Encourage One Another to Finish Strong (Hebrews 12:12-15)

Encourage One Another to Finish Strong - Eyes on the Prize Series. In Hebrews 12:12-15, God reminds us that the Christian life is a shared journey, not a solo run. In this message, Pastor Chris Teien challenges believers to strengthen one another, walk with intentional faith, pursue peace and holiness, and watch over each other so God’s grace continues to shape the body of Christ. We are called to run our race faithfully and to help others run theirs well. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18567454

Outline:

1. Strengthen Tired Bodies and Weary Souls (v.12)
    Hebrews 12:12 calls believers to respond to God’s work in their lives by strengthening what has grown weak. Spiritual endurance is developed through faithfulness, discipline, and trust in God, even when the journey feels exhausting.
2. Walk Steady Paths That Lead to Healing (v.13)
    Hebrews 12:13 reminds us that our choices affect others. God calls us to live intentionally so our lives help bring healing and clarity to those who are following behind us rather than causing them to stumble.
3. Train for the Race Through Peace and Holiness (v.14)
    Hebrews 12:14 teaches that peace with others and holiness before God are marks of a life transformed by grace. Holiness is not about earning God’s approval but living out the new life He has already given us.
4. Watch Over One Another So Grace Prevails (v.15)
    Hebrews 12:15 urges the church to actively care for one another so bitterness, isolation, and spiritual drift do not take root. God designed believers to grow stronger together as we guard one another in grace.

Key Takeaways:
 Faith is meant to be lived in community, not isolation.
 Your walk with Christ influences others more than you realize.
 Peace and holiness grow as we stay connected to God and each other.
 The church runs strongest when believers encourage and protect one another.

Supporting Scripture References:
 Hebrews 12:1-15
 Isaiah 35:3-4
 Ephesians 6:10
 Proverbs 4:26
 Romans 14:19
 1 Corinthians 10:23
 1 Peter 1:14-16
 Ephesians 2:8-9

Action Step:
 Ask God this week to show you one way you can encourage someone else in their walk with Christ and one area where He is calling you to grow stronger in faith.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Every one of us can be spiritually fit. Every one of us can grow in our faith. And that's actually what we've been talking about over the last few weeks is spiritual fitness from Hebrews chapter 12. Today is the last day on the Olympics series, but I picked out the bobsled or the bobsled, the four-man bobsled team, because it was a perfect illustration for what we want to talk about today. What we want to talk about today as far as growing in our faith, as far as strengthening our faith, as far as living in holiness, as far as a church working together. So pretty awesome. Now I've never actually been on a bobsled. I have been in some kind of it's like a concrete tube that you go down the mountain on the little cart and it's got the little forward and break thing. On a mountain in Colorado. That's the closest I ever got to that one. But imagine, like the bobsledders, which actually looks easy. You're like, yeah, whatever. So they just push it, they jump in and they go for a ride. How hard is that? But when you really look at it, it's like super dangerous. You got four guys, right? And you've got this little sled. And what you want to do is you want to find the biggest, strongest, fastest guys you can. I mean, you want nothing but power and muscle because your only chance about getting the speed faster than the other teams is to push that thing in the beginning as fast as you can go. So you want sprinters, and if you've got four of them, roughly they can only average to be about 230 pounds each or so. And for some reason, if they're less than that, you can put some weights on your sled. But you got a guy in the front, he has to get in first, and he's got some cables and stuff that he can control and steer the thing. So he's got to get in first. And then the two other pushers, they have to get in the middle, and then the last guy in the back, he has to be the fastest. He's the last one to push before he jumps in. And he's also important because he also has the control of the brake. So when it's time to stop, the guy in the back is the guy you want to rely on. On that, I was watching some videos of bobsled crashes or what happens when there's when three guys fall out and there's only one guy left in, and it's not pretty. The guy had to slide back as fast as he could in a panic to try to reach the brake because he was the only one in the bob sleigh. Not only do they have to get in in synchronization, but they're all wearing spikes on their shoes, ice spikes. I can't imagine if the guy behind me made a mistake as he clawed me with his spikes and said, oops, sorry about that. But so this is the sport that they have. And so not only do they have to push it, not only do they go fast, but the gravitational pull, like four or five G's a pull, pull on you while you're going around. And some people that were not professional bobsledders had had an opportunity. They're like, Yeah, I got in, and once we started going at like 80 miles per hour, I couldn't even lift my head. The force was so hard I couldn't even lift my head up because we were going so fast. And so I don't know if you think that's a good parallel to the Christian life, but in many ways it is, and I'll explain that as we go on. And maybe as you look at or watch four-man bobsled teams, maybe you will think about the fact that, huh, that kind of compares to me in the Christian life and my brothers and sisters in Christ and the race that we're all supposed to run. Because that's what Hebrews 12 talks about. It talks about to be encouraged to endure in your faith, to keep serving and following Jesus and the race that he has called you to, because all of our races look a little different, and that God disciplines us for our own good so that we can have a stronger faith, so we can be more successful in our faith, so we can stand against all of the spiritual battles and all of that. And then we get into this part here where we're to be strengthened in our faith. So, number one, strengthen tired bodies and weary souls. Strengthen tired bodies and weary souls. So I don't know if you've ever been in any type of sport or anything like that, but as you continue to play, as you continue to push forward, as you continue to do everything you can to be successful, sometimes you just are so tired. And I wonder sometimes if your Christian life, your Christian faith doesn't feel like that sometimes, especially when you get serious about serving Jesus, when you get serious about living for Christ, when you get serious about doing those daily spiritual disciplines, your daily devotions, and you just keep doing it. When you start out in the Bible reading plan, maybe you have already. A lot of people start in January. You can jump in at any time on those Bible reading plans. But a lot of people start in January. And so as we're coming to the end of January now, some people started out and they're like, This is so fun. This is so fun. I'm reading through the Bible, this is great. I'm reading through the Old Testament, I'm reading through the New Testament, or reading some Psalms or reading some Proverbs. It's really great. This is so fun. And then so as they do it day after day, and in the midst of all the busyness, sometimes the fun part wears off, sometimes the newness part wears off. But I encourage you to just keep doing it, even if you don't feel it anymore. So many times, when you are going to be getting stronger, when you are going to be growing in endurance, you probably won't feel like it's that fun anymore. But you just keep pushing on, you keep doing it, you keep being faithful to show up, to get up, to get it done, and you will see the rewards for it. Even if you don't feel it, you just keep pushing on. And so in Hebrews 12 12, it says, therefore, it says, therefore. So that looks back to what we looked at last week, that God disciplines those people that he loves so that they can grow stronger in their faith. So if God is disciplining you, if you're going through difficult times and everything, know that it is for your good. God's not trying to be harsh and mean, he's not just trying to ruin your life, he wants you to become stronger. He wants you to learn endurance, he wants you to help to help you move forward. And it says, Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Do you grow tired and weary as you serve in the Christian life, as you move forward? I mean, whenever we see the word therefore, and I'm not sure, it's probably like 30 or 40 times in the Bible, it always points back to what was before it, but it's a response. It says, okay, so I understand that God disciplines this stuff, and therefore here comes a prescriptive list of things that I should do, things that I should do to change my life, things that I should do to move forward. And it says, Therefore, strengthen. Strengthen is an act of command. It doesn't mean to wait passively for strength to return. It means to take deliberate action in response to God's training. So the Christian life can be difficult. Ephesians 6 10 says, Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Feeble arms come from carrying a load, carrying a burden. Sometimes you get weary in service. Sometimes it seems hard to keep praying. Sometimes when you keep obeying the Lord, it seems costly. Sometimes when you serve in ministry, it feels draining. Have you ever felt that draining part of ministry before? Maybe you're constantly preparing and doing your small group Bible study, and it's kind of taxing. You've got all these other things to do, but you want to make sure you're prepared, and so you know you're doing the right thing, but it just sometimes you feel tired. So years ago when I was a youth pastor, we had this great facility. The church had gotten part of this corporate headquarters from this big company, and we're able to use it. So half of this building that used to be the corporate headquarters was for the church, youth ministry and children's ministry, and the other half of it was used for a Christian school. And so we would invite kids to come after football games. We'd invite kids to come, and we had tons of space. And we said, hey, let's do a junior high lock-in. Let's do a junior high lock-in because you know it'd be great to tell these kids about Jesus and have them all night. So we invited kids to the junior high lock-in, and I think we got just about every eighth grade and the eighth grader in the school district that showed up for that. And we had all sorts of stuff going on. We even had a cop in the parking lot policing the basketball court to make sure that it was all safe as the night went on. But I also remember that my leaders and I, as the night went on, as midnight turned to one, turned to two, and either you had kids that were still running around having a good time, or you had a bunch of them that were sick because they ate too many Oreos and drank too much Mountain Dew. As this went on, we started to pray for the sun to come up. We were weary, we were tired. About three in the morning, we're like, what did we do? Whose idea was this? Four in the morning. Let's never do this again. Five in the morning. What time did these kids go home? When it was all said and done, we did have some good ministry that night. We did have some good connection with kids. It was really worthwhile. But at the time it was very wearying, very fatiguing, made it difficult. But when you're carrying a heavy load, sometimes you grow weary. That reminds me of an Exodus in the Old Testament when the Israelites in Egypt, Pharaoh, he didn't want to let them go. So he said, I'm going to increase your workload. Find your own straw. You know, work harder, work harder. So these slaves that Pharaoh thought that he would show them and wear them out, all he did is he made them stronger. He built up their endurance. When it was time for them to plunder the Egyptians, when it was time for them to leave and go into the wilderness, they're like, man, we've been doing this hard labor for so long that we're going to carry our stuff out on our backs and your stuff too, and we're going to go follow God, what He's got for us, as we head out into the wilderness. So that time that was wearing, that time that was fatiguing, actually built up strength, actually built up endurance, actually built up sometimes with us too. Sometimes it's character that gets built up. Then there's weak knees. Weak knees. So weak knees can happen when there's instability under pressure. Sometimes your knees buckle when the weight becomes too heavy to bear. Spiritually, weak knees show up when fear, discouragement, or temptation make it hard to stand. So sometimes people get terrified and either their knees buckle or they can't move their legs because they're so terrified. I don't know if you've ever felt that before. But so weak knees don't mean failure, it means endurance is being tested. God strengthens knees through repeated practice and obedience and trust, especially in moments of pressure. This is also talked about in Isaiah 35. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear. Your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution, he will come to save you. And we find courage in that. So to strengthen knees, to strengthen your spiritual stamina, to strengthen your ability to serve, to strengthen your ability to defend your faith. That's called apologetics. Apologetics is not apologizing for your faith. Apologetics is being able to give an answer for what you believe, give an answer to why you think that Jesus is the only way, to give an answer of why other false religions fall short, to give an answer why you choose to do what you do, choose to believe the way you do, choose to think the things that you do, and to give a defense for the gospel. So we have a lot of videos on right now media that you can get for free that help you to grow in your Christian faith for the areas that you're interested in, discipleship videos, apologetics training videos, many things to help you grow in the Christian life. And just like any fitness plan that is so readily available to you, so are spiritual fitness plans as we go through this life. So the bobsledders. Like I said, you want the fastest, most powerful guys with the biggest muscles that you can find that fit into the bobsled. So that's a tall order, right? And you want them to be heavy because the heavier you are, the more mass goes down the hill. I know this is a fact. I know this to be true. Because back in the days when I was really crazy about riding my bicycle, you could go around with this app called the Strava app, and you could actually set personal records. And so I would go around town and I would set personal records. And this guy who ran triathlons would go behind me and ruin all of my records. So every time I'd set one, he'd watch for Richard, and here he comes, he'd just beat it. So I still hold a couple records though, and the one that's kind of funny, it was from the water tower, down the down this road, tight turn, and then down the hill. And if you got to the bike path, that's where the timing thing stopped. And I would try to go so fast on that. I would do everything I could to be the fastest on that. I would practice so I could go faster and so I could go around the corner faster. And one day I took everything off the bike. I even took the seat off the bike. I'm like, everything that weighs anything has to go. And I went as fast as I could. I thought when it wasn't even that far. I didn't even think it was half a mile. But by the time I got near the finish line, I literally thought I was gonna throw up. And so I set the record. I think I still hold the record too. And I watched Richard tried to break the record over and over again. And I don't know if he knew about my taking everything off the bike strategy or any of the other things that I did, but Ansrava lists how much you weigh. And I knew that I weighed more than he did. And mass going downhill usually goes faster. So maybe if he would have put more weight on his bike or something, but and that is the same thing that bobsledders do. And if you really thought about your Christian life and you were really serious about following Jesus, maybe that's what you need to do too. Maybe you need to think about, like we looked at in Hebrews, about the sin that so easily entangles, about the things that slow you down, about the distractions, about the things that are in the way, of you being successful in the race that God has for you, to strengthen those arms, to strengthen those knees, to walk in the strength of the Lord would be a good thing. To have the confidence, to have the courage to walk in the things of the Lord with a purpose, with confidence, to know whom you believe, whom you have believed, and how you can lead other people to Jesus. And that comes to number two. Walk steady paths that lead to healing. Walk steady paths that lead to healing. So the bobsled course is pretty well groomed and taken care of. So they make sure that concrete is filled with ice and it's supposed to be smooth and everything, except for the area that they break in and the area that they take off and everything. But in your life, what is it that you could do to make the path to following Jesus, not water it down so it's not biblical, but make it easier for people to follow in your lead, to follow your teaching, to follow in the things that you want to guide them in. So make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. So in nature, everything, paths just fall apart. Rain comes and it washes out paths. Maybe you've seen that on your sidewalk or things like that. But sometimes for level paths, you have to be intentional. You have to remove obstacles, fill holes, and straighten what is crooked. So the writer of Hebrews is saying that the Christian life requires intentional choices and don't just be on spiritual autopilot. Proverbs 20 or Proverbs 4, 26 says, give careful thought to the paths for your feet. Do not turn to the right or to the left. So as we're following Jesus, as we're going down that path, as we're running our race, we have an opportunity to impact and affect other people. And maybe in the beginning of Hebrews 12, we were talking about running our own race and talking about how God disciplines us. But now as we are coming into these last verse or this last section here that we're looking at, it's more about us together as a church. It's more about us together as a group. It's more about us together as the people that we care about. So for your feet shifts the focus inward before it ever moves outward. Before believers can help others, they must examine their own walk. The way we live creates conditions that others must navigate. So I and some of you too have been volunteering to shovel the snow out here. So for the last couple of years, we had somebody that would come take care of snow blowing. We've always had someone that snow plows, but we had someone that would take care of snow blowing and he's no longer available. So we come out here and we do what we can to keep the sidewalk clear so you don't slip. And the building is made in such a way that for some reason the hill from the parking lot makes all the water go straight to the front door, and then it just turns into ice. There was one, I don't know if it was last year or the year before. I had to put down a bag of salt every day just to keep the ice from accumulating and the front door. But I was thinking of you. I was thinking about the people that would come in. Don't want them to slip, want them to be able to get in, don't want anybody to get hurt. And if you think about the way that you live your Christian life, is it easy for people to follow in your footsteps? Is it easy for people to know where you're coming from? Is it easy for people to understand how you came to Christ and what your faith is based on and what resources that you use and how they could have that too? Are you quick to show them where you get information when you teach things? Some people might just think that you are just brilliant. You're just a genius. Oh my goodness. How does that person know all that? But then you're like, no, wait, I'm not a genius. No. I have a study Bible. I have a study Bible, and in the passage here it actually says all these things that I've been sharing with you. And you're like, you should get a study Bible. You're like, okay, how much is it? And first they'll ask, Do you have one that I can have for free? And you're like, yeah, no, I don't. How much is it? Oh, it's$70.$70? Who would pay$70? But then you think about it, and it's like, wait a second, didn't she just take your family to a movie last weekend? How much were the movie tickets? Did you buy snacks? How much were the snacks? Oh, you went to McDonald's afterwards? How much did you spend? Oh, you spent over$100 on that? And you don't want to spend$70 for a study Bible that could change your life? And then show them the value. Show them the value of the resource. Show them the value of the tool. Help people to be able to follow in your footsteps. And also, Romans 14, 19 says, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. So we don't want people that are hurting the lame, the people that are going through hard times, maybe they're faltering in their faith, maybe their relationships are falling apart, maybe they just have a lot of life issues. We don't want them to feel disabled or cut off or to give up. Instead, we want them to experience healing. We want them to move forward. 1 Corinthians 10 23 says, I have the right to do anything, you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. So I mentioned this before. I think that according to the Bible, that if you were to have a drink, that it may not be sin unless you cause someone else to stumble. But drunkenness, it's clear in the Bible that drunkenness is a sin. Now, if you cause someone else to stumble, that's also a sin. So I choose not to drink because I don't want to be the example for anyone else that struggles with alcohol and then says, Well, I can drink because Pastor Kurtz drinks. Use your freedom wisely. You know, we want people to be healed. We want people to be able to follow Christ. We don't want to throw up barriers. And I think that's really something to think about today, too. So a lot of pastors aren't saying a whole lot about what's going on in Minneapolis with the whole ice thing for multiple reasons. One, like I mentioned before, that no one really knows what's going on because the news sources you don't know if they're reporting correctly, you don't know 100% of what's going on. And two, everybody has a different perspective. It's a different perspective from one person who doesn't know any people that are in the country as immigrants to other people that do know people that are in the country that are immigrants, that as far as they knew, as far as they could understand, did everything that was requested of them at that time to. Be in the country. They thought that they were in. And then all of a sudden they were told that they aren't, and the confusion that goes with that. And so it's just a big mess. And so I encourage us all to make sure that we guard our speech and speak wisely. And one wise denominational leader said, Show love to everybody, show love to the immigrant, show love to the person who works for ICE, show love for everybody in between and respect authority. So do what you know is right. But to make sure that you are making level paths, that you are living in such a way that people can follow after you, living in such a way that makes a difference. In Bobsledding, from what I understand, the guy, the pilot, the people that are they all that communicate with each other. You're going really fast, you're going across the ice. You want to make sure that you choose your lines perfectly because if you rub up against the wall, you'll slow down. If you go too high up the wall, you could get hurt. All these things, and you want to make sure that you don't get off track. Let's do everything that we can as a church to not get off track. Think about your habits and your choices. Do you make it easy for people to follow Jesus or harder? Think about the areas that you claim freedom. Does that help other people follow Christ, or does it give them an excuse to continue to live in sin? Number three, train for the race through peace and holiness. Train for your race through peace and holiness. So Hebrews 12, 14, make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. For the scriptures say you must be holy because I am holy. So living in holy, holy life is to do what you know is right, to turn from sin and to run towards God, to live out the Christian life the way that you know you're supposed to, to care about others. To I'll talk about this more next next month, but holiness looks like humility that welcomes God's discipline rather than resisting it. So holiness looks like a growing sensitivity to sin, not driven by fear of punishment, but by a love for the Lord. Holiness looks like a life increasingly shaped by God's character, priorities, and purposes. So it's not a works-based salvation, it is a proof that you are truly in Christ when you want to live a holy life, when you're trying, when you're working at living a holy life to do those things that matter. Number four, last one. Watch over one another so grace prevails. Watch over one another. In the church, we matter to each other. In the church, we should pay attention to the people that are part of the family that God has put together here, this church family. And to notice when people seem down, when people seem to be falling away, when people seem to be struggling, to encourage them, to help them. Hebrews 12, 15. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. It's pretty pretty difficult when not only is somebody going through a hard time, but maybe through they got they felt hurt, or maybe somebody said something. And by the way, if I've said anything to offend you, I apologize in advance. And tell me what it is so I can apologize again. It's really easy to offend people these days. But sometimes that offense, they smile and everything's good, but there's like this root of bitterness that starts in their heart, and then it just grows. And pretty soon it grows up and it causes trouble and it can ruin churches, it can ruin people's Christian testimonies, it can ruin people's lives. We want to make sure that we do what's right, and that if there is anything that we pursue, forgiveness. We have these brochures on the shelf, these peacemaking principles that are helpful, that you could go through and consider the suggestions and how to find forgiveness and how to live out the gospel peacemaking principles on the shelf there by the coffee maker. But to pursue the Christian life, to train ourselves up so that we are living holy, so that we are living in a way that avoids a bitter root of envy, falls short of the grace of God. You know, Hebrews has already taught us that believers are to endure under God's discipline and not give up. But it's not that we're losing our salvation, it's the danger of drifting away from God's grace, as though God's favor and help are no longer needed, or forgetting the promise and guidance that God has given. Ephesians 2 8 and 9 says it's by grace you've been saved through faith, not by works. So don't fall into a performance-based Christianity. Don't try to do everything on your own and think that God only cares about your performance because he knows your heart and he knows your struggles, and he covers you in his grace. When you think about the Bob Slater, when you think about them living their life, doing their race, focused on getting to the finish line the best way possible, think about your Christian life. Think about what you can do from what we've looked at in the last four weeks. What can we do to live the race that God has given us in such a way that we can cross the finish line and be proud, be satisfied, be content with the life that we lived. And think about who you helped in their race get across the finish line. A lot of us struggle with guilt. A lot of us struggle with guilt, and that's what we're going to talk about next week, is living free from guilt, how to live in victory. And I'll continue on part of what I was going to share today, too. But so many things. Jesus ran the race perfectly. We struggle, but the Holy Spirit guides, the Holy Spirit helps, the Holy Spirit gives us power, and we're able to move forward. And when we do, it's not that we did it, it's that God did it through us and He gets the glory. Such a good thing. So train for the Christian faith, endure in the Christian faith, help other people finish their race in the Christian faith. Jesus, I thank you for this time. I thank you for these people. I pray that you would bless the food that we're about to eat, that you'd bless our meeting. But I pray that you would take something that I said in the last four weeks from Hebrews chapter 12, and that it would just really set and take root. It's a good thing in people's hearts here, that people would grow closer to you, that people would serve you in such a way that it's transformational. You are glorified, and people are just really living their purpose. God, just a new season, a new day here at Rockwell Church. Lord, we just thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.