This morning our church reading is going to come from Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 through 2 and I see the McClellan's back there I'm gonna see if I remember this sermon. I've actually preached this at St. Paul's and this is one of my favorite sermons of preach I think I've preached it like three different times and it just is fun I really enjoy this sermon a lot and it always speaks to me a laugh I said Lord you preach to me and I just get to tell other people about it because I know what you're throwing back at me The scripture says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clean so closely and let us run with perseverance the race That is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God Now this passage in Hebrews is one that's probably very familiar to most of us and the portion that we like to To remember and to relate to the most is let us run with perseverance the race set before us Is that familiar?
We've heard that one? Let us run that race But there's also that other part that says therefore since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses Those are the two that we kind of like to to remember the most out of that but this morning I'm gonna look at the second and the last part It's that part that I overlook it's that part that we all tend to overlook But it says therefore since we are surrounded by so great of cloud of witnesses Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that claims so closely So we like to kind of ignore that one a little bit because none of us have sin no we don't Yeah, okay, somebody chuckle. Thank goodness somebody over there got it and let us run the race with perseverance That just said before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith So those are the things lay aside the weight and the sin that claims so closely and look to Jesus Those are the two things we want to focus on this morning because that's what it looks like friends And we're carrying around things that we don't need to be carrying around and especially when those things lead us into sin But before we get started into the guts of the sermon I want to give you a little summary of Hebrews because we can never assume that people know what we think they know So it's better just to to help people along the way But Hebrews was written during a time of persecution There was a lot of unrest and uncertainty and the book's author is known She's an unknown and the audience is most likely that's a Jewish Christians And so these people like they knew the stuff they knew about Moses they knew about the tabernacle about angels and the enemy The devil would you know Satan and these Old Testament heroes? They knew all of these things but this message of the superiority of Jesus We've been very important to the Jewish Christians in Rome because they were struggling under another type of superiority They were suffering under Nero's persecution and he was an evil awful person But they were it was so bad that they were considering moving back into Mosaic law And so they were finding themselves at a crossroads of what they knew in their hearts What they had always been taught to be true and what their environment was now telling them I think we can relate to that we see that a lot So the writer to the Hebrews showed that these Jewish Christian believers that though they were faced with suffering They were indeed following a better way and they should persevere because everything points to Christ The author wanted to know the importance and superiority of Jesus He wanted to encourage the people not to give in and give up and he wanted to remind them of God's covenant with the people So to summarize in layman's term because that's the way I like to do it in my brain works The people were just like us They were going through some difficult things They were living in uncertain times and even though they knew what was right what they had always been taught What they always believed in they were finding it hard to keep going and they were feeling discouraged But instead of giving up and giving in they were encouraged to push through To persevere to look at the examples of all of those who had gone before them So let go of all that which was weighing them down and to simply look to Jesus Anything else feel like you needed that cosmoi?
Anything else feel like these books in the Bible were written just for you I think I see my picture by some of them So maybe you're here today Maybe you're watching from home and you feel like you need to let go of some things that are weighing you down and maybe they're weighing you down physically You know stress can actually really make you sick It affects your body and your mind and your spirit So maybe you have things that are weighing you down physically and maybe you have things that are weighing you down emotionally And maybe there are things that are weighing you down financially and maybe there are things that are weighing you down spiritually And maybe it would look like this little guy here. Now. Would you see this guy? He's got a load.
He's got a lot that's just weighing it down and I love it He's stooped over. I mean it's just becoming more than what he can handle Maybe that's what some of us look like Now I'm gonna play a little game with you. It's called two truths and a lie. Anybody played that game before?
It's fun So what it is I'm gonna tell you two truths and a lie about me and you're going to have to figure out which one is true Now in case the McClellens have heard this before sorry. I keep calling you out on here And they're not here St. Paul's. I'm sorry And my family can't answer because they might know but two truths in the law.
We're gonna see which one is the law I like to put Doritos on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I love love to drive And I just strangely pick up things with my toes Okay, what you want to you don't think I love to drive? Okay, what do you think? I said pick things up on my toes?
Okay, so we got two and three Everybody thinks I like Doritos on my sandwich. I guess cuz nobody has said that one Me too. Okay, so I just gave that one away Okay, what do you think? Okay Doritos and peanut butter?
Okay, say again again here say it each other tell me get a good here The Doritos okay, so this is teen Doritos over here. What do y'all thinking? Know it too. Okay, it's hard for me to see the lights.
I'm sorry. Okay. No assist to Which is driving y'all got driving back here Dang it. Y'all smart.
It's two. I can't stand to drive. Oh You got it my people are over there going in you can't drive either. Yeah, yeah Yeah, Tyler picked two well if y'all will look one day I've a new car.
I'm so excited. I went from a mini-vander car now I'm missing my mini-vander because shake right on roll. I mean 160,000 miles what was she nine years old eight years old? I love my Honda Odyssey Oh, my kids got older and I was serving a three-point charge last year I said I'll go down and get something a little better gas mileage and I finally get to get me a long like a real real car So I got my little black car and it's so cute Oh, she's fine her name's Francie and she is so fine my kids call my mini-vander white whale Yeah, so I went from the white whale to Francie Francie's got these shiny black realms I mean y'all she is so she's out in the parking lot y'all look at her later and admire her with me Every she's not here old.
I need to say that again. She's not here old every single one of those black rounds are scratched up Yeah, because I can't judge distance and I get the thing at Starbucks one day And I knew like a minute it happened and I like it goes go forward So now I just come home and say Jason Where's magic marker because you know they're talking to me four hundred fifty dollars a tire to fix them So every couple weeks or so I get black magic marker and I just go back and pick them Anyway, so now I don't like to drop so see there you go two truths and a lot of peanut butter and jelly Sandwich with the reedos on them and I really really can't pick up stuff on my toes when you're pregnant Most of the mamas we get that you've got to do whatever you can do and I learned you know I got to pick up stuff with your toes, but you know that's always a fun little game But it can be very hard if you don't know the person it can be hard and you have to guess So some of our greatest hardships come from not knowing the truth of who God is so this morning We're gonna look at two truths and a lie from a spiritual perspective, but first we're gonna look inside my backpack Okay, where rats would you mind helping me buddy? Can you go over there and get my backpack? It's purple with some of the flowers because I didn't tell the kids I'm in school too I go to we'll just call it preacher school I go to seminary and so I get to go learn about Jesus and how to be a better pastor and about the Bible and all that oh There's something oh what Tyler would you mind helping him?
Oh my goodness? Sometimes I just packed stuff in there that I don't need let Tyler help you. Look there you go You both can get a strap. Oh teamwork and look let's see if we can't pick it up here because Lord knows I can't even Don't pick it up.
Let's put it up there. Oh my gosh boys. Thank you so much. Oh Thank you.
Oh y'all are awesome. Thank you, Rhett. Thank you Tyler. Oh y'all good truth this morning is that we get to choose Everything that goes in our backpacks.
Okay, we need to choose what we put in and so in a minute we're gonna look at what I have chosen to put in my backpack and We're gonna look at what you put in your backpacks figuratively and literally but see I chose everything intentionally this morning to go in there For the sermon you see we don't always get to choose what happens to us, but we get to choose how we respond and so Maybe I'll just unpack it now. Let's unpack it now. It doesn't sound like glass doesn't it Rhett? That sounds like glass.
Let's see what's in here. Huh? Well, no wonder there's a lot of heavy things in here. There are so many heavy things.
Oh my goodness. What is that? Oh my gosh, Tyler made oh Oh bitterness. Oh wow.
Anybody put bitterness in their bag? Oh, yeah See we can uh we could choose The to put stuff in the bag and we can't always choose how we respond. Sometimes it just happens It just comes out quickly sometimes we put bitterness in here because we don't really know how to deal with the things that have hurt us in life And let's see what else we have I don't do this, but anyway, this one's jealousy We we have a tendency to get jealous. I know y'all are jealous over my scratch of rheum's but you know But you know sometimes we've had jealousy in our bag because we look at what other people seem to have Let me tell you a truce what you say on Facebook is a lot Those grasses are not always greener those things are not always better.
I hate that our children do live and I love you some social media Don't get me wrong. I try to put positive stuff on there But our children unfortunately live in a age where jealousy is going to be a heavy thing for them to carry Because everything they see on social media media seems to glitter and shine The friends let me tell you it doesn't and jealousy comes when when the the grasses seem to be greener for other people and we seem to be struggling And you know jealousy is just one of those things that will latch on to us and it really does lay us down Let's see gosh. I don't like this one, but it's a part of our world and it's hate We can tend to hate a lot more than we love I try to correct my children when just in normal things that we like I hate people who drive on the left side of the road That's so hard. Don't say that you may say I don't like what they do But let's not hate people because they think and look and breathe differently than we do Because christ did not say to hate your neighbor.
He said to love people But sometimes we get wrapped up in so many differences And so many things that we think is right that we put hate in our bag and we cling to it like it's some kind of golden path Oh That's right. Tyler. There's more wrong with him than it is us. Absolutely.
And then there's hurt from others. Gosh This should be a big big weight Because sometimes we don't know what to do with the hurt that comes into our lives We don't know how to really forgive people. We don't really know how to let go And when people hurt us it just leaves these wounds and these scars and we may say that we have forgiven but it still weighs heavy on us When we've been hurt and we've been wounded we do we carry it around We carry it around and drag it with us Gosh look at all of these. There's anger.
We get mad over the silliest things. I told y'all I got a red-headed temper. It's getting better now Oh, no, that's right. Sorry my red-headed friends.
So sorry But it's easy to get mad. It's easy to get upset because we're gonna say sometimes it's hard to control what happens to us It's hard to control the environment we're in. It's hard and sometimes we just blow up And sometimes we just get mad because we just want to be mad I'm sorry. Sometimes people just mad because they choose to be mad and they choose to be angry And so they carry this around like some little red badge of courage.
I'm gonna be angry I'm gonna be mad at the world because I don't like anything about it. We all know those people sometimes we are those people No Yes, you're right. So target for each other's one. The biggest one is probably Indian hatred and all of those weights They should be bigger because we pack all of these things in there And so our bags for each and every one of us they tend to be heavy Now I imagine that as we go into a new school year That there's gonna be a lot of those teachers a lot of administrators coaches and secretaries Pera's and bus drivers custodians parents and children all alike who are about to strap on some really heavy backpacks They're there's strapping on a lot of different emotions a lot of different things But remember what I just said we get to choose what's in our backpack we get to choose what we carry That's the truth But it becomes a law when we fail to see the truth of God's promises Oh one of my favorites is Psalm 147 3 it says that he heals the broken hearted and bandages their wounds The new living translation uses the word bandage and I love that because I'm very visual But it says like a good father he comes and he places a bandage of love over our hurting hearts So that instead of putting hurt from others instead of putting Heartache or whatever in our bag we can put in the truth that God is the one who will bandage our hearts and take all of our brokenness And he will give us a new heart as equal says that he will give us a new heart and he will put a new spirit within us He will take out that stony stubborn heart and give us a tender responsive heart So our hurts are bound up by his love for us and our sinful thoughts and our actions are choosing bitterness over joy Our jealousy over contentment.
Yes, those things are seen by a simple by God and they draw us away from him But those things he can remove he puts a new spirit within us. He creates a pure heart within us Wouldn't it be easier to carry around a contented hopeful happy joyful heart than all of that other stuff And what about worry? I think I forgot to mention worry one of those weights is worry There's a familiar song called his eye is on the sparrow and it reminds us that a bird can be vulnerable to many things Even its little body is fragile. We are vulnerable to many things I am vulnerable.
You are vulnerable my friends to many things our spirits our minds our bodies become fragile when we are consumed by worry Which leads to stress and anxiety and all of these debilitating things So imagine how my back or your back would feel if we had to log around a bad full of worry every day And sadly we do Not gonna deny that but Jesus says therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life What you eat or what you would drink nor about your body Not even about what you would put on because it's not life more than food in the body more than clothing Look at the birds of the air. They neither sewed nor they reaped nor do they gather into bars And yet your heavenly father feeds them Are you not more valuable than they are and would you be anxious can even add a single hour to the span of this life And why are you anxious about clothing consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither tall nor do they spin yet? I tell you even Solomon in all of his glory was not a raid like one of these But if God so closed the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into oven Well, he not much more close you oh little face So don't be anxious Wondering what you eat and what you would dream or what you should wear for the gentile seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows That you need all of them. He knows all that we need friends But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you So don't be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow be anxious about itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble As we head back to school there are going to be a lot of worries a lot of anxieties But we must cling to his promises if worry is more than you can handle some days And you find that you keep stuffing it back into that bag Paul's and remember that Hebrews 4 16 says that we can approach the throne of grace with confidence With confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need Oh, y'all that's a beautiful promise and i'm watching the clock we're over, but that's okay I hope nobody has a rose burning It's a beautiful promise that you and I can boldly and confidently Come before the creator of the universe let that sink in We can come boldly and confidently before the creator of the universe and he will help us The second truth is this you have to carry your own backpack Now look at these little backpacks here.
I love these little things When my kids were little it always seems like they wanted to bring the entire house Everywhere we went and then before I knew it I was the keeper of all the legos and all the army men and the poly pockets and the barbies and my bag Was becoming over and by things that didn't even belong to me Anybody feel that? Embracious alive if any of those things came up missing you talked about toddler tyranny it was on And so actually this got old and I bought little bags they were exactly like that And they had their little names and monogrammed on them I still keep them like just for little memories on the line because those bad boys are thread bearing now We use those things as long as we could but you know why this works so well They were perfect and they worked so well because their name gave them ownership over that bag It was theirs and two because it was their size They were able to choose what went into their bag and what went in had to belong to them And they were able to carry it with ease Maybe that's what we need to look at maybe we need to look at things from a toddler perspective We saw earlier that poor rat couldn't pick up all that stuff. It was too much for him And Tyler comes along and scoops up But you know all too often we were carrying things that is not ours to carry And when this happened our load gets to be more than we can bear look at this little guy here He's got his bag plus all these other bags. He's trying to carry all of these things That's not gonna work for very long.
That's not sustainable. It's actually exhausting Sometimes we carry things that is not ours to carry And when our load gets to be more than we can bear I found it absolutely insane that a dung beetle is not only the world's strongest insect But also the strongest animal on the planet compared to body weight a dung beetle can pull 1,141 times their own weight This is the equivalent of an average person pulling six double-decker buses full of people I know Isn't that amazing? Talk about a load It feels like that when we are trying to carry other things that don't belong to us We are called to bear when another's burdens don't get me wrong, but we are not God Let me repeat that we are not God and we cannot carry the weight of someone else's stuff and our own without burning out And causing ourselves to be worn down physically mentally emotionally and spiritually I've seen that some people that are caregivers. I've been one.
I know I've seen this happen To those who have uh that are parents our siblings our spouses to addicts I've seen people try to take on so much and that they are the ones that are pulled down The lie we believe is that we have to do it all and we have to be everything to everyone and i'm preaching to the choir It's a reality check for me personally, but maybe it's your reality check too But I want to remind us both that we don't have to carry everything for everybody We don't have to carry the full load. It's okay to help people But it's not okay to be abused and take an advantage of But even if you find yourself experiencing that let me remind you that mattu 1128 through 30 says and it should hopefully be familiar to many of us come to me all All who are weary and heavy burdens and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me For I am gentle And humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy on my burden is light You see a yoke can be defined as an arch device formerly laid on the neck of a defeated person If you are the one feeling defeated if you are feeling as though your load is too heavy to carry Because it's yours plus that of others. I encourage you to take it to the one who is able To the one who says come While I want it to be another truth Perhaps it can be the final thing is a law. We really can't control everything that goes on our backpack We could choose what we put in but we can't control what happens Maybe this is the result and not really paying attention to what we put in Maybe we can look at it this way We put our planners in our backpack with all of our best laid plans And I don't know about you, but my planner is pretty maxed out right now We mark all the boxes of of activities and meetings and and this and that and we put it in our backpack with all of our best laid plans It's our lifeline.
It's our uh this thing that keeps us Centered in this world and we put it in there with our planning for one day at a time when one bit of time when you're at a time And to no fault amount or your own we can pull it out and we can look at the boxes that have been jumbled around and mixed up and changed From the original plans And it makes us pause to ask are they really our plans to make? When we mark all the boxes and we're doing all the things for all the people or they really are plans to make Because this here is the truth Proverbs 1921 says that many plans are in a man's heart But the purpose of the lord will prevail Even if I carefully and intentionally choose to place a calendar and all of those plans in the bag It's the purpose of the lord that will prevail Another example might be this and i'm trying guys I like to put a snack in my bag because well i like to eat But sometimes i put my snack in there and i open it up when i'm starving and my stomach's rallying And i pull it out only to find that it's slushed and crumbled And i'm gonna have to like slurp it out of the bag somehow Because the one thing that i hoped would nourish me has left me empty and longing It sometimes that looks like our relationships that thought you thought were good and needed And it left you feeling left out or hurt and alone So we put relationships in our bag We place our children not literally some of you might want to but not literally We place our children in our bags Hoping that we can control and tend to them and keep it safe and and have all the plans for them But the truth is we can't control the way that people treat us We can't control what happens to our children And that's a hard thing to take in We can't control what they get in an accident. We can't control if they get sick We can't control if they fell in class Some things are out of our control, but they are never out of God's reach So there's a lot to consider when we look at well we carry and how it can weigh us down So i want to start again real quick and i'm wrapping it up Handy that bag bag then I've got a different bag And this is what i want to encourage you to carry This is what you see how easy that was I like a bag that's not weighed down with stuff I want you to carry the word of God with you I want you to carry the truth because this is the truth When we pack our bags with the truth of God They're a lot easier to carry I've got some glasses here so that can see others So that can see what God is leading me to and pointing me to in this life I don't want to miss the plans that he has for me I also have a cross A reminding of all that Christ has done and will do That all those heavy things I don't have to carry because they have been crucified with Christ I also have some water to remind me to nourish my physical body But to remember that Christ is the living water that will feed and nourish my spiritual soul I have a heart and it says Jesus knows me this I love It reminds me of the love that God has for me and the love that i'm to have for my neighbor I love this one It says ring for Jesus it reminds me that I constantly need a call upon the name of Jesus Call upon Jesus When the things are heavy call upon Jesus because he's not going to allow you to weigh yourself down with stuff He died to set us free from slavery and sin and death But also to set us free from all of the things that threaten to harm us So that's what I would put in my bag. That's what I would put it not this So as you are going about your day whether you're teaching whether you're working whether you're raising babies Whatever it is whether you are living it up in retirement life I don't care what it is.
We all have bags that are going to be full of something And I pray I pray that we will be so intentional about what we're carrying around Because it's hard to thrive as individuals It's hard to thrive as the body of the church when we've got anger and jealousy and bitterness Deviceiveness all of that junk that the enemy says low-duck girl, but the lord says That's not sure security. So look at your bags. Look at your bags Watch what you're putting in and make everything Bring you peace and make all things bring glory to God. Amen I'm gonna invite you to bow with me as we pray, but I forgot one thing and I want to show you this real fast We have some families missing this week next week We're gonna have a special service.
I'm encouraging as many folks as you can to come and buy any faces that you know or not here Some of the faces will be back next week, but they're at st. Paul's right now and these gentlemen can we pop them up there? Look how good they look they went on retreat and so one of the things about the retreat ministry is they try to have a service together So these guys are at st. Paul's right now and they're just worshiping and being poured into I want you to reach out to these guys.
I don't know if you can see but there's john and mac there is being stoked there, let's see who else are retreatants and Okay, well they were workers. I'm trying to think of the ones that were treated and being those are our retreatants the others have been over treated They were working. I mean, I hurried all a little bit, but especially those three guys. This was a new experience for them Talk to them.
They can't tell you all the the good parts because that's just part of going on retreat But congratulate them watch for that change in them Because God does mighty things in these retreats the women's retreat is coming up in september I encourage you to be in prayer for the ladies But y'all I'm pumped that these guys have had amazing and amazing and amazing weekend So they're not with this today. That's where they are But I just want us to really be proud of them and just show them love when they get back Because I know that this is going to shape their families is going to shape how they lead And it's going to shape how they live into their calling. So as we pray, we're also going to pray for these guys, okay Now with me father, God, I thank you so very much. I know that our time has been long But lord, I am thankful that you do not give us anything to measure time by when it comes to you lord I thank you for this service I thank you for these these people that are here that are wanting to to be filled by you lord So let us be those who are filled let us be those who lay aside all of the stuff that takes up places in our lives Where you need to be present So lord help us to throw off all these weights and to truly embrace your love your grace and your mercy lord, I thank you for these men in the retreat ministry I thank you that you have done a mighty thing in their life this weekend.
I know it I believe it and lord, I can't wait to hear all about it But lord, I know that here in this room there are others that need to really be renewed in your presence lord, there are those of us who just need to surrender so many things It's lord, I don't want to rush our time. I know that we're over. I know it's lunchtime But lord, I just feel that we need to take this moment And we just truly need to begin to surrender if we want to grow as people of Christ If we want to grow as the body of church, we've got to be willing To throw so many things aside and truly surrender to your calling to your purpose To all that you have for us So lord, I'm just gonna open this time briefly or if anybody wants to come I don't know that we can call this a true altar, but anywhere that you're present and we surrender It's an altar So lord if anyone needs to come into pray i invite them just to come and kneel before you lord if if someone needs me to pray over them, I will be so glad and honored Anyone in this room that does not know you as their lord and savior As jesus christ the one who was crucified dead and buried who rose from from the grave to set us all free lord may you just move in our hearts now and just stir a desire to know you So often as a church we want to go through the motions and we forget that not everyone believes That not everyone sitting in these pews in these chairs is in the same place So lord, let us just take this moment To do that what you have called us to do to surrender to be present to acknowledge you as lord of our lives