WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP
The Invisible War – Part 1
08-04-13 Sermon
Hebrews
11:35-12:4
“BUT others
trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and
be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. Some
were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in dungeons. Some
died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the
sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and
mistreated. They were too good for this world. They wandered over
deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All of these
people we have mentioned received God’s approval because of their faith, yet
none of them received ALL that God had promised! For God had far better things in mind for us that
would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of
the race until WE finish the race!”
-
Faith doesn’t spare us from all pain!
-
Some of God’s promises will be fulfilled in eternity!
-
We’re runners in a historical relay
race!
“THEREFORE since we are surrounded by such a
huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight
that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our
progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has
set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our
faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on
the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is
seated in the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in heaven. Think
about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so
that you don’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet
given your lives in your struggle against sin!” (NLT)
1. I need to remember ____________________________________________________
“THEREFORE since
we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith…” Heb. 12:1a
2. I must eliminate _____________________________________________________
“…let us strip
off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so
easily hinders our progress…” Heb.
12:1b
WEIGHTS:
SINS:
3. I must run God’s race for me, ______________________________________
“And
let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.” Heb.12:1c
4. I must focus on Jesus, _____________________________________________
“We
do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from
start to finish.” Heb.12:2a
5. I must Minimize the pain and ________________________________________
“He was willing
to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his
afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest
honor beside God’s throne in heaven!” Heb. 12:2b
“Let us not
become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest IF we
do not give up.” Gal. 6:9 (NIV)
6. I must remember ___________________________________________
“Think about
all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so
that you don’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet
given your lives in your struggle against sin!” Heb. 12:3-4
What have I started that I need to finish?
“Finish what you started
a year ago… for you were the first to begin doing something about it! Now you
should carry this project through to completion just as enthusiastically
as you began it. Give whatever you can according to what you have!”
2 Cor. 8:10-11 (NLT)
“Don’t throw it
all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But
you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the
promised completion.” Hebrews 10:35-36 (MSG)
WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP
The Invisible War – Part 1
08-04-13 Sermon
Here is a letter written to a
pastor: “Dear Pastor, If I could sum up my life in a single word it would be
‘conflict.’ It seems I have to fight for everything. Everything is a battle. I battle with my kids, I battle with my husband, I battle
with my job. It’s even tough with
my walk with the Lord. We struggle. We struggle with our money; we struggle
with our intimate life. We
struggle even just understanding each other. Plus I’ve got all my internal struggles – all my internal
fears and battles. I just can’t seem
to stick with stuff even when I know it’s the right thing to do. Why is life so tough? Will the battle ever end? I really hope so because sometimes I
just feel like walking away from it all.”
Good question. Why is life so tough? It wasn’t always that way. In the Garden of Eden, it was paradise. When Adam and Eve decided, we’re going
to go our way instead of God’s way, all the problems started and every one of
us have done the same thing since.
It’s called sin. Sin
entered the world and the world is broken.
God said when Adam and Eve
got kicked out of paradise, It’s going to
be hard because everything is broken and life is hard. That’s why we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Because in heaven God’s will is done
perfectly. It’s rarely done on earth. We choose to do our own will and people
get hurt and we hurt ourselves.
In addition to this fall of
sin, there’s a cosmic battle going on for your life. I don’t know if you realize this or not, but there is an invisible
war going on. There are forces out
to destroy your soul. The Bible
specifically calls them the world of flesh and the devil.
There is first the
battle inside of you – that’s the
battle within which is your own sinful nature. It is your predisposition to make the wrong choice. There’s the battle within.
There’s the battle around you. That’s the world.
That’s our culture. Everything
in our culture tries to tear you down.
But then there’s the
battle against you and that is Satan. The devil is real. There is real good and there is real
evil in the world.
So there’s this war in your
life and that’s why everything is hard.
That’s why everything is a battle.
Life is not easy. It’s
tough.
There’s a group of men and
women in the Bible, that God calls his heroes of faith, that won the battle. They’re there in the Bible for us to
learn how to fight the battle. It’s
in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.
Hebrews 11 is God’s Hall of Fame.
These are people who fought the battle well and ended well. I want you to be able to fight the
battle well and I want you to understand your ammunition. So we’re going to go into a major
series called “The Invisible War.”
Faith doesn’t promise a
perfect easygoing life. This is
not heaven; this is earth. This is
the learning stage. This is the
preschool. This is the learn-it-all-in-the-school-of-hard-knocks
stage. So learning to live by faith
includes facing pain and it involves delayed prayers. It even involves some unrealized promises of God.
In Hebrews 11, after
explaining all these great giants of the faith, the writer of Hebrews then
begins to talk about people who lived by faith but didn’t get what they wanted
in life; who went through tough times – torture and problems and difficulties.
Hebrew 11:35 says “But others [after talking about all these
– Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses…] trusted
God and they were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free.”
Did you know that more people
died from their faith, believing in Jesus Christ, in the last one hundred years
than all the previous centuries combined?
Did you know that fourteen million people a year die simply because they
are Christians? Did you know that
Christians are by far the most persecuted group in the world today? You don’t hear much about that. It’s not politically correct to say
that.
This Scripture says these
people were tortured, preferring to die rather than turn from God and be free. “They
placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life. Some were mocked, and their backs were
cut open with whips. Others were
chained in dungeons. Some died by
stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and
goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world.” I’d like God to be able to say that
about me and you!
“They wandered over deserts and mountains, hiding in
caves and holes in the ground. All
of these people we have mentioned received God’s approval because of
their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised! For God had far
better things in mind for us that
would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race
until we finish the race!”
That’s pretty heavy! Let’s look at this for a minute. This passage teaches three very
profound truths. I could spend an
entire morning just on this section.
But I want to get to the practical parts here. Let me point out three things…
· First, faith
doesn’t spare us from pain!
You can be doing the right
thing and be in pain. Sometimes we
suffer for doing good.
· The second
thing is some of God’s promises will be fulfilled in eternity!
You’re going to live for
eternity. God has all of eternity
to fulfill his promises. Just
because a promise isn’t fulfilled today or tomorrow or the next day, does not
mean that God’s not going to. A
delay is not a denial. Some of
God’s promises to you and to me are going to be fulfilled in eternity. That’s what he’s saying. And they looked forward to that.
Then the third thing it says is that they can’t receive
the prize – these people who have gone before us – Abraham and Moses and
all these guys that he talked about.
They can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until they finish the race.
The Bible is saying that you and I are runners in an historical, for all
of history, relay race. The race
isn’t won until the last runner hits the goal line.
Can you imagine being at the
Olympics and it’s the four hundred meter relay race? The guy at the end of the second hundred meters stops and
goes, “Ok! I’d like my medal! Give me my gold medal now.” They’d say, “But the race isn’t over.” And he says, “But I’ve finished my part.”
You’re part of the big race. And the reward is not coming until the
whole race is done. Then you get
the gold. You don’t get it just
after you’ve run your part. You get
it after everybody’s run. It says,
they can’t receive the prize until we finish the race.
That means they’re watching
us. The next verse, “Therefore [Remember whenever you see a
‘therefore’ in the Bible you find out what it’s there for. In light of all these people who lived before me –
Abraham and Moses and David all these guys… therefore] since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life
of faith, [in other words the life we’re living] let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin
that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race
that God has set before us. [He
says] We do this [we run the race] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our
faith depends from start to finish.
He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he
knew would be his afterward. [after the cross.] Now he is seated at the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in
heaven. Think about all he endured
when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don’t become weary
and give up. [This is a
passage on not giving up.] After all, you
have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin! [In other words
you haven’t died; you’re no martyr.
You’ve not shed your blood for your faith.]
This passage gives us six
very powerful keys on how to keep on keeping on when you feel like giving up. What do I do when I feel like giving up? I need to do the six things that are
covered in this passage in Hebrews 12.
1.
The first thing I need to do is I need to remember that heaven is watching
me.
Remember that heaven is
watching me! This is the very first
thing the writer of Hebrews tells us when he’s trying to give us encouragement
to not give up. Verse 1, “Therefore [in light of all these people
Abraham, Moses and Jacob and David and all these great saints of history] since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd
of witnesses to the life of faith…”
We all know God sees
everything. The Bible says “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth.” In
other words God doesn’t miss a thing.
Job 31:4 “He sees everything I do
and every step I take.” God
knows your ups, your downs. He saw
you being formed in your mother’s womb.
He saw you take your first breath. He saw you commit every sin, every good thing, all of the
bad. Every part of your life he
knows. He has every hair on your
head numbered. He knows every
thought you have. So nothing is
hidden from God. We know that. Other people may not know, but we know
that God knows.
But not only that, it says
here “…we are surrounded by a huge crowd of
witnesses to this life of faith.”
Your life has an audience. That
is a sobering a fact. I don’t know
how this works but evidently other people in heaven are watching too. The Bible says your life is being
watched from heaven. So don’t give
up. These people up there are not
criticizing you. They’re cheering
you on.
2.
The second thing: I must eliminate what doesn’t matter.
If I want to make it to the
end of the race, I’ve got to do a little de-cluttering. I’ve got to eliminate what doesn’t
matter in my life so I can move forward.
I’ve got to simplify my life and not hang on to a bunch of stuff.
You can get so many irons in
the fire you put out the fire. Maybe
what you need to do is a little spring cleaning spiritually and go, “Yeah, it’s a good thing but I don’t need to
do that. I just need to focus on
the race because these things are slowing me down.” If you get too many things going on in
your life you’re going to be discouraged.
You’re going to feel like giving up.
This is what the Bible says
in the second part of the verse. First
he says, “Since we’re surrounded by a
crowd of these witnesses… let us strip off every weight that slows us down,
especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress…”
Circle two words – “weight” and “sin” because they’re different. These are the two things that slow you down in life. Weights slow you down and sins slow you
down.
What are these things? What
are weights?
Weights are not something that’s
wrong. It’s not something bad;
it’s not something evil. It’s something good that slows you down. It’s anything that’s good that slows you
down. It doesn’t have to be bad. A lot of things in life are not
necessarily wrong; they’re just not necessary. So you need to understand that selection is the name of the
game. If you want your life to
count you’re going to have to learn how to get control of your time. That means focusing on the majors, not
majoring on the minors.
What is sin?
Sin is knowing what to do and not doing it. Or knowing not to do something but doing it anyway. That’s
sin; your conscience tells you. Sin – when you know the right thing to do and you
don’t do it, that’s sin. When you
do the wrong thing, that’s sin.
Where is that in the Bible? It’s in James 4:17, “Anyone then that knows the good he ought to
do and doesn’t do it sins.” That’s
going to slow me down too. I’ve
got to remember that heaven is watching; I’m surrounded. My life is being watched by witnesses. And I’ve got to eliminate the things
that hold me back.
3. The third thing I’ve got to do if I’m
going to make it to the finish line is I must run God’s race for me, not other
people’s race for me.
I’ve got to run God’s race for
me, not others’ race. God loves you
and he has a wonderful plan for your life, and everybody else also has a wonderful
plan for your life. If you don’t
have a plan, if you don’t go with God’s plan, they’re going to suggest their
plan.
The Bible says in the third
part of this verse, verse 1, “Let us run
with endurance [that’s what we’re talking about this weekend – how to
endure] the race that God has set before
us.”
Circle the phrase “that God has set.” Notice that I’m not supposed to run the
race that other people have set for me.
I’m not to run the race that culture has set before me. I’m not to run the race that my parents
have set before me. I’m not even to
run the race I’ve set for myself, because it may be unrealistic. I’m to run the race that God has set
before me.
Let me say this: If you try to
run somebody else’s race you’re going to lose. Because God doesn’t give you
enough strength to finish somebody else’s race. And God did not put you on earth to run somebody else’s race. God put you on this earth to be you,
not somebody else. So you’ve got
to stop living for the approval of other people. You’ve got to run the race that God set for you.
How do I do that? How do I know what’s God’s race for my
life? You look at your shape--your Spiritual gifts, your Heart,
your Abilities, your Personality and your Experiences.
Your shape determines the race you run. Rabbits aren’t meant to fly. And eagles aren’t meant to swim. And ducks aren’t meant to run. Your shape determines what God wants you to do with your
life. When you get to heaven God
isn’t going to say, Why weren’t you more like somebody else? He’s going to say, Why weren’t you more
you?
So I’ve got to run the race
God has for me, not for others. Otherwise
I’m going to get discouraged and give up.
4.
The fourth thing is I must focus on Jesus, not my circumstances.
When I’m going through a tough
time, when I feel like throwing in the towel, when I’m at the end of the rope,
when I feel like I can’t hold on, I need to focus on Jesus, not my
circumstances. Not the problems,
but the Savior. Not the situation,
but God.
Verse 2 it says this, how do
we run with endurance? “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on
whom our faith depends from start to finish.”
I don’t know what you’re going
through right now, what tough time you’re going through. It may seem unendurable right now and you
think, I can’t handle this. I just
can’t handle it. To endure the unendurable I must keep my
eyes on the invisible. I must
keep my eyes on Jesus.
If you’ve got your eyes on your
problems it’s no wonder you’re discouraged. It’s no wonder you’re unfocused. It’s no wonder you feel like giving up today. But if you’ve got your eyes focused on
God, on Jesus, he’s the Savior. He’s
the solution to your situation. And
he will help you out.
So what do you do? You remember what God has done for you,
God’s goodness to you in the past.
And you remember God’s presence right now, today, and God’s power for
the future. So you get your mind off
yourself and on to God.
You know the story of Jonah. God told him to go to Ninevah to preach. He said I’m not doing that. In fact, he went the exact opposite
direction of the way God wanted him to go. So God planned a little Mediterranean cruise for Jonah. The Bible says God provided a great
fish. When Jonah’s thrown
overboard by the sailors this fish swallows him up.
So Jonah at the bottom of the
ocean, chapter 2, prays this prayer of repentance. It says in Jonah 2:7,
“When I had lost all hope I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord.” In tough times you need to do that. “When
I had lost all hope, Jonah 2:7, I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord.” You need to refocus.
The fifth step in overcoming
discouragement is ...
5.
I must Minimize the pain and maximize the profit.
Minimize the pain of doing
the right thing and maximize the profit.
Yes, there’s pain in getting in shape. Yes, there’s pain in getting in spiritual shape. Yes, there’s pain in getting your
finances under control and getting out of debt. Yes, there’s pain in anything that works in life and matters
in life. But you look at the long
term. You look at the reward. You minimize the pain, you maximize the
profit.
Jesus did this, verse 2 “He [Jesus] was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he
knew would be his afterward.” Notice:
he’s looking past short term – the joy that would be his afterwards.
What is the joy that would be
his afterwards? He knew that his
death would provide salvation for you and me. So he’s doing it for our benefit. He’s going through pain for somebody else’s benefit. That’s redemptive pain. “He
was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would
be his afterward. Now he’s seated
in the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in heaven!”
You’ve got to look past short-term
thinking on anything you want to change in your life to make it through that
difficult period when you want to give up. You’ve got to push through that, minimize the pain and
maximize the eventual profit.
Play it down and pray it up. Play
down the difficulty. Play down the
hard part. Play down the pain. And play up the benefit of doing the
right thing and staying with it and working it out.
Let me give you an example of
this. In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul
talks about the pain he’s gone through in serving the Lord. None of us come close to this. He’s talking about being a missionary. He
says, “I’ve worked hard. I’ve been put in jail more often; I’ve
been whipped more times without number.
I’ve faced death again and again.
Five times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. [Imagine what that looked like on your
back, if you’ve been whipped thirty- nine times, times five, that’s how many
scars you’d have on your back.] Five times I was given thirty-nine lashes. Three
times I was beaten with rods. Once
I was stoned. Three times I was
shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole
night and day adrift at sea. I’ve
traveled many weary miles. I’ve faced
dangers from flooded rivers and from robbers and dangers from my own people as
well as the Gentiles. I’ve faced
dangers in the cities and the desert and on stormy seas. I’ve faced dangers from men who claimed
to be Christians but aren’t. I’ve
lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. I’ve often been hungry and thirsty and gone many times without
food. I’ve shivered from the cold
without enough clothing to keep me warm.”
Then in the same book, chapter
4 here is his evaluation of all his problems. “In spite of all this we
do not lose heart. Though outwardly
we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles
[Light and momentary troubles?] are achieving
for us eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
I’m minimizing the pain and
maximizing the profit, the benefit, the reward. It’s all a matter of perspective. He says “these light
and momentary troubles I’ve been through…” Light and momentary?
You would call that life a disaster. If you’d been thrown in jail as many times as he had, if
you’d been whipped and beaten and shipwrecked you’d call that life disaster. But he says “These light and momentary troubles are small potatoes compared to the
reward I’m going to get in heaven.”
You minimize the difficulty
in your life and you maximize the reward for doing the right thing. Eternal life.
So what do we do? The next verse, Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for
at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Circle the phrase “at the proper time.” I always want the proper time to be my time.
I want the answer now. Yesterday. Split
second. I want God to be a genie
to me. But he says if you sow you
will reap.
But this is the law of the
harvest. There is always a waiting
period between when you plant the seed and when you eat the fruit. You don’t plant the seed one day and
then get to eat an apple the very next day. There’s always a delay and you go through the seasons of
life. Then you get to eat the fruit.
“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for we all reap
a harvest if we do not give up.” You’ve just got to keep on keeping on.
There’s one other thing you
do that will help you hold on.
6.
I must remember what Jesus did for me.
When you’re going through a
tough time, remember the tough times Jesus went through and think about what he
did on your behalf, the suffering he went through. I think about all that he endured for me. The attacks and the criticisms. I think about the abuse and the cruelty
he went through for my behalf. The
meanness, the torture, the painful death that Jesus went through so that I could
be forgiven and I could go to heaven.
He did it for me.
Verse 3-4 “Think about all that he endured [when you’re
trying to endure] when sinful people did
such terrible things to him, so that you don’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given up
your lives in your struggle against sin!” You’re no martyr.
You haven’t shed any blood.
You haven’t died. So what’s
the problem?
Let me sum up what I’m trying
to teach you today. The problems
you’re going through? These
are tests. It’s easy to trust God
when things go great. The real
test of faith is when life stinks; and when you have no emotion. And you don’t feel close to God. That’s when real faith shows up.
Will you trust God; will you do
the right thing even though you don’t feel like doing it? Will you do the right thing even though
it doesn’t make sense? Will you
endure to the finish line? Will
you finish well or will you stop in the middle of the race and walk over to the
sideline?
My question for you is this: What
have you started that you need to finish?
I don’t know. What have you
started that you need to finish? I
really don’t know, but whatever it is God will tell you. He will tell you.
I want us to bow our heads
right now and I want you to talk to God.
I want you to ask God, God, what do
I need to complete that I started? Just ask him that.
What have I had the intention to
do but I haven’t done it yet? What
have I thought of giving up on?
With your head bowed I’m going
to pray for you. But I want to encourage
you to write down one thing on your outline. What’s the one thing I need to complete, a commitment that
I’ve made that I haven’t been faithful to? Maybe a couple of things.
Prayer:
Father,
you know how easy it is to get discouraged. You know our hearts.
You know how easy it is when times get tough, things get lean, and we don’t
feel the initial emotion of the starting of it. We get discouraged, we get distracted, we get doubtful, we
get in despair. I pray, Lord, that
today we will take these steps.
Now
you pray, pray this with me. In
your heart say, Lord, help me to remember
that heaven is watching me. That
there’s a crowd of witnesses watching my life who have been through it before
me. They made it to the finish line
and I want to make it to the finish line.
Help me to eliminate whatever doesn’t matter in my life. To let go of the weights that slow me down
and the sins that hold me back. I
want to run the race that you have for me, not other people’s race. I want to be what you made me to be. Help me not to care so much about the
approval of others. Help me to focus
on you, Jesus, not my problems, not my circumstances, not the difficulty. Help me to minimize the pain and maximize
the rewards. And look past the cross
and see the joy on the other side.
Most of all, Jesus, I want to remember what you did for me. I would not be alive without you. I would not be saved without you. I would not be headed to heaven without
the pain that you went through on my behalf. I thank you. I pray this in your name. Amen.
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