0:01
Speaker 1Are y'all okay? Is everybody okay? We may have we may have a little bit less of a crowd this morning because we had a meeting between services and some folks came to the early to just blend into the congregational meeting but those of us who are here, can y'all stand with me and we'll sing the rest of men from the vestibule? What a friend we have in Jesus and we'll sing whatever comes up on that wall, okay? Up on the screen.
0:28
Here we are.
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Speaker 2What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer oh what peace we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not everything to God in prayer have we trials and temptations is there trouble anywhere we should never be discouraged take it to the Lord in prayer can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share Jesus knows our every weakness take it to the Lord in prayer are we weak and heavy laden with the Lord of care precious savior still our refuge it to the Lord in prayer thy friends despise take it to the Lord in his arms he'll take and will find a soulless there
2:43
Speaker 1Amen. Let's sing just a closer walk with thee. Hymn number five sixty four, if you wanna look for it in your hymnals, they're in front of you. Hymn number five sixty four.
2:59
Speaker 2Am weak but thou art strong Jesus keep me from upright be satisfied as long as I walk let me walk close to thee just a closer walk with thee granted Jesus is my plea daily walking close to thee let it be dear Lord let it be through this world of toils and snares if I fall to lord who cares with me my burden shares none but thee just a closer walk with thee granted Jesus is my plea daily walking close to thee let it be my people life is over time for me will be no more guide me gently safely all to thy kingdom shore to thy shore just a closer walk with thee granted Jesus is my plea daily walking close to
5:19
Speaker 1thee Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Few announcements this morning, we are having Monday nights at 1st B. That's Home Sweet Home for those who go to church there. That's where I go to church.
5:29
Monday night at 06:00 in the evening. It happens at the same time as Awana in this room but Monday night, Carl started last week in Proverbs. What are you doing this week, Carl? Proverbs, wisdom, cries, aloud. Wisdom cries aloud.
5:44
Amen. That's good. I was really good last week. You started a new study on Proverbs and we just need to grab hold of the wisdom that God provides. It's accessible and available and helpful.
5:56
There's wisdom or there's folly. Let's go after wisdom. So, home sweet home, Monday nights at first B, 06:00. Awana happens at the same time. They start up 05:45, six, and and they go till 07:30.
6:08
We're pouring scripture into the minds and the hearts of the kids and they are amazing actually. It's really good to see a group of kids that are learning about Jesus and taking to it and and getting it. So, it's pretty cool. There was a Sunday school that started this morning for guys from eighth to twelfth grade during the 9AM service. We have children's church during the 9AM service every Sunday but we just started doing a high school, middle school, high school boys study.
6:37
We've been doing a middle school, high school girls study already which is nice but there's something here for you at the 09:00 specifically and then, we have some folks who go and do those studies and then they hang around and they stay to hear the sermon up here during the eleventh. There is a snowmobile retreat. I warned the the first service. Bring your earplugs. That's what I remember about the snowmobile.
7:00
It was a snowmobile retreat. There are a lot of guys getting together. It's fantastic. Don't get, don't let that dissuade you in any way but the snowmobiles are one loud thing and then the snoring is unbelievable. So, you need to be there just to have that story, alright?
7:14
Bring your earplugs. You can sleep in a different room but Snowmobile Retreat, January twenty fourth, twenty fifth, and twenty sixth. I usually go up just for Friday night. I come back on Saturday evening so I could preach on Sunday but it's available for the weekend. They'll do a little church service up there at the Old Faithful Christian Ranch.
7:32
It's a great place. It's a blessing to get together as guys and so that's a good one. Snowmobile retreat coming up end of the month, twenty fourth, twenty fifth, twenty sixth. Fight Club is the new manifestation of men's fraternity. It is a community wide to come.
7:48
06:00 in the mornings on Wednesdays. It's for encouragement and accountability within a squadron of men. Ten weeks of challenges and they started last with the informational meeting last Wednesday but I think this is the first week of challenges that they're going through. It focuses on growth in areas of relational, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. It's really good.
8:09
So, if you wanna be a part of that, there's still time, 06:00AM, Wednesday mornings. There is a new study. Let me see. Kelly Dunn or Ann Stalker in here right now. They're not.
8:20
So, Community Christian Book Group, Ann Stalker is kind of organizing this. Kelly Dunn is involved too. 10 ways to delight in the closeness of God always near. It's a book by Robert J Morgan and they're talking about getting together for the next 10 Wednesdays and if you want more information, you can call her. It should be in the bulletin too.
8:41
So, you can talk to her always near. Robert J Morgan actually is on the board of the seminary where I went to school in Columbia, South Carolina and he's a good guy and a good friend. So, that that was interesting. I didn't know that he was the author of this but he he's a good good guy. There was a meeting between the services today and the recommendations of the board of elders and the board of trustees did happen and they were voted in and we did pass the next year's budget which is just a blessing to see what God is doing.
9:10
It's kind of amazing, honestly. If there are other announcements, somebody, in fact, I'll mention her right now. This was after we had already printed the bulletins and after I had made most of the slides, she text texted me and said, hey, who do we tell if we wanna get announcement in the bulletin? I said, well, you can tell me, you can tell Diane. There are a lot of ways through the church office, through the church Email but she said, well, we've started in our house.
9:35
This is Cecilia Connell. She's from over near Driggs and so there is a Friday morning study where they're gonna get together and mainly pray. They're invited. So, Christian women are invited to join a newly started prayer group. It's called Women Read the Bible and Pray in Teton Valley, Idaho.
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That's a descriptive name. That's what they're going to do together. 08:30 to 10AM at the Connell's home near Driggs. If anybody's interested, I'll give you this piece of paper and you can know who to contact and how to get there. So, is there anything else?
10:10
That's another way. Yes, precepts. Fantastic. I had the news of Kurt's death last week that kind of eclipsed that. Thank you for mentioning it.
10:22
So, Thursday, you started a study of Jeremiah and you'll be going Thursdays 9AM sharp. Fantastic. Precept study. Thank you for that. If that's all there is, would y'all stand and greet one another?
10:34
The shaky shake hand time is right now. We'll bring you back together with a song. What a beautiful version of how great the heart. Very pretty. We are up to Hebrews 12.
11:47
Actually, we we made it up to Hebrews 12 and we got through three last week but I'm gonna go back and we're gonna linger just a little bit over this. The passage is so good and there's so much here that I'd like to spend a little bit more time. I mentioned in the first service, if you ever took a speech class in in college or if you ever kinda studied rhetoric, the the Greek said that there's logos, the content of what you say and there is ethos, the heart from which or worldview from which you're speaking and then there's pathos and the emotion and and you know, the the ideas that three of those things would be good. I feel like last week was heavy on the pathos for me. Very emotional and part of that because we were reflecting on Kurt Ripley's recent death and so I wanted to get to this portion about the great cloud of witnesses.
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In fact, this is the whole of the passage we're gonna study today. The whole of the passage is this. Now, we've been through Hebrews 11 which is the hall of faith and we're working our way into Hebrews 12 and we we ran past the general examples last week of Jephthah and Samson and and then the women and others and they and the prophets where it's more general and less specific than the initial few verses of Hebrews 11 where it was able by faith and Enoch by faith and Noah by faith and Moses by faith and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, all of those very specifically, Rahab, Sarah, and then generally, and then, Hebrews 12, last week, I went to the great cloud of witnesses. The great cloud of witnesses is like a host. That's another way of saying that where there's a host of people.
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The host, the heavenly host were singing at Jesus's birth but I think we would call it a crowd, bigger than a mob. It's a big, big group of people and since we have so great a cloud of witnesses where we start this morning. I'm gonna back up and I'm gonna slow down. So, that's all we're covering today, I promise, okay? We're not running way way ahead but I wanna start and just kinda savor every word.
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Therefore, now that therefore is based on all of chapter eleven's hall of faith and I could argue all of the book of Hebrews up to that point. The case has been presented for Christ from the first four verses, the exordium that he is the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint in nature. He is just who God is. The Exortium starts off like that all the way through we see him elevated. Moses was a servant but Christ was a son, faithful in the house of God.
14:32
So, based on all of that, we get to therefore sense because of all of this that I've shared previously, the writer of Hebrews says, because of all of this, now, since then, we have so great a cloud of witnesses because we do. Last week, I presented all of em from Hebrews 11 and the Acts that backed up their faith, what they had done to show that they believe the writer of Hebrews says it was by faith that they did what they did. And then I made a transition into those who have gone on before us and I mentioned several examples and then afterwards, y'all gave me several examples from your own lives and I think that it's valid to look back on the good and godly that have acted in their life out of faith by faith. They did what they did and if you're considering that and and we consider this, we look, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses and we include in all of those from Hebrews, those godly examples from the Old Testament and those that we know to have been doing what they do by faith. That great cloud of witnesses is surrounding us.
15:37
So, there are two ways of understanding this and I'm gonna share both because I think they're both true. So, if you are, we're gonna introduce an athletic metaphor here in just a minute where we are running a race. If we are alive right now and in Christ, we are running a race and we'll talk about the encumbrances and things that deter us from that in a few minutes but if we're running a race, the the language here is that there is a great cloud of witnesses around. Can you imagine a stadium that's filled with people that are cheering you on to run the race? That's good.
16:13
And I think that that's encouraging. That is one way of understanding this. We have a great cloud of witnesses that are around us and cheering us on but it also, I wanna share what witness is. Martyrone. Martyrone.
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What does that look like in English? It's martyr. Now, we know what a martyr is. If I said, oh, so and so is a martyr for a cause, you would know that he died or she died for that cause. Well, martyr, martyr actually of witnesses in this case.
16:44
Martyr in Greek is a witness. It was a witness in a court of law. It was a witness that was either an eyewitness or a near witness. They can tell what they saw or they can tell what they heard. It's not a far transition between saying what you know to be true because you heard it or because you saw it, because you've experienced it, you're a witness.
17:09
Now, that word has changed since the first century and it's changed to be, you know it to the point that you're willing to die for it but they're witnesses. That's what that's what the great cloud of witnesses. Now, there's another way of understanding that they're surrounding us. It's not that they're out of the game now and they're just watching conscious. I believe that they are.
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I believe that those who have passed to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We know the Lord is seated at the right hand of the father. We know that now we see in part while we're on this side of the veil but then we will see as clearly as can be and so for them to be watching, I think is a possibility. I do think that that's true but since this let us also hear, it's saying, look to the example that they have given. Listen to the witness that they shared.
18:00
Listen to what they saw and what they heard and what they proved true by their faith. Let us also then like they did, lay aside every encumbrance. If you look at the list, now Abel didn't live very long to have a whole lot written as far as we know, to have a whole lot written about him but almost every other example, Abel and E maybe the exception everybody else, we look at that list and we go, wow, that's a flawed guy right there, David. We had this sin. We look at Jeff though.
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Wow, he did that? Really? Sacrificed his daughter? That's, wow. But he's listed in the hall of faith.
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How can that be? Well, it's it's always by grace. It's always by God's grace. So, they were able to get past that and trust God with their sin and move forward in faith and so this is saying, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us then also lay aside every encumbrance and I stop at encumbrance because that's not necessarily sin, okay? There are things that encumber your relationship with God, with Christ, that are not necessarily sin.
19:13
The and the sin. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Sin is a distraction and for different ones of us, we may have different predilections and we have different, sinful desires. We're not all the same. We're not wired the same.
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We don't want the same things. We're not interested in the same thing. So, let us lay aside every encumbrance and all of the sin which so easily entangles us. The the metaphor here is the encumbrance. Let me back up just a second.
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The encumbrance is anything that would hinder us and it's gonna be talking about a race. So, what's the hardest thing I'm looking around at people who race and I am not a racer. You can look at me and say, that man's not gonna win a marathon. A little bitty Kenyan man about this big who's thin might win a marathon. You're looking at the two of us.
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I'm not going to do that. You know, I might be able to pummel him but I'm not going to be able to outrun him for long, you know. I might have him on stride for a little ways but I'm not gonna do that. Let us lay aside every encumbrance. The encumbrance is two different ways of understanding that.
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One of em is the heavy weight of the togas and the cloaks that they wore at the time. They weigh you down and they're easy to get entangled in. If you have a toga on, yeah, maybe it looks good for standing around in the marketplace but when you start trying to run, you get tangled up in it. So, throw that off. It reminds me of Colossians three where it says, put off these things and put on Christ.
20:49
Let us lay aside every encumbrance. I I mentioned this in the first service. I I I have mentioned before in here about I I have a bit of a struggle with weight. So, I'm a big guy, that's fine. Hold on.
21:00
It's it's not don't hurt my feelings. But if I don't pay attention, I gain weight and if I do pay attention, I lose weight. That's the way it is. I have an app on my phone. I've mentioned it up here because to me, it's important.
21:14
We're gonna talk about fixing our eyes on Jesus and making this a daily thing that's normal every day. Consistency is super important. If I look back on my little app and I see that I weighed myself and I and I put in what I ate that day, then, if I'm weighing myself every day, the dots are always going down because the weight is always going down. If I skip a week, that next dot is gonna be up. Every time.
21:41
It's not accidental. It's gotta be intentional and so let's lay aside every encumbrance. I mentioned also, as we get older, I've had a couple of meetings in the past few weeks. As we get older, we find that things that we used to be able to handle were no longer able to handle. Yeah.
22:00
And that's a hard admission. I want to be able to dunk a basketball so bad. I want to and I can't. I can I can I can barely touch the rim? I cannot dunk a basketball right now.
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I used to be able to dunk a basketball holding a cinder block in my left hand and I could dunk and now I just carry two of em around with me all the time. Can't do it. I want to be able to do it but I can't do it. I've gotta lay aside the things that were important. For me, six hours of basketball a day during college was a normal thing.
22:29
I can't do six hours of basketball a day and live the life that I'm living for Jesus. That's not a sin. It's not wrong to do that but it was an it's an encumbrance that at some point I had to leave behind or balance, I guess. Let's lay aside every encumbrance and the sin. So, there's also sin.
22:46
That's a different thing and yeah, I'm a baptist preacher and when you came in, you thought, yeah, this probably going be about sin and he's probably going to be against it. Yeah. That's true. Sin easily entangles us and I remember one of y'all telling me, said, since just a distraction, it's anything that distracts you from Christ is has potential for being sinned. Sandwich so easily entangles us.
23:11
I know that there are some in the room right now and there have been some that have contacted me this week. They're in 12 step programs that are going through the process of humbling yourself and admitting that there's a problem you can't get over on your own and trust in that to a higher power as best you understand and that is putting aside the sandwich so easily in tangles. So, you don't get caught up and tripped up in this race. Here we go. So, let us run.
23:39
That's the operative like this is the phrase that all this other stuff is kinda built off of. Let us run as a command. It's a command for second person plural including me. It's a command for all of us. Let us then all be running with endurance the race that set before us.
23:57
Now, my race is not exactly the same as your race. We come from different places, different styles, different backgrounds but we're all, it'll just say in a minute, fixing our eyes on Jesus and running towards him. My race and my battle, even my encumbrances of my sin or my own. But if I fix my eyes on Jesus, then I'm able to look at the goal and run towards him. Let us run with endurance because that's the other thing.
24:25
The harder it is in life and some of growing old is just hard and it's just enduring it. Thinking back favorably and positive on what happened but going forward with the limitations we now have. Let us run with endurance the race that set before us. How are we gonna do that? Well, fixing our eyes on Jesus is the way.
24:45
Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Twenty twenty, twenty twenty vision. Lord, give me a clear picture of who Jesus is. After Kurt's funeral on Tuesday, I've talked to multiple people about him and about that and one of the people that called said, it was from out of state. Y'all probably don't have any idea who they are, know him at all.
25:08
They called and said, through my experience there this week and the funeral and interacting with Melissa and the girls and the church there. I have changed my mind about life and what I would have called religion. Amen. And he said, what do I do now? Because that's completely foreign to me.
25:34
I knew what I thought it was and it's changed my mind about that and I said, well, the passage for this week says, the way you get it is to fix your eyes on Jesus. Do you know who he is? Well, I know I'm yeah, I know who he is. It's hard to escape knowing Jesus. Yeah, God's son, whatever.
25:47
Like popular culture sort of. I said, well, the way that I would fix my eyes on Jesus is look for the clearest representation of him that you can find. John calls him the word of God and I said, look at the gospel of John. You can look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke too but look at the gospel of John which is all centered on belief. Get a clear picture of who Jesus is and he said, well, I can do this.
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It's 25 pages long. Yes, that's pretty easy to do. Get a clear picture of how he acts when around the super religious religious folks and how he acts when he's among the sinners and tax collectors and how he treats religious zealots and political types and how he treats someone who's caught in sin and guilty. Get to know how he acts and then, a church is important too. I mean, he said, well, I expected you to say go to church and I was kinda asking, which church?
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I said, well, get to know Jesus and then go to a church and if that church looks like Jesus, stay there. Stick with them as they discover Jesus clear, clear together and if it doesn't, if it looks more like the Pharisees or more like the sadducees, then find one that looks like Jesus. Go after it. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. That I think we get a very clear picture of him in the Bible.
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We get it from the Old Testament. Hebrews has shown us that over and over and over as we go forwards but we get a really clear picture in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John and then how that affected those disciples for the rest of the book. Fixing our eyes is a very intentional thing. If there is a runner and he is running a race and he's going for it, going for it, and then something in the crowd distracts him. You you falter, right?
27:46
If you're running a race in a car and something in the crowd distracts you, the wall. Lay aside every encumbrance and every sin and look to Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus and this describes him, the author and perfecter of our faith. The author there is author that's a good translation. We've seen this before.
28:06
Right here, it was fitting for him. Hebrews two ten. This is speaking of Jesus and his humbling of himself. Through sufferings. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things.
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Like the Exordium says, there was nothing made that was not made through Christ. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many other sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Jesus has gone through sufferings ahead of you. He is the archegos. Archegos is the originator.
28:42
I am the way. The new covenant, Archegos' originator, author, founder, prince, or leader. He is the author, originator, author, founder, prince, leader. So, properly, he is the first in a long procession, a file leader who pioneers the way for many others to follow. It doesn't strictly just mean author like someone who wrote a book but it is the person who went ahead, a person who is originator, a founder of a movement, and continues to be the leader.
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He's a pioneer, a leader, or a founding leader and that's how Jesus is described and outside of Hebrews, it's only two other times used. It's in Acts both times and it we might have read it this way but they put to death the prince or the author, originator, Archegos of life. The one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand in complete agreement with Hebrews that he's seated at the right hand of God. He's the one whom God exalted to his right hand as prince, archegos, originator, author, founder, leader, and savior to grant repentance to Israel and and forgiveness of sins.
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Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author, and the perfecter. He's the perfecter of faith. All that came before him that were listed in Hebrews 11 were looking forward to the perfection that was to come and Christ was that perfection. Look back to. They had to look forward to.
30:19
He's the author and the perfecter who for the joy set before him. Joy. Oh my goodness. Joy is such a good word. Cara or Caris is joy.
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Properly joy is what results when God's grace or his favor is recognized. When you know that what you deserve is hell but what you get is life transformation, sanctification, and an incorruptible hope in Christ in heaven above for eternity. That's joy. That's what happens. Grace recognized as joy.
30:53
Who for the joy set before him endured the cross. So, we can think of that night in the garden when Jesus was praying and had all was being betrayed and was gonna just soon be arrested and he prayed, God, if there be any other way, let's do that. But not my will be done but your will be done, father and that prayer alone was showing that he's denying himself. He's pushing that away and going to endure the cross. He would be crucified and he would be crucified voluntarily laying it down in complete submission to God and denying self.
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He did what we are called to do. Deny self, follow after the will of God. He's not asking us to do anything that he was not willing to do and then beyond. He, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the an interesting one too. He scorned the scorn.
31:57
There was obviously going to be mocking. They crucified people naked or nearly naked publicly to humiliate and deter other people from acting like they act. Now, Jesus would declare it innocent over and over and over and over again yet still crucified. And he scorned the scorn. Having mocking that were going to happen to him as not valuable.
32:30
He put them aside. He despised the shame. He scorned the scorn and in so doing, he has now sat down. This is the third time that this is mentioned in Hebrews that he sat down at the right hand of the father. Why?
32:42
Because he's finished with that work. The finished work of Christ is sufficient for you. It's sufficient for you to cover and expiate. Get rid of completely your sin. To transform your life away from those things that are encumbrances.
33:01
He sat down. We get that in the first few verses of Hebrews. It's an important point that the author comes back to several times. He sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. The next time he mentions it says that he is interceding for you.
33:17
So, we've got this great cloud of witnesses that had a a part of the picture in their life and they followed after God in the way that he led them and kinda had to put their own sin behind them and go forward but Jesus had no sin and still did it. He offered that perfect life and he sat down at the right hand of the father for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. He despised the shame. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
33:46
He's interceding for you. There's a great cloud of witnesses. Keep going. That's what the writer of Hebrews is saying. Keep on going.
33:54
You can do this. You can do it in Christ and in Christ alone. Look forward to him and then, this third verse really goes with the next. There's gonna be a quite a long bit about the discipline of God and the discipline of walking forward in life. Just consider him.
34:12
When I hid it, I'm preaching this, you know, and I know that I'm gonna be preaching this and I know that I've preached the rest of the book of Hebrews. When I saw for consider him in English, I thought, oh, that's probably the same as this. Brethren, holy, holy brothers and sisters, partakers in a heavenly calling, carefully consider the apostle, one sent from God and the high priest one who mediates between God and man, our high priest of our confection, Jesus, carefully considered Jesus from Hebrews three one and that is this word in Greek and it's not the same word. I thought that it was. That one is to think about it up and down and at the beginning, it's saying, carefully consider him all the way through to a conclusion attentively and decisively so that you can perceive clearly.
34:57
It expresses real comprehending, thinking decisively to a definite and clear understanding. Carefully consider the high priest and apostle of our calling. Our confession. Consider him but it's a different word. It's actually a more thorough word and it's more analytical in a way.
35:15
It's Analog gets us the second person plural command of and it means this, properly, it is the reason. Think about it, consider it, all the way up to a conclusion by moving through whatever thought process may be needed and in chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews has already give us plenty of ways to think about Jesus and consider him. It's to add things up, reckoning from premise all the way through to conclusion. Consider everything all the way literally back to Abel and who was looking forward to Jesus and then, come up with the conclusion and then I like this, especially by repeated and nuance. This is a dictionary definition.
36:01
I didn't write this, okay? Especially by repeated and nuanced reflection that advance up the levels of truth. You can take for yourself just the simple gospel and say, wow, I'm bad. Jesus was good. He died a death he didn't deserve so that I could live a life I don't deserve.
36:21
And take that and that's one level of understanding that is salvific. It is effective and that saves but then you can keep on studying about Jesus and the way that he reacts to different people and groups and stimuli and the way that he humbles himself before God and you will never get to the end of the goodness of Jesus Christ. You can study it your whole life. You'll never get to the end of it. This word is saying, keep on studying it and keep on growing in it.
36:50
Consider him who is endured because what was their problem? They were being tempted not to endure. They're being tempted to go back to the religiosity that they knew. Some others might be tempted to go back to a formal lifestyle where it's mostly self centeredness and sin. Instead of following after Christ who was himself holy and offers that holiness by his grace.
37:17
Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself. He's not asking you to do anything he hasn't already done and why? Why? Why would we do that? So that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
37:33
How many of y'all spend time feeling weary and feeling like you're losing heart and just don't know if you can keep on going on. If that is your case, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. Your race and my race may be very different but the goal and the one we are to focus on is absolutely the same. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, author, and perfecter of our faith. Amen.
38:07
Oh, one more thing. I thought I told you everything I know about this. Y'all, it it's second person plural. It is, this is the continuing body of Christ here on this Earth, right? We are the ones who are actively to be submitting to the father's will just like Jesus did when he was here.
38:28
So, we are actively to be looking to him, receiving direction by the Holy Spirit, and walking in the street that God provides, living out a calling to reach others for Christ and it's y'all, all of y'all, individually, yes, but it's also all of y'all together are to be doing this and all of y'all together are to be encouraging one another and building each other up so that you don't grow weary and lose heart. Amen. I I appreciate Rich so much. Rich Stig back there and I asked him to do the benediction for Kurt Ripley's funeral and when he did that, I thought, man, he ties such a nice little bow on that little package and when I get to the last slide, my closing is usually, that's the last slide. He always brings it back to Jesus.
39:24
If you talk to Rich afterwards or you talk to me afterwards or Carl or this, there are a lot of great cloud of witnesses right here surrounding you right now. If you have not put your trust in Christ or you don't really know how to put your trust in Christ, would you talk to one of us afterwards and let us know? The guy who called me blessed me more than anything else this week, I think. When he called and said, seeing how y'all interacted with the family. Change the way he thought about what he would have called religion.
39:54
It's about a relationship with Christ. Would you stand? We're gonna sing just as I am. The altar is always open for prayer and if you wanna talk to me, I'll turn the microphone off and the crowd can sing off the wall.
40:11
Speaker 2Just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bids me come to thee oh lamb of God, I come, to I come just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blood to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, oh lamb of God, I come, I come just as I am though tossed about with many a conflict many a doubt come as I am thou will receive will well come part and cleanse because thy promise I come
42:31
Speaker 1Thank you, Kristen. And so for the benediction today, Colossians three one, I think it nails it right here. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Now, set your thing heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. You've got a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you.
42:50
There is that that we can be focusing and fixing our eyes on the witness, the originator, the author, the perfecter of our faith. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Amen.
