Pastor David shares Sunday in Dickinson.

Hebrews 11:1 What Faith Is

■ Hebrews 11:1 Wuest Now faith is the title deed of things hoped for,

the proof of things which are not being seen.

■ Hebrews 11:1 AMP Now faith is the assurance (title deed,

confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the

evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality--faith

comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical

senses].

○ God is telling us here what faith is. One translation reads, “Faith is the

warranty deed, the thing for which we have finally hoped is at last ours.”

■ Faith is that thing upon which our entire expectation rests

● Hebrews 11:1 is a statement of what faith is. There is natural

faith, and spiritual faith. Natural faith depends on the human

senses

● We use our natural faith when be expect that our employer will

be depositing a certain amount of funds into our bank account

at a specific time, because we’ve been told it would be that way

● We’ve been told that 2 plus 2 equals four, so if we have four

phones in our house but only two chargers, we conclude that

we need two more chargers to charge all four phones at the

same time. So what do we do? We go to the store and buy two

chargers. We don’t buy one, we don’t buy three, we don’t buy

seven. We buy two because that’s what we were told. The fact

that I need two chargers in addition to the two I already have is

established on the word I heard that 2 plus 2 equals 4.

● I believe that if I sit on a chair it will hold me, and I don’t even

question that or think twice because I believe it so firmly.

○ Spiritual faith believes with the heart, regardless and rather than what our

senses say. Faith grasps the unrealities of hope (our confident

expectation), and brings them into the realm of reality. And faith grows

out of the Word of God

○ Faith will say about itself everything the Word says, for faith in God is simply

faith in His Word: Simply put, faith is living like the Word of God is true

○ Hope says, “I’ll have it sometime.” Faith says, “I have it NOW.”

➢ Head Faith vs. Heart Faith: Mark 11:22-24

○ “The devil has given the Church a substitute for faith; one that looks and

sounds so much like faith that few people can tell the difference.” -John

Wesley

■ John Wesley was talking about what we could call mental assent:

agreeing that the Word is true, but not having heart faith

○ Mental Agreement vs. Heart Faith:

■ Mental assent: “I know God’s Word is true, and I know He’s promised

healing, but for some reason I just can’t get it. I can’t understand it.”

■ Heart Faith: “If God’s Word says it’s true, then it’s true. It’s mine. I

have it now! I have it even though I can’t see it.”

■ Heart faith is such an un-shakable confidence in your inner man, in

your spirit, that the promise of God in your situation is just as real as

the manifestation of what was promised.

● When you have heart faith there’s an excitement, a joy, that

will rise up on the inside of you. This isn’t what we live off of

because it will fade, but instead we live off of the confidence

that, regardless of feeling, God’s Word to me is true.

● You can have faith in your heart and doubt in your head. That

is, when you know that you know that you know that you

know, and nothing can shake you from what God said, your

head may be screaming “It’s wrong! Turn around! Go the other

way!” but you have peace in your heart concerning the matter,

so you press on regardless of the noise

○ The devil and the flesh lead by noise, fear, frustration,

and confusion: the Holy Ghost leads by peace in His

Word

■ “But I actually don’t have what I’ve prayed for! How am I supposed to

lie and say that I do when I can see that I don’t?”

● If you already had it, you wouldn’t have to believe for it: you

simply wouldn’t need faith because faith brings what we don’t

see into the realm of what we do

● We have to take the step from “Believing” to get to the place of

“Knowing.” We don’t believe we’re blessed because we look

blessed; we don’t believe we’re healed because we look healed;

we don’t believe we have favor because we look favored; we

believe we are because GOD said we are

■ Matthew 21:21-22

● We must believe that we receive when? When we pray

➢ Thomas’ Faith vs. Abraham’s:

○ Thomas: John 20:24-29

■ Thomas had to see to believe. This was not faith at all

○ Abraham: Romans 4:17-21

1. Abraham called that which was not as though it was

a. God changed Abram’s name to “Abraham” which means

“Father of many.” Every time Abraham spoke his name, he was

confessing what God said and calling that which was not as

though it was: that he was a father of many nations.

2. Abraham fully expected that what God said would happen (vs. 18

a. Even though it was logically stupid to expect a son, Abraham

believed what God said and expected His Word to come to

pass

3. Abraham didn’t waver when he thought of circumstances contrary to

the promise (vs. 19-20)

a. Romans 4:19 AMPC He did not weaken in faith when he

considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was

as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or

[when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah's [deadened]

womb. [Gen 17:17; Gen 18:11]

4. Abraham was fully persuaded (vs. 21)

a. God promised Abraham a son, so he expected a son. You

couldn’t convince him otherwise!