Hebrews 11:7-22

What is the cloud of witnesses that we have around us?

What is he talking about?

What does it mean?

Well, as we go through Hebrews chapter 11, we're seeing the cloud of witnesses.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

All of these various characters, all these various characters that tell us the story of faith.

They exemplify the life of faith.

And so by the time we get to Hebrews 12, we're like, oh yeah, the witnesses, we're surrounded by all of these witnesses through the story of Hebrews.

So Hebrews chapters 1 through 6, it says that God is pleased, that God is pleased through faith.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

That God is pleased through faith.

As we go through this part, this morning, what we're going to see is that there's going to be seasons of life that you'll be able to recognize.

Maybe seasons you've been through or seasons that you've seen other people go through.

Just kind of point them out very quickly.

One is a season where obedience to God is defiant to cultural norms.

Maybe you've been in a season where you felt like, I know what it means to obey, but this is very different from culture.

The second is a season of journeying and relocating.

You ever had to relocate?

I mean, this is a neighborhood of relocation, right?

Having to go to a new place.

We see a season of waiting and hoping.

You ever had to wait on something?

You felt like God has something in store for you in the future, but you're in a season of just waiting for it to occur.

We see a season of blessing and speaking future hope, speaking into the future.

And then we see a season of dying and entrusting the future to the Lord.

What the pastor here who wrote Hebrews is saying is listen, faith can be done in all of those seasons.

We're called to live by faith.

No matter what season you're in this morning, when you walked in that door, which by the way, don't ever walk through that door because the alarm goes up, but when you walk in that door, the alarm doesn't go off, and you came in in a season.

You're in a season right now.

And sometimes when you're in it, it's hard to know what is the season that I'm in.

But this pastor would say to you this morning, do it by faith.

Do it by faith.

And he would say to you, it can be done.

Now, when you go back to the parable of the sower, and if you've been around the Bible a long time, you know that the parable of the sower is where it's like God likens, Jesus likens the preaching of the gospel message to scattering seeds.

And he compares you to dirt.

And he says, your life, your heart is literally like dirt, and that seed falls in, and it's either going to germinate or it's not going to take root, and something's going to happen, and you're going to fall away.

And some of the oftentimes the things that cause people to fall away from the journey of faith is they are uh Satan just lies to them, rips them off with lies.

Or they go through trials and tribulations, they get sick, or a relationship dies, or they get fired from work, right?

So you've got suffering that causes people to fall away from following Jesus.

And then the third, the third is this idea that you just get um crowded out.

Your discipleship to Jesus gets crowded out by stuff.

You just got stuff.

You got, hey, I got this stuff, I got that stuff, I've got this event, I've got that event.

And it's just difficult to follow Jesus.

But then there's the good soil, right?

What happens with the good soil?

The seed grows up and it's bearing fruit, right?

It's bearing fruit.

There are seasons that the characters in the story go through.

Talk about Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, all of those characters we see in the story this morning.

Let's um let's start by looking at Hebrews 11 verse 7.

Hebrews 11:7

Hebrews 11 verse 7.

Hebrews 11:7

I know it's gonna catch up with me here.

There we go.

By faith, Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family.

By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

One of the things that we're gonna see as we go through these stories, there's four things.

There's four things.

How many things are there?

There's four.

Okay, good.

You're tracking with me.

There's four things.

It's really important that you got the four.

Because when we get to the end and we land the plane and the sermon is gonna end, I promise you that, especially if you're new, you might be afraid.

But it is gonna end.

When it ends, I'm gonna ask you what are the four things?

And here they are, okay?

The first is God's guidance.

What is it?

God's guidance.

The second is the impossibility of the situation.

What is it?

The impossibility of the situation.

That's good.

You guys are tracking.

The third is the calculation of the character.

What is it?

Good.

And the fourth is the action of the care the action the character took.

What is it?

Okay, good.

Alright, so in each one of these stories, we're gonna find, oftentimes we're gonna find, it's not a rule.

It's not a rule that there has to be those four things, but there's semblances of it, and most of them have those four elements.

So let's look at the story of Noah.

In the story of Noah, we go back to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We go back to Genesis 2 because it says this.

It says that, well, what is God's guidance?

I'm sorry, I'm jumping ahead.

God's guidance was that he was warned.

See, God comes to Noah and it says that he was warned.

Now, if you're new to the Bible, we're talking about a story that's found in Genesis chapter 6, 7, 8.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

So you can go back and read it.

But God's guiding him and warning him that there is a flood that is coming.

There is a flood that's coming.

And so the second thing here in the story is the impossibility.

What was the impossibility in, or what was the obstacle that would have, you know, kept Noah from trusting in God's word?

It's this phrase, what was not seen?

What was not seen.

He was warned about what was not yet seen.

What for Noah was not yet seen?

What?

The flood.

He hadn't seen the ark yet, yeah, because he had got to build it.

If we go back to Genesis chapter 2, here it says that when God made the world, it had not yet rained on the land.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Instead, the ground was watered by a mist.

Up until the time of Noah, there's the concept of rain was not a thing.

Instead, there was a firmament, like a really humid geopolitical climate that was watering the earth.

There's some kind of phenomenon that happened with the flood that caused just this whole system to change.

If you're a meteorologist, you would nerd out on this concept of how that would have happened.

But when God says to Noah, listen, listen to me, it is going to rain and it's going to flood the whole earth, you're going, well, what in the world is that?

Right?

What is that?

So God is warning Noah, saying it's going to rain, and the impossibility in Noah's seat is he's never seen rain before.

And he's never seen a worldwide flood before, right?

He is no context.

And yet he is called to build a giant boat, which is, admittedly, that is pretty crazy, right?

You agree?

Yeah, this is some crazy stuff that God's calling him to do.

So we have God's guidance is that he's warned.

The impossibility is that he had not seen it yet.

What was the calculation of the character?

What was the calculation of the character?

Let's go back here to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7.

Hebrews 11:7

The calculation of Noah, in other words, how did he think about this?

It says that he was motivated by godly fear.

He's motivated by godly fear.

It's such a simple statement, but yet when you go and read Genesis chapter 6 and 7, you see over and over again God giving instructions to Noah and He's obeying.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

God giving instructions and he's obeying.

It's very simple.

Sometimes the Bible is frustratingly simple.

That God just tells these characters, here's what it means to do, and you do it.

It's kind of like raising kids.

Like when you're when kids are little, you're giving them just basic instructions and you expect them to do it, to follow along.

And that's what we see in Noah, that he's just obedient.

Now, what was the action that he took?

What was the action that he took?

He built an ark.

That's what he did.

For Noah to live by faith meant build an ark.

Build an ark.

That's what it looked like for him to walk by faith.

Here's a man who walks by faith by building a giant boat to survive an event that he was warned about by God but had never occurred in history.

Crazy.

And the pastor is holding that up in front of you and I and just saying, listen, here's an example of what it looks like to live by faith.

Here's one story of what this looked like.

Let's go to the next story, the story of Abraham.

Abraham kind of is a long story that kind of folds into another part here, but we're going to look at uh verses eight through ten.

We're going to look at verses eight through ten, and we're going to ask the same questions, those four elements that the pastor puts here in the text.

Starting in verse 8, it says, By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance.

He went out even though he did not know where he was going.

By faith, by faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, who architect and builder is God.

So let's look at these three verses again: God's guidance, the impossibility of the situation, the calculation that this character Abraham makes in the action of faith that he took.

First of all, when God guided him, when God guided him, let's look over at Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.

Genesis 12:1

God said, the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your land, your relatives.

If we go back into Hebrews 11, verse 8, it simply says, when Abraham was called.

Hebrews 11:8

You see, here's one of the things I want you to see about faith that's really important.

These characters were not coming up with great ideas and then exhibiting faith.

They're responding to God, speaking to them.

Noah is told by God, build an ark.

There's a flood coming.

Abraham is told by God, I want you to go from your land, your relatives, and your father's house, to the land I will show you.

So God is speaking, guiding him.

And here the writer in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8, says, he just calls Abraham to this.

Hebrews 11:8

What's the impossibility?

The impossibility of the circumstance?

Well, he says it's that you don't know where you're going.

You don't know where you're going.

Before we get to verse 10, just back in verse 8, Hebrews 11, 8, it says he went out even though he did not know where he was, where he was going.

That's taken by the pastor from Genesis 12.

What about the calculation?

What calculation did Abraham make?

It's this verse here, verse 10.

Verse 10, it says, he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham, as he's hearing God tell him something, he's he knows there's this challenge, something that's gonna make him uncomfortable in taking the step of obedience.

He makes a calculation.

The pastor inserts this, it says he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

This idea is gonna be elaborated further when we get to verse 12, which we'll cover at the end.

But it's this ability to look into the future and have this future hope.

The final thing I want you to see here is again from verse 8.

What was the action that he took?

What was the action that he took?

He obeyed, set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance.

He went out.

Very simple sentences, right?

Just simple obedience.

Here's what it looked like for Abraham to walk by faith.

What did his faith look like?

Leaving a homeland and heading with uncertainty towards a new place to be a foreigner living in a tent.

One of my uh professors in seminary, he loves to point out the fact that Abraham, even though he was a foreigner, he decided from day one in his journey, he he sets up an altar, not to the gods of that land where he was a foreigner, but to the God who had directed him.

He was faithful to Yahweh.

There was a faithfulness, a demonstration of faith in the way that he worshiped.

In the way that he worshipped.

By faith, it says he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents.

Again, the pastor is trying to encourage your faith.

And he's trying to show you that faith looks very different.

It's variegated, it has many different aspects and angles and implications.

It is a response to something that God has said.

Faith looks very different in our lives, in each of our lives.

It simply means responding to God in our story to the degree of revelation that He's given to us.

It's important because you may have grown up around a church tradition that emphasizes faith.

That says, listen, you know, it's God's will that you be healthy, always healthy and wealthy.

And we call that the health and wealth movement, right?

And a lot of that is tied in with the concept of faith.

But the biblical concept of faith shows that faith, the faith that we are supposed to demonstrate and live by, is a responsive faith.

That God's the initiator and we're the responder, that our faith responds to the degree of revelation that God is giving.

God isn't looking at you saying, dream a dream, come up with bigger dreams.

He isn't.

What he's doing is he's saying, I want you to re, I want you to know me, be rooted to me.

I want you to be that branch tied in to the vine, and I want you to just respond to what I'm showing you.

And here's the beautiful thing.

If we didn't have the Spirit of God living in us, it would be kind of this clunky, like, you know, well, Ray, like he walks by faith like this, so we all got to do it like Ray, right?

But instead, no, we all have the Spirit of God in us, and so the way that faith takes on form is different in each of our lives, but we are called to it.

We're called to trust and respond to God.

Okay, let's go to the next character, which is Sarah.

Sarah is found in verse 11.

It says that by faith, by faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

God's guidance.

Let's talk about God's guidance in Sarah's life.

It says that she responded in faith to the one who had promised, to the one who had promised.

When she was unable to have children, she received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age.

She considered that the one who had promised, that's God.

She knows that there's this promise.

We hear of it coming in the context of being given to Abraham, but she's totally involved.

She's read in to the promises of God into her family.

She's responding to this, to the one who had promised.

What's the impossibility of her situation?

It says here that when she was unable to have children, you see that when she was unable to have children, that's part of the impossibility.

We also see, even though she was past the age since she considered that the one.

So it's she's past her age of childbearing, she was not able to have children.

It's an impossibility.

Why does God keep calling people to have faith in such difficult circumstances?

Why can't he just make it easy?

Why couldn't he just pick like a gal like in 25 years old?

She's just ready to have a baby and it's good to go.

No, instead he picks out a lady who's like in her 80s and says, Okay, we're gonna bring about a great nation through you.

Do you see that?

Do you see the pattern?

That it's not just one time God spoke to Noah and he's the only one that faced the impossibility.

No, each one of these characters are asked to demonstrate faith when the situation was in stark contrast.

In stark contrast.

What was the calculation of Sarah?

How did she, what was, or do we have a window into her thought process?

It says, she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

So she looks at her body and she says, I shouldn't be able to have kids, but she walks by faith and receives power to conceive, that's going to be the next one, because she considered the one who promised was able, was faithful.

And the fourth year is what was the action that she took?

For Sarah, it meant just receiving power to conceive offspring.

It reminds me of Mary.

Like, what did Mary have to do to walk by faith?

Like she just had to participate and say, God, use my body to have this baby.

Here's Sarah just saying, God, you know, yes, I participate in this process.

I receive power to be able to conceive this child.

Sarah cooperated with God's plan.

Now let's skip over verses 12 through 16 so we can come back to it at the end.

I want to go to the story of Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham and Isaac, which is found in Genesis 22, is the next story that the pastor brings up and says, listen, this needs to inspire, this needs to inform your faith.

Hebrews 11, 17 through 19.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, he received the promises, and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

And then it says in verse 19, he considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead, therefore he received him back figuratively speaking.

So again, this story, you want to look it up?

Genesis 22.

What was God's guidance with Abraham?

It says he was tested.

He was tested.

He received the promise.

Your offspring will be the will be traced through Isaac.

What's the impossibility?

The impossibility of this scene.

He was offering his one and only son.

He had been promised.

Abraham had been told, Isaac is going to be the source of the promise.

But then God says, I want you to offer him as a sacrifice.

Well, that's kind of seems to be in conflict.

And that's what you need to know.

Sometimes God's even willing to take your faith to a place.

He's not your faith, but your your the call to obedience in your life may almost seem like it's in conflict with the plan of God.

And look, that may make you uncomfortable, but this pastor is trying again, he's trying to help you familiarize yourself with spirituality.

What does it look like to do spirituality according to the Bible?

Well, look at Abraham at this moment when he was called to offer up Isaac.

The calculation of Abraham in that moment, what did he do?

He considered that God is able even to raise someone from the dead.

He said, Okay, God, I'll obey you, because I believe that you are able to raise someone from the dead.

And the action that he took was to offer up Isaac.

He says it's figuratively.

And then he received him back.

He received him back.

Let's keep going into the life of Isaac, verse 20.

Just one little verse about Isaac.

Here's what it says By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

His the guidance, here's God's guidance in this text.

Do you see it?

There is no guidance.

No guidance found in the text here, but in the account of Isaac's life, we see that God is giving him this promise.

And so the writer expects you to go back and read the story of Isaac.

What's the impossibility of the situation?

I would say the impossibility is these three words, things to come.

He can't see, you know, he hasn't experienced the future yet, and yet he's blessing Jacob and Esau, speaking about things to come.

What's the calculation of Isaac?

We're not given a calculation.

We're not told what his thinking was, just that he did this.

And in again, in the Genesis account, he says it says that he did it as he was getting, being that he was older.

And then what is the action that he took?

He blessed Jacob and Esau.

For Isaac to demonstrate his faith simply meant speaking these things over their life in a prophetic way, blessing them, saying, This is what's going to occur in your life moving forward.

And then verse 21, verse 21 is the story, is the story of Joseph or Jacob.

Jacob blessing Joseph's sons.

Jacob, the son of Isaac, is at the end of his life, and it says, by faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

Again, God's guidance is not here.

We're told the impossibility of this situation is that he's dying.

And yet he's operating in strength.

So faith makes Jacob strong at the moment of his death.

Do you see that?

He takes a an he he takes, think about Genesis 1 and 2, about how humans are called to rule, subdue, be fruitful, multiply.

And in the moment of of his death, right, right as he's he's knows he's on his deathbed essentially, he speaks this blessing over Joseph's sons.

You can only do something like that in faith.

The calculation, there's no necessarily the window into his thinking, no calculation of his character here.

And the action that he took is that he blesses Joseph and he worships.

Now, the last story is the story of Joseph in verse 22.

It says this by faith, Joseph, by faith, Joseph, let's see, he was nearing the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones.

Again, we don't have guidance, the impossibility of the situation, it's end of life.

The calculation of his character of the character of Joseph, it's not in the text, but he's mentioning the exodus.

He's speaking into the future, saying, here's what's going to come.

So we have Abraham, we have Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all taking action in faith.

Faith did not mean that they were getting up in the morning, reading their Bible, having their quiet time, and then going on with their life.

Faith looks really weird.

Do you see that?

One time a guy's on the top of his staff talking to his grandkids.

Another time, you know, he's like leaving his family and going as a foreigner into another country.

Another time you've got, you know, Joseph at the end of his life, he's saying there's gonna be an exodus.

And it's like he doesn't know it's gonna be 400 years down the road.

He's like, there's gonna be an exodus.

Make sure you take my bones out of here to the promised land.

I mean, that's some weird stuff.

And the pastor here is commending the life of faith to you and I.

He's saying, your life, there's nothing you're gonna throw at God or that God's gonna throw at you that doesn't include faith.

Like, you need to do your life by faith, and you need to understand that your faith that you live by is a response to God.

And bottom line is like, do you know what God's saying?

Do you know what God's saying?

Are you able to respond to God in faith because you know how he's speaking to you?

Now, last week I talked about a secular idea of faith.

Faith is not something that's just a Christian idea.

We live in a culture that values faith.

That's why I had you go and watch one of the trailers of one of the following movies.

Um there were there, I think there was four or five that I think there was five trailers that I said, hey, I want you to go and watch either The Pursuit of Happiness, Rocky, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, or Rattatoui.

Because what I want you to see is that our culture, the culture that we live in, values faith, but it's different than the Christian idea of faith.

And that's super important because it's easy as a follower of Jesus to take the secular idea of faith and import it into your discipleship, your apprenticeship to Jesus, and to think, well, I'm living by the faith concept of Will Smith in the pursuit of happiness.

Let's put these images up in front of you.

In the pursuit of happiness, the film showcases the story of Chris Gardner, who had an unwavering faith in himself despite being homeless and facing numerous adversities.

His faith, perseverance, hard work eventually led him to become a successful stock broker.

His faith, the perseverance in this uh character, Chris Gardner, is inspiring.

You're like, yeah, if Chris could do it, I can too.

There are some parallels between the idea of faith where he's believing in himself, and the Christian idea of faith.

But there's one thing that's missing.

I'll tell it to you here at the end.

But but take, for example, Rocky.

In the story of Rocky, it's the classic film that tells the story of Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer from Philly, who never loses faith in himself despite being an underdog.

His self-belief and determination led him to a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champion.

Again, we love these stories because it's this perseverance that's rooted in I can do it, I can make it through, I can win.

We have the story of Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump is this unwavering belief in the goodness of people and the value of simple kindness, demonstrating a kind of secular faith.

His journey through life remains optimistic despite numerous historical tragedies occurring around him.

Sometimes comical.

Or Shawshank Redemption.

The character Andy DuFriesen maintains faith that things will turn out for the better despite being sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for a crime that he didn't commit.

This faith in a better future leads him to eventually escape and live a free life.

Or, one of my favorites, because I love to cook, ratatouille.

Remy the rat has an undying belief in his dream to become a chef, even though it seems impossible, because he is a rat.

His faith leads him to achieve his goal despite all odds.

Now, here's the thing I want you to see.

Each one of these characters demonstrates faith in an idea we could say bigger than themselves.

They are having faith in themselves, but it's that they are going to engage the world and be victorious.

The idea of faith, I also want you to see, it's packaged in a person.

Right?

You go and you watch just the trailer of the pursuit of happiness, and you see just in that minute and 55 seconds, you see that the idea of faith is packaged.

The water of is care, like the idea, the concept of faith is carried from the screen over to my life through a story.

And this pastor is trying to do something similar of taking a story and convey to you and I this value of faith, but there's something that's missing out of those four elements.

Do you know what it is?

Out of those five movies, what is the one thing that's missing?

Yeah, a response to the revelation of God.

In the pursuit of happiness, the main character, Chris, he doesn't know what, there's no sense of spiritual anchoring.

He doesn't know that God's gonna work the story out.

He doesn't know what God's doing in his life.

Instead, it's a story about him and persevering against all odds.

He's not demonstrating great faith because he is believing in God.

Instead, he doesn't want to die and leave his son homeless and fatherless.

He has to survive.

There is a number of parallels that exist between the secular idea and the Christian idea of faith.

You have perseverance, grit, sacrifice, and resolve.

But the thing in about the Christian ideal of faith is this idea of responding to God's guidance in our life.

The secular person does not have a direction on what actions to take, they don't have an assurance that God is in control.

There is not a hope of resurrection or recovery of redemption and rescue.

The story arc, they don't have a story arc where the good stuff can be backloaded at the end versus front-loaded at the beginning.

There is a part of the text that we missed that we skipped over, verses 12 through 16.

I want to briefly read those to you.

What I want you to see in this, because time is short here, what I want you to see is this ability of all these characters to look down the road at the end.

That God's going to work things out.

Therefore, from one man, in fact, from one as good as dead, this is kind of on the tail end of Abraham's story, came the offspring, as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised.

Do you see this?

They saw them from a distance.

That's the eyes of faith.

They're seeing it from a distance.

They greet them, they confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

There's this ability to see into the future.

Now, those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

Right?

There's this idea of looking into the future, that my current actions are anchored in this future reality.

If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return.

But they now desire a better place, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

There's this incredible ability throughout this, these stories of faith, where the characters are um looking into the future.

The life of faith is this fascinating relationship with the future and God's ability.

In verse 10, he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

In verse 11, she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.

We looked at verse 13 and 14 just a second ago.

But verse 19, he considered God to be able to even raise someone from the dead.

This idea of faith, the idea of faith that the pastor's here holding up, he he wants you and I to see this, um, the fact that these characters in such a varied way are responding to God and that they're called to take an uncomfortable step of obedience and to trust that God's able to work out something not yet seen.

The end is not yet known, but they're trusting in God that He's gonna work it out.

The results are not necessarily gonna come from their great or perseverance or great sacrifice, the results are gonna come from God working out the things in the future.

And there is even in that an aspect where you don't see it all come together because there is this heavenly reality that our temporal answers to prayer anticipate.

As you're going through life and you're seeing God work things out, all that should do is go, wow, heaven's gonna be great.

That's what it should do for you.

That's what it should do in your life.

If you're here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you have a problem because you're looking at this and you're like, well, I don't feel connected to God.

I know I need to have faith in my life, but I don't know how to be connected to God.

And the great answer of Scripture is that Jesus came to reconcile you to God.

So this idea of responding to God is possible because of what Jesus did on the cross.

He has reconciled you to himself so that you can have a relationship and hear God speaking and guiding you in your life.

You do not have to do your life alone.

As Christians, we're not just excited about heaven, but we're excited about Monday morning because that's where God's at.

He's gonna be with us and he's gonna help us live by faith as we go through tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday in the morning, we're gonna be back at church again.

But for those of us who do follow Jesus and we have a relationship with him, we also have a problem.

We have to ask this question: are we living by the faith framework that we inherited when we started following Jesus, or do our actions betray us?

Are we actually living by a secular faith ideal?

As we look at these stories, they confront us Christians.

Because the question, these are our saints, these are our heroes, this is the cloud of witnesses that we look to in terms of what does it mean to follow God and to trust God?

And the question, the unfortunate question, I would say, or uncomfortable question, is does faith look like that in my life?

Am I willing to respond to God?

There is this very common idea that faith is something where we just kind of live in the Proverbs, that God comes along and he says, like, this is what a moral life looks like, and so by being a moral person and a good person, I'm living by faith.

And that's one aspect of it.

But that's only about three chapters, three books of the Bible, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

Kind of emphasize this idea of life done by wisdom.

The rest of the Bible gives these kinds of ideas that God's giving very specific directions to people for people to follow.

It may be that you say, I want to follow Jesus so that he will bless me.

Sometimes I want to follow him when it comes to morality, but follow him at the expense of my comfort and independence?

Heck no.

I would just encourage you this week to kind of sit in that and let God speak to you, let the Holy Spirit speak to you on this theme of faith.

Ask God to show you what it means for you to live by faith.

What does it mean for you to trust God in your season, the season that you are in?

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for these characters that embody this concept of faith.

And we ask that you would teach us to live by faith and to trust you.

Thank you for the mercy and the forgiveness that we receive as we failed to trust you in the past.

Teach us, Lord, to trust you more and more.

Teach us to hear your voice.

Lord, we want to be led by you, a people of faith.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.