Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM - Living by Faith Pt 3 - Hebrews 11:30-40 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

All right, good morning, church family. I'm so glad you're here. It's good to see everybody. I want to invite you to stand with us and pray. We're going to spend some time worshiping the Lord. Father, we come before you this morning. Lord, I know that there's a lot going on in our lives. I just pray that during this time, Lord, that we would set everything aside,

that we would focus on you, that we would lavish praise upon you, Lord, that you would open our ears and our hearts this morning to the truth of your word, Lord. We ask your blessing upon this time in Jesus' name. Amen.

Lord God, I just thank you for how faithful you are to us, Lord God. Thank you for being. I give you praise. We have so many reasons to worship this Lord. I give you praise, Lord. We give you thanks, Lord. You are the King of kings. You are the Lord of lords. Your name is above all names, Lord. Lord God, and it is worthy of all praise. Lord, we praise your name. We bless your name this morning, God. Now, as Pastor Ryan comes,

I just ask that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit, Lord God. Give us an ear to hear and a heart to receive your word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you want to make ready seats, we'll get started.

Good morning and welcome to Calvary Chapel. We're glad that you've chosen to worship with us this morning. We'll go over the bulletin on the left-hand side or the week-by-week things. It's a full sanctuary today. It's awesome to see. On the left-hand side of the bulletin are the daily things throughout the week, a lot of options to get into the Word and get into

fellowship. In the middle of the bulletin, we're still working on the kitchen. If you're new here visiting, the Bible reading plan is on the back of that and pretty easy to follow, but every day there's a section to read, and it's not too late to jump in. Always good to get into the Word on the daily. And then I'm going to invite someone up to talk to you about the Reclaiming Masculinity

Conference. I know the guys have been announcing our men's conference, but I just wanted to share a little more about it. Family Life Services is hosting a free one-day event for men in the community, young men to aged and much wiser men. The goal behind this is honestly just to encourage and lift up men in the community. Men have big roles as leaders in the homes and in the community,

and we just really want to pour into you and encourage you. So there's flyers out on the table out there. They have a QR code where you can register. You can also just show up, but it helps us if you register. And if you have troubles with the QR code, feel free to call our office and we'll register you. It's free to attend, and we're providing lunch from big and smalls as well. So

hope to see you there. Go make sure your phones are on silent, and then Ryan's going to lead us in responsive reading. Good morning. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 30. Psalm 30, looking at this new American standard for this part of the service. If you need one, should be. Well, there may or may not be one in a row around you. As you're turning to

Psalm 30, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 30, a Psalm, a song at the dedication of the house, the Psalm of David. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up and have not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried to you

O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, you his godly ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Now, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I will never be moved. O Lord,

by your favor, you have made my mountain. Stand strong. You hid your face. I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I called. And to the Lord, I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with

gladness. That my soul may sing praise to you and not be dismayed. O Lord, I called. And to the Lord, I called. And to the Lord, I made supplication. Be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And Father, we do give thanks to you because you are the God who delivers. Lord, you are the God who is greater than we can imagine and is able to do things that our hearts can only

begin to fathom. And so, Lord, move in our hearts, we pray this morning. I ask for a fresh anointing of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, that your Holy Spirit would fall afresh on each person that's here this morning, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

If you brought a Bible, open up to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Today, we end our series on living by faith with more stories of men and women of God throughout the Old Testament that have lived their lives by faith. When we started this section off, it started ultimately in chapter 10 as he declared that the righteous man shall live by his faith. Not only are we

saved by our faith, not only are we saved by our faith, but we are saved by our faith. We are saved by our faith. We are saved by our faith. We are saved by our faith, but ultimately, the lives that we live are by faith in Jesus Christ. And sometimes, those lives that God wants us to live are the great things that he has called for us to do simply by faith in Jesus. And so, we started going through and looking at almost an

Old Testament survey of many of the men and women that God used throughout the Old Testament. And as we have worked our way through, we, of course, started with Abel and Enoch, and then we moved into Noah and Abraham, and then we looked at Isaac. And Jacob, and we looked at Joseph, and we looked at Moses. And that's who we ended with last week, is we ended with Moses as he led the children of Israel out of captivity from the nation of Egypt, and as he led them across the wilderness, across the Red Sea, and now ultimately, Joshua will bring them into the promised land. So, we pick up on more of these stories of faith

today. So, starting in verse 30, it says this, By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish, along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets,

who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonments, and they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they bowed in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was

not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all of these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. So the next story that we come to is given to us there in verse 30, the story of the defeat of Jericho. Remember the children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea after being delivered from Egypt, and the part that's left out in this faith chapter is that they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, because they didn't really do it right the first go-round. They came

to the edge of the promised land, and they said, we're not going to go in by faith, because everything looks a little bit too difficult for us. There's giants there, there's huge walled cities, we're just going to stay out here. And so God said, well then you're going to wander out here for the next 40 years. And that's what they did. They wandered around, but eventually it came time for them to go

back into the promised land, and they were led by a man named Joshua at this point in time. And the part that's not mentioned in here, but I think is important to point out, is that at the very beginning of the book of Joshua, they came once again to the edge of a body of water, only this time they would cross it differently than they did the Red Sea. They came to the edge of the Jordan River, and as they came to the edge of the Jordan River, God would give them a blueprint that would carry them throughout the rest of their time in conquering the land. And that blueprint was about faith. You see, when they got ready to cross the Red Sea,

God told Moses, he said, lift up your staff, the Red Sea will part, and then you walk across on dry land. But when they came to the edge of the Jordan River, God said something very different. He said, tell the priest to step into the water, and when they take that step into the water, the waters will part and they can walk through. Why? Because walking into

the wilderness, they did with their faith being declared through the sight of the Red Sea being parted. But walking into the promised land, they did with their faith being declared through the sight of the Red Sea being parted. But walking into the promised land, they did with their faith being declared through the sight of the Red Sea being parted. And they were now going to have to walk by faith, not by sight. And so they had to take the step

of faith to step into the water before God would part the waters. And that's what they did. They stepped in, the waters were parted, they came across, and they came into the promised land. And then in Joshua chapter 6, we find the story of the defeat of Jericho. You see, they came to the edge, and the angel of the Lord met with Joshua. And Joshua asked the question, he said, are you with the enemies of God, or are you with the people of God?

And the angel said, neither. He said, but you get on my side. And so Joshua took off his shoes because the angel of the Lord, who by the way is none other than an Old Testament appearance of Jesus, told him, the place where you stand is holy ground, now remove your shoes. And then he gave Joshua the battle plan. And you can imagine Joshua receiving this battle plan. The first city that

they were to take was Jericho. Jericho was the city of impenetrable walls. Remember the reason they didn't go in the first time? There's huge cities with great walls, and we can't overtake them. And God says, the first city that I want you to go to is the city with the biggest walls. Here's the plan. And you can imagine Joshua in this moment, ready to receive the amazing plan

for how they're going to destroy the walls, or scale the walls, or something to defeat the people. And the angel of the Lord says, you're going to march around the city one time a day for six days, if no one's going to say a word. He's going, okay, all right. And then the seventh day, you're going to march around the city seven times and not say a word. This doesn't make much sense, but okay. And then when you're done, at the end of that seventh time,

on the seventh day, you're going to blow the trumpet, and everybody's going to yell, and the walls are going to fall down, and you're going to go in and take the city. And Joshua's going, I've never seen this happen before. Are you serious? This is the plan? This is what we've come up with? We've come up with walk around and yell? I don't know if you've ever tried this or

not. I've walked around a lot of things and yelled at them. I've never seen any walls fall down just yet, right? Like when I work construction, when we had demo to do, every now and then I'd be like, I still had to do the work. Why? Because God was going to show Joshua something through this. God was going to show Joshua that he uses strategies that are foolish to men.

All you have to do is believe. And this blueprint that he had received first in the crossing of the Jordan River would now really be exemplified through the defeat of Jericho, and it would be how they would live their lives in conquering the promised land. But it would not be about their military might. It would not be about their military strategy. It would be about God

doing the work that only God is able to do, and then following God's directions even when it didn't make sense. Can I tell you, the same blueprint is laid out for us. You may not have a large city that you need to take over anytime soon. And if you do, can we talk first and make sure that that's Jesus that's telling you to take over that city? You don't have a city that you're probably going

to have to take over anytime soon, but I bet you have a broken relationship that you're dealing with right now. I bet you have a financial issue that you're stressing over right now, perhaps a health issue in your life. I bet you have a financial issue that you're stressing over right now, perhaps something that seems difficult that there's no way that you can overcome it. And God just keeps telling you to do the same thing. I just want you to trust me. I want you to come to me in

prayer every day with this. You're like, Lord, there's got to be something more I can do. God, there's got to be something else. There's got to be some plan. There's got to be some thing I can do. And God's like, I don't want you to do anything except come to me and pray every single day. I got to tell you, when I give people that advice, I get the same look from everybody.

That's it. I'm just saying it works. I've watched God do amazing things when we learned to trust him through prayer. And this is what they do. And they defeat the city. Well, now we come to the second story in verse 31. It says, by faith, Rahab, the harlot, did not perish along with those who are disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Interestingly enough, he takes these kind of in reverse order because while the story of the

defeat of Jericho is in Joshua chapter six, the story of Rahab is in Joshua chapter two. You see, when Joshua had been given the marching orders for what to do after crossing the Jordan River, he sent a couple of spies into Jericho to kind of check things out. Perhaps it was a little bit of a lack of faith on his part. Whatever it was, he felt like that's what he needed to do. So he sends two spies in there and they're checking out the city, trying

to find out exactly what things are like. And they seek refuge in the home of a woman named Rahab. And we're given the commentary. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that Rahab was a harlot. She was a woman with a bad reputation. She was a woman with a bad past. And yet we're going to see God use her in a very powerful way. You see, Rahab hid these spies. And the reason why she hid them is for one

reason. She had heard about God. She had heard that God was on the move and that God's people had been delivered from the nation of Egypt and that God's people were about to take over the land. And so when these two spies arrived, she said something very interesting. She says, I know that your God is the one true God. And I know that he is going to give this land to all

of your people. I just ask one thing. Could you remember the kindness that I'm showing you right now? Could you protect me when you come in and you take over this city? And they say, yeah. And she says, well, how is that going to be? Essentially, she asks one question. What must I do to be saved? What do I need to do to be saved? I know that judgment is coming. What do I need to do to be saved from the coming judgment? And they said, here's what

you need to do. You're going to take this rope that you're lowering us down with. It was a scarlet rope, interestingly enough, and you're going to hang it outside of your home. And when we march around that city and the city walls fall down, we're going to see the scarlet rope hanging from the side of the wall. And anyone that is in your house with the scarlet rope attached to it

is going to be protected from the judgment to come. But anybody that is not in the house be protected from the judgment that is to come. You wonder where they got that idea, right? Well, if we were to go back to the Passover, what were they supposed to do to the doorposts of their home? They were supposed to coat it with the scarlet of the blood of a spotless lamb. And anyone who was

inside of the home that was protected by the scarlet blood of the lamb would be protected from the coming judgment. Anyone outside of the home would not be protected. They took that same idea and they brought it to Rahab, the harlot. And they said, listen, you hang this scarlet rope inside of the home is protected from judgment. And that's exactly what happened. Rahab's house

was built within the city walls. In other words, it was on the outside of the city wall. And isn't it amazing that all of the city walls fell down except for one spot, Rahab's home. And they went in and they got her out of there and she was absolutely protected. You know that Rahab's story does not end there. She would go on to marry a man from the tribe of Judah and ultimately become

one of the ancestors or one of the, uh, in the line of the Messiah, her great, great, great, great, great, great grandson would be none other than Jesus. Can I just draw a quick conclusion from this for us? Jesus is bigger than bad reputations and Jesus is bigger than broken pasts. I don't know who needs to hear this this morning, but your reputation no longer defines you. It's like, that's not who you are

anymore. And you need to quit letting that reputation define you. And you need to start believing what God says about you. And you need to start believing what God says about you. And not what other people say about you. You need to start believing what God says about you and not what you believe about you because God is so much bigger. Faith overcomes bad reputations.

Faith overcomes broken pasts and God is able to redeem the broken and do beautiful things with their lives. So don't live with that bad reputation any longer. Live as a child of God. So he tells this story about Rahab by faith. Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient. After she had won the battle, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those

who were disobedient. After she had won the battle, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those And then he goes on from there in verse 32 to say, And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel, and the prophets. He says, I would love to tell you all of these guys' stories, but time would fail me. This is why I made it a three-part series.

Time does not fail us. So let's go over some of these stories, shall we? So first of all, next to Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, just write judges. Because that's basically a survey of the book of Judges. So children of Israel move into the land, right? God told them one main thing, drive out everyone. Don't let anyone stick around. You know why? Because if you let

them stick around, you will fall into their sins. Because you will be tempted to fall into the idolatry of the land. And so they failed to drive them out. And we're told at the beginning of Judges, because they failed to drive them out, they became a thorn in their side. And ultimately, the children of Israel found themselves caught in a cycle. And this was the cycle they were caught

in. They would fall into idolatry. God would have to punish them for that, usually by sending a foreign army against them. They would repent of their idolatry and cry out to God. God would send a judge to deliver them. And then they would repeat that process. They repeat, this process for hundreds of years. I have a question for you. Does that process sound

familiar? Has anyone ever noticed that in their lives? Sure, you may not have an idol that you're actually bowing down to. But you fall into sin. You live in that sin. God deals with you because of that sin. You realize God is dealing with you because of that sin. You repent of that sin. God sends deliverance. God heals you. At some point in time, don't you want to break the cycle?

At some point in time, don't you want to stop here and just be delivered? Well, God sends these judges, right? The first one that we read about is a guy by the name of Gideon. I love the story of Gideon because I relate to the story of Gideon. Gideon lived in a time when the Midianite armies had come against the children of Israel because they'd fallen into idolatry. And what the Midianite

army would do is every time that they would harvest something, they would come in and they would either burn the harvest or they would steal the harvest from them. So Gideon decided that when his harvest came in, he would steal the harvest from them. And he would steal the harvest from them. And he was going to hide and thresh the harvest in a place where no one could find him, basically in the bottom of a cave. Now, I don't know a ton about agriculture, but I've studied enough of

the Bible to know that that's the exact wrong place to thresh your harvest. You usually want to be on top of a mountain or a hill where the wind can come in and drive away the chaff and only the grain remains. And so basically he's hiding out because he's scared. This is why I relate with Gideon because I get kind of nervous in life sometimes. Gideon's hiding there because

he's scared of the enemy, right? And the angel of the Lord shows up, same one that talked to Joshua. The angel of the Lord shows up and says, Gideon, you are a valiant warrior. And Gideon went, I'm hiding from the enemy right now. First of all, don't say my name so loud. Second of all, there's nothing valiant about this situation here. So God calls him to do, he said, we got a problem

in the land. There's idolatry. The people have cried out to me. It's time to deal with it. First thing I want you to do is I want you to do this. I want you to go into town and I want you to do this. I want you to do this. I want you to do this. I want you to do this. I want you to do this. Tear down the idol, Gideon. Tear down the idol that's in the middle of the town. And Gideon goes,

okay, I can do this. And Gideon does what any great man of faith does. He waits until the middle of the night when no one can see him. And he goes in and he tears down the idol. And everybody's like, who did that? And they're like, Gideon did it. He's like, man, who told? And then God told Gideon, he said, why don't you gather an army? The armies of the Midianites

were coming against them. And the armies of the Midianites were about 135 thousand-ish people. And he says, I want you to gather an army. So Gideon does the best he can to muster an army. And he musters 32,000 guys, right? Now, I don't know about you, but numbers are still stacked against you at that point in time. You are still down 103,000 men if math does me correctly right there, right? All of you math students can correct me later.

God looks at him and says, too many dudes. I know you guys, you'll take credit even like this. So Gideon whittles them down to 10,000 guys. And God's like, still too many. And you know Gideon, like the stressed guy, right? Like he's drinking Pepto-Bismol because his stomach is so upset from the anxiousness right now. He's like, too many guys. We are still massively outnumbered. And God goes, no,

I'm going to do something big. But you have to be small in order to do it. Whittle them down again. So he gets them down to 300. The only victorious 300, can we say. He gets them down to 300. And he says, now we're talking. Now I can do something and no one else can take credit for it. Gideon, here's what I want you to do. I want your men to gather two things. I want every man

to gather a torch and I want every man to grab a jar. You're going to put the torch in the jar and you're going to surround the entire army of the Midianites. And when I say go, you're going to break the jar, reveal the torch and yell the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And I promise you, I'm going to give victory. And when he did so, the entire enemy army got so confused that they

actually started fighting each other. And they started fighting each other. And they started fighting each other. And Gideon was able to go in and route the army and absolutely drive out the Midianites. This man of fear, this man of anxiousness, God used in a powerful way. Don't you think that if you're a little bit timid in life that sometimes God can use you powerfully,

right? Well, the next guy that's given to us is this guy named Barak. And Barak has kind of a similar story. Children of Israel fall into idolatry. And there's actually a woman who's judging at this point in time. Her name is Deborah. And God tells Deborah, I want you to call this guy named Barak. And you're going to call him Barak. And you're going to call him Barak.

And she's going to tell him to lead an army against God's enemies. And so she calls in Barak. And Barak, being the great man of faith that he was, said, I will not go into battle unless you go with me. And she says, you realize I'm calling you to do this, right? He goes, yep, but you got to go with me. And she says, fine, but here's what you need to know. A woman is going to get

the credit for winning this battle. So Barak leads an army with Deborah right next to him. They start driving out the enemy. They're winning. The general of the enemy army, I think his name goes, and flees. And he comes to the tent of a woman named JL, right? And when he comes to JL, he is worn out. He's tired. He's really thirsty. He just wants a nap. So he says, can you help me

out? So she gives him a glass of milk and he takes a nap. By the way, potentially the greatest nap any human being has ever taken, knowing what's about to happen next. Because while he is sleeping on the floor of her tent, JL takes a tent peg. Dude, you do not jack with this woman, right? Okay. Yeah. No one named JL do you ever mess with. Okay. So, he takes his tent peg, right? She sticks it to his temple. Boom! Drives the tent peg through

the temple in his head and pins him to the ground and kills him. How did he not wake up when he felt the clink? I don't know. God dealt this great battle. And Barak still gets the credit for it in the New Testament. Why? Because God doesn't remember our failures. He remembers our faith. Well, the next guy that we read about is a guy by the name of Samson. Aren't you glad we have time for these stories? By the name of Samson, right?

Man, I love the story of Samson. Because everybody thinks the same thing about Samson. Samson must have been this giant of a guy, right? Well, let me tell you about him real quick. So, before Samson was born, his parents were told, you're going to have this special son, right? He's going to be a Nazirite. Now, a Nazirite was somebody who was set apart unto the Lord. Usually, a vow of a Nazirite was for a particular point in time. But God said,

he's going to be very different. His entire life is going to be set apart unto me. And there's three things they needed to know. Number one, he couldn't touch anything that was dead. Number two, he couldn't drink anything of the vine. In other words, no alcohol. Number three, he could not cut his hair. And he said, God is going to use him powerfully. Well, Samson did some of the most incredible feats of strength

anyone's ever done. He picked up the gates of a city and carried it out. He tied together the tails of three foxes, put torches in them, and lit all of the fields of the Philistines on fire. He took out thousands of the enemy with the jawbone of a donkey. This guy was the man. Well, everybody thinks the same thing about Samson. That guy must have been huge, right? But he must have been jacked. I don't think

he was. I think actually Samson was a pretty small built dude. You know why I think that? A, well, mainly because, see, here's what I think. I think Samson was about maybe like five foot six, kind of a, maybe about 165 pounds. I mean, that's all I'm saying. I think he could have been that. But here's why I think Samson wasn't that big of a dude. That's the main reason.

Because everybody tried to find out the secret of his strength, right? Everybody tried to, why is this guy so strong? If they would have known, they would have kept him away from the 24-hour fitness and away from all of the creatine and protein, right? They would have just done that if he was some jacked guy. But it's this little guy who's doing all these great feats of strength.

Samson had one problem in his life. The one problem that Samson had was his flesh. He had a hard time keeping the rules that he loved the girls, right? Well, there was one girl in particular that was his ultimate. Downfall. And her name was Delilah. She was a Philistine woman. So he falls in love with this Philistine girl because he met her at the local bar. And she starts leading him astray. Matter of

fact, the kings of the Philistines said, we will pay you an incredible amount of money if you will find out the secret of his strength. So she says, okay. So there's like four different times, three different times, and then the ultimate time when she figures it out. First thing, he says is, Samson, because it feels like Delilah deserves a Southern accent. Can we all agree with

that? Samson, tell me the secret of your strength. And he's like, all right, no problem. If you bind me with brand new cords, I promise I will be like any other man. So he wakes up in the morning and she has bound him with brand new cords. She says, Samson, the Philistines are coming. Samson gets up, breaks the cords, takes out the Philistines, right? Listen, at this point in time, Samson

should ask himself a question. Why does she want to know the secret? Why does she want to know the secret of my strength? Why did she use what I told her against me? At that point in time, all things should have led to, this is going to end bad. And you kids in here, can I tell you something right now? The person you choose to tie yourself to emotionally will affect you spiritually. You can't help that. It is impossible for them to not affect you

spiritually. So if you find somebody who has a strong walk with Jesus and they're pushing you to a stronger walk with Jesus, it will affect you spiritually. In the best way possible, because it will, it will make you better as a believer in Jesus Christ. It will, it will draw you closer to the Lord. If you find somebody that does not have a good walk with the Lord spiritually, or what doesn't have one at all, I promise you they will lead you away from

Jesus. There are no two ways about it. I've watched this for the past 25 years of ministry. I have seen, especially you young ladies, I love y'all and I want to see good things for you, but I have seen so many young ladies say, I can change you. No, he'll change you. But I've seen the same thing with dudes. No, it's okay. I'll be the leader. Yeah, right. She's going to lead you into the flesh. You've got to pay attention to these things.

And so, so it comes a second time and she says, you lied to me. He says, all right, if you bind me with brand new ropes, then that's the secret of my strength. So he wakes up again and he is bound with brand new ropes. And she says, Samson, the Philistines are coming. He breaks the ropes off and he takes out the Philistines. Listen, I'm talking to all of us as men in here right now. We've got to know what's leading us.

Why did Samson keep putting himself in the place of danger? Because he was being led by the wrong part of his body. Somebody told me you should soften that up a little bit. Second service. I'm like, nope, I'm not softening that because that is a hundred percent true. And if we as men don't realize that, if we as men don't start being led by the Lord, we will be led by the wrong part of

our body and it will ultimately lead to our destruction. And so happens again. Samson, you lied to me. Okay. If you weave my hair into a loom and stick a pin in it, that's the secret of my strength. So he wakes up and, you know, he's like Garnier commercial and he's just flings the thing off and takes out the Philistines again. Finally, she wears him down. She says, what's the secret to your strength?

He said, all right, if you shave my head, I'll have no strength left at all. And this time, I promise you, I'm telling you the truth. Listen, I shaved my head every single day. I can't imagine me not waking up while that's going on. Probably he was drunk. And she shaved his head. And she said, Samson, the Philistines are here. And Samson jumped up, ready to do battle again,

only to find that he was back to being 5'6", 165 pounds, and not a whole lot with him. He got taken by the Philistines. And it would be tragic if that was the end of Samson's story. But you see, Samson was still going to be used by God because our failures don't define us. Our faith does. And so Samson was taken. His eyes were gouged out. And he was made a prisoner of the Philistines, and they mocked him.

Well, they were having a huge party and said, bring out Samson. We want to mock the enemy of the Philistines. So they bring him out, and Samson says, can you put me near one of the pillars of the building? I want to see where I'm going. He's blind at this point in time. So they stick him next to the pillar that was the main support for the building, and he prayed.

I believe Samson repented at this point in time. And he prayed and he said, Lord, use me one more time. Use me one more time to defeat the enemy. And the Spirit of God came on him, and he pushed the support from the building out. And in his death, he killed more than he did in his life. While it's tragic that his life was cut short because of his flesh, it's amazing that God did not give up.

He did not give up on him just because he had failures in his life. He said, time would fail me to tell you about Gideon and about Barak and about Samson. But then there's one more that I want to tell you about. I love the story of this guy. His name is Jephthah, listed right down there at the end of that verse. Because Jephthah, I think, is so many people in our culture today.

Jephthah is so many people in the world that we live in today. Because you see, Jephthah grew up in a jacked up family. Jephthah grew up in an incredibly broken family. You see, we read that his dad's name was Gilead, and Gilead had other sons. But he had this son named Jephthah who was the son of a harlot. In other words, Jephthah's dad had an affair with a harlot and ultimately produced this son.

And now this son is living with the consequences of his dad's mistake. And not only is he living with the consequences of his dad's mistake, but we're told in the book of Judges that all of his brothers and sisters cast him out of the family because they said, you are illegitimate, you are not one of us, get out of here. And so this man who grew up in a messed up past with a messed up family and a messed up environment goes away. But we're told one thing about Jephthah, he was a valiant warrior.

And so when the nation of Israel fell into idolatry again, and they were being attacked by their enemies again, they said, let's call Jephthah. And so they bring him back and Jephthah wins this great victory for the nation of Israel. Because listen to me closely, faith is greater than your messed up family. Faith is greater than your messed up past. Are you from a broken family here this morning?

I want you to know that does not define you any longer. You are now defined by the fact that you have a perfect father in heaven who loves you more than you can ever imagine. Are you from a messed up family where you feel rejected by your other family members? I want you to know that sitting in this room right now is a brand new family. A brand new family that loves you.

A brand new family that accepts you. A brand new family that says, we don't care what your past is, as long as you're following Jesus, you're one of us, and we're going to hold you accountable and we're going to love you. Because faith is bigger than messed up families. And right now we're living in a world of messed up families, and I think it's causing people to lose a lot of hope because that's who they're identified with.

Well, my family's screwed up, so I'm going to be screwed up. I just listened to a testimony by Daryl Strawberry yesterday. If you don't know who Daryl Strawberry is, those of you who are my age and older, you know who I'm talking about. Daryl Strawberry was one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, but he had a problem, and the problem that he had was substance abuse.

But it was passed down throughout his family. And in his testimony, he said, I broke the curse through the power of Jesus because that was not going to be my family anymore. Faith is going to be greater than my family's past. And now all of his kids are walking with the Lord. It would fail me to tell all these stories. Then he goes on, of course, to talk about David and Samuel.

Of course, David is the one who beat Goliath and became one of Israel's greatest kings. Samuel, of course, is the prophet that made him. Actually, let's talk for just a minute about Samuel. Samuel is another fantastic story. So Samuel's mom couldn't have any kids. Her name was Hannah. And Hannah was barren, and it broke her heart that she could not have any kids.

And so every year, she'd go to the temple, and she would pray to God. Or it used to be the tabernacle at that point in time. And she would pray that God would give her a son. And God kept saying, wait. And finally, one time, she was at the tabernacle, and she was praying to the Lord and crying out to God for a son. And the priest heard her. He said, you know what?

God's going to give you your request. At this time next year, you're going to have a son. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Well, here's what she told God. She said, Lord, if you'll give me a son, I will dedicate him to you. He will be used for your service. And so God gave her this little boy named Samuel. Samuel came to live in the temple when he was old enough.

And while he was living there with Eli, the high priest, God called him one day. He was probably around 12 or 13 years old, and he started hearing his name. Samuel. And so he thought Eli was calling him. So he goes in to the high priest and says, did you need something? I heard you say my name. And he goes, I didn't say your name. Go back to sleep. It happened two more times.

And finally, Eli said, ah, I know what's going on. Listen, the next time you hear your name, this is what I want you to say. I want you to say, speak, Lord, for your servants listening. And so that's what he did. He hears his name one more time. Samuel. And he says, Lord, speak for your servants listening. And God gives Samuel his very first prophecy. You know what Samuel's very first prophecy was?

He had to tell the current high priest, your high priesthood is about to end because of the corruption in your family. Can you imagine 12, 13 years old by faith, having to declare that to the man who helped raise you? And yet he was faithful to what God called for him to do. And he became one of Israel's greatest prophets who ushered in the monarchy within the nation of Israel.

Well, we go on from there. And again, he's going to go rapid fire here. It says, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, and shut the mouths of lions. It feels like we should camp out there for one quick second. Because that's another interesting one to pay attention to. Remember he said the prophets. Well, the story there is about one particular prophet.

His name was Daniel. Daniel and his friends ultimately were taken captive by the Babylonians when Israel had turned against God. God said, I got to deal with the nation. Babylon's who's going to do it? Who's going to do it? Who's going to do it? Who's going to do this? And so Babylon takes them captive. And so they took a group of young men. Daniel was probably about 16, 17 years old when this happened.

And Daniel made a very strong stand for his faith. And God used him mightily. He survived several different kings. We come down to a guy by the name of Darius. Yeah. We come down to a guy named Darius. And the king had appointed Daniel to an incredibly high place within the kingdom. And this made all of the other leaders jealous of him. How dare he put this Hebrew man in charge of us?

And so they tried to figure out any way they could to bring a charge against him. So they start searching everything. They go through his internet search history. They go through his banking history. Everything that they can do to try to find something against Daniel. But ultimately they decide this. The only thing we can find a problem with is that he loves his God too much.

So they developed a plan. Let's propose a law to the king. Anyone who prays to any God, except for you, O king, should be punished by throwing him into the lion's den. And the king says, show me where to sign. Right? He gets kind of excited. The thought of everybody praying to him. So he signs the law. And as soon as Daniel knew, we're told in the book of Daniel,

as soon as he knew that the law had been signed, he did what he did every day in the afternoon. He went home. He opened his curtains. Facing Jerusalem. He knelt down and he prayed to God. And of course, all of those men were sitting outside of his house because they knew exactly what he was doing. And he said, I'm going to pray to God. I'm going to pray to God.

I'm going to pray to God. What he was going to do. And they said, King, you are not going to believe it. Daniel broke your law. And the king goes, Oh, I didn't even think about Daniel in this. The law can't be changed. So he threw Daniel in the lion's den. I don't know if you've ever thought about what that might be like. That would be a pretty scary situation.

Most don't survive that situation. And yet when Daniel was in the lion's den, he was not affected by the lions. Why? Because God closed their mouths. We're actually told that in the book. That God shut their mouths. You know what I think? This is just the way my brain works. I think Daniel snuggled with the lions all night long. A little mane pulled over to cover him up

because it was probably a little bit cold on a concrete floor. He just slept with them. They're just hanging out there, chilling with the lions. And when they came to get him, he said, Daniel, did your God protect you? And he's like, you know, that's right. And so he pulls Daniel out and he throws those other guys in because he stopped the mouths of lions living by faith.

We go on from there and it says, verse 30, 40, quench the power of fire. Same book of the Bible. Daniel. Daniel had three other friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Or unless you, like me, have watched the VeggieTales version, and then you know it's Rackshack and Benny. Right? And so Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are living in the same kingdom.

This is years before the event with Daniel and the lions den. And there was a king named Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar builds this giant statue. And he says, here's the thing. When you hear all of the musical instruments play, this is what I want you to do. I want you to bow down and worship the statue. This is a great plan. Probably the greatest plan ever.

That's what you're going to do. And so everyone bows down when they hear the music playing, except for three dudes, Rackshack and Benny. Right? Like they're standing up. And I'll remind you, these aren't three average guys. These are three who are on the leadership team for the king. And so everybody notices that they don't bow down. And the king, he calls them.

He says, what are we doing here? I thought I gave a command. When the music plays, you bow down. I'm going to give you one more chance. They said, listen, save your chances. We are not going to bow down to your God. He says, if you don't, I'll throw you in the fiery furnace. They said, our God is able to save us from the fiery furnace. But even if he doesn't,

we're still not going to bow down to your God. So he gets infuriated. He heats the furnace up four times hotter. I don't know enough about, chemistry to know how you could do that, but he heated it up four times hotter to the point where the guys that threw them into the furnace actually died of burns because the fire was so hot. And so he ties them up, throws them in there and he's just sitting there waiting to watch them burn

alive. Only he looks in there and he goes,

how many guys we throw in there? Three. Well, that's how I counted last two. Do you see the fourth guy? There's one more guy and he looks like a son of the gods. Now, because he didn't know what he was saying, but he was actually declaring that that was God in there at that point in time, because Jesus was with them in the fire. And so he calls them out and they come out of the fire.

And you know, the only thing that was burned on them was the ropes that they were tied up with. They didn't even smell like smoke. I can't go to the brush dump and not come out smelling like smoke, let alone be thrown into a fire. But God quenched the mouth of God, quenched the power of the fire because they live their lives by faith. It says in verse 34, he quenched the power of the fire.

Some escaped the end of the fire. Some escaped the edge of the sword from weakness. Some were made strong. They became mighty in war. They put, uh, they put foreign armies to flight and women receive back their dead by resurrection. There's at least two stories, both with Elijah and Elisha that tell stories like that. But lest we believe that living by faith means that life always works out the way that you want it to on this side of eternity.

He continues to tell the rest of the story. See, the problem that we can have sometimes is, is that we think if I live, if I live my life by faith, nothing bad is ever going to happen to me. If I live my life by faith, I'm never going to have any issues in my life. I'm always going to be healthy. I'm always going to be wealthy. I'm always going to be prosperous.

Here's the problem. That's not what it says in the Bible, because while those are stories of victorious faith, starting in the middle of verse 35, we see stories of faith that overcomes. Because, I want you to notice what he says and others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. That that word tortured in the Greek there means to be beaten with a baton.

And the idea of not accepting release means that they were offered the opportunity to renounce their faith and escape the fate of torture. But they chose not to. But they chose not to because by faith they believed that even though there might be difficult things on this side of eternity, there was something better that was waiting for them. Brothers and sisters, I would, I would love to be able to tell you that once you start walking with Jesus, everything is going to be great, that you're never going to face hardship, that you're never going to have a painful day in your life.

But listen, the 25 years that I've lived of walking with Jesus have told me the opposite, have told me, that this life that we live in on this side of eternity is a difficult life. But that doesn't change the fact that God is good.

Wednesday morning, I had the distinct opportunity to go over and talk to a group of kids in Burden, Kansas. A group of kids that are having to learn this, they're very hard way right now, that life is really hard and that sometimes things don't work out the way you thought that they were going to. And so in that moment, I was really glad that I'd been through the things I'd been through in my life. Because I was able to look them all in the eye and say, I've been where you are.

Let me tell you what God has done. I've been where you are. And let me tell you how faith in God overcomes the situation that you're going through right now. I know what it's like to hurt because you received a phone call that you never thought you were going to receive. Let me tell you how God got me through that. Because life is hard. But God is good. And there is a faith that overcomes even the most difficult things of life.

And he says, these folks, some of them were willing to be tortured, not taking the opportunity to escape from it. Why? Because they had a better resurrection that they were to obtain. In verse 36 it says, and others experienced mockings and scourgings. Yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword.

They were put to death with the sword. They were put to death with the sword. They were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and in goatskins being destitute, afflicted and ill-treated. Men of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. I would encourage you to read the stories of the prophets.

Because the prophets went through so much to take a stand for the truth of God. And there were times where you're like, Lord, why are you not delivering them? Because sometimes the greatest glory and the thing that's best for me is to be delivered from the hardship. But sometimes God's greatest glory, and my greatest lessons come from going through the hardship.

One story, they just said there, some were sawn in two. You go, when did that happen? Tradition teaches us that Isaiah, the prophet, Isaiah, who made such a strong stand for the Lord, Isaiah, who gave some of the greatest testimonies and prophecies about the coming Messiah. Tradition says he was stuck inside of a log and they, they saw them in two. I would love to say that we all get to escape and never go through hard things in life.

But I'd be lying to you and I would create a false hope. Because if I told you that what happens when the difficult thing happens in your life, you go, but I thought you said nothing bad was going to happen. So I got to tell the truth. Life is hard, but God is good. And that faith that you have in God will overcome. So as he comes to the end of verse 38 here,

he sort of concludes things in verses 39 and 40. He says, and all these having gained, approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for us. So that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. All of these, all of these great men and women of faith that I just told you about, they died without having received the promise.

The first thing it says is that they were all, they all gained approval through faith. In other words, their righteousness came through their faith, their ability to do what they did came through faith, but they still didn't receive the promise. What promise is he talking about? What's the very promise that he's been expounding throughout the entire book of Hebrews, the promise of a Messiah who would come and would ultimately give victory, who would ultimately be victorious over sin and give us this brand new hope.

That's what they all died in faith looking forward to. You see, all of the old Testament states died in faith, looking forward to the coming of Jesus. All of us, new Testament states. We now live in faith of what Jesus has already done, for us. There is actually a better blessing for us because we have the blessing of knowing what the end of the story is. They were still looking through a glass,

very darkly. They were still really trying to feel their way through of what's he talking about. We have the benefit of knowing Jesus has already come. Jesus has already won. David Guzik had a great quote on this. He said, if these lived by faith, looking forward to the promise, how much more should we and how much more can we live by faith now that we have received the promise?

Let me read that to you one more time. If these lived by faith, looking forward to the promise, how much more should we and how much more can we now live by faith since we have received the promise? I've been trying to think about as we wrap up chapter 11 here, what are the main things I want us to walk away with? What's the main things that are really important?

What's the main thing that's really important for us to take away from all of these stories, which I think we would all agree are pretty exciting to read and listen to, right? I love all these stories. Two things I want you to take away with you from our discussion in the book of Hebrews. Number one, I want to encourage you. I want you to be so encouraged knowing that God is bigger than bad pasts.

God is bigger than bad family stories. God is bigger than our weaknesses. God is bigger than our failures. God is able to overcome all of the things in our lives. There is no one who is too far gone for God. There is no one that God cannot use. And I want you to be encouraged by that because we live in a very discouraging world right now that wants to tell you,

if you don't fit into certain boxes or categories, you're not good enough. And God says, listen, you're all my people. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, I want to use you. And I want you to be encouraged by that so that you can put your past aside, so that you can put your failures, your failures aside, your weaknesses aside, and be encouraged knowing that God is bigger than all of those things.

I want you to walk away from this encouraged, knowing that all of the stories of those people, those are your stories. All the stories of the people who sometimes failed and yet God continued to use. Those are our stories, right? And so I want you to walk away encouraged. But number two, I want you to walk away inspired. I want you to walk away inspired. Listen,

the worst thing in the world is to hear, all of these great stories and go, well, that was really fun to hear and have it not change your life. The book of James tells us that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And I want to inspire you to say, God wants to use you like this. God wants to use you in the exact same way he used some of these other people.

We look at these men and women of the Bible and go, I can never be one of them. I mean, I'm just an average guy. Really, Gideon was hiding when God called him. Gideon was trying to not let, anyone know that he was there because he was so average and mundane. As a matter of fact, when Gideon was called, he said, I'm from the smallest tribe and I'm the least in my family.

God used someone else besides me. And God said, I want to use you. And I want you to know here this morning, there's nothing God can't do through you. Do you realize that? Do you realize there's nothing that God can't do through you? And he wants you a part of the work of the kingdom. He wants you a part of the work. Listen, the work of the kingdom is not relegated to the pastor.

I, play a part in the work of the kingdom, but you all are doing the work of the kingdom. And you have the same Holy Spirit coursing through you. That's coursing through me and all of the saints that God has used over the years. And I want to inspire you to live the normal Christian life. You know what the problem with the normal Christian life is? We think the normal Christian life is showing up to church on a Sunday,

living how we want to the rest of the week. That is not the normal Christian life. This is the normal Christian life. Hebrews 11 is the normal, Christian life. And that's what God wants for you. Well, Ryan, I'm scared to get outside of the box. Do it anyway. Get out and do something. Be a part of something bigger than you. Because God wants to use you in those kinds of ways.

I love the things that I get to do in ministry. I love the places that I get to go. But the only reason I get to go those places and do those things is because I incredibly timidly answered a call that God had on my life. I tried to fight it as long as I could. But finally I said, okay, I'll do what you want, me to do. And then as I took that step, God kept giving me more steps of faith to take.

God kept giving me one more thing to do. And I'm like, I don't know, God, I don't know if I'm the right guy for this. And God's like, why not you? Why not you? And I got a question for you. Why not you? I think that there's some people in here that God wants to use in powerful ways on your job sites, in your families, in your homes, at the Walmart, at the Starbucks,

you name it. Where does God, want to use you because God wants to use you in big ways and lots of places. If you will allow yourself to live by faith. Amen. Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me, father, we come before you and Lord, I thank you that you have blessed us with you, but this truth of your word with these stories, Lord, that, that not only encourage, but inspire us. And so father, I lift up every person that's in here this morning and Lord, there are those who need to take their first step of faith to put their trust in you to say, I will leave the world behind and I will follow you with all of my heart. And today is that day that they need to take that first big step of faith. And so Lord, as their heart is pounding and they know that that's you calling them, I pray that they Lord would just pour out their hearts to you as we sing this last song and,

and that they would make that decision and that commitment to follow you with all of their heart and Lord that then they tell somebody about it. Lord, there are some people here, who are needing to take a bolder step of faith. You are calling them Lord to, to get outside of their comfort zone, to get outside of, uh, of the, of average Christian life that we see it in the 21st century Western culture church and to live the normal Christian life that your word proclaims to us. And so Lord, give them the boldness to step out.

Lord, some need vision. So I pray that you would give them vision and Lord, some need to get out of the cycle of sin. Lord, they, they need to get out of falling. Always. They need to get back into that exact same place again and Lord to live in the place of obedience and so Lord wherever we're at in this place this morning wherever our heart is I pray that you would move by the power of your Holy Spirit we just thank you Father in Jesus name amen be blessed

Oh grace is our God sing with me grace is our God Splendor of the King the King is himself . . . . His voice trembles at his voice . . We love you so much. We thank you for your word this morning Lord. We thank you for the work that you're doing in our lives. Lord. Thank you for the faith that you're building in us, or God. Use us for your glory. Maybe we walk out and trust you in faith.

Lord. I love you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .