This Sunday, Pastor Carl kicked off our “Summer of Faith” series with a teaching on three types of faith.
After Jesus was resurrected, he met with his disciples and gave them a prophetic promise. He told them that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit and become witnesses. While Jesus spoke that word to them, it was a conditional promise. For the promise to be realized they had to wait in Jerusalem and then go out into the world.
Their personal encounter needed to mature into a personal mission.
Faith is active. Bible faith is never a sedentary faith. Jesus expected the disciples to receive faith, walk in faith, and lien on faith while being followers of the living God.
The Greek word at the root of faith is translated many ways in the New Testament depending on how it’s being applied. From that understanding Pastor Carl taught on three types of faith.
The first was Believing Faith. In Mark 1:14 Jesus said repent and believe in the gospel. This was more than just understanding or knowing the gospel. This required a faith that comes from God. In Mark’s writings, faith means more than simply believing in the good news of the kingdom of God; it also implies baptizing yourself into this good news, and living your life from it.
Next was Trusting Faith. Believing faith matures into trusting faith. This was demonstrated in Mark chapter 4 when Jesus told his disciples that they would take a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As the storm blew and the waves roared, water filled the boat. Startled, the disciples woke Jesus and told him they were doomed. Jesus asked “why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” They certainly believed in Jesus and have been following him through many trials. But the faith Jesus was asking about is the faith that comes from trusting what God has spoken.
The third type of faith is Obeying Faith. Faith without works is dead and for Paul, faith most often looks like faithfulness. God is looking for us to be faithful in all that he is given us stewardship of. He’s given each of us a testimony and is looking for us to fulfill the great commission by sharing that testimony with the people in our lives.
In the end, Pastor Carl instructed the church to spend time in prayer asking the following three questions:
- What does God want me to believe?
- Where does God want me to trust?
- How does God want me to obey?
Spend some time with God this week asking him to uncover the lies that keep us from true believing faith. Ask Him to show you where you can increase your trust in Him. And ask Him in what ways does he want you to be more obedient. We believe that God wants to meet us right where were at in this season of our lives.