Sermon preached at Hickory Presbyterian Church on September 20, 2026

This is the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Everything is moving toward the cross.

The day before, Jesus had come to a fig tree covered with leaves. From a distance it looked healthy. But He came near and found nothing. No fruit. Just leaves.

The next morning the disciples pass that same tree, and it’s dead. Withered from the roots. You can almost hear the amazement in Peter’s voice: “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Peter says look at the tree. Jesus turns his eyes somewhere else.

“Have faith in God.”

Faith Looks to God

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say believe in yourself. He doesn’t even say have faith in your faith. The power was never in the person who believes. The power is in the God we believe in. That’s why even weak faith can rest securely when it rests on a strong Savior. The question isn’t “How strong is my faith?” It’s always “How great is my God?”

Some of us spend so much time worrying about things we have absolutely no power to change. What somebody else is going to do. How something’s going to turn out. You can’t control tomorrow. But you know the One who holds tomorrow.

Having faith in God doesn’t mean you know what God is going to do. It means you know who He is. If you ever wonder whether He can be trusted, don’t start with your circumstances. Look at Christ. The God who did not spare His own Son can be trusted.

Faith Brings Our Needs to God

Then Jesus points to a mountain. It was something the disciples could never move themselves.

That’s where prayer begins, isn’t it? It begins when I finally admit I’m not God. Although I certainly try sometimes. I can’t change somebody’s heart. I can’t carry everything by myself. But I know the One who can.

Honestly, I wonder if our problem isn’t that we believe these words too much but that we believe them too little. We pray safe prayers. Small ones.

So what’s your mountain? Maybe it’s a child you’ve prayed for so many times you don’t know what else to say. Maybe it’s a sin you’re tired of fighting.

Now, this isn’t a blank check. In a few days Jesus will kneel in Gethsemane and pray, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” That isn’t weak faith. It’s perfect faith. Father, I’m asking, and I trust You with the answer.

And if you woke up this morning and the mountain is still there? Jesus doesn’t say believe harder. The mountain hasn’t moved, but neither has God.

One more thing here. I don’t ever want us to be a young church with lots of plans and lots of leaves and very little prayer. I want it said of us: those people pray.

Faith Extends the Grace of God

Then, almost out of nowhere, Jesus says, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone.”

Maybe there’s a name that makes something rise up inside you when you hear it.

Hear me clearly. We don’t forgive so that we can become forgiven people. We forgive because in Christ we already are forgiven people. Our forgiveness of others is the fruit of grace. It isn’t the cause of it. It also doesn’t mean the sin didn’t matter, or that trust comes back overnight. It means placing even that hurt into His hands.

For some of us the mountain isn’t out there. It’s in here. Bitterness. A wound you’ve carried for years. In your own strength you may not be able to forgive. But the One telling you to forgive is days away from the cross, where your forgiveness will be purchased.

You’ll Never Carry It Alone

I can’t promise you the mountain will move. Jesus doesn’t promise that. He gives us something better. He gives us Himself.

Friday looked like defeat. But Sunday morning, the grave was empty.

So you can pray. You can wait. You can forgive. And when you don’t understand, you can put your life into the same hands Jesus did, the hands of your Father.

Beloved, have faith in God.

Listen to the full sermon here: Have Faith in God, Mark 11:20–25

And worship with us Sundays at 10:30 AM at:

Northview Middle School Auditorium

302 28th Ave NE, Hickory, NC

(behind Publix on Hwy 127).

We’d love to see you.

Tripp Castell
Pastor, Hickory Presbyterian Church