1. Title: Look What Faith Can Do
2. Text: Hebrews 11:1-12:2
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd, September 9, 2006, in the series “Nothing Better Than The Best”
4. Objectives:
-for the people to understand what qualities characterize heroes of faith and how we can emulate them
-for the people to feel confident that faith is achievable and a worthy goal for our lives
-for the people to place themselves more confidently into situations that require faith and that will end up bigger than man-sized
5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to understand faith better, and to understand how and why it can be fit into our lives
6. Type: textual
7. Dominant Thought: People of great faith accomplish superhero sized feats with God’s help.
8. Outline:
Intro - We like superheroes. They’re the only guys who can get away with wearing tights and still be considered “cool.” When I was a kid, I inherited a Batman costume from my older brother. I would put it on, including the cape, and run around the house. For those hours I wore the uniform, I was Batman! I could do things that an ordinary, unmasked guy couldn’t do. Then, we grow up, and the costume doesn’t fit anymore. But we still have heroes, don’t we?
• You guys who play golf – does the name Tiger Woods mean anything to you?
• Brass players – does the name Wynton Marsalis mean anything to you? Even preachers have heroes.
• Ask any preacher if he’s ever heard Chuck Swindoll
The point is, we all have and need heroes. And that’s the power of Hebrews 11. As soon as it’s over, there’s
Hebrews 12:1
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.
Look at the heroes! Look at what they did! 19 people or groups of people are named in ch11. These people are “superheroes” of faith. They really are! They were the kind of people that 1st Cent. Christians, and a lot of Jews up to that point really admired. Why? Because they lived out their faith.
Hebrews 11:1-2
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
We have this big crowd of superheroes ahead of us. Their records aren’t spotless, but they accomplished some amazing things. They did it by faith – the assurance of things they were hoping for, the conviction of things they couldn’t see. Someday soon, I hope that there will be a reason to look at my life, and at this church family’s life, and to say to someone else, “Since they did this, you run the race now! You can do it now! Look at what they did and now do it!”
Do you want your life to be that way? Do you want your faithfulness to give someone else a reason not to give up? If that doesn’t matter to you, I’ll pray that the Lord helps you to quit being so selfish! The rest of us are interested in that, so here’s where we’ll go with it today…
Heroes of faith. What did they do? What did real, live faith, in the lives of people in the past, really accomplish? Here’s what I see in Heb 11…
I. Unwavering Trust In God
Having real faith means having an unwavering trust in God.
Hebrews 11:6
…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.
Real, live faith consists of at least 2 features: that God exists, and that He rewards people who seek Him. You have to grapple with this issue this morning. First of all, do you believe that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God Who created all things from nothing? Do you believe that such a god exists? There many who say No. You can’t see Him. You can’t contain Him in a laboratory for study. You can’t recreate Him to use Him how you want. Is He real or not? If you’re already accepting that, great! Of course, even demons accept that – some of them a lot better than we do!
Secondly, do you believe not only that such a God exists, but are you convinced that He’s good? Do you believe God is holy, and that whatever He does, no matter what it is, it will be the right thing? Do you believe that God will reward people who set their lives to please Him? Do you trust that God is paying attention to your honest heart and your honest desire to seek Him?
Skip either of those two features, and you can’t please God. Do you have real, living faith, or not?
Story - Ann Beck and her husband had taught their preschool son Mark in SS the verse Ps 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you." One stormy night, in the midst of lightning and thunder, all the power went out in their home. They were groping around in the dark for candles and matches when Mark told them, "I’m not afraid." The proud parents were all set for their son to quote Ps 56:3 to them, so they said, "And tell us why you aren’t afraid."
Mark said, "Cause I’ve got my flashlight."
It’s funny, but that’s where a lot of us are. We say we have such a God, and that we trust Him, but when it comes down to it, we’re turning to the Energizer Bunny or something even weaker to help us. Real faith gives us an unwavering trust in God.
1. Faith Trusts God When I don’t understand
The writer of Hebrews points us to a man of faith – Abraham. His faith meant that he had an unwavering trust in God. He was, 99 years old, his wife was 89, and God had promised he and Sarah would have a child. He’d been waiting many years for that promise to be kept, and it still wasn’t. Normal human response is to say, “Forget it! That was more than 5 minutes ago! Apparently, it was a mistake or something.” There was no way for Abraham to humanly understand the way God’s promise was going to be kept.
Romans 4:19-21
Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
I don’t understand how a 100 old man and a 90 year old woman have a baby. I can’t explain that to you.
Neither could Abraham and Sarah.
You’ve got to ask yourself this morning if you’re fully persuaded that God has power to do what he has promised. Faith says “Yes” to that question, even if you don’t understand how or why God is working the way He is. God can do it!
How many of you have ever faced a situation in life where you really just didn’t understand why God was letting it happen?
Let me encourage you that it’s OK if you don’t understand God’s way of working. You don’t have to. God even said His way of doing things is going to be different than the way we think. You can even ask “why?” and try to understand. That’s not a lack of faith. We ought to care enough to try. But when it comes down to it, there are going to be times in life when we just won’t be given the answer – and God will be watching for us to say, “Lord, I really don’t understand why You’re allowing this or doing this…but I trust You.”
2. Faith Trusts God When I Can’t See The Solution
God told Abraham to take that son, the son He had promised, and to go sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Once again, Abraham had a promise that God was going to make a great nation through that boy. How could He do that if the boy died?
Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Rather than failing to trust God, Abraham began to assume that God would do something he had never witnessed – that, if necessary, God would raise his son from the dead. Abraham would rather have assumed that God would do something completely impossible rather than assume that God would somehow not keep His promise!
What do you assume about God when you can’t see the solution? Here’s what you ought to assume: you ought to assume that God has ways of doing things that you can’t see; that God is not only powerful enough, but also works in ways that our limited minds don’t consider.
Repopulate the earth by putting animals and a family on a huge boat – would you have thought of that one?
Chase down a runaway prophet and get his focus back on track by having him spend 3 days in the belly of a whale – and your idea?
Start the Church with 12 unlikely guys whose lives would steer the course of history – is that what you would have done?
Yet, somehow, in every situation, God has a plan all worked out that’s better than the ones I have. Faith trusts Him to do that.
3. Faith Trusts God When He seems distant
If you were to review all the people mentioned in this chapter, you’d find dozens of moments in their lives where God seemed pretty far away. Joseph was sold by his own brothers, and far away from home he kept getting one unfair deal after another. Moses’ parents hid their baby boy from murder by Pharaoh, while all of the Hebrew people continued to live as slaves under his thumb. Moses himself grew up wondering why God’s people were so mistreated.
Trusting God when He’s nuking the enemy and sending the lightning bolts is easy. Trusting God when things are going well, when life is prosperous, when everything’s as it should be – that’s easy. What about the other 90% of life? What about the dog is sick, the son is in trouble at school, the car broke down, the bills are coming in, I have surgery coming up, my friend is gossiping about me, I’m lonely, I’m afraid? What about those times when God doesn’t seem so close?
Poem - Robert Bork, judge and former nominee for the Supreme Court, is credited with this limerick that puts it so well:
God’s plan made a hopeful beginning,
But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end with God’s glory,
But at present, the other side’s winning.
Been there? Or, maybe a better question is, do you ever leave there?
Re-read the stories of the heroes. Read about the people who trusted in God, even when it was hard. Get to know some of these people around you here today. There are a lot of stories sitting right there about times when it was hard to trust God, but He didn’t let them down. If you have a story like that, tell it to someone! It’s not about how great you were to trust God – it’s about how great God is, and why others should trust Him too! Unwavering trust in God.
II. Superhuman Power
Every superhero has a “power.” After all, that’s what makes them a superhero, right? Whenever one superhero meats another superhero, they ask each other what their special power is. Invisibility? Strength? Speed? Gadgets?
Did you notice some of the superhuman feats mentioned here in ch.11? “shut the mouths of lions…quenched the fury of the flames…weakness turned to strength…routed foreign enemies…women received back their dead…”
Heroes of the faith have a power that others don’t. They aren’t just very strong people – they’re people who have been given a strength that’s beyond human.
Pop quiz this morning. I’ll read the following 4 passages from Paul’s writing out loud. You listen and answer this question: The Apostle Paul accomplished some incredible things. On whose power was Paul depending? Here we go:
1 Corinthians 6:14
By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
Ephesians 3:7
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.
Ephesians 3:20
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,
Colossians 1:29
To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
(Play the Jeopardy Theme here)
OK. Time’s up. What’s the answer? On Whose power was Paul depending? (God’s, of course!)
23X this chapter says, “By Faith”…
“By faith Noah built an ark…By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger…By faith Rahab was not killed…through faith others conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, were made strong”
If you’re looking at your life and thinking it doesn’t amount to much, or if you’re thinking that it can’t, you need to ask yourself: On whose power do your accomplishments depend?
Quote - Betty Reese - If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.
Maybe, if you’re looking at your life and thinking it doesn’t accomplish anything significant it’s because it’s not being lived by faith. Let’s broaden that to an entire group of people – say a church congregation called VHCC. What would a writer say about us? What will the history of the Church say when they retell what was done by the people who for over 100 years met here and lived in this community? If it starts with those words, “By faith…” what will follow will be something amazing – something that’s more than human-sized. If it doesn’t, it won’t be so amazing.
People of faith are people who exhibit a superhuman power.
III. Vision to See the Invisible
Harold Bermel’s 7-yr-old grandson, Michael is driving through Pennsylvania Dutch country with his family. He couldn’t get over all the Amish buggies. "Grandpa, why do they use horses instead of cars?" His mother gave him the quick answer: "Because they don’t believe in automobiles.”
It was quiet for a minute, then Michael said, "But can’t they see them?"
We’re too quick to not believe in something because we can’t see it. That’s a challenge in an ADHD, hands-on, I’ll-believe-it-once-I-experience-it society. But one of the basic characteristics of heroes of the faith is vision that sees the invisible. In fact, that’s inherent in the very meaning of faith. Paul said,
2 Corinthians 5:7 - We live by faith, not by sight.
The opposite of faith is “by sight.”
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
It doesn’t mean that we believe in something for no visible reason. It means that we accept the evidence of what we can see in order to accept the reality of what we can’t see.
Remember v.1? Faith is being certain of what we don’t see. So, it isn’t surprising that people of great faith seem to see things that others can’t.
Ill - My dad used to be able to spot the antelope on the plains of western KS as we drove through there. I could hardly see them, but Dad would point them out, “There, do you see that? There’s 7 of them! See it?” Well…no.
Same is true of the heroes of the faith in Heb. 11. They lived their lives like people who could see something that others couldn’t. Look what is says - about all of them…
Hebrews 11:13-16, 39-40
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
How is it that people of faith could not only accomplish great feats of superhuman ability, but also endure suffering of incredible degrees?
Hebrews 11:35b-38
Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
How? By faith, they were able to see the invisible. They were able to live life here on earth as though they could already see the place where they were going to live. They could see home, even though no one had seen it yet.
Hebrews 13:14
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Peter also talks about the way that this life is just a passageway.
1 Peter 1:17b
…live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
1 Peter 2:11a
…I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires…
Some time in the 1st or 2nd century, an unnamed Christian wrote a letter of defense to an unbeliever named Diognetus. Among the different ways it describes the early followers of Jesus are these words:
"Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric lifestyle....While they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.
They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food but not their wives. They are `in the flesh,’ but do not live `according to the flesh.’ They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives they transcend the laws.
Why do they freely admit that they are strangers and aliens on earth? Because they are longing for a better country--a heavenly one.
If someone were to look at where your heart is – what you hope for and live for – the reason you get out of bed in the morning, would they think this of you?
Conclusion:
Life is a merry-go-round or a journey.
A Merry-go-round is pretty. For a while it’s fun, but no matter how long you ride it, it doesn’t take you anywhere. At some point, the music stops, the ride ends, and you’ve gone nowhere. That’s how some people live it.
Or life is a journey. Time spent here is just transitioning. It’s not the goal. It’s not always pretty, but that’s OK, because it’s always changing, and it’s never where you’re going to stop.
Are you on a merry-go-round, or a journey?
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. That can be you today…
