June 3

Beginning Questions

What does Jesus call us to do? - repent and believe

What does it mean to repent? - change your thinking

Why do we need to do this? - we have lots of opinions and many of them are wrong

What does it mean to believe? - to consider something true enough to act on it

Why does this matter? What we really believe impacts what we do.

We come to our passage hebrews 11:36-38

New International Version (2011) Chapter 11

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

Hebrew prophets and faithful remnants. Mistreatment

This passage is talking about the prophets and the remnants of Israel and the people that were trying to live faithful to God. Some were imprisoned mocked, mistreated, and even put to death.

Israel: God’s people were to be a blessing but they turned away from God.

These prophets and those faithful to God, were during a time when a majority of Israel had turned away from God. Israel was chosen to be Gods people and to be a blessing to the world, so that the rest of the world would come to know of the true God, and be restored back to what God originally intended for the world.

They were joining with the other nations in how they acted in disobedience to God

They were doing things that were harming themselves, their family, their nieghbour, and other nations.

The remnant and prophets, lived drastically different, still being faithful to God in hopes that Israel would repent and turn back to God.

What I see in this and I hope you guys grasp is that they lived boldy in their faith.

How many of you are passionate about something and sometimes get mocked for what you like and try to keep it a secret? what are some of those things

Oilers Jersey

I know the oilers have sucked in the past and they have been so close to getting the stanley cup but haven’t gotten there. But I am still hoping that one day I will get to see them lift that stanely cup in my life time.

Oilers sucking and the world sucking

I believe there is a lot of work for the oilers to get back to winning. I also look at the world and I see the brokeness that is within it. For some people that I talk to they see that there is no hope and that the world cant be fixed. But as a Christian I believe that is an answer, and it is one that I know some one can give the answer too.

Silas what is the correct answer… Jesus

Jesus is the answer, and he wants to partner with those who boldly live out their faith. I believe that if every Christian lives out their faith in Jesus boldly we will start to see the change that needs to happen in our lives and in our world.

It can start in the small acts.

Maybe it is choosing to pray for some, to show kindness when others try to tear another person down, maybe it is choosing to serve someone when it doesn’t benefit you.

I believe once we start boldly living out our faith in the small ways, it can lead to life that is radically living out a bold faith.

I will say it won’t be easy, sometimes when people find out that I am a Christian they will start to turn away from the relationship, some others are mocked, and unfortunately with how the church in the past has acted, people might despise you as a Christian. In all of it we are called to live our faith out boldly, and I think our church says it well, it is “imaging Jesus by becoming love”.

So I want to encourage you that if you are wanting to see true change in our world it by living out your faith in Jesus boldly