The Cure For Weary Hearts (Hebrews 12:3) | Worship Service

Kootenai Church

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Good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church.

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We're glad you're here today. Would you stand as we sing, Angels We Have Heard on High.

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Echo back their joyous strains, Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Shepherds, why this jubilee?

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Why your joyous strains prolong? Say what may the tidings be,

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Which inspire your heavenly song? Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Come to Bethlehem and see,

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Him whose birth the angels sing. Come adore on bended knee,

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Christ the Lord, the newborn King. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. See within a manger laid,

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Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,

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With us sing our Savior's birth. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Gloria, in excelsis

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Deo. Good Christian men rejoice,

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With heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say,

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Jesus Christ is born this day. Man and peace before Him bow,

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And He is in the manger now. Christ is born today.

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Christ is born today. Good Christian men rejoice,

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With heart and soul and voice. Now ye hear of endless bliss,

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Jesus Christ was born for this. He has opened heaven's door,

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And men is blessed forevermore. Christ was born for this.

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Christ was born for this. Good Christian men rejoice,

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With heart and soul and voice. Now ye need not fear the grave,

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Jesus Christ was born to save. Calls you one and calls you all

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To gain His everlasting love. Christ was born to save.

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Christ was born to save. How long expected

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Jesus Born to set Thy people free?

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From our fears and sins release us,

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Let us find our rest in Thee.

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Israel, strength and consolation,

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Hope of all the earth, Thou art. Dear desire of every nation,

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Joy of every longing heart.

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Born Thy people to deliver,

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Born a child and yet a king. Born to reign in us forever,

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Now Thy gracious kingdom claim. By Thine own eternal

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Spirit Rule in all our hearts alone.

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By Thine own sufficient merit

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Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

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You may be seated. Alright.

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Now that we've got that out of the way, will you please turn your Bibles to Psalm 130. Psalm 130.

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And while you're turning there, I'll just make you aware of a couple of announcements. There is no Sunday school next week or the following week.

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And there is no Christmas Eve service this year since our worship service will fall on Christmas Day. Psalm 130.

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And we'll read together the entire Psalm and it's not a big ask because it's only eight verses long. Out of the depths

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I have cried to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

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If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

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I wait for the Lord. My soul does wait. And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the

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Lord more than the watchman for the morning. Indeed, more than the watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the

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Lord. For with the Lord there is lovingkindness. And with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem

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Israel from all His iniquities. Will you stand with me as we pray together? Let's bow our heads.

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Our merciful God, we are thankful for the blessing of salvation and for the hope that we have in You and in Your Word.

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We pray that You would teach and train our hearts to rest in You. That we would see

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Christ and His finished work for us and that that may be the source of our comfort, our hope, our treasure, our reward.

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And that we may be satisfied with Your dealings with us. We pray that You would be honored and glorified through our worship, that You would be honored in the hearts of Your people.

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As we sing, we pray that as we lift our voice to You, that You would be glorified through that and also through the meditation of our hearts.

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Give us grace to listen to Your Word, to hear it, to obey it. We pray that You give us grace to worship

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You in a manner and in a way that honors You to the degree to which

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You are worthy of being honored. Be glorified here through our worship, we pray. Unite our hearts together in love and in truth and affection for the

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Lord Jesus Christ as we focus our attention and affection upon Him. We pray this in Christ's name.

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Amen. We greet with anthems sweet While shepherds watch our keeping

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This, this is Christ the

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King Whom shepherds guard and angels sing

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Haste, haste to bring Him laud

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The Babe, the Son of Mary Why might

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He in such mean estate Where us and as our feeding

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Good Christians fear for sinners here

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The silent Word His plea

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Melt, spear, shall pierce Him through The cross be borne for me, for you

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Hail, hail the Word made flesh

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The Babe, the Son of Mary So bring

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Him as that womb and myrrh Come, peasant king, to own

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Him The King of kings salvation brings

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Let loving hearts enthrone

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Him Raise, raise the song on high

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The Virgin sings her lullaby

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Joy, joy for Christ is born

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The Babe, the Son of Mary In the

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Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 16 to 19, it says, For God so loved the world that He gave

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His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the

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Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged.

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He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten

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Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.

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Behold, the mystery now unfolds

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See the star shine on the Virgin foretold

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Angels sing and light up the sky Hope rings out in the newborn's cry

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Swing wide, you ancient gates For Christ is born today

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Prepare Him room, prepare Him room

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Let the King of glory enter in God with us, the promise has come to me

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It's the one the prophets were longing to see

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In the darkness a blazing light To the hungry the words of life

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His kingdom now is near For those with ears to hear

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Prepare Him room, prepare Him room

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Let the King of glory enter in Prepare Him room, prepare

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Him room Let the King of glory enter in Our hearts, as busy as Bethlehem Don't say there's no room in the inn

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Through the cradle, cross and grave See the love of God displayed

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Now He's risen and He reigns Praise the name above all names

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Prepare Him room, prepare Him room

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Let the King of glory enter in Prepare Him room, prepare

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Him room Let the King of glory enter in Let the

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King of glory enter in You may be seated

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Ransomed, captivated Born in lonely exile here

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Until the Son of God appears

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Rejoice, rejoice Amen Shall come to thee,

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O Israel O day, spring, come and cheer

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Our spirits by thine advent here

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Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

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And as dark shadows put to flight

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Rejoice, rejoice Amen Shall come to thee,

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O Israel Rejoice, rejoice

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Amen Shall come to thee,

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O Israel Please now turn your

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Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12

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And when you've found your place there, let's pray together Our Father, it is our desire and our expectations to hear from You today in Your Word We are gathered here today to acknowledge our unworthiness before You to confess that, to rejoice in the hope of the

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Gospel and the hope that we have in Your Son because of His death for us on the cross because of Your great work of redemption

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And so we pray now that You would encourage our hearts and strengthen them together in Your Word and that Your Word may give to us solace and comfort encouragement and strength

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We pray that You would be glorified through our understanding and our application of Your Word We pray in the name of Christ, Amen The Christian life is a struggle that is something that is patently obvious to anybody who has either been a

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Christian for any period of time or read your Bible at all which is why some of the modern

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Gospel presentations are so frustrating when they hide the realities of the struggle of the

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Christian life and the cost of what it means to follow Christ Many times in churches you will hear

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Gospel presentations that offer or promise physical blessings and a better life and an easier life or prosperity and all kinds of temporal ease if you simply become a

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Christian and Scripture doesn't promise any of those things to the child of God In fact, Scripture honestly warns us that it is through many trials and tribulations that we must enter the

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Kingdom of God That's Acts 14 .22 1 Peter 5 .8 says, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour

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That doesn't sound like rainbows and giggles, does it? No, that's the reality of the

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Christian life So Peter says we are to resist him firm in the faith knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world

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Ephesians 6 .12 says we struggle not against flesh and blood but against rulers, against the powers against the world forces of this darkness against spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places 1

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Timothy 6 .12 Paul told Timothy you are to fight the good fight of faith and in 2 Timothy 4

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Paul says I have fought the good fight of the faith Scripture describes the Christian life as a battle a war, a labor, an effort agony, conflict, a race an athletic contest and so we are told to endure to persevere, to continue to fight the good fight to stand strong and to labor in the

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Lord and Scripture commends for us hard work, courage, strength fortitude, endurance and discipline that's the reality of what we face 1

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Corinthians 16 .13 says and I love this verse be on the alert stand firm in the faith act like men be strong that is about one of the most politically incorrect verses that you could possibly read act like men he says that to the women not because he is encouraging transgenderism but there's aspects of manhood and maleness namely strength and courage and fortitude and endurance that ought to characterize everybody as we run the

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Christian race there is a very real danger for us in our passage, Hebrews 12 .3

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and that danger is that our hearts can faint the command to be strong in the faith, to act like men to endure and to be firm in the faith and be on the alert those commands are not something that really are for the faint of heart and yet our hearts faint, don't they?

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they do faint in this world that's the reality that we face so yes we face a conflict, a struggle a contest, a race that we have to run and we put forth the effort into finishing that race and contending and working in that contest laboring and striving and fighting the good fight, we're to stand strong and yet our hearts in this world can faint that is the danger that is described in Hebrews 12 .3

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which is our text for this morning for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart there is a warning there about growing weary and losing heart and that warning perfectly fits the analogy of the race that we have been looking at in verses 1 -3 we understand that preparing for a race is easy in terms of planning and setting aside on the schedule, starting the race is easy, it is running it and finishing the race well, that is the difficulty and so as the difficulties mount and as times get tough and as our resolve and our discipline and our motivations begin to fail us, there is always the danger that you and I would lose heart and begin to grow weary in the race we are susceptible to this weariness we get tired of this life and I think the older that we get the more tired and exhausted and done with it we also become and maybe

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I'm not speaking for everybody who is north of 35 but when you're north of 35 and the further north you get of 35, the more you start to realize, man

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I just want it all to be done I'm ready to wrap all of this up and there is a very real sense in which the older we get, the more we get disconnected from and lose our affections for this world and we start to set our hope and affections and longings on the world that is to come.

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The race is a difficult one and you and I need the encouragement and the instruction to run it well because weariness of heart and fainting of heart is a cause of all kinds of evils because we are weary, we begin to compromise with the world capitulate to the spirit of the age make compromises and give in to our flesh, we make moral theological and spiritual shipwreck of our lives when we are weary weariness leads to faithlessness to laziness, to indolence and to apathy in our spiritual lives now that weariness is not the only cause of those things but it is a certain cause of those things.

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So we have to be on guard in our own lives and in our own hearts against the reality of fainting in our heart and becoming weary as it is described at the end of verse 3 in Hebrews 12.

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So what is the cure then for this weariness? If weariness really is a danger to us if it is possible for us to lose heart and to faint in our soul and become weary in the race, then how do we prevent that or how do we cure it?

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There are two things listed here in our text in verse 3 I want you to read it with me again Consider him who has endured such hostility against himself by sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

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Here is the cure for it. How do we guard against weariness? How do we fight against a fainting of soul when the realities of this life and the trials of this world tend to sap our energy and strength and make us despair of the outcome and even despair of life in this world?

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Listen we don't do it by ignoring the reality of trials You'll notice that verse 3 doesn't say anything about that.

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It doesn't say pretend that the afflictions don't exist It doesn't say ignore them, try not to think about them just bear down and grit your teeth and endure all the way to the end, muster up that resolve that is deep within the heart of every human person and just face it with a stoicism and a gritted jaw and just get through it and get past it to the end

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That's not the counsel. Rather the author counsels us to inform our own hearts with the truth regarding two things that begin to put our suffering and our afflictions in their proper perspective

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You and I are to do two things. To compare our afflictions with the reward that is to come

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That's actually in verse 2 We started to look at that last week and the second is to compare our afflictions with the

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Lord's afflictions That's in verse 3. Now when you and I inform our hearts and our minds with the truth and we compare our afflictions and sufferings and difficulties in this life with the reward that we will receive when we cross the finish line and then when we compare our afflictions to His afflictions, then suddenly that puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?

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This is the cure for a weary heart. This is how it is that we prevent growing weary Let's look at the first one to compare our sufferings with the reward that is to come

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We looked at it a little bit last week Up in verse 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Now this is the example that the

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Lord Jesus gave us in that He endured the cross and despised the shame while He was focusing

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Himself on something else namely the reward that was to come the joy that was set before Him being elevated and exalted to the

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Father's right hand and taking His seat there at a position of power and authority and a position of exaltation.

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That and many other things that Scripture in the Old Testament described and promised to Him those things were the joy that was set before Him.

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With that joy, that is the reward, the treasure that was to come He endured the cross and despised the shame

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So there is a comparison here that the Lord Jesus made Himself between the joy that was set before Him and the affliction or the suffering that He Himself was to endure.

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Notice that Jesus didn't deny that the suffering was real and the passage doesn't deny that His suffering was real.

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It was a real shame It was a real shame Scripture is honest about that. What He endured was a real shame and Jesus didn't deny that.

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He didn't pretend that it didn't exist and instead He assessed that very real shame in light of the joy that was set before Him so that He would endure the cross and despise that shame.

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The Hebrews to which this epistle was written also faced and had endured real shame.

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Do you remember back in chapter 10 verse 32? Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated

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You showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one

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They had endured the reproaches and the tribulations, a conflict of sufferings, having their property seized being thrown into prison all because of their faith.

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That was the shame that the original audience had already endured and now He is holding before them another person, their

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Lord, their Savior, their Messiah who had endured likewise shame but a far greater degree of shame.

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And how did the Lord handle that shame? He despised it. It's an interesting word in the Greek. The word means to look down upon or to scorn.

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In other words, He did not consider it or take it into account The root word, the root of that Greek word is phreno which has to do with the mind and it describes setting your mind on something.

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And the way it is used here it describes setting your mind on the lowliness of a thing or looking down mentally, looking down upon a thing.

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The noun form of this would be translated as a despiser or a scoffer.

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One who looks down on someone or something else scoffs at it. This is what the

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Lord Jesus did when He compared the joy that was set before Him with the suffering here is the mental equation that took place.

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He looked down upon the shame and the suffering of the cross and He endured that for the joy which

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He valued far more. In other words, there is a mental assessment that went on in the mind of the

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Lord Jesus where He looked at the shame of the cross as real as it was and as serious as it was in all that it entailed and He saw that as worthy of scoffing at.

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That was to be despised. It was not something that deterred Him at all. He was able to pass over the shame of it, through the shame of it.

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Why? Because He could scoff at the suffering and the shame of it because He was so convinced of what

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Scripture said concerning the reward that had been set before Him. So there was an evaluation that goes on between the suffering and the reward that is to come.

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And if you want to handle suffering and affliction and the shame of persecution the way the

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Lord Jesus Christ did, then you're going to have to compare your afflictions with the reward that is to come.

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That's the first cure for a weary heart. We are not told to endure suffering for the sake of suffering.

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We're not told to sacrifice for the sake of sacrificing. We are told and encouraged to endure suffering and to sacrifice with an eye on the reward that we are to receive for that.

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That is biblical. That is legitimate. That is how we are created to think.

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That is as inherent to our nature as any human aspect of us. Not that we are selfish.

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Not that we don't do it for His sake. But we have laid out in front of us a reward that we receive for the sacrifice and for the shame.

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We are promised a reward that motivates us to step over the shame, to despise it, to think of it as nothing so that we might endure the affliction and the suffering that lies ahead.

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The cross was shameful and unthinkably so but the Lord Jesus Christ did not care. That's the point. He scoffed at the shame because it was not worthy to be compared with the glory that was to be revealed to Him and through Him.

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Isn't that what Paul says in Romans 8 verse 18? I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 17. Momentary and light affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

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Paul had this mindset which is why he says in Acts chapter 20 when he calls the Ephesian elders to himself on the shore there and has his little conversation with them.

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Paul says in Acts 20 -23 the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me that in every city that I enter bonds and afflictions await me.

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Listen to the next phrase. But I do not consider my own life on any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which

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I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Bonds and afflictions await me.

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That's the affliction and the suffering. But I do not consider my own life, even if the bonds and afflictions should take my life,

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I do not consider my own life in any way dear. Why? So that I may finish my course and the ministry which I receive from the

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Lord Jesus. With an eye on the prize at the finish line, Paul could say I despise or I scoff at even my own life because the reward is so much better.

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This by the way is the attitude that we should have towards discipline which the author of Hebrews deals with next beginning in verse 4 and following.

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Look down at verse 11. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful you figure but sorrowful.

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But look at this. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

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See? You endure the discipline. Why? Because on the other side of the discipline there's peaceable fruits of righteousness.

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So the reason we endure discipline from the Lord is the same reason we endure suffering from the world. Why? Because there is something that it is producing for us which far outweighs the cost that we have to pay for it.

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Hebrews 13 says let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach for here we do not have a lasting city but we are seeking the city which is to come.

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There's the cost reward right again. Hebrews 13. We go outside the city, bear his reproach.

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Why? Because we get a lasting city so we turn our back on the world of men on this world, bearing his reproach, knowing that we are going to be given something that makes all of the reproach and the sufferings of this world pale by comparison.

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So the key to enduring trials is not to deny them, it is not to ignore them, it's not to pretend that they don't exist, but to always keep before our eyes the reward that we are promised for our endurance and our perseverance.

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This is what the Lord Jesus did in despising the shame. You and I are to have in front of our mind's eye that reward and it is to be so crystal clear in our hearts and in our minds that it is as if we could reach out and touch it.

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That's what faith does, right? It is the substance of what is hoped for. It's the tangible part of what is hoped for.

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It makes what we have not seen real and convincing and substantive to us. That's what faith does.

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So we have to have that perspective with the reward. I was just talking with somebody this morning about a saint in our congregation who's probably going to be going home to be with the

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Lord unless the Lord intervenes in his life soon. And of course there's the sadness that is associated with the losing of a brother or sister or a husband or a wife.

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But I said to this brother if you and I could just feel, if we could just see eternity and what the presence of the

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Lord is for him right now, if we could just see that we wouldn't shed a single tear. There would be no tears.

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We would just simply say, yep, it's going to feel like probably about a week until we see him again and then we're going to be in the Lord's presence and this is what we get to enjoy.

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That would be our perspective. Faith makes that thing which is unseen tangible and real to us so that we can actually mentally, spiritually feel the reality of that reward.

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Second cure for a weary heart is to compare your sufferings with the Lord's. Chapter 12 verse 3

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

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Now this may sound a lot like what we saw up in verse 2 that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus.

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Is this just the author's way of restating what he said in verse 2? We are to fix our eyes on Jesus and we are to consider him who endured such hostility against sinners.

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There is some overlap in the meaning of these two phrases, these two concepts but they are slightly different.

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Up in verse 2 when he says we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the focus or the intention there is the direction in which we look.

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Do you remember that word had the idea of not just looking to something but intentionally, purposefully looking away from things.

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The treasures and pleasures of this world, the encumbrances and the sin, the distractions, other runners in the race, etc.

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We are to take our eyes off of those things and fix them on something. It has to do with the direction in which we look.

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Just as a runner would run his race looking to the finish line focusing on the wreath that was ahead, the prize that was promised to him.

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So you and I are to fix our eyes in that way on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not looking up to the witnesses or the clouds or anything that is beside the racetrack, but to fix and not take our eyes off of that.

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That was verse 2. Verse 3 is a slightly different phrase, it's a different word that has to do with considering something in your mind.

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Again, this is a mental activity that we are to be engaged in. It is the word analogizomai, and it has to do with the mind and thinking out something carefully.

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This is a very interesting word. It's a clever word. It means to reason something through thoroughly, and it was related to the mathematical sciences.

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Analogizomai, you can hear the logizo in there. It's similar to our idea of logistics. It has to do with counting something up, summing something up, reckoning it, estimating it, consider the sum of it, adding it all together.

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That's what we're counseled to do. The emphasis is on making an evaluation of something in proportion to something else.

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That's the idea. That's what logistics does. You work out the most advantageous way of doing something when you're considering all of the other factors that are involved in this.

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And this is the word that the author is using. You are to sum up or add up the sufferings and afflictions of Him who endured such hostility against Himself.

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And you're to count all of that up in your mind and to make an evaluation of what it is that He endured against Himself at the hands of wicked sinners.

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Mold that over. Put that in your mind. Consider and calculate up the hostilities that He faced.

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And the word hostility there is a beautiful word. It also has the logizo kind of an idea in it.

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Analogion, which means to gainsay or to speak against or to contradict. You and I are to add up all of the things that sinners contradicted

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Him. That's the idea. That's why the King James Version translates this phrase, the contradiction of sinners against Himself.

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And it's not simply referring to, yeah, people argued with Him. That's not what it's describing. It's actually describing all kinds of hostility.

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All kinds of rebellion. The word was used to describe defiance, opposition, dispute, or strife.

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So how is it that we would count up the sufferings and afflictions that the Lord Jesus Christ endured at the hands of hostile sinners?

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How would we do that? We'd say, okay, well, He was tried. He was scourged.

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He was beaten. Hold on a second. We have to go back a little ways, don't we? He was born by an ignoble birth.

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Didn't even have a good room to be born in. Really, that's where the hostility all started. And after that, we have the following.

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He was hunted by Herod. Herod tried to kill him. So his family had to flee to Egypt.

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Then after coming out of Egypt, he had to settle in Nazareth, which was this obscure, backwoods, hick town of no reputation.

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Not a destination town in any way. It was the Clark Fork of Israel. So much so that people would say, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

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He was not from a respected class of society. He grew up in a family full of sinners. His brothers did not believe in him.

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He grew up under the cloud of illegitimacy. And remember, his enemies used this against him on one occasion.

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At least, John 8, they said, we were not born of fornication. Oof. Can you hear the implication there?

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Of what haunted him his entire life in terms of what other people thought and said about him because of the virgin birth?

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Then we have record on more than one occasion of his brothers mocking him and challenging his credentials. The Pharisees challenged him at every turn, questioning his authority.

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When he cleansed the temple, they said, show us a sign. Give us some reason why you think you are able to do this. By whose authority do you take this action?

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When he healed on the Sabbath, they challenged him and argued with him and contradicted him regarding the meaning and the appropriateness of that action.

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When he taught publicly, they would accuse him and argue with him publicly in front of the crowds. They argued with him and contradicted him and tried to turn the crowds against him.

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The crowds wanted nothing more from him, by the way, than just food and healing and signs and miracles and a show.

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They refused to come to him, to repent, to turn to him, to believe upon him and to embrace him as he demanded.

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They refused to have a Messiah that would not liberate them from the bonds of the Roman Empire. They wanted signs and they saw signs and then demanded even more signs.

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The disciples saw the signs and they still doubted and feared. The religious leaders plotted to kill him on multiple occasions.

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On some occasions picking up stones to stone him. And they even, in John, I think it's chapter 7, they told the temple police to go and arrest him and the temple police went to do that and they came back and they said how come you didn't arrest him?

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And the temple police said no man speaks like this man. They just couldn't do it. There was a plot to kill him for years that traveled around with him all the time.

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They were always looking for an opportunity to arrest him, to seize him, even to throw him off a cliff, which they tried to do in Nazareth, his hometown.

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This is what people in Clark Fork do. They will take you to the edge of the cliff and they will toss you off if they don't like you.

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This is what they did in Nazareth. They hated him. The religious leaders all plotting to kill him over the course of his entire ministry.

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He had to labor in obscurity, often avoiding Jerusalem and the crowds just to remain hidden.

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Sometimes they picked up stones to stone him. They tried to trick him into saying things that were not true, giving him all these questions and conundrums from the law, attempting to trick him into saying something that was stupid or errant in some way or theologically contradictory so that they could accuse him before the religious leaders, offering him all kinds of stupid stories, trying to get him to say things at the worst of times.

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His disciples didn't get on board easily either. While he's talking to them about suffering, crucifixion, and being raised again, his disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest.

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He's talking about his humiliation and they're concerned about which one of them is going to get the most exaltation.

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On one occasion Jesus was talking about his coming crucifixion and Peter said to him,

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Peter contradicted him and said, no, no Lord. That's not going to happen to you. Let me explain to you how this is going to go down.

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He got that from his own disciples. His brothers did not believe in him.

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When a woman worshipped him and poured out oil for his, anointing him for his burial, remember Judas' reaction?

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Judas' reaction, this oil should have been sold so we could put the money in the money bag and of course give it to the poor, which

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Judas was not interested in doing because he was taking money out of the money bag. But that showed you Judas' assessment of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This oil would have been better used being sold so that we could get the money than to be used on you.

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That was his assessment. Then Judas sold him for 30 pieces of silver and betrayed him with a kiss.

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Then Peter denied him and the disciples fled. Now we can get to the trials, to the whipping, to the scourging, to the crucifixion, to the nails.

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To being crucified with common thieves and then to not even be given a proper burial and then to be put into a borrowed tomb.

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That's the worst of humiliations. In other words, for more than 30 years he suffered every indignity, every hostility, every insult, abuse, slander, scoffing, contradiction, strife, dispute, threat, and disrespect possible.

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Now how do you add all of that up? That's just what is revealed to us in the Gospels and John says

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I haven't written to you everything he said or did. We have to assume that in the large gaps of the

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Gospels there's other hostility, other contradiction, other afflictions and sufferings that were poured out on him and toward him by the vilest of sinners, all men and women to whom he offered salvation and grace and showed them nothing but love and they returned nothing but hatred for his love.

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And for 30 years they did this. And how did he endure? Peter says while being reviled he did not revile and return him while suffering he uttered no threats but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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A patient endurance. And in this, in his suffering, Jesus is our example and in his exaltation,

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Jesus is our hope. In his suffering he is our example, in his exaltation he is our hope.

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Keep that in mind. And how he endured that hostility from sinners. So here's the prevention for a weary heart.

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Add up your own sufferings. Add up your own sufferings. And then that some estimating total that we did of just counting out his sufferings.

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And that was by no means a complete list. Not even close to a complete list. Just compare them.

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His afflictions and my afflictions. That in itself should be enough to encourage your weary heart.

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Now you're saying, Jim, is that your counsel? Your counsel is just to say compare yourself to somebody else who had it worse and buck up, chump, take heart in that.

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Yeah. That's it. Compare your afflictions with the reward that is to come and then consider his afflictions.

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And realize that your afflictions, your suffering, and whatever it is that you and I sacrifice in this life, it is nothing compared to what he endured.

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And we do this verse 3 says, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart. The word grow weary is a word that means fatigued.

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It's used twice in the New Testament. It's used here. It's used also in James 5, verse 15 to describe being sick.

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Describes just being fatigued. It's the exhaustion or the tiredness that comes with being sick. Losing heart or lose heart is the way it has it in our

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English translation. It's as if growing weary and losing heart are two separate and distinct things, but it's not. The losing heart is part of an adjective in a verb form that describes what it is that happens to you when you grow weary.

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In other words, we would translate this, you don't become weary or sick from a fainting soul.

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Or by losing heart. It's the idea that your soul, your inner self, begins to faint or to come loose.

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And the process of becoming loose in your inner man and having your soul kind of come loose and rattle around, this creates a fatigue, an exhaustion or almost a sickness of soul.

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Matthew 15, verse 32 uses this word faint and it's describing there a physical fainting when

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Jesus called His disciples to Him and He said, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat and I don't want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way.

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In other words, they might just kind of become loose and fall down and lose heart. It's the same word, fainting.

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So we are to compare our sufferings with the reward that's to come and to compare our sufferings with His sufferings so that we do not become tired by our hearts, our inner man, starting to fall away or faint.

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This is how you avoid exhaustion. You look at His sufferings and compare them. So a physical fainting is caused by a lack of physical nourishment and it's also cured by physical nourishment.

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And if spiritual fainting or weakness is caused by a lack of spiritual nourishment, then it is also cured by spiritual nourishment.

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And what is the spiritual nourishment that we are to give our hearts, our minds and our souls lest we faint and grow weary by losing our hearts?

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We are to feed them the truth. The truth regarding what? The reward that is to come and the reality of His sufferings.

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And here's another truth we are to feed them. We are to feed our mind and our heart the reminder that His sufferings were because of me or you would say, because of you.

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Everything He endured, He endured to save all who are going to be saved and everything

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He endured, He would have had to endure if He were even only going to save one, me.

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You see, all of His sufferings, everything we have counted up, all of that had to have been done and would have had to have been done even if the only object of His salvation, the only one saved out of all of the massive human history was you, one person.

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He would have had to endure all of that. He still would have had to have been born a virgin. He still would have had to have lived a perfect and sinless life.

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He still would have had to endure all of the hostility and affliction of evil and vile sinners. And He still would have had to have endured the same death even if it was to save just one.

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Which means in a very real way, all of the affliction that we have talked about, that He endured, it was all caused by you individually and by me individually.

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Because my sin warranted that He had to endure all of that for my sake. This is why

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Paul can say He has died for me. He gave Himself up for me. It was a personal death that He did.

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He did that individually for me as much as He did it individually for you if you're in Jesus Christ. Which means that everything

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He endured, He endured because you brought it on Him. He endured it because I brought it on Him. And so not only do

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I compare my affliction and suffering with the reward that I get for it, but I also must compare my affliction and suffering to His affliction and suffering and then remember

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His affliction and suffering was due for me. I was the cause of that.

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My sin put Him there. My sin required that. And if my sin required that, then all of His affliction was my fault.

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Just as all of His affliction was your fault because He would have endured it all for you. So I endured everything that He I deserve to endure everything that He endured and He endured all of it and then

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I just taste a little bit of the affliction in this world in comparison to it. And I deserve none of the reward that He secured, but He secured all of that reward and then gives it all to you and I.

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That's a great exchange. You and I have to feed that truth to our hearts and to our minds.

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You and I are involved in a battle of the mind which is why both of these phrases both of these words have to do with how it is that we think.

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We are to think about our suffering in light of the reward. To look down upon the affliction with our eyes upon the joy that is set before us.

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We are to mentally evaluate those two things and keep that in mind. Then we are to mentally evaluate something else, namely

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His suffering and compare it to ours and then remember that His suffering was due to us. That is the cure for a weary heart.

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This is what is promised to us in the gospel. If you are in Jesus Christ then you know that all of your lies all of your lust, all of your gossip, all of your slander, your disobedience to your parents, your pride your selfishness all of that was laid upon the

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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are in Christ. All of your sin was laid upon Him.

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You can count up all of His sufferings knowing that it was for you. All that He endured knowing it was for you.

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And here in is the hope of Scripture the Scripture offers to us. That God loved sinners so much that He sent

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His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to take upon Himself human flesh, a reality that will never change for all of eternity.

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He is now fully and forever and always the God -Man and He lived the life that you and I were required to live and then

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He died the death that you and I deserved to die so that He could bear our sin and take our penalty and our burden and then provide us eternal life on His terms and His terms of repentance and faith.

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And so God in response to this good news commands you this day if you are not in Jesus Christ to turn from your sin and to believe savingly upon Him to trust that His sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price for your sin.

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All that He endured, He endured for every last sinner who will come to Him in repentance and faith.

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And He commands you this day to repent and His promise, the promise of the Son is that if you come to Him He will never cast you out.

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He will forgive your sin He will give you eternal life. He will clothe you with His righteousness and He will take you home to be with Him and He will give you the reward that is with Him even now for His people.

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Repent and believe today. Let's bow our heads. Our Father we praise

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You for Your goodness and Your grace in Your Son. We marvel each and every week at how much

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You have provided for us in Him. How glorious it is to reflect upon Him and what He endured and how that motivates us.

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We are thankful that we have such a great salvation purchased at such a high and great cost and we are grateful that He has endured all of that in our stead.

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And we recognize before You Father that all that affliction all that hostility was due to our sin.

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And so we just express again our gratitude and our thankfulness that You have saved wretched sinners out of the despair out of our sin and out of our wretchedness to make us treasures of Your grace for all of eternity.

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Thank You for so great a mercy. Thank You for not crediting our sins to our accounts.

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Thank You for not counting up our sins and knowing all of them. Thank You for dealing with us as You do sons because of what

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Your Son has done for us. We praise You in the name of Christ our Lord. Strengthen our hearts we pray.

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Amen. Let's stand and end our service this morning by singing Come Behold the

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Wondrous Mystery. Come behold the wondrous mystery in the dawning of the

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King. He the theme of heaven's praises roped in frail humanity.

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In our longing in our darkness now the light of life has come.

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Look to Christ who condescended took on flesh to ransom us.

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Come behold the wondrous mystery in the perfect Son of Man.

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In His living, in His suffering never trace nor stain of sin.

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See the true and better Adam come to sustain the hell -bound man.

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Christ the great and sure fulfillment of the law in Him we stand.

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Come behold the wondrous mystery Christ the

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Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners hangs the

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Lamb in victory. See the price of our redemption.

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See the Father's plan unfold. Bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love undone.

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Come behold the wondrous mystery slain by death the

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God of life. But no grave could ever restrain

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Him. Praise the Lord He is alive. What a foretaste of deliverance.

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How unwavering our hope. Christ in power resurrected as He will be when

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He comes. What a foretaste of deliverance.

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How unwavering our hope. Christ in power resurrected as He will be when