I know that is a strange sermon title: Does God have feelings of pride or does He need to feel proud? But that is what this week’s text says – “God is not ashamed to be called their God.” On the Journey of faith we are looking at different people from Hebrews 11 that are commended for their faith. Right in the middle of covering Abraham’s stellar faith is a parenthetical break in verses 13-16 where the writer of Hebrews adds some commentary on what it means to be a person of faith. It concludes with that statement about God not being ashamed.
As we work our way through Hebrews 11 and the Journey of Faith, it is a reminder to each of us that we too can be enshrined in the Hall of Fame of Faith if we seek to follow the example of the heroes listed in this great chapter. Join me this Sunday as we discover how to live with faith that makes God proud.

Last summer Sue and I rode the Ferris Wheel at Carolina Beach for the first time. If you saw me that day, you would have noticed that I was more nervous than the average person is to ride a Ferris Wheel because I have an all too real fear of riding Ferris Wheels. When I was a young boy, the carnival used to come to our town every fall and I loved all the rides, including the Ferris Wheel, until I didn’t. You could say my faith got shaken in the safety of Ferris Wheels. One year I was there when they were assembling the rides, and I saw the people that were putting them together or should I say I saw the condition of the people putting the rides together. They were all drunk or high on drugs and I asked myself the question, do I have enough faith in them to put that Ferris Wheel together correctly? Was I willing to put the wellbeing of my life in their hands? The answer was no, and for years I would not ride on a Ferris Wheel because the object of one’s faith matters. In that situation, the object of my faith to ride a Ferris Wheel had to be in the men that were assembling the ride. I decided the object of my faith was lacking the proficiency for me to put my life in their hands.
When it comes to our spiritual life, we need to determine what is the object of our faith. For some people, the object of Christianity is the church. Some churches actually push this kind of thinking, but any church, including ours, will be found insufficient to meet all of our spiritual needs. Some people think of the pastor or a spiritual leader as the object of their faith. Others will look to a family member they admire as the object of faith. Many people look to themselves as the object of their faith. They may think, “Other people have let me down so the only person I trust is myself.” All of these people, including ourselves, will fall short of meeting our needs for time and eternity. Only God should be the object of our faith because He alone can meet our every need for time and eternity. This Sunday we will start to look at the life of Abraham on the Journey of Faith, as a man who made God and God alone the object of his faith. We will see from Hebrews 11:8-12 and other passages how Abrahm did this and the blessing it brought to him and others. Join us as we consider how the Object of our faith Matters.

A primary tenant of Christianity is that we receive salvation by faith and not by our works. Ephesians 2:8 & 9 makes that very clear: “It is by grace you have been saved through faith . . . not by works.” But works do play a significant role in the Christians life. While we don’t work to gain our salvation, we are saved to do good works.

On our tour through the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11, this Sunday we look at the life of Noah. Hebrews 11 only devotes verse 7 to his life, but that one verse is a powerful commentary on the historical record of his life in Genesis 6-9. Noah is a great example of how genuine faith in God is validated by an active work for the glory of God. Noah devoted over 100 years of his life working in obedience to God building the Ark. His work was an act of faith! What Noah did was the equivalent of building an ocean liner in the middle of Kansas. It didn’t make sense to most people and Noah faced a lot of ridicule for doing this. But that didn’t stop him because he believed God’s word to be true. 

We are called to obey God in some ways that are counter to the trends of our current culture. Following God doesn’t always make sense to the world around us and we at times may face ridicule. Noah and his family were saved from God’s judgement in the flood because he acted in faith to God’s Word. If you have become a Christian by faith in God’s redemptive work through Christ, good works should follow. And like Noah, when you are active in the work of God, lives will be saved from the coming judgement. Join me this Sunday for a fascinating look into the life, faith and work of Noah to see how we can be like this hero of the faith.

This Sunday we look in Hebrews 11:4-6 at the first inductees to the Faith Hall of Fame: Able and Enoch. Neither of these men were some of the more famous or even consequential personalities from the book of Genesis, yet here they are at the beginning of the list. The reason they are in Hebrews 11 is because Able and Enoch both lived out their faith as an act of worship to God. Able brought a better sacrifice (the kind that conveyed a true worship of God) and Enoch spent his entire life simply walking with God in a very wicked society. As we strive to be faithful in our Christian journey we would do well to consider how these two men worshiped God.

Worship is the appropriate response of a sinful human toward a Holy God by first acknowledging who God rightfully is and then admitting who we are in comparison to God: sinners in need of His mercy and grace. Once we understand this, we can stop trying to prove our worth and simply live by faith in the abundant grace of God. That allows us to worship God with a pure motive because we love Him. Join me this Sunday as we continue The Journey of Faith!

This weekend we pause as a nation to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of our nation and the values to which we hold as Americans. It’s Memorial Day Weekend! While this is a non-religious national holiday there are still spiritual principles we need to reflect on as Christians in the USA in answer to the question, “Why We Remember?” Why is it important to remember our fallen soldiers? What was it they were fighting for? What was so important that they would leave the comfort of home and family to sometimes travel to another part of the world and risk their lives? For us as a nation, and in particular, those that died for our nation, believe that there is an evil to oppose and a blessing of good to strive for. Psalm 33:12a says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
There is no question that these United States of America have been and continue to be a blessed nation. Memorial Day Weekend is an opportunity for us as American Christians to reflect on why our nation has been blessed the way it has. When we acknowledge the reason for the blessings we enjoy as Americans, we also answer the question “Why We Remember” on days like Memorial Day. Join me this Sunday as we look into Psalm 33 to understand how God wants to bless a nation and what He is looking for in order to give that blessing.

This Sunday I will bring to completion preaching through the entire gospel of John. We have been at this off and on for the last two years. In John 21 we see another visit the resurrected Jesus has with the disciples and one disciple in particular, Peter.
Jesus makes it a point to reconnect with Peter after the resurrection to make a fresh start in their relationship. Prior to John 21, Jesus and Peter had never discussed the events during Jesus’ trial when Peter denied Christ three times. There are two things that stand out to me from this passage: 1) Peter wanted to connect with Jesus personally – He jumped out of a perfectly good boat into the water to get to the shore and to Jesus faster. 2 ) The conversation was hard for Peter – remembering our failures is never a pleasant experience. Can you relate to Peter? I know I can.
How Jesus treated Peter that day reveals how Jesus will deal with us when we come to him with our failures, looking for a fresh start. Jesus lovingly leads Peter to recognize the root of his failure and what he needed to do to correct that. Jesus conveyed to Peter that in spite of his shortcomings there was a place for Peter in the work of the kingdom. I often say, “The success of the Christian life is a series of new beginnings.” Jesus gave Peter a fresh start / a new beginning and Peter went on to lead the early church. It is often the people whose lives have received the deepest penetration of God’s grace who will be used to do a great thing for God. Do you need a fresh start? Will you make a new beginning? Join me this Sunday as we conclude John’s Gospel and Make a Fresh Start.

When I was a boy growing up it was considered to almost be an anathema to question anything with regard to the Bible, the Church and God. The thought was, “How dare anyone question . . .?”. Doubting God or the Bible was considered to be a lack of genuine faith. I hope we have all moved beyond those narrow minded positions and can understand the role a questioning mind needs to play in our spiritual development.
Do you struggle with doubt at times? You actually are in good company. As the account of Christ’s resurrection continues to unfold in John’s Gospel, we see 10 of the disciples gathered in a locked room the night of that first Easter in fear for their lives. They questioned and doubted the validity of claims people made of seeing a risen Christ. Christ appeared to them and they believed. A week later, Thomas, who was the only one of the disciples absent the previous week, joined them. Thomas has a reputation of being a lead doubter (doubting Thomas!) doubted the reports from his closest friends of the resurrection, yet passionately believed when Christ appeared to him.
While Jesus does gently chastise all the disciples for a lack of faith to accept the accounts of the resurrection, I think Jesus understands humans will doubt. What we know happened for all those who doubted is Jesus led them to grow through that doubt to a fuller life in Him. Jesus understands our weaknesses and offers to help us grow through them. This Sunday we will see how Jesus led them, and can lead us, From Doubt to Life! Join me for this encouraging message for anyone that has ever dealt with religious doubt.