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There are somethings in like you must TRY before you can say you LIKE them.  And before you can say you dislike something you really need to try it. This is true with the things of God.
Often when we try something we find that the results are better than expected. We have seen movies, eaten meals, gone places that we weren’t sure we would like but in the end were glad we did. Well the things of God are always better than expected. He multiplies things. He brings joy. He does the impossible. If you try things in God we think you’ll like them.

If you try faith you’ll it.

Faith is something you have to try before you can say you like it.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Faith is powerful! Faith is what frames and holds the world together yet is invisible. Would you like something that powerful working in your life? Then you should try faith.
 

Try it You’ll like it 1 – Try Faith from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

• There are things you have to try before you can like or dislike
•  The things of God are better than expected
• Faith is Hypostasis – Foundation, Substructure, Firm
• Faith looks dumb – So we won’t judge you for being skeptical – We were all skeptics at one point
• Faith looked dumb for Naaman – but he tried it and was healed
• Hebrews 11:6 says it takes 2 things to try faith… #1 Believe there could be a God #2 Believe He will reward the search for Him

Try it You’ll Like It 1 – Faith

Sermon Notes by Chris Fluitt

**Bumper Video –
Try it You’ll Like it
Most things in life you can’t say you like until you’ve tried them. Nor are you really able to declare your dislike until you have tried it.
Likely it’s not that you don’t like it… It’s that you haven’t tried it….
 
You can have an opinion on the aesthetic as in “Salad looks gross.” But you really haven’t been exposed to all the salad is until you have tried it. If you try it you might like it.
Roller coasters.. They look scary but there is a crazy part of your brain that likes to take risks… If you tried it you might like it.
I hate going to plays… but then someone asks “Oh really? What plays have you been to that made you decide you didn’t like them?” …and you stammer around before finally saying “well I haven’t really ever seen a play higher than the Jr High school level…”
How can you slam the door on something and say “I don’t like it” if you have never tried it?
 
We all have stories of experiences that we went into them thinking “I’m probably not going to like this” but then left saying “well that was better than I expected.”

• Maybe someone dragged you to a movie starring an actor you usually don’t care for.. but you left saying “I’m glad I saw that.”
• Maybe you were forced to eat at a restaurant that doesn’t serve your normal cuisine of burgers and fries… Perhaps they served Indian curry or Japanese Sushi… But you actually tried it and it was better than you thought it would be.
• Maybe you were drug to Church today or someone has guilted you into checking out this sermon on the internet and you are thinking “this religion thing just isn’t for me…”  We can understand that. Most of us have been there at one time.

Could you at least be open to the thought that you can’t say you don’t like something until you’ve tried it. Who knows, maybe you have a better experience than expected.
The Things of God are better than Expected

• A guy named Abraham had a conversation with God and ended up entering into an everlasting covenant. How’s that for a conversation?!
• Jesus took a small sack lunch of bread and fish and did something better than expected.
• Jesus didn’t just heal the paralyzed man he forgave his sins.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,(NIV)
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.(NIV)
The Things of God are better than Expected… exceeding abundantly beyond our expectations.
The Bible is full of stories of men & women who gave God a try and really liked Him.
Over the next few weeks we will be looking at some things in God you have to try in order to like.       
Today we invite you to Try faith you’ll like it
 
Faith is one thing that you can’t really say you like until you’ve tried it.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.(NIV)
Do you want confidence in what you hope for?
 
So many times our hope seems flimsy.  I hope for things to be this way… That the world would be a better place, that my children would change for the better, that I would get a raise at my job…  We hope and dream about these things…. But they seem flimsy
Faith is the Confidence… The word here is hypostasis and it is much stronger than the definition of confidence.
Faith is Hypostasis – Foundation, Substructure, Firm
These are construction terms.  Want to build something that won’t fall through when you walk on it… or blow over with the wind? Hebrews 11 says that is what Faith is.   TRY FAITH YOU’LL LIKE IT
But it is also used in the scientific understanding of existence and reality. Hypostasis also means Substance reality of being.
Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.(NIV)
This is a scientifically advanced statement.  It says the world was framed by the Word of God and that the things we do see are made by things we can’t see. Faith gives way to atomic theory nearly 2000 years early.
Faith is foundation & Faith is substance. Even though it can’t be seen it is real. Faith is as real as anything you can see.
That’s the kind of hope we need in our lives. Not a week flimsy hope but a foundational hope capable of framing and holding the world together.
Would you be willing to try something this powerful and seeing if it works for your life? It won’t cost you any money… we aren’t going to rip you off with 3 easy payments of $19.99… If you want to try faith today you can… I think you will like it.
 
Now I can understand skepticism… Because let’s be honest…
Faith looks dumb
Please don’t freak out on me… I didn’t say Faith is dumb…  but that it sometimes looks dumb.
Let me get this straight…  You want me to believe in a God I have never seen and have never heard Him speak directly…
Let me get this straight… You want me to sing worship songs about and to this invisible King.  And some people are moved to tears and raise their hands and it just is weird…
Let me get this straight… You want me to look past logic and science and believe that God can heal and raise from the dead… You really want me to believe that what is impossible for man is possible for God?
 
remember
Redemption Church!  Remember what it was like to be a skeptic.
At one point all of us were skeptics wrestling with faith. At one point you may have thought faith was dumb. In fact if we are really honest we would say that sometimes we still struggle with faith issues.
Religion has sometimes painted atheists to be devils and enemies… But that’s not true. Perhaps we have forgotten of the times we didn’t have faith ourselves. The times we had trouble seeing the invisible…
We need not enter into arguments with atheists or other belief systems.. instead let’s invite them to try Jesus, to try faith.  BECAUSE ISN’T THAT WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE IN OUR LIFE ANYWAY?
How about we don’t act like Jerks to people who haven’t tried faith yet… How about we don’t act like we are morally superior.  Anyone who acts that way must not be truly thankful to have come in contact with a saving faith in Christ.
We shouldn’t feel superior because of faith. WE SHOULD FEEL GRATEFUL
There are times where Christians need to Try Faith and realize that they like it also. Just because we are professing to believe doesn’t mean we are experiencing the Hypostasis of Faith…  That sure foundation and substance that frames the world.
You can’t say you Like faith until you have really experienced it.
 
Let’s look at the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5
Lil Robert
2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.(NIV)
But he had leprosy… Have you ever felt discredited? Naaman was all these great things… BUT… a leper
2 Kings 5:2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.(NIV)
2 Kings 5:3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”(NIV)
This unnamed slave girl had guts… She had faith. Where most slaves would have kept their head down and not made a scene she stepped out on FAITH.
2 Kings 5:9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.(NIV)
2 Kings 5:10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”(NIV)
2 Kings 5:11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.(NIV)
2 Kings 5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.(NIV)
Naaman is mad at the prophet Elisha.  HOW DARE HE not come talk to me. How dare he only send a servant to talk to me. “I thought…” the prophet would have prayed in the name of the Lord and waved his hands over me and I’d be healed instantly of leprosy…
And another thing!  He wants me to dip in that awful dirty murky Jordan river. There are other rivers around that would be more suitable and more logical.  And why wash 7 times? Why can’t God just heal me with 1 wash…
“I thought…” it would be different…
 
Now a disclaimer – We aren’t against thought. We aren’t against logic… BUT thinking is not faith.  Naaman’s thoughts almost caused him to walk away angry and a die with his leprosy.
2 Kings 5:13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, `Wash and be cleansed’!”(NIV)
Listen Naaman.. Had the prophet asked you to do something great, something heroic, something hard you would have tried to do it… How much better is it that he only told you to “wash and be cleansed?”
In other words, his servants were saying TRY IT… YOU MIGHT LIKE IT… IF YOU ARE HEALED YOU WILL DEFINITELY LIKE IT!
 
Do we see at this point that Naaman doesn’t like Faith? How can He? He hasn’t tried it? He hasn’t been healed? If the story ends right now the only thing that has changed is that he is angry at the prophet…
 
Naaman you have to decide if this is where the story ends.  Naaman you have to decide how worth it is to try faith.
There could be a healing on the other side of this decision.
For you in this place today and watching on the internet – there could be a miracle on the other side of this decision. The peace and hope you are looking for could be on the other side of this decision.
Are you willing to try faith?  What if it means you have to get in a gross dirty river… what if it means you have to do something that is illogical… what if it means you are out of control?  Will you try it…?
Naaman – You can’t like faith until you try it.
2 Kings 5:14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.(NIV)How do you like it now Naaman?
2 Kings 5:15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant.”(NIV)
Gone are the arguments about what river he was cleaning in. Gone are the hurt feelings that Elisha didn’t talk to him directly… ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT THE LEPROSY IS GONE!
Most things in life you can’t say you don’t like until you’ve tried them.  From the outside faith looks dumb… but from the healed side… from the delivered side… from the saved and forgiven side… from this side it looks like the smartest thing you will ever do.
 
Whatever you are facing today could be gone just like Naaman’s leprosy.  Try it! Try Faith.
MUSICIAN
How do you try faith? How does that work?
 
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.(NIV)
It’s not telling you to be a perfect sinless person. It isn’t telling you to never miss another church service. It’s not telling you to only talk about the bible from now on…
 
It saying 2 things…
#1 Can you believe that it’s possible for there to be a God? Do you believe that there is a God or at the very least that His existence is possible?
#2 If there is a God do you think believe he will reward a search for Him?
Can you do these 2 things?  If so you are ready to come to this altar…
 
Don’t delay. It’s important you do this right now!
NOW FAITH
Faith doesn’t live in the past.  Faith does not live in the future. Faith lives in the Now.
 
I have a quick story to bring this out.  In John 11 Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus and speaks with Martha.. She is upset about the death of her brother Lazarus.
 
John 11:21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.(NIV)
Martha had faith in the past… it didn’t do any good.
John 11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”(NIV)
John 11:24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”(NIV)
Martha had faith in the future… it didn’t do any good…
But Jesus in the Present walks up to the tomb and resurrects Lazarus
You need a NOW FAITH
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.(NIV)
 
Don’t look to the past… Don’t put it off onto the future… TRY FAITH RIGHT NOW