What Does Faith Do?

Since the inception of our Church, the founders of the church not only preached about faith but also led a life of faith. In all the walks of their lives, they reflected a life of faith. Even today, the Lord is leading our church in faith. Today we are going to meditate about faith.  Few weeks ago, we started a message series 'This i believe' where we meditated upon Salvation. We are going to meditate on the title 'What does faith do?' We read in  Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

We cannot miss quoting Hebrews chapter 11 when we meditate upon faith. Hebrews 11 records the list of ordinary men and women who put their faith on an extraordinary God. We can see how a normal person received the victory when they believed on the Lord. When we put our faith upon the greater God who works out extraordinary things, we will witness the same extraordianary things in our lives. We all have faith in our lives and we exercise them each and every day. There are a few strong definitions given by the great theologians on faith.

Martin Luther - "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times"

Augustine of Hippo - "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe "

Billy Graham - “Faith simply means believing that God will do what He has promised”

AW Tozer - “Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent” 

Even in our lives, we can define Faith as both a foundation on which we stand and weapon with which we fight. Having Faith as foundation which is set upon Jesus Christ, we will go on to see faith as weapon. Faith is not about faith itself, it is about the object of the faith which is Jesus. We read Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It is true that we have faith in our lives. But where do we keep it is important. Are we keeping our faith upon Jesus or on other people?

1. Worship God

Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.”

Over here we read about the sacrifice offered by Abel. We can read about the incident in Genesis chapter 4. The first thing that faith will do is to make us worship God. Faith empowers us to worship God which is demonstrated through Abel’s life. There are people who worship the Lord naturally and casually. We read in Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” When we sacrifice our bodies as a living sacrifice that is considered as a reasonable service. In old testament, the animals will not come forward to sacrifice their lives. It will be taken by someone to offer sacrifice in the altar. In new testament, we need faith to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The Bible does not speak much about the life of Abel. But we can understand Able offered an excellent sacrifice to the Lord. Only a person who has faith upon the Lord can offer sacrifice like this. The difference between Cain and Abel’s sacrifices was not about animal and vegetable, but about faith. We can easily present the best things we have in our hands for the Lord like Cain. But the Lord is someone who is seeing the faith we have in our hearts like Abel. The Lord will honor the faith we have upon his name. In Genesis chapter 22, the Lord is teaching a lesson to Abraham. The Lord teahces him a truth that to worship is to make a sacrifice. Even there Abraham needed faith to offer the sacrifice to the Lord. Through his faith, Abraham received a great revelation where we will worship the Lord. When we worship the Lord with faith, it will lead us to revelation in understanding about the Lord. Let us not reserve faith only in prayer. Worship should be greater and deeper when it is filled with faith. 

2. Walk With God

Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God."

Secondly, the faith will make us walk with the Lord. In the life of Enoch, the experience of walking with the empowers him to please God. In scripture, we can read in many places that it encourages us to walk with God. We read Colossinas 2:6 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him..”  The verse says we need to walk with the Lord by being rooted in Christ. Apart from receiving the salvation from God, we need to have the experience of walking with the Lord. In the beginning of Hebrews chapter 11, we see it does not speak much about the life of the saints mentioned over there but it speaks more about their faith. When Enoch was 65 years old he begat his son Methuselah and after that he started to walk with the Lord. When we have faith in our lives, we can easily walk with the Lord.  Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Faith not only pushes us to walk with him but also it will help us to lead a life which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. We read in Galatians 5:16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” When we walk with the Lord with no sin, it means we walk in the spirit. When we do so, we will stay away from all kinds of lust. 

3. Work For God 

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

Finally here we read about Noah who worked for the Lord. The faith will make us work for the Lord. It will strengthen us to work for the Lord. Faith will enable us to shine for the Lord. Noah was divinely warned about the great flood. Noah expressed his faith by paying heed to the word of the Lord. Noah started to build the ark by obeying the Lord. He rejected all the skpetics around him. If the word of the Lord should be fulfilled in our lives, we need an extraordinary faith in our lives. Faith will help us not to get distracted. When Noah hears the word of the Lord which is something that he has not seen or heard of, yet he obeys the Lord. The faith directs him to fulfill the task given by the Lord. Faith moves him into the fear of God and then into his work for God. Noah had to continue working for years while holding on to his faith upon the Lord. Faith is the evidence of the things that we have not seen.  We read in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The faith is like the substance we hoped for in our lives. The faith will take us to the path where we can do things for the Lord. By the faith of Noah, his entire family was saved. It is trut that by faith we will receive but at the same we need to give certain things through faith. We can give our time for ministry and things for the Lord. We need to practice faith by serving God in the place He has planted us. The church is open for all of us to join together to build the kingdom of the Lord. Through our service, the Lord will touch the lives of many people around us. Amen.