Greater Faith for a Greater Work
Pastor Kevin Szwarge
Kevin Szwarga is the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Terre Haute, Indiana.
I met some of your teachers and workers, and I was joking with Miss Leah and said, “I tell our ladies that if there was a Purgatory where you could earn your way into Heaven, I think the nursery would be it!”
She said, “Oh, no preacher! Our babies are so sweet!” That is a great nursery worker right there! I appreciate her spirit, and all of the ladies who give their time and care so that parents can relax and listen to the Word of God and enjoy the service. Sometimes we can allow our service to become a drudgery and we look at it like, “Man, I have to do this.” But when you keep your love for the Lord and for people in mind, you can keep a joy in your service to Him, and what a blessing that is.
Don’t change. I’m excited about the direction that your church is headed in. An old-fashioned independent fundamental Baptist Church. Don’t change it. Amen? A lot of people think they need to change with the times in order to get the younger crowd in church, so they change everything about the church. No, you don’t need to change! In fact, change doesn’t do anything to help. It might draw an entertainment crowd, but it doesn’t build people. What I’ve found working in ministry is that even the young couples are looking for truth. If you’ll reach out to them and love them and give them truth that will build their homes, that’s what they’re looking for. So stick with the old-fashioned Bible centered preaching of God’s Word and winning souls.
My wife and I started a young couple’s class several years ago, and I think for the first six months it was just her and I. I had preached all the sin out of my wife for six months, no I’m kidding, but finally a few trickled in and then a few more couples. I think we had over 40 in that class a few weeks ago. But you just have to stay at it and keep doing what you’re supposed to be doing in your Sunday School class, on your bus route, in church. God blesses that kind of faithfulness. God wants people to be helped, and He will bring them to you to be helped.
Luke 17:5 in our Bibles. In this text Christ is meeting with His disciples, and He begins to talk about faith. Faith. What is faith? One definition I heard is that faith is believing God will do what He said He would do. That’s a good definition. Verse number five, look at what the disciples asked Jesus. “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” Look at their request... “Increase our faith.”
I think it’s interesting that in verse one, the Word of God refers to the 12 as Disciples. In verse five He refers to them as Apostles. In verse number one they are learners, disciple means learner. In verse five they are ambassadors. Why? Because ministry is the focus when it comes to faith. Why do I need faith? I need faith for doing His work, for serving in the ministry. The apostles saw the importance of faith here, and they said, “Increase our faith.”
I’m going to challenge you to make that your prayer. “Please increase my faith, God.” A lack of faith limits God’s work through our lives. Think about it. In Matthew 13 Jesus went to His home town, and it said that He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief, their lack of faith. So He wanted to do a work, but because they didn’t have the faith, they really limited what Christ would do in their town.
Matthew 17, The disciples if you remember, they could not cast some demons out of a boy, and they came to Jesus and said, “Why can’t we cast these demons out?” The problem wasn’t that God had not given them power to do that. He had given that power to the apostles that was particularly for that day. The problem wasn’t a lack of power. Their problem was a lack of faith. He said it was because of your unbelief.
So God is not limited in what He can do. We have an omnipotent God. That means all-powerful. God could do anything. There’s nothing that God cannot do. However, God has chosen to work in accordance to our faith. John 14:12 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Catch this last part. And greater works than these shall he do. Think about that statement. Christ said the one that believes on me, those believers in the future, not only are they going to do the works that I do, but greater works shall they do. I believe God wants to do a greater work, however, His work is in accordance to our faith or lack thereof.
So tonight I want to preach on “Greater Faith for a Greater Work.” Lord, we need You tonight. I ask that through Your Word and through Your Spirit You would speak to our hearts. I pray, God, that You would stir us tonight, and that our desire would be that same desire the apostles had, for a greater faith. I believe that You answered that prayer because I see what You did through these men, and their faith was increased. Lord, we believe that, as our faith is increased, You will use our works in an even greater way, because that’s what You promised in Your Word. So may we be stirred tonight, and may we see what a greater faith will do. Please bless Your church tonight and have Your will and way in our hearts, and we will give You the glory for it. I ask this in Christ Jesus’ name, Amen.
Look at the verse again, verse 5. “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” The apostles were not satisfied with their current level of faith. That’s why they asked: “Increase our faith.” Now they were the apostles, I mean, these were the chosen twelve, hand-picked by Jesus. “Hey, you are the ones I’m going to train, and you are going to continue my ministry when I’m gone.” But they were not satisfied with their level of faith. Jesus even said at times, “O ye of little faith...” So they recognized their need of greater faith. Our faith is not what it should be.
It’s too easy for us, as Christians, to be content with our faith. We look at ourselves and think we have a pretty good level of faith, but we do not realize the frailty of our faith, how weak our faith really is.
How great is your faith tonight? How great would you say your faith is? Are you willing to admit to a weak faith? I think that’s one thing these apostles had right. They were willing to admit, “I have a weak faith. I need a greater faith.” Sometimes we become satisfied with where we are at, and it limits God. “Well, I’m doing pretty good. My family is doing better than it was, so I’m satisfied.”
The Bible says we ought to be content with such things as we have, but He’s talking about the physical things that we possess, not the spiritual level of where we are at. We need to have a godly hunger and a desire for greater faith. A greater faith in the Omnipotent God. A greater faith in the Word of God. A greater faith in the promise of His Spirit to work through us, because He did promise us that.
Now the apostles went to the right Person, when they said, “We have a weak faith. We need to grow this faith.” Who did they go to? They didn’t go to the compromising crowd. They didn’t go to the people that were going in another direction and say, “Teach us how to have a greater faith.” They didn’t go to all the books that were out there. They went to Christ Himself.
They went to God and said, “We need an increase in faith,” and I believe this ought to be the prayer of every pastor, every soulwinner, every Christian. “Would You increase my faith, Lord?” Why? Because if we’re going to do a greater work, then it’s going to require a greater faith. Same faith, same work, same results. If we want to do a greater work and see greater results, see God do greater things, then we need a greater faith.
Sometimes we look to government, and we rely too much on the government. Who is in the White House is not the hope of our church or our country. One person might look at it and say, “We’re doomed,” and another person may look at it and say, “We’re good for another four years.” But it doesn’t matter who is in the White House. That is not our hope.
What do we need? We need God’s people to have greater faith. We need revival. We need to see people come back to God. And if God works in accordance to our faith, then we need a greater faith.
So consider the response that Jesus gave to their request. They said, “Increase our faith.”
How did Jesus respond? What did He say to them? Let’s look at four responses that the Lord gave to them in answer to their request to increase their faith.
1. The Possibilities of Faith
Jesus told them to consider the possibilities of faith. “I want you to see what faith can do.” They asked in verse five for an increase in their faith. Look at verse six. “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” He said that Faith, even as small as a mustard seed, can be the beginning of something big. A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds on the earth, but it grows into this outstretched tree, with branches reaching out in every direction. He said that small faith could move a sycamine tree. Sycamine trees, if you study it, are known for having some of the deepest roots of all trees.
So what is He saying? Faith, even as small as the smallest of seeds, can uproot even the deepest rooted trees. That’s good right there. It can say, “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea;” and it should obey you.
Faith can do what is impossible. You may be looking at something, and you say, “That’s impossible.” Faith can do the things that we say are impossible. Don’t miss it. An increase in faith can give us an understanding of what faith can do, what God can do.
Mark 9:23. “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
Just a few illustrations. The Bible says that by faith Enoch walked with God, and then was not. He avoided death. That’s impossible, but by faith, Enoch did that which was impossible, because by faith He walked with God. By faith the impossible became possible.
Noah, by faith, built an ark. “Oh, that’s impossible that one man and his boys could build that size of an ark, and then see all those animals survive the flood.” Yes, but by faith the impossible becomes possible.
By faith Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees and possessed the land God led him to, and at their advanced age, Abraham and Sarah saw the miracle of God giving them the son He had promised. “That’s impossible!” Yes but faith make the impossible possible. Faith is believing what God said He would do.
Moses. It’s impossible that one man could be used to deliver the nation of Israel from Pharoah and the mightiest kingdom on the face of the earth at that time. The impossible became possible by faith.
Hebrews 11 has quite a long list of what God used those people to do. How? By faith. Paul traveled throughout the world and won souls and started churches by faith. These men did not see how God was going to provide or how things were going to work out. But they believed God and believed His Word, and God made the impossible become possible.
What could God do in your life through a greater faith? Our problem is a seed of doubt that creeps into your mind. Jesus said, “Hey boys, a seed of faith is what you need.” But instead we battle with a seed of doubt, and we explain away what the Bible says we can do. There’s no limit to what God can do, but what God will do seems to be in accordance to our faith.
I think of King Saul who failed to believe God wholly and do completely what God told him to do. He didn’t believe God and obey God, and as a result, for forty years in his kingdom he accomplished very little for God. On the other hand, David, by faith, slew lions, slew bears, slew giants, defeated enemies of God. Why? He had faith. That’s the only difference between the two. Saul was this giant of a man, head and shoulders above everyone else. Everyone looked at Saul and said, “He would make a good king.” David was this short ruddy young boy, but faith made the difference.
When the apostles asked for more faith, Jesus answered with, “Let me show you some things that faith can do.” He stirred their appetite for some more faith. He said, “Hey, there are some possibilities of what even a small faith will do.
And we have the same God today. The same God is at work today. The same God reigns over us today. May we be stirred today by the possibilities of what a greater faith can do in our lives.
2. The Practice of Faith.
Number two, He gives us the practice of faith. With an increase of faith comes an increase in service. Don’t miss that. An increase in faith comes with an increase in service. Jesus pointed out the possibilities of faith. Hey, this is what faith can do. But then He showed them the practice of faith. Hey, this is what faith requires. It’s almost like He’s giving them a rebuke.
You say, “Increase our faith,” and He says, “Let Me tell you what that’s going to require.” There’s a cost that comes with that, and He gives them a parable. Let’s look at the parable that He uses to teach them about the practice of faith.
Verse number seven. “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” So likewise ye -- these apostles who asked for their faith to be increased -- ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are... what kind of servants? Unprofitable servants.”
This servant comes in from working hard in the field all day. Does he come in and sit down at the table and relax and eat and expect his master to wait on him and serve him? No! He doesn’t. He goes and serves the Master, and the Master sits down and eats and the servant waits on him. He says that there is more to get done, the job is not over. This was expected. He is not applauded for serving a little longer and a little farther after coming in from the field. It was the duty of the servant.
You say, “How does this relate to faith?” Well, faith is believing that God will do what He said He will do. It’s believing that God can do the impossible through His servant, but faith, like James said, faith without works is dead.
What is Jesus saying? Faith requires action. There is some cost to faith. Our faith stops short many times, if we will be honest. Great faith does not attempt to get by with the minimum. “I was in church on Sunday, so check off my box. I have faith.” Faith doesn’t want to get by with the minimum. Sometimes we want God to do the impossible, and God can do the impossible. God can still send revival to America. I believe that. God still can grow His church in 2026 without compromising. In fact, I don’t believe that it is God growing the church when you compromise. God can still grow this church and God can fill this auditorium.
God can still save the tough cases. We had a guy who came to our tent meeting back in May. I’ve been trying to witness to Tom, my mechanic, for the last 10 years. I had witnessed to him many times, invited him to come to different meetings, talked to him in the shop. Hardworking guy, but your average lost Catholic. For 10 years I’ve been inviting him. I’m in my truck, I had to drop my truck off, and I’m battling inside. Do you ever do that? “Man, I should take one of the flyers and invite him to the tent meeting, but I’ve been inviting him for the last 10 years.” Do you ever debate that in your mind?
I decided I better do it. I gave him an invitation and urged him to come to our tent meeting, but I’ll be honest, I was expecting the same no response I had gotten before. I invited him and left, didn’t think any more about it.. Then I get a text later that day. “Is it okay if Lisa and I come? Lisa will be in her scrubs, we will just be getting off from work.” In my mind I’m shouting and excited, “Of course it’s okay! I’ve been trying to get you to come for 10 years!” I texted back, “Yes, we would love to have you.”
They came that night and the preacher preached on “Ye Must Be Born Again.” Blew away every bit of Catholic doctrine that they both had believed for the last 62 years. We talked until about 11:00 pm that night. He seemed pretty much on board and said, “I’m sick and tired of what’s going on. I’ve seen through the false religion.”
She said, “I’m just going to go home and think about this.” Neither of them trusted Christ that night. They came back on Friday night. She said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I couldn’t get away from what was said.” They both got saved, got baptized. They joined the church, growing in the Lord. The week before they were in the Catholic church!
God still transforms lives. You say, “I’ve still got some family that are unsaved, but they won’t listen to me.” God still does the impossible! But as God’s servant sometimes we want to sit and eat after we’ve done our duty, when there’s more work to be done. But God is saying, “I want you to go a little bit farther, and that’s when I’m going to show Myself.” Don’t expect trees to be plucked up and mountains to be moved as an unprofitable servant, a servant that stops short. Nothing is impossible with faith, but faith requires sacrifice.
Matthew 17:21 says, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” This kind of what? Study the passage and you’ll find He’s talking about this kind of faith, this kind of miracle, this kind of supernatural answer to prayer. This kind of power. This kind only comes through prayer and fasting. Hey, are you willing to take time in prayer? “I’d really like to see God work in my family. I’d really like to see God do a great work in our church.” Are you willing to take time and pray? Are you willing to take time and deny the flesh and fast? How bad do we want to see mountains moved? How bad do we want to see souls saved? Are we willing to put in the extra time door knocking? The extra time and effort to disciple? The extra time to study and spend time in God’s word. “Well, I made a visit on Saturday. That’s my visitation. I’ve done my work.”
How deep does your faith go? Paul was willing to spend and be spent for the Gospel. I don’t think Paul’s version of ministry was from nine to five. If it fits in my regular serve-the-Lord hours, if I can get it done between 10:30 and 12:30 on Saturday, then I want to be God’s servant. But if it doesn’t fit in there, sorry, it’s just not going to work. I don’t think Paul had that mentality. Great faith takes things a little bit farther. Let’s not get apathetic like the church in Laodicea. They were rich and increased with goods and said, “We don’t need anything.” They got apathetic. “We’re good.” Sometimes we get like that in our churches. Let’s not get too comfortable with where we are at or what we’ve done.
Look at verse 10. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” What areas do we look at and say, “Well, I’ve done what is commanded, so I’m good.” Let us go a little bit farther and let us prove our faith. Go a little bit farther in your prayer life. Go a little bit farther in your witness for Christ. Take it to the next level. With an increase in faith comes an increase in service. Is our faith greater in our eyes than in God’s eyes? How would God see it?
3. The Picture of Faith
Let me give you a third one. The picture of faith. He points them to the picture of faith. He shows them the possibility of faith and then the practice of faith to go a little bit farther. Now the apostles saw first hand what faith does at work. An increase in faith requires an example to be seen. How many times have you heard, as a parent, so much more can be caught than taught. I mean, you can tell a kid what to do, but showing your kids what to do will go a whole lot further. You can tell your kids to go to church, but showing them the example of going to church is a whole lot better. You can tell them to spend time reading the Bible, but showing up at your couch or wherever you read your Bible on a daily basis, that example is important. Let them see you doing what you’re suppose to do.
Jesus not only tells them to have faith, He also shows them the Example of what faith will do. Verses 11 through 19 tell the story of the healing of the 10 lepers. Most of you know that story well. For time’s sake let me condense it. Ten lepers came to Jesus and asked for healing. Earlier in Luke a leper came to Jesus, and Jesus touched him. As was customary, he went to the priest and offered a sacrifice, because now he was whole.
Now these 10 lepers, Jesus does not touch them. He says, “I want you to go to the priest.”
They think, “Why would we go to the priest? You haven’t healed us yet.”
Jesus says, “I want you to go to the priest, because I want to see your faith.” Are you willing to start on your way to go see the priest BEFORE you are made whole? Those ten lepers turn around and head for the priest, and on the way, what happens? They are made whole. Now only one of them went back to say Thank You, and in verse 19 we see Jesus’ response to him. “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” What did he say had made him whole? Thy faith hath made thee whole. They had the faith to go on their way, and their faith made them whole.
So Jesus shows them the possibility of faith. He shows them the practice of faith. But then He shows them the picture, the example, of faith. These lepers were faith on display. They showed their faith in God and look what God did for them. God healed them. These guys were doomed, they had no future. They weren’t going home. But God did a miracle, a great work in their life. By the way, not only were they lepers, they were Samaritans. Back in that day the Jews despised them. What a great miracle in answer to faith. What can faith do in your life?
Sometimes we stop dreaming for God. William Carey was a great missionary. He started the Society for Baptist Missions. This was centuries ago. He was a Baptist preacher who read Matthew 28, the Great Commission, and got a burden to take the Gospel to the heathen. At pastor’s fellowships he would go to the preachers and say, “We need to send missionaries to take the Gospel to the heathen.” It was not well-received. He got twelve preachers together and they started this mission with $23. Twenty-three dollars! William Carey becomes one of the first two missionaries sent out by this mission. This poor Baptist preacher becomes a pioneer for missions, goes to India, translates the Bible. Convinces Adoniram Judson to go to the mission field. Paves the way for so many missionaries to go to the field in the future. Still today he is inspiring people to go to the mission field, and the mission that he started still exists today! Wow! He had faith. This was just a poor Baptist preacher that said, “Hey, what can God do?”
What did faith do in the life of David Brainerd? He had a burden for the native Americans. He believed there were some native Americans who would be saved if he would take the Gospel to them. He lived a hard life. He ate horribly, not by his own choice. He slept terribly. He became diseased and died at the age of 29. Some say that David Brainerd, in that short span of life, influenced modern missions more than any other person. A little bit of faith that says, “What can God do with me?”
I’ve read of Dr. Jack Hyles who had a drunkard father and a praying mother. He ended up pastoring what became the largest independent Baptist church during it’s day. How does someone who grew up in a home like that see God do such a great work? Faith. It was God working through a man.
What could a greater faith do in your life? Our emphasis last year for our church was prayer, so we made a concerted effort to pray. We would put men with men and have them pray together. The ladies would team up and pray. We scheduled some extra times to pray before and after services, preached messages, and just really focused on this matter of praying.
We had some certain things we were praying for. One of the things I had started asking God for the year before was, “Lord, will you please bring one family per month to be added to our church.” God had answered that the previous year, when I added up what God had done that year. I said, “God, I’d like to see You add two family units to the church per month.” I thought in my mind, “I don’t know how God is going to do that. I don’t even know how He did what He did last year.” But I wanted to pray and seek God’s face and find out what God can do.
I got to the end of that year and was rejoicing with our men. There were so many answers to prayer in our church that year. One of them was that God added 24 family units to our church, exactly what I had asked for. Praise be to God.
What can God do through your life? Through your church? Just by saying, “I want to increase my faith a little bit.” Now when He increases our faith, He shows us some possibilities of what He can do. He will show us the practice of faith, and that it’s going to require a little extra sacrifice. Are you willing to pay the cost? Then He shows us an example, a picture of faith, what He does in response to our faith and sacrifice, believing His promise.
Hebrews 11 shows us a great many examples of what God does in response to faith. Let’s turn to Hebrews 11:6. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Without what? Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Faith is God’s currency. Notice the rest. He that cometh to God must first believe that He is. He is who He says He is. And I love this next part, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hey, you have a promise from God here that if you will diligently seek Him, He will reward that faith. Without faith it is impossible. But if you will seek Him by faith, He says, “I will reward that.” If you will step out and say, “God I believe, and I want to see what You can do,” He says, “I’ll reward that.”
The Perspective of Faith
Let me say fourthly, and we will be done, the Perspective of Faith. Turn back over to Luke 17:20-21. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God is where? Within you.
The religious crowd of Jesus’ day, they were looking for a physical kingdom. They were looking for Christ to set up a kingdom on the earth. Christ will not set up His kingdom on earth until His return. His physical kingdom was not in that day. Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees was that God’s Work cometh not with observation. The Pharisees were looking for something visible. God’s work is not an outward show. It’s an inward work. It’s an invisible work. It takes place in the hearts of men.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He says it’s not seen. Working for the Lord, we don’t always get to see the results we want to see. Preachers, that church you pastor, you don’t always get to see the results that you hoped for. Sunday School teachers, the kids don’t always turn out like you want them to. If you run a bus route, you have high hopes for the kids, but they don’t always fulfill those dreams that you have. Sometimes you invest, maybe in a married couple, and you put time into them, and then they get out of church. You may begin to ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
Maybe you get burnt in the ministry. I remember working with a guy, Mike. He was coming to church. began to grow. He was doing good in discipleship and growing. And then he just dropped out. My heart was broken. Is it worth it?
Maybe you’ve spent so much time and tears in prayer, but your children are away from the Lord. Is it worth it to keep praying?
Is it worth it to keep serving? Is it worth it to keep preaching? Is it having any effect? Is it making any impact? His work is not a visible work. It’s a work in the heart.
Isaiah was discouraged and he was lamenting. I’ve spent my life and my strength in vain. God reminded Isaiah, “You are My servant and you are glorious in My eyes, and that’s what matters. Isaiah, you are doing a great work.” Isaiah didn’t get to see the results of all his work, but we are still benefiting from it today.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58) Ye KNOW that your labor is not in vain. Hey, do you feel like quitting sometimes? You go out by faith, and you serve by faith, and you pray by faith, and you stick with it by faith. Even though you sometimes wonder, “Is it worth it?” Your labor is not in vain. Continue on!
We kept praying for Mike, that God would work in His heart. I got a text from him on Easter Sunday in the afternoon. “I’ll see you next Sunday.”
I saw him the next Sunday and said, “Mike, it’s great to have you back in church.”
He said, “I ended up going to church with a girl, and as I sat in that church I was so convicted. Why am I not in the church where I ought to be?”
Do you know who worked in his heart? Not Kevin Szwarga. The Holy Spirit of God. His work is much greater than anything I can do. But when we stay faithful by faith, He responds to that faith. The perspective of faith is that, although the servant cannot see God’s work, he must not lose faith. We cannot see what God is doing, but faith continues in the work.
This city needs a Bible preaching soulwinning church that cares about people. They need a church with faith to make a difference. Would you be willing to make your prayer what those apostles prayed? “Lord, increase my faith. I’m willing to step out, if You will increase my faith.” Now I will warn you, when I began to pray that prayer, He will put you to the test. But you know what I’ve learned? As you continue to follow Him, it’s a sweet thing because His work is a wonderful thing in your life.
Would you let that be your prayer tonight? “Lord, increase my faith. What could You use me to do for You?” Would you be willing to take a step further in faith? Pray a little more, do a little more, seek Him a little more.
We have the same God as the men of yesteryear. Maybe some of you were around in the 70s when it seemed like there was some revival in this country. We have the same God today, the same God as in the book of Acts. God works in the same amazing ways, if we will have the same faith. “When the Son of man cometh, will He find faith on the earth?” Oh God, give us a greater faith.
She said, “Oh, no preacher! Our babies are so sweet!” That is a great nursery worker right there! I appreciate her spirit, and all of the ladies who give their time and care so that parents can relax and listen to the Word of God and enjoy the service. Sometimes we can allow our service to become a drudgery and we look at it like, “Man, I have to do this.” But when you keep your love for the Lord and for people in mind, you can keep a joy in your service to Him, and what a blessing that is.
Don’t change. I’m excited about the direction that your church is headed in. An old-fashioned independent fundamental Baptist Church. Don’t change it. Amen? A lot of people think they need to change with the times in order to get the younger crowd in church, so they change everything about the church. No, you don’t need to change! In fact, change doesn’t do anything to help. It might draw an entertainment crowd, but it doesn’t build people. What I’ve found working in ministry is that even the young couples are looking for truth. If you’ll reach out to them and love them and give them truth that will build their homes, that’s what they’re looking for. So stick with the old-fashioned Bible centered preaching of God’s Word and winning souls.
My wife and I started a young couple’s class several years ago, and I think for the first six months it was just her and I. I had preached all the sin out of my wife for six months, no I’m kidding, but finally a few trickled in and then a few more couples. I think we had over 40 in that class a few weeks ago. But you just have to stay at it and keep doing what you’re supposed to be doing in your Sunday School class, on your bus route, in church. God blesses that kind of faithfulness. God wants people to be helped, and He will bring them to you to be helped.
Luke 17:5 in our Bibles. In this text Christ is meeting with His disciples, and He begins to talk about faith. Faith. What is faith? One definition I heard is that faith is believing God will do what He said He would do. That’s a good definition. Verse number five, look at what the disciples asked Jesus. “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” Look at their request... “Increase our faith.”
I think it’s interesting that in verse one, the Word of God refers to the 12 as Disciples. In verse five He refers to them as Apostles. In verse number one they are learners, disciple means learner. In verse five they are ambassadors. Why? Because ministry is the focus when it comes to faith. Why do I need faith? I need faith for doing His work, for serving in the ministry. The apostles saw the importance of faith here, and they said, “Increase our faith.”
I’m going to challenge you to make that your prayer. “Please increase my faith, God.” A lack of faith limits God’s work through our lives. Think about it. In Matthew 13 Jesus went to His home town, and it said that He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief, their lack of faith. So He wanted to do a work, but because they didn’t have the faith, they really limited what Christ would do in their town.
Matthew 17, The disciples if you remember, they could not cast some demons out of a boy, and they came to Jesus and said, “Why can’t we cast these demons out?” The problem wasn’t that God had not given them power to do that. He had given that power to the apostles that was particularly for that day. The problem wasn’t a lack of power. Their problem was a lack of faith. He said it was because of your unbelief.
So God is not limited in what He can do. We have an omnipotent God. That means all-powerful. God could do anything. There’s nothing that God cannot do. However, God has chosen to work in accordance to our faith. John 14:12 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Catch this last part. And greater works than these shall he do. Think about that statement. Christ said the one that believes on me, those believers in the future, not only are they going to do the works that I do, but greater works shall they do. I believe God wants to do a greater work, however, His work is in accordance to our faith or lack thereof.
So tonight I want to preach on “Greater Faith for a Greater Work.” Lord, we need You tonight. I ask that through Your Word and through Your Spirit You would speak to our hearts. I pray, God, that You would stir us tonight, and that our desire would be that same desire the apostles had, for a greater faith. I believe that You answered that prayer because I see what You did through these men, and their faith was increased. Lord, we believe that, as our faith is increased, You will use our works in an even greater way, because that’s what You promised in Your Word. So may we be stirred tonight, and may we see what a greater faith will do. Please bless Your church tonight and have Your will and way in our hearts, and we will give You the glory for it. I ask this in Christ Jesus’ name, Amen.
Look at the verse again, verse 5. “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” The apostles were not satisfied with their current level of faith. That’s why they asked: “Increase our faith.” Now they were the apostles, I mean, these were the chosen twelve, hand-picked by Jesus. “Hey, you are the ones I’m going to train, and you are going to continue my ministry when I’m gone.” But they were not satisfied with their level of faith. Jesus even said at times, “O ye of little faith...” So they recognized their need of greater faith. Our faith is not what it should be.
It’s too easy for us, as Christians, to be content with our faith. We look at ourselves and think we have a pretty good level of faith, but we do not realize the frailty of our faith, how weak our faith really is.
How great is your faith tonight? How great would you say your faith is? Are you willing to admit to a weak faith? I think that’s one thing these apostles had right. They were willing to admit, “I have a weak faith. I need a greater faith.” Sometimes we become satisfied with where we are at, and it limits God. “Well, I’m doing pretty good. My family is doing better than it was, so I’m satisfied.”
The Bible says we ought to be content with such things as we have, but He’s talking about the physical things that we possess, not the spiritual level of where we are at. We need to have a godly hunger and a desire for greater faith. A greater faith in the Omnipotent God. A greater faith in the Word of God. A greater faith in the promise of His Spirit to work through us, because He did promise us that.
Now the apostles went to the right Person, when they said, “We have a weak faith. We need to grow this faith.” Who did they go to? They didn’t go to the compromising crowd. They didn’t go to the people that were going in another direction and say, “Teach us how to have a greater faith.” They didn’t go to all the books that were out there. They went to Christ Himself.
They went to God and said, “We need an increase in faith,” and I believe this ought to be the prayer of every pastor, every soulwinner, every Christian. “Would You increase my faith, Lord?” Why? Because if we’re going to do a greater work, then it’s going to require a greater faith. Same faith, same work, same results. If we want to do a greater work and see greater results, see God do greater things, then we need a greater faith.
Sometimes we look to government, and we rely too much on the government. Who is in the White House is not the hope of our church or our country. One person might look at it and say, “We’re doomed,” and another person may look at it and say, “We’re good for another four years.” But it doesn’t matter who is in the White House. That is not our hope.
What do we need? We need God’s people to have greater faith. We need revival. We need to see people come back to God. And if God works in accordance to our faith, then we need a greater faith.
So consider the response that Jesus gave to their request. They said, “Increase our faith.”
How did Jesus respond? What did He say to them? Let’s look at four responses that the Lord gave to them in answer to their request to increase their faith.
1. The Possibilities of Faith
Jesus told them to consider the possibilities of faith. “I want you to see what faith can do.” They asked in verse five for an increase in their faith. Look at verse six. “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” He said that Faith, even as small as a mustard seed, can be the beginning of something big. A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds on the earth, but it grows into this outstretched tree, with branches reaching out in every direction. He said that small faith could move a sycamine tree. Sycamine trees, if you study it, are known for having some of the deepest roots of all trees.
So what is He saying? Faith, even as small as the smallest of seeds, can uproot even the deepest rooted trees. That’s good right there. It can say, “Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea;” and it should obey you.
Faith can do what is impossible. You may be looking at something, and you say, “That’s impossible.” Faith can do the things that we say are impossible. Don’t miss it. An increase in faith can give us an understanding of what faith can do, what God can do.
Mark 9:23. “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
Just a few illustrations. The Bible says that by faith Enoch walked with God, and then was not. He avoided death. That’s impossible, but by faith, Enoch did that which was impossible, because by faith He walked with God. By faith the impossible became possible.
Noah, by faith, built an ark. “Oh, that’s impossible that one man and his boys could build that size of an ark, and then see all those animals survive the flood.” Yes, but by faith the impossible becomes possible.
By faith Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees and possessed the land God led him to, and at their advanced age, Abraham and Sarah saw the miracle of God giving them the son He had promised. “That’s impossible!” Yes but faith make the impossible possible. Faith is believing what God said He would do.
Moses. It’s impossible that one man could be used to deliver the nation of Israel from Pharoah and the mightiest kingdom on the face of the earth at that time. The impossible became possible by faith.
Hebrews 11 has quite a long list of what God used those people to do. How? By faith. Paul traveled throughout the world and won souls and started churches by faith. These men did not see how God was going to provide or how things were going to work out. But they believed God and believed His Word, and God made the impossible become possible.
What could God do in your life through a greater faith? Our problem is a seed of doubt that creeps into your mind. Jesus said, “Hey boys, a seed of faith is what you need.” But instead we battle with a seed of doubt, and we explain away what the Bible says we can do. There’s no limit to what God can do, but what God will do seems to be in accordance to our faith.
I think of King Saul who failed to believe God wholly and do completely what God told him to do. He didn’t believe God and obey God, and as a result, for forty years in his kingdom he accomplished very little for God. On the other hand, David, by faith, slew lions, slew bears, slew giants, defeated enemies of God. Why? He had faith. That’s the only difference between the two. Saul was this giant of a man, head and shoulders above everyone else. Everyone looked at Saul and said, “He would make a good king.” David was this short ruddy young boy, but faith made the difference.
When the apostles asked for more faith, Jesus answered with, “Let me show you some things that faith can do.” He stirred their appetite for some more faith. He said, “Hey, there are some possibilities of what even a small faith will do.
And we have the same God today. The same God is at work today. The same God reigns over us today. May we be stirred today by the possibilities of what a greater faith can do in our lives.
2. The Practice of Faith.
Number two, He gives us the practice of faith. With an increase of faith comes an increase in service. Don’t miss that. An increase in faith comes with an increase in service. Jesus pointed out the possibilities of faith. Hey, this is what faith can do. But then He showed them the practice of faith. Hey, this is what faith requires. It’s almost like He’s giving them a rebuke.
You say, “Increase our faith,” and He says, “Let Me tell you what that’s going to require.” There’s a cost that comes with that, and He gives them a parable. Let’s look at the parable that He uses to teach them about the practice of faith.
Verse number seven. “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” So likewise ye -- these apostles who asked for their faith to be increased -- ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are... what kind of servants? Unprofitable servants.”
This servant comes in from working hard in the field all day. Does he come in and sit down at the table and relax and eat and expect his master to wait on him and serve him? No! He doesn’t. He goes and serves the Master, and the Master sits down and eats and the servant waits on him. He says that there is more to get done, the job is not over. This was expected. He is not applauded for serving a little longer and a little farther after coming in from the field. It was the duty of the servant.
You say, “How does this relate to faith?” Well, faith is believing that God will do what He said He will do. It’s believing that God can do the impossible through His servant, but faith, like James said, faith without works is dead.
What is Jesus saying? Faith requires action. There is some cost to faith. Our faith stops short many times, if we will be honest. Great faith does not attempt to get by with the minimum. “I was in church on Sunday, so check off my box. I have faith.” Faith doesn’t want to get by with the minimum. Sometimes we want God to do the impossible, and God can do the impossible. God can still send revival to America. I believe that. God still can grow His church in 2026 without compromising. In fact, I don’t believe that it is God growing the church when you compromise. God can still grow this church and God can fill this auditorium.
God can still save the tough cases. We had a guy who came to our tent meeting back in May. I’ve been trying to witness to Tom, my mechanic, for the last 10 years. I had witnessed to him many times, invited him to come to different meetings, talked to him in the shop. Hardworking guy, but your average lost Catholic. For 10 years I’ve been inviting him. I’m in my truck, I had to drop my truck off, and I’m battling inside. Do you ever do that? “Man, I should take one of the flyers and invite him to the tent meeting, but I’ve been inviting him for the last 10 years.” Do you ever debate that in your mind?
I decided I better do it. I gave him an invitation and urged him to come to our tent meeting, but I’ll be honest, I was expecting the same no response I had gotten before. I invited him and left, didn’t think any more about it.. Then I get a text later that day. “Is it okay if Lisa and I come? Lisa will be in her scrubs, we will just be getting off from work.” In my mind I’m shouting and excited, “Of course it’s okay! I’ve been trying to get you to come for 10 years!” I texted back, “Yes, we would love to have you.”
They came that night and the preacher preached on “Ye Must Be Born Again.” Blew away every bit of Catholic doctrine that they both had believed for the last 62 years. We talked until about 11:00 pm that night. He seemed pretty much on board and said, “I’m sick and tired of what’s going on. I’ve seen through the false religion.”
She said, “I’m just going to go home and think about this.” Neither of them trusted Christ that night. They came back on Friday night. She said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I couldn’t get away from what was said.” They both got saved, got baptized. They joined the church, growing in the Lord. The week before they were in the Catholic church!
God still transforms lives. You say, “I’ve still got some family that are unsaved, but they won’t listen to me.” God still does the impossible! But as God’s servant sometimes we want to sit and eat after we’ve done our duty, when there’s more work to be done. But God is saying, “I want you to go a little bit farther, and that’s when I’m going to show Myself.” Don’t expect trees to be plucked up and mountains to be moved as an unprofitable servant, a servant that stops short. Nothing is impossible with faith, but faith requires sacrifice.
Matthew 17:21 says, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” This kind of what? Study the passage and you’ll find He’s talking about this kind of faith, this kind of miracle, this kind of supernatural answer to prayer. This kind of power. This kind only comes through prayer and fasting. Hey, are you willing to take time in prayer? “I’d really like to see God work in my family. I’d really like to see God do a great work in our church.” Are you willing to take time and pray? Are you willing to take time and deny the flesh and fast? How bad do we want to see mountains moved? How bad do we want to see souls saved? Are we willing to put in the extra time door knocking? The extra time and effort to disciple? The extra time to study and spend time in God’s word. “Well, I made a visit on Saturday. That’s my visitation. I’ve done my work.”
How deep does your faith go? Paul was willing to spend and be spent for the Gospel. I don’t think Paul’s version of ministry was from nine to five. If it fits in my regular serve-the-Lord hours, if I can get it done between 10:30 and 12:30 on Saturday, then I want to be God’s servant. But if it doesn’t fit in there, sorry, it’s just not going to work. I don’t think Paul had that mentality. Great faith takes things a little bit farther. Let’s not get apathetic like the church in Laodicea. They were rich and increased with goods and said, “We don’t need anything.” They got apathetic. “We’re good.” Sometimes we get like that in our churches. Let’s not get too comfortable with where we are at or what we’ve done.
Look at verse 10. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” What areas do we look at and say, “Well, I’ve done what is commanded, so I’m good.” Let us go a little bit farther and let us prove our faith. Go a little bit farther in your prayer life. Go a little bit farther in your witness for Christ. Take it to the next level. With an increase in faith comes an increase in service. Is our faith greater in our eyes than in God’s eyes? How would God see it?
3. The Picture of Faith
Let me give you a third one. The picture of faith. He points them to the picture of faith. He shows them the possibility of faith and then the practice of faith to go a little bit farther. Now the apostles saw first hand what faith does at work. An increase in faith requires an example to be seen. How many times have you heard, as a parent, so much more can be caught than taught. I mean, you can tell a kid what to do, but showing your kids what to do will go a whole lot further. You can tell your kids to go to church, but showing them the example of going to church is a whole lot better. You can tell them to spend time reading the Bible, but showing up at your couch or wherever you read your Bible on a daily basis, that example is important. Let them see you doing what you’re suppose to do.
Jesus not only tells them to have faith, He also shows them the Example of what faith will do. Verses 11 through 19 tell the story of the healing of the 10 lepers. Most of you know that story well. For time’s sake let me condense it. Ten lepers came to Jesus and asked for healing. Earlier in Luke a leper came to Jesus, and Jesus touched him. As was customary, he went to the priest and offered a sacrifice, because now he was whole.
Now these 10 lepers, Jesus does not touch them. He says, “I want you to go to the priest.”
They think, “Why would we go to the priest? You haven’t healed us yet.”
Jesus says, “I want you to go to the priest, because I want to see your faith.” Are you willing to start on your way to go see the priest BEFORE you are made whole? Those ten lepers turn around and head for the priest, and on the way, what happens? They are made whole. Now only one of them went back to say Thank You, and in verse 19 we see Jesus’ response to him. “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” What did he say had made him whole? Thy faith hath made thee whole. They had the faith to go on their way, and their faith made them whole.
So Jesus shows them the possibility of faith. He shows them the practice of faith. But then He shows them the picture, the example, of faith. These lepers were faith on display. They showed their faith in God and look what God did for them. God healed them. These guys were doomed, they had no future. They weren’t going home. But God did a miracle, a great work in their life. By the way, not only were they lepers, they were Samaritans. Back in that day the Jews despised them. What a great miracle in answer to faith. What can faith do in your life?
Sometimes we stop dreaming for God. William Carey was a great missionary. He started the Society for Baptist Missions. This was centuries ago. He was a Baptist preacher who read Matthew 28, the Great Commission, and got a burden to take the Gospel to the heathen. At pastor’s fellowships he would go to the preachers and say, “We need to send missionaries to take the Gospel to the heathen.” It was not well-received. He got twelve preachers together and they started this mission with $23. Twenty-three dollars! William Carey becomes one of the first two missionaries sent out by this mission. This poor Baptist preacher becomes a pioneer for missions, goes to India, translates the Bible. Convinces Adoniram Judson to go to the mission field. Paves the way for so many missionaries to go to the field in the future. Still today he is inspiring people to go to the mission field, and the mission that he started still exists today! Wow! He had faith. This was just a poor Baptist preacher that said, “Hey, what can God do?”
What did faith do in the life of David Brainerd? He had a burden for the native Americans. He believed there were some native Americans who would be saved if he would take the Gospel to them. He lived a hard life. He ate horribly, not by his own choice. He slept terribly. He became diseased and died at the age of 29. Some say that David Brainerd, in that short span of life, influenced modern missions more than any other person. A little bit of faith that says, “What can God do with me?”
I’ve read of Dr. Jack Hyles who had a drunkard father and a praying mother. He ended up pastoring what became the largest independent Baptist church during it’s day. How does someone who grew up in a home like that see God do such a great work? Faith. It was God working through a man.
What could a greater faith do in your life? Our emphasis last year for our church was prayer, so we made a concerted effort to pray. We would put men with men and have them pray together. The ladies would team up and pray. We scheduled some extra times to pray before and after services, preached messages, and just really focused on this matter of praying.
We had some certain things we were praying for. One of the things I had started asking God for the year before was, “Lord, will you please bring one family per month to be added to our church.” God had answered that the previous year, when I added up what God had done that year. I said, “God, I’d like to see You add two family units to the church per month.” I thought in my mind, “I don’t know how God is going to do that. I don’t even know how He did what He did last year.” But I wanted to pray and seek God’s face and find out what God can do.
I got to the end of that year and was rejoicing with our men. There were so many answers to prayer in our church that year. One of them was that God added 24 family units to our church, exactly what I had asked for. Praise be to God.
What can God do through your life? Through your church? Just by saying, “I want to increase my faith a little bit.” Now when He increases our faith, He shows us some possibilities of what He can do. He will show us the practice of faith, and that it’s going to require a little extra sacrifice. Are you willing to pay the cost? Then He shows us an example, a picture of faith, what He does in response to our faith and sacrifice, believing His promise.
Hebrews 11 shows us a great many examples of what God does in response to faith. Let’s turn to Hebrews 11:6. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Without what? Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Faith is God’s currency. Notice the rest. He that cometh to God must first believe that He is. He is who He says He is. And I love this next part, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hey, you have a promise from God here that if you will diligently seek Him, He will reward that faith. Without faith it is impossible. But if you will seek Him by faith, He says, “I will reward that.” If you will step out and say, “God I believe, and I want to see what You can do,” He says, “I’ll reward that.”
The Perspective of Faith
Let me say fourthly, and we will be done, the Perspective of Faith. Turn back over to Luke 17:20-21. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God is where? Within you.
The religious crowd of Jesus’ day, they were looking for a physical kingdom. They were looking for Christ to set up a kingdom on the earth. Christ will not set up His kingdom on earth until His return. His physical kingdom was not in that day. Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees was that God’s Work cometh not with observation. The Pharisees were looking for something visible. God’s work is not an outward show. It’s an inward work. It’s an invisible work. It takes place in the hearts of men.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He says it’s not seen. Working for the Lord, we don’t always get to see the results we want to see. Preachers, that church you pastor, you don’t always get to see the results that you hoped for. Sunday School teachers, the kids don’t always turn out like you want them to. If you run a bus route, you have high hopes for the kids, but they don’t always fulfill those dreams that you have. Sometimes you invest, maybe in a married couple, and you put time into them, and then they get out of church. You may begin to ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
Maybe you get burnt in the ministry. I remember working with a guy, Mike. He was coming to church. began to grow. He was doing good in discipleship and growing. And then he just dropped out. My heart was broken. Is it worth it?
Maybe you’ve spent so much time and tears in prayer, but your children are away from the Lord. Is it worth it to keep praying?
Is it worth it to keep serving? Is it worth it to keep preaching? Is it having any effect? Is it making any impact? His work is not a visible work. It’s a work in the heart.
Isaiah was discouraged and he was lamenting. I’ve spent my life and my strength in vain. God reminded Isaiah, “You are My servant and you are glorious in My eyes, and that’s what matters. Isaiah, you are doing a great work.” Isaiah didn’t get to see the results of all his work, but we are still benefiting from it today.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58) Ye KNOW that your labor is not in vain. Hey, do you feel like quitting sometimes? You go out by faith, and you serve by faith, and you pray by faith, and you stick with it by faith. Even though you sometimes wonder, “Is it worth it?” Your labor is not in vain. Continue on!
We kept praying for Mike, that God would work in His heart. I got a text from him on Easter Sunday in the afternoon. “I’ll see you next Sunday.”
I saw him the next Sunday and said, “Mike, it’s great to have you back in church.”
He said, “I ended up going to church with a girl, and as I sat in that church I was so convicted. Why am I not in the church where I ought to be?”
Do you know who worked in his heart? Not Kevin Szwarga. The Holy Spirit of God. His work is much greater than anything I can do. But when we stay faithful by faith, He responds to that faith. The perspective of faith is that, although the servant cannot see God’s work, he must not lose faith. We cannot see what God is doing, but faith continues in the work.
This city needs a Bible preaching soulwinning church that cares about people. They need a church with faith to make a difference. Would you be willing to make your prayer what those apostles prayed? “Lord, increase my faith. I’m willing to step out, if You will increase my faith.” Now I will warn you, when I began to pray that prayer, He will put you to the test. But you know what I’ve learned? As you continue to follow Him, it’s a sweet thing because His work is a wonderful thing in your life.
Would you let that be your prayer tonight? “Lord, increase my faith. What could You use me to do for You?” Would you be willing to take a step further in faith? Pray a little more, do a little more, seek Him a little more.
We have the same God as the men of yesteryear. Maybe some of you were around in the 70s when it seemed like there was some revival in this country. We have the same God today, the same God as in the book of Acts. God works in the same amazing ways, if we will have the same faith. “When the Son of man cometh, will He find faith on the earth?” Oh God, give us a greater faith.
