Old Testament Christianity: Faith

Old Testament Christianity: Faith part one: foundational and practical Several weeks ago while we were neck deep in Crazy Love, Francis Chan challenged us to look to what we believe and really look and see if it lines up with scripture, not just take it at the face value of the person speaking. Because we get taught a lot of things when we were young and we believe them, and we build our lives on them, and we make decisions on them, and sometimes they are wrong. At the same time he was talking about conversion and accepting Jesus. And challenging us to look at the bible, look at the believers of the church in Acts and see if what their Christian life was like looked anything like what we generally accept the Christian life to look like today. So I thought to myself "Fine. I'll do that." So I began to think and study and look at the actions and motives of the believers, both in the new testament and the old testament, and I came up with three things that defined the Christian life, and they all started with the same letter. Which if you're any sort of teacher you should know that three alliterated points is golden. Its pretty much awesome. These three things were Fear (or reverence), Faith, and Following (or obedience) Tonight I want to dig into faith. Will someone define for me what faith means? Does anyone have a verse to get us started? Hebrews 11:1-2 NKJV - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. NIV - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. Awesome. Now really, what does that mean? Its the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, but what does that mean for me right now, and tomorrow when I go to work and you guys go to school Faith is defined by dictionary.com as "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something." Faith is acting like something is going to happen. Faith is expecting something to happen. Water balloon example? Its funny were we place our trust. We place it in weather reports, in turn signals, in status updates. Hebrews 11:13 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What does this mean? Who were these? Well we're still in Hebrews 11 so these are the elders, or those who had come before them. What were the promises? The promises have always been the same. God has always promised to save His people, to never leave them nor forsake them (Dueteronomy 31:6) "I see the salvation of God coming, I believe its coming, I'm going to live like its going to happen." There are two phrases that come up if you talk to me for any length of time. They are my mantras, or mottos, for this time in my life. This is one of them: "If we believe this to be true it must change how we act." James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. If we believe that God loves us, it must change how we act. If we believe their is a hell, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to provide for our every need, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to protect us, it must change how we act. Ect ect ect Now really quickly I would like to hit three things I (possibly stop here) You know, I was looking up quotes about faith last night and I could easily pick out the believers from the non-believers. For those without faith in God the idea of faith was so abstract, while for the Christians it was very important that you understood that it was a way of life. Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. Rabindranath Tagore - humanist poet Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation D. Elton Trueblood - Quaker chaplain “[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” Part Two: Faith and the Supernatural Introduction and recap: George Mueller: From Wikipedia: The work of Müller and his wife with orphans began in 1836 with the preparation of their own home at 6 Wilson Street, Bristol for the accommodation of thirty girls. Soon after, three more houses in Wilson Street were furnished, growing the total of children cared for to 130. In 1845, as growth continued, Müller decided that a separate building designed to house 300 children was necessary, and in 1849, at Ashley Down, Bristol, that home opened. The architect commissioned to draw up the plans asked if he might do so gratuitously.[16] By 26 May 1870, 1,722 children were being accommodated in five homes, although there was room for 2,050 (No 1 House - 300, No 2 House - 400, Nos 3, 4 and 5 - 450 each). By the following year, there were 280 orphans in No 1 House, 356 in No 2, 450 in Nos 3 and 4, and 309 in No 5 House.[17] Through all this, Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well-documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table, even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage.[18] In 1875, at the age of 70 and after the death of his first wife in 1870 and his marriage to Susannah Grace Sanger in 1871, Müller and Susannah began a 17 year period of missionary Comments on George Mueller: Transition into tonight's material: 1. God meets us at the level of our faith. Mark 5:22-24 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24So Jesus went with him. Matthew 8:5-13 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Mark 5:27-29 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. This is a beautiful and wonderful thing, and I really should tell this story backwards because I think it would highlight the important thing. All of these people came in faith, but was there some fundamental difference in the end conclusion? No, all the people they came to ask Jesus to heal were healed. It is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that Christianity is some sort of video game where we're trying to level ourselves up and unlock achievements. I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was hearing all about this other youth group and phrases were being thrown around like "The Holy Spirit descended" and someone was healed of something and all this great stuff and was going on and I was jealous. I was so jealous. Because I want more than anything that this would be a place were you guys come and meet with God in some way or another. So I was all like: God, why can't all that be happening at my youth group? And He's all: First of all David, its not your youth group. Second, are you really going to try and measure what I'm doing by what you think you can see me doing? Fuel conference and speaking in tongues. 2. Faith is built on what God has told us. Joni Erickson Tada - “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.” There is also the very real world of prophecy. Things that God has spoken into our lives through various means to encourage us and give us hope that He is doing this specific thing in our lives. Prophecy is amazing, and confusing, and much of the time you really don't want to believe it. But its God talking to us and telling us things. So if someone prophecies over you, write it down. You will want to remember that. Now for the most part I'm guessing that most of you do not have a little journal of God's prophecies over you, but you do have a substantial book of God's promises. Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Flip open your bible. You can't read for longer than a couple pages without finding a promise from God. You can't get through a chapter without seeing God working or moving through the lives of those being talked about. God will... I will... You will... These are things that God has told us, these are promises of His. Realize that these are spoken to you just as much as the tribes of Israel or the early churches. Personalize them, because I think to often and too easily we slip into this belief that yes "God loves us, or God protects us" but thats true as a whole. He loves us all, and we rarely spend any time considering the weight of reality that God loves Jessica or that God protects Jaime or any of these things. It says in Galations Galations 3:14 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. 3. Faith creates an environment for the supernatural to take place. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.Saint Augustine - Catholic saint But the alternate is also true. Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith I think I did a double take the first time I read this passage, because its honestly one of the most sobering verses I've read in recent memory. I don't even want to comment on it other than to say "This should sober you." Not worry you, but goad you into action and really buckling down to look at what you believe. Romans 3:3