Why. Week 4 Sermon

Intro

Series Recap - “This is our why”

Making Disciples being living stones

Worship - God Deserves the Glory

Connect - Because it shows who God is

Respond

Introduce Respond

Sometimes when we mention the word respond you might think of mission trips, or volunteer opportunities, or perhaps even some of the community partners of our church that members of our church regularly are a part of

if we looked up the dictionary definition of the word Respond it would be something like to reply to answer

As is “did you respond to that text I sent you?”

That when we hear God speak, that when we connect with our neighbors and with those around us and hear them that we would then reply or answer

there is some moment where God speaks and we respond to God

When we go on mission trips, etc.

One of the reasons that we do that is because we want to imagine a future that is different then our present

We want to imagine a future where no one is hungry so we go feed people

We want to imagine a world where everyone is warm safe and dry so we build or rebuild shelters and homes

But when we invest we often don’t see that future happen

When we respond in some of those ways we often don’t see the whole story

We sometimes will serve a meal at a meal distribution site and meet people and connect with people and then not see them afterwards

We often will go on mission trips and at the end of the week say goodbye to the people we helped

The future is often unseen

And that is exactly where our scripture meets us today

What does it look like to be faithful people right now in the midst of an uncertain future?

Hebrews 11:1–7 NRSV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.” 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

Specifically hope

I hope that we get back together....

I hope we find a vaccine...

I hope that we get to watch football...

I hope that we make it through this school year...

But hope holds with it a level of uncertainty

We say those things because we don’t really know that they will happen, we hope they will

But there is a difference between optimism and hope

Hope is a step farther than optimism

hope is a little bit more certain

A conviction

Is perhaps the most certain

What brings something from a hope to a conviction is faith

Faith is following obediently when the future is unclear

Hebrews 11:1 NRSV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

When we have faith we are assured not of the events that will come to pass in our future, but of the person that holds the future

Faith implies that we have faith in someone or something

It is a reframing for us not saying that we know what is going to happen. But that we know God will provide when the time comes a way to be faithful in whatever that next season is

When we realize the future belongs to God

Faith doesn’t help us see into our future it helps us to realize that the future never really belonged to us.

As we are talking about Respond

Even though we can not see the future

We can not see the fruit of the labor

We know that we are called to act faithfully in this moment

The passage gives three examples of people that demonstrated Faith

It is important to remember that these were the greats of the Torah

These were names that were widely recognized and their stories would have been known

The author of Hebrews is not saying look at all of the great things that they did

The author is saying look how they took their faithful next step, when their future was unsure they listened to God and through faith did all of the great things that you have heard about from them

The author of the passage turns to some people that were faithful in the midst of an uncertain future.

This passage calls back to three stories and because we don’t have all day I will just gloss over and give you the spark notes edition of these stories quickly

Abel

Had a brother Cain, and Abel took care of the cattle and Cain was the gardener of the family

God asked for a sacrifice and both brothers brought a sacrifice and laid it on the alter and God found Abel’s sacrifice to be more pleasing that his brother’s Cain so God consumed Abels sacrifice and said that it was pleasing

This cause Cain to grow jealous and eventually kill Cain creating the first and most extreme case of sibling rivalry in the Bible

the passage says

Hebrews 11:4 NRSV

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks.

Enoch

We don’t know so much about Enoch

Enoch was a quiet character didn’t say much but it was know that Enoch was a faithful person.

Some accounts say that he was frequently calling out the bad behaviour of those around him but one thing that we do know about Enoch is that he lived just before the time of the great flood

meaning that he lived at a time where there was a lot of acting out

Hebrews 11:5 NRSV

5 By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and “he was not found, because God had taken him.” For it was attested before he was taken away that “he had pleased God.”

Noah

Perhaps the best known example

Gets warned by God and builds an arc

Hebrews 11:7 NRSV

7 By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

All of these greats in the faith have very different stories: none of them knew what the future would hold, but they acted in their next faithful step.

Faithfulness involves listening and doing

The greats were just faithful

they didn’t set out to be great

they were walking in step they were listening to where God might be calling them, and were aware of the needs in their world

They listened

Prayer

they worshiped

they did the things that were grounding to them

were in dialogue with God about what their next steps would be

They did

and they didn’t need anybody’s permission to act they just did

I will confess this is hard for me

Whatever is going on in the world I want to respond to immediately, and sometimes the urgency of a crisis does in fact demand that.

Listening is a part of faithfulness

All of the greats that we look to did not set out to be great they set out to be faithful. They didn't set out to do lots they set out to be faithful.

We take in the stories of the past because the unseen is visible to us. Like as in what God had yet to reveal to them has been revealed to us. (the end of the story has been revealed to us)

To put their own lives in perspective, to zoom out from what was going on in their own world to what was going on in God’s world

This is our why: to join in God’s work

In the same way when we think about how we respond to God we have to take into account the greats of the past and how they were just faithful people

To build a tiny almost miniscule piece of the kingdom of God

When we see ourselves as being a part of God’s story we know that the future and it’s problems are no longer a problem that we are responsible for. We are just called to be faithful in this moment. We are called to stewardship in this moment.

reframing “respond”

Sometimes that does involve hard decisions

where I spend my money?

Where I spend my time?

What I use my talents for?

Who I choose to talk to?

Who I choose not to talk to?

If I am faithfully following God into the job or the career that I believe God might be leading me to

Respond is more than volunteering

it is a matter of faith

Of being in step with God’s work

Or perhaps a better explanation is to not stand in God’s way

Respond is not uniform

there are respond opportunities that our church does together, but respond is inherently an individual act

The world of the text in Hebrews that we just read is a collectivist community, but yet when it comes to matters of faith the author almost exclusively turns to the actions of individuals.

To respond isn’t to go to the church website to find which opportunities I have to do

To respond is to go to God in prayer and ask God for what you faithful next step might be

End with Wesley’s prayer

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.