A Christian’s Lift

From the text: Is. 40:31, Heb.12:1-2, Phil.3:16-17, 1st Peter 5: 6-9

Introduction:

Did you hear the story about the husband and wife on a bicycle built for two? There was a husband and wife who bought a bicycle built for two. They decided to try it out and they came upon a hill. After a lot of effort they made it to the top and the husband, exhausted and out of breath exclaimed, WOW! That was a steep hill. His wife said, “I know, I was so scared I had the break on all the way up!”

• Newton’s Second Law of Motion states: A body acted upon by a constant force will move with a constant acceleration in the direction of the force; the amount of acceleration will be directly proportional to the acting force and inversely proportional to the mass of body. His Third Law of Motion: Action and reaction are equal and opposite.
• Biblically speaking we face a similar situation. Today’s message is directed towards those who have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. Once we start this journey with the Lord we refer to it as a “WALK” the countermeasure to our walk is the “Drag” or snare of our enemy who is trying to destroy us and our successful walk (not salvation) is determined by our overcoming the weight of our sin. Again, this about our walk not salvation.

Today I want to answer the question a Key Question:

Key Question: What can we learn from an airplane?

As we can see from the introduction that Newton’s Law of Motion that every action has an equal an opposite reaction. What we can learn from an airplane is found in its most basic concept that its THRUST must be greater than the DRAG. When this occurs the LIFT happens and its WIEGHT is overcome. Likewise, it is not natural for a 747 with a take off weight of 910,000 pounds to fly; it is not natural for us to follow God. Let’s now take a look at a Christians THRUST, DRAG, LIFT, AND WEIGHT.

• A Christians THRUST is his/her walk. (Philippians 3:16-17)
• Define Thrust: Webster’s defines thrust as a constant pressure from one part upon another
• A Biblical Analogy: Picture with me an airplane taking off. The pilot is pushing the throttle to produce a thrust to push the airplane forward with such a speed to overcome the other opposites. A Christian’s walk is the thrust. We came to a point in our life that we knew that we had to put our trust in God and this came in the person of Jesus Christ. This started our walk. We are now pushing the throttle. We are now in a forward motion but we too have to overcome the opposites. In Him (Jesus) there is no Sin. In us, Sin is in us because of Adams sin, and is passed on to all mankind. In the book of Colossians chapter 3 we can find the Theological description of positional and practical concept of sin. Positionally speaking the moment you trust Christ (Believe) you are as saved as you will ever be. You can not do anything more to be more saved or more forgiven. Since sin can not enter heaven and Colossians 3 states we are hid with Christ we can have confidence that our sin is removed from us and not present with us in heaven. It truly is as far from us as the East is from the West. We can take great comfort in God’s Awesome Grace and Mercy. But the problem practically speaking we sin everyday. We do not live up to the standards that God’s Word says we should. This is not new. In the Old Testament we find the Ten Commandments. Did you know that there was more than ten? Over 650 commands were given with the basic reason to prove to the chosen people that they could not keep every command thus, according to the Law, making them guilty of all. Now if you can turn to Philippians 3; 16-17.
• Scripture exposition: However, let us keep living by the standard to which we attained. Brethren join in following my example and observe those who WALK according to the pattern you have in us. Verse 16 is in its most simple form telling the Philippine believers to get out on the race track of life. As Scripture points out elsewhere to strive for the prize. This is the high calling that is in Christ Jesus. Verse 17 he gives himself as an example. Paul could confidently say to be an example of himself in verse 17 because his example is Christ. If all of us could be this confident. If we could truly become more Christ like each day we could have the most thriving spiritually alive church that could be imagined. Paul is saying to the Philippians, if you want to know how to do it, watch me. This is our message as well. If we truly want to know how to follow Christ we must not be just imitators but we need to learn to share the power of Christ in the body of Christ, the church. This has nothing to do with the building but the people. This means that South County Bible Church has an awesome responsibility to the community of the greater St. Louis area. We must support South County in every way. If you do not know your spiritual gift, find it out and use it. If you are not giving of some time, some talent, and money give! We are the church and through us His message lives. In the next few verses we see the negative that Paul talks about, “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, Whose end is their destruction, Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things. So, is your thrust “walk” towards God or toward earthly things? Well if it is towards God we can now look at the opposite that could end up being the reason Paul mentioned the negative, why some (who are believers but follow earthly thing) do not have the thrust or walk that they need to help the church get the Lift it needs. The opposite of thrust is Drag.
• A Christians DRAG is his/her enemy. (1st Peter 5: 6-9)
• Define Drag; to pull or draw with force
• A Biblical analogy: Ok! You see the pilot pushing the throttle forward; the plane is getting up to speed for take off. What you do not see is the forces acting against the thrust. This is Drag. As a Christian, we start the walk but most are oblivious to the Drag or the snare that will try to slow their walk or race. If we so realize it we recognize it as sin or over look it as habit. This is who I am. As true as it is that you are as saved and as forgiven as you will ever be the moment of salvation practically we face a problem of sin. We do not want to continue in sin but we know we do. We want to understand Gods Grace but not abuse it. However, we (most of us) do not understand grace and we abuse it daily. You see at the end of it all, Christ victory is ours who believe. Christ overcame the world so those of us who have sin ever present will and have overcome but we set ourselves on the shelf because we think we did lot live up to the example, the standard but God knew who the enemy was and is and he wants us to know our Drag We can see our Drag illustrated in 1st Peter 5:6-9.
• Scriptural exposition: (1st Peter 5:6-9)

Humble you, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt (Lift) you at the proper time. Understanding humility in relation to who we are under God is fundamental in our walk. A lot of times we fail or do not live up to the standard because we do not understand that God is in control, not us. He will make all the injustice right.

Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. He cares for you literally mean that it matters to Him concerning you.

Matt. 11:28 we are told “Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will rest you.” I believe the reason this is important to understand is found in the next verse. One of the fundamental things that I learned as a Marine was that you must know your enemy better then he knows you. How good do you know your enemy? Here we see a command, be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. The King James Version states it this way. Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walked about seeking whom he may devour. In its basic form Sober means to be WATCHFUL! We need to be ever mindful of the snares that are out their. We need to make a list of things that we know are not honoring to God and pay specific attention to them. The first thing we must do is bring it to the Lord in prayer. As Paul told the Philippians, “Worry about nothing, and Pray about everything” Take it to the Lord in prayer and leave it there. Let Him take care of the sin or the problem by the blood that was shed for this reason. Without blood there is no remission of sin.

But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. The King James states whom resist steadfast in the faith. Either way you say it the picture is of an army standing fast against an enemy. We can not fight this battle alone we need the help and prayers of our brethren to accomplish this. You see, Scripture states that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in high places. The place to overcome our Drag, what is slowing us up from take off, is and should be taken care of by prayer first.

If we are walking we are facing a drag. If this drag is grater than our walk then we need to look at weight.

• A Christians Weight is their specific sin (Heb. 12:1-2)
• Define Weight: Webster states this: Heaviness of as a quality of things; attraction of a material body by gravitational pull
• Biblical Analogy: The throttle is full force, the drag is accounted for but the pilot is still not getting the lift he needs. Maybe the Load Master had a miscalculation of weight or disbursement of the weight causing the other parts to pull harder if lift is to happen. In our Christian walk, we recognize our drag but our lift is slow in coming. We recognize that God will exalt or lift us in due time but we also know there are some things that need to be looked at.
• Scripture exposition: (Hebrew 12:1-2_

Therefore, since we have so great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. 1. Therefore. A question you can always ask of scripture is when you see a therefore, ask, what is it therefore? We can find this out going back into chapter 11:39 ff.

It tells us that many did not receive the promise. The promise here is the promise to be raised up and an earthly kingdom established here on earth. They did not receive this promise yet, because God is still calling people to His name, and as it says here in Hebrews, “brining many sons home to glory and these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. We are told in Hebrews 11:40 the reason why. God having provided some better thing for us, that they with out us should not be made perfect. God has us in mind! His gracious calling and that he is patiently still calling people out today to His name.

So, if we understand that then we can go on to run the race that Paul is talking about in Hebrews 12:1-2. The King James says “Wherefore” but the “Therefore” is more accurate because it points us back to what the previous chapter told us about. Some hold the position that these are Saints of old sitting in heavens grandstand watching us run this Christian race. I believe a more accurate picture is that we watched them run the race, be martyred, all by faith.

We have it all documented and it is for our benefit as we still carry the Word of God to those who need to hear. If that is a REASON, our RESPONSE is to “let us also lay aside every encumbrance (Weight) and the sin which so easily entangles us (Drag) Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

We watch the Olympics on TV. We see swimmers with the slickest bathing suits. Most wear a head piece; all this is to overcome the drag that it produces so they can win the event. Here in this portion of Scripture, Paul too is using the Olympics as an illustration. Two conditions listed here are “Lay aside every weight, and sin that so easily entangles (beset) us” The illustration is to strip down to nothing. The Olympic athlete of that day did it in his birthday suit. They were stripped down to nothing so they could be the fastest in whatever it was.

Likewise, we too need to strip down, figuratively speaking) we need not to carry the weight of sin; we have to be cautious not to get entangled with the things of this world. We need to be reminded that the greatest sin found in chapter 11 was the sin of unbelief (lack of faith) so we can see the REALITY found in verse two: Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of Faith. For who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God. The greatest thing we can do is to endure. Again, Colossians chapter 3 states that we are hid with Christ. Where is Christ, at the right had of God? This is positionally but this should give us great confidence in overcoming and enduring the practicalities of life.

We have started the walk (race), we have identified our Drag or who is trying to snare us (The devil) and we realize that the weight of sin is an encumbrance that will drag us down. But, we can get our lift and help those around us by realizing the truth found in Is. 40:31

• A Christian lift is found in passive action. (Is. 40:31)
• Define lift: To bring up to a higher position; raise
• Biblical analogy: The throttle full forward, the plane is moving down the runway, the weight has been overcome and lift has occurred. As Christians we have the walk, we overcome the wiles of the devil, we recognize the weight of our sin and have laid it aside and now we see the lift.
• Scripture exposition: Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength they will mount up with wings like eagles, run and not get tired walk and not become weary. I call this passive action. If I can remind you in 1st Peter that God will exalt you in the proper time here we can see the importance of patience on our part. Passive action (Yet those who WAIT) who are they waiting on, For the Lord. Their result, Will gain. What will they gain (New Strength) for the result of this action. They will mount up with wings like eagles (LIFT) Run and not get tired, walk and not become weary.

This part of Scripture has Isaiah’s original readers, those who hope in the Lord and were believers who remained faithful to God. They were the ones who would be restored. For his readers in captivity. You see his readers were under the threat of Assyria and years latter were under the Babylonian Captivity. He is probably telling them in captivity of a national refreshing when the captives would be released. Even though in captivity they were weary the Lord would help them endure and soar like eagles, to be uplifted emotionally and spiritually.

What Captivity are you in. Is it a sin? An action or attitude not glorifying God? Are you entangled of the affairs of this world? God says Wait on him and he will restore and refresh and your Lift will be higher then you could ever imagined.

Let’s wrap this up and see if we answered the question; what can we learn from an airplane?

Conclusion: For a plane to have lifted it must have sufficient thrust to overcome its drag and weight.

• For a Christian we must understand the principle of every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For our walk to be fruitful we must recognize the actions that are working against us so we can fully trust the Lord to give us this Lift.
• In the opening illustration of a husband and wife on a bicycle built for two; we see one working so hard at overcoming just to realize the fear of his wife was a drag to his forward motion. If he had realized it earlier and corrected it with her pedaling and not holding the break, the obstacle of the hill would have not been much of an obstacle. Are you pedaling or are you breaking?