Sunday, October 19, 2008
“Securing Our Future”
Hebrews 11: 6 – 10
As we are embarking on a multi-year campaign to “Preserve Our Sacred Space” it is important that every member share in this journey by committing to giving sacrificially.
Every era, every generation has the same responsibility – to rebuild the temple.
As I have said before in our church, we have a good location, good foundation, good design, good legacy; everything that we have is good.
However, our challenge is to go from good to great!
In the 14th Chapter of John beginning at 12th verse you will find these words:
“He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”
Our challenge is to go from good to great because Jesus has said that greater works, we shall do because of Him. And it is not for our glory. We do greater things because God will get the glory.
So we embark to preserve our sacred space by fulfilling our commitments.
Commitments that are God inspired, God, ordained, and God sustained.
We embark to preserve our sacred space by building on our legacy. You build on your legacy by remembering, by celebrating, and by giving.
Finally, we preserve our sacred space when we secure our future.
This adjective our can be understood in two ways: either as possessive or objective.
Please don’t think of ourselves in its possessive sense – that would be self-centered.
Think of it in its objective sense – that’s self-sacrificial.
It’s self-sacrificial in the same sense that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr . spoke of when he said that I have been to the mountaintop, and I have seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but we (not possessive, but objective) will get to the Promised Land.
Forty years later, we are standing on the precipice of a new era when the whole world is watching America to see if his words that were not possessive, but objective will come true. He didn’t get there, but we will!
And I believe that God on November 4th will make a way.
I believe that the waters of the Red Sea will open, and we will come out of the wilderness.
I believe that we will cross the desert of self-deprivation and get to the Promised Land.
I believe that those who will oppose the will of God will be defeated, and we will march like glorious people into the Promised Land that God has ordained for us.
Securing our future is not a possessive statement.
Securing our future is an objective statement.
It means that if you believe in God; you will do what we are supposed to do now, so that God will work His will in the future.
It’s about releasing our sense of self and allowing God to work in us for others.
It’s about releasing some of our treasure so that our investment in the plan of God will bear fruit.
It’s about releasing our sense of doubt, our sense of procrastination and stepping out on faith believing that “all things work together for good for them that love the Lord and are called to His purpose.”
Securing our future is really about releasing and believing not in me, that in you or even in us; but in God.
God said “that no good thing would you withhold from those who diligently seek you.”
God said “God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
God said “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path.”
Securing our future is really about releasing and believing in God.
It’s not a possessive statement. It’s an objective statement – better said It’s a faith statement!
The Book of Hebrews was written to encourage wavering Christians to have faith in their belief in Jesus Christ. The writer wanted the people who professed to be Christians to understand what faith in God was all about.
He told them that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Not a possessive statement, but an objective statement – a faith statement.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Can you hope for a future?
Can you believe in a future?
Is there any evidence in your life’s experience that God controls the future? Do you not believe that God has got the whole world in his hands?
Do you not believe that God is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end?
Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
The key to reading the Book of Hebrews is to understand that as the writer cites example after example of faith acts – none of the people cited every saw the results the ultimate meaning of what they did.
All they did was step out on faith and God honored their faith.
God honors faith when faith honors God!
By faith Abel, by faith Abraham,
by faith Moses, by faith Harvey Johnson,
by faith Houston Jackson, by faith Baxter Matthews,
by faith Isadore Olgesby, by faith Dorothy Mapp,
by faith George Bennett, by faith Gus Adair,
by faith Melva Greene, by faith Catherine Adams,
by faith Charles Pressey, by faith Uthman Ray
by faith all those understood
“that without faith it is impossible to please God: for when you come to God you must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
So we have the challenge to step out on faith and to secure our future, to build on our legacy, to fulfill our commitment and to preserve our sacred space.
How do we secure our future?
I wish I could make this rhyme, but I can’t
How do we secure our future?
1. Believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
2. We are not building an earthly home, but a heavenly home.
3. Through faith is how we obtain a good report.
So we have the challenge to step out on faith and secure our future, by building on our legacy, by fulfilling our commitment, so that we may preserve our sacred space.
Not for us, but for our children, our children’s children and for the generation unborn.
