Bible Text: Hebrews 11:4-6 | Preacher: Jay Dyksterhouse | Series: Lesson Texts | When the armies of Napoleon swept over Europe, one of his generals intended to make an attack on the little town of Feldrich on the Austrian border. It was Easter, and as Napoleon\u2019s great army maneuvered nearby, the citizens hastened to decide whether to surrender or to attempt a defense. The elderly pastor of the church remarked, \u201cWe have been counting on our own strength, and that will fail. This is the day of our Lord\u2019s resurrection. Let us ring the bells and have services as usual, and leave the matter in God\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council accepted his plan, and in a few minutes the bells were chiming out joy over the Lord\u2019s resurrection. Napoleon\u2019s army, startled at hearing the joyous bells, decided that the Austrian army must have arrived and so quickly broke camp and retreated. God had honored the council\u2019s faith in Him.<\/p>\n
In the Bible we read, \u201cBut without faith it is impossible to please him: for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.\u201d(Hebrews 11:6)<\/p>\n
Faith is pleasing to God because it shows confidence in His character. God is good and He will do what is right. You probably have stores where you trade regularly. They know you and trust you. When you hand them a check they no longer ask for your driver\u2019s license. In fact, if you forgot your billfold or purse, and had no money at all, they would tell you to take your purchase and stop by and pay them later. They honor you by their confidence in your integrity. So, also, we honor God when we display our confidence in Him. He then shows Himself to be faithful as He rewards our seeking Him and placing our confidence in Him.<\/p>\n
When you can\u2019t see how you are going to face the army of problems that surround you, honor God by rejoicing in the resurrection of the Savior. Christ\u2019s resurrection is proof that His offering of Himself for our sins was accepted and that by faith in Him we receive forgiveness and newness of life. At the moment we might not see HOW God is going to help us, but we have the assurance that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.<\/p>\n
So, ring those bells of faith today and watch God work.<\/p>\n
By faith Enoch pleased God and was spared from being murdered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bible Text: Hebrews 11:4-6 | Preacher: Jay Dyksterhouse | Series: Lesson Texts | When the armies of Napoleon swept over Europe, one of his generals intended to make an attack [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","wpfc_preacher":[2],"wpfc_sermon_series":[98],"wpfc_sermon_topics":[13],"wpfc_bible_book":[83],"wpfc_service_type":[97],"sermon_audio":"","sermon_audio_duration":"","_views":"11","bible_passage":"Hebrews 11:4-6","sermon_description":"When the armies of Napoleon swept over Europe, one of his generals intended to make an attack on the little town of Feldrich on the Austrian border. It was Easter, and as Napoleon\u2019s great army maneuvered nearby, the citizens hastened to decide whether to surrender or to attempt a defense. The elderly pastor of the church remarked, \u201cWe have been counting on our own strength, and that will fail. This is the day of our Lord\u2019s resurrection. Let us ring the bells and have services as usual, and leave the matter in God\u2019s hands.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe council accepted his plan, and in a few minutes the bells were chiming out joy over the Lord\u2019s resurrection. Napoleon\u2019s army, startled at hearing the joyous bells, decided that the Austrian army must have arrived and so quickly broke camp and retreated. God had honored the council\u2019s faith in Him.\r\n\r\nIn the Bible we read, \u201cBut without faith it is impossible to please him: for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.\u201d(Hebrews 11:6)\r\n\r\nFaith is pleasing to God because it shows confidence in His character. God is good and He will do what is right. You probably have stores where you trade regularly. They know you and trust you. When you hand them a check they no longer ask for your driver\u2019s license. In fact, if you forgot your billfold or purse, and had no money at all, they would tell you to take your purchase and stop by and pay them later. They honor you by their confidence in your integrity. So, also, we honor God when we display our confidence in Him. He then shows Himself to be faithful as He rewards our seeking Him and placing our confidence in Him.\r\n\r\nWhen you can\u2019t see how you are going to face the army of problems that surround you, honor God by rejoicing in the resurrection of the Savior. Christ\u2019s resurrection is proof that His offering of Himself for our sins was accepted and that by faith in Him we receive forgiveness and newness of life. At the moment we might not see HOW God is going to help us, but we have the assurance that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.\r\n\r\nSo, ring those bells of faith today and watch God work.\r\n\r\nBy faith Enoch pleased God and was spared from being murdered.","sermon_video_embed":"","sermon_video_url":"","sermon_bulletin":"","_featured_url":false,"sermon_date":1566964698,"_sermon_date_auto":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/2493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/wpfc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/2493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/2493\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wpfc_preacher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_preacher&post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_series&post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_topics&post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_bible_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_bible_book&post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_service_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sermonstogrow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_service_type&post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}