Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
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hello everyone this is dr tony evans
with the urban alternative
and i’m excited to welcome you to join
us on a journey
a journey through hebrews 11
it’s known as the hall of faith
where men and women
discovered what god can do
when god’s people
learn
to live walk and act
by faith
the beautiful thing is it’s not just
about them
it’s about us
as the author of hebrews writes to new
testament believers
that’s who we are
about how
the lives of old testament saints who
learn to live by faith
should challenge
and affect our lives as we live by faith
so we’re excited to welcome you on this
journey it’s going to be an exciting
trip we’re going to learn a lot
most importantly we’re going to be
transformed by the truth
what it means to be a kingdom hero
who lives by faith
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the book of hebrews was written to
christians
who were losing heart
this is a book written to discourage
christians
who didn’t know whether it was worth it
to keep going
the struggle was too great the
difficulty was too daunting
the pain was too palpable
and the question was
is it worth keeping going
and many wanted to quit
they want to go back to the old way they
wanted to abandon christ
to abandon christianity
so the author of hebrews writes the book
to challenge them not to lose heart
so we find ourselves
in hebrews chapter 12.
where he says therefore
since we have so great a cloud of
witnesses surrounding us
let us also lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us
and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us
fixing our eyes on jesus the author and
perfecter of faith who for the joy set
before him endured the cross despising
the shame
and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of god for consider him
who has endured such hostility by
sinners against himself so that you will
not grow weary
and
lose heart
my challenge for me
as i preach to me as i preach to us
is simply to never give up
as hard as things have been as hard as
things are
the author of hebrews is telling them
and is speaking to us
and he’s saying
never give up
in chapter 10 for example he says
in verse 35 therefore do not throw away
your confidence
which has great reward
for you have need of endurance
so that when you have done the will of
god you may receive what is promised
verse 39
and we are not of those who shrink back
to destruction
but of those who have faith
to the to the persevering of the soul
what he is simply saying is
don’t give up
as hard as it is
as challenging as it has been for me
for you and i speak to us
the word of the lord for today in the
reset that he is doing is don’t
give
up
now that’s easy to say
and i’m sure most would agree with
having heard it
but a lot of things are easier to say
than to do
especially when you’re overwhelmed
by life’s negatives negative realities
so he’s going to say
three things
to help you and me and us
in spite of all the turmoil we’re in
personally
ecclesiologically
culturally racially
politically socially
economically
never give up
the first thing he wants to say is
to encourage you never to give up
therefore since we have so great a cloud
of witnesses surrounding us
therefore since we have so great a cloud
of witnesses
surrounding us
now whenever you see the word therefore
in the bible you must ask what it’s
there for
therefore means in light of what i just
said
that’s what i’m getting ready to talk
about but it’s predicated on what i just
said now
you have to read all of hebrews 11
to get his point about the cloud of
witnesses
a witness
gives agreement or testimony to
something
a witness in a courtroom
gives testimony to the reality of what
is being said he calls them a cloud of
testimony givers or witnesses
he says these witnesses are surrounding
us
present tense
they’re right here right now
and they will testify the author of
hebrew says there is a cloud of
witnesses there is a body of people who
will testify
that you can make it and that you ought
never give up
that testimony is given by men and women
who are described
in chapter 11.
now obviously time will not allow us to
go through 40 verses in chapter 11 over
each person
but i will sum it up with the first
couple of verses of chapter 11.
now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for
the conviction of things not seen
for by it the men of old gained approval
by faith we understand that the worlds
were prepared by the word of god so that
what is seen was not made out of things
which are visible
the cloud of witnesses that he goes on
to describe
he will say the words by faith
then he’ll give the name of the witness
and then he’ll tell you what the witness
did
he will say by faith this witness
abraham abel
noah enoch sarah rahab
on and on
and then he’ll tell you what they did
by faith
so the testimonies
that he gives in 11
leading him to talk to us beginning in
chapter 12
is a testimony
that the key to making it and not giving
up is learning to live by faith
so that that’s the key
he says faith
is the conviction or persuasion
of what you don’t have empirical
evidence to validate
in other words
faith has to deal with unseen reality
faith is different than sight
sight is something you have empirical
reality you can look at it with your own
two eyes
he says faith is the assurance of things
hoped for
it involves an expectation hope
it is being confident about the
expectation and the way you know you’re
confident about the expectation
is that you move in faith even though
you haven’t seen it yet
so you don’t see it
but it’s real
and
you have to move by faith in light of
what you do not see
he says
let me illustrate what i’m talking about
he says we know
that the worlds were created by the word
of god
but i don’t know that anybody has seen
god
so what you
see the world
came from somebody you don’t see
in other words
we know god is real not because we’ve
seen god but we’ve seen what he can do
if you and i are going to not quit give
up throw in the towel we must learn to
live by faith
and faith is not merely the event when
you got saved it is supposed to be the
lifestyle that you live now that you are
saved
he says
in romans 14 23 whatever is not of faith
is sin
so to not live by faith is to live
sinfully
he says in second corinthians 5 7
that we walk by faith not by sight
since we have a cloud of witnesses
witnesses testify
now some of these people
you don’t know how they got in here
you don’t know how they got in there you
say
they don’t belong in here
but that’s the good news you can start
where you are
you can start where you are
and say the rest of my life i’m going to
live by faith i’m going to act like god
is telling the truth even though i don’t
see the result yet
says he talks about creation he says
we live in a world created by somebody
you don’t see but you don’t say god
doesn’t exist because i don’t see him
so when men want to deny god they go to
evolution fairy tales for adults
that everything has come out of
nothing from nobody
so his challenge is a faith challenge
all of the people he names are from the
old testament
so this is one of the reasons you read
the old testament
it’s full of stories but it’s full of
narratives designed to challenge you to
live by faith in the new testament
since we are surrounded by all these old
testament saints
he says
you keep going now one other thing about
this first point that i’ve been on too
long
and that is
that these old
testament saints
it concludes
by saying at the end of church chapter
11 verse 39 having gained approval
through their faith
11 39 says they gained approval
to be approved
you must
finish by faith
so these approved people in chapter 11
are the ones not christians in general
but these approved people are the
witnesses that god uses
to keep us going
by faith
so
the first thing in the witnesses
the second thing is you
verse
1 of chapter 12
laying aside every encumbrance and sin
which so easily entangles us
he says i want you to remove
encumbrances
he says plural
and uh
he says i want you to remove
the sin singular
no no let’s move between the plural and
the singular
an encumbrance
is something that is extra baggage
something holding you down an
encumbrance is simply
baggage that’s keeping you from moving
forward by faith
it’s slowing you down it’s hindering you
it’s it’s limiting your
spiritual progress and so it
it is an encumbrance
so what is some encumbrance
people can be encumbrances
see you got the wrong folk in your life
they can hold you back with human
thought
with secular thinking
with faithless points of view
so people can be encumbrances
the past can be encumbrances
play things can be encumbrances
what he says is something that holds you
back slows you down from moving by faith
and remember we talk about your movement
now
what is the faith action god wants me to
take then he says
the sin the sin that he has been talking
about all hebrews long
that he focuses on of course in chapter
11 and in chapter 12 is the sin of
unbelief
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he calls it an entangling sin
that entangles us
in other words
every other sin you commit is because
you don’t believe god
see because we don’t believe god
we commit a sin
unbelief is the entangling sin
if you solve the problem of faith
you’ve greatly impacted the problem of
sin
because you haven’t gotten it tangled in
unbelief
and remember by belief we’re not talking
about first your emotions we’re talking
about your footsteps
the decisions that you make to say i’m
going to trust god with this situation
even though i don’t see the outcome yet
he said lay it aside
push it to the side
the sin
the distraction the excess baggage
that so easily
holds us back
the last thing he wants to talk about
first of all you got some witnesses that
are here to testify
then you’ve got a responsibility
to get rid of anything holding you back
from walking by faith
and then he comes
to the cena quinoam
he comes to the
to the main point
he says fixing our eyes on jesus
look at your witnesses look at yourself
but get fixated
on jesus
the author and perfecter
of our faith
you are not living this faith
life
alone
he calls jesus the author that means the
originator
the perfecter that means the completer
that’s like you and me saying a to z
beginning to end
alpha omega
jesus christ got you started when you
got saved
he’s gonna bring you to completion when
this life is over
and he’s available for you to piggyback
on on the ride there
he says if you will become fixated on
jesus
if you will become
an
obsessed christian
not a casual christian
not even fixated on god the father he’s
talking about a jesus fixation
he says fixing your eyes your spiritual
perspective on jesus christ
who got you into this at salvation who’s
going to get you to completion when life
is over and who can walk you along the
way
you can’t ignore
life’s
struggles that make you tired
they’re realities that you can’t ignore
he says but don’t fixate on them
every time life closes in on you that is
a reminder take a peek at jesus
because jesus’s job is to carry you
through
that sweaty
weighty
difficult lonely traumatic painful
period you are going through he is there
to help you fixing your eyes on jesus
now watch this
how do i do this he says for the joy set
before him
okay he bringing up easter
friday was a tiring day in jesus’s life
okay he’s already sweat
tears like drops of blood
because of what he’s getting ready to go
through on the cross which included
being separated from his father
and it meant bearing the sins of the
whole world
all he could say like you and i
coming through this past year is let
this cup pass from me
i i don’t want any more it’s too hot to
handle it’s too overwhelming
give me a break
that’s what jesus was saying i need a
break from this in my humanity i don’t
want to have to deal with wearing the
sins of the whole world and being
separated from my father i don’t want to
have to go however
not my will but thy will be done
so he made a faith decision
in a frustrating circumstance
he says i’m going to do your will even
though i don’t want to
you ever been like that
you don’t want to do god’s will
you tired of trying to do god’s will
but you make the decision to walk by
faith
in spite of how you feel
he says
jesus made that decision the question is
what was his motivation in his humanity
to make that decision
it says for the joy set before him
all the time he was struggling
with friday
he was thinking about sunday
okay let me say that again
he’s struggling with friday
now i know we got
you know we sanitized
the cross
that was a nasty situation
that wasn’t that wasn’t fun and games
that was bloody and gory
you saw the movie the passion of the
christ it gave you a much more realistic
vision
of what was involved with the cross
but he kept his mind on sunday and
beyond
on sunday
he was going to get up from the grave
after sunday he was going to
ascend 40 days later to his father
vinnie was going to be seated on the
right hand side of his father
then the prophecy is that every knee
will bow and every tongue will confess
to the glory of god
the exaltation of jesus christ so he
kept looking at what god had in store
and while he was looking at that he was
able to deal with this
i would love to be one of those
preachers who could prophesy you don’t
get sick
i’d love to be one of those preachers
who could prophesy you’re never going to
have a financial breakdown that you’re
never going to be lonely that you’re
never going to struggle but that would
be
a lie
because we know better
no matter how spiritual you are you’re
human spiritual
which means life hits you and sometimes
it breaks your hearts
but he says
without denying the reality of friday
don’t miss the reality of sunday
that god is taking you somewhere
if you will keep going by faith
he says keep your eyes on jesus
look to jesus talk to jesus pray to
jesus
closes with
these words for consider him keep your
mind on him who has endured such
hostility by sinners against himself
so that you will not grow weary
and so that you will not
lose
heart
you know there’s a big difference
between a high jumper and a pole vaulter
a high jumper goes about eight feet
because they’re using all their human
strength to
to get them over that
a pole vaulter goes 18 feet
now both are running
but one is running totally dependent
upon their own strength
the other pole vaulter is running
leaning on the pole to propel them
so the pole vaulter goes higher than the
high jumper because he is leaning on
something other than his own or her own
human capacity
he says i want you to pull vault
in your weariness on jesus
that means you got to carry jesus as
your partner
you got to carry jesus as your as your
rogue buddy
that means you got to be talking to him
not just at grace
he you and he are rolling throughout the
day
because you’re piggybacking on jesus
sometimes life will knock you down
sometimes you’ll tear with a broken
heart
sometimes you’ll be in broken
circumstances
but i know somebody
even though he lives up there
he’s willing to come down here
and take the broken and the beaten and
the
abuse
and give you a divine reset
so that he can still take you your
family take us the church
across the finish
so you keep the faith
because you’ve got a cloud of witnesses
you’ve got some decisions to make
and you’ve got king jesus
who’s here to help you
[Music]
do
[Music]
it’s time to start living a life of
faith
no matter where things have been up
until this point
you can begin a new beginning right now
by making the decision to walk with god
in obedience
even when it relates to things you have
not yet seen
but things you are expecting
because you know god is worth trusting
and worth following
and if you will keep your focus on
heaven while you are living your life on
earth
you will see what god can do
even in your struggle even in your pain
even in your uncertainty
to give you
his
powerful presence
moving you forward for the rest of your
life
being able to look back and say i know
what it is
to live by faith and to have god reward
me for it
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you