Sunday, February 19, 2012 Speaker: Phil Hainaut Doing and Suffering Great Things by Faith Hebrews 11:32-40 Message 7 in our 8-part series called Hebrews 11: Faith in Action.

J. B. Phillips "Your God is too small J.B. Phillips "Your God is too small. If you've got a little, tiny God, you don't trust Him, because He's not verified in your mind."

10:32-39 says: Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

(12:1-7) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus… Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 1. Gideon: “conquered kingdoms, gained what was promised, whose weakness was turned to strength, who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Matthew 28:19,20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 2. Barak: Judges 4:1-16 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD… So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan. Sisera, the commander of his army… had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, and they cried to the LORD for help… Deborah, a prophet, was leading Israel at that time. She sent for Barak… and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men… and lead them… I will lead Sisera… and give him into your hands.’”…

Sisera summoned… all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron. Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down… At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot. Barak pursued the chariots and army… and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 3. Samson: “conquered kingdoms; gained what was promised; shut the mouths of lions; escaped the edge of the sword; his weakness was turned to strength; became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”

Judges 13:1-4 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. A certain man named Manoah had a wife. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 4. Jephthah: Judges 10:6-12:7 - Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD… And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer. The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.” Jephthah the son of Gilead was a mighty warrior. His mother was a prostitute. Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away.

So Jephthah fled from his brothers where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him. Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah. “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.” Jephthah said to them, “Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?” “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me—will I really be your head?” Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 5. David: “conquered kingdoms; administered justice; gained what was promised; escaped the edge of the sword; his weakness was turned to strength; who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” 2Samuel 8:14,15 The LORD gave David victory wherever he went. David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people.

1Samuel 17:45-47 are reflective of the kind of faith that drove David to accomplish great things for God: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 6. Samuel: “conquered kingdoms; administered justice; gained what was promised; whose weakness was turned to strength; who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” 1Samuel 3: 19-20 The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.

1Samuel 7:3-17 Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the LORD for you.” On that day they fasted and there they confessed. Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah. The Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on Israel’s behalf, and the LORD answered him.

While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way. So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. He also held court for Israel. And he built an altar there to the LORD.

A. Believers are called to do great things for God (vs.32-35a): 7. The prophets: a. Daniel: “who shut the mouths of lions; quenched the fury of the flames” b. Elijah: “Women received back their dead, raised to life again.”

1 Kings 17 :17-24 Some time later the son of the woman became ill 1 Kings 17 :17-24 Some time later the son of the woman became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

2 Kings 4: 18-36 The child grew, and one day said to his father, “My head! My head!” The boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. She set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. The man of God said to his servant “Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” “Everything is all right,” she said. When she reached the man of God, she took hold of his feet. “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.” But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.”

B. Believers are called to suffer great things for God (vs.35b-38): There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

B. Believers are called to suffer great things for God (vs.35b-38): 1. They were tortured (v.35b) 2. They faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment (36)

Jeremiah 37: Zedekiah was made king of Judah; Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, ‘The Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.’ The captain of the guard arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” “That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned. Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time.

B. Believers are called to suffer great things for God (vs.35b-38): 1. They were tortured (v.35b) 2. They faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment (36) 3. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword (37a) 4. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated… They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground (37b,38b)

2 Corinthians 11:23-28 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

B. Believers are called to suffer great things for God (vs.35b-38): 1. They were tortured (v.35b) 2. They faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment (36) 3. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword (37a) 4. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated… They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground (37b,38b) 5. None of them received what had been promised (39b)

Psalm 91 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. If you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him. He will call on me, and I will answer him; will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

C. Believers who do great things and suffer great things for God will be eternally blessed 1. They gain a better resurrection (v.35b): There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection 2. They are commended and honoured by God (38a,39a): These were all commended for their faith… the world was not worthy of them 3. God has promised and planned for them something better and perfect (39b,40): none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

1Peter 4:12-19 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name… So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Do you have faith in God? Do you have a faith to do great things for God? Do you have a faith to suffer great things for God? What has God been calling you to do for Him this morning? What suffering do you need release to Him by faith this morning?