Eyes on "It is Finished" | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from ets church. We hope this message

will light up your day. Yeah, I'm going to be sharing from Hebrews

chapter twelve, verses one to seventeen. I'm going to go through scripture.

Okay, I'm going to go through scripture. I've basically just entitled the message

eyes on It is finished. Okay, eyes on it is finished. Basically

eyes on Jesus. Huh. And with that, I think Josiah later you

know which respond song you can already choose, Hallelujah, because there's no other

name but the name of Jesus. Amen. And Jesus said I am the

Way, the Truth, and the Life. And so the earliest believers,

if you read Scripture, I think in the Book of Egs, they were

actually known as followers of the Way, followers of the Way. This is

something, and this is how I like to explain Christianity, because a lot

of people think Christianity is just a moment in time in which I just say

Jesus, I want you, and then after that I can change my ic

and put or can change my identity card and say that I'm a Christian now.

But it's more than merely just one decision that you make many many many

years ago. It's basically a journey. And that's why he claims to be

the way, the way. Okay, he claims to be the journey for

us. And so I know, we just say goodbye to twenty twenty three

and now of course hello to twenty twenty four, which means that we all

have a long way ahead of us. In fact, all of us always

have a long way ahead, or at least we have the way ahead of

us. We have Jesus, who is the way ahead of us. That's

how we've got to look at life, because if we look any other way,

it's going to be trouble. And so Heaven will continue to rule as

long as we keep our eyes on the finishing line. More importantly, we

got keep our eyes on it is finished. Who is there? That is

Jesus. Amen. And so I'm just gonna draw us into this portion of

scripture from Hebrews. H If you ever have the time, sit down slowly

and read Hebrews all the chapters. Okay, it's a it's a very very

powerful, uh portion of scripture in our Bible. In fact, I would

say every one of it is amazing and powerful, But Hebrews is one of

those. I like to call it a bit of a mysterious kind of a

letter. Why because again, no one knows the author of Hebrews. There

are a lot of suppositions made as to who may have altered Hebrews. Uh,

some say Paul, some say Barnabas. But okay, like at the

end of the day, no one knows, So just let's just leave it

at that end. And why is it not Paul? Okay, some people

wonder you should be Paul or most of the letters if his letter is Paul.

Well, the style of writing is a little bit different, the language

used compared to how Paul usually writes his letters. It's a little bit more

polished. And that's why. That's one of the reasons why they are still

like maybe unless Paul. Over the years Sally became a scholar and started writing

very polish letters, know to the church, but who knows who knows?

Okay, So again, let's not do any guest work. Let's just trust

the process that it is God's word. It is in scripture, Okay,

so uh, it's It's a powerful book, most likely written to the Roman

Church, basically targeting the hebrew believers, Jewish believers in the Roman Church.

That's how you look at it. How I came to that conclusion. Well,

the possibility is there only because at the end of this letter that is

a portion that says all of us from Italy says hi. Okay, you

can go and read. I think it's Hebrews chapter that, the last the

last chapter, the last few verses. It just says all of us from

Italy, says Hi. So it sounds almost like it is actually written to

the church in Rome, in Italy. That's that's how we come to this

supposition, because there are some things that I have to help us draw a

little bit of context later as I'm teaching. Is it gonna be okay?

Okay, let's read Hebrews chapter twelve. We always love reading Hebrews chapter eleven

because it's the chapter on faith, all the heroes of the faith. But

let's look at chapter twelve also, another very very famous portion of the scripture.

And he says, it's okay, this is where I need step back.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to

the life of faith, let us strip off every way that slows us down,

especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run

with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping

our eyes on Jesus, the champion, who initiates and perfects our faith because

of the joy awaiting him. He endured the cross, disregarding its shame.

Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. Think of

all the hostility he endeared from sinful people. Then you won't become weary and

give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your

struggle against sin. Okay, I'm reading from the NLT. Can read it

from different versions. You will get also to be able to draw out some

different truths. But this is God's word, So let's look at it.

Let's look at it. Everyone, all right, let's stay with me,

Stay me, so let's look at this cloud of witnesses. What's it talking

about? Of course, you know we love reading this partial scripture. A

wow, cloud of witnesses. And the first impression is that the writer,

who is unknown, like I said, is most likely thinking of big stadiums,

because again he's probably writing to the church in Rome, and Rome had

huge stadiums back then if you ever go to Rome to visit, even if

you walk into the coliseum, it's a huge, yeah arena basically, and

so you know it's it's probably stadiums and a big crowded area that he's looking

at. And then you have rolls upon rolls or spectators actually looking down.

And that's how some people come to the conclusion that Hebrews Chapter twelve, when

it refers to the Cloud of Witnesses, it's almost like there is a big

crowd cheering you on, spurring you on. Hey, keep going, keep

going. And if that's the interpretation that we take, then is you know,

we can imagine no, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, all those who

have gone before us, all those heroes know they're watching down and they're saying,

no, you did well. I hope he makes it. No,

come on, let's do it. That's how we can come to one conclusion

of what Cloud of Witnesses means. And that is the impression that many people

get from this verse. And I think it's important. It's important for us

to know that there is always a fellowship and a communion of saints. Okay,

when you talk about fellowship or believers. When you talk about Communion of

Saints, you're talking about, you know, just the family of believers coming

together, past, present, and future. And I think the Church needs

to continue to experience that and acknowledge that we are all link to Heaven.

You know, you can imagine Jesus on one hand, he's holding the Abrahams

and the Moseses, and the Elijahs and the Elijahs and all of those who

have gone before us. On the other hand, he's holding us who are

still running this race and walking this life. And he is the link between

the communion of Saints. Amen. So it is important. I'm not saying

that it's not important, but I want us to look at it and look

at this meaning to witnesses from another possible a girl, another possible perspective.

And while sometimes it may imply that they are witnessing what we do, that

means that this cloud or witnesses witnesses are looking at what we do. But

it can also mean those who themselves their own lives now gives testimony to what

faith in the invisible can do. Okay, I'll explain what that means.

Because you see, this word witness is usually used in the context of the

courtroom more than in the context of the stadium. Is as though you sit

in this big cord uh, and witness after witness goes into the witness dog

and then stands there and say, I believe that that's how we should be

looking at it. And that's probably the more accurate meaning of the word not

just witnesses of earth, no, or not just witness witnessing earth. You

know, sometimes we like to look at it, but basically they are witnesses

to Him, to God. In other words, is also saying that we

are not and we will never be the first to run this race, because

a lot of times when believers get into problems, we sometimes think that we

are the first to run this race, we are the first to encounter the

difficult problems, until we realize that actually we are not. Now because trust

me, you know, if you read scriptures, there is nothing that you're

experiencing right now that has not been covered in scripture. Any difficulty, any

challenge, uh, you know, any kind of experience, any problems in

your spiritual life. I assure you you can find it in the Bible.

And that's how honest the Bible is. No, it doesn't paint this picture

of all the saints who have gone before us are living a life that is

so perfect that there was no problems, no issues, no challenges, no,

no nothing. It was always challengers after challenges in which you actually see

them going through. You know they will not they didn't all have a wonderful

life. In fact, you know, David sometimes can be so honest in

his psalms. It's like, why are you cast down all my soul?

You know. Then you have Elijah who after one moment of glorious encounter with

God, know, and then after that he goes into the hiding. You

have Jonah, who so ver he mainly tried to deny God, you know,

you went the opposite direction. And now, of course you know the

miracle happened, got split out of that big fish or whale or whatever.

You know, however you want to look at it. And then eventually,

you know, he he became depressed. And so this whole inspiration of the

cloud of witnesses is to us not so much that they are watching us.

Don't just look at it from the perspective of they are watching us, encouraging,

encouraging us. But they are essentially witnessing God, that they have been

along this cause before, that they have been along this road before, and

they had faith, and they believed, and they endeared trusting a God who

they could not see. But they got there to a certain extent. And

I'll explain why I say that. And this is what puts heart into us.

This is what gives us encouragement that we are just one of a long

line of testimonies to what faith can do. And I think that's a very

practical passage, a passage not just thinking, oh I need the encouragement,

Thank you so much, the cloud of witnesses and keep encouraging me. No,

no, no, You look to their life and you realize, wow,

it's amazing what they have done. And they all continue to testify of

God's goodness in their life. Amen. And then it goes on to say,

let us run. Okay, let us run. Let us r so

very important in the Christian life. If you're going to run the race,

that you get your eyes off other people because you need to run. If

your eyes are kept on people other than Jesus, then we're gonna end up

running ourselves into the ground. That's the reality of it. Okay, So

no, you would think no after again, he Brews, Chapter twelve comes

naturally after chapter eleven. Chapter eleven was the whole chapter on faith, and

you see so many amazing heroes of faith in chapter eleven. No, we

read them and we love the stories. Wow, amazing. You know,

you had the you had Abraham's and Moses and the rest of them, and

then you have ray Haab and you know, it's just amazing reading all those

heroes of faith. And then you're wondering, no, do I fix my

eyes on them and do what they did? Because if you do that,

it can be dangerous. You know. That's one of the mistakes that many

Christians make is this is to look at another Christian and then we start measuring

our own experience by what other people experience, and then we try to imitate

them. You know, we got to look to be inspired, not look

to be compared with, and not look to compete against. That's a big

difference, and a lot of times when we look at others, it's always

to be compared with and to be and to compete against. That's where we

need to be able to draw that distinction. We look to be inspired to

do better, to do greater. You know, I was reading an account

I can't remember who was the guy who started off a lot of orphanages.

I think it was Josh Miller. And it's amazing science. You you know,

Joanna, when you're in England, you're going to read all the amazing

Methodist movement, the Scouts movement, how they started is amazing. So I

think Josh Miller was the one who started a lot of often ages. And

you know, some people look to him after that and thought that all of

our calling is to start orphanages. And you know, unless the Lord is

calling you to do it, it's not for us to just look at a

person and then follow suit. Because a lot of other orphanages didn't really succeed.

That's what I'm trying to say. So we've got to look to be

inspite, not look to compare ourselves with or to compete against. So again,

dangerous accounts when we look at other Christians say Okay, I'm going to

run that race because he's running it, and I'm going to beat him,

and I'm going to try to do better, or I'm going to do what

he did. No, after all the heroes of Chapter eleven, who all

had faith and remain faithful. The scripture actually now tells us to forget the

cloud of witnesses and look to Jesus. And there are two reasons why you

should do this and not fix your eyes on all the heroes of faith.

One is that they didn't get there yet. Not one of them have sort

of fully arrived. Okay, actually, if you read at the end of

chapter eleven, it actually says they have not received the promise yet. And

of course the question is why haven't they received the promise? I thought they're

all there because God is still holding them until they can be made perfect with

us. So we also, we are part of this entire journey. This

journey is not just made up of those who have ran before us, it's

also made out of those who are still running, because at one point in

time, we will all run this race in completion, and one day we

will all stand face to face with Jesus, who will then not just be

our savior, but he will be out judge. So they themselves have not

arrived yet, so we shouldn't just look to them but see. And of

course the second reason is this, no, let us run the course that

God has marked out for us. Because God marks out the cause for you.

And I find great encouragement in that he has not me to be an

Abraham, thank on or not, I don't know, actually, but there's

the No Abraham had to give out all his riches. No, he was

living in a nice not just if you study the historicity of Abraham and where

he came from, he was living in a place where there were houses like

bungalows, there was a proper heating system, et cetera, et cetera.

And then the flur is called out to go and live in a ten That's

like asking you go camping for life. I don't take any of us want

to do that. No, but you know, I'm not called to be

Abraham. I'm not called to be a Moses to go and part the raid.

See, we are called to be who we are by God. And

so he has marked out the cost for me, he has marked out the

cost for you. He's asking me to run the cost marked out for me

and marked up for you. He's not asking me to run anybody else's race.

And that's why the Bible constantly tells us mind your own business. Peter

said to Jesus after the resurrection, John John, the Flur and then no,

Jesus, was your future plan for him? And then Jesus actually just

said that mind your own business. He said, what is that to you?

You just follow me, amen. So let us look at Jesus and

run the race marked out for us. Let us see that we get that.

Look to Jesus, go to him, ask seem for your cause and

for the grace to run it, because we need to persevere to run the

race. And if we are to do this, basically, that's why the

scripture goes on to say that we need to remove everything that hinders us,

everything that stops us. And we have noticed no that good things may have

to be discarded, not just the bad things to run the race. No,

for different people, it may be different things. To the rich young

ruler, Jesus said, you better cut out your bank account so it wors

be like Alama. But he doesn't say that to everybody, but he marked

out the cause for that rich young ruler. You can't run a race if

you're overweight, because you become spiritual handicap. Essentially, that's what Jesus is

saying to the rich young ruler. But of course we know the story for

them. So let us run this race with perseverance. And therefore we need

to sometimes get rid of anything good that could hold us back from running the

course. And of course not all good things God will say give up,

but definitely all bad things he will say, give up. Okay, some

of the good things, and definitely all the bad things. Know. Basically,

that's why he says, don't run through mud. That's essentially what he's

saying, because if you ever try running through mud, you realize that the

faster you run, the more you pick up. And so it says,

strip off whatever that tends to cling, whatever that tends to stick, whatever

that tends to pull you down and to hold you where you are, you

have to strip it off. Notice that the scripture actually assumes that you know

that mud is clinging on to you. It doesn't say, no, you've

got to go and figure it out. Assumes that you know, and you

know what we all know what the money in our lives are. It assumes

also that it will be an effort to run. That means nowhere in the

scripture does it tell you are actually very easy and running, just run now

and know whoa like for us garment that No, it's not basically you have

to prepare yourself, and you have to discipline yourself like any run. It

means this, not that you are actually able to strip it off. The

Bible never tells you to do anything that you cannot do by God's grace.

Because if you don't strip for this race, you don't strip it off for

this race, what will happen to you if we read on later and we

will cover it ourselves Verse twelve, and she says, no, you have

tired hands, you have weak knees, you have lame limbs, and you

will not be able to run, and you will not be able to complete

the race. And so it's important for us to strip off all this month

that is in our lives. And you know what is it. I can't

stand here and say that, oh no, no, this this this,

no, we know it because I believe as believers the spirit of God speaks

to us. Amen. And then the thing, the next thing that we

need to do is this. We need to stretch again. I'm just going

through line by line stretch. And if you ever ever watched an athlete straining

every muscle to go forward, uh, so you'll be like, what's muscle?

Because I just sit down the m c O. Never move. No.

No, Actually, that's what my my youngest daughter is. She's she

just stays in the room and I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, can

you just go on and get some sunlight or something like that, and then

she like, uh, yeah, I'm trying to kick her out. You

know, hardly strains and muscle at all. But you know, look at

what paulses, no pulses forgetting the things that are behind, and that is

the stripping part, forgetting the things that are behind and then stretching forward,

straining forward to the things that are before or of us. And then he

goes on to say, I press on towards the goal. So, in

other words, you are an athlete. If we are believers, we are

all athletes. I mean, you can't say that I am not an athlete.

No, we are all athletes. And you're not a good athlete unless

you learn how to stretch, and more importantly, stretch forward. And you

need to have a goal in mind all the time if you are to move

forward. That's the reality of it. And that's why the entire letter to

the Hebrews in Rome is saying this. No, it's not whether you have

started the Christian life. That is so important. It is whether you are

continuing and whether you are determined to complete it, so that when you get

to your dying day, you can say, with what Paul has said,

I have kept the faith. I have finished this course that the Lord has

set before me. And it is our Lord, Jesus who said it is

finished. That's why our eyes are to be upon him, the one who

claimed that he has finished the course. Jesus finished in thirty three years,

Paul most likely about fifty years. But it's really not the length of life.

It is completing what God gave you to do, and that involves endurance,

that involves perseverance. There are many of us who set off, but

we don't arrive. Like many of those who died in the wilderness after leaving

Egypt, they never saw the promised land. Two and a half million walked

out, but only two saw the promised land. And the truth is that

when we become believers and when we become Christians, we have not arrived at

anything yet. No, we have started righting birth. I mean that is

all born again. No, that's a a good birth, a good burding

process, and the first for the first time in our lives. No,

we are on the we are on the court in the right direction, and

then we have a goal and we have to look at it, and then

we have to keep on walking to finish that goal. If not, the

burning process counts for nothing if we don't keep on walking until the very end.

And that's why when Peter tried walking on what as long as his eyes

was focused on Jesus, who is the goal, he kept on walking.

But when he took his eyes off the goal and started looking at the storms

and started to look at the different challenges in life, that's where he started

sinking. And that's why the two titles are given to Jesus here, and

both of these titles have a double meaning to it. First it says that

he is the pioneer of our faith pioneer, and that has a double meaning.

Then it goes on to say he is the perfector of our faith.

That also has a double meaning. You see, pioneer can mean this word.

No, this English word called trail blazer. I know, we don't

use it very often unless you're basketball supporters and you support Portland. A trail

blazer basically is someone who goes out first and marks the course, marks our

the cost, and Jesus has done that for us. No, he has

been through it all. But then there is also another meaning of pioneer,

which means originator. That's why I sung as when we pray. Some versions

would say he's the originator of our faith. Basically the one who says go,

the one who sets us off right at the very starts. So Jesus

is not only the one who ran the cost first and therefore was the trailblazer.

He marked out the cause for us, but he was also the one

that was at the starting line firing the pistol. Can you imagine boom?

And then he says run. He was the one that sets us off,

who gave us faith, who started our Christian life and our Christian journey.

Amen, that's how we got to look at pioneer. The second one is

perfector, which means somebody who got to the end of the cost, and

somebody who had perfect faith when he got to the end of the cost.

Double meaning someone who finished my course for me and someone who will perfect my

faith for me as well. And so Jesus sets me going and he is

at the winning line, at the finish line, waiting for me, and

he's saying, come on, keep on going. He's calling us to carry

on until we crossed the finishing line and we can essentially say we have finished

this cost that you have set before us. Amen, I want you to

realize this also, any race and any journey will have challenges, will have

persecution, because if you look at Jesus, you will see this. He

ran the race, he finished the cost, and what happened to him He

ended up crucified. Betis we wonder a man? That's not very good incentive.

You see, the cost led him through cavalry. He longed, he

actually longed for another way, for an alternative way, because he asked God,

God, take this cup away from me, if there is a chance.

But the cost led him through the greatest obstacle, and instead of running

around it, he ran right through it. And I pray that it does

not become a shock when any of us realize that when we start running our

race, that there are going to be many other people who would not want

you to even start this race, let alone complete it. There will be

people of this world who would say, no, I don't want you to

finish this race. No, live as it is no live life or what

it means and what they perceive it to be. And as soon as you

start running in the race, there will be many who will stop you from

running this race. That's the reality of it. It's a sad fact that

for Christianity there's always a cross, and there is always going to be opposition,

There's always going to be shame, there's always going to be humiliation.

I can't put it any other way. And sometimes we will just look quite

silly to the world. The war will look at us and think that we

are crazy. And then Scripture tells us to consider Jesus because persecution will come.

But consider him who undealed the cross, despising the shame. You know,

Jesus. Jesus didn't like the shame. He didn't, you know,

It's not like he, oh yeah, it's so good to be humiliated.

In fact, that was probably what was the most challenging thing about the cross,

was humiliation, more than the fact that he died from it. Humiliation.

And the answer is simple, not because how did he how was he

able to go through it? Well, because Jesus kept his eyes on the

future rather than the present. That was the only way in which he could

finish it. Even if the present was humiliating, he knew the future was

glory. Even if the present was painful, he knew that the future was

joy. And even if the present was unhappiness, he knew that the future

was happiness. Because it goes on to say, for the joy that was

before him, the joy set before him. And this, indeed is the

great secret of surviving through any challenge patches in your Christian life. For us

to overcome hurdles, obstacles, we need to keep overcoming these oppositions. No,

you go on running, not for the joy that you may be experiencing

at the moment, but you go on running for the joy that is set

before you. Consider Jesus and compare your own sufferings to his. No,

sless, We've got to ask ourselves and have we been crucified yet? No?

I can safely say no, has the world done anything close to being

crucified? Do you yet? And I can say the answer is probably not,

because we're all still sitting here. But I think there are days when

we do feel the challenges in the office space, in our workplace, in

our schools, And then the reminder is, don't become weary. Don't become

tired. You see, if you are going through isolation and you are going

through depression, again, consider Jesus and compare yourself to him, and you

will keep going. Because when we consider Jesus, it helps us to it

challenges our perspective of things. We go down and we get depressed and we

lose sight. It's normal, but don't lose sight of Jesus because if we

lose sight of Jesus, we lose side of heaven. And then suddenly the

present sufferings become magnified, and then we start feeling a lot of self pity,

and then depression follows. Then we have lost sight completely off the future

and everything that we used to be able to see in the invisible, and

then things starts to go downhill. That's why it says, look what Jesus

went through. Look at what he went through, and where is he now?

He is sitting on a throne. Look, we are going to sit

on the throne with him because he promised that to all who will overcome.

That is Jesus Us promise to us. And so the Christian life is full

of trouble. Never believe anyone who says, come to Christ, and all

your troubles are over in state. Be of good cheer. Jesus has overcome

the world. Amen. Amen. Let us read on the scripture okay verse

five. It says this, I go on. You're still okay, okay,

and here and sorry verse five, And have you forgotten the encouraging words

God spoke to you as his children? He said, my child, don't

make light of the Lord's discipline, and don't give up when he corrects you.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he

accepts as his child. As you endeal this divine discipline, remember that God

is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who

is never disciplined by its father. If God doesn't discipline you as he does

all his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really His

children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't

we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits and live

forever for our earthly father's discipline us for a few years doing the best they

knew, how But God's discipline is always good for us so that we might

share in His holiness. No discipline is enjoyable. While it is happening,

it is painful, but afterwards there will be a peaceful harvest of right living

for those who are trained in this way. Wow, I'm not sure if

we all ever read on beyond the author and finisher of our faith and then

we come to this portion. And so we have established that if you become

a Christian, you will suffer more than you did before. And the reason

is very simple, because you now have a heavenly Father who disciplines you.

Any trouble that comes to us is allowed by him, and therefore it comes

from him. And I know this may sound a little bit depressing and said,

but Christians going through tough times, you must always ask yourself this question,

what is my heavenly father trying to teach me? What is he trying

to say to me? Is he you know? Why did he allow all

this to happen? Why is he chastising me? It is a very important

question to ask, because trouble does come from God. If it didn't,

then then you should be a bit worried. If God never troubles us.

Actually, in this letter, he says that then you might be an illegitimate

child. You've got to ask yourself that question whether you are really children of

God, because if you really call yourself a child of God means you will

have all the legal rights as well. I know it's a very strong thing

to say, but let us take a look at this for a moment.

Now what does it mean? And I think sometimes we need to readink fatherhood

a little bit. I'm a father myself, and sometimes father is unable to

fulfill responsibilities of being a father or being a parent, maybe business in life,

I don't spend enough time with the children, et cetera. And then

to ease our guilt, know, we sometimes project what we think a father

should be onto heaven. And if we start creating God in our own image,

and then at the end of it we get a God who is a

grandfather instead of a father. Why do I say that, because you know

what a grandfather is. Basically he has all the joy of the children,

but none of the responsibilities. And basically, after playing with them for a

few days, then you can go bye bye bye. And the many of

us actually have got this grandfather picture of God in our hates because we think

that oh, you cannot accept it that God is someone who punishes. God

who is someone who disciplines. God is someone who chastises, who educates.

And this is what happens when we start reading our own kind of fatherhood into

God our father. But God's fatherhood is true fatherhood, and true fatherhood disciplines.

If it doesn't what a harvest you will reap after That's what it says.

If you do it right, you will reap a good harvest. You

do it wrong, you won't reap a good hovest. And then you must

remember the context in which this letter was written to. It was written to

Rome. And we know in the early days of the Roman Roman Republic,

before it became an empire, family life was very strong. Family units were

strong, the values were there. Hardly any divorces or cases of divorce happening

in the Roman Republic. It was only after it became an empire that even

the emperor himself started losing all his morality. And then the Roman Empire started

to go down in terms of his morality and his values, and then you

start seeing divorces, etcetera taking place. But the Roman Republic had an essence

of family life and so by law, a father had absolute rights over his

son. In fact, when the son was born, the father could keep

or could discard the child. And that was the kind of rights that the

end no law could touch the relationship between the father and child. And of

course a good Roman father who exercised discipline will produce a good son. And

of course there were many who use the authority to do a lot of bad

things as well. I'm not saying that that did not happen, but just

have that in mind as a context. In the early days of the Republic,

a Roman father was given the total responsibility for his son, and it

applies until there's no end to it. Basically, your father could be ninety,

you could be sixty, and he is still your father. And so

it is against this backdrop that the writer to this of this letter is writing

to the Christians in Rome, and he says, you have an earthly father

who disciplines you. It was painful. All discipline is painful, and if

you come to Christ you now have a heavenly father and discipline is still going

to be painful. So you thank God for it because you didn't have it

all. Yeah, you just thank God for it because if you didn't have

it, you could actually question whether you're really a son or whether or not

you're really his son. And that's I think that's a good way of looking

at it because a lot of times when we talk about discipline, and it's

essentially when we talk about discipline, we're talking about disciples, because we're all

called to be disciples. And so another way of looking at it is this,

No, a father has a purpose in discipline. No one just disciplines

for fun. One. A bad father, of course, will abuse his

authority and simply punish the child just to ven his anger. Okay, I

acknowledge that many of those around there as well. But a good father does

it for one reason, and basically, he wants his child to grow up

to be a better person. A good father looks to the future, not

the present. He's prepared to cause pain, a painful present, that there

might be a lovely future awaiting the child a man. And that is why

the letter goes on to say, endal hardship. It is going to be

tough, enduring it because God is allowing it. Why because it is his

plan for your life. The cause He has marked out for you is this

holiness in this life, happiness in the next holiness first, happiness will follow

and will ensue. But you see, the world likes to reverse that.

The role is always saying, make me happy now, then maybe later in

heaven only I become holy. Cannot That's not God's way, he says.

Look, my will is as such. He loves us so much that he

is prepared to cause us pain that will help us to become holy now.

And there is no easy path. And this is somebody running the race.

This is somebody who has his eyes fixed on the goal. We need to

realize that he wants us to lead a holy life here and now, and

that we will reap all the blessings and the happiness in the life to come.

Imen And then now comes the final appeal. I'm coming to a close.

Wow, I mean on time. Reef everyone, Okay, cool,

let's go on. Verse twelve, it says, so take a new grip

with your tired hands, and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight

path for your feet, so that those who are weak and lame will not

fall but become strong again. I'm just reading or no from where we were,

and now he says, this work at living in peace with everyone,

and work at living a holy life. For those who are not holy will

not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails

to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root or bitterness

grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Make sure that no one is

immoral or godless. Like Esaul, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son

for a single meal. You know that afterward, when he wanted his father's

blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though

he begged with bitter tears. Ooh, strong but very practical. The final

appeal just says, and it's referring to different body parts. I refer to

it just now right. It says, strengthen your weak arms, your weak

knees, your weak limbs. In other words, now body, think of

it as a body. And when you realize that we are not just running

as individuals. No, we're part of a body, and we are running

together. And the way I run is going to affect the way somebody else

runs. I mean, if the hand is not doing well, the lake

also will feel it money eventually. I mean if I take a needle and

pook the hand. You think the lake doesn't feel pain, feel pain,

The whole body will feel pain. Right, So think of it like a

cross country run with a group running. And basically one person can actually poison

the entire raies. How and this is what scripture says. How can that

happen? Well, First of all, we are all to live in harmony.

Scripture tells us that, and so we are to be at peace with

everyone. If there is a lack of harmony, it can stop people from

running. Well, that's the reality of it. Second, we are to

strive after holiness. Without wish, no one will see the Lord. So

any lack of holiness will poison the race. We are all in this together,

That's what I'm trying to say. We're all in this together. If

one decides to not have peace with where another person, it will affect the

rest. If one choose to do something that is not right, it can

affect the rest. And then the third thing is this the third thing?

It draws us to an old story, you know, suddenly draws us back

to Esaul. You ever wonder why talk about But it goes back into the

Old Testament and uses Esau as an example, who is Esaul? Basically he

was part of a race. Just imagine him part of a race, and

then somehow he dropped out of the race. He sort of got disqualified.

Who was here? He was actually a man that the world at Mayao.

He was tough, he was big, burly, handsome, full of hair.

Who okay, but no he was a hunter. No, we sometimes

we look it. It's all like, man, you know, how many

of you want to be Jacob? Know what with the limen you'll be like

you can think I want to be Isaul. He was right in the line

for God's blessing actually because he was the firstborn one of the two set of

twins that came out. He was Jacob that came out holding his knee ankle

right, and so Isau was actually in the running. He was supposed to

inherit the blessing. And then one day what happened over a ball of soup.

He was faced with the decision, the choice between then and now,

the choice between something that is only a promise and something you can actually have,

the choice between spirit and the flesh. And it's all made a fatal

choice because from that moment he was out of running in a way, he

was disqualified. As the firstborn. He should have been the father of Israel.

He should have been right in the line of God's chosen people. It

should have been God of Abraham, Isaac and Esaul, but he was God

of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Esau should have been the one, but

he wasn't. He was disqualified from running. And basically, there is no

prizes for those who are disqualified. And how can we affect this by disqualifying

ourselves. We can affect the body when we disqualify ourselves. That is what

the letter is talking about here. Any one of us can be pulled out

of the race. Anyone can be pulled out because we can end up being

an Esaul. What did Isaul do? He just exchanged spirit for flesh.

He wanted his happiness and his satisfaction now. And so the letter says it

quite practically. And don't be immoral, don't be idolatrous, don't be ungodly

like Esaul. It is people who have been in the running who now have

lost sight of the goal and who are just grabbing whatever satisfaction that you can

get now is dangerous when they're part of this group. So notice this.

No such a person in a fellowship can become a bitter route. That's what

it is, saying, a bitter rute. Basically, it can contaminate the

whole fellowship, and it can disrupt a whole fellowship. I know it's a

serious word. I'm going to end not on such a serious way, but

it's a serious word, and we need to remember it because I'm not just

running this race privately. None of us here run our race privately, and

we're all running together. We are all looking to Jesus, and therefore we

cannot afford an Isaul. Will there be itsaurs in our lives. There will

be, but we need to know how to love them back into a place

where they are good and well for the Lord. You see, the saddest

thing about Esaul is he live to regret what he had done, but he

never repented of it. And the tragedy is that someone can regret the consequence

of having been disqualified and still not shed a tear as it all did,

because he just couldn't change his mind. He couldn't repent, He couldn't make

that you turn, He regretted it. Of course, Now no birth right

no our man shucks, but there was no repentance. And it's true to

life that if you are disqualified from running, you cannot get back into the

race. We have finished this portion of our study. I know it sounds

a bit serious, but realize this is no Repentance doesn't mean we have fully

arrived. Repentance means we just got set off on this race we have started.

That's why it's the start, it's the beginning. It's our birthing process.

How we become believers is we repent and believe. We set off,

don't stop. There a lot of us stop at the set off. We

stop at the starting line, but we got to keep on going. That's

why I want to encourage us as a church this morning. It's twenty twenty

four, it's the start of a new year. Don't stop because you know

we can drop out at any time. That's the reality of it. And

the Bible tells us that he saw was disqualified because he chose to get out

of the running, and then he regretted it, but he couldn't get back

into it. So strengthen those knees, make strong the arms. Look to

Jesus who strips off every handicap that could cling to us, everything that could

hold us back, and let us run this race with perseverance. He endured

everything. Why because of the joy set before him. Look what a joy

is said before us. We may have to do without certain pleasures. Now

we may not have as happy a life as some of our non Christian friends

may have. So as we look at our non Christian friends with envy or

earn so much money, or doing so well on that one, you know,

look at my neighbor next door, not Christian, No, not brought

about godliness, not brought about holiness. Every Sunday I play off. Then

we're all like, oh, but as for me, as for us as

believers, we have seen it all in balance. You know, that's the

beauty of it. We are not just shortsighted people. We have seen it

all in balance. I've seen the race, I've seen the goal, I've

seen the price, and therefore I'm going to keep my eyes fixed there until

i can say one day I have finished the cost. I have kept the

faith, and awaiting me, as promised in scripture, is a crown of

righteousness. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information,

on our church please visit as Church RG. We are also active on Facebook

and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going to be a good week.

I hate for you. God bless