you
434 sing it out now
Oh, it's old town of Bethlehem as new ye see me fly
Above my deal and dreamless sleep as diamonds fly so high
yet in thy large green shine, in thee everlasting light.
The whole city is full of you, what does it need to know?
Lord Christ is born of many, and gathered all of us,
while more those faithfully ain't of me, than watch among us.
All Lord is born together, God lay the holy word,
and brings his things to dry life in heaven, peace together.
I'll sign with thee, I'll sign with thee, the one that is near to you.
So God in watch to you, and God bless you, God is there.
The living here is not me, but it is good I say,
where he's all through, we see things through, God here lies,
O holy child of the Father, he's thanks to us we raise,
cast out our sin and gain, bring with thee more in us today.
We give our precious means of the faith that Thine is now.
Welcome to us alive with us, our Lord in heaven.
Father in heaven, thank you Lord God for the opportunity to be able to come to church this morning.
We pray God that you please bless this service and help us to praise you Lord,
and we pray God that you please fill Pastor Harrison with your spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen, hymn number 426, 426.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, hymn number 426.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play,
and while it's sweet the words we meet, of peace on earth done well to man.
I thought thou as thy name had come, the bell-freeze of all christened up,
and all the long-unbroken song of peace on earth done well to man.
And in this fair I bowed my end, there is no peace on earth I stand,
for hate is strong and boxed the song of peace on earth good will to man.
And hear the bells more loud in peace, God is the day for God to sleep,
the dawn shall fail, the night will end, when peace on earth good will to man.
Still he is singing on his way, from the world we fall from night to day,
the voice that shined for the chance of life of peace on earth good will to man.
All right, this time we'll throw our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, so put your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one on the inside.
We have our service times.
Sunday morning at 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in Second Chronicles chapter number 30.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Don't forget, this Thursday night is Christmas caroling.
We'll be meeting right here at 5.30 p.m.
We'll get you quickly organized and get you instructions
and set up in groups of 20 to 30.
We'll go out caroling for one hour and then we'll come back
and enjoy cookies and milk.
And remember, we'd love for you to bring batches of your best Christmas cookies.
So it'll be kind of like a fun little cookie potluck thing as well.
And we'll provide the milk.
Below that, there's a note about how today there is a bridal shower
for Isabella Schneider at 2 p.m.
All ladies and girls are invited to attend.
Teenage girls, that is.
And ladies, lunch will be provided.
Leave the little kids with dad because only nurselings
or ladies and teenage girls is what we're looking for.
And then on the back, we've got the birth announcements
for the Akinocho family, baby Priscilla.
And then we've got the Davis family with baby Liliana
and the Shell family with baby Hannah.
So it was a very fruitful week at Faith Ward Baptist Church.
And it looks like the 11th and 12th,
where it was just some back-to-back, very fruitful days there.
So be sure to congratulate these families.
Very exciting to see babies being born.
And especially, you know, you got to love those babies
that are born in December because you get the tax right off
for the whole year.
Tax credit for the whole year, you know.
So much better than January.
All right, very good.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, if you're finding a concert
in front of your hymnal with the two songs,
we'll start with Go Tell It on the Mountain.
If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand
and you'll receive one.
We'll start on that chorus.
Go Tell It on the Mountain.
Sing it out.
Behold the ground for heaven,
There shone the holy light.
Go Tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go Tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
The shepherds hear and tremble
When low above the earth
Ring out the angels' chorus
And lift the sacred word
Go Tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go Tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
Down in a lonely manger
The humble Christ was born
And God sent us salvation
And let's say Christmas born
Go Tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go Tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
And that's a good thing, everybody.
Let's let the shepherds sing together.
God, rescue Mary, gentlemen.
Let nothing new dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's car
When we were drawn astray
Oh, the tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
And we were born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's car
When we were drawn astray
Oh, the tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed angel came
And unto certain shepherd
Brought tidings of the same
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
Fear not, then, said the angel
And nothing new applied
Christ is born a Savior
Of your virgin pride
To free all those who trusted
In from Satan's power and light
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoice and watch in mind
And clap their quads of feeding
And tap this form and win
And went to Bethlehem straight away
The Son of God to find
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy
Alright, good singing this morning.
Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11, as we always do,
we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads
Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse number one.
Hebrews chapter 11,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen,
for by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear.
By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
God testifying of his gifts
and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death
and was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation he had this testimony
that he pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
By faith Noah being warned of God,
of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
by the which he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed
and he went out not knowing whether he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise
as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations
whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength
to conceive seed and was delivered of a child
when she was past age because she judged him faithful
who had promised.
Therefore sprang there even of one
and him as good as dead so many as the stars
of the sky and multitude and as the sand
which is by the sea shore innumerable.
These all died in faith not having received the promises
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them
and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers
in pilgrims on the earth.
For they that say such things declared plainly
that they seek a country and truly
if they had been mindful of that country
from whence they came out they might have had
opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country
that is in heavenly.
Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God
for yet prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac
and he that had received the promises offered up
his only begotten son of whom it was said
that in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up
even from the dead from whence also
he received him in a figure.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and he saw
concerning things to come.
By faith Jacob when he was a dying
blessed both the sons of Joseph
and worshiped leaning upon the top of his staff.
By faith Joseph when he died
made mention of the departing of the children of Israel
and gave commandment concerning his bones.
By faith Moses when he was born
was hid three months of his parents
because they saw he was a proper child
and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
By faith Moses when he was come to gears
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt
for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt
not fearing the wrath of the king
for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood
lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea
as by dry land which the Egyptians
a saying to do were drowned.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down
after they were compassed about seven days.
By faith the harlot Rahab
perished not with them that believed not
when she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say
for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon
and of Barak and of Sanson
and of Jephthé
of David also and Samuel
and of the prophets
who through faith subdued kingdoms
wrought righteousness
obtained promises
stopped the miles of lions
quenched the violence of fire
escaped the edge of the sword
out of weakness were made strong
wax valiant in flight
in flight turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead
raised to life again
and others were tortured not accepting deliverance
but they might obtain a better resurrection
and others had trial of cruel mockings
and scourges
yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment
they were stoned
they were sawn asunder
were tempted
were slain with the sword
they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins
being destitute afflicted tormented
of whom the world was not worthy
they wandered in deserts and in mountains
and in dens and caves of the earth
and these all having obtained a good report
through faith received not the promise
God having provided some better thing
for us that they without us
should not be made perfect.
Dear Lord thank you very much
for Faith Award Baptist Church
please bless the pastor as he preaches to us
and please give us a heart to hear
that we may be edified in Jesus
and I pray amen.
Man Hebrews chapter number 11
is commonly known as the hall of faith
because there are so many great examples
from the Old Testament
about lives that were lived in faith
because of course we know that salvation
is by faith not of works
lest any man should boast
so when it comes to getting saved
it's just as simple as
putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
believing the record that God gave of his son
that God has given to us eternal life
and this life is in his son
just believing in his death, burial and resurrection
the finished work of Christ
that is how you get to heaven
and once you're saved you're saved forever
there's nothing that could ever separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord
He'll never leave us or forsake us
but in spite of the fact
that we often emphasize
faith for salvation as we should
there's also faith
that we continue to exercise
throughout the rest of our lives as well
so obviously
faith is required for salvation
and then after that
we still have the whole Christian life ahead of us
and we have years and years of our lives
serving God and if we're going to be
effective servants of God
if we're going to live a good Christian life
we have to keep exercising faith
and so in Hebrews chapter 11
we have a lot of examples
of things that people do
to live a life of faith
and we want to also
live a life of faith
to be saved
you just have to believe that Jesus is the son of God
and believe that he died on the cross
and rose again etc
but when it comes to the way that you live your life
there are going to be people
giving you various forms of advice
about how to live your life
or what decisions you should make
and then there's the way the Bible is telling you
to live your life
and so by believing
what the Bible says
you're going to end up making different decisions
than if you kind of say
well I'm going to go with the world's logic on this one
I'm going to go with the world's wisdom
on this one right
the Bible says
trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not
on your own understanding
in all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths
and so there's kind of our
and then there's what the Bible says
and we should not only believe
in Christ as our savior
but we should also spend the rest of our lives
reading stuff in the Bible
believing that it's true
and saying okay I'm going to do things the Bible's way
or I'm going to believe the Bible's way on this
even if other people
are saying something different
just to give you an example
the Bible is telling you not to drink
look not on the wine when it's red
and it's telling you to stay away from alcohol
and not to be drunk
and so forth right
so having faith in that
would be to say hey look
I'm going to stay away from alcohol
God says that it's going to be bad
if I indulge in that
so I'm going to stay away from it right
God's telling me to stay married
to my spouse till death do us part
and so even if other people are telling me
oh you need to get out of that marriage
I'm just going to stay with it
stay the course because I know that God
needs divorce right
and so that's what I mean by faith
is like there's all these decisions
and things and we need to go with what
the Bible says versus what
the world is telling us okay
so let's jump into the chapter though
and get to the specifics because the main point
that I want to make in this morning's sermon
is the fact that when you do
exercise faith throughout your life
you're not just being saved
but also exercising
the faith to live the Christian life
in various areas
you are not always
going to have a positive
outcome in the world's eyes
you're not always going to be a success
in the world's eyes right
and this is where the prosperity preachers get it wrong
basically saying
that as long as you serve God
and obey him everything's going to go great for you
well what we're going to see in this chapter
is that that's not necessarily the case
some
of what happens when you exercise
when God is positive
and some of it is
negative meaning from a worldly
perspective
from just a physical
carnal perspective yeah
some negative repercussions come
we know that all who will live
godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution
and so there are also some negatives that are
going to hit you and some things that are
not going to turn out the way you want them to turn out
when you exercise faith
today in the end
you're going to be blessed by God
and you're going to be glad that you followed
Christ and lived a life of faith
but let's look at the specific in the Scripture
let's go to Hebrews 11
we're going to start in verse 24 because that's exactly
where we left off last Sunday night
I already preached through verses 1 through 23
last Sunday night
so in verse 24 it says
by faith Moses when he was
come to years refused
to be called the son
of the daughter
choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season
now Moses did this
by faith
because he believed that
God's word was true
and he believed that God had
something better for him
than what this world had to offer
and if you think about it
Moses had everything
he gave up all those things
in order to follow Christ
now what did that look like
well it says here that he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter
Egypt was
the most powerful nation
in the world at that time
most powerful, most advanced
civilization
and the most powerful man
in Egypt is Pharaoh
so if you're the son
of Pharaoh's daughter
you are an extremely
important, influential
powerful person
you're going to have all kinds of wealth
and opportunities at your fingertips
you're pretty much just going to have every possible thing
that this world has to offer
just handed to you on a silver platter
and the Bible also tells us
in Acts chapter 7
that Moses was
mighty in words and in deeds
he was brought up in all of the learning
of the Egyptians
he was extremely well educated
he has achievements
he's mighty in word and indeed
he's powerful, he's got that
noble pedigree of being called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter
now of course we know he's not literally
the son of Pharaoh's daughter but
he was called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
he's been adopted into that family
and who knows if people even knew
that he wasn't actually
the son of Pharaoh's daughter
that's what he was outwardly
that's right and so it says that he refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season
you see if he would have just continued
living that worldly life of indulgence
in the land of Egypt
that would have been sinful for him
okay, why?
because obviously the Egyptians are worshipping false gods
they're an ungodly society
but also
they don't know what to do good
and do with it not to him and his sin
and the people of God are suffering
the people of God are enslaved
the Israelites are slaves in Egypt
and if Moses just kind of sat back
and did nothing
about that situation
and just goes along with it
and just goes along with enslaving
and persecuting God's people
well that would have been a sin
and so he didn't want to just enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season
he esteemed
verse 26 the reproach of Christ
greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt
for he had respect under the recompense
of the reward
so why is it
that he was willing to give up
all those blessings in Egypt
in order to serve God
because he had respect under the recompense of the reward
now
the reward of
not being called the son of
from a human perspective
is that he ends up becoming a fugitive
fleeing the country
and going out and living in the desert
and he pretty much just has the shirt
on his back from the way the story reads
it seems like he just has nothing
now from a human
perspective this does not seem like
a reward
or a recompense
that we would want
for serving God
hey I serve God I lose all of my accolades
I lose all my friends
I lose everybody that I've ever known
I lose my country
and I go out in the middle of the desert
with the shirt on my back
to start over at age 40
right nobody wants
to just start over at age 40
with no connections
no wealth
but that's what Moses did
why did he do that
he had respect under the recompense
of the reward
and he believed that God
was going to bless him for that
that God was going to reward him for that
and what does the Bible say
knowing that whatsoever
good thing any man doeth
the same shall he receive of the Lord
whether he be bond or free
so what's the Bible telling us
any time we do the right thing
we will be rewarded
if we do right, if we do well
we will be rewarded
and in the short term
because what was Moses's reward
for doing the right thing
it was to be a fugitive
an exile
start over at age 40
no friends, no family, no money
I mean he might have even had to learn
a new language or something
because he's just going to a totally different region
different area
and thankfully
fighting skills
helped him out or whatever
because he's able to fight off the shepherds
and help out that guy's daughters
and then he made a friend right away
so God helped him out as soon as he gets to the new place
boom, he's making friends on day one
he gets married
he gets a father-in-law
to take him under his wing
take him into the family business, whatever
so yeah, God's going to take care of you in the long run
but then even then 40 years go by
and he hasn't really achieved anything
super great, he's just kind of living in the desert
married, two kids
whatever
but how did he have respect to the recompense of the reward?
he has faith
he believes in something that he can't see
that ultimately there's going to be
a big reward
now we know of course that 40 years later
he does get
some big rewards because he gets to actually march
back into Egypt as an 80-year-old man
and say
let my people go and actually
be used by God to perform all these miracles
to lead the children of Israel
out of Egypt
and of course he has to deal with their garbage
for like 40 years in the wilderness
but look, I guarantee you right now he's in heaven
and he's loving it
and he's super happy
and he is probably
one of the most greatly rewarded people
in heaven
it's not like when we get to heaven
we're going to be getting more rewards than like Moses
right, Moses is kind of a big one
and I hope that we get a lot of rewards
in heaven for the work that we're doing for God
but I'm sure
Moses is going to be doing better
and so
Moses is up there
and I guarantee you that
having the level of reward
whatever level of reward Moses
is receiving in heaven and will receive
in the millennial reign of Christ
and just in eternity
is way better than being the son of Pharaoh's daughter
in fact, I'll bet you
there are probably like thousands of sons
of Pharaoh's daughters
because Egypt is one of the longest running civilizations
in the history of mankind
one of the longest running, successful
agricultural civilizations
thousands of years running
Pharaoh after Pharaoh after Pharaoh
can anybody name any son
of any Pharaoh's daughter that has ever existed
does anybody have one name
of one son of Pharaoh's daughter
that has ever existed in the history of Egypt
nobody knows
nobody cares but who knows who
Moses is
so here's the thing, he's given up fame
people live in the desert for 40 years
nobody in the desert
but is Moses really a nobody
he's probably one of the most famous people on the planet
if we went around
and we started asking people
have you ever heard of
the number one name
in the world that everybody's heard of
is Jesus
and I've heard some people say the second Moses
Abraham and then Moses or something
those are pretty much going to be your top three
people
okay, Jesus of course is number one
but here's the thing
we are going to also sometimes
do things by faith
and do the right thing
and make a right decision
and follow God, we just have to believe
that God's going to bless us for that
even if it takes 40 years
and that's pretty, it's easy to say that
it's easy to say, 40 years
40 years is a long time
and when you're actually living it
some of us 40 days
can feel like a long time
40 weeks can feel like a long time
when you step out in faith
do right by God and then you're not seeing the results
and that's what he did because
let's back up and think about
what Moses actually did
because it says that he chose
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
there's two aspects here
we don't want to miss that there are two things happening here
there's
not enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season
and there's choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God
okay, there's
two aspects here because number one
he actually
left his situation
in Egypt because it was a sinful situation
but that's not all he did
he also
got involved in
the Lord's battle
and chose to suffer
affliction with the people of God
he sided with the people of God
he identified with the people of God
he didn't just leave Egypt
what did he do before he left Egypt
he went to go see
what was happening with his brother
in the Israelites
and when he went to see what was happening
with his brother in the Israelites
he saw that there was a guy being mistreated
and being whipped
or maltreated
and so what did he do
he got involved and he killed the Egyptian
and why did he do that
why did Moses
go to the Israelites
and kill the Egyptian
well the Bible tells it Acts chapter 7
he thought that his brethren
the Israelites would understand
that God was going to use him to deliver them
you know he thought
it's like I'm going to kill this Egyptian
and then it's like okay
that's like the first salvo
in this war of independence
for the Israelites okay
they didn't understand that did they
he went down there he killed the Egyptian
he thought they would understand that he was the deliverer
they didn't get it
they didn't understand
and remember then
the next day after he kills the Egyptian
the next day he sees two Israelites
fighting with each other
and he tries to set them at one again
he tries to be a leader
he tries to bring unity
to these two brethren
and he says
why are you fighting with each other
right and then he says
well who made you
a ruler and a judge over us
will thou kill me
as thou killest the Egyptian yesterday
so basically what is he getting
he's being made fun of
people are not rallying to his cause
they're not uniting
and so he ends up just
fleeing to the desert seemingly a failure
but really obviously
God had a plan
God was going to do things his way
and his timing and Moses just needed to be patient
but
the thing I want to emphasize here is that he chose
rather to suffer affliction with people of God
rather than to enjoy the pleasure
of sin for a season
so therefore exercising faith
and living a life of faith
it's not just abstinence from sin
right
now that is part of it
because part of it is to say hey I'm going to believe God
drinking is not good for me
I'm going to believe God that fornication is a bad idea
I'm going to believe God that I shouldn't commit adultery
or get divorced
you know I'm going to believe God
about not gambling or whatever
that's one thing
but then the other flip side
of that is that you also
get involved with the people of God
and get involved in the Lord's battle
right so it's not just
living the Christian life isn't just
getting sin out of our lives
that's a big part of it
we should be doing that but that's not enough
we need to get sin out of our lives
but we also need to also get involved
with the people of God
it's not enough to just clean up our lives
we also need to get in church
choosing to suffer
affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season
you see here's the thing
I'm not really impressed by the faith of a Christian
who maybe lives a really clean life
but then they just go to some
dead do nothing
lame church
that never gets persecuted because it's just kind of
a do nothing church
and then they kind of glory in the fact
oh there's no drama at this church
oh I just love this church so peaceful
and there's no drama
of course it's peaceful and there's no drama because there's nothing going on
because they also
have no achievements
you know yeah okay
it's easy to have peace
and no drama when you're not getting thousands
of people saved
you start getting thousands of people saved
you're going to have problems
you're going to have trauma
you're going to have affliction
you're going to have persecution
you go to some dead is a doornail
lame watered down church
you're not choosing to suffer affliction
with the people of God
because all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
you got some pastor who's been
pastoring for 20 years
maybe because he's not living godly
in Christ Jesus
maybe because he's doing little or nothing
okay so we need
to yes clean up our lives
yes get off the world's program
and get on God's program
but we also need to choose to suffer
affliction with the people of God
and that starts with identifying with the people of God
Moses identified
with the Israelites he didn't just say
well I'm not the son of Pharaoh's daughter
he said I'm an Israelite
he went down and he went among
his people
he got involved in their struggle
and what that would look like in the New Testament
would be getting in
an actual bible believing
Christian church right
an independent fundamental Baptist church
that is soul winning
and that is doing great things for God
and that is preaching hard
and doing all this stuff and what's that
you say well that could cause some problems in my life
well
but that's what it means to live by faith
because here's the thing
in the short term it doesn't make
any sense to want to bring persecution upon yourself
but
if you have respect under the
recompense of the reward
if you esteem the reproach of Christ
greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt
you're willing to bear some reproach
for the preaching of what the bible
actually says
not some guy who's going to water
it down and sugar coat it
and make it palatable for this world
and just conveniently avoid all the subjects
that offend this world
you got to
be like Moses
and for sake Egypt
yes but also
choose to suffer affliction with the people of God
say you know what
I'm a Christian
I believe in Christ
I'm following the bible
I go to such and such the church
oh you go to that church
yes I go to that church
amen
but it's going to take some faith to do that
because humanly speaking
it's not necessarily
something that makes you look good to this world
so it says
by faith he forsook Egypt verse 27
not fearing the wrath of the king
for he endured
as seeing him who is invisible
we talked about last Sunday night the whole
aspect of him not fearing the wrath
of the king we talked about that in great detail
but he endured
as seeing him who is invisible
ok and again
he's enduring
trials, tribulation, affliction
he steps out
and does the right thing
he does not get a good outcome
it would have been easy for Moses to say
ok here I am
trying to rally
God's people trying to bring unity
trying to bring liberty
trying to fix things
and it just blows up in my face
I just end up getting labeled a murderer
and I'm exiled
and I'm on the run
and I'm an outlaw
he could have just said you know what I'm done serving God
because serving God
doesn't work
I tried it and it didn't work
I lost everything I have nothing
it didn't work
couldn't he have said that
and he could have said this too
he doesn't even want me to serve him
because I tried to serve him and it didn't work
but instead
he continues loving the Lord
and ultimately
when God comes to him and says to him
you're going to go back to Egypt
and lead the people out
obviously he's a little bit shy
about doing it because he's already failed once
so he's like I don't know
God send somebody else
I'm not a good speaker
I'm not a good leader
I have confidence
because he's already failed one time
but yet God tells him
what does God tell him
means God's word
God's word is saying
no you're going to go
you're the one go do it
and he believed that
and so now he goes back
to this country
where there was last he was there
they were going to kill him
there was a warrant for his arrest
he goes back believing God's word
God's word told him
you're going to be safe if you go back
the people who wanted to kill you are all dead
it's over it's 40 years have gone by
nobody remembers that
you're going to be okay go ahead and go back
and you know that took faith
you know I mean think about it
if you'd been wanted for murder
and then you fled a country
it takes some faith to go back to that country
you know but God's telling him
go back and he does it
the second time
I already did this I tried serving God
I tried church
I tried soul winning
I tried reading the Bible it didn't work
that's not what he said though is it
he believed God's word
and he followed it again
and he endured
the consequences of serving God
he pushed through
as seeing him who is invisible
right and that's what faith is all about
it's seeing the invisible
the evidence of things not seen
we saw in verse 1
and so the Bible says through faith
he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood
lest he that destroyed the first born
should touch them
and of course this is just God giving him instructions
about what to do
when he's going to come through
and kill all the first born
about killing the lamb
putting the blood on the doorpost and all that
Moses followed those instructions
he did everything God told him to do
and it worked
by faith they passed through the Red Sea
as by dry land which the Egyptians
assaying to do were drawn
assaying means trying, attempting
just like our English word
essay like writing an essay
it's like an attempt
and some of our essays
have been feeble attempts in our lives
but that's what it is
it's like a try
an essay so that's what this word means
assaying to do is like attempting to do
so the Egyptians attempted
to go across the Red Sea on dry land
and they drowned
it says
by faith the walls of Jericho fell down
after they were
compassed about seven days
now again what is faith
faith is doing what
God says to do
you believe what he said
and then you're like okay well we're going to do it that way
because we believe that he's right
God gave him some really weird instructions
and then they got to Jericho
right because you know
there are a lot of strategies
to attack a city but this strategy
kind of just made no sense because it was just
you know march around the city silently
every day and then just kind of call it a day
and then on the last day
march around it seven times
and then everybody yell and blow with the trumpets
and then you know they didn't know
that this is going to work they don't know what's going to happen
but then as soon as they did that
the walls of Jericho just
were collapsing down
why?
because they believed what God told them
if you do this it's going to work
and then they did it for seven days and then it worked
and of course they defeated Jericho
by faith
and this is the final
one example that's given by faith
the Rehab
perished not with them that believed not
when she had received the spies with peace
and so Rehab
actually believed
that the Lord was real
and that his people had been granted
victory and so she ends up
harboring enemies of the state
harboring spies
and sending them out another way
and so she ends up when
Jericho is defeated
she ends up surviving
her and her whole family everybody else
is killed Rehab survives
and by the way
Rehab's a great picture
of salvation by faith
because of the fact she's a literal prostitute
so if salvation
were by works
or if salvation were by cleaning
up your life or repenting of your sins
or something then wouldn't there be some inkling
in the story about how like hey she stopped
being a prostitute
hey she cleaned up her life
she became an honest woman
God is specifically picking
a prostitute
because couldn't God have worked it out
where someone other than a prostitute
harbored the spies
and had the faith and didn't perish
but God and his providence
worked it out to where it's a literal prostitute
that harbors the spies
because she believes the word of God
showing that even a
sinful person
if they believe is not going to perish
and of course you can
read a bunch of fake things into the story
that aren't there like well she
decided to give up prostitution or whatever
really what verse is that
I can't find that
now maybe she did she probably did
I'm assuming that eventually she did
I'm assuming that she didn't just become
a continue being a prostitute
but you know what that is a big assumption
and if that's what God was teaching us
it'd be written in the Bible
if it's not mentioned it's not
relevant
that she stopped being a prostitute it's not important
you know what the important thing is
she believed
she's a person
a raunchy person
a person with a bad past
a person with a sinful lifestyle
who believed and is saved
that's the important thing
that's what God's trying to emphasize
but it was
an act of faith on her part
to receive the spies with peace
because remember the cops came to her door
and said where are those guys that came in here
so she's risking
she could have just said
they're upstairs hiding
you know and then it would be like
they'd be thanking her
whereas if she gets caught harboring
these spies she'd probably face death
for being a traitor
but she had faith she believed the Lord
she believed the word of God
and so she ended up perishing not with those
who believed not
and I think it's interesting that Rahab
is kind of the coup de grace here
because we have all these people who did
things by faith Rahab
is kind of the final example
he says what shall I more say
so it's like once you get to Rahab
the harlot
you have a literal prostitute
who doesn't perish
because she believes
he's just like enough said
what shall I more say
like what else do I need to say
you know he's saying faith goes a long way
if even the Rahab
harlot could be saved by faith
and then people who were already saved
achieved all these great works by faith
seeing the walls of Jericho fall down
crossed on the Red Sea
doing all these wonderful things
hey the time would fail me
to tell of Gideon
he's saying look I don't even have time to talk about
Gideon
because we could
this is kind of like a little homework assignment too
go back and look up these stories
and see how these men exercise faith
how did Gideon exercise faith
how did Barak exercise faith
Samson, Jeff, David right
and so these are all great examples
of people who did great things
for God by faith
Gideon
well let's just quickly
talk about each one you know of course
Gideon had to exercise
a huge amount of faith when he has an army of
32,000 men
which sounds big except
he's going up against an army of like a million
or something like there's this innumerable multitude
he's got 32,000
he's severely outnumbered
with 32,000 troops and God says
you have too many troops
that doesn't make any sense
the world would tell you
you don't have enough troops
God is saying the opposite of what this world is telling him
the worldly logic
the worldly wisdom is
you don't have enough
and God said no you have too much
because I said so
32,000 is too many
I don't want the Israelites to think
in this battle I want them to know that it was me
and so he says
I want you to start testing the people
and sending people home
so we can just make it a smaller group
he says whoever is fearful
go home
they wake up in the morning
because you know people leave at night
so it's not embarrassing or making it weird or anything
so basically
in the morning they wake up
there's 10,000 people left
so 22,000 have left
so basically more than two-thirds
of the people have left
and he says it's still
still too many
10,000 is too many
this makes no sense
and sometimes things that God tells us to do
are counter-intuitive
they don't make sense to us humanly speaking
like hey this isn't making sense to me
and the world will make fun of you
and carnal Christians and backslidden losers
will make fun of you
for doing right and continuing
to stay the course serving God
but God says no
10,000 is too many
and so then he has this test
where he sends them down to the river
and has them drink water
and then there's the ones who put their face down
in the water and the ones who drink from their hand
and you know
you'd think that maybe there's going to be
a 50-50 type thing or two-thirds, one-third
but actually
he ends up sending home everyone except for
300 people
9,700 people get sent home
I mean it's just
it's crazy
you have 300 people
you're going against this innumerable multitude
and yet it worked
yet God miraculously
allows 300 people to defeat
this innumerable multitude
because he confuses them
and they're
fighting each other, trampling each other
because they get confused
because they do this thing where they put
the lamps and the pitchers
and everybody has a pitcher in one hand
with a lamp inside of it
and then he has a trumpet in the other hand
and they surround the enemy
break the pitchers
sound the trumpets and shout out
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon
and the enemy is just so freaked out by this
and just doesn't understand what's happening
that they end up just getting confused
trampling each other
killing each other, fleeing
and then once they flee
all kinds of other people from the nation of Israel
join up the army
and they end up
routing the enemy
that's an example that
Paul didn't have time for
to tell us but I had the time
so that's why I talked about it
and then the thing about Barak
and I refuse to call it Barak
just because some crack whore named her kid that
I'm not going to use it
so Barak is how I grew up
saying I'm just going to stay with that
so
Barak
is a guy who
again
and we talked about this last Sunday night
he had some fear
about doing what God was telling him to do
when he received the word of God
and he was told to do it
he was afraid and so therefore
he said to Deborah
well I'm not going to go unless you go with me
and
Deborah
was not impressed by that
and Deborah tells him well okay fine
I'll go with you but
you're not going to really get the glory
the only person who's ever going to name their kid
this is going to be a crack whore
and
and he says the battle
and she says the battle is going to go to a woman
and of course
the reader is thinking Deborah is the woman
but then
there's like a plot twist and it's J.L
that's actually the woman
who actually gets to kill Cicera
but here's the thing about
here's why I like Barak
and here's why I like the Bible
is that
real people are like this
and here's the thing
Barak's scared
but he does the right thing anyway
yeah he needs a buddy, he needs a partner
he needs somebody to help him
but he still does the right thing
and I talked about this last Sunday night
because you're fearful
but you do the right thing anyway
God sees that as courage
you know you have faith
and you doubt
you believe and you doubt
but then you act on the belief
God sees that as faith
okay
and so really at the end of the day
we're all human, we're going to have doubts
we're going to be scared whatever
but at the end of the day it's
which one do you end up doing
God calls that not being scared
when you're scared but do it anyway
and that's Barak is like that
and you know what Gideon is like that too
because guess what Gideon was scared
and God says to him
go defeat the Midianites
but if you're scared
if you're scared take Fiora your servant
and go down into the host
and so guess what he does, he's like okay
here we go Fiora let's go
he took the if you're scared option
and then he goes down
then he goes down with Fiora
his servant into the host
and then he hears a guy randomly
he goes and eavesdrops on a random tent
in this multitudinous army
and he hears a guy telling his buddy
oh man I had the craziest dream last night
and then the guy interprets
the dream and says oh yeah that's Gideon
he's going to destroy us
and it was just like God
miraculously worked this out
where Gideon overhears this conversation
so random that it could not be a coincidence
and then Gideon's like okay yeah
so yeah
Gideon's a great man of faith but
he had some doubt, he had some fear
but ultimately he acted on the faith
he acted on courage
and so in the end he ends up
in the Hall of Faith
look we've all had doubts
gone back and forth
sometimes on things or been fearful
or maybe had episodes in our lives
where we did the wrong thing
or maybe people got out of church
from God or whatever
but as long as you end up
eventually coming back
doing right whatever
you can finish in the Hall of Faith
and that's what we see with guys like
Gideon and Barrack
Samson is in the Hall of Faith
obviously he was a very flawed individual
he definitely
had a problem with
fornication
and women were his weakness
but at the same time
he also was a great man of faith
that's why God even used him
in spite of those things
now he got punished for those things
and he ended up dying young
and dying in a miserable way
but at least he had the faith
to do what was right
in general besides
his besetting sin there
Jephthah of course
is one that God used to deliver his people
in the book of Judges
he also made a really stupid vow
to sacrifice his only child
which is a picture of course
of the
God giving his only begotten son
that who sort of believe in the name
should not perish but have everlasting life
and then David of course
not even I have time to talk about David
you know okay
I had time for Gideon and Barrack
I don't have time for David because
David there's just too much to talk about
all the faith that David exercised
we could just briefly mention David and Goliath
to be just a small fry
and go up against
a giant that everyone
in the whole nation is scared to fight
he is a little guy
he goes and fights and he says the battle's the lords
God's going to give me the victory
it's not even me that's going to do it
that took a lot of faith
Samuel
we could again
too much of a story there to talk about
the prophets
all through
the history of
the kings we have mentions of different prophets
like Elijah and Elisha
and Micaiah the son of Imla
and some guy named Oded
and you know you have all kinds of people
and then you have the big name prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechiel
all these people so he's just saying
look you could literally just go back
and just read the entire Old Testament
and look at
how faith is a key component
in anyone who succeeded
living for God
these are just examples but you could use
literally anyone
and so if we're going to be
successful as Christians
we've got to believe the promises of God
and in situations
where it seems like in the short term
the promises of God are not coming through
and in the short term
it seems like things are not working out
and God is not making good on his word
and God is not blessing in the short term
we have to believe
when the word is coming
I need to endure as seeing him
who is invisible because the Bible says
you see how do I know
that I'm on the Lord's side
because the Bible says
because what I preach
and the way I live my life
lines up with the word of God
and anybody can try to tell me
well yeah but just look at
look at the situation
look at your life
look at the outcome
you're finished
that's faith
what do you mean you're going to be a father of many nations
you don't even have one child
what do you mean you're going to inherit
the promised land
you don't own anything
you're living in a tent
nope
I'm going to be a father of many nations
and I'm going to inherit the promised land
because God said so
that's faith
and here's the thing
great blessings will come on to us
but also
hardships, pain, suffering
will come to us as well
and we have to be like Job
where we say you know what I will accept
good and evil from the Lord's hand
the Lord giveth
and the Lord take it away
blessed be the name of the Lord
and we cannot base
right and wrong
on outcomes
on situations
we base them on the Bible
because in the short term
sometimes doing the right thing doesn't pan out
but in the long term it always
pans out
now look what the Bible says
let's move forward here and see
that point proven even further
it says that all these people
in the Old Testament that we don't have time to talk about
through faith verse 33
what did they do they subdued kingdoms
wrought righteousness
stopped the mouths of lions
quenched the violence of fire
escaped the edge of the sword
out of weakness were made strong
waxed valiant in fight
turned to flight the armies of the aliens
women received their dead
raised to life again look
I would love to have any of those things in my life
wouldn't you love to just subdu a kingdom
or
work righteousness
obtain promises from God
hey we would all love to stop the mouth of a lion
right especially if we were in a situation with a lion
we definitely want to stop his mouth
you know
if the violence of fire is coming at it
coming at us we want it quenched
this all sounds great
escaping the edge of the sword
sign me up
out of weakness were made strong
sounds great let's do it
waxed valiant in fight
turned to flight
the armies of the aliens
right because there's so many stories in
second chronicles for example
where you have these
foreign armies
the armies of the aliens right
foreign armies coming in
and God sends them away
because the people of God had faith
women received their dead
raised to life again look
if any of us had a loved one die
we would love to see that person
be miraculously saved or come back from the dead
or something like that right
all super positive that's all great
this makes me really want to be a person of faith
this makes me really want to exercise
my faith in the Lord
but then what does the Bible say
others were tortured
now that doesn't sound like a good reward
for having faith
you know okay I believe God
I believe the promises of God
I'm going to live my life according to God's word
because I believe that my life
will end up better
and that I'll be rewarded
if I follow God's word
okay you receive
torture
that's what it says
others were tortured
not accepting deliverance
that they might obtain a better resurrection
basically they're just
enduring torture
and enduring more and more torture
just because they know it's just more rewards in heaven
it's just a better resurrection
the more torture the more suffering
I mean these are the people that when they're persecuted
they leap for joy
knowing that their reward is great in heaven
he says others had
trial of cruel mockings right
look nobody wants to be made fun of
but guess what
when you exercise faith
when you live a life of faith
it's not all going to be positive
sometimes you're going to be tortured
sometimes you're going to be made fun of
people are going to make fun of you
you're going to be a laughing stock
he says they had cruel mockings
and scourgings right and sometimes it's not just
words it also can
get physical a physical beating not only
just getting made fun of but actually beat up
or whipped or scourged
more over
of bonds and imprisonment right some people get arrested
they get put in prison
for serving God
they were stoned right and that is something
where you're dead stone means
that you die
and it sounds like a pretty painful way to die
what does it mean to be stoned
it means people throw rocks at you
until you're dead right
so a bunch of people surround you
throw rocks at you and
you know hope you hope that
I guess that you know they throw
a big one and hit you in the right spot
sooner rather than later
but if you think about the apostle Paul
he got stoned
stoning is supposed to kill you
the only reason it didn't kill Paul
is because they thought he was dead
so they're just throwing rocks at him
and he stops twitching
and there's a big pile of rocks on him
and they just walk away just assuming
he's dead
but then it turns out he's alive
but imagine
being so pummeled with rocks
that people think you're dead
and they all go home
I guarantee you that he was
severely injured and messed up
super painful
he was probably wishing
that he didn't survive at times
you know until he recovered
because he's probably going through a lot of pain
and suffering and misery
you know but then he went on to do
more great things for God after that
you know but that doesn't sound cool
I don't want to be stoned
and left for dead
does anybody want to do that
does anybody want to be sawn asunder
asunder means
two pieces
okay I don't want to be sawn in half
you know
if I do get sawn in half
I'm just trying to think do I want it to be vertical or horizontal
you know what I mean
let's go vertical
as long as you're starting at the top
otherwise I'll take horizontal
alright
so it says
you know there's sawn asunder
tempted
slain with the sword
I mean these are not fun things
they wandered about in sheep skins
and goat skins so they're not exactly living their best
life now
they're not exactly you know
just worried about their portfolio
and their 401k
and their investments and their
properties and so forth
now they're wandering around in sheep skins
and goat skins
being destitute afflicted
tormented but you know what
he says man the world is not worthy of these people
and these people are going to be glorified eternally
I mean we're reading about them right now
you know we're going to run into some no-name guy in heaven
he's going to be like you know those people who wandered around
in sheep skins and goat skins
and the world was not worthy
yeah that was me I was one of those guys
oh man wow
you got more verses in the bible about you
than I got about me right even if you only got one verse
this is quite a verse
of whom the world
I mean imagine God looking down and saying
man the world is not even worthy of you
you're such an awesome Christian
that's high praise
coming from the Lord Almighty
of whom the world was not worthy
they wandered in deserts
and in mountains and in dans and caves of the earth
and these all having obtained a good report through faith
received not the promise
God having provided some better thing for us
that they without us should not be made perfect
and what he's saying here
is that they saw
less of their work
come to fruition than even us
in the New Testament because here's the thing
in the Old Testament it's like Jesus hasn't even come yet
these people are in the dark
big time
about what God's even doing
what is God's even plan
I mean here's the thing even if our life
is not going the way we want it to
or we're running into problems
at least we have the bible with like
revelation in it kind of telling us
there's going to be a happy ending here
and there's a lot of detail
on how we win
you know the Old Testament saints
they didn't even have the full bible
explain it I mean here's the thing Job
it would have been nice if Job would have like had the book of Job
you know what I mean like
Job is going through
that Job treatment
without having the book of Job
even if we went through something as bad as the book of Job
which obviously I don't think any of us ever will
but if we did go through something as bad as
Job at least we'd have the book of Job
these people are just kind of seeing it
far off they're seeing through a glass
darkly
and it's just kind of like wow
they still push through can we push
through
and this is why he wraps this all up
at the beginning of chapter 12 by saying
wherefore seeing we also are compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses
let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily
beset us and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us
and so again it's not enough to just get sin
out of your life
it'd be like alright I'm gonna run a marathon
so I'm gonna lose a bunch of weight okay I lost 20 pounds
but then you just don't do any running
well I'm glad you lost
20 pounds but you know no medal
for you there's no prize
for you you did not do the work
you didn't run and so what he's saying is
you know you've got to
not
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
but you got to choose rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God
you got to lay aside every weight
and then you got to run the race
you got to do both there's two aspects to this
and then he says in verse 4
you've not yet resisted on the blood
striving against sin so what he's saying
is that you know when you go when you think
about the hard things you're going through
as a Christian you're exercising
and yet bad things are happening to you
just remember well
at least I'm not being sawn in half
I'm not being
stoned I'm not
wandering around in a sheepskin
being destitute afflicted
tormented okay and so
the idea here is that we as
Christians need to understand
that yes faith saved us
and we're eternally saved and there's nothing we can do
to lose our salvation but if we want
to be an effective Christian we have to keep
on believing everything
we read in the Bible not just the stuff about
salvation believe everything in the Bible
and if we actually
believe that
the rewards in the Bible are true
that the promises of
God are true we're going to act
differently we're going to make different decisions
because we're going to basically
have respect under the recompense of the reward
and we're going to be willing
to endure now
for the future glory just
like Christ
endured the cross for the joy
that was set before him
we've got to do the same thing we've got to endure
whatever bad outcome
as a result of exercising
our faith and so again the one main thing
I want you to take away from the sermon this morning is
when you live a life of faith
when you believe the promises of God
and stick by it everybody else is
bailing everybody else is
forsaking everybody else is being
lame and stupid and
ugly and carnal and bachsland
or whatever around you and you say
I'm sticking with God's program
I'm sticking with the word of God
I'm going to keep on doing what
the Bible says right I'm still going to
keep believing what the Bible says
no matter what
you know what you're going to get some
blessed outcomes you're going to get
some awesome outcome from that
but you're also going to get some
negative outcomes from that it's going to be
a mixed bag and just like
you got some negatives and you got some
positives go down the list of all
these guys we can talk about the negative
repercussions of doing the right thing
as well as the positive repercussions
you know life wasn't all fun
in games for David either or for Gideon
or any of these people right they all
went through bad stuff
at the end of the day though
we've got to live a life of faith
what God's word says is
all that matters we got to keep
our eyes on Jesus keep our eyes on
God nuts to the naysayers
who cares about the scoffers
and the people who don't believe the promises
of God or want to twist God's word
to fit 2024 America
nuts to them they don't
matter keep on going
and in the end you will always
be glad that you did God
will ultimately bless
you will be great
in the sight of God
and that's all that matters let's
pray Father we thank you so much for
this great chapter the hall of faith
and Lord help us to always
exercise faith
to constantly be reading your word
to figure out what it says
and then believing it
and therefore acting on the belief
and and actually
making decisions based upon
believing that your word is actually true
Lord God help us to even
in times where
things are not working out
help us to keep on pushing through
your word no matter what
in Jesus name we pray amen
amen
alright ladies and gentlemen take your song books
please go to hymn 421
hymn 421
the first noel
hymn number 421
begin to go on that first verse
sing the song be the smiths
number 421
the first noel the angels
say 421 sing it out
the first
the first noel
the angels
they say
what's in certain
more shepherds
it feels
where they lay
it feels
where they
make each
in their sheen
on a cold
winter's night
that was
so deep
noel
born is the
king of
Israel
and
by the
light
of blessing
start
it was
making
from the
tree park
to see
for a king
was there
in sin
and to follow
the star
on wherever
it went
noel
born is the
king of
Israel
the star
tonight
to the
northwest
for them
my
heaven
took its
rest
everything
oh stop
and stay
hide over
the place
where Jesus
plays
noel
born is
the king
of
Israel
the
internet
goes
high
and clean
oh
breath
and offer
there
in its
presence
there
and
noel
born
is the king
of
Israel
this morning we are
filled
beloved
and
happy
we are
happy
and
we are
happier