Ep 24 – Exhortations of Faith

Hi there tom Mahairas with. It’s all greek to me. Thanks for following us, Vicky and I are just excited to be able to get into the actual greek text and what the bible says in the original language and be able to kind of help share that with you. And I want to talk about the exhortations. Now we’ve we’ve been thinking about spiritual warfare, we’ve been thinking about uh the the exposition of faith and here we now have all the reason for it because it’s not just written for us to just kind of meditate on it only but to take it and apply to our life and benefit as a result of it. So let’s go in listen to the discussion and follow along. It has been so exciting looking at he was Chapter 11. Not only the explanation, but the exposition of faith and all the biographies from verse four of chapter 11 all the way. Now we’re in chapter 12 with the witnesses of faith, and Vicky’s gonna pick it up from there. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us, Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and number three for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So here we have these witnesses that are there to encourage us and it gives us three specific exhortations that we might be encouraged. It’s a beautiful thing. And this particular word therefore is Tyga run, which is an emphatic particle, strongly affirming the fact on which the following exhortation is based. So based on what’s happened, here’s what we gotta do. And this is what God tells us. Number one, we need to run free from encumbrances. Number two, we’ve got to run far with endurance and number three, we’ve got to focus, run focus or fixed as it says in scripture on the eternal on jesus christ. And we’ve got to blur everything else. That’s what that’s what that word means. A fiero to totally blur everything out and just focus on jesus christ. So let’s look at it uh about running free from encumbrances that entangles us. What are some of the things that entangles us Vicky that you can think of? Besides, besides, a couple of flags on our sides here, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust for other things they entangle you and they choke the word. They do choke the word and it produces no fruit. You know, we’re loving money entangles us. It does, you know, things that entangled down, it may not be sinful money may not be simple but loving money and making money an idol or things idols that will entangle us, that will trip us up. The actual word literally meant to be overweight and put or to have clothing on when you were running a race that you know, you’re not going to run a race with your suit, you’re not gonna, you know, you’re not gonna uh swim with your suit on. So those things will entangle the things that will just that will actually weigh us down, bog us down. That’s what that first thing is The running free from encumbrances and it’s so important. It’s not only the sin, but it’s also the encumbrances. There’s so many sins Vicky the Bible talks about, there’s like 20 different words for sin, but the general word was a marta which is missing the mark. This particular word is that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s sinful, but it can bog us down and running the spiritual race of uh of this life. It can bog us down and being true transparent loving kind believers because there are things in our life that we need to sift out and get rid of that that are just not going to help us. They’re not going to discipline us for the Godly life. I think there are things that we get tangled up with that are just, there could be little things, we just get very unfocused on God’s plan for our life and we have to focus on, you know, I’m here on this planet, God’s given me gifts and abilities, how am I going to use them for the kingdom because life after we accept christ is more about the kingdom, God’s kingdom instead of my little kingdom. You know somebody who loves cars or somebody who loves sports or somebody who loves music, I mean we could get so taken up with things that are good but they’re not the best and so they become weights, you know, we, we love to read so you read all these books but you don’t read the bible, you know, you there’s gotta be balanced in our life, you know, and so I think a lot of that has to do with how we really allow God to govern our life. Is he truly our Lord? Is he calling the shots for where I go what I do, how I spend my money, how I speak, how I treat people because I belong to him and I’m a reflection of jesus christ in my life. I mean there are things that could bog us down from running the race that necessarily and might not be sinful but they’re not the best. Okay, so that that’s the, that’s the first thing. The second thing is run far with endurance. There is an end in this race, you know, and the word literally means to epa Aumento literally means to go under the pressure and remain there. The kind of word that where it says in James chapter one consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that there to test your faith and uh you know, and to and to allow me to go through that pressure and not to just you know, I forget about it. I I give up, you know, to forget about it mentality of new york. Forget about you can’t have that as a, as a runner uh for the race of of this life for jesus christ at the end of that verse is they’re going to produce in us a quality that we need to be christ like when we go through difficult times and you know, it’s wonderful to finish something. I look back on my life and I think I wish I had finished this or that. But when I do finish something, there’s a great joy when you finish the course. Yeah, yeah, we don’t, you know, who wants to be, you don’t want to be a quitter. I quit. You get to the point where I’ve had enough, you can’t be that way. And there’s the third were chuckling over here chuckling because sometimes I’m like I quit all of us get the feeling like that, but we need to run far with endurance. What does the scripture say? You know, run far within the run with endurance. The race that is set before us. We are on a race that God has given us to run. This is not a temple thing, this is not a meth thing. This is not a family thing, a pride thing. This is a heavenly divine calling for us to run a race that jesus christ would be glorified, That God would be glorified. And the idea is that I am gonna remain under epo money. I am going to remain under the pressure. There are different words for patients in in the greek language. This one is the one that says, I’m going to remain under the pressure. Are you having pressure in your life? Do you have a situation where you want to quit? Don’t quit. Don’t quit. It’s so important that we run far with endurance. And the third thing is that we run focused on the eternal and of course the eternal here is jesus christ viki since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Let us lay aside the bulk or the encumbrance uh Epirus toes from good well and petty all around. An estimator stand properly well well planted all around describing what is encompassing, encircling surrounding holy around and and a serious hindrance that encircles and hampers us. Someone who desperately also needs to advance. In other words, we’ve got so many people that are surrounding us. They have already run. They have already gotten their they’ve already succeeded. But we have to get rid of the fungus to bulk or the encumbrance in order for us to be able to run with that endurance. Looking on to jesus. Run free from encumbrances. Run far with endurance and then run the third thing is run fixed a for a while. Our eyes on jesus, jesus is the only one who must that we must focus on uh for a call from a fall away from in a row which is really vision or spiritual vision to see properly looking away from all else to fix one’s gaze upon jesus christ for our emphasizes the separation between what lies behind and what lies ahead and notice the prefix apple, which means the starting point and looking on to jesus who is the author and finisher of my faith. So yeah we said it again, we went through it again, but these are the exhortations run free from encumbrances run far with endurance. Run focused, blurring everything else out. Run focused on jesus christ, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. And so that that’s really what this is talking about. Can you see this encouraging you? Absolutely absolutely. The cloud of witnesses could really help me because you know when we grow weary and well doing we can look back at our forefathers and say you know what they went through a lot more than we did and they persevered and because of their perseverance, a crown, a crown of righteousness was laid up for them in heaven and that’s what our goal is that. we’re gonna go before the Lord and we’re going to give an account of our lives and we want to we want to do it the best we can. Yes, we do. And so may God bless you. As you continue thinking about jesus christ, who is the author? He’s the finisher of our faith. Do you know when you need encouragement, do you know when you need to be strengthened and picked up? It’s when you’re really depressed, discouraged, down and out, and that’s what they were going through Back there in the first century when the book of hebrews was written. In fact, just to give you some context to what we’re talking about concerning the three main encouragements that we’re gonna share with you right now, I want to read a little bit uh from chapter 12, which are gonna be the versus we’re looking at and then we’re gonna go back to chapter 10. Listen to what it says it says, uh therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance see that word endurance, IPO, money, endurance, The race. This is the metaphor of the olympic games with ESPN games uh Panhellenic games that were going on for centuries there, it says with endurance, The race set before us fixing a four hour, which is literally two to focus your eyes on one thing like the finish line and then blur everything else. And in this case the finish finish line is jesus christ. He’s the author and the finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and then sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now let me go back to chapter 10 and pick it up where, where it really the context before we get into this whole dissertation on faith, look what it says verse 32 of chapter 10. Hebrews 10 32. But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated for you showed sympathy to the prisoners, You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession And an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward for you have need of Here’s that word again, IPO money. The only two times in the book of hebrews endurance, you have need of endurance. So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Let me continue for yet a little while. A very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay talking about our Lord, jesus christ but my righteous one shall live by faith. There’s that incredible Hrbek chapter to have Becca chapter two verse that was repeated in romans chapter one verse 16 that martin Luther read and trusted christ through that, that the apostle paul repeated from her back and wrote that down. The righteous man shall live by faith romans 1 17, just powerful and he says, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. By the way, john Wesley also came to christ through that verse. Many, many people through that versus scripture realized that it’s the righteous man, the person who becomes righteous has to come on the basis of faith. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction but of those who have faith To the preserving of the soul. Now, that’s right before, that’s the last verse before hebrews chapter 11. And then it starts now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen or the evidence of things not seen for biomedical and it goes on like that. So we’ve been looking at this whole essay of faith and how their faith was tried In Chapter 10 and how they kept on enduring and God said because of that, they were going to see the outcome. Chapter 11. You have all of these incredible all stars of faith that we talked about and now we come to that place where we apply all this truth. We saw this cloud of witnesses, you know, surrounding us like the chicana glory. It’s almost like they’re in a they’re in a uh amphitheater, a big theater like Yankee stadium here in new york city and they’re they’re in the coliseum, the picture of the coliseum or some other huge theater uh, that when, when he was thinking about this and he says, and and we’re running this race in that theater in that arena and we have to fix our eyes on jesus, who is the finish line, the author and the finisher of our faith. And so, and then once that’s done, it tells us these three things in as we run this race that we, the three main exhortations that we have to run focused or fixed, that we have to run free from these encumbrances. We have to run free from encumbrances. The three main exhortations, we have to run free from encumbrances the things that are not necessarily since, but things that weigh us down when we’re gonna run a race, whether it’s a jacket or whether it’s long pants or the wrong kind of shoes, you know, when you’re running in a foot race, you want real light shoes, not even a pair of sneakers or do you want to have some traction on the bottom, some spikes and to really get going and it’s so important, the kind of shoes, the kind of the fact that you have to have less clothing on stripped down almost, you know where we get the word gymnastics from naked and and so they could run fast and he says run free from encumbrances. It was, it was an encumbrance to have a lot of clothes. It was an encumbrance to have a lot of weight, whether it was physical, extra body weight or other things that would slow some runner down. Why? Because they entangle us, we don’t finish right, they distract us, they weigh us down, they pull us back, we don’t, we would have run in such a way that we may win. It says in first Corinthians chapter nine, we’re supposed to be looking to win this race that we’re running in this life for the Lord, jesus christ. What a beautiful image, their number to run far with endurance, there is an end And we can’t quit like we just read from hebrews chapter 10 and then run focused or fixed on the eternal looking at jesus christ. Now let’s look at it. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance ngos and the sin Amartya, the sin which so easily entangles us FPs tomatoes uh and lay assign uh Tt me lay aside from from and and to put off, lay aside every encumbrance, not just some, but all of them and then we need to run properly, well planned all around describing what is in incumbency sing and holy to have total control and run in such a way that we may win. Let us run with endurance, IPO. Money tells us how to run this are gonna, this this battle, it actually is a battle, it’s a fight. I wanna just the same kind of a word that you would use for a for a military battle and IPO money from epo under and mentor to remain again. The the patience, the endurance fixing up for. Oh there’s that word that I mentioned before, fixing our eyes, focusing our eyes blurring everything else on jesus christ only we’re gonna look at away from or how to see spiritually to see looking away from all else, to fix one’s gaze upon the Lord, jesus christ emphasizing the separation between what lies behind and moving forward and not looking behind, not looking behind it all and and that’s what it’s talking about that we would run. And these are the three uh the three or four things that I got uh in in how we run a, fixing our eyes on jesus notice it emphasizes the the idea of jesus is the only one we must focus on. That’s the number one thing jesus is the only one you can’t be looking at pastor’s, you can’t be looking at other leaders, great leaders in business, uh political leaders, educational leaders, all kinds of sports leaders, uh movie star leaders, all kinds of musicians, there’s so many leaders out there, so many wonderful people. We have to fix our eyes on jesus. We have to take our cue and we have to listen to the kind of character that jesus has not everybody else so important. And then the second thing be is he’s the author and he’s the perfecter or finisher of our faith. Jesus began our faith and we’ll finish our faith actually. These are titles of jesus christ, he’s the author, the author of faith. He also is the finisher of our faith. Powerful statement C run focused on the eternal, fixed who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Despising the shame, notice this third principle, Jesus looked beyond the cross to the church and to the crown and rejoiced in our salvation. This is what kept Jesus going, this is what kept Jesus moving towards the cross and even on the cross went all the way to the end and said, it is finished, he finished what he came here to do and he was buried and then he physically bodily arose again. And then the final thing d he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now this principle is that jesus rose from the dead, ascended into the heavens and is on his throne right now at this moment, now there are a couple of places in scripture that I want to look at concerning the wonderful uh endurance that God wants us to keep going. This is a this is an encouragement or exhortation that we need to have. First of all in romans, Chapter five and then one in romans, Chapter 15 In romans chapter five it says as a result of our salvation. Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, jesus christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction into this grace in which we stand and then it says this and we exalt in hope of the glory of God and not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations. Knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character. Hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us Listen, this is the only weight of maturity spiritually in the christian life or as a person period, you have to go through tribulation. You have to go through testing and God says tribulation produces proven character. So that’s really important. And then in chapter 15, it says in chapter 15 of Romans verse four, for whatever has been written in earlier times, was written for our instruction, the through perseverance and encouragement. So perseverance. Again, IPO money being willing to abide under the pressure and not only that, but encouragement, They go together and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to christ jesus And with one accord you may with one voice, glorify the God and father of our Lord, jesus christ and then it says accept one another to look Glory of God. But the point I’m making is that listen, perseverance and encouragement go hand in hand, encourage your not going to have encouragement if you’re not willing to sweat, if you’re not, you no pain, no gain if you’re not willing to go through the fire in your life and that’s what God is talking about. So we go back to the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 when we are looking at the Lord jesus christ and the bible says that for the joy that was set before he endured that cross, he was under authority. He did what he had to do Why? Because of you and me? He was trying to go to the cross to take our sins upon himself. That just for the unjust to bring us to God. Now that was an absolute sacrifice and uh an eternal price that he paid. Why? Because he wanted To forgive us of our sins and wanted to deliver us from Satan from the world from the Flesh and you and I because of his endurance, because he was willing first of all to go through a sinless life, a pure life, a holy life for 30 years. Then he went through his ministry for three years and then he went and presenting himself as the lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world and like a sheep before it shares his dumb and says he opened not his mouth, they beat him up, they pulled his beard, they punched his face in, they stripped him, they put him on the cross, they crucified him on the cross, they mocked him, they put him up on the cross and on the cross he was thirsty. They just got a sponge and got some vinegar and to to uh to to soften a little bit his lips but it just it was horrible what he went through the endurance that jesus went through why? Because of the joy that was set before him he endured the cross. The bible says because of you and me that he would bring us onto himself and give us eternal life. Listen you’re going through tough times But your family, your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, the people that don’t know God don’t know, Jesus Christ they are looking for an answer. You’ve got that answer. So number one run free from encumbrances. # two run Far with endurance and number three run focused fixed on the eternal by looking at Jesus Christ who is the author and the finisher of our faith. God bless you come back the next time with it’s all greek to me and bring some friends and follow along God bless you.