Hebrews 12:1-4

The first world of Hebrews 12, 'therefor' shows that it follows on from Hebrews 11. So this is a race we also run. We must be conscience of what the people in Hebrews 11 have done, but now we must carry on, we must take up the baton and run our part of the race. They can inspire us, even if they can't help us. We are nothing in our faith unless we are running.

We must look to Jesus we are told by the writer. Be struck by how central he is in this book, and therefore to the Christian life, to perservering and not falling away. While we run we must get rid of what holds us back, we must throw off the sin that so easily entagles. Get rid of it, stop doing it, stop entertaining it, keep running and keep fighting. It might not even by sin, it might even be something legitimate that is holding us back. We need to identify it and get rid of it. If our sin getting the better of us?

It easy to compare ourselves to others. We mustn't. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, we must keep looking ahead towards the finish, towards the prize. We are saved by our good looks. Not the way we look, but to whom we look. Looks at Jesus are good looks. Keep taking them. Jesus lived a life of faith, and so must the Hebrews who were tempted to fall away and go back to Judaism. It would have been easy for them, it would be easier for us to stray than follow. But we must live in faith as Jesus did, we are not above our Master.

We must be dutiful, dogged, delighted disciples. We must have discipline. God has spoken, we must pay attention.

We must keep looking to Jesus, nowhere else for anything, He must be the focus of our faith and hope.
We must stay Christ centred.
We must keep considering Jesus.
We must die to ourselves. We want to do things by ourselves, we want to be legalistic sinners. We mustn't.

We must 'run with endurace the race set before us, looking to Jesus'