Hebrews – Encouragement for a life of faith
Part 10
Hall of fame of Faith
Hebrews 11:1-34
Over the years I have visited several museums that were called the hall of fame of something
In Oklahoma City the Cowboy hall of fame
In Waco, the Texas Rangers hall of fame
In Cody Wyoming at the Buffalo Bill Historical center , halls of fame for mountain men, Indians, cowboys, guns and gun makers
There are hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of halls of fame in the world
And they all have something in common
They all feature the best of the best
You see
In order to make it into a hall of fame
Someone has to be special
Today as we continue with our study of Hebrews
Our writer lists out a hall of fame of Faith
In chapter 11 of this great book
We see founders of our faith
People who went above and beyond what others did
And in doing so
Set examples for us
Let’s dig in today to these great patriarchs of faith and see what they accomplished and then prayerfully see how we can apply what they did to our own Christian lives
Please open your own copy of God’s word to Hebrews 11 and we will read a big chuck
Beginning in verse 1
Reading through verse 35
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.
3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
4 It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.”[a] For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed[b] that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.
13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
20 It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.
21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.
22 It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.
23 It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.
24 It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. 27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. 28 It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.
29 It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.
30 It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.
31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.
Faith is an amazing gift from God
All of the people listed in this hall of fame showed great faith and accomplished amazing things
But none of them were extraordinary
They were human beings just like you and I
They simply found
Developed and then used their gift of faith to glorify God
Let’s start at the starting place of Faith
Verse 1
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”
What we hope for is love
What we hope for is peace
Contentment
What we hope for is redemption
Salvation
Redemption
Forgiveness
The gift of Faith Given to us by a loving God
Shows us the real evidence of these things we cannot see
Faith shows us the evidence of a true and living God
Faith is confidence based on past experience that God will keep his promises
To build faith like these listed in the hall of fame
We must pray and ask God to grow our faith
And we must remember what he has done for us in the past
In order to trust what he will do for us in the future
Remember the man who’s son was afflicted with seizures in Mark 9
Jesus told him just have faith
And the man said
Help me find more faith
Help me with my unbelief
This is the prayer we need to pray to grow our own faith into hall of fame faith
Verse 3
“By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”
By faith we and the believers throughout all time
Believe and accept
Even if we and they don’t completely understand
That God almighty is indeed the creator
That he and he alone had the power and authority to create something from nothing
God spoke and the world came into existence
Something from nothing
Everything from nothing
Nothing but the word of God
Genesis 1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
And then John 1:1-5
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,[a]
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
God the Father
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
From before the beginning
Creating
By speaking life into existence
This is the core of hall of fame faith
This is the core of our faith
Believing what we can’t comprehend
Believing what we don’t understand
But trusting and believing all the same
God said it--- I believe it
Nuff said
Let’s look at the legends of faith and see what we can learn about our own faith in the process
Verse 4
It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
Able Adam and Eves youngest Son
Gave an offering that pleased God
His brother Cain did not
Why was Able’s offering pleasing and Cain’s was not
Simply
Able offered from his heart
He gave his best
He gave his all
In our life we must ask is our offering pleasing to God
If not
Why not
Are we giving him our first
Our best
Our all
Or our leftovers
Paul tells us in Romans 12 what God really wants
Romans 12:1-2
“And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.[b] 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
God wants our hearts
All of our hearts
And it is this offering that shows our true faith
How about Enoch
Verse 5
It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.”[a] For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Enoch pleased God because he walked with him every day of his life here on earth
He pleased him with faith enough to trust him for every aspect of his life
Do you have that type of faith?
The kind of faith to walk with God
When the rest of the world seems to be dancing with Satan
How about Noah?
Verse 7
It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
Noah had enough faith to trust God to keep his promises
He trusted him even though what God asked of him
Seemed undoable
Seemed overwhelming
Even seemed to not make sense
God said it would rain
And told Noah to build a boat
It had never rained before
But Noah’s faith caused him to obey
Do you obey God?
When it does not seem to make sense
Trusting him and his promises?
How about Abraham
The patriarch of our faith
Verse 8-10
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Abraham did not know where he was going
Or how he was going to get there
Or even why he was going
But God said go
And he went
Do you have that kind of faith?
Will you give all and obediently follow God?
How about Sarah
Verse 11-12
It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed[b] that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.
Sarah was way past child bearing years
She in her own mind
In her own self
Had given up on being a mother
But because she believed God would do the impossible
He used here and Abraham to build a whole nation
Do you believe God will keep his promises?
Do you trust him enough to work in his time and not your own?
Back to Abraham
Verses 17-19
It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
Abraham trusted along with Sarah that God would provide
And then after 25 years of waiting
Was willing
By Faith
To give up the very thing he had waited for
His son
Do you trust God enough to offer him everything?
Trusting him to provide what we need and even want?
Abraham passed that kind of faith to Isaac
Who in turn passed it to Jacob
Who in turn passed it to Joseph’s sons
Verses 20-21
It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.
21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.
Then Joseph
What can we say of this great man?
Once a slave
Once in a pit
Falsely accused
Falsely imprisoned
Betrayed and forgotten about
But never wavering in his faith
Standing on the promises of God
And becoming the 2nd in command of the most powerful nation in the world at the time
It was faith that allowed him to do that
And it was confidant faith that he trusted that God when he was ready would deliver the people from Egypt
Faith to trust God in the hard times
In expectation of the good times
How about Moses’ parents
Jorehebed and Amram
Their faith changed the world
Verse 23
It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.
They had enough faith to swim against the current
Had they just gone with the flow
Moses like so many others would have been killed and discarded
But they had enough faith to stand on God’s promises and not bend to public opinion
How about Moses himself
Living in luxury
He refused to go with the flow
And his faith changed his life and the life of millions of people though all time
He could have given in to peer pressure
He could have wavered in his faith
Choose the easy path
But his faith
Hid hall of fame faith
Caused him to choose the narrow road
The hard road
But the blessings he received were so much greater
Verse 24-27
It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. 27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
Keeping his eyes by faith on what he could not see but trusted anyway
He led the people out of bondage
Fulfilling his purpose
Verse 28-29
28 It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.
29 It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.
Faith allowed Moses to do things that had never been done before
Verse 30
“ It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.”
Faith in God
Faith in a plan that seemed at the least unusual
The walls of Jericho fell with a shout
Just a word
What about Rahab?
A prostitute
A bad girl of the bible
Her faith caused her to obey and become part of the linage of our Savior
Jesus Christ
It would have been so easy to look the other way
To shout out here they are
To run
But her faith delivered her and her family
Verses 32-40
How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.
But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. 36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
Don’t’ have this kind of faith
Don’t worry
Few do
But
We through a gracious and loving God
Have the ability to develop our faith ‘
The ability to grow in our faith’
Pray for him to increase your faith
Place all of your trust in him
And hang on tight
Close from the heart
Pray
