SEVEN CHECKPOINTS - CHECKPOINT #1: AUTHENTIC FAITH

My notes, mostly from the book, some of it from my brains interpretation.

SEVEN CHECKPOINTS - CHECKPOINT #1: AUTHENTIC FAITH

Checkpoint #1: Authentic Faith
PRINCIPLE: God can be trusted. He is who he says He is and will do everything He has promised to do.
KEY PASSAGE: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Conference after conference, meeting after meeting, camp after camp, they raise their hand AGAIN to indicate that they are receiving Christ as their Savior. They’re not sure it “took” the last time.

Two factors more than anything else are responsible for shattering the faith of young people.
1. Poor choices. When “believing” students veer off course morally, relationally, or ethically, they are immediately confronted with a tidal wave of guilt. And there are only two ways they can get rid of guilt: ask forgiveness and change their behavior OR change their belief system. If students can convince themselves that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing, their guilt is greatly diminished. Changing how they believe is often easier than changing how they behave.

Many “used-to-believe” students decided at some point to trade in their faith for a more convenient lifestyle. Their faith is based on convenience rather than conviction. Their faith can be summarized this way: What’s happening now, what I’m feeling now, determines what I belief FOR now.

2. Unexplainable tragedy. Painful or adverse circumstances that don’t “fit” with the students’ understanding of the character of God or the Christian faith. When students are confronted with tragedy, the ask, “How could a good God allow this to happen? Why didn’t He stop it?”

As long as our students’ faith is grounded in what they see and experience, their faith will always be fragile—totally dependent upon their ability (or inability) to interpret the events and circumstance around them.

BIBLE:
Jesus, Joseph (slavery), Moses (wilderness), Book of Hebrews
Noah (God’s promise...of rain), Abraham (…of land), Gideon (…of victory), Joshua (…of success).
Apostles deaths (understood that the foundation of their faith was not always getting the answer they wanted)

NEED TO KNOW: Why they can have faith in who Jesus is, who the Father is, the gifts He wants to give us, the promises He made (mercy & grace) and hasn’t made, and salvation. Reveal pitfalls and lies.

The foundation of Christian faith is a person (Jesus) not a circumstance.
Faith based on the identity of Christ – Jesus walked on this earth, claimed to be God, gave evidence supporting His claim, died for our sin, rose from the dead, and went back to heaven in plain view of hundreds of witnesses. He is who he says He is. As a result, don’t worry about bad things, he understands. He died for our sins, so there is no reason to doubt his love. He promised to come back for them, so don’t fear what happens next in life.

Faith is not a way for them to get what they want from God. It’s not a force or a power. Nor is it mere confidence that God will act or wishful thinking.

The bridge from wishful thinking to faith is the revelation of God—the wonderful promises He gives to us in His Word. Faith is confidence that God is who He says He is and that He will do all He has promised to do.

Why we resist: We all want to be in the driver’s seat. Authentic faith puts God firmly in control of our lives and leaves Him with the option to say no. As long as they are trying to get something FROM God, they will have a difficult time surrendering their lives TO God.

Present God as the perfect father.
“God is not a REFLECTION of our earthly fathers; He is the PERFECTION of our earthly fathers.” Louie Giglio. God loves to give good gifts to His children who ask (Matthew 7:11). However, as a perfect Father, God would not dare give His children everything they ask for. He knows that many things teenagers think they want so badly are simply not good for them—in fact, some are downright dangerous to their spiritual lives. They can trust Him.

Distinguish between what God has and has not promised. Students struggle with “unmet expectations” of God. We must help our students learn to distinguish between God’s promises and their own expectations. There are many things God has not promised that they might wish He had. God has NOT promised to keep bad things from happening to them (ex. Apostles). He has NOT promised to heal every illness. He has NOT promised to reverse the consequences of sin. Yet, while He has not promised these things, there are occasions when He intervenes and does all of these things.

Can count on mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Mercy is the assurance that God will never allow the pressures or heartbreaks of life to be more than they can bear. He knows what they are experiencing (temptations, rejection, failure, fear, abandonment)
Grace is the strength to endure, the ability to carry on. He has not promised to deliver them FROM their circumstances; He has promised to deliver then THROUGH them.

Saving Faith
I talk to students all the time who have “prayed the prayer” over and over and still aren’t sure if they are “saved”. This confusion stems from a general misunderstanding about the nature of faith. Many students have the notion that the quality of their faith is an issue with God.

God has promised to forgive our sins once and for all if we put our trust in Christ’s death as the payment for those sins. That’s it. That’s the gospel.

When students come to me doubting their salvation, I don’t ask them if they have prayed to receive Christ. I ask them what they are trusting in to get them to heaven. Nearly every time they answer, “I am trusting in Jesus.” To which I respond, “Then you are in!”

Faith must have an object (belief in a person/product) and content (belief in something about person/produce)
The object of saving faith is Jesus—not just God. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” But what specifically do students need to believe about Jesus?

The content of saving faith is like a pair of concrete stakes that must be driven deep into their teenage hearts:
(1) Jesus is the Son of God, and (2) His death on the cross paid the penalty for all of their sins—apart from
anything they do or intend to do to try to “earn” their salvation.

Salvation is a gift from God. It is not a reward gift. God does not offer it because we deserve it. God offers every person salvation because that is His desire. Students can rest in the fact that God saved them by grace through faith—just because He wanted to.

“We receive enlightenment only in proportion as we give ourselves more and more completely to God by humble submission and love. We do not first see, and then act: we act, then see…and that is why the man who waits to see clearly before he will believe, never starts on the journey.” Thomas Merton

Series ideas:
Can you hear me now? (Seeing the big picture, judging current events in context of a lifetime, ex. shots)
Choices or Walk the Line or Ouch, that hurt (When you walk the fence something has got to give)
Series of Unfortunate Events (Why do bad things happen?)
Identity Theft (Things and people who steal your identity)
I AM and I WILL (God is who He says He is and He will do all He has promised to do)
NASCAR – Who’s in the driver’s seat? (Give God control and our desire to take it)
Out of Control. (God knows best)
Pinky Swear (God’s promises)
Been there, done that and wrote the book