Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preached by Donald Ng at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, CA<\/p>\n\n\n\n
September 28, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am grateful for this opportunity to bring a message to Lakeshore. As you may know, I have shared on the other side of the Bay with you since 1998, some 27 years ago. And before the A\u2019s left Oakland, I would come to the Coliseum with the hope that the Red Sox might win. And if you didn\u2019t know, Boston is in the post-season by winning against Detroit yesterday!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I reflected, I have had a number of connections with you. Valentine Royal was at Lakeshore before she became the Director of Women in Ministry and I had the opportunity to work with her in Valley Forge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One Sunday when I was still serving in Valley Forge, I preached at Lakeshore Avenue and after my sermon, Rick Mixon came up to me and kindly corrected me that LGBTQ people\u2019s identity is an orientation and not a preference; since then, I have been better educated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And more personally, our daughter, Lauren Ng received her formative training and nurture by you as your seminarian attending ABSW, now Berkeley School of Theology. You can see how well she has done\u2014credit goes to you, Lakeshore Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As nearby ABC churches in the Bay Area, Lakeshore and First Chinese Baptist have many things that we hold in common. We stood up for our Baptist principles. We supported critical thinking scholarship at BST. We believe in outdoor education by going to Redwood Glen. As resourceful and blessed people, we live with a conscience and compassion that our faith must go beyond the walls of the church to bear witness of love and mercy. And when the most vulnerable people are in our midst, we offer sanctuary and refuge because that is what Christ taught us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As ABC colleagues, Pastor Jim and I have attended Baptists Lunching Togethers, Pacific Coast Baptist Association meetings, and biennials together because we share a common conviction in Christ and a vision of the beloved community in the larger Bay Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we share such convictions, it is expected that we find ourselves in the same circles. We attend pastors retreats together, support the Seafarers in Oakland, and attend ABC biennials like that in Omaha in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Interim Ministry Now<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Over 10 years ago in 2015, I retired from FCBC after serving for over 17 years. My decision to retire was primarily because of our 6 grandchildren. I wanted to be an actively engaged grandfather since I never had one when I was growing up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, our oldest graduated from college this past May and is a 1st<\/sup>-grade teacher, 3 are now in college, and the youngest 2 are in high school. They no longer need me on Life 360! I was pretty content in my retirement years until I received the invitation to consider interim ministry at Lakeshore. When this opportunity came to me, I did not quickly say \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I read Hebrews 11 about Abraham and Sarah, I identified with their senior years to be \u201cas good as dead!\u201d Why would you want someone who is \u201cas good as dead!\u201d For some reason, I felt that God was calling me to pray about this invitation and to give it some time. Perhaps it may be God\u2019s calling that I am here this morning and for you to hear me. And if there\u2019s consent next Sunday that I would be walking with you in the coming months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In my lifetime, I have experienced God\u2019s calling in every place that I have served. Born and brought up in Boston, I thought that I will serve a church in Massachusetts until God called me to First Chinese in 1975. Being at FCBC and learning from James Chuck, we were becoming Californians until God called me to serve in ABC Educational Ministries for 20 years. I thought I was going to live long and prosper in Southeast Pennsylvania. But it seems like God had another plan and called me to come back to FCBC in 1998 as senior pastor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have never applied for a ministerial position in my entire career and this opportunity came to me when I am in retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we, those of us who have tasted the sweetness of retirement and that I have been faithful in life and ministry, I heard the \u201cwell done; faithful servant\u201d ringing in my ears. Then the opportunity to serve as interim at Lakeshore came with the same kind of unraveling of my comfort zone that I couldn\u2019t run away. As Hebrews said about Abraham and Sarah, I wondered if I was \u201cas good as dead!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was in Greece last week, I thought about Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” It describes prisoners chained in a dark cave who mistake shadows for reality, only seeing them cast on a wall by a fire and puppeteers behind them. When one prisoner is freed and dragged into the outside world, they endure the painful glare of the sun to eventually see true reality. Upon returning to the cave, their eyes, adjusted to the darkness, are useless in the sunlight, and the other prisoners, resistant to the unfamiliar and threatening “truth,” greet them with hostility, making the allegory a metaphor for the philosopher’s journey and the public’s resistance to enlightenment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During this interim time of Lakeshore Avenue, you may wish to remain in the cave where it\u2019s familiar and safe. But for you to be in the know of where God is calling you, you may experience painful reality and you will need to go out, go out even more than you have been, to hear and receive the truth of God\u2019s calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our passage for today, Abraham was promised more land without ever possessing any more of that land than the small field near Hebron that he bought from Ephron the Hittite to be a burial ground for his family. Obeying God, Abraham left his homeland to go out to a land he is promised\u2014without knowing where it was or seeing what it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Abraham, I feel that God is calling me to come to Lakeshore Avenue not knowing what it will be like and only trusting that God will lead me to faithfully partner with you. Like Abraham and Sarah, Lakeshore Avenue having received the faithful ministry of Jim Hopkins will be going forward trusting that God will lead the way into the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s promises of ministry, missions, witness, and action are out there, out in the world, much larger than we are accustomed to but we know that God\u2019s leading the way. I know that I am going to try to be as effective and helpful as I possibly can at Lakeshore with God\u2019s guidance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not as much as we are faithful but God is faithful to us. Like Abraham and Sarah who were faithful to God, they received and experienced God\u2019s true faithfulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever a church experiences pastoral transitions, there is undoubtedly uncertainty. Someone who has been by your side for 37 years is no longer there. We find ourselves reassuring ourselves to have faith that everything will go well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We read, \u201cNow faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.\u201d The author of Hebrews is giving us reassurance and the conviction or belief that when we have faith, faith gives substance or matter to things that are neither present nor visible yet. In other words, faith makes real in the present God\u2019s things, often thought of as the future, but more essentially as eternal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we have faith that during these interim times when we have questions and concerns that whatever is not yet visible will become reality. We believe in the future when we believe in God\u2019s faithfulness in Lakeshore. Faith makes what we hope for really present today that we can count on because of God\u2019s faithfulness to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Challenges Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this sounds easy like a walk around Lake Merritt! But it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the author of Hebrews was writing his letter, members of the congregation were subjected to imprisonment and the plundering of their possessions. And most had experienced hostility, ridicule, and shame, simply because in following Jesus, a crucified savior, set them at odds with the surrounding culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where is our Christian faith in our world today? Do we have the confidence and the sacrifice like Jesus\u2019 to proclaim faith, hope, and love in the world, sufficient to sustain hope and provoke each other to deeds of love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lakeshore is known in the Bay Area as a light on a hill when Jim was active in the community, when Ally is calling for justice for the Palestinians, when you support the seafarers who are treated as suspect because they come from foreign lands, when you include all people into your fellowship including LGBTQ and trans, when Carolyn and you nurture little ones to become the beautiful persons God created them to be. These convictions and involvements that you have are often contrary to the world\u2019s values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having enduring faith is not easy today but when we read all the heroes listed in Hebrews 11 that by faith, these people followed God\u2019s ways, God blessed them and watched over them. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. By faith Enoch was taken so he didn\u2019t experience death. By faith, Noah built an ark and saved all of God\u2019s creatures. By faith, Isaac invoked blessings. By faith, Jacob blessed each of his sons. By faith, Joseph made mentioned of the exodus of the Israelites. By faith, Moses led God\u2019s people out of Egypt. We can go on and on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By faith, Lakeshore Avenue will call a new pastor to serve here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the days ahead, we might not always see God\u2019s leading us. We may even wonder if God is still watching over us. Sometimes things take longer, and like the audience of the book of Hebrews, who were waiting for Christ\u2019s return, Lakeshore may be waiting for an answer from God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our faith matters. Our faith gives assurance that God has our best interests at heart, knows what we hope for, and holds our future. What gives our faith a firm foundation is that Jesus Christ is Lord and holds our future, come what may on earth. Faith is ultimately a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is our opportunity to respond to this gift with grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Road Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The road from now, to the celebration of calling a new pastor is a road of faithfulness. And in our faithfulness, the Scriptures say that God is not ashamed to be called their God. In fact, God is preparing this church, a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. You will become a better church that is, a heavenly one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The author of Hebrews said, \u201cBy faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.\u201d The new pastor at Lakeshore is not yet visible but we have faith that God will in God\u2019s time make this person visible to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During this interim time, it may feel unsettled like living in tents even when you think that Lakeshore is an established institution in the City of Oakland. You might feel like strangers and foreigners like the Israelites felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when you are faithful, God the architect and builder will lead a new pastor to guide you in the building of a new city with strong foundations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not Yet Dead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Abraham must have been pretty old to be \u201cas good as dead!\u201d I won\u2019t suggest how old Sarah might have been because that would be politically incorrect! And for me, collecting my Social Security and registered on Kaiser\u2019s Senior Advantage Plan, I am \u201cas good as dead!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when you called, I felt God was calling. So, whatever happens in your decision about me, that would be okay because we all must trust in God\u2019s leading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after many years of being in ministry, I know that I have much to learn from you, and prayerfully, I hope that I may be able to help you during this transition. You may not always understand my Bostonian accent. You might hear me say that First Chinese Baptist in San Francisco did it this way but you might say to me that, we at Lakeshore Avenue does it that way. By God\u2019s grace and mercy, I trust to grow in faith as I hope that you will too; and at the end, we would have been faithful to God\u2019s plan for Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is one thing that we all can trust. We can trust in God\u2019s promise that by faith, Abraham and Sarah obeyed and followed God\u2019s leading and they were blessed with many descendants, \u201cas many as the stars of heaven and as innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n May Lakeshore Avenue continue to have many descendants as many as the stars over Oakland and the Bay Area and as innumerable grains of sand along the shores of Lake Merritt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gracious Lord God, in the midst of change, your steadfast love and mercy have been present with us yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Lead us to rededicate ourselves to the work of your realm on earth and specifically in Oakland as we continue to be ambassadors of peace, love, and justice in a troubled world. May our faithfulness in Christ blessed us with vitality and strength in the days to come so that we may have as many descendants as the stars in the heavens and sands on the seashores. In Christ we pray. Amen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12 Preached by Donald Ng at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, CA September 28, 2025 I am grateful for this opportunity to bring a message to Lakeshore. As you may