Choosing Faith

 

You are a person of faith!  What's more, you don't have be "religious" or even believe in God (or gods) to be one.  The reality is that we all live on the basis of faith.  The things that we assume, that we hold to be true, that we rely upon, and which shape the way we live are indeed reflections of our faith.  The real issue is not whether or not we live on the basis of faith, but rather, what we place our faith in.

 

So where then does our faith come from?  How is it that it takes the shape that it does?  Is it simply something that results from parental conditioning, education,  genetics, brain chemistry, the way we somehow absorb the values and assumptions of the culture that we live in, or some other shaping influence?  Certainly those things play a role, perhaps even a significant one.  But for whatever reason, human beings also share the conviction that they have the ability to decide -- to choose -- what it is that they will place their faith in.

 

This sermon series will explore some of the paths we take in this process of choosing our faith.  While there are certainly a number of factors that influence which paths we start on, and which ones we are drawn to, we are still left with a choice about which one we will take, whether it is the one we have grown up on, or one that we select that may take us in new directions.

 

Click here to listen again to how Pastor Chris begins this conversation in the first sermon of this series.  Be sure to notice what she has to say about:

A Few Thoughts About Faith to Consider:

 

Think about your day so far.  This morning, you got up and had breakfast--by faith--trusting that nobody in the house had laced your food with poison.  You stopped at a coffee shop and somehow trusted those characters behind the counter (is that really a good idea?) not to put some kind of harmful substance in your triple-shot, extra foam latte.  You go to work--maybe even took the elevator?--and sat in a chair, by faith, without testing it first to see if it was still strong enough to hold you . . . No doubt about it--you live your life by faith every day, even in the mundane details.  You may have what seem like good reasons for your faith, which is fine, but you could also be wrong about some of your conclusions.  And some of those mistakes could be serious, even life threatening. . . . even if you're a thoroughly nonreligious person, you're living with the hope that your nonreligious beliefs are accurate . . . That's just the way life is.  We all live by some form of faith.  Which leads us to the central question:  Is ours a well-founded faith?  A wise faith?  A faith that makes sense and is supported by the facts?  One that works in real life and is worth hanging on to?  - Mark Mittelberg, Choosing Your Faith, pages 9-12.

 

Acts 17:16-34 (TNIV)

 

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

    22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

    24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' [b] As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' [c]

    29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

    32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Additional Reading: