What Is Faith?

Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Pastor Mike Scrivani preaches on Hebrews 11, verses 1-3.

Please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together again in Hebrews 11, verses 1-3.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, 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.

May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word. Would you please be seated? I recently read Phil Knight's autobiography entitled Shoe Dog.

Phil Knight, if you are unfamiliar with him, is the co-founder and the retired CEO of Nike. He worked hard.

He took risks, turning a $50 loan from his father to buy shoes in Japan into a corporation that today is valued at over $50 billion.

Towards the end of the book, Knight gives advice to would-be entrepreneurs. He shares some good principles until he starts giving spiritual advice.

He says, The harder you work, the better your Tao. In Taoism, which he's referring to Tao, is the unconditional nameless force behind everything that exists.

So he says, The harder you work, the better your Tao. Tao. But then he says, And since no one has ever adequately defined Tao, I now try to go regularly to Mass.

That's Catholic worship. I would tell them, entrepreneurs, Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Not faith as others define it.

Faith as you define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart. What? This isn't wise advice.

This is a word salad of confusing, meaningless, and illogical statements that don't make sense. He uses the word faith in four entirely different and inconsistent ways.

He uses it as self-confidence. Faith in yourself. But then he uses it as an abstract philosophical position. Faith in faith.

And then he uses it as a matter of subjective interpretation. As you define it. And as an independent emotional fourth. As faith defines itself.

To you. In your heart. He says, In other words, Faith is a thing you define for yourself. But it is also a thing that defines itself to you.

And whatever that definition ends up being, it will differ from person to person. If that's true, faith becomes a word that can be used for anything, but truly means and stands for nothing.

And this is a dangerous way to define faith. On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger planes, using them as weapons, as bombs, flying them into strategic targets, resulting in the deaths of 3,000 innocent people.

Those horrific acts were motivated by the terrorists' faith in Islam, believing that committing suicide in ways that resulted in the murder of those who didn't share your faith would guarantee to them immediate entry into paradise and rewards in the afterlife.

If Phil Knight was on one of those planes, Christians have received a true and better definition of faith.

It's not a faith that comes from ourselves or a faith that we define. It is not an abstract concept. It's not wishful or positive thinking.

It doesn't motivate us to commit murder. It's rooted in the truth as revealed, as given to us by the source of all truth, the God of the Bible.

Christian faith, biblical faith, real faith, has an object, the one true God who's revealed himself to us in the Bible.

In Hebrews chapter 11, the word faith appears 25 times, and the phrase by faith appears 17 times.

The writer of Hebrews highlights examples in this chapter of godly men and women who by faith trusted in God and his promises as recorded in his word for us.

Their faith in him motivated them to act, to live in obedience to him, and their obedience, their faithfulness testified to the faithfulness of God.

As we've gone verse by verse through Hebrews, we've repeatedly seen that the writer of Hebrews is concerned with some of his readers who are drifting away from their confessed faith in Jesus Christ.

As we saw last week, the persecution they faced for identifying with Christ, which they at the beginning endured with joy, had now become a factor in their decision of some of them to neglect gathering with other believers in worship.

Some had drifted away so far that they were in danger of turning away from Christ entirely, neglecting his great salvation, the only hope of rescue from God's righteous judgment of sin.

Chapter 10 ended with an exhortation, a call to faith. In chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews provides examples that serve to encourage his readers to obey this exhortation, to not shrink back and be destroyed, but to be men and women of faith and preserve their souls.

Before he presents these examples, the writer of Hebrews first defines what faith is. Faith is, and how it is revealed, what it looks like in the life of someone who truly trusts in God.

And so the main idea for this morning's sermon is that biblical faith is discerned in the life of someone who trusts God's promises and obeys God's word no matter the circumstance or consequence.

Biblical faith is discerned in the life of someone who trusts God's promises and obeys God's word no matter the circumstance or consequence. The Bible says, a person who is saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ is born again.

They are a new creation. They have gone from death to life by the working of the Holy Spirit who lives within them. The Christian's faith is a gift from God and it is informed by God's word, the Bible.

The word that is inspired, the word of God, the Bible, which is inerrant. The assurance and convictions a believer has comes from God's word, not from themselves.

The Holy Spirit uses God's word to renew their minds, teaching them, showing them how God has fulfilled his promises which he's made in the past, revealing to them the promises that God will fulfill in the future, prompting them, prompting us to live by faith, to act in faith in the present with unshakable confidence in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

At Highland Park, our mission statement is that we exist to develop disciples of Jesus Christ who delight in him and demonstrate his goodness as we declare his gospel to our neighbors in the nations.

I hope this sermon develops you as a disciple of Jesus Christ by giving you a true understanding of what faith is.

That you will delight in Jesus who saved you in the God who gave you this faith that your delight in him will provoke you, will stir you up to demonstrate his goodness through love and good works by faithful obedience to the Lord which includes being faithful to declare his gospel to our neighbors and to the nations.

As I've shared, there's a lot of misconceptions about faith. If you aren't sure what faith is, then friend, you are in the right place.

Faith has an object. It has a source. And I hope that God reveals that truth to you today through his word. How is biblical faith discerned in the life of someone who trusts in God?

Well, in this passage this morning, we see three ways that biblical faith is discerned in the life of someone who trusts in God. The first way comes from verse 1.

Biblical faith defines what you believe. It defines what you believe. Verse 1 again says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The Greek word translated as faith is pistis. It carries the idea of belief, trust, confidence, and fidelity.

Faith, as the Bible defines it, is not a feeling. It's not positive thinking. It's not a hunch. It's not brainless.

Faith is assurance, we read. In the Greek, that word is hypostasis, a compound word that means that which stands beneath or in underlining reality.

It's foundational, it's substantive, it's not baseless. If you needed brain surgery, you wouldn't just trust anyone to perform that operation.

You would want a surgeon with a proven education, extensive experience in a track record of successful brain operations, of successful procedures.

Naturally, you would conduct your research to ensure that this person who is going to operate on your brain was truly qualified because you'd be entrusting them with your life.

imagine you've done your research. The surgeon has a degree from Johns Hopkins. He's performed countless successful brain surgeries and has even written a textbook on the subject for other people to learn from.

When they consult with you, they clearly explain the procedure and express confidence to you in a positive outcome. even with all of that assurance, there still comes a moment when you must submit to the process.

In a way, you're exercising faith in the surgeon as you check yourself into the hospital. As you count down from ten under anesthesia, you have genuine reason to trust that you are in good hands, reasonably hopeful for healing and for a healthier future.

Biblical faith has substance. It is the assurance of things hoped for. The word translated as hope in verse 1 is elpizo.

It's an expectant hope, a hope that looks forward to the future with confidence in the present. That that thing hoped for in the present will become a reality in the future.

I remember as a kid when the WWE, back then it was the WWF, when it came to town, my dad would tell me that he would get tickets. And though the event was weeks away and I didn't have the physical ticket in my hand, I knew that my dad kept his word.

He was a man who fulfilled his promises. And so I hoped with expectation, with certainty, with assurance that in the future, I would see Hulk Hogan posing in the ring after he bodied slammed somebody to the mat.

I had reason to believe, to hope with expectation in the present that the promise given would be fulfilled in the future because the person who made the promise had a proven track record of fulfilling what they promised.

I had reason to hope biblical faith has substance. It has reason to hope in the present because it has God as its substance with a proven track record of fulfilling his promises as recorded in scripture.

chapter. The writer of Hebrews goes on in chapter 11 to record examples of men and women in the past who had faith in God in the present because they were convinced that what God told them would come to pass would come to pass.

The reality of God made them certain that what he promised in the present would become a reality in the future. Faith is the conviction of things not seen.

But if we're being honest, this is where faith gets hard for us, doesn't it? We want to see things with our physical eyes.

We've been lied to so much that we have learned the importance of documenting our conversations. of not trusting people's word.

I was in a car accident a few months ago. I talked to my insurance provider, the insurance provider of the person who ran into me and the guy at the body shop fixing the damage.

I wrote down everything they said, everything every person told me because I wasn't convinced that I wasn't going to be on the hook to pay for some of the damages which they said that I would not be on the hook for, but I didn't know these people.

It wasn't until I picked up my car and saw that the damage was fixed and saw the bill and that it had been paid that I was convinced that everything was fine, but I still have those notes just in case.

a Christian's faith, biblical faith, is both substantive and reasonable. It is grounded in the assurance that God's promises should be hoped in with expectation of their future fulfillment because God has the power and he has the proven record of fulfilling his word.

this record preserved for us in the Bible forms the foundation of what we believe. Still, like the first recipients of this letter, when we encounter hard struggles in life and suffering, our faith is tested.

We feel like in those moments all we can see is the thing that is causing us trouble. And so, brother, sister, that's why it's so important that we trust that the Bible is God's word and that it's the Bible that we go to in our times of trouble.

That's what the writer of Hebrews has been doing throughout this letter, hasn't he? He's been using Scripture, God's word, to solidify in the hearts of his readers who Jesus is, telling them what Jesus has done, using Scripture to show them that Jesus is superior, that he is our faithful high priest who fulfilled the old covenant and inaugurated a new covenant by willingly shedding his own blood on the cross to atone for our sins.

He's made the way for us to come confidently before the throne of God's grace in our time of need. He's our risen Lord who intercedes on our behalf in heaven, having taken his seat at the right hand of God because his saving work is finished.

In him we are forever forgiven. We have reason to hope, no matter our circumstances or the consequences for our faith in him because he's promised eternally better things for us in the future.

And so we should look back and read about those people who came before us in the Bible whose faith gave them spiritual sight in the present to trust in God to fulfill his promises in a future that they could not see in the moment.

Most importantly our faith is defined by what we believe about Jesus. The faith we've received is rooted in Christ drawing its direction and example ultimately from his life on earth as the model of true faithfulness for us.

And that's ultimately what Hebrews 11 is going to get to and point to. Let's go there now. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 2 through 3. 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 consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted that you will remain faithful.

Before moving on I want to make it clear that faith biblical faith as it is defined in the Bible which defines what we believe is not something that we muster up or conjure up in ourselves.

It comes from God. It begins with God. It is a gift to us from God. It is not the result of our efforts.

Ephesians 2 8-9 says for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast.

We have been saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This is a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts transforming us enabling us to live by faith defining what we believe through the words he's inspired in scripture.

Everyone though in a sense lives by faith. People eat food in restaurants all the time. They don't see the food being cooked.

They don't know the person who made the food. They probably don't know the waiter who is serving them the food but they eat it anyway rice.

They don't know. They take it by faith that this food hasn't been poisoned. People fly in planes all the time hovering tens of thousands of feet in the sky.

They don't know the pilot but they put their faith in him not just to know how to fly the plane but that he also knows where he's going. When you came into this room this morning you took your seat in your pew and you exercised a measure of faith by sitting in it without doubting that it would hold you up.

I didn't see any of you looking underneath the pew or testing it out or putting different weights on it you just sat down trusting that it would hold your weight. faith the capacity of faith is created in us all but biblical faith spiritual faith isn't a result of our natural birth but spiritual birth which comes from God.

The Bible the word he's given us informs our faith as the Holy Spirit who lives in us teaches us and prompts us to respond to what we read in faith and so second biblical faith demonstrates what you value biblical faith demonstrates what you value again verse two says for by it the people of old received their commendation the people of old describes the people who will be mentioned in the rest of this chapter their faith was in God their faith in God prompted them to act in ways which demonstrated that pleasing him was their highest priority because God was who they valued most Abel serves as the writer of Hebrews first example of a person who lived by faith in verse four let's look at

Hebrews 11 four 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 gift and through his faith though he died he still speaks the first account of worship and the first murder recorded in human history are in Genesis chapter four Cain and Abel were brothers sons of Adam and Eve born to them after they disobeyed God and sin entered the world and they were removed from the garden of Eden Genesis four verse two and through verse five now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and

Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering but for Cain in his offering he had no regard so Cain was very angry and his face fell Abel was a shepherd Cain his brother was a farmer but notice how their sacrifices are described here in Genesis 4 Cain brought in offering but Abel brought his firstborn and his best the fat portions Cain sacrifice was vegetables a bloodless sacrifice Abel's sacrifice was a blood sacrifice while scripture doesn't state this explicitly I believe we can infer something here about Abel's sacrifice which pleased the

Lord and I want to be very careful here very careful this is not stated explicitly in scripture I could be wrong but I think Adam and Eve would have told their sons about the garden of Eden about Satan's temptation about their fall and about the curse and the consequences of sin and I think they would have told their sons about God's coming to them and eventually covering them covering their shame their nakedness with animal skins an animal's life was substituted to cover their shame I think Abel remembered that act of God and it informed the offering he chose to give to him an animal but not just any animal his first and his best

Adam and Eve sinned thinking they could be like God in the sense that they could be equal to God Abel worshipped God because he aspired to be like God and reflecting God's character in his own life do with that what you will what we know for sure is that the Lord favored Abel's sacrifice it pleased him and as we'll see next week in Hebrews 11 6 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 God is pleased when we express our pleasure in him and we do that through faithful actions of obedience biblical faith defines what we believe and we demonstrate what we truly believe and what we claim to believe through our actions it's lived out it acts upon the truth believed in visible ways we read about this in

James chapter 2 verses 14 through 17 and then verse 26 what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body what good is that so also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead and then verse 26 for as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead if a person has been truly saved by grace through faith the Holy Spirit who lives in them they will bear fruit they will produce actions in their lives which demonstrate what they truly value when we have faith in

Jesus Christ faith as defined by scripture it will be demonstrated through how we live our actions the rest of Hebrews 11 shares example after example of men and women whose faith prompted them to live by faith to act in faith demonstrating that what they most valued was not man's approval but God's and as a result of that we read that they received commendation that Greek word is martyreio which means to bear witness it's where we get the word martyr to bear witness to testify to give evidence the commendation these saints received by demonstrating their faith was that they were bearing witness to the truth of God's unmatched greatness of his trustworthiness of his goodness of his infinite value and as a result of that their names are forever recorded in

God's word they provide for us examples to encourage us to stimulate our faith their lives demonstrated that what they valued most was God and his promises more than what was immediately visible to them in the moment Daniel 3 records the faith of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego these three Jewish men living in exiles in Babylon the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue idolizing himself he ordered everyone in his kingdom to bow down and worship it and when it came time to do that when the music played signaling everyone to bow down and worship this image these three men stood and they incurred the king's wrath who warned them of the consequences that would come to them if they continued to disobey this order and we read their responses in

Daniel 3 16 through 18 shadrach meshach and abednego and answered and said to the king the most powerful man in the world at this time oh nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter if this be so our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand oh king but if not be it known to you will and he rose in haste he declared to his counselors did we not cast three men bound into the fire they answered and said to the king true oh king he answered and said but

I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods I believe this is a Christophany a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament not everyone who demonstrated faith in God like this were protected from suffering many still endured hardship and loss and we'll read about them as we continue on in Hebrews 13 but even in loss they demonstrated their faith in God and received their heavenly reward Stephen is an example in Acts chapter 7 he preached the gospel boldly and confidently they stoned him but before he died he looked up into heaven and he saw Jesus ready to take him home and receive him whatever the case we don't worship these saints of old but we do commend them we are thankful for their faithful actions recorded in

God's word which God uses to convict us and convince us of God's value and challenge us to live in faith in our time like they did knowing that dying in faith means that we will be with our king who suffered and died in our place for our sins who endured the cross to save us that we would experience the joy of his salvation so when you suffer when your faith is tested the best question you can ask God in prayer is not why but how how can I glorify you Lord in this how can I show others during this time that my trust is in you how can I demonstrate my faith in you in ways right now that reveal to others that you

Lord are who I most value and now we come thirdly biblical faith determines how you view the world biblical faith determines how you view the world how is faith biblical!

faith discerned in our life well it determines how you view the world verse three 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!

the Bible says that God created all things in six days all the things he made have design they have order and they give evidence to him as their divine designer Romans 1 19 through 20 says for what can be known about God is plain to them to everyone to unbelievers because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse God has revealed himself in creation but better than that he's revealed himself to us in his son through whom creation was made we see that at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews remember

Hebrews 1 1 through 3 long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world he is the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint!

of his nature and he upholds! the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high the bible says human beings are created in God's image he gave humanity dominion over the earth the bible explains where we get our knowledge of what is right and what is wrong God has written it on all of our hearts it explains why this world is not the way that we know in our hearts it should be and it gives hope it gives hope for a time when God's creation will be good again despite what some think science cannot disprove God in fact the more that is discovered the more it points to a divine designer the bible explains why we unlike any other creature in this world have a desire for purpose in our lives and why we struggle to find fulfillment in this world outside of our

God who created us to find our fulfillment and purpose in him Francis Schaeffer said if man has been kicked up by chance out of what is only impersonal then those things that make him man hope of purpose and significance love motions or morality and rationality beauty and verbal communication are ultimately unfulfillable and are thus meaningless in such a situation is a man higher or lower than other living beings Schaeffer says he would then be the lowest creature on the scale the green moss on the rock is higher than he for it can be fulfilled in the universe which exists but if the world is what these men say it is and that's those who deny the existence of God who believe in evolution then man not only individually but as a race being unfulfilled he concludes is dead he's saying if there is no

God then your view of the world will ultimately lead to this conclusion hopelessness purposelessness! There is no point to existence I don't think most people really believe that even even if they reject the belief in God or the God of the Bible the only true God that there is I don't think most people really believe that but they hate the idea of a holy God who does not approve of the sin that they love and so they hide in the dark instead of coming to the light to the realization of who God truly is knowing who they truly are and their need for his salvation but as Christians as people who live by faith the existence and design of the universe as well as our internal awareness of right and wrong of morality speaks to the existence of

God who has revealed himself to us in his word and that determines how we view the world how we see things how we measure things how we value things how we spend our time in our lives biblical faith insists that all truth is God's truth we have external evidence but more than that in salvation we have an internal experience as we read God's word as it renews our minds as it convicts us of our sin as it informs our understanding it explains to us who God is who we are and what God has done and will do in the future it gives us hope it gives us faith reasonable substantive!

Faith if you are confused about who you are why you're here the Bible this book inspired by God will tell you if you are without hope friend this book contains the greatest message of hope there ever is was or will be however we're often told by people in this world that you know just have faith in whatever you believe if you're sincere about it then good things are going to happen to you and you'll have hope eternal life in the afterlife you maybe have heard somebody try to to explain this or prove this by using the story of six blind men and an elephant ever heard that story I'll share it with you the parable goes the illustration goes there are six blind men and they are all touching an elephant!

Trying to determine what it is that they're feeling one man touches the side of the elephant and he thinks he's touching a wall and he's telling everybody it's flat it's firm it's a wall another grabs the elephant's ear and I'm guessing he's pretty tall and he thinks it's a fan it feels like a fan it moves around like a fan another touches the elephant's tail and he says you know this thing it's a rope each man grabs a different part of the elephant without any of them knowing what it is that they're truly feeling the point of the story is that we are all blind when it comes to God we experience different parts of him and different faiths but we don't know who he truly is no one is more right than anyone else all religions all faiths contain some truth sounds wise sounds like something

Phil Knight probably heard but there's a big problem isn't there the story is being told from a vantage point of someone who can see someone who sees the blind men touching and feeling around someone who sees the elephant someone who knows the truth brothers sisters friends Jesus Christ has come to open our blind eyes to the truth he's the interpretive key that unlocks the bible he is the one who makes our existence make sense it's through faith in him in him alone that we see that we understand and realize the truth of our existence the purpose of our lives the future that he has prepared for us that awaits for us with him in glory and the faith we have the assurance we have of things expectantly hoped for being convinced of things that we can't yet see but in

Christ knowing that one day we will our faith determines how we view this world and through Jesus Christ we have eyes to see to see the truth and faith determines in him what we believe it determines how we spend our time on this earth until we go home to be with Jesus and if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ I hope and I pray that he's used his word to cause you to think about things that you would rather not think about you know in your heart that you are more than just some evolved animal you know in your heart the difference between right and wrong you know that when you sin you feel guilty for it and you wish that you didn't and you long for change you look around in this world and you see that this is not the way things should be and your mind is bombarded with confusing messages all the time about who you are about how you should live about who

God is and about what happens to someone after they die God has ordained this day for you friend to hear this truth to save your eternal soul to give you eternal life that you would believe in him the sinless son of God who came to this world who added a human nature to his divine nature who willingly purposefully died on the cross for our sins to atone for the sins that we've committed against God who is holy and who died and who on the third day rose again who ascended to the right hand of the father and who is coming back but who has given his church this message this hope this truth to proclaim to you in the hopes that you will believe it and be saved that you will know the truth that you will know a real faith with substance that you will live your life in ways that matter now!

for eternity come to him and be saved Christian biblical faith is trusting in the Lord in the word that he's given to us trusting it to define what we believe what we accept as true determining!

how we live what we prioritize determining how we see the world and others in it and so may we be people of great faith in our great God who has given us great promises that will be fulfilled and may we live faithfully to the praise of his great name may we be inspired by the faith of those who came before and continue the legacy of faith for those who will come after us as we journey through this world on our way to our eternal home I have some questions of personal reflection again we're kind of changing the way that we end things here at Highland Park because look God's word will not return to him void and when we've heard God's word proclaimed to us it's important that we spend time with that that the

Holy Spirit who indwells us would use this word to mold us and to shape us and to change us into the image of Christ to take the truth that we've heard and to prayerfully think about how we should apply it to our lives and so here's some reflection questions will be on the screen in a moment we're going to enter into a time of prayer and that time will begin quietly just for you to reflect over these questions and your answers as you do work with the Holy Spirit to convict you maybe of sin to encourage you in the ways that you need encouraging to apply this truth to your life and dismiss here's the questions is your faith in Christ discernible in the way you live according to what you've heard is your faith in Christ discernible in the way you live what are you hoping for right now what is what is the thing that maybe you are most valuing or where your affections are tied up in is it in the

Lord or not are your convictions defined and informed by the Bible or by something else and then what is one area of your life where you need to move from simply believing to actually responding to God in faith let's enter a time of prayer and then I'll close us in that time after a few moments God heavenly Father we are thankful for this time that we've had to come together together as believers as a church to worship you to declare the truth of who you are to one another as we delight in who you are and what you've done for us.

Lord, we thank you for this time to have spent in your word, to read through it, to understand the message that you have for us in it.

Here in Hebrews 11 about faith. Lord, we thank you for the faith that you have been gracious to give us. Lord, we're thankful to be people who live in a time where we have the complete revelation of your word.

Before us, we have countless examples of men and women who trusted you and whose trust in you was rewarded, who serve as witnesses to us in our day.

And God, we know that your command has not changed. What pleases you has not changed. That you call us to be men and women of faith. And Lord, we know that our faith is not wishful thinking.

It's not brainless. It's not mindless. It has substance. And so God, I pray for each one of us that if we haven't already, that we would commit and commit even more so to be people of faith who trust in you at all times.

Whether we're struggling with something right now, whether there's some trouble that is in our life, whatever the case may be, Lord, I pray that we would be looking to you always, Lord, as our example, as our Lord and Savior who has taken care of our biggest trouble and who has promised us eternal life.

And so God, I pray that we would be faithful to you and that in being faithful to you, you would be pleased with us because you are worthy.

And Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness to us, sinful people, whom you have been gracious to forgive, to save, to transform, and to give eternal life to.

So you be the praise and the glory forever. Amen. To learn more, visit us in person or see the website at