Authentic Faith

is believing and trusting in God even if you can’t see, touch, or understand what God is doing. Let’s look at what we as Christians are called to do.

2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Now let’s turn over to:

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Authentic Faith - Believing and trusting in God even if you can’t see, touch, or understand what God is doing.

-This is the faith we as Christians should long to have, right? And yet, things and people come up in our lives and can create doubts or shatter our faith in Christ.

What are some things that shatter our faith, or cause us to doubt the truth of the Bible?

Convincing arguments, Friends we would rather have instead of believing in the Bible, Some of the things in the Bible seem unbelievable (like miracles that were performed etc.).

I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS 2 FACTORS THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SHATTERING FAITH IN YOUNG PEOPLE!

POOR CHOICES

When you as a christian go about your day and you commit some type of sin....ethically, relationally, morally....You do something wrong you feel the guilt of your wrong doing.

How many of you would say YEAH I have definitely felt the guilt of my sin?

And when faced with that guilt you have a choice to make. You can either choose to ask for forgiveness and change your behavior, or you can change what you believe. and more times than not we choose to change what we believe because its a lot easier than changing how we believe. Think about it......Your facing guilt from a sin you just committed and you know it was wrong, but you would rather justify why it wasn’t wrong and try to down play that sin so you can lessen or remove the guilt you have, until eventually you get calloused over and don’t feel that guilt anymore. This is exactly what happened to the Pharoah in Exodus when the heart of the Pharaoh is hardened.

POOR CHOICES is one of the biggest factors that shatter faith in God for young people. When convicted with your sin and guilt seek forgiveness and push to change your behavior.

(Little disclaimer here: When pushing to change your behavior we can get discouraged and give up if we don’t see the change we expect to see. Kind of like when you want to lose weight or carry out some type of new years resolution we typically give up because we can’t see the progress. There are steps you can take to succeed. Like finding someone to hold you accountable, continue to replace the negative with the positive. Getting into the Bible and asking God for his continued work in your life…That he would transform you into being more like his son Jesus.)

2 Factor that shatters the faith in young people is - UNEXPLAINABLE TRAGEDY!

We as Christians struggle with God, when we have or see circumstances that appear to be outside of God’s character.

For example: “How could a good God allow this horrible thing to happen? Why didn’t he stop it?”

Many teenagers have abandoned God altogether because they can NOT understand why a good God would allow bad things to happen.

Both of these factors. POOR CHOICES, and UNEXPLAINABLE TRAGEDY can be summarized in this way.

What’s happening now,

What I’m feeling right now,

determines what I believe for now.

If your faith is always grounded in what you can see and experience, your faith will always be fragile. Your faith will always be determined by circumstances. Your faith in God is dependent on the ability or inability to interpret the events and circumstances around you.

* Here is an example: Let’s say Everette prays “God please help me pass my Test tomorrow! God I really need your help!” But the next day he takes the test and he finds out that he failed. Then Everett interprets that to mean that God doesn’t answer prayer. Or perhaps he believe that he failed because God is mad at him for something. He comes to the conclusion that God can’t be trusted and walks away from the faith. We really like to focus on negative situations and say “God can’t exist or be a good God if something horrible, painful, or evil exists.”

Let’s look at a story that proves that concept wrong. Let’s look at Genesis 37.

Let’s look at a 17 year old young man named Joseph. Genesis 37:3 Joseph is probably pretty optimistic about life at this point. His father loves him more than any of his other children. Genesis 37:3-4

Genesis 37:3–4 ESV

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

Right now we have Joseph who appears to be a good person he hasn’t done anything wrong. His father loves him and because his father loves him, Joseph’s brothers hate him.

Let’s jump to Genesis 37:17-28 Joseph is told by his father Jacob, to go and find his brothers and make sure things are going ok with the flocks.

Genesis 37:17–28 (ESV)

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They saw him from afar, and before Joseph came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.

Think about Joseph for a minute. What would be going through his mind? If you were in his position what would be going through your mind?

If God is good why would he allow me to be thrown into a pit and sold for 20 Shekels of silver. And it doesn’t stop there. He is later sold to one of the Pharaoh’s officials. And though Joseph continues to keep his faith in God and he is blessed by God.

Genesis 39:3–4 ESV

His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.

-So again here we see Joseph doing Good in the sight of God and he is being blessed and yet another bad thing happens to him. He is accused of pursuing his master’s wife and is thrown into jail.

-Again why does a good God allow these bad things to happen? Because at the end of the story you find that God orchestrated everything together into this huge success story. Joseph went through all these struggles and trials, but he ends up saving his family because of how God uses Joseph and his faith!

APPLICATION

Unlike Joseph that continued to display his faith in God, I, we desire a “faith” that puts us in control. We have a faith that says, if I can just say the magic prayer, or do the right thing that will force God to do what I want. But biblical faith puts God firmly in control of our lives. Authentic faith leaves God with the option to say no. Its a “Not my will, but your will be done God”. As long as you are trying to get something from God, you will have a difficult time surrendering your life to God.

You guys! You will see and experience some hard and horrible things in this life. You will also have to make some hard choices. Will you change what you believe in order to behave however you want, or will you change your behavior to match your belief. Don’t let what you see or experience define God’s character! But instead dig into your Bible and let the truths of God’s word define his character and change your heart. Keep your faith based on the identity of Christ. If Christ really is WHO HE SAYS HE IS! then when bad things happen you won’t need to worry about them. You will know that God has a plan that is for your good and his Glory! God is good no matter what you see or experience.

Faith in action is “IF GOD SAYS IT. I WILL BELIEVE IT. AND I WILL DO IT!”