SUNDAY SERVICE
22ND JANUARY 2023
Minister: Pastor Seyi Osanyinbi
Text: Hebrews 11
People have many floating ideas about how to please God. The Scripture is the only right source of information about this discourse. The only way to please God is through faith (Hebrews 11:6). The question of ‘what faith is’, then becomes pertinent. Reading through Hebrews 11, the importance God places on faith becomes evident. By human judgment, people like Samson, and Rahab among others should make not the list of God’s heroes but because of faith, they became part of the heroes of faith.
To satisfactorily answer the question of what faith is, Hebrews 11 needs an extensive study. In vs 1, faith is presented as a present thing, not of the past. Thus, to please God, our faith must be progressive and not stagnant or a one-off thing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. To please God, faith must be formed in our hearts and we should not just desire them, they must become a substance in our hearts. We must make them exist first, in our minds. What becomes our reality as Christians first existed in the mind of God before they were brought forth. Likewise, we must make things we believe God to exist first in our mind before we anticipate their manifestation.
Until the things we desire become a substance in our hearts, they will remain as wishes. Until then, we may not receive evidence for the things we desire. In other words, through faith, we can generate evidence for our desires. This is not only about material things but also about our relationship with God. It is through faith that we believe Him; it is also through faith that we walk with and please Him. Abel and Cain offered sacrifices but Cain’s was rejected because faith was not found in his heart according to Hebrews 11:4. Enoch likewise pleased God because He had faith in his heart (Hebrews 11:5). He trusted God for what he has never seen existed before and it was accounted to him as faith. Noah is another example; he had never seen rain fall nor had he ever heard of salvation before yet, he believed in his encounter with God and carried out all that he was asked to and it was counted to him as faith. Our faith should be so strong that we can believe God for that which has never been seen or heard.
Our currency to please God is nothing but faith. When we walk with God in faith, it becomes easy to please God. Abraham did not become the father of faith by mouth; he ran with the promise God gave him even when it did not make sense and there was no trace of its manifestation (Romans 14:4-16). That is faith! We must come to a level of faith where even when we cannot see the manifestation of what we have prayed for, we keep on believing. We must become certain of the promises of God available to us, this will help us to keep trusting. The ultimate promise we have is victory over death and we must faithfully journey to that point where we can claim victory. Our faith should be so strong that we can live a life of divinity while on earth.