A man was driving through town one very rainy afternoon.  Suddenly, his six-year-old daughter spoke up from her relaxed position in her seat.  “Dad, I’m thinking of something.”  This announcement usually meant she had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her six-year-old mind had discovered.  “What are you thinking?” he asked. 

“The rain,” she began, “is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away.”  With a lump in his throat and goosebumps on his arms, the father responded, “that’s really good, sweetheart!”  Then he got curious and wanted to know how far her little revelation went: “Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming?  What does that tell you?”  The little girl answered without hesitation: “We keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us.”

That’s the kind of God we have!  Who wouldn’t want to belong to that kind of God?  And, we do belong to Him!  He made us.  He bought us back for a steep price!  He brought us to faith.  We belong to Him. And so, He has the right to tell us what to do now, doesn’t He?  Of course He does, and we should be glad to do it!  Even if it seems really difficult!

Jesus gives us two such instructions in our text.  Here is the first: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.  It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.  So watch yourselves.” (v.1-2). Jesus is telling us to not even dare do something or say something that would lead someone else into the trap of sin or unbelief.

How many of you have ever said something that made your friend second-guess the Christian faith?  How many times have you, in a moment of weakness, encouraged someone else to go along with you in doing something that wasn’t going to make God happy?  They had the good sense not to do it, but you kind of let them think it would be alright.  Can you imagine doing that with a child?  If a child said, “I believe in Jesus!” and an older person laughed at him and told him that is foolishness, what would that do to the child’s faith?  Or if a child hears his uncle using bad language, don’t you think he might be tempted to talk the same way?  Children aren’t the only ones who can be led astray.  It can happen to any believer, and especially new believers, who are very much like children.  Jesus says “Don’t do it!”  That’s difficult, isn’t it?

Here is difficult thing number two.  Jesus said, “If your brother sins, rebuke him.  And if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”  Jesus, I’m supposed to do what?  Rebuke someone who has sinned?  Hey – if he wants to damage his soul, let him go for it, right?  No! Jesus says.  Tell him he is in trouble so he will ask for forgiveness.  Then forgive him! 

OK, easy enough... but what if the sin is against you?  Someone hurts you directly.  Again and again!  Is it easy to forgive them?  How many of you, as we speak, can think of someone who you’re really ticked at?  Someone who has been taking advantage of you?  Or who just kind of sent a crappy email to you?  Or keeps letting you down?  Jesus said forgive them!

The disciples freaked out!  Don’t cause anyone to sin?  Forgive endlessly?  Impossible!  “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”  The disciples wanted to do what Jesus told them to, but didn’t think they could.  They didn’t think their faith was strong enough.

Corrie Ten Boom didn’t at first.  After the war, she met a guard who had been her captor in the Ravensbruck concentration camp where her sister died.  He came forward after she spoke at a church in Munich, and said he had been one of her guards, and reached out his hand to her, asking for her forgiveness.  For a moment, Corrie hesitated, recalling his cruelty to her sister and those around her.  She knew Jesus wanted her to forgive.  She might not have thought her faith was strong enough, though.  She prayed silently, “Jesus, help me!  I can lift my hand.  I can do that much.  You supply the feeling.”  Then she stuck out her hand.  As she did, God’s healing forgiveness flowed through her to the former guard.  “I forgive you brother, with all of my heart!”  Corrie said she never knew God’s love as intensely as right then.  It wasn’t her love or her faith – she tried, but didn’t have the power.  The power of forgiveness came from God!

The disciples didn’t think they had enough faith to do what Jesus told them to do.  But their problem was not a lack of faith.  It was a lack of action!  They needed to get started living what they already believed!  Living the way God wanted them to be living!  It never dawned on the disciples that it might take action, effort, to forgive others!  While the disciples were standing around fretting about their perceived inability to act, Jesus’ message to them was, “Just do it!”

(V. 6) “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’”  Jesus was saying, “If we have any faith at all, we can cause something to happen which doesn’t seem possible to human reason, because faith connects us to God’s power!  It’s a mistake to look into our hearts to see how much faith we have.  If you have faith, then go and act in that faith!  People who spend too much time looking at the size of their faith may be disappointed with what they see!

The central problem in the lives of the disciples was not that they didn’t have enough faith.  The problem was that they didn’t use the faith they had!  It is true for us as well, isn’t it?  Jesus knew his disciple’s problem wasn’t lack of faith.  He knows that isn’t our problem either.  It is the dreaded disease “paralysis by analysis.”  By waiting around until we receive more faith, or until God gives us some special feeling or some other unmistakable sign, we remain immobile, dysfunctional Christians.

And then, “my faith is too weak” becomes an excuse!  “I can’t do what the Lord wants me to do because my faith isn’t strong enough!”  Two-thirds of the world and 50% of all church members will not even roll out of bed on Sunday mornings.  They don’t need more faith!  They need to roll out of bed!  It is amazing what people can do when they just put action to faith!  Mountains and trees will move!  If you have any faith at all, even a tiny mustard seed faith, you can still act on my commands, and then my power will do anything!  Don’t worry about the size of your faith!  Use what faith you have!  Just Do It!  Don’t cause someone to sin.  Forgive your brother.  Just stick out your hand!  Just do it.  Out of love for me.

Jesus explained that servants serve masters, masters don’t serve servants.  If a master paid a large sum of money for a servant, he expected the servant to work for him.  Today, think about it this way: you’ve ordered Rogers cable.  When you go home tonight and turn on your TV, and your favourite show comes on, are you going to be filled with joy, call Rogers up, and thank them for making this channel work?  Of course not.  You paid for it and expect it to be there.  The only way you will call them is if it is not working.  The “master” has paid the price.  The master owes the servant nothing, not even a thank-you, and the servant knows it.

Friends, we are God’s “servants.”  He made us.  He bought us back.  He brought us to faith.  We belong to Him!  He has the right to tell us what to do!  And if we do it all, we could never tell Him, “Now You owe me something.”  He would answer, “You’ve only done what I commanded you.  That’s why I made you.”  Because God is so amazingly good to us, we might like to do something for Him even greater than He commanded – but that is impossible!  We are just servants doing our duty.  Just doing the best we can to say thanks to our great God!

During WWII, some French prisoners were forced to work in a German munitions factory.  Upon realizing that the very bombs they were building were being used to destroy their beloved homeland and countrymen, they made the decision to create a malfunction in the devices that detonate the bombs.  The bombs were designed to explode on impact.  But with the changes the prisoners made, the bombs were harmless.  No explosions occurred.  Overjoyed, but also puzzled by so many failed attacks, the French government finally conducted an investigation.  Upon opening the bombs, they found slips of paper inside bearing these words: “We are doing the best we can with what we’ve got, where we are, every chance we get.”

That would be a good motto for the church!  We can pray until we are blue in the face for God to give us more faith, but God wants us to get into action using the faith we already have!  God wants us to “just do it.”  He wants us to “Do the best we can with what we’ve got, where we are, every chance we get.”  We must put feet to what faith we have before we can expect our faith to grow.  Here is the remarkable truth of this text:  If we start doing what we know God wants us to be doing, we will see God moving mountains and trees into oceans, melting hearts with forgiveness, changing lives, and setting people free, and then, we will see our faith grow beyond our wildest imagination!  Miracles occur when Christian people get into action!

There is a woman who has a gift shop on the Via Doloroso in Jerusalem.  Her name is Frieda Hannah.  Frieda is a Palestinian Christian.  She makes beautiful embroidery and cross-stitch work.  Her specialties are altar paraments, clergy stoles, and Bible markers.  She is a very frail woman.  She has been in business at the same spot, the sixth station of the cross, for over 30 years.  Her eyes are beginning to fail her.  She must wear thick glasses.  If you go by Frieda’s shop, you will see her smiling and greeting the tourists.  She has made friends with thousands.

One day, a group of pilgrims from America were in the shop.  They had Bibles under their arms and crosses hanging from their necks. They were pushing and shoving, demanding to be waited on. A group of little Palestinian beggars had followed the group into the shop asking for money. These "Christian" tourists made comments like, "Get these dirty kids out of here." Or, "Why don't they stay in Jordan where they belong?"  Frieda overheard these remarks. Another man there apologized for his fellow Americans, even though he didn’t know them.  Frieda's response was, "I learned long ago that many who take the Bible literally don't take it seriously."

Frieda certainly takes the Bible seriously. During the last thirty years, using the earnings from her little shop, she has given over 1,000 Palestinian youth a higher education in North America or Europe. She has built and supported the operation of three medical clinics in the West Bank.  She has built and operates two orphanages.  There is no way of determining the good that this Christian woman has done over the years. But Frieda Hannah wants no credit. When asked on one occasion what motivates her, she responded, "God did not place me in this world just to take up space.  God wants me to make a difference where I can."

That's what Jesus was saying to his disciples! Just do it! Make a difference where you can! You already have all the faith you need to perform miracles. You just need to get started!  And that is what Jesus is telling us today.  Our problem is not our lack of faith, it is our lack of willingness to put feet to our faith!  Jesus knows this, and so when we come asking him for more faith, he answers us bluntly, "Just do it! Get into action."  Someone once said, “The devil trembles when he hears God's weakest servant say, Yes, Lord, I'll do it!”  You haven’t always said that?  I know.  But don’t worry.  Those windshield wipers are still wiping.  God is still forgiving you.  Just like He wants you to do with others.   Amen.