The Biggest Step
We are living in a world that wants to know what is real. One study found that 92% of Generation Alpha and a vast majority of Gen Z prioritize being true to themselves over traditional metrics like status or fame. The generation that is coming up gravitates towards raw, unpolished, short-form, visual content, and imperfections over “picture-perfect” aesthetics.
This is true too in a relationship with faith. They want to know what is real. They want to know that those of us who are people of faith really believe what we say we believe.
They are looking for truth, and we have the truth.
This series we’re going to explore how to have an authentic faith. A relationship with Jesus that is real, that is ours, and that will last.
July 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took about a 3-foot step down onto the lunar surface. Truthfully, not all that much actually changed with that “one small step”. Sure, there was emotional change, perhaps some mentalities were shifted, but the change actually came in the process.
The space race revolutionized our country. It became something that united us, focused us, and required a lot of steps from a lot of people. In fact, in 1965 alone, 411,000 Americans were working on the Apollo missions in some capacity.
It’s been estimated that for every one hour of space flight for the Apollo missions, there were 1 million working hours required on the ground to make that happen.
Just for reference, a person who lives to be 80 years old will live 700,000 hours. Someone who works from H2 to 70 spends about 120,000 hours at work. This means that for every hour in space, it took the equivalent of the working lifetime of eight people to make the Apollo missions happen.
Sometimes we like to focus on the big moments. This happens too in our faith. We prepare for the moments when everyone is watching. But what if an authentic walk with God was more about focusing on one step at a time?
The book of Ephesians, Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. He began by reminding them of the foundational truth and power of the gospel.
In Chapter 4, verse one, he makes a turn to begin to challenge them on how to live in light of the gospel they’ve experienced. It challenges them to have a faith that is real— that is authentic.
Full transparency, this is what I want for you! I want you to have an experience with God that truly changes you. I don’t want to just play church. I want us to be transformed by an authentic faith in Jesus.
And just like the first step for Neil Armstrong and the Apollo program was not the one onto the moon, we all have to begin with the first step.
The first step of an authentic life of faith is belief. It might seem simple, but to know God and live for God, we have to start by believing in God.
“Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord,” Paul writes in Ephesians 4:1, “I urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received,”
Each and every one of us has received the knowledge of God. We’ve been given the revelation of God‘s power.
Even her very existence is a testimony of God. You are a statistical anomaly. Think about all that had to line up for you to be here in this moment right now reading these words.
The created order around us screams this truth that there is a creator. The laws of our universe tell us that this is true.
If I were to walk into your house and dump 1,000 Legos on your kitchen table, and then we all went out to dinner, we would be surprised if we walked back in to see that those Legos have been built into a castle. We would assume that someone had snuck into the house and moved the Legos.
Why? Because the existence of a structure indicates that there was a builder. The same is true for the world around us: that the existence of creation indicates that there is a creator.
The first step to an authentic faith is to believe in God.
I want to challenge us not to stop there. Paul continues, “4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
We have been called into a life of faith in this God. We get faith wrong though. We think of faith as an object. Faith is not a possession. It’s an action.
Believing in God is not the same as living in faith. James 2:19 tells us that demons believe in God. Belief becomes faith when we activate.
How do we respond in faith?
First, we respond to God’s love. If you never read anything else I ever write, I want you to know that God loves you.
Jesus lived, died, was buried, rose again, to prove God‘s love and to offer you abundant and eternal life in him. The sad truth is, that many people will believe in a God and still miss out on the life that Jesus wants to give them.
The next way we respond in faith and belief is we respond to God’s call for our lives.
Faith means trusting God with our life. This is where churches and Christians fall off. Certainly, no one wants to go to hell when they die, but we miss out on the truth that God has a plan for our lives right here, right now.
I’ve said it so many times to our students, but God made you on purpose and for a purpose. Living a life of faith means trusting God with your purpose.
Truly believing God means that you can believe that he is good. You can believe that he has your best interest at heart.
I believe that God is calling his people to have a real faith. The first step is to believe in God. And if we believe in God, should we not also believe in God in every way?
