Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
17 sermons cite this verse
… That's why the writer of Hebrews said, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that I can't see. So faith then, watch this, is learning the difference between knowing what is happening and knowing that something else can happen. I don't need everybody. I just need two or three who can testify that I'm growing to the place in my faith where I know that things are happening. I know what's happening on the job. I know what's happening in the scholarship. I know what's happening, but I believe something else can happen. I just need two or three who can just testify. God's got another move. God can do something else. I know what I see in front of me. I know what's happening to me, but God can make something else happen. Somebody came to church for that word. Because you're looking at what's happening. And God's promise is despite what's happening to you. I can make something else happen. In fact, that's what God says to Micah. …
… Well, I have it on good grounds. Hebrews 11 verse 1 says, now faith is the substance. That's a funny thing. Faith, faith is, you can't touch it. You can see it in action. But listen, faith is the substance. When you think of substance, what do you think? Something you can grab, right? That's substance. How can faith be connected with substance? That's a good question. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. That's the future. The evidence of things not seen. In other words, God has arranged the universe and all that he's created, visible and invisible, whereby it is evidence of God's existence and the fact that you and I live in a parallel universe where you and I live in the physical realm, but there's also the spiritual realm. He goes on. Verse 2. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony by faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. That means God spoke the world into existence. …
… two years ago. There's no evidence of things changing. But here's the key. True faith doesn't require evidence. Hebrews says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If you can see it, if you have evidence, you don't need faith. That's why the scripture says to walk by faith and not by sight. If you're basing your faith on what you can see, is this improving? Are there signs that God is working? You're going to be discouraged because often God works in secret. He's doing things behind the scenes where there's no visible evidence. Everything on the surface looks the same. That's the test of your faith. Are you going to give up because you don't see anything changing? The circumstances, the facts don't line up with what you're believing for? Or are you gonna have real faith and say, God, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm moved by what you said. I don't need evidence to believe what you promised me is on the way. …
… i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my righteous right hand how about this one hebrews 11 1 now faith is he's telling you what faith is it's the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not Let's sing. 1 John 4, 10, this is love. Not that we love God. Y'all, this one feels important. He's literally defining for you what love is according to God. And that's going to be the pattern for how you love your spouse. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Y'all, these are not obscure verses I pulled out. These are key promises in the Bible. I'm just saying, is it possible that you know Taylor's thoughts on love more than you know God's thoughts on love? Listen, Taylor just got married and I wish her well in her marriage. I'm sure it was a thing, but let's just all be honest, okay? None of us can say for sure that she's still going to be married to Travis in 10 years. History and situations like this would suggest maybe not. Nick Cage is on his fifth marriage, and if he can't make it, what hope is there for anyone in Hollywood? Am I right? So I don't know where she's going to be in 10 years. …
… And I've had to stand and believe when I wasn't seeing it. But faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. We walk by faith, not by sight. Hallelujah. And when you can't see it, if you can believe it, God can do it. the call of the spirit to Aaron's sons it's not just to Aaron it's not just to admire your daddy's garment admire your mother's prayer life admire your granny and your grandpa's walk with God and that's great that's great for them but he said that garment was made with you in mind that when God designed it, he made it fit you in the present generation just as good as it did grandma and grandpa and mom and dad or just mom. It doesn't matter if you've got one person of faith in that family, there's a garment waiting for you to put it on. the garment was not supposed to be made for him and his generation only, but it was designed with multiple generations in mind. Wear the same garment that your previous generation wore, one of faith, one of praise. You see, the garment of prayer and fasting still wears well in this generation. …
… I couldn't help myself, guys. Hebrews 11 verses one through three in the message translation says, the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word. What we see created by what we don't see. and this is the life of faith. We're believing that there's a God who we can't see, doing works deep down that we also can't see, moving and shaking and wanting to use us in a natural yet supernatural way. This is our faith. Let's let our faith rise up in our hearts. Let's let God move, move us, move in us. Let him move in your life. Let it show in your works. He will do it. The pressure is off of you because it's on him and he can handle whatever you're going through. …
… The old King James Version translates, faith is the substance of things hoped for. Almost all modern versions translate it, faith is the assurance of things hoped for and I'm going to argue for substance. Tell you why, tell you what I think it means and then flesh it out in those three instances. Number one, three reasons. The word hypostasis is used two other times in the book of Hebrews. 1-3, listen to this, Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his hypostasis. Translated nature, substance, essence, reality. chapter 3 verse 14 we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence hypostasis firm to the end now in the original there's no word for our would just be translated like this we have come to share in Christ if indeed the hypostasis if we hold firm the hypostasis to the end. Could be confidence, could be substance, depending on what that means. And then outside the New Testament, Paul uses it twice, and it's almost for certain, everybody agrees, that it would be confidence or assurance the way Paul uses it. …
That Greek word literally means your expectation. Hebrews chapter 11, when it says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, that phrase, things hoped for, is the Greek word expectation. So faith is the substance of your expectation. Expectation is everything. And expectation comes by the word. When God gives you a word, he's not trying to tickle your fancy. He's trying to give you an expectation because expectation postures you to see right. Are we tracking? Okay. So expectation is the knowledge of what is available to you. I don't know about you. You call me greedy, whatever you want to call me. I want everything that's available to me. I am greedy for God. Everything that God says is available to me. I'm eating it all. I want the salad. I want every course of the meal that is assigned to my life and dessert. And I'm going to eat all of it and lick the plate when I'm finished. You ain't got to wash these dishes. …
… Faith can overcome what you don't have. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. This is what God's Word says. It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And until you're operating in that realm that I can't see it yet, but I believe for it, then that is where God lives. The Bible said without faith, you cannot please God. In Hebrews 4 and verse 2, it said the word preached didn't profit. Listen, you can hear all the preaching you want to, but it does not profit if it's not being mixed with faith. You hear it, faith cometh by hearing. And when you hear it, you mix your faith because he's given to every man a measure of faith. And all it takes is a mustard seed of faith. You don't have to have great faith if you can just ignite. See, the miracle is not dependent upon how big and great and strong your faith is. All you need is a mustard seed. …
… or you wouldn't need faith for faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen I'm going to do one more How do you maintain faith when evidence contradicts the promise? It's supposed to. That's why you got faith. If the evidence agreed with the promise, if a man, let me put it to you the way Scripture says, if a man sees that which he hopes for, why does he yet hope for it? It wouldn't be silly for me to be standing up here saying, I believe God to let me walk. Because I can walk. Now if I was paralyzed from the waist down, now the evidence is defying the faith, and the faith becomes the substance of the thing that I hope for. But if I see that which I hope for, why would I yet hope for it? So God doesn't always show you everything to perfect your faith. So you don't ruin things. So you don't meddle with things. …
… But I found out that in between the prayer and the answer is faith. And faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. You don't see your heart beating. That's what the readout is showing you, that you're still here. Your heart is beating while I'm talking, and you're still here. There are peaks and valleys in your life while you are journeying and sojourning through this pilgrim experience of being a human, being a person, and you keep thinking it's not normal, and you keep thinking you're broken because you think Christianity is always riding the high. But the moment you learn that the God who is the God of this is the God of that, and this is what life looks like. It looks like I'm headed up in one area and I'm way down in another. I'm headed up in one area and I'm way down in another. I got one foot up and I got one foot down. I'm doing better with my health, but I'm doing worse in my mind. I'm doing better with my money, but I'm doing worse with my time. Here I am thinking there's something wrong with me when God wanted me to know that both steps are ordered by the Lord. The one here, the one there. …
I want to make this tangible. Hebrews 11, faith is the substance of things hoped for, that word things hoped for. One word, it literally means expectation. So your faith is the substance of your expectation. The reason why you can't lose the faith, because if you lose the faith, you lose the thing. because the thing is in your faith. Did you catch it? So that's why the enemy is always after your faith because if he can get you to fumble your faith, you fumble the promise. Because what ensures the manifestation of the promise is God's promise, your faith. So in Hebrews, it says, Hebrews 10, 35, it says cast not therefore away your confidence your expectation that's your faith don't cast it away it says wherein there is great reward so if you say all I got is a word from God look at what you just said all you got is a word from God that's all you need everything you see was created by a word So how do I heal my heart slowly? …
… enough that if he says, let's go, even though the arrows are flying, you've got the shield of faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Let's go. The weapon may be formed against me, but it will not prosper. Let's go. Take your stand then against the devil's schemes. You are not ignorant of his schemes. Let's go. Devil, I don't want the smoke, but if you want to bring it, I know somebody who's got a train that fills the temple. Let's go. I don't want to raise this kid by myself, but if God didn't give me somebody else to raise them with, he's my tag team partner. Let's go! Abraham went 1,500 miles. Can you imagine? 1,500 miles without an app, without an Uber, without a GPS coordinate. It feels like that sometimes, but there is the voice of God saying, let's go. Notice he said, let's go. Let us go. I'm going to do this with you. …
… You know, when you said, I see that, Our Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen yet, but you will see it by faith. And we're with you on that. We see it. God bless you. Thank you. I just want to say that I feel the power, the power of the world standing with you, and the good should win. The evil, we should just let it go away, and the good should win in this world. Thank you so much for your hearts. God bless you. God bless you. Let them know you love them. Incredible. Bless them all. If you have your Bibles, I'd like for you to open them to the book of Psalms 109. And when I say nine, I think of my mother who is 89. She turned 89 this week. She's sitting on the second row. Mom, you're 89 years old. Stand up. Show your good-looking self off. isn't she something else that remain standing mom show that crowd over there how good you look you never know god bless you we love you so much and appreciate you more than we can say and she's a character i tell you she's still pretty bossy if you have your bibles i want you to open them with me to the book of psalms 109. I'm not going to preach long this morning, but I do have 30 minutes. So praise the Lord. …
… we do it. It's just not enough. It's just too good. All right. Verse one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks. In other words, even though he's died, he still is prophesying to us how truth works. Verse 5, by faith, Enoch was taken away. That's just one of the weirdest things in all of history. Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Is that amazing? Faith, faith provided a walk for him with God. I heard a little girl explain this once, a repeat story of a little girl who said that God and Enoch went for a long walk and finally God said, you know, you're closer to my house than to yours. Why don't you just come home with me? So I don't know if, you know, that works for me. I'm going with the little girl's story. So that's how she saw it. But here's this last phrase, so that he pleased God. …
… allow it for your good and for His glory. And I'm telling you, folks, in times of temptation, if you ever get tempted, and you will get tempted, you need to see the unseen world. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Do you see that? Now with that in mind go down to verse 24 and look at it. By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now Moses could have had fathomless wealth. He could have had luxurious lifestyle. He could have dabbled in every sinful worldly pleasure that this world offered. He could have been the king of the most powerful nation on earth. But he refused, the Bible says, to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. That is, he looked to the bottom line, he looked to the conclusion of the whole matter. Now verse 27, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. Now here's the verse I wanted. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. One more time. One more time we see …
… Well, let's start in verse 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Just underscore that. That is, faith is the evidence that there is an unseen world out there. For by it, that is by faith, the elders obtained a good report. Would you like to get an A on your report card? Well, pay attention. Through faith we understand that the worlds, that is the universes, were framed, that is brought into being, by the word of God. That is God spoke and God made something out of nothing. So that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Now, Moffat translates that this way, the visible is made out of the invisible. Things that are seen were first made of things that can't be seen. That is, the invisible was here before the visible. Before there was anything that you could touch or taste or hear or smell, there was the invisible Spirit of God and the Word of God that brought all of these things here. The invisible was here before the visible. Now, sometimes people try to deny the idea of God because they say it all just happened. But God made everything out of nothing. Do you believe that? I believe that. God made everything out of nothing. So the invisible world was here first. Again, let me read that scripture to you. …