What Needs to Go

Read‍

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Think

Everybody has decided to carry all of it in from the car in one trip.

You have got bags on both arms, something under your chin, a drink in one hand, and the door is locked. And you could set two things down and be inside in eleven seconds. But you have committed, so you do the whole shuffle to the door with your elbow out, dropping things and picking them back up.

Hebrews says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders.”

Notice the word hinders. It does not say throw off everything that is evil. There are two categories in verse 1. The sin that so easily entangles, and everything that hinders. Sin, and weight.

Weight is not necessarily sinful. It is just stuff you are carrying that is slowing you down. Nobody would look at it and call it wrong. It is just in your hands, and your hands are full, and you are not moving well.

That is the honest end of all of this.

Acts 5 opens with two people who wanted to look surrendered without actually being surrendered. Jesus warned religious people about cleaning the outside of a cup while the inside stays filthy. All of it comes down to one question you have to answer for yourself.

If God really revived your heart, what would actually change?

Not your friend’s life. I know how easy this is, because it is the most natural move in the world to read all of this and think about somebody else. The person in your small group who is such a hypocrite. The friend who acts one way at church. Your parent. Somebody else.

Yours.

Here are four questions. Take them slowly. Write the answers down if you can, because vague conviction disappears by lunch tomorrow and specific conviction does not.

What do you need to delete? Something on your phone. An app, an account, a thread, a saved folder, a number. Not in general. Which one.

What do you need to confess? Something you have carried alone that needs to be spoken out loud to God and to one safe person.

What relationship needs to change? Not necessarily ended. Some of them just need honesty, or a different amount of time, or a conversation you have been avoiding for months. Some of them do need to end, and you already know which.

What secret needs to come into the light? The thing that came to mind the second you read that question. That one.

Now look at the last part of verse 2, because if you stop at the throwing off, this week just becomes a guilt trip and that was never the point.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus.” “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.”

Jesus did not go to the cross gritting his teeth about how much we cost him. There was joy set before him, and the joy was you. Getting you. Having you clean and close and his.

So this is not God taking things from you. This is God clearing your hands so you can actually run.

Revival is not just God making us passionate. It is God making us holy. And holy is not a heavier version of your life. It is a lighter one.

Set something down today. You do not need it to get inside.

Apply

Answer all four – Take the four questions in order and write one specific answer to each. Then do the first one today, not this weekend, and tell one person what you did.

Pray

Jesus, I do not want to read another week about revival and change nothing. Show me what needs to go and give me the guts to actually do it, not eventually but today. Thank you that you went to the cross with joy because of me. Clear my hands so I can run. In Jesus’ name. Amen.