Above All Else: Take 10 Looks at Christ

In this final message of our Above All Else series on the heart and the seven deadly sins, Pastor Grant Clark brings everything we have excavated over the last two months to a single point of focus. After eight weeks of looking inward at pride, envy, lust, greed, sloth, wrath, and gluttony, Hebrews 12 turns our attention away from ourselves and fixes it on Jesus, the one who has already run and finished the race ahead of us. The argument is simple but freeing: we do not defeat sin by staring at sin, we are transformed by beholding Christ."Every Christian has something they need to lay aside."Working from Hebrews 12:1-3, Grant unpacks the old term besetting sin and calls us to name what trips us up, then to lay it aside and run with endurance.What a besetting sin is:- "A besetting sin is a persistent, deeply ingrained habit or weakness that continues to plague a person, and is hard for them to overcome. It is the specific temptation that you fall into repeatedly."Characteristics of besetting sins:- Recurring- Entangling- Highly PersonalizedIn The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis pictures a senior demon training a younger one to tempt people not with wild, outlandish sins we would easily reject, but with subtle temptations tailored to our own story, patterns, and habits.The one application Hebrews gives us:- Fix your eyes on Jesus, and consider him. There is no second point. We do not look in, we look up. We do not stare at our sin, we behold Christ. Transformation comes from beholding him, not from endless introspection."For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." - Robert Murray M'CheyneThe seven deadly sins are all different ways of looking away from Jesus:- Pride looks to self.- Envy looks to others.- Lust looks to pleasure.- Greed looks to possessions and money.- Sloth looks to comfort and satisfaction.- Wrath looks to revenge.- Gluttony looks to consumption.Scripture referenced:- Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)- Hebrews 12:1-3 (CSB)- Hebrews 11- 2 Samuel 11; Psalm 51- Hebrews 3:12-13- Hebrews 12:3- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)- Colossians 1:15-22 (CSB)- Hebrews 12:1-3 (MSG)- Hebrews 4:15