Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day

Week 3: The Family Business

Hebrews 11:32-12:3

† I.H.S. †

May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ strength your trust in them, as it did all of His family throughout history!

Dad, I Can’t…

As we continue our journey of life in Christ, as we conitnue to compare it to God taking us to work like dad’s took their kids to work we come to an interesting passage in Hebrews,

One that desribes those our Father in heaven worked with before, those He raised up before, those He gave His Spirit too, empowering them and guiding them in the work He was doing.

It doesn’t help us that some have named chapter 11 as the Hall of Faith, as if these older and brothers of ours were superheroes, and we were the little brothers and sisters who looked up to them, wanting to be like them, and thinking that would be miraculous.

I mean, look around, not many of us have the physique of Samson, or the holiness of Samuel or the myriad of abilities and talents of King David. Those guys are heroes, holy, talented, able to withstand the most challenging of times—I mean hear what they did..

³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword.

And how they could embrace suffering,

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. ³⁶ Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. ³⁷ Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. ³⁸ They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

I mean if we had to suffer like that, I would hope we would be like this..

But, too often I’II look at these hero’s and look at what God asks us.. and I tell him, “I can’t do that…”  I feel the same way I did when my dad asked me to carry a couple of 12 foot long 2×4’s from the van to the house. I tried to pick up from one side. Not knowing how to pick them up in the middle and blance them om my shoulder.

We need to hear this line out of the middle of the passage, “Their weakness was turned to strength.”

Weights that impede us from running with endurance

If you try to carry a 2×4 or a board from one end, you will never be able to do it – the weight of the wood will bear to heavily on you. You won’t be able to carry/drag the weight very far. It will wipe you out.

The same thing goes for spiritual weights, they wreck our endurance…. Hear agin from Hebrews, “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Notice that sin isn’t the only weight, but it is “especially” important to toss away. Other you could ad our anxieties, fears, doubts, but really, all those go back to the idea of sin. It’s going to hurt to when I say this at first, but hear it out..

Most of our issues do get back to sin…even if it is simply the sin of not letting God be our God. That’s the one I am guilty of the most, as I try to play God, trying to lift the board by one end and wearying myself out too quickly, too completely.

Scripture is clear – strip off that weight!

Don’t let it trip you up!

Look to Jesus.

Here is the key to carrying our burdens,

“² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

Please hear that correct – he initiates and perfects our fatih.

Not our faithfulness – he initiates and perfects our faith, our trust in His – in the work He did at the Father’s command.

If we look at Jesus – we realize He picked up our burdens.

He carries them to the cross, they were dealt with there, and now, raised to life with Him, He carries us

If we are concentrating on what we can or cannot do, we lose sight of what Jesus has done. We are along for the journey, we travel by looking and trusting in what He did.

Again – Jesus initiates and completes our trust in Him, not our faithfulness.

It’s the entire reason He came, and here is what is amazing –

It was for joy set before him that He did it! For the joy of carrying us home, he carried our sin.

It was for the joy set before Him that endured the betrayals, from Adam and Eve, through Cain, and all those people mentioned in the chapter. They had faith in God, not in their faithfulness.

They found His strength in the midst of their own weakness, and learned to depend on God – who is their strength. Who is our strength, when we are at our weakest point.

And so we get to the bottom line,

“³ Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

there is a secret to living in Christ, to working alongside of the Father in seeing people made perfect and mature in Christ—it is found in thinking about what Jesus has done for us, does with us.

And as He is perfecting our faith, as He has for every member of our faith family. He will sustain us, and carry us, and those whom follow…

Amen!