Introduction:
Real faith shows up not only in how you Live , but how you Die .
Three Things That Don't Have to Keep You from Finishing Faithful (Hebrews 11:20-22):
- What your Parents have done. (Heb 11:20)
- What You've done. (Heb 11:21)
- What's Been Done to you. (Heb 11:22)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:50
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Hebrews 11.
00:51-00:59
And in this series within a series, we are really just asking a couple of questions.
00:59-01:01
And the first question is, what is faith?
01:02-01:04
You come into a place like this and you hear that word a lot, right?
01:05-01:07
You gotta have faith and have faith in Jesus.
01:07-01:08
And what does that mean?
01:08-01:14
Well, we saw in Hebrews 11, he says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
01:14-01:17
There's things that are coming that I'm sure are going to happen, right?
01:17-01:19
And then he says, it's a conviction of things not seen.
01:19-01:28
I haven't seen heaven, I haven't seen God, I haven't seen the rewards, but I know, I have this conviction and I'm building my life on it.
01:29-01:33
And what he does is he gives us examples from the Old Testament.
01:33-01:35
He shows us what faith looks like.
01:35-01:42
When you really have faith, really have true biblical faith, it shows up like this, right?
01:43-01:45
He's doing more than just defining faith.
01:47-01:54
And it should be bringing you to the place and be bringing me to the place where we say, do I have faith?
01:55-01:57
Do I really have biblical faith?
01:58-01:59
That's what we're doing here.
01:59-02:02
Does my walk with Christ look like this?
02:04-02:05
So what have we seen so far?
02:05-02:10
And you know, I was writing the review this week and I was kicking myself.
02:11-02:13
'Cause if I ever preach this again, I know how I'm gonna change it.
02:14-02:16
Is it, it's all alliterated here.
02:16-02:18
I don't know how it's gonna work next week, but here's what we got so far.
02:20-02:24
With faith, with Abel rather, faith worships.
02:25-02:27
With Enoch, faith walks.
02:27-02:29
And with Noah, faith works.
02:30-02:33
And we saw last week with Abraham, faith waits.
02:34-02:37
And today we're going to be looking at Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
02:37-02:40
And we're going to see that faith wins.
02:42-02:44
So let's look at verses 20 through 22.
02:47-03:35
It says, "By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave direction concerning his bones." And you're like, "Huh, that is not a lot of material." And I would say, "That is based on a lot of material." It's funny because when you're going through Hebrews, Abraham got a lot of material.
03:36-03:40
And then you're gonna see next week, Moses gets a lot of material.
03:41-03:46
But you get to Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and...
03:50-03:51
Here it is.
03:52-03:55
They knew God's covenant with Abraham.
03:56-04:02
And they knew, these men knew that out of their family, God was going to make a nation.
04:03-04:10
and that nation was ultimately going to bless the world, and these men never saw the promise fulfilled.
04:10-04:21
But in the last moment of their lives, they believed, and they blessed, believing in that promise of God.
04:21-04:25
They made plans, believing in that promise of God.
04:25-04:28
They had faith in the face of death.
04:31-04:44
And they said, "God's word is true, "and all of his promises will come to pass." And I have to ask you, what am I gonna say at your funeral?
04:49-04:50
Just got real quiet and cold in here.
04:53-04:54
But what am I going to say at your funeral?
04:59-05:05
or when your family gets up to share a few words about you, what are they gonna say?
05:08-05:17
I hope that you're aware that you are writing your obituary with the way that you live your life right now.
05:21-05:22
So, do you have your outline?
05:23-05:23
Here's the sermon.
05:25-05:30
Real faith shows up not only in how you live, but how you die.
05:33-05:34
That's it.
05:40-05:45
That is the lesson from Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
05:46-05:47
You're like, that's it?
05:49-05:51
I'm like, that's it.
05:54-06:05
You mean, you're like, you mean to tell me with everything that's said about them, you realize their story kind of picks up in Genesis 24.
06:06-06:09
And you know, Genesis is the longest book in the Bible, right?
06:09-06:16
So their story picks up in Genesis 24, and it goes all the way to Genesis 50.
06:18-06:21
And there's all that material, and that's all that's said about those guys.
06:22-06:22
Like that's it?
06:24-06:28
Look, you got the same Bible that I got, right?
06:30-06:31
That's what it says.
06:34-06:37
So I gotta tell you, last week I was like, I read this and I'm like, woohoo!
06:38-06:39
Short week for me.
06:42-06:42
That's it.
06:44-06:44
That's all it says, right?
06:54-06:55
So what do you want to talk about?
06:59-07:07
I got to tell you though, as much as I wanted to just sort of sit back and be like, "That's all it says.
07:07-07:08
That's all I'm going to preach.
07:09-07:15
The end you are loved." But I gotta tell you though, the brevity really bothered me.
07:17-07:18
I mean, it really bothered me.
07:21-07:28
What I did was I went back in Genesis and I reread their stories, actually several times this past week.
07:32-07:35
And I'm like, there's so much more to these guys.
07:37-07:40
I mean, yes, they died believing.
07:40-07:42
We see that in Hebrews, yes, absolutely.
07:43-07:51
But I was really bothered not by what the Hebrew writer said about them, but what the Hebrew writer didn't say about them.
07:52-07:55
Like, really, with everything that happened, that's it?
07:56-07:57
That's all you got?
07:57-08:06
Like, I went back and read their stories, And I'm like, they had so many obstacles along the way.
08:11-08:12
But they died believing.
08:15-08:24
And I realized that the obstacles that they had in their life in their lives, excuse me, didn't keep them from finishing their lives in faith.
08:26-08:34
And I just want to commend some things to you because the obstacles that you're facing don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully either.
08:39-08:43
So, here's another sermon.
08:44-08:48
Write this down, here's three things that don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully.
08:49-08:52
Three things that don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully.
08:54-08:56
You're like, I knew that couldn't possibly be it.
08:58-09:01
I'm just being honest with you, it bothered me.
09:01-09:02
Like look at verse 20 again.
09:03-09:19
It says, "By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau." I'm like, that's all he said about Isaac?
09:19-09:32
What about the time in Genesis 26, when Isaac was in Gerar and he was worried that somebody was going to kill him and take his wife, because she was really beautiful.
09:33-09:37
So he lied and said, she's my sister, she's not my wife.
09:37-09:43
And then Abimelech looking out the window, the Bible says, saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah.
09:43-09:49
Now it wasn't laughing like, hey, you know, did you hear the one about the, you know, the rabbi in the saloon or whatever?
09:49-09:57
The Hebrew implies that this laughing was more husband and wife intimate kind of thing.
09:58-10:02
Because Abimelech was like, dude, You don't do that with your sister.
10:03-10:04
You lied.
10:04-10:05
Why in the world would you do that?
10:05-10:08
If someone would have taken your wife, we all would have been guilty.
10:10-10:10
You remember that?
10:11-10:12
That was a paraphrase.
10:16-10:17
But where did Isaac learn that behavior?
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You know, his father, Abraham, did it twice.
10:27-10:28
Did you know that?
10:29-10:32
Genesis 12, Genesis 20, this is mind blowing.
10:32-10:36
The second time Abraham did it was in Gerar, the same place.
10:39-10:43
Three things that don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully.
10:43-10:44
The first one is what your parents have done.
10:45-10:52
And here's the thing, look, we all have this tendency to repeat what our parents do, good and bad.
10:53-10:55
Good and bad.
10:57-11:04
And as much as I've said in my life, you know, my father did this, my father acted like this, and my father spoke like this, and I will never do that.
11:05-11:06
I will never do that.
11:07-11:15
Do you know how many times in my adult life I've said something and I've stopped myself and I'm like, hmm, that sounded just like Richard.
11:22-11:23
You're the same.
11:24-11:27
Like it or not, you inherit some things from your parents, good and bad.
11:30-11:31
I see that with my own kids.
11:36-11:40
And I try so hard and I'm such a failure sometimes.
11:46-11:50
I see so many times in Cade acting like me.
11:53-11:57
But you know, it'd be easy for us to make the excuse, you know, I can't help it.
11:58-11:59
This is how I was raised.
11:59-12:01
This is the example that I had.
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Look, none of us, none of us grew up with a perfect example, none of us.
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But listen, at some point, you have to take responsibility for your own actions.
12:14-12:17
You aren't going to stand before God and give an account for what your parents did.
12:19-12:23
And on that day, it isn't going to fly to say, I couldn't help it, I had a bad example.
12:25-12:30
On that day you stand before the Lord, what matters is this, did you believe God's promise?
12:31-12:37
Because if you did, if you received Jesus Christ, he will forgive you and you will die believing.
12:39-12:46
So when I read Hebrews 11, 20, I'm like, so what about Isaac's tendency to repeat his father's sins?
12:49-12:50
A Hebrew writer doesn't mention that.
12:52-12:57
He only mentions Genesis 27 when Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.
12:57-13:03
And maybe you know the story, Jacob was the one who got the blessing regarding the covenant to Abraham.
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Hey, this is a great encouragement because in the end, yes, he repeated his dad's sin, but ultimately he trusted God's promise.
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And that's what's remembered about him.
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Three things that don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully.
13:19-13:22
number two, what you've done.
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Let's look at verse 21 again.
13:29-13:48
It says, "By faith, Jacob, when dying, "blessed each of the sons of Joseph," this would be his grandkids, "bowing in worship over the head of his staff." Some translations say head of his bed, it doesn't matter.
13:48-13:52
All it's saying is he was old and feeble when he did this.
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That's all that's saying.
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You know what doesn't have to keep you from finishing faithfully is what you've done.
13:59-14:08
So I read this one verse here and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, that's all that you're saying about Jacob, really?
14:10-14:16
What about the time in Genesis 25, he convinced Esau to trade him his birthright for some lentil stew, lentil stew.
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No! What were you thinking?
14:20-14:24
Apparently they didn't have Chick-fil-A, or maybe it was Sunday when that happened.
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But what about the time in Genesis 27?
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With help from his mother, he tricked poor, blinding, old, dad, Isaac, into blessing him instead of Esau by pretending that he was Esau.
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And what about the time in Genesis 30 and 31?
14:40-14:43
He hornswoggled his brother-in-law, Laban, over and over.
14:48-15:37
Jacob was a deceiver. He was a self-serving manipulator. You know, when he was born, he's a twin, when he was born he was second born of the twins and he was holding his twin brother's heel. And that's a metaphor for tripping somebody up. That's what Jacob means. It means cheater, deceiver. And that picture of holding his brother, tripping up his brother, so to speak, that typified Jacob's entire life. And you know, sometimes we let our past mistakes, we We let our besetting sins define us.
15:39-15:40
And we make them our identity.
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And we just can't get past it.
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You know, that's the cry of besetting sin in our day.
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People say, "Hey, I was born this way." Right, have you heard people say that?
15:53-15:56
"I was born this way." That might be true.
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Maybe that's why Jesus said you must be born again.
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No, you are going to stand before God and you are going to give an account for what you did.
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And on that day, it isn't going to fly to say, well, I had this besetting sin.
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I couldn't help how I was.
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What matters on that day is this.
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Do you believe God's promise?
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Because if you did, if you received Jesus Christ, He not only forgives you and takes away your sin, He changes you.
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You don't have to be who you were born.
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Right?
16:34-16:40
He changes you. And you will die believing.
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So what about Jacob's sins?
16:46-17:03
The Hebrew writer doesn't mention any of that. He only mentions Genesis 48. When Jacob blessed each of Joseph's sons, that would be Ephraim and Manasseh. You know You know what, that's a great encouragement for me.
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Because in the end, yes, Jacob made a lot of mistakes, but ultimately, what is he remembered for?
17:12-17:13
He trusted God's promise.
17:15-17:25
And then finally, three things that don't have to keep you from finishing faithfully, what your parents have done, what you've done, and finally, what's been done to you.
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What's been done to you?
17:28-17:29
Look at verse 22 again.
17:30-17:41
"By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." You know where this is going, right?
17:42-17:45
I read that and I'm like, that's all he said about Joseph?
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That's all?
17:48-17:55
What about the time in Genesis 37 when Joseph had these dreams about his brothers bowing to him and they hated him?
17:55-17:57
And they're like, we're going to kill him.
17:57-18:00
and then they decided instead to sell him as a slave.
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Remember that?
18:01-18:11
Well, he ended up in Egypt and through God's providence, he rose to prominence, but then he was falsely accused of trying to sexually assault Potiphar's wife.
18:11-18:30
He was imprisoned and he was abandoned, but God wasn't done yet because Joseph prepped Egypt for the coming famine that God revealed to Joseph, long story, But eventually his brothers came to Egypt for food because of the famine.
18:30-18:37
And when they came, not knowing who he was, they bowed to him, as God said they would.
18:39-18:59
And Joseph said, "Hey, hey, what you did, "you meant it for evil for me, "but God meant it for good for everybody." So much of Joseph's life, he was a victim.
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He was abused by so many people, including his own brothers.
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And honestly, I think more than any of these others, it would have been easy for Joseph to start to doubt God's promises.
19:20-19:21
It would have been easy for him.
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But Joseph knew that God is sovereign and God uses even terrible things to accomplish his purposes.
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God uses terrible things to accomplish his purposes.
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And if you ever struggle believing that, I just want you to think about the cross of Jesus Christ.
19:46-19:49
God uses terrible things to accomplish his purposes.
19:53-19:54
What he says will happen.
19:56-19:58
So what does the Hebrew writer say about Joseph?
19:58-20:00
He's like, hey, Joseph had faith.
20:00-20:07
You remember he was like, yeah, the exodus is coming, so pack up my bones, take them with you.
20:11-20:17
Listen, some of you have suffered terribly at the hands of other people.
20:24-20:31
And I meet with people and I counsel people and I talk to people and honestly, there's so many times that I wish I could take that away.
20:35-20:53
But I have to ask you, is it possible, is it possible that God is using the suffering that others have done to you to shape you into the person that God wants you to be and ultimately use that to bless others.
20:58-20:58
Is that possible?
21:01-21:04
And I gotta tell you, this is gonna be hard to hear.
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It's hard to say, it's gonna be hard to hear.
21:06-21:12
But so many times over my ministry, I've heard people that have gone through hard times say something like this.
21:12-21:14
Like, look, yeah, I'm having a hard time.
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I don't wanna hear Romans 8 28.
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I've heard people say that.
21:18-21:19
I don't wanna hear Romans 8 28.
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You know what Romans 8 28 says?
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That we know that God causes all things to work for good for those who love him, and are called according to his purpose.
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And people are like, I don't wanna hear that.
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I don't wanna, I'm going through a hard time, and I don't wanna hear Romans 8 28.
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And I just think, oh, you don't want reminded of one of the most glorious purposes of God, One of the most glorious promises of God.
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You don't want reminded that God can take this horrible stuff that happened to you and use it to glorify his name and bless you and bless others.
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You don't wanna hear that glorious promise.
21:58-22:01
So I'm like, okay then.
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Stinks to be you, I guess.
22:09-22:21
Listen, I just wanna lovingly challenge you that maybe it's in those times of suffering at the hands of others that we need to be reminded the most that God causes all things to work for good.
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He did it in Joseph's life.
22:25-22:27
He did it in the life of Jesus Christ.
22:27-22:37
Is it possible that God's using the suffering that you're experiencing to shape you into who he wants you to be and to bless other people?
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You aren't going to stand before God and give an account for what others did to you.
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And on that day, it isn't gonna fly to say, you know what, God, I would have believed that people were so mean to me.
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On that day, do you know what matters?
22:58-23:00
Do you believe God's promise?
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Because if you did, if you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
23:07-23:17
He will use everything in your life ultimately for good, even if it doesn't look good at the time, and you will die believing.
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So, what about all of Joe's suffering at the hands of others?
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I'm sorry, Joseph.
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I paraphrase in my notes, I write Joe like I went to high school with him.
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(congregation laughing)
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Remember Joe?
23:41-23:46
So what about all of the suffering that Joseph experienced at the hands of others?
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The Hebrew writer doesn't mention any of that.
23:51-23:54
The only thing he points out is Genesis 50.
23:55-24:01
It says, "Joseph mentioned the Exodus "and gave directions concerning his bones." Like, what's that all about?
24:01-24:18
Well, if you know the story, Israel ended up staying in Egypt, and they grew and they became so big that they were like, "Hey, the Israelites are getting big "and if we get attacked by somebody else, "they might like join up with them "and now we can't have that "because then we're gonna be facing like an army within, "an army without." So they enslaved the Israelites.
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The Egyptians did.
24:21-24:33
And did you know 64 years after Joseph died, a baby was born that they put in a little tiny basket in the river.
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His name was Moses and God raised him up to lead the Jewish people out of the land of Egypt and into the land, promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
24:53-25:07
Joseph died a leader in Egypt, but he still believed, despite that, he still believed that his family was going to leave and receive what God promised.
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That's a great encouragement to me.
25:12-25:25
'Cause in the end, yes, Joseph could say, I could say, and I know many of you could say, people have not been kind to me a lot in my life.
25:27-25:30
But ultimately, Joseph trusted God's promises.
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So much happened to these three men.
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So much.
25:43-25:44
A lot of lows.
25:46-25:54
And you see, it would have been so easy to get immersed into all of that and then miss the point.
25:59-26:01
So I told you the brevity bothered me.
26:03-26:09
The Hebrew writer left a lot of stuff out, and then I realized, that is the point.
26:12-26:26
That no matter what your parents have done, or what you've done, or what's been done to you, at the end of the day, what really matters is, do I believe God's promise?
26:28-26:47
The Hebrew writer tells us that God made a promise to Abraham, that He passed along to Isaac, that He passed along to Jacob, that He passed along to Joseph, and it has gone down the chain throughout history, and it's been passed on to you now.
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But over history, that promise has seen fuller revelation.
26:58-26:59
We've gotten more explanation.
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And we, because of Jesus Christ, have better promises.
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Are you passing those along?
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Because faith blesses others.
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Bow your heads with me, please.
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Father in heaven, as we come to your word today, it's aggrieving what you don't say here.
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And Father, I just believe that that's what you're trying to teach us, that what matters is at the end of the day, do we really believe your promises?
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Because we got all kinds of problems.
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And it's easy to get so focused on that, that we lose sight of the big thing.
27:52-27:57
For us, Father, that big thing, that you have made a promise in Jesus Christ.
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You have promised us that you would take our sins away.
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You have promised us, Father, that we would have eternal life.
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You have promised us, Father, just even in the meantime, while we're waiting on the ultimate fulfillment of salvation being in your presence, Father, you have promised us your Holy Spirit who changes us.
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So Father, I pray today that we are ever mindful that we're writing our obituary with how we live.
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And might it be said of us, as it was said of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, that we died believing you.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 11:20-22
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What sticks out to you about the stories of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph? Why do you think the Hebrews writer didn’t mention any of the volumes of details about the lives of Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph?
What can you be doing today to ensure you will finish your race strong? Be specific!
Breakout
Pray for one another.