Hope in the Unseen

Brad Hixon · Faith Church · Dec 5, 2022

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Brad Hixon

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faith159god102hope43trust30because24outcome22people21good19verse14confidence14today13life13trust god5live righteously5live12jesus12person12hebrews12great11abraham11hebrews chapter4worship god4god opens4god because4

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Romans

Rhetorical fingerprint · per 1,000 words · click to see examples · 27 scripture readings excluded

Repeated openers: “and so” (13), “do you” (12), “you know” (6), “and i” (5), “god is” (5), “and then” (5)

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(upbeat music) - Hey y'all, you're listening to the Faith Church Sermon Podcast.

We are so excited that you're connecting with us today.

It is our desire for you to grow as a result of the resources we provide here.

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Abraham ·13Jesus ·10Abel ·7Sarah ·3Noah ·2Jesus. ·2sir ·1faith God. ·1faith Noah. ·1Sarah. ·1faith ·1willy ·1

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Red Sea. ·2Pennsylvania. ·1Egypt ·1Red Sea ·1

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kind of faith ·15faith in god ·12kind of faith to ·10have the kind of ·10have the kind ·10put my faith ·8my faith in ·8do you have ·8and so ·13do you ·13by faith ·6you know ·6

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Transcript

(upbeat music) - Hey y'all, you're listening to the Faith Church Sermon Podcast. We are so excited that you're connecting with us today. It is our desire for you to grow as a result of the resources we provide here. We pray that this blesses you today as you seek to know him more. (upbeat music) - We're finishing up our sermon series today called Letters of Faith. And over the last number of weeks, you've been looking at these letters epistles, these letters that are written to help people understand what it means to live a life of faith. What does it mean to live a life of faith following Jesus? And so we've been going through a number of letters in the Bible. And I know for me, man, these last few weeks have been really meaningful. God is doing some stuff in my heart and now just stretching my faith. And he gave and I wanna share it with you. It's just this idea, it's pretty simple. It's just this idea that our faith is not in an outcome. Our faith is in a person. For whatever reason, this phrase, again, I jotted this down and it just keeps coming to my mind that our faith is not in an outcome. It's in a person, meaning when we talk about being people of faith and putting our faith in God, God does not promise that if we trust Him, He will make all of our wildest dreams come true. and wealthy and wise. What God promises if we will trust Him is God promises Himself. That while we may not know the outcome, wherever life leads us, that we can trust Him. And so today I wanna talk about what does it mean or what does it look like if we put all of our faith in God and a picture of that or the answer to that is found in Hebrews chapter 11. So if you got a Bible with you, get it out, turn it on. I'd love for you to follow along. Chapter 11. And what happens in Hebrews, Chapter 11 is really cool. The writer of Hebrews, and just real quick side note, Hebrews is sort of interesting. It's unique from the other letters in the New Testament. Hebrews is the only letter, or the only book in the New Testament that we don't know who wrote it. Scholars have all kinds of opinions, there's lots of speculation, but no one can agree on who wrote this letter. But the early church fathers read it and they sensed, They said, "This is God's Word, and it belongs in the Bible." And so we have this letter of Hebrews, but what's really cool is what happens in chapter 11. The writer is going to show us a number of examples of people of great faith, people that you've probably heard of, famous people who are examples of what it means to live a life of faith. And with each example, it's sort of like they're being held up For us, to ask the question of us, do you want to have this kind of faith? Do you want to have this deep soulful sort of resonating faith in God? And we have these examples that will encourage us and challenge us to grow in our faith. And so today, I think, I'm not sure maybe you came in and you have like, maybe you have a little need for hope in your life. Maybe you're a little short on faith. I want to trust God, but I'm not really sure what He's doing. And you're wondering when God going to sort of reveal His plans to you, kind of no matter where you are on your faith journey. But particularly if you're in need of hope today, man, I think in these examples that we have, this is God's word and it's going to meet us right where we are. And these examples are given. They're going to challenge us to grow in our faith and encourage us to know that brothers and sisters long before us have walked through this journey of faith and they can be a witness for us. So Hebrews chapter 11, you ready? Let's get into it. Hebrews chapter 11 verse one. Here's what it says. It says, now faith, we're gonna get a definition of faith. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Here's faith, it's confidence about what we hope for and assurance in things that we do not see. in it. Faith is confidence. Maybe another word would be faith is belief. It's trust in something. And the word faith gets sort of a bad rap. People hear the word faith. They go, those people of faith, they're ignorant, they're naive. They just sort of put their heads in the ground. But the truth about faith is we all have faith. We all exhibit faith in something. In fact, every one of us exhibits faith you had faith that the numbers on your alarm clock were correct. You had faith, you had confidence that someone didn't sneak into your house in the middle of the night and change your alarm clock and that the numbers were actually something different than what it actually was. No, you had faith that that was the right time. And then you got ready? Like you do every day and you go out to your car and you have faith that when you turn the key, it's going to start. And you have faith that God, whether you're going to work or school or here at church, that God is going to get you safely wherever you intend to go. You have faith in that. And you have faith that if it's a day where you have an accident on the way, that that seatbelt that you're wearing and the airbags in your car are going to protect you. You and I exhibit faith all day long. You have faith that when you need to feed your family, if you go to Walmart, they're going to have bread and eggs and milk and whatever you need. We have faith. Every one of us. You have faith that right now that chair you're sitting on isn't just going to collapse and fall out from underneath you. We all have faith. calls us to be people who live in faith. He's not asking us to do something different than what we're already doing. He's not asking us to do anything different than what everyone is doing. He's saying you all have faith, but he's saying put your faith, put your trust in me. Do you see that? Faith is confidence in what we hope for. Faith is confidence in what we hope for. What we hope for, we're confident about in these things, right? And I thought a lot about this. I thought a lot about this phrase. What do we hope for? I don't know. You probably just start making a list, right? Like I want a billion dollars. And I want it to be perfectly healthy and be cool if my kids got like a full ride into Stanford, like that'd be awesome. Like you can make a whole list. I don't think that's what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. I think a better way of framing this is what we hope for is sort of like good things in the future. confidence in what we hope for. By faith, I have confidence in the future. My hope for the future is confidence because of faith. Now go back to what I said at the beginning. This phrase, it sort of keeps coming up in my mind. I think I can connect the dots for you. That our faith is not in an outcome, a specific outcome, we don't know the story. I don't know your future, I don't know my future, I don't know the story that God is writing, but I think the point is, I know the author of the story. So I don't put my faith in a specific result, I put my faith in a person, in God. And so I think faith is sort of this sense, this spiritual sense, That means if I trust him, the future is good. Now I don't know what that looks like. I can't know the outcome for sure, but I know the person who's leading me. I know the character of God. And so I put my faith in him in God, the person. Let me see if I can give you an example to make sense of this. So I don't know who the Eagles are playing. Lots of you do. You know who they're playing today. And you have confidence that they're going to win. You have faith in the fact that the Eagles are going to win. are going to win today. Why do you have that? Because you have trust in the players and coaches, right? You believe that the players and coaches of the Eagles organization have what it takes to secure a victory. You believe in their ability. Well, let's just say for a second that you found out that the entire, I don't know, the entire offense of the Eagles has food poisoning, right? And they don't have anyone to play. In fact, right now they're outside of the stadium, they're just grabbing people off the street. Like, man, we need you a wide receiver, sir, if you could come throw the ball for us, that would be great, right? How's your confidence now? How's your faith in the Eagles? Not so great, right? Because your faith isn't in them, winning, your faith is in the players and the coaches and their ability to perform at a level that the Eagles can win. You see that we don't put our confidence in an outcome as we think about the future. As we think about the ways our faith is stretched, we don't put our confidence in an outcome. not see why, because we have an insurance in the person that we put our faith in. We have an insurance in the goodness of God. And so while I don't know the outcome, I know the author of the story. I know the person who I'm putting my faith in. Do you see that? Great. We made it through one verse. Here we go. But you got to really think about this. Do you find hope in your conditions or circumstances? Because the problem with that is with putting your faith in your hope in an outcome is what if it doesn't happen? If your faith is in having a great relationship, if I could just meet that special someone, what if that never happens? If your hope, everything will be right. Everything I'll be able to live the life that I want. If I just get that promotion at work. happens. Everything will just be right. If I can finally start a family, if I can finally have the kids that I want, what if that never happens? Do you see results and outcomes are fickle and often out of our control? And so the writer of Hebrews is saying, if you would just put yourself in the hands of God, you won't know the outcome. You don't know the result or circumstance of what will happen faith, a confidence because of the character of God. Do you see the difference? Okay, here come a whole bunch of examples. We get a bunch of examples of people who have lived a life of faith. These are meant both to encourage us and to challenge us in our own faith. As we hear their story, it kind of brings a question to the surface about our own faith. Let me show you, verse 4. Here's an example. "By faith, Abel," here's how Abel acted in faith. "By faith, Abel a better offering than Cain did. You remember Cain and Abel brothers they're early on in the Bible. And Abel brings God a really great sacrifice. He comes to worship God, he brings a really great sacrifice, Cain not so much. Abel acted in faith, this is my worship in faith God. Cain was selfish and didn't act in faith. Man, this pushes on me because I think about these brothers and I go, do I have faith? Like Abel or like Cain? to worship God even when I don't feel like it. Because that's the story here. Cain doesn't feel like it. God, I'm not gonna bring you my best 'cause then what do I have for myself? God, you didn't work the land. You didn't do the hard work to come up with this that I'm gonna sacrifice. This is mine. Do I worship God when I don't feel like it? Do you worship God when you don't feel like it? Here's another story. by faith, verse seven, by faith Noah. When he was warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear he built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. You remember Noah? Noah chose to be obedient and to live righteously in a wicked world. God asked him to do something pretty crazy, build a boat in the middle of the desert. And he has no idea what the outcome is going to be. He doesn't know what the result of this is going to be. world of just absolute wickedness and yet know as says, I am going to be faithful and obedient. I'm going to live righteously when no one around me is. Do you have that kind of faith? Do I have that kind of faith to live righteously in a wicked world? Verse 8, here's another. By faith, Abraham, Abraham, when he was called to go to a place that he would later receive as his inheritance, So he did not know where he was going. Are you serious? Do you have the kind of faith that when God says go, you go? Well where am I going God? It doesn't matter. Where's it going to lead me? What about my family? How's this going to affect my kids? What are people going to say about me God? God, look at everything that I'm leaving behind. Will my, what's next be as good as where things have been? How will I provide for myself? What's it going to look like? The other kind of faith to go. When God says go, Abraham's wife. Her name is Sarah. We get her story in verse 11. It says, here's how she acted in faith. By faith, even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was unable to bear children because she considered him faithful. Who had made the promise. Sarah was 90 years old when God said, you're going to have a child. And she's like, what are you talking about? you're gonna have a baby. And by faith, she believed, right? Because, what does it say? She considered, circled this. Him faithful. She didn't have faith in the excitement of having a child. She didn't have faith in the outcome or the result. She had faith in the God who was saying, this is going to happen. God, I don't know what that's gonna look like. God, what are people gonna say about me? I'm 90 years old, I'm having a baby. God, how is this child gonna be healthy? In the outcome, she puts it in the person who's making this promise. She knows that God is faithful. And so she's gonna trust Him. Something interesting happens in verse 19. Abraham and Sarah have that child. God gives them that child. And then as a test of Abraham's faith, God asks Abraham to sacrifice that son. Now God knows he's never gonna let Abraham go through with it, but Abraham doesn't know that. "Should I obey God?" This seems kind of crazy, but I've obeyed him before and he's, he's shown me the way. I trust him, look what he says in verse 19. Abraham, as he's considering all this, Abraham reasoned, Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. He reasoned that when we think about faith, there's this idea that faith means just being totally naive. Everything you know and just sort of be this mindless drone and follow what God says. That is not what faith means. And so Abraham reasons. If God is able to give a 90 year old woman and a 100 year old man a baby, Abraham reasons. He thinks about it and goes, if God is able to do that man, he must be able to raise the dead. He'll be able to work this out. If I will just trust him, I've trusted him this long. If I'll just trust him, to work it out. You've experienced this so many times in your life where you've wrestled out faith and reason, right? And you've made decisions. And you've used reason. So a few years ago, my family night, we moved here to Pennsylvania. We all we knew was the west coast, the southwest, and we moved here. And lots of people were like, you're nuts. What are you doing? Why are you doing that? We didn't just willy-nilly, like, wake up in the middle of the night and go, hey, you know what we should We used intellect to consider all the information that we had. We talked to wise people. We used the knowledge that we had, even the knowledge of the character of God. And then we made a decision and then we moved in faith. You've done this all the time in big ways and in small ways. You wrestle out faith and reason. Faith is trusting God, but it's not being stupid. It's using the knowledge that you have. character of God, and then we move in faith. The idea that faith is foolish. Get that out of here. These are smart people who are moving in faith, who are walking with the Lord, choosing to trust Him. Look at another example, verse 21. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, he blessed each of his grandsons. And he worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. have the kind of faith to trust God with your kids? Do I have the kind of faith to trust God with my kids? Well, what's it gonna look like? What's the outcome? Are they gonna be healthy? Are they gonna be happy? Who are they gonna marry? What kind of jobs are they gonna have? Where are they gonna live? Hmm. Do I have the kind of faith to just trust God? Regardless of the outcome, because my hope isn't in the outcome, my hope isn't God. Do I have the kind of faith to trust in with my kids? Here's another verse, 23, by faith. He had him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child. And they were not afraid of the kings. Edict. The Pharaoh of Egypt had issued a decree that all the Jewish baby boys needed to be killed. And Moses' parents were like, "We can't do that." Do you have the kind of faith to be obedient, to believe God and be obedient, when no one else does? That's really hard. as lost faith is choosing to just go their own sort of way. Do you have the kind of faith to be obedient and to believe God when no one else will? One more verse 29, "By faith, God's people pass through the Red Sea as if on dry land." But when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. Imagine the Israelites standing at the Red Sea. There's water in front of them, the Egyptians are on the hill behind them ready to attack and the water opens up. And there's dry and then there's just walls of water on each side, and they start to walk through on dry land. Imagine the faith that it takes. Do they know what's gonna happen? No. What's on the other side? What's it gonna be like? It's a long way across the Red Sea. What's gonna happen if water starts leaking in? What are we gonna do? Do you and I, do you have the faith to walk through a door when God opens in? Where does it lead? What will it look like? What's gonna happen? It's kinda dark in there. I can't see everything. Do you have the kind of faith to just walk through a door that God opens? Maybe it's big. Maybe it's small. When God opens a door to say, "Go talk to that person, go encourage them, go pray for them." When God opens a door, it says, "Go be generous for that person." Do you have the kind of faith to walk through it? I mean, I see all these examples and I want to go, "Yes, I want to have this kind of faith. I want to have the kind of faith that doesn't necessarily know to have that. And yet, even having great faith doesn't guarantee a perfect life, doesn't guarantee an outcome. In fact, let me show you how this ends a little bit. Verse 39, these were all these people that we just talked about. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received all that had been promised. You go back to verse 13, you understand why. It says all these people were still living by faith when they died, meaning the things that God promised. Oh, he made good some of it they didn't see. It didn't happen until after they died. We don't find faith and hope in an outcome or in a circumstance. We find lasting faith. In God, do you see what the writer of Hebrews is doing? It's saying, don't, you have faith. You're looking for hope somewhere. Don't look for hope in an outcome. Don't put your faith in a circumstance these things. Your hope is in a perfect relationship. What about when that doesn't happen? Again, your hope is in, I don't know, your kids, your grown kids returning to the Lord. I mean, what if it doesn't happen? All the things that we put our faith in, it's my sex life, whatever it is, money. Like all the things that we put our hope in, what about when it doesn't happen? I mean, even the little ways. You put your hope and the eagles winning. Right? Like you, you're, you're, you're, you're moved. The way that you treat people, your outlook for the week is going to change whether a football tee wins, really. But we do this all the time. Like the brothers and sisters who have come before us. We're called to put our faith in God because when we do, whatever the future looks like, there's hope. Remember, there's assurance in the things that we can't see. Why? Because God is good and we can trust Him. Do you see it? And I know some of you are going, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, "put my faith in Christ." I did that a long time ago. That's a phrase that we often use specific to salvation. And yes, we do put our faith in God. We trust Him to forgive our sins. And He does that. Jesus forgives all of our sins, past, present, and future. But this letter is written to these Hebrew people. Who are Christians? This is not about salvation. This is about every day waking up and saying, am I gonna put my faith and my hope in the circumstances of today? Or am I gonna choose to put my faith in God himself? I know this is a little nuanced. I know it's hard to get our arms around, but you can handle this. important. God is saying, back me. You're going to put your faith in something. Put your faith in me. Not in a circumstance. And God loves when his people trust him. So even right now, as you're thinking about this, what do you put your faith in? What do you put your hope in? Baba uses the word faith and hope almost interchangeably. Where are you going for hope? or person, God. I wanna spend just the last couple of minutes here telling you why I put my, I place my faith in God. And then you can do with this whatever you want. And truth be told, there are seasons of my life and walking with the Lord for a long time. There's seasons of my life that I've walked in my circumstances and my outcomes. And there are seasons that I've walked with God and I put my hope in Him. And I guess I would just confess to you that this is all very real to me right now. This is stuff like I'm preaching to myself. I kind of forgot the all or even here. Like this is like you're getting an inside sort of behind the scenes. This is just my personal Bible study right now thinking about faith because God is stretching and God is growing my faith. And this is what he's showing me. And so I don't know, I hope it helps you as well. Let me just show you a couple of reasons here. A few reasons I've chosen to put my faith in God. The first one is this. I have faith in God because of his character. "Give thanks to the Lord for He is," do you know it? Good. For He is good. There's lots of ways that we could characterize God. That would be true. He's holy, He's perfect, He's unfailing. I keep coming back to good. "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good." The writer of Hebrews talks about the things that we do not see, the things that we hope for and the things that we do not see. Maybe I can't see what's happening. Maybe I can't see what God is doing in my life. but if you will trust God, there is good because God is good. I put my faith, I have faith in God because of his promises. For me right now, as I think about God's promises, I'm putting my faith there. I have Romans 828 just running through my head, kind of on repeat. We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. of those who love Him. We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him. He's promised that. And so whatever you're going through, if you trust Him, if you'll walk in and you've got your faith in Him, He's working all things for good. You know what kind of peace that is? All things, even the hardest things. You're going through a divorce. God is working in all things for good. You're going through an illness. God is working in all things for good. You're going through a, I don't know, a sustained time of unemployment. God is working in all things for good. And if we will trust Him, that's the grid that we can live by, in all things, everything that I'm going through. In all things, God, this is just promise, is working for good for those who love Him, for me. I have faith in God because, finally, because of his track record, just because he's never failed. I mean, we're all here today and we've all been in a situation where we wondered how am I going to get through this? And yet we've endured how the faithfulness of God. So it's like as you have doubts, as you struggle to have faith and hope, you go back to his track record that he's brought you this far through some tricky things, right? But he's brought you this far. He's not going to drop you now. He has too much invested in you. He's carried you all this way. He's going to keep going. Here's how it ends, chapter 12. Therefore, because of all of these stories that we've heard, right? Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, all these examples of great faith, let us throw off everything the hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance, marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, underlined, highlight, circled out, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Jesus didn't put his faith in a circumstance or a condition. God, if you get me out of this whole cross thing, then I'll really trust you. Then I'll really follow you. No, no, no, no. His faith was in his father. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame. And then he sat down at the right hand verse three, this is our instruction. Consider him, that's Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Maybe you came in today running on empty. Maybe you clicked online with us today looking for hope. You're not gonna find lasting hope in your circumstances. You're not gonna find lasting hope in an outcome. and prosperity and advancement. Of course we should. What our hope is based on the character of God, of this unchanging God. And so I hope today that you would look to Him for rest, for hope, for faith. I hope that you would look to God and to God alone. And you will find it. And it's okay to be sort of scared about what does the future look like and to be curious and even a little anxious, right? That's normal. He has with his disciples in Matthew. The disciples are freaking out there on a boat, they're in the middle of a storm, and they're afraid that their boat is gonna flip over and sink. And so Jesus comes to them and he says, "Do not be afraid." He says, "Do not be afraid." But he doesn't say, "Don't be afraid. I'm gonna fix it." Don't be afraid, everything's gonna be okay. Don't be afraid, I'll call him the storm. He just says, "Don't be afraid. It's me, I'm here." Our hope is not gonna be found in an outcome. hope, run to Jesus. Don't chase a circumstance. Run to Jesus and you will find hope. Our Father and our God, grateful for your word. Like the disciples, pray, God, would you increase our faith? You know, God, the circumstances of every person here. of our broken relationships. You know the hardships that we have. You know the ways that we are short on hope. You know where we're starting to have doubts and we need faith. God, would you encourage us now? By the power of your spirit, would you challenge us and encourage us to step in faith to say, God, I trust you with my kids, with my family. God, I trust you enough to be obedient. God, I trust you. I'm gonna believe even when it feels like no one else is. God, I trust you to live righteously. I'm gonna choose to live righteously in a wicked world. God, we trust you because of who you are, because you're good, God, I thank you for Jesus who with joy endured the cross, who gave us another example of what it is to trust you, not our conditions. Thank you, Jesus. You are the great example of our faith and you are the author and perfecter of our faith. So Jesus perfects our faith, increase our faith. We need you now more than ever.

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