This Thing Called Faith
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8–16 
 





Dr. William S. Epps, Senior Pastor

Sunday, August 7, 2022
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
 
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:1-3, 8–16 (ESV)
 
Introduction
 
This passage begins with a description of faith followed with illustrative examples that give us a picture of the effect of faith in a person's life. The faithfulness of those from past generations is praised while encouraging those in the present generation to remain faithful. 
 
The writer begins with a description of faith using language to capture the imagination. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and conviction / evidence of things not seen. The writer describes faith with a word (hypostasis) translated as substance or assurance of things hoped for. Another way to say it is, faith involves confidence about things that cannot be presently verified. In faith the believer already anticipates the final outcome, the reality of what is believed. The other word (elegchos) translated is the conviction of things not seen, suggests that faith causes one to move in the direction of the realization of those things that are presently beyond demonstration. This is a description of the effects of faith on a person. Choices are made based on imaginative possibilities and conviction comes as a result of embracing the reality that is yet to be. 
 
Consider what it means to let your faith ignite in you
the possibilities of what can be.  
Monday, August 8, 2022
Faith is a natural principle of life. Everyone has faith of some kind. The assumptions upon which we habitually act, make choices and decide upon, indicate that we believe in someone or ourselves; we believe that a desire can be fulfilled by a process of progression. The assumptions upon which we act demonstrate that we have faith and trust. Take for instance the assumptions you make every day. You have faith in people you do not know. You did not see the persons in the food and drug administration who approved the standards for the food you eat or the medications you take. You did not witness the manufacturing or assembly of the automobiles you drive or the planes on which you fly. Yet you believe that each purchase you make will fulfill its intended purpose. 
 
Another way to illustrate faith is with the notion of love and marriage. People meet and say they have fallen in love and make a commitment to each other. Their promise in the Judeo-Christian heritage is to be in relationship through all of life’s changing scenes whether good or bad, happy or sad, sick or healthy, impoverished or abundant. 

There was a program of some years ago, “Laugh In,” portraying a mock wedding. 
The officiant says, “do you take this person to be your partner for life, for good or bad, happy or sad, sick or healthy, impoverished or abundant.” The bride responds, “I’ll take good, happy, healthy and abundant.” (Think about it for a moment.) We have faith that the best will be our lot and our dreams will be fulfilled. Marriage is one of the basic kinds of relationships that demonstrates our faith. 
 
The reality is that we all trust and have faith. The only question is in whom or what do you put your trust? Consider a few of the implications of this passage as you ponder this thing called faith. 
 
Consider what it means that every choice you make is about what you believe which is an expression that you have faith in more than is readily seen. 
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Firstly, faith is choosing to trust. 
 
(Hebrews 11:1 CJB) Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. The Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern uses the word "trusting" in place of the word "faith."
 
We live our lives between the promise of our potential and the possibility of our fulfillment. Somewhere in between where we are and where we want to be, are challenges, circumstances and choices. Sometimes we seem to be standing still, marking time as it were without any progress. Other times we are side-stepping or backpedaling. Then there are times that we take a few steps forward. 
 
There is a practical element to faith which is trust. Abraham's faith was demonstrated when he acted by emigrating from where he was to where he would be led. He had to leave his native country, and cast himself upon the promise of God for another home. He had to break with the ties that bound him to the scenes of his youth and adult years. He was at first ignorant as to what country he was going. His journey would expose him to hardships and dangers. Yet Abraham went on anyway. The precept and promise were enough to have him venture out. So he put his hand trustfully into the great hand of God and allowed God to guide his feet. Abraham's emigration was the first link in the chain of the triumphs of his faith. It teaches us such lessons as trust is the beginning of faith, promise is the motivation to act and belief in fulfillment is the impetus
 
You act on what you believe; you have faith in what you believe will be achieved.  
 
Consider what it means to act in faith trusting that what
you believe will come to pass. 
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Secondly, faith is persevering patiently with life's predicaments
 
Abraham persevered patiently. Wow! Sometimes we give up too soon. We stop trying at the precise moment when if we continue we would see what we have been striving to achieve. The road may not be easy from promise to possibility to fulfillment. You have to endure life's ups and downs, turns that abound, the detours, delays, the distractions, and the derailments, the devious, devilish designs that seek to prevent you from proceeding ahead in search of the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  
 
Fulfillment does not happen on a perceived timetable with measurable outcomes. Sometimes it is clinging to the hope of fulfillment of the desire despite the delays, disruptions, and distractions. It takes time. 
 
Consider the long road to equality by African Americans championing their desire and dream for equality as they understood their role as children of God made in God’s image and fashioned in God’s likeness, endowed with inalienable rights. 
This month we will celebrate the 59th anniversary of the March on Washington which was held August 28, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's, "I Have a Dream” speech chronicled a dream filled with desire for a people who have faced unthinkable atrocities since 1619. A people who continue to live with the repercussions of those manifested atrocities which degrade their humanity, dignity and value. Dr. King inspired millions across the world with the delivery of his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
 
Imagine the period between 1619 to 1964 with all that took place through slavery, reconstruction, deconstruction, the creation of Jim Crow, the false concept of separate but equal, segregation, and discrimination at every turn. The sacrifices of those who with their blood, sweat, tears, and very lives created the impetus for what came after. 
 
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States[1] that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.[2] It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

The bill was called for by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963,[3] in which he asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote." Kennedy delivered this speech following a series of protests from the African-American community, the most concurrent being the Birmingham campaign which concluded in May 1963.

Emulating the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Kennedy's civil rights bill included provisions to ban discrimination in public accommodations, and to enable the U.S. Attorney General to join in lawsuits against state governments which operated segregated school systems, among other provisions. However, it did not include a number of provisions deemed essential by civil rights leaders including protection against police brutality, ending discrimination in private employment, or granting the Justice Department power to initiate desegregation or job discrimination lawsuits.[4]
 
The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, changed the political situation. Kennedy's successor as president, Lyndon Johnson, made use of his experience in legislative politics, along with the bully pulpit he wielded as president, in support of the bill.

The bill was passed by both houses of Congress, and was signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964.
 
Consider what it means to persevere through painful predicaments
in order to have the promise of the possible fulfilled. 
Thursday, August 11, 2022
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. §§ 19731973aa-6)[2] is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that prohibits discrimination in voting.[3] Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states and local governments from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."[4] The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
 
In 2013 the Supreme Court struck down a formula at the heart of the Voting Rights Act: the landmark 1965 law that required certain states and localities with a history of discrimination against minority voters to get (voting) changes cleared by the federal government before they went into effect, thus allowing these discriminatory voting policies to be blocked before they threatened voters' rights. The law placed the burden of proof on local government officials to prove why the changes they were seeking were not discriminatory. The Supreme Court's 2013 ruling gutted this protection. Now voters who are discriminated against have to prove they are disenfranchised.  
 
We continue the struggle in the present with all of the headwinds of ferocious sentiments which continue to reverse whatever gains have been achieved. No victory is final but requires persistent vigilance in order to maintain and sustain what the victory accomplished. In times like these we have to faithfully regain what setbacks have erased.    
 
Consider what it means to continue to believe in the
possibility of fulfillment of the promise against all the obstacles
that continue to prevent it from being a reality.   
Friday, August 12, 2022
Thirdly, faith causes one to sacrifice for the sake of realizing the fulfillment of the promise
 
Sacrificing is a part of life. You have to give up something to get something else.
You have to discipline yourself to fulfill your destiny. Decisions determine destiny. Each decision you make about life accepts something as it rejects something else. 

Barack Obama’s presidency will always be tethered to the history of race in America. It has, so far, been offered as Exhibit A of how far the country has moved toward overcoming its ugly racial past. Others use it, with equal force, to make the opposite point, that race-based antagonism is so endemic to the American way of life that it will take more than the election of a black president to move the country beyond its long traditions of racism and discrimination.

Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 symbolized a new country – half of Obama’s winning majority coalition in Florida was non-white, for example – and that’s one of the key drivers in the heightened racial animosity we witnessed with his successor.  

With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, suddenly the “menace” of diversity and demographic change became a real and present threat to white dominance. After President Obama's second and final term in office, white voters voted overwhelmingly for a candidate that most Americans reportedly thought was not qualified and lacked the temperament to be president.

When people say they want to take their country back, we should believe them.
And they will take it back by whatever means necessary, even if that means voting for someone they know isn’t qualified to be president. Racial backlash was used to its full advantage after the presidency of Barack Obama. 
 
On the one hand there are those who cited Barack Obama’s election as US president in 2008 to point to how far things have changed in the last 100 years.
Yet, look at the racial backlash that has followed. 
 
Sacrifices of the past do not ensure security in perpetuity. You must continue to be vigilant in order to maintain the achievements and accomplishments of our ancestors. Draw from their strength, courage and faith. It is time to galvanize, mobilize, stimulate and strategize how we are going to maintain the accomplishments bequeathed to us.
 
Consider what it means that so many have given so much - sacrificing
so that those who come after them may receive what they strove to achieve. 
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Conclusion
 
Abraham reminds us that we just have to keep on going and trusting. While he never saw the fulfillment of the promise, God did bring it to pass. From Abraham’s seed, three faiths have been birthed: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Judaism has 17.5 million adherents; Islam 1.9 billion adherents; and Christianity 2.5 billion adherents. Abraham’s seed is truly as numerous as the stars in heaven and like the dust on the face of the earth. 
 
Again, Abraham reminds us that we just have to keep trusting that God will keep God’s promise. Regardless of how long you have to wait, keep on going! Despite the circumstances, keep on going! In spite of the challenges, keep on going! Go on when loss threatens you! Keep on going!
 
In the words of the songwriters:

I feel like going on. I feel like going on. 
Though trials come on every hand, I feel like going on. 
 
~~~
 
We've come this far by faith / Leaning on the Lord
Trusting in His Holy word
He never failed me yet /
Oh' Can't Turn Around / We've come this far by faith
Just the other day, I heard a man say
He did not believe in God's word
But I can truly say, the Lord has made a way
He's never failed me yet
Oh' Can't Turn Around / We've come this far by faith  
Amen!

 Just keep on going in trust. God will bring to pass what God promises. 
Just keep on going. 

Consider what it means to continue to be inspired by the example
of those who have preceded you in maintaining your faith in
the promise of the possibilities of what is yet to be. 

We've Come This Far By Faith
Donnie McClurkin
2412 Griffith Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90011 
Phone: (213) 748-0318