The Book of Hebrews: Week 8

Today, I want to start out by talking a little

bit about the first Hall of Fame class in baseball,

which was America's first really big sport. After you know,

about fifty years of consistent play, they decided to come

up with something called the Hall of Fame. And the

very first class was what they considered the five greatest

baseball players ever up until that point. And so this

first Hall of Fame class, it's a huge deal that's

still honored. And I just want to share a share

some of my cards with you. I have some of

their cards and tell you a.

Little bit about them.

This is a nineteen eleven Walter Johnson Tobacco card, and

Walter Johnson he was called the Big Train, and he

was called the Big Train because his pitch is just

smowed people down. I mean, there's nothing they could do

about it. He was throwing in the mid nineties when

other people were throwing mid sixties to mid seventies, and

also he threw sidearm. They just didn't know what to

do with him, and so he just ruled his league

for close to twenty years. And that's why they said, well,

he's got to be in that first class of the

Hall of fame another great picture that they felt like

should be an air as a guy named Christy Mathieson,

and Christy Mathieson he was called the Christian Gentleman. And

probably for the first twenty years of the nineteen hundreds,

he was the greatest pitcher. And think about these two guys.

Even though we have the Cy Young Award today, these

two guys were part of the first class and Cy

Young was not. So this is how great these two

pitchers were. And of course this man was also noted

for his faith in his sportsmanship. Now the opposite of

sportsmanship is probably somebody that we've all heard of, and

this is a nineteen oh nine Ty Cob Card and

Ty Cobb I think is probably the greatest hitter ever.

He batted three sixty seven lifetime batan average, had over

four thousand hits, about three thousand fistfights, and just a great,

great baseball player. I mean, he was one of the

game's first truly famous people. And then the last one

I got here of the four of the five, I'm

sure everybody's heard of this guy. This is the early thirties,

Babe Ruth Card, and Babe Ruth was probably at that

time he was definitely they considered him the most well

known man in the world during his playing days. Today

he's still probably considered the most famous athlete ever, probably

besides Michael Jordan. And he's the reason why America considers

baseball it's pastime. And he hit over seven hundred home runs,

and also he had this huge personality. And so these

were the guys that they put in the very first class. Now,

the only one I don't have a play in Day's

card is you'll see the guy on the right upper

right hand corner. That's Honus Wagner.

And if you happen to have.

A playing Day's Honus Wagner card and you would like

someone to take it off your hands, let me know

if you're looking for a trade. I have several deer

mounts that you might be interested in choosing from. But

when baseball wanted to honor the greatest players, they came

up with a Hall of Fame. Now why did they

do that, Well, because every generation wants to honor those

who went before them, that changed the game, those who

set the standard, and those who inspired the next generation

to come along. Every sport has one, football, basketball, hockey,

even rock and roll has a hall of fame. In America,

we celebrate greatness.

Now, let me ask you a question.

If God had a hall of fame, who do you

think would make it. Do you think he would put

in the most intelligent humans ever, the wealthiest humans ever,

the most talented human beings? Do you think he would

put in the best preachers, the best missionaries, or maybe

those that he performed the most miracles? Through? Hebrews Chapter

eleven actually answers that question. In fact, many people call

Hebrews Chapter eleven God's Hall of faith. One by one,

the writer walks through these great men and women of

God who were honored by God for their faith. We

got kings, we got shepherd we got women, we got judges.

And some of them had incredible lives, incredible victories. Others

they suffered in tremendous ways. But one thing they all

had in common is that they had true, saving faith,

trusting faith. And here's what's fascinating we're going to do

today is we're not going to try to define faith.

My goal today is.

Not for you to walk out and have an intellectual

conversation today with faith.

What is faith?

No? No, no, Here's what I want to do I

want to show you because here's what I believe Hebrews

eleven does. Hebrews eleven shows us what faith looks like.

It shows us how faith behaves.

What does faith look like?

How does faith behave in the real world? Now, you

can learn a lot by watching how something behaves. Okay,

we could hear a baby crying and we simply say, well,

that's how a baby behaves. A teenager losing her mind

over a pimple, Well, that's how a teenager behaves. When

your dog can't pass by any fire hydrant, we're like, well,

that's how dogs behave.

You and I know this about our emotions, Okay, we

know what anxiety feels like, we know what anger feels like,

we know what depression feels like.

Hebrews eleven says, let me show you what faith looks

like and how faith behaves.

So let's begin at verse one today.

In Hebrews chapter eleven, it says, now, faith is the confidence. Okay,

it's the confidence in what we hope for and assurance

of what we do not see. This is what the

anxious were commended for by faith. We understand that the

universe was formed at God's command, so that what is

seen was not made out of what was visible. Okay,

now let me just step in here for a moment.

The writer again has not given us a dictionary definition

of faith. He's describing its nature. He's talking to us

about how faith lives. But just so we're all on

the same page today, if we were to give a

little definition of faith, when we asked what is faith,

we would say something like this. Faith is confidence that

God will do exactly what he has promised. Faith is

the confidence that you and I have that God will

do exactly what he has promised to do, even when

we cannot see it yet. Faith is a trust, and

is that assurance that what God said he's gonna do,

he's gonna do even though we can't see it. See

faith says, all right, despite my circumstances, I still trust.

I still believe. See faith says, I can't see it.

Yet, but I trust in the one that I cannot see.

I trust in the one that has promised it. And

that's exactly what the believers need. Let's remind ourselves what's

going on with these believers. They've lost their homes, some

of them have lost their lives, they have been beat

they've been humiliated, they've been ostracized, and some of are thinking,

you know, it just be easier just to deny Christ.

It'd be easier just to go back to Judaism. And

so the writer of Hebrews saying, hold on, and here's.

What I wanted you to do.

I want you to look at those who have had

faith in the past.

I want you to see what faith looks like.

In faith all the time is not about winning. See,

we have this idea in America that if something is good,

then it's winning.

But faith.

Does not always look like you're on the winning team.

See Hebrews shouts, don't look at your circumstances, look at

the promises of God, don't look at just what's going

on around you.

Trust in your heavenly Father.

Now, really quickly, here's what I want to do. And

this is very very important, especially because this theology is

rampant today.

It's been around for about fifty sixty years.

It's very manipulative, it hurts people, and it's all over

the television and all over social media. What I want

to do is I want to talk about this nuance

theologically when it comes to what is faith.

Now, here's the thing.

Some people what they do is they have faith in

their faith. I'm gonna say that again. Some people have

faith in their faith. But what I want to be

clear about today is our faith is not in faith itself. No, no, no,

Our faith is in Jesus Christ. Okay. Now let me

explain when what I mean by our faith is not

in faith? Okay.

So faith isn't you believing really hard?

Okay? Faith isn't just positive thinking. Faith isn't you wishing

something into existence? Faith, you know, isn't powerful if you

just really really really believe hard. No, no, no, faith

is powerful because of the one we believe in. Now

think about it this way. Imagine there's two people and

they're standing before a frozen lake, okay, and they got

to get across the lake. And the first person has

great faith, so they just take a run and they

slide all the way across the lake and they get

the other side like whoa. And then you got somebody

like me who steps out on the lake going, father son,

Holy Spirit, Father son, Holy Spirit, Father son, Holy Spirit.

Now here's the thing. If the ice.

Is three feet thick, okay, both people are going to

make it across the lake. Safely. Why, Because they're safety

is not determined by how much faith they have that

the ice won't break.

That's not what determines it.

It's determined by this strength of the ice beneath them.

See the same way, our hope is not found in

the size of my faith. My hope is found in

the greatness of my God. Okay, And the writer of

Hebrews wants us to get to understand this, wants to

give us a very different picture of what faith looks

like than what is presented to us today. Unfortunately, many

Christians are taught that the power of our faith lies

and how much faith I have. We've all heard statements like,

if you believe hard enough, they'll be healed. If you

just have enough faith, you'll get that promotion.

If you just trusts God enough, he will multiply.

Your finances if he's sow the seat of faith, and

God has no choice but to make you rich. So

the message becomes this, if the miracle doesn't.

Happen, it's because you didn't have enough faith.

Could you imagine the burden at places on Some people

think about a mother with a terminally ill child.

Praise and praise and praise.

If she has this theology, then when the child dies,

then she believes it partly is her fault because she

didn't have enough faith to make her child well. Nowhere,

nowhere does scripture put this burden on anyone.

Okay, it's a fallacy, Hebrews love. It actually teaches us

something very different.

The heroes of faith were not commended because every prayer

that they pray God answered.

No, they were commended because they continue to.

Have faith regardless of whether or not their prayer got answered.

See.

Some prayed when they got thrown into the lion's then

God shut this lion's mouth, and God did. Other Christians

prayed the same prayer, and the lions ate them. Some

escaped the sword, some were killed by the sword. But

both are said to have had great faith. Why because

biblical faith is it confidence that God's always gonna do

what I want him to do.

That's not biblical faith. Okay, Biblical faith is confidence.

That God will always do what he has promised. See,

faith is never faith in our faith. Faith true trusting,

saving faith is absolute trust and faith in God. The

object of our faith matters much more than the amount

of our faith.

Think about this.

Remember one Peter stepped out off the boat into the water,

and he was walking towards Jesus. He started to sink.

Jesus did not start preaching.

Brother, you gotta have faith that moves above these waves. Brother,

your faith has to be higher than the level of

water depth.

Oh what did Jesus do? He says, look at me,

look at me.

We don't have faith in our faith. We have faith

in the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. That's why

Verse six says this, and without faith, it is impossible

to please God. Why because anyone who comes to him

must believe that He exists and that He rewards those

who earnestly seek. Did you catch that about biblical faith?

Faith believes that God exists. Yes, yes, Now that sounds novice, okay, Like, well, yeah,

Doud James and most of America, if we interview, then

they probably say they believe in God. But biblical faith

goes much more deeper than just believing there is a God.

Demons believe that there's a God. No, say that faith

does this.

I believe that.

God exists, and because he exists, I trust him.

I trust him in my life, I trust him with

my future, I trust him with my family.

I trust him with my soul, I trust him with

my eternity.

I completely trust in him.

Now, the writer of Hebrews immediately wants to give us

an example of what this trust looks like.

Okay, it says, now check this out.

By faith, Abel brought a better offering than Cain.

Now let's talk about them for a moment.

You remember that Abel and Cain, they were brothers, brothers

from Adam and Eve. Okay, Abel, when it came time

to worship God, he brought a sacrifice of a lamb. Okay,

Cain brought God some fruits and vegetables. And so it

says by faith talking about Abel, he was commended as righteous.

He was committed as righteous because of his faith. It's

his faith that made him righteous or right before God

when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, well,

Abel still speaks even though he's dead. Now here's what

I want you to understand. Do you know what was

happening whenever Abel brought his offering to God. I want

you to take yourself back to this point in history.

This was at the very beginning of farming. This is

at the very onset of husband dream.

All that stuff he has two lambs.

And they give birth, and now he has a third lamb,

his first lamb. He takes his first lamb his best,

and he goes and then he sacked Chris.

Is it to God? Now?

Remember God did not whisper, Abe, give me that lamb,

and I'm gonna give you five thousand other ones. He

did not have a lamb and then said, well, when

I get to six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven more lambs,

then I'll give God one of my lambs. No, he

gave God his first and his best, not knowing what

next breeding season was going to bring about, not knowing

that if he was ever even going to have another lamb.

But what he was given, he gave his best.

In his first fruit to God.

This pleased God because it showed God that Abel had

complete and utter trust in God providing for him in

the future. Okay, See, this.

Is what we need to understand.

That his faith, his obedience, flowed out of his faith.

We've heard this phrase before that faith is the root,

obedience is the fruit. They're intertwined. Abel obeyed because he

trusts God this future.

And we see these people attack.

For eleven.

We noticed that Noah building art because he trusted God.

Abraham of his home because he trusted God. Moses left

Egypt because he trusted God.

And here's what I want you to understand.

If you have true saving faith, your faith will not

be stagnant. You will not live in the realm of ideas.

If you have true saving faith, you're gonna walk closely

with God. And let me tell you someone, you walk

closely with God. God says, follow me over here, all right,

we're gonna do this. All right, good, now, let's go

over here and do this. Okay, next, Yeah, we're gonna

do this. Yeah. Yeah, this is gonna be tough, but

we're gonna go do this. True faith is not stagnant.

For so many people. Faith lives in the realm of ideas.

But see true faith change just the way we live.

And the writer he's already shown us able. But then

he turns to Abraham. Let's look at Abraham, he says,

by faith, Abraham was called to go to a place

he would later receive as his inheritance. He obeyed him

when even though he did not know pay attention to this,

he did not know where he was going.

By faith, he made us home in the Promised Land.

How like a stranger in a foreign country, how do

he live in tents? Well, so did his son, so

did his grandson, who errs with him of the same promise,

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations,

whose architect and builder is God. God came to Abraham

and he said, all right, Abraham, pack everything up, we're going.

And Abraham said, where are we going? God?

God said, I'll show you.

Now, is it?

He's like, okay, let's go.

That's faith. Did you notice that, Abraham?

He didn't understand everything before he took a step of

fe faith. See, real faith doesn't always have the answers.

Faith doesn't require knowing everything. Faith requires trusting in the

one who does know everything. Imagine the conversation with his neighbors.

Abraham, why are you packing everything up?

Well?

You know because God told me to.

Where are you going?

I don't know when you're getting there? I don't know

do you know anything? I know? God?

That was enough. And by the way, this sounds crazy.

Unless you're truly walking in the presence of the Lord.

See faith, trust God's promises even when the next step

doesn't even make sense. Now, pay attention to something. How

does it say that he lived. God gave him the

Promised Land, but it says he lived there like a stranger,

like a foreigner, like a sojourner, like somebody who was

traveling through. He lived in tents.

He didn't build a big palace.

He didn't build a city, he didn't build a big wall,

he did not build a fort. Why because he knew

that this was not his permanent home. He knew that

the Promised Land was not his forever permanent home. And he,

you know, he reminds us of something that I think

a lot of us forgett I'm gonna say this to

you right now. If you are a follower of Christ,

I need you to understand this this morning.

This is not your home.

Christians, did you hear me?

This earth? Everything you're working for, everything, you're striving for, everything,

you're wrestling for, everything you're wanting to accomplish, this is

not your home.

We're on the way through, We're just traveling.

This is not permanent. Abraham understood.

This says all these people were still living by faith

when they died. They did not receive the things promise.

They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,

admitting that they were foreigners.

And strangers on earth.

Instead they all and oh, man, I love this. They

were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. And

let me tell you something. This next sentence. I have

probably read it over three hundred times in my life.

It's one of.

Those passages that grabs a hold of my heart deeply.

And it says, therefore, God is not ashamed.

To be called their God, and he has prepared a

city for them.

Man, I want God to look at me and not

be ashamed. I love that phrase. They lived like foreigners,

They live like strangers, And it doesn't mean they hated

this earth. They just knew that this was not their home.

This really hits home for me. I grew up in Cincinnati.

In my first twenty eight years I lived there that

I really thought I was gonna live in Cincinnati Middletown

area the rest of my life. But then God called

to Pittsburgh and we got there and we fell in

love the city, fell in love to people. But that

may tell you something. Those first few years were rough.

There was times where I experienced loneliness for the first

time in my life. If you've never experienced homesickness, it's

really hard to explain to someone else what homesickness is.

Inside of your body just feels like it has just

been thumped. There's an agonizing pain. And I would do

something that's so stupid. Do not follow what I did.

I don't know why, but whenever I would get really homesick,

I would put Shooter Jennings.

Song on I'm a long way from home, and I would.

Just get sadder and sadder and sadder. And so I realized,

this is so stupid, so stupid, so stupid. But as

the years went on, we were like, you know, maybe

this is our permanent home. And we got excited about

Pittsburgh being our permanent home. And then God called us here,

and this is my ninth year here. We love the people,

we love the community, we love this church. But here's

what I've learned. This isn't my permanent home. And there's

been times where I've looked at the Lord, I said, Lord,

I would love to live here and retire here, say

in this community the rest of my life. But here's

something I've come to learn.

Over the years.

I don't hold onto any of this. I hold everything loosely.

If God calls me tomorrow to go somewhere else.

I will obey.

If God calls me home tomorrow. I just want you

to know this right now. I'm okay with that as well.

This is not my permanent home. And I've been following

Christ now for close to thirty years. And I tell

you what, it's been a few years since I've been

home sick. I don't get homesick anymore. But I do

notice this. That is the older I get and the

longer I've been following Jesus, I find myself reading books

about heaven. I find myself daydreaming about heaven. I find

myself thinking about what it would be like to be

with Jesus. And I want you to understand this that

every other address I've had my whole life is temporary,

and I'm just looking for my temporary home. That you

know that no longer is temporary. I'm looking for my

permanent home.

See faith, it changes what we long for.

Whatever you long for the most, well, that's gonna determine

how you live today. Okay.

And after I've been following Christ for.

This long, I I now catch myself daydreaming about that future. See,

because my heart has found something infinitely better than anything.

This Earth has to offer. Let me ask you a

question right now.

If I sent somebody to your house this week and

their job which is to observe you all week long,

and at the end of that week they bring forward

a report, will they report that you are living your

life for this earth.

Or would they report back that you were living your

life for your eternal home.

See, whatever your heart longs for, that's what you're going

to live for.

And so I want to remind us today, this is

not your home.

And this is what God so proud of these people

because he knew and was to say the next verse,

I love this. I love this, Oh Gosh, I want

this so much for my life, it says. Therefore, therefore

God is not ashamed to be called their god. Oh

I don't know about you.

I want that from my life.

I want God to look me and have not even

an outs of shame when he looks at me. See.

Think about this, The creator of the universe, the one

who spoke galaxies and who exists, the one who's able

to name every single star to those who belong to him,

those who have.

True faith in him. Those are his people. You know

he does. He looks at you and He says that one.

Is mine, that one's mine, that one's mine.

That one, it's mine.

Those who have faith and trust in the Lord, Oh,

he's not ashamed of you. He's not ashamed to be

called You're God? Now?

Was it because.

You know all these people in this chapter are perfect?

Oh the Lord?

No. Abraham was a liar, Sarah was a doubter. David

committed adultery, he was a murderer.

Samson just.

Lord. He was lustful, couldn't say no to a woman

if his life depended on it. Hebrews doesn't celebrate perfection.

I look at my own life, I'm like, thank God,

there's so many things I wish I.

Could take back.

Maybe didn't say this or that, or I could make

this decision instead of that decision. I look at my past,

wish I would have honored the Lord Mortha. But Hebrews

reminds us that God is it looking for perfect people.

And I want you to understand today that that faith

doesn't mean you've never fallen.

No, no, no.

Faith means you keep following Jesus after you do. It

doesn't mean that you're perfect.

It just means that you.

Don't give up.

You keep following and keep seeking him. And God puts

all these people in his whole faith. And a lot

of them were sinners, notorious sinners, not because they live

fallless lives, but because they had true faith.

And their God.

Let's continue to look on and now we're gonna get

here towards the end now, and it's gonna speed up

a lot.

Pay attention here, it says.

And what more shall I say?

I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barracks, Sampson, Jeptha, David, Samuel,

the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administer justice, and

gained what was promised. They shut the mouths of lions,

quished the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of

the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, who became

powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

It's almost like he's out of breath. Let me tell

you how awesome these people were. But then again, you

look at the list.

Samson, it's lustful.

Jeptha made one of the.

Dumbest decisions in all of history. David did horrible things.

I probably wouldn't pick some of these people, neither would you.

But we all know this and none of us have

a perfect pass. Are the things today that you regret?

Are you still carrying some of your failures? Are you

still wrestling with sin? I got good news.

Listen.

The qualification for you to be used by God has

never been perfection. It's always been faith. And then we

get to this last section here, What does it say?

Others were tortured and refuse to be released so that

they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers

and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put

to death by stoning, They were sold into they were killed.

By the sword.

They were putting sheepskins and ghast skins destitute, persecuted.

And mistreating the world.

Listen?

Is this the world was not worthy of them? Did

you notice something?

The first part of the list of those in Hebrews

chapter eleven, it sounds like God does some pretty amazing

things through them.

The second half sound like they just suffered.

Your faith, okay, is in God, not in him doing

everything that you want him to do. See, real faith

doesn't say I'll trust God if everything works out. No,

real faith says I'll trust God even if it doesn't.

And it gives us one more last powerful examples to

be closed up today. It says by faith. Moses, when

he had grown up, refused to be known as a

son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along

with the people of God, rather than enjoy the fleeting

pleasures of sin.

Oh I love this.

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of

greater value than the treasures of Egypt. Because he was

looking ahead to his reward. He looked past the fleeting

pleasures of sin. He understood that sin never brings satisfaction.

It never lasts. Pleasure doesn't last, popularity doesn't last, power

never satisfied. Everything the world offers you is temporary.

So why live for this world?

Moses had every advantage. He lived in the palace, and

he said, I'm going to give all this up because

I want God. I want to walk with God.

But let me tell you something.

Faith always looks further down the road than temptation does.

Temptation only sees today, but faith sees eternity. I'm gonna

tell you a little story about somebody maybe you've heard of,

maybe you haven't. His name is William Borden, and maybe

you've heard of the Boreden dairy family. He was an

heir to this fortune. He went to Yale, he went

to Princeton. He even went to Egypt so he can

learn Arabic. And here's why he did all that. He

gave up his fortune because God called him to go

bring the Gospel to China, specifically the Muslims in China,

and people just couldn't believe that he'd be willing to

give up all these things. On his way there, at

age twenty five, he contracted spinal meningitis and he died.

He didn't make it to China. And some people would

call it a tragedy. But let me tell you something.

Heaven calls it. Faith in the back of his Bible

assays no reserves, no retreats, no regrets.

He never made it to China.

Does that mean that his faith failed?

Absolutely not. Let me tell you what was written on

his tombs.

And man, could you imagine after you were gone someone

wrote this about you? Apart from faith in Christ, there

is no explanation for such a life. Wow, apart from

faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. Now,

as I go back to these cards, these are the

original Hall of famers. But you know what, they're not

the only Hall of famers.

The Hall of Fame in many ways.

Is it's like a long race where the baton is

handed off to the next generation. And we all know

about those relay races where the most important part of

the relay race is after the one person has done

their circle, they've done their part, then they hold the

baton back. And this is the most crucial part is

when the next person, when it's their turn, that they

grab a hold of the baton and the race depends

on whether or not the baton is passed. See one day,

this is a Shohey Otani's rookie card show who Otani

is compared to Babe Ruth.

He is phenomenal, he's worried.

Won four MVP, He's probably gonna win another one this year,

a couple of championships. This guy's gonna be in the

Hall of Fame someday.

The baton.

Of greatness is really passed on to this guy today

and he is becoming just as popular as any other

sports athlete in the world. And I want you to

think about this, that that greatness does get passed on.

But Hebrews Lovin I don't want you to think about

it as just only a hall of fame. It's really

a relay race.

You get that.

It's one person after another running their race and then

handed it off to the next person, and we see

everyone they ran their lap, Able ran his laugh. Enough

rain has lab, Abraham rain his lab, Moses rained his lab,

David rate his lap. And now the baton has passed

on to us.

People at church acrossing.

Now it's time for us to run our lap. That's

why the next chapter starts out Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, the.

Race isn't over. It's our turn.

And you can't run Moses' race, you can't run Abraham's race.

You gotta run your race, the race of God has called.

You to run.

And the question today is simply this, Will you faithfully

run your race? Will you faithfully run your race? One

day you're gonna hand a baton off, Maybe it's your

children or grandchildren or the next generation of believers here.

What kind of faith are you gonna hand them? Are

you gonna hand them the type of faith the is

only strong when everything's going great? Are you going to

hand them the type of faith that trust in the

Lord despite any of our circumstances, despite any of our trials,

despite whatever is coming against us, but faith that has

complete and utter trust in Jesus. What type of faith

will you hand off? Church? Let's pray and here's.

What we're going to pray about right now.

I just want you to, first of all, search your

soul and I want you to ask the Lord Lord,

how goes my faith? Does my faith please you? And

just talk to him. Allow him to speak to you

about that he will.

In health.

For the second part, you're either going to pray one

way or the other. Okay, considering that it's a relay

race that we're handing our faith from off to someone,

maybe there's not someone that you can pinpoint today that

you would be handing your faith off to. And why

don't you take some time to ask the Lord to

bring that person into your life, a person that you

could share your faith with, a person that you could

invest in and love in, to hand your faith off too.

For those of you who have been running the race

and you know that you're handing the baton off to

your children, or your grandchildren, or to maybe some of

your disciples, here.

Can you just take some time right now.

And pray for those.

That you're going to hand the batona to.

Pray for your children, Pray for your grandchildren, Pray for

the disciples.

Your disciples here, well, let's

Just take time to lift them up to the Lord.