WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 5)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:8-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Imagine this scenario.

You are settled in a community and own a farm and its associated property. You live there with your family and have a multitude of possessions to include different livestock you raise and sell. You’re in a very comfortable, stable situation, personally and financially.

One day, you receive a visit from God who tells you He wants you to move, taking your family and possessions with you. And He adds that you will need to go where He leads, only promising that the transition would be worth it for He would make you prosperous and famous, a blessing to others.

How would you respond? Would you pick up and go as God demanded or would you question Him or even just reject His order?

I don’t know about you but this isn’t an easy proposal if we’re honest about it. It would require the greatest faith in God to place your full trust in Him as you ventured into a future only known by Him alone.

But this is exactly what Abram (aka Abraham) did. He was living with his wife Sarai and nephew Lot in Haran when God came to him with the following demand:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3

Verses 4 and 5 tell us that Abraham “went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out.”

And so when we read in our passage today that Abraham, “by faith”, obeyed “when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance...even though he didn’t know where he was going”. Trusting fully in God, “he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country”, living “in tents” while “looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God” (aka Heaven).  

When we look at Abraham, we see how true faith leads a believer to go and do what God wants with complete, unflinching obedience, no matter the uncertainty associated with His command or the potential cost involved. For we, like him, are born into a sinful world that is not our true home. We live in this temporary existence with a hope through Christ Jesus that the best is yet ahead for us but only when this life is over for it’s then that we will inherit and inhabit the “city with foundations whose architect and builder is God”. Until then, we are to do as Jesus commanded us, going wherever He leads us to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, while teaching those disciples to obey all that Jesus commanded. We don’t know where He might send us but we, like Abraham, need to be willing to go and trust Him, no matter what might come our way.

In the end, God fulfilled His blessed covenant with Abraham and one day, all Christians will be likewise blessed as they move from this worldly life onto the promised, glorious eternity of Heaven.

All we need to do is keep the faith.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 4)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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 is in keeping with faith.

Hebrews 11:7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How important is the matter of faith?

So important that we find an entire chapter of the Bible dedicated to it, a chapter that we have been looking at in micro-fashion over the past few days as we move through what will be a 19 message series titled “What Faith Brings”.

Yesterday, we looked at an Old Testament figure who wasn’t necessarily familiar to most Christians, a man named Enoch who we learned was a descendant of Adam and hailed in Hebrews, chapter 11 for his faithful walking with God through his life, a life that would have been lived with a desire to please the Lord.

As we pivot to today’s message, we find a tribute to a man who most everyone knows of, whether they are a Christian or not. That man is Noah who constructed the great ark that spared him, his wife, his sons and daughters in law, and a whole bevy of animal pairings from destruction from the great flood.

Here’s what we read about him in regard to faith in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 7:

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 is in keeping with faith.

Now, of interest, there is no recording of any rainfall happening on earth until Noah had completed the ark and loaded it with his family and the animals. At that time, the people of the world had become so evil and wicked that God actually regretted every creating human beings (Genesis 6:5-6). In His disappointment and anger, He decided to eradicate the human race along with all the animals, birds, and ground crawling creatures with the exception of those on the ark (Genesis 6:7). And so when the first rain fell, it fell hard and for a long period of time, forty days and nights, which flooded the entire earth.

So why were Noah and his family chosen to be the sole survivors?

The scriptures in Genesis, chapter 6 tell us he was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (v. 9). This faithfulness is what led Noah to build the ark even when others would have seen it as nonsensical. With a sense of “holy fear”, Noah fully believed God was going to do what He said after being warned of what he was still yet to see and because of that faith, our passage today tells us that he became an “an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith”.

Noah, obedient in his response to God’s will, became a model of practicing righteousness through faith and as a result, God delivered him and his family from death. Once the flood waters disappeared, they were the only people left alive.

So how does this translate to us as Christians today?

Well, as sinners who were wicked and short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), we were destined for destruction until we, by faith, placed our belief in God’s promise of salvation through His Son. By that faith, we chose to live a new life, leaving behind Hell and damnation and exchanging it for the right living found in following Jesus and behaving as He did. Through Christ, all believers became heirs to righteousness and that inheritance of righteousness included a bonus, an added claim to the very kingdom of Heaven as co-heirs with Jesus Himself (Romans 8:14-17).

What does faith bring?

It brings us to a place where we, like Noah, experience holy fear that drives us to be obedient to God’s calling, a calling that includes belief in His Son Jesus in order to be saved from our sin. Then, our belief in Jesus allows us to inherit righteousness and Heaven as we dedicate our lives to selflessly serve others just as He did. Rescued by God through Christ, we are saved from the sure destruction of judgment and given an eternal, glorious Kingdom future.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. 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.

Hebrews 11:5-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Because of faith, we believe that God rendered commands that led to the creation of all things, just as the scriptures depict in the very first chapter of the Bible. And through our belief in God and His almighty, divine sovereignty and eminence, we respect Him enough to give Him all the best we can give, just as He gives us His best.

This is what we have learned through the first two messages in this rather lengthy series titled “What Faith Brings” as we closely study what could be easily referred to as the faith chapter, Hebrews 11.

This brings us to our passage today as we look at verses 5 and 6. There we find the author of this letter sharing these words:

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. 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.

As we saw in yesterday’s message, the writer of Hebrews started using examples of Israelites who notably exercised faith in the scriptures. Yesterday, we looked at Adam’s son Abel and today, we move a little forward on Adam’s family tree to a man named Enoch.

Now, you may remember that Adam and Eve were blessed by God with a third son who they named Seth and when you look at the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, chapter 3, you find that our Savior traces back through Seth to Adam (Vv. 23-38). Moving forward from Seth, you will find that he fathered a son Enosh who then fathered Kenan. Kenan then fathered Mahalalel who fathered Jared who then in turn fathered Enoch.

We don’t know a whole lot about Enoch except what we find in the fifth chapter of Genesis. There we learn this:

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Genesis 5:21-24

The man lived a very long time but of interest there were other documented people who lived before the Great Flood of Noah’s time who lived twice as long. His son Methuselah was one of them, weighing in at 969 years (Genesis 5:27)! Talk about blessed longevity!

So why did Enoch live so long before “God took him away”?

Well, we see in our passage that he walked faithfully with God which is another way of saying he was faithful to his Lord in the way he lived. By faith, he trusted his God and put that trust into action by being obedient in following in the Lord’s ways as he walked with Him through life.

This is just another thing faith brings to a believer. For when we are faithful to God, we realize just how much more faithful He is to us and as we walk with Him, just as Enoch did, we will strive to live in a way that is pleasing in His sight until that day when we are no more on this earth because our God will have taken us away to a much better place, His eternal kingdom where we can continue to be faithful to Him for all eternity.

I don’t know about you but I am so excited for that day when it comes.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 2)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

Hebrews 11:4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In verse 2 of this eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the letter’s author states this about the matter of faith, faith that was defined as the “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”:

This is what the ancients were commended for.

Who were the ancients exactly?

Well, as we start to see in verse 4 of this chapter, the writer begins to use Old Testament figures to highlight examples of faith as he writes to his Jewish Christian audience. In today’s message, part 2 of this 19 message series, we find the focus on Abel.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

We know that when God created the first human beings, Adam was made first and then Eve using one of Adam’s ribs (Genesis 2:20b-23). After the great fall in Eden’s gardens, the first couple had their first child, a son who they named Cain (Genesis 4:1). Later, they would have a second son who was named Abel (Genesis 4:2).

We go on to read in Genesis, chapter 4 how the two brothers each brought an offering to the Lord and the Lord favored Abel’s offering over Cain’s. This is because Abel offered the best he could bring and so God “commended” him “as righteous” because of his faith. Unfortunately, this faith didn’t stop a jealous, sinful Cain from murdering his own brother but not before Abel had left his mark in regard to faith-based giving to a God who provides the best for those who place their belief and trust in Him.

Indeed, this faith of Abel continues to speak to us through the scriptures well after his death as Christian believers today read the testimony about him and then follow his lead, also bringing their best to the Lord as an offering. This offering can be in the form of our time, talent, or treasure and everyone has at least one of these to provide to the Lord.

The bottom line is this. If we didn’t have faith in God, then we wouldn’t worship and honor Him with our finest gifts. Faith brings us to a place where we know God and revere Him for who He is, the Almighty Maker and Master of all things, the One who deserves the absolute greatest we can give.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.