Faith Forward - Part I - Bigger than Just Belief - Hebrews 11:1-3

Introduction

As I began to pray and ask God for a focus for this year 2022, I announced in our annual meeting in November our focus or theme for the year would be Faith Forward. As we believe and seek God for His leading, guiding, and direction in and for our lives in this New Year, I believe God is looking to perform an operation on our faith.

As I survey the church universal I see large rolls of people, people who know churchy lingo, attend church regularly, innovative technological advancements, and the list goes on and on. But while all of the institutional functions of the church roll on its seems that in the lives of some while there is in some an innate nature to believe that there is a God people are struggling to actually put their faith into action because of hopelessness that has crept in and began to choke the seeds of faith. And as time rolls right along, what we find is a church struggling with faith. As the church struggles with faith, there isn’t always a resolve in the individual to come to grips again with faith. Instead it seems at times that faith begins to crumble from people right in the church pew. The dichotomy of such realization is that it is impossible to please God without faith. In other words where there is a lack of faith God is displeased. And why would anybody want to displease God?

Many would suggests that faith often crumbles in the church pew because many in the church have not been able to grapple with a world of realities that seem contrary to that faith. People all over have lost loved ones in this pandemic causing some to grapple with their faith because their expectation in faith has not been there reality. And situations and circumstances arise and the people of faith begin to question their faith and even more dangerously lay faith aside.

I submit the problem as to why many today struggle in faith is because the concept of faith has been misconstrued, misunderstood, and mishandled. Some have taught that faith is simply belief in God. And that certainly is a big part of faith but if faith is to operate in your life faith must be more than simply belief in God. Just because someone believes that God exists is not all there is to faith. It is possible to know that God exists but to know nothing about that God.

Explanation

In order to grasp the concept of faith, we must realize that faith is bigger than just belief that God exists. The Hebrew writer writes to a people who some have given up and others are ready to give up on their new found faith. Apostasy was running ramped and people began to loose hope believing that it was taking Jesus too long to come back. The Hebrew writer exhorts them in Hebrews 10:35-39. The text suggests in Chapter 10:38 that faith is not an event to attend, not a badge of honor to wear, but it is a lifestyle. The righteous live by faith. It means that when faith is a lifestyle for me I get to encounter God in every circumstance of my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

He goes on in Chapter 11 to write “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We often tend to measure faith based on how little or how much we have. But we read in the Gospels that if you’ve got faith even the size of a mustard seed you can speak to a mountain and it will be removed. Letting us know that it’s not about a quantity of faith but its about the substance. Meaning that faith is only as good as what it is attached to. Faith in God beloved has to have a substance. So you can speak to a mountain with only faith the size of a mustard seed because your faith is rooted in the right substance. I’ve met some folk who’ve got great faith but do not have sufficient substance to produce what they are standing in faith for. Sometimes you’ll meet some folk who appear to have faith but their faith is only a feeling that is constantly floating with the currents of life.

But beloved of God, faith is not how you feel, faith is not an emotion because your emotions do not function based on your intellect. Your feelings will change with the weather and change based on the information you have been given. If you find out a loved one has past your feelings change. If you find out you haven’t been approved for the house or the car you wanted your feelings will change. If you find out someone you gave love is really not for you but against you, your feelings change. But faith is not based on information its based on revelation. The substance of revelation is never tied to what can be perceived by your eyes, your smell, your hearing, or your touch. The substance of faith is God. And faith only can come by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Faith is bigger than just believing. You’ve got to take the substance of which you have believed and walk with it! Notice I didn’t say talk by faith. I said walk by faith. Yes, you’ve got to talk by faith to but you can only talk by faith after you have walked by faith. Because talk is cheap. You can’t just talk good about faith because at the end of the day man is looking at your outward appearance but God is looking at the heart. You can fool man by talking a good game of faith but only God knows if you’ve been walking this thing out!

God and His word which are synonymous with one another according to John 1 in the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The substance or the object of faith is God. But its not just belief that God exists but it’s having God in you that what is in you will pour out of you and be activated in your lifestyle. When I’ve got the substance of faith on the inside of me, I signify that I trust the object of my faith despite all else. I trust His integrity. When I’ve got substance attached to my faith, I stand on the word of God even when the events of my life seem contrary. I’ve got a firm footed foundation on His word!

Faith is bigger than just belief. Faith is being able to see the invisible based on what God said. Real faith exhibited in your life must be so infinite in God that it has no limitations and no boundaries. The Hebrew writer in verse 3 speaks of faith concerning the beginning. Giving us the realization that since the creator God made something out of nothing - your faith too has to be able to see something come from nothing simply because God said He could do it. How do the bills get paid when I’ve got more bills than I got money? Because God said He shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in Glory! How then can I expect to be healed when receiving a terminal diagnosis? Because He was wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities, and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him so that I could stand up and say amid any diagnosis by faith, by His stripes I am healed! Some of the things God wants to do in your life are waiting for you to walk by faith! It pleases God when you can look at a mountain in your way and believe God to remove it because you’ve got faith attached to some substance!

Faith is bigger than just belief. And people in the body of faith shouldn’t know you by your fancy church clothes and hats, they shouldn’t know you by your attending church every Sunday, attending Sunday School and Bible study although you should… they should know you by your faith! The text said in verse 2 “for by it [faith] the elders obtained a good report.” If you want to be in pleasing unto God and go down in the hall of fame of life you do so by your faith! When I’m out of here I don’t want to be remembered by the stuff I had but by the faith I exhibited… that I could believe God for anything knowing that if He said it - even when I can’t see it, feel it, touch it, or taste it - it’s because He said it I can stand on it! I can stand on it during the storms of life. And I’ll stand on it even when I don’t want to. What else do I have except for faith.

I can remember being a child and being scared to jump into the pool when one of my family members said jump in. Somebody was there waiting to catch me but I just didn’t trust them to catch me. So I’d never jump in. I’d go to the stairs of the pool and go to wherever I was able to stand. But someone in my family every vacation would say Aarif, jump in, I’ll catch you. But I didn’t trust them to catch me. But one vacation, I decided to jump in trusting my brother or somebody would catch me. And I found out that when someone told me to jump in and they’d catch me that their word was true. So after while, I started jumping in even when nobody had even gotten their to catch me yet. Because I realized that the word of my family was good. (Come here for a minute) Faith will cause you to jump in a pool when you’re uncertain if someone will catch you but you jump in anyway because God said I will catch you if you fall! I’ve got to finish the story. One time I jumped in the pool and there was nobody there to catch me - I was scared to jump in but I did so anyway. When I jumped in, I discovered I could stand in the water where I jumped! And I said oh, this ain’t that bad! Come here for a minute! Walking completely and totally by faith may seem scary and seem like your operating off of nothing. But if the word of God is all the substance you got with your faith - that’s all you needed in the first place.

The Bible says in Genesis 1:2 the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God spoke to nothing and made something from nothing based on the word that He spoke.

And beloved we’ve got to have faith to see the invisible - to see that which others around us may not have the substance to see

Faith that expects the incredible - that means expecting something that seems impossible to believe

Faith that receives the impossible - that means expecting something that is not able to occur, exist, or be done.

And I can have that kind of faith because I know that if God said it! He will bring it to past.

God is not limited by anything. But in order for God to move in your life it requires your faith. Not just your belief in God but your ability to walk on His word!

It doesn’t matter how much faith you have - your faith just has to be connected to the right sustaining substance!

I want to ask you this morning Mt. Sinai… do you have enough substance to be arrested? To arrest your emotions and bring them into alignment with the word of God? To arrest your situation and bring some hope into it because of the substance of your faith?

Closing

But without faith it is impossible to please him… For he that cometh to God must believe that He is… But it’s more than just believing you’ve got to believe that as you put your faith in action - as you walk by faith - that God is a rewarder to those that diligently seek Him (in faith).