JV - The courageous faith to face the unfaithful

Nathan Jones

Courageous Faith • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Main ideas: Faith – definition. Faith as action. Faith as thought. Examples of faith. Trusting Jesus.

Title: The courageous faith to face the unfaithful.

Opener A few years ago, I had the privilege of going with a school group to Canberra. We went and saw many thing their, but the one thing stood out to me, and that was the war memorial and museum. Have you ever gone to a museum or even just a historical village, stood still, took in the sounds and the smells, and imagined how it must have been for them, people of old, that against all odds took on the journey of creating a life for themselves, creating beauty out of chaos. My question I always have, is, how did they survive without air con in those hot clothes?

Anyway, we were at that museum, and one of the exhibits was a boat, from the one of the battles, that still bare the scars of battle. You can see the bullet holes, and it being a real landing craft, they are real enemy bullet holes. Those sounds and smells become real, it is almost as if you are transported back in time, and you feel the weight of gratitude that fills your heart and soul.

But the thing that always makes it very real, is when the presenter or curator lift out one picture, and tells the story of that nurse. They are the hidden ones in war, but they are the ones that take care of those that cannot be taken care of. You heart swells from emotion and your soul becomes soft. You develop this deep sense of pride of this persons sacrifice, a person that you have never met, a person whom you have never know of before. You then ask yourself the question: will I be so courageous?

Prayer

Message Let us go to one of the best memorial passages in the Bible. Hebrews 11.

Video. Reading of Heb11

Believe it or not, but there are places in this world, were white stuff falls to the ground and compacts together. This white stuff is called snow. For us here in CQ that idea might seem foreign because we have a winter as cold as some other places autumn.

There is this place in America. Wisconsin, where the average temperature between November and April, that is 6 months, is below 0. Yes, six months of, leave my freezer stuff outside in the shed as you do not need one. In April, a flower starts to show itself and it is usually when the temperature spikes up to 9’c. This flower is called the Crocus flower. When this happen, the university students of that area, go out in their shorts and their thongs. We might think they are crazy, because it is very cold, but for them, they have had this (pictures) for several months. Look they are mowing ice, not lawn. They have endured white and cold and for one day, there is hope that there might be heat again. They do not consider it foolish to were shorts and thongs. They have seen the evidence, they have seen the proof of the thing they have not yet seen, summer. They have faith. Yes, that is faith. And that is what the writer of Hebrews is saying faith is.

Faith is not this blind idea we have in our heads that we need to cling on for no reason. It is not a pie or spaghetti monster in the sky. Biblical faith is based on a Crocus flower type thing. It is that thing that we can stake our hopes in to. But Faith is not just a good idea that stays in the head or paper.

Are these ones spoken about in Heb 11 philosophers sitting around a camp fire discussing what faith is? No. Are they mere mortals that have seen the Crocus flower and have decided to wear their shorts even when it makes no sense? Yes.

Let us reflect on three areas in Heb11 to see what the result of faith is.

V11 Sarah is in her late 80’s hear that she will bare a child and she laughs, yeah right. she considers the one who made the promise to be faithful, so she needed to crunch the numbers and do the mental maths. She is asking if the one who made the promise is worthy of trust. In her mind she finds it as yes, she has her crocus flower that she can point to. Is she absolutely certain that God will sea his promise through, no, but does she have a reason for her faith, yes. She is thinking it through. V17 – 19 Abraham reasons. He does the mantle maths. Isaac is his crocus flower. Abraham had a choice, not just his thoughts but his behaviour.

Are you considering Jesus faithful like Sarah did and even Abraham when he was about to slit Isaac’s throat?

Here I want to plug in to Derrin’s sermon from last week. Martha saw Lazarus die, she waited for Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus did not, and when Martha finally saw Jesus, she still placed her faith in him Are you willing to, even if it snows on your life, even when it seems too late, place your faith in Jesus. Do you trust him?

What is the Christian’s crocus flower? Jesus alive on earth. Jesus’ teachings and work while alive and ultimately his death and resurrection. Resurrection life and grace has the last say, not bitterness, brokenness sickness, death, depression, inflation, wars. Whatever, but our faith in Jesus’ return. On what can I stake that? What is my crocus flower? Jesus.

An idea is only an idea when it stays in your head or on a piece of paper. Faith is an idea, that creates a choice that ultimately changes your actions.

V8 Another example.

In closing Read Heb 10:36 – 39 and Heb 12:1-2

Go where the Spirt leads.

Close in prayer.

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