We hear of faith preached, we are taught about faith, and we speak of faith. I want us to dig deeper into the subject of faith this morning to see how faith impacts our daily lives. When we become a Christian, God gives us a measure of faith. Jesus reminded us that it doesn't take a lot of faith to move mountains.
In 1994, I surrendered to God's call on my life to become a pastor. I didn't have the money to go to seminary. I definitely didn't think I had the time to attend the seminary. But I surrendered it all to the Lord and had faith that He could make it all happen. And He did. It wasn't easy to turn it all over to God. I wanted to do everything that I could do to make it happen. But I trusted the Lord and through faith it all came about.
In 1997, this church made the decision that we needed a larger sanctuary. I can’t say that it was easy trying to convince the congregation to rely upon our faith in God to make it happen. I preached many sermons on faith. The biggest portion of the church at that time did not think that we could do it. And honestly, WE couldn't. But God could. And He did. We now are sitting in a sanctuary that was built upon our faith in God.
Some wondered why God would not give us all the money we required at the outset, but we learned a valuable lesson in the process. Everything God does in our life is designed to increase our faith in Him. I received several comments and letters from many of the older congregation thanking me for igniting their faith in God. We knew what God wanted and we trusted Him to work. And He did.
So let's listen closely today as God instructs us on our personal and individual faith and how to put it into action. We will be using Hebrews 11 for our passage.
PRAYER
We can't see God with our physical eyes. But He is a real person who wants to have a close personal fellowship with us. God is spirit and He resides in a heavenly world that is beyond our comprehension. Isaiah prophesied and told us that God's ways are entirely different and superior to our thoughts and ways. That's what makes our interaction with God entirely different from any of our other relationships. And because of that we must have faith if we are going to relate properly to God.
Many of you are concerned with me retiring at the end of the year. You are very concerned about who will become the next pastor. I can feel the tensions and the fears rising. Now all of you are involved in the testing of your faith. Do you have the faith and do you trust God enough to choose the person He wants to lead this church? Let's see what this faith thing is all about.
Hebrews 11:1-3 – “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
Scripture tells us that faith is the confidence and trust that something is true. An excellent example of this is our faith in Jesus Christ. Have you seen Him? Do you believe that He exists? That is what faith is. "Faith is the reality of what is hoped for." Our faith gives us assurance that what we believe will become a reality. This building became a reality because of our faith in what God wanted done.
Our brother Jesse needed a dentist. His insurance recommended 6 or 7 dentists. He called each one and none of them would give him an appointment. Jesse came to me and we prayed about it and gave it to the Lord. I told him to get ready because the very next call he would make would be a dentist that would give him an appointment. A couple of weeks ago, Jesse came to me and said it happened just like we had prayed. His very next phone call he received an appointment. Jesse and I had faith that God would make it happen. And it did.
As you read in the Bible, you will find that faith is always God-centered. Notice that the writer of Hebrews does not encourage us to have faith in ourselves or in our own desires, but in God. We can't always make our own dreams successful regardless of how hard we work toward that. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. But faith in God is always rewarded. This is not the power of positive thinking because we are limited in how much we can make our thoughts become a reality. But God can bring every one of His purposes to reality in our lives. When we place our faith in Him, we can be absolutely confident that He will do what He has said.
Throughout history, it has been people's faith that pleased God. Verse 2 points to our ancestors. These were God's people throughout the OT—men and women, young and old, rich and poor, powerful and weak. Yet the one thing they all had in common was their faith in God. Faith isn't based on the dollar amount spent or the size of the battle you enter into. Faith is based upon trusting God in the middle of our circumstances.
It's by faith that we recognize and understand God's work around us. The Apostle Paul wrote that the heavens reveal God's handiwork. But some people look to the heavens and fail to recognize God's activity. I look at actual photographs of God's creation and can't even begin to realize how someone could say there is no God. Only God could make such beautiful places.
I think that's why some people go to church and encounter God, and others don't. It is our faith that opens our spiritual eyes to see the truth before us. It is our faith that enables us to understand that the universe was created by the word of God. By faith, we read the beginning of the book of Genesis and see that God spoke the world into existence. The Bible also points to Christ who was active in creation.
To understand God's words you must have faith. With faith, you can see God as you look at the stars, as you attend worship, or when you read the Bible. Faith opens your heart and gives you understanding to what God is saying.
Now allow me to let you in on a little secret when it comes to faith. God doesn't always fulfill His promises immediately or in our timing. That means that waiting is an act of faith. Scripture tells us to wait for the Lord. The psalmist wrote:
Psalm 27:14 – “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.”
Hebrews 11:4-5 – “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.
********5 By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.”
We read a moment ago in Hebrews 11:2 that it was the faith of our spiritual ancestors that received God's approval. Verse 4 begins a summary of a few of these heroes of the faith. Notice that this list doesn't begin with Adam and Eve, but with their son Abel. Cain and Abel both gave an offering to God. But God approved Able's offering (first born of his flock) but not Cain's (the produce of the land). Hebrews tells us that it was faith that made Abel's offering acceptable to God.
Enoch is listed as another person whose faith pleased God. The Bible tells us that God delighted in Enoch. And so God brought Enoch to himself in an unusual way. Enoch bypassed the normal death process. God took him up. God responds to people's faith in different ways. But we have to remember that faith is necessary to follow God in obedience.
One pastor tells of a time when he was speaking to a church on obeying what God had told them to do. A woman approached him at the close of the service and told him that God had told her to start a women's ministry in the church. But she had not been supported by her husband or other women in the church. So, she decided not to do it. That evening God reminded her of what He had told her to do. She asked the pastor if people would support her efforts if she obeyed what God had told her. She wanted assurance that she would be successful if she obeyed what God said.
The pastor told her that he couldn't make any promises on how people would respond. He encouraged her to simply obey what God had told her. She persisted in wanting the pastor to give her assurance that success and the people's approval would follow. She wanted to obey God without faith. That is called walking by sight. The pastor told her that it would not be her success that pleased God, but her faith demonstrated by her obedience.
I had an incident years ago where I felt God strongly leading this church to go in a certain direction. I was literally ambushed in a meeting by a group of people that said they did not want that. I prayed about it for 2 days and then called them and told them that I had decided to follow the direction that God led and not their direction. I can tell you today that in that process, Linda Willeford became our minister to families. I am so glad that I followed God's leading.
God is pleased when we trust Him in faith.
Hebrews 11:6 – “6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
This is where we find one of the Bible's most important statements about faith: Without faith it is impossible to please God. It's impossible!
It doesn't matter if you make large donations to the church, or if you devote your life to serve God as an international missionary, or if you regularly engage in witnessing to others. If you are not living by faith, you will not please God.
When God speaks to you, He will always seek to bring you to a greater level of faith. People tend to get comfortable in life and think that they can handle it on their own. But that displeases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, He will do whatever's necessary to move your life into a place where it requires faith and dependence on Him.
God doesn't look at what we do or how much we give, but God looks for faith. Two people can do the same thing, yet for one it requires far more faith than for the other. It is our faith that makes our service pleasing to God, not the costliness of our action.
Is there a decision or a situation that you need to entrust to God in faith? Why not try doing that today and wait for God to show you His guidance? Do you have faith that God always keeps His promises?
Hebrews 11:13-16 – “13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. 14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
******** 15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
These heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 believed what God had promised.
For instance, Abraham and Sarah had been assured by God that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars and yet they never saw it in their lifetime. Some of God's promises take a lot of time before they are accomplished. But these heroes of the faith were certain that it would happen one day. They rejoiced in God as if it had already been achieved, knowing for certain that it would be someday.
God had told Abraham he would become the father of a great nation, but it was 25 years before Abraham's son Isaac was born. During those years, Abraham could have lost hope and assumed God's promise was impossible. But Abraham had such faith that even when God's promise seemed humanly unattainable, he still believed that with God all things were possible. That is why God considered him to be righteous. It was not what Abraham did, but what he believed that pleased God.
I will admit that trusting God to do something tests our faith. The longer we have to wait, the more faith is required. When I was a junior at Texas Tech University, God called me to the ministry. I was so certain that God had made a mistake that I went another direction. So, God waited on me knowing what His outcome would be.
I had my struggles and was resisting God's call on my life. I was afraid to take God seriously. He might ask me to become a pastor. I was afraid of public speaking and wasn't very good at it. I considered becoming a school teacher. But God would not release me from His call that He had on my life. Seventeen and a half years later, I made my decision public to accept God's call to the ministry.
Is there something that you are trusting God for today? Trusting God to act strengthens our faith in Him.
We live in an imperfect world filled with suffering, pain, and evil. It can be difficult and even dangerous to be a Christian in many places in the world today. Yet God has promised that He is preparing a far better place for believers to live one day. Even though we are not yet experiencing all that God has promised, we look forward to the future that God has promised. So, we wait confidently for it, knowing it is a certainty because God has said it will be so.
It was Kristi Mclelland that said, "The Bible was given to us so that we might know who the living God is, what He is like, and what it looks like to walk with Him."
So let's walk with God in the way God's word instructs us to:
2 Corinthians 5:7 – “ For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
