Inferior Objects of Faith

Appreciate the orchestra and their hard work, too. Before I forget, Zach asked. And I love the idea that it's Ripon, right? That's where the festival is. The Almond Blossom Festival is in Ripon in February. And I think we're going to aim for having a booth there. So if you'd like to be a part of that outreach and go be at the booth, talk to Zach, I imagine. I don't know if Jay will be able to take part in that, but they always have good materials out there. They always have. Usually it's done sort of way of the master style. It will be questions and engagement and things like that. So I wouldn't tell you it'll be easy. But like anything that's worth doing, there's a little discomfort because you have to talk to, you know, humans. But I will tell you that the guys have well prepared material, really good ways of engaging people. And I don't know, I feel like it's a really good, safe environment in the sense that you are in a place that is supposed to be a public place. It's supposed to be people talking to each other. So it's a neat opportunity if you'll take it. So please talk to those two gents. They're both back there, Zach and Jay. I don't know who's planning, but we will take care of that for sure. So, yeah, February 19th through the 22nd. I don't know which days they're planning on being out there, but that is the time. So you might say, well, I might be busy that weekend. And I'll say, well, you have enough time now to cancel what you were going to do and go do the outreach. So, yeah, you're welcome for the fair warning. So thank you guys for wanting to do that back there.

Now, please, if you would turn in your Bible to Hebrews, chapter 12, where I have to first confess to you that I fibbed last time two sermons ago when I said that I had only slowed down for small portions once. And I had forgotten that I had done just three verses in this sermon. So forgive me, I said that I'd only done it once. I, in my head had this sermon and the next one as one sermon. So I had already prepared them weeks in advance. So I forgot. I'm sorry. I don't want to lie to you, but I am slowing down on this one too. Kind of for the same reason as that one now that I, when I remembered preparing it, why I did it. When you engage in these chapters after chapter 10, pretty much, well, chapter eight starts the high priestliness of Jesus and his superiority over everything. And nine really emphasizes that by his blood and the sacrifice. And chapter 10 gets into the sort of strong warnings not to neglect the superior, not to neglect giving attention to Christ. If you haven't figured it out, the main character of the book of Hebrews is Jesus Christ. He's the main character. And I don't mean that in a general sense like Jesus is the main character of Christianity in general. That's not what I mean. I literally mean the point of the Book of Hebrews is that the Hebrew believers, the Jewish believers in the first century, needed to be warned to put Jesus first and anything else second, which is essentially the main point of today's sermon.

And the reason they need to be told that is because like all humans, humans, I don't know if you know this, but they have a habit of making minor things into major things, majoring in the minors, as it were. But you can also major in false majors, right? So sometimes people get caught in the minutiae of a thing, a detail of a thing, and they miss the forest for the trees. Right? But also, sometimes people just have the wrong trees. They worship things that might, from their perspective, be the real thing, but they're doing it wrongly. Think of the golden calf in Israel in the Old Testament, they thought they were worshiping, or at least were told and went along with it, that they were worshiping Yahweh, that now nobody was telling them to worship Satan or Balaam or any other thing. They believed they were worshiping Yahweh, but they were wrong. So it is possible to think as you move along through life that you are on the right track, doing things that God would approve of, things that God thinks are good and you might not be. But there are also people that think fast food is healthy and they love it. And I eat McDonald's every day. Of course I'm fine. I'm so satisfied every time I eat it. And then of course, you're looking at them saying, well, that extra £80 is probably not good for you. And they would say, no, I feel fine. Or then the next thing you know, when their doctor is telling them they're not healthy, they're arguing with it. So it is very possible to have things in your life that you might label good and those things might be things that are actually not good and hindering your faith. It's very possible. We are human beings. We love. John Calvin used to say that human beings are a factory of idols. If we don't have something to worship. We will make something to worship that isn't God. That's just. It's our nature.

Now let me tell you why, by the way, the reason it's that way is because you were designed and created to worship. That's why. The reason we are idle factories is because we are actually worship machines. It's just that in sin we choose alternatives to God to worship. That's the problem is that we make things that are not him to worship, right? So this is our problem and is idolatry. We can do anything. We can. We can put anything on the pedestal of satisfaction, happiness, purpose, even call it good by saying that God calls it good. Things, like, you've heard these kind of things, right? Like you'll hear people talk about raising children, like that's what it's all about. Have you ever heard anybody say that about Christmas? Christmas is all about the kids, right? You hear those kind of things or you hear things like, in our day, if you want to go more serious on the subject of homosexuality, for example, like, isn't all that matters is that people find happiness and companionship? Isn't that all that matters? And we don't realize that companionship is a thing God invented. But companionship in a sinful way is idolatrous, right? These are just things that we are capable of doing so in our text today. And then the following passage in Hebrews 12, I can't state it more strongly that whatever you might think, you need either instead of Jesus, sin in addition to Jesus, what we'll call weight today, you are actually taking away from Jesus when you do that. So you can never add to Jesus without losing Jesus. Got it? So this text is about that. And these people that we just heard about in chapter 11, we're going to get into that in a moment. They were all looking forward to something. And that something ultimately we've heard for 10 and now 11 chapters. That thing that they were looking forward to, that thing that God would say, this is the focus is. Is Jesus Christ. He is the focus. Him being exalted, what he did for you, not what you can do for yourself in the Old Testament system or any other thing. So now today, the author is going to tell us. All those saints that we just heard about all looked forward to a city. They all looked forward to the promises of God being fulfilled. They all looked forward to something. And that's something we understand as New Testament Christians. Looking back, was the promise of God to have a redeemed people to worship him forever. And ever in eternity in his direct presence, not going through a veil, not going into a sanctuary that's on earth, but now the heavenly sanctuary, not going in the name of my works or my righteousness or Moses or Abraham or any other thing, not even the blood of bulls and goats. Those are not the things that get me into the throne room. Only Jesus Christ gets me into the throne room. So that has essentially been the whole book up to this point. Jesus only don't pick alternatives. And, and as good as God's system was in the Old Testament, it was all pointing forward to Jesus. And now the author is getting very serious about that saying. Even the Old Testament saints looked forward to the promises of God. Even Christ is mentioned there in chapter 11, the suffering with Christ is mentioned there. And now the author is essentially going to turn this corner, especially in chapter 12, chapter 12, almost the whole chapter is you have to do this or else we already said earlier in chapter 10, you need to be obedient and to gather and to serve the body of Christ, to love one another and do those things that are in chapter 10. And now he says even the Old Testament saints understood that. And now he's saying strongly move forward like they did. Don't get stuck in the here and now. Don't make things here and now your best good. Don't make life on earth your present happiness, your present blessing, don't make those the most important thing to you, your satisfaction on earth. Move forward. And if anything is keeping you from moving forward toward Christ, what Paul would have said, the pressing upward to the upward call, pressing forward upward to the call of Christ, like moving in that direction, moving toward Christ, moving toward glory, moving toward heaven. If anything is keeping you from that, whatever it is, even if it's a thing that's good, throw it away. Throw away anything that keeps you from moving toward Christ.

And I might say it later, I think I have a note to myself to say it, that I don't mean what sometimes I think and people are actually asking me the question, the way you sound, Johnny, you make it sound like everybody should be a pastor. Well, first of all, that would exclude half of you because you're female. Right? But that is not what I mean. I don't mean everybody should be a pastor or everybody should be a full time missionary. What I do mean though is you live on planet earth and you have a limited time to bring glory and honor to Christ and we're supposed to be making disciples. And I'll ask that question in a bit that how Will you know if that is where your energy is being spent? How would you know? And I actually do think that's an easy question to answer. I don't think that's a hard question to answer. I think once we get there and we see what it looks like in the text, we'll be able to ask the question, how are we doing? What is my if somebody were observing my life, mainly the Lord, but if anybody was observing my life, would they be able to tell by watching me and my behavior, my life, my actions, my investments, my time, my family? Would they look at me and say Christ is central in my life? Would they look at me and see that Christ might be playing a secondary role in my life? Those are pretty easy things to answer, and we'll get to that as we unpack the text.

Let's pray. Father, it is very possible and even likely that people think they're doing right and are not. I think in fact that's probably true of everyone, even in sin, that we usually think we're right. But in this passage, and especially coming off the heels of what you just said in your Word about all those heroes of the faith and how they moved by faith and did the thing you called them to do, it's really easy for us to just be moving and thinking we're doing what you called us to do. And this text will really challenge us. And I would ask Father that not only if we're challenged that we would accept the challenge, but even more than that, we would joyfully see the promise of what it looks like to follow you with our whole lives that's in our work, in our families, school, whatever you call us to do, that we can do it in a way that put you first. So would you help us see that even more clearly from this text? And then Father, I think it's also probably smart as I pray and the church is praying with me that we pray. If there are areas where we need to adjust, where we might need to reprioritize, we might need to put our energies in different places. Would you help us do that? Be merciful to us if we are convicted by the Spirit this morning to find out that we haven't been doing what we are supposed to in the Lord. So would you please help us? We ask in Jesus name and amen.

I'm going to say something really dumb in a second, but it's not dumb, so hang in there. I already know when I typed it. Well, that's a dumb sentence you just typed, so we'll get There in a second, I'm going to break these verses down phrase by phrase instead of just reading through them like normal. But first, just rewind a bit to chapter 11, verse 39. This was the. I started with these verses in the last sermon so that you could see. And I hope I did that effectively. That when we go through the list of the heroes of the faith, the people that are listed there in chronological order in Genesis order, each one of those people mentioned are said now and described by verse 39 and 40. Even before that, before the author lists those people, he says, the elders by faith obtained a good testimony. Right? So the whole point is faith is looking toward the Lord. We talked about that in the first verses of chapter 11. Faith is trusting God at His word. It's implicit trust. Faith is taking God at His word and leaning on his word. And it's knowing that even though you can't see things, you can believe God. It's something you can put your hope in. So faith is this idea that God spoke. That means it's true, and I believe it. That's essentially what faith looks like. I'm going to follow God's word and do what he says and trust what he says. And then he lists those people, the elders, who obtained a good testimony.

All those people listed in the verses one by one in Hebrews chapter 11. And then he bookends that. He punctuates the end of that. So he starts by saying, the elders obtained a good testimony. These elders. I'm sorry, I'm going backwards. Well, that's Hebrew. So I'll do it this direction for you, like Hebrew, from right to left for you. So the elders obtained a good testimony. Here is them in their testimony. And then he ends saying, they did obtain something, but they did not see the fulfillment of the promise. Verse 39. And all these having obtained a good testimony, God approved of them. God saw their faith and approved of them through faith, did not receive the promise of God having provided something better. For who? Who did he provide something better for? Now, us is not us. Us is the Hebrews, right? The author of Hebrews and the Hebrews in our context. But we can say that we have the same thing the Hebrews do. So we can include ourselves in that. Us, that's okay. But it does say something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Just a reminder that what that means is there aren't two ways to become perfect. They looked forward to the thing that made them perfect. The author of Hebrews said and in our present day, we got the thing that makes us perfect. Now we modern Christians, 2000 years later look back and say, that thing makes us perfect. It's all the same thing. Jesus, his sacrifice, right? The gospel.

So with that idea that they obtained a good testimony, but they did not receive it, now we get to chapter 12, verse 1, with a very important word, therefore, connecting us to that those people. He says, therefore we also. So now we get to be we Christians who follow and do what the author tells us to do. And we lay aside the weights and the things he's about to tell us to do. And, and don't, don't ignore the sacrifice of Christ. Don't ignore the gathering. All the warnings that have been given to us up to this point. Oh, I could even go back to the warnings that we should be growing and not being stunted in our growth, becoming teachers back in the earlier chapters, right? All these warnings that he's given us. We also like those who obtained a good testimony. That's what he's saying here, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. And then he gives the imperative to let it lay aside every weight and sickness. So, but first, before we move forward, that therefore is we Christians, first the Hebrews, now us by application, we Hebrews and we modern Christians, like those who obtained a good testimony, want to move by faith.

We have witnesses who were the witnesses? They were just listed, right? There are. Those are our witnesses. They obtained a good what? Testimony. Witness. That's the word. It's the same word. Okay, so they obtained a good testimony by faith. And now we're surrounded by them. Okay, we're like them. We are involved in the same thing. I love the idea of cloud of witnesses. In a little while we'll get to the angels and those in heaven. And I always appreciated my professor, I'll say it again. I'll say this probably 10 times that the idea that we on Sunday mornings when we gather together in the name of Christ on the first day of the week, because that's the day in scripture we gather with all the angels in heaven and the saints that went before us, so we're all worshiping together the Lord. I love the idea of that. I think that's probably true. But in this case, we do know that those witnesses are before Christ, that right now they're in Christ's presence. Those people mentioned in this text, they're all there. And those we love that went before us are there before him. Now. Who do you think is having the better church Service, right? They're having a really good church service in his presence. But those are our witnesses and we are like them. We are supposed to be doing something like they did. What do we see in their testimony? What did we see in and their life? They believed God and then they acted on that belief, doing the thing that God called them to do. They didn't just have a general belief of overall feeling that they were Christian. God called each one of them to do a thing by faith. They acted right. So remember James talks about faith without works being dead. They didn't just have a mere saving faith. That idea of isn't all that matters, that they're saved. No, you're to bring glory to God. And they did that by their actions.

Then he says, this is the command in the second half of the verse because we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses because we want what they have, which is they got to see the promise. They didn't get it in their lifetime, but they got to see it by faith. And now because we saw their testimony giving God, giving them approval through their faith and their testimony bearing witness that they believed Him. Let us now this is our command, verse one, the second half. Let us lay aside every weight and sin which. Which so easily ensnares us. Now, my notes, if you have your outline in front of you, say that sin is inferior to Jesus. That's the thing I wrote when I typed it. I said, this is what a dumb sentence that is. I typed it and I had the backspace key like I was ready. Sin is inferior to Jesus. That's a dumb thing to type. And I was so close to hitting the backspace and I didn't. And I said, no, the statement looks dumb, but sin is dumb. Sin is stupid. All sin is stupid. All sin is us acting like a fool not believing God. So I left it in. So to say that sin is inferior to Jesus might be the most obvious thing in the world, but it's not obvious enough that we don't still sin. If it were that obvious, if it was stupid, we would stop doing it. So let me go ahead and say we're foolish when we sin. And that's what I mean by it. And when sin is keeping us in general. First of all, sin apart from Christ as unbelievers or sin as believers when we are not faithful, sin itself is stupid. Now I've skipped weight, but I just wanted to tell you that line looks stupid when I say sin is inferior to Jesus. If you've read that and said man What a dumb thing to say. It is dumb, but that's because sin is dumb. Okay? Sin is stupid. And that's why I typed it and that's why I left it.

But now let's back up a little bit. So let us lay aside. Lay aside. Take something that you're holding and put it aside. Now, it gives us this word of weight. Okay. I don't know if you've ever been in a hurry while carrying something heavy. No, we're not supposed to use our kids. Now I'm going to use my granddaughter. But the other day, Abby came to the house and I got the carrier out of the car with that baby in it. It's just a baby and just a carrier. I could barely lift her. Now, that isn't only because she's giant. It's also because I'm getting old and weak. So I already had started working out knowing she was coming, but now I realize just how weak I am. So imagine you're carrying a weight like that and trying to run. Imagine you're carrying a heavy load of something and trying to run, and the thing that you're carrying is keeping you from being able to run. You're in danger or whatever, and you have to run. Maybe you've been there. Maybe, like, the kids have been late for class or whatever, and they run in with a backpack or something like that. Maybe you have a tool and somebody needs that tool, and you're on the other side of the thing and it's, I don't know, a welder or something and something heavy, and you're trying to run to the other side of the shop and carrying something heavy. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you've got the kids and you're running with kids or something. A farm or a bag of something, whatever. Maybe you have experience trying to run with something heavy. Well, the idea here is you are not going to be a good runner if you're carrying heavy weights. So the idea is, if you are unable to run to the Lord, whatever is weighing you down that keeps you from running to the Lord, whatever that thing is, lay it aside. Lay it aside.

Now, I do want you to notice it says wait and then it says sin. Now, that could be a parallelism. Could be because the author is Jewish and he might be using a parallelism. It could be that he's saying the same thing twice. Or. And maybe this is what we take with us, the weight idea in this context, especially with chapters 1 through 11 before us, could be all the good things we might Be trying to carry with us, like our tradition, like our Moses, like our Abraham, like our worship of angels, like our sacrificial system. The things mentioned in this context, things that to the Jewish people, the first audience, the Jewish people would call good, and I've called them good the whole series to try to make sure you don't hear me saying those are all bad. The way God did it in the Old Testament is bad, and the way he does it in the New Testament is good. I've never said that all that is good and beautiful and it shows the holiness of God and the seriousness by that they should be taking worship with like, the heaviness. So I've not on purpose, not wanted to make Judaism look bad because it was God's invention, what he did. But now I ask you, if Judaism is keeping you from pressing toward Christ, what do you call Judaism? It's bad. By the way, that would go true for being a Baptist.

Being a Baptist keeps you from pressing toward Christ. Wait, what did you just say? I thought being a Baptist meant we were the most Christlike people on earth. No, we can make anything, any tradition, anything that we think is important. It's always the same. You can boil it down like this. Jesus plus anything is bad. Now, Jesus isn't bad. But when you try to add something, when you try to say that Jesus is not sufficient to be able to do what God has called you to do. And in each of these cases, remember the. Those people didn't explicitly, the way we understand it, know Jesus personally, but they looked forward to the promise. And God sort of retroactively by their faith, gave them credit. Abraham believed the gospel, right? Moses had the prophet like him. And they did look forward. Isaiah's future was. Was the suffering servant. So to the whatever degree they were able to understand the gospel, I'm telling you, they understood the gospel. They had a picture of the gospel in some sense, whether it was in seed form or fully formed, whatever it was, they knew that when they were looking forward, God was going to have to do something by grace for them so that they could have a life with him in eternity. They knew that. And we mentioned Joseph and the other guys. And so the question would be to Joseph, Joseph, what do you have to lay aside to obtain the promise? And Joseph would say, I had to go and be a slave in Egypt. I had to. I was abandoned by my family. I could have easily said, well, that's it for me in Judaism. But he didn't. He stayed faithful. Or Moses, what did you lay aside Well, I didn't get to go into the promised land on earth, but I tried to stay faithful. I did what God called me to do, and I didn't get to go into the land, but I get to go into the ultimate promised land with a capital P, right? So I did what God called me to do at the time. So all of those ideas are, God has a promise to his people. He's made promises to his people.

Those are. I love that word, by the way. I never say that word. I need to say that word more often. We talk about the word gospel as euangelion. It's the good message. But there's another word for promise, which is epangelion, which is. It's a message, but it's a forward message, a promise. That's a neat word, too. And this idea is, as you look forward to the promise, you're taking God at His word. That that promise is where you put your hope. It's going to be good. And anything that is now keeping me or might be keeping me, whatever it might be here on earth, keeping me from running toward that promise is a thing. It's a weight, whether it's sinful or not. So you have the weight and then you have the obvious one, which is not dumb to write. And that is sin, which so easily ensnares us. So it is safe to say anything that keeps you from Jesus is bad, right? Anything that keeps you from pressing toward Jesus. Anything that. Anything that convinces you that your life on earth and what happens on earth is more important than what happens to you in eternity. Anything that would distract you from looking toward heaven and looking toward the upward call of Christ and storing treasure in heaven and doing things that have eternal significance and building his kingdom.

Anything that would keep you from that is a heavy weight that needs to be put aside. And again, I have to reiterate over and over and over again, that doesn't mean everybody's a pastor. That doesn't mean everybody's a missionary. That doesn't mean a job is a weight you set aside. No, literally, there's passages on how you do your job or build a business or be a homemaker. Those are all things that you can do to show Jesus as the focus. Every one of those things are things that you're able to do and called to do to declare Christ before the lost world. And so it's just as important that you are a person of character at your job who tells the truth and gives an honest day's wage to your masters and respects them. As it is that I'm a pastor, those are equal. We write books about missionaries, but we need to write books about plumbers who serve the Lord because everybody is doing their thing for the Lord. So when I say lay aside a weight, what I mean is when the grandchild, when the car, when the job becomes the focus and it becomes your goal and it becomes the end that you're pursuing, then it becomes a weight. Then it becomes potentially even an idol. So the fundamental difference. This is so basic. I can give it to you in one sentence.

The fundamental difference. How do you know if the thing you're carrying is a weight? I haven't even gotten to the sin yet, but I will. How do you know if the thing is a weight to be laid aside? How do you know if it's a thing that should be put aside instead of a thing that could be used for the glory of God? Say this sentence in your head and you decide on the thing itself and how it fits in the sentence. If I say this, Jesus is not a means to an end. Jesus is the end. Now I ask you, is the thing that is in front of you the weight? Is it the end for you? A comfortable life, a big house, the president you want in the office, the boyfriend or girlfriend, the amount of money, the fun of whatever the culture has to offer, is that the end goal for you? In other words, if you think this is the thing here, I'm going to fill in a blank. If I had blank, then I will be happy. If there's anything in that blank other than Jesus, it's a weight to be laid aside. And it goes for everything, even family. You all know this. Even family can be an idol, right? In fact, in our day, it's kind of the main one. But everything. Look at our culture. Have you been watching what's going on in the crazy news? Like the things that people are making the most important to them, the thing that they are saying is most important. And I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, I'm talking about both sides of the aisle.

Politically, everybody has a most important, a blank that isn't Jesus. So the author is saying, we have a cloud of witnesses. We have testimony upon testimony. We have story upon story. We have biography on biography of people who looked forward, they did not get in their life the promise that God had for them because it was yet future in Christ. It's yet future when he comes again. But they acted as though that was the most important thing to them and moved toward it. Even to the point of not wanting to be buried in a certain place because they knew their future was with the people of God. So that's your question of the morning. Your question is, is there anything in my blank in that spot, if I had blank, I would be happy or content or whatever. And if there's something in that blank not named Jesus, or there's two blanks, Jesus plus something that might be a weight that you need to consider laying aside. Okay. The other side of that is sin, which so easily ensnares or besets us. You know that phrase pretty well. I've often said that this is the sin, if there is one. If this, if this is saying what I think it's saying, it's something like this for everybody in the room. There probably is a sin or a group of sins or a type of sin that the devil does not need to yell in your ear.

Just a whisperer will do it. Like, there are. There are some people in this room. There might be like three men in this room who have not struggled with lust. Okay? So that when a beautiful woman not wearing enough clothes walks by, those three men don't have the same problem I think most men do, which is wandering eyes and those thoughts. Right? So in other words, for those men who don't have that problem, that would be a sin that doesn't easily ensnare them. Like, I, for one, have never been tempted. I always use the same dumb example because it's a funny example, but it's true. I've never once been tempted to rob a bank. Not once. I've never driven by a bank and thought, oh, I bet I could. I mean, I. My son's an IT guy. I bet we could knock down the cameras. I bet, you know, I got a gun and I. There's a way I bet I could pull it off. I've never once had that thought. In fact, me saying it out loud is the first time I've ever said it. So is robbing a bank a sin that would easily beset me? No. How much convincing would it take for me to get on board with robbing a bank? It would take some real convincing. Right? So in other words, that sin of bank robbery is not a sin that easily besets me, but self doubt is. Fear is. Anxiety is. Sadness is, hopelessness is.

Doubt is sometimes I don't even need Satan to whisper. I'll be whispering it and I'll immediately start moving into this idea of a lack of faith and I need to be kicked back into Faith and remind myself I'm on the path I'm supposed to be on. So I don't know if this text is saying everybody has one or two or three, but I do know it is describing a kind of sin that is easily done versus potentially some that are more difficult to do. So you would have to answer that for you. Maybe I could ask it this way. What. What is the sin or group of sins or the type of sins for you that you have prayed for? Lots of times they've had to repent of a whole bunch that you find yourself saying, why do I keep doing this? Anybody understand that? Or am I the only one? Why do I keep falling to this? Why does this thing keep grabbing my attention? Why do I keep having to pull myself away from that? And then you have the other things over here like bank robbery or whatever else, your version of that. Maybe, maybe you are a very truthful person. Like you love the truth and lying is really hard to you. To tempt you to lie would take real work. But I'll tell you, there are people, even Christians, that find it really easy. How much did I pay for that car now that I need my registration? $100. Really? You got that five year old pickup for $100? No, but I get the registration cheaper if I just put $100 down. That's a lie. And it was easy for you. Didn't take any work at all. Satan didn't have to say, you know, listen to me, really, really. You'll save so much annually on your registration if you lie you. He didn't have to do that. He just saw it as a convenience.

I always tell the same story. In fact, the guy's in the room of a family like ours who has new drivers. Even though our kids are older, they drove a little later than other kids and that family got a car for their kid and they were at the insurance place and the insurance guy trying to do a favor to the person in the room said, we're going to put a small amount here and then we're going to have dad as the primary driver on this insurance policy. Whose car was it? It was the kids car. Who was the primary driver? The kid. Right. But the insurance guy knew, I can get your rates down, I can get your premiums down if dad is the primary driver. So he's doing them a favor. Right. And the person's going to say, yes, that's man, I'll have a few hundred dollars a year. Yes. No, that person did not do that. That person said no no, I'm not the primary driver. Don't put me down as the primary driver. Put my son down as a primary driver and the agent argues, no, you don't understand. It's a lot cheaper. It's if you're the primary driver and that father tells his son in the car afterward, do you know what just happened in there? Because that family tells the truth, even at their own cost. There was no easily besetting sin there. There might be other ones, but please take this with you. If there is something that can easily grab you away from the Lord and your attention to him and your focus on him and your pursuit of him, whether it's a good thing like family and working hard and all those other good things, or a bad thing like sin, lying, lust, throw it away. That's what the author is telling us. It's obvious with the witnesses we have, with the testimony we have, with the past we have as Jewish Christians and now we as looking back on our Jewish brothers in the Hebrew book, the book of Hebrews, we look back and the author is telling us we have so much testimony that. That those people were not disappointed when they laid aside everything and pursued the Lord. No disappointment. All of them are satisfied right now. And you will be satisfied too, if you lay those things aside. Really. A powerful exhortation from the author of Hebrews. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Put it all away.

Now, the last part of verse one. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. That's that last phrase I want to zero in on that there is a race that's set before us, not a race where we decide to fulfill our passions, where we decide what we love the most, where we decide what's best for us, where we think we know what God is doing with us. But it's the idea that God has a race for them, those people. And you go look at their races, they were all different, weren't they? Joseph's race was different than Moses. And Moses race was different than Abel's. And they all had a different race, but each one of them had a race that God put in front of them. A thing that God had them to do, and they did it. That's the idea. So now he says, let us run with endurance energy. I know life wears you out. I already know that. I almost want to do the Pentecostal thing. Life wears you out. Amen. I don't ever do that. Well, I think Pastor Tim does it too. And he's not Pentecostal. But I don't usually call for an amen. But I think we would all agree that life can wear you out, right? But this endurance and this running that's listed here is about doing God's things, wearing you out, not life. So I can ask you, you know, how many times I've ever heard people who've left our church say, I'm serving too much at this church.

It's just wearing me out and I need to go to another church where I will serve less. I've never ever heard that, not once. But you know what? I have heard a lot. I need to go someplace else where I will be served more or in a different way. In other words, I need to go to a place where someone else will be wore out serving so they'll serve me, so I can get what I want and what I need. Does that sound like somebody that's running with endurance? Does that sound like somebody who is exerting, somebody who is moving? When you look back at the hall of Faith, do you see any of those people back there in chapter 11 that, that were pursuing what God called them to do only for their own satisfaction? So many times they were doing what God called them to do at great cost to themselves. Remember the end of the list, people who were murdered and cut in two and everything else? They didn't gain anything. There was no happy life. There was no best life. Now, so have you served God so much in your life that it wears you out, that you need endurance? Does your. Does your Christian energy output need endurance? Now, again, let me. I want to qualify that.

Again, it's not preaching and teaching. It's not being a missionary. It is those things. But those aren't exactly what the author is saying. He's saying, for example, if right now, standing for your faith in the workplace is costing you, it's costing you friends, it's costing you energy, it's making life difficult for you. Maybe you have to turn down a promotion because you can't lie, something like that. But there's actual cost. To stand for the Lord, that's energy that you have to exert that would be much easier to not exert or to stand for your faith in your family directly, where your family is opposing the faith of Christ and you're standing for it, or to stand for your faith in your culture, that your culture keeps telling you over and over again, this is what's most important. One side of the political aisle says, this is what's most important. And the other side says this is what's most important, but none of it is the cause of Christ. It cost you to stand for the cause of Christ. That's what I'm talking about. Where you. It just takes energy to be a Christian when you do it right. And you might even be thinking, it would be a lot easier if I didn't have to stand for these things, if I didn't have to say these things, if I didn't have to believe these things, if I wasn't constantly trying to shelter my little flock, called my family, from the influence of this world. And you're pressing, and you're pressing.

That is what I'm talking about. You're running if you're doing that, if. If at the end of a day you're talking to your children about the events of the day and what God is doing on planet Earth and how we are trying to serve him even if the world isn't. And how the world might seem happy, but we are happy in the Lord if you're pressing on. That's what running a race looks like. It doesn't have to mean being in a pulpit or in a Sunday school class though. Those things are options. They had a race and they ran. Didn't say by faith, Abraham got a million likes on a viral video, or by faith, Abraham won three super bowl rings or whatever. Not that those would be bad. If a Christian wins super bowl rings and they give God the glory, hallelujah. We need more Christian athletes to stand for the faith. But the point I'm making here is go look at what they did and notice that there's energy in it and then ask you, what am I energetically pursuing by faith? Where is my faith energy at? Where are the works of faith that I'm doing so much of that I need help with endurance.

And then verse two, it says it, what were they looking at surrounded by a cloud of witnesses? We also are to lay aside everything and run the race that God set before us and not sin. We also, because we're a part of those witnesses, because they testified that they obeyed God and they obtained a good testimony. Now we want to obtain a good testimony approval of God too. We want to act like they acted with our energy and moving and running this race that set before us. Well, what's the target? Author of Hebrews, tell me what the target is. What's the finish line? If I'm going to run and if it's going to cost me and it's going to hurt, what should I run? Toward verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Then we'll get his example on how he did those things in a second. We're running to Jesus. That's why it's easy for the author of Hebrews and all the authors of scripture, including the Old Testament authors, and I hope us preachers too. It's easy to say, do you see? That's worth laying everything aside for. That's worth it. It's worth it to miss out on things on Earth. It's worth it to not have everything the world has to offer. It's worth it to not be a part of the cool kids. It's worth it to not have so many likes on Instagram or whatever. It's worth it not to inject your lips with fillers and every other thing that everybody's trying to do to fit in on this planet.

Why you're looking to Jesus, that's what you get. You get him and the author's telling us, looking unto him, that's we're like them, looking toward the promise, but unlike them, because we have a whole picture, because we're post Christ. We saw him, we saw the gospel worked out. We saw him come on the scene and now we see him and we're looking to him and. And he is our finish line. He is our goal. I'm going to be with him one day. I'm running toward him and yes, it's hard. Yes, I have to overcome things. Yes, I don't get what everybody else gets on planet Earth. Yes, I don't always get a life of ease. Sometimes I get a cross, but it's him that I get in the end, looking unto Jesus and it says the author. Author is, by the way, I don't know if you know, if you put an I T Y at the end of that word authority. It's not just somebody that writes something. It's the authority on that subject. That's why the word author is the word author. It doesn't have to do with writing. It has to do with the person. Writing is an authority on the thing they just wrote. That's not always the case. Anybody can write and not be an authority. But in this case, Jesus wrote this thing. He is the authority on this subject. He is the one who is the architect, the leader. Modern Christianity says Jesus is looking unto us. What do you want in your life? How would you author your story? How would you be the ruler of your own destiny? How would you decide what's best for you? And then I Jesus will come alongside you to make all your dreams come true. So modern evangelicalism is not Jesus as the end, but Jesus as the means to the end, so that you are the author of your life and your choices are what matter, and your happiness is what matter, and your goals is what matter. So the modern gospel is Jesus is looking unto us the author and the finisher of our own personal faith and destiny.

But the biblical understanding is that we look to Jesus. He is the author. It is his plan, it's his mission. He's the one that designed it, the word finisher of our faith. Here. The word finish is where we get the word. What Jesus says on the cross, it is finished. Tetelestai. That's not. That's a perfect tense on the cross. But this is just that word. It's where we get the word telephone, where we get the word telecommute, where we get those words television. Ultimately, the tele in all of those isn't about sight. It's about the fact that the thing is reaching its end goal. Its end goal, like a, like a teleprompter is a prompt that reaches its end goal that you're prompted. A telephone is sound getting to its end goal, which is the listener. A television is sight getting to the end goal, which is the viewer. Well, the mission of Christ has an end goal of his glory and honor. That's the end purpose of everybody. So that the end goal, if God gets what he wants, that means if God's plan that he authored, Jesus plan that is authored and that he fulfilled in his life and ministry and is now telling us to embrace and move toward, look toward, if God gets what he wants, we will be standing at the feet of the Lord in the throne room forever and ever praising God, singing hallelujah, we will have a job. Something like those angels in his presence that sing, holy, holy, holy, that will be our eternity.

I remember my friend years ago who some of you know the story, I'll say it another time, but I remember sharing the gospel with this guy over and over again and him saying at least he was honest. I mean, I have to give him credit for being honest, as he said, heaven just sounds like one big boring church service to me. And I said it would sound like that to somebody who doesn't know Jesus. Of course, that's what it sounds like. You don't know Jesus. But if you know Jesus, nothing sounds better to you than being in his presence. Nothing sounds better. There's nothing on earth that even compares to that. Okay, I could have A Porsche. Or I could sit with Jesus. Okay, that's easy. I could have happiness or I could sit with Jesus. No, that makes me happy. I could have money. I could have faith. Whatever. Whatever. The thing is over here, when you compare it to Jesus, the author of Hebrews is saying, he's. He's the purpose. That's what we are running toward. That's what they ran toward. That's what we now run toward. So this faith that we have in Jesus and nothing else, it brings assurance. We see that back in chapter 10, verse 22, the assurance of faith, it's real. We saw that in the first couple of verses of chapter 11. It's real, it's substantive. It's something. When you hope in what God says, when you trust in what God says, that is as real as though it already happened. And then, of course, the sort of culmination is it gets lived out in our life while we're on earth. So that we can sing the Doxology from Romans that we sing all the time for of him and through him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.

That doxology is, if we're living our life right, everything, our whole compass is pointing toward Christ. All of our actions are an attempt to honor him on life because he gave us what he gave us to steward so that we can honor him with our life. And then eventually that will, that finisher of our faith, the one who finished it, Jesus. When we get there, he will have succeeded in his mission, his plan, his design, the thing he authored, which was us being in his presence, worshiping him forever and ever. Now look at the second part of verse two. This is interesting. Who? Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame again. Modern gospel says, looking unto you for your happiness and your joy. Biblical gospel says we care most about whose joy. Whose joy is most important? Is it our joy? Now, I know you. We read those verses really loud, right? I've come to. I've come to. You might have. My joy might be. Your joy may be full. That's the way we read those verses. Wait, what was that part you said before? That my joy might remain in you? What makes Jesus joyful? And how important is it to you? What makes Jesus joyful? How much of your life and energy is spent thinking, I want Jesus to have joy right now. That's what I want. So I have the option right now. I can go do a thing or I Can go do a thing. And one of them brings Jesus joy and one of them doesn't. How much of your energy is. I always say, the thought of making God smile, I just love that idea. And boy, it's even becoming more real when you get your grandbaby smiling at you. That smile. The beauty and value of a genuine smile. I don't know if you know this, but do you know it's literally impossible to fake a smile? That you've seen a lot of fake smiles, but almost always you can tell when they're fake because something happens in us when we smile. We're made to smile. But to me, the thought of the Lord smiling. The Lord smiling at you. There you are. I'm happy to see you face to face. I know we've been talking a lot. Your whole life you've been serving me. But you remember when you were there by yourself at work and the other guys were joking about those things that you shouldn't be joking about, and you just stayed quiet in the corner? Oh, I was smiling in heaven. I was telling my father, look at them. Look at them. They love me. Joy. His joy. For the joy that was set before him. His joy endured suffering and shame. Why? Why would he do that? Why would he take up a cross? What could be so good that a cross would be worth it? The joy of bringing his Father. Glory. Of bringing a people to His Father. Of paying the ransom for many. Ah. For the joy that was set before him.

Look at verse two at the end of it. And has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Oh, don't go past that too fast. We've said it before already in this book. Because you mentioned the idea that the priests of the Old Testament never got to sit down. There were no benches inside the holy place. Right. The reason they couldn't sit down is because their work was never done. They were always going in their courses, week after week, sacrifice after sacrifice. They could never sit down because it wasn't complete. So when you see the language of Jesus sitting down, it's literally called the doctrine of the session. I don't know if you know, but session just means sitting down. When it says this court is in session, it just means we're seated. That's all that technically means. But here he sat down. Why did he sit down? Because he finished. The author and finisher finished. He did his work Tetelestai. It is finished. And where did he sit down? At the right hand. What does that mean? The place of honor at the right Hand of God, His Father is honored by the work that he finished. Again, this is all back to the purpose. The things that God was showing his people, he was showing them throughout the ages. I have a plan. This is my plan. Do what I tell you to do and trust that I will take care of you if you do what I say to do. I'm your father, you're my people. So trust me. Follow the plan. Look forward, do the thing. Look to the coming city. And then now you have this city where you get in. Imagine coming into town after a long journey and there's Jesus sitting on the throne next to the Father at his right hand. He sat down at the right hand because that's the place of honor. And he finished his work. That's how he could sit down. He couldn't sit down if his work wasn't accepted. Did you know that? If the work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection was not accepted, he couldn't sit down. Now we do know that he still mediates. Remember when Stephen sees him, he still mediates. That doesn't mean he doesn't work. It just means his redemptive work is finished.

Now, verse three. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls, consider him when you get discouraged. And by the way, in the next part of this chapter, in chapter 12, you should read ahead if you haven't. There's some potentially difficult to understand things there because you're going to see chastening there. And typically when we talk about chastening, we think of it being a reaction to us sinning, that we need correction. Right? That's typically the understanding of chastening, that there has been a failure or an error. And then chastening is the spanking that is needed to get us back on track. But you'll see if you look at verse or chapter 12, the rest of the chapter, that it isn't always what happens to us. I mean, what. What we cause sometimes it is what happens to us. That's called suffering and chastening. And I say that now because notice that it says, consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. Jesus didn't sin and deserve hostility. This was done to him. But he is telling us, the believer, to notice how he handled the hostility and the suffering. So whether you bring it on yourself or whether you're innocent and it comes upon you, how did Jesus handle hostility? Of course he didn't bring it on himself. But how did he handle it? He Endured it to the cross. And he took up his cross. He went to the cross. It says that he endured the cross in the previous verse. Consider him and then he's going to say the author in a bit. You haven't yet resisted the bloodshed, right? You're not being persecuted to the point of actual physical crosses. Yet the Hebrew believers hadn't. Neither have we as Americans in our country. Yet he endured the hostility against himself. I mean, even that verse right there is so anti us, especially proud American people. We will not take any hostility toward us. It's unfair. You're infringing on my rights. How dare you. You can't say those words. You can't say that about me. You can't tell me what to think. Of course, unless it's evil and then we're all allowed to think it.

For consider him who endured, he pursued. Jesus accomplished that mission that he was on. So Jesus authored the mission. He went out ahead of us as the author and finisher, the captain of our salvation. He did his part in pursuing what God had called him to do and living that sinless life and then dying on us, the cruel sinner's death, even though he didn't deserve it. He conquered death. He accomplished his mission. That's why he could say it is finished. He ascends to heaven. He sits down at the right hand of the Father. God has approved of him. His work has been sufficient. Now we see that all those other saints were looking forward, whether they understood it completely or not, to that day where they would be in his presence. And now he is telling us like them, when you have to go through things and life is not going to be fair to you and things are not going to be easy and there is no cross less life for a Christian. Endure like he endured. That's what you're supposed to think of when life gets hard. You're supposed to think of the ultimate purpose of God having a people. And you're supposed to remind yourself that my finish line is not pleasure in this life or a trial. Free cross, free life. That is not my end goal. Now again, if it is your end goal, go back to the beginning of the sermon. Start again. If your end goal is your personal happiness on earth, you need an adjustment. Like we used to say, you need a checkup from the neck up. But there isn't a third option of a Christless happiness. You don't have a cross life that's hard on earth, an empty life that is easy on earth. But give me a third option where I can have an easy life on earth and still gain Christ. He promised you would be hated on earth. He promised if you follow him, this world will hate you. He promised you that. And you know what happens when the world hates you or it cost you, or you have to make choices where you follow Christ and it hurts.

When you are opposed for the faith, you can get discouraged. Which is exactly why he finishes this section in the end of verse three. When you consider Jesus and you understand the purpose and you press toward the upward call, and you know the finish line, and you know what all those Old Testament saints who are right around us telling us know? Hey, it's worth it, it's worth it, it's worth it. All this, that. All that trouble you're going through on earth, like Paul says, is this momentary, light affliction. When you're in his presence, you could just hear Noah's in His presence, Abraham's in His presence, Abel's in His presence. They're all in his presence. And if they could talk to us, they are talking to us. By the way, in the book of Hebrews, they're talking to us. They're telling you, come on, get in here. This is the place. Press toward the mark. And if you're struggling and if you're discouraged, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls, consider Jesus. He did it too. We have the best example of somebody who suffered by faith. Jesus Himself is our example, where he knew even as he prayed, if there be any other way, take this cup from me. Even in that, even when Jesus is saying to His Father, if you could take this cup from me, even in that, he had faith in His Father. Did you know that he never lapsed in his faith at all? If somebody could take a cup away, it would have been His Father.

You understand? He didn't. People try to make that a failure of Jesus. He didn't fail even in his pain and his suffering. He was trusting His Father. And he promises, as long as you serve the Father, the Creator. And we were mentioned here that we know that God created all things. And we know the truth, that creation rebelled against God. And that sin is this thing that makes us an enemy of God. We're unplugged from the source of life. And now we're living a life of death and pain and suffering. We know that, but still we're surprised by suffering, which I'm surprised that we're ever surprised by suffering. I'm surprised that we think life is supposed to go good in a fallen world. That surprises Me. It surprises me that we think in a world that said we hate God and we'll kill a son, that things should go okay. But we do. We still think things should go okay because of course, we're Christian, right? America's Christian Jesus says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before you. Before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. What would it say if the world doesn't hate you? Jesus told us what it would say. What's the conclusion if the world doesn't hate you? You're living like the world. That's the conclusion. You might be one of them. Are there worldly Christians? Well, if they are, that's a temporary condition because we're all supposed to be growing in grace and knowledge. We're all supposed to be maturing. We're all supposed to be. He chose us to conform us to the image of His Son. So if there's no conforming, we might be conforming to something else, the world. And the author is telling us over and over again in multiple ways. To the Hebrew believers, they might have wanted their cake and eat it, meaning they might have wanted their cake, which is Jesus. And having Jesus now that they knew, because they were the people the Messiah came from, the Jewish people, but they wanted to retain that Judaism, that ceremony, that ability to take some credit for the work, right?

That because I'm circumcised, because I made the sacrifices, because I'm of the tribe of Benjamin or whatever, I can at least say it's Jesus plus Benjamin, right? I could say I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, or I could say Jesus, or I'm one of the people of Dan or whoever. And I'm in the family of God, so that counts for something, right? The author of Hebrews is saying anything you add to Jesus subtracts from Jesus. And Jesus himself endured suffering, no ease on planet Earth, no happiness on planet Earth. He. He didn't say, if I'm not of the world, if I was of the world, I would have a million Instagram followers. He didn't make those his priority. He was doing the will of his Father, pursuing the will of his Father, which is to purchase and redeem a people for God's glory. And he succeeded in that. He succeeded in that mission. And now we, knowing that's our mission too, and wanting to consider him, shouldn't be weary and discouraged. And we get discouraged. I know I do. I get discouraged a lot. But what would that. Probably. What would the author of Hebrews tell me? Hey, think of Jesus. Imagine his discouragement. Remember him crying over Jerusalem. Remember him seeing his own people abandon him. Remember him crying to his father to take the cup. He understands difficulty, but he fulfilled his mission. If there's anything keeping you from pressing toward Jesus, lay it aside. Move, act, Serve, evangelize. Pray. Serve the people of God. Do God's things press toward the mark?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for our example in Jesus. Also thank you for his success. Sometimes we can take for granted that he was sinless and endured all that suffering and temptation. But, Father, it was very much endurance. It took energy. He definitely ran his race. Now just ask Father, that whatever our race might be, that would make us more in alignment, more faithful, more in your will, if there are things in our lives right now that are hindering our running, would you point those out to us gently and give us mercy to lay aside anything we might need to lay aside so that we can run? I do think, Father, it's safe to say that the people in this room that know you and know your son really do want to see that smile. And so would you help us? Would you help us pursue it like your son did, that we might have that same kind of joy in his name? Amen.