Fabulous Faith

FABULOUS FAITH

Titus 1:1

It was a while back that I had mentioned to you that while I was trying on pants in Wal-Mart that I got excited because the pants I was trying on seemed to fit me so well. Only to have my bubble burst when I noticed that I had grabbed the next size up from what I though I had.

I make mention of this because it seems as though we as a nation our always in some sort of health craze. There is always some sort of new diet on the market. We see many testimonies from famous people on how to get fit and stay that way. Tommy Lasorda, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons and more.

We have people pushing health food, exercise equipment, health club membership. It seem that we spent an awful lot of time, energy, and money on our bodies, never stopping to think that someday we they are going to wear out and we will die.

Yet people spent so little time on that which will last through eternity, and that is there souls. This is the view taken in the Bible in 1 Tim. 4:8, "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."

Contrary to popular opinion having a faith that is healthy is far more important then having a body that is healthy, one lasts for put a few years, the other will last an eternity.

Just as all bodies are not the same neither are all faiths. There is a living faith, and there are living faiths, and as James 2:20 tells us as faith which is dead.

There are strong faiths, there are also weak faiths. There are as 1 Tim 1:5 tells us sincere faiths, as well as counterfeit faiths.

I want to talk about faith today, please turn with me to Titus chapter 1 verse 1, that is page 1032 in your pew Bible this morning. Once again we will be looking at the salutation of Paul in his letter to the young man Titus.

"Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,"

As I stated last week Paul begins by making note that he is a slave to God, a bondservant. We saw last week that that is how we all should look at our relationship with God, not free to do anything we please, but free to be servants of God in Christ.

Paul goes on to state that he is "an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect". The word apostle means "messenger" or "one sent forth" Paul is one sent forth, a messenger of the Jesus Christ and His gospel.

Paul states that he is an apostle according to the faith of God’s elect! We will speak next week concerning God’s’ elect but this week I want to focus on the faith that they are to have.

Further along in this letter in Titus 1:12 & 2:2 Paul speaks of a sound faith. I believe that is the faith that Paul is making mention of here in his opening to this letter. God’s elect are to have a "sound faith."

That word "Sound" means to be "whole", or "healthy."

The faith of God’s elect is to be whole or healthy!

So how is it that we go about getting a sound faith, a whole faith, a healthy faith. First we must realize that man is a complex being, we are not one dimensional. We have a intellectual side to us, we have an emotional side to us and a physical part of us as well. If we are to have a sound faith, then our faith (or our spiritual dimension) must affect the other three.

Before we look at how faith need to effect these area we need to understand something regarding faith.

First of all faith is a gift of God. Eph. 2:8 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,"

The very faith we have is given to us by God, it has it’s origin in heaven. In this passage grace describes the gift of faith. It is something given to us which we do not deserve. Scripture states that it is implanted in us through the reading and hearing of the Word of God.

Now as with anything which we are given to us by God we can either nurture it, care for it, be good stewards of it, or we can ignore it and let it wither.

Faith as this verse points out is that thing by which are saved. When you place your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, when you place faith in the fact that he shed His blood to cleanse us of our sins, Scripture tell us that we are saved, that we have eternal life. Without that faith there is no hope, without faith in Christ, there can be no salvation.