By Faith

00:01 Hardly any better message for a Christian than the fact that He will hold us fast. He will hold us strong. He will keep us in the hour of temptation, the hour of trial. He will keep our souls in Christ and anchored in Him. And what a wonderful thing that is. This morning we want to think about faith again. 00:23 And so would you turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter? And I appreciated the song selection this morning because many of them, if not all, dealt with some area of faith. 00:35 And the faith in our Savior, faith in His keeping power, faith in His saving power, faith in His ability to take us through times of temptation and testing and to bring us faithfully and safely to the other side of those trials and temptations. 00:53 I'd like to ask you a question this morning before we read our text. What would your faith look like if it was put on in Hebrews 11? If there was a vacancy there in the chapter and they put your faith in that vacancy and gave you as an illustration, 01:12 what kind of illustration would there be in relation to your faith? By faith, you went out and did such and such. You exercised your faith. You had a trying experience that God allowed you to go through. And by faith, you made it through and you kept the faith. 01:31 Maybe this morning you're praying for a lost loved one and you need to keep the faith, keep praying and praying and praying, believing God for that lost loved one. Maybe this morning as you gave in the offering, maybe you're thinking, is it really good to give? 01:50 We can make use of those finances in our own budget. And yet you tied. You tied believing that God will do something significant and spiritual with your gift to Him. Maybe as you serve the Lord, you're concerned, is this really worth it? Will God remember my service? 02:09 And will there be a reward in heaven for having served Him? And you know that He will not forget your labor of love. And so you serve because you believe by faith that He is faithful and that makes you be faithful. 02:25 Maybe you believe that God would minister healing to you in some area of your life and you're pressing in on that prayer of faith. And the prayer of faith, the Bible says, shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And you're contending with the Lord for that healing in your life or healing of relationships or healing of the body, mind, or soul. 02:44 Maybe you changed jobs believing that God would take care of you and it didn't make sense at the time because maybe you had to take a pay cut and yet you knew that's what God wanted you to do. And so you pressed in to do what God wanted you to do. Maybe that would be your testimony this morning. 03:01 Or maybe you stepped into an uncomfortable role somewhere where you were suddenly called upon to do something that was way outside your comfort zone. And so you did it by feeling inadequate and weak. Your faith and confidence was in God and not in yourself. And as you invest in the lives of others, 03:22 not knowing if that person will ever really change or not, you do so by faith in the power of God, not in faith in our own abilities, but faith in what God can do as we faithfully serve Him. Well, keep that in mind this morning as we read from Hebrews 11:17-29. By faith, 03:43 Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which He also received him in a figurative sense. 04:04 By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff. 04:18 By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. 04:40 By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. 05:00 By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. And by faith, they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, 05:21 whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence or confidence of things not seen. Going back to verse 1. 05:36 There have been times in my life where I've had to, and several defining events in my life where I had to step out in faith, feeling very uncomfortable with where I was going, what I was doing, but yet feeling the call of God to walk in obedience to Him. It's never comfortable when you leave home. 05:56 You're filled with ideas and dreams and hopes. And maybe it seemed kind of exciting to leave home and pitch my Ford Maverick towards Indiana and drive those 200, 200 miles to meet my bride. But that was a step of faith. 06:16 You have faith that God's leading you. You have faith that God is going to lead you and you have faith that God is going to bless you. And then there's been times, there was a time a couple of years later when we packed up our belongings, had a few more by that time, and we moved back to Oregon and pastored a little mission church there, 06:36 a little place where you could say could anything good come out of that area, come out of that community where no one else wanted to serve, to rebuild a little mission church there where there were several families wanting to reach out into their community. And by faith, we saw the church grow. And by faith, we moved forward in the work of the Lord. 06:57 And then we had the call to, by faith, step out and move more possessions back to Indiana and go on the road with Gospel Echoes and Itinerant Ministry. And that was a real step of faith for me. Fear. Fear gripped my heart. Being afraid that maybe somehow we wouldn't be able to make it. 07:19 Fear that somehow we would fail. Fear that somehow our children would be affected. Fear that somehow we'd be rejected and our music wouldn't be a blessing to people. And maybe all kinds of fears that the enemy kind of tried to discourage us with. But we moved forward by faith. By faith, we raised our children, 07:40 five children with a preacher's income and itinerant worker's income. And it stretched us and we had to stretch the dollars and we had to live by faith. And if it were not for the generosity of God's people in a variety of areas and ways and means and this church also in your generosity, 08:00 we probably would have faced financial ruin in our lives. But God has blessed and today we have more than what we deserve. And by faith, 24 years ago, 25 years ago this summer, we joined the BMA. 08:18 By faith, the leaders of the Biblical Mennonite Alliance stepped out believing that God was calling us to form an organization that would be faithful to the call of God in missions and accountability in church life and in education, Christian education, Christian discipleship. 08:35 And by faith, that movement has grown and prospered as God has allowed us to be faithful. By faith, in 1999, when Living Water began, even before it was called Living Water, God was stirring in our hearts to serve as a pastor again. 08:54 And then we were asked if we would serve alongside Brother Marvin to give leadership here to the congregation. That'll be 24 years this fall. It's hard to believe. It's gone fast. But nevertheless, it's been blood, sweat, and tears many times. But it's been a joy. 09:12 And we do that by faith believing that God is up to something good and that even though we feel inadequate, He is able to take our step of faith and build what He wants to build. And by faith, there have been scores of people that were praying for our prodigal son. And you know the story to that, that God has brought him back. 09:32 And we cried out to the Lord and we cried and cried and cried that God would save his soul. And by faith, we entered into that season. And by faith, we've seen God faithful. Each of us, every one of us, have a faith story. And I want you to think about yours. And if you want to think about something the next week, 09:54 just think about your faith story. What are the things that you have done by faith that didn't make sense to other people, didn't maybe look very promising as far as the odds for success or failure, didn't look so good? And yet you, by faith, followed the call of God, 10:12 the plan of God, the purpose of God, and stepped out of your comfort zone and where God tested us to really believe what He had for us. Like this African woman I read about in Bruce Wilkinson's book, Beyond JBEZ, he tells a story of an African woman who was a poor lady. 10:31 She lived in Swaziland and they had taken a team of volunteers to Swaziland. And little did they know that she was praying that somehow someone would provide plants and seeds for her garden because she had taken in 50-some orphans. 10:50 And just because these children needed a home, she couldn't afford it. She couldn't care for them very well. But she needed a garden and didn't have any resources for a garden. So one morning, she instructed all the children, "Let's go till up the garden." And so they got to busy tilling the garden. 11:05 And that was right before the team came through then and had all these plants for seed and for transplanting for a garden. 11:15 And they said, "Well, how did you know that we were coming?" She said, "I didn't except that I prayed this morning for somebody to come and give us some plants so we can support ourselves." That thing is the kind of thing that is a result of faith that God delights in. And it's impossible to please God without faith. 11:34 For he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder. He's a rewarder. Sometimes we look too much at God as a punisher. But we need to also look to God as a rewarder to them that diligently seek Him. And so as we look at our text this morning, we find men and women, 11:53 even women here in this hall of fame, hall of faith or faith hall of fame, even women in here that looked for a reward that only God can give. That's what faith is. It is looking to Him for something that we cannot create ourselves. It is something beyond our ability to manufacture. 12:15 Now when we're self-sufficient North Americans with good health and have lots of opportunities for income and for relationships and so on, it's a little hard for us sometimes to actually think and see and feel what it means to live by faith because there's so many things that we can do. 12:34 And so we put our brains together and we plan this and we meditate on that and we seek after this and we're going to make it happen. We're going to fix it. We're going to do it until we come smack up against something that God says, "No, you can't do this one. This is beyond your ability." And that's where faith kicks in. That's where faith kicks in. 12:54 Each of these heroes did something with their faith. Now it's not enough to just say, "Well, have faith and I have faith and you have faith and everybody has faith." No, they all did something with their faith. Now I want you to look at and do a little bit of review this morning. 13:11 If you go back to the first part of the chapter in verse 4, Abel had faith and he offered to God. He offered to God a sacrifice, a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He offered the firstborn of the fat of his flock. 13:32 And so he offered. Enoch was taken away. We don't see anything Enoch doing anything here in this verse. But we know from Genesis that Enoch walked with God. And so you have Abel offering. You have Enoch walking. And then you go down to verse 7, you have Noah who prepared an ark. 13:54 He being divinely warned, prepared an ark. And so he got busy with his hammer and tools and his chisel and his whatever it is they had back then to make an ark, saw and so on. And they got busy preparing an ark. And so they stepped out in faith. You look at verse 8, Abraham went out. 14:13 Abraham didn't just say, "Well, I've got faith. You've got faith. We've all got faith. Let's sit around here and not do anything with that faith." No, he went out not knowing where he was going. And he dwelt, verse 9, and he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And then we have Sarah. 14:33 Sarah herself received strength to conceive. Now you could say that she didn't really do much to do that. But she could have said, she could have said, "Abraham, I'm too old. I'm 90 years old. It's too painful to have a baby. 14:49 You take what was the other handmade Hagar? Take Hagar 2 and try again and see if you get any better results." But no, she contributed her part in participating to the promise that God had given to her husband Abraham. 15:07 And she received strength by participating in this event. She bore. She bore a child. You go down to verse 17, by faith, Abraham offered up Isaac. And this comes into our text this morning. 15:22 He offered up Isaac whom he had received, and he who received the promises offered up his only begotten son. And then we look in verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. 15:36 By faith, Jacob blessed each of his sons and worshiped on his deathbed and leaning on the top of his staff. Verse 23, Moses, Moses' parents is the faithful ones here. And they saw that he was a beautiful child. He was a comely child. 15:55 He was an unusual child. He was an extraordinary child. And they hid him, not being afraid of the king's command. Verse 24, Moses refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter. Moses chose to suffer. He esteemed the reproach of Christ. He forsook Egypt. He kept the Passover. 16:15 And by faith, the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. They didn't just sit on the shore and say, "Well, what are we going to do? We'll wring our hands." And they did plenty of hand-wringing. But when the way opened up, it was, "Yes, we'll follow the Lord. We don't know if these billows on both sides of us are going to come crashing down on us like they will the Egyptians." Of course, they didn't know that yet either. 16:36 "But we're going to follow God. We're going to follow Moses. We're going to go through." And by faith, they got up from their camp and carried all their belongings through on dry ground. And by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down as they were encircled. 16:53 The children of Israel exercised their faith as they walked around that city one time for six days and seven times on the seventh day and gave a loud shout and the walls fell down. That was by faith as they exercised their faith. They didn't just say, "Well, I've got faith. You've got faith. We all have faith and celebrate our faith." They actually went out and did something for God, 17:14 did something with their faith. And by faith, the harlot Rahab received the spies. Now faith and faithfulness are directly tied together in this passage of scripture. Each of them had nothing but God's word to go by, nothing but God's word to have confidence in. 17:34 I mean, that's where real faith kicks in is when you have nothing else but the promises of God. Dallas Holme, years ago, if you remember, some of the old-timers remember him as a gospel singer. He wrote that and sang that song, "I'll Rise Again." And if you're under the age of 35 or 40, 17:55 you may not even know that song. But anyway, he was a very popular songwriter and singer. His wife, Linda, had cancer and had mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy. And he said in an interview this, "Sometimes in our valley and in our sorrow, we believe if we just knew what God was doing, that would settle it. 18:17 I'm not sure what would make any difference. Faith is when you don't know, when it doesn't make sense, when you can't understand, but you trust in God. 18:29 You trust in God." Elizabeth Elliott said it like this, "True faith goes into operation when there are no answers." That's when our faith is tested. That's when our faith is given evidence. 18:43 And that's where faith becomes faithfulness even in the times we do not understand the will and ways of God. Each of these heroes were then tested in the area of their faith. Abel could have offered God something that didn't cost him anything. But he didn't. 19:03 By faith, he offered God his best. Enoch, in a godless culture, could have said, "I'm tired of walking with God. I can't see this God anyway. And so I can see all the pleasures around me. I'll go walk with the sinners for a while." No, Enoch walked with God in a godless culture. 19:21 Noah could have wanted the approval of the crowd and backed down from his crazy plan, his crazy scheme to save the world and deliver his family. Oh, how much ridicule and mockery he endured. But he kept on because he believed in God and he saw something coming that was going to be good even when it is in the midst of bad. 19:43 Abraham could have stayed home or pushed ahead without God's direction, 19:48 equally damaging things for you not to exercise your faith and also then to go off in not waiting for God's direction just because you got a great idea that you think should be pursued. Sarah could have said, "It's too hard to have a baby when you're 90." My wife had her last baby in her 40s. 20:09 And that was hard. We decided that that's why people have their babies in their 20s and 30s. It was too hard. It was hard when you get to be 90. I can't imagine having your wife going through Lamaze classes. Well, I guess they don't do that anymore. I'm not sure what they do, some kind of other breathing treatment or technique. 20:27 But anyway, you watch your wife have a baby at 90. You say, "God, wouldn't there be an easier way?" God said, "No, this is the way." And so Sarah submitted herself to that and by faith received the strength that she needed. That's the point. 20:44 She received the strength that God had for her to move forward according to God's call and Abram's promise to God and God's promise to Abraham. Abraham could have said to God, "I'm not going to go to Mount Moriah and offer my son on a sacrificial altar. 21:06 In fact, tonight, Lord willing, if you come to see the pictures from Israel, you'll be able to see the spot, the spot where Abraham offered his son Isaac. It's where the Temple Mount is. I hope somebody will show pictures of the Temple Mount. 21:20 It's an amazing place to know that that was the mountain. 21:27 That was the mountain where Abraham took his son Isaac and went up to that mountain peak, just him and his son, telling the others to stay behind and saying, "Me and the lad will return." That's faith. That's faith. 21:46 I mean, God, you're taking me up here. I'm supposed to offer my son as a burnt offering. But me and the lad, we're coming back. And what was he basing that on? The fact that in Abraham's mind, he must have understood that even God could raise even the dead. 22:08 And he did in a sense, in a figurative sense, verse 19. He did bring him back from the dead. And of course, we know that that was all a picture of Jesus Christ who on that same, in that same area, possibly on that same mountain, in that same general area, his son, 22:27 God's son, gave himself as an offering for sin. And God raised him from the dead. He believed, Abraham believed, that God would provide. Remember as he's walking up the hill, Isaac says, "Dad, there's a little problem here. We've got the fire starter and we've got the wood. 22:48 We've got no sacrifice." "Ah, God will provide my son. God will provide my son." And you know what? It took faith for Isaac to allow his dad to bind him up and put him on that altar. 23:03 That was an act of faith and trust in his Father and his Father's God and his God's promise. He believed that God could raise him from the dead. 23:13 "Now I know," God said, "that you fear him." And it took an act of faith when Abraham rose, took that knife in his hand and raised his knife in his hand to slay his son only to hear that voice from heaven. What a dramatic day that was to say, "Now I know, Abraham, 23:33 that you fear God and love me above all else." Isaac could have looked into the future and saw and said, "You know, really, guys, I really blew this thing with blessing Jacob and Esau. I really made a big mistake here. I was duped. And God's just, 23:52 this just things just spun out of control." But if you go back to the book of Genesis, you find out what Isaac said to Jacob. He said, "Therefore, may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let the people serve you and nations bow down to you. 24:11 Be master over your brethren and let your mother's sons bow down to you." He said that to Jacob. And as he's blessing Jacob, even in spite of his being deceived, he was still experiencing the sovereignty of God to accomplish God's purpose in that situation. And he did it by faith. 24:31 And then Isaac blessed his son Esau and said to him, "Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother. 24:44 And it shall come to pass when you shall become restless that you shall break his yoke from your neck." And so we don't understand all the implications of what that meant. But the struggle continued. But Abraham, or rather Isaac, was looking to the future. 25:00 And he was by faith blessing his boys even when he messed up the process, even when he messed up the process. And Jacob saw into the future to keep the promise alive when he blessed his children, when he blessed Joseph's sons. He blessed Joseph's sons. 25:20 And 25:22 Joseph brought his boys, Manasseh and Ephraim. And he put Ephraim on the left side. And he put Manasseh on the right side of his dad laying there in the bed or sitting on the edge of the bed, however it was. And his dad, who couldn't see very well, inherited blindness from his father Isaac, probably. 25:40 And when Isaac went or Jacob went to bless him, he crossed his hands. And he put his right hand, which was the bigger blessing, on Ephraim. And his left hand, which was the lesser blessing, on Manasseh. And Joseph got upset and said, "No, Dad, you got it wrong. Go like this." No, he said, "I know what I'm doing. 25:58 I'm going like this because Ephraim will be superior to Manasseh." He saw the future. And he walked according to the future. And not only that, but he said, "I want you to take me back home to be buried with my fathers, my mother, my kinfolk because this land of Egypt is not where God's going to keep us. 26:20 We're going out of here." And Joseph picked up on that. And when Joseph blessed his children and his sons and when he was dying, he told them, "We're going to depart from this land." And he gave instructions concerning his bones. Joseph said, "God has not called us to reside in Egypt. 26:38 This is a temporary place. It's having a temporary for just a time for a specific reason. God's getting us ready to go. But at some point in time, you're going to take my bones with you when you leave. How's this going to work out?" The only way this could work out was by God's power. "How do you even know this, Joseph? 26:59 Because God promised. God said it. And that's it. I lay my future on the line by God's promise and God's word." Moses' parents could have been terrified by the king's decree. They were not affected. They were not moved. 27:18 Oh, I'm sure there was a time of nervousness. 27:21 I'm sure that at some time along the line, their hearts were concerned, deeply concerned. But they ultimately did not fear the king's command. And they walked forward in faith and took this comely child, this unusual child. 27:41 The NIV says that they saw that he was no ordinary child. I don't know what baby Moses looked like, but he didn't look like the ordinary child according to scripture. He was a beautiful, beautiful child. And they looked at him and said, "God has a plan for this young life. And we're going to follow God and his plan. 27:59 And we see things in the future that no one else can see but who God shows it to. And we know that there's no way that this can be successful unless God gives it to us." And they moved forward in faith. Moses identified with the people of Israel and refused to be shortsighted. 28:20 He refused to take the pleasures of sin, the temporary pleasures of sin. 28:25 It's likely he could have, as the Pharaoh's daughter, had any position and any woman and any place and as much power as he could have absorbed by being the son of Pharaoh's daughter. But he said ultimately, "I am not the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 28:46 I am a child of God. I am from the promised people. And this is not my home. We're leaving this place. And I'm going to make it happen." Well, by faith, he ran from Pharaoh. Or maybe that wasn't by faith. 29:02 There's a little bit of debate in verse 27 when he says he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. Some commentators believe that that was his first leaving after he killed the Egyptian that hit him in the sand. 29:15 But I don't think so because he was afraid of the king or the wrath of the king at that point, even though this would be out of chronological order from the way it's written here because the Passover happened before he left. And this says that he left and then observed the Passover. 29:34 But I think this is referring to the second Passover or the second time when he left not fearing the king of Pharaoh any longer because he knew that Pharaoh was putty in the hands of Almighty God. And he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He met him at the burning bush. 29:53 He met him in prayer. He walked up that mountain with God and saw God in a way that no Old Testament person had ever seen him or had ever seen him afterwards. By faith, he kept the Passover, the sprinkling of blood. They could have said, "This doesn't make any sense. 30:12 I mean, what good is this blood going to do on the doorposts? What good is that going to do?" But it was by faith because they trusted in what God had said. God said, "Tonight, you're leaving. Get ready. Make this Passover. 30:31 Have your clothes on. Don't leave anything till morning. Get ready and be ready as soon as dawn hits, as soon as you get the word to ask your friends and neighbors for what do they call that? Retribution or not retribution, but what do they want the black folks to get? 30:53 Reparations." There you go. There you go. For slavery, reparations. And so they're getting some reparations here, folks. They are getting reparations. And they went to their neighbors and they asked for things that they could use out in the wilderness to worship God in the tabernacle. Where do you think they got all that material from the tabernacle? 31:12 They didn't dig it out a hole in the sand. They had got it from the Egyptians after having worked for them for nothing for 400 years. And so they could have said, "No, no, this is too hard. But this is scary. I don't know if we can trust in this blood or not. This is pretty scary. 31:32 I'm a firstborn son. And if I would have been there, I'd have wanted to make sure my dad had the blood on the doorpost because I'd kind of like to live. I'd kind of like to live." And so they put their faith not in the blood on the doorpost, but in the God who had given the promise. Yes, in the blood, but ultimately in the God who gave the promise. 31:55 The people of Israel could have said, "This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous to march around a city for one time every seven or six days. This is ridiculous, Moses. We're not going to do this." Oh, but they had faith that God had promised. He said, "This is the way we're going to do this war. And if you want to be successful, 32:15 you want to be faithful to me, you're going to have to do this this way." The people of Israel on the Jericho walls or on the Jericho walk and on the passing of the Red Sea, the passing of the Red Sea. We already referred to that in verse 30, the walls of Jericho. There's still debate about whether or not that really happened. 32:36 When we were in Israel, we saw the Jericho site. And our guide does not believe in the inerrancy of scripture. And he said, "There is no archaeological evidence that the Jericho existed and was burned and fell, the walls fell down. There's just no archaeological evidence for it." Well, we did some digging. 32:57 We found others who say there is archaeological evidence. And what there was was there were two walls. There was an outer wall and an inner wall. And the Bible says that the wall came down, fell down. And every man went straight in to take the city. Well, what happened was they've looked at archaeologists have looked at it. 33:18 And they compare the different walls and the different types of layers and the different types of pottery and the different artifacts that they found. And they found that there's artifacts in that area that correspond with other artifacts in other areas of the same time period. And they said, "Oh, this must have happened after all." And what happened was those walls came down. 33:39 And as they came down, it left a ramp so that the people could just run right up the ramp and take the city. So by faith, they did that. And by faith, we believe it. Doesn't matter what a tour guide says. 33:58 Doesn't matter what an expert says. Doesn't matter what an archaeologist says. By faith, the same faith in the promise and word of God that they had to do it, we have that they did it. It's by faith in the word of God. 34:16 Rahab, she received the spies believing that they were not her enemy, that she didn't want to be on the wrong side of God and God's servants. So she received them and harbored them in her home as an expression of faith in the God of Israel. 34:38 I'm going to give you a couple of ideas in closing this morning. Number one, faith wins over fear. Faith wins over fear. Verse 23, Moses' parents were not afraid of the king's command. 34:58 Verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king. Verse 28, not fearing unless he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. They were not afraid of the angel of death. Verse 29, they were not afraid of the Red Sea. 35:14 Verse 30, they were not afraid of what the Jerichoites were going to do to them once they captured this city. They were not afraid. Their faith conquered their fears. Rahab feared God more than she feared the people of her kinsmen who would have killed her had they found out what she had done in harboring the spies. 35:36 And she had more fear of God than she had fear of man. And she had fear of God that created faith in his word and in his promise and conquered her fear of man. 35:50 Read in a book by Glenn Davis. He's a chaplain out in Fresno County, was a chaplain in Fresno County jail. Used many of our Bible study books. He said he was called into a situation one day where a group of women were outside of a cell. And they were all afraid because they said, "We saw a demon in that cell. 36:11 We saw it." Well, he didn't know whether they had or not. But here's about five women that are scared to death, won't go in the cell. And so he prayed with them. He prayed with them and asked that God would take authority over the enemy, over the demons, over the fear and the spirit of fear. 36:32 And then he walked in that cell. And he prayed against the spirit of darkness in that cell, demanding and casting it out in the name of Jesus. He said he didn't know exactly what happened. But he does know that the women went back in the cell and fell asleep. Their fear was gone because they had faith in the finished work of God in that situation and in the person of Christ. 36:53 And a faithful faith creates faithfulness. And faithfulness creates more faith. I don't know what you're afraid of this morning. You may be afraid of man. You may be afraid of failure. You may be afraid of the future. You may be afraid of loss. 37:12 But faith will take us over fear. Faith wins over fear when it's rooted in the person and character of God and the promise of his word. Last night, we attended a banquet by a ministry, a local ministry called SPA. 37:34 It's a women's ministry. And it's not where they go to get their fingers work done and their toe work done. It stands for spiritual personal adjustment, spiritual personal adjustment, SPA. 37:49 And these are women who have been abused and mistreated and who have addictions and who have failed at life. And they have all kinds of fears and addictions and domestic violence and emotional trauma in their lives. 38:05 And their website says this, "Are you a woman seeking freedom from destructive life issues such as addictions, domestic violence, the emotional aftermath of sexual assault or prostitution? If so, let us introduce you to Jesus Christ. Life in him brings healing, hope, and restoration. 38:26 A new beginning is possible. Do you believe that?" And one by one, those women said, "We believe it. We've experienced it. We've experienced the life-changing power of Jesus Christ to conquer our addictions, to conquer our bitterness, our drugs, 38:45 our alcohol, our rape, whatever it is that happened to us." And when we got there, they were all wearing a band around their neck, had different sins and different problems on each band. And each one took, at the beginning of the evening, they went to the cross. There was a cross there on the platform. 39:05 And they took off their band. And they hung it on the cross, symbolic that Jesus Christ delivers and sets people free. He does that by faith because those women, if you ever start on a road to recovery like that, 39:25 the obstacles are many. There is no earthly way. They go through program after program after program and have failed, failed, failed. 39:34 And they could say, "There is nothing around here that makes us think that this is going to work except God and his promises and his power." These people daily walk by faith, believing they can be free in spite of everything they see in their life. 39:56 That's faith. True faith, I remind you, goes into operation when there are no answers and no other hope. Faith wins over fear. Faith wins over pleasure and addictions. 40:14 You see, the pleasure of this world that Moses forsook can lead to addictions. And it does. 40:24 The addiction to alcohol, the addiction to drugs, the addiction to pornography, the addiction to sexual sin, the addiction to any number of addictions. Materialism starts out with just a little bit of pleasure. 40:42 And then it takes a little bit more pleasure and a little bit more of it to get more pleasure. 40:46 And it gets more and more and more and more until you're so bound up that you have no other option but to come to the cross, to Jesus Christ, and say, "If there's ever going to be freedom, it's going to be by faith in your promise and in your power." Even the pleasure of nursing a grudge, that can be kind of pleasurable sometimes, can't it? 41:09 I'm going to nurse this grudge. I kind of like this grudge. I'm going to feed it a little bit. I'm going to go to bed thinking about it and thinking how I could get even. I'm going to wake up thinking about it. And the next thing you know, you're thinking about it all the time. And you are consumed by that grudge and jealousy and hatred and bitterness and anger. 41:29 And you cannot get free until by faith you come to Jesus Christ and say, "Jesus, I can't handle this my own anymore." You see, you nurse a grudge. And it takes a little bit more nursing to get the same amount of pleasure out of it. And you think a little bit worse and a little bit worse and a little bit worse and a little bit worse. 41:48 The next thing you know, you've got a full-blown hatred going on. And the only way to get rid of that is by faith in the promise of God that he will set things right in his time. "It vengeance is mine," says the Lord. "I will repay." And let it go at the cross and turn it over to God. 42:09 We do this because there is a focus on eternity. The third point and final point I want to make this morning is that faith wins over the temporal. Faith wins over the temporal or the temporary. You see, all of these trials were temporary. 42:31 But the reason they could go through them is because they were looking at something eternal. They were looking for the reward, the recompense of the reward. Verse 10, "He waited for a city that had foundations whose builder and maker is God. These all died in faith, 42:51 not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, the assurance of things that are invisible. Embrace them, confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth and that whatever fear or faith or pleasure or anything of this world was only temporary, 43:12 we're going to lay aside the temporal and go for the eternal." And that's what they did. They set their sights on heaven. 43:21 "For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland, a home in heaven." And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had plenty of opportunities to return. 43:36 But why go back when you're looking forward and your face is fixed on Christ and on heaven and the eternal? And there's nothing else that compares in your understanding. And God opens the eyes of our understanding and gives to us the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him, 43:56 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. And you understand the love of God, Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 3. 44:04 You say, "Nothing that I could hold on to this world will even come close to comparing with the next world and the reward for service that is coming." First Timothy 6:19 says this, 44:20 "Storing up for themselves a good foundation for time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life, being convinced that the spiritual riches in Christ Jesus that will be completely manifest and known physically, spiritually, 44:37 in every way in heaven are free and are extremely superior to all the things that this world has to offer." Moses refused the riches of Egypt. He refused the good time. He refused the worldly pleasure. 44:56 He refused to have an affair with adulteresses. He refused the addictions of Egypt. He refused the money. He would not compromise for power and fame for the worth of his soul. 45:16 So my question this morning as we close, what's God writing in your faith journal, in your faith journey? Say, "Well, Brother Todd, I don't really have much going on. 45:31 I guess I don't have a lot of faith journal to write." Well, 45:38 then ask God to take you deeper with Christ. 45:44 And you'll get something to write about. Amen. He'll see to it. And it will be the ride of your life. Let's pray. 45:56 Lord, thank you that you are God of the unseen realities we know is real. 46:06 And we know your promises in Christ are yay and amen, that there has not failed one word of your holy promise to your people. 46:18 And Lord Jesus, I pray today that you will build our faith and build our faithfulness 46:29 and that the journal that we write about our walk of faith would be an increasing encouragement to those around us who walk it and write it with us. In Jesus' name, amen.