Faith is another word for trust.  
Everyone trusts in something.  
Sky divers trust in their parachutes to keep them from hitting the ground at a high rate of speed. People who pick up prescriptions from the
pharmacy trust in their pharmacist to not give them a bottle of poison.  
Even atheists, who claim to have no faith, trust in their intellect to give them a sense of self-sufficiency.  
What about Christians?  What do we trust in?We trust in Jesus Christ to save us from hell and give us eternal life in heaven as a free gift apart from any merit or worthiness in us.
This trust in Jesus that we have does not come from us.  It too is a gift from God.  He gave it to us when we heard and believed that, for the sake of Jesus, all our sins are forgiven.  
This announcement of forgiveness is good news to those who know they have fallen short, who know that they are not the people that they should be, who know they have hurt others.  It is good news even to those who think that they have done and said things that God would never forgive.  
How can this be?  Jesus.  God in the flesh, came into this world to forgive you and there by set you free from shame, from guilt, and free from eternal death.  You are forgiven.  This good word from Jesus is for all who admit their need for forgiveness, and trust that what Jesus did here on earth, His living, His dying on the cross, and His rising from the dead, actually provides that forgiveness, covering anyone, and everyone who believes – even you.  And that’s the truth.
This good news comes to us by way of God’s Holy Word, the Bible.  As God’s Word, the Holy Bible is true and inerrant, therefore, it too is something that we trust in.  The Bible is God’s Word to mankind, and it demands a confessional response – meaning – whenever you hear or read the Bible – God asks you, “What do you believe concerning this?”  Thehistoric Christian Church, in order to answer the question, “What is it exactly that you believe the Bible teaches?” has formulated three, orthodox, that is, approved, confessions of faith:  The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.  Our Savior’s Lutheran Churchholds to and confesses these creeds as her own.  To read these creeds, please click on the respective links.
Additionally, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, holds to the confessions of the unaltered Book of Concord of 1580.  We do so because it rightly confesses what the Bible teaches.  To read an online version of the Book of Concord, please click on the following link.
For those who don’t have time to read the aforementioned documents, the following will give you a well-rounded summary of what we believe, teach, and confess:
We confess the Holy Trinity
Along with the historic Christian Church, we worship the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three persons in one divine essence. We know Him to be our creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
We believe that God the Father has created all things, Jesus Christ the Son died, rose, and has won salvation for the whole world, and the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith through Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the proclamation of His inspired Word, the Holy Bible. 
As mentioned above, because they accurately testify of these truths drawn from Holy Scripture, we confess the three ecumenical creeds, namely the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. 
We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean
In accordance with Holy Scripture and with all of Christendom, we confess that we are not sinners because we sin, but rather that, we sin because we, by our very nature, are sinners. Not only do we commit transgressions against both God and our neighbors, but we were sinful since the moment of our conception in the womb due to original sin inherited from our first sinful parents, Adam and Eve.
We confess that all sin, both original sin and the sin that we commit in our daily lives, separates us from our Holy God and that we are condemned to hell eternally apart from faith in the life-giving and fully atoning blood of Christ, which takes away the sin of the world.
We confess that Jesus is our Savior
Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds. He broke into this sinful world as an infant in Bethlehem to redeem it. He lived a perfect life, suffered, was crucified, buried, and was raised according to the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We confess the Bible is the Holy Word of God
As members of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, we believe that Holy Scripture is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and efficacious Word of God (sola scriptura), that we are saved by grace through the blood of Jesus Christ (sola gratia), and that we are justified through faith, not by our works (sola fide).
In addition, we hold to the confessional documents found in the unaltered Book of Concord of 1580 because they are a faithful exposition of scripture.
We confess the Christian faith
We confess that the law comes to us in the Ten Commandments to curb our sin, to show us our great need for a Savior, and to teach us how to live as Christians. In the Apostles’ Creed, we confess who God is and what He has done and continues to do for us. And in the Lord’s Prayer, we are taught of our specific needs as the children of God and how to ask them of our gracious and loving Heavenly Father.
 
 
We also confess that God does not forsake His bride, the Church, but rather comes to her still today to lavish upon Her the forgiveness of sins in the sacraments of Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion.
We confess one holy Christian Church
We confess that there is one holy and apostolic Christian Church on earth and that the Church is found where God’s sheep hear the voice of their Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
We confess that God comes to us each week in the Divine Service where He serves us, His Church, the forgiveness of sins through His external word and sacraments. Only after He has given us new life are we then able to respond in joyful worship and adoration with prayer and songs of thanksgiving.
We confess a distinction between God’s Law and His Gospel
We confess that God speaks two general words to us throughout all of Holy Scripture: the Law and the Gospel. Both are good and necessary, but each has a unique purpose. The Law tells us what we must do, the Gospel tells us what Christ has already done for us. The Law diagnoses our terminal illness, the Gospel presents to us Christ, the treatment for our illness and our medicine of immortality. The Law convicts and condemns us, the Gospel acquits and frees us for the sake of Christ.
While we confess that as redeemed children of God who are being sanctified, we can begin to keep the Law, we also confess that we are still and will always be sinners this side of Heaven.
We confess that a proper understanding and distinguishing between God’s words of Law and Gospel are necessary to understand Holy Scripture.
And finally, we confess the historic five solas:  Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria, which translates as: “We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as taught by Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.”
Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.