I want to read from two passages
of Scripture in the book of Matthew. Two stories of faith. And I want to talk to you about
little faith and great faith. Matthew chapter 14. beginning
with verse 23. And when he had sent the multitudes
away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening
was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And
in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking
on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him
walking on the sea, they were troubled. Let me just say this
to you. When Jesus comes, you don't have
to be troubled. They were troubled, saying, It
is a spirit. It's a ghost. And they cried
out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid." And
Peter, of course, answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou,
bid me come unto Thee on the water. And Jesus said, Come. And when
Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on water. to go to Jesus. But when he saw
the wind ostrous, he was afraid and began to sink. He cried,
saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth His hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were
come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in
the ship came and worshipped Him, saying of a truth, Thou
art the Son of God." Now, you just have to turn basically maybe
one page over. And we're going to Matthew 15.
Let's go to verse 21. 15-21, Then Jesus, went thence, and departed in
the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her, Not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it
is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord." Profound
theology here. found. Truth, Lord, You call
me a dog and a dog is what I am. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour." A little faith. and great faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For by grace, you're saved through
faith. And that faith is not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. It's by faith for this purpose,
so we won't flaunt ourselves, so we won't Take the credit. It's by faith you have to trust. Trust. Believe. That's why Gideon's
army was cut down like we talked about. Three hundred, yes, lapping
the water. Three hundred men. If God saves
you, it'll be by faith. He'll do it through faith. Now, let's talk about this faith
just a little bit. Between the very lowest degree
of faith – hear me now – the lowest degree of faith, between
that and a state of unbelief, there is a great gulf. I just want that to sink in. You know, I just have little
faith. I just have a little faith. I don't know whether I'm really
going to make it or not. Just remember this. Between little
faith and no faith, there's a great gulf. Here's what I mean. There is an abyss immeasurable
that yawns between the man who has even the smallest faith in
Christ and the man who has none. I want this to sink in. You see, the man who has little
faith is a living man. No, he has evil faith. No, he
has weak faith. The other is dead in trespasses
and sins. The one is a justified man. Though he has little faith. I
don't know Genesis from Revolutions. You know, I just came off the
street and I trusted Christ and my little faith. Oh, there's
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Your faith
may be little today. I want to encourage you as well
as maybe reprimand you a little bit for little faith. Little
faith is a good thing when you consider having no faith. You
see, the man who has trusted Christ or woman who has trusted
Christ will go home today justified before God. There's no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. You have been declared not guilty. Not today, not tomorrow, not
forever. You trusted Christ. You leaned
heavily on Christ. It was Christ alone. There is
a big difference between you and the man who says, I will
not have this man to rule over me. He will not be my Lord and
my Savior. And I think that whole gospel
message is phony and untrue. You see, those of you here today,
without any faith, you're condemned already. He that believeth not
on the Lord Jesus Christ is condemned already. You are sitting here
today without faith. You are condemned already because
God has told you over and over again, believe on My boy, trust
My Son in whom I am well pleased, and you have not. At the same
time, you who have little faith are marching to Zion. You're
heaven-bound. Your destiny is sure. Hell will
never be yours. Little faith. Those of you with
little faith are on the same road with those who have strong
faith. You're just lagging behind. Come
on! Come on! Come on! But you're headed toward
the same heaven, trusting the same Christ, and hell will never
be yours. All believers on the road to
heaven, there may be a great distance between you and strong
faith or great faith, but you're on the right road. It's the King's
highway. And there is no gulf between
you and the Lord, though there may be some distance. Oh, today
I wish that I could help you with weak faith. I want you to
catch up the rest of the family. It's not good to be lagging behind. This church must be a church
of great faith. Because without it, we can't
please God. And not pleasing God means no
blessings. Without trust in God has shut
us up to this thing of faith. Weak faith is often found where
you're least expected. I just read to you that the Catholic
Church claims Peter as their Pope. And I don't want to hurt
you too bad, but I wouldn't have voted for Peter to be Pope. I would have voted for John or
somebody like that. Peter was a loud mouth. Always
talking. Always boasting. Oh, they all
may forsake you, but I'll never forsake you. So here's a preacher,
right? Preacher Simon Peter. And the
Lord comes in the storm to the boat. And the preacher says,
Lord, if it's really You... Now that's great faith when you
start off with if. Little faith. Little faith always
starts off with, I'm not real sure if that's really You. This was a man who was taught
by God. God in human flesh. This is a man who had deep experiences
with Christ. This is a man who had just walked
on water. You would think, I don't know
how many steps he took, but the first one was a miracle. I mean,
when he got out of the boat and didn't sink, it looked like it
would have had some effect on him. So those of you of little
faith, you've experienced a miracle. Stop the ifs. and start walking
on water. People of faith walk on water.
They do. They do. Little faith is far
too eager for signs. See, what Simon said is, if it's
really you, let me walk on water. He got out of the boat and began
to walk. And then before you knew it, he forgot the sign that
he asked for that he got. I'd be careful about asking for
signs. You say, well, Gideon asked for signs. You told us
last week. Yeah, but that doesn't mean Gideon was right. You know,
God can give you a sign or not give you a sign. What God says,
trust Me. Is that right? God doesn't promise
to send you a sign, so you will trust Him. The Bible says when
the Lord fed the 5,000 with loaves and fishes, they followed Him
because of the loaves and fishes. Faith embraces him as Lord and
Savior, not for loaves and fishes. The Lord may give you a sign,
but I don't think people of strong faith really seek signs. They
just trust God. Old Brother Joe, man, he went
through a hell on earth. Everything was gone. Everything
was gone. His riches, his kids, even the
love of his life said, curse God and die, old man. You stink. You have these boiling sores.
You are oozing with goo. Curse God and die. And he said,
I know my Redeemer liveth. And though the skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. I shall see God for
myself and not another. Strong faith. That is why I am
always asking God to increase my faith. I don't want to walk
on water. I want to run. I want men around
here, I want this city to stop and look and say, God has done
great things for them. I want the heathen to say that.
So watch the sign stuff. God doesn't have to give you
a sign. Amen? Watch that being eager for signs.
If thou, if thou, that's what Simon Peter said. Weak faith
is apt to have too high an opinion of its own power. Be careful
that you fall in love with faith instead of Christ. And you start
saying stupid stuff. I can do anything. You can't
do doodly squat. Jesus said, without me you can
do nothing. No man, listen, no man can have
a too low opinion of his power. Did you hear what I said? No
man can have too low an opinion of his power. Without Him, I'm
like a ship without a sail. Without Him, I'm like a car without
an engine. Without Him, I can do nothing. Watch, watch talking about yourself
and about your great faith. I see preachers on television
all the time that are talking about Their faith, their power. Let your opinion of yourself
be, you are a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ
is your all in all. And He will take a sorry no good
for nothing like you, give you gifts and abilities and set you
on fire. And we'll all watch you burn
and say, praise God. Don't get to thinking too much
of yourself. I'm a man of faith. Little faith. Weak faith is apt
to have too high an opinion of its own self. So mark that down.
Weak faith is too much affected by its own surroundings. Weak
faith. Have you ever seen anybody that
seemed to have this gigantic faith? I mean, they were just
faith, faith, faith. zapping people and all kinds
of things. And then the storm came. Then
the wind began to blow. Then the waves got big. The waves of life. When the happenings
start happening, sometimes people's faith is not what we think it
is. You know where I want faith?
I want it when they're raiding the mission. I want it. I had lunch with the judge who
threatened to put me in jail 11 years ago with regard to the
raid. I had lunch with him this week. Oh, that was great. He didn't say anything about
it, and I didn't either, but he sure wondered why I sat there
and ate lunch like this. By the way, weak faith always builds up or exaggerates the
danger. Weak faith. I think we're going
down. I don't think this is going to
work. You know, we're not even halfway
through where we're headed here because we're a little over half
having the money we need to totally renovate do that building over
there. Still need about $480,000 to
get that done. And then we're going to need
$2-3 million here. Isn't it great? Isn't it exciting to know that
it's going to take all of that and God's going to provide it? I don't know about that preacher.
I don't know about that preacher. You don't know how many times
in 50 years some deacon or somebody has said, I don't know about
that preacher. Yeah. Your roots need to go deep
when the wind's blowing for your trust in God. Because haps, H-A-P,
will happen. And when the haps... My faith
is not built on haps happening. I mean, I've been waiting 15
years for this, for Clutch Cargo. 15 years. And people said all
kinds of things. Build a new building. Listen,
I don't think God would have got half as much glory if we'd
have built a new building. We're going in there and we tore
the bars out. We're moving in on Satan's territory. Great is our God. And, you know,
weak faith speaks unreasonable. Faith is spiritual common sense. And many times people say, you
know, sometimes he just doesn't make any sense. Faith is just
spiritual common sense. And my common sense tells me
this, that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above
all that we ask for things. Either I believe it or I don't.
It makes sense to me. Now, real quick, I want to talk
about great faith. Great faith. I love the story
of this woman. Now, remember Simon the Pope
versus the Syrophoenician woman. Some of us need to learn this
lesson in here. Don't get to thinking you're
Mr. Spiritual. Maybe God will test
your faith. Well, let's see. Wind blow. Sickness come. Or whatever it
is. Let's see if you bend like the
palm tree. Or you blow over. I love this
Syrophoenician story. Faith. True faith. Strong faith. It begins and ends
with Jesus. That's true faith. This woman
would not leave Him alone. Even the disciples said, Lord,
she's a nag. She is bothering us. She is bugging
us. Send her away. Now, what would you think Some
of the folks here got up in church and said, oh, I see Sue and Johnny's
here. You know what? You don't belong
here. That would probably hurt somebody's
feelings. I wonder, it didn't seem to bother
her too much. And then on top of that, Jesus
finally turned to her and said, it's not right to give the children's
bread to a dog like you. Now that would be discouraging.
Jesus ever called you a dog? I'll tell you one thing He calls
you if you're saved. He said you're a sinner. He just
flat out tells you. You're a sinner. Now if that
offends you, but notice it didn't stop this woman. She said, but
Lord, the puppy dogs under the table eat crumbs. I'm not asking for a big slice
of bread. I'm not even worthy. Give me
the crumbs that fall from the Master's table. That's the way
you come to Christ. A crumb seeker. Believing that
if He gives you just the smallest crumb, you're going to say, Hallelujah! You're going to say, Thank you,
Lord! You know, many times great faith
is found where we least expect it. Just like weak faith. See, I know some of you in here,
and a lot of you I don't know. I mean, I maybe recognize your
face, but I really don't know you like I know Dwayne and the
men of grace and just some of you. Do you know that there probably
is in this church... Now remember, Simon was a preacher,
right? He'd walked with God and been
with God. But this Syrophoenician woman? This is the first time
we hear from her or find her in Scriptures. There's somebody
out here probably today that's strong faith. And we don't know. That's okay. It's not ours to
know, right? But we must never forget. Isn't
it great when you meet someone and you go away and you say like
this to someone, man, I've done this with Miss Pam. I've said
things like this. I know one thing. She's a believer. Because I sensed the strong faith
that was there. That's right. It's not a Bible-thumping
theologian that has strong faith. This is a Syrophoenician woman.
She's a Gentile. She's a dog. And the Jews don't
want to have anything to do with her. She kept nipping at the
heels of Jesus. Found where we least expect it.
And great faith sees light in the thickest darkness. Her daughter
was sick. It was dark. What a light strong
faith brings. I see the light. I see the dawning
of a new day. Great faith prays and great faith
always prevails because Great faith never gives up. Go away,
dog! That would have been enough for
me. I'm just self-righteous enough. You call me a dog, I'm out of
here. To hear this from the Master.
And here's what He said to her. I've never seen such faith. Great
is thy faith. Great is thy faith. You know
what Jesus said? You know, dog woman, you wanted your daughter to be
cured. She's whole. So be it unto you according to
your faith. Your daughter is presently healed.
You think about that. It's a done thing. Wait a minute,
you didn't go to her house. Wait a minute, you didn't touch
her. Wait a minute, you didn't... Have you ever thought about this?
How the faith that God gives us affects other people? I guarantee
you this, without pastoral faith, there won't be a church of faith.
Because my faith affects you. Can you imagine this? This is
what I think I said this Wednesday night. Somebody said, well, you're
building a pretty good sized congregation over there. I'm
not. The congregation builds the congregation. How so? You
go out and tell somebody, you should have been there Sunday
morning. I'm telling you, God showed up.
People got saved and delivered from drug addiction. It was the
most wonderful thing I've ever seen. And I guarantee you, even
those with weak faith, they'll say, I'm going to leave Uckvidee
Muck Church and I'm going to come over and sit with the former
prostitutes and drug addicts and self-righteous folks because
I'm hungry for the Word of God. The match that lights a fire.
Somebody's watching you. Somebody out there really wants
to know that this works. You do know that there's lost
people all around you. All around you. And they're not
so much interested in your Bible-thumping quotes, or your do's and don'ts. Let me see Jesus in you. Let me see Jesus in you. Strong
faith. But I want you to go home thinking
this, you know, I never thought about that. Weak faith? I don't want to have weak faith.
I'm going to seek the Lord for more faith. More faith to believe
Him. More faith to trust Him. Some
of you haven't even got out of the boat. At least Peter got
out of the boat. I don't know where the rest of
the disciples were. I do know when they got to land,
they worshipped Jesus. I'm telling you, it's fun being
out of the boat. As long as you don't start looking
at the waves. Because the waves and the winds
will be there. I remember that Old Testament
story. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
The old king couldn't break the law, so he threw them in the
fiery furnace. God didn't keep them out of the fiery furnace.
And that fiery furnace had been heated up seven times hotter
than it had ever been before. Threw those three boys in there.
And when the king opened it up and looked inside, there was
four in the fiery furnace. Is that right? There was four
in there. It's alright. Get out of the
boat. and start walking and keep your eyes on Jesus. When the
wind blows, remember, He's able to say, Peace! Be still! And the waves and the billows
lay down at His feet like a puppy dog. My God is able to do that. More faith. Lord, I believe.
Help my unbelief. I promise you that there are
great things ahead. I know that. Because great is
our God. Let's make a compact together
here. That we don't assemble ourselves
together at any time, whether it's Wednesday or Sundays, unless
somebody gets saved. I'm going to say it again. By
the way, Mom, Dad, your faith may be used of God to save your
kids. It did this one. This mother's child was saved
physically. Our faith, our kids watch us.
They may not believe so much in God because you really don't
show them. Amen? The book of James says,
faith without works is dead. My faith is a working faith.
Tonight, I will be speaking at the Nazarene Church in Madison
Heights somewhere. I don't know exactly where it
is yet, but I will find out at 5.30. I'm excited. I'm going
to meet new people. I've never been there before.
Last night was our banquet. We had something Friday night.
I do get tired, but I'm telling you, these are the most exciting
days of my life. But I'm going to tell you what
will make them more exciting. When you, way back there in the
back, been a drug addict for 15, 20 years, you come crawling
down this aisle saying, my faith is built on nothing less than
Jesus' blood and righteousness. Jessica's testimony last night
was out of this world in giving God glory. Even though she called me a rebel.
It was a God-honoring... I sat there so proud. I'm that
girl's pastor. She came to know Christ here.
If you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I promise you on
the Word of God, you shall be saved. And if you do, I want
you to upchuck it. I'm going to start calling on
folks. Okay, now, coming down front doesn't save you. Getting
down here at the altar doesn't save you. Getting down on your
knees does. Jesus saves us. If you go by faith to Calvary,
you see Him wounded and bleeding for you, and you trust Him, thou
shalt be saved. And then I want you to come,
and by coming, just say, I want the world to know, and I'm not
ashamed of it, I'm a mess, but today I trusted Christ. I trusted Christ. I want you
to do that. And every service, I'm going
to start saying that. I said, well, pastor, you haven't
done that for 30 some years. I know. Time wasn't right. I'm trying to quit. Let me get
down here. You know, I used to raise a garden, but tomatoes,
I like fried green tomatoes, but for the most part, I didn't
pick tomatoes until they got really juicy red. Really juicy
red. And for years now, I've been
laying a foundation. Some of you are green. You haven't
seen quite yet that you're wicked. You haven't seen the mess yet.
But I've been preaching 30 some years here, 34, 35. It's about time you're getting
it. And I noticed today more hands went up in praise when
we were singing at the cross. You know, we're getting to a
point where we kind of want to express our praise. May deep
conviction of sin fall on this place. And may folks come running
down this aisle confessing faith in Christ. We want to know for
sure you've trusted Christ. And we want to get to know you
better and gooder. We want to be part of your family. We want to love you and you love
us. You find something to belong to. All right, let's stand together
and sing.