Set your mind on the finish

Scripture:

Hebrews 6:12 “so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Recap:

Last week we saw that our assurance does not rest on the strength of our faith, but on the strength of God’s promise. In Hebrews 6, the author pointed us back to Abraham to show us that God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God, who swore by His own name because there was none greater. We saw that this promise was not merely about land or descendants, but about Christ Himself—the true offspring of Abraham. And we were reminded that God bound Himself with both a promise and an oath, not because He is untrustworthy, but because we are weak. He desired to give strong encouragement to trembling believers, that we might flee for refuge and hold fast to the hope set before us.

Introduction:

When I was in 8th grade, I loved playing soccer. I loved it because I have always loved being pushed mentally and physically in anything. I loved and have always loved a challenge. One day while the Jv and Varsity Team were practicing, my coach said “Tomorrow at practice we are going to run a two mile run.” This wasn't new for us, in-fact we ran a 5k regularly for some of our practices. But then he said, “And whoever can run the two miles in under 12 minutes, will start varsity, regardless of skill level.” I perked up instantly and my heart began to race because I wanted to get on the field with those guys. But I knew that I couldn't do it, and hadn't come close to that so far in my two mile run. Yet my coaches word was his word, and I knew if I could do it, I would be starting varsity the next game. So I came up with a plan. There were three upper class men who were the fastest best distance runners we had, and I had made up my mind, to stick behind Johnathan Woody, the slowest of the three, no matter what happened. Not to think about anything else but to follow Woody. So the next day we showed up, stretched and started our run, and just like I had made up my mind, I stuck behind Woody. His pace was unheard of and I after the first lap was cooking. The pain was intense but I kept my eyes on him, watched how he ran, calmed my mind, and welcomed the pain. Before I knew it, the run was over. I had ran two miles in 11:45 seconds…

After the run, I collapsed in the grass, my vision was blurry, I started dry heaving, and I felt like I was going to die..But I cant begin to express to you the joy I had felt in my heart after that run. I went on to start varsity, not only the next game, but for the rest of my soccer season. By my senior year, I could run a two mile run in 10:35 seconds, and a mile run in 4:50 seconds. All because something clicked in my brain that day in eighth day that would have never clicked on my own. I had no idea I could push myself like that, until my goal was to keep my eyes on someone who could do it. It was through imitating Woodys pace, stride, posture, and composer in the midst of pain that gave me patience, endurance and the belief that I could do this.

Now Im not recommending anyone do this if you're trying to get into running. Like I said, I was pretty miserable after that run, and very sick. But theres something that I would recommend doing in the spiritual run that we who have faith in Christ are in, and not only me but the apostle of this Letter. His recommendation and desire, is that his listeners become imitators of those who have recieved the promises of God.

Wait why are we going Backwards in the text?

Well as we saw Last week, Father Abraham was mentioned. And one of the reasons that Abraham was mentioned was because he was and is one of many faithful men and women who have obtained the “promises” of God through death. Last week we saw that in verse fifteen “As thus Abraham having patiently waited, obtained the promise.” And we said “that promise (singular) was the promise of the messiah.” Yet there are in our text “the promises” (plural) which means “all the promises of God to his children”, which can only be recieved in glory, through death. We who are by faith united by Christ, have recieved THE promise of hope, redemption, restored restoration, and the future hope of life everlasting, in THE promised Christ. Another Reason I believe that Abraham is mentioned, is because he has also recieved all the promises of Christ, by dying in Christ, and the author wants to set before us the pace of the believer, the reward of the race, and the reminder that we are not the first ones to run it, nor will we be the last. Thats why the phrase “until the end” in verse 11 is there. Be faithful till the end. Imitate those who have been faithful till the end. Press on to the grave, unwavering in your faith, because as believers, thats when our life begins. And we need to remember that the family of God, is far greater than the visible family we see. Now I wont be preaching the Hall of Faith, but I do believe this verse serves the believers as a teasing of it, in order to encourage them in their pursuit of the full assurance of hope till the end. And although it may not seem like thats what subtly just happened here but it is! Albert Mohler - “ He encourages them to be imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises. Throughout the book of hebrews, the writer encourages believers to imitate saints from the old Testament. In chapter 11 which 6:12 anticipates, we find an impressive list of old Testament saints whose faith and practice is worthy of our emulation. The author charges his readers to face their difficulties with faith and perseverance, just as those saints who came before them faced theirs. Only earnestness in the faith until the ends guarantees the reception of God’s promises.”

Purpose of the Text:

The author urges discouraged believers to persevere by imitating saints who finished the race—especially Abraham—whose faith endured waiting, weakness, and failure.

Purpose of the Sermon:

To set before you the awareness of those who have gone before us, to encourage you brothers and sister to keep going by modeling our Live

We are to Imitate Saints, who Imitate Christ

Saints not Celebrities

I love that when we are called to imitate, the list of those we are to imitate is innumerable. The Text says “Imitators of Those.” Plural. The reason for this I believe Is so that we don’t end up being copies of the wrong thing. God is not in the business of making millions of little Abrahams, or St. Augustines, or Martin Luthers, or John Pipers, or any of us. Hes in the business of Making an unuermerable amount of litttle Christ’s..

The human Nature:

is it not like us to find a few, faithful men and women to look up to and to be satisfied with? But what happens when these individuals fail? What happens when a sin in their life is discovered? Our Faith often takes a hit doesn't it? I believe this is because we are by nature people who desperately desire to be told what to do and limit those whom we look up to. Once we find a godly saint we trust, why would we need to look to more?

Christianity is not a system to make any name other than One Great. And this One Name above all others name, is regularly seen as great, when sinners reject all the world has in store for the greatest treasure of all Christ.

Inside the Christian movement, we love to other associate with our camp don’t we?

Yet we do a diservice when we do this because we limit the

Sinners Saved by Grace

Abraham

Abraham is the Example here given to the Hebrews to imitate. And If you know anything about Abraham, he was a sinful man.

Fear of Man by offering his wife to Pharoah to save his own life

Impatience towards God promise by taking hagar as wife

Passive leadership by not wanting anything to do with the justice of hagar being sent away

Fear of man again is offering his wife to Abimelech

In spite of all this, he is most certainly worthy of our imitation because why? “Having patiently waited, (he) obtained the promise.”

Paul

1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Paul says imitate me (Paul), AS I imitate Christ. Only imitate me on the grounds that I am imitating Christ. Which means we must know what Christ is like, who the Father is, how the Spirit works, by the Holy Scriptures in order to know what persons we are to imitate.

We Need Spiritual realities made Tangible

The Truth Made Manifest

There was a reality that has always been true, and that is “God loves his children.” Yet because of our fallen nature we struggle to see and believe this. So what did God do? He made this truth, his Word, Manifest to come to earth and display this reality for all of mankind in the most tangible way.

God still works this way, because we as humans are still in need of visible representations of the truths of Scripture.

Paul was a visual representation of the Suffering Servant

Ephesians 2:17 “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

Christ never physically came to Ephesus, but was himself the one seen through Pauls preaching.

Colossians 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,”

John Piper - “he chose to come into the world before there were DVDs or tapes or internet, and appoint people like Paul to fill up what is lacking, namely, to take the sufferings of Christ to the world, to take the afflictions to the world. The afflictions are there for someone but they don’t know it, and he means for them to be completed by being taken somewhere.”

In other words, its one thing to say you love God, but its another thing to see a saint lose everything and still be able to say that. Its one thing to say the there's no way you would abandon Christ, and a totally other worldly thing to see saints actually do that in the face of suffering. They example a supernatural faith and patience that every christian will need in order to finish the race.

We as humans are in need of spiritual realities being made manifest (Visible)

It Runs in the Family

In hebrews we have seen that “Christ is not ashamed to call you brothers.” Why? Because we have the same source. The same Father, the Same Spirit, the Same sanctifier, the Same Family Name.