Author and Perfecter #goals

Introduction

Every year starting around November until the first service of the year there is almost this formula of sermons that are preached. We have our Thanksgiving sermons. Then of course we have services leading up to Christmas and then finally either that candle light finally or regular Christmas service. Then we hit the new year and we talk about all of these New Yearsy things.

We discuss our New Years resolutions. We evaluate our year and tell ourselves I want to do this or that better this next year.

We are reminded of past desires that spring up that we may still have or ones that we have forgotten about. We set new #goals for ourselves. We are filled with new hopes and new plans.

We tell ourselves that this is going to be the year that my life radically changes. I am going to make big leaps this year. I am going to leave a legacy that is phenomenal and that people will remember me by. I am going to make a difference.

And yet for some of us maybe we aren’t feeling so optimistic. We remember how hard this year may have been for us. We remember the pains and losses and doubts and fears and anxieties and this whole God thing seems to be more of a discouraging thing in our life than an encouraging thing

The letter to the Hebrews

This is where we find ourselves tied into this story of the letter to the Hebrews. I want us to understand some background context on the book of Hebrews.

I want us to understand some background context on the book of Hebrews.

First, no one knows who actually wrote it. (you might be thinking great, we are starting with a book this year that no one even knows if it has a legitimate author), but yet when we read it we can see this person was educated and a fire speaker and he was truly concerned about the people he was writing to.

Second the author was concerned because the people that he was writing to were on the verge of giving up. It was getting too difficult for them and they were saying this just isn’t worth it for us.

Third Hebrews is written with a lot of tradition that is both ancient and foreign which would have been wonderful illustrations to people then but often it makes it difficult for us to understand, but what I want to do today is dive into the richness of this book for us.

Hebrews 12:1–3 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Charles Spurgeon once said something along the lines of him wishing the Hebrew writer would have kept it to himself because for us today it is so difficult to understand because of the cultural boundaries. I mean I haven’t ever sacrificed an animal or burned incense day and night, although I sing about it sometimes.

But what I do see in this book is this picture of Jesus that is given. He is the greatest priest, he is the greatest king, he is above all other gods and angels and presidents and CEOs and that truth holds on for generation after generation. In fact it is the theological purpose of the book of Hebrews, but I want to hone in on vs 2.

Focusing our eyes on Jesus

Focusing our eyes on Jesus

Focusing our eyes on Jesus

What does “fixate your eyes on Jesus” really even mean for us? Have you thought much about it or does it just more often than not sound like a good thing for us to agree with or to say to other believers in our circles?

I genuinely ask this because for my whole Church life these words have been spoken, they have been uttered, they have been brought up for encouragement, but I never really stepped back and said, “hold up, how do I do that”?

So I went into the archives, because I wanted this to be a solid truth for us each. Not just something good we say, but something we actually believe, something that drives us in 2019.

To fix your eyes on Jesus is this. To remember that He is Savior when all seemed and seems hopeless. To remember that He is healer when health is failing and sickness seems to win. To remember that He is forgiver when we feel as if we can’t be forgiven. To remember that He is love when we don’t feel worthy to be loved. To remember that He is friend when we feel lonely and unwanted. To remember that He is peace when fear and anxiety and depression seem to roll away. To remember that He is God when the darkness seems to surround us and tell us lies and feed us fear. To remember that He is King and Lord when we seem to lose our desire to worship.

To remember these things always because when we focus on these things it defines who we are now and who we are continually becoming. It allows us to run with endurance and perserverance.

That is why the writer of the Hebrews said it. He didn’t want them to give up. He wanted them to focus on this truth.

And so if we can start to think that way I want us to start thinking this way

To God there is no time more important than the present

Bonhoeffer had this quote

To God there is no time more important than the present

“Every day we must turn again to God’s acts of salvation, so that we can again move forward…. Faith and obedience live on remembrance and repetition. Remembrance becomes the power of the present because of the living God who once acted for me and who reminds me of that today.”

This song “Lean Back” by Capital City Music has been absolutely sobering me the last few days about this thought of being in the present with God. The chorus goes like this

I will lean back in the loving arms of a beautiful Father Breathe deep and know that He is good He's a love like no other

As people, especially in our younger years, we have the hardest time living in the present. We are either looking back at the past or we are looking ahead to the future. And while I don’t think it is bad at all to reminisce or to be excited about what is to come we give way too much attention to those 2 things and not enough attention to the one that is in the middle and that is the present.

Some of you may have a word this year to be more present. To be more in the moment. To invest more in those who you around in present.

It is why I absolutely love the words to that song. We just need to lean back and breathe deep in the present of being in the presence of God. To understand who He is.

When we understand in the present who He is it will fuel our present and give the present a true purpose.

What do I mean by that? Last year I had you pray for a single word from God that you believe He wanted you to live out over the course of 2018.

In 2019 I encourage you to do the same thing, but with a different flavor. The word that is given to you is from God and it is part of God. Don’t just allow that word to be something that you want to achieve by the end of the year.

Be that word now, be that word everyday, focus on that word in the present always. My word this year is kindness and I want to be kindness in the present as much as is physically possible for me and when it becomes physically impossible, Holy Spirit take over and have your way in me.

The Lense of Jesus

I have given you the first part, but I want to also give you a second piece that needs to go with it.

When you take that word and focus on being that word in the present, being that goal in the present, being that spiritual resolution in the present I want you to look at it with a specific lens. The lens of fixating our eyes on Jesus.

If our lens isn’t Jesus for our word or our goals or our resolutions this year then we will be missing the point entirely.

Outro

Outro

Give illustration with one person focused on the bullseye, one person using a mirror, one person looking from left to right, one person looking on what is behind them.

Cloud of witnesses interpretation.

Hebrews 12:1 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,