This morning we look at what it means to walk by faith. There is a difference between believing and living like we believe. Hebrews 11 and Joshua 24 both give us pictures of what that difference means.
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Walking By Faith
Two wonderful lessons this morning about living for God, why we do it, how we do it. Our OT and Epistle lessons are both sermons on perseverance, walking by faith, maybe you caught that.
Joshua seems a little skeptical this morning, which is funny. He’s a preacher who preaches, his people say, “AMEN!” and he says, nah, I don’t believe you. As a preacher, I can tell you that takes courage to say, “I’m gonna keep preaching this until you start living it!
What’s the root of their problem? Their temptations are just like our temptations, to look and act like the world, and to find satisfaction in pleasing themselves first. Their only difference would be the types of sin.
Joshua had been with them in the bad times, their rebellions against God and Moses, and now in some great times, like the battle of Jericho, which give the people the land God had promised Abraham. The important tie into Hebrews is that they fulfilled what God promised Abraham, 550 years earlier! Here’s the point, and the tie in to Hebrews. Abraham had complete faith that God would bring this day about, but never saw in this life. He did, however, live like it was true. He lived a life of walking by faith. He Persevered keeping his eyes on God!
Our Lesson from Hebrews is a master class in remembering those who have lived in faith, even though the object of that faith seemed beyond their reach. We open with the beautiful verse, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
I found a wonderful story this week about what it means to live by faith.
Charles Blondin was one of the world’s greatest tightrope walkers. On September 15th, 1859, he pushed a wheelbarrow across a tightrope.
The tightrope happened stretched across Niagara Falls, and was 4 football fields long! Afterwards he asked the 20k if they believed that he could carry a person back with him. They all said “Yes” because he was the greatest tightrope walker in the world. He then asked for a volunteer...That’s the difference.
What makes the story GREAT is that he got a volunteer!
God calls us to trust in Him. We see this from verse 6
without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
A two-stage process is mentioned. Believing that he exists as the first part. Now, with that said, I think a lot more people believe in God than care to admit it. When I hear people give arguments about being atheists or agnostics, most of the time, the arguments are based on why they feel God doesn’t live up to their standards that they expect from God. Ex. “If God existed then why is there evil?”
Gotcha! We have spent some good time in Sunday School on this question, and its kinda deep to go into in the middle of a sermon, but consider this…
If there is no God, how could there be good or evil? And just like a cheetah isn’t evil for killing a zebra, it wouldn’t be evil for anyone to kill anyone. They borrow the idea of morality from God while saying God isn’t there.
Anyway, the point being many believe, even if they don’t say they do. But just believing in the existence of God does not make someone in a right relationship with God. James in his epistle points out that the devil believes in God’s existence, and it doesn’t help him much.
The second part involves seeking him through the Lord Jesus. Believing now in the sense that we follow, knowing He cares for us. It has to involve trusting like the one volunteer had in Charles Blondin. That is truly living by faith. One that involves putting our lives in Jesus’ scarred hands.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who knew all about the O.T. believers, so the writer gives many O.T. examples of people who trusted God. I know the lesson might have seemed a bit long, but it was only about half the actual chapter.
The first example was Abel, offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, which proved that he was righteous. God testified about his gifts, and through it, we are told that Abel testifies about faith though he is dead.
What is his testimony. Abel’s sacrifice was given from a heart that believed in the Lord and trusted in His righteous ways. Abel’s acceptable sacrifice, by faith is a challenge about our attitude when we worship. When we offer worship to the Lord, He is looking on our hearts. Are we trusting in Him? Are we surrendering to His will revealed in His word? Whether we are offering praise, giving thanks, doing good deeds, or sharing our resources with others, we are to do it all by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not grudgingly, or out of duty but out of thankfulness inspired by faith.
We read next about Enoch, who had three hundred years of close fellowship with God. After that he walked right into the presence of God without going through physical death. Not all that strange when you consider that when Jesus returns, all those who have faith will be taken to be with him, together with all the saints who have trusted in him.
In addition to these, with Noah and Abraham, the chapter lists a multitude of Old Testament saints, and is known as the Hall of Faith. The point being, as v. 13 says,
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.
The examples of faith that we read about in Hebrews 11 are not there so we can compare ourselves with these heroes. They are there to encourage us to turn away from our sin and look to Jesus who is trustworthy, and to step out in faith in whatever way He is calling us to. That’s how the passage ends:
12 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, Close on run with perseverance
During a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers observed that Walter Payton, the Bear’s running back, had accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage. The other announcer remarked, “Yeah, and that’s with someone knocking him down every 4.6 yards!”
The Christian life is not always a cakewalk. We will experience trials and times of suffering. The key: run with perseverance! All these people were sinners just like us. Just like the people Joshua was preaching to. We make it just like it says, by laying aside the sin which entangles us, and walking by faith by fixing our eyes on Jesus.
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