Our Faith: How God Works in Us, Part 1

If you know Hebrews 11:6 it says, “Without faith, it is impossible,” not hard, “it’s impossible to please God, because those who come to God must believe first that He actually exists, and second that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” So, of all the things that God is looking for, more important than anything else, you can’t please Him, I can’t please Him, your morality can’t, your good works can’t. Without faith we can’t please God.

Sometimes we think faith is a feeling or faith is just a set of things that you might agree with. And so, Niagara Falls, in the middle 1800s, there was an acrobat, a fellow, true story, named Blondin. In the off season, he did circuses and the rest, but they would take a tightrope from New York all the way over to Canada, and they put it over Niagara Falls.

And this guy would walk back and forth and there would be huge crowds on both sides. And then he wanted to get even crazier so he put a hundred and fifty pound pack on him and he went from one side to the other. Later, he just got super crazy and got a wheelbarrow, put a hundred and fifty pounds on it. And, I mean, the people were going nuts, nuts, nuts. I mean, if he falls, he’s done.

And so, one particular guy, as the story is told, is going, “Man, you’re amazing! You’re amazing! You can do anything. I believe you’re the greatest acrobat ever!” And he says, “Fantastic.” He goes, “You look to be about a hundred and fifty pounds. Get in the wheelbarrow!” See, faith isn’t agreeing or believing that he can do that. Faith is to the point that you believe it, that you entrust yourself to that person and that’s what biblical faith is.

And then the third is the most important parable. In fact, Jesus would say, “If you don’t understand this parable, you can’t, it’s impossible, to understand any of the others.” And it’s a parable about faith, it’s a parable about life-change. Jesus calls it the secret of the kingdom of God. How is it that He changes a life supernaturally where we become more and more like Jesus? We adopt His values; we see life the way He sees it. And the Bible is really clear, none of us can do that in our own power.

And so, the question I have on your notes: How did Jesus make disciples in such a hostile environment that were so much like Him that they overcame the darkness and they changed the world?

I mean, think of how ridiculous a group of twelve and then a hundred and twenty or so, maybe, hostile culture, multiple gods, a cruel government, it was illegal to be a Christian, persecution. And, yet, here we are, well over one third of all the people living on the planet today would acknowledge at some level, “I’m a follower of Jesus.” How did that happen?

I’m going to suggest He did three things: Number one, He modeled what He wanted them to become. Second, He taught them the secret of the kingdom so they learned how life change actually would occur for an individual. And third, He tested their faith, not so they could fail, but He tested their faith so they could reveal His power so that when He said something in the future, they would actually believe it to the point of getting in the wheelbarrow and following.

Does it make sense? That’s an overview of the whole message. So, let’s jump into the first one. He modeled what He wanted them to become. Our hope is how God works in history. And the fundamental first way He worked in history is - Jesus’ life was the light of the world. Not just His teaching. His teaching for sure, but what He actually did was reproduced in the life of the disciples with a very intentional process.

Now, for those of you who take notes, who wonder what the blank is, are you ready? It’s coming. The result: His light continues to shine in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. The resistance, however, is the traditions of men and the lies of the enemy. If you read through the gospels and you see: Where did Jesus get the greatest pushback? It was among the religious community. And what happens over time is we want to take the world and our traditions and our religions and keep in control.

And the enemy wants us to believe that, you know, success and security and money and how you look and how much people think about you and how famous you are makes you a real someone. Those are always pushing against this life with Jesus. Isaiah would tell us that even in the Old Testament, the same thing has been repeated forever. He says, “Woe to those,” in Isaiah chapter 5, “who call right, wrong; who call light, darkness; and call darkness light. Who call bitter, sweet and who call what is really sweet, bitter.”

And He says that over time, what happens is there is this amazing gravitational pull of a world system that is contrary to God that wants to captivate your soul and your life and your mind and take you down a path that will not give life and you will not flourish. And it promises everything and delivers death. So, first He modeled it. Second, He taught them the secret of the kingdom of God and how life change really happens. And that’s, you’re going to find in Mark chapter 4, verses 13 through 20.

And He says, “The sower went out to sow seeds and he threw seeds,” and an agricultural community, right? “And he threw some on a path and it was hard and the birds came and ate it up. He threw some other seed on some rocky soil and it grew up quickly but when the sun came and it was very, very hot, it shriveled because it didn’t have a root system. He threw some other seed on thorny ground and it grew up very quickly but the thorns came and choked the life out of the plant. And then finally, he threw some seed on some good soil and it grew up and it began to flourish and there were seeds from that plant thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And when He gets done He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now, can you imagine hearing about this teacher who fed five thousand people, raised a few people from the dead, everyone is talking about Him. That’s the message. And that phrase, “He who has ears to hear,” means pay close attention, what I said is really important. So, the disciples, when they get in a private time with Him they say, “Would You mind kind of explaining what in the world that message was about, because we don’t get it.”

Open your Bible; Mark chapter 4. I want to read to you the actual words of Jesus’ explanation. Mark chapter 4, we’ll pick it up at verse 10. “As soon as He was alone with His followers, along with the twelve disciples, they began asking Him about the parable. And He was saying to them,” listen to this, “To you has been given the mystery,” and the word just means a secret. Not mysterious, it just means this truth has never, ever been revealed ever anywhere until now. “…of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables.” And then He quotes Isaiah here with people’s hardheartedness and why they won’t respond. He says, while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand.

In other words, He says, “You know what? Their hearts are hard, and so I’m going to talk in parables. This is very special truth. And unless people are really willing to respond to it, I just don’t throw it out there.” And then He says this, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?’” Literally, it’s if you don’t understand this particular parable, you can’t understand all the others. And we’ll learn why.

“These are the ones who are beside the road where the Word is sown;” and notice as I read, “the Word, the Word, the Word.” In my Bible I have a box around the Word. “…where the Word is sown; and when they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes away the Word, which has been sown in them. And then in a similar way, the ones that were sown on the rocky places, they hear the Word and immediately respond with joy; and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but it’s only temporary. And when affliction or persecution occurs because of the Word, immediately they fall away. And the others are those sown [with] seed among the thorns; and these are the ones who hear God’s Word, but the worries of this world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and they choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones with the seed in the good soil; these are the ones who hear God’s Word, accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

Now, imagine this. This is Jesus. According to Jesus, if everyone sitting in this room, everyone who ever might watch this, in fact, anyone who has ever opened the Bible and read this passage, if you don’t understand this passage and how it operates, you can’t understand all the others. Because what He basically is doing, He is now launching His kingdom agenda. And now He’s going to say this is how it actually works.

And so, there’s only five things that happen in the passage. There’s a sower who is the teacher, there’s a seed that is the message, there’s the soil which is the hearers, and there’s growth – different types of growth – and then there’s the desired outcome or fruit. And the teacher is the Son of Man with moral authority, it’s Jesus teaching God’s Word, empowered by the Spirit. The seed is God’s Word, His truth, His gospel. And the soil is the response of human hearts.

And these four responses are the same all the time, not just for our salvation. When God speaks to you about, say, forgiving someone, or God speaks to you about taking a step of faith, or God speaks to you about, you know, someone He’s given you a nudge that you’re supposed to go help that person. There are four responses. Sometimes you, “Oh, yeah, I really ought to do that.” And then your phone buzzes and then you forget about it. It gets taken away. Or, “Yeah! Yeah! I’m going to do that. I get really excited about it!” And then, oh, it gets really hard, it gets difficult, so you don’t end up doing it. Or you start to do it and you get really excited but then, “Oh man, it’s going to cost too much money and, you know, I’ve got other things to do. And I was going to go on vacation,” the thorns.

And then there are other people who it’s a good soil. And Luke’s one unique aspect of this whole parable, he explains what the good soil is, He says the good soil are those who receive and accept God’s Word, they persevere even when it’s challenging, and they have an honest and a good heart, and they actually put it into practice. You’ll notice there’s only one response that produces fruit. And, you know, if we lived in an agricultural society, fruit would be, oh, we get it. But in the Bible, the fruit usually has two aspects.

One is, the fruit of the Spirit - Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. In other words, it’s the character of Christ. When you take in God’s Word and respond in this way, you actually start becoming more and more like Jesus. But the other fruit is the kind of fruit where you care about other people, where you lead others to Christ, where you help the least of these. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” and then did you notice the application? He says, “If you respond to the light that I give you, you get more light.”

What’s, what’s responding? It’s obeying. If you don’t respond to the light that I give you,” remember what Jesus said? “Even the light you have gets taken away.”  And so, notice the three explanations: The lamp is the purpose of God’s agenda. “And He was saying to them, ‘A lamp is not bought to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it? It is brought out to be put on the lampstand. For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor anything secret, but that will come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’

And He was saying to them, ‘Take care how you listen.’” In other words, how you hear for the purpose of putting it into practice. “‘For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given besides. For whoever has,” truth, light, “to him more will be given; but whoever doesn’t have, even what he has will be taken away.’” Light is to be declared and reveal the way and the life of Christ and to expose darkness. So, He says, you know, if you have a lamp, you don’t walk into a room and go, “Hey, let’s put that one under a bushel.”

Or, in other words, what is the parable about? God’s Word - the truth - I have given you light, not so you have this private little conversation and I don’t want anyone to know that I’m a Jesus follower. And He said, “No, no, no.” When the light lives in you, you are one of Mine. Here’s a lampstand; you declare it by your life and how you live, you declare it with your words, and guess what – it’ll expose everything around you. And people that are hypocrites, and corruption that is in where you work, and people that are not caring about people that no one cares about – when you’re a light like that, you will expose it in ways that will bring about changes in culture and churches and communities and workplaces and neighborhoods.

He says the second is the growing seed. It’s the process of how this works. And He was saying to them, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and when he gets up daily, the seed sprouts and grows – how, he himself really doesn’t know. The soil produces the crop; first a stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. Now when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’”

But did you notice? He made it really clear, “A stalk comes up, then there’s fruit, then there’s seeds.” God’s agenda in your life is not quick, it’s not easy, it takes time. When you walk with Jesus, He will change your life, but He doesn’t zap you. I was this way, but oh! Thank you so much, Jesus! All my attitudes are great, I love everybody, I have forgiven everybody, I am just…

That’s not how it works. He says it’s like a seed that goes into the ground and there is germination. And notice there is cooperation. It says He went out each and every day. He is working the soil, he is cultivating the soil; that’s our part. You can’t change your life. Only God can change your life, but He chooses to never do it alone. You cooperate. He does His part; you do your part, it’s a process, it takes time, and so for some of you with a real sensitive conscience, keep plugging away but could you, could you relax? I meet some people that no matter how much they are growing it’s not enough, it’s not enough, it's not fast enough.

God’s got a plan. If you’re in His Word and you’re it into practice and when He speaks to you about doing something and you respond, you’re going to wake up five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now if He doesn’t return. And we will remember how you used to be. How you used to be so quick and you had a temper that was so quick, and how you were just so focused on yourself, then five years later, they are not quite like that. And then now, we’re out here ten years and you’re one of the most compassionate, kind, others-centered person that we have ever met.

But there’s no such thing as saints by accident. And, by the way, there is no such thing as people who become spiritually mature by showing up and listening to someone talk about God and even discussing it. You have to have the intentional path of following Jesus and according to Jesus, the mystery of the kingdom is rooted in His Word and how we respond.

And then notice the mustard seed. This is the one that gives me great hope. “‘How shall we picture this kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of any of the seeds upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the air can nest under it.’”

And so, what He wants you to know is that this new relationship, this walking with Him, it starts out real small. You know, you take a little baby step. You forgive your mom or maybe you forgive what your dad didn’t bring you or that he wasn’t around or whatever. And you ask Christ to forgive you. And you say, “You know, it sounds like God’s Word is really important,” and you might be sitting here going, “ I have tried reading the Bible a couple times and it’s just”…pshhh.

But you start to take a step and you say, “I want to learn, Lord, would You show me?” And what He says is it’ll start small and then there are two are three people and then they start praying about something and they begin to dream a dream and think, You know, I think God could do something in our neighborhood. You know, I think God could do something with this group of guys that I – we just used to go out and drink and do crazy stuff and now I’m a follower of Jesus. And I think God could do something with these other stay-at-home-moms while I’m in the park. I think… And then two or three people and then you start praying about it and then pretty soon, fast-forward eight, nine, ten years and pretty soon there’s a group of women or there are Bible studies or there is life change or there are things that are launched.

It happens small, seemingly insignificant with ordinary people who are listening to God’s Word. Here's what I can tell you, good seed, God’s Word, in a good heart – someone who says, “Lord, I may be really uncomfortable and I may not know a whole lot, but if You speak to me, I’m going to obey.” Good seed in good soil produces fruit one hundred percent of the time.