Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-16
Got Faith?
Remember the old milk commercials, with famous people wearing milk moustaches? The caption at the end simple said, “Got milk?” It was catchy. It grabbed your attention. So I thought about that when it came to naming today’s sermon. We’re looking at the famous 11th chapter of Hebrews, nicknamed the “Hall of Faith.” It’s a listing of great heroes of the faith, through whom God accomplished much.
The question becomes, “How can I have that kind of faith?” Sometimes we really need faith, don’t we? Life is tough. And sometimes we need to know that God is real, that God is aware, and that God is gonna get me through this.
So let’s examine faith. The chapter never defines what it is; rather, in verse 1, it gives a two-fold description. I’ve listed several translations of verse 1 at the top of your outline:
What is faith? Faith is...
“...confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV)
“...the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (HCSB)
“...the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (NKJV)
And when you want to carry a really big Bible, to impress all your friends, grab the Amplified Version. It adds words in parentheses or brackets to try to further explain the meaning of the phrase. Faith is...
“...the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].” (AMP)
So if these give us a description of what faith is, then what can it do for us? Verse 2 tells us the “ancients” or our ancestors were famous at it. Today we’re going to look at two ancestors in particular: Abraham and Sarah. They point us to some very useful purposes of faith. First,
1. Faith helps us to make sacrifices
Abraham has been called the “Father of the Faith.” Verses 9 and 10 talk of his sacrifice on behalf of God’s plan: “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents ... For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Genesis 12 records God’s initial call to Abraham. Basically God said to Abe, “I want you to uproot your immediate family, leaving everything you’ve ever known, and go to a place you’ve never been. Now don’t worry about where it is. I’ll tell you when you get there.” Sounds like your first PCS move, right? It took a lot of faith for Abraham to trust God. And it also took a lot of sacrifice. Abraham lived like a transient, in tents, never really settling down, like a refugee from another country. Sure God was going to do some great things, like give him the Promised Land along with a ton of offspring who would later become a new country called “Israel.” But God hadn’t done any of that yet!
Abraham was 75 years old when he set out on this crazy new adventure, all because God told him to. A tent wasn’t the nicest way to live, especially for a guy who was extremely wealthy through God’s blessing. Yet, because he kept his eyes on heaven, he was able to put up with tents for now.
We all know about sacrifice. Some of you sacrificed in junior ranks or menial jobs for years, before you got to where you are today. Some of you are thinking: “Pastor, we’re done with sacrificing. Our time has passed! We’re ready to live a little now, and let someone else do the sacrificing!”
Yet the truth is, God continues to call us to sacrifice this side of eternity. Perhaps God will call you to sacrifice your reputation to befriend someone in dire need of a friend. Perhaps God will cause you to sacrifice your desire to be right and ask that relative to forgive you. Maybe you are sacrificing your pride by trying to witness to a friend who brushes you off. Their eternal destiny is serious to you but evidently not to them. Perhaps your sacrifice is stepping out into the unknown, trying to follow God when you’re not sure where God is leading.
Whatever the cost, it’s worth it! Someday you will have a heavenly home that will make you forget all the hardships this life has ever brought. Someday you will have that building that Abraham longed for. You’ll trade in your tent for a building in heaven. And the Master will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21). Faith helps us to make sacrifices. And #2,
2. Faith opens our eyes to God’s activity.
We have a new character, Sarah, inducted into the Hall of Faith in verse 11, alongside her elderly husband in verse 12. Listen to these two verses:
11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
“As good as dead.” Poor Abraham! At 99, 100 years old, his reproductive capabilities were about shot. But apparently God had different plans. These two seniors were headed to Babies-R-Us!
Now before you get the wrong idea, please note: Abraham and Sarah weren’t the perfect couple. They had their moments of doubt. They had times where they tried to help God out, with disastrous results. Yet, the Bible still includes them as pillars of faith. That should give you hope!
Somehow, amidst all the doubt and questioning and helping God with their own clever ideas, Abraham and Sarah had enough faith to “consider God faithful” to keep his word, even when his word seemed impossible! Sarah was 90 years old and her husband 100 when their baby was born! No wonder they named him Isaac, which means “laughter.” What a joke!
From a man “as good as dead” would come thousands and thousands of descendants. It truly was a miracle! It was a miracle akin to so many other miracles recorded in the Bible: when Elijah called down fire from heaven at Mount Carmel, and then brought rain on command to stop a drought; when the Virgin Mary gave birth to a Savior; when Jesus took a little boy’s lunch and fed a stadium, complete with leftovers. With God, miracles abound!
What kind of miracle do you need? Faith can open up your eyes to God’s activities all around you. Sometimes I’ll tell a Veteran who is at wit’s end, “You are ripe for a miracle!” Need to see someone’s heart soften toward God? Ask God to show them a miracle. Need another dose of life? Ask God for the miracle of abundant life you can enjoy right now, even in your present circumstances. Need enough cash to pay the bills? Tithe on faith and ask God to stretch the remaining until payday. Watch what God will do when you look through the prism of faith. And #3,
3. Faith makes God proud
Verse 16 says, “Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
The Bible has various words for believers to remind us this is not our home: we are called “strangers,” “foreigners,” “sojourners,” or “transients,” just passing through. One of our church members recently asked me, “Pastor, is it ok to long for heaven?” And I replied, “Sure, as long as you don’t try to help God get you there prematurely.” After today I could add, “In fact, it even makes God proud!”
Yet, it doesn’t mean we give up on this life. You’ve heard the old saying, “She’s so heavenly minded she’s no any earthly good.” No, there are plenty of Bible passages that urge us to be salt and light in this world while we’re here, to be active witnesses of love as Jesus was when he walked the earth. Yet, we can long.
The book of Ecclesiastes says, God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know there is more than just this life. We long for the life ahead. And it makes God proud!
I met a man this week with cancer at too young of an age, in my opinion. Don’t ask me what age is right; there probably is none. He was just told his cancer is inoperable. When I asked him about his faith, he shared that he is a believer, yet also has doubts. I told him that was typical of most if not all of us. And we talked about heaven. I urged him to read a book like “90 Minutes in Heaven,” one of my favorites on the subject. And to continue staying active in his church and with his family, as he prepares for his eventual crossover into eternity.
Max Lucado, in his book, “He Still Moves Stones,” says, “Do something that demonstrates faith. For faith with no effort is no faith at all. God will respond. He has never rejected a genuine gesture of faith. Never.”
Let us pray: Father, you are good. You give us a yearning for you and for heaven. Help us to keep the faith. Help us to believe even when we haven’t seen you answer yet. Help us to sacrifice where we need to, because this is not our home. We want to watch for your activity, so that we can join you in it. We ask this in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
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For welcome time: Employment Test (credits to ...)
This fellow was sweating out an interview for a job. “Now this is the verbal part of your employment test,” said the interviewer. ”Can you tell me what gross aggrandized annuity means?”
“Certainly,” replied the applicant. “It means I don't get the job.” That fellow had very little faith. (We’ll be talking about faith today.)
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Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-16
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[a] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
