Faith

Heb 12:1-3 (NIV)

Faith is foundational to Christianity. It's one of the pillars that helps us stand. It's at the core of who we are as believers.

In fact, you cannot be a believer unless you have faith. To believe requires faith—the words (believe and faith) are related and even sound very similar in the Greek (pistis and pisteuo).

Though faith is foundational to Christianity, it is also something we struggle with. It's not always easy to have the faith that we should.

All sorts of human characteristics and weaknesses can undermine our foundation of faith: doubts, fears, questions, strong-willed independence, rebellion, self-sufficiency...

So let me ask: How is your faith? How is it doing?

Do you have enough faith? Is your faith strong enough?

Let me put it another way: Have you moved any mountains lately?

Jesus said: "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there' and it will move." (Matt 17:20, NIV)

I think we all can say that we'd like to have more faith and we'd like to have stronger faith. We're like the man who—when faced with a desperate, overwhelming crisis—was told by Jesus: "Everything is possible for him who believes." And he responded: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:23-24, NIV)

We believe. We have faith. We trust God. But while we believe, we need help to overcome our unbelief. Our faith is mingled with doubt; belief is contaminated with unbelief. We believe, but we feel inadequate for the mountains we encounter.

So how do we increase our faith? How do we grow and nurture faith? Where does it come from?

Is faith like something we can buy at the store? Can we find faith for sale on Ebay? Can we go to Wal-Mart, find faith on the shelf, pay for it and take it home? Can we pile up faith in our closets and attic?

Or is faith something we can gain by hard work? Can we learn faith like we go to school and learn about biology? Or can we discover faith in a book?

How do we get more faith? How do we strengthen the faith that we have?

The writer of Hebrews mentions several things that will help our faith:

1.     Throw off everything that hinders.

Some things can hinder our walk of faith even though they are not sinful.

1 Cor 10:23 (NIV)

Some things just get in the way of living by faith—of living the abundant life, of becoming the best you can be. Some things just add extra weight. They slow you down and cause extra hassle.

Have you ever been on a plane waiting for take-off, but they keep delaying the flight because they are "de-icing" the wings? In wet, freezing conditions, they want to insure that ice will not build up on the plane as it takes off. Because the extra weight of all that ice can disable the plane and bring it down.

Maybe you haven't been on a plane that needed de-icing, but you've walked in thick, sticky mud until your shoes are caked in mud and weigh about 20 pounds each. The extra weight will slow you down and wear you out.

A couple winters ago I was cross-country skiing on a very warm day in very sticky snow. I use the classical style of skis with the wax, but you've got to get the wax right or you can be in trouble. Well, apparently I got it wrong because it wasn't long before my skis didn't glide. They just got stuck in the snow. And then the snow stuck to the bottoms of my skis and I was carrying all that extra weight.

TEV: "Let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way."

NLT: "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down."

Faith will grow and become stronger when we get rid of the unnecessary stuff of life. But when we insist on carrying the extra baggage, we can destroy our faith.

Driving across ND at 75 mph into a strong headwind with a car-top carrier and fully loaded car (it was 5 women—my in-laws, so I'll say nothing more) with the AC trying to cool temperatures close to 90...and then the transmission started to slip. So the cruise control just kept demanding more from the engine until it was cooking along at 4800 rpm—at least that's what the service manager said later after checking the onboard computer. Before it was all said and done, the car just gave up the ghost. Both the tranny and the engine were shot.

If you want to destroy your faith, carry all the excess baggage you can. Weigh yourself down with too many obligations. Worries. Cares. Unnecessary activities. Overload yourself with entertainment. Luxuries. And all the bills to pay for it all.

Faith can be ruined by less things than sin, but that's another thing to watch out for!

2.     [Throw off] the sin that so easily entangles.

It's bad enough to be weighted down with stuff that hinders instead of helping. But if we tolerate sin in our lives, we're asking for even more trouble.

We rationalize. We make excuses. We think we're the exception: Just this once. It's not really that big a deal. It doesn't hurt anyone else. I won't do it again.

Sin "entangles"—it's more than weight; it's a trap. Entangles—the Greek word means: "encircling." Sin wraps itself around our legs and pulls us down.

NLT: "Let us strip off...especially the sin that so easily trips us up."

Someone recently asked me, "What's wrong with pornography? I'm not hurting anybody. It's private. No one else has to know. I've got all these raging hormones and I'm not married. What else am I supposed to do?

My answer: pornography might seem like a private sin—but it affects our public relationships. It opens the door to undisciplined behavior and unbridled desires. Eventually pornography affects your ability to develop and maintain healthy, normal relationships. It distorts your perspective. If you're not married but you want to be, pornography can undermine your love and respect for your future wife.

But there are other sins that trip us up: Fudging the numbers on your tax form. Sneaking answers into the chemistry test (because "everybody else is doing it"). Living a fantasy life in an online chat room.

If you want stronger faith, deeper faith, more faith—you cannot play games with sin! If you want to move mountains, you cannot excuse sin in your life. You cannot rationalize your behavior.

Steps to getting rid of sin: (a) You've got to face the truth—admit that sin has a hold on you; (b) confess your sin to God; (c) ask God for forgiveness by what Jesus did on the cross; and then (d) get support and encouragement from others who have overcome these battles with sin.

3.     Run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Two things are important here—first, running with perseverance: Stamina, grit and determination are called for. This is a marathon—not a sprint. We're in for the long haul.

Second, running the race marked out for us. In other words, you've got to stay on track.

Sure, it would be shorter to cut across the grass so you could get to the other side of the track more quickly, but you would be disqualified from the race. If it's a 5K race, you've got to run the race marked out for you. You can't run 3K and call it 5K.

A lot of people try to alter the race that was marked out for them. They try to set their own rules. They try to take their own path instead of the path God has set for them. It's a control issue! They want to run their own lives.

You cannot demand your own way and still be a man or woman of faith. People of faith are those who have learned to surrender to God's plan. They see the track marked out for them, and they follow it instead of going their own way.

Other people just give up. They grow weary of the race. They don't have the endurance or the perseverance to finish the race. So they quit. They drop out.

Quitters cannot be people of faith. People with faith keep going. They might be tired, but they persevere. They might slow down, but they keep plodding on. People of faith have their sights set on the finish line and they refuse to stop short of that.

4.     Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Here is where faith comes from! It springs from a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And here is how faith grows! If you want more faith, if you want stronger faith, if you want mountain-moving faith, then you must know Jesus more and more.

Jesus is the "author" of our faith—the founder, the leader, the one who initiates faith. One version says he was the "pioneer" of our faith.

But he is also the one who perfects our faith—he completes it and finishes it.

TEV: Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.

NLT: ...from start to finish.

Where are your eyes? Who are you looking at? If you keep your eyes on Jesus, your faith will grow stronger and deeper.

It's interesting to me that these four bits of instruction follow the word "therefore" at the beginning of the chapter.

"Therefore" means that this is not the start of a new theme. Rather, it's the conclusion of an earlier discussion from the previous chapter. "Therefore" signifies a summary—the writer is wrapping up the lessons of the previous chapter.

Of course, Hebrews chapter 11 is called the "faith" chapter. It's a review of OT stories of faith—examples for us to follow.

The writer is simply saying, because we've seen the examples of all these men and women who learned how to live by faith, we should (1) throw off anything that hinders; (2) especially the sin that entangles; (3) run with perseverance the race marked out for us; (4) and fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who initiates our faith and the One to brings it to completion.

So we can go back and look at Hebrews 11 with the end in view so our faith will increase and be strengthened. We are introduced to all these wonderful stories from the OT Scriptures to remind us that we, too, can be people of faith, just like these people.

Two concluding observations:

First, we need faith to please God. (Heb 11:6, NIV) "No one can please God without faith." (TEV)

The OT heroes gained God's approval by their faith—not by their human effort or their good works or even by following the OT Law. This point is underscored by one example after another of people who put their faith into action.

Twice in the chapter, however, we see works done without any faith whatsoever—and God was not pleased.

Cain (Heb 11:4, NIV), for example, offered a sacrifice to God—a good thing. But his sacrifice was not approved by God because he did it from the wrong motivation, from his human effort and without any faith. "It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval..."

(MSG) "By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice. It was what he believed, not what he brought that made the difference..."

Cain brought a sacrifice, but he didn't bring faith. His good works, done without faith, left him unapproved before God.

The Egyptians (Heb 11:29, NIV) were another example of good works done without faith. They went through the Red Sea on dry ground just like the Israelites—but not exactly as they did, because the Israelites made it all the way through by faith. The Egyptians, who were not acting in faith, made it only part way through, and then the waters closed over on top of them, and they drowned.

It's true, they took a risk and did something daring. They overcame their fears and took action. But they were not motivated by faith. So they did not please God. We need faith to please God—that's the first concluding observation.

The second is this: Faith does not always get you what you want. (Heb 11:13, NIV)

Faith enables you to see God's promises—even if it's only from a distance.

Driving with the relatives to Canal Park—the aerial lift bridge, the Lakewalk, Angie's Cantina. There is an anticipation and hope as you drive that direction. Then you come over the ridge of the hill and see it all lying down there below. You see it from a distance, even though you haven't yet arrived there. You know it's real. You know it's true. It's just going to take a while before you can enjoy it.

That's the way it is with God's promises. Faith enables us to see them even before we can actually experience them and enjoy them. Because really, it's not about what happens in this world, it's about what we can see in the next.

Conclusion: If faith is foundational for us (and it is), then we must do what we can to (1) get rid of the things that hinder our faith; (2) we must get rid of any sin that we've rationalized away; (3) we must persevere all the way to the end; and (4) we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus—because he is the one on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.