Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM - Run the Race pt. 2 - Hebrews 12:5-17 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

And read verse 5 with me. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. The help of my countenance and my God. And Father, we do praise you that you are our help, Lord. The help of our countenance and our God. Father, I just ask that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would move by the power of your Holy Spirit in our hearts, Lord.

That you would fan the flame, Lord, of action in our lives. Father, that you would teach us and instruct us and convict us and comfort us, Lord. All the work that your Holy Spirit can do. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12. Last week, we started a series in Hebrews, chapter 12, called Run the Race.

And today is part two of that. And we said there was a handful of things he was going to tell us about running the race of faith. And the first thing he told us last week was that we needed to run with endurance. And to run with endurance, we said that there were three things we needed. Number one, he told us what we needed to lay aside, the weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.

He told us where to fix our eyes, that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And then he told us to consider Jesus, who endured so much hostility from unbelievers, who endured so much hostility from the ungodly, that we would not grow weary and lose heart. Because none of us have come to the point of bloodshed in our fight against sin. And so as he continues with that thought, we pick up in verse five today with part two, which I have entitled Run with Direction.

Run with Direction. So starting in verse five, it says this. 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. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. 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? But if you are without discipline, of which you have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 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?

For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears. Run with direction. There's four things he's going to tell us about running with direction. Number one, he's going to tell us to embrace discipline.

Number two, he's going to tell us to strengthen the hands. Number three, he's going to tell us to pursue peace. And then number four, he's going to tell us to see to it. I promise there'll be more to that last one. Let's take them in order, though. Of course, the first thing he tells us is to embrace discipline. He starts off like this in verse five. He says, 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. For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. He starts off with his saying. He says, For you have forgotten. You have forgotten. And can I say that those words, you have forgotten, often start every issue that we have in the body of Christ.

As believers in Jesus Christ, when we forget who Jesus is, when we forget what he has told us, when we forget his character and his nature, when we forget what he's done for us in the past, and when we forget the exhortations of God's word, it leads to all of the other issues in our lives. And so it's important that we not forget. It's important that we remind ourselves of these things. He says, You have forgotten.

And then he gives a quote out of Proverbs chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, where he says, My son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. And then in verse 6 he says, For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. I think it's important that we understand, as we look at this aspect of discipline, what this word actually means. And so I'm going to lean on Kenneth Wieston, his word study here, as he defines this word, discipline.

He says, The word which is used is used of the whole training and education of a child. It speaks also of whatever an adult cultivates the soul, especially by correcting mistakes and curbing passions. It speaks of instruction which aims at the increase of virtue. The word does not have in it the idea of punishment, but of corrective measures which will eliminate evil in the life and encourage the good.

See, the discipline that he's speaking of here is the discipline that teaches us and trains us what it looks like to live as a godly individual. I bring that up, and I wanted to make sure to clarify that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I do not want us to view God as some cosmically angry dad who's chasing us around with a paddle, right? I don't want us to view God that way when we talk about embracing discipline.

But the second reason I bring that up is this. For some of you, when I bring up the word father, it's not a good connotation in your mind. I've been in ministry long enough to know that when you bring up the word father, for some people it can evoke a number of emotions, and many of them are not good. It can bring up thoughts of abuse. It can bring up thoughts of abandonment.

It can bring up thoughts of angry words that were spoken. And so for some of us, that word father is not a good word in our lives. And when it says that the Lord disciplines us like a father, that actually struck fear in your heart when that was said, and that's not the indication of what God does with us. For the rest of us, it brings up a very good connotation.

We're reminded of the dad that loved us so much and cared for us, and we like to make fun of sometimes because he doesn't always dress very well. But quite frankly, he was a great man, right, and taught us really, really well. But I don't want to forget that there are people out there who know a father as the first, and so God is rewriting in your mind what a father is supposed to be. God is rewiring in your mind what a father is supposed to be, and what a father is supposed to be is a dad who loves but also disciplines, trains his children in the right way.

He says, you have forgotten that whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And he tells us that because of what he says here in verse 7. It is for discipline that you endure. It is for discipline that you endure. In other words, the difficulties that they're enduring is for the training of who they are in godliness. The difficulties that they want to run from are for the training in who they are

as being children of God, as living as God had wanted for them, so that they could get rid of the passions that are not good and live as God has called for them to live. Let me give you a little bit of an illustration here. Several years back now, I had a former student of mine, many of you may know him, who went through BUDS training. He's now a Navy SEAL.

If you don't know the process to become a Navy SEAL, you enter the Navy with that kind of goal in mind. You go through basic training just like everybody else does that enters into the Navy, and then you're enlisted in a program called BUDS training. And as you go through that program, it's a heavily intensive physical, emotional, mental training that these guys go through because they want to turn them into warriors that can be trusted, right? But there's one particular part of the BUDS training is called Hell Week.

If you don't know anything about Hell Week, it's everything that it sounds like, right? So my buddy went through this and ultimately graduated, goes on, becomes a Navy SEAL. And after his graduation, he came home for a few weeks. And one morning, I had he and several of the other young men that are about his age that grew up in my youth group together, head them over to my house, and we sat down on my back patio, and we drank coffee together.

Straight black coffee like men drink it. Anyway, we all drank coffee together. And we just asked him questions, and he told us stories. And he told us about all the crazy stuff that they went through and all of the difficulties that they went through.

And he said everything within you wants to do that because everything within you wants the discipline to stop. He said, but if you want to finish, if you want to become a Navy SEAL, you have to endure the discipline because it is training you to become a warrior that can be trusted by others. And the idea is this. We want to make life hard on you so that we know that if you are going to quit here, we can guarantee that you're going to quit in battle.

If you don't quit here, we know you're not going to quit on your friends in battle. And he said, quite frankly, every single day I wanted to ring the bell. And you know what? I'm going to tell you moms this real quick. This is the influence you have over your sons. He said, the one reason I didn't ring the bell is because I knew my mom was coming at the end of the week

and I didn't want to let her down. Isn't that great? I love that. But this is what he means when he says, it is for discipline that you endure. Why do we endure the hardships of life? Is it because there's way more hardships that comes with being a believer in Jesus Christ? Maybe some, but at the end of the day, I've lived life long enough and I've been around enough people to know that there's just as many unbelievers

that are dealing with the cancer diagnosis as there are believers dealing with the cancer diagnosis. There's just as many unbelievers that are dealing with their loved ones dying as there are believers. Life is hard, but endure the discipline as a child of God because it is producing in you something that nothing else can. And you may want to ring the bell, and you can at any point in time you want.

You can just quit. But it means that you will not learn what God has for you. And here's the thing about being a child of God. If you ring the bell now, you'll go through it again later. Because God loves you too much to not let you learn the lesson that you need to learn. He said, it is for discipline that you endure because God is dealing with you as sons.

For what son is there, verse 7, whom his father does not discipline? If you're without discipline, of which we have all become partakers, you are illegitimate children and not sons. I was raised by one of the good fathers. When I think of a father, I think of an incredibly loving man. I think of a man that was gentle and patient, but a man that meant business.

And when he told you something, he intended for that rule to be followed. And when he laid out an expectation, he expected that expectation to be met. He was gentle, he was loving, he was kind, but when it was time to deal with business, he dealt with business. And he did with me. And he gave me discipline in my life. He gave me the correction that I needed to make sure that I would become the man of God

that he always wanted to see me become. And so because of that, I learned what it was to put in a hard day's work. I will never forget my dad. He gave me a chore to do, and I didn't do the chore up to a standard that anyone would have accepted, but especially my dad. I didn't do what he had really wanted me to do. And I will never forget him gently saying, you know, I gave you that because I thought I could trust you to do it the right way.

And that was all it took for me. I was just like, dang, right? Like that's an expectation that's laid out that I didn't meet. And you know what? That never happened again because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm going to put in a hard day's work because a hard day's work is what's expected of me. Because of my dad, I learned what it was to respect authority

because I was expected to respect authority at home, and I was expected to respect authority everywhere else that I went. And if I didn't respect it everywhere else that I went, I really dealt with it at home. Right? Because that's what a good father does. From my dad, I learned what it was to work for people that you did not agree with. And even though I said, Dad, I don't agree with the way this guy's handling things,

he says, but remember, you're not working for man, you're working for God. And that's the man that God has put in charge, and so you follow him. And that was in my 20s when I wanted to quit. I learned from my dad what it was to love God's Word and to respect God's Word, and I learned from my dad what it was to worship. Because those of us that had those good earthly fathers, we understand what this means.

Because it's what made us children of our fathers. Right? And he says, they did it for temporary things. God is doing it for more. Verse 9. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us when we respected them. Shall we not much more rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Well, then he starts to talk to us about the purpose of discipline.

I want you to notice what it says. Verse 10. Number 1. For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good. He disciplines us for our good. Now, I have a question for you. The discipline that he's speaking about here in the lives of these believers, specifically that he's writing to, is a discipline of the fact that they were enduring the hardship of persecution.

They were about to endure an incredible amount of persecution, which is why he told them to endure it as if it's discipline. Endure it as if it is teaching and training them in righteousness. So he says, the things that are being brought into your life are ultimately for your good. Brian, I don't understand how some of the things that have been brought into my life are for my good.

I don't either, but I promise they are. Because we know according to what it says in Romans 8.28, it says, For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. There are a lot of things that have entered into my life that I would have chosen about a million other ways to learn the lessons that I learned, but I learned them through the hard things. I learned them through the difficult things of life, and they were ultimately for my good.

And I look back and I go, I would not know God in this way if it was not for what I went through. Always remind people of the story of Job. Remember, Job goes through all of these different trials in his life, the loss of his family, the loss of his wealth, the loss of his health, and then the worst friends anyone could ever imagine, and the loss of his reputation. And after he goes through all of it, he then has to face some questions from God.

And at the end of all of those things, Job has the greatest line in all of the Bible. I have heard of you through the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Listen, it might have been discipline, but he sees God in a way he never would have before, and the only way he could get to that point is to go through the discipline and not ring the bell. Number two, he says, lost in place.

So that we may share in His holiness. So that we may share in His holiness. The end of verse 10. Let me read it again. For they discipline us for a short time, it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us, number one, for our good. Number two, that we may share in His holiness. Have you ever considered that the difficulties that we go through in life are actually producing

holiness inside of us? It's actually producing an aspect of holiness in us because it is causing us to cling more tightly to Jesus, which in order to do so, we have to let go of some of the things of the world. And it is producing holiness. But then number three, it says this, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, amen. But sorrowful, another amen.

Yet to those who have been trained by it, and that's a great phrase. For those of us that have been trained by discipline, it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It produces righteousness in our lives. Not only a right standing with God, but rightness in the way that we continue to walk with God. Brothers and sisters, you have a choice in the hardships that you have in life.

You can try to give up and run from them, or you can turn and you can face them. Because if you face them, God will teach you amazing things through it. I'll reference him again in just a little bit. Maybe this was where I referenced him before. At any rate, I'll probably reference this book again. But a friend of mine that I went to Bible college with, his name is Levi Lusko.

Quite a few years back now, he lost his five-year-old daughter. As he lost his five-year-old daughter to an asthma attack, terrible, tragic accident, he went on to write a book about it and how he came through that process. That book is called Through the Eyes of a Lion. I would highly recommend, anybody that's facing grief, I would highly recommend reading Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko.

And in that book, he walks through everything that he went through in that whole process. The very end of it, one of my favorite lines in the entire book is the very last one that he closes with, and he says, on the last day that my daughter closed her eyes for the last time, God opened mine for the first time. And the idea is he saw God in a way he'd never seen him before because of the difficulty that he'd gone through. And you can embrace the discipline and learn what God has for you.

You may walk with a limp, but it's going to teach you things about God you could have never learned any other way. Number one, embrace the discipline. Number two, it segues directly into it, strengthen the hands. Notice what it says in verse 12. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather

be healed. He says, therefore, in light of everything that he's just said, in light of the fact that we are considering Christ, who endured such hostility from sinners so that you won't grow weary and lose heart, and in light of the fact that we have forgotten the exhortation that discipline is actually a result of our sonship and is actually producing good in our lives. Therefore, as you face the hardship, strengthen the hands which are hanging down. Strengthen the weak hands and the knees that are feeble.

That word strengthened means to set straight or to reinvigorate. It actually is a medical term that carries with it the idea of putting back into place a joint that has been dislocated, a bone that has been dislocated. And the idea is get things back the way that they need to be so that you can continue on in your walk. Strengthening. He tells us there are two things that we need to strengthen.

Number one, we need to strengthen the hands that are hanging down. The weak hands. I think it's the Amplified Bible. It might have been the English Standard Version that says, strengthen the hands that are drooping low. You ever been around somebody that's just, they're exhausted from a long day's work, and it's like their hands are just kind of hanging here, right?

I had this situation happen the other day. It's got to be a pastoral thing, but I've had plumbing problems here lately. And so I had to go rent an auger on Friday, and the auger that I usually borrow, I can haul around pretty well myself. I can pick it up. It's a decent size auger, but I can handle it. This thing was a horse, right? It just had these two little wheels.

The first thing I did is I wheel it down into my basement, and it's bigger than the one that I usually use, and so it didn't work quite as well. And I worked for about an hour and realized I had pushed the auger about three feet down the line, but it wouldn't make a corner, and I am just pushing and working and sweating and pushing and working and sweating. I realized it didn't do anything. I thought, okay, all I can do is go back upstairs, pull the toilet, and just go straight down through there.

That's what I did. So I get ready to haul it back upstairs. No problem. I lowered it down the stairs, right? It should be just as easy. Actually, problem. I actually can't wheel it up the stairs because it's too heavy, and I'm going to damage myself. And the older I get and the more muscles that I tear, the less I take chances like that. So I do what any good man does.

I go grab my wife, and I say, I say, you pull all lift. And so she pulls. I mean, I'm literally grunting getting this thing up the stairs, okay? I am not overly dramatic about these things. I'm not a grunter. It wasn't because I was being dramatic. It was because I had to use every fiber of my being to get this thing up the stairs. So I get up the stairs. I go.

I pull the toilet. Do the thing. And, of course, in the meantime, I'd broken a part of my line downstairs, and so I go and I get the parts to replace the lines so that I can do the thing and just, and I pull the toilet. Pull the toilet out. Get all done, and I get it hauled back and put back into my truck, which was the whole ordeal in and of itself that involved me and a ramp.

And so I finally get it dropped off, and I come back, and I'm just like, that's exactly how I felt in that moment. And I thought about this line, strengthen the weak hands. I'm like, I don't know that there's any strengthening to them. And the knees that are feeble. And so it says to reinvigorate them, to set them straight. You know what bothers me about this word?

It does not tell us how to do that. I tried every which way to someday to figure out some sort of a word study or something where it would say, this is how you do that. And as I'm praying about it and thinking about it, I'm like, apparently there's no secret. You just have to do it. Now that sounds really strange.

And so I think about the fact that I run at the dumbest time of day possible. I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I usually run about 11, 1130 in the morning. Now, when it's springtime or fall time and, you know, the five days of spring that we have and the five days of fall that we have, it's a great time to run. You know, it's about 72 degrees, it's perfect, right?

But all of the other time, it's a dumb time to run, particularly here lately because it's like 11 billion degrees at 1130, right? And so I get home and I'm like, okay, I'm going to change my clothes, I'm going to go for my run. I start to stretch. I'm like, I do not want to go run right now. And it used to be in my 20s, even into my 30s, that once I got going, I was invigorated,

right? Ah, the run is going. Okay, I feel good. Let's go. That doesn't happen as much as it used to, but it still kind of happens sometimes, right? I still don't get invigorated, but it's interesting that once you get going, you have a lot more energy to keep going. That's why the first step of anything that you take is the first one, right? Or the hardest step you take is the first one.

Because that first step says, I'm going to start. And once you've started, you can usually keep going. That's the hardest step to take, which is why he says, strengthen the hands that hang down. In other words, get back to doing what you know how to do, right? I don't feel like reading the Word. Do it anyway. Right? I don't feel like getting into prayer. Do it anyway.

I don't feel like serving. I think you know what I'm going to say next. One of the many lessons I learned from my father is this. Many people don't know this about him, but he went through a period of time about 25 years ago where he battled a lot of depression, a lot. And he was pretty knocked down, pretty hard. And it was somewhere around the end of my high school career on through when I was in

college. It was around the time I graduated college that he really came out of that time. And that was around the time that I started really battling with it. And I remember asking him, how did you get through it? And he said, I knew I had a choice to make. I could either live in it or I could do something about it. And I decided I was going to do something about it.

And I felt like the only thing that the Lord had told me was to read the Word. And so every single morning, I got up and I determined I was going to read the Word. I didn't care if I was too sleepy to understand what I was reading. I didn't care if I didn't get anything out of it or even remembered what I read. I was going to read the Word every single day.

And that reading of God's Word every single day is what healed me. He said, but I just had to decide to start. And once I started, I wasn't going to quit. That's what he means when he says, strengthen the weak hands and the feeble knees. You just have to do what God is telling you to do. There's no secret sauce to it. It's a decision that you make. The Holy Spirit's the one telling you to do it.

He's the one that will empower you once you surrender to it, but you just have to do it. He says, strengthen the hands which are weak and the feeble knees. And then he goes on to say, and make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. That idea of making a straight path means take the right path.

In other words, do the right thing, follow the right path. That's where the strength in your life will come from. That's how you strengthen and reinvigorate the hands that are hanging down, and the feeble knees. Embrace the discipline, strengthen your hands. Number three, he says to pursue peace. That's what it says in verse 14. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

It's interesting that he tucks this into this idea of running with direction, because the direction that you need to run with is the direction of pursuing peace. That word pursue is a very interesting word. That word pursue means to run swiftly after in order to catch, to run swiftly after in order to catch. And what are we running swiftly after? Peace with all men, tranquility, that aspect of being right with all men.

Now there's two different ways that commentators take this aspect of all men. Some say that all men speaks simply of other believers in Jesus Christ, that we are to pursue peace with all of the members of the body of Christ. The only problem I have with that interpretation is that's not what it says. It does not say pursue peace with all of the body of Christ.

This says pursue peace with all men, and that word men speaks of humanity. And so the idea is we are to pursue peace with everyone, and that's the interpretation that I take, that we are to live a life that pursues peace with all people, even the people that hate us. We are told in the Sermon on the Mount that blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God, because peace is what God is always bringing to us. And so if we want to act like children of God, we will be at peace with all men.

In Romans chapter 13, I'm off on my chapter, in the book of Romans it says that we are to do all that is within our power to live at peace with all men. The idea is whether they agree with you or not. And sometimes I think as believers, we need to remember that we are called to live at peace with those that are around us. But let me tell you what this does not say.

Be at peace at the expense of truth. You see, there are some people that we will never be able to be at peace with, because the truth that we live and the truth that we speak will always make them angry with us. Now, we should be at peace with them at that point in time, whatever they do is up to them. It's between them and God. But we can never have peace at the expense of truth, because peace at the expense of

truth is deception, and it's not true peace. We have to continue to take a stand on truth. Because as you look at scripture, you find that more often than not, peace is what we are to pursue. But David still chose five smooth stones. And sometimes we got to have the discernment to know the differences between the two. To know when it's time to pursue peace and when it's time to choose five smooth stones.

We are to pursue peace with all men. But I wish you noticed the second thing it says that we are to pursue. We are also to pursue sanctification, apart from which no one, or without which no one will see the Lord. That word sanctification is the Greek word hagios, which means set apart. Sometimes it's translated holy. We are to pursue holiness as believers in Jesus Christ.

Can I just go ahead and say, and I've said this before, holiness is the thing that we do not tend to pursue as a Western culture church today. Because holiness is called legalism. Oh, holiness, that's not grace. That's, that's something, that's judgmental. You're being judgmental. No, holiness is part of your purpose. Your main purpose is to know God, but do you know that part of that purpose of knowing

God is holiness? If we were to take it all the way back to the Garden of Eden, right, Adam's put into the garden, he's given a wife, and what command does Adam give it? From any tree that you want to, except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? Because God wanted him to pursue holiness with his own free will, which ultimately translates into pursuing love for God with his own free will.

And so that was part of his purpose, was pursuing holiness. In the church today, we have said that holiness is judgmentalism and holiness is in grace. Therefore we are not to pursue holiness. After all, that's old school thinking. No, that's biblical thinking. Pursuing holiness is biblical thinking. You were not saved so that you could keep living in sin. You were saved so that you could pursue your purpose of holiness.

Grace sets you free to live a holy life. And I want to point out the last thing that he says there, without which no one will see God. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Therefore, if you want to pursue God, it has to be in the light, meaning in holiness. And so he says if we are to run with direction, number one, we need to embrace discipline. Number two, we need to strengthen the hands.

Number three, we need to pursue peace. But number four, we need to see to it. Again, right there in verse 15, it says, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. That phrase, see to it, is kind of an interesting phrase when you look at it in the Greek. It means to maintain oversight. Maintain oversight. Now, again, I believe it was Warren Wiersbe.

I might have this wrong. I should have looked it up in between the services to make sure I'm right, but whatever. I think it was Warren Wiersbe that said, as we look at this aspect of maintaining oversight, it's a similar word that's used of a bishop or an elder in the church. Therefore, there's an aspect of this where we have accountability to each other to maintain oversight.

The other translation is that this is a maintaining of an oversight over my walk with Jesus Christ. I think both are very fitting. I think we must maintain oversight over our own walk, but we also ought to be accountable to each other. There's an aspect of the body of Christ, and I've pointed this out lots of times before. That's why you show up to church on Sunday morning, is so that you can be accountable

to your neighbor. You can be accountable to the other people that are hearing the Word of God taught, because they know what's going on in your life as well, and when the Word of God is taught and it hits something that's going on in your life, somebody is around you to say, I see you and I see what God's doing. I'm here to support you in that and to help you maintain oversight. But there's three things that he tells us that we are to maintain oversight over.

Number one, we are to see to it that we don't fall short of God's grace. That we don't fall short of God's grace. It's interesting how many times in Scripture we are warned about this, especially in the New Testament, but that coming short of God's grace. What would it mean to fall short of God's grace? Well, the most simple statement is that we would then slip into legalism.

We would slip into some sort of a pattern of works where we think now my relationship with God depends on the work that I do. My relationship with God depends upon me. And what I've noticed in the church today, and I even heard, was it Max Lucado, I heard somebody on the radio the other day, who was talking about this, he's a pastor of a really big church down in Texas, and he was on the Glenn Beck program, and he was talking about what he has seen happen in churches today. He said many people are leaving non-denominational churches, things along those lines, to go to churches, i.e. Catholic churches, things along those lines, where there's a lot more

liturgy and there's a lot more works that need to be done. And here's why I think that's happening. We live in a very non-tangible world today, and everybody wants something tangible that they can hold, and they want some list that they can check, to be able to say, this is what I did. This is what I did in these things. And he said they all want something bigger than themselves to be a part of, and so they

want this list of things that they can check off. You see, that's coming short of God's grace, because you're now saying the work of Jesus Christ isn't enough for me, I also need works to go along with that. That's coming short of God's grace, and we must maintain oversight in our lives, because it is our tendency to slip into legalism. It's our tendency to make five simple steps of how I learned to walk with Jesus.

Five simple ways of how I became humble, and how you can too, right? Like that's falling short. That's a joke. That's not really a book. That's not a book. That would be an example of coming short of God's grace. And he warns me, he says, maintain oversight over that. In other words, in my own life, and with each other. And listen, if you've tried to maintain oversight in that, in someone else's life, and they've

still said, no, I need to pursue a system of works, you've got to let them do what they're going to do, and hopefully God's grace will eventually gain hold of their heart again.

God's grace. Number two, he says maintain oversight over your walk. Notice what it says in verse 15, middle of verse 15, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. It's interesting that this second warning is tied in the same sentence with the first because I believe that they're closely related to each other. I believe that legalism tends to lead to a

root of bitterness. It tends to lead to a root of bitterness in two ways. We become bitter in pride and we become bitter in judgment. You see, when I become a really legalistic person and I start saying, look at all the things that I've done, I want to know why you don't do it too. And I quite frankly get bitter because you're not doing nearly as much in your walk with Jesus Christ as I am in mine. You are not serving God like I am

serving God. And quite frankly, I think that you're doing it wrong. You are not living your life the way that I'm living my life and therefore I think that you're doing it wrong. And we can get this root of bitterness that comes from pride and we can get this root of bitterness that comes from judgment and it causes us to look down on all of the other people that are around us. Listen, this is why God intended that salvation would always

be of grace because if salvation is always of grace and not by works, I can never look at someone else and say, you haven't done enough. I can only say, let me tell you how Jesus saved me. If we want to cure the problem of judgmentalism within the church, and I think that it's a problem. Listen, everybody misquotes the verse, judge not lest you be judged. And they misquote it saying, I am not allowed to point out sin in anyone else's

life. No, Jesus actually tells us how to point out sin in someone else's life. He goes on to say, first deal with the two by four sticking out of your own eye and then you can see clearly to get the sawdust out of your neighbor's eye. He says, how do we operate in pointing out sin in people's lives? Well, first of all, I deal with my own sin. I deal with the

things in my own life that sucks out the root of bitterness inside of me because I can't be bitter against you because you're not walking with Jesus the way I think you should because quite frankly, neither am I. And now all of a sudden I'm humble in the way that I can approach somebody else in my life. And I can say, let me tell you about the failures in my life, but then I want to talk to you about what I see in yours and we'll work through this together. That's what God has actually intended in the way that we're supposed to be. But it says, don't fall short of God's grace. And number two, he says, and don't

let a root of bitterness grow. But then he warns us against immorality and godlessness. Notice what it says in verse 16, that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Let's first of all tell the story of Esau and then we'll apply

it the way that the writer to the Hebrews just applied it there. So remember we talked a lot about Jacob. Jacob was of course the son of Isaac, but Jacob had a twin brother and his twin brother's name was Esau. And when they were born, Esau came out first. He was a very hairy man, right? And then that's why they named him Esau. And then Jacob came out afterwards. He was holding on to his heel. That's how Jacob got his name, heel catcher

supplanter. And there was always a prophecy that the older shall serve the younger. In other words, the birthright ultimately was going to belong to Jacob. But Jacob and Esau grew up two very different people. Esau lived his life in a tree stand, right? Like real tree camo was his favorite, desert camo. Anyway, it was his favorite thing to wear and he always

had a weapon with him. He was always ready to hunt. He was a man of the field, right? And Jacob grew up very differently. Jacob was what I always call a renaissance man, even though he gets called a little bit effeminate sometimes. He's a renaissance man. You know the one reason why, sidebar, you know the one reason why I don't think Jacob was some like pansy of a guy? Do you remember what he did when he met Rachel? So Jacob rolls

in and he sees this beautiful girl walking towards him. He's like, oh, that's a really beautiful girl. And he, yeah, that's Rachel. And he says, why are you all sitting here? And he goes, well, we wait for all of the other shepherds to get here and then we roll the stone away together from the well because it's really, really heavy. Well, Jacob sees Rachel bringing the flock and he's just like, I'm about to show off for her. Moves the stone

by himself that usually several shepherds move together. This is why I don't think Jacob was a pansy of a guy. He just really liked to cook. That's all that there is to it, right? So anyway, so, so they grew up two very different ways. Well, one day when they're grown, Esau is out hunting and he's all worn out and famished while he's out hunting. Meanwhile, Jacob is

back at the camp cooking up a big pot of stew, a red stew. And as he's cooking up this big pot of stew, you know, wafting it, smelling it, oh, that's going to be amazing, right? Esau smells it from a really long ways away and Esau sort of, it's like I picture a cartoon character like floating through the air, like Looney Tunes as he's like drifting in towards the smell of the brand new soup. And he goes, man, that, that stew looks really, really good. And Jacob goes, and it's going to be really good. He goes, I would love a bowl.

And he goes, I bet you would. I bet you would love a bowl right now. The only problem is I need something in return for this bowl of stew. And Esau goes, it doesn't matter. Tell me what it's worth to you. I'm dying of hunger. And Jacob looks at him and says, sell me your birthright for this stew. Now, we don't think much about this in this culture today because

the birthright, I mean, it's great to be the oldest, right? That's fun and everything. It means you get to tell the other siblings what to do, especially in you big families, right? But, but ultimately at the end of the day, there's no big difference in your life. It was not that way at this point in time. The oldest got a double portion of the inheritance and the oldest had control over the family business. He had control over what everybody

else did. He was the man, right? Like this is a, this is a huge deal to, to give up the birthright. And so Esau says, I'm so hungry in this moment that all I care about is this bowl of stew in front of me. I don't care about the entire rest of my life. Jacob always had his eyes on the promise, even though he didn't go about it the right way. Esau was always focused on his flesh. And so he said, yes, I'll sell you my birthright, my entire

who do not know what it means to tell themselves no now, because what's waiting in the future is more important than one moment of pleasing the flesh. And so he says, maintain oversight over yourself and over the body so that they don't become like Esau who say, all I want to do is fulfill my flesh. I don't care about the things of God. And I have a question for you here this morning. How many of you have been in Esau's position and you gave up everything

for a bowl of stew? You gave up everything for a momentary pleasure. I want to say two things about that. Number one, stop. Stop giving up what is eternal for what is temporary. Stop sacrificing the great that God has for you for a moment of secondary pleasure. Stop it. Because God has better for you than that. But if that's you and you intended to stop

on the straight path, because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age. He says, maintain oversight over yourself in these things. And so as we close up here this morning, I want to give you a little exhortation. You see, all of the things that he's just given to us about running with direction or an exhortation

to action. Did you notice that? Embrace the discipline, because there's things that need to be done. And the correction that you're receiving creates the endurance and the righteousness that you need in your life. Strengthen the hands and get back on the path, because you need to take action in your life. Pursue peace and holiness, because you need something to

run after. And maintain a watch over yourself so that you don't disqualify yourself in any way for what God has called for you to do. Why? Because we need to run with direction. I bring this up because this week we commemorated a difficult, a couple of difficult days. Of course, September 11th, we look at the fact that 25 years ago, something tragic happened

in our nation. On September 10th, we were reminded that sometimes there's a price to pay when you stand for what's true. I've been watching a lot of Charlie Kirk videos this week. I didn't always agree with everything he had to say, most of it, but there were some things I didn't always agree with. But man, I respected that guy. I respected that kid because he was young. I respected him because that man ran with direction. He had

a direction and he pursued it. And he pursued it until it took his life. And brothers and sisters, he is now in the presence of the Father. And it is an inspiration to me to remember to run with direction. To run with that kind of direction in my life. To where I see the calling that God has and I pursue it with every fiber of my being. To where I see the calling to holiness that God has in my life and I run after it. I chase it

down so that I pursue the relationship that God has intended for me to have with himself and I chase it down with every fiber of my being. And quite frankly, I see the kingdom work that needs to be done and I run after it with every fiber of the core of who I am. Because there is a direction that I need to run in. And brothers and sisters, you can rust out or you can wear out. I don't know about you, but I would rather wear out than

rust out. I want to know that I have spent every part of my life, every ounce of energy that I have in the work of the kingdom of God. Because at the end of the day, that's what lasts forever. One life, as it says on the front side of our building here, one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Are you going to run with the direction? Amen? Let's all stand. And if you would bow with me.

Father, we come before you. And Lord, your word is powerful. Sharper than any two-edged

Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am close and I was made for more. I know who I am because I know who you are. The cross of salvation was only the start. Now I am chosen, free and forgiven. I have a future and it's worth the living. I was made to be tending a grave. I was called by name.

Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am close and I was made for more. Hallelujah. You called out my name so I'll sing out your praise. Hallelujah. You buried my past, I'm not going back. Hallelujah. You called out my name so I'll sing out your praise.

Hallelujah. You buried my past, I'm not going back. Because I wasn't made to be tending a grave. I was called by name. Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am close and I was made for more. Say that again. Because I wasn't made to be tending a grave. I was called by name.

Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am close and I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am close and I was made for more. Lord, I just thank you for your grace. Lord, I thank you for that unmerited favor that I don't have to check a box,

that I don't have to try to do anything to earn it, Lord God. You did the work for us. Lord God, if there's anything that is holding us back from that grace, Lord, I just pray that you would remove that. You would open up our spiritual eyes this morning, Lord. I ask your blessing on each and every one of us as we leave here today. And we love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.

All the God's people said, Amen. Love you guys. Have a wonderful week.