Hi everyone, my name is Karen, and the scripture reading for today comes from Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, 1 through 13, and it's located on page 1193 in the Bible and the seat around you. Hebrews 12, 1 through 13. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons. My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. And your hardship as discipline, God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father, if you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the father of our spirits and live? Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees, make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed the word of the Lord. Thank you, Karen. Lately, I have been praying for a new intensity in my life and at our church. I've been asking God that He would create among us corporately a new intensity. I was looking again at our mission statement up here at the top of our bullet and every Sunday morning it says, UPC strives, and there's a strong word for you. UPC strives to be a community of grace that makes a difference. We're here to make a difference. And frankly, it would be so easy for us on the eve of our 20th year to figure that we've sort of arrived and it's time to relax. I mean, we've got good programs and we like the worship, we like the teaching. Let's just enjoy being the church, you know. Let's just get together and let's just kind of coast. It would be so easy. We wouldn't say it that way, but I see that tendency in my own life individually. It would be so easy for me to conclude at this point in my life. You know, I've studied, I know the Christian faith, what more is there to learn? Let me just sort of take it easy to rest in my life. And it'd be easy for us to do that collectively too. And this morning's passage of scripture calls us to say no to that choice and yes to intensity. Love the Lord your God said Jesus with all your heart, all your soul, all your might, all your mind, all your strength. That's a call not to lukewarmness, not to compromise, but it's a call to intensity. When I think about this subject and how easy it would be for us to relax, I think of that letter in the book of Revelation that Jesus wrote to the church in Leo to see it. Remember the seven letters to the churches in the book of Revelation? The seventh and the last one is to this church that was kind of there where we are at. A church that's sort of figured we've got it made. Let's take it easy. And Jesus said to them, I wish you'd be either cold or hot, but your lukewarm and because of lukewarmness, I'm threatening to spit you out of my mouth. See, Jesus doesn't give his people any time or place in which we can choose to be anything less than absolutely intense. And so I've been praying in my own life for a new intensity. I've been praying for you and for us corporately for a new intensity that we might be rededicating ourselves to this mission of making a difference. We've identified in our community three things, three targets that God has uniquely positioned us and gifted us and given us a historical passion for the University of Central Florida being one. That's what the letter U stands for. UPC, U as UCFP is promoting and building strong kingdom advancing families. That's what VBS is all about. Vacation Bible School coming up in about six weeks. We need you to be intense about that. That's part of our mission field and the letter C stands for caring for the poor and the marginalized. And frankly, right now, that's why we're thinking about what's going on in Alabama. That's not our immediate community, but it's certainly the poor and it's certainly the marginalized right now. God is calling us to be intense about those things. What is intensity? I looked it up in the dictionary. It's great energy. It's concentration. It's focus. It's vehement. I love that word. Viemence of activity of thought or feeling. It's the state of being fervent, passionate, ardent and strong. Here's a good picture. I think that expresses intensity. Can you read that? It says, there will be time to rest when you're dead. You know, that's really true for us Christians, isn't it? There will be time to rest when we're dead. This is not the time to rest. The walk about this afternoon. Every one of us ought to be here for that, unless you're providentially hindered in some way. Because what we're doing is we're praying for our community together. How can we not do that? By the way, I want to tell the high schoolers in the bullet and there's a misprint. It says for you guys to be here at five o'clock, it's a misprint. You need to be here at four o'clock too. We want you to help us walk about and to permeate this area with prayer. So it's intensity that God is calling us as a church too. Here in Hebrews chapter 12, the author doesn't use the word intensity. Instead, he uses the word perseverance. It's the Greek word Hupo Monace. And it means concentration. It means endurance, constancy, bearing up under difficult circumstances. And so he doesn't use the word intensity, but he might as well. It might as well say, let us run with intensity. The race marked out for us there in verse 1. Because that is in fact what he calls us to do. The author says that following Jesus in verse 1 is like running a race. And it's not a short race. It's not a 100 yard dash. It's a marathon that Jesus is calling us to. It takes every ounce of energy and resolve and determination and prayer and faith and endurance that you can muster. To be a follower after Jesus. Maybe you don't like the running analogy. Maybe you hate to run. Okay, let's think about some other kind of thing. Some other project that we can compare the Christian life to. Maybe it's something like losing weight or learning to play the piano or trying to find a job. Whatever it is, it can't be done halfway. You've got to be all in. You've got to be all over it. Or it's not going to happen. It's the same with following Jesus. Friends, it's hard. It's not a cakewalk and never was designed to be a cakewalk. It requires great energy and strength of will and concentration and intensity. The people to whom this letter was written knew that. They were being persecuted for their belief in this rabbi from Nazareth who had been nailed to a cross who rose again from the dead and ascended to heaven. They were being pushed to the edge of society. They were being discriminated against. They were suffering. According to verse seven, they were enduring hardship. And lots of you know exactly what that's all about. Lots of you know exactly what it means in verse four where the author says in your struggle against sin. See that word struggle? It's the Greek word and tago nizzo, Mike. Can you hear that? And tago nizzo, my agony. The Christian life involves agony. Yes, there are times of ecstasy. Yes, one day upon the New Earth, we will have eternal ecstasy. But right now, it is often agony to be a follower after Jesus. I know when you watch those TV preachers, they want to tell you otherwise. They want to tell you that Jesus came to make you in right, out right, upright, down right, happy all the time. Prosperous, healthy and wealthy. I want you to know that message is totally contradicted by Hebrews 12. That's such a lie. Such a crock. Jesus says the Christian life is like a marathon that doesn't let up. But if you're walking with Jesus, what if you got to be focused? You've got to be passionate. You've got to be intense. How are you going to do it? That's the question of the day. How are you going to do it? This chapter says three things. That in order to be intense, there is something you must reject. Second, there is something you must remember. And third, there is someone on whom you must rely. So let's get involved in intensity and learn first of all from this chapter that if you're going to be intense, there's something that you've got to reject. And it's in verse one. Verse one says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and it's referring to the people in chapter 11 that we looked at last week, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Ask you this question, what is it in your life that's slowing you down? That's hindering your progress. Whatever it is says the writer, it's got to go. Cast it away, get rid of it, the sooner the better. What sin habits are getting in your way? What temptations tend to ambush you? You know what I mean? They sneak up on you when everything seems to be going well and they attack you unannounced. What thought patterns or activities or time-waisters are tripping you up or obstructing your path or discouraging you and taking you off track? Whatever they are, off with their heads. That's the message here. Off with their heads, throw off everything that hinders. Just like a runner gets rid of his or her extra weight, wears the lightest clothing that they can possibly get, takes off unnecessary jewelry, ties up her hair, so you and I need to repent of sin, say no to fleshy indulgence. Talk back to the devil, put away those things that steal away our intensity. Have you seen the movie 127 hours? Strong movie, but very, very good. 127 hours is about this guy named Aaron Wallston. At age 27, he went hiking in Utah's Blue Canyon, and he was down inside a canyon, and if you don't know the story, I'm about to spoil it for you, but it's out there, so there might as well. He was in this canyon and a boulder got dislodged and fell down on his arm and trapped it up against the canyon wall. And Aaron Wallston was stuck there for over five days with no food, a little bit of water, some camping supplies, some hiking supplies, a camera, and a multi-use tool. Day after day went by and after five days he figured, I gotta get out of here. And there's only one way I know to do it. Cut off my arm. That's why this movie is so strong. Because in the movie, you hear the bones popping. Yes. And the scene is pretty strong. People have walked out of that movie. They've fainted because of me. Just like, probably you're gonna faint. Don't faint on me. But I underscored that to show you to what extent this desperate man went. To what extent was his intensity that he was willing to part with something that was going to be the cause of his demise? He cut off his arm. I guess that's a literal illustration of what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew chapter five. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. And he of course did not mean to literally cut off your hand. The source of our sin is not in our hand, it's in our hearts. But Jesus was just underscoring the intensity with which we must go about living the Christian life and doing battle with the flesh. Just like Aaron Ralston did with his trapped arm. Are you tempted to pornography? What man isn't, right? Are you addicted to TV watching? Are you a gossip? Do you eat too much? Are you spending too much money? Do you struggle with anger, resentment, laziness? Are you cutting yourself? Friends, there's help for such things. I can help you. Our pastoral staff can help you. Johnny Lalonde, our counselor can help you. We have marriage mentors and Stephen ministers and elders and deacons and life groups and de-groups and Samson society and women's group and Bible studies. The point is don't do nothing. Don't tolerate that thing in your life. Don't give into it. Don't shelter it. Don't nourish it. Bring it out into the light. Don't keep it secret. Talk about it with someone you trust. Declare war on it. If you were here at Easter Sunday, you remember what we learned about chapter 11? Story after story of ordinary people who made it to the end. They were tempted too. They failed too. But they endured to the end. And now they're cheering for you. It says in verse 1. They're in heaven. Witnessing to the faithfulness of God and saying keep going. Don't give up. Run the race. I don't know all of you. Some of you I know well. Some of you I'm just acquainted with. But one thing I can safely say about every single person in this room counting myself is that there's something in your life that is competing with Jesus for your heart. And you must reject it. Day after day. Hour after hour. Minute after minute. If you're going to glorify and enjoy God as you have been created to do. So to be intense, to respond to this call today from Jesus. To be about his business with intensity. There's something you and I must reject. But secondly, this text teaches us that there's something that you must remember. Something you must remember if you're going to be intense and it's in verses 4 through 6. Look at verse 4. It says in your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons. My son don't make light of the Lord's discipline and don't lose heart when he rebukes you. Because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Now look when it says in verse 6. This is very important. When it says in verse 6 that God punishes everybody that he accepts as a son. It doesn't mean that whenever something bad or hard comes into your life, God is punishing you. That would be a terrible misunderstanding of that passage of Scripture. To be sure, sometimes the difficult things that come our way are God's chastening of us because of sin, God's correcting us for our sin. But you know what? Many times when you suffer it has no relationship whatsoever to sin in your life. You may be walking the path of obedience and still hardship comes your way. So don't think of just punishment when you see this word discipline that keeps coming up in this text. The word discipline really it means training. It means tutelage. It means education. We typically think of this one as you know the spanking kind, the punishing kind. Being given a penalty for something you've done wrong. No discipline is a process of helping somebody become a what? Disciple. Do you see the word disciple that's embedded in discipline? So this means that when you're in a time of adversity what God is doing is he's turning you into a better disciple. That's what you've got to remember. You haven't necessarily done anything wrong. You know I may be speaking to somebody right now who is just, just going through it. And you may have concluded that God has written you off his book. He's mad at you, he's angry at you. Look that's not what this text teaches. You may be doing everything right. But God allows things to happen to us and brings hardship into our lives so that, verse 10, I've got it underlined in my Bible, verse 10, so that you may share in his holiness. So what's the difficulty in your life right now? What buttons is God pushing? Where are you experiencing pain and discomfort and maybe even resentment and disappointment? Listen, here's what I want to say. Whatever it is, there's something you've got to remember. God is parenting you. He is your father. He loves you, like it says in verse 6, he disciplines those he loves. Kids, I know this is an issue for you at home. When your mom or your dad disciplines you, you are tempted to think this is so hopeless for me. No, you're being disciplined because your parents love you. They're their boundaries and their limits because your parents love you. And apparently we forget this about God because the Hebrews needed to be reminded of it in verse 5. What does our author say? He says, you've forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons. What about you this morning? Have you forgotten that God's your father and that discipline is a good thing? Yeah, it kind of stinks when you're getting discipline, doesn't it? Like it says in verse 11, no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. But then it goes on to say later on it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. So friends, if you'll remember that God has adopted you into his family, that you are his dearly loved son or daughter and nobody and nothing can ever pluck you out of God's loving hand, it'll help you to be intense. Something to reject, something to remember and last but not least there is someone on whom you must rely if you would be an intense person. There is someone on whom you must rely and of course that someone is Jesus. Sometimes Jesus is the right answer to the question. Look at verse two, it says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, that word means pioneer or forerunner or initiator. Looking at Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Fix your eyes on Jesus. I go working out at LA Fitness sometimes and I go up to the second story there and I get on one of those elliptical machines or the stairmaster or the stationary bike or whatnot. And I'm so distracted. I mean there's just visual stimulation everywhere. TV screens, skimpy outfits, I mean all these kind of things. So what I do is I focus on something out there, one of the columns or something on the floor and I fix my eyes on that and it really helps me to exercise better. The author is saying in your Christian faith as you walk along your walk with Christ because you've got to be intense, you need to fix your eyes on Jesus. That is, fix your thoughts, your meditations on Jesus. What does that mean? What does that look like? Someone may say, oh, I know what it looks like. It's that WWJD thing. What would Jesus do? I simply think about what Jesus would do and the example that he has set and I do that. That's what it means to fix my eyes on Jesus. Yes, Jesus is our example. Yes, it's a great thing to do to think of what Jesus would do in certain situations, but I want to disabuse you of that idea because WWJD is not the source of power. I want to change it to WDJD. What did Jesus do? And the more we are gripped and grafted by the message of what Jesus did do, the more that gospel sinks down deep into our bones, the more power and want to, there will be to live an intense life. That's how you rely on Jesus. WDJD, what did He do for me? What did He do? Verse 2 says He endured the cross. Now the cross was a lot more than just a cruel form of punishment, though it was that. The cross was more than an instrument of torture, though it was that, dying on the cross back in that day was a shameful way to die. It was a way to publicly shame somebody. I read someone's description of this. He says this and I quote, the goal of a Roman crucifixion was to not just kill the victim, but to shame them in a public way. You were stripped naked so that your body would be exposed. Remember how the guards gambled for Jesus robes and divided it among themselves. You were scourged or flagged with a whip, with metal or bone at the tips, ripping pieces of flesh from your body. And then five to seven inch nails will be driven into your wrists as you're tied to a cross, your legs are then broken, and then you're left out in the open air and all your nakedness for everyone to see. Each hour, each day, as the life drains out of you, as you lose control of your bodily functions, and then left to the vultures to be consumed. In the world of the New Testament, a crucifixion was a public shaming of the person, leaving them exposed and powerless. It took away their rights, their control, their worth, their dignity. It was a public statement really to say to everyone around that this is what this person is worth. And verse two says that Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame, laughing at its shame. Why for the joy that was before him? What joy? The joy of being reunited with his father to be sure, the joy of re-experiencing the glory of the triune guide when he ascended to heaven to be sure, but also the joy of bringing many sons and daughters into that glory. The joy of seeing creation redeemed and restored and you and me, and all of his chosen ones together in one place on the New Earth. That joy was so motivating and so empowering for our Savior that he endured the cross. He was intense because of that joy that was set before him. It enabled him to persevere through suffering and pain. That joy got him through the cross to the crown and it's that same joy that will get you through the cross to the crown and make you somebody of intensity. So child of God, the application of this is to consider him. Verse three, contemplate him, think about him carefully and thoroughly and often the one who endured such opposition from sinful man so that you too will not grow weary and lose heart. Do you get it? That's what it is to rely on him. Not only to reject sin, remember who you are in Christ, but to always rely on the one who for the joy set before him did what he did, live the life you couldn't live, die the death you deserve to die that you might have a relationship with the father. I want to show you a video in conclusion. It's a video showing a guy by the name of Derek Redmond. Anybody remember Derek Redmond? He was a runner back in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Well, something happened to him during this race that really tested his endurance. Take a look and see how the father didn't stay in the stands cheering. He came to where Derek was and walked the race with him just as in your life. God doesn't just cheer you on from up in heaven. He sent Jesus to take your sin and punishment and to identify with you in your journey. Every day you also have the Holy Spirit living within you to help you along the way. So since you're surrounded by such a mighty throng of witnesses, since Jesus endured the cross in this way, since God the father is running this race with you every step of the way, throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And run with intensity, the race marked out for us. Let's pray. Our father, thank you so much that you called us your sons and daughters and that Jesus, you came to be what we could not be. To be intense when we're weary. To be perfect when we're so broken and fallen. And thank you, Holy Spirit of God, that you live and abide among us and within us. To be the strengthener, the comforter, the helper on the way. So father, son and spirit, we give ourselves a fresh to you this morning and we confess that we need your help, but we renew our commitment to be people of intensity. And now we come to this table and we thank you Jesus for your body and your blood. Thank you that these are means of grace for us. That this communion that we do with you is actually the way we grow, the way we get stronger. And so we pray that you will bless these elements and set them apart Lord for the special use of being signs and seals of the covenant of grace. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.