6.16.51 11.17.2024 Run the Race Hebrews 12
Certain of our Great Salvation: Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Start:
Entice: To live the Christian life well.
To exceed and excel,
requires balance.
We need both positive encouragement and reasonable expectations.
If expectations are too high a well-run race seems out of reach.
Without expectations,
encouragement can
devolve into
coddling or flattery.
Jesus Himself provided that kind of balance to His band of disciples. The Hebrew author passes that same kind of balance to us.
Engage: Hopefully you have had Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, Elders & Deacons, and yes—preachers who have helped you by having high expectations while also encouraging you and challenging you.
I have had, and still have, people who do both.
We need a group around us to give us guidance, hold us accountable, and provide support.
Expand: In Hebrews 11 the author provided a long list of heroic examples to follow. He reminded us that faith is both our heritage and our prize. In chapter 12 he turns to us.”Your turn!”
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.
The course is set.
The course is set.
The word is given.
The word is given.
Time to go to work.
Time to go to work.
Excite: The race is always the same and always different. Many of you know that I appreciate and follow European Horse racing. One of the things that delights me is that every course is different. Newmarket (undulating, no bends), Ascot (Swinley Bottom), Epsom (Tattenham Corner), York (The Knavesmire (a swamp)),
Doncaster (Rose Hill). In this style of racing a horse has to both get the trip (distance) and take to the track.
The Christian life is kind of like that.
We all have to get the trip,
We all have to get the trip,
but the courses we run are different.
but the courses we run are different.
That is one reason why a text like ours seems both vague and specific.
Lay aside sins…what ones?
Endure….How far and for how long?
Follow…how close?
We have enough guidance to encourage us and guide us but we are responsible for our life of discipleship. We go in company with the Holy Spirit and allow the Scripture to guide us. Still each, of us has to work out the trip.
Explore:
Sometimes the best encouragement is high expectations and specific directions.
Sometimes the best encouragement is high expectations and specific directions.
Expand: These high expectations provide these direct commands.
Body of Sermon: The first command is to
1 Remove Problems.
1 Remove Problems.
He alludes to three…
1.1 Reliance on Self.
1.1 Reliance on Self.
No one runs solo!
We run amid a great cloud of witnesses.
The second problem
1.2 Impediments to commitment.
1.2 Impediments to commitment.
Good things, noble deeds which distract us from the course.
And then…
1.3 Sin.
1.3 Sin.
Which clings
to us
and
limits us.
The next command is to
2 Run with Purpose.
2 Run with Purpose.
2.1 Run with Freedom.
2.1 Run with Freedom.
without the problems we remove!
2.2 Run with Endurance.
2.2 Run with Endurance.
2.3 Run with Focus.
2.3 Run with Focus.
The final command in this short text concerns the
3 Route we pursue.
3 Route we pursue.
We Follow Jesus. This call—issued by Jesus forms the basis for discipleship. It is renewed throughout the NT. It is repeated here.
3.1 He Leads.
3.1 He Leads.
We follow our Founder & Perfecter
We Look to Jesus
3.2 He Redeems.
3.2 He Redeems.
Endured the Cross.
3.3 He Reigns.
3.3 He Reigns.
He has taken His rightful place.
Shut Down
To move us forward in our faith we have good, biblical examples, encouraging words, and a call to excellence. The expectations are high because the one who enables us, the one we follow has empowered us to run the race that He calls us to run.
It is our human nature to recoil from the complexity, difficulty, frustration, and danger of the race. It His divine nature to go on before us, reach back to help us, and to press forward to encourage us.
The expectations are high because of how much Jesus has done to make this path of salvation, this road of discipleship, this grand race possible.
Remove your obstacles.
Run with focus.
Follow the Master.
That is the heart of Christian living. That is the secret to running the race we are called to run.
