How Can I Find Faith for Myself?

Ever wondered, "How can I find faith for myself?"  In this sermon, Megan, Vicar of Saint Philip's Deep Creek, explores this very question.

Discover how we're all people of faith already, trusting in things we can't always see, from the air we breathe to the reliability of a chair. But how does this relate to faith in God, who is unseen?

To catch up on the latest sermons from Deep Creek, go to iTunes, Spotify or deepcreekanglican.com and check out the website for more info about what’s happening. 

Transcription

I am Megan and I am the current vicar of Saint Philip's Deep Creek. but I stand in a long line of terrific leaders who have worked in partnership with a terrific bunch of people. Now we're here today asking a question. We're in a series called finding Faith. And we're starting today with our question. How can I find faith for myself?

Believing in the Invisible

And I wanted to go looking for something. I wanted to go looking for something in here. That's invisible. All right. What in here is invisible. Anyone? What can't I see? But that is definitely here. Don't overthink it. Yeah, okay. Faith is here. Thank you. You did overthink it, but I appreciate it. Yes. God is here. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Nikki. The Holy Spirit is here. Wow. You guys are all amazing. But there's some other things here that I can't see right now. Oh, yes. There's air. I can't see, but there's air. Does anyone know what's in the air? There's oxygen. Anything else? I mean, oxygen is my favorite, but there's nitrogen. Yes, there's there's argon. There is some carbon dioxide. Yes. There's all kinds of things. There's some water vapor. There's some, Trace elements of krypton. And there's methane, and I promise it wasn't me. So there are things that we can't see that are here. Is there anything else that we can't see that is here? Correct? Yes. I can't see your heart. That is good. That is a very good thing. but in terms of your thoughts, I can't see your thoughts. I can't see your feelings. But they're here. Your fight? Yeah. What you've been through. Absolutely. That is so good. Well, what about you? Some of the things that are very important to you. There's electromagnetic radiation which goes between your devices. That's here, right? There's radio waves and all those things that make our phones tell us amazing things. Yes, mommy and daddy. Yes. Well, I can see them, but do you know what? You're right in that I can't necessarily see that they're your mommy and daddy. I could do a blood test, and I could work that out. But you're right.

Everyone is a Person of Faith

There are many things here that we can't see. And sometimes when people say to us, well, I don't have faith because I just believe in things that I can see. We could say, actually, everybody here is a person of faith already, because being a person of faith is just about believing and trusting in things. So. I've got a chair here, and I can trust that if I sit on it, I'll be safe. I wasn't 100% sure, but I, you know, I had faith that I could sit down on it and it wouldn't break. You never know. If I put a couple of chairs together and decided to stand on them. That would be a bigger step of faith. It might not be very sensible at all, but there are other things that you and I have faith in that we can't see.

So if I said to my daughter, we're going to have ice cream after church today. Now she and my husband says yes. She has to decide. Do I believe that? Do I have faith in what mum said? And there's been things that throughout our life have built up a trust in her that, if I've said it, probably will do it. I've said it in front of 100 people, so it's even more likely if I said, we're going to go to my favorite restaurant, Meat and Wine Co, and we're going to order the most expensive steak on the menu. What is like 400? I don't know, it's I've never, then she might think, no, I don't think that's going to happen, but an ice cream, we've done that before. And she can trust. So let's imagine that we are all in some way people of faith, and that there are things that we always take on trust. Sometimes if we put the effort into it, we could find out a scientific reason, for example, that Nick and Tam are a mom and dad. But sometimes there are things that we can't see at all. And we do believe.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey: Faith vs. Guessing

Right now, I've got a game here, and I'm going to need at least six little people to play this game. It's called pin the tail on the donkey. I'm going to put it up here. All right. So what happens in pin the tail on the donkey is you need to add to the donkey's rear end the tail. You're going to be blindfolded. And we're going to spin you around a little bit. And you're not allowed to give a good feel to this piece of paper. So you need to just have a look, okay. You're going to have a blindfold on. We're going to spin you around. You're going to trust that we're going to put you in front of it, and then you're on your own. Okay. You're ready for it. Okay. There we go. I do, I think you are the closest. Well done. Congratulations. We do have a little prize for you. Well done. All right. All right.

What the Bible Says About Faith

We're going to have some Bible readings now. And it's going to help us to understand more about faith.

Two Corinthians four verse 13 to 18.

It is written, I believe, therefore I have spoken. Since we have that same spirit of faith. We also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart, though through outward we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Now. Faith is confidence in Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 2.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

So the Bible tells us that faith is assurance of what we hope for, but it's about what we cannot see. So the two readings that we had today talked about faith, particularly in the future. So when I sat down on the chair, that was me trusting that my future sitting would be safe. But it was something that you could see. It was over and done with. When I say to Phoebe, we're going to have ice cream. She has to trust because it's in the future. It's unseen, but it relies on what she knows about me. The availability of ice cream and possibly what's in my bank account. So when the Bible tells us that we are to put our trust, our belief, our faith in God who we cannot see, and in the promises about our future which we cannot see. We have to know that it's not the same as pin the tail on the donkey in. Pin the tail on the donkey. You have a blindfold and you are turned around, and you're not allowed to touch the outside of the page. Now, these guys had a pretty good idea where the tail might end up. This is pretty good, although I think the best one was on Nick's nose. Well done. But in general, it's a bit of a guess. The thing about faith in God is that it's not a blind guess.

Reasons for Faith: More Than a Blind Guess

We've got lots of reasons why we can know where we're aiming. So you're right. We can't see. And the Bible admits that we can't see God. Everyone said God's here, but we can't see God here. But the Bible tells us to trust not because it just tells us to trust. But because there are lots of reasons. So it tells us a few different things. Number one, it tells us that we've got a whole written record. If kids you've got a Bible, it might not look like this. It might have way more pictures, which is good. But we've got a written record so that we're not entirely turned around in looking for God. This tells us how. But the Bible also tells us, and you and I know that we can look around the world, and there are many things that we can see that point us to evidence of God.

Now, has anyone seen any Marvel movies lately? Kids that the littlest ones know. But, well, one of the things that Marvel has been getting into is a thing called the multiverse. Does that ring any bells with anyone? That means that, you know, you might have an infinite number of spider-mans because there's an infinite number of universes. And in the sci fi world of Marvel, you might be able to move through those universes, and one day all the spiders will end up all together. Now we actually have no evidence at all. For anything other than the universe that we have. There is no evidence. Nothing. Entirely zero evidence for multiverses. But the reason it's an attractive idea. Is because it it gives us some sort of reason. Outside of a creator for this incredible experience called life. So if you look at our experience called life, if you look at our earth, actually it's quite hard to reason away that there is a creator. The only thing you can do is say, well, all the odds that have come together to cause humans right now. Everything that could have happened at any point will happen everywhere. We must have multiverses. It'll all. It's all happened somewhere. And so an infinite number of things have come together and it's totally random. But as fun as that is in Marvel. Actually, on Earth, in our universe, there's so much evidence that a good creator made us. So there's the skies, the earth, everything telling us that this didn't happen by chance. Then we have the Bible, and then we have the way in which we experience the love of each other. And sometimes that sense that something outside us really loves and cares for us.

Different Ways of Knowing

There are lots of ways of knowing things. So you might think, well, I, I know things because of science. Well, there are plenty of things that we know that cannot be proved by science, because science requires something to be able to be done over and over again. So if you do an experiment, you need to be able to do it again and again and again in order to be sure that the result you get is the truth. But when it comes to something in history, for example, you will have a good trust that a certain event happened, but you can't make it happen again. You can't apply the scientific method to historical knowledge. That's a different way of knowing. So you look for different things eyewitness accounts. You look for archaeology, archaeological evidence. You dig things up. You look for sources that are trustworthy. And then there are things like, how do we know that Avery and Maisie have a mum and dad? Well, we can see that in the way that they treat each other. How do we know that we have friendship? We can see that in the way that we treat each other, and in the way that we feel about one another, and how someone else makes us feel. There are lots of different ways of knowing things. And we have to go forward in our lives. Never letting anyone tell us that there's only one way of knowing things. The truth. We actually come at it all the time from lots of different ways.

Trusting the Skateboard: Knowledge vs. Action

Now I've got up here a skateboard. Okay, so I know this is a skateboard for a few reasons. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and, I used to sit on one and go down the hill. Right? That's. That's about as good as it was. I can work it out from a book or online. I can take a picture of it now and something will tell us. Now, how do I know? then, so I can work out what it is. How do I know that it's trustworthy for me to stand on it? Okay. All right, well, I know this one was, especially ordered by Phil, and he's a bit heavier than me. and he got the really the really good one, right? Especially asked, can this 50 year old man trust this particular skateboard? It didn't come from Kmart. Okay. All right, so I can I can have a look at it. I can trust I know the backstory. I know the history. I know that the company doesn't want to be sued. And so I have to trust that they're interested in safety. Okay. Now. That is all very well and good. You'll have lots of ways of knowing that God is worth trusting. You'll have lots of ways of knowing that Jesus is who he says he is. Lots of ways there really are, and it's trustworthy. But that's a bit different than. Getting on it right? It's a bit different knowing that there's a God out there. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God and actually putting your trust.

Now, Philip, could you come up here, please? The suspense. Okay. Now, first of all, for me to really know I'm going to I'm going to put someone else on this right before I go on it. What do you got? Okay. You can stand on it. Good. Oh, that sounds interesting. Okay. Yeah. All right. Now, can can it. Can it do anything? Okay. All right. It can do a few things. What about anything else? Whoa! All right, that seems. That seems okay. All right, so what I've done there is I've had a look around. Is someone else able to trust? Is someone that I love and trust able to trust this thing? Yes. All right. Now, could you help me, please? Thank you. Right. I think maybe two hands. Right. Great. Together. Okay, so I've got someone here helping me, holding me and telling me, don't do that. telling me. Yeah, if you are, if you put your feet too close together, it's going to go out the back from you. All of these things. All right. Now. Okay. All right. Now. 00000. Hang on. It's stuck in the little thing now. And that's going to be really problematic okay I'm going to get this way. All right. So I'm not going to go down the stairs right now.

Taking the Step of Faith

But what what we've done is gone through a whole process. How can I have faith?

• I can work out whether the object that I am thinking about is trustworthy. Lots of different ways.
• Then I have to decide, can I take that step for myself?
• What I did was check out whether someone I love and trust can do that. He could.
• Then I said, can you help me? And he did.
• And then eventually I took my hands away and I moved a little bit.

Now I only do this on carpet because otherwise I would absolutely it's going to fall off. But eventually, with that sort of help and the right protective gear, I'd be able to ride that for myself. So I want to say, can you have faith? Well, you absolutely can, because you're already a person who believes and trusts things. You absolutely can. Because there are all kinds of ways of knowing things to be true. And all of those ways can be brought to bear on the Bible and the truth about Jesus. But eventually you will have to take a risk. You will have to say, I'm going to get on this thing for myself. But you don't do that on your own. So what we're going to do now is one of the things that we don't do on our own, and that is to share communion together. This is a way in which we see other people who can get on that skateboard, and we stand with them and they show us, and Jesus shows us that he is trustworthy.

Learning from Saint Philip: Ask, Follow, Invite

Well, today is the day that we celebrate Saint Philip. And this church is named after Saint Philip, but we mostly just call ourselves Deep Creek Anglican. but Philip was a great follower of Jesus who really wanted to know how he could have faith for himself. So he asked lots of questions and he followed Jesus around wherever he went so he could find out as much as possible, even really early in his following Jesus around what we sometimes call being a disciple or an apostle. he was convinced that Jesus was someone very special. And so in John's Gospel we read these words.

The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me, Philip, like Andrew and Peter was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip, after following Jesus for a bit, found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel, also someone who took a little while to get some faith, said Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Come and see, said Philip. We've got an opportunity over these next couple of weeks to be like our namesake, Philip, and, well, ask questions, follow Jesus around. When Jesus says, follow me to maybe take that step of faith with the help of others. But we've also got one more thing that we can do. We can say to other people, come and see. Faith is about having enough confidence that you think it would be good for someone else to find out more about Jesus. Faith is not simply saying this is good for me, but saying this is good for the world.

An Opportunity to "Come and See"

And so over the next three weeks, the kids will be doing their special program, and the adults also have a chance to invite friends to think about who they would like to pray for, and maybe at work, or at home, or at family gatherings or at the footy to say, why don't you come and see? Doesn't have to be come and see here it could be come and see, read something, could be come and see. Search online. Could be. Come and see. Talk to my friends from my growth group. Or let's go out with a few of us and have pizza. But in three weeks time on the 25th of May, we will particularly be having an opportunity for people who are here in this gathering to say yes to Jesus. So Richard Bruce, who some of you may know, some of you might not know, who's a member of our congregation is going to be preaching, and he will give us all an opportunity to say, Will I take that step of faith for myself? And if you have someone that you know, it would be great to have them there. Then why not invite them along?

We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting.