A Living Faith
Hebrews 11:21-22
James 2:17-26
Abel. Enoch. Noah. Abraham. Isaac. Joseph. Can you tell me what they all have in common? They were all listed in the faith chapter as men of faith. They all showed their faith in God when he gave them directives. Some were pretty drastic directives, and others were simply to remain where they were. Abel made a sacrifice to God with a clean heart. Out of gratitude, not because he expected something.
Enoch was taken by God after 300 straight years of walking in constant fellowship with God. Noah was told to build an Ark in the middle of the desert to save his family and the animals from the great flood, and he did not question God. Abraham, God’s friend, was told to take his family and leave the security of his father’s house and go to an undetermined place. He was told to sacrifice his only son, among many directives. He did not question God. He just did as he was told.
Isaac was told to stay where he was, and not to worry about the future, and he did what he was told. No questions, no request for justification. Joseph lived a life of faith. He was faithful to God’s visions he would receive. He would share these “prophecies” with his father and brothers, though they may have thought he was a little off! He believed in God’s promise of deliverance of the people in Egypt, so much that he even had them take his bones after his death.
All these men had something in common. It was not just the word faith. It was showing their faith by their actions. They did what they were told, no questions asked. No justifications were required. They just believed and followed His directives. That is what true faith is all about, isn’t it.
Is it enough just to believe? I know that there are many who would have you believe it is. What do you think the word of God has to say about that question? Well let’s look at James 2:17-26 and see.
“So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good works is no faith at all--it is dead and useless. But someone may well argue, ``You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can’t prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act.” Are there still some among you who hold that ``only believing’’ is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too--so strongly that they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that ``believing’’ is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.
Don’t you remember that even our father Abraham was declared good because of what he did, when he was willing to obey God, even if it meant offering his son Isaac to die on the altar? You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to; his faith was made complete by what he did, by his actions, his good deeds.”
According to the scriptures, believing is not enough. I believe that light switch controls the lights in this room. If I do not go over and hit the switch I will get no lights. I have to do something to make it work. I read a story that may drive this point home.
In college a student was asked to prepare a lesson to teach his speech class. He was to be graded on creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of his talk was, “The Law of the Pendulum.” He spent twenty minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.
The student attached a three-foot string to a child’s toy top and secured it to the top the blackboard with a thumbtack. He pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where he let it go. Each time it swung back he made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When he finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved the law of the pendulum.
The student then asked how many people in the room believed the law of the pendulum was true. All of his classmates raised their hands and so did the teacher. The teacher started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had only begun. Hanging from the steal beams in the middle of the room was a large, crude but functional pendulum made from 250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500 pound test parachute cord. The student invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with back of his head against a cement wall. Then the student brought the 250 pounds of metal up to the teachers’ nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from the teacher’s face, the student once again explained the law of the pendulum he had applauded only moments before, “If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger.”
After that final restatement of this law, the student looked his teacher in the eye and asked, “Sir, do you believe this law is true?” There was a long pause. Huge beads of sweat formed on his upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, “Yes.”
The student released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back. The student later testified that he had never seen a man move so fast in his entire life as the teacher literally dove from the table. It was easy for this teacher to believe in the law of the pendulum when it was all theoretical. But when his life literally depended on the law of the pendulum he showed that his belief was only theoretical. How easy it is for us to believe in God’s sufficiency in church or in a Bible study. But in the real world where our lives are on the line too many of us demonstrate that our belief was only theoretical....
We need to not only have faith in God’s power, we need to show our faith by being obedient to his word. When we are alone, and when others are around us. We need to be a walking monument to His grace, power and love.
Romans 1:5 says, “And now, through Christ, all the kindness of God has been poured out upon us undeserving sinners; and now he is sending us out around the world to tell all people everywhere the great things God has done for them, so that they, too, will believe and obey him.” Did you catch that? “And obey Him.”
Romans 6:18 reads, “For I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed.” I know you all caught that one. “Deed.” Merriam-Webster defines deed as “1 : something that is done a usually illustrious act or action.” Can we do a deed without action? I don’t believe so.
Hebrews 11:8, “Abraham trusted God, and when God told him to leave home and go far away to another land which he promised to give him, Abraham obeyed. Away he went, not even knowing where he was going.” He went. He did not say, “I believe you Father” and stay. It was in faith that he did.
When you are called to do something, do you do? Or do you wallow in your belief and question? When the Word of God says we are to do something, do we try to justify about it? Do we say things like, “Well, that was then, not now.”
Let me ask you, when 2Timothy 3:16 says, “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right” is it right?
Now please do not take me wrong, I am not a legalist by any means. I know that in the old testament we are told not to eat certain foods, but I also know that Jesus said that what goes in your mouth is not what is important, it is what comes out.
There were many teachings in the “old law.” Circumcision is one of those. And yet we are told in the New Testament that circumcision is not going to make a person right with God. Slavery was accepted. Women had no rights. I think you can see where I am going with this. That is a different message altogether.
I believe that when God calls us to follow His commandments, he knows that it is our way of showing our faith in Him. He gets no “power” from us doing that. He receives love that way. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” Our duty is to show our love for him by faithfully keeping His commandments and following His directives.
Sometimes it seems so difficult to keep the faith, doesn’t it? I mean there are so many obstacles to keeping His directives. There are other people watching. They watch and see how we react to different situations. How do we react when we hear a filthy joke? How do we react when we are tempted to “cheat” someone, or the government? Will we always be honest, even when we may gain from telling a lie? I guess how we react in these situations really show our priorities.
We need to ask ourselves if what we are doing at every moment is something that we would do with Jesus Christ standing there, watching over us. Funny thing is, he is. He sees our every move, hears our every thought, and knows our heart. He knows if we have His will at heart. He also knows that living a righteous life is a very difficult task. That is why he sent the Holy Spirit to help us. Philippians 2:13 gives us assurance us that, “For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.”
We are reminded throughout scriptures that we are to obey, not just hear the word. James 1:22 says,” And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don’t fool yourselves.” Ephesians 2:10 also says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Yet there are so many people that hear, believe, and do not obey His commands. They say things like, “it’s too difficult.”
The scriptures say, “Loving God means doing what he tells us to do, and really, that isn’t hard at all; for every child of God can obey him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him.” 1 John 5:3-4. By trusting Christ to help us. He does not expect us to do this alone. Not by any means!
This obedience actually establishes a pattern for others to follow as well. In Colossians 3:20-24 we read, “You children must always obey your fathers and mothers, for that pleases the Lord. Fathers, don’t scold your children so much that they become discouraged and quit trying. You slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not only trying to please them when they are watching you but all the time; obey them willingly because of your love for the Lord and because you want to please him. Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters, remembering that it is the Lord Christ who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all he owns. He is the one you are really working for.” WORKING FOR!!!. What a great boss! What a great paycheck!
Jesus himself told us follow His commandments. In John14:15 it says, “"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” 2 John verse 9 he also tells us, “For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will leave God behind; while if you are loyal to Christ’s teachings, you will have God too. Then you will have both the Father and the Son.” It is written so many times throughout the old, and the new testament that we must be obedient to His will to show our faith. If you are not being obedient to His will, how can you be showing your faith? And how is that showing your love for God?
Did you hear about the farmer that decided to buy a chain saw? A logging foreman sold him one that he guaranteed would cut down 15 trees in a single day.
A week later, a very unhappy farmer came back to report that the power saw must be faulty - it averaged only 3 trees a day. The foreman grabbed the saw, pulled the cord, and the saw promptly went “Bzzzzzzzz.” “Hey” demanded the startled farmer, “what’s that noise?” I wonder if we’re kinda like that farmer, we just don’t get it….
Can’t see how faith works - all we can say is “hey what’s that noise?” –loud complaining.
Can’t we see how ineffective and inadequate our lives are when we trust our own goodness rather than the goodness of God shown through Jesus.
We need to see the benefit of living in His will. We need to see the problems with living for our own will. Our will is guaranteed to bring us down. That has been proven time after time, hasn’t it? His goodness and blessings has also proven itself how many times in our lives. He wants to bless us. Each and every one of us. But we have to willing to accept His will into our lives.
He wants bless us all. It says so throughout His word. Deut 11:13-15 reads, “"And if you will obey my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord our God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full.” He will take care of your needs, and then some. Just Have faith and do His will.
And do not allow others to pull you away from keeping your faith. From following His directives. Galatians 5:7 says, “You were getting along so well. Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth?” We have all heard it said, You become what you surround yourself by. Like attracts like. We have all heard these, probably even given these pearls of wisdom to others, but how many of us live by this rule of thumb? How many of us try to draw strength from the wrong well?
We are supposed to fellowship together to help strengthen one another. That is why we are called brothers and sisters in Christ. We are now of the same family!
I do not mean to say that we should not be around nonbelievers, in fact, I say that is our mission. But I do say that we need to be around them to teach them, not pick up their habits. We need to be the example. Our lives should directly reflect God’s love and grace in the way we act and react around others. They should be able to see your faith in God, and see the works that you do on His behalf.
They should feel as though they want that kind of relationship in their life. When they have troubles, and believe me they do, they should desire to have the kind of comforting relationship that they see you have. They should have open hearts to and minds to hear what you are to share with them.
It’s funny, the biggest reason Christians do not share this relationship with others is the fear of rejection. They are afraid of being ridiculed, or chastised by others for their beliefs. They are afraid of not being the norm. And yet their lives are not the norm. 95% of the Americans in a survey claimed Christianity as their belief. I attribute this to a misunderstanding of the meaning of Christianity. You see, the survey is stating that 95% of Americans believe in God. But what percent of them OBEY His directives? How many of them know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? If even half of the people in America were truly Christians, where would they attend worship services? Wouldn’t we have to build an awful, lot of church buildings.
If only 5% attended a church service every week, there would not be enough churches to accommodate them all. By being here today, you are not part of the norm. You are putting worship of God as a priority in your life.
When I think about all those people who say they believe, yet do not obey his commands, I think about James 1:22-27, where it says, “And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. So don’t fool yourselves. For if a person just listens and doesn’t obey, he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror; as soon as he walks away, he can’t see himself anymore or remember what he looks like. But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does. Anyone who says he is a Christian but doesn’t control his sharp tongue is just fooling himself, and his religion isn’t worth much. The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father’s point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans and widows, and who remains true to the Lord--not soiled and dirtied by his contacts with the world.” I guess that really lays it on the line, doesn’t it? “Who remains true to the Lord--not soiled and dirtied by his contacts with the world.”
Sometimes we need to stand and make a stand for our faith in God and His promises. We need to reaffirm our commitment level to doing His will and accepting His will in our lives. We need to remember why we are here. Our purpose. So tonight with every head bowed, and every heart opened to the Spirit of God, I ask each and every one of us to check our faith meter. Ask yourself if you are showing his will in every aspect of your life? Are there places in your life that needs strengthening? This is the place where we come to hear His word, and to worship Him. This is where we ask him to Draw Near to our hearts. A place of commitment. And of recommitment. If you feel in your heart that you need strength to carry the torch into the world, that you know can only be done through His strength, simply raise your hand in the air, with no one looking but God. Ask him to help you, and tell him that you put his will before your own. Feel his presence and power in your life. Accept the promises he has given you. If you need someone to pray with, if you need to share your reaffirmation of commitment, come and talk to me after tonight’s service. I am here to listen, I am here to help. Remember, God loves you and so do I. Gracious Heaven Father…………..
