Faithful and Loving God: We come to worship today to hear your good news, to hear of faith, hope and love ringing out from your kingdom. We know that doubt, fear and hatred can shake even the strongest. Shape us into faithful hopeful people, fill us with your love that passes all understanding. We pray this together in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Faith. By faith, Noah built an Ark. By faith, Abraham and Sarah fathered a son.

By faith, Barton Stone, left sectarianism and formed the Christian movement and later joined the Disciples.

By faith, Thomas Campbell, initiated the reformation of Christians in Western Pennsylvania. He wrote the Declaration and Address an appeal to Christian unity among Christians and churches.

By faith, Alexander Campbell became the leading voice of Campbell Stone reformation movement.

By faith, in 1883, James R Challen left Central Christian Church in Cincinnati to meet with six others to pray about starting a church in Jacksonville, Florida. By Christmas these faithful men and their families organized First Christian Church in Jacksonville FL. Worship was held at Odd Fellows Hall.

By faith, in 1886 Rev. Blenus erected our first church building at Main and Beaver streets.

By faith, First Christian survived and ministered through epidemics of Yellow Fever and Spanish Flu.

By faith, the church continued and rebuilt after devastating fires of 1901 and1925. Tom Bowman said there was no insurance to cover the losses but the congregation rebuilt.

By faith, in 1980 the church faced declining membership. They faced whether to disband or relocate.

By faith, they chose to relocate to Mandarin. The property was dedicated to Christ’s ongoing ministry in November.

By faith, the congregation voted to build a new sanctuary in 1994. It was completed and dedicated in 1998.

By faith, what are you and I going to do for the sake of those who come behind us? That’s the question I want to pose today. According to the writer of Hebrews, there are two or three things about faith that you and I ought to know. Faith is the ability to see. It is a set of eyes through which we see the world. It is a set of glasses through which we perceive the reality of the world. Faith is a way of seeing.

For some of us, faith is invisible and impossible. For some people faith is some far-out idea. Occasionally, you and I talk about blind faith. The faith I have in mind for you today is not blind. I am not asking you to do something that is against your good judgment or your good reason. Faith is seeing fully.

I have in mind what the writer of Hebrews said about faith centuries ago. Faith is being sure of what you hope for and being certain of what you do not see.

By faith, you board an airplane.

By faith, you drive a car.

By faith, you visit your doctor.

By faith, you came to church today.

By faith, you start a family.

By faith, you invest in the future.

Life is lived by faith.

With the scientific mind-set we say, “Show me and I will believe it.” With a spiritual mind-set God says, “Believe in me and I will show you.” If you can believe it, God can do it.

While some see things as they are and ask why, the faithful dream of things that never were and ask why not? That is the story of the faithful. Faith is the ability to see. It is a set of eyes through which we see the world, but faith is also something more.

Faith is the courage to act on what we see. There is an old story about a tight rope walker who stretched a cable across Niagara Falls all the way from the American side to the Canadian side. To the applause of a growing crowd, the acrobat walked the tightrope above the rushing, cascading waters that thundered underneath.

Then he went back up and rode a bicycle across and even walked it blindfolded. For his grand finale he took a wheelbarrow and playing to the crowd said, “Do you think I can push this wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls?” “Sure you can,” came the thunderous response. To which he said, “Well, which one of you will volunteer to ride in the wheelbarrow?”

By faith, Abel offered, Enoch walked, Noah built, and Abraham went out not knowing where he was going but certain he was following the Lord. You see, faith has the ability to see it but it also has the courage to act on it.

By faith, our church ancestors would not let Yellow Fever Epidemic nor Spanish Flu pandemic defeat the church. And we are here.

By faith, they would not let two devastating fires leave them in ashes of defeat. And we are here.

By faith, they would not let declining numbers dash their vision of ministry.

And we are here.

Instead, they saw these challenges as opportunities for faithful witness!

And so do we!

Faith is the determination to endure. Verse 13: “all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.” All these people were still living by faith when they died. I think that is one of the great statements of the New Testament. I hope that is true of my life. Still living by faith when I die.

We are pilgrims on the journey of a long and winding road.

And those who’ve gone before us line the way.

Will those who come behind us find us faithful? Ah, that is the question. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Creating God: we ask you to reveal your divine image in our lives and your glory this world. Guide us with your vision when we lose our way, and claim us again and again in an everlasting covenant.

Redeeming Christ: we ask you gather up our doubts and transform them into confidence; surround our fears and transform them into faithfulness; pick up our broken lives and transform us into your body.

Abiding Spirit: we ask you to hold fast to us so that we can stand firm amidst the trials of this life; fill us with your gifts, so we can shine forth with your goodness.

Open our minds to grow in your divine wisdom and knowledge, to learn to live as you intend. Open our hearts so we may become closer to you, ease our worries about this mortal life, to rest in your care. We ask that you comfort those who mourn and heal those who are broken in body, mind or spirit.We gather as your people to offer our prayers of thanks, to confide our fears, to ask for your help. Inspire us to new ways to serve as Christ’s body in this community and world. We offer these prayers in one voice:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.