Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Quiz: Is this in the Bible?

#1

God will not give you more than you can handle.

Pride goes before destruction.

(, NIV)

The lion shall lay down with the lamb.

#2

In the last days, you will not be able to know the season except by the changing of the leaves.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

What God has joined together, let no one separate.

(, NIV)

Third week in our series Lies Christians Swallow…

Body

Body

The Lie/Myth: Faith Can Fix Anything

Everyone in this room

Popular opinion says that anything is possible if you just believe.

Faith is a skill you can master through practice and discipline—you teach yourself to believe something without doubting, to visualize it as reality, and it becomes true.

If you’re sick, just believe you will get well.

If you lost your job, just believe without doubting and you will find a new one.

Popular ideas about faith

“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.”

~ Larry Osborne, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe, p. 9

Anything is possible if you just believe.

Faith is a skill you can master through practice and discipline—you teach yourself to believe something without doubting, to visualize it as reality, and it becomes true.

If you’re sick, just believe you will get well.

If you lost your job, just believe you will find a new one.

“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.”

~ Larry Osborne, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe, p. 9

Many churches and pastors teach a message that portrays faith as something like a spiritual cattle prod we can use to control God.

If we just have enough faith, the right kind of faith, if we think positive thoughts of faith, then God will do whatever we ask and give us whatever we want—we just have to speak the word of faith in order to claim our best life now.

Biblical Faith

“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.”

~ Larry Osborne, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe, p. 9

What is faith?

Faith is not...

Faith is not spiritual currency.

Spiritual currency we can use to cut a deal with God.

A spiritual cattle prod to control God.

We can’t buy God’s favor if we have enough faith.

We can’t go to the spiritual blessing store and spend our faith on being healed or getting a raise.

We can’t save up our faith and blow it all on winning the lottery.

We can’t control God with our faith.

God is never in our debt.

He doesn’t “owe” us anything, regardless of how much we believe or how positive our thoughts.

God is never in our debt.

God is never in our debt.

He doesn’t “owe” us anything because we have enough faith to “buy” His favor.

God cannot be cajoled into doing what we want because we have faith.

Faith is not positive thinking.

Positive thinking = confidence, the opposite of doubt and fear

“You gotta have faith” has come to mean “Think positively.”

But all my positive thoughts won’t do jack to fix your problem.

When you’re team’s down three runs with two outs in the ninth inning, what does every good fan do?

Think positive thoughts.

Don’t lose hope.

Visualize a hit… as if my thoughts have any impact at all on whether or not the batter gets a hit!

Faith is not mere belief.

Beliefs = primarily intellectual, but they require no corresponding action

Since our beliefs exist in our heads, we’re not surprised when people say they believe in something—like UFO’s, Bigfoot, evolution, creationism, or Jesus—and yet that belief has virtually zero impact on their lives.

It’s just something we think is probably true.

Acting on that belief is optional.

Spiritual currency we can use to cut a deal with God.

A skill we master.

Faith is…

A magic potion that solves all our problems.

The absence of all doubt.

Blind, irrational belief.

Faith is trusting God enough to do what He says.

trusting God enough to accept what He gives, go where He leads, and do what He says.

Faith isn’t just believing that God exists.

Certainly belief is an important part of faith, but faith goes beyond mere belief and into the realm of trust.

Faith is trust.

Positive thinking = confidence, the opposite of doubt and fear; “You gotta have faith” has come to mean “Think positively”

Faith isn’t just believing that God exists.

Certainly belief is an important part of faith, but faith goes beyond mere belief and into the realm of trust.

The difference between belief and trust is that trust is accompanied by action.

If we trust a person, it’s supposed to show up in how we relate to that person.

Belief =

The difference between positive thinking, belief, and trust.

A parent who tells their teenage girl, “I trust you,” but won’t let her out of the house doesn’t really trust her.

Trust

If we trust God, it’s supposed to show up in how we relate to God, what we think, how we live, what decisions we make.

Do we trust God?

Do we put our faith in Him?

What does that look like?

Faith is trusting God enough do what He says.

God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we think He should.

He doesn’t always give us what we ask for.

He doesn’t always take us in the direction we wanted to go.

He doesn’t always tell us to do what we think we want to do.

But, what God gives us is always what we need.

Where God leads us is always where we need to go.

And, when God speaks, it is always what we need to hear.

The question is, do we trust God enough to listen?

God doesn’t always give you what you ask for, but He always gives you what you need.

God doesn’t always give you what you ask for—God almost never answers my prayers the way I think He should.

He does answer my prayers, but He rarely gives me what I ask for.

He always gives me what I need.

Illustration

Most of the time God doesn’t answer my prayers by giving me what I asked for.