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Well last week we talked about a characteristic of modern Christianity - drive thru faith. That is faith that is based on a speedy response and delivery when the person wants it. The key component of this kind of faith is not establishing a long term and consistent relationship with Christ, but rushing to Him when bad things occur and then ignoring / leaving Him when those times pass. This week we talk about a second characteristic of modern faith - do it yourself faith.

Everywhere you look now everyone is doing it themselves. We have do it yourself home repair courses and stores all over the nation that teach us how to repair or build things in and around our yards and homes. Doing it yourself is so common, there is even a national cable channel, DIY, that is devoted to nothing but doing it yourself. Outside of that network there is also many other TV shows have similar characteristics. If you do not want to learn from TV there are do it yourself manuals and courses for car repair, computer issues, art, and every other topic in book stores and libraries nationwide. We are a people that are in love with doing it ourselves. It reinforces our roots of self sufficiency, rugged individualism, independent living, strong character, and personal resolve.

Unfortunately, this same viewpoint is carried into our relationship with Christ many times. Do It Yourself faith this is the kind of faith based on the actions, abilities, and activities of the person, not on God’s strength. Now this kind of faith can become a justification by works, and not by grace, gospel, though it does not necessarily have to be that. Salvation by works, not grace, is more of a end situation that can result from a do it yourself faith. Since salvation by works is more of a end situation it is not the main point that we are talking about this week. We are going to talk about the lifestyle and faith that can lead up to it though. The center point of what we are talking about this week are people that depend on themselves, and their abilities to accomplish God’s work.

This kind of lifestyle of faith can be found in people that use their own resources, capacities, and abilities to accomplish what they do for God. This is not living by faith, this is living by self capacity. For a dictionary definition of faith look here. When it comes to matters of faith, the important thing to remember is that Jesus never called anything faith, or a faithful act, that could be accomplished by man without God.

Think about raising Lazarus the dead. Jesus ask the men to remove the stone. Of course Christ could have done that, but so could man without Him. What man could not do is raise Lazarus from the dead. That is what Jesus did.

God is more then capable of doing anything that man can do, but what makes Him God is the ability to do what man can not. Having true faith in God is having the faith to dream visions and set goals and paths that are greater then you can accomplish on your own. People whose faith is always based on their own capacities, abilities, skills, and resources do not understand that. They say they are stepping out on faith, but in reality they are stepping on their own capacity.

People whose goals are man sized, not God sized, are living this way. They have a vision for growth and maturation that is only the size they can personally achieve or accomplish. There goal is not to learn the ways of God, but to learn a few things about God that may help them out sometimes. God and His lessons are more tools that they add to their toolbox, not a completely new way to work.

Say a Do It Yourselfer runs a ministry and they have eight people that regularly attend. If they say their vision is to have ten members within the next two years. That is not much of a vision. That is only one new member a year. Any ministry should be capable of that, and most should be capable of far more. Yet, Do It Yourself faith says that it is a reasonable goal because it is attainable, and setting such goals is a act of faith because God has given you the ability to attain them.

Here is a more worldly, yet true example. Let’s say a person decides to stop smoking. There is no doubt they can stop without God. How do we know that, well it is simple - lost people stop smoking everyday too. Sure God may help the smoker stop, other Christians and Christian influences around them may even make it easier, but in the end God is not required for them to be successful. God is just a helpful, supportive agent in the process. Now God does have the power to make the person stop, but He allows us to act on our own and He allows us to struggle and fight to overcome the problems that we create in our own lives. In the end the successful ex smoker succeeded mainly due to their own will to stop, not a large act of compassion on the part of God. All that God did was encourage and support the actions of the person.

Do it yourself faith would claim that the person that stopped smoking had made a great step of faith, because they had stepped out of their comfort zone. Well the fact that they stepped out of their comfort zone may be true, but they did not step out in faith. The process to stop smoking may be difficult, but it can be accomplished without God. There is no faith in God required, because the lost can do it. All that is required is faith in one’s personal self, and strength, and a determination to stop.

Now let’s look at a God sized problem. This is one that do it yourself faith can not solve. Say someone is diagnosed with terminal cancer. All medical options have been resolved. There has been no change, and there has been no improvement. The cancer is inoperable, and the condition is terminal. Then something happens, the tumor shrinks, not due to any medicine, not do to an operation, or medical procedure because they have all been exhausted. That is a God sized act. Those that seek such acts have true faith. People who have visions and goals on a God sized scale have left do it yourself faith behind and have matured to a true faith in God.

Understand, we are not saying that all God sized faith is based on numbers or growth. God sized faith can be simply believing that the person that everyone else has written off as unredeemable is redeemable, and then working, sometimes for years, to position yourself to be a Godly influence in that person’s life. God sized faith is not having a vision for more numbers, it is having a vision for reaching the person / persons that no one else even considers possible. It is having a vision to serve God is ways others have not imagined. Real faith is serving God in ways and places that you could not without Him. It is giving up self, and all that decision entails - including career, future, finance, safety, etc, - to pursue God and His leadership. It is no longer worrying about numbers, and now worrying about relationships. It is living for God in ways that are completely counter to your own selfish nature. It is not being satisfied with reaching the neighborhood, which you are already doing, but reaching the city, the state, the nation, and the world which is far more then you can personally achieve.

Do It Yourself faith never dreams that big. It is always confined within the borders of what has already been, or is currently being, done. There is no real pushing of the borders of your own capacity in do it yourself faith. Growth is measured by small expansions within areas that you have already mastered. There is little to no risk involved. By never really pushing way past your borders there is little risk of failure. Failure and risk are both unlikely as long as we live within the do it yourself mind set. We usually only fail when we take steps to pursue new or different things, or things that are large steps in our current areas.

God is bigger then you. God’s vision for you is bigger then you can accomplish on your own. God’s call on your life is not just for what you can do, but for things that are greater then your skills. God’s plan is not for you to live a average / mundane existence, but for you to live a exciting, inspired life full of accomplishment and achievement. All of this requires you giving up yourself to accomplish it, and that is risky for humans that are taught to be self reliant from the day they were born. Remember, however, that God’s ways are different then man’s ways. His ways are sufficient, and He is love is complete. Lean not on your own understanding but on the ways of God.