Hello, and welcome to The Shining Light, where we are shining the light of the gospel and speaking the truth in love, providing strength, and stirring the hearts of our listeners. We are so glad to have you joining us today as you listen to this message from Pastor Tim Cruise. Let's all stand. We're going to take God's word and read a passage of scripture here, and I want you to follow along to In Hebrews chapter 12, if you'll turn there, we're gonna read verse one together. And I want you to note some things here in God's word that God will use, I trust, to help us with in these days. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse one. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. I want you to underline and make note of this phrase here, lay aside every weight. Lay aside every weight. Thank you, you may be seated. I was thinking recently about a fad that was a part of my teenage years in 1975. There was a man by the name of Gary Dahl who came up with this idea to sell pet rocks. How many of you remember that, the pet rocks? How many of you got one for Christmas in 1975? Anyone here? All right, there we go. And so think about it was a novel idea. It was something that he came up with just talking to some friends and he sold them for $3.95 a piece and he made some $15 million on pet rocks. They lasted, the fad did, for about six months and then it was over. $15 million in six months and then it was gone. They said the secret was not just the rocks that he gathered and put little eyes on, but also how he packaged it. He put it like in its own little house with windows and a place to put it to bed and then a little instruction book on how to care for your rock and how to quote feed it and all these other things, and so people were caught up with this fad, and it was just a rock, but it was packaged in just the right way. I think about what we get caught up in in this day, things that are packaged, things that are presented in such a way to where they get our attention, but they're just so novel. They're just passing fads. People live that way, we're living in a generation of whatever's new on social media, whatever's the latest trend, the latest idea, we want it, gotta have it, wanna be a part of it, or want to share in that some way, that somehow brings us affirmation, it brings us some kind of definition in life, and yet, it's so empty and meaningless in the end. It's nothing but a rock. this pet rock that these people purchased. Nothing but a rock. I wonder how many rocks you're carrying into this new year that God would have you to just simply lay aside, to give up today, to walk away from, to lay before the Lord and say, This is just really something that is passing. This is not important. This is not lasting. This is not what I want to give my time and my resources and my energy to, Lord. I want my life to count for you. I don't wanna be held back. I don't wanna be weighed down. I want to follow you fully, Lord, and do all that you have for my life. We read in this passage of scripture about this great cloud of witnesses, perhaps those looking on, but we know for sure in Hebrews chapter 11, they witness, they testify that through the troubles and trials of life, God is faithful. God is worthy of your trust. No matter what you face, no matter what you go through, you can look to God and trust him for victory. So the theme here in this passage of scripture is a theme of endurance. And I think about what God would have for us in these days, this theme of endurance that God would have us to look to. But I want you to notice something here and notice it in verse three. The Bible says, for consider him that endured such contradictory sinners against himself, lest you be wearied. And what's the word? Faint in your minds. God wants us to lay aside a fainting mind. Write that down, number one, a fainting mind. A mind that is confused, disillusioned, one that ultimately loses heart through troubles and trials. showed us the path of endurance. Jesus showed us courage. These witnesses who went before us, they showed us endurance. God is faithful, God is able. Consider the Lord, look to him, and take into heart the disputes, the strifes, those who speak against you, those who try to undermine, subvert, discredit you, accuse, whatever they may do to try to cause you to hesitate, If you're unhappy with the sacrifice you're making in your service to God, just stop and take a look at his. The sacrifice he made. What he did for you and me, the price that he paid, consider him. You've not yet resisted unto blood. Hey, it's bad for some of us, right? It could be a lot worse, is the point. We're suffering right now, we could suffer more. There's so many things that we could take into account into this year that we don't even know that is out there, some things that we don't even realize that exist when it comes to levels of pain and frustration and angst and rejection and hurt and the depth of wounds that we could encounter. No matter what we face, there's a God in heaven who's faithful and he will be trustworthy and we can find him that no matter where we go in this life, faithful to us. He says, don't faint in your minds. I read this, Rebecca shared this with me. A woman was sitting at the kitchen table making a list. Her husband sat down and watched her as she wrote. Number one, be nicer to other people. Number two, eat only healthy food. Number three, stop being so pushy. Number four, cut down on sweets. Number five, don't be so critical of others. He asked her, New Year's resolutions? She replied, is that time of year again? And he said, I'm impressed. Those were outstanding goals. But do you think you can keep all of them? She said, why should I? These are for you. I know what others need to do this year. How many of you understand that statement? I've got a good idea of what a lot of people should be doing, but what about myself? What should I be doing for God? How should I be honoring the Lord? If you're not careful, if you don't look unto Jesus, you'll get your eyes off the Lord. If you don't lay aside every way, you'll feel burdened down and held back. It's not things altogether that are wicked, it's just things that are weighing you down, holding you back. And some people are weary, they're discouraged, they're confused. They look at the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous and they think, well, hey, what is this thing of serving God? What about me? Is it worth it? Does anyone care? The Bible says Jesus cares. The Bible says too here in verse three, for consider him that, what's the word? Endured. Hold your place there and look with me over in 2 Timothy chapter two. 2 Timothy chapter two. I want you to see that theme. In 2 Timothy chapter two, we find in verse three, thou therefore endure hardness. as a good soldier, Jesus Christ. This theme of endurance is a part of the Christian life. Paul said in verse 10, therefore I endure all things. We come into chapter four here and we see this theme of continuance, this theme of bearing up under, of pressing forward, no matter what trouble comes our way, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned in verse number 14 and has been assured of. In the chapter four, the Bible says that We're to endure afflictions in verse five. Why? Because there will be those who will not endure sound doctrine in verse three. This theme of endurance, bearing up under, being steadfast, being patient, even in the face of provocation, of rejection, of those who would not understand nor regard nor appreciate our service or our sacrifice. We do what we do is unto the Lord. The survey was taken recently at the end of this past year, October, November. Forty five percent of the respondents noted an improvement in mental health as one of their top New Year's resolutions. Think about that. Thirty nine percent fitness. Thirty seven percent to lose weight. Thirty three percent cited an improved diet. And then next was the financial picture to improve it. It used to be exactly opposite. to improve my finances, my health, my exercise, but now it's mental health. We're living in some perplexing days. People's hearts are failing them for fear, anxiety, depression, weariness. The Bible says, now be careful. You're gonna have to choose to lay this aside, this anxiety. Say, Lord, I'm gonna give this to you. I'm gonna ask you to help me with it. Lord, I can't carry this. bewilderment and this discouragement and this may into this year, help me to just trust you and get clarity from you through the promise of your word. Lord, I need that. Otherwise, my life is just gonna be nothing but a continual vexation and frustration day by day. Lord, would you help me to trust you for your grace and strength to just take this weight of anxiety and worry and doubt and fear, losing heart and fainting in my mind and just laying it aside. God is not here to chide us today. He's here to lovingly call us closer unto himself. Oh, my child, so overwrought with fear and worry and doubt, I am your God. I will not leave thee. I will not fail thee. I will not forget thee. I will never forsake thee. This is who our God is. We can just cast our cares upon the Lord, knowing that he cares for us. Would you lay aside a fainting, mind and give it to the Lord today and say, Lord, I need your help. He talks about this matter of fainting when we're rebuked of the Lord in verse five, Hebrews 12 in verse five. The latter part, my son, despise not thou the chasing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. This matter of enduring, running this race that God has given us individually, doing what God has called us to do with our lives. The Bible says, just know this, God is gonna work on your faith. He's gonna deepen it and develop it. And one way he's gonna do it is when we are not in line with his word, when we're not conforming to the image of Jesus Christ, you know what's gonna happen in those moments? The Lord is gonna deal with us as a father would his son. Despise not the chastenings of the Lord, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, the Bible says in verse six, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. That means there are degrees of discipline and God knows the degree of discipline that is necessary to get our attention, to bring us to a place of surrender and trust to teach us the lessons that he wants us to learn. God is at work in your life, is the truth here, is the understanding. God says, don't grow weary. It's like, why are you allowing this, Lord? Why am I facing this? God is using those things in life to make us more like Jesus Christ, to give us his heart, a faith, his spirit. His compassion, that's what God is doing. So he says here, don't just be overwhelmed and drowned by anxiety and losing heart. No, that's gonna hold you back this year. If you live with a spirit of fear and doubt and worry, you're gonna miss the blessing that God has. So there's a point to where he says, hey, just lay this aside. Anything, think about this, anything that doesn't aid in the race that God has called you to run must be cast off. This is what God wants us to do to be able to endure, to bear up under, to renew our mind. As we think about that, to renew your mind literally means to bring your thinking in line with God's thinking. That's why you're in God's Word daily, right? Renewing your mind means, Lord, what do you say about it? What is the mind of God? You want to know what God's thinking about something? Open the Bible, you open the mind of God. This is what God's thinking. This is what God says about any given matter, right? And so, if you bring your thinking in line with God's thinking, then that's the renewing of your mind. You see it from a heavenly perspective. You see it oftentimes from the true big picture and not just the isolated incidents that you feel oftentimes is unique to you and no one else struggles with this. No one else battles this. No one else has ever gone down this path and faced what I'm facing. Oh no, the same afflictions that you're facing today are accomplishing your brethren which are in the world. There's someone else suffering like you are. There's someone else hurting like you're hurting. And God has a heart for us all. And we have to see that. So when things aren't going well, just say, Lord, teach me. Make me more like you. Help me to see how you work in my life. Lord, help me to trust you in these things. Because if you don't, you just say, this doesn't make sense. Where is the Lord? Why would he allow this? I mean, I don't want this. I would never chosen this for myself, Lord. There's a point to where we come to a place of surrender and faith and say, Lord, but you have chosen this, you've allowed this, and I trust you fully. I'm gonna lay aside that doubt and that fear, that fainting of mind and heart, and I'm gonna surrender to you. I'm gonna trust you. Now, if you're not careful, let me tell you what you're gonna become this year. jaded, hard. I heard a statement recently that was just so, so powerful. So the more you complain in life, the harder your heart gets. The Bible says, do all things without murmuring and disputes. Always debating, arguing, always challenging something, always thinking, hey, someone's out to get me and I'm gonna look out for my, some of us have our defenses up 24-7. And I know somebody's gonna say something or do something because I can't trust anybody. And listen, dear one, there's a matter of your heart that God wants you to see and he wants you to have victory in so that you don't live your life in such bondage. And when you complain about a person, your heart gets hard toward that person. But when you pray for that person, your heart is tendered toward that person. Isn't that amazing? See, some of us right now, we're like, well, hey, here's where I'm at in a given situation. Well, let me ask you about your heart. Is your heart tender in the matter? Open, receptive to what God is trying to do, what God is trying to teach you? where your heart hardened and you're spending your days justifying that, rationalizing that, excusing that in your own mind. God says, you're gonna have to see that and lay that aside, it's gonna hold you back. You're gonna have to learn to pray for your enemies even. Bless them that curse you. Really, Lord, really? Yes, that's the pathway to victory and blessing. Oh, may the Lord help us. Number two, he not only wants us to lay aside a fainting mind, but feeble knees, think about it. He says here in verse 12, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. These are perhaps Those which one time ran well, they became weary, tired. The endurance was no longer there, and he said, listen, when you grow weary, that's not the time to get out of your race. You may for a time need to change your pace, but don't change your race. Keep going for God. Don't turn aside ultimately. Don't lose heart and give up and quit. The Bible says this in verse 13, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. God wants it to be healed. He wants it to be shored up. He wants it to be strengthened. Let's not give up on each other. Let's not give up on ourselves. Let's not give up on God. God, is it working, your life and my life? You say, well, I've taken on water. I'm weary. I'm not running like I once did. In fact, I don't know if I can continue much longer. Take heart. Take hold of the promise of God. Consider Him. Look to the Lord. He endured. He stayed faithful and true to the Father. He looked beyond the cross and he saw the crown, who for the joy that was set before him, that's how he endured. He knew it was not for naught. It was not in vain. He was doing the will of his Father and there was a glory that awaited him if he would endure in faith. You can and I can. And though we're weary, though we are wounded, that's not the time to despair and say, well, I did expect some things 2022. I heard it said this way and I thought it was so true practically speaking. Life is just learning how to move beyond the unexpected. Move beyond the unexpected and learn from it perhaps along the way. Are you moving beyond the unexpected or are you bogged down, held back? Are you just like grappling with that still? Or have you come to a place of surrender and trust in the Lord? Lord, I'm just gonna give this to you. I'm gonna give myself to you, Lord. Where are you at in this race that God has given you to run? Oh, there's certain things he said here. Clear your path, make straight your paths. Get out, get the obstacles out of your way. The things that are holding you back, tripping you up, lay them aside, get them out of the way. They're not worth it in the end. If anything is not contributing to your walk with God, your obedience to God, to doing what God has given you to do, you've got to see the value of laying it aside. Now think about this. God-given duties do not conflict. You say, well, I'll tell you what, My husband, my wife is holding me back, so I'm gonna lay him aside, preacher. That's not what God is saying here, all right? I'm done with him, I'm moving on. That's not what he's saying. You're gonna have to learn how to thrive within the context of the commitments you've made to God and one another, and God therein will bless you. It's not apart from that, but it's in that, learning how to forgive, learning how to humble yourself, learning how to make things right. See there, rather let it be healed. Don't lose that relationship. Don't damage that family dynamic. Humble yourself before the Lord. There's healing there. God's grace is sufficient. It is greater than our sin, than our disappointment, our disagreement. He says, let it, God wants us to be healed. God wants us to lay aside this fainting mind, these feeble knees. He wants them steadied and strengthened. And then lastly, he wants us to lay aside a failing heart. Write that down if you will, number three, a failing heart. There's so much could be developed here. We're to follow peace with all men. Make peace with God and make peace with each other. If you're not right with God, get right with God today. If you're not right with another, get right with that person. Seek reconciliation. There can be healing in your heart and in your relationships. That's what God wants, that's what he commands here. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We know the basis of our salvation is the righteousness of Jesus Christ given in exchange for our unrighteousness. We are positionally holy before God, innocent, forgiven through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And there's a practicing of that. There's a outworking of that which God has wrought within. A right relationship based upon truth. Not just sentimentalism. Not just what someone says or thinks or feels. What does God say? I wanna tell you, if you wanna learn how to treat people right, God will instruct you in his word, and that's what he'll bless. And he'll even bless you with peace if that is not reciprocated to you. God will bless you. You've got to believe that. You're believing the Lord, not me, but the Lord and his word and what he said. Oh, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. There it is, a failing heart. The word fail here has the thought of to come short of, there'll be those who will not take that step of faith to embrace, to appropriate the grace of God, receive it, perhaps in salvation, but also those who will not in service. A failing heart. A heart that does not appropriate the grace of God by faith. You know, some of us, let's just be honest for a moment, Some of us are in a situation right now, we'd get out of it in a heartbeat if we could. Let's just be honest. Some live with this gnawing thought. It's not what I want. Is this it? Really, is it? Well, if it is, I don't want it. And I want to encourage you, dear friend. The more you resist the providence of God, the more miserable you're going to become. You're not going to get it better in your heart by resenting and resisting and failing to appropriate the grace of God, which is greater, more powerful, What we need to do today is embrace the Lord and the promise of his word. And God, if this is what you've allowed in my life, I embrace who I am and where I am and what you've done, and I am going to rest in your grace. You said it's sufficient. It's more than enough. So Lord, Instead of going that way and saying, no, no, no, I'm not gonna do it, I'm gonna shut my heart to it, I'm going this way, I'm gonna do my own thing, I'm gonna live my life the way I wanna live it, I don't wanna face this, I don't want this, rather than hardening myself and making matters far worse down the road. It may not be initially, but down the road. It'll be far worse then than it is even now, right where you're at. But see, we can't think that in the moment because we're blinded to it. blinded by our disappointment, blinded by our burden, blinded by our sorrow, sometimes that has been bore for ever so long, and we're just weary with it. No wonder God says to us, you know what? It's time to take heart. It's time to take hold of the promise of God. To lay hold of what God has for you, you've gotta let go of what you have for you. Lord, I come to you empty-handed today. I just give all that up. My weariness of heart and mind and body, the things that are really, I've taken a hit in regarding that is hindering or holding me back, weigh me down, Lord. By faith, I truly give it to you. I want everything that you have for me in this year, and I want it for your glory and for the good of others, because only then, when I truly love people for who they are, can I experience the freedom of your love and its fullness. Of course, that's how he loves us, right? For who we are. If you'll study this further in this passage, Esau, the Bible called him a profane person. He sold his birthright for one morsel of meat. Profane in what sense? Profane in the sense that he took something that was sacred, something that was holy, and he made it common. Unholy. Of little worth or value. Some of us were thinking that. We're thinking all that God has for me looks so distant and so hard, so far away and so difficult. But what I'm experiencing living right now is something that I just need relief from, I need a way from, and that's my path to peace. No, it's not. No, it is not. And may God quicken you and open your eyes and say, hey, I'm living an illusion. And the one I'm deceiving the most is myself. And I'm being drawn away from God to things, the temporary refuges of this life, which always ultimately fail. God help me, Lord, not to be deceived. Help me to embrace what you have for me. To lay hold of it, Lord, I gotta let go of some things. And some of us gonna have to let go of these thoughts, these fears, this anguish, this disappointment, this disagreement with the providence of God even. We're gonna have to give it to God and just say, Lord, I trust you with it. And I'm gonna take who I am and where I am and I'm gonna shore it up and strengthen it. You know why I'm still here? I'm still living. God's got me here for a reason. He said, preacher, if you knew how much water was under the bridge of my life, would you listen to what you just said? It's under the bridge, it's gone. It's over. Today's a new day. This is a new year. There's a new opportunity. Either you're gonna go forward by faith or you're just gonna trudge along, held back. all the things that have taken their toll. Long enough, have they not? Long enough. I don't want to carry this no more, Lord. I can't carry it, it's killing me. Who hath hardened himself against him, Job asked, and hath prospered? I know not any, not a single one. It's time to humble ourselves. Wouldn't you agree? It's time to take heart. Take hold of his promise in you and just say, Lord, I will strengthen what you've given me. I'm going to celebrate it and make the most of it. Whether it's my marriage, my children, my other relationships, my opportunity, whatever it may be in this life, I'm going to look at it as a gift from your hand and I'm going to celebrate it. I want to be free, Lord. I want to be victorious. I want to gain ground and I want to run this race that you have called me to run. And may God help us to run it bravely, courageously, humbly, enduringly, until we see Christ. Thank you for listening to The Shining Light. We pray that this time has been a time of encouragement and blessing to you. The Shining Light is a production of Shining Light Baptist Church located at 2541 Old Charlotte Highway in Monroe, North Carolina. If you don't have a church home, we invite you to join us. Service times and more information can be found at our website www.shininglightmonroe.com. You can also watch our services on Facebook and YouTube and connect with us on social media. Thank you for joining us and God bless.