Link Your Littleness to God's Greatness: 5 Keys to Faith

Sermon outline

Faith links you to God, so bring Him your littleness, your need, your sickness, your sin and your impossibilities, and expect His greatness, supply, healing, forgiveness and possibilities in return.

1. You are a vessel unto honour, meet for the Master's use

   God separated and consecrated you out of the world, so you are sanctified, squeaky clean and standing in His righteousness, not your own. Because you are meet for the Master's use you can cast out devils, heal the sick and pray with results. Jesus said to have faith in God, not in the system, your money or your business, and since the Master lives in you, whatever you need, the Master needs.

   Illustration: When Jesus needed the donkey He told the disciples to say the Master has need of it; he applies it to houses, cars and building materials, and prophesies the church's bus ministry will end because everyone will be driving their own car.

   “Whatever you need, the master needs it.”

   • 2 Timothy 2:19-21
   • Romans 5:17
   • Mark 11:22
   • Mark 11:2-3

2. Recap: the seven promises of the Jubilee

   He reminds the church of the seven promises from his earlier message: liberty, great possessions, total restoration of the family, increase in your field, freedom from oppression, safety, and triple blessings. God multiplies, not just adds, and He is at the bottom holding you up so you cannot sink any further. A prophetic church changes things rather than accepting whatever it is given.

   Illustration: Make space for what is coming: clean the garage for the new car and buy hangers by faith for an empty wardrobe. When the church started many people laughed, but they are not laughing anymore, because he kept in mind that he was going to the other side.

   “You are a prophetic church, not a pathetic one.”

   • Acts 16:31
   • Ephesians 3:20
   • Mark 4:35
   • Psalm 23:1

3. Require God's best: faith is linking up with God

   You must require God's best because you can be His best. Faith is a joining up and a partnership with God, even when you cannot see or feel Him. Like a loving father, God stands with you when you miss the mark and puts you back on track, and He answers prayer in ways no one can explain.

   Illustration: Good parents do not forsake their children in a trying need, and neither does your heavenly Father. The teacher who said there was no hope for your child will one day ask how you did it, and you will say there's a God.

   “Faith is a linking up.”

   • Hebrews 13:5

4. Key number one: Faith means that you link your littleness with God's greatness

   Do not despise small beginnings; how you start does not matter as much as how you finish. Everything starts with a seed. God lets you start little so that when He blesses you, you walk without pride and your boasting is in the Lord.

   Illustration: You are six feet tall now, and some of you a little wider too, but you started with a seed, just like the tree in your garden.

   “Doesn't matter how you start. What matters is how you finish.”

   • Zechariah 4:10
   • Job 8:7

5. Key number two: Faith means that you link your need with God's supply

   Markets run on demand and supply, but whatever your demand, God has the supply, and He is the God of more than enough. When the banks, your workplace and people have failed you, turn to God. He reverses curses, and when you give thanks for what is in your hand, it multiplies.

   Illustration: Jesus looked up to heaven, gave thanks over a few loaves and fish, fed the multitude and gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. He jokes about the Israelites watching quails fall from the sky and choosing between roast duck and curry duck, and about finding 35 grand in your account has become 350,000.

   “If you have a demand, he has a supply.”

   • Philippians 4:19
   • Psalm 23:6
   • Mark 6:35-44
   • Romans 4:17

6. Key number three: Faith means that you link your sickness to God's healing

   Disease is a package the devil tries to deliver; it may come on you, but you must resist it and not accept it. He respects doctors, who help in the natural, but there is only so far they can go. When they say there is no hope, there is hope in Christ, who heals all your diseases.

   Illustration: When doctors reach their limit, they often turn to a Christian patient and say you can pray now.

   “When they tell you you've got no hope, there's hope in Christ.”

   • Exodus 15:26
   • Psalm 103:3

7. Key number four: Faith means that you link your sins to God's forgiveness

   The unsaved can link their sins to God's forgiveness and become children of God, and believers who have fallen can repent and walk away clean and justified. There is no condemnation for those in Christ, so do not hang your head in shame. You do not work for forgiveness; you receive it.

   Illustration: Other religions try to balance good deeds against bad at the end of life, but for the Christian every sin has a forgiveness, so life is always balanced.

   “For every sin, there's a forgiveness.”

   • Romans 8:1
   • Jeremiah 33:3

8. Key number five: Faith means that you link your impossibilities with God's possibilities

   Some barriers still look impossible, but God asks, 'Is there anything too hard for me?' and the answer is no, a thousand times no. What is impossible with men is possible with God, who can promote you, remove the one above you and turn a competitor's collapse into your gain. Brains, academics and physicians only go so far; God does exceedingly, abundantly more.

   Illustration: A man two ranks above him was very nasty to him. The Lord told him to anoint himself with oil and prophesy that he would jump in rank. Two months later there was a restructuring, and although he was the youngest and the underdog at the interview, he got the post, and the man cleared out his office and left.

   “It ain't finished yet.”

   • Jeremiah 32:27
   • Luke 18:27
   • Ephesians 3:20