Can Faith Move Mountains?
David Way · Tidal Church Moncton · August 7, 2023 · Twisted Scriptures series
David Way looks at Matthew 17 and the mustard seed saying, showing that Jesus is not teaching a name-it-and-claim-it formula. Faith does not need to be big, because the power is in God. Miracles fit His will, bring Him glory, and He meets our needs.
More from David Way · The Twisted Scriptures series
Topics: Faith, Prayer, Suffering
Transcript
[0:00] Well, good morning. Good morning. You're looking good. Now, you may wonder, why is he all dressed up? Because the other wonderful pastors and teachers, when they're up here, they're quite casual. Well, the deal is that I, I grew up in an environment where people were really responsive to the preaching because the preaching was very demonstrative. And quite often when the pastor would get really excited and was really wanting to make a point, of course, they always had a suit on. He would take his suit jacket off and throw it across the platform.
[0:46] So I thought I would have that option this morning. Maybe I won't. See the other guys, they can't do that. You know, if you just, if you just have a T-shirt on, it's not going to work. This morning we're beginning to share a series on Twisted Scriptures. And I don't know why the team decided that I should kick this off. I think it's because I've probably over the last six decades, probably twisted the scriptures more than anybody else. But we quite often do that.
[1:34] And really, quite often we do it for our own benefit. We want the scripture to say what we want it to say for our benefit. And really, we need to hear what God wants us to hear from His perspective. And so as we begin this series, I have to give you a warning that maybe some of the ideas that you have may be tested by the scripture. Maybe some of the things that you have thought, wow, you know, this is the way it is, this is what God's word teaches. You know, you may even get a little offended, but hang on, because at the end we're going to see Jesus. Amen.
[2:25] At the end, it's all about Him. It's not about what we think or what our ideas we have. Ultimately, it's about Jesus. And I want you to know that if He doesn't come and touch your life and heal your body and set you free and give you victory, then it ain't happening. You won't find it in yourself. You won't find it in the world. It's only in Jesus. So keep that in mind. I want to read from Matthew chapter 17.
[3:11] And basically what we're going to look at this morning is, can our faith, can your faith move mountains? You might be surprised at the answer. After six days. This is Matthew 17, beginning at verse 1. After six days, Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John. And if you want to know why He took Peter, James and John only, come and see me sometime, I'll be happy to tell you what I think. Why I think Jesus took them and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
[3:58] And there He was transfigured, or transformed, before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. And if you want to know my theory on why it was Moses and Elijah, come and see me sometime. While He was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is My Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased. And I want you to get this phrase. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. When the disciples heard this, they fell down, face down on the ground, terrified. And you would be too.
[4:52] Get up, He said. Don't be afraid. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, Don't tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. The disciples asked Him, Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first? Jesus replied, To be sure, Elijah comes first and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.
[5:39] Then the disciples understood that He was talking to them about John the Baptist. When they came to the crowd, now they're down in the valley. Okay? When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before Him and said, Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures. He is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not heal him. Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here. Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, Why couldn't we drive it out? He replied, Because you have so little faith.
[6:32] I tell you the truth, if you have faith, not as big, but as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing shall be impossible for you. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You've allowed us to be in this place at this time. And God, there are people here this morning who need to hear this message. There are people here who are broken and needy, and unless You come into their circumstance, unless You invade their space, God, they will leave here as empty and as frustrated as when they came.
[7:30] And so, Holy Spirit, would You take every word? Would You take every thought? And would You resonate in every spirit this morning in a very special way? And we give You the honor and the glory, because it's never about us. It's always about You. We ask this in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, amen. Amen. We have somebody over here that's really in tune. Well, it says here in the scripture that if you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, be removed, and it will be cast into the sea. A mustard seed, that's a mustard seed. Pretty small.
[8:39] So here's the twist. We're talking about twisted scriptures. Here's the twist. If I have big enough faith, I can have anything I can believe for. And sorry to say, I, I think I've preached that once or twice in my day. If I have big enough faith, I can have anything I believe for. Now, there's alternate names for this theory or this theology. Some call it, name it and claim it. Some say, believe it and receive it.
[9:25] And if you wanted to really get crass, some people say, blab it and grab it. In other words, if you have enough faith, if you have enough faith, you can believe God for anything that you want. Let me say categorically right now, that the Bible does not teach that. Ladies and gentlemen, God is not your heavenly Santa Claus. He's not your divine vending machine. You know, where if you have the right formula, you can just press a button and you have it. That's not how it works.
[10:19] When I was a young preacher, I started off when I was 19, if you want to know how old I am, that was 60 years ago. Do the math. Okay? 19 years of age. I knew all the answers. And, one day I, you know, I had been wearing glasses since I was 14, and I got it in my heart that if I believed God, you know, that He could heal my eyes and I wouldn't need glasses. So in a moment of great faith, believing God that my eyes are healed, I took off my glasses and I threw them in the wood stove, left the cover off for a moment to see them all melt and disintegrate in the fire. Next morning when I woke up, man, I couldn't see very well.
[11:19] And I had another problem, because my driver's license said, must wear corrective lenses. So guess what? I was averaging $17 and 50 cents a week salary. It wasn't salaries. Whatever came in the offering Sunday morning. And that's what worked out. The $17.50 Sunday night service paid for the light bill and the oil bill. So at $17 and 50 cents, I had to go and buy another pair of glasses. And I learned then that God wasn't my heavenly vending machine. And guess what? I'm still wearing glasses.
[12:05] But you know what I've learned? And we're going to get to this in a few moments, that these glasses are a gift from God. I see a lot of you wearing glasses. Don't throw them away. You may need them tomorrow. Okay? So why is it then that we, you know, we have this scripture that says, you can, if you have a little faith, you can move mountains. You know, you can see people. Why aren't more people being healed? Why don't we see more miracles in reality? What Jesus was saying here, it's not how much faith you have, it's not about the amount of faith you have, but the amount of God that's in the situation.
[12:59] Because you can have all the faith in the world, but unless God comes, unless He touches you, it doesn't matter. You see, Jesus said it's about small faith, but a big God. You don't need much faith, but you need God. In fact, Mark 11:22 says, have faith in, not in faith, but faith in God. You see, there's no power in faith itself. It's the object of your faith that holds the power or the capacity to meet your needs. In other words, for example, you can have faith in your bank.
[13:51] That's a little iffy nowadays. But you know, you can believe in your bank. You can have faith in your bank. But guess what? If we make appeal, a big appeal here for some missions project, and you decide to write a check for a million dollars, but you only have $56 and 24 cents in your account, guess what you see? Sometimes our faith is misplaced. You can have faith in yourself. I know people that believe, you know, that they have the power within. There's a lot of New Agey stuff out there. You know, where, where I have it within myself. Let me tell you.
[14:38] The word of God says that there's no good thing that lives within you and your heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it? So if you only have faith in yourself, you're not going to get very far, baby. It was Jesus who said, all power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. We need to understand that unless Jesus comes and touches us, nothing will happen. So let's go back up to the mountain. 'Cause we've been down in the valley and things were a little rough down there, but Jesus was there. He's always with us. He's in your valley. But let's go up to the mountain for a moment and see what God said.
[15:25] God said, He's speaking to Peter, James and John, obviously, but He's speaking to us this morning. He said, this is My beloved Son. This is Jesus. He said, listen to Him. Listen to Him. Okay, we need to listen to Jesus, and we're going to see what He says about this situation. Now, according to Jesus, and according to the scriptural history, the records that we have, particularly in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts, we see that there are basically three criteria or conditions or environments for miracles to take place.
[16:21] Number one, I don't care how much faith you have or how little faith you have, it must conform to the will and purpose of God. Amen. And if you don't believe me, read the Lord's Prayer again. And you all know it before there's any petition, before there's any request for any needs that you have in your life. It says, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When I was a young preacher, I was told and taught that if I was praying for somebody, and I preface the prayer by saying, God, if it's Your will, that was a lack of faith, man, there's nothing stronger in your faith than to be able to say, God, Your will be done. God, You take control. God, You are the one, the only one who can meet my need.
[17:34] And so it's Your will and Your purpose. I have to conform to that. And so before we ask for anything, we must acknowledge that it is God's will and purpose to be done in our lives. Just going back to the faith, the mustard seed faith that moves the mountain. What was Jesus really saying there? Was He saying that you could have anything that you wanted? If without faith, you know, it's impossible to please God, we know that, but if I have faith, I can just press the button and it's going to happen. Is that what He was saying? There are three possibilities in this scripture. Number one, it could be literal.
[18:26] Jesus was saying that, you know, even if you have a little small faith like this mustard seed, you can move mountains. Well, it's been over 2000 years since Jesus said that, and not one mountain has moved. So I guess none of us have any faith. If He meant that literally, surely somebody would've went over to the base of Mount Everest and said, be removed into the sea. But it hasn't happened. So maybe it wasn't literal. Maybe what Jesus was saying is that we all have mountains in our lives. We all have issues, we all have struggles.
[19:11] We all have seen things that we feel are impossible to get through. And maybe He was talking about those mountains, I don't know, but maybe He was talking about this mountain over here that the disciples were struggling with, a demon-possessed boy who needed to have a miracle. Maybe He was talking about that mountain, I'm not sure. But in any case, whatever the situation, it must conform to God's will and purpose. Secondly, it has to bring honor and glory to God. Many times when Jesus performed the miracle, He would say, this was done so that you might see and know the glory of God.
[20:11] You might understand the power of God. In fact, even in the Lord's Prayer, how does it end? It says, for Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. So anytime that God intervenes, anytime that God performs a miracle, it must bring glory and honor to His name, not to us. Several years ago, I went to Halifax to see an internationally famous preacher who was purported to have a healing ministry. And we're at the Scotiabank Centre, probably about 15,000 people there.
[21:01] And the MC of the day, the afternoon, came out on the platform and he said, ladies and gentlemen, the healer is in the house today. And then he paused. And about that time I was ready to leave and get outta there. I thought, this guy, is this what he's saying? You know, this man is the healer. But then after an appropriate pause, he said, Jesus of Nazareth is here. Jesus of Nazareth is here, and whatever we do, it must bring glory and honor to His name. Whatever happens. And so it's important for us to understand that when God intervenes in His life, in our lives in a miraculous way, it's important to honor Him, realize that it's nothing in ourselves.
[21:56] I have prayed for hundreds of people over the years of my ministry, and I have not healed one person. You see, unless the Spirit of God comes and touches somebody, they're not gonna be healed. So understand that it's not about us. It's never been about us. It's all about Him. And so He must receive the glory. Second, thirdly, in the Book of Acts and in our present time, it does seem like miracles happen more frequently when we are pushing back territory, the territory of darkness, the kingdom of darkness, when we're going into new places to expand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[22:48] It seems as though God wants to confirm His word with signs following. And the song that we sang about going to the ends of the earth is so true. And you know, when I pastored in Zambia, I started, planted a church in Zambia back in the seventies. I think during that three and a half years, I saw God move in miraculous ways more than all the rest of my years of ministry, preaching among the converted, as it were. So God does perform miracles in the extension of His kingdom in a powerful, dramatic way. And so if you wanna see miracles, you reach out to other people that haven't heard the gospel, reach out to other people who are hungry and thirsting after God.
[23:42] And you will see God's power demonstrated in that way. It was so in the Book of Acts, it was so through the Gospels. It's been demonstrated over the years with those who have gone into dark places reaching the lost for Jesus. And God always confirms His word with signs following. So what is a miracle? Well, a secular definition of a miracle is that it's a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws, and is therefore considered to be a work of divine agency. In other words, something that cannot be explained by any natural means.
[24:32] And we know that God is still in the miracle working business, but God also provides for us through natural means. You know, if you had a financial need and you prayed, God, would you just meet my need, and somebody calls you up and say, you know, the Lord laid on my heart to give you a hundred dollars, then that's God's provision. It is not necessarily a miracle, but God used somebody, humans, a natural means to provide for you. God uses medical science, although it's getting scarcer every day. But if you can find a doctor, God bless them, they're wonderful. You know, God uses medical science, even glasses, okay? Those are God's provision. They're not necessarily a miracle, but God does provide, God also provides for us through our own God-given wisdom and common sense.
[25:37] Sometimes that's inherited or learned by experience or the teaching of others. And so these are all gifts of God. Those are all things that God has done for us, provide for us. They're not necessarily miracles, but it's wonderful that God does provide. He is our provider. Whatever means He uses is up to Him, okay? It's always up to God. We just have to trust Him and believe Him, and He will meet our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There's an interesting account in John 12, verse 21, and I want to read that scripture to you. Now, there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.
[26:23] They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." Obviously they had heard about all the miracles and the signs and wonders, but guess what? They didn't say, we wanna see miracles. You know, Herod did that when he met with Jesus. He said, perform a miracle for us. That's not what faith is all about. Faith is about seeing Jesus. And so these guys, you know, came up from Greece to Jerusalem and they said, we just want to see Jesus. We just wanna see Jesus. And when you see Jesus, you'll see miracles.
[27:11] When you see Jesus, you'll see people healed and set free by the power of God. When you see Jesus, you'll see the healer, you'll see the miracle worker. You'll see the chain breaker when you see Jesus. Amen. Now, just switching a little bit here, because we can get excited about that and we can say hallelujah, but sometimes you see Jesus in adversity. Jesus said in John 16:33, I have told you these things that you might have peace. In this world, man, this is this is not about peace, is it? In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, cheer up.
[28:09] I have overcome the world. The world doesn't have the last say in your life. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus has the last say, amen. So if you're in the fire, He can be the third man walking in the fire with you. If you're in the storm, you can see Him walking across the waves. And if you have cancer this morning, He can give you peace as you recline in that Lazy Boy at the hospital. And the chemo, of course, is through your veins. You can have His peace 'cause He will be with you in adversity. He said, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth.
[28:58] I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's with you this morning. No matter what you are experiencing, no matter what you're going through, I want you to know that He's here. He promised that He would give you power greater than the power of Satan. By the way, you know, this is another way that we sometimes twist the scripture. There's nowhere in the Bible where it says you can bind Satan, okay? Because if you could bind Satan and I could bind Satan and a hundred million other people could bind Satan every day, Satan wouldn't be able to move. The Bible says he's still going about as a roaring lion.
[29:45] You can resist the devil. And the Bible says in Luke chapter 10, verse 19, that Jesus gives you the power over all the power of Satan, over all the power of darkness. Everything that is happening in this world today, this world is broken. This world is messed up. There are things happening that, you know, man, I just read an article a couple days ago about a guy in Japan who decided that he doesn't want to be a human being anymore. He is gonna be a collie. And he spent $15,470 US. That's about 20,000 Canadian, I guess, to have a suit made of real dog hair. And he goes on all fours and his wife leads him around on a leash.
[30:44] I mean, we're living in a dark time. It is weird, crazy things are happening. But guess what? As a Christian, as a child of God who has the Spirit of God living within you, you have power over all the power of Satan. Hallelujah. And maybe somebody over in Japan can lay hands on him in the name of Jesus, set him free. Amen. All things are possible, but it has to comply with the purpose and plan of God. Philippians 4:19, we've already mentioned that He will supply all our needs, not our wants, not our wishes, but our needs, because He knows what you need better than you know. Remember when you were a kid, how many are still young enough to remember when you were a kid?
[31:39] If you can't hang on, when you get old enough, you'll remember things that happened back way back, okay? That's the way it works. But when you were a kid, how many times did your mom and dad say to you, we know what's best for you. We know what's best for you. God knows what's best for you. And sometimes, you know, even when you pray, even when you pray, you can ask for the wrong thing, but God will give you the right answer. Aren't you glad that God is still in control? Aren't you glad that God is God? Aren't you glad that He loves you? Amen.
[32:24] So this morning, what do you need from God? You know, if you've got pain, He's the pain taker. If you feel lost, He's the way maker. If you need freedom or saving, He's the prison-shaking Savior. And if you've got chains, He is the chain breaker. Amen. He'll set you free this morning. So I don't know what you came with this morning. I don't know what you need, but He does. And He can meet your need today. He can set you free. I believe in miracles.
[33:12] I believe that sometimes we get things twisted and snarled up and mixed up, messed up. But God is still God. He still loves you. He wants the best for you. God's best is better than your best. Amen. God's way is better than your way. And God will meet your need this morning. He'll touch you. There are some people here this morning that really need a touch from God. You really really need to know that God is real and that God has a plan for your life. And God wants to do something and change you forever. And He can do that this morning if you put your trust in Him.
[33:58] It's not about how much faith you have, it's not about how much little faith you have. Everyone here has the capacity to believe. Everyone can believe because God has placed that within your heart. You know, you don't need a lot, just come as you are, as the old hymn says, just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come. If you need salvation, He's the Savior. If you need healing, He's the healer. If you need provision, He's the provider. Whatever you need, come. I'm going to ask the prayer team to come and the worship team is gonna come out. We're gonna sing.
[34:49] And if you're here this morning and you have a need in your life, whatever it is, I'm going to invite you to come to the altar and receive prayer. God will meet you because He is a God who breaks every fetter and sets us free. God bless you, and come and trust Him this morning that He will meet your need and be with you. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.