This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome to day four of our look through Matthew chapter 17. We're
looking at Jesus' promise in verse 20 of this chapter. We began our look
yesterday.

Let me read that verse again for you. Jesus replied, "Because you have so little
faith, "but I tell you the truth, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
"you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there and it will move.
"Nothing will be impossible for you.

" We're talking about two rules for those who would move mountains. Yesterday we
talked about you start by thinking big. You have to think big.

But number two, the second rule is you start small. You think big, but you start
small. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, to really think big, you
have to start small.

How much faith do you need? Just a tiny mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds.
It just takes a little bit of trust in a great big God.

God made the mountains and the sea. He can certainly move the mountain into the
sea. God's the one who does it.

We want to focus on how big the mountain is. Jesus said, "Focus instead on having
"just a little bit of faith in God. " Start there, start small, put your trust
in God.

You can do that, you can do that. Yesterday as we started to talk about thinking
big, you may still be struggling with that one. I still haven't had a big
thought yet.

It hasn't come to me yet. But you can start small. You can have just a little
faith.

So how do you do that? How do you start small? Let me talk about three things.

Nothing new here, but three things you can do to start small when it comes to
faith. These are vital for living a life with God's promise as the foundation of
your life. To start small, the first thing you do is you listen to God.

You do what the disciples were told to do up on that Mount of Transfiguration,
listen to him. In order to build on God's promises, you have to know God's
promises. And that means you have to listen to them carefully.

I have to admit that sometimes I don't listen to my wife, Shondell, as
carefully, as closely as I should. And so because of that, I miss the point.
She's headed out the door and she says something to me like, make sure you put
the cake in the oven, set it for 325 and put it in at 615.

And I say, great. She walks out the door and then I realize I have no idea what
she just said. Did she say, set it at 325 and put it in at 615?

Or did she say, set it at 615 and put it in at 325? I don't have any idea what
she just said. So then I have to make this embarrassing call.

What time did you say? What temperature did you say? Did you say in the oven?

What did you say? And the truth is all of us are sometimes like that with God's
promises. They just sort of go in one ear and out the other.

And so we're making guesses about these key building blocks in our lives. When
you take the time to listen to God's promise, to take it in, like we're doing
right now with this promise, you are investing in building your life in one of
the greatest of ways. When you think about listening to God, at the end of Jesus
talking to them about faith-- let me show you what happened in verses 22 and 23.

He's just talked to them about having this great faith. Verse 22 says, "When
they came together in Galilee, he said to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will
be raised to life.

' And the disciples were filled with grief. " So here we are again. They're
missing all that he's saying.

They're filled with grief. Now, on the Mount of Transfiguration, they didn't
even hear him talk about being raised from the dead. They just went to questions
about Elijah.

They hear him say he's going to be killed, but they don't hear the part about
the resurrection. They don't hear the part about being raised to life. Sometimes
you and I find ourselves trying to trust God's promises without taking the time
to fully understand God's promises.

And sometimes, in all honesty-- I've seen this happen in my life and in so many
people's lives-- you only hear half of God's promise. Maybe the good half is all
you hear. You don't hear the half where you have to obey.

Or maybe the bad half is all you hear. You don't hear the half where God's going
to give great blessings. You only hear half of the promise.

Taking the time to listen carefully to God's promises is one of the most
important ways you can spend your time. And that's what we're doing right now.
You think big.

You start small. And you start small-- one of the ways is by listening to him. A
second way that you start small is by talking to him.

You tell God what you need. You listen to him. You talk to him.

Every one of us knows how small worries can pile up. They pile up these worries,
so they start to overwhelm us. Well, prayer is the antidote to worry.

The Bible clearly tells us, when you're worrying, you should pray. But there's
more than that to prayer. Simple prayers can start to pile up, just like your
worries can start to pile up.

And when you allow your simple prayers to start to pile up, then God starts to
overwhelm your life in an entirely different kind of way. Because the truth is,
prayer is the number one tool for mountain movers. You can't cut a board without
a saw.

You can't drive a nail without a hammer. And you cannot move a mountain without
prayer. So if you've got a mountain to be moved, you tell God what you want.

You don't demand it of God. You just tell him. You don't talk to him about
everything else but what you want.

I don't know why it is. Sometimes, even in prayer, we say, God, what about the
weather and the missionaries and everything else? Seen any good movies lately?

We talk to God about everything else but that one thing. You don't have to
butter God up first. Tell him what's on your heart.

You think, well, what if he doesn't want what I want? Then he'll tell you that
he doesn't want what you want. But you have to go first.

You think, well, he already knows. You have to go first. It's a matter of
depending on him.

It's a matter of trusting him with what's in your heart. Part of moving a
mountain is telling God what you need. And then a third key for moving a
mountain is you thank God in advance.

This small mustard seed of faith. I don't know of anything more powerful in this
small mustard seed of faith than thanking God in advance for what he's going to
do. So you start by thanking God.

Now, you thank God at the very beginning for who he is. God, I know I can trust
you. I know that your will is going to be done in the end.

And then you thank God for what he's going to do. God, I thank you that you're
going to work in this kind of way in the world. I thank you that according to
your word, you're going to do this.

So when you plant a mustard seed of faith and you ask God to speak into
someone's heart who's not yet a believer, you can depend on the fact he's going
to do that. He promises that his Holy Spirit convicts those who aren't
believers. You can depend on the fact that God is doing that.

You may never hear about it. You may never see it, but you can thank God for it
in advance. Thank you that you're going to do this.

Now, you can't pray someone into becoming a Christian because God gives them a
choice. So you can't thank God in advance for what he said he will not do, but
you can thank God in advance for everything that he said he will do in
scripture. When you ask God to supply your needs, a need isn't being met.

It may be a financial need. It may be an emotional need. You can thank God in
advance that he's going to supply that need, but you can't thank him that he's
going to supply it in the certain way that you say he has to supply it.

That way he's going to do it in the way that he wants. When we talk about God
supplying your needs, when we talk about God meeting our needs through his
promises, you have to remember that all these needs are met in Jesus. 2
Corinthians 1:20 says, "For no matter how many promises God has made, "they are
yes in Christ.

" The yes to all of God's promises in our lives is not in some secret prayer.
It's not in some religious ritual. It's in a relationship, a relationship with
Jesus.

So you don't try to build your life on God's promises without a personal
relationship with Jesus. It'll just frustrate you. It all starts with, it all
revolves around this relationship.

You're never going to change yourself. You're never going to change your
circumstance. That circumstance is overwhelming you until you trust God with
yourself, until you trust God with that circumstance.

That's the planting of that seed of faith because he is the only one that can
move mountains. Remember, it's a mountain. You need more than your effort.

As sincere and as sacrificial as your efforts might be, you need God's power.
Our efforts are like driving a little mini tractor on top of a Mount Everest
trying to move it one little scoop at a time. And we think we're doing
something, but nothing is happening.

We're just expending energy. We're not having faith. Many of the mountains in
our lives, they can start to be moved even in this moment.

A mountain like God would never love or accept me because no one can love or
accept me for what I've done. The truth is, the scripture clearly tells us God
so loved the world that he gave his son. God loves you.

You can trust him that he loves you. Or the mountain that I could never forgive
that person. Jesus has forgiven you.

When you let that truth into your life, he can begin to move that mountain in
your life. You trust him. Or the mountain of my life is falling apart.

My dreams will never amount to anything. God is in the business of putting
broken pieces back together. He puts them together in a different way than you
would have thought.

To build a different picture than maybe you were seeing. But he knows what he's
been doing all along. You trust him.

You trust him. So right now, let's plant a seed of faith. Let's trust him with
those mountains that we're facing.

Would you pray with me? And just say to him, Jesus, here's the mountain I'm
facing. Here it is.

Here's the relationship. Here's the problem. Here's the thing in my life.

I need your help. I need your power. And so I'm planting a mustard seed of faith
right now.

I'm deciding to listen to your promise like never before. I'm asking you to meet
this need in my life. And I am thanking you for who you are.

And for what you've planned for my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Tomorrow we're going to see together some lessons about giving from Jesus' miracle
of a coin in the mouth of a fish.