Hebrews 11:1-5

Hebrews 11:1-5 1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 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. 4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 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. What do our lives look like? We live our lives confessing Christ as our Saviour. There are also those that we know who follow Christ. What do you learn from them as you watch them? People listen to others and decide whether what someone has spoken is worthy or learning and using or to not listen to it and discard it. Men have much pride. They refuse to listen to their wives. Men only want to hear the things that they decide is for them. What happened to love your wives as Chrsit loves the church? Our lives are difficult because we pick and choose. Instead of changing our behaviors we refuse to listen. We do not want to change. If we would just let go of our pride we could start to change. Our pride gets in the way of changin ourselves to be better. An athlete can never lose sight of the ball. A Christian should never lose sight of what? If you become the focus of your life will you succeed in the spiritual life? If you do so what will be your end result? The person of faith, their focus should be only God. We see in today's passage that those believers completely submitted themselves to God. They did not expect anything, they only submitted to whatever God told them. Abraham did not think to himself that he will only say that he will offer up Isaac and God will not really kill him. Abraham was completely ready to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Does your life give complete glory to God? Whether you are alive or at the point of death are you submitting completely to God's will? Are you really serving God, or are yo using God for your own purpose? When you realize that yo will not succeed in this life living the way you want, then you can start to make the changes that will give you the success that you desire. It does not matter that you pray, if right after you go living your life the same way. It is what you do to make the changes that matter. If you say you put your trust in God and right after you start worrying about the problems, where is you faith? Each of us in our families become the leader of our faith to our children. What would happen if you lived this life of faith and truly showed our next generation the right way to go? We have a great opportunity to becomes leader, but have you made the decision to do something great in your situation? People who make things can cut corners to finish the project, but they know whether or not the finished product is perfect or not? In your life you may act that you are holy, but the truth is you know that you are living a lie. If in your life as you compare it to the word, if you fail to repent and change then what fruit do you think that you will bear? If you realize that you are making a mistake, you must repent and start over. It is easier to start over now than to let things go and try to do it again later. It will not get easier the longer you let things go. What you may think is fine and acceptable is not really so. Rather than trying to communicate with your spouse you think that buying a gift or going out to eat will solve your problems. It is not so. You are only trying to appease your mind and not really getting to the issues that are causing your strife. Instead of living as Christ commands, you look at yourself and think that you are acceptable. You set your own standards, and think that you have done enough. In order to be a true Christian you must truly repent and give your life to God. When you are your own god you do as you please. You come to church when you want to and do the things that only pleases you. Who guides a child? Their friends or their parents? Obviously the parents should, but children want to please their friends and get lost in this. Are you not the same? Rather than trying to please God you live your life to please man. Rather than not partaking in the things of this world you go to places and drink and do the things as those who live to please themselves. Will God seeing this, give you the blessings that you desire? You say that instead of smoking a pack of cigarettes that because you have cut down to one, that you are doing well. You do not see that the one is the sin that you are still committing. Stop thinking and living according to your thoughts. Listen to those who are trying to help you live the life that is truly the best. The best way is to truly follow Christ completey. Your eyes must be open to this. Are you trying to live your life the way you think is right? Are you trying to saolve everything your way? Will you recieve God's blessing by living your life this way? Do you think that you can do why you want without consequence? The closer you get to God, His infinite wisdom will guide you through everything and show you the way, but you must be able to let go of yourself and seek God. Is this not what we want for each of you in this church? Who is the one that succeeds in studying? He is the one who studies and enjoys it, but there is also one who is even greater and that is the one who studies while enjoying it and studies with a sense of urgency. No one can follow one such as this. You must actively seek God and do so with a sense of urgency and put your life on the line. If you do not decide to sacrifice everything that you have to follow Him then you will never succeed. Only then will God take pleasure in you and give you all the blessings so that you can overcome this world. May you be victorious in this life by doing all that you must to receive all of God's blessing for you by giving Him glory.