Faith's Conquests, Costs, and Compensations, Part 2

Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 32 down to the end of the chapter as we look at the Summation of what the writer of Hebrews is saying to us about what true faith looks like

Let me read it to you Hebrews 11 verse number 32 and what more should I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others experienced mockings and scourging, yes, also chains and imprisonment, they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with a sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground

What a group of individuals, right? The summation set us around three points, faiths, conquest, faiths cost, and faiths compensation In other words, faith always wins, right? But the faith that wins always costs you something, and we're going to see that, and but the faith that costs you something, the compensation is so far out of this world, it's worth the loss you face in this life

And so the writer of Hebrews wants to sum everything up by rattling off all these names and their accomplishments, and yet showing you the cost that they had to go through because they lived a life of trusting obedience It is a fabulous summation of a chapter that we have spent well over 20 weeks studying, as you look at the different individuals in the chapter

But last week we began with faiths conquest, because 1 John 5 verse 4 says this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith, right? And we spent some time in 1 John 5 looking at the fact that it's the faith that causes us to conquer It's not my faith It's the faith that God gifts me It's the faith that God grants me Remember, faith is a gift, right? We trust and obey the Word of the Lord, but we can only do that because He gifts us faith, the faith to believe

And the writer of Hebrews says, what more can I say? What more can I say? And he rattles off all these names because he he means to say it this way, what more evidence can I give you than the evidence I've already given you? That is, all these people who lived a life of faith evidenced the fact that they truly trusted and obeyed their God You see, faith always works Faith is the root Works are the fruit, right? Works are the fruit of the faith that believes in the true and living God And these individuals had faith to believe that everything God said was absolutely true

So they behave or they believed absolutely in what God said and then behaved accordingly to all that God said That's what faith is Trusting obedience He says, what more can I say? The evidence is in It's clear because faith manifests itself You can look at James chapter 2 We did that with Rahab, right? You have a prostitute You have a patriarch, Abraham Both of them proved their faith by their works You can go to Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the sower and the soil There's only one soil that produces fruit

Two of the other three look like they're saved but really aren't because they produce no fruit But the fourth soil produces fruit, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some a hundred-fold Why? Because faith works Faith is seen Faith is evident Faith is clearly seen That's what the writer's saying Look, let me tell you something Faith is so obvious You don't miss it Now having said that, please understand that none of the people in Hebrews 11 are without fail or failure, without faults or without flaws None of them are

In fact, he lists Gideon, right, who sinned against God when he had wanted God to do something unique So he made an ephod and caused Israel to sin But yet he was a mighty warrior for God Samson, he was promiscuous, right? He had all kinds of problems Women were his downfall But yet he was used by God to be a great judge in Israel's history David, he's listed He was an adulterer, a liar, a murderer, a thief, but he was Israel's greatest king Figure that one out That's the grace of Almighty God But you see, so none of them are without failure

None of them without faults and none of them without flaws But Hebrews 11 is not about that It's about their faith, that they believed and they trusted God and they followed God amidst difficult times That's important for all of us to understand because it's not about perfection It's always about progression It's not about sinlessness It's about blamelessness It's about trusting God, following God, and obeying God because none of us perfectly do that day in and day out But the habit pattern of the people in Hebrews 11 was that we're going to trust and we're going to obey

We're going to believe absolutely and behave accordingly That was their life Now this is important Why? Because you see, faith is something we pursue Let me show this to you Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6 for a moment. 1 Timothy chapter 6. I want you to understand this because this is crucial to every one of us Because we're not perfect and we sin, we all have our flaws, we all have our failures, and yet we are to pursue faith So Paul is talking about the man of God, right? He talks about the man of God Remember, Timothy is the only person in the New Testament called the man of God

It's not that Paul wasn't a man of God He was It wasn't that Stephen wasn't a man of God or the apostles weren't men of God They were They just weren't specifically called a man of God The only person in the New Testament called a man of God is young Timothy And Paul tells him in 1 Timothy 6, But flee from these things, you man of God What things? Well, in the context, it's the love of money because that's the root of all kinds of evil You can't be God's man and money's man You can't serve both So he says, you flee from these things, young Timothy Look what he says

And pursue righteousness, godliness What's the next word? Faith Pursue it The word pursue is a hunting term It means to track it down He says, Timothy, you need to pursue faith You've got to hunt faith down You've got to track it down You've got to go after faith, Timothy You've got to pursue trusting God You've got to pursue obeying God This is your lifelong pursuit Yes, you pursue righteousness Yes, you pursue godliness But you must continue to pursue trusting God, believing in God, because there's all kinds of things that come against you that get you to put your trust elsewhere

So how do you best do that? Turn to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 In 2 Timothy 3, Paul talks about perilous times Perilous times is a word that's used in Mark's gospel in chapter 8 to talk about the land of the Gerasenes and the man that was filled with demons, right? So he's going to explain to you that in the last days, which is the days from the first coming of the Messiah to the second coming of the Messiah, those days in between that, in the last days there will be perilous times The world is going to be like Satan's graveyard And this is how he describes it

He says, but realize this, in the last days, perilous times will come For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money Boy, that's an understatement, is it not? Lovers of self and lovers of money. I mean, that's the way we characterize our country And then it says, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents Wow, that's the last days prophecy, right? Ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good God is good You hate God God's Word is good They hate God's Word

They hate anything that's good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God He's characterizing end times He's characterizing perilous times, right? So how do we handle perilous times? How do we handle the end times? How do we live in light of what we are facing every single day where peoples are, people are lovers of pleasure, lovers of God, lovers of themselves, not lovers of God, excuse me, lovers of themselves and not willing to follow God

What do you do? Paul tells Timothy, verse 10, Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, and what's the next word? Faith How do you pursue faith? How do you constantly keep a perspective on hunting down faith? You find a mature person in your church who lives a life of faith and you follow them That's it Just look to them and follow them That's all you got to do Paul says pattern your life after me He says this, He says you follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, and then he talks about persecutions and sufferings such as happened to me at Antioch

He talks about the conquest of faith He talks about the cost of faith It's all right there And then he ends up talking about the compensations of faith as he goes on in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 because he follows the pattern of Hebrews chapter 11 Same thing The Bible says the same thing over and over and over again Just comes at it from different perspectives, from different viewpoints, from different people, but it's all the same thing Paul says, Timothy, pattern your life after my faith You saw how I trusted God amidst persecutions You saw how I trusted God during difficult times

You saw how I followed God Just follow my trusting obedience, and you'll learn to trust and obey as I did That's it Listen, Christianity is not rocket science You don't need a Phi Beta Kappa to live the Christian life All you got to do is follow the godly people Follow the people of Hebrews 11 Look to them, see them That's why they're there They're examples of true saving faith, true believing faith That's how they live their lives Look to them, follow them, and see And that's what Paul says to Timothy Timothy, I want you, you're a man of God, you pursue faith

But you pursue faith because you have patterned your life after my faith You saw how I trusted God Now you pursue it and do the same thing And my prayer for you and for me is that as we've studied Hebrews 11, that would be our desire We want to live like these people live We're not gonna live without failure We're not gonna live without flaws And we're not gonna live without fault But we can live a life of trust and obedience, a life of faith That's our pursuit, right? That's what we want to do So what he does is he lists in faith's conquest people by name, then people by fame

By name and by fame Can you remember that? That's easy to remember, right? It all rhymes People by name and people by fame So we listen to him He says, Hebrews 11 He says, what more can I say? I don't know what to tell you, he says, for it fails me if I tell Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, prophets Wow, he just rattles them off And they're not in chronological order either, right? He just rattles them off Trying to think of people that live the life of faith Now listen very carefully He rattles off people who live the life of faith during Israel's most difficult days

This is so encouraging This is so wonderful Why? Because that's when people of faith need to step up the most, right? Do we live in difficult days? Right Do we live in hardship? Yes Are things difficult for us? Absolutely Are they like they were in Israel? Probably not Are they like they were Job? Nope, not even close But we live in perilous times, right? So our world needs people of faith Your workplace needs people of faith Your school needs people of faith Wherever you live needs an example of what it means to trust and obey the true and living God

Because God has called you to live out your spiritual existence in a specific sphere of influence And where he's called you, he has not called me And where he's called me, he hasn't called you But he did call you to live out your faith, live out your spiritual existence in a specific sphere of influence that God has strategically placed only you Only you He didn't put me at Aquinas High School where Kate is He didn't put me at Cal State Fullerton where Harold is He didn't put me there He put them there That's their sphere of existence And that's where their spiritual influence is

That's where they live out their their faith And believe me, people in that high school, people in that college need to see faith in action Do they not? Absolutely So God has strategically placed individuals like yourselves in your specific place of employment, your specific school, your specific neighborhood It's all there God put you there So that they would be able to see your life and say that's what it means to trust and obey the true and living God So you have Gideon and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets Israel needed an example

But they all came to minister during Israel's darkest days Barak came to rule when Israel was at its weakest point There was no male leadership There was only female leadership Gideon, Baal worship was at its height Samson, the Philistines, had been oppressing Israel day after day, month after month, year after year So God raised up Samson Jephthah, Baal worship abounded David, King Saul, had led the nation away from God, not to God, and God raised up David to be the next king of Israel Samuel came on the scene when the priesthood was corrupt with Eli and his sons They needed a pure example

So God raised up Samuel The prophets, they came on the scene, right, amidst Israel's apostasy See what's so great about this is that the writer says, what more can I say? I got all these people I want to name, but no matter what your situation, no matter what your circumstance, God's gonna raise you up to be a man or woman of faith, to live a life of trust and obedience, so that everybody around you will know that's what it means to trust the true and living God That's the challenge for every one of us, isn't it? That's our challenge every day, to live that way So important

On top of that, isn't it interesting that no matter who you are, and no matter what you do, God will use you We got kings, we have priests, we have prophets, we have judges But God can use anybody. I mean, everybody who was raised to a place of prominence in Hebrews 11 began as nobody Did they not? Look at Gideon Gideon came from a poor family, and the Bible says in Judges 6 that he was leased in his father's house But God raised him up And what did he do? He drove the Midianites out of Israel God used him in a mighty way to fight 135,000 Midianites And he gathered together 32,000 men

He thought, wow, we got 32,000. I know we're underwhelmed here by the 135,000, but we have 32,000 guys He said, you got too many guys Too many men So God whittled it down to a simple 300 men And the 300 men he chose had no military experience Didn't go off to college to get a PhD He chose them just how they drank water That's it Because God says, I'm gonna be glorified, I'm gonna be magnified by using the least of these Instead of arming them for battle, he gives them what? Pitchers, horns, and lanterns That's it

They're going to war with that, and they begin to scream and shout and smash the pitchers And the 135,000, 120,000 of them kill each other Wow, what a way to win Right? And the other 50,000, they flee They run because they're scared to death God says, I'm gonna use a man least in his family. I'm gonna raise him up to trust me, and then he's gonna conquer the middle United Nation Wow, isn't that great? I don't care who you are, where you're from, what your background is Listen, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're a person of faith, God's gonna use you in a mighty way

And then you think of the other ones, Barak in Judges chapter 4 He was an absolute nobody In fact, a woman had to rebuke him to action before he actually did anything And Barak confronted 900 chariots of iron with 10,000 men and won the battle Because God would use the least of these Samson came from a lowly home, from the lowly tribe of Dan But he became Israel's greatest strongman We did a whole series on Samson

Remember him? The world's weakest strongman was Samson, right? He was a weak man, but he was the strongest man in Israel's history, and God used him to rid the nation of the Philistine nation, right? Oh, by the way, don't forget that Samson's strength was not in his hair Although sometimes you think it is When, you know, when Dalai Lama cut his hair, he lost his strength It wasn't because of his hair that he had strength In fact, the Bible tells us in Judges chapter 16 that Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him

And then it says in verse 20, Judges 16, excuse me, then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord, God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God His strength was not in his hair His strength was in his relationship with the living God The hair just symbolized his commitment to God He had taken a Nazarite vow So, please understand that about Samson But God used him in a great and mighty way Then you have, of course, Jephthah And Jephthah was an outcast He was an illegitimate child, and God used him You have David He was the last son in his family

He was the least of his sons But he was chosen to be the king of Israel He fought Goliath As a teenage boy, he won and rid the nation of the Philistines once again And then, of course, you have Samuel Samuel was just a boy in the tabernacle But his mom had given him to the Lord, committed him to the Lord And when she had weaned him, she gave him back to the Lord And young Samuel would be used in a mighty way to change the nation, to follow the Lord, and to clean up the priesthood

The prophets, most of the prophets were lowly men that God would raise up to use to rid Israel of apostasy that was running rampant through a nation Whether it's idolatry, whether it's immorality, whether it's apostasy, no matter what it is, God will rid his people of those things with one person, a faith That's the point Faith conquests Faith wins This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith It's our trusting obedience in God It's our believing absolutely everything he says and then behaving accordingly to all that he says That is trusting obedience That's what faith is

That's what they did See? They just trusted the promise of God They believed in what God said, and then God gave them great conquests Look what it says It says they subdued kingdoms And we know David subdued kingdoms, right? We understand that The judges, they subdued kingdoms Look at Samson On top of that, they brought justice They performed acts of righteousness Listen, you can only do that if you're a person of faith You can only live a righteous life if you're a person of faith, and that righteous life is going to touch everybody around you They're gonna see that

As Samuel was a righteous man, as David was a righteous man, as Jephthah was a righteous man, they performed acts of righteousness because they were righteous individuals They were right with the true and living God Because they were right with him, they could perform righteous acts that would affect everybody else, that would lead them toward the righteousness of God That's what they did You go on, you read about how they obtained promises They obtained promises When God said he was gonna do something, he did it And they were able to see what God said come true

And they obtained those promises It's like believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, right? Confess He who confesses Christ is Lord, right, and believes in the heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved Well, what's the promise you obtain? Eternal life Forgiveness of sins Now you're a child of God Because you truly believe what God says concerning eternal salvation If Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, he is Right? He's the only way to the Father If there is no other name in heaven given unto men whereby you must be saved, that's the name

What's the name? The name of Christ Jesus, the Savior To believe that is to behave accordingly to that And to realize that what God said is true You obtain the promise of eternal life You obtain the promise of being a child of God You obtain the promise of all the inheritance, being heirs of Christ, joint heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ What a beautiful promise that God gives to his people And they obtain promises It says, they shut the mouths of lions Who's that? Well, that's Daniel, right? We understand that

Remember Daniel when he shut the mouths of lions? He was thrown into the lion's den But remember at 16, he made a vow Remember we did the study of Daniel? If you weren't with us, you missed it Because we said there's one verse, right? With one virtue that gives you all the victories you need Right? Who knows what that verse is? Anybody know? Oh, wow Maybe I'll give you, I'll give you a way out. I'll just say you weren't here on those Wednesday nights Okay? One verse, one virtue, all the victories you need Daniel 1.8 He would not defile himself with the king's meat He would not compromise

He was 16 years old He made a commitment He would not compromise God's holy word You make that commitment, you live that commitment, guess what? You will obtain many victories And guess what? Daniel did Daniel did Because when he was 86, the same thing was still true Why was he thrown in the lion's den? Because he would not bow down to the king's image Because he would not worship a false God And so what happens? They've looked for an accusation They look for something about him on the outside, something on the inside They could find nothing Why? Because he would not compromise

So the older he gets, the stronger he becomes That's the way it should be in our walk with the Lord, right? The older we get, the stronger we are Daniel was that kind of guy Shut the mouths of lions They threw him in the lion's den He didn't care And it wasn't like two or three lions walking around as you see in pictures No, it was a pack of lions There were a multitude of lions in the lion's den and they purposely didn't feed them so they could feed people to them But the mouths of the lions were shut Because not only did he obtain promises, his faith was victorious

He lived a life of believing in God and trusting God Shutting the mouths of lions And all through Daniel's life, outside of Joseph, Daniel is that example in the scriptures where you see or read nothing about his flaws or his sins or anything Nothing These men were deeply committed to their God and used in a powerful way But it goes on to say that they they quenched the power of fire Well, you know that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right? Book of Daniel These were men of fame And they weren't afraid of the fire and the king was so upset

He tried to heat the fire seven times hotter than it normally would be Now listen, how much fire does it take to burn you? Come on! The king was so angry He had to overheat the fire to make it so hot He wanted to just to incinerate them, but instead the people who threw them in were incinerated Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego They didn't even smell of smoke Talk about obtaining the promise Talk about gaining victory Talk about men of true faith They said, oh king, we will not do what you say For our God, He is able to deliver us

Now, the Lord could have killed them and they would have been delivered into what? Glory They still would have been delivered, right? Into glory But they trusted their God They weren't afraid to die They're willing to pay the cost for their faith That's what people of faith do They're like the people in Revelation 12, 10 They do not take any thought for their own lives That's what people of faith do People of faith do not care about their physical existence They only care about living for the glory and honor of God Read it in Revelation 12, verse number 11

That's how the people in the tribulation are going to live their lives They were able to overcome Satan Why? Because of the cleansing blood of the Lamb, because the testimony of their faith, and they did not think their lives were worthy of anything And they overcame the evil one That's what people of faith do That's how they live their lives This is the people in Hebrews 11 That's how they live their lives And so it goes on It says, these words, it says, they escaped the edge of the sword Well, there's a multitude in the Old Testament of people who escaped the edge of the sword

David will always escape Saul's sword Saul wouldn't kill him, but he was always fleeing, and God preserved him in a mighty way The Bible says, out of weakness they were made strong Maybe Samson, maybe not All of them were weak, all of them were lowly, but God made them strong and used them in a powerful way It says, they became valiant in fight or mighty in war Mighty in war That's great Because all these men used by God, they weren't warriors per se, but they became mighty in war Because God infused them with His power, His strength, His words, and they believed what God said

They simply believed what God said, and they acted upon that And then it says, they put foreign enemies to flight Foreign enemies fled them, because they would see in them the righteousness and holiness of the living God It says, women received back their dead through resurrection Elijah, Elisha, both involved in raising Elijah was involved in raising the son of the woman of Zarephath, and Elisha restored the son of the Shunammite They raised him from the dead That's the theme in conquest So faith's conquest is, is undeniable in Scripture

Believing what the Lord says, obeying what God says, following through on what the Word of the Lord has given to us But there is a cost There's a great cost And this is where you lose people And he wants to warn these Hebrew people who are listening to this letter, listening to him speak, look, I know you're going to lose a lot when you give your life to Christ, because that's what happens And that's understandable What did Christ say back in in Luke chapter 9? He said, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me That's the gospel

Simply put, any man wants to be my disciple, he has got to deny himself, take up his cross daily, be willing to die for me daily, that's the cost, and follow me Follow me He says, for whoever wishes to save his life, will lose it If you're interested in preserving your own life, you're gonna lose it You can't be a follower of Christ and seek to preserve your own life You just can't do that He says, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it In other words, if you're willing to give your life away, I'm your Savior. I'm your Redeemer. I'm your Deliverer

If you believe that my life is more important than your life, I'm your Savior But if you believe that your life is more important than mine, sorry, no Deliverer You're gonna die in your sins That's the gospel We must be willing to give our life away You see, and the beauty about that is that when you seek Christ for who he is, you want to You want forgiveness You don't wanna go to hell You realize the benefits of following Christ, that what he did for you is everything

So you say, I'll give my life away, Lord. I'll give my life to you. I want to follow you. I want to serve you. I want to honor you Yes, Lord Whatever you ask, I'll do That's what Christianity is, right? And so, so you go back to Matthew's gospel, and in the story of the rich young ruler, remember him? He'd come to Christ, and he wanted to know what good thing he must do to inherit eternal life Remember that? The conversation he had with Christ He calls him good teacher

Christ says, you can't call me good unless you're calling me God, because only God is good, right? So if you're calling me good, you must recognize I'm God So if you recognize I'm God, sell all that you have and follow me That's too much for him Can't do it Too much. I want to save his life. I don't want him to lose his life, right? So the disciples are listening to this Think of it Put yourself in the disciples' sandals

You're sitting here listening to Jesus have this conversation with this rich young ruler guy, right? And of course, in their belief structure, he has all this money because God's blessed him That's why he's rich. I mean, come on That's what they're thinking So they hear this conversation, and the ruler goes away sad And Peter says to him in verse 27, Behold, Lord, we have left everything and followed you He's making a statement Lord, we left our father, we left our future, we left our finances, we left it all You said, follow me and I'll make you fishermen So we did We left it all

We have left everything to follow you because our lives don't matter Your life does matter So we left it all So Peter says this, which everybody always asks, right? He says, What then will there be for us? What's in it for us? That's the question everybody asks If I leave everything, if I leave father, mother, brother, sister, if I leave my family, if I leave my fortune, if I leave my future, if I leave my family, if I'm willing to drop everything and follow Christ, what is in it for me? What do I get out of it? That's always a question we ask

We want to know, what's the benefit of following Christ? Do I get anything in this life? What's Christ say? He says, Truly I say to you, that you have followed me So he affirms to Peter, yep, you're a follower of me In the regeneration, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel Wow, wow, that's so good In the regeneration, in the rebirth of Israel, in the salvation of Israel, when the son of man sits on his throne, guess what? You will sit on twelve thrones, governing the tribes of Israel

Now you know, now you know, in Acts chapter one, after the resurrection, after the forty days of discipleship with Christ, they ask what question? Lord, are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Why do they ask that question? Because what's in it for them is authority and rulership, and sitting on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel They're thinking, wow, this is great Lord, are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Because if you are, guess what? We get our position on twelve thrones, ruling over the nations of the world That's why they ask the question

So at the end of the ministry of Christ, after he has died, risen again and before his ascension, Peter went back to fishing Remember that story? John 21 He denied Christ three times, and so Christ asks him three questions It's the same question, Peter, do you love me? Right? Peter, do you love me? Ten of my lambs, feed my sheep, ten of my lambs, do you love me? And Peter got a little irritated with the Lord because he asked him three times, Peter, do you love me? Because God was driving him someplace Where was God driving him to? Well, the Bible tells us

It says, truly, truly, I say to you, Peter, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go Now, this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God God says, Peter, do you love me? Are you sure you love me? Do you really love me, Peter? Because if you do, this is where you're going You're going to die by way of crucifixion And he did

Church history tells us he died being hung upside down because he did not feel himself worthy to be hung right side up as his Lord and Savior was, so he was crucified upside down It says, Peter, if you really love me, this is what's in store for you Your faith, your faith is going to cost you It's going to cost you dearly It's going to cost you your life And church history tells us that before he was crucified, his wife was crucified And he would sit there rubbing her face, saying, remember the Lord Remember the Lord Remember the Lord Cost And then he was crucified upside down

But Peter, being a man of questions, asked another question And when he had spoken of this, Jesus said to him, follow me And Peter turned around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following them The one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, what about John? What about him? Is he going to die too? If I have to die, certainly he's got to die because he's the disciple who loves you He's got to die too

And Jesus says this, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me Peter, listen, if I want him to live till I come again, that's no concern of yours. I'm only concerned about you You follow me You trust and obey And you will reap faith's conquests But in reaping those conquests, there will always be a supreme cost And Peter followed the Lord How about you? Who do you follow? What is your faith like? Is it like the people in Hebrews chapter 11? My prayer for you is that that would be the case My prayer for me is that that would be the case

That we would trust and obey That we would believe absolutely in everything that God says and behave accordingly Let's pray Father, we thank you, Lord, for today An opportunity to be in your Word What a joy it is to be challenged by the truth that's there Lord, help us to be men and women of God Looking at these individuals in Hebrews 11, knowing, Lord, that they were not without fault or failure or flaws But they were people of faith They trusted and obeyed May we trust and obey the true and living God Until you come again, as you most surely will, in Jesus' name, amen.