By Faith

Guys, welcome.

It's good to be with you today.

If you're visiting with us, my name is Ryan, one of the pastors here at Impact.

And we're going to continue our study through the book of Hebrews today.

So if you have your Bibles, you can open to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 is where we're going to be.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Camping out will be other small places as well, but that's the primarily where we're going to hang out today.

If you are maybe just joining us, I do want to do a little bit of a recap.

We've been studying through this sermon style letter from the New Testament.

We're not totally sure of the actual author of it.

My personal conviction is that Barnabas, the ministry partner of Paul, was the one who wrote Hebrews.

But what we know is that they are writing to a group of Jewish Christians who gave their lives to Christ, who were raised in Judaism, but then placed their trust in Christ, heard the gospel and received it and believed it and responded.

But now are being drawn back into this old legal system that they grew up in, right?

This law of Moses mindset and mentality where they're being tempted again, trying to earn God's approval, to earn his acceptance by being good and obedient according to the law of Moses.

And so the author is warning them against that, saying, do not go back to that life that we left behind.

Essentially reminding all of us that becoming a good, a moral, even a religious person is not how we make ourselves right with God.

That whole old covenant and legal system, while it is good and has purpose and shows us who God is, Jesus came to fulfill.

I love how the author says it.

Hebrews 10, if we go back to verse 1, let's just kind of review here.

He writes it this way For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

So the comparison there is our good works and the whole law of Moses and religious performance is like a shadow, but it's not the real thing.

The Apostle Paul kind of says it this way, speaking of the whole same thing, religious performance and the law of Moses.

He says Colossians 2, verse 17, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to whom?

Colossians 2:17

Christ, right?

So the substance of righteousness is in Christ.

And that's the only way that we can be righteous, is because of his righteousness.

All the law, all the prophets, everything in that old covenant all pointed to our great high priest, the ultimate once and for all sacrifice, Jesus Himself.

Everything else here was just a shadow.

My daughter, Miley, she uh uh texted me not too long ago.

And you know, whenever your daughter or your kid's away at school or somewhere, a text comes in, you're like, oh great.

And when they're not asking for money, it's even better.

You know, so she texted me and she just said, Hey dad, all I read was, hey dad, uh, this is the most I've ever looked like you.

And I was like, what?

And then all of a sudden the picture came in.

So I brought the picture here so you guys could actually see.

I had that initial reaction, right, where I looked at it and I went, wait, what?

And then all went, hey.

But then the closer I looked, I kind of went, respect, that's actually pretty accurate.

She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and I looked at that shadow and I went, wow, that does look like me.

Now, shadows are fine, but it's not the real thing, right?

That's my daughter, not me.

So sometimes we can be misled, we can be deceived, we can not understand fully, right?

That's the problem, the limitations of shadows.

And so Jesus is the substance.

He is the one, the only way that we can be right with God and be made right.

Now, if today you are here and you are going through anything, that's just a difficult thing to go through.

If you're experiencing hardship, a trial of some kind, suffering in any capacity, guys, the next couple of weeks, I know the Lord wants to bring some encouragement through his word today in this next section, the next couple chapters of this book of Hebrews.

Today we're gonna see the author encouraging those of us who are going through trials, going through suffering of any kind, to have faith in God's promise of restoration, to have faith in what he has promised us, that everything wrong he is going to make right.

And to have that same faith, just like the men and women of the Old Testament in that old covenant looked forward and had faith in the redemption and salvation you and I now get to experience.

That one day we will also experience the full restoration that's awaiting us.

Let's start reading Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse one.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it the people of old received their commendation.

Let me just pause here real quick.

I know we hear this, and maybe you've heard this before, as either a definition or maybe just a biblical description of what faith is.

It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction, the certainty of things not seen, right?

That we can't actually see.

Now, now here's the question that matters, and we've got to ask ourselves today: the assurance and the conviction of what?

Isn't that an important question?

Otherwise, it can just become blind faith, like we just trust everything.

We believe that everything's gonna be okay, just keep our fingers crossed, and we go through life hoping without any foundation for that hope, without any connection to the actual promises of God that he gives to us through his word.

What is it that we are hoping for and that we're being asked to be assured of?

Now, if you go back to chapter 10, starting in verse 32, let's read this together.

But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.

Why would they do this?

What was their hope and their assurance, their conviction?

Let's keep reading.

Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith.

And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

Guys, what is it that we have assurance of?

What is it that is the foundation of our faith?

Guys, hear this.

Jesus is coming back.

That the Son of God who created the world and then stepped into the world to accomplish salvation and redemption, that the promise of God is he will return to this world once and for all.

And that he is going to undo sin and its curse.

He is going to create a new heaven and a new earth, and the presence of God will live with us forever, free from sin, free from everything that we suffer through.

He's going to come back.

That is the hope that we have, the object of our faith that we have assurance of and conviction of.

It's the better and abiding possession.

It's Jesus.

So the exhortation is don't shrink back when our life on this side of eternity gets hard.

When we suffer and go through hard things and we experience pain.

Our hope is not that just keep hanging in there because better days are ahead.

I mean, that may or may not happen.

The hope that we have with certainty and that we can put our faith in is even if better days aren't ahead, a better day is when He returns and makes everything wrong right again.

Ultimately, we have faith in what's coming because of the faithfulness of the one who said, I'm coming back.

It's the faithfulness of God that we place our trust in.

As I mentioned, it's not crossing our fingers and hoping it all works out.

It's a settled confidence in the one who always keeps his promises.

The first time their parent sets them on a little chair or sets them on a stool or a step and looks at them and kind of gets eye-level and goes, okay, jump to me.

And the kid looks at them like, You trying to kill me?

Like, what is going on?

I'm sorry I ate that cookie.

I'll never do it again.

Right?

They're terrified.

They don't know what's going on.

When they manage to just take that step, to maybe lean forward, and dad catches them or mom catches them, right?

All of a sudden, what's built?

Their faith.

And now they know, okay, they're gonna catch me.

And so they get a little more bold, a little more confident as their parents scoop them in.

What the parent is asking isn't to trust in a particular outcome, isn't to trust in what they can see and know and observe, because all they're observing is injury.

The parent is saying, no, don't trust that.

Trust me.

And that's the call of God for us today as his children.

As everyone that we're about to read about here in what's known as the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.

And by the way, we're not gonna have time to be able to really go back to all the Old Testament references and unpack each of these stories, but I want to encourage you guys, man, make that even your devotional time in this next couple of weeks.

Take the Hebrews 11 and uh whatever name is mentioned, go back to the Old Testament, go back to Genesis, go back to Judges, go back to the stories and read what it is that the author is referencing here.

But every one of these we're gonna read about, they saw miracles in their lives.

But they didn't see miracles because they believed in miracles.

They saw miracles because they believed in the God who could do miracles, and they placed their trust firmly in him.

Verse 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.

Right?

So now the author is just unpacking more how often we demonstrate faith in our lives.

So by faith we know that the universe was created by his word, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

So we can look at the observable universe, the world around us, from the largest, greatest galaxy to the tiniest atom, and we can see God's fingerprints of design all over it.

The universe points to a designer, a creator.

And it's also by faith that we know that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

In other words, everything around us shows the design of God and also requires God for existence.

What do I mean by that?

Well, the laws that govern our physical and material world, the natural world, right?

From thermodynamics to every other physical law of nature.

Make it very clear that everything that exists came from something else.

It's known as the law of cause and effect, right?

Everything that is is the effect of another cause.

And so this is a law that governs the universe.

Nothing that came into existence out of nothing.

The Latin phrase is ex nicholo, right?

Out of nothing.

Everything that is came from something else that already exists.

So the problem is for those who say, well, the universe has always existed then.

No, because there's no such thing as an actual eternity within the physical realm, right?

Within the laws of nature.

Everything that is and is material has a beginning and has an end.

That's what we know.

So even the idea of eternity is something we can't really fathom because everything has a cause.

And so the question that it begs is well, then what caused our visible material world in which we live?

And scientists point to theories like the Big Bang theory.

And so the idea there, right, is that there's this hot, gaseous something, dense, initial singularity that suddenly expanded rapidly through a bang or an explosion, and then it cooled eventually to form matter and to form the material world in which we live today.

Now, the problem again with this is that it assumes the initial singularity was physical or material in nature.

Because matter has to beget matter.

And so if it was material and physical, then it is bound by the same laws of nature that binds us today.

And so the question needs to be asked: well, where did the initial singularity come from?

Aliens.

Okay, were the aliens physical and material?

Because if they were, then where did those aliens come from?

And we keep going back and keep going back.

And it's the problem known as infinite regress.

An infinite regression where, again, we have no explanation for the origin of all things.

Fortunately, as followers of Christ who read through the creation account in Genesis, we understand and actually have a name for that initial singularity that brought all things into existence.

It's Yahweh, the I am, the God and creator of all things, the uncaused cause.

That is who he is by definition.

And please don't go into the, well, then who created God?

Nobody.

God is supernatural.

So he's not bound by the same natural laws of cause and effect.

He has always existed and always will exist.

By his very nature, he is eternal.

So it's kind of like asking the question: well, what does the invisible man look like?

If he looked like anything, it would change the very nature of who he is and he would no longer be invisible.

Right?

So if somebody made or created God, the supernatural, transcendent creator that spoke this material world into existence, he would no longer be God by definition of who he is.

Hopefully, you guys were tracking here.

And this matters.

Why does it matter?

It matters because, yes, by faith we know and have assurance of these things.

But it also helps us understand a little more what biblical faith is.

See, biblical faith is not blind faith.

Blind faith is just walking around like, hey, I don't know anything, but I'm just gonna believe it.

And sometimes you're a fool.

Blind faith is believing when you can't know anything.

But biblical faith is believing when we can't know everything.

There's still so much we can know that God has revealed.

And so when we reach the limits of our own understanding, that's where we trust and have faith.

And it's also where we worship this God who is so infinitely greater than anything we can comprehend.

Verse 4.

He begins this unpacking of these stories of the Old Testament.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

This is from Genesis 4.

Through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.

And he was not found because God had taken him.

Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.

And without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

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

So the first few examples of faith here he gives us is Abel, who gave God the very best that he had in this world.

And then he mentions Enoch, who walked so closely with God that God literally took him out of this world.

And Noah, whose faith kept him safe during the destruction of the world.

In each and every case, you see someone who had faith in God and basically said, This world is not for me.

It's not my permanent home.

They longed for and looked forward to the permanent home God had for them.

Do you guys catch that phrase?

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Man, some of us need to grab hold of this today.

Years ago, I had a professor ask me, if you were walking down a road of your life and it's split into two different roads, and you had to choose one direction, one road to walk.

And by one road there was a sign and it said trusting God.

And then by the other road, there was another sign and it said pleasing God.

Which road would you walk?

And I'll tell you, even though I knew a lot of the word and I knew faith matters, there was something in me that really wanted God to be pleased with me.

Anyone with me on that?

I mean, man, I want him to take pleasure in me as his child, his son.

There's a part of me at times that wants to make sure he doesn't think he made a mistake.

Right?

So I want to please God, and that matters to me.

And yeah, I want to trust him, but I don't want to just be that person that's like, yeah, I have faith, but I'm not pleasing him.

And so I wrestle with the response.

And then the Lord brought the whole class at that time back to this passage.

Without faith, without trust, there is no pleasing him.

Otherwise, we fall back into that Judaism mindset, that legal or law performance mindset.

God, I'm gonna please you with what I do.

And guys, we can't ever please God with what we do because of who we are in our sin apart from him.

And so it is our faith that pleases him.

Somebody moved the sign.

Because pleasing God goes right behind the trusting him.

And there's only one road to walk that direction.

We're trying so hard to please him, and the only way to do it is to trust him, to stop trying to do it on our own.

You know that when you look at the gospels, the only two things we read that ever caused Jesus, keep in mind, the Son of God, the creator of all things, who stepped into this world and took on human flesh.

The only thing that we read ever caused Jesus to marvel, to just go, wow, that amazed him was either people's faith or their lack of it.

That's all that we read in the Gospels.

He was only amazed or marveled at their faith or their lack of it.

Are we still trying to please him or are we just trusting?

Verse 8.

He now dives into the story of Abraham and Sarah.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Typical man, right?

By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

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

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even though she was past the age, meaning past the age of childbearing, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead.

What a great description of an old man.

Through them, through him, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

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

Exhortation here.

The author's pointing us back to these men and women of faith from the Old Testament, these stories we know, saying they were obedient to the Lord.

They did these things, even as they suffered through hardship and trial and fear and uncertainty.

But in faith, by faith, they did these things because they trusted the promise of God that salvation and redemption was going to come through their descendants.

And so they believed his word.

They didn't cling to their life in this world.

They were obedient.

And so the author's saying, I know you're suffering now.

I know you're going through it.

But like these men and women of old, look to what God has promised.

Know that this suffering and this life itself is not permanent.

This world is passing away and everything in it.

And so cling to the hope that Jesus is returning.

And that one day all of this is going to be made right, and I'm going to be with him.

That's the hope that we have, the assurance we're called to hold fast to.

Abraham and Sarah, they didn't see the multitude of their descendants.

They just saw Isaac.

They saw one.

And yet they still believed and trusted.

And through their offspring, the Messiah himself came into the world.

All of these heroes of the faith, they set their minds on a future forever, not what was just right in front of them.

They knew the world was temporary.

The Apostle Paul he knew the same thing.

He writes this, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away.

Can I get an amen?

Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient.

They are temporary or passing.

But the things that are unseen are eternal.

The truth Paul is firmly establishing and reminding us of is that the spiritual reality is infinitely more real than this physical one.

It will endure and last forever.

This world, it will not.

And yet, you and I still don't see with eyes of faith to see the unseen.

We don't look to the unseen.

We only look to what we see right in front of us, to the earthly realities and the worldly realities of our day-to-day lives.

This is what we fixate on.

And usually it's related to problems we're trying to fix and deal with.

Problems in our marriage, issues at work, problems with our kids, problems even here at church, money issues, a desire for more things, health concerns.

It's all about this world.

The cares and concerns of the world are choking out the life of God's word in us.

All of these, we read, they desired a better country.

I love the word picture here, guys.

In the Greek, they desired a better country.

It's a word that means to stretch out your hand, right?

Like something is just a half an inch beyond your reach.

And you're just reaching with everything that you have, trying to just touch it and grab hold of it.

This is the image of how they operated.

They lived longing to grab hold of the promise of salvation for the world.

Guys, do we live with the same longing to reach out and grab hold of the promise of ultimate restoration, of the return of Christ?

Or do we not reach out?

Because we're clinging so tightly to this life.

This is what we get to look forward to.

I want to read this.

Revelation chapter 21, verses 3 and 4.

Revelation 21:3

This vision that John the disciple has of that day where Christ returns, and evil is undone, and sin is undone, and there's a new heaven and a new earth.

Guys, read this description with me.

Ready?

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Is that incredible?

This is the future God has promised for us as his people.

No more pain, the curse of sin gone.

No more death or suffering or loss or grief or struggle.

We're living in the perfect, holy, loving presence of God forever and ever and ever.

And yet I share this, I read these words, and I know my heart breaks because I know there's still some of us here today, and that doesn't even move the needle.

It doesn't stir any longing within you.

We're so attached to this world, so attached to what we want to get from it, that promises like this just have us go, eh?

We always live what we truly believe.

And how we live and the hope that we have is gonna show where our faith really is.

Guys, is it stuck here in this life?

Or we're clinging to these things, and our only concern is what can God do for me now?

I want him and need him to make my life better today.

God, give me more money.

Make my marriage better, fix my spouse, because they're the problem.

Give me better health, Lord, heal me today.

Make me happier, give me that promotion.

Lord, I want to travel the world.

And we're so focused on this world and even seeing so much of it, experiencing so much of it that we have no hope.

We're not reaching at all for the promise of eternity, the promise of forever with him.

Verse 17 of chapter 11.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the Exodus of the Israelites, and gave directions concerning his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

By faith he kept the Passover and the spr and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given friendly welcome to the spies.

And how did they show their faith?

Through their action.

You notice that?

Through what they did, through their obedience.

As this is why we say it so often, we don't see our faith based on what we say, or even based on what we confess with our mouths, what we agree with verbally.

We demonstrate what we truly believe by how we actually live, by the decisions we make every day, by the choices we make, even when it's not easy to make those choices.

Are we believing our emotions, our feelings, this world and its mindset?

Are we believing the truth of God's word?

We always live out what we believe.

So examine your life.

James chapter 2, but someone will say, we read this, but someone will say, You have faith and I have works.

James 2 · chapter mention

He says, Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one, you do well.

Even the demons believe.

And they shudder.

Does the obedience of our lives match what we profess to believe?

We believe Jesus calls us to forgive people who hurt and wrong us, don't we?

We believe that.

And yet, how many of us are still harboring bitterness and holding on to resentment and anger toward those who have hurt us, wanting to see revenge exacted in their life?

We don't forgive, even though we say we know Jesus has called us to.

We believe forgiveness is the best option.

We believe we are called to tell others who are lost and separate from God the good news of the gospel.

Yet how many of us never do it?

Even when we see someone in front of us who is despairing and clearly in need of that good news, we don't share it because we don't want to offend them or make them uncomfortable.

We believe God has called us to give back to Him of our finances that He's entrusted to us.

We believe in that, but we don't do it because money's tight, man.

And we just don't have the money for it.

We believe these things, and yet our lives don't reflect the professed faith.

Faith isn't just saying we believe something, it's not just agreeing with a thought or an idea.

Faith works.

Faith is willing to risk.

Right?

Faith without works is dead, according to the book of James.

Guys, faith without risk isn't really faith at all.

You know, back to the example of parents, you know, with their kids, and come on, jump to me.

Trust me.

Just trust me, have faith in me as your dad.

I think back to when my dad did that with me, and I was.

I was terrified.

I guess like the first time he did it, I was on a little step and I was really hesitant, but then I kind of leaned forward in fear and he caught me, and I thought that was just the best thing I'd ever experienced.

And so then I went to the second step and I kind of gave it a little jump, and then the third step, and now I'm really jumping.

And it began that day, apparently became a game between me and my dad, where I would find every object possible to throw myself off of so he could catch me.

Until one day he said he, I was probably, I don't know, five or six at the time at this point.

He said he came home from work and he put his briefcase down, went into the kitchen, and as he went through the kitchen door, kind of to enter the kitchen, from the top of the refrigerator, his son just jumped.

No warning.

As I jumped, I just went, Daddy.

He said he almost broke his back, fell backwards trying to catch me.

And he's like, But you can't do this anymore.

You can't do it.

But I wasn't stupid.

I mean, maybe a little.

I was just a kid who knew for certain dad was gonna catch me.

I knew he wouldn't let me fall.

Because we want the same kind of faith that we read about in here, that we we hear the author of Hebrews reminding us of, these examples of the faith.

But we don't want to do the things that they had to do or go through the things that they had to go through.

We want to have amazing faith in God, but we continually set up our lives to be so safe and so secure, we don't really need God.

We want to be David, but we don't want to faze Goliath.

We want to be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but we want nothing to do with the fiery furnace.

We want to be Daniel, but we don't want that lion's den.

We want to follow Jesus, but we don't want to let go of this world and everything that's keeping us from following him.

Because faith got these people out of some terrible situations, but make no mistake, it was their faith in God that got them into these situations to begin with.

And we don't want to deal with that.

We're not willing to risk for the sake of trusting him.

We all love to hear these stories of faith, but we're not willing to live them.

And we pass off countless opportunities to be that next faith story that inspires and encourages others to trust in God the way we do.

Can we stand together?

Let's pray.

Father, Lord, I know that there are many here today that are going through it.

And Lord, there's so much we don't know, so much about tomorrow.

It's kind of scary.

Very uncertain.

But Lord, today, we ask that you will increase our faith.

God, we can't do it on our own just by trying through sheer willpower to believe more.

You are the author and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus.

And so we ask that you will plant that seed, that you will water it and grow it and cultivate it, and that as we are obedient, and as we trust you and see you faithful and true to your promises, that we just see our faith grow.

That we start seeing with eyes that you want us to see with eyes of faith.

That we don't look at every situation the way we normally would in our flesh, in our humanity.

But God, we see everything as you would want us to see it, knowing your hand is at work, and it's not about today.

God, it's about preparing us to be with you forever.

And so we I pray that you help us see with those eyes.

That you'll help us look to the unseen.

God, bring us to your word so that faith can come to our hearts and lives by hearing and hearing by the words of Christ.

Lord, we believe, but help our unbelief.

We thank you, Jesus, for who you are, for your faithfulness, and for always making sure your promise is yes and amen.

And so we trust you today, and we thank you with joy and gratitude, and we long for that day.

We reach for that day where you return.

We pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.