Keep it Simple Week 1: Faith is a decision

Big Idea: Faith is a DECISION.

Primary Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:13; Hebrews 11:1-3, 6

Supporting Scripture: John 20:26-29; Matthew 7:8; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 3:20; Psalm 119:105

CAPTURE (Why should students pay attention to and care about your message?)

I want you to think of the first thing that pops into your head when you hear this phrase:

[show slide]

“The Big Three.”

[Teacher note: Give your students a few seconds to answer before continuing. Also, feel free to edit this list to include other categories that your students might connect with better.]

There’s the Big Three automobile manufacturers, specifically the Big Three American automobile manufacturers. Who are the Big Three? General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

When I hear the Big Three, I think of the sports world. LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. Or LeBron, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love. Or LeBron and… well, pretty much LeBron and any two other players.

History buffs might think of the three great Allied powers in World War II: the United States, Russia, and Great Britain.

Or if you watch a lot of TV, you might think of the Big Three TV networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS.

Or, with ice cream, you’ve got vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

So, the Big Three can be any three things in any field, but usually, when someone says “The Big Three,” they’re talking about the main, most known, and prominent three in that field.

The Bible has a few Big Threes, as well.

When it comes to God, you may have heard people refer to the Big Three of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In the creation story, we see the Sun, the moon, and the stars.

In Old Testament history, we see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For the kings of Israel, we have Saul, David, and Solomon.

Jesus even had a Big Three when it came to disciples. Now, to be sure, Jesus had hundreds of disciples. And of those hundreds, you have probably heard of the 12 disciples, but the Bible tells us that Jesus had three people who were more trusted and closer to Him than the others: Peter, James, and John.

Do you ever wonder why we tend to make Big Three lists instead of Big Fourteen lists? It’s because a list of three is easy to remember for most people. A list of fourteen? Not so much. Three works. It’s just enough but also not too many. I like the number three. It’s simple.

And if I’m being completely honest, I like it when things are simple… but I also have a tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be. Anyone else do that?

Even though we might all agree that life is easier when we keep it simple, many of us tend to overcomplicate things. We take simple things and make them more complicated than necessary.

SCRIPTURE (What does God’s Word say?)

As Christians, we can even overcomplicate our relationship with God, which makes it difficult when someone who is new to their faith is trying to follow along. That’s why, over the next three weeks, I want to focus on keeping our spiritual lives simple. And I want to keep it simple by focusing in on one specific verse. Sure, we’ll look at other passages throughout our series, but we’ll focus on this same primary verse each of the next three weeks:

[show slide]

*STAND IF YOU’RE ABLE*

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 – NLT)

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is telling us God’s Big Three: faith, hope, and love. Now, these aren’t the only characteristics of our spiritual lives that God cares about, and they’re definitely not the only attributes He expects His followers to have.

There are, however, three things that are so important that we’re told they will last forever. They have always been and will always be a part of God’s kingdom. If you want to participate fully in what God is doing in our world, you need to hold onto faith, dare to hope, and consistently love.

That sounds simple, right? I mean, it’s just three things. How complicated can it really be?

I wish it were as simple as it sounded or as easy as just remembering a list of three words… but anyone who has followed Jesus for a while can tell you, focusing on these three things consistently is a daily struggle. However, as difficult as it may be, I think we can do it.

But first, let’s start with understanding what this all means. What exactly is God asking us to do here? For today and each of the next two weeks, we’ll pick one and drill down on it to see if we can wrap our heads and hearts around what we are being called to do and who we are being called to be.

So, today, let’s talk about faith. We’ll define it and look at a few profound examples, but before we do, I need you to know one thing:

[show slide]

Faith is a decision.

It’s a choice each of us makes (or doesn’t make) for ourselves. I cannot choose for you to have faith. Even if your parents decided to raise you in the Christian faith by bringing you to church, praying together as a family, or even reading the Bible everyday, they still can’t make you have faith. At the end of the day, your faith is yours and no one else’s.

So, what is it? How does it work? To begin answering that question, I want to look at a passage found in the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews. If you have your own Bible, you might even notice that the 11th chapter of Hebrews usually is usually given a title. For example, if you’re using the New Living Translation, you might notice that it’s called “Great Examples of Faith.” Or if you have the New International Version, it’s called “Faith in Action.”

And if you’re willing to take a little bit of time this week to read the entire chapter, you’ll find that it’s filled with stories of people throughout the Bible that exhibited incredible faith. The recurring theme that you’ll notice in each of these stories is that faith isn’t a feeling, and it isn’t an accident. It’s a decision.

Actually, you may notice that that faith is a series of decisions built on one foundational choice. Let’s look at Hebrews 11 together, and you’ll see what I mean.

[show slide]

1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen … 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:1-3, 6 – NLT)

And like I said, the author of Hebrews goes on to describe the incredible faith of heroes like Noah, Abraham, and Rahab, but it also talks about the unnamed early Christ followers who died for their faith. The stories are fascinating but also incredibly challenging. These are the types stories that cause me to ask, “Do I have faith like that?”

INSIGHTS (What might this Scripture mean?)

But this question is almost impossible to answer if we don’t fully understand what we mean when we say faith is a decision. So, to help us, I want to dig in and see what truth we can pull from the passage that we just read.

The first truth I want to highlight is…

[show slide]

1. Faith is deciding to trust what’s unseen.

The author of the book of Hebrews calls faith “the evidence of things we cannot see.” There are things in the world we cannot see, but we are certain they exist, right? Take the wind, for example. We’ve all felt the wind in our faces before. And we’ve seen the effects of the wind. We’ve seen tree leaves rustle, clouds in the sky pass by, and we’ve watched videos of the damage that happens during a hurricane. But we’ve never actually seen the wind itself; we’ve only seen its effects. Yet, we believe wind exists even though we’ve never seen it. Faith in God is similar in many ways.

None of us have ever seen God. We’ve never seen Jesus. Maybe you’ve seen paintings of Jesus, or you’ve seen Jesus depicted in a movie, but none of us have ever actually seen Him. Faith is choosing to believe God exists even though we haven’t seen Him.

After Jesus rose from the dead, one of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas, still had doubts that the resurrection truly happened. Jesus appeared to the disciples, and we read this in John’s Gospel:

26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” (John 20:26-29 – NLT)

Now, I’m not saying having faith means you’re not allowed to think or that you’re just supposed to believe everything without any evidence. God has given us the ability to think critically, and we can let that critical thinking help guide us in our faith.

Did you know that even Jesus tells us that we should ask good questions when we don’t understand something?

[show slide]

8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:8 – NLT)

Having faith doesn’t require you to turn off your brain. Instead, when you don’t understand, ask questions and seek answers. And in my experience, when I’m genuinely trying to better understand God and what God wants for my life, the questions I ask and the answers I find both end up pointing me to a deeper faith.

The second truth I want you to see about faith is…

[show slide]

2. Faith is deciding to believe God will do the unexpected.

In Genesis, God warned Noah that He was going destroy the world with a massive flood. But as a result of his faith, Noah found favor with God, so God instructed him to build the massive ark (or boat) so that his family and many of the animals would survive.

Noah had never seen a boat like this before… because it hadn’t existed. Noah had certainly never seen a worldwide flood before… because one had never occurred.

Despite never having seen any of these things before, Noah said “yes” to God. He took God at His word. He believed that God would do this wild, massive, catastrophic thing. He believed that God would do what had never been done simply because God said He would. For Noah, that was enough. He built the boat. He gathered the animals. He instructed his family. And he watched God do exactly as He had said.

One more truth I’d like you to see is…

[show slide]

3. Faith is deciding to follow God into the unknown.

This might be the scariest choice we can make in faith. If you are detail-oriented or a planner, you probably don’t like going anywhere without knowing exactly what’s going to happen. And yet, God sometimes calls us to follow Him and to go without telling us where He’s leading us.

Thankfully, it’s not always like that… but sometimes it is. As you read the Bible, you’ll learn about people like Abraham, who God told to move his family and all of their belongings without telling him where. Or you might learn about Nehemiah, who God told to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, even though Nehemiah had no idea whether or not it was even possible.

Ultimately, faith in God may require you to step into the unknown. Thankfully, if that is the case, you can know that God has a perfect track record of never abandoning those who faithfully follow Him.

ACTION (How could we live this out?)

I know that faith can sometimes seem a bit abstract and mysterious, but there are also times when we make it unnecessarily complicated. Boiled down, faith in God starts with a life-altering decision, and then it’s followed by other faith-influenced decisions. But how can we embrace faith and live it out in our lives today?

If you want to live a life of faith, I have a few next steps that I think will help set you in the right direction.

The first may sound overly simple, but it really is the first step…

[show slide]

1. Choose faith.

The most important choice any of us can make is how we are going to respond to what God has done for each of us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Your faith is something that will grow throughout your life, but it starts with choosing to follow God with your life instead of choosing to go your own way.

In Romans, chapter ten, the Apostle Paul tells us that this is the first step toward redemption:

[show slide]

9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 – NLT)

If you have never fully given your life to God and chosen to follow Jesus first, maybe today is the day. Maybe right now is the beginning of that journey. If this is a step you’re ready to make or if you just need someone to help you find answers to your questions, I want to encourage you to find me or your small group leader before you leave.

Don’t worry. We’re not going to try to pressure you into any decision that you’re not ready to make, but we’d love to help you take this step if you’re ready.

And if you’ve already taken that step, something I want to encourage you to do is…

[show slide]

2. Choose to expect big things from God.

We’ve all heard (and probably even said) the phrase “lower your expectations.” Like when you’re really looking forward to seeing a new movie, but your friend has already seen it, and they don’t want to tell you it was terrible, they might say, “Maybe you should lower your expectations.”

But with God, it’s the opposite. I’m going to tell you that you should raise your expectations by choosing to believe God can do the impossible! Throughout the Bible and in my own life, I’ve seen God do things that I honestly thought could never happen.

*Show Picture*

Like my friend Chris Crass.

I hung with this dude in youth group and college, but neither of us were Christians.

We partied together, and got in all kinds of trouble together.

But God transformed my life 20 years ago and then he transformed Chris’s life just a few years ago… and Chris is back at his home church that we grew up going to- he’s serving there, spreading the Gospel and he’s on fire for God.

But that’s just how God works.

When we choose to expect big things from God, we choose to believe that He can do things that are greater than we can imagine. And the truth is that He can! Listen to how the Apostle Paul described the God we believe in:

[show slide]

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20 – NLT)

Have you ever not asked God to move in a certain way because you convinced yourself ahead of time that He would say no or that He just wouldn’t do it? I have been there.

But I want to challenge you to chose to expect God to do BIG things in your life.

One last thing we can do to live out faith in our lives is:

[show slide]

3. Choose to say “Yes” to God’s call.

I don’t know what God is calling you to do or where He’s leading you to go specifically, but I do know that God is calling you to follow Him. And following God means being obedient (and even eager) to follow where He’s leading.

This is why I love this event called Shine we’re going to next week.

It’s an opportunity for you to step outside of your comfort zone and develop the gifts that God has given you, and through this you can discover God’s calling for your life.

…but how do we know where God is leading us? I love this passage from the Psalms because it provides us with an excellent answer to this question:

[show slide]

105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105 – NLT)

If you want to follow God wherever He leads you, a first step to learning His ways is to read, study, and meditate on Scripture. And as you get to know God’s Word better, you’ll also get to know God better. And as you do that, you’ll start to get a clearer picture of what God might be calling you to.

And as soon as the path starts to become a little bit clearer, I want to challenge you to start taking steps in that direction. I know. It sounds risky. But with each step you take, you might find that God will reveal more of the path.

Deciding to live a life of faith in God is a profound choice that leads to other decisions of faith throughout our lives. No one can make those choices for you. Yes, we can (and will!) encourage you. We can point you in the right direction. But taking those steps is up to you.

I’m going to pray for all of us, that we will be people who take steps of faith and follow Jesus wherever He leads.

Let’s pray.

*Prayer*