The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 But the Lord said, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you. Luke 17: 5-6

“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed…” The mustard seed is tiny but grows disproportionally to its size. They are buried in the ground or soil, and with the right temperature, sunlight, water, and air, the seed collects air and water and eventually bursts and swells up. This is a seed with life. It is planted in the ground and uses the soil, air, and water to grow. If the seed is dead, it will decompose and become a part of the soil. This describes our faith in a nutshell.

A living faith connects to God, and a dead faith detaches from God. That’s it! Are you connected or separated? Are you tied to God, or are you on your own? How do we know if we have a living or dead faith? We must examine and test ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” Some people can live their entire lives fooling themselves and others. Testing yourself is one of the most important things we can do as Christians.

We test ourselves by looking at ourselves when we confront new situations. In other words, how do we conduct ourselves? If we have a living faith, like the mustard seed, we will grow using what we come into contact with; the mustard seed is planted in the soil and interacts with air, water, and the earth. We are planted in our respective life situations. Like a tiny mustard seed, we are planted in our own version of soil. We come into contact with air, temperature, water, and nutrients. Now, if we have life… if we are connected to God, we use whatever we come across to grow. We become closer to God. Our faith grows. We hold fast to God and truth. We can feel our faith getting stronger.

A living faith connects to God. The mustard seed grows to become a tree. Our faith gets stronger with everything we confront if we have a living faith. You lost your job. You lost a loved one. You got promoted. You got rich. Good or bad, happy or sad, your faith will grow if you have the faith of the mustard seed. Your connection to God becomes more vigorous. Joseph had the mustard seed faith. Through all his ups and downs- betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, unfairly accused of adultery, forgotten promises, and becoming governor- Joseph’s connection to God grew stronger. He consumed whatever situation he faced and used it as food to grow closer to God.

How do you know if you have a dead faith? A dead faith would indicate alienation from God. This can be tricky because many of us do the things that convince us we’re connected to God. We go to church. We read the Bible. We pray. We try to serve others. We do these things and convince ourselves we have a living faith. But as mentioned in 2 Corinthians, we must test ourselves. Don’t give yourself a pass.

Like a dead mustard seed, do we decompose and become the thing in which we are planted? A dead seed decays and becomes a part of the soil. If you have a dead faith, you are influenced and swayed by the situations you encounter. When you come into money, you become money. When you encounter sadness or grief, you become the sadness and grief. In other words, when you have a dead faith, you have no faith-based backbone. You wilt and concede to the situations you are handed. You are not an active agent of God but passive to the circumstance you face. This is a dead faith. It shows you’re not really connected to God. Do you change when you meet a new situation? Does your faith waver when you meet a new circumstance? Does God and doing according to His will go out the window when you’re having fun or meet a new and exciting situation? If you throw out God and Truth, you are dead. You must repent and reconnect to God.

We must become mustard seeds that grow into tall trees. For a seed to grow, it comes across all kinds of circumstances and conditions. For us to grow, we will meet a variety of situations. Some will be incredibly painful. Some will be pleasurable. Just know that every situation we meet is like the soil, air, and water the seed needs to grow. Keep that life inside of you so that when you come across something spectacular or horrible, you don’t wither away and decompose. What you encounter becomes food to consume and grow. Test yourselves. Do you have a living or dead faith? Once you reach an answer, do everything possible to grow like a mustard seed!

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1981-8-21-short