The first part of my sermon is entitled, “How to
lose your Faith without really trying.”
About a year and a half
ago, our church council created a Leap of Faith team. This was a
group of people that did some long range planning and thinking about
the future. They studied our congregation, our community’s
demographics, and if was possible for us to expand our ministries.
This Leap of Faith team worked really hard and determined that yes, we
do need to some things to expand our ministry. A couple months ago, at
our last congregational meeting, the congregation accepted their
results and voted overwhelmingly – by over 90% - to continue to move
forward in our Leap of Faith. We voted to continue looking at
purchasing more property and adding an addition to this current
building. So the church council appointed a team to look into the
cost of doing these things and the feasibility of it. Not long after
that committee got going, they discovered that Ridgecrest Baptist
Church was for sale and might be willing to come down significantly in
price to a price that we could afford. Ridgecrest is that big Baptist
Church on the corner of 94 and 70 that has been for sale for a couple
of years. Members of the committee toured the church and continued to
crunch numbers and they began to dream about what it would be like to
do ministry in that building instead of our current one. I’m not sure
how many of you are up-to-date on this information, but I know that
they been trying to communicate much of this through announcements in
our weeklies and monthlies. So anyway, as a continuation of the Leap
of Faith, this building committee has worked really hard and done a
lot of thinking and praying about the decision to make an offer on
that other church building.
We were sitting in a
meeting about a week and a half ago really trying to determine if we
could afford it, when I suddenly got cold feet about the whole thing.
As I looked at some of the numbers and thought about the ramifications
about changing buildings, I began to doubt the whole thing. I said
something to the effect of, “Don’t you think we need to go back to the
beginning to see if the congregation really wants to expand their
ministries. Can we really afford it? What happens if it doesn’t work
out?” In other words, I began to doubt the whole thing.
Now, I tell you this for
two reasons. First, I wanted to bring everyone up to speed about what
has been going on since the last congregational meeting. I’m sure for
some of you, this news about the possibility of purchasing Ridgecrest
is just that – news – and your mind is just spinning right now. I’ve
probably lost you for the rest of the sermon. Others already know
that it has been under consideration and this is nothing new. The
building committee will make a presentation to council this week and
the council will then decide if it is something worth taking to the
congregation. One way or another, I promise you that nothing
significant will happen without everyone having a chance to voice
their opinion, so don’t feel like you’ve been left out of any
decisions. None have been made yet. Everything is still just
speculative at this point. But the other reason I tell you about
this, particularly the doubts I had at the meeting two weeks ago was
because I wanted to show you that even pastors have their moments
where their faith slips, Peter moments if you will. I was surprised
by how quickly our faith can slip out from under us. And so I preach
this sermon so that you can better guard your faith.
So this is how you lose
faith, as evidenced by your pastor and by our scripture lessons for
today. First, to actually lose faith, you have to have had some
faith-filled experience to begin with, so that you actually had some
faith to lose. In our OT lesson, Elijah has a marvelous faith-filled
experience. He took on 450 prophets of Baal and God backed him up.
He made those prophets look silly and God was with him every step of
the way. In Peter’s case, his faith-filled experience was getting to
walk with Jesus everyday. He got to witness firsthand the miracles,
and healings, and teachings that Jesus performed on a daily basis.
What better faith-filled experience than to actually walk with Jesus.
More specific to our gospel lesson, Peter had just witnessed Jesus
feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and 2 fish, and now he has
just seen Jesus walk on water. In your pastor’s case, my faith-filled
experiences are numerous, but hardly of the spectacular variety of
Elijah & Peter. But that doesn’t make them any less significant.
Growing in faith is much like growing up into adulthood. There are
lots of little experiences that make you who you are, sure there are
some big ones along the way, but for the most part it’s the little
things along the way that really make you who you are. Same way with
my personal faith life. Lots of people, lots of God-moments, but
nothing like seeing 5,000 people being fed or lightning come down from
heaven. Anyways, back to our lesson. Step 1: Begin with a
faith-filled experience. These experiences, whether dramatic or
mundane, lead you to focus on Jesus Christ, help you understand how
much he loves you, and then you do your best to lead a life of faith.
I’m sure that this is where many of you are today. Things are going
really well and you are comfortable in your faith. Just like Elijah
was, just like Peter was, just like I was.
Okay, Step 2 in how to
lose your faith without really trying is simple. Act on your
faith-filled experience. In some way or another, if you’ve been given
a faith-filled experience, God is going to call you to act on that
faith, take a step into unknown territory, risk a little bit. If
you’re comfortable in your faith right now, God is likely going to be
calling on you soon to do something that will challenge you.
Unfortunately, God doesn’t let us remain comfortable in our faith very
long. In Elijah’s case, God called him to confront the king, Ahab,
and his evil wife, Jezebel. In Peter’s case, Jesus called him to get
out of the boat and step out onto the water. It was a risk that Peter
was willing to take. In your pastor’s case, the way I was called to
act on my faith-filled experiences was to become a pastor. I felt God
was calling me to step out of my comfort zone and lead this
congregation. For all of you, I’m not exactly sure what God is
calling you to do. Maybe it is to sign up for a new ministry that
you’ve never done before. Maybe God is calling you put a little more
in collection plate. Maybe God is calling you to say something to
someone that needs to be said. Maybe God is calling you make a
lifestyle change. Whatever the case, if you have faith, God is
calling you to do something.
Now, Step 3 to how to
lose your faith without really trying is the important one, but its
also probably the easiest one. In Step 3, you have to stop focusing
on God and start focusing on yourself. Just start thinking of all the
ways that you can’t do something. Think of Elijah, he ran off to a
cave, saying, “Woe is me. I can’t do this anymore. I’m all by
myself.” Just like that, he turned in on himself and his faith was
gone. Think of Peter, he’s walking on the water mind you, but he
starts to think about wind and water and he gets scared. He starts to
sink. And in my case, all I had to do was start thinking about how
expensive it was, how ill-equipped I felt to lead you, how I’d never
done any kind of building project before, and before I knew it, I no
longer wanted to take that leap of faith. This step is so easy and
that’s why its so important to be aware of it. We start thinking
about ourselves, how good life is, how we’ve made it all on our own.
We lose our focus, we skip church, we stop being involved, we stop
praying or reading the Bible, and before we know it, our faith has
disappeared and whether we realize it or not, we’re in the water and
we don’t know how to get out. Unfortunately, this is the one step we
take completely on our own and we can’t blame God for it.
So I guess I need to
give you the second part of the sermon now. It’s much shorter, just
so you don’t get antsy, and it is entitled, “How to be saved when
you’ve lost your faith.” Three easy steps, all from the same
examples.
Step 1 on how to be
saved when you’ve lost your faith is what Peter did. Call on Jesus.
“Save me, Lord!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught
him. It’s incredibly simple, as our Romans passage states, “Everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” If you’re in a
crisis, if you feel like your sinking and can’t get your head above
water, if you’re panicked – call on Jesus and you will be saved.
Step 2 sounds easy but
is incredibly hard. Step 2 is listen. There was a great wind, but
God wasn’t in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the
earthquake. There was a fire, but God wasn’t in the fire. Then there
was the sound of sheer silence and God spoke to Elijah. Elijah was
incredibly patient and he listened to the whisper of God. Where might
God be whispering to you? He whispers through our liturgy, through
our hymns, through the words of others, through the waters of baptism,
through the bread & wine of Communion. God whispers to us everyday,
we just don’t take the time or the effort to listen.
And Step 3 of how to be
saved when you’ve lost your faith is to remember. Remember what God
has done for you in your life. Remember that you are saved by grace,
that God loves you, that Jesus went to the cross just for you.
Remember that God has promised never to leave you alone. And in my
case, I had to remember that this congregation is one that does want
to expand our ministries, that this congregation does want to reach
others with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that this congregation
wants to be light in our community.
Unlike the other steps,
we don’t do any of these on our own. The Holy Spirit is with each of
us, despite our lack of faith and it this Spirit that works these
three steps in us. These simple and not so simple steps helped me
regain my faith regarding our expansion, and now you’d better look
out. I, as well as other members of that committee have some big
dreams for this congregation, and I’m sure you do too. I invite you
to continue dreaming. It may or may not involve changing locations,
but one way or another, we are stepping out in faith, expanding our
ministry, and walking with Jesus every step of the way. Amen.
