9 Essentials to Living the Christian Life: Perseverance

I had a birthday in January and at a little cake and blowing out candles kind of thing, somebody asked me, what have you learned in 48 years? I said, let me get back to you. These are seven insights of a slow learner. without explanation or commercial interruption. Seven insights of a slow, and you can put the word very before slow, very slow learner.

Number one, God is great. God is good. Number two, Jesus loves me. He is my shepherd. He walks with me through every dark valley.

Number three, simplicity with contentment is a great treasure. Number four, beware of crowds. They are often headed the wrong way. Number five, my wife and children are exquisitely delightful gifts. Number six.

I will see Joshua yet again. Number seven. If you sit, sit. If you stand, stand. But whatever you do, don't wobble.

Let's pray. Lord, as we turn to your word today, I pray that we will be learners who each day are seeking the insights that you provide through your word,

through the experiences that you take us through.

And I pray on the journey that we will be faithful to you in all things. For it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Number one, Christ the center. Number two, the word. Number three, prayer. Number four, community. Number five, purpose.

us. And today we move to the four parts left on these nine essentials of living the Christian life. But today we start four virtues or four qualities that I think each of us need to have in our lives if we're going to live this Christian life. And here's the number six essential for living the Christian life or the first virtue that we need to have in our lives to live the Christian life. And the virtue is perseverance. Perseverance. And the text is Hebrew 12, 1 to 2.

So if you're doing the little chart, you can put up in the top right box, perseverance. Hebrews 12, 1-2. Hebrews 12, 1-2.

You know, there's an old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make the horse drink. These verses that I give you each week are the water. I hope you will drink by memorizing these verses. They are, most of them, short to the point. But if you will memorize these verses, I think they will help you as you seek to live the Christian life.

But for today, Hebrews 12, 1-2. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. And the text goes on to say, 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. He was a pastor for many years at his church, and his health began to fail.

His health got so bad that he could not alone travel from his home to the church on Sunday. So he had folks help him go from his home to the church. And they would help him literally get into the pulpit where he would stand and preach. His health continued to deteriorate to the point that he could not go to the church any longer. so he stayed at home in his bed and he had his parishioners come to his room and there in the room on his sickbed he would preach to his parishioners.

And one of his parishioners finally asked him, why don't you quit? You've been doing this for years. Why don't you stop? You're sick. You're old.

Why don't you just rest? And he said to his parishioner in a very fervent tone something I hope we will all remember. And I'll tell you what he said at the end of the lesson.

The context for our lesson today is, again, we're back in the book of Hebrews. We've had one passage from Hebrews in our study. Do you remember about the Jewish Christians to whom the writer of Hebrews wrote? They were people who had suffered for their faith. We know from the text of Hebrews 10, chapter 10, that some of them had their property confiscated because of their faith.

Some had been imprisoned. They had suffered all sorts of insults, verbal abuse. It had been a very difficult journey. And the writer of Hebrews writes in large measure to encourage these Jewish Christians to stay the course, to persevere. And so that's what I want us to think about today.

Perseverance. You know, it's one thing to start. It's another to finish. The start of the journey of the Christian faith is immensely important. We need people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

But those who genuinely began will indeed finish. Perseverance. perseverance. I've known some churches who list the folks who joined the church. Some people number them, you know, number one, number two. I always wonder, we ought to keep a list of those who finish. Maybe we ought to have a list and celebrate every five years that somebody has remained faithful in the journey. Every 10 years, every 15 years. It would probably be sobering to see those who began at least professed to begin and how many persevered.

I think we would be immensely shocked at how many professed faith but how few persevere to the end. But we're going to persevere. We're going to persevere. The central admonition in the text is let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us that's the central admonition that's in verse two isn't that right is it verse two i can't remember where the break is i know one it is it verse two it's let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us correct is it verse two or is it verse one part of verse one end of verse one let us run with in perseverance the race that is set before us. The journey of faith is like a race, the text tells us. A race is an event that has progression, it has forward movement, and it is something where you're headed toward a finish line. And in the journey of faith, we are headed toward a finish line in terms of our life here on this earth.

Secondly, it is a race that the text says we are to run. Let us run with perseverance. We are not to coast. We are not to drift. We are not to be lazy.

We are not to take early retirement. We are to run. And that word run has the sense of maximum effort. All that we have and all that we are is supposed to go into this race. It's Michael Johnson in the Olympics at Atlanta turning the corner on the 400-meter run and straining with everything that is in him for the gold.

You remember that? He was the only person in history in the same Olympics winning the gold medal on the 400 meters and the 200 meters. Do you remember him coming off the turn in the 200 meters? I mean every sinew of his body strained. It's that kind of everything we have going into this race.

And we're to run it with perseverance. This is not a sprint. The Christian life is not a short distance run. It is a marathon.

we don't go hard for a year and stop. We continue till the Lord calls us home.

The admonition is pretty simple, isn't it? Let us, I mean, to understand it. To understand it is fairly simple. Let us run with endurance or perseverance the race that is set before us. The question is, how?

How do we do it? severe in this race of faith. I think this text gives us at least four principles for finishing the race. And I want you to hear these. I want to cross the finish line and go home and either meet you there or be waiting for you there.

but the measure of whether or not we are truly in Christ will be if we persevere.

So I'm going to admonish you to both examine your heart before the Lord but then at the same time having examined it to press forward, press forward. But here are four principles for finishing the race. Principle number one, we must lighten our loads. The text says we must lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles.

If you look at this in the original language, there's something very clear. it's very clear that the laying aside of the weight and the sin is something that we should do before the race begins there's a you hear that it's like the marathon runner who's getting ready to run the marathon You know those folks, they are precise in how they get rid of any weight, every weight they can, so that they're unencumbered to run the race. And only a fool would say, let me throw some more weight on my back, and then I'm going to see if I can run this marathon. You take all the weight off first, and the picture is that if we're going to run this race with endurance, We need to get that stuff off our back so that we can run better. And the stuff we need to get off our back is first sin, and then secondly, any weight or anything that would slow us down.

So, are you persevering in the faith, or are you having difficulty persevering in the faith? If you're having difficulty, one thing I want to suggest to you is step back and say, what weight do I need to get rid of? What do I need to get out of my life so I will run this race better? And you need to start by looking at is there sin in my life? Now we could start listing a lot of sins that we need to get out of our lives, couldn't we?

So that we can run this race better. I'm going to mention three. And I'm going to mention three because within the next chapter, within the next chapter in Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews mentions three sins specifically that we need to be sure are out of our lives. There are others, but because the writer of Hebrews mentions these three, I'm going to mention these three. And I want you to ask, are these a problem in my life?

If so, you need to get them off your back so you can run better. The first is sexual sin. The writer of Hebrews says, you know, the marriage bed should not be defiled. we are to be pure sexually before the Lord. And there is nothing that can tie you up and slow you down in this race like illicit sex.

The text says the sin that so easily entangles sin is like a spider web. And if you get caught up in it, you're like the fly in the spider web. It'll tie you up. Um, so many of us are sort of like the children that you, you may have done it in grammar school. You do the three-legged race.

You know, you tie your leg to somebody else's leg and then you try to run. And, you know, it's always funny to watch people stumble and fall as they try to run together. Well, you know, the reality is so many of us have tied our legs to sin and we're trying to run this race. And we're just all tangled up and stumbling and falling. And illicit sex does it.

And it'll just eat you up. The second thing is the love of money. Greed. The writer of Hebrews says, love of money, root of all sorts of evil. You love money?

That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. Because that'll eat you up too. Your heart, your mind, your effort starts to go after stuff and more and accumulation. And it takes away from your loyalty to Christ.

The third sin that is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 12 is bitterness. A root of bitterness. Harboring anger and resentment towards someone else.

And that will wear on you. It will eat you up. Is there somebody that has hurt you, somebody that has done something to you, and you just have a deep bitterness toward them? It may be your spouse. Sometimes spouses do things to one another, and that bitterness just sort of lives in you.

Maybe it's your child. Maybe your child has done something that has caused you to be bitter.

maybe it's somebody who was once a close friend and you just don't understand why they treated you the way they did on that occasion

you've got to lay it aside you've got to strip it off

you've got to go before the Lord and ask for His forgiveness first and then maybe you need to either get rid of a relationship you shouldn't have or start to restore one you should have.

But not only do you need to strip off and lay aside sin, the text says we need to lay aside any weight or throw off any encumbrance. So there's a sense, I think, in which the writer is telling us, yes, you've got to get sin out of your life if you're going to run this race, but there may be some things that weigh you down in the race that may not be in and of themselves sinful, but for you they've gotten to be a weight that is slowing you down in the race. They are tying you up. Now this could be any number of things that might not in and of themselves be explicitly sinful in every circumstance but something that's weighing you down, holding you back in the race.

Could be golf. I pick on golfers a lot, don't I?

I shouldn't pick on golfers. It could be tennis. I like tennis. It could be tennis. You know, we're going to be out on the links on Sunday morning.

I can worship God out there as I miss church. Maybe it's debt.

I don't think debt in every circumstance is sinful. But it can sure slow you down in the race. you get so much stuff and you hock yourselves to the hilt so you're having to work all the time to maintain that stuff that you didn't need in the first place so you don't have time to serve Jesus and do what he wants you to do. Could be your bass boat. I don't know. It could be anything.

You know what your weights are, don't you? Anybody want to stand up and testify? Of course not. That's not what we do in church, is it? We don't tell each other our problems and our sins.

But we should, I don't say necessarily you've got to get them to tell everybody, but I would submit having two or three close Christian friends at least that you could do this race together with would be helpful. So get rid of the sin, get rid of the encumbrances, lighten your load. The second thing is we must run together. The text says let us run with endurance. And there is a real sense from the text that when we run this race, run together as a community of faith we've already talked about community right we said that's one of the essentials for the christian faith and i think that sense of community is is so important as we seek together to run this race of faith all of us know who have attempted to exercise some you know occasionally we get these ideas these new year's resolutions some of you might You know, mine fade by about this time in the year, but you start off, I'm going to exercise.

We all know we run better and exercise better when we do it with someone, right? Because when we start to flag, that person can say, come on, we can make it, come on. And there's a real sense in this Christian life that as we run this endurance race called the Christian faith, we need to be running with some brothers and sisters in Christ who when we get winded, when we start to flag, when we start to coast, they can say, come on, me and we need brothers and sisters in Christ because we are all going to stumble and fall in this race at some point we're gonna get hurt in the race and we need brothers and sisters in Christ who will pick us up and when we can't run they will carry us until we run again in the Christian life we do Do not shoot our wounded. We pick them up. We carry them.

We help them get well until they can run again. Because together we're going to cross the finish line.

Do not neglect the assembling of yourselves together. But encourage one another. That's why we're here folks. I want us to be that kind of community that encourages one another. It means we need more honesty in our relationships.

We need to be able to talk about our weaknesses, at least with some very close Christian friends. We need to have some folks who can help us at difficult times. We need folks praying for us. it's hard to carry on alone that's why we're in this together

the third thing we must be inspired and learn from those who have persevered already those who have gone before us the text says

therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses

Who are the cloud of witnesses? Well, it's the folks that are mentioned specifically in chapter 11. It's those folks in what we call the hall of fame of faith. They are the great host. They're called the great cloud.

That means a great host of witnesses. They are the folks who have gone before us. they are the examples of how to persevere in the faith. How to run this race with perseverance and endurance. And if you go back and you read chapter 11, which I encourage you this week to do, you read stories of great people of faith.

You know, Noah, Abraham, Moses,

who left Egypt to go where God called him to go. to do what God called him to do. Joseph, who told the children of Israel when he died, keep my bones. Why did he tell them to keep his bones?

Huh?

Because when Joseph died, he was in Egypt. But he knew God had promised one day the children of Israel would get the promised land. That was Canaan. And Joseph was such a man of faith that when he died, he told the children of Israel, keep my bones, and when you go, because you're going, God's promised it, take my bones with you. And they did.

You read the book of Exodus, when the children of Israel left, they got Joseph's bones and carried him. The reason these people persevered so well is they were people of faith. They trusted. If you read the whole chapter of Hebrews 11, you will see that some endured suffering because of their faith, and some died because of their faith, but they persevered even through those difficult circumstances. Some were sawn in two, we are told, because of their faith.

Prophet Isaiah, by tradition, was sawn in two. as a means of execution. And we don't know if he was sown in two horizontally or vertically.

But by faith, he endured.

This great cloud is called a cloud of witnesses. And I need to talk about that word just a moment. Some have had the sense when they read this passage that this cloud of witnesses is sort of standing around watching us run this race. But I don't think that's the sense of the text. You can be a witness in two senses.

If I observe an automobile accident, I can be a witness just because I've seen it happen. In other words, I'm sort of a spectator, and in that sense, I'm a witness because I saw it happen. I'm a spectator. but I can be a witness in a different sense if I get on the witness stand and I raise my hand and I swear to give some testimony and then I testify. So I'm not just a spectator, but I'm somebody who is testifying about something.

So the question is, is this cloud of witnesses, are they just spectators watching us run, or are they people who testify about something? Well, I think it's the second. I don't think they're just spectators. about something and I believe that because the Greek word here is martus from which we get martyr and that word in the Greek language is is talking about someone who is giving a testimony who is giving a verbal witness in some way or a witness in some way about something so I think these people of Hebrews 11 are giving us a testimony by the living of their lives the way they lived them

And what is their testimony? Their testimony is you can persevere by faith. The God you serve is so big and so great and so immense. If you will but trust Him, you can run this race with endurance. Have faith no matter how dark the journey may seem or how difficult.

trust him have faith and run that's their test Abraham is testifying to you today and Joseph and Noah and Moses and Isaiah they're saying don't shrink back they're saying run run run trust trust trust.

If you're not excited about what they have done, the writer of Hebrews was, and I know that by the way he starts chapter 12. He starts with the word that we translate in English therefore, and I put it in all caps I think in your handout, and I put exclamation points, and I did that for a reason. The Greek word used here is very rare. It's only used one other place in the New Testament. There are different Greek words that we translate in English, therefore.

The most common Greek word is a little word, un. It would look like O-U-N in our language. Un. Therefore. It's a simple therefore.

Do you see what this word is? I wrote it out for you. It's not un. It's toigarun. Toigarun.

And you can almost hear in the word the passion. this is a therefore that's got passion behind it that's got emotion and why is there such emotion behind this word because the writer of Hebrews has just talked about all these great people of faith and he now turns to the present day Christians to whom he's writing and he's saying togarun togarun don't you see how they have run the baton has now been passed to us therefore let us run the race with endurance do you see what Abraham and Moses and Noah and Joseph and those folks did in the faith therefore come on folks it's our turn now let's run

Lastly, the fourth principle, we must fix our eyes on Jesus. Let us run the race with endurance. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Why do we, there's a temporal idea, you fix your eyes on him as you run, if we're doing it constantly during the race. The question I ask is, why do we fix our eyes on Jesus?

There are four reasons, I think, at least. It helps us avoid distractions. We keep our eye on Him. We don't let all the things of the world distract us in this journey. The second reason we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus is He's at the finish line.

We're running toward Him. And there's a real sense in which, folks, we're supposed to be running this race. And when we cross the finish line, we want to be pumping as hard as we are able at that point. Because as soon as we cross the finish line, Jesus is right there. The third reason we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, he is the central figure of our faith.

He is the author and perfecter of our faith, the text says. He's the author, he's the originator of our faith, he is the one who makes our faith possible he's the one who makes it have meaning he is the perfecter of faith in that he is the end of our faith he is the one who makes our faith complete in other words Jesus is the beginning and the end of the Christian life without Christ there is no Christian faith so we need to keep him in the center Christ the center and lastly we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus to learn from him because of all the examples of faith of chapter 11 we now get to chapter 12 and find out who the greatest example of running the race is that's Jesus Christ no one endured more to complete the mission than Jesus so we need to learn from him and see how he did it do you know what the secret of Jesus endurance was The text says, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

You hear that? Jesus persevered because of the joy that was before him. He knew that no matter how difficult the journey was here, he was going to glory. He looked forward to the joy of returning to his heavenly Father

and I'm going to submit to you we should too persevere because we look forward with joy to when we will be with our Father in heaven. I do not consider the sufferings of this life worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us as the Apostle Paul, Romans 8, 18. And I've given you some other scripture passages you can read where time and again it is said that the saints looked forward to a better and lasting possession in heaven so that they endured whatever they had to here on earth. Well, here are my lessons for life. Lesson number one, live one day at a time.

You know, there's a sense in which we think about persevering in this Christian life that it can seem overwhelming, you know. we think it's a long race a long journey I think Jesus wants us just to take one day at a time and each day when we get up say today is yours and I'm going to run hard for you today Jesus and then I'm going to go to bed tonight and tomorrow morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to run again but don't worry about the 10th or 12th year from now what you're going to be doing how about let's just worry about today Let's run hard today. Let's live for him today. The second lesson is simplify life for Christ's sake. In other words, we need to get rid of those things that are those unnecessary, those unproductive encumbrances in our lives.

People tell me all the time, well, you know, I just can't seem to find time to do this for Jesus. I don't have time to read my Bible. I don't have time to do this. Do you find time to entertain yourself? to go to the football game, to play your golf game golfers, to play your tennis game tennis players, to go fishing, to go to the movies.

We seem to find all the time we want to entertain ourselves and make ourselves happy, but somehow we just can't find time for Jesus. Why is that?

We need to simplify our lives. We need to put Him first and everything else is last compared to that. care what it is. If you can't find time for Jesus, you need to get rid of some things in your life.

And I'm talking to myself too. I don't mean, sometimes I worry. I go home with Louie and said, was I too hard? I don't mean to be hard. I just mean to be emphatic. Let's be faithful.

Thirdly, read about them. I want to warn you, be careful whom you admire, because we tend to want to be like those we admire. I am distressed when I see those that our culture admires.

shallow, sinful people so often are admired. Entertainment news, and we're glued to the TV to hear who had the latest affair and the latest scandal, and we just titillate. Who cares? What difference does it make? Instead of admiring them, we ought to think, how pathetic.

Who do you admire? the saints who have persevered. I want to admire Jesus Christ. I want to admire a guy like Jim Elliot. You need to read, if you want to admire some people, you need to read Elizabeth Elliot's Through Gates of Splendor. You need to read that book. Number four, learn to persevere by getting around those who are.

Get with a group of folks that you know are working at persevering. Be around them. You'll courage one another. Fifthly, think more about heaven and less about earth.

Six, take a vow.

Though none go with me,

I still will follow. Though none go with me, I still will follow. Though none go with me, I still will follow. No turning back, no turning back. I have decided to follow Jesus.

Isn't that what we want our children to do? No matter what others do, do the right thing. And lastly, imagine meeting Jesus at the finish line.

Imagine meeting Jesus at the finish line. What do you want to hear Him say? And I think if we keep that image before us, it will help us day by day to be more persevering.

The pastor, when asked by his parishioner, why don't you just quit? Why don't you stop? You're old and you're sick. Nobody expects you to be preaching anymore, particularly from your bed to your parishioners. And John Calvin looked at his parishioner and said, Would you have the Lord find me idle when I enter into His presence?

Lord, may we enter into Your presence, running the race, persevering.

forgive us because we seem to shrink back when the journey gets a little difficult. Forgive us that we are lazy. Forgive us that we don't have the willingness to sacrifice whatever it takes to serve you. I pray as a community of faith, we will encourage one another and help one another race together to be more of what you want us to be. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.