Sermon Central
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Faith In Action
Contributed by Austin Mansfield on Sep 18, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: We all have it. Some more than others. Some people want more of it, while others try to deny having any of it at all. We rely on it to get us through each day, and it’s our key to eternal life.
Other Scripture used:
Hebrews 11:1-3(4-7)8-16
Psalm 33 or 33:12-15, 18-22
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)
We all have it. Some more than others. Some people want more of it, while others try to deny having any of it at all. We rely on it to get us through each day, and it’s our key to eternal life.
Faith.
We have faith in our grain manufacturers, that our morning cereal is really made from the grain they claim to use, whether it’s wheat, rice, corn, or bran.
We have faith that our car batteries will provide electricity to our starters to ignite our engines so we can drive where we need to go.
We have faith that our world really exists and is not just an illusion. We have faith in knowledge and in science.
Even atheists have faith. They just don’t like using the word.
And some of us have faith in God.
There’s a book by Norman Geisler, Frank Turek, and David Limbaugh called I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. In order to believe sincerely, or in other words “have faith in the idea,” that God does not exist, we need to suspend belief in so many things that make sense to us. Our modern university system adds to the problem by stipulating that all beliefs are true and equal. The authors remind us that the term “university” is a composite formed by the words “unity” and “diversity.”
Students at a university are supposed to be guided in their “quest to find unity in diversity — namely, how all the diverse fields of knowledge (the arts, philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics, etc.) fit together to provide a unified picture of life. … Instead of universities, we now have pluraversities, institutions that deem every viewpoint, no matter how ridiculous, just as valid as any other — that is, except the viewpoint that just one religion or worldview could be true.” (Page 19)
I remember a few years ago, when I was stationed at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, some of the students had designed and created a satellite that was launched during one of the space shuttle missions. I wrote an article about it, and while interviewing the professor in charge of the aerospace department I learned that all orbits decay eventually.
The satellite they created would circle the earth for about four or five years, and then fall toward earth, burning up as the earth’s gravity pulled it into our atmosphere.
If every orbits decays, that means our own orbit around the sun will eventually decay also. Scientists are watching that carefully though, and we don’t seem to be slowing down just yet.
But I began to think about another orbit. Electrons. Everything in the universe is made of atoms. An atom is like a miniature solar system. The core, or nucleus, is made of neutrons, which have no electrical charge, and protons, which have a positive charge. A number of electrons with a negative charge, matching the number of protons, orbit around the nucleus at the speed of light.
An atom should implode. Logically, the gravitational pull of an atom’s nucleus should cause the electron orbit to decay, destroying the atom. Yet all the atoms throughout the universe are still spinning freely, in direct violation of the law of orbital decay.
It’s much easier for me to believe in a creator who can control these kinds of things, than in some random chance of evolution holding all these atoms together by sheer luck. I just don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.
But I do have enough faith to trust God and take him at his word. Throughout the Old Testament, God told his prophets that he would redeem the faithful by sending a savior, a Messiah. The probability of more than 400 prophecies concerning the Messiah coming true in one person before A.D. 70 is astounding. Since one of the prophesies claims the Messiah will preach at the Temple, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem puts a time limit of A.D. 70 on the arrival of the Messiah.
That Messiah is Jesus. He suffered, died, and rose from the dead, atoning for our sins, paying our penalty so we wouldn’t have to pay it ourselves. But that’s just part of it. That saves us from punishment, but doesn’t bring us into paradise.
We focus on his 3 days of death, but it was his 33 years of righteous life that saves us. His righteousness is imputed to us, and we are declared righteous before the Father and welcomed into his heaven. Our faith in Jesus is two-fold, from eternal death, and for eternal life.
