Family Worship Sunday

Good morning.

My name is Dan True. I'm one of the elders here at Faith Community Bible Church.

We want you to know we've received multiple letters and other communications from the body

at FCBC. These have been received with the spirit in which they were sent. A sincere love of

our body. A desire to assist the elders with prayer. Godly advice and a focus on addressing

things with urgency. We welcome your input. If you feel led, please write a letter and send it

to our elder team and our email addresses can be found on the church's website.

Once you know that, the teaching of God's Word is very important to us and we are working to

fill the pulpit. We've asked a few men from our body to teach over the next several weeks,

Stephen Denton, Billy Morganson, and Dave Gibson. Next week we have asked Scott Menez, a

former pastor who is well known to many in our body. Scott met with the elders and staff this

week to pray and encourage us in a word. So the elders want to make you aware of our recent

activities. Our weeks have been filled with extra but necessary meetings to discuss Chad’s exit,

and circumstances that led up to it. This has required giving up time at work and with family. We

share this only to let you know we are taking this very seriously. The elders want to make you.

I'm sorry. There will be an all church meeting, so if you missed it, there will be an all church

meeting on Sunday, July 14th at 6:00 PM. We'll be updating you on multiple items and taking

questions from the body, so please attend if possible. So at this time, you just want to spend a

few moments in personal prayer, prayer for each and everyone of you. So if you could just take

a few moments by yourself, bow our heads and let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as the elders of Faith Community Bible Church, we pray to you today. As

servants, we pray for your wisdom from above. In James 3:13 your word says, “Who is wise in

understanding among you by his good conduct? Let him show his works in the meekness of

wisdom.” Later, in 3/17, it says,”But the wisdom from above first is pure, then peaceable, gentle,

open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and severe. (18) And a harvest of

righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

May we all be at peace with one another, in service to our Lord Jesus Christ and in unity with

one another for the glory of your Kingdom. In Colossians 3:12 -15, it says , “Put on then, as

God's chosen holy ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility,

meekness and patience. (13) Bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against

another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

(14) And above all, above all these things, put on love which binds everything together in perfect

harmony. (15) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in

one body. “

May we all agree that God is sovereign over all things, including faith, community, Bible, church,

that we have in our faith in Him and not in our own wisdom. Lord, we trust in you and we believe

Your desire that we all grow in You. In this season, let us lift one another up. Trust in you in all

circumstances. In your Son's precious name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

So this morning I'd like to introduce to you Stephen Denton. So some of you may not have met

Steven before. Steven has been a part of the FCB family for a number of years. It has been a

pleasure and a blessing to get to know him and to watch him lead us at this year's Men's

Retreat. He is also part of our current Elder training program. So I'll leave it to Steven to

introduce himself a bit more.

Thank you, Dan.

Well, good morning, church. Would you join me this morning for a brief exhortation in Hebrews

Chapter 11? If you have your Bibles, you can make your way there. Your Bible app, you can

scroll there. Not to disappoint you. But as was stated, we will go a little shorter than normal

this morning in the sermon length, but we'll be in Hebrews Chapter 11 for our time.

It is the Hall of Faith chapter. If you've hung around the church for some time, you might know

that it's been called that kind of a mash up between the Hall of Fame and the faithful men and

women of the Old Testament whose lives were exemplary in that aspect of faith. We're going to

zoom in on one this morning, beginning in verse 8.

So I'll read this and you can follow along again from Hebrews Chapter 11:8-

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an

inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. (9) By faith he went to live in the

land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the

same promise. (10) For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer

and builder Is God.”

This is God's word. Both verses 8 and 9 begin with ‘by faith’. And if you visually just scan the

chapter or if you know the chapter, you know that faith is pretty integral to this chapter. That

word faith pops up all over the place. If you look back at the beginning of the chapter, this is

what many have called the best definition of faith in the Bible. Verse one of Hebrews 11

goes like this. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things.

Not seen.”

You can also swap out the word assurance for substance so that it would read faith as

the substance of things hoped for. Which is like saying I can so clearly see the future. I can so

clearly realize the coming future reality that I have a foretaste of that now. Faith is the substance

of things hoped for and consequently I can order my life around that reality. That's what faith

is, and though it's defined in verse one.

It actually gets a running start back in chapter 10:21. So if you look back a few

verses, you see the near context. The author of Hebrews starts like this.

“And since we have a great priest over the House of God, (22) let us draw near with a true heart

and full assurance of faith with our heart sprinkled clean. “

And he's going to go on to mention faith three more times in the rest of chapter 10. And then just

sort of hit the pause button and say, you know what? Faith is so important to the point I'm trying

to make here, we're going to have a whole diatribe in Chapter 11 about what faith is.

Its definition why you should care and the narrative examples for the rest of the chapter of Old

Testament faithful men and women. Faith in Chapter 11 is essentially a beautiful sidebar.

Sidebar because you could actually start or you could actually finish chapter 10, warp right to

chapter 12 and it reads straight through. So you can glance at the end of chapter 10 for by the

glance of the end of chapter 10 and then run right into the cloud of witnesses in chapter 12. And

it makes me think. But faith is this interjecting in Chapter 11 that is so critical for us in such a

famous chapter.

We should care about why faith is important because in verse 2 the author says it is essential

for our approval before God. ”For by the people of old received their commendation.” that is,

they were attested. That's how they were affirmed to be true or genuine. Faith is their

genuineness.. And stated negatively, the author inverts it down in verse six of Chapter 11:6,

“Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe

that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.”

So faith is important because we are approved by it, and we cannot attain God's approval

without it. So our case study begins in verse 8 for our text today. ‘By faith, Abraham obeyed.”

If you like sermons with ordered bulleted points, this would be:

Point #1. Faith is validated by obedience.

Famously, in chapter two of the book of James, faith without works is dead. If there's an

Abraham who hears the voice of God and his promises in Genesis 12, which are I will make you

a great nation, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you plenty of offspring. You're going to

have land, seed, and blessing. But Abraham doesn't pack up and move. His faith is voided by

his inaction. But you might say to me, OK, look, of course Abraham went like he heard the voice

of God telling him to go. He's going to get lots of land and kids, and yet that's all he heard.

There are significant details missing in God's call to Abraham. God didn't say when he was

going to inherit the promises. He heard this at the age of 75. You're going to have kids and he

has no kids. He doesn't know when. He doesn't say how God doesn't tell Abraham how he's

going to have children when his wife can't have children, how he's going to conquer the land

when there's giant people living in the land that he can't defeat. God didn't say what it would

cost. God didn't say that it was going to be comfortable. He's not flying first class. God didn't say

where he was going. He just said the land. I'm going to show you. Abraham went out without

a lot of detail. He operated by faith. Verse 8 says when Abraham was called to go out to a place

that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going.

If there's a .2,

Point #2 Tt's that faith contains ignorance.

How do you want to put that? Faith necessarily means you will not have all the details. If you

knew where he was going and he knew the timeline, Abraham would not be doing an act of

faith, it would just be a commute. Paul said in Romans hope that his scene is not hope for who

hopes for what they already have. He said to the Corinthians we walk by faith not by sight. He

says in First Corinthians 13, faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love

because at a minimum faith and hope are going to be gone when we see God face to face.

So Abraham walks out, moves out by faith in verse nine. He went to live in the land of promise

as in a foreign land, living in tents. He's in the land. In a foreign land that God calls him to and

says you're going to receive this land and he's living in tents. Why? There's something missing

here. There's something very interesting that I think that's going on. Abraham arrives at his

destination and the author of Hebrews gives us a little insight into what he's figuring out, a little

insight into his heart. He's figured out something in his travels with God.

At some point, Abraham is having dinner with Sarah. He's chewing on his lamb or whatever, and

he says, you know what, Sarah? But the whole God calling me out. I don't think this is about real

estate. I don't think God is just picking some random guy from the earth of the Chaldees, from

the land of Heron and you know what, I'm going to give him a plot out here and that's going to

be the program. Abraham is clued in on something in his travels with God. He is saying to

himself and to his wife, there's something bigger going on here. I don't think he's given me a job

transfer at a relocation package. I think God has got deeper realities in mind for me to

understand. And thus Abraham does not pour concrete.

God is saying to Abraham, make yourself at home and Abraham. Abraham says no, I'm not

making myself at home. There is a deeper reality going on here and he is applauded by God for

not making himself at home. Abraham has discovered not his own physical descendants, the

Jews are in mind, but the eternal people of God, not the physical land of future Israel, but the

spiritual reality of heaven. And this is backed up in Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 10. Abraham

was looking forward to it. To the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God,

that's the city that we are also looking forward to.

Using eyes of faith, Abraham was able to look ahead past the literal country of Israel filled with

his offspring, to the future country of heaven containing his spiritual descendants to which you

and I belong, Paul wrote to the Galatians. It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Do you want to see the descendants of Abraham that Abraham saw with his eyes of faith? Look

around. They're in this room.

To finish out verse 10.Faith has a reward point #3 Abraham was looking forward to the city that

has foundations. Abraham, when you get to the true land, you won't have to lift a finger to build

your house.The designer and builder is God. I love that description.Why is God the designer

and builder of the future city?

Is it because in heaven there are so few subcontractors? Now it's designer and builder is God

because it's a gift, because God is glorified in his renewing of all things according to his plan

from eternity past. The author of Revelations, John says, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That is the

reward, the city that Abraham was looking forward to by faith. Last point, faith has an object.

Hebrews faith chapter doesn't start in verse one. It starts back in chapter 10, but it doesn't end

at the end of Chapter 11. It goes forward to chapter 12 where the author must bring us home to

what faith is all about.

Therefore, chapter 12:1-2, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us

also lay aside every weight and sin which seems to cling so closely, and let us run with

endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus.” It is not faith for faith's sake. It is not

faith in the ambiguities of God saving us. It is faith in Jesus Christ, the founder and perfecter of

our faith. Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross… “

Chapter 11 is that we know the name of our Redeemer and His name is Jesus Christ. We know

the path he walked by faith up to the cross. And Jesus looked ahead to the joy of being

reconciled to sinners. He saw through the pain and agony. He saw through the torture and

death. He saw the resurrection and the reconciliation of all of us with God through him.

That was the faith of Christ. Is our joy today having paid for our sins through His death, and then

having beaten death itself through His resurrection?

Paul wrote to the Galatians. We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but

through faith in Jesus Christ. And so we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be

justified by faith in Christ. So God is saying to his people, to Abraham. To you, to this church,

I want you to trust me. I'm not going to give you all the details. I want you to trust me. Trust me

with the wind, the how, the why and the where. Just trust me. Now why? Why is faith a virtue?

Why is God so chintzy with the details? Why does he withhold so much? That would be helpful.

You want to pray Like, come on, God. If you just let me in on a little bit more understanding

about what the future holds, what my future holds, I wouldn't be so anxious. God, do I not have

the brains to understand? What is it you're up to? Just try me. Can you just tell me what you're

doing in my life, in the life of this church, in the life of my town, city, country? I'd just like a little

bit more. Why does God not tell us and require that we operate by faith?

I'm going to answer that a little autobiographically this morning. I was raised in a suburb of

South Dallas. I grew up going to the Methodist Church. If you don't know Methodism, just think

of it like a Baptist, but then take away the conviction. So that's Methodism. I came to faith

somewhere in my teenage years through a process that probably started with like the Baptist

youth group bait and switch. Like, hey, come for our great facilities. We have game night and

you go and your friend invites you and all of a sudden involuntarily you're in a Bible study

getting hammered over the head with the gospel. And over that process of 6 to 18 months, I'm

not exactly sure when, but I think I got it. I think I understood, oh, Jesus died for me, paid for my

sins. That's important. I'm going to adopt that and that's going to be my own. So when I was a

teenager, we moved from South Dallas to North Austin area. When I turned 15, I showed up

in a new town in the summer and I take driver's ed and I get placed in the back seat of a car

potluck with a strange girl who today is my wife of 21 years. We have three teenage daughters. I

didn't know she was going to be my wife. So hang on. Now she's a grade year ahead of me.

And so she goes off to college in East Texas and I go to North Texas and I get a music degree,

but I don't really go to church. But there's some new music school friends who kind of invited

me. They're like, hey, we're going to a church with some of the music guys who should come

with us. It's called Denton Bible Church and I never heard of a Bible church in Denton, TX.

And my last name is Denton. So I'm like, I should go check this out. So I'll go with my friends.

And that church is unlike anything I had ever experienced. That church held in high esteem the

word of God. The pastor was somehow under the opinion that the word of God was actually

relevant for your life and he preached this is ridiculously. He preached for like 40 minutes.

He preached for a long time. This is this is paradigm shattering when you're coming from like 12

minute Methodist sermons. So 40 minutes. And I look around and there's 2000 college kids who

are bringing really thick Bibles with wide margins and taking notes. And I feel like I've entered

some sort of spiritual twilight zone. And what's more, there's 2000 in them. And oh, this

Christianity thing is serious. I'm starting to learn this guy quotes from the Bible all over the place.

Like it's a cohesive thought unit and it makes sense and it's written by God himself. The Bible is

for me, it's living and it's active. It's all of life for all time. Like, oh wow. So I began to get some

theological infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the girl I met in Driver's ed is going to a different College in East Texas, being

presently converted by her roommate. So we started talking on the phone. Holy cow, you're a

Christian? I'm a Christian too.

Hey, I think I love you. So what am I so afraid of? And one night I drive 4 hours to see her and

propose by waking her up in the middle of the night out of a dead sleep because I don't know

what I'm doing. So now I have a fiance, a music degree from the University of North Texas. But I

realize I don't want to live in a van. That's what musicians do. So I'm soaking up Bible and

theology at my church and I decide to up the dosage and I enroll at seminary only to decide

halfway through I don't want to live in Texas anymore because it's hot and there's allergies and

nasty bugs.

So I pack up my wife, an 8 month old daughter, and move to Vail, Co. because go big or go

home. Where I finished my seminary degree remotely and marvel at how expensive everything

is only to get laid off. And then I found my work. I find work in a tiny town called Woodland Park,

2 hours away. And so now we move with two daughters and join a church. And the pastor there

went to the same seminary I did. And one day he leans over and says, hey, would you ever

want to preach? Now, I don't know what I'm doing, but I preach once and then twice, and then

regularly. And then they bring me on staff. And so we stayed for a few years.

Then a small church in New Jersey says, hey, we're kind of in a nosedive, in a bit of a tailspin.

Can you come out and be our pastor? And now I don't know what I'm doing. As evidenced by

the fact that no sane person would ever leave the mountains of Colorado to live in Bayonne, NJ,

which is right across the river from lower Manhattan. And when it rains, every time it rains, the

whole town smells like a toilet. Incidentally, the same year I moved to New Jersey, my sister, my

only sibling moved from Austin to Boise.

Now, ministry in Colorado was fun. It was successful, quote UN quote nourishing. Ministry in

New Jersey was anything but; without going into the details, after years of trying we weren't able

to make it work and now what? Do I go back to Colorado where my friend's church home is? But

my sister is calling saying you should really consider Idaho and I said hey what if our three kids

and my wife said what if they grew up around their cousins and so we stepped out not knowing

where we were going but we're going to Boise. I resigned on a Friday, flew out on a Saturday

and an offer was received on the house on a Sunday in one weekend.

This happens to excite my parents in Texas who want to be around their only two kids and their

only set of grandkids so they moved up here in a hurry to be around their grandkids and so they

move up here and it occured to my wife and I that if i hadn't foolishly quote on quote moved to

New Jersey that we would not have boomeranged back to Idaho and created this scenario in

which my parents could have all the grandkids in one place.

So, here I am. Joined a church we dig in as soon as i do the long time founding pastor resigns,

we become members, we serve which brings us to this past Sunday to where the replacement

pastor also resigns on Tuesday.

I get a random text from Josiah who says "Hey, do you have any interest in, oh I don't know,

preaching on this Sunday?"...

So in answer to my rhetorical question why doesn't God tell us what is going on, no we don't

have the brains to understand all that God is doing in your life in my life in the life of the local

church and everyone we come into contact with. And I could do and we could do open mic right

open mic night right now and each one of you could come up here and you could testify in your

life that you might have had a plan to go from A to B, and God took you from A J Z E X Y and

then to get from where you wanted to go you had no idea what God was doing but if you just

don't know you just have to trust him in your life and in my life and what he's presently doing and

now in the life of the local church.

The Lord has been in it all and He is in it all and He will be in it all. Psalm 56 verse 8 "You have

kept count of my wanderings, you put my tears in your bottle.” I know that God is for me and

God, whose word, in the Lord whose word I praise,in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. God is not

submitting to you the screenplay of your life for your approval. He's not sending you your story

for editorial review. Many are the plans of a man's heart but the Lord directs his steps and

redirects his steps and sends his steps way over there and over there and that's what walking

by faith is. I could pluralize that verse "Many are the plans of the local church but the Lord

directs her steps." What is true of you as an individual Christian is true of you as a beloved local

church. Your origin story, your travels, your sins, your sorrows, your tears are captured in the

hand of a loving God that we follow by faith. So did my heart sink at that announcement last

week? Yes, it did. Am I any less confident that we are any less holy within the will of God and

that His plan for this local assembly? Not one bit. Not one bit.

This church wasn't built on Jason Wolin, it was built on Jesus. It was not built on Chad, it was

built on Christ. It wasn't built on Steve Walker, it was built on the Son of God. So take heart

church. Do not remain discouraged. Instead, this is my only application point: resolve to pray for

the Elders and the Body. We're gonna give us a minute to do this.

I'll lead us in prayer. And we'll close this morning.

Lord, my prayer this morning is that the Elders would get a second wind. That the elders would

take a deep breath and lean on you for strength, lean on You for comfort, lean on You for

guidance and that the church would with one mind and one voice and one unified heart would

say ok God, this was unexpected this was not what we were settling in for. My expectations

were shattered. The route I thought we were going to take was different. But Lord, you know all

things. We operate by faith not full knowledge of detail. We operate not by sight but by trusting

You and following You. So I pray for our leaders, Lord, as you have called them to do next. And I

pray for our body that we would remain unified, inspired by the word of God to continue to trust

you in all things and we rejoice in the fact that our faith has an object in Jesus Christ who loves

us, who makes intercession for us, and who is coming back again to be with us Lord. Thank You

for Your local church this morning in Faith Community Bible Church. It's in Jesus' name, amen.