October 7th 2007:

• "Faith"

Today we are beginning a series on “faith” and during the four Sunday’s of October we will endeavor to explain faith, explore faith, examine faith, and immerse ourselves in faith.

As part of a lay witness team, several years ago, I was asked why I believed in God and this was my reply, “I know that it is necessary for me to breathe and without air I would die, but long before that, I just breathed. I believed in God before I knew the reasons, also.”  So, it is with Faith. 

In the beginning,” reads the opening sentence in the Bible, “God created the heavens and the earth.”[1]  The Bible does not begin with reasons for belief.  The Bible does not begin with rationalizations for the existence of God.  In drawing, it's first breath; so to speak, the very Presence of God is the Bible's point of departure.  God's existence and His creative power are accepted, and everything that follows is based on that belief.

All Faith begins with this sense of belonging to Someone of a higher order of life than our own.  Call it instinct, call it intuition, call it private revelation, call it innate wisdom, call it what you may, it is part of us.  Because we are what we are, that sense of belonging to a transcendent Other is literally rooted in our being.

What is your reaction when someone asks you, “Have you been converted to Christ?” Or in several different forms: “Have you been born again? ... Have you been saved?”…Do you know Jesus?” Unfortunately, for many of us there is a negative reaction because often those who ask the question do so in a way usually perceived as judgmental. Their condescension turns us off. But whether we are turned off or just plain confused, we still need to face the question from time-to-time because the entire Christian enterprise is all wrapped up in it. It is what the Christian Faith is all about. 

Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true.[2] Its primary idea is trust and since it is true, it is therefore worthy of trust.

Faith is also the result of teaching according to Romans 10:14–17, “¹⁴ But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? ¹⁵And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, “How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!” ¹⁶But not all have accepted the Good News. Isaiah himself said, “Lord, who believed our message?” ¹⁷So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.”^[3]

“Knowledge is an essential element in all faith and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith as John 10:38 explains, “⁸But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.” While 1^st John 2:3 adds,“³ If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure that we know him.”^[4]

Yet faith and knowledge are set apart in this respect, that faith includes in it agreement, which is an act of the will in addition to the act of the understanding. Coming to an understanding to the truth is of the essence of faith, and the ultimate ground on which our agreement to any revealed truth rests is the reality of God.^[5]

“By Grace we are saved, through faith,” the Apostle Paul has written. God will not coerce us. God will not force us. God will not compel us to respond. Nor does the response happen automatically.   Faith means that we really trust the God who loves us. Faith means opening our heart to the astounding reality that a right relationship with God literally is what gives meaning to life. Faith means the genuine surrender to God that comes with this moment of truth. Faith means trusting that God will guide us step-by-step if we will let Him. Faith means expressing our love for God through our love for one another, as Jesus Christ has commanded us. 

The story is told of a little boy who answered the home telephone. The caller was a salesman, and the following conversation took place:  “Is your mother at home?” “No.” “Is your father at home?” “No.” “Is there anyone else at home I can speak to?” “Yes, my sister.” “Would you mind getting her to the telephone?”  “O.K.”

There was a long pause. Finally, the little boy returned:  “I'm back.” “Where's your sister?” “I can't lift her out of the playpen.” 

No earthly power can lift us out of our spiritual playpens. Only Divine Power can accomplish that feat.  The problem for some of us is that although we know this intellectually, nevertheless we have not yet received this Amazing Grace in the way in which God intends for us to receive it. Not merely to intellectualize about God's love, but to receive it, to experience it, to open ourselves up to it -- that is the heart of the matter.

Nobody in all of history tried harder to work at this “faith” question than Paul.  His conversion from the wrong way of approaching God to Christ's way became, of course, the ongoing main event of his life. Paul had learned that the Grace of God we call “Faith” does not result from our good works or our intellectual reasoning. Rather, it comes from a vision of the Risen Christ that is God's gift to us. God took the initiative. 

Faith acceptance may have been a special event, in your life, a landmark decision.  It is what many people refer back to as their “conversion experience”, but it is also a process; where day-by-day you live trustfully, moment-by-moment accepting God's Grace-not legalistically, in the sense of working yourself into a position where you might deserve God's gift, but to a once-and-for-all way, where you can say “Yes! That's it! I understand! I accept this as the key to my life!” That is what Jesus Christ came to bring to us: this gift of Faith through salvation.  It may be attached to something or sometime memorable, but the gift of Faith occurs only through our own effort.

Perhaps the Carl Sandburg story about a college boy who brought his roommate, Charles Specknoodle, home for a visit may clarify this for us. The boy tried unsuccessfully to introduce the roommate to his hard-of-hearing grandmother. He made several attempts until, finally, she said, “It's no use. No matter how you say it, it still sounds like Specknoodle to me.” Now, when you listen to a sermon like this, you may come to think, “It still sounds like Specknoodle. It all sounds the same to me.” But it is not all the same. The heart of the matter for the Christian is this Faith response. Not just faith as “believing” something, but Faith as trusting and accepting God's Grace. The works and the intellectual reasoning we do are important to this Faith. But in the beginning, remember, was God. All the rest of our Christian living depends upon our trustful acceptance of this free, loving gift of God's Grace. 

You’ve come to Church regularly for years.  Over-and-over again, you listen to the same old stories, sing the same old hymns, say the same old prayers, and your spirit becomes sleepy, and dull, and lifeless.  But one day it happens!  Suddenly, one Sunday, you experience a breakthrough.  By some miracle you are visited by an angel of the Lord who whispers to your soul a message of hope, a message of faith: “God is the God of history; His Kingdom will come!”  Suddenly your lifeless old spirit is transformed into a powerhouse of outlandish faith and hope.  Suddenly your sleepy old spirit is interrupted by the wildest expectations of what the Lord has prepared for those who live in harmony with His Will.  And suddenly, you can hear yourself saying from every fiber of your being, “Let go and let God!” ...”Let go and let God!” ...”Let go and let God!”

A little girl sat on her grandmother's lap and listened attentively as she read the Bible story of creation.  As the wondrous story unfolded, the grandmother, noticing that the child was unusually quiet, asked, “Well, what do you think of it, dear?”  The child answered, “Oh, I love it, grandma.  You never know what God's going to do next!”

The depth of God's plan for our fulfillment is beyond our present understanding, but not beyond our expectations, born of faith.  As people of faith, we learn to expect the unexpected from a God who is good.  We learn to share in the delight of the little girl who loved the creation story because “You never know what God is going to do next.”

Put your faith and trust in God's blueprint for living and you will be blest. Your faith will bring you happiness. Your faith will bring you fulfillment. Your faith will bring you ever closer to becoming the uniquely beautiful person God made you to be.

To be genuine, faith in God through Jesus Christ is expressed not only in what one says but in what one does. When Jesus Christ tells us to repent and believe in the Gospel, He is calling us into a living faith. We put our faith and trust in God's blueprint for living, and then we follow it. We carry it out. We are the builders of God's Kingdom of Love! 

The Lord Jesus Christ came announcing it and offering it and requiring a decision. Jesus said, “You will know them, by the difference this faith and trust has made in the way they live.”  He didn't say, “Think about this and get it all sorted out in your mind first.” He said, “Believe . . . accept . . . trust!”

During the terrible days of the Blitz, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard was a shell hole. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father's voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, "I can't see you!"

The father, looking up against the sky tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, "But I can see you. Jump!" The boy jumped, because he trusted his father. Faith enables us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known.[6]

Three frogs sat on a lily pad.  One decided to jump off.  How many were left?

Three.  He only decided to jump off, but never took the leap.

It's not enough to make a decision.  You've got to take a leap of faith and follow through with it.  With all the sincerity of soul and heart and mind and will you can command, say “Yes, Lord, I believe, I accept, I trust.”

And he said, “Lord, I believe.  And he worshipped him.”^[7]

************Sermon Text*****

Send mail to srpc@presbyteriancv.org  with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2004 Spring River Presbyterian Church
Last modified: 08/25/05