We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

2012-08-05

This Week’s Sermon: Sledge Hammer Faith

Greg is feverishly working on a new book on faith and doubt and he decided to preach on this topic for a couple of weeks. He’s also been dealing with this topic on the blog as a part of fleshing out the ReKnew Manifesto. This week he asks the question: Is certainty-seeking, doubt-shunning faith idolatrous? Many Christians assume faith means you must have perfect certainty in matters of belief. This makes doubt the enemy, and our job as Christians becomes the mantra of the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz, “I DO believe. I DO believe. I DO, I DO, I DO believe!” But biblical faith is not anything like a “strength-tester” from a carnival where you try to hit the faith-puck hard enough to ring the certainty bell at the top. Rather, biblical faith is entering a loving relationship with the One who created us and came to redeem us.

You can download audio and video files of this sermon from the Woodland Hills Church website.

After you’ve listened to the sermon, we invite you to share your thoughts with the rest of the ReKnew community on our Facebook page, or send us your questions here!

 Subscribe to Woodland Hills Church’s sermon podcasts through iTunes:

Normal Quality Audio | High-Quality Audio | Video

Category:
Tags: ,

Related Reading

When the Bible Becomes an Idol

In John 5, we read about Jesus confronting some religious leaders saying, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). These leaders thought they possessed life by…

You Have What We Call a Theological Problem

Peter Enns posted a blog entitled: Dear Christian: If the Thought of Either Romney or Obama Getting Elected Makes You Fearful, Angry, or Depressed, You Have What we Call a Theological Problem. He makes some pretty good points. What do your emotions around this election tell you about where your hope lies? From the blog: There…

ReThinking the Source of Life

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the twelve convictions of the ReKnew Manifesto. The first of which focuses on where we get life. In many of my writings, I speak about the source of “life.” By this I mean one’s core sense of identity, worth, significance and security. Over the years, I’ve…

Faith in the Midst of the Storm

This last weekend Greg was in Michigan preaching at Mars Hill. If you’d like to download the audio of the sermon click here. Greg continues his thoughts on faith and doubt in this sermon, focusing on the gospel account of Jesus walking on the water. What does it mean to have faith?

Tags: ,

Does God Still Heal?

In the ancient world Jesus was known first and foremost as an exorcist and a healer. These two activities are mentioned in every summary of Jesus’s ministry found in the Gospels. It’s common for Western Christians today to accept that infirmities (sickness, disease, injuries, disabilities and deformities) are part of God’s mysterious plan for their…

Why Bart Ehrman Doesn’t Have to Ruin Your Christmas (Or Your Faith) Part 5

This is the fifth of several videos Greg put together to refute Bart Ehrman’s claims published in the article What Do We Really Know About Jesus? In this segment, Greg points out that none of Bart’s material are new discoveries. Even the most conservative scholars in this field are aware of them, and yet, none of them…