They thought that if they worked harder, they did more, sacrificed more, that there would be a greater position for them in kingdom. Matthew chapter 17, 20, Jesus sees a bunch of disciples coming to him and because they try to cast out this demon and this child and they couldn't.

Jesus responds to them and he says, "Because of your little faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you." Not too long ago, I visited my old hometown in Korea.

I spent a few years there. So I remember if you go there, there are some buildings that I can recognize, but in my mind I'm thinking, "Oh, I remember there was a hill here." So I remember, you know, if I turn a corner and sure enough, the hill's still there.

You know, and I turn this corner, go to the left, I remember there was a big mountain in front of our house. So I would go there and turn around, it's like, "Shoot, there it is, the hill's still there." You know, so if you've ever visited your old hometown or somewhere that you grew up on, you haven't been there for a long time, I'm sure a lot of things have changed, right?

Stores have come in, maybe houses were broken down and new apartment complexes came in, but typically mountains don't disappear, right? Because human beings don't move mountains, we move around it because it's impossible. Jesus uses that illustration for a reason. In other words, he's saying there are certain things that you can't do by your own works.

See, faith of a mustard seed, he says, move mountains. If you've ever seen a mustard seed, mustard seed is like a lint. A friend of mine went to Israel and brought back a gift and it was a bookmark and it had nothing in it. So I said, "What is this?" And he says, "It's a mustard seed." It was that tiny, I couldn't see, it was like a lint.

So I thought it was a lint, he said, "No, that's a seed of a mustard seed." I was like, "Wow." So Jesus deliberately chose the smallest thing that he could possibly think of and then says that little thing can move the biggest thing that he could think of, right?

So it's a hyperbole, he's exaggerating to make a point that there's things that you cannot move, that it needs a work of God. And the reason why a faith, that tiny little faith that connects us to God is much more powerful than the greatest thing that we can possibly apply to move this mountain.

That's what Jesus was saying. That little faith that causes us to be connected and tap into the power of God can move mountains. But without that faith, without that connection to God, even our greatest efforts can barely make a dent on this mountain. Now, what was he referring to?

Obviously he's referring to the great works that they're capable of doing, but there's something greater than that, that I think that is the problem with mankind. The scripture says, "Can a leper change his spots?" And even if he could, a sinner cannot one day just wake up and say, "I'm not going to be a sinner anymore." Now this room can be divided up into introverts and extroverts.

Some of you guys are introverts, some of you guys are extroverts. And I don't know why, but I've never seen an introvert who thinks he's an extrovert. I've seen many people who are extroverts think they're introverts. I don't know what the reason, psychology behind that. You study and tell me, let me know.

But you can't wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be an introvert today." You just don't do that. It's like that's who you are. You don't wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be an extrovert. I'm just going to go and be the life of the party today.

I'm just going to forget who I am." You just don't change like that. People just don't change like that. What you like or dislike, the kind of food you like, you just don't change like that. If we can't change something as fundamental as just maybe how I interact with people, for a sinner to one day wake up and say, "You know what?

I'm not going to be a sinner anymore. I'm just going to change." See, that's a mountain that cannot be moved by human effort. No matter how hard we try, we can scratch at it. We might think we can make a little bit of dent, but that mountain cannot be moved.

It needs a work of God. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, "The only way to enter the kingdom of heaven is to be born again." How can you be born again? We weren't born physically, and you can't be born spiritually without God's work. That's exactly what he meant. The whole purpose of the law given to the nation of Israel was to show that there was a mountain between them and God.

To make sin utterly sinful. The reason why anybody would even attempt to move this mountain is because he has no idea how big this mountain is. He said, "Anybody who goes into war, a king, he's going to first calculate to see, 'Can I win this war?'" The only reason why anybody would even enter to think he can possibly make a dent is because he has no idea how big this mountain is.

Not only does he not know, he has no idea his own strength. That after just half a day of digging, maybe barely making a scratch on this rock, you're going to be fatigued and tired, you're going to quit. So you don't know how big the mountain is, and you have no idea how weak you are to even make a dent.

You see, the Jews were given every advantage. They had the covenant, they had the law, sacrificial system, they had the prophets prophesying. And all of it was to point to Christ. That's exactly what it says in John 5, 39. You search the scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life.

That somehow if you dissect it and you apply it in your life, that somehow you're going to be able to move this mountain. But Jesus says, "And it is they that bear witness about me." If all of your study of scripture and all of your pursuit of righteousness is our attempt to make a dent on this mountain, it would only lead to further condemnation.

All of it was to point you for the need for a Savior. All of it was to set a foundation that salvation is by faith, by grace alone. And then he says, "Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." So that little faith in God is much more powerful than all the efforts that we can possibly pour in.

And that's, again, the common mistake that we make in our walk with God. When we have problems, our first thing is how do we fix it? Because I've gotten a certain place in my life and I know how to get ahead in life. And I've been successful and I'm moving up and I know how to put money and invest and buy the stock at the right time and sell it at the right time.

And so we become professionals. And so pride begins to set in in our heart and we begin to think that maybe if I apply all that made me successful into my Christian life, that somehow we would have more success. And that is exactly the opposite of the principles that are taught in the Beatitudes.

There's a reason why he deliberately chose people who weren't educated. They weren't successful. In fact, these disciples had the biggest failure right before Jesus went to the cross. See, the kingdom of God, the principles of the kingdom of God is flipped completely upside down. It is not different. It's completely opposite.

And that's why Jesus says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. And all that is in the world is not from the Father." You can't live by the principles of this world and by the principles of God because they're not different. They contradict each other.

Little that we do in faith is much more powerful than a lot that we pour out without it. Third and finally, salvation by faith in Jesus is the absolute cornerstone of which the kingdom is built. Verse 33 says, "They have stumbled over the stumbling stone and as it is written, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of defense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'" The term stumbling stone is a favorite Old Testament reference to Jesus, and specifically the cornerstone that was rejected.

In 1 Peter 2.7, the quote of, again, Psalm 118.22 says, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Not just any stone, it became the chief stone. It was the stone. So again, you probably heard this before, but cornerstone basically at that time meant if you don't have the cornerstone right, everything that you put on, everything, no matter how high the building, no matter how strong the building seems to look, it is absolutely crooked.

If salvation by faith and by grace isn't the foundation upon which we build, everything is going to eventually crumble. You know, I don't know about you, but when Ikea first came out and they would sell things, and prior to that, all the furniture was built for you. So you just bought it and put it and plopped it in, but right now, you don't have to save money, they give it to you, you buy a little shelf, they give it to you in like 5,000 pieces, and then you got to go through all of this instruction, and I don't have no patience for that.

I remember when I first started to put these things together, and I was like, I just kind of get a general outline, and I feel like I'm pretty handy with my hands, so I know where these things go. I would go and put all this together, and I feel pretty good about myself, and I put it together, and then you would see this huge metal piece.

Hmm, I wonder why this is here. So my initial thought is, Ikea is wasting their money. They put this metal piece in here, it's absolutely unnecessary. I don't know where it fits. And it looks fine, the shelf is standing, you know, after a couple of weeks, and you bump into it by mistake, and all of a sudden it starts to tilt.

And it's like, huh, this is weak. Maybe that metal piece has something to do with this. And you go back and read the instructions, and you realize it was the centerpiece in which everything holds together. And that's why it's tilting, that's why it's weak, and so I waste all my time and go back and I got to tear everything back and then read the instructions.

So I've done that enough times where now I don't mess with it, and I just go straight to the instruction. And I know that our ladies like to make fun of the husbands, they get lost and they don't want to ask direction. I've wasted so much time doing that in my life, that's the first thing I do now, I go straight to the instruction or ask people, like, where do I go, how do I get here?

You see, the scripture says Christ wasn't just a stone, it wasn't just an important foundation, it was the chief cornerstone. It says everything that we learned about life was about Christ crucified. Everything the Old Testament pointed and got people ready for it, the gospel was about Him preparing to go to the cross, and everything else in scripture, the book of Revelation is about the consummation of what He started at that time.

Everything was about Christ. Now why is this absolutely essential for us to know? Because once we begin to move from that, for whatever the reason, we're basically building on something that's going to eventually crumble on sand. It's just a matter of time, when it gets tested, it's going to crumble.

Now I don't think, I think most of us sitting in here, if I was to ask you, do you believe in salvation by faith alone, justification by faith alone, not by works? If you believe in salvation by works, you wouldn't be here. That's my guess. Maybe some of you guys secretly, it's like, I reject everything you say.

You know, I think most of you sitting in here will have no problem signing this doctrinal statement. But the real question, where the rubber meets the road, is how does that affect your life? How does this upside down principle, this upside down principle of where God chooses the lowly to dumbfound the wise.

In fact, 1 Corinthians 3, 11, Paul is talking to a church who's divided, and they're all talking about Jesus and the cross. They were already Christians, they were saying, I follow Paul, I follow Peter, I think Peter is a leader, so we should follow him. Apollos is a better preacher, and I like the way he preaches, so I'm going to follow him.

And so the church was divided. And so Paul comes in, in 1 Corinthians 3, he says, no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid in Christ, which is Jesus Christ. How can you be divided and say, I like this, I like that, when there is only one foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

And then, prior to that, he reminds them, the whole reason why this division is taking place is because they're one-upping each other. They're one-upping each other. And this principle of this world, where we're trying so hard to become somebody, every single one of us, and it's so deeply embedded in us, there isn't a single person who isn't guilty of this.

We work hard to make more money so that we can get ahead, we teach our kids so that they can sacrifice, so they can get ahead, we become proud when my kid reads a little bit faster than the other kid. Every single one of us has that innately inside of us, and when we begin to practice those principles inside the church, it begins to divide the church.

Who's better? Who's smarter? Paul reminds them, in 1 Corinthians 1.26, "If we consider your calling, brothers, not many of you were wise according to the worldly standards." Let's stop right there, okay? We read this as a historical document, and it's like, okay, he's reminding them the gospel. Think of this as a personal letter he's writing to the Corinthians, and the Corinthians are reading this.

He's saying this about me. Not many of you were smart. That's what he said. You don't know that God chose you because you weren't all there. You weren't the A student. God deliberately chose you because you weren't the A student. Not many of you were powerful. Not you're trying to be somebody in the church.

Not many of you were of any significance. You're trying to be somebody in the church, but outside the church, you're nobody. Think how offensive this is, if you're reading this, and he's saying this about you. Not many were from noble birth, but God chose what is foolish, and he's talking about you.

He's not talking about the principally foolish. No, you were foolish. God chose what was foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak, which is you, in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised. That's you. You're dumb. You're weak.

You don't come from noble birth. You're foolish. Again, he says weak. You're lowly. You're despised. God chose to shame the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. That's the basic of the gospel.

You're smart? Great. Don't let it hinder you. You're talented? Great. Don't let that interfere in your love for God, because it does. As soon as it pops us up to think that somehow I got something to contribute to the kingdom of God because of my smarts, because of my experience, because of my noble birth, it actually hinders us from coming to Christ.

The same way that the Jews say, "How can this be? This is not fair." And then they just begin to say, "Well, because I'm this educated, because I have all of this." The very basic principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings all of us low. Because the thing that is destroying us, the core nature of sin, is self-righteousness, self-boasting, self-justification.

Wasn't that Satan's temptation? Wasn't that Adam and Eve's temptation? Wasn't that the temptation of Tower of Babel? Wasn't that the temptation of every generation because they wanted to be somebody? And Jesus Christ says, "No." If you want to live, He says what? "Die." If you want to follow me and be my disciple, take up your cross and deny yourself.

The very core principle of the kingdom of God brings the haughty and He humbles him, He brings the lowly and encourages him. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Because anything else, anything else, like, "Oh man, you know, I have so much experience doing this and I did this and I'm so successful." All of these things could be useful.

But if it's not coupled in faith, knowing that He took nothing, that any power that I have, any usefulness that I have is because God was being merciful to me. That's why boasting and pride, it doesn't just not go together, it contradicts. You may not know, maybe you are aware of it, but the greatest hindrance to our walk with God is our pride.

It's our pride. Now, pride has all kinds of ways to manifest. Sometimes pride could be coming out of our lips, sometimes pride can come out of the way we interact with each other, sometimes pride comes out in anger, sometimes pride comes out in judgmentalism, sometimes pride comes out in self-righteousness.

But the core of what keeps us from God, why we think every single day that I can get along this day without praying, is pride. We don't see the urgency and desperateness of where we are because of pride. That's why Paul says, Galatians 2.21, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." It doesn't just hinder us, it ruins everything.

See, the fundamental principle of the kingdom of God, which is started by the gospel, it will be built by the same principles of the gospel and it will carry us on until the end. That's why in Galatians 4.3-7, as I close with this, Paul says, "In the same way, we also, when we were children," he's talking about when we were non-Christians, "were enslaved to the elementary principles of this world." Enslaved by the pattern that is taught in this world.

Do this, don't do this, and you're going to achieve. Sometimes we bring that even into the church. If we just work hard enough, if we do this and if we do that, so somehow God can be glorified, I can build the kingdom. That's what Paul says, "When I am weak, He is strong." Sometimes the best thing that we can do is to get out of the way.

Less of me so that more of Him can shine. See, this elementary principle of this world is what is killing us. The same principle that we are taught to be somebody, to make something of ourselves, to get to the next level. That's what's killing us. He says, "He came, who were once enslaved to the elementary principles of this world, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God." That what we work for is not here. Our payoff is not here.

And that's why he says that our life is now hidden with Christ. But when He comes, when Christ comes in His glory, we will be glorified with Him. So the whole principle in which a Christian continues to live and build and preach the gospel has been flipped upside down.

If we live by the principles of this world to try to get to the next level, do you not know that that is what is frustrating your life? That is why you feel stuck, because we're trying so hard to bend His will toward mine. And God will not be bent.

So the very principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, brings us to a point where we say, "I cannot. I cannot. And I am unable to. And all that I have, all the things that I may be good at in this world, actually is causing me to be proud and is hindering me from coming to Him." See, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings us to the same point.

Whether you are rich or poor, whether you are powerful or not, whether you are successful or unsuccessful, we all come through the same door by the mercy of God. If you can take a minute to pray with me as I ask our praise team to come up. Again, take some time to pray.

That's probably the most powerful thing that you can do, every single day and every single moment. You're struggling with anger? Pray. Ask God to help. Are you lost? Are you bitter? Are you confused? You don't know what's coming? The most powerful thing that we can do every single day is to come to God, that faith of a mustard seed.

If it engages God, it's much more powerful than all the counsel, all the work, all the money, all the friends that can come to encourage you. So let's take some time to pray the basic fundamental principle of Christ as chief cornerstone, that whatever we do, that we will build upon this.

Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.