Hebrews chapter 12 and we're going to look at verses one and two here and then we're going to flip over to Philippians three in just a moment. You want to follow it? If you want to mark it. So, Hebrews twelve one and two, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to worship you here this morning. Pray Lord that your word would go forth and change hearts and lives today. Thank you for the New Year that you've given us to serve you and Lord, may we be able to focus early in the year this year on on serving you and doing those things which bring honor to your name.

And may we be the light and testimony as a church and as individual children of God that we ought to be this coming year as we run the race that is set before us today. In Jesus' name we do pray, amen. This passage tells us that there is a race that is set before us. What is the race? Who is running the race?

How do we run the race? Some kind of important questions to ask. A lot of times we read through scripture and we read passages like this and we think, well, that's nice and, you know, but but we don't take time to go through and ask some important questions. Okay? It's talking about a race.

Well, obviously, most of us are not going to be running a foot race or a car race this week or next or this year. And that that's not obviously what Paul or whoever wrote the book of Hebrews. It is all God's word is talking about this morning. What is the race? Well, it is the pursuit of life's true purpose.

It is the pursuit of life's true purpose and what is that? Okay. I heard about several things all about the same, but the purpose, the pursuit of life's true purpose is to know who? Is to know God, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, to serve God, to bring him glory. First Corinthians ten thirty one, Paul writes, whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the what?

To the glory of God. Because that is life's ultimate pursuit, is the pursuit of God. The pursuit to know him, to love him, to serve him, and to bring him glory. I mentioned a few minutes ago, I was gonna read from Philippians, Philippians chapter three, and we'll read what Paul has to say there about this his pursuit in life. Paul's pursuit in life changed a bit.

Though Paul thought he was serving God early in life, actually, he was not serving God. He was deceived. He had rejected or at least for a time had rejected the Messiah and he was running the wrong direction. But somebody stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus, turned him turned him around, and put his feet on the right what? The right path, on the right track, on the right course.

And that was Jesus Christ. And in Philippians chapter three and beginning in verse nine, Paul writes, and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law. That was his first pursuit in life which wasn't the right one. But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him. The power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. For as Christ who apprehended him on the road to Damascus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What was Paul's pursuit?

That he might, as he puts it here in verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul's pursuit in life now was no longer the pursuit of the law. That was before he came to Christ. A a frivolous pursuit because in the mere pursuit of the law, a, he would never succeed and b, it would never bring him that eternal life, that resurrection that only who can bring, that only Jesus Christ can give. And so he changed his pursuit.

God changed his pursuit in the middle of his life. And God gave him a new pursuit. He gave him a new race to know God, to know the suffering, to know the love of God with which God had loved him. This was his pursuit. This is the race that the writer of Hebrews is talking about.

It is not humanism, the exaltation of humanity. Is that a race that are a lot of is that a pursuit that a lot of people are pursuing today? Yes, it is. The exaltation of humanity. It is not hedonism, the pursuit of fleshly lusts and worldly pleasures.

Is that a pursuit that a lot of people are pursuing today? Sadly, very much so. It is not religion, the pursuit of self betterment or through ritual acts and obedience to laws or spiritual disciplines. That kind of religion where people seek to to to make themselves better by following these lists of rules and don'ts or these spiritual spiritual quote unquote disciplines or rituals is a vain pursuit as well. It's not the pursuit of philosophy or education, the pursuit of knowledge and understanding for knowledge sake.

It is not philanthropy, the pursuit of enriching others' lives by sharing one's wealth. It is not personal fame and fortune. Some of these might seem to be worthwhile pursuits. You know? You know, giving to people, sharing your wealth, that's, you know, to enrich their lives.

Educating yourself, yeah, seems like a a good thing. Bettering yourself through certain, you know, disciplines, but it's not the one that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. And these are not the reason for living or the purpose while we are here or where this race is headed. The race is the pursuit of Christ, of God, and of his favor and reward. And this is the only one in the end that will matter, does matter in light of eternity.

We who come to Christ in faith for eternal life and salvation from sin are indeed the children of God and have entered the race of life for Jesus. New life in him. He has set us on a new course, a new path as he did Paul, a better one, an eternal one. One that really what? That really matters.

If you have yet to accept Christ's invitation to know him and be saved by him, you're running for the wrong team. You're running the wrong race. No matter how sincere and diligent, it will end in tremendous loss. Romans eight thirty six says this, what prop what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? All of these other things I mentioned, all these other pursuits, some of them laudable pursuits, some of them things that you might have even as secondary goals.

But without Christ, they're what? How did Solomon put it? All is what? Vanity. Vanity.

All is vanity. All those pursuits. Paul tried them. He pursued wealth and fame and fortune and and pleasure. He had everything at his fingertips in the day in which he lived to pursue all of those things to the fullest of any one of his day, and he found them all to be what?

To be empty. And so that's why at the end of Ecclesiastes, he says, now, remember your creator in the days of your what? Youth. Don't waste the days of your youth. Don't don't get distracted and off course chasing the wind.

Instead, chase the savior. Follow him. Race on the right track for the right reason. We run this race, first of all, by entering through faith in who? Jesus Christ.

He is the only way to get on the right track. But we run this race also by doing those things each day which please our father in heaven. By searching out and doing his will despite the lust of the flesh and the calls of the world, the calls of the world. By keeping our eyes fixed on the eternal prize and on our great example, Jesus Christ. Back to Hebrews 12 and verse two down here partway, you'll see it says, looking, looking unto who?

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, for the joy of of our redemption and being able to join him for eternity. For that joy, he endured the cross. He despised the shame and he is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus Christ kept his eyes fixed on the eternal prize.

By the way, that's you. You are his prize. Though unworthy we are, he still loved us so much that he could not just let us go. It drove him to come, to live, to die, and to rise again. It would behoove us who have entered the race through faith in that wonderful savior to follow after him, to keep our eyes fixed on eternal things, on things that really matter as we run our race this day, this week, this year, and not be distracted and pulled off course by all of the other pursuits that are out there.

This is the race that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. There is a crowd of what? A cloud of witnesses. Who are they? Why do they matter?

Well, these these witnesses that the writer of Hebrews is talking about in verse in chapter 12, these witnesses are the people previously referred to in chapter 11. We call the faith chapter the heroes of the faith. Back in chapter 11, we read in verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, that is by faith, the elders obtained a good report that is the believers of the past. Particularly, we're talking about all the people he's going to mention here.

For through faith, we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen when which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Science cannot go back and prove how we got here. It is incapable of doing that. Science can only observe what is here and now and make theorize based upon those observations.

But they can't go back and observe what happened thousands of years ago. But we do have a record of that, don't we? But it must be believed by what? By faith. By faith, we know how we got here.

God made us. That's how we got here. God made us for a purpose to serve and love him. And then it goes on to say, for by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. In verse five, by faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death.

He was taken straight to heaven. Verse six, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In verse seven, it speaks about Noah built the ark and Abraham and who followed the Lord even sacrificing or attempting to do so, his own son before God stopped him and provided a lamb in his place. These are the heroes of the faith.

Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. These are the ones that the writer of Hebrews is talking. These these people, men and women, were not smarter than everybody else. They weren't stronger than everybody else. They weren't more talented than everybody else.

They did not receive, in most cases, more acclaim in the world in which they live than anybody else. But they lived by what? By faith. And they made their pursuit in life the Lord. Knowing him, loving him, serving him, following him.

And they did it by faith. And they are the cloud of witnesses that we read about in the first verse of Hebrews chapter 12. Those who have already gone before us, who have paved the way. They are the witnesses that should inspire us to take up our mission, our purpose, and run with all our might as they figuratively watch from the stands. It is now whose turn?

Whose turn is it now? It's our turn. They ran their race. It is now our turn. And the power of God's grace and might and strength.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and it is now our turn to run that race in his strength for his glory. But there are weights and sins which disable and hinder us. What are they? And what must we do with them? There are weights.

We're told here. Verse one. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Weights and sins. He's using, as Paul liked to do quite often in scripture, an sporting athletic metaphor.

The picture is of a runner who is running a race and he is not wearing 100 pounds of clothing. He's not putting weights on his arms and his legs because he wants to run fast and he wants to run far. And so the runner sets aside as much weight as possible to make them as light as possible so they can be as swift as possible and can run as far as possible. You gotta get rid of those weights. And the same thing is true as we run this race.

In the pursuit of our savior, knowing him, loving him, serving him, glorifying him, We need to lay aside the what? We need to lay aside the weights, the things that weigh us down, that slow us down. Sins, which does so easily beset us. Violations. Sins are violations of the declared will and nature of the God we serve, particularly of his moral nature.

Falling short of his what? Holiness. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Transgressing his law. Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. These transgressing these laws. And as Christ explained them in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five, You can kill somebody in your mind through hatred and still be guilty of sin. You can commit adultery in your heart by lusting and still have committed a what?

A sin. Sins hold us back. They trip us up, yet they so easily, even still yet today, beset us if we are not wary of them, if we're not willing to confess them when we fail, they will trip us up. They will hold us back. They need to be cast, what?

Cast aside. They are not to be toyed with. They are not to be trifled with. They are not to be swept under the what? The rug.

They need to be confessed. We need to be honest with our Lord and with ourselves. And we need to cast out those sins that do not belong in the life of a child of who? A child of God. So when they crop up, confess them, forsake them, avoid them, deal with them.

Don't just sweep them under the rug and let them fester because they will slow you down. Weights. Weights are things which hold us back. They hinder us. They may may be out and out sins or they may be desires and ambitions which distract us from the the ultimate goal here, the race, to know and love and serve and glorify God.

Things which might not be sins to all, but things which hold us back from fulfilling God's purpose and running our best race. They hold us back because we are unwilling to discard them for some value that we place upon them. Certain relationships can be weights, weights that hold people back, friendships, partnerships. Think of Samson and Delilah. Does that a wholesome relationship that helped Samson?

No. No, it wasn't. Jehoshaphat and Ahab. Now they may not be as common to your mind as Samson and Delilah. Jehoshaphat was the good godly king of Judah, and Ahab was the wicked king of Israel.

Jehoshaphat was a good godly king. He did a lot of good things. He brought revival to his nation. He he led them in the way of the Lord for the most part, but Jehoshaphat was kinda chummy with Ahab. And they built a friendship which hindered Jehoshaphat and his children because he couldn't see that the relationship he had with that wicked king to the North pulled him down.

What are we told in the New Testament? Be not unequally what? Yoked together with unbelievers. Maybe there is a relationship that is not honorable or not holy or not edifying that needs to change. Maybe that's the weight that's holding you down.

Maybe it's money and prestige. The love of money is the root of what? Root of all evil. Root of all kinds of evil. It means.

Nothing wrong with money. It is the what? The love, the pursuit of money as having greater value than just something that is a tool for us to use in service of the Lord. Habits. Often clearly sinful habits and addictions which you think you cannot live without.

They are weights. That hold us down. Cast them aside. You do not need them. You have Jesus.

He can forgive you, and he can give you victory. But you have to trust him and cast them aside. Hobbies, fishing, golfing, TV, video games, social media, gossiping. Some of those things in themselves aren't bad. Gossiping is bad, by the way.

Golfing, I like golfing. I haven't been in a while because it gives me problems with my back. Fishing, I haven't been fishing in a very long time. I'd like to do that again sometime. These things are not all bad in themselves, but if they become a something in our life that distracts us from the pursuit, if they become a pursuit in themselves, if they take our eyes off of who?

Jesus and things that are of eternal value, then they become a what? They become a weight. Aspirations. Reaching a certain level of success in a company or career. It's a lofty goal, but it must take what?

Second place or third or fourth to things that are of greater value. If that is your pursuit in life, you're gonna end up at the end of life like Solomon, and it's all gonna be what? So what if you became the CEO of this or the manager of that or or you got this degree or that degree? Those things can be useful but if that is the pursuit of your life, then, then it's going to be empty in the end And what did Jesus say? If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

And sometimes that means setting aside certain aspirations. I had an aspiration at the end of high school going into college. I wanted to be an a astro or nuclear physicist. Now, I had already surrendered a year before in high school to go into the ministry, but I was still a that was still a fight with God because I I liked physics. And I actually went to a Christian college as a physics major for two years before God finally made me so miserable that that I had to come back and surrender to him and to what he wanted for my life.

And I've never regretted that for one single moment. But that was a weight that was hard to set aside. I liked I liked it when I went places and they asked me, what's your major? I'm a physics major. They, oh, you must be smart.

And then next semester, what's your major? I'm a Bible major. Oh, you're one of those people. All right. Different reaction.

Maybe fears, maybe fear is the weight that's holding you back. Fear of men, failure, phobias, safety, humiliation. That was one of my my fears. I I just didn't think I could get up in front of people and speak. And I that held me back.

But what God calls you to do, God enables you to do. The Bible says the fear of man brings a snare. Paul told Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of what? Fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Don't let fears hold you back.

They become weights that anchor us down. We find it awful hard to run. Hurts and offenses, slanders, injuries, betrayals, abandonments, evils perpetrated against us, they hurt. They do. God knows that.

But it doesn't have to be a weight that holds you back and holds you down. By God's grace, you can let the hurt go. You can lay aside that weight. Is that the weight that's holding you down? I know a lot of Christians that are that way.

I know many of them I've knocked on their doors. Where do you go to church? Well, I haven't been in five years. Why not? They got hurt.

And they've let that hurt keep them from running the race as they should have. Don't let Satan pull you down. Let go of the hurt. Let Jesus heal you. Failures and past sins.

They don't have to hold you down either. Philippians three thirteen and fourteen says this, we read it earlier, but just these two verses. Paul says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize and the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul says, I haven't apprehended. This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are what?

Behind. I press what? Forward to the things which are before. I can't go back and change the things that I did before Christ stopped me on the road to Damascus. I can't go back and change the failures and the mess ups of the past.

But I can let them go because I have a forgiving God. And he says if I confess my sins, he's faithful and just to what? Forgive them. And if he can let them go, then you can let them go. Satan wants you to hold on to that.

God wants you to let it go. Let it go. We all have those in our past. Some more recent, some ancient history, and sometimes years and years and decades later, we're we're running in place because we're still allowing those failures and sins of the past to hold us down. God doesn't want you to do that.

It doesn't do you any good to punish yourself today for what he has forgiven you for yesterday. He wants you to let it go, to let the hurt go, to let the fear go, to let your aspirations that are not in line with his to go. Those hobbies, those habits, that pursuit of money, even some relationship may need to go because he is worth it. He is worth it. The race that is before us that he has put us on, the reward at the end that is ours in Jesus Christ is worth it.

Let it go. Cast aside the weights and those sins. Those things which hold us back. Those things which hold tightly, which we hold tightly to that keep us from moving forward. If you're trying to drag a 300 pound barbell behind you, you're not gonna go very far very fast.

But if you can let it go, just what? Let it go. Cast it aside. There's a line in a song I used to listen to years ago. Line went something like this.

It's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind. Those things that we refuse to let go of, they don't help us. They enslave us. They hold us back. And when we let them go for Christ, we experience not loss, but freedom and strength.

What is it that has been holding you back in this race? Is it the fears, the aspirations, the hurts? Whatever it may be that's holding you back as we pray in just a moment? Would you let the Lord know? Would you let him take that from you so that you can run the race this year without trying to drag that thing along with you another year?

And maybe this morning you're here and you've never truly trusted Jesus Christ to save you because of pride, because of pleasures you think you can't live without. He is worth it. Let those go and embrace Jesus Christ. Get in the race. Get going the right direction.

Receive life, eternal life, from Jesus. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord. For our savior, thank you, Lord, for your grace and your goodness towards us, for the opportunity that you have given us to follow you this year. To run the race that you have set before us, Lord, forgive us of our failures.

Forgive us of hanging on tightly to things that we need to let go and I pray for those that are here today that are struggling with something that is tying them down, that is weighting them down, that they'd be willing to let go of that today. And, Lord, I pray if there's someone here that is yet to receive the Lord Jesus as savior, I pray, Lord, that today would be their day of salvation, that they would let go of that pew, that pride, that doubt, whatever it is, that they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation this morning and trust the only one who can truly free them, the only one who can save them and give them eternal life, Jesus Christ, our savior. In Jesus' precious name, we do pray. Amen.