This Christmas we’re talking about the wonder of what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus.
The Wonder of His Peace, The Wonder of His Hope, and today, the Wonder of Faith.

Matthew 8:23-26
23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

I feel this phrase from Jesus very deeply. I often find myself struggling with faith.

In another passage, a father came to Jesus wanting him to heal his kid.
Mark 9:22b-25
22…if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

I feel this. I can relate perfectly to this father. In one scenario, we see nature doing what nature does, yet Jesus challenged their faith. What were they to expect? That they would do what Jesus did and the storm would stop? How would they even know to rebuke the wind and waves?

In the other, we see sickness, the result of the fall, working in this kid. I know I want that kind of faith to just look at your kid and say, “Be well!” But I can get bogged down in trying to access that faith, leaving me to cry out like this father, “Help my unbelief!”

Am I the only one who wonders why Jesus rebuked them both for their lack of faith? If I were in the boat I can assure you I would never have even thought about commanding the wind and waves. Why would nature ever listen to me? If I were in the father’s shoes - and let’s not forget that I am with Vivi - how could Jesus rebuff me for simply saying, “If you can heal…” Now we can look at these events, especially this last one and realize that perhaps their doubting Jesus’ ability was the issue. Perhaps…but something I’ve realized in these passages - and in many others where Jesus rebukes people with “oh ye of little faith” - that each time the faith issue was based on what Jesus could or couldn’t do, would or wouldn’t do.

Let me just get to the point:
Jesus wasn’t upset about them doubting what he could do. He rebuked them because they doubted who he was.

Think about it:
We have the benefit of living on this side of the resurrection so we already know of Jesus’ deity, but there in that boat they didn’t know, so when the wind and the waves rose, they simply responded in the way they’d always responded not realizing that the one who created the wind and waves was in the boat with them. And asleep at that.

Let me tell you something, no matter how bad it gets out there, if you have Jesus in your boat and he’s asleep, you are going to be okay.

You know they were confounded with his identity because even after the storm is calmed, they respond, “Who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?”

What about with the father. All he wanted was his boy to be okay. He didn’t care how or when, but he heard about this man who could heal and so when Jesus approached this crowd who were arguing with the scribes and Jesus asked what are yall arguing about, the man didn’t even answer. He just told Jesus about his boy. And Jesus responds with compassion and love and bunnies, right? NO!

“You faithless generation. How long am I going to have to put up with you?” What in the world!?!?!

After Jesus heals the boy, the disciples asked why they couldn’t cast out the demon. Jesus says, “This kind only comes out be prayer.”

What does that mean?
Remember, prayer is not just babbling on to God in a closet somewhere. Prayer is the primary connection we have to know God and grow in our relationship with him. This is why prayer is so important. It isn’t just chatter. It is how we grow to know God and deepen our relationship with him.

So what was Jesus saying?
This kind of faith only comes as a result of really knowing who God is.

My point is this:
We get so wrapped up in faith towards what God can or will do. We even take the definition of faith and make it about what he will do.

Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

“I am hoping for a miracle, Jesus!” “I’ve got faith that what I expect, you’ll do.”

Millions of prayers like these go unanswered. Why? Because faith is not about believing in what God will do. Faith is about believing in who he is.

In fact, the struggles that you go through that require your faith to sustain you are not designed to get you something good from God. They are designed to get you to know him more intimately.

Jesus was more concerned with the disciples knowing who he was than calming a storm. Jesus was more concerned with revealing his character and nature than delivering a demon possessed boy. You might hear that and think that’s not right. But what is the point of calming the storm if you don’t know him? What is the point of healing and deliverance if you aren’t living for him?

Our prayers go unanswered when we make Jesus’ hand the object of our faith. And that makes us doubt who he is. But when he is the object of our faith, not what he does, it doesn’t matter what he does or doesn’t do, because no matter what, we have him. Is he enough?

So often we make faith about doing when it has always been about knowing Jesus more deeply.

Let me give you some biblical proof:
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Look at the language: Draw near, believe he exists, seek him.

The purpose of faith is not so you can believe for what he can do. It is so you can better know who he is.

This is hard for me, and for many like me. My love language is acts of service. I both receive love and give love like this. As a result, “doing” is huge part of my life. So if God does x, y, and z for me, I feel good, loved, cared about. But if he doesn’t, then I feel disconnected, and you know what suffers? My faith.

It is easier for me to trust a God that does than to trust a God who simply is.

Glass house here: I too often base my faith not on who God is, but on what he will do for me. and in those moments I experience crises of faith because my natural bent is to only have faith when God does something I need him to do.

I’ve had to make an adjustment in my life. I’ve had to realize that my faith doesn’t exist to get God to do what I need him to do. It exists to help me know him more and grow in my relationship with him.

If you want to know the wonder of faith, it is this:
Faith is not about believing hard enough to get what I want. It is fuel to help me grow in my knowledge and understanding of who he is regardless of what he does or doesn’t do. Is he still God if my kid isn’t healed? If he doesn’t heal her, will that impact my faith?

“The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

I have to be careful I don’t hope for her healing more than I hope she knows him. I have to be careful that I don’t idolize the evidence of her healing not seen rather than glorify God no matter what.

Faith is about getting close to God, not checking off my wish list. And I am afraid we’ve made faith more about his hands than his heart.

Think about what you are currently believing God for, then ask: What is more important: that prayer answered, or knowing him more? If it is the prayer answered, then I am afraid that is misplaced faith.

If faith is supposed to be about getting you closer to Jesus, knowing him more, understanding him more, loving him more, etc., then what does that look like in real life? After all, we have needs. I need my kid healed. We’ve needed funding and manpower to finish the new facility. You have things you are believing for as well.

And being someone who is a doer and action focused, how can I use faith properly, even when there are real need sin my life?

Faith is believing in something - someone, really - greater than yourself. There is incredible comfort in knowing that there is someone greater than you that you can cling to.

When you think about the argument i’ve made so far in placing your faith in God’s being rather than his doing, and then you consider the idea of faith being the act of believing in something greater than yourself, it begs a simple question: If you could do it yourself, why would you need faith?

And further, what if the struggles in my life are not evidence of faithlessness, but opportunities to cling to him, to know him closer, to learn how to trust him?

When you recognize there is something greater than you, and you cling to that which is greater than you, you can rest in the truth that you have not been left to figure it all out and do it on your own.

Now there are some caveats to this that make faith hard for most of us who are action oriented.
- What if God doesn’t do in the time or way I expect?
- What if the outcome is not what i was hoping for?
- What if the road I have to take to get to the outcome is excruciating?
If you have a problem with questions like these, your faith is in God’s doing, not his being.

What is harder to believe:
- that Jesus can heal you or that Jesus is the healer?
- that Jesus can provide or that Jesus is your provider?

How would your life change if you believed more in his character than you did his action? If you worshipped him more than you asked for provision?

I look at verses like Luke 22 where Jesus prayed for Peter before his betrayal:

Luke 22:31-32
31 Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Why pray for his faith? Why not pray that he wouldn’t betray Jesus? It wasn’t the faith in Peter’s ability to resist temptation Jesus prayed for. It was Peter’s faith in who Jesus was that Jesus prayed for. And we see the evidence of this that Peter didn’t betray what Jesus did, he betrayed who Jesus was.

Let me say it again:
Faith is not what you use to get stuff from God. Faith is what you use to grow closer to him.

Let me give you three things faith does when we are using it properly by believing in who Jesus is.

When we are focusing our faith on Jesus and growing closer to him, choosing to believe in someone greater than ourselves:

1. Faith takes the pressure off
You can rest in knowing God has a plan.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Do you really believe this? Do you really believe that if you will simply focus all your faith on Jesus, that he will come through, even when you cannot understand how in the world it will happen?

You can choose one of two outcomes:
You can either stress and make it harder, or trust God and make it easier.

I am clearly a masochist because I too often choose the stress! But what am I saying when I choose the stress? I am saying that because I cannot understand, I am choosing to believe that you cannot accomplish what you promised. I am literally telling God through my actions that he is not enough. Let’s not pretend this is anything other than arrogance and idolatry.

Jesus promises Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

If he promises this, then why do we cling to our own yoke and burden and reject his? Because letting go of our burden means we have to embrace the fact that there is someone greater than us and we need them for us to be okay.

This is when Jesus responds, “Oh ye of little faith.”

If you want faith to take the pressure off, it starts with you using your faith to get closer to Jesus. Stop praying for provision more than you pray for intimacy with God. Stop stressing about the outcome and start using that energy to draw near, to seek him.

Pressure never comes from the outside world. Pressure always comes from a lack of faith in us.

2. Faith keeps the truth at the forefront
John 8:32
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

What is the truth about that circumstance you are trying to use faith for?

Example:
It is true that God provides. But there is a greater truth than what he does. The greater truth is in who he is. He doesn’t just provide. He IS provision. He doesn’t just heal. He IS healing. He doesn’t just love. He IS love.

Faith exists to help you get closer to God and when you get closer to got you zoom past what his hands can do and you begin to see him for who he is. Faith shows you intimately that God isn’t just a doer, but that his doing flows out of his being.

That circumstance is not designed to grow your faith in his ability.
It is designed to grow your faith in his identity.

So if you are still struggling with a circumstance that is trying your faith,
then what truth about God and his nature is he trying to reveal to you through this circumstance? THAT is the truth his is trying to reveal to you,
and when you embrace that truth, there is freedom!

Even when the circumstances say the opposite, faith makes sure truth is what you are focused on. How? Faith keeps you locked into who he is and when you are locked into who he is, what he does is an extra.

3. Faith establishes priorities
What do you want from God? Let’s create a mental list right now. I have some things in mind.
-People to experience Jesus and grow their relationship with him.
- This building finished.

What about personally?
- My kid healed.
- To be nicer to myself.
- To not constantly feel the pressure of frustration and anger.

What we normally do with a list like this is to try and work up our faith to the point where we feel God doing something about the items therein. I am not saying that is not what you should do. For sure exercise faith in trying to deal with whatever is on your list.

But the closer I get to Jesus the more I realize how broken and needy I really am. The more I see of him the more I see my own depravity. The more I see my own depravity, I see another list. This other list is wildly sobering.

It is a list of my priorities. And I instantly realize how messed up they can be.

What am I saying?
Faith has always been a tool I used to make sure my list of priorities were accomplished. And when they got accomplished I’d shout and scream about God’s goodness. But when they didn’t, my faith - along with my thoughts, beliefs, even countenance - would fall.

It leads me to a sobering question:
If Jesus never did another thing for you, would he still be enough?

If he took everything away from you, would he still be your God?

When faith is genuine, meaning it is solely focused on the person of Jesus Christ and in his character and nature, your priorities get realigned. My wants, needs, and prayers change.

I want my family happy turns into I want my family in relationship with Jesus. I need God to provide turns into God is my source. I pray God to heal turns into God you are good in every season. I want God to fix my issues turns into God you are my portion.

Peter may have denied Jesus, but in John 6:68, he had his priorities straight. Many turned away from following Jesus and Jesus looks at the disciples and asks if they are going to leave, too. Peter simply says:
John 6:68
Where would we go? Only you have the words of eternal life?

I think what we might need this morning is a realignment of our faith.
We need to get our focus off of what God can do and begin to focus on who he is.

This week has been very sobering for me when thinking through everything we’ve talked about today, but there is a simple switch that has to happen for our faith to go from works focused to being focused.

it is simple:
Do you want him more than you want anything else? More than healing or provision or for him to fix all the broken things.

Is knowing him enough? Paul thought so.

Philippians 3:7-11
7 But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. 8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ 9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. 10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, 11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life.

I am convinced real faith is not in what God can do but in who he is.

This is how we land today.

The wonder of faith.
It isn’t about believing hard enough to get what I want. It is fuel to help me grow in my knowledge and understanding of who he is regardless of what he does or doesn’t do.

How’s your faith?

And do you need to make an adjustment today to redirect your faith off of his hands and onto his heart?

Luke 17:5
Increase our faith!
...and what I mean is Jesus help me want you more than anything you could ever do.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?