Breakthrough Faith
Notes
Transcript
Breakthrough: Faith
Breakthrough: Faith
Intro: My family finally broke down and watched Elf last week
The Santa Clause. The Grinch. Miracle on 34th. It’s a Wonderful Life. Home Alone.
Elf: Such a funny movie, but I need what I was speaking on this week - Faith -
At the end of Elf there is a sequence consisting of Santa’s sleigh crashing in NYC because the engine is sputtering. The engine wasn’t always necessary, because the sleigh is meant to run purely on christmas spirit fueled by belief in Santa.
There is this cultural acknowledgement of power in believing… In the business/self-help space, positive thinking has become a hot topic.
We want to know that believing can result in help for us or a better situation
Is that on the right track? Is it way off? What is faith? What do we mean when we talk about faith in general and what do we mean when we discuss faith as Christians?
There are multiple categories for how anyone one person might understand he concept of faith based on history and exposure to church
1. Are you a woman or man of the Faith? Nun, Priest
2. What faith are you? Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Catholic
3. Now it could mean: Are you a weird church person? What world religion or are you non-religious but spiritual
What is Christian Faith?
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 31.85 πιστεύω; πίστις, εως
to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance—‘to believe in, to have confidence in
This is a good definition. This is beyond belief in God. We are placing our complete trust in him. We are relying on him completely.
Our confidence is outside of ourselves and placed in Him.
I also like this straight forward definition in Hebrews of what it looks like a little more tangibly
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Doesn’t this perfectly describe the paradox of faith. Sure of our hope. Certainty without seeing
I hope this is true - faith says I hope this is true, but I’m completely trusting and relying on God that it is.. This is my hope… But I’m all in...
Then Hebrew writer gives an entry level belief about God.
The beginning of Christian faith is our acknowledgement and trust that the unseen God of the Bible created the universe
This is rejected daily. Why? It isn’t necessary logical or scientifically proven. There are logical and scientific arguments for God, but in the end, we must believe - trust and certainty in our hope
All of our interaction with God is undergirded by this faith that He is real and that He hears us. Jared, I have had powerful experiences. I’ve known the enemy to try to attack those and explain them away.
For the rest of our time, I’d like to discuss the different ways we practice our faith in God.
Faith for personal salvation and the restoration of all things in Jesus Christ
John 5:24
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
This is the ultimate expression of this hope that we have pushed all of our chips in .. We are all in on this…this has to be true.. We believe that we are in jesus and with Jesus forever and that the cross not only accomplished this redemption for us personally, but for all things.
The way we ultimately process evil and suffering in this world is comprehensive redemption
Our lens for 2020 is I will be with Jesus forever and He will redeem this
2. Walking (trusting) in obedient faith
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews writer teaching two things here.. One is that Abraham and Noah and others were placing their faith in the Gospel… Noah and Abraham had righteousness credited to them because they believed in the early outworking of the redemption story.
Abraham’s son (of promise) on the altar being spared helps us understand Jesus as our ultimate son of promise laying his life down..
The other lesson about faith here is without faith it is impossible to please God…
What does that mean? If we ca’t believe perfectly at all times, then God is greatly displeased with us?
We have to remove our current day understanding of please - very emotional. These verses are giving examples of people stepping out into things without the full story… This verse means, unless we are willing to step into the unknown, we cannot please God by our obedience. We can’t do what He wants us to do.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase” - MLK
This is stopping point for many people. The faith of Lordship. I trust Jesus to be my savior but I can’t submit to Him fully because of what he might ask of me. There is a surrendering in faith for Jesus to be Lord…
3. Faith cannot be separated from compassionate good works
James 2:14-18
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
This does not mean we are saved because of what we do.. James is challenging believers to stop posting on FB and Instagram about justice if they aren’t pursuing it in their daily life.
Spiritual talk is cheapened by a life that does not support it.
Do you believe in something? Awesome. Pursue it. Go after it. Give your life to it. Respond. Just know that your faith appears very anemic if you talk, but live incongruent to what you say you believe.
James says you see my faith in my works - If you want to know what I truly believe, watch my life
4. The Prayer of Faith
James 5:13-18
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
This is scripture. James believes this and uses a huge example to drive home his point. Elijah praying it would not rain. James was Jesus’ half brother. Same mom.
We did this and lost Jeremy. Do we question our faith? Maybe you have seen someone on tv or heard a message or someone told you directly that your faith was lacking....
First of all, I do not think that was the case with our brother Jeremy. We have people of great faith in this church who prayed with great faith..
If we aren’t careful, we can fall into despair and blame ourselves… It can all become about our faith… Which is backward because it puts us at the center of the miracle we are praying for instead of God… Francis MacNutt wrote this...
“My faith is in God, not in my faith” - Francis MacNutt
What about Jesus not doing many miracles in Nazareth because of lack of faith…? Nazareth was his hometown.. They weren’t struggling to believe Messiah could do a miracle, they were struggling to believe Jesus was Messiah..
What about disciples on boat? Same thing.. they weren’t sure who Jesus was yet…
So, when we pray with faith, we do so confident in God, not in our level of faith and we pray and believe with great expectation for God to answer.
MacNutt goes on to say,
“My faith is in God - in his faithfulness to His promises, in His wisdom, in His power and in His goodness...
… Because I believe in God’s goodness I try to see everything as reflecting His love. Whatever is ultimately the most loving thing will happen in response to my prayer for healing.” - Francis MacNutt
5. Can we ask God to increase our faith?
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Two examples here. First guy says help my unbelief! It’s ok to pray that...
But Jesus tells disciples they have little faith and then says have mustard seed faith… Mustard seed is tiny… But it’s loaded.. It’s loaded with becoming a tree, but it’s also loaded with becoming multiple trees.
Put the amount of faith you currently have in him or ask him to give you a mustard seed.. And plant it and water it in prayer and proclamation…