Second-Hand Faith!Sermon Notes                                                                                           Pastor Brad Myers

Knowledge or Experience?                                                                                                               February 2, 2025

 

New Series: Second-Hand Faith

 

What is Faith?

·      “It’s confidence or trust in a person, a thing, process, GOD.

·      “It’s a belief not based on any proof” No evidence!

 

BUT, everyone lives daily by faith with no evidence, no proof!

 

Examples

·      Pharmacist: Faith, you have the right medicine in that bottle.

·      Restaurants: Faith the chef or food server didn’t tamper with your food.

o   Pizza delivery, Doordash, Uber Eats!

·      Marriage: Faith in your spouse’s commitment.  

·      Finances: Faith someone will pay you for your work.

·      Voting: Based on Faith!

o   You have faith in someone to represent your interests in government. 

·      Technology: Faith in the Uber/Lyft driver who picks you up!

o   Growing up:Don’t talk to strangers Don’t get into a strange car

o   Today:I use the Uber app: stranger picks me up in a strange car.

 

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Story: Pastor Kelly Kopp: Social Media Superstar!

·      Music Management: Nickelback, Richard Marx, Stryper, Candlebox, Wang Chung, Warped Tour, etc.

·      Near fatal car crash:  Transformed his life.

·      Gave up everythingfor Jesus! Never looked back.

·      Today: Full time pastor: Travels the world with a different purpose.

·      Social media superstar: Author, “Get Lit!”

·      Pastors Limitless 405 Church: Kingfisher, OK

·      Talks aboutSecond-Hand Jesus!Grew up hearing second hand about Jesus!

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Today’s Message: Knowledge or Experience?

 

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

 

Faith is Tricky: For Example

·      Faith in Science: Trust, we got something out of nothing.

o   Recently: Science redefined “Nothing” to include energy fluctuations whichcreated particles that created the universe: Quantum Fluctuation

o   Known as the Big Bang Theory

 

·      Faith in God: Trust there’s a higher power who created everything.

 

Then You Believe

Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

How?

Genesis 1:3 (NIV)

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

·      No where does it say it stopped being created.

 

Scientists agree!

 

Hubble’s Law: The universe is not only expanding but also it’s doing so at an accelerating rate. Scientist first discovered this expansion in the early 20th century—most famously through Edwin Hubble’s observation that distant galaxies are receding from us, and the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it appears to be moving.

 

·      Faith in Scientist:You trust what they think; really the same as the Bible and the Bible came first!

·      Bible: Is an eye-witness account of a personal, first-hand experience

 

In your life second-hand knowledge may start your faith journey but it’s the experience that convinces you!

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Story: Apostle Paul writes a letter to a church in Corinth.

·      Corinth major city in ancient Greece.

·      Paul founded this church spent about 18 months there

·      All kinds of problems with the people.

·      Many weren’t believing the Jesus talk.

·      Paul writes to set the record straight!

 

1 Corinthians 15:4-8 (NLT) (First-Hand Experience)

 

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There’s Value in Second-Hand Faith: Title of my series!

     1. We Have to Start Somewhere

 

Romans 10:17 (NIV)

·      “hearing”:  Trust the word.                                                                                                                           

 

Before you trust, you must listen; but unless Christ’s word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.

 

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2. Second-hand Faith Has Its Limitations: You can’t live on it.

 

God’s power can transform us, but it remains a story until it becomes personal. At some point, we need to experience God’s presence for ourselves.

 

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Personal Experience is where Faith becomes first-hand!

 

John 4:42 (NIV)

They came to a place where their faith was now firsthand knowledge.

·      That’s God’s desire for each of us.

Job 42:5 (NIV)

·      Job transitions from hearing about God to personally experiencing God’s sovereignty and comfort.

·      Paul’s Damascus Road: Paul had likely heard about Jesus from the early Christians he was persecuting (Acts 7–8). But his life-transforming moment came when he personally encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). That personal encounter changed everything.

 

A first-hand experience with God means when the storms of life come, we stand firm, anchored not only in trusting what we’ve been told but also in our own experience with God’s power.

 

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We Must Cultivate our Personal Experience with God

Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

·      Work on your personal experience.

 

We cultivate our personal experience with God

By Praying Honestly and Openly

 

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

 

We cultivate our personal experience with God

When we Listen for God’s Voice

 

It’s not enough to talk at God; we must also listen. Whether through Scripture, the gentle prompting inside of us by the Holy Spirit, or wise counsel, God speaks to us.

 

John 10:27 (NLT)

 

Why don’t some people believe they can hear God’s voice?

 

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

 

We cultivate our personal experience with God

By Serving Others

 

We encounter God’s power when we step out of our comfort zone and serve others and share our faith. When place our faith into practice, God meets us with new insights and experiences.

 

God is a person, and we are meant to relate to Him, and that means we must experience Him!

 

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Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

 

You cannot find something until you have the faith that something is there to be found.

 

Personal, first-hand experience is irreplaceable.

·      Once you find it…. You won’t replace it.

·      You don’t know what you don’t know.

Personal, first-hand experience is irresistible.

·       Every believer knows exactly what this means