Heb 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Faith is fully invested in that which is only hoped for. Faith believes what it doesn’t see and discounts what it does see.
Renew Your Confidence
This afternoon I have come to this pulpit with a desire to encourages somebody not to lose your grip on your confidence in God’s promises but rather to renew your faith in your reward. You need endurance! There’s a reason why Jesus said in Matthew 24:13 that "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Because you need endurance!You need to grasp the reality of faith. You need to push through the distractions of your present struggle and catch a glimpse of your promised reward. Some of us need to get heaven in view. Some of us need to remember that God isn’t finished with us yet. Some of us need to renew our confidence and our hope in a promise of God that says that the latter rain shall be greater than the former. Some of us need to reinvest ourselves in a promise that says that he, who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him! Your confidence in the promises of God is the source of your faith. And it is the wellspring from which your endurance flows.
There’s a good reason why the New Testament writers, in the midst of much persecution and heartache, speak so often of their longing for heaven. Because it is their confidence in that future reward that provides them with the endurance to prevail over their current trials. I want you to understand that, if you are going to make it through this world and make heaven your home, you are going to have to focus your vision on your faith and set your sights on the promises of God. This is the source of your endurance. This is the faith that saves your soul.This is why Hebrews 3:6 tells us that if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end then we will obtain our reward.Somebody needs to renew your confidence in the hope that sustains you!
Florence Chadwick waited two months before she tried again to swim the 21 miles across the Catalina Channel. On her second attempt the fog was just as dense as the first time. The weather was again unfavorable. The conditions were again harsh and unforgiving. But something was different this time around. With a confidence born of an understanding that was gained in her failed attempt, Chadwick reached the California shore in a record shattering 13 hours, 47 minutes and 55 seconds. When asked what made the difference, Chadwick smiled and said that she made it because she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam and, though the fog was thick and the way was difficult, she never lost sight of the opposite shore. As long as she could see, she could make it!
The Race
Let me tell you something about living for God. This life is a race. This isn’t a short jog down the track.This is a long distance, endurance race. If you plan to succeed in this race, you need the endurance that is born from faith! If you plan to make heaven your home one day, you need that faithful endurance that springs from an unshakable hope in the promises of God.
This is why the writer of Hebrews, after he presents the persuasive testimony of chapter 11, picks back up the theme of endurance. Pointing to the evidence of faith just provided, calling the faithful a great could of witnesses, he admonishes us to lay aside every weight and sin which do easily besets us and run with patience, or endurance, the race that is set before us. The message is simple, the only way to run this race is with the endurance that is born of a forward facing faith. The only way to triumph over life’s current struggles and difficulties is to be fully invested in a promise that exists somewhere in the realm of hope and things unseen.
Just like Chadwick, on her record breaking swim, got a vision of the destination in her mind that compelled her forward through the fog and past the obstacles, those of us that long to make heaven our home must get a vision of glory firmly planted in our minds and realize that this is what we are striving for. The fog doesn’t matter anymore, the only thing that matters is reaching the other shore. The trials don’t matter anymore, the only thing that matters is making heaven my home. The obstacles and discomforts don’t matter any more the only thing that matters is seeing the promise of God come to pass. Somebody needs to get a vision of revival and fix it in the center of your view. Somebody needs to renew their confidence in their promise and settle it in their heart and mind. This world with all of its trial and tribulation doesn’t matter anymore. These struggles are only temporary and these tragedies are only momentary discomforts. The only thing that really matters is getting a grasp on the promise of God.
This is why Paul can say in Phillipians 3:13-14 “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Because he understood that the endurance that propels us through this present life and to our future reward is founded in a confident faith that reaches forth unto things which are still before us and presses towards a mark that has not yet been obtained. You need endurance. You need a confidence in the promises of God. You need a hope that is born of faith that reaches forth to the things of God, which are still before you! You need a forward facing faith.
Close
In Hebrews 12:2 the writer, after having listed the faithful through the ages gives the ultimate testimony of the power of forward facing faith. He admonishes us to turn our attention to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. “Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.” Did you catch that? The pain, horror, and shame of the cross was made endurable for Jesus b the future hope of a joy that was yet before him but had not yet been realized. It was the hope of a future joy that compelled him to endure the cross! He is our ultimate example. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He too, found endurance, through forward facing faith, faith in his own word, faith in his own promise, faith in what he was about to accomplish!
Today I realize that some of you have been struggling with the troubles and trials of this life. I am keenly aware of how circumstances and situations arise and endeavor to rob us of our hope and our faith. You need endurance and the only way to get it is through the exercise of forward facing faith. Let me encourage you, today, to lift your eyes from your circumstances for a moment and look forward to the promise that is yet before you. Perhaps you need to get a glimpse of heaven. Perhaps you need to get a glimpse of a personal promise. Perhaps you need to get a glimpse of revival. Whatever it is you need to get a vision that is inspired by that which can only be seen through hope. And with that vision in mind, you need to make up your mind, just like Florence Chadwick, that the only thing that matters is pressing on until you reach the mark. This is the source of your confidence. This is faith that endures.This afternoon, somebody needs to invest yourself in a faith that endures this world, a faith that will carry you all the way to heaven. Somebody needs to claim again the promises of God in your life. Reestablish your confidence in the promises of God!
