Have you Stopped Seeking? | Rev Elisha Satvinder


Summary & Key points
Rev. Elisha Satvinder's sermon shifts the focus from merely asking God for things to actively seeking a deeper relationship with Him. Using Matthew 7:8 as a scriptural basis, he emphasizes the importance of engaging and participating with God through asking, seeking, and knocking. These three actions represent making requests known to God, actively pursuing His will and truth, and demonstrating persistence and determination even when faced with obstacles and delays. Rev. Elisha highlights the importance of faith, recognizing God as the source of all good things and approaching Him with confidence. Rev. Elisha addresses the challenges in asking, seeking, and knocking, such as spiritual fatigue, physical exhaustion, experiencing lack, being overwhelmed by life's demands, and a lack of accountability. He underscores the need for a holistic pursuit of God, engaging heart, mind, soul, and spirit, which leads to spiritual growth and fruitfulness. To overcome these challenges, he advocates for building a strong foundation on Christ and His teachings, being part of a supportive community, and regularly engaging in spiritual practices like prayer and Bible reading. Using the metaphor of redwood trees, Rev. Elisha highlights the importance of interconnectedness and support within a faith community. He draws encouragement from Hebrews 12:1, urging the congregation to draw inspiration from the heroes of faith, throw off hindrances, and focus on Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of faith. In his final exhortation, Rev. Elisha encourages running the race marked out by God with perseverance, fixing eyes on Jesus, and embracing the transformative journey of faith with steadfast determination.  
Show Transcript

So today I want to, from that, I want to kind of move into a bit if I can say I want to shift gears a bit. Of course, I’ve entitled, “Have You Stopped Seeking?” But what would that mean, have you stopped seeking? We think of scriptures often and we look at scriptures, we always feel that it’s a place for me to ask of God. We look at our Christian life many times and we see it as a one-way street, correct me, you know, God, what can you do for me? Many times in relationships it’s what I can get out of the other person or in a business deal, how can I have a better deal, whatever it may be. I think we bring this nuance into our relationship with God and we miss a greater reward, a greater place in Him.

So I want to look at a scripture which I don’t want to assume, but I think we’ve heard it before, we’ve read it before, we’ve prayed it, and the three key words that I want to work with, so I’m going to ask all of us to lift up our voice and read this with me. Are you ready to read it, Church? Okay, that’s very bad. Okay, are you ready to read it, Church? Wonderful, let’s do it. Matthew 7:8, let’s read: “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Sounds pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Ask, seek, knock. All three are action words; none of them are passive. Each one is about doing something; none of them are passive words. It’s engaging, and the whole engagement is not some engagement elsewhere, actually it’s an engagement and a participation with God Himself. So let us just break down these three words and then we’ll connect them together and see where the Lord takes us. Here, the word “ask.” Now, isn’t that a word that we always embody every day in the morning? You always go and order food. What are you asking for? What you want to eat, right? Oh, come on, I’m starting with a thing that Malaysians love to do in the morning: where am I going to eat, you know, what to eat? So we are always in this ask mode.

But ask here in this scripture, verse 7, chapter 7:8, what does it represent? It represents making a request known to God. Sounds pretty straightforward, making a request, but it’s more than that. It’s acknowledging our dependence on Him. If I ask somebody with an anticipation, knowing that he has the ability to do something, that means I am saying I have a dependence on you. I have this place of expectation that I believe you are able to expend what I am asking you. So it’s a place of not just making our request to God, but the whole thing is acknowledging, okay, is a key word here, acknowledging our dependence on Him. Because often if I ask and it doesn’t work, I switch into the next gear, I start doing things on my own without waiting for God to answer.

So this implies what? That when I come to God, I come with specific requests and needs and I demonstrate this one thing. Again, I used this word earlier: dependence on Him. That’s one. Two, I demonstrate trust in what? In His ability to provide. Now let me ask you an honest question: how many of us, when we pray, we have absolute confidence God has heard us and He will respond? Or do we pray in a static position where we feel that I don’t know whether this will come through? Because the posture of this word “ask” is very different. It’s saying ask with this knowledge, with this acknowledgment, with this sense of dependence and trust that the one that you are speaking to has the ability to respond to you. So it is an act of faith, recognizing that God is the source of all good things.

What am I doing here? I want to challenge our place of trusting God in prayer, in our daily life, letting that truth invade us. So it is an act of faith, recognizing that He is the source. Then the next word is “seek.” What does it speak of? Well, again, what does this word imply? It implies an active pursuit, not a passive pursuit, not a periodic pursuit, but an active, continuous pursuit of what? Searching for God’s will and God’s truth. Many times the seeking just becomes about seeking what I want rather than seeking the Giver. I don’t know about you, I catch myself so often in the midst of whether it’s my devotion, whether I pray or different things, and work, that my seeking becomes about my need rather than seeking the one who will respond to me. So seeking, it’s a pursuit of God’s will, God’s truth.

Now the verb itself, it’s a verb, of course, it’s action, has an idea of searching. We look for the scriptures. Do we play, okay, which scripture is going to help me today? Or do we search the scripture, God’s truth? Do we go into this treasure trove and say I want to dig and find out more? So the whole idea is this: I search for, I desire. So now when you read the scripture, at the end of it, ask, seek, knock, it’s going to look very different. The understanding is going to be different because the whole thing, seeking here, involves a more intense and active pursuit. Intense. If I just have a two-minute prayer, that’s not intense seeking. If I have just a quick prayer, that’s not intense seeking. And then I say God didn’t answer my prayer, God didn’t come through. But in fact, my asking had no sense of acknowledging my dependence. Two, my seeking had no sense of pursuing. It just became casual, very surface.

So it’s beyond just asking here. It suggests what? That I diligently am seeking God’s will, God’s wisdom, God’s understanding. Now Proverbs 2 kind of helps us frame this a bit better. It says, and if you look for it, he’s talking about wisdom, and if you look for it as for silver. We all love good deals, right? Come on, we all love good deals. You know, and then if you have free good clothes, man, we go up, free tickets to fly to Bali, that’s it. We are going to queue up at Mitec at four in the morning. Hey, just clear your throat. Okay, we all love something free, something good, and we say wow, the possibility, you know what, I can have it. So it says here, and if you look for it as for silver, that means I have this innate desire in me, within me, saying it is treasure, it is fantastic, I want to seek it.

If you know there is a cure for a sickness for yourself or a loved one, man, you seek out that treatment. Yes? No? You seek out that treatment. If there’s an opportunity to advance your education and get something, you will seek out that scholarship. We will seek what we treasure. And if you look for it as for silver and search, look at the two things there, look for it, search for it, as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Now this is for another time to exit, but it says then you will understand the fear of the Lord. The first is the issue of encountering God. The second is the issue of finding God’s wisdom.

So ask, seek, it reflects what? A deeper engagement in one’s spiritual journey, implying effort and intentionality. If I’m going to go for a 10km run, July, December, 10km, yeah, it’s a long shot for me. Now every day I’m going to pursue something, right? I’m going to start strengthening my muscles, my stamina. Why? I have a goal in mind. I’m intentionally preparing myself. So when we read Matthew 7:8, understand it again, ask, seek. What is my seeking looking like? What is

my asking engagement? So seeking God wholeheartedly involves actively pursuing His presence and His word. His word gives us His treasure. What does it result in? Spiritual growth, fruitfulness. And we come to the third word, knock. Ask, seek, knock. What is it speaking of? Persistence.

Do you just knock a bit and go off? If you’re really wanting to go into a place, you’re going to bang that door until they open it, right? Right, you’re going to bang that door down. So it implies persistence, determination, even when you face obstacles. We sang that last song, Oceans. It didn’t say God, you deliver me from the ocean. It said even in the midst of it, my feet will learn how to walk above that. So it’s knocking, it’s persistent, it’s determined. But the whole issue is this: in the midst of obstacles, I continue seeking God. When I face even delays, it is in the delay that I give up and I say God is not real. It is in the delay that I walk away and I reject truth.

It is like you dig the ground and you seed, and after one week you kick that part and say stupid ground, stupid seed. What happens? Ask, seek, knock. Knocking until the door opens reflects what? A steadfast spirit of faith, determination to do what? To have a deeper communion with God. Okay, how do we bring these three together? Ask, seek, knock. Kind of thought through. I say, for me, it’s this. First, there is a progressive intensity. Not regressive, progressive. That means it grows, it continues, it builds on. Progressive intensity. So these three actions, ask, seek, knock, represent what? A level of intensity and engagement in our pursuit of God. It’s a level of intensity. Asking starts with what? Simple requests, yes? No? Everybody, asking starts with a simple request.

Number two, seeking involves what? Active search. Seeking, I’m actively doing something. And what does knocking entail? Knocking entails persistent effort. It entails persistent effort until the desired outcome is achieved. That is the difference. That is the difference. Until we achieve the desired outcome, that’s where we go. The second thing is this, it’s a holistic pursuit of God. Holistic means all the parts come together. It means that our heart, our mind, our soul, our spirit, our emotions are all involved. It is not passive engagement, but it’s a very active engagement.

What does holistic pursuit speak of? It encompasses this engagement of every part of my life, which gives me an understanding of what asking speaks about. Dependence. Church, please look at me. When I open, when I read my devotion in the morning, am I dependent on God or am I just doing an action? Am I just reading for the sake of reading it, or am I acknowledging my dependence on God? Now all this factors into our relationship with God. Why? If not, we become despondent, dry, dead, and shallow in prayer because we don’t believe in the power of prayer. We always disregard the power of prayer and the life of prayer and the life of intimacy with God. We disregard the engagement of God’s word, and that’s the best place the enemy would want you to be in because it just disempowers you.

So asking denotes dependence. It keeps us humble, isn’t it? Seeking indicates what? Active pursuit. Knocking reflects perseverance. We just did 21 days, so I tell the young people, it’s not after five days I didn’t do, okay, I catch up five days. That is not the spirit of the 21 days. It is to say daily, Lord, if I have 1,440 minutes a day, 20 minutes should be something very doable if I am seeking my treasure. If I’m seeking the treasure, if I’m knocking on the door to see a healing

of a loved one, to see that breakthrough, to see things, you know, interceding, standing in the gap for somebody else. If it’s a two-minute prayer, even if I am God, I will say bye-bye. Please don’t bother me with your two minutes because I think you’re insulting me, you’re insulting yourself. Are you with me?

We cannot insult God in prayer, church. We can’t. Come on, let’s be serious about this. We can’t insult God. He’s God. He’s not Bozo the Clown. He’s God. He’s not your father, your mother, your friend, your husband, or your wife, or your parent. He is God. Don’t insult Him. And yet we say, God, show up. And knocking reflects perseverance. This triangle, if you want to call it whatever, ensures one’s relationship with God is dynamic and continuously growing. That’s what we want, continuously growing. And the third is this, God’s promise of response. Each comes with a promise. Each one, ask, God will respond. Seek, you will find. Knock, it will be opened. You look at each thing, it says, when you do this, God says, I don’t play games with you, I respond to you.

That is a confidence we have in prayer. So those who ask will receive. Those who seek will find. Those who knock, doors will be opened. What does it do? It reflects God’s responsiveness to our genuine pursuit. If you’re writing, write the word “genuine.” It is God’s responsiveness to our genuine pursuit of Him, not casual, not entitled, but genuine pursuit of Him, assuring us what? That our efforts to draw near to Him will always be met with His provision and presence. So what does Matthew 7:8 encourage us? Well, it encourages us to approach God with our needs, ask. So God says, come, ask. Pursue my will, seek. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Seek, we’re seeking God actively.

And finally, it’s our persistent effort, knocking. Now Hebrews 11:6 begins to shape this for us a bit better, connected, and it says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. It’s not just making God happy with you. Remember, when we worship God, does it please God? When we engage God, does it please God? When we rely on God, does it please God? When we seek God, does it please God? But if I do it with a sense of unassurance and there’s a sense of doubt, then you know what? There is a dislocation in the relationship. If you go out at somebody and you are pursuing a friendship and you are talking all the way, and the person finally says, hey, go home. I also want to go home. I go back, I talk to my cat better. At least the cat every punctuated with meow every now and then.

Are you with me, Church? What am I doing here? I am challenging our level of intimacy with God, our maturing relationship with God. I’m challenging our false assumptions of our relationship with God. I’m challenging our casualness of engaging God. So I’m challenging everything there because at the end of the day, it’s your maturity that I’m after and that God is after. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists. Now we can park there for a long time. Do you believe God exists? Do you believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life? Do you believe that you are a sinner saved by grace? Do you believe that when you surrender your life, you are seeking the kingdom and you’re supposed to seek the kingdom? Do you believe? What do I believe? Do you believe in God the Father? Do we believe that God is the creator of heaven and earth? Do we believe that

there’s a relationship between us and God? Do I believe in the word of God?

So do I believe that God exists? If I don’t, then my prayer is just empty chanting. Then my walk with God is just a casual stroll in the park. Then my coming on Sunday is just fulfilling a religious duty. Church, do you see where I want to take this? Do we believe that God exists? Because if I believe He exists, do you believe that tomorrow morning when you go to work, your office will be there? At the end of the month, your paycheck will be there? We put confidence in things like this, but we are so abstract in coming into the place of faith and hope in a living God and saying, God, I live for You because You live. See, we must challenge where we are living. We cannot have this casual faith when it’s convenient for me, God. Other than that, please don’t bother me. Anyway, you haven’t come through with my money or with my healing, Church. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists.

It starts there. In the beginning, the Spirit was hovering. God spoke, let there be. We must believe that He exists. If I don’t have that conviction in my heart, I will pray very shallow, disconnected prayers. My asking is not reliant on who He is. My seeking is not something that I’m passionate about. My knocking is very casual. Two knocks, two raps, see you, God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists. And what now? And that He rewards those who what? Everybody, come on, Church, shout it out. Everybody what? Earnestly. So I ask myself the hard question in my Bible, I circle this word and I put an arrow and I put in my journal and say, what is my earnest seeking? Am I an earnest seeker of God or am I a brat saying, God, You owe me this? You promised in Your word. When did we shift positions? That He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Ask, seek, knock. So this stresses the place of faith, the promise that God revons. He makes it so clear that we have a posture and a habit and a discipline of daily, consistent communion with Him. What stops us from asking and seeking and knocking? Just a few thoughts. I’m sure you can come up with a few more, but the first one I believe is this, spiritual fatigue. We’re tired, spiritually disconnected, dry. This morning, appreciate those who came for prayer. We didn’t have the music, we had nothing, and we just worshiped. And honestly, some who have never seen worship for ages, all of a sudden, I saw them engaging in worship. Sometimes we are so

dry spiritually, we don’t realize we are fatigued spiritually. We go through the emotions and that’s why He says, you have lost your first love.

And I can pray in tongues for two hours, but does that mean I’m spiritually hot? I’m just going through the motions of praying in tongues. Spiritual fatigue. Prayer is a chore. Reading the word is a chore. It is the last thing on my mind in the morning. It’s my college, my uni, my work, my family, school, breakfast, all that, and hey, God, bless my day. Now this sounds so familiar, isn’t it? But I’m saying, Church, pause. Let’s shift this. Spiritual fatigue. Are you tired spiritually? Are you discouraged spiritually? Are you dry spiritually? That stops us from asking, especially stops us from seeking. The next one was physical fatigue. And many times those two come together. We always, somebody said, you cannot fall asleep? Read the Bible, sure fall asleep.

So physically we can be hot for everything else, but physically we are so tired to honor God, to engage God, to serve God. And these two can go together or our physical can be so much taking prominence for everything else except God. So spiritual fatigue, physical fatigue. Then the third thing is experiencing lack in any area of your life. When you experience lack on something, often the asking, the seeking, and the knocking is affected. Experience and the lack can be in so many different areas. It can be relational, it can be the joy in your life, purpose, and so many issues. It’s not just money, so don’t relegate it just to money. Sometimes there’s dissatisfaction in life. We always want more. We always want something. And then that place gives us this cancer of our spiritual life. We withdraw from God without realizing it.

The fourth one is overwhelmed in life. Too many things happening. Oh God, you know, speaking to a couple, family, and the man always gets very up every small thing that happens economically, you know, the home or in his church or the money with the business, he goes into this tailspin. So I finally said to him, I said, hey brother, the Bible never said got no problems in life, you know. But why is it when you have a problem, you cannot control your emotions? Why is it, you know, you feel then your pastor is not doing enough, your church is not doing enough, or your family is not doing enough, or your staff? I said, hey, come back to a perspective. Why

are you so overwhelmed in life? And again, the song that we sang just now is, hey, in the midst of the storm, Lord, you’re in the boat, you hold my hand. Amen? But if I don’t ask and I rely, if I don’t seek and I’m not engaging, then I will always be sinking.

And the last one, and this is serious, actually in my perception, this is the most destructive of all. No strong relationships that keep you accountable. There are Christians who are so arrogant that nobody can challenge them where they are spiritually. Nobody can tell you your dysfunction in church. You have ten answers and indirectly you will say, shut up and mind your own business. And you are a God to yourself because you have figured out God’s word where God hasn’t said it. You have no strong relationship to keep you accountable. You do not want to be accountable. You refuse to be accountable. And hence there is no iron sharpening iron. There’s no place of you coming and saying, yeah, I need to get this right. Even in any of this, your asking, seeking, and knocking, and especially the seeking part, is drowning.

I’m not talking accountability. Yeah, my neighbor is my accountability partner, my friend in the office. How about people who see you every week? I think that’s where the rubber hits the road, isn’t it? Our accountability, very important. So we can spiritualize everything without looking at the working dynamics daily. We have this walk generation, young people walk everything. They got comments, hey, so I tell the young people, careful. I said, you can walk up to me, and I’ve told them, I said, you can walk up to me and ask, Pastor, how was your week today, this week? How was your time with the word and in prayer? I said, I will not get upset with you asking me that, you know. But if you are cocky in your question, I will call it out. But if you are sincerely saying, hey, Pastor, I need you on the ball with God because you’re feeding me, you know. Hey, Sunday, don’t talk rubbish, you know. You better challenge me, you better bring the word of God, you know.

Then I said, in the same motion, I’m going to ask you, hey, how has your week been with the Lord? The young adults have healthy accountability. Those of us married have healthy accountabilities. Sometimes husband and wife, not both compromising, and have this fairy idea about church and God and whatever. Not, but holding accountable. So I told the young people, you have a right to ask me. You also can ask me, how do you manage your money? You have a

right. I am not the fourth part of the Trinity that nobody can ask me that. How’s your accountability doing? Are you arrogant?

How do we overcome this? How do we overcome Matthew 7:24-29? See, it says here, therefore, whenever that you see therefore in scripture, go back and read what was said before that. Because he’s saying, now because of all this, listen here, do this. Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus finished, when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.

What does it say to you and me? We were made to overcome storms. We were made to overcome storms. Many of you are not convinced. We were made to overcome storms. Why? The issue is not why storms, God, why this problem, why this, why? No, that’s not the issue. It’s not blaming the devil and finding every demon under the table, under the rock, under the car, everywhere. Stop the witch-hunting. The issue is this. It’s not why storms, but what foundation have you built on? Is it some hyper-faith foundation or a dead spiritual, but what foundation? Jesus says, look, if you build upon the rock, you build upon me, you build upon my truth, you build upon my character, you build upon what I’m saying, then the storms will come, but when they come, you are solid. You’re good. You’ll go through it. Build on the right foundation. Christ, His word, His truth. Storms come, but we will stand. Build your altar daily. Get into community. Ecclesiastics say two are better than one, and a three-fold cord is not easily broken.

Now, have you, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures and videos, whatever it is, of what we call the great redwoods. Have you? Redwood trees. Now, I always think of feet. They go between 300 to 500 feet in the air. That’s about 100 meters, 100, 200, 300 meters. But that’s tall trees. The root is only 30 feet down. 300, you want to build a building. The higher you go, the deeper the foundation. This tree, 300 feet, 100 meters, 10 meters of root, that sounds ridiculous, isn’t it? This is the amazing thing they discovered of the redwood tree. It is all connected at the bottom. The roots hold on to each other. Amazing. They have gone into the redwood forests, and they have seen trees that pretty much are not living that way, but they never fall. You know why? Because the other trees are saying, we’re going to hold on to you. They nourish each other. They call it the root network. Here, somebody, you hold on, mind your own business, don’t touch

me, don’t ask me, I’m okay, I’m fine. But the revival of that great redwood is being connected to other trees. Amazing. Nature can teach us so much.

And that’s why Hebrews 12:1 says, therefore, the word again, therefore, if you look at Hebrews 10, especially Hebrews 11, talks about what? The heroes of faith. He talks about all these people who were before there, and how they, through all the different persecution and problems, all stood their ground, and how they overcame, and what they did, and how God took them through. And he says, look, you see all this now because of what we are telling you, what I’m telling you, all this history of Israel coming through the wilderness, the desert, going through all that, and how God delivered them, and how they didn’t listen to God, and what happened, and how Jesus is our great high priest, and he takes us through, and look at all these guys, and how they did it, how well they did it, how they brought through, how they came through. He now says, therefore, everybody shout, therefore. He says, therefore, because of that, since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses.

He said, look, all around you, you are not alone. If you look at history, you’re not alone. He said, even they from heaven are cheering you on and saying, don’t give up. Come on, you can do it. We did it. He will take you through the storm. Just keep your focus. He says, let us throw off. He didn’t say go and do this, go and do that. Two key things he tells us here. Therefore, look at this amazing array of people and what they have done. He says, now, therefore, we are surrounded. Let us do this. Throw off everything that hinders. Throw off everything that hinders. It’s a strong word, isn’t it? Throw off. Let us what? Lay aside every weight. Let us what? Throw off everything that hinders. Rid ourselves of every obstacle. Strip off of everything that slows you down. He says, get rid of whatever that trips you. Get rid of it.

And then he goes on. And the sin. Now, the problem is this. When we look at the word sin, we have in our mind what sin is. In the Greek, very simple. Very simple. If there’s a bullseye here, okay, just assume this is a bullseye, okay? In the Greek, when you miss the mark, that is called the word is you sin. You miss the mark. What makes us miss the mark with God? You with me? So don’t, oh, sin. And then we like, no, no, no, no. It’s what hinders us and what causes us to miss the mark. To hit the target of God’s plan and purpose and presence and power. And he says, end the sin. What? Which clings so closely. It’s close. Which so easily entangles us. Which so easily ensnares us. Easily trips us. The picture there, have you ever walked on a carpet and you tripped on a simple thread? Come on, we felt stupid, but it happened, right? Yeah, that’s the picture. It doesn’t take a lot from the devil to bring you down. It doesn’t take a lot to trip me up to compromise. It’s just that little fleeting look, that little compromise, that little thing here, the little thing there. Then I miss the mark. I miss the mark. 

Jacob wrestled with God. He and his shenanigans on how he treated people and conned everyone, and now he’s going to go back, and he’s going to meet Esau, who he conned all the way. And now he’s at the brook of Jabbok. He’s going to engage them. He’s going to engage this angel, whether it’s Jesus, an angel. He comes out a changed person. Asking, seeking, and knocking changes us to where God wants us to be. It’s not the credit card to go to the ATM machine and ask God for things. It is the place of saying, God, shape my heart. Change my heart. I don’t want to miss the mark. I don’t want to miss the mark. That’s what it’s going at. Jacob. And how did Jesus do it? Well, we read Hebrews 12:1. Since we are surrounded, you know, hey, do these two things. And what it does, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Can you say that with a bit more enthusiasm? Can not? Okay, let’s say that. Eyes on Jesus. Sounds so good. Can you say it one more time? Fixing our eyes on Jesus. It’s so sweet. One more time. Jesus, for the road. One more time. Jesus. That’s where asking and seeking and knocking connects. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Who is He? The pioneer and the perfecter of faith went before us. 

What else does it say? For the joy set before Him. The joy set before Him. What happens? He endured the cross. He went through the cross. Why? He saw what was ahead. Can we stand as I finish reading this portion and we’re going to pray? Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame. It wasn’t an easy thing. And sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Look at the elevation. Shame, scorn, pain. When we engage and say, God, I rely on You, I trust You, You’re my everything. God, I seek You with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I serve You, I honor You, oh God, with all that I am and all that I have, oh God. Lord, I don’t want to walk in this place of fatigue and Lord, compromise. And Lord, I come. Can we read verse one again? Hebrews 12:1. One slide before this. Yes, thank you.

It says, therefore, since we are… Come on, read it together. Come on, read it. 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. Stop here. The race… Go back, please. The race marked out for us. We mark our own race and we say, God, help me run. But we don’t run the race that God has marked out for us. We run the race that He has marked out for us. And He says, run, not walk, not casual, take a stroll. Run. That means it’s an action, it’s a pursuit, it’s a determination, it’s a passion, it’s something that I am going for. God, I am going for what You have. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Many are the plans of men. Many are my plans. Many are my desires and opinions. But He says, let us run with perseverance.

Verse two. Thank you. Can we read this out loudly? 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.