Defining Faith: Paul Tripp Visit

Paul Tripp recently came to The Crossing. He asked, "What is faith?" Someone answers, "It's believing." "What is believing?" "Believing is knowing." "What is knowing?" "Knowing is having faith." In other words, few know what faith means! Myself included, until I heard his sermon. And just because I have a better idea of what genuine faith is, doesn't mean I've learned to be a faithful woman. But I thought his words were worth sharing.

Faith has three components.

1. Faith requires that we must absolutely believe He created everything. He spoke the world into the existence. He created it and it belongs to Him. It is for His purpose. Sometimes we shrink life down to us. What is my purpose in life? It's not about us. It's about His plan for His world.

2. Faith requires that we must believe God is sovereign. We can rest in the amazing reality that our world is not chaotic but under the careful control of God. Is your life a living picture of what it means to believe that God is sovereign? Life is not out of control at all, ever. We might not have a clue what's going on, but it's OK. God does.

3. We must believe that God is our savior. Our problem is us. We need a savior. We can't escape ourselves. When things happen, it's more evidence that we need savior. We need someone who cares about our lostness, someone to "rescue me from me."

The final definition: Faith is something you do with your life. It's a way of living. We ought to ask daily, "Lord won't you fill my heart with faith?"

Hebrews 11:6

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.