For the Joy
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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Intro - Story of a dancer who hears the music and one that doesn’t. There may be various areas of your life that you are simply trying to hear the music and others in which are natural to you. This is what discipleship is and WHY discipleship amongst the body is important.
Laying Aside
Laying Aside
The first word in the passage is “therefore”
The writer of Hebrews just finished outlining all of the heroes of the faith and how they accomplished what they did, yet they did what they did without receiving what was promised.
The promise was the realization of their faith in the person of Jesus Christ
Most athletes compete in such a way. The run for a prize that has very little worth outside of the respect it garners for their respective sport
Story of Mike Tyson and how when he was interviewed showed his championship belts and yet when asked about them he stated that they were worthless and caused him so much pain.
There are things in this world that are going to weigh you down, that aren’t sinful but are burdensome.
In order to be Christlike, a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you must learn to discern that which is a burden and lay it aside.
Jesus, although teaching against sin, taught his disciple’s how to determine if something is a “weight”.
things that are an impediment and keep you from accomplishing something.
how do you identify these things? These are things, if we take the queue from the people in chapter 11, that center on your well being, respect, freedoms, and comforts
For the writer of Hebrews they probably had in mind Judiastic rituals.
They’re morally neutral but many times it’s going to be how they’re used/viewed
These jewish ways of doing things would not have been bad, however, their sole purpose was to make the disciple comfortable in society.
Bascially these things for us are the American Dream.
If your life is the center of your life than you are carrying weights.
What eventually happens is those weights turn into sins
I remember wearing ankle weights when in high school. They were to help me run faster and jump higher. I wanted to be an athlete. However, after I wore them for too long, when I would take them off, my knees would hurt because they were literally pulling my knee a part. Therefore, for a while it changed the way I walked. So what started out as simply a weight, when left unchecked, changed how I literally walked.
What once was a Christian liberty now becomes an idol.
What once was freedom now becomes enslavement
The reason why this sin clings so closely is because it is familiar. I believe there is a direct correlation between the “weights” and the “sins”.
And it’s not just “sin” but “the sin”…in this chapter
If chapter 11 helps us understand this than it is the sin of “unbelief”.
Interestingly, when someone is carrying a weight for so long they begin to believe that’s who they actually are.
And as such “running” is out of the question for them. They don’t believe they can.
Not Christians battling sin but rather Christians abusing freedoms in Christ to the detriment of others
Instead as disciples, we must run “with endurance”
In the Christian life, we have a means. That means is steadfast endurance. The word is hupomonē, which means not the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which takes charge of them. It is not some romantic notion which lends us wings to fly over the difficulties and the hard places. It is a determination, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected. Obstacles do not daunt it and discouragements do not take its hope away. It is the steadfast endurance which carries on until, in the end, it gets there.
The prophet James Brown said it best “get up offa that thing”
You are a disciple of Christ. There is a race before you. How will you run?
TR: You should run as all runners do, in the manner of those who were successful before you, namely Jesus Christ...
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
Because we are fixated on Christ
This world runs for all sorts of things.
I’m always amazed at stories of atheletes, who compete for years, decades even, all for a prize that most of them have never seen. They are moved by it even though they have never seen it. It drives them everyday.
The reason we are fixated on Him is because he is the example.
He started this race and finished it. He DID IT!!
The very thing we are trying to do, the very thing we yearn to accmplish, He did it. Who better to learn from?
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
He is not only the initiator of our faith but He is the one who completed it.
What can we learn from him?
He endured the cross!
He denied the comforts of this world.
Can you imagine the amount of comforts and opulence Jesus could have partaken of in this world?
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
As disciples we are called to nothing less than self denial. We are called to endure the cross.
As a parent one of the things that I value is the product of adversity. My children have it far better than I did growing up. Yet, we are highly intentional with giving our kids controlled adversity. They are not allowed to quit things until they finish them. One thing many of us lack in the faith is the willingness to overcome adversity for something greater.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3
He rejected the “shame” of it and embraced it anyway.
Literally he pushed through the shame of being identified as cursed.
“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Jesus was willing to be identified as cursed but WHY???
FOR JOY!!! “The joy that was set before Him”
The joy was His eternal reward of being seated at the right hand of the Father.
The joy was His eternal reward of being seated at the right hand of the Father.
We always focus on the how but rarely the “why”.
Ask congregation: What are WE called to do in this passage?
Now if we were to leave it there it’d be just works based. Do this and do that and bam! You have a good disciple! But that’s not it
In my experience, the greatest thing that I have lacked in my life is the reminder that if I am a faithful disciple there is a joyous heavenly reward for me!
The prize Christians are to run for is not heaven. If we are truly Christians, if we belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ, heaven is already ours. We run for the same prize that Jesus ran for, and we achieve it in the same way He did. We run for the joy of exaltation God promises will be ours if we glorify Him on earth as His Son did. We glorify God by allowing His attributes to shine through us and by obeying His will in everything we do.
How many people want to have joy?
What’s crazy about this heavenly reward is that it is so powerful it actually produces joy NOW even though we haven’t received it yet!
Then go win folks to Jesus Christ, take those who want discipleship and walk with them to the best of your ability, be found faithful!!!
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
Go win folks to Jesus Christ, take those who want discipleship and walk with them to the best of your ability, be found faithful!!!
Deny yourself, embrace the shame of this world by overdoing it for Jesus! AND GOD GUARANTEES YOU THAT YOU’LL HAVE JOY
and the realization of that joy should be your motivation as a disciple of Christ
TR: call up praise team
conclusion