Well, hey, good morning Venture Church. Wherever you are, wherever you're tuning in, um, if you are driving maybe, and you're headed to family or maybe you're finally like leaving family and, and you're excited about that, or, or, or maybe maybe you are in your pajamas, and I just want you to know that, that I envy you because I asked to be up here in my pajamas. And, and they, they said no. So, uh, en enjoy that. I, I envy you, man.

It is the end of a year, the beginning of, of a new year, and there's so much, um, excitement that that comes with that, in fact. And not only excitement, excitement, but I think about, um, at the end of a year there's, there's, there's two emotions or two thought processes that, that really begin to happen. And the first one is, is we get really reflective. And maybe, maybe you, you're doing this now, particularly if you're driving, 'cause you that's always a good time to, to reflect. But you, you reflect back on, on the past year, you know, I, I know for us at, at venture church, man, 2023 has been incredible, over 300 baptisms.

And man, it's so, so much to celebrate. And, and, and for you, maybe you look back and you reflect and there's, there's lots of good things there. There was a new job or maybe there was a marriage or you know, a, a new child and, and you're, you're excited about that and you reflect and you remember that. But, but we also know that, that for a lot of people, 2023 wasn't, wasn't great, you know? And so as you reflect, you know, there's, there's emotions of, of grief or sadness.

You lost a loved one or maybe there was a diagnosis or you, you lost a job. And so, uh, we, we, all of us, regardless of the year that we had, we all want to, uh, reflect. It's kind of just a natural thing that happens. But at the end of a new year means that we're at the end of one year means that we're beginning a new year. And with that comes this expectation, you know, if 2023 was, was, was great, you know, we're, we're anticipating the next year, we're expecting 2024 to, to continue to move in that direction.

And if 2023 was, was rough, man, we, we see 2024 as as a new opportunity, as as a, as a fresh start. And, you know, we, we begin to think about this is, this is so, so true in my life. We begin to start the, the pep talks, you know, so if 2024, you're like, man, this is, this is my year. New opportunity, new me. Maybe it's your finances.

And so you're, you're giving yourself the pep talk, Hey, this year I am going to stop spending money I don't have, or maybe it's with your career. Like, hey, this is, this is my year. I'm gonna, I'm gonna outsell everybody. I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get the promotion, I'm gonna get the raise. Maybe it's your relationships, husbands and wives, you're, you're gonna lean in.

You start telling yourself that, man, I'm gonna lean in this year and, and we're gonna make some strides. Or, or maybe it, it's, man, I'm, I'm gonna find that person this year. Like this year's gonna be the year I'm gonna find them. I'm gonna marry 'em. And it's like all gonna happen in a year.

And you, you, you begin to focus in on that and talk yourself up. Uh, or maybe even in your faith, especially in your faith, where, where we go, Hey, you know what, it's time for me to, to move forward. Maybe you've been drifting and in 2023 you, you drifted a good bit and, and, and you're ready to get back on track. But we begin to, to give ourselves the, the beginning of the new year pep talk. Now let me just tell you, I love, I love a good pre-game message.

Like I know it's, you know, we're in football season and, and, but I, I, you know, playoffs, I, I love a good, you know, locker room talk. I love a good motivational speech. And I, I wanna share with you the, the worst one that I've ever heard though. And, and, and it happened in a high school locker room in, in a playoff game. And this, this particular coach, uh, Kevin man, he, he had been given, he was assistant coach and he had been given permission and, you know, access, uh, to do all of the pre-game talks.

And man, he took ownership in it. He was, he was creative, he did research and he would come there, he was theatrical. And this game, and you guys stay with me on this, okay? This game, he decided that he was gonna get the trainer to, to just nick his forehead with a razor. And his plan was that as he started talking and got fired up, that, you know, the blood would kind of trickle down and, and everybody would kind of have this warrior mentality.

And when he got done, they'd charge out. Well, well, you know, he asked us if we thought it was a good idea. And of course we said, absolutely. And, and as he, as he did that man, when he got in front of the kids, it didn't trickle like it, it was, it was running. And, and the players were, were traumatized.

And so, like, after the, the pep talk, the, the kids are like, uh, like his coach, okay, do we need to like totally derailed the whole thing? So there had to be another pep talk from the locker room to the field to, you know, there had to be therapy, you know? And so it was a great idea, it just didn't, didn't work out. But even in, in our movies, like, like, like one of my favorite movies of all time series, Rocky, and I've been seeing a lot of this on my internet feed. I'm not sure why.

Uh, but, but the talk that Rocky gives to his son, I believe it's in Rocky four and maybe it's in the street, his adult son. And he's, and he, you know, he's fired up and he says, man, it's not, it's not about how hard you can hit. Maybe you guys know it, it's not about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and, and get back up. Man, that's, that's got me fired up. Or, or Gladiator, one of the best movies of all time in the very beginning of Gladiator, he's, he's on the horse and he's got his, his men around him.

And he says, Hey, listen, you need to know that what you do in life echoes in eternity. Like we, we love a good, we love a good pep talk. And, and I'm gonna be honest with you this morning, I, that's what I wanna do for you. I like, I I just want you to walk into 2024 and I want you to be inspired. And so we're gonna look at a passage, actually a book in the New Testament that really is a pep talk.

We don't know who the author is, uh, but he's writing to, uh, to some Christians who are, are beginning to, to second guess their faith. They came out of Judaism, they came outta Judaism, and they're, they're beginning to, to second guess that. And, and they're wanting to, to kind of go back to the things that they've, they've known. And so they're, you know, they're like, man, I I, I don't know if if it, if it's worth it. And, and, and the the author writes this, and it, it, it, it doesn't read like a letter, but it reads, reads like a pep talk.

And he starts off and he's, and he's reminded, he's like, guys, remember what you came from and, and remember that Christ is superior, that Christ is greater. That everything that you experienced before you met Jesus was just a, a shadow of, of what he was, and, and, and is. And, and you don't want to go back to that. And, and as he's writing this message, this sermon, really, as he's writing it to these people who are struggling and they're being persecuted and they're having second thoughts, at towards the end in chapters 11 and 12 and 13, it begins to crescendo. And, and then he gets to the climax where he's like building.

And this is the moment where he's gonna, you know, if he's in a locker room, he's about to send them out. And this is what he says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse one. He says this, he says, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, he says, therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and he's talking about what he just came, what he just finished talking about in chapter 11, in chapter 11, again, you gotta go with me to a locker room. And, and the, the speech is going and, and the intensities building. And that's what's happening in chapter 11, because he's talking about all of these people from the Old Testament, all of these people that these, these Christians would know about.

And he's talking about all the things that God did in them and that God did through them. He's talking about Abraham, he's like, guys, you know Abraham, you know what God called him to do? And that he was faithful in that, you know about his, you know about Sarah, you know about Noah, you know about, and he goes all the way through the Old Testament naming these people. And then he gets to a point and he's like, then there's all these other people, we don't even know their names, but they, they, they, their, their faith cost them their life. And then he gets to Hebrews chapter 12, and he says, so therefore, in light of all that, since we're surrounded by all of these people that have done incredible things, like they, they have paved the way for us.

They have given us an example, and I'm gonna skip a verse. And he says, because of them, 'cause of what they've done, he says, let us run our race with perseverance. Let us run the race marked out for us. Like, like, we can't quit. These guys have, have, have accomplished all of this in the faith in chapter 11.

And now they are entrusting it to us. You know, when I, when I think about that and those two verses, I, I think about, I think about our church, you know, I had been going from here for about 15 years when, when I moved back and, and then moved into a, a role working here and, and then the campus pastor at the Hunt Club. And, and, and the theme, the imagery that I've, that I've seen from day one is that something has been entrusted to me that people have gone before me. People have sacrificed, and it's been there, there's this cloud of witnesses. And and it's not just that they're, it is not that they're cheering us on, and maybe Moses isn't heaven cheering us on, I don't know.

But the, the idea, the intent of the text is that we look at them and look what they did so that we can learn from them. And so the author of Hebrew says that, Hey, we've been entrusted with this, so let's run the race with perseverance and, and he's comparing our life and our faith to, to a race and let, let's run, let's run hard. But you know this and, and, and, and I know this, that, that any, any good pep talk, any, any pre-game speech, though, it is good for commitment, right? I mean, you can, you can rally the troops and, and you can have a great speech. And it is great for, for getting commitments.

It's great for getting you to the starting line. And we'll stick with football, but it doesn't do much in the fourth quarter. It doesn't do much when your back's against the wall. It doesn't do much when, when your world seems to be unraveling because you did get a diagnosis because you, someone close to you did pass away, and you're trying to figure out how to do life without them. Like the pep talk is gone at that point.

See, we need something that is, that allows us to be consistent. And any great pep talk in any great motivational speech always comes with a game plan. But that there's gotta be something more substantial than just butterflies and excitement. And when we read back in this text, we see that, that the author, he, he, he wasn't just trying to inspire, he wasn't just saying, look what these guys did. And hey, you wanna run your race just like they did.

Now when we read back through this text, what we see is a game plan that you and I can take into 2024. And I believe it would make a huge difference. So let's go back. Hebrews chapter 12, and I'm gonna start in verse one, and we're just gonna move through it and, and look at really two, two things that the author gives us as our game plan. It says, therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and then, and then watch this.

He says, these two words, let us, now, we, we, we, we have to hit pause here 'cause this is incredibly important. Let, let us, there is power in an us There, there, there, there is incredible synergy in an US like God can do so much through an an us. And the author says, Hey, what you need to know is, is you're not in this alone. So, so this is something that, that, that we've all got to do. You know, on the Gulf Coast and on Stone County, in Jones County at the Hunt Club Lincoln Road, wherever you're listening, this is about, this is about us.

Like, what happens if, if we do this, what could God continue to do through us in 2024? So the author says, let us, and then, and then here is, here is our, our, our first part of the game plan. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles the way I say it. The first thing that we've gotta do is we've got to remove and we've got to release. So removing is this, removing is the everything that hinders see in, in life.

It's, it's easy for us to accumulate like stuff habits. And, and, and it's about whether or not, not whether it's good or bad, but whether it's best, you know, like the easy decisions are about good things and, and bad things. Those are, those are easy decisions, but the really difficult decisions in life are, are about, about is this, is this good and is this best? Is this good and is this great? And choosing that one, that's what's difficult.

And what the author is talking about, he's using a, a running analogy all the way through this text. And as, as the runners would come into the cossum or they would come into the arena, they would be wearing, uh, robes. I mean, think, think hunger games. And they would, they would come in, but when they got ready to run, they would take the robe off and they would run just about without their clothes on because they didn't want anything to trip them up. They didn't want anything to hinder them.

They didn't want, or they wanted to be, uh, to be quick and, and, and to be nimble. They wanted to be able to do what they needed to do. And they, so they would remove everything that could possibly hinder them. They only had the essentials with them. And he says, Hey, listen, you gotta remove these things that hinder you.

Again, they're not necessarily bad, they're just not best. So how do I know? I I I think that there's two trails that, that we can follow our time and our money. If you wanna know if there's things in your life, how are you investing your time? And, and is that the best use of your time?

How are you in investing your money? And is that the best use of your money? If you'll follow the trail of your time and money, and when you get to the end, you'll find something there and you can begin to decide, Hey, is this, is this really like helping me run further faster? Or is it a, is it a hindrance? You know, uh, when, when we go backpacking, we would always do, or we always do what we call a shakedown.

And a shakedown is when, you know, if you're going on a long hike or if you're going on a summit bid, you, you lay everything out that you're, that you want to take. And then, I mean, it's all laid out on the, on the ground and you begin to, to to, to systematically go through and, and make sure that you're not taking, uh, anything that is unnecessary. Like you, you, you wanna make sure that that the, the only weight that you're carrying, because everything that you take, you have to carry. And I wonder for some of us, as we step into 2024, if we don't just need to take a moment, if just do a shakedown and just say, alright, like let, let's, let's just look around at the things I'm investing in my, my time and my money in. I, I'll tell you, years ago, for me, the, the thing where, where God really, and it was with this text that God really spoke to me, was how much time I spent in a gym.

And that's not a bad thing. It wasn't the best use of my use of my time. If I was trying to lead my family, if I was trying to be a great father, if I was trying to be a great husband, who cares if I'm great in the gym, if I'm not a great husband or father? Wasn't bad, wasn't best. But then he says, not only the things that that hinder you, but the sin that easily entangles you.

Now with the things that hinder us, we, we may have to like do a little research and do a little digging, but the sin that entangles us, if there's a sin in your life, you likely know what it is. Like you, you don't have to do much digging there. You've probably battling it and you've probably got plans to leave it behind in 2024. And I, I don't know if you've ever done any research on how to catch a monkey. Um, you probably haven't.

I did. Um, so you don't have to, uh, but one of the ways they catch a monkey is, is they take a coconut, this is a jar just so we're on the same page. They take a coconut and they put a hole in there just big enough for the monkey to get his paw. And inside there they put fruit, something the monkey likes. And then on the other end of the coconut, there's usually a rope and it is tied to something substantial, something that won't move.

And so the monkey would, will come up and he, he'll get his little monkey Paul in there, and he grabs a hold of it, and then he goes to pull and it, and it just won't come out. And here's the crazy thing that as the monkey sees his captor's approach, he doesn't release it. Oh, no, no. He squeezes harder. And this thing that he's so desperately wants is the thing that is gonna lead to his death.

And he will not let it go. See that we have to remove the thing that hinders us, but at some point, man, there's sin in our life and we've just got to release it. And, and if we don't release it, just like the monkey, our captors are gonna be closing in. And we're gonna be so unaware because we're so focused on this thing. And, and, and for some of you hear me on this, for some of you, you have grabbed hold of something and that something has grabbed hold of you.

We call that addiction. Hey, man. And that by no means making light of that. And, and you need to get plugged in at the very least to a care group in the, in the spring. You, you don't need, you need to quit lying to yourself.

You need to quit lying to everybody around you. And, and you need to go ask for help because you're gonna have a hard time releasing this thing on your own. But for some of us, for some of us, you, you're like me. See, when I get one of these things in my life, I don't let go. Not because I'm addicted, I don't let go because I'm prideful.

I don't let go because I think I can handle the consequences of hanging on or I don't let go because I'm entitled to it. Hey, I've worked hard, I've put in a lot of time. I I can, I can do this. I deserve it. And all the while, just like that monkey, the consequences of sin are closing in around you and me.

And all we have to do is just release it. If we would just simply release it. So the author says, listen, There's some things you need to remove. You get these robes off, you need to get all this excess stuff. If it's not essential, don't take it with you.

You don't need it. But there's some things you need to release. There's some sin in your life that you gotta, you gotta let go of 'cause it's going to, it's gonna catch you eventually the consequences. And then he says this, this is the second let us statement. He says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

And then he says, let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. That's what we want to do. Like that, that now we're, now we're, we're ready to, to run. We're we're, we're ready to go.

We've got all the, the stuff we're, we're, we're releasing and we're removing. And, and now we can run the race that that, that God has called us to. But, but, but we run it with, with perseverance. And I want you to hear me on this. This is so important.

That word there is there on purpose. Because if you think you're gonna run like you're going on a Sunday evening, stroll you, you're, you're, you're mistaken If you are going to live the life. And if we're gonna live the life that God has called us to in 2024, we, there's gonna have to be a level of perseverance. There's gonna have to be a level of what Rocky said to his son. It's not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and get back up.

There's gonna be a moment when we, when we've got to push in and we've got to, we've got to dig deep. And so the author says, you've gotta be able to run with perseverance and listen, you can't dig deep that way. If you're dealing with all this extra stuff and this sin and the consequences of sin in your life, you're too distracted. I'm too distracted. We remove, we release, we run with perseverance, but we run with perspective.

Verse two, he says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, and I love this and, and don't read, I mean, don't, don't, don't, yeah, don't read past this too quickly. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Not only is having the right perspective helping us know where to run, right? We don't run aimlessly. But it's also knowing that when we are running and when we are battling the things we're trying to remove and when, when we are battling the things we're trying to release, that we're not doing it alone.

'Cause let me, let me just tell you what's not gonna happen. For, for a lot of you, if you've got big plans for life change from 2023 to 2024, when you wake up in the morning, it's not gonna all of a sudden be easy. It doesn't happen that way. You'll be fighting the same battle. It's, it's, it is, do you have the right perspective?

Have you, have you fixed your eyes on Jesus? Have you made some decisions about some things you need to release? And then as you're, as you're running towards him and focused and fixed on him, that's your perspective. When you fall and you will, you don't receive condemnation, you receive grace. Because as we, as we focus on him, as we fix on him, we remember that, that his grace is sufficient for all of our sin.

When we fix our eyes on him, when we fixate on him, when we focus on him, we remember that when we feel weak, that that he can be our strength. When we, when we fix our eyes on him, when the world is against us, we, we can remember that He said he will never leave us. It changes how we live our life. It changes how we run our race because you and I, we don't have enough strength. We talk about perseverance, that's great, but we don't have enough of that.

At some point, we look to our savior. And so the game plan is, is simply this. We, we've got to, we've got to remove some things from our life. We've got to release some things and we've got to run with perseverance. And we've got to run with, with the right perspective, with the right focus following our savior.

I don't miss this. We spent some time on those two words. Let Us, What happens if Venture Church, if our US does this collectively? You, I love the celebration video that we've been seeing and, and all the numbers and all that God has done, but there was, there was a couple numbers that stuck out to me and, and it was the number of people that are involved in all four parts of our strategy. You know, he believe it was 506, which is really incredible.

So they're inviting, investing, they're making an impact through serving, they're giving. And then the number under that I believe was 4,005. And it was the number of people that are invested in at least one part, which is an incredible number. What happens is some of that 4,005 part of us begin to embrace this. What happens if, if we, if us, if our us take some time today and reflect, do a shakedown, have a moment of prayer and ask God to seek you and to know your thoughts, see if there's any offensive way in you so that you can release lease, so that you can run a race with perseverance.

What happens when we do that? What happens when more people buy in to all four port four parts of our strategy? I can tell you what's gonna happen. There's A verse in one Corinthians chapter two, verse nine, apostle Paul writing. He says, what I've seen, what ear has heard, what mind has conceived what God has planned for those who love him?

Now, in full transparency, ultimately he's talking about heaven. But a hundred percent he's also talking about now. So here's the deal, us, what happens if we allow God in 2024 to work in us? We don't miss this. Every us begins with a U.

And you've got to decide, and those of you in Stone County and those of you at the Hunt Club, and those of you at Lincoln Road and those of you at Jones County, those of you, wherever you are myself, we've got to decide as individuals if we're gonna be apart. And man, as we do that we become a us and that God does immeasurably more than he did in 2023. No eyes seen, no ears heard, no mind has conceived what God has planned for us because we're running hard after him. Hey, wherever you are this morning, thank you for hanging out with us and we, we do pray. And I'm gonna pray in just a moment that you have an incredible 2024 And that whatever 2023 had for you, and that you would run hard after your Heavenly Father knowing that, that whenever you come up short, that his grace is sufficient, that his strength can be yours when you're weak, and that he loves you no matter what.

Let me pray for us, father God, how crazy is it that you use us now, father, as we step into the new year and we, we process this past year and all the things that that happened, all the things that you did in our lives as individuals, all the things that you did in, in our, our church, in our house churches. God help us to carve out some time today just to spend with you and to focus and to release, to remove, and to make a decision to run hard after you in 2024. Father, we love you and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.