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We arrived at, now, one of the most famous chapters in the whole Bible, actually: Hebrews chapter 11, and I urge your utmost attention this morning because we're going to touch on a very very important subject. Hebrews 11 is really a chapter about faith. In this chapter you are going to see the word faith occurs 24 times, the phrase by faith, 19 times and faith is so important.

Remember last week, we saw this verse: 'My righteous one shall live by faith, the just shall live by faith'. There is no Christianity without faith. There is no relationship with God without faith, the just shall live by faith. Indeed, in chapter 11, in verse six it says without faith it is impossible to please God. So, I'm excited this morning to share with you a subject on faith because I really hope that our lives will be ones that are lived out that please God and glorify Him, and so I want to really spend this entire sermon just sharing with you what faith is all about.

Have you ever attempted to define faith for yourself? I give you five seconds. How would you define faith? I've been a believer for more than 20 years now, and it's only this week that I had a definition of faith. Now we all in a sense know what faith is, we could roughly describe it, in some of its features, but would you be able to define it and be crystal clear what faith is? Well, I tried this week and I hope to share this with you and in this sermon, I'm going to, in a sense, answer, I hope a few questions such as, 'Basically, what is faith, exactly? Is it a kind of understanding, is it a kind of emotion or feeling?' and 'How can I tell faith apart from positive thinking which is very prevalent today and even superstition? What's similar and what's different?' 'Will things get done if I just have strong enough faith. In other words, if I really want to be healed and if I believe enough, will God then heal me?' and maybe the last one, 'Does faith get me out of trouble and pain all the time, is this what God uses to deliver me from every trial, every pain, every struggle?'

So these are the questions we will answer in this sermon "Faith is" That's all that is. Today we are going to look at faith and I need a volunteer to start this off. So, can I have a volunteer? Let's welcome JP! (Applause) This will be demonstration. Alright, JP you trust the pastor here? JP : 'Yeah'. (Laughter) If you have faith in me will you do what I tell you to do? JP : 'Maybe', (Loud laughter). Alright let's see whether this works alright. Maybe, JP, you face that side. Your hands by your side and your feet together, alright, feet together. Now, what I want you to do is a very simple exercise with your feet planted on the ground or at least your heel planted on the ground, you are to remain rigid, straight and fall backwards and the count of three. (Laughter) You have to trust me! 1.. 2.. 3..  (JP falls) (Laughter) OK that's fine. Give JP a round of applause. Thank you so much, thank you. (Applause)

Now what did I just demonstrate to you? I demonstrated a trust fall in a very simple way and JP might know that I can hold him up. But it's a very different thing when he actually has to have faith in me to hold him up. I want to demonstrate to you faith of believing is more than just knowledge, faith of believing is about a certain confidence. It's about being able to entrust your well-being, your life into somebody else's hands. Now what does it mean for you to have faith in your doctor? (It) means you have to be confident with your doctor because you're not just going to talk about your doctor, you're going to put your life into the doctor's hands or even the surgeons and you're going to lie on the operating theater, you're going to be under the anesthesia, you are going to be unconscious, but you trust. You have confidence that your doctor will do the right thing for you to heal you.

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Biblical faith is a certain confidence, but this confidence is on a very rock solid foundation: the confidence is in God's Word. Now of course, that confidence in God's Word is because we are confident in God. It's His Word, but exactly what? Well, that's where the word, the specific sayings of Scripture will come in, but essentially faith has a confidence on the rock solid foundation of the Scriptures. The strength of faith is not so much your confidence, but in the person who you are confident in: God Himself.

A story is told of three men, Christian men who went fishing one day, and they were out on the river in a boat and the younger- There is actually three of them, one of them was a younger Christian who wanted to learn from the two older Christian men about faith and discipleship to Jesus. So they were on the river in a boat waiting for the fish to bite, when there's a  gust of wind that came and and it blew one of the elderly men's hat on to the river. What happened next was remarkable because the elderly man simply just got up in the boat, lifted his leg across the boat and stepped on to the water and he began to walk on the water to the hat, picked it up and walked back to the boat and sat down.

The younger Christian looks at him and says, 'Wow, that is amazing. Wah, a mature man, a man of faith can walk on water like Peter did' and he was wondering how this is going to work, when suddenly there was another gust of wind that came and blew the other elderly man's hat on to the waters on this side and likewise the older man got up, walked on water, got the hat and came back. So, he was convinced he must learn how to walk by faith. So he pretended that the wind came, he threw his hat on the other side of the river and he began to stand up, stepped across the boat and onto the water and he sank into the water. The two elderly men quickly went to pick him up and pull him out of the water and then that's where they said to each other, 'Maybe we should have told him that there were rocks on the other side.'

You know, having faith alone is not a guarantee for success or fruition. What's important is what do you stand on. Faith works and faith is powerful because we stand on God's Word. Our confidence is in God Himself. Faith is built up on Scripture and our confidence derived from the Word of God. See, this is what the book of Hebrews chapter 11, tells us: Why is it that Noah was able to take such a big step of faith to build an Ark? Because he heard from God. He was warned by God, God spoke to him and he has confidence in God's word. And so he went to build the ark. Why did Abraham leave Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land that he has never been to before? Because he heard God and he obeyed God, he heard the Word of God, he had confidence in God.

How about Sarah? Sarah was elderly, advanced in age, postmenopausal probably and not able to have child but she believed because she had confidence in the Word of God. She was confident in God, who had promised. Moses, oh sorry, the rest of the patriarchs, it was simply mentioned, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised. So chapter 11, illustrates for us that faith is a confidence in the Word of God and that's what Paul tells us in Romans 10:17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So, faith is simply confidence in God's Word.

There's more to come, but that's the basic essence. So let me ask you, how is faith different from superstition? You know, superstition, right? We are in Chinese New Year season and in Chinese New year, you have lots of superstition: Err, don't sweep the floor on day one, you will sweep away all your wealth. Don't let a black cat cross your path because you'll be unlucky for the rest of the day.

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Friday the 13th is a bad day, four leaves clover.. and so on and so forth. What's the difference between superstition and faith? Because there are a lot of people who are very confident about these things, don't do any business on Friday 13, it's bad luck if a cat crosses my path. They are confident in these things, but that's not really biblical faith because, faith, biblical faith is built upon the Scriptures, but superstition is built upon hearsay, not in the Bible, not in God's Word.

Several years ago, there is this man called Norman Vincent Peale who wrote this book, The Power of Positive Thinking, I have read it. It makes my blood churn. Norman Vincent Peale, he was even called a minister, a church minister, mind you. It was sad, he is a false teacher. But he actually believes that there is power in our mental thoughts. He believes that there is actual power in mental thoughts. In other words, if you believe in something that you see in your mind firm enough, you have the power to make it come true. So he has this technique called imaging, you think about an object, about a state and you think about it hard enough, consistently enough and maybe you can add some religious fervor, some prayer to it, but the idea is this is: the more you think about it, the more consistently you think about it and believe in it, it will come true.

It can apply to your health, it can be your promotion, it can be about a possession like a Ferrari. So basically you will have a Ferrari, he believes, if you can think about the Ferrari hard enough. The power of positive thinking, that your thoughts can be translated, can conjure up reality. Now, his thinking is now given a new cloak and is presented as what they call the word of faith today. As long as you believe it enough, as long as you profess it and you proclaim it, God will give it to you, but that is nothing more than presumption, because positive thinking is not based upon the promises of Scripture. It's based on our desires and selfish ambitions.

So if you look at the three things I mentioned, what's the difference between faith and positive thinking and superstition? Well, they're similar in a sense they're all about confidences, but positive thinking is about a confidence in your self thoughts. I believe this will happen and it will happen, that's positive thinking unless it's backed up by Scripture. Superstition is believing what others tell me, faith is confidence in what God says. So if you just want to have a clinical distinction, I think it's as simple as this. So, faith, we have got to get this very clear, is a confidence, but it's a confidence in a very specific rock solid foundation: The Word of God. But let me develop this definition further.

Faith is confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences. Because circumstances, sometimes tell you to do the opposite of what God's Word tells you to do. But faith is willing to go against the flow. Faith is willing to say, 'I look at my life all around me, it seems to tell me to do this, but God's Word says "No" and therefore I would choose to be confident in God's Word and not circumstances.' That's what it means to walk by faith and not by sight, not to be dictated by my surroundings, but to be anchored in the Scriptures. How else you think could Noah build an ark?  I mean everything around Noah says "Don't build the ark". I mean there had never been a raindrop on earth, before Noah's time, not a drop of rain. Therefore, there has never been a flood, a universal flood at least, and his friends are probably been laughing at him, 'What a silly man you are, you are getting the whole family to help you in this fruitless venture'.

So circumstances, people, everybody says, 'Don't do it', but Noah still did it. Why? Faith. Hebrews 11 tells us, faith is a confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances. And that's how it is for Abraham: Sarah and himself were too advanced in age, there's probably no chance at all that they would ever have a child but they still had confidence in God's Word, regardless of the age of the womb or the age of the woman. Pharaoh looked like a mission impossible to Moses. I mean Moses just had a staff, Pharaoh has a huge army, he's the most powerful man then. But here it is: Moses decided to have confidence in God's Word and not look to his circumstances. You see, this is what faith is all about. You don't go with the flow because the whole world is going to go against the Scriptures sometimes, but a man of faith is willing to go against the flow, despite and regardless of circumstances and even consequences.

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In Hebrews 11, we read at the tail end, what is the fate of some of those who lived by faith. Ooh, according to today's Christianity, living by faith means you're gonna have health and wealth! Really? Those who live by faith, some of them, not all probably, but some of them held up as examples, they suffered mocking and flogging, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, but they still did it because faith is confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences, even to death.

Hebrews 11 is a chapter of faith, but I tell you, it's also chapter of death. There are twenty mentions of dying in chapter 11. Faith is the willingness to be confident in God, even to the point of death, it's not health and wealth. It's confidence in God, even to the time you die. You say why, how come? You see, faith allows you to see something beyond death. That's why you're willing to die. Faith allows you to see something beyond death, you see something further, to see something that your human eye can't see, right now and that's what we see in Abraham's life. Why did Abraham leave Ur of the Chaldees? Why was he willing to be a stranger and a pilgrim? Because Abraham saw something beyond his death, he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God, he is looking to the heavenly city. That's what faith is: To see something beyond, to see something in the future, in the life that is to come.

That's why he's willing to die, that's why, the Bible tells us they saw things promised, and they saw them and greeted them from afar of, these are not things immediately around them, but they are so certain, so confident that they're willing to go through the hardships of this life, because they know the future rewards are to come, the future promises will be fulfilled by the ever dependable and faithful and good God. That's what Moses did when he was willing to give up the riches of Egypt to suffer the reproach of Christ, because he saw something further. That's what faith is.

As Tozer would say, faith is seeing the invisible but not the nonexistent. You know if you're born into this world and you never had ears or the privilege to hear, you cannot understand the beauty of music, right? You can't. Music is all around you, but you can't appreciate music. Maybe you're born blind, then you would never appreciate the beauty of colors and we are all born spiritually incapable of seeing spiritual realities.  But on the day you are born again, God gives you faith and this faith allows you to see the invisible but not the nonexistent. Those who have no faith can't appreciate the promises and the confidence in the promises that are going to be fulfilled. But those who have faith see further and that's why you could abandon all, risk all and follow after God.

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Adoniram Judson, was once caught in prison, in Burma, for sharing the gospel and when in prison, there was some guy who came and sneered at him and jeered him and said, 'Hah! Look at you now, you are  in prison, how can you ever get the the gospel to the unsaved right now? What's your chance, Adoniram Judson?' He answered without waiting a beat when he said 'The prospects are just as bright as the promises of God'.

See, faith is confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences. And that's why in Hebrews 11:1- By the way, this is the description, not the definition- Faith gives you this assurance of things hoped for, gives you a basis of things hoped for. You, you look forward to something because you believe in God, you have confidence in God's promises and you know this will be true. You know it will materialize, you're convicted, you have this evidence of things not seen, because you have confidence in God's Word. So what have we learned so far? Faith is confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences.

But how do you know if you have faith today? What's the best way to tell if you have faith today? The best way to tell, is in the last phrase of this definition, where it goes, 'that results in our obedience'. Would you read this together and I really hope you remember the definition, maybe not exactly the same words- in your own way, but hey, read this once together with me, can-

"Faith is confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences that results in our obedience."

The real test, the real expression of genuine faith is not a feeling. It's action, it's obedience. Martin Luther says, the true living faith which the Holy Spirit instills into the heart simply cannot be idle. It's true. James 2 tells us, faith without works is dead, not faith. Show me your faith without your works and I'll tell you, I'll show you my faith by my works. I mean, the devil also believes, but he doesn't really have that kind of a faith that is spoken of in the Bible because he doesn't obey. He knows of the reality of God but he would never obey God. Real faith is seen in the expression of our works. Jim Elliot says, to believe, is to act as though a thing was so, mere saying a thing is so, is no proof of my believing in it. Actions prove your faith.

Obedience is the necessary outcome and expression, and the fruit of faith, and that's what you see throughout, in Hebrews 11. How do you know Noah is a man of faith? Evidence: The ark, otherwise, he has no faith. Imagine, God said, 'Noah, I'm going to send a flood and you need to build an Ark', then Noah gets his children and his wife and says, you know, we need to do a Bible study on what it means to build an Ark. We are going to discuss about what it means to build an Ark, we're going to find out the Greek word and the Hebrew word for Ark. We are going to pray about building an Ark, but after a 120 years, still no Ark. I tell you something: Noah has no confidence in what God is saying, right? His confidence is expressed when he built the Ark. Abraham's faith is expressed when he went out of the Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham showed his faith when he gave Isaac up. I mean not talk, but walk, real action.

You know, just now, when our brother here was saying he trusts me. How do you know he trusts me? The only time you can tell is, when he actually goes backwards. I tried it on my son yesterday, by the way. Shawn, I asked him to trust me, but he tried seven times, he never trusted me once. He kept doing, he kept doing, he trusted his own self. But he would not trust his father. Then at night, I tried it on my wife and my wife trusted me. She says, 'Of course you won't let me fall, right?'. So my son may say, dad I trust you, but I know he doesn't, at least at that exercise. Real faith is seen when you do what you're told to do, you're confident in the person you trust. That's what Moses did: By faith he left Egypt. He was confident about his future. He was not worried he is going to suffer reproach for a season, because he knows- the eternity to come, (he'll) be rewarded handsomely.

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So, faith is a confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences that results in our obedience. What exactly is faith? Is it an understanding? No, it's more than that. Is it just a feeling? No, it's more than that. It's a confidence that will lead to obedience. That's I think the best way to look at this. How is it different from positive thinking and superstition? The Word of God. What's your basis? Positive thinking- the basis and your guarantee, yourself. Superstition, somebody else. Faith holds on to the guarantor, who is God Himself. That's our rock solid foundation. Will things get done if I just have strong enough faith? I tell you, not necessarily, because it depends on whether it is the Word of God, the will of God and if it is the will of God, you don't need big faith, do you realize that? Jesus himself said, all you need is the faith the size of a mustard seed. You see, in God's teaching, it is not the size of your faith, it is the size of your God, and things do not always turn out the way we want, even if you have lots of faith. I have lots of faith that there is no gravity. You know what, gravity still exists and I jump off the building to my own peril.

It is not how much confidence you have, but it's who you are confident in. So I don't think having strong enough faith or belief or confidence in what you want is always going to get things done the way you want. It's got to be according to the Scriptures and number 4, will faith get me out of trouble and pain all the time? No, not necessarily. Look at Hebrews 11:37 onwards. How they were stoned, how they were sawn asunder and you know you don't always get out of it, right? I want to put this in very practical terms. Let's say, someone is sick in the hospital, you go pray for him, what do you pray for? and what is your faith based on? Some of us have that belief that I need to have a big faith and God will hear and therefore he must heal.

I applaud you if you believe that God can heal. That's true, there's no doubt about it, but do you really know that God's will is always to heal every disease? I'm afraid I don't have that promise in the Bible, not always, that's why people die. But I do know that whether God heals or doesn't heal, He is still God and that's what faith is all about, that even in these mysteries I still am confident in Him and will live out His will, even on my sick bed.

Faith doesn't always get me out of trouble but faith will always give me a promised glorious future, that's what it is. Faith is so important, because by it, the people of old received their commendation, their approval. You know what is God looking for today? Not your IQ, He gave it to you, not your money. He's looking for your faith, that's what gains the approval of God! This is what Enoch was commended for. By faith Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. So Enoch was praised, had this witness from God that he pleased God. Why? By faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, and remember these words, 'If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him'.

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I raised these verses up in the end because I want you to realize, so often, people read Hebrews 11, as if it's a chapter for the super Christian. Wah, special class one aah, not for me lah, I got my own struggles. No, no, no. Hebrews 11 is given to show you this ought to be the kind of life, all of us live, to demonstrate that certain confidence in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences that results in obedience in my life- can be small things, can be big things, but it goes against circumstances sometimes. It may mean that you have to pay a high price sometimes, but you're so confident in His Word, you will do it.

My desire is that we will be a church that would demonstrate such a faith. You know, it's easy for any church, it's easy for any Christian to go with the flow. Just do what everybody else is doing- this is a modern way to live. We live this way: If this is correct, then if people say this is correct, we just agree that this is correct. But no, we are called to live lives of faith, to live different lives, to shine as lights and you can't do that without faith, without the confidence in God.

If you're here today for the first time, you want to know Jesus, you know that you need faith. You say how can I get this faith. Well, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I want to encourage you- if you want to know, if you want to have faith, then you've got to come to know God. You know, if you want to have confidence in your doctor, what do you do? Sometimes you go to the doctor's office and you wonder if he's the right guy to operate on you. You know how to gain- how do you get confidence in your doctor? I'll tell you what, the doctor actually helps you, behind him on his wall, he puts a lot of his degrees and plaques, right, wah, graduated from England aah, France aah U.S.- all the degrees, the titles very long ones, his name, consultant here, Professor there, wah lots of things, why?

He can't tell you, my name is Tan Ah Kow and I do some surgery, sometimes. I mean, you are not going to have a lot of confidence, but the more you know about his accolades, his credentials- maybe he shows you photos on his computer, 'Hey look, look at all the similar cancer I've treated other people of, See this one, bigger than yours I can take out lah. Yours is so small, no problem, lah'. And when you see that he has done it, when you hear from his other patients, their testimony, you say, 'Well, my doctor- very good lah', I can sleep on the anesthetic on the operating theater in peace and let him cut me to pieces. It's okay, I'm confident in him. I trust him because I know my doctor.

How would you trust God, if you do not know God, if you do not learn of Him from the Bible? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, because the Word tells you about God. And friends, that's why God puts you through trials, you realize that? That's why he put you through difficulties, because going through difficulties is like going through a trust fall. The more you go, the more you do this, the easier it is for you the next time. Maybe tonight I'll try with my wife something else and she might be willing to do it because she had a positive experience the first time and God puts us through trials, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, trials, knowing this that it works endurance, patience essentially faith. And I pray your life would be lived in wonderful obedience to Him, obedience in ministry, in service, in giving, in stewardship and even as you go through sufferings.

I close with this illustration. This week I was- I'm a sports guy, I love sports, I love soccer, badminton, basketball and I keep up the news and I, I heard about Monty Williams this week. He was an NBA player, and therefore he must be very good, right? And after his playing career is over because of some knee injury, he went on to be a coach and after that he became an assistant coach in a very good team. He's married for 20 years to his wife Ingrid. Together they had five children, they have stayed married all these years. Last week, as Ingrid was driving on the road, there was another lady who was coming on the opposite side, at 92 mph when the speed limit was about 40. So she came at a high speed, she crossed the dividing line and the two cars collided and crashed and Ingrid died the very next day. So, just like that, Monty lost his wife of 20 years. Because someone sped and crossed the line.

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So, this week Monty gave an eulogy, he gave a speech at the funeral service in his church. You should really go and check it out. Seven minutes, but this is what he said. He said, '1John'- these are his words, alright, I tried to copy it out as accurately as I could, he says, 'I John 4:16 says "God is love". Doesn't look like it, why would He take away my wife?', he says and he goes on to say, 'During times like this, it's easy to forget, that it's easy to look at the circumstances. But he says, God is love, that's what the Bible says, I'm confident in His Word. God does love us. He loved me so much He sent His Son to die for my sins'. You know what? This is faith! And he goes on to say: 'Romans 8:28 says, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. All this will work out. I mean, doesn't look like it's going to work out, Ingrid is not going to come back to life. But he says, all this, will work out. As hard as this is for me and my family and you, I know this will work out, I'm confident this will work out', and this is an amazing statement he goes on to say.

He says 'Above all actually, the most important thing', this is at the tail end of his speech- He says, 'The most important thing is, that family, that Donaldson family, that family of the lady who crashed into my wife, that family needs prayer as well and we have no ill will towards that family. In my house, we have a sign that says, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord", Joshua 24:15. We cannot serve the Lord, if we have not the heart of forgiveness. So let's not lose sight of what's important. God will work this out, my wife is in heaven. God loves us, God is love. And when we walk away from this place, let's celebrate because my wife is where we all need to be, we didn't lose her. When you lose something, you can't find it. I know exactly where my wife is, so let's not lose sight of what's important. God is important, what Christ did on the cross is important, let's keep what's important at the forefront, thank you'.

Here's a man who decided to live by faith and not by sight. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the Word of God and obeying the Word of God. At the end of that video clip I saw on NBA TV, there is this presenter called Ernie Johnson, probably those in America will be very familiar with him. He ended up with these words: 'We all know Monty, an ordinary man, with extraordinary faith. That's what the world needs to see today.'

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. It's so easy to go with the world. There is a strange security in numbers. It's hard to stick out like a sore thumb. But that's what faith is all about. Faith calls us, sometimes to go against the flow, like that remarkable salmon fish. It doesn't get swept down by the waters, it is determined to swim upstream to where it believes its destiny lies. It's hard, it's difficult, the waters are against me and I know that when I reach upstream I will die, but I believe this is what my life is all about: To go against the flow, to be called as lights to shine in the dark world, to live for Christ in a world that persecutes Christ, that I will be satisfied with a simple life and forsake a famous life, that I'll be willing to live with little when everyone wants much, when I'm willing to die and carry the cross, when everyone is trying to save their life here; because I'm deeply confident in God's Word, regardless of circumstances and consequences, and I will obey Him.

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That's what faith is. That's what God is looking for in your soul, in your heart, in your life today folks. It's not what you dress, it's not the academic accolades you have. It's not the status or position in society you hold, it's your heart of faith. It's seen in your obedience, it's seen in your life. And if there's something you need to repent of this morning, would you do that right here, right now before your God? And if you today long for a growth in faith, then go and learn about your God, study His credentials, hear of His testimonies, look at the people He has dealt with in time past, let your heart be filled with the absolute confidence that He is God, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, He is faithful, He is good, He is wise, He is sovereign, He is God and there is none like Him.

Let your life be built upon the rock solid foundation of what He has said, because He never lets His Word fall. May this church then, every single one of us, live out such radically different lives that the world would say: an ordinary man with extraordinary faith, to the glory of God.

Father we thank You for this morning. Bless Your Word to each and every heart. I pray we would not just end this morning, but that it will have its ramifications throughout the week, throughout the year, throughout our lives that we may live consistently in the bulls' eye of faith. We ask this now in Jesus Name, Amen.

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