Our text this evening, again, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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. Let me read that one more time for us. Hebrews 12 verse 1. 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. Thinking of what I'd like to consider with you this evening, kind of a section of the verse, let me highlight what I want to focus on with you this evening. Let us lay aside every weight. That's the phrase that I want to think about with you particularly this evening. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. That's the main idea. As it would contribute to the last part, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We understand the image, the idea. To be able to run this race, especially a marathon, we need to drop everything that would hinder us. You know, usually athletes wear light clothes because you can cover a lot more ground, you can run well. I noticed a man jogging, I'm not sure when recently, I thought I noticed he was wearing rather heavy clothes. I thought, gee, I'm surprised he doesn't choose something lighter that would make it easier. This is what we're going to focus on, dropping things that would cause us from running the race well for the Lord Jesus. And as we think about this, think of another thing Christ says. to us in Matthew chapter 5. I'm not going to turn there with you, but I'm going to summarize it. You can turn there if you'd like, but verses 29 and 30. I think you're pretty familiar with it. Jesus says, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. And not only pluck it out, then what does he say to do with it? Throw it away from you. Then he says, if your hand causes you to sin, Cut it off. Throw it away from you. It's really a graphic and tremendous image, isn't it? But it's meant to be to really make the point. Now, this is figurative, of course. Don't mistake like some who have gone too literally with these things. However, the principle is there. You know, I think of Kirk Cameron in one of the movies. It was on marriage. I'm forgetting. I think it was Firehouse or something like that. Fireproof, thank you. And, you know, there's a point where enough's enough, and he takes that computer outside, or that TV and computer, and he takes a bat to it, just beats it to pieces, done. That's the idea. You gotta have that kind of drastic approach to sin in your life. Or it'll hold you down. Jesus says, it's better to go into heaven with one eye than to go into hell with both eyes. It's better to go into heaven with one hand than to go into hell with two hands. Though again, he's speaking figuratively, that's true, right? If we went into hell with both our hands, we'd wish we'd cut one off if that's what it would have taken to go to heaven. But the point is, drastic dangers call for drastic measures. That's true in the spiritual walk, too, in the marathon, to keep running the race, to not be held back and dragged down. Drastic means call for drastic measures. You must shed what will restrict your holy movement forward. You must shed what will risk you finishing the race. So Ephesians and Colossians give us this similar command to put off the old man, is take it off, you know, take the clothes off, throw them off, leave them there, don't put them back on, don't go back to them. And then put on the new man, put on more of Christ and move forward in Christ. Drop it as you're going along in terms of our text this evening, running the marathon for Jesus with those who've already run the marathon before us and are now cheering us on from heaven. Running that marathon, whatever needs to go off, take it off. Get rid of anything that is slowing you down and making you in danger of not finishing the race. Drop it right where you are along the way. Don't stop. Don't wait till you get to the next marker. Drop it off right now if you want to get there. Don't go back and get it later. You'll get to the next mile marker more quickly and you'll enjoy the run a lot more. You won't be so weighed down. And we're starting to study Pilgrim's Progress with Dr. Derek Thomas' video series with Ligonier Ministries in the morning, and that's the thing. He's so crunched and burdened with this heavy weight of sins on him. He needs to go to Christ and the cross to have them taken off. Christians must discard all sinful distractions along their pilgrimage. So they finish their holy race across the finish line into paradise. Give you that as the main idea we're focusing in on tonight from the text. Christians must discard all sinful distractions along their pilgrimage. So they finish their holy race across the finish line into paradise. This word weight is used. Hebrews 12 verse 1. Lay aside every weight. Lay aside every weight. Drop them. Get rid of them. They slow you down. They weigh you down. The Greek for weight has the idea of being an impediment. Something that gets in the way and makes you struggle. Bulk. Burden. A mass. Even being swollen. Get rid of that stuff. Get rid of it. Cut it off if you want to keep going. You know, sometimes if a plane or a boat, you might say, also, if they're struggling to keep in the air, it's time to throw stuff out, right? Get the suitcases out, drop all the weight you possibly can to keep things going. That's the idea here. Get rid of all this baggage, you might say, playing with words there, because they become a heavy hindrance to clearing your hurdles along the race. beset, that is. These weights that so beset us, that slow us down, that the Greek there is easily distract. Isn't that what sins really are? They just so easily distract us from serving Jesus, looking to Jesus, being about the work of Jesus Christ. All these sins, these especially habits of sin, they just distract us from holiness, which we learned this morning is beautiful and a blessing and service to God. These things are what drag you down to a stop when you're trying to make progress. They steal your ears from the great cloud of witnesses in chapter 11. They're all cheering on, we've been before you, and that's the wherefore, he's just gone through. By faith, by faith, so and so did this, so and so did that. By faith, they made it through all kinds of troubles. By faith, Moses would not identify with Egypt, but was waiting for the coming kingdom in Christ. And he gave up the riches of this world to identify with God's people by faith. So many of these people suffered even unto death, but they were waiting for a city and a kingdom built by God. And they're going to have it. And they're now with God in heaven, and they'll come with him when Jerusalem comes down. New Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth. And so with them as our witness before us, they're our witness and they're witnessing and watching and in a sense, cheering us on from heaven. Our ears can just, we can just forget all of those examples and act like we're the first person to ever go through this. Or we're the first Christian to ever struggle for the gospel. Or the first person that ever struggled with a certain sin. Or first person that struggled with some kind of adversary or difficulty or fear or real persecution. Look to all of them. Don't lose the ability to hear them being dragged down by all these things. Those folks who did not let the cares of the world steer them off the course to stay on the straight and narrow way leading to Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Get rid of these weights so they don't get your eyes off Jesus. Because as you get weighed down with sins, what happens? You start looking down. You start looking away. You so easily distract us. And you take our eyes off Jesus. Verse two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We got to keep our eyes on Jesus and these sins that so easily weigh us down and distract us away from Jesus. That's exactly the devil's design. Drag you down in your own sins, keep you from walking and running in victory in Jesus. keeping your eyes off of him. Beloved, nothing is worth falling away from following Jesus. Whatever those weights and distractions are, sinful things that God would not have you do, remember, nothing is worth falling away from following Jesus. I need an amen for that. Let the words of Philippians 3, 13 to 14, which I thought I was going to be preaching to you this evening. I need a little more time, but it's striking to be preaching this with this scripture I've been studying in view. Philippians 3, 13 to 14. Let these words be yours along the way of your marathon for the Messiah. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." If it's going to slow me down, gone. Indeed, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain." 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. Thus cast off sins. Put off the old man. Cast off the things that will slow you down. You know, there will be some in family, some in church, or just friends, you know, who will say, well, don't get too zealous about this Christianity thing. Don't get too crazy about this church. You know, let's be reasonable. Cast it off. Recently, while driving, We were starting to listen to a few songs as a family and singing along. And I said, Dad, can you play this particular song? It was by For King and Country, one of our favorite Christian bands. And the name of the song is Burn the Ships. Abraham explained to me the story behind the song, Burn the Ships. And in the video, you see the brothers. They're brothers in real life. I don't remember their names because I'm old now, so I don't pay as much attention as the kids do. What I do remember is their sister is Rebecca St. James, who I did know better because I was a teenager than her college. And she actually lives in San Diego with her husband, so that's kind of neat. We saw them sing years ago, and she was a guest singer with her husband for a few things here in San Diego. Anyhow, that's just an aside, but I think it's kind of neat because they're one of our favorite Christian bands. This song, Burn the Ships, you see the brothers, they have a ship kind of like at Embarcadero, you know, that pirate ship out in the bay. and the one sleeping in the ship, and he doesn't want to leave. He's all alone. And the idea is he's trapped. He's trapped by himself in his own sense. He doesn't want to leave. He's got to get out of there. He's never going to grow. He's going to die there. The other brother is rowing on the boat to go get him. They get on the ship. They're talking about, we're going to do this. We're going to do this. And as they're singing together, the song, Burn the Ships, he holds out this old bomb. They're dressed like the old folks, English, whatever. They look fancy. Let's put it that way. Not red coats, maybe. I don't know. And he's holding out this old bomb, and the wick is burning. Like, we're going to do this. He drops it. Silence. The song stops for a minute. Rolls next to a couple of other bombs. They jump off the ship, and as they're swimming away, the ship blows up. I think it was computer graphics, but it looked real, and it was impressive, and it was emotional. It was like, yeah, they blew it up. They left it behind. There's no going back to that now. They're going to have to swim to shore. And they did. And the one brother that had been rescued, he's looking back for a little bit and he looks like he's about to laugh giddy he's so happy to be rescued from that and not have the option to go back. Abraham explained the story behind this. image of this song, and I share it that I found on Billboard.com, an interview with Luke, one of the singers, by Deborah Evans Price, and I'm quoting her interview for a moment here. Bear with me, there's a few paragraphs, but I think it'll be worth your listening. Burn the Ships, the song Burn the Ships, was inspired by Luke's wife, Courtney, battling addiction. The couple has three sons, and during her second pregnancy, doctors prescribed an anti-nausea medicine to help Courtney with debilitating morning sickness. During the pregnancy, they continued to increase her dosage, and then Luke explains, I was in Austin, Texas for a show. Luke recalls, Courtney calls me and said, hey, I need you to come home. I said, okay, what's going on? And she said, I can't stop taking these pills. We've got to deal with this. Luke returned immediately, took his wife to a psychiatric facility and doctors placed Courtney in a treatment program. Luke dropped her off every morning at 9 a.m. and picked her up at 2 p.m. And he says, I was at home one day And she had a bottle of pills in her hand. And I was like, what do you have the bottle of pills for? He recalls. And she said, Luke, I need to flush these pills because these pills represent so much guilt and shame in my life. I don't want to be consumed by my past anymore. I want to move into a new day and to what's better for me. The album title, Burn the Ships, as the theme song, came from that moment. Combined with an old history lesson, Luke shares this, I read a story about an explorer going to a new land. When he arrived on the shore, he calls everybody off the ships and said, hey, let's go explore this land and see what there is to be seen. Luke goes on to explain, all the men were terrified of going into the boats, excuse me, all the men were terrified of going into the unknown. And he realized that even though those boats were grimy, stinky, and small, they wanted to stay on the boats because it was familiar. The next day he calls them out again. And when all the sailors were on land, he gives the command to burn the ships because he said, we're not going to retreat. We are going to move forward in our lives. We're not going to retreat. We're going to move forward in our lives. So Luke explains the flushing of the pills was the burning of the ships for my wife and for us to step into a new world, a new day. That was four years ago now. My wife said, you need to go share this story with people because there are so many people that are bound by things in their past. I don't want people to live like that. I want my story to be an encouragement to help them spread their wings. Beloved, I want to encourage you. It's not even so much the pills, perhaps, that she's as addicted to them anymore as just the past feeling bad that she was. It's just time to leave it all in the past, blow it up, burn it, and be gone with it. Burn the ships by forking and country. Here are the lyrics. How did we get here? All cast away on a lonely shore. I can see in your eyes, dear, it's hard to take for a moment more. We've got to burn the ships, cut the ties, send a flare into the night, say a prayer, turn this tide, dry your tears and wave goodbye. Step into a new day. We can rise up from the dust and walk away. We can dance upon our heartache. Yeah, so light a match, leave the past, burn the ships, and don't look back. Don't let it arrest you. This fear is fear of falling again. And if you need a refuge, I will be right here until the end. Oh, it's time to burn the ships, cut the ties, send a flare into the night, say a prayer, turn the tide, dry your tears, and wave goodbye. Step into a new day. We can rise up from the dust and walk away. We can dance upon our heartache. Yeah, so light a match, leave the past, burn the ships, and don't you look back. So long to shame. Walk through the sorrow. out of the fire, into tomorrow. So flush the pills, face the fear, feel the wave disappear. We're coming clear. We're born again. Our hopeful lungs can breathe again. Oh, we can breathe again. Step into a new day. We can rise up from the dust and walk away. We can dance upon our heartache, yeah, so light a match, leave the past, burn the ships, and step into a new day. We can rise up from the dust and walk away. We can dance upon our heartache, yeah, so light a match, leave the past, burn the ship. Don't you look back, and don't you look back, And don't you look back. Isaac said to me, dad, the thing is in the video, they look back, but here's the thing. They're looking back in amazement to take in that it's gone and there's no going back. And then they step in the forest and they don't come back to look back. Beloved, whatever sinful cargo is weighing and slowing you down in addiction. or in guilt, addiction having gone, whatever risks sinking you, throw it overboard. Even better, leave it there and you jump overboard and burn the ships. And that's the message for you this evening. 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'll thank you for pardoning the mixed metaphor, but the message for you this evening, burn the ships. Let us pray. Lord God, we do struggle not only with addiction, but feeling guilty for years over sins that you've helped us conquered and affect our sense of identity and affect our ability to move forward. Lord, let us let us drop those things and run toward Christ. Let us let go of these things, keeping our eyes off Christ. Let us put our past Let us put our sins and our habits and our old self. We take it off. We put it in the boat. We light the bomb. We jump into the ocean and we let the ship blow up and burn and sink. For we remember that you say in the scriptures, you throw our sins behind your back into the depths of the sea and remember them no more. So let us do the same as you are the Lord who is ready to forgive. Let us be ready to be forgiven and to be free. From whoever the sun sets free is free indeed. We pray, Lord, you bless us to run this race and be able to say we ran the race, we fought the good fight, as we get rid of everything along the way that would slow us down, including our sins, including our adversaries, including our guilt for our past. Let it all be blown up. And let us move forward as new creatures in Christ, in whose name we pray and all your people said, amen.