Introduction
Are you evaluating God the way you evaluate a church, asking, “Will this meet my preferences?” Or will you let God evaluate you by asking, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The central truth I want to press into your heart is this: God is pleased, not by our religious activity or church preferences, but by a living, persevering faith that takes Him at His word (Heb. 10:38; 11:1–3). Before we step into Hebrews 11 (often called the “Hall of Faith”), we need the runway that leads into it. Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” God is not mainly measuring crowd size, music style, or ministry polish; He is looking for faith, people who trust Him, especially when obedience is costly and outcomes are unseen. Hebrews 11 then answers the question: if the righteous live by faith, what is faith, why does it matter, and what does it reveal?
Main Points
Are you evaluating God the way you evaluate a church, asking, “Will this meet my preferences?” Or will you let God evaluate you by asking, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The central truth I want to press into your heart is this: God is pleased, not by our religious activity or church preferences, but by a living, persevering faith that takes Him at His word (Heb. 10:38; 11:1–3).
Before we step into Hebrews 11 (often called the “Hall of Faith”), we need the runway that leads into it. Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” God is not mainly measuring crowd size, music style, or ministry polish; He is looking for faith, people who trust Him, especially when obedience is costly and outcomes are unseen.
Hebrews 11 then answers the question: if the righteous live by faith, what is faith, why does it matter, and what does it reveal?
Faith Is Assurance Tied To Hope
Hebrews 11:1 gives us Scripture’s clearest description of faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Another faithful rendering says faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
Faith is inseparable from hope. Hope is like an anchor for your soul (implied earlier in Hebrews), and faith is like the rope that holds you steady to that anchor and pulls you toward God’s promised future. God gives a promise; hope clings to the promise; faith acts as though God is telling the truth.
That means we must guard faith from two distortions:
- The world’s distortion: “Faith is just a way to cover ignorance, close your eyes and pretend.”
- Religion’s distortion: “Faith is a tool to get whatever I want, like a spiritual lottery ticket.”
But Hebrews 11 is not a parade of people who got everything they wanted on earth. It’s a story of people who trusted God through trials, delays, ridicule, and mysterious callings, because they were convinced God keeps His word.
Here’s a simple way to say it: Faith in God gives me assurance that my hope in God isn’t foolish.
David models this in Psalm 27: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:13). Present circumstances were heavy, but future goodness was certain because God is faithful.
Faith Takes God At His Word
At its simplest, faith is taking God’s word for it, believing that “every single thing He has ever or will ever say is true.”
I want you to notice: biblical faith isn’t confidence in my inner strength; it’s confidence in God’s character. Faith says, “God spoke; therefore it’s settled, even if I cannot yet see it.”
A.W. Tozer captured it well: faith believes future promises despite present circumstances.
One everyday picture is the marriage covenant. When a husband and wife say, “till death do us part,” they are making a future-facing promise, and the other person receives it by faith. And when that covenant breaks, we even have a name for it: unfaithfulness. That grief helps us feel the weight of the word faith, and it also reminds us of something better: even the best human faithfulness is only an echo of God’s perfect faithfulness (see the comfort hinted in Ps. 27:10).
So I’m discipling you toward this: don’t reduce faith to vibes, optimism, or wishful thinking. Build your life on the God who cannot lie.
Faith Matters Because God Approves It
Hebrews 11:2 says, “For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” The “elders” or “ancients” are the saints who went before, whose stories we’re about to study in Hebrews 11.
This “good testimony” carries two strong ideas:
- They have a story worth telling. Their lives become living witnesses of God’s provision and faithfulness, stories that strengthen others who are waiting and weary.
- They gained God’s approval. Some translations say they “gained approval.” This is crucial: faith is not merely inspiring; faith is the means by which God counts people as righteous. Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (implied from Genesis 15:6; echoed in the New Testament).
The Hebrews believers were standing at a fork in the road: return to the old system of temple rituals and sacrifices, or press on in trusting God’s fulfillment in Christ. And Hebrews insists: it has always been faith. Even the old sacrifices required faith that God would provide a true substitute. The entire system was a mercy-filled preview pointing forward.
So when you ask, “What does God want from my life?” the answer is not, “Try harder to impress Him.” The answer is, “Trust Him, and let obedience flow from that trust.”
Without Faith, Nothing Else Pleases God
This is the stubborn theology my heart needs, because I keep wanting to add something, some extra performance, to secure God’s smile.
Hebrews says God had “no pleasure” in sacrifices as a mere ritual (Heb. 10, implied from the transcript’s references). God doesn’t “need” our songs, our volunteering, our giving, or our church labor as though He were lacking. Those actions matter as obedience, but they are empty if they are done without trust.
That’s why Hebrews later states plainly: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6, previewed in the sermon). You can:
- sing without faith,
- preach without faith,
- serve without faith,
- build ministries without faith,
…and if it’s not rooted in trusting God, the “reward” is simply the human experience of doing the thing. But pleasing God is different. Pleasing God begins with surrender: “Lord, I trust You. I take You at Your word.”
So I’m urging you lovingly: don’t substitute Christian motion for Christian faith. The Lord is not impressed by what we can manufacture. He is pleased by humble dependence.
Faith Reveals God As Creator And Savior
Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Faith doesn’t ask you to deny reality; it teaches you how to interpret it. Creation itself confronts us: we live beneath a sky we didn’t hang and stand on a world we didn’t form. Genesis 1:1 declares, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If God can speak galaxies into existence, He can keep every promise He has ever made.
God even uses creation to strengthen faith. Think of how the Lord pointed Abraham to the stars and tied them to His promise: “Look, remember who I am. I made this. I can do what I said.”
You may need that exercise today. Pray Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:1–2).
And ultimately, creation points beyond itself to redemption. The God who spoke the world into motion is the God who put salvation into motion through Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. If you believe God has power to create, you can believe He has power to raise His Son and save sinners. This is how the unseen becomes seen: God makes promises you cannot yet touch, and faith holds fast until God fulfills them.
That’s why believers praise God not only for present gifts but for eternal hope: our names written in heaven, our future with Christ, our unbreakable union with His church forever. Many promises are still unseen, but they are not uncertain.
Conclusion
The question is not simply, “Is this church a fit for me?” The deeper discipleship question is, “Am I the kind of person God is looking for, someone who lives by faith?”
Hebrews 11 begins by teaching me:
- Faith is assurance and conviction anchored in God’s promises (Heb. 11:1).
- Faith matters because God approves it and builds a testimony through it (Heb. 11:2).
- Faith reveals God as Creator, the One able to fulfill every promise, including salvation in Christ (Heb. 11:3; Gen. 1:1; Ps. 121:1–2).
So I’m calling you to a simple, life-shaping posture: take God at His word. Don’t draw back when obedience is costly. Don’t replace trust with mere activity. And when you cannot yet see, hold fast, because God will be faithful.
Father, I confess how easily I drift toward trusting what I can see, measure, and control. Teach me to live by faith. Strengthen my assurance in Your promises and deepen my conviction in Your character. Forgive me for the ways I’ve tried to please You through activity without dependence. Help me take You at Your word, endure through present circumstances, and hold fast to the hope You have given me.
Lord, lift my eyes to see You as Creator and Redeemer, the One who framed the world by Your word and who saves by the finished work of Jesus Christ. Make my life a good testimony that points others to Your faithfulness. I ask for a steadfast heart, anchored in hope, and obedient through faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
The question is not simply, “Is this church a fit for me?” The deeper discipleship question is, “Am I the kind of person God is looking for, someone who lives by faith?”
Hebrews 11 begins by teaching me:
- Faith is assurance and conviction anchored in God’s promises (Heb. 11:1).
- Faith matters because God approves it and builds a testimony through it (Heb. 11:2).
- Faith reveals God as Creator, the One able to fulfill every promise, including salvation in Christ (Heb. 11:3; Gen. 1:1; Ps. 121:1–2).
So I’m calling you to a simple, life-shaping posture: take God at His word. Don’t draw back when obedience is costly. Don’t replace trust with mere activity. And when you cannot yet see, hold fast, because God will be faithful.
Closing Prayer
Father, I confess how easily I drift toward trusting what I can see, measure, and control. Teach me to live by faith. Strengthen my assurance in Your promises and deepen my conviction in Your character. Forgive me for the ways I’ve tried to please You through activity without dependence. Help me take You at Your word, endure through present circumstances, and hold fast to the hope You have given me.
Lord, lift my eyes to see You as Creator and Redeemer, the One who framed the world by Your word and who saves by the finished work of Jesus Christ. Make my life a good testimony that points others to Your faithfulness. I ask for a steadfast heart, anchored in hope, and obedient through faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.