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Steve Brown: It's because of your little faith. Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew: Welcome to Key Life. I'm Matthew, executive producer of the program, and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under do more try harder religion for too long, and Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. If you were listening yesterday at the end of the broadcast, I gave you a principle that we that we use often at Key Life and that I teach often. And it's this. If you take the first step, God will take the second step, and by the time you get to the third step, you'll know that it was God who took the first step. And what we're going to talk about for the next few days is a lie. God is away on vacation. He's not. And we're going to talk about the first step.

Do you remember the incident when a father asked Jesus disciples to heal his son of epilepsy and demon possession? And they couldn't pull it off. So the father went to Jesus, and Jesus healed the boy. And then later on, the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn't help the boy. And Jesus said, and this is in Matthew 17:20, Jesus said, because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you.

Whoa. That's a Let me tell you a story. And and it's a true story. I heard it a long time ago from a person who was involved. There was this young lady who was a someone who's called to the mission field, and she pictured herself going to third world people, preaching the gospel, reaching out, and binding up broken hearts. But when she applied, the mission agency assigned her to be the mother of a group of mission kids in a mission house. And that wasn't what she had planned, but she was God's woman, and she was faithful to that particular task.

But every year, the high point of her year was when she got to go to a missions conference at that third world country, where the missionaries came from all over the country, and she went and listened to stories of what God was doing everywhere. And she loved that time. One time, the night before she left for the annual mission conference, they were having devotions. She she and the little kids in this particular mission house. And they were studying scripture, and they were studying that 17th chapter of Matthew where Jesus said, if you have a little faith, you can say to this mountain, be moved, and it'll happen.

Well, she went to her missions conference, and while she was gone, the kids decided to give her a gift cuz they loved her. And behind the mission house, right before the ocean, there was a large hill. And they decided that since Jesus said they could do it, they would pray for him to move that mountain. And when the missionary got back, they would show her what God had done cuz he liked her so much. So they all knelt together, and they asked Jesus to move that mountain. And the next morning, they got up and looked out, and it was still there.

But their children, what do they know? So they prayed again. And the same thing happened the next morning, and the third night they prayed again. And they same thing happened. But that day, a man came and knocked on the door. And he explained to them that he was from the army, and that they needed that land where this hill was, this mountain, for a an airport so they could land planes there. And they asked permission to bulldoze that particular mountain out into the ocean. And the kids couldn't They said, you go ahead. That is cool.

And when the missionary came back, they could hardly wait to get her to the window to show her the mountain that was no longer there. And do you know what happened? That missionary and those kids began to pray for other missionaries all over the world. And when they would pray, revival would break out. Jesus said, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, now that's not much. You don't have to have much. It's not your bigness, the bigness of the one you put that little faith in. You will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you.

Some scholars say Jesus statement requires explanation, context, the meaning of the Greek words, and of course what Jesus really meant, not what you think he meant. The problem is that in the explanation, we exclude the promise Jesus made to Christians, and that Jesus made to me, and that Jesus made to you. If you have a little faith, and as an aside, that's a gift he gives, so ask him. If you have a little faith, every mountain in your life can be moved by the power of God in whom you have placed your little faith. Hey, you think about that.

Amen.

Matthew: Thanks, Steve. I am going to be thinking about that story of the kids who prayed to move that mountain for a long time. If you're just joining us, we're in a special series about confronting the lies of guilt, shame, fear, and regret. It's based on Steve's new book called God's Not Mad at You, available now at keylife.org/notmadbook or on Amazon. Recently on our Talk Radio show Steve Brown etc., we spoke with Scott Sauls about how the kindness of Jesus heals our sin, shame, and weakness. Take a listen to part of that conversation, then I'll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Steve Brown: God, why is there a need for this kind of book?

Scott Sauls: Why a book on mercy? Candidly, every book I've ever written, Steve, has been related to uh where I was at uh in my own personal life and my own personal walk, and I I'd always been able to preach mercy. Realized uh decades into my ministry that uh that I was probably still in junior high uh as a practitioner of receiving the mercy of Christ and uh owning it uh for Scott Sauls. And so honestly, this was a this was a bit of a a journaling exercise that uh Zondervan invited me to turn into a book.

And so uh I repurposed that whole season of my life and the things that God had impressed on me into a book for other people and I believe, and you're you're one of those people, Steve, over the years who's who's taught me this uh just through your own teaching and your writing. It's one thing to uh understand the mercy of God and to be able to propositionally communicate it and unpack it and write a theology of mercy. It's quite another thing to live it and give it away. And I would say that that most of the Christians in my life, in my experience over 30 years of pastoral ministry have a deep longing

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Scott Sauls: maybe that they haven't even expressed yet to to know the mercy uh to the depths that God gives it and and to to to really believe in their heart of hearts that God loves them as much as he says he does. I think that's a struggle that all of us have actually believing it

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Scott Sauls: to the point of internalizing it.

Steve Brown: Another way I can identify with you, I taught grace and mercy and then had a nervous breakdown. It uh it was kind of a God whacking me upside the head

Scott Sauls: Me too.

Steve Brown: and saying, you know, this is for you. Do you think that's true of a lot of leaders?

Scott Sauls: I do. I think uh honestly it's it's one of the reasons why a lot of us get into leadership in the first place is you know, it it it it sounds a little bit scary, but a lot of us get into leadership because we're working out our stuff and

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Scott Sauls: uh a lot of it traces back to things in life that can point to a brokenness or to uh a deficiency that we feel and uh you know, there's family of origin stories and life experiences and all that other stuff that have shaping influences, but a lot of us I think get into ministry in the first place uh as an expression of our own woundedness and I think that's okay. You know, Paul the apostle talks about his own thorn in the flesh and and how that, you know, equipped him to speak and preach the gospel better.

Says that to Timothy as well that that um you know, he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, and it it was through that experience and the the anxiety and the uh the deficiencies that it revealed and exposed in him that he became a preacher of mercy after encountering the mercy of Christ himself. And so hopefully this book will help with that message for some.

Steve Brown: And I don't I don't think that uh most Christian leaders until they really screw it up or their life falls apart understand that's why they're there. They don't understand they're working out their own issues. And that's not something they claim for themselves. And I'm not talking to just them. I'm talking about myself. You know, if you would ask me if I understood and applied grace and mercy to my own life, I would say, are you crazy? Of course. I'm teaching it. How could I not apply it to myself? And uh I was too spiritually dead to hear the angels laughing.

Matthew: I felt so encouraged after our conversation with Scott Sauls, and I think you'll feel the same way. We'll send you that whole episode on CD for free, so call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that CD or to mail your request go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for the free CD featuring Scott Sauls. And before you go, if you've been blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others by giving as generously as you're able?

You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope, or you can simply text Key Life to 28950. That's Key Life, one word or two, doesn't matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada, and Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.