Impossible without Faith // Hebrews 11:6, 17 40 // Christ is Better This is my first week back after several weeks on the road warning: I haven t preached here in so long I feel like a Coke bottle that has been shaken up and is about to explode. If you like calm, soothing sermons this might be an unpleasant experience. (Of course, if you like calm, soothing preaching I m not sure why you come to church here.) If I sound angry when I preach it s nothing personal, it s just how I get when I m excited. These re- entry sermons never go well: fast, long, and angry. By the way, some of you have wondered how we determine when I ll be off a week preaching. It s whenever you bring a guest you want to introduce to our church. At least that is what I d conclude from the notes I get. I finally get my friend to come and you re not here. So I convince them to come back a 2 nd week and you re not here again. So we give up and I come alone and then you preach for 8 weeks straight. Grateful for excellent teaching resources at the Summit Church (church planters we ve sent out; campus pastors) HEBREWS 11: WE RE IN A SERIES THROUGH HEBREWS CALLED CHRIST IS BETTER. This chapter, chapter 11, is all about faith. Your campus pastors did the first part of this chapter. I m going to do the last half. Here s a confession you won t hear often from a pastor: in many ways, it takes very little faith for me to follow Jesus. Denying God would be more costly for my family than following Him. Imagine if I came home and told Veronica, I don t think I believe in God anymore! Plus, my job requires me to be a Christian that s like the first box on my job performance: Is a Christian: check. Plus, I have enough cash flow that I m not usually worried about where the next meal is coming from I m not like: Oh, God if you don t come through for me my kids are not able to eat tonight. So it s really easy for me to walk with God and do Christian things without any real faith. But that can only take you so far. o If you re a thinking person, eventually you get confronted by something in the Bible that is really hard to believe. Sometimes I ll be in a discussion with someone who is not a Christian who will be challenging me on what I believe and they ll be like, Surely you re not saying this? and I think, Am I saying that? Do I really believe that just because the Bible teaches it? o Or I ll sense God asking me to do something that really puts things on the line: a financial sacrifice He wants me to make; or a right or privilege I should give up; or to put myself or my family in some kind of danger to obey and I ll ask again, Do I really believe these things? o This week I was with a bunch of missionaries I always love hearing their stories about how God directed them to do what they do. You hardly ever hear somebody say, Oh, I just loved to travel and didn t really like my family so I wanted to live in a strange place and learn a whole new culture and language. No, usually it is simply, We were convinced this is what God wanted us to do. o One of them, the mom and dad of one of our staff members here, told me about being at the top of his game About that time, learning about the mission Forsook what was real, tangible, for what was invisible
That takes a different kind of faith than most of us live with I am convinced that many of us squeak out a Christian life without ever really being confronted with the hard questions of faith. o Taking your kids to church or participating in the Christian subculture you grew up in and are most comfortable with is not a bold faith risk. For many of you, it s just the path of least resistance and I m sorry if that sounds rude, it s just the truth. But the writer makes it clear in Hebrews: 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. You can only go so far without faith. Remember what s going on in Hebrews. The writer is admonishing a group of people for whom following Jesus has gotten really difficult. People are being persecuted for their faith and that included many of their friends and some of them have fallen away people are telling them they re crazy. They ve got a lot of unanswered questions, Why isn t God doing this? Or where is God when this happens? Many of the people the writer is addressing are starting to lag behind in their faith The writer tells them there is no way they are going go make it if they don t honestly and truly believe that God exists and that following Him is worth it. We live in a world without a lot of persecution for our faith at least, it has been that way; it is getting less so of recent but for the most part, people don t bother us for our walk with Jesus, and it s fairly easy for us to go through the motions of the Christian life without real faith. But we ll never please God; and we ll never go all the way with Him that means, believe everything He reveals, live as His disciple, be involved meaningfully in His mission until we are convinced that God is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The story I always use to illustrate this I want to give the cliff notes version because I ve told it before but it is a metaphor I am going to refer back to today (repelling) His involved a rock face and a rope, but was fundamentally different Some of you are going to come to that point of a crisis of obedience if you re not there already. Come in the form of a question, an act of obedience, hope in a dark chapter in your life Here s what we are going to do: I'm going to walk you through the last half of Hebrews 11 You ll see several specific examples of what it looks like to have faith, and then we re going to use those to discuss what exactly faith is and where it comes from. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead... God had told Abraham to sacrifice his son. This was more than just the sacrifice of something he loved, as significant as that was. As I ve told you before, in those days, your sons were your hope for the future. The society was agrarian: so the more sons you had, the more workers you had to work the land, tend the herds; the more income you could generate for your family. Plus, since this was an age before social security or 401K s or retirement homes your children were your safety net. The more children you had, the more likely you were to be taken care of in old age. o That s still my philosophy as a parent why we had 4; I just need 1 of them to get rich and Veronica and I will be fine
OT scholar Walter Bruegemaan says (Childlessness) 1 in any ancient text or narrative is the effective metaphor of hopelessness, for without children, there was no foreseeable future for yourself, for your family, or for your people. Abraham and Sarah have one child he was a miracle baby they had in their 90 s and God is asking them to give him up. He was asking them to give up all they looked to for life, joy and security; to put their earthly hopes and dreams on the line and walk away from all of it. That took faith. And they did it. They said, God, our futures are in your hand. Our hope, our security, our joy we trust you with all of it. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. Here you ve got 2 stories of people who died in a state where it didn t look like God was anywhere close to fulfilling His promises. God had told Abraham and his descendants that they would be a great nation, have their own land, and be a blessing on the earth. o Jacob was Abraham s grandson. Yet when he dies, the family is in Egypt because they ve had to flee the promised land due to a famine. Things are going the wrong direction. Rather than looking like they are being made into a great nation that blesses the earth, they are guests in someone else s nations living off of handouts. But when he dies, he leans on his staff and repeats the promise to his son and asks to be buried back in the promised land. 2 o When Joseph, his son dies, the whole family is still in Egypt. And he does the same thing. He says, When our family returns to the land God gave us, dig up my bones and take them back, because that s the place God promised to us and God will keep His word. I know this is not the end of the story. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Think about how crazy this is. Moses has as his inheritance all the privilege and position you could have hoped for. He has one of the highest positions in the world s mightiest empires. Yet, he walks away from all of it. And on what basis. o It wasn t like he left one position of power for another. It wasn t like he traded the presidency in Egypt for the presidency of Israel. That wouldn t happen for another 40 years. He left the halls of power to go feed sheep in the desert and wait on God! Can t you hear people telling him how crazy he is? Moses, this position, this palace, this power, is real; you have got a real 401K and real future security here in Egypt. And you re leaving it all for what? You re leaving what you can actually touch for what you can t. That is a bad career move, Moses. But he did it. He traded the visible for the invisible because he believed it. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. Here you have the children of Israel believing what God says about He is going to save even though nothing like that had 1 Bruegemann uses barrenness. 2 Genesis 47:1; 27 30.
ever happened before. o Imagine trying to explain this to your Egyptian neighbors. You go over to them and you re like, You know, you really ought to kill one of your sheep and take its blood and paint it on your doorframe. And why is that? Because the death angel is coming tonight. Like Noah that you went over two weeks ago: built an ark in the middle of the dry land because God said he was sending a flood. People mocking, saying you have lost your mind! 29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. Here you ve got the children of Israel trusting that God is going to provide for them in an impossible situation. They were doing what God said, and He led them to the brink of the Red Sea. As they are waiting for their next move word comes that the entire Egyptian army is coming behind them to destroy them. And they are like, God, what are we supposed to do? And God says, Go forward. And they are like, But there is an ocean (make waves) there. And God says, Trust me. Go forward. I will fight for you. You have only to be silent (Ex 34:14). And they believed Him and set their face toward the Red Sea. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. This one always gets me they go up against an enemy and they re like, OK, God, what is the strategy for defeating this enemy? And God says, OK, we re going to run the old circle and shout on them. You re going to line everybody up and they are going to walk around Jericho. Nobody is going to say a word. You re just going to stare. On the last day, after you do it 7 times, you are going to shout and I'm going to bring the walls down. And they are like, Uhhh what? No fighting? No battering rams? No flanking maneuvers? And God says, No. Just walk around the wall. And at the appropriate time give a shout of faith and I ll fight for you. And they did it, and God gave them the city. So, let s stop there and I want you to learn 3 important things about faith: 1. Faith is a response to God s revelation 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Faith is relatively simple. It believes that God exists and that obeying Him is worth it. Now, people look at that phrase that He exists, and they say, Well, that s the problem. How do you know that He exists? It almost seems like Hebrews is saying you just make some blind leap into the dark where you say, Well, I ll just believe God exists, with no evidence I ll believe just because. But that s not what it is saying. Believing that He exists means that you believe that God is as God has revealed Himself. The Bible never sets out to prove God philosophically (there s no book in the Bible called the 5 arguments for God ). It just points to the places that God is speaking and says, Do you recognize these as the voice of God? o You hear it in creation. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth proclaims His handiwork their voice goes through all the earth and their words are heard to the end of the world. There is no place on earth this voice is not heard. For most people the explanation that nothing x nobody = everything is just not compelling. o You hear his voice in the guilt you feel about your sin. RDU parking tickets. o In the longing for eternity in your heart or in the transcendence you feel in moments of romantic love.
Francis Crick, an atheist who died recently (2004) wrote in a book called The Astonishing Hypothesis: You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will (the love for you feel for another human) are, in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. You are nothing but a pack of neurons. Everything is chemistry Really? Is that romantically satisfying to you? The love I feel for you, baby, is just a random assortment of chemicals that I inherited, and my desire to be with you is really just the desire of those chemicals to propagate their own genetic distinctive in the species. Will you be my Valentine? I m guessing that is not going to make it on a Hallmark card anytime soon. You just know there s something more to human experiences than chemicals and firing neurons. o You sense it in the gratitude you feel in your happiest moments. C.S. Lewis said that atheists have the problem of feeling profoundly grateful in their happiest moments and not knowing whom to thank! o In where you turn in moments of distress. One of the cattiest things Christians say, but it s true, is There are no atheists in foxholes. Famous skeptics have admitted that they prayed in a time of great fear and danger. Mark Twain: a strident unbeliever said that when his wife was deathly ill he prayed and prayed, like a dog. Now, you might say Well, that s because people are in an unnatural situation and they re desperate, but when they get their right mind back, that s when they know this is all fake. I would suggest the opposite to you. that it is during those moments, when you see how fragile life really is, that the real you come on. C. S. Lewis had a great explanation for this: if you want to see what s really in your basement, surprise your basement. If you sneak down into it and then flip on the light, you ll see the rats and spiders in the middle of the floor If you don t surprise it, if you walk gradually down into it, making lots of noise, flipping on the lights you ll never see what is really there. Everything goes into hiding. But if you surprise it, you ll see what s really there. When you surprise the human heart and you see how quick it is to pray you see what it s made of and who it s made for. o You hear His voice in the Bible. Keyhole o In the person of Jesus and you say, That s Him. That s my Creator. You hear those voices and you just recognize that these are the voice of God. Theologians call it the sensus divinatus and it works like your other senses. You say, Well, don t I need to be able to prove, logically, that there is a God? Well, think about your other senses. o If I asked you to prove with water- tight logic that I was actually standing here and you were actually listening to me and that your senses were not playing tricks on you and this was not all an illusion or a dream, you probably couldn t do it. o Philosophers concluded a long time ago that we can t prove the existence of things outside of our own minds you ve seen Matrix, right? How can you prove you re not plugged up in a pod somewhere having a dream? Or if I said, Prove to me what you think is your consciousness is not actually the result of being a character in the complex dream of a demon, you probably couldn t do it. o But very few of you live plagued with the idea that that s really the case. For someone to actually think that way is not normal. It makes for a good movie but if you think the Matrix is actually true than you probably need counseling. You re actually here and I m actually here and Keanu Reeves is not our savior. o You don t assume that the world around you exists because you can prove it by logical inference. Your senses sensed me and you believed they were telling you the truth. o Philosophers call that a basic belief.
o Or think of it like how you know certain things are wrong. Like murder or genocide. Imagine you met a Nazi who starts laying out a logical case why Hitler s action in WW2 were not wrong he starts laying out arguments from evolution and history and the greater good you are not even going to listen to him, right? You know he s wrong before you even get into the reasoning. You don t reject his conclusion on the basis of reasoning; you reject it on the basis of instinct. Our moral conclusions can be backed up by logic, but their basis is usually instinct. This is not to say that there are not good, philosophical reasons to believe in God. There are. And there are good, evidential reasons to believe in Jesus prophecies, and the resurrection, and those kinds of things. But those things just back up our sensus divinatus our sense of the divine. You say, A- ha! What about those people who don t believe? If it really was a basic belief everyone would have it! That s not true. According to the book of Romans, one of the results of our sinfulness was that our hearts were darkened, and our ability to perceive God got all messed up. o The book of Romans says that the inability to perceive God is a kind of spiritual insanity. It s part of being spiritually fallen. o Just like the kind of person who really struggles with the fact that the Matrix is true has some issues, or the person who can t really sense that abusing children is evil has a morally dysfunctional heart. BTW, church, this is why we spend so much time in prayer for people. Because you can t heal someone s heart through logical argumentation. The Bible says we need regeneration. God can use our arguments in the process, but only His Spirit restores our sanity. o Analogy, on top of a building o The greatest act of mercy God can give you to you is to open your eyes So, faith is a response to the revelation. It takes God at His word and believes that He is as He reveals Himself to be. This is the question of how you are supposed to know what to believe Blind men and the speaking elephant You say, But I have such a hard time believing. There are so many hard questions why is this happening? If God loves me, what about this? And, I don t understand the morality of the Bible. And why is there a hell? o I feel you. I really do. I have all kinds of questions. One day I m going to write a book called The pastor with more questions than his parishioners. o That s right where these people in Hebrews are. And the author has said to them, chapter 2, we don t have all the answers but what we do have is Jesus! We recognize the voice of God in Jesus and where we can t understand everything about Him or His plan we trust Him because we recognize that He is God. o Here s how you should think about it. If God appeared to you right now and told you, would you be willing to suspend? Yes. Why? That is essentially what He does. If Jesus is who He says He is, we can trust what He says about thing we don t quite understand. o A famous church father, Anselm, said the Christian experience is faith seeking understanding. I want to understand, and every once I get a flash of insight and I do understand but in the meantime, when I can t understand, I hold onto what God has revealed about Himself. God is all loving, kind, good, and powerful, even if I can t understand it all now. o The source of my faith is not explanation, but revelation. Faith is a response to revelation. 2. Faith is action The people in this chapter are famous for their faith, right?
Well, did you notice that when the writer describes them, they are all presented in terms of some action? o Noah built o Abraham left o Jacob blessed o Joseph instructed o Moses chose o Joshua fought Faith is synonymous with action. Apart from action there is no faith. Here s an interesting piece of trivia: there is no noun for faith in Hebrew. Faith only a verb. o So, in other words, all these people in Hebrews 11 became famous for something they didn t even have a name for. Because faith does not exist apart from action. Faith is a conviction expressed in a choice. o Obedience is not something you do later down the road after you have faith. o Your belief doesn t become faith until you act upon it. o Faith is not believing the rope will hold you ; it is leaning back on that rope. There is no faith apart from obedience. Faith is belief in action. 3. Faith takes a bold dare on the unseen 32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of (2 groups. Everybody hold up one finger; this is group 1) Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. (Group 1. Now put up your 2 nd finger. This is group 2) Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated 38 of whom the world was not worthy wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 These all died in faith, not having received the promise, What group do you want to be in? 1 or 2? You ve got some who received a great deliverance with their faith; others died with nothing on earth that really validated their faith. What they had in common was that they all believed the word of God and risked everything upon it. Let me tell you this clearly: If you require earthly validation of your faith, you won t make it. The life of faith requires a confidence in a God you can t see and promises that you can t always feel and sometimes you stand along with seemingly the whole world against you! So that is the question: Can you lean back on, risk it all on, what is invisible? Like Abraham, will you obey all that God commands? o Will you obey what God says about morality even when it makes no sense to you? People say, Well, I love God and I believe the Bible but I don t do this and this that it says because I just don t agree with that. If you are the kind of person who demands that you agree with what God says before you ll do it, I don t think you understand what it means for Him to be Lord. o Or maybe you sense that God is calling you specifically to something that is requiring you to walk away from your career or your security, and people are telling you it is crazy. o Maybe those people are your parents
Can you, like Jacob and Joseph, have unwavering hope in the midst of darkness? o When the day is dark and the outlook is bleak can you rejoice that God has appointed all things for His purposes, that He will bring His promises to pass; that He can mend what has been broken and turn your tragedy into triumph; o In the darkest hour of the night can you get up with hope because you know the dawn is coming? When the cancer is not in remission When the family is not holding together When your prime marriage age or having kids is passing by When the spouse is not coming back o How you respond to disappointment, or tragedy, reveals whether, or how much, you actually believe God o Or here s another way I ve said it: Your ability to be joyful in all things is the measure of you faith. o So much of our Christian experience is spent waiting. Read the Psalms. The word wait appears over and over: Psalm 37:7, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 62:1, For God alone my soul waits in silence. Psalm 63, My flesh faints as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. o Waiting patiently with hope is faith. Your ability to be joyful in all things is the measure of you faith. Do you believe what God says about how He says He saves, when everyone else thinks your crazy, like the Israelites had to do in front of the Egyptians or Noah had to do in front of the whole world? o Acts 4:12, o That is the driving mission behind my life. That s why liberal churches never grow. They are not driven in faith by what God says about the mission? o I wouldn t be doing all this; going all over the world; and giving up all this money, if I didn t believe what God said about the urgency of the mission! Do you trust that God will provide for you in impossible situations when you are pursuing His will, like Israel did at the Red Sea or Jericho? o As a church, getting ready to take the next step. o I feel it as a parent God, how can I raise my children in this kind of world? o C. S. Lewis said in A Grief Observed that the depth of our faith is revealed only when it is a matter of life and death. o Maybe how scared and panicky you get that God won t provide you reveals how little you actually believe God. Like Moses, have you believed in eternity so much that you ve taken your earthly power and position and leveraged it for the invisible Kingdom? o I m convinced that God is telling some people in our church to walk away from a lucrative career to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth and the crisis for you right now is Do you believe in Him and His mission enough to do it? Or to figure out how to re- engineer your career so that it s used for the purposes of God s mission. o Or maybe God is telling you to give away lots of money! I don t mean to be negative: I m convinced a lot of us, our lives don t take faith: tipping a little money to God in the plate is not faith giving. Giving till it hurts; until you say that they only way I can feel good about giving this up is knowing that eternity is real and I'm investing in it. o Not bold in your witness. You never say anything controversial to people around you because you are not convinced God has told the truth. o Never go on mission trips. o You don t sacrificially give until it hurts.
o Living your Christian life is not predicated upon your absolute confident in the invisible! It is faith that lifts you out of depression Has you get up after failure Empowers you to forsake sin Enables you to give away your life Do you really believe in the invisible and are you willing to put it all on the line for eternity? o I m telling you, that s a gut question for me Last thing: 39 And these all died in faith, not having received the promise, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. We have a reason to believe that all of these Old Testament people have. Jesus. We see the love and faithfulness demonstrated at the cross; the trustworthiness of God demonstrated at the resurrection. What they saw in a shadow we see in completion o He healed all who came to Him o He voluntarily died on the cross for us o And so we can know that if He doesn t heal our body or our situation it s not because He lacks the power or the compassion for us He sought you when you were a stranger and reconciled you to Himself when you were an enemy. He who did not withhold His own Son for us, will He not with Him freely give us all things? o Of course we can trust Jesus with your finances or your future or your kids. Are you living a life of faith? In Cairo there is a small, dusty grave in an out of way location. I ve never seen it, but I heard that you d never in a millions years know it was there it s all overgrown with grass. In it lies the body of William Borden, the heir of the Borden milk company. He gradated from Yale in 1909 and had a life of luxury and power laid out for him. Borden is still a big company, but then it was one of America s biggest. He had become a Christian as a teenager, and told his parents that he was giving his life to bring the gospel to Muslims. Refusing even to buy himself a car, Borden gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. After only four months of zealous ministry in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of twenty- five, on a ship en route for medical help. Someone asked him right before he died what he thought about his decisions, and he said simply, No regrets. On his tombstone in Cairo is a brief description of his sacrifices for the kingdom of God and for Muslim people, followed by the simple phrase, Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. 3 Is there another explanation for your life apart from faith in Christ? Could someone look at your life and say, Apart from faith in Christ, that kind of courage; that kind of sacrifice; that kind of hope, makes no sense. If so, you are not living a life of faith, and you re not pleasing God. Prayer: Do you believe? Can you say that right now? The gospel: a gift you believe and receive. Is God telling you to do something: go somewhere; give something at the end of the service you can talk to one of our pastors or prayer teams. 3 Taken from Randy Alcorn, Treasure Principle.
Bullpen: But there are so many different opinions about God, and I don t know what to believe. o Speaking Elephant So, there it is: faith is a bold dare on the promises of an unseen God. Faith s object is the revealed word of God. It s not a positive feeling. It s not a hunch. It s not a wish upon a star. It is, quite simply, believing the promises of God. It s not a magic elixir that makes God like you better or commandeers Him into serving you. It s not name it, claim it, because if God hasn t named it, you can t claim it. Martin Luther: Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you (ever) joyful and bold in your relationship to God and everyone else Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, and suffer all kinds of things, never ceasing to love and praise and rejoice in the God who has shown you grace. 4 o Unless there is the element of extreme risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith. - Hudson Taylor o Amy Carmichael: Have you no scar? You can t really have believed if you have no scar! o If you can t embrace the invisible, you ll never be able to live the life that pleases God. You ll never lean back on the rope. 4 Martin Luther, Introduction to the Book of Romans, from Luther s German Bible, 1522. It s in the same category as how you know things are wrong. If you meet a neo- Nazi that lays out a logical case for why the extermination of Jews is really OK you re not even open to his facts because you know that that is wrong. It s a natural, innate belief. Or, and don t let me lose you here, but it s kind of like how you know that I m actually speaking to you. If I asked you to build a logical, water- tight case that proves I m actually standing here and you are actually listening to me, and this is not a dream, or an illusion of your mind, or you re not plugged up in a pod somewhere in some kind of the Matrix come true universe, you might not be able to do it. In fact, I m sure you couldn t do it because philosophy has demonstrated that we can t really prove anything outside of our minds. If I said, Prove to me what you think is your consciousness is not actually the result of being a character in he complex dream of a demon, you couldn t do it. But few of you live plagued with the idea that that s really the case. You just know that you exist and I exist. Belief in God is like that. You just know it. o If God is good why pain? Hell? o What God reveals about Himself is true even if I can t grasp it all immediately. o Geometry. o Infinite in love, power and wisdom
o I don t know how to explain everything. But I rest in the fact that God is that He is all loving, powerful and wise and just what He says He is. There is no one more good and loving and smart than He. And even though I can t fathom His wisdom now, or understand why He does things like He does them, if I could see things from His perspective I would understand and one day I will see them from His perspective and will understand. o Until then, I just hold onto the fact that God is all loving, kind, and powerful, even if I can t understand it all now. o I don t base my faith on my understanding of God s ways, but on the revelation of His character demonstrated at the cross. o When you say, God, if you are good, then why What you are doing is accusing God of injustice. If you could see things from God s perspective, you would not accuse him of injustice. If you moved to Anchorage from Miami, and your coat was not warm enough; and you called and asked your parents for a coat, they promised, you would give a sigh of relief. That is faith. If someone that afternoon asked if you wanted them to order you one, and you said no, you are acting in faith. If you can t embrace invisibility, then Christianity is not for you. You ve got to see the city that can t be seen. really do, to let go of everything and obey fully. Risk your life and your possessions on the Great Commission. Arnold Palmer You assume that I am actually speaking, right? You don t say, Hey, before we start, I need you to start from cold, hard facts and prove that you actually exist and you re not just an apparition of my mind. You just assume that your senses are not leading you astray. If you think that the Matrix is true, you re the crazy one. Philosophy has shown that we can t really be sure anything exists outside of the mind. So, the Bible doesn t ever set out to build a rational case for God, not that you can t build one. It just starts with God speaking. It teaches that if you have a normally functioning sensus divinatus, you recognize it is Him. If you doubt God s existence, it says that you have a damaged mind, much like if you doubt I m actually talking to you we would say you are unhealthy. Another objection that people have to God is that they don t know what to believe o Speaking elephant A final objection is that they don t understand why He would do what He does, the problem of evil, etc. 2 components: (1) God exists and (2) Following Him is worth it. 2 places people fall off. Both of which keep from actually leaning their full weight on Him. Even if you don t verbalize these things, they lurk down deep and keep you from leaping out into the dark. Faith is simple. God is, and following Him is worth it. Some of you are not following fully enough for your life to require faith. I invite you to ask yourself if you really believe, and if you 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable
sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. 23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated 38 of whom the world was not worthy wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. That He is (that He is what He says He is: full of loving- kindness and goodness. If you don t believe God is good, it becomes hard to believe in Him.
That He is worth it. Acting in a way now that later you ll be glad you did. Notice that God is Himself the reward. They are seeking Him! Faith is not something you reason your way into, it is something you respond with to revelation Interesting way verse is phrased: 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The fact that we have these things is evidence there is a God in the first place. What you have is the witness of creation and then you have the witness of Scripture. The Bible presents itself as the Word of God. You have to decide if it really is God speaking. o What does your soul tell you? Looking through a keyhole o Look at the prophecies for Jesus, the evidence for the resurrection But my professor is smart and he doesn t believe it. Sadly, sin has clouded our hearts so that often we don t believe. o One of the most important contributions of postmodern philosophy was to show us that how we see usually facts is determined by our prejudices our hearts color what we see. Imagine the worst racist who hates another race so badly that that colors everything he sees in another race. His hatred makes him paint everything they do with a bad brush. That s what we do with God. o That s what the Bible says happens in our hearts toward God. Romans says that our hatred of God s authority and glory darkens our hearts. o It s not that the evidence for God is not there, it s that we don t want to see it! It s not our head that convinces our heart that no God exists; it is our heart that convinces our head. o People say, Well, everyone has different opinions about God? Elephant parable. What if the elephant started to speak? Is Jesus who He says He is o One more thing on this A lot of people don t believe because of questions they can t answer. If God is good why pain? Hell? What God reveals about Himself is true even if I can t grasp it all immediately. Geometry. Infinite in love, power and wisdom I don t know how to explain everything. But I rest in the fact that God is that He is all loving, powerful and wise and just what He says He is. There is no one more good and loving and smart than He. And even though I can t fathom His wisdom now, or understand why He does things like He does them, if I could see things from His perspective I would understand and one day I will see them from His perspective and will understand. Until then, I just hold onto the fact that God is all loving, kind, and powerful, even if I can t understand it all now. I don t base my faith on my understanding of God s ways, but on the revelation of His character demonstrated at the cross. o When you say, God, if you are good, then why What you are doing is accusing God of injustice. If you could see things from God s perspective, you would not accuse him of injustice.
If you are going to really believe Christian doctrines, like the gospel, when you re pressed on it, you have to ask, Do I really believe this stuff? People ask me, on college campuses you really believe? Or, where is God in my pain? You really believe there is a good God who rules the world? And I think, Do I? I think a lot of Christians go through life and never think deep thoughts or ask hard questions. Never put themselves in place to believe. It is impossible. (Illustrations of things that are impossible) It is impossible to please God without faith. Here s why: You ll never really go all the way! The word 243 times in NT faith appears as a noun; 249 as a verb; 67 as an adjective. It is impossible to really go all the way with God without faith! College students to switch careers? Or releasing your kids to the mission field? My parents. How about in little ways, like tithing? Or volunteering? Faith is acting in a way now that only makes sense if the Bible is 100% true! 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. had made a promise to make them a great nation and to establish an eternal kingdom, and they are dying in foreign places without so much as a home to call their own. Yet, they remain steadfast that God is going to keep His word. Again, I saw this this past week Or when I bury someone and they speak with hope and rejoicing. People who turn their back on the American dream! Here is Moses, with all the earthly privileges, turning his back on it for something invisible. This is crazy! Is your faith a guide rope for you, or are you leaning everything on ti? 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. that there are two groups. Some saw earthly manifestations of their faith; some did not. Some, all they had were the promises of the word of God and the Kingdom of God was all but invisible to them! Again, can you build your life on what is invisible? If you require earthly validation for your faith you will not make it! How do we know God exists? Clues rather than proofs I don t base my faith on my understanding of God s ways, but on the revelation of His character demonstrated at the cross. When you say, God, if you are good, then why What you are doing is accusing God of injustice. If you could see things from God s perspective, you would not accuse him of injustice. But I rest in the fact that God is that He is all loving, powerful and wise and just what He says He is. There is no one more good and loving and smart than He. And even though I can t fathom His wisdom now, or understand why He does things like He does them, if I could see things from His perspective I would understand
and one day I will see them from His perspective and will understand. They were doing what God told them to do and they were up against an insurmountable obstacle but they kept going, trusting God to help them. If you read it, they had to begin to walk into the water before it actually parted. ; and waiting is how God perfects our faith: The number one chisel in God s toolbox for our lives is waiting/patience. 5 o In the words of my favorite Christian big- hair band from the 1980 s, Petra, Good things come to them that wait; but not the those who hesitate, so hurry up, and wait upon the Lord. o QUOTE (SPURGEON OR LUTHER) 5 James MacDonald