Faith = Giving Up Ourselves for the Sake of His Agenda and Glory - Hebrews 4:1-2

"Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith."

Hebrews 4:1-2

I hope that by now you see a very common theme in Hebrews. The author is stuck on the whole faith thing! We saw that the God's people, whom Moses led out of Egypt, were not able to enter God's rest because of their unbelief. Now the author tells us that the promise of entering God's rest still stands. God's rest was not the promise land as we will find out later in the passage. It is important to define what the author means by the phrase "God's rest", and we will do so another day as we work our way through the passage. However, for now I want to stick with the main point of the passage... faith!

The author begins his sub point with a statement... "Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you is found to have fallen short of it." How do you fall short of God's rest? This speaks to the heart of the Gospel. Many live in the fear that they are not good enough to enter. Years ago I was teaching 7th grade students the heart of the gospel. We talked about how we could not be good enough to be right with God and spend eternity with Him, and that was the point of Jesus. He took our sin and exchanged it for His righteousness, so when we place our faith in Jesus, we are made right with God. Salvation is by grace through faith! So then I asked a few students... "How do you know if you are going to heaven?" The response was along the lines, "Well, I hope I have been good enough." Now before we think that seventh graders are the only ones who miss it, know that I have had several similar conversations with adults. This whole faith think seems to easy for people. It is natural to think that we have to do something to earn our "ticket", but in reality, that is not the case... we simply must believe.

Now before you think that what I am promoting is easy, let me give you a description of what it means to have faith in Christ from my understanding of the Scriptures. Belief is not some intellectual exercise of who knows the right answers, but rather a surrendering of the heart, mind, and will to the object of your faith. Jesus said, "If you want to come after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me." Faith requires us to trust God enough to let go of ourselves and live for His glory! It is not easy to believe. Have you ever participated in a trust fall? It's not easy to let yourself drop into the arms of others, but lets be real... we know the others are there because we see them. No, belief in Christ is like jumping off the Empire State Building with Jesus saying "I'll catch ya." Do you believe enough to surrender your whole self to Christ? That is belief! Just a note, if you decide to jump off the Empire State Building and expect Jesus to catch you, well that would not be a good idea. He is certainly powerful enough to do it, but He never promised He would... so don't.

Do you remember the rich young man who came to Jesus asking what good thing he must do to gain eternal life. The man assumes he can do something good to gain eternal life. Going along with the man's assumption, Jesus told him to obey the commandments. The man then asks which ones. Jesus says, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself." The man replies, "all these I have kept," but he still recognized that he still lacks something. Then Jesus gets to the heart of the issue by telling the man to sell his possessions, give them to the poor, and then follow Him. The man's issue was not doing good things, but rather faith. It is as if Jesus was saying, "Do you believe me enough to give up your life here for for the sake of my agenda and glory?"

God has always operated this way... It's been about faith! And this faith is not easy! Often times we will say that salvation is a free gift. While it is true that salvation is a gift by God's grace, there is a cost... We must be willing to give up our whole self to Christ! This is called faith! So I ask you again, do you believe?