Sermon Title: Myth#1, Faith Can Fix Anything
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
“You need more faith.” Christians often hear and believe this as they face challenges or trials in their lives. It’s as if faith is the “magic answer” to all that troubles them. If only I had more faith, they believe, things would be better. It doesn’t help matters when preachers give messages about the “faith promise,” i.e., the promise of good things for those who have great faith.
The truth is we as Christians need to exercise great faith. It takes faith to believe in Christ and it takes faith to continue to live faithfully the life that Christ has called us to live. But faith does not prevent bad things from happening in our lives. Whether we have faith or not, rainy days will come our way, problems will persist and we will all experience sadness at times. In fact, faith in God will cause our lives to become harder. The text says that Jesus spoke about the need to sacrifice and deny ourselves if we are truly to be followers of Him. Thus, faith doesn’t “fix” our problems; rather, faith helps us to live our lives powerfully and victoriously in the midst of our troubles, struggles and problems.
This coming Sunday we will talk more about the role sacrifice, denial and the cross plays in our faith as we begin a new sermon series entitled, “Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.” Hope to see you then!
