When You Feel Like Giving Up Pt.2 4-25-2021

THE INVISIBLE WAR WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP Pt.2 Sunday April 25, 2021 Scripture Reference: Hebrews 11:35-12:4 (NLT2) Intro. A. Welcome back to week two of our new series The Invisible War. I want to take a minute to review a few things we learned last week before I share part two of this first message. Last week our focus was on the last verses of Hebrews 11 which most of us know is the Hall of Faith chapter. It talks about all these people who lived lives of faith, but last week we learned some important things about these people. Things that normally don't get a lot of attention when we think about Hebrews 11. 1. We learned last week that living a life of faith does not exempt us from pain and suffering. These people in Hebrews 11 suffered far more than I think any of us ever will. We also learned that these people went through some unimaginable suffering and yet it said they did not receive all the promises of God. It didn't say they didn't receive any of God's promises just not all of them. We discovered that we too may not see all of God's promises in this life but that doesn't mean we never will. It just means we may have to wait until Heaven to see them. We also talked about the fact that we are actually running a relay race and it is our job to pass off the spiritual baton to the next generation. As we will look at in just a moment we need to follow the example of these people of faith so that we can hand off this baton to the next generation so that they can keep running this race until Jesus returns. Trans. OK let's look at the verses I want to use today to help us keep moving forward even when we feel like giving up. Let's go back to Hebrews 12: 1-4. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won't become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin." Hebrews 12:1-4 (NLT2) Last week I said there were six things we can learn form these verses that will help us stand strong when we feel like giving up so let's look at them. I. WHAT TO KNOW WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP. Number one is: A. I Need To Remember That Heaven Is Watching. 1. Look again at what V.1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith," Who are these witnesses? Well we saw who some of them were in Hebrews 11. They were Abraham, Moses, David and many unnamed others. Friends we need to remember as we live each day that Heaven is watching us. Your life has an audience. Nothing we do is done in private. Nothing we do is secret. 2. We know of course that God see us. Here is what the Bible tells us. "Doesn't he see everything I do and every step I take?" Job 31:4 (NLT2) "The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..." 2 Chronicles 19:9 (NLT2) David said He knew us even as we were formed in our mothers womb. He knows our ups and downs, he knows the battles we are fighting and he knows how to help us. You can approach this idea that God sees us from two angles. You can see God as the parent who watches us to see us mess up so He can punish us, or you can see God as one who watches over us to help us and strengthen us. Look at that verse from Chronicles again. I can tell you this, the approach you take will either cause you to live in fear of with courage and confidence. If you see God standing over you with a big stick to smack you over the head every time you mess up you will live in fear, but if you see God watching over you to help you and you see God rooting for you then you will live with confidence and courage. 3. Now God is not the only one watching over us. The Bible says there is a HUGE CROWD of witnesses. This means that some of those heroes of faith are watching over us and I believe it also means that those we knew and loved who died in the faith are watching over us. Now I will admit that I am not entirely sure how this all works in Heaven. I don't know if my daughter has the access to my life that God does, but I can't escape the fact the that Bible does tell me that people in Heaven see us and I for one see them as people in the grandstands cheering us on to victory. I can't speak for you, but I want to live in such a way that whatever of my life that Sherry can see, I want her to be proud of her dad and life of faith I am living. Trans. OK I better hurry or this will be a three part message. Here is the thing we need to know so we won't give up. B. I Must Eliminate What Doesn't Matter. 1. If we are going to finish well as I talked about last week we will every now and then have to do some spring cleaning. We are going to have to get rid of some things that we just don't need. I have decided that I am going to go back to something I used to do years ago, but somehow it got eliminated from my schedule. I am going to plan to do quarterly prayer retreats. Not a two week retreat like I will do next month, but just getting away for a few days to let God search me and show me if there are things cluttering my life that I need to shed. 2. Look at the second half of V.1 let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. I want to focus for the next few minutes on the two words, "weight" and "sin". The writer is tells us that these are two things that have to be shed from our lives if we are run this race well. Let's look at the first word, weight. a) What are the weights? Here is what I think the weights are. Weights are not things that are necessarily wrong or sinful, they are just not necessary. The fact of the matter is that you and I can have somethings in our lives that are good, but they are not necessary and it is slowing us down in the race God set for us. What could those "good" things be? Well let me give you a few possibilities. Are you in a relationship that is good but it slowing you down spiritually, that is keeping you from running the race God has for you? It could even be a sport or hobby. Now I know we all need something we enjoy doing that helps us kind of unwind, but we need to honestly evaluate whether or not this thing that is supposed to help me unwind, is actually winding me up and taking more of my time than it should and slowing me down in God's race. I can't go on here but let me say this. A lot of things in life are not necessarily wrong, they are just not necessary. If we want our lives to count and we want to run the race God has for us then we will have to take control of our time. That means I will have to focus on the majors and not major on the minors. Now we are not only to shed the weights, but the writer also said we have to shed the sin. b) I don't have to spend much time here because this is so obvious. You cannot run well and you will never finish with sin in your life. I have said many times that I do not believe for one moment that we have to sin every day in word though and deed. The bible clearly tells us what sin is, "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it." James 4:17 (NLT2) For me this makes it clear that sin is a conscious act. It is knowing what God wants me to do and me saying "No". If you have known sin in your life you need to confess it so you can get back in this race and run it well. Trans. OK here is step three. To not give up I need to run God's race for me. C. I Need To Run God's Race For Me. 1. We talked about this a little bit in the last series. If I am going to run and finish this race I have to run the race God has for me not the race others have for me. Look at the last part of verse one (there is a lot in this one verse). And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Notice God has "set" a course for us. The NIV says the course is "marked" for us. The fact is I cannot run well if I am trying to run the race that everyone else wants me to run. I can't run the race others want me to run and finish God's race. I can't even run the race I want for myself. God created you with a plan and purpose for your life and you can miss that plan. You can miss that plan by trying to follow your own or you can miss that plan by simply drifting along, of course you really won't drift because you will get caught up in the current someone else wants for you. 2. If I try to run the race I set for myself or that others set for me I lose. I am going to fail and I am not going to finish. That is because God didn't give you or I the strength or abilities to run someone elses race. I am going to waste time, talent and God's resources trying to do what I want or what others want for me to do. I need to focus on what God wants. Now how do I do that? Well we have talked about this many, many times, but to know God's plan and purpose I need to focus on my SHAPE. You need to focus on your Spiritual Gifts, your Heart (passions), your Abilities, your Personality and your life Experiences. Your shape will determine the race you run so what is your shape telling you? Trans. OK here is step four. D. I Must Focus On Jesus. 1. I know this sounds obvious but I will say it again, are we missing the obvious? If I am going to run this race well and finish I need to focus on Jesus and not on my circumstances. Look at V.2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. I don't know about you but I love the practical nature of God's word. V.1 tells us to run this race and now it tells us how. We do it by keeping our eyes on Jesus. I might not know all you are going through in your life right now. You might be going through something that seems just too much for you to handle. You are probably right, but you are not going through this alone. Just as Corrie Ten Boom once said, "If you look to the world you will be distressed, if you look within you will be depressed, if you look to Christ you'll be at rest." Corrie Ten Boom a) I am not recommending this for everyone but several months ago I went off Facebook. I found that it was doing just what Corrie talked about. I was looking at this world and getting more and more stressed out. If you are looking at this world or if you are focused on your problems its little wonder you are feeling depressed and discouraged. I am not suggesting that we stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is right in the world or even in our own lives, but I am definitely suggesting that if we start looking to Jesus we will find hope and courage to face the issues in this world and in our lives with strength and hope. We need to remember what Jonah did while he was in the belly of that great fish God created for this purpose. Here is what he said, "As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD..." Jonah 2:7 (NLT2) The only bad thing about this verse is that Jonah allowed himself to get to this point where he felt like he was going to die before he turned his thoughts to God. Look at the last part of this verse. "And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple." Jonah 2:7 (NLT2) I said this in a message in my Connecting With God series. Don't let prayer be your last resort, but your first go to. We will definitely feel like giving up if we feel like we are doing all this on our won. We need to turn our focus to Jesus. Trans. OK here is step five. E. Minimize The Pain And Maximize The Profit. 1. Look at the last part of V.3 Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. Kristopher Lackey is a fitness instructor and he will tell you, if you didn't already know. It is painful to get into shape. It is painful to get into physical shape. It is painful to get into financial shape and it will be painful to get in spiritual shape. But if you focus on the pain you will not get fit. The verse we just read said that Jesus endured the cross, how? He looked beyond the short term pian to the long term gain. Now here is the really amazing thing about what Jesus did. He endured the pain of the cross not for His benefit buy for ours! He endured the cross not so that He could go to Heaven, but so that you and I could. Praise God! If you and I want to finish this race well we have to look past the short term struggles and look to the long term gains. 2. Here is what I suggest. Play it down and pray it up. Here is what I mean. Play down the difficulty and pray up the reward. Yes, staying in a difficult marriage will not be easy, but the rewards of staying together and working through those difficulties will be so much better than just bailing out. You might want to write this down. It is always better to resolve and repair a relationship than to replace it. I read a statistic that said the divorce rate for a second marriage is 60%. Those are not good odds. 3. I want you to see something the apostle Paul said. "I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm." 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (NLT2) Now look at how we evaluates this problems in his life. "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT2) Paul calls these things he went through "Small". Frankly I don't see it. I think I would have plenty to complain about, but Paul did what we have been talking about. He looked beyond these temporary problems to the bigger picture of all God had for him and I would suggest you and I are just as capable. Trans. OK I have one more step and I will make this one brief. F. Remember What Jesus Did For You. 1. OK here are the last two verses. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won't become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin." Let's just be honest and admit that none of us have or ever will suffer as Jesus di for us. Let's remember what Jesus did for us to help us remain strong when the trials and struggles come for us. Conclusion A. I might not know exactly what you are going through right now, but you might be at that point where you feel like giving up. You might feel like giving up on a dream you had. You might feel like giving up on a relationship, even a marriage. You might even feel today like giving up on God. Today I want to remind you that there are people in the Heavenly grandstands that are cheering you on. Maybe you need to get alone in a quiet place with God so you can hear those cheers, at least in your heart. Maybe you need that quiet time to ask God to help you see the weights or the sin that is slowing you down and discouraging you. I guess I am really telling you what the writer of Hebrews told us and that is to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith. I am certainly not capable of making pain go away, but we can minimize it by remembering what awaits us if we remain faithful to God. 2