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Ilam SDA Church

Daniel Pel

A Journey of Faith

Once again, I want to welcome you all to the house of God this morning.

It is such a joy for me to be back in New Zealand, to be back here in Christchurch in the South Island.

We've had some wonderful weeks in New Zealand, but I did not want to go back home without visiting Islam Church.

So thank you for your warm welcome, and I am blessed to be here this morning, not alone, but together with my wife.

Oh, there she is, all the way in the back.

And we're very happy that he is with us here in New Zealand as well.

And it is special to be a parent and to have a little son.

So again, just thank you for the invitation.

And there's a lot of special people in this room for me, very special.

As I just reflect back on my journey of faith, I can really thank many people in this room for being part of that.

You know when I was 9 years old, I grew up in New Zealand, I was born in New Zealand, my parents are Dutch, but when I was 9 years old we moved back to the Netherlands.

But before we left there was a seed that was sown in my heart and in the hearts of my family, and that was Dagen Angela that shared the Adventist message with us, and we're just eternally grateful for that.

And you know, Damon, I grew up with him, and to see that he's now the elder of this church is a great joy for me.

Taka that led out in the prayer, having Bible studies with him back in 2011 after the earthquake and now to see that he's baptized and the elder of this church is a great joy for me to see.

So thankful for Gordon and for so many people just that are here, the elders, everyone that has been part of blessing my own journey.

And yeah, If I started listed I would have to mention a lot of names here.

So I'm just so thankful to many people here.

Well, a lot has happened in the meantime when I have...

For the last time I was here in New Zealand was 2012.

Actually right now I am pastoring a church in Norway, which is an interesting experience.

I'll be doing that at least for this year on the west coast of Norway.

I'm passing a church in the city of Bergen.

And so it's a new experience for me going from being an itinerant evangelist traveling all across the world to actually be in a congregation for at least for a time being and we're very blessed by that.

So Gordon, if you ever need an associate pastor, give me a call.

So I'd love to maybe come back someday to New Zealand and be part of this congregation.

But it is a wonderful experience and I'm so grateful to be able to open the word to you this morning and to share what God has laid on my heart.

And our message this morning is entitled, A Journey of Faith.

And we're gonna have another word of prayer before we get started as I always like to pray myself and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide me as I break the words of life before God's people.

So will you just bow your heads with me together another time as we ask the Holy Spirit to be with us.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful to come before your throne of grace this morning.

We're so grateful that we can open your word and we ask that you will send your Holy Spirit to guide us into your truth.

Lord, I pray that you will not allow your truth to return unto you void, but accomplish that in which you are pleased.

So be with us now, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, we're gonna go on a little journey together, a journey of faith.

And the chapter we'll be looking at this morning is Hebrews chapter 11, a fascinating chapter.

We are going to start our time in Hebrews 11 and we're going to actually end our time in Hebrews chapter 3.

And we're gonna actually look at 4 main passages this morning.

Our first passage is gonna be Hebrews 11.

Then we're going to look at the story of Moses in Exodus chapter 3.

Then we're going to look at the story of the Israelites as they are on the borders of Canaan in Numbers 13 and 14, and then we'll land the plane, we'll end our time together back in the book of Hebrews chapter 3.

So I hope you have your Bibles with you this morning.

Can you just hold up your Bibles for me this morning?

You need your Bible as we want to see for ourselves what the Word of God has to say to us.

So take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews.

And turn to Hebrews chapter 11 as we will start our journey together in this chapter.

Hebrews 11, Jed has already read for us very well the first 2 verses, but we'll read it once again.

It's a fascinating, beautiful chapter about what faith is and how it played out in the lives of various individuals throughout time.

And so In Hebrews chapter 11 we have many examples, the biographies, the lives of individuals that lived by faith.

And it begins, the chapter begins in verse 1 and it says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony." In other words, in order to have faith, you must be able to believe in something that you not necessarily see with your physical eyes.

We don't physically, I don't believe any of us, maybe some have, but most of us have not physically seen God and yet we are here this morning because we believe in Him.

And so faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And then verse 2 tells us that we can have a good testimony through faith or by faith.

And then we have a lot of examples in Hebrews chapter 11 of how this played out in the lives of individuals.

And the first individual that is mentioned is in verse 4, a man by the name of Abel.

And so Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4, we read the following.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, still speaks." Now many of you will remember the story of Abel.

He was the son of Adam and Eve and he was not the only son.

He had an elder brother, an older brother by the name of Cain.

And you'll remember the story there in Genesis chapter 4 right after the fall.

How Abel in faith brought a sacrifice before the Lord.

He sacrificed a lamb believing that that lamb pointed forward to the coming Messiah.

And he did this in faith believing that the Messiah would come to make an atonement for his sins.

And then his older brother Cain sees the sacrifice of Abel and how the Lord is pleased with his sacrifice, and yet he is not experiencing the same because he did not follow the Word of God.

He tried to bring his own sacrifice, not the way that God had required.

Well, you know the story, Cain becomes so upset, he is so angered against his brother, that he actually takes his life.

And so here in the very beginning of this journey of faith, this story of faith in Hebrews 11, we have the example of a person that we could say gave his life for his faith.

His life was literally taken for his faith, for an act of obedience to God.

Now I want you to take notice of the next individual that is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11.

There is a fascinating buildup in this chapter.

It is a comparisons are being made, contrasts are being made between various individuals.

And the next individual that we encounter is a man by the name of Enoch in verse 5.

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A Journey of Faith

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