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October 28, 2007 Sermon: “Faith, Faith and more Faith” We have been journeying through a series on faith this month…explaining faith, exploring faith, examining faith, and this week jumping in head first immersing ourselves in faith.
Each week, we have met some frogs sitting on a lily pad. This week there are six frogs sitting on a lily pad. One has decided to jump off. How many were left? I am going to move on as you think about that.
Mary Ann and I heard a wonderful Christian comic a few weeks back and he was explaining some differences in people: some of us understand – “get it” - and some “just don’t get it.” His illustration was Oprah’s 50th birthday broadcast. She had had her hair done differently for the show and wanted the viewers to call in and give their opinion on her hair – “like it this new way” or “like it the old way.” It just seems to me that there are one or two more important issues to be concerned about than hair; that because of some whim or fad or “the wind” will change in a moment anyway.
In our talking about “faith” we have found that it isn’t always the easiest to comprehend or accept or maintain or profess, but I would like to think that all of you have that innate ability that God offered all of us and that is to be able to say: “I get it…”
So far we have “gotten” that Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true.[1] Its primary idea is trust and since it is true, it is therefore worthy of trust. Faith means acknowledging that God can tell us truths beyond our human power of reasoning. Faith means accepting truth on God's authority. Faith is the irreducible request Christ makes of us and as He puts it, “Whoever acknowledges Me before man, I will acknowledge before My Father in heaven.”[2]
Our Christian faith is centered in a Person we know as Jesus Christ, who is Truth Itself, who is the Word of God made flesh and we also know that there is no escape from the reality that the riddle of life cannot be solved from within ourselves.
If the Good News is to enrich our everyday lives as Jesus intended, nothing less than the “great leap of faith” is required and in our journey through life, inevitably, we will all face a crossroad, one path leading to hopelessness and despair, the other leading to New Life in Christ. “Choose wisely,” faith tells us. “Choose the Way of the Lord!”
Over 110,000 people called in, on a 900 number, to Oprah’s staff with an opinion about her hair. One has to wonder which path they chose, where they placed their trust and how well founded their faith was, for it cost $2.99 per call for the privilege to give their opinion about a person’s hair. You do the math! Even better, 11% of the people that called in said, “they had no opinion.” While we question giving to the church, giving to missions and spending our time striving for faith, over 12,000 callers paid $2.99 to say they had “no opinion” and that raises the question, “Do they get it?”
Augustine, long before telephones and TV told us: “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou may believe, but believe that thou may understand.” Which when simply stated comes down to this:
Doubt sees the obstacles, Faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the blackest night, Faith sees the day. Doubt dreads to take a step, Faith soars on high.
Doubt questions, “Who believes?” Faith answers “I!”
Jesus has said, “Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road...be on your guard against false prophets.”[3] Only faith can take us down the rough road and through the narrow gate that leads to life. By faith in the Lord Jesus we know that a Loving God is calling us to fulfillment in His Life of Love. By faith in the Lord Jesus we accept the promise of a Loving God that He will never abandon us. By faith in the Lord Jesus we kneel in obedience to a Loving God who is constantly working to transform us into the beautiful, unique, loving persons He created us to be. By faith in the Lord Jesus we dare to hope that He will work this miracle in our lives.
An elderly lady was well known for her faith and
for her boldness in talking about it. She would stand on her front porch and
shout "PRAISE THE LORD!"
The next morning the lady went out on her porch, saw a large bag of groceries, and shouted, "PRAISE THE LORD." The neighbor jumped from behind a bush and said, "Aha! I told you there was no Lord. I bought those groceries, God didn't." The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands said, "PRAISE THE LORD. He not only sent me groceries, but He made the devil pay for them. Praise the Lord!"
That is the way it is for so many of us. We find ourselves at the end of a road, so to speak, and can go no further. We can go no further until we discover a lively faith in the Gracious God who is always with us, side by side. We find ourselves at a dead-end until we surrender our worldly knowledge and rise to the call of the gracious God who is always ready to lift us up and carry us across the chasm of doubt, and even despair.
Author Brian Cavanaugh remembers a comforting moment in the life of the great Babe Ruth. The “Babe,” as he was called, hit 714 home runs during his baseball career. Unfortunately perhaps, he continued to play long after his ability had waned, both at bat and in the field. During one of his last games as a professional, the aging Babe fumbled the ball several times. In one inning alone, his errors were responsible for most of the five runs scored by the opposing team
As the Babe walked off the field and headed toward the dugout after the third out, a crescendo of disdainful yelling and booing reached his ears. It was a humiliating moment for that great athlete who had been the number one idol of baseball fans for so many years. Just then, a boy jumped over the railing onto the playing field. With tears streaming down his face, he knelt before his hero and threw his arms around his legs. Ruth did not hesitate for a second. He took the boys hand and lifted him up. Then he hugged him and then set him down on his feet, patting him gently on the head. The noise from the stands came to an abrupt end. Suddenly there was no more booing. In fact a hush fell over the entire ballpark. The Babe and the boy had melted the hearts of the crowd.
The boy and the Babe demonstrated their faith in each other as human beings -- comforting each other. And, it is safe to say, that for most of that fickle crowd, the fondest, most important, most comforting memory of the Babe that day was the moment of Grace in right field when the outcome of the game didn't seem to matter anymore.
“By Grace we are saved, through faith.” In the New Testament, when you pick up the word “faith” and mull it around, it also reads “obedience.” The Apostle Paul uses the phrase, “obedience of faith.” If we really want to trust in God, if we really want to surrender to God, if we really want to accept the saving Grace of God, the way to do it, and show it, is through obedience to God. Deuteronomy 11:13 is one place you’ll find this: “3 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—[to] love the Lord your God and [to] serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…[4]” And in Hebrews we can read, “It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.”[5]
C.S. Lewis shares this with us: “Believing things 'on authority' only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there is such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary person believes in the solar system, atoms, and the circulation of the blood on authority--because the scientists say so. Every historical statement is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Nevertheless, we believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them, in fact, on authority. If we were to balk at authority in these things, as some people do in religion, we would have to be content to know nothing all in this life.”
The Good News of the Gospel is that when we respond to God's Grace through faith, we become more complete, more whole persons. And, at the depths of our being, this is what we hunger for more than anything else. To make the most of this human life of ours by being the person God created us to be is what we long for deep within ourselves. We are “God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life, as from the beginning He has meant for us to live it.”[6]
David, a 2-year old with leukemia, was taken by his mother, Deborah, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman's prognosis was devastating: "He has a 50-50 chance." The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain--the mother's ordeal can be almost as bad as the child's because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap--a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. "If it hurts, remember it's because he loves you," Deborah said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, "Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting."[7] Faith is the ability to look past adverse circumstances and see God’s hand at work.[8]
Faith came singing into my room, and other guests took flight: Fear and Anxiety, Grief and Gloom sped out into the night. I wondered that such peace could be, but Faith said gently, “Don’t you see? They really cannot live with me.”
There are two types of people in the world: those that get it and those that do not get it. I think you get it! I think you understand that it is not enough to make a decision. Let us see. Six frogs sat on a lily pad. One decided to jump off. How many were left? Six. He only decided to jump off, but never took the leap.
You have 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 then they said, “Lord, we do believe. And they worshipped him.”[9] [1] Philippians 1:27; 2 Thessalonians 2:13 [2] Matthew10: 32 [3] Matthew 7:13-15 [4]The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids [5] Hebrews 11:6 Peterson, E. H. 2003. The Message : The Bible in contemporary language . NavPress: Colorado Springs, Colo. [6] Ephesians 2:10 [7] Monica Dickens, Miracles of Courage, 1985. [8] Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004, 148 [9]John 9:38 |
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