Calvary Chapel Carson City
Sunday Morning Live
August 17, 2025
Hebrews 12
Fixed Eyes
Faith is: Living in the Promises of God
as if they are already received.
Walking in and by Faith in God while persevering in trials, persecutions, difficulties and testings.
Faith is: the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen
Recap: Faith acts out of bold confidence
and is backed up by the power of the unseen.
Faith is God using the ordinary to do the extraordinary.
Faith is needed in all situations.
Faith is fueled by God: By His Word and By His power,
By His promises. .
Today @ Calvary:
CEF:
DC Christmas Tree
Therefore…
Let us: This verbiage Is inclusive:
It seems to include not only the writer by also the Lord
Lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnare us
Heb. 12:1
Cast off, stripping off a soiled garment so that a new life in Christ may be worn and displayed
Weight and the sin:
Sin: is obvious enough, it holds back, snares, stops, derails
Weight: this is at times more difficult to detect: weight hinders, it keeps us from running effectively and efficiently, it slows us down and causes extreme fatigue and exhaustion.
We are too lay it aside, cast it off. See above.
Romans 13:12: “So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Ephesians 4:22,25: …believers “lay aside your former way of life, your old self” and therefore “each of you must lay aside falsehood.”
Colossians 3:8: “But now you must also lay aside all such things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language.”
Hebrews 12:1: “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles.”
James 1:12: “Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and every expression of wickedness and humbly accept the word planted in you.”
1 Peter 2:1: “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”
Lay aside the former identity governed by deceitful desires.
Put on the new self, created after God in true righteousness and holiness.
This parallels Romans 6:6: Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
This underscores Regeneration and initiates a lifelong process of sanctification.
This also describes a couple of things: a definitive break, yet the present implications to continue: 1: the Christian life is lived out of a decisive event: regeneration but, also: 2: requires ongoing choice.
Ephesians 4:20-24 states:
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Run the race: race: agona;gk. Conflict, struggle WITH ENDURANCE.
A favorite word of Paul.
Philippians 1:30 Having the same conflict you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Colossians 2:1 For I would that you would know the great conflict I have for you
1 Thessalonians 2:2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,where unto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Looking onto Jesus
Our ultimate and greatest example:(and so much more)
Heb. 12:2
Amplified version:
[looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].
Fixing our eyes on Jesus
New American Standard Version
To fix our eyes, this is a beautiful translation
How to run this life-race:
We can only run properly when we are looking to Jesus, fixing our eyes upon him, having our eyes locked on him.
He is our:
Focus
Inspiration
Example
And ultimately our finish.
In order to look onto, we must look away from:
Turning away from everything else
Not fixing our gaze on the cloud of witnesses, this could be a subtle hindrance if causes us to take our eyes off of Jesus
Not looking at the weight or the be setting sin, because we’ve casted those away
Not looking at the race course itself
Not looking at the competitors
BUT remember this:
To gaze upon Jesus is to gaze upon the finish line
We start the race looking at Him
We run the race looking at Him
We celebrate the conclusion of the race by being with Him
He is the starting line, the running line, and the finish line!
!!Only seeing Jesus as an example as a hindrance to endurance!!
He is so much more: though He is the ultimate example, He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, our means in faith, our Way, Truth and Life, the Light, Guidance, Encouragement, Joy, our All in all.
“Never cease to look upon Him, Who is ever looking upon you.”
CH Spurgeon
A verse that it should be as comforting to us as it was to the early Christian disciples is Philippians 1:6
“He Who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Who for the joy that was set before Him:
He looked past the horror
He looked past the pain
He looked beyond the cross
He looked beyond the shame
He who is our Redeemer
He who is our Escape
He is the One,
Who is the rewarder of the Faith.
Through His obedience, He has become our Redemption, Rescue and Reward. That was His focused obedience and should be ours.
That’s how we get through this on a daily basis looking unto Jesus: FIXED EYES! Steadfast, immovable, always abounding. 1 Co.15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. CCW y
Hebrews 12:1-11
The Chastening of the Lord
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:12-29
Warning against rejecting God’s Grace
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow." 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.") 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." 27 Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
