Read Hebrews 11.
I want to tell you today that I support Arsenal Football Club since I was 5 years old.
Arsenal have won the most FA Cups, the joint most Doubles and the 3rd most league titles behind only Manchester United and Liverpool.
Arsenal’s motto is Victoria Concordia Crescit which is Latin for “Victory through Harmony” which sounds a bit like something Buddha would have said but isn’t.
But our biggest rivals are actually our North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur also known as Spurs. Any Tottenham fans here today ?
Tottenham’s motto is “To Dare is to Do”, now there’s a good Christian motto if ever there was one.
But if you look at Tottenham’s trophy cabinet, you won’t find much more than a few cobwebs in the last 60 years.
This has resulted in a new word in the English language - Spursy. It means when everything is going incredibly well and glorious success looks imminent, suddenly there will be a capitulation for no apparent reason and all will be lost. You can say “Well that was a bit Spursy wasn’t it”.
Yet - To Dare is to Do. There is something about that isn’t there ? Tottenham train just as hard as Arsenal. They have the same quality of players. They strive for the same prizes. Season after Season, they have the same hope.
Despite all that, Arsenal would not be the same without Tottenham and Tottenham would not be the same without Arsenal. That’s sounding a bit Yin and Yang just like the Arsenal motto.
The truth is that “To Dare is to Do” is a better motto.
“To Dare is to Do” is what it takes to win the prize in the Kingdom of God.
Arsenal and Tottenham strive for a prize that can be seen. But we strive for a prize that cannot be seen and it doesn’t matter to God whether we win or lose prizes in this life. Some days it’s Arsenal. Some days it’s Tottenham. That is what Hebrews 11 is teaching about Faith. We need Faith in Victory. But we also need Faith in Defeat, yes even more. Our Faith is what pleases God.
We need to keep going when things have gone a bit Spursy. How do we keep our faith to ultimately win the prize ?
Hebrews 12 tells us.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
Hebrews 12:1a
Now we’ve been selected and we are playing in the Big Match being beamed live on HTV to millions upon millions. Yes, a huge crowd of witnesses are cheering for us ! But if we want to win, everything must be at a peak ⁃ lifestyle and discipline, focus, training, tactics, effort and respect - for our coach and for our opponent.
The writer (I think it’s Paul) lays out 5 critical things for victory.
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,
Hebrews 12:1b
The First thing we need to do is cast off sin and we can because we have the Spirit of Christ living in us.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Romans 8:9-14
Through his resurrection life, we must cast off sin.
The Second thing is we have to be focused.
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Dedication/Devotion is critical to success. Devotion to who? Jesus. An athlete has to dedicate himself to win. He can’t live an ordinary life like his mates.
The Third thing is we have to be build endurance
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Hebrews 12:3-4
Endurance is critical. Faith in victories is easier than faith in defeats but both are faith. Both carry God’s promise of reward
The Fourth thing is we have to train hard and follow the Coaches instruction and take the punishment when we don’t. Taking the punishment is also part of the training.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:5-11
Training is critical but training hurts ! In fact Paul emphasises the training ahead of everything else. He calls it discipline, chastening from the Lord. Our coach will work us very hard for our ultimate success. We cannot do it our way. We have to do it His Way and when we don’t, we have to accept some discipline, some chastening and that hurts ! Are you training for the work God calls you to do or are you a spectator watching the match dreaming of success but actually wasting time ?
The Fifth thing is humility and that means having a healthy fear of the Lord and repentance when necessary. These are not so popular today.
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
Hebrews 12:12-21
Some of you may know the old Devo song Whip It.
Before you go forward what do you have to do.
“Now Whip It
Into Shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go Forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It’s not too late
To Whip it
Whip it Good !
Conclusion
Every Christian is playing in a match and every match has a crowd. In the low leagues, the crowds are small. At the highest level, the crowds are huge and loud. If we want to play in the biggest matches (and I know we all do) we need to do 5 things to ultimately arrive in Heaven in victory with no regrets !
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:22-29
Most of you will have seen Chariots of Fire, it’s a favourite movie of mine.
Eric Liddell won the Olympic Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics of 1924 but he left the fame behind him to go to be a missionary in China, and finally died in a concentration camp at the young age of 43 not long before the end of WWII.
In his last letter to his wife, written on the day he died, Liddell wrote of suffering a nervous breakdown due to overwork. He had an inoperable brain tumour; overwork and malnourishment may have hastened his death. Liddell died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation. Langdon Gilkey later wrote, "The entire camp, especially its youth, was stunned for days, so great was the vacuum that Eric's death had left." According to a fellow missionary, Liddell's last words were, "It's complete surrender", in reference to how he had given his life to God. According to a different source, the 2007 documentary film Eric Liddell: Champion of Conviction, Liddell had been in and out of the camp hospital due to the brain tumor. One of his students, Joyce Stranks, came to visit him in the hospital to discuss a book he had written about surrender to God's will. While discussing the book, Liddell reached a point when he was unable to complete saying the word "surrender," and instead he said "surren-...surren-" and after this his head fell back to his pillow and he died.
And entered glory to the roar of a crowd far louder than the Olympic Games.
AMEN.
