Pastor Fletcher preaches from Hebrews 11:1-12:2 about the hall of faith. Discussion points: Faith is a foretaste of our future with God, the “heroes” in the hall of faith list are examples of both faith and failure, faith grows as we feast on the knowledge of God.

Preacher: All right, our scripture this morning is quite long, so I didn't, I feel bad making anybody else reading. Hebrews chapter 11. One of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible though. So, Hebrews 11, I'm reading it all, buckle up. OK. And when I finish, I'll say this is the word of the Lord, and you respond by saying thanks be to God.

[Hebrews 11:1-12:2] Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he might, so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of the promise, and as in a promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city that has found that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

By faith, Sarah received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had an opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises, the promises were, was in the act of offering up his only son, and whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of his sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph at the end of his life made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for 3 months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the first born might not touch them.

By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for 7 days. By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jephtha, and David and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of the fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

See you guys later. All right. we've been going through a series on the book of Hebrews, and today we come to what I think is probably one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible, if not the greatest, and it's commonly known as the Hall of Faith. It's kind of like the, what we have in Springfield for the basketball Hall of Fame. We have here the Hall of Faith in the scripture where it just goes over and over again. What the heroes of faith have done throughout the Old Testament. In fact, the 1st 3 quarters of your Bible is the Old Testament, and we kind of get a flyby of the entire Old Testament. And so what a challenge for me this morning to preach the entire Old Testament, and then how it connects to our lives today.

And don't worry, I'm not gonna go through every example. We'd be sitting here for a long time. I, you could literally do a series, an entire series, multiple weeks, the 10 weeks more on just Hebrews chapter 11. But today we're just going to do an overthrough, because what I see in Hebrews 11 is the author is trying to prove a point. He's not trying to be exhaustive. He's trying to say, hey, there's one single thread that goes throughout all of the Old Testament, and it culminates in Christ. And it's the thread of faith. And living by faith.

You know, there's not much more important to the life of a Christian than to live by faith. What does it mean to live by faith? It's actually kind of a confusing and difficult thing to answer. If someone asked you, what does it mean to have faith. It seems like something that would be easy to answer, but in reality, it might be more difficult than what you imagine. So today, as we look at that one theme throughout the scripture. I want to look at it in 3 points. First, what is faith? Second, what does it mean to be faithful? And third, how do we grow in our faith? What is faith? What does it mean to be faithful? And how do we grow in our faith?

First, what is faith? Hebrews gives us a definition, sort of. This is what the author of Hebrews says. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This, this is somewhat clear, OK? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. What does that, what does that mean? How do we think about the assurance of things hoped for? It seems like a feeling, right? Like faith is a mindset. It's an assurance, it's a way to walk through your life to have an assurance of things that you hope for. It seems like something that you should be able to muster up more of as time goes on.

But there's other translations that I think hit a different aspect of faith. In a way that's helpful. The Christian Standard Bible puts it like this, it says, now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. And the New King James Version says this, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So they all sound pretty similar. The Bible is the New Testament originally written in Greek. English is hard, language is hard. When you translate something from another language into English, you have to take some liberties from time to time. And so the best thing that we can do is try to use all of these and build our idea of what faith is. So the ESV says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The Christian standard says faith is the reality of what is hoped for, and the New King James says faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Personally, I love the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible version of this. It's my favorite, my second favorite version of the Bible behind the ESB. And this word that we get to with assurance, if you want to go back to the original Greek, I'll even put it on the screen. It's, it's pronounced hupostasis, and the word is rarely used in the Bible. Now only here in Hebrews and then somewhere in 2 Corinthians, it's used as well. And it has this idea of an experience, that faith is not actually just a mindset. It's not actually just something you muster up, but instead, this word has this idea, this substance. Faith is the substance. It's not just something you hope for, but it's actually. Faith is actually a foretaste of the future. Faith is actually a doorway into the divine. To live by faith is to experience a foretaste of the future realities of God. It's not just a mindset, it's not just something you muster up, but it's actually a way to connect yourself with what is real beyond what is in this life.

What does this look like? OK, let's, let's use one example, OK? We had lots of examples. I'm gonna talk about the examples more in just a minute. But one example that we can use from the scripture reading today is Abraham, verse 8, it says, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where. He was going, OK, so it took faith. He believed God. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. And so at this point, when Abraham got this call to go live in a new land, when God was calling him out. He was in his twilight years. Abraham was an old man already. He was ready to retire. He was already wealthy. He didn't have to do this, but God called him out. He didn't even know where he was going, and verse 10, it says, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

And so this is the essence of Abraham's faith. Abraham's faith is not just built on well wishes and good vibes about God. Abraham's faith is looking forward not just to his inheritance in this life that he'd never truly received the full promise of God during his life. Instead His hope and his faith is placed in the city to come, which is the kingdom of God that he would eventually experience. Faith is a doorway to the divine. It is an invitation to experience, to taste the greater realities of God.

Faith is not a rejection of reason. Now, a lot of people think, and in fact, when you talk to a neighbor, they might say, you have, you have faith, I have science. You believe in what you do, you can't see, I believe in what I can see. But instead, that's not really what we think faith is, OK? Most of the time the world looks at us who are faithful, who have faith in God, and they think, faith is what you have when you don't have proof. And so you just have to believe something. But that is not what the scripture teaches about faith. In fact, to believe something that you have no proof for, that you have no evidence for, that's not faith, that's just stupid. It's not what we want you to do.

We believe that God has revealed Himself. That he has spoken throughout history, and he has ultimately spoken by sending his son. Faith is not blind. We have facts. Jesus really rose. When Paul was going from city to city, starting churches throughout the Mediterranean region. Did he go from city to city and just say, guys, Jesus loves you. Don't you feel that? That there's a mysterious person named Jesus who loves you? Would you give your life to him? That's not what he did. What did he say? He went from city to city, and if there were Jewish people there, what he would do is be like, hey, look, in your own scriptures, a Messiah is promised, and I'm here today to tell you that he's come. Let me tell you about this man, Jesus Christ, who I met. He was a real person. He taught these things. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross and was resurrected and appeared to 500 people, more than 500 people. There's reason to believe that he is the Messiah. Would you give your life to him and follow him and experience that power?

And if they weren't Jewish, what he would do is he would say, I see that you have altars to an unknown God in this area. But here, what you don't know, I'm here to declare to you that God has come. That he has walked the earth. You see, Paul is not just going preaching good vibes, preaching faith in something that you can't see. He's going from city to city saying, there's a man named Jesus, I met him, I want you to meet him, you can meet him.

You see, Paul knows that our faith is built on reason. And that Jesus is actually God. You see, all these things about you believe in what, what you can't see or what's not real. It all falls apart if Jesus really did what he said he did, if he really was a man. And guys, we have all the reason in the world to believe that. All the reason.

Faith is also not a method to harness the power of God for personal gain. A lot of times we think about faith as being kind of like a magical lasso that we are trying to rope the the God genie with, to say, this is, I want this, would you give it to me? So if we just believe hard enough, God can give it to us. And I've heard so much destruction come in lives of people who are promised a healing, who were promised wealth, or fame or whatever it might be, if they would just have enough faith. But guys, did you not read the end of this chapter, where they said some were stoned, that doesn't mean what you think it does. I know some of you are like, that sounds like a good time. It's not that type of stoning, OK? Some were sawn in two. They went about destitute. Faith doesn't mean that you get what you want in this life.

I think that a lot of this is well intentioned. It comes from this passage that Jesus taught on in Matthew 17, where he says, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. Are you familiar with that one? Matthew 17:20, he said to them, Because of your little faith, for, for truly I say to you, if you have the faith, if you have faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Now, look, I can't. I, I, I believe the Bible, but I also, and I believe Jesus, and I believe God can do anything, but I also don't know of any mountains that have actually moved in location since Jesus said this. So is it because no one has actually had the amount of faith that Jesus is talking about? Or is it because maybe he was speaking hyperbolically? Maybe he's just trying to say, faith is the most powerful thing in the world. You need faith.

Maybe he's not actually trying to say, if you believe it enough, it'll come to be true. Guys, that's just manifesting in Jesus' language. That's not Christianity. Jesus is saying, faith is the most powerful thing in the world. I can't tell you how many times as a young man, I sat in my bedroom praying and having enough faith that this certain girl would like me or something like that. It's like, God, you can move mountains, you can make her like me, come on. This latter might be more difficult than the former in that situation. Faith is the most powerful thing in the world. He's not trying to say name it and claim it. He's trying to say faith is powerful. It is not a gateway to superpowers. It is a doorway to the divine.

Faith allows you to experience the love and kindness of God. That's the biggest part of it. Faith allows you to experience the love and kindness of God, to know that there's more to life than this. And when you know when this world is not all that there is, it frees you to live a different kind of life.

OK, here's how faith works. I have an illustration. I borrowed this illustration from Tim Mackey and adapted it, so I have to give credit where credit is due, OK? this is, it, it's such a, such a great illustration. but I adapted it for us, OK. So, who's excited about the, the weather this week? 70 degrees on Tuesday. Yeah, amen. I have bad news, so if it's your first winter in Boston. You might not know this, but New England doesn't have 4 seasons, we have 12, OK? And this is like a popular thing that goes around, online. So we have winter, we're currently in winter still. Then you have fool's spring, 2nd winter comes after that. Spring of deception, 3rd winter, before we go into the Pollening. That's where everything turns yellow, greenish, OK? Then you have actual spring, that doesn't come until like June, guys, OK? Summer, hell's front porch, there's 2 weeks where you can't escape the heat. False fall, that comes around September, 2nd summer, 2nd week in September, and then you have actual fall before you go back into winter. So just buckle up. This is what we have, and let me show you, this is where we're at. Fool's spring. This week is gonna be nice. Enjoy it. But we're about to go back into winter, but that's OK cause it works perfectly for my illustration.

In my front yard at my house, we have a tree that blooms before any other tree on the block. Actually, the tree died last year. And it's very, very sad, and we're gonna chop it down soon, right?. And, but well, let's just pretend like it didn't, OK? It's a, it's a, I, that's what I do every day. I pretend like it didn't die. I'm I'm very sad about it. it's a Japanese magnolia, and here's actually a picture of it. At the very beginning of the season, it just, it, that's right out of my window, and it's like spring is just reaching up to the window and saying, hello. And it's just like coming right out of the window and there's just like one flower, the first flower on the block just comes right up to my window and, and, and buds. And it's a promise of what is to come in the future. Because I, I'm here to tell you that almost every year that it has done this, it has snowed after it did that. It gets cold again, and sometimes the flowers don't survive very well, and then sometimes they do, and when it is fully bloomed, it looks like this. That's my daughter, several years ago. And it's just this beautiful pink tree is just like making the block magnificent. It's wonderful.

And what that flower does for me is it is a promise of future realities. And so when I see that flower, I don't think, OK, spring is here, I'm not packing up my boots and my jacket. I'm saying. We're about to get to spring. I'm still living in winter, this is full spring, I'm still living in winter, but spring is coming, so I can get excited. Because I see what's coming. This is faith. Faith is looking to the flower. And knowing that spring is coming, we still live in winter. But the day is coming where the kingdom of God will be made full here. We have it in part, we hold on to it like the Japanese magnolia flowers saying, I know it's coming. Christ has risen. He's defeated death, though death still reigns. I know that the day is coming when they will no longer. This is where we live.

Now, if you live in what you perceive to be an eternal winter, like in Narnia, where it's always winter and never Christmas. Then all you have is to invest into this life. You just have to say, I have to make the best out of what's here as I can. But guys, if there is something much better than that coming right around the corner, why wouldn't you start investing in the spring? This is what faith is. It is a real tangible experience of that which is to come. Which is full knowledge and love of God based on future realities.

All right. Let's talk about what this looks like. We have lots of examples of different people doing this. So number 2, what does it mean to be faithful? These next points go a little bit faster. Hebrews 11 gives us example after example of what this looks like. We actually have the phrase by faith repeated 19 times. I hope I emphasize that well in the reading. The author lists 15 different specific people of faith throughout the Old Testament. So we have a few slides here, OK? Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph. Keep going. Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, which is a random one, David, Samuel. You have all these heroes of the faith that you might say, but then we have several other events that the author lists, like this, the Red Sea split, walls of Jericho fell, we have the prophets who conquered kingdoms, just justice enforced, promised to obtain, mouths of lions closed, talking about Daniel, swords escaped, weak made strong, foreign armies fled, dead resurrected.

We have example after example, and in fact the author just at the end, he's like, I just can't go on, there's too many. It's the whole Old Testament of people who were looking forward to something in the future and holding on to it for today. But then it takes a wild turn. Hebrews 11:35-38. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured. It's like, almost like a shock, like a, like a jump scare there. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with a sword. They went about in the skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.

What this is teaching us is that faith not only closes the mouths of lions and causes armies to flee, but faith also allows you to persevere through life's biggest challenges. We're not promised good in this life, but these are people of faith. And so what do all these people have in common? The, the good, the difficult, what do all of them have in common? The heroes and the sufferers, they all have faith to experience the reality of the kingdom to come today.

Hebrews 11:39-48. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God had provided something better for us. You see, all of them, all had in common that they didn't get the full promise. They only had it in part. And they went through with it. Faith is not about success in this life, but hope in the next. Sometimes you'll see success, sometimes you'll be sawn in two. In both situations, you live a life of faith with hope in the next life.

What else do they have in common? One other thing, quickly before I move on. One other thing that they have in common also is that they are all royal screw ups. You read this list of the Bible. Has one hero in it, and it is Jesus Christ. Other than that, every story in the Bible. Doesn't just tell you about the epic rise, but also tells you about the terrible downfall of every faithful person. On this list, we have Noah, OK? The kids in the room all know the story of Noah's ark. What they don't share in the Sunday school lessons is that Noah had such an alcohol problem that he got off the ark. First thing he did was plant a vineyard. Then he waited for the vineyard to grow years and years. First thing he did once he got grapes was make wine so he could get drunk and then impregnate his daughter. Not a good dude all the way through, OK? This is like, he's a failure. He's a failure. You also have people like Jephtha, that one's too metal for me to even describe. OK? Just go look up the story of Jephtha. He saw great war victories, and then he made a really bad promise. You see other people in there, Samson. Samson is the passage that I go to when I'm trying to convince a young dude that he doesn't need to be dating that girl. Like, like, I know she's hot. I'm sorry, it's not a good situation.

They're all failures. But doesn't that feel relatable? That you can be a person of faith and an epic failure at the same time. And at least your epic failures weren't recorded in the Bible for millions and millions and millions of people to read. So now we know what faith is. We know what some examples of what it looked like. And all this culminates into one of the greatest passages in the scripture. This is really the, the heart of all of Hebrews, and it says this, Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have all this knowledge, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. For who, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. And is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Point three, how do you grow in your faith? Right here, 2 verses. If you wanna know how to grow in your faith, just go back and read them. In fact, that's my challenge to you. If you wanna grow in your faith, read this, these two verses about 50 times this week. 50 times. How you grow in your faith is that you. Lay aside your sin. Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, since we see so many great examples, let us also lay aside every weight and sin. This means that you repent. Look, Jesus told us that whoever wants to follow him, has to deny himself, pick up his cross and follow after him.

Repentance is hard. Like if it's not a battle, you're not actually doing it, OK? It is like death to yourself. But you can do it. Look at the examples of those around you. Since we are collected in this church, people are fighting their sins in this church. Since we see these examples in scripture, we can lay aside our sin. You can do it, and I can't tell you a better way to grow in your faith than for you to just be like, you know what? I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna continue in the same pattern of sin that I've been continuing in. Is it going to be a battle? Yes, it is. But at some point you do have to say, I'm just not gonna do it anymore. Now it's not all just willpower, you do it through faith and that's coming, but I think that he says repent first. He says lay aside the sins because of you all these examples. You can do it, guys.

And then he says, run with endurance the race that is before you. Whatever lot you have in life, whatever you're going through, whatever challenges you have, whatever God has given to you in your life, run with endurance, go after it with all you've got. Run Continue, don't give up. Don't doubt where God has you. Where has God where does God have you right now? What does it look like to run with endurance where you are right now? Looking forward not to next week, looking forward not to the next job, looking forward not to the next season of life, looking forward to the kingdom of come. Run the race with endurance.

And then finally, looking to Jesus. Verse 2, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him. Isn't that a crazy phrase, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. I think sometimes we think that Jesus endured the cross reluctantly. That he didn't really do it because he loved us, but because it was his obligation, responsibility. And sure, he pled to the Lord, if there's any other way, may this cup pass for me in the garden. But then at the same time, he said, not my will but your will be done. And it was the joy, the joy that was set before him to restore our relationship, that he might become the door, that we might experience the divine through his life and resurrection.

Faith grows as you look to Jesus, faith grows as you feast on the knowledge of God. Faith grows as you feast on the knowledge of God. The more you look to him, the more your faith will grow. And the easier the throwing off the sin will be, the easier the running with endurance will be. Because friends, faith is the most powerful thing in the world. How could you, how could you even begin to live the Christian life without faith? Why in the world would you bless those who persecute you? Why in the world would you forgive as you have been forgiven? Why in the world would you pray for and bless someone who has hurt and wounded you? Only because You see, the seasons are changing. Only because you know that the time is coming when God's gonna make every relationship right. And so why don't I just invest in that time instead of the winter that I'm living in?

I have a friend that we had a, we had a falling out several years ago. I don't really know whose fault it was, I don't think it was mine, but at the same time. I'm not here to point fingers, and, and he just hasn't talked to me, and I've reached out and he won't respond. It makes me really sad, because I just wanna be like, dude, I believe you're a Christian. I believe you're gonna be spending eternity with me. Why don't we just talk today? We're gonna have to like work it out one day, you know. Why don't we just invest in the king room to come? Because Jesus has risen. I know he's coming back to forgive every sin, reconcile every relationship. Why not just get a jump on him? It makes perfect sense to hold a grudge if you live in the land of winter. But it makes no sense if you know that spring is coming.

Where is God calling you to live by faith? Where has he called you to live by faith? It takes faith to spend time with someone who has nothing to offer. And all the parents said, Amen. It takes faith. To stay in a city that's expensive and difficult for the kingdom. It takes faith to be financially generous, investing in the kingdom to come. It takes faith to reconcile difficult relationships, to put to death your preferences and feelings for the good of another. It takes faith. To serve in kids' ministry on daylight saving Sunday. It takes faith to keep trusting God when your prayers seem unanswered. It takes faith to obey God. With your sexuality in a culture that tells you to follow your desires. It takes faith to rest when the world says your worth comes from productivity. It takes faith to talk about Jesus when you might be misunderstood or rejected. It takes faith to open your home and your life to people who may never repay you, but praise God. Spring is coming. The day of the Lord is drawing near. Winter is not eternal. Metaphorically and figuratively. The day is coming. Aslan is on the move.

If faith is a foretaste of future realities, then communion is a physical reminder of that. As we take of this meal, we're reminded of the wedding feast of the lamb that we'll enjoy in the new heavens and the new earth. That we'll feast on him, that we'll enjoy him in full as the bride of Christ. But for today, we get just a small taste of it. Much as our faith connects us to Christ, this communion meal connects us to our reality in heaven. And so if you're a believer here this morning, we encourage you to come and receive communion during the next song. For those of us who are calling Christ the Lord. Whether you're a messed up sinner, like everyone in this chapter, or you're very faithful. Come and receive. And so, I'm gonna invite us to stand as we prepare our hearts to respond. There'll be people in the back to pray with you, I hope, I think. and if you would like to, if you would like to pray with someone, pray that you have faith, that you can have faith. Let's prepare our hearts and, and seek the Lord together.

God, we, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for the warm weather, and God, we pray that you would help us to be faithful. Help us to be people that don't invest in this world, but invest in the world to come. God, we pray that we would be able to see the examples around us, that you would bind us together in unity and love, that you would help us to take big steps of faith this week, whatever that might be. That you would give us eyes to see as you see, not as we see. And that you would help us to walk by faith. We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.