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2/15/2026
The Mustard Seed and The Kingdom of God
Matthew 13:31-32 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
Jesus intentionally chooses insignificance as the starting point.
To His audience:
The Messiah was expected to arrive with power, authority, and visible dominance.
The Kingdom of God was expected to overthrow Rome and restore Israel immediately.
To a certain degree you can say the Jews almost had it right: they couldn’t believe Jesus was the Son of God when He came and was born in a manger, raised in Nazareth (an unimpressive town), a carpenter’s son, without royal appearance, a teacher traveling on foot or rode on a donkey, washed His disciples’ feet and ultimately crucified as a criminal.
In Revelation: dressed in a long robe with a golden sash, eyes like blazing fire, feet like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace, a sharp double edged sword coming from His mouth, face shining like the sun in full strength, riding on a white horse, with many crowns on His head.
He comes back as a conquering King, a righteous Judge, a divine Warrior, as the visible glory of God. Very different from the humble carpenter of Nazareth and the suffering Lamb of the cross.
Instead, Jesus says: God’s Kingdom starts like something you could lose between your fingers. This directly undercuts human expectations of how God works.
God does not begin where humans would consider “impressive.
The Hidden Growth (God Works Quietly)
The mustard seed:
Is planted
Disappears underground
It quietly grows out of sight
No fanfare. No spectacle. No announcement.
This mirrors:
Jesus’ own ministry (a carpenter from Nazareth)
The disciples (uneducated fishermen)
The early church (small, persecuted, unseen)
Just like a mustard seed is planted, disappears underground, and grows unseen before becoming visible, Jesus’ ministry followed the same pattern. He began in obscurity, lived thirty hidden years, ministered with a small group of disciples, and even appeared to “fail” at the cross – yet through His resurrection, that hidden work became a worldwide Kingdom. What looked small and unnoticed was actually God’s unstoppable growth.
Same goes for the disciples. They were like the hidden roots of the Kingdom. What looked like an insignificant group in Gailee became, through God’s power, the foundation of a global movement. Jesus didn’t choose a group of scholars. He chose fishermen and built them up.
The early church started as a small, frightened group gathered in an upper room. There were no buildings, no political influence, no cultural power. Yet through quiet faithfulness, persecution, and Spirit-empowered witness, what began as a hidden movement in Jerusalem spread across the Roman Empire and beyond.
The Kingdom grows invisibly before it grows visibly.
That’s a massive lesson for believers who feel:
Unnoticed
Ineffective
Spiritually “small”
God is setting a theme here:
Small input —> overwhelming result (it’s not just with the mustard seed)
This reinforces a consistent biblical pattern:
David vs. Goliath
Gideon’s army
The 12 disciples to becoming the early church
God delights in outcomes that cannot be explained by the starting material.
God shrinks the input so the output magnifies His power.
The parable shows us:
The Kingdom does not arrive fully formed
It starts small, hidden, and unimpressive
Its growth is inevitable and God-driven
Its final scope is far greater than expected
This parable teaches patience, trust, and proper expectation.
This parable also speaks directly to:
Slow spiritual growth
Quiet obedience
Faithfulness without visible results
Jesus is saying: Don’t despise the small, the unseen, or the unimpressive – that’s how My Kingdom works.
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Paul is not saying believers are literally stupid or weak:
He means:
Those the world considers insignificant
Those without status
Those without power
Those without philosophical prestige
God intentionally works through them.
And the “shame” here means:
Expose
Reveal
Overturn false confidence
God exposes the emptiness of worldly pride.
Human wisdom cannot save. Human strength cannot redeem. Human status cannot justify.
Salvation is entirely God’s work.
God gets all the glory.
2/8/2026
Faith (not) as small as a mustard seed…
That is the common phrase we hear from Matthew 17:20
“Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
(Read Matthew 17:14-20)
“I brought my son to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”
This is crucial context because back in Matthew 10 the disciples had already been given authority
This wasn’t new territory for them. They had past experiences of casting out demons.
Their failure was not due to lack of permission but lack of dependence on God. That dependence is expressed through prayer, because prayer is how we remain connected to God rather than operating on our own strength.
Also, this is not implying prayer is some sort of magical requirement. Prayer is not the source of power. You don’t just remember to say some simple prayer to activate this authority. Prayer is the posture of dependence and without it, authority becomes ineffective. God is the source and prayer is the channel of dependence.
Jesus was pointing out: spiritual dullness, reliance on formulas instead of faith, power without prayerful dependence
Matthew 17:18 “Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.”
Notice: No ritual, No delay, No struggle
Jesus operated from perfect alignment with the Father.
The disciples most likely tried to repeat what had worked before. They relied on past success. They acted on muscle memory instead of dependence on God.
They treated power like a sword, like a tool, not a relationship.
Your relationship with God through prayer IS the power.
Reminder: authority comes through relationship. Relationship is not a gift. It’s an effort.
Authority is as deep as your relationship with God. Authority is the result of being one with Him.
Jesus wasn’t saying:
You didn’t believe hard enough, You need more emotional intensity, You need bigger faith
What He is saying: Your faith was misplaced, Your faith was passive, Your faith was self-reliant
Faith is not a switch you flip – it’s a posture you live in.
Application questions:
Where have I started relying on past spiritual victories?
Am I praying before acting – or only after failing?
Have I turned faith into a technique instead of a relationship?
Authority was granted once, power was delegated once and the mission was approved once so you don’t have to get permission each time. Moving forward, your life needs to be in constant relationship with God through prayer. This shows how important prayer is.
Permission was given once but dependence must be practiced continually.
Spiritual authority flows not from what God once gave you, but from how closely you are walking with Him now.
In Greek and Latin the accurate translation for Matthew 17:20
“Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith like (of faith as) a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Greek: as a grain of mustard
Latin: like a grain of mustard
What is the significance of the mustard seed?
Mustard plants which grow from mustard seeds can grow very large, up to 6-10 feet in the fertile soils and warm climates of the Middle East. Others mention 10-15 feet and another up to 20 feet.
A “mustard tree” isn’t a real woody tree but it’s a plant. But you can understand why it gets mistaken for a tree when it grows up to 6-10 feet.
Ability to thrive in and endure harsh conditions, including extreme temperatures and low water availability.
Also known for rapid growth…huge plant within a year and up to 20 feet within a few years.
The mustard seed is tiny and mighty. When planted it can grow into this massive tree-like plant and when it grows, the roots grow so deep and spread so wide that it overtakes the things around it. It becomes this situation where it’s almost impossible to get all the roots out. It will thrive in the toughest environment.
So if we have a more accurate understanding of what Jesus is saying here “faith like a mustard seed” then He could be referring to faith that when planted sprouts massively and is rooted so deep in God that it spreads to everyone around it and continues to thrive no matter how hard the situation or the environment.
What if that’s the kind of faith that can move a mountain?
Self-evaluation: will you be content with a small, safe life – the equivalent of pretty yellow flowers when God has called us to be sources of strength, support, and growth for others?
It’s usually our own fears, doubts, and “what ifs,” along with giving up and loss of hope that creates this smallness.
First we build up our relationship with God. Be in constant prayer and communication with Him. This builds up the faith. This builds up the power.
And just imagine from there what big plans God has for us.
“The Lord didn’t want Sarah to only have a baby. He wanted her to dream big so that He could bless her with an entire nation.”
Sarah’s dream was just to have a child, but God’s plan was so much bigger – an entire nation.
Imagine what He could do with your mustard seed of faith.
Analogy of customer, customer’s insurance company and customer’s attorney
When a customer tries to file a claim with an insurance company to receive proper compensation, the company often knows how far it can push back and may make the process difficult or intimidating. However, when the customer hires an attorney, everything changes. The attorney understands the law, and the insurance company knows it—making it much harder for them to delay, deny, or minimize the payout.
Now imagine the customer spending time with that attorney—building a close relationship, learning the legal language, understanding what to say, what to do, and how to respond throughout the case. That knowledge and proximity bring confidence and authority.
The same principle applies spiritually: humans are the customer, God is the attorney, and demons are like the insurance company. The deeper our relationship with God, the greater the authority and spiritual strength we carry, making it far more difficult for the enemy to operate against us.
1/11/2026
The Cost of Discipleship
When it comes to your faith there will be seasons when you feel weak or there may be pockets of doubts. Sometimes God goes quiet or He feels distant. Maybe you feel like you’ve plateaued in your faith or maybe it feels like something is missing.
What I would challenge you to look into is what does your relationship with the Holy Spirit look like? Is the Holy Spirit of God alive in you right now?
There are a few things to consider:
Imagine you’re inviting a very special guest to come stay in your home. I’m sure you would scrub that place from top to bottom. Our soul is like our home. And we’re inviting the Holy Spirit of God to come stay with us.
If we are corrupted and filled with sin, the sin is like mold and mildew that has stained the walls, saturated the carpets, caused the air to be musty, along with all the questionable things in the basement.
So ask yourself: is your soul a suitable place for the Holy Spirit?
We should all have some level of cleaning we need to go through. This starts with confessing our sins and going through repentance. There needs to be a firm intention to change, to do better.
OR
Imagine the love of your life invites you to come stay in their home and you’re all excited but when you get there you find the rooms are filled with other people and their things. The person you really wanted to be with their attention is spread out and occupied among all the other things going on in the home and it hits you right away that you’re just one thing among many.
So ask yourself: what does your ‘home’ look like? What is it filled with? Will God have your full attention when He comes to stay or will your attention be spread out and your home be filled with many things of distraction?
OR
Another way to look at it is that God designed your body as a temple and in that temple is an altar only for Himself. What are all the idols that are cluttering your heart that you worship?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
The attachments are all those unhealthy, excessive desires for some worldly thing that gets in the way to you uniting with God.
If you want to know if you are attached to something just visualize how hard it would be to let go of that said attachment. Imagine if that thing were taken away. If that causes you some kind of pain or sadness, then it’s an attachment and it’s something standing between you and God.
Attachments can be a million different things: it can be our cars, our clothes, our homes. They can be our ambitions like our careers, our success, our bank account. We can be attached to some need like our need for approval, to be praised, to be seen a certain way. You can be attached to patterns of thinking like overthinking, negativity, obsessing that your life has to be a certain way. It can be how you get your dopamine hits…from alcohol to drugs to scrolling Tik Tok. Even the good things in life can be an attachment: your lover, your body (gym), or even for some people the ministry itself has become the attachment and God is no longer the center of it all.
The Rich and The Kingdom of God
Matthew 19:16-29
Jesus exposes what prevents people from entering the Kingdom of God – not wealth itself, but what wealth does to the heart when it replaces God.
1 – The Question
In this story we have the rich young ruler who is a man that is morally upright, religious and sincere.
His question reveals a works-based mindset: What must I do?
He assumes eternal life is earned, not received.
External obedience does NOT mean a surrendered heart.
2 – Jesus Exposes the Heart
“Sell all that you have, give to the poor, and follow Me.”
Jesus isn’t saying salvation is earned by poverty or that all believers must sell everything.
Jesus is identifying the man’s functional god.
Wealth was not his possession – it was what possessed him.
Jesus targets the one thing that competes with God for lordship.
The issue is attachment, not assets, not how much he had or how nice his things were.
3 – The Man Walks Away Grieved
“He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
This man wanted eternal life but not at the cost of control, security, or identity, which were all bound to his wealth.
He loved God but not supremely, not exclusively.
4 – The Camel and the Eye of the Needle
“How difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God”
Jesus said “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is saying that human self-reliance cannot enter the Kingdom.
Wealth amplifies the illusion of independence. We think that the more wealth we have the more we are in control and independent from society, the machine, whatever you want to call it but on the contrary, the more wealth you have the more you are bound to it, the more you want to hold on to it, the more it possess you.
To have wealth is fine, it does bring a level of comfort to life, but don’t allow it to possess you. Don’t allow it to stand between you and God. Do not allow it to be your god. Don’t allow it to be the attachment.
Satan will test you and find your weakness and lure you towards it, which pushes you further away from God.
The disciples asked a valid question when they said, “Who then can be saved?” and Jesus responded by saying “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Salvation is humanly impossible. The Kingdom is entered only by grace.
Major Takeaways
Wealth is spiritually dangerous but not automatically sinful. It can quietly replace trust in God with trust in self.
The Kingdom requires surrender, not moral achievement. Obedience without surrender still falls short. The rich man was obedient but not willing to surrender.
Jesus confronts the idol. Whatever competes with Christ for first place must be surrendered.
Salvation is impossible by human effort – only grace saves.
Following Jesus will cost you something but it also gives everything.
You can look at it this way: the question is not “What must I give up?” but “Who do I trust?”
The tragedy with the rich man wasn’t that he had wealth but that he trusted it more than Jesus.
This is another lesson on sanctification – to be made holy means there has to be change since we aren’t already holy, which means there’s ongoing transformation and in this case there’s a heart surrender and there’s the letting go of what possess you.
“Who or what rules over my life now?”
Sanctification exposes what still competes with Christ.
For believers, unforgiven sin is not unpaid sins – it is unsubmitted areas of the heart.
Jesus said, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself. If you want to find your life, you have to lose your life.”
Deny yourself of your attachments, what possess you, what you trust more than God.
If you want eternal life, you have to lose this life here with all these things.
The little pleasures and indulgences is where Satan dwells. Spend time and ask yourself what is it you can deny? Maybe you start off with one less bite of the cake then later it becomes denying the whole piece of cake late at night. Maybe it’s denying yourself that much TV time, or stop scrolling as much. This takes discipline and sacrifice but it also builds character.
Pray for God to show you your attachments. When they are revealed to you mentally vision the altar in your soul with these attachments on there. Then pray for God to show you how to let go of those attachments. Clear the altar so God can be the one and only on there.
This is the ‘cleaning of your room.’
1/4/2026
The Distinction Between Forgiveness From Salvation and Ongoing Repentance
Jesus paid the price so why are we still haunted by unforgiven sins?
If Jesus died and saved us from our sins, why are there unforgiven sins we need to work on?
Jesus’ death fully forgave sin, but forgiveness must be applied, received, and walked out.
What remains is not unpaid sin, but unapplied forgiveness and unresolved relational obedience.
Scripture speaks about forgiveness in more than one sense:
o “Once-for-all forgiveness” This is what Jesus accomplished at the cross. Your sins are forgiven judicially, your standing before God is settled, you are no longer condemned.
o “Relational forgiveness” This is to be walked out daily and we need to maintain fellowship.
Unconfessed sins has its affects whether it be fellowship, peace, sensitivity to the Spirit and Spiritual authority.
On a daily basis we pray “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Jesus did not die so we could ignore relational obedience (asking for forgiveness or forgiving the other person)
It doesn’t mean your salvation is undone or that Christ’s sacrifice was insufficient but it does mean you are blocking the experience of forgiveness, you are walking out of alignment with God’s heart and fellowship and spiritual freedom are hindered.
We still need to be obedient, be responsible, be consciously aware of our use of free will and that the cross does not automatically heal relational damage.
Jesus fully paid for sin at the cross, but forgiveness still has to be received and lived out. What we work through as believers isn’t unpaid sin-it’s unaddressed sin. Not to earn forgiveness, but to walk in freedom and restored fellowship.
The cross clears the debt. Confession clears the conscience. Forgiveness clears the heart.
Unforgiveness places us in the judge’s seat. Forgiveness puts us back under God’s authority.
Bottom line: Jesus fully forgave sin at the cross, salvation is complete and secure, ongoing forgiveness is relational, not judicial and unforgiven sins in believers refer to unresolved fellowship and obedience, not lost salvation.