Risky Faith
Hebrews 11:1-8
I have been thinking about faith this week. I started thinking about people, that I know that have faith.
The first group that comes to mind are the ones that I have sat with at the hospital. The ones that say, “I’m Ready!” Their only question is why do I have to hurt and wait.
I wish God blessed me with an answer that would really help the soul.
The Next group that comes to mind are the ones that buy Lottery tickets… Not the ones that buy one every now and them.. when the pot is 100 million. I am thinking of the ones that buy every week and some everyday.
They must have faith that the contest is real. They must think that they have a fair chance of winning. So every week they go to the Quick Mart and put down 1 to 20 bucks to buy their chance at being rich.
I am not sure that is faith.. perhaps hope or maybe just bad math skills.
Then I thought back to when the kids were younger. I was in the pool and one of the kids on the edge yelling “daddy catch me.” I say Ok, Jump!
There were two reactions that my children gave: They jumped immediately or the child says back up you are too close. When they are ready they run and leap like superman without a cape. They normally had a smile on their faces and uttered a screaming sound. Sometimes eyes wide open others closed tightly making a squinched up face. Either way they were reaching out with their arms to latch onto me for deal life. Sometimes they hardly got wet because they landed on my head.
The burses have faded but, I think I still have scars from the fingernails to prove this happened.
When they jumped they were expressing their faith that Daddy would catch them.
Faith is something that you can’t touch but, you feel it and I believe it is deeper and more protected than hope.
Faith it self is invisible however, it ends up being one of the most visible emotions. Faith is what lets you drive across a high bridge even when you have fear of heights. It lets you do other things, trusting in things beyond your control.
Faith is also the emotion that allows you to make plans for the weekend or next week or next year, perhaps even further into the future. Faith leads some people to dream of what the future will be like.
Most of us have enough faith to make plans for our future. We make plans to go on trips and vacations. We have faith (not just a hope) that we will get older and have needs for savings and a home.
It seems that none of us want to take a leap into the pool without a plan for getting out of the water.
Faith fuels the inner drive for vision and every person, family and church need to have a vision for the future.
The church sometimes suffers because people are afraid to share visions for the church family. Some fear sharing a vision because they are afraid of the reactions from family and friends. They fear being judged because they think that God whispered an idea in their ears.
The church needs vision casters, people who listen for God’s vision and attempt to follow and lead others on God’s path. Sometimes that person is the pastor but, normally God places the vision on more that one person within a church so that the seeds of faith can take root and fid nourishment.
The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet high and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these animals can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall.
A church that has no vision and no plan is stagnant. If the only worry is how to face tomorrow or next week and there is no vision for next year and the next 5 years or what will the church be line when we are gone, then we have no real faith.
It does not take much of a wall or series of problems to make any church react like the impala, trapped in a single enclosure instead of being free in the world.
Jesus was the ultimate vision caster. I want you to listen to some of the visionary statements made by Jesus.
“Lift up your eyes! The fields are white unto harvest.”
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move this mountain.”
“Go into all the world and make disciples.”
Jesus described visions that were big and difficult and even impossible. All big jobs and big visions require a faith the trust in God and enable the believer to move forward without knowing what the future holds. The ability to see the path and to start the journey or task is an outward expression of our faith in God.
Outward faith and obedience is a sign that we believe in God and that God interacts with each of us.
Today I want us to look very closely at faith and how it relates to vision. When we are able to understand the true meaning of faith it will prompt us to take bold risks for the Kingdom. We need people in our church that are always looking to the future. Visionaries staying one step ahead and are willing to leap from the side of the pool when called by God.
Our scripture today starts with a simple description of what faith is and what it does. Perhaps even a description of how it works.
True Bible faith is not, blind optimism or a manufactured “hope-so” feeling.
The writer is saying that there are realities for which we have no material evidence. They are saying that faith lets us believe in places and people and promises that we can’t touch, see or smell.
Faith enables us to know that they exist and, while we have no certainty apart from faith, faith does give us genuine certainty. Fait sometimes leads us to take risk that the world can not understand and even believe to be foolish.
Faith leads some people to feed and house people that have nothing. Foolish because they can never repay you and they don’t deserve it anyway. However, by faith individuals are called to fill the stomachs and hopefully minds and hearts of people with no hope and sometimes no faith of their own.
Why --- Because they listened to God and received the vision that they could make a difference.
When believers have faith, that is when they have an unwavering confidence in God, they receive God’s approval.
Faith is the basis, of all that the Christian life means, all that the Christian hopes for.
Faith extends beyond what we learn from our senses, It is often beyond anything we can learn in our personal experience. Faith come about because our belief in God. In a God that you can trust because he is always there.
Our scripture sites several Old Testament fathers that lived in such a way that their faith in God was evident. It talks about Abel’s offering a better sacrifice to God and God noticed. And that his faith was still demonstrated even after his death.
Then Enoch is mentioned as a man that because of his faith and his desire to please God. Without Faith none of us can please God. Enoch faith was deep enough that he did not experience death. God took him directly into his presence.
Then we are reminded of Noah, How we received a vision from God and Built and ark to save his family and because he responded he was an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. He built a big boat in the desert and described a great flood when it had never rained before. Some probably called him crazy as he responded to his faith in God.
Then we get to father Abraham. God told him to go… that way. No hint of how far, or how long. He left his earthly father’s inheritance, choosing by faith alone that God would make it all worthwhile. By making him an heir to the kingdom built by God..
Oh how I could claim a faith similar to any of our Bible heroes. If I could feel like I had just the mustard seed that Jesus describes.
-- When we were in the pool, sometimes there was another reaction from my kids. Perhaps, I was too far out or for some reason I was not looking when my children jumped and missed and plunged under the water. Sometimes it was not my fault at all. They did not look to see if I was ready or call out to get my attention.
With a big splash, they lost their trust in me, for a while they no longer knew that I would be there to pull them out and keep them safe.
I think we all do that with God sometimes. We expect that God will automatically bless us however we never talked to God abut our plans. We never asked for his direction or approval and most importantly we never listened for his direction. We just plunged ahead and when we got in over our head or were hurt, we lost our trust in God and his promises.
We decided to sit on the edge of the pool or moved to the shallow end and just watched as others dove in or came down the water slide.
When we loose our trust in God we limit our vision. We restrict our risk because we are afraid. We don’t like to end up in deep water or get hurt so we stop taking risk for God.
We stop sharing our faith we don’t invite people to church. We only give to what is safe and logical. All too often we stay out of the pool totally.
Most importantly we don’t listen to God to share his purpose and direction for us and our church.
If we aren’t listening and responding we are not going to grow as individual or as a church because we will avoid all risk. According to the Bible, faith has always been the driving force for people and nations to do something great. It is no different for any church.
Soren Kierkegaard , a theologian tells this story about "Duck Land":
It was Sunday morning in Duckland, and all the ducks dutifully came to church, waddling through the doors and down the aisle into their pews where they comfortably squatted. When all were well-settled, and the hymns were sung, the duck minister waddled to his pulpit, opened the Duck Bible and read: "Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky! Use your wings!" It was a marvelous, elevating duck reading from the Duck Bible, and thus all the ducks quacked their assent with a hearty "Amen!" . . . and then they plopped down from their pews and waddled home.
I believe that he was describing a safe faith. A faith that is still a seed and not growing. A faith that dos the minimum. A faith that wades in the shallow end and splashes a little water but, it never even tries to reach its full potential. It never spreads it wings and tries to fly.
Do you profess to have faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of His Spirit but your life is like those waddling, quacking ducks whose Amen meant nothing more than that they were ready to go home?
Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn’t. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back. The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing this man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?" he asked.
The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."
Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throw back the big plans, big dreams, big jobs, big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small. We laugh at that fisherman who didn’t figure out that all he needed was a bigger frying pan; yet how ready are we to increase the size of our faith?
All Glory be to God!
