Message: “Obeying God In The Little Things” from Dr. Rick Mandl

Hey church family. Today, I want to talk to you once again about prayer. And I’d like to ask you to consider the question . . . “How much faith does it take to move a mountain?” Some of you hear that, and your immediate reaction is? “How much faith does it take to move a mountain?" Pastor Rick, you said you wanted to talk about prayer Shouldn’t the question be “How much prayer does it take to move a mountain?”

The reason I’ve linked these two things – faith & prayer – is because Jesus, in his teaching linked them together. Yesterday I shared with you a story from Mark chapter 9 of one of the failures that Jesus’ disciples experienced during their ministry. It had to do with their failure to be able to cast a demon out from a demon-possessed boy. The boy’s father brought his son to Jesus, and told him that his son had been tormented by a demon, and Jesus disciples had not been successful in casting that demon out. Jesus, following that father’s urgent plea, cast the demon out of the boy and returned the boy to his father.

Following that miracle, Jesus disciples took Jesus aside privately and asked Jesus to tell them . . .WHY? Why had Jesus successfully cast out the demon from the boy, while the disciples had not been able to. And Jesus told them, that the answer was “Prayer” Specifically he said. . .  “This kind can be cast out only by prayer” (Mark 9:28-29). Well, I want to continue with that story today, because there is more to the story.

Jesus didn’t just say that what was missing was “prayer.” In Matthew’s gospel – the gospel writer Matthew, gives us his record of that same encounter, and he says, “Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”

And Jesus told them - - - the issue is faith . . . “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.”  Matthew 17:19-20

You look at that and you think . . . Wait a second, in Mark’s Gospel, the writer records that Jesus told his disciples that what was missing that kept them from casting out the demon was prayer. They had left prayer out of the equation. Yet in Matthew, when the writer records that same conversation – Jesus told His disciples that what they were lacking was “faith” So which was it, faith or prayer?

The answer is... “Yes.” It is the prayer offered in faith. Even the tiniest amount of faith, backing up a prayer that is offered to our big, big, God can bring about amazing results. Bottom line is, it’s not the size of our faith... It’s the size of our God.

And to drive that point home, Jesus gave his disciples the example of the mustard seed. He said 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. It’s worth noting that the example that Jesus used, “Faith as small as a mustard seed” is significant because “the mustard seed” was one of the smallest seeds known at that time.

Maybe the idea of “Faith big enough to move a mountain” intimidates you. How about the idea of “Faith as tiny as a mustard seed. . . But that tiny bit of faith being placed in a big big God? There’s an old song. . . And I won’t sing it for you, but I will share the lyrics with you. It says. . . Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains, you cannot tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible And He can do what no other power can do. Amen.