North Main Street Church of God Sermons

Perfecting Faith

(Hebrews 11:32-40)

Yearly Theme: “Love Does…”

Series Title:  Substance of Faith

December 29th, 2019

Something to think about:

As we bring 2019 to a close it’s a good time to reflect on our year as a whole and on ourselves. Our focus this year has been “LOVE” and what better way to bring in the New Year than by looking at this next passage. The author of Hebrews has been talking about faith and now, here in Hebrews 11:32-40, he gives a beautiful tribute to his heroes in the faith from Jewish history by talking about how they were able to have such strong and steadfast faith.

Let’s look at this passage and see how we also can become superheroes in the Faith. Please turn to:

Hebrews 11:32-40 (NLT)

32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. 36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,[a] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

Here’s the key point this morning…

Key Point: “Faith is perfected by persistent waiting on the Lord.”

What can we discern about the characters in this passage regarding their faith and their determination?

Something to take home:

Where are you today? Are you going into 2020 with a firm foundation? Do you persistently wait on the Lord? In our society to have faith is seen as weakness or foolishness, and we get angry about that often, but it should deepen our faith in Christ because he predicted it. He told us that the wisdom of God is the foolishness of man and that we would be persecuted for following God’s wisdom. But how do we do it? How can we have faith so strong that we can withstand all that the world throws at us? The answer is LOVE. If we are truly in love with God, if we believe He loves us, then we will seek Him, and in turn, be brought closer to Him and our faith will be strengthened.

Where does your faith sit today? The Bible says that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, so what couldn’t faith do in your life? We often hold back from God because we fear the refining process that inevitably happens when we get close to God, and yes, this process can be painful. Building faith is hard. However, if we remember that this is a relationship where the foundation is build first and foremost on love, then we should have comfort that any process we must face, any trials, any hardships will be used by God for our good and the good of God’s kingdom (that’s Faith).

Go into 2020 seeking God and let your faith be perfected by persistently waiting on God’s perfect timing and His perfect plans. Remember that the whole thing is built on God’s unending love for us.

Key Point: “Faith is perfected by persistent waiting on the Lord.”

Enduring Faith

(Hebrews 11:7)

Yearly Theme:  “Love Does…”

Series Title:  Substance of Faith

December 22nd, 2019

Something to think about:

What is it that gives certain men and women the wherewithal to press ahead?  What is it that beckons us to heed it’s call and to rise above the chaos in this world?  What keeps people focused on the higher calling of life even when the end result may not be seen in their lifetime?...  Faith and Hope.

As we continue in our “Faith” series today, we come to a passage that illustrates a type of faith that I like to refer to as “Enduring Faith.”  Let’s take a look…

Hebrews 11:8-22 (NLT)

8  It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9  And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10  Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

11  It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. 12  And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.

13  All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14  Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15  If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17  It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18  even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19  Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

20  It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.

21  It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.

22  It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.

Here’s the key point this morning…

Key Point:  “Faith endures even when we may not see the fulfillment of what we hope for in our lifetime.”

What can we discern about the characters in this passage with regard to their faith and their determination?…

Hebrews 11:13c (NLT),  They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.

Hebrews 11:13a,b (NLT)  All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it.

Hebrews 11:14 (NLT),  Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15  If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Something to take home:

Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all pressed on in their faith in God because they knew that even if they didn’t get to see the fulfillment of God’s promises within their lifetime, all these things would come to pass because God is always faithful!

The characters of old in Scripture knew that this world wasn’t their home, that they were strangers in the land which their feet walked, but they kept their heads held high believing that God would lead them to a place of peace and rest and abundance.

The faithful men and women of the past never lost their vision or hope because they didn’t see with physical eyes the reality of God’s promises, but, rather, through spiritual eyesight that peered into the distant reality of the Kingdom of God, and they were satisfied by the part they played within His grand story.

And, finally, the great men and women of faith in the Old Testament never wished to go back to their old lives, but pressed on to a homeland that was beyond this world. 

You see, this world is not our home.  Jesus has gone to prepare a place for the men and women, boys and girls, that believe in Him and follow Him by faith and not by sight.  Heaven is the home we were made for; this “Paradise Lost” due to sin and death.  This broken world has no hope or a future, but there is a new Heaven and a new Earth that lay just off in the distance.  And, God’s children can see the light of hope on the horizon with the eyes of faith.

Let us remember…

Key Point:  “Faith endures even when we may not see the fulfillment of what we hope for in our lifetime.”

Obedient Faith

(Hebrews 11:7)

Yearly Theme:  “Love Does…”

Series Title:  Substance of Faith

December 15th, 2019

Something to think about:

When a skyscraper is built, a lot of work, time, and effort is put into the foundation before any building begins on the floors or walls. The builders want to make sure it will keep standing.

With this in mind, for the believer in Christ, obedience to God is the best foundation to lay when building our lives.

As we consider the ongoing series for this month (“Love Never Loses Faith”), we come to an aspect of faith that blossoms into righteousness (or what we might call “right living”).

Let’s take a look…

Hebrews 11:1-40 (NLT)

7  It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

“Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, ‘The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master.’”[1]

Noah was a man of obedient faith.  Even when the whole world was against him, he took God at his word and did what God had asked of him to do.

The key point this morning is this…

Key Point:  “Righteousness is a result of obedient faith and trust in God.”

How did this play out in Noah’s life?  Let’s take a look…

Some versions of Scripture note that Noah was moved by “reverent fear” of God, and thus, he obeyed God’s command to build an ark of safety even though the things that God warned him of had never happened before.  This type of reverent fear, or holy “awe,” led Noah to take God at his word.

How is this possible?  Did Noah go around and point a finger at his accusers and the rest of society with a voice of condemnation and scorn?  Not at all!  Noah’s faith in God contrasted with the wickedness of mankind was in and of itself a form of condemnation because Noah’s faith in God exposed more fully the wickedness of the world.

The righteousness that Noah acquired came through his unwavering commitment to God in the face of intense pressure, persecution, and mockery from the world.

Something to take home:

Is our faith in God shown through our obedience to God?  There cannot be faith in God without obedience to God.  For to merely have faith in words only makes a mockery of true righteous behavior.  This is why many within the world look at Christians through a lens of scrutiny.  Do we say what we mean and mean what we say, or are our words meaningless and untrustworthy?

Noah was a man of righteousness because of his faith in God and his obedience to God’s word.  Can we say the same?

It’s so vitally important to remember…

Key Point:  “Righteousness is a result of obedient faith and trust in God.”

[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), 22.

Pleasing Faith

(Hebrews 11:4-6)

Yearly Theme:  “Love Does…”

Series Title:  Substance of Faith

December 8th, 2019

Something to think about:

As we continue our quest to understand how love never loses faith, we read the next few verses of Hebrews 11 to broaden our perspective.  Let’s take a look…

Hebrews 11:4-6 (NLT)

4  It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

5  It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6  And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Back in June we looked at the story of Cain and Abel and the fact that “love is not jealous.”  What we didn’t look at then, we look at now, and that is the fact that Abel brought God a gift out of faith in God, and Cain did not.  It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God because he was offering God his very best and not just his leftovers.

Another character from the Old Testament that is mentioned in this passage is Enoch.  There are a couple of men named Enoch in the Old Testament (specifically in the book of Genesis), but they are very opposite in nature.  There was a man named Enoch in Genesis 4 that was a son of Cain that became a very wicked man.  However, the other man named Enoch in the book of Genesis 5 was the father of Methuselah (the oldest man in the Bible).  All we know about Methuselah’s father, Enoch, was that he walked in close fellowship with God and that one day he disappeared because God took him.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that he was taken up because he was known as “a person who pleased God.”

And, this is the point we turn to today; the point we will be focusing on as described in our key point this morning:

Key Point:  “It is impossible to please God without faith.”

In order to understand this passage better, there are some crucial questions that we need to ask, and here they are:

The Greek word used here for “please,” or “pleased” can be translated as “to gratify entirely.”[1]

The Greek word used here for “believe” can be translated as “to have faith,” or “to be committed to.”[2]

The Greek word used here for “sincerely” can actually be translated as “to search out, to investigate, or to diligently seek.”[3]

Something to take home:

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  And, in order to do this, we must believe that God exists and sincerely seek Him throughout our lives.

Do you believe in God?  Do you love Him with all your heart?  Are you seeking Him diligently, with all your heart?  Are you listening for His voice?

Again, God doesn’t try and complicate things for us.  He makes things simple.  It’s us who makes things hard.  The problem is the human heart; if it’s not completely surrendered to God, there is a cycle of behavior that results in a lack of commitment to God.  When this happens, we drift out to sea without an anchor to keep us from being tossed about by the wind and waves of doubt and confusion. 

Thought it’s not complicated, it is hard to be faithful to God.  The problem lies in the nature of sin and the fallen world in which we live.  This is why we need a Savior.  Jesus’ became the one who did perfectly what we could not.  He appeased God and pleased God by taking our sins upon Himself, thus, when we believe in Jesus and surrender our lives to Him completely, God is pleased with us because of our faith in Him.

Again, it’s important to remember…

Key Point:  “It is impossible to please God without faith.”

[1] Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.