Real People...Real Stories...Real Faith...

For the past 10 weeks, the Preaching Team and I have been exploring Hebrews 11 for the message series Real People...Real Stories...Real Faith. We’ve been studying God’s Hall of Faith, the Hall of Champions ... the great stories of remarkable biblical heroes. And the amazing thing is that these were real people, each one of them ... Abraham and Moses and Gideon and Samson and so on...

The Scripture says these things were written unto us as examples to encourage us, and these wonderful stories ... stories that inspired me when I was a child still inspire me today. The common thread has been by faith. We’ve seen these heroes of the faith fight the good fight by faith.

This weekend we’ll close the series with the message “Enduring Faith.” And as we observe Palm Sunday ... the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection ... this passage from Hebrews 12:1–3 is powerful in how it speaks to us in such a time as this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.