Paving The Way To A Life Of Faith Series

Paving the Way…to a Life of Faith

Hebrews 11:1-27

Faith Believes even when we don’t See it

Faith Sacrifices even when we don’t Have to

Faith Obeys even when we don’t Understand it

Faith Perseveres even when we don’t Want to

Slide - Intro

Last week we began a new series entitled “Paving the Way.”

We are talking through how the Lord can use this church and each of us to Pave the Way for others and for future generations to hear the gospel and have their lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer Vigil

This past Friday and Saturday, we spent 24 hours in prayer as a church. If you were part of the prayer vigil, thank you. I know that the Lord answers prayer and He uses that time of communication to work inside our lives too.

As we began this series last week, we began by talking about how to prepare for a Miracle.

As we looked at the feeding of the 5000 we saw that, while the Lord doesn’t need us or any of our stuff, He chooses to work through each of us and what we offer Him to perform miracles in us and through us.

I am looking forward to the miracles that the Lord will be doing inside Hickory Creek as well as through the people of Hickory Creek.

Pave the way to a life of faith

Slide

This week, we are going to talk about how we can “Pave the Way” to a life of Faith.

Now Faith is a word that is used a lot, but what exactly is faith and does it matter what we have faith in?

I would argue that the object of our faith matters greatly.

You can have faith in someone or something and be let you down.

It is not Faith is not the important thing. The important thing is what you have your faith in.

That makes all the difference in the world

I may have faith that a piece of thread may hold me as I go mountain climbing, but odds are I will not be returning, regardless how strong my faith is.

I put my faith in the wrong thing.

Now the Bible tells us in the passage we are going to look at in a few minutes, that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6)

Now this doesn’t mean that you just need faith. It means that to have a faith that pleases God, that faith must be in the true God of the Bible who is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

I want you to listen to how the author of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, begins his letter.

Hebrews 1:1-3

Slide

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,

God has made Himself known through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”

Jesus Christ is God and we can know Him and know about Him.

We can know He is good

We can know of his great love for us through His sacrifice.

Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We can know that he cares for us.

1 Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

This is the God that we are to have faith in. Not just in any god we want, but in the One true God,

the only God,

the maker of heaven and earth,

the God who sustains all things by His powerful word,

the God who loves you and me and

the God who made salvation possible by going to the cross to pay for our sins.

It is that God that we must have faith in.

Ok, so we need to have faith in the God of the Bible revealed in Christ, but what exactly is faith and what does it look like in real life? That is what we want to ask and answer this morning.

Turn with me to Hebrews 11:1-8 and 24-27

Slide

We are going to start out there and read about God’s Hall of Faith.

In this chapter, the author of Hebrews goes through and lists many of the people throughout history up to that point who were men and women of faith.

I want to take a look at a few of them and see if we can learn about faith and what it is and how it manifests itself in our life.