Faith, Hope, and Luck part 1

Andy Stanley – Faith, Hope, Luck pt1

Faith/belief implies cause/effect relationships in the world
- I make decisions based on my belief system
- something is propping up my belief system about why I think god does/doesn’t do stuff

to those who lost/abandoned faith:
- when faith is shaken/lost, whatever was propping us up has moved and therefore we came crashing down
2 things erode faith:
- lifestyle decisions
-- being raised that cheating/lying is wrong, but going to work in a place where it is a part of the culture
--- 3 choices: don’t cheat, quit, change beliefs
--- most often beliefs change so we start to think cheating is ok, belief system has changed
- unexplainable circumstances
-- god doesn’t do what we expected him to do
-circumstantial faith: I’m believing or trusting in god based on my ability to find God in those circumstances
-- faith that is crushed by unexplainable circumstances/lifestyle decisions is circumstantial
-- WE ALL HAVE SOME ELEMENT OF THIS IN OUR OWN FAITH!
-- always very fragile because life is not consistent!
--- every time we think we have it figured out, life doesn’t seem to match up
--- fragile bc we suck at interpreting events; always a biased/limited perspective
--- we suck also because our timeframe is too limited and small
--- Joseph: for 15 years, God didn’t do anything for him, but he still had faith
--- if my faith is resting on my ability to hear/understand God, then I have a fragile faith because my faith rests God being visible/evident/a feeling
---- we can misunderstand God (just like we misunderstand another person)

moments can often launch faith, but were never meant to be the object of our faith
-- they can be evidence of God, but never God themselves
-- when those moments become our God, my faith is resting on God being clearly manifested in my life (but he won’t be; see Joseph)

when tough times come, I can either exp pain or pleasure
-- circumstantial faith will not stand up, I’ll choose pleasure over pain
-- means what I believe in wasn’t worth it, means it won’t be here tomorrow, won’t/can’t hold me up

- the foundation of Christianity isn’t an exp, my ability to make the world make sense, an answered prayer
-- foundation is so much different and makes Christianity stand out

Hebrews 4:14 (see below)
- context: written to jewish Christians who had no reason to believe in god; sold everything bc they thought JC was coming back and were now suffering; written to encourage them not to give up their faith based on their circumstances
- this is the foundation of faith
- Jesus is the high priest; priest is a person’s representation before God
-- because of Jesus, we have access to God

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
- things are tough/hard/prayers aren’t answered, but don’t lose faith because we have (present tense) a God who came, lived, loved, and died
- therefore our foundation isn’t an event or experience; IT’S A PERSON!
-- we have this person
- this is what makes Christianity unique
-- 2000 years ago something happened
-- we’re not trying to interpret events or circumstances or experience or answer to prayer
-- it’s a fact in history; cannot be changed
-- we believe because of something that happened years ago; not because of circumstances right now
--- it’s not what we see/exp, it’s what God did many years ago

stories of god’s good answer to prayers are nice
- based there’s almost always a small aspect of circumstantial faith because god has made them happy
-- true faith is seen through the storm and through the crap of our lives
--- true faith isn’t based on my exp, but on a person who lived 2000 years ago

God doesn’t ask us to trust him based on our ability to figure him out
-- asks us to trust him with everything because God entered into human history because He loves us
-- doesn’t ask us to trust because he answered prayer but because of the person/life/love of Jesus
-- answered prayer isn’t proof of God’s love; proof of god’s love is Jesus

Hebrews 12:
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

foundation of our faith is not an event in our lifetime or our ability to understand God’s movement in our life
- it is a person, Jesus Christ