Sermon text:
NLT
14 At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.[d]”
Sermon title: Are you a mountain mover?
BP: Move the hearers to learn how to build their faith
Introduction:
A.) What do you do when you see Jesus? What do you recognize him as? Healer? Messiah? Anointed one? The living word? Bread of Life?
B.) It’s just like how you see your spouse or people in your life. If you see people in your life as your personal assistants and not friends you’ll treat them as such.
1. If you see people as humans with potential you'll do everything you can to help pull it out of them.
2. And then you will assign worth to those very same people based on your perspective of them.
3. The more worth and value you assign to other people the more you will ultimately value and respect them, who they are, and what they bring to the table.
C.) Your relationship with Jesus is the same
1. You will never honor and love God more than the degree to which you see worth and value in him.
2. Your relationship with him will only grow as big as the container of value that you put him in.
3. The more value you ascribe to him, the more the relationship will grow.
D.) The man in the text doesn’t see Jesus. He doesn’t see the messiah, he doesn’t see the son of Man. He doesnt see the living word, bread of life or the anointed one.
1. He sees Jesus as a mountain mover.
2. He ascribes value to Jesus because he thinks highly enough about him to hand Jesus is situation.
Identifier #1: At first mountain movers were once beginners
V. 14, Luke 2:52
14 At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said,
52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
A.) Ministry doesn’t start until he was 30 years old.
B.) Principle-Your production will never supersede your process.
C.) Jesus becomes who he is not only because he is God but also, because he goes through process.
Identifier #2: Mountain movers don’t rely on their leaders to carry all of the load
V. 16-19
6 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
Identifier #3: Mountain movers know the difference between a moment of little faith and a posture of little faith
V. 20
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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. (NIV)
A.) Jesus (the ultimate mountain mover) has hope for the disciples. He knows that they’re only in a season of little faith. And their little faith won’t last always.
B.) They know who Jesus is. Messiah chapter 16. But they don’t know who they are and what they’re capable of as followers of Jesus.
C.) Just because you know someone’s title, doesn’t mean you know who they are.
Identifier #4: Mountain movers use what they have
Romans 12:3, V. 20
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (NIV)
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, 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. (NIV)
