Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240128 - Living Our Lives Looking To Him - Hebrews 12:1-2

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#20240128 - Living Our Lives Looking To Him - Hebrews 12:1-2 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
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more about the many resources available through Abounding
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Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
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into our study. Amen.
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Open your Bibles. Hebrews Chapter 11.
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Hebrews Chapter 11. We're going to end up in Hebrews
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chapter 12, but open first to Hebrews Chapter 11.
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And I've entitled our Bible Study 2024.
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Living Our lives, looking to Him.
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Living our Lives looking to him. Because here we are.
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We're 28 days into a brand new year.
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We're still heading into a new year.
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There's still a freshness about it.
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And God has been wanting to apprehend your heart.
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He's wanting your loyalty and desiring your commitment and
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wanting you to understand and grasp his great grace.
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And today, he wants you to understand that living your
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life, you need to be looking to him.
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It's so important. Look to him in the Hall of
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Faith, which is Chapter 11 of Hebrews.
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It's commonly known as the Hall of Faith because in it, it gives
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us life afterlife afterlife afterlife afterlife afterlife of
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regular normal, ordinary people who did great things.
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By faith their lives were looking unto the Lord.
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By faith I mean look. You can see some of them by
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faith Abel by in verse four and verse 5.
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By faith Enoch in verse 7. By faith Noah.
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Verse 8. By faith Abraham you can jump
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down to verse 23. By faith Moses again in verse 24
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he gets 2. By faith, Moses, you you can see
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all that he did all the way to verse 30.
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By the by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.
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By faith the harlot harlot, Rahab did not perish.
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And then you look at verse 32 and it says, What more shall I
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say? For the time would fail me to
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tell of Gideon and Barrack and Samson and Jephthah, also of
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David, Samuel and the prophets who through faith and notice
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what they did. Subdued kingdoms worked,
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righteousness obtained, promises stopped, the mouths of lions
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quenched, the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword,
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out of weakness were made strong, became valiant.
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They turned to flight. The armies of the aliens.
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Women received their dead, raised to life.
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Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they
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might obtain a better resurrection.
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And others, verse 36 had trial of mockings, scourgings, even
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chains and imprisonment, prisonments.
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They were stoned, they were sawn in two.
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They were tempted and slain with the sword.
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They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
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destitute, afflicted and tormented.
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And notice in verse 38 of whom the world was not worthy.
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I believe God wants your name in the hall of Faith.
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I know he's not writing more Bible or anything, but if there
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was a modern day hall of faith, I believe God wants your name in
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it so that you can say by faith this was my life.
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This is what I did. I mean, think about it.
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If your name was in the hall of Faith, what would it be?
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I mean, you certainly don't want it to be in the Hall of Faith.
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Oh, by the way, Ed by Faith did nothing with his life.
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I don't think anybody wants to live that way.
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And UN unfortunately that's exactly how some of you are
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living your life. You're doing nothing for the
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Lord not being open to a fresh work of the Holy Spirit.
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Look if you want 2024 to be different then you're going to
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have to make different choices. If you want 2024 to have some
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kind of impact then you got to re examine your your life.
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You got to look yourself in the mirror and ask God what do you
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have for me? What?
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What is it that you want from me?
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And you know the answer from heaven will be something like
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this. I want it all.
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I don't want you holding anything back from me.
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God says I own you, if you will, by the blood of my own Son,
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Jesus Christ. But you know, Christianity
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Today, especially in the Western world, especially in our
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culture, has just become so low and then significant in people's
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lives, so low on the list of priorities, so low on the list
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of importance. Like, like it's just something
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to do. It's just just a little hobby,
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you know, I just want some morality in my life.
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I just want some morality in my family.
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And while that may be a good beginning, that is not what God
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is calling you to. He's not calling you to a life
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of morality. He is calling you to a life of
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surrender so that he might use you and bless you and relearn in
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previous studies that His will for our lives is that you bear
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much fruit. Bear much fruit.
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Let me give it to you a different way.
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God's will for your life is for you to change the world so that
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the world might think of you. You know what?
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The world's not even worthy of the quality of life that you
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live. It's not even worthy of the kind
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of love that you receive, that you give, not even worthy of the
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friendships and the care and concern that you show to the
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people that are the world's not even worthy of it.
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And that's the point. So that the world might know of
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the grace of God, because grace goes to the unworthy, like me
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and like you. Well, in chapter 12, the
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Christian life is compared to running a race.
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It's a metaphor we're going to read of here, running a race.
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And if you're going to run the race of life, there are ways
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that you can learn to run better, to be more successful.
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You want a different year than you can learn how to improve
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your life, just like someone that would run a race.
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And so notice with me in chapter 12 and verse one, it says,
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therefore we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud
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of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which
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so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race
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that's set before us. Looking unto Jesus, verse 2, the
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author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
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set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and
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sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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I want to point out before we begin, I'm going to have quite a
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few points for you today, but I want you to notice the Word
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therefore, therefore is a connecting word.
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So when you're reading through the Bible and you come to the
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Word therefore, it's always wise to pause and say what is it
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there for? And you can remember it that
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way. What is being connected?
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So here's what is being connected between Chapter 11 and
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chapter 12. He's connecting the faith of
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these men and women that have gone before us.
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And he's saying, I want you to remember them.
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I want you to know what they did.
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I want you to see their lives and understand that they are an
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encouragement to you in your life even today.
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These are normal people, regular people just like you and me.
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These are the kind of men and women that would come to a
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gathering like this and worship God together, that did the
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ordinary people that did extraordinary things by faith
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because of their connection to God.
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The encouragement comes in our lives as we consider so many
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that have gone before us. Not just Chapter 11, but many of
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you have a heritage in your life where where your mom and dad
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walk with the Lord, your grandma and grandpa walk with the Lord.
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Like some of you could say. Some of you could say that the
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heritage of your family goes back generations and that
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generational gift of spiritual strength is something that God
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wants to use to encourage you. And why do we need so much
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encouragement? We need encouragement because
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it's easy to quit. It's easy to become complacent.
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It's easy to learn how to do just the bare minimum.
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Or even worse, It's easy to live a hypocritical life where
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everybody thinks you have a relationship with God but you're
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actually not telling the truth at all.
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You're empty. And as a believer in Jesus
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Christ, you and I, we have access not only to external
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encouragement but also internal power.
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I mean, these guys they had, they had nothing that we have
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today and still turn the world upside down.
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I mean, they had no Bible, not like we have today, no
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indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They didn't experience the
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baptism of the Holy Spirit. They didn't have any technology.
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They didn't even have the New Testament.
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It hadn't happened yet. They didn't even understand the
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New covenant. But they had and took what they
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had and they gave themselves. That's the key.
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And sometimes, because we have more, we hold back.
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Because we have more, we hold back from God.
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And what does God do? He shakes the tree a little bit
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through trials and tribulations. So we open our hands and just
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admit God, it's all yours. We're not going to lean on these
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things. We're going to lean on you.
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One commentator described this like this.
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He said they knew how to run the race of faith.
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They opposed pharaoh. They forsook the pleasures and
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prerogatives of his court. They passed through the Red Sea.
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They shadowed down the walls of Jericho.
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They conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, quenched
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the power of fire. They received back their dead
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from the with by resurrection. They were tortured, They were
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mocked. They were scourged.
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They were imprisoned. They were stoned.
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They were sawn in two. They had to dress in animal
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skins. They were in poverty, all for
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the sake of faith. And they changed the world.
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And Paul says because of them and because they witness, you
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know, it says surrounded like a great cloud of witnesses in
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verse one. I don't want you to think like,
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like they're watching from heaven.
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That's not what he's saying. He's saying you have the witness
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of other believers in your life that will move you on.
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Their testimony is cheering you on, even as your testimony is
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cheering someone else on that good testimony of faith.
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So I want to give you a list of things that will help you run
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the race of faith in the race of life.
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Well, things you can consider in this new year that will help you
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run well. I'm going to list them out.
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I hope I get the numbers correct.
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I didn't get them correct yesterday.
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So if I don't get them correct, you fix them on your notes.
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But number one, notice with me, in order to help you run the
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race of faith better we see in verse one.
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Here's number one. Lay aside every weight.
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Lay aside every weight. A runner in a race does not add
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weight to herself or himself. When they're running, they do
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the exact opposite. They try to be as streamlined
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and aerodynamic as possible so they can get even the most
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milliseconds out of the race. Because they understand that
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they're racing to win, they're racing to win.
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You have to lay aside those things that don't help you run
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church willingly. You need to lay them aside.
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The things that are heavy and burdensome.
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That's what the word means, weight.
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It just means in the Greek exactly what it means in the
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English. It means mass heaviness.
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And I mean you get the picture. If we were watching the Olympics
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and we were seeing everyone that's spent their entire life
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training for this and they're lining up ready to run the 100
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meter dash and one of the guys is putting on a backpack right
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before they get to the starter line.
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I mean, you're watching TVI. Don't know if you, but sometimes
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I talk to the TV in the midst of a sports event.
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Do you do that? Give me an Amen if you do.
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All right, well, I'm not alone. I feel better.
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So I'm there. Like, no, no.
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Or that was a wow, whatever, whatever.
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You know, you know what You see and you see someone in the
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Olympics and they're putting on a backpack.
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Can't you just hear, hey, what are you doing?
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You're not going to win that way.
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Take that thing off. I mean, if you think if you were
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in a high school event and you're actually in the stands
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watching the kids do it, they're actually going to hear you and
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maybe it's your kid. And then they there you go,
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running down the stands. Where's she going?
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What? Well, I got to get that backpack
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off my boy. He's never going to win.
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Like, of course not. It's silly.
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It's silly. I've never seen it in my life.
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It's a silly illustration. But I'll tell you what.
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I have seen a lot of Christians trying to run the race of faith,
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putting backpack after backpack after filled with rocks of
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problems and difficulties and things that they bring upon
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themselves that they need to lay aside.
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If you don't lay aside, you will not run your race.
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It isn't going to happen. The things that burden you and
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the things that bother you, really.
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I guess you could say it this way.
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Anything that weighs us down, diverts our attention, saps our
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energy, waters down. Our passion has to go.
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And you know, this could be a Bible study in and of itself.
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I could think of at least 10 things easily, easily 10 things
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that many in the body of Christ carry around that God has
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already enabled you to just lay it aside.
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You're not going to run well until you learn to do this.
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Lay aside the weights #2. Not only are we to lay aside the
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every weight, but also it says and the sin which so easily
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ensnares us. So not only do we need to lay
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aside every way, but we also have to lay aside sin.
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Like the things that are just obvious things that you know you
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shouldn't be doing, you know you should like you just to repent
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and forsake. Sin is necessary With sin, you
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know, with the waits, we can still kind of make progress.
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With the waits, we can still run.
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A you could run a lot faster. But you know with waits we can
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still make progress. With sin, the race stops.
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There, no more progress until you deal with it.
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But I want you to notice, because you're reading the
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Bible, you can read it really fast and skip some significant
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words. And I don't want you to miss
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this significant word because it changes, that changes the
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meaning of the verse. So I just shared the application
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of dealing with sin, but the Bible actually says notice and
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the sin. Paul is saying there's some
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specific sin that you need to deal with.
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And if we take this passage in context, I believe a good case
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can be made that the sin that's mentioned here is actually the
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sin of unbelief, right? Because Chapter 11 is all about
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faith. Trusting God, Obeying God by
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faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
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Hey, you want to run? Well, you need to lay aside the
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weights, but you also need to deal with the sin.
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And do you know the cradle of all sin in life is unbelief?
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You go ahead, come on. What do you mean by that?
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Well, earlier on in Chapter 11 it says without faith it's
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impossible to please God and unbelief and doubt and worry and
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undermines our faith in God. You want to run?
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Well, you need to run by faith, trusting God with your life.
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And you know, faith is always challenged through trials and
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testings, through difficulties. Testings reveal.
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I know a lot of times we think that that the trial and the
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testing actually create, you know, something happens to you.
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You start flipping out and yelling and screaming and
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cussing. You go and they go, bro, bro,
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calm down and you go, you know what?
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I would have never been like this if this didn't happen.
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And you're kind of blaming the circumstance for your behavior.
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But let me tell you something, the circumstance didn't create
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that behavior. The circumstance.
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Listen. The circumstance revealed what
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was already inside of you. That's why it's so ugly.
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Now everybody gets to see your ugly heart and my ugly heart.
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It's not the circumstance that created that inside.
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You know, I would never be this angry if if bad things didn't
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happen to you. No, no, you're actually angry
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even when bad good things happen to you because it's something
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you got to deal with. Lay aside.
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You've got to deal with it because it's holding you back.
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The sin, whether it is the sin of unbelief or by application,
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anything that you're holding on to.
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Let me give you #3. Notice not only we lay aside the
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weight and the sin, but also we're to run our race with
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endurance. It says run the race, the run
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with endurance, the race that's set before us.
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Endurance. Mark that word if you haven't
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already. So we've already studied through
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Hebrews. But mark that word, the word
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endurance in the Greek language, which is the original language
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of the New Testament. In the Greek, it's the Greek
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word hoopoe Monet. Say with me Hoopoe Monet, it's
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going to help you remember Hu P0M 0NE Hoopomone.
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It means to bear up under the weight.
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And we all need endurance. This group of believers needed
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endurance. Jesus Christ needed endurance as
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he faced the cross. Endurance.
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Hoopomone. It's a powerful word.
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It means to bear up under the weight of something.
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It means it's deeper word that includes patience and endurance.
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It it has an idea of constant there's a constancy when
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suffering or going through difficulty.
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It it it means to stand. It it means in one dictionary to
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hold out. I'm not going to quit.
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I'm not going to cave in. I'm not going to give in to the
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schemes and the wickedness of the devil.
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I'm not going to run away in fear because we've learned over
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the years it's always too soon to quit.
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And already we've. We're a few days into the new
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year, and already believers have quit.
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Already believers have turned their back.
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Already believers have wandered off, and we're just a few days
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into a brand new year. And so we need endurance.
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We need the strength of God to keep us moving forward.
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That's how we're going to run well, that we might hold on to
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God and trust him with our lives.
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We're going to run well. You need endurance, that you
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won't run away and you won't hide, but that you will press
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on. This is a principle, actually,
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that our culture can appreciate. Our culture appreciates this,
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Stick to itness, and we're not going to give up.
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It's certainly not from a biblical perspective, but the
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but the idea is very much the same.
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It reminded me of a quote by Winston Churchill when he was
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quoted as saying this. And I and I quote Never give in,
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never give in. Never, never, never, never in
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nothing great or small, large or petty, never gave in except to
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convictions of honor and good sense.
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Never give in. That's the idea of hoopomone
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toward the things of the Lord. Never give in.
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Keep moving forward, one step at a time, strengthened internally
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by the Holy Spirit. You need endurance so that when
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you're ready to quit. And I know as this Bible study
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goes forward, there are those listening to me that are ready
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to quit. And so God has answered what's
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on your mind right now. It's always too soon to quit.
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That God has strength for you as you turn to him, and already you
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lay aside every weight and you lay aside the sin.
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I can't emphasize enough for you how much sin is wrecking your
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life. How much sin is wrecking
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relationships? How much joy is being stolen
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from you? How you know the misery, you
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know kind of how you put your head on the pillow at night and
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you're all alone. You start reassessing your day
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and reassessing your relationships and it's just so
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sad. It's related to your sin, the
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misery of life, some of you. The difficulty you're facing
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right now is because you've never come to Jesus Christ and
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surrendered your life. You've never asked God to
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forgive you and. Commit your life to following
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the Savior who died for you and rose again from the dead.
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Shed His blood to forgive you of sin.
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The thing that we all share in the room is that we've all
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sinned and fallen. Short of the glory of God, we
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all have. There isn't an innocent one
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among us. The blood of Jesus Christ is
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sufficient to save all of us if we turn to Him.
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Notice #4. Now the fourth thing we learn
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here in verse two is if we want to learn how to run our race.
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Well, we we are now looking unto Jesus.
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You can circle that word looking.
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It means to stare. It means to stare as you're
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living life in this world. You need, as we read in the
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Psalms, Ju, just like the maid to her mistress, the servant to
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his master, our eyes must look to Jesus.
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They can't be diverted from him. It's important we be doing that
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every day. This word.
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There are other words in the Bible, in the Bible that are
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used to describe looking. One means a quick glance.
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That's not this word. Another me, another one means to
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to think through and look with your mind.
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You know, to think about it. This word means to stare and
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look fast, steadfastly. It means not to take your eyes
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off your master. It means to take your attention
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off of everything else and looking afar and looking
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intently, staring deeply unto Jesus that we might learn from
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Him and follow Him. We we're looking.
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We run our race looking to Jesus.
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We get our orders and our direction.
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We get our goes and we get our nose from Jesus.
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Another way to say it, another way to look at this word is you,
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you, you and I. We need to have eyes only for
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the Lord. You know married couples.
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You understand this? Married couples know husbands.
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You're have eyes only for your wife, period.
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They're not to wander off and any other woman catch your
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attention. You're to have eyes only for
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your wife. Wives, can I hear an Amen?
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Good wives, you're to have eyes only for your husbands.
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There's no, all right? There's no other place, no other
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person that's going to catch your eye and draw you away from
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the covenant you have made with your spouse.
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You're to have eyes only for your husband, all eyes only for
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your wife. You're to have eyes only for
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Jesus. That's what he's saying here.
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He is worthy of it to that commitment.
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You're to have eyes only for Jesus.
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Not. There's so many things that get
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our eyes off of the Lord, though.
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I mean, not even bad things. Just things that catch our eye
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in life. Think of all the things that
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take our eyes off of Jesus like money.
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Money is a popular one. Relationships.
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Sometimes relationships become more important than your walk
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with the Lord, and that's a mistake.
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I think it's sports, politics, Retirement.
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Retirement's a big one, man, because you know, the world has
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this system set up. That man.
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If you're not prepared for the future, you're not prepared.
23:23
So you're work and work and work and work and work and work and
23:25
work and work and work, and finally you get to retirement.
23:28
You're 90 years old. Now what?
23:31
What happened with your life? You had eyes on retirement.
23:34
So that's all you did, all you did, all you did.
23:36
And now what happened? Where's your life?
23:38
By faith, brother. So and so spent his whole life
23:41
getting for retirement and then didn't make it.
23:45
That's how the world is. They just use us.
23:48
The system of this world. I think of raises and bonuses
23:52
and houses and cars and 2nd houses and 3rd house.
23:55
I think of all and none of them are really necessarily bad,
24:00
except that if you're not careful, that's what you'll be
24:03
into. And you know what you're into.
24:05
You know what you're into. You can't.
24:08
Some of you can say, you know, I'm into the Lord man.
24:10
He consumes my life. And for that I'm Amen.
24:12
But you know what you're into. It's what consumes you.
24:14
It's all you think about. I mean, on a really simple
24:17
scale, I can tell. I can give you a little test.
24:20
When you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do usually
24:24
indicates what's important to you.
24:26
So if you pull out your phone and flip on Instagram,
24:29
everybody's life is more important to you than your own
24:33
Facebook, whatever might be. You wake up in the morning and
24:37
you check your e-mail for work. Well, I guess work is pretty
24:40
important to you because, I mean, you took a breath and
24:43
you're already worried about it before your feet even hit the
24:47
ground. And you you wake up in the
24:49
morning, you pull out your phone and man, what's my stocks doing?
24:51
What's my stocks doing? I guess money is pretty
24:54
important to you because you got to know what's going on in the
24:58
East Coast with the stock market and really what it is.
25:01
It's a level of priority. You want a different year for
25:04
the things of the Lord and you're going to have to think
25:06
differently and make some corresponding changes that are
25:09
going to associate with that desire to look under the Lord.
25:14
And you just got to be honest. You just have to be honest with
25:17
yourself. Yeah.
25:19
Yeah. Let let the Lord do that deep
25:20
inward work. No pastor can do it.
25:23
No church service can do it. This is only the work of God,
25:26
and it's a deep, deep heart work.
25:28
So that your desire is God's desire.
25:31
And you're looking to him for direction, and you're looking
25:34
for him to him for comfort. You're looking to him for hope.
25:36
You're looking for him to him for direction.
25:39
You're looking to him because you love him.
25:43
And you could say that your eyes are devoted to the ones that you
25:49
love. I mean, in a real practical way,
25:53
our eyes, you know, you can see how you follow your eyes.
25:57
And if you're driving, you know if you're driving along and you
26:00
see a billboard catches your eye and you look at it a little bit
26:02
too long, you notice that your car starts to veer toward your
26:06
eyes are. I mean, even even the guys that
26:08
are making roads and stuff, they put those little indentations.
26:11
You know what those like. If you.
26:12
If you've ever met the indentations that means you've
26:15
veered off and sometimes they hit you as a surprise because
26:19
you were just a few seconds. It wasn't even a long time.
26:21
Just a few seconds. But I was OK, all right.
26:26
I'm good. I'm good.
26:29
And that's why they make a big deal on these days that we live
26:31
they make a big deal. And I agree.
26:33
I agree that you don't text and drive.
26:36
You've heard that which we all have done for the most part.
26:40
Many of us. And God has been gracious
26:44
because when your eyes are on the phone, they're not on the
26:47
road and you've got like a multi 1000 LB vehicle heading at 70
26:53
miles an hour that can do great damage if you don't pay
26:56
attention to how to drive it. And you think of the
27:03
significance of texting and driving and not being, you know,
27:08
being a distracted driver. What is worse is being a
27:11
distracted believer, because the same thing happens.
27:17
There's a great crash coming up ahead.
27:19
There's the bumps of the side of the road, there's the guard
27:22
rails and you're just bouncing back and forth looking unto
27:25
Jesus. Notice he gives us a couple more
27:27
things before we head out of how to look to Jesus.
27:30
Notice the next one is #5, looking unto Jesus.
27:35
Here's #5 as the author and finisher of our faith.
27:39
So when you look to Jesus, just understand that he is your
27:43
author and finisher of your faith and he's the supreme
27:47
example of God in human flesh, 100% man who was able to walk by
27:52
faith himself in the Father, trusting the Father to lead his
27:57
life. Our lives can't be on each other
28:02
comparing ourselves because sometimes the metaphors of the
28:05
Bible breakdown a little bit because we use the metaphor of
28:09
race here and we think we're competing with one another and
28:12
I'm going to win and you're going to lose.
28:13
That's not the that's not the proper way of looking at it.
28:16
In this race. We're not trying to win.
28:19
We want to finish. That's what we want.
28:21
We want to get through the finish line with this race and
28:27
we don't want to beat the person next to us.
28:29
We want to make sure we take as many people with us across the
28:34
finish line. It's not competition.
28:37
And how do we get away from that?
28:38
We keep our eyes on the Lord who started this work in our lives,
28:41
and he's promised to complete it.
28:43
You stay in your own lane and you look to help others.
28:47
There's a race laid before you, your own personal life, and he's
28:52
the author. It says.
28:54
That means the originator, the pioneer.
28:56
He started this, but he's also the finisher.
28:59
And the same word in the Greek here is the same word that is
29:03
used when Jesus is dying on the cross.
29:05
And in his final words, he says what it is finished to
29:10
telestide. This is it.
29:11
It is done. It's the same.
29:13
It's this word is the derivative of that one.
29:17
And so this is the one who carries it to completion that
29:22
he's going to help you. You're not alone.
29:25
Let me show you scripture. Turn over to Philippians chapter
29:27
one. Philippians chapter one.
29:29
I want you to see this because some of you need to memorize it.
29:32
So I want you to mark it because it's so important.
29:35
Sometimes we want to give up and get out of the races as we think
29:37
God's done with us. We think God doesn't care about
29:40
us anymore. We think that we've sent too
29:42
much and we're so messed up and we just can't run anymore more.
29:45
But here's the promise you have to hold on to in those difficult
29:48
times. In Philippians chapter one here.
29:51
Here's what the Bible says. Being confident of this very
29:54
thing. He who began a good work in you
29:57
will complete it. Mark those words, will complete
30:02
it until the day of Jesus Christ.
30:04
So what? God has started in you, you're
30:06
going to make it. You can't make it on your own,
30:08
but you can make it in Him. You will make it in Him.
30:12
You know, I've been receiving quite a few questions recently,
30:15
Radio and e-mail about the promises of God.
30:18
I don't understand, Pastor, How do you, how do you, how do you
30:20
use the promises of God? Well, let me use this was an
30:23
this one as an example. OK.
30:25
This is a promise of God to you. He has made it and he will keep
30:28
it. Here's the promise.
30:29
You ready? God says to you and me in his
30:31
Bible, I started something in your life and I'm going to
30:35
finish it. And so when you think you're not
30:38
going to make it and when you think it's not going to, this is
30:42
never going to turn out. I don't know what's going to
30:43
happen in my life. I don't know what's when you
30:45
think that you can come back to this promise and save God, You
30:49
know, I'm wavering. You know, I'm doubting.
30:50
You know, I'm struggling right now.
30:51
But you said you said that you would finish what you started.
30:56
So I trust, I trust you to finish what you started and I'm
31:07
after I say, Amen. God, I'm not going to worry
31:09
about it anymore. That's how you handle the
31:12
promises of God. Hundreds and hundreds and
31:16
hundreds of promises. You just think you're not going
31:19
to make it. You're tired running a race like
31:21
it's tiring. You get beat up along the way
31:25
you get, you fall down. You know, you have people
31:28
sabotaging you. You got the weights and sin.
31:31
And I don't think I'm going to make it.
31:33
No, no, no. Jesus is the author and finisher
31:35
of your faith. Of course you're going to make
31:37
it. He promised.
31:38
To finish what he started, Let me let me show you another
31:40
scripture. Psalm 138.
31:42
Go back to the Psalms with me. This is way back even in the Old
31:46
Covenant. David understood this and as the
31:48
psalmist is looking at his life and wondering about his life and
31:51
waiting for the mercy of God and where is God in all this?
31:54
Notice what he says. Psalm 138, verse 8.
31:59
Psalm 138, verse eight. He says the Lord will perfect
32:06
that which concerns me. You can also that word perfect
32:09
can also be translated complete. The Lord will complete that
32:14
which concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures
32:16
forever. Do not forsake the work of your
32:19
hands. So God is working.
32:20
He's He's going to perfect it. It's going to be completed.
32:23
You can trust Him. God is working all things
32:26
together for the good, for those that love Him, those that are
32:29
called according to His purpose. Joseph was able to say at the
32:32
end of his life. Genesis chapter 50, verse 20,
32:34
looking at his brothers that hurt him and harmed him so much
32:37
in forgiveness and love. He looks at him.
32:39
He says what you meant for evil, God is meant for good.
32:44
And he's brought it about as it is this day to save many.
32:50
And that's what God is doing. For those of you that love God,
32:55
those of you that belong to him, those of you that serve with
32:57
him, He's working all things together for the good. #7 #7 no
33:02
number six, We're on #6. The author and finisher are our
33:06
faith. Here's the other one, looking
33:08
on, looking unto Jesus for the joy that was set before him.
33:11
It says who? For the joy that was set before
33:13
him. The joy, I believe, was you and
33:15
me. And so there's joy in the
33:18
journey because God is using us to bless other people.
33:21
That's what's happening here. Jesus was able to face the
33:24
cross. He was able to endure the things
33:27
we'll see in a moment, the shame and the difficulty.
33:29
Why? For joy.
33:31
There's joy coming through. The difficulty and the joy of
33:35
the Father is your salvation in mine.
33:37
And there's joy in front of us too, even if today we're in a
33:41
season of man, it's hard, it's difficult.
33:43
I don't really have much joy. I was just praying with a
33:46
brother recently who had he's sharing his testimony.
33:49
He's like, man, I'm happy. And I was able to pause because
33:52
I've been following along with him and I was able to pause and
33:54
I go, look, bro, I just want you to understand what you just
33:56
said. What you just said is that
33:58
you're happy. God is giving you your happiness
34:00
back. And let's just rejoice right
34:03
now. And we did.
34:03
We were able to pray. And he was just such a great
34:06
testimony. But for a long time.
34:09
It's a very challenging, hard road and it's going to continue
34:11
to be challenging. But God restored his happiness.
34:14
God restored his joy, and there's a joy in this race
34:18
that's up ahead. Why do you take the next step?
34:20
For the joy? Why do you keep running for the
34:23
joy? Why?
34:24
Why are you not going to give up and quit and run away for the
34:28
joy that's set before you? So cool.
34:31
Let me give you another one. Number seven.
34:34
Number seven, not only do we look to Jesus as the author and
34:38
finisher and for the joy that's set before him and you, but next
34:43
we look to Jesus for the endurance that he had.
34:48
It's an example. Notice it says the joy that was
34:51
set before him. He endured the cross, despising
34:55
the shame. You know, you would be.
34:57
You wouldn't be surprised to know that that word endurance,
35:01
is the same Greek word that we used earlier, Endurance.
35:04
And it's the Greek word hoopomone.
35:06
Don't you forget that word. One day you're going to just
35:09
want to throw in the towel and the Holy Spirit's going to say,
35:11
Nope, hoopomone. And you're like, what?
35:15
And then you'll remember, the Holy Spirit will bring, do you
35:17
know the Bible promises that the Holy Spirit will bring back to
35:19
your memory the things that you've learned, things that the
35:21
Holy Spirit's taught you. And he's like, Nope, I'm going
35:24
to endure through this. I'm going to make it through.
35:27
God is with me. And Jesus made it to the cross
35:31
through Hoopomone. He endured it.
35:34
He didn't run away from it. He went right at it.
35:38
His life was set toward the cross.
35:41
He He despised the shame of it and the misery of it.
35:46
I mean, here we are running our race, ready to give up, ready to
35:50
throw in the towel. We got to get our eyes back on
35:53
him. And then when our eyes are on
35:55
him, things become clearer. We remember that he loves us and
35:59
that He died for us. We remember we're new creations
36:01
in Christ. We remember the past victories.
36:05
We remember His faithfulness. He remember His joy as my joy.
36:10
We remember His endurance and my need for endurance.
36:13
If he can, I can. And all the shame and all the
36:17
humiliation and all the pain and all the beatings didn't slow
36:20
Jesus down. He endured it all the way to the
36:23
end as an example for us. And finally notice we look to
36:27
Jesus for his finished work. It says at the end of verse two
36:30
that he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
36:34
That's just the truth. That Jesus is finished.
36:37
He sat down. That's a place of completion.
36:39
He's done. He's done.
36:41
The work of salvation is done. That's the final stage.
36:45
Not not only is he done prophetically, because in Psalm
36:50
110 it was prophesied that he would sit down at the right hand
36:53
of the Father, but he also is finished practically that your
36:58
salvation is complete in him. It's the full package.
37:02
Jesus sat down permanently. He has nothing else to do.
37:06
When Jesus went to the cross, he endured all that it demanded.
37:10
He despised the shame. He accepted it willingly for the
37:12
sake of His Father's reward and the joy of the anticipation of
37:16
this reward that the reward would bring.
37:19
And so we run our race of the Christian life We can run in
37:22
joyful anticipation. We can run in such a way where
37:25
the same reward would come to us, a crown of righteousness
37:28
that we're going to cast down at the feet of Jesus anyway when we
37:31
worship Him. And all of our desires and all
37:34
of our hopes and dreams are fulfilled in Him and eternity.
37:38
And God is asking you to run the race church today in this new
37:41
year. He's asking you to give it all
37:44
and to hold nothing back. And I know we use that.
37:48
It's it's a, it's a phrase that's used of ever increasing.
37:52
It's not as if we can give it all today.
37:56
But I know with the heart and with the desire, you're going to
37:59
continue to grow if you continue to hold back with tight clenched
38:03
fists and you're just going to squeeze the life out of that
38:07
which you value and treasure so much, you're just going to
38:09
squeeze the life out of it. God is asking us to come to him
38:13
with open hands. We were considering what this
38:17
new year might bring. And I'm telling you, if you
38:19
don't make radical changes, then nothing radical, it's going to
38:21
get worse. Nothing radical is going to
38:23
happen. It's going to be the same year
38:25
or worse than last year and the last year.
38:28
But God is calling us as our church, just us as believers.
38:30
But he's calling our church to something great and grand that
38:35
that we might live a life and go, You know, the world's not
38:38
worthy of those lives, but we're here nonetheless.
38:41
Why? Because of the grace of God.
38:45
That's why. You live on the block that you
38:46
live in. And that's why you live in the
38:48
apartment. And that's why you rent that
38:49
room. And that's why you work where
38:51
you work. And that's why you may be
38:52
looking for work right now and you're all over the place
38:54
looking for work. Why?
38:56
So that you can bring great glory to God.
38:59
And what does it require you? You know, you just got to stop
39:01
complaining. This is God's will for your
39:04
life. Stop complaining about it.
39:06
Stop gossiping. Stop tearing people down.
39:09
Stop the things. Lay aside those weights and sin.
39:12
It's not helping you in the race church.
39:16
I mean, seriously, when is the what have you done in the grand
39:20
scheme of life through your complaining and through my
39:24
complaining? I'll tell you what, absolutely
39:27
nothing complaining. It's just so.
39:30
It's just so like, like, not only do we not help, but we make
39:37
things worse. And then we're all messed up and
39:41
soiled. Because of course we're in a
39:43
world where we're not going to have, we're not going to like
39:45
everything. We're not going to enjoy
39:47
everything. The hard things happen.
39:49
Difficult things happen. But it saps your joy.
39:53
It puts weights on your shoulders.
39:55
It creates more sin in your life.
39:57
You lose sight of Jesus is not what happens with circumstances.
40:01
Things happen and immediately it's there in the forefront of
40:03
our face, and we can't see anything but the problem.
40:06
But the difficulty, and what the Lord wants you to do is to see
40:11
Him. And it'll make the hard times a
40:15
little bit easier. It'll make the difficult times a
40:21
little bit easier. It'll make the pain and hurts
40:28
and wounds a little bit easier as the Lord encourages us in a
40:34
very difficult world. Look, 2024 is a year that's
40:38
going to be epic. It's going to be an epic year.
40:40
God is going to do amazing things.
40:42
He, He is going to move on the earth today, drawing people to
40:45
himself in even greater ways than he ever has before.
40:48
The only question is, is are you going to be a part of it and do
40:53
you want to be a part of it? Well, if so, then you need to
40:55
let him have it all. You can start small.
41:02
It could be you might be in the place where I just throw up my
41:04
hands and go, I don't know, here I am.
41:06
It could be big or small. But if you don't choose to
41:10
release and let go and make that commitment to go all in, then
41:16
there's a very good chance that this year will be like any other
41:19
year and it'll just be another page, another turn, another
41:25
another year. Where man, where did the time
41:27
go? But we can look back for those
41:31
of us that are running our race and we could say where did the
41:33
time go? You know, I, I don't know, seem
41:36
to go by so fast. But I do know this.
41:38
It went by because I gave my, I gave my Lord.
41:42
I gave it all, man. I gave it all to him.
41:46
And so Father, I know you invite us in and you desire us to
41:49
submit and surrender and and then I know it's just it's
41:55
challenging. You know even as I think you
41:56
know in in that issue of complaining.
41:59
It's just so much a part of our culture that we we're so used to
42:02
it and it's just an indication that we're looking at ourselves
42:09
and not at you. So forgive us, Lord, and help us
42:13
as a pastor and leader in this church.
42:15
Lord, I just want us to move forward and great things.
42:18
I want to be a part of your epic plan.
42:20
I want to, I I desire and and if not for our church, for me, my
42:24
wife, my kids, all that you have, for the people that I get
42:29
to be a part of their lives. I desire that we would run the
42:33
race with joy and just press through the hard times.
42:39
So Lord, have your way with us as we look to you today.
42:42
In Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
42:46
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
42:48
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
42:51
Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
43:00
To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
43:04
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43:09
or download our free Calvary Church app.
43:12
Be blessed as You Worship Jesus this week.