Leftovers - Faith (Hebrews 11)

Happy Monday, Happy New Year. Oh my gosh, here we are first.

Show yeah, first ERC leftovers of 2026.

We've been off for a few weeks. Thanks for being patient with

us. Missing your Monday morning,

well, Monday afternoon podcast, but there you go.

Hey, first time we've taken a little break since starting this

thing and. Yeah, I think we went like

almost 10 months straight, which was, yeah, that's a pretty good

start. Right.

Yeah. You don't usually take time off

from a weekly podcast to get that, but here we are.

You know what? It's just something extra that

we do when we're around and I've been gone.

Honestly, it's my fault. I I was.

You're going to take the blame. For I'll own it.

I'll own it, yeah. Well, I I didn't want to say

that, but you know, it's fine. I'll say it.

So yeah, no, I had some. I had some time off for a break.

We went and did Christmas up in Wisconsin for a few days.

But honestly, just we came back and did kind of the staycation

thing. Just laid low for a week and

hung out at home time with the kids, which we don't always get.

We don't always really just take down time as a family.

And that was the weekend. New Year's, Emily's birthday is

New Year's Day. You had a birthday this week.

Oh yeah, yeah, that did happen. So yeah, it was, I don't know,

break was good and anything, anything crazy for you guys?

No, I mean, it was, it was great being able to spend time with,

you know, family and stuff. And and again, as you kind of

noted, I, I think the busyness and chaos sometimes of life,

especially leading up to a major holiday like Christmas, it can

be a lot. But if you can find moments to

kind of pause and embrace, you know, what's right in front of

you and not not be racing to the next thing, like it can be

incredibly beneficial. And so I, I think my family got

to feel that a little bit, which was really nice.

And yeah, you know, a funny New Year's Eve, like we did probably

one of the more chill things that I've ever participated in,

which is like, we just went bowling for a couple hours.

And it's funny at bowling alleys, you know, if you happen

to be there at midnight on New Year's Eve, most people are not

even paying attention to the time in the in the entire

bowling alley. We're the only group within 20

something lanes that like actually stopped and like was

doing the countdown. And then eventually by, you

know, we started at like 1015 seconds.

By the time we got down to about four or five seconds, you know,

people were catching on like, oh, oh, it's about to happen.

For like central time, midnight or.

Central. Time I didn't make it past the

East Coast. We, we did the ball drop at

11:00 when, when East Coast Times Square did the did the

ball and that was it. And that was there we go.

Yep, it's the new year in America and good enough time for

bed. There you go.

Yeah. You know what?

You bring that up. I've never thought about that

before. Like it's the new year in

America. Yeah, I never looked at it that

way. I always I've always done

Central Standard. Time where you're at?

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I grew up on the East. I've.

I've lived on the East Coast. So, like there was a time in my

life where that was good enough, didn't it?

In in my present East Coast was the new year.

I like that. Well, certainly one of the

things that comes about with the holidays, and I think it's been

brought out maybe by me a number of times over the last month is

like the amount of food and the sweets and all the good things

that we tend to consume over, you know, Christmas, New Year's

kind of time. And so, but I, I'm intrigued

because, you know, we were just chatting at staff meeting today

and, you know, we're setting up some things for the next couple

days and you're like, Oh, well, I, I probably won't, won't be

doing lunch. I'm in the, I'm in the beginning

of a fast. And I found that really

intriguing because recently it's popped up in my purview because

I've always known, hey, man, if, if God prescribes fasting in the

Bible as something that, you know, is good for us spiritually

and otherwise, what are we really getting at here?

And then recently an article popped up in my news feed about

a Nobel Peace, not Peace Prize, Nobel Medicine winning doctor

back in 2016 who won a Nobel Prize for his work on basically

fasting and the benefits of it for for us in our bodies.

Sure. Yeah, No, I and there's there's

a lot of scientific words for autophagy is the like cellular

cleanup kind of getting rid of dead or dead or bad cells.

And you often have to go pretty close to like a 72 hour period

to actually trigger some of these things.

But you, you reach ketosis. That's a, that's a keto diet.

If you've heard that it's like depriving your depriving your

body of, I mean, you can do ketosis, even just depriving

your body of, of carbs. Really, you don't have to.

If you have a protein or fat heavy diet, you can still reach

ketosis, which is, which is fat burning.

But the added spiritual element of it is just is the mental

discipline like God doesn't set us up to fast and just be like,

OK, Yep, go fast and suffer for however long a period of time

you decided to make yourself suffer.

Like that's, that's supposed to be time in, in reflection and

and quiet and intentionality really with with what God has

has blessed us with or, or the even the relationship we have

with God. So that's that's an aspect of

fasting too. And just more modernly, you

can't, you can, you can go about it with just water and nothing

else. I take like salt electrolyte

packets as well. Again, they're not anything to

like trigger insulin or to yeah or to kind of break that fast

state. But it is some things that just

kind of keep your body not hating itself more than it

should. That's a good strategy.

I like that. Well, one of the things too.

So I'm going to give you the the Chris Hartley version of this,

you know, great science, which is basically what I I learned

recently was OK, So when a person is fasting for I can't

remember when it actually really gets going what our market is,

but what happens inside of our bodies, and this is so cool that

God designed it this way. What happens inside of our

bodies is that those kind of oldish 6 cells that are holding

on that create disease, that create problems within our

bodies. What happens when we fast is

that new cells are formed and they literally eat or destroy

those old 6 cells. And so like if if we were

regularly fasting, what would happen is our bodies would

regenerate at better rates, creating an incredible amount of

longevity. So one of the articles I was

reading, it was about the Blue Zone.

If you don't know what the Blue Zone is, the Blue Zone is a part

of the Earth where there has been for long periods of time,

longer life spans. And so within the Blue Zone, you

know, scientists and researchers, doctors, whatever,

they've kind of been looking at this and they're like, how are

they pulling this thing off? Because everybody within the

Blue Zone is they're living longer, healthier lives.

Whereas like, yeah, in the West we're not, we're not able to do

that consistently. Some people do it, but as a

whole, we we're not doing it. And so one of the things that

they found in the Blue Zone is because of religious reasons

across couple probably different faith patterns, these people are

regularly fasting. Well, you put that next to the

science of fasting that we're now aware of, of, oh man, it's

eating the bad cells, it's replacing the sick cells that

create all sorts of problems for us.

And it's replacing them with brand new ones that do not have

these issues. And so since they're regularly

doing that now they're connecting all these things in

the Blue Zone, like longevity of life and healthier bodies,

They're connecting it with fasting.

And I just found that incredibly intriguing.

Yeah, and most of the like, I know some people do intermittent

fasting, which can be a good dietary discipline just to

control your calorie intake really for that.

But most of these like cellular things don't really occur till

till like the 2448 hour, Martin. And even 72 hours is really kind

of that autophagy cellular regeneration thing.

That's where typical like cellular turnover and

replacement is kind of three to five days.

So by doing that with a clean slate in, in fasting, like

that's, that's when that really happens and you're and you're

yeah, kind of going to a clean page with with that.

So yeah, 72 hours, just kind of a clean reset to start the year

after. Yeah, after two weeks of goodies

and whatever and not really not really caring about stuff on

break. Yeah, time to get back to it.

So let me ask you one question before we kind of close the book

on fasting. I think one of the problems that

I have with it, I love the more than anything, more than

anything, even with all the research that's backed up out

there more than anything, I think the spiritual aspect is

incredibly important in fasting. In fact, it should be the reason

why we do it, because otherwise you can create potentially all

sorts of eating disorders for yourself and you know, whatever

that can come with that. But if you focus on the

spiritual aspect of it and say, man, this is my time to lean

solely on God to, to be in prayer intentionally more often,

maybe during mealtimes and that kind of stuff.

So here's my thing. Here's where I have trouble with

fasting. It's the social aspect.

So like, what do you do? OK, so if you're, if you're

going to be in a fast for maybe a number of days, perhaps, what

do you do during mealtimes? How does that work for you?

Yeah, I don't like that's whatever I can, I can sit with

someone. Like we were talking about we

have study days this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, working on

sermon prep and things and we usually figure out what we're

going to do for lunch together. And yeah, like I can, I can sit

around, I can drink other I I will usually drink like coffee

on a fast too. It's also just kind of an

appetite suppressant and and deals with that well.

So yeah, I'll have whatever, I'll have my bottle of water and

cup of coffee and I can still just sit around people eating

food even if I'm even if I'm not.

And that's really like during a fast I found like, yeah, you

gotta keep water around you to keep you full.

Like it's just that's how you fight hunger in that.

So, but I mean, also the spiritual aspect, like if you're

thinking about, if you're thinking about how hungry you

are, that's not that's not very helpful for a fast.

If you're thinking about the right things during a fast, if

you're actually reflecting or or focusing on our true sustainer,

our our spiritual yeah, soul sustainer in, in fasting, that

makes it more tolerable too. So.

By the way, last thing I'll say about this, I love it when

science finally catches up with the Bible.

So God has prescribed this, this fasting for thousands of years.

And all of a sudden, you know, in our modern world, we're like,

Oh, by the way, did you know this is so good for you?

And it, you know, stops disease and all this stuff.

And it's like, hey, look, science finally caught up with

the Bible now. And that's the the other

interesting thing about the Bible is God prescribes certain

things or certain ways that we should live.

And he doesn't necessarily like God in the Bible does not tell

you, tell us the cellular reason why fasting, why he programmed

that for us. Obviously he's aware of that and

he built that into our DNA, but he doesn't describe, you know,

God doesn't describe that in the Bible.

He's just asking us to be faithful to the practice.

And then lo and behold, modern day, we realize, oh, that that's

one of the reasons why God has prescribed this to us beyond

even a spiritual thing. Like he wants us to live

healthy, well balanced lives and he knows this is part of it.

So anyway, I just I love it when science finally catches up to

the Bible and it's almost like one of those I told you so

things. But you know, you try not to say

that too much. At least I try not to.

It's great. No, those glimpses that we get

where OK, yeah, science affirms God's design for things like,

OK, here's the here's the real life reason for for this rather

than, I mean, when it was about the Old Testament discipline of

it, that was just kind of taking it on faith in a in a way.

And that's what we talked about in the sermon yesterday.

Like it's it's kind of that parental, at least in the Old

Testament. It was because I told you so,

like, right. Yeah.

And now we have the actual, yeah, scientific markers for how

that's helpful and the actual benefits that yeah, God had in

my it's not like God discovered. Oh yeah.

Also like, yeah, you should fast.

Oh, and also it's helpful for this.

No, that was definitely the reason behind it.

He just he didn't need to explain all of that.

Right. He chose not to.

And now we caught up to why he chose to do that.

And we should all rejoice that we know the why.

Yeah. Yeah, Yep.

So yesterday, first Sunday in the new year as well, we are

working through the the four FS that we're going to focus on in

2026 and beyond as a, as a church community here, faith,

family, fitness and finances and just dig into the biblical roots

of and, and those are kind of ordered in, in priority as as

well because it should your personal faith, even more so

than any of your personal relationships, like your

relationship with God is first and foremost family.

Again, kind of like, yes, biological flesh and blood

family, but also those closest to you, like your, your circle.

Even Jesus in his ministry time, yes, like he had, he had mother

and, and brothers, but the, the, the, he had a group of like 3

disciples that were closest to him really like that was more

aptly his family. And then and then fitness being

like, of course, physical fitness, but also like emotional

and mental fitness. The, the Bible talks about the

body being a temple. And that's not, again, that's

not just our physical beings. That's, that's the things that

inform our thoughts, our our emotions, how we, how we feel

and interact with things and then finances earthly resources.

We brought it up a bunch because it's true.

Jesus taught on money in like 40% of his his teachings

thereabouts. More than 1/3 of of the time

that he was talking, he was talking about how to manage

earthly resources, which again are really just the things that

God has given us to steward in in our time here on earth.

So that's where we're heading the next 4 weeks.

Yesterday I got us into faith and remember these four these 4

aspects are really in the in the bigger vision of our purpose as

a Church of knowing Jesus and making him known.

We think there are aspects of each of these that are important

for us knowing Jesus in our in our faith, but also sharing that

faith with other, making that faith known to others.

We had those those two aspects covered yesterday, mostly in

Hebrews 11. I jumped around a little bit to

to different parts of the New Testament and and a little bit

in the the Old Testament to Matthew, Matthew 5, Jesus

preaching on faith and James writing about faith by showing

faith by our works and and things as belief is brought.

Faith is brought about by action, by belief plus action

is, is where our faith is really put and and ultimately

reinforced. Our faith is reinforced by the

works of Jesus. Like that's what that's what

they're informed and, and reinforced by.

So we'll be in Hebrews 11 today. Any just thoughts, reflections

from yesterday before we dive in.

Otherwise, we can review the text, and we're going to dive a

little deeper into Hebrews 11 as well.

Yeah. But well, one of the things I

wanted to just point out that I thought just a wonderful job on

was like, I think sometimes we use the words I believe in and I

have faith in, we use those things interchangeably.

But I don't think those words are as interchangeable as we

think. And so I loved how you kind of

broke that down yesterday. And hey, this is the definition

of belief and this is how we interact with that.

This is what faith looks like. This is how we interact with

that. Picking up specifically on, you

know, what beliefs can and should be flexible because as

new information comes that should inform what I believe is

true, right? And so I think there's a lot of

inflexibility in our society today just in terms of, oh, no,

you have to be in this camp this way.

You have to think this way and you have to accept the entire

doctrine of this side. You could be talking politics,

you could be talking any number of topics.

But you know, we're kind of getting put in a corner of like,

well, no, you have to accept the entire doctrine of this thing

and, and we don't allow new information to help shape our

what we believe is true. And I think that's problematic.

And so I know you didn't get into all of that yesterday, but

I just, I like the fact that you describe the difference between

the two and I thought that was really helpful.

Because even well, thank you for that, that compliment, because I

think there's a difference even when we think about Jesus in the

Bible and you touched on it in in some of the advent messages

as well. If you if it, what do you

believe about Jesus right. If if you believe that he is

good, loving Savior, friend, OK, that's going to then inform how

you act in faith for him, right. If you if you believe that God

Jesus is with this grumpy old man looking for you to mess up,

like right, that's that's going to inform the actions you take

in faith. So even even your belief about

Jesus, who he is can change. It shouldn't change like and

that's what we're sorry. Now I'm down tripping over

myself, but like we're trying to deepen our understanding, right,

of our, our belief of who Jesus is.

That's, that's what we do at church, right?

That's as, as we dig into scripture, we're trying to fill

in those gaps, right? We're trying to get all the

information, the characteristics, the, the

understanding of who Jesus is, right?

So then we can act truly purely in faith in, in, in the

Christian life, right? And that's why, that's why, you

know, there's so many reasons, you know, for the person who's

taken this 70 whatever hours it takes to read the Bible.

It's why, like we keep on rereading it because A, God's

word is living and active, but B, the deeper I understand the

character of God, the more I can just infiltrate that reality

into the things that I believe are true about this world and

about life thereafter. That informs then as you talk

about faith. Well, faith is man, how am I

moving? How am I using what I believe

into my actions? And I just, again, love the way

you described that thought. That was really spot on.

Thanks. Yeah, thank you.

So we are in Hebrews 11. I'm not going to spend a whole

lot of time I, I don't think on the first kind of 12/13 verses

that I worked through yesterday. That message is is posted

earlier on the same podcast feed, the ERC Sunday's podcast

feed. We'll kind of run through these

first 11 verses, but there's a lot more examples of of kind of

the old faith that the writer of Hebrews talks about in some of

the Old Testament lives. And really the the Testament

that's it's an appropriate word of the testament, the testimony

of God's faithfulness that was worked out in.

And again, these aren't just characters in a story.

This is a history of people's lives and God's faithfulness in

their lives. That's what the Old Testament is

for us. So we'll kind of Sprint through

Hebrews 11 if there's anything else we want to touch on from

yesterday. But I'd like to get into some

more of these examples of faith. So simply, and this is this is

actually I I like this version. The the CSV faith is the

substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

That's that differs a little bit from the ESV that the oh gosh, I

don't have it called up in front of me.

I had the I had the CSV. Faith is confidence in what we

hope for assurance about things we do not see is, is that yes,

and so faith, the substance of things hope.

I I I like, I like the thought of that too, that that it's

tangible. It's this is this is how it

looks right. If belief, if belief plus

actions is is faith like that's that's what it looks like, then

that's what it what does it look like to believe in Jesus?

That's what I think that's what James is right.

Let me, let me show you what a life, what it looks like to live

a life for Jesus. Things hoped for, things not

seen. I, I think that is an important

aspect of faith too. I think, I think there has to be

a little bit of mystery. I, I think belief again, is kind

of in those tangible, measurable, logical things.

I I think faith there has to be an element of I don't, I don't

have this figured out and there's a good chance I might

not know like for sure this thing.

And there's plenty of things in the Bible, God, God writes about

marvelous, marvelous mystery of things, even even in marriage.

And those of you who are married, you don't understand

that there's things that you maybe however long you've been

married, you still just don't understand about your spouse.

You would open up that can, man, is that what we're doing not.

Saying we have to answer it right now, but I, I, it's, there

are certain life events and, and for me, marriage and parenting

are, are the biggest ones. But like there are aspects of

God that I didn't understand very well until I was married,

until I was a parent. And I'm not saying you have to

be a parent or be married to understand those aspects of God,

but it's just funny to me how how the writers, how God

inspired these people to write his words down.

And then when you're in the middle of it like, Oh yeah, no,

I get that. I I get how I love this person

and they also there are just a few specific ways that they are

a mystery to me and when will. You said that so nicely.

I was going to say and Lord, there are ways that even though

I love this person more than anybody else on the planet, they

drive me mad, you know, and and so that would be the less kind

way of saying it, but I but it's true.

And, and I, and I know that about me too, Like I, I am

probably a madding person sometimes to my spouse or my

kids, yet they still love me. And that reflects the, you know,

on some small level, it reflects the love of God despite our

flaws. Yeah, so I I talked and and

taught about some of the examples through the 1st 1213

verses of Hebrews 11 referencing even starting at creation.

And I actually love that it starts at creation.

And shouldn't it? And it should because we weren't

there. And it takes, it takes some

faith to believe in creation, right?

The, the thing I didn't touch on yesterday, it's an interesting

question, I think, can you have, can you have faith in something

that isn't real? And I think that's one of the

distinctions between belief and, and faith too.

Cause OK, classic example, do you do you believe in ghosts?

Like, OK, I see. OK, I think I know.

Can like you can maybe believe in ghosts, but that can also

maybe be disproven. I don't know if you can.

Can you have faith in ghosts? Oh, 'cause there would be some

level of assurance that because I believe that there are ghosts,

therefore this thing is going to happen, right?

And I don't I don't know that you can make that connection.

Right, so that would be the answer.

Can you have faith in something that isn't real like.

Unicorns, right? Yeah.

Yeah, sure. Leprechauns.

You know, Bigfoot. Bigfoot.

Yeah. What?

No. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

We didn't. I'm kidding.

We're not going to touch on the big, the big one, kid friendly,

so we're not going to let anything out of the bag.

But yeah, so just the faith of Noah is something I keyed on

yesterday too. And I, I, I don't think I drew

it out in as many words what I didn't say in the example of

Noah and it and I'm not, I'm not saying you have to read it this

way. They're, they're very much could

have been a very clear, very direct, audible voice of God.

Noah. This is how the next 100 years

are going to play out. This is how I need you to do it.

This is what I need to there. There could have been it's not

written in the same direct way that the burning Bush is in

Moses. And that's where I let my mind

run a little bit of, of this could have been just a whisper.

This could have been an inkling. This could have been a, a

feeling, a prodding of God of the Holy Spirit in Noah's life

that eventually bloomed and, and grew and manifested into, into

full blown faith. I only I brought that up because

us today especially, I think we need to hear and understand the

plan that God has for for you or the the direction that God has

for your life or or even the actions that he has for you to

take with your belief in faith. You're mostly not going to get

the bullhorn Sally, go do this right.

Like that's that's that's not going to have.

I think it's a lot closer to the Noah experience of unfamiliar

with God. I know his voice, this leading,

this ink. I'm convicted that this is how

he would have me act and proceed in this situation.

I think very rarely we're going to have a Moses burning Bush

moment directing us of how to act in faith.

Yeah, I'm, I'm on board with with that.

You know, it's, it's interesting because the burning Bush, we,

we, I, I really believe, and I don't have regrets, but I really

believe we could have spent several weeks just on that, just

on that one text talking about the characteristics and the

aspects of God and how he chooses to present himself and

all these kinds of things. And, you know, but so for

example, you know, if you go back to Genesis 6, yeah, we do

not have a burning Bush moment. You know, we're looking at it

and it it says, oh gosh, where are we?

611 the earth was corrupt in God's sight, etcetera, etcetera.

Verse 13 and God said to Noah, Now what does God said to Noah

mean? Right?

You know, because that does not equate to the burning Bush.

That does not equate to this mind blowing moment of God

showing up in your face. No, like, you know, because and

God said to the prophet, boom, boom, boom again, and all these

examples of God said to so and so we don't have these big

stories like that. It it could be that still we

talk about a still small voice, how God just kind of moves

quietly in our hearts and our minds.

There's nothing here to indicate in Genesis 6 that it was

anything other than that. So, yeah, to draw out the idea

that, and I love it. I, I actually like I was

giggling in my chair. Imagine as you were describing

it, like Noah going home, be like, oh, hey, by the way,

honey, I'm going to quit my full time job because I got to build

this giant boat. And like, you know, the insanity

and the madness of that moment. And but, but God said, but God

said. And so, yeah, there's, there's

there's an element of faith there that that is nearly

immeasurable. It's a level of trust that I

think rarely do we allow people like we give to people like I, I

trust and I have faith in a very small number of people in my

life to do the big important things, to be there when it

really matters. And so like I just, yeah, I'm

losing my words, but. Well, the other part of it for

me is that still small voice is not less significant than the

like it's still God said, right? It's it's it's maybe not

presented in the same spectacular grandeur as as the

burning Bush, but the fact that God is speaking and leading is

not less significant because it's not a burning Bush, right?

So I don't, and again, I don't think we need to shape belief or

doctrine or theology on how clear God's audible voice was to

Noah. That's that's, I'm not trying to

get into that debate. I did just in my experience, and

I think most of you listening, the leading of God in your life

hasn't been burning Bush moments.

It's been still small voice moments.

And that's not less significant. That's that's still God's

leading. That's still God's voice.

We just have to do a lot better job of listening in that

scenario. I think we.

Just talked about two weeks. Ago, right?

We can't. We can't ignore.

It's hard to ignore the burning Bush.

It's easier to ignore the still small voice.

So well and thematically, even with the burning Bush and faith,

what do we see thematically in the burning Bush?

What we see is we see Moses turning aside to something

unusual, something that doesn't make sense and yeah, it doesn't

fit in. And so in the same way, God

oftentimes gets our attention for things that are not fitting

in the normal rhythm of our life, whether that's tragic,

whether that's something spectacular, whatever.

God has a way of getting our attention through unusual

moments and things that are not fitting in.

And so same thing with that like, and, and I mean, how else

is he going to get our attention?

You know, I talked about it two weeks ago with like screw tape,

the senior devil in CS Lewis's book.

Like, he's just trying to keep you busy.

And if he can keep you busy, well, what, what distracts me

from the normal busy check in the box is something unusual.

And God does the unusual in our lives quietly sometimes, but it

can produce faith if we listen and we notice it.

And so I think that's just it's a spot on way to think about it.

Yeah, Yep. The other examples we talked

about Noah and briefly referenced Abraham and and Sarah

kind of these pillars of the like this is the establishment

of the people of Israel, right of of God's people verse 1617.

I'm going to I'm going to jump ahead to here 17 by faith

Abraham, when God tested him offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

This is if you haven't read it, there's a lot of crazy stories

in the Bible. Well, crazy historical accounts

in the Bible, but this is wild. Hebrews 11/17 He who had

embraced the promises that mainly the promises God had told

Abraham what your, your descendants will outnumber the

grains of sand and the stars in the sky, right?

And it took that old age, what, like 120, they finally actually

had a kid. They have the one first born,

Isaac. And now God's taking the promise

away, apparently, right? The writer of Hebrews, though,

even though God had said to him it is through Isaac that your

offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could

even raise the dead. And so in a manner of speaking,

he did receive Isaac back from death.

That's wild. Isn't that great?

And that's not in the Genesis reading of of that story, but to

understand the posture of Abraham, that complete

submission, faith, God and control humility like like that,

that OK, God said it was going to be through Isaac, but he's

saying I need to sacrifice Isaac, which again is there's a

lot of metaphors in this that sacrificing would also be in in

AI think in a parental manner of speaking.

God, this is he's yours like, and the same way of our earthly

resource, not the children are resources, but like we are the

caretakers on earth for our children.

They're ultimately Gods, right? So for him to go through with

that sacrifice of saying, Oh God, what you would have me do,

He's yours. So to to get to the point of

even unto death and God, if you're going to work this out,

you're going to bring him back from that.

He had already resigned Isaac to being dead and God and his great

power and wisdom bringing him back from the dead to still

fulfill this promise. Jesus picture there too, right,

like all the thing Howard, how are we going to be reconciled

with God through death? But we we can't die our own

death. It has to be the death of a

perfect son. But if death could defeat him,

that doesn't really work because then if we have so he has to be

brought back to life so we have new life in him.

Like it's all, it's all there. Isn't that amazing?

And you know, for, for Abraham's sake, I cannot imagine the

emotional hardship he went through.

Sure, Abraham had enough faith that God was going to work out

his plan no matter what the circumstances.

So we have that level of faith. But as a parent, as a parent, as

as, as you know, you, you've waited for this young man to be

your son your entire life. And as a parent, I, that's a

thing. I don't know how, I don't know

how he had the guts to do it. And that's, and that's why this

is the maybe greatest test of faith in all of human history is

because you can't take away the human emotional love element of

having a child and saying, OK, I believe that this God is all

powerful and all sovereign, all purposeful, and he's going to

make something work. I can, I can have faith in that.

But really, my son, are you kidding me?

And and so I mean, man, the Lord bless Abraham because what an

incredible test that I think I who could even pass that test,

you know, I mean, Abraham, like, how did he even do it?

This, this great faith in, in God speaking to him.

And sure, I get that, but like I, I cannot imagine.

And then, as you stated, you put that you move that forward to

God the Father in Jesus. And I just, it is irreconcilable

in my head how that is possible to give up somebody that you

love like that for people who hate you.

I just, I cannot reconcile that in my head how that's possible.

But that's the beauty of the gospel, is it not?

That God, even while we were still enemies, gave his one and

only son for us. And I just, if that doesn't ring

something in your heart, I don't know what will.

Yeah. And that's really the punchline

of it, right, Is how could, how could God ask Abraham to do

that? Well, Fast forward a few

thousand years. God did that.

Like God, God is not God is Abraham, but like it, God's in

the Abraham role and Jesus is in the Isaac role.

And that's how the people are saved, right?

Yep, righteousness imputed to sinners who have no business

having it. But here we are, saved by grace.

Praise the Lord. That is the gospel, and it's a

it's a beautiful thing to receive in your heart and in

your head. Yeah, Yep.

Moving on, verse, verse 21 in Hebrews 11 by faith, Jacob when

he was dying. So this is so Isaac had sons

Jacob and Esau, right? Jacob when he was dying blessed

each of Joseph's sons. So again Joseph 1212 born,

worshipped as he leaned on top of his staff.

We see from Jacob by faith, Joseph, when his end was near,

spoke about the exodus of Israelites from Egypt and gave

instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

And then we we jump forward to Moses by faith.

Moses parents hid him for three months after he was born because

they saw he was no ordinary child.

They were not afraid of the King's edict by faith.

Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son

of Pharaoh's daughter. Like that was the only thing

that was protecting him, right? Was kind of the guys that he was

part of the Egyptian family. And that's that's crazy to me

because we talked about it a little bit during the Moses

series, but man, Moses had it all.

He had this amazing lifestyle. He had everything that a human

being at that point in history could ever desire or want.

And he threw it away. He threw it all away.

I don't think that's a decision that he made lightly.

And when we say, oh jeez, why did it take him 40 years to

finally have enough? Well, that's why.

I mean, he had to have been battling the human element of if

I just say nothing, I can live my days as rich and prosperous

and powerful. But at some point, like he

refused to keep selling out. By faith, you could say Moses

refused to sell out and allow his people to continue to be

mistreated that way. So that's a big leap of faith.

Oh, yeah. He he could have been should

have been killed nearly on the spot when he went against

Pharaoh and his army. This by faith Joseph, when his

end was near, spoke about the exodus of Israelites from Egypt

and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

That's an interesting little quirk that do you know?

Do you know what that is? Please do tell.

OK, so when Joseph died, he was never buried, his coffin laid

above the ground for 400 years or so, the time of the the

Hebrew slavery, right till it was taken back to Canaan.

It was a silent witness. This is this is from the

enduring word commentary. It was a silent witness all

those years that Israel was going back to the promised land,

just as God had said, Joseph gave this instruction, no, I'm

going to be buried in the land that God has given to us, not

this foreign land. Again, a lot of this, this exile

not in our already, not yet in our home sort of sort of stuff,

right? We see these themes woven

through the Bible. So that was by faith.

And what a crazy prophecy that is.

You're on your deathbed. And in fact, you're one of the

most powerful people in the country you live in.

And you're like, yeah, but guess what's going to happen?

And of course, you know, I just the prophecies that are spoken

of thus says the Lord, this is what's going to happen.

It is remarkable in how a person can look at that and go, yeah,

but it is shocking to me how just thick headed we can be when

there's example after example after example of God saying, all

right, this is what I'm going to do.

And then years down the road, decades, whatever, he does it.

And you're like, yeah, I don't know, but maybe that's a

coincidence. Oh, come on.

You know, we, we get so blinded by our own preconceived ideas.

That we just fail to see the most clear writing on the wall.

And I'm, I can't help but thinking about this weird moment

in Daniel where the hand writes on the wall.

And that's what is that Daniel Chapter 7 or 6 anyway.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

But yeah, the writing on the wall, that's where that phrase

comes from. And so I just it, it baffles me

sometimes. Again, as a perfectly logical,

clear thinker who again, I need to be intellectually, I need to

be intellectually like it has to make sense.

I cannot just in blind faith, quote UN quote.

I'm, I've never been built that way.

I'm a bit of a cynic. I'm a bit of a doubter.

But the things that the Bible prescribes and says and and thus

says the Lord and then it comes true.

And like, there is just no other faith on the planet that is

built around the truth the way that Christianity is.

It's really remarkable. Yeah, very cool.

By faith, Moses's parents hit him for three months for they

were not afraid of the King's edict.

We see this kind of power struggle between man and God.

And this is where some of those the New Testament passages of

like submit to earthly rulers as as in the Lord.

Well, when earthly rulers conflict with God's precepts,

God still wins, right? And we see that in in the Moses

passage here. So it was, it's still, it was

still awkward. It was still by faith they had,

they had to defy the earthly kings order and that could have

come with unjust punishment. But it could have come with

punishment, right? So they were not afraid of the

King's command. Faith gave Moses parents the

courage to obey God instead of man.

And that faith passes down. 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. By faith, he, he forsook Egypt.

He left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, for he

endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Again, Moses was, he had his priorities, right?

He, he was living for God, not for man, right.

Moses showed faith when he led Israel, keeping the Passover,

the sprinkling of of blood with the warning of of the first born

and that first Passover there. So we we see this establishment

down from where we're going to get into this sort of

generational inheritance with with family this next week,

right. That's the Old Testament, that's

the chronicle of God's faithfulness through his people

through generations. That's that's what's the old,

the Old Testament is right? Yeah, well, and I'll just give

you the preview. Thematically, the greatest

inheritance you can give your family is faith, right?

And so we see these, we see these people of of old as, as we

might say, just defying all the odds, defying anything that

makes sense in favor of trusting God beyond their circumstances.

And so I mean, what greater gift, Oh gosh, I'll give too

much of A preview, but what greater gift can we give our

family, our kids, you know, our friends, Then the true visual

sign that like, you know what, this shouldn't work, but this is

how God is leading me. And so here we are.

I think there's something remarkable about living it out

in that way and showing that amount of trust.

And God just does not fail when we go out on a limb.

He, I mean, he just, he, he always fulfills it.

He always keeps his promises. And so you know, and, and I'll

say this to whoever is listening, if you are feeling

poked and prodded by God, which I know what that's like, I won't

get into any stories, but I know what that's like.

If you're feeling poked and prodded by God, I want to

encourage you step out in faith on whatever that prodding is,

because he will not fail you. And whatever you've imagined as

the, as the end game of you stepping out in faith, both good

or bad, I will tell you, you will be blown away by the

creativity in the faithfulness of God in whatever that turns

out to be. It is.

Again, it's just, it's fascinating and it is wholly

consistent. And you said up the next few

verses kind of perfectly here actually, Verse 30 in Hebrews 11

is by faith. The walls of Jericho fell down

after they were encircled for seven days.

Verse 31, by faith. Rahab did not perish with those

who did not believe. She was, she was a Jericho

citizen. She was a Canaanite, right?

And she, she protected the spies, defying, she was an enemy

of God to it. So you, you talked about OK,

neighbors, family, generational inheritance.

No, this faith is also for our enemies as shown in in the Old

Testament. And so she was facing immense

persecution then, right? She, she was literally leaving

this evil life behind. And she and she had to make that

decision in a moment. Is this God is is this does he

have the power? She would have heard the stories

of the crossing of the Red Sea and the and the all of that she

had to make a decision. OK, this is what God has in

store. Do I act out in faith and leave

this old evil life behind right. That's us.

That's each and every one of us. And to your point, God, God

didn't fall through right? His his plans did not fall apart

for her, that she did not perish with those who did not believe,

when she received the spies with peace.

Well, in, you know, going back to the belief in the faith

conversation or the definitions there in man, she believed all

of the probably rumors, stories, whatever that she heard about.

Oh my gosh, this people group is coming.

And here's how their God has walked them right out of slavery

into again, you're talking about word of mouth.

You're talking about regional geopolitical relations and we're

talking about the word getting out that this people group has

been, has done the impossible because their God is with them.

And so she had to measure out. She had to weigh, OK, if I

believe that story, if I believe everything I've heard about what

their God is doing amongst them, I will therefore act in faith

and go against my entire society, my entire culture,

everything I've ever known and lived through by faith.

I'm going to defy all of that because I believe that these

accounts of this God are true. And that's a really remarkable

thing. That's that's again, it's kind

of it's it's crazy town to be like, I can't believe she did

that. And it and again, wrap your head

around the story and you'll see how just immensely difficult

that must have been for her. But by faith, she defies her

culture and defies everything she's ever known.

It is. That is a hero of faith right

there. And it was and the and so like

that's some of the verbiage used in this passage.

The writer of Hebrews at this point feels like he's getting

somewhat long winded. He goes and says and what more

shall I say? Time would fail me to tell if

Gideon and Barack and Samson and and Jpath and and also of David

and Samuel and the prophets. He eventually like the list runs

out and he's just and all the rest of the province and the and

those guys. Gideon boldly destroyed idols

and was mightily used of God to defeat the army of Midianites.

Barack led the people of Israel in a dramatic victory over the

Canaanites in Judges 4. Samson was used mightily to

defeat the Philistines. Jay path used to defeat the

Ammonites and David, of course, the king of Israel, a remarkable

man of faith who also failed in right when and will he he he

fell to temptation. It wasn't, it wasn't his faith

wavered as as ours can. There is still notable areas of

failure in their lives, but God didn't change throughout those

circumstances. And often I think there's a,

there's somewhat a two way. Well, it's, it's like the

spoiler God wins sort of thing, right?

There's a there's a there's a moment I'm just raving about the

David movie. I'm sorry.

You're going to you're going to get sick of me say saying it.

But we went inside again over over break.

And I just think it's it's great the the telling of the whole

story of David. There's a scene when the

Philistines come back and like, like David has been run out of

town and Saul and Saul is also going crazy and isn't going to

meet the Philistines in, in battle Jonathan and the faith of

Jonathan. I also think is something I, I

got to find some, someone has to have written a good book on

Jonathan and about his, his example of humility, because he

should have been the king, right?

He, he was the heir to the throne and he was totally OK

with David being the heir to the throne.

So that act of humility is crazy in and of itself.

But there's a there's a scene in the movie now the Philistine

king is being all, hey, we're going to come beat you up armies

10 times your size. Of course, of course we're going

to win. And Jonathan's just like, hey,

if you defeat us today, my father, my father's Kingdom

parishes, it's God's will that, that David's going to be king.

If we defeat you, it'll be, Yeah, you're right.

The odds are stacked against us. It's 12:50.

So of course it'll be by God's provision that we win.

Either way. Either David's on the throne or

our God's strength is proved. Either way, you lose.

Either way, God wins. Man, you know, you hear somebody

talk like that and you're like, I don't know what to do with

this. Like, yeah, how do, how do I?

The only thing you can do at that point from the Philistine

Army's, you know, perspective is you're like, you know what,

we're just going to shut these guys up.

And it obviously fails miserably, historically

speaking. And there we are.

God. God always fulfills his

promises. And now, OK, now you've talked

about that movie enough. Then I'm like, now I got to go.

Now I got to. Go see it.

Not even I would just go see it. Not not even like my kids

enjoyed it. I would just go see it again.

I would it. It was it was that captivating.

They do have. If you've ever looked up stuff

by Mark Batterson, he's I think Capital City Church, National

Church. He's he's got a big church in

Washington, DC and read several of his books.

He's got some good books on prayer and fasting and rest,

which is which is good. But anyway, he was there like

theological consultant on things.

And I, I really think it is pretty really true to the

biblical narrative and a lot of things in there.

But that scene is really capturing to me for faith.

Because this next kind of sequence in this Hebrews 11

passage after he lifts off lists off Gideon and Barack and Samson

and all, and all these guys. There's kind of this contrast

verse 33, all these guys who through faith conquered

kingdoms. And then he lists off all these

kind of sort of victorious actions way that way that they

acted out a winning faith. But then you get down to to

verse 35, there were others who were tortured, refusing to be

released. Some face jeers and flogging and

even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by

stoning. Like he's very clearly pointing

out faith isn't always glamorous.

It's it's it's very much that Paulian attitude of to live is

Christ, to die is gain, right? And.

I think you have to be. I think you have to be real and

you have to be authentic about when it doesn't quote UN quote,

work out in your favor. You know, man, not everybody

gets to take the sling in the stone and defeat the giant,

right? Not that's not everybody's

story. Some of us lose our lives, you

know, think about, Oh my goodness, the, the millions of

Christians who have died at the hands of violent people who

oppose them simply because of their faith.

And, you know, you might feel downcast about that or you might

feel downcast about the fact that, man, I, I've been praying

for a month. I've been, I've been, you know,

just sweating in prayer for this thing.

And it seems like God said no. And so you might, you might feel

the tension of that, but we have to be, we have to be realistic.

And I love that part, you know, that, that realism within

Hebrews 11. You know, you get all these, you

get all pumped up, you're all excited.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, you know, And then he's like, yeah.

But sometimes it, it won't work out, at least in terms of how

you thought. Yeah, how we designed it.

But does it not? But it.

But it's pointed out right here. So that they might rise again to

a better life right. It's what you just said like,

hey, if it doesn't work out here, I win anyway.

So do your worst. And I think that's what we get

to say to Satan to a world that would accuse and criticize and

and try and and try and ruin us. Do your worst.

Go ahead. I'm going to I'm going to win

either way. And it, and I and I do think

Christians, especially in the midst of trials, we have to

maintain that, that steadfast, hard attitude of, of doing that

because sometimes I think we get into Christianity and we're

like, oh, it's all soft and lovey and all this kind of

stuff. No, there's a hard edge to

Christianity. And that hard edge is a

stubbornness that that says just that.

Do your worst. I'm moving on to a better life.

Even if you think you won, you can't win.

And that's what we get to because of Jesus Christ.

That's what we get to say to Satan when he accuses us.

Yeah, tell, tell me all the worst things I've ever done.

Guess what? It you're right, I have done

those things. And by the way, you forgot about

20 other things I did. So check your list again, Satan.

But it doesn't matter because I've got Jesus Christ on my side

who has invited me home. And so, yeah, you have to have a

hard edge to it as well. You have to have a hard edge.

I love that posture of humility that you point out that we're

we're not all going to be in the David position of defeating

Goliath. That faith isn't always it's

it's much more often probably going to be a humble daily

obedience. Kind of the small steps I was

talking, I was talking about yesterday, not the big momentous

jumping out of a plane sort of faith.

It's it's in the smaller moments because that that daily act of

humility. There's a lyric in for his

glory. Am I good?

We we sing that new age hymn often.

The final verse is would I gladly be made nothing that

Christ would be made more. It's not it's still not about us

that our our faith even isn't about us.

It's it's fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector, the

object of our faith, right. So it's it's still not about our

did we defeat Goliath because because David didn't even really

defeat Goliath, right? It was it, it, it was by God's

power. So embracing that position of

humility, I think is really the first key to entering into a

meaningful faith that that's where it's at.

Jovi Martin I, I saw a clip from him this past week.

He warned kind of referencing that that Matthew five passage

that that I referenced at the end of in my kind of benediction

yesterday. Blessed are the porn spirit that

the most Joey Martin. I can't I'll have to link the

clip or or find it somewhere, but he he weren't the most

dangerous thing for a Christian faith are the words I got this

for for us to have the arrogance of I can sort this out for

myself. No, Jesus first words were

blessed are the porn spirit. Blessed are those that that have

been humbled to the point of realizing I don't got this.

This isn't me. That's where we enter into

faith. Amen.

Well said. Yeah, you're spot on.

I have nothing to add, Sir. OK, well, we just, we hustled

through about 40 verses worth of Hebrews.

Thanks for. Yeah.

Here, there, there we are. Thanks for hanging with us.

Church. Yeah, I just, I don't, I don't

always have words for it, but it's really quite surreal to, to

serve and lead and be a part of this church community, how God's

moving in, in lives in our church, in this community, how

he, how he strengthened families, how he's healed

relationships. And I know I don't want to say

that if you're not in that place of reconciliation and healing in

your specific circumstance, I don't want to say that as you're

doing less than, but I am saying that he is moving in those ways.

He has healed situations and and and sins and hurts in our own

church, in our own community. I know we don't always see it.

We don't always broadcast it, but your struggle, your, your

whatever affliction, things that are affecting or or disparaging

your life, you are not alone. We are in community together.

We, we all have hurts and struggles and God is reconciling

and healing many, many of these situations.

He can do the same for you. We're going to do it together in

community. So thanks for being a part of

it, taking some of this in, share it with a friend or or

family member. We're working through the the

other 3 apps the rest of this month and we really believe this

is something that will spur us on as we seek His Kingdom first.

So have a blessed week, Church.