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.
[Music]
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
[Music]
we’ve now come to the end of
hebrews 11.
and we’re talking about what it looks
like to live your life by faith
we’re talking about
the men and women in hebrews 11
who are men and women from the old
testament being spoken of in the new
testament
to encourage you and i what it means to
make our daily operation a faith
operation
the author of hebrews has gone name
after name abel enoch
noah abraham sarah
moses israel rahab
and he says these folks saw the hand and
the movement the power and the presence
of god and they saw it
by faith
he has made it clear in hebrews 11 verse
6 without faith you won’t see god
because without faith you do not please
him
faith must always watch this precede
sight
once you have sight it is no longer
faith
that’s why hebrews 11 verse 1 says
faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen
if you have to see it first
you’ve canceled faith
for faith is prior to
and apart from sight
faith leads to sight
but faith must always precede sight
now having explained this
he now comes to his culminating section
his culminating point in the book
in the chapter
he begins in verse 32 of hebrews 11.
and i love how he opens it up and he
says
and what more shall i say
he says huh
wha what can i say now
i’d walk you through 31 verses
i’ve given you the great heroes of the
faith and what they were able to achieve
by faith
so
what more can i tell you
what what more can i say he says
in fact he goes on to say
in verse 32
for time
will fail me
he sounds like an old preacher if i just
had a little bit more time
if i had a little bit more time
i could tell you so much more
because there’s so much more to tell
about the file power of faith
but he’s run out of time he’s run out of
space
and so he says well i don’t have time to
go into the detail i went into in the
first 31 verses but let me throw a
little something something extra along
the way let me let me give you a little
something something
he said if i had some time
if if i had the time
i’d tell you about gideon barrack samson
jeff for david samuel and the prophets
but i don’t have time
i don’t have time i have space to go and
all these other folk i haven’t gone into
so since he didn’t have a time i’ma take
a minute
to tell you about these folks he didn’t
have time to go into detail on like he
did all the previous people in the first
31 verses of chapter 11.
he starts off with gideon
in verse 32.
gideon was a judge but gideon was not
scared he was scared he was
he was a a passive guy and
and then god called on him because
israel was being invaded by the enemy
and he said gideon i want you to go out
there and i want you to take care of the
enemy of my people
so get in as scared as he was went out
and amassed an army of 32 000
men
and god looked at gideon in the book of
judges and said that’s too many people
i can’t use 32 000.
now gideon logically was saying you just
we get may fight an army
that’s a big army i need as many men
as i can get to which god said you may
need them i don’t
your army’s too big
so i want you to shrink it down shrink
it down again shrink it down again until
you get down to 300.
god you got to be kidding me
you want me to fight an army that’s huge
with 300 men i know get in i want you to
fight an army with 300 men and me
so guess what he did he dropped logic
what he could see comparing his 32 000
with a group that he was going to fight
he dropped his logic and he obeyed god
when he obeyed god he routed the army
with 300 men because god joined the 300
when he obeyed what he couldn’t see
if you ask him to logically figure it
out he couldn’t do it he had to do what
god said do even when god what god said
do made absolutely no sense at all
so since the author of hebrews didn’t
have time to tell you i just thought i’d
tell you that by faith gideon rounded an
army even though he was scared to do it
the next name you get is barrett
if gideon was scared barrack was weak
he was a weak man
he was a man who ran from difficulty and
ran from trouble in fact
he got his strength from a woman named
deborah
he was too scared to go into battle
himself he told deborah i ain’t going
girl unless you’re going with me
so deborah as many women have to do had
to hold up my man’s hands
had to say come on man up eric
and with the encouragement of deborah
who had heard the word from the lord and
transferred it to barrack he believed
that word even though he was a weak man
and god used him by faith to route
the enemies of israel
gideon was was scared barrack was weak
and samson was a player
samson was a man who had
moral dilemmas
issues
but even though he was a
weak man in a certain area as born out
again in the book of judges
when he was willing to operate by faith
god would supernaturally invade him and
use him to take care of the philistines
so that the bible says
he killed one thousand men with the
jawbone of a donkey and at his ending
days he killed more
in his death than he had killed in his
life because when god got his attention
he would see the supernatural enter into
the natural
the man had some problems the man had
some issues but he still shows up in
hebrews 11.
it didn’t nullify the consequences but
what it did say was when you’re ready to
operate by faith you can see god show up
japheth
let me tell you about japheth
i’m only telling you because the author
of hebrews didn’t have time
japheth
was the son
of a
prostitute
he was the child of a prostitute
in judges chapter 11 the first three
verses tell you that
so he had a bad background
questionable mother
rejected by his siblings
he was in a messed up
family situation
but when god was looking for somebody to
deliver his people
he went over to japheth and said jabeth
i know that uh i know that your
background isn’t the best
i know that your family situation
isn’t preferable
but if you will do what i tell you to do
i’m gonna use you in spite of your past
i’m not gonna let your past control your
present or what i’m going to do with you
and your future but you got to do what i
tell you to do
jabeth obeyed god and routed the enemies
of god in spite of a poor background
then there’s david
david’s david’s short
david’s small
david’s young
david’s inexperience
but he runs into this mammoth man named
goliath of gath
and in first samuel 17 he takes a
slingshot and five smooth stones
and brings the giant down to his level
and below
so he didn’t let his size
determine where this battle was going to
wind up
so
just because the author of hebrews 11
didn’t have time
i thought i’d tell you about they didn’t
have samuel
he says samuel samuel had a problem
samuel was weak as a father
we find out samuel was weak as a father
and
and and when he was weak as a father
we’re told in first samuel chapter eight
that his sons no longer followed the
lord
and so samuel had some flaws as a dad
he didn’t even win his own sons but when
he was willing to operate by faith the
prophet daniel
would be anointing the king of israel
setting the nation of israel on a
spiritual course
that would lead them to a new direction
now why does he go through those names
and why did i go through those names
because each one of those folks by faith
achieved greatness wound up in the hall
of faith or one of our heroes in hebrews
chapter 11
even though they had flaws in their
lives
every one of them had weak spots every
one of them had areas that they hadn’t
developed yet every one of them had
places that needed to be uh shored up
and strengthened but when they were
willing to operate by faith god
graduated them to our museum the hall of
faith and made them one of the heroes
i don’t know about your yesterday
i do know if you’ll live by faith today
god can still use you tomorrow and
recognize you for what you have done
and achieved by faith
but it must be by faith and faith must
precede sight
if you’re waiting for sight it’s no
longer faith in each one of these men’s
lives and each one of the people found
in chapter 11
of hebrews men and women there was a
challenge that demanded faith
so the reason god allows a negative
uh obstacle to come into your presence
is to see whether you’re going to
face it by faith or face it by sight
when you face it by faith god joins you
in it when you face it by sight you take
care of it
he said but let me tell you what faith
can do
verse 33 it conquered kingdoms performed
after righteousness obtained promises
like daniel and the lions then shut the
mouths of lions like the three hebrew
boys quenched the power of fire escaped
the edge of the sword and weakness were
made strong became mighty in war put
foreign armies to flight
he says
faith watch this
is unprecedented in its power
because it can route whole nations
it can turn it can put out fires it can
it can make a lions keep their mouths
shut
he says
you don’t understand the power of faith
but you must be operating by biblical
faith which means faith must precede
sight
so if you’re saying god show me this and
then this is what i’ll do that’s not
faith
you say show me then i’ll respond no you
respond to me then i’ll show you
it must be by faith
when you accept jesus christ you accept
jesus christ through faith
by grace are you saved through faith
you accept jesus christ as your personal
savior
and through faith through trusting him
for the forgiveness of your sins you’re
giving eternal life
but while you trust christ through faith
you are now supposed to live your life
by faith
two different things
trust in christ for salvation is
receiving a gift
living by faith is doing a work
that is why the bible says in james 2
faith with our works is dead
let me tell you something else about
faith
verse 35
women receive back their dead by
resurrection
that’s what elijah and elisha did they
raised up the dead sons of the widows
they they
they raised them up he says by faith god
flipped the natural order of things so
that that which died became alive
any of you in a dead situation
doesn’t look like there’s any way to
change it doesn’t look like there’s no
power you can go to to flip it you don’t
have enough money to buy your way out of
it
but my question is have you operated by
faith
and faith must precede seeing
or else it’s not faith
and it will always involve something you
do not something you feel not something
you say it will always involve an act of
obedience to god and many times the acts
of obedience will not make sense
you won’t get support from carnal
friends you won’t get support eve from
family you may not even get support from
you
that’s why david said sometime he had to
encourage himself in the lord
he says
and others somebody say others
and this is the part of the sermon
you’re not gonna like
he says and others
verse 35 were tortured
not accepting their release so that they
may obtain a better resurrection
and others
verse 36
experienced mockings and scourgings yes
also chains and imprisonment
they were stoned they were sawed in two
they were tempted
they were put to death
with the sword
they went about in sheepskin goat skin
being destitute afflicted ill-treated
they are those who were penalized for
their faith
there were those who were penalized for
their stand
there were those who were mocked and
scorned and rebuked and talked about as
shown you born there were those who went
through
losses
losses now what caused the loss
he said something very interesting that
it’s uh
you might miss he says uh
not accepting their release
that’s interesting
he talked about all this negative stuff
and then he throws in there not
accepting their release well now
if you tell me i don’t accept my release
that means one was offered to me
okay if i didn’t accept something that
means i rejected it
so they could have gotten out of their
torture
they could have gotten out of their
mocking and scourging and negative
repercussions but they chose not to get
out of it
they chose to say no
i’d rather die i’d rather be saw it in
half i’d rather be mocked i’d rather be
scorned i’d rather i i thank you for
offering me release but i turn it down
now why would they do that nobody wants
to go look for persecution only a fool
goes and looks for pain only a fool
turns down the opportunity not to be in
pain
but he says they turned it down
two things you need to know
they turned it down one because of the
reason they’re going through it
they’re going through it because of
their association with the lord
their association with the lord has put
them in this mocking predicament
there’s a second reason they said no
they said no watch this now
because they saw a better resurrection
okay that’s what it says
not accepting their release because of a
better resurrection
what will give you the ability to keep
your stand as a christian and keep
living by faith is if you see something
better
see
one of the reasons we compromise our
faith is we don’t think there’s
something better
so we’ll renege on god we’ll renew on
his principles we’re all tempted to do
it we’ve all probably done it on some
level or another uh in our lives and
we’ll do it because we’re scared there’s
nothing better
if i maintain my faith on this job and
lose this job i’m going to be jobless so
let me compromise my faith on this job
i’m not talking about doing a bad job on
the job i’m talking about compromising
your christian character on the job let
me go with the crowd because i may not
be able to get something better
but when you understand that god is a
god of resurrection then you understand
that that situation does not have final
say-so in your life cause god knows how
to give you something better
see what the enemy wants to do is not
let you live by faith so you don’t get
to see anything better
and as long as you don’t see anything
better you stay stuck where you are and
you stay stuck on what your 2020 shows
you and if your 2020 doesn’t show it to
you anymore you’re not going to risk it
because you don’t see anything better
because you haven’t learned to live by
faith but once you learn to live by
faith god lets you see that he can
resurrect situations that you think are
going to kill you if you make the right
decision in it
38.
men of whom the world was not worthy
wandering in deserts and mountains and
caves and holes in the ground okay
let me say about
folk for whom
the world
is not worthy
there are a few people in the
congregation right now
who this world is not worthy of
what makes the world not worthy of
certain people
because they live so high in the
spiritual realm
even though they’re living physically in
the earthly realm
that the physical realm doesn’t even
know what they talking about
the physical realm think they’re weird
the physical world thinks they’re crazy
the physical world thinks they’ve lost
their mind the physical world thinks
that that they become fanatic and so we
never get to grow the faith because we
hang out with folk who the world is
worthy of not who the world is not
worthy of because they don’t live in
this world they live in that world while
walking in this world and what you want
in your circle of influence are some
folk who live up there even though they
walk down here
they operate from heaven’s point of view
consistently faith is how they roll
it’s not a place they visit
and so he concludes
he says and all these having gained
approval through their faith
watch this did not receive what was
promised because god had provided
something better for us so that apart
from us they would not be made perfect
so some or many of the old testament
saints
didn’t get
what they were looking for
abraham never got to own the land god
promised he got the wonder on it he
never got to own it although it was a
promise
so
they got to see god work but they didn’t
get to see everything god said
he says the reason that some of the old
testament saints didn’t get to see
everything god said
was that god was waiting on us
who’s to us us and the new testament
christians that’s you and me
there’s before christ old testament
then there’s after christ new testament
he said in the old testament
they got a bunch of stuff we see
miracles in hebrews 11
but they didn’t get it all
because they had to wait on us
in other words
they have some stuff
we don’t have
but a lot of them would love to be with
us
because
you and i get a freedom they didn’t have
living under the law
you and i get some privileges they
didn’t have in the old testament so he
says the reason god held out on them is
so that they could catch up with us
so the idea is
they’re supposed to learn from us we’re
supposed to learn from them so that we
get the whole package
of what god’s promises are for his
purposes in our lives so you and i are
supposed to learn from hebrews 11 in
order that we might learn faith so that
we can experience based on their example
much of what they experienced until god
brings us all together around his throne
so we’ll be able to take the old
testament christians and the new
testament christians and have a
conversation about the power of faith on
both sides of the cross
so i don’t know about you
but you ought to be motivated now to
live by faith
therefore
see whenever you see therefore you got
to ask what it’s there for
therefore
since we have so great a cloud of
witnesses
on you’ve been in church long enough to
know when the preacher says do i have a
witness
the author of hebrew says do i have a
witness
in fact he doesn’t want a witness he
wants to know do i have a cloud of
witnesses that’s a whole bunch of folks
who can testify that if you trust god
god is able to enter into your situation
even when you don’t see the result and
he’s able to turn that mama out
do i have a witness
is there somebody who can testify
that faith works
in the hands of god’s people
[Music]
the whole goal
of living by faith
is to be approved of god
for god to say you passed
to be part of the group of people
who whether they saw a miracle or did
not see a miracle
god still did a check mark and said
you pass
and the way to pass in your christian
life
is to trust god enough
to follow his lead even when you can’t
see the outcome
then you become part of that elite group
of special people
who get congratulated by the almighty
[Music]
[Music]
so
[Music]
you