Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Hebrews 11:30-40 - Faith Through Persecution

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Hebrews 11:30-40 - Faith Through Persecution · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello there, faith for listeners, Welcome to the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast. On this absolutely lovely, lovely morning, I've
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  Speaker 1: got a delicious cup of coffee here with me today
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  Speaker 1: and I am just ready to delve into the last
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  Speaker 1: portion of Hebrews eleven. But before I do that, how
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  Speaker 1: are all of you? Guys? I love to hear from
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  Speaker 1: all of you, And of course, if you ever have
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  Speaker 1: a prayer request, please don't hesitate to reach out. You
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  Speaker 1: can find my contact information listed in the description of
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  Speaker 1: this episode, and I do read all of my emails.
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  Speaker 1: So please, if you have a prayer request, reach out
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  Speaker 1: and I will write you down in my prayer journal
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  Speaker 1: and I will pray for you for the week. Before
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  Speaker 1: we dive into this last portion of Hebrews eleven, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to play a sponsored ad for you, guys, and
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  Speaker 1: while that's playing, make sure to grab a delicious hot
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  Speaker 1: cup of coffee to share with me as we read this. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: now that you have listened to that sponsor, we are
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  Speaker 1: going to dive into Hebrews eleven Versus thirty through and
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  Speaker 1: we're going to finish out this last little portion that
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  Speaker 1: talks about the faith of some of these people again.
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven is lovingly called the Hall of Faith, So
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  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the faith of Rahab, the prostitute, Samson, Jeptha, David, Samuel,
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  Speaker 1: and a bunch of other people who dealt with a
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  Speaker 1: lot of problems in their life and yet still maintained
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  Speaker 1: faith throughout all of these things. So today's topic is
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  Speaker 1: how do you continue to have faith when things are very,
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  Speaker 1: very difficult? So let's read Hebrews eleven thirty through forty
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  Speaker 1: and finish out this chapter. I'm going to be reading
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  Speaker 1: from the NIV version today actually instead of the web
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  Speaker 1: like I usually do, but you faithful listeners feel free
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  Speaker 1: to read from whatever version you prefer this morning. And
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  Speaker 1: also let's share that delicious cup of coffee together as
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  Speaker 1: we give reverence to God's word by faith. The walls
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  Speaker 1: of Jericho fell after the army had marched around them
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  Speaker 1: for seven days by faith. The prostitute Rayhab, because she
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  Speaker 1: welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
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  Speaker 1: And what more shall I say? I don't have time
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  Speaker 1: to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephtha, about David
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  Speaker 1: and Samuel and the prophets who through faith, conquered kingdoms,
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  Speaker 1: administered justice, and gained what was promised. Who shut the
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  Speaker 1: mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and
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  Speaker 1: escaped the edge of the sword. Whose weakness was turned
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  Speaker 1: to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed
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  Speaker 1: foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
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  Speaker 1: There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released
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  Speaker 1: so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some
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  Speaker 1: faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They
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  Speaker 1: were put to death by stoning, and they were sawed
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  Speaker 1: in two. They were killed by the sword. They went
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  Speaker 1: about in sheepskins and goat skins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.
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  Speaker 1: The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in
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  Speaker 1: deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in
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  Speaker 1: the ground. These were all commended for their faith, Yet
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  Speaker 1: none of them received what had been promised, since God
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  Speaker 1: had planned something better for us, so that only together
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  Speaker 1: with us would they be made perfect. All right, I
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  Speaker 1: gotta take a sip of coffee here, because for some
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  Speaker 1: reason I am losing my voice this morning. This has
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  Speaker 1: been happening actually for the past couple of days, I'm
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  Speaker 1: like slowly losing my voice. Don't know what's going on there.
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  Speaker 1: But today we are finishing up this beautiful portion from
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven talking about all of these people and their
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  Speaker 1: faith testimonies that we read about in the Old Testament. Earlier,
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  Speaker 1: we talked about figures like Moses and Abraham and Sarah
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  Speaker 1: and Noah and Enoch, and even the Israelite nation from
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  Speaker 1: time to time had faith, and so on Tuesday, I
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  Speaker 1: talked about the definition of faith. Faith is something far
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  Speaker 1: more than believing. A lot of people think it's the
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  Speaker 1: exact same thing. In fact, faith and belief are often
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  Speaker 1: used as the same word, but it's not the same word.
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  Speaker 1: It means something very different. Belief is just believing in something.
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  Speaker 1: Faith is believing and actually acting on that belief. So
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  Speaker 1: it goes far deeper than belief. And you cannot please
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  Speaker 1: God without faith. Sure you can believe in him, but
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  Speaker 1: that's not going to please him until you actually act
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  Speaker 1: out that belief. And every single person mentioned in Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: eleven previously acted out their belief in some way or another,
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  Speaker 1: and we talked about the faith actions of all of
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  Speaker 1: these different people. So now in verse thirty it says
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  Speaker 1: by faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the army
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  Speaker 1: had marched around them for seven days. So you can
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  Speaker 1: see an action right here. You can see the belief
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  Speaker 1: that the people had. They knew that God was going
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  Speaker 1: to act on their behalf. They didn't know how exactly,
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  Speaker 1: but they had faith that if they walked around the
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  Speaker 1: walls of Jericho, however many times God told them to
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  Speaker 1: do it, that God would eventually do something to those walls.
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  Speaker 1: And that is exactly what happened. And I believe that's
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  Speaker 1: talked about in Joshua chapter three. So that is the
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  Speaker 1: story of how the people had just been wandering around
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness for forty years because they had no faith.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, that's the reason they had that punishment.
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  Speaker 1: But finally they go into the Promised Land, and now
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  Speaker 1: they are ready to act out in faith. They are
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  Speaker 1: done with the faithless days of wandering the wilderness. So
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  Speaker 1: now they listen to God for like the first time
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  Speaker 1: in their forty years in the wilderness, and they actually
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  Speaker 1: walk around the walls of Jericho. That was the first
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  Speaker 1: city that they had to take in order to enter
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land. And God told them specifically, you are
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  Speaker 1: not even going to lift your sword. You're not going
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  Speaker 1: to have to do anything to get inside of Jericho. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: just listen what I tell you to do. And God
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  Speaker 1: told them every single day for the next week, you
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  Speaker 1: must walk around the walls of Jericho, like march around them,
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  Speaker 1: be silent, don't make a peep, just walk around the
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  Speaker 1: walls and go back home. Do that every single day
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  Speaker 1: for seven days, and then on seventh day, walk around
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  Speaker 1: the walls seven times. And when I give the command, shout,
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  Speaker 1: shout very loudly, and the walls will come tumbling down.
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  Speaker 1: And that is exactly what the people did. And you
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  Speaker 1: can imagine, you know, being one of those those people
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  Speaker 1: in the army, you're probably like, what the heck is
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  Speaker 1: God asking us to do here? We just have to
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  Speaker 1: walk around the walls. That seems ridiculous, you know. I
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  Speaker 1: can imagine some people were thinking that, and yet they
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  Speaker 1: chose to have faith, and it was a patient kind
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  Speaker 1: of faith that they needed because for seven days, not
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  Speaker 1: seeing what God was doing, they were probably wondering, is
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  Speaker 1: this going to go on forever? Are we just going
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  Speaker 1: to keep walking around these walls every single day for
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  Speaker 1: the rest of our lives? They had no clue what
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  Speaker 1: God was asking, but they had a patient sort of faith,
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  Speaker 1: and they did, in fact do what God asked them
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  Speaker 1: to do, and the walls came tumbling down, just as
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  Speaker 1: God said they would on the seventh Day. Now, in
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  Speaker 1: verse thirty one talks about the faith of the prostitute rehab.
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  Speaker 1: It says by faith the prostitute rehab, because she welcomed
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  Speaker 1: the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
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  Speaker 1: So that is a story of a woman who actually
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  Speaker 1: lived in Jericho. She knew that God was supreme, she
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  Speaker 1: knew that the Israelites were coming to take that city,
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  Speaker 1: and she knew that she was going to die if
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  Speaker 1: she did not submit to the will of God. So
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  Speaker 1: when a couple Israelites spies came into Jericho to check
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  Speaker 1: out what is going on there, she received them into
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  Speaker 1: her home, into her business, which was a prostitute's house, right,
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  Speaker 1: and she hid them away from her own people. So
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  Speaker 1: in a sense, she was kind of a traitor, but
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  Speaker 1: she was doing what God told her to do. She
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  Speaker 1: was following the will of God, and she had true
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  Speaker 1: belief that God was going to give her city to
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  Speaker 1: the Israelite nation, and in that act of faith, going
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  Speaker 1: against her countrymen, hiding those spies and protecting them, making
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  Speaker 1: sure they had a way out. She and her family
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  Speaker 1: were the only ones that survived this takeover of Jericho.
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  Speaker 1: And it was really amazing. That entire story that's talked
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  Speaker 1: about in Joshua chapter two, if you're interested in reading
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  Speaker 1: about that. But here's what Hebrews eleven thirty two says,
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  Speaker 1: what more shall I say? I don't have time to
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  Speaker 1: tell about Gideon, Barack, Samson, and Jeptha, about David and
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  Speaker 1: Samuel and the prophets. So the author is like, I
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  Speaker 1: could go on for hours and hours and hours about
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  Speaker 1: the faith of all of these different individuals, and he
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  Speaker 1: starts by mentioning all these judges. He mentions Gideon. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Gideon was one of the more famous judges in Israel's history.
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  Speaker 1: He started out very cowardly, but through his faith, God
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  Speaker 1: worked through him amazingly, defeating an entire nation with only
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  Speaker 1: like two hundred men or something. That was Gideon's faith story.
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  Speaker 1: Then there was Barak. Now he was not a judge,
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  Speaker 1: though he probably should have been. He was the guy
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  Speaker 1: that went out to war during the days of Deborah,
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  Speaker 1: who was the only female judge, because Deborah told Barak,
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  Speaker 1: She's like, stop being a chicken, be a man, and
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  Speaker 1: go do what God calls you to do. And Barack
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  Speaker 1: did it. And yes, you know, the nation of Israel
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  Speaker 1: was protected through Barack and through some women as well.
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  Speaker 1: Then there was Samson. He is one of the most
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  Speaker 1: notorious judges, known for his womanizing, but yet he had
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  Speaker 1: faith and was able to do amazing things. Then there
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  Speaker 1: was Jeptha, who was another notorious judge who is known
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  Speaker 1: for keeping his vow of sacrificing his daughter to God,
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  Speaker 1: which never should have happened. That was a terrible thing
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  Speaker 1: in Israel's history, But yet he had faith and was
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  Speaker 1: able to actually save the Israelites from I think it
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  Speaker 1: was the Moabites at that time. Then there was David,
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  Speaker 1: again a known womanizer, a murderer, an adulterer, And yet
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  Speaker 1: we know the story of David and how much faith
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  Speaker 1: he had and how he was able to subdue kingdoms.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the Philistine were never the same after David.
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  Speaker 1: They were very powerful before David, and David destroyed them
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  Speaker 1: to a level that they were never really able to recover.
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  Speaker 1: They never had as much power after David became king
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  Speaker 1: and all of these men listed here, they have these
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  Speaker 1: big sins, and yet God worked through these men because
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  Speaker 1: they had faith. And that's the thing, you know, just
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  Speaker 1: because we have faith doesn't mean we aren't still sinful individuals.
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  Speaker 1: But it's our faith that God works through. In all
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  Speaker 1: of those men just listed had amazing faith in the
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  Speaker 1: power of God, and through that faith God worked. God
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  Speaker 1: came through and allowed these men to do amazing things
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  Speaker 1: which the author is going to go on to talk
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  Speaker 1: about here. He says in verse thirty three, through faith,
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  Speaker 1: they conquered kingdoms, administer justice, gained what was promised, and
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  Speaker 1: shut the mouths of lions. You can imagine that he's
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  Speaker 1: thinking of Daniel right there, the guy who was thrown
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  Speaker 1: into the lions den and yet shut the mouths of
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  Speaker 1: the lions through his faith quenched the fury of flames.
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  Speaker 1: Now that one is probably talking about Shadrak, Meshach and Abednego,
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  Speaker 1: the three men who defied King Nebekenezar of Babylon. And
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  Speaker 1: the king was so furious with these three men for
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  Speaker 1: their defiance because the king was expecting them to worship
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  Speaker 1: somebody other than Yahweh. And when these three men refused
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  Speaker 1: to do it. The king threw them into this fiery
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  Speaker 1: furnace that was so hot that actually the men who
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  Speaker 1: threw them in died from the flames. These three men,
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  Speaker 1: through their faith, came out of that fire completely unscathed.
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  Speaker 1: This is my own words, because I didn't look up
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  Speaker 1: the verse. But they said, King, we will not bow
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  Speaker 1: down to your gods. We only worship Yahweh. And God
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  Speaker 1: can save us from the fiery pit. But even if
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't save us from the fiery furnace, we will
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  Speaker 1: never bow down to you or to your gods. Beautiful
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  Speaker 1: verse and guess what. They were saved from the fiery furnace,
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  Speaker 1: and that was a testimony to King Nebekinezer. Then, continuing
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  Speaker 1: in verse thirty four, says they escaped the edge of
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  Speaker 1: the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I think about the judges. You know, a couple of
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  Speaker 1: these guys, Gideon and Brocks specifically, were very cowardly men.
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  Speaker 1: They did not want to step up and do anything really,
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  Speaker 1: and yet because they had faith, God turned their weakness
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  Speaker 1: into boldness and they were able to conquer kingdoms. Because
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  Speaker 1: of their faith in Yahweh, they became powerful in battle.
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  Speaker 1: Is what it says, and they routed foreign armies. Then
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  Speaker 1: it mentions in verse thirty five women received back. They're
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  Speaker 1: dead raised to life again. Now that's talked about in
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  Speaker 1: two different portions. First is the Shunamite woman who was
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  Speaker 1: alive during the days of Elisha. Her little son died,
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  Speaker 1: but because she had deep faith in Yahweh, she actually
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  Speaker 1: didn't even talk to her husband about it. She knew
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  Speaker 1: that her son had died, and she immediately takes the
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  Speaker 1: carriage and goes and finds Elisha and she says, Elisha,
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  Speaker 1: my son is dead. And that was faith that she
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  Speaker 1: went to a man of God to talk about her
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  Speaker 1: son's death before she even tells her husband or anybody
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  Speaker 1: else about it. And through that faith, her son was
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  Speaker 1: raised from the dead. You can see so far that
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  Speaker 1: all of these faith stories, these men and women, they
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  Speaker 1: did something. They didn't just stay silent. They didn't just say, oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I believe in God, but I'm going to sit here
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  Speaker 1: and not do anything about it. No, they all acted
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  Speaker 1: on faith. In the case of Rehab, she accepted those
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  Speaker 1: spies into the land and made sure that they got
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  Speaker 1: out safely, though she would have been killed if the
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  Speaker 1: people of Jericho found out that she did that, she
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  Speaker 1: would have been killed, yet she still did it. Gideon
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  Speaker 1: and Brock, Samson and Jeptha and all these other judges,
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  Speaker 1: they acted on their faith by going out to battle,
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  Speaker 1: even if they were afraid. In the case of Daniel
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  Speaker 1: and Shadrack, Mishak and Abednego, they acted in faith by
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  Speaker 1: defying the orders of the king. They said, we will
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  Speaker 1: only worship Yahweh. And Daniel was thrown into lions den
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  Speaker 1: and Shadrack, Mishak and a Bendigo were thrown into the
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  Speaker 1: pit of fire. They survived it. They acted on their faith.
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  Speaker 1: They were obedient. They truly believed to the point of
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  Speaker 1: putting themselves in danger. They believed that God was on
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  Speaker 1: their side. The reason the author is concluding with these
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  Speaker 1: faith stories is because it is scary to act out
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  Speaker 1: in faith. It is far more comfortable to say, oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I believe in God and do nothing more with it.
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  Speaker 1: Not change your lifestyle, not read your Bible, not talk
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  Speaker 1: about Jesus because you're afraid of persecution. And I get
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  Speaker 1: all this. You know for me, it is very difficult
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  Speaker 1: for me to evangelize. And you might be like jen
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  Speaker 1: you have a podcast, right, But I'm not talking to
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  Speaker 1: people face to face. It is very different when you
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  Speaker 1: sit down with somebody and you talk with them face
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  Speaker 1: to face. It's much easier to sit here in my
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  Speaker 1: office technically alone other than with my dogs and talk
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  Speaker 1: about my faith here. But when you get in front
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  Speaker 1: of somebody and you start evangelizing to them, man, that
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  Speaker 1: is such a difficult conversation to have because you don't
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  Speaker 1: know how you're going to be rejected. It is so
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  Speaker 1: much easier to just sit at home and not do
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  Speaker 1: anything and not be hurt and not act out your faith.
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  Speaker 1: But God is only pleased through faith. We can only
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  Speaker 1: get close to God through faith. That is what it
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  Speaker 1: says earlier in Hebrews eleven, verse six. Without faith, it
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  Speaker 1: is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to
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  Speaker 1: him must believe that He exists and that he rewards
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  Speaker 1: those who earnestly seek him. We have to have faith
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  Speaker 1: in order to truly be pleasing to God. So let's
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  Speaker 1: finish out these faith stories here. In verse thirty six,
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  Speaker 1: it says some faced jeers and flogging, even chains and imprisonment.
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  Speaker 1: They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed
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  Speaker 1: in two You know, the prophet Isaiah. Church history says
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  Speaker 1: that he was sawn in two that's how he died.
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  Speaker 1: And this is extreme persecution now that this author is
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  Speaker 1: getting at. They were killed by the sword. They went
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  Speaker 1: about in sheep skins and goat skins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated.
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  Speaker 1: The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in
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  Speaker 1: deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in
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  Speaker 1: the ground. Some of these people still kept the faith
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  Speaker 1: in spite of this extreme persecution where they were literally
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  Speaker 1: being targeted because of their faith in Jesus and Man.
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  Speaker 1: I think about the faith stories of people nowadays. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. I
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  Speaker 1: read this magazine called The Voice of the Martyrs. I
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  Speaker 1: get it every single month, and interestingly enough, I'm looking
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  Speaker 1: at a copy of it right now. The things these
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  Speaker 1: people across the world deal with, you know, they're family
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  Speaker 1: members being taken from them, extreme rapings, persecutions, terrible things,
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  Speaker 1: and yet they still hold onto the faith to reach
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  Speaker 1: people that don't know Jesus in some of the worst
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  Speaker 1: circumstances imaginable. I think last month I read a story
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  Speaker 1: about a man who lives in China, and he was
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  Speaker 1: producing Bibles in Chinese and that is illegal to do
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  Speaker 1: in China, you know, so a lot of people don't
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  Speaker 1: understand or know how bad it is for Christians in China.
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  Speaker 1: It is very terrible. This man was producing these Bibles
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  Speaker 1: in Chinese and distributing them kind of like underground. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the Chinese government found out about it and just took
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  Speaker 1: him from his home, and his wife didn't even know
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  Speaker 1: he was gone. She had no clue where he went.
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  Speaker 1: And she was home alone with two children that had
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  Speaker 1: no clue where her husband was, and the government wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: tell her anything. She didn't know if her husband was
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  Speaker 1: dead or alive, or where he was. She did not know.
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  Speaker 1: And yet she kept on with what her husband was doing.
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  Speaker 1: She was still distributing those Bibles, not knowing if her
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  Speaker 1: husband was ever going to come home or what had
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  Speaker 1: happened to him, with two children by the way, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: thankfully her husband did eventually come home. Can you imagine
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  Speaker 1: having that kind of faith here in America? You know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: in America we do think we're persecuted, and in some ways,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: you know, yes we are. Jesus said that if you're
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: going to follow me, you're going to suffer through persecutions.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: People aren't going to like it. People will reject you,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: they will make fun of you, they will say things
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: behind your back. In more extreme circumstances, they might put
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: you in prison. They might take all of your possessions
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: from you. They might take your family members from you.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: They might kill you. They might kill your family members,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: They might torture you. These things are going to happen
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: if you live out your faith, and that makes a
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: lot of people want to give up and not live
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: out faith. But in spite of the scary things that
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: these people deal with, they also did amazing things through
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: their faith. They quenched the fury of flames, they escaped
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the edge of the sword, their weakness was turned into
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: they became powerful in battle. They closed the mouths of lions.
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  Speaker 1: These are all things that Christians do when they actually
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: act out their faith. But in verses thirty nine and
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  Speaker 1: forty to conclude, it says these were all commended for
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  Speaker 1: their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,
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  Speaker 1: since God had planned something better for us, so that
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: only together with us would they be made perfect. Even
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: though these people had such amazing faith, where we can
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: look back on their stories and be encouraged by them
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: when we are facing our own problems because of our faith. Nowadays,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: in the New Testament side of stuff, we have even
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: more of a reason to act out our faith because
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: we have been granted the promise that these people did
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: not receive, that promise being Jesus the Messiah coming to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: earth and saving us from our sins. It says, God
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: plans something better for all of us, so that only
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: together with us, Us, with us Christians, with they, all
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: those people in the Old Testament be made perfect. So yeah,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in spite of all that faith that those people had,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: they were not made perfect or made complete until Jesus came.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And now all of us share in that blessing. So
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: we have even more of a reason to be faithful
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: than these people did back in the old days. They
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: didn't see the promise, they didn't understand the Messiah, they
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: didn't know who he was gonna be, and yet they
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: still had faith in Yahweh and still had faith in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the Messiah. Since you and I can see the promise
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that God gave us, since you and I understand the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: mystery of the Messiah, we have far more reason to
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: be faithful and to act out our faith now, and
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to share the Gospel with people with boldness, not being scared,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: not just sitting on our couches doing nothing with our lives,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: but truly going out there and doing something with this
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: knowledge of Jesus that we have. I believe in this
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: entire chapter the author is trying to encourage us us
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to get off of our butts, stop being afraid of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: what could happen if we live out our faith, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: actually go and live out our faith, using the examples
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of these people from the Old Testament who lived out
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: their faith in spite of not even knowing what the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: promise was, and they were able to accomplish amazing things. Yes,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: they had difficult lives, some of them did die through persecution,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: but they knew that God was with them, and they
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't just stay silent when they knew who Yahweh was,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: when they knew that the Messiah was coming, they couldn't
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: stay silent. So we shouldn't stay silent all the more. Alrighty,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, here's one last sponsored ad before I say
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: goodbye to all of you guys. Okay, so here's my
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: call to action, because you guys know that I try
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to do a call to action in a lot of
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: my episodes. The call to action I have for you
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: guys today is don't stay silent. Do something today to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: show the love of Jesus to somebody that might not
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: know who he is. It could be anything. It could
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: be saying Jesus loves you to the waitress and leaving
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: her a better tip. It could be helping somebody that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: needs help on a Saturday when you want to sit
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: at home and do nothing, and I completely get that life.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: But it could be going out and actually serving somebody
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: instead of looking to your own comfort. It could be
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: just sharing the Gospel with somebody, sitting down to have
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: lunch with them and talking about your faith. So act
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: out on your faith today, whatever that might look like,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and look for opportunities to do that and ask God, Hey, God,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: please send me an opportunity today to act out my
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: faith and see what God does with that request. Faithful listeners,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day. Now,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: hopefully I'll see all of you guys on Monday for
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: an episode from Ezra, because, as you all know, Fridays
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: is for the members right now we are going through
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the Book of the Psalms. It's been a fantastic ride,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and I have almost ninety additional episodes available for all
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of you guys. You choose to upgrade from being a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: faithful listener to a faithful member, you can find out
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: how to do that by clicking the link that says
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Koffee in the description of this episode. But faithful listeners,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. If
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I don't see you guys tomorrow, I'll see all of
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you on Monday for an episode from Ezra. Until then,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: happy listening and God bless. I just want to take
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at Life Audio for
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: if you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.