FREEDOM

I.                   Skit – Once and for All

 

II.   Introduction

A.   The idea that “more” is better/enough isn’t enough

1.  Spinal Tap – dim witted lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel interview -  amplifier that had controls that went beyond the usual maximum setting of 10.  “Why didn’t they just make 11 a 10?”  ----- “This one goes to 11.”

2.  Coach who requires 115% of his players.

3.  Supersized portions at fast food restaurants

 

III.   The same sentiment at work among the apostles… “Give us more faith.”

A.   Unclear why they came to feel that way at this point in the story, but for whatever reason they felt they didn’t have enough faith and the answer to their problem was simple – Give us more, Jesus.

 

IV.    The same sentiment is at work in us too

A.   Faith is just another commodity

B.   Remember going to church with my girlfriend in High School how inadequate, meager and paltry my faith seemed to me.

C.   Invitation to Communion from a wedding I attended recently, “so come to this table you who have much faith and you who would like to have more.”

 

V.      When it comes to faith, Jesus takes a completely different view.  “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed , you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea.,’ and it would obey you.”

A.   Eugene Peterson renders the verse interestingly in paraphrase, The Message- “You don’t need more faith.  There is no more or less in     faith.”

B.   Or as writer Mark Harris suggests “the apostles are asking for more--  More insight, more understanding, more depth of belief .  But Jesus’…comment pushes his followers in a different direction: if you had any faith at all you could do impossible things—so it’s not that you need more faith, you need any faith.”  (Mark Harris, The Christian Century, September 12-19, 2001, pg. 19.)

C.   Maybe what we think of as faith, is really something else.  Transaction that we must initiate with God.

 

VI.    Strange thing is that Jesus’ teaching about faith and the mustard seed is good good news for us all.  Faith is a GIFT! 

A.   And not about reading another book, doing one more good deed, spending more time reading our Bible or in mediation—as important as they may be.

B.    Jesus has done it all, paid the full price, sealed the deal once and for all on the cross.

C.    Dylan Matthew’s baptism serves as a reminder to us all.  The faith God gives him is enough.  Not something that “runs out” and has to be renegotiated every day.  “Sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross forever.”  God’s Word in baptism is final.  No renewal or reapplication required, ever!

 

VII.  Freedom in the gift

A.   We don’t have to worry any more.  Free to get on with “the better part of life in this world that  will not be taken from us.”

B.    Freedom to live together in community.

C.    Freedom to know that finally we don’t determine the future, only God does.

D.    Free to live and serve God – Get used to the idea that we have been saved, for today and all our tomorrows.

Pastor Brian Peterson