Turning your Bibles to Hebrews Chapter 11.
And I would highly recommend putting a ribbon in there
because we're going to, we're going to come back to Hebrews 11
all night. Yes, we need some copies of it.
Yeah, he's, he's getting them. They should be in the printer.
So I don't see, I see a shadow, but I don't see Alex.
Of course, it might be hard to tell the difference, but they in
there it should be. It should be 2 pages front, back
and then a front. OK, all right, raise your hand
if you need a copy of those. All right, get the adults 1st,
Alex, adults and teens. And then there's any left we can
get the kids. I think I made 7 copies of it
maybe. So right here you should get
Miss Michelle. And there we go, Miss Loida,
this Esther, and there we go, Very good. 11 And he mentioned
this right at the very beginning.
Hebrews 11 is one of those special passages that brings
together all of the major teachings on one subject in one
place. And of course, this is faith.
You have other passages that are like that First Corinthians, and
you're familiar with that. It's the chapter on love.
First Corinthians 15 is the chapter 1st Corinthians 13 is
about love or charity. First Corinthians 15 is about
the resurrection. This this chapter in Hebrews 11
is known as the hall of faith. Many times you've probably heard
that you know the hall of faith and it's just one person after
another that exhibited faith. And so based mostly on Hebrews
Chapter 11, but with a lot of other verses that we're going to
look at and talk about, this is, this is 8 major lessons on the
subject of faith. And again, I've, I've preached a
good number of messages on faith.
And so, you know, this is, this is another, another message on
faith. And, and, and hopefully maybe
you'll see some things that will stick out to you and, and some,
some things that we can work on. We always, I think this is one
of those topics that is like prayer where you just, you know,
you hear a message on prayer, you never feel like you pray
enough. You know, you hear a message on
witnessing, you never feel like you witness enough.
You hear a message on faith and you never feel like you have
enough faith, right? And if and if that's all we ever
do is never feel like we have enough of this or never feel
like we do enough of this and we're never going to get to the
point where we accomplish what God wants us to accomplish in
that area, right? Why do we always feel like we
never pray enough? Why don't we just pray more,
right? Why do we always feel like we
don't witness enough? Why don't we just witness more?
Why do we never feel like we have enough faith?
Why don't we just have more faith, right?
Well, these are 8 elements that will hopefully help us to
accomplish the idea of, of having a little bit more faith,
right? And maybe we'll, we'll, we'll
get to that, that maybe we'll reach that goal by the time we
get to the end. And, and I think the, the object
of, of, of going through this lesson.
And again, the, it's, you know, these are all their
discipleship. It's all, you know, steps in
that discipleship process. And so most of you have heard
most of these messages before, but what I want you to try to do
tonight is pick one thing that you don't do very well and see
if you can say, you know what? I'm going to work on that this
week or I'm going to work on this going forward.
Number one is that faith is essential.
And I don't think that's, I don't think that's anything that
we don't understand or anything that we don't know.
But Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse #6.
But without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
So obviously you cannot please God without faith.
Is faith essential? Absolutely.
Faith is essential. But even more than that, the
word faith or believe which synonyms of each other are
mentioned 771 times in the Bible and that idea is mentioned even
more than that. This, that's those, that's the
words believe in faith that are mentioned 771 times.
So the Christian life is from faith to faith.
That's what Romans 117 says. Jesus often reproved his
disciples for their lack of faith.
And how many times did he say, Oh ye of little faith, right?
And I the, the sad thing is, I think that he would have to say
that to a lot of us. Oh ye of little faith.
How many times we get into situations right where faith is
what's required, but we step out on our own or we think I can
handle this, I can do this and oh man, I guess I can't.
I guess maybe now we'll turn to God.
You know, how many times have you heard or maybe even, you
know, seen it in print, seen somebody written in a book, you
know, or, or heard somebody say, well, I guess the only thing we
can do now is pray, right? I mean, obviously that's prayer,
but why do you come to God in prayers?
Because, well, I guess God's the only one that can do something
about it now, right? Why isn't that the first thing
that we did, right? And we brought it to God and
we've said, well, I've given it over to him.
So I'm going to do my part. I'm going to work.
I'm going to do whatever has to be done.
But why don't we do that first? Why don't we?
Why don't we express our faith in Him first?
We always try to do everything that we can do first, and then
we turn it over to God and then we try to step out in faith.
Well, it's not faith because you've already tested the chair.
You've already made sure that it's going to hold you up, and
now you're going to sit down in it.
That's not faith, right? Faith is not faith until it's
all you're hanging on to. Faith is not faith until you
don't know how things are going to work out.
You don't know how it's going to turn out, but you step out
anyway. That's what faith is.
And so I mean #1 faith is essential.
That's that that's just for us, for most of us, probably for all
of us. That's a given, right?
It's it's essential #2 faith is based on God's word.
Now verse #1 faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. What is Romans 10/17?
So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
right? I wish there was a lot more
people that knew that verse and could say it, right?
That's why we memorize Bible verses.
I'm going to do that a lot tonight.
I hope you have, I hope you're ready for it.
And I hope you can have some of these verses memorized.
See where you're at with your Bible memorization.
But if you don't, if you can't look at Romans 10, Romans 10/17
and know that that's so then faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. You're not memorizing enough,
right? I think that's in probably both
of the books that, that that we have that that we've put out
there that you're working on memorizing.
But by the way, well, OK, so let's just start into this.
And I want to, I want to mention a couple things about this that
are vital to understanding these things.
Faith is based on God's word. It's simply believing God's
Word. And that's the most important
fact about faith. Noah by faith.
Noah being warned of God, that's verse #7 moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house, right?
Warned of God, of things not seen yet.
That's that was faith. It was him stepping out of
faith, but it was God's word. Abraham verse #8 when he was
called to go out into a place which he should have to receive
for an inheritance, where did he get that from?
He got it from God. It was God's word to Abraham.
Now, obviously they didn't have the written word of God the way
that we have it now, but it was God's word to him, and he took
God's word and acted on it, right?
That's faith. I mean, we, we've, we've told
the story of Noah from the time that, I mean, it's probably one
of the first stories you ever learned when you're in Sunday
school, there's Noah in the ark, right?
But what was Noah doing? He was acting in faith.
And for all of those years he preached and for all of those
years he never saw anything, but he continued to act in faith.
And, and it was, it was faith in God's Word.
Sarah Hebrews Chapter 11, verse #11 Through faith also Sarah
herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful.
Who had promised? Who was it talking about?
Who's the hymn? God, right?
It was God's word to Sarah that said that she was going to have
a child and she trusted that God was going to follow through on
His word, right? So when we say this is faith in
God's, faith is based on God's Word.
Biblical faith is not blind faith.
It has evidence in substance. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
And that is God's Word itself, which is based on Acts chapter 1
and verse 3. Many infallible proofs, right,
which he showed to his disciples.
So this is in contrast to the faith of this world, which is
based on nothing substantive, by the way.
And this is the point that I want to make when it comes to
faith is based on God's Word. That's why it's vital to know
which Bible is God's Word, right?
If you can say, well, I don't really like the way that this
one says. If you read this version, this
one says this, well, then who's the one that's deciding what's
God's Word? Me, right?
If I can say, well, I don't really like the way that's
worded. I think this is worded better.
Well #199.9% of people are not Greek and Hebrew scholars,
right? You don't know Greek and you
don't know Hebrew. Even if you think you know Greek
and you know Hebrew, right? Even if you've studied a little
bit and you can understand how some of the words are formed and
everything else, very, very, very few people are fluent in
Hebrew and Greek enough to be able to say, well, that's not
exactly what the Bible means right here.
I like the way this version says it better, right?
But all of a sudden everybody is a Greek and Hebrew scholar and
they get decide what the Bible is trying to say there and what
it's not what God is saying there and what it's not, right?
I don't, I'll be honest with you, I don't, I don't know if
I've ever heard anybody say that, you know, is using the NIV
or the ESV or one of these, that they, they can hold it up and
say I have the, the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God
and I hold that in my hands. Have you ever heard somebody
that's preaching from the NIV say that or the ESV or the NASB
or the any other bees that are out there?
Right. And there's hundreds of them
because they don't believe that they have God's word in their
hand because, well, they might come up with another version
that says it better next month. And I'm actually may change my
mind and find out that that's, you know, you know what?
I, I do think that's a better version.
They don't say that. They don't say I'm holding the
inerrant, inspired, infallible word of God in my hand because
they don't, they don't believe that they have that right.
But when I have the King James Version Bible in my hand, I can
say that this is the inerrant, infallible, inspired word of
God, right? And that's why it's so important
when we're talking about faith being based on God's word.
If I don't even know which Bible version is God's word, then how
can I say that, right? I can't say that.
So biblical faith is, is not blind faith.
It's based on what God's Word says.
And I know that I have God's word in my hands and I can trust
it, right? And if I have something that I
know is concrete as a foundation and it's not going to chip, it's
not going to crumble, it's not going to fall apart because
somebody is able to pick it to pieces, right?
Really, though, the, this is the interesting thing to me.
All the people who want to, who want to pick apart the King
James Version of the Bible say that it's, it's, it's too hard
to understand, right? But then they say, well, it's
not scholarly. It wasn't, it wasn't, you know,
it's not scholarly enough. So which one is it?
Is it not scholarly or is it too hard to understand?
You can't have it both ways, right?
Well, they just didn't, they just didn't know exactly what
they were doing with Hebrew and Greek and everything else when
they wrote the King James Version of the Bible or when
they give us the translation of the King James Version, right?
There's a lot of arguments against, against the, the King
James Version, but there's, there's even more arguments
against all the rest of those versions of the Bible, right?
The number one for me being if we don't have an inspired,
infallible, inerrant word of God, then we don't have a
foundation that we can trust. And if I can question even one
thing in this Bible, then that means I can question everything
in the Bible. And I don't have a solid
authority. I don't have something that I
can base everything in my life on.
Because if there's one thing that's wrong, how do I know that
there's not more things that are wrong?
If I can disprove one story in the Bible, how can I not
disprove all of them? And how can I say, well, no, you
can't. That one's OK.
This one's not well. You can't question God's word on
that because we know that that story happened.
Well, how do you know? You're questioning it on this,
on this side of it, right? So you either have God's word or
you don't have God's Word, and your faith is either based in
God's Word or it's based on something else.
So biblical faith doesn't come by miracles or by feelings or by
mystical experiences. Abraham told the rich man in
hell that if the men do not believe God's word, if men do
not believe God's word, they're not going to believe even if one
rose from the dead before them. That's Luke's.
Luke chapter 16 is the story of rich man and Lazarus, right?
The rich man died and went to hell and in hell he lifted up
his eyes being in torment. And he asked Abraham to dip the
tip of his finger in water and just cool my tongue for I am
tormented in these flames. And then he said, please go tell
my brethren, I've got 5 brethren that I don't want to come to
this place. Please if, if, if you can send
Lazarus to go tell them about this place.
I know they'll believe him because he's, he's already dead
and they know that he's dead. And he said if he doesn't
believe the Bible, he has Moses and the prophets.
What is Moses and the prophets? That was the, that was the Bible
that they had, right? They said if they don't listen,
if he doesn't, if they don't have faith in God's Word,
they're not even going to believe.
If somebody came back from the dead and told them that, right?
That that is faith in God's Word.
So that faith is based on that. That that faith is based in
God's Word means that the Bible is essential for Christian
living. If we want our faith to grow, we
must read and study the Bible. Second Timothy 2:15 Study to
show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, right?
It's so important. We have to read, we have to
study if we are going to grow in our walk with Christ and hear
the Bible. Faithfulness to the preaching
and teaching right? Memorize the Bible.
Psalm 1/19/11 Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not
sin against God. All right, little disjointed,
but we got it, most of us. But why do we memorize God's
Word? Why do we hide God's word in our
hearts that I might not sin against him, right?
It's important. It's very important.
And so our faith has to be based on something, and it's based on
God's word. So then Hebrews Chapter 11, back
in Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse #8 through faith also Sarah
herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered
of a child. I'm sorry, wrong verse.
Verse 8, By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a
place which he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed,
and he went out not knowing whether he went.
That's number 3. Faith steps out in obedience,
right? Let's turn over to James because
there's a couple verses here in James.
We'll look at both of these. We've already done a, we did a
whole study on the book of James, right?
But but true faith is not something that is just in the
mind and in the heart. It is something that acts on
God's Word. And I think that's where most
Christians live. We know that God can do things.
We know that we need to have faith, but we don't actually
step out in faith, all right? That's what happens with most of
us. James chapter 1 and verse #22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers, only deceiving your
own selves, right doers, not just hearers.
Most Christians never make it past the hearing point.
We hear it and we know it, and it's up here, but it never makes
it down here. We never step out in faith and
we never do exactly what God wants us to do.
Verse 26 of chapter 2 for as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead. What does that mean?
It means you prove your faith by actually stepping out and, and,
and doing it, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's the
simplest illustration. We use it all the time, but it's
exactly what we do every time we sit down in a chair, right?
You see the chair, you sit in it.
That is saying, I believe that chair is going to hold me up and
I'm proving it because I'm sitting right down and I'm not
going to test it first. I'm not going to shake it and
make sure it's going to hold me up.
I just, I just sit down in the chair because that's what chairs
are supposed to do, right? And that's what faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
But be doers of the Word and not hearers only.
And then of course, faith without works is dead.
Faith steps out to develop godly habits like attending church.
What is Hebrews 1025 not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together right and we could go on with the rest of
that Bible study. Second Timothy 212 intercessory
prayer, First Timothy chapter 2. All of those are our habits that
we, that we have to step out in faith and do right.
I don't know how it's going to work because I, I work on
Wednesdays and I got to get up really early on Thursday
mornings. But you know what?
I'm going to step out on faith. I know that I should be there at
church. I'm just going to trust that
God's going to take care of those things for me, right?
Well, they want me to work on Sunday and I really need this
job. But you know what?
I'm not going to work on Sunday because God said that I should
be in his house. So I don't know how it's going
to work, but I'm going to step out on faith and I'm going to be
there at church on Sunday, right?
I mean, that's, that's what stepping out in faith is.
And, and then watching God do it, studying the Bible.
I, I got so many things going on.
I just, I just don't have time to study the Bible.
When am I going to do this? You know what, I'm going to make
time. I'm going to make time for my
Bible study and then I'm just going to trust that God will put
all the rest of the pieces in place.
Same thing with intercessory prayer.
I don't have time for it. How am I going to Well, that's
what stepping out in faith is. And there's a lot of other
things that we could talk about when it comes to those things as
well when it comes to stepping out in faith.
But faith steps out when God calls, right?
Jesus warned about putting off the call of God.
And that's the that's the parable that Jesus was talking
about when he comes to the his disciples and everything else
stepping out in faith. God calls you go, all right, I
don't know how it's going to work out, but that's what that's
what missionaries do, right? God calls the missionary goes, I
don't, I don't know how it's going to work out.
I don't know what living in another field is in a foreign
country is like. But God called me to go right.
God called me to start a church. I don't know, I don't know what
I'm doing starting a church, but God called me, I'm going to go
right, God, God, I believe God's laying on my heart to marry this
person. And I've, I've never been
married to them before. I don't know how it's going to
work out, but I think this is what God wants me to do and you
do it, right. I mean, everything in our life
that God calls us to do, we step out in faith because God tells
us to do it and we do what Abraham did.
What did Abraham do? He obeyed, right?
He just did it because God told him to do it.
And look how well it worked out for Abraham, right?
And, and, and anybody else that has stepped out in faith in
their life has seen how God works things out that for us
just don't look like they would ever work.
And yet when you step out in faith, God puts all those pieces
in place. Faith looks beyond this life.
That's number four. Hebrews Chapter 11.
If you go back there verse #10 talking about Abraham again, for
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 20.
What is? What is Matthew 620?
Laying that up for yourselves, treasures in on earth where moth
and rust death corrupt, where thieves breakthrough and steal.
Lay up your treasures in heaven. That's what it is.
It looks at looks at treasures laid up in heaven.
Because you know what? Especially for those who, I
mean, many times full time ministry missionaries, right?
Not only are you leaving America, you were leaving the,
the American dream. You're leaving the chance of
making a lot of money. You're leaving the chance of
having a successful business. You're leaving the chance of
doing all these different things.
And you, oh, you know what? I'm giving up all of that same
thing in a lot of cases with, with becoming a pastor and doing
all those other things. You know, you serve God with
your life. You're giving up the, the chance
many times to, to be wealthy and to have things and to do things
that most people look at as really enjoyable.
You know what? I'm not looking at this life.
I'm looking at the next right. I'm laying up treasures in
heaven where moth and rust can't corrupt, where thieves can't
breakthrough and steal, right? And and that's the hard part,
but that's faith. I've never seen heaven.
I don't know that heaven exists. I don't know that there's
treasures waiting for me up there.
I don't know that there's streets of gold.
I don't know that there's crowns that are waiting for those who
are faithfully living for the Lord.
I don't know that, but I believe it by faith, right?
Because I'm not just looking at this.
I'm not just looking at this life, I'm looking to the next
life. But it takes faith to do that,
right? And the people who say who, I
mean your, your works prove whether or not you believe what
you say you believe, right? So do you believe that the next
life is where the real rewards come or not?
Everybody would say that, but your life proves whether you
believe it or not, right? Are are you living your life for
everything that you can get here and not pushing anything on a
head because you can say all the you want to that you believe
there's rewards that are waiting for all of those.
And I want to hear him say, well done now, good and faithful
servant. And I want rewards in heaven.
And I'm doing all of this for for for the next life.
You can't take it with you when you go right.
Everybody in this room would say that.
But what is your life saying about whether you really believe
that or not? Because faith looks beyond this
life. And it doesn't just look beyond
this life, it acts beyond this life, right?
Faith without works is dead. So say all you want to that you
believe that nothing in this world really matters.
I'm just passing through and everything is, you know,
treasures that I'm laying up in heaven.
But is your life prove that because faith is not just
talking, faith is acting right. It looks at the judgement seat
of Christ, 2nd Corinthians 510 For we must all appear before
the judgement seat of Christ that everyone may receive the
things done in his body, right, whether it be good or bad and
and the fire show try every man's work of what sort it is,
whether it be good or bad, right.
So it that, that mindset that that fact that faith is looking
beyond this life is going to keep me from being lazy, from
being selfish, from being carnal, from being lukewarm.
Young people need to do that. New believers need to do that.
Businessmen need to do that. Elderly believers need to do
that. You know what that means?
Everybody needs to do it. Everybody needs to do it.
He said, Brother Klaus said, my mom started reading the Bible
every day was when she was in her 70s and has read it through
twice a year since then. When Bible commentator, I love
this. When Bible commentator William
Kelly's nephew attended university, his Greek professor
learned that his uncle had taught him his language and
offered him a position on the faculty of Trinity College.
It was a Roman Catholic institution.
He was offered prestige and he was told he would make a
fortune. His wise reply was, for which
world? For which world?
Which world am I going to make a fortune for?
Because you know what, if you're not sitting on the head, is it
really even count as a fortune, right?
I was just talking about it to to Brother Greg.
I mentioned it to Brother Greg and Brother Gary Hubert Davis,
the coach at University of North Carolina.
And, and this is just small on a scale of a lot of these things,
but they fired him because he lost the first round of the
tournament. Again, not to rub it in or
anything like that, Brother Greg, but UNC lost again in the
first round of the tournament and they fired the coach, but he
is still guaranteed $5.3 million, guaranteed money, $5.3
million just to get fired. I mean, that'd be kind of nice,
wouldn't it? But you see what I'm saying?
What good does $5.3 million do you down here going to last for
a little while. Pretty soon the Moth going to
eat right through that money, the rust and they eat up all the
cars and whatever else he buys with that money.
Not going to last, not going to account for anything, right?
I heard a story about a, a guy who, who, who died and, and you
know, the angels came to, to take him to heaven and he, he
asked, he was like, hey, you know, can, is there, can I bring
something with me? And they were like, all right,
you can take that briefcase, whatever you can fit in that
briefcase, you can bring it with you.
So he gets there to heaven and everybody obviously, I mean,
what they're so curious about what he was so fixated on that
he had to bring it with him. And so he got up to heaven and
he opened the briefcase and it was just, it was filled with
nothing but bars of gold. And all the angels were standing
around there. And they said, why in the world
did you decide if of all the things that you could bring to
bring pavement? It's exactly what it is.
I mean, the streets in heaven aren't paved with gold.
What, what, what can you bring that's valuable enough in this
life to even make it worth bringing with you, right?
Because the things that we have in this life are worth nothing
compared to the things that we pass on ahead.
Which world are you trying to make a fortune in?
That's the question. Because most people are focusing
on this one number five. And I think this is one that
hits pretty hard for a lot of us.
Faith is tested. Verse #17 by faith.
Abraham Hebrews Chapter 11, when he was tried, offered up Isaac
and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son. Faith is always tested.
It's tested to see whether or not it's real.
It's tested to see if it's pure. And we see that in the lives of
the Jews in the wilderness. And then I'm not going to take
the time to turn back to Exodus and read through some of those
things. But you know, say that you have
faith all you that you want to. What does it look like under
test, right? Faith is tested as soon as an
individual believes in Christ. And there's a process of testing
and strengthening throughout the Christian life.
In fact, let's turn. We're not too far from there.
So I'm trying to keep you a semi close to Hebrews Chapter 11.
But first Peter chapter 5, first Peter chapter 5 and verse #10
and I think this is a, some really interesting way to put
it, a really interesting perspective.
Verse #10 first Peter 5, verse 10.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered awhile,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
I think it's interesting. God's going to call you home,
but after you suffered awhile, He'll bring you up there, right?
The God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after that you've suffered awhile, He'll
make you perfect, He'll make you complete.
He'll do all of those things. But faith is tested every time a
new step of faith is taken, right?
Hey, you're going to you're going to decide not to work on
Sunday. And you say, well, don't know
how it's going to work out, but I'm going to be in church on
Sunday. And if you need me, I'm sorry,
I'm not going to be available. OK, fine.
Then you may not have a job on Monday.
Well, I'm going to step out of faith, right?
And sometimes that results in losing your job.
But are you going to step out in faith or not?
Your faith, Your faith is going to be tested.
Well, what is God going to do? He's not going to leave you
hanging, right? When you do it His way, God's
not going to leave you hanging. I've been young and now I am
old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed
begging bread? You step out in faith because
you believe that it's something God wants you to do, or in some
cases, you know that it's something God wants you to do
because He's very plainly commanded in His Word.
He's not going to leave you hanging.
So you know what? Fire me.
Fire me from that job. Guess what?
I don't know how God's going to work it out, but He's either
going to give me a job that's just as good, or He's going to
give me a job that's better. And many times what you see is
that God gives you something that was way better than what
you ever thought He could give you.
Because your faith is going to be tested when you step out,
right? A decision to attend, attend
church faithfully or to read the Bible every day or to give a
portion of my income to the Lord regularly.
Now that's a big one. People who start to struggle
financially. I just, you know what, things
are getting a little tight. Sorry, God, you're the first one
that has to go. That was just money that I was
throwing away every every week. Anyway.
No, the Bible says very plainly that you ought to give, right?
Your tithes and your offerings. And what does God promise to
those who give and give cheerfully?
He'll return it again. Good measure.
Pressed down, shaking together, running over, right?
That's how he's going to give back to you.
So do you believe it or not? But oh, things got tight.
Sorry, God, I need that money. I know it's yours, but I need
it. And you don't step out of faith
and you expect that everything's going to work out the way that
you're planning for it to work out.
You trust God and you give and you watch how God provides and,
and, and so many of you have stories of exactly how God
provides in those situations, right?
We could go on for a while about that.
But love my wife as Christ loved the church.
God wants to see if our faith is real or if it's only
superficial, right? Most Christians, especially in
America, have superficial faith because most people are not
living on the edge of disaster. You're not living where?
Well, if I, if I go to church and I get fired from my job, I
don't know how I'm going to put food on the table on Monday.
Most people are not living on the edge of disaster.
They're comfortable. They got everything they need.
Oh, well, if I step out in faith and I lose my job, fine, I'll
just retire. I'm ready anyway, right?
That's what most people have a backup plan before they step out
in faith. Faith steps out whether you have
a backup plan or not. And that's what I'm saying.
Most faith in America is superficial because you're not
living on the edge. You're not living on that edge
of if I do this, I don't know how this is going to work out,
right? I feel like that's where we're
at with this Belize project. We're right on the edge.
We stepped out. It's too late now.
We're already, you know, we're over the Cliff and we're
falling. I'm just waiting for something
to catch us down there at the bottom before we crash.
But that's what faith is, right? Do we believe that God wants us
to do this or not? Step out and watch how God
provides. I don't know how he's going to
provide, right? I have no idea where it's going
to come from or how it's going to come.
Maybe we can ask Hubert Davis if he can just give us a little
pocket change or something and see what he says.
You know Greg, you probably know him pretty well, don't you?
But you see what I'm saying? Faith is not faith.
If you don't step out when you don't know what's going to
happen, it's not faith. If you step out when you know
that the outcome right, it's not faith.
It's not faith. Faith is going to be tested.
But number six, then faith gives us courage.
Hebrews Chapter 11. Let's go back over there verse
#23 By the way, pray about this. I have a, but most of you know
who Spencer Smith is. He's been here.
He did the Doctor Matters conference for us last year.
But I'm going on to his channel tomorrow to talk about this
missions project. And it's, it's a, it's a new
idea. It's a different way of doing
things. And, you know, it's just kind
of, I don't know, outside the box maybe a little bit, but guys
like that, like Brother Shifflett and some of these
other guys are, are open to these kind of ideas because just
because it's always been done this way doesn't mean that
that's the only way to do it, right.
So this is a little bit different way of, of, of getting
the gospel into a country. And I've, I've been talking to,
to brother Spencer about it. And, and so I'm going on there
tomorrow to talk about it. And I'm going to put the idea
out there that we're trying to raise some money for these
things. Who knows, you know, what the,
what the possibilities would be with that, but just pray that
that, that the word will get out and that people be willing to
give toward it and then we'll get this thing up off the
ground. I, I still believe it's just a
tremendous opportunity to get the gospel into it an entire
country. And I actually had two really
good opportunities yesterday. We were talking to a couple
other people about some Christian businessmen who are
in, in this area. But but hey, let's stay in
touch. I think this is a great idea.
You know, so we're starting to get some momentum and things are
starting to move. But at the same time, you know,
it's, it's, it is a, it's a step of faith and, and we're all kind
of taking that step together, whether you want to or not,
we're taking that step. But faith gives us courage.
And that's, you know, this is this is what Hebrews Chapter 11,
verse 23 by faith. Moses, when he was born was hit
three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper
child and they were not afraid of the King's commandment.
Well, that takes courage. I mean, you stick your kid in a,
in a, in an ark and throw him in the bulrushes, not knowing
what's going to happen, but trusting that you're doing what
God wants you to do. I mean, that that takes courage.
Could you imagine how difficult that was for, for Moses's
parents to put their baby in an ark and trust that is not going
to leak and he's not going to drown.
Trust that some of Pharaoh's men's not going to come along
and, and find him and just kill him right there.
And you're going to go back and there's a dead baby in a ark in
the bulrushes, right? But they knew what God said.
And it was, it was it was faith that gave them the courage to do
that. So life is full of fears, but
faith in Christ overcomes every fear.
We don't have to fear any problems or situation because
everything is in God's hands. Romans 828 And we know that all
things work together for good to them who love God to them who
are the called according to his purpose.
What is I mean, what is there not to trust if we know that all
things work together for good, right, that that's faith because
do you know that all things work together for good Here you do
yes, but but here is it's it's harder to get it down here to
actually act on it right. But if God says it, can we
believe it or not? Absolutely we can believe it.
We don't have to fear for food and clothing.
Matthew 633 But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
What is all these things? Food raiment.
Let us be there with content, right?
Hebrews 13, five and six. Jesus Christ the same yesterday
and today and forever. We don't have to fear for old
age. What's Psalm 3725?
I have been young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
We don't have to fear, faith gives us that courage #7 Faith
makes wise choices. Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 24 by
faith, Moses by faith. Moses, when he was come to
years, refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh, the son of
Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt, For he had respect unto the recompense
of the reward. What is that's a that's a wise
choice that Moses made. But but but what allowed him to
make that choice? Faith.
Very plainly the Bible says that by faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
So Moses made a wide, wise choice by faith, choosing to
suffer affliction with God's people for a short season
instead of living the life of ease as the son of Pharaoh.
Faith can give us the same wisdom to make major decisions
like those, whether we follow the crowd or follow Christ,
whether to be wholehearted for Christ or not.
Romans 12/1. Beseech you therefore, brother,
you guys are getting wide. You're looking up the verses
ahead of time before we get there.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, right?
So whether to be wholehearted for Christ or not, are you going
to? That's a wise choice, wouldn't
you say that's a wise decision? I'm going to sell out for
Christ. I'm going to live for Christ.
What allows you to make that decision?
Faith, because I know that it's going to come to pass, right?
Whether it is be lazy or to be diligent.
What is Proverbs? Oh, I skipped whether to
separate from the world or not. Romans 12/2 and be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed whether to serve God
or mammon. Matthew 624 You're on the right.
Yeah, that's right. Right.
You cannot serve God and mammon, right?
You got to make a choice. Can't serve both, whether it be
lazy or diligent. What's Proverbs 13/4?
What is it? I don't know hoping somebody
knew that one. No, I think that one is the soul
of the diligent shall be made fat, right, right.
But but there's a there's an opposite of that for for lazy.
I I could be wrong, but right, there you go.
So I would I had it backwards. But anyway, whether to give to
God's work richly or to keep it for myself, right.
Those are all decisions that we have to make.
Faith makes those wise choices and there's a lot of choices
that we have to make in our lives.
And, and, and a lot of these things that we talked about go
hand in hand. Are you going to step out in
faith and give, Are you going to step out in faith and follow
God's leading? Are you going to step out in
faith and go to church? Are you going to step out in
faith and witness? Are you going to step out in
faith and do all of those things right?
Those are all those are all things that gives us courage to
do those things. But then when we step out, it's,
it's faith that makes it, helps us make those wise choices, and
then #8 faith overcomes and also endures.
Verse 32. And what shall I say more?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barrack,
and of Samson, and of Jephthah, and of David also in Samuel, and
of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises.
Stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the
edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made
strong. Wax, valiant in fight, turn to
flight the armies of the aliens. Women receive their They had
raised their life again. And others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better
resurrection. And others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, Yay, moreover, of bonds and
imprisonment. They were stoned, they were
saunasunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented. What does verse 38 say?
Of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves
of the earth. And these all, having obtained a
good report through faith, received not the promise.
God having provided some better thing for us that they without
us should not be made perfect. But man, look at it.
I mean, it's like Fox's Book of martyrs in a, in a couple of
sentences, right? Cut in half sauna, sauna.
That's what it means. They were just, they were cut in
half. They didn't have, they wandered
around in sheepskins and goatskins.
It wasn't saying it because it was a good thing, right?
It was difficult for them, but the world's not worthy of
somebody who stepped down in faith, followed Christ.
Faith overcomes, faith endures. See, some receive faith to
overcome life's trials, but others receive faith to endure
life's trials. I think it's a great statement.
We can have faith whether the fire is quenched or whether it
burns us, whether the lion's mouths are shut or whether the
lion eats us, whether the jail doors are opened or whether we
die there. We must trust God whether we are
healed or not, whether the house sells or not, whether the bullet
is stopped or not. See, what we're saying is just
because you don't see the answer that you want doesn't mean that
God didn't answer your request, right?
Sometimes God's answer is no, right?
Daniel trusted that he was going to get in the lion's den, but
Daniel didn't know what was going to happen.
Daniel didn't know if the lions were going to eat him or not.
Daniel didn't know what God's plan was.
All right, hey, I'm just going to do what's right.
Faith gives me the ability to say, you know what, God,
everything is in your hands. If the lions eat me, you knew,
right? If you stopped the mouths of the
lions, you knew, hey, they're going to, they're getting ready
to throw me into the into the fiery furnace because I'm not
going to stand up and worship your God or I'm not going to
kneel down and worship your God. I'm going to stand up, right?
Throw me in the fiery furnace. I don't know if God's going to
deliver me or not. If he does, that's what he
wanted. If he doesn't, that's what he
wanted. I'm going to do the right thing.
And faith is what allows me to do that right thing, right?
And there's so many other things that that go right along with
that, right? God wants me to leave everything
and go to the mission field. Well, I've got to sell my house.
I've got to do this. I've got to do that.
Hey, go do what God calls you to do.
God will work out all the details, right?
Faith allows you to step out in faith.
Faith is what gives us the courage to make those wise
choices. But then faith overcomes.
God gives faith according to His will, and we must accept His
will. That's why Jesus called
Scripture in Revelation 310. The word of my patience, right?
Thank God for His grace and the privilege of exercising faith in
this wicked generation. Do you have saving faith in
Christ? Faith that has changed your
life? 2nd Corinthians 517 Any man be
in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Don't tell me that your life should not change once you meet
Christ. If you're in Christ, your life
should change. You have an intimate
relationship with the Bible so that your faith is growing.
Is your faith being tested? Just keep on keeping on what'll
be the story of my life in regard to faith?
Every life is written in God's Book, all right.
And he said that what shall I say?
More time would fail me. I don't have enough time to tell
you about all the people who have lived their lives in faith.
But some of them had to go through this, and this, and
this, and this, and they were difficult circumstances.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,
received not the promise. God having provided some better
thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
We all have a part in that faith story.
All right, So what he's saying what's, what's going to be the
story of my life in regard to faith?
Now, the Bible is not still being written.
So you can't be added to the Hebrews Chapter 11.
You cannot be added to the to the, to the hall of faith,
right? But what would, what would God
say about you? What would if, if, if, if he was
still writing Hebrews Chapter 11, would you be added in there?
Could he put you in there? A huge, huge, huge percentage of
American Christians and most of American Christianity could not
even be mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Because we do. We do so little stepping out in
faith. We step out when we know there's
something there to catch us, right?
What? What, what trapeze artist is not
going to go flipping through the air if they know, Oh, I slipped.
Guess what? The net caught me right.
Remember the story of the, when they were building a Golden Gate
Bridge? I, I, I think I've told you that
story before, But when they were when they were there at the
beginning working on it, there was no safety Nets.
And I forget the number of people that actually fell to
their death while they were working on the Golden Gate
Bridge. But about halfway through, they
got smart and they said, you know what?
Let's just, let's, let's put a net up.
That way. If somebody slips and falls, at
least we know the net's going to catch them and they won't die.
And for the whole rest of that project, nobody actually died.
But like twice the number of people actually fell when they
were working on the bridge. You know why they weren't afraid
anymore? Because they knew the net was
there and it was going to catch them, right?
I mean, I'm sure they still didn't want to fall, but they
weren't they weren't working in fear because they knew the net
was there, right? And that's, that's what we have
in American Christianity. I'll step out because I know
that the Nets there to catch me, right?
I got a four O 1 Ki got money in the bank.
I got this. I got that out.
If I step out in faith and it doesn't work out, then I've got
this to catch me now. Faith.
Faith is not faith until it's all you're hanging on to when
you have nothing else and you don't know how it's going to
work and you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel and you
don't know what the next step looks like.
That's faith. That's that's what faith really
is. And so all of these elements of
faith, it's essential, it's based on God's word.
It steps out in obedience. It looks beyond this life.
It's going to be tested. But faith is what gives us the
courage to make the wise choices to endure to the end and to
overcome. That's faith.
And boy, I tell you what, if we had faith the size of a mustard
seed, you could move a mountain, you could tell this mountain a
get up and go over there and it would do it right Now there's
got to be a reason for it. It's not you just walk out and
say, hey, mountain, I don't like where you're at.
Go over here. You know, there's to be a reason
for it. But when there's a reason for
it, God says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.
Ever seen a mustard seed? It's tiny.
And if you had just that little
bit of faith, you could tell that mountain to remove itself
and go over there and would do it right?
Faith that moves mountains. I mean, we talk about it so
much, all faith, faith, faith, faith.
But do you really have faith? Have you really stepped out?
Have you really acted on what God has told you to do?
Are you living for this life or are you living for the next?
That's what it comes down to. Where are you?
Where are you making your fortune, here or there?
Because what it comes down to is faith.
What are you? What are you doing with faith?
What are you doing with what God's told you to do?
Do you just trust that God's going to do what he said he's
going to do and you'll, in obedience, step out and do what
he's told you to do? That's what faith is.
Let's pray. We'll get into a lesson on the
armor of God next week. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness. Thank you for the opportunity
that we have to be here. And I believe that this is this
is more than just teaching. It's it's it's preaching on this
idea of and helping us to understand that, that if we want
to accomplish anything for you, we've got to do it through
faith. May you help us.
May you help us to truly have faith, to trust you with
everything that you've entrusted with us, to trust you with our
finances, to trust you with our family, to trust you with the
boldness to to be a witness, to trust you with, with anything
that you've called us to do, to just step out and do it in
obedience. God, may you help us when our
faith is tested to continue to follow you and to continue to
live for you. I believe we're going into a
period in our history where our faith is going to be tested,
where we are going to have to make decisions whether or not we
really truly believe what we say we believe or not.
May you help us, you help us to endure, and may you, may you
strengthen us in our faith. Thank you again for all that you
do for us in Jesus name, Amen. All right, we'll stand and we'll
close in our song.