3:11 Oh, brothers and sisters in the Lord, our dearest friends and family from so many different states and even different countries, and of course our beloved attenders and members of Maranatha Bible Church, I wanna welcome you to Maranatha Conference twenty twenty six. For those who don't know, this is actually the twenty ninth year of this conference. What started as a group of Arabic young people has grown, it has blossomed, and has increased into what you all see around you today. And it is truly a testament to God's goodness and his glory. And while the faces have changed, many have gotten older, while new families and friends have come, if you talk to the three people in this room who are at the very beginning, who have been at every single conference and who organized it today, brother Bisher, sister Phoebe, brother Wadia, they will tell you that the ultimate goal and vision of this conference remains the same, to glorify God in everything that we do, to open his word and hear from him, and to gather as like minded brothers and sisters in Christ to pray with one another, to fellowship with one another, to encourage and strengthen each other in the in the Lord, and to spur one another on to love and good works.
4:55 And that's what we're going to do this weekend. I hope you're excited. I hope you're excited to hear from the Lord. I hope you're excited to be changed by the Lord, to make new godly friendships, to enjoy God for everything that he is. And as we begin our service, our meeting today, and truly this whole conference, I ask you to stand with me as we dedicate our time here at Maranatha Conference Center to our amazing, gracious, compassionate, all wise God.
5:30 Allow me to read from Psalm one fifteen. Not to us, oh lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness, why should the nations say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.
5:52 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see, they have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell, they have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. Oh, Israel, trust in the Lord.
6:20 He is their help and their shield. Oh, house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Oh, you who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
6:32 The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
6:45 May the Lord give you increase. You and your children, may you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord. From this time forth and forevermore, praise the Lord.
7:12 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you. Lord, we thank you for yet another year of your faithfulness and goodness. And as we come back to this conference center, we thank you once again that we can gather here as brothers and sisters from across this globe, from tribes, nations, and languages to give you all praise and all glory. Lord, we pray that you receive maximum praise today.
7:39 And throughout this this weekend, we pray that you will move in the hearts of everybody here. Lord, for the believer who is walking with you, may you increase their strength, may you increase their joy evermore. May the believer who is dry or backslidden. Lord, may you spark a fire in them that cannot be quenched by the power of your spirit. May you move in them.
8:01 And Lord, we pray for those souls here who do not know you, who may be curious or interested or may be apathetic to anything of the Lord, we pray by your sovereign grace that you will open minds and hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you illuminate hearts and change lives this weekend. Lord, we pray that you bring the death to life, that you will turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh for your glory and their joy. Father, we pray for this weekend. We give it to you. It is for your glory, not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name, may you be praised.
8:40 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Church well, church, brothers and sisters, sing to the Lord.
17:07 My Above the earth and heaven's angels Romans 11 verse 33. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsel, counsel. Or who has been his counsel. Or who has given a gift to him that he might be or from him and through him and to him are all things.
25:57 Why don't we pray together? Lord, we do thank you that we can genuinely sing these songs because you have done great things. We you have done great things in each of our lives and Lord, we've come to this place this weekend because we believe you will do more. You have great things in store, Lord. And so we, in great reverence and anticipation, pray to you now, believing you for wonderful testimonies that will unleash before our very eyes, that will fill our ears and our hearts ultimately, so that we would all leave this place glorifying you with a greater strength and intensity than we did when we came.
26:35 Be exalted even in this session, Lord. Be mightily exalted in this session. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Well, before you're seated, reach out to somebody.
26:46 Welcome them to Maranatha twenty twenty six. Welcome to Maranatha Conference twenty twenty six. Yes. We can celebrate that again. Mark already did a wonderful job introducing us to this weekend, but I just wanna let you know that it is sincerely the prayer of Maranatha Bible Church and the leadership that for those who decide to come here that you would be genuinely refreshed, that you would know rest, that you would be replenished as a result of what is organized for you and for us this weekend.
27:58 And why that is an important prayer, why it is also important for us to take such time like this together is because it is entirely possible for a Christian to become tired. And I'm not speaking about physical weariness. I am referring to a weariness of the soul where you lose spiritual breath, where your spiritual legs become heavy, where you choosing to sit down or move to the side or even turn back seems more attractive than ever. And that can come through different things. It can happen when circumstances are so challenging that you don't know what to do anymore, or temptations are so fierce that you are open to actually just giving in instead of fighting over and over again, where relationships become so strenuous, so difficult that no matter how much love you give, no matter how much forgiveness you extend, it doesn't seem to be making a difference.
29:11 So why not just change the attitude and give back to people what they always give to you? It can come through just the failures that keep repeating in your mind and they seem to be only getting louder and louder no matter what you do. And giving up when you become tired also looks like different things. For some, it looks like apostasizing, to deny the faith completely, to come to a point where, yes, maybe in the beginning you receive the word with joy, but you excuse that for emotionalism. Or you even rationalize and tell yourself, I did not sign up for this.
30:00 It can also look like you just becoming less sacrificial, less sanctified, less strategic with your walk with Christ. And so you just coast. You're not denying Jesus, you're just taking it easy. Or it can be even as specific as one particular issue. Everything else is going fine in your life, but there's this one nagging thing.
30:34 And you think to yourself, I know what God's Word says about this, but I'm just I'm just going to give into it. I know what God says about serving him, but it doesn't really pay off. I know what God says about being faithful to one spouse when you made that covenant, but I didn't realize how overwhelmingly demanding this was. So I'm willing to be Christian everywhere else except for this one thing. We're very clever with our compromise.
31:07 It's possible for Christians to get tired. Are you tired tonight? Not asking if you're tired physically again. I'm talking about something deeper. And it could be that you choosing to come this weekend is the is the last straw.
31:22 It's the final opportunity, this one single act of faith that you have left in your tank for God to do something. And if not, then you have some things planned on the other side of this weekend. I wanna let you know that becoming tired as a Christian is nothing new. It is precisely the issue that the author of Hebrews faced with the Jewish Christians who became tired with their Christianity. The purpose of the book of Hebrews theologically is to show how Jesus Christ is greater, greater than anything, greater than anyone.
32:11 Right? He's trying to persuade these Jewish Christians to remain in the faith and not to go back to the law of Moses, not to go back to the Leviticus system, not to go back to the Jewish way of life, religiously speaking. And so he presents a masterpiece in Hebrews showcasing with one example after another how Christ is greater. But if you want to say the main practical application of the book of Hebrews, you can say it is the following. Don't give up.
32:42 Don't give in. Don't let yourself become so tired, so exhausted that you collapse spiritually never to get up again, or even for a season. And you see this exhortation from the beginning of the book of Hebrews all the way to the end. In different ways, you find the Holy Spirit speaking to the author saying, don't give up. And I want to give you one example.
33:06 So if you have your Bibles with me, turn to Hebrews chapter six. And I want you to look here with me at verse 11. Hebrews six verse 11. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end. So that you may not be sluggish, underline that word sluggish in your minds or even in your Bibles, so that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
33:49 So what was the danger here for some of the Hebrew Christians? To become sluggish spiritually. There were more extreme cases. Some were willing to deny Christ outright, but others were just flirting with the idea of becoming sluggish. What does sluggish mean?
34:08 Dull. Spiritually speaking it means that you no longer have that freshness. You're not as focused anymore. You're not intentional with your sanctification. You're not intentional about your worship.
34:26 What people call spiritual disciplines are virtually gone. If I can make it more plain, you're just numb. You're numb to everything. You almost are a spiritual robot, and you've mastered Christianity enough to be able to play the part, and externally you look okay, but those who have discernment know you're not okay. And you yourself, if you're honest, you know you're not okay.
34:53 Would you like to know one of the ways you are sluggish spiritually? That word is only used one other time in the entire New Testament And it's in the book of Hebrews. And it's very close to this text. Go to Hebrews five. Look at verse 11.
35:14 About this we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. It's the word dull. So that tells me something. One of the ways I know that I am becoming sluggish spiritually is that I am unresponsive to God's word. It doesn't move me anymore, it doesn't challenge me, it doesn't excite me, it doesn't stir me, it doesn't comfort me.
35:46 It's just words. It's just a guy up there speaking. It's just a book. When you get to that point spiritually, you are sluggish. And there are other symptoms that we can't get into tonight.
36:07 But what I do want to show you is how this was a great concern to the author of Hebrews and ultimately to the Holy Spirit. Go to Hebrews chapter 10. I want you to see something with me in another verse. In verse 36. Hebrews ten thirty six.
36:28 For you have need of endurance, So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Do you see it? He understands that they are losing steam. He understands that they're dragging their feet. They don't have that same strength in their stride, they don't have that same zeal, they don't have that same desire.
36:54 Things are shutting down, spiritually speaking. And he's concerned because yes, you have some who are sluggish and you have others who are ready to deny Christ, but the sluggish people can end up doing what those who are ready to deny are doing. Things usually take time before they get worse. And so this is a spiritual physician writing here and he tells these readers, you are in need of endurance, you need new energy, you need new motivation, you need new grace, you need a fresh wind. So what does he do?
37:31 Well interestingly, the next chapter the author gives us what is famously known as the Hall of Faith. You know it very well, how the author writes one example after another, by faith, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, by faith, by faith, by faith. And I can guarantee you this, he's not giving a history lesson. And the reason why we know that he's not changing subjects is because of what you find in Hebrews 12. Immediately after Hebrews 11, What do we find in verse one?
38:08 Well, let's look at it. Hebrews 12 verse one. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Therefore, the word therefore connects what's being said here to what you find in the previous section, namely Hebrews chapter 11. So this is how we know Hebrews 11 is not just a review of certain characters in redemptive history, it is intricately connected to this concept of enduring.
38:57 Hebrews 10 verse 36, you need endurance. Hebrews 12 verse one, so then let us run with endurance. What's in the middle? People who have run with endurance. Hebrews twelve one is the main application of Hebrews chapter 11.
39:15 And he says here, in order to motivate them and encourage them, you need to know the stories of people who have run this race before you have. There's a mistake that people make and it's not a grievous one. It's an interpretation option of when the author says here that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Here's how some take that to mean. In heaven, there is an arena.
39:49 And in that arena, that amphitheater, you have all these saints, and they include the ones in Hebrews 11, that are leaning over and watching us run this race and they're in heaven cheering us on. Right? We are surrounded by so great a cloud of it's because we have this audience, let that motivate you to run stronger and faster and more steadfastly. But that's not the point. That's not how you apply this.
40:18 It's not so much what the witnesses are seeing about us, it's what we need to see about these witnesses. In other words, what the author is calling us to do is not believe that we're being watched, but to look at these ones who have run and to learn from them. They're testifying of something. They're they're teaching us something because of their own example and their own experience. So the idea here is, you and I, we're surrounded by a great cloud, and that cloud is synonymous for for really crowd.
40:57 And they're all saying something to us. Are you listening? Are you familiar with them? And he wants them to be familiar with them. And when I meditated on this verse, I have to tell you something transparently.
41:12 It opened something new to me. I I felt genuinely equipped from this. It dawned on me that there is another weapon that you and I can wield, that we must tuck away safely in our arsenal when it comes to us finishing this race well. And it is this, the profound power of biographies. The amazing influence, the the life giving force that comes from knowing the stories and the testimonies of those who have served God in the past.
41:50 And to me, this confirmed a lot. One, it confirmed, at least, again, I'm speaking for myself, why I'm so drawn to character studies in the bible. Looking at one, two, or in the case of this weekend, many, and spending as much time possible considering all the details about this individual, and seeing what I can receive from them. It's also confirmed the following, that some of the greatest boosts that I've received in my own walk with the Lord is when I stumbled upon or received a biography of a believer outside of the Bible, in church history, and read about their accomplishments and their failures even, and what they had to face and what they were able to overcome, it's like something happens. Have you ever wondered why the bible is not just a book of bullet point rules and laws and regulations?
42:49 Have you ever considered how much of the Bible is comprised of people? Stories woven together, connected. Variety of people with holy spirit inspired details left for us. To what? To what end?
43:07 Well, we're seeing one application here. When was the last time you were so dry and you thought to yourself, I'm gonna spend the next two weeks looking at someone in the Bible that most relates to why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling or what I'm dealing with until it moves my soul. When was the last time you inquired of even somebody outside of the scriptures, those scriptures primary? And you can say that person's story changed my life or changed my perspective or helped me understand what was possible in God. Can we turn to an interesting verse?
44:01 Let's go to Hebrews, or excuse me, actually Acts. And I want us to look at something in chapter 12. This is the account of Peter when he was delivered from prison. And the reason for his deliverance is because the prayers of God's people. And Peter makes his way interestingly to a home where he knew that Christians would be.
44:28 The home of John Mark whose mother seemed to be the one who was in charge of the meetings that were held there and they seemed to be a wealthy family because they had a servant, at least one servant that is recorded. Her name is Rhoda. Go to Acts chapter 12 and look at verse 13 with me. Notice what happens. And when he, being Peter, knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.
45:00 Verse 14, recognizing Peter's voice, In her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. I love those first three words there in verse 14. Recognizing Peter's voice. Very likely that it was so dark that she couldn't make out the features of Peter, but think about this. This is a servant girl, perhaps a very young girl, but she was acquainted with Peter's presence, his ministry, his teaching, that when she heard his voice, she knew it was Peter.
45:44 And in great joy, she goes and tells the prayer meeting, and they tell her, you're nuts. You lost your mind. That can't be Peter. And this servant girl had more faith than the ones who were leading the prayer meeting. Here's what's amazing.
45:57 She recognized Peter's voice. There are a lot of voices in our culture today. A lot. You have the voices of celebrities. You have the voices of other talents.
46:13 You have the voices of athletes. You have the voices of politicians who seem to be the loudest. Now with this thing called podcast, you have so many people Everybody wants a podcast. Everybody wants to start a podcast. Right?
46:27 You have the voices of this phenomenon, influencers. What is that? Who are you What are you influencing? Right? So many voices.
46:40 And I'm afraid most Christians are more familiar with those voices than the voices of those that matter the most. The testimonies, the missionary work, the sermons, the insights of men and women of God across history. You ask the average Christian about this celebrity or this gossip thing or this sports group and they can tell you everything. But come on, let's be honest. Ask them their top three people in the scriptures and the details of their lives and how it's made an impact on them.
47:29 Ask them about people throughout history who have written certain literature or who have made marks in cities, nations. They don't really have much to say. They don't know their voices. They're They're not familiar because they're caught up with so many other voices. Rhoda knew Peter's voice.
47:55 And it brought her great joy when she recognized it. And when we come back to Hebrews twelve:one, you can say it in this way, the author wants these weary Christians to become familiar with the voices of those, with the stories and the examples of those who have run this race before. And I wanna give you briefly three advantages three advantages of studying, knowing, memorizing, being acquainted with the stories of saints. And it's all here in Hebrews chapter 12. The first thing that the author says after saying, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses is, let us lay aside every weight.
48:47 Then he says, right after that, and every sin which so easily entangles us. And then finally, let us run with endurance. Those are three results, three outcomes of what he said before. Living under the shadow of those who have done what you are doing today. So let's look at these things separately.
49:10 Let us lay aside every weight. Notice that weight and sin are handled separately. Laying aside weight and laying aside sin are not the same things. So what does he mean by weight? Well weight are not things that are necessarily sinful inherently evil, but think about the imagery of a runner.
49:32 Ancient runners of this day would run virtually naked. They wanted to shut off any kind of weight that would make them slower in their race. And to this day, there are certain gears that you buy for marathon runners, certain shoes that you buy. Right? It would be silly.
49:51 It wouldn't be wrong necessarily, but it would be silly and unintelligent to run a race with construction shoes. Correct? This is what we're speaking about here. The author is not highlighting that which is wrong or evil or blatantly sinful, but that which slows you down. And that could look like many different things depending on who you are.
50:22 What may be heavy for me may not be heavy for you. And so it's things like what I do with my free time. It's things like the entertainment that I choose, the people that I want to be with or spend the most time with, things that are not necessarily evil, but things also that are not necessarily helpful. Helpful to spreading your wings, to maximizing your life for Christ. Now I understand you might be hearing something like this and think, that sounds like legalism.
50:58 That's not legalism. It's Bible. You know what legalism is? Let's just deal with legalism right here. One way of understanding legalism is taking what convicts me and enforcing it as law upon you.
51:15 That's legalism. So if it's not black and white in the Bible, if it's gray matter, if it's something about the conscience and it bothers me, that's between me and the Lord according to Paul. And I live under that kind of rule between me and the Lord. But the moment I take that and then call you to observe it in order to prove the sincerity of your faith or your walk with Christ, I've entered into the realm of legalism. So as a pastor, if I come up to the pulpit and I say, if you have social media, you're not a true Christian, that's legalism.
51:51 But if I don't want social media because I consider it weight, you may have the self discipline to scroll only fifteen minutes a day, the average person doesn't. And so I choose to shed off that weight. That's great. That might not be weight to you. But the burden of legalism is taking what might be weight to me and saying here you carry it now.
52:14 Clear? But to challenge people to look at their own lives and ask what is weight to me is not legalism, it's bible. It's bible. And I want to tell you something, only asking this question is not the sign of a maturing believer. What question?
52:35 Is it sin? I've mentioned this before in a previous bible study. If I'm only asking the question, is it sin? I may be running with construction shoes. I may be running with dumbbells in my hands, because I've never asked the question, is it weight?
52:56 When's the last time you just be honest, it's okay. When's the last time you reflected on your own life, your own walk with the Lord and examined your own heart and wondered, is this helpful? Does this draw me closer to Christ? Does it make me more excited about holy things? Does it dampen my zeal or does it enhance it?
53:21 You know, things like that. And when you begin to examine yourself in such a way, I can tell you, you're gonna feel lighter if you take that examination seriously. So the first thing that he wants us to be mindful of is weight. But how does that connect with the great cloud of witnesses? Well I'll tell you this, if you study the stories of men and women of God who have done things for the Lord, wonderful things, Well, part of biographies is you look at their patterns, you look at their habits, you you look at their mindset, and I'm speaking about scripturally primarily.
53:57 And when you see what the investment produces, it will then encourage you to say, okay, well maybe I should let go of my own weight. And I know the stories of preachers personally who have made decisions like that early on in ministry, and undoubtedly that's because they became that led to rather the ministries that they end up producing Because they, from the starting line, decided to remove the weight. But from the weight then, he begins to speak about laying aside sin. It talks about how sin is so capable of entangling us. Now weight is dangerous, sin is way more dangerous.
54:38 And the picture there of entangling is a rope tied around your feet. So weight may slow me down, sin keeps you from running altogether. And so the author wants to call the people to actually look at their own lives and wonder, is there anything that I've allowed in my life that is sin? Clear, blatant, obvious sin. You're saying, well that's obvious.
55:05 It is obvious, but related to the great cloud of witnesses, how does that work together? Well, if I look at the stories of those, and the wonderful thing about biblical biographies is that they are honest, they are transparent. They don't put makeup on the stories of these saints. And I and I consider David for example, who is crowned with that wonderful title, a man after God's heart, and realize that a man after God's heart was capable of watching a woman bathe, call her over to his palace, sleep with her, and in order to cover his sin, kill her husband on the battlefield? Who am I to think that I can let these eyes wander?
55:57 Who am I to think that I can lay back like David did when he was supposed to be a king in battle? That's how the story starts by the way. He was laying on his couch when kings were on the field to go to war. So now I'm learning. I'm learning that even these giants of the faith can have great falls.
56:19 I gotta take sin seriously. It's not a joke. And the author is saying, look to these stories of the past and they will help you see how deceiving sin is, how conniving sin is, how destructive sin is. So look at these witnesses and then look at your own life and ask yourself, is there anything that I'm tolerating? If there is, kill it.
56:42 Lay it aside. But finally and probably most obviously, he says, now let us run with endurance. Let us run with endurance. And so you have even this this charge to keep going by looking at others who kept going. And I think there are a few ways that you and I can run with endurance when we see and watch other people who have done it.
57:11 One way is biographies of believers shakes us out of the tendency to self pity. So when you read for example, like I did the other day, that Charles Spurgeon on average preached 10 sermons a week. A week. We're getting six this weekend. And on average, you get one from a pastor on Sunday.
57:45 Maybe one and a half in a week's time. This man preached 10 sermons a week in the early days of his ministry. Well then, Saturday night doesn't seem so challenging for the preacher, does it? When you're preparing to preach for Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon doesn't seem so tempting when you see the sun shining and the birds chirping and the neighbors outside playing and you gotta get your head in the books.
58:11 You gotta get on your knees. Spurgeon preached 10 times a week. Get up, preacher. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, preacher. Or when you consider like I did many years ago, the story of John Flavell, that great Puritan who wrote a book on suffering.
58:31 And in the beginning of that book, you get a little bio and this man was married four times. Not because he was divorced three times but because his first three wives died. The first one died died at childbirth and the baby died shortly after, the firstborn. Married again for a few short years. That wife also passed away and the third one and then his fourth wife survived him.
58:57 This man has authority and credibility to speak about suffering, don't you think? And yet, he can glorify God and even in his book on suffering, rebuke people for blaming God and never shaking out of that season of the darkness of the soul. Or perhaps when you consider like I did not too long ago, the story of a recent pastor who planted a church and those inside his leadership circles went on to share about how difficult it was when that church took off. Enemy number one came from the people within. And that looked like things you can imagine including one day him preaching and a man comes down the aisle with a bag full of garbage and throws the trash on the stage while he's preaching.
59:51 And you listen to that and you think to yourself, okay, somebody closing their eyes during my messages and seem so bad, I guess. Or that same man who says, others testify about him that while he was preaching, they discovered people sitting all the way in the back with dolls that look like the elders of the church and they were performing spells and hexes while they're preaching. Alright. Somebody that usually says hi to me on Sunday but didn't this last Sunday doesn't seem so bad after all. So reflecting on these stories of these men and women of God, deliver us, shake us out of self pity, don't they?
1:00:37 As bad as it might be, somebody has it worse. And they endured. They endured. Have family problems? Have you ever read Joseph's story?
1:00:48 Any of your siblings ever throw you in a pit? And we thought, you know what? We can actually make money off of them. Let's sell them. Happened to you?
1:00:55 No? Okay. We think about how ginormous your task is in serving the Lord. Have you ever considered that Moses passed at a church of 2,000,000? What do you think that look like?
1:01:13 Oh, and when it got tough, did they want to vote him out? No. They wanted to kill him. These are here for us. So when he says, let us run with endurance, one way we get a boost is when we recognize, okay.
1:01:29 I can't give in to self pity because others have had it way more challenging and way more daunting and way more suffocating than I might be experiencing it. But there's also the biographies of believers that inspire our faith to see God do great things. When you read of revivals, when you read of those who had speech impediments, those who stuttered, those who like D. L. Moody couldn't even say certain words in the bible so when they would read that verse they would skip over it.
1:02:04 In the sermon and thousands would get saved. Thousands would get saved. And the man couldn't even pronounce certain words. And here you are, you're worried. You're worried to go up there for what?
1:02:22 You think of what has happened in different parts of the world. How certain groups of people who have prayed for years were the reason why revival or great awakenings, the toppling of totalitarian regimes, because of people who pray. It's just amazing. And it builds you up. It builds you up because you think if if God did it for them, can he certainly do it for us?
1:02:47 Which brings me to another point. Reading biographies reminds us that God is so generous in choosing the people that he chooses to use. When you look at the different characters, look at their personalities, look at their weaknesses, look at their gender. There's only two of them. God used men, God used women.
1:03:16 And then you look at yourself because you may you may disqualify yourself as you consider your own shortcomings or your lack of beauty or your lack of ability. Let me ask you something. If you're somebody who's frequently saddened by your lack, well have you ever looked at what God has done through people who seem to also have lacked? Have you? This is a prescription that the Bible is giving, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
1:03:47 They're saying something to us. It can help you run with great endurance, which brings me to a close here. Notice that he says, so great a cloud of witnesses. Not just a few. There are so many innumerable, uncountable witnesses that we can learn from, That we can look at.
1:04:15 In fact, look here with me at Hebrews chapter 11 for a moment. I want you to see something. In Hebrews 11, the author is very selective of the people that he explicitly names. But then he comes to this point here which I find so fascinating in verse 32 of Hebrews 11. And what more shall I say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets?
1:04:50 You know what he's saying here? There's so many other stories I would like to share with you, but I don't have enough time. This cloud of witnesses is so vast, so deep, so rich, And my goal is to take some time to look at some of these individuals. More specifically, individuals that you may not be familiar with or as familiar with. Or maybe you've heard of them, you know they're in the Bible, but you don't know what you can learn from them.
1:05:23 And that's why if you walked in here, you saw the title for this weekend's theme, unsung heroes of the Bible. Why are we taking the time to look at different individuals for every session? Because it has the power of calling you to lay aside weight. It has the ability to call you to lay aside sin. It has the grace to let you know what ability to run with more endurance.
1:05:53 So here's my prayer. Yes, that you would know rest and refreshing but my prayer with that is there would be some weight left on these campgrounds. And there would be some sin repented of. And there would be a sobriety in your thinking and an enlargening of your own heart so that when you go back home you hit the floor running again. But I must make one more comment.
1:06:29 This is the actual last thought. If you look at Hebrews 12, we read verse one, but let's read verse two. I'll read it from verse one again. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
1:07:04 So not only do you and I have a crowd of witnesses, the author says the supreme example is the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice what the Holy Spirit does here out of all the ways to refer to Christ. And this is a very crystal centric book. There are amazing titles attributed to him. What is what is the name that is given in this context?
1:07:28 Looking to Jesus, full stop. Jesus. Why? Why just Jesus? To emphasize his humanity.
1:07:41 So that by looking to Jesus, you wouldn't tell yourself, well, he's God. He is God. You wouldn't think to yourself, well, that's an unfair comparison. He's the son of God. He received the spirit without measure.
1:07:58 All of that is true, but notice what is being emphasized, looking to Jesus who took on real flesh and experienced real temptation and endured real suffering. And so it's as though the spirit of God is saying, yes, look to these different men and women throughout history, redemptive history, church history, but don't forget about Jesus. And when you look at Jesus, don't brush him off as just someone to observe and admire and worship, but someone to believe, to be a model for your own race. I hope you and I are ready to hear from these witnesses and to know something of great power because of it. Let's thank the Lord for it.
1:09:03 Father, we thank you that you have brought us here to this place. And through much prayer, you have providentially given us this theme to explore. And we ask, oh God, that we would approach every session with faith, believing that you have something to say to each of us in each of those moments. And Lord, even tonight from now, if there is weight, if there is sin, if there is distraction, if there is a heaviness, Lord, may we begin to feel liberated from all of those things even now. Even now.
1:09:44 May we go to bed lighter tonight. And we ask, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear, that we would not be dull of hearing. If we have been for weeks, months, maybe even years unresponsive to the word of God, we pray that this weekend would be a turning point, that we would not be sluggish anymore. So, Lord, just blast away all indifference, blast away all tiredness, even a tiredness of the flesh that would make us incapable of receiving what you want us to receive in the soul. Help us, Lord.
1:10:21 We're your people, and we wanna run and finish well. We wanna complete this race stronger and more excited, more passion, more holy than when we started. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
1:10:36 Let's stand church. Let's worship the living God together. All I'm here to do is tell you may be seated, and you are going to receive announcements from somebody. Fisher. Yes.
1:20:13 Thank you, Daniel. It's just my voice is lowered then. Okay, thank you very much. Welcome again to our 20. Can't believe time flies, actually.
1:20:24 It goes by so fast. I will first
