Faith Is Not Always Easy

Introduction

Very pleasant good morning to all of you. It’s good to be here. It’s good to uh, well, at least let me say I’m tempted to just start around the room. There’s several of you that I know and have known for a very long time, and some of you perhaps not as long, and others our paths have crossed in different places, perhaps even in different cities. And I’m glad to be able to be with you in Orlando this morning and uh appreciate the opportunity and the invite the elders have given to me, and thank you all uh for the encouraging way that uh we’ve worshiped today. We have lifted up our voices and we’ve sung these songs together, and we have prayed. And our brother at the earlier hour has helped us uh understand some things about uh the importance of prayer and taking those words off of the page and actually doing them and making them a part of our life.

And the Bible class, and if you were in the auditorium on wisdom uh was especially encouraging. So thank each of you all for uh encouraging me already as we have been together in worship and remembered the occasion as we have observed the Lord’s Supper together this morning. Our brother in the Bible class noted the day that has become such an American holiday. I understand more food is consumed on this day than any other holiday except Thanksgiving. He also informs us the word patriot is not in the scriptures, although the word ram is found many times, but I would add this to what he said they’re usually slaughtered. And I will also add this the Bible has a lot to say in the New Testament about the persecution of the saints.

And those of you who are not sports fans have no idea what I’m talking about. And probably like myself, really don’t care. Take your Bible, if you will, this morning. Let’s go to Hebrews chapter 10, the 10th chapter of Hebrews, and I want to begin reading in verse 35. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 35. Therefore, he says, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what was promised. For yet, in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not those who shrink back to destruction. But of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

And the easiest response when we are surrounded by overwhelming difficulties and questions that come into our lives that we cannot answer.

To shrink back. And he says in verse 39, that is the one thing we cannot do. So may I take a few moments at the end of our time together this morning and share some things with you from the perspective of the writer of the book of Hebrews about faith. But I want to talk to you about faith, maybe in a way that we don’t usually talk about faith. I think I want to go a little bit deeper. And the first thing I’d like to tell you about faith is I would like to tell you that faith just automatically comes very easy for me. I would like to tell you that I always have an unwavering confidence in God. That I always pray, as our brother talked about earlier.

That I never worry about anything, that I never question anything, that I’m never in doubt on anything. But I will tell you that would be a lie. Because sometimes my faith becomes weak and weary. Sometimes the muscles of my faith become flabby. Sometimes my faith isn’t what it ought to be. I think of that dad over in the book of Mark, chapter 9 and verse 24, who stood before Jesus and he confessed, Lord, I believe. And then he turned to Jesus and he says, But help my unbelief. I’ve been there. I think sometimes Jesus is talking to me in Luke 17 and verse 5. When the 12 say, Lord, increase our faith. And Jesus says, Oh, ye of little faith. Somebody asked me one time, how do you preachers know what to talk about?

Well, it’s easy for me. Because I just talk about stuff I need. Because what I found, ladies and gentlemen, is stuff I need is probably stuff everybody else needs to do. And what I need more of is faith. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t. I don’t know anybody, never met anybody. I don’t care how long you’ve been a Christian. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t need a deeper conviction and a stronger confidence in God, especially in those areas of our lives where we don’t have all the answers. So let’s quit pretending we do. Let’s quit pretending like we always have it together, that we never worry, that we never question, that we never doubt. Because I’ll tell you what I think that is. That’s phony. I don’t know anybody who hasn’t struggled with faith.

And I’ll tell you why. Because life is hard. And some days it gets harder. And faith is something you’re gonna need. What is it? This little five-letter word that comes so easy for us to say as the solution and the answer to it all, which in essence it is. But what does this mean? We understand it’s essential to salvation. We could spend a whole lesson developing that theme, which is obvious from many scriptures, Ephesians 2 and verse 8. For by grace are you saved. There’s God’s part through faith. That’s your part. We understand all of that. We could spend our time talking about that. We get the fact that faith is what saves us as we seek to obey and respond positively to the gospel commands.

But ladies and gentlemen, faith is also what’s going to get you through the hard times of life. How would you complete the sentence? Faith is blank. What would you put in the sentence? What would you put in the blank? I would write the word trust there. Because in essence, that’s what faith is. It’s trust. It’s trusting God to handle me in troublesome times. It’s trusting God to get me through the maze of problems and temptations and trials that beset my way. It’s trusting God to get me home to heaven, understanding that I can’t get there alone. I tell you when you learn about faith. You learn about faith when you get on an airplane. Did you ever think about that?

Why would you do that? I don’t know anybody gets on an airplane and turns to the pilot and says, Can I see your license? I don’t know anybody that does that. We just get on the airplane and we have faith that the man or the woman that’s in charge of those controls, we have faith that they are highly trained and have the experience necessary to fly that aircraft. We have faith in physics and the process of aerodynamics. We have faith in that. And we have faith that the air traffic control system is going to watch over our airplane and keep us separated from all of the other airplanes. No. Somebody says, can you prove 100% that the airplane cannot crash? No, I can’t say that. I could prove to you statistically that your greatest danger is not in the airplane.

Your greatest danger is getting from your home to the airport. That’s the greatest danger. But here’s the deal when you get on the airplane. Do you know how much of you has to get on? All of you. You can’t say, you know, I feel I’m 90% confidence. Well, 90% of you gets on the airplane and 10% stays behind. Doesn’t work that way. You have to, when it comes to the airplane, go all in. And guess what? That’s exactly what God asks us to do with him. You have to go all in. What’s the song we sing? I surrender 80%. I surrender all.

Our faith has to be practical or it’s not any good. It’s easy to have faith in here. It’s easy to sing songs about faith. It’s easy to read verses about faith. It’s easy to talk about faith in here. But we don’t live here. We live out there. And suddenly when we go out there, it’s not quite as easy, is it? That’s why I say our faith has to be practical. Our faith has to work or it doesn’t work. In 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, he says, we walk by faith and not by sight. Do you understand how hard that is? Because in our culture, we are so side oriented, it becomes very difficult for us to embrace this dimension of faith. If we can touch it, if we can see it, if I could prove it with human logic, then I will believe.

But if I can’t, then I’m not able to sleep or eat or relax. I can worry. I’m good at that. You’re good at that. But that’s the very opposite of faith. That’s why I say if our faith doesn’t count in hard times. It doesn’t count. So I want to take you into the 11th chapter of Hebrews and the first six verses. And I want to look at six things he says that you need to know about faith. And I’m not going to keep you here all day because I’m hungry. But if you’ve got a piece of paper, just write down one, two, three, four, five, six. Because all six of these things are right out of the text. They’re right there. He says there are six truths about faith that you have to understand.

1. Faith Requires Assurance and Conviction

Number one, he says, faith requires assurance and conviction. Do you see that in verse 1? Faith is the assurance of things, so forth, and the conviction or evidence of things not seen. The word assurance means to stand under something so that it is supported. Somebody questions your ownership of a piece of property. And so you present unto them a title deed to the property. And it’s got your name on it. It’s got the address on it. And so that becomes proof that you are the owner of that property. It stands under you. The old King James says faith is the substance of our hope. The word substance is comprised of a prefix sub and a suffix stance. The suffix stance means to stand. We talk about a politician.

Where does he stand on that particular issue? Of course, if he’s a politician, he stands on both sides. We get all of that. But we understand stance means to stand. The prefix sub means under. And so when you put all of that together, what he’s saying to you is faith is what stands under you. Your faith will hold you up when everything else is falling apart. Your faith will support you when everyone else is falling apart. It’ll give you the strength to go on. It will give you the courage to get up in the morning and to put your feet on the floor and take it on for another day. It is the assurance, he says, of your hope. And the conviction, he says, of things not seen.

Conviction has the idea of proof and evidence. What do you need to convict a criminal? Well, you better have proof. You better have evidence. What is faith? It is living proof that God’s going to take care of me and my family. God’s going to take care of my situation. No matter what. It’s being convinced that he can handle it, that he’s in charge, that he can pull this off. How? I don’t know. When? I don’t know. It’s just letting God be God and do what God does. That’s faith. Real faith, ladies, ladies and gentlemen, Bible faith is not some kind of flimsy emotional thing. It’s not just some kind of feeling, because feelings are all over the map. Look at the words assurance, substance, conviction, evidence.

2. Faith Points to the Future

Those are strong terms that God’s going to take care of me. Secondly, he says, faith, write this down. Faith points to the future. Faith points to the future. Because he says faith is the assurance of things hoped for. There’s hope. Where? Out in the future. The problem is our worries tend to go in the same direction. We worry about tomorrow. We worry about what’s down the road. We worry about what if this happens and what if that happens. And we conjure up all of these imaginary possibilities and imaginary scenarios, most of which aren’t going to happen. Well, what if my marriage struggles? What if my kids rebel and they turn against everything I’ve tried to teach them and they become prodigals? What if the doctor gives my diagnosis and I have cancer?

What if this happens? What if that happens? Why do we do that? Well, for one reason, we tend to view tomorrow in the light of our ability to control everything. And I got news for you. You don’t control anything. You have very little control. I can’t control what’s my circumstances, things that are happening to me. I can’t control my circumstances. I can’t control my attitude and my faith response toward them. That I can. But we tend to view tomorrow in the light of our ability rather than God’s capability to handle whatever comes. Do you know what he says to you? He says, if your marriage struggles, if your spouse walks off and leaves you, he said, I’m not going anywhere. He said, I will never leave you.

3. Faith Involves the Unseen

I will never desert you. Same thing with your kids. Same thing with as we age and get older and physical things happen to us, and God says, Listen, you’re not in this by yourself. I’m going to go with you to the treatment. I’m going to go with you through the side effects. I’m going to go with you through everything. Because I will never desert you. I will never leave you. So when we point out to the future and we get worried about things of which we don’t have any control, God reminds us, faith goes future too. Take it with you. Third, faith involves the unseen. Do you see that at the end of verse 1? Faith is the conviction of things not seen. That’s the hard part.

We want to see it. We’re like Thomas of old. Unless I see, I will not believe. And Jesus says, Because you have seen, have you believed? Blessed are those who haven’t seen. And they believe. And that’s faith. I love what Jay Oswald Sanders writes on spiritual leadership. He talks about faith as it relates to leaders. He said, No pessimist ever made a great leader. The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Well, we’ve heard that quote before. You’re either an optimist or a pessimist. Well, let’s put it in Bible terms. Let’s take that and put it in biblical terms. Do you walk by faith? Or do you walk by sight?

4. Faith Is Basic to Pleasing God

Which is it? Faith involves the unseen. It just says, I’m going to trust God, even though I can’t see where any of this is going. Or how God’s going to work it out or when. Fourth, faith is basic to pleasing God. Look in verse 2. For by it, faith, men of old gained approval. And he starts here, and if you know Hebrews 11, he gives example after example after example. Of people, many of whom started out with very little and ended up with great blessing because they put their confidence in God. And even God goes back to a time when there was absolutely nothing. And it was God Himself who set the precedent by creating the visible from the invisible. You see that in verse 3.

By faith we understand the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. God goes back to a time in which there was absolutely nothing. And he made something out of nothing. You say, what’s the point? Well, the point is if God could do that in the creation, if God could operate in the air of the unseen, if God could make something out of nothing, can he not take your life right where it is today and on the basis of your faith make something out of what you think is an impossible situation? Can he not do that? We say, Lord, I don’t know where this thing is going. I don’t know how in the world.

I don’t see any possible way you can bring any good out of this. And God says, wait a minute. I created the world. And I created the world out of nothing. Don’t you think I can handle you? Don’t you think I can handle this situation? That’s why he says faith is basic. It is basic to pleasing him. By the way, don’t think you’re going to fake it with him. Don’t think you’re going to fool it. Fool him because you’re not. I’ve heard people say, well, faith just is so hard for me, so I’ll study my Bible more. I’ll read my Bible more, and I’ll make up for my lack of faith. I’ll attend every service. I’ll even get to Bible class. I’ll get involved with the with the church more than ever.

I’ll give more. I’ll pray more. I’ll do more. As if that’s a substitute for faith. I drove 650 miles yesterday from Nashville to Tampa. Put another 70 on this morning, driving over to Orlando. And you know the odd thing? I have to keep putting gas in my car. I put it in there and it all runs out. I put it in there again. Now, I’ll tell you something about that. When the engineers designed my car, they designed it to run on petroleum. That’s the fuel they designed it to consume. But there’s a lot of negative things. It pollutes the environment. It’s flammable. And it costs money. So maybe it would make more sense. If you just took the water hose and filled your tank up with water.

It’s cheaper. It’s not going to blow up in your face. It’s not going to pollute the environment. There’s more availability. Great. Only one problem. It’s not going to work. Because you can’t drive a car when the tank’s full of water. And you can’t please God when your spiritual tank is full of anything else except the one thing you have to have to fuel your life. What is it? Faith. He said in verse 4, it worked for Enoch. He said in verse 5, or verse 4 worked for Abel, verse 5 worked for Enoch. And he says in verse 6, it’ll work for you. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You notice he doesn’t say improbable? He doesn’t say highly unlikely. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

5. Faith Means We Believe God Is Real

He said, if you’re trying to work everything out out, everything out on your own, he says, you’re not pleasing me. If you’re worrying about this and you’re trying to figure out everything and walk by sight, he says, you’re not pleasing me. He says, What pleases me, one thing is faith. And then verse 6, he says, faith means that we believe God is real. Write that down. Faith believes we faith means we believe God is real. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is.

Watch you respond to various things in your life over which you can’t control? Do they see you falling apart or do they see you standing upon your faith? What do they see about you? I want to tell you what he’s telling us here is that our reaction to life’s hardships become a testimony to the people who know us as to whether or not our faith is real. Parents, I’m gonna tell you something. Your faith better be real because little eyes are watching. Grandparents, your faith better be real because little eyes are watching. And one of these days, they’re gonna look back and they’re gonna draw upon what they’ve seen. And they’re gonna talk about mom or dad and something that happened in their life, or they’re gonna talk about grandma or grandpa and something that happened in their life, and they’re gonna say, Do you remember their faith?

6. Faith Understands God Will Reward the One Who Seeks Him

Do you remember what they told us? Do you remember what they said? You don’t think they’re watching? Faith means that we believe God is real. And last, he says in verse 6, faith understands that God will reward the one who seeks after him, the one who has that faith. Not only must we believe God is, but that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. How diligently do you seek him? Do you say, Lord, I’m tired of wrestling with this? I’m trying, I’m tired of trying to handle this on my own. I’m tired of worrying about this, I’m tired of losing sleep about this. Lord, I believe in you. You take it, you handle it. You take over. How diligently do you seek him? Faith understands God rewards the person who seeks him diligently.

Conclusion

Let me leave you with two quick questions. Somebody says, Why is faith so hard? Why is faith so hard for me? Well, there’s always going to be an answer to that question. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe you’re afraid that God’s not going to come through for somebody like you. Maybe you’re afraid that you’ve gone down to the well of forgiveness one too many times and God is tired of hearing from you. Well, maybe you need to go back and read Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and study a little bit on the reaction of Jesus and the people to whom he talked, who many of whom were like that. Maybe you need to understand a little bit about the power of the gospel and the message of the cross.

Or maybe it is bitterness and resentment and anger that takes faith and just squeezes it until there’s not anything left. If there’s bitterness in your heart, there’s no room for faith. Maybe it’s pride. Maybe you think I don’t need God. I can do all of this on my own. Maybe it’s hypocrisy. Maybe you’re faking it and you know you’re faking it, and you know God knows you’re faking it. But there’s always a reason why faith is so hard. And I bet if you looked in the mirror, you could find out the reason. The second question is, why is it so hard to live a day at a time? How many verses tell us that? Psalm 90 and verse 12 teach us to number our days. God gives us huge increments of times, but he gives them to us in little segments called days.

And he says, Teach us to number them. Live a day at a time, is what he’s saying. How do you do that? By faith. Jesus said in Matthew 6 in verse 24, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Same thing. Live a day at a time. How? By faith. Psalm 18, verse 24. This is the day the Lord has made. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Live a day at a time. How do you do that? By faith. And why is all this necessary? Because life is hard. And some days it gets harder. And I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. You better work on your faith.

Because you’re going to need it. We all need it. I hope something’s been said that’s been helpful or encouraging, strengthening. If you’re not a Christian, why don’t you take that faith step? If I draw a circle on the board and I write faith in there, do you understand that that encompasses everything God has asked us to do? Do you understand? Confession is an action that you take of faith. Do you understand repentance is an action you take of faith? Baptism is an action you take of faith. That’s part of faith. And if you’ve never taken that step, why don’t you take that step this morning? If you owe a duty to God in any way, there’s people here who will help you put their arms around you and pray for you and encourage you.

Just let it be known. Won’t you come while we stand in seat?