August 12, 2007 Sermon Synopsis

“Faith Based Initiatives” Hebrews 11:1-16

Maybe you heard the story …
A businessman was in a great deal of trouble. His business was failing, he had put everything he had into the business, he owed everybody it was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a pastor and poured out his story of tears and woe. When he had finished, the pastor said, "Here's what I want you to do, put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water's edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer; that will tell you what to do."

A year later the businessman went back to the pastor and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom- tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket and gave it to the pastor as a donation to the church in thanks for his advice. The pastor recognized the benefactor, and was curious. "You did as I suggested?" he asked.
"Absolutely," replied the businessman.
"You went to the beach?"
"Absolutely."
"You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?"
"Absolutely."
"You let the pages rifle until they stopped?"
"Absolutely."
"And what were the first words you saw?"
"Chapter 11."

The scripture passage I want to consider is Chapter 11 of Hebrews, and maybe we will learn something about keeping our faith from going bankrupt.

Chapter 11 of Hebrews is known as the “Faith Chapter.”

The book is written to Jews (Hebrews) who have accepted Jesus and to Gentile Christians (who need to understand the OT heritage and message that Jesus fulfilled). Here we have a lesson about the “History of Faith.”

How’s your faith?
Is faith evident in your life?
Is faith guiding your life?

I recently heard the story …
A pastor was taking a load of medical supplies to a local medical ministry. He was pushing the limits of his gas tank, when he ran out of gas, only a mile from the gas station.
He walked the mile to the gas station and asked to borrow a gas can to get enough gas to get to the station. They didn’t have one, so he thought and walked back to the car. In the medical supplies he found a bed pan, so he took it to the gas station, filled it with gas and carefully carried it back to the car.
As he was putting the gas in the car some of his church members drove by and saw their pastor pouring the contents of the bed pan into the car’s gas tank. The one remarked to the other, “Man, that’s faith!”

Faith is more than believing you can run a car on pee.

From this passage, we learn some things about faith.

Verse 1 has a definition. It’s not complete, but focuses on a few important features of faith.

1. Faith is being sure of what we hope for. What are we hoping for? The Psalmist wrote, “Our hope is in the Lord.” We should hope for eternal life, heaven, God’s guidance, etc.

2. Faith is being certain of what we can’t see. Israel was unusual in the world; they believed in the “unseen God.” Others made fun of them for having a God you can’t see.

3. Verse 3 tells us that the world was made through the Word of God. We are re-created through the Word of God – the Word became flesh, John 1:12 – through Jesus.

The creation of the world is a matter of faith. What would happen if we took God out of the picture? There is no purpose to anything! The one who created is more important than how it was done. Faith gives purpose to life.

4. Verse 6 lets us know that you need to have faith to make God happy. “Without faith it’s impossible to please God.”

We live in a world where so many people are concerned about being happy and having “God make them happy.” The goal of our faith is to make God happy, not for God to make us happy. We need to learn: It’s not about making me happy; it’s about making God happy.

Faith Based Initiatives
Faith Based Initiatives are know as a government program to distribute funding through faith based organizations.

The government has learned that “faith based ministries” are the most efficient, the most successful at making permanent changes in peoples lives,

Some Christian organizations won’t accept government funding. They base this decision on the separation of church and state, that the government often has “strings attached,” and they don’t want any government control of their ministry.

Faith has motivated many people in ministry. Faith has initiated a number of ministries such as Tel Hai, Bridge of Hope, No Longer Alone Ministries, and the MCC.

True faith based initiatives have less to do with funding and more to do with ministry to others. After all, God has all the resources necessary to fulfill his plan for the world. Our initiatives need to be found within that plan. The scripture tells us, “Our Lord will supply everything according to our needs.”

Why do you do the things you do?
Why does our church do the things we do?
What motivates or initiates our actions?

We should be motivated by Faith
There is a phrase that is repeated throughout chapter 11 of Hebrews: “By faith.”

Faith is the motivational factor in the lives of the individuals we read about.
Faith is manifested in the lives of individuals

Chapter 11 makes a contrast between us and them
It is the “we” (present) / “they” or “he” (past) difference

The author says “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.”
The scripture gives examples from the past, but the question of faith is in the present.

Interesting Note: verse 2 calls them “ancients” which is a translation of “presbyteroi” which is translated as “elders” in other places in the Bible. I’d be careful referring to our “Elders” as “ancients.”

Example 1: ABEL
Why was his gift better than his brothers? Many scholars have explained this in a number of ways. What stands out here is the faith the motivated and accompanied the offering.

By faith:
- He offered a better offering
- He was commended by God
- His story lives on

Example 2: ENOCH
He pleased God; that is, he made God happy. This gave him a direct trip to heaven.
By faith: he passed to heaven without experiencing death.

Example 3: NOAH
By faith he believed God’s warning and acted on it.

Example 4: ABRAHAM
By faith:
- He left his comfortable surroundings to obey God
- He made his home in a foreign land (illegal immigrant?)
- He fathered a child in his old age.

What do all of these have in common? They heard God’s word and acted on it.

I know a number of people in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic who can be added to that list:
Santiago Canaviri started training school for rural pastors and leaders.
Juan Corcos planted on the islands of Lake Titicaca.
Arelí began a ministry to the children in her community.
Marino & Graciela Garcia opened a school in San Cristobal for children who couldn’t go to school.
Pierre Espady started rural health clinics in Haitian communities in the DR

All of this makes God happy!

Do you make God happy? Or do you make God ashamed?

Verse 16 tells us, “There fore God is not ashamed to be called their God”
Have you ever been ashamed of your children? Your friends? Your church? Did you feel embarrassed by them?

How do you make God feel?

Sure, we can’t see the whole picture.

Did Abel know God’s plan of salvation for the world through Jesus?
Did Enoch? Did Noah? Did Abraham?

I showed the children a “connect the dots” picture of two cows grazing in a field. You really couldn’t tell what the picture was without the dots connected. Doing a “dot-to-dot” puzzle is similar to having faith.

You trust that an artist designed a picture that will be revealed to you if you continue to trace the sequence, dot to dot. If you decide to stop drawing you’ll never see the full picture the artist designed.

So it is with our faith in God. God is leading us and sometimes we only have part of the picture, but faith helps us connect the dots.

Did Abel see the whole picture? No, he just connected dot 3 to dot 4.
Did Enoch see the whole picture? No, he just connected dot 5 to dot 6.
Did Noah? No, dot 16 to 17.
Did Abraham? No, but he connecte a few of the dots.

None of them saw the entire picture.

God knows the big picture (when all the dots are connected). We need to trust God.
We need to make God proud!

Do problems in your life cause you to stop connecting the dots?

Did you just lose interest in connecting the dots?

You just need to trust God. That way you can live your life “by faith.”