Hebrews 11:1-6

I just want to um uh bring to your attention an app that we historically have used, but I haven't really emphasized it recently, and that's our group messaging app called Slack.

Some of you use Slack for work, um for different conversations.

We've used Slack um as a church in the past, and you need a special invite to participate.

Um and Marvin or myself are the ones we can invite you in, you just need to let us know.

Hey, I want to be a part of that conversation, and um we'll send an invite link to your email inbox.

You can download the app, um, but it's really only as good as our participation in it.

So, like this morning, y'all, if you were in it, you would have known that Joe was gonna be here making hot dogs for breakfast.

Thank you.

See the kind of things you're missing out by not having slack.

I got my son of that and I was like, wow, Joe, you are bold.

Go for it.

I would love a hot duck for breakfast.

It's wonderful.

What a great idea.

And on that note, um, Jim faithfully serves every single week.

But with our volunteers, one of the things we like to do is switch it up.

So um in the coming weeks, Joe's gonna take a break for a couple of weeks, and that's an opportunity.

If somebody else wants to do a hot breakfast, um the table back there is available.

We have the church owns a crock pot.

If you want to borrow the crock pot.

I can't remember what else.

I think we have a griddle.

Um, so if you would like to do like a hot breakfast like Joe does, or you want to bring a meal um like Joe does, the um we would love to have your help.

You can either talk to Joe or myself.

But it's such a blessing, right?

And and it's easy to take for granted that hey, this food's here, it's available.

Um, and uh I l I would rather have it so that we're switching it up and Joe's not doesn't have to do it every single week.

So if you're interested in making a breakfast, he usually gets here around 9.15 and um we're rolling.

So, or maybe you could take uh an air fryer and do whatever he's I don't know how he comes up with this stuff.

Also, um we are we have uh a monthly rotation of people that serve in children's ministry.

We operate in teams where there's a teacher and an assistant.

Right now we have two functioning teams, and we have one other teacher looking for an assistant to uh work with them.

So um that would get us to three teams.

We would be able to have our kids in children's ministry while the sermon's going on three Sundays out of the month.

So if you'd like to participate in that, um, just let me know.

We are definitely looking for um people that would be able to help just once a month on that rotation.

The last announcement is that last week after we um uh blessed and sent Kelsey off, in that I shared a little bit about her ministry on Saturday mornings with food, and I didn't realize that that would provoke and stir up some of you to be interested in that, and I was not prepared for the interest and people who are like, I want to help.

And so I I after the fact realized, you know, the best thing that we can do as a church is to come alongside the programming that's going online.

Over the last month, um, we have identified 60 seniors or people on disability.

We've screened them, I've sat down with every one of them, I've had spiritual conversations with them, I prayed for them, their pictures going into the database, um, I am able to greet them by name.

And what that means is that we prioritize those individuals to be at the front of the line.

They're fed first on Tuesdays and Fridays.

But in signing up for that program, we've also said, hey, we we may, as a church, want to be a part of your life beyond just feeding you.

It may mean that somebody calls you throughout the week.

Like I sat with Larry on uh Friday morning, and as I'm going through the assessment, he um was wearing pretty raggedy clothes.

He had uh a smell that kind of came with him into the building.

Um it wouldn't necessarily say that he was homeless, but he was in need, and he asked, Hey, do you have any clothes?

Well, we do have a lot of clothes, but we don't do clothes on food days.

But he gave me his clothes size, and he would be perfect for somebody, somebody who's willing to take and just check in with Larry once a week and help the guy get access to the 34-34-size pants that he needs that are in the compassion center right now and just not available when we're doing food.

Um, or you can go out and buy him a pair of pants if you want.

That that's the best way for us as a church, especially those of you that work throughout the week and your schedule's jam-packed.

Just take on two or three of these seniors, call them, check in with them, see how they're doing.

If you have a heart for that, that's probably the best slot.

Right now we have a good number of volunteers that are doing food on Tuesdays and Fridays.

They only speak Spanish primarily, so if you don't speak Spanish, you're gonna be a little bit handicapped.

Um, the the actual manual labor is happening, but the actual care we could do a whole lot better at.

So that's just making up for the fact that I didn't remember to say that last week when those of you that came up asked me about um Saturday.

So if you want to volunteer, I'll keep mentioning that.

It doesn't, it's doesn't the program doesn't have a name, but but you get the idea.

All right, let's get into Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Do you know what Hebrews 11 is about?

It's about faith, that's right.

Hebrews chapter 11 is about faith, and we've been going through the book of Hebrews, um, and one of the ways that we've talked about Hebrews is to compare this guy to a spiritual coach, a spiritual coach.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And so we come to this place in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

It's a longer chapter.

Those of you that know the Bible, you know that this is one of the longest chapters of the book, and it's got a lot of stories in it, or it's got a lot of references.

It's kind of like a website.

You know, you know what a hyperlink is, right?

When you click on a link, it takes you.

So Hebrews 11 is like a website where you kind of can click on the story and it takes you back to the Old Testament.

Now, before we do Hebrews 11, do you know what Hebrews 12 starts off with?

What's the metaphor at the beginning of Hebrews 12?

Hebrews 12 starts off with run the race laid before you.

It's it's in light of the cloud of witnesses that we have, run the race that's set before you.

Lay off the weights that so easily hinder you.

So, who are these cloud of witnesses?

It's the ones in Hebrews 11.

What's the race that we're called to run?

What's that metaphor for?

It's life, right?

Do your life.

So this spiritual coach is saying, hey, listen, do your life, run this race.

Stop being weighed down by the dumb stuff in your life.

Run this race and be encouraged by this cloud of witnesses.

So here's the thing.

I want you to go along through chapter 11 with me over the next couple of weeks, just picking up these little stories, these testimonies from the Old Testament saints, and see what this writer is saying is that the life that you're called to, it can be done.

That's what this past this that's what this pastor wants you to hear, is it can be done.

And the the people that got the letter of Hebrews, they were questioning that.

They were wondering, they they they understood the idea of, okay, I want to follow Jesus, that's a great ideal.

But now life happens.

I got work, I've got things happening in my family.

I mean, you don't know who my neighbors are, you don't know how I'm doing financially.

What about this sickness that I'm struggling with?

All throughout Hebrews chapter 11, it's yelling out to you and I.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

It can be done.

It can be done.

The life of faith, it can be done.

Because these saints, this cloud of witnesses, they've done it.

They're shouting at us from heaven, saying, You can run the race that's laid out ahead of you.

So let's look.

Let's look at Hebrews chapter 11 together.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

What I'm gonna do is um I'm gonna read, read the text.

So just verses 1 through 6 is all we're gonna cover this morning.

I'm gonna read the text and then we'll come back to some of these other um thoughts that I have on the screen here.

Now, faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

For by this our ancestors were approved.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

By faith he was approved as a righteous man because God approved his gifts.

And even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

By faith Enoch was taken away, so he did not experience death.

He was not to be found because God took him away.

For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.

Now, without faith, it's impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Let's pray and ask God to speak to us through this text.

God, we we are gonna study these six verses together, and we ask that you would teach us through your word, teach us what what the things that we need to hear.

We believe that your Holy Spirit is able to get through to us.

You know our story, you created us, and we ask God that you would speak to us now through this time.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You know, the idea of faith doesn't necessarily, and the things that are we're we're talking about in this text, you don't have to necessarily be a Christian to appreciate the ideal that is put forward in this text.

Now, as a pastor and as a follower of Jesus, I'm gonna advocate that you be a follower of Jesus.

But even as a secular person, there is this value in the idea of faith.

It's this belief in something greater than yourself.

A commitment that is held on to deeply to values that provide purpose and direction in your life.

Now, as a Christian, we seat our faith in a person.

A person who's secular, they engage the idea of faith, believing in ideas bigger than yourself.

They seat those ideas really in the principles.

There's not a very good logical backing to those principles, but there is still a life of faith that a secular person engages in.

Take for example, Superman.

Superman embodies the qualities of faith in a secular sense, while he's oftentimes depicted with his superhuman abilities, his unwavering, he has an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, protection of humanity.

He has a desire to make the world a better place.

This commitment to his values provides him with purpose, direction, and a sense of responsibility.

And Hebrews chapter 11 is coming along and saying that faith is integral to being human.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

But what I want to commend to you this morning, no matter where you're at in your faith journey, is that faith really finds its home when it's anchored in God's plan.

And God's plan, ground zero for that is Jesus.

Jesus was sent into the world as God's answer to human brokenness.

At the end of my sermon, I'm gonna share with you a diagram.

And if you, all this stuff about Hebrews and who is Abel and who is Enoch, if that goes over your head, that's okay.

But I want you to tune in at the end when I show you three circles, because you're gonna be able to identify your life in one of those three circles.

It's gonna kind of come together for you, I promise.

But if you can, if you're new to the Bible, if you're trying to like wrestle with this, what we're talking about, I'm gonna walk you through this text, and this is what we do every Sunday as a church.

We're just taking books of the Bible, we're going through it verse by verse, trying to understand what God has for us in our life.

And if you're jumping in with us for the first time, we're looking at a letter written by a guy, a pastor, we don't even know who his name is.

He came after the per after Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven.

This pastor wrote this letter to Jesus' followers that were going through a bunch of junk.

In fact, last week we got a window into some of the most difficult things that they faced.

They were facing a struggle with sufferings, and you can relate to that, suffering in your own life.

Early on, they were suffering in their spiritual journey.

Some of you are early on, you're new followers of Jesus.

And you're like, wait a second, I thought if I followed Jesus, everything would come together, and that's not what's going on.

No, these recipients of this letter, they got the letter and their life fell apart.

That's tough, huh?

Does that mean that God's not good when all of a sudden your life falls apart?

You're like, God, I finally gave my life to you, and their life falls apart.

Nope, Jesus warned that that would happen.

It's it's it's a part of the process of following Jesus.

Is it is, well, I mean, you look at Jesus.

Did Jesus' whole life come together?

Did he come to earth and everybody's like, great, all right, the king's here, let's put him on the throne?

No, in fact, what was the path that Jesus went down?

He went to the cross.

And the fundamental lesson that the followers of Jesus have to understand is that the path of their Lord is a path to a cross.

But did Jesus stay dead?

No, he didn't, did he?

What happened on the third day?

He rose from the dead.

Yes, yeah.

So early on in their spiritual journey, they face their sufferings, and you've been through that.

The great thing about being a Christian and going through sufferings is that you know that you're following a Lord who was raised from the dead.

You're not lost because everybody suffers.

It's not unique to Christians, but for Christians, we have a hope because our Lord was raised from the dead.

We can map that onto our sufferings and say, God, you can bring purpose out of my suffering.

You can make my suffering meaningful because Jesus was raised from the dead.

So the second thing we saw last week in the end of chapter 10, and you can read that if you want, but he was pub, they were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions.

These Christians, they were following Jesus.

Again, that's tough.

But was that something that should have been shocking to their experience?

No, because what happened to Jesus?

Jesus faced taunts and afflictions, right?

Not only that, but their friends.

You know, they didn't, it wasn't just them that came to follow Jesus, but their friends, their companions became followers of Jesus, and they were treated in that same way.

And then fourth, we see that their goods were confiscated.

They lost their stuff.

I don't know if this was the authorities or their their employers, but there was something going on for these, the people who received this letter, where they're following Jesus and it meant persecution where their stuff was taken away.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like when my stuff is taken away.

That's hard.

That's hard.

And it says about this group that they received that with joy because they knew that they had stuff in heaven.

They had stuff in heaven.

Because as a follower of Jesus, there's this unseen realm where you get stuff.

You get Jesus calls them treasures in heaven.

I can't wait to see how that one works out.

Because I got no clue.

If you ask me, like, Pastor, what does that mean?

I got no idea what the treasures in heaven are.

But they're there, and we're told that they're so real that we can we don't even need to worry about storing up our treasures on earth, but instead we can store up our treasures in heaven.

That's awesome.

I don't know how it works, but it happens.

It's something to look forward to.

That's right.

Now, I love this quote.

This is from uh Tim Keller.

He says, Hebrews, as we've been saying every week, is a book written to people who are being very beaten down by life.

Anybody beaten down by life this week?

Yeah, okay, good.

Yeah, we're we're we've got we've experienced that before.

Beaten down by life, by difficulties, by brutalities of life.

And therefore, the book of Hebrews, in a sense, is a piece of intense public pastoral counseling because it's designed at every spot to help readers have what it takes to face the difficulties of life, handle it, and get through it.

That's what we're reading.

We're reading a book that's written into that very context.

So let's look at the text.

Let's start with verse 1.

We can jump through here.

Hebrews 11:1 gives us this famous definition of faith.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

The New Living Translation says, and it doesn't say anything there.

I will.

Oh, this is it, right here.

Faith shows the reality.

That's what we read.

Faith shows the reality of what we have hoped for, it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

Two ways that that faith are defined.

Again, Keller says faith through reasoning and thinking perceives that the seen material world all by itself does not make sense.

There must be a supernatural, unseen reality as well.

The idea here is that faith testifies and assists us as we take in our human experience.

You're you're interacting with humans around you.

You're interacting with money, with work, with sickness or health.

You're driving the roads.

You're taking in all of these things: media, social media, entertainment, what?

Sin.

Yeah, you're taking it all in.

And it doesn't all come together unless you are willing to engage it through the lens of faith.

Faith helps us to reason.

In fact, oftentimes the the there is this um misstep that Christians will take, or other people who are wrestling with Christianity will take, and they'll say that Christianity is a blind faith.

And what the writer of Hebrews here says is no, faith is very much a part of our reasoning and our understanding capacity.

Here in verse one, he says that faith is the proof of what is not seen, or he says it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

This is admittedly a convoluted and weird definition for faith.

But it is interesting to me that he and he doesn't leave it there, which is good because he's gonna illustrate it through all these lives of Old Testament saints.

But he he he uses this word of evidence or proof, which is so the opposite of the idea of a blind faith.

No, faith is logical and helping us to understand the material world.

Let's go into verse two.

He says this, for by this our ancestors were approved.

Again, this pastor is writing to Jewish Christians.

When he says ancestors, what's he referring to?

That Jewish heritage, right?

The people that we can go and read about in the Old Testament, the ones that he's about to talk about, the ancestors, these the children of Israel, the Hebrews, these ancestors through faith were approved.

Now, this is a key word in these six verses.

The word approved or pleased.

That's what comes from the life of faith, trusting in God.

The ancestors were approved because they lived by faith.

Now, from verse 2 or 3 on, he's going to give three examples of faith.

The first is going to be about creation.

Let's look at that.

He says, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Again, do you see here how faith is not a part of a warm, fuzzy feeling, but faith is attached to understanding.

This is why in verse 1, it's faith is evidence or faith is a proof.

Here, faith, it's by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God.

We look around at all the things that are created, and it is faith that helps us understand that the universe was created by the Word of God.

Now, for those of you that know the Bible, when he says this, what is this pastor pointing back to?

What part of the Bible is he pointing to?

Yeah, Genesis 1 and 2, right?

Where the earth or the universe is without form or void, right?

There's chaos in the world.

And God speaks into that and he says, Let there be light.

And so it is God's word.

It's created by the word of God.

Now, for you Bible nerds that have been tracking with us through all of Hebrews, you know that one of this pastor's favorite themes is the Word of God or God's communication.

It's so important in this journey, this spiritual journey, that you're responding rightly to God's word.

And it just happens to pop up here in verse 3.

And so he's pointing back and he's saying, look, we take our faith and we believe what Genesis chapter 1 says.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

That the world that's created came about, the material world came about through God's word.

So that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Our faith is helping us.

So creation is the first example that he gives as he travels.

So he's going to travel through the Old Testament, but he's not going to make it far enough.

He's basically going to say at the end of chapter 11, he's like, time does not permit me to keep going to show you what the life of faith looked like in the lives of our ancestors.

But he starts with creation, then he goes to this guy named Abel in verse 4.

Abel comes up in Genesis chapter 4.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Let's read what he says first in Hebrews, and then we'll go over to Genesis.

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

By faith he was approved as a righteous man because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

So the pastor here holds up Abel.

Now, I don't know when the last time you read the story of Cain and Abel, but let's do it real quickly.

This takes us back to the fourth chapter in your Bible, Genesis chapter 4, verse 1 through 4.

Genesis 4:1–4

The man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.

She said, I have a male child with the Lord's help.

She also gave birth to his brother, Abel.

Now Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground.

In the course of time, Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the Lord.

And Abel also presented an offering, some of the firstborn of his flock, and their fat portions.

The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering.

So we see here, very quickly, that God looked at Abel's sacrifice and was happy.

He received Abel's sacrifice.

It goes on to say that Cain was upset that God favored and accepted and received Abel's sacrifice, and Cain was so upset that he killed Abel.

He murdered.

It's the first murder that occurs in the Bible.

Can you believe it?

You only get four chapters in.

You have the first murder.

What a mess.

Here the pastor says, look, this guy Abel, who we only get a tiny bit of material from, we see that he was living by faith.

When he went and he picked out, notice in Genesis, it says he picked out his firstborn.

Not just any random, but there was a selection process that Abel engaged in.

It seems like there's a showing of the hand here from the writer of Genesis that he's really thoughtful about what he's going to give to God in a sacrifice.

The firstborn lambs or firstborn goats.

We're not sure what the flock was that he had.

But he offers a firstborn, but not only that, but he offers the fatty pieces.

And for this culture, the fatty pieces, that's the juicy parts, right?

That's the good part of the barbecue.

And Abel does that.

It says, by faith, Abel took offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did.

By faith, he was approved as a righteous man.

So again, this is what's beautiful about these examples is like, what did it mean for Abel to walk by faith?

It meant he was doing his job, and he took from his work a best part, a prize part, and offered it to God.

That's what the life, that's that spirituality for Abel.

Abel didn't have a church to show up on, he didn't have the ability to share a gospel message with his neighbor.

Like Abel was just a shepherd.

And some of you come to church on Sundays and you just feel like, how does my Monday through Saturday connect with this idea of following Jesus?

And a guy like Abel should speak to your life where you should realize, like, wow, Abel was a shepherd.

And he just took the best part and he offered it to God.

And you have that ability to just identify in your own work and just say, God, the work that I do, I just offer it to you.

Maybe it's the reward that comes from your work.

Where, you know, here at church we tithe.

Maybe it's a generous act that you're giving to you, you have a little extra, and you're like, you know what, I'm going to help take out care of this person.

Abel walked by faith and took the best part of his work and offered it to God.

And God approved his gift, even though he is dead.

Look at that.

Even though Abel is dead, he still speaks through his faith.

He testifies to you and I.

So again, go back, put yourself in the shoes of the people reading this for the first time, who are who are distracted, they're struggling, they're questioning their faith.

This pastor is holding up Abel and wanting Abel's life to scream out listen, in the mundane of your work, you can offer to God the best parts.

It can be done.

It can be done.

We're only going to look at one other example, and that's the example of Enoch.

I mean, can you get more obscure than Enoch?

Enoch is, he's just mentioned in passing.

I'll read it to you in Genesis, but there is not a lot of material.

I mean, this is early on in the story of humanity.

The pastor says this by faith Enoch was taken away.

And so he did not experience death.

He was not to be found because God took him away.

For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.

Now, do you think that Enoch was taken away?

Yeah, he says it three times there, right?

What does this mean?

Let's why don't we look at it in Genesis?

In Genesis chapter 5, we read this.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

521.

Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah.

And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

So Enoch's life lasted three hundred and sixty-five years.

Enoch walked with God, then he was not.

He was not there because God took him.

And that's all it says.

What's going on there?

What in the world?

Well, this writer, the pastor here, looks at Enoch and he he just makes it again.

There's a simplicity here that this pastor wants you to grab a hold of.

That we we're able to just, it's like doing math.

I don't know if any of you like think mathematically, but this pastor is almost just, he's breaking down this text in a mathematical way.

Enoch was taken away.

And being that he was taken away, that means that he didn't die.

He was not to be found because God took him away, right?

If God takes him away, then we don't know where he is, he's not to be found, right?

So it's very logical there for a second.

Before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God, right?

It's just really, really simple.

He's taken away because he pleased God.

And you're left wondering, well, well, what does this mean?

Like what who was Enoch?

We have no information other than that he's the father of Methuselah.

So he primes you for that question.

What does it mean for Enoch to please God?

And that's what we're going to close with here in verse 6.

Without faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

When you look at Enoch, this pastor says, look, God was happy with him, God was pleased with him.

And there's no way that God was happy with him unless he walked by faith.

Because it's impossible to please God unless you walk by faith.

Since the one who draws near him to God, remember that's our that's our theme in chapter 10 is that the God of the Bible wants us to come in close proximity.

The God of the Bible wants you to be close to him.

Just like you're close with people in your life, hopefully, if you have friends where you just feel like, man, we just fit together.

We're near each other.

That's how God wants to be with you.

Since the one who draws near to God must believe that he exists, right?

And you're not going to try to draw near to something that you don't even believe exists, right?

You must believe that he exists.

And what's the second reason you draw near?

That he's a rewarder of those who seek him.

You and I are called to come close to God.

All throughout chapters 6 and 7, 8, and 9, we read about how Jesus has done this work to make it possible for us to be reconciled back to God.

There was a brokenness in our relationship with God.

And Jesus came into the world to mend that relationship, to fix that relationship, and to allow us to be near God.

And now this writer is trying to encourage these saints.

Listen, you're called to run a race.

You're called to run away a race and to lay off the weights that hinder you.

And here's the ones that are your examples.

Here's the cloud of witnesses that are cheering you on from the grandstand, saying, it can be done.

It can be done.

You can do it.

Don't give up.

Keep going in your spiritual journey in this spiritual race.

It can be done.

And the way to do it is to do it by faith.

To trust that God is the one who exists.

He's the one that spoke the world into existence.

He's the one that rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Don't give up.

Don't give up.

Don't get distracted.

Don't give up your confidence that you have because you're suffering or you're going through junk.

You gotta persevere.

You gotta persevere.

Now maybe that's new.

Maybe, maybe the things that I'm sharing with you are new this morning.

And I told you at the beginning of my sermon that I wanted to share with you a diagram with three circles.

Three circles.

We've talked through this on Sunday mornings in our Bible class together.

And what I want to do is I want to just draw this out for you very quickly.

This first circle represents your experience.

And I'm gonna just draw this broken line through it.

In fact, this whole circle represents the brokenness that's in the world.

Brokenness.

This would include pain, suffering, broken relationships, the inability to even discern your own psychology.

And let's just put that in here.

Let's put pain.

We could put in here death.

People die, relationships die.

There's hurt.

Anybody ever gone through that kind of thing in their life?

Can you relate?

Yeah.

Isn't that our human experience?

Suffering.

You ever driven in traffic?

Come on.

But there's another, there's another circle here.

And this is something that you it's I'm gonna put a heart in here.

It's this idea of just beauty, love.

Let's put love in there.

The things that are beautiful.

Life happiness?

Joy?

Yeah.

Or peace.

Who wants that in your life?

Who wants that?

Anybody want that?

Yeah.

Yeah, don't you want that?

The Bible says that this is how God, this is how God designed the world.

In fact, we're gonna put that in here.

If I can remember how to spell the word design.

In Genesis 1 and 2, the Bible teaches that God designed that world.

God designed this thing that you long for.

And yet that's not our experience, so so much of the time.

In fact, we're over here.

And the Bible says very clearly in Genesis chapter 3 that we ran, ran away from God's design.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The Bible tells a story of Adam and Eve that they rebelled against God's destruction, the instructions.

Rebellion and sin is what happened.

Rebellion and sin.

We as humans, rather than staying in God's design, humans run away from God and we experience a broken world.

And so nobody wants to be living in brokenness.

We long for God's design.

And so we're looking for a way back.

And so we're trying to escape the brokenness through all kinds of things.

Maybe it's through jobs, maybe your career.

You're thinking, man, if I could just get the right career, I'll escape the brokenness in my life.

Or maybe it's through a relationship.

If I could just get married to the right person, then I'll escape the brokenness.

So other people are like, well, maybe, maybe if I just find the right church, maybe that's the problem.

I just need a better church.

You know, or maybe it's if I just, if I just, maybe I need, you know, some substances, drugs or alcohol.

People are trying to escape the brokenness in their life in all kinds of creative ways, but do you see the direction that those lines are going?

Or is it getting you any closer to God's design?

No, it's not.

It's not.

It's a valiant effort.

It's a valiant effort, but it's not.

The Bible says that God loves you and I.

And so he sent his son Jesus into the world to die on a cross and to be raised on the third day.

What Jesus did on the cross was to pay for our rebellion.

He came and his death covered our rebellion.

Because God's just.

God's just.

He can't just let you off the hook.

That wouldn't be fair.

It'd be nice, but it wouldn't be fair.

It wouldn't be just.

God's both loving and just.

And so Jesus came into the world to pay for sin on the cross so that we could be restored back to God's design.

But the Bible's really clear.

In Acts chapter 2, it says, in fact, the Jews heard this message.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is one of the early sermons in the church.

The Jews heard about Jesus, that Jesus was God's Messiah, the one that was sent in the world to rescue humanity from their brokenness.

And they it says that their hearts were pricked, and they said, What must we do to be saved?

What must we do?

And Peter responded, and he said, You need to repent.

You need to repent.

That means make a U-turn, go in a different direction, and you need to believe.

You need to believe in Jesus.

Now notice, he doesn't say y'all need to clean up your act.

You know, you need to go get unaddicted.

You know, you need to go and make sure you get really good friends.

You need to pay some money and get your clean clothes on, and then you can be restored to God's design.

No, that's not what it says.

It says you need to turn away from your way of living life.

You need to accept Jesus Christ as God's answer for your brokenness.

And you will be, you will be saved.

In fact, let me show you.

If I could for just a second.

I'm gonna pull up another.

This is my Bible software here.

Have you ever seen a a um a football game or a baseball game or a concert and somebody's holding up a verse?

Did you ever see that?

What does it say on the sign?

John 3.16.

What does John 3.16 say?

Yeah, that's good.

That's very mumbly, but that's very good.

I appreciate that, Danny.

You got that memorized.

That's amazing.

God loved the world.

Do you see that?

God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son so that just a few of you, does it say just a few of you?

Everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

Do you want eternal life?

Yeah.

That's why Jesus came into the world.

So the simple response to God's work is just to believe, repent and believe, to let go of your way of living life and to accept Jesus.

Now, there are at least five of you.

Five of you that are gonna get baptized.

I want to have you guys come up here.

Could you stand up here?

I want to have Colin Madison, Brandon, and Malin, and Ray.

We got Ray is outside.

Debbie, come on up here.

You guys can stand right here.

I think Ray is watching, baby, outside.

It's awesome.

We're so excited.

We're so excited.

I just want to show you.

Somebody asked me um a couple of weeks ago, you know, when do you get baptized?

When do you do it?

Let me just show you here.

This is what I was reading a second ago.

When these Jews heard this, they were pierced to the heart.

They said, What do we do about Jesus?

Do you see verse 38?

It says, Repent and what?

Be baptized.

Be baptized.

If you understand who Jesus is and you're ready to follow him, then it's real simple.

You just get baptized, right?

That follows as soon as you repent and you believe, then it's time to be baptized.

So these guys, they they have shared that they understand this diagram.

We call this the gospel, right?

Or three circles, right?

This is God's good news that Jesus came.

You know what's missing here?

We got to put Jesus' name on here.

This is Jesus.

So let me ask you guys, have you understood this message?

Have you understood this message?

And are you guys followers of Jesus?

Have you made that decision personally?

Nobody's made that decision for you.

You've made that decision.

Okay.

So when you get baptized today, what you're doing is you're just publicly demonstrating that you're ready, that from this point moving forward, you're ready to be a follower of Jesus.

So it's a sign that you're ready.

It's a sign for you.

You'll be able to look back and go, I was baptized because I decided that I understood what Jesus came to do and I'm ready to be baptized.

But it's not only that, it's not only that, but it's also an entrance into the community of God.

Right?

So when you get baptized, what baptism means, what it was, what would happen with baptism was there were these different communities that would, and in order to get into the community, the baptism was like a rite of passage.

It was like, okay, now you're in the family, right?

And so as we baptize you, we're gonna be saying, like, okay, now's from now on, you're in our family.

It's a public sign.

Not just this church, but the the church as a whole, Jesus' church, now can identify with you, like you're in our family.

Okay, so we're gonna go outside.

The guys have gotten the water ready.

Do you guys have on the clothes that you want to get baptized in?

No.

Okay, go get changed.

It'll take us a few minutes.

We're gonna head out this way, gather around the baptism tank over here to our right, and uh these guys, you guys can go ahead, go get ready, get changed into your clothes, and um come on around to the tank.

The rest of you all, you can stand.

If you're hearing this message for the first time and you're understanding this idea of being a follower of Jesus, and you're like, that's too simple.

There's gotta be more to it.

There isn't.

There isn't.

There's a whole life to be lived, but it is that simple.

Jesus absolutely loves you, totally loves you.

Following him is simply a decision you make.

I'm ready to follow him.

If that you're understanding that for the first time and you also want to follow Jesus, you can get baptized today.

You can.

If you want to be baptized today and you're like, hey, I get it, I understand that picture, I want to be a follower of Jesus too, you should start today.

The rest of your journey with Jesus can happen after today.