MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: WHAT IS FAITH? | Joel Gorveatte

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Glad you're here as we continue this collection uh called Make It Make Sense. Uh, this collection of messages for the next couple weeks, just gonna be wrestling with a question each week. Uh sometimes our faith, we can be around faith or hear faith, and it can be fuzzy. And so we're gonna take uh some of these questions week by week. Last week we started with this question what is God really like? What does God really like? What does he actually say about himself? Who has he revealed himself to be? And today I want to uh just engage this question with you of what is faith? What is faith? Uh what is what does faith look like? What does it mean? What what actually is faith? Uh faith is one of those words that is often overused and misunderstood at the same time. Right? It's like oversaturation. And if you said, what does that what does it actually mean? Or what does that mean to you? It may be like, ah, our definition or our engagement of that word might be a little fuzzy. I think about it like the word love a little bit, right? Like um, I love Jesus, I love my family, I love, I love the church, and I also love good coffee. I also love a nice steak cooked well and seasoned perfectly, right? Like, and we know intuitively that that those don't all have the same value, they don't all have the same weight, don't have the same implication, but it's the same word. And faith can be a little like that in our lives and in our culture and in our in our communities. And so, what actually is faith? And not just what is the word faith, but what is the invitation of faith? What is the invitation that God, that Jesus would invite us into in living in his story and following him? What is faith? And to answer that question first, I want to just say what faith is, what faith is not, what faith is not, and this maybe would clarify for some of some of us. Uh, what faith is not? Faith is not a feeling. Faith is not a feeling. Whether I feel uh hopeful about a situation or courageous in a situation one day, and I don't the next day, that's not a great portrayal, actually, of what like the the foundation, what the essence of faith is. Faith isn't a feeling. Faith is not an emotion, it's not it's not a feeling. Our faith can and should impact our emotions and our feelings. Like we should, we should, we should probably be brought to tears every once in a while by who Jesus is. We should probably get a little excited every once in a while because of who Jesus is. But at the essence of faith, it's not it's not just a feeling. It's not a feeling. Uh, number two, faith is not a formula. Faith is not a formula. Uh maybe some of us, this is probably not all of us, but maybe some of us, we've been in environments before where faith was treated kind of like a recipe or kind of like a formula. Like if you pray in this way or this loudly or this long, like God will finally hear and actually answer and actually look on you with some with some pleasure and favor, right? Uh but faith is not a formula. Faith is not a A plus B equals C. It doesn't often work that way in our lives. Faith is not a formula. And number three, faith is not positive thinking. Okay, so so especially, especially in our culture, right? We like we like good vibes, we like uh good energies, we like hopefulness and positive thinking, and and that's all probably got a time and a place for it. But faith, faith in its core, is not just the power of positive thinking. It's not just a good vibe or a good feeling about something. Faith, faith is much more than that, and deeper and higher than that. Faith is not a feeling, it's not a formula, and it's not positive thinking. So let's let's let's return to our question. What is what is faith? What is faith? At the core definition, at the core like foundation of what it means to engage faith is really this this word that we'd probably be more accompanied with is trust. Trust. If you want to say, what is faith? Give me a good synonym, give me a good picture of faith. Well, let's look at let's look at trust. Look at what trust. If we had a lens to drill down into each one of our souls, uh into what motivates us, what drives us, uh, what we worry about or what we hope for, that would show ultimately what we trust in. We we all we all trust in certain things or certain people or certain groups or certain dynamics to push us forward, to compel us forward, and and to anchor us in, to anchor us when life gets hard, to anchor us when we want a new perspective, when we're looking forward. We all have something that we trust in. Faith is about who or what we trust in, who are what we attach to, who are what we build our lives on. It's kind of like um if you're hanging or mounting something on a wall, what you attach it to decides the future of that thing. For better or for worse. Right? What you attach it to. Uh take a look at this picture. This is a little bit of like what it would look like if I mounted your big TV at home, right? What you attach it to determines the outcome, determines the future, determines the trajectory of that thing. Now that's funny in a picture. It's not funny when it happens in our lives. It's funny in a picture about someone else's TV in someone else's living room. But it's not funny when we bump into seasons of our life and we feel uprooted, we feel shaken, we feel lost at sea, we feel in the dark, and we realize maybe I wasn't anchored in the right thing, or maybe I wasn't actually anchored in and attached to in trusting in what I thought I was. And we gotta have attached to something, we gotta trust in something, we've got to have faith in something that's deeper than a feeling or a formula or positive thinking or any other thing like that. So, what what is what is faith and what is the invitation of God to live in and with faith? I want to give you this definition, I want to give you this understanding, this this perspective, and then we'll walk it out for the next several moments together. Faith is this. Faith is an active trust in God's character and ability. Faith is an active trust in God's character and ability. Faith is an act of trust in God's character, who he is, the kind of God he is, the kind of Father He is. We already sang about it this morning. Faith is an act of trust in God's character, and not just that he's nice and benevolent, but he is powerful and strong in his ability and in what he can do and what he is able to do in your life and in my life. Uh, a couple other maybe perspectives on that. Like faith, uh, my favorite quote on this is faith is acting like God is telling the truth. Faith is acting like God is telling the truth. And sometimes we do that when it makes sense, and sometimes we do that when it doesn't make sense. But it's acting like he's telling the truth about who he is and what he can do in our lives. It's this active trust in who God is. It's a trust in a reality beyond just my reality. It's it's trust in a person beyond just me. It's an active trust in the character and the ability of God. And I'll take you to a part of the scripture, it's Hebrews chapter 11, uh, that just talks around this faith. I'd encourage you sometime even today or or maybe throughout this week, just read Hebrews chapter 11, okay? So if you want any homework today, that's it. Read all the way through Hebrews chapter 11. We'll we'll we'll pop into a couple different places there. Hebrews chapter 11 says this about faith. What is faith? We're asking that question. What is faith? Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see. Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see. Faith is confidence in what we hope for. It's confidence in his goodness and his character, it's confidence in his ability, it's confidence that he will fulfill his promises. We we we hope for that. We can put our confidence, our active trust in that, in who he is and what he can do. And out of that, we we live, we expect, we have a faith that he will make that evident in our lives. That's that's a confidence. And then it's an assurance, it's a it's a it's a resting, it's a it's a trusting we can have in who God is and what he can do, even if it's even if it's unseen. We can we can have a trust, a real tangible trust, even if we can't have a real tangible vision or perspective on what he is or what he's doing. It's an assurance that God doesn't lie, doesn't change, doesn't fail. It's confidence and assurance of this: that there's more going on, and there's more possible than just what meets my eyes. Confidence and assurance. Look what the writer of Hebrews says this. Now, faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. And if you read the rest of Hebrews chapter 11, you'll see these stories, these dozens of stories of people walking by faith, of living by faith. They're saying, this is the reality they lived with to see all those cool things happen. Like you want to know how to walk on water, you gotta have faith. You want to know how to build a boat even when it's not raining, you gotta have faith. You wanna know how to see God move and part seas and open perspective and open possibilities and do miracles, you gotta walk by faith. This is what the ancients were commended for. This is their formula, this is where their secret sauce. They lived by faith. An active trust in the character and nature and the ability of God. Look what he says in verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith, active trust in him is the foundation we we even would come to to build our lives and build a relationship with him. Like it just it takes a certain amount of faith and confidence and trust in who he is. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. So let's pull that apart. Believes that he exists, uh, believes that he's God, believe that like that he is who he says he is, that he is God. We believe in his ability and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him, that he has good in store, that he has a good character, trust and faith, and confidence in his character and his ability. But let's let's flush that out a little bit more. Let's let's let's put some more color on that. Faith, again, faith is an active trust in God's character and ability. Now, what what does that look like in my life, in your life? What does it actually look like to walk in, to move in, to live in faith? I want to give you three three realities, three realities of faith. Number one, faith is a response. Faith is a response. Faith is a response to who God is and what he's done. Um my faith is not about my faith. My faith is about my God. So don't necessarily ask me how's my faith. Ask me how's my God. Well, he's good. You know, my belief, my trust, my attitude, my perspective might not be so good today. Friday wasn't so good. Okay? But my God's still good. So faith, faith is a response to who God is and what he's doing and what he can do, not just what I'm doing and what I can do and what I'm feeling. Faith is a response. Uh, to say it differently, faith doesn't start with us. We're not the first ones in the faith equation. Look what it says in Romans chapter 10, verse 17. So faith comes, it begins, it starts from hearing. That is hearing the good news about Christ, about Jesus. Faith starts, faith starts with hearing. Faith starts with a receiving, with the with a hearing, of being aware of who he is and what he can do. They're talking about here in the gospel, like faith starts when you when you first heard that that man, I could be right with God, I can be forgiven for the things I've done. I can be I can actually walk in a relationship with Jesus, I can be his son or his daughter. Faith starts with with hearing that, receiving that. And then there's a move, there's a response out of that. Faith starts, it begins with God and who he is and what he can do. But it's a response from us. Uh, you want a fancy term to share at lunch? Anyone eat lunch today? Maybe? Here it is. The doctrine of synergism. Okay? The doctrine of synergism. And I love this, not because it's a fancy word, but because of the picture it gives us. Uh, the doctrine of synergism in the most basic form describes that that faith, that journeying with God, that living life in response to God is a two-part dance. That it's synergistic, that it's that it's you and it's God working together. Uh, it's God initiating in us responding. It's it's God holding out his hand and us taking it. Say, I want to step into that, I want to be part of that, I want to, I want to dance with you, God, I want to walk with you. It's it's synergistic. And the journey of faith, the journey of salvation, of coming to Jesus for the first time is like that. But the journey of our lives beyond that is the same to you. Faith, faith is a response. Faith is when I hear who he is and I receive who he is, but I respond out of that. Say, I I'm gonna live with active trust in your character, God, in your ability. Faith is faith is a response. Faith, faith is a seed. Faith is a seed. Faith is a seed. When you hear and respond to Jesus for the first time, it's like a seed. When you choose, and when I choose to trust who he is and what he's doing and what he can do, it's like it's like a seed. When we choose his way over ours, that's like a seed. When when we surrender something, when we surrender a person or we surrender a situation to God, that's like a seed. When we actively trust God in our lives, it's like it's like a seed. And faith is a seed, and here's what's true about seeds. Seeds represent growth. Seeds represent possibility and potential. At one point, Jesus uh challenged his disciples. He said, guys, have faith, and you just need to have faith like a mustard seed, which is barely visible. It's like you can barely keep it in your fingers. Have faith like a mustard seed. Now, when I think of faith, I think of that list that maybe you saw in Hebrews chapter 11, if you open it up, right? I think of walking on water and fire from heaven and parting the sea and walking, you know, walking with God in all these powerful ways. But Jesus comes along and says, Hey guys, just have faith like a mustard seed. Now, why did he say that? Why did he say that? Yes, uh, because we can have small faith in a big God, like all that, all that kind of stuff. That's that's true. Why why did Jesus say that? Well, mustard seeds start small until they're cultivated. They start small, but they have the potential, the possibility to grow and to flourish. It starts small until it is planted in the right place with the right things. And ultimately, over time, it can flourish and bloom and blossom and grow and strengthen. And Jesus said, Hey guys, just start start with faith like a mustard seed. Just start putting that in me and see what happens. Trust me like planting a seed. Just start start putting your trust in me and you'll see the impossible. And your faith can can grow and cultivate. And to do that, it needs a couple things. It needs soil, it needs nutrients, it needs time. Soil is like our lives, right? Like we're good soil. Jesus told a parable of the soil that we can be good soil for who he is and what he's doing, to receive that and to have that outworked in our lives. It needs nutrients, it needs the right environment, it needs the right inputs, it needs the right, it needs the right words in our lives, right? Words and people and experiences and environments. And then it needs time, patience, seasons. A seed doesn't do much overnight, but it does over time. Faith is like that. This active trust in who God is and what he can do in different seasons, in different moments, with different perspectives and different weights and different opportunities. Just putting putting that seed of faith in who he is, planting it in who he is can grow. It's like it's like a seed. It's like a seed. And this faith is ultimately faith is a lifestyle, right? It's an it's an active active trust. It's it's active, it's ongoing. It's not a day, it's daily. Romans 1.17 says this that the the righteous, those who walk right with God, those who walk in line with God, they live by faith. They don't just like go to church and sing about faith. They actually live by faith. The characteristic of their lives, the descriptor of their lives would be that there was one by faith. Which sounds great, right? Like I I believe in Jesus, I believe there's a God, I I want to live, I live by faith, I want to live by faith. Sounds great. But but here's what here's what this kind of active trust is, this is kind of this active trusting and surrendering and planting and attaching yourselves to God. This is what can often happen, is that faith is often our last resort, not our first response. Faith is often our last resort, not our first response. It's often kind of like the friend, uh it's like the friend we call last, not first, right? Like you don't tell them that, but like, yeah, you're kind of like fourth on the list, but I really need something, right? Like, so I'm gonna I'm gonna dial and hope you pick up because no one else is. That's a little bit how we can we can we can interact with and engage faith in our lives, an active trust in who we is. And there's this tension between, yeah, I hear I hear that, and that that all sounds great, but when the rubber meets the road of my life, what does that actually look like? I I often can choose something different than faith, control, worry, anxiety, whatever it is, as a first response. And my faith is is my last last resort. We see this tension, this this uh dichotomy a little bit, these options in in 2 Corinthians 5 when Paul says this for we walk by faith not by sight. We walk by faith not by sight. You you see the contrast? Right, like he's saying, the basically there's there's two options before you. There's two options before me. As I walk in my life, as I take steps forward in my life, as I engage new terrain and new scenarios and new days and new dilemmas and all the things that I would walk in in my life, I can do it with an option, by faith or by sight. By faith, trusting who he is, what he can do, his promises, his future, his control, his authority, or by sight. Trusting what I can see, what I can measure, what I can predict, what I can control. There's this option, there's this choice, there's this tension between the two. Can live by faith or by sight. I want to make it just really practical in a couple areas of our life. Now I'm sure you're way more mature than me, uh you don't struggle in any one of these three areas. Okay, I'm just gonna assume that it's all this was just for me, okay? Not looking at anyone else. Um let's take our health, for example. Our health. What does it look like to live by faith, not by sight? Not by sight. Well, sight is most natural to us. Right? So let's start. Let's start with sight. When we bump into a season or or or a scenario or a diagnosis with our health, often what can happen is if we live by sight, we have the worst case scenario. That's accompanied with stress, worry, this mentality, I gotta fix it. I I gotta find the answer. Right? We we Google things that we shouldn't Google. We search things and try to find the answer and try to get a handle, and automatically that that's our first, that's our first response. We we jump to what can I see, what can I control, what can I measure, what can I fix? Instead of by faith, what would it look like to say, Lord, I need you right now. First of all, I need you to be my peace. I need you to be my peace. But God, I know you are above anything that would come into my body. And Lord, I need you, I need you to touch my body, I need you to work in my body. God, God, show me, show me what this is and maybe show me what it isn't. Forgive all my googling, Lord, right? But God, I give, I give you myself. You're ultimately my healer, you're ultimately my strength. Now, God, I ask you to work in my body, and I trust you with the outcome. I trust you for my healing. God, I give myself to you. I'm gonna walk forward in that. What would it look like to say, I'm gonna live by faith, not first by sight? Okay, probably another one you wouldn't relate with. Our finances. Finances. We can often live by sight. Again, sight is the easiest thing enough. And when we bump into a situation, or maybe just in the whole of our lives, we live with a mentality like I don't have enough. I don't have enough. Uh we can't keep up. We can't keep up with other people, we can't keep up with our own expectations. We we just can't we can't get ahead. It's all on me, or it's all on us to provide. We gotta figure this out. You talk about giving? There's no way I could give. There's no way I could get tithing? There's no way I could tie, I can I couldn't do that. It's not enough. It's not enough. I can't, I can't do that. I can't do that. Then we step over and say, What would it look like to live by faith and say, God, man, this doesn't look too good. This isn't balancing too well, Lord, but thank you that everything I have is from you anyway. Thank you that you already own it all. And God, I ask you first, first, help me be a good steward. Before I ask you for more, before I go looking for more, would you help me be a good steward of what you've already given me? Of what I already have. And God, would you help me to work hard and honor you in that? But Lord, I ask you in these places that feel like they need something more, I ask you to be the more. I ask you to provide. And God, I trust you with all of it, but I ask you to ask you to provide in this unique situation. What would it look like to step in, step into faith in that? Lastly, just think about our world. We think about situations we we hear about, we think about news we read, we think about situations we bump into or in our communities, or we read nationally or internationally. And what can often happen is, man, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. That can be our frame, that can be our mindset. It's just getting worse and worse and worse. It's just darker and darker and darker. Every place I look, it's dark, it's it's hopeless. Things will just keep getting this way. And by faith would say, God, you you see the same world I do. And God, your heart breaks even more than mine does. And Lord, I pray that one, you would give me peace. You said, in this world you have trouble, but take heart, I've already overcome. You said, rest assured, I can I can have peace in you. My peace that you gave to me, Jesus. Help me to live in that peace. And then, Jesus, help me to be an agent of healing. God, would your kingdom come on earth as in heaven? And would it come through my life? We surrender that. We trust his character, his ability. And here's what faith does. In those two options, and that faith by sight, faith does not ignore reality, it just acknowledges a greater reality. That's what's happening when we're choosing by faith or by sight. We're not ignoring reality, we're not ignoring the facts, we're not ignoring what's happening. But we're acknowledging there is something greater that is happening. There is someone greater than what I can see or what I can feel or what I can measure or what I can predict or what I can control. Faith does not ignore the reality, it just acknowledges, hey, there is a greater reality at hand. There's a greater one at hand. Jesus said to us, Greater is he who's already in you. That he who be in the world and in the things that you would walk in and say, Man, I only can see this. There's a greater one. And faith does not just ignore the facts, it just acknowledges, man, there's a greater reality of God's character and his ability and who he's been and what he can do in and through my life. Here's a prayer in some of those scenarios to live with faith, to live with faith as a response, as a seed, as a lifestyle. Lord, I invite you to do what only you can do. And I ask that you would help me do what I can do. I think it's John Wesley said this uh pray like everything depends on God and work like everything depends on you. Right? That's not acknowledging the reality, it's just acknowledging a greater reality. God, help me to do what I can do as you do what only you can do. And what what what might happen in your life, in my life, if that became the greater reality, if that became the pattern that meant I'm I am living by faith, not just by sight. I'm not living with a fuzzy definition, I'm not living with a keep the faith or just have faith or have a strong faith. No, I am living with an active trust that God is who he says he is and he can do what he says he can do. What might happen in our lives through our lives if that was the pattern, if that was the reaction, when life does what it does, when life comes, say there is more going on that just meets my eye. And I want to trust him. I want to trust who he is and what he can do. It's a little bit like a story that Jesus told in Luke chapter 6. Jesus told a story about uh two men building a house, uh, which maybe you can relate with. I can't relate with that, uh, as a zero bit of a handyman. But Jesus said that when you have faith in me, when you have trust in me, when you come to me and follow me, this is a little bit what your life will and could and should look like. As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, who comes to me, who who responds, faith is a response. And who hears my words, who who receives it and puts them into practice, who has an act of trust. An active trust, a lifestyle of trust. I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears my word does not put them into practice. It's like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. It's the same storm, it's the same circumstances, it's the same reality, it's the same facts, it's two different men, and it's two different outcomes. It's two different responses, it's two different results. It's a little bit what happens when we live by faith or or by sight. There, there's this building on on a rock, on who he is, on what he can do that doesn't change, that doesn't shift. Or it's by sight, it's it's it's what I can see. It's it's the short term only, it's what I can measure, it's what I control. And and friends, the storm will come. Maybe it feels like you're one of those houses. Whether you're here and you're a Jesus follower or not, it happens to all of us. The question would be, what am I built on? What is my faith in? What am I attached to? And we can live with this clear invitation of faith. That I mean it's it's an active trust in the in the character, in the ability of God. That's what he invites me to do. That's how he invites me to live. And so today I want to give you just two questions as we engage that, as we as we reflect on that in our lives. Where are you placing your faith? Where are you placing your faith? Where are you placing your trust, your confidence, the the thing that you're attached to, the thing that you're looking for for security and hope and stability, that that foundation. If you're building the house, where are you placing? Where are you building it on? Where are you placing your faith? Today, maybe for some of us, it's where are we placing our faith today? Because sometimes it can change, it can shift, it can make, I can trust different things, look to different things. It's today I'm gonna come back and build it on the nature and ability of a God who doesn't change, of a God who doesn't leave me, of a God who doesn't fail. Where are you placing their faith? Maybe for some of us it's for the first time. It's like I need to put that active trust in God. I I'm aware of God, I've been aware of this thing called faith, but if I'm honest, it's been a little fuzzy. I'm not quite sure how I would describe it and describe it in my life and how I engage with it in my life. Today, God says, hey, put your faith, put your trust attached to me. And I want to pray around that in a minute. And then number two, if it's in the right place, if it's in the person and character and ability of God. Number two, how are you cultivating your faith? If faith is a response and a seed and a lifestyle, how are you cultivating that in your life? Are you growing that seed? Are you giving it the nutrients it needs? Are you giving it the environment it needs? Are you giving it the input it needs to stretch and grow your faith? Jesus said, put your faith in me like a mustard seed, but but I want to see it grow and blossom and strengthen. How are you cultivating your faith? We could be really good at cultivating our worry, cultivating our questions, cultivating our wonders about what's going on, about who we are, grasping for things. How are we cultivating our faith? How are we cultivating the trust we can have in Him?