Sermon Tone Analysis

Playing Games

Some of you have already figured this out but our family has recently gotten into boardgames.

I'm not talking about monopoly or battleship, the games that we have been getting into are known here in the United States as euro games since many of them originate from Europe.

They are less based on luck and more on strategy and typically have more rules than American style games.

We like to invite people over to play these games.

Incidentally if you're interested let us know.

When we have people to come over and play a game for the first time my wife Kate and I have a pretty strong advantage that first time we play.

That advantages that we have played before.

It is one thing to have the rules explained but it is entirely something else to have played the game to completion, to begin to understand the dynamics of the game and develop a strategy.

This is the last message that we will have in Hebrews chapter 11.

Throughout the chapter we have brought up that this is often referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame.

The warning here is that by referring to the chapter this way we might see these heroes of the faith as being a people that are in some way better equipped for faithfulness.

— Peyton Manning was inducted into the football Hall of Fame in 2021, this may surprise you but I wasn't in the running.

Peyton has skills and natural born ability that I never have possessed.

And I understand that we have all been taught the fairytale that you can be anything that you put your mind to but I am going to tell you this, my frame, my coordination, and my flat-footed-ness we're never going to allow me to participate in professional sports even if I put in the hard work.

— but Hebrews 11 we are talking about advantage people.

We're just talking about people.

In fact I will make the argument this morning that we are the ones who are advantaged.

— Because like someone who has played one of our games all the way through, we know exactly how the game is won, it isn’t an abstract concept — It is a reality we have witnessed.

If you have your Bibles please turn them to Hebrews 11:39-40 where we will get our passage for this mornings message but before we do I will want to read for you one last time our verse that gives us the context for the chapter

Or as the commentator Gareth Lee Cockerill paraphrases:

Faith is living as if the things hoped for are true

And in keeping the context of a life lived faithfully in mind please read with me starting in v39

Our message this morning is entitled Completing the Promise and is the final message in our series By Faith (Again).

Let’s Pray

Heroes

I don't want to downplay it.

The heroes of our faith are definitely heroes of our faith, and in fairness, Sampson had a physical advantage.

But their heroism was heroism of the heart.

Like pretty much everything else that we look at concerning our faith it all comes down to a heart issue.

They believed God in their heart, to the core of their being, so that well they were given the opportunity to be obedient to God it wasn't even a choice for them.

They acted according to their belief.

It's a cause-and-effect thing.

That makes sense doesn't it, don't you tend to do based upon your belief.

When I drive home from work I base the route I take upon my belief of the traffic conditions.

I give Amazon my money based on a belief that they are going to ship me the stuff that I paid for.

I mean really I only got in my car and drove it to church this morning because I believed that the gas pedal would make the car go to break pedal would make the car stop in the steering wheel would send the card whichever direction that I wanted it to go.

Otherwise, I would have walked or taken the other car.

I have had cars that I didn't believe it.

Car is it maybe work up to the level of repair that I expect out of my vehicles today.

I will certainly keep tools in those cars, and some of them I had to make sure to keep extra oil.

Did I think they would get me to work, probably.

But I expect those cars to fail in any time.

And so I acted with them according to my unbelief.

I am afraid that is how old too many of us approach our faith.

We can tell everybody that we believe, and we might get inside our faith and drive around a little bit but at the end of the day we're gonna rely on our own wisdom to get us out of the bind that we believe that we would be in if we relied solely on our faith.

— let me give you this question to consider: what things are you doing to prepare for those eventualities where you believe trusting God will let you down.

— that's not real faith.

What you are saying is, sure I believe but it's like my old beater car, not gonna trust it for any long trips.

But I guess that is what separates the Heroes, or to use a more theological and inclusive term, the saints from everybody else.

Faith.

Our Great Advantage

Here is the the thing.

We don’t have an excuse to lack faith, we live in the time of promise, the the expectation of promise.

3 Positions of Faith

I want to give you three historical positions for faith in the promise.

1.

The Old Testament Position

The first is one that you are no doubt familiar with, it is what we find in Genesis 15:6 speaking of Abraham

There was a promise to be fulfilled sometime in the future, and because he believed in the fidelity of God he believed the promise.

And so he acted accordingly.

— Abel, Noah, Moses, etc. — They didn’t know how things were going to turn out but they just trusted in God’s word and they did what God asked of them.

They believed in promises and understood some things.

They understood that this life was not all that was to life.

We read Job’s expectations in Job 19:26

Here we find Job believes that in his flesh he will see God, he believes in a resurrection.

Isaiah writes in Is 26:19

There was an expectation, a promise of an eternal resurrection.

But it was a far-off promise.

2. The Thomas Position

We read about Thomas in John 20:24-29

There were a small number of people who believed because they saw the proof of the promise fulfilled with their own eyes.

These are people like Thomas who saw the resurrected Messiah but also those who saw miracles performed by both Christ and the Disciples.

3. The Post-New Testament Position

This is the position we are in today.

We are the ones spoken of by Jesus in John 20:29

But so are the Old Testament saints.

They came before Christ could be seen with the eye and we have come after.

No Wonder

The advantage we have is that we don’t have to wonder at the resurrection.

We don’t have to wonder who will be the eternal King — We know of Jesus.

Consider the great advantage: In the Old Testament they could only wonder how the justice and mercy of God work out — But we see Christ.

We have the advantage in understanding that although we were a part of Romans 3:23

We also partake in Romans 3:24

Only in the wrath of God the Father being meet out upon the Son can we see God’s justice being satisfied and his Mercy being demonstrated

This is what we the last verse in Hebrews 11 is getting at:

Those heroes may have had belief that informed their actions, but we see something better.

That faith being realized through the resurection.

Another Advantage

But we have another advantage as well.

Turn your bible to John 14:16

This word comforter is παράκλητος (paraklētos) ..

You could loosely define that as a helper.

But I like the definition: An advocate.

Someone who helps us and mediates for us.

Like a lawyer would.

We find this word used in 1 Jn 2:1 speaking of Christ

Jesus is our advocate our παράκλητος (paraklētos) but the Holy Spirit is the other advocate or helper that Christ sends to believers.

— And to great advantage.

Titus 3:5 reads

The Holy Spirit renews us.