TITLE: A Picture of Faith

TEXT: Hebrews 11: 1-7 THEME: The believer’s faith in the reality he cannot see pleases God.

Everyone has faith

John Bisagno

"Faith is the heart of life. You go to a doctor whose name you can’t pronounce. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen. He gives you medication you do not understand --- and yet, you take it.!”

Every human puts faith in something.

• It may be in some notion of human potential.

Every human puts faith in something.

• It may be in some notion of human potential.

• It may be in the supremacy of science or reason or political power.

Every human puts faith in something.

• It may be in some notion of human potential.

• It may be in the supremacy of science or reason or political power.

• It may be faith in some vague concept like “oneness with nature.”

Why is faith important to the believer’s relationship with God?

I. It gives us confidence and assurance. (1-2)

Hebrews 1:1-2

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.”

I. It gives us confidence and assurance. (1-2)

A. Confidence in what we hope for

I. It gives us confidence and assurance. (1-2)

A. Confidence in what we hope forB. Assurance about what we do not see.

I. It gives us confidence and assurance. (1-2)

A. Confidence in what we hope forB. Assurance about what we do not see. C. It is what the biblical forefathers were commended for.

Allen Chapman, “Slaying the Dragons”

“…even when the advocates of secular unbelief strive to remodel humanity from what they take to be "first principles", the Judea-Christian moral world view retains such a hold upon their mental architecture and creative imaginations that it returns to haunt their aspirations.”

Allen Chapman, “Slaying the Dragons”

“And when secularists try to make the world better, or explain humanity's place in the greater scheme of things, its indelible traces soon become apparent, if only we look for them. So why do we, even when vigorously denying God, recast ourselves, no doubt unthinkingly, in the role of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jesus? To generate a secular "transcendence", in fact!... One of the premises behind much social, scientific, and secular thinking over the last 250 years is the idea that mankind is "perfectible".

Allen Chapman, “Slaying the Dragons”

“All one needs to do IS replace the Judeo-Christian religion, with its doctrines of original sin, atonement, and redemption, with a rational psychology of original innocence and the right sort of education, and a new and nobler order of being will emerge.”

Why is faith important to the believer’s relationship with God?

II. It enables us to understand the origin of the universe. (3)

Hebrews 11:3

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

II. It enables us to understand the origin of the universe. (3)

A. It was formed at God’s command.

II. It enables us to understand the origin of the universe. (3)

A. It was formed at God’s command. B. What is visible was made by something invisible.

A.W. Tozer

“Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.” Some people think faith is believing in something that is not actually there. Biblical faith believes God when He tells us there is a reality, which we cannot see. Faith means that we keep our eyes on God who controls circumstances --- not on the circumstances themselves.”

II Corinthians 5:7

“We live by faith, not by sight.”

What Biblical Faith is NOT

• Faith is NOT a blind leap in the dark

D.L Moody

“I prayed for faith and thought that some day it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I had, up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and began to study ---and faith has been growing ever since.”

What Biblical Faith is NOT

• Faith is NOT a blind leap in the dark.• Faith is NOT the ability to manipulate God.

What Biblical Faith is NOT

• Faith is NOT a blind leap in the dark.• Faith is NOT the ability to manipulate God. • Faith is NOT adherence to a list of

doctrines.

Why is faith important to the believer’s relationship with God?

III. It enables us to please God. (4-7)

A. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah it leads to actions that please God.

–WORSHIP: Abel

Hebrews 11:4

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. Hebrews

A. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah it leads to actions that please God.

WORSHIP: AbelWALK: Enoch

Genesis 5:24

“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Hebrews 11:5

“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”

III. It enables us to please God. (4-7)

A. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah it leads to actions that please God.–WORSHIP: Abel –WALK: Enoch–WORK: Noah

Hebrews 11:7

“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

Young boy

“And Lord, if you need someone to build an Ark … I’ll do it!”

Warren Wiersbe

"Faith enables us to understand what God does. Faith enables us to see what others cannot see. As a result, faith enables us to do what others cannot do.”

III. It enables us to please God. (4-7)

A. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah it leads to actions that please God.B. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah their faith was commended as righteousness.

III. It enables us to please God. (4-7)

A. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah it leads to actions that please God.B. Like Abel, Enoch and Noah their faith was commended as righteousness.C. Faith is how we know God is exists and rewards those who seek him.

Kyle Simpson

“I still have that feeling every once in a while in the stereotypical moments when you're like sitting alone in the dark and you can't go to bed and you start thinking about that. But I don't know if that's emptiness. That's more just a fear that I hope others have.”

Kyle Simpson

"The irony is when I first got the tattoo, I remember thinking, oh, this will be great because when I'm having troubles in my faith, I will be able to look at it, and I can't run away from it. And that is exactly what is happening."

APPLICATION

• Don’t let anyone intimidate you into thinking that believing in God is the equivalent of believing in fairy tale. Science and religion are not in conflict and all the premises that science is based on find their origins in the Christian faith.

APPLICATION

• The modern myth that man has progressed beyond the naïve ill-informed superstitions of a past Christian society is itself a faith position that does not fit the reality of history.

APPLICATION

• We need to be bold and informed regarding how to defend and argue for our faith. It is grounded in history and gives us confidence to argue for what we believe.

John Polkinghorne

“Of course other things being equal, it is better to have an enlightened faith in God than an unenlightened faith. But mere intellectual understanding that does not lead to trust and action is not what God is after.”