[MUSIC PLAYING] So we're in Hebrews Chapter 11. And you know, there's
something that has come out over the last few
years called fact checking. And the phenomenon
of fact checking, because now everybody has
access to the internet, is nobody can cheat anymore. Nobody can readily
give out fake news without being called into
account because we all have access to run
down certain facts. We can go to
websites, some of them wholly dedicated to exploring
the facts of a matter. And you can discern
if what is said, whether it's a news
report or a politician's speech or a preacher's sermon. In the old days, you could
get away with a lot more. Today you cannot get
away with anything. You can get stuff fact checked. Now put that in the
Christian's life. As believers, we
deal with facts. We deal with real time events. We are face to face with life. We face the same
facts, as a believer, that right now, an
unbeliever faces in any country in the world. We're facing something
very similar. However, when you bring
God into the equation, things look different. Things begin to change. And that is what the life
of faith will do for you. What faith does, it brings
God into the picture, and it thereby
changes your outlook. Now we all know the
word coronavirus. It's part of our vocabulary. It's here to stay. We're going to be saying
that for a long time to come, looking back on this very
unique time in history. But right now,
facts are changing. Models are changing every day. Projections are changing. There's opposing voices of what
we should do or shouldn't do, when we should open,
when we shouldn't. We're noticing that each state
is being very unique in how it's gearing back into business,
a variety of opinions on this. So when we face a
difficulty, a trial, an experience that's hard, we
have to fact check with faith. So are there issues? Are there difficulties? Yes. But fact, God loves me. Fact, I'm His child. Fact, God has a plan
unique for my life. Fact, all things work together
for good to those who love God and are called according
to His purpose. And fact, I'm going to
heaven when it's all done. I've got a future and a hope. I've got God's plan and the
best working for me now, and I have a glorious
future when it's over. Now Hebrews Chapter 11 is
one of the great chapters in the Bible. And I have a notion
that most of you know it already pretty well. We know it as the faith
chapter in the Bible. It's similar to what
1 Corinthians 13 is. That's the love chapter. This is the faith chapter. It's as if the author writes
this long, beautiful oratory or song about faith using
a variety of examples from the Old Testament. The theme of Chapter
11 is common people with an uncommon faith, or
simply put, ordinary people who trust an extraordinary God. And because of that, they
lived extraordinary lives. They were normal people
like you and I are. But they tapped into something
in the midst of a difficulty. Hebrews Chapter 11 has been
called a number of things. It's been called
the Hall of Faith or the Hall of Fame of faith. It's been called the honor
roll of the Old Testament. You know, one of the things that
the coronavirus has done with hospitals-- and it's going to
be changing, we think, soon-- but right now elective
surgeries are not being done. Like I had a back surgery. I elected to do it. I can't get that done today. So that's been shut
down, which means all the elective
surgeries like face lifts and plastic
surgeries, they're on hold. And so there's people
who are, man, I'm so bummed out I can't get
that face lift that I wanted. You're not thinking
that, Tamara, because you're so beautiful the
way you are, you girls, Avery. But now's a good time for
you to get a faith lift. Let's look at Hebrews
11 as something that's going to give us a faith lift. These are people
like you and me. These are people who put
their sandal on one at a time. They struggled with
issues in life. They had to pay rent. But they were models of trust. These are people
like Abel and Noah and Enoch and Abraham and
Sarah and a host of others. They all had difficulties, but
they had to fact check life by bringing God into the
equation, adding faith to it, and things changed. Each of them lived in
hardship with this world, but each of them lived
in fellowship with God. They lived in hardship, yes,
with things around them, but they lived in fellowship
with the one who is above them. Well, we face the
same obstacles. We face difficult times. And that has been a recurrent
theme on the weekends and Wednesday studies for
the last several weeks, and rightly so. We're dealing with
something very, very unique. We're in tough times. No question. Tough times demand tough faith. By the way, the only
way to get tough faith is to have tough times. Faith is like a muscle
that needs to be exercised. You need resistance. It needs to be kind of
beaten down and broken down, and then you build
it back up again, just like when you go to
the gym and you work out. So God is allowing us to
go through this difficulty because he's strengthening
the outcome of the church's faith going forward. And some of us are saying, oh,
I don't know if I can make it. You can make it. You should make it. You must make it,
and here's why. Jeremiah once complained,
because things were difficult in
his life, and he was pleading with God in the
midst of a difficult situation. Listen to the Lord's
response to Jeremiah. If you have run with the footmen
and they have wearied you, how will you contend
with the horses? And if, in the land of
peace in which you trusted, they wearied you,
then how will you do in the floodplain
in the Jordan? In other words,
yeah, this is tough, but I'm preparing you for
something, perhaps, that is tougher going forward. So God is conditioning us. And the way we
get conditioned is to have our faith challenged. Now not everybody agrees
that faith is even a worthwhile disposition. There's people who
marginalize the life of faith. They think that it's
crude and outdated and it's for weak people. It's a superstition. The American author
HL Mencken said, faith may be defined
as an illogical belief in the occurrence
of the improbable. In other words, it's a
blind leap in the dark. It really makes no sense at all. But weak people do that. But I contend that everybody
has faith to some degree. There's natural faith,
and everybody has that. You go to the faucet,
you turn on the faucet, and you don't know what's
living in your pipes, but you've had enough experience
to know that probably I'll be OK. Go to the car and
you put the key in and you turn it,
though you may not understand how engines work
and electricity and pistons and rings and all that. But you have faith that it's
not only going to turn on, but roll down the road. You go to the
pharmacy, and they say take two of these
every four hours, you don't know what's in there. You're hoping that
there's somebody back there with
enough experience to give you something
that won't kill you. You go to a restaurant--
for takeout-- and you go home and you eat it. You don't know what's in there. It's probably good that you
don't know what's in there. But you have had
enough experience that that natural faith is
going to carry you through. So we all have faith. I remember when my son Nate--
who's now a pastor on our staff and a gifted leader-- when we would give him a
meal, if he didn't know what it was-- and my wife
cooked it-- but he had a very unusual prayer. You know, we usually-- Lord bless this food to the
nourishment of our bodies. He would pray this prayer. Lord, I pray this food is not
poison, in Jesus' name, Amen. Not a whole lot of
confidence in his mom. So we're going to look
at Hebrews Chapter 11. And we're going to begin
with some preliminaries before we get into
some examples of people who did fact checking
by bringing faith into the equation. Hebrews 11, Verse 1. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders
obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by
the word of God so that the things which
are seen were not made of the things
which are visible. Let's begin by talking
about the essence of faith. That's where Verse 1 comes in. It tells us not
really a definition, but a description of faith,
the essence of faith. Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I've always found it
interesting, maybe funny-- maybe funny isn't
the right word-- but sad, I would say,
the way some people try to define faith. They define faith as-- some
people-- a blind optimism, saying things like, things
are going to work out. I have faith. In what? Way do you have faith in? What is the object
of your faith? So that's just sort
of a blind optimism. Everything's going to work out. I have faith. Others' view of faith is
like positive confession, the idea of whatever the mind
can believe and conceive, it can achieve. And so you just speak out. Your words are the
containers of your faith, and you speak out a
positive confession. The problem with that,
that can be faith in faith. You're believing in the
power of faith alone. To other people,
faith is a feeling. I don't know if any of you here
remember the movie Oklahoma. Do you remember it? It was an old musical. You remember it? So you have seen
it because you've had acting experience, Ryan. So there is a song-- you'll recognize the song. Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling. Everything's going my way. What a wonderful feeling. To some people, that's faith. I have a wonderful feeling,
and it's my feeling that things are
just going to be OK. Listen, faith is only
as good as its object. If your faith is in faith,
if the object of your faith is the power of
faith, it's going to fail because some days it's
strong, some days it's not. If your faith is in a
feeling, well, that's going to go up and down. You have to have faith in God. True faith clings to
the promises of God, not to the premises
or preferences of man. It has to be rooted in
something more solid, and that is the promise of God. That's why it says
in Verse 3, by faith we understand the worlds were
framed by the word of God so that things which
are seen were not made of things that are visible. Some people have seen faith as
believing in spite of evidence. Now nothing could be
further from the truth. To believe in something
despite or contrary to evidence is just superstitious. So what I love here is
that what the author does is he gives us the essence
of true Biblical faith, and he says two things. It's the substance
of things hoped for. It's the evidence
of things not seen. They are two parallel
phrases that essentially mean the same thing. One just builds on the other. It's not a full theological
definition of faith, but it is the essence of faith. So listen to Verse 1 in
the New Living Translation. What is faith? It is the confident assurance
that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of
things we cannot yet see. So take that first phrase here. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. I like that. Faith has substance. It's substantive. So the word translated
here, substance, means a firm, solid assurance,
or better yet, a foundation. It comes from two Greek
words put together that means to set underneath,
to set underneath. So you put something underneath
and you rest on that. It's a support. It's a firm ground to stand on. So then faith is not
something that you concoct in your imagination. It's for weak people who need
to look outside of themselves and believe in some
God that they made up. It's not fabricated by the mind. Faith, true Biblical
faith, has solid substance. There's a great story about
John Patton, who became a physician and an academic. And before that he was a
missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific,
filled with cannibals, by the way. He went to these islands. He was translating
the Gospel of John. And he was trying to come
up with the right word in the receptor language for the
word faith, the word believe, the word trust. And he didn't find
an adequate word to translate into that language. So he is in his tent one day. And he did have a desk. He had a chair. And he had a local attache
or servant with him who knew the language. So he would ask him questions. Well, what does this mean? What does that mean? So one day he sat in his chair
at his desk and he said to him, he said, what am I doing? And the man said you're
sitting in your chair. So then he leaned back a
little, put his feet up in the air like this,
said, now what am I doing? And the word the man
uttered back to him was a word that,
when translated, means to lean your
whole weight upon. What am I doing right now? You are leaning your whole
weight upon that chair. So he said, that's the word to
translate trust, faith, belief. So John 3:16, in that language,
is, for God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten son, that whoever leans
his whole weight upon Him will not perish, but
will have everlasting life. That's the essence of faith. It's substantive. It has a strong
under-girding and foundation. You might say that faith
is putting all your eggs in God's basket, and then
counting your blessings before they hatch. It's got real substance. So that's the first phrase. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Second parallel phrase
is, and it's the evidence of things not seen. That's the same truth, but it
just kicks it up another notch, goes up another level. And the word here for
evidence means the satisfying conviction. So that which I rest upon
becomes deep within me something I'm really
convicted in that it's true, a satisfying conviction. And the idea here is that
faith acts upon that confidence even though I
can't fully see it. I don't see it all yet. It's not completely revealed. A man of faith acts upon
what he believes even if he can't totally grasp it. You going to the doctor,
to the pharmacist. You don't understand
all the compounds, but you take it by
faith, and you apply it. I've always loved the story
about a grocer, a guy who owned a grocery store. Old days now. Think small town America,
little grocery store, the kind that had the
cellar beneath the store. So he had a wood floor,
he'd go down the steps. He kept his stock down
there, moved it upstairs. So he went down to get
some items, some stock to bring up to the shelves. And while he's down
there-- so up top, it's It's very well-lit because
you have natural window light. Down below it's dimly lit. While the grocer was
down in the cellar, the grocer's son was in the main
part of the store looking down that hole where the ladder is. He couldn't see anything
because it's so dark. It's so well-lit up here. Couldn't see anything. And his dad looks
up and sees his son, his well-lit face
from the window light looking down, peering down. And the dad says, jump. The boy can't see. He can only hear a
voice that says, jump. He goes, I can't jump. Come on, son, it's your daddy. You recognize my voice. You hear my voice. Jump. And the boy said, I can't
jump, daddy, I can't see you. And daddy said,
but I can see you. And you know me, and you
know that I love you. The boy just jumped. So there was substance
and conviction that dad was going to be
down there to catch him. That's the essence of faith. Now when it comes to
living a life of faith, and the need to fact check
with a life of faith, it's because of this. There is a spiritual
reality around us that we don't see
with our natural eye. If we could see it, it
would change our life. I'll give you a few examples. In the Old Testament,
there's a guy who's running from his brother. His name was Jacob,
and his brother, Esau, because of the stolen blessing. Jacob hightails it
through the country. His brother is running
after him, chasing him. And so Jacob runs. He goes to this spot
where it's desolate. He doesn't have a tent,
doesn't have a home. He lays his head
on a rock at night. And he's very lonely. He's very isolated. He feels very alone. When he falls asleep, the Lord
gives him a vision, a dream. And he sees a ladder
going all the way up into heaven and the Angels of
God going up from the Earth and coming down from
heaven to the Earth. Jacob wakes up the
next morning and says, the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not. And he calls the place Beth El,
which means the house of God. Truly, this is the house of God. Surely this is the
gate of heaven. I love the way it's worded. The Lord is in this
place-- not was, is. Present tense--
but I knew it not. I know it now. But I knew it not yesterday,
but now I know it. There is now an awareness. I have seen into the other
world a reality I didn't know existed. But now I do. And it changed the
way he did life. That's one example. Another example is
the prophet Elijah. He's down at a
town called Dothan. The Syrian army
camps surround him. The reason the
Syrians are after him is because Elijah
the prophet could tell what the Syrian army was
going to do before they did it. As soon as a battle cry went
out, bring your men here, he would tell the
Israelite commander and they'd be ready for it. So the Syrian army says, look,
we kind of have a snitch. God is telling this
guy what we're doing. We got to just get
rid of this guy. So the Syrian army
camps around where he is, where Elijah and
his servant, Gehazi are. And the next morning the servant
of Elijah, Gehazi, looks around and the sees armies on the
hillsides all around him, and he freaks out. He says, what are we
going to do, master? We're surrounded. And the Bible says that
Elijah said to his servant, do not fear, for those that
are with us are more than those that are with them. Now I'm sure the
servant of Elijah didn't understand
the meaning of that. What do you mean, there's
more with us than with them? There's a whole lot of them. I just see two of us. Then he said, Lord, I
pray, open his eyes. Open his eyes. And it says that the Lord
opened his spiritual eyes to perceive that
the angels of God were encamped around
the Syrian army, more in number than
the Syrian army itself. So before, the servant
of Elijah was looking out saying, poor us. Now he's looking out
saying, poor them. They're surrounded. They're dead meat. So both of them were able to
see into the spiritual realm, and because they did
that, things changed. Faith is the organ
by which we are enabled to see into
the invisible order. Remember Shadrach,
Mesach, and Abednego, those three Hebrew children. That was their Babylonian names. Nebuchadnezzar gave an order. They defied the order. The king said, well,
you defy my order, I'm going to throw you into
this burning fiery furnace. So what do these three guys do? Do they obey the king they
can see, Nebuchadnezzar? Or do they trust in the
king they can't see? They can't see but
they know He's there. They decided to put their faith
in the one they cannot see but knew was there, and it
changed everything for them. That's how substantive faith is. Jay Oswald Sanders
put it this way. Faith enables the believing
soul to treat the future as the present and
the invisible as seen. So it's not to be marginalized. It's not unsubstantive. It's not backwards. It's not just illogical. It's substantive. So the fact check we need to
bring into every situation is, I serve a God who
is bigger and more powerful than this
virus or anything else. So that's the essence of faith. Second is the effect of faith. That's Verse 2. The effect of faith is this. For by it-- that is, by faith-- the elders obtained
a good testimony. Now pause for a moment. What does that mean? For by it, by faith, the elders
obtained a good testimony. Well, it could mean
a couple of things. Number one, as it's translated
here in the New King James, it could mean that these
people listed in Hebrews 11, these Old Testament examples
of faith, left a good witness. In other words, they
were a good example. They were a wonderful
pattern to follow. Or it could mean that they were
a good testimony before God, that God is approving
of their witness. And probably that's
what it means. The New Living Translation
translates Verse 2, God gave His approval
to the people in the days of old
because of their faith. NIV is very similar. This is what the ancients
were commended for. So the idea is that God
approved of their life. And that is fully supported. If you go down to Verse 5, it
brings up Enoch as an example. By faith Enoch was taken away
so that he did not see death and was not found because
God had taken him, for before he was taken,
he had this testimony, or this witness,
that he pleased God. But without faith,
it is impossible-- Verse 6-- to please God,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So the experience of
the people of faith is they leave a good
witness to the world, and God gives them
His stamp of approval. They are pleasing to
God, which, by the way, should be our motivation
in life, by the way. Our motivation in
life, the New Testament calls it glorifying God. Jesus called the cross his
way of glorifying the Father. Father, glorify yourself. The time has now come
for you to be glorified. So the idea is I'm going to
live my life to please God. And this is the effect of faith. When you live a life of
faith, God is pleased. 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, Paul
writes, we make it our aim, whether present or absent,
to be well-pleasing to God. That's our goal and aim in life. Jesus said, I always
do those things that are pleasing to Him. Don't you wish you
could say that? I wish I could say, I
always do those things that are pleasing to God. I can't say that. I'm working on it. I'd like to. I want to get better at it. But Jesus could say,
and live that way, I always do those things
that are pleasing to Him. But that's the effect of faith
when you live a life of faith, you leave a good
witness, and you get God's stamp of approval. Another one of my
favorite stories is a story about a
group of entertainers. You're going to like this,
Ryan, because you grew up in this industry. They were a group of
actors, minstrels, singers. And they formed a
little group, and they would travel through
European towns playing at taverns and places
where people could pay a modest amount
for a ticket and get good entertainment over a meal. But it was turning
from fall to winter. It was getting colder. An economic downturn
in the economy, like now, was happening. Less people were coming
out, and the group was getting discouraged. So one of them said
before a performance-- they looked down and saw just
a couple of people sitting in the chairs-- and one of them said
to the whole group, I think we should just
not go out tonight. I think we should just quit. Look, nobody's coming. It's starting to snow outside. Fewer and fewer are
coming to hear us. It's really not worth
the effort anymore. So let's just call it quits. The oldest and more experienced
man, who had been in this group a long time, said to the
younger man who was saying this, he said, no, I think we owe it
to those people who are here to give our best
performance ever. This may be the
last time we do it. After tonight we
can re-evaluate. But let's just give
it our best shot. And then after tonight,
well, we'll discuss it. They went out, gave
the best performance they ever had to
just a few people. It was dark, so they
couldn't see who's there. But afterwards, the old
man was handed a note-- he opened it up, he then shared
it with the whole group-- that said, thanks for a
beautiful performance, and it was signed, Your King. The kind of that realm
happened to be coming through, happened to hear
about it, go inside. They didn't know
their king was there. They got to perform
for their king, and they won their
king's approval. Boy, that changes a
person's motivation when you know I'm
doing this for my king. And my king might
say, I love that, or how come you didn't
put your heart into it? So that's the effect of faith,
for by it the elders obtained God's vote of approval,
you might say. When you live a life
of faith, not everybody is going to give
you their approval. They're not going to
cheer you on, necessarily. They're not going to be clapping
for you or encouraging you. But you'll have God's approval. Here's the question you
have to ask yourself. Is that enough for you? Really should be because if you
know that you're pleasing God-- if you know you're pleasing God,
I can almost guarantee you-- no, I can guarantee you-- it's going to be enough. You're not going to
care who likes it or who doesn't like it. The biggest payoff
to the life of faith is knowing that God is
pleased with your life. And then there's another payoff. There's heaven afterwards. There's home afterwards. You're not home yet. You're not done yet. You still have a welcoming
committee yet ahead. So that's the essence of
faith and the effect of faith. I'm going to give you
a third component, and that is the example of
faith that the author gives us. That's in Verse 3. Now he gives several
personal examples later. But he begins with
a grand example. Here's the example. By faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by
the word of God so that the things which
are seen were not made of things which are visible. Now there's a lot in that verse. I want to unpack it for you. Again, before giving any
personal, private examples, the author gives this colossal
public example of faith, and that is creation. Creation. He's assuming that the audience
believes in the creation narrative, the creation story. By faith, we
understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. Notice it doesn't say, we
understand the world, singular, was framed by the word of God. But notice it's put
in the plural, worlds. It's the Greek word
[GREEK],, worlds plural. So the idea here
is the universe. That'd be a better translation. By faith we understand that
the universe was created, the physical universe
was created by God. Here's what the
author is saying. You Hebrews-- he's
writing to the Hebrews-- you Jewish people already
have a certain kind of faith. That's his example. You already believe that
God created the universe. You believe this even though you
weren't there when it happened. The only way you're certain
of it, you rely on it, is because it was
revealed to you. The word of God tells you that. That's what he's saying. It was revealed to you. You weren't there
when it happened. How do we know the
world was made? How do we know the
universe was created? By scientific observation? No, because no one was there
to observe it that I've met. Have you met anybody
who could say, I was there when God created
the heavens and the Earth? No. Nobody was there to see it. Only God was there. Do we understand it by
laboratory experiment? No, because we can't
replicate the original set of circumstances to
observe it over and over and over again to
come up with fact. We believe it by faith. We believe it because
it was revealed by God. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the Earth. God created out of nothing,
ex nihilo creation. Out of nothing God
created everything. Now I realize-- I've been around long enough. I have a little bit of
a science background. Unbelievers automatically
dismiss God and a life of faith whenever we talk like this. Whenever we talk
about a creation, they see this as simplistic. They see this as crude. They see this as naive when,
in fact, Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 1-- that was
one short verse-- is incredibly precise and
neatly sums up the truth. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the Earth. Back in 1903, a scientist by
the name of Herbert Spencer said that everything
in existence can be put into one of
five categories, one of five categories-- time,
force, action, space, matter. Everything in existence
can be put in one of those five categories. Time, force, action,
space, and matter. That happens to be Genesis
Chapter 1, Verse 1. In the beginning-- that's time-- God created-- that's force-- the heavens-- that's space-- and the Earth. That's matter. All five categories
placed in one verse. We believe that. That's something we
apprehend and know by faith. It's faith that informs us that
the first un-caused cause is not an impersonal process
known as evolution, or theistic evolution,
even, but it's the result of a personal God. He is the first un-caused cause. God created the
heavens and the Earth. Instead of saying,
billions of years ago there was an explosion,
and rubber was bubbling forth and metal was bubbling forth
and a car oozed up, eventually, out of the pavement. Go out in the parking
lot and you'll see it. Whenever we see something that
looks like it's been designed, we infer there is a
designer behind it. If I look at this
set, I could say, it's amazing how
this just happened over a long period of time. We came here one day,
and the rugs were here, the couch was
here, the surfboard was miraculously here. And the guitar. No. You'd say that and say, you're
an idiot if you believe that. This design set
speaks of a designer, and there are very capable
designers, some of who are watching online,
one who is present, or a couple who are
present in the other side of the campus, who
can attest to the fact that yep, they designed it. So when you see design, you
think there is a designer. It's a very powerful argument,
the argument by design. It comes from an axiom. Whenever there is
a thing, there must have been a preceding thought. Whenever there is a thought,
there must have been a thinker. Somebody had to think that up
and then put that into reality. So if that's true with
a car, or this set that we're coming
to you with, it's much truer of the human
body that God created. You could think this
is just the product of fortuitous occurrences
of accidental circumstance. Or you could say, boy, it sure
seems like this human body has been designed. I love to look at
these things, and I love to research these
things, read about them. The human body has
30 trillion cells. Tamara, did you wake up
this morning thinking, I have 30 trillion cells? Wow. Not your first thought. So in each human body, about-- give or take a few billion-- 30 trillion cells. In each cell is the nucleus. You learned about
that in school. And inside the nucleus are
millions of components. In every nucleus there's
23 pairs of chromosomes. You know about that, right? Mom and dad put those there,
or you get it from there. So your chromosomes, the
DNA inside every nucleus of every cell,
it's like scrunched up material, scrunched
up, coded information written into that DNA. If you took the densely
recorded information recorded in the DNA of one nucleus
of one cell of your body, and you translated it into
words, readable language, you took the information
of one cell of your body, it would produce 40 these,
40 volumes, 40 books. So if you took one of
your cells, decoded it, put it in written language, you
would have a stack of 40 books. If you were to do that to
all of the 30 trillion cells in the human body, it
would fill the Grand Canyon 30 times with books. That's how much
information which tells each cell how to act
from conception to expiration to death. So Verse 1 through 3, then, that
gives us this life of faith, it tells us that faith is the
lens that we as believers, as Christian believers,
use to live our life. We look at life, we
look at everything through the lens
of Biblical faith. Not the lens of fear, not the
lens of a feeling, not even the lens of facts,
factual information, because facts can change
depending on who's giving and using the facts. So we need to fact
check our facts. We need to fact check our fear. We need to fact
check our feelings with the life of faith. So to sum it all up, this
is the essence of faith. Faith is a solid confidence
that moves you into action. It's a solid confidence
that when you jump, your dad's going to catch you. That's the essence of it. The effect is you get God's
stamp of approval on your life. You are pleasing God. You are glorifying God. You are leaving a good testimony
and a good witness for others. And the prime example, before
giving personal examples, is the creation that we
believe was given to us by God. It's God's design. So what the author of the book
of Hebrews would be saying is, now it's your move. Now it's your move. You have a rudimentary faith
that God created everything. Your faith is substantive enough
to give you a solid foundation. It's winsome and
wonderful enough to leave a good testimony,
and it'll please God. So what are you doing with it? I'll tell you what
you're doing with it. You are exercising it right now. Right now, in this
difficult time. You're going to the gym
with your muscle of faith. You're getting a
workout, and you're getting stronger because of it. The last few months-- and
I've talked about this enough, and I don't need to
belabor it-- but I do want to say that I've been
under the care primarily of two physicians, one for my
back and one for my brain. Interestingly, I let
both of these physicians take scalpels and
cut into my body. I gotta tell you, they explained
to me what they were doing. I kind of did a lot of this. I didn't have a whole
lot of questions. I had a few. But I didn't
understand everything. I hope that they knew
how to connect the dots and sew the right
parts together and put the right screws in and
make the right holes in the right places. But I let them do that. I had to, at some
point, disengage how I felt with their capability. And the result has
been so far, so good. I mean, some people
will disagree. That whole brain thing kind
of left you a little wonky. But I want to ask
you a question. Are you needing to fact
check your life of faith? Because right now,
for some of you, it's being challenged
by immense fear. You wake up in the morning,
or in the middle of the night, fearful. And again, as I said,
faith is a muscle that needs to be exercised. It's exercised so that
it grows stronger. That's what exercises
faith-- struggles, hardships, uncertainty, hard times. Most of you know I
like motorcycles. Always have. I grew up in a family,
my dad had motorcycles, my brothers had them. The only one that didn't ride
was my mom, but we all rode. And whenever I put a
passenger on the back, here's what I noticed. Passengers on the back
of the motorcycle, as long as we're going
smoothly and not too fast, they're just sort of balancing. They're maybe
holding onto the seat if it has a strap or a handle. But I noticed something if we
take a turn or go over a bump. They grip. They grip tighter. They might grab a hold
of me, or if they're grabbing a hold of me
and they get a bump, they'll grab tighter. Now is time for you to
grab tighter, firmer. Hold on closer. Jesus knows what he's doing. He's having fun taking you on
all these wild turns and curves and bumps. He's not worried in the least. He's got you. He's got this. Grab tighter. Some of you aren't even
living a life of faith at all. Some of you haven't even
engaged with God by faith. You're simply observing
coronavirus, the lockdown, the turn-down in the economy. This is just a bad thing
that happened to the world. But you're watching from afar. You're tuning in now. We're glad you're tuning in. But you need to
engage personally in this life of faith. That's a personal commitment. God loves you and God is
trying to get your attention. And you have a choice
from now till the moment you take your last breath. But after that, your choices
are over and this life is over, and you will face the
consequence of the choices you made on Earth. Jesus said, you are either
for me or against me. And he's giving you an
opportunity, friend, right now to be for him, and to
engage with the living God who has a plan and a purpose for
this world, for this creation, and for you. But you have to engage with him. And he's saying, jump. I'll catch you. And you're saying, I
can't see you, God. And God is saying,
yeah, but I can see you. And if you don't know me,
I'm going to reveal myself to you in a very powerful way. I think God is already
doing that for some of you who are watching this service. And I want to now take
it all the way through. And I want you to give
your life to the Lord. I'm going to give
you an opportunity to say a prayer with me. And it's a prayer of surrender. It's beautiful. It's a prayer of faith. It's simply saying, I
don't know all about you. I don't understand everything
that is revealed about you. I don't understand this
book called The Bible, but I'm willing to
trust you personally, put my faith in you. It's a simple approach. It says, without faith it
is impossible to please God. But he who comes to God
must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him. That's the text we read. So I'm going to lead
you in this prayer. If you are willing to jump
into His arms, so to speak, you say this prayer. He won't let you flop. He won't let you drop. He'll catch you. But you have to make
this commitment. So say this to him. Say, Lord, I give
my life to you. I don't understand everything,
but I surrender to you. Some of you are
feeling in your heart right now that need to let go. You've grabbed on tight not
to Him, but to this world, to your 401K, to your bank
account, to your relatives. And all of that, maybe,
is failing you right now. And so this is a good thing. Say this to Him. Say, Lord, I know
that I'm a sinner. I admit that. I believe you said Jesus-- tell him that-- I believe you
sent Jesus into this world to die on a cross for me
and to rise from the dead. I believe Jesus is
alive right now. Tell him this. Lord, I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow him as
my Lord and my master. Help me. Help me. Strengthen me to
live for you today and every day in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now if you prayed
that simple prayer, whether you did it out loud-- you just did it in your heart,
you did it in your mind-- I want you to do something
now that you can't just do in your mind. I want you to text, if you have
a phone or a smart device-- like an iPad or something,
or on your computer-- text Saved to this phone number. 505- that's our area
code here in New Mexico-- text the word Saved
to 505-509-5433. Or visit this website,
calvarynm.church, calvarynm.church, and click
on that little section that says No God. Either text the word Saved
to that phone number, or visit the website and
click on the words No God. And there's going to be somebody
who will communicate with you and get some material
into your hands and tell you how to
begin this life of faith and how to help
fact check your life with the life and the truth
that we apprehend by faith. God bless you. And enjoy the rest
of your week as you rest in His arms, the
God who will catch you when you jump in His hands. [MUSIC PLAYING]
