1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. At church we talk a lot about 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:16,440 faith. We need to have faith in God, we have faith in Christ, we lose our faith. But do 3 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:22,040 we actually know what that means? Today we're starting a sermon series on the heroes of 4 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:27,320 faith described in scripture. But before we can dive into their lives, we need to pause 5 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:33,400 and ask an important question. What is faith really? How do we get faith? Or how do we 6 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:42,400 grow in our faith? That's what Rob is going to be talking to us about today. Let's listen 7 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:53,520 in. Today's reading is from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 to 3 and verse 6. Now faith is 8 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:59,640 confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the 9 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:07,760 ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command 10 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:14,580 so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. And without faith it is impossible 11 00:01:14,580 --> 00:01:21,120 to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he 12 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:25,960 rewards those who earnestly seek him. The word of the Lord. 13 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:30,120 It is the new year and that means lots of people are kind of trying to get into those 14 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:35,800 new year's resolutions whether that means eating better or saving money or finding love 15 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:40,120 or maybe you want to hit the gym and if that's you that's a great idea. And maybe you're 16 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,760 going to the gym just to get in shape, to lose a bit of weight or to build some muscle. 17 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:49,880 Kudos to you if that's one of your new year's resolutions. But here at Trinity we are going 18 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:56,080 to begin the year with a different kind of workout as we want to build a different kind 19 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:02,040 of muscle and the kind of muscle I'm talking about is faith muscle. Because just like our 20 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,960 physical muscles when they don't get used they kind of get weak and flabby so too when 21 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:11,880 we don't demonstrate and don't practice and don't live by faith you know we also start 22 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:18,840 to weaken spiritually but when we flex and use and stretch our faith then our spiritual 23 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:23,320 lives start to grow stronger and stronger and stronger until we are like totally jacked 24 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:28,280 when it comes to faith. So this sounds really good. I think all of us would love to have 25 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:33,960 more faith muscle but the question is how? How do we exercise our faith? How do we do 26 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:39,040 that? Well I want to say that actually right now you're exercising a certain degree of 27 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:43,920 faith just by coming to church this morning you were practicing your faith. You were putting 28 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:49,440 your faith in the architect of this building. You were putting your faith in the builder 29 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,560 who kind of assembled it. The construction workers who did all of the work. You're even 30 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:57,360 putting your faith in the materials that are holding this all together. So unbeknownst 31 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:03,480 to you right now you are demonstrating and you're practicing a kind of faith. Or imagine 32 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,880 when you go to the doctor. You go to the doctor he says here I know what's wrong with you 33 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:10,900 and he writes something on a piece of paper and you can't even read it. And then you go 34 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:16,800 to the pharmacist and you give it to the pharmacist and she fills a bottle with pills the contents 35 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:21,040 of which you can't even pronounce and she says now I want you to take one of these four 36 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:27,120 times every day. And you do. Amazingly you do. Why? Because you put your faith in the 37 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,320 doctor. You put your faith in the pharmacist. You put your faith in those pills. So you 38 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:36,960 see in some ways we are always exercising faith. But that's not the kind of faith that 39 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:42,360 builds spiritual muscle. If you've been around religious people for very long you'll often 40 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:46,720 hear them talk about faith. I came to faith when I was a teenager. My faith got me through 41 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:52,960 that difficult time. I lost my faith. I rediscovered my faith. That the faith they're talking about 42 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,680 it's not like a faith in a doctor or a pill or a pharmacist or a building. It's the it's 43 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:04,880 faith in God. Now there is this book in the Bible. It's called the book of Hebrews. We 44 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:10,600 don't actually even know who wrote the book of Hebrews. But in that book at the end of 45 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,800 the 10th chapter we come across this line. Actually this line is in several books of 46 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:20,080 the Bible. But it's he says this he says that the righteous will live by say it with me 47 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:24,960 faith. The righteous will live by faith. So that kind of means it's probably pretty important 48 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,440 to figure out how to live by faith because those who are right with God those who are 49 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:34,040 righteous are people who live by faith. But the question is OK it's important to live 50 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:39,560 by faith. How do I do that. Good news because the author of Hebrews goes on in the next 51 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:45,480 chapter to talk all about what this faith is and what it looks like when you put it 52 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:51,000 into practice. Do you guys know how in the Bible they sometimes call 1st Corinthians 53 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,640 13 the love chapter right. Love is patient love is kind. It does not envy it does not 54 00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:02,280 boast. We read it at weddings love love love love love. Well in Hebrews chapter 11 that 55 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:08,440 is definitely the faith chapter. The book of Hebrews I think 34 times in the book of 56 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:14,600 Hebrews the word faith comes up. Twenty three of those instances occur right here in chapter 57 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:21,760 11. And in chapter 11 what the author does is he names like 17 different people as examples 58 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:26,000 of faith and a whole bunch of others who he doesn't name. And he says that this is what 59 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,780 it looks like to have faith muscle. This is what it looks like to live an extraordinary 60 00:05:30,780 --> 00:05:37,560 life of faith. This is the faith chapter in the Bible. And so today what we are doing 61 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:42,240 is we are starting a brand new teaching series called Heroes of Faith. You know in the comic 62 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:47,080 books the heroes always have great big muscles in their arms. But in the Bible the heroes 63 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:54,680 have great big faith muscles. People like Enoch people like Rahab and Barak. Now listen 64 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:58,880 we're going to look at those people but I don't want you to get the wrong idea because 65 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,760 actually it's not like they had superhuman powers. It's not like they were zapped by 66 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:08,600 gamma radiation like the Hulk or that they had radioactive blood like Spider-Man. No 67 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,400 these the people we're going to be looking at over these next like eight weeks are people 68 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:16,040 who are ordinary people just like you. They had problems just like you struggles just 69 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:22,100 like you difficulties opposition just like you. But what they did is they flexed I better 70 00:06:22,100 --> 00:06:29,920 not because I might rip my jacket. They flexed their muscles and they trusted in God and 71 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:36,200 as a result their names live forever. Their names live forever in the Hall of Faith in 72 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:41,960 the Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter 11. You're going to want to read Hebrews chapter 11 throughout 73 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:46,280 the next few weeks. But before we get to these people I'm talking about we got to back up 74 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:51,920 the truck and we got to ask what is faith? What is faith after all because faith is one 75 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:56,960 of those overused words that has lost its meaning and you know when something is means 76 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:01,600 everything it ends up meaning nothing right? Everyone's like you got to have faith you 77 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:06,640 know keep the faith I have faith in you don't lose faith. What does that even mean anymore? 78 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:11,080 And so today here's what we're going to do. We are going to look at just Hebrews 11 1 79 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:15,960 to 3 and then a little bit of verse 6 and we're going to see three things about faith. 80 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:20,280 First of all what is the essence of faith? Secondly what are the effects of faith and 81 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:25,440 thirdly the author gives us one great big example of faith so I want you to do your 82 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:29,840 best to follow along. There's sermon notes that you've been handed out as we go through. 83 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:34,140 You can open your Bibles to Hebrews 11. You can open your digital Bibles turn on your 84 00:07:34,140 --> 00:07:39,240 phones to Hebrews 11 because we're going to start talking about the essence the essence 85 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:46,120 of faith. What is faith? What is faith? Maybe the best way to figure out what faith is is 86 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:52,640 to start by figuring out what faith is not. For starters faith is not blind optimism. 87 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:57,240 You probably heard someone say you know what I think things are going to work out. I've 88 00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:03,920 got faith. That sounds great. Reassuring even sounds a bit spiritual but that is not biblical 89 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:10,740 faith. That's just vague optimism and wishful thinking. But faith isn't wishing for things 90 00:08:10,740 --> 00:08:15,320 to work out. It's trusting in God even when things don't work out. So that's not what 91 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:21,960 faith is. Faith is also not superstition. Right? You probably heard somebody you know 92 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:26,360 crossing their fingers and saying oh I have faith I have faith I have faith I have faith. 93 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,440 It's like they're they're rubbing a lucky rabbit's foot or something like that. It's 94 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:35,360 superstition is kind of like you're trying to control God. You're trying to say God if 95 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,040 I say the right words if I do the right thing if I pray the right prayers if I press all 96 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:45,200 the right buttons then you are going to come through for me. But but of course faith doesn't 97 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:53,160 control God. Faith trusts God. Thirdly though faith is also not positive thinking. Right? 98 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:57,460 You've probably heard people say oh if you can believe it you can achieve it. You maybe 99 00:08:57,460 --> 00:09:03,760 even heard preachers say if you name it you can claim it as if somehow our words have 100 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:10,940 the power to make good things happen or or positive thinking can make good things happen. 101 00:09:10,940 --> 00:09:14,480 That sounds good but again that's not the definition of biblical faith. Faith doesn't 102 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:20,480 depend on your positivity. Faith depends on God's promises. And fourthly faith is also 103 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:24,520 not just good feelings. You know you've heard that person say I got a good feeling about 104 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:29,680 this. This is I just feel good about this. Famous last words right? Right? As if positive 105 00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:35,840 vibes are the same thing as faith. But we're going to see in the weeks ahead Abraham did 106 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:40,520 not feel good about leaving his country and following God. Moses did not feel good about 107 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:45,960 leading his people out of slavery in Egypt. Right? Faith isn't about us you know feeling 108 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:52,120 good. Feelings are always up and down. God is not up and down though. Right? He's constant. 109 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:57,200 So faith's not blind optimism. It's not superstition. It's not positive thinking. It's not good 110 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:04,880 feelings. So what is faith? Well faith I want to say first of all is a way of trusting. 111 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:12,840 You know the book of Hebrews begins by telling us that faith is confidence in what we hope 112 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:20,880 for and assurance about what we do not see. Now that's that was the first line of the 113 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:25,360 reading that we just read. Now the Greek word for confidence there. What does that word 114 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:31,700 mean? It's actually a Greek word, hupostasis which means foundation or it means support. 115 00:10:31,700 --> 00:10:37,080 This is really important. So faith is the foundation that supports you. It's the thing 116 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:42,040 under you that you can stand on that stays steady even when everything else is falling 117 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:48,380 apart. Here's a mistake we make. We sometimes think that faith has to do with the size of 118 00:10:48,380 --> 00:10:54,920 your faith. Like if you could just get enough faith then things would happen. But actually 119 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,600 faith isn't about the strength of your faith. It's about the strength of the thing that 120 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:03,200 you put your faith in. Right? So I would just say to all of you right off the bat don't 121 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:09,080 worry throughout this series about getting more and more and more faith. Rather focus 122 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:15,180 on the foundation of your faith. I'll give you an example. Let's say the Credit River 123 00:11:15,180 --> 00:11:20,820 right now is frozen over. It's not but let's say it was and you decided to go walk across 124 00:11:20,820 --> 00:11:28,300 the ice on the Credit River. What matters is not how much faith you have in the ice. 125 00:11:28,300 --> 00:11:33,480 What matters is how thick the ice is. Right? Because if you have even just a little bit 126 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:39,560 of faith in really thick ice you're going to be okay. But if you have all sorts of faith 127 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:44,220 in very very thin ice it'll leave you sinking in the crystal clear waters of the Credit 128 00:11:44,220 --> 00:11:54,260 River. Biblical faith isn't about having faith in the size of your faith. It's about trusting 129 00:11:54,260 --> 00:12:03,980 in Jesus Christ whose ice is 20 feet thick and even a little bit of faith on your part 130 00:12:03,980 --> 00:12:10,240 is all you're going to need when you put your faith in Jesus. You know there is this missionary 131 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:15,820 by the name of John Patton and he in the 1800s he was sent to an island in the South Pacific 132 00:12:15,820 --> 00:12:21,540 an island named Tana. Sounds nice right? No because the island was filled with cannibals. 133 00:12:21,540 --> 00:12:26,900 These people were literally wanting to eat you for lunch. And so nevertheless he of course 134 00:12:26,900 --> 00:12:31,240 wanted to share the gospel the good news of Jesus with the islanders and so he decided 135 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:39,300 to translate the gospel of John into their language. But he had a problem. He couldn't 136 00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:46,820 find a word in their language that meant trust or faith. No surprise right? When everybody 137 00:12:46,820 --> 00:12:52,380 around you is a cannibal faith is kind of trust is in kind of short supply. But one 138 00:12:52,380 --> 00:12:57,740 day when he was working on this he called one of his servants into the room and he said 139 00:12:57,740 --> 00:13:03,940 to the servant he said you know what am I doing right now? And the servant said you 140 00:13:03,940 --> 00:13:10,180 are sitting at your desk. And then he said okay now what am I doing? And he leaned back 141 00:13:10,180 --> 00:13:16,860 in his chair and he put all his weight in the chair. And the servant said some word 142 00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:25,220 in their language a word that meant to lean your whole weight upon. And he said that is 143 00:13:25,220 --> 00:13:31,860 the perfect word for faith. And from that time on he used that phrase in his translation 144 00:13:31,860 --> 00:13:36,780 of John's gospel. So for example John 3 16 and John Patton's translation went for God 145 00:13:36,780 --> 00:13:42,740 so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever should lean all their 146 00:13:42,740 --> 00:13:51,620 weight upon him should not perish but have eternal life. That's what faith is. Faith 147 00:13:51,620 --> 00:13:56,660 is putting all your weight on the ice. It's about putting all your weight on the chair. 148 00:13:56,660 --> 00:14:02,540 It's about putting all your weight on Jesus Christ. But listen you are not doing it blindly. 149 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:07,940 You can look at how thick the ice is. You can look at how sturdy or not sturdy the chair 150 00:14:07,940 --> 00:14:13,340 is and you can look at how reliable Jesus Christ is. This isn't blind faith right but 151 00:14:13,340 --> 00:14:19,980 you are leaning your weight on him. Paul writes no one can lay any foundation other than the 152 00:14:19,980 --> 00:14:27,860 one already laid which is Jesus Christ. He is the rock solid foundation for your faith. 153 00:14:27,860 --> 00:14:32,340 So faith that's the first thing faith is. It's just a way of trusting okay. Super simple 154 00:14:32,340 --> 00:14:36,620 right. Leaning your whole weight upon Jesus. But there's more. Not only is faith a way 155 00:14:36,620 --> 00:14:44,440 of trusting but faith is a way of seeing okay. Now we're told it goes on in the book of Hebrews 156 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:50,260 if you read on it says that now faith is confidence in what we hope for right. Confidence in this 157 00:14:50,260 --> 00:14:58,820 foundation but it goes on to say and it's assurance about what we do not see. Or another 158 00:14:58,820 --> 00:15:07,980 translation puts it that faith is the evidence of things unseen. Hmm. God gave us five senses 159 00:15:07,980 --> 00:15:14,660 when we were born seeing hearing tasting touching smelling right. So for example in our eyes 160 00:15:14,660 --> 00:15:20,300 God put these little these little receptors rods and cones so that when light or movement 161 00:15:20,300 --> 00:15:25,540 happens out there in the world our eyes can detect it and take it into our body. If we 162 00:15:25,540 --> 00:15:29,820 didn't have eyes that stuff is still going on regardless but because we have eyes we 163 00:15:29,820 --> 00:15:35,260 can take it into our body. These these things are the instruments that bring it in right. 164 00:15:35,260 --> 00:15:39,740 What about ears right. God has given us these ears which have little pieces and parts in 165 00:15:39,740 --> 00:15:44,640 them that allow us to take in what is going on in the world. Auditorily right now you're 166 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:48,820 listening to my voice and your ears are hopefully making sense of that as it comes into your 167 00:15:48,820 --> 00:15:52,620 body. Again if you didn't have ears the noise would be there all the same but because you 168 00:15:52,620 --> 00:15:56,220 have ears you can make sense of it and take it into you or take your nose for example 169 00:15:56,220 --> 00:16:01,700 your nose is jammed full of like 20 million olfactory receptors right. So you walk into 170 00:16:01,700 --> 00:16:05,580 a movie theater and you take a deep breath and you smell the popcorn. Now if you didn't 171 00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:10,300 have a nose the smell would still be there but because you have the nose you can take 172 00:16:10,300 --> 00:16:18,820 in what is happening around you into your person right. So just like eyes and ears and 173 00:16:18,820 --> 00:16:26,060 noses are able to detect the physical dimension outside of us faith is like a sixth sense 174 00:16:26,060 --> 00:16:33,740 if you will. Faith reaches out to the spiritual dimension and brings those things into our 175 00:16:33,740 --> 00:16:38,900 lives so that we can see them and understand them right. The spiritual dimension folks 176 00:16:38,900 --> 00:16:47,140 is there either way but faith allows you to detect it and connect with it. Take for example 177 00:16:47,140 --> 00:16:51,980 Jacob. Jacob was once fleeing from his own brother Esau. He came to this place to spend 178 00:16:51,980 --> 00:16:56,940 the night laid down and he was really distressed but he had this dream and the dream showed 179 00:16:56,940 --> 00:17:01,020 him that that heavens were right there and angels were right there and God was right 180 00:17:01,020 --> 00:17:05,980 there and he woke up from the dream and he said surely God was in this place and I was 181 00:17:05,980 --> 00:17:13,540 not aware. You see his eyes of faith had been opened right. Elijah once had a servant and 182 00:17:13,540 --> 00:17:19,660 he and his servant were on the run from their enemies but Elijah prayed for his servant 183 00:17:19,660 --> 00:17:25,860 he said God open his eyes that he may see and when the servants eyes were open he could 184 00:17:25,860 --> 00:17:30,580 see that there were angels all around them more angels than there were enemies and that 185 00:17:30,580 --> 00:17:37,460 they were going to be alright. They began to trust the unseen God right and then of 186 00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:41,820 course there is a story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego right who were threatened with 187 00:17:41,820 --> 00:17:47,060 a fiery death by King Nebuchadnezzar and they had a decision made. Are they going to trust 188 00:17:47,060 --> 00:17:50,700 the king they can see with their physical eyes or are they going to put their faith 189 00:17:50,700 --> 00:17:56,900 in the king that they can only see with their spiritual eyes by faith. They trusted the 190 00:17:56,900 --> 00:18:05,060 unseen God. Faith is a way of seeing the spiritual reality that is all around us. It shifts your 191 00:18:05,060 --> 00:18:10,180 perspective when you have faith you are able to move through life not just depending on 192 00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:18,020 what is visible but also trusting in the unseen truths of God's kingdom. That's why Paul writes 193 00:18:18,020 --> 00:18:26,380 he says we live by faith not by sight. Now listen again faith does not deny the physical 194 00:18:26,380 --> 00:18:32,260 reality of our world but it goes beyond to the eternal reality of God's presence and 195 00:18:32,260 --> 00:18:37,940 God's power and God's promises. This is why Peter will then write he says though you've 196 00:18:37,940 --> 00:18:44,220 not seen him with your eyes you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe 197 00:18:44,220 --> 00:18:50,300 in him. Faith is a way of seeing. Okay so that's the essence of faith according to Hebrews 198 00:18:50,300 --> 00:18:56,620 11 faith is a way of trusting and it is a way of seeing but the author now goes on he's 199 00:18:56,620 --> 00:19:00,420 going to tell us what the effects of faith are and again there's two primary answers 200 00:19:00,420 --> 00:19:06,180 to this question. The first effect of faith is this it inspires others. In Hebrews 11 201 00:19:06,180 --> 00:19:11,500 2 we read this for by faith the ancients or the elders the people before us obtained a 202 00:19:11,500 --> 00:19:17,180 good testimony. Do you guys know what a testimony is? A testimony is an inspiring story of somebody's 203 00:19:17,180 --> 00:19:22,180 life that other people find encouraging. In fact today in Trinity Talks Kyle is going 204 00:19:22,180 --> 00:19:25,580 to be sitting down and talking to two members of our congregation. Why? They're just going 205 00:19:25,580 --> 00:19:32,580 to share their testimony and that's what faith does. It's both personal but testimonies and 206 00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:39,820 our faith impacts and inspires those who are around us and leaves a legacy behind us. Faith 207 00:19:39,820 --> 00:19:45,460 in some ways creates a ripple effect. When someone steps out in faith it affects those 208 00:19:45,460 --> 00:19:52,020 who see and so for example when Abraham stepped out in faith it encouraged and inspired generations 209 00:19:52,020 --> 00:19:57,220 that followed him to follow where God led. When Noah stepped out in faith it inspired 210 00:19:57,220 --> 00:20:02,500 generations that followed to obey God even if it looks foolish in the world's eyes. Right? 211 00:20:02,500 --> 00:20:06,500 When Moses stepped out in faith when Abraham stepped out in faith when Martin Luther and 212 00:20:06,500 --> 00:20:13,020 Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mother Teresa stepped out in faith they inspire us. Closer to home 213 00:20:13,020 --> 00:20:17,940 I bet you you've seen somebody in your own life who when they demonstrated faith it inspired 214 00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:22,340 you the way they prayed through a difficult time. Could even be somebody right here in 215 00:20:22,340 --> 00:20:27,620 the church. You saw how their faith carried them through a time that seemed absolutely 216 00:20:27,620 --> 00:20:33,900 impossible and you were inspired. That's what Paul writes he says the Lord's message rings 217 00:20:33,900 --> 00:20:40,500 out from us. The Lord's message goes out from us so that our faith in God becomes known 218 00:20:40,500 --> 00:20:44,860 everywhere. Guys your faith has a ripple effect. It affects it'll affect your children it'll 219 00:20:44,860 --> 00:20:48,700 affect your co-workers your classmates the people that are around you maybe people that 220 00:20:48,700 --> 00:20:54,140 you've never even met. That's one of the effects of faith but the second effect of faith that 221 00:20:54,140 --> 00:21:00,900 we read about in Hebrews 11 2 or rather Hebrews 11 6 is that it not only inspires others but 222 00:21:00,900 --> 00:21:08,360 it pleases God. The author of Hebrews says this line without faith it is impossible to 223 00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:13,840 please God. Shouldn't that be our ultimate goal to please God? For all my Presbyterian 224 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,500 friends here in the Westminster Catechism it says what is the chief end of man? And the 225 00:21:19,500 --> 00:21:26,220 answer is the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's what faith 226 00:21:26,220 --> 00:21:32,260 does it pleases God. That's why Paul said we make it our aim to be well pleasing to 227 00:21:32,260 --> 00:21:39,020 him. Faith pleases God because when we live by faith people see that God is who God says 228 00:21:39,020 --> 00:21:44,980 he is and God will do what God says that he will do. Even Jesus says I will always do 229 00:21:44,980 --> 00:21:51,620 the things that are pleasing to him. So if Jesus the son of God sought to make his life 230 00:21:51,620 --> 00:21:59,860 one of pleasing God by his faith shouldn't we do the same? Shouldn't we do the same? 231 00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:05,180 Another story there was once a group of an acting troupe that was going through the land 232 00:22:05,180 --> 00:22:08,540 and one night they were doing their show in a certain town and there wasn't all that many 233 00:22:08,540 --> 00:22:12,780 people coming to the show and so some of the actors said oh let's just call it quits it's 234 00:22:12,780 --> 00:22:16,740 barely worth doing the performance tonight there's hardly anybody in the audience but 235 00:22:16,740 --> 00:22:21,300 one of the older members of the troupe said no no no no I think we owe it to those who 236 00:22:21,300 --> 00:22:27,060 showed up to give it our best performance. And so they agreed and they went out and they 237 00:22:27,060 --> 00:22:32,220 gave their best performance they poured all their heart into every scene into every line 238 00:22:32,220 --> 00:22:37,460 it was their best performance ever. And then after the show when they were backstage they 239 00:22:37,460 --> 00:22:45,660 received a note and the note read thank you for the beautiful performance and it was signed 240 00:22:45,660 --> 00:22:53,540 your king. Wow the king of the realm had been passing through the land that night and decided 241 00:22:53,540 --> 00:23:00,940 to take in the show and without realizing it they had performed for their king and won 242 00:23:00,940 --> 00:23:07,820 his approval. The effects of faith are that they inspire all those people in the audience 243 00:23:07,820 --> 00:23:13,380 but more than that it pleases the one person in the audience that matters most pleases 244 00:23:13,380 --> 00:23:18,420 God your faith is not going to please everyone. In fact sometimes people who live by faith 245 00:23:18,420 --> 00:23:23,740 are ridiculed for their faith you're not going to get a standing ovation for living by faith 246 00:23:23,740 --> 00:23:32,420 but you will win God's approval. So the question is is that going to be enough for you or will 247 00:23:32,420 --> 00:23:38,420 you be dependent on all those other people and what they think. So we've looked now at 248 00:23:38,420 --> 00:23:43,420 the essence of faith the effect of faith and we're going to end by talking about one example 249 00:23:43,420 --> 00:23:47,340 of faith and the reason I'm using this example is because the author of Hebrews uses this 250 00:23:47,340 --> 00:23:52,860 example and in the weeks to come you're going to see examples of faith from Abel and Enoch 251 00:23:52,860 --> 00:23:56,980 and Sarah and Rahab we're going to get to all that but before that the author says I'm 252 00:23:56,980 --> 00:24:05,020 going to give you one colossal example of faith and his example is the example of creation. 253 00:24:05,020 --> 00:24:10,740 The author he writes by faith this is a complicated line by faith we understand that the universe 254 00:24:10,740 --> 00:24:19,040 was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 255 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,900 So essentially what he's saying to his Jewish listeners he's saying listen here's what's 256 00:24:21,900 --> 00:24:26,900 going on you guys already have this kind of faith that I'm talking about because you believe 257 00:24:26,900 --> 00:24:32,140 that this world this universe was created by God you weren't there to see it none of 258 00:24:32,140 --> 00:24:36,640 us were there to see it you can't make it happen again none of us can and yet you believe 259 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,340 it why do you believe it you believe it by faith you believe it by faith because it's 260 00:24:40,340 --> 00:24:45,940 been revealed to you in God's word and so what happens is creation becomes this big 261 00:24:45,940 --> 00:24:50,940 big example of what faith can look like. Now I know some of you are going to say that doesn't 262 00:24:50,940 --> 00:24:54,700 work for me I disagree with the argument I'm a person of science I'm not a person of faith 263 00:24:54,700 --> 00:24:59,100 I don't believe in that creation story what I want to say without getting into all that 264 00:24:59,100 --> 00:25:05,420 it doesn't really really matter because faith and understanding go together look by faith 265 00:25:05,420 --> 00:25:10,740 we understand you don't have to pick it's not either or faith and science are not contradictory 266 00:25:10,740 --> 00:25:15,860 they are complementary but here's the point whether you lean towards science or you lean 267 00:25:15,860 --> 00:25:21,940 towards faith or you lean toward both of them why do you believe any of it anyways did you 268 00:25:21,940 --> 00:25:26,780 observe it happening no can you repeat it can you create the conditions and make it 269 00:25:26,780 --> 00:25:31,180 happen again at creation no the only reason any of us believe anything about creation 270 00:25:31,180 --> 00:25:38,460 is because of faith faith helps us see this thing that we can't actually see you know 271 00:25:38,460 --> 00:25:44,420 Genesis 1 says that you know in the in the beginning in the beginning God created the 272 00:25:44,420 --> 00:25:49,100 heavens and the earth you know you guys know the universe spans billions of light years 273 00:25:49,100 --> 00:25:55,340 there are like trillions of galaxies trillions of galaxies and then every galaxy there's 274 00:25:55,340 --> 00:26:00,340 billions of stars it's like incredible and the Bible begins with just this line oh yeah 275 00:26:00,340 --> 00:26:05,060 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and it's not just the size of it 276 00:26:05,060 --> 00:26:09,940 that's just mind-boggling it's also the the details like you know God created the laws 277 00:26:09,940 --> 00:26:14,740 of thermodynamics and he created gravity and the earth is a certain distance from the sun 278 00:26:14,740 --> 00:26:19,220 that's just perfect and it's tilted on its axis which gives us the seasons and so all 279 00:26:19,220 --> 00:26:25,500 of it speaks to this incredible design it's so complex this building right you would you 280 00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:30,220 wouldn't walk into this building and say this just appeared by accident it speaks to some 281 00:26:30,220 --> 00:26:37,540 kind of design and creation it's not just that creation is vast it's also very intricate 282 00:26:37,540 --> 00:26:42,180 the same God who designed the stars and galaxy also created the tiniest details of your life 283 00:26:42,180 --> 00:26:48,700 do you know do you know that in your body you have 37 trillion cells and in every one 284 00:26:48,700 --> 00:26:54,280 of those cells you have some stuff called DNA tightly wound strand of DNA every cell 285 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:58,900 if you were to unwind it would be about two meters long of DNA which means that you have 286 00:26:58,900 --> 00:27:09,740 enough DNA in your whole body to stretch 75 billion miles that's far enough to go to the 287 00:27:09,740 --> 00:27:18,380 sun and back 400 times in every human body that's what's going on inside of you and it's 288 00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:22,420 not just like it's a big piece of string right it's coding it's the blueprints it's what 289 00:27:22,420 --> 00:27:27,380 makes you you it's astonishing you know the author was really smart to use the example 290 00:27:27,380 --> 00:27:32,980 of creation as an example of faith because from the largest stars to the tiniest little 291 00:27:32,980 --> 00:27:39,820 strands of DNA creation speaks about stuff that we cannot fully comprehend except by 292 00:27:39,820 --> 00:27:46,980 faith and if you can trust the creator of the cosmos or the the creator of the most 293 00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:53,780 microscopic thing why wouldn't we trust him with the challenges of our own lives so that's 294 00:27:53,780 --> 00:27:58,380 it for today you know we've explored just the beginnings the essence of faith some of 295 00:27:58,380 --> 00:28:05,740 the effects of faith and this one great big example of faith and so now what do we do 296 00:28:05,740 --> 00:28:15,660 with all that well I'm hoping in 2025 we can all begin to start to live by that faith last 297 00:28:15,660 --> 00:28:22,960 story Charles Blondin the famous French tightrope walker you know for I have to apologize I 298 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:30,860 tried to get a AI to give me a picture of Blondin pushing a wheelbarrow over Niagara 299 00:28:30,860 --> 00:28:35,820 Falls I did about 10 attempts and even this one it couldn't quite get it right the wheelbarrow 300 00:28:35,820 --> 00:28:41,820 is wrapped around his leg there is some guy behind him he's not even holding the wheelbarrow 301 00:28:41,820 --> 00:28:47,660 anyways you know the limitations of AI right anyways but this is a true story he would 302 00:28:47,660 --> 00:28:51,940 often do this he would stand before a cheering crowd and he would ask them three questions 303 00:28:51,940 --> 00:28:57,140 as he crossed the falls he would say do you believe I can push a wheelbarrow across the 304 00:28:57,140 --> 00:29:01,980 tightrope across the falls and everybody would say yes we believe and then he said do you 305 00:29:01,980 --> 00:29:06,780 believe that I can push a wheelbarrow carrying somebody across these falls and everybody 306 00:29:06,780 --> 00:29:12,660 would say yes we believe and then finally he would ask who will be the first to get 307 00:29:12,660 --> 00:29:18,940 into the wheelbarrow and suddenly the crowd fell silent right guys it's one thing to say 308 00:29:18,940 --> 00:29:24,740 yes I believe it's an entirely different thing to get into the wheelbarrow but that's what 309 00:29:24,740 --> 00:29:31,180 faith is putting your whole weight leaning everything into God right so let me ask you 310 00:29:31,180 --> 00:29:37,620 this where's God asking you to lean in 2025 right maybe it's some relationships you need 311 00:29:37,620 --> 00:29:42,060 to have more faith or in your work or your finances or your future or maybe it's just 312 00:29:42,060 --> 00:29:49,580 in this whole conversation about God himself simply trusting God with your doubts and with 313 00:29:49,580 --> 00:29:55,260 your questions faith isn't about knowing all the answers but it's about trusting in the 314 00:29:55,260 --> 00:30:03,660 one who does will you trust him today amen. 315 00:30:03,660 --> 00:30:07,580 Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Trinity sermons this sermon was recorded 316 00:30:07,580 --> 00:30:17,020 at Trinity Church streetsville in Mississauga Ontario on January 5th 2025.