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We're looking through Hebrews 12 together, this is day two. We're going to look
again at verses 1 to 4, some different parts of that verse. They sort of hang
together with these four ways that you and I can run with endurance.

Let me read again the verses to begin today. 1 to 4, "Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that
hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning at shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart. When you're struggling against sin, you have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Yesterday we talked about the
first two things you and I can do from these verses to run the race that God has
for us with endurance.

First, be pure. Be pure. There are some things to let go of.

There's some sin that entangles, and you've got to throw those things off. Be
pure. Second, be ambitious.

Be ambitious to run the race that God has set out for you. Not someone else's
race, God's race for you. Be pure.

Be ambitious. Be Christ-focused. Be Christ-focused.

In order to run the race well, run the race with endurance, you have to ask
yourself, what is it that's getting my attention? What's getting my attention?
And when you're looking for strength to endure, it's very tempting to look in
the wrong direction.

You look back. You look to the past. Maybe I can draw out of it some strength to
endure.

Or you look ahead. You look to the future. Maybe I can draw out of it the day my
goals will be achieved, some strength to endure.

Or you look within. Maybe there's some strength within myself that will give me
the strength to endure. Or you look without.

You look at the people that are around you. Maybe they'll give me all that I
need to have strength to endure. And you can find some encouragement in all
those places, but none of them will result in lasting endurance.

They might give you a momentary boost, but that's not where you look for lasting
endurance. Where do you look for lasting endurance? You fix your eyes on Jesus.

You look at Jesus. In fact, fix your eyes on Jesus. Not just a glance, but this
idea of fixing your eyes is the idea of focused attention.

Focused attention on Jesus. Not just knowing he's there, like in your peripheral
vision, spiritual vision. Some of us have peripheral spiritual vision.

We sort of know he's there, but he's not really who we're looking at. No, you
bring him into your focus. When you get on a plane, they get up and they give
warnings about what to do in case the plane goes down.

Here's what to do about your seatbelt. Here's what to do about the flotation
device. And most people don't listen.

We don't fix our eyes on that, but if something happened to the plane and the
flight attendant got up and said, "This plane may crash. Let me tell you those
things one more time. " You would fix your attention in that moment, because you
know this is what I need to live.

I fix my eyes on Jesus when I realize he's the one I need to live. Fix your
eyes. Focus upon this scripture says, "The author and perfecter of your faith.

" The author, he started your faith. The perfecter, he will finish your faith.
He knows how to get things started in your life.

He's an expert at finishing well in your life. Focus on the author and
perfecter. Focus these verses say, "On the one who endured the cross.

" And did you notice, "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. " One
of my favorite sentences, phrases in scripture. Jesus endured the cross, not
just for the sake of enduring, but for the sake of the joy of knowing you would
be in eternity with him.

For the sake of the joy of knowing he would be forgiving your sins as you
accepted that gift. The cross, the most excruciating of punishments of death
sentences. It was also, if you don't realize it, it was also one of the most
humiliating of death sentences.

The higher ups in society would not be put on a cross. They would be killed in
some other way. It was only the lowest of low, it was only the lowest of
criminals who would be put on a cross and ridiculed in this kind of way.

And Jesus was treated in this way. Public humiliation. But the Bible says here,
Jesus scorned the shame.

He's despised the shame is another way to say that phrase. He didn't care about
the shame because he knew about the joy. You focus on the one who endured the
cross.

Jesus didn't rejoice in the cross. He rejoiced in what it would mean. He looked
beyond the cross to your salvation, to our salvation.

Faith helps us to understand suffering, not to enjoy it. Faith helps us to see
beyond the suffering to what God's doing through it. So you focus on the one who
endured the cross.

You focus on the author and perfecter of our faith. You fixer your eyes on
Jesus. This phrase also, you focus on the one who's sitting at God's right hand.

Remember, we're coming across this again and again through the book of Hebrews.
Here's Jesus sitting at God's right hand. He is in control.

God is in control. And so these verses say consider him, consider him who
endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart. When you consider him, when you fix your eyes on Jesus, it affects your
endurance in two powerful ways.

You don't grow weary. You get outer strength. You get the physical strength to
go one more day and you don't lose heart.

You get the inner strength you need, the emotional strength, the spiritual
strength to keep trusting in him. Consider him. When I fix my eyes on Jesus,
endurance means I think about Jesus every day of my life.

Even more than that, every moment, every hour, when I fix my eyes on Jesus, I
have the strength to endure. And there's a final thing you and I have to do to
have the strength to endure and that is be encouraged. Be encouraged.

And one of the ways to be encouraged is to be around encouraging people.
Endurance means I choose to surround myself with examples and encouragers in my
life, people who will encourage me. So now this is the fourth of those things
that you and I can do to run with endurance.

We need to be pure. We need to be ambitious. We need to be Christ-focused.

And we need to be encouraged. And if you like acrostics, pure, P, A, ambitious,
C, Christ-focused, and E, encouraged, spells pace. It's an easy way to remember
the four things you and I need to do.

We need examples and encouragers to live with endurance. Now you may think, I
don't have any examples and encouragers, but these verses tell us, yes you do.
The Bible is filled with them.

Hebrews chapter 11 talked about them and then Hebrews 12 begins by saying,
"Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, not just people who
lived in the past, but witnesses of what we're doing now. " This cloud of
witnesses in Hebrews 12 is the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And the
picture here, in fact, Living Bible translates this as, "Since there are so many
great saints from the past who are now watching us from the grandstands, they're
witnessing this life of faith that you're living.

" This picture, if you can get this picture in your mind, of the Olympic heroes
from the past of faith, and now you're running in the Olympics of faith. And you
look up in the crowd and you see this incredible crowd cheering you on in your
faith. Now in the real Olympics, if someone were a javelin thrower, they might
look up in the crowd and see a javelin thrower from the past who'd been a hero,
a champion.

Mile runners would see someone who'd been a mile runner and be encouraged by
that person. Those heroes would have a real heart for the particular events that
they were watching at that moment. You're particularly cheering those people on.

And I think about that with the past. And I think about those people who are
cheering you on right now. When you stumble and fall, when you're tripped up by
sin, I can almost sense King David, who was tripped up by sin with Bathsheba,
standing up in the crowd and saying, "Get up.

Keep running. God still has a purpose and plan for your life. " When you give
sacrificially, not totally knowing why you made that step of faith, but God
prompted you to give and you did it, Abel stands up and says, "No matter what
the cost, it is worth the sacrifice.

" When you run away from God's will, when you do your own thing and you have
your own schemes for far too long in life, Jacob stands up in the crowd and
keeps cheering you on and saying, "God still has a plan for your life. You keep
wrestling with God. Don't stop wrestling because He's going to win out in the
end.

" When you try to do it your way, figure out God's plan your way, there's
Abraham standing up encouraging you that God has a way and His way is going to
win out in the end if you keep trusting in Him. When you feel all alone, there's
Noah standing up in the crowd reminding you that hundred years span where he
felt all alone building the ark, God was with him. God will be with you.

When you put your foot in your mouth, there's Peter standing up in the crowd
saying, "I know about that one. I know about that one. " But Jesus will keep
using you even though you put your foot in your mouth sometimes.

When you walk with God, when you have a day of sensing His presence, there's
Enoch encouraging you with joy. When you feel like you're on the shelf, God's
done with you, Moses encourages you, "I felt that way. God wasn't done with me.

" When the job seems too big for you, Moses keeps encouraging you, "I felt that
way. God still used me. " When you're facing a devastating blow to God's plan in
your life, Moses says, "I was at the Red Sea.

" God's still going to have a plan for your life. When you laugh at the
impossibility of God's will, there's Abraham once again, been there, done that.
That doesn't mean God's will stops working in your life.

When you have problems with your family, there's Joseph standing up thinking,
saying, "I had problems with my family. They meant it for bad, but God can
miraculously use it for good. " I could go on and on and on.

There are people of faith from the past who are cheering you on right now in
this race that God has set out for you. Let's pray together. Our Father, help us
to hear in our heart now through Your Word these encouragements from the past.

Those who ran this life of faith, who endured, they weren't perfect, but they
endured. They struggled, they stumbled sometimes, but they endured. And Lord, we
want to endure.

We want to live that kind of life. So I pray that we'd hear encouragement in
them. And I pray in that encouragement and in fixing our eyes on Jesus that You
would give us the strength we need today to live the life of faith that You have
for us today, to run the race that You have for us today.

We ask for this strength, in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to see
together how God disciplines those He loves.