Faith - The Believer's Servant

Pick up your Bibles and let's wave them around together and make Jesus glad of the devil mad.

Let's say this together say heavenly father, I've tuned into live stream tonight and I'm here by divine appointment.

I need to hear what the Spirit of God is speaking to me and tonight I believe my faith will be built and established, my spirit will be developed and I am victorious over every circumstance in life.

In Jesus name, amen.

And let's turn in our Bibles to two places Mark, chapter four, and Luke, chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

And we're going to read here.

We'll start with the Mark, chapter four, very familiar verse.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says here in verse 26, so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up.

He knoweth not how.

First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.

And.

But when the fruit is ripe, the King James says, brought forth means ripe.

When the fruit is ripe, immediately he, that is, the sower, puteth in the sickle because the harvest is come.

Notice, jesus said the whole kingdom operates on the seed sowing principle, and of course we know from earlier in the chapter the seed he's talking about is the seed of the Word of God.

All right, and then in Luke 17, jesus is speaking again to his disciples another teachable moment.

And he's talking to them about your forgiving your brother and how you have to forgive a person.

When they ask you to forgive them, you have to forgive them.

This rendering says seven times in a day, another one says 70 times, seven in a day.

And so we'll pick it up.

In verse five, the apostle said, in response to what Jesus said about forgiveness Lord, increase our faith.

And so Jesus said if you had faith, as a grain of mustard seed, you might say under this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you.

Or in many cases the Bible says it would obey you.

For which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say under this servant, by and by, when he's come from the field, go and sit down to meet.

But would you rather not rather say unto your servant make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward, thou shalt eat and drink" Does he think that servant because he did the things that were commanded to him?

Does he thank him Just because the servant did what he was commanded?

Jesus said I tro not like that word in the King James.

It just means I don't think so.

So likewise, ye, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded.

You say we are unprofitable servants.

We have done that which was our duty to do, and so tonight I wanted to share a message I believe will encourage your faith Faith, the believer's servant.

Faith, the believer's servant, I mean your faith is your servant.

It will do your bidding, your bidding.

Notice what Jesus said when his disciples said Lord, increase our faith.

And generally what he said was you don't need to increase your faith, you need to plant what faith you have.

You need to put it in the ground and multiply.

So he said, if you had faith as a seed.

Sometimes we get hung up on the mustard seed because we know in another parable the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, and but it's not talking about how small the particular faith seed is.

All faith is small when you speak it out of your mouth at first, in comparison to the circumstance, in comparison to the unforgiveness or the offense that you have suffered, in comparison to the doctor's report.

You know, when the doctor says you have stage four cancer, when you say no, by his stripes I was healed.

It seems like such an insufficient response to the report the doctor gave you.

But no, jesus said plant what faith you've got, speak it out and believe it in your heart, and it will eventually overtake and overcome what it is that you've spoken against.

Eventually, that sycamine tree will be uprooted and thrown in the ocean.

See, that's what.

So if see, it's up to us whether we plant the faith we've got or whether we don't, or whether we're gonna speak in faith or we're gonna agree with the evil report.

It's up to us.

And so the whole kingdom.

According to Mark four, jesus said the same.

He said the whole kingdom operates on the seed sowing principle.

And I know I'm preaching to the choir, but you know what are we facing in our nation?

Well, we're facing an election that was stolen, I think.

I don't think there's any question about it.

They're still investigating, they're still suing, they're still doing this, they're still doing that.

It's pretty obvious, it's totally obvious that it was stolen, and the same people that tried to uproot the president when he was first running for president and then they came against him even before he was inaugurated and then right after he was inaugurated.

The same people are still up to no good.

They're the ones that engineered all this COVID stuff.

It's ridiculous.

What they've engineered, it's mostly lies.

I'm not saying that the COVID is not a disease.

I'm not saying that.

I'm saying our response has been completely wrongheaded.

And they're the ones that engineered the response.

The same kind of people.

These are liars.

They make up statistics, they make up facts, they make up science and then they say, oh, we just follow the science.

No, the science doesn't even suggest anything like what we've done, and so on and on.

How are we going to win?

We're gonna win if we believe in our heart and speak with our mouth.

Let's plant our faith and let's have belief and faith in the prayers that we've prayed, because I believe that we're on God's side in this matter.

Amen.

God has a side and the church ought to be on God's side.

God is always on the side of righteousness, he's on the side of right and he's on the side of truth, amen.

So it's up to us whether we plant the faith that we've got or not.

All of the kingdom operates on the seed principle.

You know, really without Satan, the world, you know, is ruled by the God of this world.

Still, even though he's been defeated, he still rules those that are in his kingdom.

And if the world was without Satan, one seed would produce forever.

It would never stop.

I think about the gentleman that lived in a subdivision.

There was a vacant lot and the vacant lot was all drawn over and looked terrible and so he couldn't stand it.

He was a retired gentleman.

So he goes over there and clears the lot, mows it and pulls all the weeds out, clears it off and he begins to improve it and he plants some beautiful grass and then he plants some beautiful shrubs and he creates an English garden.

He's got trellises, he's got trained plants to grow up in the trellises and it's just a beautiful.

He turned this old vacant lot into a beautiful, a beautiful amenity for the neighborhood all by himself.

And some people were coming by and they kind of religious.

Some people I know religious people like, oh, look at this beautiful plot of ground that the Lord has given us.

And the guy was there tending it with a pair of scissors.

He was clipping it, you know, and he heard them say, oh, look at this beautiful plot of ground that the Lord has given us.

He said, yeah, you should have seen it when the Lord had it by himself.

Now we play a very important role in what is going on in the earth, and it's with our faith.

And you know, bible says in Romans 12, 3, that God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

That is how every man got saved.

He couldn't have gotten saved unless God first, before he got saved, dealt him the measure of faith it took for him to get saved.

And so that measure of faith is there, and whether it grows up to each individual believer, whether it gets bigger or whether it shrinks, and so all through the Gospels, when you look through the pages of the Bible, jesus is looking for faith and he's always measuring.

And he's saying you know where is your faith?

Oh, ye of little faith.

How is it that you have no faith?

Oh, woman, great is thy faith?

I have found not so great a faith.

No, not in Israel, talking about the Centurion.

So this faith is given by measure to every person, but what you do with it after.

That is up to you.

But it's not the size of the faith Say, sometimes we get hung up it's not the size of the faith in the beginning of your situation, it's whether you plant it.

As I said before, when you have a seed, let's just say you've got a corn.

You know seed corn.

You've got a kernel of corn you're gonna plant in the ground.

And well, you know, that's one kernel of corn you could eat.

It wouldn't be very appetizing but it wouldn't help you much.

What do you do to get more where you plant it?

And then out of that one kernel you're gonna get at least three, maybe five ears of corn that have got no telling how many kernels on each corn cob.

I mean, it's a.

The bottom line is this multiplied, there's a huge multiplication.

But when you first plant that little kernel and put it in the ground, what happens?

It disappears and you don't have any evidence that it's there.

That's covered over with dirt.

It's the same with your circumstance.

The minute you start speaking against it by faith, nothing changes, nothing looks any different.

It takes what First the blade.

Finally the blade shoots up, then the ear, then the full corn, and that's how the kingdom operates.

So if you have faith as a seed, jesus said, I like what brother Oral Roberts, he always taught on seed faith.

Seed faith, that was his message.

What a transformative message.

Seed faith he's always talking about planting your faith, and that means you've got to speak it in the face of whatever it is to the contrary.

And so it's not the size of the seed that determines the crop.

Every seed is small compared to the crop.

I mean a little apple seed.

You know if you've ever split an apple open and see that little seed inside of an apple?

Well, that's small, as that's a very small seed compared to the apple.

Think about the apple tree.

I mean it becomes an order of magnitude smaller than what the ultimate results are.

When you plant an apple seed, you don't get an apple, you get an apple tree and eventually you get apples.

Plural.

The whole kingdom operates that way and nobody says, oh, I wish I had some bigger apple seeds, I don't know.

I'm looking at this little seed, it looks so small.

No, we don't think that way, and you shouldn't think that way either when it comes to your faith.

Your faith is always smaller in appearance than the final result.

So he said Jesus in Luke 17.5,.

If you have faith as a seed, forget about mustard seed.

If you have faith as a seed or like a seed, then that implies that it should be planted.

It should be planted, it's gotta be planted.

The Word of God has to be planted in your heart.

Faith has to be planted.

You've gotta plant it with words.

Faith consists of words, faith filled words.

You believe in your heart, you speak with your mouth, and so faith is the seed planted by words.

I wanna say that again faith is a seed planted by words.

I'll make this next statement Faith can be uprooted by words.

Faith, the seed that you plant with words, can be unplanted.

It can be dug up with the wrong confession.

So we've got to watch over when we plant something.

We've got to consistently watch over that seed and make sure that it's watered and make sure that it's nurtured.

Are you getting this?

Tonight I'm talking about?

Faith is the believer's servant.

It will do for you what you cannot do by yourself.

Praise God.

And so here in Luke 17, eight, he's talking about servants here, and I want you to get what I'm talking about here.

Just think about your servant being your faith.

And so what do you do you expect your faith to provide food for your table.

You expect your faith to provide your needs, your financial needs.

Isn't that what faith is for?

Faith is to be a servant to provide everything you need.

Why?

Because the whole kingdom of God is based on the seed principle of planting the Word of God.

And so if we're not making it I mean if we've got poor health, if we've got poor finances, if we've got poor marriages, if we've got, if anything in our lives are out of order let's look at what we've been planting or what we've been uprooting with our words.

Let's look at that first.

So your faith will serve you, it will work for you, it will feed you.

Amen, but at some time or another, just like your natural, just like a natural servant.

If you did have a natural servant, you know, after he's fed you, after he's cooked you, you know cornbread and beans and he's set it in front of you and he brought you a big old glass of iced tea and you've eaten yours at some point, your servant's gonna have to be fed.

I mean, your servant has to be fed.

So your faith has to be fed, your faith has to be fed.

And what does it?

What does it fed with, it's fed with a word of God.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

It's by the word of God that you feed your faith.

And so if you want your servant faith to feed you, you're gonna have to feed your servant faith, amen.

You're gonna have to feed it the word of God.

In fact, you're gonna have to feed it and hydrate it, because it takes water, doesn't it?

And water is a type of praise.

So you have to feed and hydrate properly your servant in the natural.

And if he's gonna work for you out there in those hot fields, if he's gonna bring in the crop, if he's gonna go out there and work on that tractor, if he's gonna load all the harvest up on the truck and take it to market and sell it and bring you the proceeds, well then you're gonna have to feed and hydrate your servant.

Right, it's the same with your faith.

And so then, in Mark 427, it says you know, when you've planted the seed or when you've planted your faith, what happens when you sleep and rise night and day, and then suddenly there's a little sprout that springs up.

You don't know how Well, we kinda know generally how because the seed is germinated, it sends little roots downward and little shoots upward, and if we keep hydrating it, if we keep speaking over it, it's gonna grow to maturity and it's finally gonna produce.

And when it does produce, when your faith begins to produce now you need to hear this Then that is exactly what ought to happen.

That's what life we're called to live.

We're called to live fruitful lives.

We're designed to bring forth fruit for our Lord, because why?

We're His servants, and then our faith is our servant.

So you see, it goes right down the line.

And so when it says here, you know, when your servant has done everything he's commanded to do, does he deserve a reward?

Is he supposed to be bragged on?

Is he supposed to pat himself on the back?

Is he supposed to get a participation trophy?

I don't think so.

Jesus said no, really.

What he ought to say is I'm just a wicked, I'm just an unprofitable servant.

I've done everything I was commanded to do.

Not wicked, but I'm just an unprofitable servant.

All I've done was what I was commanded to do, in other words, humility.

You're doing what you're supposed to do.

I see people produce a little bit by their faith and they start to have success.

And there's a difference between giving a testimony and bragging on your faith, because it's all God.

God gave you the faith you have and you deserve some credit for being diligent.

But let's give all the credit and all the praise to God.

Let's make sure we pass on all the praise to him, because he's the one.

He's the one, amen.

That's what Jesus is using a teachable moment to teach his disciples about their servant.

And so you know, one time I was in Galveston.

Many times I've been there, I go there.

My goal is four times a year.

I like to go every quarter and there are some years that I don't quite make it, and this is one of those years that I didn't make four times and I only got to go twice this year because of the COVID-19.

And as far as I'm concerned, it's over.

You know, we're not talking about it anymore, tired of looking at it, tired of hearing about it.

Overblown, it's under our feet.

Everybody say that COVID's under my feet.

Jesus name, amen, all right.

So here I was, in Galveston.

Oftentimes I'll see something for the very first time and God uses it as a teachable moment to me.

He shows me something and I start to meditate on something that I've seen.

So this particular day is a spring day.

It was kind of windy, beautiful day, kind of blue and everything but the surf was dirty and the waves were coming in real strong and I was sitting on top of the seawall.

So if you've been to Galveston, the seawall is about maybe I don't know 10 foot above sea level.

You're looking out and sea level, of course, is beach level.

And so I'm looking at this guy and he's got him a kayak and I kind of giggled because I'd never seen a kayak on the beach before.

I've seen surfboards, I've seen boats, I've seen jet skis, but never a kayak.

And it was a windy day and the waves were rough and they were coming in real strong.

And he got himself in this kayak and he launched it out there and of course those waves were breaking over the front of his kayak and it was hitting him right in the face.

And I have to admit I was kind of giggling and I thought, man, this won't last long, because he doesn't have any goggles and that salt water stings when it hits you right full in the face like that.

And he was just paddling.

He had his little paddle and you know how they do.

They're paddling like this, sitting down, and, boy, they were just hitting him in the face.

Hitting him in the face.

Finally, he got out about even with the end of the jetty.

So he'd made it out there and it was getting a little better, but the waves were still big, and so they were so big out there that he would disappear.

He would pop up to the top of a wave and then just, and even though I was looking down on him by about 10 feet when he got out there, just past the edges of the jetties, he would disappear and then he'd pop back up and he got out there in the blue water and I don't know whether he was headed to South America or Mexico.

I thought to myself man, when are you gonna turn and go?

He kept paddling out.

Ouch, you know, I mean golly, you're just in a little old, flimsy kayak.

I mean you could get in some of those currents and might take you a long way.

It might take you a while to get back to where you can get back to shore.

But anyway, the way he was working, he was working so hard to get out there and he was popping up and down, up and down, up and down.

And as I was watching that and kind of giggling, the Holy Ghost spoke to my heart.

He said that's your faith working.

He said it's just like your faith when you go to bed at night.

Your faith never sleeps.

It's out there paddling, it's out there working, it's out there moving you to faith's destination.

Come on, let's lift our hands.

I'm telling you, our faith is working 24 seven.

Our faith is our servant.

And I mean, when we give our faith something to do, it doesn't quit.

All we've got to do is give it a little encouragement.

All we've got to do is feed it every now and then.

All we've got to do is hydrate it and praise God for the answer before we ever see it.

And if we'll do those two things, our faith will keep working until it brings home the bacon.

Oh, I tell you.

And so, day by day, it's working to move that situation out of your way.

If that's what you're doing, you're trying to move something out of the way.

Maybe you're moving a mountain, maybe you're moving a sycamine tree, whatever you're moving out of the way, or whatever you need to come your way.

You know we don't have any trouble believing we're saved, right.

We're highly developed in that idea.

But faith is the same in every realm.

So if we're highly developed in our salvation and we have no doubts about our salvation and we know we're saved, we know we're born again, then we should spend an equal amount of time until we're equally proficient in the faith to be healed or the faith to keep our health up, our faith for finances or faith for relationships or faith for a favor or any number of things.

I mean we have an opportunity, by getting into the Word of God, to plant the seed of faith and to watch it be our servant.

John 15.7.

Jesus said if you abided me and my words abiding you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

And that word asked there it also means to make a demand, not a demand of God, but a demand on your covenant, or a demand on Satan to take his hands off of your money or take his hands off your health, or take his hands off of your body or take his hands off of your marriage or whatever else the devil is trying to do.

I mean, if you abided me, well, we're in Christ, aren't we?

The moment we were born again.

We're in Christ, amen.

And his word abides in us.

Well, his word abiding in us is the measure to which we act.

Like the Bible is true.

In other words, act when we walk in faith, when we walk by faith and not by sight.

That's when we know that the word is abiding in us, then we can make these demands and they shall happen.

They shall come our way.

We can make a demand on the covenant.

It will come to pass.

So get your servant working, keeping properly fed, keeping properly hydrated, by offering God praise every time you think about that project that you have working.

Don't think about failure.

Quit talking failure.

Quit talking lack, quit talking sickness, quit talking insufficiency.

Listen, talk victory all the time.

It's just something you can do, it's something you have the power to do, and when you do that, your faith is fed and your faith is hydrated.

So get your faith working, get your servant working, keeping properly fed and hydrated, and give God all the glory for the results.

Faith is the believer's servant.

It makes the impossible possible.

So three things that just wrap this message up.

Number one doubt your doubts, doubt and unbelief will shut your faith down.

So when you have a doubt, come to your mind.

See our minds.

Our minds can have doubts.

You know the bigger the situation you're facing and your words don't seem like they're very big, you know, compared to the problem.

And so your mind might say, oh, that's not gonna work.

What doubt that?

Doubt it and believe what the word says.

The word says you can have what you say.

And so doubt your doubts.

Number one.

Number two believe in your heart what you say comes to pass and say that, say it.

Say I believe what I say comes to pass.

I believe that sick of mind tree is being plucked up by the roots and it's being cast out into the sea.

It's out of my way, that mountain is being removed.

In Jesus name, see, believe what you say comes to pass.

And then, number three hydrate your crop.

Praise God for the answer, don't forget praise.

Don't forget praise, and we can praise God for our success, for our president.

I just believe that his legal team is paying attention to things and we're gonna believe that all our prayers come to pass.

We're gonna believe that our prayers avail much to bring much power to bear, dynamic and it's working.

And I believe that we're gonna keep our president for another four years, four more years, amen.

So faith the believer servant, why don't you lift your hand and praise God for what he has given us tonight, to feed on Hallelujah, and I trust that you're encouraged.