Over the last weeks at Church we have been trying to debunk some popular Urban Legends that we as Christians believe even though there is not proof of any of them being biblical.
Spiritual Urban Legends are just like secular urban legends. It is a belief, story, assumption, or truism that gets passed around as fact. It most cases the source is a friend, a Sunday school class, a Bible study, a devotional, a book, or even a sermon. They sound plausible, come from a reputable source and they are often accepted without question and then quickly passed on. Then they take on a life of their own. They become almost impossible to refute because “everyone” knows their true. Anyone who dares to write them off is dead spiritually speaking or they lack faith or they are liberal.
The first here is "Faith can Fix Anything" The word on the street is that faith is a potent mixture of intellectual and emotional self-control that when properly harnessed can literally change outcomes through positive thinking and clear visualization. It is why people say they are successful. It is why when our team is down five runs with two outs in the ninth inning we’re not supposed to think negatively. WE are supposed visualize a big inning.
One myth that comes from these legends is that if you have enough faith then you can be successful in life.
There’s a group of well know TV type preachers that say that faith is really a positive mental outlook that has the power to change our reality.
They include Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Morris Cerello, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, and a number of others.
I only mention their names because they’re on the public airwaves, their books are bestsellers, and they influence a lot of people.
If I say something publicly obviously it’s up for scrutiny. The same is true for these guys.
Here’s a basic synopsis of their teaching:
1. God creates by using His faith through the power of spoken words.
2. Man is a "little god" capable of creating in the same fashion as did God.
3. Man, through faith-filled words, creates or causes to come to pass that which is spoken. Thus by one's spoken words health/healing and wealth/prosperity are created.
The bottom line is that if you just have enough faith you can fix your whole life. No more sickness, financial problems, or family problems.
Have faith, say the right words, and your whole life will all work out the way you want it to. The myth is that everything will be OK if you just have enough faith. Not necessarily faith in anything of substance, just kind of a generic faith in faith. Have faith that life will always work out and your positive attitude will be a self-fulfilling wish. Unfortunately, this kind of hopeful thinking has nothing in common with what the Bible calls faith. The Bible defines faith this way, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." This is the only place in the New Testament where we’re give a definition of faith. You might say it’s more a description of the characteristics of faith.
Faith is the firm ground we stand on because it’s based on what God has promised us.
Faith isn’t nebulous, it’s not uncertain, it’s not what ever you want it to be, it’s the present essence of a future reality. So faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We know that Faith is what pleases God. You have to believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him. You want to please God there is only one way and that is Faith. But can faith fix everything.
So then, if I have real faith in God will He fix all my problems? Can I create my own reality by positive thinking?
32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
There’s some people in the Bible who had some great victories over what seemed like impossible odds. Their stories are compelling. Their true. There’s so many lessons we can learn from them. We don’t have time to look at each of these individuals in detail but lets just look at what happened to one, Gideon.
Gideon was a military commander in Israel around 1250 BC. T
he country had been invaded by the Midianites. God says, Gideon, you’re my man to drive the Midianites out. Gideon said, “Who am I? I’m a nobody.” God said, “That’s the point. This one’s going to be all about Me,” and just so there was no mistake he whittled down Gideon’s army from 32,000 men to 300 men. Gideon’s men were outfitted with only two weapons, trumpets and pitchers with torches inside. They surrounded the Midianite camp and on cue all broke their pitchers, held up their torches and blew their trumpets. Judges 7:22 says, When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp.
The Midianites were routed and God got all the glory. Theres plenty of accounts like that in the Bible. Sometimes I think we make the mistake of only teaching those kinds stories to our kids.
Sunday School lessons are full of these wonderful accounts of God miraculously answering prayer and everybody living happily ever after. Then our kids got a little older and they see that those aren’t the norm and they begin to doubt that what they were taught was true after all.
We need to give them the whole story. Don’t stop in the middle of verse 35 or you’ll get an unrealistic picture. Because we have enough faith doesn’t mean that we won’t have heartaches, sorrows, and disappointments in our lives.
Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned[f]; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
For every one in the Bible who was brought back from the dead millions have died. One guy was delivered from the mouths of lions but tens of thousands of others met their death by the lions.
I’m excited about the promise that I’m going to heaven when I die because Jesus Christ paid for my sins. And when I do it will be great to talk to Gideon, and Barak, and David.
No question about it. But there’s another bunch of men and women that I’m even more anxious to meet. That’s the others. The others who didn’t get the miraculous deliverance. The others who remained faithful to the point of death. The others who didn’t give up on God because He didn’t do life their way. Sometimes God rescues people who are on the brink of death. Sometimes He miraculously heals people. Sometimes He straightens out the hard stuff in a person’s life and it all works out the way the wanted it to.
But those are the exceptions not the rule. The exceptions are there to remind us that God’s very much alive and well but then we’re called to live by faith. Faith may not fix all of our problems but there’s some things faith will do.
Faith will connect us to God. John 1:12-13 “12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent,[a] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
Notice how clear the Bible is. If we’re going to be connected to God, if we’re going to be His children, born in His family we need to receive Him. The way we do that is to believe in His name. It’s by faith. The words “believe” and “faith” are used 500 times in the Bible. There are 150 verses in the New Testament that say salvation is by faith.
We come to God by faith, we connect to God by faith, and we please God by faith.
So faith may not fix all our problems but it connects us to God and number two, it guides us through life.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding:
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
God and His truth will guide us. We’ll know what to do and what not to do. We’ll know how to respond even when life doesn’t play out the way we would have ordered it.
Are you a person of faith today? If it’s a biblical faith you’re not going to believe that you’ll always be healthy, wealthy, and happy in life. But you will believe that God not only exists, but He’s active in our world and in our lives doing what He knows is best for eternity.
