The Problem With An Overweight Church - Nick Serraes

well praise the lord right now we can dismiss our kids uh youth and teen if they're going back hyphen any i don't know everybody half the church go where you gotta go are you glad to be in the house of god in the middle of your week amen brother abney i want to i don't see you but i want to thank you for being sensitive to the holy ghost um i don't have i don't have a sermon for us tonight um it's more of a more of a collection of thoughts um but i've got no doubt at all that it is a message and something that god absolutely wants us to hear and to consider tonight i'm not going to preach too long not because i don't have a lot to say but because i have 17 percent battery left on my ipad god's going to help us tonight let's all stand to our feet we're going to read one verse together and that's going to be in the book of hebrews chapter 12. and we'll take a look at the very first verse of hebrews chapter 12. if you've got it say amen if you can read the tv say amen bible says in hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us i want to look really closely at the second part of this of this verse where presumably paul writes let us lay aside every weight and sin that so easily besets us and let us run the race that is before us so i want to i want to talk for just a few minutes tonight about the problem with an overweight church the problem with an overweight church um you can be seated as your seated why don't you turn to somebody next to you and tell them it's time for you to do something about your weight that was a trap and i hope none of you men fell for it some of y'all do anything the person the pulpit tells you to do come on i believe we have a word from god tonight something i've been studying something god's been dealing with me about and i think that it's something that he he wants his church to hear tonight the book of hebrews in chapter 12 we see paul speaking about our lives and describing our lives in a certain way our our lives are described in many different ways throughout scripture i think job says that his life is like a wind james writes in chapter four i believe that our life is but a vapor but paul in hebrews chapter 12 he describes our life as a race and he does this many times throughout the new testament but he doesn't look at life as a vapor or as a journey or as a moment or as he describes our life as a race and i believe there are some things that he implies in that in that you know there is a starting point and there is an ending point that there if you're running in a race no matter what kind of race you find yourself in whether it be a 40 yard dash or it be a a marathon of 26 miles you're gonna be running in a certain direction toward a certain goal toward a certain objective there's going to be urgency in your movement there's going to be a sense of competition there are going to be opponents there are going to be adversaries there's going to be a purpose to what you're doing in your life if your life is to be as a race and that's just how paul describes it here that your life is more than just a journey he doesn't describe your life as a walk in the park where you're out just walking around with no goal in mind with no purpose in mind it's not just something for us to take our time with and to enjoy the scenery but there is purpose and there is objective in this life that we live paul even writes in first corinthians chapter nine he says do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize so run that you may obtain it and he goes on to say in verse 26 so i do not run aimlessly i do not box as one that beats the air paul understood there was not an aimlessness or an uncertainty or any kind of ambiguity about the way that he lived his life but he understood that he was here with a purpose to fulfill and we need to understand that as a church here tonight we all need to embrace that that we are here for a reason god in his infinite wisdom placed you in this city with your family and your circle of influence in this day and age in this time in this state under these circumstances for a reason god's in control of it all god could have placed you wherever he wanted to place you and god decided that you belong here and you need to understand that this life that we are running is not just a journey it's not just a vacation for us to enjoy it's not for us to sit back and just enjoy our families and enjoy the things around us and enjoy the presence of god and just go on cruise control and coast to wherever life may take us but we are running in a race we need to understand that we have an opponent that we have an adversary that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but we wrestle against principalities and powers that there is an enemy in this race that we are running that is out to destroy us that is out to distract us that is out to derail us we need to understand that we need to embrace that tonight as a church we are here for a reason and for a purpose that we're in this time in this day and age in these last days for a reason and if you consider yourself to be a part of the body of christ then you have an obligation to continue to fulfill the mission of christ and he came to seek and to save the lost he came to minister to the broken he came to reach the world and that's why we're here and we have to understand that we have to embrace that we are here to know him we're here to love him we're here to please him but we need to remember that we are also here to teach others how to know him and how to love him and how to please him every day of our lives we have to understand that there is a purpose for that day every moment of our lives we have to understand there's a purpose for that moment we have to seek his face we have to seek his voice we we have to seek his direction and understand that this life is not just a place for us to sit still casually but that we're here for a reason the bible says in matthew chapter 6 verse 31 take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for all these things do the gentiles seek don't put your focus on on the things around you on on physical things on temporary things on things that ultimately don't matter and he says these are the things that they think about these are the things where they put their attention these are the things that the world puts their focus on but he tells them for your heavenly father knows what you have need of but seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you we need to understand today as the church again that we are here for a reason we are here for a purpose and that is to be ambassadors to the kingdom of god his disciples asked him how to pray and one of the first things that he said was you need to pray your kingdom come and your will be done on earth like it is in heaven our our job here on this earth is to advance and to promote the kingdom of god for his will to be done in this earth to share this great gospel with everybody that we know the bible tells us in in hebrews chapter 12. that in this in this race of life there are there are a couple things that we're going to encounter and again i'm telling you i don't really have a sermon here i've just got a whole bunch of thoughts written down and i'm going to try to make sense of them all for us and i believe god's going to help us there's there's a couple things that we're going to run into in this race of life and and the bible says that we're going to run into weights and we're going to run into sins and i'm not here to so much talk about sin tonight sin is missing the mark you know we've probably heard that there are sins of commission and sins of omission you know sins where we do things that we are not supposed to do but also like james chapter 4 verse 17 says therefore to him that knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin so there are also sins of things that we should be doing that we are not doing and and we're going to run into these things in this race of life but but paul makes sure to include and to separate the idea of weights from sins there are weights and there are sins leading me to believe that weights are not definite or not not necessarily sins in and of themselves if i think about what a weight might be if if we're looking at this in the context of a race weights are something that will that will slow you down runners do not run with weights race car drivers if you look at anybody who's into any kind of racing before that car hits the track that driver will do everything that they can without sacrificing performance they can't take the engine out of their car but without sacrificing performance they'll do everything they can to reduce the weight of that car all the way down to taking out the seats to ripping out the carpets and the headliners to taking out electronics to taking taking anything out of the car getting getting lighter lighter materials for the frames and for different parts and whatnot anything they can do to reduce weight because when you are racing you understand that you need to reduce as much weight as possible those who run in any kinds of races they are very very mindful of their body fat percentage and and they are constantly trying to lose as much weight off of their bodies as they can without sacrificing performance without sacrificing their ability to run and you'll even see runners a lot of times the the types of clothing that they will wear when they're out there on the track and some of it may be just in modesty and wanting to show off their bodies or whatnot but a large part of what runners will wear out on the track is to reduce weight they will find small lightweight materials because those who race understand that every pound matters that every ounce matters and they're going to remove as much weight as possible when they're running their race or driving in their race because they understand that ra that weights will slow you down that weights will make you tired that weights will keep you from reaching potential and that in a race weights will keep you from being victorious and anybody who runs a race will tell you one of the first things you need to do if you want to increase your performance is that you need to lose weight and hebrews chapter 12 instructs us to do just that the bible says and again in verse 1 if we want to go back to that let us lay aside every weight and the sin which death so easily beset us we're given the instruction to lay aside weights in our lives things that slow us down things that keep us from being victorious things that get in the way of our objective and where we're trying to go in our our ability to perform and the bible uses this term lay them aside lay aside every weight and this this comes from a greek word that the two words lay aside i didn't write the word down i don't think it matters but it comes from a greek word that is found six other times throughout the new testament and i think it's interesting to see what context this this idea of laying weights aside is is found in the first time that we see them this this term lay aside and i don't have the verse here but it's okay i believe it's in the book of acts and it talks about individuals literally taking off their clothing and laying aside their garments and removing their garments there's this is an action word this is physically removing something off of your person and and we see it used in a in a figurative sense um six other times throughout the new testament romans chapter 13 verse 12 the bible instructs us to therefore cast off the works of darkness in ephesians chapter 4 verse 22 the bible says to put off the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts there's deceitful lust in the old man that has to be put off or removed from us ephesians 4 25 says to put away lying and to speak every man truth with his neighbor colossians chapter 3 verse 8 tells us to put off all of these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouths james chapter 1 verse 21 tells us to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls and finally first peter chapter 2 tells us to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings that is every instance in the new testament that we are instructed to lay aside anything at all and we're looking at things like lying and filthy communication and anger and wrath and malice and naughtiness and filthiness and lust and all of these all of these terrible things and weights this idea of casting off weights and removing weights from our lives is a big deal to god it matters we need to understand the the impact that that unnecessary excessive weight can have in our lives can have in this church when we carry around things that we're not supposed to be carrying around when we set our affections on things on which our affection should not be said when we put our focus in areas where we should not be focusing when we when we bring all of this excess weight into the church we need to understand how much it will affect our future and the bible says in hebrews chapter 12 just just going down a little bit further there in verse 1. we're instructed to lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us some versions include that comma in between weight and sin the greek does not many versions do not include that comma and i think it would be safe to say that weights also so easily beset us and not just sins i i dug into that verse a little bit and i i found out that this phrase doth so easily beset us we we understand i think most of us understand that the bible was not originally like paul did not write in english he did not speak english he did not write the book of hebrews in english the bible was written in greek and there are different translating processes that get us to the bible that we have today and the writer of the king james bible decided to write the words doth so easily beset us but that five-word phrase in the original greek that the bible was actually written and is just one greek word it's the greek word you peristatos say it five times fast you can practice it when you get home but euperistatos is just one greek word where we get the phrase duff so easily beset us in other words what he's trying to write here is to lay aside every weight and the sin which you peristitus there's there's this one thing that sin and weights do in our lives and this greek word is actually only found one time in the entire bible euperystotos is only found in one place in the entire bible and it's right here in hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. and if we break that word down strong's concordance will tell us that that greek word means literally to skillfully surround to skillfully or strategically surround strong's goes on to say that the word euphyristitos refers to standing around just like a competitor thwarting a racer in every direction so paul's trying to tell us here that sins and weights especially this idea of weights we talk about them easily besetting us but there there's there's some more meaning that he's wanting us to get out of this and it's this idea that weights will skillfully surround us they will strategically surround us there is a reason why they are there in a certain place in your life at a certain time in your life weights don't just show up weights aren't random rates weights don't just get there by themselves but they are skillfully strategically placed in our lives just like a competitor that would thwart a racer in every direction both both i believe and and i may be wrong i don't obviously don't run very much and i don't race my car but there's this idea in racing where if you have multiple people on one team that are kind of racing in a pack they're all kind of moving together just in a clump of people or in a clump of cars where they will box in a common opponent if if they're all in vehicles maybe they get this person up against the wall and one person gets behind them another person another opponent kind of gets to the side of them another opponent kind of gets in front of them and they strategically will surround themselves around this common opponent to keep that driver from being able to advance in the track at the speed at the pace at the rate that the driver wishes to move at and the same thing applies in running if there are multiple runners maybe from the same team there are different strategies when you run a race in a group of people to try to keep a racer from to help them to avoid getting boxed in while out on the track and they'll tell you to run in certain lanes at certain times and to keep certain distance from from certain competitors because your competitors will box you into your lane and keep you from being able to get around and they will skillfully surround you we need to understand that we have an enemy as the church that will strategically and skillfully place weights in our lives that will keep us from going where we need to go as a church there are things in our lives there are weights in our lives that are placed there it's it's done and i've used this word a hundred times and i'll say it one more time they are done strategically to keep the church from being victorious we need to understand what these weights look like in our lives you know i don't think it's any chance you mean you may look at some weights in your life and say you know there may be some things that keep you from going where you're supposed to go and and being who you're supposed to be and doing what you're supposed to do and you may ask yourself well well aren't some of these weights self-inflicted aren't some of these weights just just my flesh aren't some of these weights done by people around me and and there's some truth to that but i don't believe for one second that our enemy is not strategically and skillfully placing things in our lives that may grab our attention that may that may divert our focus away from where god is calling us where god is taking us in an attempt to keep us from going where god wants us to go my ipad's almost dead so i'm gonna turn it off i'm just gonna preach for a minute we have some things in our lives that are weights that we need to learn how to let go of weights are not necessarily sins i use this as an illustration some time ago but if if i'm trying to physically lose weight and i want to diet there is nothing about walking around in the bakery that's going to make me gain weight i can look at as much junk food as i want i can look at as many sweets as i want i can even pick them up i can hold them i can caress them i can place them into my cart i can pay for them i can take them home i can put them in my refrigerator i can put them i can put them on a plate i can smell them none of that is going to have any impact on my body until that food goes down my throat that being said i know what's going to happen when that food makes its way into my cart and makes its way into my house and this is all going to start because i know what's going to happen when my feet end up in a certain place in the store i know what's going to end up coming home with me i know where this is going to lead me and there are there are these areas in our lives where it may be harmless in and of itself it's its presence in your life or your presence in this certain place or your involvement in this certain activity may be harmless in and of itself but if you recognize that your involvement in this certain area is keeping you from fulfilling god's mission the great commission is it's it's prohibiting you from advancing his kingdom from being sold out to him for from being an ambassador for his kingdom then it's a weight and it has to go because the problem there is a problem with an overweight church and i think if we're not careful we can find ourselves at times resembling overweight churches and i'm not trying to talk physically i'm talking in a spiritual matter i'll let somebody else handle the physically overweight matter but but there are times that we can find ourselves spiritually overweight your job can be a weight in your life there may not be anything necessarily wrong with your job but if your job is keeping you from from walking in purpose if your job is keeping you from being who god has called you to be if your job keeps you from saying yes to the ministry that god has been putting on your heart if your job is keeping you from from being involved in things that you know you need to be involved in if your job is keeping you from having spiritual activity in your home if your job is keeping you from having a prayer life if your job is keeping you from studying the word of god there may not be anything necessarily wrong with your job but your job can be a weight in your life media i don't even need to get into media but we all know what media can do and how media can serve as a weight in our life social media can be a weight in our lives friends and even family and relationships that we involve in can be weights in our lives i can go on and on and i can go down the list but we all know when we take a look at ourselves and we we look at at how we spend our time and what we do we know what the weights are in our lives i want to go to one more verse i think i gave them first john chapter two first john chapter 2 verse 15 the bible says do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him aren't you glad that god is very black and white not not very much he there's not a whole lot of gray but he's very straightforward on certain things the bible says that if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes the pride of life is not from the father but it's from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires but whoever does the will of god abides forever if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him and you may look at different areas of your life and and you may think you know i i yeah i do i do get my fair share of cnn or fox news but i don't love it and yeah i do spend a lot of time at work but i don't love it my love is for the kingdom i really do love the kingdom i love the things of god that's what i love but i remember jesus saying in matthew chapter 6 that where your treasure is there will your heart be also where your treasure is that's where your heart is in other words you show me where your treasure is and i will see what you love i will see where i will see where your heart is you show me where you spend your time you show me what gets your money you show me what gets your passion you show me what gets your excitement you show me what's said in the pulpit that makes you stand up and say amen and i'll show you the things that are pat that you're passionate about i asked my young marriage group the other night something to consider in their families in their homes that if they were to live an entire week out at home with their families with their wives their husbands their kids and there were cameras that were set up all throughout their house in every room and every corner and there was an independent third party that was able to just sit there and observe their entire lives their entire household activity everything that they do as a family for an entire week somebody that doesn't know these people they they will not judge their intentions they won't judge things they can't see but they'll judge it entirely on what's presented before them and if somebody could sit back and watch your family and watch your life and watch your spouse and watch your kids when that week ended where would they say your heart is what would they say you are passionate about what would they say that you live for where would they say that your treasure lies what would they see that you are given to what would they see that you are invested in i believe this is something that god wants us to consider tonight we we're going in direction we all understand that tonight right anybody is anybody with me i i think we can sense what god is doing what the spirit is saying i think we can you know if we actually sit back and look at it we can see the differences that were that we're having in our services we can see the differences in the messages that are being preached we can feel god taking our church in a certain direction and i think that it's going to be hard for us to go where god desires us to go if we're carrying along a lot of weights if we're carrying along a lot of things that just don't belong in the church things that don't belong in our families things that don't belong in our lives i'm not telling you to chuck everything that's not bible but i'm telling you to seriously examine your heart and to seriously examine your family and to seriously examine your time and see where is it going what am i carrying around what am i allowing into my home where are we spending our time where is my heart where is my passion what what are we invested in what it what is it that i'm carrying one more verse i want us to look at i if we could go to i believe matthew chapter 19. if you go to matthew chapter 19 verse 16. let's all stand the bible says in matthew chapter 19 verse 16 that there was a man that came to jesus saying teacher what what good deed must i do to have eternal life and jesus said to this young man why do you ask me about what is good there is only one who is good if you would enter life keep the commandments and he said to him which ones and jesus said you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself and the young man tells jesus all these have i kept what do i still lack jesus told him if you would be perfect go sell what you possess and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me jesus had an understanding that if you're going to go where i'm going if you're going to keep up with me if you're going to move at the pace that i'm moving at if you're going to if you're going to walk with me if you're going to walk in my will if you're going to walk in my footsteps if you're going to go where i am going that stuff can't come with you there was an understanding in the mind and the heart of jesus that if you're going to come with me the first thing that we're going to need to do is trim some of that excess weight because you have got way too much stuff that you are carrying around and you can't bring any of it with you where we're going the bible unfortunately says in the next verse that when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions and and jesus used this young man as a as as sermon material and speaking to his disciples in verse 23 he said i say to you that only with difficulty i believe the king james says um a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven some other versions will say that jesus said it was is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven what i want us to do here in the next few minutes we've got it's 8 26 look at that i think pastor let you out at 8 46 last time so you're welcome but let's just let's take a few minutes we got plenty of time to pray here let's just seek the face of god let's seek the will of god here in the next few minutes i'm going to lead you in prayer but you need to pray with your own words because we've all got our own lives we've all got our own weights we've all got our own hang-ups i'm not talking about fear or intimidation or worry or anxiety or things like that being weights in your lives those things can absolutely be weights those things can get in the way of what god is trying to do with you what god is trying to speak to you where god's trying to take you but what i want us to deal with tonight are are those weights that are strategically placed into our lives they're they're strategically placed in ways that we can look at them and not recognize that they're await they're strategically placed that we can look at them and see everything that's going on and think that this thing is of utmost importance and it's absolutely worthy of my time and my attention and my focus when it's a weight you know these things that are within our control not that we need to pray and have healing and deliverance from but that we need to make a decision in our lives to let go of why don't we just take a minute let's talk to god about these things lord god we love you we're we're so thankful for your spirit your presence in this house tonight lord god we feel you here we feel you you

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Length: 33min 27sec (2007 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021