It All Comes Down to Faith
CENTRAL TEXT: Hebrews 10:39–11:3
Heb. 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 19:1-2, 7, 9-11
LEADER: The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
ALL: The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
LEADER: the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
ALL: More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Romans 1:18-23; Luke 18:1-8
LEADER: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
LEADER: And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
The Word of the Lord
ALL: Thanks be to God
BENEDICTION: 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24
LEADER: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful;
DISMISSAL: he will surely do it. Amen.
LEADER: Let us go forth to serve the world as those who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
ALL: Thanks be to God!
RELATED SCRIPTURES:
Habakkuk 2:4
Romans 10:17
Galatians 3:2, 5
Hebrews 4:2, 6:1, 12, 10:22
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- Faith: a value, a virtue (some even say a vice: think Marx), or something else? Discuss.
- On the basis of your sense of faith, who in your life has demonstrated a faith most unswerving? What are moments in which you saw it put to the test?
- There’s an apparent play on words, hidden to us by the translation from the original language, between “shrinking back” (hupostolê) and “assurance” (hupostasis). If that juxtaposition of words is intentional, what basic sense of faith do we find in it being “an assurance of things hoped for”?
- If commendation appears to follow expressions of faith, then how do we understand faith as something other than a work that earns a wage (cf. Romans 4:4)? How ought one feel about both desiring and enjoying the commendation of God? Any reason that would be an undesirable thing?
- How does believing by faith that all things owe their existence to an Intelligent and Benevolent God shape a view of life that differs from one whose belief is in some other physical explanation for the existence of all things? Think long and hard about this one. Tease out several implications of the two ways of seeing the origin of reality.
- How is Jesus’s life an illustration even of this preliminary examination of faith?
ILLUSTRATIONS:
QUOTES:
I can only answer the question, ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part? . . .At the foundation of moral thinking lie beliefs in statements the truth of which no further reason can be given.
- Alasdair Mcintyre (d. May, 2025)
Promised to us is eternal life, but it is promised to the dead; we are assured of a happy resurrection, but we are as yet involved in corruption; we are pronounced just, as yet sin dwells in us; we hear that we are happy, but we are as yet in the midst of many miseries; an abundance of all good things is promised to us, but still we often hunger and thirst; God proclaims that he will come quickly, but he seems deaf when we cry to him.
- John Calvin
For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that [you may] understand.
- Augustine
...theology without practice is the theology of demons.
- St Maximus
I’ve had to keep reminding myself that faith is more like falling in love than it is like finding the answer to a complicated question.
- David Brooks
I ended my first book with the words 'no answer.' I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words.”
- Till We Have Faces
“Someone has likened prayer to being on a rough sea in a small boat with no oars. All you have is a rope that, somewhere in the distance, is attached to the port. With that rope you can pull yourself closer to God. Songs are my prayers.
- Bono, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story
We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?
- Lewis, C. S.. Mere Christianity
...fear is not a Christian habit of mind.
- Marilynne Robinson
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton
BOOKS / DOCS
“Time to Rediscover Hebrews,” Sinclair Ferguson
Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel, Sinclair Ferguson
Why This Oxford Mathematician is Confident God Exists | John Lennox
“The Princess and the Goblin,” George MacDonald–here’s an excerpt