Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTN

If you had been reading the July 22, 1776 edition of the Boston Gazette, you would have come across a notice that read:

Deserted from my company, in Col. Craft’s battalion of colony train of artillery, Michael Carrick, 31 years of age, about 5 foot 8 inches high, with a cut over his right eye brow, well set, black hair, and buck skin breeches.

He had on a grey out side jacket and striped waist coat, a new cotton shirt, and carried away with him a French musket and bayonet.–Any

person who shall stop said deserter and thief, shall have a reward of FOUR DOLLARS...

Such notices were by no means uncommon.When soldiers ran away, a designated officer placed an advertisement in the local newspaper describing the deserter in considerable detail and offering a reward for his capture.

One expert estimates that 1 out of every 4 soldiers fighting for the Revolution deserted their post, and, in some ways, you couldn’t blame them.

In the close, unsanitary quarters, death from small pox was a real possibility.

Lax discipline and a lack of food and clothing discouraged men.

Blood on the snow at Valley Forge wasn’t just some dramatic description for the Fourth of July.

It really happened because men had no shoes.

On top of all this, the soldiers faced the greatest fighting force in the world at that time.

They, at least in the early days, lacked confidence and that lack of confidence melted their courage like snow in the warm April sun.

And so many deserted.

Now before you judge just know that a lack of confidence can make cowards of us all!

Even Christians, or maybe I should say, especially Christians.

BACKGROUND

Here’s how that works.

You’re cruising along in your Christian life, not because you are particularly spiritual but because you are greatly blessed.

In the flush of God’s blessing and your ability to see answers to your prayers, you’re very confident and joyful in your Christian life.

It’s all you ever heard the Christian life is supposed to be.

But then, something happens.

A parent dies; a child is taken; a job is lost, or a trusted leader falls and, all of a sudden, your circumstantial courage begins to melt and instead of joy you are despondent.

You lose your confidence and hope.

It’s predictable.

In fact, you can see it right from the definition we gave for joy.

Do you remember it?

JOY IS THE CURRENT CONFIDENCE THAT FLOWS FROM THE FUTURE HOPE AND PRACTICAL GUIDANCE MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CONSTANT PRESENCE OF GOD.

Well if that is joy, then the lack of joy is its opposite.

In fact the lack of joy is the current doubt that flows from a loss of hope and a sense that you are on a dead end street of life because you have lost a sense of the constant presence of God.

In fact, you see that doubtful lifestyle spoken of in our text today.

Hebrews 12:1 says: Hebrews 12:3 (NKJV)

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Did you catch that last phrase?

It said lest you become “weary.”

That word, in the Greek, draws you a picture.

It means to “gradually lose one’s motivation to accomplish some goal.”

The second word is “discouraged,” and means to “become loose, weary, or weak.”

The idea is that because I have not remained motivated as a believer, I begin to let things slip in my spiritual life.

I cut corners.

I have a “what’s the point!” attitude.

NEED

Anybody here felt like that before?

Anybody feeling that way now?

I surely have!

And here’s what I know about that kind of experience.

It is the very definition of a life that lacks Christian joy and it is a very dangerous place to be.

That may be you this morning, and if it is, I really encourage you to listen.

These first four verses of Hebrews 12 tell us how we can, even in the middle of disappointment, not lose hope, and not lose our motivation in serving Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I need that.

If the greatest decision of joy is devotion and the greatest prerequisite for joy is perspective, then the greatest danger of joy is discouragement.

How do you keep it away?

How do you keep your confidence in the middle of great difficulty?

Well, first, you

can

D1: REMOVE THE ROADBLOCKS

EXP

That’s right, remove the roadblocks.

You find them mentioned in v1.

It says, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, What is pictured here is a race.

In Paul’s day, the runners would strip down to their undergarments so that their long flowing robes would not impede them.

It could be clothing, weight carried in training or any number of things.

ILL