CHALLENGING THE CHURCH …TO "GO ON TO PERFECTION" (HEBREWS 6:1) - OUR MOTIVATION FOR LIVING
Written By: Douglas Young Bulletin Date: 12/5/2004
INTRODUCTION:
A. Everywhere we turn, motivational gurus are working their marketing magic. They appeal to the masses, and are a common staple of the diet that produces worldly success.
Companies send employees to seminars.
Individuals seek out their books and videos.
B. I understand that motivation is a key to success.
C. Motivations can be good and bad, so that which serves as our impetus for living is of importance.
D. Of all people, the Christian has the most compelling motivation for living.
It is not society.
It is not self.
It is the Saviour and those that have gone on before us.
I. OUR ENCOURAGEMENT ("so great a cloud of witnesses")
A. One of the most encouraging texts on faith and faithfulness in all of Scripture (Hebrews 11)
A list of men and women who lived lives of faith, yet lacked something.
"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect"(vv. 39-40).
B. Their perfection (completeness) was predicated upon Christianity and those that comprise it.
C. There was a great cloud of witnesses cheering on first century Christians to effectively and faithfully run the Christian race.
D. The same holds true for us.
E. Jesus serves as our supreme motivation.
He is the "author" of our salvation.
He is our "captain" (Heb. 2:10).
His sacrifice was on our behalf (1 John 2:1-2).
There is no greater love than to offer one’s life in another’s stead (John 15:13).
If this will not motivate us to live to the best of our ability, nothing will.
II. OUR ENDEAVOR ("run with patience the race set before us")
A. Life is a race unlike anything else we can imagine. The word "race" in the original language proves it.
Agona: more than a mere contest. It implies that this race is a battle or conflict.
We are engaged in a daily spiritual battle (2 Cor. 10:4-6) that must not be taken lightly.
B. This race is to be run in an efficient way (patience), with one purpose in mind: to win (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
To settle for second place is to say the race is not worth winning or running.
No one should want to just complete the race, they should want to win that they might obtain "the prize."
A heavenly home is that prize, but do we want it enough?
III. OUR ENEMIES ("every weight, and the sin which doth easily beset us")
A. Satan is our supreme enemy (1 Pet. 5:8); Christ is our ally and Advocate (1 John 2:1).
B. Sin is our obstacle in life. It weighs us down. It slows us down, not allowing us to run our course efficiently and effectively.
C. Many of us are concerned with our physical health and well-being.
I want to live as long as I can so that I can preach as long as I can.
I want to live as long as I can so that I can be a good husband.
I want to live as long as I can so that I can be a good parent.
But I also understand that life is not all about the physical and that bodily exercise "profiteth little" (1 Tim. 4:8).
Our primary concern is not to be our physical welfare, but rather our spiritual welfare.
D. Some of us need to diet and engage in an exercise program of a spiritual type. The admonition in this text is to get into spiritual shape by relieving ourselves of the weight of sin.
CONCLUSION:
A. God is "the rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).
B. The "crown" of eternal life, one of incorruption (1 Cor. 9:25) and "righteousness" (2 Tim. 4:8), is one that we should all endeavor to wear.
C. This is a motivation that transcends any earthly reward. That home in heaven can be yours if you want it badly enough.
