Entanglements and Endurance | Womanhood

Bethany Clark | Respond Women’s Retreat

How can we run the race faithfully as women in this distracting world?

In this session, Bethany Clark walks through Hebrews 12 and discusses things that hinder us from running the race well. Anxiety creeps in when we start to feel like we have no purpose.

Let’s be faithful to the Lord and run the race of Christian faith well. 

• Hebrews 12
• James 4:13-14
• 2 Timothy 3:1
• James 5:11
• 2 Timothy 1:9
• Upon Waking by Jakie Hill Perry

Transcript – Entanglements and Endurance

Hey, everybody, that was a great day, wasn’t it? That rain. It just got all done and then, it cleared up and it got hot. I had to go to Walmart and buy groceries for my family because I have a lot of kids. I’m going to show you a picture in a minute. It was so hot I was driving my son’s truck and on the way home, I look in the back the rear-view mirror and there’s like, this brown circle in the back of his truck and I could not figure I was afraid something would fly out. I didn’t know, but I got home and my ice cream had melted. I know two things of it. I’m like, that’s like, 15 bucks these days, it was a perfect Bluebell circle just out on the track, you all know what I did, what would you do? Yes, I did. I scraped it off and I thought, I’m not going to tell him. I try to hide it from him. I have five boys, so I’m hiding things where I’m like, they’re not going to get in the medicine cabinet and find my Chips Ahoy, but they find my stashes anyway, you want to show them. I wanted to show you all funny. So, my name is Bethany Clark, first of all, let me slow down. I know, I don’t know a lot of you. There are so many new folks here and I’m so thankful that you guys made the trek to Snowbird Outfitters. It’s awesome. I have, yes.

So, this is a great picture of my family. This is Easter, except for this isn’t everybody. Did anybody else experience this at Easter, trying to get the family together to take a picture? So, Amy, the one that’s singing here in the middle, took this for me and we look around and we realize we’re missing a kid. So, can you actually show them the whole There we go. There’s the whole family. So, we added Gabe. he was playing Fortnite at the house and couldn’t, I don’t know, raise your hand if you know anything about this game, first of all, it’s of the devil. Second of all, you can’t just stop it, apparently, because the world will end, you have to finish the whatever and I’m like, in his mind, he’s going to win money or something. It hasn’t happened yet. It probably will never happen, but anyway, he was late to the Easter picture. So, these are my boys. I’ve got an 18-year-old 16 my twins here and then, Zeke is nine. he just turned nine in April. So, my tie to Snowbird, is my husband works here, this will be his 24th summer. So, I don’t know if you guys know much about camp ministry, but that’s unique. It’s very interesting that the Lord has allowed a core group of us to stay together this long and I’m thankful for a couple of reasons.

First of all, what you see is what you get, we don’t do this all the time, the last time I had been back there was last year at respond. So, I want you to know that, because what you’re about to hear, is what the Lord’s been teaching me this past year and I got about 35 minutes to get that in, let’s be honest, that probably won’t happen, but I will do the best I can, but you’re getting what the Lord has been teaching us, all of us, throughout this year and it’s been beautiful this weekend, I just this morning when Anna Rose said that she had was in the wrong scripture and then, read the one that she did, I was like, it blows my mind. I don’t know why. I’m always surprised you feel this when the Lord just shows off. It was so good, wasn’t it and it was heavy, it was tough, but it goes perfectly with what the Lord’s going to do this evening, but I wanted to, I’ve been taking notes this weekend. I’ve been attending with you ladies, but this is what I put together so far and moving in, we’re going to be in the Hebrews 12 tonight. So, from Friday night, non-eternal things we hope in weaken us. Misplaced hope makes us become desensitized to the level of our own need for comfort. That was from this morning and tonight, we’re going to talk about those two ideas causing us to not run the race that’s been set before us.

So, what I’d like you to do, if you will, turn to Hebrews 12:1 and 2, we’re going to do two verses and a lot of verses, because that’s how I do and you guys, I teach middle school, so I’m going to have some props up here. I’ve got a couple of my students are in the room, so they’re used to hearing me babble, but I’m going to go ahead and read our passage and then, we’re going to do a little illustration. Hebrews 12:1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesu 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. Tonight, I want to take our time to walk through this passage of scripture. I’m trying to figure out where to put all my stuff here. I want to ask us a series of questions about five questions to reflect these two verses that’s going to help us be introspective in our individual walks with the Lord, a spiritual gage test of sorts, that I hope will challenge us as women to be in the word anchored, rooted and grounded in Christ above all else. That’s the goal. That’s what we want. That’s what we want. That what we hope to achieve this weekend,

My church Red Oak, which there in the back, I heard him scream out this morning, so let me just give you all a little context for the hype this camp Snowbird, many years ago, began a house church and because we work on Sunday morning, so we had to start meeting in the evenings and we started a church and this year we have about 55 Red Oak women back there representing our, which is no longer a house church. It’s like a church, church and it’s awesome. It’s very encouraging, but last year, my church, Red Oak went through Hebrews and if any of you now that you’ve heard of Melchizedek and all this, you know that this is not just like a lap around the track. It’s like an exhausting marathon to walk through Hebrews. It’s like doing water aerobics. How many of you have ever done water aerobics and then, that little lady’s like, let’s go to the deep end of the pool and you’re like, okay and you have to have something to hold on to, or you’re going to drown, you know that feeling. So, Jesus is the flotation device and he is who we have to hold on to as we study this book, there’s a lot to it, but it repeatedly shouts that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God’s love. Brooke read this first the first night and I’m going to repeat it in the very first verse of Hebrews. It tells us what the whole thing is about.

So, we see in this verse that long ago and many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus. The main overview of this entire book is to elevate Jesu to shine the spotlight on a shift from the Old Testament prophecies to the fulfilling of them and the person and work of Jesus Christ ladies, he’s more than just a teacher. he is more than just a good person. he’s, in fact, God in the flesh and is superior to all created beings because he is God. Why is that important? It matters, you get that knock on the door and there’s a Jehovah’s Witness standing there and you can’t remember, what is it that they believe and I need to tell them, Jesus is God, that’s the difference. So, this is the book that you can study to help you when you start to doubt or when you’re not sure, Hebrews, is it, it exists to challenge the reader to remain faithful despite persecutions that are going to come as Anna Rose talked about this morning, Hebrews reiterates this line of faithful believers that did not abandon the faith, even in the face of attack, ridicule, persecution that came at them. God did not abandon them, even if they did not receive the promise in their lifetime, they remained faithful. Hebrews ends with an instruction on how to finish well. So, when you leave here, if you want more, keep reading, read the end.

I would love to keep going with 12 all the way to the end and 13, it tells you the how keep going with it. When you get home, it ends with instruction on how to finish well and what to watch out for on the journey that’s going to come. because, Solomon instructs us in Ecclesiastes, there’s nothing new under the sun, the attacks that come against us today in 2024 are the same since the garden in Genesis 3, where the enemy convinces Eve to question the goodness of the Lord and to doubt his word. One reason respond is such a great time to hear, think and apply scripture to our lives practically as women, is because we can dig into a book like Hebrews and ask specifically, what does God want to teach me as a lady, as a woman, through a passage like this? We know Jesus loved women. he elevated them. Their status in this timeframe was lower than a slave and he would talk to them. he would introduce them to things. he would tell them who he was before he told anybody else. So, we can look at a passage like Hebrews, the admonitions and the accountabilities and I can look at it in light of being a female. It’s wonderful. I want to borrow an illustration really quick. So, if I could get Tiffany to come out here, I saw David Platt do this, this is not original. Bethany, he was speaking on Hebrews 11.

I’m going to need your help, all right. So, this is my friend Tiff here and she is going to be blindfolded. Is that okay? We did, we sort of, talked about it. here you do. I don’t want to make it awkward. more awkward than it is, so she’s going to, we’re going to do this over. I don’t really want her to fall off the stage. So, you all going to have to help. So, I need you all to, are you good, is it too tight? So, let’s move you over to the side so you don’t trip. So, if she so, she’s going to represent somebody that is walking by faith, not by sight and you guys are going to help her. If she is walking good, not going to die fall off the edge of the stage. I want you to clap, you ready? Let’s practice, everybody clapping. If she gets too close to the edge, I want you guys to say, we love you, you good. Sor, we love you if she’s in trouble, clap, if she’s good. I’m going to spin you. I forgot to mention that. All right. go. Okay, okay, is that good, is that good, should we do it again? No, we’re good, okay, all right, very good, thank you Tiff. I’m going to borrow my blindfold. So, thank you all. I appreciate this, obviously, in this. Illustration, you guys are representing the church, we are to work together to spur each other on to good works, you could say that this shows accountability or admonishing that is designed to take place in your church community, small groups. Last year at respond, we talked about in Galatians.

About holding up our shields of faith. If you were here last year, we got to challenge each other to hold up those shields when one of us is struggling. That’s the point. That we, so we come alongside each other, but this illustration has holes in it. The church isn’t perfect. Accountability is hard, we’re sinful. I don’t like a mirror to be held up to my face. I don’t want to be told I’m wrong. Since 2020 the church as an organization and a place of importance in our lives has been under attack, we’ve chosen, at different levels over the past four years to ease back into the body of Christ and the enemy has had a field day, if you went to Caitlin Gubbels Breakout this afternoon on community, she talked about this, because during this time, our online presence has grown exponentially, but it’s quietly destroying us, so we want to dig into God’s word and see how it’s going to advise and teach us. Let’s go to 12:1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So, who are these witnesses? This is a… The short answer is, it’s any and all people that have lived before us. It’s not that all those that have died are spectating to our race. It’s a cloud of witnesses, but they have been where we are.

It’s not like they’re up there going oh, that’s such a cute little women’s retreat. That’s not, I know sometimes our perception of death and what happens afterwards is skewed, but it’s an idea that this is a group of people that has been where we are at this point and there will be after us. So, I look at the word cloud, I’m a science teacher and I think about the different types of clouds. This morning, we had a cumulonimbus dump on us for a few minutes. Then later in the afternoon, you’ve got these wispy, little short, cirrus clouds that are here and gone so fast. Matt Chandler said in his message on Hebrews 12 that this is our time. you’re sitting in this room tonight because someone in generations before you made it possible. The bible that you hold, the doctrine that you have in your heart, is there because somebody came and told, wrestled and fought and most likely suffered for the sake of the gospel and stood firm, so our life according to James 4:13 – 14. If you’re writing that down, I’ll repeat it. James 4:13, – 14 says this, come now who say today or tomorrow will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You’re a mist, a mist, a brief cloud that appears for a little time and then, vanishes, a family in March that’s really close to our church family lost their son, a 22-year-old, in a tragic car accident.

Somebody took an illegal turn and it caused his life to be cut short instantly, we walk through this grieving process with their family. It’s the most difficult I think, when a young person is taken from us, because we do understand the brevity of life, don’t we? When someone that seems to not have lived out his time frame is taken, it feels wrong and heavy, because we are not created for death, we’re not created for it and this family had four kids, the older brother, Cameron, gave a eulogy tribute to his brother, Jonathan and his words. This has only been about a month ago, but his words were so powerful that I wanted to read them to you, if that’s okay. This is what he said of his brother. Sometimes it’s human nature to put an emphasis on the amount of time a person spends here as a measure of the possibility of the greater quality of life we can live or fulfill here. Yet in God’s creation, time is merely nonexistent. It’s a means for us to describe just the passing of events, for Cameron, though it may seem, he lived too short, he fulfilled his eternal purpose within the time he had here, this place is an estuary, we come for a purpose briefly, then head home. Make sure you don’t do him a disservice by limiting his life merely to a measure of time, but rest in the confidence that he has fulfilled his eternal purpose here.

He just beat us to heaven. So, while we are still here, let us honor him by living out our purpose and kindness and love, I thought that was so powerful to listen to a 20-year-old saying, don’t put his life at a disservice. he fulfilled it and it’s time, we see this all throughout the bible, though, don’t we? When they talk about the greats, Moses led the people. In the next sentence, he dies, Joshua takes over. he led. he did good and then, he dies. David leads, does his thing and he dies and Solomon takes over and so on. The span of our lives is so short it can feel depressing if we dwell on the briefness of our lives, or it can spur us to run the race that Hebrews is talking about the race, the one that is set before us, but as like any good teacher, the writer of Hebrews then gives us exhortations about what to watch out for on this race we’re set in, let’s look at the next part of the verse 12:1, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The KJV says, set aside every weight and sin, which doth so easily beset us. The NIV says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. The New Living says, strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin.

That easily trips us up, easily entangles, but if the weight isn’t sin, then what is it? I think it’s interesting that you have two distinctions here. It says to throw off entanglements and sin. So, there’s a distinction for me this winter, I have meditated on this portion of this verse more than anything, because it runs super deep in my heart. What entrapments am I allowing in my life that are not necessarily the big sins, the big 10 or the, I’m not murdering anybody. I try not to at school. That’d be bad. I try to do a good Job and honor my parents and do all those things, but what are the entrapments, the entanglements? So, I want to, I’ve got two illustrations. Number one, I told you, I teach middle schoolers, didn’t I? Yeah, it’s crazy. Any teachers in here? Super fun. I love my kids. If you’re in here and you’re my class, it’s not about you, just kidding, but I get home from school and I’m so tired. I’ve used all my words and I have a lot of words, so it’s a lot and I’m so tired, so I’ll sit down and I’ll watch Survivor. I love it. It’s one of my favorite shows. Yeah, it’s so great. It’s probably an entanglement, honestly, if I’m being truthful, but what, what I thought about I was watching the show and one of the ladies, they were doing, like, one of those things where they ask her questions and she didn’t know any, because she was one of those that you’re like, get her off, she’s snobby. She didn’t know any of her teammates stuff.

She didn’t know what they did for a living. They’re like, whatever. So, every question she missed, they strapped a fanny pack of her weight on her and then, she has to run through this course. So, she should have been able to get through this obstacle course on her rice bowl, or whatever, that little bit of food they give them, but because she didn’t know anything, she’s got all this weight trapped on her and as she runs the race, she loses because she can’t get through any of the obstacles. So, I was thinking about that. Another thing I was thinking about I met some ladies at the slide my Columbus, ladies from Georgia. Did you all get to ride it? Oh, good. So, it was funny because you all are sitting there and I live right on the other side of the camp slide. Anybody do the slide? So, about two years ago, they started digging for that, doing all that they have to do to dig out that hill, to make that thing and they had it all dug up and then, it started to rain. It was like in October and it rained till like, January, the 2nd or something dumb, it was a mess and I walk over to my church, from there, over to camp and I try, because it’s right by that slide and I’m, trying my best not to get in the mud and get over there so it stopped raining, warmed up enough the guys throw down grass seed or whatever and they put the hay down.

Then, they put this stuff over it. So, I’m literally studying about entrapments and entanglements and I get home from church and I’ve got this thing stuck to my shoe, like toilet paper, you know what I’m saying? Like it was, I go into the house and my kids to my boys do all the look I can’t even get off. I my boys do all the landscaping at camp. So, they’re freaking oh, I hate that stuff, you should try to weed eat around that they’re going on this whole thing. I’m like, if it’s so bad, why are you, what are you using it for? Oh, no, mom, it’s good. It holds the grass in place. It double, it has holding, but it’s entangling and I know this is a little bit of a crazy illustration, but that’s what I was picturing. I’m like, this is what he’s talking about, entanglements in and of themselves… I just, we just got to go on a cruise. So, then we talk about entanglements, we went on a cruise as a family for spring break and that is like the epitome of indulgence. If you’ve ever been on one, I enjoyed it because that’s my I got my money’s worth, you saw my crowd. So, we killed carnival. I’m sorry, but you look around and you’re just like, nothing in itself in this cruise is wrong, food is good and the swimming and the whole time you’re on there, but you just sit there and you’re like, this is such a picture of what happens when little things lesser loves.

Entanglements become entrapments, isn’t it? I don’t know. Anyway, that was a very vivid picture for me of this, but I want to go to 2nd Timothy 3:1 for just a second and I want to list some entanglements for you guys. 2nd Timothy, 3:1, but understand this, in the last days there’s going to come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people verse 6, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sin, led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth, you all, that’s from a long time ago, but doesn’t that sound like right now? Creep into our households, capture weak women, burden with sins and led astray by various passions, never arriving, lots of knowledge, but never arriving at truth. The first thing I want you to write down, if you’re taking notes, for you to think over later. Am I allowing myself to be a weak woman the first night, Brooke kind of hit on that.

I was so excited, because that is what I’ve been having to ask myself, am I being a weak woman, what are areas of my weakness, what passions or maybe wounds, maybe this is not like something that you love to do, maybe it’s something that you just won’t do because you’ve been hurt or you’re wounded that are sidetracking your walk with the Lord. I talk fast, so I’m trying to slow down. So, if it’s an awkward pause, that’s what that is, but I’m trying to give you all time to write it. How many of us could be categorized as weak women led astray by various passions? Anyone that knows me personally knows I’m pretty tough. I only cry about once a month and at this retreat almost every year, I have to really be careful what I take on, because my personality is 100% go. So, a lot of times I have to stay back, because I have to be careful what I gauge what I can do, but the entanglements of idleness and my time is what I struggle with and it’s killing us as women. It’s stealing our joy and our purpose and the bible warns us vividly about this. I’m going to read a blog I came across. I’m not a blog reader person, but I found this in study for this talk and it says Sarah Beth McLeod. I don’t know if she’s off the rails in any way. I have no idea I will post the website. This was really good. So, please, if you know her and she’s terrible, this was great. So, here, that’s just a disclosure. I didn’t go on a deep dive of her life.

But, she wrote an article that I want to share a little bit with you guys and the title caught my attention because, the title is Behind Closed Doors Busy Idleness and this is what she says, We mostly think of idleness as being lazy and some of you are, some of you are needing to get off your hind parts and stop making excuses and get to work, but what seems to be the trend, more often than not, is busy women working out all the things, except for the race that God has before you. She writes, plaguing our purposes. If idleness is so complex, then what’s at its root? She says. a dear friend of mine said it well, idleness is the result of not understanding and obeying your God given purpose, when we don’t understand that we are created to love God and others, be a witness and make disciples, be rich in good deeds, we quickly lose sight of how to use the days we’ve been given on earth to fulfill these purposes without purpose. Guess what, creeps in? Anxiety, we begin to feel unqualified in fear rejection, causing us to avoid the things God wants us to do and instead, we fill that time with things that provide momentary comfort, security or avoidance of the truth and those moments of weakness, idleness plagues our purpose by removing discipline, it takes us from confident committed to complacent.

It reduces our work from stewardship and service to that which lives in the scroll of our phones, that hit me so hard, let me read that one more time. It takes us from confident and committed women to complacent and it reduces our work from stewardship and service to that which lives in the scroll of our phones. The discontent and lack of direction that idleness breeds is confirmation that we were made for so much more. Am I a weak woman? Last night, that’s when Brooke said, non-eternal things we put our hope in weaken us, I struggle with this, maybe and she ends by saying this, you’re struggling with unproductivity or misguided excess of it, maybe you’re now aware of a tongue that has gone idle or busy, hands that have stopped producing Kingdom work, whatever form idleness has taken in your life, you’re not alone, sister, that’s why God gave us so much biblical wisdom to fight it rest in the fact that God has given you incredible purpose and grace in Christ Jesu. 2nd Timothy 1:9, when we come to believe that we cannot help but live it and put idleness to shame. The second question I want you to think about, then, in light of all this, is, I lost my entanglements. Where are they, are they on my shoe? What entanglements are contributing to my weaknesses?

So, what am I allowing that’s not necessarily a sin, but it is tripping me up. What are the things that are keeping me from doing what Jesus has called and designed you to do during your time here on earth, that wisp, that moment and the enemy will do anything to get us sidetracked, this article specifically talks about what happens when we as women are idle with our time, it leads to anxiety and depression and we are the one of the most anxious and depressed societies of all time. Most of us are not necessarily indulging and blaring sins, like the big ones we talked about earlier. It seems like those might be saved for other people or reality TV stars or other folks, but as believing women, the entanglements abound. Are you so entangled with idleness of the mind that you cannot hear from the Lord the voices of secular ideology scream louder than his still small voice, if I am not careful, I will spend a ridiculous amount of time and idleness and entertainment to the detriment of my walk with Jesus and we’re going to come back to that at the very end, but just let that sink in. What am I doing, what am I choosing that is sabotaging my walk with the Lord? Let’s keep going. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. The next part of the verse says, let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. we’ve established that the author of Hebrews has reiterated to us that this is our time. It’s brief. Life is a mist. It’s a vapor.

But, he now coaches us on how to run. he tells us with endurance and you all ready for the definition for that, I wish it was different, but it’s, endure it simply means you got to keep going. he does say from one degree to the next, so it doesn’t have to be like, I don’t work out. So, I walk places. I’ll tell I walk, I’ll go, but so it’s hard for me to think about this, but endurance simply means to keep going. Dictionary.com, says the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way. So, when I read James 5:11 I thought this was funny. I found this verse. It uses the story of Job as an example for endurance. The man had everything but his wife stripped from him and that tells us so much about her. Listen, the devil wants to test Job. I know I never realized that before, but he takes everything, you all. he takes the kids, the home, the money, the livelihood, his health, but he leaves the lady behind. So, I think that might be a whole another Breakout session, but the verse says see, we count as blessed those who have endured, we have heard of the endurance of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord and how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. I think this goes very well with what Anna Rose was talking about this morning, the little s, Big S, sufferings that we do face.

The number three question that I want you to write down is this, do you recognize that endurance in the faith, comes with a cost. The endurance of Job cost him everything and the whole point of the story was, was he going to remain faithful to the Lord and he chose to do it and the Lord was glorified through his life. The Lord restored all that he had lost, maybe she got nicer. I don’t know, we don’t know that chapter, but do you recognize that endurance and faith is going to come with a cost? Salvation is free, you all. It is a free gift, but you don’t stay this way. Come as you are, but he wants to do something in you and sometimes that that’s going to cost you something. If nothing else, it’s going to cost you, to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. I want to read Hebrews 11 a little bit. we do not have time if that’s another area. If you’ve not studied Hebrews and you need just a jolt, Hebrews 11 is awesome. It gives us this beautiful list of, the cloud of witnesses that we talked about earlier, the saints that have gone before us, we see this huge list of beautiful, enduring races. Listen, to some of these. Hebrews 11. I’m going to start at 23, by faith Moses, when he was born, which I thought that was funny, he gets credit just for being born, probably that’s his mama, but anyway, was hidden for three months. I don’t know anyway by his parents because, they saw the child was beautiful

They’re not afraid of the king’s edict, by faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasure of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward I, by faith, he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible, by faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them, by faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned like that song we’ve been singing, by faith, the wall of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days by faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. What more shall I say, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets who, through faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weaknesses, became mighty in war.

Put foreign armies to flight. Wow, that’s amazing, Isn’t it? I’m convicted by simply reading these races because, they sound exciting and I, if I’m idle in my time and I am not fortified in scripture, in God’s word, I am tempted to covet those races we have to endure and run our own race. Look at the second part of Hebrews 12:1. What does it have to tell us? Let us run with endurance or how with endurance, the race that is set before who circle it and I’m ashamed to admit this, but I have spent an unnecessary amount of time wishing my race was different than what it currently is, you all, I was raised on this hall of faith. I wanted to be the next Amy Carmichael or Elizabeth Elliot or even the Ruth or Esther for such a time as this, I’m afraid though, that some days my Hebrew epitaph would read simply something like by faith. Bethany Clark did not lose her ever loving mind when she caught her toddler twin boys playing in the toilet yet again, what is yours going to say by faith she kept teaching middle schoolers while waiting on another less taxing door to swing open, you all these races that we’re called to, they’re not always romantic or adventurous that we run. Are they? If we could peer in, this is what Anna Rose was saying this morning, if you could just peer a little bit into their races though, of the cloud before us,

They would say the same thing. So, I’m studying for this retreat. I do a little devotion in the morning and this is a Jackie Hill Perry upon waking 60-day devotional. I got the page day 39 and I’ve stopped, because when I read this in light of studying for this, I just, I got to be done for a minute. Listen to I’m going to take a second and read this to you. So, this is what she says. here she uses James 5:11 see, we count as blessed those who have endured. Did you know that obedience comes with a cost? This isn’t news to anyone who looked upon the lives of the faithful. One group in particular listed in Hebrews described both the cost of obedience and the person that helps us continue in it. There’s Noah who was told by God that he was about to destroy everything except his family. Meanwhile, everyone everywhere had a different conviction, to them. God’s justice was a million miles away from their consciousness. They were busy with life and the ease that comes with a seared conscience. They were eating and drinking, getting married. Noah, however, did not have the same luxury as the world around him. he was busy working to save his life, you don’t think it took endurance for him to believe that God was telling the truth, especially when it seemed like nobody but him, was concerned with God’s judgment, you don’t think he saw the relaxed nature of everybody else’s life and coveted it sometimes.

Consider Moses faithful because he was born, the deliverer of God’s people. Hebrews describes him as having forsook Egypt. Hebrews 11:27, this means he turned his heart’s affection away from the nation and its way of life. There is a cost to forsaking the kingdom of this world. Knowing that there is a wrath for anyone who would dare say that Jesus is not only Lord of my heart, but Lord of everything everywhere. There’s a cost for faithful ones, but do you know what makes one embrace it? Do you know what helped these saints keep going? Every single one of them didn’t allow the cost of their obedience to distract them from the God that they were obeying. Noah obeyed because he feared God, Hebrews, 11 seven and Moses endured by seeing the invisible God 11:27, in Hebrews. In the way of wisdom, we must do the same, looking to Jesu the eternal God, wrapped in flesh, crucified for sin, raised to life and seated at the right hand of God. Must have Our fear and our focus. As long as he does every cost will be worth it. Oh, it’s just, I love how the Lord just says here, let me show you what I’m talking about, we have to endure and run our own race. There’s a cost, even in the races that seem triumphant and glorious for the kingdom of God when we try to push into a race that isn’t ours,

Because, another race seems to be more exciting and glamorous or productive for the kingdom, than the place where we are planted, then we rob ourselves of joy that God has set before us, let’s take a second and read the last part, let’s read the end, we usually skip over this. Listen to this last little bit here in Hebrews 11:35 women received back their dead by resurrection, but some were tortured refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God has provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should be made perfect. Then it takes us to our passage today, therefore and an exhortation to run our race number four and I want you to think about this. What’s your race, which one do you find yourself in right now? Not which race do you wish to be in, but where are you currently planted, what is your race?

It’s easy to romanticize someone else’s situation without fully understanding the race that God has them on. The enemy will use anything to get us off course, race distraction in Christian circles is a real thing, we are missing opportunities where we are planted for looking at opportunities outside the race. God has given us, for some of you in this room, some of my middle schoolers, I want to talk to you for just a minute. I don’t know where you are, but you have the opportunity to live out your faith in a very difficult, insecure season of your life. Don’t choose to blend in and be like everybody else, let me challenge you, middle schoolers that are in here, be kind. Don’t treat others how everybody else is treating them, for some of you in this room that are in high school or college, you’re allowing your desire for a relationship, to be in a relationship, to be loved, to be ready to be married, which is not a sin. It’s an entanglement, though. If you are not resting in your relationship with Jesus and you’re not becoming fully dependent on him, you’re getting sidetracked. Don’t do that. Some of us do this in young motherhood, don’t we, by resenting the ministry right in front of us and it’s I was studying this and I was talking to my sister in law, she her little boy is a year old, she said to me, it’s not necessarily that I resent.

Because, she prayed for him, loves him, but she said, it’s hard some days because I don’t feel productive, I want to be productive and the ministry of diapering and nurturing does sound so romantic and we long for it until you’re sleep deprived, covered with shoe, shoe. Can I get a witness? It’s so tempting, remember this morning when she’s talking about feeding that baby broccoli? I can’t even get those boys to wake up now, it’s like, I told Sarah’s mom earlier, I’m like, I spent so much time just trying to get them to sleep and now they’ll sleep till like, 2pm if I let them, it’s crazy how fast… Anyway, I’m don’t want to get sidetracked, it’s so tempting to think we’re useless for the gospel in that race, when your task is at hand and that’s Kingdom work that you’re doing further down the line, where I find myself, the kids are not as needy physically, but now emotionally and spiritually, the battle has to be waged. I know that as I keep going, I was really encouraged today talking to a couple of ladies that in as I move through that season, it’ll change again, right and we’re getting the golden years and in light of the gospel, we will continue to be enduring in this race that we must run with patience, we’ll constantly need to lay our God given days before the Lord and ask him to fill them with a gospel purpose.

We have to keep our hands open, whatever you want to do, Lord, however you want to use me. Use me where I’m planted. It is going to be a lifelong battle, you all and as I’m Sass, was reading this last week and the conviction ran over me, because I look back at my race and some of you in here that have been a believer for a while, there’s times when the race is messy. I look back and I think, I was a mess my college years, my high school and then, it’s crazy. The Lord, one day I got a call or email from this girl and she’s in an undisclosed place, serving the Lord. She said, your mission, stories that you used to tell when we did, camp years ago impacted my life forever and I’m like, but God, because I was a wreck. I was running the race, but it was like I had that mess all tagged in my feet, you know what I mean, have you ever felt like this and every now and then, the Lord will say, it isn’t about you anyway it’s about me so, run your race, keep running. Don’t quit, because you never know what God is doing and using and if he has to work in spite of you, well, that’s a shame and I hate that, but that’s part of growing in sanctification. It is the most beautiful picture of God’s grace to see a faithful life, well lived for the glory of Jesus finally, I would be amiss if I don’t ask this question. The last question in a room this size. Are you in the race? I want you to write this down, even if you are a believer.

I can’t assume that everybody in here knows Jesus, you’ve been listening your interest has peaked. Have you ever had a time in your life where you surrendered your heart, your mind, your ideals, your soul, your life, to the Holy Son of God? My salvation story, I grew up in a Christian home and I remember being at a women’s, it was a mother daughter tea party and I was a kid, but the lady, Janie De Sager got up and she said, have you as if, how did she say it? She said, if you’ve asked Jesus to be your savior, I want you to raise your hand. It was, I grew up Southern Baptist, so we did so, but I remember in that moment thinking, I can’t raise my hand. I’ve never done that. It was just her asking, if you’ve never asked Jesu or have you asked Jesus and I knew all the things. I knew Jesus died and rose again and all of that stuff, but I had never made it personal, you’re not in the fight yet, because you’ve never had a time in your life where you recognize that you are an actual sinner, that at your core, ladies, you are selfish. Now listen, I’m going to get mean for a minute, you’re self-centered, you’re sinful. I know that goes completely against our culture. It’s around Easter, just couple weeks ago. I’m re going through my notes and you know, your phone hears you and it’s like, I’m reading. I’m talking about this to my husband, telling what and I get on there and I’ve got reels about Easter

It’s all these beautiful reels this little kid riding the bike and the mom’s pushing behind it and in the caption, it says something like, I was told all my life that Jesus died for my sin and I thought, oh, that’s cool and you read about a little further and it’s like it’s destroyed this little girl just wants to play his dress up. She just wants to, she doesn’t. It’s ruining her psyche to tell her and I its mind blowing how sneaky the enemy gets in but it’s twisted, isn’t it? He’s made us think the culture is making us think that communicating lostness and sinfulness that we all already feel, we all already know is exist, is damaging to us when in reality, to not acknowledge and address our root issue is to condemn ourselves to a real hell, a real place of separation from God, but we don’t like it, we don’t like to know we’re wrong, but at our core, we know the truth, we have to acknowledge our lostness before we can be found, we have to recognize that we’re blind before we can gain our sight, we must first realize that we’re sinners, we’ve all done things that separate us from a holy God. It could be self-righteousness. I’m better than other races or people because we think we’re just better than someone else, or we could be judging or gossiping or lying, cheating, adultery, you name it, but we’re all guilty.

The bible teaches us that we all have sin and we’ve all fallen short of God’s glory, we see that in Romans 3:23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, what he’s going to give me is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:23, admitting you’re not in Christ because your sin separated you is your first step. So, I think that’s why it’s so under attack, you’re not a sinner, you’re okay, yeah, because that’s the first point you have to recognize your loss before you can be found, before you can even run the race, because you’ve actually you’ve never entered it. Second Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved Acts 16:31 Jesus doesn’t need you to clean up. he already knows your junk. Nothing’s hidden from him. So, confess with your mouth that Jesus says, Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. It’s worth it. The end reward of knowing and being known by Jesus is worth the fight. Can I get a witness? It is worth the fight. I love what she said this morning about it being going from allowing you to have hope and leaving things up to fate, you can have hope to know that Jesus and allow him power and authority in your life is to be forever changed and loved by him, Ephesians 319 says this to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled.

To the measure of all the fullness of God. Will you enter the race with us today? Finally, ladies, how do we do it? The how that’s we want the practical’s, let’s finish off with the next verse, verse 2. Hebrews 2. It says, looking to Jesu the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. How do we do it? We look to Jesus. It’s that simple, but the entanglements and the distractions abound, that’s why we need resets like this, weekend to bring our spiritual lenses back into focus, I want to go back now in closing to my early illustration with Tiffany. I want you guys to go on a journey with me for just a second. Hold on. I got to find my blindfold. you’re in the race. you feel like you’re in the race, you love Jesus, you want to honor him and serve him with your life, you want to walk by faith and not by sight, you want to trust him, you’re in the word and you feel like he’s directing you. Then life happens. Something happens. Anything happens, something hard happens, maybe something good happens, you get married, you don’t get married, you have a baby, you lose a baby, you can’t have a baby, you get a Job, you lose a Job. At the bare minimum, we fall out of a routine that includes spending precious moments in the word with Jesus. You find yourself endlessly scrolling through your phone in the morning.

Instead of getting in God’s word and then, the enemy enters. he’s already there, though, in lingering idleness, someone at your church who’s also a sinner acts like a real jerk, a pastor falls, fails or flounders, in some way, seeds of doubt begin to bloom. In your mind, your kids have a sport that demands your time and you justify the sport over the service to attend, to renew that faith that you need and in your mind and your community with other believers, you see then a timely documentary on how an entire generation was duped by a shiny pastor who seemed conservative, but turns out he’s just a rotten bully, a nasty sinner that took advantage of the sheep, suddenly a well-placed meme scrolls across your phone instead of seeing the subtle lies for what they are, you take off your blindfold of faith, you feel like my eyes are now truly open, maybe I’ve been blinded before, maybe I was blinded by religion, by Jesus and did God really say that I’m a sinner, doesn’t he love everybody, how can a loving God not let me live how I want? Instead of heading back into the arms of the savior, like Anna Rose talked about this morning, instead of pushing into him, we push off of him, you change the narrative to match your messed-up feelings and how dare you tell me my feelings aren’t truth.

It’s actually the oldest trick in the book. In Genesis 3, we see this play out with Eve, when the serpent tempts Eve to underestimate the words of an all mighty God, to fit her passion and desire for something that’s just out of reach. Suddenly you find yourself agreeing to an anti-gospel culture that’s screaming at you to be true to yourself, deny the only truth that actually exists and can set you free. Jesus himself, in John 14:6, says, I am the way. I’m the truth and I’m the life and nobody comes to the Father except through me, but that now has become this gospel that you once loved has now become an object of your wrath, you deny its power, you deny its truth, you willingly embrace death, hell and destruction with both arms, by dismissing that they even exist. All of a sudden, those lesser entanglements, those lesser loves, the real issues of hurt that are not addressed in your heart, become wounds, deep wounds that rise up and swallow you whole, you are no longer able to hear that still small voice, but rather, you follow whatever train of thought will agree with your current emotional state and the culture is all too eager to oblige and you, in our illustration, the church is saying, we love you. Sometimes, if the church is doing their Job, we love you, but we are willingly watching people walk off the edge.

Eyes wide open, denying what they used to believe. That’s what the culture is doing to us and it all started with pretty packaging and graphically designed things by former pastors, teachers, friends, luring you with their own lies and discontentment’s. Ladies, I want to challenge you, put down your phone, pick up your bible and hear from the Father of light instead of the father of lies, put them down, because it’s lying to you. It’s lying to me. This is to me. I’ve been meditating on this all year. I’m just as guilty. Hebrews 12 tells us how, by looking to Jesu he is the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy, set before him, endured the cross, he despised the shame and is now seated at the right hand of God.