WITNESSES, WEIGHTS, SINS, PATIENCE
Monday – July 2, 2018, Tamuz 19, 5778
Greetings and welcome back to this faith building Bible Study from the Book of Hebrews. The featured picture is of Patti and me last September at a local restaurant. God is so good. Last week our Bible Study moved from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews into the twelfth chapter. The vast majority of the eleventh chapter is testimonies of people we exercised faith and did extraordinary things for the Kingdom of God. As we saw time and time again these people were flawed, some very seriously. These accounts are a testimony or witness to us to push forward in spite of our flaws. That is not to encourage or endorse flaws, but for a variety of reasons having flaws, sometimes very serious, is common. We are to work with God to eliminate those flaws from our lives. Other words for “flaws” is sin and unbelief (also sin). Before I go further let’s take a look at our primary Scripture text and read it aloud determining within ourselves to make this our own.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (KJV)
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Our text starts with telling us that we are compassed or encircled with a great cloud of witnesses. The word “cloud” is used metaphorically for a crowd according to The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament. I have heard this preached that there are those who have gone before us who are watching from Heaven and cheering us on our walk of faith with God. The context would not seem to support that point of view. Instead, I believe, the author is telling us that there are many to whom we can look as examples and encouragement both in Scripture and in our right here and now life. There are those who are thinking the thoughts, speaking the words, and doing the works of God around us. Our primary focus, however, is to be on Jesus and the pure example that He left for us.
Our text tells us to lay aside every weight. These weights are the things in our lives that God did not author. They may be good things in the eyes of the world, our friends, and even the Church but they are not God things. These things divert us, our energy, our attention, our resources from the will of God to our own will or the will of others. Some of the things we may be doing are perhaps interfering with another person’s call, we are in their place, out of our place. We do not have the Anointing and it is being done in our own strength and therefore not bringing the desired harvest God desires for the Kingdom or for us. It behooves each of us on a regular basis to ask ourselves and to ask God if the things we are doing are in accordance with His will. Each of us have a wonderful call and have the Anointing to fulfill that call with ease. God has a wonderful plan for each and everyone of us, let us not thwart the plan of God by being bullheaded and going our own way. One might want to ask: why do these weights, distractions, so easily beset or ensnare us? It is possible that we are carrying these weights with unselfish motivations and convinced they are the will of God, however, that is deception. These weights are things we have practiced, have become a habit, perhaps they are a family tradition or our Church tradition, and have become a part of our day to day lives. We may see them as integral and necessary for our day to day life. Let each of us examine the things of our lives and our motivations in consultation with the Lord.
Next the Lord tells us through this wonderful Bible text to lay aside the sin which so easily besets us. Although the word “sin” in our text is singular in number I do not think the author (God) is indicating that there is necessarily only one sin per person but that there are sins to which we are prone and we must set those aside. By set aside I mean, eliminate. The word “sin” and the phrase “so easily beset” are feminine in gender and also singular in number. The feminine gender tells us that these sins will bear fruit in our lives but it will not be good fruit. Sin, whether in ignorance or with knowledge, opens the door to the thief to steal, kill, and destroy. This is why we must be vigilant in all things, diligent in the Word and in our prayer time and consultations with the Lord. Eliminating sin in our lives brings the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. God delights to see us flourish in our lives just as we delight to see our natural and spiritual children flourish.
I suspect that we are all aware that some of us are more prone to one sin than another. I suspect that perhaps none of us woke up this morning wondering about robbing the bank down the street however in the course of the day we may have been tempted to lie, gossip, lust after a person or thing, or perhaps resist the prompting of the Holy Spirit concerning a certain thing. The things we do the quickest and easiest are the things we are familiar with and practiced at. The weights in our lives are not necessarily sins but these are outright sins we refuse to acknowledge, repent of, seek out and remove the root, totally abandoning it and taking it captive at its recurrent onset. The fattest dogs are the ones that eat a lot. The dogs that get thin and die are the ones who are not fed. Don’t feed the dog in your thought life or your mouth! Now put the word sin in place of dog. Sin in our lives needs to be removed including the roots. Certain sins and events are common in families due to the familiar (familiar with our family) evil spirits which are assigned by Satan to our family perhaps for centuries. They know exactly where your and my weaknesses are and they will relentlessly attack in that area until we relentlessly resist.
2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
James 4:7 (KJV)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow. Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (KJV)
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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