 Father, and have we do pray your blessing upon our dear brother Kirk tonight? There's an important word from the Lord. There's a Deep teaching of scripture that we need to understand tonight and this foundational opening message Would you use a dear father to prepare our hearts put a longing in our hearts put hope in our hearts Give us courage tonight dear God that we can be part of a testimony that will long outlive And in one of us and your father especially for the dear people tonight who gather together and saying Lord Please speak to me. I have these issues of my these difficulties I'm facing and used our dear brother tonight and his Meditations and his time of prayer and his walk with you and the inspiration you give him To bless our hearts tonight. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much It's such a blessing to be here again the anticipation The wooing of the Spirit the coming together of God's people as we Assemble and worship Hallelujah, what a savior What a savior and so I just want to say that it's a great privilege Once again to be in your midst. I stand humbled before God and in your presence I just pray that God will meet you where you are meet me where I am God will bless us in a very real and a very mighty way throughout this weekend and More particularly this evening as we worship together No matter where you come from No matter the circumstances of your life If you have been born again if you have met Jesus Christ in reality If you're walking in fellowship with him and obedience to his word If you're walking in the power of the Spirit you have a testimony to give You have a testimony and I have a testimony And as a part of my testimony I will say that the lives of faithful men and women of God During my years of searching during my years of turning my back on God during the years I moved from agnosticism To a place of embracing the reality of the born-again life in Jesus Christ One of the key elements in that stretch of my life Was the fact that I was able to see here and there a few scattered examples of Individuals who had that which I did not have They had authentic joy. They had authentic peace. They had authentic purpose in life and when God brought me finally to the end of Myself and I cried out and I wondered what shall I do? It was the examples of faithful men and women of God who was a clear beacon through the darkness of that night. I Suspected every one of us Could have a similar testimony to that that it was the example of faithful men and women who was a shining beacon That brought us to the place That God wanted us to be Salvation in Jesus Christ and so tonight That my testimony centers on the authenticity that I saw and other individuals I'm going to spend time in this message in the 11th chapter of Hebrews We're going to look at some key elements some key statements in this passage of scripture and the intent is That every one of us no matter our circumstances No matter the difficult path of life Every one of us could find inspiration Every one of us could find instruction Every one of us could find the enabling power of the Holy Spirit of God as he worked in the lives of others And as he has promised that he'll also work in our lives As has been mentioned the theme of this weekend is historic heroes of the faith You might have some objections to that word heroes you might prefer words like Archetype or exemplar But heroes is something that we can understand perhaps readily and so we're going to just use that phrase tonight Every phrase every every word of human language, of course has its inadequacies and no doubt this one does too As we look at historic heroes of the faith at particularly in the 11th chapter of Hebrews We're going to find that there are 16 individuals who are named in this passage and there are dozens and perhaps hundreds of others That are alluded to without name as we look at the account that is given here One of the expressions that is common to every one of them Whether it's one of the sixteen named or the dozens or hundreds of unnamed individuals is found in the night in the 39th Verse and that verse says that every one of them Every one of them obtained a good report through faith Obtained a good report through phase. I want to speak tonight about the good report of faith It's not only in the 39th verse of this chapter that we find the good good report of faith But you'll find it at the very beginning of the chapter Where the Bible says here that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good report in That second verse of Hebrews 11 There are nine words in the English Bible that I'm using Whether you're using the King James version or the new King James You'll find nine words there in that second verse of Hebrews 11 However in the Greek and I don't know what your native tongue might be tonight I don't know what kind of languages you might speak But if you just go to the Greek language, you'll find that this verse only has six words and roughly speaking Those words correlate the first five of them do to the first five words in our English Bible But when the Bible comes to the last four words in the Greek Obtained a good report through faith a good obtained a good report in the English that is all one Greek word And you'll find that word five times in this chapter You'll find it in verse 39. You'll find it of course here in verse two You'll find it twice in verse four as the Bible speaks here about able This verse says by faith able offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice in Cain by which he Obtained witness. There's that word again obtained witness that he was righteous God Testifying that's the word again God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh You'll find it also in verse five of this chapter where the Bible says concerning Enoch that God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony this Testimony that he pleased God And so we have the frequent occurrence in this chapter of the good report of faith the good report of faith It's spoken of able specifically it's spoken of Enoch specifically It's spoken of the elders it's spoken of all of those who are named or referenced here in this chapter in this passage of scripture Others in the New Testament also are indicated to be individuals who have a good report of faith specifically will find individuals Like Cornelius in Acts 10 Ananias in Acts 22 and Demetrius in the third Epistle of John all of them the Bible says had a good report as we think about the good report of faith tonight We want to think briefly about faith as it's spoken of at the onset of this chapter This first verse of Hebrews 11 says that faith is evidential and faith is substantial Notice that word substance that the Bible uses here to describe biblical faith true biblical faith Substance it says This word substance. I'm going back to the Greek word now But this word substance is a word that's used in Hebrews only in reference to Jesus Christ Substance the Greek word translated substance here is used exclusively Only in the book of Hebrews in reference to Jesus Christ It's found in the very beginning of the book when the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 God who at sundry times and in divers manners Spake unto our fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son By whom also he made the world who being the brightness of his glory and the express image The express image of his person when he had purged our sins was set down at the right hand of God right hand of the throne of God The express image of his person. That's the same word that we find written as substance in chapter 11 Also in Hebrews we will find in chapter 3 Another reference to this same word in verse 14 when it speaks about our confidence in Jesus Hebrews 3 14 says this for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold our Confidence the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end So when the Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for dear ones tonight It's referring us back to Jesus Christ the foundation of our faith Jesus He is our substance He is the image that we look to he is the confidence that we have Faith is a term to be jealously guarded it speaks of Jesus and The Bible says this faith has a good report So we're going to examine Lives of various historic heroes of the faith We're going to see the evidence of various aspects of their faith and Draw inspiration instruction enabling power for us to be individuals who have the same good report of faith I don't know how much time How how quickly this message is going to move and how the time is going to be so I'm just going to to hold before you three or four Aspects of the good report of faith all of them are specifically mentioned here Referenced here in this passage the 11th chapter of Hebrews. I want to speak first of all about the relational aspect of the good report the relational aspect of the good report This good report is founded upon this relational perspective or this relational aspect The Bible says that two or two individuals who are referenced here by name in Hebrews chapter 11 Who walked with God? They walked with God and those two individuals are Enoch and Noah and The expression that says they walked with God is found back in the book of the Genesis in Genesis chapter 5 in the case of Enoch and in Genesis chapter 6 in the case of Noah Both of these individuals it says in the book of Genesis walked with God There's no other character No other personality in the Bible where it specifically says they walked with God The inference is there. We believe they walked with God I believe as I look into your faces the staff this evening that many of you are walking with God But these are the only two individuals that the Bible specifically says verbatim that they walked with God Enoch and Noah and So I want to hold them as the examples in Hebrews 11 of individuals who had a relational aspect of the good report Enoch and Noah There have been many many great men and women of faith There have been many many individuals who walked and lived and experienced the vitality and the vibrancy of fellowship with God For 6,000 years it's happened Experiencing this communion this daily communion this moment-by-moment communion with God walking with God Individuals who walked in sanctification We have many examples here in Hebrews 11. It's already been referenced We have other examples of individuals that we're going to look at this weekend James the rather of Jesus Michael Sattler Peter Waldo and others as well Individuals who walked with God who experienced fellowship with him who had this relational aspect of the good report You can think about Anabaptist forebears that we have you can think about how many of them Walked with God. They had the relational aspect of the good report You can think about other individuals from history hit church history individuals like George Muller of Bristol or William Tyndall or a host of other individuals, but all of them had this relational aspect of the good report if Your desirous of the relational aspect of the good report There are certain things that are essential that you would Understand it as you would embrace in your lives If you want to have this relational aspect of the good report it begins with personal devotion and piety of life Personal devotion and party of life It means individuals who recognize that there's that life is too short You know, it's only a vapor that appears for a little while and then passes away Life is too short to while it away sleeping. It's a time for men and women to get up early if they're going to walk in personal piety and if they're going to live in devotion to Jesus Christ Early risers minimum in a prayer individuals who trust God and Individuals who are willing to persevere in the most difficult of circumstances when the night is the darkest Individuals who will persevere as they trust God to lead them lead us and Direct us and walk us through the trials Into the glorious sunshine a perfect day in his presence We have the assurance of God's affection toward us the Bible over and over gives us to understand That God loves his human creation We have the assurance over and over again of God's affection toward us The Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 16 God has said I Will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them say at the Lord and be a separate and touch not the unclean thing And I will receive you unto myself and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters Say at the Lord God Almighty what a tremendous promise God is inviting us He wants us to be his sons and daughters The assurance of God's affection toward us It's actually Contained in two very clear statements about God in the New Testament scriptures first of all God is an approachable God James 4 verse 8 says this draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you. God is inviting you tonight If you're here standing in a place that you do not want to be God is inviting you my dear ones tonight to draw near Draw nigh to God and the promise is that he will draw nigh to you He is an approachable God Not only is he an approachable God as we think about the assurance of God's affection toward us Not only is he an approachable God, but he is an abiding God an Abiding God Hebrews 13 5 God has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee That's the promise that God makes to individuals who continue to seek him That's the promise God makes to individuals who are willing to live as he teaches who are willing to fall before him in repentance I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He is both an approachable God and an abiding God the relational aspect of the good report is clearly portrayed for us here in this 11th chapter of Hebrews and in the lives of faithful men and women that we've had the privilege to To watch and to witness through the years There's another aspect of the good report that I want for you to consider tonight. I Want you to consider the sacrificial aspect of the good report? The sacrificial aspect of the good report this passage speaks about sacrifice Both explicitly and implicitly It speaks about examples of individuals like Abel who offered a more excellent sacrifice than came It speaks about individuals like Moses and I want you to notice the sacrifice of Moses as you look at verses 24 through 26 and the Bible says here by faith Moses when he was come to years He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season as Steaming the reproach of Christ greater sacrifice greater riches Than the treasures in Egypt You see the sacrifice that Moses made the exchange that Moses made he gave up some things to gain other things One of the things that the Bible says here in this passage is that Moses exchanged pleasures for Treasures that excelled all the riches in Egypt He gave up he exchanged He sacrificed the pleasures For the treasures, you know Exchanging things when God is in it always results in a tremendous Tremendous blessing and it was that way in the life of Moses He did not want He was willing to surrender the pleasures The pleasures that are referenced in Hebrews 11 You know think about the day and time in which we live Think about that the focus and the emphasis on things like pleasure Just so much is spent So much time is given to just seeking pleasures things like entertainment and amusement Think about these things think about the encroaching the deadly influence it has in our lives Entertainment and amusement You know that word amusement is worth some consideration There can be no doubt who's behind this The root word of course is amuse and The root of that is muse that means to think the prefix is a that means to not So amuse means to not think amusement entertainment is Directed toward individuals so they will stop thinking Do any of you tonight want to be in a place where you no longer think? That's not where we want to be We want to be Individuals who as we allow the spirit of God to work with us. We're thinking We're considering We're giving care to the kind of life that we're living to the kind of walk that Jesus Christ is Calling us to be engaged in entertainments and amusements life of sacrifices the life of sacrifices The life of selfishness The life of selfishness is to be exchanged for the life of crossbearing bearing the cross that Jesus talked about Those who are men and women of faith Those who have the good report of faith Exchange the life of selfishness for the life of cross bearing Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 16 if any man will come after me Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it And he that loses his life shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And the answer is obvious Nothing Will profit us if we lose our soul Nothing Should be exchanged As we think about this exchange that takes place Nothing should be exchanged as we think about the the blessing Of living as other individuals have lived as they're portrayed for us here in Hebrews chapter 11 You know even individuals who have Embraced this godly exchange Giving up the life of selfishness Embracing the life of cross bearing Even individuals as stalwart as the apostle Peter have questions sometimes Whether it was really worth it And I know we should make some distinction between Peter Pre-conversion and post-conversion But I think about Peter's life and I draw inspiration and instruction from his life And I'm sure that you do as well But Peter said to Jesus one time After Jesus had taught the people had taught his disciples On the frivolity of seeking riches And the blessing of surrendering everything Peter said to Jesus he said Lord Low We have left all to follow thee In other words Peter was rebuking Jesus I think by saying You don't need to tell us to give everything up You don't need to tell us that we know that we have left everything To follow you But in that statement the way Peter expresses it The thought comes through that there was some lament that Peter had About the difficult life of being a disciple of Jesus Christ And you know what Jesus told Peter and told those disciples Jesus told Peter that there were blessings as a cross bearing disciple That were both present and future For Peter, for the other disciples 2000 years ago For disciples of Jesus all through the intervening years For disciples of Jesus Christ even today Jesus said no man has left houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother Or wife or children or lands for my sake But what he shall receive a hundred fold in this life And in the world to come eternal glory Jesus focused both on the present and the future as he reminded Peter That the exchange was really inequitable what Peter gave up and what we give up the sacrifices we make The sacrifices individuals like Abel made or Moses made Or faithful unnamed hundreds perhaps of individuals have made through the years Is nothing in comparison to the great blessing that we get Not only in eternal glory not only in heaven above but also in this life Experiencing eternal glory in this life as we walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ We have the sacrificial aspect of the good report clearly portrayed to us here In this 11th chapter of Hebrews. I think I have time for one more aspect For us to consider tonight in this message as we speak about the good report of faith I'm going to refer to this as the visual aspect of the good report The visual aspect of the good report As we walk through this 11th chapter of Hebrews We're going to see words like this that emphasize that the people around these individuals The people around them were seeing things It was visual the good report of faith was visual in their lives and in their time We're going to see things like Abel offered that could be seen Or Enoch walked that could be seen We're going to see that Abraham sojourned that could be seen We're going to see that Sarah conceived that could be seen You can walk right on through the 11th chapter of Hebrews And you're going to find that the testimony the good report of faith Well had a visual aspect to it There are many public testimonies of faithfulness Not only in this passage but in lives of historic heroes of the faith As we refer to them this weekend I want you to look at verses 33 through 38. I want to read these verses to you tonight Hebrews 11 verses 33 through 38 Who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quits the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens Women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yay more over a bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were saunas under were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and the list could go on and on of the visual aspect of the good report of faith as portrayed in the lies of faithful men and women of God all through the centuries the visual aspect of faith there are other examples also portrayed here in this passage of scripture i'm going to just lift out one expression that i have just been blessed with as i focused on it the last several weeks that is the example the visual aspect of the good report the example of those who turned to flight the armies of the aliens they turned to flight the armies of the aliens i don't know who's spoken of in that passage of scripture exactly i think examples like gideon would certainly would certainly fit here or examples like samson or david himself among others but they turned to flight the armies of the aliens in other words in using language that were more common to today we could say they routed the invaders they routed them they turned to flight the armies of the aliens you know six thousand years ago an alien spirit invaded this world in which we live not only one of them but a third of the angels of heaven were involved in this as well they invaded the place that we live as we think about the examples in he bruise 11 dear brother dear sister kind friend tonight the example is they routed the invaders they turned to flight the armies of the aliens where are we tonight in this warfare where are we tonight as we think about gods calling upon our heart gods calling in our lives are we willing to be a part of this host that has engaged in the battle routing the invaders to borrow the verbiage of one of the prophets of old it's time to furnish the spirits and put on the brigandines let's get involved in this routing the invaders putting to flight the armies of the aliens the alien forces have gained too much ground as individuals as men and women who are willing to follow jesus christ who are willing to walk in the power of the holy spirit we have the privilege to be on the victoria side we have the privilege to be engaged in this warfare of routing the invaders putting to flight the armies of the aliens that is our privilege tonight are we willing to do that how are we doing in this he bruise effusions chapter six i'm sorry effusions chapter six speaks of some of the things that ought to be portrayed in our lives as we think about this warfare we're wrestling we're standing against all resistance we're quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one we're praying always as we engage in this battle we recognize tonight that our weaponry is not sword and spear the kind of weapons that goliath exercised with or at least threatened to use but it's a mighty faith in god like that stripling lad of old david by name it's the mighty faith in god that enabled enables us to be victorious in this battle the weapons of our warfare are not carnal the bible says in single carinthians chapter 10 verse 5 we do not war after the flesh the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imagination and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god our weaponry is far vastly superior to the weaponry of the invading forces the aliens that we encounter our weaponry is trustworthy our weaponry a mighty faith in god our weaponry can be trusted we are to be visual individuals we're to have a visual aspect of faith faith the world around us ought to see that we are walking we are living this good report of faith I don't know if you've ever thought really a lot about the first verse of chapter 12 verse 41 of Hebrews 11 chapter 12 verse 1 but notice what this passage says now it's just listed 16 by name and dozens of others in this passage and the good report of faith that came from them every one of them according to verse 39 had a good report of faith it's just listed it's just described to us how in our day in their day in the days of able in the days of Noah in the days of Abraham in the days of moses the days of enic sarah and the list goes on they had witnesses they had the testimony they had the good report of faith and then the bible says and these words are spoken to us tonight as we think about our calling wherefore seeing we also we too we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses in the year 2019 we are compassed we are surrounded with this great cloud of witnesses seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us have grace whereby we may serve I'm getting my passages tangled let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us of course looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and so just as these individuals in Hebrews 11 had the good report of faith just as individuals like James the brother of Jesus had a good report of faith or Peter Waldo had a good report of faith or a host of other individuals Jonathan Edwards could be referenced had a good report of faith and many other individuals throughout 6000 years of human history so you tonight and I tonight can have this good report of faith the good report of faith in conclusion I want to leave you with some questions three of them based on the message tonight are you really walking with God as you break out into your small groups as you think about how the Spirit is calling you this weekend ask yourself the question are you really walking with God in personal devotions in sanctification and in piety is that a reality question number two are you living sacrificially abandoning the amusements and entertainments of this world and engaged in willing crossbearing as you follow Jesus are you living sacrificially abandoning amusements and engaged in crossbearing question number three are you striving to route the invasive forces in every area of your life are you striving to route the invaders in a visible way before the watching world if we can answer yes to those questions and perhaps others that will come to our attention as the Spirit of God moves in our midst as he calls us and speaks to us and woos us into a place where we are walking in fellowship and daily and moment by moment communion with Jesus Christ if we can answer those questions with a resounding yes then our testimony is that we are living the good report of faith that's the intent that's the desire for this series of meetings this weekend may god bless you as you strive to live the good report of faith