Well, we are thankful that we can gather again this year. And I would like for us to turn. I have been speaking through translators so much that I start to speak and just automatically pause, but I will get back to normal English here in a minute.
I would like for us to turn and read some verses to start. These are our theme verses, beginning in Hebrews 10:32-39.
But remember the former days,
when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,
partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations,
partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated;
for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property,
knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
For you have need of endurance,
so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
And yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come and will not delay.
But My righteous one shall live by faith;
and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Now, one verse from Hebrews 11:27:
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.
And then finally, from Hebrews 12:1-3—the precious testimony of our Lord:
Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,
so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we have already expressed our worship and adoration unto You. Lord, the privilege we have of being together in Your presence—we find ourselves trying many different ways, through many different words, to express it. But we come with grateful hearts unto You.
Because, Lord, we know that all of our springs of joy are found in You. They are not found anywhere else. And we come tonight, Lord, putting aside everything that would distract us and really turning our eyes upon You.
Lord, we are thankful how You have made every provision for us in Christ Jesus. We are thankful, Lord, that by faith we can stand in that provision. We are thankful that we can declare that Jesus Christ is Lord over this time.
We are thankful that, Lord, we come with an expectancy, knowing that You want to do above and beyond what we would even ask or think. Lord, we want to be those who are sitting at Your feet. We want to be those who really have an ear to hear what You are saying.
And we would say, “Speak, Lord, Thy servants are listening.” In Thy wonderful name we pray. Amen.
You know, as we come to this time, I think it is always good to start and remind ourselves why we are here. We are thankful for the many years we have been gathering together.
And we gather together with the desire that the testimony of the Lord in the last days would be strengthened; that we, as His people, both individually and as living stones being built together, could find that encouragement and strength in the Lord to press on when we find many things pressing against us.
We know how the Lord is yearning and seeking for a people prepared to hasten His return. And it is a desire within our hearts that we would be found as those people, hastening His return.
As we come to this conference, I was reminded of a verse from Ephesians 4, because this is really the purpose of the conference. The conference itself is not an end; the conference is a means to an end.
In Ephesians 4:12, it speaks of the work of God: “for the equipping of the saints.” We are here, brothers and sisters, for an equipping—for the Holy Spirit to do a great work of equipping us, equipping us for a work of service.
Not for ourselves alone, but for that work of service in the building up of the body of Christ, that there would be a glorious testimony unto Him in this last hour. Brethren, that is why we are here.
We have been gathering together for many years with a heart and a desire for Him. And as we said, this conference is not an end, but it is a means toward His end. And what is that end? His end is His eternal purpose.
As we have been meeting together for many years, the thought of having God’s eternal purpose put before us every year has been an ever-recurring theme. We are thankful for the vast and many ways the Lord has spoken to us.
As we gather again this year, we are gathering with a desire to catch a fresh glimpse of His great eternal purpose—the call He has upon us. And there is another desire we have also: we have a desire that this will be the last conference.
May our Lord soon come. May He call us unto Himself, and may there not be another conference. But as long as the Lord tarries, we are so grateful that we have this privilege of gathering together as a testimony unto Him, coming with open hearts to sit at His feet and allow Him to speak to us.
As you have looked at your handbook, and as it has been shared, the theme of this conference this year is: “You have need of endurance.”
Well, how did we get there? How did we come up with “You have need of endurance”? I am not going to put anybody on the spot, but who remembers the theme of the conference three years ago, in 2014?
“Behold, I come quickly.” And “Behold, I come quickly” is because the time is at hand, and He is calling a people to be ready.
After that, the following year, in 2015, we had the theme, “Stewards of the Mystery,” because stewards are those who are ready. And what is required of a steward is that he be faithful. The Lord is looking for ones to be faithful.
The precious thing I was reminded of is the steward of Abraham. As you look at Eliezer, he was faithful to his master, but he was also faithful to the next generation. Eliezer was faithful to Abraham, but he also ensured that the testimony was passed on to Isaac, and that Isaac entered into that.
And this is why, as we came together last year, we had this thought of passing the torch of the testimony: that, as long as the Lord would tarry, that torch of the testimony would be maintained, strengthened, and passed on by faithful stewards, because He is coming quickly.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is doing one great work in this hour. There are many things going on out there that make us say, “Lord, what are You really doing?” It can look like He is failing.
But we are here as a testimony of our Lord doing a great work. Jared mentioned Nehemiah. Nehemiah looked upon that little wall he was building, and those who were trying to tempt him to come down. He said, “Oh no, I am not coming down there. I am doing a great work.”
The eyes of our hearts have been opened to see that we are doing a great work in this last hour, brothers and sisters. And because of that, that is how this theme came about: because we see that we have need of endurance.
But why do we have need of endurance? Is it just that we can be enduring? No. If we keep reading that verse from Hebrews 10, it says:
You have need of endurance,
so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
There is an end in view. If we do not have that end in view, there is no way we can endure. But as we have that end in view, brothers and sisters, we will be those who are pressing on.
We will be able to do the will of God even during difficult times, because we know there is that promise—the precious promise of His return, the promise of Him establishing a kingdom, the promise of that eternal glory with Him.
Brothers and sisters, we have great, precious, magnificent promises before us. Let us not shrink back, but let us be those who are really pressing on.
As we come together this week, may the Lord use this theme, as our various brothers share, to draw this out in fullness, that we would see its relevance in the hour in which we are living.
This is not a theological week. This is not an academic study. But this week, we could use the term: this is an encounter with the living God.
And as we have an encounter with the living God, this matter of having need of endurance will touch our hearts and grip us in a very fresh way.
Now, as we are together tonight, I have three questions for us—pretty simple questions:
But before we get into that, let us look at the setting for the book of Hebrews.
As we look at this letter that was written to those dear ones among the Hebrews, why was it written? It was written because these dear ones, who had once been enlightened and had once had a real encounter and experience with the Lord, were starting to drift and shrink back because of difficult times.
Now, the times were difficult. Nobody will argue that. Christianity was under persecution. It was right before Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. There was a great shaking going on. Many believers had already been dispersed.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy, when he speaks of the house of God, and tragically describes it as a large house full of vessels of honor and also vessels of dishonor. The church was in a weakened condition at this time.
Paul and Peter had probably already been martyred by the time this letter was written, and many false teachers and prophets were arising. There was a shaking going on, and there was a great need for a word of encouragement.
Because the Lord, in His great love, saw how ones were starting to shrink back—starting to withdraw and become discouraged from their original calling—He raised up one who wrote this letter to the Hebrews in the spirit of encouraging them.
All throughout this letter, the writer to the Hebrews—I personally think it was Joseph—the writer was always encouraging ones over and over again, bringing them back to the Lord.
And this is what we desire as we are here this week. We want to be those who are encouraged and who have that desire to really press on.
We have to remember that these ones to whom this letter was written had a strong history with the Lord. These were not new believers. These were ones who had been walking and who had been faithful. They had been enlightened. They had received spiritual light.
When we speak of enlightenment, it is the eyes of our hearts being opened, like Paul prayed in Ephesians 1. I will just read that familiar verse. In Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays for the eyes of the heart to be enlightened, that they might know the reality of the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
This being enlightened is far more than just mental knowledge. It is more than just a teaching. There is a reality associated with it.
These ones who had at one time been enlightened had what we call spiritual sight. They saw the Lord in a living way. It impacted their lives. But they were starting to lose that sight, that vision of the Lord.
We see this characterized greatly in the letter to the church in Laodicea. Out of a heart of love, the Lord pens this letter to these dear ones, and He is penning it to us today.
Twice in the letter to the Hebrews, he says, “You have been enlightened.” He reminds them of what they had experienced—the reality of their experience.
Turn back to Hebrews 6. Part of this chapter, I know, is everybody’s favorite chapter. We love to skip over this part, but I am not even going to touch it. Let us look at Hebrews 6:4-5 and see how the Lord describes the impact of being enlightened—of seeing the Lord, of seeing Jesus Christ in a very personal and real way.
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of God
and the powers of the age to come.
That is their experience, brothers and sisters. Look at that. They had tasted of that heavenly gift. They could taste the reality of it in their mouths. They had been partakers of the Holy Spirit. There was a reality of the Spirit of God living, moving, and working among them.
And they tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. They saw the great power of all that God was doing. And yet they were shrinking back. So he was bringing these things before them to remind them to press on.
Just like we read in Hebrews 10:32, he recalls them to remember when they were enlightened. This word remember is not just a casual remembering. It is putting it before your mind, rolling it over, counting those things one by one.
There is an old hymn some of us would sing: “Count your blessings, name them one by one; see the many things that God has done.” That is the spirit of this remembering. It is to stop and consider—not a casual passing remembrance, but an intensity of really remembering all that God has done and how He impacted your life.
You did not care about all the suffering. You did not care about what was taken away from you. You stood with your brothers and sisters when they were going through difficult times. You did not care what it cost you; you came alongside them.
But now, you are starting to shrink back. This reality that had transformed your life, this reality that had captured you—you are no longer pressing on.
But what had changed? What had changed? It is very simple: their perspective had changed.
They were looking at the circumstances of life instead of the Lord. And when we start looking at the circumstances of life, it is depressing.
But as we see all through Hebrews, the writer has one way of encouraging these dear ones, and he has one way of encouraging us: he brings us back to our Lord Jesus.
The writer to the Hebrews encourages us in the Lord, bringing us back to Him so many times that it is almost exhaustive to go through them all. But I picked a few. I am leaving out more than I am including, but I want to emphasize the point: over and over again, he is saying, “You are shrinking back. You are losing sight. Come back. See Him.”
He begins the letter in Hebrews 1:1-2:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the world.
He has spoken to you. He has spoken to me. He has spoken to every one of us in His Son. He has given us that word. And praise God for that, that we can take that word and allow it to impact us.
These ones in Hebrews had received that word, and it had transformed their lives. But now they were getting their eyes off of Him.
Hebrews 2:9 says:
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus,
because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,
so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
Whatever we are going through, He has already tasted that death for us. There is a sufficiency in Him.
Hebrews 3:1 says:
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
Consider Jesus. Focus. Get back to Him.
We can go on to Hebrews 4:14:
Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
We have a good confession, brothers and sisters. Let us not let it slip away. Let us hold fast to the true confession of Jesus Christ being Lord—not only with our tongues, but with our very lives.
This is the writer to the Hebrews, and this is what he is encouraging. We could go on and on. Then, in chapter 12, we read about fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Praise God. The writer to the Hebrews has one answer to these dear ones, and it is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He not only focuses upon the Person of our Lord, but he focuses upon the work of the Lord—all that He has done.
He talks about so great a salvation; how He is bringing many sons to glory; how He is faithful in His house; how He has given us that Sabbath rest; how He has given us a better hope, a better testament, a better covenant, a better promise—on and on, all those better things—the better sacrifice. There is a better country ahead.
Brothers and sisters, there is a fullness in all that the Lord has done for us. When it captures our hearts, we cannot help but allow that Spirit to work, move us, and bring us back to that reality of being enlightened and walking in Him as we did when we first saw Him.
This was the word of God to the Hebrews in the days they were living in, when the church was in a weakened condition. And brothers and sisters, as we find ourselves living in a time when the testimony of God is in a weakened condition, this letter and this word become very relevant to us.
May the Lord really work within our hearts and lives. The Lord always has one answer in times of declension, and it is His Son.
If you look throughout Scripture, you see that at the end of the New Testament He has one answer: His Son. Paul concludes in 2 Timothy, when he is telling about that large house, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
How does the apostle John conclude in that last letter, that prophecy of Revelation? What is that prophecy of Revelation? It is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we try to make things so complicated, but the Lord has a very simple way of recovering, restoring, and refreshing us in this hour: getting the eyes of our hearts back upon our Lord Jesus.
This is the need we have in this hour: in a very fresh way, to see our Lord Jesus Christ and allow the eyes of our hearts to be refreshed in a new and wonderful way.
Brothers and sisters, we have been blessed with so much teaching, with the riches of all that we have. But we must not allow teaching and knowledge to be substituted for life.
It is the life of our Lord that He is jealous for. It is the life of our Lord that we are here this week to encounter. It is the life of the Lord that we want to look unto and allow Him to do that great work of transforming us and conforming us to His image.
It is giving our Lord Jesus Christ His rightful place in our individual lives and in our lives together, as He is building us as living stones, as a testimony unto Him.
I was reminded of the apostle John when he saw the Lord. When he had this encounter, he fell at His feet as dead.
And the question came to my heart: When was the last time I had such an encounter with the Lord that I fell down as dead? When was the last time the Lord touched me in such a way that I was on my knees?
Now, I am not looking for an experience. That is not the issue. The issue is our heart attitude: really being touched and gripped by Him in a way that we allow Him to move, transform us, and make us the testimony He is calling us to be.
Now, the first question. All right, does anybody out there have a glass of water? Anyone? I have need of endurance, but I also need water.
All right. The first question was: What really is endurance? Now, when you heard this theme—“You have need of endurance”—what did you think of?
I have generally heard two responses to this theme. You have one camp that says, “I know I have not been as diligent as I should have been, but after this conference I am going to commit myself. I am going to try harder. I am going to be a better Christian. I am going to suck it up. I am going to grit my teeth. I am going to bear it out. I can do it. I just need to try harder.”
Then the other side says, “There is no way I can do this. This life is so hard. There is no way I can do it. There are so many things that distract me. There are so many things that overwhelm me. I just give up.”
How did the theme verse hit you? Is it as though God is looking at you and saying, “You have need of endurance”?
No, brethren. Let me rephrase the theme for a minute. Instead of “You have need of endurance,” I am going to change the theme of the conference. Let us simply say: You have need of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You have need of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we need. And that puts a whole different perspective on it. That revolutionizes things.
Because the Lord is not looking for us to change ourselves. It is being able to see Him in a fresh way. It is a heart issue, brothers and sisters.
The Lord does not have us here to strengthen ourselves. He is not looking to us to become stronger in ourselves. Actually, the weaker we are, the more His strength is perfected. Praise God for that.
Because many of us, one of our greatest challenges in our Christian life, is that we try to be too good. We try so hard at being a Christian that we make such a mess of it.
But our Lord is saying, “Look at My Son. Behold Me.” Really, it is allowing the One who has endured to live out His life in us and through us.
He is the One who has endured. And brothers and sisters, He is continuing to endure. He is enduring until that Bride makes herself ready.
Praise God for that. That is the life we have within us. We have this enduring One living within us, and He is so for us. He just wants to break out and rule within our lives and lead us into a fuller experience of the reality of Who He is.
Now, when we look at this word endurance, it is definition time. You have probably noticed in your various translations that, depending on your translation, this word is sometimes rendered endurance, sometimes steadfastness, and sometimes patience.
But if you look at the original Greek definition and what Vine’s has for this word, it means to abide under during that difficult time—to bear up courageously under suffering.
To abide under during that difficult time: not trying to get out of it, not trying to escape. And also to bear up courageously under that suffering.
It is abiding and remaining under until God accomplishes His purpose. That is what He is after when we are talking about enduring.
We are so thankful that our Lord, as we look to Him, was One who endured.
Now, I do want to clarify one thing. When we talk about enduring here, we are not talking about enduring the effects of our sin. We have a lot of sin; we have a lot of problems. We are not talking about enduring that.
We are not talking about enduring the consequences of wrong decisions we make in ourselves. Peter, as he talked about the various sufferings of life, says it is far better if we suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong.
If you do something wrong, you are going to suffer. But it is that suffering for doing what is right—that suffering when God has captured you with His heart and His purpose, and there is a willingness to suffer and go through that for His name’s sake and for the testimony’s sake. That is what He is after.
When the writer of Hebrews speaks of enduring for God’s purpose, he is speaking of enduring for the sake of being conformed to the image of His Son, for the sake of maintaining the testimony, for the sake of hastening His return.
There is always that end in view. There is that gospel in the fullness of the gospel that He wants brought forth, that we might really partake of in this hour.
When you think of this matter of abiding under through circumstances, what a picture we have in the life of our Lord Jesus.
Every day as He was upon this earth, He endured. He endured those disciples. He endured the many various things that came to Him. Even toward the end of His life, He endured that time at Gethsemane and that time at Calvary.
But all the time He was enduring, there was an abiding within Him. There was that peaceful restfulness of knowing that He was accomplishing His Father’s will.
Because of the joy set before Him, He was able to go through. Brothers and sisters, if we do not know what is set before us, we will not be able to go through.
This is how practical God’s eternal purpose becomes within our hearts and lives.
As we see the life of the enduring One living within us, we find that endurance has a close friend in the Scriptures. Most of the time when you see endurance, its friend faith will be there also.
You will see endurance and faith closely related together, because it is by faith that we can do it. It is by faith in Him.
Look back at Hebrews 6. We read some of the encouragement in Hebrews 6, and you will find a similarity to our theme verses in Hebrews 10.
In Hebrews 6:9, even when they had drifted back, he says:
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.
For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.
He is reminding them, just as he did in chapter 10, of how they ministered and how they cared for others. Then he says:
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
That end is always in sight. Through faith and patience—these two friends working together—we are able to press on through. That is one of the places where endurance is translated patience.
If you go back to Hebrews 10, we see also, in verses 36-39, where he speaks of “the righteous shall live by faith.” In verse 39, we are not those who shrink back to destruction, but those who have faith.
Through that enduring faith, we press on, brothers and sisters. As the Lord calls us, by faith we yield to Him. There is an obedience to that faith that allows His life to come forth and allows us to be the testimony He is calling us to be.
This is Paul’s testimony. As Paul walked by faith and endured everything before him, he testified, “It is not I, but Christ.” It is not my life; it is His life.
I have the life of the enduring One within me that enables me to triumph—not just somehow, but to triumph overwhelmingly. He overwhelmingly conquered through that life.
Praise God, brothers and sisters. That is what we have within us. That is what the Lord is jealous for us to enter into and experience in these days.
During times of suffering, even James points out in his letter how the testing of faith produces endurance. As we allow His life to meet us, we see how He meets us in a very real and wonderful way.
The more we have and taste of that enduring life, the more we enter into knowing what is true spiritual endurance.
Spiritual endurance, brothers and sisters, is the enduring One living through us: not I, but Christ. This is how we can press on. This is why, when we say we have need, we have need of the life of the enduring One lived out within us.
This is endurance.
And what is the purpose of enduring? Do we just go through something for suffering’s sake? No. As we have already read, there is a why about this.
We are enduring because we want to please our Father. We want to do the will of God. As we read in Hebrews 10, there is that doing of the will of God.
We would be available in the time and place where we find ourselves—whether at school, at work, or at home. Wherever we are, we would be ready and willing to do the will of God.
Because that is how He is doing His work of transforming us, and how we can receive the promise He has before us—the promise of that millennial kingdom. Praise God. There is a hope set before us. There is a promise there. That is the end we have.
If we do not see that, there is no way we will press on. We keep pressing on and allow Him to work within us in such a wonderful way until we hear those glorious words: “The Bride has made herself ready.”
What a hope we have set before us, brothers and sisters. We see how this enduring faith is vitally related to God accomplishing His purpose in this day and time through His people.
This is why He has called us together this week. If we are not clear on the why, there is no way we will press on. We will find ourselves shrinking back like these dear ones in this letter.
After this great word to encourage us to press on, we come to Hebrews 11—that chapter of faith, that enduring faith lived out in so many precious ways.
But what was the key? How were these dear ones able to press on? That is why we read Hebrews 11:27, concerning the testimony from the life of Moses.
Moses was able to endure because he saw Him who was invisible. Really, that is the testimony of each one in that chapter.
Everyone in chapter 11—whether Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or any of those—was able to endure because they saw Him who was invisible. Because of that, they were able to press on.
They saw Him. This was the very foundation: entering into that vision of Who He was. The eyes of their hearts were opened, and that vision of Him governed their lives.
They saw Him, and they were captured.
Sometimes we talk about vision so much that it can become common to us. But brothers and sisters, vision is so vital. It is so essential.
Vision is not a thing. When we talk about vision, we are talking about a spiritual encounter with a Person. It is seeing Christ.
It is not a vision as a concept. It is seeing Christ. It is that spiritual sight—the eyes of our hearts being opened—so that we encounter Him in such a way that we no longer desire to live for ourselves, but for Him who has loved us and died for us.
That is when we see Him. That is how Moses, when he saw Him, was able by faith to continue pressing on.
And that verb, when it speaks about Moses seeing, is a continual seeing. It was not just a one-time event, but a continual seeing of Him—a continual pressing on to know more and more of Him, as He leads you through this situation and that situation.
As we allow the Lord to meet us, it strengthens our faith. It strengthens the life we have within us of Him. Praise God.
We can endure because He has called us according to His purpose. Endurance is with that purpose in view. If we do not have that purpose in view, we will not be able to press on.
You know, brothers and sisters, one of the tragedies in the days in which we are living is the destruction of families and how the whole marriage covenant has been watered down so much.
Years ago, when we talked about a marriage covenant, it was a sacred covenant between a man and a woman. It was a sacred covenant entered into with cost and commitment.
There was a bond there because you knew there was an end; there was a purpose in view. God had called us together with a purpose.
But sadly, today the whole purpose of marriage has been lost. The original reason, the purpose for marriage, has been lost. When purpose is lost, the vision of marriage is lost, and we see it disintegrating.
Would that God recover that amongst us. Tragically, within much of Christianity, the simple purpose of marriage has been lost.
When we talk about purpose and vision, it gets very practical in our lives. God has called us because He wants a dwelling place. He wants us not only individually to be conformed to His image, but He is calling us to be those living stones built together.
Built together with ones who wear pink shirts. You know, built together with ones who wear all these other colored shirts. We pick on John. John is the one we get to pick on all the time because he wears pink shirts.
He will make an announcement later. I think he has a peach one on tonight. But how would you like to have to be built together with a brother in a pink shirt? “Well, I do not like pink.”
But here we are, together thirty-some years, whatever. We see how, if you do not see beyond these little things, you will never get there.
I was just in San Antonio. I had to be with a group of brothers from Houston, and the only thing people from Houston seem to do is beat up on the Yankees. Yet I am supposed to be built together with them and love them.
But if you do not see beyond, you will never get there. It is this purpose that holds us together. The Yankees lost again today, eight to one, and I had to tell Micah. Oh, I had to humble myself to Micah. He is a tough kid.
But we see how, if we do not see this vision of what God is calling us to, we will disintegrate. We lose the purpose.
And what happens then? Instead of being about Him, it becomes about us. We become a me-centered, I-centered generation. And that is a tragedy. We do not want that.
Often we say that, for many years, when people took pictures, the person taking the picture was not in the picture at all. What is the most popular picture now? It is a selfie.
That reflects our generation. We are a self-centered lot, and we are losing sight of what it is about.
That is what God is calling us back to afresh. These dear ones to whom the letter of Hebrews was written had at one time been a glorious testimony. You read some of the things they suffered and what they went through, and yet they were starting to shrink back. They were starting to deny the faith. They were running away.
They had one answer: come back to Christ. Come back to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow that Holy Spirit to do that wonderful work that He has been calling us to do.
The why of enduring is His purpose. He has called us with a purpose. We know that, and that is why we go through.
Our Lord Jesus went through that way. The ones who have gone before us went through that way. That is the way we go, brothers and sisters. May the Lord make that fresh to us.
Then we come to that third question—the question of practically entering in. How do we practically enter into this enduring?
Well, the best example we have is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look again at Hebrews 12:1-3. Let us read those again. It was a little while back when we read them.
These verses are so familiar. One reason I even hesitate to read them is because there are certain verses in Scripture with which we are so familiar that they can lose their power and become common to us.
So, as we read these verses, may the Lord refresh them to us in a wonderful way.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Him,
so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
Therefore—everything that has gone before, not only in Hebrews 11 with that great cloud of witnesses, but all the other things in this letter to the Hebrews, all that he has shown us of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything he has shown us of Christ as our High Priest, Christ as the Apostle, and all the better things that He is—everything based on that, therefore, because of that, we can continue on.
We are thankful that we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. I am so thankful for this great cloud of witnesses, because these are ones who have gone before us. They have been through things we have been through. They have been through similar things. They understand this.
They have come to that point of seeing the all-sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ. They came to the place of seeing that they were not sufficient in themselves, but that there was One who was all-sufficient.
I am so thankful that they are called witnesses. So often, we can get the impression that these ones are witnesses against us—that they are testifying, having laid their lives down, and are sitting there as judges.
But they are not there as judges. We are not surrounded by a great cloud of judges. We are not surrounded by a great cloud of critics. We are not surrounded by a great cloud of connoisseurs sitting up there judging us, evaluating us, and critiquing us: “Oh, you did not do that right. You did not do this right.”
No. These ones have experienced what we have been through, and our Lord has experienced it. They are there cheering us on.
I do not know if any of you have ever played a sporting event in an empty stadium. It is one of the worst things you will ever encounter, sporting-wise.
It is amazing how even just a few people in the stands can make a difference. There is encouragement there that you get from one another.
These ones are calling back to us and saying, “The Lord was faithful. He met us in this situation,” and they are calling us to press on. What a witness we have with them.
Then he gives us two little, simple pieces of advice. He does not give us a theological discussion. He does not get into new teaching. He just gives us two little pieces of advice.
He says, “Lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which easily entangles you.” That sounds pretty simple, but it gets pretty complicated once it starts impacting our lives.
Lay aside all those unnecessary things, those things that entangle us. These can even be religious things—religious habits, customs, and traditions of men that we have allowed to come in.
We need to put all of that aside and return to that place of simplicity and purity of devotion to Him. These are the things that encumber us.
When I was in college, I was on a track-and-field team. You can see I was not a runner. John was the runner. I threw the shot, discus, and javelin.
As you are warming up, you have all your clothes on—you have your warm-up clothes on. Even in some preliminary rounds, depending on the competition, you might keep your jacket on and take your sweatpants off—not all your pants, just your sweatpants. You still have your track shorts on, okay?
But once you got to the finals, where everything was real, there were no warm-up clothes left on. There were no watches left on. Everything you could get rid of, you got rid of, because you did not want anything to encumber you as you went through that event.
As we go through life, we can find things that encumber us. Everybody loves to pick on cell phones and electronic devices. I am thankful for them, but if each one of us is honest, at times they encumber us.
It is amazing how we can be so focused on something—really having a precious time with the Lord, having sweet fellowship with a brother or sister—and all of a sudden one little beep, and your whole mind is gone, switched to something else.
Everybody kind of ducks their heads on that one. But we find that these things can be an encumbrance.
Again, I love my cell phone. I use it too much. Thankfully, I have a good wife who helps me get unencumbered.
But we see how these things can encumber us, because that which is good sometimes can be the enemy of better. The Lord wants us to be free.
If we are honest within our hearts, if we really go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I really want You to shine Your light within my heart. What are the things in my life?”—maybe I am too occupied with the Yankees; maybe I am too occupied with sports; maybe I am too occupied with cooking, scrapbooking, or whatever our things may be.
Are these things encumbering us? Often, the things that encumber us are not necessarily the bad things in life. We simply have the percentage of time, the proportion of how much we are spending on them, a little out of balance.
They take a disproportionate amount of time, and we are not able to have that precious time of fellowship with the Lord and with brothers and sisters. That is where the Holy Spirit can show us and teach us.
Thank the Lord, too, that He says to get rid of that sin. That sin, as we see throughout Hebrews, is the sin of unbelief.
The Lord has encouraged us in faith to walk on, and unbelief is the enemy of faith. But we are thankful that as we allow these witnesses to encourage us and allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, we can be those who press on.
We can be those who are encouraged to allow that Spirit to keep us running in the race.
I was talking with someone this week, and they said, “Mac, the very issue of running in the race means you have need of endurance. If you are not in the race, you do not have much need for endurance.”
But the very fact that we are in a race—we are running this race—means we have need of it, and we need to recognize it. We have need of Him.
Remember, endurance is not us; it is Christ. We have need of His life within us.
We do that, as it says in this verse, by fixing our eyes upon Him.
It is a constant allowing of the eyes of our heart to be fixed upon Him in such a wonderful way that other things will pale in remembrance of that.
As we see Him, He is the author and perfecter of faith. I love how it says that He is the author and perfecter. Faith originates with Him. He is our faith.
He is our faith. It originates with Him, and He perfects it. He brings it about to fullness, that we see the fullness of His life in fuller and greater measure.
We have that end in view. It always comes back to having an end and having the goal in view.
That is how our Lord endured. He endured because He saw the joy set before Him. He endured the agony of the cross. He endured all the pain and all the shame.
He was able to endure and overcome because He had God’s purpose in His heart, and He was able to press on.
That is why, for so many years as we have gathered at this conference, we have brought before ourselves over and over again this matter of God’s eternal purpose.
It all comes back to seeing Christ in a fuller and greater way. This is what He is jealous for this week. He wants us to be those who are considering Him.
It is coming back in a fresh way, setting apart the things of this world, turning our eyes back to Him, considering Him, and being constantly fixed upon Him.
Be reminded of Who He is. Be reminded of all that He has done. Be reminded of how He has endured all the hostility for us, that we could sit here as privileged ones tonight and privileged ones this week, sitting at His feet and saying, “Speak, Lord, Thy servants are listening.”
This is what He is calling us to.
As we continue, we are thankful that He is the One who has endured. He is the One who has overcome. This brings us back to the end of Hebrews 10:39.
But one comment first on Hebrews 12:3. As we fix our eyes upon Him, we do not grow weary and lose heart—or cause our souls to faint.
If our eyes are not fixed upon Him, there is a weariness that sets in. There is a fainting of our souls. It is overwhelming.
The fainting of our souls can even feel physical at times as things begin to overwhelm us. But as we fix our eyes upon Him, there is a freshness that comes in, lifting that weight off and allowing us to press on.
As we read earlier in Hebrews 10:39:
We are not of those who shrink back to destruction,
but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Praise God. Our Lord is there. He is not wanting our souls to faint; He is wanting those souls to be preserved.
What is that saying? He is in this for the salvation of our souls. He is in this for us to be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son, preparing us for that soon return.
So as we start this week, brothers and sisters, we want to reflect. We want to stop, and we want to consider this theme: “You have need of endurance”—or the other theme, “You have need of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is our need for the day and hour in which we are living. May He find us to be those who can be encouraged. May we really find an abundant provision in Him.
Because, praise God, as we start this week, He is our endurance. He is our faith, and He is our life. It is in Him that we find our fullness and our ability to press on in this hour, brothers and sisters.
This is not the time for us to be shrinking back. This is the time for us to find Him in a fresh way and press on, allowing Him to work within us so that there will be a testimony of the Lord in this generation that will hasten His return.
He could be doing a work in this hour of preparing us and building us together, because He is so jealous for that Bride to be made ready.
But brothers and sisters, if we do not know about this Bride, if we do not know about His purpose, if we do not know about the eternal companion for the Son, we will shrink back. It will not be worth it.
But praise God, He has revealed Himself to us. He has made the fullness of His heart open to us in His Word.
We are thankful that as we find our all in all in Him, we can, in a fresh way, surrender ourselves to Him this week. We start tonight by surrendering ourselves to Him, that He would have great freedom and liberty within each one of us to prepare us for the days ahead.
He has a unique and specific way He is working within each of us. We are all different. We are all unique. Praise God for that.
But He has a specific way, as we are yoked with Him. He is working in you, and He is working in me, to prepare us for His soon return.
We want to be those surrendered to Him, cooperating with Him, and hastening that day. May we be found as such.
Let us pray.
Lord, we are thankful that You have called us with such a great calling.
Lord, we are thankful that You have revealed Your Son to us.
We all confess tonight that we see in part. We see that You have revealed Your Son to us. There are parts of Him we see, and we also know there is still so much more of Him You want to show us.
As we are here during this time this week, we want to be those found cooperating with You, Lord.
Lord, keep us from distractions. Keep us from anything that would try to steal the word of God from our hearts.
Lord, with this word tonight and the word that is shared throughout this week, would You, as that great Maestro, weave a beautiful song of faith—the song of faith that we sang of earlier—in all of our hearts.
Through that song of faith, may we press on to the fullness of what You are calling us to. In Thy name we pray. Amen.