That can be found on page 1008 in the Pew Bible in front of you. Working our way through this book, The Letter to the Hebrews. In our last study together, we closed out chapter 11, what we've entitled, and many have entitled, The Hall of Faith, because of the great examples of faith given to us in that chapter. We looked at that last study, the last few verses, verses 32 through 40, and gleaned five very important building blocks for our faith based on their examples closing out that chapter. The first was the embodiment of our faith. Very simply put, we said this is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. All that he did, all that he said, all the prophecies going all the way back to Genesis, all the way through the books of the Old Testament into the New Testament, Jesus arriving and then living his life for all to see and then sacrificing himself. And as we saw a few minutes ago, borrowing a tomb for three days, rising from the dead, going to heaven, preparing a place for us. The embodiment of our faith is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And we saw that in the study in Hebrews chapter 11, going all the way back to Abel and Enoch, how they were looking forward to Jesus in their faith. We saw in Matthew, or I'm sorry, John chapter eight and verse 56, Jesus himself told the Pharisees, Abraham Abraham looked forward to seeing my day. And he did. We said faith is only as good as the object of faith. The object in which faith is placed. And Jesus Christ is, as we'll see when we get to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2. We're not going to make it there today, I don't think. that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith, then I'm so glad. He is our rock and our redeemer. Unshakable faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ. So first, the embodiment of our faith. Second, the enactment of our faith or the exercise of it. Being willing to put our faith in practice for everyone else to see, especially those close to us, our family, those who work with us and so forth. Do you remember the church at Philippi? Paul and Silas went to Philippi, and they were preaching and teaching, and they had this slave girl following them around, accusing them, and they cast demons out of her, and because the slave owners lost money, they got thrown into the jail. Remember this, in the inner jail? First they got beaten and whipped and thrown in there, even though they were Roman citizens, and that shouldn't have happened. And while they're in the inner jail, at midnight, they're singing praises to God, and it's the original jailhouse rock. You remember that, right? The place was shaking. There was an earthquake. And the jailer came and said, well, he was going to kill himself because he thought the prisoners escaped. And they said, don't worry, we're all here. And then he said, what must I do to be saved? And that was the birth of the church at Philippi. These precious believers there. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. And in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, he says this. Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, Work out your own salvation. That doesn't mean you work to earn it, it means to put it on display, put it to work so that others can see it. Work out your own salvation, watch this, with fear and trembling, a reverential awe for what that means because for some, eternity is at stake. seeing your life, your faith in action. And then it goes on to say, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. The enactment of our faith, the embodiment of our faith is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The enactment of our faith is when we exercise that faith, put it into practice, and then God uses it for his glory to affect and influence others. The third building block we talked about was the enablement of our faith and what I just touched on a second ago, and that is, excuse me, the fact that God can and will take our faith and use it for his purposes. We saw that in the closing verses of chapter 11. We saw the examples of Gideon and Barak and Samson. Gideon, the fearful farmer. Barak, the worried warrior. Samson, who really wasn't considered godly at all until the end of his life when he was willing to give his life to defeat God's enemies. And then Jephthah, Samuel, the prophets, we considered those, and then there are many others whose names we don't even know. But God was able to take their faith, the enablement of our faith, able to take their faith and use it for His glory. Fourth building block is the endurance of our faith, the endurance of our faith. We'll say more about this in a few minutes, but that is the realization that just because we remain faithful doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It's just going to be difficult. And we saw that in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 39 as we talked about these individuals that we've just elucidated here, some named, some not named, it says this, and all these though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised. They lived their whole lives without the fulfillment of the promises to which they had clinged because, verse 40 goes on to say, since God had provided, this is really amazing to me even now, even after we've studied it, since God has provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. You see, when they lived their lives, the rest of the story hadn't been written yet. It is now and we have it. And I was thinking as I was preparing for all of this, you know, we talk about these heroes of the faith and we say, man, I can't wait to get to heaven. I can talk to Paul and Peter and Samson and Barak and all of these people that we've talked about just to see what it was like back then. And some of them that lived and saw it and walked with Jesus Christ, what was it like? Flip that coin around. They're probably thinking, I wonder what it, or Will when we get there, I wonder what it was like to be alive and active and well in the church age when there were churches everywhere in every country. I wonder what it was like to have the Holy Spirit in your life and in your heart as part of who you are to have God work in you to both Will and for his good pleasure. We have been so, so blessed. Sometimes we forget that when we get to this endurance building block. And we forget because it's so easy to focus on results, isn't it? But remember, God commended these folks for their faith, not their accomplishments, right? Finally, the fifth one that we talked about was the elevation of our faith. The elevation of our faith. And I love what it says here about these people. It says, the world was not worthy of them. These people who suffered. We talked about the fact that there's a principle of reciprocity here. These people were not worthy of the shameful treatment they received because of their faith. But on the other hand, The sinful people that created their persecution were not worthy of the glory these people represented. And it's still true today. And remember that as we watch the world crumble around us. Remember that as things start to fall apart in society. And the Bible tells us it's gonna get worse and worse in the last days, right? Remember the world's not worthy of the glory they're rejecting every day when they reject Jesus Christ. And we can't forget, how could we forget that we serve and honor the majesty and magnificent glory of the eternal God in the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who is the creator of all we see, the creator of the world, and then the one who died to redeem it. So the elevation of our faith, God will lift us up, we talked about that too. So at the close of our study last week, I told you that all of that, all of what we talked about in chapter 11 of Hebrews and all the people and information were given there and in the previous 10 chapters, all of that brings us down to one word, the word therefore. the first word in chapter 12. And again, I ask you to remember that the chapter and verse divisions weren't here in the original language. This was just all one letter. And all of it comes down to this one word, therefore. And it's an important Greek word employed here. It's only used one other time in scripture, 1 Thessalonians 4.8. And I've told you before, I'm not a Greek scholar. I have to dig it out the old fashioned way. But Greek scholars tell me that this word here is a triple compound inferential participle. I don't even know what that means, but it sounds really important, doesn't it? And it is really important. It comes down to this word because what this is, it's called the conclusion of emphasis. And that means that all we've seen, all these people we've talked about, come down, filter down to this point, and the emphasis all of a sudden changes from them to us. It means that the author spent the previous chapter saying, and we talked about this several times, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith they did this, by faith they did that. Now he makes it personal because now it's we and us. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. triple compound inferential participle. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that has been set before us. In other words, what he's saying, after you've been given all this, After all this has been invested in you, all this knowledge poured into you, let the application begin. And he does that, as you saw, by comparing our faith journey to running a race. The Apostle Paul in his letters does that several times. He does it in 1 Corinthians 9.24 and in Galatians 5.7 and Philippians 2.16. And I resisted the urge to go down each of those rabbit trails, just so you know. So with that picture in our mind, I have three points today for our study. And I guarantee you're not gonna forget them. But before we get there, I wanna make sure you see the significance of what's happening here. I don't wanna be redundant, but this is intended to be a pivot point here. This is the place where the spotlight moves from them to us. It's as if he's saying, they've already run their race, now it's time for you to run yours. So with that in mind, my first point, are you ready? First point is this. On your mark, I bet you know what the other two are gonna be, right? There's a couple of things we need to do if we're going to take this seriously. Before you can run, you need to get in the race, right? Before you run, you need to get into the race. And that means surrendering to Jesus Christ. We talked in chapter 11 and verse six about without faith, the kind of faith presented, it's impossible to please him because you have to believe he is who he says he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. And my point for pausing here and making sure that all of you here and all of you joining us via Facebook Live and YouTube and Sermon Audio understand The first step is trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. It doesn't matter what church you went to. It doesn't matter if you're confirmed. It doesn't matter how good you are. It doesn't matter how much money you put in the offering plate. It doesn't matter if you've been baptized. It doesn't matter about any other good thing. You can fill in that blank. This means surrendering to Jesus Christ. Throughout this study, we've talked about the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ over and above all else. And this letter was written to people who had, or were considering coming out of Judaism and accepting this whole new concept of a resurrected Savior. One we sang about just a few minutes ago. We talked about some of these recipients who when they did accept Christ, when they did get saved, their whole life was transformed. But we also talked about the fact that there were many who were still sitting on the fence. They were hanging out with these new believers because they liked the excitement of it. And obviously the evidence was such that he couldn't be denied. He died and he rose from the dead. He was and is the Messiah. But for some reason they're still sitting on the fence. and don't know where they stand with Him. And I wanna make sure you're not there. I wanna make sure you've trusted Christ as your personal Savior, and you know that, that you surrendered to Him. So please understand you're not even eligible for this race if you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior, and that means admitting you're a sinner, guilty before God and that you're not gonna be good enough in any way, shape or form, no matter what you do to meet his standard of righteousness. So you come to him in repentance. That means turning from your way of thinking to his way of thinking to follow him and say, Lord, please forgive me. I'm a sinner. I surrender myself to you. Would you please be my savior? And as we've said many, many, many times here, when you do that, you are 100% accepted. Guaranteed. You move from death to life, from spiritual darkness to spiritual light, John 5, 24. It's awesome. And if you've ever wondered whether God really wants you in this race or not, I will defer to Peter in this, because in 2 Peter 3, verse 9, he says this, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Two options there, perish or repent. And I make this differentiation because there's a lot of people that think they can become a Christian by simply adding Christ to their life. It's called easy believism. that they can just say, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus. Yeah, I think that's cool. I'm a Christian. Or I'm a Christian because I'm not a Muslim or I'm not a Jew or because I grew up in a Christian home or because I went to a Christian school. None of that matters. You have to come to the point of repentance where you understand you're not good enough for God and that your sin has separated you from him and that you need to change your way of thinking to bring it in line with his way of thinking and turn your life and follow him. And if you've ever wondered when the right time is to do this, if you've been putting this off, if you're one of those that's been sitting on the fence, the right time is right now. The Apostle Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 6, verses 1 and 2. Working together with him then, the previous verses talking about being apostles for Christ and ambassadors for Christ, Working together with him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain For he says quote in a favorable time. I listen to you and in a day of salvation I've helped you watch this behold now is the favorable time behold now is the day of salvation So the answer as to when you should do this is right now Don't put it off That's the first thing that needs to happen here under on your mark is to make sure you're eligible for the race, to get into the race. The second thing here, once you're in the race, is to look around. Take a look at the crowd. That's what it says here in the first part of verse one. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, take a look at the crowd. You're in great company, right? And the reference here is to the faith that we've been talking about in the previous chapter. It's our therefore moment. Remember the triple compound inferential participle? Therefore, since we have these witnesses, These who are, and some people try to give you the weird picture here that all of our loved ones that have gone on to heaven and these people we've talked about, it's like they're sitting in a great big arena looking down watching us. No, no, no, no. That's not what's being talked about here. And just so you know, the people that are in heaven already, they have lots of better things to do. Right? It is true this whole arena concept is brought to mind when it talks about these witnesses, but like we said in our previous study in chapter 11, the word witness here actually could be translated martyrs, or better yet, testifiers. Somebody that's testified to something. Martyrs who've run their race. who died in faith, as we talked about, these testifiers, these who have already gone on record with their faith. Take a look around and learn from what's been given to you. Therefore, since we're surrounded with such a cloud of witnesses, so point one, on your mark. Make sure you get eligible for the race. And make sure you understand that all of these testifiers are there for your encouragement and mine. Point number two. What was point number one? Come on. What was point number one? Point two, get set. What does that mean? It means this. Are you ready to run? Are you ready to run this race? Two things here. First it says, we need to lay aside every weight. It says, looking at this great cloud of testifiers, witnesses, let us also, just like they did, lay aside every weight. And basically what that means is getting rid of everything that is not needed for you to run. It refers to a burden or something that you carry that makes you bend over. Actually, the basic word meaning here is baggage. Something that loads you down. Keeps you from running this race well. You've seen the Olympics, right? You've seen the runners as they come out onto the track and in the middle of the field in there. Before their race, they come out there and they're wearing hats. and headphones, and warm-up gear, and they step into the infield, and they kind of start to stretch, and stretch their legs out, and then they'll go onto the track and maybe run a few yards to get loosened up. But when it comes time for the race, the hats come off, headphones come out, warm-ups come off, And they prepare to run, and they get into the smallest, lightest uniforms decency will allow. And why is that? They don't want any extra weight, any baggage that could possibly hinder them in any way in the race. They want to be ready to run. And for us, what this means is things that are physically, spiritually, or emotionally weighing us down. That kind of baggage. Stuff in our lives, some of it may be good stuff by itself, intrinsically there's nothing wrong with it, but if it keeps us from running our race, if it keeps us from being faithful in our faith because it's baggage, we need to lay that aside. How do we do that? There's several ways. 1 Peter 5, seven says, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. Philippians chapter four, verses four through nine. Don't be anxious for anything, but by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. The rest of the verses there are awesome, teaches you how you can have the peace of God and the God of peace, guarding your heart and your mind. Awesome. First thing we need to do when it says get set, is make sure we're ready to run. When an athlete steps out on the track and gets to the starting blocks, they're ready to go. No baggage. Second thing here that needs to happen, not only lay aside every weight, but number two, get rid of your favorite sin. Get rid of your favorite sin. What do you mean, Phil? Well, we're supposed to get rid of all sin in our life, right? But this reference here is another really unique passage, a really unique concept. Because the reference here is to the sin that just grips us. And we can't seem to shake it. Some translations say the sin that ensnares or entangles, and here it's the sin, and the word for sin is hamartia, it's the regular word for sin in the New Testament, but the sin that clings so closely. But none of these really cover what the author, the Holy Spirit, is trying to convey here. So, I've decided to teach you a Greek word. Because the Greek word is so much cooler than anything we have in English. Are you ready? How many are ready to learn a Greek word? Come on. All right, here's the Greek word. In fact, here's the English letters. And for you on YouTube and live stream, it's down here. The word is this, euparistatos. How many think you could say that? Let's try it. I'll say it again and then we'll say it together. Euparistatos. Okay, ready? I can't wait to hear you try this. Ready? Wow, you did great. Euparistatos is a fantastic word. Let me explain what it means. It can mean to stand still or sit and do nothing. That sounds like a big word for doing nothing, right? Euparistatis. It can mean to just do nothing. Or the same word can mean to run around going off in any direction. The same word. Let me explain it. Because the meaning is this. It's anything that stops you from doing what you're supposed to do. or it's anything that gets you to do everything except what you're supposed to do. You get it? You see why it's such a cool word? Euparistatus. Anything that stops you from doing what God wants you to do or gets you so busy and so involved in doing so many things that you're not doing what God wants you to do. You can either do nothing or be too busy. Euparistatus. So, what is your Eupharistos? What is it that clings to you so closely it just seems to have its hooks in you? Is it anxiety? Depression? Fear? Pride? Jealousy? Spirit of unforgiveness? Maybe something else. In fact, I have a feeling right now the Lord's laying it on your heart. I don't even really need to know. If we're going to run this race, if we're going to get set so that we can run this race right, we need to make sure first that we lay aside all the baggage, and then secondly get rid of the Euparistatos, the sin that's got its hooks into us. We've prayed and prayed and prayed and it's still there. More importantly, how do you rid yourself of this sin that so closely clings to us, it says here? Well, the answer is to choose your weapons carefully. Put on the whole armor of God, we're given in Ephesians chapter six, reminding us that the warfare that we're involved in is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power. spiritual wickedness in high places. We can't even understand, we can't even really comprehend the battle that we are involved in every day, this great cosmic conflict. And it's probably a good thing we can't comprehend it, because it would be so intimidating. But we're also told in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and following that He's given us everything, His divine nature has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. We need to put on the spiritual armor provided for us and we need to choose the right weapons. 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 through 5, Paul words it like this, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. for our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against, ready for this, the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. What we've said all along in this study is just get to know him better. The knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of God revealed for us in these marvelous pages of scripture, portrayed for us by all these people we've just been talking about, created for us by our Savior that we're gonna talk about, Lord willing, next week. Just get close to Him, to know Him better. I love what it's, well, I love what we're told in Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 17 where it says, Isaiah, just before going into talking about the compassion of Christ, prior to talking about the peace of Christ, says this, Isaiah 54 17, No weapon that's fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication comes from me, declares the Lord. Isn't that cool? So, on your mark, Make sure you're eligible for the race. Get set. Lay aside the baggage. Get rid of the Euparistatus. Who knows what the third point is? Go! On your mark, get set, go! Run! Run this race! Run the race that is set before you. In the verse it says, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. You realize he's not talking about a sprint here, right? In this race, he's talking about a marathon. When we were kids, back in a little tiny town in central Wisconsin, I was really into sports a lot. And on winter days like this, one of the things I loved to do was make snowballs, and I got really good at it. I could pack them really tight and throw pretty accurate and pretty far. And I was into pretty much every kind of sport. And my little brother who was two years younger than me wasn't. He was the exact opposite. And I decided I really should do something about that. And so one day, in fact, probably more than one day, if he were here, he would tell it like this, only with a little bit different twist. I said, Russ? You know, you can't do a whole lot of things as I was throwing my snowball up and down. But there's one thing you can do. Run. He said, what? I said, you're gonna learn to run. He said, Mom! Mom came out and said, what's the matter? And Russ said, he's gonna throw snowballs at me. Mom said, Phil, put the snowballs down. She went back inside, I looked at the door, I looked at Russ, and I said, run. And he learned to run. In fact, he became quite an accomplished cross-country runner. Something I could never do. I didn't have that kind of endurance. But he did. I like to think I had a small part in that. But he went on in junior high and high school and in college to be an impressive cross-country runner. In fact, let me brag on my little brother for a minute here. One year in college, he came in second in the Northern District Nationals. Run. Run with endurance the race that's set before us. Become a cross-country runner because there's going to be ups and downs, hills and valleys. It twists and turns. We need to realize this is our race and it's not going to be easy. In fact, we get our English word agony from the Greek word translated endurance here. We need to own this. This is the race that is set before us. And we've studied all these cool people, especially in chapter 11, but that was them. This is us. That was then. This is now. That was there. This is here. This is our faith marathon, our faith cross country run set before us, yours and mine. Yours is gonna be different than mine. Paul said it like this. Acts 20, 24, Paul said, but I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only that I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And then, and then toward the end of his life, he was able to say, and we read it in our scripture reading just a few minutes ago in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 7, I fought a good fight. I finished the race. And I kept the faith. On your mark, are you sure you're saved? And if you are, what does it mean to have these testifiers here for your encouragement, the crowd? Number two, get set. Have you gotten rid of all the baggage, the stuff that weighs you down and have you rid yourself of your euphoristos? Number three, go. Run. We need you in this race. We need your faith. We need your endurance. Run with endurance the course that God has marked out for you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for your grace and for your goodness. Help each of us, Lord, whether we're here or hearing this or watching this, to be willing to take that first step of this race, and then the next, and then the next. And faithfully, Lord, engage in this faith marathon. We know the next verse says that we are to look to you so that we might focus and finish this race. But for now, Lord, let us evaluate ourselves as this great spotlight has turned from them to us. Let the application begin. And I pray as we close here today that your Holy Spirit work in each heart, Lord, revealing to us what needs to happen next. so that we would do this right, so that our faith journey would be as precious to you as it was to those we've studied about. We know it is, we know this. We have like precious faith. Lord, give us the wisdom, the knowledge, the desire to know you better so that we might run faithfully in this faith journey, I pray. In Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake, amen.