BUILDING A LIFE OF FAITH
Building a Great Life
- Part 2 of 8
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
04-14-13 Sermon
"Without faith
it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe He
exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Heb. 11:6 (NIV)
"Build your lives on the foundation of
your holy faith." Jude
1:20
FAITH IS ...
1. ______________________________
WHEN I DON'T SEE IT.
"Now
faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see." Heb. 11:1 (NIV)
2. ______________________________WHEN
I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT.
"It
was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the
flood. He obeyed God, who
warned him about something that had never happened before." Heb. 11:7 (NLT)
"It
was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him and go out
to a country God had promised to him.
He left his own country without knowing where he was going." Heb. 11:8 (GN)
3. ______________________________WHEN
I DON'T HAVE IT.
"It
was faith that made Abel's offering to God a better sacrifice
than Cain's. Through his faith... God
approved of his giving."
Heb. 11:4 (GN)
"Because
of their great joy... They gave even more than they could afford." 2 Cor. 8:2-3 (ICB)
"Whoever
sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but whoever sows generously will reap
generously... And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything
you need and plenty left over to share with others." 2 Cor. 9:6+8 (NIV/NLT)
4. ______________________________
WHEN I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT.
"It
was by faith that Moses left Egypt and was not afraid of the King's anger. He held to his purpose like a
man who could see the invisible." Heb. 11:27 (JB)
5. ______________________________BEFORE
I RECEIVE IT.
"By
faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for
seven days." Heb. 11:30
(NIV)
"When
you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it and
you will be given what you ask for." Mark 11:24 (GN)
6. ______________________________
IF I DON'T GET IT.
"They
were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been
promised. God had planned
something better..."
Heb. 11:39-40 (NIV)
HOW GOD BUILDS MY FAITH:
"Faith comes from
hearing the Word of God..."
Rom. 10:17 (NIV)
"These trials are
only to test your faith... and your faith is far more precious to God than mere
gold... it will bring you much praise and honor on the day of his return." 1 Peter 1:7 (LB)
BUILDING A LIFE OF FAITH
Building a Great Life
- Part 2 of 8
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
04-14-13 Sermon
What does it take to please
God? What would you say? Some people think that the way you
please God is through ritual, that you chant certain prayers, you pray certain
rituals over and over, you light some incense or you light some candles and you
do some ritualistic things -- to please God. But that's not what the Bible says.
Some people think the way you
please God is by obeying rules and regulations, that you make a list of all the
things you're supposed to do and all the things you're not supposed to do. If you do all the things on the
"Do" list and don't do all the things on the "Don't Do"
list then God says you're ok. But
that's not what the Bible says.
Some people think that the
way you please God is through religion, that if you observe certain holy days
or go to a bunch of religious experiences or maybe go to worship services, take
communion, join a church and you're
a religious enough person then God says "You're on my A list!" But that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says God isn't
interested in ritual or rules or regulations or religion. He's interested in a relationship with
you. He wants you to learn to
trust Him. The Bible says that it
is impossible to please God unless you have one thing.
Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe He exists and that He
rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
This morning we're working on
a new series of messages called, "Building a Great Life". It's built on the verse of Jude 1:20
which says, "Build your lives on the
foundation of your holy faith."
The foundation of a great life is faith. So we're going to look at how do you build faith.
What is faith anyway? I'm interested in pleasing God,
obviously you must be interested in pleasing God -- you're at church this
morning. If God says "It's impossible to please Me unless
you live by faith" it's pretty important to know what faith is. So what is faith?
Faith is like a multi-faceted
diamond. There are many different
aspects to faith. This morning I
want us to look at six different aspects of faith, of how to live the kind of
life that pleases God.
If you want to look at faith,
you have to go to the Bible and the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. Chapter 11 of Hebrews is God's Hall of
Fame -- actually God's Hall of Faith. It's the list of some of the great men
and women in the Bible of whom God says, "These
people, they done good!"
They had faith. They did it
right. They were men and women of
faith. Let's look at six aspects
of how do you build a great life by learning to live by faith.
1. FAITH
IS FIRST BELIEVING WHEN I DON'T SEE IT.
Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is being sure of what we
hope for and certain of what we do not see." Faith is visualizing the future in the present, it's seeing
it in advance, it's being certain of what we do not yet see.
As human beings we often say
things like, "I'll believe it when I
see it." And God says, "No, you've got it all backwards. With some things you have to believe
it, in order to see it."
Whether you're an architect planning a building, or whether you're an
artist creating a sculpture, or whether you're an Olympic athlete trying to
break a world's record, or whether you're a scientist trying to send a man to
the moon, you have to believe it before you can see it. All of those things require faith. You have to believe it's possible in
advance, long before it will ever be possible. That's what the Bible says faith is -- believing when I
don't see it.
Warner von Braun, the father
of the space age, who built the atlas rocket and the saturn rockets that sent
men to the moon, once said, "There
has never been any significant achievement in human history that was not
accompanied by faith." It
all started when somebody believed it was possible, believed it in
advance. You have to believe it
before it happens.
In the late 1800’s a group of
people said we are going to build a Methodist Church in Joelton. They
didn’t even have a regular pastor, but they believed it would happen. And you are sitting in that church
today
Faith turns dreams into
reality. It is believing before I
see it. But it's far more than
that.
2. FAITH
IS OBEYING WHEN I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT.
God gives us a couple
exhibits. Exhibit A is a man named
Noah. Just think of the doubts that Noah might have had. Can you imagine if God came to you one
day and said, "I'm going to wipe out
the whole world and start over with you." Would you have any doubts, by chance? Would you wonder what you ate last
night and maybe this is just something ruminating in your stomach?
The Bible says in Hebrews
11:7 "It was by faith that Noah
built an ark to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who warned him about something that had never
happened before." Circle "faith" and "obey" and
draw a line between them. Faith,
the Bible says, is obeying when I don't understand it. It didn't make sense. He had all kinds of questions and
doubts because it had never happened before. The Bible says that, before the flood, it had never
rained. The earth was watered by a
mist that came up from the ground like dew in the morning, condensation. It was
a different kind of atmosphere.
That may have been one of the reasons that people lived longer in those
days -- of course they didn't have food additives then either. But the atmosphere evidently
changed. It had never rained.
When God said, "Noah, I want you to build this big
boat because it's going to flood." Noah said, "What's
a flood?" God said, "It's when you get a lot of rain." And Noah said, "What's rain?" "Like
when I take a lake and pour it down from the sky on you." Would you
believe that, if you'd never seen it?
But Noah, because he had
faith, obeyed even though it didn't make sense. God said, "I want
you to build this boat here in the middle of the desert, not out at the ocean,
and I'll bring the water to you." I'm so glad that Noah obeyed when it didn't make sense. I'm glad he obeyed when he didn't
understand it.
Exhibit number two is a guy
named Abraham. v. 8 "It was by faith that made Abraham obey
when God called him to go out to a country God has promised to him. He left his own country without knowing
where he was going."
Here's Abraham, 75 years old and he lived in a place in modern day Iraq
that is called Ur of the Chaldees. Just about the time he's ready to take
social security, hang it up, retire, God says, "Oh, no. I don't want
you to hang it up and retire. I
want you to get it down, dust it off.
You're getting ready to go on the adventure of your life at age 75. You're getting ready for social insecurity. I'm going to take you and turn you into
the father of a brand new nation, so we're going to go to a new country."
I'm sure Abraham had all of
his doubts and all kinds of questions.
He said, "Where are we
going?" God said, "You never heard of this place." Abraham said, "How long is it going to take to get there." God said, "Don't worry!"
Abraham said, "How will I know
when I'm there?" God
said, "I'll tell you."
Would you do it? But because Abraham obeyed when he
didn't understand it, he became the father of a nation called Israel. Many
people were blessed because he obeyed even when it didn't make sense.
Faith always involves
risking. Some people want a
guarantee of success before they obey God. They read something in the Bible and God tells them to do
something and they say, "Ok, God,
once You guarantee it's going to work, then I'll do it." God says, "That doesn't require any faith. I want you to believe when you don't see it and I want you
to obey when you don't understand it."
Do you remember when you were
a kid and your parents would tell you to do something that made no sense at all
to you as a kid? You thought, "What
do my parents know! They're old
fogies! They don't know
anything." Looking back,
can you see the wisdom of what they were telling you to do and can you see that
some of those things they told you to do, they were telling you out of love and
for your own benefit?
God's wiser than your
parents. When you ignore what He
tells you to do, you're a fool.
It's foolish. He is the
creator. The Bible is the owner's
manual for life. If I ignore it,
who am I going to hurt? Not God. I'm just going to hurt me.
There's a lot of times it
doesn't make sense. For instance,
God says, When people hurt you and abuse you and misuse you, forgive them. Does that sound like the right thing to
do? No. The natural thing is to get even. Retaliate. God
says don't be resentful because resentment always hurts you more than somebody
else. Just forgive them for your
own sake so you can get on with your life. Because if you hold on to the hurt and bitterness you're
only hurting yourself. It doesn't seem
right, it may not even feel right but it is right because God says to do
it.
Here's the point: If you learn to do whatever God tells
you to do even when it seems absurd, then God can bless your life. You're going
to build a life of faith and that's the foundation of building a great
life.
Faith is believing when I
don't see it, obeying when I don't understand it. And the Bible tells us also...
3. FAITH
IS GIVING WHEN I DON'T HAVE IT.
Giving and faith go
together. God uses finances to
test our faith. Have you ever had
to decide between tithing and paying a bill? This is a test!
God's saying, "Who are you
going to trust? My promises to
take care of you if you put Me first or yourself?"
In Hebrews 11, this Hall of
Fame, the first guy who gets listed is a man named Abel. Abel gets listed not because he did
something great. He didn't. He had no great accomplishment. No great achievement to his name. The only thing he did was he gave an
offering. And God put him in the
Hall of Fame. Why? It wasn't how much he gave, it wasn't
what he gave. It was how he gave.
Hebrews 11:4 "It was faith that made Abel's offering
to God a better sacrifice than Cain's.
Through his faith God approved of his giving." Circle "faith",
"offering", and "giving" and connect them all together
because the Bible here is talking about giving in faith. He said it wasn't what he gave that
pleased God but how he gave it. It
wasn't the amount, but the attitude.
God doesn't care about the amount.
He worries about the attitude by which you give.
You need to understand that
there are two ways to give. You
can give by faith or you can give by
fear. You can give by reason
or you can give by revelation. One of these ways you don't get any
credit for. The other way pleases
God.
First, I can give by
reason. When I give by reason I
look at my bank account and my check stubs and how much I've got and I figure
out what can I afford. And I give
a reasonable amount based on what I can afford. That doesn't require any faith. An atheist can give by reason. You don't have to believe in God for that.
The other way to give is to
give by revelation. Revelation is
when you pray, and you ask God and you say, "God,
what do You want me to give? God,
how much do You want me to trust You for this time?" It's giving by faith. That's the kind of giving that God
blesses.
Almost 38 years ago when Peg
and I got married one of the first things we decided on as a couple was God was
always going to be first in our finances. We said we're going to practice tithing which is the Biblical
concept of the first ten percent of everything we make we give back to God in
gratitude for what He's done in the past and as an example of faith saying, We
know You're going to provide for us in the future. We said no matter if nobody else gets paid, God gets paid
first. And for almost 38 years
we've always done that. The first
check we would write off of each income was right back to God, that ten percent
back to Him. There have been times
in our lives when it was financially tight. But we've never missed a meal and God has provided for us
all the time and God has seen us through.
God says, "When you put Me
first in any area of your life, I will bless that area of your life." So we did.
Some people want to say, "God, You give to me and then I'll
give." But that's not
faith. It's like, "God, You bring in this big windfall
and when it arrives then I'll give some of it back to You." God says that may be gratitude but that certainly isn't faith. Giving is when you can't even afford it, when you give in
advance -- like you're planting the seed in advance.
2 Corinthians 8:3 "Because of their great joy, they gave
even more than they could afford." Anybody can give when you've got excess funds flowing over,
anybody can believe when it's sitting there in front of you, anybody can obey
when you already see the results.
It's when it doesn't feel like it and it doesn't make sense, that you're
stepping out in faith. God says,
"I want to bless your life but you have to trust Me first.
2 Corinthians 9 "Whoever sows sparingly will reap
sparingly, but whoever sows generously will reap generously. And God will generously provide all you
need. Then you will always have
everything you need and plenty left over to share with others." God says, "You cannot out give
Me."
Faith is giving when I don't
have it. But it's even more than
that.
4. FAITH
IS PERSISTING WHEN I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT.
That's the opposite of our
culture. Our culture says, "Do everything based on your
feelings." If it feels
good, do it. If it doesn't feel
good, don't do it. Do whatever
feels good. Live by your
emotions. As a result, we end up
being manipulated by our moods.
Mature people live by their commitments, not their emotions. Emotions come and go.
I don't always feel like
being nice to people. Do you?
Sometimes I want to be selfish, grumpy, grouchy. And I want everybody to serve me. This may shock you, but sometimes, even as a pastor, I don't
feel like reading the Bible.
Sometimes I don't feel like praying. I've discovered that when I don't feel like it, that's
usually when I need to pray and read the Bible the most. In fact, I've discovered if the only
time I pray and read the Bible is when I feel like it, the devil will make sure
I never feel like it. So I have to
keep on doing it, persisting in spite of how I feel. That is the secret of success. Successful people are simply ordinary people who do what the
average person doesn't feel like doing.
And that's why they're successful.
How do you get to be an
Olympic or professional athlete?
Hours and hours of exercising.
Ask an Olympic athlete, "Do
you always feel like working out six or eight hours a day?" Of course not. Ask a master musician, "Do you always feel like practicing
hours a day to be an expert at your instrument?" Of course not. How does a super salesman become a
super salesman? He or she
continues to make the calls after everybody's gone home because they
don't feel like making any more calls and that's how he/she become so
successful. The godly man or the
godly woman becomes that way not by accident, but because they choose to do
things and to develop habits that develop their spiritual life whether they
feel like it or not.
Faith is being
persistent. Faith is refusing to
give up. Faith is doing the right
thing, even when you're tired, even when you're moody.
How do you develop
persistence? The Bible tells us in
Hebrews 11:27 . It gives us an
example of a guy named Moses. "It was by faith that Moses left Egypt
and was not afraid of the King's anger. [He's talking about Pharaoh.] He held to his purpose
like a man who could see the invisible." You know the story of Moses. He led an entire nation that had been in slavery for four
hundred years out across the wilderness, through the Red Sea, out on to the
Sinai peninsula and they traveled around in circles for forty years, waiting
for God to get the people ready to go into the Promised Land. A forty year wait is a long time to
wait in a desert.
How do you be that
persistent? The Bible tells us --
the last phrase. It says, "He held to his purpose like a man who
could see the invisible."
The key is, Keep your eyes on God.
That's what Moses did. When
you keep your eyes on God, it keeps you persistent.
Some of you today may be at
the quitting point. You feel like
you're ready to give up on something.
And God brought you here this morning so He could say this to you, "Hang in there! Don't give up. Keep believing when you don't see it,
obeying when you don't understand it, giving, when you don't have it, and keep
persisting when you don't feel like it." Keep your eyes on God. If
you look at your problem you're going to be overwhelmed. If you look at the world you'll be
distressed, if you look within you'll be depressed, if you look at God, you'll
be at rest. It's all about what
you have your eyes on.
Having faith in God is having
trust through the messes in life, knowing that He has a vision that's best for
me. Don't give up. Keep on trusting. God will bless your faith.
There's two other things you
need to know about faith.
5. FAITH
IS THANKING GOD BEFORE I RECEIVE IT.
A good example of this is the
story of Joshua. Hebrews 11:30 "By faith the walls of Jericho fell
down after the people had marched around them for seven days." After Moses led the children of Israel
out of Egypt from Pharaoh, into the Promised Land, they went to take over the
country and the capital was Jericho.
It was the most fortified city in the world. There was no chance a bunch of ex-slaves were going to take
it over. It was considered
impenetrable. But the people of
God marched around the city perimeter -- the walls of it -- for seven
days. First in silence, then later
thanking God in praise. The whole
time they were thanking God in advance that God had already delivered the city
into their hands. On the seventh
day, after thanking God in advance in faith, the walls came tumbling down.
That's what the Bible says
faith is. Faith is not believing
God can do something. Because God can do it whether you
believe it or not. His ability is
not dependent upon your thinking He can do it. Faith is not believing God can do something. And
faith is not believing God will do
something. That's hope. You hope He will.
Faith is believing God is doing something right now,
even though I don't see it, that He's working behind the scenes, that the
answer is already on its way, that He's moving the pieces into place even as we
speak. It's thanking God in
advance.
Mark 11 "When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have
received it [past tense] and you will
given what you ask for [present tense]." Believe you'll receive it and then
you'll get it. Am I saying I have
to believe I've got it in order to get it? Yes. That's
called faith. Faith is thanking
God in advance. If I were to say
to you, "Come up after the service.
I've got a gift for you."
And I give you a check for $5000, would you wait until after you cashed
it to thank me? No. You'd thank me right on the spot. You haven't cashed it yet. The money's not in your hands, but
you'd thank me in advance because you knew you could count on it. My checks are good. And so are God's by the way! So it's thanking God in advance.
If you wait until after a
prayer has been answered to thank God for it, is that faith? No, that's gratitude. Gratitude is saying, "Thank You, God, for what You did." Faith is thanking God in advance of
what He did.
When you pray, how do you pray? You tell Him, "God, here's what I need" and then you go back and keep
on begging, "I need it! I need it. Hello! Anybody
home, God?" Like you're
trying to wear God down. "Please, pretty please with sugar on
it..." And finally God
says, "OK!" And He gives it to you. Is that the way God is? No.
God is a loving Father that
you don't wear down by nagging until He finally gives in. But the Bible does say be persistent in
prayer. So what do you do? You ask Him once and then you keep on
thanking Him. Say, "God, this is what I need. You know I need this in my life. It's a legitimate honest need." Then the next time you pray you say, "God, I thank You that the answer is on
its way. I haven't seen it yet,
but I thank You that the answer's on its way. God, I thank You in advance." And you keep on thanking, keep on
thanking, keep on praising, keep on thanking. And in God's timing, the answer comes.
I'm saying faith is thanking
God in advance, believing the answer's already happened. You're just waiting to see
it. That means that if God tells
you to go after Moby Dick in a row boat, you take along the tartar sauce.
6. FAITH
IS TRUSTING EVEN IF I DON'T GET IT.
Some people try to make God
like a vending machine that God automatically will give you anything you want,
but that's not true. God is not a
vending machine. Vending machines
will give you things that you don't need.
Vending machines will give you things that can kill you. God will never give you something
that's bad for you. Does a parent
give a child everything the child asks for? Of course not.
Not if the parent is sensible and loving. And God's not going to give you everything you ask for. He said, "I will meet all your needs". He doesn't say, "I'll
meet all your greeds."
Big difference.
So God is not some kind of
vending machine where you put in a prayer and you automatically get everything
you want. Some people today teach
the idea that if you have enough faith you'll always be well, you'll never have
any problems, you'll never be sick, everything will be going great. Baloney! It's not in the Bible.
The Bible doesn't teach that.
God's more interested in your
character than He is in your comfort.
God's more interested in making you holy than He is in making you happy. He knows holiness is the way to genuine
happiness. So God's not going to
give you just whatever you ask for.
The Bible says that faith is
trusting even if I don't get it.
Here's the truth: God hears
and answers every prayer you pray.
Fact number two, He doesn't always answer the way you want Him to. In fact, sometimes when you pray, God
says, Yes. And sometimes when you
pray, God says, No. And sometimes
when you pray, God says, Not yet.
And sometimes God says, "I've
got a better idea. I've got
something different. I know you're
going to like this better."
All four of those are equally valid answers to prayer. And faith is
trusting God even when I don't get the answer I expected or wanted.
Notice this verse talking
about some of the other Hall of Fame‑ ers in God's Hall of Fame. "These were all commended for their
faith yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better." Living by faith does not exempt you
from problems. Sometimes we pray
for God to remove a problem and instead He keeps the problem there and gives
you the strength to go through it.
And you end up being stronger.
If He took all the problems out of your way, you'd be a brat! You'd be weak. But God wants you to have character and
strength and maturity so He lets you go through some problems instead of
removing them and He gives you the ability to handle it.
Anybody can trust God when
things are going great. Anybody
can give when they've got extra money.
Anybody can persist when they see the deadline is only a couple inches
away. Anybody can believe when
it's right there in front of them.
But real faith is built in the valleys of life. Sometimes it's trusting God when I
don't get it.
Which of these aspects do you
need to work on? How much faith do
you have? How do you rate your
faith? If you're going to be
pleasing to God, you need to work on these. Which one do you need to work on?
Do you need to work on
believing when you don't see it?
Do you need to work on obeying when you don't understand it? Do you need to work on giving when you
don't have it? Or persisting when
you don't feel like it? Some of
you may need to work on thanking before you receive it. And you may need to work on trusting even
if you don't get it. That's what
it's all about.
How does God build your
faith? Let's wrap it up with these
two things. There are two ways God
builds your faith. First, through hearing
from God. The Bible says in Romans
10:17 "Faith comes from hearing the
word of God." That’s
hearing what God says to you when you read the Bible and what he says directly
to you as you listen for him to speak to you.
The other way that God builds
your faith is through trials and testings. 1 Peter 1:7 "These
trials are only to test your faith and your faith is far more precious to God
than mere gold. It will bring you
much praise and honor on the day of His return." God will use
difficulties to test your faith.
God will use demands on your time to test your faith. God will use dollars, finances, and
giving to test your faith. God
will use delays to test your faith.
Some of you are going through a tough time right now and you're about
ready to give up. I want to say to
you, Hang on! God will make a way
if you will trust Him. If you will
work on these six areas of faith in your life God will make a way and bring you
through this time.
Prayer:
Would
you pray this prayer as we close?
"Dear God, help me to be like Noah and Abraham and obey You even
when I don't understand it. Help
me to be like Moses, and to trust You and to persist even when I don't feel
like it. Help me to be like Abel
and to give even when I don't have it.
Help me to be like Joshua to thank You before I receive it. Teach me to trust in You." If you've never invited Christ into
your life, say "Jesus, help me to trust You. I want to get to know You. And I want You to become the manager of my life and teach me
how to live by faith in You."
In Your name I pray. Amen.
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