Life of Faith- Part 6
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: We will reap the rewards of faith when we seek God for our triumphs and look to Jesus to keep us through our pains to ultimate victory.
Welcoming Faith
Triumphant Faith
Keeping Faith
Hebrews 11:31-40
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.
Welcoming Faith
The faith into which Jesus calls us is a transforming faith.
Faith welcomes Jesus during both good and challenging times to rule and to reign.
Rahab the prostitute, who would eventually become part of the earthly lineage of Christ (Matthew 1), was a perfect picture of God’s plan of repentance and redemption through Jesus.
By putting her faith in the God who had just delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt, she received the ability to rewrite her own story by the transforming power of Christ.
How have you chosen to be identified with Christ so that he might transform your story for his glory?
Triumphant Faith
The faith into which Jesus calls us is a conquering faith.
One way or another in this fallen world, you will face trials.
Yet the people of faith came to understand that in God’s Kingdom, ultimately under Christ’s rule, is where they would find the blessing - even in the midst of trial.
How?
Faith conquers…fears, insecurities, demonic intimidation and kingdoms because you tap into God’s ability and not your own.
Faith enforces justice because God is faithful to uphold his righteous cause for and through his people.
Faith obtains promises as it holds to and believes God’s word.
We must learn to STAND on that word.
Faith stops the mouths of lions - accusers, oppressors and those who would come after your life and reputation - because God's testimony always has the final say.
Faith quenches the power of the fire because you know there is another with you enabling you to come through and to come out of that fire without the smell of smoke (Daniel 3).
Faith turns weakness into strength because you finally have a healthy dependence on God’s ability to move mountains that stand in your way of fulfilling his Kingdom purposes.
This is no hype session.
Faith makes you mighty in war, beginning in the Spirit with prayer, that the unseen battle might be won and manifest itself in the natural (Ephesians 6).
Faith finally has you take up the full armor of God by which you can OVERCOME the enemy's schemes.
It means that if you do not give up, you WIN in the end because of Christ’s victorious resurrection from the dead (II Corinthians 2:14).
To walk with God, do his will and fulfill the Great Commission of Christ is a fight of faith.
Yet…
Faith enables us to put armies to flight by the hand of God as we worship.
Faith allows us to receive back that which we thought was dead by the power of God as we pray.
All of these examples in Hebrews were men and women of old trusting God and allowing him to show up miraculously in their lives AS THEY SOUGHT HIM BY FAITH.
*FAITH WAS NOT PASSIVE.
*THEY SOUGHT GOD BECAUSE THEY HEARD HIS WORD, OF HIS VERY GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, AND ACTUALLY HOPED FOR SOMETHING.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
*THE PEOPLE OF FAITH WERE NOT SATISFIED TO TAKE JUST ANYTHING THAT THEY WERE HANDED.
THEY SOUGHT GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS EXPRESSED IN MIRACULOUS EXPRESSIONS OF HIS LOVE IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS KINGDOM.
THEY CAME TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD’S BLESSING WAS FOUND IN HIS KINGDOM - IN HIS TOTAL RULE OVER EVERY ASPECT OF THEIR LIVES.
So the question is:
For what Kingdom pursuit are you SEEKING God with proactive, tenacious hope?
Faith leads us to the triumphs of God.
Yet faith is also learning to endure with Christ when the road to what was promised is not as we prefer or expect.
Faith allowed women to receive back their dead by resurrection, yet they still had to endure the pain of that death.
Hebrews 11:35b-38
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.
It is never an all triumph and no suffering proposition.
Jesus leads us to great victories even as we endure the daily pain of the cross.
And this is the resurrection life of Christ, that we learn to die with him that we might truly live!
Long-suffering is a part of a Biblical faith that leads us to God’s eternal reward.
By faith in Jesus and his atoning work for us on the cross for our sins, even in our shortcomings, there is always resurrection life on the other side of our pain.
The world was not worthy of those who lived such a life locked into the faith of God’s redeeming, restorative plan for the earth through Christ.
Yet God met them in their pain, continually reaffirming them of the hope of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness where death will have lost its victory, sin its sting (Isaiah 66; I Corinthians 15:54-58).
With what do you need to come to Jesus by faith, that he might comfort you in your pains?
Keeping Faith
The faith into which God calls us is a keeping faith as we wait for the fulfillment of the promises of God.
Faith is ultimately all about exalting Christ and his Kingdom as he brings about his redemptive plan for the world.
Your personal story is simply a part of the larger narrative of how God meets, transforms, strengthens, comforts and ultimately glories his people as they follow him, doing his will by faith (Romans 8).
Your story is never to be central in your mind or lived alone.
When we become myopic, we deviate from the historic forward march of the people of the cross leading to ultimate victory in Jesus for those who live by faith.
Only together with other believers is the goal of faith fully realized and the advance of the gospel fully accomplished.
Faith should lead you in godly ambition to that which can only be fully realized when Christ moves fully in his people throughout the generations.
THIS MEANS THAT YOUR SERVING, YOUR PRAYING, YOUR GIVING AND YOUR GOING TO THE WORLD TODAY WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS MATTERS!!
Hebrews 11:39,40
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.
The gospel of Christ is the gospel of the Kingdom, not just your personal salvation.
Stop thinking that your walk with God is a solo act.
There are perfecting partnerships of faith that God uses to help keep you in Jesus as you press on to ultimate victory in Christ.
Who are those people for you?
These are the people who strengthen you in disillusionment, lift you during discouragements and remind you of the faith that you share as you build to the glory of God.
The purposes of God in your life are realized through interdependent relationships through which a mutual, baton-passing faith impacts the present and the generations to come.
God has always intended his people to be part of an ongoing story directed by the Holy Spirit focused on building an everlasting Kingdom with Christ as King.
The government will be on Christ’s shoulders and the increase of his government will know no end.
Your walk of faith is an indispensable part of unfolding that story.
Only together with those who’ve come before you, united with those who will come after you, will the purposes of God be made perfect.
With whom are you linked to build God’s Kingdom through a unified, multi-generational faith?
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher