It is a real joy to be here. I had an opportunity to be here probably about six years ago when we were first starting our church. Pastor Pennington gave us the opportunity to be able to come and to share some testimonies of what the Lord was doing as our church plant began. And I've appreciated the friendships and the relationships that we've been able to have from this ministry and having your prayer support and for the investments that people have placed in our lives so we're able to minister. It's really unusual to have a pastor and his wife grow up in the same church where they're ministering to. It's not like that shouldn't happen, it just isn't that common really. But I really appreciate your pastor and his wife and their testimony, where they are welcomed and loved and have that opportunity to be able to minister. I appreciate friends who've come with us. Good to have them supporting us here as well with this night of ministry. Why don't you turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 here today. Actually, we're going to go to Mark 11. I will quote you something from Hebrews 11. We'll go to Mark 11 here tonight. The scripture says this about faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Now it's interesting because there could be a little wiggle room there. There's not, but there could be. It doesn't say that it's not likely that our life will please the Lord, because that means one or two percent of people or five percent of people could possibly please the Lord and not walk by faith. But it says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. It doesn't say that not many please who fail to demonstrate faith. It says it is impossible categorically to please God if you don't walk by faith. And Paul said it this way, he said, for we walk by faith, not by sight. So what I've done here tonight is I want to draw our attention to Mark chapter 11 and look at some of the teaching, first of all the example of our Lord, then look at some of his teaching, his explanation, followed by his exhortation in teaching us to walk by faith. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to sprinkle in some testimonies about what the Lord has done in our ministry over the last year. The reason I do that is that Jesus oftentimes used parables, and he used parables in a way that kept people's attention, that clarified the truths that he was teaching, and it helped people be able to walk away and see how the Word of God applied to everyday life. And so I'm going to throw in several illustrations to be able to shed light on walking by faith. Our church started six years ago, and our first major step of faith was purchasing a building. We're about to take another step of faith, and that's going to be to begin taking on missionary support. We're going to turn in our commitment cards this Sunday, and that's another exciting step of faith. But about a year ago, in the spring, we saw a building that had come up on the market, and I was pretty familiar with the Bloomington Market and trying to see different pieces of property and buildings and whatnot, but one really caught my interest. And so, we toured it as a church after a Sunday morning service. And honestly, I did this. When I would pass a church like this, or really any church, I'd say, how in the world do they get to that point? How does a church get to the point where they're not leasing, they're not renting, they buy something, they own it, and they're sending forth missions? And it was always in my mind, like, looking forward to the day when God would just do some amazing things and make that possible for us. So we walked through this particular building and I said to our folks, if the Lord is in it, he's going to have to open up some doors for us. And so, after several Sundays of prayer and considering this, we took up an offering and the offering was equal to six months of our regular giving. on one Sunday. We're not talking about pledges that are going to come in over the next year. Our people, we had a church of 50, 55 or something. Our church gave $52,000 on that particular Sunday to be able to move forward. And the Lord just started opening door after door for us to move forward. And when I'd stand back or I'd drive by on the highway and I'd see churches and say, how did they get to that point? I'm saying, Lord, I'm starting to see how you're doing that in our lives. Well, our lender heard about this because we're going through our paperwork at this time, and she said, I've been doing this for 30-some years. She said, I've never heard of this. She said, we work with churches all the time. She said, I'm serious. She said, I've never heard of this before. She said, we're actually going to change the terms of your lease to your advantage. We're going to allow you to have a little bit more equity to work with. She said, this is just something that floored everybody in the room. She said, we're just shocked by what the Lord has done, with what has happened in your church, and we were thrilled with what the Lord had done. So we could see as we were moving forward, the Lord was just pushing doors open before us. And we knew it wasn't going to be something that we could do, but it was something that the Lord would have to do. And this is what it comes back to, because I'm giving you several illustrations to come back to this truth. In life, in the Christian life, we are called to walk by faith. You as an individual are called to walk by faith. Your family, called to walk by faith. Sometimes you have trials where you're walking by faith. A church is called to walk by faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God, but we serve a God, when we place our faith in Him, He moves mountains. And we look back and say, we could never do that, but the Lord says, I'm waiting for your faith to activate my hand and I will move those mountains before you. And so today I want to consider from Mark chapter 11, I want to consider faith that moves mountains. And I want to see first of all Jesus' example from Mark chapter 11 and verse 20. Scripture says this, And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou curseth is withered away. And Jesus answering, said unto him, Have faith in God. So the first thing we see about Jesus' example is His faith was visible. The twelve disciples had encountered this tree the day before, and Jesus had said of that tree, ìNo man shall eat the fruit of thee thereafter forever.î And apparently what would happen is there was a lot of fruit that would come in the month of June, but perhaps this was back during the time of March or April when there was just the first fruits of the figs, and this tree didn't have any. And the Lord was really viewing this tree and this episode as an example to demonstrate faith in the disciples, but really, we're talking about this momentarily, it was a picture of Israel and their rejection of Him. And so Christ used this tree as an object lesson for His disciples. His own faith was very visible. So what we need to recognize with faith is faith is not something that we practice within our heart and nobody else can see it. Faith is not something that we're walking through life and saying, I wonder if I have faith. Have I gotten to the point where I'm demonstrating faith? Faith is visible. James talks about faith. Without works, it's dead. There's going to be something that others see where you know you're walking by faith. Faith obeys. Faith is quick to obey. Faith endures. Faith is willing to keep trust in the Lord when the things that we hope for and the things that we expect and the things that we would like to have don't fall into place in our lives. We continue to have faith. Faith is demonstrated in faithfulness. Consistency before the Lord. You're trustworthy. You're dependable. You say you'll be there, you're there. And you're ministering in the capacity that God has called you to. William Carey has said this statement, which I think is so helpful for us, he said, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. Now this is the interesting thing. Many Christians are comfortable with that first part of the statement, expect great things from God. We all say, God can do anything, I trust in the Lord, but this is what he goes on to challenge his generation with, attempt great things for God. So faith is a necessary part of the Christian walk. You may come to a point in your life where you face an obstacle in life, a hurdle, a difficulty, this challenge, and you say, we want as a ministry to go here, this mountain's in the way. I wanna see my kid go on for the Lord, but there's this challenge, there's this difficulty, there's this stronghold, there's a mountain in the way. In your own personal walk, I'd love to lead someone to Christ, I would love to be effective in prayer, but there seems to be this mountain in our life. What we see here is God is able to move the mountains in our life when we place our faith in Him. Go back to the last chapter, to Mark chapter 10, and look at verse 27. Look at this statement that Jesus says. It's so helpful for us and we all say, Amen, I believe it. But what about our actions? Look at verse 27. And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible but not with God. For with God all things are possible." When we did our renovations, I learned a lot of lessons about building. I didn't minor in building, I don't have a background in building, it was just like a whole new world for me. And I remember sitting down with some architects in Bloomington, and we did happen to go with these folks, but we just did a lot of research and a lot of homework, and they said, you know, the building that you've bought for a little church like us, it was a half-million-dollar building, stuff is expensive, and they said, you're talking about $100,000 to about $250,000 more dollars for renovation if you do all of this stuff professionally. I was like, wow! There's no way that's going to happen. We have to have the Lord open doors for us. So one of the things that was asked of us, and it's very common, is to have licensed electricians who do the work. Which means that you're paying somebody by the hour who's licensed to be able to do that type of specialized work. Well, I was able to reach a woman, a widow, and bring her to the church, and she trusted Christ, was able to have a baptism service for her, and after the baptism service, Marilyn called me, and she said, you know, a couple of my adult children came, and they were not believers. She said, you saw them in the service, and she said, well, Gary, my son, is a licensed, she said he is a commercial electrician with like 38 years of experience or something like that, and she said, he on his own volunteered to do the electrical work for your church. It's like, Lord, only you could do that. We're doing what we can. Try to lead somebody to the Lord, try to minister to people in the congregation, and the Lord says, don't you see what I'm doing here? On this Sunday, that thing that you've been praying about, you're going to have somebody walk through the doors, and he worked for probably six or seven months. We had 11 rooms in our auditorium. We cleared all that out. It was a medical building. We redid everything. And he provided the professional electrical service for us. And he did that as a gift. He did that willingly because it was his mother's church. It was just really an incredible thing. So there are obstacles that we see in life as mountains, and God just takes His hand and He just literally brushes them aside. You could have a ministry or a missionary team working for a lifetime to try to get a beachhead with people or try to reach folks with the gospel, and the Lord can do that in a moment's time with His power. God is able to do this. So not only do we see Christ had visible faith as He actually speaks out to this tree and in the very presence of the disciples, but we see he had confident faith. Because what Christ did not do is he did not go into his closet and pray and say, Father, if you would do this fleece for me, I would appreciate it. He goes publicly with this and he says, you're never going to produce any more fruit. And they come back the next day and it's dried up. And this is a very visible, confident expression of the Lord's faith. In Hosea chapter 9 verse 10, the Bible is referring to Israel as being a fig tree. It says this, I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree. So the Old Testament oftentimes refers to Israel figuratively or poetically as a fig tree. And the Lord did curse that generation for rejecting Him, rejecting the truth. He said, I would long to have gathered you as a hen gathers its chicks, but you would And so here there's an object lesson of him speaking forth in the very presence of his generation and them seeing this faith not just talked about but lived out. This is the difference between telling your children, I want you to do right. I want you to walk by faith. And having a mom or dad who do right. And a mom and dad who walk by faith. And it's unmistakable for young people to be able to follow after, not perfect parents, but parents who demonstrate the things that we value. I want us to see verse 22, it says this, Jesus answering, saith unto them, have faith in God. So here's Jesus' explanation. He says, if he says have faith, you could say, faith in me? Have faith. In us? Have faith that things will have to get better because they certainly can't get worse. No, he says who the object of faith is, he says have faith in God. Jesus talked about the story of the parable there of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and the storms came, the difficulty came, and his foundation was so weak that house came crashing down. But the man who built his house upon the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, when the opposition and difficulty came, it stood firm. The object of our faith is the Lord. In fact, 2 Timothy chapter 2 says this, if we believe not We wrongly don't believe the Lord. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. God will not change who he is because of our failures. There are times where going through this whole building process, it's like, Lord, I don't have the energy for this. I don't have the wisdom for this. We don't have the resources for this. He says, you don't have to worry about that. Keep looking to me. I'm faithful. And I'll continue to show myself faithful. And an open door is that only I could open. Well, the object of our faith here in verse 22 is have faith in God. It is so simple, yet it is exactly what we need to practice in our life. Not looking at circumstances, not looking at our past, not looking at difficulties, but looking at a God who knows all and who has all power. We see the result of that in verse 23. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith." That is a huge promise. And I just want to think about this for a minute because this isn't happening in Indianapolis. This would be a story that would be happening there in Jerusalem, and they would be familiar with particularly the Mount of Olives, which would just be beyond Jerusalem. And from the Mount of Olives you could see the Dead Sea. Well, here this mountain, the Lord is saying, God can take mountains that are before you if you have faith and He can cast them in the sea. It's totally lost, it's totally covered up. Well, the first ministry that my wife and I were in was in Colorado. We'd open up our bedroom window in the morning, we'd look out and we saw Mount Evans right through our bedroom windows. The tallest paved road in North America. Huge, 14,000 foot mountain right through the window there. Well, they look big, but when you drive up to them, I mean, they're really big. They're massive. It takes like hours to get there. And the Lord is saying, I'm going to take something that is so big, a mountain, something that's just beyond your comprehension. I want you to know, if you have faith, I'm a God who can root that out and move it out of the path and I'll get the glory for it. But I'm looking for people who will have faith to rely upon me. I want to give you a very practical example of how this was demonstrated that very week in the life of Christ. It was on Monday that Jesus cursed the tree, at least we put chronology together that appears to be the case, and on Tuesday he came, this is the passage inspected the fruit and it's dried up, the tree's dried up, and on Friday of that week he was crucified. All of the disciples stand back and say, we placed our hope in this man. This, he was the son of God. What's happened? In their lives, there's a mountain. What can God do from this? Our Savior's dead. This whole thing is over. And the Lord says, I'm going to demonstrate this again. And he raised Jesus from the dead. It's the birth of the gospel. And so on the very week when they're looking at impossibilities, God demonstrates in a theological sense, He demonstrates to them that He is very able and very willing, in fact has planned to do some amazing things in answer to faith. The statement that I'm about to make here tonight is really the whole point of tonight's message and that is this. Faith moves God and God moves mountains. It is not my faith that moves mountains because the object is not my circumstances, it's not what I'm going through, it's not who I am or who we are or what we even stand for. It's a very self-focused Christianity. It's me placing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ being pleased with that without faith is impossible to please when He says, now I will move that mountain that is in your path. Here in this text of scripture, we see that God moves mountains in response to your faith and mine. And this is just an illustration of a barrier that is humanly impossible. It's a mountain. It's something that we can identify with. It's something that is in our path. What are you facing tonight that is humanly impossible? You say, our church family needs comfort at this time. Couldn't imagine going through the tragedies of some of the requests that were just mentioned. God moves mountains and He provides comfort. You say, I need wisdom. There is just a situation in life that is so difficult and it just takes the wisdom of God to be able to discern it. God can move mountains. You may say, I need strength. I'm not sure how I can go on. God will give you strength. God will give you help. God will give you provision. God will give you grace as you put your faith in Him. You know, if we could move the mountains ourselves, we would have done it long ago, right? But the idea is we've walked up to that mountain and we can't do anything. We're stuck. So you look to heaven and say, Lord, in your timing, in your way, according to your will, would you move this mountain? This is what Jesus is actually teaching us. One of the greatest demonstrations of God doing the impossible in, not in practical terms, it's very practical, but I'm saying in spiritual victories, has to do with the power of the gospel changing lives. And I think Christians are genuinely burdened for co-workers and they're genuinely burdened for family members, but I think when there's the waiting and the expression of faith, and by the way, you don't know you have faith unless it's being tested. That's a difficult aspect of faith. So faith does not necessarily mean God's going to respond immediately. That faith needs to be tested, perhaps, and God will give the answer to that. But really, when it comes down to the Gospel going forward, there are times where we believe the Lord can, but we really don't attempt for God to do that by saving, for instance, family members or co-workers or even people within the community. Just try to use an example from our ministry here recently. I've been able to develop a good relationship with our mechanic. Maybe three or four years had known him and had stopped by from time to time as we needed our oil changed. So I invited him for a Christmas cantata and he really looked like he was close to coming. He said, I'll think about it, I'll talk to my wife. He didn't end up making it. Well, continue to pray for him, continue to leave that door of opportunity open. Easter came around, and I invited him to what was going to be our open house for our new building. And so he said, you know, my wife and I are going to be there. He said, we're going to come with the three kids. He came that week. He said, I've not been to church at all. He said, I've no church background. He said, we're coming back next week. Started a Bible study with him shortly after that. Four lessons later, he trusted Christ as his Savior. Those lessons we'd spend two hours at least per lesson just soaking in the Bible and asking questions. He hasn't missed a Sunday since. He's been bringing several friends. They're coming. They're close to trusting Christ. And a person does this in life. You walk by and see somebody and say, do they want to be approached with the gospel? That seems impossible. Yeah, but God is able to do the impossible. And rather than saying, Lord, I'm here on call, waiting for you to tap me, say, Lord, I'm praying and I'm seeking and I expect that some of these oppositions are going to be pushed aside and I'll be able to go forward. God can do what seems humanly impossible because He's teaching us to walk by faith. So if we really preach to ourselves here tonight about this topic, we need to stop being content that we're burdened for souls. Wouldn't you expect that we'd be burdened for souls? We believe in eternal judgment. We rejoice in our salvation. Of course we're burdened for souls. We need to start leading souls to Christ. You say, Pastor, that's impossible. We serve a God who does impossible things. The person could say, it's time we stop complaining about culture. And instead, we start seeing some victories of rescuing lives by the grace of God. Well, culture is just so bad at shifting. Yeah, it is bad. It grieves our soul. It makes us long for heaven. But we need to see some victories in this life. Victories within our own homes and victories within our community of people who are touched with the gospel. Well, it truly is a blessing to see the example of the Lord when He says, when He demonstrates faith through this action, verse 20 and 21. We see Him put His finger right on the need, He says, have faith in God, and He explains it with an illustration. But now, I want to see His exhortation in verse 24. He says this, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Honestly, this is staggering. It's unbelievable that Christ would give us such an opportunity for prayer. But he uses the word therefore, he's signifying a conclusion here, and he has several assumptions that I notice within this verse. First of all, he assumes that you're Have you noticed in this verse he doesn't give an impassioned plea? Now you really need to pray, you really need to take time for this. How can you go through life without praying? He doesn't talk like that because to be a Christian is to practice prayer. And he says, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. So Jesus did not beg for this. He assumed that prayer is a part of our daily walk. Is that a fair assumption in your life? But two, I think from other passages of Scripture we can understand that we're being taught here to pray according to God's will. And I think this is so easy for us to understand as a parent. A father will only give good gifts to his children, of course a good father. what the Lord's going to do with us. The Lord's not going to give us every desire we have or every selfish whim that we would ask for. He's going to do things right. He's going to do things that are best in His timing, in His way. He's trustworthy. So there's an assumption here that we would be praying according to the will of God from other passages of Scripture that have been given to us. Well, again, I'm just trying to use some illustrations to help bring some of these truths to light We were on the home stretch of getting the renovations completed. It was about an eight month endeavor. I came to our church one Sunday morning and I said, we've come to one of the last jobs and that is getting the finished carpentry work done in the lobby. So basically we have some glass windows and the doors and then covering it with oak and getting that part done. We had some guys that did furniture, but nobody that was really able to take on something that's commercial scale. And so I just announced that on a Sunday morning service. And that particular Sunday, Mike Weiss and his wife Susan from Shepherds Bethel, that provides missions housing for missionaries in southern Indiana, just happened to pass a visit. He hadn't been there for several years to my knowledge. He came up to me afterwards, he said, do you know I have an employee who is a finished carpenter? And he said, I'm going to clear his schedule and we're going to get him in here as soon as you need him and he's going to finish all that work for you. We had committed that need to prayer and the Lord said, we're gonna move mountains on your behalf because I want this church, I want you as an individual to learn to walk by faith. And so this promise is amazingly broad. Verse 24, therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. Faith moves God and God moves mountains. We see Christ's command here and that says this, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. So it's not like this is, for instance, a proverb like here's some wise counsel that you might want to consider and add to your life. It's not like that. This is a command from the Lord, the head of the church, your creator. He says to you in a command, believe. that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." We see this stated very strongly in the form of a command, when you believe, you will be heard. Well, Christ was burdened that when He left this earth that He return, that when He returns He would find faith on the earth. And so some of, in the very last week of spending time with the men who had set the foundation for the church, he gives them this principle and it's recorded for us that for every generation we can practice what it is to walk by faith. And the statement is this simple in verse 22, have faith in God. It is a matter of obedience. There were a number of checkpoints that we needed to go through when we were doing our building renovation. And we had to do zoning, and then we had to look at the exterior and the parking lot and the landscape, just all different checklists that had to be accomplished. And I was in one of the meetings with the county, and my real estate agent was there, too. And when the person that we were working with got up and walked away from the meeting, he turned and looked at me. He said, has your church been praying about this? He said, because how favorable the county is being toward you. He said, you just don't see this in the business world. He said, this is really amazing. I said, yeah, we actually have been praying about it. It was a testimony that even people outside of our church were able to pick up on. So Jesus says this, For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith." So as believers, let's have faith in God. As a church, let's have faith in God. The leaders of your home, have faith in God. Young person, have faith in God. And God will do some amazing things in your life. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Lord, we come before you here tonight Recognizing that we desire to trust you, we desire to walk with you, and yet recognizing that there are times where we trust ourselves, we forget to focus on you, we become weak in our own strength. Lord, I pray that you would work even during this invitation time, that you would challenge our hearts to be men of faith, women of faith, young people of faith. Lord, that you would do some great things, not for our namesake, but for your glory. You are a great God and you are worthy of that glory, and I pray that you'd give us circumstances that would be able to point others to a great God that we serve. I do pray these things in Christ's name, amen.