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Hebrews 12:1-3
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[00:00:00] Well, this morning, my title of my message here, it's not up there, Chris.
[00:00:12] The title of my message is Heartbreak Hill. And so I started out, I said the title of my message this morning, Heartbreak Hotel. And I was thinking, oh. And what I was thinking in my head was, it sounds like it could be a country song, heartbreak Hill.
[00:00:27] But Heartbreak Hill, it's a famous hill that is in the Boston Marathon. It has a legendary obstacle. It's called Heartbreak Hill. And starting at mile 13, the number of hills begin in this marathon. And cresting at mile 19 is to what is known as Heartbreak Hill. Heartbreak Hill is the longest and the steepest hill in the race. And many world class runners, they hit the wall right around mile 18 or 19.
[00:00:57] Their muscles are screaming for oxygen and they feel like they're going to die. And Heartbreak Hill, it tests the runners to the core of their determination and their strength that they've worked into their lives. And it's that when the physical energy and the stamina is gone in them, this is when the mental side of the training kicks in and has to take over what their physical bodies is telling them to stop this. And there are times when we all come to places where that's a type of a heartbreak hill in our lives. And this race of life, it doesn't just happen on level ground. There's valleys that are very dark sometimes, and there's hilltops that are just about too high. And we get dizzy and lose our oxygen and roll down the other side with a higher. We allow ourselves to go. We have to control the emotions that we have when we go into these low valleys, knowing that we will come out of these valleys and we have to control ourselves when we get onto these highs and just sort of so know that there is another side to this hill that's going to come down. And if we can keep our emotions on the level plane while our lives are going up and down, it just makes life a little bit easier.
[00:02:14] There's training that takes place that we can do that will help us prepare for times like that. We have to understand that there needs to be a spiritual training in our lives as we go through life and all that life hands to us. There's got to be a physical training in our lives. And just so you know, you say, okay, Pastor, you look like you're not doing the physical part of this message. Karen and I have joined the gym over here a month ago, and I got Karen, well, Claire, Karen's mom, she got Karen and I a book. I don't know whether she thought maybe we needed to work on something or something. But it's called Younger next year. The guy's book is Yellow, the girl's book is Pink. And so we've had these books for a while. I read mine a long time ago and inspired me for a while. Karen, I just encouraged her read it because we were talking about going to the gym. So she picks up this book and starts reading this book, and then we end up joining this gym. She's pushing and pushing and pushing to join this gym. So we joined the gym, and I had about two weeks into going to this gym at 06:00 in the morning. I thought, I've created a monster.
[00:03:18] She's got such discipline. When she gets going, she's just steady. Eddie. I'm the three spirit. I go when I get there.
[00:03:26] So we're good for each other.
[00:03:30] In life. We have spiritual training that takes place as we get in the morning and we have a devotion life, or we spend time in prayer. We spend time just reading the word over our coffee. However that looks for you, it looks different for all of us. But we have the spiritual aspect of training that has to take place in our life. And we have the physical aspect, training that takes place in our life. And we have the mental side of our lives, the good stuff that we put into our mind, the word, the memorizing of the word, reading good, healthy books, watching good, healthy shows. There's very few of those, but there are some good ones. But those three elements, if we practice those three elements in our lives, building those up, they will do us well in the long run. Because there's going to be times that come when problems that we face seem like they're insurmountable and to the point that we wonder if we're going to make it. And it's times like these that we need these three areas to be kicking in when we need them. And so it's good if we work on them. We have God's word and his promises to stand on no matter what. And the promises, they last forever, which is great and they never change. Times will come to all of us when we'll need to draw on the reserves that we've stored up within us. And it's times like these that when we have done all that, we know what to do, when we have no longer lean on our own understanding because we're at our wits end. That when we all have, all we have left is to lean on Jesus. These reserves that we've built up and this training aspect will all start to kick in for us and they'll preserve us much better. I know this because I've been there. I've been there more than once in this short 64 years that I've lived on this planet. I'm going to be 65 years old in January. That's crazy to me.
[00:05:21] I just can't be that old.
[00:05:27] I always heard it said, I'm not that old. In my head, I felt as though I was standing at times at this place of Heartbreak Hill. Felt like I was just hitting the wall. And when I tried all to know what I would do, I would just have to lean on Jesus. When you have no choice and you have those reserves, you know where to go and you have the ability to do it, you can lean on him. It's these experiences that these experienced runners, when they come to these places, anticipate this, and they know that they're going to have to endure. And so they push through in these times, knowing that they're going to get the rest right when they need it. Heartbreak Hill, metaphorically speaking, is where the people of the Book of Hebrews were. This is where we're going this morning. We're going to be looking at Hebrews, some of the chapter eleven. We'll read through some of that, but we'll spend most of our time in verses one to three. In chapter twelve. These people, they were at Heartbreak Hill. In their minds, they were out against the wall. They were questioning whether it was worth the suffering they were experiencing for being a disciple of Jesus and doing what Jesus was. They knew that they were supposed to be doing. They were so discouraged that they were contemplating throwing in the towel. And they felt like they couldn't keep going, that they were hitting the Wall. And the writer of the Book of Hebrews, he's writing and he's wanting to spur them on and challenge them. Keep going. In chapter eleven, he says to them, he shows them, he says, hey, he says, look at all these people that have gone on before you. He goes on to name a number of Abraham and Moses and Abel, and he numbers off in detail their lives and how their faith worked, their faith life. And then after mentioning these, he goes on and he says, in verse 32 of chapter Eleven, there's Bibles in front of you if you want to follow along. They'll be a little bit different because those are Niv. This is a new revised standard, and probably nice if a pastor would stay with one translation instead of flipping over all of them. But he says in verse 32 of chapter eleven, he says, and what more shall I say? He says, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions. This is Historical stuff going on here. They quenched the raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by Resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection.
[00:08:07] Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword. They went about skins in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted and tormented. That doesn't sound like fun, but they did this. They lived the life of faith. And down in chapter one or verse one of chapter twelve, he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, because of all these people that have gone on before you that he just mentioned here, he says, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer, or the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary and loose heart.
[00:09:17] There's a path that is set before each one of us that is obviously going to take some endurance and perseverance for us to walk.
[00:09:26] And it's not something that we can do in the flesh. I think we can do it for a season in the flesh, but I think that when we do it in the flesh, eventually we get very angry because it's not appealing to the flesh. It's quite contrary to the flesh what the flesh wants. It's because we have been born into a fallen world, blind to the truth that we pick up the weights and the sins that we're being challenged to lay down here. John 831 2nd Part of that verse, it says that Jesus is the truth. And he says that the truth is what sets us free. And so as we try our best before we become a Christian and we know the Lord, before we know the truth, we try our best to cope, and we do all kinds of things to protect ourselves because we experience pain from being hurt.
[00:10:17] And it's because we're in a fallen world. And we will develop bad habits because of this, because we're just out of defense of our feelings and our emotions, and it's our heart.
[00:10:29] And as a result of developing these bad habits, we pick up a bunch of junk in our lives, and this causes us to act out in unhealthy ways, and it just results in more brokenness. And that's the beauty of becoming a Christian and getting saved and coming to know that Jesus is Lord. And we reveal the Truth to us, and we see it and we understand it, and we accept it. And these things, they fall off of us, and we feel like, wow, what's just happened to me? I'm free. And I remember my brother in law when he got saved and that he got saved. It was a big crowd at the Capri there, and I'm just sort of standing there doing whatever I was doing also. And I heard my brother in law say, free last, he says, and he had some stuff to be freed of.
[00:11:16] But it's beautiful. It's beautiful. But it's not a bad thing that we have these things on us, because it's just a result of the ways of the world. And so that's what the Lord is trying to get us to understand, okay? He's got a way for us to walk. It's narrow, and he wants us to walk it. And that's where you're going to find the peace and a lot less clutter in your lives.
[00:11:38] So there are so many obstacles that Satan and his demons try to put in the way of us discovering this Truth and Walking in the freedom that God has made available to each one of us. The readers of the Book of Hebrews here, they're being Challenged to stay the Course in the midst of their trying circumstances. They were being challenged to just let go of the things that they were hanging on to that they shouldn't be hanging on to. He says, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. The NIV Bible says it like this. It says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. Looking at this, and every translation I looked at, they had different words in there, like different emphasis. And so I just took the expanded version, which is like a modern, amplified Bible, and it goes like this. It says, we should, and then in brackets, let us remove from our lives, get rid of, cast aside. Anything that would get in the way, impedes, hinders, and the sin that so easily holds us back or entangles us or clings to us.
[00:12:49] And as I was looking at these verses and I was reading through this and I was meditating on this translation, I thought about it, and I thought, what Are the weights that I have to lay down, the weights in the sin? What are the weights in the sin that are entangling me or clinging so closely? Because I think that we all, they come to us all, and you can't walk through life, and not these things don't come to you. That's what the altar is for, to delay these things at the altar and walk out of here free or wherever you build your altar, because it's not a physical altar anymore. It's wherever you build your altar.
[00:13:25] Pastor Paul says life is hard last week when he was preaching a sermon. And it takes endurance. It's true. Life is hard. And it takes perseverance to just live life, let alone live it well. And just like this text that I read this morning, here, Jesus says, you know, he calls the enemy a thief. He calls him a liar. He calls him all kinds of things. He says the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Apart from Jesus, that's what we're in store for, to be taken advantage of, to be abused, to be robbed. He comes and to be ultimately destroyed. The enemy comes the prince of the heir, the one that's influencing the world he's come to only to steal, to kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.
[00:14:14] It's God's will that all of his kids finish well, and I am not talking about a prosperity Gospel here in any way whatsoever.
[00:14:24] It says that God's will. It's his will that we all finish this life well. And he wants to help us do that. All we got to do is let him. A true story of three guys here who knew Perseverance more than most of us would. I don't know why anybody would want to do this, but I guess people do. For 111 days, they ran the equivalent of two marathons a day in order to cross the entire Sahara desert on foot. Along the way, these three faced, blazing afternoons of over 100 degrees, freezing nights, sandstorms, tendonitis, violent sickness, and the usual aches and pains and blisters.
[00:15:05] The biggest challenge that they said they faced was trying to find water that didn't make them sick. And crossing the Sahara desert like this lake, what an amazing accomplishment. But, you know, even more commendable than these are the marathon runners of the faith, the faith life that we read about in chapter eleven of the Book of Hebrews, they're even more commendable the extent that they went. And just as commendable are Christians who finished their lives still growing and serving husbands and wives who stay faithful to the end through the hard times until death do us part. Just as commendable are young people who preserve their virginity until the commitment of marriage in spite of the crushing peer pressure that we all experience, pastors and elders and leadership who stay passionate about serving Jesus until we breathe our last. And church members who weather the rougher patches of life and remain joyful, loving and faithful to the end. Like that's going to take some perseverance and endurance for us to do this, to finish well like this. And these things are a big deal. It's a big deal. The writer of Hebrews chapter Twelve, he's talking about a race and he is presenting a forceful challenge to these Christians to endure a marathon type Christian or commitment to Christ.
[00:16:34] He connects chapter eleven and twelve with the particles, therefore, and a reference to this great cloud of witnesses as the example of those who have already done the race and lived out their lives of faith to the end. And in verse one, he turns the spotlight onto his own community, and he's using the first person we to challenge this community to recognize themselves as a part of this great host who are called to live the same life of faith.
[00:17:04] This should spur us on here this morning because we're all a part of this community who called to live this same life of faith.
[00:17:14] The basis for this exhortation has been laid very well with the example of these heroes of the faith. In chapter eleven, Gordon Guthrie. He says, back in those days, authors of classical literature used the image of a cloud to describe a large group of people.
[00:17:32] And the writer added emphasis, pointing back to the multitude of persons that listed that he alluded to here in chapter eleven as a cloud of witnesses.
[00:17:42] And then we have to ask, in what sense did the author mean these heroes of the faith were surrounding the Christian community as this great cloud of witnesses?
[00:17:51] As I was studying this and as I was looking at this, I remember when my brother died and I remember thinking, because one of our loved ones that we're close to, when they die, when they're gone, all of a sudden they're just not there anymore. They got their clothes, you got everything about them, but they're not there no more.
[00:18:07] And I remember thinking about this verse, this great cloud of witnesses, and thinking, what's he doing right now as I'm pondering and thinking? Because you do a lot of thinking when somebody dies like that, you think a lot about all the times that you had together. And I was thinking, I wonder what he's doing right now? And this thought went through my mind, could he be watching us down here? And then I got thinking about that, and I thought, I don't think that that's quite what is happening, because I thought about him watching us down here. He had three little boys that were six, eight and nine years old. And then I thought, okay, if he's watching down here on earth, and he's watching his boys, and his boys are growing up, and all of a sudden his boys get into trouble, they get addicted to the drugs, they end up on the street, and maybe even die on the street. And if he's in heaven, and heaven says that it's a place where there's no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain. And I thought, if he's watching that happening down here, there's no way that he could be enjoying the peace, enjoying the painlessness that would be grievous to him up there. So I thought, okay, well, that can't be what's happening when he's in heaven.
[00:19:10] And I was reading and studying this and reading these commentaries, it's good, because after thinking about this, I thought and imagining that kind of thing, I'm thinking, okay, in my head, they can't be up there celebrating and cheering and passing the popcorn as we're going through life when we're doing good, and then laughing and cringing when we're making mistakes and crying when things aren't going so good for us. I thought that just wouldn't be what it would be like. And so this Gordon Guthrie, he says that they are witnesses in the sense that they bear witness to the Christian community of God's faithfulness and of the effectiveness of faith in their lives. And the author is intending far more this image than simply saying that they're people that are just spectators watching us. And he's saying, look at those who have gone on before, and God has given witness to them. He's commending them. And in this way, this great cloud of faithful Christ followers throughout history offer the church motivation in its current struggle to stay the course of Commitment. And I like the way that FF. Bruce says it, because he says it's not so much that these cloud of Witnesses are looking to us, at us as much as we're looking to know. So we're being challenged. They are being challenged. We're being challenged to lay aside everything that hinders if we're going to run this race of faith that God has set before us triumphantly.
[00:20:45] What are some of the weights that you're carrying this morning? I think that we all have these weights, and I think that we always have to continually lay these weights down. They can be the weight of worry. They can be the weight of fear. They can be the weight of bitterness or unforgiveness. And it could be the weight of finances, relationships, whatever. The weights are these kinds of weights that the Scripture is talking about here are weights that are anything that is taking Our eyes off Jesus or taking us from Jesus and putting our eyes on these worries, on these fears, on our finances, things that we really have no control over, a lot of that kind of stuff.
[00:21:28] So Karen and I were talking about this. We were talking, I was sitting one morning, and I said to Karen, said, what about the weights are that we need to lay down? And then, you know, what about our kids and our know, the weight that we carry for our kids, our grandkids and the salvation and them serving the Lord? And then Karen says, you know, she says, I see that more as a burden. And she says, and I want that burden, she says, because that's what makes me get on my face and pray and intercede for the kids. And then I thought about that, and I thought, okay, that's really good. That's a burden. A burden takes us and it draws us to the Lord. It's like he pushes you into the lap of the Lord and you just huddle in there and you're interceding and praying for your kids. Because only God can save their souls. We can't do it. And we're on our face in the lap of the Lord, just praying, Lord, interceding for them that he would save their souls. These names we put on the list, or our neighbors, or our friends, relatives, Lord, we're interceding on their behalf, pulling down the strongholds over their lives, which I believe allows the enemy to, I mean, the Lord to start to work and draw them to himself. And then as we're praying, I think that God would show us what we can do, that we can influence the salvation of their souls. That's something that God can do, and it can work when he's leading us to do it.
[00:22:48] I learned that morning. Wow, that's good stuff. The burden draws us to Lord. But these weights, they're things that take us from the Lord. And so if you've got weights and concerns of this world that are taking away from the things of the Spirit, you need to lay them down. God can handle them. God knows what you're up against, and he can take care of it. He can give you direction. Lay them down and get on your face before the Lord. He'll guide you and direct you in it.
[00:23:14] So we have to allow the burdens to take us to our knees in intercession. The burden can cause us to do the things that we need to do and praise God. In these texts that Jesus says, he's the author, the writer says that Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. And what it's saying here is that in this race here, that we have to run this race because it says in the verse, it says, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. The image of running emphasizes that the disciples of Jesus have a course to complete and a goal to reach, and it's going to take an effort. If the Christian life is to be lived faithfully, it's not just going to happen, but it's going to take an effort on our part. What is my part in the race that is set before me? What is your part in the race that is set before you? Because there's a race that is set before each one of us that call ourselves disciples of Jesus, followers of him, and notice it's a marathon rather than a know. We tend to get excited and run like crazy and peter out and then just sort of veer off and sort of tucker out. We need to just sort of level it out a bit and not just run like crazy, but just sort of tame that down a bit and know, okay, you got a race to run here. This isn't just 100 yard dash. And the effort called for here is a sustained effort that goes the distance. That means following through with our commitments with a persistent determination.
[00:24:51] This is how we must run the race that is set before us. The picture evoked here in twelve one is that the runners look down the track at the course and they see the run that they must run. And when a runner is going to run the race, they know that the route that they have to follow. And now they must bring their training and commitment to bear on the task of running this race successfully. All their training needs to come into place here. And as runners, we see the path lying before us.
[00:25:22] So as Christians, we see that this path of faith is running into the future. And so Christians see a path of life that is stretched into the future. And praise God that the path is not all that we as believers see. It says that we're to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith, not so much on the path, but on Jesus, who's on that path, who's the author and the perfector of our faith. Because people are looking down on a king or a leader as a model. See, this is why it's so important that leaders be models. Like the leadership of our country needs to be a model, somebody that's going to inspire the people of our country to do well. We've got to be good leaders. That can be an example and in context with this race. Jesus is the one who's run the race before us, and he's the absolute best example that we can look to at how to run this race. But he's even more than that. He's the author and the perfector of our faith. This sets him apart from the examples that we see here. In chapter eleven of Hebrews, the word author has rich meaning. It gives the idea of a champion, of a leader, a forerunner, or an initiator. The various distinctions, they might overlap in this present context, but both concepts of forerunner and champion fit the athletic imagery of this scriptures. Here, the heroes of the faith should inspire us to new heights in our spiritual side of our lives. And it's only when we are ready to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us will we be free to run the race with perseverance, the race that's set before us, being willing to recognize that suffering and its true perspective here, you know, like suffering for the believer, and suffering, no matter what the suffering is, the suffering for the believer, compared to the non believer is a different thing, because no suffering for the believer is ever in vain. God's word is true when he says that he will work all things together for good. To those that love him are called according to his purpose, walking after the Spirit, not after the flesh.
[00:27:37] So putting that into its proper perspective, suffering in our lives, it gives us the ability to run this Christian race with joy. And that's the difference, and that's the world. You don't think that they notice that kind of thing. It really is a noticeable thing. Our ultimate inspiration is Jesus. He's been there. He's done it, and he was triumphant.
[00:28:02] Taking into consideration chapter eleven, the examples of those who have gone on before us, those who had given their all to run this race of faith. He's telling us that the faith race has to be run by every one of us.
[00:28:16] Are you in the race this morning? That's a good question, are we in the race this morning as individuals and as a body?
[00:28:25] I've heard it said it's the next generation's turn to take up the torch. We've done our part. We're handing things to them. We're going to just support them and we'll just cheer them on. But the problem is, it's your race.
[00:28:40] Your race is your race. You can't hand your race off to somebody else. It doesn't work like that.
[00:28:47] You have to finish your race, finish what we start. The race is not over until we have breathed our last.
[00:28:57] It's hard for us as parents, and especially grandparents, when it comes to the idea of suffering.
[00:29:04] But parents, I think they've got some kind of a resolve in them somehow. And I know I had it with my kids, my poor boys. But you're going to train them up in the way they should go. And whereas grandparents, we roll our eyes and think, okay, because we've been there, done that, and we understand, man, they just need to be loved. They do need to be guided and directed and disciplined and all those good things. But a grandparent just sort of like, it's just so hard to watch your kids discipline your grandkids. That's so hard. But you know that it's good for them. But when we see our kids being hurt, it's hard on us. And I have this great story here of a mother and her boy, and her name is Sonia Reader. And this is from an issue of a Christian parenting today. And it goes like this. It says, one night after supper, my son Chase sat down in the living room to begin the task of signing and sealing Valentine's Day cards he picked out for his second grade classmates. And seeing him surrounded by the mountain of cards and envelopes and a list of names that filled the entire page, I decided I would enter into the spirit of the holiday and give him a hand. Here, you seal the cards and mark the names off the lists, he said, shoving 15 or more cards and envelopes into my lap.
[00:30:24] I sat my coffee down on a coaster, and I began stuffing cards into envelopes. And halfway through the stack, I noticed a red, bold pink Valentine inscribed the words, I am thankful for you. And what caught my eye wasn't so much the card as much as the dark lettering or the writing in the envelope with this big black line through thankful. I am thankful crossed out for you. And then she says, she nudged Chase, and she says, I don't think that it would be very kind of you to give this card to one of your friends. And I was not prepared for the angry outburst that followed. Chase sat up and he yelled. Every day that girl calls me names.
[00:31:03] I have to ask her to stop, but she laughs at me, and then she just curses at me. And my heart felt alert of pain. And as I pictured Chase standing undefended in the schoolyard, being teased by this unknown girl, I sat and I looked, and I took the tears as they rolled down Chase's face. And I told him that I was sorry and that I understood why he felt the way he felt. Chase jerked himself loose from my arms with a fresh flow of tears. She embarrassed me. He says, do you want me just to stand there and let her call me names? Here's was my young son facing the moment of suffering in his life. That seems like a pretty small thing, maybe to most people, but to him, it was a big deal. And what did I want Chase to learn from this moment of suffering in his life? And I know how big this world is. And this kids, we cannot take these things lightly with our kids.
[00:32:00] I remember, like, school was not my friend. And when I was in grade one, I remember we're sitting in this little circle, and they were reading, and we were going around the circle, and I'm over here, and they start over here and they're reading, taking turns reading out of the book. And I've never read before. I didn't know how to read. And when it come to me, it just, like, my blood was just pressure was going up as getting closer to me, and I couldn't read. And I can remember clearly the picture of the class and everything else in that moment. And so when our kids are suffering like this, and a mom is so good at this and dads are good, they're better, I think, today than they've ever been. But it's like, suck it up, kid. Just get going. Don't worry about know what did I want Chase to learn from this moment of suffering? I put my arm around Chase and I wiped his tears with a Kleenex, and I said, yes, Chase, I do want you to let her call you names. I don't want you to do anything that would hurt her. I continued to hold him, and as he calmed down and he thought about his choice, after a few moments, he slowly picked up a new card. And he dressed it neatly to his girl. To this girl who had so easily hurt his heart. His voice was to offer her forgiveness his choice was to offer her forgiveness and grace in the form of a Valentine's card. You know, these kinds of hurts, they start at a very young age for all of us.
[00:33:24] And at times, these hurts, they go very deep and they carry over into our adult lives. Deep ones, and not even so deep ones. Sometimes we carry them over into our adult lives. And as far as mankind goes, it may be very unforgivable what has happened to you. But God, your creator, who was there at the time when you were being hurt, can bring healing and restoration to what has been lost. God is a creator, and he can do that. If people knew, nobody would blame me for not being able to forgive that person. But I want to encourage you that God can and wants you to be free from the bondage of unforgiveness. Because that's all it is, is a bondage. As innocent children, these weights of life are being laid on us all through our lives. And they continue to be laid on us until we come to know the one and the only one who can show us how to lay these weights aside. And his name is Jesus.
[00:34:28] He's the one who sets us free. The day I got saved, it was amazing. I felt like I could float. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know that I had laid off the weights that the world had been stacking up on me all those years. I didn't know that was what was happening. But that's what was happening. I laid those weights down. I have been experiencing healing since the day I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Jesus. I've been experiencing this healing at this altar. Laying down offenses. Laying down hurts from my past and hurts and misunderstandings from even today.
[00:35:06] You don't know this, but I come to the altar every Sunday morning. That's why I sit in the front row. I don't have far to go. And I'm not just tramping up there every Sunday morning to the altar, but many, many times at the altar. Right there. And the altar is out there as well. Our altar is where we make our altar. And we can have our peace with God. We make our peace with God. Sometimes we need to come up front and to the altar. Because it's just a time that reminds us in our mind.
[00:35:39] It's a time when we made a choice. Sometimes we can sit in the pew and we can go through the motions and do it over and over. But we don't remember one from the next. But when we take the times that are really being impactful to us, we come down to the altar. You remember the times that you come to the altar?
[00:35:56] I've had some beautiful times, amazing times of deliverance in my own life at the know. I know my place and I know my part, that apart from Jesus, I can do nothing. I work hard at keeping short accounts because it doesn't take very long before I can feel these weights starting to weigh me down. And the weights and the sin that slow me down, they are distraction. One of the translations said that to distract you, they distract me from accomplishing what God wants me to accomplish. They get in the way, they clutter things up, and it's the only way that I can walk in freedom by keeping my account short. Unforgiveness is one of, if not the biggest weights that holds a believer back. And so many of the amazing experiences God wants us to have, they're blocked by unforgiveness.
[00:36:53] What kind of weights are you carrying this morning?
[00:36:58] There are weights that we have to continually lay down. You can't walk through this world and not have weights becoming on you. But the great thing is that when we come to God and we ask the Lord to help us, to guide us, to give us strength, and we just lay these things down to him, it's amazing. We can be free day after day. If we get on our face 100 times in a day, we can be free 100 times. We need to lay these things down.
[00:37:23] Maybe a parent has hurt you, and it doesn't matter what age we are, because I have talked to people that have been hurt by their parents, and they're like 70 years old, and they have had to pray and ask forgiveness and forgive someone and amazing experiences in my office. At times when deliverance takes place and a person comes to that place where they recognize, I need to let this go, and they forgive someone, and it's just amazing what you see. Maybe a teacher has hurt you, or a Christian friend that you've trusted has let you down, or a coworker. God is calling us to lay down these weights this morning so that we can be free to run the race that he has set before each one of us.
[00:38:07] We can veer off, we can get distracted and sort of not even be on the path anymore. But man, it doesn't take much to make a course correction. And the beauty is God's not standing there with a big stick. Then when you get there, you're going to get a good licking for getting off the path.
[00:38:23] He's just standing there and he wants to hold you. He just wants to hold you and love you and just let those tears flow and let them go and get up justified just as if you'd never sinned. Amazing. It's amazing. God we serve. It's never too late.
[00:38:40] And a real good way to stay on course is to be mentored. If you really struggle and you wrestle with things, to be mentored at Celebrate Recovery, we've got mentors. At Discipleship, we've got mentors. Stephen Ministry is somewhat like a mentor program where you just come alongside somebody. We've got people that have been trained to mentor people, and they'll come and they'll meet with you once a week, and you go through whatever the Bible or whatever materials you'd end up going through, and once a week and you learn how to be steady on this course and get to the place where you can mentor somebody, because we should all be mentoring somebody. Somehow we should all be doing something. You know, there is no place for a believer that is healthy to not be serving somewhere. That is not what it's about. God has a path for us, and it's about building his kingdom, not this church, building his kingdom, seeking and saving the lost. Seeing them mentored, discipled, and put into ministries and going out and winning the loss sidetracked.
[00:39:42] You know, we have people wanting to do that. And Jesus, he said to us, he says, for us to go and to make disciples. But then he says, teaching them, you don't just see somebody saved and then just walk away and then head off to try and save somebody else. It says, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. That's our job. When we win the lost, as we grow in this way, we learn that it's not just about getting through. It's not a really race, it's a marathon. And psalm one says it so beautiful. It says, happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers. But their delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his lotter, they meditate day and night. They will be like trees. They're like trees planted by streams of water which yield their fruit in season. Right when you need it, you'll be yielding that fruit. And their leaves do not wither.
[00:40:43] And all they do, they prosper. What an awesome promise. So as time goes on, God is just continually working to build our endurance and to teaching us to persevere. The next time I preach, whenever that might be, I want to preach on the disciplines of God. I want to preach on the disciplines and suffering, because there's something there I don't know yet. What it is. But reading this, it talks about the disciplines next in the verses. BuT there's something very powerful about suffering and the disciplines of God.
[00:41:19] What he's trying to build in us in endurance and teaching us how to persevere. He's always watching and wanting to encourage us and to help us to grow, to become more like him. That means more unlike us, because that is where health is at. And at the finish line. I pray that we'll all hear these words. Enter into thy rest, thy good and faithful servant.
[00:41:45] So, in closing this morning, I just would like to have us stand and, holy spirit, I pray that you would open our hearts this morning. To receive all that you have for us to receive here this morning.
[00:41:59] Because we recognize that apart from you, we can do nothing.
[00:42:04] Lord, all of us, as we walk through this life, you know that we're in this world, but we're not of this world. And as we're walking in this world, Lord God being influenced by all kinds of stuff around us, we tend to take on these weights. We tend to get distracted going after things, even just a little bit that maybe we shouldn't be going after or getting involved emotionally in things we shouldn't be involved in, or totally, but they sort of throw a weight on us. And so, Lord, I want to pray that you would just give us all the ability, Lord, to see what these weights are. Maybe we all know, as the words been being spoke, they've come to their mind.
[00:42:47] Lord, I pray that you'd help us to lay them down so that we can walk out of this place, Lord God, just free, as free as you would want us to be.
[00:42:56] I want you to imagine Jesus. Just picture Jesus face. I want you to have your hands out. Just. Even if it's in your imagination, just your hand, your palms up. And I want you to just hold those weights. And I want you to take and turn your hands downward. And just put your hands down to your side with your palms down and saying, Lord, I set these weights down. I'm not carrying these weights. Or the sin that are tangling me up that are getting in the way, distracting me. I set them down and Lord God, everybody that's done that, Father, in their heart, I just pray for the power of your Holy Spirit to just fill them right now in Jesus name.
[00:43:37] Lord, you talk in your word. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and that place shook. Lord, I pray, fill us all with your Holy Spirit this morning that we can walk out of here in the power of that Holy Spirit. Lord God, just shining. And when we walk out of here, the cars drive by, they just see a bunch of light bright people coming out of this building wondering what's going on out there. Lord, I just pray you bless your people in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you as you go this morning.
