Transcription
Hebrews chapter uh 11 in our study tonight, and um, we are moving on and we're looking at uh chapter 11:8-2. As we do this, mark it down please, if you would. And if you don't take notes, you know, there's notes um in front of you, and you can put in a little three-ring binder, or you have the notes that have perhaps been posted online. I encourage all of you to do that, by the way. Uh, the notes go up before service, you can download my notes. And what, what a lot of people do, they put it on their tablet and then they write their notes on top of my notes, and they add thoughts, and they make this an amazing file for them to uh have their own commentary on the Bible. If you're going to do that, great. If you're going to write on the margins, great. Just do this. Write this down, please. And that is the title: The History of Faith is what we're going to be looking at tonight. The History of Faith.
And so, chapter 11 is that great chapter of faith, and we've been talking about it. We've already laid the foundation. We've already made it very clear that faith is logical, reasonable. That faith is practiced every day in our lives among everyone, even the atheist. Faith in the car, faith in the airplane, faith with the seatbelt, faith when you put something in your mouth to eat it. You don't, you don't think about it, you trust so many things. That's called faith. And then when it extends to relationships, the greatest relationships are those that are based upon faithfulness. And so, when we talk about the history of faith, there's a little bit of a dichotomy in that in that title, because history is something that is passed, but faith is something that is now, in future. You don't operate faith regarding the past. You operate faith now, and you operate faith tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. But there's a history of faith. Your life is one that has a history of faith.
And um, I don't know if you have children or now grandchildren, but um, I was paid a huge honor the other day by my granddaughter. I don't know if you saw the movie "Unsung Hero." If you haven't seen it, you've got to go, you've got to see it. I think it's on Prime now or whatever. You've got to see it. And um, we were all talking about the movie, and my granddaughter said, uh, because they're all talking about, well, should I blow the movie? He should have seen it by now. That's my, the unsung hero is the mom. But I was talking to one of the actors, and I, and I said, at the start of the movie, I thought the unsung hero was the grandfather, always propping his son up, always propping the grandkids up, always speaking words of scripture. Always. And my granddaughter said, "Papa, that man reminds me of you." Exactly what I did. Oh, and nobody recorded it. It was an awkward moment. It's not on, it's not, my Lee said she didn't film it. But my heart just went, "Lord, please, I know that's not true. There's no way that can be true." But could it be true? Please.
And um, we're all leaving behind us a wake that people can either surf on or get destroyed by. The history of faith. The history of faith. This title, I think, will challenge you. We also learn that faith is something that brings reason to the very creation itself. That you and I experience in nature. Nature screams an engineered designer. Nature screams an organized plan. And uh, Frank Turk wrote that book, "I Do Not Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist." And if you think about it, to be an atheist now, that's, that's faith. To believe in an accident, that an accident creates all of this. I want to show you something. I wouldn't normally ever show you a clip from this particular program, but uh, you got to, you got to hear this. Uh, put your eyes to the screens.
"Does he have a relationship with God?" "You sitting up here talking to a dude, and he tells you he's an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home." "You know, talking to a person, don't believe in God, you f, you f, what, what's his moral barometer? Where is it at?" "It's nowhere." "Speaking of God, you say in the book that uh, you wouldn't go out with a woman." "I guess a woman should not go out with a man who doesn't believe in God." "No, I mean, why would you?" "Well, do you believe that only people who are religious are ethical and moral?" "No, I just believe if you don't believe in God, then where's your moral barometer?" "That's just me talking." "You believe what you want to believe. But if you're an atheist, you're basing your goodness and morality on what?" "I mean, but what is an atheist?" "I don't, I don't really get into that. You know what? I've talked to people all the time, I'm an atheist. I just walk away. I don't, I don't know what to say to you." "May is someone who doesn't quite believe that there is somebody out there, some God out there." "Well, then to me, you're an idiot." "Okay, well, so I'm cool with that. I'm just probably not the right politically correct thing to say. But if you don't believe in God, I mean, really, you got to have an explanation for this. You just can't tell me this spun out of a gaseous ball and then all of a sudden then we were evolved from monkeys. Why we still got monkeys?" "There's too much open here." "I just believe that. And if you don't believe that, then I don't want talking to you." "Makes me want to watch Family Feud."
[Applause]
Steve, uh, Steve Harvey said, he, he said that he, he walks away from somebody who doesn't believe in God. Now, that might sound kind of rude, but it's, you're wasting your time. And then the reality is, is because it would be a lie in actuality to say that there is no God. And so, when we look at chapter 11, which is all about not only God, but is about God moving in people's lives, we need to remember some very key things. Anchor number one to this thing that we call faith is Hebrews 11 verse one, where it says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it," that is faith, "the elders obtained a good uh testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds which were framed." The word "framed" in Greek and in Hebrew means that they were literally structured by design. They have a functioning purpose. That that happened by the word of God, the logos of God. By the way, a blueprint is all about the logos of the plan. So that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. How in the world did the author of the book of Hebrews, 2,000 years ago, explain in that last statement, the molecular world that is out there? That the things that do exist, exist by things that are invisible. That is one of the great anchors.
The second anchor is the one you looked at last week, and it's verse six. And it says, "And without faith it is impossible to please him." God. "For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." That is a fact. That is an immutable fact. It will never change. And the more, listen, the more you get in this Christian journey, uh, is all based upon the more you pursue him. He's a jealous God, and I mean that as he says it, as he means it. Jealous meaning he will not throw himself out there. He will invite you to come, and if you come after him, he will give you more and more of himself. But if you want to play it safe and keep him at a distance and not exercise faith, then you're going to know him at a distance. And that's not a good thing. When Peter got distanced from Jesus, he wound up being in a courtyard, and he got beat up by a little girl. Verbally speaking.
Faith. We're going to talk about faith tonight. And um, I want to read this uh to you. It's, it's, uh, to me, this matters. That by the way, you and I are living out, living out our history of faith. That's a radical thought, because it's a radically simple. Uh, your witness, my witness, is the living, breathing testimony of who we are. And the message that we are leaving behind. Whatever you and I, wherever you and I go, is technically the history of our faith. That is our witness. When you and I go into a place, leave a place, family day to day, day in, day out, business, home, uh, restaurant, hotel, you're leaving behind a witness of some sort. And you say, "Not me, I don't say anything. I just be quiet. I just go in and out." You're leaving behind a vacuum, a void. And God wants us to be passionately engaged, because faith is a very, very active thing.
Um, again, everything about us is an issue of faith. And uh, I, I, I wrote this down. Faith regarding sight. Think of that. You see something, doesn't mean it's necessarily true. Faith will drive you to find out if it's true or not. Listen, as I've said often, because I just, to me, it's a profound thing, that we breathe faith. We don't worry about breathing in the next minute. We have faith that we're going to keep functioning. That's a, that's a form of faith. Regarding food. I had to put that down there because I just heard an alarming thing on the news yesterday. Did you know that Southern California has three days of stores, three days of food supply for the, for stores in Southern California? Three days. And this terrorist expert was talking about, all you have to do is blow up I-9, I-5, and it's, it's war in Southern California, because we only have, all the food comes on on I-5. And we've got three days' worth of food. I thought, my goodness, we just think it's always going to be around because we have that kind of faith where we're leaning on that supply. But we have faith in relationships. We have faith regarding time. And we have faith regarding plans. We use it all the time. All the time.
And so, here we go. Hebrews chapter 11:8 is where we pick it up. "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Verse 10, for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Okay, that's not an earthly city, people. "By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." Wow. Therefore, verse 12, "from one man, and him as good as dead." You know, you know what I mean? You know what God means. Chances of Abraham and Sarah having a son is zero, negative, minus, not going to happen. "We're born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore."
Church family, write it down. Here we go on this. Romans chapter 10:17. When you talk about faith, you've got to get to Romans 10:17. So important. "So faith comes by hearing, and that is hearing by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Right now, tonight, when you listen to maybe the audio Bible, when you're reading your Bible, when you're listening to a biblically based book and scriptures referenced, notice I don't mean to upset anybody, but faith does not come by reading magazines or articles or periodicals or manuals. Faith comes by hearing. What kind of hearing? Hearing the word of God. And that's an amazing thing. We can be listening, but are we hearing? Listening means we can report that I heard a bang go off. Did you hear that? Did you hear that funny thing? What was that? Uh, yeah, well, somewhere in that direction. Hearing means you put yourself as applying yourself to learn what's being said or to learn what's being communicated. You're hearing with the intent to apply. God says, "This is how you build up your faith." All of us are, listen, all of us, no matter who we are, no matter what we've experienced in life, you and I can overcome whatever is going on in our lives, and we can also have whatever success God's got planned for us to do for him. We can endure whatever difficulty there is, if our faith is placed in him. And it does this. This is a great level. It doesn't matter what kind of experience you have previously had in life. It's faith that brings you and I to that exact same place. Though we have different stories, we have different outcomes, we have different status or situations in this world. What faith does to this individual, listen, the faith that that Corrie ten Boom had to survive the Nazi persecution, that faith God has given to me. Maybe not in the same degree, but to meet the issues of my life. And you might say, "Oh, Pastor Jack, if I had your faith, or Corrie ten Boom's faith." Wait a minute. You're not supposed to. God has made you in such a way that for the issues of your life, His word is enough. Faith in Him that He'll keep His promises regarding your situation. He's going to do that. So beautifully tailored to each of us.
And then, this is a great encouragement. The word "faith" is not mentioned. It doesn't have to be. Romans 15:4, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning." That's the Old Testament. Paul is talking about the Old Testament. I would read it this way: "For the Old Testament and all that was written down before was written down for our learning, why? That we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Well, you're not going to have hope unless you have faith in the scriptures. That's pretty clear.
So, church, jot this down. Number one, verse 8. It is this: The history of faith. We're going to ask some questions. How can I recognize my faith? You ask yourself this question: How can I, how can you recognize your faith? Do you have a biblically based faith? Do I have a biblically based faith? How do I know if I were to ask you tonight, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ lived?" You're not dumb. Everybody would say yes. It's a historical fact that he lived. The Roman Empire knew that he lived. Those who hated him knew that he lived. But do you have faith in him? Are you trusting? Listen, is he your go-to in your heart, in your mind, in your life? This is a very critical thing, because we don't want to miss this chapter and find out later that our faith was something that was not actually biblically based. So, we're asking ourselves, how can I recognize my faith as being genuine?
Well, please note this, that trials, difficulty, I'm going to add this to trials and difficulty, weird things, strange things, unexplainable things, things that make no sense, things that are confusing, things that make, uh, make things seemingly come apart. What do you do? You stand still. You stand still and you hang on to the only one that's firm and that's sure. And when you say, "Man, I don't understand what's going on, but I know this, God is on His throne." I don't get it. And there's a, listen, there's a lot of stuff going on in our world. And uh, you need to have faith in God. I, I, I don't want to start a riot prematurely in this nation, but we're on, you think about what could happen in New York City here pretty soon, and people could go off the rails on this, and people could lose faith in the system. Listen here, when you lose faith in the God of everything, there is no system. Well, what about law and order? There is no law and order without God. What about fairness? No such thing as fairness without God. What about justice? No such thing without God. But when we throw God out, then anything, everything can happen. So, with all that's taking place in the world, and all that's going to take place in the world, just because the world is really going in a weird direction, I want to make sure my faith is for real.
For many of you who know Pastor Roy Totton, who retired from church here, and he retired in Waco, Texas, and many of you know and love him. We had a call with him uh the other day because um, he's going to go meet Jesus any, any time. And um, he's completely coherent. We had a great time. We talked, I think about an hour, maybe over an hour, and we were on a Zoom call with him. And um, uh, here, here's a man whose outward body is dying, and he's talking, Miss Martha, she's there, and he's talking about this and this and that, and all this, and how loving you guys have all been to him. And he's so prepared, he's so ready. And he's telling, he's telling us, "I'm, I'm ready. It's just, you know, I'm just riding out the last few. I'm going through the valley right now, the shadow of death. I can't wait to get there to meet the Lord. And, and, uh, my body's shutting down. I've had a fever for a month. Things are not working anymore. And I'm, I'm ready to go." And he, he's speaking, his spirit's using his body, right, to speak to us. And it's amazing, because you're looking at a guy that I've known for decades, but the body, you don't quite recognize, because the cancer has ravaged him. But the inside of him that was speaking never stopped growing. He's more strong in his faith in the hour of death than he ever has been. And he's always been a man of faith. It, it, can I say this? It's actually beautiful. No wonder the Bible says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." That might sound morbid to you. Not when faith, amen, is on Christ. Not in a system, not in a doctor, not in a drug, not in, no, in Him.
And so, right here, it says, "By faith Abraham obeyed." Circle the word "obeyed." Obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. So, by faith, Abraham heard from God. A Gentile living in Ur of the Chaldees. God speaks to this Gentile, calls him away from his family. Abraham, think about it, put yourself in his sandals. He literally says to everything that he knows, "Sarah, can you imagine? Sarai, God, God spoke to me." Which God? She would have said, "Which one? We have hundreds of gods here in Ur." No, this is the God that he's the only God. He spoke to me. What did he say? He said, "Time to leave. Leave everything." Can you imagine? God speaks to him. That's amazing. He obeys. Sarah needs to get more credit. We have no evidence that at that moment that God spoke to her. She has to listen to her man. "Honey, did you have a good night's sleep last night? You doing okay? Could have been a dream. You know that falafel you had before dinner last night? That's too much." He obeys. Faith obeys. Friends, I don't have, I don't have any other way to put it. You want to do, you want your life to be blessed? You want your family blessed? You want to be blessed in all that you put your hands to do? It's not a secret. Psalm 1 is very clear about this. God will bless you when you obey Him. Isn't that works? Nope. It's faith. God is God. God, God, God gives you the instruction to live life fully the way that He designed it for you. And if you obey Him and what He says, you are going to experience a blessed life. B, we say, "What does blessed mean?" I have no idea, because for each individual, it's different. It's amazing. He obeyed. So, my question to me about my faith is, my faith an obedient faith?
Number two, is that he was called. Called. Every believer is called. Every single one of you. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you put your faith in Him. The Bible says you are called by God. We're studying that on Sundays. Called. God brought you into the family. Some of you need to stop right now tonight and ask yourself, "Has God brought me into the family of God?" I, I, I'm not sure. You better be sure. You better get sure, like now. Because we talked about breathing, we talked about living, all by faith. No one goes into the Kingdom of Heaven wishing he, that they get there. Guessing. John says, "These things have been written that you might know you have eternal life." Jesus said, "All my sheep know me and they follow me." Isn't that beautiful? See, how do you follow somebody who's invisible? It's easy. I don't need to see him. Listen, I hear him all the time. So do you. Listen, you don't need to see him, because watch this. If it gets foggy, what if, we, what if it was all based on sight and he, and we lose him in the fog? What if it's dusty and we lose him in the storm? If it's by sight, that's scary. But because He has confirmed in our lives a real, factual, logical, reasonable faith, we know, know Him to the point now, it's like, "Lord, You've made this so clear. In all the things of my life, You've been there for me, and You've brought me through these things. I doubt me. I don't doubt You." Does that make sense? I don't like me. I doubt me. I am my biggest problem. God is awesome. He called you. If tonight you would say, "I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior." What does that mean? I would say to you, "What does Lord and Savior mean?" If you can't explain it, you have a false faith. That's right. Don't answer out loud. What does Lord mean when it comes to Jesus Christ? What does Lord mean? If you can't answer that, then how can He be Lord? What does Savior mean? What did He save you from? Watch this. How did He save you? How about this? On what basis are your sins forgiven? If you don't know, then you don't know the message of the Gospel. You've assumed that you're a Christian. You've assumed you have faith. Can you imagine? You say, "Well, that's kind of harsh." Really? How? Okay, I'll tone it down and, and, and put it in a, in a, not so important category. You've had headaches for months. They do all the scans, and you've got a tumor on your brain. You are now in the operating room, and they tell you, "Your surgeon slept in, he's not going to make it. This other guy, he's a brain surgeon, he's going to come in and perform your brain surgery." Uh, he's good. He's good. I don't want good. Are you hearing me? If you're, if you're so concerned that you want the very best brain surgeon working on your brain, that you ask the guy before you cut my head open, "Where'd you go to school?" Seriously? Let's pause. I want to see your grades. It's my brain. You're going into. Not your brain, but I want to see what's in your brain. I want to see your grades. What school was it? Are you hearing me? This is very serious to us. If you've got something serious going on in your life, you're looking for the best. And then you think about your eternal soul, that will be alive forever somewhere in eternity, and you don't check on the credentials of the Great Physician? This is serious stuff, people.
Obedience. Obedience is a joy when you know Him. You know you're called. You can change the word "called" uh if it makes it feel better. He, he squeezes you. He holds your hand. And when God called him, God told him, "Go." Go. This is amazing to me. Go, and you're not going to know where you're going. I want you to leave your family, pack up, follow me, but I'm not going to tell you where you're going. Can you imagine? That's, that's challenging. But friends, do know that obedience to God is absolutely precious. Acts 18:9. The Bible tells us, "Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the in night, in the night by a vision, and said, 'Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent.'" This is very cool, by the way. Acts 18:9. The reason why God speaks to Paul, he's in Corinth, Greece, and he's, he's not too excited about being there. It's extremely pagan. And Paul is probably, listen, look at verse nine. "Do not be afraid." That's what Jesus said to him in a dream, in a vision. Why did, why did Jesus tell him that? Because he was afraid. "But speak." Why does, why does Jesus tell Paul to speak? Because he's not going to speak. "I'm not going to speak. I'm, I'm afraid." "Do not keep silent." Why? Because he was going to be silent. Here's the reason. Paul, verse 10, "For I am with you, and no one will be able to attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city." Verse 11, "And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." Guess what? God tells him to act in faith because God knows something. There's a lot of people here that are going to get saved. So, speak up. Is that scary? It's scary. But when God says it, what's your only option? Church family, there's no other. When things are scary, when things are tough, when things are impossible, there's no option but to obey, because it's a situation that God has allowed you to be in.
1 Timothy 4:12. 1 Timothy 4:12. Very practical challenge to faith. Paul is speaking to young Timothy, and he says, "Let no one despise your youth." Don't let people make fun of you because you're a young guy. "But be an example to the believers." Watch this. Number one, in word. So, don't open your mouth unless you got something good to say that's going to edify people. Don't ramble on and use words to destroy. Be an example with your words. Number two, be an example with your conduct. Number three, be an example with your love. Being an example with your spirit. That's his, his, the attitude or the very human person that he was. Be an example of faith. Be an example of purity. You want, listen, the key to a blessed life is obviously number one, pure. Right faith in the Lord Jesus. You, you can, when, when you give your heart to Christ, the Holy Spirit moves in you. You're, you're sealed into the day of redemption. You're, you're going to heaven. If you accepted Christ tonight and you got in your car and, uh, died tonight in your car, you're going to heaven. But until that heaven arrives for you and me, we are to be increasing our faith. And our faith is something that is very, very active. And you just saw how all of these things about love, and about conduct, and about the word, and the spirit, and in faith, and in purity. And this is, I think, where a lot of people today are missing the power and the peace and the assurance of God, because our culture is anything but pure. Verse 13, he's basically saying, "Do this till I come." Watch. A, give attention to reading. Just read your Bible. B, to exhortation. Not only exhort others, but be somebody that can be exhorted. You know, exhorted means a very strong, uh, exhort is, "I need you to do this," or "Let's do this together." "I'm not going to let you off. We're going to do this. I need you. You need me. Let's do this." We need that in life, people. All of us together. And I, I actually think those days are coming where we're going to get to, to do that. To doctrine. Know what the Bible says. Verse 14, "Do not neglect the gift that is in you." How many of us are Christians? There's a gift in you. At least one. Do you know what it is? This is important. The gift that which is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands by the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them. Throw yourself at following God, that your progress may be evident to all. Verse 16, "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you." You say, "Well, Jack, that's written to Timothy." No, listen, it's written to every single one of us. I do believe, I hope anyway, that I'm right, that you want to live a radical Christian life. Who wants to live a mediocre Christian life? What is that? The world's full of that.
Number two, the history of faith is this. It's how do we put our faith into action? It says in verse 8 that he went out not knowing where he was going. He trusted God. And there's a good New Testament example of this in Luke 8:42. The Bible says that as he went, that's Jesus, the multitudes thronged him. That's they pressed in hard. There was a big crowd around Jesus. And now a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years. So she, she had, this hemorrhaging 12 years. She's been no doubt anemic. It's probably a female issue. She's tired all the time. She's deficient. She's probably suffering so many different physical ailments. 12, 12 years of being anemic. She's been bleeding. Who had spent all of her livelihood, the word *bios* in Greek, it's all of her money on physicians and could not be healed by any. Came from behind, that is obviously behind Jesus, and touched the border of His garment. Which is a beautiful statement there. You may or may not know this, the border of His garment. Because Jesus was a Jew and a teacher in the synagogue, the border of His garment, they all had their authority or their position embroidered on their robe. If you were a medical doctor in those days, it was announced on the hem of your garment. If you were a theologian, it was on the hem of your garment. If you were a professor of this or that, it was on the hem of your garment. Isn't it interesting that He, on the hem of His garment, it would have been that of a rabbi, of a teacher of the word of God? So she's not only reaching for Jesus, she's reaching for the word of God. She knows what that garment means. And she reaches out. This is remarkable. She reaches out for the border of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood stopped. She just knew it in that instant. And Jesus said, "Who touched me?" When all denied it. Peter and those who were with him said, "Master, the multitudes throng and press you, and you say, 'Who touched me?'" Isn't that great? Jesus, let us, we're going to let you in on something. But Jesus said, "Somebody touched me, for I perceived power going out from me." Oh, my goodness. This is so awesome. Now, when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she touched Him and how she was healed immediately. Verse 48, and Jesus said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace." Listen, faith in what caused her to be healed and go in peace? Faith in what? Was it faith in the, the garments? Was it even the faith in the authority embroidered around the garment? Was it His garment at all? No, it was Him. She put her faith in Him. She didn't say to herself, "Oh, man, that garment He's wearing is magical. In fact, if I can grab it and tear off a piece, and if I'm healed, I'm going to cut it up into pieces and mail it out to people for a hundred bucks a piece." No, it was Him. It was Jesus. It was the H, not the Hem. There's a big difference here. Where's your faith, friend? Where's your faith? What does that mean? What do you mean by that? Where's my faith? You mean, what or whom is my faith in? Oh, you just need more faith. Face irrelevant. What's the object? The object must be Jesus. Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Jesus. Not some cult. Jesus. Not some man-made Jesus. Bible Jesus. That's got to be. He has got to be that ayp object.
Number three is found in verse 9, and that is this: What will my faith accomplish? If I've got faith, is it biblical faith? How do I put it into action? This woman did it. She, she believed. She went after Him. So tonight, from here on out, we're going to go after Him. What's that going to accomplish? Look at verse 9. "By faith he Abraham dwelt in a land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, and the heirs with him of the same promise." It means this, first of all, that faith is foundational. It's foundational to our lives. What does faith accomplish? It's foundational. Number one, creates a foundation, a place of stability. Jude chapter 1:3. Jude 1:3 says, "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." Faith. You may not be aware, but the greatest thing that you possess is your faith. It's not your bank account. It's not gold. It's not homes. It's not cars. It's not what, it's not your looks. It's not your youth. Young people are hard to talk to because they feel invincible. Remember when you were young? You felt invincible. Nobody could tell me anything. I knew it all. And then you get older, and you find out you didn't know anything. And that's the same time you find out, "I'm not invincible." I now have to hire people to move that rock. I used to be able to do it myself. If I tried that, I would, the rock would move me. All right, I'd go straight to the hospital. Foundational faith is foundational because it stabilizes our lives. Listen, faith stabilizes our emotions. If you live on an emotional roller coaster, you need to strengthen your faith in Christ. I say this with love. I say this, none of us are exempt from this. It's just that some are just more prone to default, right, to the emotionalism rather than the faith. And the moment that happens, you have no joy, you have no peace, you're biting your nails, you're freaking out, you're, you're spewing stuff that's that's now creating, it's bigger than what it is. And then everybody around you, because when people start talking about, "We should panic now. We should all panic." Listen, that's contagious. I, I, I love, uh, history. And, and, uh, this may blow your mind, but, little TMI, but when Washington was leading our troops into battle, he told his generals and his army, "If any man turns coward and runs, you've got to shoot him." Why would, that's kind of extreme. Anybody know why? Exactly. If one guy turns and runs in fear from the battle line, everybody turns and follows him. You got to take the guy out. And it sends a message to the rest to stay at it. But when somebody turns cowardice, it begins to play upon the emotions of everybody in a nanosecond. You instantly lose heart and courage, and you're a dead man. You can't do that because your emotions will take over. And when you're worrying, you're worrying. You're taking a load that was never supposed to be yours to take. That's why you know, listen, I know we all heard this, but we don't know the reason why. Listen, you know when we say things like this, "How many things that you worry about never happen?" That's always the case. Why is that the case? The reason why that's the case is because worry magnifies the issue bigger than what it is. And because you're a Christian, thank God, God will have His way. Your worrying will not circumnavigate the power of God. It's just that you miss out on the blessing of peace. It's amazing.
And so, there's the emotions that are stabilized. Faith stabilizes our decision-making. You, you ever make decisions out of emotion? Not good. Faith stabilizes the confusion that's around. I wrote a few more things down about this. I have found out that faith in my life clarifies or even illuminates the dark. You know, I'm, you know, faith in the Lord allows me to navigate the dark. Um, faith, I have found, will always provide a road. Will always provide a road in the midst of where things seem impossible. "My life is over." The moment you turn to Him, and remember, you talk Bible to yourself. "My life is over." Wait a minute. Wait. God's word says I shouldn't act like this. "Lord, Your word says in Jeremiah 29:11 that You have a plan for my life. It's for good and it's for a future, and You have a plan to bring my life to a full and to a complete end. Your thoughts toward me are good." Okay, I'm going to pull away from this. I'm going to calm down a moment. You know what you're doing? You're actually activating your faith the way it's supposed to be. You went to the word, and the word began to be a balm of healing upon your issue, situation. You pulled back from the emotion, and the word of God took control, and you got behind it because you followed the word, which is the Lamb of God, the logos. And that act of obedience brings a blessing.
So, Pastor, really need to hear this. This guy I just met this guy a couple weeks ago, and he's got just the best teeth, his smile, and he's so nice, looks like he's done well for himself. He doesn't believe in God. But he's, he's opens the door for me. Those things can be short-lived. Best find out. Well, you saw Steve Harvey tell you about that tonight. He did. Doesn't believe in God, walk away. Or if you say, "Well, I don't know. You know, maybe there's hope." You know, there's missionary dating. This concept of missionary dating. "Oh, he's so cute. I'm going to have to take him out, and we'll be together, and we'll lead him to Christ. I know he's a Satanist, but I'll win him over." And I love your, I love your faith. That's great. But it's best to obey. And if you do have this situation going on in your life, I'm speaking to you right now, and this is your life, uh, get some men in your life, or get somebody in your life to go over there and and talk to them. Say, "Understand, you're interested in my sister." Now, Christian guys can say that. "So, why didn't I? She didn't even say she had brothers." Oh, she's got, we have a big family. And here's the deal. You and I are going to meet on Tuesdays at 5 or 6 AM, and we're going to go through the Bible together, or you can't take my sister out anymore. And listen, if he thinks you're something, he'll put up with your Christian brother at 6 AM for an hour going through the Bible, and he might get saved. But if he doesn't get, if he gets tutored by somebody who loves you and wants you to do well, and that person says, "I'm not going to do this." Do you understand that? That little thing I just told you about spared you a lifetime of grief.
Let's just bow our heads right now because there's no way we're going to finish this. It's impossible. I will mark my notes. We'll pick it up here next time. It's page six, if you have your notes. Father, we come before You tonight, and Lord, we, as Your people, we, we confess, Lord, that we honestly do not know if we should go left or go right. And one of the, and I don't mean this to be funny, you know my heart, one of the things that substantiates that reality is the fact that we have GPS. We have, we have now our cars talk to us because we don't know if we should go left or right until the car tells us. Some satellite somewhere, we've never met it, we don't know where it's at, and it tells us, "Turn left." And at least in my world, if I disobey that voice, everybody in the car is going to jump me for that. It seems so obvious. Everybody's saying, "Go left." The GPS is yelling, "Go left." Recalculating. Go. Turn. Turn. We have a programmable world. And in all the noise, there is somewhere the frequency of You, the channel You're speaking on to us, each of us as individuals, to us as a church. And Father, we're asking You tonight to clear away anything that is keeping us from hearing from You clearly. Lord, if we honor Your word and obey Your word, we will never have to make a bad decision. Your word says that we need not act in haste. Your word tells us that You'll cause the sun to stand still if You need it to. You'll part the sea. You will manipulate with the, the tip of Your finger, the very weather patterns of the world to accomplish what You want. Lord, tonight, I pray for those that are prone to worry, prone to fret, prone to not have a life of faith, when Your Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please You. Lord, I pray tonight for those that think they have faith, but they can't tell You what their faith is in, or what it means. They're flying without any instruments. And Lord, we all know, all of us know, that all of our lives must be tested. Our faith must be tested for it to be refined and to be made right, to be made pure. And so many of us are going through trials and difficulties and hardships. And that's exactly what Your Bible said would happen to Your children. And so, instead of panicking, we can say to You tonight, "Lord, this really hurts. Lord, I'm somewhat on the brink of, uh, being terrified here. I need You. Stabilize, Lord, my emotions. Take what's hit me in the stomach and knock the wind out of me. I can't even catch my breath. Lord, breathe into my nostrils the breath of life. I will choose to obey Your word. I will obey when You say, 'Fear not, do not be discouraged, be of good cheer, for I am thy God.'" The choice we make tonight. And Father, tonight, if there's anyone here that is unsettled about where they are with You, I pray tonight, God, that You would settle that once and for all. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, friend, if that's you tonight, it's between You and God in your own words, right where you're at. You can tell Him, "God, I got hit in the stomach tonight by this challenge. I, I say I'm saved, but I don't know what I'm saved from. I, I say You're a Savior, but I'm not exactly sure how that even happened. I say that You're Lord, but I don't do what You say. I believe in God, but I don't know why." Tell Him tonight that you believe that He's Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified Savior for your sins, and He rose again from the dead the third, on the third day for your justification. He made you right. He made you acceptable. He saved you by His own blood. And that you want His Holy Spirit to take control of your life from this moment forward, forever. And that you tonight, with, and and me too, I'm with you, I would say, "Say, Lord, in my weakness, in my inability to pursue You, to seek after You with all of my heart, that I might find You as my great reward. You're going to have to help me, Jesus, do that. I want to want to have all of You, Lord. I want to want no more of me, only You."