becoming champions of faith: focus on the goal

What is your goal? A person may say, “I want a good life.” Another might answer, “I want to worry less.” Actually, these are not altogether goals, they are desires. We are easily confused between desires and goals. A desire is just above a wish until we decide to take steps to accomplish it. Usually, a set of smaller goals allows us to achieve the larger goal and ultimately our desire. It is important to start by moving the language from “I want” to “I will.” This sounds simple but everyone knows that there is a vast obstacle course that lies between the “want” and “will” of our lives. Faith is a power that is able to help us find the strength to do more than we could think or imagine. It can give us inspiration and guidance as we encounter obstacles and are drained by the circumstances. It is a powerful tool and this is why we are doing the series Becoming Champions of Faith. This week’s sermon is Focus On the Goal and we return to Hebrews 11:5-13. Hebrews 11 is an entire chapter of faith champions. The writer of this book chose his champions to illustrate the strength of a living faith when it is focused on the right goal. We are what we believe. God wants to inspire us toward a better life than we can imagine. God wants to empower us to find the confidence and strength that enables us to endure difficulty and hardship. God wants us to sense how we can trust him with our lives so that the darkness is transformed by a gracious light. What is your goal? Is it just to survive? To get by? God wants your life to thrive through the power of faith. Our most sincere and faithful prayer is that you will be inspired by these champions to surrender your life to our living God to find the power of a living faith.

Hebrews 11:5-13 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. ⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. (NIV)