A Sure Footing
Notes
Transcript
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Earlier last week, this question came up on a forum that I partake in.
From Disciple Makers forum:
Why do you think American Christians struggle with paying a cost to follow Jesus?
This is a great question and I believe one that each of us should ask ourselves.
I also believe the verse we are looking at today holds the answer.
Faith is the footing for that which we hope for.
We cannot squeeze into this verse all things we as human beings hope for, because that is not the context here, neither is what some call, blind faith!
Rather, it is the hope of glory that we rest our faith in!
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This is the context of Hebrews eleven.
Faith, being the bedrock which we stand upon, is the reason we have hope, and that bedrock is not a system, or law, or any religious endeavor, but a person!
You see, Jesus Christ is the solid rock!
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Blood, and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly rest on Jesus Name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.
Edward Mote
This is what Jesus was saying to His disciples in:
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
I. There are many unstable rocks.
I. There are many unstable rocks.
I want to go back to that question from the disciple makers forum:
Why do you think American Christians struggle with paying a cost to follow Jesus?
I believe the answer from the perspective of the average American Christian is, they don’t have to pay a cost!
We are watching as Christians in Afghanistan are being forced to pay a heavy price for their faith, something we do not have to do.
We think that the government telling us that we have to wear a mask or our employer making a rule that you either get vaccinated or loose your job is persecution.
Afghan Christians know as do those in communist countries and other Islamic places know, that to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, will probably mean loss of property, freedom, family, or even their very lives!
And so they live under constant vigilance knowing that any time the government or in our recent scene in Afghanistan, the Taliban will come busting down the door and take them all away, some to meet Jesus.
That, my friend, is persecution!
But, I will say, that when the substance of our faith is in the government or elected officials, or a constitution, or our jobs, freedom, money, you fill in the blank; then we can assuredly say that we are not trusting in Christ, and we may be illegitimate children.
So, is there any other rock?
And this seems to be the trouble for us Christians in America: We have too many rocks to trust in!
What rocks are we standing on?
What rocks are we standing on?
There are slippery rocks.
Our family has spent a lot of time at the ocean, we’ve always loved the Maine coast and when we used to walk out on the rocks at low tide, I would tell our kids watch out for the black rocks! They are wet and very slippery.
There are many slippery rocks in life, they are solid but you can’t stand on them:
Superior morality
Pragmatism
Religious ideas, convictions
There are unstable rocks.
They can be quite immense, but if you get far enough away from them they are really quite small in comparison to the landscape around them.
But in a Tsunami, water can pick up boulders weighing thousands of tons and move it like a ping-pong ball.
And some of them just are apt to just break off and crumble at any minute. Just take a look at the old man of the mountain in Franconia Notch. water kept getting into the cracks and expanding when it froze in the winter, until...
Financial investments
Scriptural health and wealth ideology
II. There is only one true Rock.
II. There is only one true Rock.
But, I trust that you see the better way!
When you first trusted Christ, did you give Him everything in your life?
Did you surrender your fortunes, your pride, your children, your nationalism?
Were you willing to sell everything and give it to the poor and then follow Jesus?
Are you taking up your cross daily and following Him?
These are the introspective questions we need to ask.
A. We stand upon it with confidence.
A. We stand upon it with confidence.
Yes, as those before us did.
When David was readying himself to fight Goliath, he chose five smooth stones from the stream. Yes, there was only one Goliath, but as we also know as did David, that guy had four brothers.
David was just getting ready to take out all of them!
What was David’s rock? It was the faith He had in what He saw God do and promised.
When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years there was a rock that supplied water when they needed it. That rock represented the very faith in the Son of God, for Paul said to the Corinthians:
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
B. We stand upon it with expectation.
B. We stand upon it with expectation.
If our expectation is only centered around what we have in this world, we have missed the point altogether!
Because you see, it doesn’t matter how much money I have, or how healthy I am, or whether anyone likes me!
What matters is that God calls me His child, and has redeemed me from this fallen world, and has prepared a place for me, that where He is I will be also!
Conclusion:
There are brothers and sisters meeting Jesus right now, who have a sure footing on the Solid Rock.
What are you standing on?
