Sermon Tone Analysis

Are you preparing for your Future?

This morning we are continuing series in the book of Hebrews and we just touched on one of the great chapters in the Bible Hebrews 11.... where we are given a list all those who live by faith… .. (Faith mentioned 27 times in chapter 11 — 46 time in the book)

Each one of those men and women were mentioned were futurists…

They were forward thinkers…regardless of their station in life or their age they continued to think about what lay ahead……

It’s not just the Steve Jobs and the Elon Musk of the world that need to be futurists....

The Bible is prophetic book dealing with things present and things to come..

In scripture God’s plan is working towards a completion and consummation of all things..

Here is thing is that we need to be thinking about the future - The future is relevant now…

Hebrews 12 is a lesson a sermon on How to prepare yourself right for the future… Another word that comes up a lot in the closing chapters of Hebrews -

Is the word “Consider” … it means —‘to think out carefully or to to reason thoroughly - It is calling for an examine ----

Examine your life for evidence of faith

Evaluate your priorities to see if they align with God’s will..

Consider the Direction of your life and where its taking you..

The ending is the most important part of the journey..

“No one reads a book to get to the middle... because the most important part of a story is the ending.

The ending is the context for everything that precedes it.

Without a strong ending, the value of our lives is cheapened and the potential of our influence is diminished.

Our faithfulness must be for a lifetime.

We must finish well.

Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary, there are 100 or so leaders in the Bible, two-thirds of whom did not finish well.

Leaders like King David.

When King David fell, he brought shame to his entire house and his kingdom.

His son Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, squandered Israel’s future on foreign wives who introduced their gods to the culture....

We have many examples of those who had fast start out of the gate but weren’t able to go the distance…

In Hebrews 11 we are given a list of people who not only started well but finished well… they persevered in faith and broke through the tape at the finish line..

These are those who believed God and inherited the promises.

This significant group is called the cloud of witness in Hebrews chapter 12…

T/S Ingression - How do we finish well.. we need to

1. Stay Encouraged and Shed the excess Weight!

Instruction:

a. Stay Encouraged by the Examples of others.

The imagery of participating in athletic contests and games was common place in first century preaching — it was a means of dramatizing the character of the Christian experience… It was to remind the hears that life was being engaged in a contest…

That it requires effort and constant renewal of concentration of energy in order the attain the goal — The allusion is to a distance race requiring disciplined commitment and endurance…

After giving a list of those who lived by faith — we are given a picture of an amphitheater with its ascending rows of spectators who gathered to watch the games… They are witness to our efforts… These are not passive spectators but they are active participants --- Cheering us on --- in the race....

The expressions , “so great,” is marked with emphasis

If you are needing to be encouraged read through chapter 11… and just see how God came through when his people trusted and believed… The word witness comes from the word Martyrs that reminds us that some of these Christians gave everything and endured so much more than many of us in the Western world will ever endure… the church was built on the blood of the Marytrs… there was a cost involved.

.. all those who lived and died in faith... some obtaining what is promised and other seeing them from a distance and not possessing them...

But the common theme is that they lived by faith..

Therefore - drawing some logical conclusions -- what does this mean to us today..

since--- We have this incredible background of examples of faith...

This crowd of witness mentioned in chapter 11... this is significant group of people... an auditorium of faithful witnesses...who the word witnesses is the same word as (martyrs).

Are cheering us on from the grandstands..

2. Stay Encouraged by shedding our Baggage.

The first step of preparation to run the race requires that the racers strip off every weight that might slow them down.

Christians must be “spiritually trim” and able to run the race unencumbered...

In the footrace in the Olympic games the contestants actually removed all of their clothing before running so that nothing could impede them during the race —

This is what the preacher is saying ..

let us...lay aside every weight…means putting aside the things that things that will impediment our progress and holds us back... (something that gets in the way of our progress)

We are to set aside every encumbrance and superfluous equipment, and run the race.”

— These weights could be a number of things… good and bad… For example the weight might be time management… or types of entertainment we engage in.... certain relationships that are pulling us down...

But what is especially important is to strip off the sin that hinders our progress..

He calls it the sin that easily besets or esv says every sin which clings so closely…

That phrase is referring to habitual sin.

Do you have a signature sin—a sin that defines you?

It might be a critical spirit, a lustful eye or uncontrolled anger.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we must lay aside that weight if we plan on finishing the race.

You can run a sprint with weights on, but you can’t run a marathon carrying excessive weight.

If you don’t deal with that sinfulness, it will weigh you down and keep you from finishing well.

You may be able to fake it for a short time period, but you cannot fake an entire life.

1 John 1:9 says, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.”

(NLT)

The way you shred the extra weight is through confession… repentance… Repentance is change… it’s not 180 degree change… dealing with hurts and broken places… dealing with offenses… that repentance.

Once you have shedded the weight you are able to run the race that is God has set before you— Linguistically the this is understood as a race that is “laid out,” “prescribed,” “appointed,” ---Each of us is in a unique race.

The best modern analogy is the Boston Marathon, in which (unless you are a world-class runner) the object of running is to finish, not to win… If you have met anyone that has run the Boston Marathon— The real accomplishment is the finishing the race itself......

If you have run 5 K or Half Marathon… you are interested in your PR personal Record… This exactly what is being talked about Hebrews… The object of faith is not to get “there first” — we are not competing with each other… we are not competing with the church down the street… we are all in an individual race and the point is to “get there”

Tho object of the race is not to finish first but to get there!

AND - (conjuction).

Let us Run --- steadfast endurance --

-- The Race is ahead of us...

That was the apostles Paul secret…

Paul was one of those guys that nothing could stop him… Because there was nothing you could to do to affect his faith… You put him in prison ---He starts singing Hymns and people get saved… If you threatened him --- he will say that he preferred to present with the Lord… nothin

C. We Stay Encouraged by the Life of Christ

As impressive as this list is of OT saints… But the supreme example of how to finish well…is Jesus…We are too look to Jesus because Jesus is standing at the finish Line!!!

We are told to Look to Jesus- aphoao - looking means to to fix one’s attention on.’

— It is upon him that our faith depends from start to finish -

We have lots of examples of Faith... but the Jesus is the Pioneer and the perfecter of Faith...

He set the course of faith, ran the race first (6:20),

and now waits for us to join him at the end, encouraging us all the way.

We can trust an unknown future to known God .... because Jesus not only pioneered the path of faith but he also reach the end successfully..

The word Perfecter tĕlĕiōtēs, means consummator and finisher -

- The initiator and completer of our Faith - Is the supreme example of how to finish well-

We are told that Jesus persevered in the face of the Cross... Christ was ridiculed, whipped, beaten, spit upon, and crucified.

Even so, he did not give in to fatigue, discouragement, or despair.

There is some ambiguity in the translation “for the joy” that was set before him endured the cross,

can also mean “for the sake of joy” or it is “instead of joy ” — It could mean he joyfully went to the cross… or He renounced the joy that could have been his, by enduring the cross, disregarding the shame associated with crucifixion -

Disesteeming the shame..- interesting phrase... How many times to we allow people and situations to have power over us... and the way that we feel... Often there is this desire to please others..... Disarming the shame...

Shame -

a painful feeling due to the consciousness of having done or experienced something disgraceful—‘shame, disgrace

When we face life with attitude of Joy we can litterally disarm those things that have power over us.

The shame of the cross did not hang over Jesus.... because he was looking other-side...of the cross where he would be seated with Christ...

God’s right hand is thrown into sharp contrast with the humiliating death, marking a striking reversal of the situation of rejection and animosity endured by Jesus.

2. Develop Endurance and be prepared for the Middle!

In his book Confronting Powerless Christianity, Charles Kraft writes about his son Rick, who at the time had run in eighteen full marathons.

The hardest part of the race, according to Rick, is the middle where few fans cheer and the runner is acutely aware of how tired his body is.

For Rick, he knows that his wife will be waiting for him at the finish line and there are always fans cheering at the beginning, but the middle..is the most difficult

a. Consider the Endurance of Christ in the face of Hostility...

The preacher says Consider Jesus!

to think or reason with thoroughness and

—‘to think out carefully, to reason thoroughly, to consider carefully, to reason, reasoning.’

Jesus endured hostility for those who were blinded to God’s plan of salvation… Jesus was dying for the very people who were crucifying him..