Get Going

Hebrews 12:12-17

SERMON OUTLINE

Get Going                    Hebrews 12.12-17

Introduction

-“If you don’t use it, you will lose it.”

-Jesus is Superior as Savior and High Priest; to Moses; the fulfillment of the sacrificial system; brings a new and better Covenant.

-With endurance run the race. Hebrews 10.39

A Picture and an Exhortation Verses 12-13

-An exhausted and discouraged runner. His mental energy is spent.

-He must chose to endure or suffer complete disability

-Elijah the prophet. 1 Kings 18, 19

-Get up and get going. Endurance an expression of faith.

A Goal and a Warning Verses 14-17

-Get better, not bitter.

-Peace toward everyone and holiness before God.

-A true Christian seeks both of these things.

-We grow in community. Community means interaction with other people and opportunity for hostility and bitterness.

-Do not fail to obtain the Grace of God. God has given us all we need to not be bitter and to live at peace with everyone and to be a holy people.

Conclusion

1) Determine to endure and continue in the race of faith

2) “I can’t take it anymore”. A confession of Unbelief; Self-serving; Independence. “Just Do It”.

SERMON NOTES

Get Going                             Hebrews 12.12-17

“If you don’t use it, you will lose it”! If muscles are not exercised they lose their tone and tightness, and actually shrink. Some of the lean muscle tissue is replaced by fat. If you do not exercise your muscles you get weak, you sag, and you gain weight. On the other hand exercise tones up and tightens muscles, encourages weight loss, and promotes good health. Those are facts. Today we are not thinking about physical fitness but about staying spiritual fit by enduring in the race of faith.

The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah, who were suffering persecution for their faith and rejection from unbelieving Jews. They were under great stress and difficulty and were considering turning away from Jesus and returning to their former sacrifices and ritual practices.

The author of Hebrews first tells them that Jesus is superior as their Savior and their High Priest. Jesus is Superior to Moses. Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system. And Jesus has brought a new and better covenant. To turn away from Jesus is to turn away from the Superior and the fulfillment, and to go back to the inferior and the shadow of reality. The author is encouraging them to make all the more effort to go forward and not to go back. Hebrews 10.39 says, “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls”.

In verses 12 and 13, we are shown a picture. It is the picture of a runner who has run hard but is now exhausted and discouraged. This runner is exhausted and discouraged after running a tough race but he knows the race is still not over. He is sitting by the road and wondering if he can finish the race or if he should just quit the race and go home. The race has been difficult so far and his physical, and especially his mental energy is spent. In Hebrews chapter 12 the author is exhorting this runner to endurance, to get up and to keep running the race unto the end and not to give up.

The author points out a number of incentives to endurance – the example of Jesus enduring the cross; the endurance of past men of faith; the future rewards of endurance; that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of faith.

The author points out the need to lay aside sin and those relationships and occupations which will hinder endurance.

The author points out that endurance requires complete abandonment to God. Anything less than complete abandonment of the life to God, even to the point of death, will lead to weariness and faintheartedness when unexpected hostility from sinners is encountered.  Endurance requires a willingness to continue on in faith under the worse possible conditions.

The author points out that endurance is needed when God the Father disciplines us toward righteousness because God’s discipline is painful and unpleasant but needed.

Endurance is essential to follow God and requires determination on our part, hard choices, suffering, discipline, and total commitment.

In verses 12 and 13, the author says to this exhausted and discouraged believer, if you do not choose to endure by getting up and running the course that God has set before you, then you’re exhaustion and discouragement will become a complete disability and you will never run again. Don’t turn back, don’t give up, but get up and start running toward the finish line. I see a coach telling the exhausted and discouraged runner to get up and to keep pushing himself until he crosses the finish line.

I am reminded as I think of these verses of the prophet Elijah after his encounter with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. After calling fire from heaven and having all the 450 prophets of Baal killed, he prayed for rain, then ran to the city of Jezreel, and was threatened with death by Queen Jezebel. Elijah was physically and mentally spent. We are told that Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness and sat under a broom tree and asked God to take his life. Then he fell asleep. Later he was woken by an angel who brought him some food, which he ate and then went back to sleep. Later the angel came with more food. After this Elijah went for forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb. There Elijah met with God, received new orders from God, and finished his ministry to God in strength. (1 Kings 18, 19)

I cannot count the number of times I have quit the ministry and asked God to take my life. But God did not accept my resignation nor did he take my life. He just put me to bed, fed me, refreshed me through His Word and prayer, gave me a new day and let me start again. I thank God for His Grace and Mercy to me and to Rosedale.

Sometimes it seems to me like God has no compassion for his people. This believer is tired and discouraged, stressed out and persecuted, and wants to turn back to ease the pain and the pressure. So what does God say to him, get up and get going. No pity, no pampering, just get up and start moving forward. God knows that is what is needed for the moment. There may not be much speed in the running but getting up and going forward is endurance which is an expression of faith in God. God has refreshment and encouragement along the way for this believer but he first needs to get back into the race. Let me read verses 12 and 13 to you from the Phillips translation, “So tighten your loosening grip and steady your wavering stand. Don’t wander away from the path but forge steadily onward. On the right path the limping foot recovers strength and does not collapse.”

Verses 14 to 17 teach us that God wants His people to get better not bitter. Better means peace with others, and holiness before God. We run the race of faith in community, at least that is how it should be run. We are in the local church and should not live our Christian life in isolation. In community God uses circumstances and people to make us holy. As we endure the race of faith we encounter the hostility of sinners and we experience the discipline of God. Both the hostility of sinners and the discipline of God mean that people will attack us, upset us, rebuke us, correct us, hurt us and be hurt by us, offend us and be offended by us, forgiven and asked for forgiveness, rub us the wrong way, show up our pride, humble us and so on. In community opportunity abounds for hostility and bitterness to grow. God wants us to learn to love one another and to be at peace with everyone, and in the process to become a holy people in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So as verse 15 says, “see to it the no one fails to obtain the grace of God”. Here is my translation of this verse, “Get over it and move on”. God has given us all we need to be at peace with everyone and to be a holy people in our community of believers and beyond. Notice that if you are not striving for peace and holiness you are not on your way to heaven. People destined for heaven have their hearts set on peace and holiness.

Bitterness is destructive and hurts more than the bitter person. Bitterness can poison a whole church and defile many. If the tired and discouraged believer does not determine to endure and continue on in the race, bitterness will be the result and immorality, the feeding of the flesh, will soon follow. Don’t sell short the precious gift of God that He has given you and turn back to the flesh. You will regret it. Instead continue to endure and move forward no matter how difficult and no matter how slow you seem to be moving.

Perhaps if the author were writing today, he might write, “Just Do It”. Just decide to endure and God will give you the strength you need. Just choose to give yourself fully to God today because if you don’t it will be harder tomorrow and you may never get back to the faith again. Just do it by seeking peace with everyone and holiness. It will cost your pride, your reputation, your dreams, and the satisfaction of the flesh. Just do it without bitterness or immorality.

I often hear people say, “I can’t take it anymore”. That is a confession of unbelief. You are saying, “God has given me too much to carry” which denies the Goodness and Sovereignty of God. Or it is a confession of self-serving, an attempt to work out both your plan and God’s plans, to fulfill your dreams and God’s will at the same time, and it isn’t working out, which means you are not completely submitted to God’s plan, unwilling to put your plans aside. Or it is a confession of independence, a dependence on your own strength which means you are not trusting God and still think you should handle things yourself.

In the endurance of the race of faith, we are to put aside sin and the encumbrances of life, we are to look to Jesus and all that God has provided for us to be godly, we are to abandon our life completely to God expecting hostility and the discipline of God our Father. With those choices and this perspective we can take a great deal of sacrifice and pain, and we need to take a lot if God is going to make us into the image of Christ and use us to demonstrate that image to others. With endurance run the race God has given to you.