Opening Illustration: 3-D Image Pictures (Stereograms).  Do you remember those 2-D pictures in 90s that contained a 3-D image? Here’s an example of one: Show Picture. Supposedly, somewhere in that picture is a 3-D airplane. I’m really tempted to leave that up and see how many of start crossing your eyes in a few minutes. I’ll take that over you all closing your eyes! What was key for seeing the hidden image? You had to stare at it closely and for a long time. The longer you gazed, the more you saw. For some people, though, they could never see the image – for them it was just a bunch of random colors and lines.

Today, we reach a passage in the book of Hebrews that asks us the question, “Spiritually, what do you see?” We are going to find out that what we need to see requires much more than a quick glance. It requires us to get close, to focus, and let our souls start to gaze. When we do this, then we begin to understand what it means to have faith. Here’s what I want you to see today: A faith that lasts is a faith that gazes on God. Open up your Bibles to Hebrews 11. We are continuing in our current Sermon Series: Hebrews. We’ve learned a lot in the book of Hebrews. Recently, we moved into the part of the book that tells us to take that knowledge and start living it out. In these past few weeks, we’ve seen our call to move toward being more like Jesus. And to stay in the presence of God. Last week, we heard a big warning that Satan is going to try to lure us away so we must stay near Jesus and keep going with Jesus. Today, we learn what it means to have the faith needed to keep going. Read Hebrews 11:1-6. Pray.

We ended our time in God’s Word last week with the final verses in chapter 10. Those last three verses were like the cherry on top. Last week, we were told to keep near Jesus and keep going with Jesus. He’s the vibrancy in front of us and the reward ahead of us. And then we see a wonderful reminder of who we are – the faithful ones who souls will be saved. If you were to skip ahead to the beginning of chapter 12, it seems like that would be a logical place to continue from where we stopped last week. Verse 1 ends with “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” But that’s not where the writer of Hebrews goes. He takes us into a gallery that is full of portraits of people who had faith. Why does he do this? Because he wants his readers to derive their strength by looking at those who have demonstrated strength. This first stop in the gallery is the lobby, where he we see what it means to have faith. That’s where we start: Faith looks at God. 

1) Faith looks at God. (vs. 1, 3) In verse 1, we are given a two-part definition of faith: ¹Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Faith is both the reality and the evidence. Faith is both the assurance and the conviction. Before we get too far down the road of what faith is, let me quickly tell you what faith is not.

1. Faith is not a feeling 
   • Faith can’t be a subjective feeling that differs from person to person
   • If what you call the feeling of faith differs from what the Bible says, then it’s not faith.
2. Faith is not a blind trust
   • So many people look at Christians like we have our head in the sand
     • Like we leave our brains in our cars before we walk in here
     • And to be fair, there are some Christians that do have their heads in the sand because they haven’t taken the time to look at the truth out of fear that they may be intellectually challenged
     • There are some that are content with a leap into the dark
   • But that’s not faith – there is evidence to our faith
3. Faith is not the power to make things happen
   • In other words, faith is not the power to think things into existence

All of that could be a whole sermon, but I want us to stay with the Scripture in front of us. What does verse 1 tells us that faith is? It’s the reality of what we hope for and faith is the evidence of things we cannot see. These two parts are two sides to the same coin. Let’s start with that second part: “It is the evidence of things we cannot see” Faith is the evidence of the things we cannot see. How can that be? Wouldn’t it seem more logical that evidence produces faith? We get an illustration of what that means in verse 3: ³ By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. The writer of Hebrews brings back to Genesis 1 when God created the world. Verse 3 tells us that faith understands the things we see – the created world – came from what we cannot not see. Even if we were there when God created the world, we still couldn’t have seen the act of creation – we’d just see the result of creation.

But we know that we can look at the created world and know that God made it. How is that? Well, first, the Bible says so in Romans 1:20. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Second, I have stared out into the stars, I’ve tried to count the grains of sand on the beach, I’ve seen the complexities of the universe – and when I see it all, I know there is a Creator. But I know that isn’t the case for everyone. Illustration: Random letters falling from an airplane that write out your favorite book. You can choose to sit there and go, “Wow, I can’t believe those letters all randomly aligned in that way to write out 30,000 words in cohesive sentences. Or can you say, “someone moved these letters and created this story.”

When I look at creation, I see the fingerprints of God. I may not see His hand, but I know His hand has been there. That I believe, without a doubt, that God created this world is the evidence of what I cannot see. Faith perceives. Faith sees. And the fact that we can see fingerprints is evidence of what we cannot see. That is how faith is the evidence of what we cannot see. That is how faith sees God. I love how John Piper puts it: Quote: “In other words, faith is not just a responding act of the soul; it is also a grasping or perceiving or understanding act. It is a spiritual act that sees the fingerprints of God. This does not mean that you believe them into being. That would be wishful thinking - the power of positive thinking. That is not authentic faith. Real faith is based on real Truth. It looks deeply at the world God has made - looks through it, so to speak - and by the grace of God, it sees the glory of God…” – John Piper.

Why is this important that we when we look at our faith we know that it provides evidence of things we can’t see? It shows us that our faith is not groundless. Our faith sees God who chose to reveal Himself in the ways that He did. God wants us to see His fingerprints today knowing that one day we will get to hold His very hand. What about the other half of the coin? Let’s go back to verse 1 – we’re not quite of the lobby of the gallery, but we’ll get there. Here’s the other side of the coin: Faith looks at God and declares He’s worth it. 

2) Faith looks at God and declares He’s worth it. (vs. 1a)  What we’ve seen so far is there an intellectual aspect to faith – there’s knowledge to be known. The other side of faith is that we must have trusting approval in what we’ve seen. And that trusting approval does something to us. Let’s read the first half of verse 1 again: ¹Faith shows the reality of what we hope for… There are two keywords in that part of the verse: “Reality” and “hope for”. We use the word “hope” all the time. We all put our hope – our faith – in something or someone. I don’t think I need to stand here and convince you all that you need faith. You already have it. We all hope for something that will make us happy. We all believe that there is a pursuit out there that will lead us to happiness. Now some may have lost hope in that pursuit, but fundamentally, we believe that pursuit exists. We are all running after something in the future that we believe will take us from where we are to where we think we want to be. We are all looking at something in the future and saying that whatever it is – it’s worth how I live my life now.

That means each one of us have to ask this question: What is the object of my faith? You have to stop asking if you have faith – because you do – you have to start asking “what is the object of your faith?” What are you hoping in? What are you hoping for? I love how A.W. Tozer encapsulates this idea in his definition of faith: Quote: “Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.” ―W. Tozer. What are you gazing upon that you believe will save you? Illustration: Trusting in a tiny airplane or big airplane to get you across the ocean. What if you had to take a plane across the ocean to get to Australia? You can come up with whatever imaginary scenario you need to that is compelling to get you to Australia…To play a didgeridoo? To pet a kangaroo? Sure. Whatever you want. You get to the airport and there are two plane options: A single-engine propeller Or a 747. A passenger of the single-engine is comes running to you and tells you how amazing this plane is and how it’ll get you to that kangaroo. Another passenger looks scared out of their mind to fly, but they are going to the 747. They can barely talk to you, but they say, “I don’t know how this flight is going to go and I’m scared out of my mind, but I believe the 747 is the right choice. On top of that, I don’t like kangaroos and didgeridoos sound terrible.” What are you going to pick? Even though the second person had such weak faith, they still put their faith in the right object. The degree of your faith doesn’t matter if you don’t have the right object of your faith. 

That’s what this passage is calling us to do! That’s the “reality” of what we hope for. The reality of our faith says that God is worth it! The reality of our faith is the daily decisions that show what we are hoping in and hoping for. It’s letting your future with Jesus dictate your daily decisions. It’s looking at this world and saying, “It’s all temporary.” It’s taking the evidence of what you cannot see, believe in it, and then declaring it. It’s knowing that Jesus is worth it. There’s a lot in those first three verses. Why did we spend so much time in the lobby before we start down the hallway to look at the portraits of faith? The same reason the writer of Hebrews did. To motivate us – to excite us. To remind us that we stand on the shoulders of those who gone before us. To see that there are those who left a legacy and we can do the same. That’s where we begin our final descent: Faith looks at God, declares He’s worth it, and leaves a legacy of pleasing Him.  

3) Faith looks at God, declares He’s worth it, and leaves a legacy of pleasing Him. (vs. 2, 4-6) We finally are leaving the gallery lobby and walk down the first hallway. And we get to take a glance at two portraits. Let’s read verse 2 and then verses 4 through 6: ² Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. ⁴ 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 long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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.  The writer of Hebrews doesn’t go into great detail about Abel and Enoch. First, the original readers would have known their stories. Second, the point being made is not about what is written in their stories; it’s about what isn’t written in their stories. 

What’s the story of Abel? Cain and Abel were brothers – sons of Adam and Eve. One day, Cain and Abel both brought offerings to God. Cain’s offering wasn’t accepted by God. Abel’s offering was accepted. We don’t know exactly why this was the case, but we can deduce Abel’s offering was the right offering with the right heart. And what about Enoch? We don’t much about Enoch except that he was in close fellowship with God. So close in fellowship, that one day, Enoch just disappeared because God took him. God was beaming people up way before Scotty was…It’s intriguing that the writer of Hebrews starts with Abel and Enoch because what is missing from their stories? Faith!

If you were to go back to Genesis and read their stories, faith is not directly mentioned. But how do verses 4 and 5 start? “It was by faith…” The reason these two men were chosen to be in this faith-filled chapter is not because faith is seen in their stories but because we know in their stories that they pleased God. What does verse 6 say? “And it is impossible to please God without faith.” If we know they pleased God, then we know these men had faith in God. Both of these men left a legacy of pleasing God which points to a legacy of faith. There is no other way to please God than by faith. And then everything comes full circle in the last part of verse 6: “Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” If you’ve every struggled with the feeling of not being able to please God, then here’s your verse. If you want to please God, then you must have a faith that believe God exists and that He is a generous Giver. If you want to please God, then you must have a faith that sees God, declares He’s worth it, and enjoys the beautiful gift of His grace. 

I’ll close with this question…What kind of legacy do you want to leave? Abel still speaks to us by his example. Enoch was known as a person who pleased God. Neither of these men had a tombstone with an epitaph. But both of these men have a legacy that points people to God. Both of these men were known as men who pleased God. Both of these men have a legacy that says they pursued holiness; that they pursued the presence of God. Both of these men had a faith in their souls that gazed upon a saving God. Church family, we are running with expectancy this year. We are running toward the presence of God. We are running into the presence of God. We are taking our holiness seriously. We are going to be a church that has faith that pleases God. Let your soul gaze upon a saving God and watch what God will do with you. Let’s pray.

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