Obedience is the Evidence of Our Faith
May 29, 2024
Last Sunday I preached about the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1-3. I’ve always pictured this scene (and life) as a great arena where each person fights one of three main battles that each person fights in his or her life. They are deep waters, personal strongholds, and tests of obedience.
These battles are described toward the end of chapter 12. We can see the children of Israel going from giant, overwhelming battles to targeted cities to personal obedience. The battles become more and more focused and narrowed.
I think about the story of Achan. He was an Israelite. One of the chosen. He had successfully lived through oppression in Egypt, escape from Egypt, being fed Manna in the desert, the Red Sea crossing, the Jordan crossing, water gushing out of a rock for them, and then Jericho falling. He and his family had come through all of that, only to fail when God asked them to have nothing to do with Jericho’s loot.
The most important battles we face are the ones where we are alone. So many of us look at the overwhelming waters of life, or the strongholds of the enemy in our way, but we fail to understand that final victory comes when we win the battle of between our eternal person and our earthly person.
God fought every battle the Israelites faced except the test of our faith in obedience. He doesn’t fight this battle, because obedience must come from a heart that honors God over what we want. This is the original temptation, and mankind’s original sin. This is the only battle we must fight for ourselves.
However, this doesn’t mean we are alone. If that were true, we could never control our sinful desires. Instead, God is always with his children, even when he demands that we fight.
The presence of God is the ultimate blessing and is the deciding factor in our faith journey. Enoch walked with God, and Moses saw “him who was invisible”. God is with us, not only in the battles he fights for us, but in the those he asks us to fight in.
Point: The final proving of your faith comes in your personal obedience. Stop worrying about the big battles. Focus on conquering your thoughts (and actions) for the lordship of Jesus. Focus on actively setting aside anything that you know wants to harm you. Darkness can only exist where there is no light or when something blocks the light.
Personal victory comes when you remove anything in your heart or mind that will block the light of Christ in your life. When you win this battle, God will continue to honor and fight for you in the other battles of your faith.
