TEXT: Hebrews 11:1,6 and Matthew 9:27-30

THEME: "Checking Your Faith"

PURPOSE: To help the listener examine what kind of faith commitment they have?

This week I went in for a routine check-up with my doctor. He asked all the usual questions about lifestyle, family history, medications and previous illnesses. We live in an age that much attention is given to our physical condition. Looking at me this morning you may doubt that, but I assure you it is true. But I wonder how much thought do we give to our spiritual health. This morning I’d like for us to do a spiritual check-up of our faith. John Calvin, the great Protestant Reformer, in describing his faith said, " Faith is not a distant view but a warm embrace of Christ." Would you describe your faith as warmly embracing Christ? The writer of the Book of Hebrews in chapter 11 and verse 1 describes faith as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." He goes on to say in verse 6, "that without faith it is impossible to please God." These are bold and powerful words; sure, certain, and impossible. Are these the words that you would use to describe your faith this morning? Is your faith sure? Is it certain?

In our focal passage taken from Matthew chapter nine, Jesus’ words to the two blind men can be taken several ways. If your faith is sure, they can be words of promise. If your faith is certain, they can be a challenge and words of encouragement. At the same time, depending on your faith, they can be an indictment. Let’s look once again at our focal passage. Turn with me to Matthew 9:27-30. I will be reading from the New International Version, feel free to follow in whatever translation you have. "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’ When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘Yes, Lord’, they replied. Then he touched there their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’, and their sight was restored.

Has Jesus ever spoken these words to you either audibly or through circumstances? Has he ever said to you, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith will it be done." He has to me! And depending on my faith I have heard them as words of promise. I have heard them as words of encouragement and a challenge. And sadly, at times they have been an indictment of my faith. Even before I was old enough to understand my need for Christ as my Savior, I experienced these words through events in my life.

During the Fall of 1962, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became very tense. High-flying U-2 spy planes discovered that nuclear missile sites were being built just 90 miles of the American Gulf coast in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy responded with a naval blockade of all Russian ships approaching that island. American B-52 bombers loaded with nuclear weapons were prepared to respond at a moments notice. My father an Air Force officer stationed in Germany had just returned to the United States leaving my mother, baby brother and me in Wurzburg. His brother had succumbed to lung cancer and he had returned to attend the funeral. Wurzburg was just 15 miles from Communist East Germany. The people living on the military post were told to prepare for a possible Soviet attack. As a six year old in first grade I was told that I must wear my dog tags at all times. We were told that should attack come, we would be evacuated at a moments notice and probably separated from our families. It was a very scary time for all but especially for a young child. Where would I go? Where would my family be? Was I going to die? Now, at age six, I didn’t know Jesus as my Savior, but I believed he loved me and cared for me. And I believe he was saying to me through those circumstances, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "according to your faith it will be done to you." And at that time they were words of comfort and of peace.

In 1968, as a young Christian teenager, once again my family was separated. My father was stationed in Keflavik, Iceland. My mother, brother and I were living in Alabama near my grandparents. It was Christmas and we all anxiously waited for my father to come and visit. On the day that he was to leave Iceland, his plane crashed in the North Atlantic killing all on board. For three days and nights we waited by the phone for word from the Air Force. And once again in my circumstances I heard Jesus say, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith it will be done to you." Early the fourth morning the phone rang. It was my dad calling from Iceland. He was alive and well. A military exercise had kicked off on the base and all leaves were cancelled. The exercise had caused my father to miss his plane and he could not call us due to a communications blackout. This time they were words of promise to a teenage boy.

In 1979, 1981 and again in 1989, when I looked upon the small precious faces of our newborn babies and each time heard the doctors say, "your little boys have birth defects." Once again, I heard my Savior say, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith it will be done to you." Each time the birth defect seemed more serious than before. And I found myself asking, "Why Lord?" And I’m afraid his words came as an indictment of my faith.

In 1987, when God called us to leave our home, families and everything familiar to go overseas as missionaries. When He called our family to move to Lu jou village in Taipei county and plant a church, Lu jou was a place of prostitution, gambling and beer houses. It was a community controlled by the Chinese Mafia, the O-Sia-Hoe. Raw sewage floated in the canals that encircled and criss-crossed the village. It was a community of 200,000 people and three small churches (1 Catholic, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Kok-gi le-pai-tng). No one wanted to live there, especially missionaries with small children. And again Jesus said, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith it will be done to you." Within three months of moving to Lu-jou, people were calling and asking us about Christ. The Bible Study meeting in our home had outgrown our location and we needed to find a new place to meet. This time his words were words of challenge.

Perhaps the greatest challenge came in 2001, when it became clear that due to family needs we would need to leave the field probably not to return. It meant leaving a people that we loved and a place that had become our home. And again Jesus said, "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith it will be done to you." This morning I’d like for us to check our faith as we consider those two phrases. "Do you believe that I am able?" and "According to your faith it will be done to you." How is your faith?

Faith must continue. It must not be just a one-time occurrence. Faith does not give up in the face of doubt. And faith does not doubt God. Faith stands firm on what it knows to be true, not what it feels. Faith begins with God and continues with Him. Faith is life long. That is why we read in Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." Henry Blackaby, author of "Experiencing God" and many other books say, "Anything short of finishing the race is to be disqualified."

Simply apply this verse to your life and your relationships. If you are not faithful with family, friends, self, your employer, you will find it harder to be faithful to Christ. Mark Hatfield, the former five-term senator from Oregon, tells of touring the city of Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so called "House of Dying", where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers faced daily. "How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?" he asked. Mother Teresa replied, "My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful."

This morning, how does your faith check out? Are you worried about success or faithfulness? Could it be that Jesus is asking you, "Do you believe that I am able? If so He says, "According to your faith it will be done to you."