Faith: A Journey of Understanding and Relationship

Devotional

Day 1: Faith Engages the Mind

Faith is not a passive acceptance of doctrines but an active engagement of the mind. It begins with understanding and reasoning, leading to a conviction of God's reality and promises. This challenges the misconception that faith is irrational or anti-intellectual. True Christian faith requires deep thinking and reflection, as it is through this process that believers come to a reasoned trust in the unseen realities of God. Hebrews 11:3 illustrates that by faith, we understand the universe was formed at God's command, emphasizing that faith involves thoughtful examination and reasoning. [02:24]

"For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory." (Proverbs 24:6, ESV)

Reflection: In what ways can you actively engage your mind to deepen your faith today? Consider setting aside time for thoughtful reflection or study.

Day 2: The Universe Points to a Greater Reality

The visible world is not self-explanatory. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, suggesting that the physical world points to a greater reality beyond what is seen. This perspective requires deep reflection and reasoning, challenging the notion that the universe is self-explanatory. The Christian faith posits that the visible world is not all there is, and this belief provides the greatest explanatory power for the realities we experience. Faith invites believers to look beyond the surface and explore the deeper truths of God's creation. [16:03]

"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20, ESV)

Reflection: How does the natural world around you point to a greater reality? Take a moment to observe your surroundings and reflect on what they reveal about God's nature.

Day 3: Faith is a Personal Relationship with God

Faith involves recognizing that God is not an impersonal force but a personal being who desires a relationship with us. This understanding leads to a desire to please God, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who perfectly pleased God, and through faith in Him, we too can be pleasing to God. This relationship with God is not just about intellectual assent but involves a personal, transformative encounter with Him. Faith is about knowing God personally and experiencing His love and grace in our lives. [31:12]

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3, ESV)

Reflection: What steps can you take today to deepen your personal relationship with God? Consider how you can intentionally seek His presence in your daily life.

Day 4: Renewing Faith Through Thoughtful Reflection

Doubt often arises from a lack of thinking, not too much thinking. When faced with challenges, renewing our faith involves renewing our thinking and remembering the reasons for our beliefs. Faith is strengthened through thoughtful reflection and examination of the truths we hold dear. By engaging our minds and hearts, we can overcome doubt and grow in our conviction of God's promises. This process of renewal is essential for maintaining a vibrant and living faith. [12:29]

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2, ESV)

Reflection: What doubts or challenges are you currently facing? How can you renew your thinking to strengthen your faith in these areas?

Day 5: Christianity's Explanatory Power

Christianity provides the greatest explanatory power for the realities we experience. While other worldviews may have intellectual problems, the Christian faith offers a coherent understanding of the universe, reason, morality, and love. It challenges believers to think deeply about their faith and the world around them, providing a framework that makes sense of life's complexities. By embracing this perspective, Christians can find confidence and assurance in their beliefs, knowing that their faith is both reasonable and transformative. [19:10]

"For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness.'" (1 Corinthians 3:19, ESV)

Reflection: How does your faith provide a coherent understanding of the world around you? Reflect on how Christianity's explanatory power impacts your view of life's complexities.

Sermon Summary

Faith is a profound journey that begins with understanding, progresses through conviction, and culminates in commitment. This journey is not a passive acceptance of doctrines but an active engagement of the mind. Faith, as described in Hebrews 11, is not merely a blind leap but a reasoned trust in the unseen realities of God. The ancients, like Abel, Enoch, and Noah, exemplified this faith, which was rooted in a deep understanding of God's nature and promises.

Faith begins with thinking and reasoning. Contrary to popular belief, faith is not opposed to intellectual inquiry. In fact, it requires the deepest engagement of the mind. The Bible teaches that faith is not just compatible with thinking; it demands it. Without thinking, faith cannot exist. This is evident in Hebrews 11:3, which states that by faith, we understand the universe was formed at God's command. This understanding is not a passive acceptance but an active reasoning that leads to a conviction of God's reality and His promises.

The modern world often dismisses faith as irrational, yet true Christian faith is grounded in a thoughtful examination of the world. It challenges the notion that the universe is self-explanatory and posits that the visible world is not all there is. This perspective requires a faith premise, a starting point that cannot be proven but is necessary for understanding the world. The Christian faith premise is that God created the universe, and this belief provides the greatest explanatory power for the realities we experience.

Faith also involves recognizing that God is not an impersonal force but a personal being who desires a relationship with us. This understanding leads to a desire to please God, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who perfectly pleased God, and through faith in Him, we too can be pleasing to God. This relationship with God is not just about intellectual assent but involves a personal, transformative encounter with Him.

Key Takeaways

1. Faith is not opposed to thinking; it requires it. True Christian faith begins with understanding and reasoning, leading to a conviction of God's reality and promises. This challenges the misconception that faith is irrational or anti-intellectual. [02:24]
2. The visible world is not self-explanatory. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, suggesting that the physical world points to a greater reality beyond what is seen. This perspective requires deep reflection and reasoning. [16:03]
3. Faith involves a personal relationship with God. God is not an impersonal force but a personal being who desires a relationship with us. This understanding leads to a desire to please God, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. [31:12]
4. Doubt often arises from a lack of thinking, not too much thinking. When faced with challenges, renewing our faith involves renewing our thinking and remembering the reasons for our beliefs. Faith is strengthened through thoughtful reflection. [12:29]
5. Christianity provides the greatest explanatory power for the realities we experience. While other worldviews may have intellectual problems, the Christian faith offers a coherent understanding of the universe, reason, morality, and love. [19:10]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:11] - Introduction to Faith
[00:51] - Examples of Faith from Hebrews 11
[01:08] - The Multi-Dimensional Nature of Faith
[01:40] - Faith Begins with Understanding
[02:24] - Faith and Thinking
[03:49] - The Role of Reason in Faith
[05:41] - Thinking as the Foundation of Faith
[06:29] - Belief in God's Existence
[07:47] - The Importance of Objective Truth
[09:44] - Faith vs. Sight
[12:11] - Renewing Faith Through Thinking
[15:18] - How Thinking Leads to Faith
[19:10] - Christianity's Explanatory Power
[31:12] - God as a Personal Being
[34:46] - Encouragement to Strengthen Faith

Bible Study Guide

Observation Questions

According to Hebrews 11:3, what role does faith play in our understanding of the universe's creation? How does this relate to the sermon’s emphasis on faith requiring thinking and reasoning? [02:24]
In the sermon, how are the examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah used to illustrate the nature of faith? What common element do they share in their faith journey? [00:23]
What does the sermon suggest about the relationship between faith and doubt, particularly in the context of thinking and reasoning? [12:29]
How does the sermon describe the modern world's view of faith, and how does it contrast with the biblical perspective presented in Hebrews 11? [03:20]

Interpretation Questions

How does the sermon interpret the phrase "by faith we understand" from Hebrews 11:3? What implications does this have for the relationship between faith and intellectual inquiry? [02:24]
In what ways does the sermon suggest that faith is foundational to a personal relationship with God, and how is this relationship made possible through Jesus Christ? [31:12]
How does the sermon address the misconception that faith is irrational or anti-intellectual? What arguments are presented to counter this view? [03:49]
What does the sermon imply about the role of thinking in renewing and strengthening one's faith, especially when faced with challenges or doubts? [12:29]

Application Questions

Reflect on a time when you faced doubt in your faith. How did thinking and reasoning help you navigate through that doubt? What steps can you take to ensure that your faith is grounded in thoughtful reflection? [12:29]
The sermon emphasizes that faith involves a personal relationship with God. How can you cultivate a deeper relationship with God this week? What specific actions can you take to seek Him more earnestly? [31:12]
Consider the idea that faith requires a starting premise that cannot be proven but is necessary for understanding the world. What is your faith premise, and how does it shape your understanding of reality? [16:03]
The sermon suggests that Christianity provides the greatest explanatory power for the realities we experience. How does your faith help you make sense of the world around you? Are there areas where you struggle to see this explanatory power? [19:10]
How can you actively engage your mind in your faith journey this week? Identify one area of your faith that you want to explore more deeply through study or discussion.
The sermon mentions that doubt often arises from a lack of thinking. How can you create a habit of thoughtful reflection in your daily life to strengthen your faith? [12:29]
In what ways can you demonstrate that faith is not opposed to thinking in your conversations with others who may view faith as irrational? How can you share your faith journey in a way that highlights the role of reasoning and understanding? [02:24]

Sermon Clips

Faith begins with understanding, which leads to conviction and completes itself in commitment. Understanding, conviction, commitment—unless all three are present, it's not Christian faith. Now starting this week, we begin to look at each of those elements in turn, and today we're going to talk about the first one. [00:01:30]

The Bible tells us that faith is thinking. It begins with thinking, it starts with reasoning. This is not the popular conception. I know the popular conception is that Orthodox believing Christians are people who don't like to think. They would rather not think, they would rather not ask a lot of questions. [00:02:35]

Faith consists of, requires, and stimulates the profoundest thinking and reasoning and rationality. You cannot be a Christian without using your brain to its uttermost. In fact, to go so far as to say the reason there is not much faith today is because there's not much thinking today. [00:03:45]

Thinking leads to faith. Thinking is the basis of faith. Thinking is the foundation of faith. Let's just look at it in three aspects: that thinking leads to faith, how thinking leads to faith, and why thinking leads to faith. That it does, how it does, why it does. [00:05:48]

You cannot skip over what it says here in verse six. Before you come to him, you must not just think it's true for you, you must think it's true, period. That's what verse 6 says. When a person says, "Oh, I don't know if it's true period," that is an alien view of faith. [00:08:49]

Christians are people who have looked at the universe and thought about it, and it takes plenty of reflection, plenty of reasoning, plenty of thinking, and have decided that if all that exists is what we can see empirically with our five senses, if all that exists is the natural, it doesn't make sense. [00:16:55]

The way you understand things is you start with a faith premise. You can't prove it. You start with the premise, the theory. You say, "Let me try that theory on," and then you look at the phenomenon, and then you try another theory on, and the one with the greatest explanatory power is the one you say, "This is the only one that explains what I see." [00:18:20]

A Christian is not somebody who says, "Ah yes, Christianity, the teaching that there is a supernatural God, a personal Supernatural immaterial God who created all that I see." Christianity, I believe it not because it is perfectly coherent, but because every other Faith premise, every other alternative Theory, is far worse. [00:19:47]

The reason our thinking actually does correspond to reality, the reason that reason works, the reason that thinking works is because the God who invented the world is not just an impersonal Force but he's a person. It says if you want to come to him, you must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. [00:30:57]

Your thinking leads you to see that there is a God and that he's personal, but then it will also lead you if this is a God who made me, and the reason that friendship works is he wants me to have friendship, and the reason that love works is he wants me to have love. [00:31:39]

The Bible tells us that if you don't let your thinking take you all the way to Jesus Christ, it will end in despair. You know why? Martin Luther, his thinking led him to see that there was a God, then his thinking led along further to see it must be a personal God. [00:32:40]

Christian friends, why are you afraid? Why are you worried? Why are you anxious? You know why? You're not thinking. Jesus says if you have little faith because you're worried, you have little faith because you're afraid, you have little faith because you're bitter. [00:34:46]

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