Fugazi Faith // Crazy Faith (Part 11) – Pastor Michael Todd – Transformation Church

Fugazi:

• Fugazi: False or knock-off
  • There are many people walking around saying they have faith, but it’s fugazi.
    • Essential Questions:
      • Is your faith fugazi? Are you claiming a faith that when you cut it open, it’s not what it looks like?
      • At the end of your Christian life, when you get to the pearly gates, will God say, “That was fake … you acted like you knew me?”
• The type of faith that we need is the faith where if people get too close to us, our faith will jump onto them. We need the faith that will make other people believe God more.

Key Points:

1. Fugazi faith is the type of faith that has no owner; we often confuse faith with optimism
   • Ex.) Optimism: Somehow, it’s going to all work out. Somehow, the universe, the elements, are going to bring everything together.
   • Optimism isn’t faith because there is no owner attached to it.
   • When you have faith, you put faith in an object or person and that faith is in Jesus Christ (Jesus is the Who).
     • EX.) Martha’s brother, Lazerus, died and Jesus was supposed to come by. Jesus waited four days and when he arrived after Lazerus died, Martha said, “If you (not the universe) would have been here, Lazerus wouldn’t have died.”
       1. Jesus was/is the who that Martha’s faith was attached to
       2. Martha then said, “Even now …,” so she had faith in Jesus that He could bring life to what/who is dead
       3. Martha wasn’t optimistic, she just assigned her faith to Jesus
   • The Faith Conundrum
     • No Faith –> Optimism –> Faith
       1. Many people start off with no faith. We try to get encouraged enough to try to get faith.  
     • Difference Between Optimism and Faith
       1. Optimism: I think my sickness will get better
       2. Faith: By Christ’s stripes, I am healed
     • Faith needs a who. The who will change your situation. The who will bring healing and grow you. Get your language right.
     • If you don’t attach your belief to a who, it’s fruitless, but optimism isn’t bad.
     • Many of us have no faith, but fear. Through the Crazy Faith sermon, surrounding ourselves with the faith filled, we become optimistic but never take the journey from optimism to full on faith.
     • To get from optimism to faith, there’s something that needs to be done that most of us fear to do — work.
       1. We want to expect God to do everything, but that’s not how that works. God will do everything you can’t do but not do everything you can do.
2. Fugazi faith won’t work and faith without works is dead
   • Many Christians have enough faith to get saved but not enough faith to change
   • James 2:21-22: Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
     • Faith without works is dead. Most of us fail to be consistent in the action part of faith.
     • Ex.) Abraham’s faith and actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.
   • A lot of what God is asking for us is not really what God is asking for; He really wants our hearts
     • James 2:23: And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
       1. You can get called a friend of God when you talk in this level of faith
       2. God cares more about the organism that the organization
3. Faith works by love
   • Galatians 5:6: For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
     • Love is the gasoline to your faith
     • God put us on this Earth to be surrounded by people where you will need His help to love. This includes your enemies; God says we must love even them, where they are at
   • The responsibility of faith
     • LOVE: You must love others who you don’t want to love
     • WORK: You have to put the work in, even when you don’t feel like it or don’t think you can
       1. Our faith for many of us doesn’t work because we fail to adhere to our responsibilities of faith
   • 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
     • We need to put love back into the equation; love is the greatest of all
4. How does love work? Love always gives
   • You can tell if your faith has the opportunity to go to another place if a sacrifice is attached to it (e.g. time, finance, support, etc.)
   • John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
     • When God wanted to prove his love to the world (not just Christians), He sent His son to die.
   • A true test of your faith is when you’re willing to give your ‘only’. It’s in God’s characteristic to ask for your only.

Conclusion:

• Fugazi faith won’t work, won’t love, and won’t give, but God doesn’t want the counterfeit faith, He wants the real faith
  • Haggai 1:5-8: Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.
    • Pray, gather resources, and give – these steps show faith

Tinsai Worke

Hi! My name is Tinsai Worke, but you can just call me Tina. I am a young, devoted Christian and a part-time note-taker for different online sermons.

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