Introduction
"Who here can honestly say they are sitting in this room this morning because their parents are making them?" With that question to the young people, Henk Huurdman opens his message at the youth service of the Vrije Evangelische Gemeente Kampen, in the Netherlands. Then he asks the same question of the older members: who used to go to church because their parents wanted them to? The vast majority did.
The theme of the service is "I believe," followed by an exclamation mark and a question mark. The preacher, who was born and raised in Kampen, is 43, married, and the father of three. He knows this theme from the inside: for years, his faith was one big question mark. He weaves his personal testimony through the whole message.
Starting from Hebrews 11, he shows what faith is, why it holds even when God seems far away, and how each of us can become a hero of faith for the people around us.
Outline of the Message
1. I Believe: Exclamation Mark or Question Mark?
- Until he was 38, Henk Huurdman went to church mostly because someone else wanted him to: first his parents, then his wife, who wanted him to come for the sake of the children. Raised in a Christian family, he understood very little of it: "I had more questions than answers."
- Five years after his conversion, he says: "I believe, with an exclamation mark." His life has been deeply changed. He wanted to know everything about God and about the Bible, and he began studying theology alongside his job.
- He has only recently begun to preach, and every time, whether he is preparing or riding his bike to church, he asks himself: "What have I gotten myself into?" But he has discovered one thing: "My story with God matters, but your story with God matters too. We need each other's stories."
- He recalls the annoying childhood game, "I spy with my little eye something you can't see." For years, his parents, his wife, and his friends saw something that he could not see. Maybe you are in the same place, or maybe you have believed for a long time with questions that are still unanswered.
2. A Faith Under Pressure, Facing Tomorrow
- When you watch the news, God sometimes seems farther away than you would like. The first readers of the letter to the Hebrews also had every reason to wonder where God was.
- The letter is addressed to a group of Jewish Christians, probably in or around Rome. Society was turning against them: they were mocked, sometimes violently. Many were thinking about giving up their faith in Jesus.
- Their question becomes ours: how do you keep trusting when you cannot see what you hope for? The author's answer: "Hold on to your faith, even when you cannot see what you hope for."
- Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen."
- The preacher imagines Daan and Emma, 16 and 17 years old, head over heels in love. They can already picture their future together. Daan's friends do not get it: "What do you see in her? You need to break up."
- Daan does not care. He has no guarantee, but the hope of a future with Emma shapes how he lives today. He sees a future that his friends cannot see yet.
- "That is exactly what believing is: living out of the hope of what God has promised, even if you cannot yet see it with your own eyes."
- He admits the limits of the picture: love can also make you blind, and you can be deceived in love. The assurance that verse 1 talks about is often missing in human love. So is faith in God just a pleasant conviction, a feeling, a naive trust?
3. Honest Questions
- For a long time, Henk Huurdman asked himself these questions: "Who or what am I supposed to believe? What is the point of believing? How can they be so certain that it is true?" In short: "What did they see that I could not see?"
- Then, five years ago, God opened his eyes. Slowly he began to see what others had always seen, and he could not believe he had been blind for so long. "As much as I had resisted faith, I now wanted to know everything about it."
- One question then gripped him: if what God promises is true, how can so many people, even Christians, sleep? "If it is really true, you want to shout the gospel of Jesus Christ from the rooftops."
- He names the objections: faith is wishful thinking, a nice story against fear, pain, and death. Or else: if God exists, why has he been silent for centuries? "These are honest questions. I asked them myself." The author of the letter does not wipe them away. He turns our eyes toward those who went before us.
- Before that, he gives a warning (Hebrews 10:37-39): "For yet a little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." He urges his readers to hold on, because the stakes are high.
4. "One Day There Will Be Nothing Left to Choose"
- On a company outing, a young colleague sitting next to him on the bus asks him with a laugh: "Henk, you believe, right? And what if, when you die, there is nothing at all? Then you will have believed for nothing your whole life."
- The preacher turns the question around: "And what if you have never believed, you die, and all of this turns out to be true?" The colleague, silent: "Then I think I have a problem." The conversation ended there. It was right after his conversion: he was not yet skilled enough to steer the conversation and talk to him about Jesus.
- A few years earlier, his wife had told him essentially the same thing: "A day is coming when there will be nothing left to choose." That sentence woke him up.
- It touches the heart of Hebrews 11: faith is not only believing that God exists, it is trusting what he has promised, something that is still to come. This is our hope.
- This hope does not fall out of the sky. From cover to cover, the Bible tells of God's plan to restore his creation and his relationship with humanity. What was lost in Genesis is restored in Jesus Christ, and the Bible ends, in Revelation, with the prospect of a new creation where God lives with people, with no death, no pain, and no mourning.
- The way to this promise is Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). That is why the author insists so strongly that we not let go of Jesus.
5. The Witnesses Who Went Before Us
- How can we know the promise is trustworthy? The author points to witnesses, people who trusted God when they could not yet see the fulfillment.
- Noah did not see the rain or the flood, but he trusted God, and he built the ark. Abraham had no idea where he was going or what he would face along the way: he did not see his destination, but he trusted God and set out.
- Of Moses it is written that he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, "for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27). The preacher hears him say to Pharaoh: "I am not afraid of you, because I see what you cannot see."
- At the end of the list appears Rahab, the prostitute. Not a king, not a powerful leader: the only one whose occupation is mentioned. It is as if the author were saying: it does not matter how impressive you are, where you come from, or what you have been through. What matters is to trust God when it counts and to follow him.
- The common thread of the list: "Not the greatness of the act, but the presence of trust." They held on, not because their lives were easy or because they understood everything, but because they believed that God would do what he had promised (Hebrews 11:13).
- The first readers, for their part, could look back to Jesus Christ: his birth, his crucifixion, his resurrection. God had begun to fulfill his final promise. Hence the preacher's question: "If these heroes of faith trusted God without seeing the fulfillment, and if we can see what God has done in Jesus, what is your reason for not trusting God?"
6. Heroes of Faith Closer Than You Think
- Henk Huurdman came to understand that his heroes of faith were closer than he had thought: a grandfather and a grandmother, his parents, his wife, friends who kept praying for his conversion. "That is what God's promise does: it puts people on their knees for someone else, because they know what is at stake."
- One of them was his father, who died two years ago of a brain tumor after a short illness. During his life, he spoke little about his faith. On his deathbed, he blossomed: no trace of fear or pain. He bore witness to God's love in front of a family that was almost entirely atheist, without worrying about it.
- "To see hope truly blossom just before someone dies is one of the most precious things you can experience. It was as if the invisible had already been seen. As if he could already see Jesus in the distance saying to him: come. And he said: I am ready." His mother, in her grief, also drew hope and strength from her faith.
- "Their story with God changed my story with God." That is why it is important to tell what God is doing in our lives, not to step into the spotlight, but to show that God is still truly present today.
7. Be a Hero of Faith
- His main appeal: "Be a hero of faith for the people around you, so that everyone can see through you something of God's wonderful promise." A hero of faith is not someone who knows everything or who never doubts. It is someone through whom another person can see God's love.
- To grandparents: keep praying for the faith of your children and grandchildren, and tell them what God has done in your life. To parents: show your children what a life full of hope with God looks like, especially in hard times. To young people who have given their hearts to Jesus: bear witness to God's love at school, in sports, on outings, simply as you are.
- All these heroes were ordinary people with their flaws, not superheroes. God works through our weaknesses and does not depend on our clumsiness or our stammering.
- To the one who still doubts, whatever your age, he suggests starting simply. Believing has two directions: looking up and trusting God, looking ahead and waiting for Jesus.
- "If you tell yourself: I really cannot see it, dare to be honest, not in front of your parents, your spouse, or me, but in front of God." And pray simply: "God, I don't know, but show me. Help my unbelief. Help my doubt." This is exactly the prayer that changed his life.
Key Takeaways
- Faith is assurance of things hoped for: it makes you live today out of what God has promised for tomorrow.
- Doubts are honest questions. Scripture does not wipe them away: it shows us those who trusted God before us.
- What connects the heroes of Hebrews 11 is not the greatness of their deeds but their trust, from Noah to Rahab.
- We see what God has already done in Jesus. That leaves us even fewer reasons not to trust him.
- Your story with God matters: someone can see God's love through you.
Personal Application
- Does your faith look more like an exclamation mark or a question mark today?
- What honest questions about God are you carrying that you have never told him?
- Who have been the heroes of faith who prayed for you or showed you hope?
- For whom, in your family, at school, or at work, can you be a hero of faith this week?
- Do you dare to pray simply: "God, I don't know, but show me"?
Verses Quoted
Frequently Asked Questions
What is faith according to Hebrews 11:1?
"Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen." For Henk Huurdman, to believe is to live today out of the hope of what God has promised, even when you cannot yet see it with your own eyes.
Why is Rahab among the heroes of faith?
Rahab is neither a king nor a great leader: she is the only one on the list whose occupation is mentioned. According to the preacher, the author wants to show that it does not matter where you come from or what you have been through. What matters is to trust God when it counts and to follow him.
How do you pray when you doubt God?
Henk Huurdman invites you to be honest, not in front of your parents or your spouse, but in front of God, and to pray simply: "God, I don't know, but show me. Help my unbelief." He testifies that this very simple prayer changed his life.