Faith is not a "superpower..."

I had some great comments and questions sent in during the sermon about trusting God, Faith, and belief. Since they all hinged around the same thought...I thought I'd take a moment and address them here.

The big Question: Jesus said if we had the faith of a "mustard seed" we could command mountains to move... Moses parted the red sea with his shepherds staff... Elijah trusted God and had the faith to bring down fire from heaven... The apostles in the New Testament healed people... So the "TV Preachers" say that if we believe enough...we can have it all. Can I "believe enough", or have enough faith for God to give me a sweet "MTV cribs style" house and a fleet of Bentleys? Why not? Jesus said if I had faith I could move mountains...why couldn't I just use my "Faith and belief" to get some sweet stuff for the crib?

Here's why I called that idea "a bunch of Crap" yesterday. If you notice in every instance in the scriptures where people did amazing things "by faith"...they were always responding to God's command, and having enough faith in him to do what he said...to be part of his plan...and then amazing, miraculous things happened. Never once do we see in scriptures an instance of people using "faith" or "belief" to somehow "force" God to get them "stuff". In fact one of the ways Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, (read it) was to try to entice him to use his power to turn rocks into bread because Jesus hadn't eaten in 40 days...Jesus refused. Faith or belief is not something that we can "concentrate" and produce results like Hiro stopping time on Heroes. It's not a "power". It's not an "ability". It's a decision to trust God...even when all odds are against you...and do what he says...even when (and most of the time it does) look idiotic or futile. Faith is a decision that grows based on trust. We trust God in small things...we see him work...our faith grows...we trust him in larger areas...he shows up...our faith grows...and so on.

I believe faith is real. I fact, I believe we observed some of the results of it yesterday. I think it is God's plan for everyone in York county (and the world) to hear the Good News of Jesus...even those who don't feel they "fit in" to a "normal church". Because people believed God, they acted in faith...they used their talents...they donate their time, their equipment, their knowledge, their toys. Because they believed God and had faith in his plan, we all got to go to church in an unbelievable environment yesterday. 'Way better than a 8 month old church "deserves" or could expect. In the midst of a failing economy, with no "fund raising drive", no "capital campaign", no mortgage, we just moved into a great new larger venue. The "kicker" is that our expenses at Club 19 are actually considerably lower than before. That's the way faith and belief work... Ordinary people believe God and attempt extraordinary things for him...

Could we use that same "faith" and "belief" to get us all Hummers and 60 inch flat screens? I'm thinkin' not so much...