Living in Faith

Back to Basics: (Part XV)

LIVING IN FAITH

Hebrews 11:1-3 (NIV):
 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
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.

Hebrews 11:6-7 (NIV):
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

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.

   In Matthew 9: 27-31, you find the story about the Lord Jesus Christ going about His ministries when He was approached by two blind men seeking for healing. As Jesus confronted their predicament, he first asked the blind men whether or not they both believed that He was able to heal them. Without hesitation, they both confessed their faith in Him. And Jesus touched their eyes in verse 29 and said, “according to your faith will it be done to you.”

   Have you ever wondered why other people would experience God’s supernatural activities more than others? The right answer is found from this story in the Gospels. The reality is: God is able to engage us according to our faith in Him. As much as God wants to connect with us or manifest His power to us, if we don’t believe in Him, we won’t acknowledge it as from Him. For many people, it would only be perceived as luck or another coincidental event.

   I hope and pray today that we all understand the importance of faith for in our lives. The author of Hebrews reinforces this truth by stating in verse 6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

   Why is it impossible to please God without faith? Perhaps, the best way to understand this is to acknowledge the fact the God, whom the Bible speaks of, is absolutely an invisible God. Yet, we are willing to engage Him and believe He exists because of faith. Without faith, why would anyone choose to pray, obey, and live for this God. It would be a waste, right? But with faith, if you believe in Him, even if you have not seen Him, and do your best to honor Him in your life, He will help you go through life with amazing victories.

   Unfortunately, we don’t have all the time to read through the entire chapter of Hebrews 11. This chapter is regarded the Hall of Faith chapter. It highlights the lives of ordinary men and women throughout the Bible who have had extra-ordinary achievements because of their faith in God. They’re people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. They all stood out not because they were perfect, or because they were brilliant or full of talents, But because they were all willing to live in faith. In other words, they were all willing to trust the power of God to work through them. In the same way, this is what we all need today. With all the challenges we face in this life, we need to understand what it means to live in faith. Allow me to share to you four essential aspects of faith that we need to fully comprehend:

I THE OBJECT OF FAITH: (vs. 1-3)

   Dr. Warren Wiersbe has appropriately said, “Faith is only as good as its object. If we trust people, we get what people can do; if we trust money, we get what money can do; if we trust ourselves, we get what we can do; if we trust God, we get what God can do.”

   Without a doubt, God is the only worthy object of our faith. If we trust in anyone else, even ourselves, we will surely be disappointed. The apostle Paul explicitly declared in Romans 10: 11:

“As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."”

   Now, the critical question is: how can we make God the object of our faith? I believe Hebrews 11:1-3 can help enlighten us on this. First of all, verse 1 defines faith as the confident assurance that what we are hoping for, though not seen is certain.

   For example, let’s talk about spending eternal life in heaven. We are plainly taught by God in the Bible that Jesus Christ is the only way, truth and the life, no one can go heaven except through Him (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Saving faith is resting on this promise that if you believe in Jesus Christ you will go to heaven. You are certain that though you haven’t seen heaven yet, you know it is real. The moment you die, you know that you will go there.

   And then, verses, 2-3 commends the Old Testament people in believing that God created everything from nothing even if they did not see how everything had happened.  How did they know this, the simple answer is: they trusted the revelation of Genesis 1 and 2. Unfortunately, there are still many people today who are not willing to believe the creation account in the Bible.

   So again, how can we make God the object of our faith? The only way to do it is to believe all the revelations of the Bible about God. There can never be faith in God without the truths of the Bible. It is only through the Bible that we will know about God, and only through the Bible that we will know how we can properly respond to God. This is exactly what the apostle Paul had emphasized in Romans 10:17:

17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

   This makes the Bible so important to us. The more we learn about it, the more we will know who our God is. Since He is the object of our faith, it is then safe to say, the size of our God is the size of our faith.

   It has been said that nine times (9X) Jesus rebuked the disciples of having “little faith.”  Many Bible scholars have interpreted this as having lack of knowledge or immature knowledge of God.  Remember, on one occasion, Jesus led the disciples on a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.  In a midst of their trip, a big storm came making the disciples worried about their safety.  While all of this was happening, they forgot that Jesus was with them and He was sleeping like a baby.  When they woke up Jesus because they feared for their lives, Jesus calmed the storm, but He rebuked them as having little faith. At that point in time, they were not yet as grounded in their knowledge of the Lord.

   How about you today?  Do you know God enough that you can entrust your life and future to Him?  Remember, if He is the object of your faith, he is powerful enough to do even the impossible things.

II THE OBEDIENCE IN FAITH: (v.7)

   Another important aspect of faith is its demonstration in terms of obedience. A person who truly believes in God will obey God regardless of the consequences. You probably have heard the story of the man who fell off a cliff, but he managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. As he tried his best to find options to survive, he shouted, "Is anyone up there?" Then he heard a voice, "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?" "Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer," he responded. Again the voice said, "That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch." A moment of pause, then he said: "Is anyone else up there?"

   This may sound funny, but so many times, we find ourselves responding to God in this way.  On the contrary, if you go back to Hebrews 11, the author uses some Bible characters who demonstrated their great faith in Him by obeying even if it meant suffering because of it.  I know I can use many examples, but let me focus on Noah.  We are very familiar of the story - God has commanded him to build an ark because of the rain that was predicted to come as a punishment for man’s sin.  If you check the story in Genesis 6, Noah received all the complete instructions on how to build the ark without arguing or complaining.  In fact verse 22 says – “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

   Put yourself in Noah’s shoes, would you have risked your reputation in obeying God? Noah could have disobeyed by simply arguing the following:

  • He doesn’t have the concept of rain since it did not exist yet prior to the flood.
  • The project was so huge that it would require a lot of resources and manpower.
  • The project would take years and years to finish (it took him 120 years.).

   However, none of these arguments were used. Instead, Noah believed that everything that God has told him will really happen, and so he obeyed and built the ark throughout 120 years in the midst of all the ridicules of the people around him. This obedience allowed him and his family to experience the blessing of God’s salvation.

   You know, from this example, I believe we can also learn that often our response of obedience, which demonstrates our faith involves some significant risks as well. Often, our unwillingness to take some risks has kept us from experiencing God’s supernatural activities. I was again reminded of our leap of faith when we decided to sell our property in Garfield and look for a bigger facility for our church.  Our closing was to come by the end of 2007, and it was already November and we haven’t found any property yet where we could move our church into. But, God did not fail us. When that year ended, God moved us to our new property here in Randolph. God is worthy of our trust. He never fails.

   Therefore, even if there are risks, don’t be afraid to trust the Lord. Obey Him regardless of the consequences and you will never be sorry. He will never fail.

III THE OBSTACLES OF FAITH: (v.1, 6)

   Our Christian faith has a worthy object who is God. If we decide to live for Him, then we need to stimulate a relationship with Him based on faith, and by sight. Since He is invisible and transcendent, it would be impossible for us to relate to Him according to our senses. The apostle Paul emphasizes this in 2 Corinthians 5:7:

7 We live by faith, not by sight.

   Time and again, we have to make a choice not to walk by sight, but by faith. Going back to the example of Noah, it probably didn’t make sense to make a huge boat that would take 120 years to build especially when you haven’t had any experienced of rain. But Noah heard a clear revelation from the Lord, and so he based his life there. I believe many Christians are not growing in their faith because they always want to live by sight. Everything must always be reasonable and practical. However, we cannot expect to understand God all the time. We have to admit “His ways are higher than our ways, neither are His thoughts higher than our thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

   There are many things we have to believe that may not sound reasonable, but they are very Biblical. Consider our belief on salvation. Some people are struggling with the idea that the cruel death of Christ, can give life to those who believe Him. For some, the cross doesn’t make sense; or the teaching about the Trinity of God. They may not make sense now, but if they are clearly taught in the Bible, we have to believe in them by faith.

   Perhaps, we need to provide some words of caution. When Noah built an ark, there were clear instructions that came from God. If he built the ark without instructions, that is not faith, it is simply presumption. God has clearly given us His revelations. We have the Bible to serve as our guide in our journey of faith. So we based our faith, our lives on the teachings of the Bible. We will never go wrong with that. Our faith and the Bible must go together.

IV THE OUTCOME OF FAITH: (v. 2, 6)

   Lastly, we also want to emphasize the reward of faith. First, we want to go back to verse 2. After faith has been defined for us, the author said that the people in the Old Testament who exercised faith where commended by God. If you check out the Message translation of it, you will appreciate more the meaning of it:

Hebrews 11:2 (MSG)
2 The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

   Wow, their faith had set them above the crowd. They are the ones whose lives are recorded in the Hall of Faith chapter (Heb. 11)

   How would you like to get the approval of God as you live your life today? One way to do this is to be sure we choose to live by faith. Verse 6 reinforces this concept by reminding us that by faith we are able to please God. When you and I respond in unbelief, we send the message to God that He is unreliable, almost like a liar. But when we respond in faith, we please the heart of God and honor Him.

   Let us not neglect the last part of verse 6 – “He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” This is a clear-cut promise that when we pursue the Lord because we believe in Him, we will never be disappointed, God’s favors will come to us. After 120 years, finally the rains came, and the floods started to rise. I can imagine the people who laugh at Noah while he was still building the ark. This time Noah is vindicated, but more than that, his entire family has been saved from a sure destruction.

   Let me challenge all of you to exercise faith towards God. Indeed, it is for your own personal advantage if you live your life believing in God. Life is filled with great uncertainties, but if we live in faith, God could be the source of our courage and confidence on our journeys. Decide today to always live in faith, and living in faith means living for Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV):
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.