In the Christian life, we must often ask of God that he would keep our hearts from growing cold towards him. There's an old hymn by the English Baptist of the eighteenth century, Robert Robinson. You'll know it when you hear it. The third verse, I think, captures this tendency of ours to have cold hearts towards God. He says: "Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh take and seal it. Seal it for your courts above."

In the scripture this morning I want you to see the God-given means by which followers of Christ are to mitigate our tendency to wander away from the Lord, whether it be through trials or distresses or as life comes at us. We want to avoid this. We want to see God's means of mitigating that tendency. Because we too can feel discouragement in the Christian life. We lose our vigour for Christ and the gospel. And this is what the author is talking about. We look at the end of verse three, and he says, "so that you will not grow weary or faint in heart."

It's because it's a real issue that he says this. I think then at the turn of a new year it is an appropriate time for each one of us to consider whether we have perhaps grown cold towards God and if so, to correct our way by again fixing our eyes on Christ this new year. So the question that I have to ask you is: as you look back at 2025 behind us, was this a year of spiritual drifting for you? Upon what were you looking at the most, or who? Do we, at the end of one year and at the beginning of another, sense a greater nearness to God, or have we wandered further away from Him?

Perhaps you've heard of the 1707 Sicily naval disaster. Four British warships in the navy were dashed against rocks after a navigation error and the majority of the sailors died. There were some survivors. Now at that time, though things quickly changed, navigators could calculate their latitude position, that is their north-south position, by observing their position in relation to the Sun. However, they calculated longitude, an east-to-west measurement, by a series of estimations of ship speed and course, known as dead reckoning.

Longitude calculations were subject to compounding errors due to variables such as wind, current, tide, and the impossibility of keeping accurate time. Small compounding errors combine to produce inaccurate positional calculations. And so spiritually speaking, the same is true. Neglect of our inner vital Christian life will compound over time and cause us to lose our way; to grow weary and faint in heart, as the author of Hebrews says. Little spiritual compromises always compound, and we must beware. We must be taking stock of our present position and always looking upon Christ with a fresh focus to consider where we are.

It's time we consider where, over the past year, our hearts have drifted; what habits we have developed; what priorities we have set; what distractions before Christ we have brought into our lives. So I want to show you then in this passage how we can refocus upon him, Christ, who is the author and perfecter of our faith.

Run By Looking To The Past

First of all, there is a call here I want you to see: a call to run by looking to the past. Here we are called to consider those who have gone before us in the history of God's church, this great ship carrying all the redeemed in Christ as it traverses the ages. And so here he says: "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us." The picture here in this language of a great cloud of witnesses is perhaps illustrated if you think of an international rugby fixture. As the All Blacks run onto the pitch, and the fireworks and the pyrotechnics go off, and the crowd stands and rises to its feet to applaud their team as they enter the field; to applaud the athletes in the arena.

The Christian life can be framed in a similar light. Every born-again follower of Jesus Christ in the world at this very moment is what God has formed for Himself by His Spirit in the arena for Him. It is we who are called out of this world to serve the one true and everlasting God, and this is our moment and this is the time that we have; and it is short. We are like athletes in this great arena that God has created, and all about us in the stands, in a manner of speaking, are all those who have gone before us. They are this great cloud of witnesses; they are cheering us on, and they are all witnessing and testifying to the goodness and to the faithfulness of God. They're cheering you on to glory.

And some of these are named in Hebrews chapter eleven, the previous chapter in the so-called hall of fame chapter. By faith Abel; by faith Enoch; by faith Noah; by faith Abraham; and so on. These he says in Hebrews 11:38: "men of whom the world was not worthy." These men and women of God have gone before us, Christian. We are to be encouraged by their testimony.

For many of you, there is a godly heritage behind you as well. Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents of faith; perhaps others in your life who have loved and served Jesus Christ through thick and thin, and you have witnessed that. We in our own lives, you see, need to be encouraged to emulate their faith and to press on for the King as they did.

But perhaps there's some of you here that you are the first Christian in your family line that you know of. And the question is for you: what legacy will you leave for those who come after you? I'll never forget the words of Allan Munn, a man I know who said to me a decade or more ago. He said, "I want my sons to remember me as a worshipper of God." Many men, you see, make their sole purpose in life to leave their children a great empire; a business; wealth; a better life than they had; heirlooms; family cars; land. Some of those things can be great in their place.

Yet what will last and value them the most is the testimony of a life lived in service of Christ. This will be for generations to come, your joining in the cloud of witnesses to spur on those who come after you. And so this new year press on and do not shrink back. Run this race.

These before us are in the stands of this theatre and their race is done; their purpose for which God raised them up is complete and they are now cheering on in the arena. So don't lose heart, for soon we shall join them too and in but the blink of an eye we shall enter the heavenly glories.

In Hebrews 10:36 it says: "For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised."

Run By Laying Aside

Then there is a second call here and a manner in which we must run, and it is we run by laying aside. Look at verse two again; it says: "Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us."

As you might know, the Olympic Games has a long history going back all the way to 776 BC. Now competing athletes at first supposedly used to wear a little loincloth around their waist while they would compete, but after not too long apparently these were gone too and the men used to compete completely nude. It's crazy to think about. One winner of the stade footrace, which is essentially a two hundred metre sprint back in that time, apparently he lost his loincloth on purpose so he could run without it, believing he was faster that way. And he did actually win the race, so everyone began doing it.

Comparable to a degree is what is being said here. Just as an athlete will wear what they believe will help them win, and just as there'll be much training and suffering and the discipline of the body to prepare for success, so in the Christian life, like an athlete, we have to consider our spiritual training, let's call it sanctification, in such a way. We want to shed the baggage; shed the extra weight; the extra pounds that's only slowing us down. The scripture is calling here for the removal of obstacles that will hinder our progress in the Christian life, our usefulness to God in the Christian life, and especially, he says, the sin which so easily entangles us and slows us down.

How are we gonna take such a command seriously in this new year? Well I'll break it down into three steps. First of all, we must be watching. Secondly, we must be struggling. And thirdly, we must be mastering.

First thing: watching. In professional sports, athletes are watching and measuring everything; their body fat percentage; caloric intake; their heart rate in training. And they succeed, they grow, they improve because they're actively watching. In the Christian life, comparably, we need to watch because in Christ we have been called to pursue holiness. A little bit further along in Hebrews 12:14 it says: "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord."

Now because of what Jesus has done for us in His life, death and resurrection, we through faith alone are already counted as holy in God's sight. For the true believer there's no chance of defection. Christ says, "I know my own and my own know me." But following our salvation comes the fruits of a transformed life and that is what we are to pursue.

We must watch our lives therefore, brothers and sisters, with great care. We must watch our tongues and the slander that so easily proceeds from them. We must watch our hearts that devise things which God disdains. We must watch our minds. What do we think about? What controls our thoughts? We must watch our eyes; what do we see? We must watch our ears; what do they hear? How will this affect my Christian life?

But also, after watching, we must struggle. We must struggle against sin that so easily entangles us. We must wage war on sin and make an enemy of it. We must fight for control of our tongues; the thoughts of our minds; the desires of our hearts. We must fight for control over the things that we see and the things that we seek out and the things we hear. We want to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and you must struggle against sin in this new year.

Christian, we must fight for holiness of life. In 1 Peter 1:14-15 it says: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behaviour." And so you must struggle with whatever sin it is that is besetting you. Struggle; bring it before God; bring it before others who you trust and can help you. Do not cease to root out sin in your life which will so easily strangle your Christian life.

Thirdly, we want to master sin. Every one of us here is wired differently and the sins prone to one are not the sins particularly of another. But this does not justify resting on our laurels. We have been freed from slavery to sin to obey Christ. In Romans 6:17 it says: "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. Having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness."

Freed from sin, Paul says. In other words, you are no longer, as a Christian, obligated to obey the flesh. Formerly, before you knew Christ, you would obey your flesh; that's all you knew to do; you were a slave of sin. Now in Christ, you do not have to obey the flesh. We do at times, the sin that still remains in us, but we are not obligated to. We are free now to pursue Christ and holiness. So we must use our freedom in Christ to crush sin; to stamp on sin; to strike its back; "walk in the Spirit," Paul says, "and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh."

Seek to master your sin this new year. Not in a way that you will give up at times when you sin again, but pursue as a pattern of life holiness before God.

Run With Patience

But look at what we see here. Thirdly, we see a call to run with patience. The text says: "and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." The world champion middle distance runner, Jacob Ingebrigtsen, is known in his races to start slow; conserve energy; and run at the back of the pack before timing his run to the finish and home for the win.

This year let us press hard for Christ; champion his gospel in the world where we are; but at the same time we want a slow burn that will last the distance. We want a deliberate and a measured pace so that we do not spin out; crash out; burn out. We do not want to reach that four kilometre distance mark and find that the tank is empty. We want to finish strong. And what this means for us, I think, in 2026 is that we learn to trust in God's timing for everything. That's what Christian patience is all about; trusting God's timing.

So are you buying property? Are you starting a business? Are you looking for work? Are you raising a family? Are you witnessing to colleagues or strangers? Providing for your family? Are you doing all these things? Trust God and be patient to live the Christian life so that all you do you might bring glory to his name.

Say with David in Psalm 31:14: "But as for me I trust in you, oh Lord, I say you are my God; my times are in your hands."

We need to say that this new year and run with patience.

Run Towards Jesus

But here we come to the crux of this call, the goal of it all, and here is a call to run towards Jesus. In verse two it says: "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Are you wandering from the faith, Christian? Is your heart cold towards God? Does your love for Jesus feel empty and absent from your immediate thoughts? Are you not finding joy in the gathering of the church? Does the Bible seem of little interest to you as you read it? Are your prayers shorter and fewer as the weeks go by?

Well, if that's you, then maybe, as the text says, you have become estranged by sin. Perhaps your flesh has created idols to put in the place of God and now you are reaping the fruits of that and God has sent leanness into your soul that you might return to him.

It might also be that your focus is not really upon Jesus. You have forgotten who he is; you've forgotten that he's there; that he cares and that he ever lives for his people.

Christians can be tempted to look at so many things and in the end they always get off course when their eyes are not focused on Christ. Some Christians get obsessed with politics and world affairs. And they begin to grieve at the state of the world. They stop looking at Christ and lo and behold, they veer off course. Many get hyper-focused on nuanced theological views and so on and they can't seem to talk about anything else than their little hobby horse and again their focus falls from Christ.

You see, we must savour Christ in His Word, the One who came for us; to live for us; to die for us; to be raised for us; to intercede for us and to come again and reign with us. He is the object and end of our faith. We want to burn brightly for Him and His Gospel and His kingdom to the nth degree above all these other things which has quickly turned from good things into vices and obstacles. And the way we want to do this is not by attaining more facts about Christ. Filling our minds with facts can be a useful thing, but rather we want to seek to know Christ through His Word. The language here in Hebrews twelve is that of a penetrating, an earnest looking into something for revelation and for truth, for a person.

Will you do that this new year? Will you read your Bibles whilst you pray aloud and say, "Father, show me those things of your Son in your Word. Show me his beauties and his glory. Show me what he has done for me, a rebellious sinner. Show me the grace that is in the heart of Jesus and that he has for the lost. Might I see the compassion that overflows and the righteousness of his life." You might pray, "Father, vividly show me the sufferings of your Son for me. Change me by that truth. Mould me by that truth. Make me, shape me. Turn my wandering heart permanently upon the God man. Dash my fleshly stony heart against the rock of Christ. Make me a new creature in Him." Say to God you want communion with Christ and you want nothing else. That you want relationship; that you want His mind and His Spirit to lead you all your life. That's the Christian life.

Consider why the eyes must be fixed on Christ. Well, it's because, as the text says, he is "the author and perfecter of faith." You see, it was Christ who entered you in this journey of faith. Like Abraham, the moon worshipper, God has acted and revealed Christ and his covenant promises to you. You did not acquire it by reason; it was given to you through faith. Your belief in Christ is an authored faith, the text says. Since he has authored it, he has planned the perfection of that faith too; your glorification.

And so it seems to me the obvious deduction is that we ought to live in a way befitting of that future state of perfected faith that we shall live in eternally. We want to be the kind of men and women that we shall one day be. In other words, why would you look at any other than Jesus Christ when behind as in front of you, He is there, birthing your faith, completing your faith. There's no other better options to look at.

So it's apparent here that it's not so much that we are to look at Jesus but that he looks upon us. Your watching; wrestling and mastering, you see, is powered by the work of the Spirit at work in the Christian's life, mortifying the flesh. The power is in the blood; the power is in the gospel; it's not in us. And His gaze has fallen upon you, believer, as you squirmed in sin and were children of wrath by nature and without hope.

Paul says in Galatians 4:9: "But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how is it that you turn back again," he says, "to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?"

You see, we want Christ. Does Christ's look not enough for you? I mean, just consider the works of Christ on your behalf this new year. The author lays them out for us: "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

You see, the delight of the Son was not only to be found pleasing to the Father in all he did, but his delight in his sacrifice was that he would redeem for the Father a people. His delight was the work of redemption, the victory he won when he died for the sins of his people, to cut them free from the shackles of sin and death. That's what He's done. And so what joy Christ had when He spared your soul. What joy and delight He takes in all who have believed in Him. He has loved us with an everlasting love. He has endured the shame and taunts of this world, the death on the cross to win for himself a bride and present her faultless before the Father.

So don't look elsewhere this new year. Look at him. Look at Jesus. All else is sinking sand; it's dross. If you gaze at other things you'll never land on anything that has true meaning; true delight; or true purpose. Though your flesh may try, though Satan desires you to look away. Only Christ, only Christ will do and he is pleading for you before the throne of God.

Conclusion

So this new year: run by first looking back; consider that cloud of witnesses, that godly heritage of all those who have come before us cheering us on; being inspired and uplifted by their testimony. Run by laying aside; remove all obstacles in your life; get to work; cut down all that is not of Him. Run with patience; burn with a slow burn for Christ. And fourthly, run towards Jesus. There's no other but him. He is the author and perfecter of faith.