| Introduction It is now April, and it is likely that we still have at least another month of this new "normal." Things have been so weird and different for most people. I think that the most difficult part of what is going on is the uncertainty of when it will be over. One of the things that the disruption of the usual has caused us to do is to reconsider what success is. Perhaps not deliberately, but we have changed our goals. Not getting sick has become the ultimate success. For some, just being able to survive till this epidemic is over is the goal of life right now. I want to harness this time of reevaluation to encourage all of us to rethink through how we define success. I want to get beyond just surviving the virus, or what we are going to do after this is over. What is a successful believer in Jesus Christ? Last week the Beatles taught us that all we need is love. Foundational to our definition of success is being loved by God and loving him back. This week the Beatles will once help us define biblical success. At the core of success is remembering, "I'm a believer!" To be successful, truly and really successful, we have to believe what we believe – success is believing. I. Success Is Pleasing God and It Can't Happen apart from Believing God. A. God simply will not take pleasure in us or in our accomplishments apart from faith, no matter how great they may be, 6. B. Without faith, there is no success, 6. 1. A faith that is acceptable to God believes two things: a. It believes that God exists. b. It believes that God rewards his people. 2. All of faith can fit under these two categories. II. First Component of Successful Faith: Believing That God Exists. A. Just to state the very obvious, believing that God exists means that one must believe in the objective reality of God. 1. That means believing that he really exists. 2. In the context of Hebrews, a belief that "God is" means that one must believe that the sovereign miracle-working God of the Old Testament, the God of the Bible, exists. a. That's exactly what the saints in Hebrews 11 believed. b. They believed that God was all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing, and that he was holy, just, good, gracious, merciful, and wise. c. They believed all that about God because they believed what their history, prophets, Scripture, and experiences taught them. B. They believed that this magnificent God really existed. 1. It is this same faith in this same God that we have. 2. We believe in the great God of the Scriptures. WSC 4 – What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. C. Belief in this amazing God leads to the second half of verse 6. III. Believing That God Rewards Those Who Seek Him A. Our brothers and sisters in Hebrews 11 certainly believed that God would reward them, though often it was difficult to see how. 1. Some were called to trust in God's ultimate blessing and equity while suffering even unto death – look at what v. 35 says. 2. Others were called upon to believe that God rewards by turning their back on the riches of this world, 27 (about Moses). B. Whether these great people of faith were called to focus their belief on God's rewards in history or in eternity, they all believed that God was actively working in them and through them and for them. 1. They believed that God would reward them even though they could not always see or understand. 2. Without this faith, it is impossible to please God – without this faith, life cannot be called a success, not matter what others may call it. IV. True Success Is Measured by Believing What We Believe. A. We can list the things we believe, but often we live in practice as unbelievers. 1. We fight to death those who deny the fundamental elements of our faith/creed. 2. But when it comes to facing everyday issues, we can end up acting contrary to what we believe. B. What we often need is a rebirth of faith – a new believing in what we already believe. 1. The God of Scripture exists. a. In addition to the massive truths about God known to the OT saints, we, through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, can understand even more. b. The God of the NT is not greater than the God of the OT because they are the same God, but the NT revelation of God is greater. c. As the apostle John so beautifully says: Jn. 1:18 – No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. 1) Jesus declared (explained or exegete) God to us 2) We can understand the full revelation of God! 2. Ultimately, we know that God exists because of Jesus Christ as he reveals himself as the Creator, Sustainer, and Goal of creation. Col. 1:16 – For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. a. We must believe what we believe concerning Christ as the Creator. 1) Christ created the invisible world – thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. 2) Christ created the visible world. a) Christ created the stars of heaven. b) Christ created the colors of the spectrum. c) Christ created the worms that come up in a rainy day. 3) Christ did all of that ex nihilo, out of nothing – no hat, not rabbit. 4) This is the God you and I believe in. b. We must believe what we believe concerning Christ as the Sustainer, Col. 1:17. Col. 1:17 – And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 1) Christ is responsible for sustaining the existence of every created thing. 2) The tense Paul uses here emphasizes that Christ continues presently to hold all things together. 3) Apart from Christ's continuous action, the whole universe would disintegrate. 4) Christ is the ultimate unifying force that physicists are searching for. 5) This is what we believe, but do we really believe it? a) Do we actually, existentially, in our hearts, believe it? b) If we do, then we have a Christology that will see us through the most difficult of times and will give birth to even greater faith. c) Do you believe that he is? That is, do you believe that he is all of this? c. We must believe what we believe concerning Christ as the Goal of all things. 1) The majestic truths of his creating and sustaining power demand this conclusion. Col. 1:16b – … All things were created … for Him. 2) All creation is moving toward its goal – Jesus Christ. 3) Everything began with him and will end with him. 4) Everything in creation, history, and spiritual reality is moving toward Christ and for Christ. d. We must believe what we believe concerning Christ as the Loving Head, Col. 1:18-20. Col. 1:18-20 – And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 1) Because he is the beginning of all things and the end of all things, Christ is to be preeminent, first, in all of life – he is our head. 2) And our head has reconciled us to his Father through his own blood shed on the cross. 3) The Creator, Sustainer, and Goal of all things loves us, and the cross is the measure of that love. 4) Christ is the lover of our souls. C. What you believe about Christ is everything. 1. If you believe that Chris is the Creator of everything, every cosmic speck across trillions of light years of space, the Creator of the textures and shapes and colors that dazzle our eyes… 2. If you believe that the is the Sustainer of all creation, the force presently holding the atoms of your body and this universe together, and that without him all would dissolve… 3. If you believe that he is the Goal of everything, that all creation is moving toward him… 4. If you further believe that this God is the Lover of your soul… 5. Then you believe in the God that "is" – you believe that the God of the Scriptures exists! 6. As believers we do believe this – anything less is sub-Christian. a. Do you truly believe what you believe? b. If your belief is deepening, though you have been a believer for years, it will change your life right now. 1) Because this belief assures you that your life is in the hand of a sovereign God, and not a twig tossed about by the tides of life. 2) Because you believe that you are the object of an infinite love, which desires the best for you. 3) Because, with such a God as this, you have no option but to believe "that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." V. We Must Believe That He Is the Rewarder of Those Who Seek Him. A. Christ blesses his people in this life and the life to come. Mt. 25:21 – His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' Mt. 25:34 – Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world….' B. The biggest blessing is himself. Phil 3:7-11 – But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Based on all these things I have presented to you, ask yourself the following three questions: 1. Am I believing that God can take care of me? 2. Am I believing he loves me? 3. Am I believing that he rewards, that he is active on behalf of those who seek him? -->
Christ the Creator, Sustainer, Goal, and Lover of our soul – that's the God we believe in. Do we believe what we believe? If so, we are successful people.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2020/04/im-believer-hebrews-11.html
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