Second-Hand Faith!Sermon Notes                                                                                           Pastor Brad Myers

Echoes to Transformation                                                                                                               February 16, 2025

 

What is Faith?

·      Confidence or trust with no physical proof

 

Everyone lives by faith daily

 

Many struggle with faith in God

 

Started Series: With Question

 

Q) Is your perception of God from second-hand knowledge of what people say, or personal, first-hand experience?

 

Comes down to:“what you hear or what you know?”

 

Last Week:

·      Inherited Faith:Often passed down through family tradition or church culture but has never been truly embraced on a personal level.

o   Paul warned Timothy: Grandmother, mother; fan your personal faith!

·      Borrowed Faith:Live on someone else’s faith; their power.

o   Seven Sons of Seva:

·      Imitated Faith: Mimic/impersonate people who’ve had a personal experience.

o   1 Corinthians 11:1: you should imitate me because I imitate Christ.

 

Dangers of Inherited, Borrowed, or Imitated Faith

1.     No Personal Conviction: no solid ground!

2.     Easily Shaken: Break under pressure

3.     Lack Endurance in Persecution: You’remore likely to compromise or walk..

4.     Easily Influenced:  False teachings, etc..

5.     We become ritualistic but not transformed.

a.     Going through the motions

Echoes to Transformation

 

What’s an echo?

• Sound that repeats when it bounces off a surface and returns to the listener.
• Bounces: Reverberates

 

Imagine you are hiking in a vast, beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains. As you walk, you decide to shout out toward the mountains, and to your delight, your voice echoes back to you. It reverberates off the mountain walls, creating a symphony of repeating sounds. Each echo brings a version of your original shout, but softer, more distant.

 

Transformed! Many meanings!

·      Corrected, modified, updated, adjusted, amended, converted, diversified, fitted, fixed, qualified, redone, refitted, reformed, remade, remodeled, renovated, reshaped, revised, turned around.

·      Transformed = Changed! (nature & character) Different!

 

Some Spiritual Journeys start by hearing echoes of who Jesus is.

 

Jesus explains

Matthew 7:24a (NLT)

1.     Some reject the echoes but keep hearing it.The more they reject the more noise the echoes become.

2.     Some live on only the echoes:Hearing but never exploring.

3.     Some live on echoes:Like inherited, borrowed, or imitated faith.

4.     Some are transformed by the echoes.

·      Why? Echoes reverberate; But only if someone keeps shouting.

5.     Some aren’t transformed by the echoes.

·      Why? Echoes reverberate; Someone keeps shouting.

(MULTILINE REVEAL SMALL) 

Paul explains it

1 Corinthians 3:6 (ESV)

Corinthians 3:8 (ESV)

 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

 

Let’s transition today from knowing about Jesus through the echoes of others’ testimonies (second-hand faith) to experiencing a personal, life-changing encounter with Christ. (first-hand experience)

 

(MULTILINE REVEAL SMALL)

The Nature of Echoes

 

Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV)

·      OT: God spoke through prophets, but now He speaks directly through Jesus.

 

Today,echoes represent the second-hand experiences of Jesus we encounter through books, other people’s stories, and even long-winded preachers. They are only echoes until there’s a first-hand experience.

 

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (NLT)The Lord Speaks to Samuel

·       Samuel hears God’s voice but does not recognize it until Eli instructs him.

·       This marks the beginning of Samuel’s direct relationship with God and his transformation into a prophet.

 

Echoes are reflections of the true sound, valuable but second-hand. They guide us toward God but are limited in bringing about complete transformation. Echoes are still valuable, but they are only starters, not sustainers, of our faith.

(MULTILINE REVEAL SMALL)

Our challenge is to recognize God’s voice when He is speaking to us.

 

When we Launched Series:

 

Many struggle to hear God’s voice because they’ve already decided what they want Him to say.

 

Hearing God’s voice requires familiarity with what God sounds like.

·      His Word! Today  Bible!

·      Samuel wasn’t familiar with how God sounded

 

So we need to be open to spiritual guidance:

·      Mentors can guide us in interpretating and responding to God’s voice.

 

Eli helped Samuel Experience God First-hand  Personal Encounter!

·      A personal encounter in prayer, worship, and meditation.

 

There’s a difference in hearing God’s voice and an encounter with Him!

(MULTILINE REVEAL SMALL)

Samuel couldn’t hear God’s voice so Eli set up an encounter for Eli

 

1 Samuel 3:9 (NLT)

 

Encounters are more than an echo of God’s voice, it’s a conversation.

·      Eli wanted Samuel to have an encounter.

·      He could have taught him to hear God’s voice.

 

Would have been

“I hear you, Lord!”

 

From an echo to an encounter

 “Speak Lord, I am listening.”

(MULTILINE REVEAL SMALL)

 

From an echo to a transformation

 

1 Samuel 3:9 (NLT)

…‘SpeakLord, your servant is listening.’”

·      Speak: A posture of readiness…

·      “Servant” A commitment to change….

·      Samuel’s immediate response to God shaped the trajectory of his life.

·      Samuel’s formal introduction to his prophetic ministry where he will serve not just Eli, but primarily God.

·      Eli knew the difference: Eli’s own sons, who, although priests, did not conduct themselves as servants of God. They abused their positions for personal gain (1 Samuel 2:12-17).

An Active Response Is Required:

1 Samuel 3:9 (NLT)

…‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’