Amen. I love that song. You know, sometimes I find myself, driving down the road just singing that song. You know, just just saying to God, let let my voice be a sweet song in your ear. Let what I do be pleasing to you, God, because, that’s what I want.

I want it to be pleasing to you. So it’s a wonderful, wonderful song for us to think about. And, you know, the thing that, the song right before that said, let those who come behind us find us faithful. That’s exactly what I wanna talk about today. You know, today, the title of the sermon is the true memorial.

Last week, we celebrated Memorial Day in The United States. On Monday, we celebrated that day. And for many, that meant having cookouts or going to the swimming pool or going to the beach or doing a lot of things, just enjoying a day off, not being in work or, things going on in life. But for many around the country, there were parades. There were, celebrations at cemeteries.

There was flag raising ceremonies. There were all sorts of things going on. And even, you know, the the protocol for that day is the flag goes to half mass for the first part of the day in memoriam of those who died. But then it’s raised at noon to continue to show that because of those, the nation stayed strong. And so it’s a wonderful thing for us to see and to think about.

But thinking about Memorial Day and all of those who worked so hard and even gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we would have freedoms, it always makes me think about those in scripture, those who went before us, those who did so many things to show us what it means for us to be able to be faithful to god. And so I want us to continue to look at that. Remember why we have the freedoms that we have today. Remember why we have them. We don’t have them just because.

We have them because people fought for them. We have them because people worked for them to make sure that we were able to have those freedoms. But today, I’m gonna talk about the eternal memorial, the true memorial. This is something that we can look back on all the way back in the beginning, and we can see these things, and it can help us to understand what it is that we need in our lives that we might live our life today truly so that those who come behind us can find us faithful, so that those who come behind us can see what they need to see because that’s exactly what the ones we’re gonna talk about today did. This morning, I want you to understand, our country is not eternal.

Our country is not eternal. It is not a a place that’s going to last forever. One day, it’s going to disappear. One day, this world is gonna come to an end. It is not eternal.

Heaven is eternal. Heaven is eternal. That’s the place that we all want to be one day. That’s the place where if we know Jesus as lord and savior, we will be. That’s the final place.

That is actually our home. This country is not going to be here forever. And so while it’s great to be patriotic and it’s wonderful to love your country, understand it will not save you by being patriotic and loving your country. It’s only God that can save you through Jesus Christ. Look with me to the hall of faith.

If you don’t know what that is, the Hall of Faith that’s in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. They call that the Hall of Faith. Why? Because we’re gonna talk about many people in Hebrews chapter 11 that god found faithful.

We’re gonna talk about those and how we can learn from their memorial to us. Blow with me to verses one through three. Verses one through three in Hebrews 11 says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the men of old gained approval. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Understand this. Faith that the world has been created by the word of god. So I want us to think about that passage. Faith. What is faith?

The assurance of things not seen. Right? Faith, knowing that it’s true. Understanding, pardon me, that what God has done, the creations that he has made, not only the world, but you, everything in it, nothing was created apart from God. Nothing was created apart from God.

God created this world. God created you. And through this, God has created everything. The faith that the world has been created by the word of God, God spoke it, and it happened. God spoke it, and it happened.

It wasn’t a accident. It wasn’t something that just kinda sorta happened one day. God spoke it into existence. Every single thing that was created was created by the word of God. He spoke that.

He said, let it be so, and it was. And so God created the whole world through his spoken word. The true memorial is the faith that the world was created by God. That’s a true memorial, a memorial of why is why are things the way they are today? God created it.

God had a purpose. God had a reason. And because of that reason, God made sure that it would be here for us. God used people like you and me that we can look back on and see exactly what his plans are for us. I talked to the students last week to the seniors, and I said that God knows the plans he has for you.

The plans are to prosper you and not for harm. God knows the plans he had for this world when he created it in the first place. This world was created by things that are not visible. It was created by things that are not visible. What do I mean by that?

Since the beginning of the scientific world, We have been looking for the origin of life. We’ve been trying to find the origin of the world, the origin of all life that began became in existence. They’ve been searching for that since the very beginning. It is not visible. It’s not visible.

It’s not visible because God spoke it. That’s the origin. That’s the beginning. That’s where God created the world. He spoke it into existence, and it was so.

It didn’t happen by something that happened to be here and then from that became life. My argument has always been for that. Where did the something that was here before that come from? It came from God who spoke it into existence. So faith that the world has been created by the word of God, that’s the memorial that we need to think about.

That’s what we need to plant our lives on and say, because God spoke it, it’s so. And I can live my life knowing that God is in control. I can live my life in faith that God has designed this world, and the things that God has done, man cannot undo. So God has created this world. And when we think back to a memorial, what is a memorial?

That’s something we can look back to and say, because of this, all of these things. We can hold this as a place of importance in our life because from that, this happened. All of these things happened. So today, we talk about Memorial Day, but I want you to think about the eternal memorial of God. The eternal memorial.

Understand that these that we’re going to talk about in just a few moments, understand this, they’re regular people that lived out faith. They’re not saints. They’re not angels. They’re regular people who lived out faith. That’s the incredible thing about this chapter in Hebrews is the people that are listed are people who were regular people.

I would say they put on pants just like you, but they didn’t wear pants back then. They were regular people. They didn’t have this magical presence about them that made them so much better than everybody else. We talk about people like Abraham and Moses and Noah, and we talk about all those people as if they were just so much greater than any one person. We talk about them as if they walked around with their robes on and said, and god said this, and they were perfectly wonderful.

They never made mistakes. They never had doubts. They never did anything that god didn’t want them to do. That was not so. The people that we’re gonna talk about were regular people just like you.

Just like you. Wait a minute now. You said you just don’t know me. You know, I’m I’m the kind of person I fail a lot. I’m the kind of person that, you know, I I I have a lot of doubts.

I I spend a lot of time wondering even about my current walk. I’m the kind of person that’s you know, I I’m always wondering about things that I’m not just certain all the time. So were they. But the difference is they trusted their faith. They trusted their faith.

Their faith in god, they held on to. And they said, I don’t understand it all, but God does. I don’t know why I’m supposed to do this, but God has a reason. I don’t know why the sun rises and on one side and sets on the other, But God knows there’s a reason all this is in place. The reason that it it is as is because God designed it.

And I can trust that. I can hold on to that, and I can have that faith. But these people that we’re gonna talk about, they were regular people. I think that’s important for you to know because I want you to know that their faith was not any stronger than your faith could be. You can have the same faith of the people we’re gonna talk about this morning because they’re regular people, But they had that faith in God, and they trusted God, and they went through that process.

Abel. We don’t know very much about Abel. We know that he’s mentioned as one who his sacrifice, his offering was more pleasing to God than his brother. But that little passage that we know about Abel, in Hebrews, he’s included in the hall of faith. That means there was a lot more than we even realize.

Abel, in verse four, says this. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What I want you to see about that Abel, we don’t know that much about Abel. Abel’s included in the hall of faith.

Abel is included as the one who said, by faith, he offered a better sacrifice. And I want you to understand, and he said that through this, he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. Whose testimony? Who testified that Abel was righteous? God testified that Abel was righteous.

It wasn’t his brother Cain. It wasn’t his mom and dad. It wasn’t anybody else that happened to be around then, and, yes, by then, there were more people. It was God who testified that because of his offering, he was righteous. You see, he offered to God a better sacrifice through faith.

He trusted that God wanted the first fruits. He trusted that what God said was true and that God desired to have that in order to have that relationship, and he gave that first fruits. He gave that sacrifice, that offering that was pleasing to God came according to what we read did not. So when we look at this and we realize and understand that Abel was attested as righteous, even in death, he still lives. Even today, we still know the name Abel.

We still know that name. Very short passage about him in scripture, but we know that name. Why? Because he was righteous for what he did. In faith, he gave the sacrifice that made him righteous.

He trusted God completely, and he gave his life because of the jealousy of his brother when he did so. But he trusted God a %. So we still know that. What about Enoch? Look at verse five.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. And he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to god. He was pleasing to god. He obtained the witness from whom?

God. He was pleasing to god, and therefore, God took him. He didn’t die. God took him. He didn’t die.

It says his body wasn’t found. They looked for it. What happened to Enoch? Anybody seen him? But maybe he was eaten by lions.

Where did he go? We don’t know. Nobody found his body. They didn’t find his body because God took him. He absolutely walked with God.

And so because of his faith and because of his walk with God, he was literally taken out of this world by God without ever seeing death. The scripture says, appointed on the man wants to die unless God chooses to take him unless God chooses to take him. It’s only been two that God just took. Out of all of history, there was two that God just took them. They walked, and then they walked with God.

They did not die. Why? Because of their faith, because of the way that they walked, because of things that they did. It was pleasing to God, and they lived a life that was pleasing to God. Was it always perfect?

No. It wasn’t always perfect. Again, Enoch, we don’t know all that much about Enoch, but we know he was human. Therefore, if he was human, he was not perfect. That means there were times when he was not pleasing to God.

This memorial is living a life that is pleasing to God. He was attested to be pleasing to God. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be like Enoch? Wouldn’t it be wonderful that God would just reach down one day and say, you know what? George, you have lived a life that’s pleasing to me.

Yeah. I have found you righteous, and I’m just taking you home today. No death, no pain, no suffering, nothing. Just you’re coming home with me today. Wow.

How amazing that would be. It happened to Enoch. We can see that. It’s living a life that’s pleasing to God. It’s living a life that we can testify that we believe in that faith.

Notice this. We see a pattern in these first two people. How? What is the pattern? They lived a life that’s pleasing to god.

They lived a life that’s pleasing to god. Well, that’s that’s a pretty tall order, ain’t it? To live a life that’s pleasing to god. I mean, you just said it. We’re human.

We fail. We make mistakes. How can we live that life that’s pleasing to God if we make mistakes? Listen, I don’t know about you, but I make them every day. I make mistakes every day.

I I I fall short every day. I do things that I don’t wanna do, and I don’t do things that I wanna do. I fall short every day. But god said, you’re mine. I forgive you.

I forgive you. Keep we’re striving to be perfect. Keep living that life trying to be perfect every day. We won’t be perfect, but we should try. None of these that we talked about was perfect, but they were trying.

They were living a life, and God found them pleasing. And because he found them pleasing, they’re listed in the hall of faith for us to learn from. Look at verse six. Without faith, it’s impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

So how do we live a life that’s pleasing to God? Well, if it’s impossible to please him without faith, then it’s through faith that we please him. It’s through faith and living that life in faith that we please God. Well, what do you mean? I mean, you know, I have faith.

I believe in God. But you you believe in God so much that you believe every single thing in your life God cares about. Do you have enough faith to believe that whatever happens, God’s hand is on it? Do you have enough faith to believe that I can trust God and not myself or my bank account or my best friend or my spouse? Those aren’t the ones I need to trust above all is God.

Do you have that much faith? Do you walk in that kind of faith every day? Do you wake up every morning and say, this day belongs to you, God. Show me. Do you walk in that?

Do you hold true to that? Most of us don’t. We don’t walk in faith that strong. Without faith, it’s impossible to be pleasing to god. You wanna be pleasing to god?

Then have faith. Have faith. Walk in that, trusting and believing that what God has said throughout all of scripture is true, that God loves you so much that he gave his only son, that that’s true, that you can have salvation. Listen. What is the secret sauce to pleasing God, so to speak?

What is the secret sauce to pleasing God? Well, the answer is this. It’s found in Romans chapter 10 and verse nine, and it says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. There’s no secret. It’s right there in print.

It’s for everybody to know. He said, without faith, it’s impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is. You confess with your mouth Jesus as lord and believe that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is lord and believe that god raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. That’s the reward.

If you believe, you confess, and Jesus becomes your lord, your savior, then you walk in that faith because of what he has done for you already. You already see that. You already know that. Have you accepted him? Are you walking in faith?

Can you do that? You can. It’s possible. Have you given your life to him? Have you done it?

That’s the sauce, the secret sauce for living in faith, for being pleasing to God. Look at verse seven. For by faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteous, which is according to faith. So I want you to see a couple of things here. By faith, Noah, being warned by god about things not yet seen okay.

Hold up. God said, this is what’s gonna happen. Noah said, what? I don’t know what rain is. Never seen rain.

I don’t know what a flood is. I’ve never seen a flood. You want me to build a boat here? I I don’t understand. But Noah didn’t say those things.

God said, these are the things that’s gonna happen, and Noah never seen that before, but he said, okay. He was reverent to god. He said, okay. If that’s what you want, god, that’s what I’ll do. That’s what I’ll do.

I will do exactly what you told me to do even though I don’t understand it, even though I’ve never seen it before, even though these things that are coming, I don’t know anything about them. But out of reverence, I’ll prepare an ark for you. Then god said, we’re gonna use that ark for the salvation of your household. We’re gonna save you by the using that ark. You’re gonna build it for me.

I’m gonna use it for you. You be obedient, then I’ll take care of you for being obedient. Noah said, I’ll do it. I’ll build the ark. I will build that ark.

I will do exactly what you tell me. And it says, because he did that, he became an heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith. He became an heir of the righteousness. It doesn’t say Noah was born a righteous man. Bible tells us Noah was righteous, found righteous by God, but it doesn’t say he was born a righteous man.

How did he become righteous? Through faith. Through the faith he had in God, he became righteous. He was the heir of the righteousness because he followed God, because he listened to God. He had faith that what God said was true, and he did what God told him to do even though at the time it made no sense to him.

It was about things he had never seen before, things he had never heard of before, but yet he said, okay. I’ll do it. I’ll do it. Noah became an heir to the righteousness of God because of his willingness to do that even though he had not seen it before. Verse eight through 10.

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. Not knowing where he was going, god said, Abraham, I want you to go out. I’m gonna give you this land. I’ll show you where it is. You just leave.

You just gather up and go out. Just leave. Now listen. If you didn’t know, Abraham wasn’t a Hebrew upfront. Abraham had never had scriptures to look at and read about God.

Abraham was not taught about Jehovah. Abraham lived in a in a, country that was idol worshiping and polytheistic. They believed in all kinds of gods and they worship all kinds of idols. And then all of that God, the God, Jehovah spoke to Abraham and said, go out and I’m gonna give you this land. And he said, okay.

I’ll go. He didn’t know him. He’d never heard of him before, but when he heard God speak, he recognized that god was the god. And he followed him through faith, and he went out. He said, you’re gonna go out.

I’m gonna give it to you. He said, didn’t know where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. He left his hometown. He left his home country.

He went out to a place that God said, I’m gonna give it to you. By faith, he lived in this foreign land. He lived in this foreign land. He didn’t have to, but he chose to. It was a land of promise.

He lived there. He dwelled in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were also fellow heirs of the same promise. Fellow heirs of the same promise. He went out by faith. By faith, he lived in a foreign land.

He lived in places where he was ridiculed. He lived in places that were not always pleasing and to live in, but he lived there. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. You see, he went out as god told him. He lived in foreign lands, but what he was searching for was the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is god.

That city is the city of heaven. One day, he would find that. He went out looking for that city of God. He went out looking for the kingdom of God. He went out where God told him to go.

He lived as a foreigner in the land. He lived in places that were not always friendly. He lived in all of those places and continued to serve God as God called him to do. You see, we we are told things that we need to do. Maybe you’ve been praying and God said, this is what I want you to do, and you said, okay.

What’s the rest of the story? How else am I supposed to do it? I don’t have enough details. Listen. I need a five step process and every detail laid out with three bullet points, and then maybe I’ll be able to go do what you tell me to do.

I gotta have more information. God, you can’t just say go and expect me to pack up and go. I don’t even know where I’m going. I I can’t even find it on Google Maps. Where am I going?

I don’t know. So if I don’t know, I can’t go. God said, I’ll show you, but you gotta go first. Nah. I can’t do that.

I I gotta have more information. Abraham said, I’ll go. I’ll go. I’ll go out and live in in this place not really knowing and living as a foreigner in the land. Listen.

I want you to know something today. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, today, you’re living in a foreign land. You’re living in a place that is a foreign land. This is not your home. You’re living in a place that is not your final destination.

You’re traveling on your way there, and God has placed you here for a reason. What is that reason? Have you ever sought it out? Do you know what it is? Have you even sought out for God or you’re living here because, well, you know, I was born here and and so I grew up here and I got a job here and I’m raising a family here.

Is this where you’re supposed to be? Well, I never thought about that. I never questioned that. I never considered, is it where I’m supposed to be? I told the seniors last week, listen.

Follow God. He knows the plans he has for you. Have you asked God what are the plans? Are you following him in faith? Are you limiting God by saying, I don’t know those details.

God, this is where I’m at. If you’re gonna move me from here, it’s gonna have to be forcefully. You’re gonna have to force me down the road. Listen. I hope that’s not what you’re saying because God will do that.

He was looking for the city, which has foundations, whose architect and builder is god. But he went out through faith because God said go. He didn’t know where, but he went. Every day, God calls us to do things. God tells us to do things.

Are we willing to go and do those things? Do we have enough faith to believe that if God tells us to do it, then he’s going to see us through? But, you know, preacher, sometimes when somebody says, okay. Well, I’m gonna go do what God told me to do, they end up getting killed. You know, there’s so many missionaries.

They’ve gone these places. They said, God told them to go here. They went there, and they got killed. So surely that that’s not what what was supposed to happen. If God told them to go there, they had the faith in God and he sent them there, then there was a purpose for them, and they went there for that purpose.

Did their physical life get taken away from them? Yes. But their eternal life never will. You see, they served God right up to the point that God took them home. God didn’t promise that everywhere he called us to go would be easy.

He told Abraham to go. I’ll show you where. The places he went were tough. Places he went, some didn’t have water. Some of these places that he went had all of these things going on.

There were, people throughout the land that were not friendly, but he went, and God blessed him through it all. He never said it would be easy to walk in faith, but he told him to do that. What about Sarah? Look at verses eleven and twelve. By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead as that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Sarah, barren all these years, Married to a man whose name meant father, yet she was barren. All these years, all she ever wanted was a child. God had not given that to her. It was easy for her to give up and say it’ll never happen.

It’s easy for that to happen. Remember I told you that everything they did wasn’t pleasing to God? When God first told Sarah she was gonna have a baby, she laughed. No way. I’m over 90 years old.

That don’t happen. My husband’s a hundred. That’s not gonna happen. God said, let me show you. Trust me.

God took care of Sarah. Sarah’s listed as trusting God, as being the mother of the nation. She trusted him even though she couldn’t understand it. She trusted. Yes.

She laughed. Yes. She was displeasing at times, but so are we all. So was Abraham himself. But God used them and he found them faithful because they continued through faith to trust God.

Look at verses 13 through 16. All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had 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 a city for them. Every one of these were ridiculed because of their faith. Every single one of them were ridiculed because of their faith. I want you to see and understand this.

Everyone listed died without seeing the promises fulfilled. They died without seeing all of the promises fulfilled, Yet they went out and they continued to walk in faith even knowing it hadn’t happened yet. Sarah, over 90 years old, Abraham was told at a much younger age that he was gonna be the father of many nations, yet she could not conceive. Abraham, who was told, you’re gonna be the father of many nations. Eventually, Sarah said, look.

It’s not gonna happen through me. Take my my maid, and maybe it can happen through her. Displeasing to God. That wasn’t his plan. Yes.

There was a child that came from that, but it was a problem and still is today. They weren’t always pleasing, but yet they came back to the fate that they had. Each one of them went through this time. They did not always see. Then none of them saw.

All of the ones that saw, they never saw that. Abraham never saw the fullness of the nation that god created through him. He didn’t see that on this side of heaven. Noah, he didn’t live to see the final evolution of the world. In other words, he did not see when God returned.

He didn’t see Jesus come. He didn’t see any of that, but he was obedient. He did what God told him to do, and he built that ark. He did the things that he was supposed to do. Every one of these lived a life where they didn’t see the promise necessarily fulfilled.

A memorial for all of us they are, even if, the promises have not yet been fulfilled. We can all be assured they will. What promise? Well, the promise I’m talking about today is the promise that Jesus said that god said Jesus will come again. That promise has not yet been fulfilled.

Man, is it really gonna happen? You know, some of you here are are, you know, a little over 50. Been around a long time. You say, I thought surely in my lifetime this was going to happen. You’re still breathing.

It might still. We don’t know. There are those who went on before you that always thought it would be in their lifetime. There are those during the bible time in the very beginning, right after Jesus went to heaven, and he said, I will come again and receive you. They thought it was going to be during their lifetime.

They’re still waiting. All of these that we talked about today, they had promises that they looked for their whole lifetime, and they lived faithfully for God even though they didn’t see that promise fulfilled in their lifetime. They didn’t see it fulfilled in their lifetime. That didn’t make them stop looking for God. That didn’t make them stop living for God.

That didn’t make them any less faithful. Living through faith may be hard, but we have more of the story than they did. We have the scriptures. We have more of the story than they did, and yet they were pleasing to God. Pardon me.

That’s one of those things that I think about today. We can open up God’s word. We got 66 books. We’ve got the Old Testament. We’ve got the New Testament.

We see prophecies. We see prophecies fulfilled. We see promises made, promises kept. We see all of those things, and we know enough to understand that what God said he’s going to remain faithful to us. Why do we have such a hard time living faithfully to him?

It’s hard sometimes to live by faith. Why? Because we don’t see the results right away. There’s times when we say, well, I’m gonna I’m gonna trust God, but we don’t see the results immediately. But we have enough of the story to understand that it may take longer, and we need to continue to live in faith so that we can be pleasing to God.

Living through faith is what God calls us to do. So by doing that, we are pleasing to him. God said, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go and tell. I want you to trust in God.

I want you to confess Jesus as Lord and savior and believe that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved. I want you to do all of those things. He said the greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. Right? Greatest commandment is love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself is the second.

Love God. Do you love God with everything? If you love God with everything, then be faithful. If you’re faithful, do what he said. You know what he said?

Jesus said, go and tell. Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Go and tell. If we’re gonna live faithful, then we have to trust god. We gotta love him above everything else, love people second to that, and tell others about Christ.

If we can do that, we can live faithfully. If we live faithfully, we’re pleasing to god. Are you willing to do that today? Every one of these that we mentioned were ridiculed because of their faith. Well, they don’t understand.

I mean, they didn’t have the things we have today. Listen, they didn’t have social media. They didn’t have all of the negative, comments that people left. They didn’t have all of the the things and and be able to transmit all over the world in one time. They didn’t have all of that.

No. They didn’t have all that. But you know what they had is they had the people that were in their communities that would just as soon have put them to death as to see them live. They ridiculed them. Yes.

We understand. It’s hard. But you know what? God was ridiculed. Jesus was ridiculed for his, walk.

He was ridiculed for who he was. He was put to death because he said he was god. He was put to death because god’s plan was for him to be put to death. But he was ridiculed when he walked on the earth. If he was ridiculed, why do we not think we will be?

Every one of them could have given up. Every one of those we talked about this morning could have given up. Abraham could have went back to Ur. Noah could have said, listen. That’s gonna be too hard.

I can’t build that thing. You know, I just can’t do that. Sarah could have just said, you know, it ain’t gonna happen. She could have given up. All of these that we talked about could have easily given up, but they didn’t.

They continue to walk in faith. And because of that, today, we’re looking back at the memorial of them saying, this is what faith looks like. This is how we need to walk in our daily lives. Every one of them had a choice. They could’ve given up.

You can give up. You can give up today. You can say, you know what, God? I I believe that that you are God, but I just don’t think that it’s just not worth it anymore. All the stuff that I’m going through, I just don’t think I can continue to walk that way.

I I don’t think I could do that. You can do that. Every one of them, by not giving up, were pleasing to god. Every one of them, by not giving up, were pleasing to god. It didn’t mean they didn’t face the persecution and the ridicule.

It didn’t mean that things weren’t hard, but they didn’t give up. They didn’t give up. You say, well, I’m I’m not giving up. I’m I’m still here. I’m still coming.

I’m still at church. I’m still how many times have you shared the gospel with people this year? Okay. Maybe that’s too short of a time. How many times you shared the gospel with people in the last five years?

How many times have you shared the gospel when it wasn’t planned? You ran into someone and you said, let me tell you about Jesus. They’re going through something hard. Are you giving up? We’re supposed to go and tell.

That’s living by faith. We’re supposed to let others know about Jesus. That’s living by faith. We don’t know when God’s gonna return, but we know he will because we we have faith that he will. He said he would.

And when he returns, he said that if you do not know him, then you will spend an eternity in hell. And so if we know that and we have the faith to believe that what he said is true, then why aren’t we willing to tell other people about him? Why aren’t we willing to show other people how to have salvation? Well, how you you don’t know me. You don’t know who I what I’ve done.

I don’t. You’re right. I I don’t know what you’ve done, but you do. Are you happy with the way that you’re doing things? Have you feel that you’re living the right way for God?

Do you feel that you’re walking faithfully every single day? For the average person, the answer to all those questions is no. And if we’re not happy with the way we’re living life, if we don’t feel we’re being faithful in all that we’re doing, if we don’t feel like we’re trying to lead people to Christ, then we can make a change. You’re still breathing. You’re still here.

You still have an opportunity. Will those who come behind you find you faithful? Every one of them at different times in their life displeased God. Every one of them. They didn’t always please god in everything they did.

We haven’t always pleased god. Sometimes, Satan says, see, you messed up. It’s too late now. You can never fix that. You made a mistake.

It’s too late. You can’t be that person. You can’t be faithful for God. You can’t talk to other people about being faithful because you weren’t faithful at this time. Remember when you weren’t faithful?

I do. But I also remember that that God said he will forgive me of all my sin, that he cast them as far as the East is from the West. I know that God can do that. So even though Satan’s trying to tell me it’s too late, you can’t be faithful because you already displeased God, he’s a liar. God said, I forgive you.

Now go and sin no more. Go and do what you need to do. Faith and perseverance makes them the memorial for us. Faith and perseverance is why we study the hall of faith. That’s why we look back at these people and say, if they can do it, then God has created them and he created me.

I can do it. I’ve gotta work at it. I’ve gotta be strong. I’ve gotta go out and understand that I may not always see the answers. I may not have it easy.

It may be a hard walk, but if God calls me, I can do it. I can do it. It’s also that faith and perseverance, not only is it what made the memorial for us, but it’s also what kept them pleasing to God. Faith and perseverance. They believed, they had faith, and they persevered in everything that was going on.

So the question today is, are you ready to be pleasing to God? Are you ready to be pleasing to God? Or are you satisfied with being lukewarm? Are you satisfied with saying, well, that whole living in faith everyday thing is kinda it’s too hard. You know, I can do it sometimes, but I can’t do it everyday.

You know, I’m I’m I’m I’ve tried, and and I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve just kinda given up. God’s gonna have to use somebody else to do it now because it’s just too late for me. I’m, I can’t be that person anymore. Why not? If God can take a 90 year old woman and a hundred year old man and birth a nation, then he can certainly take a 90 year old woman or a hundred year old man to reach someone for Christ.

He can take that and use it to teach others about him, to show what faith looks like. Well, you know, pastor, this is a senior congregation and, you know, we don’t have the the energy we used to have, and we don’t have the the ability to get out and do things like we used to. And so maybe we’re not as useful to God as we once were. Well, maybe God can’t use you to do certain things anymore, but that doesn’t mean he can’t use you. Understand that there are people that are coming behind you.

They’re looking to see if you’re faithful. And if you’re faithful, then they can be faithful. They can see what you’ve done, and because of what you’ve done, it gives them strength. It gives them understanding and purpose because I want to understand how I can live like that, how I can do those things. Are you willing to talk to those people?

Are you willing to share your faith with them? Are you willing to continue to share the gospel with someone even though, no, you maybe can’t go out and knock on the doors. But here’s one thing that all people, especially people over about 40 years old, have in common. Man, do we spend a lot of time in the doctor’s office? How many times there in the doctor’s office are we having conversations?

What if we had the conversations about somebody come to know Jesus there? They could be healed for eternity even though whatever’s going on with them may not be healed today. We can do it if we’re faithful. If we take the memorial of these people that have gone before us and we plant our feet on that and say, you know what, god? I want to be pleasing to you.

Then we can be faithful and we can do just that. We don’t know when he’s coming back. So the question I have today, do you know him in the first place? You see, you can’t be faithful to God and live a life full of faith if you don’t know God in the first place. Well, I’ve been a member of the church for fifty years.

Congratulations. Do you know God? Because that church membership gets you nothing. Well, my my my father was a preacher. Great.

Did you hear what he had to say? Did you accept Jesus? Because what he did has no bearing on your eternal salvation. You can come up with all these reasons why you should be grafted in, but, ultimately, it says if you confess with your mouth it’s an individual choice. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

You. Only you. Have you ever done that? If you’ve not done that today, I wanna tell you, we don’t know when Jesus is coming back. We don’t know how long it will be before that happens.

If he comes today and you don’t know him, then it’s too late for you. You will spend an eternity in a devil’s hell. Even if you’ve been in church for fifty years. If you know him and he comes today, you will spend an eternity in heaven and glory with the father. Choice is yours.

Do you know him? If not, today you have a choice. You can accept him or you reject him. If you know him, are you walking faithfully? If you’re not walking faithfully and you’re not doing the things he calls you to do, then take that stand today and say, you know what, God?

Today, I will stand on your word. I will stand on what you tell me to do. I will follow you wherever it takes me and whatever it calls me to do. God, I will do that. Are you willing to be pleasing to god today?

Just a moment. We’ll have a time of invitation. If you need to come talk to god at the altar, it’ll be open. If If you need to talk to me about salvation, I’ll be here. You just do whatever God puts on your heart.

Be obedient to him. Let’s pray.