I have a question for our retirees this morning. Did you pick up any new hobbies when you retired from your job? Most people I know say they are busier in retirement than they were in their working years, so taking up a new hobby may be difficult. So, let me ask our non-retirees, what hobby do you hope to adopt in your retirement years?
I ask this because I was inspired by reading about a retired Canadian man named Young S. New. New picked up an interesting new hobby when he retired. His new hobby was picking up spare change off the streets of his home city, Montreal, Canada.
New’s father was a frugal man who raised New with the mantra, “Respect the penny.” Respect the penny. The tiniest, least-valuable monetary unit in our society. Yet Young New’s father knew that if you save enough pennies, you make a dollar. And if you save enough dollars, you make $100. And if you save enough hundreds. . . well, you get the picture. Don’t overlook the value of little things because little things can add up to big things someday.
So after he retired, Young S. New began walking through his neighborhood each day collecting spare change he found on the ground. He donated all the money he found to charity. New’s neighbors noticed his hobby, and they joined in. Soon, New created a coin collectors club for Canadians who wanted to collect change for charities. No one has kept records on how much money the coin collectors club has found and donated. But they’ve been going strong for 12 years now, so they’ve probably donated a substantial amount. (1)
One man decides to collect discarded coins to give to charity. His neighbors, inspired by his example, join in. Who will be inspired next, and what good will they contribute to the world? Maybe it will be someone in this congregation this morning. We need people like that—people who make a positive impact on our world.
I want you to remember this man and his simple philosophy, his simple act of collecting loose change, as you consider our Bible passage for this morning.
Again (Jesus) said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
According to William Barclay, mustard was not a garden plant. Mustard plants in Palestine grew in the wild. Even though the mustard seed is the tiniest of all seeds, the mustard plant can grow 8-12 feet high. (2)
Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. He called it the tiniest seed on earth but when it grows up, it is taller than any of the other plants in the garden with branches so large that the birds of the air can make their nests in its shade. On another occasion he told his disciples that if they had as much faith as a grain of mustard seed, they could say to a sycamore tree, “Pluck yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea and it would obey.” (Luke 17:6) Obviously there is more power in an act of faith than you or I may have ever imagined.
There are three elements of mustard seed faith that we want to consider this morning. These are also three important elements to successful living.
First of all, small actions can lead to major accomplishments. Like the Almighty God of Creation working through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances. Like the Eternal God creating opportunities for good right here and right now. We are so busy looking for the big calling, the big vision, the big miracle, the big ministry God has for us to do that we overlook the little opportunities all around us. If we overlook the little good works we can do, the little kindness or encouragement or hope we can offer, if we overlook the little ways we can shine God’s light in the world, then we will not be prepared for the big opportunities God has to use us for His glory.
In his book How God Works, Edward T. Sullivan writes, “When God wants an important thing done in this world, or a wrong righted, He goes about it in a very singular way. He does not release His thunderbolts or stir up His earthquake. He simply has a tiny, helpless baby born, perhaps in an obscure home, perhaps of a very humble mother. Then he puts the idea or purpose into the mother's heart, she puts it into the baby's mind and then—God waits.”
Let me ask you a question this morning: Is God waiting for you? God has placed the power of His kingdom inside of you. God has placed the vision of His kingdom inside of you. And now God is waiting for you to do your part in establishing His kingdom on this earth. Let me suggest that you begin praying on a daily basis, “God, the Bible says you made me for good works (Ephesians 2:10). Please show me the good works you want me to do today.”
Pray this in the morning, the afternoon, the evening. Opportunities will grow around you like a mustard plant. But God only provides the opportunities and the power. You have to make the decision to do the good works, to display God’s character and priorities and values to the world. Is God waiting for you?
Successful people are aware of the little things. Little choices become ingrained habits. A little extra effort sets you apart from the pack. Attention to little details results in producing an excellent product. Those few million details spell the difference between success and failure. That is true in relationships, in business, and it is true in shaping a life. As an Ethiopian proverb puts it: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”
From a negative side, little things matter as well. It is not the major sins that bring about our downfall. President Reagan loved to tell the story of a lady who knocked on a man’s door and said, “Do you own a black Pit Bull dog?”
The man said, “Yes.”
The lady said, “I have to tell you it’s dead.”
The man demanded, “What do you mean it’s dead? What happened?”
And the lady said, “My Pekinese killed it.”
And the man said, “Your Pekinese killed it? How?”
She said, “It got stuck in his throat.”
That’s gross, I know. But, as King Solomon is reported to have written, it is “the little foxes that destroy the vines” (Song of Solomon 2:15).
The gospel itself is a rather unique celebration of the seemingly small and insignificant. Bethlehem was a small town. Nazareth was too. Calvary was a tiny spot on the globe. There was nothing particularly significant about the profession of carpenter or fisherman or tax-collector. Yet these are the people who became Jesus’ disciples, his followers. These are the people who created the early church and wrote the testimonies in the Bible. These are the people who changed the world.
The tiny mustard seed planted 2,000 years ago by Jesus and his disciples must have shown little promise. Life is like that. Look to the little things, the little opportunities and circumstances where you can share God’s love and truth and compassion each day. Mustard seed faith, first of all, says that small actions can lead to major accomplishments.
In the second place, mustard seed faith celebrates the importance of attitude to accomplishment. Where there is faith in God, there is hope. Where there is faith in God, there is joy. Where there is faith in God, there is peace. Faith is a positive force. Faith is an active force.
Studies performed in hospitals and nursing homes indicate that patients who have cheerful feelings about impending surgery recover faster from the operation. Those who express fears about postsurgical discomfort not only report more pain but also take longer to recover. Experts say that doctors can reduce hospital stays by asking patients about their fears and counseling them.
Many years ago, the writer for the popular “Ann Landers” advice column was asked about the dominant theme she saw in the thousands of letters she received from people seeking advice. Landers replied that the dominant theme in all her letters was a sense of fear. People wrote to her because they were afraid of losing a significant relationship, losing their job, losing their security, losing their wealth. Even sadder, they were afraid to take action to change the things that scared them. They needed advice and encouragement, but they also needed someone to inspire them to take action to deal with their fear.
We are all afraid of losing the things that are important to us. But Jesus-followers have a weapon for fighting fear. We do that by focusing on the goodness of God’s character and the certainty of God’s promises. And God promises that His kingdom is all around us. Wherever God’s Spirit is present, that’s where God’s kingdom is made real. How can we be negative, fearful, passive or apathetic when we carry the presence and power of God with us wherever we go?
Former NFL coach Tony Dungy writes that faith plays a big role in successful teamwork. Coaches, according to Dungy, assign each player a role based on a particular end result. The players may not understand how their obedience to the game plan contributes to the end result, but their faith in their assignment is an important ingredient in their success or failure.
Dungy writes, “We [also] have to trust that the assignment God has given us is the right one, whether it looks like we’re in the middle of the action right now or not. We need to know that the people and circumstances around us are running a pattern that will work out for good . . . As we carry out our assignments faithfully, the results will come. We need to forsake our natural instincts and play our position, no matter how things look, and trust that the plan will work. That’s what it means to live by faith, not by sight.” (3)
So, trusting God is key to a positive, effective attitude. God’s game plan is to establish Heaven on Earth, His kingdom of peace, love, justice and holiness. As Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It will happen. And God offers us a chance to get off the bench and join Him in this awesome work.
We are created in God’s image. Mustard seed faith says that this is a marvelous world in which God has placed us. It is an exciting and wonderful thing to be alive. We are fortunate when we can get up each morning and go to our schools, offices, fields and factories and share in the abundance of God’s creation. So take delight and be diligent in the little things. Understand the relationship between attitude and accomplishment, believing and building, daring and doing.
But there is one more essential element to mustard seed faith: God’s power and presence makes the ultimate difference in our success. Here is the critical factor in mustard seed living. We are not alone. Life can be lived in more than one dimension.
When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God being like a tiny mustard seed, he wasn’t talking about the wonderful abilities of man. Rather he was describing the availability of God. It is not our abilities that establish the kingdom of God on earth. It is God’s power working through our obedience. God’s power working through our obedience establishes the kingdom of God on this earth. This is God’s world and He is involved in it.
A boy and an old man were sitting on a dock fishing one day. The boy was full of questions about why the fish act the way they do, and why the sky changes colors at sunset, and why people do the things they do. And then the boy asked, “Does anybody ever see God?”
The old man looked across the water and he smiled. He said, “Son, it’s getting so I hardly see anything else.” (4)
We hear about the Kingdom of God and we think only of some distant reality yet to manifest itself. There is that Kingdom to be sure. But there is another Kingdom, Jesus taught us, that is already here. If I may use the word guardedly, there is a “supernatural” Kingdom that already surrounds us. It is like treasure buried in a field, it is the pearl of great price. “Lo, it is in the midst of you.” said Jesus. We are not alone in this world. Imagine the difference that makes.
Larry Jones is the founder of the international Christian aid organization, Feed the Children. Jones has received numerous awards and honors over the years for his work in feeding millions of hungry children and families around the world and in the U.S.
Larry Jones was a pastor before he founded Feed the Children. He was speaking at a church in Haiti, when a skinny little boy approached him and asked for a nickel to buy some bread. It would be the child’s only meal that day.
Larry returned to the U.S., but he couldn’t get this small boy out of his head. He knew that the U.S. had a surplus of wheat available. Instead of letting the wheat go to waste, why couldn’t it be donated to those who were hungry? Larry began speaking about his vision to transport surplus food to those in need. As Larry says, “What happened next was a miracle and a test of faith all in one.”
Farmers in Oklahoma, Larry’s home state, began sending him shipments of surplus wheat. Soon, he had over two million pounds of wheat in a storage facility. What does a pastor do with two million pounds of wheat? Here is what this pastor did. He and his wife, Frances, start an international food ministry.
As Larry would say later in an interview with author Jack Canfield, “I’ve seen it countless times in my life—when God asks you to do something, He also provides the means to achieve it. I used to try to figure out how He was going to make it all come about perfectly, but I quit doing that a long time ago . . . Frances and I have learned to simply trust that everything is exactly the way it should be. The result of this kind of faith is a deep experience of tranquility.” (5)
Once you see that this is God’s world, that God is working through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances, that God’s love is greater than any kingdom or political system or threat this world could hold, it becomes hard to see anything else. God is at work everywhere around us. God’s plan will succeed. But mustard seed faith results in action. So is God waiting on you to take the next step of faith?
1. “10 Uplifting Stories to Get You Through the Week” by Radu Alexander March, 3, 2019 http://listverse.com/2019/03/03/10-uplifting-stories-to-get-you-through-the-week-3-3-19/.
2. Barclay, William. The Parables of Jesus (The William Barclay Library) (p. 52). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
3. Dungy, Tony. The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge (p. 21). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Kindle Edition.
4. C. Thomas Hilton in Church Management.
5. Larry Jones, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor cited by Jack Canfield, Gay Hendricks with Carol Kline, You’ve Got to Read This Book! (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), pp. 179-182.