Laying Aside Every Weight In Christian Life — Donny Coulter

And where we are going. Because of these kinds of things, I want our church, we're a new church. I know that we have a, I don't know, 65, 70 year history here in Pinchot Creek. But Creekside has a three year history.

Pursuing Holiness as a Church

And I want this church to be a church that pursues holiness. Yes, I said that and I mean it. I want us to be a church that pursues holiness. Because I believe, as we have learned, that that is the very command of God to all of us as believers.

As individuals, and as individuals coming together as a body of believers, we are commanded to be holy, for I am holy. You remember that? We tore it all apart. We have been told to walk worthy, if you'll remember the weights, the balance.

That to walk worthy means to weigh the same weight as. To weigh the same as. And we've been told to walk worthy of the gospel. May your life, the way that you walk, the way that you live, the way that you talk, the way that you think, may it be worthy, may it weigh the same as the gospel.

May you walk worthy of the Lord, the word of God says. May you walk worthy of the calling. And we talked about that calling. We've been called to this holiness. God, we established that last year, that God is holy.

He is so other, there is none like him, there is nothing like him. His holiness, we can't even comprehend or describe. And yet we are commanded to be like he. If we are going to live that kind of way, then we must, we as God's children, must have a godly attitude towards anything that is opposite of holiness, which we call sin.

We have to have a godly attitude towards sin, and anything that would prevent us from moving forward in that life of holiness. You remember the picture that we had up here often? That picture of our walk with God.

I think I have it. I almost totally forgot that I had my computer up here. Give me a second. Can tell that was unscripted. You remember the picture that we've drawn. Mel added some things in there, was so good.

But this is the picture of the life that we have been called to, the yellow line. We've experienced this crisis of belief. And we have been called to this. And if we're going to live in that yellow line, accomplishing the purpose of God, which is to make us like Christ, then we as God's children must have a sensitivity to sin.

We must have a godly attitude towards sin. And I'm afraid, as we experienced this week, I am so afraid that we have written off what God has called wrong and made it right. We have written off the little things because it doesn't affect anybody, and really nobody knows about it.

And we write off the little things like jealousy, and gossip, and malice, and anger, dirty jokes, dirty talk. We've wrote those off because, well, they're not so offensive. Everybody does it, and you hear it everywhere.

But we've got to remember, one of the things that we talked about was sin. We have to realize that sin is offensive to God, even as a believer. So we have to have a godly attitude towards sin. We looked at Psalm 51 the last time I was together with you.

Psalm 51: Mercy, Confession, and Repentance

We looked at Psalm 51, and we determined these six things from Psalm 51 in terms of how we see an attitude, our attitude towards sin. First of all, we said that we must believe in his mercy and forgiveness.

Yes, you're going to mess up. David messed up. You're going to mess up. I'm going to mess up. I don't want to mess up. And I'm hoping that the messing up is less and less as I move along on my yellow line.

That I am maturing to the point that I am less and less tempted and drawn away by my own fleshly desires. So that sin is birthed in me. I don't want to be there, but I'm going to be there. And when I do, I must believe in the mercy and the forgiveness of God.

And that's what David said as he cried out to God, have mercy upon me, oh God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out, completely get rid of my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. The second thing that we learned was that we must confess our sin. Look what David says, for I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is always before me.

He confessed. You've heard me say this. Confession is not coming into a little room and telling everybody or somebody what you've done. Confession is simply agreeing with God that he is right and I am wrong.

And name the wrong. That's what David says. The third thing is, he says, recognize that your sin is offensive to God. And this is where I think that we have lost it. That we have become insensitive. That the little things that we do is not so offensive to God.

It doesn't, well, so I lied. So I lusted. So I cheated. What does that matter to God? I know we don't say those kind of words but that's the attitude in which we commit them. We have to recognize that sin, all sin, not little sins are okay, big sins are bad.

All sin, all of our sin, no matter what it is, is offensive to God against you and you only have I sinned, David says, and done this thing in your sight. Fourthly, you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.

You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise. We must, when we have sin, as it is revealed by the Holy Spirit in our lives, no matter how small or how big, we must respond to that and come to God with a broken spirit and a broken heart because we have offended God.

Not, listen, not because I'm paying the price for it. Oftentimes our turning and repenting or saying I'm sorry is because we are being punished or the consequences, the natural consequences of our sin has come and I don't like it.

You do drugs, you get addicted. Well, I don't like what it's doing to me but I don't want to turn from it. You cheat on your wife or your husband. The trust in the family, in the relationship is gone.

Those are consequences of your sin. You don't turn because of the consequence, you turn because of the sin and you turn because it is offensive to God. Fifthly, look what he says, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit and then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you.

You know what you need to do? When you fail, when you find yourself in sin and a place of repentance, ask God for a renewed heart for holiness and I'm worried that if we don't do something like, if we don't have that part of our prayer life that we are going to easily forget that we are to be moving towards holiness.

So we need to ask God, God, renew my heart, put a steadfast spirit inside of me, renew my heart, clean me up, God. I want a renewed heart for your holiness. And then lastly, praise him and lead others to see it.

Help others to be able to see the beauty and the power of the forgiveness of God and the loveliness of holiness. Help them to see it. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you.

Took a lot longer than that than I wanted to but Psalm 51 teaches us these lessons. I think I put them in the bulletin in your notes. I would encourage you to take them with you, placed on the refrigerator.

Begin to work on the dullness that you have towards your sin. I speak to myself. Read Hebrews chapter 12, verse one and two. In this attitude towards sin, what do we do with the sin that we have in our lives?

Laying Aside Every Weight and Sin

Let's read together Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and two. Therefore, we're gonna find out why the therefore is there. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight.

I want you to notice the words. The power of the words that the Holy Spirit uses in these verses. The power of the words, lay aside every weight. There's two distinctions here. Two things that we are to lay aside.

First of all, he says to lay aside every, every, you notice that word, every? Underline it. Every weight and, there's your and, and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Interesting here, ensnares and surrounded in the first part are the same word.

Sin which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance. Let us run with perseverance. Let us run with patience. The race that is set before us. Let us run with perseverance. The race that is marked out for us.

Looking unto Jesus, the author of our faith, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

God, may you bless the reading of your word. We are in a race. The writer of Hebrews here says that you and I are in a race. It's referred to a race oftentimes, several times in scripture. Galatians chapter five and verse seven.

Paul says, you ran well, who hath hindered you? James chapter one and verse 12 says that you will receive the crown of life. The prize. Listen to first Corinthians chapter nine, verse 25 to 27. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.

They then do it to receive a perishable reef, but we an imperishable. Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself may not be disqualified.

Do you see the desire of Paul in that? In this desire for holiness, even in his own life as the preacher? Look what he says. I run in such a way, but not without an aim. In other words, I know the course and I know where it's headed to and I know what it's for and I'm running with that purpose in mind.

I don't box as someone who boxes the air. Have you ever seen those guys that fight and they're just swinging and hitting the air? Used to fight like that. I can remember a fight when I was in eighth grade.

It was like that. I don't know if we ever hit anybody. Oh my goodness, I can't, my brain goes crazy. I gotta tell you this story. We were in Alaska. Back when I was in Alaska, we were in Alaska on a mission trip and late one night I was studying for the sermon on Sunday and there was a party going on.

It was a little village of 160 native people and there was a party going on. The community hall was right below the old log building church and there was a fight. And it was right on the entrance to the church and it was between a man, an older man, and a teenage boy.

And I don't know what came over me. I'm not a big dude and I didn't know how to fight but there was something came over me and I walked out that door and they were flailing like that. I mean, they were like.

And I don't know if anybody hit but I walked out that door and walked right between them. And I never took a punch in all of that. Never took a punch. God, the protection of God, I don't know. They're just really bad fighters.

I don't know which one it was but I walked in. That kind of fight is not what Paul's talking about. Paul's talking about I boxed and when I boxed, I boxed with a purpose. I'm going to knock you out. Not beating the air but I discipline my body and make it my slave.

Discipline, Perseverance, and the Race of Faith

There's a discipline in this holiness that we're talking about. Do you agree? That if we're going to pursue holiness, it's not just a work of the Holy Spirit although we couldn't do it if there wasn't the work of the Holy Spirit.

It's not just the work of this Holy Spirit. It's not this Jesus magic pill that makes me holy. There is something that you and I participate. As you know that we've talked about over and over again, the work, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Why are you so fat? We have to be involved in the work. Paul says I discipline my body and I make it my slave so that after I have preached to others. In other words, he's saying I want to stand before the people that I preach with integrity.

I want you to know that your pastor wants to do that. I invite you and encourage you if you see something in me that is ungodly and unchristlike, please come and talk to me. Don't be afraid to talk to me.

Second Timothy chapter four verse seven says I have fought a good fight. Paul at the end of his life says I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race and I have kept the faith. See, you and I have a course laid out.

That's what it says. Look at it. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let us run the course that is marked out for us. You have a race that you are running, that you are called to run.

And folks, I want you to know that this is a lifelong race from the moment you become a believer until the moment that you die or are raptured away, then you are in this race. It is a lifelong race. You ought to be running to round the turn of maturity in Jesus Christ, conformed to the image of Christ which is the purpose of God for you.

Should round the turn of sharing Christ, of being an evangelist, doing the work of an evangelist. We have a finish line. We have a course that's laid out before us. That's your maturity. Back to the picture.

That's your maturity in Christ. That's your course to become Christ-like. And you have a finish line. That is eternal life with Christ. That is that permanent glorification. Someday it will be over. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

We are called to run a race. We are not called to tiptoe through the tulips. We are called to run a race. And a race takes work. If you're going to win a race, it's going to take commitment. Believer, it takes a commitment.

A commitment to the purposes of God. A commitment to the word of God. It takes commitment. And I'm afraid that we have forgotten what commitment is. It gets hard and we don't like it anymore. It gets uncomfortable.

The circumstances are not what we want them. And therefore, we don't want to be committed anymore. Are there times of doubt in your life? Yes. I bet you if I asked for a raising of the hands, if there's been a time where you wondered whether you had just a tinge of doubt, I'm not saying you were ready to quit and walk away, but you had some tinge of doubt in your faith, I bet you every hand in here would go up.

I remember three years into our ministry, I know I've told this story before, but I remember three years into our ministry, I was done. We had no friends. We had nobody. We were completely alone. And boy, man, what a difficult ministry we had, trying to break into a place that was different.

And it was difficult. And my commitment waned. And after suffering for two or three weeks, going into my office and getting down on my knees and opening up the Psalms and reading the Psalms out loud to God, praying the Psalms of repentance out loud to God, because I thought that there was some kind of a sin that I had committed to make me feel this way.

I didn't know what it was. And I begged God to show me. Never knew. It wasn't sin. It was just difficulty of life. And the circumstance that God brought me in, and it was in that moment that I said, I sat down on the couch one evening and I began to weep.

And I told Dana, I said, we're going home. We're gonna sell the house, we're going home. And she laughed at me. She said, Donnie Coulter is not a quitter. And I said, today, I became a quitter. I quit.

I'm done. Commitment. You know, there was a phone call that night. Oh, God's so good, isn't He? There was a phone call from some people down in Colorado that we'd made friends with, and she had some encouragement from Scripture in a book.

She says to me, I don't know why I need to call you. She didn't know anything about what was going on. I don't know why I need to call you and tell you this, but here it is. Those words, three months later, did you hear what I said?

Three months later, those words exploded in my life. But for even three more months, I had to experience the silence of God. But I got up every morning because of what she said and what the Word of God said, I could get up every morning and say, God, I live today in expectation.

Commitment. It takes commitment. It takes perseverance. And sometimes we don't like our circumstances to what our circumstances do to us. And we say to ourselves, we think that, well, if my circumstances were different, if I just had a different wife, if I just had a different husband, if I just went to a different church, if I just had a different job, if I just drove a newer car, if I just had a newer house, a bigger house, and we could go on and on and on.

But we think that if our circumstances were different, then, well, everything could be better. And so we go about changing the easy things. We go about trying to find a new car and a new job and a new house.

We do those things. But yet, this life is a race. And you are called to be a runner in the race and to run in this race, it's going to take hard work. It's going to take preparation. And as we'll see next week, it's gonna take laying aside anything that will hinder you from that race, both the weights and the sin that would hinder you, not your circumstances.

God's Purposes in Our Circumstances

Our circumstances, we have to look at our circumstances like this. Our circumstances are allowed by God. And I can name two immediate reasons why our circumstances are allowed by God. Number one would be because of discipline, that we are in the midst of discipline because we have not held on to a proper view of sin.

And so we have pursued self and sin. And God now says, as my child, I cannot let you get away with it. And so he brings circumstances in our lives for discipline. But I also believe that maybe it's not about discipline, but it could be about just your growth.

God is allowing certain circumstances in your life or even brings certain circumstances into your life to help you to grow. Difficulties, difficult circumstances, illnesses, sickness, relational turmoil, turbulence at work, family frustrations, financial difficulty.

Afraid many of us, all of us are heading there. God allows those to come into our lives so that our faith might grow, not so that we can find a different course to run. You follow me? You have a course for your life that is laid out.

And your circumstances are exactly what they need to be. And until we learn, listen to me, until we learn to rise above the circumstances, we are not really running the race. Will you with me rise above the circumstances of your life?

I want to do that. And see that I have been called to run the race with perseverance, with patience, with endurance. I must run this race. No matter my circumstances, I must run the race. And to run the race, we have to lay aside some things.

And next week we'll talk about some of the things that we're to lay aside. Because we are to lay aside both every weight, no exception clause there, every weight. And the sin. Much debate over what he means when he writes the sin.

But we'll see if we can't dig into it. Are you running your race with endurance? Are you committed to this race towards Christlikeness? Are you committed to holiness? Are you? Are we? Include myself. Are we committed to run a race?

That's the course that's been laid out for us, is it not? To become like Christ, the maturity of the believer, the sanctification of the believer. That's our course. And our ultimate goal is the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.

And we pursue that. Are you pursuing that with full commitment? Have you entered the race? Are you those who sit on the outside, coming to the race course every week and watching those who run? Christ is calling you into the race.

Oh, he would love for you to make that crisis of belief in your life a reality. He would love for you to hear your name called and respond to him, yes, yes, yes, I believe. Would you hear the spirit today as he speaks?

Prayer for Holiness, Perseverance, and Salvation

Father, thank you for your word. I just love it. Thank you for its power to convict us, to challenge us, and I pray that it's done its work today. Thank you for your mercy and forgiveness. Thank you for your grace that abounds so much more than our sin.

I pray that we would not take advantage of the grace that you have given to us, but you would help us, Lord, on this course, on this race that we are running, I pray that you would help us, Lord, to do everything we can to be committed with all of our hearts to reach the finish line, to win on the finish line.

I pray for those who are discouraged right now, whose commitment is waning, I pray that you would help them, help them, Lord, to be encouraged, that they are not called to do this on their own. As we'll see next week, we have the witness of the heroes of the faith.

I pray that you would encourage them, help them, Father, to find their way back to a commitment to holiness. Sin has ravaged their life again, and I pray that you would help them to turn, turn to the one who saved them and caused them, his child, turn.

Lord, I pray for the one who has never experienced you as Savior, who doesn't know the saving power of Jesus, who has not experienced the cleansing of the blood, the power of the blood. I pray, God, may you not let them leave this room today or their living room at home.

I pray that they would not be able to leave, not be able to stand up without the holy conviction of the Spirit on their lives, driving them to a revelation of Jesus Christ in the glorious gospel. Lord, for them, I pray that.

Oh, Lord, make us a church who pursues holiness. Set us apart, that's what it means. Set us apart, set us apart from the normal, from the status quo. May we be holy. May we be other, we pray. This I ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. If you need to talk, I will make myself available. We have the prayer room down here. And if you need to speak to me, you would like to become a believer, and God's been speaking to you, then please see me.

Or if you have something in your life that you need to be speaking to someone about, then I would encourage you to do that. Come and see me up here at the front.