Keep Going, Stay Together, Watch Your Step

Hebrews 12 – Keep Going, Stay Together, Watch Your Step

Christianity reminds me a lot of a canoe trip – it is a lot longer and harder than I thought. The danger is not so much the rapids, as it is the danger of discouragement.

We are coming to the end of Hebrews. Time and again we have heard the message that Jesus is better than anything else you might be tempted to trust, do not fail to come into the covenant of Grace. Now he encourages us to stay in it – this life is a marathon, not a sprint – keep running to the end.

How do we finish this marathon? Keep going, stay together and watch your step.

1. Keep Going – Keep remembering the Gospel

Yes, discouragement is real. All along the way you will be tempted to feel like “If I really am God’s son, then I should not feel this way, I should not lack anything, I should not hurt, I should not look weak.”

When you have those feelings, remember two specific things about the Gospel:

A. The Sacrifice of Christ
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.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:2-4 ESV)

Jesus did not lie to you. He did not even put the hard part in small print.