SF479 - ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO (Hebrews 12 1-3)

SF479

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!

Hebrews 12:1-3

INTRODUCTION

Set The Scene

The picture set before us is that of a race. The names have been entered, but the course has yet to be run.

There is gather a great audience waiting to cheer us on.

However, many of us have yet to really enter the race. We have hesitated in the starting blocks.

We look at the course and we wonder if we will ever finish?

We wonder how to run?

Three Steps...

                                                                                      Page 2

1A.       GET ON YOUR MARK! (1)        

1B.       Put Away Impediments (1a)

“everything” = Weight

Legitimate things - home, family, etc..

“sin that so easily entangles” = besetting

Sin always brings consequences

SIN'S PRICE

The Israelites refused to follow God's plan for taking the Promised Land.  The consequence of such disobedience lead to forty years of purposeless wandering in the wilderness.  The tragedy of this sin may be seen when calculating the frequency of funerals conducted by God's chosen but disobedient people.  The death rate was one funeral every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 40 years!  Disobedience is costly! (Daily Walk,  June 19, 1991)

2B.       Put Away Impatience (1b)

Remember this is not a 100 yard dash!

“perseverance” = patience!

Before we are even ready to step into the blocks we must shed our - selves and our - sins. As well as set our minds!

                                                                                      Page 3

2A.       GET SET! (2)

We must have the right focus... Jesus!

“fix our eyes on Jesus” = looking away from all else, looking at that which fills the heart.”

1B.       His Person

“the author and perfecter of our faith,“

“author” = leader, captain!

“perfecter” = to make complete!

...Christ, who is the image of God.  (2 Corinthians 4:4)

2B.       His Passion

“...who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,”

“endure” = to bear, continue under great pain

“despising” = to think against

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  (Isaiah 53:3)

3B.       His Position

“and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense‑‑Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  (1 John 2:1)

                                                                                      Page 4

3A.       GO! (3)

1B.       Remember The Savior

“consider him” = contemplate

His Service (John 13:14)

His Surrender (Matt. 26:39)

His Sufferings (Isa 53:4-5)

His Sacrifice (Isa. 53:5-7)

His Second Coming (Acts 1:9)

2B.       Rely On His Strength

“...so that you will not grow weary...”

He is our Rock (Is. 51:1)

He is our Refuge (Ps. 46:1)

He is our Redeemer (Gal. 3:13)

He is our Rescue (I Thess. 1:10)

3B.       Refuse To Stop!

“...and lose heart.” = faint, i.e. relax!

Press On (Phil. 3:14)

Pray On (I Thess. 5:17)

Preach On (Eph. 6:19)

PERSEVERANCE

It was a miserable time of ministry.  Something just didn't seem to be working.  After several years of rather unsuccessful ministry, it might have seemed as though he wasn't really designed for preaching.  Nonetheless, he stuck it out in the pastorate and sought another place of ministry in a different part of the country.  This time he tried Fullerton, California.  Good thing he did, otherwise the world might have missed out on the ministry of Charles Swindoll.

(Personal Testimony of Dr. Swindoll, Congress On Biblical Exposition, Houston, Texas, 1988)

                                                                                      Page 5

APPLICATION

This is the year for WHBC to move out of the blocks.

This is the year for you to get into the race and stay with it!

COMMITMENT

The tombstone of Annie Armstrong appropriately summarizes her life.  It simply reads, "She hath done what she could."  A worthy goal for us all! (MissionsUSA,  February 1991, p. 2)

CHURCH GROWTH/MATURITY

"A mushroom grows up overnight but it requires a decade to develop an oak."  Dr. J.M. Price, the great Christian educator of countless Baptists, wrote these words in his classic little book, Jesus The Teacher.  He applied these words to the work of a minister and his ministry.  The desire for explosive growth is ever before us, but it is the ministry of a mighty oak that we must strive to achieve.  Mushrooms vanish quickly, but oak trees will speak to generations not yet born. (Jesus The Teacher,  J.M. Price,  1946  p. 47)