3 Things Small Faith Does — Rich Wilkerson Jr.

we're continuing in our study tonight we have committed ourselves as a church to take the first six months of 2021 to study one gospel that is the gospel of mark and we kicked off the new year with a collection of talks entitled changes looking at mark's gospel and tonight we begin a new collection of talks from mark's gospel and we're going to be studying tonight in mark chapter four and i've titled this collection and i'm also going to title my sermon this tonight if that's okay we've titled this collection and my sermon we've titled it small faith everyone say small faith look at your neighbor say neighbor you need small faith look at your other neighbor the one that you don't talk to at all yet tonight i know you haven't said hi to that person yet and say say other neighbor i have small faith i'm trying to get you to talk to people in 2021. small faith and you know i really wanted to uh title this collection that because it's really important to me that you understand that what you got is a lot say that out loud say what i got is a whole lot i think when it comes to the topic of faith or the concept of faith i've been around church most of my life and what i've recognized is that many people when it comes to this word faith it's like they've got these other synonyms so they've got this other set of words attached to it to describe their faith it's words like suddenly it's words like immediate or phenomenal or miraculous or signs and wonders or or mystical or supernatural and i like all those words don't get me wrong some of y'all don't know about your boy but i grew up in charismania i am four generations deep pentecostal i love my heritage i love where i come from um i just it's who i am so i believe the whole bible all the crazy stuff all the weird stuff i wonder what he believes i believe it all okay um i grew up going to healing crusades everyone was at this healing crusade my mom and some of you are like i'm losing you as i'm speaking others you're like this is why i come to this church i've been waiting for this night um you know i used to go to these healing crusades and like the preacher would line all the people if you were seeing this before they'd line them all up and then they would you know lay their hands on them and they would pray for them and then they would go down you know and so it wouldn't just be one row of people they'd have to get another row of people which were called the catchers to catch the people who fell over it's a whole system and a process and i used to go as a man like oh my god that's awesome i remember i left the meeting one time i said mom i said yo what happens if that preacher prays for himself she said what do you mean i said well he's gonna drop to the ground there ain't gonna be nobody there to catch him i was mesmerized by the power of the spirit i was mesmerized by the gifts of the spirit and please make no mistake about it i believe in all of the signs and i believe in all of the gifts yo if i ever get sick and there is not a doctor nearby who can give me a prescription there is no surgery for what is in my body please do not go knock on the door of the pastor who says all of the gifts of the bible have ceased and have stayed there in the bible do not go and knock on the door of the pastor who says you better just suffer in silence and you will get your reward in heaven please go and find you a holy ghost tongue-talking spirit-filled believer who would declare i still believe the whole bible i still believe that the deaf ears can be opened up i still believe blinded eyes can be open i still believe that dead can be resurrected in christ is there anybody in this house who still believes the whole bible that your god can work miracles come on somebody give him praise go find that guy go find him go find the creepy christian go find that guy to pray for me get all the oil in your house anoint me from the top of my head to the souls of my i'll bathe in the oil just want to set the record straight i believe in signs and wonders i believe in the power of god however i believe in this collection i i just want to try to help give you a broader picture of faith i want to try to help give you another set of words that might help you on this journey because here's what i believe i believe that many times if we only have one set of words what we do is we turn our faith into an event and because we turn our faith into an event it makes us miss out on the daily common miracles happening all around us faith is not a moment faith is a lifestyle that you give yourself to like life is full of miracles i just i just want to stop for a moment because some of us we're missing it and what takes place in our life is that we become familiar with things that we see and it's familiarity that diminishes and decreases our faith all of life is one big epic saga there is miracles taking place all around you your body bro is a miracle like dude we're still figuring out the human body the psalmist said you are fearfully and wonderfully made and every atheist scientist would have to stop and say amen that's true because the dna in your body alone is is loaded with more code than we could ever begin to analyze you want to be shocked you want to find a phenomenon you've been looking for a sign you've been looking for a wonder just study the human eye and get ready you're going to have to step back and do a praise dance and a jericho march because it is radical stuff this earth we're walking on holy smokes it is a cosmic conundrum like whoa what what is this place scientists are still figuring out what holds it all together how did it come about the very fact that the sun rose again this morning is nothing short of epic it is miraculous it is wondrous it is awesome [Applause] but what happens is that it's just common to us and it's our familiarity that will steal our ah so a lot of us we think faith is the thing we need for the church conference faith is not the thing you need for the church conference faith is the thing you need for your everyday ho-hum common average kind of day faith for me i just want to give you another set of words is this whole other place faith for me is the thing that gives me strength to carry out patience you realize that patience is not the ability to wait like one way or another you go and wait bro patience isn't the ability to wait patience is how you wait this is why you can find a person who's following jesus and although they are believing god for big things and although they are waiting on god for breakthrough and although they have seen god do things in the supernatural yet they have not received them yet in the natural although they don't have it yet they can be walking in a valley and still maintain peace they can be midst of a crisis but they haven't lost their purpose it's because they have faith to be patient it's faith to value small it's faith to recognize that i grow slow it's faith to understand that the seemingly insignificant small stuff that's taking place in my life it is packed with more potential than you could ever imagine what is it called it's called small faith someone say small faith see many of the big things that god does are on the heels of the small things that we do i've preached for many years now and let me just say it again and i'll preach it to you again next year we serve a slow fast god it's important especially in our 6 p.m turn up i don't know what we're calling this anymore was this called savage service the 6 pm savage service where we go savage that's got a nice ring to it i like the alliteration 6 savage service sorry it's important that like in this robust young faith-filled excited group of people that we understand that we serve a slow fast god i don't know how to say it but following jesus is slow you ever see zootopia my son was in the 10 am sure he was like dad yeah amen i was like okay son there's only a point he got um there's that sloth who's like he's just so slow i'll tell you following she's like read my bible worship again it's like really freaking slow it just is it's like oh we're like we're going to church again yeah wait wait like conference conferences back yeah like serve some more slow but then all of a sudden it's really fast why because it's those that pursue god patiently that get to witness god move suddenly i wonder if we could raise up a generation of people who would say god i will follow you as slow as you go trusting that at just the right time you will move immediately and breakthrough will take place it's not the size of your faith that counts it's the size of your god that counts and i'm gonna try to hammer this into your heart all night tonight and here's the big thesis i am working with god can do something big with something very very small i didn't come tonight to preach to you about great faith i haven't come to you to preach to you about epic faith we haven't come to boast in our strong faith we've come tonight to appeal to our congregation and to our community what would happen if we could walk out of this room and have small faith someone say small faith we have been studying mark we've been in the first three chapters i felt like this past sunday manushka charles and dakota duron they just come on i need us to put our hands together and give honor where honor is due what uh we could do a little bit better than that can we thank god for the pastors and the leaders just amazing what that what's that one line that i like manu about you can like say it like i said it turned hey help me you can find your networks find the network to find a career hold on you network to find your career you withdr you said it better than how i said this morning okay you network to find your career you withdraw to find your calling good night we'll see you next week online that's how good that was last week we we've been studying the gospel of mark in the first three chapters of mark um jesus has been in action in fact this gospel known as mark it separates itself from matthew luke and john and that theologians would call it jesus in action we don't get baby jesus we don't get jesus in puberty you just get full grown full beard jesus doing miracles right in the first chapter but as you study it it's not just about what jesus is saying in fact as you read mark it's even more important to pay attention to what he is doing and so since january we've been watching what he is doing but now we get here to mark chapter four and all of a sudden as you open up to mark chapter four jesus is starting a brand new collection he's in a series of sermons he's giving four parables that we could take months and months to break down because they are so rich in content the first parable he tells is the parable of the sower i love this parable it's about a farmer who goes out scatters seed and some seed falls on good ground and other falls on bad ground some falls on some rocky ground and birds take it and weeds steal it the whole premise and the point of the parable that jesus is teaching is jesus is talking about as the word goes forth what type of life is it landing on what is the soil of your heart is your heart good ground because it's not enough to hear the word there's a difference between hearing the word and receiving the word you could be here tonight because someone coerced you to come and say yeah you got to come to my church it's at a zoo it's awesome i promise you we'll probably get to see a lion i can't promise it but i'm hoping we can there's some monkeys for sure just come so you're here and you're like listening but just because you're hearing what i'm saying doesn't mean that you're receiving what i'm saying it's only that when we receive it with the right heart does something begin to blossom to something begin to flourish but jesus pivots to a second parable these are short stories that he's teaching secrets of the kingdom of god and the second parable is the parable the lamp on the stand and the whole point of this parable is all about shining bright for jesus but what jesus will say over and over again something like four or five times he uses the word here because what he wants you to realize is the way that you hear the gospel will determine how you share the gospel you ever been in a church before and some guy's up there preaching and the whole time he's preaching good stuff but the way he's presenting it is like i don't know bro i'm telling you god loves you you're like i don't i don't believe you man that's scary what you're saying it's because the way in which we hurt it the way in which we interpret it will determine how we share it and jesus is saying i want you to get this loud and clear i love you and i am for you and you are called to burn bright for me this is not a season for the church to be apathetic this is not a season for the church to be ashamed this is not a season that we would live in the darkness this is not a season that we would be quiet oh but this is a season that the church of jesus christ would shine bright with the gospel [Applause] he tells the third parable the third parable is the parable the growing seed the growing seed i like it because now he's breaking down what the seed is the seed is god's word and god's word is potent and powerful and when god's word lands on the right soil it does not matter what happens on this earth it is only a matter of time before that seed begins to blossom it does not matter if you are in the daylight or if you are in night time that seed is at work anybody thankful that even while you sleep and even while you rest there is a god in heaven who is working on your behalf his word does not return void but then he gets to his fourth parable and his fourth parable which is just two verses which i'm going to draw your attention to tonight is known as the parable of the mustard seed mark chapter 4 verse 30. again jesus said what shall we say the kingdom of god is like or or what parable shall we use to describe it so just imagine when we stop jesus is like all right i want to try to teach you about my kingdom um i want to try to establish how your god works and how he operates and so i'm trying to think of some words i'm trying to think of a story that i could tell you to describe it i'm concerned that you've only got one set of words you've only got one type of description how do you know the way you describe something indicates what you believe about it and notice jesus he's going to describe the kingdom of god he's not going to say the kingdom of god is epic the kingdom of god is suddenly moving he's not gonna sound like i know what you did last summer trailer movie style okay instead he's out let me try to describe him try to give you a set of words let me try to give you a picture verse 31 it is like a mustard seed which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground yet when planted it grows and it becomes the largest of all garden plants with such big branches the birds of the air can perch in its shade so jesus is teaching about his kingdom remember this is why jesus came he came to establish his kingdom on the earth how do we establish his kingdom on the earth the only way we can do it is through faith it is impossible to please god without faith when we pray the lord's prayer what are we praying father your will not my will we're praying heaven down to your kingdom come your will be done understand that the church of jesus christ is the embassy of god on this earth you and i are citizens of another kingdom i'm thankful that you're proud to be an american yet what i'm scared about is there's some americans that are more proud of their country than they are the kingdom of god it's fine to be proud of your nation i just hope you match that with double pride when it comes to your lord and savior jesus christ and this kingdom you're a part of i want to teach you about my kingdom and my kingdom if i can describe it to you is not this big massive thing instead it starts in this small format and it starts in this little size it's called seed and if you want to establish the kingdom of god which is why we're gathering which is why we're serving which is why we're giving which is why we had i love my city which is why we're getting baptized you didn't come here tonight to hear another motivational speech if you did you should have stayed home ted talk is way better than us but if you came to be a part of the kingdom of god if you came to establish something on this earth that has yet to exist if you came to walk different if you came to talk different if you came to think different if you came to be different oh i got news for you you have come to the right place i have come to serve notice that god's kingdom is being established all over the world today [Applause] well how do you do it jesus and jesus would say well you need faith well how much faith the size of a mustard satan what does that mean just small faith someone say small faith that's important that we take a moment we're just all in introduction sermons so in the coming weeks we're going to look at different stories in mark where you're going to see men and women who did something small in faith and then god did something big on the other side why because i want you as you begin to study over the next few weeks you at your job you and your marriage you with your dream you tend to think man these people in the bible they just had this epic awesome faith and it's not true they were just like you and just like me they had small faith and then god does something big someone said what i got is a whole lot but it's important on week one that we actually define what faith actually is hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 gives us that answer the writer of hebrews we do not know who the author is but we do know that the writer of hebrews is writing about the fulfillment of jesus from the old covenant that all the prophecies that all of the law that all of the old way of doing things jesus has fulfilled it i say that because as you read all 13 chapters i believe manu knows the answer to that 13 chapters of hebrews they're all about the name of jesus and hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 gives us a definition of faith they say now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see so let's talk about faithfulness what is faith as i want to say it because i keep qualifying myself week after week i am not a hater um i'm not like i i love you and if you're here tonight and you don't believe oh my goodness we love you i'm not a hater but i'm gonna try to tell the truth and it might come off like i'm hating um faith is not um good vibes dang it dang it he's doing this tonight okay um i'm sorry i'm sorry i thought he was going to be kind um faith is not like you know positivity and by the way i like if it's going to be negativity or positivity i'm going with positivity but but but that's not faith faith is not just like yeah name it and claim it and confess it like you know people like oh my goodness i just love voo man the vibe the vibe the vibe such a vibe there bro and like i don't even know i don't mean like the best is yet to come i love that it's like my motto for my life bro i just got the tattooed on my back the best is yet to come yeah it's the best is yet to go yes um unless you're operating outside of god's will [Music] so it's not a vibe like i think there's a lot of people that are like oh my goodness yeah i just got i have faith man i have faith i don't know what these voices are tonight but i'm just you know i have faith i have faith i'm a person you're a person of faith i'm a person of faith you faith faith and like you ever get a conversation i don't even we're talking about anymore like i'm yeah yeah i just agree amen you know but what a lot of people are walking around with in 2021 is what i would call faith in faith so just because you say the best yet to come doesn't mean the best is yet to come because a lot of people just have their faith is actually attached to faith it's faith in faith and so we think the more i have faith the more my faith will come up it's not true it's a misconception because it's not about the size of your faith over and over i'm going to say the size of your faith does not determine the outcome of your faith it's only the object of your faith that does that we try to teach this for a second um it's like if if jesus aka jesus on the front row um if he gives me his chair and his chair is broken it's only got three legs on it and we set it up here and i'm now get you guys all right i'm now going to sit on the three-legged chair and it will hold me up it does not matter how much faith i have in the three-legged chair we could do jericho marches i can go to my dad's old office and pull out his shifar and blow it till i'm blue in the face the chair's broken bro no but i have faith no it it's broken in the same way i could put a life preserver on and jump in a pool and say i have so much faith in the life preserver that's great but it's not your faith that's holding you up it's the object of the life preserver that's strong enough to hold you up i don't know if you're i just think we think like oh it's like you know the quality it's not the quality of your faith it's the object of your faith put it this way what is your faith attached to my brother-in-law d he's somewhere around here he bought me this 70-inch tv last week awesome thank you lord i just i just prayed for it and happened um he bought me this big old tv and we put it in this my office in my house and to be honest i don't know how to hang tvs i'm not good at building stuff i just i pray for stuff and so uh i hired this handyman really great guy he's awesome he like wears a tool belt all the time and i think they know his name at home depot i'm not jealous but a little bit and so uh he came over and he he put the tv up and i got one of those really cool have you seen these like stands that you can like pivot the tv and awesome i'm into that stuff and so you know i walked in there's a tv and so i left and he called me this is monday he's like rich i want you know the um i set the tv up i said it's awesome great he goes check it out oh cool so i came into the room this is monday and like i'm one of these i don't know like i'm into details like you ever see people put the tv up like all the wires are out the back you know like that ain't that in it you know and so it was like it was perfect it was all detailed the plaster was on the wall it looked so good the way the tv was positioned and set up i was like this is great man and so i just went over this is true i just went over and i did i i hardly even touched it i just adjusted it because it's got a movable stand i just tweaked it i sit down i'm telling you within 10 seconds this thing suddenly falls off the wall crashes on the ground and shatters have you ever happened have you ever had something happen like um so quickly that when it happened like your your initial response was to repent i was like i don't even know like what i don't know what i've done since of omission god i don't know you know my heart i do not i was repenting i was like it's crash i'm like oh sweetheart i go into tongues i'm like that quick i'm like wow i'm like what in the world i call this handyman i said bro it hasn't even been 12 hours he said what'd you do i said i'd do nothing man i said come back over you're supposed to be the best and so he came back over and he opens up my wall and would you believe that when he opens up my all he discovers that the way that room was built it wasn't up to code that all the sheetrock that was on the wall was three inches off of every stud and so when he had marked the stud he thought he was on it but unbeknownst to him when he was drilling into the sheetrock the the screw was still three inches away from the stud in the house it's so amazing to me because it appeared to look so good [Applause] [Music] like it looked so sharp and it was so finished and it appeared to be the right thing but all of a sudden one little touch from the outside begin to expose exactly what was holding that thing up i felt like preaching to someone tonight you can show up to church and you can appear to have it all put together but i am telling you what one touch from this world if you are not attached to jesus that thing's gonna come crumbling down it will collapse it will break suddenly will be over but i got some good news for the people in the back if you just got a little bit of faith and if you drill yourself into the person of jesus if you attach yourself to this gospel there is nothing that happens on this earth that can take you out somebody give god a shout of praise no weapon formed against you shall prosper you've got to attach yourself to something bigger than yourself when i say the best is yet to come i am quoting hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. now faith is being sure of what i hope for certain of what i do not see this is not some declaration that god i need a million dollars in my bank account god i want a bigger car and i walk outside and there it is that don't make any sense this verse is about jesus i know this i know right now i can't see jesus but my hope is certain in him i know right now i got some problems around me but i am drilled into the person of who he is my faith is not in faith i declare the best is yet to come because one way or another i will spend eternity with my maker somebody give god some praise come on and give him praise tonight all over this house now faith is being sure of what i hope for jesus certain of what i cannot say i'm certain of everything that he said it is true even when i can't see it i don't have time to brag to you about my great faith i don't have great faith i just got a little bit of slow suddenly i trust him and it happens it's called small faith it says it's small faith i just we just don't want to build a community that looks really good but one touch from this world isn't it amazing how many people are missing these days isn't it amazing how people have just drifted in a 12-month period is it because jesus changed is it because jesus is weak or is it because maybe we were attaching our faith to something other than him god can do something big with something very small someone say small faith i want to show you quickly and i've not done anything quickly tonight i apologize thank you i love you you're coming to my house tonight no i'm kidding like it's really weird sorry it's probably inappropriate too sorry i want to show you three things that small faith does all from the text just two verses i know there's a lot of talking and not a whole lot of um extracting but i'm going to try to do that quickly in the next 15 to 20 minutes if you if you'll give me that opportunity three things small faith does number one small faith sees in the seed small faith sees in the seed and so i want you to try to understand this for a moment that um just because i can't see something doesn't mean that i can't believe in it like especially for all of our friends is your first time into a zoo church um i've never seen god but i firmly wholeheartedly believe in god i believe in him well you can't believe in god you've never seen him oh okay do you believe in the wind yeah yeah why because i felt it okay because i've experienced it because i've witnessed its power how many know living in south florida we've all testified to the power of the wind we've experienced the wind never seen it but i believe in it we had small group in my house on on monday night a lot of things happened for me this past monday um and i love our i love our small groups this week we had um close to 200 vue crews meet almost 2 000 people in vu cruise this week can we thank god for what he's doing i'm not just trying to do my life in big church i'm trying to do my life in a in a small group with real people that know my name know what's going on in my life don't just look at my talents and my gifts but actually know about my weaknesses and my tendencies and my issues we're working our faith out together and the way that we do cruise at vu church is that we do a discussion based upon whatever sermon we heard that week and so of course this past monday we were discussing the message that mnuchin dakota brought last week which was just amazing from mark 3 on calling i loved it we had great discussion but the way that you get that discussion is our team puts together a great guide every week vuechurch.com crew and you can read along and see how the questions go and so we had some new people at our house that night and somebody asked for the wi-fi password of course i you know i gave them the wi-fi password it is funny because when you give away the wi-fi password if you're anything like me like anyone else like me like you have one password for everything in your life it's like as i give you my wife i'm also giving you my son's inheritance there it is you know a lot about me at that point so i i gave these guys the wi-fi and then they were having trouble getting connected to the internet in fact it was taking a few minutes that we had to stop and pause and we all to kind of come around it and and wait for them to get connected what was interesting to me or what's interesting me every time when there's a lag with someone getting onto the internet is i've never heard someone say that's it i'm done with wi-fi i don't believe in it any longer it has just disappointed me far too many times i waited longer than i wanted to wait it did not happen as quick as i hoped it would and so therefore i do not believe in it and i am done with in fact i'm burned out on wi-fi i've never heard someone say that in fact i've seen the opposite what do you do you just keep on trying and trying and trying until you get connected see faith is like wi-fi you can't see it but it has the power to connect you to what it is that you need but if i'm being honest with you i think there's people in church that got more faith in wifi than they do jesus because if you really had faith in jesus even though you can't see him always how many of you know that you would just keep on trying and trying and trying i know he might not have showed up on your timeline i know you might feel like you've waited far too long i know you might have been disappointed in the past but friends i want to encourage you tonight that waiting on god is not a waste of time but rather waiting on god is the greatest thing that you could ever do because on the other side of your waiting is a breakthrough that only comes when you continue to try to get connected these disciples they come to jesus another time in matthew 17 and they can't cast out these demons and they're frustrated about it oh my goodness why can't we do what you did lord it's amazing to us you're able to do all this stuff you are god in the flesh i don't know why we can't do what you can do crazy but lord what's the deal we can't cast out these demons and jesus he responds to them and he says because you have so little faith he says i tell you the truth if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move nothing will be impossible for you when you study a mustard seed what you find out is that a mustard seed is about one to two millimeters in size meaning if it was in my hand right now from where you're seated most of you would not be able to see it in fact if you were going to look at it from a metaphor standpoint you could almost say the mustard seed is invisible but faith is the ability to see into the seed faith is looking at that which appears to be invisible and continuing to try continuing to pray continuing to believe when jesus corrects the disciples and says you have such little faith he is not giving them a literal size of their faith instead he is speaking in expression and what he is saying is he's saying if you had faith that was invisible you could actually move mountains he's not saying that they have little faith or small faith he's saying you have no faith you got no faith you don't believe you haven't prayed you're not attached to me and you're wondering why you can't do what i can do if you had invisible faith if you had faith so little attached to me there is not a mountain there is no obstacle that would prevent you from moving forward you could continue to progress in me i wonder what you see in the seat of your children tonight what do you see in the seat of your spouse what do you see in the seed of your job seeing the seed if you're calling the seed of your purpose i just felt like tonight there's people that walked into this place that you're giving up on dreams that god spoke to you loud and clear and i just felt like part of my assignment tonight was for you to look back at that dream and although it's invisible tonight and although it is little right now if you would begin to see in the seed if you would begin to look into the invisible there is a god who declares that which is invisible today can all of a sudden begin to manifest tomorrow don't give up keep trying to get connected someone say see in the seed but faith doesn't just see in the seed small faith also works in the dirt how many know that sea without soil is kind of pointless seed's potential is only revealed once it's planted in the dirt you actually have to put the seed in the dirt and the dirt actually has to do its work in order for it to grow in order for it to blossom in order for it to flourish seed needs dirt and faith works in the dirt jesus says my kingdom is like a small mustard seed a mustard seed is one to two millimeters practically invisible but watch what happens in mark chapter 4 verse 31 mark chapter 4 verse 31 says this it's like a mustard seed which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground yet when planted it becomes the largest of all garden plants what we know about the mustard seed is that it goes into the ground and then it has the potential to become 30 feet large 30 feet in width that's how big this plant can become from something invisible did you notice the key word in verse 32 yet when planted no doubt i want to be very very clear your life is small yet when planted your talents i just i know not super encouraging really small yet when planted your gifts small yet when planted your dream it's honestly a really small dream you think it's really big oh my goodness this big it's pretty small when planted your resources small yet when planted let me holler at someone in the back your bank account small yet when planted yet when planted what does that mean that means when i release that which god has given me and i surrender it over for his glory and for his name's sake he can take that which is invisible and when i plant it it can become large it can grow it can become something more than what it is today somebody give god some praise yet when planted yet when planted in the same way the seed has potential the dirt has a purpose the dirt in your life has purpose yet when planted i grew up in church and so i know all the christianese and all the language oh my goodness i just wonder is he planted are you planted brother you know what you need to do you need to be planted i'll tell you what your problem is your problem is you're not planted have you ever stopped to ask yourself a question what does it feel like to be freaking planted everyone's always talking about planted in church okay cool what's it feel like what's it all about let me tell you what it feels like it feels like dirt i grew up in church and so i you know all these agriculture metaphors i've grown up in the city i don't understand all this i'm like i'm not a farmer you know but everything jesus is always talking about farming i'm like what is all this farming stuff i just often wonder if the seed could speak what would the seed say it feels like to be planted seed yo what's it feel like to be planted does it feel good he's like no i see is it comfortable no it's not comfortable say see yes i see if the seed can speak because what you got is a lot some of you are bypassing that which god has called you to do and some of you have derailed your destiny and you continue to walk in disobedience and some of you tonight he's calling you back to put your faith in him i just want to let you know if the seed could speak he would say it feels like dirt what's the dirt feel like mr seed is it fun down there no no it feels like a hole has been dug and i have laid my life down i have surrendered all that i am and i have put myself into the ground but is it comfortable that guy is not comfortable no no because the dirt it comes on top of me and the dirt weighs so much more than me you ever just feel like life is just weighing on you oh i thought i would have graduated from this now i thought i would have figured this out i thought i would have discovered how to do this i thought i would have had to manage all this responsibility but it never ever feels that way it just always feels like dirt weighing down on me just feels like more pressure it feels like more responsibility dirt could mean so many different things in your life tonight it could be the pain in your life that you're avoiding so many people trying to escape from their pain or praying the wrong prayer god take away my pain but many times god's saying no no i need to let the dirt do the work because in the same way that your life has potential the dirt has a purpose your mistakes have not disqualified you and your weaknesses have not rendered you useless rather this is just dirt and all of it has a purpose and it does not feel comfortable to be planted somebody tonight you're in this place you're like unless i get a word from god i'm done with this church thing i'm done with this jesus thing and some of you walked in here saying i just need to find some comfort i just need to find some peace i just need to find some rest and i just want to submit to you tonight that maybe all of that discomfort and maybe all of that dissatisfaction is not an indication that you're outside of god's will but maybe it's the very fact that in this life you might feel buried oftentimes but you're not buried you are planted like a seed in the ground and it is just a matter of time if you let the dirt do the work that something's gonna grow and something's gonna get bigger and something's gonna blossom and something's gonna flourish i know it was invisible yesterday but it's about to grow it's about to grow it's about to grow let the dirt do the work [Music] let it work in your life i want to stop praying this prayer god take away the pain take away the pressure take god make me stronger in it you're not buried you you just planted i was talking to my therapist last week yeah i go to therapy so should you you know like you know you you find an outlet so you don't have an outburst and you do the work i think sometimes people think like oh i'm going to go you know talk to this person or i'm going to go do this practice and i'm going to have a breakthrough but but more often than not it's not how it works it's something like you know therapy it's just you're doing the work you're doing the work you're doing the work you're doing and all of a sudden there's like whoa there's a there's a there's a slow fast component it's like going to the gym i don't go to the gym like where's my abs like you got to keep going you just do the work and we were chatting and it was just one of those kind of insight moments that just the lord spoke to me and there was like an aha it might not be an aha for you it was just an aha for me and we were chatting i was explaining to her that there has been moments throughout this last 12 months where it's not that i was doing the wrong thing in fact in many cases i was doing the right thing i was doing the right habit i was doing the right practice but it's like i just didn't feel maybe how i used to feel when i did it is this ever you ever done the right thing but you feel the wrong way you ever come to a worship service like i know i'm supposed to worship i don't feel nothing maybe you're sitting in a message and you used to feel so much of god's presence when his word was opened up but tonight here it is the word is opened up and you're here you're not going anywhere you're not quitting you're not giving up but you just feel nothing you used to go to your crew and it used to just be so life-giving now you're just going through the motions and you're not giving up and you're not quitting but you just don't feel the right thing even though you're doing the right thing i was just expressing that season has been an odd one you know i love the fact that we can take church online i met a girl yesterday i love my city who goes to our church and she lives in atlanta and she actually flew in town if you can believe it because she wanted to serve with her crew and i love my city i'm so grateful for technology and all the ways that god's opening up the world to us but i would be lying if i didn't tell you that i miss this and not just this i just miss all of it i miss seeing people i miss i miss seeing people's faces when god's moving in their life i i miss witnessing the stories right after being in god's presence i i miss watching people become the leader they've been called to become like right there in my proximity they just i miss it at times this is this is i'm about the local church i like i like the real community of people we were chatting and she said rich i don't know if you know this but you're an extrovert i was like how much am i paying you again [Music] i knew that um i'm sorry she said uh you draw energy from the human spirit that by default it's not that you're doing ministry to be thanked it's not that you're doing leadership to be noticed but unbeknownst to you all these years or maybe you did know you've been drawing off of other people's energy and so there's no wonder that in this season where there's been so much cut off from one another that you would feel at times dissatisfied you would feel unfulfilled because you're missing something that's been coming your way for many many years she said something she said rich i wonder i wonder if this could be a season that if you would reframe the obstacle that's in front of you i wonder if you could draw a line in the sand once and for all at 36 years of age that as you move forward from this point on leading and communicating i wonder if you could make a decision in your heart that in this season i will discover once and for all who i'm doing my ministry for is it for the applause of people or is it for the audience of one [Applause] and it's like something got reframed inside of me and that is is that there feels like to be a whole lot of dirt being in ministry at times leading and teaching but i started to think to myself if i could be so energized by the human spirit i mean the human spirit's powerful once again you might have come in here tonight and you're a doubter or a critic you're not into church you're definitely not into jesus but you're like yo i'm sensing something in this room it's called the human spirit there's something powerful that happens when like-minded people come together with a collective purpose and pursuit to grow to become to be better you can sense it it's tangible it's the human spirit i can tell you story after story about the human spirit defying odds and stepping up and doing radical things because the human spirit is powerful but friends if the human spirit can motivate us how much more when the holy spirit becomes your motivator how much more when the holy spirit begins to sustain you [Applause] [Music] faith works in the dirt works in the dirt [Music] and i'm not praying god take away the dirt i'm praying god let the dirt work [Music] faith season the seed faith works in the dirt but last night as we close faith rejoices in the harvest dirt will either help you or hurt you it's either pushing you towards jesus tonight or pulling you away lost so many people in this past season because the pain was too great and it pushed and pulled them away from jesus let your storm always push you to where jesus is it's not a question of whether or not you're going to be in a storm the question is the question's always going to be is jesus in your boat i want jesus to walk with me through every trial through every adversity i need jesus today more than i've ever needed [Applause] [Music] you can make progress or you can make excuses [Music] you can't make both [Music] i can't make both i'm either moving forward or i'm staying here and i'm done with staying here i'm gonna progress but as i progress i understand there is no such thing as a non-stop harvest why because harvest is not an occasion harvest is an occasion it's not a station it's a season not a destination but you can't always be on the top you can't always have an a in every category i just want to bring some peace to some people tonight because there's some people like you just beating yourself up all the time harvest is not a non-stop thing it's a season not a destination some of you you're listening to message right now and the whole time while i'm preaching all you've got your eyes on is the harvest and that's awesome you're gonna have a harvest but listen you don't travel to harvest harvest comes to you oh i sense this word in my spirit you don't you don't go chasing a harvest a harvest is a result a harvest is a consequence a harvest is watch this a harvest is just a matter of time [Applause] [Music] it's just a matter of time [Music] i don't go looking for it i don't go chasing it down i do my part i plant i sow i see in the seed i work in the dirt and it's about time [Music] that a harvest comes about you don't go chasing it it comes right to you it is a result it is a consequence it is not some place that you live in it is a season that you pass through don't judge your day by your harvest measure it by your investment i could tell you story after story about the harvest that god has done at vu church in five years but i don't want to take time all the while just telling about those moments i'd rather get us all excited about the investment we made yesterday when 300 people showed up into liberty city and said you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna paint a parking lot i'm gonna stripe it i'm gonna put white lines down ain't nobody gonna know my name ain't nobody gonna notice what we're doing but i'm making an investment i'd rather celebrate two thousand some people showing up to a small group to say i'ma work my faith out in discussion i know it doesn't look great and it doesn't look epic today it's just small and it's just gradual but little by little i am growing and little by little i am pursuing jesus and it's just a matter of time before harvest comes my way because harvest is coming someone say harvest is coming it's just a matter of time it's ju it's just a matter of time and when it comes there is only one response and that is to rejoice watch what jesus says mark chapter 4 verse 32 we are done tonight if you want the short version of sermons you should come at 10 a.m if you want the long-winded version no filter attached there ain't no other program i'm not going to see you again for another month so let me get it all in in one night here it is yet when planted it grows and it becomes the largest of all garden plants with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade this invisible seed one to two millimeters in size grows to a 30 foot long plant how big is this plant jesus gives what it seems to be a random detail he says this plant is so large that its branches stretch out and birds can come by and find shade under the plant i don't think anything that jesus says is random i think it's all done by divine purpose so we don't we don't pray god bless us so that we can be blessed we pray god bless us that we might be a blessing to those around us in it odd birds come and perch on its branches under its shade these are some random birds these birds weren't there with the seed these birds never got down in the dirt but these birds are reaping from the blessing of the plant see i'm not praying that god make blue church large and in charge i'm praying god make us so large that every random bird in this city who has never planted in this house who has never gotten down in the dirt might come and find the shade that only you can provide whoever you are wherever you come from you are welcome in this house i heard someone say to me the other day yo i don't like food church because it's a mega church i say you are wrong we are not a mega church we happen to be a little church with a mega vision [Applause] [Music] and this mega vision is not for our glory but it is for the glory of god and the gospel that we might build a house so large that as the branches stretch out that every person who has burned out on religion every person who is thirsty for something real every person who has desired a real touch from god every person who is dry in their soul they might show up and they might find the shade of this gospel the shade of his grace the shade of his mercy whoever you are you are welcome in this house we built this place with you in mind it doesn't matter if it's your first day at vu church doesn't matter if you've ever served on a team doesn't matter if you ever pray doesn't matter if you've ever given a dime everything we have done we have done that god might grow us that you might come and find shade for your soul this is why we exist what a picture of the kingdom my kingdom is like a small mustard seed that when it gets down in the dirt it begins to grow and blossom and it blossoms so big that the branches are so wide that random birds who did nothing could come and reap from its harvest this is why we rejoice this is why we give our god praise [Music] this is why we thank god for all that he's done in five years it is not for our glory it is for his and it's so that others who are far from god might come close and rest in his shade and it's not because of great faith no we would not be so arrogant to claim that it's because of small faith attached to jesus and we started the year with one of the greatest miracles external miracles we've ever seen as a church we were given a building in design district that we closed on at the end of january we paid 3.6 million dollars uh this church that started an apartment in five weeks time gave two and a half million dollars cash but i got up here that next sunday and just say i just don't think god's done and i just want to teach you because as i'm saying things like that it's not like i'm feeling this great boldness i'm not like oh i don't wake up often times i wake up going yo i don't know what we're doing but i'm gonna keep following jesus and i declared that there was more miracles to come and tonight is a great night of rejoicing tonight is a great night of celebrating tonight is a great night that we we celebrate all that god has done in the last five years but we're celebrating what he's going to do over the course the next five years because we're not trying to grow overnight like a mustard seed we're going to grow over time and i wanted to show you what i think is the second greatest miracle that's happened in vu church's history and it happened just this past week check out the screen oh i don't even know what we're doing um [Applause] what's happening [Applause] wow [Applause] what's up everybody hey so if you um if you haven't noticed yet this is uh we just put this whole entire property seven acres uh under contract last week this is gonna be the south miami home for vu church ladies and gentlemen god's done two massive miracles over the last two to three months and both of those miracles we didn't initiate and both of those miracles there wasn't even a door that we could see in the natural to walk through and i want to see god establish something in miami that he's never established before and so as we walk around this property let's look around and let's go god okay you've given us this canvas the sky is the limit and will trust your timing as it all comes to fruition are you with me i'm so grateful for this moment look at that his face seriously god is so good like he literally like just always exceeds our expectations like who would have thought like i'm just thinking back before we even launched it we were struggling trying to find a location ago the lord really gave me a word i think it'll encourage you but i really thought the lord spoke to me and said rich this is a piece of the problem not the whole problem i'm solving a piece of the problem trust me as i solve a piece of the problem and as i solve one piece it's going to give you peace and i just felt like i just took that i want to encourage some of you guys right now that god doesn't always solve the whole problem overnight he solves pieces of the problem over time and each piece that he solves he gives you a little bit more peace i just have even more peace that god's working uh in us he's working in our church that the best days for vu are not behind her but in front of her we're going to see the best really is yet to come we're going to see greater things take place we're going to see this city i really believe turned upside down for the cause of jesus christ food church south miami [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah can someone say thank you jesus tonight is night that we rejoice tonight's a night that we celebrate we just put seven acres in south miami under contract we're believing that we're gonna close on march 19th and that's going to be the first brick and mortar location that vu church has ever had in its history there's a whole lot to say about this of course we'll be talking about it as the weeks to come we got work to do some of you're like yo i live in edgewater what about my church don't worry we're not leaving the city but we are going to do something we believe great in south miami it was december of 2019 that we spoke out that we would launch a church and we just didn't know it was going to take us all that time later a year and a half i think spring 2021 we're going to be seeing blue church in south miami taking place and god's timing is always the best time i said in that little video right there this doesn't solve all of our problems it's a piece of our problem you better already know your boy's drawing up stuff down there we're gonna look back one and say how did that become this how we're going to get there we're not going to get there because of your epic faith and we're not going to get there because you're so strong and i'm so strong and because you're so great because i'm so great but instead we are going to be reminded that our lord and savior jesus christ came into this earth like a mustard seed born in bethlehem seemed insignificant seemed small raised in a carpenter's home but nobody knew that he was growing and he was flourishing that he was god's son in the flesh and then one day they put him on a tree and they put him into a tomb in the tomb it looked like it was a hole in the ground and as the rock went over top of him it seemed like the seed of his life was over and done with but how many know that three days later that seed on the inside of that tomb it could not be contained but rather three days later the god of all the heavens and the universe conquered death hell in the grave and the scripture says the same power that conquered death that conquered hell that conquered the grave oh baby it lives inside of you and it lives inside of me and so tonight i might be weary and tonight i might be tired but i got a feeling if i'll raise my faith to where he is there is a god who says i can use your weakness i can use your issues i wonder is there any people in the house who got some small faith tonight come on lift your hands come lift your boys come on stick it out come on come on [Music] [Music]

Channel: Official Rich & DC

Views: 715

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Id: L-J8i9008pc

Length: 64min 51sec (3891 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021