Look Who’s Watching! Sermon for 18th February 2007 By Margaret 0707MAC

Heb 12
NIV “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”
Amplified
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
For me…This scripture clearly evokes a picture of a stadium where athletes are running a race.
The point of running a race is …? to win!

So the verse gives advice about how to be a winner in Christ
• Strip off any weight that hinders you
• Get rid of any sin that will stop you or trip you up
• Then… run determinedly without giving up

This particular audience...the cloud of witnesses… have all been ‘athletes’ them selves...they have been there before us ….experienced everything for themselves….so they know just what stopped them winning and what hindered them from doing better!

Who are the witnesses or watchers? Yes Those mentioned in Hebrews eleven
Why are they watching?
Sometimes being watched can make you nervous and clumsy!

But the blessing is
That because all of these watchers or witnesses have experience of running the race of faith themselves
We know that they don’t just understand the difficulties they also know the answers
Therefore, my bet is that they are not watching to criticise but to cheer us all on

All heaven is watching us “Leaning over the banisters of heaven” as you might say …cheering you and I on in the race of our life lived for God encouraging us not to allow ourselves to be distracted, willing us to win

What happened when I went to watch our football team play? I don’t really like football, but when I saw them playing to start with I felt fairly disinterested and calm. After a while I got caught up in it… I began to really take notice of what was happening and in the end I was running up and down shouting encouragement and really wanting them to win ….COME ON!!!!!!
That’s what the cloud of witness are doing ….especially Jesus

We are urged to get rid of everything that hinders us in the race
• throw it off
• cast it aside

Everything that slows us down hinders or stops us being winners…

The things that slow us down are called ‘weights’

A weight is something that if you carry it slows you down
A burden so cumbersome that it stops you running
Athletes train and literally shed excess body weight
Also athletes in Paul’s day stripped naked to run

What slows you down? What distracts you?
(Horses are given blinkers in races to stop them being distracted)
• What attitude?
• What bad habit?
• What negative thought pattern?
• What activity?

Fear…self pity…anger…lying….unbelief….inferiority…self hatred….
What is the first thing you think of when I say that word weight?

The Greek word ‘apitithimi’, translated ‘lay aside ‘means literally
• To lay something down
• And firmly push away from yourself …beyond reach

That sounds pretty deliberate to me
Your life will not change unless you do something pretty deliberate
Take definite steps…a decision to change (that’s repentance)

Throw them off!!!!!!

I am not talking about concentrating on your sins and faults and being mesmerised by them …That will certainly hinder you …
but to do what it takes to reject the things that are stopping you reaching God’s best for your life

It usually means
1. Doing such simple things that even a child can do
2. Deciding what you are not going to allow in your life any more
3. Persisting against the hindering attitudes until victory comes

Let the word correct you, let the Holy Spirit lead you

Let’s look at Hebrews 11. 1- 40 at these witnesses

They were people who ‘knew their God and did mighty exploits’
Not perfect people…. but those who really wanted to please God and serve him
Are there any of those people here today? Ready for the walk of faith

V3. Abel …offered a better sacrifice…he was killed because his bother was jealous …because he offered the covenant sacrifice and refused to trust in his own righteousness
What’s Abel saying to us … ‘
‘Do you really still believe you can do it by yourself, that your own righteousness is enough?
Come on! only faith in the blood of Jesus will get you through ’

v5. Enoch….never saw death because he walked with God
Enoch urges us … walk with the Lord…be as close to him as it is possible to be

V7. Noah …took him a hundred years to build an ark .He saved his family from destruction…because he feared God
In turn did something much bigger… he saved the future of the human race
It says he was ‘divinely warned’. He heard and heeded Gods warning
100 years of being mocked ostracised
Noah would say.. .
’Look I did not realise the huge consequences of this thing when I started I just did what I knew I had heard God say to do
I believe Noah would encourage us to see the bigger picture …the ultimate consequences of our obedience which are bigger than we think

V8.Abraham…faithfully believed what God said even though he did not understand it
He passed a test or two.!! God only tested him so that he could eventually offer the Messiah through his blood line…a reciprocal sacrifice
He had to know Abraham was pure …utterly committed

Abraham says …can God trust you with his plans?
Come on you can do it!!!!

v18. Sarah Received strength to conceive seed because she judged God faithful
Are we judging God faithful in our own impossibilities?

v20. The Patriarchs …Isaac blessed Jacob…Jacob blessed his sons
Honour your father and mother …
We have a head start if we have the blessing of the previous generations

v23.Moses’ story starts actually with the faith of his parents …then he grew up and it says that ‘he chose to suffer rejection with the people of God rather than be involved with the passing pleasures of sin’

Moses is saying …’what sinful pleasure are you are willing to give up for the sake of God’s plan for the world?’

By faith Moses led the people of God through the wilderness and saw the miraculous provision of God but Moses patience was so tried by the people that he lost his temper with them and God didn’t let him enter the land

To whom much is given much is expected …

Moses is saying …

V 32 Then there’s a list of people who were persecuted for their faith in God and suffered greatly and still did not give up
‘Lesser’ heroes, the prophets, the persecuted church the martyrs

‘Of whom the world was not worthy’
If you are in trouble they understand

And finally looking unto Jesus ….

The Hebrews eleven witnesses were all pre cross. They did not have the spirit we do they were far less equipped and privileged than us

We also have …The apostles, the early church, and the great fathers of the church
More recent men and women…
William Booth, John G Lake, C.T. Studd.. Charles Wesley,Gorrge Whitfield Gladys Aylwood, Maria Woodworth Etter ., Amy Semple
Mc Pherson Kathryn Kullman

Radical men and women of God

Not to mention all the other millions of men and women down the ages who have gone before us

They are all saying come on ‘if I could do it so can you’!!!
YOU HAVE
The same Holy Spirit… the same Bible as I had …
But you also have …
Tapes, CD’s, DVD’s, Videos, books galore and Christian TV …are we richly equipped or not?

This is how the message bible expresses Heb 12 1-3

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on?
It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit!
No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in.
Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—
He could put up with anything along the way:
Cross, shame, whatever.
And now He's there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith,
go over that story again, item by item,
that long litany of hostility he ploughed through.
That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!