Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - Run the Race ~ Hebrews 12:1-11 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12. Well, this morning in the book of Hebrews, we start a new series in chapter 12 because chapter 12 has a theme that kind of runs all the way through it, and that theme is running the race. It's interesting because the Bible is so good at using analogies that we can all understand, and the analogy of running a race is one that for the most part we all get the idea of, and so as we move through, it's going to take us several weeks to get through chapter 12, but as we move through, all of it will be under the theme of running the race. Now, I had originally intended to make it all the way

through verse 11, but literally this morning as I was putting it together, God sort of slowed me down, and we're going to stop in verse 4, and the title of the specific message this morning is run with endurance. Run with endurance. We start off in chapter 12, verse 1, and it says this,

And so, as we look at this part of running with endurance this morning, there's three things he's going to tell us. Number one, he's going to tell us what we need to lay aside. Number two, he's going to tell us where to fix our eyes, and number three, he's going to tell us to consider Jesus. So we'll start off with the first, what we need to lay aside, and of course he starts off with motivation as the writers of the Bible often do. He says,

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, of course the word therefore links us to what we've been talking about prior to this. Not only directly in chapter 11, but indirectly throughout the entire book of Hebrews, because as he is drawing this letter to a close to these Hebrew believers, ultimately he is wrapping up all of the not only theological truth that he has given them, that Jesus is so much better than all of the other things of the law, all of the other ways that they could be made righteous, but also he is wrapping up the story of Hebrews 11, in which he gave them all of the stories of the great heroes of faith from the past. So he says, Therefore, in light of everything that we have discussed, since we are

surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Now there's a question, what does he mean by this? What does he mean surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses? Some would say that all of the saints in heaven are looking down on us and they're watching us and they're cheering us on. I actually don't think that's a proper handling of the scripture, although I will make a point about this

in just a moment. I don't think that's a proper handling of the scripture. I think when he says we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, he is reminding us of all of the stories that he had told us throughout chapter 11. And ultimately reminding us of all of the great men and women of faith that have gone before us. You see, this is why knowing the

stories is so important for us. This is why knowing the history of the Old Testament, the history of the New Testament, and even more modern day believers in Jesus Christ is so good for us because we are reminded of the great cloud of witnesses that have all gone before us. We are reminded of this great cloud of witnesses who has already lived these things out and ultimately give us inspiration. I would actually encourage you, as you go throughout scripture, to take note of these different stories. Dive into them a little bit.

Don't just breeze past it. It's easy for us when we're reading the Bible, especially if it's a story, to just move right past it. I've read that guy's story before, so I'm just going to move past because I already know what that story is. Who knows that in reading that, God might not point out something completely different to you than you've never noticed before.

The other thing that I think is a wonderful thing for us to do is to read the biographies of believers in Jesus Christ throughout the centuries because it is a great inspiration and encouragement to us to read those different biographies. I would encourage you to read books like Fox's Book of Martyrs that goes through the martyrs of the first and second centuries. To read books like Jesus Freak. It's a great book. I don't remember who the

author is, but it's a more modern day telling of believers in Jesus Christ who have given their life for Christ in the last 150 years. Read some of those because as you do so you're reminded, I'm not the only one facing difficulties in my life. Others overcome through faith and not just people that lived thousands of years ago, but people who have lived in the world that I'm living in right now. I actually would encourage you to go pick up on some of the magazines that we have hanging on the wall out there.

As you came in the front door, on your right hand side there's a bulletin board. And on that bulletin board there's some clipboards hanging up there. And those clipboards have magazines from some organizations that we support. One of them is Far Reaching Ministries and one of them is Voice of the Martyrs. I would highly encourage you, I will put those up there just to see if I can stretch far enough and put them up there, which by the way I can and I always

feel good when I do. That I can stretch far enough to hang those magazines up. I put them out there so that hopefully someone will go, I wonder what that is? And they'll take it down and they'll read some of the stories. Stories of modern day people who are living in persecuted areas of the world and are seeing miraculous things take place. And we can build our faith on stories like that.

Truth like that. And so he says, therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, but can I tell you a little story about what I do think about the saints watching us? I don't think that they're sitting up in heaven watching us right now. I think most of the people sitting up in heaven right now are entirely too consumed with worshiping the Lord than they are with watching what's going on here on earth. But I do think that there's an interesting thought.

I don't know that I can prove this scripturally, although it does seem to be an instance that you could prove it, is that when a believer in Jesus Christ comes home, who knows what kind of celebration he arrives to. Let me tell you two different stories. One, I came across this thing on the internet. Of course you never know if you can believe anything on the internet. As Abraham Lincoln once said, you can't believe everything that you read on the internet.

But thank you for those of you awake enough to get that. But I read this thing and it's a painting of somebody rounding home, or rounding third base to come home. And it was a walk-off home run. And somebody said that this famous artist paints nothing but pictures of walk-off home runs with the team celebrating because it reminds them of the celebration that there will be when we enter heaven. It's kind of an interesting thought.

But I have sort of my own example of this as well. Quite a few years back now, before my back was bad, I liked to run really far distances. I can't run as far as I used to because, quite frankly, it bothers my back too much. But I ran a half marathon one time. As a matter of fact, Pastor Jared and I ran it together. And when I ran this half marathon, it was the first time I'd done a race that big with that many people.

And it was fascinating what took place. I'll reference this several times because it fits into a lot of what we share here this morning. But I remember the last about mile and a half to two miles. And if you don't know how long a half marathon is, it's 13.1 miles. It's a long run. And in the last mile and a half-ish, it's interesting what happens. We were down in Oklahoma City and most of the neighborhoods

you run through, there's occasional people kind of along the sides of the road. Some of them holding very sarcastic signs. Some of them holding very nice signs. There are drink stations and things like that all along the way. But it's amazing what happens in that last mile because that last mile is just filled with all of the people whose loved ones are running the race. And it's amazing.

It was like we rounded this corner and all of a sudden there's all of these people and they all just start cheering for you. Of course, you're wearing headphones because that kind of keeps you motivated while you're running. But even over the headphones that I had, I could hear all of the people cheer. I hadn't met any of these people before in my entire life.

I couldn't have picked out a single face in the crowd. And yet hearing them all cheer for me was one of the greatest encouragements I'd ever had. And it spurred me on to where my last mile was probably equal to one of the earlier miles that I had in time. And I was reminded, this is probably what it's going to be like when we arrive home. We have finished our race and everybody's going to be cheering as we enter the gates of heaven

because you finished. Seeing that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us, first of all, lay aside the encumbrance. Let us lay aside the encumbrance. Now it's interesting because he's going to point out two things. The word encumbrance, some of your translations say the weight. And then he's going to talk about sin. And these are two very different words and they're two very different things.

The first one that we'll look at is this one that's slightly more benign, the encumbrance. The idea behind this word is it is an unnecessary weight. It is an unnecessary weight. Now again, if you're a runner and you like to get out and run long distances, the last thing that you want to do is add anything unnecessary to what you're carrying with you. Let me share for instance.

I love what we've done with technology on this end for now. When I first started being a runner, I had a Walkman. It had a cassette tape in it because that's just how old I am. And so I'd run with this Walkman with some that only lasted about a year because I'm not that old. But then it got to where you could buy this portable CD player that was made for running.

And it had the strap that went over it. But the thing was still that big around and that thick. And so you're carrying a five pound weight in your hand. And you have to kind of switch back and forth because it's kind of heavy. And you have these headphones on that are mildly cumbersome because in this cord that's dangling. Here was the worst thing that used to happen to you when you'd run.

You'd be running at a really good pace and you'd hook your hand on the cord and it would unplug the cord. Or even worse, knock the CD player completely out of your hand. The thing would bounce. Your CD would roll out. Luckily it was made for things like that. You pop your CD back in. You close it. You put it back on your hand. You plug your headphones back in. You're back in business, right?

But as we've gone on, we've gotten fewer and fewer encumbrances. Now what I do is I wear a pair of headphones on my head that fit on there perfectly. They're actually bone conduction. That's where I can hear the things going on around me. And all I have is this watch. I don't carry anything in my hands. Because I want to do away with every weight that I possibly can.

Because every weight that I add to myself makes running that much harder, right? And so I try to do away with all of the weights that I possibly can. And that's the way it's supposed to be in our walk with Jesus Christ. That's supposed to be what it's like when we run with endurance. Number one, you need to get rid of all of the unnecessary weight. Listen, these are the things that aren't necessarily sinful,

but they also are not helpful. They're not necessarily sinful, but they also are not helpful. There are a certain number of things on this side of eternity that are either gray areas, as far as scripture is concerned, like there's liberty that you can have, but you hit a point in your life where you're like, but it's not helpful in my walk with Jesus. It's not a helpful thing for me to do.

I'll give you another for instance. If you talk to athletes, the further they go in their life, the further they go in their sport, the more they start prioritizing things. The more they start prioritizing things like sleep. The more they start prioritizing things like their diet and the things that they eat. So they change some things in their life, not because those things are wrong,

but because those things are not helpful. So if you talk to a really superior athlete and you ask them, hey, let's go stay out all night, they're going to say, that's a bad idea because that's not going to be helpful for me when I have workout at 6 a.m. The not so smart athletes will go ahead and say yes. The ones who prioritize their sport will say no because they realize it's not sinful, but it's also not helpful.

Does this make sense to us? And so what you need to do is you need to seek God. What in my life is not helpful? What is actually encumbering me in my walk with Jesus Christ that the rest of the world says is okay, the Bible maybe doesn't even address specifically, but I know that for me it's an area that creates an entanglement in my life. And so the first thing he says is you need to lay aside the encumbrances that keep you from walking with the Lord.

But the second thing that he says to lay aside is the sin that so easily entangles us. The sin that so easily entangles us. That word entangled is a fascinating word. It means to be wrapped up in. It means to be wrapped up in. Have you ever tried to do something and you're wearing a long robe or a loose clothing that ends up wrapping itself around you? Or worst of all, if your shoes are untied and you get your feet wrapped up in some shoelaces that are untied,

it ultimately ends up tripping you up, right? And so these things entangle us. These things wrap themselves around us. And that's what sin ends up doing in our lives. Is if we become entangled, wrapped up in sin, it begins to eliminate our ability to run with endurance. As a matter of fact, it begins to eliminate our ability to run at all because our legs are wrapped up with all of the sin of the world.

And brothers and sisters, we need to understand that as we walk with Jesus Christ, it has to be in a method of walking away from sin. It has to be in an aspect of walking away from sin. These are things that are not just not helpful. These are things that are deadly in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ because they will render you useless for the kingdom.

And ultimately will damage your walk with Jesus Christ. It's interesting because look at this verse again. He says,

The idea there is that it is deceptive. The idea is that it easily and cleverly entangles us. Have you ever noticed that about sin? Sin is clever in our lives, isn't it? Sin is really clever because it likes to sneak in and act like it's no big deal. I'm not really all that much of a problem in your life. I'm just going to be on the side. This is just something extra that you want in your life.

Listen, am I the best? No. Am I the worst? Probably not. That's what sin does with us. Sin cleverly presents itself to us just like when Eve was presented with the fruit. God's really withholding something really good from you. God knows that in the day you eat of this, you're going to be like Him. And when she saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,

and it was profitable to make one wise, she partook of it. It cleverly presented itself. And that's what we have to know about sin in our life, is that it's going to be very clever in the way it presents itself to us. Because sin is never going to show up and say, I'm the one that's going to take you out today. No, sin shows up and says, I'm really not that big of a deal.

You just let me dwell in your life, and I promise I'll only take a little bit. I won't take the whole thing. But what we don't realize is the thing that we think is not going to be a big deal ends up becoming that which takes us out. He says, lay aside the weight and the sin, which so easily and cleverly entangles us. Well, you know me. I don't like to read something like that and then not ask myself the question, how?

How do you get to the place where you lay these things aside? Well, I wrote down two things. The first thing that you have to do if you're going to lay aside the encumbrances and the sin in your life is you have to identify them. You have to identify what sin do I have in my life? And listen, sometimes this is going to involve other people. You have to be able to be willing to listen to what other people have to say.

And when other people say, listen, this is what I see, and that really is sin, usually we've justified it because sin is clever, and we need to be told that it's sin, right? And sometimes we have encumbrances in our lives. Sometimes things are weighing us down until somebody else says, listen, I'm not saying you have to do this. What I'm saying is that doesn't seem to be helping you in your walk with Jesus Christ.

We have to be willing to identify that in our lives. And listen, what it involves is you have to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. That means that sensitivity has to be created in your life to where you are sensitive to what the Holy Spirit has to say. Do you know why we're not always sensitive to what the Holy Spirit has to say? Because we can't hear Him.

We can't always hear what the Holy Spirit has to say. You know why? For two reasons. Number one, because we've already decided what He's going to say. Number two, because there's too many other voices talking in our ears. And that's all that there is to it. We have too many other things playing the Holy Spirit in our life. And it's usually all of the things of the world, and most of them are probably on your phone.

And they're all playing the Holy Spirit in your life. Therefore, you can't hear what the Spirit has to say because there's too many other voices. We went out to eat at this restaurant last night. And listen, I'm an incredibly auditory human being. I think it's because I was raised by a blind man, so we listen to things all the time. Maybe it's just the way God made me, but I take a lot in through my ear gates.

And that's both good because I can listen to something and retain, I'm going to say, 75% of it. But it's also bad because when I go to places where there's lots of noise, my brain, like if this is the meter of happy to distracted, my brain immediately goes, right, and the thing just goes off the meter. And I'm like, right. So we go in this restaurant last night, and it was great.

The food was amazing. But we got in there, and there's like 3,000 people screaming. There were probably like seven. But in my mind, there were like 3,000 people screaming. And this is what I do. And listen, if I ever have a conversation with you, and I don't appear fully focused, it's not on purpose. I love you with all of my heart. You just have to go, right here, Ryan, right here, focus, okay,

because my ears have heard something else. And I'm like, right. And so we're in this restaurant last night, and all these people are talking. There's like 12 kids screaming, and all these things are going on. And I'm just like, wow, I'm in overload. And someone's having a conversation with me, and I'm like, I have no idea what's being said right now. And I'm just like, oh.

And that's the way it is sometimes in the world we live in today, right, is there are all these voices screaming in our ears.

going to stay in this situation. It's like, oh really? Yeah, yeah, I sure do. Well, maybe we just give him a moment to speak. Maybe we just let him talk for himself. And as we take that in, we're sensitive to what he has to say. It's amazing how, how God will start to move in our lives. But then once we have identified, number two, you have to take action. You have to take action. You have to decide that what

the Holy Spirit has ministered to you, you're actually going to do in your life. Because oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes, until you deal with that, the Holy Spirit can't tell you anything else. Until you deal with that one thing, the Holy Spirit can't keep speaking to you because you haven't dealt with that one issue in your life. Because that one issue might be the linchpin that leads to everything else being dealt with in your life.

And so the first thing he says is, number one, you have to lay aside. Number two, he tells us where to fix our eyes. In the verse one, he says, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. So the next thing he tells us that we need to do

is we need to run our race. We need to run our race with endurance. The word race there is very interesting, again, in the Greek because it indicates that each of us has our own race that we run. And listen, this is really important because everybody's race looks a little bit different. We don't all have the same race. There are some things that are the same.

We're all in the race of faith, but you have something that you're running in your life that I'm not running in mine. And it's true for all of us. We all have our own race that we run. Let me give you another example. When I signed up for this half marathon, you had to write down your time, like how fast are you going to run this thing in? Well, my goal was two hours. And when

you show up, there's thousands of people there. And so you're like, well, where do you go? And you find the guy holding the sign that says two hours because that's your race. There was some college kid that ran it in like an hour and 20 minutes or 15 minutes, or it was something stupid. I might be making that time. It was incredibly fast. And I'm like, never in a million years is

that my race. If I tried to make that my race, I would be dead in the first mile, right? Like if I'm trying to keep up with Johnny Speedy Pants, right? Like I can't keep up with him because that's not my race. I'm not built that way. My race is the two hour race. And you know what? I finished in just under two hours because I ran my race. I ran the race that was set before me.

And that's what we have to learn in our walk with Jesus Christ. Listen, do you know what the worst thing we can do is start comparing our walk to somebody else's. Well, mine's going to be just like his. No, it's not. It's going to look very different because God works in each of us very individually. And in the prepackaged world that we live in, that's the hardest thing to understand

is that God deals with us each individually. I always love when the newest book comes out, right? And it shows up all over social media, like 10 quick steps to fill in the blank here. And I'm like, man, I bet for like seven people that'll work. And the guy that wrote the book is one of them. But for the most part, we have to remember there are principles in scripture,

but he deals with us all very individually. And in a world that wants to prepackage, copy, and market everything, we have to remember that. It won't always make a neat, tidy book that goes out in the Christian bookstore. But you know what? That's not what God's goal is. God's goal is not to sell books. God's goal is not to sell Bible studies. His goal is to make disciples.

And as he does so, it's very individual in all of our lives. And so if I will focus on my race and support other people in theirs, number one, I'm not going to live discouraged. I'm not going to live discouraged going, well, well, why does his race look so much better than mine? Well, well, why, why does he get to do all of this and I have to do all of this? I don't

understand. I get discouraged. Well, well, because we run two different races and I don't know what he goes through on a daily basis. So number one, it keeps me from being discouraged. But number two, it helps me to support other people. Well, I don't understand why they're doing what they're doing. That doesn't make sense to me. That's not what I do. Well, that's okay because it's a different race

and you can still support them as long as it lines up with scripture in their race. And so he says, run the race. But then he gives us a really great way to run the race. He says, run it with endurance. Endurance. That word endurance means patience. But the idea behind the word patience there is to remain under, to remain under. In other words, you have to keep running the race.

The idea is this, the race that we run in life is not a sprint. The race that we run in life is a marathon. It won't be done quickly. It's something that we will remain in. It's something that we have to remain under. And that endurance, as we've talked about before, is what's necessary in our lives. That endurance is what's necessary for us to keep going because this is a distance.

And part of understanding endurance means changing our mindset and knowing that it's an endurance race, right? If you know how far you have to go, that's what you plan for, right? You ever been in this situation? Perhaps when you're driving somewhere on vacation, especially with your kids, if you tell your kids, kids, we're going to be in the car for two hours today, and then it gets to four hours, what have they done from hours one and one half to hour four?

Are we there yet? Right? But if you get in the car and say, kids, we're driving for 10 hours today, then you at least make it to hour four and one half before they start saying, are we there yet? What? Because they're prepared for it. They know that this is what it is. I have to do this with myself because at the end of the day, I'm a small child, okay? I have to go

10 hours. That's what we're going today. I can't start asking if we're almost there yet until we reach nine and one half hours, and then I can start getting excited that we're almost there. I have to do this with myself. Well, I won't share that with you. It'll get me in trouble later. But we have to run with endurance, and so if you go into life knowing it's not going to be easy,

God's going to be good, and I've got a long road ahead of me, then it's easier to endure than if you think, I'm just going to hurry up and get through this today, and then everything's going to be good, and life's going to be perfect. Because by the end of the day, you're going to be like, I'm not done. Everything's not good. Life isn't perfect. Go into it anticipating the race that

it's going to be. But then he gives us the key to running with endurance. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Some of your translations may say, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, and the idea is this. In the Greek, the idea behind that word fixing our eyes or looking unto means that you have to take your eyes off of everything else and put them only on Jesus. Put them only on Jesus.

You may notice that there's, maybe you've never noticed this before, that's a dove hanging behind me. Did you know that? That's what that figure is, a dove. The reason we have the dove is because it's a symbol of the Holy Spirit, right? But you know what's fascinating about a dove? A dove can only look at one thing at a time. They can't look at multiple things at a time. They can only focus

on one thing at a time. And as a matter of fact, some of you may have shot them yesterday because they were looking at the wrong thing. They can only look at one thing at a time, right? And that's the way we're supposed to be, is we have to be 100% focused on one thing. And the one thing that we have to be 100% focused on is Jesus. As I've shared before, the problem that

most of us have is what? Multitasking. We think we should be able to do 17 things at one time. And A, that creates exhaustion. And B, it creates distraction. And in our walk with Jesus Christ, we want to be focused on some of the things of the world because those give me a little bit of temporary pleasure. And Jesus, because he gives me eternal hope, and Jesus says,

you're going to have to choose one or the other because you're like a dove. You can only focus on one thing at a time. I'm this way. My wife, I struggle with something when I drive. Perhaps some of you other men struggle with this too. I stare off into space. Do you ever look off to the side? You're looking for wildlife. Like, oh, I bet there's deer back there. And like, you start

looking for deer. And here, I see that from the wives. Okay. So this is y'all bearing witness with me. And you start to kind of look off to the side. And maybe you're like me. Wherever you're looking, that's where the steering wheel goes. And every now and then, my wife has to go, pay attention. And I'm like, I am paying attention. What are you talking about?

Come on, man. I'm focused on the road. She's like, no, you're not. You're looking for deer. Like, all right. You're probably right. And that's the way we contend to be. Like, I struggle with that focus. And so I start to drift. And that's when I need that reminder of the Holy Spirit, i.e. my wife, nudging me and saying, get your eyes back on Jesus. Right? One of the greatest

stories of this is Peter. Peter, when he was walking on the water, Jesus, you know, the disciples get into a boat. And Jesus says, go to the other side. And they didn't hear the other side part. They just heard go. So they get in the boat. And a storm comes up. And the storm has them totally freaked out. Jesus is praying a good ways away from them. It's the middle of the night.

Jesus, it says, comes walking to them on the water. Lots of questions. I don't have time to get into all of them right now. He comes walking to them on the water. And they think it's a ghost because that makes more sense than Jesus walking to them on the water. And Jesus says, no, no, it's me. It's Jesus. And Peter, of course, being the man that he is, says, if it's you,

command me to come out to you on the water. And Jesus says, Peter, come on out. The water's great. So Peter steps out of the boat. He starts walking on the water. And I just know he had to be like, this is the coolest, right? But he's focused on Jesus the whole time. He's looking at Jesus. And everything's great. He's walking on water, which, by the way, is impossible,

no matter how calm the seas are, right? I don't know if you've ever tried to walk on water. I've tried it three times. Never worked. I don't care how good and calm everything is, placid the lake is, you can't walk on water. But he took his eyes off Jesus. And he started looking at all the wind and the waves around him. And Peter began to sink into the water. Why? Because he was no longer fixing his eyes on Jesus.

And he starts to sink. Now, praise God. He prays one of the shortest prayers in the Bible, says, Lord, help. Jesus reaches down, pulls him up out of the water and says, oh, you of little faith, right? And he takes him to the boat. He puts him in there. But that's the perfect example. Listen, living the life that we live, living as a believer in Jesus Christ is impossible, no matter how good the situation is. It is fully dependent on Jesus,

no matter how good everything else is going. And yet sometimes when things start going rough, what do we do? We take our eyes off Jesus and start looking at the wind and the waves around us. And what happens in that moment? We start to sink and we stop running the race with endurance and we start sinking in the mire of discouragement. Luckily, Jesus is there for us to cry out,

Lord, help. He pulls us back up. We get our eyes focused back on Jesus and we keep walking. He says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. And then he describes Jesus two ways. He calls him the author of our faith. And he calls him the perfecter of our faith. It's interesting, those two words that are used there because the idea is that Jesus is not only the beginning of our faith, he's the originator

of our faith. After all, he's the one that brought us to faith. It's his work that gives us the faith. He's that originator, but he's also the perfecter of our faith. That word perfect means to complete. In other words, he completes the work in us. One of the great verses in scripture that's always kept my eyes focused on Jesus is that of Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. It says,

we are confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. And so we can know that Jesus who started the work in us is the Jesus who finishes the work in us. And so we have this author and the perfecter of our faith. So he says, run with endurance the race set before you, keeping your eyes fixed on the author and the perfecter of our faith, none other than Jesus Christ himself. But again, I ask a question. How do you

keep your eyes fixed on Jesus? I don't have like a statue to look at, nor should I have a statue to look at. That would become idolatry. How do I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus? Well, again, I wrote down three things and they're not going to be earth shattering things, but they're three really good reminders. Number one, if you're going to keep your eyes focused on Jesus, I'd keep your eyes

focused in the word that he gave us. I'd be in the word and I'd be in the word as much as I possibly could. I would get into God's word every single day if I wanted to keep my eyes focused on Jesus. Why? Because this is oftentimes the nudge that the Holy Spirit gives me to tell me, you just got distracted. Get your eyes back where they need to be. You're staring off at the deer

over on the side. It's time to get your eyes focused back on where they need to be. And so as we get into the word, it resets our focus. It resets the look that we have and who we're looking at. But no, don't just be in the word. Memorize the word. Because I don't know about you, but I can't always carry a Bible with me. And if I can, I can't always be like, hold on, let me look this

up. I guess we all have our phones with us, but I can't always be like, well, let me just look this up real quick. It's amazing how in the moment I need some, I need some recall from what God's word has to say. And so I need to memorize God's word. You know what memorizing God's word does for you? Memorizing God's word gives you a storehouse of knowledge. It gives you a bank of knowledge to

work off of. And it's amazing how as you memorize God's word, it begins to wash the way that you think. It begins to wash away some of the other influences from your life and it starts to give you a whole new process of thinking so that your immediate reaction is not the flesh, which is what it always was. Your immediate reaction is the recall of the Holy Spirit bringing back all of that truth that you have stored in the database of your mind. It resets your algorithm, if you will.

Right? And so, number one, we need to be in the word. Number two, we need to memorize the word. But, but number three, I want you to pay really close attention to this. You need to believe the word. You need to believe what God's word has to say. And believing God's word means that you're going to claim this as your own now. And listen, that's not always the easiest thing in the world

to do because in the, in the hardest times, whether it be a temptation towards sin or temptation toward discouragement or anxiety or depression or whatever it is, when you get your eyes off Jesus, you got to get back to believing what his word has to say. And, and there is something strong about that faith. The Lord saying, saying, Lord, I choose to believe this today. I choose to believe this in my life today. And it's amazing how once you start doing that, God's word becomes so much

more powerful to you. It doesn't just become the words that are written on a page. It becomes the life source that you need. And it resets the way that you view life. And it resets the way that you view God. And it resets the way that you handle difficulties in your life. Because that's faith. Faith is the substance of things that are hoped for. It's the evidence of things not yet seen.

And so, he tells us the first thing that you need to do is you need to lay aside. You need to lay aside the encumbrances. You need to lay aside the sin. All of the things that are keeping you from running with endurance. And then you need to run with endurance by fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. But then he says, and consider Jesus. Notice what it says

middle of verse two. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. He tells us to consider him.

That word considers an interesting word. It means to think or to ponder. To think or to ponder. And I have a question for you. Do you have time in your life to think or to ponder on anything? Do you have time to stop and think? If you don't, then can I just tell you your life is probably too busy or you're just too distracted? I referenced this just a little

bit earlier, but it's amazing how just stopping, cutting off all the noise around you for a little while, and just thinking is really kind of a game changer for us. I hope that you have a Sabbath day in your life. I don't care what day of the week it is, but I hope you have a Sabbath day in your life. A day where you say, you know what, I'm just taking it easy today. Listen, completely counter to the

culture that we live in today. The world that we live in today says you've got to do as much as you possibly can. And listen, I agree. We should work hard. I want to wear my life out for the gospel to where when I go home to be with Jesus, I know I have put as much energy into that as humanly possible because that's what I want my life to be made up of, right?

But I also know you can't give out what you've not first received. You cannot give out to others what you have not first received for yourself. And a Sabbath day is actually one of the most biblical things that we can do. Do you realize that when God created the heavens and the earth, he ceased his work on the Sabbath day, and he took one day of rest. Now that wasn't because God was

like, I am worn out from all of this creating stuff. No, God spoke it all into existence, right? I don't think he was worn out from it. I think he was setting a precedent for humanity. And the precedent that he was setting for humanity is you need to take a day of rest. You need to take a day where you just rest a little bit. Back in the spring, we had our FCA Fall Conference. And one of everyone's favorite breakout sessions

and on Saturday afternoon is a Q&A session. And I got to be one of the guys on the panel for the Q&A. And the question, I'm going to get the wording off, but you'll get the general idea. The question was in general, like, how do you find the balance of school, sports, and Jesus? And I was like, that's a great question. And so I fielded that question. I said,

okay, I want to answer this one right here. I read the question. I said, I want to, first of all, ask all of you, and these are all, it's the Q&A time. So I'm going to say you've got kids from about the age of 15 to 19 in there because some of the college huddle leaders came and sat in on it too. You've got kids 15 to 19. So I'm just going to first of all ask all of you a question.

How many of you are just exhausted from a nonstop schedule in your life? Every kid in that room raised their hand. You know why? Because we have convinced this generation that the best thing you can be is exhausted because that means you're doing the most, that means you're the most successful. And I just think that's so counter to what the Word of God has to say.

Because if the Creator of the heavens and the earth said you should take one day off, you should take one day off, and listen, I'm preaching to the choir right now because I need to hear this too, because I'm not always good at it. But I looked at all of those kids and I said, here's what you need to do. Obviously be respectful to your parents because you've got to be respectful to your parents on things. But ask them, can we just take one day, one day a week where we don't have anything else to do?

Maybe it's just one evening a week that there's nothing going on and we can just hang out around the house. Listen, we need that in our lives. Because if we are to consider, if we are to think and to ponder on who Jesus is, you have to give yourself that kind of time. You have to give yourself that freedom to do that. And it's amazing how when you take that time, all of your vision gets reset.

And so he says, consider Jesus. And then he tells us a handful of things about Jesus. Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Jesus knew what he was facing with the cross, and he knew that it was the most shameful way that a person could die at that point in time. And he knew what he was facing, and yet he endured the cross and the shame, why?

For the joy that was set before him. What was the joy that was set before him? Hold up a mirror. You. You're the joy that was set before him. Have you ever considered that? Like, not only are you created in the image of God, which gives you incredible worth in the eyes of God, but he also loved you enough to die for you. You're the reason he did it. That's why all of heaven celebrates when somebody comes to faith in Jesus Christ.

All of the angels in heaven, they go crazy because Jesus is like, yes, that's one of my people. That's one of the ones I did this for. And I am so overjoyed that they have finally picked up the truth. And he knew for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. And then notice what it says, and then sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Why? Because his work was finished. Sat down at the right hand of the Father. Consider him who has endured hostility by sinners against himself. Jesus endured hostility from sinners. And listen, that hostility began almost literally from the day he was born. Do you remember one of the first things that happened? Like the wise men show up in Jerusalem. We think it was probably within the first couple of years of Jesus' life, not day one.

But within those first couple of years, what happens? The wise men show up. And they go, they show up in Jerusalem, and they ask Herod, the king, they're like, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? And Herod goes, I'm the king of the Jews. What do you mean, where's the one born king of the Jews? So he calls it all the, well, it's going to be in Bethlehem.

And he says, Bethlehem, when you find him, come back and tell me, because I would like to worship too, right? And so the Holy Spirit warns him in a dream, hey, don't go back. He's actually a really bad guy. And so the hostility began in the first two years of Jesus' life when Herod tried to send people to have him killed at the age of two. And then as Jesus lived his life, like almost from the word go, he was challenged with everything

once he started his earthly ministry, and everybody was hostile towards him. They hated him because he stood against everything that they had held true as far as their religion was concerned, or as far as their sin was concerned. And then that hostility poured out into being beaten, into being crushed, into being crucified. He says, consider Jesus, who endured such great hostility from sinners.

Why does he tell them this? Because remember, they're about to face hostility from sinners. They're in the process of facing persecution from unbelievers. They're in the process of facing difficulty, and so he says, consider Jesus who faced an incredible amount of hostility. Why? So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Do you know what we tend to do in the moment when life is hard? Why me, Lord? Why? Why, why am I the only one who's going through hard times right now, right? That's what we tend to do. Lord, everybody else has it so easy, but not me. My race is hard, and Jesus is like, let's talk hard races, okay? I've been there. I know what you're going through. I know the difficulty of what you're facing.

My favorite groups of athletes to go talk to are wrestlers, because when I show up and talk to wrestlers, I'm like, I know your world. I know the world you live in. I know what it's like to try to make weight. I know what it's like to be the only guy out on the mat, and your day rises and sets with how well you do on that mat, because you don't have anyone else to blame, and you don't have anyone else that can take the credit.

I know what it's like to live in your world, and I understand you. And it's like, all of a sudden, I have this special bond now with wrestlers, because they're like, this guy gets it. You know, I share my cutting weight stories or my injury stories, and they're like, okay, this guy understands what I'm going through right now. And that's what Jesus is for us.

Jesus can say, I know what it's like to endure hostility. I know what it's like to have hard times. I know what difficulty is like. So consider Jesus, who's been through all of the things that you've been through, so that you don't grow weary in well-doing, so that you don't grow weary and lose heart. After all, verse 4, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving

against sin. That's a hard verse to end with, isn't it? You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your battle against sin. In other words, as you've battled sin, you haven't battled it like Jesus did. Because after all, Jesus' blood was shed to win the battle against sin. He tells them, run the race with endurance, because the race that is set before us can

only be won as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen. Well, this morning is Communion Sunday, so I'd like to invite the worship team to come on up. And before we partake in communion, I'd always like to take just a few minutes to explain what communion is and kind of how we do things here. In just a moment, the ushers will come in, and they will begin to hand out the elements.

So in each of these trays, there are two cups stacked together. The top cup has the juice in it, and the bottom cup has the cracker in it. Again, I share that so that you know what's going on. But what I really want to share is about spiritually what goes on. In and of themselves, those two elements are very basic. They don't really do too much for us. But what they represent is incredibly powerful, because what they represent is the fact that

Jesus shed his blood to win the battle against sin. We're reminded that on that great night of the feast, Jesus took the bread, and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat. And I always, I love to point this out. I know you've heard me share it before, but I love to point this out, that the bread that

And the way that it was baked, it would have these stripes on it. So the, so the bread was also striped. So, so imagine if you will, Jesus holds up this bread that is sinless. It is striped. And it is pierced. And Jesus takes it and breaks it and says, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat. And we are reminded that Jesus for us was sinless, and he was pierced, and he was striped.

And all it takes is you asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins, to make you brand new, and in that moment, you'll become born again, and now you're a part of the family. But the last thing that I'll tell you is that we're told to partake in a worthy manner to make sure that there's nothing between us and Jesus, nothing between us and someone else. And so we ask God to search our hearts to see if there's anything that needs confessed between us and the Lord. And so, as we sing this last song, I would just ask that you would get your heart right

How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed My chains are gone, I've been set free My God, my Savior, has ransomed me And like a flood, His mercy rains Unending love, amazing grace The Lord has promised good to me His Word my hope secures He willed my shield, then forced the knee I fall as life endures My chains are gone, I've been set free My God, my Savior, has ransomed me And like a flood, His mercy rains Unending love, amazing grace The earth shall soon dissolve like stone As the sun forbears to shine But God who called me here below Will be forever mine Will be forever mine You are forever mine You are forever mine

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the body of Jesus Christ that was broken for us. Lord, broken for our sins. Lord, wounded for our transgressions. Bruised for our inequities. And by His stripes, we are healed. And so, Lord, I thank you for the body of Jesus that was broken for us. Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us.

Lord, the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. And so, Lord, as we partake this morning, I pray that we would ever keep in mind Lord, the greatness of the sacrifice that you have made for us. Knowing that that, Lord, is what gives us our communion with you and our communion with each other. And so, we thank you and we praise you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's partake.

And if you would bow with me one last time. Father, I pray that as we go out from here, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would go with us. Lord, continuing to lead us and guide us, and God, give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to perceive the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives. Father, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen.