St. Luke’s Evangelical
Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Now faith is being sure of what we hope -for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. 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. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age-and Sarah herself was barren was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Dear children of God who live by faith in Christ Jesus, Amen
How many of you like to ride on roller coasters? I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoy riding roller coasters -- the speed, the twists, the heart-pumping adrenaline. Whenever I get to go to Great America – usually when I take the teens from Church, I enjoy going on the biggest and the fastest Roller Coaster more than any of the other rides in the park. My favorites are the ones with the biggest drops and the fastest speed. Some people may think that people who like roller coaster are crazy. They have these fears that they might slip out from the harness or somehow the harness will let loose. Others think that there might be some kind of mechanical failure. As I ride the roller coasters, I never have thought of any of those things going wrong, and why is that? I trust that the company that designed the ride knew what it was doing and that the people who do the maintenance and inspect the rides know what they are doing. I trust that I am safe on that ride every time I ride it, even though I have never met one of these inspectors or designers personally.
As Christians who live in this sinful world there are many of us who have fears and worries that almost consume our daily lives. We worry about every little thing in life to the point that we are almost too afraid to do our every day activities. We are stressed out and so occupied with fear that we have forgotten to trust that God actually knows what is going on. Our lack of trust leads us to lose track of what is important and who is important. Today we are going to let God remind us that life may not be simple at times, but we don’t need to worry. Rather we need to:
Sermon Theme: Persevere In Your Faith
1.
Faith Defined
2.
Faith Commended
3. Faith Demonstrated
Hebrews Chapter 11 is considered the great faith chapter of the Bible. The whole chapter is devoted to talking about the faith that God gave to people of the Old Testament. And while he talks only about a few people from the Old Testament, we can quickly see that these words are meant to strengthen and commend the faith of Christians for all ages.
As the first verse unfolds we have what many call God’s definition of Faith or God’s description of what faith really is. As the words appear before us we begin to see very clearly that our faith is not some blind faith or some kind of leap into the dark. Our faith is based on the certainty that God speaks about throughout his holy Scriptures. The writer says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is having a sureness that what we hope for, namely eternal life in heaven, is 100% ours. By faith we know this will happen. And although we cannot see heaven or even see our Savior, we do not have to live in doubt, because we know that God and all his promises are true. Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight.”
As we look at this description faith, we don’t see any doubt, do we? Yet how many of us lose many nights of rest, thinking and worrying about what our futures will hold? How many of us become so shortsighted that we forget that our future is in God’s hands. In many ways, faith brings our spiritual future into the present age, because the things hoped for are already true as God has told us. Christ’s return on the Last Day is not something we hope for anymore, but it is something that is real and true. But how can we believe in something we can not see or touch? Just think of how many of God’s promises are invisible to us. We never saw the creation of the world. We never saw Jesus and his death and resurrection. We never saw Jesus ascend into heaven. But faith makes what is invisible to see or touch completely visible to our hearts.
Faith is much like a telescope that brings God’s promises into view so we can begin to see what we are waiting for. Many times God’s plans and promises may be just a very unclear picture as we look forward to our home in heaven. Other times our faith makes things very clear to us. All in all, we know that without faith we could not see one thing about God and his promises. Thanks be to God that he has worked faith in our hearts. Another picture we can use to think of faith being like the unfolding of a picture. As God allows, our faith unfolds more and more of God’s eternal picture. God allows us to unfold enough for us to know for certain that our sins are forgiven and that we have a home in heaven. However, the picture will not be completely unfolded until we are in heaven, nor will the picture come into complete focus until we are at God’s side.
Another way of thinking about what our faith means for us is to take a look at how the world got here. There are many different ideas and theories as we all have seen and read, but our text talks very clearly about what part faith plays in the understanding of believing what we cannot see. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” Who was present at creation? Only God was. And yet we trust that his Word is true as he describes the creation of the world for us in the early chapters of Genesis. We can never “understand” creation, but we can trust that God’s words are the truth about the world’s beginning.
The closer we look at these words from the book of Hebrews the more we start to get a better glimpse of what kind of faith God wants us to have. But the writer of our text doesn’t stop there. He goes on to write words for us that also commend Christians for their faith, and he lets early Christian demonstrate this kind of faith as they put their faith into action. The text uses the life of Abraham to serve as an example for us. While we marvel at the trust and faith of Abraham, we also realize that God has blessed us with this same faith. I encourage you all to go home and read the rest of the 11th Chapter of Hebrews to see how the faith that God has given to you is the same as those listed throughout Scripture. It is also interesting to see what words our text uses to show where all of these people got the power to do these great things. Look how many times we hear the phrase, “By faith?” (5 times to be exact) It is only by faith that we can lay our lives in the hands of God to accomplish such great things through us.
As we look at Abraham’s faith we see a man who was asked to leave his home country and travel far away to a land he had never been to. We see a man who lived in a land and longed to be in God’s heavenly place. We see a man who trusted in God’s promise to send him a son, even though he and his wife were years past childbearing. This is faith that we can certainly commend. It would have been very easy for Abraham to somewhere along the way to say, “God this is asking too much”, or “God this time I don’t believe that this will happen.” Now having faith doesn’t mean that we will never doubt or become worried. As long as we are on this earth and possess a sinful nature, we will never be 100% in our trust of God, but Abraham’s faith and our own faith is one in which we can see God’s guiding hand and forgivness for the times we falter.
The last portion of our text shows how we can demonstrate our faith to others. The people of the Old Testament “were still living by faith when they died, they did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” The people of the Old Testament were trusting in God’s promise to send a Savior, but they never got to see that Savior. They were still living in faith waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. They only got to see a glimpse of the coming Savior through the words and promises God gave them through the prophets.
Much in the same way, we are still living by faith in the year 2007. Although we have God’s Word recorded for us, we still look at God and our home in heaven from a distance. We have not reached or seen our eternal home in heaven. This will not happen until that day we are with God in heaven. We know it is ours, but we have to wait. But how hard is it to wait? We are many times like a child waiting for their presents at Christmas or at their birthday. It is very difficult, but isn’t that kind of waiting a good thing. It shows that we are not seeking to live forever on this earth. Just as the people of the Old Testament realized they had something special waiting for them. A place described as, “a better country – a heavenly one.” One where the “architect and builder is God.” Our home is not on this earth, but by faith we long for our eternal home in heaven.
As we look at all that is going on in this world and in our lives, let us pray that God will continue to strengthen our faith, and let us continue to let our faith shine as we are eager to show our trust in our Lord and Savior. As we look at God’s promises, we realize that it is alone by God’s grace that he is willing to work faith in our hearts, faith which reaches out and grabs onto all the promises that God has given to us. Thanks be to God for giving us this kind of faith!