A new home in a new city with new adventures and a new church which means new stories and new perspectives. We are working through a series called Core 52 by Mark E. Moore and we are going back to the basics. Just as coach Vince Lombardi started every season with “This is a football,” we began last week with “This is the gospel.” This week we continued with “This is faith.”
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 1:11
I appreciate the example Pastor Keith used to show how we all have faith as explained in this Hebrews passage. It’s a great example for when someone asks how we can have faith in someone we cannot see, hear, or touch in the material sense.
When we get sick, we go to a doctor we don’t personally know. He gives us a diagnosis and writes a prescription we can’t read. We take the prescription to a pharmacist we don’t know who gives us a pill to take of which we have no understanding of how or if it will work.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for: The doctor knew what he was doing, diagnosed us correctly, prescribed the correct medication, and it works as described. We have no evidence of this until we take the pill and see if it cures what was wrong with us.
That is faith! Now you might say the doctor and the pharmacist went to school and the pill was produced and tested by a company for safety and efficacy. True, but did the doctor and pharmacist graduate at the top of their class or did they barely eke by? And the company that produced the drug, have you checked their track record, read any studies showing how effective the medication is or do you make the assumption, on faith, that it will do what the doctor told you it would do? We’ve all seen the ads for the class action lawsuits and heard the long list of side effects that come with these drugs. Yet, by faith we trust, and we obey “doctor’s orders.”
We have trouble with faith in God because we don’t see results immediately. Sometimes, the results of our prayers and hard work may not even be seen in our lifetimes. This doesn’t mean our prayers go unanswered. It doesn’t mean God isn’t real. Just as you have faith your marriage will last a lifetime, the chemo therapy or treatment you or someone you love is receiving is going to work, or we will come up with a cure for new diseases, we need to have faith God is working for our good even when it doesn’t feel that way.
I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.
Philip Yancey
Think of the faith of Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Their livelihood was fishing. That is how they supported themselves and their families. Along comes Jesus who calls out to them to come follow him and he will make them fishers of men. They dropped everything and followed him. That is faith!
What have you and I given up for Christ? Whatever we have given up for Jesus, pales in comparison to what Christ gives us. Christ is the one who makes life worth living.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
Pastor Keith reminded us we aren’t residents; we are immigrants of this world (John 14:5-6, Heb 11:8-11). We aren’t servants, we are friends with Jesus (John 15:13-15, James 2:23). Faith is loyalty and our obedience are our declaration of allegiance to Jesus as his disciple. Pastor left us with this challenge:
At once, leave your ___fill in the blank________ and follow Him!
Christ gave up his life for you. What will you give up for Him?
Have a wonderful and blessed week!
– PSG –
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