Andrew Fountain - What is Faith?
- Artist: Andrew Fountain
- Title: What is Faith?
- Album: Newlife Church, Toronto
- Year: 2018-01-07
- Length: 34:19 minutes (13.78 MB)
- Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 56Kbps (VBR)
Link to Video:
What is Faith? Sermon notes - What is Faith?
- Can anyone give me a definition of faith?
My goal today is to answer the question:
- Does anyone know where this quote comes from?
- Anyone know where this is from?
- But you can’t live your life without any kind of beliefs
- Every time I drive a car or ride the subway I am trusting the mechanical systems
- Every time I go to the doctor or the bank I am putting faith somewhere
- So this is a cute saying, but not true in real life
- He persuades little Sally to wait most of the evening in the pumpkin patch with him
- when the Great Pumpkin never arrives, Sally is very angry because she has lot a whole evening’s candy from trick-or-treating.
- Does it matter that the Great Pumpkin doesn’t really exist?
- Well it mattered to little Sally!
- But according to this odd youtube video, Apparently not!
- It really doesn’t matter that you are believing something totally false
- As long as you believe something.
- If you believe it, then that’s what counts.
- But do people seriously believe that?
- This week I received an email message asking our church to be part of a multi-religion faith group
- (www.faithsact.org/about/faiths-act)
- So if I wrote to them and said “I believe in the great pumpkin, can I join your organization” they would probably say yes.
- what if I said that I believe that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is really a lizard
- And I truly believe it (some people do)
- What would they say? Do you think they would accept me?
- Here is another quote for you:
- Luke Skywalker’s X-wing was stuck in a swamp
- By believing strongly enough, Yoda was able to lift it out.
- Let’s think about whether this works out in real life?
- Would we try and apply this logic to medical beliefs?
- Some people believe that if you get a wound, you should keep it as clean as possible
- Others say you should rub cow-dung into it
- It doesn’t really matter as long as you really believe it!
- If you truly believe it, your Faith is a power that will heal you
- What are these?
- How were they used? (problems were due to too much blood pressure)
- George Washington had a sore throat and told his doctor.
- The doctors applied leeches and when he was no better, more leeches
- and more until he had lost 5 pints of blood
- you only have around 8 pints! Most historians...
- Was his problem that he didn’t believe in leeches?
- No, his problem was that he did!
- To sum up: there is a dangerous misunderstanding about faith in our culture today
- We’re sensible enough not to apply it to health or finances (but having said that...)
- We understand how stupid that would be
- But for the really important things, like our destiny, there is confusion!
- We’re sensible enough not to apply it to health or finances (but having said that...)
- Faith is this abstract power, and it doesn’t really matter if it is true
- If you believe that Mark Zuckerberg is really a lizard
- or the Great Pumpkin
- it’s not the thing you trust in, but the faith itself
- Unfortunately it’s simply not the way life works
- It really does matter who or what you trust
- Think of it with people: some people are trustworthy and some not...
What faith really means
- We’ve looked at:
- How the word “faith” is used in our culture
- Now:
- What faith really means
- So the only really important questions are:
- I’d like to substitue “trust” for “faith”
- Means the same without the “mystical” overtones
- e.g. I trust my doctor. I have faith in my doctor
- Jesus asked people to trust him in two ways:
- trust his teaching
- trust him as a person (which of course are very closely connected)
- Jesus came teaching that there is another life after this one
- In fact, we can begin this new life right away, even before we die
- He called this new kind of life, his kingdom
- But he didn’t just say this, he demonstrated the power of this new life
- For example, when his friend Lazarus died:
- Jesus claimed that he himself had the power to take people through death and out the other side
- He demonstrated that to Martha by raising someone from the dead who had been buried for four days
- But that’s ok if you were there!
- You may say “If I saw someone physically rise from the dead, then I would believe”
- Actually that’s not totally true: If we are determined not to believe something, then we will deny any evidence
- In fact, there is abounding evidence that Jesus was telling the truth
- One of the best evidences is the way he continues to “raise from the dead” people who are living lost lives
- He takes them from a dead life to a living one
- A while back I showed a video of David Berkowitz, the evil serial killer who terrorized New York city till he was caught
- He would leave phone calls for the police, taunting them about when he was going to kill next
- Yet Jesus Christ has transformed him into a wonderful person. Life from the dead
- You can go and visit him and see for yourself (you’ll have to go to the prison)
- He promises a new kind of existence
- So what does it take to have this life that Jesus offers?
- If you are looking for an easy quick fix, you’re out of luck, because what it takes is everything:
- Now that requires faith
- If I said I had a way of giving you more strength physically
- But it required you to die, and allow me to bring you back to life
- that would require faith
- So Jesus says, give me everything
- and I will give you back 10 times as much
- but you must be willing to surrender your whole life to me
- It’s not an abstract “I have to have faith in Jesus”
- But: following Jesus means I have to make changes in my life and I’ll do that because I trust him.
- No cost, no faith
- It’s the kind of faith that if Jesus turns out to be wrong, you’ve lost everything
- What he offers is not just this life, but life in the age to come
- How can I believe in that if I can’t see it?
- Jesus came back from the dead, and there were many witnesses—we can talk more about that sometime
- And there’s actually a lot of other evidence for an unseen world
- But you can actually begin to experience his new life now
- And as you do, you will grow in your trust for the age to come
- And this trust grows, like it would if you kept going to a good doctor
- The next step: talk to Jesus and make a commitment to stop trusting in anything else, including yourself, and trust in him.
- But trust is not an on-or-off switch
- There’s enough trust to become a follower of Jesus
- But trust grows in any relationship
- Growing as a Christian is growing in this trust
- How do you grow in your trust of something?
- Simply by doing it our more
- Do you believe that working out every day would make you feel better?
- I guess so
- But if you did it, then this belief would grow.
- My challenge to you is to work out the faith muscle in 2018
- What does that mean? —more of that to come, but to start with
- commit to some time with Jesus every day (just like the work out)
Updated on 2018-01-09 by Andrew Fountain
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