https://www.bible.com/events/49114562
Church of the Nazarene – Harrisonburg & East Rock
Sunday July, 30 – GO
Transformed by God to bring hope to others through Christ.
Today we pause our summer series to have a specific focus ahead of Best Week Ever, which includes Vacation Bible School! Over the next week, hundreds of individuals will be involved in ministering to others in tangible ways. As we prepare to embark on this journey together, we focus on the specific call for all believers to ‘GO’.
In Hebrews 11 we read a noteworthy list. Of all the things one could be known for, this is the list that matters the most. These are men and women who displayed incredible faith.
These are people who faced some of the most difficult obstacles, but they chose faith.
Hebrews 11:8-12
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
We see the faith of Abraham and Sarah mentioned not once, but several times.
“By faith…” (verse 8)
“By faith…” (verse 9)
“By faith…” (verse 11)
Why did they have this level of faith?
Because they “considered him [the Lord] faithful” (verse 11)
They acted on their faith because they knew God was faithful.
They didn’t believe their circumstances, they believed God.
They didn’t believe what they saw, they believed what God said.
The call to ‘go’ was not unique to Abraham and Sarah. Jesus himself instructed his disciples, and all those who would follow after Him, to ‘go’.
Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
To go isn’t always easy, but to go is always good.
Even though we are called to go, our actions often suggest we are embracing the opposite: to stay.
Why? Because of our comfort, our busyness, and even our fear.
Instead of the church being a place of encouragement and challenge, where believers grow and then are commissioned to go out, far too often the church becomes a holding ground. It becomes a place where comfortable, busy, fearful and even selfish people gather and gather and gather…and stay.
Reflecting on the words of Jesus from Revelation 2:10, what does it mean for us, HIs church, to ‘be faithful’ right now?
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Thank you for your partnership in the Kingdom of Christ!