7/10/22- “The Christian Life, Means Faith.” 2 Cor. 5:7; Eph. 5:13
For we walk by faith, not by
sight. Until we all reach unity in the
faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to
the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
There was an article this weekend that came out in the Washington Post that pointed out that belief in God has been one of the strongest most reliable markers of being an American. This week it has dipped to its lowest point since the question was first asked in 1944- 81%. Now what do Americans agree about? One of the most common things was belief in God- it was for years between 96 and 99%. It started dropping in 2011- when 92% then 2017 87% and now 81%. In Europe only 26% say they believe in the God of the Bible while 36% say they believe in a higher power. What happened in 2011? I believe we began to codify immorality and the population went right along with it. We were not just neutral toward faith but a bit negative toward Christian faith's old morality- (adultery, sabbth breaking, truth telling- were looked down on). The article in the Washington Post said people quit attending, then quit affiliating, then quit believing. But there is one step prior to quitting attending- and that is many started going or living their own way apart from the Bible and God. Faith means saying, "Not my will, but yours be done." Not my way but yours.
The Bible says FAITH WITHOUT WORKS
IS DEAD. What that means is if you say
you have faith, but you are living solely by sight- a show me kind of life-
then your faith is dead. When you cannot
make the hard choice of living God’s way according to the scripture, and choose
to live however you choose, then your faith is dying. You can trace the fall of empires to this one
step. When Israel rebelled against God
and thought it was okay to worship the Baals with their temple prostitutes-
they were taken into exile. When Rome
said they believed, but then had a growing pagan morality- they fell- though
they had the best trained soldiers compared to the barbarians. When the Eastern Roman empire was all about
greed and power and they also lost their moral compass for the last few hundred
years of its existence falling in 1453- though they had the highest walls in
Europe. The people actually chose death
over unity with western Christendom. May I point out that many in Germany in
the 1930s said they were believers, but they had a vast disconnect between what
they were doing to other human beings in the concentration camps. It was moral outrage that fueled and
energized the defeat of the Axis powers.
It was moral and religious ferver that distinguished America from the
USSR and empowered eastern Europe to rebel and us to win the cold war in 1989. We can always live by our bellies and our
hormones and then we wonder why our faith is not stronger. Works is not just doing something positive
for God- it is also refusing to do bad.
We are saved by faith, but faith shows itself in works and morality. If we do not have the faith to get outside of
ourselves and do good and to try to please God with obedience and holiness,
then we will wonder why our faith is dead.
If you want to have faith- then believe that God can be pleased and
listen to Him by faith in the way that you live. Faith means going His way and not your own.
FAITH IS NOT SIGHT- The great
verse to memorize about faith is this- we walk by faith not by sight. You don’t have to see everything to believe. You have to trust. If you are a person who has been burned by
others, hurt by others, betrayed by others- and you think you cannot trust
anyone… Let me to invite you to follow the one who was burned, hurt and
betrayed! Jesus trusted in God- even on
the cross where He said Father forgive them for they do not know what they are
doing, and where he forgave the thief on the cross inviting him into paradise
with Him.
God has given us senses, but He never
intended us to simply rely on our senses.
Our senses can fail us- like optical illusions, or
misinterpretation. The old joke about
the guy who called out to his wife thinking she couldn’t hear him, then he
stepped closer- can you hear me now?
Then he stepped even closer and said “honey can you hear me?” Then the fourth time he came right next to
her and said, “Can you hear me now?” She
said, “For the fourth time- “Yes.” In
the book “Our Eyes are a Parable About Faith” Jon Bloom says, “God created our
eyes so that when we view an object, the image we see is initially upside-down. The image is carried along millions of optic
nerves to the brain. The brain receives a picture of the world flipped on its
head and figures out how to interpret them as right side up.” So we see the world sometimes as upside down
morally, but we are called to remember what it is really like by faith.
FAITH BRINGS UNITY- Our passage in Ephesians 4:13 says until we
all reach unity in the faith…becoming mature.
There is one faith, one Lord, one baptism. We may think faith divides- and we may think
we shouldn’t talk about it in family or with friends- but a family united in
faith has a strong bond. The way faith
matures is we may think that faith doesn’t matter at first. Then we may start to super distinguish
between faiths pointing out all the differences. But there is a unity in faith that we attain
if we believe. So on our mission trip to
South Sudan, we met people who spoke 12 different languages - but there was a
unity there across language barriers, cultural and national barriers. The ultimate maturity is when we get to
heaven. When we get to heaven according
to scripture- we don’t find those who rebel against God, nor do we find those
who refuse to believe. But we do find
people from every language, tribe, nation and culture there. For true believe transcend these artificial
barriers. There is a tie that binds our
hearts in Christian love. That tie Is
faith. You cannot live the Christian
life without faith. Faith shows itself
by its fruits- by their fruits you shall know them- that is faith without works
is dead. First, comes faith. Then love then hope. The church is not just a do good society. It is not a museum of nice people. It is a place where we believe. We invite you to believe with us- be part of
our fam of faith.
