The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
What Jesus Meant By “Faith As A Mustard Seed”
Mountains don’t move because we shout louder; they move when faith takes root. We dig into Jesus’ line about “faith as a mustard seed” and uncover a richer picture than the usual “just a tiny bit” reading. By looking at the Greek, we shift from size to likeness, which changes the entire conversation from measuring faith to embodying it. That seed holds a future tree, a sheltering ecosystem, and a history of surviving hard ground—exactly the kind of resilience a tested believer needs.
We talk candidly about how faith and belief work together: faith is the substance and evidence Scripture names, and belief shows up as obedient action. From salt and light to the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, we map how real trust expresses itself in good works without slipping into perform-your-salvation mode. Expect stories about pruning and wilderness seasons, where roots deepen and comfort loses its grip. Expect a field guide to mustard tree traits—rapid growth, salt tolerance, durable wood—and why each one hints at the way healthy faith grows, strengthens, and serves.
We also confront the problem of hybrid faith—flashy but sterile, impressive but unable to reproduce. Jesus’ warning about a faithless and twisted generation hits close to home when our models prize optics over obedience. The antidote isn’t hype; it’s a specific promise from God, written down, carried through heat and delay, and acted upon repeatedly. That kind of promise-rooted faith becomes useful like a carved utensil, sets a table for others, and creates an oasis people can live in.
https://wofoyo.org/ #wofoyo
Before we begin, we have an announcement. For those that need a little pick-me-up during service, make sure you stop by the Megaturf Cafe and Bookstore. When you lift your hands and they start checking, you won't know whether it's the anointing or the cafe. Our specials this month are the Sneaker Sensitive Latte and the Hyper Grace Triple Shot Espresso with the Holy Spirit's toy espresso. For the youth, we are giving away a free price ring with the purchase of every fifth hot chocolate. And our book special this month is our Hank Hanagraph Two-Pack. Miracles are of the devil and I don't believe nothing. Do discipleship the way Jesus intended. Stop on by the Mega Church Cafe and Bookstore. It'll bless you. And Jesus mentions that multiple times. And so I'm just going to let you take the lead. Here we go.
SPEAKER_03:Let's see what we can do. Um, yeah, faith is a mustard seed. Uh, there's there's several things in the Bible over the years that have kind of uh confused me. Uh, and and there's these very same things are are things that I've heard from the pulpit a number of times. And even though I've heard it, uh I I would sit there and go, I'm just not sure about that. And and not because you know that the preacher's wrong or or anything like that. It's just it's like there's something, there's something deeper. It's like we're we're not even, I don't think we're scratching the surface on these.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've I'll I've I've had the same experience when it talks about that, and you go, what you're saying is true. Yeah, but we're not getting the whole picture here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we're we're missing something. One of those scriptures, and one of the the things that I hear preached on it is that whole iron sharpens iron kind of thing. You know, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Um and and I won't go, I won't run that rabbit trail today, but that always stuck out in my mind because I've never used iron to sharpen my knife. Nope. I I would sit there and just go, there's gotta be something, there's gotta be something that we're missing. Um, so that's just kind of one of the things that kind of go through my mind. And faith as a mustard seed is another one of these things. Um, this is not I don't I don't think this is foreign to many uh Christians. If you've been a Christian for more than a minute, you've probably heard somebody talking about faith as a mustard seed. And usually it's talked about faith as as little as a mustard seed or as small as a mustard seed. I had it revealed to me here recently. The Lord kind of dropped it in my spirit, uh however you have to say it, uh, to get your head wrapped around it. Um, but I knew that there was something deeper to this. My one track mind would always hear when I heard this preached as faith is faith as small as a mustard seed, was that if you have faith just as small as mustard, and everybody knows that the mustard seed is one of the smallest little seeds um that that you can find. So the opposite of this statement, you know, if you have uh faith as small as a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to move over there, uh, this tree be uprooted and moved over there, so on and so forth. Well, the opposite to that statement was would be that you don't have you must not have any faith at all then if things aren't happening for you. Um so the more I pondered on that, the more I thought about it, I was like, okay, what are we missing here? Um what are we missing? And that's kind of what brought me here. Um Matthew 17 and 20. I think I'm pretty sure we read this here recently. Um but uh this is Jesus talking to his um disciples, folks came to him wanting to uh wanting him to um uh drive out this this devil. Jesus answered and said, Oh faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? This is verse 20. Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. And as I read that not too long ago, uh I noticed that the word little is not there. The word small is not there. So I started thinking, okay, so where are we getting? Now, some translations do have that.
SPEAKER_01:The NIV says that. Uh NASB, what I was reading along with you. It says, uh, and here's the interesting thing, and I'm glad you brought this up. Truly I say to you, if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed. Size, yeah. Now, footnotes. This is literally like. Like. Very good. So this size thing is something that the translators have added in.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So as I started looking into this, I said, well, let's just go and see what the Greek says. Um, and the Greek word is the word hos, I do believe. If I can look back in my notes without getting too academic. Um, yeah, it's a Greek word hos, and the word means uh it's translated as as in the manner of, like unto, like. Um, so it's also used uh as um as it were or about. Uh has those type of usages, um, but it's not necessarily a reference to size, just like what what you were saying, what you pointed out. So then I started thinking, okay, Lord, what's going on here? Why have we heard this preached um in reference to size? And why have this why has this always been about having faith so small as a grain of a mustard seed? And that's kind of when things started opening up for me. Um, and this is uh this is really hard for me because the Lord starts speaking so fast, um, the Holy Spirit starts moving in your brain so fast, you can't write fast enough, and you can't get organized fast enough. Because I have to organize all my thoughts because I know when I come back to this a year from now, it it'll be totally different if I don't get it organized and everything. Um so anyway, I started looking at this and started listening to the Lord, and I said, Well, let's just consider what is the mustard seed and what is faith and all these things. So I kind of got to thinking, and the Lord started showing me that is faith and belief the same thing. Because that word there, uh unbelief is what j jumped out at me. Is unbelief or or lack of faith or belief and faith, are they synonymous? Are they the same thing? And I don't think they really are. Um we tend to throw faith and belief around a lot together. And sometimes we interchange those words. What I learned and what what I was what I found out that belief is the action of faith. Belief is the action behind the faith. It's this it's uh if faith is is uh is is the substance uh of things, then belief is what shows or proves or demonstrates through action that you actually have faith. For lack of better words, it's obedience. Yeah. Okay. And this is not uh this is not uh groundbreaking news. This is not anything that God has revealed to me and not to anybody else. This has been out there for eons. Um so that led me to Hebrews 11, because we got to find out what faith is. And I can't think of anywhere else in the Bible better to learn about what faith is than Hebrews 11. Because Hebrews 11, especially verse 1, tells us that now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Here we learn it's that faith is the substance of things that are hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So faith is something tangible. Yeah. It's something very tangible. It's not just a thing that we name it and claim it, and we and we well, the term today is manifest. It's not something that you manifest, it is something that's very tangible, and I think it's tangible through our belief, through that, through that demonstration uh uh of obedience.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No, I I've heard people, and I'm not trying to get argumentative when I do this, because I think it's you say tomato, I say tomato type thing. Right. I've heard uh some people make that exact same statement and and flip belief in faith. The faith is the action, and it's belief that motivates it. And then I've heard it, you know, like you're like you're saying, the the key thing is what's going to give you results is when you act.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_01:One of my favorite lines from the Princess Bride. We are men of action, lies do not become us.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Well said, right, and and it's not so much the semantics uh as as it is the action uh that that we that we bring to it. Um so that's just kind of what some of the things the Lord would was showing me in some of those things. Um and then he said, Well, let's consider what's in that seed. There you go. Okay, because there's not just the seed there, that seed's gonna become something someday. Well, that seed's gonna become a mustard tree. Okay. So I said, all right, well, let's dive in and see what a mustard tree is. Um so what I learned about a mustard tree, the mustard tree grows to be about 20 feet tall. It's um it's very distinctive. It's uh its trunk is gnarled and twisted, and it has uh flowering buds on it, uh and everything. It's kind of an ornamental tree. Um, it has berries with uh that uh that's that's its fruit. This fruit is berries with uh seeds in it. Um course from that it can be you know that you can make mustard out of it. But some of the characteristics that I learned uh was that uh it's a desert survivor. The mustard tree is well suited to endure harsh uh uh conditions uh like extreme temperatures and little water, making it essential for desert ecosystems. And I remembered Isaiah chapter 58, verse 11, 12. I'm gonna have to go, I'm gonna have to dig that up. Isaiah, as I was listening to these different characteristics of the mustard tree, there were these different verses that God was popping into my head saying, Well, this is kind of like mankind or or the Christian. This is inside of you. Um Isaiah 58, 11 and 12, uh it says the Lord will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places, you shall rise up or raise up the found foundations of many generations, you shall be called the repairer of the breach, uh the restorer of the streets to dwell in, so on and so forth. So as Christians, we're meant to flourish in those arid and dry places as well. So I was like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:And he's also saying there, when you combine those and read into it, something that you've always said, is that uh the work of God is always restorative in nature. And when you look at what goes on, though it can endure the harsh conditions and even thrives in them. And something that we've talked about extensively is that if you really want your faith to grow and that relationship to grow with the Lord, go through that wilderness period. That's where it thrives. That's where it becomes something that nobody can take from you. And it it also becomes restorative in nature and not just for you, not only restores what you might have lost in that process, but also allows you to help walk others through that process and help restore them.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the Christian for the Christian believer, um we grow and we we become better, for lack of better words, uh, through contention more than we do through comfort. Yeah. Uh it's it's it's in those places where we are uh facing confrontation with our enemy uh in the spirit uh and experiencing those spiritual battles. Comfort for the Christian is actually the worst thing for the Christian. Yeah. Um that's where we get sedentary and uh we we shrivel up and and dry up and die. Spiritual diabetes. Spiritual diabetes. Um, I also learned that uh the mustard tree um experiences rapid growth. Uh mustard tree grows very rapidly. It can attain its full measure of 20 feet within just a few years. Oh wow. I mean it's very quick. Um Ephesians chapter 3, 14 through 19. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he will grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with the might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ, which uh passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So this little passage here is talking about growing you, um a lot of growth uh to the love to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. This is something I've seen personally in people that have spent time with the Lord. You'll see uh very rapid growth. You'll also see a time of pruning. Okay, uh, because just like any uh any plant, there'll be some pruning involved. But uh yeah, the growth of the mustard tree, it only takes a few years for it to hit its full full maturity. So I thought it was interesting.
SPEAKER_01:I'm actually gonna have to do that uh to a tree in my backyard, uh planted a peach tree. And gonna have to get a pole saw and prune it. A sucker done has grown in three years, it's about 15, 20 feet high. The only trouble is everything's growing straight up. I'm gonna have to kind of stretch those branches so that it grows out and do some shaping to it. But to do that, you gotta prune it.
SPEAKER_03:You have to pull a gram of living on it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna have to lop the top of that thing off, give the roots a chance to catch up. There you go. Um, I also learned that um the mustard tree uh has a salt tolerance. And what that means, I really I really like this one. What that means is the mustard tree grows well in soil that has high salt content. And not everything does, not everything does. Well, guess what? Uh Matthew 5, 13 through 16, it tells us that uh you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Uh, you're the light of the world. A city that's set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all men who are in the house, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. So just as the mustard tree does well, grows well in high salt content soil, we are called to be salt and light unto the world. So, not a bad place for this mustard seed to grow.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And I I'm thinking I remember it it was about two, two and a half years ago when I was meditating on the verse you just read about the salt and about the light. And the one thing that that dovetails so good with faith is this, you know, it the action component of it. There's something that's tangible, something manifest is Jesus, when he's talking about salt and when he's talking about light, he connects it directly to good works. So what causes what's going to cause your faith to grow? Putting things into action. Action, action, action. Now, are you saved by works? No. However, as James said, you show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. In other words, it has to be so ingrained. Another word, another word we could use for this or a phrase is it takes root in that soil, therefore, your good soil. And once it does, then you'll see how it grows. I don't know why this verse is popping into mine, but when it's talking about, I believe it's over in Luke, after Jesus is going through the thing where he's talking with the elders and the scribes over in the temple. Says he goes and goes back and is submissive to his parents, but he said, and he increased in stature with God and man, increased favor, some translations, with God and man. He grew. The faith in him, even though he's the eternal son of God, still grows.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And it's so important to realize too. We go right back to to James and Paul and the dissertation there. Um, you know, I'll show you, I show you my faith by my works. Um, if your works are are done out of the out of the interest of salvation, like you like you're maintaining your salvation through works, that dog don't hunt. Um matter of fact, it's not faith. It's not faith. Um, and that's actually a very self-centered uh type of um type type of work that you're doing. But when you're when your works that I think we mentioned this on the last full podcast, or maybe the one before that. I think it was the one before. The one before that when your works, the works of Christian faith that happen or occur because you're walking out your faith, uh, when those occur, those are actually works of service. Uh, and you're you're serving others. And that that's that's just the opposite of of you. That that's that's that's everything else but you. Um it's not a self-serving type of work. There's this idea here that you know to be salt and light, to put that uh put that footwork to your faith is what Jesus is asking you to do. And not so you can make it to heaven or maintain your spot in heaven, but so that you simply um walk out your faith and demonstrate your faith and love uh and obedience.
SPEAKER_01:Well, one of the things, and especially me reading different things and um having different interests, is I've noticed this, and it's it's no different in faith. There are people, and I've heard this said derisively. I have an MBA in the business world. You get somebody that's a C student and is just willing. I mean, I'm saying this little tongue-in-cheek here, but they would just go out, they might take a course on how to how to do real estate or how to market or how to you know start a business. And they'll just go out there and do it because they're too dumb to question it. And they outperform all those with the accolades. Because the people with the accolades tend to get overspecialized and overthink. Now they get called in to consult, but there was a there was a saying in college, you know, when I went back that the A students teach the B students how to work for the C students. One of the things that I've seen, you know, especially co-workers in my line of work. A lot of people use the money they make to help support some other thing and vice versa, and you know, diversify their income. Seeing a lot of people go rental properties, real estate. Uh, some of them will do you know service-based businesses and stuff. But you know what? These are not the smartest employees at work. Right. These are not your all-stars. Let me tell you what they're willing to do. They're willing to work their asses.
SPEAKER_03:They're willing to work. It's gonna say they're the ones who aren't afraid of work.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. They'll work that overtime. They won't work at all the time. They, you know, they have that balance. But it's all about hey, this guy on this course said I need to do this. I guess I better do this, and they just go out and do it. Right. And I'm saying this because there's been a couple times I've gave business a go. And guess what? I overthunk it. Well, I got outperformed by people that didn't.
SPEAKER_03:That's extremely easy to do. Um, especially when you consider the risk involved and not wanting to fail and all these other things. Um, I know exactly what you're talking about. Um, but but the guy who who doesn't think about all that stuff and just goes out and does it, man, he he's uh he's a lot better off sometimes. Uh sometimes ignorance is bliss.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I think about God rest his soul. I'm sure he is. Oh Phil Miller, man. When he's telling his story. I'm over here, the Lord says, go out. Okay. All right. And he did. And nobody got saved at church. He prayed with five people to receive Christ. Hey, go over here. Oh, oh, I thought I'd go back to church. I didn't tell you to do that. Go out here. And I'm saying this with respect. So this is the way men talk. So if any of you ladies get upset, this is what it is. Or sissy men, don't be a sissy man. But Phil was, God bless him, just dumb enough to be obedient, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I wish we were all dumb enough to be obedient. It wasn't something you had to figure out a lot of. Yeah. You know, like I said, I'm I'm saying that with the utmost respect for Phil Miller. Phil Miller is not dumb. But everybody would cite, well, he doesn't have this, and he's not really a pastor, and he doesn't never claim to be. He just went out and did what the Lord told him to do. Make mistakes. Oh, hell yeah, I've seen that guy make a lot of mistakes. But if you're willing to go out there and make mistakes, all that is is fertilizer. Fertilizer helps things grow as long as you don't over-fertilize it.
SPEAKER_03:As men, we have got to be willing to take risk and and make those mistakes. Um, I think we've become a risk-averse culture. Um have been for some some time. Could you imagine Abram uh being risk-averse? You know, good Lord when God called him to to uh to leave Ur and start walking, you know. Uh first thing well, if that would have happened today, first thing we'd probably had to do uh was consult Google Maps, uh, you know, and start uh and then consult you know our banking app to see how much money we got in the bank. Um start doing all these different things uh to see, you know, if we if we can actually do them. And I'm actually telling on myself because that's that's kind of what I do before I go on a trip is you know, hey, what how far we got to go? What's the mileage? Uh, how much money is this gonna cost me? Yada yada yada, all these things. Um when really all God's saying, just get up and go. We'll uh we'll we'll figure everything else out on the way. Um, and by God, you're a Christian. Uh you say you have faith. If God tells you to go, why would He not enable you and empower you and carry you along the way? Uh, God doesn't call us to go anywhere uh for us to fail. Um if we do so, it's it was because we didn't listen. Um I heard I heard it said, I wrote it down in my notebook at work, but I heard it said today um God doesn't make He doesn't He doesn't make mistakes. He He has plans but not mistakes or somewhere along those lines. Um and the idea there was a lot of times what we consider a mistake was simply God one another one of God's plans uh the whole time. So yeah, it's it's okay to to give things a a thought, but we got to be willing to take that risk and step out in faith and do those things. Um that's how we're supposed, that's how we're gonna be salt and light uh in in the earth is by doing. Um another thing I learned about the mustard tree, it creates its own biodiverse oasis. I thought was kind of neat. Um the mustard tree's dense foliage and fruit-bearing capacity make it a hot spot for small creatures, uh, its own type of ecosystem, if you would. And that just piggybacks right on back of Matthew uh five, uh, verse 14 again. You're the light of the world, city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Um, you know, it's talk about drawing drawing life to itself. Yeah. Uh that's one thing that we should be doing is is attracting. We should be attracting folks, not repelling them. It makes its own little ecosystem. Um little you know, birds and other creatures and small mammals uh make their homes in the mustard tree. Uh, because of uh The shelter which it provides. There's some medicinal potential that we're learning about the mustard tree. Um, certain compounds found in its various parts are being studied for their potential in treating a range of health issues, including inflammatory and infectious diseases. Get some mustard on them biscuits, you'll feel a whole lot better. The Bible talks about, you know, we would be healing the sick and laying on of hands and and and all those things. So we should have medicinal.
SPEAKER_01:Is anyone sick among you? Let the elders of the church lay hands on him and he shall be healed. For the prayer of the faith shall save the shall heal the sick.
SPEAKER_03:That's it right there. So we we recognize that uh we have medicinal potential in us as well, um, through that mustard seed, if you would. I also learned there's something in particular about its its wood. The wood of the mustard tree is dense and durable. Although twisted and gnarled, the wood is value or valuable for crafting small wooden items. Um it's prized for its strength and resistance to decay.
SPEAKER_01:Um so it reminds me of locust wood out here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's very much like locust wood or acacia wood uh we've seen in other parts of the Bible, but its trunk is is twisted and gnarled or knotty, uh, which would tell me that uh, you know, faith is is is gonna is gonna come with uh a lot of twists and turns. Uh you're you're gonna you're gonna have uh you're gonna have the the signs and and the scars and and and the and the knots from from walking in faith. Um but I like the the resistance to decay, the strength in that wood. It's not a weak wood like pine uh or anything. Um so I thought that was kind of neat. This twisted and gnarled wood is uh great for crafting small wooden items. Some of the wooden items that I was actually able to to find were bowls, spoons, uh different things like that. But I think I thought it was pretty cool because those are utensils used for eating. Yeah, for sustaining life. So pretty cool. Uh let's see here. And there's also decorative potential. The mustard tree's unique appearance make it popular choice for ornamental landscaping. Its twisting branches and striking foliage create eye-catching focal points in gardens. And Song of Solomon, chapter four, uh, verse 115. You'll you can read all about how the bride is being described there, and and hear about all hear about the bride's beauty. It's it's a picture of the church, is what's being described there in that in that particular part of Song of Solomon. Um, so there's beauty in the mustard tree um as there is beauty in uh the Christian believer in the church. As I started and I got as I got all through this and was uh was kind of meditating on these things, it really came down to there's so much more to this particular verse than the seed. Yeah. Um packed inside that seed is this 20-foot tree that grows really fast, has all these unique qualities and all this stuff that no one saw, none of us can see in inside the seed by looking at it. But it's there already. It's already there. By faith, it's there already.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Just like the ram when Abram and Isaac went up the mountain. Uh the ram was already walking up the other side, and it was there at the top when they got there. But by seeing this this mustard seed, there's more to it than this little bitty grain of seed. There's this entire tree that has all this unique uh potential inside of it. It was there all along. The seed grows without knowing what it will what it'll become. That's the action I think that faith is built upon. Um the seed gets watered, it's planted, watered, and it grows. Um the seed's not responsible for its planting, the seed's not responsible for its watering. Uh, the seed is responsible for doing nothing but uh responding to uh the creator as as uh as as the Lord grows it. So anyway, that's just kind of what I learned uh as I was looking at that. Kind of helps me get a little bit better picture of that scripture when I hear someone talk about faith as a mustard seed.
SPEAKER_01:One of the things you mentioned when I was a, hey, hey, what you know, what were we talking about? We got to do, and you were talking about faith as a mustard seed, was the kind of seed, the the quality of the seed. And it brought me back, you know, and just listening, listening to you teach, which has been really refreshing, because I ain't got to do as much talking. But there was a couple verses that I know you would agree with here that jumped out at me. Now, in this, he's not talking about mustard seed, but Jesus talking about a grain of wheat, which is the same concept. So unless it falls to the earth and dies, John 12, 24, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. There's going to be a time where your faith has tried so much that it's going to seem like it's gotten killed.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:We talk about the wilderness process, and that's one of the things that happened. Before it shot up, it seemed that all those things God had promised, it got to a critical mass where it seemed like it died. And that's when he showed up and the sprout comes up, and then it grows big. We call it crisis crisis of faith.
SPEAKER_03:Uh in some circles. Um, but yeah, it's that it's that point where the seeds either gotta die or or rot because it's oversaturated, uh, or whatever the case may be. Um I went back into Hebrews chapter 11 and was reading some more about uh this is uh this is the faith hall of fame. I mean, this is oh yeah. I mean, if if you can't read this chapter and not get fired up, something's wrong with you.
SPEAKER_01:Imperfect men doing great works of God.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man. Um, because we talk about um you know faith being the the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Um, and then lists out all these heroes of the faith. Uh Abraham and and all these. Uh let's see, where was I at? Uh 32, I think. Um, what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets, who who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant and fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
SPEAKER_01:Of whom the world was not worthy.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and it keeps on going. Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging, yea, moreover, of bonds and of imprisonment. They were stoned and they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskin and goatskin, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth, and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. And that's what kicked it for me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's going right there from Abraham to John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. Exactly. And this is what this is what kicked me in the nuts right here. Faith starts, faith has to have a promise. Um, and that's that's so important. Um the mature Christian has to know that when you're walking in faith, when you're stepping out in faith, you have to have a promise to do that. It can't be name it and claim it or any of those things. All of these folks just listed here had a promise. Um, they had a promise from God that that He was going to do something for them.
SPEAKER_01:And this wasn't a generic promise, this was a specific promise.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, this was a specific promise. Um don't think that just because you you read a uh a scripture, a verse out of context, and and that's your promise, and you're gonna go do something great and big. Um, because you know, I I think I think we've all been there. Been there, done that, and failed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I learned.
SPEAKER_03:But having that promise is so important. Having that promise gives you it gives you the faith, it empowers you. It's um I think it that's what plants that seed in the first place.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And that's what allows that seed to take root in you and and keep you steadfast. Um, if you don't have a promise, you'll be wandering and searching and longing and and bouncing back and forth from one thing to another, you you'll be lost uh in in what you're trying to do. Yeah. Um but even though these guys had a promise, none of them attained it. But they still kept uh they still kept moving forward, they still kept working towards their faith, uh, even though God took them out of this world before they attained their promise.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. The one other thing I would that kind of popped in my head when you were talking about the kind of seed. You know, Jesus talked about a good tree, bears good fruit, bad tree bears bad fruit. It's impossible for a good tree to bear good fruit, or it's impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. Right. If you go to Genesis 1 in the beginning, the earth produced vegetation, planting or plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kind, and God saw that it was good.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And that were that word kind is is a specific word. It's a scientific word. It's it's it's it's like genus. Uh yeah. It's it's it's not just uh according to you know likenesses. It's a very uh very specific type of um or a scientific word. Uh but anyway, um I think it was interesting too that Adam was created out of the dust of the earth and Eve was created out of Adam's rib, but in the garden. I think there's something in there as well that can be brought out. Helps to know where you're planted and where you're where you're being grown. Yeah. It helps to know that too. Um, but the big thing is having that promise from from God. Um, when you get a promise, when the good Lord speaks to you, write it down. Uh that is so important because you you'll forget it. Uh you'll forget about it. The enemy will try to pull you off your square, try to talk you out of it, uh, just like he did Adam and Eve. That's it's exactly what he talked them out of their promise. Um, and then uh beguiled them, and next thing you know, they they lost it all. So write it down so that you you can refer back to it, you can reflect back on it. Um, and those times where you're being tried and tempted, and you're in the wilderness, and it's hot and and you're thirsty and you're hungry and all these things, and then and the enemy's offering you uh a loaf of bread, and you know you're not supposed to take it, uh, so to speak, um, you have that promise to fall back on. Yeah. Uh because uh that promise is uh is what is what's gonna solidify your faith.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I'm getting the last little bit of stuff from the garden. I got two kinds of plants that are still producing. They were the late bloomers, man. They but they have thrived. One just took forever to ripen. But one of the interesting things is that with faith being a seed, if you will, it produces after its own kind. I learned some lessons the hard way in the last few years and was talking with some fellow people that you know do the garden and just getting back in old ways of doing, you know, preserving your own food, knowing what's in your food rather than be dependent on upon the market. And I think COVID opened a lot of eyes to that. But I planted specifically some cucumbers. I said, man, my cucumbers were horrible. I don't know. Well, what I'd done is I'd saved the seeds from the cucumbers. And it this wasn't the only plant, but this was the most noticeable.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:I'd save the seeds, and when they grew the next year, I had to replant. I ended up getting some, but I had to use some different seeds. And uh Daryl Colson says, Let me guess, you did you did this, and they I said, Yeah, they look like lemons. He said, Oh, that's because you planted a hybrid cucumber, and they're designed to have a certain effect. But hybrids don't reproduce well at all. Uh a lot of your food that's made, your processed food, um, especially with your monocrop agriculture, uh, corn being the most, corn and soybeans being the most uh recognizable, uh, a lot of them are genetically modified to be resistant. Now, they have that one year where they grow really well. If you try to replant what popped off of them, it doesn't reproduce certain fruits, certain kind of fruit trees. Oh, we want seedless oranges. How in the world are you going to reproduce with seedless oranges? You can't. So hybrids are very appealing for a certain purpose. A lot of them, not all, but a lot of them lack the nutritional value that the regular food has, the regular fruit or vegetables. That being said, the they don't reproduce well. And it reminds me of what can easily happen. And I think it's happened, but I also think people are getting away from that. Just like people are going back to the heirlooms and stuff like that. There was kind of that movement going back to different things. Uh, and I know organic is a loaded term because it's hard to identify and they keep on moving the goalposts with that. But when they did some of these original heirloom seeds, let's get back to basics. And come to find out, these things are producing like gangbusters, and they can keep producing like gangbusters. Well, in modern Christianity, I would say a lot of our churches and a lot of our services and a lot of what we're defining as Christianity here in the West is just a hybrid. And then you wonder why it doesn't produce. But if you strip it down and get down to the basics, back to what worked in the past and back to what's in the Bible, this first century church that some people have claimed that we can never go back to. But I would argue that there's aspects of it we need to go back to. It's vital. If we're going to survive, we need to go back to these principles. This is what produces rather than all the stuff that fulfills everything you've thought you wanted and desired, but doesn't reproduce. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Going all the way back to Matthew chapter 17, there, when we first started off, um, one of the first things the Lord said was, Oh, faithless and perverse generation. Uh-huh. Um, I started looking those words up too, uh, because I thought those words, I thought his his wording was interesting. Um, it says uh faithless and perverse. Some translations have unbelieving and perverse. Uh, but that word unbelieving uh is the Greek word epistos, and it means faithless uh in the in the King James Version and some other versions. Uh also disbelieving, but it's a disbelieving that is without Christian faith, is how Strong's uh uh defined it. Yeah, it's a it's a disbelieving that comes without Christian faith. I thought that was very interesting. I thought that was very specific, actually. Um so so Jesus is referring to these people as having um disbelief without the faith. Um then the word perverse was the Greek diastrepho or diastrepho, but it's perverse or to distort, misinterpret, or corrupt.
SPEAKER_01:In in some translations, rather than perverse, it's wicked.
SPEAKER_03:Wicked.
SPEAKER_01:Which wicker, I remember somebody teaching me this. What makes wicker furniture wicked, you know, wicker, it's twisted. Twisted. So right. It's taking the that's it's perverse. It's not the original intent, not the original design.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So then we have so what we hear, Jesus, Jesus is calling these people uh unbelieving. He said, he says, basically, he's saying, you all are not believing according to uh the Christian faith, which he's establishing, uh, and you're misinterpreting and distorting everything. Uh like you said, basically he's saying there's a hybrid here. Yeah. And and it and it ain't working. Um that's why it's that's no, it's not working, because it's a hybrid. It's not it's not right, it's not real. Um and then we go into uh you know Jesus rebuked the devil and the disciples speak to him uh you know privately. Um but there is there is a a faith or an unbelief, a faithlessness that comes outside of the Christian faith. And I think there is a lot of that in the body of Christ today. Uh I think a lot of that is coming out of the pulpits. Um of it unknowingly or unwittingly, um, and then some of it is is knowingly uh because they're they're promoting their their denomination over uh the over kingdom.
SPEAKER_01:This is how you grow a church, yes. And so you have those that the know, but they either get they they are either getting the accolades or they're getting the uh maybe royalties, uh kickbacks, uh fees for speaking, honorariums is what it's called a lot of times. They can get those, but you also got some very sincere people that think this this is what you do. So I I think you definitely have a mix there.
SPEAKER_03:And and the way you the way you get around that, uh the workaround is to read the Bible for yourself. Amen. You've got to read the Bible for yourself. Um, you've got to have that relationship uh with the Lord for yourself so that you're reading the Bible, not just reading the Bible, but you're reading the Bible in the light of the Holy Spirit uh because of that revelation or that that relationship. Um if if you're not doing those things, uh then you're gonna be a part of that unbelieving and perverse generation that is creating a hybrid that won't uh that won't multiply. It'll fall flat. And where it's gonna fall flat, it's gonna fall flat right in your lap.
SPEAKER_01:Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We'll hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woofyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Rubble, or even check us out on YouTube. Remember, folks, if you're gonna grow, you got a woof. Get in the word for yourself.