Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 4th. Life moves quickly, and if you're not where you thought you'd be at this point, today's podcast maps out a biblical plan for getting your life back on course. If you had to describe your life today, how would you describe it? Would you say, well, it's a wonderful, exciting journey? Or would you say it's a continuous challenge? Or would you say, as many people might have to say, my life is a painful disappointment? There may be many ways you describe your life, but I can tell you this. Jesus talked about the abundant life.
He talked about a life that was fulfilling, a life of contentment, not a life without heartaches and burdens and sorrows and troubles and difficulties, but a life that somehow could step above and beyond all that, a life that could surpass all of that. And yet oftentimes we get off track in life, find ourselves, as some people might say, I feel like my life is in a ditch. I'm just stuck. I feel like a prisoner. I'm not getting anywhere. I don't know how I got here. I don't know what's happened in my life, but I want to get back where I used to be.
I want to get my life back on course again. And that's what this message is all about, is to tell us how to show us how to do that. And I want you to turn, if you will, to the book of Hebrews and in the book of Hebrews in this 12th chapter, beginning of this 12th chapter, just want us to read three verses here in this chapter. The writer says, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance 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 perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him, that is Jesus, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. I think one of the reasons that people get off track is oftentimes they lose their desire to go on. And as a result, they begin to drift. So what I want us to talk about here now is this whole idea of getting our life back on track and then staying there.
How do we do that? Well, first of all, I think, according to the scripture, if you'll notice one phrase here, he says in verse one, he says that we are to run with endurance the race that is what the race that is set before us. God has set a course for all of us. Now, when you think about how we get off course, I think there are lots of reasons that people get off course. Usually it's because we are distracted by something.
Sometimes it is someone or maybe some influence of other people. Maybe it's because a person gets busy in their business. And as a result, the busier they become, the less time they have the spiritual things. Next thing they know, they find themselves with other interests in life. Oftentimes it's because some particular pleasure that has attracted them, some sport or some hobby or whatever it might be. Well, here's what I've noticed that happens.
A person is distracted by something in life. Their eyes begin to look yonder, their hearts desire, their covetous spirit begins to move in some other direction. And not only that, they have finally reached the stage where they can now rationalize it all away. And so you know what?
I never did think it was really all that important. They can't tell me how to live. I mean, after all, I love God and God loves me.
And I don't you know, he's going to take care of me. And you don't have to go to church every Sunday to be on and on and on they go. And what they don't realize is they have been tricked by the devil. And so what happens? Satan, little by little, gives us just enough to cause us to begin to drift. And that drift goes further and further and further unless somebody gets their attention and helps us to understand what's happening before long. Life is in a ditch. So the question is, how do you get back on? How do you get back on God's course? You acknowledge the fact that you're off course.
Lord, I have drifted. The Bible is as important to me as it used to be. I'm not excited about picking up this book and saying, God, speak to my heart. I'm not excited about going to church. I'm not excited about godly music.
I find myself excited about things that do not relate to things that are spiritual. You have to, first of all, acknowledge the fact you're off course. You're not in the will of God. You're not walking God's way. Secondly, you must be willing to repent of that.
Now, what did you see? Confessing God that I'm off course won't get me back on. Confessing it means that I agree with God about his attitude that I'm off of course.
I'm off track. The second thing that I must do, not only admit it and confess it, but I must repent of it. I must not only say, God, I know that I'm off course. And Lord, I choose today to surrender my life to you and ask you to give me guidance.
Get me back on course. God, I choose to be on course to your will for my life. So there is confession. There's genuine repentance.
And listen, that's not enough. There is a strong determination. I'm going to walk the course of God. I do want life at its best.
I want the best that Almighty God has provided for me. Listen, there's not anybody who's off course who can't get back on if they choose to. Now, I realize there's some people who've been off a long time. You say, well, you know, I'm embarrassed to even go back to church. You know what? The people in the church won't be embarrassed.
We'll be thrilled to death. Listen, we'll be excited if you walk down some church aisle or go to the pastor or some staff member and say, I've been off course. My life has just been the biggest mess. I've made the biggest mess out of it. I want to get right with God.
You know what? Nobody's going to criticize you. We're going to love you.
Thank God for you. Help you every way we can to get on track, but to stay on track. Stay on the wonderful course that God has set for your life.
Well, notice what he says in this passage. He says, Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Now, if I want to get on course and stay on course, I've got to make a decision to get on course. And secondly, I have to make a decision to stay on course. And if I'm going to stay on course, the two things I have to deal with. Number one, those encumbrances in life. That word, in essence, really means weight.
I've got to deal with the weights in my life. Remember, he is relating the Christian life to a race. Now, if a person is going to run the 440 of the mile or whatever he's going to run, the first thing he's going to do is to be sure there's not anything that will entangle him, anything that would cause him to trip up, anything that would slow him or slow her down. So what do they do? They take off their running suit when they come to the mark. And they're stripped down as light as possible in order to run the fastest they possibly can. What does he mean here when he says we're to lay aside all these encumbrances? Well, for example, in those days, men as well as women wore robes. And so if they want to hurry, they had to pull them up because they would be entangled by a long robe.
The word here means weights. He says laying aside all those things. Listen to what he said now. He says, let us lay aside every encumbrance, not most of them, not some of them, not one of them, but everything that weighs us down. What I want you to think about is this.
Ask yourself this question. What is there in my Christian life that keeps me from walking his course? What distraction, what appeal, what attraction, what allurement, what draws me, what magnetizes me, what pulls me away from living and walking on course, the course that God has set for my life? For example, when a person is attracted by some hobby or by some sport and, you know, at first of all, it's an interest. Then that interest becomes a strong interest.
Then they're spending lots of money and lots of time. And before long, what happens? Life revolves around this pleasure, this hobby, this sport or this relationship or this interest they have. And what happens is this is the thing that life is revolving all around this rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. So what happens before long?
They drifted off track. We talk about encumbrances. It isn't just some habit. It could be some tremendous interest relationship.
It could be. But oftentimes it's things we grew up with that hinder us in our walk. Then, likewise, if you'll notice what he says, not on laying aside every encumbrance, whatever that might possibly be.
And of course, you remember that Jesus said in his parable of the soil, he talked about how riches choke out the word of God. And oftentimes a person will be will find themselves so into whatever that interest may be, that literally God gets absolutely choked and squeezed out of their life. And it is done so suddenly they do not realize them to realize they that something is missing and they can't put their finger.
Can't understand why they're feeling what they're feeling. And so notice he says, we're to lay aside those things in life that slows down, hinder us. Now, not only does he say encumbrances, but look at this. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. Well, I know again, we can't name any single sin to say that's it.
No, because the truth is every single one of us, whether you want to admit it or not, we all have some area of our life in which we are weaker there than any other area. We all have. So let me ask a question. And of course, you wouldn't tell anybody else there's probably what area of your life, you know, deep down inside to watch that to watch that area. It may be some habit, maybe some interest.
I don't know what it is, but here's what he said. He said, if you and I are going to stay on course, it is not just to get on course to stay on course. We have to get rid of lay aside, put aside those things that will trip us up and throw us off course again. How do you get on track? You ask God to put you on the right course. And then you deal with those things in your life that will keep you.
Listen, deal with those things in life that will allure you, snare you, trip you up and move on. But listen to what else he says. He says in verse two, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfect of our faith, who for the joy set before him and do the cross, despising the shame. Now he sat down at the right hand of God to do what to intercede for you and me.
Now, listen, it's not enough to deal with those things in life that will trip us up. He says, fixing your eyes on Jesus. Now, why would he say that? Because look at this. Is this not what gets us off course? We get our eyes off the Lord. Listen, when you cease reading and studying the Word of God, when you cease praying as you ought, when you cease getting yourself under the preaching and the teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, every once in a while somebody says, well, I'll tell you right now, you don't have to go to church.
Let me tell you something. No, you're right. You don't have to go. You cannot live. You will not live a godly life and neglect the fellowship of the people of God. Or, and I do understand there's some people who are in such a position physically, they cannot go to church and God understands that.
But here's the main thing. It isn't so much going to a building as it is getting under the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. You extract the teaching of the Word of God in your life and I guarantee you, you will not stay on course long. Why does God raise up his servants to preach and teach the Word of God? Why does he say forsake not the assembling of yourselves together?
Why? Because he knows that you and I live in this glitzy, glamorous world that has 10,000 attractions and all the sounds and all the appeals of the world. There needs to be a time when you and I come together and we get into the teaching of the Word of God and ask God, speak to my heart, show me my heart, show me the dangers, show me the attractions, show me the things that will endanger my life, show me the things that will pull me aside, strengthen me, enable me, encourage me, comfort me, cheer me up, remind me God that you love me and that you're on my side.
Every single one of us need that. He says, fixing your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. He's the one who set the course for us. How do you fix your eyes on Jesus? You fix your eyes on his Word. God speak to my heart because this is where I see him. This is where I see what he's saying. This is where I hear him speak. This is where I see his ways. This is where I see his character. This is where I see his life.
This is where I see his example. This is where I see his sense of direction. This is where I see his hope and the peace and the contentment.
This is where I see the things that my heart needs. You cannot, you will not live a godly life. You will not stay on course and stay out of this Word. Out of the Word, off course.
Off your knees, off course. Now, as I said, you may not be able to get on your knees because of some physical ailment, but at least you know how to talk to the Father. He says, fix your eyes on Jesus.
Why? Because, listen, when I'm thinking in terms of who our Lord is and talking to him, what am I doing? I'm being encouraged on the course. I'm being encouraged to stay on course. I'm being reminded of what he went through, as he says in this passage, and what he had to deal with.
And he finished the Father's plan and will for his life. That, you see, that's our source of strength. Now, listen, we feed our body food to strengthen this physical body.
Did you know there is another way to strengthen this physical body? And notice what he says in this passage. Watch this. He says in verse three, he says, consider him, that is Jesus, who endured much hostility, or such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. So look at this. He says, consider him so that you won't grow weary and lose heart.
Now, what is he saying? The whole idea, as we said, the word race means agony. That is, it takes energy and strength, and it's a test, and it's a trial, this conflict, this competition. And in this life, that's the way life is. Life is difficult. He says, he says, fix your eyes on Jesus so you won't lose heart.
You look around you at the circumstances of life, and friends, you can lose heart real quickly. Amen? You get on your knees before the Lord and his word.
You read his word, here's what happens. You feed your spirit. You feed your soul.
I don't have to explain it. I can't explain it probably enough to satisfy you, but this much I know. There is a divine transfer of spiritual energy that fills these physical bodies of ours, so that time in the word of God, time with him will give us strength, energy, power, everything we need to do the will of God. Now, listen, there's a distinction between being weary and being tired. Weariness talks about something that's happened to my spirit and my soul.
I can be physically tired, and my spirit and my soul be absolutely alive and strong in the things of God. What is it that keeps us on course? We have to be sensitive to the course, laying aside these things, fixing our eyes on Jesus, that is, seeing him as the source of our strength, seeing him as our protector, seeing him as our director, seeing him as the one who's always pointing in the right direction.
God has never pointed a single one of us in the wrong direction. And as we keep our focus upon him, what happens? We are focused on the right course.
We are strengthened not to take the detour. We're strengthened not to yield to the sin, to the allurement, to the encumbrance, to the temptation. He says, focusing ourselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm going to stay on track, I'm going to stay on course, I'm going to get my focus on him. And he said, look, he didn't say just look at him. He said, fixing our eyes on Jesus, fixing them there, looking at him, fixing them there.
Why? Because when I'm fixed upon him, I am continually aware of his presence. Listen, it is the awareness of his presence that makes me sensitive to what does not belong in my life.
The awareness of his presence that makes me sensitive to the fact that he's promised to strengthen me so that I may get tired in it, but I won't get weary in my spirit. Remember our word, H-A-L-T, don't get too what? Don't get too hungry, don't get too what? Don't get too angry, don't get too, don't get too lonely, and don't get too, don't get too tired.
Why? Because these are all physical and emotional things that happen to all of us and we have to be sensitive to them. And so he says, fix your eyes on Jesus that will make us sensitive to what's going on in life. The wonderful thing about the course he sets for you and me, we will never take a single step on that course by ourselves. We have the living Son of God to walk with us. He set the best course for us.
He's given us the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us, to enable us to say no to sin, to lay it aside, to get rid of all those things in our life that would entangle us and keep us from being and doing and being able to run the best race we possibly can. And when we get sidetracked, we confess it, we repent of it, we deal with it, we get back on course, we lay aside, we forsake these things that don't fit us, we focus our eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and we forge ahead with determination, deliberate commitment. God, I'm going to be obedient to you no matter what. Father, we love you and praise you and thank you for your wonderful love for us, that you loved us enough to set a course for us, set a pace for us. Seal this message in all of our hearts today and pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that every single one of us will respond to your appeal to our individual hearts in the way you would have us to respond in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to Getting Your Life Back on Course. And we would like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by intouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
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