Hebrews 12:1-3

“Vicarious Self-Efficacy”

“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1)

“Race,” Gk. ἀγών (agōn), “a perilous or toilsome contest”

“Endurance,” Gk. ὑπομονή (hypomonē), “to stand or remain under”

I. RUN THE RACE

Hear the crowd cheer

Hebrews 12:1a: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”

“Witnesses,” Gk. μάρτυς (martys)

1. One who witnesses or watches something
2. One who testifies in a legal setting

Shed the extra weight

Hebrews 12:1b: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely”

“Clings so closely,” Gk. εὐπερίστατος (euperistatos), “easily or constantly distracted”

Mission Statement: “Becoming a safe place for people to let go of their secrets and providing a safe process to grow in spiritual and emotional maturity in Christ.”

You can either lay aside your side or your sin will lay you out.

Focus on the Finisher

Hebrews 12:2: “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.”

Jesus does not call us to endure what he himself has never endured.

Phil. 2:6–8: “Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Hebrews 12:3: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

“Consider,” Gk. ἀναλογίζομαι (analogizomai), “To focus on attentively”