WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE FAITH – Hebrews 11

 

Introduction:

A. [A tourist came too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon, lost his footing and plunged over the side, clawing and scratching to save himself.

- After he went out of sight and just before he fell into space, he stumbled upon a scrubby bush which he desperately grabbed with both hands.

- Filled with terror, he called out toward heaven, "Is there anyone up there?"

- A calm, powerful voice came out of the sky, "Yes, there is."

- The tourist pleaded, "Can you help me? Can you help me?"

- The calm voice replied, "Yes, I probably can. What is your problem?"

- "I fell over the cliff and am dangling in space holding to a bush that is

about to let go. Please help me."

- The voice from above said, "I'll try. Do you believe?"

- "Yes, yes, I believe."'

- "Do you have faith?"

- "Yes, yes. I have strong faith."

- The calm voice said, "Well, in that case, simply let loose of the bush and everything will turn out fine."

- There was a tense pause, then the tourist yelled, "Is there anyone else up there?"]

B. It’s one thing to talk about faith – it’s quite another to act on faith.

- Beginning today and running through the summer we are going to discover what it means to have Faith for Everyday Living.

- I want to try to help you to discover what faith is, and how it can help you in your struggle to be everything that you can be in Christ.

- Today, we simply want to get a grasp on what faith is — and there isn’t just one easy way to define it, so the next weeks we are going to define it with six different statements that are derived from the 11th chapter of the book of

Hebrews:

FAITH IS…

1. … BELIEVING WHEN I DON’T SEE IT

[It seems the pastor's small son was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all that dirt.

- He refused and complained: "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That's all I ever hear around this house and I've never seen either one."]

- “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Hebrews 11:1

- It sounds like a contradiction, but the Bible teaches that faith is visualizing the future in the present.

- It’s being sure of what you don’t see – It is seeing it in advance.

- Man says: “Seeing is believing.” God says: “Believing is seeing.”

- [In 1960, JFK stood up and said: "Let's put a man on the moon by the end of the decade."]

- When he said that, the technology had not been invented to put a man on the moon – But some things have to be believed before you can see them.

- You’ve got to believe it in advance.

- Everything that’s happened in life was an impossibility before it became a reality and somebody had to believe it.

- Faith is simply trusting God to turn dreams into reality.

- Because nothing happens until somebody believes it’s possible.

- What do you see in your own future? What is your dream? What impossible thing is God going to do in your life?

- You have to have faith that it is going to happen for it to happen – you have to be certain that God can and will do these things in your life.

- What do you envision as the future of this church? – what can we be sure of, what can we know with certainty that God is going to do through us?

- I can tell you what I can see by faith – I can see a beautiful church facility built to the glory of God – I see a church ministering to hundreds, perhaps thousands, reaching the unchurched for Jesus Christ, discipling them to maturity – I see us training workers for the harvest and sending them out onto the mission field and to plant churches.

- I don’t think this is going to happen – I know it by faith – I can see it as clearly as I can see these words this morning.

 

Godspeed

Webpastor B

www.jesuspodkast.org