Rev. Mike Frison: And I I thought that they said that since it was outdoor worship that we would go an hour in the for the preaching alone. Right? Something like that? He says, have have at it. Have at it.
One time I was well, I am on a roll here now. Uh-oh. I was walking out of a little church. They were used to about a twenty minute sermon and I was guest preaching there. Well, I happened to be preaching on Isaiah six and I got wound up about the doorpost shaking and, you know, god them seeing the train of god's robe and all that And I probably ended up preaching closer to forty minutes.
I usually preach around thirty. And an older gentleman shakes my hand at the door, very gracious, and he says, now young man this is a few years ago. I was a young man then. He says, young man, that was a full message. You can take that whatever way you want.
That was a full message. Right? So he was very gracious. But I wanted to say a little something about doctor Hess, your founder, since it's seventy years now. I had the distinct privilege and I would say it was a distinct privilege to work with doctor Hess from the time he retired here in 1992 until 1997.
Even after he left there, he did some preaching down river. So I mean, the man died with his boots on. He was here at Ward this Sunday. He he fell into kind of a coma or whatever on the 12/21/1999. But he was here shaking.
He wasn't preaching, but he was shaking hands and working the crowd like he always could. The day before he fell unconscious and then he died this day after that. So but but one of the things he said was that to me was that when he came to Ward Memorial, he was he come he he had come specifically to plant a daughter church out in somewhere in the Livonia area. I mean, this area out here at 1956 was growing by leaps and bounds. There was still a lot of open area, you know.
So he was driving out with a doing a funeral and he's in the hearse of the funeral. And doctor Hess was not a guy who said very often, well, God spoke to me such and such. But he said he was driving by the property over on Farmington And 6 Mile. And he said the Lord just spoke to him that that was where they needed to plant the church. And he said after that, he and Margaret would walk that nine acres of property that you had over there and they thought they would never use all of that nine acres.
Little did he know that they were bussing people in after that and after a while and and he was able to see this 139 acres bloom to this building and that made him happy. And he was finally, just before he died, weeks before he died, he was able to see Knox not only buy 50 acres of property, but complete their building down to it didn't have carpet down yet, but he he saw it at Thanksgiving time in 1999 and then he died December 1999. And we had our first services in that building January 2000. So he got to see and those were big. He he thought of buildings as being places where people are one to Christ and and people are built up in Christ.
And that's wasn't just the bricks and the mortar, it was the people that he was after. So anyway, long story short there. Sorry. But good morning and as we as you may remember, your pastor pastors and others have been in a series in the book of Hebrews and entitled Anchored. And the theme of theme verse of the entire series is found in Hebrews chapter 13 verse eight.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's right. That's right. And so in this topsy-turvy world, you know, of ours, we need an anchor, don't we? We need a solid anchor for our hearts and for our souls.
And we here at Ward, we're entering into and have entered into a season of change, in a season that's, you know, with sadness and and and mourning that's impacting our hearts and our minds and our souls. So we, you and I, we really need this unchanging character and work of Jesus Christ to be anchored in him. He doesn't change. He doesn't die. He doesn't he's he is forever.
Above all, we need to be anchored in Jesus. So over the next this last several weeks, pastor Terence and others have shown that Jesus Christ supremacy is unchanging and that his salvation, hence, our salvation is secure. You are secure in your salvation in Jesus Christ. That his mercy is steady and that his fatherly love is constant. Those are all things that you have heard from this pulpit these last four or five weeks.
Now, today, we will see that god's call to faith based on all of those other things is enduring especially in difficult times. And and we might say because of the death of Scott and other things that are going on in our world today that we are in somewhat difficult times. Today is Pentecost Sunday. Yes. It's Memorial Day weekend, but it's also Pentecost Sunday.
Seven weeks, actually, tomorrow would be fifty days after Easter, the resurrection. Before I read our text in Hebrews, I I'd like to read the Pentecost story, which is in chapter two if you have your Bible. Chapter two of acts verses one through 15. And we I do this because we in the evangelical church in America today, we sometimes kinda lose those important liturgical dates that the church has celebrated for for millennia. And this is a really important date and I'll say why after we read.
Acts chapter two beginning at verse one. This is God's word. I think you'd all stand for God's word, don't you? You're gonna have to stand a couple of times during this sermon. Get you some exercise.
So Acts chapter two beginning at verse one. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues of fire appeared to them resting on each one of them and they were all filled with the holy spirit And they began to speak in other tongues at the, as the spirit gave them utterance. Sorry. Since it's not on my phone, my pages are stuck together. Sorry.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the sound of the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? Galileans, by the way, were not they were sort of the hillbillies of the area. If you wanna and and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?
Parthenons and Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Perga, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both the Jews and the proselytes, Cretans, and Arabians. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean? But others were mocking them and said, they're filled with new wine. But Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them and said, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let it be known to you to give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day.
Amen. May be seated. Maybe if it would have been the fifth or sixth hour, they might have been but not in the third hour of the day. Right? Well, you know, may I say before we get to our our text though, John Calvin was known in his day as the theologian of the Holy Spirit.
Now I know most of you think, oh, John Calvin, he wrote a lot about predestination and stuff like that. Right? And they think of us as being the frozen chosen as as Presbyterians. But he was he wrote more about the Holy Spirit and and then then Martin Luther did. Martin Luther wrote more about predestination than John Calvin did.
So we don't have to be the chosen chosen. We can be empowered by the Holy Spirit. And so let's ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to hear his word today, and this is the text that I'll be preaching on. Hebrews 10 and you can jump back up again. Sorry.
Feel like you're in a Catholic church or something up and down and up and down. We don't have any kneelers down though yet today. This is so let's ask the holy spirit to teach us as we hear this passage. Hebrews chapter 10 beginning at verse 32. This is God's word.
But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. Since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not though of those who shrink back and are destroyed.
But of those who have faith and preserve our souls. Amen? God's word. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the way your word enlivens our hearts. We thank you that your holy spirit inspired these words and we pray that that same spirit would make them go deep into our hearts and would make changes in the way that we interact, the way that we live our lives this beginning this Memorial Day weekend. Thank you, Jesus. And we pray this in your precious name. And the people of God said together, amen.
So if you are to be strongly anchored to Christ in this changing world, if we are to comprehend that god's called of faith is unchanging, then, we need to keep at least three truths that I've pulled out of this text. We need to keep them close to our hearts and in our minds. And since it's Pentecost Sunday, the liturgical color for Pentecost is red. You wondered why I had this wild red shirt on, and our truths will spell out the acrostic of red so that you can remember them. How about that?
And I have to say this week, now my wife's not in here. She's in Sunday school, but so I can't give her too hard a time. But I I came home from my favorite secondhand shop with a red shirt that did not have did not have any university logo on it. You know, because most of my red shirts had university logos on that you probably don't like so much. So I came home with another red shirt and my wife looked at it and she said, are you really are you trying to look frumpy?
How's that for for for a vote of vote of confidence? So I went out to my second favorite Salvation Army store and got this shirt so that we could celebrate Pentecost, but also Memorial Day. And I will tell you this particular memorial day tie. Now those of you who are fairly young, how many of you are 50 years old here? Wow.
Quite a few of you. I wore this tie in 1976 at a Bicentennial parade as I sold hot dogs and peanuts and hamburgers to people. So it's 50 years old. You can see I don't wear bow ties very often because it doesn't have much warm worn on it. But how about that?
You know, so I can tell. I when I tell my kids, you know, kids, I got ties older than you. It's true. It's true. So anyway, enough of that.
Our first truth out of the scripture here that we need to recall, that we need to stick with us if we're gonna know that we are really bound to Jesus is is the word recall or remember. Look at verse 32. We read, recall the former days when after you were enlightened, so they had come to know Christ. Right? After you had were enlightened, you endured hard struggles with sufferings.
You see, just because you've been called to faith in Christ, don't listen to anybody that says, oh, come to Jesus and everything will be wonderful and fine. They're lying to you. Many times, when you once you've come to god, come to Christ, sometimes the struggles really begin there. Remember that Hebrews said that that it was after it was after they were followers of Christ that these things came. The text goes on to say, you were publicly exposed to reproach, to affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
So not until we plant our flag, is it? When we plant our flag and proclaim that we have faith in Jesus Christ, that's when people feel free to be critical and maybe to criticize and chastise even our every move. Before that, they kinda leave us alone. The apostle Paul knew a lot about this kind of thing, didn't he? I mean, he was a man who knew reproach.
If anybody ever knew reproach and affliction, the apostle Paul knew it in great ways. In fact, if you think about there's nothing it's stuff that we'd never dream of here in twenty first century America. But Paul, look at second Corinthians 11 with me, beginning at 23 and I quote, he said, are there are they servants of Christ? I am out of my mind to talk like this. I am much more.
He's saying I'm much more of a servant. He says, have worked harder. I have been imprisoned more frequently. I've been flogged more severely. I've been exposed to death again and again.
Five times I've receded received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. One way to say 39 lashes. Three three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned and that was with stones not with marijuana. Three times I was shipwrecked.
I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move, in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger from in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and often and gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food and I can tell you if you work here at Ward, you never go without food. I have been naked and cold Besides everything else, I have the daily pressure of my concern for all the churches, unquote.
You see, this was a man who endured great hardship. Great hardship. Paul later writes these light and momentary afflictions cannot compare to the glory of Jesus. You see, he had that eternal perspective. So he could he could, you know, take on.
He could he could tolerate all of this stuff here in this world because he knew what he had in Christ was much much better. These light and momentary afflictions. Amazing. So our writer of Hebrews reminds us to recall those former days, not like, you know, not to as apostle Paul was a man who knew reproach and affliction in ways that we never dreamed of. But not just that way, but not to settle in in self pity, but to remember that God anchored you just as he did Paul.
He anchored you enough that you were able to stand your ground no matter what you've experienced in this life. Have you been challenged by the world to stand your ground in Jesus? Maybe not certainly not stonings and beatings and that sort of thing, But in some ways, I, you know, I have to say I was in a former chaplain job that I was challenged to stand my ground. And Jesus, because of a a a boss that didn't like me very much and didn't like my faith very much. And I wasn't looking at beatings or stonings or anything like that.
I was simply risking getting residency there at this institution where I was interning. And in the end, I have to say I was glad that the Lord gave me enough courage to stand my ground and to continue to carry my Bible into each and every room and to pray and read it with every patient that wanted me to do that. Not to force it on anybody, but every patient that wanted me to do that. Our second truth is that we need to hold close to our hearts in order to be anchored in Jesus Christ. And this changing world is to and to comprehend God's call to faith in a changing no matter.
Excuse me. How changing this world is is endurance. So reflect now endurance. Endurance in the English standard version, it's verse 32 says, after you were enlightened, you endured hard struggle with sufferings. And then in verse 36, we read, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
And I say to you that there are at least two virtues that we see in this text that come out of this this invert this endurance. These enduring struggles and reproaches and afflictions. The first one of those virtues is compassion. And the second one is generosity. Some of you know that I still go to a prison nearby and preach once per month.
Now now my last time I was preaching there was on Mother's Day, and this prison has now become a woman's prison. It was a men's prison when we first went in there years ago. It's now a woman's prison. So on Mother's Day, it was a particularly somber time. But after the service, I was talking to various inmates because I knew I was gonna be preaching this text in a couple of weeks.
And I asked them where they experience the most compassion. And to a person, they said, the people that come here they said sometimes it's from a guard, but most of the time it's from the people who come in here and who teach from outside of the prison. People who are teaching high school and college classes, they said, they are so compassionate to us and they really want us to learn. And almost always, they show great compassion to us as inmates. I must admit that the Lord is still very much working on me on being generous and giving away, you know, the plundering of my property.
Some of you can probably teach me a lesson or two on that and some of you are much more generous than I am. However, my wife and I I will say we had an experience a number of years ago. We went on a mission trip, a short mission trip, just a short term one from we were living in Cincinnati at the time and we went down to a place called Cow Cow Creek, Kentucky and all the environs around that. And it was a it's a very impoverished Appalachian town. The folks there have been left behind when strip coal mining went out of fashion and was outlawed.
And so now they're just trying to figure out how to how to make a living back in some of those hollers back there. But I will tell you on a Saturday night, after we had only worked with them and for them for only a few days, the people in that valley around Cow Creek, they put on a potluck feast that was absolutely amazing in its scope. I will never forget this potluck. I mean, these local people put on this feast and they were so joyful to be able to do it that singing and fiddle playing and dancing broke out that Saturday night among those people and from Cow Creek and us stayed Cincinnati Presbyterians. But we had a ball.
We had a ball. And the missionary that lives there in Cow Creek full time told us that the potluck, the cost of that potluck for them would set those families back in their own family budgets for their families for weeks to come. And so, of course, we, you know, brought a a gift back to them because we couldn't believe how generous they had been. Our text says that you have recalled and you have endured and you have compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accept the plundering of your property. So our third and final truth from this word is that you that you must hold close to your heart and keep in your minds if you're going to be anchored in Christ is if to comprehend that god's call to faith is unchanging, that final truth is don't shrink back.
See, there's your red. Right? Recall or remember, endure, and d, don't shrink back. Our our writer tells us in verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. We, you and me together, we are not we do not shrink back.
And by ourselves, may I say, is pretty easy to shrink back. It's very easy to shrink back by ourselves. There's a story of an old wise Scottish pastor who had a rather obstinate old member of his church and it was before we had online stuff. But this obstinate member was starting to stay away from church, wasn't going to church for months and months. And so pastor called the old obstinate member and came over to visit.
They were having some conversation by the fire, having a little cup of tea. And when the old member got up to tend the fire to put another logger and so on the fire, The pastor stopped him. Said, no, no, don't do that. And then the pastor a little bit later, the pastor separated the two logs that were in the fire apart from one another. Well, it wasn't long before both of those logs were just about out.
No more fire. The pastor didn't have to say anything to the guy. The old member got the message. He said, pastor, I'll see you in church next Sunday. You see, by ourselves, from one another, we can shrink back in our own strength a lot.
But with one another, we can be strong enough and we have a much better chance of not shrinking back when we have others around us who are urging us on, who are believing and trusting in the Lord. Earlier in Hebrews 10 verse 25, the writer says, let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the day approaching. Well, let me tell you friends, brothers and sisters, the day has been approaching now for nineteen hundred more years. And so as we see the day approaching, it's all the more important that we gather together and encourage one another to love and to good deeds. On the Pentecost Sunday, will you remember read, recall, remember, reflect on those former days.
Endure, e, the hard struggles and the need for endurance, and d, don't shrink back because we are those who do not shrink back and largely because of one another and because the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We are those who have faith and we preserve our souls. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you especially for your word. We thank you for the way your word enlightens us and guides us through all of our faith journey.
Throughout all of life, no matter how old or young we are, your word can speak to us. And we praise you for that, and we thank you. And Lord, on this Memorial Day weekend, let us remember especially tomorrow that it's not just about parades and backyard barbecues and today, this afternoon about an Indianapolis five hundred and but it's really about those who have given the ultimate price, who gave their lives for the freedoms, for the freedom that we have to sit and hear your word in a place where we don't have the police outside waiting to pick us up and take us to jail because we just heard the word of God. Thank you, Lord, for that. We give you praise.
Help us never to take that for granted. We pray for their families and Lord, we pray that you would be gracious to us as we reflect on your graciousness and protection. Lord, help us to endure, to be anchored to you so that we will never shrink back. Thank you, Lord. We pray this in your matchless name.
And the people of God said together, amen.