Epiphany 2022

Yesterday was Epiphany 2022, and as per tradition, we took down the lights on a frigid day.

No sooner were the lights down and the snow came, our first snow of the year.  No White

Christmas, but a nice beginning to the New Year.  It must have been the delivery of the snow

blower on Wednesday that triggered the event; or held it off until then!

A little catch up

In December, I finished my final full semester in Seminary.  I was scheduled to be leaving on a

Mission Immersion trip to the border at Douglas, AZ  in the morning to view the plight of the

immigrants.  However, with the onslaught of COVID infections, instead we are taking a

alternative Pittsburgh-based cultural immersion project.

When finished, I will have completed the required 81 Master Credits for my Master of Divinity Degree.

To God Alone be the credit!

Next stop: Board of Ministry examination on February 4th.

New Year Blessings,

John

Lent 4, March 14, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mh01YpoOzM&t=335s

Love strengthens the church:  1 Corinthians 8 1-13     

1 corinthians 8

 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. ² Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ³ But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.^[a]

⁴ So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.⁵ There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. ⁶ But for us,

There is one God, the Father,
by whom all things were created,
and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom all things were created,
and through whom we live.

⁷ However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. ⁸ It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

⁹ But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. ¹⁰ For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? ¹¹ So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer^[b] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. ¹² And when you sin against other believers^[c] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. ¹³ So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

The Word of God for the people of God- Thanks be to God!

How many of you remember Paul Harvey? Paul hosted a show called the Rest of the Story!

So, let’s look closer at what is going on here.  To put this in perspective, Paul would kind of be like their District Superintendent is to us today.  Paul had planted the church and turned it over, and after he left the people in the church are having disputes that they want Paul to settle for them.

Factions had begun to form and each made their case and wanted Paul to declare them to be right and the other wrong.

The Corinth church was planted amid sin city, where the temple of Athena, the love goddess, employed 1000 priestess who served as prostitutes and it was common for meat sold in the marketplace to have been consecrated as a sacrifice to false gods prior to its sale.

The Jews would have nothing to do with such meat, wary of “unclean” food-handling practices and believing that to partake of consecrated meat was to give tacit approval of idol worship—kind of a “second-hand” idolatry.

The former pagans who worshipped at the temple and had now left and declared Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior didn’t want any part of anything to do with these temple sacrifices

The Gentiles rejected the notion that such meat was tainted and held that they could eat meat sacrificed to idols without endorsing idolatry—they had not actually offered the sacrifice, after all.

So, as Paul Harvey would say, that’s the rest of the story. What the controversy was about.

Paul clarifies the teaching on this subject. First, he says that eating meat offered to an idol is not immoral, because “an idol is nothing at all.” An idol is an inanimate object. The meat itself is amoral. But meat isn’t the issue it is? It is the fracturing of relationships.

And Paul is trying to bring them back to the main thing. See church, it’s never about the meat, never about the organ, piano, guitar, drum set or even a YouTube video that doesn’t quite get it right, is it? We sometimes do it accapela at Starford, just because! No, it is about glorifying our God and enjoying our relationship with Him together as His church and taking His love out to others.

In essentials, UNITY In non-essentials, LIBERTY In all things, LOVE

See, our faith is relational church, and we are the body of Christ, not the Lone Ranger of Christ. We were created in the Image of God and to be in relationship with Him and with each other. So, what’s all this have to do with us Pastor John?

What we believe has implications church, especially what we believe about the body of Christ.

This message is as applicable to us, as it was to Corinth.

See Church Genesis 1: 26 tells we were created in God’s image and that has implications. How are we created in His Image? While God is a spirit, we resemble God because we are cognitive, emotional, intimate, creative and relational beings.

God is relational, therefore, God made us relational to be in His Image.

The third aspect of our being made in His image is He made us to be representative of Him. As He is over all, in Genesis 1:28, He blessed us and then gave us the responsibility to be the caretaker of His creation

Being created in the image of God we were created to be relational being, as God is relational. I love the way C.s Lewis puts it. “In Christianity God is not a static thing, but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if your think me not irreverent a kind of dance.  Cornelius Plantinga develops this further, noting that The Father, Son and Holy Spirit glorify one another. The persons within God exalt one another, commune with one another, defer to one another, Each divine being harbors the others at the center of His being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person envelops and encircles the others. God’s interior life therefore overflows with regard to others

The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are characterized in their very essence by mutually self-giving love. None insists that the other revolve around them, rather each voluntarily circles around the others.

Church if this is what God is like then the truth bristles and explodes with life-shaping glorious implications for us. If this world was made by our Triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about how you view God.

So why would a triune God create a world? If he were a unipersonal God you might say he created the world so he can have being who give him worshipful love and that would give him joy.

But the triune God already had that and he received love in himself in a far purer form, more powerful form than we human being can ever give him.

So why would he create us?  He must have created to give us joy, not get it. He must have created us to invite us into the divine dance to say, if you glorify me, if you center your life on me, if you find me beautiful for who I am myself, then you will step into this dance, which is what I made you for.

You are not made just to believe in me or to be spiritual in some general way, not just to pray or get some inspiration when times are tough.  You are made to center everything in your life on me, to think of everything in terms of your relationship with me. To serve me unconditionally, that where you find your joy. That’s what the dance is all about church!

So, church, as members of the body of Christ, we are to be partakers in this dance and that is what Paul is telling us here when he says,

Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. ² Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. ³ But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognize. See Love strengthens the church!

As we prepare to church, where are we as His people?

Are you in the dance or do you believe God is out there somewhere? Are you in the dance or do you just pray to God every so often when you’re in trouble? Are you in the dance or are you looking around for someone to orbit around you?

If life is a divine dance then you need more than anything to be in it. That’s what you were built for. You were made to enter a divine dance with the Trinity. Amen

When my wife and I were dating, we made a conscious choice to try and go somewhere out of town to worship at least once a month. Three weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to Pittsburgh and worship with Hillsongs United at the Consol Energy Center.  It was so refreshing to be able to worship together as husband and wife, away from our regular responsibilities. This is the third time I have seen Hillsongs and I really enjoy them because their major themes are faith, surrender and the Christian life and their concerts always have a serious time of worship.

As I was meditating on this passage, I was listening to their song Oceans and these words really spoke to me, as I trust they will to you;  “You call me out upon the waters, The great unknown where feet may fall, And there I find you in the mystery, in oceans deep, My faith will stand.”

The song goes on to proclaim, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, Let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger In the presence of my Savior”

Like last week, this is another tough, long , action packed passage. Since this is a Part 2 sermon, let me quickly recap last week.

• Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were being persecuted for their faith by non-Christian Jews.
• Their faith and practice were indistinguishable
• They chose to love despite the consequences of sure persecution and loss of property.
• Faith is not believing in something
• Faith is not unquestioning
• Abraham laughed at the idea of becoming a parent
• Abraham questioned God
• God used Abraham’s unbelief to grow his faith
• God spoke. Abraham acted
• Faith involves death, especially dying to ourselves.

Faith is not an intellectual exercise, but rather is the foundation of a life of radical, risk taking, sacrificial love

I asked you as we left, for us to prayerfully ask God to show us how to have the Kind of amazing faith we learned about last week.

This week, I am trusting that God has a valuable lesson for us packaged in verses 29-40. If you have a Bible, please turn with me to follow along.  In these verses we see a summary of the faithful., but the writer doesn’t want to bog us down in details, as basically to go into details would be a case of missing the forest for the trees.  It is worth noting that all of the references herein are based on historic events of the old testament and have made for a wonderful bible study.

In verses 29-38 the writer mentions six miracles, five acts of God’s providence and eleven types of suffering, of which four resulted in death.

Now I told you today was another tough text.  Last week was tough because of some of the Greek words used in the beginning of Chapter 11 are interpreted differently because of rarely used Greek words.

Today’s text doesn’t share those interpretive issues. In fact, the writer is crystal clear on what he is trying to convey giving us ample examples of historical old testament events what this “amazing faith” looks like.

What can we take away from today’s text?

• Through our faith God can and does work miracles and acts of providence to bring practical earthly help and deliverance to his people.  The writer gives us 11 examples in verses 29-35a,

Now most of us can easily wrap our heads around God intervening in time and space, to come to the aid of His people, whether it be through miraculous interruption of natural law or by working behind the scenes in what is sometimes called the invisible hand of God. These are types of temporal salvific acts, preserving us in the here and now as a testimony of God’s power to the non-believer. Remember even the raising of the dead were temporal acts, as only Jesus resurrection was a true resurrection, the one which we seek.

• God does not always work miracles and acts of providence for our deliverance from suffering; sometimes by faith God sustains his people through sufferings

The writer shares 11 types of suffering endured by the faithful for which they are commended, again with ten of the 11 types replete with old testament examples. The eleventh, the being sawn in two is believed to be a reference to Isaiah, which is alluded to in Matthew 24, and later recorded in extant history around 100 AD.

Now here is where the lesson get’s tough. As just mentioned, most of us would have no problem with God intervening on our behalf because of our faith to save us from disaster. In fact, isn’t that often the topic of our prayers, petitioning God for help in our time of need?  There is nothing wrong with that.

But where the problem comes is when people question God because He has not intervened into circumstances.  How can a loving God allow this or that?  On one hand people want to be complete moral free agents and on the other hand can’t understand when God doesn’t intervene. I have even heard people say, I couldn’t love a God who would allow”fill in the circumstance” to occur. I imagine they are correct, l;oving a product of your own imagination for a sustained period could be difficult and dangerous. Then, of course, there are those who would claim the people who suffered just didn’t have enough faith.

I told you last week that I am a pastor’s son, twice over. My dad who had a very good job with International Correspondence School as a proofreader, had a wife and two children when he answered his call to the ministry, starting as a licensed local pastor in the Methodist Church in the 1950’s. He proceeded to preach and finish his degree, then went to PTS, graduating in 1963 with Fred Rogers, whom many of you may fondly remember as Mr. Rogers.

In the winter of 1969 my dad got very sick, was admitted to the hospital where he spent two weeks and came home looking horrible. He was only home a few days when he had to be rushed back to the hospital, as he was misdiagnosed, and his kidneys were shutting down. Dad never came home. He died three weeks before my brother David’s graduation from HS My mother was left widowed with a ten-year-old son and was headed to an area we had never lived before- New Jersey.

I used this last example to drive home a point. Both Christians and non-Christians can have distorted views of who God is, and what the Christian life looks like.  Do you know how many Christians made statements like I can’t understand how God could take John when he still had a boy so young, or so early in his ministry, or about what he could have accomplished? Or how could a loving God take a pastor in His prime.

Thankfully, to the counter, I was taught by my faithful mother Lois the exact opposite. I often heard my mom tell the story of Dad asking her shortly before he died, Lois, don’t you hear the beautiful singing?  He was at peace, he saw and heard from afar off the cloud of witnesses, the promise to be fulfilled on the other side.

Mom knew that her and dad were called according to His purpose and stood on Romans 8:28, All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.  Mom didn’t believe in God, Mom believed God, as she knew Him personally.

• Faith that escapes suffering and faith that endures suffering both involve believing that God himself is better than what life has to offer or that death can snatch from us. 

All of those mentioned in this passage were commended for their faith, whether they were rescued, persecuted or tortured.

In bringing my part of this two-part series to a close again let’s remind ourselves that:

• There is an aspect of death in faith, namely when we live for the Lord, we die to ourselves.
• Faith is the foundation of a life of radical, risk taking, sacrificial love
• Faith is not alone; it is a by-product of our love of God.

Let me ask you all a question, please raise your hand if you have ever been in a room, church service or anywhere where there was there was almost a tangible presence of God in the room? I believe that was what my mom was describing when my dad was in the presence of the witnesses, the heavenly choir.

I wasn’t there, but I have been in several situations, at bed sides, in vehicles, in worship, both corporate and private, where I have felt the undeniable presence of the Lord in the midst, and one thing I have always felt in that presence is His love.

If we want this type of faith that we have been studying in our lives today, then we need the same foundation that our forbearers had; where the love of God to be the foundation of our faith.

Let us seek the Lord now:

Almighty God, let us now turn to our High Priest, Our example, Your Son, Jesus Christ. Knowing that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us also make a conscious effort to examine ourselves and lay aside every weight and sin that we cling to. God help us run the race before us with perseverance, and to look to trust and love the author and finisher of our faith, your son Jesus Christ.

Lord, thank you for your Amazing Love, demonstrated to us by you taking on the form of a man to take on our sins and be punished unto death for that sin.

Lord we also ask if there is anyone here today who does not know this amazing, life changing, life giving love that we are talking about, you would surround them with your amazing love right now., so that they may encounter you here this morning before leaving this place.

Amen

In the mid 1990’s I bought my first PC and proceeded to get hooked up to AOL and this thing called the internet. I didn’t really know what I was looking for when I signed on, so relied on the AOL helps.

Within a year I had begun to experiment with building websites and built my first site using Trellix and experimented with a few different hosting companies. By 2005, I became a web hosting reseller and at one point hosted 16 different websites on that leased space. At the height of it, I was using Microsoft Front Page on a Linux server, modified html and rewrote some Cascading Style Sheets on my blog.

But as time proceeded Microsoft Front Page became yesterday’s news, it wasn’t supported by all browsers, and PHP, Pear, PERL and other languages were emerging.  All of my software had become outdated, I was able to use some the new programs, but I didn’t understand the programming language. I couldn’t look at the code and have it make any real sense, and that was when I made the decision to stop designing websites.

I knew what I knew, the end product looked good, and I also knew the market I was serving, small non-profits who site I did for a donation and some small clubs and organizations who would not otherwise have a website. But put into perspective, it was a hobby and the amount that I would need to invest in time, education and the cost of perpetually updating software and upgrading my own equipment was not an investment I could justify.  This was happening at the same time I was struggling with my call to the ministry.

Now that I am in the candidacy process, I know what I know, I have great resources, but I am painfully aware of what I don’t know. I can find the sources to tell me what Greek and Hebrew translations are, what others say about it, but when I look at the Greek or Hebrew I don’t see or understand it.  Therefore, I have to go to school to learn more, which I am in the process of doing.

Well today’s text, put in simple lay terms, contains some really difficult Greek and there is some real disagreement on the translations.  So instead we are going to look at what this large lectionary passage has for us today here at Woodland Ave United Methodist Church. Okay?

So, what is happening that is causing this passage to even be here in the first place? Hebrews was a letter for the people in the early persecuted church, and more specifically the Jews. They were getting it from all sides.  We get a glimpse at their circumstances immediately prior to this discussion on faith in Chapter ten, verse 32 reminding them of the very public abuse, suffering and the persecution they had undergone for the sake of the gospel.

Their persecution had gotten to the point that some were considering taking the church underground or perhaps even abandoning the way of the gospel. How tough was it? Verse 34 tells us that when they showed up to show their fellow Christian brothers and sisters compassion in jail, or would publically associate with other Christians, they would have their possessions taken from them and be humiliated. This is kind of reminiscent of Paul tracking back notes left for prisoners to their writers and then hauling them in.  Incidentally, much of the torture up to 64 AD was fratricidal. Today we term that as Christians or the religious folks eating their own.

But the writer here is reminding them (and us today) they chose to intentionally love their brothers and sisters, fully knowing the cost of doing so. Why?  They knew they possessed something better and more lasting.   “^For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.”   Bythe personage in this letter, I believe the writer is also experiencing this because, in the crescendo/preamble to our text today he declares in verse 39, But, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

While this is a foreign concept in the church today, the early church expected persecution. Why? Because Jesus Himself was persecuted, rejected and killed.

These Jews understood their Jewish heritage and that denying their faith to live was not even an option.  In the non-canonized book of fourth Maccabees, sixth chapter we see the following discourse between Elazar and Antiochus IV:

"May we, the children of Abraham, never think so basely that out of cowardice we feign a role unbecoming to us!

It would be shameful if we should survive for a little while and during that time be a laughing stock to all for our cowardice,
[21] and if we should be despised by the tyrant as unmanly, and not protect our divine law even to death.
[22] Therefore, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion!
[23] And you, guards of the tyrant, why do you delay?"

When they saw that he was so courageous in the face of the afflictions, and that he had not been changed by their compassion, the guards brought him to the fire.
[25] There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils.
[26] When he was now burned to his very bones and about to expire, he lifted up his eyes to God and said,
[27] "You know, O God, that though I might have saved myself, I am dying in burning torments for the sake of the law.
[28] Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them.
[29] Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs."
[30] And after he said this, the holy man died nobly in his tortures, and by reason he resisted even to the very tortures of death for the sake of the law.

So when we look at Faith, and what it is, in the context of this book to this people, we are not discussing an intellectual exercise. We are not discussing a people who rationalized their faith. We are not discussing a people who prayed some repeat after me prayer and then told to never question their faith, that they were good to go for eternity. The idea that they would be saved and somehow get around to adding on faith and living the Christian life at their convenience would never occur to them.

Years ago I read a book entitled,” Mere Discipleship, Radical Christianity in a rebellious world” and it shook me up for a season. Lee Camp challenges his readers with Radical Discipleship, Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, the church as the body of Christ, Why Disciples love their enemies, why disciples don’t make good nationalists, Why Disciples trust God rather than their own calculations Communion and Sharing the wealth and How biblical discipleship makes a difference.  But do you realize that acting on faith has always been radical in the worlds eyes?  Sure we believe in the precepts, but this guy was actually advocating acting on them! The very nature of our faith, despite what Christianity looks like today, is counter cultural.  Hebrews is written to give foundation to the hope that is the foundation of a life of radical, risk-taking, sacrificial love.

Verse 34 builds the foundation for 11:1 as well. First it shows how their faith and their life are indistinguishable. They have an unshakable hope in God beyond this life, and will gladly give up their possessions in exchange for a better possession that lasts. This unshakable hope is foundational to the faith the writer describes. So if this power to sacrifice and love and joyfully accept the consequences of it is called faith and faith is the assurance of things hoped for, that you have a better and abiding one in God, then we see a link in between sacrificial love and faith.

This week in preparation for this lessons, I was pondering that “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”  As I am looking at the passage and looking at the Hall of Fame of Faith herein, the thought crossed my mind, how could Abraham be a great man of faith when there wasn’t even a bible written yet, as Moses wasn’t born until six generations later? Of course, the answer is He had the spoken Word, delivered by God himself.

Our main hero in the Hall of Faith is Abraham, our example to follow.  If he is an example, did he have blind faith?  Absolutely not!  He fell on his face laughing at God when he told him that he was going to father a child at 100 and his wife would at 90. The scientific and biological proof was it wasn’t going to happen. But God used this unbelief on their part, an unbelief with some “factual basis” to question, as a loving lesson in learning how to trust God and take Him at His Word.

Abraham had a long discourse and challenged God over Sodom and God engaged Him.  If faith involved never questioning or what some called blind faith, our hero in the Hall of Faith wouldn’t be there.

Abraham left Ur to some unknown place because God told him to go. He was given a promise of a land, a place, an inheritance and of a lineage that would be innumerable. He went. He acted, He obeyed and he trusted God. Abraham lived as a stranger in a land promised to him. He looked beyond Canaan to a lasting, heavenly country and city, designed and built by God Himself

We are told one thing all of our hall of famers shared. They ALL died in faith, not having received the things promised, but had seen them from afar and greeted them from afar. They all realized that this was not their home, they were strangers and exiles and that their homeland and promises would be found and fulfilled in heaven. To avoid it sounding too spiritual let me put it another way.  There is an aspect of death in faith, and I would posit that to have this Hebrews 11 faith requires us dying to ourselves and yielding our lives to God.

They say if you come to point a finger to remember there are three of your own pointing back at you. Today was a tougher study than normal not only because of the text, but also because it spoke directly to me.

I am a Preachers Kid twice over. When the Lord put a call on my life, years ago, I ran. I did everything I could not to fulfill the call.  Why?  I will confess, it was because I knew the cost of going into the ministry. This past year, in obedience and in faith, I am answering that call.

Now, I will speak to both myself and to all of you.  Those of us who have made a profession of faith to be Christians and know Jesus Christ as our Savior, when asked would say we have given our lives to the Lord.

This week as we leave this place, I would ask you to take time and prayerfully consider if we really have, or what parts of our life we have not surrendered and ask Jesus for the faith to trust him with all of our life.

I invite you to ask Him for that Amazing Faith today!

Let us pray.

I want to begin this morning by thanking you for the lovely welcome reception luncheon that you had for Pastor Kendra, Daniel and myself last Sunday after church.

Right before Pastor started this series on Hebrews, I had the opportunity to take her down to see Hillsongs United at the Consol Energy Center for a night of worship.  Any of you who are friends of Pastor’s on Facebook may have seen her post pictures of our trip to Pittsburgh . One of the pictures she was posted was them performing the song Oceans.

The song starts; “You call me out upon the waters, The great unknown where feet may fall, And there I find you in the mystery, in oceans deep, My faith will stand.” The song goes on to proclaim, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, Let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger In the presence of my Savior” What a perfect song for a lead in to studying Chapter 11 and 12.

The title of today’s sermon is whats love got to do with it and the answer is quite simple-EVERYTHING! The first ten chapters, were written to a struggling congregation of Hebrew Christians about 30 years after the crucifixion and was purely doctrine on why Christ was superior and why they should not return to the Old Covenant. Pastor has covered the last two Chapters with you, but today in Hebrews 13 gives us some of the essential practical ethics of Christian living that help portray the true gospel to the world. that encourage men to trust in Christ and glorify God!

What’s love got to do with it? Everything! Church, true faith demands true living!  Let me repeat that church-True faith demands true living!  Church, do you want to know how a church grows?  It is by us living our life as a testimony to what we believe, us being who we say we are. People watch us.

When Pliny the Younger reported on Christians to the Roman Emperor Trajan he wrote, they bind themselves to an oath not to any criminal end, but to avoid, theft or robbery or adultery, never to break their word or to repudiate a deposit when it was demanded. He was looking for dirt, but had to report they were good citizens who paid their debts.  These early believers were a rebuke to the immoral societies in which they lived by their righteous living.   Others sought to condemn them but the closer they examined their lives the more evident it became that they lived up to the high moral standards.

Let love of the brethren continue. Continue denotes it already exists and as Christians we are commanded to love one another. In fact, whether we like it or not, Jesus gave the world the yardstick to measure us by!  “By this all men will you are my disciples, that you love one another!”  That was Jesus’s litmus test given to the world to measure us by!

Exercising and demonstrating brotherly love is important because it reveals to the world   that we belong to Christ, it reveals our true identity to ourselves and it pleases God!

In verse two the command toward hospitality to strangers, think back to Martha and Mary hosting and entertaining Jesus and his entourage. Travel was difficult, inns could be dangerous and Christians depended on one another to put them up during their journey. Hospitality is a new testament standard for overseers, and church leaders, showing hospitality is also the work of a spiritual woman.  In other words, as Christians were all expected to be hospitable, especially anyone in a leadership role.

We are to remember those in prison and actively respond to their needs, as many of their brethren were imprisoned for their faith.  Today the command would be more in tune with us paying attention to the needs of those around us.  Marriage should be held in honor and the marriage bed be undefiled.  In both the third and fourth verse, again, remember, the world is watching.

Have any of you ever heard the phrase if you want to know what is going on, follow the money?  In verse five we are commanded to keep our lives free of the love of money with the reminder that He will never leave us or forsake us.   The reason for verse five has already been presented in verses two and three.  In other words do I trust God enough to provide for other people’s  needs? Wow! Here he gives us the reminder of who He is and what he has done for us and he is worthy to be relied upon!

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith needs when they present themselves. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Christ’s church, this church, is a kingdom.  Jesus Christ is the King of his church and he is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Church leadership, pastors, pprc members, worship leaders, lay speakers, Sunday school teachers and helpers of all types, are all subordinates of His and are subjects of His kingdom and authority over us We have the good testimony of the life of Jesus Christ, the apostles, the patriarchs of the church, the great evangelists of the larger church, and then there are the patriarchs and the matriarchs, former church leaders and current church leadership team all involved in this command.

Folks, if we want to see our church grow and reach more people in our community, the key is not for us to have some fancy program, but instead for us to begin to love one another and to serve one another. When folks see the love that Jesus spoke about they will know it and growth will follow.  It all starts with us committing to loving and serving one another.   So what’s love got to do with it?   EVERYTHING! 

Church, in closing today I want to share a poem I heard this week that touch me and I trust will touch you as well:

If there are words for Him then I don't have them. 
You see, my brain has not yet reached the point where it could form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God,
and my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath with enough agility to breathe out the greatness of his love,
and my voice, you see, my voice, is so inhibited, restrained by human limits that it's hard to even sing the praise of…  You see,
if there are words for Him then I don't have them. 
My God, his grace is remarkable,
mercies are enumerable,
strength is impenetrable.
He is honorable, accountable, favorable.
He is unsearchable yet knowable,
indefinable yet approachable,
indescribable yet personal.
He is beyond comprehension,
further than imagination,
constant thru generations,
king of every nation.
But if there are words for Him then I don't have them.
You see, my words are few,
and to try to capture the one true God, using my vocabulary will never do,
but I use words as an expression,
an expression of worship to a savior,
a savior who is both worthy and deserving of my praise, so I use words.
My heart extols the Lord, blesses his name forever.
He has won, my heart captured my mind and has bound them both together.
He has defeated me in my rebellion, conquered me in my sin.
He has welcomed me into his presence, completely invited me in.
He has made himself the object of my sight,
flooding me with mercies in the morning,
drowning me with grace in the night.
But if there are words for Him then I don't have them. 
But what I do have is good news,
for my God knew that man-made words would never do.
For words are just tools that we use to point to the truth.
So he sent his son Jesus Christ as "The Word", living proof.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
For by him all things are created,
giving nothingness formation,
and by his words he sustains, in the power of his name, for He is before all things and over all things he reigns, holy is his name, so praise him for his life...
The way, he persevered in strife, the humble son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice.
Praise him for his death...
that He willingly stood in our place,
that he lovingly endured the grave,
that he battled our enemy and on the third day rose in victory.
He is everything that was promised,
praise him as your risen king,
lift your voice and sing,
for one day he will return for us and we will finally be united with our savior for eternity, eternity.
So it’s not just words that I proclaim,
for my words point to "The Word" and "The Word" has a name,
hope has a name,
joy has a name,
peace has a name,

love has a name and that name is Jesus Christ.

Praise his name forever!
-Isaac Wimberley

So Church; What's Love Got To Do With It?  EVERYTHING!  Praise God, Let us pray!

Hebrews 12

Good morning, Church! It’s great to see you!  I missed being here!  I just realized it has been five weeks since I shared my prayer request concerning college. Well, I was accepted into Geneva College as a junior.  Geneva is a Christian college located in Beaver Falls and is my dad’s alma mater. This fall I am taking core and elective courses on-line, then in January I will begin taking my major, Christian Community Ministry Leadership classes in Pittsburgh. I should finish my Bachelor’s Degree in Summer 2018.

Pastor Kendra and I are currently doing a study in Hebrews, which she will also teach next week when she comes to serve you communion. Then when I return the following two weeks in September, I will finish the series with you.

Today’s text, has so much in it, there is no way within the time constraints of our service we could possibly thoroughly examine itself.  So, like the past two weeks, I have looked for what is there that the Lord has for us here and now that can be applied to us today? So let me set the stage for today’s text.

While the author of Hebrews is unknown, he tells us that he knew his readers and wanted to see them again and also knew Paul. Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians primarily, as well as the Gentile Christians who had previously been drawn to the Jewish religion, customs and practices sometime in the 60’s before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

These Hebrew Christians were the persecuted church and most of their persecution was what is known as fratricide, in that it was taking place at the hands of fellow Jews, who often gave them a chance to escape torment and torture if they would recant their faith in Jesus Christ and return to the Jewish religion.

Further, Hebrews teaches us and reinforces the following truths for not only them, but also us here today at Starford United Methodist Church:

• Jesus is fully God and fully man (1:1-14, 2:5-18)
• Jesus, the Son of God, reveals God the Father; the Creator and sustainer of all creation 1:1-14
• Jesus is the eternal High Priest; as a man he sympathizes with human weaknesses, and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin.
• Jesus is superior to angels, Moses, covenant, to the earthly tabernacle and to the priesthood
• All humanity faces eternal judgement for sin
• Faith is necessary to please God and to participate in His eternal salvation.
• Faith requires confidence about the unseen realities of God and His promises
• Such faith produces perseverance
• Perseverance is necessary in the Christian life, believers are warned against a lack of endurance.
• God’s promises are trustworthy, including his promise of eternal salvation (6;13-20)
• With the coming of Jesus Christ, the last days have begun.1:2, 9:9-28
• They will be completed when He returns (12:22-29)

How many of you have watched the Olympics over the past two weeks?  Did you know that Foot races were a popular sport in the Greco-Roman world?  Paul used the imagery of races to illustrate the Christian life in his letters to the Church at Corinth and his second letter to Timothy.  As a prelude to our text today, the writer opens Chapter 12 using the imagery of a foot race, encouraging the readers to:

• Lay aside the things that would hinder them
• Run with endurance
• Focus on Jesus
• Remember the value of the Lord’s discipline
• Pursue peace and holiness
• Look diligently, lest we fall short of God’s grace, stumbling due to bitterness, being a fornicator or a profane person

With that as a backdrop. let’s examine today’s passage.  In verses 18-24, the writer is drawing a contrast between the Old Covenant given to Moses by God at Mt. Sinai and the New Covenant of Grace marked by the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In using this contrast, the writer tells us first, where we have NOT come.  In verses 18-21, he tells us, We have NOT come to Mt. Sinai.  Mt. Sinai was a very real place to the. The writer invokes terrifying imagery that would actually be even more terrifying to the Jewish people. Moses trembled with fear. The people feared God. The display of God’s power in the Old Testament often resulted in death and disobedience had consequences.  The imagery here on the envelopment of Sinai is that of a volcano and a hurricane.   And what did the old covenant do?  It pointed us to our sin, and our lost state. The law is the taskmaster and saved no one.  It also pointed to our inability to keep the law and the need for a Savior.  Before going on, we should remind ourselves that the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.

In Verses 22-24, the writer changes direction and now tells us where we HAVE come. “You have come to Mt. Zion”. This phrase draws on extensive OT imagery of a new Zion /Jerusalem.   The author contrasts that now through Christ, we have access to the spiritual realms, into the heavenly Jerusalem. Therefore, they participate in worship with innumerable angels and with the great assembly of believers who have died in faith and are already in God’s presence. This is what is often referred to as the “is now and yet to come.

I don’t know Greek and do not pretend to be an expert in Greek, but I think it is very important that we understand the word used for come in verses 18 and 21.  It is used seven times in Hebrews, and is used in the perfect sense. The word Poserchomai translates out as facing come. When in was used in the Septuagint, it referred to the way a Levite priest would approach God and perform his duties.  Here in Hebrews, this facing come in the perfect tense is interpreted as draw near.

This is important because it refers to us as believers possessing the privilege of access to God the Father through Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. In the perfect tense this heavenly possession of Mt. Zion has already been obtained by those who have believed the new covenant and it emphasizes that this heavenly possession is their possession forever. In spirit, or as some refer to as when we worship in spirit and in truth, we are residents of the city already (the is now) , though in body they (we) were strangers and aliens still here on the earth, and therefore, we await on that city that is yet to come”

Let us briefly look at these positioning passages:

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 7:25 Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near (emphasizes continual activity) to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 10:22  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes (drawn near)to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him Hebrews 12:22 (note) But you have come (drawn near) to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.

These are important things for us to note because how can we be grateful for receiving a kingdom that can not be shaken if we do not understand that we have received such a kingdom?

Today we are being reminded that we need to keep our eyes on Jesus as we run this race of faith and to persevere to the end. And, likewise, we are not to listen to the voices of our old friends who are still immersed in the futile attempt of attempting to live up to Sinai.  Why?

The writer tells us, our God, who is the same God of the Old Covenant, is coming back and there will be a day of judgment and reckoning and that we need to persevere to the end.

I told you I was a preachers kid, twice over, if you would, let me share the following in conclusion: My dad had a very good paying  job with International Correspondence School as a proofreader, had a wife and two children when he answered his call to the ministry, starting as a licensed local pastor in the Methodist Church in the 1950’s. He proceeded to preach and finish his degree, then went to PTS, graduating in 1963 with Fred Rogers, whom many of you may fondly remember as Mr. Rogers.

In the winter of 1969 my dad got very sick, was admitted to the hospital where he spent two weeks and came home looking horrible. He was only home a few days when he had to be rushed back to the hospital, as he was misdiagnosed, and his kidneys were shutting down. Dad never came home. He died three weeks before my brother David’s graduation from HS.  My mother was left widowed with a ten-year-old son and was headed to an area we had never lived before- New Jersey.

When I read this passage my mind always returns to my mom describing what happened right before dad died, He said. “Lois, don’t you hear the beautiful singing?   Can you see them Lois?  He was at peace, he saw and heard from afar off the cloud of witnesses, and was getting ready to join in the promise to be fulfilled on the other side.” He had run the race, he had endured and he saw his prize before him.  With all the hurt that the loss of a spouse so young can bring, when my mom recounted that scene, she could see Dad though his countenance was at peace in death with the heavenly assembly.

This is our goal as believers, that whenever it is that we reach the end of our race, especially when it is untimely and unexpected, that we are ready to meet the Lord.  Church, we are not our own. We have been bought with a price. Church, let us cling to this new covenant which was bought and paid for by the shed blood of our Lord, Savior and Mediator of this covenant, Jesus Christ. And as members and partakers of the new covenant, let us realize our position as joint heirs with Him.

Church, I believe we as Christians have been put here at this particular time and place in redemptive history for a reason, don’t you?  I think all we need to do is look around and we can see that we are in times marked by confusion and desperation.  We as believers are to share the hope that is inside us, our reason for living.   We may not be the Newsboys, but we are good news bearers aren’t we church?

There is a lost and dying world out there and it is our job to share that hope that is within us

In this time of desperation When all THE World knows is doubt and fear
We know that there is only one foundation Let us share what We believe, we believe

We believe in God the Father   We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit     And He’s given us new life
We believe in the Crucifixion     We believe that He conquered death
We believe in the resurrection    And He’s coming back again
We believe

Let us go to the Lord in Prayer

I am going to publish some of my sermons online for the benefit of my friends who may wish to read them. I think that is pretty self-explanatory.

Okay, how many here have siblings?  How many of you have said to them, what

are you doing?  What are you thinking about? How many times haven’t you see eye to eye on what

you/they should be doing?

My oldest brother Tom is 13 plus years older than me. His son Doug is 6 years younger than me. Doug is

closer in age to me than any of my brother’s, and lived with us in Greenock so his Mom could finish her

teaching degree at IUP while Tom was in Vietnam.

There is nothing quite like an invitation to Tom and Alice’s house.  Alice comes from a pure Italian family

and can she cook!  Tom, like all of us, also learned how to cook.  Dinner is always superb, the welcome

mat is out and you are made to feel at home.  They are very hospitable and make you feel welcome and

no one walks away hungry!

.

Tom’s son Doug is a logger and somewhere in the early 90’s, he and his business partner were bidding

on a tract of land in Sinnemahoning when they noticed a “for sale” on the property. The property is 150

acres with a two story cabin, which is approximately 1900 square feet and they bought the property

which is now “bear camp.”

When I think of bear camp, I think of Martha.  When it first started everyone kicked in cash toward

the groceries which Doug bought. People took turns cooking different dishes and the work was kind of

shared. Then people complained not everyone was there for the whole camp so why should everyone

pay the same. Others complained that the workload was not shared equally..

Over the years, it has gone from being a set cost, to people bringing dishes to share with everyone, to

people bringing nothing and eating at the Willows or the Sportsman Club and mostly, a combination in

between. Tom tries to keep the tradition that bear camp is a place where we break bread and eat

together.  I am a planner and an organizer too, so I understand his heart and his willingness to serve and

I appreciate that.

Three years ago when we were opening up camp I could see that Tom was really frustrated and his plans

weren’t coming together.  A Martha moment was on the horizon. Doug rarely comes to camp, many of

the regulars were not coming and everything was up in the air. Tom is more type D than I am.

I finally had to say to my brother, Tom, listen, why do people come to bear camp?  Silence.

It’s not because of the great bear hunting here. In fact, some actually have gone to spots where more

bear are harvested.  We go to bear camp to see each other, enjoy each other’s company, build big camp

fires that never go out, relax and hang out around the fire or in the house around the table.  This is

everyone’s vacation, let them enjoy it however they want.

In today’s passage, we find Jesus taking Martha up on her open invitation to come to dinner.  Now, try

to think about this in real time. Just how cool would it be for you to have an open invite for Jesus to stop

at your house anytime?  This is the same Martha and Mary who were sisters of Lazurus, whom John 11

records that Jesus loved. These are really close friends who live in Bethany, a stones throw from

Jerusalem.   I mean an invitation is one thing, but for Him to actually take you up on it!

How awesome!

So imagine for a moment: Knock, Knock.  Who’s there?  Jesus and my disciples Martha!  Well come in

Jesus, make yourself at home, which Jesus did. He went straight in to the living room and settled in and

Began sharing with them.

Martha began to make the preparations for her guests.  All was well, Jesus was sharing and Martha was

preparing. This is what they did.

Martha, being Martha, the hostess with the mostess, wanted to impress Jesus with a spread and started

to prepare one, and put herself behind the eight ball. She started thinking, what up with that Lazy Mary,

anyway?  I’ll teach her, I’ll embarrass her to help me, right in front of Jesus. He’ll tell her!

So Mary goes up, interrupts Jesus and rudely instructs Jesus what he should tell her sister to do.

And neither Martha, nor frankly many Christians today, were ready for Jesus reply. Sternfully loving,

Jesus tells Martha that she was stressing herself by making a feast when a lite meal would do.  The

reason why he came by was to be with them and share with them, not to get another of her well known

feasts. He probably loved her cooking, but today he came to feed her and Mary. Maybe this was when

he had come to share his time would be short with them, as hostilities had really grown toward him.

In Jewish culture, hospitality was not a mere friendly gesture, it was mandated .  Hosts and guests both

had responsibilities toward the others. Catholic Culture.org tells us that hosts had a “sacred obligation”

to provide food , drink , water to wash their feet and a place to rest.  In exchange the guest was

obligated to accept what was offered. To do otherwise was a breach of their sacred honor. In fact,

guests were required to provide for the safety of their guests. Think back to when Lot offered his

daughters to protect the strangers under his roof. As such, there is no way we can interpret todays

passage as condemning Martha for her preparations.  Instead, Jesus had to lovingly rebuke Martha for

letting her zeal for being a hostess lose the point of the visit altogether.

This is the second passage that talks about hospitality. Last week in the Good Samaritan and now this week with Martha and Mary,

Jesus challenged ACCEPTED cultural norms.

In their culture, Mary was to be helping Martha, as women were to be serving men, not to be socializing

and fraternizing with them. Remember, in their culture women were often denied the right to religious

instruction. Jesus was giving both Martha and Mary the opportunity to sit as his feet as disciples and

feed them.  Awesome!

imagine again for a moment: Knock, Knock.  Who’s there?  It’s Jesus!  Is our response to Jesus, come in

and make yourself at home? Is your heart and life familiar enough for Jesus to just settle in and begin sharing with you?

He still comes knocking today, how do we respond?

In conclusion, in 1990 a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs in the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. While

she was ordering another customer entered the store. She placed her order, turned and found

herself staring face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming a movie. His blue eyes

made her knees buckle. She finished paying and quickly walked out of the store with her heart still

pounding. Gaining her composure, she suddenly realized she didn’t have her cone; she turned to go

back in. At the door she met Paul Newman who was coming out. He said to her, "Are you

looking for your ice-cream cone?" Unable to utter a word she nodded yes. "You put it in your

purse with your change."

When was the last time the presence of God made you forget what was going on around you?

Made you forget the dishes? Made you forget the ball game? Made you forget the bank account? Made

you forget where...you put your ice cream cone?

In the mid 1990’s I bought my first PC and proceeded to get hooked up to AOL and this thing called the internet. I didn’t really know what I was looking for when I signed on, so relied on the AOL helps.

Within a year I had begun to experiment with building websites and built my first site using Trellix and experimented with a few different hosting companies. By 2005, I became a web hosting reseller and at one point hosted 16 different websites on that leased space. At the height of it,  I was using Microsoft Front Page on a Linux server, modified html and rewrote some Cascading Style Sheets on my blog.

But as time proceeded Microsoft Front Page became yesterday’s news, it wasn’t supported by all browsers, and PHP, Pear, PERL and other languages were emerging.  All of my software had become outdated, I was able to use some the new programs, but I didn’t understand the programming language. I couldn’t look at the code and have it make any real sense, and that was when I made the decision to stop designing websites.

I knew what I knew, the end product looked good, and I also knew the market I was serving, small non-profits who site I did for a donation and some small clubs and organizations who would not otherwise have a website. But put into perspective, it was a hobby and the amount that I would need to invest in time, education and the cost of perpetually updating software and upgrading my own equipment was not an investment I could justify.  This was happening at the same time I was struggling with my call to the ministry.

Now that I am in the candidacy process, I know what I know, I have great resources, but I am painfully aware of what I don’t know. I can find the sources to tell me what Greek and Hebrew translations are, what others say about it, but when I look at the Greek or Hebrew I don’t see or understand it.  Therefore, I have to go to school to learn more, which I am in the process of doing.

Well today’s text, put in simple lay terms, contains some really difficult Greek and there are some real disagreement on the translations.  So instead we are going to look at what this large lectionary passage has for us today here at Woodland Ave United Methodist Church. Okay?

So, what is happening that is causing this passage to even be here in the first place? Hebrews was a letter for the people in the early persecuted church, and more specifically the Jews. They were getting it from all sides.  We get a glimpse at their circumstances immediately prior to this discussion on faith In Chapter ten, verse 32 reminding them of the very public abuse, suffering and the persecution they had undergone for the sake of the gospel.

Their persecution had gotten to the point that some were considering taking the church underground or perhaps even abandoning the way of the gospel. How tough was it ? Verse 34 tells us that when they showed up to show their fellow Christian brothers and sisters compassion in jail, or would publically associate with other Christians, they would have their possessions taken from them and be humiliated. This is kind of reminiscent of Paul tracking back notes left for prisoners to their writers and then hauling them in.  Incidentally, much of the torture up to 64 AD was fratricidal. Today we term that as Christians or the religious folks eating their own.

But the writer here is reminding them (and us today) they chose to intentionally love their brothers and sisters , fully knowing the cost of doing so. Why?  They knew they possessed something better and more lasting.   “ For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.”   Bythe personage in this letter, I believe the writer is also experiencing this because, in the crescendo/preamble to our text today he declares in verse 39, But, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

While this is a foreign concept in the church today, the early church expected persecution. Why? Because Jesus Himself was persecuted, rejected and killed.

These Jews understood their Jewish heritage and that denying their faith to live was not even an option.  In the non-canonized book of fourth Macabees , sixth chapter we see the following discourse between Eleazar and Antiochus IV:

"May we, the children of Abraham, never think so basely that out of cowardice we feign a role unbecoming to us!

It would be shameful if we should survive for a little while and during that time be a laughing stock to all for our cowardice,
[21] and if we should be despised by the tyrant as unmanly, and not protect our divine law even to death.
[22] Therefore, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion!
[23] And you, guards of the tyrant, why do you delay?"

When they saw that he was so courageous in the face of the afflictions, and that he had not been changed by their compassion, the guards brought him to the fire.
[25] There they burned him with maliciously contrived instruments, threw him down, and poured stinking liquids into his nostrils.
[26] When he was now burned to his very bones and about to expire, he lifted up his eyes to God and said,
[27] "You know, O God, that though I might have saved myself, I am dying in burning torments for the sake of the law.
[28] Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them.
[29] Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs."
[30] And after he said this, the holy man died nobly in his tortures, and by reason he resisted even to the very tortures of death for the sake of the law.

So when we look at Faith, and what it is, in the context of this book to this people, we are not discussing an intellectual exercise. We are not discussing a people who rationalized their faith. We are not discussing a people who prayed some repeat after me prayer and then told to never question their faith, that they were good to go for eternity. The idea that they would be saved and somehow get around to adding on faith and living the Christian life at their convenience would never occur to them.

Years ago I read a book entitled,” Mere Discipleship, Radical Christianity in a rebellious world” and it shook me up for a season. Lee Camp challenges his readers with Radical Discipleship, Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, the church as the body of Christ, Why Disciples love their enemies, why disciples don’t make good nationalists, Why Disciples trust God rather than their own calculations Communion and Sharing the wealth and How biblical discipleship makes a difference.  But do you realize that acting on faith has always been radical in the worlds eyes?  Sure we believe in the precepts, but this guy was actually advocating acting on them! The very nature of our faith, despite what Christianity looks like today, is counter cultural.  Hebrews is written to give foundation to the hope that is the foundation of a life of radical, risk-taking, sacrificial love.

Verse 34 builds the foundation for 11:1 as well. First it shows how their faith and their life are indistinguishable. They have an unshakable hope in God beyond this life, and will gladly give up their possessions in exchange for a better possession that lasts. This unshakable hope is foundational to the faith the writer describes. So if this power to sacrifice and love and joyfully accept the consequences of it is called faith and faith is the assurance of things hoped for, that you have a better and abiding one in God, then we see a link in between sacrificial love and faith.

This week in preparation for this lessons, I was pondering that “ Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”  As I am looking at the passage and looking at the Hall of Fame of Faith herein, the thought crossed my mind, How could Abraham be a great man of faith when there wasn’t even a bible written yet, as Moses wasn’t born until six generations later? Of course, the answer is He had the spoken Word, delivered by God himself.

Our main hero in the Hall of Faith is Abraham, our example to follow.  If he is an example, did he have blind faith?  Absolutely not!  He fell on his face laughing at God when he told him that he was going to father a child at 100 and his wife would at 90. The scientific and biological proof was it wasn’t going to happen. But God used this unbelief on their part, an unbelief with some “factual basis” to question, as a loving lesson in learning how to trust God and take Him at His Word.

Abraham had a long discourse and challenged God over Sodom and God engaged Him.  If faith involved never questioning or what some called blind faith, our hero in the Hall of Faith wouldn’t be there.

Abraham left Ur to some unknown place because God told him to go. He was given a promise of a land, a place, an inheritance and of a lineage that would be innumerable. He went. He acted, He obeyed and he trusted God. Abraham lived as a stranger in a land promised to him. He looked beyond Canaan to a lasting, heavenly country and city, designed and built by God Himself

We are told one thing all of our hall of famers shared. They ALL died in faith, not having received the things promised, but had seen them from afar and greeted them from afar. They all realized that this was not their home, they were strangers and exiles and that their homeland and promises would be found and fulfilled in heaven. To avoid it sounding too spiritual let me put it another way.  There is an aspect of death in faith, and I would posit that to have this Hebrews 11 faith requires us dying to ourselves and yielding our lives to God.

They say if you come to point a finger to remember there are three of your own pointing back at you. Today was a tougher study than normal not only because of the text, but also because it spoke directly to me.

I am a Preachers Kid twice over. When the Lord put a call on my life, years ago, I ran. I did everything I could not to fulfill the call.  Why?  I will confess, it was because I knew the cost of going into the ministry. This past year, in obedience and in faith, I am answering that call.

Now, I will speak to both myself and to all of you.  Those of us who have made a profession of faith to be Christians and know Jesus Christ as our Savior, when asked would say we have given our lives to the Lord.

This week as we leave this place, I would ask you to take time and prayerfully consider if  we really have, or  what parts of our life we have not surrendered and ask Jesus for the faith to trust him with all of our life.

I invite you to ask Him for that Amazing Faith today!

Let us pray.