Introduction:
Why I Can't Quit Running (Hebrews 12:12-17):
- Someone needs me to be an Example . (Heb 12:12-14)
1 Kings 18:21 - And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?”
Philippians 2:14-15 - Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...
- Someone needs me to Challenge their walk with Christ. (Heb 12:15-17)
Deuteronomy 29:18 - Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:53
Father in heaven, we believe that you have revealed yourself through your Word.
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And I guess it's like that song that we sang when we were little kids, "I stand alone on the Word of God." Father, may that be true for us today.
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That we stand on it.
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We don't just hear it, we don't just agree with it, but Father, let Your Word direct our lives, the way we live, the way we think, the way we speak.
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Father, let Your Spirit and Your Word do something supernatural in us today.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
01:40-01:41
Hebrews chapter 12.
01:43-01:48
As some of you know, my son Cade plays deck hockey and Sean and I coach the team.
01:49-01:55
And a couple of seasons ago, the game wasn't going our way, all right?
01:55-01:56
We were losing.
01:57-02:04
And two of our best forwards, we noticed, were on the deck walking.
02:06-02:11
They were just walking, putting forth absolute minimal effort.
02:12-02:14
I'm like, what's going on?
02:15-02:15
Did they get hurt?
02:16-02:17
Is there something I'm missing?
02:17-02:23
A couple of times I thought maybe I missed a whistle and that's why they weren't running, but everybody else was running.
02:23-02:27
And we got them off the deck and we were like, what's going on?
02:29-02:35
And the one kid said, well, I have a big game coming up and I don't wanna be tired for it over a game that doesn't matter.
02:37-02:44
So, I talked to Sean and good news, that young man got a lot of rest the rest of the game.
02:46-02:49
Because he sat on the bench the rest of the game.
02:49-02:50
Rest up, champ.
02:53-02:57
But I got to tell you, in the moment I was extremely frustrated.
02:57-03:03
These were two of the higher skilled, more experienced players and the younger players were looking up to them.
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They're the players that they look up to.
03:08-03:15
And in that moment, and they're good kids, but in that moment, they were only concerned about themselves.
03:18-03:19
They weren't concerned about the team.
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So they stopped running.
03:26-03:31
And that's a real danger in the church that our passage is addressing today.
03:34-03:43
Because church, you can get to the place where you care more about yourself than the team.
03:46-03:47
And you stop running.
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And when you stop running, you have a negative effect on the rest of the team.
03:56-04:05
We've been talking about faith as we've been going through Hebrews 11 and 12, In chapter 12, he tells us to run.
04:06-04:08
And running is agonizing.
04:08-04:10
We've spent a lot of time talking about that.
04:11-04:13
Why is running so agonizing?
04:14-04:15
Why is the Christian life so hard?
04:15-04:16
Well, we saw that.
04:17-04:21
The Christian life is hard because God is disciplining you.
04:21-04:24
If you're his child, he disciplines you.
04:24-04:28
He's constantly training you to be more like Christ.
04:30-04:31
That's why it's hard.
04:35-04:38
All of your hardships are God's discipline.
04:38-04:39
We talked about that last week.
04:40-04:41
But you see, here's the danger.
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We can get in this mindset of this is my walk, and this is my race, and this is my faith, and these are my hardships.
04:53-04:57
But the truth is, none of these things are just about you.
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You're part of a community.
05:07-05:15
And in this passage, what we're going to see here today are the serious responsibilities that come with being part of a community.
05:18-05:20
Don't misunderstand me.
05:20-05:23
Yes, salvation is an individual transaction.
05:23-05:24
Yes, absolutely.
05:25-05:34
Your walk with Christ has to be about your personal faith in Christ, you believing that he died for you, you believing that he raised from the dead.
05:34-05:35
That has to be you.
05:35-05:39
But none of us are called into isolation.
05:40-05:47
And there's a real factor that your faith is being part of a larger community.
05:50-05:56
And right now, maybe some of you are overwhelmed And maybe some of you wanna quit running.
05:57-06:03
That life circumstances have you beat down, you're out of gas and you're like, you know what, I just wanna quit.
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I just wanna quit running.
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Well, I wanna tell you today that that's a terrible decision.
06:13-06:17
Because your run affects more than just you.
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That's what this passage is about.
06:20-06:24
So on your outline, just two points today.
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And you're going to discover them in the text with me, but why I can't quit running.
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Why I can't quit running.
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Number one, write this one down.
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Someone needs me to be an example.
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That's why I can't quit running.
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Though it's tempting, though it's hard, though it's agonizing, I can't just quit running because someone needs me to be an example.
06:53-06:54
Look at verses 12 through 14.
06:56-07:09
He says, "Therefore, lift your drooping hands "and strengthen your weak knees "and make straight paths for your feet "so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, "but rather be healed.
07:10-07:23
"Strive for peace with everyone "and for the holiness without which no one "will see the Lord." Okay, so he's obviously continuing the race metaphor, right?
07:23-07:31
So this drooping hands, weak knees, getting out of path, these are all signs of wearing out in a race.
07:32-07:37
And like I made abundantly clear, I don't run, but I used to.
07:40-07:46
And when you're running, the sign that you're wearing out is when you start to drop your hands.
07:47-07:50
You can't get your hands up to get the elbows pumped.
07:50-07:54
When you start to drop the hands, when your knees start to feel weak, you're wearing out.
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That's what he's talking about here.
07:56-07:59
And you see, he's like a coach.
08:01-08:03
He's telling the church, "Come on, you're getting tired, come on.
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Pick the arms up, get the legs moving, come on.
08:05-08:10
Don't stop, don't stop." He's the coach on the sideline, cheering them on.
08:10-08:11
Why?
08:11-08:12
Why keep running?
08:12-08:13
It's hard, I'm worn out.
08:14-08:14
Why?
08:14-08:16
He tells you why exactly here.
08:16-08:29
He says, "Because it's not just about you." It's so that the people around you who don't know Jesus are going to be encouraged to believe.
08:29-08:32
Like, where does it say that?
08:32-08:33
I want you to look again, look very closely here.
08:35-08:39
He says, "Lift your drooping hands, straighten your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet." Right?
08:41-08:42
The physical signs of wearing out.
08:42-08:43
But look at this next phrase.
08:44-09:01
He says, "So," this is why, "He says, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." You're like, what does that mean, what is lame?
09:01-09:06
Well, understand the book of Hebrews was written to who?
09:08-09:10
Not a trick question, yes, Hebrews.
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It was written to Jews, all right?
09:13-09:25
And you know, in cultures, there's figures of speech that are used and references that are made that people are gonna understand that maybe people outside of that culture don't understand.
09:25-09:27
And that's kind of what's happening here.
09:28-09:32
Because this figure of speech that he's using, what is lame?
09:33-09:36
The Jews would have known exactly what he was talking about.
09:36-09:38
So we sort of have to catch up.
09:39-09:42
This figure of speech takes us back to Elijah's day.
09:43-09:44
Remember Elijah?
09:45-09:48
And in Elijah's day, people were waffling.
09:49-09:51
Should I worship the Lord God, the living God?
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Should I worship him or should I worship Baal?
09:55-09:56
And they were sort of on the fence.
09:56-10:00
Look at what Elijah said in 1 Kings 18.21.
10:01-10:13
And it says, "And Elijah came near to all the people "and said, 'How long will you go limping between two different opinions.
10:15-10:16
You see that literally.
10:19-10:24
It's translated this way, Elijah was saying, how long are you going to be lame on both of your hands?
10:25-10:27
You're like, hams.
10:29-10:31
He's talking about the back of your thighs.
10:33-10:35
To paraphrase, he said, how long are you going to be lame?
10:36-10:37
How long are you just going to sit around?
10:40-10:41
And not make a decision.
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That's what he's saying.
10:43-10:46
"Oh, some days we worship God, some days we worship Baal, I'm not really sure.
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What religion that I'm..." Elijah's like, "How much longer are you gonna do that and sit around and not make a decision?
10:55-11:12
How long will you go lame on both your hams?" And what the Hebrew writer here is saying to these Jews, he's saying, "You have such lame people in your church." And he's saying, don't let them get out of joint.
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He says, instead, let them be healed, be healed, what do you think that means?
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Pretty obvious, isn't it?
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It's coming to Christ.
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Right, in other words, don't let them go to bail.
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You need to make sure they come to Christ, you need to make sure they come for healing, spiritual healing.
11:39-11:41
So in other words, these verses, here's what he's saying.
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He goes, you get more not in your race, get moving.
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There are people on the fence about coming to faith in Jesus and they're watching you.
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That's what he's saying.
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And church, this is convicting.
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This is something the Lord's still teaching me.
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And I hope he's teaching you too.
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But listen, people who don't know Jesus, are never going to see him as victorious if you always act defeated.
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You're sending a mixed message with your words and with your actions.
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Church, we are terrible at this in general.
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Sending the mixed message.
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You know, we're the kind of people that we come in here We're like, "God is sovereign, right?
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God rules over all." And then we turn around and we say, "My life stinks." Well, isn't God sovereign?
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If God's so sovereign, how can you turn around and say your life is so horrible?
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Do you see the problem?
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You know, we come in here and we sing, "Jesus is victorious." And then as soon as church is over, we're like, I hate everything.
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Really?
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You know, one of your best witnesses for Christ is, do you know what it is?
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This is straight from the word of God.
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It's not even something you do, it's something you stop doing.
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One of your best witnesses for Christ is not complaining.
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Did you know that?
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I have to throw this in here.
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Philippians 2.
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Look at Philippians 2.
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It says, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing." AKA complaining.
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He goes, "Do all things without complaining." Why?
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Well, first of all, nobody likes a whiner, but here's what God says.
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He says that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish.
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Here it is, do you see this?
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In the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, you are supposed to shine.
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And you're not shining when you're complaining.
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They need you.
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These people that are on the fence, and again, he's speaking specifically in the church, there are people sitting in this room right now that don't know Christ.
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And there are people that are watching this stream right now that don't know Christ.
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And they're watching.
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They're watching.
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They need you to show them the joy of the transformed life.
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They're asking, is God worth following?
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Is Jesus Christ really worthy of everything?
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People are evaluating the gospel message on the way that you run.
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Does that matter to you?
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(congregation laughing)
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Because evangelism, yes, it's sharing the word of God.
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Evangelism is communicating the gospel.
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But that's more than just passing a note.
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Say, "Oh, you don't know Jesus?
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"Well, here, just read this." People need to see it.
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And that's what he's saying here.
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People are considering, these lame people on their hams are considering following Jesus because of you, or they are considering staying away from Jesus because of you.
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That's convicted.
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Ask yourself this, what if you were the only Christian that somebody met?
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Just think about that.
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You were the only Christians.
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What would their takeaway be regarding Christianity?
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So he says, "Look, church, there's people on the fence, "and God says your example is going to determine "on what side they'll fall.
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"So keep running, keep running.
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"People need you to be an example, all right?
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"Well, I can't quit running, number two, Because someone needs me to challenge their walk with Christ.
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Someone needs me to be an example, and someone needs me to challenge their walk with Christ.
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Pick up in verse 15, he says, "See to it." Underline that.
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Like, I don't really underline in my Bible.
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Underline that.
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If your neighbor's not underlining it now, reach over and underline it in their Bible.
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They'll thank you.
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Now, this is important, because it's a command.
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And the text hangs on this.
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Look at this, "See to it "that no one fails to obtain the grace of God." Let that sink in for a second.
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See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.
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That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.
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And by it, many become defiled.
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That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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"For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." Okay, verse 15, "See to it." You know that's the same Greek word for elder, like in the church, pastor, shepherd, overseer, it's the same word.
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He goes, "You need to be an overseer in the church.
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You need to be on the lookout, watching over people in the church.
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This is a command.
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You need to be seeing to something in the church.
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It's a command.
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You're like, okay, see to what?
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He tells you, see that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.
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In other words, he's saying you need to be concerned about the soul of others.
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Go after them.
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Go after them.
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You know, especially in our culture, so much of church growth is about filling seats.
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And look, it's awesome to have goals, yay, party on.
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But I've talked to pastors that are like, here's my plan for the church.
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We wanna have 200 people in two months.
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And then by November, we wanna have 400 people.
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And it's all this numbers driven thing.
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but the great commission is not about filling seats.
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What's the great commission about?
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Making disciples.
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And that's what he's talking about here.
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He's saying you need to go after the people in your church who obviously are not following Jesus.
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Go after them.
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Like, well, how do I know?
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You know, a tree buys fruit, right?
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And I'm not saying let's be the judgy church, but come on.
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When you talk to people and see, you know, how they're spending their time, the things they talk about, the type of language that they use, you know, their lack of understanding or interest in the word of God, that should be really obvious.
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Where's your discernment?
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And look, we can't be afraid to lovingly confront.
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See, there's the rub.
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Because as soon as you say, I know some people right now are thinking, oh, that's so judgy.
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It doesn't have to be judgy, all right?
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It doesn't have to be judgy to go to lunch with someone and say, hey, talk to me about your walk with Christ.
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Is that judgy?
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Because we're commanded to see to it in the church that no one here is failing to obtain the grace of God.
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He explains further.
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He says, "No root of bitterness." No root of bitterness.
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Again, this is another phrase for fence sitters, just like the previous passage, the limp.
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The root of bitterness means the same thing.
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Again, this was written to Jews who would have known their Old Testament.
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And when they heard root of bitterness, they would have known exactly what that meant.
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Comes from Deuteronomy 29, 18.
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It says, "Beware lest there be," look at this, "Among you, a man or woman or clan or tribe "whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God "to go and serve the gods of those nations." Do you see that?
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Fence-sitters, God versus Baal, do you see that?
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He says, "Beware lest there be among you "a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruits." So this root of bitterness, again, it's the fence-sitters.
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In the Old Testament, he's saying, in Israel, you're gonna have people that are among you that don't really know the Lord and are gonna be tempted to go back to paganism.
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And it's the same principle in the church.
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There's people sitting here among us who don't really know the Lord and are gonna be tempted to go back to living a worldly lifestyle.
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And you have to address them.
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You can't let the worldly church goers go ignored because, do you see this?
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He says, if I get on the right page here, he says, "No root of bitterness springs up "and causes trouble and by it many become defiled." You see the problem.
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It infects others.
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You see, you have someone in the church that doesn't know the Lord, worldly living, and we don't lovingly challenge them on their walk with Christ, that starts to infect other people, other people that are on the fence.
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Oh, holiness doesn't really matter.
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Seeking Jesus doesn't really matter.
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Bible study doesn't really matter.
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And we start infecting other people, pulling more people to the wrong side of the fence.
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And soon, soon the church is full of worldly people.
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And all the church's energy and time and money and efforts and attention goes to worldly activities.
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I just, it's, I gotta tell you, it's heartbreaking as a pastor when I see churches doing things that have nothing to do with the Great Commission.
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because I know that the church didn't start out that way.
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The church didn't start out with, hey guys, let's get a group together and go after these worldly activities and we'll put up our rainbow flags and we'll go after social justice and we'll be woke.
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Churches don't start that way.
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They start with this love for the Lord and love for the gospel and advancing the kingdom and great commission and a root of bitterness, unchecked, spreading, turning the church worldly.
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We're seeing the fruit of that, people.
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We're seeing the fruit of that.
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Not concerned about evangelism and discipleship.
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Gotta be woke.
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catering to rainbow flags and social justice.
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And before you know it, guess what?
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You don't have a church.
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You have a group of people that meet in a building that used to be called a church, but that's not a church.
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He's talking about going after people like Esau.
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Quick review, Esau, Genesis 25.
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Remember, Father Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had twin boys, Jacob and Esau.
24:59-25:06
And Esau was the first born, technically, but he was profane.
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That means Esau, we see in his life, had no interest in God.
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He just wasn't interested in God.
25:15-25:17
Now, we've talked about Jacob before.
25:17-25:18
I mean, Jacob was a deceiver.
25:21-25:27
And there's not much you can read about Jacob that looked like great qualities to emulate.
25:27-25:30
But Jacob had this going for him.
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He saw the value in God's promises.
25:34-25:35
He at least had that.
25:38-25:46
Well, the story he's referencing here in Hebrews, some of you maybe are familiar with the story, but go back to what is it, Genesis 25.
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Jacob was cooking, Esau came in from hunting.
25:49-25:52
I'm paraphrasing, you can look it up, get the full story.
25:52-26:02
But Esau came in from hunting, And he's like, "I'm exhausted." And Jacob was cooking this red stew.
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Doesn't that sound good?
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You're gonna go out after church, boys and girls, and get some red stew?
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Well, Esau comes in, he's like, "I'm starving." And Jacob's like, "All right, I'll trade you.
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"I'll give you a bowl of red stew for your birthright." And Esau was like, "Whatever, take it." What Esau did, you see, he sacrificed his future on the altar of the immediate.
26:45-26:49
Esau lived his life only being concerned about the here and now.
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That's why Hebrews here talks about Him being sexually immoral.
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That's how a sexually immoral person lives.
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I only care about what feels good in the moment.
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Just here and now, not thinking about the future, what's going to make me happy right this minute.
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That's why Genesis 25, 34 says, "Thus Esau despised his birthright." The point, there's people in the church like Esau.
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They're like, you know what, when it all boils down to it, the things of God don't really mean anything to me.
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Not really that interested.
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Now, verse 17 here, I've heard a lot of sermons and teachings on this.
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It says, "Afterward, when he desired "to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, "For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." And a lot of people teach this passage as if Esau wanted to repent in his heart, but he was forbidden in his heart to repent.
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His heart was just completely unable to repent.
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And that's not really what this is saying.
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If you go back and read the actual account, Genesis 27 now, long story short, Esau was seeking his father's repentance.
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Esau went back to Isaac and was like, "Please, please change your mind." And Isaac said, "It's too late." That's what this is talking about.
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He was seeking repentance, but he couldn't get it.
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It was too late.
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That's why Esau wept.
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His dad wouldn't change his mind, it was too late.
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And church, we get Esau's in here, just concerned about the here and now, no real interest in God, no real interest in his promises, and the day will come for them, like Esau, that they will forfeit God's promise, and it's going to be too late for them.
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And like Esau, it's not going to end well for them.
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And that's on us because we never went after them.
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We never challenged them to truly come to Christ.
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We never truly sat down with them and let's have a heart to heart.
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Where are you at with the Lord?
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Do you understand what God's word says?
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We don't care.
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And that's what he's saying here.
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Go after them.
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Because the Esau's in your church, it's not gonna go well for them either.
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And you're like, man, pastor, I'm sorry, man, that just doesn't sound loving.
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That just doesn't sound loving to challenge somebody like that.
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Imagine this scenario.
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Imagine you're at home and you go out on your porch, your deck, your patio, whatever you got in front of your house.
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And you look across your neighbor's house and his house is on fire.
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And you can see in his picture window that he's on his recliner sleeping.
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So let me ask you, What's the most loving thing you can do in that scenario?
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Would you just shrug your shoulders and say, "You know what?
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"I don't wanna seem judgy.
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"I don't wanna force my beliefs on him "about fire and structural damage "and what could happen to him "if the house falls on top of him ablaze.
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"I don't want him to think that I'm some kind of like fire marshal, holy roller Alex.
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I don't want him to think that about me.
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So I'm just live and let live.
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That's what, you know what?
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That's just always in my heart of hearts of hearts.
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That's what I've always believed.
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Just live it.
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Is that the most loving thing you can do?
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I'll tell you what the most loving thing you could do in that scenario is, is to stomp their door in and go in there and grab them by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants and throw them out of that house.
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That's the most loving thing that you can do.
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And church, that's why he's telling us here, we have a responsibility to each other.
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See to it, he says, that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.
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You have that responsibility to say, look, if someone here is going to hell, they're going to have to walk over me, all right?
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We have that responsibility, church.
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So are you getting tired?
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Are you feeling overwhelmed?
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Are your arms starting to drop on your run?
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Well, he's saying, look, quitting's not an option.
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And I just wanna challenge you, church, if right now you can't feel motivated to keep running for yourself, Can you be motivated to run for the sake of someone else?
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Because you're an example and the people that are on the fence are never gonna get shaken from their stupor if you don't challenge them.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, We live in such a isolated and insulated mindset right now in our culture.
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But you don't change.
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You have called us to be a part of a community, a community that challenges one another, a community that cheers one another on, it's a community that encourages one another to pursue Christ, to love you with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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And Father, so often in the church, we have people among us that are like Esau and we just don't care.
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But I pray, Father, you would give us the love and the grace to go after such people.
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to be obedient to your word, that even though we're tired, even though we don't feel like running, that's not just about us.
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You've made it clear in your word here that our run affects other people.
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So Father, I pray by the wisdom of your word, by the power of your spirit, that you would strengthen us, that we would pick up our arms, that our legs would get strong, that we get back on our path, and we would run in a way that glorifies the name of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 12:12-17
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What kind of example are you displaying on what it looks like to follow Jesus? Specifically, how much are you a complainer? What does complaining have to do with our witness? Read Philippians 2:14-15.
You know someone in the church that is a “church-goer”, but there seems to be no fruit in their lives that they are born again. How exactly do you lovingly challenge them on this, fulfilling Hebrews 12:15?
Breakout
Pray for one another to be going after those in the church who haven’t come to Christ.