One day in 1939, George Bernard Dantzig, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a graduate-level statistics class and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of unsolved statistics problems, he mistook them for part of a homework assignment, jotted them down, and solved them.
Later, when Dantzig was asked about how he solved them, he replied, “If I had known that the problems were not homework, but were in fact two famous unsolved problems in statistics, I probably would not have thought positively, would have become discouraged, and would never have solved them.”
The Bible is filled with stories of people who did great things for God simply because they believed that with God’s power they could. And we have other stories showing what happens when you don’t believe in God’s power. I want to point out two of those stories. The first is about Jesus’ disciples. They were given the power to heal and to cast out demons. But there was a boy who was possessed by a demon. Some translations say he had epilepsy. But the disciples couldn’t heal him. Jesus casts out the demon and then rebukes his disciples telling them that they lacked faith. They were given the power but doubted that they could in fact do it. The second story is about Peter. Jesus walks on the water to a boat that Peter and the other disciples are on. Jesus calls out to Peter to get out of the boat and walk out to him. Peter follows Jesus orders and walks on the water. But then, he notices that he’s doing something impossible and realizing that it’s impossible, begins to sink. Jesus asks him later, “Why did you doubt?” Peter was doing the impossible and still doubted while he was proving it could be done.
How many of us do the same thing? We look at something that needs to be done and we fail because we know it’s impossible. Or we say, “I can’t do that.” Or “others are better at that than me, so I won’t do it.” We make excuse after excuse because we fear failure, or worse yet, “what will other people think?” Or “that’s impossible, so why bother trying?” Did you know that some things ARE actually impossible, <pause> until someone does them. Sometimes there are people who are so stupid that they believe they can do something everyone else knows is impossible. And in there stupidity, they actually do it.
I’m going to talk about a few concepts that I sometimes think Christians have intellectualized away. As if we have become so “enlightened” that we don’t believe them because they don’t make sense to us anymore. The laws of the universe don’t conform to these concepts, so there is no way it is possible. But I contend that they remain true no matter how we might want to dismiss them.
One idea is the miracles reported in the Bible. We try to find “natural” explanations for how they could have happened. For example, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus died and his family buries him. 3 days later, Jesus arrives, opens his tomb, and calls for him to come out. Lazarus comes out and Jesus says, “take his grave clothes off” Many people today believe that Lazarus was not in fact dead, but had fallen into a coma-like state that often appeared like death. As a matter of fact, in more modern times, Edgar Allen Poe feared being buried alive because of falling into such a state. He took many precautions to make arrangements for everyone to be sure he was dead before anyone was allowed to bury him. But why do modern day Christians see raising Lazarus as impossible? One reason is that it defies the laws of nature. People cannot come back to life once they are dead. We KNOW that. But why is it impossible for God?
That’s just one example. We can look at many other examples. Jonah in the belly of a fish defies all understanding. It must just be a metaphor because that can’t happen. The Great Flood, just another story to boost the ratings. Virgin birth, try to teach THAT in biology class. The list goes on and on.
So let me ask this, is God confined by the laws of nature? Who do you think wrote the laws of nature? I’m thinking it was the God who brought nature into existence. If we believe God created the universe, why do we think the God who created life, cannot restore it? This is one of those “being too enlightened to believe” moments I’m talking about. My personal belief is that God created the universe. It may have been in 6 days, just 6000 years ago. It may have been through the Big Bang. To me, it doesn’t matter. You can pick your favorite theory. To me it doesn’t matter HOW it was done, all that matters is that I know it was GOD who did it. God’s method doesn’t matter to me. In our enlightenment, we have made science and religion mutually exclusive. You either believe in what science tells us, or you believe in what religion tells us. For me, I believe there is a third option. I believe that God created and controls what happens and science will help us understand how all that works. Science does NOT have to be an enemy of religion, it can be an ally. My hope is that science will one day explain the universe so clearly that it will be impossible to deny that it was created by intelligent design, that it didn’t “just happen” by random accidents.
This is the faith that the writer of Hebrews talks about when he says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We say that we believe in God, and that Jesus is the Son of God, but we have become a society of “doubting Thomas’s.” Thomas would not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead until he saw it with his own eyes. We take a critical view of Thomas for his unbelief, but how are we any different? We cannot believe in things we can’t prove. We elevate science to a status where our faith should be. For many of us, our faith relies on science for validation. We won’t believe it, if it can’t be proven. And that includes God working in our lives. Maybe we WANT science to prove it wasn’t God because God’s power is scary to us. We can only manage what we can understand. So if it goes beyond our understanding, we can’t control it. If we can’t control God, what if He tells me to do something I don’t want to do? I might actually have to do it. And it’s scary.
So the faith I’ve been talking about so far has really been more of a “passive” faith, just believing that God can do things beyond our understanding. But I want to talk more about an “active” faith, a faith that causes us to do things that are way outside our comfort zone, a faith that moves us to action when we would prefer to do something else, or be somewhere else, a faith that can change the course of history.
Last week, I was at the Manassas Church of the Brethren. I got to hear Chris Bowman’s sermon on faith, based on Hebrews chapter 11. This chapter talks about the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and on and on. All these people had faith and God brought about these extraordinary results in their lives. But what was so good about his sermon, was when he got to verse 35. He mentioned that we often gloss over that part because we want to be on the first list. The list of all these great people who had faith in God and great things came from it. But in verse 35, the writer switches gears and says, “others”, others who were faithful, but their lives went a different route. Happily ever after wasn’t the outcome for them. This is how the last portion of Hebrews 11 reads:
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection.
So far all about great faith and the great results for holding fast to it. And now we read this:
OTHERS were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
These people became martyrs for their faith. They did not receive a glorious parade to celebrate their faithful service and mark how God brought them through with flying colors. Their faith did bring them special blessings when they got to heaven, but it was not received here on Earth.
Peter is a good example of a good outcome. He was thrown into prison and the other disciples prayed and prayed and God sent an angel and he was released. How about John the Baptist? He was thrown into prison and his disciples prayed and prayed and he was beheaded. Not the outcome we like to think about.
We don’t know what the outcome for our faith might be. But the question is, are we willing to act on it no matter how serious the result may be?
The scriptures that Sarah read for us today might seem to be an odd mix of ideas to go together. The first scripture pretty much tells us that if we ask God to do anything for us and we have full faith that He will do it, then we can count it as done. He says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, with faith, you will receive.” It seems very clear. Ask for it, believe you’ll get it, and it’s yours. Can’t be much plainer, can it?
The second scripture says that if we love God, we will obey his commandments. Again a very plain truth, if you love God, you show it by obeying His commands for your life.
I want to throw a third scripture into the mix. Matthew 7:11, If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
So like the first, all we have to do is ask, and we will receive because God loves us.
So let me ask, what do you want God to give you?
Now, before we start thinking of God as our Genie in the Lamp, here’s where a little logic needs to be applied. We love God, so we do what we’re told. God loves us, so we get what we ask for.
First question, what does God tell us to do?
Well, we’re told to not covet what other people have.
We’re told to not love money.
We’re told not to rely on wealth for security.
We’re told to rely completely on God for our daily needs.
So what was it you wanted to ask God to give you?
How about this:
Someone we love is sick, maybe dying. Obviously we want them to be healed. So what do we ask God to do? We ask for healing, right? Why is that? Is it because we don’t want to lose them? Meaning it’s actually for us? Or they are suffering, so we want that to stop, but we don’t want death to be the method of stopping the suffering. Why?
As human beings, we ask God for something, but we also lay out our agenda of acceptable ways God to do that. We might have great faith that God is going to carry out the agenda as we prescribed it. But what if it doesn’t go that way? Do we stop having faith? What was our faith in anyway? Was it in God to do the right thing, or was it in our agenda for what we find acceptable.
When Jesus was praying in the garden about his death, he told God, “I’m not liking this plan you got going for me. Let’s talk about changing it up.” But as much as he didn’t want the plan to end in suffering and death, he still submitted and said, “not MY will, but YOUR’S be done.” His faith in God to do the right thing, overrode his own desires. He had the ability to change the plan, but he chose to follow God’s plan, not his own.
Jesus is the example of faith in action that we need to follow. I ask in faith for something, but I get aligned with God’s will. If I ask for selfish things, I am not aligned with God. I ask with the wrong motives. Asking in faith is not just asking and believing that I will get it. It’s about asking and having faith that God will give me what I need, not just what I want.
Faith is not for God. Faith is for us. Faith should be transforming us into the people of God. It’s our faith that allows us to have an anchor to get through some of the worst times in our lives. It allows us to weather storms that seemingly beat us up, but in the end, only make us stronger, provided we hang on to our faith. Faith allows us to be leaders, and not followers. If we follow the trends of the world, we can’t change the world, because we are part of the world. If we step out and lead with our faith in hand, we’re going to stand out and be different. We may not be popular at the time, but we leave an imprint on those who can’t figure out why we don’t just go with the flow. They go with the flow and feel safe, but often unfulfilled. When their longing for fulfillment grows, they will remember those that stood out and pick up where we left off. The seeds of faith we plant today, will one day grow. We don’t know where or when, but we can be sure that they will grow.
I’d like to close with a real life example of transforming faith. I know a couple who had a young daughter that developed an incurable illness. Death was certain. The couple prayed, their family prayed, their friends prayed, their church prayed. Everyone was praying for the healing of this little girl. And not long after that, she died. Asking God for healing, in faith, did not heal this little girl. But the change in the couple, the change in their family, the change in their friends, the change in their church was nothing short of a miracle. Their faith was stronger, their relationships were tighter, everything about them grew to whole new level. Of course they mourned and to this day fight back tears for their loss, but the power of God through their faith has made them new creations. They are out there fighting for children who suffer with diseases that take their lives too soon. They have opened an orphanage in a third world country for children who are otherwise forgotten. The world is changing because of their faith. They are on a crusade to help others who have to deal with the loss of children.
THAT is faith that changes the world!
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