Pastor Joseph
Dec 6, 20202 min
What is your definition of faith? What does faith have to do with evidence and knowledge?
In the sermon, the pastor said "belief without evidence is actually appealing to us because we’re not so interested in why we should believe. We’re much more interested in knowing whether or not it will work and if if it’s going to make us feel better." What do you think this means? Do you think it's really true?
Many people think that childlike faith is "just believing," often without any evidence. Is this really true? Open your Bible to Mark 10:13-16. What does Jesus actually say about childlike faith here?
J. Gresham Machen writes: "It was not the ignorance of children to which our Lord appealed, but their conscious helplessness, their willingness to receive a gift. What mars the simplicity of the childlike faith which Jesus commends is not an admixture of knowledge, but an admixture of self-trust. To receive the kingdom as a little child is to receive it as a free gift without seeking in slightest measure to earn it for one’s self." What happens as we grow older that might cause us to resist receiving such a gift? Have you ever found yourself resisting the gifts of God?
Philip Rieff writes: “Religious man was born to be saved, psychological man is born to be pleased.” In what ways does this describe the mood of our culture? In what ways do you find yourself caught up in it?
Because Jesus is the object of our faith, it requires that we trust him and that he be trustworthy. What are some of the ways that he has shown himself trustworthy? (Find specific biblical passages to point to first, and then go to your own experience.)