HEBREWS 11:1-6

There are all sorts of memorials in the world. In the Old Testament the Passover recognition was a memorial of deliverance from Egypt; the precious stones on the Priestly garments were memorials to the names of the tribes of Israel; and there were various memorial markers of heaped stones to commemorate some significant events. In our culture there are memorials too: The cross is a monument to grace and mercy; the Communion meal is a monument to Christ's death until He comes. Nationally there are Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, and the monument to George Washington, to name a few. On a more personal scale there are the grave markers which represent a memorial to our loved ones. And there are the many Memorial Walls whereon are inscribed the names of the deceased veterans of our many wars. What a touching tribute to the memory of those who have gone on before us. God Himself has erected a Memorial Wall. It is inscribed in Hebrews 11. How did the people listed here get that honor? What was the basis for their approval? The text makes that plain: FAITH! That's how we, too, will get written onto God's Memorial Wall. FAITH! But consider the text and see how faith operated.

1. FAITH BELIEVES THE INCREDIBLE:
1. We see Abraham who:
1. according to Verse 8, "when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going." He was willing to uproot from his family and security to go to on a journey at God's direction with no idea of where he'd end up. That's believing the incredible.
2. according to Verses 17, 18, offered up Isaac because he considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead. If he slew Isaac, God would just resurrect him! That's believing the incredible.
2. The veterans of faith listed in Hebrews 11 believed God for incredible things and by faith conquered the unconquerable. Can you believe God for things the world declares to be undoable? Can you believe God for the incredible? Can you believe
1. God can take your life, and though it is marred and ruined by sin, make it new again?
2. God can free you from addiction to substances, pornography and other evils?
3. God can take an abusive spouse and change a slime-ball into a saint?
4. God can take a relationship that is destroyed by hostility and betrayal and heal it?
5. God can either heal you, or give you grace to endure your illness?
6. God can provide for your material, financial needs?
7. God can lift the clouds of depression and sadness that keep you from living a life of joy and peace?
8. God can help you solve your vocational or educational problems?
9. God more than you believe your senses?
3. Two children were playing on a hillside, when they noticed that the hour was nearing sunset, and one said, wonderingly: "See how far the sun has gone! A little while ago it was right over that tree, and now it is low down in the sky." "Only it isn't the sun that moves; it's the earth. You know, Father told us," answered the other. The first one shook his head. The sun did move, for he had seen it, and the earth did not move, for he had been standing on it all the time. "I know what I see," he said triumphantly. "And I believe Father," said his brother. So mankind divides still -- some accepting only what their senses reveal to them, the others believing the Word of God. (Knight Master Book of New Illustrations)

2. FAITH ACHIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE:
1. Consider these who had such faith:
1. Verse 5 Think of Enoch who was taken up without seeing death because he pleased God. Lifted from this earth by the power of God, never seeing death; that's humanly impossible; but faith achieved it. So will we be taken up without dying if we are alive when Jesus comes again and if we have faith.
2. Verse 11 Think of Sarah who conceived a child in her old age, long after child-bearing was humanly possible. Can't you just see it? This old lady goes to Dr. Jacob, the local OBGYN guy. She enters his tent and the doctor checks the results; he finds out that the rabbit died. The incredulous doctor shouts, "PREGNANT?!?!?! You're too old to be pregnant! This can't be!" But you see, by faith she achieved the impossible. And God can do in and through you things you in and of yourself could never achieve if you have faith.
3. Verse 29 Think of Moses who raised his rod and the Red Sea parted allowing Israel to cross on dry land but flowed back together to drown the army of Pharaoh. That's impossible, says the skeptic; but faith achieved it. So God will part the obstacles that stand in our way and hinder us if we have faith.
4. Verse 30 Think of the walls of Jericho falling down after the army of Israel circled them for seven days. That's humanly impossible; but faith achieved it. And God will also knock down the walls of resistance in our lives, if we have faith.
5. Verses 32-35 Think of those who overcame impossible odds and achieved impossible ends, and so can we if God is the center of our faith.
2. Sometimes impossible situations arise; things we can't handle; problems we can't solve; circumstances we can't alter. They seem to us unchangeable and unsolvable. But you need to make a list of all those impossibilities that became realities when God took over. You need to chronicle those undoable things that God did. You need to memorialize those unachievable ends which, with God, you achieved.
3. It's sort of like the bumblebee. By all known laws which can be proven on paper, mathematically and in a wind tunnel, the bumblebee cannot fly. His wings are all wrong for the size of his body. He just cannot fly. It's impossible. But nobody told the bumblebee that, so he just goes ahead and flies anyway. So, rather than looking at the impossibilities, what can't be done, just trust God and believe Him, rely on His strength, and achieve the impossible. When everything says you can't, just fly anyway! ("Illustrations, Stories and Quotes to Hang Your Message On." Jim Burns and Greg McKinnon).

3. FAITH PERCEIVES THE UNFATHOMABLE:
1. By "Unfathomable," I mean that which defies human comprehension; that which cannot be measured or put into earthly confines; that which is beyond our wildest imagination. Those listed on God's Memorial Wall had a perception that went beyond the senses: what they could touch and smell and taste and hear and see. They perceived something beyond this world and looked toward the next; they saw beyond the immediate to what was to come; they looked past the material to the spiritual. They perceived the unseeable, the unmeasurable, the intangible.
2. Here are some of the unfathomable things they perceived:
1. Verse 3 They perceived that something was created out of nothing; that this tangible world was created by the Word of God out of unseen things: atoms? Certainly not the result of a mindless accident in dim history. To the faithless mind that is unfathomable.
2. Verse 7 Noah perceived a flood when, up to then, a flood was never even heard of and everything had continued as it was for centuries. To the natural mind of man that was unfathomable; but not to the mind of faith.
3. Verses 10, 16 They perceived a city beyond anything this world contains, a country prepared for them by God but not in or of this world. The mind of mere man says, "This world is all there is, and there ain't nothin' beyond!" They say, "I am born, I grow, I live, I die and that's the end." A world beyond this material world to them is unfathomable; but not to the mind of faith.
3. Faith made the seemingly unreal, real; the seemingly inconceivable, conceivable; the seemingly unfathomable, fathomable. And in perceiving the unfathomable, the people of faith are like:
1. Christopher Columbus who perceived a westward route to Asia and discovered a great world beyond the horizon.
2. Alexander Graham Bell who perceived that one could transmit speech by electrical means. Thus came about the telephone which at one time seemed unfathomable.
3. The Wright brothers who perceived the flight of a heavier-than-air craft and hence the airplane.
4. A five-year-old lad during the latter days of his life. He was dying of lung cancer. This little boy had a Christian mother who loved him and stayed by his side through the long ordeal. She cradled him on her lap and talked softly about the Lord. Instinctively, the woman was preparing her son for the final hours to come. The nurse entered his room one day as death approached, and she heard this lad talking about hearing bells ringing. "The bells are ringing, Mommie," he said. "I can hear them." The nurse thought he was hallucinating because he was already slipping away. She left and returned a few minutes later and again heard him talking about hearing bells ring. The nurse said to his mother, "Im sure you know your baby is hearing things that aren't there. He is hallucinating because of the sickness." The mother pulled her son closer to her chest, smiled and said, "No, Mrs. Schaeffer. He is not hallucinating. I told him when he was frightened -- when he couldn't breathe -- if he would listen carefully, he could hear the bells of heaven ringing for him. That is what hes been talking about all day." That precious child died on his mothers lap later that evening, and he was still talking about the bells of heaven when the angels came to take him. By faith, that little boy perceived the unfathomable. (More Stories From The Heart, Compiled by Alice Gray).

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