Get A Grip
Hebrews 12: 12-15
Intro: I have been watching a TV show with my sons here lately. It’s called American Ninja Warrior. Has anybody else watched this? Basically it’s an extremely difficult obstacle course. No American has ever successfully completed the final course. That’s how difficult it is. Men and women compete. As you can guess though, the majority of the competitors are male. Many of them train in what they call parkour or free running. This is an athletic prowess where you jump and flip and tumble all with perfect balance. It’s really quite remarkable to watch these people in action. What I have noticed while watching the show is that the atheletes that seem to be the most successful are not the practitioners of parkour but the rock climbers. Have you ever watched these people who seem to be able to grasp a ledge or crack on the side of a mountain that maybe a ΒΌ inch. It’s amazing. The reason these people are so successful in the American Ninja Warrior is because of the grip and strength that they develop as they climb these rocks and mountains. They develop a grip in their hands and other extremities that are second to no one in the competition. As they push through many hardships while climbing, they strengthen themselves. As I read our scripture this morning I thought about these people with the strong grip and physical prowess.
. Our scripture this morning starts out telling us to get a new grip on our lives with strong hands.
. The writer of Hebrews has just finished telling them about how God uses discipline in people’s lives to shape them and make them stronger.
. God will let calamities and circumstances in our lives occur in order to bring us back to him or to bring us closer to him .
. He uses these things in our lives to shape our character.
. He uses this disciple to teach us.
. After the writer speaks of this spiritual discipline and explains its purpose, we get to our scripture this morning.
. Hebrews 12: 12-15:
12So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees
13Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
14Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
15Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
. The writer is telling his readers that the trials in life, the things that God uses to teach you should make you strong, not weaken you.
. He is telling them to get a grip and be the person that God has intended you to be.
. He says take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen yourselves.
. We all get tired sometimes don’t we? We get tired and discouraged. Things don’t go exactly like we want them and maybe we have a little pity party and start whining a little bit.
. Maybe we long for the good old days because we forget that the good old days had their unique set of problems also.
. God says Get a Grip. Strengthen yourselves and quit whining.
. As we look at these verses we see four ways that we can get a grip on our spiritual life.
. The first thing you do is that you:
. Re-Commit yourself to what you are supposed to be doing.
. Look with me at verse 12 again:
. 12So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.
. Take a new grip with your tired hands
. To get a new grip, sometimes we need to evaluate or old grip.
. Look at your life. What are you committed to?
. Your marriage or relationships. You should be.
. Your job
. Your family
. All of these are worthy of your commitment.
. So is God.
. He should be at the top of the list.
. We get so busy and involved in all these other things that God gets pushed down the list doesn’t he?
. General Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military leader whose all volunteer army brought about the unification of what we call Italy in the 1840’s. Italy was much like the US was during the civil war . Divided and separated. As he recruited for his army, this is part of the speech he would give.
. “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!”
. He was telling them that to following him required a commitment.
. The writer of Hebrews is telling us to strengthen ourselves spiritually through all the trials and tribulations of life.
. Christian, we need to get a grip on life and Re- Commit ourselves to Christ.
. If we were to paraphrase Garabaldi, it could say something like this.
. “ Let whoever loves with his heart and not just his lips, let him become a disciple of Jesus.”
. Re-Commit yourselves to God
. Next if we are to get a firm grip on life we need to:
. Recognize then End Goal
. Look with me at verse 13:
. 13Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
. Make a straight path. Know the end game.
. Look to the goal line and don’t get distracted.
. Football season is upon us and I played enough to know that when a running back is given the ball, the coach wants him to get up field as soon as he can. The coach doesn’t want him to run back and forth to the end zone. He wants him to take the straightest path that he can.
. When they do that, they can score and be victorious.
. The writer here in Hebrews recognizes that long before modern coaching came along.
. He says make a straight path to where you want to go.
. If you don’t you may struggle and even stumble.
. What are your goals in life?
. To retire, to graduate, to raise your kids, to enjoy your grand children, to start a new life with someone you love. To have a successful business.
. To win our fantasy football church championship.
. All worthy goals except maybe the last one.
. Our main Goal as Christian’s folks, must be to hear the master, Jesus Christ say these words to us that we find recorded in the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25.
. The master had entrusted three servants with various amounts of money and he went away for a while. When he returned he called them together to see what they had done with what he had entrusted them with.
. Two had been wise and had used and invested what he had given them.
. He looked at them and said this:
. Verse 21: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful…”
. Verse 23: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful…”
. That is what our end goal should be, Jesus telling us well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful.
. That will never happen until we recognize what the end goal actually is.
. The writer says strengthen yourselves, get a new grip and recognize what this is all about.
. Make straight your path to the goal.
. Next, if we are to get a grip , we need to:
. Re-Energize our faith.
. Look with me at verse 14:
. 14Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
. Work at living a holy life. Re-Energize yourself.
. Strengthen yourself and get a new grip by re-energizing you faith.
. We all need this don’t we. I need it and you need it.
. How do we re-energize our faith .
.Through discipline.
. I can’t exercise like I used to or would like to right now because of my issues with my shoulders and legs. That’s what all the surgeries that I am going through are for.
. What I can do though is sit-ups. I know what you’re thinking, Pastor, it looks like you need to do a few more. But I do try.
. What I have found out though is that if I stop doing my sit-ups for even a week, I lose the strength to do as many. Just one week of not disciplining myself will cause me to lose 15% of my strength to do this.
. When we don’t use what is called the Spiritual Disciplines , ie Prayer, Bible study, Solitude, Contemplation, Church Attendance, Tithing, or just plain time with God, we get weak.
. We are spiritually weak and we need to re-energize our spiritual muscles.
. We need to strengthen our selves in order to worship and know what God has planned for us to do.
. Just like we strengthen ourselves in physical discipline we strengthen or re-energize ourselves with spiritual discipline.
. Why, I’m glad you asked.
. To fulfill the Great commission that Clay shared with us last week
. To live out our mission statement.
. To encourage and develop those we meet into committed followers of Jesus.
. We live this Holy life, this disciplined life not just to please the Lord and ourselves. We live this life so that others may see Jesus in us.
. Get a Grip, Strengthen Yourselves and Re-Energize your Faith.
. Lastly we see that we need to:
. Re- New our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters.
. Look at verse 15 again:
. 15Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
. The writer says that we are to look after each other.
. Care for each other. All of the brethren, not just the ones you particularly like.
. Get a new grip, strengthen yourself and let all bitterness leave you.
. Re-new your relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
. Some things may have happened in the past that has caused bitterness in you.
. Your fellowship with your brothers and sisters may have fallen by the wayside.
. Forget all that. In Philippians 3: 13,14 Paul writes:
. “…but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,14I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
. Forget the past, press forward.
. If there are relationship issues from the past, leave them behind and re-new your relationships and press toward the Heavenly prize as Paul calls our finish line.
. Get a new grip folks,
RE-Commit Yourselves
Recognize the Goal
Re-Energize Your Faith
Re-New You’re Relationships
. We are starting a new church year today.
. Use this year to get a new grip and serve the Lord and your Church.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
