Audio Transcript

All right. Well, good morning and welcome to Red Village Church. If I’ve not met you, I’m Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here. I’m glad you are with us. It’s actually kind of a nice December morning. So if you have a Bible with you, open up to the book of Hebrews. We’ve got a lot to cover today, so we’re just going to jump in and get to work.

So Hebrews 11, if you want to flip there. If you don’t have a Bible with you, it’s on page 585. Our text to study is going to be verses 8 through 22, but I’m just going to read verse 13 here, and then we’re going to pray. As mentioned, then we’re going to work through this passage.

So Hebrews 11, I’m going to read just verse 13. This is what the Word says: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?

Lord, thank you for gathering us together this morning to sit under your word. God, we do pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would be very present in this time. Please help me, God, to be a good communicator of your word. Please help the congregation be good listeners of your Word. We pray that you would use your Word through your Spirit to speak to our hearts, just to grow us in the faith or draw us to faith. We pray that you’d use this time also just to bring much glory to Jesus. In his name, we pray. Amen.

So this morning, let me start with a quick story concerning my extended family. It was actually almost 14 years ago that my dad passed away, which was a hard time for my family, obviously. But in particular, it was hard for my mom, who was most affected. After my dad died, my mom had to process through a lot of things in life, including many questions that she had about God and his goodness. As she was working through all these things, a friend who had been fairly consistent in inviting my mom to church over the years continued to do so to the point that my mom finally agreed to go with her. Perhaps there she’d find some answers to all the questions she was having.

My mom grew up going to church. She certainly had some biblical knowledge. But shortly after attending this church, the knowledge all came together for her in ways that her questions found answers, and this had a deep impact on my mom. It was really life-changing as the things of God, particularly the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, went from being a little more distant, maybe a little more formal, to being very real, very close, and very warm to my mom, where the life or the message of Jesus Christ became life-changing to her.

As the things of God warmed my mom’s heart, she then began to talk to her parents, my grandparents, who had a very similar church background experience where they also had biblical knowledge, but it was a little more distant and a little more formal. As my mom talked with her parents, she invited them to church to go with her. After a medical scare that my grandpa had, my grandparents agreed to go with her, where in a very similar fashion, the things of God grabbed hold of their hearts in very real personal ways, where their hearts were also warmed by the things of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and their lives were also changed in really noticeable ways.

Now, fast forward a few years after these life-changing events took place in my mom’s life and in the life of my grandparents. My mom ended up striking up a conversation with a lady from this church, a lady who was actually there from the earliest days when the church was being started. In this conversation, the lady shared with my mom how hard the early days were, how hard they had to work together as a church, where often they would wonder if the church would last much longer.

This lady shared with my mom how the church used to meet in a school, and she had the job of sweeping the floors at the end of the service to ensure everything was put back the way they found it. As she swept, she would testify that she would just pray that God would do something through this new, struggling church, do something in ways that would bring much glory to himself by bringing people to salvation, to faith in Jesus Christ.

As this lady was sharing the story with my mom, my mom started to cry. She told this lady the impact that the church had not only on her, but also on my grandparents and how their lives were changed by the Lord through the ministry of this church. My mom went on to express just this gratitude that she had for people like this lady who she was talking with. If not for people like her doing all they could without knowing what would happen by faith, working towards an unknown future to see the church go forward, if not for this woman and others like her, we trust God, but who knows where my mom and my grandparents would be?

This led to this lady starting to cry as well. She told my mom how when she would sweep, she would do so just praying and praying and praying, hoping that the Lord would do a work, even though in the moment it often seemed very unlikely. But still praying, hoping someday, looking ahead down the road that perhaps the Lord would lead this church in ways that my mom testified the Lord actually did do in her life and in my grandparents’ life.

Now, I tell you that story for a few reasons. First, I hope this is an encouragement to simply invite people to church. Friends, sometimes it doesn’t need to be harder than it is. Sometimes I think we make it harder than it needs to be. There’s no doubt countless people throughout church history have stories like my mom and grandparents, where their lives were changed simply because someone invited them to church, where the message of Jesus Christ warmed their hearts. They believed that Jesus Christ did die for them only to rise again from the dead.

You know, my guess is that even in this room right now, some of you know Jesus Christ simply because someone invited you to church or a Bible study. I mentioned some of my story in the past, but that is my story. Someone invited me to a Bible study, and my life was changed by God.

By the way, on this note, as a reminder, we have a good number of invitations in the back for our Christmas Eve service. Let’s hand these out. You know, this weekend, last weekend, my son Elijah and I went around to our neighborhood and invited them out, and we actually already had people responding with some interest. Church, we can do this.

Okay, second, I tell you the story because this weekend is actually the 14th anniversary of our church here. Throughout the history of our church, especially in the earliest days, those who were with us, I’m sure you identify with the story of the lady and how she would just work and do these things, sweeping the floors with this uncertain future, where she was just looking ahead down the road hoping that God might do something. You can identify with it because in many ways, that is our story. We started with just the most humble beginnings, a real small group of us, where for years we too met in a school, where we had to set up and take down, sweep the floors, and make sure everything looked better after we left than when we found it.

So this is our story. And by the way, to go off what Rob preached on last week, if you were with us from Romans 12, that need we had from the start for people to come together, working harder, sacrificing, praying that the Lord would do a work for his glory through the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. So 14 years later for us, from when we first started, that need actually has not changed, and that actually will never change in the life of our church.

No doubt, hopefully, we’re a little more stable. Hopefully, we’ve grown a little bit in 14 years, but we have not arrived as a church. There’s still a lot of ways that we should grow, and we will always be dependent upon the Lord. No matter how long the Lord gives us, we will always be dependent to work hard together, pray hard together, and do what we can together to trust that the Lord will continue to move our church forward. However many anniversaries the Lord provides for us to celebrate, we’re never going to outgrow our dependency upon the Lord.

Third, I’ll tell you this story, the story of my mom and this lady, just to help set us up for our text today, which is the next in line in our study of Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 11, which details a series of characters who sacrificed and served the Lord in ways that they didn’t fully know the future, where they were very much looking ahead down the road. In fact, they were looking so far down the road that, unlike the lady that my mom talked with, they didn’t get to see the things that they were promised, which is often the case in this life.

No doubt, at times we see the fruits of our labor in this life. In fact, in part, even as we look around this room this morning or think of the things happening in the village kids downstairs, we have already seen some fruits of our labors, however long you’ve been part of Red Village. These are fruits of your labors, whether you’ve been here from the earliest days or just recently. But often, the fruits of our labors that create the biggest ripple are those who come long af