Your Story (2)

Greeting:

So, this is it! For those of you who have been with us since January, as well as those who have joined with us along the way, we finish up The Story series today. As we began eight months ago, we talked about the aim of this series, what God has done, is doing, and where he has been throughout the struggle of His people, both historically and today. How the past is present, how our lower stories tie into the mural that is God’s Upper Story, His Story, History, or simply, The Story.

Intro: I want to start this morning out by asking a question; have you ever had a time in your life when you’ve been particularly successful? A big win, perhaps a promotion? A successful marriage proposition? The point is, and I’ll meet you in the middle, don’t worry, I’ll come back with the explanation and show my algebra, whatever, but the bottom line up front is, prepare yourself! Because, generally, following our times of elation, a time of vulnerability and, there is, at that point, an opportunity for Satan and an opportunity for you, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically for you, to stall out. It starts slowly. Maybe you don’t even realize it until it’s already happening, and you can’t recover by yourself. I’m telling you this so you can prepare yourselves. If you just came to the Lord and had a good run at your quiet times, whatever it is, get on your knees!

Transition: There’s this maxim coined by Steve Brown he calls “The Elijah Syndrome.” In it, he says, “We are never as dangerous as we are after defeat.” The opposite is also true, that “we are never as vulnerable as we are after a victory.”

We have journeyed through Scripture now for the better part of a year, and we’ve discovered the storied past of our faith, revealing God’s faithfulness to his people, connecting promises and prophecy to historical events, observing the institution of traditions, and found significance in the instruction given through the judges and the prophets, and by Jesus and his Disciples.

The point is that the Canon is closed, but God is not done. Through our series, we’ve seen what the fulfillment of prophecy looks like. And we know the terminal objective of all existence.

But, before we finish, however, we would be remised to pass up the opportunity to reflect, not to interject ourselves onto the pages of Scripture, but to see our struggle on the mountain, our time in the desert, all our times of trial and triumph as holy events. Your story. This morning, I invite you to find a connection in your life. This personal experience helps you relate to a story from our series and enables us to understand how our lives, too, are woven into the tapestry of faith.

Because we see the same thing being done for our forefathers. In our Scripture, the author of Hebrews does just that. At a time that saw persecution on the rise and distinction being drawn between Jews and Christians, we read parallels that link Israel’s heroes of history to that of their story of faith. It serves as continuity, describing their connection, a New Testament version of The Story sermon series. The early followers of Christ felt the need to defend themselves from accusations that their way was something new.

Of course, you and I know this. Indeed, it wasn’t new at all but the fulfillment of Scripture, that which had been a part of God’s story, the high story, since the beginning. In their time, much of our high story was revelation; they lived it. Our story, too, connects. It’s hard to see how it connects, but if we live a life of faithfulness, we are included in God’s will, THE high story that will be fulfilled in time.

Some of the heroes we look back at in Hebrews chapter 11 predate the commandments given to Moses that set the Israelites apart as a holy people. Some predate the covenant with Abraham that he would inherit the Holy Land and become the father of nations. They all predate Jesus and our covenant with him, but ALL acknowledge that grace is channeled through faith.

The logical question, then, is, what is faith? Well, in v1, the author tells us that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” The rest of the chapter goes on to illustrate its implications for the heroes of Israel. Without this context, the definition alone is lacking.

The fear that many Biblical scholars share is that the bold assertiveness in this celebration of faith has been largely lost to the modern reader. Not only do some secularists cast doubt on accounts of antiquity, but we also have different cultural identities and a celebrated national identity of our own.

Transition:

Our job and my invitation to you today is to take from the context we’re given and apply it faithfully to our lives in the present. Verse 6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” This has not changed. From Adam to Abraham, Noah to Moses, and the time of Jesus to today, it is impossible to please God without faith. Still, he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

So, what does it mean to earnestly seek him? The author spends virtually no time defining that. Instead, he describes it through the stories that would have been so central to the identity of the Hebrews. As you can see throughout their Hall of Heroes recorded here in chapter 11, their faith history and national history were the same. Because we’re not first-century Hebrews and approaching this letter, likely, in a very different manner and spirit than it was received by its original audience, I want to work in reverse order. I want to propose a definition and then describe how those qualities were embodied by some of Israel’s heroes. Someone who earnestly seeks God believes in Him, trusts in Him, and obeys Him.

(Point 1: Someone who earnestly seeks God believes in Him)

The first quality I want to examine is embodied by the first martyr.

Scripture:

Our Scripture says in verse 4, “By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of his offerings.”

When we read the account from Genesis 4, Abel brought his flock’s firstlings and their fat portions. No indication is given of the reason why his offering proved more acceptable. The only hint is that Cain is told that if he did well, he too would be accepted (Gen. 4:7). This suggests that it had to do with Abel’s attitude and manner of life, his belief.

Illustration:

The first thing we’re told in this passage in verse 1 is that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. That’s a belief. It’s not the hope that looks forward with wistful longing; it is the hope that looks forward with utter conviction. Biblical belief requires that one stake one’s life on the truth of the promise.

It sounds complicated, but it’s not; in fact, we do it every day. For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand. Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle, all the while believing it will help you—that’s sincere faith!

Application:

One of the ways God speaks to us is through conviction, but it’s completely dependent on how you respond. Jesus is the object of our belief. Where faith is resisted or rejected, it leads to condemnation. You can be resentful, or you can be repentant. God convicted Abel to bring his sacrifice—no instructions were given. It was a pleasing sacrifice, and he was rewarded. Cain’s wasn’t looked on with favor, and he resisted conviction. He felt it; otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt passionately, so much so that God consoled him. According to the account in Genesis 4, “he was very angry, his face was downcast.” He was condemned, however, for his rejection of God’s calling and killed his brother for his belief.

Transition:

We’re told in verse 6 that whoever would draw near to God must first believe that he exists. If you take a pill believing you will be healed, you have faith in that treatment. The same belief in God means that you are ready to act based on that faith. In verses 13-16, we’re told that “God’s people admitted that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. (v14) People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. (v15) If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. (v16) Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Not only does someone who earnestly seeks God believe in Him, but someone who earnestly seeks God trusts in Him.

(Point 2: Someone who earnestly seeks God trusts in Him)

Scripture:

We’re told each of these heroes died in faith, not having received the things promised. We do not know much about the next individual I want to focus on, our embodiment of trust, but we are simply told that Enoch walked with God; he stood so far above the corruption of his age—and that can’t be easy, but we know he pleased God because the only other thing we’re told in verse 5, is that “he could not be found, because God had taken him away.”

Illustration:

There’s a story that has been told of a man who was crossing a desert in the days of the pioneers. He ran into trouble and was dying of thirst when he spotted a pump near an abandoned shack. He had no water to prime the pump; just then, he noticed a jug of water near the shack with a note attached. It read: “There is just enough water in this jug to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. This well has never gone dry, even in the worst of times. Pour the water into the top of the pump and pump the handle quickly. After you have had a drink, refill this jug for the next man who comes along.”

What would the man dying of thirst do? Following the instructions by priming the pump without first taking a drink would be an exercise of the kind of trust the Bible speaks of. Trusting God requires that one stake their life on the truth of the promise. If the man follows the instructions, he takes the chance of pouring out all the water and getting none to drink if the pump fails. So, he must trust that the message is truthful. He must act in belief without first receiving and must trust in the truth of the promise.

Application:

You don’t leave something good unless you trust you’re going to find something better. That’s why the heroes never looked back. When many were turning away from Jesus after he gave them a difficult teaching, he asked his disciples whether they would leave him, too? They replied with, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”

The corruption in the time of Enoch was very real. But he knew that trust is cutting the safety net, not looking back, even if it seems you haven’t received what was promised. We live in a corrupt time, too, and it’s hard to trust the words of someone we’ve never met, especially when it means pouring out what we think is good for us.

But, “without faith, it is impossible to please him” (v6).

Transition:

Not only is it not enough that someone who earnestly seeks God believes in Him. And that it’s not enough for someone who earnestly seeks God to trust in Him. But someone who earnestly seeks God is also obedient to Him.

(Point 3: Someone who earnestly seeks God is obedient to Him)

Scripture:

The final characteristic is obedience. It’s illustrated in Hebrews 11 through Noah, and again, his achievements are attributed to faith.

We’re told in verse 7, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”

His faith developed in response to a specific warning from God. Such godly fear formed an essential element in Noah’s faith. It was embodied by immediate obedience to God’s clear commands regarding the ark.

The people failed to accept his message of repentance and were condemned for it. The very sight of the ark being constructed was a challenge to their lifestyle and forced on them their own condemnation. And in verse 7, they were, in fact, rejecting the divine warning by their unbelief.

Illustration:

Obedience is a dutiful response born out of conviction. For someone earnestly seeking God, obedience is the clearest response, though not necessarily the easiest. To be convicted of something you’ve already bought in, you believe, you trust. God is speaking to you. But just like belief and trust, where obedience is opposed or defied, it only ever results in pain and suffering.

Jim Holm, a Mennonite pastor, said that when he was in third grade, he was condemned to live under the law of nearsightedness. His eyes went bad, and today, he’s legally blind. He’s not free, he shares, but he is in bondage to this law. He hates it, but that doesn’t matter; there is no escape.

One day, he discovered there was a greater law that can overcome the law of nearsightedness. It was the law of glasses. When he submitted himself to the law of corrective lenses, the law of nearsightedness was overcome. The law of nearsightedness is still there, but it was overpowered by a greater law that enabled him to see.

From his point of view, you would think that if he wanted to be free, he should throw the glasses away. But that’s not freedom. Only by submitting to the law of glasses does he become free.

Application:

You can’t buy or barter your way into heaven. It sounds simple, but that’s what many of us are doing in practice. See, adhering to the law doesn’t make you right with God. The law is simply a means to prevent you from slipping further from him. If you keep our civil law, you don’t kill your neighbor; you don’t get a cookie. I suppose you could buy your own cookie, but you just get to stay out of prison—for that crime, specifically, which you didn’t do, if that is the case.

We have been saved from the penalty of sin; this is called justification, and it came once and for all on a cross at Calvary. We are being saved from the power of sin through sanctification, which is the act of the Holy Spirit within us, which creates faith manifest through obedience. And we will be saved from the presence of sin, called glorification; when we enter the presence of God.

The Spirit’s work in us produces obedience; let me be clear: we should follow the law. But understand this isn’t a quid-pro-quo relationship. For believers, the law shows us our sins and points us to the Gospel. It doesn’t create sin. Paul told us in Rom 14:23 that’s already everything that doesn’t proceed from faith.

Transition:

If we are corrupt and have no good inside us, obedience is evidence of salvation; good requires the Spirit. The psalmist says, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (16:2). But we can do what looks good. We can be nice to one another and participate in society for the good of humanity because it’s beneficial. You see, that’s still selfish; it’s nothing more than a tower of Babel. Because it’s not faith; it’s pride manifest through legalism.

Egypt learned that distinction the hard way in verse 29. In contrast to the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea, the Egyptians who attempted to replicate their trust were met with failure, and they were drowned. Although their faithlessness is not explicitly mentioned, they clearly lacked obedience and belief.

Conclusion:

At the beginning of our text, Israel’s heroes are commended because of their faith, and in verse 2, they won God’s approval through their dutiful response born out of conviction, staking their lives on the truth of his promise.

Connection to intro:

In the beginning, I introduced the term “The Elijah Syndrome.” This was coined from 1 Kings chapter 19. You see, Chapter 19 doesn’t begin as we expect. We expect to see Israel turning their hearts back to God. After all, God had just burnt up the soggy altar, and everyone fell on their faces and confessed, “Yahweh, He is God!” (18:39). They even rounded up 450 prophets of Baal and killed them all. But we don’t see a nationwide revival.

In 1 Kings 19:1, we see Jezebel sending a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow!” So, in verse 4, we find our brother Elijah depressed, throwing a pity party, running from Jezebel, and asking God to take his life.

Listen, You don’t need to be a hero for Jesus to be the object of your belief. How do you respond when you’re convicted of something?

Do you trust that he has the words of eternal life, to the point that you would rather please God over succeeding in a corrupt system to get ahead and even prosper in this life?

Do you love the law, not because you’re inclined to obey, but because you know that obedience is the Holy Spirit within you, perfecting and purifying you?

Faith is not obedience, faith is not trust, and faith is not belief. Faith is belief, which gives birth to trust, which then results in obedience.

Scripture says that Horeb is where Elijah went; this is the same place where we’re told Moses heard God speak from the burning bush.

In verses 11 and 12, we read that Elijah experiences a great wind and an earthquake, two mighty ways God had revealed himself before—but God wasn’t in the wind or the shaking of the earth.

At Horeb, Elijah finds God in his voice, His word, through the “still small voice.”

When you’re having an Elijah moment, and you’re down in the valley, don’t expect to find God the same way you have in the past. In the words given to His people as they return after the Babylonian exile, “Don’t remember the things of the past; pay no attention to things of old. 19 Look, I am about to do a new thing …I will make a way in the wilderness … This is the word of the Lord your Maker, the one who formed you from the womb: He will help you. Do not fear …I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring.” (Isaiah 43:18-44:3)

God doesn’t do old things, so we shouldn’t be asking God to do what he’s already done. I’m not telling you to disregard past successes; that’s not what this Scripture is revealing. It’s prophetic in that it wasn’t about the restoration of the Jews after the exile but about Jesus Christ at the cross and by the Holy Spirit in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. Then, now, future—it’s wholly applicable, not descriptive but prescriptive!

In the same way, we should respect the historical background of our history, what was once prophesy, and through it, see a word of great encouragement to every generation of his chosen people.

Application:

The bottom line is that God redeems our stories, no matter how messy they are. Where David committed his worst sin, the numbering of Israel, 2 Samuel verse 24 says 70,000 men died as a result—his punishment. But David repented, and it was that very spot where the angel of the Lord stopped the plague became the future location of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Challenge:

So, what does it mean to earnestly seek God in your life? How is it exemplified through your story as it’s connected to God’s story?

Do you apply the same standard of faithfulness to your life that you expect from the characters of the Bible? You don’t need to be a hero for Jesus to be the object of your belief. How do you respond when you’re convicted of something?

Do you trust that he has the words of eternal life, to the point that you would rather please God over succeeding in a corrupt system to get ahead and even prosper in this life?

Do you love the law, not because you’re inclined to obey, but because you know that obedience is the Holy Spirit within you, perfecting and purifying you?

Faith is not obedience, faith is not trust, and faith is not belief. Faith is belief, which gives birth to trust, which then results in obedience.

Jesus says whoever loves me will obey my commands; he says whoever believes in me will have eternal life.

If your car starts once every three tries, would you say it’s reliable?

If your paperboy skips delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he trustworthy?

If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a loyal employee?

The problem is that in our religious activities, we see ourselves as volunteers rather than duty-bound. For a volunteer, almost anything seems acceptable, but faithfulness is expected for a bondservant who is duty-bound.

I want to encourage all of you today. If you feel hung up on this teaching, don’t abandon it. Where is God convicting you? More importantly, what’s at stake if that conviction is ignored?

Both Cain and Abel were convicted, Noah andhis countrymen were called, but they, like Enoch, responded with belief, trust, and obedience, whereas everyone who resisted, rejected, opposed, and defied God’s call were met with condemnation. Grace is channeled through faith in Jesus, and he rewards those who earnestly seek him through belief, trust, and obedience.

So, how is God calling you? Do you consider yourself a bondservant or a volunteer?