Eddie was a shattered young man.  He had become a Christian expecting everything to get better.  It didn’t.  His wife did not share his experience and soon she’d had all she could take.  She left.  Eddie’s new church told him that the main problem was that his faith hadn’t been strong enough.  He begged his wife to return and according to this church, he just needed to act on his faith.  So he set a night, rented the bridal suite at a very expensive hotel, made it just right, and told his wife to meet him there.  He believed with all of the faith he could muster that his wife would be there.  It had to work.  At the church they told him it would.  So there he sat, all alone, for an entire evening.  His marriage and his faith now in shambles.  His faith had failed.  God had failed.

These and countless other stories are the true result of today’s so-called faith movement.  And I believe that today the church is in a crisis.  We are in a faith crisis.  Many, perhaps many in this very room, have tried the slick formulas which only seemed to make the leader of the organization rich.  And we have become disillusioned in this thing called faith.  But faith in our Reformed tradition is a concept which should undergird every moment of our lives.  So, for the next two weeks we will be looking at what the Bible says about faith.  And I hope that for those of you who may be feeling a bit burned or burned out, the next two weeks will give you something of a faith lift.  So, may God find us faithful as we examine the subject of faith.
Today we use faith in all kinds of different ways.  Does faith mean that the probabilities are going the right direction?  I have faith that the Astros will win the division?  I have faith that the garbage man will come on a certain day?  We use faith in all kinds of ways.  But our passage for today gives the clearest definition of faith there is.  So, let’s start there:

Faith, in this definition, is two-sided: On the first side, it is intellectual conviction.  The passage goes on to say that there are some things we know.  By faith we know that God has created this world.  God’s word, God’s command, brought order brought it into existence out of nothing.  There is a pattern, an order to the universe.  It did not just happen.  This, the Bible teaches, is readily discernable if we will look around.  
 
But it is not enough to simply have an intellectual faith.  We can know all about God, that God is creator, redeemer, sustainer.  We can know that Jesus was God come in the flesh, and that God is a trinity.  All of these things are true and mentally attainable.  We can recite all of the catechisms (What is the chief end of man?)  We could come up with the most elegant and systematic of theologies, and still not have the faith that God says we must have to be approved. 

There must come a time in our lives when faith jumps about 18 inches.  It must move from our head to our heart.  Some crisis or point of maturity comes and “the” faith becomes “my” faith and we appropriate it for ourselves.  This is the second side of faith.  It is first intellectual conviction, but it is second a volitional surrender.  What we learn in the head causes us to voluntarily give our lives and our hearts to God through Jesus Christ, who is our Lord, our leader, our Master.  And when we have that relationship, the Bible teaches that we have eternal life, which is not something we get after we die.  It is a quality of life lived in relationship with Christ that not even death can interrupt.  That relationship is the essence of faith.
As an aside, let me add that it is so very important to our understanding of faith that we must point out that Ephesians teaches that faith is not something we can work up on our own.  It is the gift of God.  It is nothing to brag about.  The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called our teacher, has led us, mind and will, to the point where we have faith, we trust in who God is and through faith we live to follow Him.

There can be no real relationship in any of life without faith. It is especially true of our relationship with God.  There is a story told of a minister in whose congregation was a banker, who was not a member, but would come every now and then checking things out.  Every time he came the minister happened to be preaching on faith.  The banker said to him, “Why don’t you preach on something else, something practical?”  A few days later there was a run on his bank, and the minister went down to see what was going on.  The alarmed and suspicious people were demanding their money;  the banker was going up and down the line saying, “Everything is all right.  There is nothing wrong with the bank.”  The minister touched him on the shoulder and said, “What is the matter?” “Why,” he said, “there is nothing wrong, but these people have lost faith in the bank.”  The minister said, “Why don’t you go do something practical?”  The banker said, “Now I understand that there is nothing so fundamental to life as faith.”

It was that kind of faith, that confident trust that was commended in our passage.  It was a faith that says, “I don’t need to see the account sheets, I know the banker!”  Or, I don’t care what the circumstances look like right now.  I trust God.  And I will follow wherever He leads.  That is a true relationship.  That is why one theologian called faith a “confident nevertheless.”  No matter what the present or future hold, I will trust and follow.  “We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future.”  It is like Job said when everything meaningful in his life was taken away, his property, his wife, his family, his health, they were all gone! Friends said “Give up on God!” And he says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”  That’s biblical faith!

We see here the story of Abraham and Sarah.  They went out with nothing but a promise of a great people who would come from them, sealed by God in a covenant.  Their familiar home of Ur of the Chaldees was left behind, and they set out for an unknown land with only a promise.  The first part of that promise was a baby.  Year after year they waited.  They made some mistakes along the way.  Finally when old Abe was 99 years old, the Lord says, “It’s time!”  You can hear the laughter in the next county.  Oh, God you forgot!  I’m too old, and Sarah, she’s my age, too, and she’s always been barren.  Abraham laughed.  What a God they were following!  Sarah laughed.  It was ridiculous.  But God got the last laugh.  They had a little boy named Issac, which means laughter.  The promises of faith were fulfilled.  God was trustworthy.

People of faith do not see the proof ahead of time.  People of real faith live in relationship and know that God is faithful, and they act on the promises of God.  So, as we close this first part of our exploration of faith, remember that faith is all about a trusting relationship.  It is like the grocer who was down in the cellar of his shop when he noticed his small son standing at the edge of the open trap door. He called up, “Here I am, Son, jump down.” But the boy said, “No, Daddy; I can’t see you.” Up came the answer, “No, but I can see you; trust me and jump, and I will catch you.” The boy jumped because he trusted his father.

I believe that God is speaking to some here today who have been disillusioned.  What areas in your life are you having trouble trusting God with?  I proclaim to you what people since the beginning of time have found:  We have a trustworthy Father.  That’s the basis of our faith.  Real faith has moved 18 inches, to our hearts, then to our feet.  What are your struggles?  God says I can see.  Jump into my arms, trust.  Do you trust?

A Story of Faith

Pete had become lost in the desert and had been chasing mirages. He thought to himself, I'll follow this last one. It was a deserted town with a well in the very center. His mouth parched from the intense heat, he ran to the well with his last ounce of energy.

He vigorously pumped the handle only to find that no water came forth. Then, he looked up to a note nailed to the post. It instructed its readers to “look behind the rock where a five gallon container of water will be found” and warned against drinking or using it for anything besides priming the pump. Every ounce was needed, and not even a drop could be spared, the note emphasized.

“After pouring the water down the pump, pump the handle vigorously and all the water you desire will come forth,” the note said. One last instruction was to please fill the water can and place it behind the rock for the next weary soul who might happen to come along.

How hard it is for people to give up a “sure thing” for something they cannot see at the time. Pete had a sure thing in the bucket of water and yet was instructed to pour it “all” down the pump.