I once had no shoes to wear - Then I met a man who had no feet 

               I once had no food to eat - Then I met a man who had no teeth 

               I once had no shirt to wear - Then I met a man who had no pants 

Roberta’s Grandpa Burchardt made the Land Run in 1889.  After staking his claim he began to plow around it to show that it had been claimed.  As he plowed along one side he met a man plowing from the other direction. The other man thought it was his claim!  Now grandpa had a choice… get upset or make a friend.  After a brief discussion they realized that Grandpa had made the claim first, so it was his land.  Rather than saying, “I told you so!” he helped the second man find a claim of his own.

            His granddaughter, my wife, continues that same practice of helping everyone that she can!

            Conflict gives us two choices. Get angry and lash out at the other person, or stop and work things out.

            We all face difficulties. Whether our difficulty is a disaster or a challenge is a personal choice. If the sickness or problem is seen as God’s way of punishing us, we are stuck with a disaster. But when we realize that God wants to help us, victory is on the way! 

            When the gold rush hit California everyone was off to get wealthy. At first there was little crime. Everyone planned to find their personal “mother lode.” However, a few months later the crooks and thieves showed up wanting to cheat everyone.

            After that, staking the claim was the easy part. They had to defend their claim.

            Spiritually speaking you and I have to do that every day of our lives. In John 10:10 Jesus states, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

            Satan hates you, and he really gets upset when God blesses you… it is a spiritual battle that we must win.

Read Hebrews 11:1-16

“Now faith” is faith that will help us right now. This faith gives substance to whatever we believe for. God spoke the world into existence out of nothing. Faith helps us do the same thing.

If you do not build your faith every day you will frequently find yourself struggling over the same problems over and over. We need to “be instant in season and out of season.”

In 2006 I was down spiritually and physically because of undiagnosed health problems and lack of rest.

I was spiritually unprepared for the battles I faced. First I had surgery for cancer, then 6 weeks later I was hospitalized with an acute case of myasthenia gravis.

I got depressed and discouraged! Was that a sin? No, it was a battle that I handled poorly. Only recently have I begun to see the sickness as an opportunity for spiritual growth.

Finally the illness has become something to conquer, not something to tolerate.

I’ve staked my claim, but now I have to defend it. I can do this by walking closely with God, learning and applying God’s word to my situation, determining what things help and what things hinder, and getting past the situation.

Why did it take so long? I don’t know, but I sure wish I did.

         Personally I am convinced that God is perfectly able to get an accurate Bible to us. Verse 3 states that “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command… so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Sounds good to me!

OUR ATTITUDE MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. God wants us to act in faith!        

            We generally teach that Abel’s offering was accepted over Cain’s because Abel’s was a blood offering, Cain’s was a grain offering. However, the NIV Commentary takes a different approach that clears up several questions for me. It says, “The contrast is not between an offering of plant life and an offering of animal life, but between a careless, thoughtless offering and a choice, generous offering. The whole matter was one of motivation!”

            The Israelites were to offer perfectly healthy animals as sacrifices… no old, sickly or injured animals.

            Genesis 4:3-7. God said, “Sin is crouching at your door.” The Hebrew word for “crouching” is the same as the ancient Babylonian word referring to an evil demon crouching at the door of a building to threaten the people inside. Sin may thus be pictured here as just such a demon, waiting to pounce on Cain. Cain may already have been plotting his brother’s murder. “Sin desires to have you.” The word for desires is the same word in Genesis 3:16 where God tells Eve, “Your desire will be for your husband.”

            When you read Hebrews 11 and 12 please remember that these were ordinary people just like you and me.

            They make the Biblical “Who’s Who” list because when God asked them to do something they did it. Often at great expense and effort! The question is did God make them overcomers or did God choose them because He knew that they would overcome the situation?

            “Without faith it is impossible to please God!” Why? “Because you have to believe that He exists and wants to reward those that earnestly seek Him.”          

Two points must be made here.

1.     To believe in God we must believe God. “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” (But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:23)

2.     To receive from God we must earnestly seek Him. (In Matthew 7:7, 8 Jesus states, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

            Consider Noah’s faith. Come on! Build a boat a long way from the ocean and then tell people that water would fall from the sky and float the boat and drown them? How silly can you be? It had never rained before.

            Then there was Abraham. He gave up everything to serve God… and became a biological dad at age 100. That was 25 years after God promised him the child. Because he gave up everything God gave him everything.

            But Abraham did not receive all of these blessings sitting in a rocker on his front porch.

            Living by faith means that you are comfortable in knowing that God will answer the prayer even if the answer comes after we die. For instance, Hebrews 11:22 “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”

            Note also that Moses, “regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”

            Finally, in verse 38-40, “The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

Hebrews 12:1-13 (Verse 1 links chapters 11 and 12 together.)

            Believers face two battles. First is our personal struggle against sin. Although we are saved and made new creations in Christ Jesus, we still have a sinful nature that causes us to be distracted from our spiritual growth and development. Simply stated, it is difficult to set priorities!

            The second struggle is in doing the work of God. My uncle Troy was a lucky man. He was drafted for WWI, but by the time his training was completed the war was over.

            However, if you have been saved for very long, there is a good chance that you have had some spiritual battles!

            Hebrews 12 states that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. The imagery suggests an athletic contest in a great amphitheater. This means that the saints of old set the gold standard for us; it is expected that we will follow and build on their example. The old time saints also means the people that served in this church since its founding 114 years ago. They set a powerful standard for us…some of them are still a part of this congregation. They are more than an inspired audience; they are shining examples. We should seek to excel their effectiveness for God.

            St. Paul compares the Christian journey to a race. One writer said that the Christian life is a “life-long journey of testing.” I suppose that he is correct, but I prefer to think of it as a life-long journey of blessing. I plan to win, with God’s help!

            We can compare it to the Olympic races that are taking place in China this week. Those athletes have worked diligently for many years to accomplish this goal. The lives of those that compete will never be the same – especially those that win the crown!

            Each one has experienced the pain of defeat and the thrill of winning. But winning in sports is not a permanent thing. Records are broken every day.

            The next season for that sport means that each winner will be out there pushing themselves over and over to get stronger and stronger.

            People that see God as a harsh judge or angry father always anxious to do us harm will never enjoy the peace that comes with salvation. Their focus is on their performance instead of on God’s love.

V. 2  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

If He perfected your faith, you have nothing to worry about.

V. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Thus we see that we have to struggle with sin. It is part of the maturing process. Don’t you wish God would just remove that sinful nature?

As we mature in Christ, God will correct us from time to time. V. 5 “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."

V. 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

V. 8 “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.”

WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM WINNING?

            There is not a problem that you or I face that God does not understand. Jesus faced every temptation that we face. Jesus conquered sin for us. Jesus conquered death, hell and the grave.

            Our real challenge is to develop the personal discipline necessary to walk in obedience to the Lord.

I am thrilled with what is happening in our church! Our Wednesday night Children’s Ministry in conjunction with the Immanuel Baptist Church has really blessed us. Last Tuesday evening Barbara Liebl and Roberta Seaton put together a powerful celebration with one of the classes as we decorated the Paradise Room. It has been painted to look like a tropical island. Their guest of honor was Alice Wahling because Alice is the professional artist in the church.  It was a fantastic evening of dining on Hawaiian food and dedicating the room to the glory of God. The young ladies in the class acted as hostesses for their parents and Barbara took the girls home for a slumber party.

            Every Sunday morning we have fellowship around the breakfast table. This is certainly a time of sweet fellowship and really inspires me for the morning worship service.

            We just completed our annual community VBS in conjunction with the other churches in the community.

            All of this is wonderful, but it is just the beginning of what God has called us to do as a church. There are still unchurched people in the community. There are still needs to be met. We have people from the church in the nursing homes and the assisted living center. They all need personal ministry. As we minister to them we reach out to their families.

            “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1Timothy 6:6)

            “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

            The person that only thinks of himself is a very narrow minded person and cannot please God.

We must seek more powerful and dynamic ways to expand the ministry of this church. This will always cause problems… or invoke wonderful ways to draw upon God’s power for a wonderful Challenge!