Are you ready to build?

Well, last week we started a new series called / / Ancient Faith for Modern Times.

And really, that couldn’t be a truer statement. Faith does not change. The same faith the great stories of the bible show us is the same faith we need for our lives today. And although the stories in the bible are sometimes these big grandiose stories, we all know that each one of our lives is itself a story. We are each in our own story of faith.

And faith, although some would deny it, is probably the most fundamental thing we have as humanity. Because everybody has to believe they are living for something. It’s just a matter of what that faith is in! Some people gravitate towards gods of their liking, where it’s easier to pick and choose what we want to believe. The religions of this world have always gravitated toward the ability to pick and choose what we want rather than the simple fact that there is a God and our lives are meant to honor him.

This is why last week was so important. Reading the first 6 verses of Hebrews 11 we saw that the writer is laying a foundation of faith that is built on things we can not change, or that we can’t do anything about. And that that isn’t a bad thing, but actually something we can take comfort in.

/ / God is Supreme

And I am so glad! We believe that God is the beginning and end of all things. And for me, there’s a comfort in that. I don’t know about you, but I find it better to believe something, even if I don’t fully understand it, than to choose to not believe and live in constant doubt or question.

The fact that we were created, and don’t just come from some ooze in a pond billions of years ago gives me WAY more peace. To believe in intelligent design rather than you used to be a monkey.

God being supreme is the first answer to the question, “Why am I here?” And I think everyone at some point in their lives asks that question. What is the purpose of it all? What is the purpose of life?

See, if there is a God, and He created the world, and created humanity, then he MUST have a plan for it. No one spends that much effort into creating something so radically intricate and then just tosses it away. Most creators take pride in their work, especially when it’s as amazing as God made you!

Psalm 139:13-14, 17 says, / / You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it… How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

I draw comfort from the fact that all of this started with God. That is something my faith can be built upon.

/ / God decides what is right and wrong

This is another thing that if you look at it one way you might think, “I don’t like that someone thinks they get to tell me what right and wrong are.” or just straight up obstinate, “You can’t tell me what right or wrong are.” And a lot of people in todays world take it that way. They would prefer to decide for themselves what is right..........until someone else uses that against them. That’s the problem with everyone deciding for themselves what is right. Eventually someone is going to get hurt. Because when we decide what is right or wrong for ourselves we make ourselves the centerpiece of the story.

This is why it’s so good that God decides what right and wrong are. We don’t have to.

And I take comfort in that rather than get frustrated by it.

/ / God decides matters of time

I don’t want this to get confused. I have heard people say, as a matter of comfort to someone who has lost someone, “It must have been there time.” I don’t honestly think that God just sits around waiting for a specific moment for all of us to pass on. I don’t think that’s how he works. So when I say God decides matters of time, what I mean by that is that God is in full control of himself and His purposes.

Jesus said no one knows, not even himself, when God the Father will say that the end has come.

Again, this is a matter of comfort for me. I don’t have to be confused about when Jesus is coming back. I don’t have to be worried about it. That doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention. But, it’s not for me to now when, just to be ready at all times!

There’s something comforting about these things. When I can get past my own desire to be God and make the big decisions, and rest assured in God being God. Especially in these things that I just don’t have any part in. I don’t have any control over.

So, this is the foundation that the writer of hebrews laid out for us in the first 5 verses of chapter 11. God is Supreme, God decides what is right and wrong, and God decides matters of time. Then vs 6, as a sort of transition from this foundation to the next section of stories of faith, the writer says, / / And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Such an interesting statement. / / “It is impossible to please God without faith.”

Now, remember last week we looked at the moment where Jesus comes up out of the water as he is baptized and the heavens open and a voice is heard saying, / / “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.”

Eddie Piorek teaches that this is the central event of Jesus’ life and that we all need this moment where we hear that God is pleased with us without it being based on our actions. Jesus hadn’t started his ministry, done any miracles by that point. And I 100% agree. Think of it this way. / / You are loved by God based on God’s ability and desire to love, not on our ability and desire to gain his love. There is nothing we can do to gain the love of God. God loves us.

And I think this transition from vs 1-5 and into 7 and onward in the stories is so critically important. Faith in God is about believing in God. It’s about believing in His character. It’s about believing in what HE has done. THEN we live a life of faith. But not until we come to Him in faith. You can’t be faithful to something you don’t truly believe in your heart.

That’s what he’s saying in that second part. Anyone who wants to come to him must FIRST believe that he exists, THEN that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

So, with that in mind let’s read the next verse and look at our first hero of Ancient Faith for Modern Times. Hebrews 11:7, / / It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

Ok, just one verse, but it actually has 4 distinct things we’re going to look at here in regards to the faith that Noah had. We’ll look at them and then dig in a little.

/ / By Faith...

Noah Built

He obeyed

Noah Condemned

He received righteousness

Let’s get into it.

/ / 1. Noah built

It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.

This is such a profound and important statement, and I am so glad it is in this chapter on faith. If anyone has ever taught you that faith simply consisted of believing, then they have missed this verse, and a whole lot more in scripture.

So many people think that faith is simply about belief. As long as they believe in Jesus, it’s all good. Now, don’t get me wrong - this is true for salvation. We can not work for salvation. But to think that our faith does not require us to do something is wildly missing the point.

/ / It was by faith that Noah built a large boat...

Can your beliefs build you a boat? Of course not.

Can your faith pick up a hammer and put a nail into a board? No, we know that.

All the dreams, all the changes we want in life, all of the desires we might have. If they stay in belief mode, what gets done? NOTHING, right?

The story of Noah is found in Genesis 6-9. And feel free to read that on your own time this week, but to give you a recap of the story it goes like this.

The world was in the worst state it had ever been. And whether we understand it, or agree with it, scripture tells us that God decided that he was going to wipe out every living creature on the earth, including humanity - except for Noah and his family. And he tells Noah that there is going to be a great flood that is going to cover the whole earth. He gives him instructions to build a boat, a very big boat, that can hold 2 of every animal, his family, and food for them to survive this long period of flooding.

There’s a lot of debate about the ark that Noah built. One question is, how long did it take him? And the answer to that is impossible to know because the bible doesn’t tell us specifically. But, if you know the Ark Encounter, which I really want to get to at some point, it’s up in Kentucky, it’s a life size replica of the ark, and they put a lot of time and effort into making it as accurate as possible. They state that their best guess is the ark was built over a maximum time period of 50-75 years. That doesn’t mean it was that long, just that it is at least a maximum time length. But they also said it took them about 2 years with all of their technology at hand to build the replica.

Either way, we’re most likely talking in terms of years.

If you’ve seen the movie Evan Almighty you might get a bit of a glimpse on what people might think of you if you start doing something as ridiculous as building a 500ft long boat where a boat just is not needed. And if you haven’t seen the movie, you should. It’s one of our families favorites.

There was no natural reason for Noah to build this ark. Only that he felt like God has asked him to. That’s the “By Faith” part. His faith was telling him something, he believed God spoke to him, but now his faith needed to do something.

James 2:14-26 talks about faith in this way. It says, / / What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well” - but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” but I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless… Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.

I’m sure Noah wrestled with this. He has all the reason in the world NOT to build this boat. It makes zero natural sense at all.

And sure, the fate of the world might not be in your hands, but we all have those moments where maybe we sense God is saying something to us, and it doesn’t make natural sense, there’s no good reason we should do or not do what we’re hearing, but there’s something in us that just thinks, “Ya know what, this might just be God.” And in that moment we have to put our faith of hearing into faith of action. And they are two different things.

The world is full of people who believe something but never evidence that belief with action. And some would argue that shows they don’t really believe what they say they believe, but I want to suggest to you this morning that they are two different types of belief.

And I want you to hear this with compassion and not condemnation:

I can believe something to be true and not have the courage to follow through with it.

I can believe something to be right, and struggle with the desire to act accordingly.

Look at what Paul says in Romans 7:15, / / I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

Anyone ever been there?

I know I have.

Everything in me believes something. But there’s a difference between believing in your heart and mind, and showing that belief through your actions.

This isn’t something to get down on yourself about, but it is something to consider very seriously.

We applaud Noah for his faith. But what if he didn’t follow through? What if he thought believing in a saving God was enough? Believing that God is good and wants to save him and his family, that’s enough. “No, God’s too good to do this. There’s no way a flood is coming.”

But instead. It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.

Look at what we read from James. / / “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds?”

Or the ESV says it this way, / / Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

It says in James 2:14 (ESV) / / What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

So, reading the NLT it can sound not all that important. It just says good deeds. But the ESV kind of drives it home. vs 26 says, / / For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

The word works is the greek word ergon and doesn’t mean good deeds, but means to work, or to do a deed. business, employment, that which any one is occupied. So it’s saying our faith of believing, without being matched to our faith of action does not show life!

Again, I’m not saying this is a matter of salvation. Paul is very clear in Romans 10:9, / / If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

But let’s just be honest for a second. There are a lot of christians suffering from a severe disease of death due to lack of faith initiated action. And I speak from experience. I lived years giving place to things in my life that were causing death that I knew I needed to lay down. I had faith, I believed in the saving power of Jesus Christ, I even knew what I was doing wasn’t healthy, but I was not following through in my actions. “Ahhh, it’s not hurting anyone...”

I think if any of us is truly real for a moment we have things we can identify in our own lives that we believe but aren’t acting upon.

Faith leads to something.... For Noah it was God saying, “build an ark”

/ / 2. He Obeyed

This is the second thing. Noah obeyed God.

I can’t stress this enough. When you believe God has said something to you, the best thing you can do is follow.

Maybe he’s challenging you to read the bible, but you struggle to find the time.

Maybe he’s been talking to you about tithing but you can’t see how you could possibly give 10% of your income to the church.

Maybe he’s been talking to you about things in your life you need to give up. Habits, attitudes, character.

Again, not a matter of salvation.

Think of it this way. If Noah doesn’t build the ark. Does he still go to heaven. I think so. Scripture calls him a righteous man. He just would’ve been in heaven a whole lot sooner than he thought and you and I wouldn’t exist.

Now, here’s where this is tricky. The leading of God often brings us to uncharted territory.

I want to say this is easy, but a lot of times this is where we are confronted with our greatest fears and struggles. The journey from death to life.

Listen to what Hebrews 11:7 says again, / / He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before.

Obedience when it’s something we’ve done a hundred times doesn’t take too much faith, does it? But obedience when it’s something we’ve never done, or something that is difficult. That’s when our faith is really tested.

Someone once said faith is spelled R-I-S-K. And there was a time I wouldn’t have agreed. And I would say I still don’t agree 100%, because there’s nothing risky about following Jesus. But when it comes to the following his instructions for our lives. It does take courage. It takes fortitude. It takes …well.... faith!

We can read this scripture about Noah like this.

It was because of his great faith in a God he could not see, but nevertheless knew to be true, that he knew in his heart, beyond reason that he had been asked to build a large boat because something was coming that had never happened before, the whole world would be covered with water and everything would die. So he followed through, stepping into uncharted territory and built the boat.

See, I’m not saying there’s two faiths. Faith of believing and faith of doing. I’m saying there’s faith, and there’s what that faith enables us, or compels us to do. And it’s not the believing, or talking about it that proves our faith, it’s the doing that proves we have faith.

Hebrews 11 is over and over again saying that. Look at these champions of belief who didn’t just believe, but let that belief move them to action.

Now, I want to raise a question that is a bit terrifying for me, personally. I think like most of humanity I don’t love change. Maybe like this younger generation I give in to the #adultingishard a bit too often. But I want to ask a question that Noah would have most definitely had to ask himself:

/ / What if your faith journey is a life or death matter not just for yourself, but for someone else?

“Well that’s not fair!!! Don’t put that kind of pressure on me. Grace man, live in grace...”

Ya, I get it… I do...

So, with that question let’s look at the next thing the verse says.

/ / 3. Noah condemned

By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world...

Now, we need to stop here and just talk through some things because I get what I just did. I asked what if our faith has an impact on others, and then presented that Noah’s faith condemned the entire world to death.

Just so we are clear. I do understand this might sound unfair. And I also understand that we can’t live in fear of something like this. And, I think it matters MORE to look at the life produced through obedience rather than the death produced through lack of it. BUT, we do need to look at this word condemned.

Because what it can sound like is that Noah intentionally condemned people. But that’s not the case at all. And we can make that mistake, and I think we do, in thinking that we are or others are condemned.

Condemned means to give judgement against, or like you’ve been in court and they’ve just announced the sentence for your crimes, and you’re about to be punished for your actions.

We have a bad relationship with this word when it comes to God because when we go through something hard, or painful, I think it’s just a core human flaw to look for someone else to blame.

That started in the garden. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God came to them and said, “What have you done?” Adam pipes up and says, “It’s the woman you gave me that gave me the fruit, it’s her fault.” Adam isn’t even sure who to blame. He’s blaming God, he’s blaming Eve… And then Eve turns around and says, “It was the serpent, he deceived me. It’s his fault.”

We try to pass the blame for fear of punishment.

Here’s the thing about condemnation. It’s something we do to ourselves.

And we have to make a distinction. Condemnation and Shame are two different things.

Shame is a feeling.

Condemnation is a consequence.

The enemy can’t condemn you. He can’t judge you. He doesn’t have that power. But he will do anything and everything he can do to shame you into believing God has punished you for your actions. I see this non stop.

We get mad at God because we are simply reaping the consequences of our own actions.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 2:1, / / You may think you can condemn such people [talking about people caught in sin], but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

This is why the act of forgiveness is so important. Jesus even goes as far to say, if you don’t forgive your brother how can my Father forgive you?

What’s that mean? It means if God is a just God there has to be a standard. God, if he is just, can not pick and choose who to show preferential treatment to. But what DOES God do? He gives everyone the same opportunity. Believe in his Son.

Jesus said in John 3:17-18, / / For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Everything God does is about you NOT being condemned. But you have to choose to believe, because if you don’t believe you’re condemning yourself. Hear that.

Man, we have to talk through this though. You can believe in Jesus for salvation and your actions can still condemn you.

What do I mean by that?

I am saved. I believe in Jesus. I love him with my whole heart. When I eat sugar my body doesn’t process it properly and my blood sugar levels spike and I end up having negative results in my body.

But I believe in Jesus....

Ya, but you didn’t follow what you’re supposed to do.

Are you condemned? Not by God. But by yourself you sure are.

Is your salvation on the line? No. Is your life on the line? Yes.

So, let me ask again, because I think this is important. Or at least it’s really important for me to hear and maybe I’m just preaching to myself this morning. But I think I’m not the only one that needs to hear this.

When we know that God has been leading us toward something. He’s set a personal standard for our lives, or asked us to give something up, or asked us to do something, there is a very good chance it is not only for your life.

Let me clarify with a brutally honest example of both success and failure.

I know it was God who led me to the revelation of food addiction for my own life. The power and hold that food and specifically sugar has on my life is second to none. When Paul says in Romans 6:16, / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. There aren’t much truer words than that. When you give place to something in your life that you shouldn’t, it does everything it can to lock itself in.

I started by saying this at the beginning, we all want faith in something. We all seek to believe in something. Well, the reality is we all look for a god, and a lot of times our gods become the things we pursue.

This is actually a pretty core teaching in the Addiction community. That whatever we are addicted to has become our god. And the fight is to put God back in His rightful place!

And the god of our own making is constantly trying to tell us what to do, that it’s ok, that it’s not effecting anyone else, or it’s none of their business anyway, that we’re fine, we have it all under control.

While the One True God is trying to lead us out of that slavery into life, but to do that we need to be willing to give up that hold and follow a new way.

So now, the question I have to ask myself is, if I am enslaved to sin and that sin will produce death, is it only producing death in my own life, or am I impacting those around me, AND an even better, or life giving question to ask, if I choose the path of faith, how will THAT impact those around me in the right way.

And I find it interesting that the writer of Hebrews even says it that way, that Noah’s faith condemned the world. It’s almost like there’s an implication that if Noah didn’t build the boat, God wouldn’t have flooded the earth. I personally would be more inclined to say it this way, “By faith Noah saved his family.” rather than, “condemned the rest of the world”. But, if we read it like Jesus says in John 3:18, the world had already condemned itself by its actions. Right?

So, I have to bring this around to how it impacts me and my life. And as hard as this can be, we have to ask the question.

/ / How will my life, and the people in my life, be impacted whether I choose to live in faith or not?

What happens to Kaylee and Kelley if I run my life into the ground because I can’t rise above this addiction?

What happens to your spouse if you don’t get your anger, gambling, drinking, pornography, whatever under control.

Sure, those are all big life altering things. We don’t even have to go that far:

Let’s just talk simply following Jesus.

How is your life impacted and the lives of your family impacted if you choose to read your bible everyday, make church a priority every week, pray in front of your kids, tithe and show a life of generosity… I know the impact those things had on my life from my parents. And my parents aren’t perfect, they’d be the first to admit that. But man, they were consistent. And I’m sure through struggle I didn’t see. Through questions I didn’t see. Through church splits and church hurt and opportunity to walk away. They were faithful in their faith.

That’s the key. Faithful in our faith. Not just believing it to be true, but actions that back it up.

So, did Noah condemn the world? Sort of....

Are we condemning the people around us… sort of. For good or ill based on what we choose to live for.

And that’s not to put undue pressure. But maybe it should make us think, right?

We don’t like to think in terms of pressure. “Oh gosh, are you saying that if I don’t do this then I’m condemning my kids?!?” Listen to what Jesus said in John 15:13, / / There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Intense. But true, I suppose. And then He says we need to love each other as he loved us. ok ok, I see where you’re going with this.

Then Paul says in Philippians 2:3, / / Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.

He then says in Ephesians 5:25, / / For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave his life for her.

“Ya, but don’t you know how hard adulting is? Don’t you know what I’m going through? You don’t know the pain, the hurt, the struggle. Don’t you realize how hard it is to change...”

And maybe it’s just me but you want to scream, “What about Grace? This sounds void of grace. Remember grace!”

To which Paul replies from Romans 6:1-2, / / …should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!

Stop missing the mark. Pull yourself together. Get back on track. Don’t just have faith, but be faithful!

I’m preaching to myself here, people. I’m preaching to myself!

/ / 4. He received righteousness

By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

Alright, we need to look at this from two angles as well.

First, you will never make yourself righteous in regards to being made right with God through works. We know this.

Romans 5:1-2, / / Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

And Paul also says in Philippians 3:9, / / I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

Why? Because we could never do it right. James 2:10 clarifies what the law says, / / For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

So, there has to be another way toward righteousness, or right standing with God. And there is, Jesus Christ and faith in him alone.

BUT, and this is always a struggle. Well, is it faith or works? Is it grace or good deeds?

No, / / it’s Faith that leads to Faithfulness.

I would say that if you have faith in Jesus Christ, but it has not compelled you to live faithfully, then you have not let that faith do in you all that God intended. Faith is meant to produce something in us.

John writes in 1 John 3:7, / / …don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.

Paul encourages us in 2 Timothy 2:22, / / Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love and peace.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24, / / He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right!

And the writer of Hebrews 12:11 says, / / No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

That’s all the heavy hitters, and all of them agree. John, Paul, Peter, the writer of Hebrews. / / Righteousness isn’t just something we receive, it’s something we pursue.

Noah knew this because, It was by faith that [he] built a large boat to save his family from the flood.

Ancient faith for modern times...

By faith Noah built.

What is it that your faith in God is calling you to be faithful in?

What is it that God is leading you to build, do, run after, or maybe stop?

I don’t want you to make an impulse decision, although, sometimes those are what we need. But I do want you to seriously examine your life and be honest with yourself, and honest with God, and maybe even honest with those around you and ask the hard questions.

What is it that my faith is calling me to be faithful in?

What area of my life have I not yet let my faith impact?

Because that’s really the question. A lot of times we allow our faith to impact the areas we’re ok with dealing with, but the ones we’re afraid of, or that might be too hard, or that make us decide to do things that we don’t want to do, those are the ones that we apply grace to rather than choosing to live righteously.

I mentioned earlier that our faithfulness has impact on others. And for me that’s a hard thought, I don’t know about you.

But, ask yourself if Noah had any friends.

Genesis 5:32 says that Noah was 500 years old when he became the Father of Shem, Ham and Japheth, and he was 600 years old when the flood came.

Do you think Noah lived 600 years and made zero friends? What about family and other relatives. Brothers, sisters...

Sometimes faith calls us to places that asks us to leave things behind we don’t want to leave behind. Again, your faith journey isn’t a flood. But what if your faith journey means leaving a scene you love. A lifestyle you love. Friends you bond with and connect with, but they just don’t fit into the faithfulness that God is leading you into.

Or maybe it leads you to stronger boundaries, or boundaries you’ve never put on your own life before. And don’t get bent out of shape over that word, boundaries. Boundaries are for yourself, not others. You hold yourself in a particular way which regulates how others interact with you. It’s more about you holding yourself to a standard than trying to hold someone else to your standard. That rarely works.

But, You might need to change what you do. Change where you go. So that you can be faithful.

For me that means if I know I’m not strong enough I’m not going to go hang out with you at Cold Stone Creamery and watch you eat ice cream, even though I could just order a coffee and the friendship would be enjoyable and we could have a great conversation… And all of that is great, but, I need to have a boundary. It’s not for you. It’s for me. Why? Because my faith, my belief in what God has said to me, has to dictate my action. Because when it doesn’t, I make the wrong choices, and Paul says I become a slave to that thing, and I have experienced that to be so very true. My faith has to dictate what I do to embody faithfulness.

And that’s scary sometimes. I know. It involves awkward conversations sometimes. It involves saying no to things.

Again, this doesn’t even have to be about life altering things. Or what be might consider to be big deals.

Being faithful to read your bible might mean saying no to that last show before you go to bed.

Being faithful in managing your anger might mean finding a therapist and taking that time.

Being faithful in pursuing your spouse and family might mean setting better boundaries at work so you’re at home on time and can have quality time with them.

Being faithful takes work.

/ / By faith Noah built an ark.

By faith you can build too!