"So Faith, hope and love remain - these three, but the greatest of these is love."  So wrote St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, words we've probably heard before.  I'd like to spend today and the next two weeks speaking on this trio of godly attributes: Faith, Hope and Love.  "Hope" is the anticipation of something good, and "Love" has many meanings, so today let's consider "Faith."

          Faith is such a misused word.  We use it to mean things like faith in one's abilities, faith in the future and faith in mankind.  What we're talking about in those cases is less about faith, and more like confidence that something will happen.  True faith means trusting your life to someone else.  Christian faith is in Jesus Christ, and it's not just a feeling, it's an attitude that produces results.  Faith in Christ gives us life with God.

          The Bible says, "Faith is being certain of what we cannot see." (Hebrews 11:1)   None of us lives without faith.  We all have faith in things we cannot see.  I cannot see the air, but I know it's there.  I cannot see a visible thing called love, but I know it's there.  It's like the dog on the other side of the door.  I cannot see its master, but it knows its master is there and hears his voice, so it whines and scratches and barks until the master opens the door.  We, too, know God is on the other side.  We sense His presence and hear His voice.  So we trust Him and want to be near Him.

          All people live by faith, whether they realize it or not.  They claim to live only by what they can see.  They cannot believe what they cannot see.  This earth is all there is and heaven is the result of an overactive imagination.  But if this earth is all there is to look forward to, it's little wonder people have little respect for each other and live like there is no tomorrow.  If this is all there is, people will be tempted to end their miserable existence. A respected seminary professor once told me if there was no god, he would not hesitate to take his life, for it amounted to nothing anyway.  It shocked me, but taught me a lesson.  With no faith or hope for anything beyond this life, who wants to live?

          Let me tell you a true story.  John Long was a second-string senior linebacker for the University of Illinois football team some 35 years ago.  It was the last and most important game of the season for the Fighting Illini.  A win would put them into the Rose Bowl against the USC Trojans.  Early Saturday morning of game day John Long was up at dawn, pounding on the door of his coach's motel room.  "Coach," he said, "I gotta start in today's game -- I just gotta."  The coach gave him a few words of encouragement, but told him not to bank on it.  This was, after all, their most important game of the year and they needed their best players.  But John Long persisted with his request all morning.  Finally, the coach told him, "John, if we win the toss, we'll elect to kick off and you can go on the special team for the first play.  That way you'll start."  John Long was satisfied with that, for he was a man on a mission.

          St. Paul was a man on a mission.  When he spoke these words, "We live by faith, not by sight," he was old.  He didn't have much time left.  He knew his bodily tent was beyond repair.  He knew the storms of time would blow it down and the decay of life would rip the seams.  But still he could say, "Therefore we are always of good courage;  we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord."  How could a dying old man be of good courage?  Because he lived by faith, not by sight, faith in God's love, confidence in a living and loving God.

          In faith you and I look forward to a time when we will be given a new life, a new home, not made of wood or brick, not made by human hands, but an eternal home made by God Himself.  This new and improved home will be in the presence of God, life forever, life that will be the greatest life of all.  "So," said Paul, "we are always of good courage;  we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  For we live by faith, not by sight."

          Back to our story.  The Fighting Illini won the toss and the coach kept his word and John Long went onto the field with the kickoff team.  The moment the ball was kicked, he raced downfield like a man possessed.  He singled out the ball carrier and put a teriffic hit on him.  It stunned everyone, including his coach.  "After a hit like that," the coach said, "you can stay in for the next play."  The first play called by the opposing team was a trick play, a sideways pass to a wide receiver who would stay behind the line of scrimmage, waiting for the quarterback to go downfield as a receiver.  Somehow, John Long read the play perfectly.  He ran through the line and picked off the pass, running it into the end zone for 6 points.  The "point-after" failed, and the score was 6-0.  And you can be sure the coach left him in!  He displayed such fierceness that the coach left him in the whole game which ended at 6-0.  John Long had won the game!  The team carried him and the coach off the field on their shoulders.

          Not everyone can have a life-defining moment like that, when we're inspired beyond our ability.  It's the kind of thing that comes because we believe something we cannot see.  It's living by faith, not by sight.  All people live by some kind of faith.  No one lives only by what he sees.  Even the atheist has faith in something.  He just doesn't have faith in God.  We can't live without faith.

          It's just that so many of us have our faith in the wrong places, in the wrong things.  We think all we need is faith in our abilities, or our possessions, or our pleasures, or our wisdom.  But real faith, the kind that blesses us, is faith in Jesus.  He's the one who died for us, our Savior.  Everyone lives by faith.  Just be sure it's faith in Jesus.

          As we live by faith, God will keep His promises.  He says in Romans 8:28, "All things work together for good with those who love God."  Or Matthew 28:20: "Lo, I am with you always."  Or Galatians 3:28, "You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."  And Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Just a few of His promises, and God KEEPS His promises.

          So what happened to John Long?  After the game, the coach found him in the corner of the locker room crying, weeping into his towel.  "What's wrong, John?  You played your heart out.  I never saw you play better.  Why the tears?"  "Well, coach," he said, "you know my Dad is blind, and how we brought him to our games, but he could never see me play, but I then was never really that good anyway.  Well, coach, I never told you that Dad died last week.  And this being my last college game, I just had to start.  Because I know my Dad's in heaven and I really believe he finally got to watch me play football."

          John Long lived by his faith, not by his sight.  He could not prove to anyone that his father saw him play.  He could not prove there was a heaven.  He could not even prove there was a God.  But that didn't keep him from living by faith.  And it certainly didn't keep him from playing the best game of his life.

          You and I have a heavenly Father who's watching us all the time.  He sees us work and He sees us play.  He is there cheering us on, encouraging us through good words and good deeds we can share with one another.  This life we live on earth, this house we live in, will not last forever, but God's love will.  God's mercy lasts.  He loves us no matter what, and His love for us never ends.

          "But faith, hope and love remain - these three."  Our Lord Jesus is the greatest, He's Lord of all, no matter who, no matter what.  He has withstood the assaults of people and the ravages of our sin.  Kingdoms have come and gone.  Rulers have been made and buried.  False gods come and go.  But Jesus still remains.  That's because Jesus never fails.  He is the only human who was fully and completely human, and He is also God's one and only Son.  Only He is worthy of complete faith, for only He can give us a true and living hope.  Only in Him can we have the faith to live.  Let us live by faith.  Let us walk by faith, faith in Jesus, the Son of God.  John Long did it and so can you.  Amen.

Copyright © 2006 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.