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Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to Hebrews chapter 11, one of
the great chapters in all of the Bible, a chapter that's all about faith. I want
to begin by reading verses 1 to 3 and verse 6 of Hebrews 11, "Now faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the
ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that
what is seen was not made out of what was visible. And without faith it is
impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He
exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. " We've gone through
all of the book of Hebrews in many ways to get to this point.

Everything else has been a foundation for this story of faith. All that we've
talked about, about Jesus being better, better than angels, better than the
priesthood, because He is the greatest high priest, it all leads to this moment
of talking about you and I being able to live a life of faith. We get to Hebrews
chapter 11 and the writer of Hebrews says, "Okay, now let's talk about faith.

" And he says, "What's faith? It's being sure of what you hope for. Not just
wishing for something, but being sure that what God has said is going to happen,
is going to happen, because you're counting on Him.

That's faith. What is faith? It's being certain of what you cannot see.

" In fact, he says in these verses, it's how we know that God created
everything. Every one of us has a sense as we look at everything God created,
but how do we know that? It's only by faith.

In fact, he says, "Without faith it's impossible to please God, because those
who are going to please God must have faith to believe that He exists and must
have faith that He rewards those actions of faith in our lives. " God is pleased
with our faith. Without faith it's impossible to please God, but with faith we
do please God.

If you happen to be a parent, let me ask you, are you pleased when your children
trust you? Of course you are. And God is our Heavenly Father, and God is pleased
when we trust Him.

It's very important that you and I live this expectant life, that we learn to
live by faith. So with that in mind, we're going to look these next few days at
some people of faith who can teach us about faith. Hebrews 11 in some ways is
like going to faith university, with the professors all being the men and women
from the Old Testament who had the greatest of faith.

In one way, the best way to learn faith is from people, because faith is not so
much a matter of what you know as who you are and the decisions you make, how
you take what you know and apply it to life. It's not built just out of
knowledge, but also out of relationships. And we get the opportunity to read in
this chapter about these people who lived a life Even in these first seven
verses, we have come across some people very quickly, three people who lived a
life of faith, and they teach us about what it's like to live a life of faith,
what it means to be a person who lives a life of faith.

First, a guy by the name of Abel. Abel teaches us that people of faith live life
with different values. Verse 4 says, Now, if you're not familiar with some of
these characters as I read through, you're going to have to go back to the book
of Genesis to read the whole stories.

Most of you may remember that you have Cain and Abel, and they offered a
sacrifice, both of them, and God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's, and
it was out of that jealousy that Cain eventually murdered Abel. But what we're
talking about here is not Cain, we're talking about Abel. And we learn three
things about him very quickly from Hebrews 11, things that happened to him
because he had faith.

First notice, he offered a better sacrifice. Now, the question for Bible
scholars is, what was better about it? And it's really not so much in exactly
what the sacrifice was, but in the heart that was indicated behind it by what
the sacrifice was.

You can see in the book of Genesis that Cain offered something, but Abel offered
the best thing. That's the difference. Abel offered his best.

Faith adds up to a willingness to give your best to the Lord. When you hold your
best in reserve, you're declaring in one sense that your faith is in reserve.
When you give your best to the Lord, you're declaring that your faith is in the
Lord.

Second thing about Abel is he was commended. He was commended as righteous by
God. Faith affected his relationships.

The word righteous is a word that's about relationships. It points to being in
right relationship with God and because of that with other people. And God
commended Abel for this.

Abel was a man who lived for God's commendation, not his own recognition, not
the commendation of other people. In order to have faith, you and I have to
begin with a choice. What is my most important relationship?

Whose commendation am I most living for? And Abel, by faith, there's a third
thing about him, he still speaks. Faith affected his influence.

The most powerful tool that you've got for influencing this world is your faith.
Why is it so powerful? Because your actions, your decisions that are based on
faith, they will simply last longer.

You want to make an impact? Seminars can hone your skills, an organization can
improve your opportunities, and principles can enhance your planning, but it's
all a drop in the bucket without faith. In fact, if you're mathematically
minded, it's like this.

Impact equals skills plus organization plus planning plus whatever else you want
times faith, times faith. And that means, those of you that are math wizards
know, that means if you've got zero faith, anything times zero is zero. If
you've got zero faith, you've got zero impact, no matter how much else you have
in this life.

And Abel, even though his life was ended early, his faith still speaks. That's
how you have impact. So people of faith, they live with a different kind of
values.

And then we come across a guy by the name of Enoch. Enoch teaches us that people
of faith live with a different question. By faith, Enoch was taken from this
life so that he did not experience death.

He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken,
he was commended as one who pleased God. People of faith live with a different
kind of question.

Not what will make me happy, but instead, what will please God? What will make
God happy? And Enoch was a man who lived to please God.

He pleased God so much that God couldn't wait for him to be with him. And so he
was one of two that we know of in the Old Testament who didn't die a physical
death, but just went straight to heaven, Enoch and Elijah. God just took him up.

And what pleased God so much about the life of Enoch? Well, if you read about
his life in the book of Genesis, you see that he was a man who walked with God.
He spent time with God.

He invested his life in his relationship with God. The question of his life was
not what will make me happy, but what will please God? That's what it means to
live a life of faith.

And then we come across a third man by the name of, you might recognize this man
as a man of faith, by the name of Noah. Abel teaches us that people of faith
live with different values. Enoch teaches us that people of faith live life with
a different question.

And Noah teaches us that people of faith live life with a different motivation.
Noah did exactly what God said, even though he had no physical proof, no
physical motivation to rely on. Listen to what verse 7 says.

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an
ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of
the righteousness that comes by faith. " The question behind this verse is, what
motivated Noah to build an ark?

His neighbors certainly asked that. They ridiculed him for it. What motivated
him to build this ark?

It must have been a powerful motivation. Because he worked on this project, if
you study into the book of Genesis, for a hundred plus years. He was motivated
to build an ark, even though he didn't know what an ark was at the beginning.

God had to show him the plan. Even though he didn't live near water, even though
he didn't know what a flood was, even though he'd never seen it rain and God
said it was going to rain, it was all a matter of trust. Here in Hebrews 11,
there's three things that we come across very quickly, so quickly that you might
miss them, that reveal what motivates you and I to live by faith.

What motivates this kind of life? We can learn it from Noah. Noah is our
teacher.

God's Word motivated Noah's life. God's character and power motivated Noah's
life. And God's gifts motivated Noah's life.

First, God's Word motivated Noah's life. He was warned about things not yet
seen. What God said, even though he didn't see it, he acted on it.

Because he trusted God's Word. He did as God commanded. That's a motivated faith
life.

God's Word has to motivate your life if you're going to live by faith. God's
character and power motivated Noah's life. In holy fear, he built an ark.

Building an ark, he knew that God could do and he would do what he had promised
in sending a flood. There's a simple principle here. The greater your respect
for God, the more you expect from God.

And Noah had this deep respect for God. It's called a holy fear here. He knew
that God was not somebody to be trifled with.

God was not somebody to be taken for granted. And out of that, he was motivated
to build this ark. God's Word, God's character, and then God's gifts.

The Bible says he did it to save his family. God had given Noah this family. It
was a gift that he recognized and he had a desire to care for.

God's given gifts into your life that you have to recognize, you have the desire
to care for. It's your family, but it's also the gift of your salvation. It's
the gift of other people in your life, other relationships.

It's the spiritual gifts that he's given you to be a part of the body of Christ.
All of those gifts, all of those gifts should motivate your life to live by
faith because God gave them. God gave them.

And when you and I think about living a life of faith, these three examples that
we've just had, these are things every day you and I need to talk to the Lord
about because really the strength to live by faith comes from him and not from
our thoughts, not from ourselves. It comes from his strength flowing through our
thoughts, flowing through our lives. So let's take a moment to pray together.

Father, we pray that today you help us to live with different values. Help me to
live with the values of faith. Help me to live with a different question in
mind, not what will make me happy, but what will please you?

In the end, I know that will bring me the greatest joy. Lord, help me to live
life with a different motivation, not motivated so much by the things of this
world, things that aren't going to last, but motivated instead by your word, by
your character, by your gifts in my life. Lord, let those things draw me to live
a life of faith today, I pray.

In your name I pray, Jesus. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at
Abraham, the father of our faith.