1. He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds…”
Mt 13:31-32a

2. “…but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Mt 13:32b

3. Things that become great can start out with very small beginnings.
Some downplay their eventual “greatness” because the beginning was not spectacular.

4. In this parable, Jesus said the kingdom had such a beginning.
Despite man’s opinion of the small way the kingdom started, it was always “great” in God’s plan.

5. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found.

6. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
Dan 2:34-35, 44

7. Faith is something else that can have a “small beginning.”
We don’t need to discount the early stages of faith…it can & should grow into deep conviction.

8. …assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Mt 17:20

9. May we say with the apostles…
All of us need to nurture our faith daily so that it will become great.
May we say with the apostles…

10. And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
Lk 17:5

12. May we all have the faith of a mustard seed…though something that starts out small, it can become great.