689 Faith is the Foundation - Hebrews 11:6

Is faith foundational to everything that you do? Hey, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast, we're grateful that you joined us and we're grateful that you're challenged to try and live your faith on a daily basis. Trying to live our faith is what we keep talking about and so we're in the middle of chapter in Hebrews that talks quite a bit about faith. We're in Hebrews chapter 11 and today I want to read verse six. "And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." That's Hebrews 11:6 from the English Standard Bible.

Faith is the foundation of a relationship to God. And this is by his design, we must have faith to come to him, to trust him and to listen to him. Faith isn't static. We're told in Ephesians that even the faith that we have is given to us, but we grow it like a muscle, a little faith gets us an introduction to Jesus.

More faith is needed for bigger tasks, and often what we have to do is we have to work out our faith. In Philippians two, for example, it talks about working out our salvation, but we work out our faith too. As we trust God and we watch him act, we strengthen our faith and we grow a little more. It says here without faith, it's impossible to please God. This is a reference to how faith is foundational.

God gives us the faith. It's the beginning. But it's also the middle and the end as we work it out and we strengthen ourselves more. More faith makes us available to do more things and we get called on by God to serve him more as our faith becomes stronger, we can't have more faith by just stirring it up.

We get more faith by exercising it, by getting a little further out on the limb. By going a little further in our belief by trusting God a little more. Today in our workplaces, I want to challenge us to trust God a little more. It's impossible to please him. It's impossible to experience the joy that we get following Jesus if we don't ever really follow Jesus, if we don't ever really get into that place where our actions can't be explained by anything other than the fact that we do follow Jesus. That's what I think a life of faith calls us to. It calls us to obey God in such a way that our life defies explanation, unless Jesus is part of the explanation.

hope that makes sense because it's important. It's important that we live a life that can't be explained without Jesus. When we do that, people will ask. When you live in such a way that Jesus is the only explanation for your actions, then people will ask and you get to tell them you get to speak for yourself. That's our final daily activity.

Today, I want to challenge us as believers. Take a minute, come to work a little earlier, take a few minutes and ask Jesus what he would have you do today, and then find a way to do it. Solve for how. Let's find a way to follow Jesus in our work, by going above what's asked of us or going beyond what someone else might have us do.

When we get outside of our job description, we increase the likelihood of someone asking us, why are you doing that? Why would you go to all that trouble? Well, I'm doing it because I followed Jesus and I believe this is what he would have me do. When I started following Jesus, that changed my life. An example, and a statement like that is a way to live by faith, to help other people see the foundation of your life is based on Jesus Christ.

Thanks for being a marketplace minister. This is what we call marketplace ministry. It's living in such a way that people see that we operate according to a different principle. You don't have to become a weirdo, you just have to live in such a way that other people see Jesus. Let him guide you in that. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for living your faith on a daily basis. Take a moment and share this podcast with a friend and join us at https://followerofone.org. Thanks very much.