Soul winning, separation and getting sidetracked
By: Rody Chesser
Are you sidetracked? A lot of Christians are sidetracked right now. By that I mean they are not
running the race that Jesus Christ has set out for them to run. Some of them are running a race; it is just
the wrong one! These believers spend all their time focusing on the wrong things. Just what our focus
should be is the theme of this paper. Let’s see what the Bible says about the race we are to run.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us, 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews
12:1-2)
The book of Hebrews gives us in chapter eleven a great list of faithful men and women who ran
hard after God. They believed God and obeyed his Word. At the end of that chapter, we have this
admonition. The witnesses mentioned are all those who have gone before us and were faithful to God.
Now we are called to run the race set before us. There are three necessary ingredients to run this race.
LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT:
A runner wants to be a fleet of foot as possible. They need to get rid of anything that would weigh them down and slow their progress. They need to get down to ‘hide, hair and running gear’, as my Dad would say! Please notice that this weight is not sin. We will talk about that in a minute. This weight is anything that keeps you from being fruitful in the Christian life.
What holds you back from running hard after Jesus? Is it that you are a work-a-holic and don’t do your work as unto the Lord? Is it that you are lazy? Is it that your fear of sharing the gospel holds you back? Maybe you are immature in the faith and you don’t know your Bible well enough to minister to someone else.
What about getting sidetracked with things that aren’t the focus of the Christian life? This seems to be the thing that happens to many in our day. For instance, getting caught up some kind of doctrine that is not the New Covenant sidetracks many. I recently shared the gospel with a lady who was convinced that the only way she could please God was to worship on Saturday and keep the Sabbath. The only problem was that she did not have a church she met with on Saturday. She and her husband just sat at home and talked about how righteous they were because they were not working and they knew better than to go to church on Sunday. I gently pointed out to her that she was disobeying another passage of Scripture in choosing this course of action:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)
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