A Legacy of Faith

Well, this afternoon we have a memorial service in Orlando for Mrs. Callahan. I mentioned that in my email message yesterday. So this week I've been thinking about memorial services and what happens at the end of our life. And watching her family, Mrs. Callahan has been in the church for 50 years. She's got five children, four of them are in the church, one here in this area, two in Ocala, and one in Orlando. They attend there. Many grandchildren and many great-grandchildren as well. And looking over her life, she left a fine legacy.

She remained loyal to God. She had a lot of suffering in the last years of her life, but I never heard her complain. She was looking forward to the kingdom and she knew that she was going to die. And as I think about her, I realize, you know, what a great legacy she's left for her children and those who knew her. When they think back on her, they're going to think of all the good times and memories they had of her, but they're going to think about her last years as well.

And that's going to help buoy all of them. As we, you know, look at our lives, no matter how old we are, if we're, you know, really old or middle-aged or young, there's a legacy that we're writing as well. You know, I remember Mr. Armstrong giving a sermon back, oh, not a sermon, he said it many, many times.

Those of you who've been around a while remember that he would talk about a man by the name of J. Paul Getty. Remember that? He would say that J. Paul Getty had all these millions of dollars. He was an oil tycoon. And he used to say that he would give up all his millions so that he would have one happy marriage. Because as he got older in life, he began to realize what was really important.

In his younger life, it was money that was important, but he sacrificed everything along the way so that he would be able to have money. But then when he got older and when he realized there's more to life than just what's in your bank account, things began to be important to him and it was too late for him. Well, it's not too late for any of us, and it's important for us to be writing a legacy as we live, to be, you know, worshipping God and the people that know us to know what we stand for and who we are.

After we're gone, the examples that we set will stay there for people and our voice will still be speaking. Turn with me back to Hebrews 11, verse 4. It's just a group of men back there whose voices are still talking to us here millennia after they lived and died, and one of those men we find in Hebrews 11, verse 4. It says there by faith, Abel, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying as of gifts, and through it he being dead still speaks.

His actions. One of the earliest people on earth. What he did that day. An account that we know of, that we've read, but what he did still speaks to us. And in this Hebrews 11, a testament to men and women of faith, he's the first one mentioned. Mainly because I guess he was the first faithful man on earth, but let's turn back to Genesis 4. Look at the account that's referenced here. Genesis 4, verse 1. It says, Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I've acquired a man from the Lord. Will you remember back at the time that she yielded to the serpent and she took of the forbidden tree?

There was separation between man and God. And at that time God promised there would be a man that would come and bruise the head or stop or tread on the head of that serpent. And told them that man would again be reconciled to God. That it would come through her line. So when she had Cain, she thought that this was the promised one. That this boy would be the one to reconcile God and man again. So she named him a choir, as it says in your margin there.

But he wasn't the one. But in verse 2, she bore again, and this time it was his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he didn't respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. Well, you know that story, but let's pick it apart a little bit here, because the Bible gives us the incidence of that time. Important incidence, but we don't have all the details, and sometimes we have to look into what's written there to see what happened. Here we have two brothers. I don't know they were the only two brothers at that time. Obviously not, because they must have been older and other children. But here we have two brothers bringing an offering to God.

Now apparently they brought it at the same time. Cain brought his offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel brought his offering of a firstborn lamb already killed with the fat separated. They brought it and laid it before God. Now, do you think that they just happened to do this by coincidence? Or is it more likely that God had instructed Cain and Abel in how he wanted to be worshipped?

Did he tell them that part of honoring and worshiping him is to bring a sacrifice before him of first fruits, of firstborn? And were both of these boys complying with that? Both of them looking at God and realizing what he said, following his instructions, and bringing this offering to them. Or to him. And yet God accepted one and rejected the other. Now some of the commentaries are pretty interesting as they write about what might have happened in here, because no one knows.

Some suggest that the way God showed how he accepted Cain's offering was just like he did at the time that he accepted Elijah's offering at the time that he was showing up the prophets of Baal. The fire came down from heaven and consumed Abel's offering, but left Cain's offering alone. Well, that would be dramatic. That might have happened. We have no idea whether it did. But somehow, in some way, God showed, I accept Abel's offering, but I don't accept Cain's offering. Turn with me back so that you don't have to keep your finger there.

Leviticus 3, as God is instructing Israel, who is no comment of Egypt, and he's instructing them on how to worship him, how to sacrifice to him. And, of course, we know the sacrificial system was designed to keep God in people's minds, and through the shedding of blood and through the offering of God, they remembered who he was.

And verse 14 says, He shall offer from it his offering as an offering made by fire to the Lord. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that's on the entrails, the two kidneys, the fat that's on the flanks, the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he shall remove, and the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma.

All the fat is the Lord's. So in this time that Israel, many, many years, many, many years after Abel, in fact, the whole world apart from Abel, because Abel lived before the flood, that world was washed away, God gave instructions to Israel in the sacrificial system. Abel, it appears, did things exactly the way God instructed Israel to. When he brought his firstborn lamb, it was already sacrificed. The fat was already removed, similar to the instructions that he gave Israel then. Abel, it appears, did things exactly the way God instructed him to do. Cain, on the other hand, while it was good that he remembered God, while it was very good that he thought to bring an offering to God, it doesn't mention that his offering was the first fruits, that it was the first.

Probably a nice offering, but there was probably or could have been more instructions that God gave at that time. If you're going to bring an offering of the fruit to the ground, this is what you should do. Cain complied in some respects, but he didn't comply in all respects.

So God accepted one who came before him, who had done things exactly the way he had told them to do. And he rejected Cain because Cain didn't do it exactly the way God said. Well, you know the rest of the story from there. Cain became jealous, let it work on him that God accepted one and not his, and he let that jealousy lead him to murder Abel. And Abel was the first martyr, if you will, the first one who died, the first one who murdered, but he was also murdered because of what he did, because of how he obeyed God and someone who was jealous of him.

And so you've probably heard over the years how Abel and what happened to Abel is analogous in some respects to Jesus Christ, because he also was murdered, martyred, because of people who are envious of him, jealous of him. And Cain was jealous of Abel. But Abel, it says here, or says in Hebrews 11, did that because he had faith in God. He believed God.

God told Eve that man would be reconciled to him one day.

Cain, or Eve so believed that she believed when she had that firstborn son Cain, that this was the man that was going to do it.

Over the years, perhaps she taught those boys about God. Perhaps they looked for a time that man would be reconciled to God and thought back on how they had interrupted what could have been. Everything Abel heard, he believed. He kept it in the front of his mind. He behaved and obeyed and had faith in that God. So when God said, do this to worship me, do this to honor me, Abel did it exactly the way God said. Over in John 4, verse 23, says, The hour is coming, and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Well, under the Old Testament way of doing things, sacrifices were one of the ways that they honored God. And you remember, if you read through Exodus and Leviticus, there's painstaking detail in how those offerings and how those sacrifices were to be made. When Christ came, the old way of the sacrificial system was abolished. He was the sacrifice once and for all. But there are still ways we worship God. Just like Abel was supposed to do things, and God told him how to worship him. He told the Israelites and the Old Testament people how to worship him. Here's how you do this. Here's how you please me. And he tells us as well, here's how you please me. Here's how you worship me. Here's how you set me apart and show me the awe, the reverence, and the fear that you have for me. And you know what a lot of those ways of worshiping God are. We've talked about them. The first four commandments tell us how to love and worship God. And we worship him as we come before him on the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

It's one of the things that God tells us to do.

Abel was listed in the Book of Faithful Men, and it says his voice still speaks to us.

Because he had faith, his faith led him to worship God, to worship God exactly the way God wanted it to. And by doing that, he showed God where his heart was. As we write our legacy, as we write our life story, as we're led by God's Holy Spirit, we must worship him the way that he wants to be worshiped. We must worship him in spirit and truth. And when we do that, and we will do it because of the faith that we have in him. Let's turn back to Hebrews 11 again. See another man listed there. The next one listed in verse 5 is another man who lived before the flood.

His name is Enoch. It says, By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he didn't see death, and he wasn't found because God had taken him. Now, there's a lot of speculation among a lot of people that says that these verses say that Enoch never died, and that he was taken away to heaven. Many people in many churches believe that. If you read the commentaries, they almost all say that. But we know that that isn't what happened to Enoch. The Bible says that no man has ascended to heaven except Jesus Christ.

Paul stated that millennia after this happened to Enoch. Paul knew. Paul was writing under the inspiration of God. What happened to Enoch? No one knows. He didn't see death in the normal way people did, but he isn't still alive. God didn't take him up to heaven. He isn't sitting there waiting for him to do that. He's in the dust. He's turned to dust and waiting for the resurrection like everyone else. But by faith, Enoch was taken away so he didn't see death, and he wasn't found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony. He pleased God.

Well, it's a nice thing to have said about you, isn't it? He pleased God. I know growing up, and as a young man, it was important to me that my dad was pleased with things I did. It became more important to me as I, I guess, got older than when I was younger. And a lot of us are, we want to know that we are pleasing the people that are important to us. Now, here's God telling Enoch or saying of Enoch, He pleased me. He pleased me. God told Christ, well, or his is my son, in whom I am well pleased. So Enoch is in good company here. And it goes on in verse 6 to tell us why. Enoch pleased God. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So if we're going to please God, if we're going to be in his good favor, if we're going to write a legacy in our lives, we've got to have faith. We've got to have what it's talking about in this chapter.

Abel had faith. And because Abel had faith and absolutely believed in God, believed in what he said would happen, believed that there was going to come a time where there was going to be a reconciliation between God and man, he worshipped God in spirit and truth. And Enoch pleased God, too. Let's go back to Genesis 5 and see just a little bit about Enoch. He's not mentioned much at all in the Bible, but he is there in the faith chapter. In the midst of Genesis 5, which is a series of genealogies here, Genesis 5, we come to verse 21. It says, Enoch lived 65 years and he begotten Methuselah. After he begotten Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years.

Well, he was a youngster compared to the rest of these people that you read. Methuselah lived 969 years. Someone else in this list lived 962. Most of these people were living 800-900 years.

It's kind of hard for us to even fathom. Enoch lived 365 years and then God took him.

Verse 24, it says again, Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.

Twice in two verses, it says of Enoch. It doesn't say much about all the rest of the people in these genealogies, but twice it says of Enoch, he walked with God. He walked with him.

And in Hebrews 11.5, it says God was well pleased with him.

Now, the Hebrew word for walk that's here in these two verses implies that it's a journey.

You know, much as you might go for a walk, you know, for three or four miles, but this is longer than this. This was a longer walk that people took. My wife and I walk. We used to walk more often than we do now, but we used to walk every day. And it was a while. But you know what? Those walks were always pleasant and enjoyable. The first time that word walked is here in Genesis 3, or we find it here in Genesis 3, verse 8. And this is speaking, of course, of God. It says, they heard the sound. Well, it says, they thirthed the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden of the cool of the day.

He was coming there to spend some time with Adam and Eve, spend some time with this new creation that he had. And you get the sense that this was something that he normally did. Kind of a friendly time for them to be. This time, though, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. This time, they didn't want to walk with him. When he came down to visit, when he came down to stroll with them in a leisurely fashion, they didn't want anything to do with it. They had separated themselves from God. Enoch walked with God for 300 years, it says.

I mentioned that my wife and I take walks. And, you know, as you've been to the beach, you see people walking along the beach. And you always sense when you see people walking together, they're kind of united. There's friendly conversation going on. It's kind of leisurely and kind of a good atmosphere. And as you've taken those walks, there's a lot of opportunity to just talk and share ideas and get close to one another. And, you know, when you're walking along a beach or walking along a neighborhood with your wife or with one of your children or a friend, it's just a very good feeling. Amos 3, verse 3, says, can two walk together unless they be agreed? Can two walk together unless they be agreed? And if we look at our lives, if we look at how we walk with people, it's a good question. Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

I'll say something that I'll hear about in the car after I leave, but when my wife and I walk, most of the time we're walking side by side and there's friendly, gentle conversation going on.

But once in a while, once in a while I'll say something that she doesn't care for, and all of a sudden I find her lagging behind a little bit or speeding up and walking ahead of me, and sometimes she's even crossed the street to get away from me, and I thought, okay, I guess it's true. Unless two walked, unless two are agreed, they don't walk together.

And you know what? It's absolutely you don't walk with someone unless you're agreed with them. If they've got a different idea than you do, all of a sudden you find yourself pulling away.

You're not listening. You don't want to hear what they have to say.

And that's going to be the picture that we have of two people strolling along.

Enoch walked with God for 300 years. 300 years! That's a long time! And he pleased God.

And Enoch learned a lot during that time. As God walked with him and as God worked with him, Enoch learned an awfully lot. And remember, he was before the flood. Before the flood occurred, Enoch was talking with God, was walking with God. And we don't know for sure, but it may well be that Enoch was the only man at that time that God was working with. Now, a lot of these ages are going to overlap because Noah lived, you know, he was 600 when the flood came, and some of these other people lived a long time. But he was one of the few people in that corrupt society that God was walking with. Over in Jude, Jude 14, is the other place that we find Enoch mentioned in the Bible. This anti-Diluvian man mentioned in Hebrews 11, the Pea-pleased God. And in verse 14, Jude was inspired to write, it says, Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints. He saw a time when Christ would come to earth with all of his saints with him. This was thousands of years into the future. There was a flood, a whole world destroyed, between the time that Enoch walked with God, and this was going to happen.

As God walked with Enoch, he taught him a lot. He learned more and more about what God's plan was.

He learned what some of the pitfalls were going to be on earth. He learned what was going to be fall. And he was able to say, as he writes here, as we're told here, of the things he prophesied, that he saw exactly what was going to happen in the end days. He probably lived in some of those, because you know we're told that the world in that time was corrupt, wicked, evil. So evil that God had to wipe it off the face of the earth, or wipe wipe it off the face of the earth, destroy men from the face of the earth with the flood. So Enoch saw some of this in his own time, and he knew at the end time it was going to happen as well. Verse 15, he said, well, picking up in 14, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of the saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they've committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. He saw. He saw, and he lived in a society much like we were. As he walked with God, God taught him. We walk with God, too. God wants to walk with us. He wants to come to us in the cool of the evening, or in the brightness of the morning, and walk with us. He wants that relationship. That's constant. He wants to walk with people who are agreed with him, that will listen to him, that he can teach, that he can train, that he can ready for the coming of his son Jesus Christ with ten thousands of his saints. We all have that opportunity to do exactly what Enoch did. Walk with God to have that comfortable relationship where he can teach us, train us, correct us, inspire us, give us a vision of his kingdom, and bring us to where he wants us to be. Enoch did it for 300 years. And a lot of us have been doing it for a long time, but not one of us is approaching the time that Enoch did. Turn with me back to Psalm 1. Psalm 1, verse 1. It's a well-known song. It comes from this psalm. It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Don't walk with them. Don't walk with the ungodly. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the paths of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does will prosper. Don't walk with those who are not in agreement with God.

Walk with God. Walk with those who are in agreement with him. Develop that relationship. Let him walk with you every step of your life. Psalm 37, verse 23, says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his ways. Though he fall, he won't be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. You see the little children walking with their parents?

When our grandkids, the one grandkid who can walk, was here, I would watch her as she would walk with her mom or her dad, and she would stumble once in a while. They were always there to pick her up.

God does the same thing with us, and you know I saw them constantly teaching, constantly working with her, just as you did with your children and just as we did with ours. A comfortable, close relationship. It's the same thing God wants with us. As he grows us, as he develops us, as he brings us to who he wants us to be. Let's go back to Micah. Micah 6 and verse 8. Micah 6 and verse 8. It says, He has shown you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Walk humbly with Him. Enoch did that for 300 years. Enoch had faith in God, and in the face of a perverse society, Enoch stood with God. He didn't give in to the polls of that time, just like we can't give in to the polls of the society around us.

Walk with God. Write a legacy. And write your future. Walk with God.

Let's go back to Hebrews 11. You see the next man here. That's listed in this chapter.

Another man who lived before the time of the flood. Verse 7 says, By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith.

Now, if you read back of the account in Genesis, you see it also says of Noah that he walked with God. There's been many people that have walked with God over the course of the years, and they're in the Bible here, and many more besides that. These two men happen to be the two that the Bible says walked with him, but more have walked with him as well. But Noah also walked with God, and Noah had faith too. We take this story of Noah very—I think it's so familiar with us that we have to step back and see what the time that he was living in. Because when he was 500 years old, God told him to begin preparing an ark.

Prepare an ark! He told him, I'm going to destroy the world by flood because it's so wicked.

But you know what he said, have walked with me, you've been righteous, and I'm going to save you and your family out of this flood that's going to destroy all men on earth. But you're going to have to work for it. You're going to have to work and follow what I say, and you're going to have to build that ark exactly the way that I say to build it. When we look at Noah's faith, it was marked by the work that he did. It says here, he prepared an ark. You know how long he worked on that ark?

A hundred years. A hundred years.

None of us are a hundred years old. And he worked on an ark for 100 years. And if you read the accounts of Josephus at the time of Noah, the people around him weren't cutting him any slack at all. They made fun of him. They jeered him. He was building the ark in a place nowhere close to water, and times got so bad at times he had to protect his family from the people around him. But through it all, Noah kept working. Noah kept building that ark for a hundred years.

Why did he do it? Because he had faith in God. He believed that God was going to bring that flood, and that his way of salvation, his way of escape, if you will, was exactly what God had commissioned him to do. Build that ark. And he did it. And he worked on it day after day after day for a hundred years. He feared God, but every day when he went to work on that ark, he was showing the faith that he had. We're in Hebrews. Take to James 2. One book over. James 2, verse 18. A verse you know well says, someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works.

It's very easy to believe, the next verse tells us. I won't say very easy to believe. Many believe, says in verse 19, even the demons believe.

But they don't show faith in God, of course. We can say we have faith in God, but he says, show me your faith by the work that you do. Every day for a hundred years Noah showed God his faith by the work he did. He built and he built and he built and he believed and he believed and he believed. And God didn't tell him at the time that he was 500 years old. You'll be 600 Noah, before the flood comes. Noah just kept building, probably wondering when will this flood come, but he just kept working. God called us to work as well. Over in 1 Corinthians 3.

1 Corinthians 3 verse 8.

It says, He who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building.

Now down to verse 13. Each one's work will become clear. What we do, how we demonstrate our faith in God, how we show him that we believe what he says. Each one's work will become clear, for the day we'll declare it, because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which is built on it endures, he'll receive a reward. But if anyone's work is burned, he'll suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. We're doing a work. We believe, but God wants us building the temple every day. He wants us working every day. He wants us to be laboring just as he is every day. Turn with me back to Matthew 20.

Matthew 20. It's a parable here of the workers, and let's just read through the parable. Matthew 20, verse 1. It says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And when he agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, saw other standing idol in the marketplace, and said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I'll give you. So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and he did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found other standing idol, and he said to them, Why have you been standing here idol all day? And they said to him, Because no one hired us.

He said to them, You go into the vineyard, and whatever is right, you'll receive.

So through the course of the day, he kept calling people in to work in the vineyard. Some early in the morning, some midday, some near the end of the workday. So in verse 8, When evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, Call the laborers, give them their wages, beginning with the last of the first. And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. But when the first came, they supposed they would receive more, and they likewise received each a denarius. He called them. They agreed to work for a certain reward. Some had to work that entire day. Some only had to work an hour. They all received the same reward. But they all had to work. If they weren't working at the end of the day, they got nothing. They had to be working when they came at the end of the day, and then they received their reward. They couldn't give up midstream, and at two o'clock say, it's too hot out here, the sun is beating down too hard. But hey, I want my reward. Didn't work that way. They had to be working the entire time that they were called into the vineyard to work. And at the end of the day, if they were still working, they received the reward that they'd been promised. And as you go on through the parable, you'll see some of the people complained, well, we've been working here all day. Why are we getting paid the same thing that the people who just came an hour ago got paid? But when God calls us, He calls us to work, to build the temple that He wants us to be building, and that temple is us, and the temple that He'll return to. And we all have the same reward, but we have to be working.

Noah worked for a hundred years. Some of us in this room have probably been working for 40, 50, maybe 60 years for God. Others, only maybe for a few months or weeks.

But the reward is the same. God promises the reward will be if we keep working.

Turn back to Philippians 2.

Verse 12.

Paul writes, therefore, by beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work it out as you walk with God, as you have faith in God, as you allow Him to lead you and develop you and change you. Work it out with Him.

Let's go back to Hebrews 11 and look at just one more man here.

Hebrews 11 verse 8.

It says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive his inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now we all know Abraham is the father of the faithful. It says he believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

God told him that he and Sarah would have a son, and that through that son he would rise up nations that would be so numerous, the people in them, that they couldn't be counted just like the sand of the sea couldn't be. And year after year after year passed. No son. Sarah became past the age when a woman would normally have children. No son. Abraham tried to take, or she tried to convince Abraham, and he did, to take matters into his own hands and have a son by another means, but still no son for Abraham and Sarah. But you know, all through those years, Abraham believed.

He might have doubted and wavered a few times, but he believed, and the Bible said it was accounted to him for righteousness. Because as he believed, what did he do, it says, in these first eight that we read, he obeyed. He obeyed what God did or said. He followed God, and he didn't give up on him, and even when it looked like all hope was passed, he still believed God. And God finally gave them the son, and exactly as God promised, that son grew into a multitude of nations and sands and people as numerous as the sands of the sea, with rich blessings.

Abraham showed his faith by believing, but he also coupled that believing with obedience.

Obedience to God. Followed him and did what he had to say. Let's turn back to Genesis 12 for just a minute.

Genesis 12, verse 1. The Lord said to Abraham, you know these verses, get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you, curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham, or Abram, departed as the Lord had spoken to him. He simply did it.

That was the first thing that God had told him to do, and Abram began the pattern of obedience to God.

Through his life, what God asked him to do, he did. It was marked by obedience. He believed God. He had faith in him. He believed, even when it looked like it was improbable, he believed that God was going to do what he said he was going to do. And he wrote a tremendous legacy. Isaac grew up to obey God as well.

He wrote a tremendous legacy. Let's turn back to Hebrews 5. Yeah, Hebrews 5.

The world around us doesn't like to hear the word obey and obedience much. But for us, who believe in God, believe in his promises, who he's opened our minds to understand those promises, part of our walk of faith with God, and part of what we do is obey him. It says in Hebrews 5 verse 9, Having been perfected, he Christ became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Obey him who keep his commandments, who do what he asks them to do, and who do it the way in the spirit that abled did it, exactly as God said, showing him faith, showing him the respect that he deserves, having faith in him that when we do the things that he says, that he'll be faithful, he'll be faithful to follow through on his promises. Not because we do and obey him, but because he has given, because of Christ's life and death, the gift of eternal life, and the gift of his Holy Spirit. Back in Revelation 22, verse 14 says, Four men, and there's many other men and women listed in Hebrews 11, it's not a bad study to go back and look and see what those people listed in that chapter did. How did they show that they were faithful? How did they show that they were faithful? How did they show that they were faithful? How did they show that they were faithful? How did they show their faith to God? What are the things that they did? We saw where Abel worshiped God. We saw that Enoch walked with God. We see where Noah worked, and we see where Abraham obeyed. And there's many more lessons that we do. We can't do just one of those things. We have to do them all. And as we walk in faith, God is just...he sees what we're doing. We'll go back to Hebrews 11 and pick it up in verse 13. These men we talked about and the others that are listed there, they knew a lot about what God had prophesied. They believed when He said He was going to reconcile man and God. In Hebrews 13 it says, these all died in faith, not having received those promises that they spent their lifetime working for, looking for, and waiting for. But having seen them afar off, they were assured of them, they embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were motivated by faith. And they were motivated by faith and hope. But they looked for a time past the time they were living in then. Let's go back to verse 1. Faith is what marked these men. Faith has to mark us as one of the things that we must possess because without faith we can't please God. And we wouldn't be here today if we weren't looking to please God. Let's go back to verse 1 and see what faith is. The definition here says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith gives us a present reality of something that we know in our hearts will happen. We see the kingdom of God. We read about it. We feel it. We taste it. We know it's coming. But the millennium isn't here today. We know it. We're looking for it. We're living because we absolutely know that God is going to bring it. And that belief is the substance of faith.

Vision is part of that. We have a vision, and God increases our vision of the kingdom so that it becomes real to us. And you know there's examples all over the world of people who have vision of things. John Kennedy, back in the 60s, began saying that we're going to land a person on the moon. Remember that? By the end of the decade. And it looked improbable. But he set a goal, and he talked about it enough. He didn't live to see it, but you know what? Sure enough, we landed a man on the moon. Martin Luther King, around the same time, was running around the country, and he was and he had a dream. He had a dream that all the things that were separating the races in America that one day people would live free, and there wouldn't be those barriers there anymore. And he talked about it, and people could feel it, people began to believe it, they could see the vision, and it happened. God gives us a vision of the kingdom. A vision that as we walk with him, as we obey him, as we worship him, a vision that he will keep honing. That it'll become crystal clear to us over time as we seek him what that kingdom is. And you know what? As sure as you and I are here today, that kingdom will come. Christ will return, and that kingdom and that millennium will be set up. He promised it. As we look at the world around us today, and we see political parties haggling over debt ceilings, as we see terrorists doing things in Norway, as we look at the corruption in the world around us, it's hard to see that millennium coming. It's hard to see, maybe, the things if we're just looking at it from the scope of the world. But we believe, and we know, we absolutely know, he's returning. And we know it's the answers to the world's problems. It says in verse 1 there, it's the evidence of things not seen. The evidence of things not seen.