Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-19
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. By
faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had
received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though
God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be
reckoned." Abraham reasoned that
God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from
death.
Therefore, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the
sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is
set before us,
Several years ago, I was invited to
join in a charity event. You signed up
to either walk or run in this event, and I signed up for the walk. I was with several other members of my church
and we all agreed that we were not interested in competing, we were just there
to pay our entry fee, support the charity and enjoy a leisurely walk on a
beautiful day.
These wonderful church members lied
to me. They were the most competitive
people and they left me at the starting line standing in their dust.
Well, that didn’t bother me – it was
still a beautiful day and I walked very slowly and meditatively. I had a pocket recorder with me and
occasionally I would take it out and dictate some notes about a project I was
working on.
Finally, I turned a corner in the
path, and came to a clearing in the woods.
There was a vast crowd of witnesses waiting for me.
“You can do it,” they cheered me
on. “We’re rooting for you.”
As I crossed the finish line, they
took pictures of me. They cheered and
clapped their hands.
It was humiliating.
Even more humiliating than that is
that I apparently was the only person in my age category. Therefore, I won a trophy – first place in my
age category.
Hebrews tells us that we are running
a race of life and we are before a great crowd of witnesses.
The witnesses expect us to take life
seriously and to do our best.
The problem is that even when we
take life seriously, this is a hard race we are in.
It is not easy.
It is not always pleasant.
I have a buddy from my high school
days who is struggling with cancer. He
doesn’t know what the future holds or if he will ever be able to enjoy his
retirement, which is getting close. The
race of life is hard.
We’ve done so many funerals in our
church this month – far more than usual.
With each there is grief and sadness and difficult adjustments for
children or spouses or friends. The race
of life is hard.
School is beginning this week. That
means new demands, new challenges, lots of things to learn – and the not just
for the teachers but for the students – the race of life is hard.
And we run this race with a great
cloud of witnesses looking and watching – cheering us on.
Let me tell you about this great
cloud of witnesses – they are NOT that great.
Oh sure, on the surface, they look
fine. They look like saints. But they are not. If you were to read the entire chapter 11 of
Hebrews, you would see one person after another of this great cloud of
witnesses:
There's
Noah. Sure, he built an ark. He was a good man. But what does he do when he gets off the
boat? He goes out and gets drunk, passes
out and lies there with his face on the barroom floor and without a stitch of
clothing.
If
Noah was up for election as a New York City Mayor, the press would have a field
day with that kind of behavior.
You've
got the entire nation of Israel
mentioned in this list of the Faithful because of their stroll across the
parted Red Sea . But keep an eye on where those people go to
next, and what you've got are a bunch of people who turn their backs on God the
first chance they get. While Moses is up
on the mountain conversing with God, these faithful people build an idol of
gold and start worshipping it.
Then
there is Rahab, a prostitute. Case closed.
And THIS is the great cloud of
witnesses cheering us on in our difficult race in life?
Yes – and while they may be sinful
and gullible and in some cases just plain stupid, they ran their own difficult
race of life and they did one thing that made their race easier.
The had faith.
If
you look carefully at the lives of these people, what you find is that they all
lived their lives in expectation of God's promise.
They did not always understand
God. But they trusted God to know what
he was doing.
They did not always live up to God’s
values, but they trusted God’s mercy.
For
each person, the promise of God might have been different, but they all lived
in expectation of something that had been promised to them by God.
For
Noah, the promise of God was Judgment of the world, and salvation of his
family. So in expectation of that
promise, Noah built an ark. It took him
120 years. That’s a long time to believe
– I mean at some point after a couple of years – or may 40 years at the most –
many of us today would have left the project unfinished.
But with no evidence that a flood
was coming, Noah believed. That is
faith.
Faith is the substance of that which
we do not see.
For
Abraham, the promise of God was land and a nation of children, so in
expectation of that promise, Abram packed up his camel and headed out without
so much as a map, and before a single child had been born, he changed his name
from Abram, to Abraham, which means Father of many nations.
And
because it took decades for Abraham and his wife to have children, there were
times when their faith struggled. But
believing that God was telling the truth AND that he was able to do what he
promised – that’s faith.
For
Moses, the promise was the Promised Land, so in expectation he led the children
of Israel
Each
of these people, and all of the others in this list given to us by the author
of Hebrews, lived in expectation of God's promise. God had promised something, and from that
point on, their lives were governed by that promise.
Now, what about us?
What has God promised to
us?
For one thing, peace. In John’s Gospel, chapter 14, Jesus says, “I am leaving you
with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world
cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
And yet, we do not believe the promise. And our unbelief creates the anxiety that
becomes a barrier to any peace at all.
We face unemployment, or underemployment. We look at our debts. We struggle with raising children. School is about to start. The doctor says we have cancer. We face death – our own or a loved one.
Peace? Give
me a break! There is no peace.
Life’s hard.
But the Lord has promised us peace. Believe the promise. Trust.
Open your heart to be at peace.
Have faith – I’m not saying have faith that the problems go away. They might not – but have faith in the
promise that in the midst of life, Jesus has come to give you peace.
When
Paul sat down to write a letter to the Philippians, he was in prison waiting to
die, and while waiting on death row he said this: "Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and
petition, along with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and
the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts
and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6,7)
Believe
the promise, and be at peace.
That’s
faith.
Faith
is not understanding God – when bad things happen, we want to know why. We want to know that there is a plan and we
want to see what that plan is. But faith
is not believing in the plan. It’s
believing the planner – it’s believing that God is in control and trusting him.
I
had a great relationship with my father.
He and I did all sorts of things together. He taught me how to fish, how to start a camp
fire without matches, how to use a compass – and one day we were hiking and we
came across a rope bridge. I was
probably 5 or 6 years old and it was the first time I’d ever seen a bridge like
this. A single robe was for your feet,
and two ropes for your hands. I looked
down and it must have been a thousand feet to the vast river below.
Of
course, I was only 5 or 6 years old so it was probably nothing more than 10 feet
above the puny creek below, but I was terrified. I didn’t trust the rope to hold in
place. I didn’t trust my feet or my
hands.
But
I had learned by then to trust my Dad.
And he encouraged me to walk across, and I did – safely.
But
I was terrified every step of the way.
My brain was telling me, this is not a good idea. My trust in my father said, “it will be okay.”
We
are able to face life’s most terrifying things because of faith.
And
faith is simply believing God.
Most of us,
tragically, lack that sense of expectation that God can and will do what He
claims he can do.
A little over a
century ago, there was a famous French tight-rope walker and acrobat. His greatest fame came in 1859 when he
accomplished one of his greatest feats.
He walked on a 1100 foot tight-rope suspended 160 feet above the waters
of the Niagra Falls
Once he even made
the walk pushing a wheelbarrow.
When he reached the
other side, he asked the spectators – “How many people believe I can do this
again?”
They all cheered,
“yes, you can do it.”
Then he asked the
spectators, “How many people believe I can do this with a person sitting in the
wheelbarrow.”
The crowd went
crazy, “Yes, you can do it, you can do it.”
Can I have a
volunteer?
Silence.
There is a
difference in saying you believe, saying you have faith, and actually having
enough faith in God to let him lead you, carry you, direct you where He wants you
to go.
It’s easy to say we
believe in God, but to actually believe with expectation that God can do what
he says he will do – that’s faith. (From… D. Greg Ebie, from a sermon “When Life
Gets Tough . . . Turn to Jesus!” sermoncentral.com)
You are running a tough race in life. Look around at the great cloud of witnesses
in Hebrews. They ran tough races in their lives – but they trusted God. Let us, in our own difficult lives, trust and
believe God.
