It Take Faith Part 1 - What is Faith

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Welcome to Season 11! We're kicking things off by diving into Hebrews 11—what many call the "faith chapter." Throughout this chapter, we see repeated examples of Old Testament figures who demonstrated extraordinary faith, and their stories challenge us to examine our own walk with God.

In This Episode, Pastor Don Explores:

What Faith Really Means
Faith isn't just wishful thinking—it's being "sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Pastor Don unpacks how faith operates in the unseen realm, distinguishing between believing in someone you can see versus believing in God whom you cannot physically point to. Interestingly, even atheists operate by faith—they believe God doesn't exist without being able to prove it.

Faith Requires Hearing
Drawing from Romans 10:14-17, we discover that faith comes through hearing the message of Christ. You can't have faith in someone you've never heard about. Pastor Don emphasizes that faith doesn't require understanding everything—we may never fully comprehend the Trinity or God's eternal nature, but we can still believe.

Two Kinds of Faith
Using James 2, we examine the critical difference between:

• Dead faith—intellectual belief that doesn't change how we live
• Saving faith—belief that produces action and transforms our lives

Genuine faith demands action. As the poem reminds us: "The faith of the head is the faith that is dead; the faith of the heart is better in part. But the faith of the hand is the faith that will stand."

Living by Faith, Not by Sight
Pastor Don shares the powerful illustration of the African impala—a creature capable of jumping over 10 feet high but kept confined by a 3-foot wall because it won't jump where it can't see its feet will fall. How often do we stay trapped because we can't see what's on the other side? Faith means trusting God in advance for what will only make sense in reverse.

Key Takeaways:

• Faith believes in what we cannot see
• Faith comes through hearing God's Word
• Faith must be accompanied by action to be genuine
• Faith frees us from fear and enables us to step into God's plans

Pastor Don closes with Ruth Morgan's beautiful poem about walking by faith, not sight—reminding us that even in our darkest moments, God is guiding our steps.

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible." — Martin Luther

Join us next week for Part Two of "It Takes Faith" as we continue exploring the heroes of Hebrews 11!

📖 Key Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1-3, Romans 10:14-17, James 2:14-19, 2 Corinthians 5:7

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hi everyone, Pastor Don Smith here. Welcome to the Talk About It Podcast, where we take relevant topics with a biblical point of view and we talk about it. You know you want to, so do I. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, once again, welcome back, everyone, to the Talk About It podcast. My name is Don Smith, and I am your host for the podcast. This is season 11. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? 11 seasons so far on the Talk About It podcast. Oh my goodness. Season 11, episode one, here we are. We have made it this far. Can you believe that? Now, if you are a first-time listener to the Talk About It podcast, we are so glad that you are here. Welcome, welcome all. If you're a longtime listener, thanks for being part of the journey with us for 11 full seasons. Now, longtime listeners, you know what we do here. First time listeners, let us explain ourselves for a moment here on season 11, episode one. We take a relevant topic with a biblical perspective and we just talk about it. That's what we do. Each season has a different amount of episodes on it. I have no idea how long season 11 is going to be, but we don't really feel the pressure. We want to make sure that we have a thorough conversation about a relevant topic. And so here, here on season 11, I have a relevant topic for us. Now, when I state this topic, you're going to think, okay, well, this is interesting. I'm not sure in all the topics that I thought that might be relevant, this would be one, Don, you would talk about it. But I had a I had a question, had someone asked me what I thought initially was a pretty elementary question. Simple, in other words. Uh, and the question is this. Are you ready? Are you ready? Here we go. Talk about it. Here we go. What is faith? Oh my goodness. And I was, I was just standing there thinking, okay, how do I explain this to someone in a very relative way? Um, it's not a non-relative question because as a person of faith, I think sometimes I just take for granted what everyone should think and should know faith is. Hello, somebody. Come on, are you with me? What is faith? Have you ever thought about that in your own life? I mean, this was a great question. And so I thought, okay, it's time to talk about it. So here we are, longtime listeners, here we go. Season 11, episode one, what is faith? We're gonna do it. We're gonna talk about this idea. Now, I'm going to start episode one with this title, What is Faith? But the whole season, I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna title the whole season, It Takes Faith. How about that? How about that? And it's gonna be an incredible uh conversation as we go along. And I just can't wait to share some of the thoughts and some of the ideas that I have on this particular question, because I think it's really relevant. Even in the even if you're listening to the podcast and you're not a Christian, but maybe you're interested in this Christianese conversation or type language that we use a lot of time when we say, well, you gotta have faith, or you know, you just gotta, it takes faith, right? And uh maybe you're listening, you're like, okay, I want to learn. I just uh here's an interesting topic. Let's have a conversation about it. So I'm ready. Now, in your show notes, okay, each and every week, I hope that you take advantage of that, all right? As a as a podcast listener, may I know you if you're listening to podcasts, you're not just listening to my podcast. You're probably listening to multiple podcasts. And the podcaster that you are listening to takes great effort, I should say, sometimes more effort than the podcast itself by putting show notes in there. So, whatever podcast you're listening to, do yourself a favor, bless the podcaster, and just go to their show notes and read what they've put in the show notes. In there are oftentimes links and uh ways to get in touch, ways to have a conversation. For instance, in the Talk About It Show notes, you there's a link right there that says text the podcast. Did you know you can text the podcast right there? Boom. You can text the podcast. Send us an email. You can send an email to talkaboutitpd at gmail.com. You can just send us an email right there from the show notes. There are some other links that you can take advantage of. Say uh maybe you want to become a monthly supporter of the podcast. There's a link right there to walk you right through it. Or maybe you just want to give a one-time tip because you liked the episode where in my show notes, guess what I've done? You can buy me a sweet tea and a little Debbie snack cake. Just click on that link right there. And that'll be epic. And you know what? I cannot wait to tell the story of how many people do that. So I just thank you for taking time to read the show notes because we want to make sure that you know the summary of what we're talking about. It's all in there. Every podcaster does that. And if you're listening to any podcast and every podcast you listen to, I would encourage you, take some time to explore your podcasters' show notes. They're doing a lot of work to bless you for listening to their podcast. So it's a lot of things. Now, listen, if you become a monthly supporter of the Talk About It Podcast, one thing that I'm going to do is send you out an early access link to the podcast. In other words, you get to listen to it before anybody else does. How about that? So there you go. You can do that for as little as $3 a month, as much as $10 a month. We just appreciated I use all that money to get to Africa and train other pastors. We do it together, and that's what I'm excited about. So here we go. Are you ready? Are you ready? All right, here we go. Season 11, episode one. The question was, Pastor Don, what is faith? And so I'm gonna title this whole season, It Takes Faith. Now, Hebrews chapter 11, uh for us as believers, is commonly known as uh the faith chapter. So, like in sports, we got the Hall of Fame. Are you with me? Like you can go to the Hall of Fame and see the most famous athletes that ever played sports. And one of the greatest accomplishments that an athlete can do is to get themselves into the Hall of Fame because of their career, because of the things that they did uh while playing that particular sport. That's an incredible honor, isn't it? Right? But in the Bible, we have the same thing. It's called the Hall of Faith. It's Hebrews chapter 11. Now, each section in Hebrews chapter 11 starts out with the phrase by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. Okay. And uh I I love this. And and then it lists out each person's name, okay, and and what they done as a result of having faith. The question was to me, Pastor Don, what is faith? It's easy for me to say, well, it just takes faith. See, all the persons listed from the Old Testament in Hebrews chapter 11 are interesting. It's interesting that they're there because in the Old Testament, there aren't many uses of the word faith. The word faith is used 246 times in the NIV translation, and only 16 of those times occur in the Old Testament. Hebrews chapter 11 makes it clear that there are plenty of people in the Old Testament who exhibited tremendous faith. And in looking at their example, I believe we're gonna see what it takes to have faith, okay? And what faith really, really means. Now, I hope that you're gathering a hold of this because I want to spend some time doing this. I think it's gonna be very, very interesting as we work through uh this particular portion or this topic, okay? Now, it takes faith to believe in what we cannot see. Let me start that, okay? In other words, uh, let's just do this. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. For by it, by what? Faith. The elders obtained a good testimony. By faith, we understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God. Now, I love that Hebrews chapter 11 takes us back to Genesis chapter 1, the creation story, and it starts explaining to us faith began in the beginning. Hello, somebody. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So that things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Interesting. Interesting. So the question is, what is faith? Well, the answer is found in the first verse, I believe, in Hebrews chapter 11. Be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. You see, faith involves believing certain things without the concrete evidence to support it. I have faith in God, but I cannot point to you and say, there he is. There's he still physically, there he stands. Let me put it to you this way: it doesn't take faith, okay, to believe in Don. You can see me. You can hear my voice here on the Talk About It podcast. Now, it might take faith to believe Don, but it does not take faith to believe in Don. I'm right here. No faith involved in believing what you can see. But I can't do that with God. I can't take you to Him and show Him to you. I can't put the coordinates of heaven in my GPS and take you there. Do I believe in the existence of both God and heaven? Yes. How? By faith. Come on, somebody. And it's not just religious people that have faith. Even non-religious people have faith in something or someone. Some people's faith lies in the scientific theories of the world. Some people, some people's faith lies in the in certain people. I'm gonna say this to you. The reason I don't believe in atheism is because even atheists have faith. They have faith that God doesn't exist. They can't prove that he doesn't exist. They just believe he doesn't exist. Hello, somebody. Oh boy. Oh, what that was good. That was really good. See, what is faith? First, then, that's a great question. If I'm gonna answer this question, I gotta say, well, what's faith built on? See, for the atheist, it might be based on the evidence of evil in the world or something more personal. So if if God's a good God, then why does evil exist? That kind of question is, you know, it's there. I think it's a pretty good question. I think it deserves an answer. I believe I have answers. It might not be the one you want, but I have an answer. See, for those who believe in scientific theories, it's it's the trust in the scientist who came up with those theories and the believability of the theories that they are presenting to you. Now, let me understand this because I'm uh while I'm not the most highly educated person, okay, I do know what science is. And science is the science is what I can observe, okay? That's what science is. If I can, it's an observable thing. That's the definition of true science. Something I can observe happening. Theories are something that I cannot observe, but I can base an idea off of. So the problem isn't science, the problem is scientific theories. Hello, somebody. All right, let me get back here because I really want to walk through this because I think this is pretty cool. Because I actually believe that the Bible is an incredibly scientific Bible. It's an incredibly scientific book. Not only is it a scientific book, it's a very historical book. There are both science, things I can observe, and history, things that actually happened in the Bible. This is where Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3 comes into play. By faith, we believe that God created everything out of nothing. But the Big Bang theorists believe that something came from nothing. They don't have an answer as to what caused this so-called explosion that set the course of the universe into motion, but they are adamant that it was not God. We know it was God, and that he's the reason everything exists as Christians, as creationists. Evolutionists want to believe that all life started from an amoeba. Now, I don't know what they say caused the amoeba to exist, but to believe that a single-celled organism somehow eventually morphed into something else, which is somehow developed into another species, altogether involves more faith, I believe, than believing that God created all the different species to begin with. Scientists have this thing called the missing link. I love this. I absolutely love this. The missing piece of the puzzle that would connect all the different evolutionary stages of man, forming one continual timeline. They're still holding out for the discovery of this non-existent missing link. They're still holding out for the source of this Big Bang explosion that happened. But for the Christian, our faith is not entirely built on things we cannot see. Listen to me talk about it. It's built on certain discoveries that provide tangible support that we read in the Bible things that actually happened, such as this finding fossilized fish in mountainous regions, which supports the idea and the biblical story of a global flood. It's supported in the discoveries that we have over and over and over again, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's built on the realities of what has happened in people's lives that have proven the existence of God to them and to everyone around them. These things that others may subscribe to chance or luck or coincidence actually are proof of what faith is. I guess what it takes to have faith in God is humility and willingness to see beyond what's visible. Okay, so we not only need to have eyes to see, but we gotta have ears to hear. Okay, watch this Romans chapter 10, verse 14. How then can they call on the one they had not believed in? How can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? How can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, who has believed the Lord's message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. So we cannot have faith in Christ if we haven't heard the gospel. Come on, talk about it. The ability to have faith comes as a result of accepting what we hear. Now, obviously, everyone who hears does not have faith, for not all people have accepted the message of the gospel. Paul said, But not all the Israelites have accepted the good news. They heard, but did not receive it by faith. See, God gives everyone the ability to believe, but not all will believe. The Holy Spirit tries to work on every person to accept the gospel. That's 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9, and I think it attests to where it states that God wishes that none would perish, but that all would come to repentance. So you can have faith without hearing, or you can have faith without hearing, and you can't accept the message without faith.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Think about this. Faith allows me to believe that what I'm hearing is true.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

It doesn't usually happen overnight. You can typically have a gradual period where I'm thinking and pondering, and I come to accept more and more until I get to the point to completely believe in what I'm hearing. Faith doesn't involve understanding everything. Come on, talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

I can have faith without having to understand. I can. I can have faith without having to understand.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I I have faith in the Trinity, but it doesn't mean I fully comprehend the Trinity. I might I might not know how three distinct, separate persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, can all be one God, but by faith I can believe that it be true because the Bible supports it. See, there are those who say they won't accept it unless they can figure it out. And I got news for you. You'll never accept it because you'll never have it all figured out. Christians come to Christ and they spend the rest of their lives trying to figure it all out. And many things do become clearer. But we are not going to be able to wrap our brains around everything. Trying to fully understand how God could have no beginning, I don't believe it's ever going to happen. But by faith we believe it to be true because the Bible tells us it is. And it actually makes sense to believe, because if God's beginning could be determined, then you have to have an answer. You have to answer the question of who made God. But since God's beginning cannot be determined, I don't have to have faith in. I don't have to ask the question who made God. I don't have to have faith in that something else made God. And then when did their existence begin? See, that's what causes a never-ending series of who made who questions. But by believing that God has always existed ends the discussion. Listen to me, talk about it. There are two kinds of faith, okay? We need to understand that simply having faith is not enough. It has to be the right kind of faith, the kind of faith that goes beyond mere belief. James says this, okay? James chapter 2. I think it's verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or a sister without uh is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is that? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, everybody say action. Action is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. See, there are two kinds of faith. Dead faith is built simply on intellectual belief, but nothing deeper. Saving faith, however, involves putting what I believe into practice. Oh, here we go. Talk about it. This is where we are going to. Start having the rubber meet the road. See, when I act on what I say I believe, I will be exhibiting genuine faith. What is faith? When I act on what I say I believe, that's when I begin to exhibit genuine faith. That's what we will see happening in our lives. That's exactly what we see happening in Hebrews chapter 11. The main point is that genuine faith demands action by faith. In chapter, Hebrews chapter 11, it says so and so did this. Read it. It's incredible. And that's what you will see if you are truly sure of what you hope for and are certain of when you cannot see. If if we are sure of God and sure of his promises of heaven, for those who have trusted in him, then we will believe everything he has taught us and live in accordance with his commands. See, the faith of the head is the faith, okay, that is dead. Faith of the head is faith that is dead. I want you to say that. But faith of the heart is the better part. But the faith of the hand is the faith that will stand. For the faith that will do must include include the first two. Oh, it's so good. Can I read it to you again? I just wrote this down. I want to read this to you, okay? Watch this. The faith of the head is the faith that is dead. The faith of the heart is the better part. But the faith of the hand is the faith that will stand. For the faith that will do must include the first two. Oh my. That is so good. See, we live by faith and not by sight. Talk about it. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. By faith, we step out of our comfort zones and then we take risks. By faith, we trust God when He tells us to move, but we have no idea how it's going to turn out. I was just talking with an incredible young man this morning in my office about a step of faith that the Spirit of God, He feels God has spoken to his heart to take. See, faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse. Sometimes we become afraid and we come up with the what-if standards. Those what if statements, those kind of standards that only apply to the things that happen that we can plan and figure out. What if this doesn't work out? What if I fail? That's when we need to trust in God who sees what we can't. That's when we have faith that God will equip us to do what He's telling us to do, talk about it. Let's not stay in the enclosure of fear when we have the ability to be free. Now, I told you that uh I use all of the monthly support that comes in to talk about it to help me get to Africa and train pastors. Interesting thing, sometimes when I go to Africa to train pastors, I get to go on a safari. Now, if you've never been on a safari, that's an incredible opportunity of a lifetime. Now, the interesting thing about safaris in Africa is that there's there's an incredible animal there called an impala. Now, the impala can jump to heights of over 10 feet and it can cover a distance in one leap greater than 30 feet. These magnificent creatures are unbelievable. But did you know that that impala who can jump as high as 10 feet, who can jump and cover the distance of over 30 feet, did you know that it can be kept in an enclosure of a three-foot high wall? Well, it can clear that wall by seven feet. But here's the thing about an impala, it will not jump over that three-foot solid wall because it cannot see where its feet will land. The impala could be free, but because of its inability to see beyond the fence, it won't jump. You see, talk about it, we have the ability to clear the fence, but since we're not sure of what's on the other side, we stay trapped. Oh my goodness. But if we're willing to live by faith and not by sight, we'll come to realize that when we step out in faith and trust God, we'll see the positive results that come from doing what He's asked us to do. We'll see that a gentle answer really does turn away wrath. We'll find out that if we resist the devil and submit ourselves to God, the devil will flee from us. When we go through and understand how testing happens, that shows us that that's how our faith develops perseverance. See, these things play out in our lives and gives us confidence to trust in the rest of the Word of God and the challenges that come with life that challenge us to believe that God will never leave us nor forsake us, to trust in the fact that He's coming back someday for us to take us home. You see, faith proves itself through action, and God shows himself to us when we exercise our faith. Martin Luther put it this way: He said, faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible. But if we give ourselves over to things like skepticism and pessimism, we'll miss out on experiencing what God has for us. If we'll if if we are people who will live in doubt, worry, fear, we'll never get to that higher ground that is there by faith. The incredible and the impossible will pass us by. But if we are sure of what we have hoped for and hoped in, faith will come alive. If we are certain of what we do not see, then we will certainly see it. If we live by faith, we'll live a life of joy and freedom. Talk about it. Come on, talk about it. Welcome to season 11, episode one. We're titling this season, It Takes Faith. It's birthed out of a question that I think all of us, all of us, longtime believers, new believers, or people who aren't believers, want to ask, but we haven't. What is faith? Oh my goodness. This is gonna be a great season. This is gonna be a great season. I'm just believing, okay, that God's gonna speak to us. See, I've got faith. I've got faith right now that God is going to speak to us during this season. And it's gonna be something that I believe is going to empower, encourage, equip, and grow our ability to have faith in God. This is gonna be a great season. I'm so glad that you're here. I'm so glad that you're tuning in. I hope that you will not miss any of these episodes, okay? Now, I need you to do me a favor because I think there's some people that you know that are wanting to ask this question but are scared to ask it because maybe of the reprisal or the reaction they'll get from people who they trust to answer the question. Would you just do this? Take the link from this episode, send it to them, and say, hey, let's listen to this together. And then let's have a talk about it. You know what? That's what you can do. You can send this out to your friends group, and then once a week you can schedule, let's all meet at the coffee shop and have a conversation about the Talk About It podcast this week. Oh, that would be epic! Would that be an epic conversation? If I can help you with that, send me a text. Right there in your show notes. Click send the show a text. There's an idea for you. Coffee date to have a discussion about the Talk About It podcast, season 11. Here we go, here we go. Everybody say, Here we go, here we go. It's gonna be epic. Listen, I love ya, but I need you to know as much as I love you. Jesus loves you more. I'll see you next week.