Faith For Whatever | Tim Ross

so happy to be here with you all and uh excited to uh deliver my burden my assignment uh I'm going to tell you up front that this message is going to sound redundant for some of you uh you're gonna be after about 11 minutes like we get it why are you still talking because this message is meant to exhort you and it's meant to remind you that no matter where you are right now no matter what age no matter what stage of life no matter your socioeconomic situation that God is with you in it and if you have faith you are going to get through it if you are on the Mountaintop today yay if you're in the Valley today hey the Lord is with you so uh to set this up I am going to read an entire chapter of the Bible now um for the four people that went whoa this is not Psalms it will not be three or four verses this is Hebrews chapter 11. there are 40 verses and I'm reading all of them and you're going to deal with it okay so if you have your Bibles I want you to turn to the book of Hebrews chapter number 11. I promise not to drone read but I need you to have full context uh this is one of the most famous chapters in the entire Bible when it comes to uh the exhortation of Faith but there's a context that you will see as I'm reading through the Ebbs and flows that is going to hit literally everybody in this room by the time I'm done with these 40 verses no one in this room would have escaped finding themselves in this chapter and if you do think you don't fit I'll read it again I've never threatened anybody with the Bible before like that but it just seems funny okay so Hebrews chapter number 11 starting from the first verse reading from the New Living Translation of the Bible if you're ready say let's go faith is the confidence that we have faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen it gives us Assurance about things we cannot see through their faith the people in days of old earned a good reputation by faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen it was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts although Abel is long dead he still speaks to us by his example of faith it was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying he disappeared because God took him for before he was taken up he was known as a person who pleased God and it is impossible to please God without faith anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him it was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood he obeyed God who warned him about things that had never happened before by his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world and he received the righteousness that comes by faith it was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as it as his inheritance he went without knowing where he was going and even when he reached the land God promised him he lived there by faith for he was like a foreigner living in tents and so did Isaac and Jacob who in who inherited the same promise Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations a city designed and built by God it was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child though she was Barren and and was too old she believed that God would keep his promise and so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead a nation with so many people that like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore there is no way to count them all these people died still believing what God had promised him they did not receive what was promised but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it they agreed that they were foreigners and Nomads here on Earth obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own if they had longed for the country they came from they could have gone back but they were looking for a better place a Heavenly Homeland that is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him Abraham who had received God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac even though God had told him Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted Abraham reason that if Isaac died God was able to bring him back to life again and in a sense Abraham did receive his son back from the dead it was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons Jacob and Esau Paul's were halfway done how's everybody doing y'all in this thing I saw your hands pop up y'all were in it y'all were like oh my God okay let's keep going halfway done let's get it it was by faith that Jacob when he was old and dying blessed each of Joseph's sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff it was by faith that Joseph when he was about to die said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt he even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left it was by faith that Moses's parents hid him for three months when he was born they saw that God had given them an unusual child and they were not afraid to disobey the King's Command it was by faith that Moses when he grew up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter he chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin he thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt for he was looking ahead to his great reward it was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt not fearing the king's anger he kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible it was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle Blood on the doorpost so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn Sons it was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground but when the Egyptians tried to follow they all drowned it was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days and the walls Came Crashing Down it was by faith that Rahab The Prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her City who refused to obey God for she had been given a friendly welcome for she had given a friendly welcome to the spies how much more do I need to say it would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon Barack Samson jephthah Samuel David and all the prophets by faith these people overthrew kingdoms ruled with Justice and received what God had promised them they shut the mouths of lions quenched the flames of fire and escape death by the edge of the sword their weakness was turned to strength they became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight women received their loved ones back again from death but others were tortured what what refusing to turn from God in order to be set free they placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection some were jeered at and their backs were cut open with whips others were chained in prison some died by the by stoning some were sought in half and others were killed with the sword some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats destitute and oppressed and mistreated they were too good for this world wandering over deserts and mountains hiding in caves and holes in the ground all these people earned a good reputation because of their faith them received all that God had promised for God had something better in mind for us so that they would not reach perfection without us oh that's good oh thank you I have dread for you chapter 11 of Hebrews about your heads the sermon's over I'm just kidding I'm just kidding I'm just kidding so if you're taking notes three words here's my assignment to communicate to you today faith for whatever that's what I want to talk to you about today I want you to walk out of here understanding that you have faith right now for whatever situation you get into whatever circumstance you may encounter you have faith right now for whatever you don't need more of it you already have it you just need to be aware and reminded that is for about your heads let's pray shall we Holy Spirit give us an assurance that we have faith for whatever amen uh Hebrews the book of Hebrews is uh one of the most brilliantly written books in the entire Bible Old and New Testament I can put this book up against any of them it stands as one of the most brilliant refreshing fascinating and revelatory books in the entire Bible when I get to heaven in this order there's three people well four technically that I need to see first is my Lord and Savior I want to see him face to face I need to thank him for what he has done second I just need to see if Adam and Eve made it if they're up there just need to holler at them as much as I like clothes I would have loved to be naked at 68 degrees in perpetuity we took a l and I just need to say what are you doing what was that all about bro you had the whole garden third I need to find out who wrote Hebrews cause are you serious I mean we have some incredible uh Revelation from Paul and we have some contributions from Jude and from Peter and from John but man this book by itself the revelation of Christ's superiority as priests as king is unbelievable and he is communicating to a bunch of house churches in Rome in Italy and and exhorting them and letting them know that no matter how much persecution you are under I want you to be reminded that you have everything you need right now to go through what you're going through right now the writer of Hebrews is so brilliant that as he begins to exhort the faith through a list of some people that seemingly he just plucks at random he does it in four categories the way he sets it up is in these four categories he does it by giving the phrase by faith then giving the name of the person that used the faith and then shows you where they applied their faith to whatever action or event that they were going through and then subsequently gives you the outcome of what happened because of their faith so the four categories again are the phrase by faith the name of the person the action or event that they applied their faith on and the subsequent outcome he starts off before he even gets into his list by saying uh I need you to understand what faith is faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen yay that's always been an incredible verse and kind of a riddle what did you say what do you mean yeah faith is a substance substance like substance yep of what things hoped for and it is the evidence of things not seen so what is faith faith is acting on what God has revealed about his will and his character as Believers we act on what God has revealed about his will and his character that's what we get to put our foundation on is what God has revealed about his will and his character not my will and my character not your will and your character not your intestinal fortitude but everything God has already shown us we did not plan this this weekend but I thought it was very very interesting that the uh Icebreaker questioned that you are supposed to ask each other is who do you trust do you know do you have someone that you trust and what I'm happy about is when the writer gets down to saying that um without faith it is impossible to please God that it doesn't actually say without trust it is impossible to please God even God knew though I am Sovereign I would never put you in a situation where you had to trust me where you have no empirical data so the entry level into a relationship with God is not trust trust takes relational Equity God even knew that he said I know it's going to take you some time to know that my will and my character is for your good no matter where you find yourself but I would never impose upon you to trust without having empirical data so just put your faith in me even with questions put your faith in me even with unresolved answers and tension put your faith in me against all your church hurt put your faith in me against religious abuse and experience you had in your past push that aside and put your faith in me because without faith it is impossible for you to understand my will and my character the writer of Hebrews gives this list of people that use this faith and as you see how he plucks certain people in the Bible I don't know how this first of all his handle on the Old Testament is just absolutely remarkable most theologians believe that he just had most of the Old Testament memorized to be able to structure what they believe this letter is a sermon to the people that he was trying to influence and exhort but he chooses certain people to highlight 10 individuals and the children of Israel as a collective and I just want to go back through and synthesize for you what he says about their faith and how it was applied what I want you to pick up on is how common in hindsight this Faith really is because a lot of times when we talk about faith we talk about it from this very daunting almost Supernatural place and a lot of times I'm going to confess in my own life the way people have given their testimony about faith has been sanitized for public consumption the revisionist history is crazy on the other side after everything's all worked out we recapted whatever we went through like this God God I was in a situation it was terrible but by faith I just stepped in and God worked it out and I'm like that was it you ain't cry your butt cheeks never got tight you didn't look at your savings account and think honey we got a month and a half and we're gonna be eating Lunchables and as long as that Costco membership is still valid we might just be going for for the samples no what I love about scripture is that you see this Faith applied and you see the Ebbs and flows of how they had to navigate their life with this faith so he goes on this list and I'm just going to go through it quickly Abel had Faith to bring an offering let's just say Abel had Faith to give anycast faith that pleased god let's simply say he had Faith to walk and can I just tell you out of this whole list Enix my favorite like I wanna I'd rather go like Enoch like I just want to please God to the point that he's like get up here like you know what I mean like I just want to walk to the mailbox and just and just go I'm sure my kids would be heartbroken and Juliet's going to be like why is this closed by the mailbox but it would just be dope to be walking with the Lord and just it's my favorite on the list I know everybody else wants to be David and Peter and all that kind of stuff I'm like I take Enoch Noah had Faith to build the boat let's just say he had Faith to build Abraham had Faith to leave without knowing where he was going let's just say that he had Faith to leave Sarah believed God would keep his promise she had Faith to birth Abraham offered Isaac as a Sacrifice by faith he just simply had Faith to obey and what I love with the what the writer wrote that we read is that Abraham believed God so much that in his mind he was thinking if I actually have to do it I'm a step back and wait for God to bring him back to life if that's not gangster Faith nothing is imma stab my son step back and wait for the Lord to bring him back to life faith he believed God Isaac promised blessings to his kids by faith let's just say he had Faith to promise Jacob blessed his grandkids by faith he had Faith to bless Joseph said the people of Israel would leave Egypt by faith he had Faith to prophesy Moses's parents hid him for three months by faith they have faith to hide Moses refused to be called the son of pharaoh by faith he had Faith to deny Moses left Egypt by faith he had Faith to separate Moses told Israel to keep the Passover by faith they had Faith to prepare Israel went through the Red Sea by faith they had Faith to cross over Israel marched around Jericho by faith they simply had Faith to March Rahab and her family was spared by faith they had Faith to switch up Allegiance to who they were going to live their lives for the reason why I wanted to break this down is that there was nothing on this list that they did that we can't do for whatever right now and a lot of times we only try to apply our faith to success I'm believing God for the promotion believing God to qualify for the house I'm believing for the funding to come through so that we can strike the business deal I I'm believing God for for to get into the right college and you need to understand that your faith doesn't just work for good stuff it works through bad stuff self-imposed or not imposed at all whether you find yourself up or down you have faith for whatever high or low you have faith for whatever Mountaintop or Valley you have faith for whatever right this is the moment in the message that I told you it was redundant I'm saying the same thing over and over in different ways so that when you leave you will understand that I have faith for one of my favorite sections in the scriptures that we read uh is the genius not only of the writer but whoever assembled the New Testament and started breaking it down into chapters and verses there is a pivot in the passage that is so violent that it humors me because again when I read the Bible it's like a pop-up book to me and so as I'm reading the scripture I just want you to see the Swale and then because that's exactly what happens in the text by faith these people overthrew kingdoms I wish I had like a score of music right now because it would just make it so much better by faith these people had these people overthrew kingdoms ruled with Justice and received what God had promised them they shut the mouths of lions quenched the flames of fire and escape death by the edge of the sword their weakness was turned to strength they became strong and battled and put whole armies to flight women received their loved ones back again from death but others were tortured what like there's not even a clean break in the verse like it doesn't even it's not like it goes 35 30 like all the good stuff happens in 35 minutes no in the same verse they're like but sometimes stuff don't go your way you who your faith doesn't just work in good circumstances your faith will carry you through bad circumstances it will carry you not just through a promotion but a demotion not just getting the house losing the house not just getting the baby having the miscarriage your same Faith Works and applies and I don't know this by Theory I know this by my own life the last 27 years that I've been walking with Jesus has been high and low and I've gotten through it by faith Tim went through and came out on the other side because he believed God we have two beautiful children Nathan and Noah but Juliet's been pregnant five times by faith we got through the birth and the loss by faith I have been blessed to walk through some incredible doors and by faith I have had some doors Slam in my face by faith right now a restaurant and sitting on a bed of risotto rice with three long stalks of of asparagus to prop up said sea bass I get to have the apple pie tart with the Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream oh it's so good and it's so bougie but when I first got married to Juliet I did not have a job for nine months we were eating wolf brand chili and rice success rice boiling bag 10 minutes that we threw into Tupperware bowls I crushed half a row of saltine crackers into it threw some Louisiana hot sauce on it mixed it up and ate it because baby let me tell you your stomach don't know the difference between wolf brand chili and rice and sea bass all it knows is it's food and if I lost it all today I could eat wolf brand chili tonight by faith my life is not contingent on metrics of success it is contingent on God being his best in my life [Applause] the exhortation that you have faith for whatever to do whatever and instead of looking at the snapshot of your life as it is right now and going it's terrible perhaps if we can tweak the perspective through faith we could just say it's different this season is different but the same God that brought me through last year will bring me through this year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year why because he's with me at my highest and my lowest September 17th of 2004. my brother miles was killed in a car accident it was the worst depression I have ever been in in my entire life I am a naturally optimistic person I'm a happy person I just I'm always the glass is half full until I lost my brother in those four months were the deepest darkest depressing months of my entire life you know how I got through it by faith by faith because I don't just apply my faith to the good stuff and cast it away when I'm going through a Bad season the same faith that brought me through this always brings me through that by faith this person went through this circumstance and this is the subsequent outcome by faith that person went through this circumstance and this was the subsequent outcome did anybody notice the reoccurring theme as we read through the individuals and corporately the children of Israel as the writer says by faith all of the outcomes were the same God brought them through there isn't one individual that the Hebrew writer was like yeah they used it but they kind of fumbled it didn't get through on the other side I mean they tried their hardest but uh faith is a great equalizer and most people think you got to go you got to have big Faith to see God move the truth is you just got to have faith Jesus even gave you the size you have to have it's like that much he said if you have Faith the size of like maybe that much I reckon you could tell that tree to go into that Lake and it will be done so I'm pretty sure he can get you through student loans I'm pretty sure he can get you through what you think is the worst season you're going through right now but if you don't calibrate your perspective you will call anything lower than a mountain a curse when all it is is a season for you to understand God's Will and character in a way that you will never experience on a Mountaintop people that don't go through any adversity have a warped view of God's Will and character this is not a permanent situation you're in it's a temporary situation where God wants to reveal himself to you in a different way and by faith you are going to come out on the other side so with the remaining time that we have left I just want us to go through an exercise and this exercise is very very simple I just want you to pull out your phones or your or get your notepad whatever you're taking notes on and I want you to use these four categories and insert yourself once again there's a phrase a name an action or event and the subsequent outcome I want you to this is going to take introspection for some of you all you've been going through a situation but you haven't you haven't named it yet or you haven't you haven't put your mind on it because then it'll be really real you've distracted yourself you've numbed yourself you've medicated yourself you've thrown Jesus glitter over it the church is notorious for tossing Jesus glitter how you doing today oh I'm blessed and highly favored haven't slept in four days then just say that just say that phrase name your name this is nobody else's message okay phrase name event or action that you need to apply your faith to in the subsequent outcome well Tim I don't know the outcome right now by faith prophesy so situation I'm in right now I would just say by faith Tim stepping into and walking through a new season of his life is going to obey God now like he always has for some of you might you might be saying by faith Crystal who is receiving more blessings in God could ever bestow in this season is gladly walking out her purpose in the Earth someone else's might be by faith Richard is going through the suckiest season of life I can't see four beams of light through this tunnel I'm walking through and I'm gonna get out on the other side still professing Jesus as Lord with the remaining time we have left let's add our faith to those that have already been listed remember how the writer ends the chapter God has something better in mind for us so that they wouldn't reach perfection without us there's a reason why all of time has not folded upon himself itself and Jesus Christ returning in full Glory because we're still adding verses to the hall of faith that we just read and until you're by faith story is done he ain't coming back because he refuses to let Samson and jephthah David and Barack Abel Enoch Rahab children of Israel Moses Abraham Sarah Isaac and Jacob to have more experiences with faith than us so by faith live this life and watch God get the glory for the outcome

Channel: Pillar Church

Views: 41,865

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, gateway church sermons, church online, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, Tim Ross, The Basement, Basement Tim Ross, Mindset, mastering mindset, pastor tim ross, pillar, pillar church, pillar scottsdale, tim ross pillar, faith for anything, faith, having faith, faith forward, hebrews 11, faith based, faith sermons, sermon on faith

Id: eA1su4Ie574

Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2023