Participants: Lynell LaMountain
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000340
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00:31 Welcome to Faith Chapel, my name is
00:32 Lynell Lamountain the speaker and director 00:34 of Life Ignited. Well I thank you for joining me 00:36 here today, our topic is on faith. 00:39 How unstoppable is your faith, how unstoppable 00:42 would you like it to be? For by studying Hebrews 00:44 Chapter 11 today, we will discover how to have a 00:46 Faith that nothing can stop. Before we get 00:49 started in our study let's bow our heads and 00:51 let's God to bless. Father in heaven I thank you for 00:53 being here today with us. I pray that is we open 00:55 your word, that you're always spirit would, 00:57 inspire us and power us and lead us to an understanding 01:00 of how to have type of Faith and type of life. 01:02 That nothing can stop, so Lord we dedicate this time 01:06 to you and to your glory, your name we pray, Amen. 01:11 It was a cold Czechoslovakian morning 01:12 September 22, 1949. Josef Korbel and his family had 01:17 enjoyed a peaceful night sleep. He worked for the 01:19 Salvation army, so he's up early this morning 01:21 and already dressed in his uniform, 01:23 ready to leave for the hall, when he heard a knock 01:25 at the door. He went down and answered it 01:27 as soon as he opened the door; he knew he was 01:30 in trouble. Because standing their facing him 01:32 were two communist agents that the government 01:34 had sent to find evidence against him because 01:36 of his Christian convictions. His wife Erna, 01:39 because it was so early hadn't dressed yet, 01:41 she was still in here bathrobe when she walked 01:43 into the room and just as she did one of the communist 01:45 agents shoved his gun in the neck of her husband. 01:48 He said you're under arrest and coming with us. 01:51 This was happening quite frequently in Czechoslovakia 01:54 at that time, and his wife was wondering what was gonna 01:56 happen to her husband. She was wondering would 01:58 she see him again. So she asks the only question 02:01 that came to her mind. Hoping to get some clue 02:04 as to when she would see her husband again and 02:06 she asked the communist agent. She said will he be 02:09 home for dinner? One of them looked at her and sneered 02:12 and said oh! He will be home for dinner, certainly. 02:15 And he was ten years later. Josef Korbel was imprisoned 02:23 for ten years kept away from his wife and his children 02:25 for a decade. And during the most cruel and inhuman 02:28 treatment the mind can possibly imagine, 02:31 he writes in his journal, at times I enjoyed fantasies 02:35 at being home, I wondered how my dearest Erna 02:37 was getting on with the work, in such moments of 02:39 Mental Escape I completely forgot my confinement. 02:42 Fighting against tears, I would always pray 02:47 O Lord please, please protect my dear ones at home, 02:51 strengthen us O Lord, O Lord, how I need you, 02:56 come to my help. Over and over again, I painfully 02:59 remembered my arrest, would I be home for dinner, 03:03 I would be home, so very, very late, 03:07 kept away from beloved family, imprisoned for a decade. 03:12 Would our faith endured ten years of mistreatment, 03:16 ten years of false imprisonment, ten years 03:18 of separation from our family, ten years of God 03:20 not answering our prayer for release? 03:24 Would we still believe in Him, would we still trust, 03:27 would we still be praying at the end of those ten years? 03:32 Our faith is a little bit fickle isn't it, 03:35 we're inconsistent, we're ambivalent, we're undecided, 03:38 we're kind a like the fourth grade class, 03:40 as you sent this get well card to it's teacher who had 03:42 surgery and was recovering over the holidays, 03:45 and the inside of the card, this note was scribbled, 03:48 it said Dear Mrs. Fisher, your fourth grade class wishes 03:51 you a speedy recovery by a vote of 15 to 14. 03:56 My Faith looks up to you Lord until the medicines 03:58 stops working. I trust you Lord until the bills come 04:01 and I don't have any money to pay them. 04:02 I trust you Lord until I lose my health, 04:04 my Faith looks up to you, I will follow you, 04:07 but if the trial takes too long and if I'm too 04:09 inconvenience and if I'm too uncomfortable, 04:11 well Lord the deals off, I'm not going to do that. 04:15 10 years think about it. Josef Korbel was unstoppable 04:19 those ten years because his Faith was unstoppable. 04:23 Would you like to have an unstoppable Faith? 04:26 A Faith that will get you through, a Faith that 04:28 you will count on and God on count on, well the Hebrews 04:31 11 tells us how to have that type of unstoppable 04:33 Faith. You see, it's an interesting chapter to me 04:35 because it's a laundry list of people who have been 04:37 hallows. It's people with imperfect backgrounds, 04:41 people that didn't live sin- less lives, and yet they're 04:45 here in this Chapter it's a Chapter filled with people 04:47 who have failed and struggled and failed and 04:49 struggled and endured. Now, we also have in this 04:52 Chapter a balance between stories of things 04:54 working out right and things not working out right. 04:57 Now, we can't say they were done wrong, 04:58 'cause when God is in control things don't work out 05:01 wrong, even if they don't worked out the way 05:03 we think they are to be working out. 05:06 Most of all we have in Hebrews 11 though, 05:08 a photo album of God's people, who are unstoppable in their 05:12 Faith. Now, but I can hear what you are thinking, 05:14 you thinking unstoppable. Listen Lynell, 05:16 I'm just not that type. Ten years like Korbel, 05:19 forget about it, wouldn't happen, that's not me. 05:22 I read Hebrews 11; I have seen those guys, Noah, 05:24 Moses, Abraham. If I would live back in, 05:26 there is no way my name will be in Hebrews 05:28 Chapter 11 today. I know it you're just wasting 05:31 your time, and I'm not that type. Second thing 05:34 I hear you say this, you don't know my background. 05:38 If you knew my background you won't be wasting 05:40 your breathe right now, because if there is any 05:42 possible way to fail, I've done at all, I have a 05:45 PHD in messing up. You don't know my background, 05:49 don't waste your breathe, don't waste you time. 05:52 Excuse me, for being blunt, but I don't buy it, 05:56 you are unstoppable, I know you because, if this people 05:58 are unstoppable, you can be unstoppable 06:01 and so can I. We're gonna see right now from 06:03 Hebrews Chapter 11, what it takes to have on 06:05 unstoppable Faith. I may go through this Chapter 06:08 fairly quickly. We're gonna scan through it. 06:10 So you might just wanna sit back and relax 06:12 and meditate on what the Bible is teaching us 06:14 as far as how we can be unstoppable. 06:16 In Hebrews 11 Verse 4 there is Abel, 06:18 the first thing we're gonna look at here is what type 06:20 of background he had and the others had because 06:22 you think you don't have the background but I think 06:24 you do have the type and the background. 06:26 Abel what type of person was he? He was farmer, 06:28 he was a Shepard. Verse 7, we find Noah, 06:31 Noah was also a farmer who went into the construction 06:33 business for about 120 years. We have Abraham, 06:36 what type was Abraham. Abraham was a business 06:39 man. Then we come to Sarah what type was she. 06:42 Sarah was a homemaker. Joseph Verse 22, 06:45 he was a politician, in fact, he was a politician with a 06:49 prison record. He was slave with the prison record 06:51 who in a few years became prime minister of Egypt. 06:55 Verse 23 we have Moses, Moses who was a soldier 06:58 who went to a war and then he became a Shepard 07:00 for his father in law of all people. Do you realize 07:03 that Moses didn't do any things spiritually significant 07:05 for 80 years? The first 40 years in Egypt, 07:10 did nothing spiritually significant, then he runs 07:12 becomes a shepherd for 40 years, 07:13 those next 40 years in the desert, did he do anything, 07:16 no. 80 years I don't know about you, 07:19 but that gives me a little bit of breathing room. 07:21 I have some time on my side. 80 years before 07:24 Moses did any thing spiritually significant that 07:27 got his name put in light, so to speak. Verse 31, 07:31 Rahab the harlot, now that's rather interesting 07:33 of person that we find in this Chapter, 07:36 what mental and spiritual contradictions that conjure 07:39 up in our minds to find her here. 07:42 Verse 32 we have Gideon and Barack and Jephthah, 07:45 they were all judges, who are in the legal profession 07:47 and we have Samuel who was also a Prophet 07:49 and a diplomat and a judge. And we come to David 07:51 in Verse 32, David was a poet, he was a writer, 07:55 who through unique turn of events became king. 07:59 The people in Hebrews Chapter 11 are people 08:01 just like you and me. They are ordinary people, 08:04 no special type is required to have a Faith that is 08:07 unstoppable, they are unstoppable, 08:09 you can be unstoppable, I can be unstoppable. 08:13 We can have unstoppable Faith for God, 08:14 you are the type, but that doesn't take care of the 08:17 little situation of well you don't know about 08:19 my background do you? You wouldn't waste 08:22 anymore time of you could see all the ways that 08:24 I have messed up. Well let's look at their backgrounds 08:26 for a minute, do you mind, because I think you're 08:28 gonna be surprised at what you find here. 08:31 You think you had to have special background 08:33 without failure, think again. Noah verse 7, 08:37 now Noah is known for building the barge that made 08:39 it through the flood but what people forget is 08:41 that surely after the flood he got drunk and was 08:44 ashamed to himself and to his family. 08:47 We come down to Abraham, Abraham had a 08:50 character of weakness, and you know what it was, 08:53 he liked to lie, in fact he lied to save his own skin, 08:57 even when it put his wife's life in jeopardy, 08:59 so you could say, now only he was a liar 09:01 he had a streak of cowardice in him as well. 09:06 But let's come to Sarah, what about her background. 09:08 Do you know that Sarah laughed at God? 09:12 She was 90 years old when she ever heard God 09:14 tell Abraham, she was gonna have a baby. 09:16 Now, I think if you're 90 years old and God 09:19 told you, you're gonna have a baby, 09:20 you would start laughing too because this lady she 09:23 can't even bend over and lace up her sandals 09:24 in the morning anymore and God said she was 09:26 gonna have a kid, now at she laugh at him but when 09:29 he told her that he heard her laughing. 09:31 She lied him and said no I wasn't, think about this for 09:35 a minute, this lady is lying to God, 09:37 who knows everything we can trick our spells but 09:40 is pretty tough to tricks somebody who knows 09:42 everything. That Sarah's background, 09:46 count down to through the Chapter and we 09:47 see 21 year old Jacob. Jacob had a gift, 09:51 he had the gift of deception and I'm telling you 09:53 right now you would never wanna do business 09:55 with Jacob because if you did, you would walk away 09:58 with your pockets empty. He will get you every 10:00 single time. Moses, Moses what about his background, 10:04 we know he was a murderer, he was murderer 10:06 who try to hiding the body in the sand, 10:08 and when that didn't he ran outside of Egyptian 10:11 jurisdiction 8that's his background. Rahab, 10:13 the Harlot from a background of promised 10:15 squirting lust God put her name in lights, 10:18 then Samson an undisciplined man of uncontrollable, 10:20 indiscretions, God put his name in lights, 10:23 here is thing that's strikes me as we read 10:26 and study this Chapter. If we were editing this 10:28 Chapter, we wouldn't include hardly any of these names, 10:31 because they don't live up to our moral standards, 10:37 yet there in God's photo album here in Hebrews 10:39 Chapter 11, how they do make it in, why do God 10:44 include them, these people or these types of 10:46 backgrounds and failures. You wanna know why; 10:50 here is why God included them in this Chapter. 10:53 Because He believed, He existed in the situation 10:56 they were in and they trusted Him. 11:00 Their Faith was unstoppable, because they 11:02 wouldn't like go, no matter what, it didn't matter 11:06 to them if they had messed up. If they didn't have 11:08 the right background, they would not let go. 11:13 God said, that honors me, I will like that, 11:17 put his name down, put her name down. 11:20 They belong in my photo album. But somehow 11:22 we place ourselves on this waiting list, 11:24 we say when my Christian experience gets 11:26 to such a level, then I will be a person of faith 11:29 like Moses and Noah, maybe like Josef Korbel. 11:33 When that day comes, I have arrived? 11:34 I will be just like them. But my question for you is, 11:39 when that's day going to be? What sort a 11:41 circumstances are you waiting for? What criteria 11:44 will you know that, that when it happens you have 11:47 arrived. I'm here to tell you that, the time to have 11:50 unstoppable Faith, it's not sometime in the future, 11:52 it's today, it's now, it's in this hour, 11:57 this is the day that we can be unstoppable for God. 12:01 Stop waiting for favorable circumstances because 12:04 from what I can tell, people of faith rarely, 12:09 rarely face favorable circumstances. 12:12 It seems to me that the odds are always against 12:15 them, or always overwhelmingly are 12:18 against them, because, if they work then why 12:21 would they need Faith. If you could work it out in 12:23 your strength, why would you need God's strength, 12:26 if I can figure it out in my own intelligence why 12:28 do I need God's intelligence? Stop waiting for 12:31 favorable circumstances because I'm here to tell you, 12:33 they're not gonna come. In fact when you choose 12:36 to be unstoppable when you choose to live as 12:38 a person of faith expect resistance, 12:43 expect resistance. But let's look at a few snap 12:47 shots in this photo album; let's just see what 12:50 circumstances were for this people. 12:52 Let's just double check and make sure that they 12:55 did have insurmountable odds. 12:57 Noah let's start with him. 13:00 The earth had never seen drop of rain and here he built 13:02 a boat. The day comes 120 years later, 13:07 he gets into the boat with all the animals, 13:09 he's in the inside playing checkers of his family. 13:11 The other people were on the outside wondering, 13:13 if he forgot to takes medication that morning. 13:16 But he is in the boat, now I'm here to tell you 13:17 that the arts were against it raining, 13:19 when rain is in the part of weathers. 13:21 Well the planets weather parrots that's Noah. 13:24 And come down Verse 8, Abraham, 13:27 God called Abraham to go some place and its pretty 13:30 much all he told him. Didn't tell where to go, 13:32 like in picture right now I can see Sarah outside 13:34 sweeping the porch and Abraham backs the whole 13:37 truck up to the garage and starts letting 13:38 boxes in the back and she says, 13:40 honey what are you doing? Oh! Didn't I tell you dear? 13:45 God and I had a chat earlier in this morning, 13:47 Oh! Really sweetie, what a God have to say? 13:50 He said, well we were to move. Really oh! Where to 13:53 Abraham? Don't know, he just said go. 13:57 How would you like to have that conversation 13:58 with your spouse, ha? Neighbor's drop by, 14:00 Abraham you did got transferred? 14:01 No, find a better job somewhere? 14:04 No, you don't have a job, you are not transferred, 14:07 you're moving, do you know where you going? 14:10 No. Oh, good luck. The odds are against you 14:14 finding where you going, when you will know 14:15 where you going in the first place, that's Abraham. 14:19 But come on down and we find, we find Moses 14:23 Verse 29. Says by Faith he passed over the red sea, 14:26 picture this for a second, you have Moses 14:28 who's leading these hundreds of thousands 14:30 millions of Israelites out of Egypt and the Red Sea 14:32 is right before him. Behind him, the Egyptian army 14:36 is closing in. you have desert on this side, 14:38 you have mountains on that side. 14:40 There is no way to escape, God tells Moses 14:45 I want you to go through the Red Sea. 14:47 Now, Aaron overhears this and he has to just 14:49 clarify what Moses is saying, Red Sea. 14:51 He says now Moses you and I both know, 14:53 you have a speech problem and I like you to repeat 14:56 very slowly what God told us to do because 14:59 I think I thought heard you say Red Sea and 15:01 that doesn't make any sense Moses because 15:03 think about this for a minute, army is behind 15:05 can't go there, deserts over here we die of 15:08 thirst can't go there, we got the mountains, 15:11 we got the sea, we can't go to sea because 15:12 we will drown. Let's just go back to the mountains. 15:16 We should disband the camp because, 15:18 common sense says Moses every man from 15:20 himself should go toward the mountains, 15:22 at least someone survive not everybody will make it. 15:25 But that's better than everybody dying so run 15:27 by God against I think you probably didn't get it 15:29 right. So, Moses says hold on. 15:31 Moses runs it by God and God says Moses 15:33 I have got two words for you Red Sea. 15:36 And so Moses lifts up his robe, he steps out, 15:37 and dry ground as the water parts, 15:39 you know and I know that the odds are against 15:42 a sea parting on any day of the week, 15:45 especially that day, but Moses obeyed and he 15:48 walked through. Are you in a tight place? 15:53 Are you in a situation where you are walled 15:56 in by trouble, do you impossible circumstances 16:00 face you right now? I think that's a great because 16:03 God's gonna play and escape that just makes 16:06 you glory and bask and the wonder of his 16:08 strength for your life. But what we do is we take 16:12 water tests, we get a community together, 16:15 we study the depth of the water, 16:16 we get engineers in the room to see what type 16:18 of bridge we need to build to make it across 16:20 the water. And God's just sitting and waiting 16:22 for us to go, so many times our Faith is 16:25 stopped, because we stop it, do you wanna 16:29 unstoppable Faith, get moving and stay moving 16:33 and keep moving. One of my favorite story 16:36 is here in Chapter 11 of book of Hebrews 16:38 is Jericho. Joshua takes Caesar to this big city 16:43 of Mammoth, rock walls that are several feet 16:46 thick. Can you picture right now, 16:49 you have the Israelites marching around the city, 16:50 you have the Jericholites who are on top of 16:52 the city walls looking at those people just marching 16:55 around and I can hear them saying hey, 16:58 what do you guys doing down there and one guy 17:01 in the back of the line, from the bottom of the people 17:04 marching around shouts up we're gonna march around 17:07 your city for the next seven days and then 17:09 we're gonna blow our trumpets and then your city 17:11 is gonna crumbled, you're gonna fall, we're gonna 17:14 take you over. Jericholites had just start laughing, 17:17 this is nonsense I can see them pulling up long chairs, 17:19 taking eliminate maybe having some potato salad 17:22 just watching Israelites walk around to this city. 17:25 Now, I have shared my fair share of Church boards 17:29 and you probably set on board in communities 17:31 and I can imagine what might have happened 17:32 that night back at the Israel camp. It probably went 17:35 something like this, Joshua could you tells again 17:37 why we're marching around the city seven times. 17:41 Well, because God said seven times, 17:43 well we even think it about, he was harder out 17:45 there today then we thought it was gonna be 17:47 and took little bit longer and you know 17:48 we're little tired so I'm thinking maybe we should 17:50 just march around the city four times because 17:52 you know common sense says. We need to have 17:55 some energy and strength left over so when 17:57 those walls fall we can ran in there and we can finish 18:00 those people off and take the city so. 18:02 I move we just marching around at four times, 18:04 someone in the back said say yeah second that, 18:06 that's sounds good to me four times. 18:08 Joshua says no seven times, well what about five, 18:11 seven, six, seven times God said marched around 18:15 it seven times and that's what we are going to do. 18:18 I think that we as believers will become a 18:21 unstoppable and our churches will become 18:23 unstoppable when we start convening sessions 18:26 and communities and board meetings to out vote 18:29 God's will for us for where we are. 18:33 We need to get going and follow him and keep 18:37 going we stopped ourselves. If you wanna have 18:40 unstoppable Faith is the model of our lives after these 18:43 people. Israelites marched around that city, 18:46 they blow there beguiles, the walls fell down, 18:50 in an area a cloud burst of sand and dust 18:52 and they walked in and they conquered the city, 18:53 but I'm here tell you, that the odds of his city 18:56 falling are not that great, when they're army's 18:59 only military strategy is to march around 19:00 at few times and blow beguiles. But it is not about 19:04 you and it's not about me, or our strategies. 19:09 It's about obeying God's call, following his lead 19:13 and trusting that his in the workout the impossible 19:14 for us in that situation, that's what these peoples 19:18 did. That's why there in this photo album of God 19:21 in Hebrews Chapter 11. God comes to you today 19:26 and he says trust me, you wanna be unstoppable 19:28 trust me, trust me moment by moment, 19:31 if that's what it takes, if you don't have enough 19:33 to just trust me for 24 hours, do it for an hour, 19:35 do it for a minute, do it for 30 seconds. 19:38 Trust me moment by moment and follow 19:39 my lead and you will be unstoppable, 19:43 here what's unstoppable looks like in your Bibles. 19:46 Hebrews Chapter 11, Verses 33 to 35, 19:49 here is a picture of unstoppable Faith. 19:55 We start with Verse 33: Who through Faith subdued 19:58 kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained 20:00 promises, stopped the mouths of lions. 20:03 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge 20:05 of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, 20:07 became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies 20:10 of the aliens. Women received their dead raised 20:12 back to life again. That's what unstoppable looks 20:16 like, but unstoppable has another picture 20:19 we just turned another page in God's photo album here 20:21 in Hebrews 11. He was also what unstoppable 20:24 looks like, we read from Hebrews Chapter 11 Verses 20:27 35-38, it says: Others were tortured, 20:31 not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain 20:33 a better resurrection. Still others had trial 20:36 of mockings and scourgings, yes and of chains 20:38 and imprisonment. They were stoned, 20:39 they were sawn in two, were tempted, 20:42 were slain with the sword. They wandered about 20:44 sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, 20:46 afflicted, tormented of whom the world was not 20:49 worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, 20:51 in dens and caves of the earth. Others who, 20:55 who are this people, were they ones who didn't get 20:58 it right, were they the wrong stuff, 21:00 were they the wrong type, were they the 21:03 backgrounds too bad for even God salvage and use. 21:05 Could they not too have unstoppable Faith, 21:08 the way we think unstoppable Faith 21:09 is supposed to work, who were they? 21:12 They were commended for their Faith the Bible says, 21:15 they were valiant men and women of God, 21:17 who could not be stopped, torture could not stop 21:19 them. Imprisonment could not stop them, 21:21 death could not stop them. People of Faith 21:24 are unstoppable regardless of the circumstances; 21:27 they keep going forward for God no matter what. 21:29 Now, there is a secret truth about Faith, 21:34 that makes this all make sense between things 21:37 working out right and things not working out right 21:39 from our point of view. A secret that I learned 21:41 a few years ago, the hard way I think. 21:46 It was story that happened to me during my 21:47 sophomore years at college 1986. 21:50 I walked into a boy's dorm and the secretary said 21:52 there is a telephone call for you. I answered, 21:55 here he said you Lynell Lamountain, I said yes, 21:58 the brother of and I said yes I'm. He said well 22:01 your brother is in the hospital being prepared 22:03 for emergency surgery. I said why, 22:05 what happened? He said earlier this morning 22:07 he was shot twice in the back. 22:09 And his wife is now requesting that you come 22:11 in and be with her as he's in surgery. 22:14 I can't tell you anything more than that, 22:15 so I got my car and I went up to the hospital 22:17 and I can still see my brother being wheel out 22:19 of surgery the tubes coming out of his body 22:20 and blood draining and the machines and he was 22:23 in ICU for three weeks, turned out he had gone 22:27 home after worked that morning and someone 22:29 introduce his trailer and tried to kill him. 22:31 They said I'm gonna kill you and I started 22:33 shooting. He escapes, but before he did, 22:35 he had two bullet holes in his back. 22:38 I captured the man and they decided that, 22:41 he was criminally insane of the time he would 22:43 tried killing my brother. And so after a few months 22:45 they let him go. My brother heard to the great 22:49 one and so did we, but the man vowed, 22:51 he was going to keep trying until he had finished 22:54 his job and done it right and my brother 22:55 was no more. So, my brother got his wife and 22:58 they moved, they didn't tell anybody where 23:00 they were, I didn't know where he was, 23:02 I didn't know how he was doing. 23:04 he missed my graduation and made sound selfish, 23:07 he missed my wedding which I always dream 23:08 to him being my best man. For a 5 or 6 years, 23:11 I didn't know where he was and during that time, 23:14 I rustled with God, why did this guy 23:15 who tried to kill him? How can we guy let go 23:17 and my brother, how come he had to move away 23:19 and I don't know where he is? God answer 23:22 these prayers. You work things out; your Bible says 23:25 you do, how can you not work, can get out 23:26 for me. And that during that time that I 23:30 learned the secret, that to me explains, 23:32 why this things seem to work out and why thing 23:35 seem not to work out. And as during that 23:37 experience of my brother and things have worked 23:39 out now and I know where he is and things 23:41 have gotten back to normal. 23:42 But he was during those years that this is the 23:45 secret that God impressed up on me about 23:47 how to have unstoppable Faith. If you wanna have 23:49 unstoppable Faith and realize this and here 23:52 is the secret. Faith doesn't change my 23:56 circumstances, Faith changes me, Faith doesn't 24:02 always change my circumstances, Faith won't 24:04 always change your circumstances. 24:06 But Faith will always change you, 24:08 that's what these people realized. 24:10 If your Faith is tied to circumstances working 24:13 out the way that you want them to be worked 24:15 out then your Faith will faltered and it will 24:17 be stopped. Faith doesn't change our circumstances, 24:20 Faith changes me. That's why we read about 24:24 these people being unstoppable because they 24:27 looked forward to a time that was most relevant 24:29 to them then the situation that they were in, 24:31 situation they were in didn't matter to them. 24:33 Bible says in Hebrews Chapter 11 Verses 13 to 16, 24:38 it said: These all died in faith, not having received 24:41 the promises, but having seen them afar off 24:43 were assured of them, embraced them 24:46 and confessed that they were strangers 24:47 and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say 24:49 such things declare plainly that they seek 24:51 a homeland. And truly if they had called to 24:54 mind that country from which they had come out, 24:56 they would have had opportunity to return. 24:58 But now they desire a better, that is, 25:01 a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed 25:03 to be called their God, for He has prepared 25:05 a city for them. Our lives are ignited with that hope, 25:10 our lives are ignited but the anticipation and expectation 25:13 of a better tomorrow and what it makes it better 25:16 is not having a fewer problems, you're having a 25:18 blunder pictures, will makes it better, 25:19 is the face to face internal satisfaction that will have 25:23 communing with Jesus Christ our redeemer and best friend. 25:26 Faith doesn't what change our circumstances but Faith 25:29 always changes us. That's a life, that's ignited, 25:34 that's a life that is led by a trust that is ignited 25:36 and cannot be quenched. So, today we in trust 25:39 ourselves in our situation to God, 25:41 we cooperate with him as he lead us through it. 25:45 We take action, Faithful action is dead the Bible says. 25:50 So, acknowledge is in control, so tell Him today 25:54 whatever you're going through. That this is sea, 25:56 that he is gonna have to part, this is his mountain, 25:59 he is enough to have you tunnel through. 26:01 You tell him Lord I'm putting the pressure on your 26:05 shoulders, the circumstances, well that's your 26:07 responsibility, I'm gonna do what the Bible says Lord 26:10 I'm just gonna relax in you, I'm gonna relax 26:12 and know that you're God. That's our job, 26:16 just to walk forward to obey and to relax, 26:18 as God lead us to where he is taking us. 26:21 Our role is to obey into rest, to rest in obey. 26:26 We have parody straight, we have clarity we're 26:28 unstoppable because He is our father, 26:31 we are His children and He looks through His photo 26:33 album and His wallet whatever we might carry with 26:35 Him and He says that's my kid, that's my child. 26:38 They were trusting in the situation that they were 26:40 in and that honors me and that makes me feel 26:42 glad now I'm happy all around the universe wherever 26:45 he goes, He takes out His pictures and said hey 26:47 have you seen my kid. You see the person that's, 26:50 it's got the rise on me and some days soon 26:53 I mean introduce you to them personally. 26:56 Have you seen pride and joy, have you seen 26:57 the kids in my photo album. They can't be stop, 27:00 because I won't let them stop, I'm in them there 27:05 is an Old Russian proverb it says this. 27:08 It says, "The hammer shatters glass but it forges 27:14 steel." The Faith that we have seen here in Hebrews 27:18 Chapter 11, this is type of Faith forges steel, 27:23 you have what it takes, you are that type, 27:25 your background doesn't matter, you're steel, 27:29 steel that won't bend, steel that won't break, 27:33 steel that won't bust and steel that won't melt. 27:34 God is working his work in you and you will prevail, 27:38 you will win the day, because you're unstoppable. 27:43 You're unstoppable because God is unstoppable 27:46 and God is in your heart, so trust Him, respond, 27:52 get going and keep going and 27:55 He will lead you through. |
Revised 2014-12-17