13 tell that as they were walking down the mountain Jesus instructs Peter, James and John not to speak of this event until after His Resurrection and then clarifies that John the Baptist was the returning Elijah which preceded the Messiah but the world did not recognize him.

It is at this point that they return to the crowds and the other Disciples. Immediately a dad desperate for a healing for his demon possessed son approaches Jesus and falls to his knees pleading with Jesus to cast out the demon because the disciples were unable to do so.

Jesus then becomes frustrated with the people and calls them a faithless and twisted generation which is a reference to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:20.

Jesus said this because the Hebrews are God’s chosen people and have seen Him and seen His miracles more times than any other people group and yet they still doubt or worse turn to the ways of the world.

Furthermore, the other Disciples that had not gone with Jesus, Peter and James had also been with Jesus who is God in the flesh and witnessed firsthand His miraculous signs yet still did not have enough faith to cast our the demon.

It is at this point that Jesus casts out the demon instantly healing the boy.

The crowds no doubt rejoiced as was correct to do so but later the Disciples privately asked Jesus why they could not cast out the demon. And Jesus states that it is because of there little faith and if they had only a small amount of faith like the size of a mustard seed nothing would be impossible for them.

Do You Have Faith?

So my question for each of you today is how much faith do you have?

As I taught last week faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Said differently do you believe that the things you are hoping for are really going to happen more over do you hold firmly to the truth they will happen even if you do not see the desired outcome at the moment?

You see brothers and sister while putting your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is by far the most important decision anyone can ever make being saved is the beginning of the New Birth or the new life in Christ. It is not intended to be the limit of your faith no more than the birth of a child is intended to be the limit or sum of their entire life. Rather being saved is the beginning of a lifelong journey which should include a deep trust and love relationship with Jesus.

I don’t know where you are on your journey today. Maybe you have heard about the mighty things the Lord has done for others yet don’t feel victory in you own life.

Or perhaps, you have seen God move in your life or in the life of others many times before but now you are in season of great need and while you love and trust the Lord you are struggling with doubt that God is moving or will move in this particular situation and may even start accepting that what you are praying for will not happen.

Or maybe you are are at a place where the work set before you seems to great and you are feeling overwhelmed.

Like it or not brothers and sisters these feeling stem from a lack of faith.

I am not saying this to condemn you because the truth is there will come a point in the life of all believers when it becomes difficult to hold on to the things we hope for when we do not see progress for an extended period of time. This coupled with the fact that when we ask the Lord for things we get three answers which are yes, no and wait again can make it a challenge to hold on to what we hope for if we focus on the situation instead of focusing on the limitless power of the Lord.

We can see in today's Scripture that the dad of the possessed child has dealt with His suffering for quite some time. We can only imagine the pain he must have felt as he saw his beloved child suffer especially the times he fell in the fire or in the water.

The dad has been hoping and praying and finally hears of the man of God who heals blind eyes and performs many miracles. Yet when he brings his child to the Disciples they cannot heal his son. While the Bible does not say this we can only imagine that there must have been a point where the dad felt completely defeated and felt like giving up hope.

Fortunately he found Jesus and in a moment with just a word his son was miraculously healed.!

Aren’t you glad this morning that when no one or nothing can fix the problem that we can go to Jesus and know that He not only hears us but helps us. Can I get an amen this morning!

Align Our Hopes With His Word

The key first and foremost is to make sure what we hope for lines up with the word of God. Just as in today’s example the dad is hoping for a healing for his child.

Next, we are to pray that the Lord’s will be done and have peace knowing He hears us while at the same time not giving up and being persistent in our petitions. The dad in this narrative did not give up even when the disciples couldn’t cast our the demon he did not leave but waited on the Lord and cast his cares at the feet of Jesus. His persistent faith that Jesus could heal his son when no one could was recognized and blessed by the Lord.

When we do hope for things that align with God’s word and are persistent in our prayers having confidence and peace that Jesus hears us then I can assure you that God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jesus tells us this very thing in

John 14:12–14 ESV

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Because Jesus is our Lord and Savior when we get saved the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of us. And one of the primary purposes of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to make us more Christlike and also to equip us to continue His work until His return. Therefore the things we should be asking for should be Christlike meaning it lines up with God’s word.

It would be entirely inappropriate to ask the Lord for things that are not Biblical and then expect to get a yes answer to our prayers. I will tell you here and now it’s not going to happen.

For example, the Lord is our source for everything we have and everything we need amen. I am a firm believer that the Bible teaches us principles of reaping and sewing, tithing, being generous, supporting the church and helping those in need.

I can testify that when we apply these biblical principles to our lives that God blesses us so much that not only are our needs met but we can still help support the church and those in need.

Therefore it is completely appropriate to ask the Lord to bless our offerings, tithes and also our incomes so that we may continue to do those things which He calls us to do.

Praying this way both shows our trust in Jesus as our source of everything good and also glorifies God when we invest in the Kingdom to share the Gospel and also bless those in need. It is a blessed covenant relationship whereby we follow God’s word and He keep His promises to meet our needs.

However, if someone were to pray as some prosperity preachers these days teach essentially saying Lord please make me rich because you love me and give me what I ask and I really want my best life now and to be wealthy. Prayers like that would be completely inappropriate and not blessed because the bible teaches us that while there is absolutely nothing wrong with being wealthy as there are many godly people with high incomes however, we are not to be lovers of money or serve money. In fact Jesus says in

Matthew 6:24 NLT

24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

The Apostle Paul also writes on the love of money in

1 Timothy 6:10 NLT

10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

My point here is simply that an important step in having faith is to take a spiritual inventory and make sure what we hope for aligns with the word of God. When we do that we can have the confidence that even if we don’t see the victory in our situation it is going to happen just as Jesus told us in John 14:12-14.

Faith Has Limitless Power

Once you have confirmed that what you are hoping for lines up with God’s word and God’s will there is no reason to ever doubt or put limits on what He can and will do for us. Jesus makes this point clear in verse 20 of today’s text.

Matthew 17:20 ESV

20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

At times in our weakness we put limits on what the Lord can do in and through us but Jesus is telling the disciples that if they have faith the size of a mustard seed that mountains will move and nothing on earth will be impossible for them.

When Jesus tells the disciples that they only need faith like a grain of a mustard seed to move mountains most of us think of the size of the grain.

And while that is true and is part of the illustration because a grain of mustard seed is very small, another thing that needs to be realized is the potential contained in each individual grain of seed.

You see a mustard tree reaches an average mature height of between 6 and 20 feet with a 20-foot spread, although exceptional plants can reach 30 feet tall under ideal conditions.

So, one of the points that Jesus is making is that since God put great potential in a seed and plant how much more does He give to us who are created in His image. Therefore, even if you only have a small amount of faith it really does have great potential.

Jesus wants more for our lives than just salvation.

He wants us to lead many people to Him so they too can be saved and have heaven as their home.

Jesus also wants us to live Spirit filled lives loving and serving others and growing together as the family of Christ in a deeper and more intimate relationship with God.

He does not want us focusing on our problems or our hurts but rather He wants us to keep our focus on Him. And yes it is right to cast our cares on Him and yes Jesus is closer than a friend and yes He will never leave us or forsake us.

But in any relationship if the focus becomes more on the problems than it does about the love there is less room left for joy or deeper intimacy to grow.

Listen all glory goes to God and He is the one with the power to do the miraculous but in many cases He chooses people to work through.

One of the primary gifts of the Holy Spirit is to equip us along with the word of God to do the things Jesus did in this world until He returns.

So while yes there are times we are hurting and yes there are times we get discouraged never forget that inside of every believer is the Holy Spirit of God and if we have the faith to believe for the impossible than we can do the impossible.

We are God’s image bearers in this world and we have been given authority over every thing in this world both natural and supernatural not by our power that we would boast but because God loves us and blesses us.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ and are sealed with the Holy Spirit and empowered by the word of God and have a loving Father in heaven that will never fail us so there is absolutely no reason to doubt that any mountain can’t be moved or that anything is impossible for us.

If we can ever grasp the limitless power and potential that even a small amount of our Faith in Jesus Christ brings then as Jesus Himself declared nothing will be impossible for us!

Prayer