Intro- prayer – open your bibles with me to;
Hebrews 12: 1-3 “ Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endure the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
This morning I want you to know--
To have endurance for this life you need to keep your eyes focused on Jesus.
I. Paul has given you a summary of the ones that came in faith before you to encourage you to continue with endurance. Listen to these people before us.
Hebrews 11:33-40 Who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight….And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment, They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
By the witnesses before you! What a great summary to look at.
a.The people of faith before you will encourage you because you have nothing to endure compared to them.
b.It is light stuff, you have, compared to the cloud of witness you have before you.
You have never fought a lion, right?
You have never went around in goatskin?
You have never been stoned (and not that kind) with rocks!
pause
Ya but preacher I have had my two sons commit suicide.
Ya but preacher I have been beaten by my father
Ya but preacher I have been left by my wife for someone else
Ya but preacher I have lived with my drunken husband
c. If any of those or others are true, Then you have seen part of the race we have to run. The burdens we have.
Paul says lay them aside. Leave them; don’t let them weight you down.
Illustration: Have you ever seen those weights that a runner puts on to practice with, so they build up the muscle? They wrap them around their ankles and around their waist. Then when the time comes to run the race then you take them off. What are the weights that you are carrying? God says it’s time to lay those aside. Put them away.
d. Here is the other part of the race that Paul tells us – SIN
1. The heaviest of all weights, these are specific encumbrances or hindrances.
2.These are the sin that entrap, snare, and capture you. The word Paul uses means to surround you. Picture Paul was trying to paint was one ---
. Like someone trying to run out to the mailbox with their bathrobe or house coat on that wraps around your legs. Woman trying to run with a long dress on.--
What sins? We don’t sin, right, after all we are Christians. That’s not what Paul’s telling us. John says, we do too. In 1Jn. 1:8-10 If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
3. The sin that stops you from running the race needs to go out of here and out of your life. There may be habits, pleasures, selfish desires, or things which hold you back from God. You have to shed them like an athlete would shed their warm up suit.
4. When you have done that you can run with endurance the race set before you.
Illustration: Bob Wieland finally crossed the finish line on Thursday, November 6, 1986, the New York City Marathon’s 19,413th and final finisher . . . and the first to run a marathon with his arms instead of his legs! Wieland is a 40-year old Californian whose legs were blown off in a Vietnam battlefield 17 years ago. He recorded what race officials said was the slowest time in marathon history: four days, two hours, 48 minutes, 17 seconds. But he was greeted like a champion by race director Fred Lebow, who had written Wieland off as a dropout. When he finished, Wieland shouted, "We love New York!" and repeatedly pumped his arms in the air. He claimed his finisher’s medal and explained why he did it: "For the same reason as 20,000 other people. It’s the greatest marathon in the country." He also cited three specific reasons: to show his born-again Christian faith; to test his conditioning and to promote the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, of which he is a member.
He said, "Success is not based on where you start, it’s where you finish, and I finished. The first step was the most difficult, after that, we were on our way home. The joy has been the journey." Wieland started Sunday at 8:23 a.m. more than two hours before the main body of runners. But, moving at an average speed of about one mile an hour, his lead soon vanished; Wieland runs in a sitting position, using his muscular arms like crutches to lift his torso and swing it forward. He sits on a 15 pound saddle and covers his clenched fists with pads he calls "size 1 running shoes." Paul the Apostle said it like this, "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Adapted from an Associated Press story in the Denver Post, Nov 7, 1986.
You should be asking yourself what is that race set before me?
First I see it is something you can win and receive a prize.In 1Co 9:24 “DO you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?” Run in such a way that you may win.”
Second, I see when you obey the truth in your race you’ll have hindrances .
Ga. 5:7 “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
Thirdly I see the race as being an upward call of God in Christ Jesus . Ph. 3:14 “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
So it looks like the race is the life you live, with purpose to win the prize, with things like temptation and sin that get in your way , and the goal is being joined in eternal life with JESUS.
To have endurance for this life you need to keep your eyes focused on Jesus.
In today’s society there are people who would tell you that they can run the race by looking deep within they own self and find the answers. That you need to use your surrounding and make them your friends. They say that your self or soul is the center of all reality. If you only try harder and find the strength within your self.
Is that what God says? NO!! Verse 2 Gives you and I ,where and who to look at.
On Jesus. I was asking my daughter a philosophical question the other day and she was joking around and she knew that I wanted an answer that related to God so she answered me “Jesus” I said no daughter you are not in children’s Sunday school, the answer to all the questions is not Jesus. You know how kids are, I know but my little girl is only 23.
You know depends on the question, the answer most of the time is Jesus.
Vs 2 says fixing our eyes-Paul says looking away from everything that may distract, looking away from the things we talked about earlier and looking unto God in everything great and small.
My other daughter was searching in our many boxes around the house for something last night and she says please God help me find it. I laughed and said sure God will stop what he is doing and come here and help you look in that box and find what you are looking for and we laughed and I mocked a funny pray. But you know, I was wrong, God will help us with the small things as much as he does the big things.
God says fix your eyes upon Jesus – why?- because He is the author and perfector of faith. I thought, you mean He wrote, you know like an author, like a book. All the translations I looked at said author. But it doesn’t mean that at all it means the leader, the captain or the source. If you are going to endure this life you need to keep your focus on the source of all life, of all hope, and of all love and that is Jesus. Even as you looked at all the witnesses to the faith before you in chapter 11, the great ,supreme and ultimate example is Jesus.He is the leader he is the source he is the perfector of your faith. Jn 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me.”
How could Jesus who is the source and the finisher of your faith, see any kind of Joy in what He had to do on the cross for us.
A friend and I were talking on Thursday about how Jesus when through so much. When they put the crown of thorns on His head. My friend ask me if I had ever been to Israel and seen the thorns. I said no. He said they are not like the thorns on a rose bush they are big and razor sharp. He said you can’t even touch them with out cutting yourself.
We were imaging together the pain He must have when though. The pain when the flesh on His back was ripped away. The pain when they made Him carry the cross. We even talked about the splinters he must had had in His shoulder from the rough wood of the cross. The pain He must have had when they nailed the spikes into His hands and into His feet. My friend and I were trying to compare the pain with our experiences of his broken collarbone and my neck surgery but we just could not imagine the pain.
How could Jesus find joy in all of that, He knew what He was going to go through. And He knew the worst pain of all was all of our sins being placed on Him and being forsaken by the Father. The worst pain of all the separation from the Father..
He found joy because of what was in His view. The repairing of the broken relationship between God and man. Your broken relationship. That He would forgive Your sins, That you could now be friends with Him He knew that the death on the cross and the resurrection would open the way of salvation to you the chief of sinners. He would seal the covenant of grace for you. The un-deserved mercy would be available to you. Gods undeserved love would be yours.
He knew that He would be seated at the right hand of the throne of God. At God’s right hand Christ performs all the functions of ruler, high priest, and advocate, yet He came to that place through suffering and endurance, by the way of the cross. In that position His joy is complete and so will our joy be complete when you are in His presence.
Now consider my friends, consider even if you are not a born again Christian or if you are, You have to at least consider Him who endured such hostility for you your sins. SO that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
Consider The people before us that are witnesses to faith .
Consider the sin which so easily gets us.
Consider throwing the sin in your live off.
Consider the one who has made the way for you personal relationship with the almighty God.
Consider To have endurance for this life you need to keep your eyes focused on Jesus!
How do you respond to this message this morning? One of three ways
1. You say who cares and go home.
2. You understand the message that to have endurance for this life you have to focus on Jesus. If you are a born again Christian you lay aside the sin in your life right now right here. And don’t be entangled by them again.
3. If you do not know Jesus in a personal way today is that day today is the day of salvation. Consider giving your heart to Jesus now! You can’t wait and say I’ll do it tomorrow.
TO have endurance for this life you need to keep your eyes focused on Jesus.
Before we pray I want to say one last thing and you never know it could be the last thing for you. While I’m praying is the Holy Spirit is pressing on your heart that you need to do something this morning. That you need to get your life right and give your heart to Jesus you come up here while we pray.
Let’s pray!!
The heart of your word today is encouraging for the believer yet you have given us enough to know that if we want an life with the purpose you have planned that we need you in our life. Lord please help us see that we are nothing with out you, Help us to know you better and to lay aside our sins and run the race for you. Help us not to leave here today with the burden of sin weighting us down. Help us Lord to come to you and hand our burdens to you. For you said in Matthew- for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And Lord we don’t want those burdens any more, the burden of our sin we want you to come into our hearts this morning and reside there. Lord if there is any one here that don’t know you Lord we pray that they will not leave here without coming and giving their hearts to you.
