A Foundation Of Faith

All of us do many things each day. Have you ever given thought as to why you do the things you do?

In other words, do you do things because you are focused on yourself, or because you are focused on doing what God wants you to do?

This is a sermon about faith. With true faith in the Lord, we will try to do what He wants us to do, and not what we want, because what we want away from the Lord’s will is always sinful.

I am reminded of a story about a young Indian boy who came off one of the reservations in Oklahoma and went back east to college. He excelled in every subject and graduated at the top of his class.

When he came back home to his reservation, he was elected their new tribal chief. Everything went fine for a couple of years, and then one autumn the tribal leaders came to him and asked him if it was going to be a cold or mild winter.

The young man was not schooled in the traditions of his ancestors, and as he looked into the sky for any kind of hint, he saw nothing but sky. Not wanting to look foolish, he furrowed his brow and said it looked as if it were going to be a cold winter. And for good measure, he advised them to have everyone stock up on plenty of firewood.

Two weeks later, he thought he had better find out for sure, so he called the local weather bureau to ask them what the winter would be like. They said it looked like it would be a cold one. He called the tribal leaders back and told them it looked like it would be very cold and advised them to have people collect more firewood.

At the first of November, he called the weather bureau back to make one final check, and they said it looked like it would be a very severe winter, indeed. He asked them how they knew for certain. They said they could tell because the local Indians were collecting fire wood like crazy.

The tribe had much faith in their leader. The leader had much faith in the modern technology of the weather bureau, and they had much faith in the actions of the local Indians. Seems like everybody had faith in somebody. And that is what I want to talk to you about today: Having faith, but making sure it is the right faith.

Now, faith requires that we have belief. And to have a belief, we must have something, or somebody, to believe in. A Christian should have absolute faith in God, through Jesus Christ. One of the biggest problems a Christian has is that we tend to have more faith in those things we can see, touch, feel, smell, or hear. In other words, those tangible things seem to be more real to us when the chips are down than those things we cannot see. And therein lies the problem. Tangible things are in the world, not in the Godly realm.

Here is a quick way you fully understand how a Christian’s faith must only be in God.

Take an empty bottle and fill it half full of water. Then, take some vegetable oil and fill it the rest of the way up. Then try to shake it with all your might so it will become all mixed up. What happens? The very moment you stop shaking the bottle, the oil and water begin to separate from one another, doesn’t it? It cannot even stay mixed for even a second. They repel one another.

What is the moral? The moral is that, by their very nature, oil and water do not mix. You can either have water or you can oil, but you cannot have a mixture of both. So, make a decision you can live with; which one do you want more, because you are not going to be able to have both no matter how much you try.

The same is true with Godliness and worldliness. A couple of years ago, I heard a preacher say there was just too much world in Christians. I agree. You might say that we live here and we need to be in the world. I would agree to that, too. But I also think that as much as we might need to be in the world, the world does not have to be in us.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:20 where we should stand in relation to the world around us.

‘We are therefore, Christ’s Ambassadors – as though God were making His appeal through us.’

In EPHESIANS 2:19, we are told that we are citizens and members of God’s household. We are no longer citizens of this world. And since we belong to God; since we are citizens of heaven working as ambassadors here on earth; we need to focus more on God and less on the world, but to do so, we need to make sure that we really believe in God, and not just think we do.