Community Perfection
Hebrews 12:1-12

Intro . :
l. Last Sunday night Joyce Slusser looked up at me and asked me, "Didn't you baptize me?" I looked down and told her "yes." I am concerned about Joyce as well as the rest of you. I look at my own children whom I have baptized and pray for the growing up in Christ. In a similar way I talked with one of my old professors in Chicago recently he expressed gratitude for my work, my life, and attitude.
I have seen the lives of some students who have served  a life time in foreign countries bringing the good news of Jesus to people who never knew.
There have been other professors of mine who have expressed themselves--half of them marveling at me since they didn't believe that I would ever amount to anything, and the other half wondering yet if I will yet amount to anything...But they expressed their concern. We‘re all in this together.

2. Hebrews ll:39-40 has a more profound thought as the writer says about people who have gone before us. "God has decided on an even better plan for us? His purpose was that they would be made perfect only with us.” (NET) what I do does affect Joyce and my children and you. We cannot live together in any fashion without our affecting one another. We are going to build one another up in the faith, or we are going to tear one another down. But since we  are related to one another and to all Christians in the past, our writer says, since we have a large crowd of witnesses around us,. let us rid ourselves then of everything that gets in the way, and the sin which holds on to us so tightly, etc .... "
3. If we are going to grow, it will be with one another.
4. The basic motif in these verses is a track and field meet. It's been a year or two since some of us have competed in games. Nevertheless, we can gain some good lessons in reviewing some of the points made.

I. Let us rid ourselves of everything holding us back.

Let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely..." The "weight" can refer to two things, fat or objects. This verse could well be a motto of Weightwatchers and other organizations. I commend those of you who realize
your health is part of your Christian lifestyle. An overweight runner doesn’t have a chance. Similarly, the person who tries to run with lots of clothes on, or carrying a handbag or any other object, is just not a competitor.  If you are going to run, the race must be prepared for.

2. The race is more serious, and since it involves a moral race, the real problem that holds us down is sin. Running is the game. Psalm 1 talks about the subtle way in which temptation works its way into the soul of a man.
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers. This is the way evil works, First you walk with  it and then you stand with it , finally you sit down and become a part of it.

3. lf you were in French West Africa an African Christian might tell a story like this: "One day a man went out hunting. He crossed a river in his boat on his way to the  hunting ground. After tying his boat, he walked on, finding much game.  All was going so well that even after he had much game as he would be able to take home, he hated to leave. But he placed the load on  his head and pulled the remainder behind him until he reached the river.
Alas, when he arrived there, his boat was gone. It had become unfastened and had drifted away with the  current.   The hunter  didn't have any way to cross the river, so he put down his load and waited for some one to pass by in a boat. Night fell...morning dawned...the noon-day sun beat upon him...but still no one came along. Night fell again, and the meat was beginning to smell. On the third day he noticed a boat in the distance and began calling loudly to the passengers.  He was heard, and they came.
Seeing that he had too much meat  for their little boat, and the meat was beginning to spoil, the passengers of the boat told the hunter that they would take him back to his village if he would leave the meat behind. The hunter insisted that he wanted to take it along, saying that though it wasn’t fresh anymore, it was still edible. They argued  but since the hunter was too stubborn to leave the meat, he too, was left.  When night fell having scented the spoiled meat, a lion found the hunter and devoured him.  Thus it is with the unsaved. They are unwilling to part with their sins. God’s boat is prepared for their salvation, but they cannot come aboard with their sins. The sins which they say they enjoy are only spoiled meat. If they will not leave their sins, Satan, the lion, will devour them.”

4. In your spiritual race, what do you need to cast off.  What sin is hold you back?

II. Let us run with perseverance. 1

1. The Scripture, "Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." There are many track meets as many of you know. The 100 yard dash, 440, the mile, but all of these require a fast burst of speed that is sustained for a short distance—even a mile. The kind of running here is not a sprint, but cross-country. This is the kind of running that takes perseverance. I have a friend who runs six miles two or three times a week. He has participated in longer runs. This require stamina, and perseverance.

2. Life is a long run for most of us. Most of us pick our own pace if we can. But we are not to run the race as we feel we should run it, but according to the coaches way of running. My way of running the race--my life-~would involve me in
all sorts of private excursions along the path, but the coach takes a different slant on things. Let me illustrate it another way. Kierkegaard tells a story about a rich man who order from “abroad at an exorbitant price a pair of faultless and highbred horses which he would use for his own pleasure and for the pleasure of driving them himself. Then something like a year or  two passed.  Any one who previously had known these horses would not have been able to recognize them again. Their eyes had become dull and drowsy, their gait  lacked style and decision, they couldn't bear anything, they couldn‘t hold out, they hardly could drive four miles without having to stop on the way sometimes they came to a standstill while he sat and drove his best; besides that, they had acquired all sorts of vices and bad habits, and in spite of the fact of course over-abundance of food, they were falling off from day to day. Then he had the King's coachman called. He drove them for a month-- in the whole land there was not a pair of steeds that held their heads so proudly, whose glance was so fiery, whose gist was so handsome, no other pair of horses  could hold out so long, though it were to trot for more than a score  of miles at a stretch without stopping. How came this about? It is easy to see--the owner, who without being a coachman gave himself out to be a coachman, drove them according to the horses' understanding of what it is to drive; the royal coachman drove  them  according to the coachmen‘s understanding of what it is to drive. So it is with men.

3. You have not committed yourself to Jesus to live life to according to how you understand it, but to live it according His understanding of it.
Consider the need of perseverance. ...Life has its harsh times. Jesus was crucified.

v. 4. tell us that our struggle against  sin has not brought us to the point of death. Discipline, self-discipline is absolutely necessary for the life lived in relation to Jesus.

III. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus...2.

l. Life has many objects in view. Read our scripture. “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith..."
We could speak of this in another way--the finish line.
Goals we set: in three years, I'll finish college, in 5 years I hope to be married, I hope to have 2.4 children.  Ten years from now, I hope to owe my own business. 20 years and I'll have my home paid for. I hone to retire at 55.
These are common and worthy goals, but they are living life as I want to live, rather than as Jesus calls me to live it.

2. A race involves a finish line. A runner doesn't dally along the way. He doesn't keep looking back to see where everyone is. He doesn't waste his energy looking sideward waving to the stands.  He expands his energy in a forward direction. The writer seems familiar with games like this.
The spiritual application is noteworthy! l Keep your eyes on Jesus as you live. Let your actions be subject to his approving glance. Let your temptations be subject to his disapproval.

3. There is no other way for us Christians to go. Keeping our eyes on Jesus  is expressed in a poem called “I met the Master:”
I had walked life's way with an easy tread, Had followed  where comforts and pleasures led, Until one day in a quiet place, I met the Master face to face. With station and rank and wealth for my goal, Much thought for my body but none for my soul, I had entered to win in life's mad race, When I met the Master face to face. I met Him and knew Him and blushed to see, That His eyes full of sorrow were fixed on me: And I faltered and fell at His feet that day, While my castles melted and vanished away! Melted and vanished and in their place, Naught else did I see but the Master's face. And I cried aloud, "Oh, make me meet, to follow the steps of Thy wounded feet. My thought is now for the souls of men, I have lost my life to find it again. E'er since one day in a quiet place, I met the Master face to face."(Author Unknown.")

4. Let’s  change the setting from a track scene to just  the communication possibly between two people.   Keeping your eyes on Jesus is a way of learning. Occasionally, I out a scawl on my face and raise my voice a little to the point of sounding gruff. I tell one of the kids to come where I am. They come meekly, until they discover it was a rouse, and I grab one of them and wrestle them to the floor. When I am angry at them, it takes only a glance to discover it on their part. When I am well-pleased with them, I give them a smile and a wink of the eye. We learn and communicate with the eyes.   Keeping your eyes on Jesus--and we do this in worship and study of his word--is a way of running the race in our struggle against sin.

Conclusion:

l. There are two different points I want to make in concluding
First, These verses are applied to believers, to Christians. There is great benefit from running the Christian race. In this race--all are winners.  The race that we are running  demands s that we run well. There is deep satisfaction in doing good, right, and honor, because they are right. In a world lacking in a sense of honesty, integrity, and morality, there is deep satisfaction in simply being a genuine Christian person.
Second, the verses can have a meaning for you, if you are not a follower of Christ. The Christian life begins with a turning away from sin, and committing your life to Jesus and receiving him as Saviour.

2. Are you ready to receive Jesus? Are you willing to openly confess him before men? Christian people, are you running the race with determination, renouncing the sins that so easily stop our race. Are you keeping your eyes on Jesus by the regular study of his Word?