at the back and turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and I haven't got a page number but if somebody does
they can tell me what it is and I'll shout it out to help you.
It's 12.09, 1-2-0-9 if you're using a red covered Bible. 1-2-0-9 Hebrews chapter 11
and we're going to read verses 1 through to 16.
Hebrews 11, 1 through 16 on page 1209.
So as we read, remember this is God speaking to us.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen
was not made out of what was visible.
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.
By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings.
And by faith he still speaks even though he is dead.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death.
He could not be found because God had taken him away.
For before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God.
And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
By faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family.
By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
By faith Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance
obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going.
By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country.
He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise.
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.
By faith Abraham even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren
was unable to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.
And so from this one man and he as good as dead
came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
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.
And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
If they had been thinking of the country they had left
they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God
for he has prepared a city for them.
And please come and speak
and I'm going to pray for you and then you can carry on.
So let's just pray together.
Father again we thank you for your words.
Thank you that we have it in our language.
Thank you that you've given us the ability to read.
Thank you that you've given us teachers to explain it to us.
But ultimately we need your Holy Spirit
and pray that he would be at work through and through us.
So that we can better comprehend and understand
that it would change us
and bring us more on board what you are doing
and change us to be the people you want us to be.
In Jesus name we all pray.
Amen.
Thank you.
Thank you for having us around.
It's good to meet up with you again
and thank you for your interest and involvement
in what we're doing in lots of different ways.
Look forward to chatting with more of you over lunch
if you're around and able to stay for that as well.
We're going to have a look this morning
at some of these verses in Hebrews 11 and 12.
So if you have that on standby we'll be there in a minute.
But as Johnny said at the beginning
the Bible is one book isn't it?
With one overarching theme.
And you know wherever you cut the Bible
you find that it's all about the mission of God.
It is one book with one complete message in that way.
Sometimes we might think that there are certain
kind of mission passages that we think of
like Acts 1-8 where it says
go in to be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.
Or we might think of Matthew 28
where Jesus tells his disciples to go into all the world
and preach the gospel and so on.
But one of the things that is important for us to realize
is that because God is a God of mission
he is on a mission to call and recreate a people for himself
to forgive us and to fill us with himself
and to have us live with him and glorify him forever
in a new heaven and a new earth
because that's his vision.
That's what the whole Bible is about.
That's his purpose in this world
and that's the mission that then
as we become one of his people
he calls us to join with him on.
And so when you look at the Bible through those eyes
you realize the whole thing is about mission.
It's all about it.
So from early on after the fall in Genesis
you get that hope held out of the Messiah
who would crush Satan's head
and then you get Abraham
who's going to have a descendant
who would bless the whole world
and you've got then the nation that comes from Abraham
Israel that is meant to be a light to the nations
and then Jesus finally comes
and then he dies for the world
he is risen again
he's ascended into heaven
he sends his spirit into his followers
who then scatter all over the planet
and you can see it all the way through.
And then when you have all the letters of the New Testament
that this is the context
in which all those letters are written
they're written from people on a mission
to other people on a mission
about the mission.
That's what it's all to do with.
And then we find ourselves in that era ourselves
of being in this time where
Jesus has gone back to heaven
he sent his spirit
and we're living in a world
trying to spread it as far as we can.
It's our turn now if you like.
The baton is in our hands
and it's our turn in this generation.
And we'll think some more about that later.
But the fact is that the need is still massive isn't it?
It's still a big task.
When Jesus said go and preach the gospel everywhere
there are some pretty large areas of the world
that just haven't heard yet.
Of course there's many people in our own countries
as well aren't there?
But you start thinking around the planet
and you look at a website like joshuaproject.net
if you've never looked at that
you have a look
and they reckon that there are
over 16,000 different people groups in the world
and as they've done their research
they reckon that 6,954 of them
are effectively unreached.
So about 40% of the people groups of the world
they say are effectively unreached.
There may be one or two Christians in some cases
but there isn't an established indigenous church
in those people groups.
And they represent about 2.8 billion people
around the world.
And then you think about our own countries
that maybe have something of a Christian heritage
but they're tough now aren't they?
They're tough ground
and missionaries are now coming here.
And so when you think about our job in the world
that we're part of God's people
and we're now joining with him on his mission
and you start to think
well what kind of people then does he want us to be?
What does he want us to be like?
And having said that the whole Bible is about mission
we could look anywhere in many ways
but we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 11
because I think that we're going to find encouragement
and challenge in this chapter
to live out what I want to call
ordinary people taking faith-filled risks for the kingdom.
If you're going to summarise the whole thing this morning
you could put that.
Ordinary people taking faith-filled risks
for the kingdom.
And to give you a really quick background
to get up to speed on Hebrews at this point
this letter is written to a bunch of Jewish Christians
who were finding it really hard to follow Jesus.
They're living in an environment where
it was very hostile
people didn't like them being believers
and they were just finding it difficult
so that they were tempted to give up.
They were really tempted to jack it all in
and go back to how it was before
thinking maybe that just would have been easier.
And this letter is written to say
please don't give up.
It is worth it.
Keep on going.
You can do it.
Jesus is better.
He is worth it.
You can keep on trusting him.
And wants them to persevere right on to the end.
And so as part of his effort
to encourage the Christians not to give up
we then get this chapter
where he parades all these different people
from through the Bible
as examples of people who kept on going
and kept on following God
no matter what came their way.
He's trying to encourage them to say
look at these people who did it.
You can keep on going as well.
And of course there's so much in here
that you could spend weeks and weeks
going through this chapter.
We're just going to skim over
and drop in on two or three examples.
And the first one I want us to look at
is Noah in verse 7.
And have a look at what he has to say about him.
He says there in verse 7
by faith Noah
when warned about things not yet seen
in holy fear
built an ark to save his family.
By faith he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness
that comes by faith.
And I know when you get
some of these characters
from a long time ago
you can almost have this feeling
like they're not quite real.
You know?
They're a bit mythical
you sometimes can feel.
So I sometimes think
how my kids one minute
would be playing with
a little Bob the Builder
and then they've got
a little wooden Mr. Noah.
And they're sort of, you know,
together it's almost like
they didn't feel very real sometimes.
But we need to try and
get our head around the fact that
Mr. Noah
was a real man.
He was a real bloke
who lived
in the real world.
And just the reality
of what he faced.
At the risk of appealing to Hollywood
to get us back to reality.
I don't know if you've ever seen
the film Evan Almighty
but it was the follow-up
to Bruce Almighty
which was a bit more famous.
And whilst Evan Almighty
probably isn't going to go down
in the annals of
classic cinematography
I found it quite interesting
because the idea is
that this guy
is in 21st century America
but he has like
a Mr. Noah type experience.
He has to build a boat
in the middle of nowhere.
And the thing that I thought
was interesting about the film
was just how ridiculous
and embarrassed
he was about doing it.
And the ridicule
that people heaped on him.
And you think about
if he actually
if God actually asked you
to do something like that
what that would be like.
It was just
odd
and embarrassing
and awful
and we can maybe read back
on the Noah story
and say oh yeah
of course he built a boat.
Of course he did.
But it was really hard for him.
It was really hard
and the film kind of
portrayed that quite well.
It just seemed
unfathomably stupid
to build a boat.
And the same for the real Noah.
It was no different.
He was an ordinary man.
It was just as bizarre
and embarrassing
for him to do that.
But
it says
when he was warned
about unseen events
in holy fear
he built the ark
and so
he saved his family
and condemned the world.
In other words
he feared God
more than he feared man
and so he basically said
to the man around him
you're wrong
and so became part of
the family of God.
I'm going God's way
you're not right
when you ridicule this
I'm going to do what he says.
And
the whole
people pleasing
thing
is a tough one
to overcome
for most of us
isn't it?
The fear of people.
It's one of the reasons
that we don't
often stick our necks out
and say some of the things
that maybe we
think we should.
It's just that
basic instinct that
we don't want to look stupid.
Most of us have it.
We want to be liked.
And it's a big thing
and that's why the Bible
says so much about
the fear of other people.
It's a theme that comes up
quite a lot
because God knows
that we're wired that way
and that it's difficult.
But if you think about
Noah's life
if he had not loved
the affirmation of God
more than the affirmation
of the people
who were around him
he would never have
filled the boat
would he?
He just wouldn't have done it.
He was more concerned
about what God
thought of him
and seeking his approval
than he was about
what anybody else said.
An ordinary guy
with all the same
kind of hangups
and emotions
and life
as we would have
all the same
kind of fragilities
he said
I'm going to do this thing.
And he says
by faith
he did it.
Then look at another one
in verse 8
another example
look at Abraham.
So Abraham it says
in verse 8
when called to go
to a place
he would later receive
as his inheritance
obeyed and went
even though
he did not know
where he was going.
By faith
he made his home
in the promised land
like a stranger
in a foreign country
lived in tents
as did Isaac and Jacob
who were heirs with him
of the same promise
for he was looking forward
to the city
with foundations
who's architect
and builder
is God.
So here's how
being a faith-filled
risk taker
worked out for Abraham.
He obeyed God
and left his home
even though
he didn't know
where he was going.
Again
don't just sort of
categorise this
as a legendary
Abraham
of course he would do that
because he was Abraham
kind of classic story.
He wasn't superhuman
he was just
a mere mortal
who messed it up
at times
got it wrong
sometimes he lied
under pressure
we see that in the Bible
he didn't always
make the right decisions
but he trusted God
to physically
set out on a journey
without knowing
where the end point was.
I mean
you imagine
doing that
you're packing up
all your stuff
sticking it all in the car
pack up your house even
stick it all in the back
of a lorry
and you get in
and you're asked
the kids say
where are we going?
You say
don't know
we're just setting off.
Imagine if they start saying
are we there yet?
Can you say
yeah kids
you have no idea.
Of course Abraham
didn't have any kids
so he didn't have that trouble
but nevertheless
it was
that weird.
He didn't know
where he was going
but he trusted God
and went out
even though
he could not see
and stepped out
in faith.
And verse 17
has an even more
extreme example of this
as Abraham is tested
and asked
to offer Isaac
as he then
by this point now
has had a son
asked to offer Isaac
as a sacrifice
and you know
you read this
and for any parent
the thought is just
gut wrenching
so again
don't think these people
were different to us
it would have been
just as hard
for him
but he believed
that God
had said
God had his original plan
to say
you know
I'm going to give you
a nation
make you into a nation
through Isaac
and now
he's willing to obey God
when God says
I want you to sacrifice
your son
and he must have
scrambled his brain
really to have
how do these two things
fit together?
So verse 18
it says
well starting in verse 17
he who had received
the promises
was about to sacrifice
his one and only son
even though
God had said to him
it is through Isaac
that your offspring
will be reckoned.
But verse 19
tells us
how his mind
was working.
Verse 19 says
Abraham reasoned
that God could raise
the dead
and figuratively speaking
he did receive
Isaac back from death.
Isn't that great?
Abraham had never seen
anyone raised
from the dead.
It wasn't that he thought
oh yeah
this happened
but
he so believed
what God said
he just simply reasoned
that if God
actually wanted him
to sacrifice Isaac
and he said
that he was going
to be the means
to make a whole nation
God must be planning
to bring him back
to life.
And although
in the end
of course
God didn't
require him
to kill him
that was
where Abraham
had got to
he trusted God
to that extent
now I don't think
that would have
made it any easier
to lift a knife
but
he believed
that
that God
would do this.
an ordinary man
though he was
he was full of faith
in what God said
and was prepared
to take
extraordinary risks
there.
Let's zoom in on
one more as well
in verse 24
so verse 24
talking about Moses
now it says
by faith
Moses
when he had grown up
refused to be known
as the son of
Pharaoh's daughter
he chose to be
ill treated
along with the people
of God
rather than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin
for a short time.
So here's Moses
there's been the whole
bulrushes thing
which leads
providentially
to him being part of
the royal household
of Egypt.
So
remember
this is the superpower
of the day.
This is a seriously
good deal
he's got here.
Through an unlikely
series of events
he now finds himself
part of the first family
of the superpower
the most powerful
nation of the world
but it says
he refused to be known
as the son of
Pharaoh's daughter
and chose to be
ill treated with the
people of God
instead.
Which again
on the surface of it
seems ridiculous
you may sort of
spot the pattern here
that they're often
ending up doing
things that
seem
odd.
Why would you
give up
comfort
and ease
and applause
in order to be
beaten up
and despised?
Why give up
the celebrity
lifestyle
for the
pauper lifestyle?
Why would
anybody do that?
It just seems
illogical
until
you get to
the point that
Moses got to
in verse 26
where it says
he regarded
disgrace for the
sake of Christ
interestingly
it mentions
Christ there
of course
this was before
Christ
but effectively
his trust
was in Christ
he regarded
disgrace for the
sake of Christ
as of greater
value than the
treasures of Egypt
because he was
looking ahead
to his reward
and that makes
much more sense
doesn't it?
His reason for
making these choices
was not that he
liked being
disgraced
but that he
wanted something
more than
pleasures of
money or fame
or whatever you
want to call it
he got his eyes
fixed
on a reward
that was so
great it made
all the treasures
of Egypt just
look like rubble
that was the
perspective he
had
he wanted to
have this
reward of being
part of God's
family
part of God's
kingdom
one of his
people
and so it
says he refused
to be enticed
by sin
which
sin is so
often isn't it
what keeps us
from living a
sort of faith
filled life
living out our
lives for God
because sin in
our lives in
whatever form it
comes it often
has the effect
doesn't it of
just sapping
our spiritual
energy
leaves us
feeling kind
of pathetic
and defeated
and you know
that's my
experience
I'm sure many
of you would
be the same
that you just
you lose
the kind of
focus
and it's a real
issue and
what Moses did
here is
actually the way
that faith deals
with the challenge
and temptation
of sin
what he did
is the right
thing because
it wasn't just
about I'm going
to try really
hard not to do
this I try
really really
hard not to
do this
actually what
he did was
he put his
focus on
something better
so this is how
faith deals with
it it looks up
and sees something
better than
whatever the
temptation of
the current
situation might
be and
fixes its eyes
on that
and says
this is better
than whatever
temporary
satisfaction or
enjoyment or
release I might
get out of this
particular temptation
this is better
there is something
better and that
realization in
Moses case
enabled him to
go and take
incredible faith
filled risks
so in his
case standing
in front of
that leader of
the world
superpower and
saying you're
wrong
and you've
got to let
God's people
go
and verse
27 to 30
outline how
the people were
released through
the Passover
and across the
Red Sea all
stories you could
go into
themselves we
could just keep
on going with
this what the
writer then says
in verse 32
is right isn't
it you could
just go on
and on and
on what more
shall I say he
says in verse
32 I don't
have time to
tell about
Gideon Barak
Samson Jephthah
David Samuel
and the prophets
who through
faith conquered
kingdoms administered
justice gained
what was promised
shut the mouths
of lions quenched
the fury of the
flames escaped the
edge of the sword
whose weakness
was turned to
strength and who
became powerful in
battle and routed
foreign armies
women received
their back their
dead raised to
life again but
it wasn't always
positive great glory
stuff because then
others it says
were tortured and
refused to be
released so that
they might get a
better resurrection
some faced jeers and
flogging while others
were chained and put
in prison they were
stoned they were
sawn in two they
were put to death by
the sword they went
about in sheepskins
and goatskins destitute
persecuted and
ill-treated the world
was not worthy of
them
one of the songs our
kids sometimes sing
is um i don't know
if you know it
god's people aren't
super brave superheroes
have you ever heard
that i'm not going to
sing it but um it's
great little song god's
people aren't super
brave superheroes they
don't have muscles from
their heads to their
toes they're not
gladiators that's easy
to see in fact it's
amazing they're just
like you and me and
there's a bit of
shouting and stuff
which will be later
maybe but it's kids
song i actually think
that's quite profound
though because as i
say we we tend to
think of these people
and put them on a bit
of a pedestal and
this says god's people
aren't super brave
superheroes they're
just like you and me
they're ordinary people
and yet they take these
kind of risks and and
and step out in faith in
order to advance the
kingdom of god and it's
all through the bible and
it's through church
history and it's around
in our own day as well
there are many many
places where we see
this there's a man
called um alistair that
um some of us know i i'm
guessing that you guys
would have met him out
in kosovo friend of
from rose and dan's and
others who um he lives
there these days but for
many years he used to
work for open doors uh
getting bibles into
unlikely situations and
one day somebody from
uh open doors contacted
him with a new project
saying that uh he should
go to the philippines
and uh stay in a hotel
and just wait someone
would contact him
kind of james bond like
almost isn't it
someone will contact you
so he went there and
uh he was recruited
basically to be part of
a team taking a ship
into the seas off china
and they dropped a
million bibles uh under
the nose of the chinese
authorities doubled the
number number of bibles
in china overnight and
uh some crazy stuff
happened along the way
like going into the path
of a typhoon which
diverted miraculously and
head off another way and
different things like
that you can if you
google project pearl
there's all kinds of
stuff on the internet
about it time magazine
even wrote an article
about it but you meet
alistair he's a fairly
unassuming down to earth
little scottish fella who
just trust god and put
some faith filled risks
in some particular way
that he was called to do
uh you think of uh the
team that one of the
guys uh is uh from our
church is part of out in
macedonia they've moved
there to start a business
and be a witness in a
muslim city uh that has
no church and this is a
city where a man who did
become a believer a little
while ago was tied upside
down to a tree and told
that's what we do to
christians around here
but these two or three
families have moved out
there and amid many
heart-searching questions
and lots of difficulties
and how does it work with
the kids and all this sort
of thing and it's hard
work but they're out there
ordinary people just like
you and me taking faith
filled risks um i was in
north india uh a while
back and uh i was talking
to somebody before about
that north india is quite
different to south india
you think about lots of
mission work that's gone
on in india most of it
was in the south the north
was fairly untouched such
that people sometimes dubbed
it the graveyard of
christian missions which of
course it wasn't but it
was seen sometimes as the
place where christianity
just couldn't get to people
sometimes said um but
nevertheless it's really
starting to open up and
the massive number of
unreached people groups when
you actually look at some
of the stuff that joshua
project talks about loads of
those people groups are in
this big area of north india
and there's new churches
starting all the time
sometimes that such that
the leaders of the
movements don't even um get
to hear about it until
after the event you know
you normally in our
context we think of
planning a church for ages
we're going to plant this
church and this is how we're
going to do it and you have
lots of meetings and in that
context they sometimes these
churches just happen
there's one girl 16 year old
girl i met a couple of times
who kind of started three
churches by accident
it sounds a bit ridiculous
doesn't it but she had a
demon cast out of her
which is very much a reality
out there she trusted jesus
and she told people in three
different villages nearby
about what happened to her
and a whole load of them
decided they were going to
follow jesus so very quickly
there was about 80 of them
and so they all got together in
a house and they're saying so
um you told us about this so
tell us some more and she's
like well i don't really know
that much more so let me go
back and talk to the pastor
who told me and then people
brought in some support now
and so on and effectively
uh there's two more fledgling
churches started about 300
people all together but a lot
of difficulty in that area a lot
of opposition so that when i was
out there talking to some of the
house church leaders we were
going through a bit of acts in
some training and the subject of
persecution came up and i said
how many of you have faced
persecution and they all put
their hands up and looked at me
like kind of that's a stupid
question why why did you of course
we do one pastor i met explained
how when he became a christian his
own mother and brother tied him to
a tree and beat him and his wife
was going to divorce him until god
spoke to her in a dream and and
then god did a few things and now
the whole family's christians
that's the edited short down
version but you can see how you
look at some of these contexts it's
a faith-filled risk to even become a
christian in some of these places
you know from the outset if i become
a christian this is going to mean
it's difficulties for me you go into
it very much with your eyes open that
was true of a baptism that i went to
whether they were baptized down in a
river it was this remote village miles
away from anywhere and they didn't
want to draw attention to it at all so
that people gathered in this village
but then walked in twos and threes so
as to not make it obvious that walked
about a mile through some fields and
woods and so on down to the river i
thought this kind of white cloth around
my head to try and vaguely disguise
that i was a big white guy don't think
i fooled anybody really but you know
they were very concerned to avoid
unwanted attention because sometimes
mobs had gathered in the past when
they'd had baptisms and so we went
along and eventually we got to this
clearing where the group of christians
were and they went down into the river
and 23 new brothers and sisters were
baptized in the river with the water
buffalo just by in the river with them
and the thing that it's just very
striking to me that it's the way that
for some of these people when you're
in a setting where even becoming a
christian in the first place is risky
where there's the threat of suffering
and persecution it affects the kind of
christian you become so you expect to
take risks you expect that you you need
to have this kind of faith where you're
hanging on to god for everything because
you can't do it all yourself
but bringing it back to the here and
now and into our context
you know our societies are quite risk
averse aren't they
i suspect the uk might be worse at this
than ireland
but you know we are we have risk
assessments coming out of our ears and
everything is is is very very cautious
and and obviously there are times when
if you can avoid a simple accident by
doing something sensible then good
obviously that there's many good things
about that even if the paperwork
sometimes gets a bit over the top
but i think there's a problem that as
cultures in the west sometimes we we're
almost in pursuit of the risk-free life
we we kind of think we can have you know
perfectly safe cars super safe cars
super safe playgrounds safe houses safe
working environments everything's covered
so this is kind of our right and i think
if we're not careful we also want a safe
christianity
and maybe we don't ever say that out
loud but given that it's a mindset that
we have for so much of the rest of life
i think we can fairly unwittingly apply it to
our faith as well and it is actually
deadening to faith
pursue other things if you want they're
fine to a point but please don't pursue
safe christianity because you just don't
find it in the bible it's not there
jesus they take up your cross not your armchair
it's not about going out and looking for
trouble or difficulty obviously and we thank
god that we don't have some of the pressures
that people in other countries may have
but the truth is that for many of us
we will steer clear from anything that will
cause us a little bit of discomfort because
culturally we just don't do discomfort
if we can possibly avoid it
and this matters because the era of living on
the edge for the sake of the extension of
god's kingdom isn't over
because as i said before it's our turn now
the baton's in our hand
and so when you go back to hebrews 11 again
these are not the records of great activities
of the days of old and they're nice bedtime
stories and so on
no this faith-filled live on the edge stuff
was an era
it was the first stage they were the
forerunners in a race that is not over yet
so you look at verse 39 and 40 that's what
this means 39 and 40 at the end of chapter 11
say these were all commended for their faith
yet none of them received what had been
promised
god had planned something better for us
so that only together with us would they be
made perfect so the reward it's like the end of the race isn't
it's not over yet
the reward is for us and them together
it's not finished if you're watching the 4x400 meters relay
you don't leave after three of the runners
have taken their turn and say that was good wasn't it
okay let's go and get a coffee
because there's another stage yet
it's not finished
and this race image is then where the writer goes
if you just go on into the beginning of chapter 12
where he describes this cloud of witnesses
looking on and cheering us on
and so the idea is that these people that he's
been through in chapter 11
the ones that we looked at and all the others as well
he's got this picture where he's saying
imagine they're watching now
they're seeing you
they're in the stands
watching as now you have it
in your turn
in your generation
the baton's in your hand
and they're shouting
come on you can do it
to these Hebrews
there
and to us now
and so
you learn from what they learned
so it's like Noah is there shouting to us
and saying
you don't have to fear what others think
I learned that
he's saying
you don't have to fear what others think
fear God and trust him
and Abraham is shouting
come on
you can trust him with a future that you can't see
and you don't fully understand
follow him
even if you're not sure where you're going
or how it'll all work out
you can trust him
and Moses is shouting
it is possible to love God
more than you love
sin
and temptation
and be free to go out
and serve him
and these witnesses are all there
as we've got the baton
in our hand
and so how then do we handle
the fact
that it's our turn now
and we're on the track
well two things to close off with
from the beginning of chapter 12
as
God says
chapter 12 verse 1
it says
therefore since we are surrounded
by such a great cloud of witnesses
let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles
and let us run
with perseverance
the race
marked out for us
we've got to run
but for all of us
there's stuff that holds us back
that weighs us down
and you think about what it is for you
because we're all different
what is it for you
that just
dampens
your spiritual fervor
that just
distracts you
or cools you down
what are the things that weigh you
down
and our priorities
can get twisted
and our vision distorted
we need to see those things
for what they are
and
say
I'm not going to be seduced
by these things
I'm going to throw them off
I'm going to run the race
I'm going to keep on going
and then second thing is
he says
in verse 2
let us fix our eyes on Jesus
the author
and perfecter
of our faith
he's the one who gives us
our spiritual life
he's described as
the author
and the perfecter
the finisher of our faith
so he's at both ends of it
if you like
he's the one we get our faith from
and he's also the one we fix
our eyes on
and if we look away from him
we're actually cutting off
the supply line of our faith
because he's the author of it
he's the one who gives us it
so we keep our eyes fixed on him
and we're sustained by him
as we go on
and finish it
and we follow his example
too
because he models
exactly what we're being called to do
because he says
the perfecter of our faith
who for the joy set before him
endured the cross
scorning its shame
sat down at the right hand
of the throne
of God
and we're told to keep on going
consider him who endured
such opposition
so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart
you probably can relate to that
I'm sure
at different points in our lives
you grow weary
and you lose heart
you just think this
is hard
but don't drop out of the race
remember that's exactly
what this letter was all about
telling them
fix your eyes on Jesus
cry out and ask for his help
and say I need your help
I'm going to keep on going
I want to keep on going
with this race
and trusting you
I believe you
even that prayer
like the guy said to Jesus
in the gospels
I believe
help my unbelief
I want to believe
I want to trust you
so then we ask
how are you going to play your part
in God's mission
what does it look like for you
to take your turn
on the track
as a church
and individually
what's next
basically
lots of great things going on
lots of great things you've done
but what's next
and you think globally
I don't know
maybe there's things
you can get involved with
in terms of new initiatives
linking up with other churches
so like we're going to talk about
at the round table
maybe there's things
that you can get behind
as a church
maybe some of you
might even go
and live in some place
far from here
some place that maybe
you won't find
in your average travel brochure
but where people need
the gospel
thinking locally
maybe you
want to go out
on a bit more of a limb
taking a few more risks
in the community
around here
building some friendships
that might
just scare you slightly
living counter-culturally
treating what you own
and the money you have
in a slightly different way
I don't know
there's lots of different ideas
I think that's something for you
to be praying about
isn't it
and talk about
and think about
but whether it's here
or whether it's far away
for all of us
let's not be duped
by the dream
of some kind of
safe
sanitized
tame Christianity
that asks very little of us
and that is easily
controlled by us
may God give us
the vision
and the faith
and the courage
to live our lives
for him
let's pray
Lord we want to thank you
that you
give us the faith
that we need
that you give us the strength
to follow you
and thank you
that you've opened our eyes
to you in the first place
that we can know you
and follow you
and
that you've forgiven us
and that you're changing us
and
that we have this great
destiny now
with you
we pray that you'll help us
in the day to day
living of this life
help us to
see ourselves
as
on the track
taking our turn
in the race
and to be inspired
by those you've gone before
and not least
by the example of Jesus
and to fix our eyes
on him
and we pray that you'd
help us to
be clear about
the things that you want us
to do
and to go out in faith
and do them
even though
it may mean
some things aren't as easy
as they might be
even though it might mean
sacrifices in different ways
Lord we pray that you would
help us to be people
who are full of faith
and prepared
to take risks
to serve you
no matter what
that may mean
Lord we pray that we would be
so
so much loving you
and loving your glory
that our own lives
and priorities
and comfort
and everything else
takes second place
behind all of that
and that it would all be
for you
so we pray that you'd give us
this big vision
of who you are
that helps us
to live
and give everything
for you
pray that for the church here
and for
the church where I am
as well
and wherever
we might serve you
one day
in the course of our lives
and we ask it all
for your fame
and for your glory
amen
you
and we arrive
to
heal
that you
a
of who you
are
a
him