Hebrews 11:6
What does it take to please God? What would you say? Some people think that the way you please God is through ritual. Many years ago I remember being in downtown Toronto when a Hari Krishna ensemble of about 18 or so shaved heads dressed in toga like gowns came down the street clinging finger cymbals and chanting their mantra over and over and over again. Many believe 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 through 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 either!
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 more frequently or even daily celebrate the Lord’s Supper, or as they call it in other denominations – the Eucharist or the mass, and you’re a religious enough person then God says “You’re definitely impressing me with all you do!” There is one big problem with that folks. God has revealed in his Word what pleases him and all of the above is not what the Bible teaches.
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. Listen everyone at Rosebank – there is one thing you need to please God.! It has a thousand ways of being expressed, but there is only one thing that pleases God!
You can try, try and try again but if you do not have this one thing, sorry folks you will not please God. The Bible says that without this, it is impossible to please God. Tell me friends, what is it that you must have if you are to please God? ______________
Hebrews 11:6
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”
I believe God wants to bless us here at Rosebank. I believe his blessing will be reflected in growth. I believe he would be glorified as we grow to the point where we need to build a larger facility. All of that is entirely possible not because of what we can accomplish, but because of who He is. This morning I want to talk to you about who we are going to become and about building our lives on a firm foundation. If we build on the shifting sands of human opinion or human insight, when the rains come and the winds follow the house built on the sand will fall. We want to build on solid ground. Look with me at 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 about. So what is faith? (Get input) _______________________________________________________________
Faith is like a multi-faceted diamond. Many of you have seen Joyce Rolston’s new diamond engagement ring. Well, faith is like a diamond. There are many different aspects to faith. This morning I want us to look at seven different aspects of faith, and 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. I remember my son Jeff standing on a chair at Temple Christian Academy when he was 8 or 9 years old reciting this entire chapter. The 40 verses of Hebrews 11 are God’s Hall of Fame — actually God’s Hall of Faith. It’s the list of all the great men and women in the Bible who 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 seven aspects of how do you build a great life by learning to live by faith.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 1:1
1. FAITH IS FIRST BELIEVING WHEN I DON’T SEE IT.
Faith is visualizing the future in the present, it’s seeing it in advance, it’s being certain of what we do not see. You all know by now I love to quote William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army. He said, “Those who can see the invisible can accomplish the impossible.”
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. 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, or whether you are praying and working with God toward a friends salvation, 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. That is exactly what I am making the conscious choice to do regarding where we are headed here at Rosebank, and the day will come when my faith will become reality because my faith is fixed in and centred on a God who can do anything!
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 out that somebody believed it was possible, believed it in advance. You have to believe it before it happens.
When I went to Sauble Christian Fellowship in 1996 I started with the words of Bishop Dale Shaw ringing in my ear. I stood before the 5 couples who were out that first Sunday, but I saw the 100 people that Dale told me we’d have by the end of the first year. He saw with the eyes of faith and so did I. That dream, through faith became reality. God gave me a vision when I came to Rosebank of what it will look like in five years. It occurred to me as I was working on this message that God is doing work in this vineyard these past 7 months and currently to prepare it for growth. If you want to know what God does to prepare for growth look at Isaiah chapter 5. “I will sing a song of my well beloved. He has a vineyard in a very fruitful cornfield. Well , actually it says, he has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, he cleared out the stones, he planted it with the choicest vines and he built a tower in the midst of it. He also made a winepress. Then he looked for fruit.” God has been a work among us and God is preparing for blessing and God is the one who said he’d build the church, and does anyone believe God can do what he says?????
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 sick and tired of what I see here so 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 or if Mrs. Noah slipped something into your drink?
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.” Don’t miss the connection in this verse between the words “faith” and “obey”. Faith, the Bible says, is obeying when I don’t understand it. It didn’t make sense. I’m certain Moses 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 ship 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. If he had not obeyed, you and I would not be here today!
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 go on old age social security, and hang up his sandals, retire, God says, “Oh, no you don’t. I want you to get ready to go on the adventure of your life at age 75. 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. Many people will be blessed through you when you choose to obey Christ even when you don’t understand it. When we come to Christ he begins immediately to give us directions and we need to obey, get baptized, start witnessing, support the cause, love one another unconditionally and on and on and for every step of obedience we take we bring blessing to our lives and our lives begin to be a blessing and make a difference in the lives of those around us. We need to obey by faith. Obedience always brings blessing. Say that with me.
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.”
Going back 11years ago. I still had a year of full time classes at Emmanuel Bible College to get my degree and I was out of money. I had used up my savings, and the little church couldn’t guarantee me much in the way of income because the support group was really small, but there is seldom a day goes by that I don’t thank God for all the blessings I have received from saying “Yes” to His call. Things don’t have to make sense to be right. The right thing is always what God calls us to and it is always our faith first, followed by obedience that brings blessing. It sure has been that way in my life.
In this book, the Bible, in the New Testament, there are 1,050 commands of God. He says, do this and this and your life will be blessed. Every time God tells you to do something, it’s a test. It’s a test of whom am I going to believe — God or my gut. Am I going to do what God tells me is the right thing to do or am I going to do what I think is the right thing to do? Am I going to believe God knows best or am I going to believe my own sense of logic? Of these 1,050 commands, many of them seem unreasonable, many of them seem unusual, inconvenient. Some of them seem flat out impossible to do. But they are all there for our benefit. Because God loves you and our heavenly Father knows best.
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 the fool. It’s foolish. He is the creator. The Bible is the owner’s manual for life. If I ignore it, who gets 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 so, SO……just 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.
On the other hand, if you ignore what God says to do — “I don’t believe that stuff. I’m going to do what I think is best. I’m my own god.” you will miss out on all the great things and blessings that God has planned for your life and put you on this earth to enjoy. You’ll miss them all.
So far we’ve seen: 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.” Please don’t miss the connection between the words “faith”, and “offering”, and “giving” 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’s concerned about the attitude with 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 cheque 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.
Next Sunday it will be 35 years since Jackie and I married and we promised God to be faithful in our finances to tithe and give offerings as he directed. We spent a year and a half early in our marriage living totally by faith. We had no income producing work. We were working full time for Mount Zion Fellowship. There were times when the cupboards were bare and we honestly didn’t know where the next meal was going to come from. It was that tight financially. I remember how thrilled we were when Jackie found a half a jar of peanut butter in the bottom of a box we had never unpacked from moving and we had 25 cents which bought a loaf of day old bread on sale. I remember how we prayed and asked God for a big freezer because he had given us a big garden and a lady felt led to give us a brand new freezer – the largest Sears had and we had said nothing to her about the need. I could go on and on. Jesus 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.” 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. So let’s play a little game.” 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 FORGIVING WHEN I DON”T FEEL LIKE IT.
Wrong relationships reap resistance. God resists us when we don’t deal with wrong relationships. No one in the history of humanity was ever double crossed,wrongfully accused and abused or victimized more than Jesus was. But Jesus looked at those who were so mean and rotten towards him and then he turned to his Father and said, “Father,
__________________________ for they don’t know what they’re doing.” He had an attitude of forgiveness and he gave good back in return for evil. He calls us to the same standard and it does not make natural human sense. It screams out against the me first philosophy of our society, but it is the path to peace, blessing and better health for those who choose the path of forgiveness. You don’t forgive because you feel like it. You forgive as a decision of your will and you pray for those who have been mean to you and that frees you to live in victory and it frees God in a new ways to deal with your enemies!
5. 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. Sometimes I don’t feel like serving my wife or thinking of her needs. There were times when I didn’t feel like helping my kids do their homework. Sometimes I don’t feel like talking to you. This may shock you, but sometimes, even as a pastor, there are times when 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 makes 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.
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 be that persistent? The Bible tells us – when it speaks of Moses who spent 40 long years on the backside of the desert. 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 are at the quitting point. You feel like you’re ready to give up on your marriage. Or you’re ready to give up on your faith. Or you’re ready to give up on school, because it just seems too hard. Or you’re ready to give up on that career, or that dream, or that hope of ever getting married, — or that hope of ever getting out of your marriage! — or whatever. Some of you feel like your health situation is hopeless, “I’m never going to get any better.” Some of you think your finances are hopeless, “I’m never going to get out of debt!” And you feel like giving up. 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 what you have your eyes on.
There’s two other things you need to know about faith.
6. 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 parameter — the walls of it — for seven days. First in silence, then on the seventh day they shouted to God in praise. They were thanking God in advance that God had already delivered the city in to their hands.
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 be 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 cheques 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.
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 a large frying pan and the tartar sauce.
7. FAITH IS TRUSTING 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 will 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.
The Bible says that faith is trusting if I don’t get it. Here’s the truth: God hears every prayer you pray. Fact number two, He doesn’t answer always 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 Hebrews Hall of Fame ers. Vs. 39-40 “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. Just ask the Christians in Afganistan, or China, or Pakistan right now. 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! Spoiled! 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 could persist when they see the deadline is only a couple inches away. Anyone can forgive when they feel the warm fuzzy glow of love and forgiveness flowing. Anybody can believe when it’s right there in front of them. But real faith is built in the valleys of life. It is trusting God when I don’t get it. May God help us to walk by and live by faith, giving him a reward for going through those dark hours of torture and the cross for us.