Reigniting Faith

Well, good morning. Whether you're joining us online or joining us here in person, we are so glad to have you here as we do kind of a preview weekend of our brand new series, Faith Forward. My name's Rene, one of the pastors here at the church. And before I dig into the message for this morning, I was just struck by something and really moved to tears as I was watching what was happening this morning.

I don't know if you picked up on this, but every single person you heard speak in this morning's service, Yolanda, Shamina, Adrian, Rene, we are all first-generation children of immigrants from other countries. And you can probably tell by our names, right? Yolanda, Shamina, Adrian, Rene. I mean, on stage you see here represented children from the Middle East, from Mexico, from Colombia, from Korea. Most of us, English is actually our second language, including me.

But even though we're from all these diverse backgrounds and we don't even all have the same exact skin color, it's just moving to me to think that where we found our unity, where we find our brotherhood and sisterhood, where we found our family is in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what brings us together today as one. No matter where your background is from, no matter if your relatives go back to the pilgrims or whether you're children of immigrants or an immigrant yourself, you're welcome here because we're unified by our faith in Jesus Christ. Can I hear an amen from this church? Type "amen" if you are watching online. That's powerful. And that's what faith is all about.

Well, listen, somebody came up to me after the outdoor service last weekend and they said, "Renee, I have a complaint that I would like to lodge about your sermons." I said, "Okay, what is it?" They said, "Well, you're leaving something out that everybody's thinking about, but you're not talking about." I said, "Well, what is it?" They said, "Your grandchildren." And so I'm happy to correct that oversight right now. Here's an update. I want to show you a picture of our three grand boys. This is Freddie and Frederick, just turned five. He is just starting kindergarten this fall. This is Danny, his brother. Danny is two and a half. And this is Emmett, and that's Emmett's dad, Jordan. And Emmett was just born earlier this year.

In fact, Emmett has a special message for you. This is a special word for his public. Watch this this morning. I taught him everything he knows. But as I look at these three boys, and by the way, we've got two more on the way. We've got another baby due, Thanksgiving week, and another grand baby due on Christmas Day. So we're very excited about that, keep those babies in prayer.

But as I look at these three, and I look at the light in their eyes, it reminds me of something Jesus said. That's so profound. He said, "Unless you come to me like a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Wow. What did he mean by that? What is the faith of a child? Well, lots of things. But for one, little kids are believers. Little kids see possibility. Little kids see potential. It's all still hopeful for them about the future.

For example, Freddie and Danny love to pretend that they're astronauts, or superheroes, or car mechanics. You know, little kids just have hope for the future. In fact, just a quick show of hands. How many of you at some point as a little kid thought of growing up and becoming an astronaut? How many of you thought of becoming an astronaut? How about a teacher? You wanted to be a teacher. How about a firefighter? Anybody want to pretend you were a firefighter? Okay, how about a pro athlete? How about a movie star? How about a rock star? How about a pastor? I didn't think so. Okay. But little kids see possibilities.

More important, little kids really just simply believe Jesus when Jesus says, "All things are possible to those who believe in him." Grown-ups tend to go, "Mm, yeah, right." So how do I get that childlike sense of wonder and possibility and faith back? Let's talk about it. Grab your message notes. And if you're not here in person, you can download them at tlc.org/notes as we preview our series, "Faith Forward, Living Confidently in an Uncertain World."

Today, what I want to do is lay the foundation for our 40-day study that starts next weekend because some of you are joining us today and you are so discouraged. You know, the last 19 months have just hammered you and you've lost that childlike sense of possibility and hope and wonder about the future. So let's talk about reigniting faith. And we really do need this more than ever.

I shared with some of you in one of my daily video devos last week that there was a headline in our local paper, "The Santa Cruz Sentinel," on Labor Day weekend. It was this, "The Summer of Hope Ends in Gloom." A lot of people are not feeling any hope right now. They're only feeling gloom. There was a political cartoon the other day talked about the fire and the floods and the drought and the storms, even the political storms. That is a lot that is burdening us. It all adds up to a real heavyweight.

The great Texas pastor, Tony Evans, said last week, and this is a great quote. Oh, first, I want to cover an NPR story that I saw just yesterday. I just added this to the message because I thought the headline was so relevant. It said, "How a Summer of Yes is Ending in a Cloud of Uncertainty." And the article started, "It began as the summer of possibility, but now shoppers are fearful, shaky, unnerved, worried." And then as Tony Evans said just the other day, "It seems like every day brings a new worry or fear or concern, the overriding feeling that life isn't working and it's not even worth trying anymore has begun to pervade society at large, causing many to live with a profound sense of hopelessness and despair."

We've lost that childlike faith, that sense of wonder and possibility about the future. We're tired of hoping. I mean, do you remember when it was two weeks to flatten the curve? And now it's 19 months. And some people are saying, "Well, don't think it's over yet." And you just feel like, "I'm tired of even hoping that things are ever going to get any better." Well, what I want to talk about today is how to move from that sense of gloom and insecurity and confusion and into a life of possibility and power and promise.

And we're going to see how to do that by doing a verse-by-verse study during this fall on one of the most epic, grand, wonderful, beautiful chapters about faith in the Bible. In the book of Hebrews, it's chapter 11. It is an all-time classic chapter of the Bible. And it's so relevant to us because it was written to first-century believers in Jesus who were just ready to throw in the towel. They had so much idealism, but now Christians are being persecuted. Romans are on the march all over the world. They're not seeing the promised kingdom of heaven come.

And in these little baby churches, the early idealism is giving way to so much discouragement. So the author of Hebrews is functioning kind of like a coach at halftime, addressing a team that's losing a game, saying, "I know it looks bad right now, but do not give up hope. Hang in there." Kind of like John Gruden must have told the Raiders last Monday night. Did anybody see last Monday night's Monday night football game? It was astonishing, wasn't it? I don't think in my life I've ever seen a game quite like that.

The Raiders come back from seemingly impossible odds so many times. They were down by 14 points with just a couple of minutes left, then down by three points with 30 seconds left, no timeouts, but came back to tie. In overtime, it looks like they got the winning touchdown, but the call was overturned. Then it looks like they're going to score again, and the ball was intercepted. Then it looks like they were going to kick the winning field goal, and they get a penalty. And then the final play, it looks like their quarterback's going to get sacked, and he throws up a Hail Mary, and it becomes the winning touchdown, and this exhausted home crowd just erupts in cheers.

As one NFL player tweeted after that game, "This is why you keep playing the game." And that's the message of Hebrews chapter 11. It's full of examples of people from the Bible times who faced tough circumstances. It looked like they were for sure going to lose, like God was not going to come through for them in any way. They had their backs against the wall, but they had faith. They had trust in God enough to take the next step forward into an uncertain future, believing that the best was yet to come.

And in this series, we are going to meet these people, one story a week, all throughout the fall. But first, in Hebrews chapter 10, the author of Hebrews sets all this up. And he says, "This is the reason I am writing." And some of you, the next three sentences from the Bible are the reason God wanted you to join us or join us online right now. You need to hear this about something you're facing in your life.

The author to the Hebrew says, "So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded." Don't give up. It's only halftime. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised for. In just a little while, he who is coming will come. The kingdom of God is going to come. It's a little seed right now, but the tree is going to grow. God will not delay.

And then here's the last line that kind of sets up Hebrews chapter 11. And this concept is going to be proven true in every story from Hebrews 11 that we're about to see. And here's the sentence. "My righteous one," the righteous ones of God, the just, "will live by faith." That's the three words that are the theme for Hebrews chapter 11, "live by faith." Say that out loud with me. "Live by faith." Okay, even if you're at home, say it out loud with me, but this time emphasize the word "live." All right? Here we go. "Live by faith." Say it again. "Live by faith."

In other words, faith is not just something you think. Faith is not just something you say, "Yeah, I believe that." Faith is something you put into action. You trust God enough to move forward. You don't have to see the whole future. You just have to have enough trust in God to take the next step, even when the future seems uncertain. This is what the author of the Hebrews is urging his readers to do. We're going to see the context in more detail next weekend, but the bottom line is this. There are two approaches to life. You can live by faith. Say that with me. "Live by faith," or you can live by sight.

Now what does that mean? We're going to be covering this in more detail as the series goes on, but let me just give you one example from life. I heard that the African impala has almost like superpowers when it comes to leaping. Listen to these details. I looked this up. The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and over a distance of nearly 30 feet. Ten feet high, 30 feet long. That's practically flying. Yet the African impala can be kept in any enclosure in any zoo behind a little three-foot wall. Why? The impala will not jump if it can't see where its hooves will land. It lives by sight. You see?

And some of you live just like that, by sight. If the future is just a little uncertain, a little gloomy, a little dark, a little dim, a little foggy, you are paralyzed. You and I need to learn to live by faith. In other words, faith is not just a doctrine to believe, but a lifestyle to embrace. You live by faith. Now, in this series, we're going to define that and study it and learn about it. But first, I want to establish this morning why faith is so important as a topic of intense study for the entire fall season here at Twin Lakes Church.

And this morning, I'm going to just be blasting through all kinds of Bible verses on faith today. First, I want to talk about the benefits of strong faith. Look there at your notes. This is just some of what the Bible says faith does for you. First, faith pleases God. The author of the Hebrews says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. So would you say faith is a pretty important issue? In fact, if for no other reason, this would be a good enough reason to study faith because it's the key to my relationship with God.

But there's more. Next, faith strengthens relationships. The Bible says love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful. Another show of hands, how many of you here this morning are parents? How many parents do we have here today? How many grandparents? How many of you have brothers or sisters? How many of you have co-workers? How many of you have friends? Faith is kind of like the oil that makes those relationships work. What am I talking about? Because if you lived by sight, follow me here, and only operated in those relationships and looked at where those relationships are at right now, you'd probably give up hope, right? Because some of them are not very promising right now.

In order to make relationships work, you need to have faith that there are great things in store for that relationship, that it's going to get better, that God has great things in store for your marriage, for your kids, for your friends, for your co-workers, for that person that you live next door to. Faith builds relationships. Faith is what pulls us into the future in any relationship. And then next, faith builds confidence. The Apostle Paul was going through some very tough circumstances, and he wrote, "Therefore, we are always confident." Wow, what a statement, always confident. Why? Because we live by faith. There it is again. We live by faith and not by sight.

I want you to imagine something. Imagine what your life would be like if you had absolute confidence. And I mean absolute confidence that there really is a God, a personal God who knows your name, and he's a God who will walk beside you every day, who has promised never to leave you, never to forsake you. Imagine if you had that kind of faith, the kind of faith that says, when things are really hard, well, I cannot change this, but I'm trusting that God will see me through because he has promised he would, as Shemina sang. He has promised that though bad things will come, he is going to work all things for my good. You would be totally at peace.

And this is not theoretical. I saw it with my own eyes, and so did Adrian. We were both involved in a memorial service right here yesterday afternoon for a family in our church, the Ramses, who lost their little boy, Jet, at five years old to cancer. And they stood here and shared during their son's memorial, through tears but with hope, about how they are getting through all of this. And they said it's because of one word. Guess what that word is? Faith. Their faith that they will see Jet again, their faith that God is going to work even this together for good, that is bringing them through this.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have that kind of confidence in life? I look around and I see the way Christians are reacting and overreacting to world events and political events and COVID events these days. I'm not seeing that kind of faith. I'm not seeing that kind of security. But this is where God wants to take you. Next, faith encourages others. The apostle Paul was a man of great faith, but even he said, in all our distress, we were encouraged. Why? Because of your faith. And he's saying this to the Christians in the Thessalonian church.

And this series, each week, starting next week, you're going to meet people of faith, not just from the Bible, but I'm going to be interviewing people every week from right here in Santa Cruz, right here at Twin Lakes Church. You are going to be so inspired. Their faith is going to encourage you. And then faith increases my capacity. Like in dramatic ways. Look at what Jesus said. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing, even greater things, greater things than Jesus? I wouldn't have said that, but Jesus promised it. If you have faith. Fascinating, right? We can't ignore these verses in the Bible.

And then finally, faith opens doors. And you realize, of course, we're sitting in a church right now, or you're watching a church right now, where this literally happened. You might know, I love to tell the story. Twin Lakes Church was started in 1890. But then by about 1922, the church seemingly had failed. It was dead. The doors were closed, padlocked. And you know what the average attendance of this church was for nearly the next nine years after that? Zero. Because it didn't have any services. It was closed, over, dead.

And then in 1930, on March 30th, 11 people met and got permission to snap the padlocks and the chains off the doors and reopen Twin Lakes Church. Here's a scan of the minutes, the handwritten minutes from that meeting, March 30th, 1930. You could call these the Twin Lakes 11. A couple of months later, they had typewritten minutes. And after all the bills were paid, they had to repair the roof, repair broken windows. And after all the bills were paid, they had $0.19 left. 11 people, $0.19. Not much. But they had the essential thing, which is what? Faith. They were living by faith.

If they'd been living by sight, they would have seen this broken down old building with no windows left and rain streaming into the roof every time there was a storm. But they were not living by sight. They were living by faith or they would have seen a church in ruins. And this is what I'm trying to express is this church is a living illustration to you. If there's something in your life that seems dead and over and in ruins and hopeless, maybe one of your kids, maybe your marriage, maybe your employment, maybe there's something else that you just feel like it's just in ruins, so was this church. And yet the Holy Spirit in His time brought it back to life again.

And now there's ministry happening all over the world because of those 11 people and their $0.19 to spare. So do not throw away your confidence. Keep moving forward. Live by faith, not by sight, because there is reward ahead. You know, Jesus said something that makes me almost uncomfortable. It's such a strong statement. I probably would not have said this, but Jesus did. He says this to a couple of blind men who are asking for healing. He says, according to your what? Faith. It will be done unto you. Now that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. What does that mean? And Jesus said this more than once.

Well, when you boil it down, here's a key truth. Often my faith is a tipping point, you could say, that determines an outcome in my life. That is just biblical. Now I am not saying, as some teachers do, perhaps trying to explain this but clumsily or inaccurately, some people seem to imply if you only have faith, then everything you pray for is going to come true. God's going to be like your personal magic genie, and everything you ask for will be granted. Of course that's not true. I hope you know that that is not true. In fact, it's cruel to even imply that to somebody who's been praying for healing and then doesn't get it.

As Paul, the Apostle Paul, in the Bible experienced, sometimes it's God's will that we suffer and learn that his grace is sufficient for us. I am saying, though, that apparently all things being equal, there are times when God wants to do something in your life and he allows your faith to be the determining factor for that outcome in your life. Again, I am not saying without faith a miracle is inevitable, but I am saying without... I'm not saying with faith the miracle is inevitable. I am saying without faith the miracle is impossible. I mean, the Bible says even Jesus himself couldn't heal in his own town because of their lack of faith. Think of that.

So look at all these bullet points. And there were many, many, many more that I could have included. But wouldn't you love to activate these things in your life? Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you love to please God? Wouldn't you love to strengthen relationships, build your own confidence up? Wouldn't you love to encourage other people and increase your capacity and open doors that are closed doors to you right now? That all comes when you have stronger faith according to Scripture.

You know, I think there seem to be two strains of thought about faith historically within American Christianity anyway. You have some American Christians who see these verses and almost overemphasize faith to the point where it becomes like a magic potion. If you only have enough faith, then you'll get anything you want. Again, that is not what the Scripture teaches. But then there's other Christians who are almost embarrassed by the verses that teach all this about the possibility of faith. And so they never talk about it at all. And they emphasize the sovereignty of God and say, well, almost like some kind of a fatalism. Well, whatever God wants to happen, that's just going to happen. And it doesn't matter what you think, say, or do. That is not biblical either.

Somehow, faith can be the tipping point to experiencing, to activating all of these things that God wants you to experience in life. And that's why when we're living in times when faith is being eroded and weakened, it can be so devastating to us personally, to our churches, to our communities. Because on the other hand, look at some of these symptoms of weak faith on page two of your notes. The other day when I was reading the Gospel of Matthew, I was struck by how many times Jesus called people out for having little faith. So maybe do a little self-diagnostic here. Do you exhibit any of these? Would Jesus say any of this to you?

First, worry. Jesus said, "Why do you worry? You have little faith." If I believe God is real and God is good, why worry? Next, fear. When the disciples are out in the boat in a storm and they're freaking out, Jesus says, "Why are you so afraid? You have so little faith." As Francis Chan says, and we need to hear this in fearful times, so much of our anxiety is really traceable to our weak faith. Next, doubt. There's another great story where the Apostle Peter gets out of the boat during another storm and walks toward Jesus on the water, but then he looks toward the waves and he sinks. And Jesus saves him and then says, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Question for you. Have you ever started to try something for the Lord and then got so distracted by the problems and the storms and the wind and the waves and you started to sink in despair? I've been there. It's because of a lack of faith. And then what you could call spiritual dullness. And this is my personal favorite example. It's kind of like a comedy sketch. Jesus is telling the disciples as they're walking along one day, "Fellas, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." And what he's doing there is he's warning them against toxic religion, legalism. But the Bible says the disciples don't get it. They think Jesus is criticizing them for not getting bread for lunch.

So instead of hearing Jesus' teaching as liberating, they're instantly thinking he's telling them how they are letting him down. You know, didn't get sandwiches for lunch. And the implication is that when we don't have faith that God is real and God is good and God rewards, then we can hear things from scripture that are meant for our liberation and instead we interpret them in a burdensome way. Look at what Jesus says to the disciples. He says, "You of little faith do you still not understand?" They had spiritual dullness because of their lack of faith. Have you been feeling a little spiritually dull lately? When I have little faith, I start to lose that spark.

And then finally, little faith leads to spiritual weakness. The disciples asked Jesus why they can't do one of the miracles they see him doing and he tells them this, "Because you have so little faith." Watch this. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you. That sense of childlike possibility. Again, of course not saying that you'll have magical powers, but he is clearly saying that their weak faith was holding them back. Because a lack of faith defined as a trust in God enough to take the next step forward into the dark. A lack of faith leads to hesitation and procrastination and self-limitation.

So some of you are probably thinking, I hope you're thinking, "Okay, Renee. Okay, I get it. Strong faith has benefits. Weak faith has dangers. So how do I build up my faith?" Well, that is what this series that we're starting next weekend is all about. I want you to go from the symptoms of weak faith here on page 2 to all the benefits of strong faith on page 1. And I have to tell you something very, very personal. Some of these people say, "Renee," and I'm delighted to hear this, "when you preach, it's like you're talking personally to me." I got to tell you something. When I preach, I'm talking personally to me.

When I preach, it's because in my own spiritual life, I need to hear this and I need to grow in this. And I'm just assuming that because we're all humans, you do too. As I've been praying and seeking wise counsel on what to preach this fall, one concept came through clearly, and that is the hope and faith and trust of Christians has just been eroded. And we need to shore up our confidence again. So how are we going to do this? Well, look at what the author of the Hebrew says in chapter 10, starting in verse 22, because this is exactly what we hope to do in this series.

First, he says, "Let us draw near to God." Daily, in prayer, in devotion, you need to be intentional about not just letting, you know, opening up your phone to your news app or Facebook or some other social media app first thing in the morning and letting all the bright glare of all the bad news barrage you first thing in the morning. You need to be intentional about drawing near to God, building up your faith as the foundation for your day.

And to help you do that, we are sort of reimagining our daily video devos that go out every morning at 7 a.m. as little faith starter devos. To get them texted to you for free, just text TLC to 81411. Starting next week, these are going to be little one or two minute faith starters every morning to remind you to draw near to God. And the next it says, "Let us unswervingly hold to the hope that we profess." Unswervingly, intentionally, deliberately hold on to our hope.

In other words, stop binging junk food for your soul and get into God's Word immersively. And in this series, we hope to do that, at least to help you do that through the Faith Forward book. And if you open up the Faith Forward book, what you'll see is 40 daily readings where on the first page, we take one verse that's at the bottom of the page, and we're going to go through Hebrews 11 verse by verse, and there'll be other verses from Scripture there too for 40 days.

And then for the next two to four pages after that, there's a little kind of daily meditation about that verse. Now, of course, if you're like me, I can't read just one chapter a day when I read a book. I've got to blow through the whole thing at a day, and you're free to do that as well. But it's designed for those of you who would rather take it in bite-sized chunks to read it in 40 daily increments. And we designed it so that day one starts next Sunday, September 28th, and you can get these books here at church, or you can also order them online at TLC.org/faith, and we have the Kindle version on Amazon as well.

The next he says, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and what? Good deeds. Doing good deeds builds up your faith. You're interacting with people. You're doing something positive. And in this series, what we're doing is what we call acts of kindness through the whole series for the rest of this month through all of October till November 14th. We're encouraging small groups, families, individuals, groups of friends find a service project to do in our community and you can get some ideas at our website TLC.org/AOK for acts of kindness because doing good deeds builds up faith.

And then finally he says not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing meeting together. We're going to be doing that of course through our weekly services and small groups. And I just want to challenge you to keep coming back either in person at any of our three weekend services or online. Either way, here's the challenge. Don't miss a week for the next eight weeks until Thanksgiving. Because I think one of the biggest reasons that people are losing hope right now is frankly, we've become a little lazy about doing what the Bible tells us to do. And that is gathering weekly with other believers either virtually or in person.

And here's the biggest challenge for you. I also want to encourage you to join a small group. You can sign up at TLC.org/smallgroups. We have both in person and virtual small groups. We have indoor and outdoor small groups. Or you can start your own at work or with your family. If you have never joined one of these before, these are kind of like book clubs only we study the Bible. And in the back of the Faith Forward book, we wrote small group discussion guides for each week. There are videos that you can watch that we made as discussion starters that go with these group questions to make it very simple.

I encourage you to weekly join us for our services to weekly join a small group. Why? Just meeting together is so encouraging and will boost your faith level. So just to be clear, this all starts next weekend. And I hope that you leave whether you're joining us virtually or in person, sign up for that small group, get that book. Because here's the thing, I want to show you a number, look at this number. 27,375. Do you know what that is? That is the number of days that the average person will live in this life. That's all we got about 27,000. Why not take about 40 of those days to study and build up the one thing that is going to improve the quality of every single other day you live? Faith.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I'm so excited about this next eight weeks. I can hardly wait to see the changes and the miracles that you are going to do in our lives. I am expecting the best. And God, I'm sure that a lot of people joining us right now are worried about a problem stressed about life. And I just pray that they would take a deep breath right now. And say, Jesus, I will take the next step forward in faith. I put my trust in you. Give me, restore in me that childlike faith so I can take those next steps one day at a time, having confidence that you are with me no matter what and that no matter what happens, you will work it together for good.

Thank you, God, in advance for how you are going to grow us individually and as a church during this Faith Forward series. In Jesus name, amen.