Defining Faith

What is faith?

One of my favorite movies of all time is the book of Eli for a lot of reasons, and there's a conversation in that movie that I think starts to to get out what we're going to talk about today. So the main character of the movie is Eli and he's been carrying a book across the country He doesn't know where he's going, but he's he's certain that he's going in the right direction. In the movie he's picked up a companion named Solara and she asks “have you ever thought that maybe you were lost?” Eli responds, “nope.” Solara says “well how do you know that you're walking in the right direction?” Eli says, “I walk by faith, not by sight.” Solara, starting to get frustrated, says “what does that mean?” And Eli says “it means you know something even if you don't know something.” She responds it doesn't make any sense and Eli says, “it doesn't have to make sense, it's faith, it's faith, it's a flower of light in the field darkness that's giving me the strength to carry on. You understand?” She asks him if that's from book and he says “no, it's Johnny Cash live at Folsom prison.”

That's what we’re going to talk about today because we just read this story where this man's child is is possessed, is suffering, and he can't do anything about it. So he goes to Jesus and he asks for Jesus help, and Jesus says that his help is contingent on the man's faith. So the man responds, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”

Now that's kind of a weird prayer, to say you believe and you believe enough to pray the prayer, but you need help with your unbelief. That's just kind of the beginning of how difficult a concept faith is, because we don't really understand it and in a lot of ways, when you consider it with the wisdom of the world, it sounds wrong. Faith is not conditional, it's not something you need proof for, it's not something you need evidence for, it's something you know even though you don't know - it's faith. I can't resolve a lot of that but we can talk about what are some parts of faith and at least try to answer the question “what is faith?”

Knowledge

There are three elements to faith. The first I want to talk about is knowledge. If you're going to have faith, you probably ought to know something, because it's going to keep something bad from happening.

Knowledge supports faith, and the example I have for you is this - and you guys you're all sworn to secrecy because I'm going to reveal some some southern secrets right here - but in Atlanta there is a magical place called the World of Coke. At the World of Coke you can see a bottling facility for Coca-Cola, you can see a museum of of the history of the drink and the company, they have a wonderful animated video where magic is involved with making Coca-Cola, and I think the most exciting part of the World of Coke is the tasting room. They have different versions of coke and different coke products from all over the world and you can go around until your heart’s content trying each and everyone - or trying them all at once. Now there's a particular drink in this tasting room call Beverly, I believe it's a it's an Italian or maybe a French soda, and if you believe this is a wonderful magical room filled with nothing but delightful beverages and you didn't know how vile and disgusting Beverly is - well, when your friendly Southern buddy says “oh you gotta try Beverly, it's the best!” Well, you might make a mistake there and drink Beverly - which to this day might be the most vile thing I have ever drank.

The point here being knowledge can keep you from doing things that are not good to do. The same applies when we're talking about faith in God. Our knowledge about God helps us not do things we shouldn't do, knowledge about good theology keeps us from making mistakes and doing things that end up being contrary to the faith. Knowledge keeps you from seeing things that would challenge your faith and and your faith folding. Knowledge is a powerful and important part of faith, and it's something that we can impact on some level. We can strive for more knowledge, we can work to learn about our faith.

That’s my first challenge to you guys this morning is to work to grow in your knowledge. Whether that's through a Bible study or a community group, whether that's through personal devotions, reading the written devotions that are on our website, watching our video devotions that are that are released. Edgewater has all these resources available, and if you want to learn more serious stuff, if you wanna know what are some good theology books to read - I would be happy to talk with you about what important theology books I think would be worth your time.

Trust

The next part of faith we’re going to talk about is trust.

An example I want to suggest is this. If I see a chair and I know that that chair can hold me, but I don't trust it, I don't trust that knowledge, I don't trust that chair - I'm not gonna sit down in it

Trust is something we struggle with a lot as a society. We are all very skeptical. When someone says something, a lot of times the response is not to trust them at their word. The response is to fact check, to need verification, especially if it’s something you can do on your own.

But I want you to think about someone that you do trust, someone that if they tell you something you trust that it is true, you feel no need to verify, you feel no need to fact check, you feel no need to go out and get a second opinion. I want you to hold that person in your mind, a person that you trust completely. I want you to think about what got them there. I suspect for a lot of the people you're thinking about you've spent a lot of time with them. I suspect for a lot of the people you're thinking about they've proven themselves trustworthy.

The first person that comes to mind for me is Chris. We've been married for three years, I've known her for a year and a half or two years before that and we spent a lot of time together. That's what happens when you're married right, so I spent a lot of time with her, but also she has proven over and over again that she is trustworthy. So when she tells me things I don't question it. Never once has Chris told me that she was going to the store or something and I thought “is she going somewhere else?” Never once has she told me that's something got done and I thought I don't think it got done. When she gives me information, I don't feel the need to fact check, to verify, to get a second opinion. I suspect that whoever that person is for you shares those same characteristics - you spent a lot of time together and they've proven themselves again and again and again. Now remember this is all going back to our faith and this is the second part of faith.

This I think is another part that we can work on. We can do things that are going to help us trust God more. When you think about those two things that that trustworthy person had in common. First it was that you spent a lot of time with them. How do we spend time with God? We read his word and we pray. If you need help setting up a reading plan to get into God's word on a daily basis, I am happy to take time to help you. The second thing is that they've proven themselves trustworthy again and again and again, and that's why it's so important to get into the entirety of God’s Word - not just your favorite stories, not just a verse here or there, but to read how God makes promises and time and time and time again He follows through. He has proven himself to be trustworthy.

Belief

Now that's the second part of faith and I want to go back to the chair analogy. If there is a chair, I know that it is capable of holding me, I trust that it can hold me, but the third part of faith is the toughest to nail down. It is belief and these are the words we hear in our reading today, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

This is the hardest part of faith, it’s belief. If you think about it have you ever tried to convince someone to believe you who didn't believe you? It's very difficult because without proof, how are you going to make someone believe you. Belief in God so much more so, but our understanding is that belief is not something we do. You can work on your knowledge of God, you can work on your trust in God, but belief is a gift from the Holy Spirit. You don’t strengthen your belief, what strengthens belief is the Holy Spirit.

You know what you can do to help it? Nothing.

You know what you can do to encourage it? Nothing.

The Holy Spirit works when and how he wants to to create and strengthen faith in our hearts, so the only thing we can do is pray this same prayer. “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” and what's really interesting is after this interaction that Jesus has, in the next story we see He extols the faith of a little child. I mean if you think about it kids they believe in their parents, they believe in a lot of things without questioning, without thinking about it - they just believe it to be true and that's the kind of faith we're called to. It's that belief that is a gift, that belief that that completes our faith, that belief in what Jesus has done for us that promised us forgiveness of sins.

You see, we believe that Jesus lived. We believe that He was born, that He lived a perfect life. We believe that He died a death he did not deserve. We believe that in that death he suffered the punishment for each and every one of us. We believe all of these things as a gift from the Spirit and what's more, we believe that He was raised raised from the dead. We believe that He is coming again and we believe that we will have eternal life in paradise with Him. The most incredible part of that belief is that you have nothing to do with it! You can't mess it up! You don't have to decide to follow Christ! You never have to ask “did I really accept him?” You never have to ask “did I commit hard enough?” You never have to ask “is my faith strong enough?” Because it's not you that it rests on, it's our heavenly Father's power, it's the work of Christ, and it's the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You see, if I know this chair can hold me up and I trust this chair can hold me up and I believe this chair can hold me up, well I'm going to sit down and enjoy the gift of rest. We know that Jesus is Lord, we trust that God raised Him from the dead, and we believe that we have eternal life because of it. Amen.

And because I did quote the book of Eli at the beginning of this sermon, I want to pray a prayer from that movie, a prayer for all of our faiths to end this sermon please pray with me.

Dear Lord thank you for giving us the strength and the conviction to complete the tasks you entrust to us. Thank you for guiding us straight and true through the many obstacles in our path. Please keep us resolute when all around seems lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that we may do, we’re so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friends we have made, please watch over them as you watched over us. Thank you for allowing us to rest, we’re so very tired, but we go now to my rest at peace knowing that we have done right with my time on this earth, we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we kept the faith. Amen.