in these six verses. I don't know how long we'll spend here. Probably won't be three years, but it'd be very easy. Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. Is everybody there? Okay, sounds like some are. Still see a few pages turning. I'll give you just a moment. So last week, I challenged each one of you to see if we could say this verse without reading it from our Bibles. Let's see how we did. Everybody look up at me. Hebrews chapter 11, verse one, it says. A few of you did it, Amy, and most of you. That's awesome. I wonder what it says now, Faith. Do you think it's a continuation of chapter 10? I would say that it is. We're gonna look at that too, but not today. But we will, we're gonna make it a goal. We're gonna get down to maybe verse two or three even without looking down at our Bibles. Verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. What if that means they obtained a good report card? It's gotta mean something. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified of his gifts, and by it he'd been dead, yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him, For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this time together and for this day that you've given us, that you've blessed us with. And God, we feel so honored to be in your presence this morning, Lord, to be in this sanctuary, God, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, most of all, Holy Spirit, that you live inside of us. And it's amazing to me how that all of our spirits can come together as one and combine together in unity, Lord, only because of you and through you. God, I thank you and I praise you for that, Lord. And God, I thank you that you have delivered your word to us that, God, we have it in our hands and our disposal. And God, I pray for the hearts of each one that are here this morning. May you touch them as you see needed. Lord, rather it be through me or something that's already been spoken or said, Holy Spirit, work through the hearts of each one. And Father, I ask that you use me as you see fit. Holy Spirit, I need you, I can do nothing without you. This is your work, God, this is your message, Jesus, and I pray for your power and your presence and your unction this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen. Now last week, I barely got through the interview, but just about the first third of my introduction. So this week I have a real intention to get through this and I move some of my introduction down through the actual message and I spent a little bit of time last week in telling you some things that faith is not. A lot of things we think that faith is and they're not. I read an example in a book, one that I recommend you buy and read. It's called Faith Crisis. I had it, I let somebody borrow it, and I don't know who I let borrow it. Apparently I forgot who they got it from. So I'm gonna get me another copy. But I found some preview pages of it online. I knew I'd read some of these things, but one of the examples he gave is that a couple in a church wrote a $2,000 check to the church to benefit some kind of offering or something they were taking up, and their thought was, well, God will just miraculously bless us and honor this check we've written and put $2,000 in our account. Well, the church cashed the check, and guess what? It bounced. They didn't have $2,000 there, and they came to them and said, here, you wrote us this check. What happened? They said, well, we just thought God would put it in our account. We wrote it in good faith. Well, I tell you what, I'm gonna buy a car off of some of you and I'm gonna write you a check in good faith and you will receive it, right? Well see, that's not faith. Faith is something that you can almost see and touch in your heart, it's as though it's there. Let me say this real quickly and we'll get into the message. Understand, when it comes to having faith in God, it must line up with his word. It must be what his word says, otherwise it's not faith, it's superstition. We all have faith in something. If you remember last week, I mentioned you had faith in a car. For those of you that drive a Ford, you have more faith than I do. You wouldn't be in it. You had faith that that pew was gonna hold you when you sat down in it. I've seen people have faith in chairs and they should not have. I've seen all examples in the military, oftentimes. I never was in the military, but I've heard it said that you have faith in your brother beside of you, or sister, most of the time in combat, usually gonna be your brother. And you have faith in them to have your back, and they have faith in you that you have their back. But the bottom line is, sometimes, or some things we put faith in, we cannot be 100% sure that it's gonna come through. Even though I know in a foxhole, as I said, I've never been there. No doubt, they've got faith in each other, but that buddy cannot guarantee that he will be there no matter what. My God can guarantee that, and he can back it up. No matter what vehicle you drive, no matter how many miles it's on, you can't guarantee that it's gonna work. My aunt and uncle went and bought a Toyota Camry years ago. She prayed for it, cried for it, begged for it, pleaded for it, and he finally said, fine, I'll get you your Toyota. And they went and got it. The salesman was on his way to the gas station to fill it up with gas, and it blew up before he could get to the gas station. They walked out of the dealership. So you see, there's a lot of things we put faith in, you trust in, but you can't be 100% sure that it'll come through. No matter what. Now, preach to you on some things about faith. And oftentimes we pray for things in our life and we wonder if God will answer our prayers. and you should ask God for things. I've still yet, I run into people all the time that says, well, you shouldn't question God, why? And I'm so, I try to be respectful but quick to tell people, yeah, you can question God, why? Jesus did. You're in pretty good company. But when we get in trouble is when we question God's solitary. We question God, like, God, what do you think you're doing? That's not a wise prayer, by the way. That is where we get in trouble questioning God why. There's nothing wrong with asking God why because how else are you gonna learn? But we ask God for things and we wonder, is he going to answer this? And sometimes we pray for God to heal people. We pray for a job. We pray for help in doing something. I mean, I can sit here and list things on and on and on to know him. And we want to have faith and we want to believe that he's going to do it and he'll answer our prayers. But in the back of my mind, we're thinking, if he does it, how am I going to explain it to people? What am I going to say? Well, to say, well, it just wasn't God's will. I've heard people get mad because a child, a teenage child, or a young adult or something will die, some young kid, and they'll say, well, it's God's will. People say, well, I get mad, how can that be God's will? Well, I cannot sit up here and tell you all the answers to all of life's problems. But what I can tell you is, is that sometimes things happen in life that we don't understand, but it doesn't change who God is and what God is. And yeah, in some ways, as cruel as it may sound, it may be God's will, but you know the reason we have death in life, that's not God's fault. That's our fault. Adam and Eve sinned, God told them when they sinned, he said, you shall surely die. And it doesn't seem fair sometimes. I didn't mean for all this to be in the message, but I'm trying to get through it. But we want to believe that God will answer prayers, and you should believe that. But sometimes if we don't, we need to think we got an explanation to answer people why sometimes we're afraid to pray for things or ask God for things because if he doesn't, what am I gonna say? Well, over the next little bit, we're gonna talk about these things. All your questions won't be answered today. I'll go ahead and tell you. Number one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. for by it the elders obtained a good report. If you read on down through this chapter, you will see what that report is. You will see that they were given instructions by God. God told them things to do, and by faith they trusted what God was telling them was correct and obeyed him. When Noah built the ark, folks, as an old song says, it had never rained. Not one drop had ever fell out of the sky, but God told him it was gonna rain. I wonder when Noah's back in his mind, he thought, what is rain, God? But he built the ark. Good thing he did. And we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. to appear. If you want an answer for evolution, there's another one. Oh, the Bible's full of them. Anyway, we say that we don't see God. I've never laid eyes on him, but I've sure seen the evidence of God. Every time I open my eyes, I look around this world, and there is God everywhere. And by his word, spoken word, and by this word, the worlds were framed and held together and kept in order. So number one, we have the introduction of faith. Now, a lot of people say this is the definition of faith and I'll agree with that. Let me ask you a couple questions. It says now faith is substance. Do any of you have any idea what that word substance means? I'm gonna tell you how to find out. There's a thing called dictionaries. And for some reason, for one of the reasons, I don't know why, but Christian people act like they don't know how to read one. You were taught how to use one in school. If you want to know the definition of a lot of other words, you'll find out, but when it comes to Bible definitions, Bible words, we think, well, I don't know what it means. Well, then look it up. That's pretty simple. I'm gonna go and tell you a little bit of what it means. It means reality of things being hoped. It is the pure foundation of things which one hopes in this life. It is also another way of saying sure confidence in what God has told us, what God has delivered to us. You have sure confidence in this word of God and what God tells you in your life. Warren Wearsby says it this way. I thought this was a very good explanation here. He said in his opinion, I don't 100% agree with this first statement, but I can see it, I do agree with it some. He said Hebrews 11, what is not a definition of faith, but a description of what faith does and how it works. True Bible faith is not blind optimism or manufactured hope so filling. Neither is it an intellectual assent to a doctrine. It is certainly not believing in spite of evidence. That would be superstition. True Bible faith is confident obedience to God's word in spite of circumstances and consequences. I couldn't say that word there, Elias, consequences. I said last week, if you remember, if we have faith in God like we should, we will do and act the way God tells us to, regardless of the outlook, outcome, regardless of what we think, what the consequences might be, we would do what God's word tells us to do, and what God tells us to do. In your heart, in your soul, in your spirit, Holy Spirit will speak to you through God's word and give you instructions and the obedience on our part is where faith kicks in. Romans 12 three says, for I say through the grace given to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. In other words, God has given you the measure of faith that you need to believe. The problem is, we don't believe the Bible or God, we believe Satan's lies. You know why people don't come to church all the time? Because they believe there's something better for them. Apparently, the world's got more to offer than God does. I probably ought to move on right there. I thought I'd let that one sink in for a minute. 234 times the Bible uses the word faith. That's enough. If he said it 234 times, I'd say it means something. So we have here. that the introduction of faith. Do you realize that at the beginning of time, God introduced faith? We have to, by faith, believe in what the Bible says, yet there's evidence after evidence after evidence after evidence after evidence after evidence of a creator and not any other way that we got here. In every way possible, evolution has been proven wrong. It has been proven time and time again that it's impossible, and I've got a question. Why didn't I grow, keep gills when I crawled out of the ocean? so I could go back. I love scuba diving. I wish I could go scuba diving for a week in the ocean, just swim around. Why did I lose them? I wanna know that. Nobody can answer me. Why didn't I get wings like a bird? I'd rather fly and walk, wouldn't you, preacher? I could get to church on time all the time if I had wings. Well, I'd probably wait later to live in, too, Let me move on here. But you see, by faith, God spoke this world into existence, and by faith, we understand this. That means I trust in what the Bible tells me about God creating the heavens and the earth and us. So, verse four, it says, by faith, we understand, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and by it even death speaketh. So Abel speaks from the ground, he speaks from the grave that he had faith in God. Verse five, by faith iniquity was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. So number two, we have the illustration of faith. We have the introduction of faith, we have the illustration of faith, we have that God He's introducing to us the definition, the meaning, the description of faith and how it works and what it takes and what it does. And here we have an immediate illustration. We have Abel who had faith in God, trusted in what God told him to do, was sure of what God told him to do and he was killed for it. You see, faith doesn't always bring happy times. You're not gonna get cupcakes and ice cream every time you have faith in God. Sometimes you'll get briars and thistles and things, but the end result is you've done what God has asked you to do, and he will reward you. Quit looking for rewards here in the way that you want them or think they should come, and especially quit looking for man to reward you for your faith. Jerry Bridges, another author I read after some, a practical definition of faith which involves both a renunciation and a reliance. I need you to listen to this just for a minute. First, we must renounce any trust in our own performance as the basis of our acceptance before God. We trust in our own performance when we believe we've earned God's acceptance. We also trust in our own performance when we believe we've lost God, except it's by our bad works, by our sin. You see, that is a works-based trust. Now let me pause here. I promise you, God is not pleased when you buy sin and disobey him. He is pleased when we do obey him. But if you think you alone, your works is gonna please God, friends, you got another thing coming. What did verse six say? But without it is impossible to please him. So let's look at this again in its feathers. So we must renounce any consideration of either our bad works or our good works as the means of relating to God. It takes faith, grace. Second, we must place our reliance entirely on the purpose The death of Christ is the sole basis of our standing before God on our best days as well as our worst. Let me put this in a little more illustration, a little more sense. Enoch walked with God and was translated, he believed God. When I came to Jesus Christ to be saved, The night I got saved, all I knew was I was going to hell, and if I did not get saved and hear him, I was going to go straight to hell if I did not ask him to save me, if I did not believe in what Jesus did. It took that belief, and I just heard this thing ding. If I don't turn it off, it's gonna get a ringing or something in a minute. And I took that belief in his finished work of calvary to save me. No works could do that. Now, once I am saved, my works has nothing to do with my salvation. Not before and not after. And that is what this man is saying here. He's saying if you think your works are keeping you in good standards with God, friend, you're mistaking. It's by one thing, the blood of Jesus Christ and faith in him, and that is it. Nothing else is gonna keep you standing there holy and just before God. Your works will keep you in good fellowship with him. Your faith keeps you in good fellowship with God. And let me go ahead and tell you, the more faith you've got in God, the less you will sin, the more important he will become, and I'll guarantee you, the more your prayers, I don't know how much more they'll be answered, I think a little bit more, but I can tell you I have a lot more confidence in my prayers when I'm walking with God than I do when I'm not. Really walking with God. Not treating church like it's an afterthought or like it's something that's convenient. If it fits into my schedule, preacher, I'll be there. By the way, if not many show up tonight to hear y'all's presentation, don't take it personal. They don't show up to hear me preach on Sunday night either. I'm just preaching to you what I observe with my own eyes. I know that might have been cringe-worthy. I'm sorry, honey. It's kind of quiet, wasn't it? I'd be honored to hit that again. Let me move on while I still got you. We have here an illustration of faith. Let me say this and I'll get to number three because I want to say a couple things here while I still got time. Sometimes our faith in God is not being what we want the outcome to be. It's faith in God that the outcome's gonna be what he says it's gonna be. Does that make sense? All right, verse six. He said, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that. That word diligently means to search after. So we have the introduction of faith, the illustration of faith, and we have the impossibility of faith. It's impossible for faith to work when there's not faith present. When you don't trust in what God says, you don't believe in what the word of God says, then there's no faith. My faith in God must go beyond what I want or need. In my mind, I gotta learn to trust God just because he's God. My request doesn't change who God is or his love for me or you. Hey, there've been times I've prayed for something to someone in my spirit and I knew, somehow I just knew God would hear it. It's like I was praying against the walls, like God was saying, don't pray that, there's no use to pray that. And yet I'll keep praying because I hope that maybe it's just me, maybe God will hear, maybe he'll heal them, maybe he'll do something miraculous. As long as I see my request is still there, I'm gonna keep praying unless God tells me to stop. Here's where we get in trouble. I want to tell a story. And it's a way to illustrate this the best way I can. I know how not sound completely mean. There was a couple that I knew years ago. I don't care to mention their names. If they were here, I know they would not care. Both of them are in glory now. His name was Gary Smith and his wife, Williama. And Gary was dying of cancer. Fine man, great man. And both of them had went through previous marriages, that's all I'm gonna say about that, and they both got remarried and they had a wonderful marriage, they were crazy about each other, enjoyed each other's company. Gary got cancer and it was clear he was dying. There was no question. He had treatments, he had things done, and she said, I had prayed and I had prayed and I knew God was gonna heal him. I trusted God to heal him, and God didn't heal him. And they said, we're sorry, there's nothing more we can do. And we went to visit him, she was sitting there pouring her heart out to me, and she said, but I trusted God to heal him. I said, who did you trust God to heal him for? Did you trust God, or did you trust God for your answer? She said, I trusted God to heal him. I said, you're not hearing my question. I said, you trust God? She said, yes. I said, then put him in God's hands. She said, I can't do that. I said, then you're praying James, you're praying the book of James, you're praying to a consumer upon your own lust. She said, well, I need him. I said, you better talk to God about that. I said, you need Gary, do you need God? Who do you need more? Now that sounds mean. But folks, that's Bible. And we think sometimes God is just some big happy, go lucky, laughing, jolly sugar daddy in the sky. Folks, it's not that way. We think we can just treat God like a spare tire. Doesn't work like that. I'm gonna be nice. I started to drop another ugly, but I won't. But no matter how bad, sometimes it comes down to why are you praying that prayer? Why are you praying that prayer? And I told her, I said, William, until you can take Gary and put him in God's hands and say, God, no matter what, I trust you. I said, you are not praying Bible prayers. And God will not answer that prayer. It's that simple. Have I prayed Bible prayers always? No. Do I pray things and consume it upon my lust? Do sometimes I struggle with having belief in God like I should? Oh yeah. I'm just as human as you all. But I've also learned through the years and God has shown me and instructed me from his word and from life examples that until I can learn and you and I learn to say, God, I trust you. You're praying the impossibility of faith. Because it's impossible for faith to work until you trust God. You see, it's more than just trusting for your request. That's not what it is, folks. Anything less, you're believing Satan's lie. You know why most people don't have more dedication to God and church? It's because you believe that there's something more interesting for you out there, something better for you out there than there is God and church. Satan told Eve that, and she believed it. And we're paying the price for it today. I didn't ask to be born into this flesh. Now, I like who I am. I enjoy me. Most people may not, but I do. I hope my wife does. She acts like she does. Maybe there's a hidden agenda there I don't know about. I don't know. But you know, there's a lot of things about me I don't like. Sometimes how I respond to people when I shouldn't respond a certain way. I don't like sometimes how my anger, my bitterness, my hurt, they come through when it shouldn't. When it controls me, when it shouldn't. I don't like sometimes how my flesh gets tired and it needs to rest. Things I want to do and need to do, mentally and emotionally, I'm tired. I've got stuff I've got to do, but I don't have it in me. I don't like that. I don't like to see people hurt. I don't like to see people die. But as long as we're in this life, this is the way it is. And until you and I can realize, until we get down to the basic principles of it, without faith, it is impossible to please him. Not in your wants, not in your things, but in God and God alone. That's the starting of it right there. That's when you'll start learning what real faith really is. Trust in God for him being God. Now if I've offended you or hurt you for my own comments, for that I will apologize. But I'll back up or apologize for one word I preached this morning on what I know is from the word of God. It applies to me the same as it does you. I'm gonna tell you something. Sometimes faith does bring joy. Sometimes it brings death. I'll give you one more thing and I'm done. Two people in my life that were dear, three, four, I can name them and name and name them. People that got sick and prayed for and said, God, we need them. We need them. We need help from these people. I think of a friend of mine that was a counselor, Christian counselor, psychologist. He was a rare individual. He had psychology, and he had the Christian side of it, and he combined them. That's very rare, by the way. God called him home, said, God, we needed him. I needed him. I think about Rachel, Dale's wife. The second time she got sick, I prayed. In my spirit, I knew God wasn't gonna heal her. I knew months before she died, I already thought, not long after she started having trouble again, I thought, she ain't gonna make this one. This one is gonna get her. And it did. I think about my pastor's wife, Margo. We prayed, we said, God, he needs her. He's raising three grandkids. God, he needs her. Please do something. God didn't do it. And I can sit here and name to you person after person after person after person. God, we need them. You know what? God was well aware of what we need. And even though yet today there's some of them, and I still say, God, we sure could use them. One of the dearest friends, ladies in my life is Janet McClure. I grew up right beside of her. God called her home and I said, God, please, we need her. We need her. God used her so mightily in my wife and I's life. God, please, we need her. God said, yeah, but I want her. Her time's done. I don't know too many things more painful than death. Losing a loved one to death. I'd say that's at the top of the list, wouldn't you? But I'm gonna tell you something. I have a hope beyond this world. And if you're saved, you do too. And that is where I put my hope. Not in this life. This life is temporary. God intended it to be permanent, but man changed that. Man brought death. Death is man's fault, not God's. Don't blame God for somebody dying. You don't blame somebody, you blame Satan, Adam and Eve. Although I don't recommend you blame Adam and Eve too much because you and I would have done the same thing. Don't put yourself on no pedestal. I'm finishing. But in the end, no matter how bad it hurts, no matter how much it doesn't make sense, no matter what goes wrong, you have to trust God. That's faith. Sometimes I pray the prayer, God, I don't know how to pray for this. I don't know what's gotta happen. I don't know what you need to do. I don't even know what to do. But I know God, I need you. I need you to answer this prayer. I need you to work this out. And whatever this is, is probably what's going on in some of your lives right now. But God, I don't know how you're gonna fix it, and all I see is trouble on every side. But God, if I die through this, at the best I get to go to heaven, at the worst I get to go to heaven. I'm going to heaven no matter what. Whatever happens, I'm going to heaven. And God, I can rest in that. And I can rest in the fact, not in my emotions, not in what I see going on around me, not in what I think, In that blessed word, in this book, that you realize that millions have died for through the years. As I told you before, the difference in Jesus and anybody else in the military or in war, you're not gonna save the enemy. You're trying to kill the enemy. Jesus died for the enemy the same as he did the friend and the foe because when he died, all of us were foes. He died for the foe the same as he did the friend. That book tells me that God loves me no matter what. And I've got grace through him no matter what. Father, we thank you again for this time together. And God, I know that I'm not even sure I scratched the surface, God, of what all has been in my heart, what all you showed me through this and what I need to say. God, I pray that, Lord, you deal with hearts as needed. I don't know what's on everybody's heart and mind. I don't know who has a need in their life right now, God. Some I do, some I don't. God, the greatest need in life has been saved. Jesus, why else would you have had to die if we didn't need to be saved? Makes no sense. Lord, you died to prove your love to us. and became a sacrifice for us. I know I didn't preach a salvation message much at all, Lord, but I preached what I felt like you'd give me. God, you gave your life for us, Jesus, on a cross, and you became our substitute death, and you took God's punishment for us, and you paid the sin debt that I could not pay by dying for me in the flesh, and you rose again the third day so we could get resurrected life through you Lord, this morning I pray for each one that's here, whatever their needs may be. God, if there's someone here that's lost and doesn't know you, if they wanna be saved, God, I pray that you give them the spirit, or spirit, you give them the courage to come forth to this altar. And God, you'll do the hard part. They just gotta believe, Lord, they just gotta believe. And I'll take the Bible and show them from the Bible how to be saved and what it means. Lord, I thank you and I praise you. Touch hearts as need. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we stand, we get a song. If you have a need this morning, whatever that may be, I pray that you come and talk to God about your new business. He's here waiting for you. You know, He knows your needs more than you do. He knows what you need. He knows what the next day holds. I don't, but He does. Sometimes we just gotta trust Him. But most of all, if you need Him for salvation, I invite you to come to this altar as we stand.