Endurance Crash Course (Part 2)

Open Your bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 12

This morning we are going to continue to look at what I am calling the endurance crash course. We looked last week at Hebrews 10 and saw the definite need Christians have for endurance. Without it we will not finish the race set before us in a faithful manner. Without it we will not receive the promised reward. Endurance is eternal, from God. Endurance is essential. And endurance is evidence.

I told you last week that I would continue on in this and deliver to you the way in which we gain endurance. We If we need it, how do we get it. I previewed this sermon a little last week by telling you the number one way. It is to fix your eyes on Jesus. That great verse which calls us to transfix, to pin our eyes on Christ with an unwavering intensity. This is the only way that we will gain life itself. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. For we know that those who have not submitted their lives to Christ are dead in their trespasses and sins. Those who have not received the mercy of God are slaves to sin, and belong to an eternity without the grace of God.

To be transfixed on Christ and gain life itself, free from the condemnation of the creator and eternal judge, is to analyze the cross and see there the spotless lamb… Crushed, and poured out for you. To see the wrath of God drank for you. That your sin may be forgiven. That you may be reconciled to God having a debt paid, that you could never pay yourself. The mercy of God is that God Himself stepped down out of Heaven to pay it for you. Will you receive the gift he offers you? Come to him this morning, and live. Take Him as your life. Take up a white flag, surrender to Him, and make Him your King.

From that moment, until he calls us home, how will we endure the race of life set before us? How will we gain an endurance that will help us faithfully cross the finish line, and gain the crown of righteousness that is our savior? Let stand for the reading of God’s word from Hebrews 12…

Hebrews 12:1–13 LSB

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of 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. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He flogs every son whom He receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness. 11 And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12 Therefore, Strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

The verse that I want to focus on this morning is verse 7… It is for discipline that you endure. I am disappointed in the ESV translation because it says, for discipline you have to endure… This sentense is three words in the greek. Eis Paidea Hupa-menete… A literal translation would translate it like this, You are enduring because discipline. The very is present and active. It is currently happening. And the noun is accusative. It is the direct object of the sentence. What is this sentence all about? Paidea that brings endurance.

Some of you will know the word paieda because we have once talked about this word. This is the word that Paul desires fathers to oversee in their homes. Ephesians 6:4

Ephesians 6:4 LSB

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline (paidea) and instruction of the Lord.

Paideia is discipline. When we read discipline our minds immediately go to punishment. This is because sadly many parents don’t know true discipline but really only know punishment. The discipline we are talking about is training. The whole training and education of children. Including the cultivation of the mind and their morals… It does include commands, and reproof and punishment. There must be an instructor because paidea is aimed at the student.

The Paideia that the apostle wants us to bring our children up in is not just any paideia. Not any instruction and discipline will do. It is the paideia of the Lord. To give our children a strong work ethic is not the same as giving them a godly work ethic. To give our children perceived knowledge without the Fear of the Lord, is really not knowledge at all. Thus, we seek to employ the wisdom of the word. The instructor must be out front, more mature than the student. And able to give the instruction needed. In another sense we could simply call this discipleship.

Discipling, or paideia is to be taught the commands of Christ as well as to keep the commands of Christ. So paidea is accountability, but not just accountability. Again, sadly this is what many parents only know . They know how to punish. But do they know how to train their children with the word? Do you parents know how to instruct your children when they have erred?

The good news is that Our Father in heaven does. He paideias all of those who belong to Him. And it is because of this paideia that you hupa-mone .

So here I come back to my question, how do you gain a brave calm and a steadfast courage? The text tells us… Because of paideia, you gain brave calm and steadfast courage. Paidea is a tension. It is friction. Whether you are learning something knew and challenging your mind, or you are being confronted and corrected. But is this not true across the board? How do things grow? How do things get better, strong, more effective? Through tension…

I want you to think of this idea of gaining endurance through what we know today as tensile strength. Tensile strength is determined through tensile, compressive, and sheer forces. Hang on to your hats for a little science lesson…

Tensile strength is the the amount of force a material can bear through certain forces…

A tensile for is that force that stretches. A material is pulled, and the force that it can withstand is seen by how much it endures before it is deformed and unable to return to its previous state. A compressive force is that force on a material through compression. And a sheer force is that force on a material from opposing forces on varying sides…

The tensile stregnth is determined on the sum of these. Now, the tensile strength can be seen in and changed through the chemical makeup of the material. That material can be reinforced by other materials or processes such as heat treatment in steels to perform better in each one of these categories. But in order for them to change and get stronger, tension has to be applied to see what it can handle first. Yet, it is this tensile stregnth that will determine when the item break.

Remember back to last week, I told you that you as Christian will face pressures and forces from without and from within. This is why we need endurance because we are at risk of breaking and giving it all up like Thomas Cranmer did at first. To endure we need strength. A tensile strength.A higher ability to absorb tensile, compressive, and sheer pressure. I think this is what Paul had in mind when he says in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

2 Corinthians 4:7–12 LSB

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 in every way afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

So, how do we get the tensile strength of an Apostle? Through tension… We have to apply pressure. So, let me outline four disciplines we need in order to grow in endurance. Four disciplines we need in order to develop a higher tensile stregnth. The first is two together…

and 2The right instruction and nutrition

Any athlete and their doctor knows, performance enhancements, or making the body stronger first comes through educating… and second from nutrition.

Thank God his word is both of those things. It is training, it is knowledge, but it is food too. The way to grow in endurance begins with your knowledge of the word and how to apply it. This is tension… It causes you to have to work your brain, to settle ideas, to seek understadning, to read, and meditate, and listen to debate etc… But it requires you also to trust. Which is a tension in itself.

Jeremiah 15:15–16 LSB

15 You who know, O Yahweh, Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach. 16 Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your words became for me joy and gladness in my heart, For I have been called by Your name, O Yahweh God of hosts.

Consider what Jeremiah says… he was enduring all kinds of ridicule and hatred from people around him as he was delivering the word of God. He says, he endured for the sake of God… So God’s word came and instructed Jeremiah first. It told Him what to do. And He did it. But how did he endure it and not give up doing what God told him to do?

By not just hearing the word, but eating the word. Food turns into fuel. Food is broken down through digestion, absorbed into the body, and then broken down and allocated for what the body needs. If you don’t eat right, you can’t preform right. Same with our spirit. If we don’t eat right, we will not perform right.

Jeremiah says, I ate the word, and it became joy and gladness to me because I have been called by Your name, O Yahweh. He trusted God… thus taking His word as goodness and hope. In order to endure, you must know the word and eat the word. Trust the word. And I don’t just mean the word itself, but the word made flesh. Jesus said in John 6 unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you…Bible scholars won’t go to heaven because they know what the bible says and can read the greek and parse sentences… The only way one gets to Heaven is by consuming Christ. He is the point right… Make disciples by teaching them to keep all that I….I…. commanded you.

You see, that is the difference between Jesus being the forerunner of your faith and Jesus being a role model you are trying to chase. If you are in Christ you know Jesus has gone before you. So you look to Him. He is your sustenance. Your coach. And what you want all in one. But if you aren’t in Christ, he is just another person who has done some good things, and you want what he has.

My friends, to endure you must know the word made flesh. You need Him.

The third thing we need for endurance is

3. Consistent Repetitions

Repetition is a way of putting to use what you have learned… and what have eaten. James says,

James 1:21–27 LSB

21 Therefore, laying aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in gentleness receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Your family is an easy place to start in your training. What are you? Are you a child? are you a brother or sister? are you a mom or a dad? a grandparent? There is plenty of ways we can take the word of God and begin to apply it, first in small ways, with lighter weights on… Maybe even starting with the one that is in the text. If anyone tings himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

Have a mouth that is getting you in trouble with other people? Have a mouth that is loose and uses words that tear down rather than build up? Have a mouth that is took afraid to speak at all? Well, James says to bridle it. To control it. What a starting place! When you yell, or cut someone down, immediately apologize to that person, repent to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and help, and seek to speak words that are kind, and build up. Have a hard time not cussing? Its because you are far from the Lord! Your heart is not right, and thus your mouth follows. You need to out in some repetitions of replacing those words, and cutting them out of your life.

This is just one example. Speak the truth in love… Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Show mercy and compassion … Love God. Love your neighbor. Lead your family. Love your spouse. Give to God what is God’s… Every scripture calls us to know, believe, or do something in our lives about what it says. But, we have to get out there and do it, not just read about it.

The final thing I want to give you this morning that we need to endure is what we could call progressive overload…

Progressive overload

In the athletic world this is achieved by either adding more repetitions, or more weight. This is where the Lord comes in. I see in the scriptures that this is where the Lord comes in. He is disciplining us as a father, and in the moment that discipline is sorrowful. He applies a rod. But it is our job, as verse 12 and 13 tell us, to strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble and make straight paths for your feet… That comes through the first three things we have said already. But the point of our side in getting instruction, and nutrition, and repetitions is so at 13 says, so that what is lame may not be put out of join but rather healed… By what? The discipline of the Lord.

A great case of this is Job. Job was a righteous man. We could say that he had the right instruction, nutrition, and many reps in. He was strong in his faith. But then the winds and the waves came like they have never come before. It was the progressive overload that comes from God. The pressure came from without and his life was turned upside down. He lost so many things that were good…children, lively hood, and his health as he was so afflicted by the devil. But because he was strong, he endured with His faith in tact rather than cursing God and dying. Thats what weak people do… He endured, and through the discipline of the Lord, through that whole training session, the Lord taught Job something. And afterward, when he had endured, he had more than he began with.

The Lord progressively overloads us so that we will become stronger. When the pressure comes, which it must, will you have put in the discipline in godliness to endure it? Or will you crumble under the pressure. All of this works together so that we might hold fast to our confession of faith firm to the end with confidence and gain the promise that we have. That we will see life eternal. Another benefit of the discipline of the Lord is that all of this works together to weed out that who have the strength of God, or those who are faking. Those who do not love God, John says, will not do what he says. Thus, will run from the pressures of life, will be hurt through them, and turn away from God. But those who are in Christ, receive the disciplines, do what He says, and bear much fruit. It is through Christ that we make it through the pressures and waves of this life, all other ground is sinking sand.