Pastor Izzy from Courageous Church, sat down with Leah and Dan to break down Hebrews 11 and have a discussion around faith.

Hebrews

Pastor Izzy opened with the joke: “Apostle Paul is cooking up, because He Brews.” He then likened Hebrews 11 to, “the Hall of Fame of people of faith.”

“We know that God moves when we have faith,” said Pastor Izzy, “And we’ve seen that.”

He split the chapter into two parts. The first part listed amazing things that happen when we have faith. The second part mentioned ‘the others,’ who were tortured, put to death, mistreated and persecuted.”

Hebrews 11:35

They were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Faith vs Outcome

” Our faith does not need to be attached to an outcome, in order for it to be pleasing to God.”

Pastor Izzy then listed examples of miracles, such as, praying over cancer and hearing a great report come back. “We say, ‘Wow, that person has amazing faith and God is using them powerfully.'”

Then he posed the question, “But what about the person who prays for someone, believes God, and they don’t recover and they actually pass away.” Pastor Izzy referred back to Paul’s words in Hebrews: “That person’s faith is just as commendable in God’s eyes as the person who saw the outcome.”

Release the Outcome

“Surrender it,” said Pastor Izzy, “Because it is actually out of our control.” He pointed out the freedom this will bring from anxiety and a sense of worrying about things that are actually beyond your control.

“You can’t do anything about the outcome… that is God’s business,” he claimed.

Live by Faith

“Your business is to live by faith and actually listen to the word,” continued Pastor Izzy, “That is enough to be pleasing to God.”

Leah then said, “Sometimes we think about mustering up this faith to believe for this outcome or this miracle.” She continued, ” But there’s a sense that faith comes from this place of rest.”

She explained it has nothing to do with what we do or how much we believe. “I throw my trust and my faith upon him and my hope is in him rather than the outcome,” said Leah.

Surrender is the Reward

They all agreed that the surrender is so freeing, and faith with or without the ‘miracle’ still pleases God.

Pastor Izzy argued that solidarity makes the world a better place, “The fact that someone cared enough to pray goes such a long way. That is the reward,” he concluded.

Check out the full chat with Pastor Izzy below.