Authentic Faith

Paul's letters to Timothy are very interesting for a number of reasons. Usually we read Paul's letters to Timothy to understand about how to be a minister, because basically they're two letters where Paul is mentoring a younger man. But what's also interesting about 1 and 2 Timothy is all the personal information that's in there. Paul looked on Timothy almost like a son, and he talked to him that way. And there's these private things that are said, and personal things that are said in this letter. I doubt if Paul ever thought that these letters would end up as Scripture. They were written as a personal letter. He makes a statement to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, and I want to zero in on one phrase and talk about this phrase in our lives. 2 Timothy 1.

And verse 3. Paul writes to Timothy, he says, So he says, I worship God just like my forefathers did, even though he was always accused of not worshiping God, as his forefathers did, because of his belief in Jesus Christ. But he says, Think about how personal this is. Every day, day and night. I pray during the day. I pray at night, and every time I pray, I'm talking about you, Timothy. I'm praying about you that God helped you in your ministry, that God helped you with the challenges that you face. And he says, desiring to see you. He says, I just wish we could spend some time together. You know, talk. Like in those long times, when we used to sit and talk late in the night and talk about the Scripture and talk about the prophecies and talk about the churches, and he says, I miss those things. Being mindful of your tears. In other words, I know the stress you're under. The stress that he was under. And he says, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which first of all did your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I have persuaded is in you also. Now, here he says, but I remember, I get excited when I think of, yes, the stress you go through, the tears you're going through, but that genuine faith that you have that I saw in your grandmother, I saw in your mother, and I know I saw in you. I thought before, you know, what would cause someone to say, I mean, these people you know, your neighbors, your coworkers, to say, now that person, I see a genuine faith in that person. I mean, he says, I saw it. In other words, it was something that was exhibited in Timothy's life. And Paul says, I see in you, and I saw in your family, with a third generation, with this genuine faith.

How would other people look at us and see a genuine faith? Is it because we talk religious? Oh, that person must have a genuine faith, they talk religious. I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm around people that just talk religious so much, it's like, is this real? I mean, after a while, it's like, are you trying to prove something here? What are you doing? Right? I'm not saying it's not genuine, it's just hard to tell sometimes. How would we know?

How would someone look at us? Is it because you walk through life and just every place you go, miracles happen? Well, that doesn't... Even the greatest people in the Bible had bad things happen to them. It wasn't a life of constant healing. Right? It wasn't a life of just every place they went, you know, people just fell over backwards and they were healed or muddy rain from the sky.

I mean, that's not the way it works, where you just walk around them. Everybody says, oh, there's genuine faith, I can see it. Their face glows, you know, that person's face is glowing, that's genuine faith. So how do we know? How do other people know? And that's what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about, here we are, imperfect human beings. You and I struggle all the time. And yet, we are to be a light to the world. The world is to see us as imperfect human beings. And yet, can they look at us and say, there's a faith there.

That's a real faith. You know, genuine means that it's not fake. That it's authentic. That it's not hypocritical. It's not pretend. Hypocritical means to pretend. It's just real. That person is real. So I'm going to talk about four simple things that you and I can do to exhibit a genuine faith. So this isn't about how to increase your faith. It's how you and I can be mindful that we're not pretending to have faith. This is a lot to do with how you and I interact with others.

Remember the first time you probably came to church and you were scared to death because, wow, these people are perfect. I know I probably shouldn't be allowed to even go in the door. How long did it take you to figure out, these people are perfect? But you feel that way, right? But you stay okay even though the rest of us are perfect.

So we're going to talk about what is it that we can do to show others our faith. How do we show people faith in a world that is faithless? How do we exhibit faith in a world where people, many of them, their ideas about God are so veiding? And people are turned off by people who walk around talking about their faith, right? First thing, we've got four things today. And when I go through this, you're going to go, okay, I don't understand.

But as we go through all four of them, I think it will become clear. Because, like, well, I think this would help me have more faith. No? It's how to be genuine. This is the point. How am I genuine? How am I real and not faking but pretending? First, we are being genuine when we acknowledge to others who are facing great difficulties that we have struggled with our own faith. You ever meet faced with a problem in life and somebody just says, well, you shouldn't feel that way. Or you should just have more faith.

Well, that's a... well, you know, nobody has ever helped anybody by saying that. You just shouldn't feel that way. Or you just need more faith. Okay, tell me how to have more faith then. If you think I... that's it. Just tell me how to have more faith. We'll pray and study more. So let's talk about how not to have more faith but to be real with our faith. And you're real with your faith when someone's struggling and you say, I know, I've struggled too. Now, if you've never struggled with your faith, then, okay, you could say to the person, honestly, I've never struggled with my faith.

And if you've never struggled with your faith, you are an amazing person. Because the rest of us have. Okay? The rest of us have. And being genuine means you can say that. In fact, when you say that to somebody and say, I know, I've struggled too, they can look at you and say, how did you get through it? Now it's real. You see what I mean? Reality is being honest. I've struggled with my faith. I've counseled hundreds of people who have struggled with their faith.

And we're honest and genuine when we are willing to say that. Because you know what? If we're not careful, what happens is, just have more faith. The person thinks that only spiritual giants have faith. And I'm not a spiritual giant, so I can't have faith. We help others when we're willing to be absolutely honest. Yes, I've struggled. There's been times I've been up and, you know, in the middle of the night, crying out to God, why won't you deliver me? Why won't you help me? Why?

I don't understand. I feel like you've left me. I feel alone here. Because when someone feels that God has somehow turned their back on him, and maybe he hasn't. And someone says, I felt that way before, but you know, over time I realized God hadn't turned his back on me. He actually worked it out over time. And that person can now have hope in what they're going through. This is genuine faith. It's an honesty that says, yeah, I've struggled with my faith. I've struggled with it times, in what God is doing. Here's one of my favorite scriptures about faith in Mark 9. Mark 9. So you understand, about dealing with how to grow in faith, that's a whole other subject. It's how to be honest with our faith. And when we're honest with ourselves, and honest with others, we will actually grow in faith. The more we pretend, the more we actually, the less faith we actually have. Because we're living a pretense. Mark 9. Jesus comes to his disciples, and he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. So here's a big crowd of people around the disciples, and another group of religious leaders, Jewish religious leaders, and they're having a giant debate. They're arguing, they're debating. And Jesus sort of walks into this mess, this big crowd of people. Immediately, when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to him, greeting him, and he asks the scribes, What are you all talking about? So what's the argument about now? And one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a mute spirit. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he phones at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to your disciples, but they could not cast it out, that they should cast it out, but they could not. He said, there's a demon in my son, and I brought my son to your disciples, and they said the words, they prayed to God, and nothing happened. Jesus answered and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. So he says, this is an issue of faith. This is an issue of faith. Then he brought him to him, and he saw him, and immediately the spirit convulsed him. He fell on the ground and wallowed, falling at the mouth. And he said to his father, how long has this been happening? And he said, from childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire, to the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion with us and help us, and Jesus says to him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Wow! Wait a minute, I just brought him to your disciples, and they couldn't do anything.

And if you can do something, can you do something? You know, even the way he stated it. If you can do something, and Jesus says, you have to believe. You have to believe that I can and that I will.

The man's answer is to me what is so profound in this story. Immediately, the father of the child cried out with tears. The man just starts crying, and he says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

How many times if we're honest and we have to go to God and say, I believe, but it doesn't go so far. I trust, but I can't take the next step. I'm here, but you're asking me to go a step farther. I believe, help my unbelief. That's honesty.

Jesus immediately healed the man's son. Now, because the man said, oh, I have great faith, Lord, don't worry about my faith. He was, I can only go so far here. You've got to actually help me have faith. You have to take me where I can't go. That's the funny thing about faith. Part of faith is at times to be willing to let God take you where you can't go. You can't go by yourself. We have no way to get there, and we let him take us there. Oh, but my faith is so great. You know, this man was honest. I've seen people of great faith in my life. I've never met anybody. I've never met anybody that didn't have that faith tested to the place where they did not know, where they struggled, where they worried. Never. And I've met people of faith that I just amazed at, that they'll tell the stories of this. Every great person of faith I've ever met has had times where they've basically said, Lord, I believe, help my own. We have to be honest about that. That's a genuine faith. I'm a human being, and my faith only goes so far that God has to take me the rest of the way. And I have to trust Him. Follow along, but He has to do it.

But I have to follow.

There's an interesting... What's interesting about the New Testament writers is they talk about that they are witnesses. We saw Christ do this. We saw this miracle. We saw Him cast out demons. We saw Him resurrected. They're witnesses. And then the whole New Testament is stories about them who are witnesses of Jesus Christ struggling with their faith.

It's a whole book about men and women who were witnesses to what happened, saw it, participated in it, and then had moments of their lives where, God, are you still with me? I feel abandoned here. I don't understand what you're doing. Mark... I'm sorry, Luke chapter 17.

You see, a genuine faith is willing to share with others. The faith we're talking about here, the Timothy had, the Paul said, I can see it in you. Is a willingness to share with others. Hey, I doubt too, but let me tell you what God did. See, we're all witnesses of what God... I can tell you all kinds of things God's done in my life. I can tell you all kinds of things I've witnessed in other people's lives.

And every time I tell that to somebody, I take one of those stories, I share it with somebody, I walk away thinking, Yeah, why do I have doubts? I've seen what God can do. But we forget, don't we? We forget. And so we have to be able to share the doubts, the struggles, and we have to share what we've witnessed. We have to share what we've witnessed. That we've seen God do healings. We've seen God intervene in our lives. We've seen God intervene in other people's lives. And that there's times it feels like he's not. Or there's times when we don't like the answer. You know, the biggest problem is not when God doesn't answer, it's when the answer is no. That's what's the hardest thing for us. Uh-uh. Can I have a different answer here? You must not have heard the prayer, right?

No, the answer is no. Look at 17, verse 5. And the apostle said to the Lord, increase our faith. Now, I thought about, you know, I was thinking about some sermons on faith. I need to give a sermon about increasing faith. But what's interesting, if you go here where they ask him, okay, help us have more faith. He doesn't directly deal with them having more faith. At least it appears that. Because he gives them a parable that seems to not quite answer their question, but it does. He says, so the Lord said, if you can have faith as a mustard seed, you can say that a small berry tree be pulled out by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. So they say, increase our faith. He said, oh no, if you had the tiniest, the smallest, a speck of faith, miracles would happen. Well, that's really encouraging, isn't it? Increase our faith. You guys don't even have a speck of faith.

So there has to be something. What he wants to point out here is there's something wrong in their thinking. Because these people, these men, did have a certain amount of faith. But there was something wrong in their thinking that was attached to their faith. So he takes them in a direction they don't want to go in. God does this all the time. We ask a question and he takes us in a different direction because the real answer is at an issue of heart. What they want to do is an issue of miracles, or an issue of God answering all my prayers. You're going to know we're going to do a hard issue here. So Jesus says to them, Which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him, when he is coming from the field, Come at once and sit down to eat? We asked about faith here. We got a master, servant, sheep. Here he goes again. Think about how many times they said to him, what does that mean? They went to all the crowds and went away. While we speak, I'm sure they looked around and said, Then all the crowd goes away and they say, hey, what in the world were you saying?

He will say to him, when he is coming from the field, come at once and sit down and eat. That's not what the master says. But would he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper, gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten a drug? And afterwards, you will eat a drink. Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.

Wait a minute. We ask for faith and he says, look, when a servant does everything he is supposed to do, fulfills every single action, obeys everything that the master asks, isn't that just his duty? Verse 10, So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done what is our duty to do. In other words, obedience is a requirement from God. But at the end of the day, we can't go to God and say, look, today, man, there must have been a hundred good things I did. This really adds up to, I'm going to give a prayer and I expect a good answer on this one.

See how this has to do with faith? It doesn't seem to have to do anything with faith, but it does. The issue is, whatever God gives to us is completely through his mercy. Even when we've done everything right, because we're such corrupted human beings, he has no obligation except his own love to do anything for us. He does it because he loves us. He does it because he's merciful. He does it because of his goodness. And that's his point. Increase our faith. Okay. Obey. Obey in everything. That's part of faith. Without obedience, there is no faith. And then when you've obeyed in everything, say, I've done my duty. Anything he gives me is still mercy.

Interesting answer to a question, isn't it?

But it has to do with understanding our humility before God, because our faith must be based in trusting God, not in saving it up enough coins to buy God off.

Every time we do something good, we get a coin. And they ever do that with your kids, you know, when they do something good, we put it in a jar, and then they had enough money, and they could go buy something. When they did something, we'd say, okay, if you do this, you get a reward. And the best thing I used to do with the kids was, if they treated each other nice, they got like a nickel. If they treated each other badly, they lost a dime. Boy, they would try to treat each other nice, because, man, those jars would get empty real quick. There's nothing in my jar! Well, okay. Be nice to your sisters. But see, sometimes we think, now God does reward us. That's a whole other subject. He's talking here about believing that, okay, I've obeyed in everything, I deserve now for you to give me what I want, because I have faith. He said, no. If you've done everything you're supposed to do, you've done what your duty is. God rewards us out of His goodness. It comes from Him. It's His goodness. Which shows you, and shows all of us, that genuine faith always points to God, as the object of the faith.

God is always the point of faith. If you had enough faith... See, that's what you see in movies all today. Just believe. They don't even tell you what to believe in. Just believe that it'll happen. If you could just believe, what's that mean? Actually, that's superstition. If I just believe in something enough, it'll happen. That's superstition. The point of our faith is God. And that's why we struggle. And that's why we have to be honest about it. Yeah, sometimes God's so great, and I'm so small, I have trouble with this trust issue. I keep trying.

We are willing to show that. We have genuine faith. It's real. And then we can witness. Oh, God... One time God intervened in my life. The moment you say that, what are you passing on? Genuine faith. When God did something. My faith... You know, I've heard actually people say that. If you could just have the faith like I've been healed because of my faith. You know, God healed me. Now, my faith was a factor, right? My faith was a factor. But God healed me. I did not heal myself. I've been healed before. Never healed myself. I've annoyed the people. Watch God heal them. And I didn't heal them. There's no magic in an elder's hands, folks.

God heals people. We just do our jobs. We do our jobs. Second point. When we are exhibiting genuine faith, we don't pretend to be perfect. Sometimes, in our desire to be a good example as a Christian, we actually can pretend to be perfect. And so, someone comes along and they're struggling with a lack of faith. Maybe they're struggling with a sin. Maybe they're struggling with, I don't understand, I just... You know, I know I shouldn't work with a Sabbath, but I'm so afraid to lose my job. And you can look at them and say, I know, I did that. One time I worked for six months on the Sabbath. He was miserable. I made more money, but the money didn't stretch. I don't know where the money went. I've heard that conversation many times, too. Oh, yeah, I worked with the Sabbath thinking I was going to have more money. I got more money, but I ended up with more bills and more problems, and my car broke down, and my house fell down. And, you know, life was so miserable, and I ended up with less money. So I went back to having faith in God, keeping the Sabbath, making less money, and I was wealthier. What is that? That is a genuine statement. I understand because I'm not pretending here I made the same mistake. But I can also witness to you why it won't work. I can explain to you I've been there. I haven't had the faith. I only had the faith when I stepped back and was willing not to work on the Sabbath. Then my faith was real. Then it was genuine. And then something happened in my life. So we don't pretend.

Luke 13. By the way, hypocrisy, a genuine faith is one that doesn't have hypocrisy. Hypocrisy means to pretend. And I want to say something here to young people. Because young people, teenagers, people in their 20s, tend to be very sensitive about hypocrisy, as they should be. But they also misunderstand hypocrisy. I've seen young people say, well, I just can't be part of that church. Those people, I know so-and-so, has a problem with drinking, and I know this person who has a problem with gossiping, and I know this person over there, that their marriage isn't very good. They're just all butch hypocrites. They just come to church and pretend. There are some people who pretend. They're just going to find hypocrites. But you know, most people aren't. They're just weak human beings trying to obey God. They're not pretending. That's why you know about their sins, by the way. They're not hiding it very well. It's sort of out there, right?

They're not pretending. In fact, to say, you know, I'm not going to obey God because they're a bunch of hypocrites is actually one of the biggest statements of hypocrisy you can make. I'm not going to obey the creator of the universe, God, because these other people don't meet His standards. You can only do that if you meet His standards 100%. So if you meet His hand as standard as 100%, you can say that. If you don't, you can't. Well, you can, but it's hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is a two-edged sword. I'll give a sermon on hypocrisy sometimes. Luke 13, verse 10. Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues of the Sabbath. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of hermity 18 years, who was bent over and could no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her woman, You are loosed from your firmity. He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. The ruler of the synagogues, so here's the man who is the, you know, they would call him sometimes the President. He's a rabbi. This is the pastor of the synagogue. There have been other elders and so forth. But this was the man who was the leader in the synagogue, ordained leader. The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus is healed of the Sabbath. He said to the crowd, There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come and be healed of him, and not on the Sabbath day. Now, I guess you could, from a, you know, you can look at a man and he's trying to look at the law and say, Well, we shouldn't be doing this because the law forbids work on the Sabbath. But that's not his real motivation, and this is why he's a hypocrite. There's a pretense here, and because of this pretense, he's missing, he's missing what God is doing.

And the Lord then answered him and said, Hypocrite does not, does not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox or donkey from the stall leading away to water it? So what, not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound. Think of it, and I think that's interesting. He doesn't just, at some point he says, Man, just think of this! Can you imagine if this was you? 18 years. You're all bent up. 18 years, you can't straighten up. You see people with arthritis, it's all bent up and can't hardly walk, can't hardly move. He says, Think of this. Here is a woman that God loves, and she's been like this for a long time, for 18 years, being loose from this boggle of the Sabbath.

If you would take your donkey, who you have tied up in a stall, but needs to be watered, you would untie it and take it over and give it water. And his argument is, why shouldn't God untie this woman?

Now, stop pretending here. You're missing what God wants. You're missing what God wants to do. Now, there's this presence of being perfect, and they're missing what God wants. But look at the response in verse 17. And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were what? Put to shame. They actually felt shamed. The leader of the synagogue doesn't argue back. He has no argument. He's pretending. And all of a sudden, he can't pretend anymore. You're pretending you're perfect. And here God is doing his great miracle, giving this woman this great gift, and you're offended by it because why? Well, maybe Jesus will be more popular than me. Jesus is the carpenter's son. Instead of getting everyone together and saying, wow, look what God is doing, and in his pretense, he couldn't even accept what God was doing because it didn't match up exactly with his own sense of self-righteousness.

And all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him, by Christ. To exhibit a genuine faith to others, we have to admit that our Christian lives haven't always been perfect. They're not perfect now. But you can tell people, but I'm on a journey. Here's what we tell them. I'm on a journey. I'm also not the person I used to be. I hate these. The word witness is used by Protestants at the point that I almost hate to use it, but I don't know what else to use. We can witness, we can say, or we can share whatever word we want to use. Look, I'm not the same person I used to be. I still have a long ways to go. But God is working in my life. I'm not here condemning you and saying, I'm a perfect person, you're a rotten person. I'm sitting here telling you, you can be on this journey, too. Someday you can look back and say, hey, I'm not the same person I used to be. I'm not that person anymore. And I still have the ways to go. I know I've used this before, but I love this. This was years ago. This little kid comes walking by, we're out in public someplace, and he has on his shirt, please be patient with me.

He walked by and on the back of me, and the little guy, like five years old, has said, God isn't done with me yet, and God doesn't do bad work.

Yeah, that's Christianity right there. Please be patient with me. It's not, look at me, I'm a Christian. Be patient with me. Because God doesn't do bad work. See, that's what we can tell people. Don't have to have a pretense. No, I understand I'm not perfect either. But boy am I on a journey, and I'm not the person I used to be, and God doesn't want you to be the person you are either. See, we don't back down from their evil. We give them hope. And we don't pretend. The third thing. We have to be genuine and deal with the severity of how God deals with evil in human history. You know, there is one of the biggest arguments that is used in college classes. It's interesting, because a lot of colleges now present courses on the Bible. Where it used to be, unless you were going into theology or something, you didn't take a Bible course. But Bible courses are offered now at most universities. Many of them have a bent to it to prove that the Bible is good literature, but basically mythology. You know, the same as the Iliad, or the Odyssey. And one of the arguments is that there are moral dilemmas in the Bible. No loving God would kill the children of Sodom.

What loving God would tell people, soldiers, to go into Jericho and kill all the pregnant women? In other words, God in the Bible commits abortions. That's an interesting argument, isn't it? The God in the Bible commits abortions all the time. If he didn't like somebody, he killed them before they were even born. What kind of God is this? What kind of monster is this? And he's painted as a monster. You and I have to deal honestly with the problem that so many people do not want to face. And that is, God as the Creator, and God as the Creator of goodness, has the absolute right to judge evil however he wants. And God is harsh on evil. And here's what we have to show them. The balance between God's justice and God's love. We have to show them that he's both. Now, we also have to be willing to sometimes acknowledge, yeah, I've struggled with that too. How come this rotten person over here who commits rape and murder gets off scot-free, and this good person over here, you know, their house burns down, they get robbed, and they get murdered? And nobody even knows who did it, or the person who did it gets scot-free. What's the problem here? Where is justice and love of God?

I've had people in the church, especially young people ask me, why would God kill people? Does this seem awfully mean? We wrestle with that. That's okay. We have to be able to admit. No. My faith isn't God because I struggle with and I learn. I'm on a journey. I'm learning how God's justice and love fit together. Isn't that the point of Abraham saying, you're going to kill everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah? Can I ask a question? And what is God's answer? Sure. What if there's 50 righteous people?

Oh, I won't destroy the city if there's 50 righteous people. What is he wrestling with? How does your justice and love fit together here? Remember, even in that passage, he says, you're the judge of the universe. Can the judge make this decision? He said, if he wanted to kill 45 good people, why is he bringing this up?

He's struggling with... Here's the Father of the faithful. I don't understand justice and love. I don't understand how this fits together. God said, I wouldn't be struggling with 45 people. Can I ask another question? And he gets the number smaller and smaller and smaller. And then what did God do? He found one family. Did God kill that family? No. He took the family out. So when you're all there is, I'll take you out. The judgment on the evilness of those people was God's judgment.

You know, we have to remember something as Christians. There is a lake of fire. And sometimes if we're not careful, what we do is we sort of slip almost into universalism. Oh, God loves everybody. So there'll only be like maybe Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin in the lake of fire. And maybe Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. You know, that's gonna be the only people in the lake of fire, right?

There is a lake of fire. And there are people put into the lake of fire because of God's justice. That doesn't erase His law. It erases that He will not exist for eternity with people, individuals, who refuse to stop being evil. You know, and it says in the Bible, God hates certain things. That's what it means. When He calls certain things abominations, literally, abomination means it makes me sick.

What a statement! This makes me sick, God says. He uses the strongest words possible, but it doesn't erase these love. And that's why everybody gets a chance to repent. Everybody gets a chance to repent. But there is a lake of fire. And we have to be willing to say, yes, I've wrestled with that. I still do sometimes. I mean, I've wrestled with God. Why are you allowing this righteous person to suffer?

I've wrestled with that. And there's an evil person over here, and man, everything's good in their life. Well, it always appears that way. You know what I mean? Yeah, we all struggle with that. And we have to be willing. And when someone comes up with that question, we can't say, well, your problem is you don't have enough faith.

Well, your problem is you just don't know the Lord. That doesn't look good at all. But when we don't have a pretense, and we're genuinely saying, I understand, struggle with that. But you have to understand how much God hates evil. But how much God loves us and is willing to forgive us if we repent of evil. And I have a chance to actually tell them about how they can repent. See, genuine faith is Abraham wrestling with God over how does justice and love fit here?

This is a whole city! There's little kids in that city. Yeah, they're evil too. That's what God says? Of course, we understand the resurrection. That's a whole other subject than this. But everybody does get a chance to repent. Ultimately, you know how you explain God's justice and love? Jesus Christ. He didn't erase His law. Evil is evil. Bad is bad. And every one of us deserve eternal death. That's it! We're there. We're already condemned. Christ comes, now that's love, to suffer and die for us to be resurrected so that we have the chance to get out of this.

We can escape this justice by receiving forgiveness. Justice and love. God did not do away with definition of evil. He simply said, I love you enough to give you a way to come out of this, if you're willing to do it. So the greatest explanation of God's love and justice has to do with Jesus Christ. And the fourth reason, or the fourth way we can be genuine, is sometimes we have to acknowledge, I have no idea what God is doing. People ask me all the time, this is happening in my life.

What do you think God's doing? My answer is, I don't know. I'm not God. He does promise to work things out for our good. Almost every situation in life, He will use to teach us something. And we learn something profound from it. But there are times in all of our lives where we go to God and say, What are you doing now? Your ways are so big, I can't figure them out. Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is a great comfort to me. I read Psalm 139 on numerous occasions, just to myself.

David says in verse 1, You have hedged me behind it before, you have laid your hand upon me, and such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. He said, the more I understand you, the more I feel like just overwhelmed, because I don't... God is just too great.

Every bird that dies, every... Tim has flowers on the back porch, and they're covered with butterflies this summer. Every butterfly that dies, he says he knows. How does he know that? He knows? That's too big for me, right? That's just too big for me. We have to... that's part of genuine faith. He's really a lot bigger than I am. Aren't you glad God's bigger than you? Aren't you really glad that he's smarter than you, bigger than you, more powerful than you, more righteous than you? Aren't you glad? Wouldn't it be horrible to think we're the most powerful thing in the universe?

And there's this cupboard that comes to others when we look at them and say, I know, struggling with the same thing. I've asked God, what are you doing? I don't get this. And you know, sometimes he doesn't feel a great need to tell me what he's doing. Right? Just sit tight, kid. I'll take care of it. But it's uncomfortable sitting and waiting. Yeah, but come on. You can sit for an hour, right? Tell a kid to sit for an hour, right?

I can't. I'll die. My legs will fall off. I'll go crazy. God tells us lots of times, I want you to sit for a while. But God, that's two weeks. I can't sit for two weeks and wait for you. God says, yeah, you will, because you wouldn't figure this out if I told you. I'm going to tell you something I believe. I think God tells us a lot more than we realize.

I think we just don't get it. Try explaining something to a two-year-old. And finally, what do you say? Just do it, because daddy told you. I think there's lots of times, God, explain, explain, explain, and he says, look, just do it, because I told you, okay? You just can't get it. Verse 7 says, we're going to go from your spirit. We're going to flee from your presence. If I send you to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

And if I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. He says, indeed the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to you. The whole psalm, the rest of the psalm is, how did you do this?

How do you do all these things? And his answer always says, this is too big for me. Where we don't have to have the pretense that we know everything God is doing. And you know what? We don't know every passage of Scripture. I'm going to admit to you, I don't know every passage of Scripture.

Because you've figured that out by now. Because some of you have asked me things and I've said, I don't know. I give you my opinion, but I don't know. Boy, that's a relief. But I can tell you that, because I hope none of you leave the church. Right? It's honest! We've got to be genuine about this. Our faith is God's leading us. I know God has opened my mind to a lot of things in the Bible. But I don't know everything. You don't know everything. When we stop trying to pretend, life gets a lot easier. So what we have to do is understand that it's okay to share with other people.

I don't know either. I just trust Him. But how can you trust God when you don't know? Well, here's what I do know. And yet there's a lot we do know. There's a lot of promises we do know. And we can tell. I know this happens. I know this happens. I know God does this. I know that God has a promise to make us 25 forever.

I do know this. He promises to give us the health to complete the work He started in us. That's a promise. None of us go until we're ready. That's the promise. But I wish He'd make us 25. Now, maybe a little older. A little smarter when you're a little, you know. But He's not going to do that. Well, Paul wrote that he witnessed this genuine faith in Timothy, his mother and his grandmother. It's not like they were trying to show off their faith.

They were just normal people. They were probably shocked by the statement. He saw this genuine faith, this authentic faith in us. Faith was simply an honest aspect of their relationship with God. It was honest. It was daily. It wasn't something that they, oh yeah, today's the Sabbath.

I have to go to church, so I have to pretend I have faith. It was part of their lives. It's how they lived. And they struggled with their faith, just like everybody else, and that's why it was real.

If you've never struggled with your faith, it probably isn't real. Well, if you've never struggled with your faith, hang on. It's coming. It will happen. It will happen. And you will have to struggle with your faith. People who have genuine faith, think of the four things we talked about, share with others their own trials and struggles. They're not afraid to share with others their own trials and struggles.

They don't pretend to be perfect, but admit their weaknesses, and admit that they're dedicated. This is a journey. I'm overcoming. I'm growing. I'm not perfect yet, but God's not done with me yet, and you too can be on this journey. And there's faith. God's not done with me yet. That's actually a statement of faith. There's a goal here. He's taken me someplace. They know that God's justice and love are exhibited in Jesus Christ, and they admit that they don't always understand God's ways. But they still trust in God's ways.

They still trust to obey when there's a price. See, a lot of times obedience is easy until there's a price to pay, right? If I obey, now there's a... I receive something bad. I receive a price for obeying. We don't always understand God's ways, but we obey. That's faith. If we say, I have to understand to obey, that's not faith. Faith is what we obey, even what we don't understand. The basis of authentic faith is simple.

It is a trust in God, is a trust in His greatness, in His goodness, His mercy, His justice, and His promises that He has made to you.