Run the Race Hebrews 12:1, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Hebrews 12-1 offers this encouragement, becomes when we carry the weight of sin along with us.

We can only run effectively when we surrender the baggage of our own self-will. Listen as Pastor Rich encourages us to press toward the mark with our eyes on the Savior. This is part two of a study on Hebrews 12-1 titled Run the Race.

It was first preached on December 2nd, 2012. The word ensnare led us that the sin which so easily ensnares us, it means to entangle, it means to trip up. When my children swim competitively, the guys, you know, you guys have these normal baggy swimsuits that come down. I don't know if they're long short pants or short long pants, but you know, they're, you know, the swimsuits, they're just real loose on them and they come down to there, right? And that's what they wear around normally, but when it comes to race time, they take those off and they have these tight speedo type things on there. The water just slides across.

You know what they have? We call the regular swimsuits, they call them draggers, okay? You don't get into a swim race wearing draggers. It'd be make as much sense as me jumping in with all this nonsense for a swim meet.

It wouldn't make any sense at all, would it? Why? Because all the drag that it has on the objective of reaching the finish line to win the prize. Listen, we all have draggers in our life and the Bible tells us take them off.

Lay it aside. What's dragging you back? What's holding you back from movement towards the objective? We all have that, that we need to identify it. Frederick Buechner said this in the Longing for Home. He said, in our lives the world, in our lives in the world, the temptation is always to go where the world takes us, to drift with whatever current happens to be running strongest. When good things happen, we rise. When bad things happen, we descend.

I know this to be true of no one as well as I know it to be true of myself. I know how just the weather can affect my whole state of mind for good or ill. How just getting stuck in a traffic jam can ruin an afternoon that in every other way is so beautiful that it dazzles the heart. We are in constant danger of being not actors in the drama of our own lives, but reactors.

Not actors, but reactors. In other words, instead of impacting our environment, we become conditioned by it. This, I believe, is something that the writer of Hebrews is addressing here in this text. Instead of being conditioned by the frustrating circumstances of a fallen creation, don't be conditioned by your environment. Instead, you be one who impacts your environment.

Run the race living by faith with endurance. There are so many things, common, everyday, normal things that can become draggers to us. For example, a study was conducted of young adults. What exactly that means, I'm not sure. I think it's anywhere between 18 and 29 is that young adult category. But it was conducted by LifeWay Research and the young adults that were polled cited the following reasons for leaving church. Now I realize that Christianity is not all encompassed in just attending church.

However, the scriptures do say that he who loves God loves him who is begotten of God. The Bible tells us that we have been baptized into the body of Christ. You belong to a community of faith, a community of grace, if you are in Christ. And therefore, being an active part of a church is a vital element of your walk of faith. And those that walk away from it, those that abandon it, it speaks volumes of the state of their spiritual health. And these young adults that were polled that just wandered away from church, here are their reasons. Now they were allowed to give more than one reason.

So if you're adding up the percentages, it'll add up to a whole lot more than 100%. But know that those given the responses were allowed to give more than one. 27% of them said they just wanted a break from church.

All kinds of draggers in that. 26% said they found church members judgmental or hypocritical. May God rescue us from that. 25% said they moved away to college and they just never bothered finding a church. 23% said they were tied up with work. 22% said they moved too far away from home, just never bothered to find another church. 22% said they were too busy. Imagine that. Just too busy. You know what that is?

That is a royal dragger. And we all have to deal with that. We all have to deal with that. Is my busyness distracting me away from the objective of my faith? God help us if it is.

How myopic of an existence is that? 20% felt disconnected to people at church. 18% disagreed with the church's stance on political and social issues. 17% spent more time with friends outside of church. See, friends are good, right? But if they take you away from God's objective for you, then your friends are not good friends. 17% only went to church before simply to please others. And there you have it.

What is that? Those are all draggers. That is the sin that so easily entangles us, ensnares us. That is the stuff that we need to lay aside. Listen, we need to understand sometimes the stuff that ensnares us can be good and innocent things in and of themselves. But if they control me and distract me from the objective of my faith, then they become sin to us.

For example, remember John and Charles Wesley? They had quite the godly mother and one of them asked, Mom, what does sin mean? How do you define sin? She paused for a moment and then in her great spiritual wisdom, she said this.

This is good. Sin is, whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God or takes away your relish for spiritual things. In short, if anything increases the authority and the power of the flesh over the spirit, that to you becomes sin, however good it is in itself.

That's a good definition. That is as close it can be to inspired scripture. You see, what we have to understand, let's make sure that we don't have a list of sins. Sin is this and this and this and this, all these really bad things that the Bible talks about, right? That's not what sin is. Sin is, it can be to you, sin can be a good thing that distracts you away from God.

In and of itself, it might be a good, wholesome, innocent thing, but if it gets you in its grip and you have to have it and it drags you, it distracts you away from God, that to you becomes sin. For example, let me read a little bit from John Piper's book, Don't Waste Your Life. I love what he says here. This is very telling. I would encourage you to get this book and read it. I know you will be challenged by it.

And here he titles this paragraph, A Tragedy in the Making. You may not be sure that you want your life to make a difference. Maybe you don't care very much about whether you make a lasting difference for the sake of something great. You just want people to like you. If people would just like being around you, you'd be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife or husband and a couple of good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends and fun entertainment and a quick and easy death and no hell.

If you could have all that, even without God, you would be satisfied. That is a tragedy in the making. That's a wasted life.

Consider what's written on the back of your bulletin. This is another paragraph. This is a good illustration. Last Sunday when we showed the video the definition of a traitor, the one reading that video, the one speaking in that video, for example, said, we all have a hijacked version of the American dream. There's nothing wrong with the American dream in and of itself. But listen, if your American dream lures you away from the objective of your faith, then you are in danger of wasting your life. Piper says this, I will tell you what a tragedy is.

I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader's Digest, which tells about a couple who, quote, took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda. You like that pronunciation there? That's really good Spanish pronunciation. I worked hard at that.

Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. Nothing wrong with those things, is there? Not a thing. At first when I read it, I thought it might be a joke, a spoof on the American dream, but it wasn't. Tragically, this was the dream. Come to the end of your life, your one and only precious God-given life, and let the last great work of your life before you give an account to your Creator be this, playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment. Look, Lord, see my shells?

That is a tragedy. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.