Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
The Missing Verse
Feeling the pull to retreat when life gets heavy? We walk through Hebrews 10–12 to explore how faith endures real pressure, how confidence carries a reward, and why God’s “little while” can feel like our “long while.” The message is clear and challenging: don’t throw away your confidence. You have need of endurance, not because pain is noble, but because promise is real.
We unpack the difference between defining faith and describing it: assurance about what we hope for, conviction about what we do not see. That shifts faith from theory to movement—praying for forgiveness and trusting it’s granted, believing Christ will return, aligning choices with a future we haven’t yet touched. We also trace the genealogy of faith from Abel to Moses and stop at a striking gap: a skipped generation between the Red Sea and Jericho. For forty years, fear drowned out obedience, and God left their line unwritten. That silence asks a hard question for us today: would our season be recorded as “by faith,” or skipped because comfort won?
Along the way, we center on the promise that God is—provider when resources thin, protector when threats rise, healer in sickness, shelter in storms. We bring it home with a ringside story of endurance: you can be bruised and still be winning, pressed and still be progressing. The cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12 cheers us on, reminding us how far we’ve come and what waits ahead. If you’ve been tempted to shrink back, consider this your corner coach counting down the seconds: hold fast, keep moving forward, refuse to be a missing verse.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. Your voice helps the message reach someone on the ropes today.
If you never know look at stone number seven forty-five seven hundred and forty-five. And give me a nod if you know it's a five. Alright, I see if you're not alright. Beginning of this on the twenty-nine and ending of foot of fifty. They passed through the red screen. And the attempted miracle fell down after we had been entered. If we still have that statement, the title of the morning statement is the messing fist. Now I know that sounds weird to you that the title is about a missing fist, but hold on, it will make sense when it makes sense. The book of Hebrews is written from a perspective where Christians are no longer holding on to their faith in Jesus. They're leaving Christianity because they're being persecuted. Christians are being thrown into prison, they're being burnt, their families are being affected. And for this reason, many of them have decided to abandon faith in God, abandon faith in Jesus, and go back to something safe. At this time, what was safe is Judaism. And so the Hebrews document, the Hebrews letter, is written to encourage these Christians not to leave your faith, not to leave, not to abandon, not to give up on Jesus. It's written from the perspective that the Hebrew writer and God ultimately understands what you're going through, but being a Christian doesn't mean that life is always easy. It means that even when life gets difficult, you have someone else at your side, a great God, and someone you should take comfort in. Therefore, don't give up your fight. That's why you could read Hebrews chapter number four, and he he tells you that we have a high priest who has passed beyond the heavens from verse number 14. Jesus, the Son of God, who has been tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, and he's been touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He wants you to know God knows, God understands, God feels. And that's why He's there with you. That's why He is like a coach outside the boxing ring telling you, don't throw in the towel, don't give up, keep fighting. There's just a few more rounds left, and you're in it to win it. But the truth is, sometimes holding on could feel tiring. Sometimes holding on could feel frustrating, sometimes waiting for God to show up and to answer a prayer, show up and to intervene in a situation could be burdensome. And so we have these words meet me in chapter number 10. I hope you don't mind reading scripture with me on this morning. Chapter number 10, from verse number 35, he says, Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet, in a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. This is almost like a mantra. This is a mantra that you should tell yourself when you wake up in the morning. You should say, We are not of those that shrink back. We are not of those that shrink back. Going back is destruction. I'm not going back, I'm not returning to who I used to be, I'm not returning to what I'm comfortable with, I'm not going back. There is nothing back there for me. I'm going forward. I understand that sometimes going forward is difficult, sometimes going forward is uncomfortable, but I rather go forward and be blessed than go back and be cursed. But it's a resolve that you have to tell yourself. He says, I understand that you need endurance. It's not just enough to have faith. When faith tests you, you need some endurance. You need the ability. Let me let me use a word I haven't used in a while, a stick to it. You need this ability to say, regardless of what's happening, I'm going to stick to it-iveness. Until I see it through, you have need of endurance, is what he says. And then he says, In a little while, but let's tell the truth. A little while for God is a long while for us. Wow, a little while for God is a long while for us. And and what he's saying is, while I am taking, while God is taking a little while, he says, My righteous one, that's us, my just one should be living by faith. He's expecting you while you're waiting for him, while you're enduring, while you're experiencing this crisis of faith, that you're holding on with endurance and understanding that the only way you can make it is by faith. The righteous one shall live by faith. And again, he repeats we are not those who shrink back to destruction, but we are those who endure, who persevere to the saving of our souls. That's the type of faith you need. A faith that is able, when it's tested, to endure, to persevere, to stick to it. And then chapter 11 begins. Because he wants you to understand the type of faith you need. Chapter 11, verse number 1 begins. Now faith is. We've done a lot of this, a lot of things with this text. And I want to make this as simple as possible. He is not giving you here a definition of faith, he's giving you a description of what faith looks like. Let me explain. If I'm to ask you what faith is, you may quote Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And I'll tell you that you're in church too long. Because faith is your trust in God. But what it looks like is my assurance in something I've not yet seen. My confidence in what God has not yet done. Faith is the substance or the assurance. Substance of things not seen. My assurance in what I've not seen, it's the evidence, it's it's it's me acting out firmly in belief, in conviction of the things I'm hoping for. That's the description of what it is. To put it simply, faith is my confidence that when I prayed last night before I laid my head down to sleep, and I asked God to forgive me of all the sins I committed in word, thought, and in deed. Sins intentionally and unintentionally. Sins both known to me and unknown to me. It's the assurance and the conviction that when I said it and asked God in faith for it, he did it. Now here's the part that may lose some of us. I did not see my sins leave my body. I don't know the exact moment in the prayer when God removed my sins. I just firmly believe that he did. That's faith. It's my confidence in what I can't see. Does that make sense? I firmly believe that Jesus is coming again. I don't know the day, I don't know the hour, I I don't know anything, but I believe he's coming again. And I believe when he comes, he'll prove himself to be king. He'll prove himself that he is the anointed one of God, and every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess. I believe when I see him, I'll be changed. I believe when I see him, I'll not only be changed, I'll not be short anymore. I believe that when I'm changed, my my I'm going to look like he is. I'll live in glory. I believe all of that. I have not seen it yet. That's what faith, that's the description of faith, is acting confidently on what you believe. After he gives you this description of faith, he tells you in verse number six, without faith it is impossible to please God, and he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I'm trying to get to verse number 29, but you can't understand verse 29 and verse 30 without seeing what the Hebrew writer is doing. He's saying faith is crucial. Faith is crucial enough that when you talk to God, you must believe that God is. In my younger years, I would ask, God is what? And I realized the reason why he didn't say that he is filling the blank is because God is whatever you need him to be at the time that you need him to be. And I must believe that. I must believe that in this instance, when I'm looking for a provider, God is my provider. I must believe that if next week comes around and I'm looking for a protector, that God is my protector, I must believe that in a month, if I'm uh bedridden, if I'm sick and I'm looking for a healer, that God is my healer, I need to believe that in the midst of uncertainty, God is my shelter in a time of storm. God is, I must believe he is. And I must believe faith helps me to believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So I must believe, I must have the confidence and the assurance and the hope that if I'm looking after Christ, I'm seeking Christ, I'm seeking him, he rewards that. And now that he gave you this description, he gives you examples of it. Now what happens is this document was not written to us, it was written for us. And so I want you to borrow the eyes of the original audience of this document. This document was originally written to Jewish Christians, and by that fact, it's written in a way a Christian who was previously a Jew would understand. Here's what happens the Hebrews' author begins to give them a genealogy of faith. Now, if you're a Jew, you immediately know this is a genealogy because you lived all your life saying you're the son of Abraham, you're the daughter of Abraham. You trace your genealogy every day. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and the rest of his brethren. Judah begot Perez, Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Aminadab, Aminadab begot Naeshon, Naeshon begot Salmon, Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed, Obed begot Jesse, Jesse begot David, David begot Solomon, Solomon begot Rehoboam, on and on you. You knew your genealogy. So here's what he's doing: he's giving you a genealogy. Well, not us, he's giving them. And what he does is he begins as far back as he could go, Abel. And from Abel he gives Enoch, and from Enoch he gives Noah, and from Noah comes Abraham, and after Abraham, guess who comes? Isaac. And after Isaac, guess who comes? Jacob. And after Jacob, guess who comes? He goes on until he reaches Moses and then the children of Israel in verse number 29. That's where our text is. And in verse number 29, he says, by faith, by acting on their faith, they crossed the Red Sea, and the Egyptians who tried it drowned. And then verse 30 says, by faith, by acting on their faith, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. A Jew is going to pause after reading verse 30. A Jewish Christian is going to pause because he knows this is a genealogical record that started with Abel and it went through every historical person connected with Abel genealogically. Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and the rest of his brethren, Moses, the children of Israel. And to us, the children of Israel in verse number 29, and it's still the children of Israel in verse number 30. To them, they would recognize that the people mentioned in verse 29 are not the same people in verse 30. It would stand out like a sore thumb to them because they saw this as a genealogy. God skipped a generation. He said, And they crossed the Red Sea, and the Egyptians who did it drowned. Alright, we're tracking verse 30. By faith the walls of Jericho came to. Well, you missed all the people between verse 29 and verse number 30. There's a missing verse. You don't see why I got some missing verse now. There's a missing verse. Let me help you before you get all conspiracy theory on me. There isn't. But it's what a Jew is going to think because he instinctively recognizes something is wrong in the history between verse 29 and verse number 30. It's going to cause him to look. It's going to cause the Jewish Christian to revisit their history. And what they would find is that there is 40 years where God could not find one good enough person to mention their faithfulness. Between verse 29 and verse 30 is 40 years of faithlessness. God could not find in a generation and in a period of 40 years one good, faithful thing to mention. What it means then is as you read this the way God intends for you to read this, the question is if God were to do a genealogical record of faith today, would he skip over you? The way he skipped over 40 years of Israelites. Would you be recorded in the hall of faith? Would scripture say by faith Eddie did? By faith, Annette did. Or is he going to look at you and like this 40 years of faithlessness, say, I need to skip Anderson because I cannot say by faith, Anderson. And it makes you recognize that what the Hebrew writer is doing started in chapter 10. In chapter 10, he says, You need to have endurance. You need to have a faith that says we won't go back. Let's look at the 40 years. I want to make sure you get this and then we could eat. Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. I'll start at verse number one. Scripture says, Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I'm going to give to the sons of Israel. You shall send a man from each of their father's tribe, every one a leader among them. So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were the heads of the sons of Israel. Verse 17. When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, Go up there into the Negev, then go up into the hill country, see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong, whether they are few or many. How is the land in which they live? Is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live? Are they like open camps or with fortifications? How is the land? Is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up, spied out the land from the wilderness of Zinn as far as Rehab at Liboham. When they had gone up into the Negev, they came to Hebron, where Ahimon, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Let's drop down some more. Meet me in verse 32. So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we had gone and spying it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. Chapter 14, verse number three says, Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. This is an account you already know. But I'm showing you why God could not find a person in these 40 years to mention as someone faithful. Because Hebrews 10 says, We are not those who turn back. And you just read that this entire generation was willing, when faced with difficulty, to turn back. But you read Hebrews, and the message has to be one that tells us even when it's not easy, we're still going to stay on this road. Even if it takes more out of me, I'm not going to give up my trust in God. I'm not going to give up my confidence. Even if it causes me difficulty and problems, I am not one that shrinks back because there is nothing back there for me. The encouragement I want to give you on this morning is one where we don't end up being a missing verse in today's record of faith. Where God, if he were still to write and he were to make a pronouncement of faithfulness, he'll be able to say, by faith, mineral springs. By faith, the people of mineral springs, by faith, Michaelia, by faith, Vicky, by faith, everybody. And he won't omit us. And if you need some encouragement, that is where chapter 12 comes in. Because after he gives all of these persons of faith, chapter 12, verse number one says, Therefore, seeing that we have such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race set before us. And so my encouragement to you on this morning is don't lose your faith. I understand that life could be difficult at times. And sometimes you want to know if God is actually going to show up. When is he going to show up? How is he going to show up? How much longer do you have to wait? And his word to you is, Endio, don't throw in the towel. It will be worth it in the end. There was a movie I watched, and I don't remember the name. I'm not good with movies. I don't often watch movies. I don't remember the name, but I do remember that a significant part of the movie was this young guy was in college and he saw a girl that he was very much interested in. And he told her he confessed his affection, he confessed his feelings towards her, and she did not give him the time of day. He learned that she would often go to the gym to box. And he went to the gym, he saw her boxing and realized that she was an amateur boxer. And he told her, I am going to jump in the ring with you. And I'm going to strike a deal. If I survive one entire round in twelve minutes. You have to take me out on a date. If, however, I don't last the entire round, I will never ever speak to you again. You will never have to worry about me. He was a brave guy. The moment I knew she could fight, I was not stepping in that ring. But he did. Now I need to tell you, he's like me. He has no training. He doesn't know how to fight. He knows how to scrap. Scrap. Can't fight. So he tried scrapping, and she immediately pinned him on the ground. He was able to wrestle out of it. He looked at the clock and he still had 11 minutes to go. So now he's dancing around the ring, trying to avoid getting close to her, because 11 minutes in the ring with her is a long time. She's able to get close to him, she lands a few blows, he pins him against the fence, and he's feeling beaten, he's feeling bruised. By this time, there are persons around the ring watching, and one of them is his friend who knows how much he likes the girl. And his friend began to tell him, Don't give up. Now he's explaining to his friend, you're not in the ring. These blows hurt. But when he said that, his friend says, You don't understand, you've already made seven minutes. You just need five more. If you've made seven, you could make five more. Just stay in. Don't give in. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. His friend is outside telling him, You just need to hold on a little while longer. Have some endurance. And he's in there and he's being beaten up, he's being pinned, he's being pushed against the rope. But his friend says, You're almost there. You're almost there, you're almost there. And then with about one minute 30 seconds to go, she catches him against the ropes, and she just starts going into head chest, head chest. She's just going, and he's there trying to block. And he's like, This is painful. His friend says, One minute remains. You could do this. Remember, she owes you a date. If you win, the show was a comedy, so he says, There'll be no date if I'm in the hospital. But the friend says, One more minute. And as the friend says that she's able to hold him and pin him on the ground, and she has him in this hold now, and this hold is painful. His friend says, You have 20 seconds remaining. I don't think I could make it. I'm ready to tap out. No, don't don't do it. Don't don't do it. And the friend begins to count down and says, Don't do it. You have 10, 9, 8, 7, and he's screaming out in agony. But the only reason he's trying to endure is because his friend says, It's almost over, it's going to be worth it. It's almost over. Five, four, three, two, and the bell rings. He didn't give in. He was able to make it a full 12 minutes. But don't miss this. What I loved about watching that was the fact that he made it with some scars. He made it with some bruises. He made it even though he was roughed up. He made it. And it gave me it gave me a renewed sense of understanding where I may not always be victorious without a bruise. You all understand this? I may be victorious, but I might get scratched along the way. I might get some blow along the way. But I also know what I'm fighting for. And because what I'm fighting for is worth it, even when it comes to blows and scratches, I'll endure it because it's worth it in the end. I don't know where you are, I don't know what you're going through. I didn't even know I was going to preach this this morning. If you're in Bible class, you know. If you won't, this I didn't. I was planning to preach out of Mark 1. Somehow we ended up in Hebrews 11. But I do believe in the movement of God. I do believe in the Spirit of God. And for that reason, I do believe that it was placed in my spirit by the Spirit to preach this text to encourage somebody today not to give up. I don't know where you are, I don't know what you're going through, but it's very possible that you needed to hear today. God knows. God understands. And He's standing outside that ring telling you right now don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. You have need of endurance. And so if that is what you realize you need right now for your situation, I want to pray with you and for you that God gives you the endurance you need so that you could confidently say, we are not those who shrink back to the destruction of our souls, but we are those who persevere to the saving of our souls. If you need prayer for strength and endurance, meet me at the front. Let's all stand. We're about to sing. And if you just need prayer for endurance, you need faith to continue holding on, you feel like tapping out, you feel burdened, you feel heavy. And you want God to endure you with more strength, more endurance, and more of his grace. Meet me at the front row. We'll pray with you, we'll pray for you right after we sing these words of encouragement.