August 4, 2002

Service Theme – "Our God is Faithful"

1 John 5:1-12

How to Walk in Faith

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Charles Simpson, in Leadership: A Practical Journal for Church Leaders (7 (Winter 1986), 40), wrote, Exotic fish stores report that sharks have become a popular aquarium fish. If sharks are caught and confined when small, they grow only to a size proportionate to the aquarium. The limited environment determines their growth. Sharks can be six inches long and still be fully matured. Only when set free in the ocean do they grow to their normal length of eight feet.
2. Context – Faith is like those sharks. Only when we set it free by the power of the Holy Spirit can we walk in faith and see it grow to become God-sized faith. John offers us a lot of help in figuring out what it means to walk in faith.

1. Scripture Passage

1. 1 John 5:1-12 (from The Message) – Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll really love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome. Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus – the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement. If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be assured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son. This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life: whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.

1. Faith is More than Believing

1. John has spent a lot of time in his letter telling us how to love God and love each other. Now he’s addressing the issue of how faith and love work together, and how you can’t have one without the other. So what does John say about how we can walk in faith?
2. Well, first, John says that faith consists of believing that Jesus is the Savior. Believing isn’t merely thinking something is true – it’s acting with everything you are on that thought! The saying goes that we talk about what we think, but we practice what we believe. So the believing John is talking about has changed how we think and feel enough that it changes what we do. (From Homiletics Online) Gerald R. McDermott, in Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995, 221, wrote: Practice is the best evidence of faith. Because Abraham had faith in God, he left his own country. Because Moses had faith in God, he refused to stay in the luxury of Pharaoh's palace, choosing instead to suffer with God's people (Hebrews 11:25-26). Because others had faith in God, they were stoned, sawn in two, executed by the sword, mocked and tortured, thrown in prison, and forced to wander about in animal skins, poverty and torment (Hebrews 11:32-38). Walking in faith means walking in the power of our life-changing belief that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. (From Homiletics Online) Miraculously, Christian Reger survived four years of brutal imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau near Munich. He subsequently served as the Chaplain of the Protestant Chapel on the grounds of Dachau. Reger has explained, "Nietzsche said a man can undergo torture if he knows the why of his life. But I, here at Dachau, learned something far greater. I learned to know the Who of my life. He was enough to sustain me then, and is enough to sustain me still." Walking in faith means believing enough to know personally the Who of our lives, Jesus Christ. Knowing Jesus personally changes what we do and think and enables us to truly walk in faith. We can’t walk in faith without believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, enough to act on that belief.
3. Second, John tells us that faith will bring us to love God’s children as much as we love God Himself. God’s children are those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. So faith isn’t just loving God, it’s also loving other believers enough that our behavior toward them is changed. People we would have nothing in common with otherwise become beloved brothers and sisters in the faith. Walking in faith changes how we act toward people. Walking in faith also changes our perceptions of what a true, loving Christian looks like. Jim Cymbala, in Fresh Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993, 45), wrote, When I was growing up, I thought the greatest Christian must be the person who walks around with shoulders thrown back because of tremendous inner strength and power, quoting Scripture and letting everyone know he has arrived. I have since learned that the most mature believer is the one who is bent over, leaning most heavily on the Lord, and admitting his total inability to do anything without Christ. The greatest Christian is not the one who has achieved the most but rather the one who has received the most. God's grace, love and mercy flow through him abundantly because he walks in total dependence. Walking in faith means walking in total dependence on God. Total dependence on God changes who we are and how we think and feel and act, which gives us the ability to love other believers as much as we love God.
4. Third, John says that walking in faith means obeying God’s commands. That’s a hard thing nowadays! I’ve seen a commercial lately that features footage of a woman in the process of getting ready for the day and has a voiceover that talks about how this woman has the right to choose whatever she wants to do with her body. "My body, my choice." The sponsor of the commercial: the National Abortion Rights Action League, or NARAL. We tend to think that nobody ought to be able to tell us what to do – we’re independent Americans free to make our own choices. But God doesn’t command us to obey us to spoil our fun – He does it for our own benefit as well as for His glory. Imagine what would happen if we took ads like that NARAL one and expanded it to all of the sins we like to indulge in. We’d have the National Cocaine Addicts’ Rights Action League, the National Alcoholics’ Rights Action League, and the National Murderers’ Rights Action League. The list could go on. I know some of you are thinking that list may be a bit over the top. But why? If you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do, then I can’t tell you either. God will not stop anyone else from sinning anymore than He will stop us from sinning. He loves us enough to give us the choice. We’ve got to wake up and realize that we have need to stop making bad choices! We need to start seeing our vices and indiscretions as God sees them – as sin! We need to stop acting like pagans and start acting like children of God! We need to realize that God is holy and cannot be in the presence of sin, and that He wants to have close, personal relationship with us. John tells us that if we love God we will obey His commands, so that nothing will interfere with our relationship with Him. And as John puts it, God’s commands "are not at all troublesome."
5. Fourth, walking in faith means living in victory over sin. Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God. Sometimes those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ get hung up on the fact that we’ve been saved from eternal punishment. That’s very true, and it’s a good thing, but if we allow our faith in Jesus to be limited to that, we miss the whole point of His life, death, and resurrection. Jesus came to break the power of sin over our lives. As Dutch Sheets says in Intercessory Prayer, the victory over sin and the devil has already been won. We just have to be smart enough to realize that we’ve got to appropriate that victory in our everyday lives. Translation: we’ve got to allow God to so fill us with His Spirit that we are enabled to walk in victory over sin in our hearts and lives each and every day. We settle way too much for living defeated lives, trying desperately to win over sin by our own strength! When we do that, the enemy has won! We have to realize that we have to live that victory over sin by the power of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. But that’s also the hard part. As I said last week, the Holy Spirit can come and clean us out in an instant, but it takes a lifetime to integrate that faith and purity of heart into everyday life. (From Homiletics Online) William Thackery wrote, It’s not dying for your faith that is hard; it’s living up to it. When we are committed to living holy lives by the power of the Spirit and not according to our own strength, we will walk in faith because we’re walking in victory over sin. No more excuses for sin! Walk in faith in victory over sin by the power for the Spirit!
6. Fifth, John tells us that if we want to walk in faith, we will wholeheartedly believe the testimony God has given about His Son, Jesus Christ. He writes that we have a triple testimony about Jesus: the Spirit, the Baptism, and the Crucifixion. The Spirit not only conceived Jesus within Mary, but He also confirms in our own spirits that we are God’s children when we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No confirmation, no relationship. The Baptism testifies to us the falling of the Holy Spirit on Jesus like a dove, commissioning Him for ministry. But remember that was also the time when God spoke from heaven, telling us Who Jesus is, the Son. The Crucifixion was when the power of sin over our lives was shattered, enabling us to have the relationship with God we were created for. But why is it so important for us to have no doubts about this triple testimony? If we doubt the work of the Holy Spirit within us and the Bible, the two witnesses as to the truth of the triple testimony, we have no basis for faith. I know most of us believe in our hearts this is true, but one of the main problems we face is the fact that familiarity breeds contempt. When we’re first saved, we tend to believe what the Bible says and what the Spirit tells us. In spite of the attacks on our faith, we are careful about our faith because we don’t want to lose it. But after a while, we tend to get a bit sloppy about maintaining our relationship with God through Bible study, prayer, even worshipping at church. We get lulled into a false sense of security regarding our "spiritual maturity." As Homiletics Online puts it, Getting sloppy about our Christian faith and practice during easy times leaves us without the resources of faith when tough times come along. A similar phenomenon has been noted about people who live in high-risk areas such as the coastal lands of Florida where hurricanes tend to strike. Dr. Robert Simpson, former director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said, "It is a very dangerous thing to go so long between hurricanes. It causes a larger number of incredulous people -- nonbelievers [in the damage hurricanes can do.] As a result, people start building in dangerous places again and fail to take reasonable precautions when storms are coming. If we want to walk in faith, we’ve got to believe wholeheartedly the triple testimony and act on it!
7. Finally, John gives us a bit of a warning: We can’t walk in faith if we refuse to believe in the Son of God. Yes, I know this could have fit in with the previous point, but I think it’s important enough for us to take a separate look at. John is telling us we have a choice: to believe and live, or to refuse to believe and reject eternal life. It’s a choice. But more than that, it’s an all or nothing choice. You are either wholeheartedly, 100% believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and have personal relationship with Him and live according to that faith. Or you reject Him and have no future in heaven with Him. I know that many of us have been indoctrinated with theology that says that we only have to be baptized or say the right words or do the right things to make it to heaven. I grew up in churches that taught those things. They are good things to do, but the Bible teaches that making it to heaven requires more – personal, loving relationship with Jesus Christ that makes a powerful impact on how you live your everyday life. Relationship with God makes all the difference in the world. My parents emailed me this joke: When Ole moved up to northern Minnesota he discovered that he was the only Lutheran in his new little town of all Catholics. That was okay, but the neighbors had a problem with Ole barbecuing venison every Friday during Lent. Since they couldn't eat meat on those Friday's,the tempting aroma was getting the best of them. Hoping they could do something to stop this, the neighbors got together and went over to talk with Ole. Eventually they persuaded him to join their church. The big day came and the priest had Ole kneel. He put his hand on Ole's head and said, "Ole, you were born a Lutheran, you were raised a Lutheran, and now," he said as he waved some incense over Ole's head,"now you are a Catholic". Ole was happy and the neighbors were happy. But the following Friday evening at suppertime there was again that aroma of grilled deer meat coming from Ole's yard. The neighbors went to talk to him about this and, as they approached the fence, they heard Ole saying: "You were born a whitetail, you were raised a whitetail" and he said as he sprinkled seasoning salt over the choice tenderloin cut, "now you are a walleye". Being baptized or saying and doing the right things doesn’t make you a true believer in Christ any more than just saying so made that venison a walleye. Refuse to believe any part of the testimony and so reject close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and you reject eternal life. It’s that simple.
8. Illustration - from SermonCentral.com: The father says, "You better get ready. The bus will be here in a minute to pick you up and take you to Sunday School." The Boy asked,"Did you go to Sunday School when you were a boy?" The father replied, "Yes I did." The boy said as he was getting dressed, "It probably won’t do me any good either!" My heart weeps because we haven’t transformed our world for Jesus Christ, and the reason we haven’t is because we haven’t walked in faith. We haven’t believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God enough to allow it to impact how we think and what we do. We haven’t believed enough to love God and His children wholeheartedly. We haven’t believed enough to obey God’s commands. We haven’t believed enough to live in victory over sin. We haven’t believed what the Holy Spirit and the Bible tell us wholeheartedly. Our faith has not made a powerful impact on our world because we don’t believe God enough to make that happen. I tend to believe after I’ve seen. Most of us are that way. But, as Frederick Buechner, in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1973, 1993, 74), wrote, Faith in God is less apt to proceed from miracles than miracles from faith in God. We can’t afford to wait on God to act before we believe any longer. We’ve got to walk in faith, and then we’ll see more of God’s power than we’ve ever dreamed possible. All by walking in faith. (From Homiletics Online) Dr. Kenneth P. Landon, director of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies at American University, makes this autobiographical comment: "I grew up in an era when it was still respectable to say, 'Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.' Now it is more in style to say, 'Lord, I don't believe much. Help thou my use of cybernetics in determining my probabilities and options." I don’t want to rely on probabilities and options any longer. I want to walk in faith. Do you want to, too?

1. Conclusion

1. Where are you when it comes to walking in faith? All of us have times when we struggle to believe. But what is the pattern of your life? Is there an area of your heart or life where God-sized faith is needed? Is there any part of you that isn’t walking in faith?
2. We are proud people. We don’t like to admit when we’re wrong or when we’re struggling. We strive to maintain our spiritual standing in the sight of our friends and fellow believers. I realized this when God broke my pride following the message on the night I was ordained, and I went forward and admitted my weakness and received the help I needed. I’m asking you this morning to admit your weakness and receive the help you need from God. If you are struggling in any way to walk in faith, and you want to walk what you believe, then come forward and kneel at the altars and seek God and receive the help you need. Swallow your pride and come forward now. Nobody will think any less of you, and God will think a whole lot more of you, and will meet you here. Come forward now.