Sermon Tone Analysis
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Run Forrest Run!
In 1994, Tom Hanks starred in a block buster film that impacted a lot of people’s lives.
The story is of a boy from the south who had special needs.
The movie Forrest Gump chronicles Forrest’s life as a school-aged boy, a young adult who served in Vietnam, and even his life as a business man.
One of the common threads throughout the movie was running.
As a boy, some kids were bullying Forrest, throwing rocks at him, and his best friend urged him to simply run.
And so he did.
He ran away.
Later on, Forrest would run from a variety of circumstances.
In one of the most famous parts of the movie, Forrest ran for a few years.
He started running after a moment of severe disappointment.
He kept running.
His running caused some people to question the meaning of life and see him as some running, religious guru.
He didn’t know where he was running - he just kept running...
…until one day he stopped.
He simple said he was tired and began walking home.
People were bewildered as to why he stopped.
They were disappointed.
The spiritual movement they thought he had started simply faded.
There are times when it might seem like the people that we are following seem to be running aimlessly, but as we saw last week, the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 were not those kinds of people.
They ran the race of the faith.
They ran based on promises.
They trusted God through it all.
In light of the challenge the writer of Hebrews gave us to follow the faithful, here in Hebrews 12, we get a clear call too...
Run the race...
Hebrews 12:1 “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, ...”
We looked at Hebrews 12:1-2 in January.
I don’t want to re-hash all of that but I do want to point out a couple of things.
“so great a cloud of witnesses” - I have often thought of that as people who are watching us.
To some degree, there is truth in that.
But the Greek word used there refers not to a watching witness but a testifying witness.
The great cloud of witnesses are testifying to the faithfulness of God.
They ran the race and they call us to follow.
secondly,
“let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” - In order to effectively run this race, there will be some removal.
We will come back to this in a few minutes, but I do think it’s important for us to consider what are those things that are weighing us down?
There are times when weights can be used for training, but we certainly wouldn’t want to run the race bogged down by excesses baggage.
This could include possessions, subscriptions, stuff.
The “sin which clings so closely” is sometimes translated “besetting sin.”
There are sins that I struggle with that are different than the sins you struggle with.
They all can tend to entangle us.
We could think of this things like running a race with your shoes tied together.
The charge we have is to run the race.
Drop the excess weight and distractions and free up life from sin.
Run the race...
because the race is ordained by God (Heb.
12:1)
The opening verse continues...
Hebrews 12:1 “....and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
We have to recognize that this race, however long God allows us to run it, is a race that is set, I believe, by God.
Being the sovereign God of the universe, He knows every obstacle you’ll encounter.
He knows every hurdle you’ll have to over come.
He know every struggle you’ll face.
I hope that gives us confidence and joy knowing that God is fully aware of every encounter.
We may not like them, but we can find confidence in knowing that God is allowing them for a reason.
As you may remember, we’ve been praying for Danielle’s sister for several months.
She had a brain tumor removed in July.
The surgery went well, but the recovery has been a battle.
She spent most of the next 8 weeks in and out of ICU.
She is finally home and is gradually improving.
She still fights nausea with too much movement and her eyes are not aligned yet - so double vision is a struggle.
I have been so encouraged though, by Danielle and Teresa’s dad.
His trust in the sovereign plan of God for Teresa has been unwavering.
He trusts that God knows the outcome and trusts that God will be faithful through it.
We may want a full and quick recovery, but we can find confidence knowing that God is up to something and is working his perfect will in Teresa’s life - and in the lives of all of those who are near her.
You and I may not like some elements of the “race that is set before us” but we can rejoice knowing that God is the one who set it.
He has a reason.
Secondly, we should run the race...
because Jesus ran the race for us (Heb.
12:2-3)
There are some people who are a glutton for punishment.
They thrive on pain and seem to feel like they are not living unless something in wrong.
Jesus is not that kind of person.
The cross that he endured is a cross that we deserved.
When he died on that shameful cross, he died a criminals death, a death he did not deserve.
He despised or literally “looked down” on the shame that people cast upon him, knowing that His shame would pave a way for us to have life.
Once he completed his task, running his earthly race, he sat down at the right hand of God.
The Bible tells us that he is there interceding on our behalf.
His momentary pain brings life to all of us.
We can and should be encouraged by that.
His substitutionary death should encourage us to press on, to run the race well, to finish!
We should run the race that God has ordained for us, because Jesus has already run the crucial elements for us...
even though the training is difficult (Heb.
12:4-17)
If you’ve ever spent time training for a big event, you know there is pain.
Athletes will change their diets and will engage in rigorous fitness routines in order to prepare their bodies for the contest.
I have loved watching movies like The Miracle, the story of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team that beat the arguably superior Russian hockey team.
Through disciplined training and physical fitness, their coach got them to work as a team but also got them into the best shape of their lives.
I have also loved watching movies like the Rocky movies, where at some point of crisis, the main character will make a decision, the music changes, and the disciplined training begins.
The challenge with movies like that, is that they make quick, emotional work of something that is much more intense and much more painful.
In our lives, our training, or our discipline will be difficult, but it will be worth it.
We can run through the training because we know that God is loving us as His children.
The discipline that we endure is a demonstration of God’s love.
But what does this discipline look like?
The writer of Hebrews doesn’t give us specific circumstances.
We do know from elsewhere in the book that his audience was experiencing persecution and pressure to return to the old ways.
But we can also understand that sometimes our training or discipline looks like sickness, financial struggle, job loss.
All of those things are designed to make us holy.
We can run through the difficult training because the outcome will be holiness.
Just as an earthly father will discipline us, so too, God does that in us, purging the sin in us and then also strengthening us to run the race better.
While there are some things that God is doing, the writer of Hebrews gives us some encouragement for action as well.
Look in your bibles.
I want to read through this next short section and comment as we go.
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