Taking Gospel Risks

at the back and turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and I haven't got a page number but if somebody does

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

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.

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

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

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

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