TODAY WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW TO PROPERLY RUN THE RACE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. AS BELIEVERS WE ARE CALLED TO RUN THIS RACE WITH FAITH AND ENDURANCE. AND IF WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY DO SO, WE WILL BE SO EASILY SLOWED DOWN AND HINDERED BY THE WEIGHT OF THIS WORLD.
Cover end of Hebrews 11: SO GUYS
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE READ: Hebrews 12:1-4
1) 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, 2) 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.
3) Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4) In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Lets examine verse 1:
1 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,
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
We see some examples In Hebrews 11 of other bible characters that believed GOD. Such as Abraham and others who we all look at and say, “I want to have faith like that”
THE TEXT SAYS:
// let us also lay aside every weight, //
So because we are surrounded by these people of faith that went before us…
// LET US ALSO LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT//
Weight= something that we all have. It tends to give us a sense of security. What was some weights that Noah or Abraham or Sarah had to lay aside?
comparability, predictability, safety, anything that would leave you predisposed to not trusting God
Whats the weight in YOUR LIFE? (PAUSE)
Is it your comfort?..Is it the predictability of life?..Is it something else?
(Church, I want to encourage you that…We as believers have to participate in this process of putting down the weight down in your life, its an active continual thing. Its not just a one and done type of deal.
And the text says:
Scripture calls us to lay aside every weight and sin.
We defined what a weight is so now lets define sin.
Sin = Simply Means to miss the mark. (Its an archery term: Anything that doesn’t hit the bullseye) That’s what kept us from being in right standing with GOD and separated us from him. Its a serious thing. So we should lay sin aside in our lives because it clings on so easily. (It can look like a lot of things but you can boil them all down to pride and unbelief)
The question I usually asked myself when I’m thinking about doing something is: “Is it sin?”
That is a terrible question to ask: Because the bible tells us to lay aside every WEIGHT and SIN.
Transition: - So for what purpose do we constantly evaluate our lives for weightiness and sinfulness. The author tells us the answer to this question… at the end of the Verse 1:
SO LETS LOOK AT IT:
and let us run with endurance the race
The common race of faith that we as believers are all running together. This is the race of faith.
WITH ENDURANCE = not only are we running BUT were running with what the Greek translates to as: Steadfastness and Perseverance.
This individual race that is before us BUT is also a race that we get to run, in community.
ILLUSTRATION:
GUYS: God has called us to be marathon runners not sprinters.
Being a marathon runner takes a lot of discipline, that Sprinting just doesn’t take. For example how many of you in here have ran a race, in your life and you were sprinting your fastest trying to win? (pause) Everyone has, maybe a long time ago but everyone has sprinted before.
Now how many of you have ran a marathon before? FOR ME ITS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I RAN A MILE. You see there is a large amount of discipline that it takes to run a distance race.
WITH THAT BEING SAID. There is a level of discipline that Christ calls us, to run this race of faith with.
APPLICATION
Some questions that I have for you all today are?
TRANSITION: Sometimes as believers we can run with endurance (Holding on to promises in scripture, fleeing from temptation, not conforming to the way of the world but being transformed by Christ)… but often times we feel like walking instead of running?
And if that describes you this morning, I want to remind you of THE KEY to running this race. We have to lay something down… and take our vision up. We have to actively lay down these sins and weights that hang on to us so easily and look up to the founder of our faith…
(PAUSE)
2 //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.//
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
//THE VERSE SAYS founder and PERFECTER of our faith//
Jesus is the ultimate example of faith because he was fully GOD and fully man. He was even tempted, he was tempted by Satan himself but he depended on prayer, scripture, and being obedient to the fathers will…
These are all of the same things, that we are called to depend on, as believers… in this race.
LETS LOOK BACK AT THE TEXT:
//who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame//
So we talked about Jesus’ obedience to the fathers will. And apart of that will being enduring the cross on cavalry.
Guys I want you to picture in your minds… The celebration of a marathon runner crossing the ribbon, as they’re completing their race… (their hands are outstretched as they cross the finish line) and the joy that is on their face and in their minds as they see that their race is coming to completion. No matter the pain or the suffering that they have endured… during this race…
In the same way Jesus,(with outstretched arms), through the pain, he endured at the end of his race up to the point of being beaten and nailed to a cross and while dying a humiliating/horrifying death, was filled with joy when he said…
“It… is… finished” “PAUSE”
But For Jesus there was joy in his suffering… there was joy in his obedience… because Jesus knew of the joy, that there would be, as he was sitting down at the fathers right hand knowing, his work was complete.
That was the reward that Christ received.
Church, we get to receive rewards too…
Throughout the Bible rewards are promised… but sometimes as believers we just don’t believe… that they are promised. There are many areas in our lives that show …that we have not FULLY… bought in to this truth…
LETS LOOK DOWN AT: VERSE 3
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself
Scripture says:
so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted
To be frank…I feel like we are too faint-hearted as believers today. When it comes to fleeing temptation or enduring persecution, we are easily overwhelmed. Now there are exceptions for sure. But I feel like the majority of the Big C Church (which is all of us) tend to be faint in heart, when it comes to walking by faith in our lives.
My question is “Why are we?” “Why are we so fainthearted?”
IT doesn’t make sense because…
In John 16:33 Jesus said you will have many trails, but take heart “I have overcome the world”.
Church the word says, Without faith it’s impossible to please GOD. We need to be a people of faith. This race that were running requires it.
As believers Our biggest problem is taken care of…( repeat) That being the separation between man and GOD.
So why are we so faint of heart?
TRANSITION: Church, The reason that we shouldn’t be fainthearted, even though our persecution maybe difficult is because we are supposed to be considering Jesus… WHO…endured far worse!
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
As believers getting rid of this sin that clings closely to us is difficult, its a struggle.
No matter what kind of sin you have been resisting you have not resisted to the point that you have bled.
The audience that the author of Hebrews is speaking shows us in Chapter 10 that they had been getting persecuted because of their faith and also imprisoned! Scripture was telling them to take heart in the fact that they were being arrested but they were not shedding blood.
We have the woah is me mentality, because we are looked at differently by the world. That’s our persecution.
I want to encourage you all, to Go to OpenDoor.com and look at what some of our brothers and sister in other countries are going through. When we take the lens off of ourselves and focus on Christ and his body… that action of selflessness, encourages us and convicts us… to run this race to the best of our ability.
ILLUSTRATION:
Guys I want to share with you the story of William Tyndale: He was born in the late 1400s, he studied theology at Oxford University.
APPLICATION: As believers Continue in your faith…there is no fear of persecution, no fear in death because we serve a GOD who has power over both. Don’t be beat down by the worries of this world but instead live this life, run your race for eternal things… And The only way that we can do this is to look to the one who shed his blood, and endured agonizing persecution for our sake. So that we can take part in this race and endure persecution with a WITH A HOPE THAT NOT EVEN DEATH CAN INTIMIDATE.
LETS PRAY…
Cited:
William Tyndale Biography: https://localhistories.org/a-short-biography-of-william-tyndale