The Need For Endurance

Introduction

As you know, we are blessed here at South Bumby with numerous visitors. Almost every Sunday. We have a multitude of visitors, and many, most of those visitors are from out of town. They’re vacationers who are coming in to enjoy mostly our theme parks, but sometimes other things that Central Florida has to offer. I want to talk to you about one visitor that we had last Sunday and a conversation that I had with him. My normal custom is to introduce myself, tell them my name, ask their name, and then I ask, where’s home for them? And then usually I’ll ask, Well, what brings you to town? Well, he told me he was from Texas, and well, what brings you to town? And he says, Well, I’m running in the Disney half marathon.

That was last weekend, I believe, if I’m remembering correctly. So he said, I’m running in the Disney half marathon. And I asked him, I said, Well, did you see me out there? And he said, No, and I said, because I wasn’t out there. It won’t surprise you that I don’t run half marathons and certainly don’t run full marathons. I don’t have 14 or 26 miles in me. But marathons and even half marathons fascinate me because they’re a different kind of sporting event. For a half marathon, and particularly for a marathon, not a lot of emphasis. Now, this is my view. You correct me, you marathon experts, if I’m wrong about this, but not a lot of emphasis is given necessarily upon the person who wins wins the race, who comes in first.

Oh, they’ll note that person and they’re given an award. But really, with a marathon, it’s just finishing. In fact, everyone who finishes is given a medal, whether you finish first or last, then I would contend that’s not what we call a participation trophy. Because just finishing a marathon is a great accomplishment. To be able to run 26 miles in the same day. I don’t know that I’ve run 26 miles cumulatively in my whole life. That’s an accomplishment. And it requires the topic for our lesson this morning, it requires endurance. Starting a marathon, easy. In fact, I’ve thought about signing up for some of those marathons and see if they’d give me a medal just for signing up and starting. But finishing the marathon is the accomplishment.

And again, not so much finishing first, but just finishing, because it requires tremendous endurance. To be able not just to begin the race, but to finish the race. The Hebrew writer, I don’t know if he has a marathon, and marathons were existent in existence in the first century. I don’t know if he has that in mind. When he writes in Hebrews chapter 9 and in verse 36, the Hebrew writer says this to those Hebrew Christians, many of which were being tempted to fall away from their faith. Those Hebrew Christians who had begun the race, but the Hebrew writer is so concerned for them that they won’t finish the race. He says this, Hebrews chapter 10 and in verse 36, for you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

You have need of endurance because you’re not going to receive the reward for just starting this race known as Christianity. You’re going to receive the reward for finishing this race. And that requires endurance. And so to a group of Christians, much like those in the first century, who have begun the race and are somewhere in the middle of that race, I’m concerned, not personally concerned because I see alarming things in you individually, but generally concerned for all of us that we might finish this race. And this race requires endurance. And so let’s talk this morning of what the Hebrew writer talked about, and that is this need for endurance. You have need of endurance. Now you know as well as I do that God never tells us that we need something or tells us to do something without giving us the tools to carry it out.

Serve such a loving and generous God in that regard. God never says, you’ve got to do this. Now go figure out how to do it on your own. Oh, God will often say, you’ve got to do this, but he’ll always give us the tools that we need in order to do that. And so he says, you need endurance, because you’re not going to receive the reward, you’re not going to receive the prize unless you finish the race. And so you’ve got to finish the race. And as our loving God always does, he says, here’s what you need to finish the race. And so let’s look at this text, Hebrews chapter 9, verses 19 through 39, where he says you have need of endurance, in this text where he says you have need of endurance, he’s going to equip us with what we need to endure.

1. An Enduring Mindset of Confidence

In order to have endurance, we need an enduring mindset. You know, again, as well as I do, that the mindset and the attitude is so important in worthy endeavors. In fact, you know, particularly with a negative mindset, almost guarantees failure. If you started to run a marathon with the attitude that I can’t do this, I don’t have it in me. I don’t have the stamina, the strength, the athletic ability, the endurance. That’s probably going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You’re probably not going to finish. An enduring mindset is so important to enduring. And he’s going to tell us that part of this enduring mindset that we need is confidence. Start there with me in Hebrews chapter 10 and in verse 19. He says, Therefore, brethren, that is because your sins have remembered no more.

And there’s no need for further offerings. The offering of Christ and the blood of Christ is sufficient to take away your sins. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised his faithful. The inspired Hebrew writer says, you have need of endurance, and you have need of an enduring mindset.

And that mindset is confidence. Notice how sprinkled throughout this text, he uses words that speak to our confident mindset. He’d already said you need boldness to enter. There in verse 22, full assurance of faith. Verse 23 again, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Skip down to verse 35. Therefore, do not cast away what? Your confidence.

And in order to have endurance, you need confidence. Let’s talk a little bit about confidence. First of all, we recognize that on both ends of the spectrum there’s danger when it comes to confidence. There’s danger of overconfidence. There’s equal amount of danger of underconfidence. But he says, you need confidence. And confidence, confidence to truly be beneficial, has to be based upon something real. We’ve all known people, and maybe even been those people that have been confident, maybe overconfident, over something imaginary that wasn’t real. We thought we were stronger, we thought we were smarter, we thought we were faster than we really were, and that confidence was completely unfounded. Confidence to truly assist us in this endeavor has to be based on something real. And in this text, he says it is.

But what a blessing about this confidence is that not only is it based upon something real and concrete, but it’s based upon something outside of me. It’s not confidence in self that he’s talking about. It’s confident in Jesus Christ. That’s my confidence. That’s why the confidence can even be spoken of in terms of boldness to enter. It’s not boldness because of who I am, especially in regard to who I am to approach the holest of God’s. My confidence, no, my boldness is based upon Jesus Christ who gives me that access. Obviously, in this text and really throughout the book of Hebrews, there are illusions and comparisons and contrasts made between old covenant things and new covenant things. And here the contrast is that veil that was in the tabernacle in the temple that separated the holy and the most holy place.

That most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant that symbolized to the Jewish people the presence of God. There was a veil that separated that. And you know this about that old covenant veil, that it was not there to grant access, it was there to deny access. Do not go in there lest you die. But he tells us that our new covenant veil is different. It’s not there to deny access, it’s there to grant access. That through him we are granted access to the holiest. Now, a couple things about that veil, and about that access that we have to the Father. It is not just a bold access that we’ve been given, it’s radical access that we’ve been given. An access that for centuries had been denied.

That only the high priest, one man, one day a year could cross through that veil and go into the holiest to make atonement for the sins of the people. To illustrate how bold of an access Jesus grants us, imagine. Imagine on one day of atonement.

And after all the other priests had access, he further opened the veil and invited all of the Jewish men in to the holiest. And then all of the Jewish women. And if he hadn’t been tackled to the ground by then, he certainly would be when he invited all the Gentiles to come not only onto the temple grounds, but into the holiest of holies to appear before God. Well, that’s what our high priest has done. He’s given us bold and radical access, not into a symbolic holiest of holies, not into a symbolic presence of God, but into the real place, into the real presence of God. And because that is built upon something real and something outside and more powerful than myself, I can have confidence that I can endure this race.

2. A Mindset of Fear

But then strangely enough, in our context, he tells us that there’s another mindset that at first we might think is anathema to the mindset of confidence. He says, you need a mindset of fear. Look with me a little deeper into that text. Hebrews chapter 10 still. But now look beginning in verse 26 at this warning. For if we sin willfully after we’ve received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. At first glance we might think, can confidence and fear coexist? Sure they can. But in some sense, they’re not really coexisting within the same person. Because confidence, he says, is the access that God has granted us through our high priest, and confidence is wherein we reside based upon our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and fear is over there. Fear is what we anticipate if we, like these Hebrew Christians were tempting to do, if we leave this relationship. And if we leave Jesus Christ, then we’ve left our confidence. And there’s nothing but fearful expectation.

3. Enduring Friends

And so we have the help of a mindset. A mindset of confidence and a mindset of fear to help us endure. But he further tells us that God has equipped us with endurance by giving us enduring friend. The first friend we’ve already talked about. We have so great a high priest on our side. And we can endure because he is on our side. Let’s not forget what a high priest, that old covenant high priest, as well as our new covenant high priest does, is he does something on behalf of the people. And he does something on behalf of the people that aids in their relationship and their fellowship with God. And we have that high priest. And we have a great high priest who is also the Son.

And he is on our side, pleading on our behalf. He died that death, and he is standing at the right, or sitting at the right hand of the Father, pleading to the Father for us. That helps us to endure.

And that’s one another. Read maybe the two famous, most famous verses of this context, verses 24 and 25, where he says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together to the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. God has given us a great high priest to help in this endurance, but He’s also given us one another. We need one another. We need the consideration, the exhortation and the encouragement that one another can give to endure. But here’s a question. Why is it? Why is it when we need God and the help of our brethren the most that we so often withdraw and don’t seek that help?

You ever notice that? Notice that in others, notice that in yourself. That when you get discouraged, are facing temptation, or maybe even overcome by temptation, that in those moments that you need one another the most, that far too often that’s when we seek it the least. Maybe shame, maybe embarrassment. But we need to understand that God has ordered this system so that in those moments of trial and even in moments of darkness, that it is one another that can help us to endure. And we must seek that. And the other side of that is those of us who view ourselves as the guardians of the fort need to be thoughtful and careful of how we approach those who may be returning for that aid and that help.

Do we make it to where it’s doubly uncomfortable and difficult for them to come back? You know, I think about my dear sweet mother. There were times, and far too many times, when I would get on the wrong side of my mother by my misbehavior. And my mom would say to me, Come here. You’re going to get a spanking. And even in my juvenile mind, I was thinking, I don’t want to come there. If that’s what’s awaiting me.

4. Enduring Faith

No, I’ll stay over here, thank you. Or I’ll run in the opposite direction. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling in sin and struggling with temptation and worldliness or whatever it might be. And they steal the courage and the necessity, and they know that they need one another to endure. And they they finally come back. And we greet them with, what’s wrong with you? Where have you been? Rather than welcome home. We’re glad to see you again. Because you see, God gave us one another to help us endure. Because we have need of endurance. He would tell us that we have need of endurance and we have need of enduring faith. Because really the faith is the foundation and the bedrock of our relationship with God.

And it’s our faith that’s going to help us to endure. And so he’s going to tell them and us to recall our faith that we once possessed. Look with me in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 32. To these Christians who were struggling with enduring, struggling with finishing the race, he says, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, your translation may say, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me, some translations say on others who were in chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. Recall the former days. Remember how faith got you through before. And faith can get you through now. I find it interesting to these Christians and to us, he’s not saying you develop some new faith.

You’re tempted to fall away. Remember why you started this race. Remember the faith and the courage and the strength that you had when you started. Remember the goal that you had when you started. When the race gets long and weary and difficult. Recall your former faith. Recall the ways God has blessed you in the past and how your faith has helped you in the past. And then finally, he’s going to tell them and us that the just will live by faith. Pick up there in verse 36 of Hebrews chapter 10, he says, Again, for you have need of endurance, so that after you’ve done the will of God, you may receive the promise for yet a little while, and he who is coming will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perition, but those who believe to the saving of the soul. Quoting from the Old Testament, he says, the just shall live by faith. What that means is your faith is what’s going to cause you to survive. Live versus die. Live versus shrink back to destruction. You want to survive this race.

Conclusion

That’s what’s going to get you through. That mindset of enduring faith. I won’t give up because of God. The just will survive through their faith. Most in this audience have signed up for the marathon. We’ve started the race, which is commendable. But the Hebrew writer, and more importantly, God would have us to know that you have need of endurance. Can you finish the race? And his answer is yes, you can. Because he’s given you an enduring mindset of confidence. He’s given you enduring friends. And you have an enduring faith. It might be that you haven’t begun that race. There’s no better time than now. It’s possible that you’ve started that race, but as he would say later in this Hebrew letter, your knees are a little weak.

And you’re starting to falter. To them and to you and to me, he says, You have need of endurance. If we can do anything this morning that would help you to finish the race, would you let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.