Increase Our Faith

This is Celebration Church. Church. to change the world. All the glory goes to God. This is celebration. This is our family.

Good morning. Welcome to Celebration Church. Let's all stand together as our campus is joined with us in Appleton and Stevens Point. Let's recite together the Apostles' Creed. This is our statement of faith. This is who we are and what we believe here at Celebration Church. We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who for us and for our salvation was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead, and on the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church.

the fellowship of believers, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. You may be seated. Good to have you with us this morning. And wanna give a shout out to our Appleton campus this morning. They are meeting for the first time at their new location. At Einstein Middle School. Say what happened to the other place? They sold it out from underneath us.

That's what happens. But anyway, uh so they have a new location and I hear it's really a great facility and there's a new opportunity to reach people in a new neighborhood, so uh all good for that. Uh and wanna rec uh remind you again, as you saw on the news there about our recurring giving. We're asking people to become recurrent givers. Now you just go online, use the map app or whatever, you can ask people out there how to do it.

And say, you know, yeah, I'll give X amount of dollars a week or a month to the church and it just helps us to set our budgets and stuff so we're not just kinda guessing. Also helps us w if the weather goes nuts. Can't imagine that. But uh and we have to cancel the service or something in the winter. Last winter you remember was quite the slam. So we're trying to do this kind of stabilized thing so that we're not uh open targets for bad weather and those sorts of things anyway.

Alrighty then. This morning I want to read to you from Matthew. The nineteenth chapter. Verse uh twenty six. Oh by the way, I also want to remind you about the the date night coming up. She said it's all new content and they showed venue of all the old content, so I'm not sure what that's all about, but uh It's not the the brain thing, okay? It's it's something else. And the truth is when they say all new content, they're talking about everybody else who's never heard me.

Most of you heard all my rambling at one point or another, but it's still gonna be fun and uh a great night. And what's really good is an opportunity to bring somebody with you. who doesn't normally come to the church. So many people that come to Celebration Church have been introduced to this church through these events. Uh with these couple nights and stuff. And uh so find some friends, bring them with you, bring a neighbor, whatever.

Okay, this morning reading to you from Matthew the 19th chapter verse 26, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and they were just discussing something. They thought, oh, well, this is impossible. How are we going to do this? And Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. This morning I want to talk to you about.

Walking in the land of possibilities and getting away from the constant land of impossibilities. One of the nice things, great things about being a Christian and walking with Christ in your life. is that suddenly you start to experience more and more the land of unlimited possibility. Without Christ negativity kicks in and everything is impossible. And the truth is, for a lot of Christians who aren't paying attention, the faith that they have in them starts to wane.

And they start living in the world of the impossible. Everything's impossible. They're like Eeyore, you know, everywhere they go, there's a cloud over their head. Oh, Baldur. Oh, Balder, you know. Can my marriage get better? Oh, it's impossible. Can my children not be demon possessed? That's impossible.

Can I actually get along with my in-laws? That's definitely impossible. Can I get better finances in my life? No, that'll never work. And then you start getting negative and everything's constantly in the land of its impossible, impossible, impossible. Even. People of faith because they allow their faith to kind of snuff out.

But you want to walk in the land of unlimited possibilities. And I love living in this land. You say, now do you get everything that you want in life? Nay, nay, I say unto thee, nay. But I have learned to live with the first time. continual optimism because I've seen over and over and if you really work on your faith you will start to see stuff happen that really would have been impossible but for the hand of God walking and moving in your life. And that's where you want to get.

So how do you get there? Now, in Luke the seventeenth chapter The apostles came to Jesus and they're seeing him do all kinds of amazing things that no one would have ever thought was possible. And he was making it all possible. And he was challenging them also. to step up and to believe great things and finally the apostles came to him

And said in verse five, the apostle said to the Lord, Increase our faith. You ever feel like that? You know so much is possible, and it feels like you just can't get there. Lord, increase my faith, increase my faith, increase my faith. Now. We're going to see that he doesn't do that. Usually they come to Jesus and he wouldn't.

You know, speak something positive for them. But in this case he does not increase their faith. Doesn't say anything about increasing their faith. Uh in fact what he says is look, God. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, I don't know if you've ever seen a mustard seed, but it's like a grain of sand. It is one little itty-bitty seed. He says you have faith, it's just a little piece of sand.

You could say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and plant in the sea, and it would obey you. Wow, that's pretty intense. You mean if he says if all you have is so much as just that little grain, you start to live in the world of unlimited possibility. Now, notice Jesus did not increase their faith. The answer isn't to have more faith. The answer is to cause the faith that is in you to thrive.

And be healthy and to be purified and strengthened. It's not about needing more faith. Well, Pastor, I just need more faith. No, you don't. You have all the faith you need right now. It's just you need to start walking in the possible instead of the awful world of everything's impossible because that little spark of faith that is in you is just struggling to stay alive. Everybody has faith if God wants to give you faith. It comes from him.

All right. In Romans the twelfth chapter, Paul's writing to the church there. He says, For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. Uh to think. But think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. If you're here and listening to me right now, you're worshiping God with us, you're a Christian, you name the call the name of Christ, you know that's all possible because God has put something inside of you.

There is a measure of faith that he gives to everybody that calls out to him. In fact, you can't even come to God except for God put that measure of faith in you. In John's gospel, Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them at the last day.

Even if you're listening to me for the first time, maybe you don't know when to go to church and you're not, but you're here and you're kind of curious and stuff, I hope this morning that already you are starting to experience something you've never experienced before. And if you're going, wow, I can tell something's happening. It's what is happening is God is putting in you a measure of faith.

And that faith gets inside you, and if you will respond to that, you can start to know God and you start changing your life, and instead of living in the world of everything's impossible, you start living in the glorious, wonderful world of unlimited possibility. Because of this faith.

Jesus says in a little bit later, he says, he went on to say this is why I told you, no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them. So God has given everyone a measure of faith. The question is, what are you doing with it? Are you fanning the flames of that faith? Are you are you strengthening that faith? Are you because the same amount of faith as someone who lives here in unlimited possibilities is the same amount of faith as someone who sits here and everything's impossible.

Nothing works. It's never gonna get better. I'll never pay my bills. We'll never get out of debt. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Everything's horrible. Same faith. What's the difference? This person has allowed that same faith that you have to thrive and you have not. And it struggles and wanes inside of you. So how do we do this? How do we turn this around?

Well sometimes what we need to do is take the faith that we have and simply exercise it. Start to use it. You know, I always feel the worst for people. Some people they've been they've been Christians for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And they've never really used their faith for anything. And then something bad happens to them, which is almost inevitable for everybody.

Right? Something goes wrong somewhere, and it's the first time in their life they've ever had to be challenged to use their faith, and they just baw and cry and collapse like a deck of cards. And, you know, we'll be there for you. We'll hug you. We'll cry with you. We'll encourage you and stuff like that. Those are the people I feel sorry for. I don't feel sorry for the people who are going through great trials and tribulations, but have learned to use their faith.

Because this is not a little bit more. untested territory to them. They know how to pray. They know how to trust God. They know how to live in the unlimited world of unlimited possibilities. They have struggles. We also pray for them, but it's just different. Because they have a strong faith. They have not let that little spark of faith in them fall asleep and go out.

I always feel bad for those who haven't had a chance to use their faith. And I encourage people, trust God right now. Trust for even the little things in your life. See what pray about stuff. See what happens. Because God will start answering your faith and you go, whoa, well that's kind of cool.

Then oh that's kind of cool. And all of a sudden you start moving away from bl to and everything's like because you know you've experienced this God answers prayer and it changes you. Man, you don't want to be Trying to really trust God for the first time in your life, if your car spins out of control and you're sitting on the urge of a cliff.

And if a bird lands on it, it's gonna tip and you're gonna go down to your death. This is not the first time you should learn how to pray. All right? Because chances are you're not gonna pray right anyway. You're just gonna sit there and freak out, ha and scare off all the birds, alright? Don't wait till the bad happens in your life.

before you trust and again, if that's you, we'll be here for you. We'll I keep pointing over here like you're the unbelievers and the believers. I just trying to use a visual. I know you have faith over here. I just you know sorry about that. But I'm just

Anyway, all the good people are here, the bad people are there. So but you you know if you're struggling in your faith, I'm just trying to make the point here visually, if you're struggling in your faith, uh for the first time, we will help you as much as we can. But I'm telling you, it's hard. It's hard and everybody's gonna have something. Isn't that good news? Jesus gave us a wonderful promise. He said, In this world, you will have tribulation. Isn't that a wonderful promise?

See, but he says, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And if you've learned to overcome the world, when trouble comes, you don't. Freak out. Now nobody likes trouble. I don't like trouble. I don't even like cold french fries. I don't like to be inconvenienced in any way whatsoever. But I have had my fair share of trouble, I promise you.

But when it happens, I don't collapse. I just go, here we go again. Let's trust God, right? And you think you're not gonna have any, you think you get through one problem and then everything's gonna be fine? No. You gotta expect. Just as soon as you go through one problem, you'll be Coming round. on the mountain when he goes and then it'll happen again. Someone he'll be coming around the mountain and then you should be wait you know, there should be something happened right about now, you know.

You get used to it. Where's the people over here? Again not you literally but with the people over here something happens. Ah I can't believe something and they just collapse. Man don't live like that.

Exercise the faith that you have so you can get out of the impossible into the unlimited possibilities. I'm reminded of David. David, this young man who takes on Goliath, you all know the story, right? So David is young. We don't know how old he is. We're guessing sixteen, maybe seventeen, some said maybe fifteen. We know because he wasn't in the army.

And once you became a man and strong enough, and that would happen, seventeen, eighteen, then they would pull you in to fight battles. Well, uh Israel was in this big confrontation with the Philistines. They were bad news. And the Philistines were gathering, and all the Israelites gathered, and they got on one hill, and the Philistines were on the other hill, and every day they And go

Ah and then they break for lunch and do it again later. I mean it's just every day, nobody did anything. This goes on for like thirty, forty days, whatever the story is. Hard to imagine that every day they would gather, scream and yell at each other and then break and then come back and do it again the next day.

Well, the king is getting really frustrated. Something has to give. And the pressure's building. You've got to feed all these people, take care of all these people. We're 30 days into this nonsense and nothing's happened. Your supplies are going to go woo bad. Something has to give. And David is coming to visit his brothers who are in the army. So we know that David is not. What does David do? He takes care of the sheep.

That's his life. Isn't that a lot of fun? All day long. His whole experience is a little bit. That's it. You think your life stinks. His literally stunk. Okay? Hanging out with sheep all day long. And he comes and he sees the standoff and they he sees what the problem is. On the Philistine side, every morning this guy would come. He's like nine feet tall. He's a big yo mama dude. And he's got a separate guy just to carry his Armor and stuff. I need to have that job.

But uh he's a big guy and he come out every morning go, Come on, let's let's make this easy. You send one guy, I'll s come out, we'll fight, whoever wins, then everybody else surrenders and of course nobody wants to take this guy on because he's so big. Well David comes to visit his brothers and he brings some supplies and he's you know what's going on? And he sees this big Yo Mama dude come out and threaten all the Israelites. He goes Somebody go kill him!

Just go kill him. Why? Because he lives in the land of unlimited possibilities. Everybody else is over here. It's impossible. It can't do it. No one can do it. And David's like, what's the deal? Go? They said, shut up, man. Oh, go, shut up. His brothers were getting. And David's like, I'll go get him. I'll kill him.

And someone overheard this guy saying, I can kill him. And he says, He says, Man, Your Majesty, we we heard someone overheard that they can get him. Oh really go get him. And here comes a scrawny kid over. What are you doing here? I can get him. Let me go get him. He said what makes you think you can do this? Well, David answers, we read about it in the record of first Samuel.

He says, Your servant and other th they they would say they wouldn't say, I can you know,'cause that was arrogant. America everything's aye aye, but back then you're more humble. Your servant, meaning me. I've killed both the lion and the bear. So he tells a story. He's watching the stupid sheep. A bear comes and grabs one of the lambs and is going to eat it. Now if it's me, I'm sinned.

You want fries with that? Because I ain't gonna do nothing about it. Eat the lamb. I got all kinds of lamb. Watch one less lamb, right? Well David gets mad and goes after the bear, bangs on the bear and he kills the bear and saves the little bat. Well he's feeling a little confident now. I'm a bear killer. That's what I do. I could take the bear. He tells another time a lion comes. Now look, you don't mess with lions. You mess with lion, you wind up dead.

But a lion comes to take the lamb. I'm thinking have a great lunch. But no, he goes after the lion. Gets the lamb away from and winds up killing the lion. Now he's a lion. See what happens when you start doing other things. It builds confidence. So he comes out and he sees this big dude. He's like, I can take him. I killed a lion and a bear. What's this big fat guy? Who cares? I'll take him.

And the king finally says, Okay, go.'Cause they had something had to give. Maybe he thought maybe the guy'd kill little David and the Israelites will go, Ah, you big bully, maybe they'll come to hide the he I don't know what he was thinking. No way did he think this kid was gonna do it. Well David starts going out on the field and the Bible says he runs to the guy.

Man, I could see, you know. Sneaking. I mean this boy has got some cojones. I mean he's running, all you can hear is clackity, clackity, clackity, clack, he's running! Take it on this guy. Everybody says, what is he doing? He's running at him. This guy says, oh, you running at me, you little snot and he comes running. And David takes out a little shoom, hits him in the head, knocks him out. Everybody, what happened? And then he takes the guy's own sword and cuts off his head.

Why the somebody zoom in with the camera, I can't see. And then he grabs the head and he holds it up. That's really gross, okay? But he holds up the head and all the room slides go And all the Philistines goes. And they take off after the Philistines and they have this great victory, and we're still talking about it to this day. Why? Because here's the guy, he didn't just start with Goliath. You start with Goliath, you're gonna get your head cut off.

But you got to build your faith. Start trusting God now. Look for the little things. Where are you at? What are you facing in your life? Pray. Learn to pray. Trust God. Take that. piece of faith in you and start to make it stronger and come alive. Sometimes you need to fan the faith so that it grows into an ember of roaring fire. Paul writes to Timothy, this young pastor,

Paul says, I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayer. So he's telling Timothy, I'm praying for you, man. Recalling your tears I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith. We're talking about faith, which was first lived in your granny, Lois.

I love Lois, great lady. And in your mother, Eunice, she was full of faith. And I'm persuaded lives in you too. For this reason, I remind you to do what? Fan. into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit of God does not give make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. He say, man, find, do something with that. Sometimes you just gotta grab yourself and say snap out of it.

We read in Psalm 103. I love this Psalm, one of my favorite psalms. Bless the Lord, O my soul, he says, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity iniquities, which is a fancy word for sin. Loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Who is he talking to? Himself.

He says, Hey, bless the Lord, soul. Hello. Now they say if you talk to yourself, you're a little crazy. But I talk to myself all the time. Some of the best conversations I ever had have been with me. Because we're sympathetical, we're on the same page, you know. He's saying, he's talking to himself. Salve! Snap out of it! Snap out of you got the molly grubs. Get out of the everything can't be done and start looking positively. Don't forget all his benefits. Why?'Cause we forget.

It's what we do. God's given us this wonderful gift, and we get so caught up in everyday life we forget about it. So why we take communion every Sunday. Because Jesus said, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Don't forget what this is about. Why would he do that? Because he knows us. We would forget. We would forget. We got so caught up in life, we know why are we doing this? I don't know why we're here.

Well this always reminds this is why we're here. We're celebrating this gift of forgiveness that's made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that cross. From lamentations. It's a cheery book. You can tell by the title. They were lamenting everything. Chapter 3, verse 19, he says, I remember my affliction. and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall Oh woe is me.

Where are you tonight? How could you leave me here all alone? Remember the song? I searched the world over and I thought I found. True love. You met another and you was gone. It's a hilarious song. This guy's moaning and groaning. This guy's moaning everything's terrible and lousy. I remember my affliction. Oh, it's not possible. My wandering is just impossible. I will remember them. You know, we're really good at remembering bad, right?

You can that just comes naturally. Remembering good, we've got to work on it. Why is that? Just an you know the sin nature. Somebody does something wrong to you, man, you remember. I remember that guy doing that one thing one time. That pastor one time, he drove right past me and he didn't wave at me! I don't wave at anybody when I drive'cause I'm barely awake when I'm driving. If I were you I'd stay far away.

People get mad at me. Oh, you know why didn't you say hi to me?'Cause I didn't know you were there. My soul is downcast in me, everything is oh I live in the world of the impossible. Yet this I called to mind, and therefore I have hope. He has to remind himself, shake himself. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For his compassions never fail. They're new every morning. Aren't you glad every day is another do-over?

Hallelujah. It's always another do over, man. Quit getting so depressed about everything. If you don't get it right today, I got good news. You got tomorrow. So I live. The Lord's mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I say to myself. Here's another guy talking to himself. The Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for him. It's amazing how many people in the Bible talk to themselves. So you just got to talk to yourself. Say, hey, self, snap out of it.

Let's go back to where we were. The apostles came to Jesus, said, Lord, increase our faith. And he replied, Look, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, it will obey you. He said, You don't need more. You don't need more faith. You need to do something with the faith that you got. And then he starts talking about something that seems like he just changes channels, like somebody sitting on the remote. You ever do that?

All of a sudden, what happened to the show? What happened to the show? I'm sitting on the remote and it's randomly flipping around. But he's not randomly flipping around. He's very being a very intentional. Because so right after he says that, he says this. Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to that servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now, sit down to eat.

Now here's what's really interesting about all of this. This is a picture of the cultural differences of Bible times versus our times. Some people have a real hard time seeing this. Some people get real anal about some things in the Bible. They can't see that some of the things in the New Testament are from a cultural perspective. Okay? Uh you know, people say, Well, you know

Paul said women shouldn't have any role in the show, whatever, you know, they got their things. Some of the weird things that Paul said. Why would he say that? You know, women should wear a hat all the time. We don't do that stuff anyway. Why? We don't live in that culture. There are parts of the world that stu still do. If this church right now, if we were all meeting in Saudi Arabia,

Alright? And we're trying to win the Saudis and show the love of Jesus. We wouldn't have Becky standing up and talking to y'all. I guarantee ya. They would not like it. Because man, these these women they just lot two years got the right to drive cars. You know, they're getting really advanced now. They don't like to let women have any role in society. Don't like to educate them.

When a man's walking, a woman in public, she has to walk behind her husband so many feet. I mean it's they're very oppressive to women. But the Bible doesn't try to fix everybody's culture. It's trying to fix our heart.

So they just adapted to the culture. That's why some of these things were were the way they are. But I want you to take a look at this. Because Jesus describes a culture that is absolutely foreign to us. He says, you got a servant and have to work in all day and come. Would you say, man, sit down and have a rest. We would say, well, yeah, of course. But the implications, no, you don't do that.

Very different than the way it's not that they were mean I'm just they had such a system of status and economic world that you came from. If somebody was beneath you, you didn't even talk to them. This is the culture that the Bible was written in and even the New Testament two thousand years ago. It's just a different world. So he's saying would you have them take the rest? We'd say, Well yeah.

The answer is no. Wouldn't he rather say, dude, make me something to eat? Get yourself ready, wait on me while I eat and drink and chill out. And after that, you can get something to eat and drink. Would you do that? From us? No, you wouldn't do that. That's horrifying. Man, you work for me. I hire you to do a job. You do a good job. I'm going, man, thanks. Thanks. Maybe we can give you a tip. They didn't tip.

No tipping. Now you you should tip. Don't be so cheap. Somebody says you asked you where you've been, so we just got out of church. Now you gotta double your tip. Because now they know that you're a tight Christian. They don't want to hear that. Thank you. Don't get up and leave a dollar and let them know you just went to church. Sure, don't be that cheap anyway. Be nice. But in this culture, you didn't tip.

Absolutely not. This is horrifying to them. He's talking to them. Would you have a guy sit down after he's working? Well, they go, no. Would would wouldn't you say, dude, make food for me, let me relax, and then when I'm done, when I'm happy, then you can get something. Wouldn't you do that? And they would all Well, yes, of course. Not in our culture. But that was the culture which they live. He says, Will he thank you? Thank you. the servant because of what he d uh was told to do?

And I could well of course. He's saying, no, this is absurd. You don't do this to people. In that culture, it's just different in the culture in which we live. But the point he's trying to make, he says, look.

You also, when you've done everything you were told to do, should say we're unworthy servants. We've only done our duty. You want to increase your faith? He says, get out there. Serve people. Be a good servant. Be kind to people. Volunteer. Give some money. Do something. Don't just sit there and drift off into nothingness. That little spark and faith in you is going to barely be alive. You want to do something impressive?

Serve. Now I promise you if you volunteer and serve at this church, we are going to thank you. But that's Western culture. Back then, no one would, it would be an insult and people will be shocked at you if you turn around and said, man, thanks for helping out. He says, that's the way we're supposed to think. We should serve people without expecting anybody to thank us. Right? You know, a lot of people only give money to churches because it's a tax deduction. It's true.

If they quit having tax deductions, a lot of people would quit giving. Which is sad. If they erase the tax deductions, should you still give? Yes. That's what you're supposed to do. We don't do it for deductions. We don't do it because everybody gets to notice, oh, I did something wonderful. We're not supposed to be pointing the light on me, me, how wonderful I am. We should serve

and just do it without credit, and you know what happens? That faith inside of you starts to burn brighter and stronger. And suddenly you get out of the world of the impossible and you start living in the world of unlimited possibilities. You want to have great faith. It's not about the amount of faith. It's taking the faith that you have. Breathing life in the world.

and see them become strong and powerful. I'm going to invite our ushers to come forward and get ready to serve communion, what we were just talking about a few minutes ago, and now we're going to turn our attention to why we're here. Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us 2,000 years ago. His body was broken so that we could be whole.

His blood was shed so we could have forgiveness of our sins. And that's what we celebrate when we take communion. And as I said earlier, maybe you're here listening for this first time. You're not even sure why you're here. You're here because God's pulling you here. If you can feel something different happening into you what it is, and he's putting that little

See the faith in you. If you will respond to that faith, put your trust in him, your life will transform from everything's impossible into the world of I now live with unlimited. possibilities. We start by surrendering to God, asking Him into our lives.

So that what is small in us can become very, very strong. I'm gonna pray a prayer together. I'm gonna invite all you to pray this prayer with me. And if this is the first time you've ever prayed prayed a prayer like this, you can start your first steps of faith into Let's pray together. Thank you for the gift of faith. I surrender my heart to you this morning. I ask you to come into my life. So I can live in the world. Amen.