 So what exactly is faith? Hey, welcome back, smart Christians. One question that's asked often and maybe even misunderstood is what exactly is faith. So without further ado, let's just go ahead and jump into the scriptures and see what faith is if we can glean what it is. Faith is, according to Hebrews 11-1, you've all heard the passage before, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It says, for by it the people of old receive their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Now, none of us were there when the universe was created. None of us were there at the foundation of the earth, but we were told about it. And because we were told about it, and because we believe some of the other things, we believe what it says about the foundation of the earth, about God creating the earth. It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. I am assured of, now by the way, it's not some blind faith. Just because I was told this, then I'll go ahead and vote. No, faith is a little bit more than that. It's not blind faith. Now, we see the examples in Hebrews 11, as it says, verse four, it says, now by faith able offer to God a more acceptable sacrifice than came. And so because of his faith, because of his belief, his conviction, his trust in God, he did what he was supposed to do, what he was told to do. So what is faith? Faith is simply the word that's there, is the word for trust, having its confidence in to believe. Now, I'm going to give one an example of what I will always use to say what faith is and what it's not. But let me also use a couple of passages in the Bible to also bring about what faith actually is and how it's demonstrated. Recall Peter. Peter is in the boat fishing. Now, Peter's a fisherman. It's what he does by trade. In their trade, they would typically fish at night in the shallow winds. They did not get a lot of fish. And so what they did was they were there mending their nets and so forth. But then Jesus shows up seemingly out of nowhere, and he makes a request. And it makes you wonder why in the world would Peter, who is a fisherman, listen to Jesus, who is not a fisherman. Right? So let's go to chapter five of verse one in Luke. It says, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Genesereth, and he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their net. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's. He asked him, Simon, that is, to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and he taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. Now we know the story that he lets down the net and he gets a catch that was so great that he needs help to get it in. Well, the question is, why in the world would Peter first of all even let him into his boat, but then to let this stranger tell him, have him to push out into the deep and to cast his nets. He said we hadn't caught anything all night. I mean that the fish ain't biting. So why would he do that? But he says, look what he says. He says, Master, we toiled all night indicating that he must know who this person is. Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But look what he says at your word, because you say so, I will let down my or our nets, indicating that he's had some familiarity with who Jesus is. And he knows exactly who Jesus is. He calls the master and said, because you said so only because you say so. So there must be something special about Jesus already, even before he calls Peter as a disciple. Where can we see this at? Well, we can go to John chapter 1 as Jesus is getting ready to call his disciples. Let's look at this passage. John, this is John the Baptist though the next day. John was standing with two of his disciples, two of John the Baptist disciples. And he looked and saw Jesus as he walked by him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and you will see. They came and they saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour. Now here it is. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first found his own brother, Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. So that's Peter Peter's first introduction to who Jesus is. They've been waiting for this Messiah. His brother Andrew has been and maybe Peter, we didn't say maybe Peter has had some sort of familiarity or some sort of occasion to be with John as well. But certainly Andrew, his brother is one of John the Baptist's disciples and he's hearing all this rhetoric, all this teaching, all this talk about this Messiah coming. And then obviously Peter's heard this. And so Andrew goes and gets Peter says, The Messiah, the one we're waiting on, he's here. Well, if Peter had not been waiting on himself, he would not have gone. And so Peter goes and he meets with them and Jesus says that you will be called Cephas. Then something else happens also that probably it's probably a good chance that Peter knows about this as well. Look at the following verse in verse 43 says, The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him who Moses in the law also and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, Can anything come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold in Israel, I need him of whom in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, How do you know me? Jesus said to him before Philip called you when you were under the big tree, I saw you. So it's probably likely because they're from the same locale. It's not a large city. They were also waiting. All these people are waiting on Jesus to show up. And so Peter more than likely has also heard of this account of him knowing exactly who Nathaniel is and telling him where he is. And so it's likely that Peter has heard of this account as well. And so Peter has also been waiting. He's probably heard the account of Nathaniel sitting under the tree waiting and Jesus tells him about that. And so this gets to Peter. And so Peter is probably like, yeah, this guy is amazing. So when Jesus shows up to see Peter and tells him to push out and here's how I tie this together about faith. Peter knowing who he is, because he trusts who he is. When he says to push out, this doesn't compute. This doesn't make sense. But nevertheless, because you say so, I trust you. What does it say? Faith is faith is the assurance of, let's put it back on the screen. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction, the conviction of things not seen. And so because I've got this conviction about no matter what you say, I believe it. And because you say it, I will do it. Now, there's also one last thing. Remember Jesus is walking along the edge. We see it in Matthew and Mark and he says, come, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And then we see Peter and his brother get up and he goes down a little further. We see James and John, or they don't just get up because some stranger says so. It's because they have some familiarity with what he's done. Peter has familiarity with who Jesus is when he pushes out into the deep. And even more so after that great catch, no matter what Jesus says now, I believe that is what faith is. It's not this hope that maybe something might happen. I'm wishing. I'm thinking there's a good chance of good possibility. Faith is acting on what God says. For example, I use this example over and over again. I think it's a pretty good example. This chair that I'm sitting in, I believe this chair can bear my weight. So if I'm tired, I think that this chair is the right place for me to sit down in and to get a rest. So what do I do to demonstrate my faith? I sit down in it. But now more than just sitting down in it, you know, I trust this chair. You know, I have faith in this chair because I sat down in it. But not only that, not only did I just sit down in the chair, I sat down in it and I relaxed. I did not brace myself on the floor just in case this chair falls. I did not grab a hold of the desk just in case. Just in case I'm not grabbing the desk and brace myself on the floor just in case. I have not extended wires from the ceiling to hold this chair just in case legs on the chair get out, give out on it. No, I completely trust this chair and I relax in it. That is what faith is. It's believing in the security of this, in this case, this chair, but more to the point in Jesus. So faith is because God says so, I move, I demonstrate my faith in how I move. I demonstrate my lack of faith also in how I move. If I think I've got to do something to help out God, if I've got to do something to make sure that if I've got to kind of connive or kind of go behind the scenes, kind of like Abraham and Sarah did, if I've got to help God out, no, that's not faith. That's a lack of trust. But in this case, we see Peter and his faith. We see other people, according to Hebrews 11, who acted because of their faith. Faith is not a works, but faith is shown by us moving because of what we believe. Amen.