Faith

Faith is a relationship where we trust Jesus to do what He has promised to do

I want to be found acceptable by the Lord.

I suspect every believer, and some non-believers for that matter, want to be found acceptable to God.

When I meet Jesus face to face, I want Him to smile and welcome me home as a good friend who has been away for a long time.

Don’t you?

I know for you younger folks, you have no concept of this yet.

You’re just getting on the runway.

You have plans and dreams and life feels like it will last forever.

Thoughts of eternity are still in the realm of the ether – this nebulous idea of heaven and hell that is way, way off.

But if you are blessed to live a long life, you’ll notice it will get closer for you.

I’m old enough now that, through the miseries of Facebook, I’ve seen my high school buddies pass away – and the person that curated our Facebook page get to the point she had to give it up.

People I admire and look up to are gone – Dr. John MacArther passed away just over a week ago.

Singers and actors that I remember as forever young - Hulk Hogan, Chuck Mangione - are forever dead.

I’ve done countless funerals of folks who have outlived their families – all of their friends gone.

Even those of us who have been traumatized by the sudden loss of someone look at those events as one offs

Something that shouldn’t have happened

That happen to someone else, often without regard to the fact that one day – that will be me.

The certainty of death is a reality of life.

Being prepared for that reality is an existential necessity.

Everyone is going to heaven - so the world wants us to believe

But we know better

To be received into Heaven, we must be righteous.

We can only be righteous if Jesus gives us some of His righteousness.

Jesus makes us righteous by giving His righteousness to us as a gift.

We becomes eligible for that gift by having faith that Jesus died on a cross and was resurrected on the third day to save us from our sin.

And...and...we trust Him to do that.

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Kids, your three words on your worship guide to help you pay attention are Things, Jesus and Know.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from the book of Hebrews 11:1-6

Hebrews 11:1–6 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Amen

Please join me in prayer.

Father, Ms. Brill taught me to pray, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight

Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

May that prayer be true in your hearing today, O Lord.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

We are protestants.

There are only two possibilities, Catholics and protestants.

The title protestant came because our ancestors protested against the doctrines of the Catholic church.

I think Baptists took the word protest to heart a little more than most.

It all got started when the Holy Spirit started stirring some priests in Germany and France back in the 1500’s.

Martin Luther, you know the name, was doing his daily bible study when he read Romans 1:17

Romans 1:17 ESV

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

When he read, “The righteous shall live by faith,” a light bulb went off in his heart.

Michael Krueger says, “Luther had spent his whole life up to that point thinking that the way to please God was to outdo everybody around you with good works

“-in his case, to “out-monk” the other monks.

“But when he read that verse, something suddenly clicked.

“At that moment, Luther realized the truth: faith is the only means of salvation and the only way to please God.”

“Luther wrote, ‘I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.”

You heard that same sentence last week, but from the book of Hebrews.

The pastor quoted the same scripture Paul did in Romans when he said in Hebrews 10:38 “but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.””

Both Paul and the Pastor who wrote Hebrews quoted Habakkuk 2:4

Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

You know something I learned in elementary school?

If the teacher repeated something three times, I could expect it to be on the test.

Paul actually quotes this verse again in Galatians 3:11.

So the Lord repeats it to us in His Word four times.

Brothers and sisters, this will be on the test.

So I guess we’d best figure this one out.

What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

For those of you who haven’t always been in the church, this verse is a golden oldie.

Stands to reason, right?

If faith is required for salvation, we need to know what faith is.

So what is it?

Let’s start with what it is not - it’s not a feeling.

This is where I’ve heard a number of people get hung up over the years.

They wouldn’t profess faith in Jesus because they didn’t have a feeling

And everyone they talked to had had a feeling before they were saved

And I would agree that everyone gets a feeling, but the feeling comes after the faith, not before.

Remember the story about Luther.

A light clicked on in his head.

He understood - and remember what he said, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.”

He didn’t feel anything until he understood what faith was

And who that faith was in

Once he understood it - once Luther was saved - then the emotion came.

You know, if faith was a warm, fuzzy feeling, how do you think all of the Christian martyrs must have felt

Especially those who were burned at the stake.

Hard to be warm and fuzzy inside when you are roasting on the outside.

And what about John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, the new Elijah who heralded the coming King Jesus.

Thrown in jail to rot.

Finally pulled from his cell and beheaded.

Not sure warm and fuzzy would describe his emotional state.

While faith might cause a feeling, feelings are not faith.

And thank God, because feelings lie big time.

Just ask anyone who had faith that “this year is going to be the Falcon’s year.”

Let’s take verse 1 apart word for word to find out what faith is.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

The first word is now.

It comes directly on the heels of Hebrews 10:39 which says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

The folks the Pastor wrote his letter to were in danger of falling away from the faith.

That’s call apostasy

And the opposite of apostasy if faith.

So Now - after all of that - now

The second word is faith

Faith is the thing that makes it possible for a person to please God - we’ll see that in verse 6.

I started today’s message by saying that I want to be found acceptable by the Lord

And I expect every believer in here wants to be found acceptable too.

Acceptable is another way of saying we want to be found pleasing to the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, here’s the key.

You can quit working

You can quit searching

You can stop and rest for a moment

This is your eureka! moment.

You have found the singular, only thing that will allow God to welcome you home like you’ve always wanted someone to greet you.

Knowing, down deep in our hearts the depravity that lives there

There’s always a nag - maybe not conscious for all of us - but there nevertheless

There is that nag that says, “If you really knew me, you wouldn’t love me.”

The antidote, the pill, the word that changes all of that is the word “Faith”

“Now, faith is…

Third word - is.

Not will be if you work on it.

Not could be with enough study.

Not might be if you get it right.

No, Faith is…

Now faith is the assurance

The root word for the word assurance means to stand.

Faith is what you stand on

Assurance is what I’m saying when I say that you know that you know that you know

Faith is having certainty

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for

The word things is the word our word pragmatic comes from

It’s practical things - real things

Faith is standing on the knowledge that these real things that haven’t happened yet will happen.

Things hoped for

They haven’t happened yet.

And in this context, the pastor has one major hoped for thing that is on his mind.

There are lots of things that the Lord has promised us, but there is one thing that is above all the other things

Now faith is the assurance that Jesus is coming for me

I want us to think about this for just a second.

Jesus hasn’t come back yet.

Paul thought Jesus was coming back real soon but later realized his soon and Jesus’ soon were two different soons.

The Hebrews thought Jesus would come and whisk them away from their troubles

And when He didn’t, they started to falter.

A lot of time, a LOT of times life gets very hard for us and we wonder if God is real, does God care, is God listening.

Faith is the assurance, that in the face of all of that, Jesus is true.

He is coming back.

And very specifically, He is coming back to get me and take me home.

That’s where I’m making my stand.

That’s my hill to die on.

Now why?

Because faith is… also the conviction of things not seen.

Conviction is proof.

Things that are practical, real things that happened.

The Pastor is about to give us a laundry list of things that have happened.

Historical things, some that people observed and passed down.

Some like the creation that we simply take - well, by faith.

We’ve seen these things - we’ve heard of these things

We know the Lord is trustworthy and true and good

And because of this, Jesus is now my hill to die on.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

As Paul says in Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I know that I know that I know that Jesus is coming back for me.

This isn’t transactional - Jesus did this so I did that.

This is relational.

I don’t just know that there is a man named Jesus who did all of this for me.

No, I am convinced, this man Jesus did all of this for me

And because He did, He’ll keep His word and come back and get me.

So I’m waiting on Him, no matter how long it takes.

I’m not waiting on heaven.

I’m not waiting on the rapture.

I’m waiting on Jesus.

Because I’m convinced He is coming back for me.

Skip everything else and go to verse 6.

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Three things real fast.

Number one, what does it mean to please God?

Jesus summed it up on one sentence.

John 17:3 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Faith is not mystical, it’s not magical.

Faith is me making up my mind that I believe in God, and what the Father did in Jesus, and nothing can change my mind.

There is nothing more required of you.

Because nothing you - listen to me

Nothing you can do will please God.

He’s not the doting parent who is overjoyed that their preschooler brought them a picture that looks like they threw up crayons all over a piece of construction paper

And said, “I drew a picture of you and me. Do you like it?”

Rather, God is a jealous God who sees the people that He created acting like complete fools

Taunting God to His very face

Rejecting His ways with every creative ounce of our being.

Nothing you and I can ever do will assuage that anger, that wrath

No matter how hard you try to clean yourself up - nothing

Save two things.

Number two - believe God exists and Number three - believe He rewards those who seek Him

Are you beginning to see at all why Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free?”

Do you see why Luther said, “I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates?”

All of his life he had tried to out-monk every monk.

I bet Luther was insufferably arrogant on the outside and a wreck on the inside.

Does this sound like something you’ve struggled with?

“…periods of intense spiritual struggle and doubt, often characterized by a sense of God's absence and feelings of despair.”

That’s how Luther described his “dark night of the soul” that went away when he realized

“The righteous one will live by faith.”

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus is coming back for me and Jesus is coming back for you.

Make up your mind - that is our hill to die on.

And friends, if you’ve never made your mind up to follow Jesus, well, it’s up to you.

He’s telling you right now, that what He has done for me and so many others in here

He’ll do for you too.

His requirement is for you to realize that nothing you can do will make Him happy.

A preschooler throwing up on construction paper - remember?

Ask Him to forgive you for rejecting Him

Tell Him you believe and you will follow Jesus wherever He leads

Do that, and you will be saved.

Let us pray.

Would the brothers who are serving come forward?

Paul said in

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Jesus is coming for me.

Jesus is coming for you.

As we take the bread and juice, remember, it was shed for you so you could know Jesus is coming for you one day.

If you are a believer, baptized after your salvation, you are invited to join with us.

Please exit your pew to the left and proceed to the table in front of you.

You may eat the bread dipped in juice when you receive it

Or if you want to take it back to your seat for a moment of reflection, feel free to do that.

If you are unable to come to the front, please let someone who is coming forward know so they can tell us to come to you.

We have gluten free wafers at ______ table.

Let us pray.

Please stand and come forward.