Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. At church we talk a lot about
faith. We need to have faith in God, we have faith in Christ, we lose our faith. But do
we actually know what that means? Today we're starting a sermon series on the heroes of
faith described in scripture. But before we can dive into their lives, we need to pause
and ask an important question. What is faith really? How do we get faith? Or how do we
grow in our faith? That's what Rob is going to be talking to us about today. Let's listen
in. Today's reading is from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 to 3 and verse 6. Now faith is
confidence in what we hope for and assurance about 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. And without faith it is impossible
to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. The word of the Lord.
It is the new year and that means lots of people are kind of trying to get into those
new year's resolutions whether that means eating better or saving money or finding love
or maybe you want to hit the gym and if that's you that's a great idea. And maybe you're
going to the gym just to get in shape, to lose a bit of weight or to build some muscle.
Kudos to you if that's one of your new year's resolutions. But here at Trinity we are going
to begin the year with a different kind of workout as we want to build a different kind
of muscle and the kind of muscle I'm talking about is faith muscle. Because just like our
physical muscles when they don't get used they kind of get weak and flabby so too when
we don't demonstrate and don't practice and don't live by faith you know we also start
to weaken spiritually but when we flex and use and stretch our faith then our spiritual
lives start to grow stronger and stronger and stronger until we are like totally jacked
when it comes to faith. So this sounds really good. I think all of us would love to have
more faith muscle but the question is how? How do we exercise our faith? How do we do
that? Well I want to say that actually right now you're exercising a certain degree of
faith just by coming to church this morning you were practicing your faith. You were putting
your faith in the architect of this building. You were putting your faith in the builder
who kind of assembled it. The construction workers who did all of the work. You're even
putting your faith in the materials that are holding this all together. So unbeknownst
to you right now you are demonstrating and you're practicing a kind of faith. Or imagine
when you go to the doctor. You go to the doctor he says here I know what's wrong with you
and he writes something on a piece of paper and you can't even read it. And then you go
to the pharmacist and you give it to the pharmacist and she fills a bottle with pills the contents
of which you can't even pronounce and she says now I want you to take one of these four
times every day. And you do. Amazingly you do. Why? Because you put your faith in the
doctor. You put your faith in the pharmacist. You put your faith in those pills. So you
see in some ways we are always exercising faith. But that's not the kind of faith that
builds spiritual muscle. If you've been around religious people for very long you'll often
hear them talk about faith. I came to faith when I was a teenager. My faith got me through
that difficult time. I lost my faith. I rediscovered my faith. That the faith they're talking about
it's not like a faith in a doctor or a pill or a pharmacist or a building. It's the it's
faith in God. Now there is this book in the Bible. It's called the book of Hebrews. We
don't actually even know who wrote the book of Hebrews. But in that book at the end of
the 10th chapter we come across this line. Actually this line is in several books of
the Bible. But it's he says this he says that the righteous will live by say it with me
faith. The righteous will live by faith. So that kind of means it's probably pretty important
to figure out how to live by faith because those who are right with God those who are
righteous are people who live by faith. But the question is OK it's important to live
by faith. How do I do that. Good news because the author of Hebrews goes on in the next
chapter to talk all about what this faith is and what it looks like when you put it
into practice. Do you guys know how in the Bible they sometimes call 1st Corinthians
13 the love chapter right. Love is patient love is kind. It does not envy it does not
boast. We read it at weddings love love love love love. Well in Hebrews chapter 11 that
is definitely the faith chapter. The book of Hebrews I think 34 times in the book of
Hebrews the word faith comes up. Twenty three of those instances occur right here in chapter
11. And in chapter 11 what the author does is he names like 17 different people as examples
of faith and a whole bunch of others who he doesn't name. And he says that this is what
it looks like to have faith muscle. This is what it looks like to live an extraordinary
life of faith. This is the faith chapter in the Bible. And so today what we are doing
is we are starting a brand new teaching series called Heroes of Faith. You know in the comic
books the heroes always have great big muscles in their arms. But in the Bible the heroes
have great big faith muscles. People like Enoch people like Rahab and Barak. Now listen
we're going to look at those people but I don't want you to get the wrong idea because
actually it's not like they had superhuman powers. It's not like they were zapped by
gamma radiation like the Hulk or that they had radioactive blood like Spider-Man. No
these the people we're going to be looking at over these next like eight weeks are people
who are ordinary people just like you. They had problems just like you struggles just
like you difficulties opposition just like you. But what they did is they flexed I better
not because I might rip my jacket. They flexed their muscles and they trusted in God and
as a result their names live forever. Their names live forever in the Hall of Faith in
the Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter 11. You're going to want to read Hebrews chapter 11 throughout
the next few weeks. But before we get to these people I'm talking about we got to back up
the truck and we got to ask what is faith? What is faith after all because faith is one
of those overused words that has lost its meaning and you know when something is means
everything it ends up meaning nothing right? Everyone's like you got to have faith you
know keep the faith I have faith in you don't lose faith. What does that even mean anymore?
And so today here's what we're going to do. We are going to look at just Hebrews 11 1
to 3 and then a little bit of verse 6 and we're going to see three things about faith.
First of all what is the essence of faith? Secondly what are the effects of faith and
thirdly the author gives us one great big example of faith so I want you to do your
best to follow along. There's sermon notes that you've been handed out as we go through.
You can open your Bibles to Hebrews 11. You can open your digital Bibles turn on your
phones to Hebrews 11 because we're going to start talking about the essence the essence
of faith. What is faith? What is faith? Maybe the best way to figure out what faith is is
to start by figuring out what faith is not. For starters faith is not blind optimism.
You probably heard someone say you know what I think things are going to work out. I've
got faith. That sounds great. Reassuring even sounds a bit spiritual but that is not biblical
faith. That's just vague optimism and wishful thinking. But faith isn't wishing for things
to work out. It's trusting in God even when things don't work out. So that's not what
faith is. Faith is also not superstition. Right? You probably heard somebody you know
crossing their fingers and saying oh I have faith I have faith I have faith I have faith.
It's like they're they're rubbing a lucky rabbit's foot or something like that. It's
superstition is kind of like you're trying to control God. You're trying to say God if
I say the right words if I do the right thing if I pray the right prayers if I press all
the right buttons then you are going to come through for me. But but of course faith doesn't
control God. Faith trusts God. Thirdly though faith is also not positive thinking. Right?
You've probably heard people say oh if you can believe it you can achieve it. You maybe
even heard preachers say if you name it you can claim it as if somehow our words have
the power to make good things happen or or positive thinking can make good things happen.
That sounds good but again that's not the definition of biblical faith. Faith doesn't
depend on your positivity. Faith depends on God's promises. And fourthly faith is also
not just good feelings. You know you've heard that person say I got a good feeling about
this. This is I just feel good about this. Famous last words right? Right? As if positive
vibes are the same thing as faith. But we're going to see in the weeks ahead Abraham did
not feel good about leaving his country and following God. Moses did not feel good about
leading his people out of slavery in Egypt. Right? Faith isn't about us you know feeling
good. Feelings are always up and down. God is not up and down though. Right? He's constant.
So faith's not blind optimism. It's not superstition. It's not positive thinking. It's not good
feelings. So what is faith? Well faith I want to say first of all is a way of trusting.
You know the book of Hebrews begins by telling us that faith is confidence in what we hope
for and assurance about what we do not see. Now that's that was the first line of the
reading that we just read. Now the Greek word for confidence there. What does that word
mean? It's actually a Greek word, hupostasis which means foundation or it means support.
This is really important. So faith is the foundation that supports you. It's the thing
under you that you can stand on that stays steady even when everything else is falling
apart. Here's a mistake we make. We sometimes think that faith has to do with the size of
your faith. Like if you could just get enough faith then things would happen. But actually
faith isn't about the strength of your faith. It's about the strength of the thing that
you put your faith in. Right? So I would just say to all of you right off the bat don't
worry throughout this series about getting more and more and more faith. Rather focus
on the foundation of your faith. I'll give you an example. Let's say the Credit River
right now is frozen over. It's not but let's say it was and you decided to go walk across
the ice on the Credit River. What matters is not how much faith you have in the ice.
What matters is how thick the ice is. Right? Because if you have even just a little bit
of faith in really thick ice you're going to be okay. But if you have all sorts of faith
in very very thin ice it'll leave you sinking in the crystal clear waters of the Credit
River. Biblical faith isn't about having faith in the size of your faith. It's about trusting
in Jesus Christ whose ice is 20 feet thick and even a little bit of faith on your part
is all you're going to need when you put your faith in Jesus. You know there is this missionary
by the name of John Patton and he in the 1800s he was sent to an island in the South Pacific
an island named Tana. Sounds nice right? No because the island was filled with cannibals.
These people were literally wanting to eat you for lunch. And so nevertheless he of course
wanted to share the gospel the good news of Jesus with the islanders and so he decided
to translate the gospel of John into their language. But he had a problem. He couldn't
find a word in their language that meant trust or faith. No surprise right? When everybody
around you is a cannibal faith is kind of trust is in kind of short supply. But one
day when he was working on this he called one of his servants into the room and he said
to the servant he said you know what am I doing right now? And the servant said you
are sitting at your desk. And then he said okay now what am I doing? And he leaned back
in his chair and he put all his weight in the chair. And the servant said some word
in their language a word that meant to lean your whole weight upon. And he said that is
the perfect word for faith. And from that time on he used that phrase in his translation
of John's gospel. So for example John 3 16 and John Patton's translation went for God
so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever should lean all their
weight upon him should not perish but have eternal life. That's what faith is. Faith
is putting all your weight on the ice. It's about putting all your weight on the chair.
It's about putting all your weight on Jesus Christ. But listen you are not doing it blindly.
You can look at how thick the ice is. You can look at how sturdy or not sturdy the chair
is and you can look at how reliable Jesus Christ is. This isn't blind faith right but
you are leaning your weight on him. Paul writes no one can lay any foundation other than the
one already laid which is Jesus Christ. He is the rock solid foundation for your faith.
So faith that's the first thing faith is. It's just a way of trusting okay. Super simple
right. Leaning your whole weight upon Jesus. But there's more. Not only is faith a way
of trusting but faith is a way of seeing okay. Now we're told it goes on in the book of Hebrews
if you read on it says that now faith is confidence in what we hope for right. Confidence in this
foundation but it goes on to say and it's assurance about what we do not see. Or another
translation puts it that faith is the evidence of things unseen. Hmm. God gave us five senses
when we were born seeing hearing tasting touching smelling right. So for example in our eyes
God put these little these little receptors rods and cones so that when light or movement
happens out there in the world our eyes can detect it and take it into our body. If we
didn't have eyes that stuff is still going on regardless but because we have eyes we
can take it into our body. These these things are the instruments that bring it in right.
What about ears right. God has given us these ears which have little pieces and parts in
them that allow us to take in what is going on in the world. Auditorily right now you're
listening to my voice and your ears are hopefully making sense of that as it comes into your
body. Again if you didn't have ears the noise would be there all the same but because you
have ears you can make sense of it and take it into you or take your nose for example
your nose is jammed full of like 20 million olfactory receptors right. So you walk into
a movie theater and you take a deep breath and you smell the popcorn. Now if you didn't
have a nose the smell would still be there but because you have the nose you can take
in what is happening around you into your person right. So just like eyes and ears and
noses are able to detect the physical dimension outside of us faith is like a sixth sense
if you will. Faith reaches out to the spiritual dimension and brings those things into our
lives so that we can see them and understand them right. The spiritual dimension folks
is there either way but faith allows you to detect it and connect with it. Take for example
Jacob. Jacob was once fleeing from his own brother Esau. He came to this place to spend
the night laid down and he was really distressed but he had this dream and the dream showed
him that that heavens were right there and angels were right there and God was right
there and he woke up from the dream and he said surely God was in this place and I was
not aware. You see his eyes of faith had been opened right. Elijah once had a servant and
he and his servant were on the run from their enemies but Elijah prayed for his servant
he said God open his eyes that he may see and when the servants eyes were open he could
see that there were angels all around them more angels than there were enemies and that
they were going to be alright. They began to trust the unseen God right and then of
course there is a story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego right who were threatened with
a fiery death by King Nebuchadnezzar and they had a decision made. Are they going to trust
the king they can see with their physical eyes or are they going to put their faith
in the king that they can only see with their spiritual eyes by faith. They trusted the
unseen God. Faith is a way of seeing the spiritual reality that is all around us. It shifts your
perspective when you have faith you are able to move through life not just depending on
what is visible but also trusting in the unseen truths of God's kingdom. That's why Paul writes
he says we live by faith not by sight. Now listen again faith does not deny the physical
reality of our world but it goes beyond to the eternal reality of God's presence and
God's power and God's promises. This is why Peter will then write he says though you've
not seen him with your eyes you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe
in him. Faith is a way of seeing. Okay so that's the essence of faith according to Hebrews
11 faith is a way of trusting and it is a way of seeing but the author now goes on he's
going to tell us what the effects of faith are and again there's two primary answers
to this question. The first effect of faith is this it inspires others. In Hebrews 11
2 we read this for by faith the ancients or the elders the people before us obtained a
good testimony. Do you guys know what a testimony is? A testimony is an inspiring story of somebody's
life that other people find encouraging. In fact today in Trinity Talks Kyle is going
to be sitting down and talking to two members of our congregation. Why? They're just going
to share their testimony and that's what faith does. It's both personal but testimonies and
our faith impacts and inspires those who are around us and leaves a legacy behind us. Faith
in some ways creates a ripple effect. When someone steps out in faith it affects those
who see and so for example when Abraham stepped out in faith it encouraged and inspired generations
that followed him to follow where God led. When Noah stepped out in faith it inspired
generations that followed to obey God even if it looks foolish in the world's eyes. Right?
When Moses stepped out in faith when Abraham stepped out in faith when Martin Luther and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mother Teresa stepped out in faith they inspire us. Closer to home
I bet you you've seen somebody in your own life who when they demonstrated faith it inspired
you the way they prayed through a difficult time. Could even be somebody right here in
the church. You saw how their faith carried them through a time that seemed absolutely
impossible and you were inspired. That's what Paul writes he says the Lord's message rings
out from us. The Lord's message goes out from us so that our faith in God becomes known
everywhere. Guys your faith has a ripple effect. It affects it'll affect your children it'll
affect your co-workers your classmates the people that are around you maybe people that
you've never even met. That's one of the effects of faith but the second effect of faith that
we read about in Hebrews 11 2 or rather Hebrews 11 6 is that it not only inspires others but
it pleases God. The author of Hebrews says this line without faith it is impossible to
please God. Shouldn't that be our ultimate goal to please God? For all my Presbyterian
friends here in the Westminster Catechism it says what is the chief end of man? And the
answer is the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's what faith
does it pleases God. That's why Paul said we make it our aim to be well pleasing to
him. Faith pleases God because when we live by faith people see that God is who God says
he is and God will do what God says that he will do. Even Jesus says I will always do
the things that are pleasing to him. So if Jesus the son of God sought to make his life
one of pleasing God by his faith shouldn't we do the same? Shouldn't we do the same?
Another story there was once a group of an acting troupe that was going through the land
and one night they were doing their show in a certain town and there wasn't all that many
people coming to the show and so some of the actors said oh let's just call it quits it's
barely worth doing the performance tonight there's hardly anybody in the audience but
one of the older members of the troupe said no no no no I think we owe it to those who
showed up to give it our best performance. And so they agreed and they went out and they
gave their best performance they poured all their heart into every scene into every line
it was their best performance ever. And then after the show when they were backstage they
received a note and the note read thank you for the beautiful performance and it was signed
your king. Wow the king of the realm had been passing through the land that night and decided
to take in the show and without realizing it they had performed for their king and won
his approval. The effects of faith are that they inspire all those people in the audience
but more than that it pleases the one person in the audience that matters most pleases
God your faith is not going to please everyone. In fact sometimes people who live by faith
are ridiculed for their faith you're not going to get a standing ovation for living by faith
but you will win God's approval. So the question is is that going to be enough for you or will
you be dependent on all those other people and what they think. So we've looked now at
the essence of faith the effect of faith and we're going to end by talking about one example
of faith and the reason I'm using this example is because the author of Hebrews uses this
example and in the weeks to come you're going to see examples of faith from Abel and Enoch
and Sarah and Rahab we're going to get to all that but before that the author says I'm
going to give you one colossal example of faith and his example is the example of creation.
The author he writes by faith this is a complicated line 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.
So essentially what he's saying to his Jewish listeners he's saying listen here's what's
going on you guys already have this kind of faith that I'm talking about because you believe
that this world this universe was created by God you weren't there to see it none of
us were there to see it you can't make it happen again none of us can and yet you believe
it why do you believe it you believe it by faith you believe it by faith because it's
been revealed to you in God's word and so what happens is creation becomes this big
big example of what faith can look like. Now I know some of you are going to say that doesn't
work for me I disagree with the argument I'm a person of science I'm not a person of faith
I don't believe in that creation story what I want to say without getting into all that
it doesn't really really matter because faith and understanding go together look by faith
we understand you don't have to pick it's not either or faith and science are not contradictory
they are complementary but here's the point whether you lean towards science or you lean
towards faith or you lean toward both of them why do you believe any of it anyways did you
observe it happening no can you repeat it can you create the conditions and make it
happen again at creation no the only reason any of us believe anything about creation
is because of faith faith helps us see this thing that we can't actually see you know
Genesis 1 says that you know in the in the beginning in the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth you know you guys know the universe spans billions of light years
there are like trillions of galaxies trillions of galaxies and then every galaxy there's
billions of stars it's like incredible and the Bible begins with just this line oh yeah
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and it's not just the size of it
that's just mind-boggling it's also the the details like you know God created the laws
of thermodynamics and he created gravity and the earth is a certain distance from the sun
that's just perfect and it's tilted on its axis which gives us the seasons and so all
of it speaks to this incredible design it's so complex this building right you would you
wouldn't walk into this building and say this just appeared by accident it speaks to some
kind of design and creation it's not just that creation is vast it's also very intricate
the same God who designed the stars and galaxy also created the tiniest details of your life
do you know do you know that in your body you have 37 trillion cells and in every one
of those cells you have some stuff called DNA tightly wound strand of DNA every cell
if you were to unwind it would be about two meters long of DNA which means that you have
enough DNA in your whole body to stretch 75 billion miles that's far enough to go to the
sun and back 400 times in every human body that's what's going on inside of you and it's
not just like it's a big piece of string right it's coding it's the blueprints it's what
makes you you it's astonishing you know the author was really smart to use the example
of creation as an example of faith because from the largest stars to the tiniest little
strands of DNA creation speaks about stuff that we cannot fully comprehend except by
faith and if you can trust the creator of the cosmos or the the creator of the most
microscopic thing why wouldn't we trust him with the challenges of our own lives so that's
it for today you know we've explored just the beginnings the essence of faith some of
the effects of faith and this one great big example of faith and so now what do we do
with all that well I'm hoping in 2025 we can all begin to start to live by that faith last
story Charles Blondin the famous French tightrope walker you know for I have to apologize I
tried to get a AI to give me a picture of Blondin pushing a wheelbarrow over Niagara
Falls I did about 10 attempts and even this one it couldn't quite get it right the wheelbarrow
is wrapped around his leg there is some guy behind him he's not even holding the wheelbarrow
anyways you know the limitations of AI right anyways but this is a true story he would
often do this he would stand before a cheering crowd and he would ask them three questions
as he crossed the falls he would say do you believe I can push a wheelbarrow across the
tightrope across the falls and everybody would say yes we believe and then he said do you
believe that I can push a wheelbarrow carrying somebody across these falls and everybody
would say yes we believe and then finally he would ask who will be the first to get
into the wheelbarrow and suddenly the crowd fell silent right guys it's one thing to say
yes I believe it's an entirely different thing to get into the wheelbarrow but that's what
faith is putting your whole weight leaning everything into God right so let me ask you
this where's God asking you to lean in 2025 right maybe it's some relationships you need
to have more faith or in your work or your finances or your future or maybe it's just
in this whole conversation about God himself simply trusting God with your doubts and with
your questions faith isn't about knowing all the answers but it's about trusting in the
one who does will you trust him today amen.
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Trinity sermons this sermon was recorded
at Trinity Church streetsville in Mississauga Ontario on January 5th 2025.