Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 11:1.
In 1993, I had surgery on my shoulder because it was so torn up inside that I couldn’t do push-ups without dislocating it.
I remember going to the hospital and being laid out on the gurney and then someone put a mask over my face and told me to start counting backwards from 100.
That’s pretty believable, but if you didn’t believe that I had surgery, how could I prove to you in some tangible way that I did?
I could show you my scar and I could show you that my shoulder doesn’t dislocate anymore.
And I could probably come up with some witnesses and some written documentation about my surgery. But that’s best I could do.
For the most part, you’d have to take it on faith that I really had the surgery—which would be a pretty easy thing to do.
And my goal this morning is, through this message to make the idea of faith a little more tangible and practical…
…and to help us see that living by faith is hard, but at the same time, it is also not really as difficult as it seems.
The first point on your notes is that faith is a mysterious confidence. Faith is a mysterious confidence.
In Hebrews 11:1, we are given what, at first glance, appears to be a definition of this mysterious confidence.
The writer says, 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see .
What is difficult to bring out in English without adding words that weren’t originally there…
…is that the writer is not saying this for the purpose of explanation.
In the Greek language in which this was originally written, he’s not explaining what faith is,
…he is affirming something he knows they already understand.
So if I were to try to capture the real mood and feel of these words in their vocabulary and culture, I might say,
“As you have always known, faith is being absolutely confident in the reality of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
The Hebrews were people who both understood and lived by faith.
And we do too—we just don’t always realize it. We practice different types of faith everyday.
Over the last few years, I’ve flown almost 80,000 miles on Delta Airlines alone.
And not once did I ever ask for any tangible proofs or evidences that the plane was mechanically safe or that the pilot was qualified or sober.
I just got on the plane, sat in my seat, and waited until I could pull my computer out.
I eat fast-food every week. But I’ve never asked for proof that those who handled my food were either healthy or sanitary. I just order and eat.
I drive my car every day knowing full well that car accidents happen all the time—I just don’t think its going to happen to me.
I take a pill every day to control my peptic ulcer. So every month I go to the pharmacy and someone I don’t know sells me a bottle of pills.
I can’t prove that these are the pills the doctor prescribed and it doesn’t even occur to me to ask for proof. But I take one every day.
You see, even without considering my relationship with God, I live by faith everyday.
¨ I place my faith in airlines and their employees;
¨ I place my faith in fast-food restaurants and their employees;
¨ I place my faith in all the people driving on the road at the same time I am.
¨ I place my faith in my doctor and the pharmacist.
And the list goes on because faith is an everyday occurrence in our lives.
So even if faith in God is an unusual or non-existing occurrence your life, faith itself is not. Look at Hebrews 11:1 again.
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
The word that is translated “faith” was used at the time to convey things like…
¨ “confidence,”
¨ “trust,”
¨ “certainty,”
¨ “a dependable truth”
¨ or something than can be absolutely be relied upon .
The word that is translated “being sure” was a word that also meant “a firm confidence.” In this example, it is…
…a present-tense confidence in the future-tense reality of eternal life with God in heaven,
…based on the past-tense event of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
But we also have to remember that this is not a “Gee, I really hope what I believe turns out to be true” mentality.
This is saying that, “I am just as sure of this thing I that I cannot see as I am of anything I can see.”
Turn in your Bibles now to Galatians 5:22-25.
Have you ever said or heard someone say about God: “I’ll believe it when I see it?” I used to.
But I began to re-think this approach when someone then said,
“Do you have a brain?” And of course I said, “Yes.” “Have you ever seen it?” “No.” “Do you understand how it works” “No.”
“Do you believe the Earth is round?” “Yes” “Have you ever seen it from a view that it looks round?” “No.”
“Do you understand how gravity keeps you from fall off of it when it’s actually upside down?” “No.”
I used to say, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” but I don’t say that any more.
Because also, when it came to believing in God, it was the visible evidence of God in the lives of people that made me a believer.
In his list of the “fruits” or manifestations of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people, Paul said in Galatians 5:22-25,
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
When you find someone who, because of their faith in Jesus Christ, is…
¨ Loving,
¨ joyful,
¨ peaceful,
¨ patient,
¨ kind,
¨ good,
¨ faithful,
¨ gentle,
¨ and self-controlled,
…you’ve seen visible evidence of their faith in a God they cannot see, but a God who is no less real than anything you can see.
Since I’ve been a Christian, I’ve witnessed and participated in things that many people would consider supernatural, mystical and spiritual.
¨ I have seen someone miraculously healed,
¨ I once heard what I thought was God’s voice when I was on the verge of committing suicide,
¨ and I once saw what seemed like a vision from God.
But if you were to ask me if I have ever had any supernatural experiences, I would say, “Yes,”
…but those are not the things I would tell you about.
First, I’d tell you about how God has changed me from being completely indifferent toward him…
…to making it my life’s goal to walk with him and serve him. And that his Spirit is deepening that work every day.
Then I would tell you about how selfish and weak and depraved I’ve been and am still capable of being,
…and yet God has, through his grace blessed me with an incredible wife and a two wonderful kids in spite of all he really knows about me.
And in a similar way, he has also given me the privilege of serving as a pastor.
And believe me, if you knew me like God knows me, you wouldn’t be sitting there listening to me.
But you would know that all of these things could only be in my life as gifts of his grace.
Faith is a mysterious confidence. And one of the best illustration of this principle is found in the words of Jesus when he said,
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
The Bible teaches that God is invisible and inaudible to human senses, but what he does in the lives of people screams at us everyday.
Go back over to Hebrews 11:6.
I can’t bring God in for “show and tell,” but I’ve seen the reality of his existence, his love, his grace, his forgiveness, and his word…
…in the lives of thousands of people—including people in this room today. Look with me at Hebrews 11:6.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
You won’t find God through some kind of “show and tell” physical evidence. You can only find him through faith.
And I struggled with this for years because I wanted God to make sense to me.
I wanted to reduce God to a systematic and logical equation that would be fully comprehensible to me.
I was right back into the “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode and I didn’t even realize it.
But why would I want to believe in and serve a God that I could fully understand?
Do you realize how simplistic and limited God would have to be in order for me to understand him?
¨ I believed he was the Creator of the universe.
¨ I believed he was able to become a sinless man and take every sin I’ve ever committed and will commit.
¨ I believed he could time, space, and matter, and transpose me from my finite, mortal existence to an infinite, eternal one when I die.
¨ And I wanted all of that to make sense to me—someone who had to cheat on my U.S. History final in order to graduate from high school.
Is that really what I want? No. Because I do believe that…
¨ God created me,
¨ that he loves me,
¨ that he has forgiven me,
¨ …and that he has guaranteed that I have a reserved seat in heaven with him when I die,
¨ …and that between here and there he is healing me and transforming me into the man I was created to be,
Go over now to Hebrews 4:15.
Its because I do believe these things about God that convinces me that he must be way beyond my ability to fully understand him.
And even though I never stop coming up with questions for which I have no answers,
…I know that while God is intellectually incomprehensible, he is still intimately personal and approachable.
Which is why his word says in Hebrews 4:15,
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15)
Faith is an everyday occurrence in our lives, and yet for many, living each day by faith in God is still a struggle. Why?
Because like the wind, God is invisible. But like the wind, when he blows on us we can experience it.
Yet many of us never give God a chance to blow on us.
And I want to spend the rest of our time together with four examples of how can you “feel the wind” when you place your faith in Jesus Christ.
The first way is that…
Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose
Turn in your Bibles to Philippians 3:7-9.
Nineteen years ago, my life revolved around two things: being a professional musician and trying to get a girlfriend.
Life was pretty simple: playing guitar and finding a girl.
And there were a bunch of other things going on like getting high, and stealing, and other stuff like that.
But when I hung out with some friends of mine who had become Christians—although I had no idea what that meant—
…I began to see a big difference between them and me.
And the difference wasn’t just that they weren’t doing the things I was doing. The difference was that they had a reason not to.
I admired the depth of meaning and purpose in their lives. I didn’t understand where it came from, I just knew that I didn’t have it.
They were going through life with that mysterious confidence that gave them a grid for evaluating themselves, their values, and their priorities…
…and I pretty much just went through life thinking about playing guitar and finding a girl.
We tend to look at busy and successful people as having meaning and purpose to their lives.
And often, it is the busy and successful people who know best that all the activity and accomplishments in their lives…
…are no substitute for depth and meaning and purpose—because they sense its absence as clearly as I did.
The Apostle Paul was one of those kinds of people. In his world, he was on a fast-track with a stellar resume…
…listing references, education, and accomplishments a mile long.
Yet, looking back after many years of being a follower of Jesus Christ, he wrote this in Philippians 3:7-9:
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
When he compared all his accomplishments and successes to his relationship with Christ he says that the resume is “rubbish.”
And if that word “rubbish” was translated literally, this verse would be rated PG-13. Turn now to 2 Timothy 4:7.
Many years later, not long before he was put to death, Paul wrote his last known letter to a young pastor named Timothy.
And looking back over his life, he doesn’t talk about…
¨ his resume,
¨ or his family background,
¨ or his education,
¨ or his professional accomplishments.
He looks only at that into which he has invested himself for Christ and then he writes in 2 Timothy 4:7,
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Right now, one of my life’s goals is to be able to say this or have others say it about me.
Not because of how it will make me look, but because of what it requires of my life today.
Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose. I know what it’s like to feel both its absence and its presence…
…and I can honestly say that the meaning and purpose that my faith injects into all the relationships and pursuits of my life,
…far exceeds anything else I have experienced.
Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose. And in a similar way,
Faith gives us a balanced view of ourselves
Turn in your Bibles now to Romans 12:3.
There are few things more frustrating than a conversation with someone who is so obsessed with themselves that…
…they force every relationship and conversation to be dominated by them.
But there are also few things more frustrating than someone who is so insecure that…
¨ all they do is talk about how they’re no good at anything
¨ and they don’t look good enough,
¨ and how other people have burned them
¨ and that’s why they’re so messed up.
Did you know that having an unbalanced view of yourself is a reflection of a lack of faith. Look at Romans 12:3.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
What does it mean to think of yourself with “sober judgment?” It means accepting God’s definition of you rather than your own or that of others.
And what is God’s definition? It’s found just a few pages earlier in Romans 5:8, that says,
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
God’s definition of us is simple: we are sinners—meaning that we have separated ourselves from God through our choices and actions.
But at the same time, sinners are so loved by God that he became a man and took on himself every sin ever committed by…
…every person who has ever lived at one singular point in time so that you and I could accept his love and forgiveness and spend eternity in heaven.
And it is our faith in God that keeps us in balance so that we never forget that,
…on the one hand, we are sinful and needy people who will never be able to justify ourselves before God.
But on the other hand, we are also people for whom God has demonstrated a love that is so vast and deep…
…it surpasses the worst sins of the most sinful people.
¨ Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose.
¨ Faith gives us a balanced view of ourselves.
And third,
Faith makes hard times profitable
Turn in your Bibles now to James 1:2-4. Something that I always like to talk about when I do weddings is the wedding ring.
Because wedding rings are usually a beautiful combination of precious metal and diamonds.
But those rings don’t come out of the ground looking like they do when they go on the hand.
Those materials come out of the ground in a very raw, rough, and undeveloped form.
And it is through many hours and processes of shaping and molding and purifying those metals and stones that makes them end up so beautiful.
Look with me at James 1:2-4.
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Marriage, life, and our relationships with God are like wedding rings. We begin raw and undeveloped.
And then every day, we have challenges and temptations thrown our way.
And God wants to make those challenges and temptations become the very processes through which he shapes and purifies our faith.
And so every time one of those temptations and challenges gets thrown our way,
…we choose whether we will allow those things to shape and mold and purify us, or whether we will allow them to beat us down.
God’s word says that these trials can develop perseverance in us so that our faith will become mature and complete—if we let them.
But so many times we allow them to become a club with which our faith is beaten to a pulp.
But when God looks at you he sees the gold and diamonds into which he wants you to be shaped and molded and purified—
…so that your faith can become mature and complete, not lacking in anything.
¨ Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose.
¨ Faith gives us a balanced view of ourselves.
¨ It is God’s plan and desire that, because of our faith, hard times would become profitable.
But what about the times when we have acquiesced to the beating? In those times, it is imperative that we also understand that…
Faith keeps us from giving up when we fail
Turn in your Bibles now to Luke 22:31-34.
Nothing’s worse than the feeling of failure. I know because I’ve felt it. And as we saw last week, so did Peter the Apostle.
Peter didn’t do anything half-way. When Peter failed, he went all the way.
When Jesus predicted his own death and crucifixion, Peter got in the face of the God of universe and said “No, you’re wrong!”
And then, after telling Jesus that he loved him more than anyone else, Peter abandoned Christ as he was taken away to be crucified.
Not too long before this happened, Jesus told Peter exactly what would take place,
…but it wasn’t just about Peter’s failure, it was also about Peter’s faith. Look with me at Luke 22:31-34. (Jesus often called Peter, Simon.)
31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” 33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
In the same statement in which Jesus predicts one of Peter’s greatest failures, he says, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”
What that means is that, in Jesus’ mind, Peter’s failure was not a failure of faith.
You see, when we blow it—especially when we blow it big—we often believe that we have not just failed in our choices or actions,
¨ …but that we have also failed in our faith,
¨ or that our faith is weak,
¨ or that is our faith is lost because of what we’ve done.
But that’s not what Jesus says here. His prayer—which was fulfilled in Peter’s life—was that, even though Peter failed, his faith did not fail.
And then, after he recovered, he would even become a source of strength to others.
So even when we give in to the temptations and challenges of life that God wanted to use to shape and mold and purify us,
¨ it is our faith that keeps us from giving up when we fail.
¨ It is our faith that reminds us that God will not let go of us, even when we let go of him.
¨ And it is our faith that makes us that much more effective in relating and ministering to hurting, broken people.
And I know that some of you are hurting and broken because of failures. And maybe you’re even wondering if God has rejected you.
But he hasn’t! Because…
¨ he knows your failures, but he also knows your faith.
¨ He knows that your faith is stronger than you think it is.
¨ He knows how hard it is for you to trust him when you’ve messed everything up.
¨ He knows how hard it is to get back up one more time.
But he also knows that you can get back up because it’s not about your strength, it is about your faith.
And he also knows that he’s the one who empowers and strengthens your faith so that you can receive…
¨ his love,
¨ his forgiveness,
¨ his acceptance,
¨ and his blessing in your life.
The Bible says it really doesn’t take much faith to become his child and receive these things from him.
I did it by just asking for them and believing that he would give them to me—and you can do that too.
¨ Faith gives our lives meaning and purpose.
¨ Faith gives us a balanced view of ourselves.
¨ Faith makes hard times profitable.
¨ Faith keeps us from giving up when we fail.
Faith is a mysterious confidence.
There’s a story about a small town that had been void of alcohol for many years until someone decided to build a bar.
So a frightened group of Christians from a local church prayed all night for God to stop it somehow,
…and that night lightning struck the bar and burned it to the ground.
So the owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible,
…but the church hired a lawyer to protect them from liability, saying that they were not responsible.
After his initial review of the case, the judge stated that “no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear.
The bar owner has faith in God and the Christians apparently do not.”
There are times in life when you have a friend that is so close and supportive that,
…when you’re going through a hard time, you don’t even think twice before calling them up and just unloading everything on them.
You know they’ll be there for you and that they will be a true friend when you need them to be.
Before you dial their number, can you prove that they will listen and care about you? No.
But you don’t even think in those terms because you have that confidence that they’re going to be there for you.
You don’t deliberate whether or not you should call them, or whether or not they really exist,
…or whether or not something has happened that would cause them to cease in their friendship.
You don’t think of any of those things—you just call.
And that’s the place to which I believe God is calling each of us in our relationships with him. It’s what Paul described when he said,
We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
I found another story about a father and his little boy in England during the second World War.
Bombs were falling in their neighborhood and they were running through really thick smoke from their house which was on fire.
The father found a crater in the ground that had been made by a bomb but the smoke was so thick that when he jumped down into it, his little boy couldn’t see his father through the smoke.
The father looked up and could see the silhouette of his son in the smoke because of the bright fire not too far behind him so he told his son to jump and he would catch him.
The boy said, “But I can’t see you!” And the father said, “It’s okay—I can see you!”
There are times when it’s difficult to see God, and he is saying “Jump! It’s okay if you can’t see me—I can see you and I will catch you!”
For Joy and I, coming to Echo Mountain Church was a “jump” of faith.
And admittedly, there have a been a few times when I’ve really prayed that this was the right decision by all of us.
And I know that there’s been a few of you who have wondered the same thing.
But for me, I get excited when I see what God is already doing and when I think of what God will be doing at this church in the years ahead.
And at the same time, the responsibility of being your pastor scares me to death every day.
Closing
God has created each one of us with a mysterious, intangible, invisible longing and desire for a closeness and confidence in him.
And when you enter that mysterious, intangible, reality of faith in God who is invisible,
…yet more real than anything we can hold in our hands, you experience a relationship with God that transcends the material and tangible…
…and you are elevated to the spiritual, even as you go through life in a physical context. I can’t do the math—but I sure see the results.
We can only experience the journey of faith in its fullest reality when we do it by faith.
And when we do step into that eternal state to which we look forward,
…I’m confident that you and I will both look back and laugh at ourselves and how difficult we thought walking by faith was.
Maybe if we do that more often now, then we’ll begin to see all of this the way God does.
Let’s pray
