that will make a real difference in our lives. It's hard to imagine that these answers

might be right in front of us. Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless

Conley.

Welcome to the broadcast today. We're going into the second part of a message about what

faith is. And in particular we are looking at men and women from Hebrews chapter 11 that

walked by faith. And yet each one of them had a different way to express their faith.

We found out last time that Noah expressed his faith through preparation. God said that

there would be a flood. So without any evidence other than God's word he prepared. And we're

going to move on to another well-known biblical figure in today's message. And talk about

what faith is. And I believe with this person or the next one or the next one that we discuss

you're going to learn some keys that will help you in very practical ways to express

faith in God in your own life. And remember: without faith it's not hard, it's not

just difficult, it is impossible to please God.

Here's Bayless Conley with part two of his continuing message from last week.

When you believe God's Word that He said something is going to happen, your action

is to prepare. It's how you release your faith.

Gloria Sutton, she basically oversees all the Answers television broadcasts that goes

out of Cottonwood Church around the world. And she has been in that position and doing

that for about 16 years… an amazing gal! Let me tell you how it started. God spoke

to Gloria's heart about 20 years ago that she was going to be the Director of Television

Correspondence here at Cottonwood Church. No such position even existed. There was no

Director of Television Correspondence. We didn't need one. We didn't have the position.

She was the head over a large pharmacy in a medical center, responsible for all of it.

So she started every single day listening to the cassettes. That's what we had then.

There weren't any CDs or other means, but so it was cassettes. At least we weren't

doing 8-tracks or reel-to-reel, anymore. So she listened to the CDs of the messages every

day over and over and over on her way to work, on her way home from work; during lunchbreak

she listened to the messages from Sunday and Wednesday over and over and over. And she

does that for several years. And she began saying to herself over and over, “I am the

Director of Television Correspondence for Cottonwood Church.” She said she would say

it out loud and laugh in the car by herself. And then she started getting the pharmacy

ready… getting all the files, all the documents, everything in order to hand over to someone

else because she's going to be the Director of Television Correspondence at Cottonwood

Church. She hadn't told another soul, but she got everything ready, trained the people

up, got everything ready to hand it over. And then she started making up little songs

about it and singing songs to herself. And I don't know what they sounded like. I'm

not even going to try. And then after two years, she said, “I finally told my husband,

Bob, and I told my parents.” She said, “I'm going to be the Director of Television Correspondence

at Cottonwood Church.” Now she didn't come to us and tell us that. We went and sought

her out and said, “Gloria, we'd like you to come work for the Television Department

at the church.” And you know what? She has a staff, oversees the office, everything that

happens here in the U. S., but she also oversees our correspondence centers and our offices

in eight different countries. It's in multiple languages around the world. She's responsible

for all of the banking. She's responsible for… we have boards in all of those different

nations, which we have to have. We have board members there. We have correspondence in the

language of the people. There's websites set up in all of the different languages.

Guess who is responsible for all that? Gloria Sutton is. Well, I'm going to tell you how

it started. She began making preparations. She started preparing. And if she hadn't

prepared, it never would have happened for her.

Noah, what's faith about? It's about making preparations.

How long did you stay with it, Noah? A hundred years.

Okay. What is it that God has quickened to your heart? What has He talked to you about?

Have you made any preparations at all? Believe your husband is going to be saved? Have you

gotten him a Bible and had his name embossed on it yet? Or gotten an iPad with a Bible

program on that you're going to give to him when he responds and gives his life to

Christ? Have you done any kind of preparation at all? Faith is expressed… faith is released…

it's turned loose through making preparations.

All right, we come to another one in verse 8, Abraham. “By faith…” Everyone say,

“By faith.”

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive

as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Abraham would tell us, “Oh, faith is about obedience. It's about doing what God tells

you to do, even when you don't know what's coming next.”

In Genesis 12:1-2 it says this, “Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Get out of your country,

from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will

make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be

a blessing.” Now when God said that to him, Abraham's father had just died, his younger

brother had just died, and Abraham is taking care of his nephew, all while he is at the

age of 75. And God says, “Abraham, go, and I'll bless you.”

“Go? Go where, God?” “Just get going. I'll show you later.”

A lot of people would have said, “Uhm, God, don't You think I'm a little old for this?

You know, I was thinking about retiring. And my younger brother just died, and we're

just sort of getting settled in in this place, and really? Seventy-five? You are saying to

go, and You are not telling me where I'm supposed to go? No, just go. Uh, well, do

You have a map?” “No, no maps.”

“Well, a vision. Can you give me a vision? Show me in a vision.”

“No, no vision.” “Well, can you send me someone that's

been there, and then they can come and tell me about the place?”

“No, I'm not sending anyone. Just go. I'll tell you when you get there.”

And by faith Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going. You see, God gives you

a little light, and then He expects you to walk in it before He will give you more light.

I was probably 15 or 16 years old. I was with a friend, we're back in the San Gabriel

mountains. We had taken our backpacks in and we were fly fishing on an upper part of the

San Gabriel River, and we were down in a place there's no road or anything to it. It was

a bit of a wilderness area. And he and I found an old abandoned mine. It was literally a

hole that was just cut out of the granite side of a cliff. All these trees and shrubs

had grown up in front of it, and there were some old twisted tracks coming out, and we

went, “Awesome!” We didn't even have a flashlight with us, but we had a whole bunch

of stick matches. Somebody says, “What if there's a bear in there?” There could

have been a bear in there! “What if there's snakes in there?” There could have been

snakes in there! “What if there's a shaft that just falls away down through the floor?”

Well, there actually was one of those. But if you don't go in, you don't get the

adventure! So we lit our first match, and we walked in. And it's, “Ow! Your turn.”

Light another match with your thumbnail, and you walk in a little farther. And when that

light's gone… and it is inky black you cannot see your hand in front of your face.

And we did that. It took about 15 matches, and then I was glad because there was a shaft

that just went poomph! And we dropped a match down there and never saw it hit bottom. So

we lit another one and we went around that big hole, lighting these matches; and when

we'd walk in the light of that match, when it was gone, we had to light another one to

get more and to go forward. We finally got to the very end of the mine, and then we had

just a few matches to get out. We barely made it out.

But the point is: if you'll walk in the light God gives you, He'll give you more

light. But if you have to know everything, you will not be used very much by God. Abraham

says, “Hey, if you want to be a blessing, God says, 'You go out to the place that

I will show you, and I will make your name great, and I will make you a blessing.'”

A great part of our capacity to be a blessing, to be used by God, is our willingness to obey

Him when we don't know what's up the road ahead. Has God said anything to you? You may

not get it, but you have clear direction. Friend, act on that. Abraham tells us that

is faith. That's how you release your faith.

And then his wife, Sarah. We read about her next in verse 11:

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when

she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

If we asked Abraham's wife, Sarah, “Sarah, what's faith all about? How did you release

your faith?” She said, “Look, faith is about receiving.” By faith Sarah received

strength. And that word, strength, is the same word translated “miracle” throughout

the New Testament. “Because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” She judged Him

faithful because of His character generally and, specifically, because of His promise,

because of His word. And according to Romans 4:19, her womb was dead. But she received

by faith the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

You know, in Mark 11:24, Jesus talking about faith, He said, “Have faith in God.” And

then in verse 24… that's verse 22. Verse 24, He said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever

things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

“When you pray,” Jesus said, “believe that you receive them.” Jesus said this

is how you have faith in God. It has to do with receiving when you pray. The substance

of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.

Somebody says, “What's your evidence God has answered you?”

Faith in His Word. I believe that I have received.

You know, I had a friend. He actually shared this story in front of the congregation a

long, long time ago. And I, you know, to be honest, if it would have been my story, I

wouldn't have shared the detail that he shared. But he did. He got up and shared that

he had had this terrible skin condition in a very private place on his anatomy for like

I think it was over five years. It might have been almost ten years. And he said, “I have

been every minute, every day in absolute agony because of this condition in my private section

of my body.” I remember thinking, “You didn't have

to share that you know, it would have been… just let them think it's on your back. Come

on!” But he did, and he said, “Agony! For years,”

he said, “I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing's ever happened. I've been

to physician after physician. I've gotten ointment after ointment. I've gotten shots.

I've done everything and never got a moment's relief.” He said, “And one day I was reading

Mark 11:24 and realized I've been practicing it in reverse. Jesus said, 'When you pray,

believe you receive, and you will have it.'” He said, “I wanted to have it and then believe

I receive it.” He said, “I realized I had to receive it by faith in its unseen form

before I would ever have it in its seen form.” He said, “Something changed in me.” He

said, “I prayed a simple prayer: God, Jesus bore my sicknesses. By His stripes I was healed.

I believe I receive healing for this condition.” And then he lifted his hands and began to

thank God. Spent a little while just worshiping God, worshiping God. And within 36 hours that

condition completely cleared up and never came back.

Now if Sarah was here tonight, she's sitting in the congregation, she would be saying,

“Amen, brother. Yeah, that's right. Amen! Faith is about receiving.” And then I want

to look at one more person as we close. There are certainly more here, but time won't

allow us. Let's look at Moses. Look at verse 24 with me.

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing

pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches

than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing

Him who is invisible.

Moses would tell us faith is about refusing, choosing, and forsaking.

Moses refused to be identified with the wrong family. He chose what family he would identify

with. He refused the temporary pleasures of sin. He forsook Egypt to lay hold on that

city in heaven.

And, you know, tonight there are only two families in this world, spiritually: Those

that are saved and those that are lost. There's no other families. There's only two families.

You are either in Christ or in Adam, as the Scripture says. First Corinthians 15:22 says,

“In Christ all are made alive, but in Adam all die.” Every one of us when we are born

into this world, we are made part of Adam's family. He was the fountainhead of the human

race. Everyone in the world is part of Adam's family. The only way to get in Christ is to

embrace Him as Lord and Savior. You are in one or the other. And Moses made a decision.

He refused and he forsook some things, and he chose the right things.

But, friend, let me tell you: Though following Christ means you have to make some pretty

major choices… you have to refuse and forsake some things. But nothing compares with the