Hebrews 11:1 - 12:2 Growing in Faith

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches for his three -part series,

Growing In, reminding us all of the growth of Recast Church. Let's listen in.

Well, good morning. If you can find your seats, that would be great. We're going to go ahead and get started. And welcome to all of you.

I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here. And just very glad that you've come out on this very, very cold winter day to gather together to worship

God and to kick off a new year, really end a year and get ready to kick off a new year, thinking about important things, valuable things.

I'm praying that 2018 is an amazing year for us together as a church. I know that 2017 was pretty amazing in just the simple fact that we're sitting in a building now.

This was a pretty substantial year in the history of our church, but I'm hoping that it continues to go forward in this next year in new avenues and new ways for us to reach out to our community and to see the kingdom of God expand for the cause of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. As we get ready to kick off this new year, starting tomorrow, we're going to be jumping into this week a three -part series that spells out the growth map of Recast Church.

When a small group of people set out almost 10 years ago now to plant a new church in Matawan, we had the vision of gathering worshipers who would be constantly seeking to gather more worshipers for the glory of His name.

That's really, that's our mission statement as a church, to worship Him and find more worshipers for Him.

And we started off with these core values that is an acronym for our name, Replicating, Replication Community, Authenticity, Simplicity, and Truth.

Those are the things that guide us and direct us into ministry. They're not the sum total of everything, but they're guiding principles that are the values that we hold to.

And in the name of simplicity, we wanted to come up with a simple and pared -down programming that focused on the essentials of growing in Jesus.

And so we kind of thought, well, there's a lot of busyness in people's lives. How many of you would raise your hand and admit that there's some busyness in your life?

You'd be willing to raise your hand and say that? I think that that's all of us. And the thing that I identified from the history that I was coming from and from the perspective of having been a pastor, an associate pastor in another church, and just identifying my own life, is that many churches provide a smorgasbord of programming to add to your already busy schedules.

And what that has a tendency to do for all of us, if we're honest, is it draws us out of our community into the church building more and more and increasingly over the course of time to where there can be a program every night of the week.

And even sometimes within more established churches, you even have competing programming. Multiple programs for your children.

Which one are you going to choose from? Are you going to do them all? And that type of thing. And so, in the name of that simplicity, we arrived at three things that we believe that everybody needs in order to grow and then set our programming around that.

And that's why this sermon series on this, we arrived at this idea that everybody needs to be growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service.

And we really believe, and I'm going to tell you in all honesty, when we started Recast, I wasn't sure how that was going to work out.

Because immediately there's a lot of pull towards multiple things and multiple avenues. And when are you going to start an

Awana program? When are you going to do this on Wednesday night? When are you going to do this on Thursday night? What about this program? What about that program?

And so, it's very easy to get pulled. But staying the course wasn't always easy in the early stages, but I believe that it's borne fruit in the lives of people who have come to faith in Christ here.

We've seen them established. We've seen them growing in faith, community, and service. And so, it's been awesome.

So, the growing in faith component is what we're going to be talking about this morning. And that really is what we do in the worship gatherings on Sunday morning.

This is the primary program, and you're taking part in the primary programming for what we offer as a church, as our program for growing in faith.

And that is that we gather together with God's people, we take in His word, we worship Him in song, and then we go out and live our lives based on the word that is preached and grasped on Sunday morning.

And that's the growing in faith component. Then we grow in community. And one of the avenues and the ways that you can do that is by joining a community group.

We're going to be having sign -ups here in the next few weeks for community groups starting off in this next year, and we run those in cycles of about 13 weeks.

And so, you can meet with others along in the journey. We also recognize that community is sometimes more organic than that.

You can't force it. How many of you have ever tried to force community? You just get together with a group of people and it just doesn't click or whatever.

And not every time you join a community group, is that going to be your main, oh, that's going to do it. And so, even just the idea of decentralizing that and encouraging mentoring relationships and connections within the church is a part of that as well.

And then the last thing is growing in service. And we're going to be talking about that in a couple weeks. Serving in the church and in the community and responding to the grace that God has given to you by sharing that with others.

That might look like, and you'll notice that people have served you already this morning. Some people greeted you at the door.

Some people were here early making coffee. Some people were even, literally, set the chairs up in here after basketball this week.

And all different kinds of aspects of things that can be used. But let me just say that there's all kinds of things.

There's people that are serving the kids back there. There's all different avenues. But even coaching

Little League. Have you ever thought about coaching Little League or coaching your kids' basketball team? Could be a ministry. We actually believe that here at the church.

And that might be a component of what God has called you to do. That might be your service. And you think, service to the church?

If you're in a situation where you're coaching and this is a new idea where that could be a ministry, I'd encourage you to set up a meeting or come and talk with me afterwards.

And I'd love to sit down and talk with you about how you could make that a more ministry -oriented thing where you could literally be serving

God and serving in the church through coaching your kids' team. And there's some really cool opportunities that are there.

So come and talk with me if that's you. But we're going to be talking about service in a couple of weeks. So this week, faith.

Next week, community. The following week, service. Then I'm going to be gone for two weeks. After that,

I'm going to be going to Indonesia. Linda and I and Leah, our daughter, are going to be going to Indonesia to visit our missionaries there.

So we'll be out for two weeks. And Dale Kurdi is going to be coming to open the word for us together there.

So over the next three weeks, we're going to be focusing in on what it means as a church to grow in these areas, thinking about what

God desires for us. And this morning, we're going to be listening to what God's word has to say, particularly about the word faith.

And we want to particularly key in on what is faith, the definition of it, so that we can set our hearts and minds towards growing in it.

And so if you're not already there, I'd ask you to open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. We're going to do something a little different this morning in that this is a large chunk of scripture that I'm going to read to you this morning.

And it's not because this is the dawn reading hour or everybody gets to curl up and gather around and I'm going to read.

It's not because I love to hear my voice. It's because we believe that this is the very word of God and it has the power to transform and change.

So I do ask that you open up to that. If you don't have a Bible or a means to navigate to the Bible on a device, then you can grab the

Bible that's in the seat in front of you, under that, on that cage, that rack down there.

And it's page 584 in that Bible. Easy to find, 584 Hebrews chapter 11.

I'm going to read all the way to and through the first two verses of chapter 12. But I recognize that it's very easy for our minds to wander a little bit while we're reading something like this.

And so that's one of the reasons I want you to just kind of follow along and just really imagine these things, think through these things, look particularly to the witnesses that we see in the middle and contemplate and consider, because you can listen faster than I can read.

I mean, that's just a scientific fact. You can listen faster than I can read. And so where should your mind go during that time?

And I mean, just think about some of these characters and what you know about them from Sunday school, from history, or from some of those things, or just really contemplate and consider what the words are saying.

Hebrews chapter 11. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and 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.

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 the opportunity in 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. By faith

Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise 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 edicts.

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.

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

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, 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 better life.

Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with a 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.

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.

Let's pray. Father, your word is powerful.

Your word identifies for us the centrality of faith in our lives, how fundamental it is that we've gathered together to sing your praises, to hear a word from you, to be encouraged, to be challenged, to be strengthened, to be built up, and all of this without sight.

All of this on the basis of faith, all of this on the basis of trust, that fundamentally you really are.

You really are the creator. You really do own us. We really do belong to you.

And so, Father, I pray that that would be a reality that carries us out into 2018. Father, this has been a grab bag of a year for many of us.

There's been good, there's been bad, some more bad, for some of us more bad than good, and for some more good than bad, and it doesn't really, at the end of the day, even matter in the sense that we're looking towards another year.

And so, Father, I pray that you would bring honor and glory to yourself in us this next year.

Father, that we would see you as you are, that we'd be motivated and moved to grow in faith. And Father, that the seeds that you planted in our hearts would take bloom in this next year.

And Father, that we'd be more patient, we would be more kind, we would be more loving, we would be changed, we would live different lives because we're growing in faith in you.

And Father, I pray that even now as we have an opportunity to sing your praises, to just lift our voices,

Father, that we would actually identify who we're singing to, and that that would light our hearts on fire for you,

Father, that we would be moved, that this would not be an exercise of vocal chords, this would not be an exercise of reading musically the words on the screen, but that these would penetrate to our heart.

And Father, that we'd be moved to really see you as you are and be changed because we've encountered you this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. And again, thanks to the band for leading us. I'm grateful for the time and energy that they put in each week, so glad for them.

And I do ask that you just please make yourself comfortable. If you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donuts while supplies last, take advantage of that.

You're not going to distract me if you need to get up and go back there for anything. And then also, please just keep your

Bibles open to Hebrews chapter 11. Just so that you know, we're going to be really focusing in on zeroing in on the first two verses of chapter 11.

I know I read a big chunk of Scripture and you're going, oh my goodness, how is he going to get through all this? It's the first two verses of chapter 11, first two verses of chapter 12, and we'll be doing a little survey skimming in between.

But I want to start off just by this question, and it's a generic question, but it's a question that I want to just kind of sling out there, and that is, what is faith?

What is faith? Some think of it as a blind leap off of a cliff with some kind of distant or vague hope that there's a

God out there who's going to catch you, right? Like it's just kind of like, you're standing there and you're just going to jump and leap and well, hopefully there's something there that's a reality to this whole thing.

To some, it's the irrational rejection of science. Like we hear a lot in our culture nowadays about the battle between faith and science.

It's as if you have to choose one or the other, right? You guys are aware of that? Do you encounter that? Raise your hand if you've actually heard that kind of talk about the difference between science and faith and all of that.

To others, it's kind of just warm feelings or, you know, kind of evokes ideas of going to grandpa and grandma's church when you were a kid or something like that, or maybe just the idea that everything's going to work out in the end, but it's vague and it's fuzzy and it's not quite got any form to it.

In this long text this morning, the author of Hebrews is going to take us through three movements regarding faith.

The first, he's going to define faith for us in Hebrews chapter one and two. I mean, Hebrews 11 verses one and two.

Those first two verses are to define faith for us, really kind of verse three as well. Second, he's going to bring forward witnesses of the power of faith.

So we're going to look at the lives and basically just get a glimpse at the lives of a bunch of people through history who had faith in God and what that did in their lives.

And that's from basically verse four all the way through the end of the chapter. And then lastly, he's going to call us to the focus of our faith, which is the first two verses of chapter 12.

So that's kind of the order. For those of you that are kind of organized in your mind and you're like, oh, I'd like to have three points or something like that, that's where we're going.

And our text starts by addressing the definition of faith. A biblical faith, we see these two words right away associated with faith, it is assurance and conviction.

It's like two immediately really strong words that the author of Hebrews wants to draw our attention on.

Assurance and conviction. Would you agree with me that those are pretty strong words? It's like, bam, right there, assurance, assurance, like some kind of solid foundation of something.

Another word there is evidence that could be translated evidence and some versions will translate that as evidence of things to come.

Assurance of what though in the text? Assurance, you know, what kind of things do you put your assurance in?

How many of you kind of put your assurance in your employer to give you a paycheck? Is there kind of like a pretty strong hope and trust and faith that you're going to get a paycheck from the employer that you work for?

What assurance of protection, is that what we're talking about here? Is it an assurance like gravity that, how many of you have ever been afraid that the next time you jump, you're just not going to land again?

Like not really a problem for most of us, some of us barely get off the ground when we try to jump, right? And some of us don't remember the last time we tried to jump.

But that's just, that's a reality. We expect assurance of gravity, that's a pretty good thing to put your assurance in because it seems to prove to be true.

But this is assurance of things hoped for. It's assurance of something in the future, which is a little bit of a fuzzy and vague way to say something.

How many of you just think that the future is kind of generally fuzzy and not very, not the kind of thing that you think of as assurance, right?

But this is the firm conviction here in this text that what one's hope is placed in will end up coming true.

That if you banked on God, if you put your trust and faith in Him, then that He is going to make good on His promises.

And on what basis would we ever assume that God was going to keep His promises to us? We're going to have some witnesses who step forward to identify for us that He is a

God who keeps His promises. Down through the centuries, down through the ages, person after person after person who steps forward and says,

I can testify to that. I can testify to Him being trustworthy. I can testify that your assurance is well -founded and that your faith is in a good thing if your faith is placed in God.

And so that's, this assurance is a strong word. So a true biblical faith is one that gives assurance of a future blessing.

It is based on something that you can't see with your eyes and isn't yet, but you're trusting in it.

You're believing that it's going to come to pass. But where does this kind of assurance come from?

And it's just simply rooted in the text, in those past examples, those past witnesses of what

God has done, the promises of what God will do, and then how

He has met those promises. Seeing what God has done and what He has promised gives assurance of things hoped for.

But there's more to faith than just that. Faith further, the author goes on to tell us, is the conviction of things not seen.

It's not just about the future, but it's also about those things that you can't take in with your five senses. Conviction is a stronger word, by the way, than believe.

I think that we don't use the word conviction a whole lot in this way. We might use it more in terms of the judicial system than we would use it in the terms of like a fierce or strong or tenacious belief or trust.

It's a strong word. I might say that I have, I believe that the market is going to continue to set records in the new year.

How many of you would like that if that happened? Like that would be kind of cool, but it'd be great if the economy continues to surge and things continue to go well.

And I believe I could say, I believe that that's going to happen. But if I came to you and I said, I have the conviction that the market's going to continue to go up.

You're like, whoa, brakes on, hold your horses down. Like conviction? Really? Are you serious? Is that the right word?

Are you using the word in the right way there? You have the conviction? Chill, right?

How many of you, like somebody has the conviction of something that is unknown. Like I've got the conviction that the lions are going to, no,

I didn't even go there. I can't even say the word. Didn't even say it. Okay. Almost said it.

That would be a weird conviction, right? You know what I mean? I mean, even believing that is a tough one, but conviction is a strong, strong, solid, robust word that we reserve for just really strong things that we believe in or put our trust in.

And here he's saying it's the conviction of things not seen. So here we see that faith is tied up in what is hoped for and tied up in what is not seen, which sounds like shaky ground.

It should sound like shaky ground to all of us, but let's move on to see why assurance and conviction applies here in this text.

Verse two, by the way, serves as, it's got a fundamental role. It doesn't necessarily fit in the overarching thing that I'm trying to communicate, but verse two just simply states that faith is the way that these people in the

Old Testament got their reward. The way that these witnesses that step forward, the basis upon which they are rewarded is faith.

And the author is ultimately, just in verse two, setting up verses four through 40 where he's going to launch into that list of people who live by faith.

But the one thing that's very important to get from verse two as we kind of brush past that and move on is, it's a significant implication, and that is that faith is the thing that God rewards.

Faith is the thing that God rewards. You want a rewarded life? You want to live a life that in the end is going to get a well -done, good, and faithful servant?

Then live by faith, which entails taking this message in and recognizing what it means and then pressing out into 2018 with a commitment and a tenacious dedication to growing in your faith this next year.

It's not going to happen on accident. You're not going to accidentally have more faith next year than you had this year.

There's going to be some effort. There's going to be some struggle. There's going to be some working. There's going to be some effort on your part that's going to cause a growth in faith.

And we'll see some of those things here by the end. But verse three then works to emphasize the way that faith is not synonymous with knowing things.

For it is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God, the text says. Where were you when the world came into existence?

Where were you when, I mean, he asks that literally in the book of Job, right? Like he's asking Job, where were you when all of these things came to pass and came to be?

The fact of the matter is no one was there. No one was there to witness the creation of the world.

So on what basis do you believe that there's a creator? And I'm not getting into the whole evolution and theistic evolution and all that kind of debate this morning.

I've preached through the book of Genesis. You can go back and read that at some point. I believe that God literally created the whole thing.

I believe that. And I believe that just on the basis of my own study and conviction, not because it was spoon fed to me or it was what

I was taught, but by my own study, I believe that God is indeed the creator. But how do we, you know, on what basis do we believe that there is a creator?

None of us were there. By the way, neither was any scientist there. It's not a reproducible event, right?

You can't do a hypothesis theory and experimentation on creation, right?

You just can't do that. So believing in creation is given to us in the text of Hebrews as an illustration of faith.

He's not getting into all the semantics and the details of Genesis 1 and all of that kind of stuff and what's meant by Genesis 1 and 2 and all of that detail, but instead he's just saying you believe that there's a creator and that's an illustration of faith or something is unprovable but it is trusted nonetheless is true.

And a side note here about evidence for just a moment, faith doesn't preclude or exclude evidence.

A lot of people in our minds and in our current culture and even in the church have basically tried to check their brain at the door as if faith without understanding, faith without evidence is a better faith.

That is not true at all. Scripture doesn't indicate that. Scripture is quick to endorse a faith that is supported and seeks evidence, is based on evidence.

The New Testament authors, even the gospel writers are very quick to identify we were eyewitnesses to these events.

We observed these things, we tasted, we touched, we touched them with our own hands, we heard these things, we saw them with our eyes and we share with you what we encountered and experienced ourselves.

They're giving you evidence that these things are true. So seeking out evidence for your faith is desirable.

If there's anybody in this room wrestling with your faith, don't give in to anybody who would say just shove aside the thoughts, shove aside the wrestling and just believe.

Dig in. I'm that confident that this is true by the way. I have such confidence that this is true that I would encourage you to keep pressing.

Not to pull back and go, oh no, I'm scared. Don't be scared of questions that your kids ask.

Don't be scared of questions that you even have, but instead pursue them. Don't give in to this notion that to be a

Christian is to just check out. It's the exact opposite.

We ought to be those who pursue the understanding and the knowledge and the study of the Word of God to know what is true and to dig in.

That we might have answers for others, but in all honesty that we might have answers for ourselves because there's not a single person here that hasn't asked some very fundamental questions about your faith at times, sometimes dark times, sometimes bad times, sometimes good times, sometimes late at night kind of times, right?

Dig in to know and there's evidence that's available. Seeking out evidence for your faith is a desirable thing.

The point in all this is that faith is not a leap in the dark, but neither is it so close to knowing that it cannot be rejected.

God has not forced your will to come in line with the knowledge of Him. He's left enough room for doubt in all of this.

R .C. Sproul, a great theologian who actually just passed away a couple of weeks ago, an extremely godly example of an author, a theologian, a professor.

I had the privilege of hearing him speak at a couple of conferences within the last few years. Man, anything that you could pick up and read by R .C.

Sproul, I would recommend. It is awesome. And I had the privilege of sitting down with him this week in book form and reading what he has to say about Hebrews chapter 11, and I want to quote him.

It's a little bit of an extended quote. I don't do this very often, but this is powerful. On this subject of faith and evidence, he says,

The Bible never claims that we should jump into the darkness. In fact, the biblical injunction is for people to come out of the darkness and into the light.

John 3, 19. Faith is not blind in the sense of being arbitrary, whimsical, or a mere expression of human desire.

If that were the case, why would the author of Hebrews say, faith is the evidence of things not seen?

Evidence, he goes on to say, is tangible. Evidence is something we can know through our five senses.

Evidence is what police officers inspect and try to collect at a crime scene. Fingerprints, traces of gunpowder residue, articles of clothing that are left behind, and so on.

All of those things are visible and point beyond themselves to some important truth.

That is why people analyze evidence. See, I contend that God could quite easily appear to all of us and convince us all right now of His existence.

And He could be done with what appears to be a big cosmic cat and mouse game. But for some reason, and I can't explain it,

He delights in the subtleties of this faith and trust relationship. He doesn't want to coerce our will to His, but instead leaves some room there.

That brings us to a place of humility and dependence upon Him, and I think that might be a little bit of the clue of why

He does it. But Jesus Himself explained this in John 20, verses 26 through 29, when

Thomas, the setting was, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Thomas doesn't even believe it happened.

I love how the Bible incorporates those kinds of stories for us. Would you have believed it?

If you were Thomas, would you have believed that He had risen from the dead, you had seen Him crucified?

You had known that John had gone to get the body, or rather Joseph of Arimathea had gone to get the body and had prepared it for burial?

Would you have believed it? So Thomas doesn't, and I can relate to Thomas, I mean, Thomas gets a pretty bad rap, you know, he even gets that nice title,

Doubting Thomas, and I'm like, I get it, I can understand why he would be doubting. So Jesus, again, eyewitness account,

John writing here, He was present for these events, and He says, Jesus came and showed up to us. We're in the upper room with several of the disciples, and Thomas was with us, and Jesus appeared in our midst.

He allows Thomas to touch His hands where the nails were, and to feel the wound in His side from the

Spirit. He says, do you believe me now, Thomas? Do you believe that this is true? And Thomas immediately realizes he was wrong and believes that Jesus is

Lord, and exclaims, my Lord and my God. But then it's

Jesus' response that I wanted to key in on here for the point of our understanding of what faith looks like, and that wrestling back and forth between the evidence and the,

Jesus is faithful to give the evidence, isn't He? Shows His hands, shows His side. But then He says this, have you believed, talking to Thomas, have you believed because you've seen me?

In other words, have you believed only because of evidence? Because blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have still believed.

That's talking about you and me, folks. I haven't put my hand in those holes in His hands.

I haven't had a chance to see the spear mark from His side, the scar there from that.

Have you seen that? But we are those who believe without having seen, and He says, blessed, blessed are you when you're in that category, when you're in that camp.

See, Jesus gave evidence to Thomas, but said, better yet is that you trust and believe God implicitly. That's the best, that's the best status, that's the best place.

But I think that we can come to an implicit trust in God based on the explicit witnesses of others, because we have these evidences, because we've had our own encounters with Him, because we've had experience with Him, then we in turn grow in our faith to a place where we begin to trust more and more.

Kind of like when you're in an early relationship with somebody, you trust them less, do you know what I'm talking about?

And then there comes a point where based on experience and evidence and relationship and even relating with that person, with another person, and other corroborating evidence that they really, really are a good guy, that really is a nice lady, they really are just genuine and authentic, and eventually you come to a place where there's an implicit trust.

And I think that's exactly what God is driving us toward, an implicit trust.

So if we're going to grow in our faith, then we must grow in this aspect of belief. Some are here, some of you are here, and you've based your entire future on belief in God.

Some have said, I will fully trust Jesus and His work on the cross to save me, and others have not yet believed that.

And that's one aspect of what it means here at Recast Church to grow in faith, is that God meets everyone where they are at.

Whether you're here and you've been walking with Christ for 60 years, 70 years, or you're here and you're brand new and you don't even know what it means, you said, wait, what does it mean, walk with Christ, what does that even mean?

All of us have room to grow, every single one of us, and nobody has arrived. Nobody has crossed the line.

It's being in the process that's maturity. You can be pretty mature and be a brand new believer because guess what, you understand you need to grow.

See, that's what maturity looks like, is knowing that you need growth.

So some of you are here and you're just like, Thomas, and others are already all in with Christ. We gather together and study

God's word that we might grow and believe in Jesus, and the second point from this text is that the author of Hebrews doesn't leave it all to the realm of belief, but he calls forward witnesses who have lived by faith in the past.

As the many witnesses in the middle of Hebrews 11 step forward and show us the real and tangible benefits of living by faith,

I want you to see this as we roll through it. We're going to go through about a few thousand years of history in 40 verses.

When I read that earlier, you were talking, you know, thousands of years of history going from Abel all the way up to some of these other characters that are mentioned there.

We're much like hitting the highlights, you know, you might, how many of you like to watch sports highlights? Anybody besides me?

Okay, so you like to watch some sports highlights. Now imagine picking your favorite, you know, from 2017, you used to have all these sports highlights, and then you pick the top five.

That's what I'm going to do for us this morning, is just highlight a few of these. And by faith, Abel, who is the son of Adam, you're talking a long time ago, offered an acceptable sacrifice to God, the text tells us.

And Abel shows us that faith leads to acceptance by God. By faith,

Enoch pleased God, and the author literally tells us further in exposition about Enoch's life, that without faith, it's impossible to please

God. That's kind of natural. I love the way he says this, because it's just kind of like, duh, but sometimes we need to hear the duh, is like, you can't believe he exists before you, yeah, you have to believe that he exists before you can please him.

You see what I'm saying there? And so the author is just pretty direct in that. By faith,

Noah built an ark, and through Noah, we see that faith leads to a reverent fear of God. By faith,

Abraham moved to another land because God asked him to, really told him to. And from Abraham, we learn that faith leads to action.

By faith, Moses' parents did not fear Pharaoh, so we see faith removes fear.

And then further, in Moses' own life, by faith, Moses chose to live like a slave rather than live in the luxury of Pharaoh's house.

We see, then, that faith leads us to a new or a different reality. Ultimately, that reality for Moses was that suffering in this world is fine.

It's fine in light of the new life that is hoped for. In all of this list of amazing and heroic faith, there is one common theme that shines out bright as I studied it, as I researched it and worked through, you know, line by line trying to figure out what's the common theme in all these people's lives, and that is that faith leads to action.

All of these people who are commended for faith did something, and they did it based on trust in God.

Their hope, their belief and trust, the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen led them to live different lives, and that's what we're driving for here this morning, that our next year, that 2018, would look different because of our trust in the

Almighty, because our belief that He has something better. That we wouldn't put as much weight on our money, we wouldn't put as much weight on our kids, that we can strangle our kids with our need for them to rise up or to do what we want them to do, or just to make us feel better, or you could strangle your parents on that, or whatever it is that you might idolize, you know, your work, you could just become a workaholic and try to expect more from that, and how many of you know, just coming off of a holiday season, that it never quite meets its hype?

Anybody with me on that? Do you understand what I'm talking about? It's like, this buildup, this anticipation because our culture worships commercialism and material stuff, and so, it's like, we're going to get some stuff, and we're going to give some stuff, and everything's going to be great and amazing, and we're going to get together with family, and those family gatherings can sometimes be like, can we just end those?

Like, can we just, it's great, it sounds great on the front end, and then on the back end, I'm sorry, I may be offending someone, whatever, but I think some of you know what

I'm talking about, and some of you have family here, and you're like, Don, cut it out, okay, that's enough, that's enough, but I think you know what

I'm talking about when it comes to not measuring up to the hype, and we put our faith in all of these things that, in the end, leave us empty.

Sometimes, at the end of the holiday, you can feel more empty than you were at the start, do you know what I'm talking about? There's a reality to that.

And so, the goal is that by faith, by trusting that God has something better than this for us, that that leads us to live a different life, and what our expectations, what our hope is placed in.

So in this way, we must be constantly growing in our faith, if we're going to be people who grow in faith, we will be people who live as though the world is not all that there is.

We will look different because our final and ultimate hope is not tied up in the stuff of this world. We will handle hardship and suffering differently because we know that this world is not the end, the sum total of everything.

Even if I suffer in this life, even if 2018 brings some dark times for us,

I have confident assurance that the world is not all there is. Our final observation about faith, we turn to the first two verses of chapter 12 to kind of wrap things up.

And since we have all these people as examples, but not examples, I tricked you,

I used the word examples and they're not examples, they are witnesses. Witness is a great word, by the way.

It's somebody who saw something and wants to tell you about it. Someone who observed something and they've caught it and they want to share it with you.

In this context, by the way, the reason I'm making this distinction between example and witness is that it would be very easy for us to misunderstand, and I think so many

Christians completely misunderstand the entire Old Testament because we taught it wrong to our kids.

A lot of times I was raised to be more like David or be more like, be more like, act like this person, act like this person, and they're not examples like that.

No one messed up. No one messed up big time. David messed up big time.

Don't ask your kids to be like David. David would tell you, don't act like David.

He would stand here. Do you know who David would tell you to act like? Act like the greater David. Jesus Christ himself.

The one that all of this is about, and we see that here. It's all, this is, the chapter divisions, by the way, are not inspired.

The author of Hebrews wrote this as one long thing and we did it so that we can memorize it better and I can tell you where to turn to. This isn't like, oh, well, why are you talking about this?

This is a new thought. This is starting chapter 12. No, this all ties in and it's very fundamental that we don't misunderstand all of that list to live like Abel.

You know what I need in 2018? I need to be more like Noah, do some boating or something,

I don't know. These are just witnesses testifying to someone greater than them.

Their faith and trust placed in someone greater. The God who saves, the God who delivers, the God who will provide for them an eternal home and a hope for righteousness that they know they don't deserve, they know they can't achieve on their own and that if they're going to be declared righteous, if they're going to be made righteous, it's going to be because God did it.

The picture here that we're given in these first two verses is a race and by faith in Christ we are to throw off sin, the things that hamper us, the things that hold us back and we are to let

Jesus be what fills our eyes as we run with our eyes fixed on the prize. We run the race of following him who has run out ahead of us.

He is the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ himself, the object of our faith, the one who perfectly exemplified faith.

He's the one who started the whole thing when he came and died for us. He authored our faith, he is the perfecter of it and as we gather together then we talk a lot about Jesus and we will talk a lot about Jesus in 2018.

He is the beginning of growing in faith, he is the means of growing in faith, he is the method of growing in faith, he is the strength for growing in faith, he is the greatest possible object of your trust, the most trustworthy and faithful of all places to base your life upon.

We have a tendency, by the way, to complicate things, I don't know if you ever feel like faith just talking about how do

I grow, how is 2018 going to be better and we can come up with all kinds of formulas and make things super complicated, but growing in faith according to this passage looks like focusing your attention on Jesus.

Anything else is just a gimmick and I'm going to confess pastors like to use gimmicks, okay, we like to give you little clichés or little quips or little things that we can just kind of give you a buzz word and you can just feel good about that and go into your next week and all that, but this is just saying look to Jesus, look to him, fix your eyes on Christ.

He is the founder of your faith, he is the perfecter of your faith. You want to see your life move forward in faith this next year, look to him, he's the one who will perfect it.

He started it for you, he will finish it for you. May 2018 be a year of fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ, recast.

The truth is everyone puts their faith in something, so have you considered where your ultimate trust lies?

Is it in you? Do you have faith that you're good enough to please God, that you will make yourself better this next year, that you'll accomplish it?

Is your ultimate faith in pleasure? Is that what you're living for, wealth, a good life?

Deep down, is it really ultimately in science, is that where your faith is placed? Jesus modeled faith for us by enduring the cross, it says in the text, he despised the shame, he made light of the intense humiliation that he suffered in crucifixion.

Because his eyes were firmly fixed upon the joy of the finish line set before him.

And you and I have finish lines set in front of us as well. Jesus has received the end result of his faith and he now sits at God's right hand as the eternal

God -man, forever crowned in glory. Recast Church, let's all commit to grow together in faith as we gather together to hear from God's word.

Let's enter 2018 with assurance and conviction in the promises of God. Let's listen carefully during the next year to the witnesses who have gone before us.

We're going to be starting a series in February on 1 Samuel. We're going to get a chance to hear Samuel's witness,

Saul's witness, David's witness. We're going to hear some pretty rich and deep witnessing to the glory of God and to the hope of a

Messiah to come. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus who stands as the ultimate example of a rewarded faith.

He is the example. These others are just witnesses. Jesus went through the darkest darkness for you and I.

He went through intense shame, naked, exposed, suffering while the soldiers and religious leaders mocked him.

He endured scourging, he endured the nails. He endured the crown of thorns. And so each service, from the very beginning at Recast, we set out to do something that felt strange at the beginning.

It feels quite normal now and some of you, maybe when you visit, maybe you're new here and it does feel weird. We do communion every single week here and we do that because we want to bring everything back into focus on Christ and the sacrifice that he's made for us.

We want to make sure that Christ is lifted high and his sacrifice is remembered in our midst and so we come to communion this morning to remember his sacrifice that was founded on faith.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and he endured that cruel death, a death that you and I deserved ourselves and he did that so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be set free because our punishment has already been paid by him nearly 2 ,000 years ago.

So if you've already come to Jesus by faith, if you believe he is the rightful king, the rightful master, you believe that he died on the cross for you and you've asked

Jesus Christ to save you, then I'd encourage you during this next song, Dave's going to come up and play one more song and there's four tables set up in the four corners of the room.

You can use either side of that table, take a cracker to remember his body that was broken for you, take a cup of juice to remember his blood that was shed for you.

But if you're here and you're not just figuring this stuff out and you're like, yeah, Don, I'm like, you were talking earlier about Thomas or trying to wrestle through this and I don't really know what

I believe regarding Jesus Christ right now, I'd ask you to just sit back and take in this song, skip communion and just remain in your seat, nobody's paying attention to who gets up and who doesn't and just take in the song and contemplate and consider your sins before a holy

God and the amazing sacrifice, how much he has loved you by sacrificing his only son for you.

I know that everyone in this room has room to grow in your faith, so let's go out into this week with confident assurance, let's listen to the witnesses this year and let's fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you, I thank you that you have indeed given us evidences in these witnesses, you have allowed others in history to step forward and testify of your goodness, of your faithfulness, of your promise keeping ways,

Father, that we can indeed put our assurance and our trust in you, you've given us evidence of this.

Father, I pray for those in the room who maybe are wrestling with this and don't really fully grasp all of these things or are just even struggling to believe,

Father, I pray that you would help them even in their unbelief to continue to forge forward towards answers and to really seek you in the right places and in ways that are vital and life -giving.

But Father, for those of us who have been in the faith for a while, a lot of times this stuff can become fuzzy and just vague and like just a general feeling in our hearts or something, and I pray that you would help us to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, that this might be a year of concerted focus and direction and keeping

Jesus before us, who's the author and perfecter of our faith, who suffered, who went through darkness, who went through pain and suffering for us, and we remember that amazing and awesome sacrifice as we come to these tables now.

I pray that you would be honored and glorified as we seek to remember the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has made for us.

Go with us in this week and help us to fix our eyes on you, remembering these witnesses and on believing and trusting in you, in Jesus' name, amen.