Running Well in 2007

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That's CSbible@hotmail.com. May God bless you. Well, good morning to all of you. For our time of study in the word this morning, I want to invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews chapter, 12, and what we're going to do, this morning is we're going to be looking at verses 1 and two, somewhat devotionally, And I'll explain to you in a moment how this message materialized. but next Sunday, the plan is that we'll reenter our study of the book of Ephesians and we'll be coming to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. And so we're going to be talking to children, next week and also, to parents and continue to focus on this theme, at least through next Sunday on parenting and we've benefited much from what we have learned over the course of this month on the subject of, of child rearing.

But today, it just felt right to depart from that.

This is New Year's Eve. And, if you're anything like me on a day like today, on a week like this week, you, you spend time reflecting upon the, the previous year. And, you look back and you're grateful for God's blessings and you give thanks to him for those blessings. At the same time, you look back with, a measure of dismay and, even discouragement as you see how pockmarked and punctuated the previous year has been with many, many failures, sins committed, And, things that, you felt like the Lord wanted you to do that you did not do, spiritual disciplines, not practiced the way that they should have been, practiced.

And if you're anything like me, that makes you want to go to the cross and experience God's grace for that. But also on a day like today, we look ahead to a year that is fresh, unclean, unstained, Here's an exciting truth I want to share with you guys. None of us in this room have committed a single sin in 2007. Doesn't it feel good to say that?

Now, next Sunday, I won't be able to say that, but it feels good to be able to say that, today. It really is a fresh, crisp, clean year, that we can look to with renewed vision and renewed hope. And, it just seems like a good place to go to rally ourselves to, the new year would be Hebrews 12:1 and 2. And I want to speak to you guys today on the subject of running well in 2007.

Running well in 2007, I thought about the title Running to Heaven. And the year that follows 2006, I'm joking on that, but, I, I, I want to begin the message on somewhat of a discouraging, note, just to share with you how I arrived at this passage. This is not a, a passage that, that I had intended to, to preach on, but nonetheless, it is a text that I have found myself coming to over the last 2, 2.5 months, a number of times, sometimes the very first thought on my mind. in the morning, and I want to begin by just somewhat transparently sharing with you guys how the Lord has taken me, to this, passage.

There's been a couple of discouraging blows to me in the latter part of, of 2006. And, I want to share those with you and, let me begin. though, by this, we've been talking about parenting this month. I want to begin by reading to you the words of counsel from a pastor to his children.

this is very wise counsel, from a pastor of a church up in Colorado to his children. And to his children, he says major leaders have lost their positions of influence because of what they did. Alone in a room. Please don't ever fall into the trap of believing that you can do something in secret, even when you are far away from home.

This is a lie, and it will always come back to haunt you. This is wise counsel from a father, a pastor to his children. It's something I think that we would want to convey to our children as well. But you might be interested to know that the pastor who wrote these words of counsel to his children about 4 years ago.

Is Pastor Ted Haggard. Who a couple of months or so ago was removed from his ministry as pastor. Of a rather large church because of what he did while alone. In a hotel room with a prostitute of the same gender.

when I heard the news of that, I don't know if everybody responds this way. but whenever I hear news such as what happened with Ted Haggard, Bill Clinton, a number of years ago, Kobe Bryant a few years ago, I had this feeling come over me like I'm the one who's been exposed. I don't know if you guys feel that, that way also. Because incidences like that blow the cover off of something that's true of all of us, right?

it exposes something that's true about me. It exposes something that's true about all of us, and that, that is that we are sinners. In desperate need of a savior, not only God's forgiving grace, but God's delivering grace from day to day. And so, when I was processing the news of that, I didn't follow his ministry all that closely, but it hit me very hard, as a Christian and also as a pastor.

And, a few days later, I was able to read the letter that he had written to his, congregation and listen to what he said to his congregation. In his letter to them, he says, there is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it all my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice and freedom. Then from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything.

I believe and teach. And guys, let's be honest with ourselves and with one another. I'm going to ask for a raise of hands here. How many of you would say, what, there have been times in my life over this past year, when I thought the dirt was gone, only to find it resurfacing in my life.

OK. Another question, how many of you would say that I too, even this past year, have found myself thinking thoughts, And experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach. Raise your hand, and my hand is up as well. It doesn't have to be in the area where Ted Haggard fell into sin.

It could have been anger, bitterness, lust, and covetousness and jealousy, envy and, and, and hatred. It could have been a number of things, but all of us would have to say that we totally identify. With what our brother Ted Haggard is sharing here with his congregation. He goes on to say this.

He says, Through the years I have sought assistance in a variety of ways, with none of them proving to be effective in me. Then because of pride, I began deceiving those I loved the most because I didn't want to hurt or disappoint them. When I stopped communicating about my problems, the darkness increased and finally dominated me. I am a deceiver.

And a liar, please forgive me. I am so embarrassed and ashamed. I am a sinner. I have fallen.

When I read the letter to the congregation, there's more that he said there. I was blessed by his openness and by the degree to which he was confessing. His sin and the different aspects of it, But I began to also reflect upon the sinful flesh that is inside of me. That I have to deal with every single day of my life and I will have to deal with every single day of my life from now.

To the grave or when the Lord returns. We all know from experience and from Scripture that the flesh that is within us sets its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are in constant opposition to one another so that we may not do the things that we please. According to the Bible, and we know from experience that never once do we ever do the right thing that 100% of our being wants to do.

There's always Was a part of us that goes kicking and screaming that desperately wants us to do the wrong thing. And so we have this battle that is inside of us every day because of the presence of sin that is within us now and will be within us until the Lord returns or until we enter glory. Well, again, I, I've not been a close follower of Ted Haggard's ministry. I was impacted by it nonetheless.

but about two weeks after, this, the news of this, broke, I received another piece of news, There is a pastor here in the United States that, I've had a tremendous amount of respect for, still do. I know him personally. I've done lunch with him on a handful of occasions and, probably of all the pastors that I know, I, I would rank him in the top two or three pastors that I have sought in my own ministry to pattern my ministry after. There have been a number of low points in my ministry in my battle with sin, where, without even trying to, I have thought of him and been inspired by his messages and by the example that this man has set.

There are aspects of our ministry here at Cornerstone that are because of his influence, our passion for flying low to the text and preaching every text of scripture with passion and not overly systematizing. That influence came from this particular pastor. And so he's a man that I've highly looked up to, but about 2 weeks after the news broke regarding Ted Haggard, I received the news that this pastor was asked to step down from his ministry because of drug abuse. And I received that news on a Sunday morning.

In fact, I was preaching here on a Sunday morning, and during the first service, this is the only time this has happened to me, my cell phone rang in the middle of a message. And I turned it off as quickly as I could and went on with the message, but in between the first and 2nd service, in fact, as I'm walking out of the office to come up here for the 2nd service, I called the person back who had called me and said, what's up, and they told me the news about this pastor. And so I, I came up here and, and took my seat in our worship time and just felt numb through the whole worship.

And I have to confess to you, guys, please, please don't let this be the only thing that you remember from this message, and we're going to move from here to a better place, OK?

So, this is not my message. I, and I am not speaking to you right now so much as a pastor, as much as, as a fallen human being who also finds himself frequently thinking thoughts that are wrong and contrary to what I believe and teach. But after I heard the news of that standing over on this side of the auditorium during our worship, I had a thought occur to me, and the thought went something like this I too am doomed to fall. I too I'm doomed to fall.

My next thought was a question, a series of questions, and that is, Who's going to fall next? What stupid thing is he going to do? And will it be me? And what stupid thing am I going to do?

Those are the thoughts and the questions that went through my mind as I stood here in worship that Sunday. Those thoughts just lodged in my mind and would not go away. But over the course of the next few days of that week, I found my thoughts going to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. And as my thoughts went to that passage, not just one time, but several times, I felt rallied, and encouraged.

My heart was lifted up. and I'm thinking to myself, what better passage to go to then. As we want to rally ourselves looking into 2007. As you look back maybe on a year of failure, and maybe, you've been struck also by the failures of others, around you, and, you need your heart lifted up.

You need to be rallied looking into 2007. And I want you to experience in your heart what I have experienced as I have meditated upon, this passage in Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and two, and also we're going to include verse three, in this, this morning. In fact, I'm going to put it on the screen. You can look on in your Bible, but I'm putting it on the screen because, I, I've, I've tried to write out as literal of a translation as I could.

So that we can understand really what the mountain peak of this passage is, and then there's a bunch of participles that go into explaining that and we'll try to bring some of that, out as we go, this morning. But look at what the writer of Hebrews says. Two believers who were growing weary and were losing heart. Now, their reasons for losing heart were different than my reasons, but we had this in common and that is, We were reaching a low point.

I reached a low point where I was beginning to lose heart. Look at what he says to these believers. He says, Therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, he's just spent time in Hebrews chapter 11. Giving a number of names of people in incidences where they manifested great faith, and he says, therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us and laying aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run.

That is the main subject verb combination in this whole passage. And that is the words let us run. This is a command to discourage Christians who are just moping about. In fact, later in the chapter, he's talking to these Christians, and he says, your hands are weak and your knees are feeble, and they're just moping around spiritually.

And to these discouraged Christians who were losing heart, his challenge to them is let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And by the way, the word race, is the Greek word we get our English word agony from. All right. it's an agonizing race.

It's the Greek word ago. And so this is not just, some free flowing race. I know some of you here, we've got some people in our church who love to run and you run like gazelles. I can't do that.

I wish that I could, but you guys love to run. You feel alive. All of your endorphins are just racing through your body. You feel refreshed after you've run.

For 5 miles. That's not me. But what, this is not the running that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. It's an agonizing race, speaking of an agonizing expenditure of energy where you are fighting for every yard of progress.

So let us run with endurance the ago that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself. And so here's Jesus running his race, and he has to endure as he's running his race, the hostility of sinners, sinning people against himself, seeking to counter him at every turn, and he had to advance in spite of that.

Look what he says, so that you will not grow weary, or grow discouraged and lose heart.

have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. And by the way, the word is in that word. In fact, the word, the Greek word that is translated striving is the word we get our word antagonism from, antagonism. OK, this is antagonism.

And it speaks of striving against something. So we're trying to make forward progress, to make forward progress. There are obstacles. There are sinners that are in our way.

They're seeking to influence us to get off the path or to turn around and run in the opposite direction. That's exactly what the Hebrew Christians were being tempted to do. At this time. And also not just sinners outside of ourselves, but even sin within, we have to strive against that in order to advance and make progress in this agonizing race that we have to run.

And the Bible depicts our Christian life in a number of ways. One of them is from beginning to end, it is an agonizing race. You say, well, I wish I would have known that before I became a Christian. And I know that doesn't make your day, and it can be a discouraging thought, but what, someone needs to say it because you probably are in the middle of an agonizing race and you may be thinking you're the only one.

Why does it seem to come easy for everybody else? what, it doesn't. It doesn't. It's agonizing for all of us.

And so, good grief, how, how, how do we run this race? That's the question that I want us to meditate upon. How do we run? This agonizing race where we have sinners from without and sin from within seeking to trip us up and entangle us and oppose us, and we've got to fight for every inch, every foot, every yard of progress.

How do we run? How do I run this race from today all the way to the end of my life, when the whole thing in many ways is an agonizing race? How do I do this? Well, let's contemplate the various things in this passage.

And let me share with you some of the things that I've been thinking about by way of how we run, and some of these thoughts have been very encouraging to me. First of all, I would say this, if you ask the writer of Hebrews, well, how do you want me to run, we know from the text that he would say run quickly and continuously forward. All right, Quickly and continuously forward. All right.

Look at each one of these words. First of all, obviously, he wants us to run forward, right? rather than getting off the path and not running at all, or turning around and running in the opposite direction, which is exactly what these Christians were being tempted to do, to abandon Christianity and to go back to Judaism, he is saying that we need to be running forward. Also, the tents.

Of this command is present tense denoting that we are to be continuously running. There is to be constant forward motion in our lives. Always advancing ought to be our motto. I've been thinking about this a lot this year, this whole year, in fact, just, just the two words, always advancing, always advancing.

what, we get into trouble when we stop running, when we stop advancing. We reach this plateau and it's like, OK, I think I like it here, and we settle in, we lose our momentum, and what, that's when we get into trouble. But we ought to, just driven to be always advancing, being in God's word, practicing the disciplines, reading books that turn our thoughts to God, meditating upon the Word of God, memorizing it, and having that feeling to where we're always moving forward and advancing.

whenever we go back to Indiana for vacation, it's inevitable, no matter what I do to try to avoid this, that after a few days in Indiana, and it's in the summer, so a lot of times we're wearing shorts, after a few days, I look at my ankles and my calves, and I have mosquito bites.

Everywhere. And my kids have them even more. but one of the things that I've noticed is when I go outside, as long as I'm moving and running, the mosquitoes don't bug me, and they don't land on me, and they don't bite, but it's when you stop and you sit down that the mosquitoes come and they bite and they can be a real hassle. And in the Christian life, the same is true.

It's when we stop running that the mosquitoes come. The devil loves an idle mind, an idle heart. And so, guys, just like a shark that always has to be swimming forward in order to breathe and stay alive, if it became stationary, it would eventually die. it's similar with us.

We need to be always advancing, always learning, always advancing. And so we are to be running forward, we are to be running continuously, and we're to be running quickly. All right. He's not saying, let us walk the agonizing race that is set before us.

Many times, the Bible does depict our Christian life as a walk, and that's totally biblical. Nonetheless, in this passage, he's saying run, and the difference Between walking and running is that in running, we are seeking to take longer strides and do so more rapidly, right? So it's not enough to just be moving forward, we need to be taking as large a strides as we possibly can, as rapidly as possible. So just forward motion is not Enough.

Constant forward motion is not enough, but we ought to be really seeking to advance by large strides rapidly to where in 2007, it is a year of dramatic growth, day by day, week by week, month by month, to where by year's end, we can say by the grace of God, and only by the grace of God. I have advanced by major strides because of what he has done in my life as I have run quickly and continuously forward. what, I really think that this is, God looks upon a Christian like this and says, that's the perfect Christian.

The perfect Christian is not the Christian that never sins.

The perfect Christian is the Christian that is always advancing, always advancing. In fact, Paul says to Timothy, he's saying, says to him in 1 Timothy 4:15, Take pains with these things, be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all. He doesn't say so that your perfection may be evident to everybody. Parents, all the things that you've learned in this parenting seminar, and you're thinking, man, I just totally.

Listen, all God wants from you is progress, forward motion, believing in His grace and in His forgiveness, and then advancing so that your progress may be evident to your children. And even if you've royally failed as a parent and your children have seen so much sin in you, all the more amazing your testimony before their eyes can be as they observe your progress in the gospel. And so this is what God wants from us to be running this agonizing race quickly, continuously forward, so that our progress may be evident to all.

And so that's the first thing I would say that this passage indicates by way of how we run the race.

Another thing that we can learn from this passage in terms of how to run is we need to run together. We need to run together. The race that is being depicted here is not one in which you are running by yourself as a Lone Ranger. But notice how he words this, he says, let us run.

And in the text, this is first person plural, all right, what he's saying is he's not saying, I command you to run. So start running. No, what he's saying is, I want to run, and I am running. Come on, let us run.

And it's plural. He's saying the picture that he wants is all of us running together in community with one another. In fact, I would suggest that we get into trouble when we try to run by ourselves. I believe Ted Haggard got into trouble because he tried to run by himself.

In fact, he said, when I stopped communicating to others about my problem, the darkness increased and eventually overwhelmed me. That's when it overwhelmed him, when he decided. Through shame and not wanting to disappoint other people that I will run by myself in this area. And so guys, we need to be living in community with one another and making this a priority.

It's not enough to just run. You must run together with your brothers and sisters. I'm reminded of what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22. He says to Timothy, flee from youthful lust.

So that's what to run from, and then pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. That's what to run to. And so he's saying, Timothy, make sure you run from this and run towards this, but then look what he says with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Timothy, when you run, run with other people who are committed to calling upon the Lord through prayer with a pure heart and a holy life.

Now when I talk about running together, Certainly that involves being open about our struggles. Sharing with others about maybe sins that we struggle with. Guys, if you're struggling with sin in your life that maybe nobody knows about, do you want to go through all of 2007 and still keep that to yourself to where a year from now, you're like, what, I ran by myself in this area and I stumbled and I fell hundreds of times, maybe thousands of times, or maybe just open up to a brother or sister.

And share with them an area that you're struggling in so that they can run together with you and be a companion in that journey along with you.

And what, all of us deal with, I deal with this sense of shame like, well, I don't want other people to know this about me because then they'll know that I'm a sinner. what, and then I think, well, they already know that I'm a sinner, but then they'll know the depth of the sinner that I am. But what I found, the more I come to know the Lord, here's what I've been thinking lately. The cross already exposes that truth about me and about you.

I already know that about you. You ought to know that about me because the cross, when we see that figure of Christ hanging upon the cross, being slaughtered for our sin, that ought to tell every one of us, what, my sin is real. I am a desperate sinner. And so are my brothers and sisters.

And so the cross exposes that, and the Bible itself, just in the way that it speaks about us, tells us that we're poor, miserable, blind, and naked. It tells us of the depth of our sin. And so God already blows the cover off of it and tells us, hey, all of you are sinners. You are desperately sinful people who have wicked hearts.

And so God's already revealed that about ourselves. And so if you came to me and said, Man, I'm struggling with such and such an area in my life, and I've never wanted anyone to know, listen, I, I should not be shocked about that because the Bible already told me that you were a desperately sinful person. And the Bible tells you that about me as well. And so as we're at the foot of the cross, in the light of that exposure, there ought to be increased freedom to be able to share with one another, areas of sin that God is dealing with us in and areas where we can use prayer and encouragement and really use a companion in the faith to run together with us.

And so let's not hide in shame. Because the longer we remain in shame and keep things in secret, the more the devil keeps us alone in that area, and he always wins. He always ultimately wins if he keeps us alone and deals with us that way. So let's link up and let's run together.

But what, running together doesn't just mean we sit around in a circle and we share all the darkness about ourselves. Running together also means that we're sharing our hope. We're sharing with one another. Look at this passage.

Look at what God is teaching me, and, and we're sharing with each other how we're experiencing God, maybe in these areas where we struggle with sin, or maybe not in areas where we struggle with sin, but we're sharing truth and promises. And when we do converse, we are conversing about the things that are really of eternal importance. what, it is possible to come to morning church, to go to a care group, and to be involved in a men's group, and to be meeting with believers every single day of the week, and still be running alone.

Because when you're together with brothers and sisters, number one, you're not open, they're not open about what they're, the Lord is dealing with them in, but also, you're not really fellowshipping about that which is of eternal importance.

And so, I'm not just talking about being physically, Together more often I'm talking about really running together and connecting on a spiritual level to where there is this togetherness as we run this race in community with one another. There's also another way that the writer of Hebrews tells us that we need to run this agonizing race, and that is we need to run with endurance. We need to run with endurance, and the word endurance literally means remaining under. In other words, it.

This, this agonizing race, it's a race that a lot of times we want to bail out of, and sometimes we can get frustrated and say, man, I'm going to have to run this agonizing race. I'm still going to be running this agonizing race 10 years from now and 20 years from now and 30 years from now. Now, and that can be very discouraging for us. In fact, I remember somebody telling me about this who was at this particular chapel service at Dallas Theological Seminary, but Lewis Barry Schaeffer wrote an eight volume systematic theology.

set wonderful, theology, and I've got to set down in my office, a statesman for God, a man of God that so many people rightly look to as an example of godliness and the pursuit of holiness. But Louis Barry Schaeffer, I don't know how old he was at this time, but this person told me that when he was an elderly man, he got up front to pray in chapel in front of all these seminary students. And as he began to pray, he got choked up and the words would not come out. And then finally, in brokenness, he was able to choke a few words out.

And his prayer was, God, please don't let me turn into a dirty old man. This person told me that after he was done praying, all the students looked at each other like. They, they were discouraged like, so all that theology, all that walking with the Lord. As long as he's known the Lord, he still struggles with that.

And it was very disheartening for this person to whom I was speaking. At the same time, they were encouraged by this man's passion to continue to be holy. And so it is discouraging the thought that, what, some of the same temptations you battle with today, you're going to be facing those temptations to the same degree and maybe to a greater degree 30 years from now, 40 years from now. And so we need to be told you've got to run this race with endurance, remaining under and not abandoning the race.

In Luke chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus alerts us to this fact. When you look under the surface of his instruction, he says, if anyone Wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Now, he's saying if you're going to follow me every single day, you've got to deny yourself. And, the, the unsettling, sobering, maybe even discouraging reality underneath that.

He's telling you right there, if you're going to follow me, that means every single day from now to the grave, there will be something inside of you that you're going to have to say no to. That's never going to go away, this side of heaven, but we run with endurance. We run with endurance and we need to remember the fact, and he's going to talk about this in a few minutes here, that guys, it is an agonizing race and it's a race that lasts for several decades, but what, we got all of eternity to rest, where we'll enter into that rest.

and it seems long now, but what, don't lose sight of eternity because we will have trillions upon trillions upon trillions of millennia to enjoy rest, seated in glory in God's presence.

And we will look back then upon these few decades on Earth and it will seem like but a second. And so let's not lose sight of the length of eternity. Yes, it's an agonizing struggle. Yes, we deal with this ongoing daily presence of sin that we have to say no to and strive against to make every inch of progress as we run this agonizing race, but let us run.

With endurance, this agonizing race that is set before us in glory, we will be so happy that we did and that we could have just gutted it out and agonized the way that we did for the glory of the Lord whom we are now seeing was so worthy of all of that. We also need to run with endurance, even when we fall so many times. what, you're going to stumble. You're going to be tripped up in 2007.

And it's easy after we've stumbled, for the 5th time in a given morning to just say, what, I quit, I quit, and we get off the path. But what, God, here's how God defines righteousness. Righteousness is not never stumbling. It's not never falling.

Righteousness is what you do after you fall. That's how God measures true righteousness. In Proverbs 24:16, Solomon says a righteous man falls 7 times. And rises again.

All right. A righteous man is not someone who never falls. It is someone who falls, in fact, 7 times, and he's still getting back up and he's pressing on. And so we need to run with endurance, even on the other side of our failures.

Also, we need to run freely. We need to run, freely. what? We got the wrong PowerPoint up here.

OK, we need to run freely. That was an illustration that I decided not to use, but it may factor in later. We'll see. we need to run freely.

he says we need to run the race, laying aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. what, as agonizing as the race is, do that we often make it more agonizing than it should be? We really do. because there are encumbrances that are in our lives, obstacles that are in our path, that we could remove, if we wanted to, some of them we can't remove.

All right. you've got an ungodly boss who uses filthy language and is telling immoral jokes. what, you can't remove that encumbrance, unless perhaps changing jobs. But you guys know what I'm talking about.

There are things that we cannot remove, but there are encumbrances that we can remove. But what, we don't want to remove them. And so we're like, man, I'm just really struggling with lust and pray for me. And meanwhile, we're watching stuff that daily is just provoking our thoughts in that direction, and it requires, extra energy to just keep, our thoughts holy and right.

And so be honest. We need to be honest about this. Are there encumbrances that are in our lives that, that do slow us down? Yeah, we can still make forward progress, but not as rapidly.

As we ought to be. Any encumbrances that are like that, maybe particular television shows or magazines or advertisements that you have, in your home, maybe a particular relationship. What is in your life that slows your stride? From advancing for the Lord and in spiritual growth and holiness to the degree that that God wants you to.

Let's be honest about that and be willing to remove, those, things. Parents, even think about that in terms of your kids. Are there Encumbrances that I allow into my home. Maybe I can handle it or I think I can handle it, but my children cannot handle it.

And so think about encumbrances that you allow into your home that might be causing your children to be stumbling into sin and slowing their stride. as they seek to follow the Lord. And we also need to be willing to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us. Now, when he says lay aside the sin, he's not talking about some sin that you have not yet committed.

He's saying laying aside the sin, this is a sin that you have committed, and it has its grip tightly on you. It has entangled you and tripped you up. It's overtaken you. You have stumbled into that sin.

Now you find yourself drawn to that sin. You find yourself alternately sometimes condemned by the guilt of that sin, and then at other times excusing yourself for that sin and plunging right back into it. So it's a sin that now is on your person and, and, and, and you clutch onto it because a part of you does not want to let that go. And so you try to run the race and advance forward, meanwhile holding on to that sin, and then you're like, man, this is such an agonizing race and I just don't know if I can.

Endure. Well, of course, it's agonizing because you, because you have this 100 pound bag on your back that you're trying to carry as you run the race again. The race is agonizing enough, guys. Let's not make it more agonizing by allowing encumbrances that are removable to stay in our lives and sin to remain in our lives also.

If there is sin that has entangled you in a pattern of guilt and And you find yourself recommitting it and feeling even more guilty and you cannot break out of that. The writer of Hebrews says you need to be willing to lay that aside. And you do that by going to the Lord, confessing that to him, pleading with him for his help, and then also using the resources that he gives you, one of which is your brothers and sisters in the Lord, even spiritual leaders that are in the church, that can be an assistance to you in experiencing God's grace, God's forgiveness, and helping you to apprehend and understand that, and be blessed by that, and also holding you accountable, praying for you in your moments of temptation.

going to them and just saying, hey, can you pray for me right now?

Can you pray for me? And they lift you up in prayer. The times where I have done that, I've been amazed at the power of just bringing a brother into that, and even sometimes my wife into that, that, that can just snap the spell and break the power of that sin. Most of us would say, yeah, I want to be holy.

I want to, Be holy. I want to be free of this sin, but we still want to keep it secret just in case at a later time we wish to stumble back into it. We want the freedom to do that rather than recklessly being daring in our faith and saying, God, I dare to imagine my life without this. And I'm willing, I'm willing to be open before you and even open with my brothers, my sisters.

I want to run together with them. I want them to run together with me in this area so that I can live a life apart from this, and this agonizing race that is agonizing enough will not be quite so agonizing if I can run free of these things, these encumbrances, and also sins. There's also another way that we should run, and I couldn't think of a succinct way to say this, and so the writer of Hebrews challenges us to run this race, being encouraged, then sobered, and then encouraged by those who've run before.

That probably makes no sense to you guys, but in a couple of minutes it will, being encouraged, then sobered, then encouraged by those who've run before.

The writer of Hebrews says, seeing that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. he has been, taking the readers of the book of Hebrews, through Hebrews chapter 11, where he has listed person after person after person throughout the length of that chapter to encourage them with the moments in which these individuals manifested tremendous faith in God in a fallen world, thus demonstrating that it is possible for us to have this faith in God, as well. And so we need to be encouraged by the faith, for example, that Abraham manifested against all odds that he and Sarah would be able to miraculously conceive a child.

We need to be encouraged by those moments of great faith, where Noah believed God that it was going to rain, even though it had never rained before.

And all the weather reports would have never said there was ever going to be any rain. Noah believed God, and did the unthinkable. He built a boat. and people scoffed at him for that.

And so we need to be encouraged by their example. But we also need to be sobered by the very people that are on this list, because even though all of them manifested tremendous faith at certain points, Points. Most of the people that populate the list in Hebrews 11 also evidenced weak faith or no faith at other points, even after the moments where they demonstrated great faith in God. Look at the list, Abel, Enoch, Noah, great faith, built an ark because God said it was going to rain even though no one else said that that would happen.

But even after that moment of great faith, Noah, after the flood, builds a vineyard and gets drunk, and he's naked inside of his house. His son comes in, sees and laughs, tells his brothers about it, and a curse ends up being brought upon Noah's son as a result of the carelessness and even the sin and failure of Noah himself. Abraham, man of great faith, but what? There are just as many moments of no faith or weak faith in the life of Abraham as there are moments of great faith.

Twice he had Sarah lie to a reigning king, and he said to her, Just tell him that I am your brother because if he knows that I'm your husband, then he's going to kill me. This is a man who's manifested great faith at other points, and now he's paranoid that someone's going to take, his life. He also went in unto Hagar in order to help God fulfill his promise. And so there are moments of stumbling on Abraham's part.

How about Sarah? She was a woman of great faith. She believed God along with Abraham, but what? She had her moments.

of weak faith. She's the one who brought Hagar to Abraham. She's the one who laughed in her tent when God said at this time next year, you are going to have a son. And then there's Isaac, Isaac, who was not by any means, a model of an exceptional parent.

As you read that story, he himself lied to a reigning monarch just like Abraham did in order to protect his own hide. Jacob, read the story of Jacob. There were certain moments of great faith in God where major breakthroughs happened in his life, but also a lot of deception. And Trickery and lack of faith in God.

Joseph, how about Moses, man of tremendous meekness, faith in God, and yet he was disqualified from going into the promised land because he struck the rock twice rather than speaking to it like God had told him to. This man of great faith was not even allowed to get into the promised land. And then the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. And that's actually cited in Hebrews 11 as an example of faith to encourage us.

And yet most of those Israelites that went to the Red Sea were left with their bodies strewn all over the wilderness because of their lack of faith, even after that moment, because they did not believe God. And them over the age of 40 were not allowed into the land of promise. Rahab, Gideon, Bayak, Samson, moments of great faith, and yet a man governed by his lust. Jephtha, man of great faith and yet a man who perhaps through a rash vow ultimately cost his daughter her life.

David, man of great faith hiding in caves from Saul and yet writing beautiful poetry, just expressing his faith in God. What amazing faith he had. And yet later in his life, even after those wonderful moments between him and God and believing in God, David looked at Bathsheba while she was bathing. He looked and he coveted.

And he took and committed adultery which led to the murder of her husband and months of self-deception and groaning as his body wasted away as with the fever heat of summer during his season of sin. Samuel and the prophets, upon closer inspection. This list is not just an encouraging list. But it's a sobering list.

But then what, when we think about that, that encourages us because we stumble in many of the same ways. And what that tells us is, it's not too late to make the Hall of faith. If I could speak to Ted Haggard and to this other pastor friend of mine. That's what would be on my heart to say to them, it's not too late to make the Hall of Fame.

Because the people in Hebrews 11 stumbled into sin also. But they believed in God. And so let's be encouraged by their moments of great faith, be sobered by the fact that these same people, in a later day, did not have the faith in God and they sinned and they stumbled. But then let's be encouraged by the fact that God, God intends to do a work in us.

Hebrews 11 shows us that God is in the business of doing great things in the lives of those who do stumble and fall. And so let's be encouraged, sobered, and then encouraged by those who have run before us. And then last of all, and this is what's been so precious to me. Let us run focused on Jesus.

Let us run being focused on Jesus. One of the things that I learned a couple of months ago, Especially hearing about this pastor friend of mine that there's nothing wrong with looking to him and being inspired by his example as he's running the race, but what, ultimately, my focus needs to be on Jesus because he will never let me down, ever. There's something better for you than to be looking to me, because I guarantee you I will let you down. And that is to be looking to Jesus, who was perfect.

And will remain perfect, and he will never let you down. He will never disappoint you. He will never fail to be everything that he should be. The writer of Hebrews says, you run the race, look at this, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

This is a very interesting expression in the Greek text. Literally, the word for looking means looking away. It's the word looking with the preposition away attached to the beginning of it. So, literally, it reads looking away into Jesus, looking away into Jesus.

And that's why the translators of the New American Standard say fixing our eyes. So there, there's a resolve, not just to look to Jesus, but there is a resolve to look away from all else. We have to make a decision about what to turn away from, so that we can then rivet and fix. Our eyes upon Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now, what do we look to Jesus for? Well, we look to him for hope, right? We look to Him for hope. And, and he gives us that hope because of what he did for us on the cross.

We look to Him for hope because Jesus ran his race. Look at the sinners that were stacked against him. And, and even the temptations he had to endure in the wilderness that I'm sure that we cannot even begin to fathom the intensity of those temptations. and then even in the Garden of Gethsemane, the temptations that assailed him in the garden.

And so, Jesus had to deal with, sinners and even sin that was coming at him. And yet Jesus endured the cross, despise the shame, and where is he right now? He's sitting. At the right hand of God.

And what, we can find hope in that, that one day we run our race, we're going to be sitting in glory with him. Because he's reached the end. And somehow seeing Jesus, seeing something of the race that he had to run, but then seeing where he's seated now, and knowing that that I'm going to be in that seat. I'm going to be with him, seated in glory.

That helps us to run freely and with endurance, the agonizing race that is set before us. God is not calling us to do anything that He Himself did not do. God came into this world and he ran an even more agonizing race. And now he calls us to follow Him.

And running our agonizing race that nowhere near compares to Jesus and his race. That's why the writer of Hebrews says you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. Have you ever been tempted so bad that just in your moment of temptation, you looked in the mirror and you're sweating drops of blood? Has that ever happened?

Have you ever reached that magnitude of temptation? No, Jesus did. And he made the right decision. And so yes, our race is agonizing, but nowhere near the level that his race was.

And yet he ran that race. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and he's sitting in glory now, and that is your destination also. Let's look to him for hope. Let's look to him for power.

He says, Without me you can do nothing. Often we spend so much time looking at ourselves and depending on ourselves and our own strength. And then we lack the power to run this agonizing race, but instead we ought to be looking to Jesus for that power. We also look to Jesus for acceptance.

Don't we need that? We need that acceptance. I know when all of my kids were little and even still some of the little ones. When they do something in our house, for example, like they spill a cup, they do something that they should not have done because they're careless or whatever.

I, I've come to notice that there's a quick glance at their dad. Just, they don't turn and stare at me, it's just a quick glance. What are they looking for? And I, I've learned that that brief fleeting moment where they glance at me is fraught with significance.

What is my countenance in those moments? Does my countenance say you are a total loser? You're a klutz. What's wrong with you?

Or do, does my countenance convey love and acceptance. We need to look to Jesus so many times after we've stumbled, we glance, even afraid to glance. But if we glance and we look, there's grace, there's grace. after Peter denied the Lord, after being so arrogant about the fact that he never would, and then Jesus appeared personally to Peter, I, I'm going to ask Peter about this when I get to heaven.

But what I imagine is that Peter, when Jesus walks into the room, Peter fell on the floor and would not even look at Jesus. Couldn't bring himself to look at Jesus. And Jesus walked over to him and just put his hand on his shoulder and said, Peter, look, look. And No doubt weeping.

Peter forces himself to look. And he sees love? And Grace. Which is exactly what we see.

If we will look, some of you have sinned. You, you've royally sent this past week. And the devil has said, don't you dare look at Jesus. Don't look at him.

Because he's angry. But Jesus says fuck. Look, because this look will save you. From your guilt.

And if we look, We will see grace and love and acceptance. Let us look to Him, even in those moments where we have stumbled. We look to Him for acceptance through his work on the cross. We look to Him for forgiveness and for healing.

We also look to him rather than looking at other people. It's easy for us to look at other people and go, well, I think I'm doing better than they are. And so we applaud ourselves. And we think we're doing well because we're doing better than other people.

And then at other moments, we're looking at other people and they're way ahead of us, and now we're feeling condemned. And so we go back and forth between those extremes. But what, let's just save ourselves the trouble and not make this race more agonizing than it ought to be. And let's just look to Jesus because in Him, we find a perfect example, but we find a friend of sinners.

We find one that is full of grace and full of truth. And who loves us so. We also in looking to Jesus, we look to the cross, which the writer of Hebrews even brings to our attention in this passage. And as we look to the cross and we contemplate the power of it, We are inspired by the fact that God knows the depth of my sin.

This is why He sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin. And through the cross, I have forgiveness, I have healing, I have deliverance. I have power to do what is right. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning.

I know that if I asked for a raise of hands, every one of you would say, I want to run well in 2007. I want to run well. And the writer of Hebrews. Seeks to rally us to that end.

Maybe you have grown discouraged. You've lost heart. As you look back at your performance in 2006, But I would just, Ask you to turn and look into the face of Jesus. And see the hope, the confidence, That's on his face, the love, the grace.

That you would hear him say, I am not only the author, But I am the finisher of your faith. He's not just the author and finisher of his own race, but he is the author and the finisher of your faith. And so he's got big plans. And big dreams.

Of what he wants to do in you and also through you. In 2007. Let's all come to the Lord through prayer and just give ourselves to Him. And respond to his rallying cry that we find in this passage.

Father, we come to you right now, We thank you for your son. Jesus We thank you for your beckoning call. We thank you for giving us something to look at that is so wonderful and beautiful as you. When we look at sin and it begins to look appealing, may we turn away from that sin and look at you.

Because when we look at you and we see your beauty, suddenly our sin begins to be seen for what it is. And some of us spend too much time looking at sin. And in our moments of temptation, we obsess on the sin. We're thinking about it and imagining it and, Trying to say no to it at the same time, maybe we just turn and look at you.

Lord, it is an agonizing race that we need to run, but we make it sometimes 23 times more agonizing than it needs to be because we don't look to you. We're like Peter on the stormy waters, who turns and looks at the waves and stops looking at you, and he made his journey on the water much more difficult. May our eyes be fixed upon you. And may we this year, Lord, in community with one another run well, by your grace.

In 2007. We thank you for the cross and the power of it that enables us. To run this way and we celebrate that power as we close our time this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.