EXERCISING FAITH

EXERCISING FAITH

Virgil Warren, PhD

INTRODUCTION

      Faith is an important word in Christianity.

      Faith has meaning for ongoing Christian experience.

                  Nature of faith     - what it is

                  Necessity of faith - why we have to have it

                  Nurture of faith    - how we develop it

                  Results of faith    - what it produces

   I. NATUE OF FAITH

            Faith is . . .

            A.  Trust in someone else (interpersonal)

      A person stands in the gap between the would-be knower and the thing known.

                                                                the would-be doer and the thing done.

            Faith and knowledge do not correspond with religion and science. The contrast is between faith and sight, not faith and knowledge. It is a contrast in how people come to know rather than in degrees of certainty. Knowledge by experience is direct; knowledge by faith is indirect through someone else’s testimony. Knowledge by faith applies to the past, the future, and all the present that is beyond our direct experience. There is even a knowledge by faith in what we do directly experience if it needs to be explained—as in what is going on, say, in a complicated football play. Sometimes we do not know where to look for the main features of what we are watching. Consequently, we know more by faith than we do by sight.

            B.  Active relationship: James 2:21-23 (Romans 4:2-5)

            C.  A degree matter

                  1.   2 Thessalonians 1:3

                  2.   2 Corinthians 10:14b-15a

                  3.   Matthew 17:20 (Luke 17:6)

            D.  Faith is not

                  1. Uncertainty

                  2. A blind leap

                  3. A divine deposit

                  4. Being gullible

                  5. Throwing away inhibitions

                  6. Living by impulse, urges, promptings

                  7. Mind over matter (cp. Mark 11:23)

                  8. Sheer mental assent

        but 9. Trust in another as a way to know.

II. NECESSITY OF FAITH: 2 Corinthians 5:7

            A.  Everyone must live by faith.

                  1.   Not religion (faith) vs. science (sight)

                        Direct experience cannot deal with past or future, but only with recurring

                        natural process.

                  2.   Added resources

                        a.   Resources of others

                        b.   Resources of the future (Faith buys time.)

                        c.   Resources in ourselves (We would not try otherwise.)

            B.  Illustrations

                  1.   Going to the grocery store

                  2.   Buying gas

                  3.   Eating your wife’s cooking

III. NURTURE OF FAITH: Luke 17:5, 6

            A.  We start with what we have, and DO SOMETHING WITH SOMEONE

                  In response to his disciples’ request, Jesus did not say, “Okay, here.”

                  1.   We interact with God:

                        We listen to what he has already said in his word: “Faith comes by hearing”

                              (Romans 10:14, 17).

                        We trust him by trusting in his way of living.

                                                   spending time with him in prayer, thought, and Bible

                                                                  reading.

                  2.   We interact with God’s people; we put trust in trustworthy people.

B.    We start with a little, and it will develop into a lot.

                  1.   We trust a little; we find out that we did not get betrayed,

                  2.   When we find out that we did not get betrayed, we take a bigger step of

                        trust.

            Interpersonal relationship means there must be action taking place between persons; so trust can grow by degrees through the give-and-take of that interaction.

            Increasing faith is not something done to us but with us.

            Faith grows through personal interaction.

IV. RESULTS

            A.  We learn what we could not otherwise know.

            B.  We receive what we could not otherwise have.

            C.  We accomplish what we could not otherwise accomplish.

            D.  We become what we would not otherwise be.

Conclusion

            Growing             interpersonal              action

            Degree                        "                        action                  

            reciprocal causation: one side affects the other side, which turns around and affects the first side, and so on.

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