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Hebrews 11:32-40 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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He is the fulfillment of them, and He is better than them.
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And the writer is trying to show his audience that they need to turn to Christ.
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!
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Just hold your hand in Hebrews 11, but look at chapter 6 really quick, and verse 12.
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And I think this is the reason for why He goes through this long, ongoing list of people.
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But He introduces faith, and He desires His readers to be like what we see in verse 12 of chapter 6,
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to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.
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So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit promises.
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So He's about to give you like examples of those types of people, which is pretty awesome.
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So it's great for me to kind of latch on to someone who's real, someone who was broken and fallen like me,
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and see how God enabled them to live in this crazy world.
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And it says that they went through a lot.
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They suffered, but they endured through their faith, and they inherited the promises of God.
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So that's what we want to look at today.
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If you go back to Hebrews 11, probably one of the theme verses we see in just the first verse of chapter 11.
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It says,
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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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And so, God used this verse really in a big way in my early Christian life,
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as my physical body was fraying away and dying,
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and all my hopes that I was really looking forward to, like going to college,
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maybe finding a wife, maybe starting a family, maybe going to the military.
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All that just was dying.
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Like it was like it's not going to happen.
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And so, Lord, use this verse to help me realize that there is another world,
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an eternal realm that we need to put our minds on.
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And the word we see, assurance, the assurance of things hoped for,
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translates confidence, conviction.
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And this means that faith, biblical faith, is not just wishful thinking.
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It's not some sort of really vague, low-key hope that things would just work out the way we want it,
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not grounded in imaginary thinking.
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Instead, and I gave this definition last week, if you want a definition,
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I think of what really describes what our biblical faith is.
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It says, it's the definition,
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Faith is a settled confidence that something in the future,
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something that is not yet seen, but God has promised,
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will actually come to pass because God will bring it to pass.
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It's a long definition.
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Faith is a settled confidence that something in the future,
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something that is not yet seen, but has been promised by God,
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will actually come to pass because God will bring it to pass.
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He delivers upon His word.
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He is true to what He says.
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He never disappoints.
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He never lets down.
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If He has promised it, then He will bring it to pass.
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So thus, biblical faith is not this leap in the dark,
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contrary to actual evidence that we see before us.
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It's not a blind faith,
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rather a real confident trust in sovereign Almighty God to deliver upon His word.
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I hope this is how you view faith.
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God will never leave us or forsake us.
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And He's promised that what He says about these people in this chapter are also true for the new covenant believer.
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The same God that allowed them to endure by their faith,
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we now have that confidence as well as we receive Christ.
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So, you're going to be happy.
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Here's the good news.
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There's only two points.
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The bad news is they're really long points.
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So, but the first point, number one, is that God gives some faith to triumph.
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God gives some faith to triumph.
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And we're going to walk through our text.
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Our text, yeah, I failed expository preaching 101 here.
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I didn't read the text first, right?
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So, we're going to start in verse 32.
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That's where we pick up today.
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Verse 32.
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It says,
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And what more shall I say?
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For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepheth, of David, of Samuel, the prophets,
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who through their faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire,
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escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
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Women received back their dead by resurrection.
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Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.
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Others suffered mocking, flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
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They were stoned.
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They were sawn in two.
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They were killed with the sword.
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They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy.
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They were in the midst of the city, wandering about in the deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
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And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.
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Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
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So, here's our text.
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So, a kind of a turn when we get to verse 35, right?
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But, point number one, God gives some faith to triumph.
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And we see this in verse 32, through the first part of verse 35.
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Time would fail me, he says.
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In other words, I could go on and on and on, but I would run out of time and I would run out of ink
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to tell you of all the examples of people that God used in this temporal realm to accomplish his purpose through their faith.
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A lot of these men who are listed in the first few verses are judges.
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Apart from David, who is the only king, and the prophets.
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So, as we walk through this, it says, I think that this is significant that he focuses on the time of the judges.
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And any of you who know your Bible know that the theme of that whole dark time in the nation of Israel's history
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was in those days, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
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That was the theme of that whole time period.
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A very terrible, terrible period.
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And God, the cycle began of God's people rebelling against him, looking to idols and sin.
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God sending in a foreign pagan nation to judge them, to rule over them.
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The people would repent and weep over their sin and turn back to God.
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God would send a judge to deliver them.
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And they would be delivered.
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That was just the cycle that just kept going and going.
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But I think he's trying to say, in the midst of such an unbelieving, idolatrous, rebellious generation,
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these men are remembered.
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And so, pay attention to them.
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They're remembered while many others have been forgotten.
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The first you see in our text, he mentions Gideon.
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Gideon, who trusted God, if you remember, against the Midianites,
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he had an army originally of about 32,000.
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And God reduced it twice until it was 300 men to face this massive, massive army.
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And why did God do that?
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That's kind of a crazy military tactic.
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But in Judges 7, verse 2, this is why.
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God said to Gideon,
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The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hand,
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lest Israel boast over me, saying,
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My own hand has saved me.
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So God wanted to set the stage that it would be 100% clear
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that if they won this battle, it was because of God,
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not because of anything they had.
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And so, have you lived a life like that?
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That is a prayer that I pray with my wife a few times.
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Like, God set this up in such a way that there's no other explanation
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for what happened apart from you.
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There's none.
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No earthly explanation.
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Do you pray like that, or do you pray in what is achievable?
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What do you think is realistic?
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I'm going to pray in those grounds so that I'm not disappointed.
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But, as we know, God gave Gideon the victory over the Midianites,
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and God took all the credit as he should.
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He took tremendous faith.
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Can you imagine hearing that?
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Like, we're doing something down to 300.
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Like, it's a huge, huge feat of faith.
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And it wasn't for Gideon.
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It was so that God would be glorified.
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Barak, or Barak, is the next one mentioned.
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He obeyed God's word through the judge Deborah,
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and likewise defeated another pagan army that was really mighty,
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900 chariots of iron, which would have been a big deal back then.
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That would be like saying 900 Abrams tanks coming at you.
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And so, he chose to trust the Lord, and God gave him victory during the time of the judge Deborah.
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He was faithful to God's command.
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That's Judges 4, verse 6.
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And then we see Samson mentioned, which most of us don't normally think of Samson as a good example of someone to maybe imitate,
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because he was empowered by God, but he frittered away that power.
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He used it very, at his own leisure, and indulged in some very sinful things that God had forbidden.
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And his assumption was, God is with me, so it's going to be okay.
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Until God judged him by pulling that strength from him, right?
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And humbled him, broke him.
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And God had promised originally that he was going to give Samson power to defeat the enemies of Israel and the Philistines.
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And he did for a long time.
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Until God, again, in judgment, sort of removed that power, Samson is humbled.
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As one writer said, there's a subterranean substance to Samson's faith.
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I like that.
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It's kind of undergirding.
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So we just see his mistakes more than anything.
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But that's the point of this.
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These people aren't supposed to be these conquering heroes that we're supposed to love and worship.
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The point is they're screwed up, broken men that God chose to do something through to accomplish his purpose.
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So, by faith.
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Their faith is what remembered.
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So, remember the last little act, Judges 16.
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God gave Samson one more feat of strength to take down the Philistines.
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And by faith, that was accomplished.
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Jephtheth, the next one mentioned.
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It's crazy he's mentioned, right?
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He's sort of the Hebrew Robin Hood, if you would, who was called back, again, to defend the nation.
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And by faith, he did so.
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By faith, he conquered.
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So, David.
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Most of us are very familiar with David.
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The only king mentioned in this list, but he grew up, right, in the time of the Judges.
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And then was around for the first king.
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King Saul mentioned significant man whose name resounds throughout both the Old and New Testament.
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David.
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The offspring of David.
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David.
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Tremendous faith.
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Trust and confidence in God.
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So many of your psalms are written by this man.
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So, just hear his heartbeat.
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And Samuel, who said of David, right, the Lord has sought out, the Lord has seeked out, pursued, desired a man after his own heart.
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And David's faith screamed at Goliath, so that all people would know that the Lord saves, not with the sword or spear.
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For the battle is the Lord's.
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And he said to Goliath, he will give you into my hand.
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So, what gutsy, gutsy faith.
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This man has spat upon the honor and glory of my God.
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And he's going to die.
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Like, poor guy.
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Like, he was not really confident in his own ability, but in faith in God.
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Samuel mentioned next in our list.
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One of my favorites.
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His entire life from a young boy, he grew up loving and serving the Lord.
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What an example.
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In a time of so much corruption in the priesthood and corruption in the religious establishment,
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he stood and was faithful.
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By his faith.
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And he, you might not meet a bolder prophet.
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He says some really gutsy things to King Saul, who really in power had the power to kill him.
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But he stood toe to toe and was like, thus says the Lord.
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Thus says the Lord.
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In a humble and bold way.
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So, he was faithful in the time of Saul, David, Israel.
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Then lastly, he mentions the prophets.
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Refers to either the ones who wrote the prophetic books or men that are mentioned in the narratives like Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.
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They're men who clearly live lives of faith.
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But remember that all these men, if you go back and read about them, they're broken.
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They did some stuff that you would just think should not be done by a true follower of God.
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But then he goes on in our verse, our text.
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We see that they have this conquering faith.
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It says, through their faith, through the lives of these men.
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So, not their status, their authority, or their great deeds.
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They conquered kingdoms.
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Right?
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Just go back and read the great things that were accomplished for God's purposes.
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It says that they enforced justice or they worked righteousness.
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They, especially during the time of the judges, when so much wickedness and law-breaking and serious stuff was going on,
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they enforced the law of God in those places.
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It says they obtained promises.
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You see that in your text?
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So, we see that he added some people, right?
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They obtained the promises.
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They have the added blessing of seeing the fruit of their faith.
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We're not promised that.
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Some of you have faith in asking God to do something that you might not really see the result of until the next life.
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Are you okay with that?
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Some people obtain those promises.
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They see them.
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And it says, others stopped the mouths of lions.
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Which I would think, maybe like to think, refers to humble Daniel in chapter 6.
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Like he was thrown into the lion's den.
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And by faith, he trusted the Lord to preserve him.
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And they stopped the mouths of the lions.
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Although, Samson and David also faced lions.
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Right?
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And others by faith, keep reading, quench the power of fire.
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I think, again, this probably refers to the story in Daniel of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.
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Are there Hebrew names?
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Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
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When they were forced to bow the knee to the idol that the king had set up.
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And they refused.
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They refused.
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And they actually said to the king, one of my favorite lines in the Old Testament.
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Like, this is what faith does.
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If it be so, our God, who we serve, is able to deliver us from your hand.
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Like, he has the power.
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He is the one who rules right now.
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In this moment.
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It sounds like Jesus, right?
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Talking to Pilate like, you don't have any control here.
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You're not the ultimate say-so of what happens.
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Our God is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.
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And he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
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This is the great part.
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But, even if he doesn't, know it to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods.
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Or worship the golden image that you have set up.
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Daniel 3, 17-18.
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Right?
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What great faith.
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Faith says, I know God can do it.
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But, even if he doesn't, I'm not going to give in.
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I'm not going to bow the knee to idols of this world.
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Crazy, solid faith.
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Some prophets, as we keep reading.
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Now, don't miss this.
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This is going to be referred to later.
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Escape the edge of the sword.
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Right?
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God delivered them from immediate peril.
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And, not in their own power, right?
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They were weak.
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They were helpless.
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But, in faith, made strong out of weakness.
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All these men were weak men.
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Goes on.
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One more example of faith that's kind of thrown in here.
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The first part of verse 35.
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Whoever did the number breaks, this irritates me.
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Because, it seems like it would belong like in this next, the previous run.
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Chapters and verses are not inspired by God.
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Just the text is.
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But, helpful.
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Helpful all the less.
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But, it says, women receive back their dead by resurrection.
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So, did you know that?
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I've had some modern day faith here where, say, hey, Jesus came so that we could even be raised from the dead.
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Like, Jesus ushered in this idea of being raised from the dead.
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And, like, God's been doing that way before Lazarus.
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Because, it's God's power.
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Not the faith of the individual.
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Right?
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But, more than likely, referring to Elijah, when he was moved by compassion for the widow, Zarephath, when her son died.
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And, he interceded and prayed in faith that God would restore the boy.
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And, he was risen from the dead.
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From the dead.
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And, likewise, very similar, Elisha.
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We get it, Elijah.
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Elisha.
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Or, in Ireland, Elisha.
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Kind of helps me keep the difference.
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It's moved by faith.
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He raised the dead son of the Shunammite widow.
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Brought her son back from the dead.
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That's 2 Kings chapter 4.
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So, we see resurrection from the dead just didn't start with Lazarus.
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But, God is doing such great acts to bring glory to his name long before that time.
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But, I want to ask a question.
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So, when you and I think about what we desire to be the outcome of our faith.
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My hope is in this.
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I want this.
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This is the result.
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I would like my faith to have.
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When we think about that.
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We want our faith to look like what we just read about.
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Conquest.
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Walking right over trials and hardships.
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All these great things that are just mentioned.
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That's where we want our faith to be most of the time.
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I don't want to suffer.
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I want to be delivered.
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I don't want to die.
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I want to be healed.
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Etc.
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But, this gets to point number two.
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So, remember the point.
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Point number one.
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God.
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There's point number two.
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Sorry.
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God gives some faith to persevere.
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God gives some faith to persevere.
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We see this starting in the first part.
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Our second part of verse 35 into verse 38.
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So, it's almost like the writer saying.
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Lest you think that faith in God means that he always will grant you what you want.
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Just in case you think that faith is always going to have a successful worldly outcome.
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So, you're not tempted to think that.
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Let me tell you about another list that's going to follow.
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I love this.
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Turn.
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So, like you're going, yes, yes, yes.
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And you go, oh, gosh.
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Like right after this.
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See in verse, the second part of verse 35.
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God gives some faith to persevere in persecution.
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Some were tortured, refusing to accept release.
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Others suffered mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment.
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Many of God's people, right, suffered greatly because of their faith in him.
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In the face of beating and tortures, all sorts of things.
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What's very interesting is it says they refused to accept release.
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So, that makes me think that the key to them escaping their pain was to renounce the faith that was putting them in there in the first place.
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They refused.
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Instead, they were tortured.
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Even in chains, flogging.
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Flogging.
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They refused to accept release.
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So, out on our table, you go out to the hall and turn left and see the little thing right there by the stairs.
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There's a whole stack of magazines out there from Voices of the Martyrs.
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It's like, after a day, let them all be gone.
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They've been there for a while.
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Like, pick one up and read about the hardship and persecution of our brothers and sisters around the world.
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And see if later on, when you're hungry because you haven't eaten in five hours, if you're, like, considering that true suffering.
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It's very hard.
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I won't even use the word persecution about myself, you know, when I read about their lives.
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And don't miss this.
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It says that, so that they might rise again to a better life.
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And the literal is obtain a better resurrection.
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Meaning that, resurrections in the Old Testament that were just mentioned.
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Or just simply having their mortal life restored, which is great.
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But a better resurrection is the one that we hope in.
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This mortal body is dying.
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Earlier, a brother Caleb read in 1 Corinthians 15 that mortal flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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This is going to die.
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Because of sin.
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And I'm kind of glad.
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I hate this body.
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And it's caused me a lot of trouble.
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But God's used it.
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So, a better resurrection.
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A glorified new body.
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They died in hopes that they would receive a better resurrection.
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Right?
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Going on.
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We see that.
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God gives some the faith to persevere in death.
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Right?
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Listen to this.
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They were stoned.
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They were sawn in two.
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And they were killed with the sword.
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Wait a minute.
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By faith, they were stoned and sawn in two?
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The sawn in two part.
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More than likely.
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It's thinking about the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah.
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More than likely.
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Extra-biblical literature, historical sources say this was what happened to them.
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Jeremiah, who for decades declared God's word faithfully to a perishing, idolatrous nation.
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Go read Jeremiah.
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Read Lamentations.
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He's called the weeping prophet.
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Right?
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And so, by some modern-day ways of judging successful ministries, numbers, crowds, statistics.
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This guy failed.
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Jeremiah, they would have fired him on the spot.
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Like, dude, you are way too bold.
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People are going to run away.
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You would say, dude, you're the weeping prophet?
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Like, what kind of faith do you have?
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Your faith is weak, man.
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If your faith was stronger, surely the whole nation would turn in repentance.
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But you're screwing it up.
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Your faith is too weak.
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Not at all.
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Not at all.
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He was bold.
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And he suffered because of it.
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Isaiah, probably my favorite Old Testament book alongside Psalms.
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Isaiah faithfully spoke the word of God to kings and to the nations of Judah and Jerusalem.
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And no other prophet foresaw as much, I think, of the coming Messiah as Isaiah did.
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What a faithful guy.
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700 years before Jesus was describing him in such language that it almost is even better than any description of Jesus in the New Testament.
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Almost.
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More than likely, faithful Isaiah was sawn in two by the wicked king, Manasseh.
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According to the scriptures, other prophets were stoned.
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We know that Stephen, in the very beginning of the book of Acts, was stoned for his faith.
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And I want you to catch this.
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It says, many by faith were killed with the sword.
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Which is astounding is just earlier, if you just look back a few verses, it says some escaped the edge of the sword.
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So what's the difference?
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So why did the previous mention of the sword, like in verse 34, was their faith greater than the people's faith in verse 37?
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So that's why they escaped the sword, was they had more faith?
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Nope.
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Both faced the sword in faith.
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And God, in his own counsel, decided to allow one to live and decided to bring the other one into glory.
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Even better reward.
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This is such a punch in the face to the health, prosperity gospel.
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Right?
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God decides.
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So God gives some the faith to persevere.
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And our next part, in deprivation.
29:29
Deprivation.
29:30
They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.
29:36
Such were the lifestyles of many of God's faithful, including prophets like Elisha.
29:42
Many of God's faithful who wandered about in the deserts and mountains.
29:47
So wait a minute.
29:48
No mansions.
29:49
Expensive cars.
29:51
Fine, fine jewelry.
29:53
Fancy clothes.
29:55
Nice toys.
29:56
Nope.
29:57
Nope.
29:58
Like what a kick in the midriff of that kind of gospel that goes around.
30:02
If you just trust God enough, have enough faith, and you do these things, you're going to have all this materialism and all this stuff.
30:12
Right?
30:13
Such a kick to that kind of prosperity gospel.
30:17
It says in Psalm 107, verse 4, talking about God's people.
30:23
Some wandered in the desert.
30:26
Finding no way to a city to dwell in.
30:29
Hungry and thirsty, they fainted.
30:32
Their soul fainted within them.
30:35
And we look at our last little part of this.
30:37
And this is, if I had a title message, I normally don't.
30:40
And usually the title of the message is Hebrews chapter 11.
30:43
So it's men of whom the world is not worthy.
30:47
Verse 38.
30:49
So that these people, these men or women who are mentioned, the world was not worthy of them.
30:57
Their presence, their very presence in this dark world was itself evidence of God's grace.
31:05
For their lives and their witness of God to a sinful people was the greatest privilege that those people could have had.
31:14
God gave this broken world such people to look at.
31:19
So that is amazing.
31:23
They mentioned that they love God so much, right?
31:28
So some questions for you.
31:29
Do you wish that to be said of you, that the world was not worthy of the kind of life you live by faith in the Son of God?
31:40
And could you live such a heavenly, eternal mindset?
31:47
When people think about you, that's what they think about.
31:49
That person was like from a different planet.
31:52
They didn't really, they weren't concerned about the things of this world.
31:56
They might have engaged in them.
31:58
They might have done some of these things, but they didn't love them.
32:01
They didn't, they could have just dropped it and moved on.
32:04
Chances are I'll probably watch them in the Super Bowl tonight.
32:06
But you know what?
32:06
I'm not going to lose any sleep over who loses and who wins.
32:09
It's just temporal glory, right?
32:14
So if your close friends and family were asked, and they said,
32:19
does your lifestyle reveal a great love for this world or for the world to come?
32:26
What would they say?
32:28
They may say, does he look like a pilgrim passing through this world?
32:32
So he uses the things of this world and he engages in the things of this world.
32:37
But really his mind and his purpose is in a different direction.
32:43
He's setting his place not on the here and now.
32:47
Could look in Hebrews 11, chapter 6, or verse 16.
32:51
Just rewind a few verses.
32:53
And I want you to insert the pronouns you and your in this.
32:59
Could it be said of you that you desire a better country?
33:05
That is a heavenly one.
33:08
And therefore God is not ashamed to be called your God.
33:12
For he has prepared for you a city.
33:15
Man.
33:16
There's so many things in this world that are just like calling for our attention.
33:21
Fighting for our affection.
33:22
Like invest here.
33:24
Are you able to not invest there?
33:28
To keep your mind on the eternal and unseen by faith?
33:33
Scripture says that we are pilgrims.
33:35
We are traveling through a foreign land, which is this world.
33:37
And we're going to a sacred place, to Zion.
33:42
We are strangers.
33:43
We are neither friend or acquaintance of this world.
33:46
We're meant to not, though we live in this world, we're not to befriend it.
33:50
We are aliens in this world.
33:54
Our true home and family and allegiance lies somewhere else other than here.
34:01
We're ambassadors.
34:02
We represent another king to this other world.
34:06
Right?
34:06
We are ambassadors for Christ in this foreign land.
34:10
So the concluding verses.
34:13
Man, running out of time.
34:15
This may be one of those times we go over a little bit.
34:16
So, sorry.
34:18
Verse 39 and 40.
34:20
And of all these, the concluding verse,
34:23
though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
34:28
since God had provided something better for us,
34:31
that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
34:36
So all these people, as great as their lives were,
34:38
they only received preliminary glimpses of what was promised.
34:43
See that in verse 13.
34:44
And at the same time, they anticipated something greater that was going to come.
34:51
Something greater.
34:52
Something better.
34:54
Referring to the new covenant realities that we have by faith in the Son of God.
34:59
And though we're waiting for our eternal perfection,
35:05
it was like they hoped in that eternal perfection.
35:09
But now that Christ has come, he's ushered in this time,
35:11
and we both are going to be made perfect together in the life to come.
35:16
Right?
35:17
We look back to Christ, and they look forward to Christ.
35:30
And all that is united together in Christ.
35:34
So, a lot of other really things I'd like to say,
35:38
but remember our definition of faith.
35:41
And I would like to just sort of clear up a few things.
35:44
I have a few statements here that I will try to run through as fast as I can.
35:48
So, the first statement is,
35:54
through our faith, God can and does work miracles
35:58
to bring practical help and deliverance to his people.
36:06
So, he can.
36:07
He does.
36:08
He works miracles still, even today.
36:11
Right?
36:12
I have a man who discipled me when I was 18, 19 years old.
36:17
And when I first became a believer, his name was Lee,
36:20
and he had a wife named Dina.
36:22
And when she was pregnant with her first child,
36:26
in the first good many number of months of her pregnancy,
36:30
the child had a lot of disorders.
36:33
Spina bifida was one of them,
36:35
and some other things that were going to really hurt the child when she was born.
36:41
And they were recommending abortion, like, in her life,
36:44
because she's just going to be a vegetable.
36:47
And so, they went and saw a specialist,
36:50
and, like, the specialist confirmed, like,
36:51
yep, all these things are going to happen.
36:54
Like, I'm seeing it on the screen.
36:55
Do you see?
36:56
I'll draw you a picture.
36:58
And they didn't know what to do.
37:01
They just said, Lord,
37:02
we don't believe in any of this child's life.
37:05
Like, let's just,
37:06
we know that you are powerful,
37:08
and we know that you can do as you wish.
37:13
So, we're going to ask that you heal our baby in the womb.
37:16
And they said, though,
37:20
even if you don't,
37:21
we're not going to abort this child.
37:23
We're going to trust you to provide in the future.
37:25
And the next doctor's appointment,
37:30
it all had gone away.
37:31
No spina bifida,
37:33
no serious things that would lead to
37:36
a mental disruptive state when they were born.
37:40
And they were shocked.
37:41
The doctor was like,
37:42
this is unexplainable.
37:43
They said it's a miracle.
37:44
And they said, yeah, it is a miracle.
37:46
And they went to, like,
37:47
share the gospel with these doctors.
37:50
And she was born.
37:51
Her name's Allison.
37:52
I think she's probably a young teenager at this point.
37:56
So, God sometimes does that.
37:58
So, number two,
38:01
this is what we read about today a lot.
38:03
God does not always work miracles
38:05
for our deliverance from suffering.
38:09
Instead, sometimes, by faith,
38:14
God sustains His people through suffering.
38:19
God does not always work miracles
38:21
for our deliverance from suffering.
38:23
But instead, sometimes, by faith,
38:25
sustains His people through suffering.
38:29
Through it all.
38:30
Many people that I look up to,
38:32
and I know,
38:33
have had a big impact in how I think about this.
38:37
I mean, most of you know,
38:39
I'm not going to bore you with details,
38:40
but cystic fibrosis,
38:43
was dying in my early 20s,
38:46
and was in the hospital.
38:49
God was my only hope.
38:50
I was like, I'm ready to die,
38:51
I'm ready to live,
38:52
whatever you want to do.
38:53
But I know that you can,
38:55
I trust you to make the right decision.
38:57
And I had a person,
38:59
a hospital worker,
39:00
who also was a believer,
39:01
but a part of the Word of Faith movement.
39:04
And she told me,
39:05
and my mom particularly,
39:08
that I was not healed
39:09
because of our lack of faith.
39:10
Our faith was not strong enough, right,
39:13
for me to be healed,
39:14
or otherwise,
39:16
I would have been.
39:18
Not true.
39:20
Number three,
39:22
getting to this,
39:23
let me just talk about this.
39:25
God sustains people in their suffering, right?
39:27
Number three,
39:29
this is a key one,
39:31
don't miss this one.
39:32
Having enough faith
39:34
is not
39:36
the ultimate determining factor
39:39
on whether or not
39:41
you escape suffering.
39:44
Rather,
39:45
God
39:46
and His sovereign wisdom and love,
39:50
He's the determining factor.
39:52
He is.
39:54
T.D. Jakes,
39:54
a teacher that I would encourage you
39:56
to stay away from,
39:58
he said,
39:59
the devil is a liar.
40:01
True statement.
40:02
Healing
40:02
is the children's bread.
40:05
It's promised to us
40:07
by the Word of God,
40:08
and God
40:08
can do
40:09
much better things
40:11
than medicine can do.
40:12
I had one guy tell me,
40:13
quit taking my medicine.
40:15
Like, stop.
40:16
That's displaying lack of faith
40:17
for you to take
40:18
medicine.
40:20
He told the same thing
40:21
to a good brother of ours
40:22
in the faith,
40:23
my friend Joseph,
40:24
who really
40:25
knows the Lord.
40:27
He quit taking his medicine
40:28
and he almost died.
40:31
And,
40:31
and he was later on like,
40:33
you know,
40:34
that wasn't really
40:35
a display of faith.
40:35
That was kind of
40:36
a display of foolishness,
40:37
but he actually
40:38
had the transplant now
40:39
and is doing well.
40:42
And,
40:42
but,
40:44
I want to read you
40:45
a quote from
40:46
one of my heroes.
40:49
Pick up this woman's books
40:50
and read all of them.
40:52
But,
40:53
her name is
40:53
Joni Erickson-Tada.
40:56
She is a
40:56
quadriplegic.
40:58
Had a diving accident
40:59
when she was a young teenager.
41:00
Has been in a wheelchair
41:01
her entire life.
41:04
And,
41:04
she ministers to people
41:05
ceaselessly
41:07
in her weakness.
41:08
But,
41:10
I love this.
41:11
Something she said.
41:12
She was on a TV show.
41:15
I won't,
41:16
I won't bash the network
41:17
because you probably know
41:18
which one it is
41:18
on TV.
41:20
But,
41:20
she was on that TV show
41:21
and she shared her story
41:24
like how God was using her
41:25
and her brokenness
41:26
and her suffering
41:27
to display
41:28
like how the next life
41:30
is better
41:30
and that her hope
41:31
and trust
41:32
is in the Lord.
41:33
and then she said,
41:35
the TV host
41:36
did not seem impressed.
41:38
He listened
41:39
until the interview
41:40
drew to a close
41:41
and then
41:42
he turned
41:43
to address
41:44
the small studio audience
41:45
as well as the cameras
41:46
which was a window
41:48
to who knows
41:50
how many people
41:51
were watching
41:51
at that moment.
41:52
He explained
41:53
to his viewers
41:54
that it was obvious
41:56
that I had not been healed
41:58
but they could.
42:00
The viewers
42:01
could be healed
42:01
even though
42:03
I had not been.
42:05
He said,
42:06
with confession of sin
42:07
and enough faith
42:08
to believe
42:09
they could know
42:10
what I was not able
42:12
to know.
42:16
Yeah.
42:17
And he goes on,
42:20
the people
42:20
in the television audience
42:21
who obeyed
42:22
this person's
42:23
magic formula
42:23
could be healed.
42:25
Before I could jump in
42:26
and like say something,
42:28
the cameras
42:28
turned down
42:30
and another segment
42:30
started
42:31
I could hardly
42:32
believe it.
42:34
He had never
42:34
read,
42:35
has he ever read
42:36
all the times
42:37
that God specifically
42:38
tells his followers
42:39
even followers
42:40
of great faith
42:41
that they will expect
42:42
hardship
42:43
and suffering
42:43
in this world
42:44
and how the sufferings
42:47
of Christ
42:47
are supposed to
42:48
overflow
42:49
into our lives
42:50
and how has he
42:52
ever read
42:53
Acts 14
42:54
that we must
42:55
go through
42:55
many hardships
42:56
and trials
42:57
to enter
42:58
the kingdom
42:58
of God.
43:01
And that's just
43:01
scratching the surface.
43:02
Now I don't mean
43:03
to be critical
43:03
but I'm sorry
43:04
this man was wrong.
43:06
I love this part.
43:07
God is God
43:08
and it is he
43:10
and he alone
43:11
who decides
43:12
who will be healed
43:13
and who will not be.
43:15
Yes,
43:16
faith
43:16
is vital
43:17
to everything.
43:18
Without faith
43:19
it is impossible
43:20
to please him.
43:21
And this is it.
43:21
Underline this.
43:22
I underline this.
43:23
Big bold letters.
43:25
But faith's focus
43:27
must always be
43:29
Jesus.
43:31
You see that?
43:32
Faith's focus
43:33
must always be
43:34
Jesus.
43:36
No one draws
43:36
close to Christ
43:37
who doesn't first
43:38
share in Christ's
43:39
sufferings.
43:42
Good.
43:44
So,
43:44
so what I saw
43:46
and these people
43:48
who told me this
43:49
even though
43:51
I'd have more
43:51
oil dumped on me
43:52
than McDonald's
43:53
French fries
43:54
and had like
43:55
elders from
43:56
all over the world
43:57
praying for me
43:58
in three different
43:58
continents.
44:01
I fully believe
44:02
God could do it.
44:03
I really did.
44:06
What I learned
44:07
is that their faith
44:08
is in their faith.
44:11
Not their faith
44:12
was in Christ.
44:15
Can you quantify faith?
44:16
Like as a believer
44:17
you have faith
44:19
ignited in you
44:20
when you are born again
44:21
and your faith
44:21
may do this
44:23
at times
44:23
but it never
44:24
goes away.
44:25
Jesus said
44:26
duh
44:27
faith the side
44:29
of a tiny
44:30
mustard seed
44:31
can move a mountain.
44:33
But what really
44:34
moves the mountain?
44:34
Your faith
44:35
or is it really God?
44:36
The God
44:36
the object
44:37
of your faith.
44:38
God is the one
44:39
who moves
44:40
the mountain
44:41
not your faith.
44:44
Jesus isn't saying
44:44
that like you have
44:45
this omnipotent power
44:46
to like
44:47
do as you will
44:48
and wield
44:49
God's power
44:50
for your own
44:50
desires and purposes.
44:53
Right?
44:54
Not our naked faith
44:55
but rather
44:56
the object
44:57
of our faith
44:58
is powerful.
44:59
At the end of the day
45:00
it's not the amount
45:01
of faith
45:02
that heals
45:02
but rather
45:03
the God
45:04
of our faith.
45:06
It's only as good
45:07
as the object.
45:10
Right?
45:11
And so I don't hate
45:12
people like this.
45:13
I feel sorry for them.
45:13
I had a lot of talks
45:14
with that woman
45:14
who told me that.
45:15
I never like
45:16
threw my tray at her
45:17
and told her not
45:18
to come back
45:18
in my room again.
45:20
But we had a lot
45:21
of talks.
45:23
You know what?
45:24
One day
45:25
she's going to get sick
45:26
and she's going to die.
45:27
What happened?
45:27
Did her faith run out?
45:30
We're all going to die.
45:31
So at some point
45:32
I'm not going to
45:33
keep going.
45:34
Anyway
45:35
point number four
45:36
and lastly
45:39
you know
45:39
I promise
45:39
wrapping it up.
45:42
So here's the deal.
45:43
The common feature
45:45
of the faith
45:47
that escapes suffering
45:49
and endures suffering
45:53
is this.
45:55
So what determines
45:56
in other words
45:56
whether you escape
45:57
or whether you don't escape
45:58
both involve believing
46:01
that God himself
46:03
is better
46:04
than what
46:05
this present life
46:06
can offer.
46:08
God is better
46:09
than what this present life
46:10
can offer.
46:12
That's the common feature.
46:13
And then lastly
46:15
those who love God
46:17
more than life
46:19
will suffer
46:22
willingly
46:23
awaiting something better
46:25
than what this world has.
46:29
Right?
46:30
The love of God
46:31
those who love God
46:32
more than life
46:33
will suffer willingly
46:36
awaiting something better
46:38
than this world can offer.
46:39
your thoughts
46:42
is on
46:43
the eternal
46:43
the eternal
46:45
and we're going to close
46:46
look at 1 John
46:47
real quick
46:47
1 John chapter 5
46:48
1 John chapter 5
46:56
I want to read
46:57
just
46:57
two verses
46:59
and we'll close
47:00
1 John chapter 5
47:04
verse 4
47:05
for everyone
47:08
who has been
47:08
born of God
47:09
true believers
47:10
overcomes
47:12
the world
47:13
and this
47:14
is the victory
47:16
that has overcome
47:17
the world
47:17
our faith
47:19
who is it
47:21
that overcomes
47:21
the world
47:22
except the one
47:22
who believes
47:23
that Jesus
47:23
is the son
47:24
of God
47:25
so you may be
47:27
tempted in verse 4
47:28
to think
47:28
oh that's our faith
47:29
our faith is overcoming
47:30
the world
47:31
then it ties you
47:32
into the object
47:33
of faith
47:34
in the next verse
47:35
those who believe
47:38
your faith is in
47:39
Jesus
47:39
the son
47:40
of God
47:41
we will overcome
47:42
all things
47:44
until
47:44
he returns
47:46
yeah let's
47:46
let's pray together