INTRO.- ILL.- A guide was conducting a group of tourists around the Empire State Building. On the elevator ride to the 102nd floor, a nervous woman asked, “What if these elevator cables should break? Would we go up or down?” “That,” the guide said, “depends entirely on the kind of life you’ve been living.”
Brothers and sisters, when you ride an elevator, do you worry that the cables might break? If you don’t, it’s a matter of faith. It’s a matter of faith in something or someone.
ILL.- An airplane flew into a violent storm and was soon swaying and bouncing around. One very nervous lady happened to be sitting next to a preacher and turned to him for comfort. She said, “Can’t you do something about this?” He replied, “Sorry, ma’am, I’m in sales, not management.”
Have you flown anywhere lately? Does it make you nervous? If not, it’s because you have faith in the plane, the pilot, or the greater Pilot.
ILL.- When they wheeled a man into the operating room and raised his gown, the surgeon found a piece of tape pasted across his stomach, which read, “Think.”
Have you ever had surgery in which you were knocked out for a period of time? Did you wonder if you would make it?
I’m sure that some people worry when they think about being “put under” for surgery and others don’t sweat it at all. WHY IT IS THAT SOME PEOPLE DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT? I think it’s a matter of faith. For some, it’s a matter of faith in the doctor. They trust their doctor and of course, some have faith in the Great Physician.
ILL.- Someone asked a stranger, “Do you believe in survival of the fittest?” The man replied, “No, I don’t believe in the survival of anybody. I’M THE UNDERTAKER.”
What are your chances of surviving another day? It may depend on your family health history.
What are your chances of living for many years? People of all ages die every day, but most people don’t worry about dying. Why? IT’S CALLED FAITH. It’s either faith in their age, their health or faith in the Creator that He will allow them to live longer.
II Cor. 5:7 “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
We are encouraged in Scripture to walk by faith, to live by faith. Many people of the world scoff at this faith business, but in reality, ALL PEOPLE LIVE BY FAITH! They live by faith in something or someone, whether they want to admit it or not.
So when some person says to you that they don’t believe in this “faith business,” just remind them they, too, live by faith and then give them a simple illustration of that fact.
Faith is a matter of believing in something or someone and trusting that they will perform properly.
ILL.- I have faith that my car will get me where I’m going, but I have an even greater faith in my God who will get me to heaven! This is the kind of faith by which we live!
Heb. 11:6 “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.”
To please God, we must live by faith. Faith in Him and His promises. Our text in Hebrews 11 speaks of this living faith.
PROP.- I want to speak about three veterans of faith who teach us about living by faith.
1- Abel – faith worshipping
2- Enoch – faith walking
3- Noah – faith working
I. ABEL – FAITH WORSHIPPING
Heb. 11:4 “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Faith must worship and worship with the right attitude.
ILL.- Three pastors got together for coffee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems. "I got so mad," said one, "I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats."
"I tried trapping them alive," said the second. "Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church." "I haven’t had any more problems," said the third. "What did you do?" asked the others, amazed. "I simply baptized them and I haven’t seen them since."
Brothers and sisters, if we know anything about the Word of God at all, we know that faith worships or it isn’t faith at all.
Some people join a church, come for a while and then you never seen them again. That’s not faith or much faith at all.
Heb. 10:22 “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”
LET US DRAW NEAR TO GOD. What is that? That’s worship and that’s what faith in the Lord does! True faith in Christ always worships!
Faith worships privately, silently, when alone and with others. In church and out of church. Any time and all the time.
Faith worships by whispering prayers continually throughout the day. “Thank you, Lord. Bless you. Thank you for my turkey and cheese sandwich that I had for lunch. Thank you for allowing me to sleep last night…” THIS IS WORSHIP AND IT’S WHAT FAITH DOES!
ILL.- Two men were out fishing one Sunday morning. One of them was feeling guilty about not going to church. He said, “I guess I should have stayed home and gone to church.” The other guy said, “I couldn’t have gone to church anyway…my wife is sick in bed.”
Faith doesn’t forsake the assembly on the Lord’s Day to go fishing or do many other things. Faith, however, could stay home and take care of a sick family member because that’s an act of love, which comes from faith in the Lord.
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.
Righteous Abel brought the firstborn of his flock as a sacrifice to God. He presented his offering in faith. And God looked with favor on Abel. Cain brought his offering but was rejected. Some suggest it was rejected because of the state of mind in which it was brought. OR IT WAS HIS BAD ATTITUDE THAT CAUSED GOD TO REJECT IT.
ILL.- A will was written in 1935 by a Mr. Donohoe. It reads, "To my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father, . . . I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father’s curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature. May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity."
It’s hard to understand how anyone could have such hatred for another person and especially toward their own children.
Hatred, ill will, animosity, etc. will keep a person’s worship from being accepted by God. It’s as simple as that. We all need to get over some things.
ILL.- Preacher Wayne Smith said one time, “Lord, I know it’s wrong to hate, but if it ever becomes right, I got the guy picked out.” Hatred is never right. Hatred keeps us from worshipping God properly.
James 1:19-20 “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Abel – faith worshipping. When you come to worship get your heart right. Pray before you come. Confess before you come. Ask for mercy. Come with the attitude of praise, not picking at people.
Ps. 100:2, 4 “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
II. ENOCH – FAITH WALKING
Heb. 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”
Gen. 5:22 “Enoch walked with God 300 years.”
Faith walks with God. Faith talks with God. Faith spends time with God. Much time with God.
ILL.- The English professor emphasized in his class the importance of developing an extensive vocabulary. He said, “You have my assurance if you will repeat a word eight or ten times, it will be yours for life.”
In the back of the class, an attractive young woman sighed, closed her eyes, and whispered softly to herself, “Steve, Steve, Steve….”
Have you ever been so absorbed with a person that you wanted to be with them ALL the time? Like a couple in love? That may be rare, but it’s very similar to what it means to walk with God.
ILL.- I have read that Buddhists have a saying, which goes like this: “Life is divided into three parts. The first part is for pleasure. The second part is for the accumulation of money and goods and the third part is for religion.”
Most people divide their lives. Some time for this and some for that, BUT ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD CONTINUALLY, DAY IN AND DAY OUT! There was no such thing as sacred and secular. Everything was sacred to him because of His walk with God! God was with him in everything; everywhere he went and everything he did.
For most of us, it’s pretty easy to walk with God on Sunday morning. We sing the songs, partake of communion, listen to the message, give an offering and we consider these a great act of faith in God. BUT ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD!
Enoch walked with God on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday morning and all week long. Faith walks with God.
ILL.- When John G. Mitchell, of Multnomah School of the Bible, was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington, he heard Dr. G. Campbell Morgan preach. The man knew his text, and young Mitchell was impressed. In fact, he asked the visiting Bible teacher how he understood Scripture so well. "If I told you, you wouldn’t do it," the older man said. "Just try me," Mitchell insisted. "Before I study a book, I read it fifty times," the veteran explained.
Morgan was a man who walked with God because He walked in his Word continually.
Ps. 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
ILL.- A man once wrestled with these questions: “Can we have contact with God all the time? Can we fall asleep in his arms and awaken in his presence? Can we do his will all the time? Can we think his thoughts all the time? Can I bring the Lord back in my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind? I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering this question.”
That man was Frank Laubach. Born in the U.S. in 1884 and a missionary to the illiterate, teaching them to read so they could know the beauty of the Scriptures.
Frank Laubach was dissatisfied with his spiritual life. At the age of 45 he resolved to live in “continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to His will.”
Laubach wrote in his journal March 1, 1930: “This sense of being led by an unseen hand grows upon me daily…”
April 18, 1930: “I have tasted a thrill in the fellowship with God… This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I never had known anything like it. God was so close…”
May 24, 1930: “This concentration on God is strenuous, but everything else has ceased to be so. I think more clearly, I forget less frequently. Things which I did with a strain before, I now do easily and with no effort whatever. I worry about nothing, and lose no sleep….”
Brothers and sisters, Frank Laubach was a man who walked with God continually and that’s what faith does.
III. NOAH – FAITH WORKING
Heb. 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen (a flood or rain), in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Gen. 6:5-14
Noah was much like Enoch, in that he, too, walked with God. Noah lived in a time when wickedness was everywhere. It was evident on every street corner and in every home. If there had been schools, wickedness would have been there.
The people of earth were so corrupt that God just couldn’t stand them any longer. They had to be very evil, because God is compassionate and gracious, and yet He decided to destroy them.
In the midst that sinful world Noah found favor in God’s eyes. Noah was a righteous man. He was a faith man. Noah built an ark when rain had never been seen, felt, or heard of. He had certainly never seen a torrential downpour of rain.
Noah is an example of faith working and faith obeying. “By faith Noah built an ark to save his family…”
Noah obeyed and Noah worked. A natural result of faith in the Lord is work or Christian service.
ILL.- Some years ago it was announced that General Booth, of the Salvation Army, was losing his sight, and that his days of usefulness were over. After many weeks’ seclusion this Christian hero of 80 years appeared having had one eye removed and possessing only imperfect vision with the other. To an audience of over 4,000 in London, he spoke for an hour and a half. “I want to do more for humanity,” he said, “and I want to do a great deal more for Jesus. There are thousands of poor, wretched, suffering and sinning people crying out to us for help, and I want to do something for them.”
General Booth was a man of faith. His faith worked. He wanted to work for the Lord until he could work no more.
ILL.- There is a new movie out entitled, “Radio.” Some of you have seen this movie and recommended it to me. Elaine and I saw it last Friday evening and I recommend it to you. Here is why.
It’s based on the true story about a mentally challenged young man (Radio - Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in 1976 in South Carolina. Radio was given a chance by a kind high school football coach (Ed Harris) to help the team and become a fixture around the local high school. Naturally some prejudices take place as some of the football-crazed townspeople look at Radio as more of a distraction. Slowly, however, Harris shows that Radio is the one who is really educating the community with his natural enthusiasm, good heart, fine morals and undeniable human spirit.
To me, it is a story of human kindness and even more than that; it’s a love story. It is the story one human being demonstrating love to someone whom the world considered unlovely, different, strange, weird, etc. And it shows what can happen when a person shows true love for another person. Radio comes out of his shell and his spirit begins infect all around him.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that true love gives? It can’t help but give. Giving is the nature of love.
Jon 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave…”
When we love others we will give to them. We will give them time, attention, affection, devotion, material things, etc.
And just as love gives, so faith works. Works or Christian service is the natural result of faith in the Lord. When a person comes to know the Lord that person can’t help but serve, work, labor, etc. He or she will want to serve the Lord by serving others.
James 2:26 “Faith without works is dead.” There is someone wrong with a person who claims to have faith in the Lord and doesn’t work or serve.
CONCLUSION-------------------------------------
Heb. 11:6 “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.”
ILL.- Someone said, “There are thousands of ways of pleasing God, but not one without faith.” And the faith that pleases God most of all is a faith that worships Him, a faith that walks with Him and a faith that works for Him.
