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, looking 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.
(Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)
Hebrews 11 just finished the great "faith" chapter. It told of the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament. Now in chapter 12 we have this imagery of these heroes of the faith watching in an arena as we modern Christians run this race of faith.
When I was a kid, my parents had these two blue weights filled with sand. They would go around some part of your body, like your wrist. You would wrap them around and velcro them, sort of like the thing they place around your bicep to check your blood pressure in the hospital. Thinking back on it now, I would guess they were designed to be on a persons wrist while they ran.
Well I decided to strap them around my ankles and go for a run. They were not very tight so they would bang around on my leg. My ankles would then hit each other with every stride I made. So to remedy this, I would need to run bow legged. To be frank, this experience absolutely sucked!
Sin is like this. It attaches itself around us and hinders us from running a smooth race. We are encouraged this morning to unstrap the weights. They are not helping us to get to the finish line.
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