Running with Endurance, Part 2 (Hebrews 12:1-3) | Worship Service

Good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you're all here today. Would you please stand as we sing

A Mighty Fortress? Our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe.

His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate.

On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing?

Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing?

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is he, the

Lord of hosts his name. From age to age the same, and he must win the battle.

And through this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us.

We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him.

His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure.

One little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth.

The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sided.

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.

The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still.

His kingdom is forever. We see the hand of God, creation's grand design.

In the lives of those who prove his faithfulness, who walk by faith and not by sight.

By faith our fathers drove the earth, with the power of his promise in their hearts.

Of a holy city built by God's own hand, a place where peace and justice reign.

We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on him, our soul's reward, till the race is finished and the work is done.

We'll walk by faith and not by sight. By faith the prophets saw the day, when the longed for Messiah would appear.

With the power to break the chains of sin and death, and rise triumphant from the grave.

By faith the church was called to go, in the power of the spirit to the lost, to deliver captives and to preach good news.

In every corner of the earth, we will stand as children of the promise.

We will fix our eyes on him, our soul's reward, till the race is finished and the work is done.

We'll walk by faith and not by sight. By faith the mountains shall be moved, and the power of the gospel shall prevail.

For we know in Christ all things are possible, for all who call upon his name.

We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on him, our soul's reward, till the race is finished and the work is done.

We'll walk by faith and not by sight. So in celebrating

Reformation Sunday, a song called Reformation Song.

Your word alone is solid ground, the mighty rock on which we build.

In every line the truth is found, and every page with glory filled.

Through faith alone we come to you, we have no merit we can claim.

Sure that your promises are true, we place our hope in Jesus' name.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

In Christ alone we're justified, his righteousness is all our plea.

Your law's demands are satisfied, his perfect work has set us free.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

By grace alone we have been saved, all that we are has come from you.

Hearts that were once by sin enslaved, now by your power have been made new.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

Gloria, gloria, glory to God alone.

There are a number of events coming up in the next few weeks that you need to be aware of, and those are in your bulletins, so I would just point you to that.

Just one announcement is more pressing, and that is that our Reformation Conference is next weekend, that's next

Friday night and Saturday, and during Sunday school and the worship service, the speaker

Don Kistler will be speaking for both of those services. The Sunday school, I think, is about the

Puritans, meeting the Puritans, who were they, what was their influence, what role did they have, and then in the worship service he'll be preaching from Ephesians chapter 2.

There will be no cost for that conference or the cessationist conference coming up in the middle of November, but we will be taking up an offering to cover the food, and there will be some books available next weekend as well, even on Sunday morning, so if you plan on taking advantage of buying any of those

Puritan titles that he will have here, you'll need to bring cash or a check. I just need to make you aware of that.

So turn in your Bibles, please, if you will, to the book of Ephesians, to chapter 4. The scripture reading this morning is a little bit longer, so I'll let you remain seated for that and for the prayer.

Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to read into chapter 5, so just hang on and follow with me.

Ephesians 4, beginning at verse 17. So this

I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Therefore laying aside falsehoods, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be angry and yet do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.

He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need.

Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tender -hearting, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, and offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints, and there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the

Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them, for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

For this reason it says, awake sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

Let's pray together. Our Father, what we have read here is not possible for us apart from the work of your

Spirit in our lives. This is the holiness which should befit all of your children and should characterize our day -to -day lives.

And yet while we live in this world and we are shackled to these bodies of death, and though we have a yearning in our hearts for holiness and righteousness and truth, there is the pull each and every day away from those things into our old manner of life, our old way of life, and yet we have been warned that the end of those things is death.

And so we pray that you would accomplish in our lives by your Spirit and through your

Word every good and perfect thing that you intend for us. We pray that you would give us strength to mortify sin, to cast it away from us, to walk in holiness and in purity.

We pray that you would accomplish this by your grace and for your glory and for our good, and that by doing so you would preserve us everlastingly to our eternal reward.

We thank you for the salvation that is in Jesus Christ in which you have laid all of our sin and iniquity, all of our former manner of life, all of our immoralities, all of our idolatries, all of our lusts, all of our deceit and our lies upon your

Son. And you have granted us grace and forgiveness in Him because His sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price for all who will believe.

And so it is to your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we gladly look and turn our hearts and our affections and our attention this morning, that we may focus upon Him and see

Him and His sacrifice and His work, and that we may trust afresh and anew in your grace and in the strength that you provide to live lives that are worthy of the high calling with which we have been called, so that you may be honored and glorified in and through us and that Christ may be magnified in and through His people.

For the glory of our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we pray. Please stand and let's sing,

How Deep the Father's Love for Us. I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer, but this

I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.

In Romans 3, 21 to 24, it says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus.

Let's end our music service this morning by singing Before the Throne of God Above. Before the throne of God above,

I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands, my name is written on his heart,

I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me this depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward

I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me, to look on him and pardon me.

Alleluia, Alleluia, risen

Son of God, behold

Him there, the risen Lamb, my perfect spotless righteousness, the great unchangeable

I am, the King of glory and of grace, one with Himself I cannot die, my soul is purchased with His blood, my life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my

Savior and my God, with Christ my Savior and my

God. Alleluia, Alleluia, raise the one risen

Son of God, I bow before the cross of Christ and marvel at His love divine,

God's perfect Son was sacrificed to make me righteous in God's eyes, this river's depths

I cannot know, but I gain glory in its flood, the

Lord most high has bowed down low and poured on me

His purest love, and poured on me His purest love.

Alleluia, Alleluia, raise the one risen

Son of God, Alleluia, Alleluia, raise the one risen

Son of God. You may be seated.

You please turn in your copy of God's Word to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, we will be at the same passage that we were looking at last week.

We will pray and then we will read together verses 1 through 3 of Hebrews 12. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, it is our desire that You would strengthen us according to Your Word, that You would rebuke and reprove our hearts as necessary, that You would comfort us when we are discouraged, and that You would strengthen us for every good work.

Accomplish these things through Your Word, by Your Spirit, as You do Your work in us. We pray that Your blessing and Your grace might rest upon not only our understanding of Your Word, but that You would give us grace and enable us to obey it, that You would make the truth clear to us and strengthen us by it, we ask in Christ's name.

Amen. Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Every part of running a race is easy except one, running.

It's the most difficult part of it. Everything else about it is very easy. It is easy to plan the race.

It is easy to intend on running the race. It is very simple to schedule the race and even schedule events in your life around the race.

It is very easy to announce the race to other people and to put out a PR campaign and invite other people to come and watch you run the race.

That's very simple. It's easy to show up for the race. It's easy to dress for the race. The stretching for the race is easy.

Taking your place at the starting blocks is easy. And even starting the race is easy. All of that is easy. But once the signal goes off and the runners begin to run, everything that is easy is behind you.

Everything simple is in the past and everything difficult lies ahead because from the point that the gun goes off and the runners begin to run, that is when all of the difficulties come into the race.

And that is why if we are to run the race, we must run the race with endurance because everything about running a race is simple except actually running the race.

It's the most difficult part of it. To finish the race and to finish well, to run the race and to run well, and to receive the prize at the end of the race requires that you and I be willing and able, equipped, and understand what it means to run our race with endurance because we are not commanded to simply start the race.

We're not commanded to prepare for the race. We're not just commanded to train for the race. We are commanded to run the race.

We are expected to finish the race. And we must do all of that so that having run well and having finished well, you and I might be rewarded well.

We want not just to run the race, but we want to finish the race. And then having finished the race to be able to take our place in the stands, in the stadium with all of the saints who have gone before to testify to the grace and effectiveness of faith and grace of God in our lives.

That's the goal of running the race. So this racing analogy that the author gives us in Hebrews 12, 1 through 3, you will notice that he is not concerned just that we start the race.

That's easy. A lot of people start the race, they never finish it. A lot of people run a race and they're not even running the right race.

A lot of people run the race and at least look like they're running, but they're very encumbered. They're very slowed down.

They're very entangled. And then headlines every month are filled with people who have started the race and run for a period of time, and then they make an absolute train wreck of the faith before they get across the finish line.

I hope it is your desire not just to run well, but to finish well and then to be rewarded well for having run and finished well.

What is required of that? Four things in our passage, Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. We looked at the first one last week that we must consider the others who have finished the race before us.

That is in verse 1. Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, this is a group of people who testify, bear witness to us as to the power of faith, the effectiveness of it, the need for it, what it means to run, what it means to finish well.

There are others who have gone before. There are others who have gone before from the Old Testament, from the New Testament era, since the

New Testament era, men and women even in our own time who have finished the race well and passed on.

And now they take their place in the stands and they witness to us as to the need for faith. And they are sharing something.

Their example is encouraging and shouting and cheering us on as we run our race here.

And our job is to look to them and to consider the example that they have laid out and then to say, okay, given that example, having considered them,

I can run my race as well. That's the first thing. We looked at that last week. We are surrounded by the legacies and the examples of men and women who have kept the faith and finished the course, not all the way to the end, crossed the finish line, finished well, and they will be rewarded well.

There's a second thing. Actually, there are three more in Hebrews 12, one through three. We must cast off the entanglements that threaten to hinder us.

We must continue in the course that is set for us. Those are in verse one. And then in verses two and three, we have to concentrate on the one who will reward us.

So we're looking at this second one today. We have to cast off the entanglements that threaten to hinder us.

Consider those who have gone before. We're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses having done that we are to let us lay aside, the author says in verse one, every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

I want you to notice just a couple of things. We're just going to be camping on this idea of casting off the things that hinder us in our race or encumber us in our race today.

But I want you to notice a couple of things before we jump into the details of the text. Notice, first of all, that we are to lay aside two separate things.

We're to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.

There are two things. One of these is a moral thing, the sin. It's not difficult to see how that is a moral issue.

The sin which so easily entangles us. And one of them is not necessarily a moral or immoral issue at all, the encumbrances.

There are things that slow us down that are not necessarily sinful things. And then there are sinful things. And you and I are called to lay off, to put aside, to cast aside both of those kinds of things.

So there are encumbrances and there are entanglements. Notice also the order of these things.

We are to cast these things off before we run the race. This only makes sense. Who would want to begin the race burdened down by all of these things?

And there is a sense in which having started the race, we soon find out what things encumber us from running well.

And so this idea of laying aside something is not just what we do before we begin our race. I pick a few things.

I'm going to set aside, deny myself these things. And then I'm going to run the race for the rest of my life. Oh, no. Once you begin to race, then as you're running, you will begin to find all kinds of things that are encumbrances to you.

All kinds of sins that lie at the door around your feet, which will trip you up. And so our life is to be spent laying aside these things.

There's an order to it. We lay these things aside before we run and as we are running, and as we continue to run all the way until the end of our life.

And third, I want you to notice how the author includes himself with the audience. Let us, let us lay aside the race.

The man writing the book of Hebrews, he's not like a spiritual coach sitting along the sidelines, considering himself as one who has finished the race.

And now he's shouting out instructions to the other runners on the course. This is the danger that spiritual leaders often fall into, thinking that they have somehow arrived, that they're no longer running the race.

And so that their job is to prepare the race for others. Their job is to organize the race for other people. Their job is to stand along the sidelines and to shout the instructions to the runners who are actually on the course.

That's the danger that spiritual leaders fall into. And you and I have to remember that no matter what we have achieved in this life, no matter what office you have attained to, no matter how far you have run to this point, and no matter what leadership position you are in, you are always running the race and you never finish it.

This is why Paul at the end of his life in Philippians chapter 3 said, I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

That was his first imprisonment. He's probably four, five, six years away from passing on and dying.

And there in his imprisonment, writing from prison, he says, I continue to press on. That's an athletic metaphor, an athletic word that describes the agony and the effort and the running of that race toward the goal, which is

Christ Jesus. That he says at the end of his life, but then as he gets to the very end of his life and he is sitting in a prison cell, now not in a rented quarters like we find him at the end of the book of Acts, but instead now in an actual prison cell at the end of his life, awaiting his execution, having stood before Nero and proclaimed the gospel to the highest authority that he was ever tried in front of, the apostle

Paul could say, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. So then it's in the past.

Then the apostle Paul knows I'm about ready to lay down my life and I'm going to die for this. Now I can say that I have finished my course.

But at no point prior to that, in spite of all of the miraculous and incredible and supernatural, wonderful things that God did through the apostle

Paul, at no point did he ever consider himself to have finished his race until it was at the very end.

Then he could say, I have finished my course. How do you know when you have finished your course? When you're sitting in that room and you can hear the executioner in the room down the hall putting that finishing touch on the edge of that blade, then you know you have finished your course.

But until then, you still run and I still run and we run together. Let us lay aside every weight.

See, those who would be our spiritual mentors, those who would be our spiritual leaders, they're not our coaches, they're fellow runners.

And the encouragement that we shout to one another, we shout from the course as we run the course. The author says we are to lay aside every encumbrance in the sin that so easily entangles us.

That word lay aside refers to something that a runner would do, that every reader of this letter, every hearer of this message would have understood this.

He would have gotten the imagery here. It is to take something off and set it aside so that it does not encumber you.

It's the idea of putting it off, to putting it away, to stowing it away. When it refers to laying off an action or an activity, it means to stop it, to cease it, and to give it up.

You take it off, you stop doing this thing, you cease it, and you set it aside, and you don't return back to it.

That's the idea. It is used in Scripture both literally and figuratively. The word is used literally in describing those who were the witnesses surrounding

Stephen who stoned him in Acts chapter 7, taking off their garments and laying them at the feet of a young man named

Saul. They laid aside their robes at the feet of Saul. They took them off, they set them aside, and then they did what?

Then they picked up stones. Because the last thing you want, if you're going to stone a righteous man, is to be somehow encumbered by that bulky outer garment, a robe on the outside of you, and to make sure that you can wind up and swing well and throw the rock well.

So you lay aside the garments. Those are the something that would hinder them from stoning a righteous man. So they laid aside their garments and then they stoned

Stephen. It's also used figuratively in Scripture of putting aside or laying aside sinful activities and proclivities.

James 1, 21, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

And there it's in reference to a moral act. And we'll get to this more in a moment because we're called to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us.

This is a deliberate act. It's intentional. It's thoughtful. You have to be aware of what it is that either encumbers you from running your race or entangles you to slow you down or to stop you that threatens your soul.

You have to be aware of what that thing is. And then you have to go to war against it and deliberately cast that thing aside so that it does not entangle you or encumber you.

So this is a deliberate act. You have something in your mind that you are going to shed that you are going to go to war with.

And you set that aside lest it encumber you or entangle you. And the two things that we are to put off, notice it, every encumbrance, that's the first and the sin which so easily entangles us.

The word encumbrance is an interesting word. It is only used once in the New Testament. It's used here. It's used nowhere else in the

New Testament. It describes something that was a bulk, a weight, a bulge, a mass or a burden or a swelling.

Something, as one dictionary said, a prominent protuberance. Protuberance is not a word that you and I drop in casual conversation with one another, typically day to day, but it is the word that you can drop into the middle of a sermon if you want people to think you're smart.

A mass, a burden, a swelling, a prominent protuberance. That's the word encumbrance.

It referred to a weight. It describes a runner who is shedding unnecessary weights and burdens that keep him from running and finishing the race.

You take off anything that might make running the race or finishing the race difficult or impossible. And the imagery comes right out of the first century with the idea of the community games, for instance, that they would have in the city of Corinth where runners and running would compete with one another.

And before they entered into the race, they would shed everything. And I mean everything that might hinder them from running the race.

According to some sources, ancients ran the race naked. I think our athletes are getting very close to going back in time to doing something like that themselves sometimes.

So they would take off every weight, every burden, every mass.

You didn't run a race with shekels in your pocket. You didn't run a race with your coat on. You didn't run a race in a shirt and tie.

You didn't run a race in a shirt. You shed everything. You shed everything that would slow you down, a backpack, your wallet, your cell phone, using modern ideas here.

But you take off everything that might prove to be an encumbrance or a weight, an unnecessary drag.

Have you ever seen Olympic swimmers with hairy chests and hairy backs and hairy legs?

Do you know why that is? They shave the hair off of them. Why? Because that means that they can shave a hundredth of a second or two hundredths of a second off of their time.

Apparently, I didn't know this because I've never noticed my hair slowing me down when I swim, but apparently hair creates a certain drag on a swimmer that keeps them from being competitive at the highest level.

So they shave their entire bodies unless they have anything that drags them or slows them down. That's the idea.

You cast off any encumbrance. Now this word encumbrance is not a moral term. It's not describing necessarily a sin.

It may describe things which are sinful. It may also describe things that are not sinful. There are things in our lives which are not necessarily sinful that prove to be encumbrances or weights upon our spiritual progress.

They're not sinful things. They're not mortal things. They're not necessarily the things that we read in the scripture reading in Ephesians 4, sinful activities.

These things can be burdens or weights that we don't need to carry. They could be activities or commitments or traditions, anything that slows you down in your spiritual progress.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small, some are large. They're picked up on a number of different occasions in a number of different ways.

Some of these prominent protuberances grow here and there slowly. Some of them almost imperceptibly.

Some of them suddenly appear. Some of these weights are placed on you by other people. Some of them you pick up thinking that it will be temporary, but then you find that this weight, this protuberance is something that you're carrying around for a long and extended period of time.

And we are to shed and cast off and set aside every single encumbrance.

There are all kinds of encumbrances in all kinds of different categories. And at this point, I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, Jim, give me an example of an encumbrance. Tell me the thing in my life that I'm doing that's slowing me down spiritually.

Does the author name the encumbrances or did he just say cast off the encumbrances? He just says cast off the encumbrances.

I think if he were to name the encumbrances, there would be far too many for him to name. He would start naming them and say, what more shall

I say for time will fail me if I tell of, and he would go on and list a whole bunch of things that can slow us down. I think that the author may have in mind certain things in regards to his own immediate audience in the first century.

The people to whom the author is writing were people who were still involved in some way in some of the festivities and the formal exercises, outward expressions of Judaism.

They had come out of the temple worship, the synagogue, the Judaistic practices with all of the feasts and the festivals.

They had come out of that and embraced the Messiah. And then there is things in that system that they had come out of that I think that the author has in mind when he is saying you are to lay aside every, not necessarily sinful, but every encumbrance which might slow you down.

I think that the author has in mind some of those things that were wooing the hearts of his hearers back toward that old system.

If it is true that for those people celebrating the Passover with their family in the synagogue or at the temple, though that may not have been a sinful thing in and of itself, if it was something that prohibited them from running well and testifying well to Christ, if it was something that wooed them back to their old way of life and to their old religious system, that was something they would have to set aside.

All the cultural pressure that would come from their family and their friends and their neighbors who lived with them, who were shunning them because now they have embraced

Christ and they have rejected, at least in terms that they would say, all of the Old Testament, Old Covenant forms and features.

And there would be pressure upon them to come back to return. Societal pressure, economic pressure, cultural pressure, all of that would be bearing upon them.

And so now the author is just simply saying to them, you have to lay aside everything, even if it's not sinful, which might slow you down in your race.

So what are these things? There are no specifics that are given and I'm gonna give you some categories, but I'm not gonna give you any specifics.

And here's why. I think, before I mentioned that, if the author had given us some specific items, you know what our temptation would be?

It would be to read those two or three examples and say, check, check, check, I'm doing good.

That's our natural inclination of our fallen heart. I'm not violating that. I'm not violating that.

And I'm not violating that very often. And so I think I'm doing really well. That would be our inclination.

But he doesn't do that. He just talks about encumbrances. There are some things that vary individual to individual.

There are things that are encumbrances in your life that would not be encumbrances in my life. And there are certain things that are encumbrances in my life that wouldn't necessarily slow you down in your spiritual life at all.

And so therefore, it's very difficult for me to say, you must shed this. You must get rid of this. And here they are.

Here are the things I can see in your life that are slowing you down. And this is what you need to get rid of. It would be wrong for me to do that because there are certain things that non -sinful do not slow me down at all, but they might slow somebody else down.

Another consideration is that some of these things change over time. Right now, the occasional football game with my family on a

Sunday afternoon does not encumber me whatsoever. But there may come a time, there may come a time when football is an idol or some other entertainment or some other leisure activity becomes an idol that it ends up slowing me down.

And when in the course of time, in the course of my race, this thing that never was a hindrance, or at least

I never felt the hindrance before, suddenly I begin to feel the hindrance that this thing is slowing me down. Then I have a responsibility to address that thing.

So each of us is going to have to prayerfully evaluate themselves in your own life and your activities and ask yourself, am

I entertaining? Am I playing light with things that are encumbrances upon my spiritual walk?

What types of things might those be? Could be entertainments, things we enjoy. Entertainment in itself is not necessarily sinful, but it certainly can be.

Social media, there is a place for leisure activities and distractions. And then there's a point where these things end up hindering our sanctification and our progress in our spiritual life.

I got off of Facebook for that very reason. This is not sanctifying me at all.

I mean, if you see me, I'm still on there, but it's a different kind of page and I hardly ever visit the thing. I got off it not because I'm seeing pictures that distract me or anything like that.

I just, I got too mad to be on Facebook. I had to get off Facebook.

I can't argue with idiots all day long. And so it was better for me to just get off. This was hindering me.

So I stopped it. I got on Twitter, which is not any better. Twitter is more of a news feed for me though.

So it could be social media, could be hobbies and interests and leisure activities. Again, none of these things are sinful in themselves, but they can be.

Our community involvements and commitments, our social affiliations, our friendships, our acquaintances, our cultural activities, things that kill your spare time.

It can even be natural affections and natural appetites, celebrations. Some of these things can hinder us.

Distractions and time drains, preoccupations, things that burn our energy, occupy our minds and make us busy without ever allowing us to accomplish actually anything.

All of these can become excuses for us to neglect our own spiritual life, to neglect our hearts, to neglect our minds and to neglect the spiritual disciplines that make for holiness.

Now, having said all of that, I don't want you to confuse duties for encumbrances.

We have certain duties. For instance, I have to mow the lawn and I have to keep the house clean and I have to maintain the roof and I have to fix this and I have to fix that and I have to go to work and I have to have a job.

I have to serve others. I have to care for the sick. I have to do things for my mother. I have to do things for my relatives.

I have to attend to the needs of my wife and spend time with my kids and train them and provide for my family and go to work.

Those are duties. God does not command us to duties that are in hindrances to us. He doesn't command things that hinder us.

So since these things are commanded, those are not the things that are hindrances. So I don't want you to walk away from here saying, hey,

Jim said to cast off every hindrance and everything that slows me down and there's nothing that slows me down like that woman that God gave me and the kids that populate my house.

So I'm gonna cast them off so I can spend my time focused upon the word of God and prayer and that job.

You know how holy I would be if I didn't have to spend eight hours a day working with that insufferable employer? I could be really holy if I didn't have to do that.

No, these are not encumbrances on your race. That is our race.

Us attending to our spouse and training our children and attending to our grandchildren and providing for our family, the time that we spend doing those things, that's the race that we are to run.

That's why those things are commanded. So the question is not, do those things hinder me from doing what

I ought to be doing? Those are the things I ought to be doing. So now the question is, what am I doing that's hindering me from doing those things well because I must do those things well and finish doing those things well if I am to finish well?

So those are not encumbrances. God does not command us to things which will hinder our race. And one last thing about encumbrances, you only feel encumbrances when you're not running.

Understand this. You only feel, sorry, you only feel encumbrances when you are running. You don't feel encumbrances when you're not running.

So if you go home this afternoon and you sit down and put your feet up in your favorite armchair and you put a bucket of popcorn between your legs and you have a blanket over top of you to stay warm, you have the remote control in one hand and a cup of tea in the other hand, a pair of slippers, a couple layers of clothes, a little beanie on top and a book on your lap for read during the commercials.

You got all that stuff and you're not gonna feel encumbered at all, are you? No, you're gonna feel comfortable. Those things make you comfortable until you have to get up and run.

But the minute you have to get up and run a race, what are you gonna do? You're gonna kick the little animal out from between your legs and take the blanket off and remove the beanie and a layer of clothes, take your slippers off and put on shoes, get rid of the bucket of popcorn, drop the remote because you have a race to run.

But as long as you're not running, the encumbrances that encumber you, you don't feel them. So if your goal in this life is to be comfortable, then you will find, listen carefully, you will find that everything that encumbers you the things that God commands you to do.

If your goal is comfort, then your encumbrances will be the commands that God gives you. But if your goal is to run well, then your encumbrances will be all the things that make you comfortable when you're not running.

And you won't notice those encumbrances. So we are to cast aside or lay aside every encumbrance, everything that slows us down in our spiritual race.

Second, every sin that so easily entangles us. And here's the moral element that comes in.

Now he could have just said, lay aside sin, but I love the description that he gives.

The sin which so easily entangles us. It easily entangles us.

This word easily entangles is another word that is only used here in the New Testament. It's not used anywhere else.

It's a compound word, a word that means easy or easily and a word that means to stand around or encircle someone.

So sin is that which easily encircles us, easily stands around us.

It's everywhere that you turn. This word means to be in control of or to control easily.

It means to control tightly. It clings to us. That's why the ESV translates this phrase, the sin which clings so closely to us.

So sin is not something that is only out there a long ways away that we have to go in search of.

Sin is something that stands ever present all around us. It's like the creepy clown in your worst nightmare.

You look at the window, his face is there. The refrigerator, he's right there. You look out in the woods, the creepy clown is standing right at the edge of the trees.

Everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, everywhere you might go, he's there to meet you. It's Tanya Harding's bodyguard waiting forever in the shadows.

That's a dated cultural reference that half the audience is not going to get. Waiting ever in the shadows for you to jump on the course and get ready to run your race and sin is going to take you out at the kneecaps of the baseball bat.

That's how sin is. It's always everywhere. No matter where you go, which direction you turn, it clings easily to us.

You know why? Because we're sin magnets and there's something inside of us that magnetically attracts sin and finds sin alluring.

So sin doesn't, we don't have to go searching for sin. We just have to be running the race and sin is going to come after us.

And we're going to find that sin entangles us, grips us, encircles us, and stands around us quite easily.

It doesn't require any effort on sin's behalf. Which sin is it that does this? The sin. Does the author have in mind one particular sin?

I don't think that he does. I don't think it is just the sin of apostasy. I don't think it is the sin of lust particularly.

I don't think it's just the sin of pride or just the sin of unbelief. Those are all sins. But when he talks about the sin,

I think he is describing here generally sin as a threat at our every turn.

Easily encircling us all the time. It's our sinfulness. Ephesians 4, 22 says, in reference to your former manner of life, now listen to the references here to putting aside, casting aside, laying aside sin.

Ephesians 4. In reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit so that you being renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

There is the laying aside that the author describes here in Hebrews chapter 12 and in other passages of Scripture like in 1

Peter 2 and James 1, Colossians 3, Ephesians 4. These are passages that describe laying aside something and picking up something else.

This is what the Puritans referred to as the power of a new affection. Not only to lay aside this sin but we are to pick up other things that might replace that sin and find these things to give us, have an affection for these things and do these things instead of the sin.

So we put off one thing and we pick up or take upon ourselves something else. Colossians chapter 3.

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience and in them you also once walked while you were living in them but now you also put them all aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

James 1 .21 says, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and humility receive the word implanted.

You see the exchange, you put off this and you receive the word. There's an exchange that is going on.

1 Peter 2 verse 1, therefore putting aside all malice and deceit and hypocrisy. We lay these things off.

This is what the Puritans used to refer to as the mortification of sin. We kill it. We kill sin.

We go to war with it. We battle it. We wage a war laying aside our sinful thoughts, our deeds, our inclinations, our motives, our desires, our affections.

We throw them off, make no provision for them, deny ourselves these things and put them to death going to war against sin and constantly killing it because sin will kill us.

Romans 8 .13 says, if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

But if by the spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the body. What does it mean to be led by the spirit in Romans chapter 8?

Does it mean that we hear still small voices and receive private revelations? No, to be led by the spirit is to put to death the deeds of the flesh.

We see this activity and we say, I'm going to war with this. I hate this and I'm going to kill it because if I don't kill it, it will kill me.

You go to war with it and you turn all of your attention and all your fury and all your anger and all your hatred and resentment toward that sin, understanding that it threatens your very life.

1 Peter 2 .11 says, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 2

Corinthians 7 .1, having all these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God.

Titus 2 .12 says, we are to deny ungodliness and every worldly desire and live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.

We deny these things. We reject these things. We put these things off. We turn them away.

We consider ourselves dead to them. We don't listen to them. We don't obey those things. Instead, Romans chapter 6 says, we are to take the instruments or the members of our body and yield them as instruments to do righteousness and we are to refrain from, to stop and to cease yielding the members of our body as instruments to sin because the one to whom we obey is the one to whom we are enslaved.

So if I give obedience to this thing, I become enslaved to it. So then we have two choices. I can either become enslaved to unrighteousness or I can become enslaved to righteousness.

You want to be a slave to righteousness? Obey righteousness every time you have the chance and consider yourself dead to unrighteousness.

And when we reckon that to be true in our minds and we set our affections on those things which are righteous instead of those things which are unrighteous and we refuse to yield our members as instruments to do unrighteousness and instead we yield our members to do righteousness then we become slaves of righteousness because Paul says in Romans chapter six, you are the slave of the one you obey.

Every time and all the time you are the slave of the one you obey. You want to be a slave to life and righteousness?

Then obey life and righteousness. You want to be a slave to sin? Then just yield to it. You like bondage?

Keep yielding to the sin. You'll get bondage. You want to be enslaved to your passions?

Keep yielding to them. You got a victory over your passions? You deny yourself, you say no and you yield your instruments as members, your members as instruments of righteousness.

This obviously requires diligent intention on our part, doesn't it?

Very easy for me to say all these things but it's very difficult when we walk out the doors together and to go do this in the coming weeks.

It requires a vigilance and a soul watchfulness. It requires discipline to throw away the sin which so easily entangles us.

It stands around us. This is what Jesus was describing when he said, if your eye causes you sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you sin, cut it off.

You take drastic measures. If social media is a sin for you, every time you get on there, you find yourself sinning, you get rid of social media.

It's that simple. If the internet causes you to sin, you get rid of your internet. Whatever it is that causes you to walk in iniquity, you get rid of that thing.

You go to war against it and you make no provision for the flesh and you do not indulge its desires or its lusts because it will kill you.

And notice the reference to it doing this easily. It's the sin which so easily entangles us.

Sin doesn't have to put out any effort to trip us up, none at all. Sin's most natural effect is to entangle us, to trip us up.

It's ever present and it's always there and it finds gripping us to be very easy.

Now, our race is not easy. Putting off sin is not easy. Saying no is not easy. Denying ourselves is not easy.

Metaphorically, cutting off your hand or gouging out your eye, those are not easy things. But sin just easily entangles us.

It's effortless. Sin doesn't have to work at that. And you know why it doesn't have to work at it?

Because sin dwells in me and sin dwells in you. That is the reality in your life and in my life until we go to be with the

Lord. We carry around with us that old man, that dying and rotting carcass, this flesh, this physical body with all of its sinful proclivities and desires and affections.

We have to take this everywhere that we go. We drag it around with us. It stinks, but sin dwells constantly with us.

And if we are not always about the business of throwing off those things which are part of that sinfulness and those sinful desires, if we are not always about the business of doing that, sin will just continue to cling to us.

So therefore, there must be a continual repentance and seeking of forgiveness with the

Lord, walking in holiness, denying myself, putting off those things which encumber me and entangle me and pursuing holiness and righteousness without which no one will see the

Lord. We are running our race in an arena that is fraught with dangers.

The devil desires our deception and he has laid traps all the way around the course. And then we are dragging with us this old sinful man that stinks.

We smell the stench of it everywhere that we go. And then the world constantly sings its siren song of temptations to draw us away and lure us into the traps.

And that old man, we're dragging him with us, but he is constantly pulling us toward the traps. He is constantly hearing the siren songs that the world sings and dragging us in that direction.

And therefore, because that is true, laziness will rob you of a multitude of eternal blessings and rewards.

It will cast you into inactivity, apathy, sloth and indolence.

Your lust will poison your soul and enslave you to its basest passions. It will rob you of your joy and delights.

It will cripple you under guilt and shame. And it will do this easily. By the way, the response to this is not despair.

It's diligence. We just have to know what we're up against. It's very, very gracious of the

Lord to lay all of this out for us so we can see exactly what the road ahead looks like. We know that there are traps.

We know that there are dangers. We know that we have enemies aplenty and we know the course is difficult. And yet if it were not possible to run it well, nobody else would have ever done it.

We would have no examples in Hebrews chapter 11. And if we're not possible to run it well, we would not be encouraged to run it well.

So the answer to this somewhat discouraging picture that the devil's planting the traps and we're running a course fraught with danger and the world's singing a song, we're dragging the old man and its flesh along with us.

The answer to that is not to despair or to lose hope. Rather it is to say, okay, now I have a picture of what lies ahead of me.

And now I must run with endurance the race that is set before me. And to do so for the glory of God, to do so by the power of the

Spirit, to do so fed by His word, to do so strengthened by the fellowship that we receive from other people, to do so in the plain view of God and all of His saints and to do so together.

Friends, you and I are living in difficult times. And I think we're living in some of the most dangerous times that Christians in this country have ever faced.

And if you're gonna run them and you're gonna run them well, you better be ready to run light. Unencumbered and unentangled.

How are you gonna do that? You gotta cast off every entanglement and every encumbrance, what slows you down, what trips you up.

Go to war with those things so that you may run well, finish well, and be rewarded well.

Let's pray. Our Father, we are grateful for the strength that You give, for the mercy that You show us, and for Your word which has mapped out the course for us so clearly.

Help us, we pray, to go to war with our flesh and our sinfulness, to go to war with every sin, to consider our fleshly body as dead to those desires.

We pray that You would help us to speak truth to our minds and our hearts, and to remind ourselves of what idolatry is and what sinfulness is, so that we may run our race well.

We want to be free from the entanglements and the encumbrances of this life, and yet we know that the course ahead of us is difficult.

And so we only pray that You would strengthen us for that race and carry every last one of us who are in Jesus Christ across that finish line.

We may praise You and honor You and give You glory both now and forever. We pray this in Christ's name.

Stand, please stand. Let's sing, my heart is filled. My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who bore my pain, who plumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again, who crushed my curse of sinfulness and clothed me with His life and wrote

His law of righteousness with power upon my heart.

My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who walks beside, who floods my weaknesses with strength and causes fears to thrive, whose every promise is enough for every step

I take, sustaining me with arms of love and crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness to Him who reigns above, whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose every thought is love for every day

I have on earth is given by the

King. So I will give my life, my all to love and follow

Him. For every day I have on earth is given by the

King. So I will give my life, my all to love and follow

Him. To love and follow

Him. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the