FAITH – THE TONIC OF LIFE
Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-12:3
Lee Garfunkal's Pepsi versus Coke commercial is too funny. Pepsi is delivered to the Shady Acres Senior's Retirement Home. The residents are talking rap over rock while grandma zips by on a skateboard. Hi-fives are going around. One old guy loves the music pumping through the stereo (boom-box) but still thinks Hendricks is better. The delivery personnel then realize Shady Acres was supposed to get Coke and the student fraternity should have the Pepsi. While one driver is concerned the other pipes up, "Coke, Pepsi, what's the difference?” The camera pans to the Frat house where the Coke was delivered. The scene is quite opposite. A bingo game is in progress with straw-sipping Coke drinkers. Two students strain to see their bingo cards while another is passed out in a deep sleep. Others are sitting at tables and lounging in chairs, completely detached from reality. A quick flash to Shady Acres and the music is loud as seniors dance and party on.
As Pepsi believes it’s the missing adrenaline at a party, faith is the tonic of life.
Today is certainly a sermon for all of us though I will be casting my attention toward our students. This is that time of year when you’re finishing high school and prepping for further education, career and life choices. Or, you’re mid-stream in post-secondary studies and need a shot-in-the-arm. Others of you are finished, glad it’s over and now comes the real tough stuff! You just don’t know it yet! As you all take actions to shape your next steps, I felt strongly drawn toward this faith subject (actually I pushed it off several times but couldn’t get it out of my head/heart). Faith is the tonic, the boost, the stimulant, or the energizer you need to live life to the full as Jesus offers in John 10:10.
So, what makes faith the tonic that will craft your life second-to-none?
1. Faith births purpose (Read 11:1-5)
What you choose to believe really shapes how you’ll behave. The reason you won’t put a metal object in an electrical outlet, even if I told you it’s okay and you’ll be fine, is because of faith. Your faith is not just a passing suggestion but a deep conviction that if you put the metal object in the receptacle you’ll have a new theme song that says, ‘You light up my life…”! Conviction is not an “I think it could hurt” but “I know if I stick an object in there I’ll get a jolt of electricity that will travel up my arm and it could even be fatal.”
To further prove the point that what you believe really shapes how you’ll behave, let’s consider the Bible’s example of faith at work in Hebrews 11 and the story of two brothers. We have Abel who is absolutely certain (a.k.a. convicted) that God formed the world he lived in (verse 3) which influenced his actions by offering God the best sacrifice possible by giving the best lamb from his flock. Abel’s brother, Cain, a farmer, whose faith and attitude toward God is not quite as convincing or convicting, reflects his poor understanding and relationship with God by failing to give his best sacrifice which leads to him murdering his brother and being an outcast from God. Things go from bad to worse.
Faith leads to a chain reaction. By believing anything, we respond in certain ways and there are certain outcomes as a result of what we believe. The chain reaction is also determined by the extent that we have faith in something or have a deep conviction of faith about something. The measure by which you decide God is a critical or non-critical part of your life, your faith, will have a very strong influence on the decisions you make, the priorities you map out, the friends you choose, the people you date and so on. For instance, many students who’ve been strong church attendees at home give up going to church when they move away from home. There are many reasons for that but I bet among them is this idea of faith. Students who keep church-going on the top of their list when they leave home understand church as something that helps them get closer to God, and they definitely want to be as close to God as possible. Those who slow down with church see it as going to a building to sing a bunch of songs, and listen to some dude preach for half an hour … or in most churches longer than that! The same is true of tithing, regular Bible reading or being involved in ministry … it all comes about as a chain reaction to what we believe, how deeply we believe it and how we see God fitting into all that. Faith creates a chain reaction.
Faith drives purpose. It’s also a tonic because
2. Faith is foundational to relationship with God (Read 11:6-9)
I remember a story about a young violinist. He spent years crafting his musical talent. His teacher was a master violinist. On one of his performances at a great concert hall, the young protege performed his best ever instrumental. His sound was sharp, the tone crisp. His handling of movements and style drew the audience into the story. After his final note, that started strong and faded into silence, there was a momentary hush throughout the great hall followed by a thunderous applause and standing ovation. One would expect the young master to bask in the moment with bows and a sense of satisfaction at his fine work. Instead he looked toward the balcony, and strained to see against the spotlight shining on him. He looked for the face of his master teacher and seeing his master’s standing endorsement and applause, the young student proceeded to acknowledge the crowd. It didn’t matter what the crowd felt if his master was not pleased.
If nothing else motivates us to live a life of faith, verse 6 should be enough. If we don’t have faith we cannot please God so we should want faith because it is what pleases our Master. It’s not a situation where God says, “You don’t have faith so I’m not pleased.” Faith is really a response of obedience to God and to fail to obey is to end up in a bad place with some bad stuff going on. Why is it we cannot please God without faith? The reason we cannot please God is explained to us after verse 6. These are examples of cause and effect. First we have the story of Noah where God warns him there would be a world flood because of the people’s corruption (CAUSE). We’re told in verse 7 that “in reverence” (NASB) Noah prepared the ark that God gave him the blueprint to build, in the middle of a desert. As a result of acting in faith Noah and his family were saved, along with all species of the animal kingdom (EFFECT). It is obvious to understand that if Noah didn’t respond in faith and build the ark he and his family would have been drowned in the deluge.
Next is the story of Abraham. God told Abe he would become the father of Nations, in fact, the descendant father of so many people that you could count grains of sand on the beach as easily as you can count Abe’s descendants (CAUSE). Try counting grains of sand next time you get a chance and you’ll appreciate this promise. As a result of this promise Abe had to move (EFFECT). Many of us know how tough that is, to be moving all the time. Well, he was on the move. Faith led Abraham to obey God and look at the bigger picture. If Abraham did not use faith to believe God and to act to perform his part in God’s plan it is quite possible the promise could have been lost. If Abraham did not act on God’s plan, he could not have pleased God in this matter.
What is also interesting in this story is the idea that Abraham and his family were foreigners in a strange land. That is tough and not easy to adjust to. Yet this strange land would become Abraham’s land and his descendant’s property. Faith is not always easy and it does not mean we’ll always have comfortable, smooth outcomes because we live by faith. Often it means just the opposite. So how do we handle this tough part of faith? Our next point helps us with that challenge.
3. Faith’s focus is bigger than NOW (Read 11:10-16)
When you prep to come out of high school you go through processes in grade 11 and 12 where you evaluate future options. You might have had a conversation with your school counsellor, talked about programs and courses you needed to qualify for certain post-secondary studies. From there you applied for colleges and universities that will help you achieve your goals. If people ask you want you plan to do with your life you’d give an answer that might include a degree program with a Major in a certain field. You might outline your plans for where you want to work and where you see yourself in the next five or even ten years. In other words you look to the future. What you’re planning today is bigger than NOW, it’s about where you see yourself and what you believe you should be doing and where you should be living later on.
That’s a lot like what Abraham was going through in expressing his faith that had a huge conviction about it. He saw God’s plan and his part in that process as being bigger than where he was at the moment; it was really about something much bigger down the road. It was about heaven. Abraham sang a song in the tough stuff of adjusting to moving around and all the challenges that go with that. His new song is verse 10…
If you go on reading from verse 17 to the end of the chapter you’ll read about people whose decisions and attitudes of faith meant they did not live in the present moment but lived for something bigger later on. It wasn’t a simple notion but a conviction deeply rooted in their spirits. Heaven was as sure as the air they breathed. They knew now is not forever, that all this will end and one day I’ll stand before God almighty and see him face to face. Now that’s something to get excited about! … Well, if you’re ready of course …
Students, if you want your life to really count for something and you want your existence to be about something more than just careers, acquiring things and trying to get an adrenaline rush out of life, look past NOW to something bigger that is YET TO COME! In all your planning don’t forget that heaven is real … Jesus called it Paradise to the thief dying next to him on the cross. The life you have right now is given you as a trust from God … to use it to make the world a better place but even more than that to lead people to know God, the Maker of this world!
Someone is thinking, “I really want that. I definitely want to be on fire with the stuff you’re saying and I want God to really be alive for me and to be alive in me.” But you’re wondering how to begin and how to have faith like what I’m talking about. Our last point is the answer to those questions.
4. Faith is lived by fixing our eyes on Jesus (Read 12:1-3)
The cloud of witnesses the author talks about are the people mentioned in chapter 11: 1–40. As each of them was put on the witness stand they were all ‘guilty’ of living a life of faith. They never dropped the ball or let the team down. We’re here today partly because they were faithful. There’s not one person here who wouldn’t be bothered that someone counted on you and you let them down. You know what it feels like to be counted on your friends when you’re going through tough stuff and they let you down. Sometimes that happens because they have other things on their minds, because your problems are not always the most important thing in their lives, even when it still matters to them.
We want our lives to count for something, to amount to something. We won’t feel good about letting people down but especially when we realise we’re letting God done. We get one shot at life and there’s no going back to fix things or change it. What you do right now is what it is.
The author tells us that because we have so many stories of faithful people who didn’t let God down and didn’t let us down, we have to take steps to make sure we don’t let future generations down. The way to do that he says is get ride of sin. Sin trips us up, it slows us down. In the context of what we’ve been reading, when we lack faith we actually sin. The way to get rid of sin is to become fixated with Jesus. Just this week we stood in line at MacDonald’s to get a burger. A young couple was at the cash register waiting for their order. They were holding hands, cuddling, kissing … Would someone please hurry it up with their meal?! Enough already! They were completely fixated with each other.
The answer to living a life of faith, to being pumped about life and to get rid of the sin that tries to trip us is to become fixated with Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 says, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”
What does that look like? Maybe less video / television and more Bible reading; maybe it means getting a new circle of friends who’ll put something positive into your life instead of the junk they’ve been pumping in there. Maybe your friend’s parents are saying the same thing to their kids so maybe you need to check in with God and ask him to clean house so you can be a friend who has a positive influence on your friends. Maybe it involves stop running after what you insist on wanting and start understanding what God wants for you. Maybe you need to start understanding that what God wants for you is what really rocks and He doesn’t have second-place plans for you. He’s got plans for you so big that you can only begin to understand what it looks like.
When I was a teen (centuries ago as far as some of you are concerned ) we use to sing a chorus that really says what I want to close with in talking about faith.
To be like Jesus,
This hope possesses me,
In every thought and deed,
This is my aim my creed:
To be like Jesus
This hope possesses me,
His Spirit helping me,
Like Him I’ll be.
