Faith to Die?

The title of my sermon today is Faith to Die. Faith to Die. Do you have enough? Do you have enough? That faith, are you confident in it to die?

A lot of us here will not make it to the kingdom of God alive. Many of us may pass away before that time and be resurrected when Christ orders that seventh trumpet sound. So what I'm saying is, if you've ever been to a graveyard, we need to be concerned with everything right of the dash. You've seen tombstones? It's where we are. We're right of the dash right now. And we don't know. We don't know. Now, I have something here. You saw me carry this up. This is a friend of mine.

This is a friend of mine. Opened it up because I haven't opened it up until I picked him up.

This is a friend of mine. His name is Joseph. Let's just say his name was Joseph. Don't know what name he'll get in the kingdom. But he was a friend and sometimes a real pain. And as I looked through some of my sermons, I realized I mentioned him before he died.

Traceland knows who I'm talking about. He's a veteran of the war, Vietnam War.

He, or whatever is left of him, is ashes. And sometime in the future, we'll be resurrected. In the meantime, until we know what to do with Joseph, he's mine. He sits in my office.

God knows exactly what he's going to do with Joseph. Joseph is the reason I give this sermon today, because Joseph didn't have the faith to die. Scared to death to die. I spent the last year seeing him at least once or twice a week to try to help him prepare to die. We knew he was going to die. It's a matter of time, but you didn't know when. As a matter of fact, my last visit with him in rehab, I said, I'll be back on Monday, Tuesday. Monday. And I'll come and see you then. It was about Thursday, Instyr Thursday. He said, okay, let's say the Lord's Prayer together. I said, I'd prefer to hear you say it. And he did. I said, I'll see you the day I get back. By the day after I get back, which was back Monday evening, Tuesday morning, I was preparing to see him and they called me. He had passed away. To make it, he didn't know. He didn't know that the dash would say 2024. I didn't either. I thought he had a little more time. He didn't. None of us know how much time we have, do we? We don't know. There's some in this room older than I am. There's some younger than I am. I don't know when my date is. I don't know what dash at the end of that dash, or mine, we'll say. None of us know. Many of you who have been to Jamaica for the feast in the past might remember, might know the name Tim McMaster's. Tim McMaster's been there a few times. I think you probably know him. He passed away last night in his sleep. He was on his favorite lounge chair, ready for the Sabbath, and he fell asleep, and he never woke up.

So that is the reason for my sermon today, as I had always been talking Joseph into coming to my service in Fort Lauderdale. I couldn't get him to come, so Joseph, today you're here. Not in Fort Lauderdale. Talk to him, but now he's here. So he's, I'm going to set him right here in this front seat here, so he can be just like I was hoping he would be at another time.

Of course, I realized towards the end, I've been working with him for six years, and the last year or so, I realized he couldn't. He was incontinent, and he couldn't control anything, but he said he'd like to hear me. So today you do. Turn with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, I hope to give you something here that you have not heard before, and that's difficult because many of you have been around here a long time. You have heard a lot of messages, but there's a challenge you have before me every week.

I have a different sermon in Fort Lauderdale than I do here. Hebrews 11, everybody knows this as what chapter? Very good, very good. The faith chapter, let's go through this. Just a few verses. I don't have a lot today, but the ones that I have, I think there's a reason they're important. I'll read from the New King James Version. It says, now faith is a substance, or as my margin says, realization. Faith is a realization of things hoped for. We all have things we hoped for. When we were younger, we probably hoped for a little more than we do now.

When I was in my mid-20s, I hoped for a 5'6", 118-pound blonde. Well, it became a realization as she married me. So now faith is the realization of the things hoped for, the evidence, or as my margin says, confidence of things not seen. New Living Translation puts it this way, faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.

It gives us assurance about the things we cannot see. Pretty empowering scripture for all of us. It gives us the definition, God's definition, of faith. Do we have it? Do we have enough faith to die? Or will we be like my friend Joseph on the front row? Unless that's him calling from above. No, I don't believe in that, so I didn't think so. So will we be like my friend Joseph who has actually dreaded the thought of death? Afraid he was going to die?

So he was afraid to die. Even though it was my job as his minister, even though he never showed up till today, Joseph, never showed up, it's my job to try to help him have the faith that he would need.

Just like it's my job for you today, because I am looking at people who are going to die, who it's inevitable. A lot of us, perhaps most of us, will die before Jesus Christ returns. And we're going to end up in an urn or in the ground, or hopefully both. That's where my wife's supposed to take me, put me in an urn, and then take me to Tennessee and put me in the ground. I've changed those things from what we originally talked about.

She just now remembers it. And you may say, well, this is serious if you've lost someone. Hey, haven't we all lost people? Some of you lately, some of you very close. Ah, yes. Is it a serious subject? It is if you don't have the faith. If you're sitting here today and you do not have the faith to die, it is a serious matter.

But if you don't, if you don't have any qualms about dying in the faith, this is the state of mind God wants you to have. It just is. And so I have done many funerals. I just did a few a month ago, too, and I'll have more to do. But they died in the faith. That's comforting. Kind of an easy funeral to do for me. Joseph didn't want any.

He didn't want a memorial service. I told him I'd give him that. I'd do whatever he wanted. No? So let's go on in these verses. Now let's go to verse 2. It said, For by it elders obtained a good testimony. What is it? Faith. Faith. It's not something to run from. It's something to run to, if you need to. Faith is an incredible thing.

It's things we should hope for. It's something Christ talked about, didn't he? If you were at the Bible study or listening in this last Thursday, we went through it because chapter 8 talks a lot about faith in Matthew chapter 8. Oh, Bill, I will be doing the next one, by the way. And then Andy will take the two after. I just got to finish this. I just love chapter 8, and I just want to finish it.

So very, very few times do I strip my authority, but I want the rest of chapter 8, so I am taking chapter 8. The rest of it.

Let's look at this in verse 3. How many of you have read verse 3 in your life?

Almost everyone, right? Almost everybody's read chapter verse 3. Do you understand it?

I could honestly say I didn't. I didn't, until I looked at this. I had read this verse many, many times. But I didn't go and examine it like I do when I go into Scripture. Because I don't read whole big sections of the Bible in my study every day. I read smaller sections. And I take them apart. I ask questions to myself about these small sections. That's why I know less about a lot, but I know a lot about less. There's scriptures and books in the Bible I know so much about, and there's others I don't. And I've read it all. But let's look at this. See if I can touch you. Perhaps even teach you about verse 3. And it says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed.

I know my Greek. I was thinking. Cosmos! The worlds! The worlds were framed. Right? The stars I mentioned in Sabbath greeting last night how big it is and how God created it all. But I was wrong. That's not the word. Cosmos was not used here. Cosmos was not in the Greek. I took it for granted that it was. I'm still learning. I guess I'll learn until I'm sitting in the front row like Joseph. Actually, the word is ion. Spelled A-I-O-N. That's what it means. By faith we understand that the ions, it doesn't mean worlds, as we think. It actually means ages. Ages. Periods of time. That's what the worlds in that scripture means. That's how they translated it to us from the Greek. By faith we understand that the periods of time, the ages that have gone on, not thousands of years, but billions of years. What does this say about those billions of years?

This is talking about eternity. We have to know that because that is our destiny. That is our future, not just a thousand years. It is our future's eternity, ages. And just as God formed through the ages, the rebellion of the third of the angels, when this earth was shaken to its core, the ice age, the dinosaur age, anything of this whatever it was, the times, by faith we are to understand. At all the ages, the period of time, were framed. Framed. What's this?

Except I don't know if you picture framed. I know my builder in the back back there knows what it is to frame up a deck, knows what it is to frame up building houses. We were talking about a future in Jamaica, being able to do something there. So he knows what framing, and I thought I did. Being a builder for over 30 years, I knew how to frame things. I know how to frame this roof. I know how to frame the walls. So I'm thinking, okay. But the Greek word is spelled K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O. K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O. As you find in Greek, Izzo is, you know, a lot in the end of a lot of words. So it's K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O. K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O. So by faith, we understand that the ions were Carte-T-I-Z-O. What does Carte-T-I-Z-O mean? It means to truly complete. See, I had a thing because when you frame a house, you frame a house, you're just starting your building. It's not complete. You frame something up. You frame a door. If I frame the door opening for a 36-inch door with a 38-and-a-half-inch opening, I'm like, I framed it up. That was what went through my mind. I knew what framing was. I did it for a long time. But it's not. Because the way we think of framing, it's not complete. Here, God is using that word to say that those heavens, they were complete. Matter of being fully complete. Remember what it says in 2nd Timothy 3, verse 17, that the man of God may be what? Fully complete, ready for every good work. Same word.

So some of you are looking at me like, where are you going? What are you doing? This is not you. Yes, it is. So, to complete thoroughly, to finish, is what God is talking about here. So, by faith, you've got to remember this feature, by faith, we, that's us, that's you in this room, that's you watching today. By faith, we understand that the aions, the ages, were completed. What God is doing has done and will do will be completely perfect. It's all in His plan. And He has it, well, what do we do now, Christ? Somebody left the church.

No, His work will be done. For us, in us, by faith. We have to have that faith. It's not His faith in us, it's our faith in Him. Let's finish this verse. So, by faith, we understand that the aions were catatizo by the Word of God. By the Word of God. Do you know what word is usually translated in Greek? Logos. Very good. Very good. In the beginning was the... Yes, that's not the word here. I thought so too, because I didn't examine it. I didn't dig in, I didn't realize it was that important. But when I started reading about by faith, we... Okay, now God shifted it on me. That I need to have this faith. Because the word is not logos. It's rima. Very good. It's rima. And it means a specific word. A specific word. A specific word. A revealed word that's given. So you see, when you put it together, all the ages by faith, we have to understand, we have faith that God is who He says He is. He has had a plan from the beginning. He's going to finish it in us. And it will be completed. The sad part is, God's whole plan, from the 14 billion years ago that they believe this planet was put together, and everything that happened, and everything that goes on, and how He's going to bring the Kingdom of God to this earth, and how God will eventually come down after the thousand years that we read about in Revelation 21. And then what happens after that? The eternity that happens after that? Where the whole universe will be used by God, as Romans 8 says.

Remember? The whole universe groans, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. It's groaning because it's going to be alive! It's dead now. And that's why this sermon is so important. It was for Joseph, and it is for me, is that God's plan, as the Rima says by His word, it's going to be completed, completely, by His word, with or without you. With or without me, God's plan is going to be done. It's going to be completed, and it's going to be the greatest thing that the world, the universe has ever seen. And only those who have faith in Him can understand this verse.

I spent a whole day just looking at this. I spent a whole day, this one verse, trying to prove it wrong. And then I had to think, why didn't anybody ever teach me this? Why didn't they? And then God had to smack me upside the head spiritually and say, why didn't you? Why didn't you? Why didn't you?

So, as we see there at the end, by the Word of God, so that the things in verse 3, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Pretty nice. I remember my father teaching me at a very young age, things seen are proof of things unseen. He was quoting, putting his own spin on that verse. Growing up on a farm, you kind of see things and you think, wow, that's beautiful. How did that happen? Wow! You know. And that verse he taught me at a very young age, before we even came into church. And he wasn't a religious man, but he believed in God. As most of the nation did 50 years ago, they believed in a God. They believed that there was a Creator. My, how things have changed, hasn't it? Now people will fight you. They want to argue. They want to tell you.

This verse says an invisible Creator is living.

Isn't that amazing? It's not hard for some of us, is it? But to a world that is dying, that has to be revived for you nurses, is going to have to be revived and started over. It's not hard, but for many it isn't. But let's talk about this. In Hebrews 11 and verse 13, it says, all those that he started with, all those in the previous verses, the Hall of Fame of faith, okay, those that he didn't say, but knew faith, who had faith, who lived in faith, who had it all, who knew, they never questioned. They may have a doubt now and then, but no, they finished in the faith. It says, these all died, what? In the faith. Will you die in the faith? We all want to. Everybody raise their hand. Do you want to? Yeah, I do. Okay. Everybody raise their hand. Well, John didn't, so I guess he's not. Okay. All right. He did the last minute. But peer pressure made him raise his hand. I appreciate your message earlier, John. So, I want to die in the faith. So, these scriptures about faith are very important, because I have an example of a man who didn't die in the faith. He didn't. He had no. He didn't know. He didn't know if he'd be in the first resurrection or the second. And he wouldn't even let me mention another one.

Go with me. Aren't you in Hebrews? Let's go to verse 6. Wow, I have to look at my clock. Man, time has gone. I've just been rattling on, and I never even looked at my clock. All right. Let's go to Hebrews 11, verse 6. Because this is for us. I want everyone here to die in faith, in the faith, with faith. But without faith, it is impossible. That's a big word, but it means a lot. It is impossible to please God. I think you want somebody in the kingdom to spend eternity that kind of pleases him.

But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God, that you come to God. John 6, 44.

You cannot come to Christ unless God calls you. Okay. You're coming to God because he called you? Okay. For he who comes to God must believe that, and I love how this sentence is put together. He is. I mean, it's a really bad sentence structure. He is. And he exists. Absolutely right. That he is. That he is who he says he is. That is faith. That's where faith comes from. Not just, well, I hope this is going to happen. No, you know. I assure you, the world, whether you live to it or not, there is going to be a resurrection. Multiple. But he's called us to be the first. Get in there! I want you in first. You're the first teamers. You're part of my team. You're not one of the scrubs we're going to pick up on the practice squad, if you use a football analogy. No, you're the first team. You're the first team. And the first team must have faith. You can't have a football team that goes out and coach goes, well, I hope you win today. We practiced all week. We paid millions of dollars for you players. I don't know. Sure hope you can do something today. No, God is the same way. He didn't call you to fail. He called us to succeed, to be in his kingdom. He had angels. He didn't want them wasting their time guarding us, protecting us, taking care of us, time after time after time to see us fail. This is what faith is about. So without faith, it's impossible to please God for He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Isn't that amazing? He not only holds the reward, because it is a reward you get. Okay, the crown, the eternal life, that He not only holds that reward in His hand, He holds our faith, our lives in His hand.

He knows when it's time to pull the plug.

I've heard many say, well, He's finished His work, I guess. I don't know that. You don't know that. You have to have faith that God knows that. In fact, if one of you, like Tim McMasters last night, was going to keep the Sabbath today, and he's in his lounge chair, or whatever chair it was, and he just goes to sleep, that'd be beautiful. We don't know, but if you do, and it does happen to us, it will happen probably eventually. He determines that. We should say, oh, why did God do that? Why did He take it? Why did He take this? God wants us to have faith. You know. See, that's real faith. That's real faith to where, you know, no matter what age, that He knows the reward He's going to give us, and He also knows when it's time, His time. It's a beautiful thing when you have faith. Oh, will you miss a person? Absolutely. Yes, you're supposed to. Jesus Christ, He cried. He cried with Lazarus, because He saw the other people crying. There He was, in the mornings, He saw that. He knew, in five minutes, I'm going to bring you back to life, but He still felt something. We're human, and there's nothing wrong with that emotion. But, boy, doesn't it feel good to know that He's taking care of it. And their fate is in His hands. I want to be in God's hands when I pass away, and I plan on having that in His hand.

Go with me. I need to wrap this. No? What time did we start? Huh? Better than all states? Absolutely. What time did we start? 2.30? Oh, we got to 4. Okay. I thought I was way behind here today. I just had my mind on my friends sitting up here in the front.

Let's go to Romans. Is there anybody here that they do not understand Hebrews 1 through 3? No? Okay. Good. I hope it'll be something you can go to. You can explain to people. Let's go back to Romans. Romans 13. So here's what we get to understand by faith. We understand the ashes. We understand the tomb. We understand a cemetery plot. We understand life and death, and we give all that to God. It's in His hands. God, in your hands, I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to worry about my wife driving in Miami traffic in some nut. And that's it. God's got her. God's got her. He's got her when he comes here. That's a beautiful. That's a beautiful release for me. Gives me such comfort. Chapter 13, verse 1. Let every soul, that means any living being, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. See? He's echoing that. Why don't you understand that? Because that's very important. Because what are we looking at here again? Faith. Faith. Faith. Faith. If you're going to die with faith, die in the faith, you better live with faith. And this is what he's telling us here. He's got control. He's what? He's over this entire earth. Right? He's got this. He's over all this. There's not one square inch of this spinning ball that he doesn't have control over. There's not one car out there that he doesn't control. There's not one sickness he can never heal.

Here. It says, let every soul be subject to the governing authority, for there is no authority except from God. Controls it all. The United States. There's not one square inch of land that God doesn't control. He has authority over all this, and he's still in control. Every day, every minute of every day. Do you have faith in that? There's not. And I know people will argue. I'm sure I'll get something in my email this week from somebody online, or they're going to get it when they when this pops up on the website. Okay, so I'm ready for you. In case you want to do this. Every authority means whoever is president of the United States in November, the middle of November, the first of January, then the next year, God put him there. God put him there. Because of this. Say, I told you somebody's coming in to hear.

Every soul doesn't mean a frog. A potential. Is that a PM? A potential member. But think about it. We have people all worried about what's going to happen. What's going to happen? What's going to happen over in Jerusalem? What's going to happen in the Ukraine? He's got the world. He's got this. Whether we're going to have a drought or not this year, people are saying we're going to have a drought. God's got this. He's over every, all authority. Imagine this was such a shock. This was a shock, as I'm sure they were like, when this letter was written to the churches in Jerusalem, they were, they believe there were 25 or 30 churches, at least in Rome at that time, because you couldn't meet more than 25 people at a time. It was against the law, Roman law. So he had, there were churches in houses scattered out, and this letter was to be sent to all those houses for somebody to read. And don't you know, they were sitting there, Rome, we, God, the emperor, the soldiers, what? Yes. God's still over them. Can you begin to see how prayer to God, when you're in charge of it, when He's in charge of everything, can kind of circumvent? Okay. Okay.

And Florida?

Yeah, God's over Florida. DeSantis, you work for God.

He may not realize it, but He does. Because that's what this verse says, all authorities. Boy, does that take faith. Does that ever take faith? That no matter how bad it is, God still has it. He's still in authority. By faith. By faith, brethren. That's where we are. God's rule is supreme. He didn't like, okay, I'm going to hand this off. Where are we? Right here? Right there? North? Here? That's that light right here. That's who we are right here. That's why it's lit up. God's people right here. Right? He knows who you are, what we're doing here. You say, well, I kind of know that. Do you show it by your faith? Chances are you showed up here today because you knew this was a Sabbath. You had faith this was Sabbath. That is just the beginning. Do we have the faith in Him? That every aspect of our life. Well, I don't think He cares about that because I prayed for the Miami Dolphins last year that they would go far in the playoffs, and they didn't. Well, maybe God's just not a Miami Dolphins. I'm not going to ask. Because that's in the big picture of things. Whether they win a Super Bowl or not is not really important. The Kingdom of God is what it's for.

So let me answer your question. I know this may sound strange, but you know your pastor after all these years. Shouldn't surprise you. Do you like to see cows grazing? Have you? I know you guys. Hills live out towards country. Some of you live out. You see cows. You really like to see this? I do too. I grew up with it. Anybody? Okay. You cow experts? Can you tell me what kind of cow this is? Who said Holstein? Yes. Here's a beef cow. Yes. Holstein. Milk cows. That's right. And she's starting her factory today. She's eating and it's that grass and then goes through those stomachs, the many stomachs she has, and then comes out and we would milk that cow. We had some Holsteins growing up, but my favorite cows were Brown Swiss. They had high butterfat content. They were actually bigger than our Holsteins. They were big cows. I bought some in Indiana. Brought them down. Beautiful cows. I loved. I mean, I always enjoy getting up at four in the morning milking cows and milk them in the night. I didn't know, get in, but I love seeing cows just grazing because they would just walk through. They were calm and you just see that mouth. Have grass coming up. They didn't worry about having something in their teeth. They just chewed that grass and they just loved it.

You want to be one? No. You don't want to be a cow? You sure? Because, I mean, somebody feeds you, they take care of you. You don't really have to do anything other than eat, right? So you don't want to be a cow.

We like big cows. I like small women but big cows when I grew up.

They are vegans. Now, why would I ask you a dumb question like that? Go to Daniel 4 and verse 32. Go to Daniel 4 and verse 32. And what did God do? He was the king of the world. World ruling power. He was the head. There was none more powerful than Him on the entire world. And what did God do? God was working with them. Verse 32. And He said, They shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. And the wheatgrass, like oxen and seven times, which is seven years, shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses. Faith.

You want to be a cow? He can make you a cow tomorrow. He can make me a cow. Yes, we have the opportunity, just like Nebuchadnezzar. Because I read then that the very hour that this word was fulfilled, concerned He was driven from men and ate like grass. And then you can read the rest of the story, how God brings Him back. And you know what He does? He praises God. After seven years, He praises God, recognizes who God is. He now has faith in God. And my looking at this, I believe He'll be in the first resurrection, because nothing has ever said after that about Him not being, believing in God. Having faith in God. It's God's choice. I don't make it for Him, but it sure looks that way. Incredible story. Incredible story of faith, and we need to have that kind of faith. Go over with me to Proverbs. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16, verse 9. Remember the New King James. And man's heart plans his way. Boy, haven't we made plans before? Haven't you made plans and all of a sudden things didn't go right? And you're going, why? This should have worked out. It should have been great. I made plans. Mary made plans. We invested a lot of these plans that I would be right now living in Hawaii. We bought land. We did everything. We bought the house. We did everything. This was our plan. And that's where I'm going to retire. I was going to build a house every two years, and I was just going to just enjoy myself in paradise. I forgot God had other plans. Verse 9. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. He is saying, God is in charge. When something doesn't go right that you plan, don't look at it as failure. Look at it as God has another plan. Because right here, He changes. He directs our steps. How do we know that? When God knows we have faith, we can accept His plan. We can accept a no. We can accept a not yet. Very, very easily.

There. I don't know. Do we have anybody here that used to watch Star Trek? Okay. Who was your favorite captain? Kirk. Picard. I'm sorry. I'm a Picard. Just because I didn't like Kirk going, Mr. Spock. It's like he couldn't get out the words and say, Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock. Yeah. Make it so. Engage. Yeah. Did you watch that? Okay. So obviously you did, even if you didn't watch, you remember. There was this saying that he was going on the front of Star Trek called space, the final frontier. Remember? Used to be somebody else said it, and then finally Shatner started saying it. Space, the final frontier. But he was wrong. We are sending probes to these places. We're sending probes to Mars because we think we're going to have to go there because this planet's going to consume itself, or it's going to get too hot, or it's going to get too cold, or it's going to have so much climate change. We're sending to Mars. We're making movies about going to Mars. We're going into space. And he called the final frontier. That's a lie. Because you see, faith is the final frontier.

Faith is the final frontier. Living faith, God expects us to have it. But the final frontier is dying in the faith. The final frontier is dying in God's hands. And as you're dying, remember what Jesus Christ said? Into your hands.

I render myself.

Who's our model? Jesus Christ. What a model of faith.

Living faith is one thing. Dying faith is another. Do you have it? Can you die in the faith?

That is our destiny. It is what your father wants. Whether you die in two hours or in 20 years, it is still the same. It is about faith and having faith to the very end. So may we all die in faith.