Set?

8-14-22Sermon Notes“Set?”

What if someone asked you to define “faith?” Could you do it?

I like what Max Lucado writes in his book, He Still Moves Stones about faith. “Faith is the belief that God is real and that God is good. Faith is not a mystical experience or a midnight vision or a voice in the forest…It is a choice to believe that the one who made it all hasn’t left it all and that he still sends light into the shadows and responds to gestures of faith…Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. Faith is the belief that God will do what is right.”

I have been asked to define faith, and my go-to answer is from the “faith” chapter in the Book of Hebrews. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11: 1). Hebrews 11, after it defines what faith is, proceeds to give examples of faith…beginning with Abel, and continuing through other heroes of the faith, and then culminating in the perfect example of faith – Jesus. Jesus is both the “pioneer” and “perfecter” of our faith!

This Sunday, we will look at how we are “set” for faith using Hebrews 11: 29 - 12: 2…

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.
32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

How are we “set” for faith? Jesus and the great cloud of witnesses have set the example before us. The race is set before us. Finally, the prize is set before us.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Sam