Over a century ago, Albert Einstein made waves in the field of physics by articulating what we now call “The Theory of Relativity.” I’ve never studied physics, so I really don’t know much about it, but from what I hear, physics is a good thing. What I do know, however, is that the scientific fields abound with various often-changing theories.
There’s something else I know. In the Christian life we are never far away from our next lesson on faith. I don’t mean faith as a theory or faith as a warm, fuzzy feeling, but rather the gut-wrenching, deep-seated awareness that I need to trust God on a whole new level.
Life seems to regularly push us into new places that are out of our ability to control – places that are scary or downright disturbing. The Bible tells us that above all of our scary and disturbing scenarios sits a sovereign God who is, in fact, “working all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). That means that God is capable of taking our not-so-good best efforts and our downright failures and somehow bringing beauty out of ashes (Isaiah 61:3). Apparently, He’s pretty good at it.
Our summer preaching series is entitled, “Getting a Grip on Endurance.” It involves eleven sermons from Hebrews 11 all based on the reality that my ability to endure is directly related to how much I trust our very big and very merciful God. Faith and endurance go hand-in-hand. Hebrews 11 tells the stories of weak & fallible men & women who grace the pages of the Old Testament, men & women who tried & failed, who faced temptations much like we do, and who are called men & women of faith despite their many failures.
All of this is intended to stir us toward stubborn and joyful endurance for the cause of Christ. This summer, it is my hope that our collective faith will be strengthened – through preaching, through reading about prayer, and through efforts to memorize Scripture (that would be Hebrews 11…all 40 verses!).
One writer put it this way: “Faith is living in a hope that is so real it gives absolute assurance. The promises given to the Old Testament saints were so real to them, because they believed God, that they based their lives on them…They simply took God at His word.”
May God help us to do the same.
You can listen to this series by visiting our sermon page.