I’m glad that you are here, but my guess is that you are not all here for the same reasons. Some of you may be here to keep peace at home. Your spouse wants you here, so you’re here. Some of you might be here to try to find a spouse. And really, it’s not a bad place to look.
My hope is that most of you are here to grow in your faith. But I wonder if we really understand what that means. Do we know what faith is?
We know that it is impossible to please God without faith. We know that God hates it when we have a little bit of faith and then shrink back. That really upsets God. We talk about faith, but really what is faith?
Do you know there are six types of faith....
Six levels of Faith: (one level refers to non-Christians, five to Christians)
1.) Worthless Faith
1 Corinthians 15:17
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.
A worthless faith: A faith in some thing but the wrong thing.
Prophets of Baal 1 Kings 18.
From 8 to noon nothing happened, and than at 12:01 it was all over.
Faith is not unique to Christianity. God has woven it into the system. When you came into this room, you did not examine your chair before you sat in it. You committed by faith to that chair, trusting that it would hold you. Most of you got here by car. You slipped into the car, turned the key and away you go. You don’t have a clue about what is going on under the hood. You can’t explain the process, you just trust it. The last time you went to a doctor he wrote out a little prescription. You couldn’t read it (you wondered if anyone could). Then you took it to the pharmacist and gave it to him. He disappears behind a screen. Comes out and says take these three times a day. And by faith that is exactly what you do. Faith is woven into the system.
Worthless faith is when we put our trust in people or things that are not worthy of our trust. GK Chesterton said, "The problem with not believing in God is not that you don’t believe in anything. It’s that you believe in anything."
Americans believe almost anything, as long as its not in the Bible. It’s misplaced faith. Worthless faith. It doesn’t get you anywhere.
2.) Weak Faith
Romans 14:1
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.
Weak faith is superstitious faith. Roman Christians were eating vegetables because the meat had been offered to idols. They were worried about what God would think about that.
In Luke 15 we read the story of the prodigal son. When the son returned he is given a robe, a ring, and new sandals by his father. The older brother isn’t really happy about that.
Max Lucado in his book Come Thirsty writes...
Do you know what happened next?...The older brother resolves to rain on the forgiveness parade...(this is fictitious but it rings true) "Nice robe there, little brother," he tells him one day. "Better keep it clean. One spot and Dad will send you to the cleaners with it." The younger brother waves him away, but the next time he sees the father, he quickly checks his robe for stains.
A few days later big brother warns about the ring. "Quite a piece of jewelry Dad gave you. He prefers that you wear it on the thumb."
"The thumb. He didn’t tell me that."
"Some things we’re just supposed to know."
"But it won’t fit my thumb."
"What’s your goal -- pleasing our father or your own personal comfort?" the spirituality monitor gibes, walking away.
Big brother isn’t finished. With the pleasantness of a dyspeptic IRS auditor, he taunts, "If Dad sees you with loose laces, he’ll take the sandals back."
"He will not. They were a gift. He wouldn’t...would he?" The ex-prodigal then leans over to snug the strings. As he does, he spots a smudge on his robe. Trying to rub it off, he realizes the ring in on a finger, not his thumb. That’s when he hears his father’s voice, "Hello, Son."
Weak faith is worried faith. It’s not complete trust in God’s grace.
It’s faith laced with fear that somehow we have do the right things in order to keep the robe, ring and sandals. It’s more superstition than faith.
We are still to accept people with weak faith. But we don’t want that kind of faith.
3.) Dead Faith
James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Dead faith is a faith just lays there, it doesn’t go anywhere. In John 6, there was a large crowd, and Jesus asked Philip where they should buy bread to feed everyone...(he was testing him) Philip said to Christ, "eight months wages is not enough for such a large crowd to just have a bite" (There’s so many people, there’s no way.)
On one hand he’s following Christ. On the other hand it’s all talk. Talk but no action. Dead faith.
4.) Little Faith
Matthew 8:26
He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
It’s a real faith, just not much of it. "Oh you of little faith" was always spoken to a disciple. Andrew, "I’ve found 5 and 2, but what is that among so many."
This kind of faith pops up real quick and dies out real quick.
Hey we have a meal here, but then it dies out: this won’t work.
5.) Great Faith
Only used twice....
Matthew 8:10
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
The General: "Just say the word..."
In Matthew 15 a Canaanite woman who has a demon-possessed daughter is crying out to Christ (disciples want to send her away...but she breaks through security)
Matthew 15:25-28
The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
People of great faith are not usually welcomed in church. They are crazy enough to God at his word.
6.) Huge Faith
2 Thessalonians 1:3
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
Prefix of hyper (enlarged, huge)
Great faith: large, but measurable, like the sun
Growing faith: large beyond measure, like the universe.
Only used once: Thessalonians who were faithful in their service and loved God though facing persecution and affliction.
Vertically -- faith growing more and more
Horizontally -- love for everyone was increasing
This is what we want.
Have you ever asked yourself why it is that so many Christians have such a mild case of Christianity?
Chad Walsh
I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a person travels far enough away from Christianity, he or she is always in danger of seeing it in perspective and deciding that it is true. It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a person with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.
Do you have a mild case of Christianity? Do you need the disease? You may need a faith-lift. Let me suggest three steps you can take.
For a faith-lift:
1. Pray
Begin your day with prayer. End your day with prayer. Begin to communicate with God. Start asking, knocking, seeking.
2. Read
Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Start with some of the faith stories we shared in this message.
3. Risk
Accept a new challenge. Maybe it’s a ministry. Your faith muscles get bigger as they’re exercised.
So let me recap. Talk with God. Hear from God. Take steps for God.
[new referee uniforms...When it comes to faith, one size fits all. And there’s only one size that wears well on a Christian: XL.
