I. Do not let the past keep you from what God has called you to do.
- “Let us lay aside every weight”
- Exodus 2:23-3:12
- Moses made a bad decision out of a zealous heart
- We have also done that at times
- And there were consequences sometimes very great.
- Sometimes it has affected family members or just others around us in our lives.
- God does not look to our past to qualify us for service.
- God did not look to the past of Moses
- It may be true that God allowed Moses to experience his past in order to prepare him for future service.
- God called Paul to service despite his past.
- You might ask “How do I get past my past?”
- Do what Paul did “Look to Jesus”
- “Looking to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.”
II. Do not let the present keep you from what God has called you to do.
- “let us also lay aside…..sin”
- John Bisagno’s father in law’s comment about ministry
- Sin sneaks up on us in many cases
- Illustration of frog in boiling beaker
- Replace you with the frog and water with sin
- We do not see sin coming
- Unless we are looking to Jesus
- Paul the author of Hebrews said that “sin clings so closely”
- When we are practicing sin,
- when we are not doing what we are convicted of,
- when we fail God, and men, our families
- We are no looking to Jesus as we should.
- The easy fix is to keep our eye on the ball
- When you play sports many errors can be resolved by keeping your eye on the ball.
- In the same way we need to keep our eyes on Jesus
- We have plenty of examples to look to of people who kept their eye on the ball
- Hebrews 11:33-40
- These are the people the author of Hebrews is speaking of.
Conclusion:
- I was going to name this message “ Finishing Strong”
- After all Paul speaks of:
- enduring the race, Christ endured the cross
- laying aside weights and sin
- suffering shame and hostility
- And how do we accomplish this?
- By looking to Jesus, by considering Him who endured in the way scripture is telling us to endure,
- And the result is that “you will not grow weary or fainthearted”
