1. Unloading Our Excess Luggage
Hebrews 12:1-3

3. Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside all the excess luggage, and the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

4. Hebrews 12:2-3
looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

5. 1. Life’s Disappointments

6. Proverbs 13:12
Delayed hope makes the heart sick, but fulfilled desire is a tree of life.

7. John 16:33
I have told you this, so that you might have peace in your hearts because of Me. While you are in the world, you will have trouble. But cheer up! I have defeated the world.

8. 2. Unresolved Anger

9. Ephesians 4:26-27
In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

10. 3. An Unhealthy View Of Self

11. The Message Paraphrase
Romans 12:3
The Message Paraphrase
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are ...

12. 4. Unrepentant Sin

13. Psalm 32:3-4
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah.

14. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (Gk – ochyroma).

15. Hebrews 12:1
…lay aside all the excess luggage, and the sin that so easily trips us up…

16. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

17. 1. God still loves me

18. The Message Paraphrase
John 3:16-17
The Message Paraphrase
This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need perish; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to save it.

19. 2. God can free me

20. The Message Paraphrase
Romans 8:1-2
The Message Paraphrase
You no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.