Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - Living by Faith Pt 3 - Hebrews 11:30-40 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

Lord, we come before you this morning, and we thank you for another day. Thank you for this day that you have made. Lord God, we just ask your blessing this morning. Bless this time, bless the worship, bless the word. Open our ears, open our hearts this morning to the truth of your word. We love you, we praise you, and in Jesus' name, amen. Let's worship the Lord.

Peace that outlasts darkness, hope that's in the blood. This future grace that's mine today, that Jesus Christ has won. I can face tomorrow, for tomorrow's in your hands.

The sea is raging, fix my eyes. Thank you for bringing us from death.

I also thank you for your grace this morning.

God, I just thank you for your grace. I thank you for that unmerited favor, Lord God. Lord God, I know. I know we fall short. Lord, I just thank you for your grace, because your grace is enough. Amen.

Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand. When everything around me is shaking,

Jesus is faithful through chance.

Still got joy in chaos.

Makes no sense, so I won't be going.

Because I built my...

So I would be shaken.

When everything... Worship your holy name. We bless your holy... We lift all honor and glory to you this morning, because you are worthy.

Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A few things to take note of over on the left-hand side are the things that go on... throughout the week. So find yourself a spot to get plugged into. The biggest thing to remind you about in the middle section is that we have that Reclaiming Masculinity Conference that Family Life Services is hosting out at Prairie View Camp on September

the 12th. The registration QR code is right there, and all the info is there as well. So those are the things that are going on right now. So if you would make sure that you're... Oh, and don't forget that the Bible reading plan is there on the back. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced, and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 30.

Psalm 30. Looking at the New American Standard for this. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are 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. I will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 30, 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 for help, and you healed me. O Lord, you have 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. 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 to stand strong. You hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I called, and to the Lord I made my supplication. What profit is there in my blood? What profit is there in my blood?

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 silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And Lord, we do give thanks to you because you have dealt with us so bountifully.

Lord, not the least of which is by giving us your very own son. To give us eternal life. And so, Father, I just pray that as we spend time looking at these stories of faith and being reminded that at the heart of these stories is the promise of a Savior. Lord, that our hearts would be drawn close to you. That we would be inspired to live as you have called for us to live.

To truly live by faith. And so, Father, we just thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. Hebrews, chapter 11. Well, today we come to the end of our series, Living by Faith. And we've looked at so many wonderful stories. Of course, he started off by explaining and describing faith for us.

That it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It's the confidence that we have that Christ is able to do what he has called for us to do. And so, we've gone through these stories of faith. And essentially, we've worked our way through the Old Testament with these stories of ministry. Men and women of faith who have done great things that God has called for them to do.

Of course, we started at the very beginning of the book of Genesis with Abel and Enoch. And we worked through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We talked about Joseph. And then we've talked about Moses. And we sort of left off with Moses last week. Moses had led the children of Israel out of the nation of Egypt. And they had crossed the Red Sea. And we pick up with more of these stories today.

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... 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 and chains and imprisonment. And others experienced mockings and scourgings and chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about 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 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... Because God had provided something better for us. They would not be made perfect. And so the next story that we come to in verse 30 is the story of Jericho. There's a lot of history that's left out in between the crossing of the Red Sea and the arriving at Jericho.

There's the entire history of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness for 40 years because they refused to believe God the first go-round when they were at the very edge of the promised land. But now they've come to the edge of the promised land. They crossed the Jordan. They crossed the Jordan River. And that's an interesting story in and of itself.

I think I've got time to tell it. We're very early in the service. I'll speed up later if I need to. The crossing of the Jordan is such a fascinating story because when they crossed the Red Sea, the water parted and then they walked through on dry land. But the crossing of the Jordan was very different because the occupation of the land that God had given to them

would also be very different. It would be an occupation. It would be a conquering that would take place through faith. And so while they walked... When they crossed the Red Sea on dry land, the sea parted before they walked in. But to cross the Jordan, it took a greater step of faith because the priests were told this. When you put your feet into the water, then the waters will be parted.

They had to believe that God would do what he said he was going to do as they stepped into the river. And as they stepped into the river by faith, God parted the waters and the entire nation went through the Jordan River. And they came to the edge of... They came just inside. They came inside of the promised land there in the very first place that they were to conquer.

God told them, you need to go to Jericho first. And it's interesting because Jericho's walls were impenetrable. And they knew that there was nothing they could do to defeat the city in and of themselves. And so Jesus is called the angel of the Lord in the book of Joshua. But we know that it's an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. This is, by the way, Joshua chapter 6, if you're taking notes.

Joshua meets up with the angel of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord says, I have a plan. And you can imagine Joshua in this moment thinking of this great military conquest plan. How they're going to use some way to tear down the walls and ultimately defeat the people. And God says, listen closely to the plan. You're going to show up every day. And you're going to march around the city and not say a word.

Everybody's going to be incredibly silent. Just walk around the city once. Every day for six days. And then on the seventh day, you're going to walk around the city seven times. And after the seventh time that you've walked around the city, you're going to shout. And the walls will fall down. And you will simply go in and take the spoils of the land. Now listen, I've never studied an incredible amount of warfare strategy.

But I've watched enough war movies to know that that doesn't usually work. Right? Like you can yell at the people all that you want to. You can yell at a city all you want to. And it will still not be defeated unless God's fighting the battle. And we are reminded of something in this story. We are reminded that God uses strategies. That are foolish to man. God loves to do things that do not make sense.

That the rest of the world would say, That is not going to work. I can't imagine why you think that it would. And you go, well, that's what God told me to do. And so that's what I'm going to do. And as you do what God calls you to do, it's amazing how by faith God accomplishes great things. Sometimes you reach a point in a life. Perhaps it's because of a sickness.

Perhaps. It's because of a financial situation. Perhaps a broken relationship. Whatever it is. You've done everything in your power to solve the problem. You ever been in those situations? You've done everything you can to change the situation. Only to find that it is not changed. And then we all make the statement that we should never have to make as believers.

But we make it anyway. I guess all there's left to do now is pray. And you kind of go, well, maybe that's what God wants you to do first. Because in. In our minds, we need to do all of these things. And God goes, if you'll just let me do all of these things and just bring it to me, it'll be amazing how you will see the walls fall down that you could have never imagined falling down.

Again, in the margin of your Bible, you might write 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4. Because in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4, we are told the weapons of our warfare are not carnage. They are not eternal in nature, but they are spiritual for the tearing down of strongholds, i.e. the tearing down of walls. Because that's what God's able to do.

And as they won that first battle by faith, it would set the benchmark that everything that they were to do in the conquest of the land would be by faith. Matter of fact, there's one battle that they're fighting where they are subduing the enemy. And in the process of subduing the enemy, the sun is about to go down. And so Joshua, with all of the faith mustered in him, says, Lord, make the sun stand still.

And you know what God did? That. He made the sun stand still so that they could keep conquering the enemy. Because that battle of Jericho would set the stage for how they would continue to live their life. And brothers and sisters, that faith sets the stage for how we are to live our lives. By faith in God's ability, not mine. Well, the second story that he tells actually ties into the Jericho story.

It's about a woman named Rahab. Notice what it says. Verse 31. By faith, Rahab, the harlot, did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. I'll tell you the story of Rahab. So before, this actually comes in Joshua chapter 2. So after they had crossed the Jordan River, and God told them that the first place that they were to go,

was the city of Jericho, Joshua needed a faith builder. And so he sent a couple of spies. He said, I want you to go in and I want you to check out Jericho. And so they go in and they check out Jericho. And they find that the place where they can hide is in the home of a woman named Rahab. And we're given the commentary, just like we are here in the book of Hebrews.

We're given the commentary of her occupation. She was a harlot. In other words, she was a woman who made her money through illicit means. She had a bad reputation. She had a bad reputation in town. But this is where they could find some safety. And it's interesting because as they found safety in this woman's house, this woman with a shady past, this woman with a terrible reputation,

looks at these two spies and she says something. She says, I know that your God is the one true God. I know that your God is going to defeat this entire land, including this city. And then she asks a very interesting question that I'm going to sum up in one statement. She says, what must I do to be saved? She looks at them and says, how can I find favor in the eyes of your God

as you all come in and take over the land so that my family will not be destroyed in what you all are about to do? But again, we can sum that up with a statement. What must I do to be saved? And so here's this woman with a shady past, with a bad reputation. And yet she looks and she says, I know that your God is the one true God. And I want to know what I must do to be saved

from the coming wrath on the land. And so they tell her, listen, you respect us, we'll respect you. You let us down this wall and keep our identity secret. And when we show up here, you and your family will be safe. And here will be the sign that your family will be safe. She, of course, was a prostitute. She owned a rope that was made of scarlet. And so they said, this scarlet rope that you are going to let us down the wall with,

if this is hanging up when we come to take the land, then anyone in the home that has the scarlet cord tied to it will be safe. Anyone outside of the home will not be safe from judgment. But anyone in here will be safe. Interestingly enough, she lived on the wall of the city. And what was going to fall down when they shouted after walking around the city for seven times on the seventh day?

All of the walls of the city. So the God who was going to bring destruction and judgment would have to also be the God who would selectively bring salvation. And that's exactly what happened. They marched around the city for those six days. And on the seventh day, they marched around seven times. A huge shout is let out. And all of the city walls fall down except for one home.

One home that has a scarlet rope hanging from it. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? It sort of reminds you a little bit of the Passover. Who was saved in the Passover? Those who had the scarlet blood painted on the door of the home. If you will, this is a perfect picture of what it means to be in Christ. Because everyone who is in Christ when the coming judgment comes

will be saved because their hearts are covered by the scarlet rope of His blood. And so she ends up being saved with her entire family. And interestingly enough, she goes on to be in the line of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And we're reminded of something through this. Faith overcomes bad reputation. Faith overcomes a shady past. And I know that in the world that we live in today,

when you come to Christ, sometimes that means that in your past there are some things that are not things that you would like to share with too many people. Some people are bound by a reputation and you feel like, especially in a small town, you can't get past your reputation. And I want to tell you right now, faith is bigger than your bad reputation. And as the church, we need to remember that.

And so he says, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down and by faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with all those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. The next thing he does is kind of goes rapid fire here, right? He goes, and what more shall I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets. But I've broken this up into three studies, so we do have time.

Because he goes on to list more people. He's like, oh my gosh, I could tell you so many more stories of faith. I could tell you so many more stories of men and women of God that were used in such powerful ways. And he just starts rapid fire naming them. So we're going to cover the first four here real quick. Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah. Again, in the margin of your Bible next to that,

you might write Judges, because that essentially is a survey of the book of Judges. Now, if you don't know what the book of Judges is all about, Judges is one of the harder books. It's one of the harder books in the Bible to read. Because the children of Israel get in the land, and they get established in the land. They defeat most of the enemies, but not all of the enemies.

They didn't totally obey God all the way. And some of the enemies of Israel remained there, and so they became, as God had told them, they became a thorn in their side. And so the children of Israel started into a pattern in their nationalistic life. The pattern was this. Fall into sin and idolatry. Be judged for sin and idolatry. Cry out to God because of the judgment.

God brings salvation through a judge. And that cycle is what they continued for centuries of the life of the nation of Israel. Perhaps that sounds familiar to us. Anybody else ever found in their life that sometimes that pattern is what repeats itself in our own lives? We have this great faith in our life, and yet what we find is that there are still enemies in the land.

There is still flesh that we deal with. And so sometimes we start giving in to the areas of the flesh in our life. And then God starts to deal with us in some way, shape, or form. He starts to discipline us for those areas of flesh in our life. And then we cry out to God for safety. And then God brings deliverance. And the question is, will we cut off the cycle

or will we continue to live in it? Praise God. He's faithful. Amen. And so in that process, there's these judges that God brought in to do great things. And the first story that we're told about is this guy by the name of Gideon. I love Gideon because we're told right here that he's this great man of faith, right? It says, oh, these guys did great things. He's going to go on to say,

by faith they conquered kingdoms and all this kind of stuff. Gideon came along in a time of national depravity. Most of the nation had given into idolatry. And they were taken over by a group of people called the Midianites. And Gideon is an incredibly... I relate to Gideon, okay? Gideon's this really nervous guy. And he's really fearful about what's going on in the land.

When the angel of the Lord shows up to give him his marching orders, Gideon is threshing wheat at like the bottom of a mountain and hiding out. Now, I've never threshed wheat, but I've read enough about it to know that if you're going to thresh wheat, basically what you do is you throw it in the air and the wind carries away the chaff and the grain falls back down. If you're down at the bottom of a mountain, that's really hard to do because the wind's not really there. You're usually on top of a mountain when you do that.

So why was Gideon down there? Because he was scared for his life. Because every time they would harvest the grain, the Midianites would come along and steal it from him. And so as Gideon is essentially hiding from the enemy, the angel of the Lord shows up and calls him a mighty warrior. Isn't that great? Here Gideon is incredibly terrified about the enemy that's in front of him.

The angel goes, you're a mighty warrior. And he's like, you've got to be talking to someone else. But it's just me here. I don't know what's going on. Because God called him by faith what he would eventually become. And so the first thing he tells him, he says, Gideon, you've got to go. And what you've got to do is you've got to tear down the idols in the town square.

Go and tear them down, he just told the guy who was hiding from the enemy. And so Gideon goes and obeys in the middle of the night. Right? He's not bold enough to go do it the right way, but at least he did it. In the middle of the night, he shows up, tears down the idol and then sneaks back off. And everybody goes, who did that? And they're like, I bet it was Gideon.

How did they know that? I don't know. Anyway, so they're like, I bet it was Gideon. Well, God finally tells Gideon, it's time to gather an army. And so Gideon gathers this army. And my numbers are going to be mildly off here, but get the idea. There was about 30,000 of the enemy. And the first of the army that he gathered was about 3,000. And he's going, these numbers are not good.

We are outnumbered big time here. And God says, Gideon, your army is too big. And Gideon goes, my math isn't math, thank God. Nope, it's too big. I know you guys. And I know that if your army is this big, you'll take credit for yourselves. You'll think you're the ones that did it. Gideon shrinks them down. So the first thing he does is shrinks them down to about 1,000.

He says, still too big. Shrink them down. Finally, he shrinks them down to 300 men. That's right, the real 300. Gathered themselves, and God says, now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go and grab these weapons of war. I want you to grab a jar, and I want you to grab a torch. Those are really odd weapons of war. He said, I want every one of your 300 men

to take a jar and cover their torch. And I want you to completely surround the enemy camp. And when the message sounds, everyone, everyone's going to break the jar, and they're going to hold up the torch, and I promise I'm going to bring victory. And that's what they did. Everyone broke their jar. It showed the torch, and the idea is that they thought that they were completely surrounded by the enemy.

So everybody in the camp freaked out, and they all killed each other in absolute fear of what was going on. They didn't even have to use the sword to win the battle. Why? Because God's weapons aren't like our weapons. God's ways aren't like our ways. And he can take somebody who is incredibly fearful, he can take somebody who is incredibly nervous, he can give them a plan that makes no sense

as far as the world is concerned, and he can bring a great victory for the people of God. Well, the second story that he tells us is the story of Barak. Did I do that right? Yeah, Barak. And again, it's a situation. The person that was actually the judge at this point in time, her name was Deborah. And Deborah was judging the people. She was overseeing kind of what was going on there,

and God told Deborah, it's time. It's time to defeat the enemy. I want you to call the guy. His name is Barak, and I want you to give him the marching orders. And so she calls in Barak, and he comes in, and she says, you're going to lead the enemy into battle. And Barak says, I can't do that. You have to go with me. And she goes, okay, I'll go with you, but just so you know,

you're not going to get the credit for this. A woman's going to get the credit for this. And so he says, I don't care. I'm kind of scared. So they go into battle, and they're winning the battle, kicking rear end, taking names, and finally, Sisera, the guy who is the enemy general, runs and flees for his life. And he comes to the tent of a woman named Jael. And as he comes,

bear with the story, kids. And so as he comes to the tent of this woman named Jael, he goes, I'm incredibly tired and thirsty. And so she gives him a big glass of milk. And he drinks this big glass of milk, and he takes a nap right there. And while he is there, he is taking clearly the deepest nap of his entire life. She takes the tent peg, and she drives it through the temple of his head

and pins him to the ground with it and kills him. And the ultimate victor was Jael. Isn't it kind of fascinating that we don't read Jael's name in the hall of faith. We read Barak's name. Barak, the guy who was pretty scared. Barak, the guy who wasn't willing to take the lead, and yet God still says he was a great man of faith. I'll remind you again, God remembers our faith,

not our failures. The third name that's given to us is the name Samson. Samson is just such a fascinating character in Scripture, right? Samson's family was called before Samson was even born. They were told, you're going to have a son, only he's going to be a very special son. He's going to be a Nazarite. And he's going to live the life of a Nazarite. He's going to be completely set apart from the Lord.

He can't touch anything that's dead. He can't drink any alcohol. You can't ever cut his hair. Those are the three main things about being a Nazarite. Only the problem is, Samson comes along and he's this man of the flesh, right? He just struggles with fleshly desires. Sidebar, everybody always paints Samson as he was this giant human of a man, right? Like Incredible Hulk,

only just a little bit smaller, like in man size. Here's the thing. If Samson was a man that big, no one would have questioned where his strength came from, right? I actually think Samson was a pretty small built guy. Maybe about, maybe about five, six, about 150 pounds. I'm just saying. Genuinely though, I think he was a small, I don't think he was some physically imposing guy,

which is why every time he did something great, they're like, where does that guy get his strength? I mean, if he was that big, they would be like, keep him away from 24 hour fitness and the protein shakes, right? Like that's what they would start doing to keep him from having strength. But it's a complete mystery. So Samson's winning all these major battles,

killing all kinds of people, but Samson has one problem in his life. Samson really loves the girls. Only he doesn't love the Israelite girls. He really loves the Philistine girls. He loves the girls that are, that are not godly in nature. Kids, I'm just going to tell you right now, who you choose to spend your time with, who you choose to date, who you choose

to invest emotionally in, will have an impact on your life. On your spiritual life. I would love to say that that's not true. I would love to be like, oh no, it's fine. We make way too big of a deal about this. I don't think we make a big enough deal about this. Who you choose to invest in emotionally will impact you spiritually. I have watched young people

for years be incredibly on fire in their walk with Jesus Christ. Get tied up with a boy or a girl that has no desire for the things of the Lord and get absolutely drugged down by it. And walk away from the faith. I've been doing this for too long to not know this as a fact. And Samson finds himself in this strange place of continually being drawn to the Philistine women.

Well, it's interesting because finally, Samson gives over the secret of his strength. The story of Samson and Delilah is always an interesting one to me because this first of all tells us Samson was not the smartest guy on the face of the earth, right? So like, I'm going to get some of the details in a minute. I'm going to get some of the details in a minute.

I'm going to get some of the details in a minute. I'm going to get some of the details off on this, but I'll do the best I can. So Samson comes along and he meets this girl named Delilah and he loves her. And the Philistines come along and they're like, listen, we're going to absolutely obliterate your family if you don't find the secret of his strength. And so she comes along

and she says, please, Samson, tell me. No, I do think I have these details right. Please, Samson, tell me the secret of your strength. And so they're chilling in her tent and the first thing he says is, listen, if you tie me up that's going to completely do away with my strength. And so he goes to sleep. I don't know how these dudes in the Old Testament slept like such logs.

He goes to sleep. She ties him up with brand new ropes and then calls the Philistines. She hears a little message that says, come on over. He's all tied up. And so they come over and she goes, Samson, the Philistines have come. And he jumps up and breaks off the ropes and obliterates the Philistines, right? Now, after someone does that to me, the first time I go,

I am never talking but Samson is a moron. Boys, I need you to know something. This is what happens to us when we start thinking with wrong parts of our body. I'm just going to say, I'm just calling it like it is. We become stupid. And so the next day he's like, she's like, you lied to me. Why did you lie to me? It feels like she needs a southern accent at this point in time.

And he says, okay, you caught me. If you weave my hair into a loom, then I will lose all of my strength. And so he wakes up and he says, Samson, she has woven his hair into a loom. And she says, Samson, the Philistines are coming. And he jumps up, the loom breaks, obliterates him. Finally, on the last time, I think there was one other one in there. On the last time,

she says, you don't even love me. What's the secret? He says, okay, fine. I took this vow. It was even given to me. If you shave my head, I will lose all of my strength. Now, at that point in time, you're going, bro, are you going to do this one too? And so that night, she shaved his head. And it's interesting because we're given this little commentary in the book of Judges

that says, and he did not know that the spirit of the Lord had departed. And so he woke up as at other times, only he had no more strength left in his body. And he was taken captive. And they plucked out his eyes. And you think, what a tragic ending to that guy's story. But his story isn't done yet. See, I think some repentance is going to come after that. And so they brought out

Samson to, according to scripture, make sport of him. In other words, they wanted to mock him and make fun of him. And so they brought him into the hall of one of their foreign gods. And they set him next to two. He goes, put me up against the pillar of a building. As he couldn't see, his eyes had been plucked out. And he prayed one last time, Lord, give me strength

one more time to have victory over the enemy. And that's what God did. And Samson pushed the supporting beams of the building and the building collapsed and he died with them. But he died in faith, knowing that God was defeating the enemy. And it led the rest of Israel to then rise up against the Philistines. Isn't it great that he includes him? Listen, brothers and sisters,

some of us struggle with the flesh, don't we? Don't let that be the reason that you don't keep pursuing God. Let that be the reason why you walk away from the flesh and walk to Jesus. Let that be the reason why you walk away from the things of the sin and walk to God because he can take broken lives like that and still use them in powerful ways if you will finally say, Lord, not my will but your will be done.

The last one he comes to is this guy by the name of Jephthah. And Jephthah's a fascinating story because Jephthah is the story of so many young people today. Jephthah grew up in a jacked up family. See, Jephthah's dad had an affair. He had an affair with a harlot. And that brought about the birth of Jephthah. And so as Jephthah grew up, he was rejected by his siblings

because they said, you're illegitimate. You're not one of us. And they drove him out of the land. And you can imagine the broken heart of this young man. I got no family anymore. I'm rejected by everybody because my past defines me. My family history, my broken family defines who I am. And so he fled and went away. Well, he became a great warrior. And when he was away,

the nation fell into sin again and they needed a deliverer. And so who did they send after? They sent after Jephthah. And Jephthah comes back and he takes over the enemy and becomes the leader of the nation of Israel for a time again. And I am reminded, brothers and sisters, that faith conquers bad family history. Faith conquers a bad family environment. So many people

in the world that we're living in today are brought up in broken families. So many people in the world that we live in today can tell a story just like Jephthah's. I was from an illegitimate relationship. I was rejected by my family. And quite frankly, I don't even know where I fit in anymore. I don't feel like I have any family identity. And my broken family

feels like it creates my present identity. And I'm here to tell you right now, God is bigger than broken pasts and He's bigger than broken families. God loves to take broken people and do big, bold things with them just like He did with Jephthah. And so we go on from there. And it tells us of two more guys, David and Samuel. We won't spend a great deal of time on them.

Of course, Samuel was the last of the judges, the first of the prophets. He sort of hinges between judges and prophets there and ultimately ushers in the monarchy of the nation of Israel. But a fantastic man of God called at a very young age. I love the story of Samuel because Samuel's mom couldn't have any kids. And when Samuel's mom couldn't have any kids,

she came and she prayed every single year when they would come to the temple. Her name was Hannah. And finally one year, Hannah came to the temple and Hannah said, Lord, if you will just give me a son, I will give him to you. I will dedicate him to your service. And God granted her that request. And she followed through. When he was weaned, when he was probably

four or five years old, she brought him to the temple. And he lived there with the high priest in the temple. Only the problem was the high priesthood was kind of messed up at that point in time and had fallen into a certain amount of sin. And so around the age of 12, 13 years old, Samuel is called by God for the first time. He was laying in bed. And as he was laying in bed,

he started hearing his name being called. Well, he thought Eli, the high priest, was calling his name because he needed something. So he got up, went and talked to Eli. He said, hey, what do you need? I heard you calling my name. He said, son, I'm asleep. I didn't call your name. Go back and lay down. Well, he does this two more times. And then finally, Eli, the priest, realizes,

I think God is calling you. I think God's calling your name. And so if you hear your name called again, here's what I want you to do. I want you to say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. And that's exactly what he did. He heard his name again and he said, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. And this 12, 13-year-old kid is given his very first prophecy

to deliver. And you know what the very first prophecy he had to deliver was? Was that the high priesthood, Eli and all of his sons were going to be taken out by God because they had given in to so much compromise. Can you imagine a young man like that having that be his very first prophecy that he delivers? But that's exactly what he does. And Samuel begins to grow in the Lord

and grow in the gifting that God had given to him until he was the one that ultimately anointed Saul as king and then David as king. And of course, we know the story of David. Most of us do anyways. Perhaps you've watched it on Netflix, if nothing else. Amazon Prime, if nothing else. David was the shepherd boy who was anointed as king and killed Goliath and became the greatest warrior king

that Israel had ever seen. All by faith. Well, it goes on from here to say some things about these individuals. Verse 33. Who by faith conquered kingdoms. And performed acts of righteousness and obtained promises. Of course, David and many of the kings are the ones who conquered the kingdoms. And many of the prophets are the ones who performed those acts of righteousness.

And God had made promises to guys like Noah and Abraham and David. But we come to this next one and it's kind of interesting. It says that they shut the mouths of lions. That of course brings up a very familiar Old Testament story about a prophet by the name of Daniel. Interestingly, Daniel again began to be used by God at a very young age. He was taken captive

by the Babylonians around the age of 16, 17 years old. And God started using him immediately. Some of the choice young men from Israel were chosen to be a part of the king's training program, if you will, to be raised up to ultimately be used within the kingdom. And so as they were sent to this school, they were taught the ways of Babylon, but they were also fed the diet of Babylon.

Only here was the problem. The diet of Babylon did not equal the diet of the Levitical law. And so Daniel and his friends, being true to the Lord, said, actually we can't eat that because our law, our God's law says we can't eat those things. And the guy in charge of them is like, dude, you're going to get me killed. They're like, look, put us to the test. Let us eat vegetables and water

for the next two weeks. If we don't look healthy, we will eat what you've given us. We will eat what you've given to us to eat. But if we do, then let us obey our God. And so that's what he does. They put God to the test. And at the end of two weeks of eating nothing but vegetables and water, they looked healthier and fatter than all of the other young men.

And so they were like, all right, you can keep doing it because God honored the stand that they took. Well, as time went on, Daniel continued to move up within the kingdom until finally there was a king named Darius who was king over the land at that point in time. And Daniel had moved to a very high position and others were jealous of him. And so they came up with a plan for how they could do away with Daniel.

Interestingly enough, they did an internet search for Daniel to figure out anything that they could that was wrong in his life. They dug into every part of his life and they could find nothing against him except he loved his God too much. And so they said, the only way we can take him down is going to be through his faith. So they went to the king and they're like, king, we have a great idea.

We feel like there needs to be a period of time where nobody prays to any other God except you. And of course, the king was like, that's a fantastic idea. Anyone who prays to any other God, king, should be thrown into the lion's den. And the king's like, show me where to sign. And so he signs. Daniel receives the message that he is to only pray to the king and never to pray

to his God. Otherwise, he'll be thrown into the lion's den. And you know what Daniel did that evening? Daniel went to the same place that he always went to. He opened up the curtains in his home. He faced Jerusalem and he started praying to God. And of course, they were watching him. And as they were watching him, they said, king, you're not going to believe this.

Daniel directly disobeyed your order. And the king went, oh, I forgot about Daniel. They're like, hey, and remember, this law can't be reversed. So they brought Daniel to the lion's den and they threw him in there. Pretty old by this point in time, by the way. He's not in any kind of lion fighting shape. And he gets thrown down into this lion's den. And you would think

that he would be mauled immediately, except he wasn't. I don't know how you picture this in your own mind, but I picture this as if Daniel just landed in a pit full of pets, right? Like he's down there with all of the lions and they just sort of like snuggle up together, perhaps pulls a mane over on top of himself to cover himself for the night. But he's completely unharmed.

Why? Because God had protected him. Because Daniel made a strong stand for God and said, I don't care what you do. God said, I don't care what anyone says. I'm going to keep praying to the Lord, even though it's against the law. And I'm going to keep standing for God. Can I just say one thing? I didn't intend to make this point, but I feel like I need to make it.

We're too worried about our rights in this nation. Have you ever noticed that? Like the religious right is way too worried about their rights. Like, oh, well, they're going to take away my right to pray. No, they can't. They're going to take away my right to do this. No, they can't. I'm going to listen to what they have to say and not what God has to say. Quit worrying

about your rights and start living for Jesus. Amen? And guess what he does here? And it stops the mouths of lions. He goes on from there to say that they quenched the power of fire. Same book of the Bible, Daniel. Different story. Daniel had three buddies. Their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, unless you've watched Veggie Tales and then you know the truth

and that their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And so, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the kingdom when King Nebuchadnezzar decides, I'm going to build a statue. And this statue will be one that will be bowed down to any time that the musical instruments play. And so, every time that the musical instruments play, you should bow down and worship the statue.

Or again, unless you've seen Veggie Tales and then you know it's a chocolate bunny. Anyone who does not will be thrown into the fiery furnace. And so, the music plays. They're there in the kingdom. And remember, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not just average guys. These are three of the king's chosen men. And everybody sees everyone bowing down except those three.

And they said, you're not going to believe this king. These three Hebrew boys will not bow down and worship your statue. So, he calls them in infuriated. And he says, why aren't you going to bow down? Do we have a problem here? And they're like, yeah, we can only worship God. We can't worship some statue. He says, let me give you one more chance. If you don't bow down

and worship this, then I am going to throw you into the fiery furnace. And they said, listen king, you've got to do what you've got to do. We believe that God will deliver us. But even if He doesn't, we are not going to bow down and worship the statue. And it just fired him up, burned his biscuits if you will. Sorry, no pun intended. And so he got so mad, heated it up

four times hotter. I don't exactly know how you do that. But heated it up four times hotter to the point where they tie them up, they throw them in there and the guys that threw them in there are killed by the fire. That's how hot this fire is. And he throws them in there and the king's just waiting for them to die. Only the king looks and he goes, how many guys

we throw in there? Three. He goes, then why are there four in there? Why are there four guys in that fire right now and one of them looks like a son of the gods? He didn't realize it but he was actually identifying God in the fire with them. They said, I don't know. He said, bring them out. And they bring them out and there's a couple of things that are fascinating about them.

Number one, the only thing harmed on them is that the ropes were burned off of them. Number two, they didn't even smell like fire. I can't even go to the brush dump and let alone stand in a furnace because by faith they quenched the fire. They escaped the edge of the sword, back to verse 34, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection. Two specific stories have to do with Elijah and Elisha, both of which raised the dead. But then we take a turn in verse 35. A distinct turn. As a matter of fact, I would have called those victorious faith that we covered up to this point in time. But what we come to now is faith that overcomes. Because lest we think

that faith means that everything is always going to work out. Lest we think that faith means that we'll never face anything hard because after all, the mouths of the lions were stopped. The fire, the power of the fire was quenched. They did all of these great things. They escaped. Lest we think that faith means that nothing bad is ever going to happen to us.

He tells us the rest of the stories of faith. And brothers and sisters, we need to understand something about life and about faith in God. Faith does not insulate us from hardship. Faith does not insulate us from difficulty. You know how I know that? Because I've been living life for the past 25 years by faith. And I have not been insulated from a lot of hardship

and a lot of difficulty. But faith does allow you to stand in the midst of the difficulty. Because I want you to notice what it says. Middle of verse 35. After women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. That word torture literally means to be beaten with a baton.

And rather than accepting the release, and the idea behind that in the Hebrew wording there is that they had the opportunity to get out of it if they would deny the faith, but they chose not to. Instead, they opted for the torture that came with standing for God as opposed to the release that would come by denying him. This was not only true of Old Testament saints, but quite frankly up to this point in time true of New Testament saints and would really be true as they move forward. Remember, he's talking to a group of people that are about to face persecution for their faith and are thinking that it might be easier to walk away than to deal with the difficulty in front of them and he is encouraging them that Jesus is better

than anything that they can have on this side of eternity and it's shown by the faith that these great men and women of God lived for all of these years. He said, you need to understand faith is incredibly victorious, but faith overcomes in the face of difficulty. Even when they were faced with torture they would not accept the release. Why? Because they were looking

for a better resurrection. Sure, you could deny your faith in the moment and escape momentary punishment, but they knew that this momentary light affliction was going to produce in them a far greater weight of glory. They were looking for a better resurrection and brothers and sisters, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt some of y'all are facing some things in life. It may not be getting beaten with a baton, but you're facing difficulty and it's easy just to go, Lord, I just want to give up.

But remember, you're looking forward to something better. You're looking forward to a better resurrection. And so keep pushing forward. He says, others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. He goes on in this same vein and says, others experienced mockings and scourgings, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned.

They were sawn in two. And they were tempted. Interestingly enough, next to the sawn in two, you might just reference Isaiah. It's not in the book of Isaiah, but many believe that this is how Isaiah died. As a matter of fact, some really good tradition states that Isaiah was put to death because they put him inside of a log and they literally cut him in half.

And he experienced that because of his great faith. It goes on like this to say, they went about in sheepskins and in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated. In other words, their life on this earth was hard. But I want you to notice the little parenthetical statement they were given in verse 38. Men of whom the world was not worthy. Men of whom the world

was not worthy, wandering in deserts and in mountains and in caves and in holes in the ground. And yet in spite of the hardship that they lived, they overcame by their faith. Well, now we conclude this section, this chapter. It says in verse 39, 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.

He said all these gained approval by their faith. In other words, it wasn't the things that they did that gave them approval. It was their faith that gave them approval. But the thing that allowed them to do what they did was their faith. You see, faith saves alone. But faith that saves is not alone. We are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ. But when we are saved

by our faith in Jesus Christ, it produces amazing things in our lives. It produces amazing work in our lives as we believe in Him and as He calls us to do certain things. God produces amazing things in the lives of believers in Jesus Christ. He says all these gained approval through faith but they did not receive what was promised. You see, all these Old Testament saints

didn't receive what was promised. They were all looking forward to a promise. They all died in faith looking for something that was greater than them. Looking for something that was greater than what they saw right in front of them today. Well, what is the promise that they were looking forward to? It's the very thing He's been expounding on throughout the entire

book of Hebrews. That the thing that they were looking forward to that was so much better was the coming of the Messiah of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus coming to fulfill everything that had been stated by all of the kings and the prophets and the great men and women of faith who had stood for truth all of these years. They died looking forward to what Jesus would do on the cross.

These all died in faith without having received the promise. Because God has provided something better for us that apart from us they would not be made perfect. God has provided something better for us. You see, we have the benefit of seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. All of the Old Testament saints died looking forward

to what Jesus would do. New Testament saints died looking forward to what Jesus would do. All of the Old Testament saints live and die based on what Jesus has done. And may I say and I just I wrote this down I believe it was from David Guzik. He said, if these lived by faith looking forward to the promise how much more should we and 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 can we live by faith now that we have received the promise. Brothers and sisters I love Hebrews chapter 11 for a couple of reasons. And if I can do anything in your life through what we've done in these last three weeks

I want it to be a couple of things. Number one I want it to inspire you. I want it to inspire you to know that that God uses average men and women to do things that are not for men and women to do the work of God in powerful ways. God wants to use you in a powerful way so don't give up on faith. Lean into the things that God is calling for you to do. Lean into

what God has for you because the normal Christian life should not be showing up to church and then living however you want to for the rest of the week. The normal Christian life should be doing bold things for God in an incredibly exciting way where you are doing the things that God has called for you to do and watching God produce the fruit from it. That's the normal Christian life. So the first thing I want to do is inspire you.

Inspire you to get outside of yourself. But the second thing that I want to do is encourage you. Encourage you that Jesus is greater. Encourage you that Jesus has everything that you need. Encourage you that Jesus is calling you to live by faith. He's bigger than your failures and he has a promise that you're looking forward to because that's what it means 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 for the time that we've had in your word this morning. And Lord, I thank you for these stories of faith that inspire and encourage us. And Lord, I thank you that you're the only one that we can pray for and the finisher of our faith. Lord, that we would listen

for the still small voice that's telling us to move. And Lord, that we would know that you are greater than our weaknesses. And so, Lord, move in our hearts, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Lord, I just, I love hearing stories of how great you moved. Lord God, how you moved Moses and David and Samson and all those. Lord God, I just, I'm in such awe of how great and amazing and powerful you are Lord God. Lord, we give you praise, we give you thanks. Thank you for your word this morning Lord. Lord, may you move by the power of your Holy Spirit and we pray.

Amen. by the power of your Holy Spirit in our lives. Change us, Lord God. Make us to look more like you. In Jesus' name, amen. Love you guys. Have a wonderful week. God bless you.