Mustard Seed Obedience

You’ve probably heard someone say, “You just need more faith.” We push back on that idea by taking Jesus at His own words: mustard seed faith can move what looks immovable, and the real question is not whether we can manufacture belief but whether we will obey when He invites us.

We start with Matthew 4 and the foundation of Jesus’ public message: repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand. That repentance is metanoia, a change of mind, and it sets up everything that follows. Then we sit in Luke 17 where the apostles ask for increased faith and Jesus answers in a way that feels almost disruptive. He links miracle-level faith with the posture of a servant who simply does their duty, and that shift levels the playing field. It makes the kingdom accessible to the lowly while removing any excuse to stay passive.

From there we get practical. We walk through “impossible commands” Jesus gives, like stretching a withered hand or standing upright after years of infirmity, and we name the trap of false humility that sounds spiritual but actually blocks courage. Finally, we go to Luke 11 and talk about what to do when delay hits and the mulberry tree does not move. The answer is shameless persistence rooted in the Father’s character, steadying our hearts with the history we already have with Him.

If you want a clearer, steadier way to think about faith, obedience, prayer, and the kingdom of God, listen through to the end, then share it with a friend and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

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Welcome And Community Announcements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Ben. And I'm Logan, and we're the Robins. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. Couple quick couple quick things. Next week, Luke Fulcher will be with us. Luke is coming in, so um, I'm excited to have my friend here. He's Luke has been my friend for man, 16? 16 years now I've known Luke. I was 23 when I met him, and we became friends. I was kind of the the oddball at the ministry school. I know y'all have a hard time believing that. Uh surrounded by a bunch of homeschool kids and was rolling in there just fresh out of college football. And like people were not accustomed to that level of um personality, is how I'll say that. So so uh No, no, not intellect, personality. The the intellect thing, Luke is probably the smartest person I know. So as far as intellect goes, I never impressed Luke with my intellect. He uh he was making fun of the Bible I read the other last night when I was talking to him, actually. He was making fun of the NLTs. Like, it's a little bit like C spot run, kind of reading that kind of kind of kind of book. I'm like, wow, Luke, thanks for calling me an idiot. That's great. I'm I'm real appreciative of that. Um that's that's right. That's a true friend, exactly right. And I give him a hard enough time that I deserve it from time to time. So um he'll be with us next week. So just keep that in mind and come prepared. We'll take an offering for Luke, so come prepared for that. Um, you guys are always so incredible with generosity. Um, and thank you. Thank you in advance for for being generous to Luke. Um, and then at the end of August, we'll be having CJ come for two nights. That'll be August. Let me get my let me get my dates correct. My dad just asked me what time they were, what what the dates were on that, and that'll be the 28th and 29th. So my wife knows off the top of her head, but I have to look at my calendar because I know it's the the last week in um in August. So CJ will be with us for two nights again. We're excited about that. Um so just put that on your calendar um and be prepared for that. We'll do two nights again, and we've got I've already talked to a few people that'll be traveling in for it. So get word out, invite everybody. Um, would love to would love to use that as an event where we can bring bring people in. So anyone you know that may benefit from uh CJ, uh just just bring them in. Bring them all. Um and I promise I'll try not to tell the story about Lazarus this year where I made people mad last year. Oh man. I I make myself laugh, and y'all only like halfway acknowledge that I'm funny, so that's a little bit discouraging. So I need y'all to help me with that a little bit. Um, so uh CJ coming at the end of August. We're excited about that. That'll be incredible. And then I have been praying into doing at least three more of those through the year. Um, and not necessarily here in Indianola. So we may, I may host those a couple of different places, and I've talked to a couple of different people, so um, be praying about that with me as well. I'd like to host between four and six two night gatherings, is what I think I would like to do. And we may do one more here in Indianola through the year. So we'll use the way that I'm looking at it is we kind of launched the resting place at the end of August three years ago. Um, and I'm using that kind of as the new year. So four gatherings, four two night gatherings starting at the end of August for the next coming year. So it wouldn't necessarily be between August and January uh for for this year. So um we're excited about that. But be praying with me uh about that as well. That would be uh something I would cover your prayers on. So I think those are all of our announcements. Did I miss anything? I haven't missed anything. So I'm gonna have Lou teach in August. So I hadn't I hadn't told I hadn't had a chance to tell her that yet. We had that conversation. Was that yesterday or the day before we had that conversation, Lou? Last week? No, that wasn't last week. That wasn't last week. It was a few days ago we had that conversation. Uh Lou will be teaching in August, and he's going to teach on something that I demanded he let me record. I said, You're absolutely you can teach whenever you want to, but this one I have to have you record. So I'm gonna make him sit here and speak into the microphone so that I can have it forever because I'm excited about what he's gonna teach. Um, and something that I think would be really important for us just moving forward. So Lou will be teaching, and then we'll have our our hunger and thirst gathering at the end of the month in August. So those are all the announcements now. Now I've gotten all the announcements in.

Repentance As A New Mindset

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Um Matthew 4. If you want to go to Matthew 4, we'll go there and then we'll immediately run over to Luke 17, and we may look at Luke 11 as well, uh towards the end, Luke 11, uh 5. And but first off, we'll start in in Matthew 4 and we'll look at verse 17. Um the context surrounding Matthew 4 is Yeshua has been baptized. Yeshua has been baptized, he's been taken into the wilderness by the Spirit. The Spirit leads him into the wilderness. That's one, that's one of those um passages that I'm not sure I like, is the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. That's what the word says. The spirit led him in led him, led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Um, he went through a crucible in the wilderness and the spirit led him there. That's one of those, and I won't I won't stay too long on that, but that's one of those where sometimes the spirit for our own good leads us into testing. He'll lead us into it for our own good, for our own development, for our own deification, as the Orthodox Church says. And it's that's one of those, along with patient endurance that I'm not sure I love. I'm not sure I love, I'm not sure I love that passage, but it it is in the scripture and it is something that we should keep in mind. He wasn't tempted by the Lord. It wasn't the Lord tempting him, and the Lord sustained him in the middle of the temptation, or the middle middle of the testing, it'd probably be a better way to say it. In the middle of the testing, he was sustained by the Holy Spirit who led him there. But he did lead him there. He was tempted in every way, yet without sin. He was acquainted with our sufferings and with our sorrows, he was acquainted with the whole range of human experience. And being baptized into that testing would have been something that the spirit was would have been something that the spirit was responsible for sustaining him through. And that's how that's just the perfect example of how we get through those things as we lean into the Holy Spirit when we're in the middle of those things, and Jesus did so just so beautifully. Um, but he gets through that without, without issue, he gets through that 40 days and forty nights of fasting, comes out the other side, crosses the Jordan River, finds out that John has been, it says that when Jesus heard, this is verse 12, when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. He went to Nazareth, and from there went to Capernaum beside the Sea of Galilee, goes into the fulfillment of prophecy, and then it goes in verse 17 and begins to tell us what he began to teach. So he comes out of the wilderness and begins his public ministry under the power of the Spirit, and beginning his public ministry, this is what he says. From then on, Jesus began to teach, repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. The New King James uh says it a little differently. It says, Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And I like that. I f I like that visual a little bit better of it being at hand. Near and at hand are the same thing. I just like the way that that sounds a little bit better. Um, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand is the first thing he begins to he begins to teach. And I wrote just a little bit to get started here. The law or principle of first mentions in hermeneutical study teaches us this. The first time something is mentioned in scripture, we keep the context and meaning of that first mention in mind every other time that thing is mentioned. So the first time it's mentioned, that's like the anchor point of that subject. It's the anchor point of that doctrinal truth. It's the anchor point of where we begin to build something out. And Yeshua, the first time it mentions him beginning to teach, his message is this repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The reason this is important to us today is the first time Yeshua began to publicly preach the gospel, his message was repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And we know the word repent is metanoia, which literally means to change the way that you think. Yeshua was constantly and is constantly. He was constantly and is constantly. He was constantly and is constantly inviting us into a new way of thinking. So every other time Yeshua begins to minister, or we see him begin to teach, whether he's teaching his apostles or he's teaching the multitudes, one thing that we must always keep in mind, and this seems very obvious, but one thing that we must keep in mind is he was continually inviting people into a state of repentance or a changing of the way that they think. So when he begins to bring, bring out, he would teach in parables, and he'd teach in parables in order to invite people into a higher way of thinking. He's teaching them about the kingdom, but he's asking them to change the way that they think about Yahweh all of the time that he's teaching them about the kingdom. And I want it to the best of my ability to frame what I'm going to say with the invitation to change the way that we think. This is an obscure one for me, Luke 17, 5 through 10.

Mustard Seed Faith And Simple Duty

SPEAKER_00 9:53

This is a little bit more obscure uh teaching on faith than I have ever given. Um, but I believe the Lord has shown me a few things here. So Luke 17 and verse 5. The apostles said to the Lord, show us how to increase our faith. I love how direct they are with Jesus. Hey, could you show me how to increase my faith, please? I would that that would be on the list of things I would ask him. If I could, if I could sit here and ask him, I don't know, it would be in the top 10, probably. If I had 10 questions to ask him, if you were sitting across from me in a chair and I were given ten questions that he would answer for me, it's probably in the top ten. How do I do that? How do I increase my faith? And Yeshua gives the most interesting answer in the next verse. Verse six says this: The Lord said, If you have faith, even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, may you be uprooted and thrown into the sea, and it would obey you. Seven, when a servant comes in, and that and then he almost, without changing the subject, goes into something that seems like it has no business inside of the conversation that they're having. Show us how to increase our faith. Yeah, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and cast into the sea and it obey you. And then he goes into this diatribe, which is very interesting. When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, Come in and eat with me? No. He says, Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later. And does the master thank the servant for doing what he has been told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me, you should say, We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty. What in the world does that have to do with faith? I was reading uh the other night and I began to read Luke 17. It's just I'm going through the book of Luke in my own reading, and I began to read Luke 17, and I thought I sat there and thought to myself, this has nothing to do with faith. These men asked him, these men asked him to show them the key to increasing their faith because they're watching Jesus do the most profound things any man has ever done. And they're watching him do it all by faith. And they're like, Lord, we'd like to have, Master, we'd like to have faith like you. Would you show us how to increase our faith? And keep in mind what we started with. Yeshua is constantly asking us to change the way that we think. And he says to them, You've got it all wrong. You do not need me to increase your faith. Just a little faith will tell this mulberry tree to be cast into the sea, and this mulberry tree will obey you. Just a little faith. You do not need great faith to obey me. You simply need to obey me. You don't have to go somewhere to increase your ability to believe. You don't need an external thing to speak into you to increase the way that you believe in order to have great faith. No, you've got it wrong. Small faith will do it. Just do it. He's oh, these are the men, these are the men that are gonna build the church. These are the men that are responsible when he goes on in his ascension and session at the right hand of the father. He goes on and he's ascended on high and seated at the right hand of the father. He leaves these men to build the thing that he's been teaching them about. And he's going to teach them right here the key to doing the whole thing because it's all done by faith. The beautiful thing and the challenging thing about the kingdom is it's 100% built by faith. You cannot build the kingdom any other way. Thomas, the man we call doubting Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, walked into India by himself with him with nothing but a walking stick and built one of the most profound man, built one of the most profound churches of all the early church. And there are millions of believers in India who can trace their heritage all the way back to doubting Thomas. And there's a story about that man where these where these pagans are challenging him, and he says, Give me that, give me that bucket of water, give that to me. They've got a bucket of water stains, just give me that bucket of water. And he throws the water into the air, and the the water is stopped in the middle of the air. It's just stand sits there. Doubting Thomas performed more signs and wonders, more miracles to build the church in India. We don't hear a lot about his missionary journeys, but Thomas was one of the more profound church builders of all of the 12 disciples. And this man walked in there with nothing but faith. And Jesus is giving him the key to do the whole thing right here. He's giving him the key to do the whole thing. They say, Grow our faith. Teach us how to grow our faith. And Jesus said, You don't need to grow your faith. And I want to tell you, you don't need to grow your faith. I don't need to grow my faith. I, and it's not me, don't get mad at me, get mad at Jesus. We get taught how to grow our faith. I actually think that's incorrect. We get taught how to grow our faith. I think a better way to say that would be, would better a better way to say that would be increase my trust in your character. Because if I have trust in your character, I'll be able to step out when you ask me to do what looks impossible. See, we've got this, we've been taught, we've been taught by faith by men who have almost deified faith. It's almost like God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and the fourth part of the Trinity is my faith. That's almost, that's almost the way that we've been taught about faith. And faith, guys, is not the thing that brings power into your life. It's not. Hebrews 11 will will prove that out. I talked to Luke about it last night. He's like, oh, what you're saying seems to vibe with Hebrews 11. I was like, thank you, Luke. You've just confirmed everything that I've been talking about. I'll use that as permission to teach this tomorrow. Um and we almost look at faith as as the as our ability to be empowered to do something. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. Faith is the ability to put your hand out when he says put your hand out. Or take a step when he says take a step, or stand still when he says stand still. The empowerment comes in the asking. His word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to separate bone from marrow, right? And inside of that word is all the empowerment you need to see that word come to life. What then should our response be to that? It should be obedience. Should be obedience. I wrote a little bit last night. I had a little bit of a grace on me to write for the first time in months last night, so I wrote a little bit here. So Luke 17, 5 through 10. This is such an interesting exchange. The apostles come to Yeshua earnestly seeking a way or seeking the key to great faith. This is an earnest, sincere request. Teach me how to grow my faith. And it's almost like Yeshua turned the question on its head and asked them, What is great faith? We would all agree that being able to say, say to a mulberry tree, be uprooted and cast into the sea, and the mulberry tree obeying you would be considered would be considered great faith. We would all agree that the one who was able to say to the tree, be cast into the sea, and the tree obey that one, that one operates in great faith. We would all agree. We would all agree to that, but Yeshua would say otherwise. Yeshua would say otherwise. This thing that you know is impossible, that thing in your life, make it very personal. This thing that is this mountain of a problem in your life, in my life, this mountain that can by no means be moved by effort. That thing, a little faith can cast that into the sea. That's what Yeshua would say. It does not take something great, it takes a mustard seed. Then he takes the invitation to repent a step further. So he's asking these men to repent about the way that they think about faith. What does he say about the kingdom? The one who's greatest in the kingdom is last. The one who is greatest in the kingdom is last. And unless you become like a little child, you can by no means enter into the kingdom. He takes the invitation a step further. In verse 7 through 10, and I'm going to read it again. In verse 7 through 10, he says this when a servant comes in from ploughing or taking care of the sheep, does he s does his master say, Come in and eat with me? Of course not. Of course. He has his servant serve him dinner and attend to him while he's eating. Then he allows his servant to eat later. And does the master thank the servant for doing what he is told? Of course not. And in the same way when you obey me, listen to this. In the same way when you obey me, you should say, We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty. In the same way, when you obey me, you should say, We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty. The way that we have been taught faith has allowed men who have seen great miracles to become arrogant because they believe they had something to do with the result, with the resulting miracles that they have seen, rather than understanding that it is not my ability to believe that has caused this miracle to come to pass. It is the asking. Oh man, it's the Jesus can say, you're unworthy servants who have simply done your duty because he said all you had to do was put your hand out when I asked you to. And this levels the playing field in a way that makes this accessible to everyone because these men, when they came to him, asking him to increase their faith, had this idea that they had to be someone great in order to have great faith. And Jesus is saying, no, even the servants can do this. No, even the slaves, even the lowly, even the children, even the least can do these things. These things are not great. All you must do is obey me when I ask you to. And that does not take great faith. That just takes a little faith. Don't go looking. He's telling them, don't go looking for great secrets to increase your faith. I would so much rather you understood me and my character. And when I come asking you to do something, you can rest assured that I would not set you up to fail. This levels the playing field in such a way that we can all do it. This levels the playing field in a way that makes this so accessible and so available to everyone that it gives us all access while at the same time leaving us all without excuse. Grants us access. He's granting us access into great wonders. He's granting us access into seeing things that people would call impossible. He's granting us access into the great things of the kingdom while also leaving us without excuse in verses 7 through 10. He I love how Jesus formats this. He first makes this accessible to everyone by saying it doesn't take great faith. If you're thinking about this incorrectly, a mustard seed of faith can say to this tree, be removed and cast into the sea, and it would obey him. My God, okay, awesome. That's amazing. That means everyone can do it. Then he leaves us without excuse by saying, Hey, and when you do this thing, don't think of yourself too highly. It's my grace that made it available to you. And it's all done by grace. It's like he's shouting, You're thinking about this all wrong, without telling them you're thinking about this all wrong. You think you have to increase your faith to be able to do the things that I'm asking, when the reality is this the empowerment to do this thing that looks so impossible is found not in your ability to increase your own faith. The empowerment you need is found in the asking. If I ask you to do it, I've empowered you to see it accomplished. If I ask you to do it, I've empowered you to see this thing accomplished. So,

Obedience Makes The Impossible Possible

SPEAKER_00 22:03

what does faith look like in that context then? You can use a couple stories, I think. The man with the withered hand, right? Jesus comes into the synagogue and everyone's staring at him because they all see this man with the withered hand who's been coming to synagogue probably for years at this point. And everyone sees Jesus and they know his reputation as a miracle worker, and they're looking at him to see if he'll heal on the Sabbath. And Jesus gives that man an impossible command. Stretch your hand out. Well, I'd like I he hadn't been able to do that since that thing got withered up. I don't know if you know this, Jesus, but that's impossible. That thing got withered up, and he hasn't been able to use it since, and you're asking him to use it. Faith looks like participating in the invitation. Do it. Just try. You don't have to be able to do it before he asks you in order to be able to do it after he asked you. Maybe that's the simplest way to say that. You don't have to previously be able to do the thing he's asking you to do because if you can, that requires no faith. It requires no faith to do something I'm already very good at doing. I'm great at that, Jesus. Why don't you I feel like you've asked me to do that? Because I'm good at that. Ask me to do something I'm not good at. No. What do you mean? Ask do I don't know if you know this, Lord, but it's impossible for me to stretch my hand out. I'll do something else. I'll stretch my other one out. You mean this one? You mean my left one? I'll stretch that one out. Sure. No, no, no. No. I want you to stretch out your hand, and you know what I mean. Stretch your hand out. And a lot of the time what we'll do is we'll settle, we'll settle for asking him to increase our ability to do things we're already good at, rather than living the kingdom life of being able to do things that are impossible based solely on his invitation to do. Stretch out your hand. Oh, okay. Sure. I'd like you to tell me how. No, just stretch it out. Just stretch it out. The woman bent over by the spirit of infirmity, who had been bent over for 18 years. Again, he's in the synagogue. Again, they're waiting to see if he's going to heal on the Sabbath. Again, they're waiting to see if he'll break Sabbath rules and heal on the Sabbath. And Jesus looks at that woman and says, Stand up. Well, I'd like I don't know if you know this, Jesus, but she can't. That's why she's walking around that way. I think if she could do that, she already would have been doing that. And this is what it looks like when he asked us to do things. When he asks us to do things, he's good, he's not asking me to do something that I'm already really great at. He's asking me to do something I've never done before. And I don't know that it's possible for me to do that. And the invitation isn't, hey, get really good at that and then try to do it. The invitation is, hey, do this with me and let me put you on like a glove, like I did Gideon. The reason we don't experience being put on like a glove by the hand of Yahweh, the reason we don't experience that is because we fail to hear the invitation to do the impossible. Because we believe it takes someone of greater faith than me

False Humility That Blocks Courage

SPEAKER_00 25:00

to do it. It's false humility that robs us. Oh man, it's false humility that robs us of the ability to do the impossible. Well, what do you mean it's false humility? Well, I can't do that. I can't do that. It's impossible. Lord, you better ask somebody who's better than me. I barely, I can't get anything right. I barely can even serve you. What are you asking me to do that for? That's not how he sees you. And if that's how you want to, Jesus, and if that's how you want to see yourself, you'll lie to yourself and say that's humility. But that's not humility. True humility is agreement with his perspective of who you are. We know that. I've taught this before. True humility is agreement with the Lord's perspective of who you are. And he calls you more than a conqueror. He calls you the head and not the head and not the tail, blessed, highly blessed and favored, blessed going in and blessed coming out. Yeah, you're the head, you're not the tail. You're blessed going in and you're blessed coming out. All the things that you touch will be blessed. Jesus, these are the promises of scripture, and we rob ourselves of these things through false humility. And he invites us into this great reality of hey, if you really want to live this kingdom life, I'll do this thing like I did with Gideon, where I put you on like a glove, and you'll get to spend the rest of your life watching impossible things happen at the touch of your hand, watching impossible things happen at the end of your pen writing on a page, watching impossible things happen as you begin to build something you've never even seen before. And it doesn't take great faith to do it. You don't have to stop and increase your faith for 15 years before you go try this thing. It just takes taking the first step and then taking the second one when I ask you to. Man at the pool, rise up and take up your bed and walk. I don't know. That's the most ridiculous command to give to a cripple. You ever stop and think about the ridiculous commands Jesus gave to cripples or lepers? Go show yourself to the priest. I'm not allowed to do that. Go show yourself to the priest. And they had a choice. They could do it or they could remain leprous. You can go do that thing that you're not supposed to do, or you can remain a leper. Your choice. But the invitation into wholeness was released when I said, Go show yourself to the priest. Man at the pool, his healing was released the moment Jesus said get up. He just caught up when he started doing the thing Jesus told him to do. David Hogan

A Modern Miracle Story Of Catching Up

SPEAKER_00 27:24

told a story one time. I was in Alabama and in Birmingham watch listening to this man. We drove Luke and uh Carlos and I, friends from South Carolina. Um, and I'm not sure y'all probably haven't, y'all y'all know Carlos, some of y'all know Carlos. He he drove with Luke and I, yeah, Carlos and Gladys. Carlos drove with Luke and I. We drove up to Birmingham, Alabama from Saluda one one Sunday and drove back that same night. We didn't get home until like 5 a.m. And I was no help on the drive home. I slept the whole way. Justin was living close to Birmingham. He think he was still living in Hamilton, yeah. Yeah, and Justin Crow met us over there. I don't know if any of y'all know Justin. He's huh? Oh, okay. And Justin's one of my best friends. I love Justin. Um, but uh we went to see David and it was incredible. It was one of the wildest things I've ever seen in my entire life. The way that man ministered was just so unorthodox and so crazy. So crazy. He kept, he kept, it was the funniest thing. He kept looking over at me and like flexing his muscles at me the entire time that he was teaching. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. This man's up there preaching. People have traveled from like Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama, to this small little church to listen to this man minister. And he's looking at me going, ooh, every time he looks at me. I was like, what are you doing, dude? The first time he did it, I was like, okay, maybe he's just being kind of kind of weird. And then he did it a second time and stared right at me. And I was like, What are you what is happening right now? And then he did it a third time, and I was like, Well, I don't I don't know why you're doing that, but okay. He did it like five or six times. And then he finally the last time I made up my mind, if he does it, I'm gonna get up and do it back to him. Get up and we'll see if we can have like a uh who when Randy, when Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan were partners with the superpowers, is that what they called it? Maybe we'll have a superpowers moment, we'll high five or something. Um but he's telling, he told this story while he was there, and he was in, I forget which country he was in. It wasn't Mexico, it might have been Brazil. He was in Brazil, and there was a man who couldn't walk in the audience, and he's in a crowd of he's at a conference and there's a crowd of several thousand people there, and there's this one man who moves by going like this on the ground. If you've ever seen someone that that can't walk and they can just kind of scoot on the ground by using their arms, this guy like was pacing back and forth with him because he paces when he teaches, and um, this man's like following him and like staring at him the whole time, and David's like, what is this guy doing? So he's like, I'm gonna pick up my pace and see if he can keep up. That's the kind of guy he is. It's the kind of guy I'd love to like sit down and have a conversation with him because he's just he's that kind of dude. And he just starts walking past her, and that dude kept up and kept up and kept up. He was like, he finally eventually is like, Why don't you come up on stage with me, buddy? And had him follow him. Like, had him go back and forth with him on stage. And he prayed for that man, told him to get up. He said, Get up, get up off the ground. And he couldn't get up off the ground when he told him to that day. The next day he comes back to this conference and someone who he can't who he doesn't recognize walks up to him and gives him a hug when he gets into the building. And he doesn't recognize this man, and he's not the hugging kind of man, and he's he's what is happening? He said, I I was crawling yesterday, and you told me to get up. And I want to tell you this, I want to tell you this. The miracle was released when he said get up. The miracle was released when he said get up. And it's the same way with the Lord. The miracle is released when the Lord says it. When he speaks, the miracle is released. He's just waiting on us to catch up. He's just waiting on us to take the first step into it.

Shameless Persistence When Heaven Feels Silent

SPEAKER_00 30:52

So go to Luke 11 real quick and I'll close up. What then do we do in seasons of delay? What then do we do in seasons of testing? I don't like the word seasons, but times of testing or times of delay or times of it feels like we're doing what the Lord asked us to do and nothing's happening. Because we have those times. We all experience those. We all experience those. What do we do? So the other the other side of the coin to this takes doesn't take great faith to call tell this mulberry tree to be moved and cast into the sea. But what do you do when that mulberry tree stays there when you tell it to be removed and cast into the sea? What do you do then? It's easy for me to get excited about this when I'm teaching, hey, it doesn't take great faith, and this makes it accessible to everyone. We all can do it. And there's no excuse not to do it, so let's do it. I can get really excited about that, but then I'm sitting here staring at mulberry trees all over my yard, and what do I do? What do I do when I'm speaking to these things and they're not doing the things that I'm telling them to do? And I believe the Lord has commissioned me to speak to these things, and I'm speaking to them and they're not moving. What do we do? I believe I have at least a partial answer for you. Luke 11 and verse 5 says this. Then teaching them more about prayer, he used this story. Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat. And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, don't bother me, the door's locked, the door's locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can't help you. Leave me alone. Somebody knocks on my door late at night and they want food. I might feed them. I kind of like cooking, and like cooking late at night is fine by me. Like, I don't mind. Um, but in this scenario, this man's not as generous as I am, so good he's got a not very generous friend. So, Lance, if you ever come over late at night and want food, I'll feed you. Um, you too, Jared, I got you. Um I'm I'm real good at making grilled cheese late at night, I promise you. Um hey, I haven't done that in a long time. I I I have done that before. That is an aside. All right. I'm gonna tell we're gonna tell a story. We're gonna tell a story. Now I'm gonna tell on myself, I'm gonna tell a story. We moved back to Iowa. It's been over three years now, it was three years this spring. Um, and we uh we stayed with my folks for the first several months while we were looking for where we would live. And one of the first nights we moved back, I was hungry in the middle of the night. I was like, hey, they have frozen pizza. I'm doing this right now. I'm doing this. And my parents. And I throw this thing in. Yeah, it would, it would go up like a yeah, like a tinder box, this thing. It's like it's it's you know that that fat wood you can get from LL Bean or one of those, one of those things that lights real easy and helps you start a fire. That's what my parents' whole house is like. And I start that oven, I put that pizza in, and I uh had agreed with my friend Zach um to go to a Bible study in the morning. It was Friday night and Saturday morning at 5 30. I'm getting up and going to this Bible study. And he wakes me up at 5 30, and I realized to my horror, God, I left the oven on, and the pizza is still in there. Overnight, all night long, all night long, and I run, I don't walk, I run into the kitchen and find this blackened charred piece of charcoal in the oven. And uh he he pulls into the driveway, and as he's pulling into the driveway, I am frisbeeing a black, a black piece of charcoal in the field, and he's like, What uh what you throwing there? And I was like, uh, don't worry about it. This is none of your business. Let's go. Um, so I'm good at falling asleep when I'm trying to do things at night, too. So um, confession is good for the soul. So um his friend says to him, We're all in bed for the night. Leave me alone. I can't help you. Then Jesus says this, but I tell you this. Though he won't do it for relationship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you want because of your listen to this shameless persistence. The word in the King James Version is because of your importunity. That's the King James, and that's a great word. It sounds really cool to read because of your importunity, he will give that to you. That literally means that literally means shamelessness. Because of your shamelessness, he'll give that to you. And so I tell you, this is Jesus now, and so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You fathers, and then he says this, you fathers, he doubles down on the point. You fathers, if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not. So if you sinful people know how much know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? When it looks like our faith isn't working, what do we do? And the problem with the way that we have been taught, we have been taught about faith is this. When it looks like our faith isn't working, we immediately turn the microscope inside and say, There must be a deficiency with my faith. I must not be doing something right. It's me who has done something wrong. And if we keep the microscope inside us long enough, eventually we'll turn it outward and we'll start to blame him. Well, I've done everything I know how to do. I've I've I've done it all. He must, he just must not care. I must be on, I must be beyond his care in this area. I must be beyond his care in this scenario. It must be something that he does not want to give me when he asked you to ask for this in the first place. Then Jesus gives this beautiful example of fathers and children. You're you fathers, when your children ask you for something, are you gonna give them something else? If y'all were paying any attention to little Linny here during worship, I made three separate food runs for her while we were in the middle of worship. Three. She kept asking me for more food. I bring her food. There's no way in the world she's still hungry. She's she's this she's this tall. She weighs 12 and a half pounds. There's no way she's still hungry. Her hair weighs more than she does. She's not still hungry. There's no way. Dad, can I have more cheese? Yeah, all right, yeah, I'll get you some more cheese. Can I have some more? All right, yeah, I'll get you some more. And then she climbs up on my lap. I'm writing a note. Something, a profound secret of the kingdom is pouring forth out of my 250-year-old oak pin. It's the most it was that pin that I used literally was made out of a tree from the Red River Meeting House from the Red River revival in the second great awakening. I got that from Red River Turning Company. It's cool the coolest pin in the history of pens, and the secrets of the kingdom are pouring out of it. And she gets up into my lap, and I'm like, oh, she must really love me. She just wants to be near me right now. And she's whispering something, and then I'm like, I can't hear you. So she climbs up here very sweetly, then gets really deep in my ear. Like deeper than any human should get in another human's ear. Says, I want yogurt. What yogurt? And you knew you know what I did? I went and got her yogurt. That's when I stopped. I put it, I pushed the pause button on the secrets of the kingdom pouring out of my pen. And I said, I'm gonna go get this little midget some yogurt, is what I'm gonna do. Shameless persistence looks a lot more like being a child than we want it to. My kids will ask me the same thing to a point that is absurd. They'll ask me until I'm sick of them asking me, and then they'll keep asking. After I've already yelled at them, quit asking me that question. They'll continue to ask me that question 45,000 more times. That's the picture of shameless persistence. Don't stop asking. And the only way you're able to stay in that place of shameless persistence is you know the character of the one you're asking. The issue we've been, the issue we've been dealing with today is that we have been taught that faith is more about our effort than it is his grace. And faith is the gift of God. It says we've all been given the gift of faith. It's his gift to us. All we then do is we move when he says move, we knock when he says knock. And if it looks like he's ignoring us, Jesus gave us the key. We talked last week about patient endurance being the key to know Jesus. Shameless persistence is the key to receiving the things he's promised you. It's the key. Shameless persistence, being unashamed. See, what'll happen if you're not careful is if you go too long without getting an answer for something, you'll start being ashamed to ask the question. I mean, he definitely heard me. I mean, he definitely why why do we got to do this again? You heard me the first 37,000 times that I've talked to you about this, and you have said nothing. The silence is the challenge. And in the silence, what is his command? Stay steady, steady your heart, steady your heart. And how do you steady your heart in the silence? You understand the character of the one you're talking to. What's the key to joy in the middle of patient endurance? Cultivating our relationship with Holy Spirit. What is the primary role of Holy Spirit in our lives? He does two things primarily. He reveals Jesus and he reveals the fatherhood of God to our hearts. He teaches us the character of the Father and the Son. So in the middle of silence and in the middle of having to stay steady when it looks like we're not being answered, I could tell you about 75 things I've been asking for for 15 years. And he's still kind of silent on most of it. Questions I have. Questions I have that are really probably inappropriate at some point the way that I talk to him. It's like why why the hell is this happening? No, that's that's real. That's real. If we're going to be real, I talk to I talk to the Lord really frequently that way. Like, I don't understand why you're not talking about this with me. Well, I don't I don't I guess I guess you're too good up there to condescend to talk to me. Oh, that's kind of tongue in cheek. But sometimes I talk to him, I don't know, I don't know what's going on, but we're gonna have a we're gonna have a conversation, you and I, and it doesn't really do much. Yeah. Yes. Joyful expectation of good. I think the key to all of it, the key to all of it is understanding who he is and who we are to him, and knowing that he does not have anything but good things for us. He does not have anything but good things for us. If he doesn't have it in his possession, he can't give it to us. And all he has are good things. So it doesn't take great faith, it just takes a little. And the power is released not when you agree in faith, the power is released when he asks you to do it. And when it looks like your mustard seed faith is not working against that mulberry tree. Steady your heart in his character and use your history with him as an anchor point.

Steady Your Heart With History

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Use your history with him as an anchor point to steady your soul.