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“The Call to FAITHFULNESS” I want to thank our good friend, Dr. Neal Windham again for his great “teaching devotional” for us last weekend on how we can build 4 simple disciplines in our devotional life….just as a little reminder, here they are again based on Philippians 4:4-9… 1. Rejoice always 2. Don’t worry; be praying 3. Think about the right things 4. And Do the right things As we head into July, let me reflectively say, I hope your 4th was a good family celebration. And as we see the summer unfolding (and the heat unrelenting sometimes), I hope there is a longing in you to make our days count. Just as David said in Psalm 90 prayed for the Lord to teach us to number our days appropriately so we might gain a heart of wisdom, I pray we might make the days of our summer months COUNT as well. And a great way to do that is to stay “DEVOTIONALLY CONNECTED” in our reading and reflecting on God’s Word with God’s People. So here’s where I’d like for us to head this month. I’ve always been enamored with the listing of spiritual HEROS in Hebrews 11. And I remember a song out a few years ago saying, “we don’t need another hero”. I get that we don’t need another POSER, that’s for sure, or a self-proclaimed hero. But those folks listed in that chapter and many other in the Bible are there for us to be inspired by, so that we might live better lives of FAITH. So if you will, dive in with me as we look at them one by one this month together. Here we go….. MONDAY (Hebrews 11:1-4 NLT) “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Thru their faith, the people I days of old earned a good reputation. By faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. It was by faith that ABEL brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.” Today we look at an INTRO to the whole topic of faith and the first hero, ABEL. Now we can also reference back to Genesis 4:1-16 to get the play-by-play story and total context. So Abel is first on the list, but let’s look at the intro talk that precedes the mentioning of him. The Bible says that faith is having confidence and assurance that what we hope hope but can’t see is actually going to happen! It begins with the conviction that God created the heavens and the earth. If you can embrace Genesis 1:1, you can hopefully embrace the rest of the Bible! We understand, the Bible says THAT God did create EVERYTHING from NOTHING. We may not be able to explain exactly HOW He did it, but He did it! (Tomorrow in verse 6, we’ll see how important simply having faith really is!) So today, let’s make some notes to guide our devotional thoughts. First of all, Abel’s offerings were “MORE ACCEPTABLE” than his brother Cain’s were. Second of all, Abel’s offerings gave evidence that he was RIGHTEOUS. And thirdly, the Bible says here Abel isn’t a “Dead Man Walking, but a DEAD MAN TALKING”! Sorry, had to throw that in there. Let’s break these down and apply them to us briefly today. His offerings were more acceptable than Cain’s. Back in Genesis 4, we read that the contrast between the two was that Cain gave SOME of his grain as an offering to the Lord, while Abel brought the FAT PORTIONS. Cain’s was stingy …..Abel’s was generous. Cain gave “leftovers”, while Abel gave the “pick of the litter”. “Nuf said”. Next, his generosity to God indicated his RIGHTEOUS heart which God approved of. And finally, Abel STILL SPEAKS, though he’s gone. Actually, he was the first human to experience death. Makes you wonder what kind of reception he got in heaven! I bet it was incredible! So what’s the takeaway today? 1. Let Abel’s example inspire you and me to be GENEROUS in our life toward the purposes of God. 2. Let us be reassured God gives HIS APPROVAL to our life of faith, even if the culture around us doesn’t seek His approval. 3. And know today that our life SPEAKS LONG AFTER WE’RE GONE! Our legacy of faith will linger. Thru our kids and their kids. Thru our efforts to encourage other believers to be faithful disciples who seek to “finish strong”. May we be the most generous, God-pleasing people we can be today! And may our voices of faith speak “loud and long” for generations to come! TUESDAY (Hebrews 11:5-6 NLT) And today we move on to the briefly mentioned, ENOCH. Let’s read this short passage. “It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—‘he disappeared, because God took him.’ For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Did you see what happened there? Just the mention of this great hero of faith, who never died (like Elijah who went to heaven in the original “Chariot of Fire”), causes the Hebrew writer to go into an “exhortation” to us of what God requires without exception. FAITH. It’s a must! Don’t you love the commentary on his life? A “person who pleased God”. That was his “testimony” the King James Version says. The Passion Translation says, “his life had become a pleasure to God”. How cool is that! No wonder God promoted him early! One of the many things I learned from Tom Franklin (who is meeting all these folks as we speak) was the importance of Isaiah 57:1-2, which says, “Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.” We don’t know why God allows some folks to leave life earlier than we think necessary. But maybe God was keeping Enoch around just long enough. He was only 365 yrs old, which was a short life compared to a lot of other “long-breathers”! His son, Methuselah is the record holder at 969. Think with me today why God has us here at our age. For one reason, I believe. To make a difference and represent Him well! To our family and loved ones around us. To be pleasing to the Lord. May our lives, as Enoch’s life did, “become a pleasure to God”. And we have a better chance of that happening if we try to do that TOGETHER! Love you guys….and talk to you tomorrow. WEDNESDAY (Hebrews 11:7 NLT) “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.” Wow! 100 hundred years of preaching and building and taking a lot of ridicule and all he got was one verse! But he got many other references and plenty of accolades from heaven! NOAH lived in a “sin-saturated society” according to Genesis 6:5. Every thought and every imagination were only evil and always evil. We think it’s bad here and it is….but it’s been bad for a long time. Noah was blessed because he lived a pure life in an impure culture. He didn’t do it alone. He had his family. It’s a good thing his family was more spiritual than Lot’s family, if you know that story. Lot didn’t make this list in chapter 11, but you’ll hear about him later in Genesis. So our quest and question today would be……being HOLY in an UNHOLY world. Not cutting corners. Not calling sin, something less than sin. Having faith that God will bring judgment as He said He would. I don’t think Noah gloated over his neighbors, but rather pleaded with them. You’ll notice if you read the Genesis account (which is nothing like the Russell Crowe movie about Noah…the only thing Biblical about that movie was it was about a man named Noah and there was a flood and that was the end of that Biblical accuracy…. OK, I’m back!). You’ll notice that God shut the door (Gen 7:16), not Noah. We are to tell, love, preach, build whatever says to build, and plead….but God makes the call. Time of FLOOD…..2348 B.C. (according to Answers in Genesis). May we live HOLY LIVES TOGETHER encouraging those around us to come to FAITH….until God makes the next major call in sending His Son! THURSDAY….(Hebrews 11:8-19 NLT) Oh, boy, it’s Abraham and Sarah! And it takes 12 verses to cover this “friend of God”! You’ll need to look this one up or it’ll take the remain text I have left! Let’s look and see what God points out about the incredible FAITH of this hero! 1. He obeyed and left without knowing where God was sending him. (vs 8) 2. He lived like a foreigner in tents would as well (vs 9) 3. He looked forward confidently to an eternal city built by God (vs 10) 4. SARAH believed God’s promise of having a baby though she was childless (vs 11) a. Now verses 12-16 becomes a commentary on all these HEROES saying the “countless offspring” of this 100 year old good-as-dead man, became a nation! (vs 12) b. They all were content to be nomads, not receiving what was promised, but welcoming it from a distance (vs 13) c. Anxiously anticipated a place to call their home (vs 14) d. Didn’t long for the past or they would’ve returned (vs 15) e. They looked BEYOND this life to ETERNITY and that’s why God is not ashamed to be called THEIR GOD (vs 16) 5. Abraham passed the TEST in being willing to offer his son, Isaac (vs 17) 6. He believed it was ISAAC, although he had been persuaded by Sarah God might do that through another woman, but that didn’t turn out so well. This time, Abe KNEW that he KNEW that he KNEW….(vs 18) 7. And get this….Abraham believed SO MUCH that he “reasoned” God would bring Isaac back to life after being sacrificed if need be. Not that’s FAITH! (vs 19) I ‘d better wind today down……what’s our quest today? Believe like Abraham. Against all odds that God will come thru! No matter if we’ve blown it and told a few lies previously…..or made some bad judgments earlier….today is a new day…..and God wants to use YOU and me to draw the world’s respectful attention BACK to Him and Him alone. FRIDAY….(Hebrews 11:20 NLT) “It was by faith that Isaac promised blessing for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.” Whoa, now that’s a short commentary! But Isaac’s role was pretty simple. Keep this thing going. Pass along the faith that your Dad had in the living God. You’re 2nd generation, Isaac…don’t drop the ball! Now he struggled a little bit with fear as Abraham did in lying about his wife being his wife, but God saw him thru that. His father’s servant prayed a specific prayer in search for a wife for Isaac after Sarah’s death (Genesis 24) and God pulled off a major miracle finding Rebekah, who “offered to water his camels as well”, which was exactly what the servant had prayed for. But Isaac would have his hands full with raising twin boys, Jacob and Esau. He’d make a mistake that his son, Jacob would too, in “playing favorites”, which never works well. But his job was to hold on to his faith….pass on his faith….instill his faith in his sons…because the future of God’s people depended on it. And there are many depending on you and me right now. Hold on tightly to the God who holds on to you! May we interlock arms spiritually with our church families….our earthly families….all of God’s people. Because it appears we’re headed to one of the biggest games of “Red Rover, Red Rover, send the devil on over” as it appears in our culture today! We’ll pick up in verse 21 and look at the next “handful of heroes”! Love you guys….and may it be an especially “faithful” weekend, george HEADS UP: If you’re interested in some extra content, I’ll be speaking in California on July 14th, which you can catch the live stream down below under “bonus content”…as well as a live stream for a service in Southern Indiana on the 21st of July.
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