There's an oft-told story about someone going to church to hear the new young preacher give his first sermon, and someone asks him, "How was the sermon?" And the person said, "Well, it was about faith and sin, but I don't know which he was for and which he was against."

This is a sermon about faith, and I want it clear right up front that I'm for it, if it's honest faith.

There are two definitions of faith. One is that faith is tenets, beliefs, doctrines. You can "belong to the Christian faith," or the "Lutheran faith" or the "Methodist faith" or the "Catholic faith."

The other is your faith -- your half of the relationship between you and God. It is characterized as acceptance, confidence, trust; like faith in someone. It is confidence in someone like your doctor. It is faith that rest…