Faith As A Lifestyle
The hallmark of a hero. Bravery, integrity, selflessness. They save the day, ask for no reward and then ride off into the sunset. The Bible has stories of many heroes. But they aren’t always brave, good or selfless. In many ways they are people just like you and me. Missing the mark, making mistakes, sometimes even making major mistakes. What is it that Abraham, Moses or Sarah have in common that makes us continue to tell their stories today? What makes them heroes?
Abraham believed God and he became the father of many nations. Sarah believed God and became a mother at an old age. Moses believed God and became the deliverer of his people. They are all connected by virtue of their great faith, the hallmark of a biblical hero.
We read of some of these biblical heroes is what many call the “Hall of Faith” in the book of Hebrews. Many of them were not in the best of places or times of their lives and many of them were on the verge of quitting. Hebrews Chapter 10:35-39, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”
That whole section of scripture, leading into the “Hall of Faith,” which is Hebrews Chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews is essentially saying, “I am writing you to tell you to not quit…,” for the righteous shall live by faith. So, whatever faith is, it is to be a lifestyle. The righteous shall LIVE by faith. It’s not a concept you visit, it’s a lifestyle to be possessed. Because it says here, the righteous shall LIVE by faith. The righteous that learn to live by whatever faith is, even in the face of great challenge or great personal failure, get to experience God in action. That’s what we just read!
“Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward!” And then we read, “After you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise…” I have found through the last 12 years of ministry that you get to experience God fulfilling His Word within the lifestyle of faith. So, there is a thing…., If I am not living by faith then I am not experiencing God in my circumstances.
So, what is faith? And how does it work? Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I know you’ve read that time and time again and we’ve talked about this time and time again… But listen and process perhaps this most profound nuance. Faith must have substance. It must have something that it relies upon. What that means is that the faith is only as meaningful as the substance to which it is attached. If you have faith in a bad substance then your faith will be insufficient no matter how much of it you possess.
Faith has to do with an expectation in a hope that involves a substance….so the power/effectiveness of and even the amount of your faith is not tied to how much faith you have…. It’s tied to the how much substance is in the object of that faith…
A little faith in significant substance produces great results. A lot of faith in insufficient substance produces little to no results because what makes faith faith is inextricably linked to the substance of that faith. So, to understand faith you have to look at the substance of things hoped for…the subject and object of that faith.
So here is what faith is not. Faith is not how you feel. You can feel faithless but be full of faith. You can feel full of faith and have no faith. Because faith is not an emotion. Emotions do not have intellect. They don’t think, they feel…and feelings shift based on the information you receive. Faith is tied to substance that is not yet seen or experienced with the senses but you are convinced is real based on the integrity of the subject who is calling for the faith. And the one calling for your faith and for mine is Jesus Christ, it is God Himself.
Here’s why this is so important. Practical first. Empirical first. We are not who we are, how we are or what we are because of the great faith of your pastor or the leadership over the years. We are who we are, how we are and what we are because of the greatness of the subject and object of our little faith. It and we and this is all because of Jesus Christ. And so, we relax a bit. Follow Jesus at the personal level, not focused on being some sort of professional Christian but rather a real, simple, even small personal Christian. Learning and loving Him more as days pass… And when a turn in the road comes, no matter what it costs us, we seek the Lord and we trust His Word. Because even if my belief is weak or small, He is not…and a small amount of trust, enough to get through the day, in a very big and a very powerful God can and does and has moved mountains. (Quick Story on our second location)
Here’s why this subject is so important. Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Faith is not one of the things you need, it is the thing you need if you want to experience God and His prepared and promised work in your life!
When you don’t exercise faith, you are challenging God’s integrity. To not live by faith is to call God a liar. Faith is simply acting like God is telling the truth. It’s not feeling like God is, saying that God is, its acting like God is telling the truth. That’s why its walking by faith, not talking by faith, feeling by faith or even thinking by faith. Unless it makes its way to your life, your activities, your day in and day out, it’s actually not faith. It’s something else. An imposter.
We read in Hebrews 11, “By faith Noah prepared an ark. By faith Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. By faith Sarah bore a child. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob. By faith Jacob blessed each of the sons of Joseph. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter. By faith Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets subdued kingdoms.” James says in James 2:18, “I will show you my faith by my works.” Because faith without works is dead and those works are mighty not because of the mighty faith in me but because of the Might of the Substance of that faith!
Faith without lifestyle is not faith. It’s something else. And this is big, here’s a good test. If someone can say to you, “The Bible says,” and that doesn’t cause you to agree and change your behavior or at least question your behavior then you are outside of a lifestyle of faith in the Author. You may believe, you may agree in thought…but that intellectual consent to a concept has not been mixed with actions and therefore nothing concrete is showing up in your life. If you want a concrete manifestation of God then what you believe about God must be met by what you do in your life and then the promise comes that His rewards will become concrete in your life and not a theory in your head.
God is real. God has power. God makes promises. But you won’t see it until you have motion. All of that is there, God’s plan for you is there, His integrity and integral blessing is there but all of that is dormant waiting for you to walk by faith. Faith is acting like it is so, even though it isn’t yet so, in order that it might be so, simply because God said so.
The writer of Hebrews then brings in witnesses to testify to what we are talking about his morning. Hebrews 11:2, “For by it the elders obtained a good testimony/approval.” Hebrews brings forth witnesses to what faith is… Joseph, David, Sarah… All witnesses that verse 1 is the truth when faith is activated.
They were approved. Validated and vindicated. Validation is like graduation. Some stay in school their whole lives. Picking and choosing when to believe God and yet the Bible is clear that the righteous live by faith. Believe God all the time, its what we do, it’s a done deal… Its like Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 3:17-18, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
He says I still know God even though I can’t see a change in my situation. God has integrity whether my senses see it or not. He is of utmost substance.
There are some messed up people that made this list of graduation in Hebrews 11. The Biblical heroes, the Hall of Faith…. Even though you walked through this door in some kind of way, if you will walk by faith, God will put you on His list and you will see Him concretely in your life. There is such great hope. We have not for 12 years and will not going forward ever play Christianity which is not to take God seriously… Why would you answer the prayer of someone who calls you a liar every day?
You’re a liar God but bless me, give me that job, fix my marriage…, change my heart…, liar. When God’s integrity is challenged, His promises lie dormant. Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
To make a final point about faith, let’s go all the way back to the beginning. The worlds we do see were created by someone you can’t see, using something unable to be seen, doing something we cannot see. What is faith? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. This is what He has done from the beginning. Taking something you cannot see and creating what we can see including even all that we can see. God used this strategy to create the universe and He did it, verse 3, says by His Word.
He spoke it and it came forth. What wasn’t became, because of what was spoken by God. Someone you can’t see, said something and what you have not seen as of yet, ….happened. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What I see, what you see comes from what I don’t see. So, if I don’t start with what I don’t see, what I want to see will never come forth.
I don’t know what is yet ahead. What challenges and victories we will face as a church. I don’t know what this whole book means… I don’t understand it cover to cover, but I know who wrote it and I trust His integrity. So, I’m going to trust even when I don’t know. That’s action. Until then all it is is writing on a piece of paper and is no benefit to me. If God has integrity, that’s the question, then I will align my life, every aspect of life, to what He has said.
“But I don’t see it!” And you won’t until He sees you move in faith…
God invites me and you to the opportunity to have faith and see Him move big time... And I have leaned that God is a God of integrity and therefore we act…we act…on the unseen. We will live by faith! A person of great faith is a person of great movement. If you move in concert with God then no matter how much faith you have, big things will happen because God is a big substance!