Small Faith — Rich Wilkerson Jr.

I want to land today in Mark chapter 4, and today I want to kick off a brand new collection of talks entitled “Small Faith.” Everyone say, “Small Faith.” For the next few weeks, as we lead all the way up to Easter, uh, I, I want to kick off this collection talking about this idea—not of big faith, not of massive faith, not of awesome faith, or even epic faith. I want to talk to you about small faith.

I think it’s an important topic, an important concept to begin to break down because we will see it all throughout the scripture. Whenever you start talking about the word “faith,” this word always has other words attached to it. If you’re anything like me, I grew up in a strong charismatic Pentecostal home, and so as soon as you say “faith,” my thesaurus brain has all these synonyms that pop up. Anyone like me? Like, you hear the word “faith,” and what do you think? You think immediate. You hear the word “faith,” and you think “phenomenon.” You hear the word “faith,” and you think “suddenly” or “at once” or “epic.” Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those parts of faith, but I think faith deserves to have more words associated with it. See, the way you describe something indicates how you believe about that thing. So many people, they only see faith show up as this powerful act of signs and wonders or phenomenons. You know, I grew up—I’m telling you what—in a Christian home, and I’m thankful for my heritage. I’m thankful for the charismatic home that I grew up in. You might even call it “charismania” is what I grew up in, a little bit. Uh, I, I really do love my heritage of how I grew up. I grew up going to healing crusades. I remember one time I went to this healing crusade; it was awesome. There was this preacher, and he was preaching. Some of you are new to church and you’re like, “This is so strange what you’re talking about.” Others of you right away, you’re like, “I know you; rich, we are one and the same.” But I used to go to these services, and this and this healing pastor would, would line people up, and then he would go, and he’d place his hands on them, and when he placed his hands on them, those people would fall down. And as a young boy, I was like, “Whoa,” you know, like, “This is epic; this is amazing. How are they falling down?” And I was so mesmerized. I remember one time I asked my mom when I was at the crusade, I said, “Mom, what happens if the preacher prays for himself?” She said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, when he prays for all those people, there’s always people there to catch him. If he prays for himself, who’s there to catch him?” I was always mesmerized with the power of God, and I love the power of God. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying today. I think faith shows up in signs and wonders; I think faith shows up in miracles. In fact, if your boy ever gets sick and a doctor cannot do a surgery or there is no medication, please do not take me to some pastor or some church that says the gifts of the Spirit have ceased. Please do not knock on the door of a church of somebody who says, “Well, you’ll just have to suffer, and you’ll get your healing in heaven.” You go and find the craziest pastor you can find who still believes that our God is healing people, and you have him pray for me. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in all of the gifts; I just wonder sometimes if, because we only have one set of words associated with this word “faith,” that many times we turn our faith into an event. And because our faith becomes an event, it robs us from missing out or experiencing the daily miracles of life. I mean, could it be that you’re missing daily the miraculous, phenomenal things that God is doing because, for some reason, you think those things are just regular? It’s, it’s amazing, right? Because, like, all of life—just so we’re all clear—just as we’re setting some, um, groundwork today, like all of life is miraculous. Baby, you are a, your body is a miracle. It’s like the Psalmist said, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” And even the atheist scientist has to say “amen” to that because they’re still trying to figure you out. We still don’t understand all of the components and all of the mechanisms of the human body. You want to get shocked? You want to get surprised? Just do a little study on the human eye. You have no idea about the details of your body. Your body is a miracle. How about this earth that you walk on every single day? This earth that you are walking on is a cosmic conundrum. We still don’t understand all of what this earth is doing. We don’t know what holds it all together. We don’t understand how it all came to be. The very fact that the sun rose again this morning is nothing short of epic, phenomenal, miraculous, amazing. Astonishing things are happening all around you every single day. The problem is is that you and I have just become too familiar with them, and it is familiarity that will diminish your faith. It is familiarity that will steal your wonder and steal your awe that God is working and God is moving, even when it doesn’t look the way you believe it to look. Don’t get me wrong, I think faith is epic; I think faith is awesome; I think faith is suddenly; I think faith is immediate. But what I have discovered in my life over and over again is that faith, more often than not, is simply a strength for me to remain patient. Patient—that’s a fun word, right? You do understand that patience is not the ability to wait; you’re going away either which way. Patience is how you wait. This is why a person of faith can be believing God for something they haven’t yet received it nor experienced it yet; they are not missing out on joy; they have not lost their peace; they haven’t missed their purpose; they are walking in strength because they’re a person of faith. Faith is, is the strength for me to remain and understand I grow slow. Faith is the strength for me to value the small things in my life. Faith is the ability for me to be grateful and for me to pay attention to the seemingly insignificant, small, mundane moments. I felt like preaching this way to some of you, honestly. Faith—you’re like, “What is faith?” Faith is giving you the ability to be thankful while you take out your trash. I’m just grateful I can, I got trash to take out. I got so much stuff; I got trash; I got so much stuff; I got trash; I got so much trash; it can’t stay in where I live because I don’t live in trash; I gotta take it somewhere else; I actually have to carry it. I’m so thankful I got a body that can still move, so I think I got arms; I still got faith. It might not look big; it might only look small, but I’m telling you what, it’s making a difference.

I want to teach you about, about small faith because many of the things that God does are on the heels of the small things that we do. We all want God to do something big, but few of us are willing to do something small. I’ve preached it for years, and I was going to preach to some more today, but I just, I feel like I’ve shared it so many times. Our God is slow-fast. What? Yeah, like following Jesus, and our church is young too, so I always want to make sure I’m teaching the 20-year-olds, like, who are always wanting something new. Following Jesus is so slow, but then it’s fast. It’s like we slowly wait on Him, and then He quickly moves. Faith is the thing that sustains us in all the seasons. It’s not the size of your faith that counts; it’s the size of your God. And for the next few weeks, I, I want to preach on this subject of, of small faith, because God can do something big with something very small. Say this out loud: “God can do something big with something very small.” And over and over again, we will see that Jesus, I believe, tries to teach this principle to us. You don’t see Jesus teach a whole lot about epic faith; you don’t see Jesus teach a whole lot about massive faith. No, instead Jesus is constantly giving us secrets to the kingdom of God, and over and over again what He’s teaching us is the principle of small faith. Mark chapter 4 is very rich in content. Every chapter in the Gospel of Mark is robust and rich, and hopefully you are reading; hopefully you have a journal. If you haven’t gotten a journal yet, they are, they are online; you can purchase one. We have committed ourselves in this season of our church, from the month of January all the way to the month of June, we’re studying one book of the Bible, and we are making this entire collection into smaller collections. We talked about changes, uh, today as we kick off this new collection. We’re gonna see this principle over and over again of small faith. And Mark chapter 4 begins, and I don’t have nearly enough time to break down all of the teaching because, as we’ve been saying in Mark’s gospel, Mark’s gospel is about watching what Jesus does, not just listening to what Jesus says. And up until this point, primarily what we have looked at for the last eight weeks or so are miracles—are our Jesus in action. But today, as we get to Mark chapter 4, we get this glimpse of Jesus’s teaching. Mark 4—Jesus is teaching in His most classic manner. The way that Jesus teaches most of the time is through what we know as parables. Parables are short stories that are packed with metaphors that reveal truths about the character, the nature of our God, and secrets to the kingdom of God. And in Mark chapter 4, Jesus teaches four different parables in a row, and every one deserves a six-week series. Trust me. In many ways, He’s kicking off a brand new collection of talks in Mark chapter 4, and He’s giving these different parables. The first parable He teaches us—I won’t tell you all about it—but it’s known as the parable of the sower. It’s a powerful story that all of us need to learn and trust because He talks about a farmer who goes out and scatters a, scatters seed, and as the ski scatters and falls on the ground, it falls on different types of soil. The whole point of the parable is how good is the soil. That we know the seed is powerful, but the seed must be matched with the right soil. And He talks about different types of soil, and all of these soils are pictures of our lives and how we live our life. The truth, the matter is, it’s not enough just to hear the word; you have to receive the word. How many know you can be listening right now, watching—maybe your girlfriend is making you watch this string cause she’s like, “Yo, if you’re gonna be in my life, you’re gonna have to listen to my pastor.” That’s great; you’re hearing me, but just because you’re hearing me doesn’t mean you’re receiving what I’m giving you. And so Jesus is talking about the parable of the sower, that as the seed is sown, what type of ground is it falling on? And even right now, today, you can know all about faith, but if you don’t have the right soil, if your life is not in the right place, it will not flourish; it will not grow. The second parable that He tells is the parable of the lampstand. I love that parable; it’s very, very short, but ultimately what He’s talking about—He uses the word here like four or five times—and He’s talking about the way in which we hear the word will determine and dictate how we share the word. A lot of us have experienced this, right? Because some of you grew up in a church where, like, the only time the word was given, it seemed like people were mad at you. Most of the time, people that are sharing the word out of anger is because they received it in anger; they received it with hostility; they didn’t receive it with the love of God. And He’s being very, very clear that you must hear it correctly because the way that you hear it is how you share it. Did you know that when God does something in your life, very rarely does God do something in your life simply for you? Most of the time when God does something in your life is that He fills you up because He wants to spill you out. I like how the Psalmist says, “My cup runneth over.” How many of you know that if there’s going to be overflow in your life, you actually have to take time to let Him flow into your life? God says, “I want to speak into your life, and I want to minister to you because I want to put you on top of a hill that you might shine bright with a testimony of what I have done.” Oh, come on, is there anybody thankful for what God has done in your life? I’m not keeping it a secret; I’ve heard it, so I can share it. The third parable He tells is the parable, the growing seed. I like this story because He’s talking about the potency and the power of the seed, which is God’s word. It reminds me today that I can try my best to give this word, and I can try my best to sweat and to holler and to make it dynamic, but ultimately I am just a mailman. All I am is a local news reporter. Either this story is resonating with you or it is not. If it is resonating with you, there is nothing that will stop it from flourishing and growing in your life. Jesus tells the parable; He says that seed works in the daylight, and that seed keeps on working even when you’re sleeping. Most of the time in the scripture when you see the picture of sleep, you see it as a sign or an indicator of laziness or sin. In this picture, when Jesus talks about sleeping, He’s talking about the fact that you’ve received the word, that you worked so hard that even while you’re resting, God is still working. Can I encourage some people out there that when His word goes forward, it does not return void? If He has started something in your life, be confident that He will carry it out unto completion. Anybody grateful for a God who always finishes what He starts? I’m telling you, Jesus is in a four-month collection, and He’s doing it quickly in Mark chapter 4, but He comes here to two verses, and I’m just giving you two verses today because I think it’s going to lay a groundwork for the next few weeks as we get towards Easter. I want to show you stories of men and women who did small acts of faith, but on the other side, God did something big. It’s not that I want to lessen or weaken your faith; instead, I want to encourage you in this season that what you got is a lot. Some will say, “What I got is a whole lot.” I don’t care what somebody else has told you; I don’t care how many times you have looked at what God has placed in your hand and you have minimized it and you have said it is too small and it is too insignificant. Oh, let this be a day that we serve notice on you that we serve the God who says, “If you’ll give me the little that you have, I can do something great; I can do something mighty; I can do something big. I am the God who works with even small faith.” And so Jesus tells a simple little parable; it’s known as the parable of the mustard seed; it’s Mark chapter 4, verse 30. Let’s just open it up for a moment, and we’re going to pull out some truths, and we’re going to see God’s word together. Chapter 4, verse 30 again: Jesus said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like? Or what parable, what story shall I tell to describe it? What words am I going to use to help you categorize what I’m trying to teach you because you only got one set of words, so I’m trying to think, Jesus, like, what, what story, what set of words can I help you that when you think about faith, when you think about My kingdom that you can attach to that? How can I describe it?” Verse 31: “It’s like a mustard seed.” What’s God’s king like? It’s, it’s like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground, yet when planted it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. Jesus is saying, “I want to teach you about My kingdom.” Jesus came to establish His kingdom on the earth. What is the church’s purpose? Why do we gather, you and I? Why do we take time to link into a stream? Why are we at Jungle Island today? Why did hundreds of people set up in a ballroom? Why does any of that matter? Is it just for some good teaching? Is it just for a motivational talk? No, it’s because we are a part of the church of Jesus Christ, and we are here to establish His kingdom on the earth. We are of another kingdom. I know we live in America, and some of you are really proud to be American. God bless you, but I’m actually more proud to be a citizen of another kingdom. I’m here to bring heaven down to earth. I’m a part of the church of Jesus Christ. That’s why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Not My will but Your will; may Your kingdom come.” Jesus said, “You want to know what My kingdom looks like? My kingdom can only be established through faith. Yet if you want to know what that faith looks like, and if I can describe it to you, how My kingdom is established, My kingdom is established in faith like a mustard seed.” So Jesus is saying, “Hey, it’s impossible to please Me without faith, but once you have faith, it’s impossible not to please Me because when you start operating in faith, you start establishing My kingdom on the earth. You start talking a different language; you start sharing a different message; you start living a different life; you start walking a different path; people begin to notice. But the way that it begins and what it takes is faith.” Well, how big is the faith, Rich? How big is the faith? Well, Jesus says the faith that’s needed is the size of a mustard seed. We could call that small faith—just small faith. There’s a lot of misconceptions about this word “faith,” and over the next couple weeks we’re going to dig much more into God’s word in the Bible, and we will study verse by verse and line by line. But today I just want to give an introduction to where we’re going. Hebrews 11:1—we don’t know the writer of Hebrews, but man, the words that this writer uses are so practical yet also so powerful because the writer says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” As you study the writings of Hebrews, what you know about Hebrews is Hebrews is talking about the fulfillment of the shadow of the law, that Jesus is the embodiment, that Jesus is the thing that we have been waiting for, that all of Hebrews is about the fulfillment of God’s prophecies and God’s covenant has all come through the person of Jesus. And one of the great misconceptions about faith is so many people think that faith is simply about a vibe, that faith is simply about positivity, that faith is all about just mind over matter—just, yo, just, hey, only good vibes here, and I’m all about good vibes, and I’m all about positivity, and I’m all about positive thinking and talking, right? But I just want to let you know that is not faith. Faith is not about equality, and faith is not about a size, and faith, if you’re not careful, will simply be reduced down to faith and faith. What is faith in faith? Faith and faith is just this idea, you know, “I got faith,” and so you say, “What do you mean you got faith?” Why? “Just, I believe things are gonna get better.” Well, good, like, more power to you, but there’s no power in that because it’s not the size of your faith that determines the outcome of your faith; it’s only the object of your faith that does. Like, for instance, um, if Oliver passes me his chair and that chair is broken, and he brings it up and he puts it here, and I’m like, “I got faith in this chair,” but it’s broken—doesn’t matter how much faith I got, doesn’t matter how loud I shouted, doesn’t matter how eloquent I say it, doesn’t matter how excited you get, the, the chair is freaking broken. Like, in the same way, if I, if I jump into a pool with a life jacket…

On it doesn't matter how much I believe in the life jacket. What matters is, is the object that I'm attaching it to strong enough to hold me up? Um, in my office, I just put in this um, my brother-in-law David D. just put in this big huge—he got me a big, like 70-inch screen TV. Like, rich, your office needs a TV. Don't judge me; you got problems too. Okay, but I just—I just put this big TV up on the wall, and I'm not very—I'm not a very good handyman. And so I got this friend of mine who's like really skilled; he's a handyman. He knows how to do things, and he know—he's certified, and he has a cool tool belt, and he lives a lot of his life at Home Depot. He's better than me, okay? And so I hired him, and I gave him some money. I said, "Would you hang this—this is a big TV, 70-inch TV—up?" And I got one of those really cool mounts. Have you seen these mounts that you can like pivot and swivel and like you can put at different places? And so he called me the other day and he said, "Hey, I hung your TV up." I said, "Awesome." I said, "How's it look?" He says, "It looks good." He said, "Check it out when you get home." I said, "Absolutely." So literally two days ago, I walk in my office; I'm like, "Dang, look at this big old TV hanging up on the—up on the wall. This looks so good." I walked around it, and like, you know, the mount was all in—it was painted; there was like—I'm really big into like details, like, you know, "How did you do it? How did you sand it?" Like, "Oh, it looks smooth." I don't, you know, how many TVs with all the cables coming out the back—that's just—that's not my flow. I'm not judging you; maybe I am, but I just—not how I do things. And so I want it all sharp and put together. Like, this is great. And so I literally—I walked over the TV, and I just—I wanted to check, you know, how the mount works. And so I just—you guys, I just—I just pivoted a little bit; went—I'm like, "Cool." I sat down in my chair. Ten seconds later, I—it was like an act of God; this 70-inch TV came crashing down off the wall, falls down, smashes, shatters everywhere. I—I honestly thought it was God's judgment. You know, I was like, "What do I have hidden sin? I don't know, Lord." It was—it was frightening. It just—I was like, "What just happened?" It was a suddenly immediate moment that this thing just came and fell and crashed. And I called my guy; I said, "Man, what's up? You're supposed to be the best in the business, bro." He goes, "What did you do?" I did nothing. I did nothing. We came over to my house, and what did he discover? He discovered that, as he looked at the mount, what he had thought was—he had thought that he had put the mount and drilled all the way into the beams in the wall, but as he opened up the wall, what he discovered was, is that the sheetrock was an additional three inches away from the beams in the house. Therefore, he had attached this big TV not to something sturdy and something strong, but instead the TV was simply attached to sheetrock. And for a little while—someone say a little while—it looked good; for a little while it held; for a little while it was positioned good, but the moment something touched that TV, the moment something adjusted in that TV, the moment something external came against that TV, that TV came crashing down. Why? Because the TV wasn't attached to something strong enough.

It is not enough for you simply to have faith. You got to make sure that your faith is drilled into the Gospel, that it's drilled into the person of Jesus, that when the external things of life show up—all weapons may form, but they will not prosper—because you are attached to something great, you're attached to something strong. It's not the quality of your faith; it's the object of your faith. If you're falling down a mountain and you reach out and you grab onto a branch and that branch holds you and sustains you, is it really because you have such great faith, or is it simply because you had enough faith to reach out and that thing that you reached out to was strong enough to sustain you and carry you? Faith is about desperation. Faith is about going, "I'm clinging to one thing and one thing only. I might not have a lot, but I got something, and it might not look big in your eyes, but it's small enough for me to simply reach out. It's small enough for me to simply drill into the person of who Jesus is." Now, faith is being sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see. That does not simply mean that I anticipate to see a million dollars in my bank account by the end of the day. That's not reasonable; that doesn't make any sense; there's no reason for that to happen. What it does mean is that I am sure of the person of Jesus, and I am certain that one day when I leave this earth, I will see him face to face, and I will hear all of heaven say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," not because of what I've done, but because of what I believed and what He has done. It's just—someone say small faith. It's just—what would happen if you could just get small faith today? What would happen if you could just change the set of words? I've just seen God over and over again in my life. He's done epic things; He's done math; He's done things that look so quick to all the spectators around, but if I'm really being honest, it was the faith that He gave me to be patient; it was the faith that He gave me to grow slow; it was the faith that He gave me to smile even when everybody else looked around and said, "Yo, that's insignificant. Why are you celebrating it?" I can say back, "Because I have small faith that God's kingdom is established in faith like a mustard seed." I want to show you quickly in the time that I have remaining three things that small faith does; three things that false mate—uh, small faith does, based upon our reading today, just two little verses I've given you in other uh, sermons throughout uh, the Gospel of Mark, 20 verses and 10 verses today. It's just two verses, and we're just looking at these two little verses about this parable, the parable of the mustard seed. The first thing that small faith does—write this down—faith sees in the seed. Faith sees in the seed. All of faith is about belief. Now, how many know—um, there are certain things I believe even though I don't feel them. This is important because uh, once again in our generation—I'm not hating on our generation; I wouldn't want to be born any other time in history. I love all the people in our church; I love all the 18-year-olds and the 19-year-olds that spend hours and hours on TikTok. I got so much love for you; it's crazy. I'm not hating on you; I love you; I just want to help you. And that is that we can think that faith is just a feeling, but if that's the case, that means that um, you're going to miss out on recognizing that faith is not about a moment you're waiting for; it's not about an event you're getting to. Faith is a lifestyle. Faith is not for the church conference; faith is for your everyday ho-hum common life. And so it's not a feeling. In fact, like I would say in the last 12 months—I'll tell you about some of them today—I've had God do more tangible miracles in my life in the last 12 months than maybe He has done the last 10 years, but I got to also say that in the last 12 months my feelings have been all over the place. God has been working even though at times I don't feel it working. I see it working; I experience Him working, but I don't always—I don't always feel it. Faith is about belief; it's not about goosebumps; it's about a decision to believe in all seasons. You're going to have to get comfortable with invisible—like, faith operates in invisible things, like just because you can't see something doesn't mean that you can't believe in it. Like, I firmly believe in God, but I've never seen God. Maybe you're going, "But Rich, yo, that—that's—that's crazy; that's an unreasonable thing to say." Is it? Do you believe in the wind? Yeah, but you ain't never seen wind, bro. Well, no, but—but what—but you've experienced it, but you've—you've witnessed its effects. If you live here in South Florida, we have all testified of its power. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that you can't believe in it. Um, on Monday night we had VU Crew, and I love VU Crew. Shout out to all the crews that gathered this week; close to 2,000 people in small groups. Can we thank God for people that are gathering? Small blue crews are just small groups; it's—it's groups of people that are working their faith out together with real faces. I love the public big gathering, but yo, you're gonna need some real people that know your name, know your issues, know your weaknesses, know your tendencies that can actually speak into it for your faith to blossom and grow. And so on Monday night we had VU Crew in my house, and uh, it was about 17 of us in the house, and we had a couple people that was our first time to VU Crew. And so if anyone's ever been to VU Crew before, uh, it's about an hour and a half of a program; the first 30 minutes are kind of just a mixer, hanging out, and it's about an hour of content. And really at this point in this juncture of the season of our church, uh, the way that we—we do our discussions is we base them upon Sunday morning sermons. In fact, in Monday night I was discussing Dakota and Manuscripts' message on calling. We had an awesome conversation, but our team—who I think is the best in the world—they always put together um, a conversation guide, a crew guide. The way that you access that crew guide—in fact, maybe you're in a different state, maybe you're in a different country and you want to start a VU Crew—go for it; all the resources are waiting there for you. Vuchurch.com/crew; you can actually go and get a crew guide and start a discussion today based upon this message you're listening to right now. And so people were in my house, and someone said, "Hey, I want to access the crew guide, but I don't have the Wi-Fi password." And I said, "Oh, the Wi-Fi password"—and I won't say it because my wife will get mad—but my password—you know, isn't it funny, like anyone else out there like me? Like you have one password for everything. I'm like, as I give you my Wi-Fi password, I'm also giving you my bank account; I'm also giving you my children's trust; I'm also giving you my safety deposit boxes; you have my life in that password. So anyways, I shared my password, but it was funny. Maybe this is happening before—they were having—they were having trouble um, connecting to the internet. They kept saying, you know, they kept—they kept trying to get it, and they're like, "Hey, it's not working," and we had to stop for about five minutes or so and try to help them get connected to the internet. And I was thinking as—as they were attempting and trying that—not—not at one—never in that whole experience or in any experience I've ever had did someone stop and say, "Oh, I give up. I do not believe in Wi-Fi nor the internet. I have attempted too many times and I have not connected. I have tried so many times and come up short. I've been disappointed; it hasn't happened fast enough; it's taken longer than I expected. I give up on Wi-Fi." No, it's quite the opposite; they don't stop until they get connected. What if I told you there's some people out there that are in church that have more faith in Wi-Fi than they do Jesus? Just because Jesus hasn't shown up in the time frame that you wanted Him to show up, just because you've been disappointed on the faith journey doesn't mean you give up on Jesus; it means you keep on trying; you keep on attempting; you keep on believing. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean He's not there. Faith is a lot like Wi-Fi; you can't see it, but it has the power to connect you to what you need. This is what faith is. Faith is Wi-Fi. I can't see it, but it's real, and when I access it and when I activate it, it connects me to a living, breathing God who can answer my questions, who can fulfill my soul, who can solve my problems, who can fight my battles, who can put purpose on the inside of me, who can define my calling, who can give me counsel in my time of need. God's better than Google, by the way. Some of y'all googling stuff that only God can answer. It's God—it's God, but you've got more faith in this Wi-Fi you haven't ever seen, and you'll keep trying and trying and trying, but if you go one day without getting a feeling from God, you start to say, "Maybe He's left me; maybe He's moved away from me," and nothing could be further from the truth. You see, it's Jesus who says in Matthew chapter 17—watch this—"Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, 'Why couldn't we drive it out?'" They were trying to drive out demons, but they—they could not drive the demons out. And so Jesus looked back at them, and He replied, "Because you have so little faith. 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 we read this scripture, I want to be very, very clear: Jesus in Mark 4 says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Now, here in Matthew 17, He's saying faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. What are you trying to say, Rich? What I want you to understand is that a mustard seed, especially in the ancient world, but even now today, is one of the smallest seeds on the planet. In fact, it's about one to two millimeters in size, meaning if you had a mustard seed in my hand right now, you would not be able to see that thing in my hand from where you sit or on that camera. It's practically invisible, but Jesus is trying to say that the way that I start things, the way that I do things, the way that I begin things always comes in a size that appears to be invisible. And over here in Matthew 17, when He rebukes His disciples because they can't do these great signs and wonders, and they say, "Why can't we do them?" And Jesus says, "Because your faith is so little," He is not speaking them literally about the size of their faith. Instead, He is trying to give them a comparison that it's not that you have little faith; it's that you have no faith, because if you had faith that was practically invisible, it would be enough because it's attached to Me to do impossible, great and mighty things. Faith sees in the seed. Faith has the ability to look at a mustard seed, which is practically invisible, which is Wi-Fi, which is wind, and say, "There's something in it. I can't all the way see it, but I believe it can grow; I believe it can become; I believe it's got potential on the inside of it." Small faith sees in the seed. What do you see in the seed of your children? What do you see in the seed of your spouse? What do you see in the seed of your job? What do you see in the seed of your dream? What do you see in the seed of our church? Because small faith is simply seen in the seed, looking into what appears to be invisible, but say, "No, I believe there's power and potential packed inside." Jesus wasn't saying they had little faith; He was saying, "You have no faith, because if your faith was as small as invisible, you could do what I've called you to do." It's not the quality; it's the object.

Faith sees. Number two, write this down; I love this: faith works in the dirt. So faith—faith sees in the sea, but then faith works in—in the dirt. How many know a seed's potential is only revealed once it's planted in the dirt? Seed by itself doesn't have very much value, as we have talked about many times in our church; it's only when it's planted that something can begin to grow, that something can begin to flourish. I love what Mark chapter 4, verse 31 says. Read it with me as it says this: "Watch—it's like a little mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground." So He says, "Here's the seed packed with potential; what do you see in the seed?" And then He says that you have to plant it in the ground. So He's—He's given you the action step; He's given you the plan. You take the seed; you release the seed into the ground, and you plant it. Verse 32 is what pops out at me: "Yet when planted"—someone say "yet when planted"—it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants. So watch this: when I take the little thing and I put it into the dirt, that which is so small and seemingly so insignificant—one millimeter in size—what they'll tell us about a mustard seed—it can grow to a plant that can be 30 feet tall, 30 feet wide. This little thing can become this large thing. What is the key phrase? "Yet when planted." So your gift is small, yet when planted; your dream is small, yet when planted; your resource is small, yet when planted; you—you're—you're calling it appears small, yet when planted. Let me put it this way: your bank account is small, but when it's planted—what does planted mean? Planted means I'm gonna take what I got; I'm gonna release it and surrender it over to God. I'ma say, "God, You can take my little, and as I give You my little, I'ma trust You can do a lot. It will be used for Your glory." That which is small can become large. [Applause] But we talk about planting in church, and we like—"Are you planted? Are you planted in the house of the Lord? Are you—is he planted? Is he planted?" Have you ever considered what does planted feel like? What is like—because we're like, "Oh, like, are you planted, Sister Dakota? Is he planted?" What does planted feel like? It feels like dirt. It feels like dirt. You see, in the same way the seed has potential, the dirt has a purpose. I've often wondered, you know, Rich—this is a weird thing, but I've been reading the Bible since I was a teenager, and so you see all these metaphors about agriculture—I've often wondered if the seed could speak, how would the decede describe how it feels? This little bitty mustard seed, practically invisible, practically a little speck on the earth, and then a hole is dug, and the seed is put into the dirt. I want to say, "Seed, is that enjoyable, seed? How's the darkness feel, seed? Is it enjoyable and comfortable having all of that weight pressed down upon you, little seed?" Something tells me that the seed would say, "No, it's not enjoyable, and no, nothing about this moment is comfortable, and no, I'm not just happy-go-lucky pleasant. It's dark down here; I feel alone sometimes down here; times I feel like this life is weighing down on me, and I have no idea how something's going to spring up, but I got a confidence that if I am a seed, I am not buried by this life, but instead I am planted in this life, and it is only a matter of time—if I let the dirt do the work—that I'm gonna grow. I'ma grow, but you got to let the dirt do the work." What is dirt? It represents so many things for different ones of us, but I just want to make it practical because some of you are out there going, "I need great faith." No, you don't; you need small faith—small faith to look at your situation and say, "Wait a minute; I'm not gonna give up because there's some dirt on my life, but I'ma let my faith do its work in the dirt. I need the dirt; the dirt has a purpose." Dirt can represent so many things for so many different people; it can represent pain; it can represent obstacles;

Can represent challenges. It can represent weaknesses. Dirt can, can represent hang-ups or mistakes, the pressures of life, the weight of life; it's weighing down on me. If we're not careful, we will go into the season of the dirt, and we will say, "God, save me from the dirt." I think we gotta change our prayer and say, "God, let the dirt do its work," because the seed, unless the dirt comes on top of it, cannot grow, cannot flourish. Dirt has purpose in your life. Dirt refines your character. Dirt teaches you about what you actually believe. Don't run from the dirt; lean into it and let it define and develop who God is calling you to be. [Music]

But the seed, if it could speak, it would say, "No," in my journey of growing and in my journey of becoming and in my journey of blossoming, the dirt was heavy, the dirt was dark, the dirt was scary. You ever just, you ever feel scared? [Music] Maybe that's more of an indicator that you're planted than you think. I had one of those moments a couple weeks ago. I was talking to my counselor; I see a therapist every week and just put an hour in just talking, and I'm on the journey of becoming and growing and I want to get better, and I think we all need outlets or we just live a life of outbursts, and I don't want to be controlled by my emotions and by my feelings. I want to, I want to be controlled and defined and directed by what I believe and what God's calling me to. And so we were speaking, and I was just being vulnerable, and lots of times you go and you talk to somebody, it's not always a breakthrough moment, it's not always some revelation or insight; sometimes it's just going and showing up, like you go to the gym. But on this occasion, just part of our conversation, it just, it spoke to me, and it challenged me. And we were chatting, and I was saying, "You know, in this season of church online and this season I'm not gathering," I'm a local church guy; I love the church gathering, I love seeing thousands of people, and I was just talking about how a lot of this season there's, there's behaviors that are the right behaviors, and there's actions that I know are the right actions, but there's not a lot of feeling attached to them. Never been there before where it's like I know I'm doing the right thing, but I used to do the same thing; I used to feel it a different way. It's like what I say to people that are like worshipers: like, you don't always go in, and if your whole worship is dictated based upon you getting goosebumps, if that's what it means for God to move, you're not really a mature worshiper. Real worship is a sacrifice of praise. "I don't feel like being in church today; I just got in a fight with my wife." All right, here we go. Almost sing anyways; I'm gonna still work, I'm gonna still connect with God, and I was just go, I was, I'm going through some of these motions, and I was talking about even just ministry in so many ways, like you're doing ministry, and even right now there's thousands of people watching that are going to see this, but I miss seeing your face, I miss watching your reaction. Never in my life after preaching this gospel since I was 17 did I ever think I did it for individual people; I've always thought I've done it unto the Lord, but in this season I've had to confront some stuff that by default in preaching and teaching and ministering and serving there's thanks that comes and there's reactions that you see and there's moments that you witness and you don't even know it, but all on the journey it's like you're going down this journey going, "Wait, that's the stuff that's filling my cup," it's those stories that are filling in my cup, it's those moments that are filling my cup. And I was telling her, I was expressing this to my therapist, and she said, "Rich, you are a true extrovert, and there's no wonder that this season is difficult for you, and there's no wonder this season has been painful for you, and the season feels different from you because so much of the energy that you draw from life comes from other people, and in this season proximity from people has been cut off, so that is not surprising." But she said, "Rich, I do wonder if this is a moment in your life that you could mature in the Lord, that for certainty you could define once and for all that what you do is not for the applause of man, but what you do is for the applause of one; that if nobody ever said, 'Good job,' if nobody ever said, 'Thank you,' if nobody ever expressed gratitude, would it be enough to keep on preaching, to keep on believing, to keep on leading?" And I don't know what it is, just one of those kind of moments where something just broke, something reframed inside of me, that this season that has felt like dirt in so many moments, all of a sudden I got a new revelation about the dirt. I said, "Wow, ain't this something," all these years I have been energized and all these years I have been impacted by the human spirit. How many know there's something powerful about the human spirit? Even right now as I'm preaching, the human spirit collectively in this room together, something is being conjured up, something is being stirred; people are beginning to believe, people are beginning to be inspired; the human spirit is powerful. But friends, what if, what if all these years I have been motivated by the human spirit and it's got us this far, what would happen today if I would say, "Let the dirt do the work"? If the human spirit could take us this far, what could happen if the Holy Spirit became the motivator? What would happen if the Holy Spirit was the thing that was energizing, the thing that was pushing? What would happen if the Holy Spirit became the entire motivation? I got a feeling that something would blossom, something new would grow. Let the dirt do the work. Faith works in the dirt. Faith seasons the seed, but faith, it works in the dirt. And if you feel like you're down in the dirt right now, if you feel like pain is hitting your life, if you feel confused, if you feel scared, if you feel alone, I got a feeling you're closer to your breakthrough than you think. [Applause] You don't need great faith; you just, you need small faith, faith that, that works in the dirt. The dirt has a purpose as much as the seed has potential. Faith, it sees in the seed, and faith works in the dirt. But lastly, watch this: faith rejoices in the harvest. See, dirt will either help you or hurt you; that pain can either push you and teach you and push you towards Jesus, or that pain is going to separate you and isolate you and make you bitter. I'm not letting the dirt in my life make me bitter; let it make me better. I'm walking out of this season better; I'm growing, I'm becoming, and every one of us are watching now. You can either progress or you can make excuses; you can't make both, you can't make both; you got to make a decision: make excuses or make progress; you won't make both. I'm choosing that this dirt in my life is going to help me; it's going to bring me to a place of harvest. But I think what happens to so many people is that so many people they fail to recognize that you can't live in a continual harvest. I wish I had more time to teach this; I wish I had more time to help you with this. Harvest, um, is an occasion; it's not a station. Harvest is a season, not a place. You can't always be the best; what a silly goal. Give it some time; it'll be something that's better. Can't always be the most popular; get, just give us some time; there's going to be someone who's more popular. You can't always get an A; you can't always be awake, because, because harvest, I think we're all like listening to the message, if we're not careful, this is, this is what I get scared about, because I want to tell you about something really great; it's going to be exciting, you're going to celebrate, and it's a harvest moment. But if we're not careful, we will live our whole life just going, "I wanted to harvest, I want to harvest, I want to harvest," and you will miss out on what God is doing in developing small faith that you'll see in the seed and that you'll plant in the dirt. And so what we do is go, "I want to get to harvest, I want to get to harvest, I want to get to harvest," but you understand you can't, you don't, you don't travel to harvest; harvest comes to you. Harvest is a result; it's a consequence; it's, it's, it's, it's the result of the planting; it's the result of the believing; it's the result of the releasing; it's the result of the sowing. I wrote it down this week: don't judge your day by your harvest; measure it by your investment. Get a new indicator of where your joy comes from; get a new measuring stick of what brings you happiness in life; it's not the harvest that makes you happy; it's the investment, day in and day out. But what does Jesus say in these two little verses? He says, "Yet when planted, yet when planted, yet when planted, it grows; it becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." It's a picture of harvest, that the seed has been planted and now it's grown so large. Did you catch that little verse? It's kind of peculiar; it's so large that the birds can perch in its shade; what a bizarre, random extra little phrase, a small little detail to describe what this plant is to do. Yet I believe that after you have believed and after you have planted, after you have sown, that when you reap, it is a season to rejoice, to thank God, to say, "God, I am grateful that you have grown this thing, and God, I am grateful that you have blessed me. But God, I do not want you to bless me simply for me; God, I want you to bless me that I might be a blessing to someone else. God, I want you to grow me large, not so I can be large and in charge; God, grow me large so that random birds who did not sow, random birds who did not get down in the dirt with me, random birds who are just looking for some shade in the sun, that because of the way that I have lived my life and put my trust in you, that the blessing on my life would begin to be a blessing on their life." Oh, this is a picture of church, that we rejoice in the harvest, because as God continues to move in our community and move in our lives, it's not that He can just do something in us individually, if that He might do something through us corporately, that a city might be changed, that a nation might be touched, that the world could find the shade of God through the scorching heat of the pain that they live in. When I think about our church, I'm so grateful for a church not of great faith; I'm thankful for a church that's had small faith; thankful for a church that decided a long time ago, "Generosity is our privilege"; thankful for our church that before we had titles we would say, "Honor is our calling"; thankful for our church that before we had any staff members and it was only servant leaders, people would say, "Passion is our pursuit; we will do it the same way at the pulpit as we do in the parking lot." I'm thankful for a church that would say, "We'll do things with excellence; we don't own nothing, we don't have any money, but everything that comes our way we will do common things in an uncommon way, because we don't have the way of excellence, but we carry the spirit of excellence everywhere that we go." I'm thankful for a church that's made it really easy to say, "You know what, all people, all people, let them come in; whether you served, whether you gave, whether you helped, doesn't matter who you are, you can come and get some of this shade, you can come and get some of this relief, come and rejoice in our harvest." I'm thankful for a church that continues to serve and says, "You know what, I'm a, I'm a servant leader in all seasons; I'll serve on the in-person gathering, I'll serve online, I'll serve in a pandemic, I'll serve at, uh, at a conference; whatever the train is, I'm a servant leader." But I'm most grateful for a church that from day one has said, "We got one message; it's not mind over matter, and it's not clean yourself up, but it's not do better or get better; we got one message: His name is Jesus Christ." As we attach our life to His, our brokenness, our weakness, our smallness doesn't matter, because we're attached to one who is sturdy and strong and who is faithful, and His word has not returned void. And from day one this church has sown seed; from day one this church has worked in the dirt; and from day one this church has decided to celebrate constantly in every moment of harvest, and we have had some great miracles, have we not had some great miracles, church? Have we not seen God do amazing things in the last five years? If He didn't do one more thing for VU church, is there anybody out there who can testify with me that He has been faithful, He has been good, He has been great to us? If He didn't bless me one more way, He has blessed me in more ways than I can count; I am a blessed man. Thank you, God. Oh, come on, you gotta rejoice in you; do you gotta praise you? I'm thankful, today on mountaintops or in valleys, I will bless the Lord, but today is a day that we rejoice because this week something powerful happened that you don't know about, and this is a day that we rejoice in yet again another great miracle that none of us could have been ready for, none of us could have created our own accord, but a faithful God who says, "The kingdom of God is established like a mustard seed; it looks small at the beginning, it looks invisible." But what do you see in the seed as we put it in the dirt? The dirt has done its work. Today is a day of harvest. I want you to watch this little clip to hear about this miracle that took place, this great harvest here at VU church. Oh, I don't even know what we're doing. [Music] [Music] [Applause] What's happening? [Applause] [Applause] What's up, everybody? 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 we'll trust Your timing as it all comes to fruition." Are you with me? I'm so grateful for this moment. Look at this kid's 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 weeks 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. 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. [Applause] Oh, come on, come on, come on, make a little bit of, it's a noise, it's a miracle. After five years of not having a church home, we have just signed a contract on a brand new property, as you've just seen, seven acres, a 38,000 square foot building, the new South Miami VU church location. Come on, can we thank God today? I'm telling you, friends, it's God's timing; God knew where we were; He was leading us and where He was directing us, and in many ways it might look like a suddenly moment, but please don't miss it; it's been on the heels of patiently waiting, slowly growing; it's called small faith. I'm just telling you, I don't believe that God has taken us this far to simply bring us this far; we are still just at the very beginning of this story. And as we faithfully serve and as we faithfully give and as we faithfully sow, God is going to continue to do an amazing, epic miracle; people will stand back and they will rejoice in the harvest that He has brought us; people are gonna meet Jesus because of this miracle; people are gonna find shade because of your sowing, because of your serving, because of your giving, and it's all because of small faith; it's just small faith, it's just small faith. Today is a day that we rejoice; there's so much more to tell you about the property and how we're going to develop it and what we're planning to do in the city of Miami, what we're going to do in South Miami, uh, there's all sorts of dreaming going on, but today is simply a day that we rejoice as we purchase this church and it gets used for God's glory, and you're a part of the story, and we're thankful for it. Can we just thank Jesus one more time all together for all that He's doing in His church today? Your head's bowed, your eyes are closed; there's no one looking around; I don't know who you are today, but I know this: I know that God's Son, Mark chapter 1, tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, and when Jesus came into the earth, He didn't come in robes of royalty, but rather He was born in a nativity scene in Bethlehem; He was born in a manger; He came like a mustard seed; He came from what seemed so insignificant, so small, so petty. I wonder today if you're out there and you're going, "You know what, where I come from and where I've been is so small and so discarded and so overlooked." Oh, man, do you not know the God that you serve? The God of all heaven came to this earth, born in a manger, in a dirty stable. I can't think of a more insignificant place, but where you start is not where you have to finish when it comes to the power of Jesus. Today God has a great plan for your life; God wants to give you contentment; God wants to give you peace; God wants to give you purpose, but it begins when you attach your belief not into belief, not into good thinking, not into good vibes, not into being kind, not into being good; know what happens when you attach your belief into the person of Jesus, that He did for you which you could never do for yourself. And right now I just want to give you a chance; it's just one little step, a one little step of small faith, and all of heaven invades your life. He's already taken 99 steps towards you, and now will you simply turn towards Him and receive Him? It's one little small, it's one little reach, and all of heaven picks you up and says, "I have a plan for your life today." With your head bowed, your eyes closed, from your home, from your car, listening in your AirPods, listening on YouTube, watching on Instagram or Facebook, maybe you got a watch party, maybe you're at Silverspot, maybe you're watching this months from now; I don't know when you're watching this, all I know is this, is that God is waiting for a relationship with you; He invites you into relationship right now, and all it takes is small faith. So on the count of three, if that's you, would you say, "Rich, that's me"? That's

Me, I'm choosing Jesus today. I recognize who He is; I believe who He is, and I want to follow Him once and for all. One today is that day.

Two, forget about what other people are gonna say. This is your moment between you and God. One, two, three. If that's you, make a decision right now. That's me. Rich. That's me. That's me. In the chat, say, "That's me." That's me in the chat. Just put in there right now, "That's me." That's me. That's me. I'm choosing to follow Jesus.

Pray this prayer with me: Say, "Dear Jesus, today, Lord, I ask that You would forgive me, that You come into my life, that You be the Lord of my life today. I surrender all that I am over to You, God. Thank You that You honor small faith. Today, I attach my belief into the object of who You are. Take who I used to be and let me become who You've called me to be. I choose to follow You. You're my Lord; You're my Savior today, Jesus. I worship You, in Jesus' name."

Come on, everybody! Said, "Come on!"

Hey, Rich Wilkerson here. I want to say a big thank you for watching today's content, believing and trusting that it impacted you. And if it did help you or encourage you in any way, I would love for you to like it and share it with some other people. Make sure to subscribe to the VOUS Church YouTube page where you can get more content just like this. And while you're there, go peruse the gallery, as they say, and see past talks and past content that I believe is going to help you. I love you.