Would you please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. As I listened to the other men preach this week, I knew that this text was going to be part of what I wanted to talk about. And I kept thinking, now you guys leave that alone. And they went everywhere around it. but they didn't go there and I'm thankful for that. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. I need to tell you this morning, those of you who are used to hearing me, this morning is going to be a little different. I didn't want it to be different. I wanted to pick a text and do some exposition and we're going to do a little bit of that, but I could never get freedom in that. I think there are some other things we need to do. And I just believe this morning that the Lord's going to do some work. You know, I think it's not that one sermon can fix everything or anything for that matter. But at the same time, I know you and I know our God and I know it can work. And so I just want you to know I've prayed this morning that he would give me some power, not because I want you to think that I'm a grand preacher. You guys know me, but because I just feel that there's a need amongst us for some encouragement. And I'm asking the Lord to do that for us this morning. So Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to read this text and then we'll say a little bit, we'll talk about it later. Psalm two, verse one, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter, or the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. I know we prayed, but pray with me again. Lord, you know us and we are a weak people. But you are a strong and amazing God. And this morning, Lord, I just pray that you would speak to your people not because of me. God, I pray that you would encourage us. Lord, bring conviction where that's necessary. But God, strengthen those feeble arms that are hanging down, those legs that are about to stumble and come out of joint. God, I pray that you would work this morning for your glory. It's in Jesus' name that I ask you to do that. Amen. Leonard Ravenhill used to say that everybody wants to be a prophet, a minister of God, a guy that stands up front that we see God working through, the person that people look up to. But the thing with that is that nobody wants the sackcloth and ashes that go with it. And the thing is, I understood the first time I heard that something about it. in theory, even thought maybe it was something I wanted to have. Silly me. But I think that the Lord has taught us some things over this last year. I remember, and many of you will too, was a young man, 24, 25 years old, stood up here and preached to us out of the book of Ephesians last year this time. And he's no longer with us, and many of you, many of you in tears, wrote to him and called him and emailed him. I can remember sitting across the table from him on a couple of occasions. And so far the story's not written, but so far it's not looking good right now. And we have seen other things as well. We've seen people who look like that they were going to be solid believers and useful and helpful parts of our church and we've seen defections in that. We've seen conversions that look like God had done some things and we were excited and the end of that story is not written either but we don't know. And then of course all of your own personal issues and your own struggles, concerns about your children, concerns about relationships within your families, deep hurts and sorrows and those things. And what I want to say to us this morning is that Christ is worth our faithfulness in every bit of all of it. He is not going to leave himself without a people and without a witness. Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell won't prevail against it. The issue is not how well we do things. The issue is that these things belong to Christ. They are His. They are for His exaltation and His glory. We can never take them to ourselves. And I was telling some brothers the other day, it's not that I mind being faithful, though there's some pain in some of it. But the reality is that every once in a while, God, could you just give us a win? And he is sovereign, and he is good, and he knows all of those things, and he knows exactly what we need. And you guys know, we appreciate our brothers and sisters that have come from a good ways away. What was said yesterday is true about Lawleys. As far as the song cultural reference, you can check out anytime you want, but you can't leave. It's one of those things where people make their mark on us and we make our mark on them, and those relationships last, and I'm thankful for that. But you know, God has put us in some positions lately that haven't been fun. And before you this morning, I want to acknowledge that. It's not a fair or a right thing to just act like that Stuff hasn't been going on. Some of it difficult, good things, awesome things, but also difficult things. And they seem to, in some respect, have stacked up on us a little bit. And so here's what I want to do this morning. I want to, I want to tell you about how we deal with those things. and why it's worth it. Sometimes it's just a matter of I know some of you because we know each other. Sometimes it's the deep thing of just my life didn't quite turn out the way that I thought that it would. The position that I'm in today is not the position that I had hoped that I would be in. And then you notice when you get up in the morning and the first person you see in terms of looking in the mirror back at you, that's the person that you have the most trouble with. Right? If I could get rid of that guy, things would go a whole lot better. He keeps looking back at me and I have to deal with him almost first of all. So we have a call for endurance. So how do we endure? What do we need to do? And mostly what I want to say to many of you this morning, some of you need to hear this a little bit differently, but for most of you, what I want you to hear is keep on keeping on. Dig deeper. Seek Christ more. And it all comes back to the things you already know about. It all comes back to the things that God has used to bless you with and to grow you time and time and time again. The word and prayer and worship and fellowship being a vital part of the local body, living life together. I'm so thankful for you. I'm not completely ignorant, though some of you might think so. I understand that sometimes I or we say things or even do things that there's a little bit of disagreement about sometimes, or you think we could have done it better, and you know, you're probably right. But the thing is, you are faithful. You know this is where God has placed you. And the disagreements are okay, but your testimony is, I'm here. and I want to serve. I want to be a part. I want to use my gifts that God has given me. So, so thankful for some of you. Some of you, many, many years, over decades. And I am grateful for you. Because you've become, even for me, you've become that bedrock, those pillars. That when things are not easier, I have to sit down in a difficult situation that I can look at your lives and say, Whatever happens here, these people are going to be there. Sometimes I think you don't understand what a big deal that can be. And even some of you that have gone and can never leave, I know you pray, I know you've been a part. We have those contacts, just so very grateful. So when I talk about being part of the local body, This is what we're saying. And this is not a thing that any man could have done. You couldn't design it in such a way so that it would work out this way. I'm not smart enough. But God, in his graciousness to us, has done that. And then, of course, you know, preachers from hither to yon stand up in front of you and tell you to read your Bible. Well, we'll tell you again, read your Bible. Love it. Meditate. Stay in there and don't do it just so that you can be really smart or just so that you can find out all of the things that you need to do or the things that you don't need to do. Pick up that Bible. Get in a posture of meditation and worship and use it to know God because that's what it was given to you for. This is not something to condemn you with. What I'm saying is these are the the means of grace for us. These are the tools of our warfare. Ron talked with the kids about there in 2 Timothy, being soldiers of Christ, we have these things. We have to stand firm. We need to run our race with endurance. And there's going to be no endurance and no strength in us apart from the Spirit of God working through the Word of God. And then prayer. It's said often, We have much to learn in the area of prayer, much to learn. We follow our forms often and we don't be alone with God long enough to learn anything about it sometimes. And because of that, we can get a little stunted. So what I'm saying is this, these are the weapons of our warfare. These are the things that are necessary for you. God has given them to you. And so let me ask you today, what is your attitude after going through these difficult things and those kinds of things? Is your attitude, you know, still, well, I know that I'm supposed to, so I guess I will. Sometimes we can be there, but we need to get out of there. But listen, I've said this often, I want to say it again, listen to me about these spiritual disciplines, these means of grace that God has given you. God is not interested in forcing you to do things that you don't want to do. God is interested in changing your heart in such a way so that you love those things. So that's what you're all about. So that's what you go after. It's obvious as you walk through life and you deal with other people. And then the other thing I want to say in terms of the how, just briefly is this, because we spend a lot of time on this, but it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, in its proclamation, but also in our love for it. The gospel is not, we've said this many times, but the gospel is not the ABCs of Christianity, right? You learn this and then you go on to bigger and better things, where you get all of this deep theological knowledge. The gospel is Christianity, not just when it starts, but in the middle of it, all through it, when it ends. That cross is ever before us, and that world ever behind us, and the picture that Jesus gives us, the idea that you're to take up your cross and follow him. I mean, people put a lot of different meanings by the cross, but it's not your burden. this thing. No, it's that identification with the Lord Jesus Christ that I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed to demonstrate who He has made me. Brothers, sisters, I know some of this has been difficult, but by God's grace and by His empowering, we must stand firm. We must endure. We must not back up. We must not give ground. We have to hold the line, not because we're tough, not because we're strong, but because our God is great and He is powerful and He will do those things in us. He will get glory out of us because that has been His purpose since before time began. Rest in that. Rest in that. Because let me tell you, some of this stuff is not easy. And if we don't have an all awesome, glorifying, delightful God, If we don't see him in that way, we will falter. But if he is everything that he claims to be, if he is everything that he is, the end is already settled. And I don't know how we get there. And I don't know what that looks like. But he's going to take care of it. Endure. Stand firm. Well, the why. Yes, we are coming back to this passage, I promise. The why. Why do it? I asked the kids the other night, we're talking about being a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and particularly in that passage there in 2 Timothy 2, it talks about the soldier being one to suffer and sacrifice. When he uses that, yeah, he's a fighter, he's a stand firm, he's a guy that holds the line, but he's also a guy that because he has to do that, he has to hurt. The weeping that comes from the difficulty. Let me just ask you, you know, I think God is teaching us that at the same time that there are very difficult things that can happen. We weep and there is sorrow and grieving and there can be joy at the same time. Only in Christ. I don't figure that stuff out. I don't know how that works. I can't even explain it to you. I just know that it's true. So the why, the why, Why would you suffer and sacrifice? Why would you, in our passage here, why would you endure? Why would you throw away every weight, everything that's not needed? Why would you run this race? That word in there, we're going to come back to it, that word in there, that endurance, the idea there is agonizing. A good way to put it might be to grind through it, right? You grind. Those of you who have worked long shifts, where you haven't slept in a long time, and you're laboring mentally and physically, that grind can be difficult. And this is what's being said here. Grind through it. Well, it's going to take, honestly, if we're just not using spiritual, religious mumbo jumbo in order to talk about this, and we actually want to get real about it, it's going to take some really strong medicine to get people like us to recognize that this whole thing is about carrying a cross and grinding through and sacrificing and suffering. It's going to take some strong medicine and it's not going to be enough to do. These are the six rules you need to follow. That's not going to get it. OK? It's not going to work. So what is the motivation? What causes it? When you see the value and the weight and the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will say with Paul, but all of these things I count but nothing. Garbage. That I might be able to obtain fellowship with Christ, that I might be able to come closer. You see, our problem is not that we need more endurance, we need to get tougher in the Christian life. What we need to do is to be able to see the inherent worth that is in the Lord Jesus Christ more tomorrow than we have seen it today, because that's the medicine that is strong enough to pull us through these things. Because we don't get to say, right? We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. God knows that. He calls us to walk through it with endurance. And so my question to you this morning, I know some of you have already answered it, but answer it again and in new ways. Is Christ worthy? Is He worthy of all of this stuff? Or is this some habit that you've just formed that you just walk in? The why is God's glory and the weight of majesty in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the why. And some of you that are here this morning don't understand that. you can't understand it because you don't see much value there. Perhaps the church, and by extension we could say Jesus makes some good moral people and that's a good thing, but other than that, you don't really see any value in all of these things. And what we're praying, not only for you, but for us as well, is that God would show you the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That you would open the scripture to you, that it would give you understanding, and you would figure out some way in that miracle of miracles, that all of a sudden everything that you thought was really valuable isn't worth anything. And you know, those of you who are believers, we need a dose of that regularly. Because if not, this endurance thing isn't going to work for us. We must look at Christ. Look at Christ. Well, let's look at our passage for a minute now. We're just going to look at verses 1 and 2, but we're going to do it a little bit backward. So we're going to start in the end of 2. We're going to answer those questions now with this passage. The last part of verse 2 talks about Jesus endearing the cross, His agony on the cross, that agonizing thing, that He despised the shame and was seated at the right hand of God. Why? For the joy that was set before Him. Now let me help you with something because we need this. Did Jesus die on the cross for sinners? Yeah. Jesus died on the cross to demonstrate God's justice and His righteousness. Yeah, all those things. But here, I think what's being talked about is this. In order for God to get glory and in order for the Lord Jesus to have that fellowship that He had always had in all eternity with God, the joy that was set before Him in that that He would now be seated at the right hand of the Father again in glory and perfect fellowship for all eternity. The cross was in that road. So you say, well, the cross doesn't sound joyful. And again, the reason that Jesus went to the cross, if we boil that all down, it is for the glory of God. It is for the ability to have fellowship with God, to have joy in His presence. That's the motivation. So when we look at it, we see now as we're going backwards in the beginning of verse two, we are to look at Him as our example. He is the example. We look to Him, and we look at what He did. And it's not just some far-off fairy tale sort of a thing, but we look to Him in terms of what He did, and we take Him as our example, and we say, when we choose, When we work, when we rest, when we have to do something not pleasant at the time, it says later in the passage that discipline is not pleasant at the time. When we have to do those things, We are following the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our model. He is our strength. He is our focus. We stare at Him. We don't turn our eyes to the left or the right. We don't look down. We don't play with trinkets here and there. Because all of those things, though some of them are good and God has given them to us and being used rightly, they're fine. But if they ever begin to take our gaze away from the One who has redeemed us, they must go to the side. They must. Because I can tell you from some recent experience, months of playing with trinkets, pleasing yourself, or all those things, is not going to set you up to use the Word of God and to glorify Him in a hard situation that this won't. Habituated discipline Focus on Christ and in giving our lives up to that thing daily is what's required when it comes down to this well We look at verse 1 And in the beginning of verse 1 we see the therefore and we know the great chapter Hebrews 11 all the heroes of the faith are said, because we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. So now, not only do we primarily have Christ to look at, but there are others who have walked with him. John Piper says that this is a strong text for reading good Christian biography. Because as we see the faithfulness of other brothers and sisters in difficult times, We can gain encouragement knowing that our God is great and that He works. It's awesome. It truly is. Let's lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely. Every weight, every sin. We're talking about a runner, right? So if you're a runner, or I think about backpackers, right? You know, all those people, they weigh everything. Because you don't carry it very far. So you make sure you need it. And you make sure you get the lightest thing possible. And you don't carry around junk, right? Well, the reality is that we have to figure out what junk is. It's not so much that it's even morally good or bad. But if it gets in the way of this race, it has to go. So we lay it aside and sin. We know what that is. We know that we're in this constant struggle. And we know that if we entertain sin, and if we don't struggle against it, if we step out of the race to go play with the things of the world, then we're not going to be effective in this thing that God has created us for, giving Him glory. It's not going to happen. So we lay those things again. Run with endurance to the race that's set before you. I wanted to come in to you this morning because I see a lot of that that God has worked in us. But you know, here's the thing. There may be more yet. We don't know. But all of you hear me. Some of you have young children, young families. Some of you are older and have kids that, I was talking to a brother and sister yesterday, and because of their faith, they have kids that they don't have a relationship with. Can't. Not on their part, but the gospel, the cross is offensive. You need to understand and accept The difficulty and tragedy is going to come. Ace didn't go hunt that deer down, right? The guy ran out in front of him, and we don't know all of God's purpose in his family for that. I bet if we talk to him, though, he's beginning to see some of it. And maybe it's going to be eternity before he sees it all. But we must. And Ace, just because you got that problem doesn't mean you're not supposed to run with endurance, brother. You're still going to have to, because The thing is this, he's worth it. So hang on. It's worth it. I want to end this way, I think. When you recognize that difficulty and tragedy and persecution sometimes and Hard conversations that are necessary have to happen. When you see sometimes defection that you never thought you'd see. And then when you find the rebel within your own self that wants to go off and do whatever he or she decides he wants to do, it can be discouraging. And you can say, well, is this all there is, is just this fight? And I want to tell you this morning, no. The fight is always there. The struggle is always there. You must run and you must constantly throw away things that get in the way and not hang on to them. But no, that's not all there is. Because people of God, loved ones, Christ has given you himself. And all that there is, I said, that wasn't all there is, the struggle? You say, well, that's been my experience. It seemed like we've gone through a little bit of that. It's not all there is. There is not one thing in this universe that is all there is except for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all there is. Not your experience, not your difficulty, not your joy, not your pain, not anything else. He is all there is. Center yourself on that reality and you will run this race with endurance. Not by yourself. Link your arm together with brothers and sisters who are headed in that same direction. Pick up the ones who are weak and follow the ones who are strong and walk together. And God has been working that out in you. And I want you to know, I want you to have assurance that he will complete this. I don't know what it looks like, but I know he will. So things that I know are going to happen even three, four days from now, I've got this thing I got to deal with. I know before I get there that it doesn't matter how smart I am, how strong I am, how intellectually bright, how well I can speak, that I can't do anything about it. My position is to be where God tells me I'm supposed to be, to be as faithful according to what he's told me to do as I know how to be, and to plant my gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ who is worthy of everything. And I'm telling you, that's what it would call to you. That's it. That's all of it. And it's good. Walk in that. Be confident, not in the things that you're able to do, but be confident in Him. Be encouraged this morning. God loves you. He really, really does love you. Sometimes I think we shy away from that because of how badly it can sometimes be misconstrued. But we shouldn't. We shouldn't let people co-opt our language and make us start talking about things that are biblical because they twist them. We should just untwist them and keep talking about them. It is our birthright to be loved by almighty God, because he has chosen to do that. Comfort yourself in these things. Pray with me. Father, you are good. And I pray this morning that as we leave this place, that you would Give us heart. Strengthen us. Those things, perhaps, that some of us feel that are about to break, Lord, strengthen those things. And those things that are in us that are strong that need to break, God, I pray you'd break them. We are people who are completely and totally dependent upon you, and yet sometimes, Lord, we act as though we are not. Lord, show us the reality of our dependence and our need. We cannot, in and of ourselves, Lord, plant our gaze on eternity on the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have the ability, we need you to do that for us, but give us the hearts that desire that above all things. Again, Father, for your glory. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.