Opening Illustration: Climbing the boulders at VCBC instead of taking the stairs. Last summer, when my family and I were at a  camp in Iowa, two of my kids decided to climb a tree that is about 60 feet tall – with ropes, harnesses, and helmets of course. While we are sitting there waiting for them to take their turn, one of my kids looks at me and says, “Dad, can we climb to the top of that cliff?” I look behind me and there is cliff that is about 40 feet high above us. Y’all, you know how much I hate heights. I immediately laughed and said, “That’s not allowed,” thinking there is no way the camp would want us to do that. Well, one of the staffers said, “Actually, you can.” I made a face at the staffer that they should have clearly picked up on, but they didn’t. They then said, “There is path with stairs that way, or you can climb up the mountain through those big boulders this way.” I’m pretty sure I need to still repent of the look I gave that staffer at this point. My child then starts walking toward the big boulders beneath the 40 foot cliff. I yelled, “But the stairs are this way!” Next thing I know I’m chasing my child up a mountain. When we reached the top, we were literally looking at the top of the trees into the valley. It was a cool experience. I then said, “We are taking the stairs down and don’t argue with me…” And what was waiting for me at the bottom was my other kid that was ready to climb the boulders up the mountain.

I wanted the stairs -- it was the easiest way up. What did climbing the boulders lead to? A rewarding adventure – it was something I won’t forget. Who knows if the stairs would have had the same lasting impact; probably not. Our hearts are inclined to choosing the path of least resistance. And that affects us spiritually. That’s what we pray for often: “God makes this easy.” But is that what faith is about? I don’t think so. Today, we are going to look at a handful of people that had faith and their faith required them to not take the path of least resistance. Here’s what we are going to see in God’s Word today: Faith requires more than the path of least resistance. Open up your Bibles to Hebrews 11. We are in the Sermon Series: Hebrews. This chapter is often called the “Hall of Faith”. Last week, we figuratively walked into an art gallery last week. We stopped in the lobby to get a lesson on what faith is and isn’t. We saw that faith looks at God and declares He’s worth it. Then, we started walking down the gallery hallways to see the portraits of those who had faith in God. Let’s keep walking down the hallway looking at the next portraits of faith. Read Hebrews 11:7-16. Pray. 

I want us to start with verse 8 and look at the life of Abraham. There is a lot we can see about faith when we look at Abraham, but this week, one thing surfaced that stood above all the others: When God called, Abraham went. He moved. He acted. There was not an idle bone in his body. And that’s where we start: Idle faith misses the God-given adventure. 

1) Idle faith misses the God-given adventure. (vs. 8-19). About a month ago, one of our elders preached about the life of Abraham. I’m not going to go into details of Abraham’s life, but what was the big promise that God gave Abraham? God told Abraham, “I’m going to give you a great land and from you, will come a great nation.” The writer of Hebrews highlights three major parts of Abraham’s life in light of this promise from God.

1. God calls Abraham to leave his homeland and go to a new land.
   • Abraham would live in that land as a foreigner, in a tent
   • ⁸ It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 
   • ⁹ And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 
   • ¹⁰ Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
2. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gets pregnant when Abraham was 99 years old and she has a son when Abraham was 100 years old
   • ¹¹ It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. 
3. Abraham’s faith was tested
   • ¹⁷ It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 
   • ¹⁸ even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
   • ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

I don’t know about you, but when I read about the life of Abraham and others like him, I often see the hardships first. Abraham had to leave his home and live in a tent. He had some marriage issues. He had a child with a woman that wasn’t his wife. He had to grieve the idea of his son being killed. But then I read verses 12 through 16: ¹² And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. ¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 

All that Abraham went through was part of this big plan – this big adventure – that God mapped out for him. Abraham got see God move through his wife, his son, and through himself. Abraham would have never experienced the culmination of his calling if he was too afraid to go in the first place. Quote: “Most of us live a cautious life on the principle of safety first; but to live the Christian life there is necessary a certain reckless willingness to adventure. If faith can see every step of the way, it is not really faith. It is sometimes necessary for the Christian to take the way to which the voice of God is calling him without knowing what the consequences will be. Like Abraham he has to go out not knowing where he's going.” – William Barclay. Idleness was never an option for Abraham. What is Abraham would have ignored God’s calling for him? What if he just would have sat around and twiddled his thumbs? Illustration: Larry Walters and the Flying Lawn Chair[1] On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the landing, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely. After Larry was helped to safety, he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. As he was placed in a squad car in handcuffs, a reporter asked him why he had done it. He casually replied, “A man can’t just sit around.” If you lack faith, or be idle with your faith, you just might end up 15k feet in the air in a lawn chair… and no one wants to be in that place.

What if we stopped looking at comfort as the goal? I think we’ve lost sight of what a faith-filled, God-given adventure looks like. For a lot of people, the idea of going on a God-given adventure looks like a new job, a new house, or a new city. Now, don’t get me wrong, God-given adventures can very well include those three things. We just have to avoid the mistake of putting the byproducts of faith as the object of faith. What kind of God-given, faith-filled adventures can you go without changing your job, house, or city? Your relationship with Jesus. Marriage. Parenting. Church. Friendship. Your faith-calling begins right where you are with what you know right now. 

That’s why the writer of Hebrews goes right into verse 20 through 23. He highlights three men that lived their faith based on what they knew. Here’s what we see next: Your faith is part of a bigger plan.

 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

 2) Your faith is part of a bigger plan. (vs. 20-22). In verses 20 through 22, the writer of Hebrews gives us these quick, one verse descriptions of three men that were filled with faith. First, you have Isaac: ²⁰ It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau. Isaac was the one who was on that alter looking at his father who had a knife in his hand. It’s amazing to think about how impactful it was for Isaac to watch the faith of his dad. That alter moment could have completely derailed Isaac, but instead that moment led Isaac deeper into faith with God. Our big faith decisions as parents are passed down to our kids. Isaac remained faithful and passed along the future blessings to Jacob. We see Jacob continuing in faith and blessing his grandsons: ²¹ It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff. And finally, we the faith of Joseph in verse 22: ²² It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. 

These three men had two things in common: First, they were all at the end of their lives. When Jacob stole Esau’s blessing, Isaac was old and turning blind. Verse 21 says “Jacob was old and dying”. Verse 22 says, “When Joseph is about to die…” What else did they have in common: They were all faithful to God to the very end because they believed in God’s promises. They would all die before entering into the promise that God had made: Isaac and Jacob wouldn’t see the greatness of the nation of Israel. Joseph wouldn’t enter the Promised Land. But their faith never wavered. Their faith defeated death. They lived faith-filled every day because they believed in coming promises of God. That’s why Joseph said, “Take my bones with you!” He knew God would deliver them to the Promised Land. We are called to be faithful in the present because of our confidence in what God will do in the future. What did verse 13 say? ¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. For the people in Hebrews 11, it was never about them and what they received. It was all about what God had promised to do. God’s promises must be more important than God’s provisions. 

What if God called you into a faith-filled adventure, but the end result wasn’t for you? Would you go? Illustration: Leaving Grace Church as a campus pastor before the campus launched. Rachel and I moved to TN years ago to help start a new church in northeast Nashville. In the first three years, the church grew and we ended up adopted another church. I was tasked with leading adoption process and eventually become the campus pastor. When two churches agree to come together, it’s beautiful, but painful and messy process. During this process, it became evident that God was calling me into another ministry. One of the toughest times in ministry was pulling the tarp off the new church sign knowing that I would not be there when the doors officially opened. I knew God’s promise for the big “C” church and I knew what God was doing in that local church at the time – and it was bigger than me. I pushed forward knowing that I would never see the realization of that promise. But I pushed forward knowing that God was up to something big. What if you are struggling with moving forward in faith because you are only looking for your end-result? Maybe God is waiting for you to see His end-result, even if that doesn’t mean it includes you. Maybe your path of least resistance includes your faith that is a building block and not the finished product. 

Maybe it’s time to get off your hands and start moving. Maybe it’s time to start seeing your calling in a different perspective. Either way, you must follow through. That’s what we see last in the life of Noah: The people around you need you to follow through in faith.

3) The people around you need you to follow through in faith. (vs. 7). I want us to go back to verse 7 and read this one sentence summary of the life of Noah: ⁷ 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. God used Noah to reboot the world. God lays out Noah’s calling in Genesis 6:14-16. ¹⁴ “Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. ¹⁵ Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. (Big Boat) ¹⁶ Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper. God would go on to tell him to bring his family, bring the animals, and bring all the fruit snacks you need. What did Noah do? Look at Genesis 6:22. ²² So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.He put his faith to action and obeyed God. What did Noah NOT do? He didn’t ask God a bunch of questions. He didn’t tell God that it was too big of task and that it would take between 70 and 100 years to finish the ark. He didn’t go complaining to God about the coming flood. He didn’t say that God was acting out of His character. Noah obeyed.

Not only did Noah have faith in the moment, but Noah followed through in his faith. Noah was all about the “faith follow through.” Think about what was coming for Noah. It took 70 to 100 years to build the ark. Can you imagine what those years looked like? Noah starts cutting down some trees and laying the lumber around. Some people notice all this wood and ask Noah what he’s building. A boat! That probably didn’t a ton of attention at first, but after the first year or so when they see just how big of a boat Noah is building, you know the ridicule started! This man was building a 450-foot boat in the mountains for 70 to 100 years! After the first year or two, the jokes probably stopped and these people just went on with their lives. It didn’t matter if Noah was getting made fun of or people just stopped caring about what he was doing, Noah was following through in his faith.

For some of you, you might need to answer this question: “What has God started in your life that He wants to see finished? What if Moses would have quit 20 years into making the ark? What if he was afraid that the animals would sink the boat? What if he really didn’t want to shovel all that poop on the ark? What would that have done to his family – those around him? The waters still would have come. Illustration: William Booth’s Blindness: In his book 70 X 7, The Freedom of Forgiveness, David Augsburger tells of General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, who had lost his eyesight. His son was given the difficult task of telling his father there would be no recovery. “Do you mean that I am blind?” the General asked. “I fear we must contemplate that,” his son replied. The father continued, “I shall never see your face again?” “No, probably not in this world.” “Bramwell,” said General Booth, “I have done what I could for God and for His people with my eyes. Now I shall do what I can for God without my eyes.” Booth would finish what God called him no matter if he could see or not.

What’s your follow through? Maybe it’s something you started 20 years ago or maybe it’s something you started yesterday or maybe it’s something you are supposed to start tomorrow. What does God want you to finish so that through your faith God’s grace may be shown world? Whatever it is, finish it. Finish it well. Finish it for the glory of God. 

I’ll close with this question…What’s your “that?” What’s your T-H-A-T? If you go back and look at the writer describes each person in these verses, how does it start? “It was by faith that…” In the original Hebrew, there is noun for the world faith. Faith is only a verb. Faith demands action. Faith demands movement. Faith is most likely going to require to do more than the path of least resistance. What is your “that?” Some of you are about to go climb some big boulders. There aren’t any stairs. It’s going to be hard, but what’s ahead is worth it Don’t sit idle. It’s time to follow through – the people around you need it. Let’s pray.

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