Faith, Mustard, And the Lasagna Lady

This message explores how God consistently does extraordinary things through ordinary people and ordinary acts of faith. Through Peter’s journey, we see that extraordinary faith doesn’t begin with having everything figured out or possessing some enormous amount of faith. Peter experienced incredible moments with Jesus, but he also struggled, failed, acted impulsively, and even denied knowing Him. Yet God still used Peter to make an extraordinary impact. Like Jesus’ illustration of the mustard seed, this message reminds us that faith doesn’t have to start big—it simply needs to be practiced. Extraordinary faith is the result of ordinary, resilient faith repeated through every season, situation, struggle, and success.

This message also challenges us not to wait until our faith feels “big enough” before we begin living it out. Faith grows through the small decisions we make every day—spending time in God’s Word, praying, serving others, practicing generosity, caring for ourselves, forgiving, showing kindness, seeking godly wisdom, and managing our time, resources, and relationships in ways that honor God. Like compound interest, these seemingly small mustard-seed moments of faith build upon one another over time and can ultimately make an extraordinary impact, even if that impact is simply changing the life of one person. God has always done extraordinary things through the ordinary, and extraordinary faith is built one ordinary act of obedience at a time.

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Okay, so about six years ago, during the onset of the COVID pandemic, a lady named Michelle Brenner was furloughed from her job, meaning she was laid off but still got to come back to a job. And she found herself, like many people, at the onset of the COVID pandemic, with a lot more time on her hands and really not a whole lot of places to go. And it was new to her. And Michelle was uh not the type of person who liked to sit still. And for some of us, right, we approached that season with great, I'm just gonna kind of chill out for a little bit. And others of us got a little stir crazy, got some cabin fever sometimes, and that sort of thing. And Michelle was a little bit like, I've got to do something. And she started hearing stories of people in her community, in her city, and in even just right in her neighborhood, of people who had lost their jobs and were needing to just take care of basic, basic needs. A lot of uh churches jumped on board with something like this through that uh pandemic and were giving food out to people, and that's what Michelle decided. She decided, look, I I don't know what I can do to help in this global pandemic, but my grandma has a great lasagna recipe. And I'm just gonna start making lasagnas for people in my neighborhood and in my city and just offering free lasagnas to them. So she goes to the store, buys all the supplies, and apparently Michelle's lasagna recipe she got from her grandma was delicious. And before you know it, people started contacting her. She created a Facebook page, and people would message in and start to leave orders, and it would, it was expanding beyond her neighborhood to coworkers and friends in her city, and perfect strangers are starting to ask, like, hey, we we could use one of those, you know, we're we're struggling right now, too. And and Michelle ends up within the first six months of the COVID pandemic, giving away over 1,300 lasagnas to people. She ended up being known in Gig Harbor, Washington, where she's from. She ended up being known, given the nickname lasagna lady. So as the COVID pandemic was kind of dragging on a bit, but she could start to go more places and spaces, she was gaining more notoriety, and she had to put together like an actual system. And throughout the entirety of the pandemic, the lasagna lady, Michelle Brenner from Gig Harbor, Washington, would take baking a lasagna for her neighbor from her grandma's recipe in her home kitchen to an endeavor that would feed thousands of people. That is an extraordinary thing that started with an ordinary thing. Baking grandma's lasagna would turn into an opportunity to impact thousands of people, to support thousands of people, to bless thousands of people. And in our series, Little Giants, we are going to look at stories throughout the Word of God where God does extraordinary things through seemingly ordinary things and ordinary people. And in fact, God has always done extraordinary through the ordinary. You know the stories of who would eventually become known as King David, but at the time it was young man David who slayed a giant with the ordinary thing of some rocks. You know the story of Moses, who would be the one to hand down the Ten Commandments to the people of God, Moses, a stuttering fugitive who was farming for his father-in-law on the daily grind of life with his family. And God gave him steps to take to do the extraordinary. One that we're going to look at in this series is the story of Daniel, and you've heard of him. Daniel and the what? Lion's den. But Daniel did some ordinary things that would lead to the stories we know of extraordinary because people are always fascinated by the extraordinary. We always are. We see the tall building and we are fascinated by how it got there. We see the beautiful painting and we're fascinated by how it got there. We we see extraordinary and it excites us. And we ask, how does extraordinary happen? But even beyond that, what makes something extraordinary? Does extraordinary mean flashy or flamboyant? Or could we maybe go deeper and understand a clear meaning of extraordinary, that it's not lofty or flashy, sometimes it is. But that we would understand that extraordinary means high impact. That extraordinary is oftentimes what we can see and beyond what we can see. And so when we look at God doing the extraordinary, what we're looking at is God doing things that were all about impact. If something is to be extraordinary, it is extraordinary, not necessarily because of the way it looks, but because of the way it impacts people. And that doesn't have to be flamboyant or flashy, even though sometimes it might sound like that or appear like that. But the true definition of what extraordinary is based on what it does to impact people. Jesus recruited a dozen men and more beyond that, but there's a dozen that most people tend to associate with, called disciples. And he recruited them to do the extraordinary. And the bulk of them were seemingly ordinary men. People who worked maybe in finance, government workers, tax collectors, fishermen, one of whom is named Peter. And you've heard of him. And inside of Christendom, he is known as Saint Peter. But before Peter was a follower of Jesus, he was a fisherman. Because we know a little bit about Peter. And some of the stories we know from Peter's life because they're a little bit, you know, they're a little high octane. You know, Peter is the one who's recorded in the garden when Jesus is confronted as he's about to be arrested. Peter's the one who is recorded to have cut the man's ear off. Peter was a little bit of a kind of uh, you know, ready, fire, aim type of person. And he had a unique personality to him. He seems like he's like he's larger than life. But Peter's story is interesting. And Peter's gonna highlight something for us that we're gonna see in the Gospel of Matthew that I think is gonna help us understand really how God worked through this ordinary man, Peter, to do extraordinary things. And so if you have your Bible, I want you to go with me to Matthew chapter 17. You can find it in your phone or you can turn there in your Bible. Matthew chapter 17. We're gonna read it together. And there's just one verse I want us to look at, but there's a lot that goes on in this verse because I think it's a conversation that stuck in Peter's mind and impacted him for the rest of his life. In Matthew 17, 20, Jesus is talking to Peter and some other disciples. And for context here, Jesus had just been through what is commonly referred to in your Bibles as the transfiguration, which I'm gonna just kind of kindergarten this down for everybody for our time purposes today. But basically, Jesus was glowing, and there seemed to be Old Testament angelic-esque figures with him, and these couple of disciples, Peter, James, and John, who happened to be there, kind of the inner circle, uh, were dumbfounded by what's going on. So he just does that, and then they're kind of on that, they're kind of on that wave, and then they're looking to try to heal people, and they can't, and Jesus heals someone, and they're like, What? How come we couldn't? We just saw you glowing, you know? It's this, it's kind of a it's it's an overwhelming moment for these men. And Peter happens to be there with this group as they're kind of experiencing all this and the highs and lows that come from miracles, and Jesus literally glowing, and and Peter hearing the voice that they believed was the voice of God, saying, This is my son, like actually seeing it and hearing it with his own two ears and his own two eyes, the things that they had devoted themselves to when Jesus said, Come fish for people, and they're like, All right, sure, we'll do that. You know, here's my two weeks' notice. Job, I'm following this guy. And it's confirmed and it's overwhelming. And he's in this moment, and you can imagine being Peter, like you just saw that, you've been given that. You're like, Yes, I am a giant of the faith. I have I have heard the words of God confirm that Jesus is the Son of God. I have seen him glowing, I've seen this. Let's rock and roll, and then they go to perform a miracle, and they're like, How come we couldn't do it? And Jesus looks at them in Matthew 17, 20, and he goes, You don't have enough faith. Can you imagine having a conversation with Jesus? You walk into church, you're like, No, no, no. I dress nice today, I put deodorant on, I brush my teeth. I didn't cuss on the way to church, I didn't fuss at my kids on the way to church. I didn't watch any rated R movies last night before I came to church. I only listen to Christian music. I don't even shop at certain stores. I only eat Chick-fil-A. I even buy extra on Saturday so I can eat it on Sunday when they're closed, pro tip. Some of you are like, You're like, no, I show up to church, I I I give to the church, I serve at the church, I'm on this team, I do all these things. You're like, God, I I think I'm doing a lot of good. I'm doing a lot of I'm doing a lot of discipleship in my life. And can you imagine Jesus looking at you and just saying, you don't have enough faith? And you're like, I don't, well, I don't like that. What do you mean? What? Jesus told him, I tell you the truth. If you had faith, even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. What do you do with that conversation? See, we like to see that. We like to read this, and we we think, yes, what an epic thing for Jesus to say. Faith like a mustard seed. And then what happens? People go out there and they create Christian coffee shops and they call them the mustard seed coffee shops. And we love it, and it sounds so quaint and fun, and yes, it's a cool Jesus thing. But Jesus looks at these men who were going to change the world. Peter, James, John, for context, Peter, he looked at Peter at one point and said, Upon this rock I will build my church. That same man got told to his face, You don't have enough faith. What do you do with that? If you're Peter, the conversation sticks out because it starts with, you don't have enough faith. And then it ends with, if your faith was the side of a size of a mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move and it would move. And you're thinking, look, Jesus, we have seen you do some things and say some things, but that just sounds crazy. You can't pick up a mountain and move it. Jesus is obviously making a point here. But what's the point? What's the point? I think what he's telling Peter is something that we can all learn from. I think he's telling Peter and others extraordinary faith is the result of ordinary faith practiced through all seasons, situations, struggles, and successes. Think about Peter. He's minding his own business, living his life. We don't know if he was married at this particular time, but we do know that Peter was married. In fact, Jesus healed his mother-in-law. So we believe Peter had a family, and Peter, living his life, punching the time card, going to work, doing his thing, happens to be at work one day fishing, and in Matthew chapter 4 meets a man named Jesus, who he had heard rumblings of, but maybe didn't know a ton about, but he knew enough about Jewish religious history and prophetic words that were handed down from people's granddaddies, granddaddy's, granddaddies, granddaddies. And as he's sitting there fishing, just doing his job on the everyday, Jesus comes up to him and says, Oh, you're a fisherman. Well, and he's probably sitting there with his net like this guy's perceptive. Yeah, I am. And he says, Would you like to fish for people? You imagine Peter? He's like, I don't know, my net's big enough. And what does Peter do? I mean, that's a bizarre, that's how it started. Peter's faith seems extraordinary, but it started out as simple as anything. Jesus saying, Would you like to follow me? And Peter saying, Yes. So simple. And then Peter's life went on a ride for the better part of three years. He saw blind eyes opened, people fed, thousands of people fed, with seemingly no food to feed them with. He saw people healed over and over again. People healed from just touching the fringe of the garment Jesus was wearing. People with leprosy being healed. Friends like Lazarus coming back to life. Storms calmed. Peter even stepped out of a boat once to walk on the water with Jesus. His faith was building because of the things he was seeing Jesus do. And here's the interesting thing about Peter: all of those things he experienced: water to wine, thousands of people being fed, blind eyes being opened, people who couldn't walk walking, people who were sick, his own mother-in-law being healed from the brink of death. All of that happened before Peter found himself in the courtyard of the high priest, denying even knowing the very Jesus he saw do all these things. Yet when we think of Peter, we think of extraordinary faith. Why? Because he's Saint Peter. In fact, the place they believe his home was is now it's paid tribute to. They've built a church over top of the rubble there, and you can actually schedule tours to visit it. It's on trip advisor. That's Peter's house. Because he's saint Peter. He had struggles and successes. He walked on water. He saw Jesus heal. And then he denies Jesus. Then he meets with Jesus when Jesus post-crucifixion returns to them, leaves them this great commission. He spends time with Jesus, talking with Jesus after the resurrection. It's pretty safe to say that Peter's faith journey kind of looks like this a little bit. Does yours ever feel like that? You wake up on those days? Yes, when I fight, I fight on my knees. The battle belongs to you. And we have some of those mornings. We wake up, and then other mornings we wake up, and you're like, the battle is, I'm done. We have those seasons of life where like I have not done this thing for a month, and I have really been doing great. And then before you know it, isolation creeps in, and we're like, man, I did that thing again. And my faith just seems to oscillate. What do I do? How will I ever have extraordinary faith? How will I ever have dynamic faith? I remember my pastor growing up wrote a book that's actually called Dynamic Faith. And he has one of those stories where the ministries that God built through him started with him literally walking door to door, knocking on doors in the 60s, asking people if they wanted to come to church, and they would say, No, but I don't have any shoes. And him giving them his shoes. Coming home with no shoes on. His wife looks at him and she's like, What are you doing? And he goes, Well, I invited this person to church, and they said they didn't have any shoes, so I gave them some shoes. Hopefully they'll wear them to church on Sunday. This man would end up going to pastor one of the largest churches in the country and build the largest Christian university in the world. There's stories in this book called Dynamic Faith, of people writing half a million dollar checks at the 11th hour to support ministry that was going to have to shut down if God didn't come through. There's stories of just miracle after miracle in this book called Dynamic Faith. And I remember growing up thinking, God, I don't know that I will ever have that kind of dynamic faith. So when I was an adult, I actually cracked open that book and started reading it. And you know what I read? I read that extraordinary faith. It's really the result of regular faith exercised day after day through all seasons, through all situations. Peter's life starts at the fishing boat. You want to come follow me and fish for people? Yeah, I'm there. Let's do it. Great. Come on, we're going to a wedding. Whoa. Jesus did this. And then it's okay, yeah, we're going here. Okay. Oh, oh, you're teaching us this? Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh my goodness. And then, yeah, oh, whoa. Whoa. That guy couldn't see, and he can see now. And you're like, uh, okay, and then uh we're there's a storm. And is that is that can't is that Jesus walking on the water? And Peter's just like, oh my goodness. And Jesus is like, You wanna come on? And he's like, uh he gets out there and he takes his eyes off of Jesus and he starts to sink, and he's like, This is a bad idea, bad idea, bad idea. Jesus grabs him. He walks on the water with Jesus. And then what happens? Fear creeps in. They've arrested Jesus. They're gonna crucify Jesus. Hey, don't you know Jesus? I don't know who you're talking about. No, I'm pretty sure I saw you with Jesus. Wrong guy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's it's totally you. I've seen, I saw it. I saw you and him. It's definitely you. You've got some strong features. It is totally you. Leave me alone. I don't know Jesus. Yet Peter is known for extraordinary faith. Why? Because Peter understood that extraordinary faith is the result of regular faith repeated. Sometimes we desire to have dynamic faith. And we think, yeah, but I'm not a good enough Christian to have dynamic faith. I'll never accomplish the things that others have accomplished. So I don't think my faith will look as big as others. Because we have put a definition on extraordinary faith that God does not. Every person that God uses throughout His Word, every person we will look at in this series, was ordinary like you and I. But their regular faith repeated, built up over time, and it made, as we journey back to our definition of extraordinary, it made a tremendous impact on people. For us in our modern lives, could extraordinary impact in the lives of people be the impact in the life of one person? You bet. Most of us have heard of the great evangelist, he is with Jesus now, Billy Graham. But have you ever heard of the man who led Billy Graham to Christ? What if that man's extraordinary impact was the one life that he made an impression on? See, we undervalue what impact really looks like. But any impact on any person is extraordinary. But we don't think we can measure up because we don't think our faith is big enough to do the extraordinary. Extraordinary faith is the result of regular faith, repeated. It's also the result of resilient faith. You think about with Peter, he uh he made some mistakes. And his mistakes are noted. You and I make a mistake in our faith, and maybe it's because we looked at something on our phone we weren't supposed to look at. Or maybe it's because we said a word we wish we didn't say in the middle of the night when we stepped on a Lego on our way to the bathroom. Or maybe it's that jealous thought that we had that no one else will know about and we thought something bad about another person who has things we wish we had. Or maybe it's that gossip-filled conversation where we kind of dogged somebody out, but no one else will hear except that one other person. Or maybe it's that anger we hold on to that does affect people around us, but it doesn't seem like it's too far out, and maybe not everybody knows because we we we put on a fake face around other people and and no one really knows the stuff that's going on, maybe the addictions or or the things that we deal with and stuff like that, and we're like, no, no, no, nobody ever knows. And and most of our um mistakes as we kind of journey through our faith journey, right? Most of those never get put on display for people. No one's following you around with a camera, being like, okay, and here's behind the scenes on his life or her life, and here's all the ways their faith has fallen short. Peter, his stuff got recorded. We have it. Guys, they're gonna come to arrest me. It is all God's will. It is all God's plan. Don't do anything rash. You ever seen those gifts, you know, in that meme? And it's like, hey, listen, this is what's going on. I need you to not do something crazy. And the guy's like, yeah, I got you. No, no, no, seriously. I need you to hear what I'm saying. Do not do anything bizarre. I got you. You keep winking at me. I don't think you understand me. I seriously need you to not do anything ridiculous right now. You can see Peter being like, I feel you. They show up to arrest Jesus. He's like, great, ear. Off. We just talked about this. Peter's stuff is recorded. He was for denying Jesus. No Christian wants to be known for that. No Christian wants to be known for that. At all. It's like claiming to be an Olympic swimmer and jumping into the pool with kitty floats on your arms. You're like, no. Upon this rock I will build my church. I don't know that guy. But Peter had extraordinary faith because he practiced repeated, regular faith, and resilient faith, even when he made mistakes. See, we think our faith has to be a certain size for us to live it out. Or we think if we make mistakes, we can never have extraordinary faith. That is a lie that many choose to believe. And I want to give you some truth. If Peter, Saint Peter, can be known for extraordinary faith while also being cited for denying Jesus, cutting a man's ear off, and probably doing some other things that aren't recorded that would make you think, yeah. This guy's report cards showed needs improvement. It should encourage us that God does extraordinary through the ordinary. And the reason I think Peter practiced repeated faith is because of this conversation in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17. When Jesus looks at him and says, If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. Nothing would be impossible. I want to show you what mustard seeds look like, because you may not know. They're very, very small. If you can see my diagram here, that number down there, there's a handful of mustard seeds. That is 20 millimeters. If you don't know what 20 millimeters is, next time you find a ruler, look. It's very, very small. A mustard seed's about one-ish millimeters big. In fact, uh I have one, I'll show you for context what it actually looks like. That's a mustard seed. Right there. This person's finger, and there it is. Mustard seed. Put out your finger. Everybody do this. I can see you, so I can see if you don't do this. Do this. Put out your finger and think, mustard seed. That's pretty small, isn't it? It's pretty small. See, the group of men who were on the receiving end of this conversation where Jesus looks at them and says, You don't have enough faith. But if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, immediately their brains go, What? I got bigger faith than that. I at least got walnut-sized faith. Mustard seed? They're thinking, maybe Peter, he's a little rough around the edges, maybe he's got mustard seed faith, but not me. I've got cashew-sized faith. The mustard seed was a ubiquitous ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking at the time. It's a ubiquitous product even now. It is used to make mustard. Do you know how much of this is sold every year in the world? 700 million pounds of this right here is sold in the world every single year. Do you have any idea how many mustard seeds it takes to make one of these? I'll give you a hint, more than a few. Most of us are waiting for our faith to be this before we exercise it. And Jesus says, start with the seed. Even if your faith was the size of a mustard seed, nothing would be impossible. See, here's what we do with faith. We think it has to be a certain level before we live it out. And that has never been the Jesus way. The Jesus way has simply been this: repent, recognize you need me, follow me every day. Because extraordinary faith is regular faith repeated. Extraordinary faith is resilient faith when life gets you and you make mistakes sometimes. Extraordinary faith is lived out in the every day. Think of it like this faith grows like compound interest. That's how faith grows. So you don't have to wait for extraordinary faith before finally deciding to live out your faith. You live out your faith on a daily basis, regularly repeated faith, and it grows into dynamic faith. The more you exercise it each day, through each season, through each situation, through each struggle, through each success. That's how faith grows. Daily decisions that add up over time. So let's get practical. How do we do that? How do we practice daily faith? This is where we lace up our shoes. How do we practice daily faith? Real tangible things. One, you can practice faith in your time management. You may not know that. Do you grab your phone in the morning and open social media? Don't raise your hand. Most of us do. I wonder if one of the ways you can manage your time to exercise your faith would be to open the Bible app on your phone and grab the verse of the day before you check Facebook or Instagram, before you check your stocks. Do you dedicate any time during the day to serve others? Maybe just five minutes to do something for somebody. Maybe just five minutes to pray. Maybe just five minutes to reflect. I was stopped this week, actually, and somebody said, Pastor Scott, last week you talked about putting a praise pause on our calendars, and I want you to know I did that this week, and it has been game-changing. I paused for three minutes just to thank God for things. See, oftentimes we don't realize, because we're looking for faith like this. But most of us are just going to keep collecting those mustard seed size faith moments. And they add up. They add up in your time management. They add up in your financial management. Do you manage your money in a way that honors God? Do you spend frivolously? Do you know where your money goes? Are you responsible with it? There are over 800 instances in Scripture where God gives us the design and approach for financial decisions. And so many Christians just treat it like it's just here today, gone tomorrow, and I love it. Let's get it. We don't exercise discipline with it. Or we try to hold on to all of it. And every dollar we make, we don't give any of it to anybody. We're not generous at all. Not even a dollar. We think, no, other people can do that. I work hard for this. I'm not gonna give it. I'm not gonna bless somebody in need. No, that person should, that person should just work more, make more money. They don't need a lasagna. No, no, no, I'm not gonna give to the church. I, you know, that's my money. You know? Mm-mm. Nope. Because we place our security in the bank account instead of what God says. And we're not grateful for the resources in our life. See, that sounds like, no, no, no, but I have to make this kind of money to give that kind of money. I need that kind of faith before I do anything with it. Jesus says, faith like a mustard seed in your emotional management. Do you spend time each day concerned about what others will think? More than you consider what God thinks about you. You didn't realize that could be a faith-based thing, did you? It could. Are you looking for love in all the wrong places and living for short-term likes on social media or in your own head comparing yourself? Or do you exercise the faith that says you are God's masterpiece? And he loves you no matter what. And he thinks you are beautiful, and you are fearfully and wonderfully made. That's a faith daily decision. What about self-care? Do you treat your body like a temple? Here's one people don't talk about. Are you allowing yourself to be controlled by substances? Do you abuse certain substances or do you rely on certain substances to get you through the day? I know this made a few people uncomfortable. Here's other things that we don't talk about in church often. Do you exercise? Do you eat good food? Do you take care of yourself? Or do you just stay up late, doom scrolling on your phone, not getting the rest that you need? You don't realize that these are faith decisions, but your body is a temple given to you by God. And yes, it's temporary, but you got it, and as long as you got it, maybe you should try to make it last as long as you can. But we don't think about that. Are you patient with people? Are you gracious? Do you always hang things over people's head, or do you let it go? Are you generous with your time? Are you generous with your abilities? Are you generous with your spirit? Are you hospitable? Are you welcoming of others when you meet them or are you rude to others? There are a lot of daily faith decisions that add up over time. Don't wait. Don't wait to live out your faith. Faith, like a mustard seed, adds up over time. Read your Bible, pray, check in on someone, do something nice for someone, just some act of kindness. Pray for people in your life. Pray for people who don't know Jesus. Pray for those who lead our communities. Pray for those who lead our cities. Pray for those who lead our country. Pray for those in leadership positions that impact our lives. Seek wisdom from godly others. Get into God's word. If you don't know that person, find an online resource to seek counsel. Give, return the resources to God. Give of your time to help others, give of your attention towards others. These can be seemingly small, but they add up over time. Why? Because extraordinary faith is the result of repeated faith in all seasons and all situations. If you want the type of extraordinary faith that will impact even just one person, you build it every day in those mustard seed faith moments. Let's pray. Dylan will come out and we'll wrap up. God, thank you again for another day. Thank you for your word. I pray that you are honored by it. Teach us with it, lead us with it. And may we take it with us. It's in your name we pray.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Amen. Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.