Learning How to Walk by faith
Hebrews 11:1
January 5, 2014
AM
Pastor Craig
Ledbetter
I.
Introduction (Hebrews
11:1)
A.
“Now
faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
B.
I have Three Goals this year
1.
For everyone to understand
what Biblical Faith is (Hebrews 11:1)
a.
Whatever it is, you can’t see
it, but it has substance, and it has evidence that it works!
b.
Just because you can’t see
faith doesn’t mean it isn’t real!
2.
To get Everyone to start to
just believe God – not just believe IN God, but to BELIEVE God (Acts 27:25)
a.
Mark 11:22
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. It is a command!
b.
Act 27:25
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be
even as it was told me.
c.
Oh how powerful is a strong
faith in the God of the Bible!
3.
For all of us to LIVE and WALK
by Faith, instead of
by our SIGHT (2Cor 5:7)
a.
To trust God more than we
trust our own understanding
C.
The Result of a life lived by
faith will be:
1.
Pleasing to God
2.
Having Power with God
3.
Getting Answers to Prayer
4.
Having Peace and Rest no
matter the storm or the trouble
5.
And laying up treasures in a
far better world! Living by faith will provide very little success, or
prosperity, or greatness in this world’s view… but that is okay!
6.
A totally different life – a
great life!
D.
The results of living a life
by only sight will be:
1.
In trouble with God
2.
No power with God
3.
No answers to prayer – you
will be on your own so to speak
4.
No real peace or rest in even
the smallest of storms or troubles
5.
And nothing of eternal value
connected with your life
6.
The same old dead-end life –
miserable life!
E.
This morning, and all year
long, I want to explore what Biblical Faith is, and how to walk in it
1.
Everyone has some faith
already, and everyone uses their faith constantly…
a.
You have faith in your Doctor
– that he is not a quack
b.
You have faith in the food you
buy and eat – that it is not poison
c.
You have faith in the car you
drive that it will start, and get you from A to B without exploding or dying on
the road
d.
You have faith in the seat you
are sitting in – that it won’t collapse
e.
You have faith in the air you
are breathing – that it is Oxygen and Nitrogen like you need!
f.
You have faith in your parents
– that they are not aliens waiting to transport you back to their home-world!
g.
You have faith, belief in
loads of things!
2.
But, we have been so
de-sensitized, so apathetic, so that we don’t know what faith “feels” like, and
we don’t even think faith is even necessary anymore! Not in this
advanced age!
3.
Oh, we think we are so smart,
and don’t need faith at all! This generation believes we don’t need to pray;
don’t need to learn Biblical doctrines, or even what’s right and wrong.
4.
And our culture especially
rejects a child-like faith in an invisible God! The media has pretty well almost
convinced just about everyone that God isn’t even there!
F.
The purpose of my efforts this
year is to fully persuade every hearer…
1.
That there really is a God in
heaven – He is the ONLY God, by the way!
2.
That He is RIGHT in all that
He does – He is perfectly right and just
3.
That He has revealed Himself
to this world through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through His perfect words, the
Bible!
4.
That He is holy and
unapproachable by anyone who sins – that means everyone is separated from God,
including Mary, Mother Theresa and Pope Francis! And that includes YOU too!
5.
But, I want to fully persuade
everyone that God has made a way to Him, not through a church or a religion, but
through the perfect sacrifice of His own Son on the cross 2,000 years ago!
6.
And finally, that He loves and
cares about us, and cares for us in every way unimaginable!
7.
Oh if I could only convince
everyone of those things, those truths!
8.
Then we might just start
walking by faith instead of by sight!
II.
Message
A.
Faith…
1.
Being fully persuaded that
what God has promised, He is able to do (Romans 4:21)
B.
Let’s Expand the
Definition? Having ‘Biblical Faith’ means:
1.
To Believe God even though you
haven’t seen Him, even though you don’t see Him, or hear Him at work
2.
Being fully persuaded that
what God has promised, He is able to do (Romans 4:21)
3.
To Fully Depend upon God and
upon His Character (Num 23:19; Heb 10:23)
a.
You can be sure, that HE is
good, and will do good!
b.
Because He is NOT like us! He
keeps His word, His promises!
4.
To Trust Him… as hard as it
may be, ENOUGH to do what He says do
5.
To Rely Upon ONLY Him, and not
have a plan ‘B’ or Plan ‘C’ in case He fails – as if He ever will!
6.
Resting in God’s great care
(Psalm 37:6)
a.
Have Positive Hope In His Plan
– able to rest like Christ did in the ship caught in the storm!
b.
To be Confident in God’s
Wisdom – He “usually” is much smarter than you are me!
c.
To be Sure of some things,
even though you do not have all the facts!
C.
Illustrate it. Let me
show you faith in action in the life of Job – a life lived by faith, and
NOT by sight. A life that in spite of everything, stayed upon God!
1.
Job 1:1,2,13-22
He LOST everything and
everyone precious to him!
2.
Job 2:7-10
Lost his health, his friends, and even the support of his wife
3.
Job 13:15
Resolved that even if God took his life, he still would TRUST Him
4.
Job 19:25-27
Even though Job didn’t understand what was going on, he still KNEW that
his redeemer, Saviour was alive and well and was taking good care of him
5.
Job 23:8-10
And Job believed with all his heart that God was with him even though he
was invisible!
D.
Many today think
Faith is anti-intellectual, or UN-reasonable
1.
People actually believe that
faith means shutting down the brain, and not asking questions; Just
blindly follow along with a religion or cult
2.
Today’s culture seems to view
Biblical Christianity as being only about blind-faith and not reason. People
think you either have faith or you have reason, but not both. You either have a
Bible, or you have Science.
3.
But that is not how it has
always been.
a.
Historically, most of the
centres of education, universities, colleges, etc. are a direct result of
Christian influence which brought knowledge and education to all the masses.
b.
Without the Christian’s view
of Creation and the universe, and the Bible believer’s love of SCIENCE, it would
be unlikely that we would be anywhere near where we are today technologically or
scientifically.
4.
So, for true Biblical faith to
exist at all, the mind must be used right along with the heart!
5.
In reality, I have found that
MOST people don’t have real faith at all
a.
Believe that faith is only a
set of opinions, and emotions, popular beliefs, and experiences that they think
is their “faith”
b.
But those are all Wrong
Substitutes for Real Faith
E.
Real, active, life-changing
Faith is Four Things, all working together. You
have to have all four in motion for it to be real!
1.
Hearing the words of this Book
– paying attention to every word
2.
Believing the God who wrote
this Book!
3.
Obeying what God says to do in
this Book
4.
Leaving the results up to God
5.
Without all four in motion,
there is no faith, only talk, only powerlessness, only frustration, only
religion, and only disappointment!
F.
The Example of Abraham
(Romans 4:17-22)
1.
God made a promise to
Abraham – what a thought!
a.
Here is this pagan man named
Abram, living in a pagan culture that worshipped the Moon Goddess. Not looking
for God, yet God went looking for HIM!
b.
God spoke to him – that is
amazing!
c.
And Abraham HEARD Him!
d.
God Promised that He would
give to Abraham and his wife Sarah many children, if they would just BELIEVE
Him! Not just believe IN Him, but fully trust Him, enough to follow Him, and
obey Him.
e.
What if Abraham had been too
busy to hear Him?
f.
Or too sceptical to believe
that God would be any different than the religion he had been brought up in
g.
How does God speak to this
world today? Visions, dreams, voices from the ceiling?
h.
The ONLY Valid Source of a
person’s Faith is what God said in this Book, the Bible
i.
Did you know that God has made
some promises to YOU? You had better find out what He said!
2.
Abraham Believed God –
how simple it is!
a.
Faith starts with hearing what
God says! Not with what you feel, or what you want, or even what you NEED. It
starts with “thus saith the Lord!”
b.
Now that God had spoken to
Abraham, the only thing for him to do was to believe God
c.
And so Abraham believed God!
1)
He believed that God would not
lie to him
2)
Believed that God would keep
His promises to him
3)
Abraham just believed God!
4)
Not just believed IN God, but
Abraham BELIEVED God
5)
Completely trusted God like a
patient trusts a surgeon on an operating table!
3.
Abraham Believed
IN SPITE of the impossible-ness of it all
a.
Faith has never been easy! If
it was easy, everybody would be living by faith! But it is HARD to trust when
there are so many impossibilities involved in our lives!
b.
Impossibility of having
children
1)
God didn’t just promise 1 or 2
children to Abraham - That was impossible enough to believe.
2)
No. It was children numbering
as the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea that Abraham had to believe!
c.
Abraham and Sarah were barren.
1)
They had tried and tried, and
just could NOT have any children!
2)
Abraham was almost 100 years
of age – “practically dead”
3)
And besides that, Sarah’s womb
was dead – she had stopped being able to produce children for years now –
stopped at menopause
d.
Impossibility of figuring out
HOW all this could ever happen
1)
There was no way Abraham or
Sarah could have begun to have figured a way for all this to actually take place
2)
They actually TRIED to figure
a way to “help out” God, by using Hagar, but that ended in a big mess!
e.
All they could do was believe!
f.
And that was ALL that God
needed! Faith has always been the victory folks!
4.
Abraham was
“full of faith”
a.
He HAD struggled with doubts
before – all of us do!
1)
12 years of nothing happening
led him and Sarah to try to have a baby through Hagar – which was a huge
mistake!
2)
He had run from the promised
land as soon as a famine hit the area
3)
He had asked his wife Sarah to
lie and tell everyone in
b.
But in the end, Abraham grew
to the place of fullness of faith – he was FULL of faith!
1)
Oh that is where “I” want to
be!
2)
Poem – When faith becomes
Captain
When faith is
in motion, there’s room for no doubt;
No time for hesitation, or for worries, but only a shout!
No further
debates, and no panicking should happen,
When unbelief has been routed, and faith becomes Captain.
It just
believes God, no matter how hard;
It rests in full hope, as Praise firmly stands guard.
So don’t
think you have faith, when it’s just empty and blind;
Become fully persuaded in both heart and your mind;
Persuaded
that God is always faithful and true
And that He can only do all that He has ever promised to you!
3)
Abraham staggered not at the
impossible-ness of God’s call. He stayed the course!
4)
He had no more unbelief (Rom
4:20)
5)
He learned to just believe God
6)
He only had hope now! No delay
could discourage him anymore!
7)
He lived to praise God by
faith!
8)
All because he was fully
persuaded – firmly convinced God would do everything He ever said
5.
Abraham ACTED on
that faith
a.
Faith without obedience is
dead!
1)
That’s just another way of
saying faith without works is dead!
2)
Obedience to God is the
outworking of our faith
3)
When God shows us what to do,
and we disobey, we are simply living out our unbelief!
4)
If we believe God, then we
will have no problem doing what He asks of us – even when it is hard, or even
impossible!
b.
Abraham took the steps God
asked him to take
1)
Left his home
2)
Left his own family behind
c.
He learned to stay in the
Promised Land
d.
Learned to wait on God’s
timing
e.
Learned to pray
f.
Learned to Praise God even
before he received any of the promises!
6.
All of THAT is real faith…
when it affects our mouth, our hands, our feet, and our LIVES!
7.
THAT is WALKING by faith, and
not by sight!
G.
And LOOK at what that kind
of faith can do (Romans 4:22-25)
1.
It saved Abraham – made him
right with God!
a.
Good works couldn’t do that!
Never can! Only FAITH can save a person!
b.
Abraham’s faith was imputed
(credited) to him for righteousness
c.
It allowed God to forgive him
and make him righteous in God’s eyes!
2.
It allowed God to bless
Abraham, and guide him, and help him all the rest of his life
3.
It brought the Messiah into
the world through he and Sarah!
4.
And it was not written for his
sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
But for us also,
a.
“IF we believe on him that
raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”
b.
Wow! What real, Biblical faith
will do!
c.
Just child-like faith in Jesus
Christ, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for OUR
justification.
III.
Application and
Conclusion
A.
To HAVE Such Faith… Everyone
in this room this morning needs to…
1.
Hear this Bible yourself
– from cover to cover
a.
Quit listening to your heart,
to your friends, to your church, to your school
b.
Listen to the Lord God
almighty who made this entire universe, and gave you a Bible so that you could
know Him and trust Him!
c.
You see, there is no real
faith without knowing “the words of faith”
1Timothy 4:6 “If thou put the
brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus
Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine,
whereunto thou hast attained.”
d.
All other faith is only
emotional, and feelings-based, and will lead all the way to hell!
e.
But of you listen to the words
of this Book, you will end up following Jesus, and He will get you all the way
to heaven!
f.
So, Listen to the words of
this Bible, learn them, don’t miss a single word (Rom 10:17; Matthew 4:4)
g.
Pretend like it was written
just for you – because it was!
2.
Believe it all
(Acts 24:14)
a.
Believe the GOD of this Book
b.
Even though His promises are
impossible
c.
Even though your heart aches
and struggles to rest
d.
Even though you can’t
understand the HOW, at least understand the WHO – that it is GOD who promises
and will keep His promises
e.
Jesus said, believe me, follow
me, trust me
f.
And then He spent 3 ½ years as
a servant, earning our trust
g.
Watch HIS life, and see if He
is not worthy of trusting
3.
Act on it
– obey what God says do (Heb 5:9)
a.
There is no faith in just a
list of beliefs, when you won’t act on them
b.
People are comfortable with a
creed in a church or in a catechism
c.
But it is another thing
completely to actually live by what you believe!
d.
In other words, if you do not
DO what you read in this Bible, then you prove that you do not believe what you
read in this Bible!
e.
So, step out in faith and obey
what God says do – concerning everything
4.
Leave the results up to
God (Psalm 37:5)
a.
Trust that God can make
everything turn out just fine!
b.
According to this Book, God
will only do right
c.
He will make all things work
together for good
d.
He will make everything
beautiful in His time
e.
And he will never leave or
forsake a believer, ever!