July 9, 2023 "Future-Oriented Faith"

ReNew Ames Messages

We're going to zero in on the first line of Hebrews 11 - faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Everyone has faith. We have a lot of faith in the things that we have created - technologies. It's a lot harder to have faith in things like the promises of God. We find the promises of God in our liturgy of baptism - it takes faith to believe those things. Sometimes it's hard to have faith in a God we can't see. The writer of Hebrews was writing to a community to encourage them in their faith. And then gives a list of all the great heroes of faith. But here's the thing about those heroes - they were all normal people who did some pretty crappy things. They all messed up in big ways - kind of like that. But what makes them heroes of the faith is that they were all willing to act on a vision even though they would not ever see the fruit of their faith. Faith and hope give us a trajectory for our lives - they give us something to strive after - to work toward - they're future-oriented. Faith and hope in what God is up to isn't wishful thinking. It becomes wishful thinking when we do nothing about it. Faith and hope compel us to work toward the realization of what we hope for. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-16 http://bible.com/events/49106590