Faith of Our Fathers: Part 4

Hebrews 11:30-40
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 a friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. 

Lessons Learned:

Go with God's Plan (even if it seems absurd to you and others) 

Jericho

Choose the Right Team  

Rahab 

(Sensitive issues in our culture today can invite reproach when it has to do with moral absolutes and the commands of God.) 

Rahab's life was redeemed, she was grafted into the family of God and she became a physical descendant of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Advance the Cause of Christ  

They conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Reach for the Resurrection

Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 

Live for the reward of tomorrow, not today. 

The resurrection cannot be tamed or tethered by any utilitarian test. It is a vast watershed in history, or it is nothing. It cannot be tested for truth; it is the test of lesser truths. No light can be thrown on it; its own light blinds the investigator. It does not compel belief; it resists it. But once accepted as fact, it tells more about the universe, about history, and about man's state and fate than all the mountains of other facts in the human accumulation.
- Editorial in Life © 1956, Time, Inc.

See from the whole to the part. 

Your life is part of a larger story in Christ.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. 

Easter means—hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. … Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.
- Desmond Tutu in Crying in the Wilderness

Second City Church: Faith of Our Fathers Sermon Series 2016

Faith of Our Fathers: Part 3

Seeing is Believing

Hebrews 11:23-28
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 sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 

An Inkling

Faith begins by acknowledging the Holy Spirit's stirrings in your heart where you begin to perceive something different that He wants to do.  What do you see in your life, family or environment that needs to change to reflect God's kingdom?

Moses' parents hid him because they saw he was beautiful.  You need to develop a hiding place in God where He can turn those inklings into a path formation. 

An Identity Shift

Faith is built with an identity shift where you begin to see yourself, your world and your purpose through Christ's cross, gospel and eternal purposes.

Moses refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter. 

Who do you identify with?  Who's your family?

Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He would leave the fleeting pleasures of sin but use the relationships that he had developed for the glory of God. You are called to do the same.

This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.
- Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

By faith, Moses considered the reproach of Christ of greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.

Have you come to that place in your heart?

How do you give yourself to what is eternal, enduring, can not spoil, wrinkle or fade (Matthew 6:19-21 ; I Peter 1:22-25)?

1 Peter 1:3-7
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Moses was looking forward to the reward.  It takes faith to look forward to your reward that comes from the hand of God. 

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Jim Elliot, missionary to Auca indians in Ecuador”
- Elisabeth Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot

An Initiative

Faith results in obedience expressed in some form of action.  

Moses left Egypt, not fearing Pharoah's wrath, enduring as seeing him who is invisible.  

Do you have the Lord always set before you?  Do you see Jesus, the author and perfect of our faith?

Psalm 16:7-8
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

By faith, Moses led the Israelites to keep the Passover and the sprinkling the blood, which represents our cleansing by the blood of Christ spilled on the cross for our sins, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. 

What has God commanded you to do to protect your family, friends and those you lead?

It may seem foolish, arbitrary and unimportant in the sight of the world, but it is actually wisdom and leads to the salvation of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Hebrews 11:29
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 

As we obey God in faith, He works miracles.  By faith, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians who did know or love God were drowned.  The favor of God will allow you to experience such miracles when you see what He sees, and, therefore, what others can not.

Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ leading to His atoning work on the cross is the beginning and the end to walking out all of this.  It is by grace and grace alone, by grace, through faith.

Second City Church: Faith of Our Fathers Sermon Series 2016

Faith of Our Fathers: Part 2

God clearly says in His word that the righteous will live by faith (Habbakuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).  Well today, we hope to study and show how, in fact, we live by faith in the person and promises of God.

Before (A Place)

Hebrews 11:8-16
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. 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 when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, 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. 

God has a new city, a heavenly Jerusalem prepared for those who love Him.

John 14:1-3
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

By His sovereignty, God calls you to both a place and a people to accomplish His will.  There, by faith, we are able to see God birth posterity, which is to be the inheritance of every believer - be a disciple and make disciples.

“The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.” - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

During (A People)

Hebrews 11:17-20
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. 

There will always be a series of tests in the middle of the faith walk to see what you love more than Jesus or are willing to give up for Him.

Luke 14:25-27
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 

What do you love more than Jesus today?
Is it your comfort?  Your career?  A relationship in which you find yourself?  Is it your idea of success, maintaining your own identity or creating your own happiness?

God will require even the thing that He's promised you to be placed on the altar if it gets in the way of your unadulterated love for, worship of and service to Him.

Is there a promise that you are clinging to more than you are clinging to the person of Jesus?

God tests the object of His promises in our hearts not because He doesn't want to give you the fulfillment of the promise, but so that you won't lose the promise maker in the midst of the pursuit of the promise.  Our tendency as humans is to gravitate towards loving our stuff and our ideas of happiness more than the giver of life Himself.  We like what we can control, not what we can't.  However, we will never control God.  We are called to give Him control.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

After (A Purpose/Promise)

Hebrews 11:21-22
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. 

Your life of faith is meant to bring both blessing and structure to future generations who will also look to and honor Christ.

Repent and give Christ control at the cross today.  Because of His death, burial and resurrection, He can make you new giving you a place, a people and a purpose/promise in His Kingdom.

Second City Church: Faith of Our Father Sermon Series 2016

Faith of Our Fathers: Part 1

Hebrews 11:1-7
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. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, 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.

100 Meter
Cain and Abel
Give God what He already asked for

200 Meters
Enoch
Walk with God

4x100 Relay or 10,000 Meter
Noah
Build in faithfulness because the flood will surely come

Pastor Rollan shared this quote:

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway."

Second City Church: Faith of Our Father Sermon Series 2016