For the last several weeks, we have been looking at the concept of power in the Christian life. And there are two kinds of power that are available to us.
• The first kind is the power to see change within ourselves, as we are being transformed, more and more, into the likeness of Christ. We’ve heard what the Bible tells us about the power of God to strengthen us, and purify us, and enlighten us, and give us joy; the power to love one another and to resist Satan. That kind of power comes from the Holy Spirit who lives within us, the Spirit of Christ who indwells every person who has placed their trust in Christ.
• The second kind of power is the ability to act as a catalyst for change outside of ourselves, in the people and circumstances all around us. Because the Christian life isn’t only about us. It’s also about working and praying to see our world being changed, and people being blessed and saved, by the power of God.
When Jesus sent out the disciples in the beginning of the book of Acts, he told them this:
“8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
When Jesus commissioned the disciples, he promised them power through the Holy Spirit. And the task that he gave them was not only to see change in themselves, as they became effective witnesses to the gospel, but to take action to change the world: starting in their home base, Jerusalem; then continuing to the larger region around that city, Judea and Samaria, and finally, extending out to the furthest reaches of the globe. If Jesus were making that statement to us today, he might say that we will be his witnesses in our towh, and country, and state, and then to every continent, including North and South America, Europe and Africa, and Asia.
And if all that sounds a bit grandiose, consider that this church actually has had, and is having, a global influence. For example, we have ministered to hundreds of children through the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, which are distributed to countries all around the world. I remember those being stacked up so high on the platform here last November that I could barely see over them. Not only that, but several members of this body have gone out into the world to spread the gospel. So our church has been active in fulfilling the Great Commission, both in far-off lands and also in our own community, through many different kinds of outreach. For example, just this month, we hosted the community meal, and next Saturday we are presenting the Easter Story at the park.
But just as the changes that God is making in here, by the power of his Holy Spirit, are often difficult, because they are resisted by the sin that remains in us, so also the changes that God desires to make out there—in our town, and county, and state, and in all the countries of the world—those changes are also difficult, because as we saw in First John a couple of weeks ago, “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Satan resists the work of God and the progress of the gospel, whether that work is taking place within a short walk from this building, or whether it is taking place on the other side of the globe. Satan resists the work of the gospel, no matter where it is taking place. And therefore, when we are seeking to take the good news of Jesus Christ to our neighbors and to the world, we need God’s power.
This morning, I want to talk about one of the keys to unlocking God’s power to change the world, and to change our world, and that is faith. Faith not only to see changes in ourselves, but also to see changes in our church, and in our village and in our state, and in every nation under the sun. Here is how the author of Hebrews defines faith:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Two of the key terms in this definition are “confidence” and “assurance”. Faith is not a vague wish or desire; instead, it is a strong belief, even a certainty, that everything in this Book is true, and that therefore God’s promises to us will be fulfilled. Even though it isn’t always apparent how that is going to happen. Another key term from this definition of faith is that it concerns “what we do not see”. Faith has to do with things which we cannot perceive with our senses, or that God has told us are real, but which are still future. For example, we don’t always know where God’s provision and protection is going to come from. We can’t envision all the steps between where we are and where God is taking us. We can’t foresee how everything is going to work out. That’s why they call it “faith”, rather than “sight”. Yet we still trust and believe.
But even though we can’t see the future, we can see the truth of God’s Word, and the unchanging nature of God’s character. We can see the reality of God’s love and God’s power. And that gives us the confidence to step out in faith, to accept the commission he has given us, and to set goals that are beyond mere human ability to achieve, goals that require divine power to succeed.
And by the way, those are the only kind of goals that matter when it comes to the work of the gospel. I am not here, and we are not here, to do only what human energy and ingenuity is capable of. People who do not know God, people who do not have the Spirit of God, can do many great things. But the one thing they cannot do is transform the human heart. The one thing they cannot do is bring about repentance and faith leading to salvation. Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can do that. And that is what we are called to do: to undertake works that will lead people to faith in Christ and to build them up in Him. Many people can build buildings, or businesses, or organizations. Many people can serve their communities, and raise families, and build careers. All worthy goals. But only we, only Christians, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can lead people out of spiritual darkness and into the light of God’s grace and mercy. Only we can show people the way to Christ. And that is what we are called to do, by the power of faith.
Now, not only does faith trust in God’s promises for the future. Faith also believes in God’s power to do things that are beyond our imagination. This is one of my favorite verses:
“20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
God is able to do everything we ask. That’s wonderful. Anything we pray for, He is able to do. But he can also do more than we can even conceive of.
In the first Star Wars movie, Luke Skywalker is trying to convince Han Solo to rescue Princess Leia, and he tells him, “Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be more wealth than you can imagine.” And Han Solo replies, “I don’t know. I can imagine quite a bit.” Any Star Wars fans here? My daughter and her husband were married on Star Wars day, which is? May the 4th, as in “May the fourth be with you.” Not intentionally, that’s just how the dates worked out. But because of that, some of their friends wanted them to have a ”Star Wars”-themed wedding. I think someone even suggested that they play the Imperial March when she walked down the aisle. They rejected all of those ideas, which was probably wise. Although I still think my brother would have made a great Wookie.
But like Han Solo, I think I have a pretty good imagination. I can imagine quite a bit. For example, I imagine this church filled with people, and filled with all kinds of people—saints and sinners, seekers and skeptics. I see the pews filled with those whom God is calling to himself; filled with worshippers; filled with followers of Christ; filled with laborers for the harvest. When I stand up here every Sunday morning, I see a plaque on the back wall—
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it—that has a number in big, bold digits: 242. It was put there to indicate the “Maximum Occupancy” of the sanctuary. But I see it as the number that God will someday fill the pews with. And not only these pews, but the balconies, and the side chapel, and the classrooms, and the fellowship hall. Not for the sake of numbers. But because every one of those people will represent a life that God is changing, and transforming, and sanctifying, and blessing. Now, whether that vision will be realized during my ministry, or even during my lifetime, I don’t know. But that’s my vision for this church. And Paul is telling us in Ephesians that God can do even more than that.
Now, you might say that this kind of vision is unrealistic, and you would be right. It is unrealistic, unless your version of reality includes a powerful, loving God who is in the business of doing things that no one thought possible. You might also object that this kind of vision ignores such realities as the overall decline in church attendance in America, or the fact that fewer people today identify themselves as Christian. Also true. My vision for the church does ignore those things. So how can I maintain this vision of the future, despite the challenges? Here’s how: because “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And so I am persuaded that God is not limited by any of the things I just mentioned, or by anything else. Whatever the challenges to growth may be, they do not limit God in any way. He is limited only by our faith. And so we need to ask Him to do things that are at the far edge of our ability to imagine. And then we need to ask Him to enlarge our faith even more.
Now, while you are absorbing all that, I’d like to offer an illustration. The principle is that what God is able to do extends far beyond what seems likely or even possible. So here’s an example: Walt Disney. You may not know this, because he wasn’t highly vocal about his faith, but Walt Disney was raised in a Christian home, and baptized in a Congregational Church. Near the end of his life, Walt Disney wrote an essay [for the book Faith is a Star]
in which he credited his faith and his lifelong practice of prayer for his success in bringing clean, informative entertainment to people of all ages. And his faith likely explains why many of the themes in the Disney movies of his era reflect Biblical values.
You also may not know that Walt Disney was a brilliant inventor and innovator. He pioneered many of the filmmaking techniques that are commonly used today. For example, in 1928, he created Steamboat Willie, which was the first animated cartoon with the music, dialogue, and sound effects all recorded in synch with the animation. Prior to that, cartoons were silent. In 1940, he invented a camera which could simultaneously record multiple planes of animation, with a foreground, and a middle, and a background, giving films like Pinocchio and Bambi a depth and realism never before seen in cartoons. For that, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Disney was also the first to combine animation and live action, in the Alice Comedies. He invented audio-animatronics, those lifelike robotic figures which move, and gesture, and talk, like Abraham Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents. And he invented mass merchandising of his characters, selling millions of Davy Crocket coonskin caps in the 1950’s, and putting pictures of Mickey Mouse on everything from lunch boxes to wristwatches.
The list goes on and on. All of these are things we now take for granted. But what we forget is that at the time, many people dismissed these innovations as doomed to failure. The classic movie Snow White, for example, the first full-length cartoon ever made, was called “Disney’s Folly” by skeptics. It was expensive, and it went massively over budget. But it became a huge success, and funded much of what came later. However, Disney’s greatest vision, and his greatest gamble, was DisneyLand. Walt had noticed that at public parks, parents and children rarely enjoyed the attractions together. And he wanted to create a clean, wholesome environment where they could do that, a place that was different from the dirty and seedy carnivals which were common at the time. A place where all the members of the family, young and old, parent and child, would be delighted.
But when Walt tried to get financing for his project, it was rejected by every single banker he talked to. Most of them thought it would be a financial disaster. Disney remarked later that, “I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.” And so he mortgaged his own home, and used up his own savings, and even borrowed against his life insurance to get the necessary capital. And he proved to be right. In the very first year it opened, 1955, Disneyland drew 3.6 million visitors, ten thousand per day, and today there are six Disney theme parks worldwide, in California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, drawing 140 million visitors every year. Since 1955, it is estimated that a billion people have been to a Disney theme park at least once, including 70-90% of the current U.S. population. All of this came from the mind of one man who had faith in the power of that vision, to create a magical place that families could enjoy together.
All of this is summed up in a statement from Walt Disney’s brother, Roy, which he made at the opening of Walt Disney World, in 1971. Walt had passed away five years earlier from cancer. Roy was presiding at the grand opening of the new Florida park, when one of the reporters remarked, “It’s a shame that Walt never got to see this.” But Roy Disney replied, “He did see it. That’s why it’s here.” His brother Walt had envisioned the entire resort in his mind’s eye before construction ever began. Without that vision, Walt Disney World would never have existed.
Now, at this point, I expect that I’ve lost some of you, because you’re thinking about your next visit to DisneyWorld, and that nice, warm Florida weather. That’s OK. I’ll wait. Ready? I quoted the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, and this entire chapter, Hebrews eleven, is known as the “Faith Hall of Fame”. Because in it, the author lists many of the great men and women from the Old Testament, and highlights what they were able to accomplish through the power of faith. Such people as:
• Noah, who believed God’s warnings concerning a coming flood, and who in faith, built an ark to save himself and his family.
• Abraham, who by faith obeyed God’s call to leave his home and journey to a new land, even though he didn’t know where he was going.
• Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who believed God’s promise that she would bear a son, even though she was past childbearing age.
• Moses, who by faith led the people of Israel safely through the Red Sea
• Rahab, a Canaanite woman in Jericho who showed her faith in Yahweh by hiding the Israelite spies who had come into her country to map out the land for invasion.
• Daniel, one of the prophets, who “shut the mouths of lions”.
There are a couple of lessons I would like to draw from this chapter. First, the point of this list, of the heroes of the faith, is not for the reader to look back at the past wistfully or nostalgically, thinking that the days in which these men and women lived were better than our day; that somehow God was more real, or more active, in their times. Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns us against this temptation:
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions. (Ecclesiastes 7:10)
Note that the writer of Ecclesiastes does not challenge the basis of the question; he is not denying that some things about previous times were better. Because that’s always true, isn’t it? In every era of human history, it has been possible to look back and identify things that were better in earlier times. As well as things that were worse. Because the world is always changing. As for myself, I miss living in a predominantly Christian culture, or at least a culture that retained some vestiges of its Christian founding. When I was a boy, the schools didn’t assign homework on Wednesdays, because many of the children attended Wednesday evening church services. The most popular holiday, after Christmas, was Easter. Today it’s Halloween. And popular entertainers routinely showed respect to Christianity; for example, Elvis won a Grammy award for his recording of “How Great Thou Art”. And you could say, “Merry Christmas” without making a political statement.
Were those times better? In some ways, yes. On the other hand, much of that cultural Christianity was superficial, or even false, reflecting merely tradition, rather than genuine faith in Christ. But that isn’t the point. The point of the verse in Ecclesiastes is not whether the old days were truly better or worse; or which things were better and which things were worse. The point is that looking back and idealizing the past is not wise. Why? Because it denies God’s goodness and wisdom in placing us here, now. God has a purpose for his people in every era of human history, going back to ancient times. Some eras are certainly more pleasant, and some more difficult, than others. But what God wants us to do is to live in the present, to trust him and to serve him in the present, and to meet the challenges and do the work that the present times require.
Because every era is absolutely equal in the opportunities that it provides for God’s people to trust him and to act in faith. And every era is equally a time when God will respond to our faith and act in power. Therefore, we have the same opportunity today as did the founders of this church did generations ago. Indeed we have the same opportunity as any members of this church have had in all the decades of its existence—the opportunity to trust God and to see him working in power. There has been no time in the past that is better suited to faith than our time. And God is just as capable of doing great things—even unexpected and amazing things—today as he was at any time in previous generations. Amen?
Let me ask you: did God ask Abraham to build an ark? What if Abraham had looked back at Noah, someone who was considered a great man of faith in his day, and decided that he would emulate Noah’s faith by building an ark? That would be foolish. Because no global flood would ever come again; God promised that to Noah. God wanted Abraham to journey to Canaan, not to build an ark. But what if Abraham was really tired of all his ungodly neighbors there in Ur of the Chaldeans, and he thought how much better it was in the old days, when God would just send a flood and wipe out all of the sinners. What if Abraham sat around thinking, “Boy, those were the days! Rain, rain, rain, for 40 days and nights, and no more evildoers! What a great time that was!” Would that kind of nostalgia be wise on Abraham’s part? No. Because he lived in a different time, and God had a different purpose for him. God didn’t want him to build an ark. God wanted him to establish a homeland for Israel. And that’s what he did.
In the same way, we need to meet the challenges of our own time, in faith. We need to look back and honor the faith of those who went before us, and draw on their example as an inspiration, but without giving in to nostalgia or wishful thinking about the past. God has a plan and a purpose for us, here, today, just as he had a plan and a purpose for all those who have gone before us. And we need to seek that plan and purpose and pursue it, with the power that God provides. God has not called us to have faith for the year 1878, or 1920, or 1978. He has called us to have faith for today, in 2026. And what he will call us to do by faith, in our time, will be different than what he called our founders to do by faith in their time. And that’s fine. Because God is in control of history. God has a plan. And just as he put our forefathers in their time for a reason, he has put us here for a reason.
Here's another lesson from Hebrews chapter 11. These so-called heroes of the faith were people just like us, who sometimes wavered in their response to God’s call. Take Sarah, for instance. She is cited as an example of faith. But when God promised that she would bear a son, she laughed. And God heard it. Let’s read the passage, because it is so human:
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” (Genesis 18:10-15)
So Sarah’s initial response to God’s promise was laughter. First she laughed, and then she lied about it. And God called her out for that. Now, whether Sarah was laughing in disbelief, or amazement, or joy, it’s hard to say. The example of Moses, on the other hand, is pretty clear. When God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, here is how it went:
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (Exodus 4:10-13)
Moses really did not want this job. As we know, he did eventually relent and agree to do what God had called him to do. But in both of these cases, we see that faith was not an automatic or easy thing, even for those who are being held up as great examples of faith. And that should be an encouragement for us. If it takes a while for us to get there, that’s not what matters most. What matters is where we end up. And where we need to end up is trusting in God’s promises and obeying his call on our lives, whatever that might be.
Third and final lesson from Hebrews eleven. After listing all of these great men and women of faith, the author concludes in this way:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
This doesn’t mean that all of the people he listed as “witnesses” were literally watching them. What he means is that their lives were a testimony, a witness, to the goodness and faithfulness of God. Those whom he names from the Old Testament, as well as many others, are to be an inspiration of faith for his readers, and for us. And likewise, those who founded and built this church, those who have sustained it and strengthened it over all the years since, and those who have been a personal inspiration of faith in each of our lives—all of those witnesses to God’s goodness and power should be an inspiration to us, so that we can emulate their faith in God, following Christ with confidence and assurance as we look ahead to the future. And may we all do that, together, in the coming year. Amen.
