Fall About Faith Week 3

All right, we're gonna get this thing kicked off. We're gonna wrap up tonight.

We haven't spent too much time in Hebrews chapter 11. Obviously we

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

could have taken more time to look at some of these different folks that

we've looked at, but this wasn't gonna be something that we were really

gonna dig into too deep. This is just kind of a brief thing and so we are

gonna skip a few folks tonight just for time's sake and just kind of hit some of

the high points as we get ready to close up. But I appreciate y'all coming

for the last couple of weeks. We have looked at Abel. We looked at what it

means to give by faith. We looked at Enoch, talked about what it means to walk by

faith. Noah, what it means to live by faith. We saw Abraham last week, four last,

what it means to go by faith. And Sarah, waiting by faith. And we've seen a lot of

other people that we've talked about. Some they were familiar with, the

Free Burma Rangers and David Eubank, and kind of how he's doing his work by

faith. We talked about George Mueller. Maybe some of you have researched him

and read some more of his story. If you hadn't, that would be a good thing to do.

Last week we talked about Hudson Taylor and the work that he did in China. It's

kind of a more modern example of what it means to live by faith. So we've been

looking at some of these in the scripture, but also some more modern examples of

walking by faith as well. So we'll continue that same pattern tonight. We'll

look at three examples of faith in Hebrews 11, then we'll talk about a

more modern example. So let's pray and then we'll get started. God, we come to

you tonight and I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us to be men and women of

strong faith, dear Lord. And oftentimes we really don't know how strong our faith

is until it's tested, but I pray that you would help our faith to be strong. I

pray that we would have faith in you, that we would trust you, that we would

walk by faith, that we would live by faith, dear Lord, in every aspect of our

life. And God, even in our failures, that we would not let that drive us

from you. But dear Lord, even then we would humble ourselves and come

before you with faith, dear Lord, as we see so many that we look at in Hebrews 11.

God, they weren't examples of perfection. They were examples of failures, but

failures who were saved by faith, dear Lord. And that's who we are tonight.

So I pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us and help us to grow and to learn

something from your Word and these we talk about. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen.

All right, Hebrews 11, if you haven't already turned there and you want to, you

can. Hebrews chapter 11, the first thing we're going to talk about tonight is

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

suffering by faith. Now, I cut this section down to Moses really brief

because we could talk a lot about Moses. There's a lot to talk about. And there's

a lot in the book of Hebrews that it talks about Moses, just the fact that

Moses' mother decided to hide him when all the other children were being killed.

That was an act of faith as Moses, you know, held his hands up so the Red Sea

would be parted and God's people could walk through on dry land. These are

examples of faith in Moses' life. So there was certainly much faith in the

life of Moses and it's covered here in Hebrews chapter 11. But for time's sake

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

we're just taking one small part of the faith that's recognized for

Moses here and that comes from verses 24 and 25. It says, by faith Moses, when he

had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose to

suffer with the people of God rather to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin.

Alright, so we see Moses had a choice here and the choice that Moses had was

he could have lived in the palace of Pharaoh and he would have had a pretty

luxurious life. Obviously Pharaoh was the wealthiest man in the land. He was raised

by Pharaoh's daughter but Moses knew that he wasn't an Egyptian. He knew who he

was. He knew he was an Israelite. He knew that his family was not this family of

wealth but he knew that his family were a people of God. He knew his family were

slaves at that time. And so Moses had a choice to make. Was he going to be one

who lived for God and lived for God's people or was he going to be one who

lived in Pharaoh's palace? And that's kind of the choice that really you and I

have to make on some level. Now we're probably not choosing whether we're

going to live in a palace but we do have that choice to make. Are we going to

choose to live for God as God's people and to suffer as God's people often do?

Are we going to choose to live by the ways of the world? Now, nowadays if you

choose to live by the ways of the world it's likely that you're not going to

get much opposition. In fact, you're probably going to be celebrated. If you

go out and tell the world that you're a homosexual they're gonna have a parade

for you and they're gonna clap for you and they're gonna have a party for you.

If you go out and tell the world that you're a man and you're thinking

about becoming a woman they're gonna celebrate that. The world celebrates that

that is evil but oftentimes the world takes what the Bible calls good and

calls it evil. And so we have a choice to make as to whether or not we're going to

live by what the world says. If we live by what the world says and seek the

wealth of the world and the acceptance of the world on some levels our life is

going to be a lot easier because what we see oftentimes all throughout the

scriptures all throughout church history not just in modern times is that it is

not easy to be one who's going to stand up for the Lord. And oftentimes and we're

gonna see some great examples of that at the end of this chapter oftentimes what

we see is we see when we take that step for the Lord when we tell the world what

you're doing is wrong what you're doing is sin. God does not approve of that. God's

Word says that that is wrong. When we step up and we stand on the truth of

God's Word we better be ready because the world is gonna attack us. There are

plenty of places in the world that doing what we're doing tonight would get you

killed and that happens all over the world. There are lots of Christians of

brothers and sisters in Christ that are being tortured that are being that are

being persecuted that are being killed for talking about the truth that we're

talking about tonight and we need to realize that these things go on today.

It's not like this thing happens occasionally every once in a while we

don't hear about it much but it happens all the time that there are plenty of

Christians who are suffering for the kingdom of God because they have made

the same choice that Moses made. He had a choice. He could live by the world and

wouldn't have really had much to worry about. He could have lived in the palace

of Pharaoh and had every need he ever wanted met or every want he ever wanted.

He could have had but instead he chose to go. He chose to leave and ultimately by

faith he trusted God and by faith God used him to do great things but he had

to make that decision. That decision that ultimately was going to lead to

suffering. He was gonna have to leave everything he knew. He was gonna have to

flee for his life. He was gonna have to head for the hills to escape for Pharaoh

because once he made that choice that he was not gonna live for the world but

that he was gonna follow God and be one of God's people. Once Moses made that

choice he had to suffer the consequences of that. The consequences in the worldly

sense. Now of course God blessed him. God used him in a mighty way but the world

was still coming after him and that's the same for you and I today. We have to

be ready. Then if we're gonna be a man or a woman of faith that we're gonna have

to take a stand against what the world says sometimes. Even our friends and our

family and it's very difficult to do to take that stand and say no this isn't

right. This is what God calls sin and I'm not gonna celebrate it. I'm not gonna

pretend like it's right and I'm gonna stand on the Word of God and I'm gonna

speak the truth and I'm gonna speak the truth in love but I'm gonna speak the

truth and that takes a lot of faith and sometimes when we have that kind of

faith and live by that kind of faith it brings about suffering in our life and

that's just one small little section here about Moses. Not much said about

it here. This is just one of many things that it says establishes Moses as a man

of faith and we need to be those who are established as men and women of faith

who are ready to suffer for the kingdom of God. Alright the next thing we're

going to talk about comes from verses 30 and 31 and that is being delivered by

faith. 30 and 31 says this, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being

encircled by the Israelites for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute

received the spies in peace and didn't perish with those who disobeyed. Now this

story comes way back from the book of Joshua. Maybe you've read it before. God's

people finally make their way into the promised land and they go to Jericho and

there's there's a city there there's walls surrounding the city there and God

says alright I'm gonna hand this city over to you and here's what you have to

do. You have to walk around the city for seven days and blow your horn and then

on the seventh day walk around seven times and and then everybody's gonna

holler real loud and then the walls gonna come tumbling down. Now that sounds

pretty crazy. Now we read this story and we say man God is good but how many times

may God call us to do something in our life that doesn't even sound nearly as

crazy as that but we don't do what he calls us to do. Now we might like to tell

ourselves if I would have been there I'd have been with those people and I would

have done just what God said and maybe we would have. There were certainly some

there who did. It appears that they all did and maybe we would have too or

maybe we would have started talking to each other and said what in the world is

Joshua talking about here? Why are we marching around this city? What's this

got to do? Shouldn't we be like sharpening our swords and getting our

shields ready? But nonetheless God told him to do something that seemed crazy

and God's people did what he said and as a result the wall come tumbling down. Now

why did the wall come tumbling down? Surely it must have been that in all

those days of marching around the city and on that seventh day of marching

seven times surely it must have loosened the ground up and the vibration from the

sound of their voices must have weakened the wall and it come to the ground. That

must be how it happened. No that's not how it happened. It happened because they

had faith because they did what God said. As crazy as it may have sounded God said

to do it they said God if this is what you're telling me to do I'm gonna do it

and guess what happened? When they did what God called them to do when they

walked by faith literally around the around the wall the wall came tumbling

down. We see time and time again people healed in the scripture and what does it

often say about them? That they are healed by their faith. Jesus will say your

faith has made you well. It's not necessarily that when the woman touched

the tassel of Jesus's robe that his robe had some kind of special power. It's

that she had enough faith to know if I can get close to this guy there's healing

in this guy not in his robe and she was healed not because his robe had special

power but because she had faith. He could have took that robe off and sent it on

the ground and there might have been a thousand other people that touched it

and nothing happened to them. Why? Because if they didn't have faith they weren't

gonna be healed because healing comes by faith. Deliverance comes by faith and so

the walls come tumbling down and God's people go in and capture the city but

some are spared and we see one listed here and that is Rahab and what does it

say about Rahab? By faith Rahab the prostitute received the spies in peace

and didn't perish with those who disobeyed. Now you may remember the story

you may not but there were some spies who went into the land and they were

checking things out and they were gonna get caught except Rahab hit them so that

they wouldn't be caught so that they wouldn't be killed. Rahab hit them and

as a result of that Rahab was spared because Rahab said look I've heard about

you guys I've heard about your God would you spare me? And they did when they when

it came down to it and they invaded the city Rahab was spared and why? Because

she had faith. Now this is a this is a beautiful example because here's Rahab

a foreigner a foreign people now God would come to save his people but even

in the Old Testament it was never it was never only the Jewish people it was

never only the people of Israel it was always those who would come and seek God

and sometimes we see Gentiles that would have faith that would hear of God that

would come and their faith would save them and that's what we see of Rahab

she was delivered but what else do we see of Rahab? It's not like she was a

upstanding wonderful righteous woman was she? She was a prostitute she was a

prostitute that did evil sinful things but nonetheless she was delivered and

how was she delivered? Hebrews tells us she was delivered by her faith. Now this

is good news for you and I because you and I are not just good upstanding

righteous people our our best acts before the Lord are as filthy rags

Isaiah tells us the best things that we can do are pretty rotten we are pretty

sinful even on our best days there's some things that we probably don't like

about ourselves there's some things that go through our mind there's some things

that we say and there's some things that we do that we just don't like and we

know it's there we know it's not good and and sometimes even still we just

repeat these things whatever it may be they're sin in our life but Rahab is a

good example of what it means to trust God in faith and what's the result of

that is that God saves even sinners even some of the worst of sinners that we

could think of that's good news for you and I because we're some of the worst of

sinners that we can think of but Rahab is a good example of what it means to

live by faith here's something beautiful about Rahab if you want to turn to

Matthew chapter 1 Matthew chapter 1 we see a genealogy here that's leading us

Matthew 1 · chapter mention Matthew 1 · chapter mention

to Jesus and Matthew chapter 1 in verse 5

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

now you may remember the story from the book of Ruth if you've never read the

book of Ruth it's a great book you may remember that Boaz married Ruth at the

end of that story but what you may not realize is what we see here in verse 5

Simon fathered Boaz by Rahab isn't that something isn't that something how God

works all of these stories together and all of these characters together and

right here in the genealogy of Jesus Christ we see two beautiful stories that

of Ruth and Boaz and that of Rahab and all of that come to be because there was

one sinful woman who heard about God and believed that God was God and feared the

Lord enough to seek him and what was the result she was delivered by her faith

and the same is true for you and I all right let's flip back to Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11 and the last section we're going to talk about is being approved by faith

now we've talked about that some in the context of of Hebrews is that the Hebrew

audience they were wanting to earn God's approval by going back to the old ways

of sacrifices and doing things the author of Hebrews has been telling look

don't don't do that and here's the point he says look all these people that we're

reading about these people that you know from your history they were approved by

their faith not because they offered sacrifices not because they lived by the

letter of the law man there are some there are some bad dudes and and and

chicks in this in this section you go back and you see these people and we

remember them as heroes of faith but their life wasn't perfect you can find

some some pretty major flaws in some of the lives of these that we see here in

the scripture this is too long for me to put on the screen but if you want to

turn to the end of Hebrews 11 the last little bit of it there starting in verse

32 he begins to sum up a lot of other characters and he says look I don't have

time to tell you of all these people now his audience would have known him and

some of these names may seem familiar to you too and maybe you want to go back and

and refresh yourself with their stories but he kind of breezes through some of

these characters he says in verse 32 and what more can I say time is too short

for me to tell about Gideon Barak Samson Jephthah okay those are names that you

see in the book of judges if you go back and you read in judges you'll see these

names and and some of these dudes were pretty good dudes but but they had their

flaws to Gideon you make it say he doubted a little bit he kind of was

hisentitary and and asked God to give him a sign and God gave him a sign and

then he said well would you give me one more son and so even Gideon shows that

maybe there was a little doubt there but yet he was a man that is remembered here

by his faith we see Barak we see Samson if you read the story about Samson he

seemed to be kind of like a bull in a china shop he was he was kind of

hot-headed tough dude and and God used him God used him even though he was kind

of foolish maybe maybe a good word and and hot-headed and and and on a rampage

all the time God still used him to bring punishment to those Philistines and

other enemies as a result of that they were looking to get rid of Samson and

Samson had great strength and it came from the Lord because he was a

Nazarite his hair was long and if he had been smart and smart enough to not be be

so infatuated with women everything would have probably been okay for him but

instead he gave in he listened to what Delilah said his hair got cut and as a

result he lost his strength obviously didn't care enough about serving the

Lord and remaining faithful to him and it cost Samson greatly because if you

remember in that story that Samson is ultimately captured and it says that

they gouged his eyes out now this is pretty serious they gouged his eyes out

and you think well why in the world is this guy in in in the book of Hebrews as

a hero of faith one who just kind of didn't really do right ultimately ended

up being punished but at the end of Samson's life as he was in prison his

hair began to grow back and it says that he called out to the Lord one more time

he called out to the Lord one more time even in all that he had been through he

had enough faith to call out to the Lord said God if you would give me my

strength just once more God so that I can destroy these people that did this

to me and God did just that Samson was able to be led into the into the big

Coliseum arena whatever it was where they were he was placed in between two

of the big pillars and God gave him that strength why because he had enough faith

to ask God to deliver him and we need to remember that because there may be days

that we are like Samson that we really have blown and we hadn't really done

done done right by the Lord and it might get us into some trouble but we still

even in the midst of our failures need to be men and women that have faith like

Samson did to say God I am a sinner and God I don't deserve it and I'm in a bad

shape but God would you please just have mercy on me would you please restore me

once more and here we see in the story of Samson that God did that now in a way

that's a sad story too and what happened to Samson but nonetheless he's remembered

here because he had the faith to call out to the Lord Jephthah you may remember

that story that's a tough one we won't go through it tonight but it's a it's

one you should read if you've never read it David what about David well David

he's pretty godly man king of Israel but boy he had some troubles didn't he one

he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he murdered her husband to cover

it up okay this is not a good thing but yet we see here that David is remembered

by his faith none of these people are remembered because they're perfect

they're remembered because in the midst of their sinfulness they still called

out to God and ultimately they they would seek him and ultimately they would

follow him ultimately they would be saved by their faith in the midst of

their failures and this is good news for you and I this is good news for the

audience of of the book of Hebrews because some had turned and were turning

and the author of Hebrews is pointing out this list of people who had failed

in some pretty great ways and the author of Hebrews says but their faith

ultimately saved them they were approved by their faith and so there

should be some encouragement here not some license to sin oh well these

people were able to look they're still celebrated so I'm just gonna be evil too

if we believe that then we've missed the point these people were broken because

of their of their sinfulness and yeah they made some failures had some

failures but ultimately they trusted in God and that is why they were approved

and then he goes on to say Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered

kingdoms administered justice obtained promises shut the mouths of lions

quenched the raging fire escaped the edge of the sword gained strength after

being weak became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight well that's

a that's a pretty good list of stuff that's a good list for us to look at

maybe we need some strength in some of these areas and how were these people

able to do these things that they did they were able to do these things

because of their faith now listen to this last section here to what it says

about them in verse 35 women received their dead they were raised to life

again some men were tortured not accepting release so that they might

gain a better resurrection and others experienced mockings and scourges as

well as bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawed in two they died

by the sword they wondered about in sheep skins and goat skins destitute

afflicted and mistreated now that's pretty intense right there he goes

through and he talks about all these people of faith and then what does he

do and he says and people of faith suffer greatly sawed in two holy smokes

that's pretty serious the author of Hebrews is talking about what we just

talked about with Moses is that if we're going to be men and women of faith then

we need to know that there are sometimes that we are going to have to suffer for

the kingdom of God and so he's telling them you need to have your faith but you

also need to know that if you are a man or a woman of faith that look life is

going to be hard but you need to find encouragement and the ones who have come

before you that you're not experiencing something that other brothers and

sisters in Christ have ever experienced no there are those who have come before

you and they have been able to overcome and so will you if you keep your faith

and that may be important for us to remember these things one day could we

ever imagine a day that we don't have God's Word to read could we ever imagine

a day that we go through some of these things or see other Christians that we

know people that we know go through these things maybe should that day ever

come heaven forbid maybe we remember these scriptures and remember that there

are people who have come before me and they suffer greatly and there were days

that they probably wanted to give up and there are days that we probably want to

give up but these that come before us are an encouragement to us because they

kept the faith and God delivered them sometimes we see their deliverance in

the scriptures sometimes like Samson look they die they come to faith God

gives him the strength but he died in that rubble with all the other people but

ultimately Samson is one who was delivered by his faith and ultimately you

and I will be those who were delivered by our faith if we keep the faith listen

to this next verse in verse 38 it says the world was not worthy of them it's

not a beautiful thing the world was not worthy of them the very people that the

world thinks are useless and are scums and are crazy people for worshiping God

and reading his word what does the author of Hebrews say says look the

world's not worthy of these people these people are too good for the world and so

it is what the world values it's not what God values the world values fame

and wealth and and all that stuff but what God values is what's right in here

it's what's in our heart do we love God do we love other people what's our heart

like do we have a caring heart loving heart do we have a heart that's fixed on

evil that's what God's gonna see that's what God's gonna look at God wants us to

have a heart that's a heart of faith a heart that trusts him so we want to be

those that the world does not consider worthy but it doesn't matter if the

world considers us worthy or not because we're not judged by the world we don't

fear those who are able to destroy the body but we fear the one who is able to

destroy the body and soul and so we don't care if we're worthy in the sight

of the world we want to be worthy in the sight of God and if we want to be

worthy in the sight of God and approved by God that comes by faith in Jesus

Christ by trusting in Jesus Christ he continues on they wandered in deserts

and on mountains hiding in caves and holes in the ground all these all these

were approved through their faith but they did not receive what was promised

since God had provided something better for us so that they would not be made

perfect without us okay there was something better to come all these

people were in the Old Testament they didn't see what was promised but it was

coming it was coming they were gonna be made perfect through us they were

ultimately going to be saved through Jesus Christ as we are going to be saved

through Jesus Christ if we have faith in him and all of God's plan is going to

come together for those of the past and those in the present and those in the

future who have trusted in God so God had a bigger plan his promises were

going to be fulfilled even if they couldn't see it in their lifetime even

if the of the the audience of Hebrews couldn't see how God was working his

plan out even if we don't see how God is working his plan out we know that God

has better promises for us than what this world has to offer and therefore we

want to be men and women of faith that are approved by our faith because we

have trusted in Jesus Christ and are living for him so that wraps up our our

our study through Hebrews chapter 11 we kind of hit some of the high points we

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

hit them quickly but maybe there are some areas in here that are good for us

maybe there are some things that helped us to grow but in light of talking about

all the suffering tonight with with Moses and then some of these just

horrible things that we see mentioned at the end of Hebrews chapter 11 our more

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

modern-day example of a hero of faith we're going to talk about tonight is

Richard Wormbrand has anybody ever heard of Richard Wormbrand no hands all right

we got one some of you have you just forgot because I've mentioned him three

or four times especially on Wednesday nights but you need to look this guy up

he has a movie or a movie about him called a tortured for Christ you may

want to look it up read it there are lots of YouTube videos you can find

about Richard Wormbrand but he is a great example a modern-day example of

suffering for Jesus Christ now Richard Wormbrand was a Romanian preacher

priest and he was Lutheran and he he was all about doing the work of the Lord

except there was one problem he lived in a communist area and the communists

obviously are not Christian the communists want to kill Christians they

want to kill any kind of religion they want to shut them up

nonetheless Richard Wormbrand continued to do the work of God so much so that he

was willing to suffer whatever it took and suffer he did he suffered greatly

some of you may have heard of voice of the martyrs I think it used to be voice

of the martyrs calm now it's persecuted or persecution calm just look up voice

of the martyrs he kind of started that to bring awareness to other martyrs to

brothers and sisters in Christ who have died and serving Christ anyway it's a

great great resource where you can you can see a lot of these stories here it

wrote several books but for 14 years he was in prison for sharing the gospel of

Jesus Christ here's what he said one time it was strictly forbidden to preach

to other prisoners it was understood that whoever was caught doing this

received a severe beating a number of us decided to pay the price for the

privilege of preaching so we accepted there the communists terms it was a deal

we preached and they beat us we were happy preaching they were happy beating

us so everyone was happy now we laugh at that but can you imagine being in prison

year after year after year and being beaten day after day after day being

shoved in a hole 12 foot in the ground not seeing the light of day not being

able to move not being able to have communication with anybody else not

hearing a sound even the guards when they would stick them down in those

holes the guards would wear felt on their shoes so they wouldn't even hear

them walking they were in darkness and they were in silence how many of us would

last that long how many of us would say like Richard Wormbrand I'm gonna preach

and they're gonna beat but I'm gonna keep preaching his story is phenomenal

there are so many stories as you can only imagine from being 14 years in

prison but this is a modern example of a man who lived by faith and how can we

know our faith is real other than passing the test

Richard Wormbrand had decided had a wife he had a child but he had decided that

the kingdom of God was the most important thing now that takes a lot of

faith to do that knowing what might happen knowing that you might be

arrested and indeed he was and all the communists the communist ways if you

read their ways and the things that they do it's pretty open or if you don't know

anything about communism read Richard Wormbrand he'll tease some things that

you're not gonna like but nonetheless he was in prison one of his stories that he

told he was in a jail cell and he would pray however you couldn't pray he prayed

every day and they beat him every day they would take him they would see him

praying and they would drag him down the hall and they would hang him up and they

would beat the bottoms of his feet and they would beat the bottoms of his feet

and they would beat the bottoms of his feet until all of the skin was worn from

the bottom of his feet and he would go back to his jail cell and he would pray

the next day and they would see him praying and they would take him down the

hall and they would beat the bottom of his feet so much so that he said you

You cannot even imagine the pain that he felt.

He said he could not even describe the pain that that was.

But yet day after day, he would pray, day after day, they would beat the bottom of his

feet, so much so all the skin was gone and there was nothing but bare bone on the bottom

of his feet.

And every day he would pray to God.

And one day, one of the guards came in and he told Richard Wurmbrandt, he said, why are

you praying?

You're in prison.

You get beaten every day.

Your wife is in prison.

Your child is an orphan now.

Everything you have has been lost.

Everybody you know is in horrible shape.

You're being beaten every day.

What in the world do you have left to pray for?

And Richard Wurmbrandt looked at the guard and he said, I was praying for you.

And there were even some of those guards during his stay in prison who gave their life to

Jesus Christ because there was a man who for 14 years lived out what faith is.

Boy, I'd love to think that I could do that.

I don't know.

Could I make it 14 seconds?

Could I make it 14 minutes?

Those of you who have kids and grandkids, could you do it knowing that your wife was

going to be taken?

Your child was going to be taken?

When all you had to do and they say, did you know Jesus and will you tell about Jesus?

You could just say no and they would have gone to the next house and they would have

left you alone.

But that's what faith is.

Faith doesn't say no.

I heard this story some years ago and I don't remember the details.

I remember it somewhat.

And I think this was a story of Richard Wurmbrandt, maybe someone who was in prison with him.

And this guy was in prison and they were beaten mercifully like all the rest of them.

And then they brought the man's son in and they told the man, if you don't deny Jesus,

we're going to beat your son until he dies.

We're going to kill him too.

And the father was ready to denounce Jesus.

He was ready to denounce his faith.

And his son said, if you deny Jesus, you are no father to me.

Whoa.

What in the world?

What kind of faith is that?

That you have a father and a son and they're both in prison.

The father had been there for some time and hadn't denied the faith.

And even as he was ready to deny Jesus, the son stepped up with an unbelievable faith.

Now these are examples of faith, y'all.

This is serious faith.

We don't, I don't think any of us know anything about what this is like, what this kind of

suffering is like.

But this is not just a one-off story.

This is not the only guy in the last hundred years that's been beaten in this way for Christ.

This goes on today in 2024.

There are Richard Wormbrance in the world in prisons today who are being beaten mercifully

because they say God is good, because they say Jesus loves you, because they say love

your neighbor, love your enemy, take care of those who are in need.

Now that doesn't sound like a message that deserves a beating, but it's threatening to

our world.

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is threatening to our world because our world

says everything is right.

You do what you want to do.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of God says, your sinners who need to be saved

of your sins, who need to repent and no longer live for yourself and for your sin, but live

for Jesus.

But our world doesn't want to do that.

Our world is selfish and wants to live for itself, and maybe we do too sometimes.

But we want to strive to be men and women of faith, that we realize that our relationship

with God is the most important thing, that we strive to be like these examples that we

see, that on those days that maybe we are tempted like the Hebrews here were, those

days that we are tempted to turn from God, that we are tempted maybe to deny Jesus, and

maybe you'd say today I'd never do it.

We're not going to do it today sitting in the air conditioning with a bunch of food

back there.

We're supposed to lie up and cut up, have a good time.

There's no threat of us denying Jesus tonight, I don't think.

I hope not.

But we don't know what the future holds, and so we need to pray that God would help us

to be strengthened in our faith, that we would be men and women of faith just like these

we see in Hebrews 11, just like these other more modern examples that we've seen, and

what wonderful examples they are.

One last thing that Richard Wormbrand said was this, a faith that can be destroyed by

suffering is not faith, and how true that is.

Do we really have faith?

If we had to suffer greatly, would our faith crumble?

If so, then maybe we don't really have faith at all.

We want to be those who have faith, who grow in our faith, and who ask God to strengthen

our faith, so that we will be those who are ready to serve God no matter what may come

our way.

Let's pray.

God, we come to you, we thank you for your good word.

We thank you for the ones that we looked at tonight.

I pray, God, that you would help us to be like Moses, that we would be ready to give

up the world to live for you, dear Lord.

I pray that we would be like the ones who marched around Jericho, that whatever you

call us to, no matter how weird it may sound, that we just do what you say, dear Lord, and

let you take care of the rest.

I pray that you'd help us to be like Rahab, to remember that even if we are sinners, that

God, if we would just seek you, and fear you, and keep your commands, and have faith like

she did, God, we could be a crucial part of your plan.

Just as we see Rahab in the genealogy of Jesus, God, maybe there's things you're going to

use us for that we might not understand or see for generations to come, but dear Lord,

if we're men and women of faith, we could be used by you.

God, we thank you for all these in the Bible that have suffered greatly.

We thank you for people like Richard Wormbrand.

God, I pray that you would be with our brothers and sisters in Christ tonight, those who are

suffering tonight.

God, we cannot even imagine it, and I pray that you would encourage them.

I pray that you'd give them the strength.

I pray that they would feel your presence, dear Lord, that they would just hang on, God,

that they would not give up.

God, I even pray for the ones who are persecuting them.

I pray that through their perseverance, dear Lord, that they would even win some souls

to Jesus Christ.

God, I pray that you would change hearts in this world.

I pray that you would strengthen our hearts, dear Lord, that you'd strengthen our faith.

God, we want to say, and I hope we are, those who would stand up for you in any circumstance,

but God, we just have to be ready.

So help us just to keep growing in you and growing in you and growing in our faith so

that when the time comes, if the time comes, that we're ready to stand for you, whether

it's something simple or whether it's something extreme, dear Lord.

It's scary to even think about these things, but I pray, God, that you help us to remember

your word and to live by it.

I thank you for the ones that's come.

I pray that you just bless us from being part of this and getting to hear about all these

great folks, and we thank you for being good to us.

I thank you for the good food that we're going to snack on tonight.

I pray that you'd bless it, bless our time together.

Give us a good trip home and a good week.

In Jesus' name, I pray it.

Amen.