Persevere in the New Year

​Persevere in the New Year
Heb. 12:1-4


Intro: We call it a New Year but certainly everything is Not New! You are not new, you have the same spouse, the same children, the same job, the same house...you get the point. Everything is not new.
You also brought your Christian experience with you into the new year. You may have been saved and living for the Lord for many years or for only a few years. Whichever is the case for you, when you became a Christian you started on a Race To Heaven. While the years change and the old years pass away and the new years come this Christian Race continues. We must press on until we reach the finish line; heaven’s bright shore!
We must Persevere in this New Year.
In this text from Hebrews 12, I find three things in particular that each of us must do this year in order to persevere in our Christian Race.


I. Put Off the Weight.
“Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.”
It’s ironic how many people make physical weight loss their number one resolution year after year. It’s also ironic how Few people seem to make spiritual weight loss an important part of their new year’s plans as a Christian. This matter of laying aside every weight is very important for successful running in the physical realm. The runner will put off anything that hinders him or holds him back or slows him down.
So it is that every Christian must be serious about Putting Off the Weights in the new year. I know that physically many start on a weight loss program and it lasts for about a month and then they fall back into the same old habits that overcame them before. Spiritually, you and I need to identify those things that have hindered us in this past year; those things that held us back; those things that slowed us down spiritually; and we need to lay those things aside, never to take them up again.
We all need to get stirred about our spiritual devotion, part of which is to put off the weights that hinder and hold us back. Don’t allow things of this world to attach themselves to your life and hold you back in your Christian race. You need to Persevere in the New Year.


II. Participate.
“Let us Run the race that is set before us” “LET US RUN”
You cannot just sit on the sideline watching others faithfully run the Christian Race. You need to really get in it for yourself and get in it for real. If you want to persevere in the new year you must participate in the Christian race.
You must Pray; you must Attend Church faithfully; you must Worship fervently; you must Play your music and Sing your song; you must testify and rejoice and yield to the Holy Ghost; you must Participate!
Remember the old Patriotic song that says, “this land is your land, this land is my land from California to the New York Islands; from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters...”
Well, you need to remember that this church is Your Church, this church is my church; the building, the furnishings, the services, the people...
Whatever is accomplished by your local church this year depends on YOU. It does not just depend on the pastor and his wife or the members of the board, it depends on you. What kind of services will Your church have? Will they be alive? Will they be spiritual? Will they have manifestatins of the Holy Ghost? Will anyone be saved? Will holiness, both inward and outward, be evident in your church?
I trust you will not go AWOL this year or abandon the Christian race. You must Persevere in the New Year.


III. Patiently Wait.
In our text, it’s clear that running this Christian Race is not easy. It is very difficult at times and has its hardships & trials. We will sometimes suffer discouragement & weariness. So the writer gives us the following exhortations:
Verse 1- “run with patience”
Verse 2- “Looking unto Jesus- Author & Finisher of our faith- endured Cross, despised shame & is set down at the right hand of throne of God.”
Verse 3-“consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
Verse 4- “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.”
We all have difficult days where we don’t “FEEL” the Fire and Power of Holy Ghost. Troubles do come to us in our Health and our Finances and our Work and in our Relationships but this Christian Race is of vital importance. This is not a matter of personal convenience or comfort. This is serious! It is a matter of Eternal life or death. You need to persevere in the new year.
1 Cor. 9: 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 2 Tim 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier
Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.


Put Off the Weight. Participate. Patiently Wait.