Faithful is Crazy

Heavenly Father we thank you so much for the opportunity to worship together in this building to come together. We thank you Lord for all the people who are home today. It has been a tiring week. It has been a long week. It was a cold morning this morning. There was ice on some of the roads until Lord. We thank you that those people are safe and at home and we pray that next week. I'll be able to make it here for the church will kind of start feeling a little more normal again, but it's going to take a while father. We are honestly still grieving and hurting and it's going to take a little while to work through that process, but we're going to do it together and it's going to be okay. Father for the people here today, it is no accident that you have them here. It is not a mistake. You have them here and the worship in the message is directed for them today. You have a line this since before we were born father. I pray that this message would be yours that your spirit would speak and fled this room that you would speak through me that the hearts of the people would be open and that you would help whisper the words of truth into their minds. We thank you so much Lord Jesus and it's in your name. Amen. Let me start off today's sermon a little bit differently today. I want to tell you some stories because I like stories. That's really the only reason I like stories. I want to tell you some stories and I'm going to kind of change some names a little bit or not use names, but you'll be able to catch on there their they're fairly common stories. The first story is a story about two brothers these two brothers. They they they grew up together and there weren't a whole lot of people back in this day and age that they had two parents obviously a their their parents were really good people but they messed up a little bit. You see that used to kind of have this home on this like Hilltop Garden that that was just perfect and everything was provided for them that they had everything they ever need but somehow they screwed it up and the Lord kick them out of the garden for some reason or another they never shared with the brothers why it was unfortunate but for some reason or another they got kicked out now a little side note about the story first service. I kind of said This as a joke I said, you know when you're a kid, you can just blame your parents for everything. It's always their fault. Right and Jordan instantly perked up and looked at Mom and Dad and I was like, oh, I'm going to hear about that later. So don't do that. So these two boys that they have their own story. It's not just their parents story. But as they're working through life, they become young men and eventually men of their own and end their they're hard workers one work. They both work out in the field one of them works with with cattle and animals and things like that the other works more as a farmer and neither one of these things are bad mind you it's very important to understand that neither of these things are bad. In the story The Lord asked them to present to him an offering and so both of the men went to their fields and I kind of figured what can I give the Lord and one guy he came to his field and he kind of looked and he was the one who worked with all the plants and everything and I kind of found some stuff. He's like I was supposed isn't doing too well as to this end and this crop is is okay. It's not great, but it's okay. Let's do this and I got that one reserved with can't touch that one. We got make sure to use that one for my friends and my party later and then there was another young man his brother who he went out to his field and he's working with the animals in the livestock. And he says man this one this one special to me. This one's reserved for me. I love this animal, but I want to make sure if the Lord is asking I want to give him the very best of what I have. And so they both, they present their offerings to the Lord again. I want you to know that the Lord respected one person's offering he's respected the offering of the one who gave the livestock but not the Offering of the one who gave the plants not because plants are less than livestock. But because this guy gave the best of what he had and this guy gave kind of oil with leftover. Will the unfortunate ending of that story? You know, it's what all Brothers do one was mad. So we killed the other one. I guess that's not what all Brothers do but you know, that's how the story ends but it's unfortunate but in some ways it's also very cool because we see an amazing amount of faith in this moment. I'd like to tell you another story. The story is a little bit shorter. It's a little bit different. It's a story about a guy who walked a lot he walked here in there. He walked to and fro he got pretty old and he lived in a time where a lot of people got really old. He had a father who got really old and he know he knew his parents and his grandparents his great-grandparents, but something was interesting about this guy he walked and eventually there was this other character walking beside him and this other character was in fact the Lord the Lord walked beside this man and somehow someway they had this interesting enough relationship that the Lord said, I don't think I want you to experience death as others experienced death. I'm going to take you away. Until he took this man away what an interesting story. The final story I want to share with you to at least start out. My sermon is a story about another old guy Bible's full of stories of old guys. If you want to be encouraged about people who mess up and they're old and you know, you want to feel better about yourself just read the Bible you will feel better really really fast. And so there's this story of this old guy and he lives in a place and a time where it where the world is just evil and wicked and he kind of lives in the middle of nowhere to our best. Guess he probably lived during a time where rain didn't really exist all that much in the world at the water or the ground was watered by Mist as it came out of the ground and you know, this is this is our best guess I'm not going to State historical fact that this is our best guess about the world in so, you know, you can imagine that the idea of a big rain storm is really weird and you don't really think about that very often and this guy lives in almost a middle of a desert. It's not terrible, but he certainly doesn't live near an ocean and then he hears from the Lord. Hey, I would like you to build a boat. And and I almost imagine the guy saying what the boat. And the guy talks with the Lord a little bit more and the Lord says yeah, I would like you to build boateng's like okay, I guess I can build a boat. I like doing stuff like that say by the way Lord. How big do you want this boat to be? You want it to be how big? And you want me to do what with it and he asked him to build this really really really big boats called a narc and and when he asked him to build this boat, he says I want you to build is so big that there's going to be two of every animal that's going to be in at 4. There's going to be a flood coming and I can also imagine that this man was saying what is a flood. I don't think I've experienced that before. What's a flood Now, I don't necessarily know the historical relevancy of the way. I'm telling these stories, but that's not necessarily the point of what I'm trying to tell the point of what I'm trying to tell is he built the ark and he prepared and he got ready and the flood came and all the animals came and he learned that there are way more animals in the world than I ever thought there were and they all came and his family survived.

What I wanted to do today is share with you some stories and just kind of talked about them a little bit from different perspectives. Most of you know, who the stories were about a lot of you grew up in church or you have some bit of church history. So even as I told the stories you could probably put names to almost all the characters, but maybe some didn't grow up in church. You might notice that the first story was about Cain and Abel the first two sons of Adam and Eve after they were expelled from the garden. The second is about a man who we actually know very little of if we're being honest, but we know according to scripture that the man Enoch walked with God that's all scripture says what about him as he walked with God and because he walked with God he did not have to experience death the same way that we experience stuff. The third story is a super common story. It's one that we hear about all the time. It's the story of Noah who built the ark and in a time where there was arguably no rain in the world in a land where there wasn't really any see for a promise from God that no one really believed Noah built an ark anyways as we look at these stories one has to ask. Why are the stories worth telling? Why are these stories worth telling I mean Noah, that one makes sense? Right? It's an amazing story. And by the way, if you like search in the ancient history of really any culture of the world, I think this is really cool. Almost every single one of them has a flood account which is really really really cool to me and kind of points to it doesn't say that the Bible's account is true, but it does say something happened so we should look into this a little deeper. There was a flood account in nearly every culture Cain and Abel that story is kind of worth telling but kind of like the way I ended it. It's got kind of a sad ending. It's it's not necessary one. You want to tell us a bedtime story to your kids? Hey, if you don't give a good enough offering her mom and dad would you rather's going to kill you and then Keno Brothers smiling in the other bed. Just not a good deal. But then Enoch you get to that story in the Bible doesn't even spend much time telling that story. And so what do they all have in common? Why are these stories worth telling? Well in my opinion a lot of this is my opinion today. The first thing that I would say that these stories have in common is that they are crazy. Honestly, no, seriously think think of how this sounds but someone who did not grow up in church. So this guy murders his brother because he's slightly jealous of him a guy doesn't die because God and him have a unique relationship. So for some reason this guy's different than everyone else in history a dude builds giant boat in the middle of nowhere. These are crazy stories to people. I remember one time inviting my neighbor and her boyfriend at the time to church and it was a new experience for me because you know, I grew up in church and I asked them how they enjoyed the service and he told me he's never been to church a day in his life. He's the same age as me. He thought it was weird that we stand and sing song. Because it is weird the people who don't grow up in church, and we have to kind of reshape our minds to think. How does a person who did not grow up in church see us. How did the stories we tell affect these people and the honest answer is there crazy? They're crazy. These are legitimately crazy stories and we have to acknowledge that they are absolutely absurd they make no sense. And anyone who believes them and tells them should be believing in telling all fairy tales in the world as if they are true because they are just as crazy. These stories are crazy unless They are true. The stories are crazy unless they are true. If then if they are all true, then they have something else in common and that something else can be summed up in one word. faith

We are going to be launching into a new sermon series this week and I would like to take some time to introduce it because it is going to be exciting and it's going to be different. I knew sermon series is called faithful leaving a legacy sometime ago in one of our Shepherds meetings. The elders asked Nate and I because we both were both trained preachers. They asked us if we would be willing to teach them how to become better teachers and preachers themselves. And this is not something I would ever say no to of course. This is a passion of my I love teaching people how to preach and so I thought this going to be a great idea I believe it was Paul Schultz who first came up with the idea of preaching a sermon series called The Elder Scrolls and some of you got that some of you did not get that for those that don't know. The Elder Scrolls is an extremely popular video game series that's been around for a long long time. And for Paul to be the one to bring it up was just just a little weird and a little fun not to preach on the video cam. Of course Paul simple yet powerful idea was what if each Elder took a week to preach. What if we all took a turn to preach and we kind of talked about the same subject, but we're each going to present our own different angle on the subject and we're each going to present a different idea about the subject. Why would we do that? We could do that to sharpen our own skills as preachers and teachers and Elders we can do this to leave the congregation by example because it's not just the pastors. Share the gospel sharing the gospel in evangelism is not hey neighbor. Will you come to church and I hope that Pastor Kendall has a good sermon today. Sometimes he's got Dad's but since you're coming I hope it's a really good one. That's not the gospel message of the Gospel message is hey, let me tell you about the hope that I have. Let me be the one to share the gospel with you and the elders want to lead by example. They want to show that all of us play a role in sharing the gospel message and they wanted to show how each of us brings a unique and different perspective to the table and all of them are valuable. a different take on the same subjects Now I got to say when Paul presented this idea. I thought it was an awesome idea. And the truth is the spirit had already been kind of working on my heart for a long while before this to maybe I'll bring this idea up and attempt it now whenever this happens I worry is this just cuz I'm tired Lord. Is it because I'm not really sure what we're supposed to preach on next and I never really brought the idea up to the elders because just placed yourself in my shoes for a second. Basically, I'd be going to my leadership board. My boss is insane. I have an idea guy. I'm not going to do the job you asked me to do for 4 weeks and you're going to do it instead. And I just thought that's not going to go over. Well if I ask them that way but when they presented the idea I thought man, this is great and and each of us are going to be able to work together and I'm going to be able to help them out. I'm going to be doing the communion and offering messages for the next four weeks so that they can be preaching and this is going to be just an awesome awesome opportunity but then Then came the Second Step. So we were all on board with this idea. And we all know that we wanted to do it, but we needed to talk through what we're going to be talking to so a couple of ideas kept flowing through our minds. Somebody said maybe we could preach on what Biblical eldership looks like and by extension what all people should look like and we started thinking to herself. If we teach the congregation what Biblical eldership is supposed to look like that means that they have every right to call us out anytime. We're doing something wrong. We probably shouldn't tell them that that's lets you something different. We said we could preach on faithful men and women of the Bible as laid out in Hebrews chapter 11. We could we could each take a character of The Bible and preach on that and and this theme kind of started developing this idea of what does it mean to be a faithful man or woman and then just being honest as Clifford and Steve made their final passing this last week. It kind of cemented the idea for us. We want to preach on the faithful. What does it look like to be a faithful man or woman? What does it look like to leave a legacy behind and so it with a little bit of prayer and a unified confidence. We landed on this tournament Sirius and I got to tell you guys you are in for a treat these next few weeks. It is going to be so awesome. So that's our sermon series its faithful leaving a legacy. Let's go ahead and jump back in as we continue to open up the series and get an idea of what it is these stories that I told earlier these ideas these legacies if you will are absolutely crazy unless they are true and if they are true, they are stories of Faithful Men doing extraordinary things things that Garner attention things that get noticed and perhaps they don't get noticed in their time, but in the legacy of history in the chapters of the seasons young men and young women will grow hearing and learning and respecting their stories and Hebrews chapter 11, we get an honest-to-goodness biblical definition of Faith, which is what we're talking about. It was our scripture reading this morning, but I wanted to just kind of bring it up again and and dive into it a little bit says this now Faith Is the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of Things Not Seen for buy it. The people of old received their Commendation plus look at the two parts of Faith to Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for give her hope for something in your you're not real sure if it's going to happen. I do that a lot. I have a lot of dreams have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of hopes anytime we come to a big event at the church the Harvest auction the block party even all in Sunday's I like have nightmares the night before that. No one's going to be here and no one's going to show up why I hope for things but faith is being sure God has called us to this therefore. He's going to make it happen faith is a confidence of a strained subtleness that this is all going to work out. It is not only the Assurance of things hoped for it is the conviction of Things Not Seen.

Do you know how strange it is that we tell the world of non-believers that we believe in a God who is invisible? Who we cannot see? And it's very hard to hear him doesn't mean we can't hear him just it's very hard to hear him that is strange to the world. But it's not strange to us because as we grow and we learn in our faith, we begin to be assured of things hoped for and we become convicted of things not yet seen now in verse 3, the author of Hebrews gives a good example of this. He starts out very very simply. He says by faith. We understand that the Universe was created by the word of God by the power of God. So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. So we have a whole lot of creation theories. Where did we come from? What is our purpose in life? And this it this is not a time where I'm arguing Evolution. It's not a time or I'm arguing Six-Day creation. I'm not arguing how were the beginning happened. All I'm arguing is by faith. We believe there was a beginning that at one point there was nothing by the power of God there became something the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of Things Not Seen. Having faith in something you can't see is crazy like the origin of the universe. We don't have a time travel machine. We can't just go and watch that happen. It's crazy unless it's true one thing. I would like to point out slight bunny trail. But but this is weird to finding something a little deeper. Is that even though many things about faith cannot be seen that is not the same statement as being unable to observe them faith is not completely blind and we do not have a God who expects Blind Faith out of us. We have a God who gives sight to the blind. He gives a voice to the mute and he gives hearing to the deaf. We have a God who grants us faith building opportunities so that he can prove to be a God who can renew our hearts. I believe it is in Romans chapter 1 where it talks about how his invisible attributes can be clearly seen in the whole of creation. So by observing creation what we can see we can come to the conclusion that there must be a God we can observe it. But we're not going to be able to see it. Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of Things Not Seen. We have an amazing God amazing God. Hebrews chapter 11 is often called the Hall of Faith which is a play on words of the Hall of Fame. It's kind of kind of neat. It walks through many stories from the Old Testament where it talks about people living faithful lives and it's kind of trying to answer why why would they do that then and what what makes this worth it to them? I want to share with you some of those stories that that's where I got my first three stories two days. That's the first three that it talked about in Hebrews. The next story is going to talk about Abraham and Sarah this one. I'm just going to read right out of the Scripture. It says 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 by faith. You went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob Ayers with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations who is designer and Builder is God by faith Sarah his wife herself receive power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised and I kind of like scripture sometimes because it just says things really bluntly and brutally honest and this is one of those moments verse 12 therefore from one man who was old enough he was him as good as dead were born descendants. As many as the stars of the heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the sea shore so summarizing the story Abraham was kind of known as the first great man of Faith sure there were people who have faith behind him Enoch obviously a step higher, but we don't know much about him Abraham was known to Jewish history as the first great man of Faith. He is the patriarch of our Christian faith and of the Jewish faith K. He's a big deal in the Old Testament the entire Old Testament from Genesis chapter 12 to Malachi for the three chapters. R44 is all about Abraham's family all about it. He's a big deal because he had Faith the first thing you did first thing we know about him. God says, hey, you don't really know me and and and I want you to know me. So in order to get to know me, I want you to leave your father and mother leave your home leave your land behind leave everything that is comfortable for you and go. Over here and says, we'll what am I going to get over there? I'll tell you on the way but you got to come and he did and picked up his wife Sarah and and they got together and they had it on their way and their entire story takes them through amazing amazing challenges. One ultimately culminating in Abraham. I know you're a hundred years old and I know your wife is 90 years old, but I promised you a son and I wanted to make sure that you did not believe that you can have the Sun by your own means. So I wanted to let you get old enough that there is no other explanation. Then if I intervened to allow you to have a son. Because I'm going to build your faith. the story of Hebrews chapter 11 in the rest of the Bible continues that talks about all four Patriarchs just briefly it talks about an amazing moment where Abraham Is challenged to do something crazy. He is challenged to now sacrifice the son he was given and by the way, you're not supposed to get to a point in Christianity where you like? Oh that makes sense. No big deal. Any time. You read this you're supposed to be like what what in the world is God thinking? Why would he do this? This isn't God God God loves people. He would never ask for a person to be sacrificed on his behalf. But that was the point because it was a test for Abraham. It was a test and it wasn't so much. You know, I know the scripture says now I know that you will do whatever I ask. I think the bigger point was Abraham. I should finish the story so that we're not hanging out here. He gets to a point where he almost sacrificed his son and right at the last moment. God says no no no now, I know you are faithful and you will obey me but I think the more important part of the story is now Abraham knows that he is faithful and will obey God is the Abraham reason with himself and he will say this he reasoned with himself that The God Who has always come through for the past 40 years that I've known him. Promised me. He promised me that through Isaac shall my Offspring be as numerous as the stars in the sand on the seashore. So if he says to kill him now somehow this God is going to bring him back to life because he has never broken one of his promises to me. And this is Faith Isaac believe the promises of his dad. He he was there during that moment and he tells those promises to his sons Jacob and Esau they believe the promises of their dad Isaac and they tell the promises to his son. Eventually the promises go to a guy named Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob Joseph finds himself in a bad situation the ends up in Egypt first as a slave, but he turns a bad situation into a good situation. Eventually. He is raised to be the second in command of all of Egypt what an amazing story. It's interesting to me as you really read the Bible and look at the story because eventually all of the Israelites which was only a family of you know, 12 to 15 people at the times. It's not a whole lot of people maybe 30 will give it a good number but still not a lot of people they move down to Egypt because there's a famine in the land in Egypt has all the food and Joseph he's in a pretty good seat. But at the end of Joseph's life catch this Justin said our god did not promise to give us land in Egypt Our God promised to give us land in Canaan that will eventually be Israel. Someday, we're going to return there. That's a crazy story doesn't make any sense in the world. And that's true.

The book of Hebrews continues on it jumps 400 years into the future 1600 years into our past now, at least that's that's by modern rap recognitions. What we think when we think Moses lived is that her sorry 1600 BC I should clarify that. Tell Moses he comes onto the scene and hit it takes a little bit of time to talk about the first the scripture talks about the faith of his parents house during this time that the Egyptians wanted to kill all of the baby boys of of Israel because the Hebrews were becoming too numerous there were too many of them. They knew they were going to outnumber them. They knew they were going to outrun them. They were multiplying like weeds. It was terrible. And and and so this was their plan we're going to kill all of the two year old boys and younger, but the faith of the parents they looked at their child and they said he's too beautiful. But the bigger thing is they looked at Ferrell and said we're not afraid of you and so they put them in a basket and they sent them down the river and eventually this basket shows up at this lady's area where it where she's just staying this lady ends up being the daughter of pharaoh, and she takes him in as her own child. Now I got to tell you if you watch the movie The Prince of Egypt or you know, the movies about things like Moses most of them. Don't do a very good job talking about this but Hebrews chapter 11, does Moses did not grow up not knowing he was a Hebrew he grew up knowing exactly who he was he knew he was a Hebrew he knew he was not Egyptian and the book of Hebrews will say he spent time with his own people being mistreated instead of the luxuries of sin as it's called. He did not care to spend too much time in the Egyptian courts because he wanted to be with his people eventually he left but by faith he was asked to come back to lead his people out and a little side note. I love the story of Moses coming back. Okay, I love the story of Moses coming back because I didn't relate so much to me and I can relate to you and to anybody who follows God when God said, hey Moses. I want you to go to Egypt and I want you to tell the king of the living world right now. To let my people go Moses gives a very appropriate response. Why would you send me? Pick anyone else anyone else? Why me? I am not capable. Who am I that you would send me to talk to pharaoh and God's response is so cool. He says I will be with you. He doesn't answer Moses and say no no. No, you're so much better than you think you are. He doesn't say well Moses. You have the best education out of all the Hebrews cuz you know you grew up in the Egyptian courts. He doesn't say any of those things because they're not important to God. God simply says Moses if you say yes, I will be with you and I will make this happen. So guys if God is calling you to do something if you say yes. God is saying I will be with you and I will make this happen and all you got to do is listen to me. I will do this for you. Tell Moses goes and antifreeze the people and and and they they they go to live in the wilderness. It is a crazy story. The entire story of Moses is crazy. He is a crazy man, and the Israelites are crazy people. right Unless the promises of God are true. In which case these people who are a very flawed people by the way. Are amazingly faithful. Just kind of a side note a little nugget of wisdom for you guys. I bet you don't let yourself believe very often that you can be faithful and flawed at the same time. You can. You can be faithful in Florida at the same time because the truth is we're all flawed and God calls us in our flight and us to be faithful. That's crazy, but it's true. Where to start wrapping up Hebrews 11 starts wrapping up and talking about some major events now not necessary specific people yet, but talks about the Red Sea facts about health Moses led. The Israelites are the Hebrews at the time to the Red Sea and they knew the Pharaohs Army was coming behind them and they needed to find an Escape Route. So do we go right or do we go left? And God gives a very appropriate God answer. He says, I'll go straight. Yeah. I know there's waves right there. I know that that that's way deeper than than your neckline but just could just go straight. Just trust me. It's going to work out. This is why we did the chairs the way they are today nice parting of the Red Sea right down the middle. That's not true about it in the first terminals preaching today. I thought I was like, oh I can't I can't pass that up.

They go straight absolutely crazy, right like really think about it a sea parting so that people can escape absolutely crazy ridiculous absurd to believe. I'll give you another one that's just ridiculous and absurd to believe. There were some people about 40 years past the time of the story. We were just telling and these people needed to go to the city of Jericho and they needed to take over it was finally time to start living in the land the got it called them to live and other people are, who we're not supposed to be there. And that one thing you should know about history, especially anytime you read in the Bible. You do not attack a walled City. This is not like we we have tanks. This is not we have bombs. We don't have mortars. This is not the age where if it you have certain weapons and artillery and catapults and things like that where you can take on a walled City. This is if there is a walled City, they got it and you leave it alone because you will die if you attack the city and so God says I have a great battle plan for you. Trust me. It's going to be awesome. Walk around the city. 1 time for 7 days and on the 7th Day walk around 7 times playing instruments each time. And on the last blast of the trumpet on the 7th Day the walls are going to come tumbling down and then you can go in.

It's crazy. We are. We actually taught this lesson to our kids while back some of them. It was really really really fun. Sherry came up with the idea. We have a bounce house that we purchase for a block party 2 years ago. So we put the bounce house out there on the front porch and or the on the front lawn and while everybody was in here for church second service, cherry and Paul and the team down there. They took all the kids upstairs and they had them March around the Bounce House seven times and then on the seventh time, they all blew their kazoos and they unplugged the bounce house on the walls of Jericho came falling down. It was amazing. That was so fun. But in real life what a crazy story. Here, let me just share one last crazy story from the Bible if you would humor me.

During that time where they had to take on the walled city of Jericho. They still needed to be smart about it. And so they sent him some spies a little earlier on the see. What are the forces inside Jericho like so that when the walls come down we know what we're about to get into. And they were good spies, but they were not excellent spies and eventually somebody kind of caught wind of their Trail. And there was this lady who was very well known to the people of Jericho but not for the right reasons. She was a prostitute. A nobody a person who just kind of lives on the street corner and makes their money by doing things that are not appropriate to talk about in church.

Why would she be in the Bible? Her name was Rahab. And the people despise asked if we could seek shelter in your home and they sought shelter in her home which happened to be in the wall of the city of Jericho and she helped them get out of their window so that they could escape the walls of Jericho because of her face. They spared her life and God redeemed her and she became an Israelite not only did she become an Israelite. She is one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. one of the direct ancestors of Jesus

Isn't that just absolutely crazy? All of these stories just ridiculous. Absurd crazy unless they are true. In which case what an amazing faith and what a legacy is Left Behind.

Let me wrap up. My sermon will jump into her conclusion here. You may have noticed a theme throughout my sermon today or or a couple of things. I have three of them. The first team that I have for today is story your story matters something Andrew said to us a while back stories are the imprints you leave on the world and on the hearts of those you meet when you meet somebody and you work next to them you are leaving a story a memory in their mind when you have a neighbor and you interact over the fence from time to time. You are leaving a story in their mind. They are remembering something about you good or bad. There is a story there is a legacy there when you see somebody struggling and it and you know, you have the ability to help them and you choose to do so or not do so, you are leaving a story and a legacy behind stories matter stories are worth telling and stories leave a legacy. The second theme I had for a sermon today is crazy. What an interesting thing to have in a sermon right? It's almost like I over use that word on purpose today. Your crazy is often seen as bad awkward. Why would you want to do that? We don't want to be a crazy person. Why would you build a boat in the middle of nowhere you crazy? Why would you be willing to leave your home your security your family your life your job behind you crazy. Why would you build a whole nation in the wilderness? Unless you are absolutely and utterly crazy. Why would you do any of these things?

Because it's only crazy if it's not true and that leads to my 3rd theme of the day if it is true, it's not crazy. It's faithful. It's faithful. And this theme of faithful is going to propel us through the rest of our sermon series.

You can probably agree, especially if you knew them which everybody in this room did that Clifford and Steve could both be characters in the Hall of faith of Hebrews chapter 11, they left an amazing Legacy behind they have crazy stories. They did weird things where they went to different countries when it didn't make sense. They gave money when it didn't make sense. They prayed for people when it didn't make sense. They helped people that didn't make sense. It was crazy. But because they believe the promises of God. It wasn't crazy. It was instead faithful. So what can Faith do? Have one last scripture all read today and then we'll close up with my big point. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32 through 38 says this and what more shall I say 4 time would fail me to tell of Gideon of Barack of Samson and of gesture of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms enforce Justice obtained promises. They stopped the mouths of lions. They quench the power of fire escape to the edge of the sword. They were made strong out of weakness. They became Mighty in war and they put foreign armies to flight women receive back their dead and Resurrection somewhere tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonments. They were stoned they were sewn into they were killed with the sword. They they went about and skins of sheep and goats destitute Afflicted mistreated of whom the world was not worthy of them. Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in the dens and Cave of the earth and all of these though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised since God has provided something better for us that apart from us. They should not be made perfect. Do you know what is absolutely crazy? story of Jesus We are here in this room today because we believe there was a guy who was walking on Earth who is in fact God who died a real literal physical death on the cross and even more crazier than that came back to life of his own accord on the third day burying your sins and giving you new life. That's crazy. Unless you believe the promises of God and which case it is faithful. I would Define faith. As being crazy enough to believe the promises of God and to act on them. My simple challenge for you guys today as we dive into our sermon series and head home is get a little crazy. And leave behind a legacy of a story worth telling let's pray. Thank you so much for the day. Thank you for a worship team is coming to lead us and one more final song as we as we set our eyes and our hearts and our focus on you father help us to go home and rest this week. We need rest so much but in the moments in between rest Lord, help us to be crazy help us to be faithful help us to live our stories in such a way that the legacy is worth repeating and telling Thank you Lord, that it is you who leads us that it is you who guides us and you who grants us power. We want to be faithful men and women to you and is in Jesus name. Amen.