What is Faith? (Acts 17)

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Who said this?

www.podiobooks.com/blog/2009/11/20/finn-again-the-later-adventure-of-huckleberry-finn/

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so”

Faith	Evidence

Faith	Science

Non-Materialism	Materialism
Reality is more than the material world around us	Only what is physical is real e.g. Love is just your brain chemicals

Will your church to be part of a multi-religion faith group?
Why is faith important?
“At the heart of Faiths Act is the belief that faith can be a Force 4 Good.
So it doesn’t really matter if what you believe is true, because faith itself is a “Force 4 Good”?

“I’m writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin because the Great Pumpkin comes every year and he gives toys to all the children.”

Charlie Brown: “When are you going to stop believing something that isn’t true?”
Linus: “But you believe in presents from the man in red with the white beard”
Charlie Brown: “It seems we are divided by denominational differences”

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!
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...
So the only really important questions are:

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Now that requires faith/trust
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
How do you grow in your trust of something?
- Simply by doing it more and finding it trustworthy
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.
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