Israel: The Risk of Faith | Sermon by Tony Evans

[Music] hello everyone this is dr tony evans with the urban alternative and i'm excited to welcome you to join us on a journey a journey through hebrews 11 it's known as the hall of faith where men and women discovered what god can do when god's people learn to live walk and act by faith the beautiful thing is it's not just about them it's about us as the author of hebrews writes the new testament believers that's who we are about how the lives of old testament saints who learn to live by faith should challenge and affect our lives as we live by faith so we're excited to welcome you on this journey it's going to be an exciting trip we're going to learn a lot most importantly we're going to be transformed by the truth what it means to be a kingdom hero who lives by faith [Music] we've introduced the title of today's message israel colon the risk of faith the reason why we used israel and not the name of a person is because in verse 28 there is a subtle shift in hebrews 11. it says by faith he moses kept the passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them so he moves from him to them and then in verse 28 29 he says by faith they passed through the red sea verse 30 by faith the walls of jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days so he moves from him to them from the man moses to the congregation of the nation of israel so as i speak to you today i'm not merely talking to you individually although it applies i'm also talking to us collectively because the message is collective in nature because it deals with the whole congregation of israel in exodus chapter 12 when god told the children of israel that he was going to smite verse 23 of exodus 12 the firstborn in israel but if they would put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost of their home when the deaf angel came he would pass over them verse 23 he would not allow the destroyer to come into your homes to smite you he then goes on and tells them in exodus he says you are to memorialize this for your children verse 26 when your children say what does this mean to you you shall say it is the passover sacrifice to the lord who gave over the houses of the sons of israel in egypt when he smote the egyptians but spared our homes and the people bowed and worshipped he says you ought to teach this passover thing to your kids and you are to keep this passover ongoingly now why am i telling us this and why is the author of hebrews telling us this about faith because the bible says first corinthians 5 7 jesus is our passover the blood of what the blood of the lamb did in the old testament for israel the blood of jesus does for us today if you operate under the blood of jesus that is if you operate in sync with jesus christ his sacrifice on the cross if you operate in sync with jesus christ the blood covers you everybody here today on their way to heaven is only on their way to heaven because they're covered by the blood the blood did not simply deliver egypt for eternity the blood delivered them in history it delivered them from the egyptians see a lot of folk who've been saved by the blood for heaven do not let the blood save them on earth see the blood is not it's good for eternity but it's also good if you operate in sync under the rule of jesus christ and his sacrifice he becomes the deliverer that we've been singing about who gives freedom from this who gives deliverance from that who gives peace that passes understanding joy and tribulation who who takes you through the various ups and downs of life and makes you more than a conqueror it says all that comes to the blood too so if you're only looking to the blood for heaven you're gonna miss the power of the blood on earth that's why jesus says if you deny me before men i will deny you before my father who is in heaven but if you acknowledge me before men i will acknowledge you before my father is in heaven see belief in god is not where your deliverance comes your deliverance comes through the blood and that is your identification with jesus christ he now goes on to the second of these three events he says in verse 29 by faith by faith they passed through the red sea and though they were passing through dr as though they were passing through dry land and the egyptians when they attempted it was drowned israel their slaves in egypt they're slaves in egypt when the passover occurred and god slew all the firstborn of the egyptian children of egyptian households and the firstborn of the egyptian cattle it says in exodus chapter 12 verse 33 the egyptians urged the people to send them out of the land in haste for they said we will all be dead we keep them here they're going to kill their god going to kill everybody so the people took their dough before it was leaven with their kneading bowls bound up in the carves and on their shoulder now the sons of israel had done according to the word of moses uh they had requested him from the egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing and the lord had given the people favor in the sight of the egyptians so that they let them have their request thus they plundered the egyptians now you got to follow this story now they're slaves the passover occurs now they're scared they say get rid of them jews and we'll help them go give them all the jewels all the silver and all the gold all of a sudden they went from slave to freedom and broke to living large because it says they plundered the egyptians they took all their gold their silver their money they just they just robbed the bank the folk wanted to get rid of them so bad so that'll tell you how quick god can change the situation god can change the situation real quick because god turned this thing around and so now they've gone overnight they've gone from slaves to a wealthy nation so now they they doing what folk do in church they're getting their praise on god has turned that thing around so so right now things are looking real good things are looking really really good now according to chapter 13 verse 17 now when pharaoh had let the people go god did not lead them by the way of the land of the philistines even though it was near for god said the people might change their minds when they see war and return to egypt hence god led the people around by the way of the of the wilderness to the red sea so this miracle now watch this the miracle is going to happen at the red sea but the red sea is not the direct route to the promised land so they are here in egypt the promised land is here and god takes them down by the red sea to bring them back up to the promised land has god ever taken you way out of the way and as he leads them the long way around pharaoh has second thoughts chapter 14 verse 5 when the king of egypt was told that the people had fled pharaoh and his servants had a change of mind change of heart toward the people and they said what is this we have done that we have let israel go from serving us we must have been out of our mind to let all that extra help go what were we thinking so he takes 600 chariots verse 7 to go after them okay watch this watch this stay with me folks verse 8 says the lord hardened the heart of pharaoh king of egypt and he chased after the sons of israel as the sons of israel were going out boldly watch this it says and the lord hardened pharaoh's heart so when pharaoh said go get them god told pharaoh hurry up to harden your heart means to make you do more of and make you do it faster of what you intended to do in the first place so he had a heart that said he had a change of heart his change of heart said go get him god hardened the heart and said yeah you ought to go get him to hurry up and go get them before they get out of here go get them now if i was you i wouldn't let them go either go get them okay god led them the long way around god told evil pharaoh go get them you ever feel like god is more on the enemy side than yours you ever feel like god is more on your unsafe employer's side than yours you ever feel like god is more on your unsafe co-worker side than yours you ever feel like god is more on your unsafe family member side than yours you praying and you're looking to god you trust in god and they coming after you the problem is coming after you the difficulties coming after you and watch this and they coming after you right after you were just blessed when the people see the army coming after them they do what christians do today verse 11. then they said to moses is it because there were no graves in egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness why have you dealt with us in this way bringing us out of egypt is this not the word we spoke to you in egypt saying leave us alone that we may serve the egyptians for if we have been better for us to serve the egyptians than to die here in the wilderness they did what we do on god when it doesn't look like god is working it like we expected it but moses said to the people okay so this is a congregation of israel it says the they in hebrews moses is like the pastor he says do not fear that that sounds like a good pastor y'all scared the pastor mounts the pulpit and says do not fear stand by and see the salvation of the lord what else is a preacher going to say congregation is scared about inflation they're scared about crime they're scared about this he says stand back and see the salvation of the lord which he will accomplish for you today for the egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see again forever what he's basically saying is trust the lord now there is i'm getting ready to show you a missing verse in the bible there is a verse that's missing and we're told the verse is missing it's a verse that's supposed to be in the bible that's not in the bible and we're told that it's not in the bible even though it's supposed to be in the bible let me show you the missing version verse 15 then the lord said to moses why are you crying out to me tell the sons of israel to go forward i wonder who saw the missing verse okay watch this in verse 13 and 14 moses is the confident preacher don't be afraid god's got this god's gonna fix this these egyptians they're not gonna mess with you somebody say amen no i'm talking about moses talking to the people so moses is confident god's got this thing but then we read god says moses why are you crying out to me i don't see where moses is crying out to god moses hasn't said anything to god all moses has said is what god would do for the people so we have a missing verse let me fill in the verse fear not god is going to deliver us missing verse thank god you better come up here and do something cause i'm up here i'm up here talking all this noise to these people how do i know that's the missing verse because god tells him and ask him why are you crying to me but he hasn't verbally said anything to god he's only verbally said something to the people so he's done like i often have to do from the pulpit tell y'all what god said while i'm having a private conversation in the middle of my sermon see see a lot of times up here there are two sermons going on one to you and one between me and him i'm saying god this is what you're gonna i'm gonna tell the people what you can do you better come up here and not make me look like no fool up in here that two sermons going on here he says why are you crying out to me because he was scared too he was preaching the truth but preaching it with his own internal fear because if the truth be told even when you want to gamble on god you're scared even when you quoting scripture to yourself you're scared even when you're telling yourself you're listening to christian radio you're listening to a cd you're hearing from god but you are still scared and the fear was not only in the congregation it was in the preacher so god has to even say to him why are you crying out to me now let me give you the translation moses there's a time to pray and there's a time not to stop talking to me stop don't don't keep don't keep repeating your fear to me stop talking why are you crying out to me now look at the first phrase in 16 and the first phrase in 17. now watch this he says as for you somebody say as for you as for you but look at the first phrase in verse 17 as for me as for you then he says in 17 as for me as for you lift up the staff as for me i will harden the egyptian's heart to go after you okay you do what i told you to do you leave me to do what i'm supposed to do don't worry about me i got my part but i'm not gonna do my part till you do your part until you lift up the rod you won't see what i can do a lot of us haven't seen god move yet because god hasn't seen us move yet god says as for me i got my part down i'm just waiting for you to stop whining and crying complaining and talking about this and talking about that talking smack i'm waiting for you to shut up and do what i told you to do we got christians going around saying well i'm praying about it i'm praying about it i'm praying about it i'm praying about it i prayed about it i asked god about it god said oh shut up why are you crying to me telling me you're praying about it for 50 years and you haven't done what i've told you to do yet so you haven't seen what i can do as for you you do what i told you to do and as for me i got my part but my part will only move after i see you move by faith so moses you pick up your rod and you hold it out you do what i put in your hand to do many of us are waiting on god when god is waiting on us and god says i am not going to move and you will not see my hand until i see you roll the dice in my favor and when i see that and then you have a double miracle you have a double miracle because verse 21 says then moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so that the waters were divided and the sons of israel went through the midst of the sea as on the dry land that's two miracles hope you know that says this wind came charlton heston you remember the wind came and split the water that's miracle number one you got two walls of water now it's going to take faith to walk between those two balls of water because you don't have empirical evidence they won't come down while you're walking through so it's going to take faith to walk through but that's only half the miracle but i know why they could believe the first half of the miracle because of what happened in the second half of the miracle because the first half of the miracle was the splitting of the water the second half of the miracle was dry ground you see the ground shouldn't have been dry if it's at the bottom of a sea it should be wet muddy ground but that that wind was so strong it not only walled the water but it dried out the bottom of the sea so that there was no dirt mud they could roll their their carts the horses could travel the mules could travel everybody could travel because god opened up the ocean and dried up the land and they saw we can walk on this it's a double miracle it says the angel of the lord doubled back watch us now and blocked the egyptians from coming until israel walked through then the angel of the lord moved out and let the egyptians come and they were drowned in the sea if you've never gambled on god and seen what he could do when only he could do it then maybe that's why god may not be real in your life because you've never bet on him all the little stuff maybe the stuff you could do even if there was no god but you've never bet on him in a crisis when he boxed you in between a rock and a hard place when he put you out on a cliff when he put you on a ledge when you were in a pinch in verse 17 i will be honored verse 18 i will be honored he does it so that he can get what he just got and applause from his people so that he can be glorified so that he alone will get the credit let me conclude real quick with the last story which is verse 30 of hebrews 11 jericho you know about it uh uh chapter six jericho okay watch this now because you won't miss this jericho god says joshua i want you to take jericho and here's the plan walk around the wall six times once a day and on the seventh day walk around the wall seven times blow the trumpet horns and like any good rapper would say and scream you know scream joshua chapter 6 verse 1 says that jericho was totally tight like a drum in other words everything was locked up these walls are so big like the movie been her two two two chariots could go side by side on them so this wasn't a wall you just climbed this was a major city and it said it was locked up in other words nobody coming in nobody coming out because israel was on the way and they said well we don't just all stay in here so they can't even get to us so joshua's out there looking and trying to figure out how we're going to do this the angel of the lord shows up he bows before the angel of the lord takes off his shoes to submit in humility to to to god standing before him and says now i'm gonna tell you something that's not part of your military training i'm gonna tell you something that no military has ever thought of before and that is watch this gonna make you look like a fool when you do it here's what i want you to do i want you to walk around the wall once a day [Music] once a week day number two go around day number three day number four day number five day number six on day number seven you go around that thing seven times you blow the trumpet horns and you scream and i'll take it from there now if you were looking at a military manual to get your instruction then you would have never taken a risk on god because that doesn't make sense when god puts you in a position that doesn't make sense he wants you to see he's god he wants you to experience the fact that he alone is god and when they screamed the walls came tumbling down and there's nothing like seeing god knock down something you can't knock down turn something around you can't turn around i remember you know we have the 65 acres at camp wisdom in hampton and and you know i wanted that land for our master plan you know and and uh this is many years ago and so i took a whole bunch of folk of our congregation some of you may have been here when we did that we walked on that 65 acres and we marched around it and claimed it claimed it for the purposes of god so we marched around it we claimed it we got in a circle held hands we all looked spiritual out there we were in a circle we were holding hands we were praying lord give us this lamb for the purpose of expanding your kingdom and we prayed and they sold the land to somebody else really just statement nothing irritates me more about god than when i believed him for something and he do something else with it he worked against me you know i wasn't happy that day because i'm leaving the congregation i'm leaving them trusting the lord and they're looking at me like i'm crazy did the land be sold in somebody else that was one of them days when i felt like moses god's gonna give it to me god what you're doing you know i'm i'm conflicted so we prayed we trusted god and he sold it to somebody else lo and behold a couple years later the folks who bought it defaulted they came back to us and we own it because god is weird and god i said that reverently i did this so you know god is weird my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts as high as the heaven is above the earth because when god is ready to move he can shake it and bake it twist it and turn it he can turn things around bring things up you never know see what you you don't know who you're dealing with he is a beast [Music] one of the most rehearsed miracles in the bible is god opening up the red sea and his people israel taking the risk of faith walking between two walls of water on dry land and believing that the god who promised they would get through it would keep his word god calls us to take risk because faith deals with what you do not see in advance but if god said it it's a risk worth taking [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 14,893

Rating: 4.9160838 out of 5

Keywords: sermons, faith sermon, Tony Evans sermons, Israel, powerful sermon, Israel sermon

Id: l7Xyg62s1iE

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021