Description

Have you ever considered how the intangible baggage of past experiences and sin hinders your journey with Christ? Hebrews 12:1-3 compares the Christian life to a race and encourages believers to “lay aside” those things that impede their progress.

There are two different words in Hebrews 12:1 that describe those things that slow us down and create obstacles in our lives—encumbrances (things that keep us from effectively living the Christian life) and sin (a specific weakness each of us has).

In this message, Dr. Stanley shares how we can release those things God never intended us to carry by:

- Admitting and asking the Lord to help us remove it.
- Acknowledging our entangling sins.
- Taking responsibility for baggage, no matter where it came from.
- Making a definite decision to deal with it.
- Laying it aside because it doesn’t fit us as Christ’s followers.
- Relying on Christ’s strength to put it down and walk away.
- Knowing the Lord will enable us to lay it aside.
- Understanding it is discipline, not just desire, that determines the outcome of our decisions.

We don’t have to carry heavy spiritual burdens. By faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we must make a conscious choice to do away with whatever is displeasing to Him. It’s only when we finally unload it all and fix our eyes on Jesus that we will truly be able to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1).