Enoch pleased God. He walked by faith and was taken to Heaven. Moses chose the treasure of Christ. The reward of the Lord came to these men. They could see and believe that God is. You need the equipment that faith can give. Don’t limit God by human thinking. Talk back to the devil by faith. (Hebrews 11:1-6, 24-26)

Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Sermon: 12773
Date: 2024-08-21
Time: Wed 7:00pm

 

P. Schaller – Wow! Praise the
Lord! I fee like just praising God like a lot. You know what I mean? I do. In my heart, praising
God just with you. Praising God. Thank you, Lord. Faith. Like living in faith. Isn’t that good? It is.
Faith.

I’ll share with you the text for tonight, Hebrews 11. Faith. A message on faith. So, we have Heb. 11.
A lot happened this summer because of life, what happens in life and then faith. What we have
in our hearts. We live by faith. How much happens because of faith. We have Polish brothers
and sisters here. Maybe, you want to stand for a second.

P. Maciek. Yes. So, one family is the family. Tomas is dropping his son off. Making sure that he’s – he’s making sure that we’re okay!

Okay. So, that’s great. Bible school is starting next Monday. Years ago, people went to Poland.
How did they go there? By faith. Yeah. We went by faith. People went by faith. A lot happens
because of faith and God has called us to live with reason and common sense and like practical
things in life and then also faith is a big part of life.

So, this is Hebrews 11:1. Okay. So, it actually is something. It actually – it is something. Good
example, good example when we were living in Hungary, my son Justin in January, like he’d
been there through the year, the school year, and in January he was kind of excited about
coming back to America. I said to him you’re going to go back in the spring or in the summer,
but like don’t look forward to that too much. It might not happen, right? But then, don’t miss
the present. Like what’s here now. What you’re doing now here. Like don’t put your heart on
something way ahead. However, you can have faith.

And when you are excited about the future and you can see it in your mind, you can see it, then
that’s actually faith. Before you go on your family vacation, what’s the best day of the vacation?
Maybe the day before you go. And in your heart, you’re thinking about your vacation and in
your heart is there substance there before you go on the vacation? Is there something in your
heart? Or maybe getting married. And before you are married, do you have something that
actually you are believing. You are believing that this is a good thing. You’re believing that this
woman will be my wife or this man will be my husband.

So, faith has substance. How about before you buy a car? You look at the car and you can just
see it in your driveway, you know. Maybe. You can get excited about it before you have it,
before you buy it. Before you own it, is there any substance there? Is there something that we
have – actually, as we are sitting in this room tonight and our sisters and brothers who have
gone on to heaven, is there some growing anticipation about that reality? That you are going to
heaven. I hope so. Turn to your neighbor and say, I hope you’re going to make it there. I hope.

Hey! What would be the appropriate answer from a Greater Grace person? I hope. Yes, you can
bet on it. I’m going by the blood of Jesus. I’m there. I mean it’s good. Okay. All right. So, I got off
a little bit. Okay. No, I didn’t . All right.

So, what is the meaning here? Faith has substance and we’re living this life by faith. How did
you come to church? Maybe by faith. Maybe you were tired but you just said, I got to go. I’m
going to go. Every time I go, when I drive home I’m happy I went. How about it. Come on. I’m
not lying. Am I lying or not? No. come on. That’s true. I go home every, all the time – is that P.
Jason Moore back there? You’re kidding me! You and the Polish people connected! Man, let’s
give him a good hand. Welcome, P. Jason. Wow! Good to see you. Hey! We’ve been dying ever
since he left. We’re dying on the vine over here. Come and help us. Come back! Okay.

Faith. We say prayers in the morning by faith. Sometimes we open our Bible by faith. We also
say no to things by faith. We just have, we have substance in our life. But reason is very limited.
But it has it’s place. It has it’s place in life. But don’t limit your life by reason. You will talk
yourself out of very good things.

Look at that list there. I’m going a little long here, but I got a promised Anu something. He and I
have a little promise together, so. Look at chapter 11:1.

Hey! We are the evidence that God exists, right? We are the evidence. They haven’t seen God. We haven’t seen God but we have something in our heart that’s from God and we have faith.
Vs. 2. The Jewish elders: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Vs. 3. God spoke the word and it
happened. God said it and it happened. Come on! Isn’t that amazing. God spoke the word, “let
there be light” and there was light. Isn’t that amazing! And it was and could he do the same
today? That he could say the word and it is what he said. And then he says it to us and we hear
it and believe it and embrace it and we have faith. Faith comes by hearing what God is saying by
the word. Isn’t that beautiful? Very simple. Okay.

I’m going to stop right there. Boy, I’m getting going. I know I’m going to get going there. This is
a great text. All right. Amen. Now, what I want you to do is if you went anywhere this summer –
Bolivia, Norway, Scotland – on a mission from here, then would you just stand up. You went to
South Dakota. Just say praise the Lord! You went somewhere. Eight countries in Europe. Wow.
Amazing. P. Gary, all over the place. How did you go? By faith. Did you pay for your ticket? No, I
told the airline I’m getting on. I’m getting on by faith. No, I paid for my ticket. I paid for my
ticket even. I did it all by faith.

I had a vision in my heart. It started last February. I planned my
summer. It happened. Not only when I went, but I also came back. Wow! What happens when
we live by faith. What about it? When we love, when we love people by faith. What a beautiful
thing that is.

So, now, maybe 1986. I don’t remember. P. Roger Stenger went to Poland with Pirjo, Aiya, Rita.
It was amazing. Met this young man so many years ago. 1986. You do the math. Okay. He was 7
years old at that time! And he became a pastor. He followed the Lord by faith and we just thank
God for the work in Poland and he’s going to come and take the offering.

Okay. We’ll get right to the message here. Wow. I loved that song. Wasn’t that good? I loved it.
Wow. So good. Are you okay? Refreshed. Are you ready to listen or you want to move around a
minute? Are you ready to go? You want to – we’re good? It’s Wednesday. Just get going with
the message! Come on! We don’t have all night! All right.

Hebrews 11 and here’s the principle. (Prayer).

Okay. Here is the picture. Little picture. Very simple.
Here’s Adam and Eve. Let’s put Eve with a dress on! Okay. They are in the Garden. Does that
look good? Okay. So, there it is. Who knows even how smart they were. How perceptive. What
their skills were. They were keeping a large garden area and God was with them. No sin in their
life. I mean what skills did they have? And also, God, the voice of God was walking in the
Garden. Voices don’t walk but bodies walk. So, I wonder what body that was walking that was
also talking? That’s Jesus. Christ was with them in the Garden. He was walking and he was
talking.

Whenever God talks to you, he builds you up in love and in faith and truth. That’s the nature of
God. It was very good. But when Eve saw that the tree was good – she saw that the tree was
good – that’s sight. And then she understood that she could be like God, have knowledge. She
could have knowledge. She would know good and evil and be like God.

Then, there’s a temptation. And the temptation is to do what Satan is saying and not what God is saying. God is
saying don’t eat of it and Satan is saying no, you will not die. That’s a lie. But that’s what he is.
He’s the father of lies. You will not die. You will not die. Say that many times. You will not die.
No, not you. Don’t do that. Hey! Don’t do that. Okay.

So, walk by sight and by your own intelligence. By your own reasonableness. By maybe the
desire for knowledge and also the whole idea of being like God. Sounds good. If they were to
obey God, how would they be obeying God if they say, no. We’re not eating of that tree. Or Eve
was to say, no. Or Adam would have played role of being the head of the family and stepped in
and said, back off. You’re out of here. You’re not in our family. You are a foreigner, a stranger.
You are a spirit, a liar. You are a deceiver, a tempter. I have no place. There is no place for you
here. We have no place in our heart for your lie.

How could they do that? Yes, by faith. That’s how you talk back to the devil. You talk back to
the devil by faith. But this is what happened. By their sin, they got stuck in a box of life. Sin.
Knowledge. Feelings. Themselves. Turning inside. I am naked. We are afraid. We are afraid of
God. Now, we’re afraid of God. We should be close to God, but now we are afraid of God and
we are hiding from God. And so, how do you overcome this box? By faith.

Faith is what overcomes the world, 1 John. 5:4. By faith. Yeah, but what about your life being
messed up? Our life can be very messed up but how do we overcome? By faith in God. How
does it happen? I can’t explain it. I just know God told us and this text is one of the texts for it.
So, turn to Chapter 11. Hebrews 11:4, and that’s a message in itself, isn’t it. He offered sheep,
blood. Cain offered agriculture, vegetables. Abel’s sacrifice worked.

It affected his countenance. It affected his freedom, his heart. He was outside the box. He was a worshipper. Cain was
sullen. His countenance was downcast. He was envious and jealous of his brother. He was not
free of his sin. He had not lived by faith. He did not offer a sacrifice that was acceptable. He
didn’t live by the Word of God. These are my words but the principle is there that he didn’t live
by the Word of God.

You see. Adam and Eve sinned. God killed an animal. That means shedding blood. Put the skins
on Adam and Eve and probably they could tell their sons when you worship God, you kill an
animal. That’s what God showed us. And he gave us restoration. He saved us. Adam and Eve
were saved by God. That’s Ge. 3:24 in what all Bible teachers or theologians would say about
that text. There isn’t a question in my mind about it. Salvation came to Adam and Eve by the
clothing of the skins of the animal. Abel did the same. Abel’s offering is accepted. Cain’s is not.
It’s not accepted.

Okay. Vs. 5. The text is that he disappeared. He was gone. He walked with God and he never
died. He went for a walk with God. They walked. I think he was, was he 366 years old when he
went for a walk with God and never came home. His wife said, where’s Enoch? Where did
Enoch go? He went to heaven. He was translated to heaven without seeing death. How did it
happen? He walked by faith.

What’s the lesson? That we also have something more than this box. We have something more.
Something like this. I mean this little diagram, I draw it all the time, don’t I? I mean it is just a
picture. Like by faith, Enoch didn’t even – his faith, God rewarded him and took him and you
could say, how did he do that? How did that happen? The only answer is God did it. Well, who
is God? Well, very good question. And you’ll never know who God is unless you live by faith.
That’s the next verse, isn’t it?

Vs. 5. So, Enoch is living hundreds of years and the neighborhood knows and people know that
man pleases God. That man is a man of faith. He walks with God by faith and God took him.
That leads to vs. 6. So, that’s quite a profound statement, isn’t it? That’s these two things here.
They saw and they want knowledge. They may be very smart but they don’t have faith. They
might be very reasonable. Might build a civilization like Cain. They might have a very successful
life. Might have a great career.

Might even have like Ecclesiastes said a hundred children and everything about their life is like something amazing, but actually, we all know that living in that box of unbelief it isn’t that amazing. Sodom and Gomorrah when Lot and Abraham separated, Abraham said you go that way. I’ll go that way. You got that way. I’ll go that way. And Lot lifted
up his eyes and he looked at Sodom and Gomorrah. He saw, right? There it is. He saw. He saw.
It was beautiful like the garden of God. I’ll go there. We saw. So, we see. We see. And we make
judgments about things.

I’m not saying it’s totally wrong. I’m just saying you need more than what you see to govern
your life. You need faith to govern your life. What do you see? Las Vegas. Las Vegas. Okay.
Some people are not attracted to it but some are. But some say I’m not going there because I’m
living by faith. But I see it but I have something else. I have a life of faith. Or in Jon Perkins’ case
and Ildiko, we see it and we’re going in the will of God. And we go there by faith and plant a
church in Las Vegas and we thank God for that. Let’s give the Lord a hand for that. Praise the
Lord! Yes, Lord. People in Las Vegas need the Gospel. They need the Gospel. But you know
what I’m saying. I’m, I’m sure you’re following it.

Look at vs. 6. Oh, you are a great group of people tonight. Oh. Vs. 6. That’s like one, that’s an
emphasis. Does God exist? I hope so. Not sure. I think so, No, no, no, no. Does he exist? Does he
exist to the point where you are saying I believe he is. I believe he exists and it means
something. That’s what I believe. That’s the meaning here, right? No, no. I believe he exists.
He’s in my house every day. He is in the car all the time. He’s everywhere present and he knows
all things and he is God and he’s respected as God in my heart. They that come to God must
believe that he is and he is a rewarder. You can say it. He is a rewarder. For he that comes to
God must believe he is and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

He is a rewarder. Now, that’s a good word. What are you going to give me, Lord? I’ll show you. Trust me. No, no, no. I got to cut a deal with you. If it’s what – tell me. What are you going to reward me with? No, no. This is faith. You got
to live by faith. No, I don’t operate like that. I want it up front. Okay. I need a contract. Promise
me. Show me. Give it to me. And the Lord says, no. You got to believe I am and if you are
trusting me and believing in me, I am a rewarder. I reward. I give people things. I do.
Okay. What do you give? I gave Abel a clean conscience. I gave Abel a free heart. A spirit of
worship. All right. What else did you give? I gave Enoch a free pass. He never saw death. I took
him to heaven. He’s with me now and he never died. What else did you give? I gave Noah an
ark. I told him beforehand water is coming.

Disaster is coming. Catastrophe is coming and you build an ark and I’ll be with you 120 years. And he built an ark.
I’ll tell you. You couldn’t have found a happier guy when that ark was floating on top of that
water and he had this big smile with all his family members on that ark and he knew in his heart
that he believed me and I am a rewarder. I reward people. I give to people. I save people. I give them satisfaction. I give them words. I deliver them. I exalt them. I encourage them. I love
them. I make them in my family. I have saved them by my grace. They that come to me must
believe that I am. That I AM the I AM. I am God. I can take the Jews out of Egypt. I can give
them a Promised Land and give them promises and prophets and give the world a Savior. And
put him on the cross and raise him from the dead. I am a rewarder of those that diligently seek
me and I have not changed. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever.  I am God. And we say, Lord, forgive me for being such a small, crusty, old man in this little box where
people walked on my lawn and somebody stole my newspapers. I don’t think they have
newspapers anymore. Just a small little person afraid.

Afraid of life. Afraid of life. Imagine. Let me finish up here.
I was thinking today about our uniform as believers. We have a helmet. You can talk back to
me. We have a uniform as believers. What is it? A helmet. A shield. Okay. Our sword. Our girdle.
Our belt with all the – our belt. And there we are and our shoes. Our shoes.
Now, in the book of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar has a vision of the civilizations of the world,
it starts high quality at the head. What’s the metal? Gold. And down at the feet what? Clay and
iron. Clay and iron cannot hold up that heavy metal. Clay and iron cannot walk.

Clay and iron is not good shoes. Go to Walmart and buy shoes made of clay and iron. It’s not going to work.
That means that civilization – this is a metaphor – that the civilizations of the world are not very
good at walking. They’re not very good at actually making a stand. But Christ’s kingdom makes
a stand. And our shoes are the preparation of the Gospel of peace. We have very good shoes
and they fit well.

When you go to buy a pair of shoes, what do you do? When you buy a pair of shoes, what do
they – maybe somebody waits on you. I don’t know if they do that anymore. Remember the gas
stations that would wait on you? Remember all that stuff. I don’t know what’s going on. Okay.
What’s your shoe size? Try these on. When you try the shoe on, you want to see does it fit,
right? Does the shoe work? Is it appropriate for what I’m doing? Will it stand up if I walk a long
way, if I stand.

Climbing shoes. What over shoes are there? Scuba diving flippers. You don’t walk in those. You
swim in those. You have to be prepared. A fireman that goes into a big fire has to have the
equipment to handle the fire. And a Christian needs because without faith, your life will be very
different. That’s why going to church to listen and to be with the sisters and brothers and talk
together and be together helps you a lot.

If you and I don’t have that equipment for what this life can give to us, if we don’t have faith, if
we are just analyzing in a little room; we’ll be so judgmental, so critical, so negative, so unthankful, so hurt, so disappointed. We are disappointed by family members. We are disappointed by my boss, by my company, by my church, by my pastor. I’m disappointed by maybe the mission. I’m disappointed by people. I’m disappointed by things that happen to me in life. I can be so disappointed in life unless I have the right equipment and clothing on. And
that means that I need to live a life where I have more than reason in what I see. I need faith.
By faith. This is a good message, isn’t it? I don’t want to go to fast here but I’m under the clock.
No, okay. No. I got to say something here.

This is so good. Wow. I just need really good shoes, you know, ’cause these shoes are a very big
part of – have you ever run on gravel with barefooted? Have you live barefooted? Maybe you
have if you’re from Kentucky or something. I’m joking. Okay. I’m joking. They wear shoes. Okay.
So, Allen’s back there. They’re moving back. We’re so – give them a hand. This couple is
amazing. They’ve been with us for a long, many – one year maybe? Have you been with us one
year? Two years. Oh, eight months.

Two years? No, eight. Seems like 20. Okay. So, when the
conditions are more severe, the equipment is more critical. If you go into a burning house, you
need very good equipment to survive. If you’re a scuba diver, you need very good equipment to
go down 150 feet. If you do not have it, you will not survive.

In this world if you live here without faith, then you are going to have a very different life from
somebody who lives by faith. But faith is the key to finding God. You’ll find God. Sarah had a
child, remember? The list goes on. All these names. David and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all these names and we come to Moses.

And I want – this is a totally another message, but I want to point out eight verse in this text,
chapter 11:24. Refused. He refused. That’s a message in itself. I refuse to be an Egyptian. I
refuse to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. I’m out of here. I’m following God. The Jewish
people, those are my people. I’m a Jew. I am from the Jewish nation. My father is Abraham, not
Pharaoh. My father is Abraham. I am from that family, that tribe, that group of people. I am
Moses. I am not the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. I am not of this world. I refuse to be called the
son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Is that good?

Verb #2, vs. 25. Choosing. How do you choose? By faith. Choosing to suffer affliction with the
people of God. Vs. 26. He was esteeming. This is a very good word. Esteeming what? The
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Their reproach of Christ. The
shame. If I follow Christ, there will be trouble. I take it. I choose. I esteem that as a treasure. If I
follow Christ, my family may reject me. I will take it. It may not be easy, but I will esteem the
treasure of Christ over my family accepting me over Hindu or Muslim or whatever. Catholic or
whatever I am or whatever the ideology is. Whatever it is. I am esteeming the rejection as
treasure. I take it. That’s what it says there.

Vs. 27. He forsook Egypt. Forsook by faith. Vs. 27. He endured by seeing him who is invisible. Vs.
28. He kept the Passover. Kept the Passover. And then by faith, they passed through, passed
through the Red Sea. How did they get through the Red Sea? By faith. Oh, by faith they passed
through the Red Sea. Let’s see. 1, 2, 3, 4. I think I missed one. Respect. Yeah. After esteeming he
had respect for the reward. Respect of the reward in vs. 26. I’m sorry I rushed through that but
that’s an outline for what we want to say tonight. I think it’s great.

I just want to say from my heart tonight that years will pass in your life and if you have a life of
faith, there will be times when you look back and you say God was there. You say how did that
happen. The Lord did that. Thank you, Lord. It may not always look pretty. Abel got killed. He
got killed. It may not look pretty. But God was there. God was there.

It may not be – by the way, every one of these Heb. 11 stories is different from every other one.
There is not one the same. Every story. Enoch is different from Noah. Noah is different from
Abel. Abel is different from Abraham. Abraham is different from Sarah, you know and so on.
And I believe your story and my story is different but essentially it's the same. When you live by
faith you find that God is and he’s a rewarder. He’s there. And he can show you and you can see
it and you just say, yeah. Yeah, Lord.

So, then you put on your garments, your armor and you live a prepared life, so that you can
take the heat. You can take the beating. You can take the opposition. You can take the
problems that come and you got very good shoes for it. You got a shield. You got a sword. You
got a helmet and you’re able to handle it. you’re able to do very well. You’re able to do very
well. You are above the enemy. The enemy is below you.

In a way, you could say the enemy’s territory is this box with miserable people. The enemy’s
territory is that box with miserable people or very smart people, very good people, religious
people and so on but that’s the enemy’s territory and he plays games with people and they
suffer. But if you live by faith, you overcome the wicked one. You live by faith, you have
something going on. God’s with you. God’s hand is on you. If God’s hand is on you, his hand is
on you.

Joseph is in Egypt. He’s in prison. It doesn’t look very pretty, but keep your eye on that guy ’cause
he’s a believer. He’s a worshipper and he knows God is and God is a rewarder and there is
something coming to Joseph that’s going to make him a king, you know. A prime minister or
whatever it is and save his family. God’s with you. Okay. All right. Amen. Let’s pray. (Prayer)

 

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