The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Hebrews 12:1-2the central text of the sermon, read twice in NASB and then in The Message paraphrase, forming the basis of the rid/run/look outline
1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
cited as the classic passage on confessing sins to one another so that you might be healed
16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
referenced to make the point that salvation is received by grace, not achieved by works
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision”, (in the flesh, made by hands);
12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,
15 having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
cited as the first reference to Christ being seated at the right hand until his enemies are made a footstool, with the distinction between Yahweh and Adonai noted
1 Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”
2 Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies.
3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.
4 Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.
7 He will drink of the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
quoted to present the image of Christ as the conquering king with eyes like blazing fire, a robe dipped in blood, and a sharp sword proceeding from his mouth
1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God:
2 for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”
3 A second said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.”
4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
5 A voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!”
6 I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!
7 Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”
8 It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 He said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” He said to me, “These are true words of God.”
10 I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.”
11 I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself.
13 He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.”
14 The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen.
15 Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
17 I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,
18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great.”
19 I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
21 The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brad opened the message by framing it around the good life, the kind our culture sells versus the kind God actually offers. Drawing from Hebrews 12:1-2, he walked the congregation through three words pulled straight from the text: rid, run, and look.
What was said
Brad started by pushing back on the assumption baked into almost every message our culture sends, that this life is all we get, so we should seize comfort and consume as much as possible. He argued that what our souls actually need is identity, purpose, and joy, and that secular science keeps arriving, late, at what God's word has said for thousands of years. Through Jesus, we do not just get connection with other finite people. We get a relationship with the infinite creator God, and we get to live in light of eternity.
The first move the text calls us to is ridding ourselves of every obstacle and the sin that so easily entangles. Brad was direct that this is not a license to go home and nag your spouse or your community group. The text says "let us rid ourselves." He named the unspoken religion of modern culture as selfism, the entrenched and systematic tendency to use people and experiences for our own ends, as if this life is everything. Comfort, control, and the craving for human approval were the specific drift patterns he named from his own life, and he invited the congregation to identify their own.
From there Brad turned to the running itself. The letter is not addressed to pastors or elders alone. It is addressed to the church, and it does not say watch or cheer. It says run. He drew a sharp contrast between the armchair critic wearing someone else's name on the back of a jersey and the person who actually gets in the game, makes mistakes, and receives grace for them. He noted that the race is marked out differently for each person, which means two things: your race is your own, and since it is a category of one, winning simply means finishing.
He spent time on the detail that the race is set before each of us individually. He used the exchange between the risen Christ and Peter, where Peter looks at John and asks what will happen to him, and Jesus responds, "What is it to you? You follow me." Brad applied that directly: there are things other people in this congregation do naturally that he cannot fathom, and that is by design. God gives different temperaments, talents, and resources not so we will be self-sufficient but so we will be dependent on each other.
The third word, look, is where Brad said the real power comes from. He was careful to point out that in the original text this is not just another imperative alongside rid and run. It is actually the thing that enables the running. When you fix your eyes on Jesus you neither get too high when things go well nor too low when they fail, because you are letting God determine the outcomes rather than running on your own strength. He put it plainly: if you succeed, you give God the glory; if you fail, it simply was not what God had for you right now.
Brad then pressed into who Jesus actually is. He walked through the Greek word archegos, translated variously as author, founder, or originator, and connected it to the ancient idea of a champion, the way David fought as champion for Israel or Achilles for Greece. His point was that Jesus is our champion, but only if we make him so. He described the joy Jesus had going to the cross as coming from two things: love for us and the glory of God. That joy, he said, sits in sharp contrast to our thin modern idea of happiness.
He closed on the session of Christ, Jesus seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That seat shows his earthly work is finished, that he is still reigning now, and that he is waiting. Quoting Psalm 110, Brad said every enemy will ultimately submit to Christ, and the only question is whether you bend your knee now as a brother and friend or later as an enemy. He pushed back against a view of Jesus that is all gentleness and no weight, reading from Revelation 19 to show the lion of Judah alongside the lamb. Because Christ is seated and waiting, and we do not know for how long, the call is to leave the gathering, get in the game, and run the race marked out for each of us with our eyes fixed on him.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Brad described 'selfism' as the unspoken religion of modern culture, where you use people to get things and experiences as if this life is all you will ever get. Where do you see that pull toward selfism most clearly in your own daily rhythms?
Brad said that when he drifts away from God he can usually trace it back to either comfort or control, and that naming the fear underneath helps him move it from a gut reaction into a place where he can speak God's truth into it. What fear tends to sit underneath your own drift away from God?
Good morning, church family. Will you please stand up? Let's worship the Lord. Amen?
I am so glad that you took the decisions to be here this morning. The purpose of this worship services is to feel God's presence in our lives, to hear his voice, and to rejoice in his presence. Amen? That's why we are here. And another beautiful thing that happens every Sunday morning is that a group of people, they go downstairs and always pray for the worship services.
So you are in good hands. You just have to say, Lord, speak to me this morning. Say something say something to me that I needed to hear this morning. Amen? Amen.
Let's get together in that mentality of worship the Lord. Let's put the things aside. The phone, turn it on silent if you want to, and let's feel his presence. Amen. If you wanna sing, sing.
If not, that's okay. Close your eyes and enjoy the worship. Amen.
Good morning. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to First Baptist Church. Have a seat real quick. We're gonna do our morning announcements just like high school. How's everybody's classes going?
Pencil sharpened, all that? I wanna registration is open. It's pre k to fifth grade. It's getting started tomorrow. Tomorrow, isn't that exciting?
So bring your kids. It's gonna be a blast. If you haven't been in before, it's it's just wonderful to see that this whole building gets taken over with kids. And be praying for Awana globally because it's it's such a cool event. The Shervans are taking over this year for where Carl was, and it's just gonna be a blast.
Register early if you can. That's super helpful for us. The horse whispering event at Diamond Cross Ranch is September 21 at 5PM. They break courses right in front of you. It's supposed to be really inspiring and beautiful.
And Diamond Cross Ranch, great place to go. Bring a picnic. It's gonna be great. Guatemala missions trip, we need to know soon if you wanna go. So even if you're a little bit interested, please talk to pastor Mike.
He's our youth director. Mike, are you here somewhere by any chance? Or come talk to me. That's fine. We'll we'll we'll get you signed up.
There's a lot of information on our website. The JH Women's Community Bible Study is going on Wednesdays. It's already kicked off. I've heard there's a 150 ladies throughout this town that are gathering together to learn about the Lord, people from all levels of faith. So if you know of somebody that could benefit from this, invite them, bring them in.
And if you have somebody that could be a mentor to other women, invite them in. We want people of all stripes to show up for that over at the Presbyterian Church. More information is also on the church website. Sisters Saved by Grace is the woman's book study. They're in their second week of praying with power, and it already started on September 4.
Books are only $7. Come on, $7. Can't get a better deal than that. And a confirmation vote for Van Jones will be on September 21 between services in this room. If you're a member, show up.
If you're not, you're allowed to show up. You just can't vote. But we're going to try to see if he becomes our new Carl, which is really exciting. One final message too, we're about to have more people coming in here in the building. As you noticed, after announcements, there's always a second wave of people.
Would you consider moving towards the center of the aisle? And if there's a seat between you and the person next to you, maybe collapsing that so we can give those people a seat. And we are opened up down the hall for overflow too. So if you if you're willing to go down there and worship with us down there, it opens up space for some new people that are coming in. I think that's all we've got.
Did we miss anything? Men's Bible study, Thursdays at noon. The men's Bible study is Thursdays at noon. It is a lunch program, but we're not providing lunch. You're welcome to bring it.
And it's always enlivening and and enriching. It's it's a really cool experience for people also of all stripes, all faith walks. Come in, ask good questions, and and bring what you have. So that's it for us. Why don't you stand up, greet one another, and we're gonna bring you back with song.
And if you would, move towards the center of the aisle, that'd be great.
Let's worship the Lord. Amen?
Heavenly father, we praise you this morning for the opportunity that we have to be here, It is great that we have the freedom to gather in your name. Lord Jesus, we don't have enough words to express our gratitude for all that you have done for us on the cross, Lord. That's why we gather here because we have salvation through you, Jesus. You have spoken to our hearts and the Holy Spirit. You you helped us to get to that point in where we understand that we are sinners saved by Jesus Christ by the blood that was that was shed at the Calvary, Lord.
We are here this morning to praise your name, to feel your presence, and Lord speak to us this morning. May we get into that position of humbleness where we say, Lord, I need you. I need you today. Or also, let's get to that point where we can say, Lord, I wanna you more. I wanna give my life more to you, Lord.
And Lord Jesus, I'm speaking about myself now. You know I need you more than anything. So Lord, touch my heart, my loves, my my love, my heart, everything that it's my life, everything that it's about me, Lord. I need you more of you in my life, Lord Jesus. Transform me through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In your precious name, I pray, amen. Amen. I'm not gonna preach, I promise. So, this song is not the regular holy holy holy. Yes, part of it is, but we have a chorus that is quite different.
So, please follow follow me on that one. Okay? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Amen?
Oh, I love this song so much. The lyrics are very, very good, honestly. And as I as I was practicing at home, this song. I do I do not know Charlie Kirk. Is that right?
That was his name. Right? Yes. I do not know him very well, but after I heard about what happened, I went online and searched and searched, and I realized that this gentleman loved God a lot, and he was speaking on behalf of Jesus a lot. So thinking about him, about what happened, and looking at the lyrics of the songs, and what Jesus have done for us.
When you get to that point to understand his mercy, his love, his atonement, everything he did for you, then you can be bold for him and speak in front of people and say, I belong to Jesus. You're not gonna be shy or ashamed to say that. You're not gonna stay like, no, I'm gonna say nothing. No. The power of the Holy Spirit will give us the strength and the power to speak out and say in front of your coworker, I belong to Jesus.
I got on Sunday. And if you wanna know Jesus, please come to me. I heard a story a long time ago that someone went through a very hard situation in life. And at one point, she or he find out that his coworker was a Christian. But for ten, fifteen years, he had no idea because he didn't mention anything.
So it is important for us to be bold and to just say, first, you say in say in your mind by the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, give me the strength to say something. And I promise you, when you open your mouth and you say, I belong to sometimes you don't have to preach too much. Just say, I'm a Christian. I go to First Baptist Church in location Kelly, and in that corner over there. Oh, I know where the church is.
And the God does the rest. Amen? Amen to that. So think about that when you worship this song. One day when heaven was filled with his praises.
One day when sin was as black as could be. Jesus came Oh, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Nick, are you available?
Nick is unavailable, but Okay. That's fine. I'll invite the ushers to come forward. So there's a lot of people here today. If you're new to us, we're gonna pass the plates.
God tells us to be really intentional with our giving. And so, we're not telling you to give to a God that you don't know. So we're gonna pass the plates. God, I pray a blessing on the plates. I pray a blessing on the offering.
I pray that we would be intentional with our hearts and that we would be intentional with what we do with the gifts that you put in here. And whether it's the metaphorical gift of time and energy and service or whether it's an actual financial gift, Lord, I pray that you would bless the gift and the giver and that it would all work together for your glory. Amen.
We have only one life and it soon will abase and only what's
use me for your yes, say, yes, Lord. You can use me, Lord.
One more time.
We say you can
Praise the Lord. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Praise the Lord.
Now are we we are on. Good morning, church. Oh, I was gonna say, it's time for children's church. So my name is Phil Baxter. I'm one of the elders, and I have the privilege of sharing today's scripture with you.
It's today, we're in Hebrews chapter 12. We'll look at verses one and two. It talks of Christ being the supreme example for how we live our faith in this life. Let me read it. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Amen. May God bless his word. Amen.
Thank you, Phil. Are we still on with that? Let's double check it. Okay. I don't need that one.
Good morning. Well, I had a big benchmark birthday recently. And just to save you from risking insulting both of us, I turned 40. And that may not be old to you, but it's the oldest I've ever been, and it's certainly the oldest I've ever felt. My movie references are getting dated.
I have more gray this time when I grew back my beard. And every time I go to back the truck out of the driveway or stand up out of the couch, I make that weird involuntary noise that my dad made. Even worse, the few pro athletes that are left my age don't sell sneakers and cars anymore, they sell Advil and life insurance. And that hurts for me to admit. But my point is these events, these benchmark birthdays and things like that, they get you thinking about your life.
What's occurred so far in your life? What's important? And what you want to do with the days that we have left? Because the crazy thing is none of us have any idea how many days we have left. Whether we die or Jesus returns, we have no assurance for the number of our days.
Everyone feeling chipper now? Good. Because I'm just trying to reset us to reality, to ultimate reality. Because thousands of times every single week, we are bombarded with messages with the implicit assumption that this life is all that we're going to have. And so we need to get comfort, We need to seize control, and we need to consume, consume, consume, baby.
So I'm trying to remind you of the truth, the truth from God's word. Because what we're talking about today is the good life. We're constantly being sold shallow happiness and pleasure when what our souls really need are identity, purpose, and joy. The good life is not actually found in vacations and Netflix and hobbies and bigger homes and faster cars. It's found in deep connection and in service of others.
And that's not even getting into the biblical aspect. That's just secular science proven time and time again by social scientists. And yet it's that weird thing where science keeps catching up to the Bible, to things that have been said in God's word for thousands of years. But through Jesus, we as Christians, we don't just get to have connection with other finite beings. We have the opportunity to have a relationship with the infinite creator God, the one who transcends space and time and invites us to do so along with him.
Instead of shallow materialism, we get to live in light of eternity. Does that get your attention? It should. So let's dive into the text. And we're and we're gonna read it again because I want you to know it.
And the word of God is better than anything that I have for you today. I'm just trying to help you read it and know it on a more foundational level. So if you forget everything that I say today, but you are more capable of reading this text and applying it in your life, then in many ways, that's the best possible outcome today. Because the goal for both of us, both me as speaker and you as listener today, is less of us and more of Jesus. So to that end, this is the original NASB.
We're actually going to read it in Eugene Peterson's The Message paraphrase this time. I just I love this version. And if you don't know about about The Message, Eugene Peterson is a scholar, an expert in Greek and Hebrew, and what his message paraphrase attempts to do is tell us what the original recipients would have heard when they heard this message. So do you see what this means? All these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on, it means we'd better get on with it.
Strip down, start running, and never quit. No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was heading.
That exhilarating finish in and with God, he could put up with anything along the way. Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, you go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed right through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls.
Adrenaline in your souls. Isn't that what we're all looking for? And the writer of Hebrews says that by looking to Jesus, that is what we get. Looking to Jesus, the real Jesus, we get adrenaline for our souls. And man, I need it because I get tired.
And I bet you get tired too. And when we have headlines like what we've had over the last week, it's discouraging. But Christ on the cross or seated at the right hand of the throne of God, that is adrenaline for our soul. Now one of the reasons why I love this specific text and this translation also is it creates such an image for me. Maybe it does for you too.
This is the context of a running race, the start. Maybe for you, that looks like a track stadium or a mountain trail or a local five k like what we just had
with old
Bills. But but there's this image and there's these spectators that are watching you. But as the text says, and you can see it easier in the NASB, but in in what the text says is these aren't your normal spectators. These are the heroes of the old testament that the writer of Hebrews just went through in detail in chapter 11. So outside the tape or sitting in the bleachers, you have Elijah and Moses and David and Abram and Samuel and Samson.
And they're saying, come on, Brad. Strip off everything you don't need. Get ready to run. And so you get ready to run, but you're not paying attention to the spectators. Right?
You pay attention to the spectators, it's going wrong. You fix your eyes on Jesus, and you're ready to run. They're just the world's coolest background noise, right? The it's just such an image for me. And that's what we're going to look at today, running with endurance, the race that is set before us.
I see Steven Arnold's here today. Steven runs ultramarathons and he runs them fast. And it's Teton County, there's plenty of other endurance athletes in here. But I can pick on Steven because I know him. But Stephen, let's say you're 45 ks into a 50 ks.
You're way out in front, you're crushing everybody's hopes and dreams. But then you fall apart and you don't finish. Do you get a medal for that? No, you don't. The point is you have to finish the race.
And so that's what we're going to look at today, finishing the race. So our outline then is going to come straight from the text. Rid ourselves of every obstacle in the sin which so easily entangles. Run with endurance the race that is set before us. Look to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of our faith.
I like to keep things simple, so we're going to use three one syllable imperatives as our outline today. Rid, run, look. Just to make sure everybody's awake on a cold fall morning, apparently, We're going say that all together, and we'll keep doing it until you all do it. So let's get it right the first time. Rid, run, look.
Class. So rid. We're going to rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us. This is one of those radical sayings in the Bible that I think we read and then we don't want to take seriously enough. This is like when Christ called us to cut off our hand or pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin.
We keep trying to water it down to make it less radical than it really is. We keep trying to make the commands of scripture more palatable to ourselves, as if it's somehow perfectly normal to enter into a personal relationship with the creator and redeemer of the entire universe, as if it's no different than deciding what country club to join or political party to go affiliate with. No. The Christian walk is radical. Let me put it to you another way.
How much of your assumed rhythm of life is based on the biblical call for your life and the pursuit of others? How do you spend your day or your money or your energy? Is it based on Christ or is it based on the culture around us, what they say is good and normal? Or how about this, what would it mean to waste your life? Paraphrasing the famous John Piper sermon and book.
What would a wasted life look like? I think most of us would agree that it's not good to spend your life smoking weed and playing video games in the basement. But what about vagabonding and traveling the world? What about any other sort of self centered life? What about accumulating for yourself material goods and doing what you want to do with your time, energy, and money?
What about spending most of your free time and money on hobbies or advancement or preparing for retirement? What about retiring early and then just doing whatever you want to do with your life? Is that wasted in view of eternity? Now I'm not bashing hobbies or advancement or retirement. What I'm trying to surface here in you in asking those questions is kind of the implied religion of our day.
It's called selfism. It's the unspoken religion of our modern culture. And if you look closely, you can see it everywhere in our society. Selfism is the entrenched systematic selfishness. It's how you use people to get things and experiences, as if this life is all that you're ever going to get.
It's how you look at everyone around you and you go, what can I get out of them for me? Selfism is also how we end up in this weird place where somehow being a good person just means leaving everyone else alone to do what they want to do. Good fences make good neighbors. Right? We want everybody to think well of us, but keep them at arm's length, and that is antithetical to the gospel.
I think it's the reason why we have to recognize and cast it off. And I I I think it's why the tenth commandment given in summary of the prior nine is you shall not covet. The apostle Paul states it really succinctly in Galatians five thirteen when he says, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself.
Church, you were set free to give your life in service to God and to others. And it's actually a blessing to you to do so. That'll never make sense to you with just me explaining it. Until you trust God and try it, and then you get to experience freedom in it. And then you get to experience joy.
But bringing this idea straight back to our text for today. What are the things in your life that you need to get rid of? What are the obstacles in the way? What is the sin that so easily entangles? Now one point I need to be really clear on because the text is really clear of.
It says, let's rid ourselves. So for the sharp elbowed among you, don't leave here and nag your husband, your wife, your community group, your friends, your children to rid them of the obstacles that so easily entangles. You don't get to blame that on me, Church. I'm making it clear to you today. We do it for ourselves.
Like Jesus said, we take the plank out of our own eyes so that we might see clearly to remove the speck from our brother's eye. Because this is different for each of us. Every human heart has the pull towards selfishness, away from God towards our selfishness, but we all experience it differently. For me, as I've said before, my tendency is to drift towards comfort and control. I want to control my circumstances, and I want to protect my comfort.
More often than not, when I'm drifting away from God, when I'm feeling a pull away from the call in his word, I can trace it back to one of those two things, comfort or control. But what's been helpful for me is to think through the fear that underlies those. So when I experience that pull, I can look at it and I can go, what am I actually afraid of happening here? When I say that part out loud, I can articulate that usually what's going on is that God is doing something different in my life or on a different timing than what I would kind of prefer. Now when I say that out loud, it becomes really easy for me to move that from the gut reaction visceral part into my brain where I can speak God's truth into it.
So I can say, well, that fear is not rational. Because I don't want God's job. Believe me, I've tried, and I'm not good at it. God keeps writing my story, and I keep trying to grab the pen. Maybe that's true for you.
But the other fear that I've learned to recognize is that if I make myself vulnerable, that you might think less of me. You might misunderstand me. If I confess that I'm a sinner or that I got something wrong, you might not take me at my word next time. You might evaluate what I say on a rational basis or against God's scripture, and wouldn't that be awful? But God in his kindness, he's revealed this tendency to me.
He stripped this slowly away from my flesh, and man, it has not been pleasant. It has not been comfortable. But God has given me in this the greatest gift that he can give, which is more of himself. So what's that for you? What needs to be stripped away?
What what's the obstacle that needs to be rid? And like in our text today, some of it will be sin. Maybe it's an outsized desire for wealth. Maybe it's a struggle with addiction, with alcohol, drugs, or pornography. Maybe it's your phone or your hobby or social media that causes you to pull away from God.
Maybe it causes you to covet. Maybe it's an inappropriate relationship with someone or a need to feel human approval. Whatever it is, spend some time with those around you, with those that you trust, and tell them about it. James five sixteen is such the classic passage on this. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you might be healed.
It's been well said that God forgives our sins, but the prayer and accountability of other men heals us from our sins. So name it. Spend some time with those around you naming it. When you confess your sin and you work to kill it, it doesn't own you anymore. And it's the same thing with anything that hinders.
And these may not be as obvious. This may be a good thing in your life that is just getting in your way of living the life that Christ has for you. Because providing for your family is not sinful. Having hobbies, preparing for retirement, these things are not sinful. But if that good thing is getting in the way of living a life for Christ, then the writer of Hebrews is telling us to rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles.
And then we run. Let's run with endurance the race that is set before us. This is a pretty simple concept here. Run. But running is hard, and it hurts, and yet we're called to do it each and every one of us.
Remember, this letter isn't just to pastors or elders or preachers. It's to the church. It's to all of us. And it doesn't say watch. It doesn't say cheer on.
It doesn't say sit comfortably. It says to run. But we only get to sit comfortably and cheer others on after our own races run, which in this text is after we die. That's when the race is over, and until then, we get in the game. Don't be the guy sitting in the bleachers wearing another man's last name on the back of his jersey, armchair quarterbacking what's going on on the field saying, I can't believe he threw that pick.
Don't be the guy that goes to the pep rally and never gets in the game. In God's kingdom, once you start running, you'll be astonished at how often you make mistakes. But there's grace there for it. And you'll be quicker to show grace to yourself and those around you. I think a lot of what goes on with our hypercritical church culture is that we live in a time of unprecedented ease and comfort.
It is so much easier to be critical of those doing the work when all you're ever doing is imagining yourself in that role instead of getting your hands dirty. And that's not just us at First Be. That's everywhere. But God is calling you Christian to get in the game. And if you don't feel compelled to, if you think, if you can read this text, and you think that running is for somebody else, will you please stop lying to yourself and those around you?
Ask God, why do you not have the joy? Why do you not feel the call on your life to serve him as the Bible tells us to? Why are you not responding in gratitude to the gift of grace through Jesus that you've been given? Have that prayer with God. He's big enough.
Be honest with him. And then confess that to someone else that you trust. This is an opportunity to break free of the lie that so many of us operate in regarding our lack of submission and relationship with God. Just because it's hard, it doesn't mean it's not what you're called to do. And to be clear, like I said earlier, we're not always gonna feel excited about running this lifelong race.
That's why we need that adrenaline for our souls. We get tired because running is hard. We have to be attached to Christ in love or this doesn't work. But here's what's cool. There is a race marked out for each and every one of us, and that has two main implications.
One, your race is your own. I'm reminded of Peter walking alongside the risen Christ, and John's somewhere behind him. And Jesus has just told Peter, hey, you're going to die a really terrible death. And Peter understandably goes, well, what about him? And what does Jesus say to Peter?
He says, what's it to you? You follow me. Man, I need to hear that sometimes. I look at the the walk that that God has for other Christians, and I need to hear, what's it to you? You follow me.
God has a race marked out for you, and it's different for each and every one of us. There are things that Ray does naturally that I can't even fathom doing. And it's the same with my wife. It's the same with the Gibsons, with the Baxter's, with the Jordans, with the other elders, with any of you. God has given each and every one of us different temperaments, talents, convictions, resources, not so that we might be self sufficient, but so that we must be dependent on each other to achieve the work that God would have us do as a church.
But there is work for you to do. It could be here in the church. It could be leading a Bible study. It could be discipling the next generation. It could be setting up a tent on the town square or on college campuses and having dialogue with people that you disagree with like Charlie Kirk did.
I don't know what God has for you, but he has something. And to not even pursue it, that's not running your race. So that's the first thing. That's a race for each of us. The second, you know how you win this race if it's just for you?
You just don't quit. Winning a race of one just means finishing. And you don't need to worry about the pace of anybody else, you just keep running. I like to race bikes, not motorcycles, I'm not that cool. Pedal bikes.
But I'm a category racer for mountain bikes, gravel bikes, road bikes, whatever. What being a category racer means is I got no shot at actually like being the first guy across the tape, like the jersey and all that sort of stuff. None. But if you put me against like a very specific subset of my peers, well, I can compete against them. And so I do.
It's fun, kind of. But what if I'm in a category just for myself? What if the category is Brad Yates, twenty twenty five, 40 years old, looking around, just me. How do you win a category race if it's just you? You just finish.
That's it. People can be blowing past you, and you just go, just going to finish. Sometimes the race is easy, sometimes it's natural to live on mission, and other times it's hard, but you just keep running your race. It's the only way to win. And the irony is, even when we're competing in our own category, we don't even compete on our own strength.
We compete on the strength of him who died for us. And the author points us to that with this next phrase. Look. Looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame. I like the way the NIV phrases the looking only at Jesus.
It says, fixing our eyes on Jesus. I like the intentionality of fixing. But if we're being linguistically honest here, I set us up with an outline, read, run, look, remember we did that thing. This is not an imperative in the original. This is actually the very thing that enables us to run.
It's even more powerful. When you fix your eyes on Jesus, you neither get too high nor too low. Whereas if you run based on your own strength, we get built up in our own strength. That means thinking highly of ourselves, less of others, or just not enough about God. If I'm accomplishing things for Jesus, then man, I'm going get puffed up.
Scripture warns us against that time and time again. Or if I try with all my might to get something done in the church and it doesn't work, then man, I'm down. I fall into that guilt and shame cycle. But look at the subtle difference. If all I do is if I'm just faithful, left, right, left, right, and running, and I let God determine the outcomes, then I can try something and it can fail, and it's not that big of a deal because I guess it's just not what God had for us.
Or if I succeed in that, I can better give God the glory, which is the point of the whole darn exercise. And I want to park here on this point for a second because I think it's so vital. Because our job is not to be predictors of the future. Our job, whether in church leadership, in day to day life, or participating in society, is just to do the most faithful thing in the moment. So if you're curious what to do in a given season or situation, you just do the most godly thing you can.
What would Jesus do? It's campy. I hated that the nineties ruined it, but man, it's a good phrase. Because I think a lot more important in God's eyes than what we do is how and why we do it. He cares more about how and why we do something than what we do within parameters.
I see Christians get all tied up oh gosh, this isn't in my notes. I see Christians get all tied up about this, and I think it's really important. I see people all the time, they want to know what's God's will for where I live, how I work, or where I work, or what college I go to, or something like that. And they're completely ignoring the revealed will in God's word. If you're not living generously, if you're not maintaining sexual purity, if you're not seeking to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, why would he care which college you go to?
Instead, we give him our hearts, and we give him all of it. I'm gonna get back in my notes now because that's scary. But another great text on this is first Corinthians ten thirty one. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you do this all to the glory of God. These things go together.
Ditching everything else, running the race, it requires setting your eyes on something else. If I tell you, don't think about a brown cow. What are you thinking about right now? A brown cow. But instead, if I tell you about the richness of God's mercy, that he set aside his glory in eternity, took on flesh, lived the life that we deserve, or lived the life we could not, died the death that we deserve, and he did so all out of love.
You're not thinking about a brown cow anymore. You're thinking about Jesus and his glory. And that's the point. That's what the author is telling us right now. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Then and only then will we have the power and the right motivation to live out the running race that God has for us. So don't hear me saying, do better, try harder. That is not the point of this message. That's not the point in this letter. That's not the point of the gospel.
Fix your eyes on Jesus. But if you know in the very depths of your heart what you've been rescued from, gratitude will pour forth from you in action. A saving faith produces works, but we do not achieve our salvation. We receive it by grace, as it says in Ephesians two. And if you look to Jesus, you're gonna run.
Now, hard turn here, but Natalie hates bugs. Hates them. Like, to every to her, every bug is not only armed and dangerous, but it has a personal vendetta against her. And so, if I say to Natalie, hey, there's a bug on your shoulder, and she's working on her laptop or something like that. If she doesn't do anything, I know she didn't hear me.
She might even be working along and say, okay, thanks, But if I say, Natalie, there's a bug on her shoulder and she pops up and her feet are turning before she hits the ground like Wile E. Coyote, then she has heard me and she understands what I'm saying. Does that make sense? Oddly enough, it's the same way with Jesus. If you have truly understood that Christ died for your sins, action will flow out of you naturally.
So the works that are talked about, the running that happens here, it's only enabled by an authentic understanding of Jesus. But who is Jesus? Because there's a lot of competing narratives out there. But if we are looking for adrenaline to our souls, we have to look to the biblical, historical, actual person and work of Jesus Christ. The founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame.
Think about the claim here. The Greek word used is archegos, a r c h e g o s. Every translation puts it a little bit differently, but if the idea is the ancient concept of a champion, like David and Goliath, David was champion for Israel, Goliath champion for for Gath or from the Iliad. Right? You've got Achilles for Greece and Hector for Troy.
They're gonna fight it out, the whole war, the whole nation is going to go as that fight goes. Jesus is our champion. This is the core of our faith, that God knew he we could not meet his perfect standard, that we could not win the fight before us, so he gave us Christ as our champion. But Jesus is only our champion if we make him so. If we don't make him our champion, then his victory doesn't belong to us.
He will fight for me if I would but let him. And if we do, it's as if we actually loved God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loved our neighbor as ourselves. That victory was made complete at the cross and at the empty tomb. That joy that Jesus had in going through those things that's talked about here, it was from two things, the love of you and the glory of God. Do you get that?
And I mean, really get that, because we gotta remind ourselves of that almost every day. Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to do anything for you, and he knew what he was buying on the cross. Me and all of my sin, you and all of yours. You are not doing anything that surprises him or makes him wanna do a take back. And he did it all with joy.
Jesus on the cross, crying out involuntarily, his flesh being ripped apart, and he had joy. Doesn't that contrast with our thin modern idea of happiness? Christ on the cross with joy. But because that work was now completed in joy, he's now seated. Now, if you've been paying attention to the text in front of us, you've noticed that so far I've left off a big pregnant phrase right there and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus being seated, we call this the session of Christ. Session of Christ shows us three big things. One, that in sitting his earthly ministry is finished for now. Two, that in sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, he is still reigning and ruling. And third, that he is waiting for something.
Psalm one ten is where we get the first reference to this. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The two words that we have here as Lord are actually two different words. This is Yahweh says to Adonai. This is the Lord says to my God, as it were.
But the seat at the right hand of the throne of God, it portrays an equality with God that no created being could have, including the angels, and that he is seated and that his work is done. Jesus came and accomplished our salvation. It was his idea from the beginning, and he did it perfectly. This is not a religion where a teacher tells you how to live, and then it's up to you to go do it. Jesus did it all.
And that's the good news of the gospel. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior, there has never been a better day than today to make him your champion. There's nothing you can do more powerful than the cross. He is our champion, and what a champion we have. But right now, he's seated and he's waiting.
And that means there is more to come that Jesus isn't quite done yet. What's he waiting on? Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. This is predicting the glory and the submission of all to Christ, all of his enemies. Everyone will submit to Christ on the last day.
Either you can bend your knee now in loving submission and be a brother and a friend to Christ, or you will be bent as an enemy into his footstool. Those are the only two options. We in the modern church, we tend to think much of gentle Jesus, the friend of sinners, the pastor, and that's very much true, but it's incomplete. Because he's not only the lamb that was slain, he is also the lion of Judah. Here's my favorite image of it, and it's terrifying.
This is Revelation 19. With righteousness, he judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire and many royal crowns on his head. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God. And from his mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with an iron scepter.
He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. Church, we take too lightly a view of Jesus. He is our friend and our brother, yes, but he ain't your homeboy. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and he is coming soon, but not yet. Right now, he is seated and he is waiting, and we don't know for how long.
So in the meantime, we rid ourselves of everything that hinders. We cast off the sin that so easily entangles. We leave this gathering, this pep rally, and we go out into the world and we get in the game. We run the race marked out for each and every one of us. And we run with perseverance and our eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
So we rid, we run, and we look to Jesus. And that is adrenaline for our tired souls. Go. Be the church and have a great week of worship. Thank you.
Hears my heart, Lord. Speak what is true.
Let's sing that one more time.
Here's my life.
Amen. Praise the Lord. I am 100% or let me say 99.999999 that the Lord spoke this morning. Amen? May the Lord bless you.
Have a great week, and may we share the love of Jesus Christ around us. God bless you all. Amen.
