Living By Faith
Lessons from God’s Heroes
Hebrews Chapter 11
Martin Luther said "Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. Then, it accepts the impossible, does without the indispensable and bears the intolerable."
This New Year we shall start a new series of messages based on Hebrews Chapter 11. As a society, we like our heroes... we like to hero-worship. We love our movie, football or rugby stars. The Bible, it’s not without its own list of heroes. It has its hall of faith. But it’s fair to say these were a different breed of character to those popular today.
Hebrews chapter 11 contains a list of people that God says are noteworthy. There is the shepherd boy who became a king. There is a would-be king who gave it all away and became a shepherd. There is the despised brother, hated and sold into slavery... or the one who was, quite literally, left for dead at the hand of his own jealous brother. Then there is the reluctant hero, the one who was least in his family and whose family was least in their tribe that God used to save the nation of Israel; Or the preacher of righteousness who saved no one outside of his own family. And let’s not forget the harlot who put her life on the line to help God’s people and defy her own nation. They are a list of stars whom God places His stamp of approval upon saying “The world was not worthy of them.” They have earned their ‘stardom’ in God’s Hall of Fame because of their faith – all they ever did…it was done by faith!
This series is an encouragement in our walk with God. It is an affirmation of our faith on the life’s journey. If you have been getting complacent in your walk, think again as to what is important and precious in this life. God says it is your faith. If you have been running well, don’t get proud but keep living in a constant relationship with your creator and finish well!
In Hebrew 11:13, after speaking about some of the ‘heroes’ of the faith it says this:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. (Heb 11:13)
That is why they are heroes!
Faith in God isn’t just how we start the Christian life. It is how we walk in this life and how we want to finish it. Christian faith it is not just a concept, ideology but a ‘substance of the things unseen’. Faith is a walk with God in the ups and downs of life; it is a perspective of life that says “I will look at life today from God’s point of view!”
.
This New Year we shall start a new series of messages based on Hebrews Chapter 11. As a society, we like our heroes... we like to hero-worship. We love our movie, football or rugby stars. The Bible, it’s not without its own list of heroes. It has its hall of faith. But it’s fair to say these were a different breed of character to those popular today.
Hebrews chapter 11 contains a list of people that God says are noteworthy. There is the shepherd boy who became a king. There is a would-be king who gave it all away and became a shepherd. There is the despised brother, hated and sold into slavery... or the one who was, quite literally, left for dead at the hand of his own jealous brother. Then there is the reluctant hero, the one who was least in his family and whose family was least in their tribe that God used to save the nation of Israel; Or the preacher of righteousness who saved no one outside of his own family. And let’s not forget the harlot who put her life on the line to help God’s people and defy her own nation. They are a list of stars whom God places His stamp of approval upon saying “The world was not worthy of them.” They have earned their ‘stardom’ in God’s Hall of Fame because of their faith – all they ever did…it was done by faith!
This series is an encouragement in our walk with God. It is an affirmation of our faith on the life’s journey. If you have been getting complacent in your walk, think again as to what is important and precious in this life. God says it is your faith. If you have been running well, don’t get proud but keep living in a constant relationship with your creator and finish well!
In Hebrew 11:13, after speaking about some of the ‘heroes’ of the faith it says this:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. (Heb 11:13)
That is why they are heroes!
Faith in God isn’t just how we start the Christian life. It is how we walk in this life and how we want to finish it. Christian faith it is not just a concept, ideology but a ‘substance of the things unseen’. Faith is a walk with God in the ups and downs of life; it is a perspective of life that says “I will look at life today from God’s point of view!”
.