I'm sure you probably feel like I do on the Lord's Day morning. There's nothing more I enjoy than getting in my car and getting on the interstate for the 16-mile drive here and just having a beautiful, sun-drenched Lord's Day and quiet in that vehicle to think and to ponder. Now, some of you are at a stage in life where that doesn't happen, I recognize. There's plenty of squirming and screaming and carrying on and whatnot, but I'm well past that, and I am so thankful that I am. And you come into church and people ask how you're doing. They exchange friendly greetings. And of course, you've always got to be a little careful in your response. And they need to be a little careful with you about asking about how your health is. You know what I mean? You ask somebody over 50 how their health is and you get an organ recital. And I don't mean music either when I say that. In fact, this is probably a good time for me to just let everybody in the church family know that In fact, I have been diagnosed with a serious health condition. In fact, it's a terminal disease. It's contagious. I've caught it from my wife. It's called the doting grandparent disease. I know Jeff Hamrick's in-laws are actually here, and I know that they also suffer from this disease. They have just gone on vacation with their grandkids to Disney World. They've got it bad. Okay, for sure. And it's a great thing, isn't it? I understand Ian was taking the rollercoaster up Space Mountain. He was halfway there. Jeff told me this morning that halfway up Space Mountain, Ian said, Daddy, I don't think I want to do this anymore. And compassionately, as a kind and loving father, he said, well, too late, Ian. Or something like that, anyway. I've got it pretty bad. I mean, there is Ethan, and by the way, I've got eight of them, all under five years of age, or five. Isn't that great? Blessed chaos at our house when they all come. There is Ethan, and Abby, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and there's Adelaide, and there's Nellie, and there's Ford, and I might be missing somebody. Let's throw the dogs in, Josie and Sadie. One time the kids were visiting our house and Abby, who is the oldest granddaughter, came bouncing down the stairs. She is the reincarnation of my oldest daughter in temperament, disposition, appearance. If it wasn't so precious, it would be weird. She comes down the stairs that morning in her pajamas. And I came out of the den, which comes right to the stairs. The stairs are really fairly steep in our house, and we have them carpeted halfway down, and she's pretty much nearly halfway up the stairs. And I come walking out, and her eyes brighten up, and she says, Papa! And just launches herself. I mean, from way up there. And fortunately, she launched herself well enough and far enough that she came right into my arms. I have three important biblical questions to ask you this morning. And I want you to think about that, about Abby. Do you think you know what faith is? Christianity is called the faith repeatedly in the New Testament. You know that faith is cited as one of those great Christian qualities. Faith, hope, and love in 1 Corinthians 13, 13. I mean, it's one of the big ones, folks. It's one of the huge elements, qualities in life and experience as a believer we are to get and we are to grow as Christian people. In fact, Hebrews 11, 6 says that without faith, this is such a sobering statement to me. When you live your life trying to please God and serve God every day of your life, and then you read a statement like this, it really pulls you up short. When God says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Do you think you really know what faith is? There's a second question. Would you describe your faith as great faith or little faith? You know that on four occasions in the Gospels, the Lord Jesus specifically said to his disciples, O ye of little faith. And on two other occasions, he commended two unnamed Gentiles for their great faith. And here's a third question. Is your faith growing? You know, when the disciples were faced with the requirement of frequently forgiving a repeatedly offending brother, they said to the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 17, increase our faith. You know, according to Romans chapter 4, verse 20, it's possible to have weak faith or strong faith. According to James 2, 5, it's possible to have a life that is poor in faith or rich in faith. We can enjoy, according to the Scriptures, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 16, protection through the shield of faith, or to put it as it does in 1 Thessalonians 5.8, protection through the breastplate of faith, or we can be protectionless. We can be open game for the evil one. It depends on faith. Three times, a really rather obscure sentence out of Habakkuk, Chapter 2, verse 4. When was the last time you read Habakkuk? I hope recently, but, you know, it's one of the minor prophets and probably it hasn't been real frequently or recently. But three times Habakkuk 2-4 is quoted in the New Testament. It's found in Romans 3-17, Galatians 3-11, and Hebrews 10-38. And it says, the just shall live by faith. That's us, the righteous, and that's what that means, the just, shall live by faith. You know, I've just often been stunned and convicted and, to be honest, left longing as a Christian when I read the stories of the faith of great Christians of the past. I have sat hours on end, absolutely spellbound by the faith of Adoniram Judson in the classic biography to the Golden Shorts. He was the first missionary from America. And paging my way through those several hundred pages, I've just found myself literally having my mouth drop open and sometimes gasping at the confidence the man would show in God. I've been mesmerized by the diary and the biography of George Mueller of Bristol. You remember that name? You've heard that name before? Yeah, what this guy did was unbelievable. And in fact, what he did, he states in his diary, he did on purpose to prove that God could be trusted. Do you know what he did? What he did, folks, when there was no social security net in England to help kids who were orphans, this guy took, raised, supported, clothed, and educated 10,000 orphans. And, you know, he never once publicly announced his financial needs for that. Now, that's fact. It's quite remarkable. I've been awed, you know, as I've read through the biography of David Livingston, that intrepid British missionary as he crossed the southern part of Africa through what today is Zimbabwe and Zambia. and what he experienced in just terrible, debilitating malaria and other diseases, horrific terrain, the resistance of the natives, and yet doggedly, faithfully moving forward preaching the gospel. And I've been just inspired by the trusting courage of a more modern-day martyr named Stanley Dale. And if you ever see the title, The Lords of the Earth, on a book in a Christian bookstore, buy it and read it. It's the biography of this man who was martyred in 1968 after he successfully penetrated into the valley tribes people in Irian Jaya, just north of present-day Papua New Guinea in what is now Indonesia. and read some of the gospel and then tragically was killed in an inter-tribal war that, of course, he had nothing to do with. Those were shot with numerous arrows. But you know, I've been impacted no less by the faith of people I have known and just made thirsty about this. In fact, I think about this every day of my life. having more of it. I mean, take somebody like Phil Hunt, who 18 years ago, who I met and visited in Zambia, Africa three years ago, 18 years ago went to a place where there were no churches. He started four churches. He established a Christian school. There's an orphanage there now and a Christian college, the Central African Baptist College. There was nothing and now there is something. significant and major. You may have heard of David Hasselblad. I was thinking of the dispatches video that was seen before. Maybe it was of David in Albania. I don't recall exactly. We have one of him, but David has gone into that formerly most atheistic country in Eastern Europe marvelously as a church planter and reached the outcasts of that culture and that society as well as many, many other hundreds with the gospel establishing churches. And then there's Paul Zimmer in Yap, Micronesia. And not far from him, there's David Utter, missionary Bible translator in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, who's remained there longer than any man in history. On that coral atoll, I mean as a missionary. Present day. Well, the men I know planting churches in inner cities, very difficult places. Shepherding people and trusting God against the odds. But then there's just the normal people. Just the normal people. Who day in and day out trust God and care for ailing parents. Who raise godly children. who faithfully serve in this ministry and others like it, giving generously for the glory of God, who reach their neighbors, trusting God to empower them and use them. They all have faith. They are all trusting God. They have strong confidence in His promises. and his character as one that can be relied upon to act and intervene in the affairs of life. As Hebrews 11, verse 1 says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. People with an assurance That what they're hoping for will come to pass because God makes promises and God is the kind of person that He is. People who have a very strong conviction about what they yet cannot even see. The transformation of a life. The redemption of a relative. The provision of needs. But they have assurance and they have conviction. They have faith. God is glorified by great faith. Get it. And grow it. Christ helps us with that through several incidents that are recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. We're going to read two of those together now. And I invite you to turn in your New Testament to Matthew chapter 8. verse 5 through 13. Matthew chapter 8, 5 through 13, and then just page over in the gospel to Matthew 15, verses 21 to 28. Matthew 15, and put your finger there. Matthew 15, 21 to 28. We'll start with Matthew 8. These are not long passages. They're quite short. But they need to go together this morning for what we're talking about. They are incidents that involve the Lord Jesus. They are about faith. Verse 5 of Matthew 8, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it." When Jesus heard it, he marveled. and said to them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast down and out of darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And a servant was healed in the selfsame hour. And now turning right over to chapter 15, just a few pages over in your copy of the scriptures to verse 21. To verse 28, then Jesus went fence and departed into the coasts of Tyre inside and behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word, and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. And he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. When Jesus answered and said unto her, then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. But now, to fully appreciate What is going on in these two incidents here in Matthew's Gospel? We together must first heed some important warnings. about attitudes that limit faith. These are found in a few instances that occur in Matthew 6 through 16. And I'm going to walk you through on a quick journey to look at these limiting elements, elements, attitudes that actually make faith small. Four times, in four separate instances, Christ chided His disciples, saying to them, as I mentioned to you earlier, O ye of little faith. And every one of those instances, when He said to His followers, and that's us, we are His disciples, we are His follower-learners, that's what disciples are, and of course He was talking to the twelve, but that's what we are today. He said to them, oh, you little face. Why did he say that when he said it in those four instances? Well, in each case, we learn why he said it and what it was that was limiting their trust and confidence in God. The first of these instances is in Matthew chapter six in the Sermon on the Mount. And it's really right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and the Lord Jesus has been talking about material possessions, and He specifically encourages the disciples not to have anxiety over daily material necessities. And I want to take you to verse 30, where He says, Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith, therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or withal shall we be clothed? For all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And what God is saying, here is a faith limiter. If you're a person who elevates your concern and you are full of anxiety over accumulating, acquiring material possessions as the top priority in your life and experience, you will be a person of little faith. If you reorder your life and say, the advancement of the gospel, the up-building of the church for the glory of Jesus Christ is my top priority, then you are on the path to greater faith. Now, this is sobering, folks, for us as Americans. It really is. We are the wealthiest, the richest culture in the history of the world. Everyone in this room is a rich person compared to nearly everyone else who lives outside this country. That's fact. This is serious business because our circumstances in life as Americans, our drive to have, to accumulate, to possess is a direct Opposer. Of growth in faith. It's a limiter. Christ warns us. Keep your priorities right or you will have little faith. And then he takes us to yet another incident in Matthew's gospel. as we turn just a chapter or so over to Matthew chapter 8. In this case, he is on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. You remember the incident. A great storm comes up. The Sea of Galilee is a 13 mile long freshwater lake, 7 miles wide. On the eastern coast of the Sea of Galilee, there are 1,300 foot high cliffs. And those cliffs have ravines in them, and when the wind blows in from the east, it's funneled down through those ravines and comes shooting down onto the surface of the Sea of Galilee. And unlike most freshwater lakes, the storms and the size of the waves to this day, to this hour, that can be churned up on that lake are something more akin to what you face in the ocean. Not like just little white caps. We're talking big swells, serious situations, life-threatening, and the lake is very, very deep. And so they're in the lake and there's a horrific storm. You remember it. Jesus then is asleep in the back of the boat and they get very concerned, extremely exercised about this, of course. And when he entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. Verse 23, Behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us. We perish. And he said unto them, Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. Then he arose and rebuked the winds and sea. There was a great calm, but the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? And the lesson that Christ is teaching is this. Elevate your concern for physical safety to an inordinate place in your life and you'll limit faith. You will cut down on faith. I saw this happen to me the first time that I went to Poland in 1986, before the Iron Curtain fell. The Communists were still in control, but Westerners were being allowed in on educational visas, and I went there with another faculty member from the university. And I remember at several points becoming extremely apprehensive, very fearful, that something was going to happen to us because we were doing what we were doing, presenting the gospel, preaching the gospel, distributing literature, and so on. And if I'd had my druthers at those moments, I'd have hopped back on a plane and flown back to the United States. Confession's good for the soul, you know. Just tell you. But that certainly would have limited, would it not have, my trusting of God and my relying upon Him. And now I look back in retrospect some 20 years later, 20 plus years later, and say, you know, praise God for His sustaining power and protection in those circumstances for what He did. Well, Christ warns also about making decisions because you're overwhelmed by unexpected difficult circumstances. Now turning over a few pages in Matthew 14 verses 22 to 23, In this case, they're on the Sea of Galilee again. The disciples have gone on to cross the Sea of Galilee. You remember the incident. Jesus waited. He had been in prayer. And he decides later then to go to them on the Sea of Galilee, walking on the water. And this is the incident when he calls out to Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water. And before we jump too quickly to condemnation of Peter, let's do remember the guy was walking on water. OK, this is really quite remarkable. However, he started looking at the wind and the waves that were turning, not dissimilar from the other incident we talked about just a minute ago, and he got Very full of concern, he was overwhelmed with what to him were unexpected, difficult circumstances. I don't know what he thought when he walked out of the boat. It wasn't paying attention to those things or the wind came up and things got really bad and he was overwhelmed and he began to say, Lord, save me. And of course, the Lord reached out and rescued him in that circumstance. Well, it's interesting, as we look at the Scriptures, we see that the Lord Jesus says to him in verse 31 of 14, O ye of little faith, O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt to a man who just walked on water? Why? Because he let unexpected difficult circumstances stop him. in the middle of a great act of faith and trusting what God said, he was going to stop. He basically was failing and beginning to sink. making decisions on the basis of being overwhelmed by difficult circumstances. And he warns further in the next and final of these passages that we make human workability the final determiner of what we're supposed to do. Now, Matthew 16, looking at verses 5 through 12. In this text of Scripture, when the disciples had crossed over the Sea of Galilee, Jesus posed the question to them. They had forgotten to take bread, verse 5 says, and Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread, which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, Oh ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do you not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets we took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it? spake it not to you concerning bread that you should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He was talking about their teaching, about their doctrine. If you look at Matthew's Gospel, men and women, the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5,000 had just occurred. And these guys, humanly, were worrying about literal bread. Because they'd forgotten to purchase it. I would say that is thinking very much in terms of what is, you know, humanly workable as the final determiner of what they do and how they behave in this circumstance. Christ has just taught him a profound lesson. About not doing that. Getting your eyes and your mind on Christ and on what Christ says, here is the point really, truly. at heart when you talk about faith. It's God and what He says as transcendent above every other reality in the world. It is more real, it is more true, it is more so than any other reality. Jesus says sit down and distribute two fish and five loaves to 5,000 men plus women and children. And what he says is a more sure reality than everything that they were looking at. Everything. God says spread the gospel to every nation, every tongue, every people in the world. And I go with you. My authority is with you. I will not forsake you. That statement, that reality is more powerful, it is more true than any lack of funds, any opposition politically, any struggle or difficulty physically. It is the reality. It will happen if we obey. And so over and over we can go through. Life. And the circumstances. And understand that great faith. Is about cultivating. Attitudes that increase and grow that faith. Now we've read those two incidents in Matthew 8. And also in Matthew 15, Matthew 8 is that incident. That we've just considered together in verses five. to 13, where Christ heals a centurion's servant. And then in Matthew 15, he heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. Now, keep this in mind, both these characters are nameless. We don't know who they were specifically. That's an interesting fact. They were both Gentiles. One was a mother and one was a generous man who was in authority, a military officer under political authority of the Romans in the region. And they are described as having great faith, you know, that's a great encouragement for this from this. If those people can have great faith. Those people who are not named. Not people of remarkable influence or position. Can be described by the son of God. As people with great faith. That I think you can be and I think I can be. I think there's a real possibility held out to us here, but let's look together at what these people have in common. OK. Both of these people. had a deep compassion for someone in need, didn't they? For the woman, it was her daughter who was terribly afflicted with a demon. For the centurion, it was his trusted, beloved servant who was a man who was described as being paralyzed and suffering from extreme pain. They had deep compassion, a sense of great concern for someone in desperate and very deep need. And they were close to those people, weren't they? So now think of family, think of friends, think of neighbors and think in terms of great need. Compelling, seemingly unresolvable problems. people you already care about and you already know. The problem may be physical, like the centurion's servant. It may be spiritual, like the mother of the daughter. But both of these people had a desperate determination, a desperate determination to address the problems that they faced. They were desperate because it seemed to them that the problems were unresolvable. I mean, the daughter was demon possessed. The man was paralyzed and suffering excruciating pain, and there was no medicinal means of resolving that problem, those problems in the first century. It's interesting that the woman kept pleading with the disciples. They wanted to send her away. She then comes to Christ and begs Him. And you know how Jesus responded? He says, I'm not sent to the Gentiles. I'm sent to the lost sheep of Israel. She responded back and says, but Lord, you know, even the dogs, you know, eat the crumbs off the table, even though you said you shouldn't give the bread to the dogs. I mean, the Lord Jesus was holding this woman at bay and testing her. We know from a parallel passage in Luke's Gospel that that centurion sent Jewish elders first to make his plea and then himself pled for that dear servant. These were people who were desperately determined to see something happen for the people that they cared about. They were not going to give up. They were not going to throw in the towel. And that's a big temptation, isn't it, folks? When we face long term problems, deep, serious struggles with people we know and we care about, it is a serious temptation to say, what's the use? We've been down this road before. We've tried so long. What's the use? Well, the use is that we have a God in heaven. The use is we have a savior who's asking for great faith out of us. And would you notice something else about these two people? These folks made very humble petitions to Christ, that centurion is described, remember, when we read it as a man who says to Jesus, oh, I'm not worthy to have you come to my house. Besides, I'm a man of authority, and I give people commands, and they do what I tell them to do. You're the one who has all authority, so just give the word, Lord. Just speak the word. I mean, this guy is a man who holds a significant position in the Roman army, and yet he is saying to the Lord Jesus, I'm just really not worthy for you to come to my house. He wouldn't trust it in himself, was he? And this woman, following what Jesus said, says, Lord, yes, I'll agree. I am a dog. I'm a lowly person. But if I just have the crumbs off the table, this is one of the most interesting things, exchanges you find in the Gospels between Jesus and a person. Christ was really testing this woman's persistence, wasn't he? But she begs, she humbly submits herself and she begs And the conclusion in both cases is that this remarkable, persistent, humble, deep compassion was an expression of great trust in him who could do the seemingly utterly impossible. No entitlement here on these people's part. There's nobody else to go to. There's no merit in them. They know that. They're nameless people, desperate people, but they had a quality of faith in a woman that was remarkable. This is the kind of faith that moves mountains. This is the grain of mustard seed faith that is not large, but it is in the right person. It is focused. It's not how much faith, it is who you are having faith in. It is not what you feel. It is what He says and is capable of accomplishing and doing for you. The just. The just shall live by faith. Quoted three times in the New Testament from Habakkuk 2.4. Remember, without faith, it is impossible to please God. God is glorified by great faith. So let's do what we can, by His mercy and grace, to get faith and grow that faith. Make it our aim, as 2 Thessalonians 1.3 says, in Paul's words, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly. You know, right here in this assembly, we have people who have shown great faith. I don't see them in the service this morning. They're probably on missionary deputation. Maybe they'll be in the next service. You all know Chuck Evans and his wife Pam. Do you know that Chuck Evans left a lucrative job as an attorney, moved his family to Greenville, Submitted himself to working long and arduous hours from his home as an attorney while he attended seminary for several years. And now is stepping out by faith to go to a foreign country to spread the gospel to people in Brazil. It's remarkable. I mean, that is just remarkable. what this man is doing. You talk about stepping out. Many of us hear that kind of thing. We look at that kind of thing and we say, you know, I just don't get that. How in the world? What in the world? What is he thinking? How could he do that? And what we're seeing right before our very eyes is great faith in a great God. who does great things for people who recognize his great character and the validity of his great commands. And whoever we are, in whatever position in life we find ourselves, God is calling on us to find that desperate, needy circumstance and allow ourselves to be people who in our desperation and in our humility and in our compassion cause and allow our faith to grow. And be what it ought to be. For the glory of God. Let's stand to our feet together, please, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed on if you'll come. We close our service this morning. See, Dr. Hankins, straight up, there is no question. I'm a person of little faith. I'm asking God to help me increase my faith. I need to. I really need to. I'm a Christian. I know I'm a believer. I trust Jesus to save me for all eternity. But when it comes right down to trusting Him on a daily basis in a significant way, while the Spirit of God is just dealt with me today. And I'm asking the Lord with upraised hand to increase my faith wherever you may be. That's your testimony this morning as God has spoken to you. God is dealing with you. Amen. Amen. Amen. I need to make this real in my life. I need to start placing great confidence in what God says and who He is. And I'm really concerned about this. My faith is little faith. And I'm asking God to help me. Somebody else to whom the Lord has spoken. You haven't lifted your hands. Amen. Others. Others.