Series: Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gift
#4: The Gifts of Spiritual Qualities - Faith
Matthew 17:14-24 and Romans 12:2-3 (NRSV)
By John Gill ~ June 25, 2023

We are continuing to look at the various Spiritual Gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to each individual as we trust Christ as our Savior and Lord – gifts that equip each of us to live our lives in ways that serve God and others through the Church. The goal of our sermon series is to help each of us “unwrap” our unique Gifts of the Spirit.

As you may recall from last Sunday’s message, we are first looking at the Gifts of Spiritual Qualities – godly characteristics that we all share to some degree, but gifts some of us have in abundance. Last week, we started with the Gift of Love. This morning, our focus is on the Gift of Faith.

You know, whenever I hear the scripture lesson that Janie read a moment ago, I am troubled. As a pastor, I am convicted by this story, and perhaps you are as well. If you are a praying person as I am, folks may ask you to pray for them or for their loved ones who are sick and in need of healing. We say we will, and we do. And yet, it seems that nothing happens. Their illness or condition either resolves or they decline. Doctors help them recover, or their condition deteriorates and leads to their death. We seldom can point to our prayers as the cause of their healing and recovery. And yet, we believe and proclaim that faith and prayer work.

Yes, this passage makes me uncomfortable. In the conversation in our text, Jesus criticizes his disciples for their lack of faith. He says that they were unable to cast out the demon “because of [their] little faith,” – that if they had even a tiny speck of faith the size of a “mustard seed,” “nothing [would] be impossible” for them.

It's hard not to be convicted by this story. I must confess that, apparently, I don't have a sufficient level of faith. Jesus’ words make me feel inadequate as a pastor, - and, not a little guilty. Maybe you, too?

Should we feel guilty for having less than “a mustard seed” of faith? Probably we should. We all know we are weaker in our faith than we ought to be. In a different story of a father pleading for Jesus to heal his child, the father said to Jesus, “I believe – help my unbelief!” That should be our prayer, as well.

But this morning I'd like to offer a word of encouragement. I think that part of the problem is confusion about what we mean by” faith.” The word “faith” is used in several different contexts in the New Testament. What are the various uses of the word “faith” in the Bible?

First, there is “Saving Faith.”

In Ephesians 2:8, Paul writes that, “by Grace you have been saved, through faith.” When were you saved through your faith in Christ? Or, HAVE you been saved? Every person who becomes a Christian must have “saving faith” – We must trust in the blood of Jesus who demonstrated his love for us by going to the cross, and thereby has given us the possibility of everlasting life. “Saving faith” grants us a new life, an abundant life, an eternal life! If you've never given your heart to Christ, - I don’t know what are you waiting for?! There is no time better than today! Do it today! I hope you have the faith that saves.

A second way scripture speaks of faith is “Walking by faith.”

In second Corinthians 5:7 Paul writes that, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” You see, it's not enough to just have “saving faith.” If our faith is genuine, we will “walk by faith,” day-in and day-out. To walk by faith means that each day, you trust God to guide you, to see you through. In Colossians 2:6 it is written, “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in Thanksgiving.”

It is tragic that some people say “yes” to Jesus, but then hold back! They are willing to trust God with their afterlife, but not with this life- they surrender their hearts to Christ, but not their relationships, family, business, finances, or career. They choose to stumble through life, rather than to “walk by faith.”

So, sometimes when the Bible talks about “faith,” it is referring to the faith that saves. At other times it speaks of the faith that guides us as we journey through our lives. And yes, we all must have both types of faith to live as faith-filled godly women and men.

But this morning, we are here to consider the “Spiritual Gift of Faith.”

The Apostle Paul lists “faith” as a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians 12:9. This Gift of Faith is different from the first two types of faith. The first two are shared by all Christians, but the Gift of Faith is given to only a few. Here is the definition of the Gift of Faith: “The gift to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for the future of his work; full confidence and trust in God.” Some of you sitting here in church this morning possess the Spiritual Gift of Faith!

In 1973, there was a church on route 46 in Netcong, New Jersey. The congregation faced an insurmountable problem. They wanted to build a new sanctuary on 8 acres, half of which was mountainous terrain. They were told that they would not be granted permanent occupancy until they had sufficient space for parking that met the building codes. The parking lot that they needed paved was in the rear of the church. The problem: 40 feet of sheer mountain rose abruptly at the back of the church! The cost to remove the mountain was prohibitive for the small church. One Sunday, Pastor Crawford reminded the congregation of Jesus’ words, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to There,’ and it will move; And nothing will be impossible for you.” Then he added, “If you believe that, come on Wednesday night to pray with me that God will move this mountain from the back of the church.” So they began praying.

The next morning, the phone rang. It was the telephone company. They were planning to erect a new building and needed fill for their swampy site. They had learned that the mountain behind the church had the correct proportions of sand clay and rock for the fill they needed. Within a month, the phone company hauled away 40,000 square yards of fill for which they paid the church $5400, not only removing the mountain but leveling the ground and preparing the lot for paving! That congregation experienced the power of faith to move a mountain - literally! Few of us have experienced so dramatic an illustration of this gift.

Yes, God CAN move mountains – literally! But,when Jesus spoke of moving mountains, I believe he was using figurative language. “A mountain” was a common Jewish metaphor for any difficulties or obstacles that might stand in the way of God's purposes for our lives or our world. (We still use the metaphor of “mountains” in this way, don’t we? In the FAITH Justice Ministry that our congregation is a part of, our slogan is “FAITH – Moves Mountains!”)

We each have “mountains” in our lives, don’t we? What is it that is keeping you from fulfilling God's purpose in your life? What “mountains” do you need to have torn down before you can move ahead? The powerful meaning of this story is that, through faith, those mountains can be cleared away and you can have a new start! And all it takes is a tiny bit of trust in God to make it happen. That is the Gift of Faith.

So, what are the characteristics of the Gift of Faith?

First, the Gift of Faith is childlike.

It may be easy to assume that those with the Gift of Faith have a more elaborate or sophisticated faith than we do. Actually, the opposite is true. Far from more sophisticated, those with the gift have a naive childlike faith and trust in God. After all, didn’t Jesus say, “unless you become like a child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God”? A child knows her parent will take care of her and believes that her parent can do anything. All will be well. She is safe in her parents’

arms. There is a quote I've heard that I really like: “The reason most of us don't ever feel the everlasting arms is because we never lean back.” It has also been said that “Faith is not belief without proof, it is trust without reservation.” So first, the Gift of Faith is childlike, trusting in the goodness of God.

Second, the Gift of Faith is given to glorify God, to build up the church - not ourselves.

There are two dangers that we can fall into: arrogance and self-promotion. We can forget that the source for the power of faith does not originate from ourselves, but from God! We can see this danger when we look at those charismatic faith-healers who have been discredited and exposed as frauds. Faith-healers can begin to believe their own press releases! We must never assume that answers to our prayers are due to the level of our faith, as if it were our own doing. Yes, it's true that God works through our faith, but the power is not ours, but God's. It is the power of God, not our faith, that moves mountains! Another great quote that makes this point is this one: “Faith is not a quality of the one praying, but a relationship of practical trust with the One to whom the prayer is offered.” God works through our Gift of Faith, not because of our faith.

The third characteristic of the Gift of Faith is that those with this gift have the ability to see God's will, so they are able to give direction and vision to the church.

In order to see God's will, the person with this gift has built up trust in their relationship with God, and therefore has gained insight into the very heart of God. They then can cast a vision for the direction that God would have his Church go. People with this gift are vital to the welfare of the Church. They are often visionaries who give leadership and are able to make “impossible dreams” come true.

Those with this gift also are confident that God's purposes will come to pass, despite evidence to the contrary.

A common characteristic of people with the Gift of Faith is that they are never deterred by troubles and setbacks.

A great example of a biblical character with the gift of faith was Noah. Noah was instructed by God to begin building an ark hundreds of miles inland from any body of water, under clear skies. He was constantly ridiculed and harassed by his neighbors as being a fool – and yet he trusted in God. His faith was tested, and he passed the test.

Another example of a person with extraordinary faith is right here in our community. Mary McCloud Bethune was born in 1875, the daughter of former slaves. She had a dream of starting a school for black young people. She was never deterred from pursuing her vision, and although she faced opposition, she trusted in God to bring it to pass. She began with six black girls in Daytona Beach, raising funds by selling pies. That school grew into Bethune-Cookman University (one of two United Methodist-related colleges in Florida). Mary Bethune would tell the students over and over – “Faith ought not be a puny thing!” As you probably know, her outstanding faith and vision was recently immortalized with a statue of her that now stands in Statuary Hall in the US Capital – all because her faith persevered until God’s purposes came to pass.

A fifth characteristic of people with the Gift of Faith is that they pray with expectancy, and expect God will answer.

We need to have the attitude of the snail I read about. One cold day, a snail was climbing up the trunk of a cherry tree that had been stripped of all leaves by a winter freeze. He passed a beetle on the trunk who said, “Don't you know there's nothing to eat at the top of this tree?” “Oh, I know that,” said the snail, “but there WILL be by the time I get there!”

Back in the early 1080s, I attended Scarritt Graduate School in Nashville to earn a master’s degree in church music and Christian education. The slogan of that school was etched above the doorways of the stately Gothic campus: “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” Those with the Gift of Faith “expect great things from God.”

The final characteristic of those with the Gift of Faith is this: they offer themselves as agents of God's will.

I think that there is an erroneous view of faith among many people (and even within the church), that all we need is to have faith, and that God will do the rest – that WE don't have to do anything, except to trust God. But, those with the Gift of Faith know the error of that assumption. They know that faith is only the beginning. Faith in God is not a license to be lazy! It is a call to action. Because of our strong faith, we are led to step forward to do whatever we can that helps make impossible dreams come true. Joseph Parker has written this: “The truly religious man does everything as if it depended upon himself, and then leaves everything as if it depended on God.”

Let me tell you about what a little faith can do. One of the congregations I was appointed to serve as pastor back in the 1990s supported and prayed for an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Ours was one of several congregations that sent volunteer mission teams and collected special offerings to support their ministry with children. That orphanage was founded by a Dominican pastor – Rev. Diaz. He had noticed many orphans in his community, and so he began opening his home to them. He even donated his own land on which the orphanage could be built. Over the years, what started as one orphanage continued to expand until there were four locations throughout the country.

In the early days, there was no money, yet there was great need. One day, there was no food whatsoever, and the children began asking when they would eat next. Reverend Diaz told them that they should get on their knees with him and pray until God provided. So, they all knelt down and prayed.

One hour later, there was a knock at the door. It seems that a truck had broken down - a truck filled with vegetables that would soon spoil and so the children had plenty of vegetables to eat. Soon thereafter, a local bakery contacted Rev. Diaz and offered to supply them with all their broken loaves - for free.

Reverend Diaz possessed the spiritual Gift of Faith. He had the kind of simple, powerful faith that can “remove mountains.”

But what about the rest of us? We all are inspired by stories of people who have been gifted with an extra measure of faith. We celebrate their strong trust in the goodness of God. But, hearing about their exceptional faith can still make us feel inadequate! It shouldn't! - because there is good news in our text.

Did you hear what Paul said in Romans 12? “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone… think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” So, yes, some have indeed been gifted with this extra measure of faith we've been talking about. But the good news is – that not everyone is expected to exhibit that supreme level of faith! It all goes back to those various types of faith the Bible refers to: As Christians, we each have “saving faith,” and hopefully we “walk by faith.” God has “assigned” those basic types of faith to all believers. That means that the level of faith God has given you is entirely sufficient for your salvation! If we are living-out that level of faith, that is all that God requires!

The good news of what Jesus tells us in our text in Matthew is that it does NOT take some extraordinary level of faith to remove the mountains from our lives. Just the smallest speck-of-faith on our part is all that is really needed – and God promises to do the rest. You see, the amount of faith is not as important as its genuineness. Jesus assures us that a tiny mustard-seed-of-faith is more than enough – so long as our faith is alive and growing! Do you have at least “a mustard seed” of faith? I suspect you do. You may even have the extraordinary Gift of Faith the Holy Spirit assigns to some of us – so that we may be a blessing to others.

You know, I think we often ask the wrong question about “faith.” We tend to compare our faith with others - asking,

“Is my faith weaker (or stronger) than the faith of others?” The question is NOT “How big is your faith?” but “Is your faith alive and growing?"

Friends, we don’t need more faith. We just need to start using the faith we’ve got!”

© 2023 by John B. Gill, III