Hebrews 12:1-2  Have you ever been so discouraged that you felt like quitting in your Christian experience? Listen as Pastor David shares this study on enduring through tough times. 

<div>Hebrews 12:1-2</div> <div></div> <p>Have you ever been so discouraged that you felt like quitting in your Christian experience? Listen as Pastor David shares this study on enduring through tough times. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

The Secret of Christian Endurance

Hebrews chapter 12, we're given insight into the mind of the Apostle Paul.

Therefore, We also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." I'd like to spend a little bit of time in this passage, and it begins in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, with the words, therefore.

Now whenever you're studying the Bible and you come across the word therefore, The word therefore is a concluding statement or concluding word.

You have the premise and then you have therefore.

1 of my favorite subjects in school was geometry.

I didn't care so much for algebra, but I loved geometry.

Some of you may remember that from your high school days.

And we would write down these proofs, And we would list the reasons, the premise, and then we would come down to the end, and there were those 3 dots.

The word therefore, this is Paul's punchline.

This is his application of what he's trying to convey to the Hebrews.

So we have to go to what is before the word therefore.

The chapter before Hebrews 12 is Hebrews chapter 11.

I'm not going to read through the entirety of Hebrews chapter 11, but I just want to highlight a few verses that have stuck out at me.

I promise I won't read the entire chapter.

Hebrews 11, verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Verse 4, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying to his gifts, and through it being dead still speaks.

Verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

And if truly they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise offered up his only begotten Son.

Of whom it is said, In Isaac your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin." Verse 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for 7 days.

By faith, harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe them when she said when she had received the spies with peace and what shall I more say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon of Barak and Samson and Jephthah and of David and Samuel the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their dead raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in 2, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

These wandered in deserts and mountains, in caves of the earth, and these, having obtained a good testament through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us, therefore." Paul is building a crescendo of his argument.

He goes through the hall of faith and then comes to his concluding remark in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses.

These witnesses are the individuals, the faithful that have gone before.

The faithfulness of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Jacob, of Joseph, of David, of Samuel, the faithful who have gone before.

These are the individuals that have forged a trail and the path for us.

He says, therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, The witnesses are the ones that we've read in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11.

We're surrounded by this proverbial cloud of individuals that have been faithful before us.

And then he starts to make his application.

Let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us.

Sin, secret sin, cherished sins, addictions, habits, Things that perhaps no 1 else in the world knows but the Lord does.

Perhaps it's something that you've been struggling with your entire life.

Perhaps you're a youth leader, perhaps you're a GYC volunteer.

Perhaps you're an elder in your church, perhaps you're even a pastor.

And this sin, this habit, this addiction has been plaguing you your entire life.

And here the Apostle Paul says, we need to lay them aside.

Because this thing is besetting us, it's weighing us down, it's keeping us back in our Christian experience.

We're told in the book Steps to Christ that 1 sinful desire persistently cherished will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel.

1 sinful desire persistently cherished will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel.

You recognize that This cherished sin is keeping you back in your Christian experience, but I praise the Lord for His grace.

I praise the Lord that in Steps to Christ, and I pray that if you have not read the book Steps to Christ that you read it here tonight.

The book Steps to Christ says that the Lord would love to have us come to Him just the way that we are.

I praise the Lord that we can come to Him just the way that we are, but He loves us too much to leave us in that condition.

We're told in the book Steps to Christ that even repentance is a gift.

Repentance is a sorrow for sin and a turning away from it.

Repentance is not a barrier to keep you away from Jesus.

So many people think, I need to repent before I come to Jesus.

But you can Come to Jesus and say, Lord, I'm not even sorry.

Give me the gift of repentance, hallelujah.

Do for me what I'm incapable of doing for myself.

And I pray tonight if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you'll do that tonight.

You can't beat that cherished sin by yourself.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us.

Because here Paul uses his metaphor, he says, let us run.

The reason why we need to lay aside every weight and sin that so easily besets us, because he's using this metaphor of running.

And you recognize when you're running, you need to lay off excess weight.

Here Paul is grasping for a metaphor to describe the Christian experience.

He's grasping for this metaphor, an aspect of the Christian experience that he's trying to convey, and he does not use in this instance the word walk.

He doesn't say, let us stroll, let's saunter, Let's plod, let's shuffle, let's crawl.

Now there are places in Scripture where the Christian experience is given the implication of a walk, but in this instance, Paul uses the metaphor of running.

Now, for those of you that are here tonight, what is your emotional response when I say the word run.

I'll be honest with you, I, when I think of physical running for fun, I don't have any positive feelings.

The Secret of Christian Endurance

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