All right, if you could stand with me if you're able, I'm going to read God's word for us this morning. Our passage of scripture comes from Hebrews 12, one to two. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. This is God's word, it's true, and it's given out of his love. You may be seated. [ Pause ] >> Good morning for those who are new here. My name is Michael, and today I want us to look at Hebrews chapter 12 verses one through two. These verses when we lived in Africa truly helped us to continue on, to continue on in the faith as we worked with Muslims, as we worked with animists. As we look at these verses here, we realize that foundations are important, aren't they? The foundations, beginnings, a little child learns to walk. We have ten beautiful grandchildren. We are maybe biased, okay? And just recently our youngest started to walk, and she's now learning to talk. But of course, as any two-year-old talks, very limited. But it's the beginnings, beginnings for her and her life, foundations. We have another grandchild, four years old. She's learning how to learn the alphabet, learning colors, once again, adding on from these foundations, from these beginnings. Well, children grow, people grow up, don't they? And then comes to careers. In order to learn to start a career, a good career, you go to college, maybe university, maybe trade school or something like that. Beginnings, but you're always adding on. You're always learning more and more. You're continuing on. You want to improve. The Book of Hebrews gives us a very good knowledge of our foundation stone, the one who begins our faith, who is the beginning and source of our faith. That's Jesus. Jesus, as the author of Hebrews says, is above supreme over the angels, supreme over creation, supreme over Moses, supreme over the law, the Levitical law, supreme over the temple. Jesus, the great high priest, once for all, the sacrifice that is alive forever. It gives advice regarding continuing on in our race of faith. Not only do we learn about our foundation stone, Jesus, we also learn that he is not only the beginner of the race, but he is the way, as he says in John, and he is the goal of our race. So he is, as he says in Revelation, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and the way, as he says. Now, some would say that the Book of Hebrews is a very discouraging book, very negative. It talks about, oh, maybe you could lose your face. Some would say that. I don't believe that, that if you truly are one of the lords, you are one of the lords, OK? Want to clarify that? But I believe that the Book of Hebrews is a very encouraging book. And some of the encouraging advice should be up here on the screen at the beginning. We hope. OK, encouraging advice. We could go there. So in chapter 2, verse 1, it says, pay closer intention. No, I think that's encouraging. OK, 3-1, consider Jesus. 3-6, hold fast our confidence. 3-6, again, boast in the hope that we have. 3-12, take care. 4-1, let us fear. 4-11, let us therefore strive to enter that rest. 4-16, let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. 6-1, let us leave the elementary doctrines and go on to maturity. 6-11 and 12, have the full assurance of hope until the end of our race. We have confidence in 10-19. We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 10-22. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. And then verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. 10-24, let us consider how to stir one another on to love in good works. Verse 32 of chapter 10, recall the former days when you first came to faith. Remember your first love. Recall those days when you first came to Jesus. And that excitement, that joy, that newfound life in Jesus Christ, let us lay aside every weight and sin, chapter 12, verse 1. And let us run with endurance. Verse 12, let-- lift up drooping hands. Let us strive for peace with everyone. Let us strive for holiness in verse 14 of chapter 12. And let us be grateful. Let us be grateful, verse 28 of chapter 12. And let us offer to God acceptable worship. As encouraging as I find the book of Hebrews, there are some warnings, a few warnings. Verse 1, you find in chapter 2, pay much closer attention to what you have heard lest you drift away. Chapter 3, verse 12, don't have an evil, unbelieving heart. Chapter 5, verse 11, don't become dull of hearing. Chapter 6, verse 12. Don't be sluggish. Don't be lazy. Chapter 10, verse 25, don't stop meeting together. He's talking about DC is just a bit ago. Don't stop meeting together. Not only come here on Sundays, but get connected to a DC. Don't throw away your confidence. Chapter 10, verse 35, and then in chapter 12, verse 25, don't refuse him who is speaking. We must listen to him who is speaking. And who is speaking today? These words that we find in Hebrews, whose words are they? Are they merely the writer of the book of Hebrews? Or are they Jesus' words, the word of God? I believe that they are Jesus' words, not only to the Hebrews, but to each one here who names the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. And what does he still say? What is Jesus saying to each one of us? We must pay closer attention to hear what he's saying. I must pay closer attention to hear what he's saying to me. You must pay closer attention to what he's saying to you. Years ago, he told we believe not because we heard an audible voice, but because as we looked in the word, as we studied the word, as we prayed, we believed he was wanting us to go to Kenya, to live in a village, work with the Muslim people who are very animistic. But that was just us. He led others here in a different way, into a different profession, a different career. What is he saying to you today? How is he speaking to you today in his word and through his word? If you are a follower of Jesus, you are involved in a race. And that requires endurance. As the writer said, don't be sluggish, don't throw away, don't do this, hold on, requires endurance. It requires throwing off those weights, encumbrances, and sins. It requires persevering and the faith. Have you ever watched a track meet? The athletes may come out with warm up suits, clothing. They remove that outer clothing. They want to run with the lightest amount of clothing as possible, the lightest shoes. They have trained for years. They didn't just decide one day, hey, I'm going to run this race in the Olympics. No, they trained. And they got ready for the day, that day, this race. And they knew that the race will be hard. It will be difficult. They will have to exert themselves. And some to the point where they will actually fall and faint and trip, stumble, maybe after they finish or while they are running that race. They want their minds to be focused. They don't want any distractions today. They throw off those weights. We also are in a race, a spiritual one. And those who came before us threw off the weights, and as they threw off their weights, we must throw off our weights. We throw off those things that hinder. Not necessarily sins. They may look really nice. They may look beautiful. And they may be in there somewhere. Those weights like, boy, look at this. They're weights. They don't look bad. They're not wrong. This is a nice rock I picked up with my grandson. Pretty nice, but it's a weight. There's nothing wrong about that weight. Here's a weight that my granddaughter gave me. It's a weight. But if I was to run a race, I'd want to put aside that weight. And there's a lot of spiritual weights for many of us that we are to put aside, take off. They're not necessarily sins, which were mentioned right after here in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. But they may lead to sin. Perhaps they're pleasures, they're habits. Or maybe associations that are not necessarily sins, but they can slow us down in our race, the faith. They keep us from truly running our race with all our energy, all our concentration, all our focus. Those weights, they hinder. Perhaps they may lead to sin, may not necessarily. Perhaps someday they may become idols in our lives. They may not. Listen to him who is speaking. Listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to you and saying, what weights you need to throw off? What weights you need to lay aside? Waits may be becoming overly absorbed with myself, my sufferings. Perhaps it's a low mental and spiritual grasp of our faith. The writer says, don't be sluggish. Don't be sluggish in your faith. Perhaps it is filling my life with good things, but not necessarily the excellent things. Pray and ask the Lord to show you. However, be willing to listen, he is still speaking. He is still speaking through his word. Be willing to take up your cross. Strive for holiness, as the writer of Hebrews says. And then throw off that sin. Those who came before us, those witnesses, they threw off. The weights, they threw off the sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. For sin so easily clings so closely, it easily distresses and tangles and distracts so closely that only the Lord can effectively remove it as we obey him. Sometimes I feel like when I am dealing with that sin of pride, I think, OK, Lord, I'm going to take it off today. I'm going to put it aside and clothe myself with humility. I'm asking you for strength. And I seem to be victorious that day. But then, Tuesday morning or tomorrow, I'll be swimming my laps. And a prideful thought comes into my mind. And once again, I'm dealing with that pride again. Here I am swimming my laps and I'm thinking great things about myself. I'm saying, Lord, please, this sin so easily entangles me. I need your help. And then I walk with the Lord. Things are going great. And wow, man, I'm really good. And once again, there I am dealing with that pride. Boy, it's so easily entangles my life. What do I do? What do I do? And then I'm thinking, OK, I need to get into the Word of God. And then I'm reading the Word of God. And I'm saying, oh, you know, that person, I'm really better than them at that. And once again, I'm dealing with the pride. I'm striving for holiness. You know, those witnesses that came before us, they threw off their sin. They knew how easily it entangled. They knew it. But they did it. They showed to us that it can be done, that we can live a life of faith. Christians, people who name Jesus as Lord and Savior, there's a little quote here by D.A. Carson. There we go. And he says regarding the day there are probably everybody here who has that-- we have that faith in Jesus. We've been born from above. We love Jesus. Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the day. And D.A. Carson says, they know how to sin well enough, but they have no idea what constitutes sin. So I had a wrestle with that. Then there's a brother of ours who's now with Jesus. His name was Jerry Bridges. And he says, for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. And then he also says, the concept of sin among many conservative Christians, and he's referring to us here, has been essentially redefined to cover only the obvious gross sins of our society. And then he says, Jerry Bridges once again says, for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. Those are very, very interesting comments that this man made in his respectable sins, book called "Respectable Sins." Some quotes from him that require a lot of thought. Sin can be compared to like a cancer. In a spiritual sense, it's malignant, and it gets into my whole life. As I shared my struggle for the last decades with pride, it just gets in there. And it just-- whenever I'm not thinking, I'm swimming like-- as I said, I'm swimming in all of a sudden-- sin just gets into our lives, and it's like a tumor. It's like a cancer. And as we know, only the Lord Jesus can really yank that out. What are some of these respectable sins? What are some sins that may be in our society we accept? How about anxious thoughts, worry, frustrations, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, self-absorption, and consider of others, lack of self-control, impatience and irritability, bitterness and anger, being judgmental, judgmental, judgmentalism, and vicarious immorality, worldliness, idolatry. And I don't want to get really specific there because I don't want to start meddling. And if you feel like I'm stepping on toes or ruffling feathers, perhaps it's the Holy Spirit that's doing that, we are told then in these verses to run with endurance, the race marked out for us, the race marked out for you, the race marked out for me. God has marked out a race for each one of us. Noah's race was very, very different than Abraham's, wasn't it? And Abraham's race was very, very different than Moses. Just as mine is different than each one here, just as yours is different than mine. Make sure you don't make the wrong comparisons. Who are we to compare our lives to? Jesus, the author, the perfecter, the outcome, the reach, the one that we run to. That's who we are to compare ourselves to. These witnesses that are now with our Lord, they show that, yes, a life of faith can be lived. Now you may get sawn in half like one of the prophets did. You may have to live out there in no man's land, like some of the prophets did. But a life of faith can be lived. It's not simply the patience that sits down and accepts things. It is a patience that masters the race, as the athlete masters that race, as that athlete runs. It's the patience that wins. It was used of the endurance of toil that has come upon a man all against his will, of endurance through the sting of grief, the shock of battle, and coming death. That's the word that is being used here. An endurance that develops from the testing of my faith, of your faith. What are the early church fathers? See if he's up there. There he is. OK, that's a tough word to pronounce, but crystal stone. He says this endurance is a root of all the goods. It's the mother of holiness, the fruit that never withers, a fortress that has never taken, a harbor that knows, knows storms. I need to ask myself, am I running this race? It's marked out for me. Am I running with patience and endurance? And how do I do it? How do I do that? Seems impossible. Well, the writer tells us here in verse 2 of chapter 12, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, looking to Jesus. One morning in 1952, long ago, the 34-year-old woman waded into the water off of Catalina Island, 26 miles to the west of the California coastline. Determined to be the first woman to ever swim the 26 mile straight, she set out. Her name was Florence Chadwick. She had already been the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Not the same day, but in different days. The water was numbing cold that morning. After some hours, a thick fog set in. So thick, she could hardly see the boats that were protecting her from sharks. As the hours ticked on, she swam. Fatigue had never been a serious problem. It was only the bone-chilling cold of the water that was threatening. More than 15, 15 hours later, numbed with cold, the swimmer asked to be taken out. She could go on no longer, no further. Her mother, her trainer, and a boat alongside her urged Chadwick to go on. As they were getting closer to shore, yet all she could see was that dense fog. A few minutes later, the swimmer was taken out of the water and later realizing that she had been within a half a mile of shore. She said, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the shore, I might have made it. That fog had obscured her goal. It had blinded her reason in her eyes. In a spiritual sense, waits, sin blinds us. We can't see the goal of our faith, Jesus Christ, there on the throne, wanting ready to welcome us home. As Christians, we must not allow ourselves to be blinded by other matters, by what we see in this world, by the lies, by the deceitful feelings and thoughts, so that we are prevented from reaching our goal, from entering our rest. Florence said, all I could see was the fog. Well, two months later, she tried again. Once again, the fog set in. She said she kept a mental image of the coastline to spur herself on. She made it that time. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Please fix your eyes on Jesus. All I could see were the attractions of the world. All I could see was my neighbors, fill in the blank. Fill in the blank. All I could see were my desires. All I could see were my struggles. All I could see was my pain. All I could see was fill in the blank. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. As Christians, let us look to Jesus, the founder of the beginning, the one who is the foundation stone, the beginner of our faith, the one who grabbed me, grabs you, grabs us from the coming judgment, the one who perfects my faith, runs such a way that you don't look back. You may trip, you may fall if you look back, run such a way that you don't lose precious moments. Cherish time with the one who loves you, the one who wants to be the way, wants to be there for you, the one who has marked out your race, the one who is the end of your race. He is there at the beginning. He is there along the way, and he is there at the finish line. He endured. He endured the cross so that I wouldn't grow weary, so that you wouldn't grow weary. The pain of dying in such a way. Jesus who despised that shame, hanging on a cross, as all his clothes are a game of lots, hanging on the cross there, the creator of the universe, the creator of these bodies, takes on this body, and there he is on the cross, despising the shame of being there as his clothes are gambled away. As we read in Colossians 1, chapter 15 to 20, I don't want to read the whole section, but I want to read just a part. By him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, all things were created through him and for him, and he was before all things, and in him, all things hold together. And that is the one who was there on the cross, there on the cross, dying from my sin, taking on and bearing that shame. Jesus, that same Jesus, now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, he has shown that he is victorious, that same Jesus who was with Abel in his race, that same Jesus who was with Enoch, who was with Abraham, and the list goes on and on, and it goes on today, doesn't it? I want to be part of that story. I, Michael, want to be part of that story. Do you want to be part of that story? Many came before, and they threw off the weight, they threw off the hindrances, and the sin. The nation of Israel didn't throw off that weight and sin. The sins of the Canaanites became a snare to the Israelites. In time, the people of God started to worship the idols of the people of the land. They were offering their children on the altars as sacrifices to the idols. They became involved in perverse sexual sin. They oppressed the poor and treated one another in godless, grievous ways. I ask myself, what will become of me if I don't lay aside the weights? If I don't lay aside the sin, the hindrances, will I live a powerless life in Jesus? Sadness because I didn't make the decision to put off weights and sin, unfulfilled dreams, depression, unbearable regrets. I don't know the outcomes. These are only just possibilities. What practices can I incorporate into my life? Develop a thankful spirit for all of God's good gifts to me, to you. Sing Christian hymns. Pray with trusted friends. Read, memorize, and meditate on scripture. Let us be grateful. Let us be grateful. Now you may be discouraged by the book of Hebrews and by this message, but the writer of Hebrew says in chapter 6, verse 9 and 10, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do. And then in chapter 10, he says, verse 39, "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve or persevere, preserve their souls." So for you here who don't know Jesus, I encourage you to consider Jesus. I don't know if it's going to be-- there we go. Consider Jesus. If you don't know Jesus, consider Jesus as we first read in chapter 2, verse 1. And for those of you who are in Jesus and are tired, as the writer says, lift up your drooping hands, strive to enter that rest. And to those of you who have stumbled, hold fast so your confidence and with confidence draw near to our Savior, to Jesus, the one who loves you more probably than you can truly comprehend at this point in your life. And for those of you who have been running and been running strong, pay much closer attention, strive for holiness, strive for holiness. And that's what I encourage each one of us to do, to strive for that holiness. I want to just close now in prayer. And then I believe we have some questions. And I want to-- a few of those questions may be a little bit too personal, so you don't have to answer those questions. But they definitely are there for you to think about, OK, as you go home, or if you want to open up with some of our brothers and sisters here. But give them thought, pray about them, and definitely want to encourage you to search your souls, your spirit with the help of the Holy Spirit, and say, Lord, what weights do I need to throw off? And Lord, you know I'm a sinner. Please, I need your grace in your mercy and forgiveness. Let me just close it this time in prayer. Gracious and loving Father, I just thank you for your word, I thank you for Jesus, I thank you for the things we can learn. Help us guide each one of us. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. OK. All right, I hope those discussions went well. If you are newer to our church, I want to explain some of the ways that we do things here. When I started this morning by saying the call to worship, what I was trying to emphasize was this idea that when we gather everything that we do should be an act of worship. And so when you process those questions at your tables, that's not just you comparing notes and trying to share some life hacks with people. That is a way of you, as a follower of Christ, if you know Jesus as your Savior, that's a way for you to pour some encouragement into the people at your table. And by so doing, that becomes an act of worship, where Jesus gets the glory for how the members of his body love one another. So thanks for doing that. I love the fact that our church gets to do this every week, that we can do some of that encouraging and tangible ways for each other. And one of the things that we want to do as we continue this worship service is just recognize that there's so many ways that we do worship God and give Him glory. And so the discussion tables, that's one of the ways. We're going to sing two more songs here. That's singing is one of the ways we worship God. We also worship Him through prayer. So if you need any prayer, I'll be in the back corner. I'd love to pray for you. We can worship Him through the giving of our tithes and our offerings, recognizing He gave everything for us in Jesus and we respond and worship by giving of our finances to Him as well. Also what we do for worship every week is this sacrament of communion, this means of grace of communion where we experience the reminder of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. And I want to thank Michael. Thanks for bringing the word this morning for us. It's such a blessing to have a man, a godly man like Michael leading our church as one of our elders. You can always tell he is a man who has been with Jesus and has been with the word of God and has been changed by that. So thank you for taking the time to do that. And as we transition to communion this morning, I want to just kind of hit off of some of the things that Michael drew our attention to. I'd love to focus on the idea of us as followers of Christ pursuing holiness. I think that there's two different ways people can fall off that horse. Some is to emphasize holiness and leaving sin to the extent that it makes it sound like it's all our effort. Like if you have any struggles, you just need to work harder and God's going to be angry at you because of you sin and if you don't sin, He'll be happy with you and He'll love you more than those things and we can emphasize that to the extent that it becomes a legalistic approach of, you have to earn God's love for you through not sinning. That's not the way we're falling off it. The other way people can fall off and it's more common this day and age is to just not talk about sin at all, to act like there's nothing in me that I have to throw off or to cast aside. But that passage in Hebrews reminds us that there is a sin that clings to each of us. We have these ongoing struggles, these reminders of our need for a savior. That's what Michael did such a good job of drawing our attention to today. And I love the fact that the answer to both of those, either ignoring sin or obsessing over sin, neither one of those is the right approach. Instead it is where he ended this passage this morning. It's where the author of Hebrews ends this passage by saying instead of doing those things, we throw off sin by looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Sin is a big deal, right? It's such a big deal that Jesus had to die for our sin. But his love is so much greater that he chose to take that sin upon himself. So as you evaluate your own soul, as you think about the things that cling to your own soul, as you come to the table if you're a follower of Christ, use this moment of worship as you take these elements of laying aside those hindrances, of laying aside those sin and recognizing that the reason you can lay aside sin is because on the cross Jesus already had all of your sin laying upon him because of his love for you. That's what this sacrament is. It reminds us that your body doesn't have to be broken because Jesus already was. Your blood doesn't have to be shed for the payment of your sins because Jesus' blood already was shed. So if you're able, would you join me in standing and I'm gonna say a word of prayer for us before we partake of these elements in his next two songs. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your gospel, the fact that you have invited us to come near to you through your grace as we put our faith and our trust in you. So pray for everyone here as we approach your presence because of the blood of your son, that we'd be aware of our shortcomings, we'd be aware of our need for your grace and we'd be able to, through the power of your Holy Spirit, lay aside those struggles so that we can run the race you have set before us. Or help us to come to this table, the sacrament to appreciate and experience, the nourishment that comes from knowing that you have paid the penalty that our sins deserved. And so it's out of joy and gratitude for that sacrifice you did on our behalf that we come to you now in worship. Listen, Jesus, name me, pray. Amen. (upbeat music)
SERMON OUTLINE:1: Encouraging Advice2: A few warnings3: A Cloud of Witnesses4: Run with endurance5: Fixing our eyes on JesusDISCUSSION QUESTIONS:What are some of the more common weights than slow Christians down?What weights or hinderances slow you down?What are your thoughts about the respectable sins among Christians? Are there sins that Christians seem to be more involved in?What practices can I be involved in to help in my race?
