Strain Toward the Goal; Keep Your Eyes Fixed!

1. Strain Toward the Goal; Keep Your Eyes Fixed!

Loved ones, there’s a reason Scripture is filled with warnings to stay faithful…it’s easy to fall away! In his parable of the 4 soils, Jesus preached on two soils, in particular, that, one burned away when the strain got too high, and another was unfruitful because the cares of the world kept it from any meaningful growth. Again and again, Jesus taught that we should remain faithful until His coming, and to watch for deceivers. We’re told to not think that we’re strong, but to be on watch, for our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for a soul to devour, and that if anyone thinks they are strong, they best watch, lest they fall! We’re told to also strain toward the Goal, and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfector of our faith.

So why these warnings? Because the flesh and our desires, and our trials and troubles and tribulations seek to draw our attention off of Jesus and on to ourselves. Naturally, we’re inclined toward self, which leads to selfishness and selfish motivations. Loved ones, Jesus says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). If we’re to follow Jesus, we have to come and die to ourselves and live through and in Him. We’re to abide in Him, and only in abiding in Him will we bear much fruit. We have to strain for the goal and seek the narrow way because the way is narrow to salvation, and difficult to find! And Jesus is the only way; it is HIS way, and not ours. He alone lived perfectly (according to all the laws He set before the foundation of the world!), and He alone bore our sin, bearing the weight of the wrath of Go for sin on Himself, dying and rising again that we may, too, die to sin and live in Him. He is the only way. Let us, then, follow Him, setting aside any and every weight and sin, that we may give Him glory.

Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.