Faith as a Mustard Seed
Matthew 17:14–21
Hey, listen. The Lord put a well-known verse on my heart that I wanted to preach from that passage today. The title of our message is “Faith as a Mustard Seed.” And that phrase in the Bible where the Lord uses that phrase, “if you have faith as a mustard seed”—I know of two places in the Bible that we read about it. It comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17. And we’re going to be reading from there today in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17. You got your Bibles or you want to pull it up on your device, pull it up or go there to Matthew 17. The other place is in Luke 17 where that phrase “faith as a mustard seed” is used.
Right now I just want to take a moment. Anybody that would like and is able, hey, would you stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God? The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17, beginning in verse 14. That’s Matthew 17 beginning in verse 14. The word of God says,
“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.’ Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.’ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief. For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’”
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray.
God, we love you and we just thank you and praise you for this day. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the way the word challenges us. I thank you for the way you use your word as believers to mold us, God, and to shape us, God, more and more in your image. And God, today as we’re digging into your word, as we’re continuing to worship you, Lord, help me. And God, I pray the Holy Spirit will just move in our hearts as we open up and dig into your word. And God, use it to shape us more and more into your image as believers. And God, I pray there’s someone that’s never fully given their life to you. I pray today, Jesus, they will trust fully in you, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior of their life. We love you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. All God’s people said, “Amen.”
The Father’s Perspective: Take It to the Lord
You know, there’s a lot I think about when I read this passage. One thing I think about is the perspective of that father. For anybody that has kids or someone that you look at as your child, you do anything for your child, wouldn’t you? I believe if we—I believe most of us would. Amen. We do anything for our child.
And you know, in this passage, we’re introduced. It starts off, it says, “And when they had come to the multitude.” Now, the passage before this that’s in the Bible that we read about is Jesus being transfigured and he’s got his inner three, Peter, James, and John. Whether it’s right after that or soon after that or whatever point, the point here is I believe the Lord and some of his disciples, they’ve come to a multitude. You know, Jesus had done a lot of miracles. People were—when he come to a village, he’d come to a city, there wasn’t Facebook and there wasn’t social media, but people they wanted to hear about, they wanted to come be in the presence of Jesus. It says they had come to a multitude, but we’re introduced to this father, this man.
And when I think about the way this father approaches the Lord, I thought about this. When you have a problem, take it to the Lord. You know, that’s what this man does. He is at the point where he knows, I’ve tried other things. I need to call on the Lord because he knows his son is not getting better. Watch what it says. It says he goes up to Jesus. He calls him Lord. He says, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
What I see here is a broken man. What I see here is a desperate man. What I see here is a father that says, “Lord, I can’t heal myself. Lord, I can’t get him better. Lord, I need your help.” What a great reminder when we got a problem to remember to take it to the Lord.
A Personal Connection
You know, this boy that’s described here, he’s described as an epileptic. Obviously, it doesn’t tell us how often he had seizures. It doesn’t tell us every detail, but it does say this. He suffers severely. And it also says he often falls in the fire and often falls in the water.
Now, I thought about this because as a boy, I had epilepsy. I guess I still got it. I haven’t had a seizure since about age 17. I’m 47 now. I praise God for that. But I remember I had about seven or eight grand mal seizures as a young boy. And the first one was early in the morning right after my mother died when I was 13.
I had some mild seizures. My mom went to be with the Lord after a battle with breast cancer and I was 13 and I remember I got up early the next morning and I had basketball practice. I think the practice was around 6:00 a.m. And I remember getting up, “Dad, you didn’t wake me up. Dad, I’m going to be late. Dad, hurry. Give me the basketball.” He’s like, “I’m sorry. I thought you wouldn’t want to go since mom died.” I said, “I want to go.” And I was rushed and I was tired and I went to basketball and the next thing I remember is I was driving home with one of my best friend’s dad and I said, “What’s going on?” He said, “You had a seizure.” I was shooting free throws of basketball in front of all my friends. There was flickering lights in that gym that can sometimes trigger seizures. Doctors say I hadn’t got much sleep. I had a lot of stress. My mom had just died and I had my first seizure.
And you know, I had seven or eight from the time I was then to about 17 that were big ones. And I thought about this boy that’s described here and how he would often fall into the water and often fall into the fire. And I thought about the father and how scary that is for a parent when you can’t keep your kids safe and we have to just give it to the Lord.
But you know, when somebody has a seizure, not only is their body beyond their control, their mind, when they’re having a seizure, I don’t remember nothing. If I would have fallen in a fire or if I would have fallen in water, if no one got me out I would have died. If I was taken in water, I wouldn’t have known. If I was in a fire, I wouldn’t have known even though I was in a fire. I remember I would never wake up after them until maybe 20 minutes later. And then it would just be a moment and then I wake up hours later and I remember the pain I’d be in all day. I was tired. My head, my body, everything ached. And I thought about this boy.
The way this boy is described to me, I pictured someone that very likely—the Bible doesn’t tell us, but very likely he had numerous seizures a day. I don’t know that. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but the way he’s described that he suffers severely. This boy had some—he was probably having seizures often. It doesn’t say that. I just as I read this and as I read he often falls in the fire and often falls in the water. And then I think about this father—how hard that would be to see your child suffering and you don’t know how to help them.
But something causes them to say, “I need to go to the Lord.” Something causes them to say, “I got this problem that I can’t fix on my own. I need to give it to the Lord.”
Where Do You Take Your Problems?
What do you do when you have those problems in your life? Who do you go to? Where do you go to?
It might be with your child. It might be with your marriage. It might be with your finances. It might be with your work. Are you trying to—you know, a lot of times what we can do? A lot of times we try to figure it all out, don’t we? Which, hey, God gave us a mind. We need to use our mind. But oftentimes, have you ever been there where you got this problem, you got this struggle, you got this heavy, heavy thing that’s going on in your life, and there’s all kinds of things. There’s depression, there’s anxiety, there’s relational issues. And all too often we’ll go everywhere else but the Lord until if we ever go to the Lord at all. Have you ever been there?
Or you’ve either tried to go to all the doctors to figure it out but you never took it to Jesus. You ever been there? You got a health issue and you say I’m going—this doctor’s highly recommended—then I’m going right to him. And I’m not against medical. Medical saved my life. I’m not saying I’m against it. I’m just saying what about the Lord? What about the Great Physician? Or I got this other problem in my life. How often is our first reaction to cry out to him?
You know, I think one takeaway in this text I know I have is when we got a problem, don’t forget to take it to the Lord. This father had gone to the disciples. The disciples—God gave them, you know, as they prayed in the name of Jesus through the power of God, people were being healed. So I guess this father might have taken him to the disciples because he knew they were praying for people that were being healed by the name of Jesus. But he got to this point where he said I got to go to the Lord. When you have a problem, take it to the Lord.
When Faith Grows Weak
You know the Lord, he uses that phrase, “if you have faith as a mustard seed.” When I think about faith and I think about the disciples and how they’re lacking faith, do you ever have times that you struggle to have faith in the Lord? Do you ever have times where your faith is weak? I believe we probably all have. We’ve probably had those times where maybe there’s something that’s gone on in our lives a long time and maybe we need to give up hope. That maybe we just don’t have faith like we need to.
You know, I remember one time where I lost all hope. After I answered the call to preach, gave up my career, I was going to be a CEO, didn’t have a job, then the devil started to attack my mind. Listen, if you answer a call from God and you’re stepping out in faith, the enemy, I almost for certain is going to try to attack you. You know, Crystal answered a call recently, gave up her career, and there’s been days where it’s been hard. And one thing I remind her of is you’re stepping out in faith. The enemy is going to try to attack. Amen.
We do have an enemy. Amen. We don’t battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers. We have an enemy. The enemy is real. And when you’re stepping out in faith to glorify the name of Jesus, you better believe the enemy is going to try to attack God strongly. We got to fight back with prayer.
But I remember when I answered the call to preach two days after the enemy began to attack me. We talked about “do not worry” last Sunday where Jesus said do not worry. The enemy attacked me with worry, with anxiety to the point that my mind got consumed in worry where my mind got completely taken from. This was back in 2013. I never thought I could get better. That’s how I—every moment was black. There was no joy. There was no peace. My mind was just stuck in this state of worry. And truly, when I say I didn’t think it was possible, I had lost. I was in a deep darkness, a deep depression. Everything hurt. And I never thought I could be lifted out of it. But I praise God for my wife. She didn’t give up on me. God—she got me help. God used one little antidepressant to help me. Praise God. God can use meds. He can absolutely use meds. But I want to tell you this. I had given up hope. I thought there was no hope.
But you know with God, everything’s possible. Nothing is impossible with God. Have you ever had times in your life where maybe today even where you feel like you’ve just lost your faith that God can help your situation? I want to tell you anything is possible with God. And here we’re reminded in this text of the importance of having faith.
Because of Your Unbelief
But I want to go back to verse 17. Watch what the Lord says. He has this father come to him and the father says, “I went to the disciples, but they couldn’t heal.” Then watch what the Lord says in verse 17. And then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation.” There’s a lot of times in the Bible the Lord would say, “O ye of little faith” or “faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.” Talking about bring your son to me.
Verse 18. And Jesus rebuked the demon. Let’s watch this. We’ll have medical things going on that cause physical problems, but let’s not forget that sometimes they’re an attack from the enemy. If we believe the Bible is the word of God, this boy that was epileptic, he had a demon. That’s what the Bible says. It says then Jesus answered and it says and Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then watch what it says in verse 19. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” You know the disciples—God had given them they had gone and they had prayed over people and through God’s power, not theirs, through the power of God people had been healed. Miracles that happened. So they’re like, “Why could we not heal?” And Jesus said, “Because of your unbelief.”
This is a tough passage, but I want to remind him this is the word of God. Amen. This is the word of God. Jesus says, “Because of your unbelief.” You know, the disciples didn’t understand why the Lord could heal and they couldn’t. The first thought I had is guys, he’s the Lord and you’re not. You know, like that is Jesus. But I suppose they were wondering because they had seen God do miracles with other people they prayed over in Jesus’ name. But the Lord tells them it was because of their unbelief because their faith wasn’t strong.
Faith as a Mustard Seed
You know then he goes on to say if you have faith as a mustard seed you can say this mountain move and it’ll be moved. And you know as I read that passage, as we read it, one reminder I had is when we have genuine faith in the Lord, genuine faith, true faith, anything is possible with God. There is nothing that is impossible with God.
The Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it’ll move and nothing will be impossible for you.” Faith as a mustard seed. You know, I don’t know that the mustard seed is the very, very tiniest seed, but it’s one of the tiniest. And to the average person that knew plants and so forth, this would have been the plant that they knew. And then it was a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny seed. And the Lord, he gives this example of if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say this mountain move and it’ll move. In other words, the Lord is saying if you have just a tiny bit of complete faith in God. It’s not about our faith. It’s not about us. It’s about God and God’s power. And if you have genuine complete faith in God, anything is possible.
How Is Your Faith?
How are you doing in your life with your faith in God? Obviously, there’s a side of have you accepted Jesus? That’s first. And is your faith rock solid? Do you know that you know you know if you were to die today, are you confident you’re saved? There’s no other way to heaven. There’s only one way to heaven. There’s only one true God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” There’s one way to heaven. One way through faith in Jesus.
Sometimes I’ll ask somebody, people I care about, “Have you believed in Jesus?” Sometimes they say, “Yeah.” But then they’ll say, “Well, you believe in this God.” That’s not true. There’s only one way to heaven. Jesus is the only way. Jesus came down from heaven. Jesus suffered for our sins. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus hung on that cross and he suffered for you and he died for me. He was the one and only sinless perfect sacrifice that can be made to be forgiven of sins. And that’s pretty incredible that we can be forgiven of sins because we are sinful. We are like filthy rags. But we can be when we believe in Jesus.
How is your faith first? Are you rooted in your faith in Christ? We got to know that we’re saved. And if you don’t know, I pray you would make that decision where you’re confident, confident that you’re giving your life to Jesus.
Then as believers, how is your faith? And when you pray, are you praying with faith or are you praying doubting? You know, James 1:6 says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.” How is your faith in God? Do you ever struggle with faith? Do you have faith in God?
When You See Faith in Others
You know, have you—do you remember times you’ve seen somebody have a strong faith in God? Do you remember times maybe you’ve seen somebody praying or heard about someone praying, maybe yourself, and there was just a really—they had faith in God. Faith in what God was telling them. I mean guys, we’re seeing between Scott and between Crystal. We’re seeing faith in God in front of us. Scott, the easy thing he want to do is just keep playing, but he just had this thought. He doesn’t know the future. Crystal, the easy thing would keep getting a full-time job and don’t open a school that there’s no income for. There’s no kids for. But it’s if you have faith.
What about you—remember a time you’ve seen somebody with faith? I was blessed. Pastor Clayton, who used to be the interim here, and about 10 years ago I came as pastor, but he was the one that was here before me. He invited me out to preach revival Tuesday night in Bolivia. A few of y’all came. That was a blessing. But there was a woman that came to an invitation. And she came to Pastor Clayton and I sharing things, but as she was coming, she was praying. She wasn’t so much having a conversation as more she was coming up pleading her heart to God in front of Pastor Clayton. And man, I watched this woman pray. I felt the presence of God. It’s like I felt her faith in God come up. She was pleading to God for her children. And I’m going to tell you, in that little country church out in Bolivia, God was moving. God was there. People were coming to the altar. The presence of God was moving. And this lady when she was praying, I saw a lady broken. I think about this guy coming to the Lord. “Lord, have mercy on my son. He’s suffering. He’s an epileptic.” And this lady, the way that she came forward, the way she was pleading with God while sharing with us, I thought to myself, that woman has faith. She’s praying. She’s crying out. And I can feel her faith in God. And I thought to myself, I believe the Lord’s going to help with this situation for her child because of her faith.
I don’t know if God’s going to answer a prayer with this or that, but I know over and over in the Bible, and right here’s one of them. He says you got to have faith. It’s that old ’80s song—you got to have faith. You got to have faith. Faith in God. I’m not saying it’s like that. You got to have true faith in God.
I remember one of Crystal’s friends that she went to high school with years back. Her daughter is probably in her 20s now, but years back her daughter was a young girl and she was with another relative who was a young kid. It was a complete tragic accident where a gun went off accidentally and this girl was shot and she was rushed in an ambulance. And what I remember—Crystal—I’m kind of, it’s kind of a little fuzzy but I remember I think we went and this young lady was a good friend of Crystal’s was covered in her daughter’s blood. She was there in the hospital just covered, didn’t even think about any of that. She was thinking about her daughter and Crystal was like it was like a prayer meeting in that hospital and it was a prayer meeting with faith. They were crying out to God and they were believing God was going to heal that girl. God healed that girl. She was shot. They didn’t know what was going to happen. It was desperate times. All you know to do is call on the Lord. And she’s a beautiful young lady now.
But there’s something about when we have faith that God can work in ways that we don’t even think is possible. You know, and if you don’t think having faith in God and the power of God to heal can help, go back and read what the Lord said to blind Bartimaeus. Go back and read what the Lord said to the woman who had the issue of blood for 18 years. Go back and read what the Lord said to the ten lepers when the one leper came back and praised him. What did he say to them? “Your faith has made you well.” Many places in the New Testament the Lord told people that. He said your faith in him—nothing about you. It’s faith in the Lord. Your faith has made you well. When we have genuine faith, if God chooses, he can do it.
Keep Praying with Faith
How is your faith in God? I tell you, I just want to say this and kind of close up with this. And I think about this last verse in this passage with this as well. And I think about the entire passage just a challenge to me, a challenge to us as believers. Keep on praying and praying with faith to our mighty God. Keep praying in faith to the one true God. And listen, even if the answer is no, keep having faith in God. If it’s God’s plan, God can do anything, even what we think is impossible.
And sometimes we’ll pray and we want something, but it’s not God’s time. God knows best. God’s got a plan for all things. You know, my father died when I was 27. He was shuffling. He said he couldn’t run anymore because he was getting older. He was shuffling. I was on the shores of Carolina Beach and he had a massive heart attack and I was rocked, man. It rocked me because I love him. He’s my best friend. He was a spiritual leader. But you know what? God used that. Three days later, I gave my life to Jesus. So now I’m right with God. I’m saved and I’m going to go to heaven and I believe God. I’m going to see my dad who loved Jesus and had a relationship with Jesus.
Sometimes we don’t understand when something we want doesn’t happen. But don’t let that cause you to lose your faith in God. God has a plan for all things. But let me also say this. When there’s a situation or a problem in your life and you haven’t gotten a no, don’t give up faith in God. God can do anything. With God, there is nothing too big for God. And I think we ought to ask ourselves when I’m praying, am I praying believing? The disciples, it’s not that they didn’t have faith. They had some—they had a weak moment. The Lord said it’s because of your unbelief. We all have had weak moments with our faith.
But I think a takeaway is keep praying and keep praying with faith.
This Kind Does Not Go Out Except by Prayer and Fasting
That last verse the Lord says to the disciples, it’s because of your unbelief. Then watch what the Lord says. “However, this kind”—verse 21—“does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
I read that and part of what I read is there’s times to just keep on in prayer. There’s times of like fasting. You know, when we fast and we’re truly fasting for the right reasons, not to lose weight. We’re fasting to draw closer to God and rely on God. It can help cause us to have greater faith in God. And when we’re continuing on in prayer, you know that idea of continuing on in prayer, God can do anything. Jesus said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” You get this feeling of him saying there’s value in—you think about the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That word fervent. When I hear that, I think about like passionate. I think about it’s not just I’m not thinking about my brain. I’m crying out. I’m pleading with God. This man that came to the Lord, he was pleading with the Lord. He said, “Lord, have mercy.” And I believe he had faith that God could heal. It’s a great reminder to us. We got a problem. Take it to the Lord. When we got a problem that we pray and when we pray we pray believing.
Physical and Spiritual
Again I’ll go back to verse 18 and Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. That reminder that when we’re sick it’s not always only physical. It can also be spiritual. When I got sick in darkness it was a spiritual attack. It caused a physical problem in my body. But when God healed me, I was healed. So remember that when we understand problems and situations of life, even relational issues can be spiritual. They often are. You know, the enemy wants to divide families. The enemy wants to divide churches. We got to pray. And if it’s a spiritual issue, you got to fight back with the word of God and fight back with prayer. And we got to pray with faith.
I hope we’re reminded to keep praying. Take the problems we got when we got them. Remember to take them to the Lord. And when we take them to the Lord, call out to the Lord, plead with the Lord, and have faith that if God chooses to heal, if God chooses to help, that we give God every bit of the praise.
The way Jay today, he’s got a long testimony. The way he summed it up by saying, “Let me just say I’m here because of the Lord,” because this man almost died multiple times, but God still—God can still do miracles. Amen. And when he does, give him every bit of the praise.
And this idea of faith as a mustard seed. I don’t know what’s going on with Scott. I know Tony and Christina here in the homeless ministry. I know they’re in the midst of possibly finding a building, looking for a building. I don’t know all the details. And when we take it to the Lord in prayer and we have faith, anything’s possible. You know, I know things that are going on in other people’s lives. Are you calling out in faith?
And again, faith as a mustard seed—just even a little ounce of complete faith in the Lord, God can do anything.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray.
Lord, we love you. We just thank you and praise you for this day. I thank you for this reminder about the importance of faith. Faith in you, Jesus. Not faith in some false gods, faith in the one true God. God, I just pray you help me, help us as a people to grow in our faith. That when we pray, we pray believing. “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.”
God, I know this. When you choose to and it’s your plan and according to your will, you can do things that we think are not possible. I pray everybody here today is encouraged by that reminder that we’re encouraged and challenged to be a people of great faith in you, God. And God, I pray if there’s somebody here today in need of salvation, in need of complete placing their complete faith and trust in you, Jesus, as Lord and Savior, pray today would be the day that they do it.
Lord, we love you. It’s in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, we pray. Amen.
