Title: Identifying Weights That Slow You Down
Meta: Tim gives some practical examples of identifying things in your life which are not necessarily bad but should be replaced with that which is better and more excellent.
Tags: Tim Conway,Hebrews 12:1-2,conviction of sin,running for Christ,sanctification,Race

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Do you have anything in your life that you have to argue with yourself about?      

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You repeatedly have to try and persuade yourself.

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You know it. There's a thing in your life.

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The Spirit keeps bringing it to your mind.  Your conscience keeps telling you and you keep arguing,

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"No, it's right, it's right, that's ok, it's not sin!"

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Beware of things like that.

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Or things that your not willing to investigate.

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You just want to do it, and your not going to give a lot of time thinking about it.

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If you got things in your life that you can't honestly bring before the Lord in prayer

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and ask for His guidance, His counsel, His direction,

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and examine thoroughly in light of Scripture;

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if you have things in your life that you are not willing to do that with, it's because you don't want to know.

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How about things you could quickly spot if you saw them in someone else?

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You see in their life, "Hey, that it's not good."

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But, when it's in your life, it kind of looks different to you.

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I ask myself this too.

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People often wear the band "What Would Jesus Do";

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do you ask yourself, "Would Jesus do this?"

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Because you know what, if there ever was a fleet footed runner. It was Him.

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He ran the race to perfection, and He ran well.

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He ran in faith. He trusted His Father.

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He believed His Father. He held to the promises of His Father. He ran perfect.

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Watch how He runs. Would He have put that thing in His life?

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Even if it's not sin, would He have allowed that in His own life?

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How about this:

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things that you've been convicted in your life that you have thrown away,

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that you later picked back up.

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It may be okay.

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There are seasons when certain things we should have tossed away;

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then there are seasons when they may be appropriate again.

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I'm not saying it's absolute, but it's worth thinking about.

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Things that at one time you were convinced that you shouldn't have in your life, you came to later justify.

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One of the things I thought about too is just a bunch a baggage in your life that is all about yourself.

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I mean, just 'stuff' in your life. It's not unlawful,

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but the majority of stuff in your life, the weight in your life, it's all about you.

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Your life is not largely filled with the kind of stuff that shows that you are really living

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to love other people.

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Think about this: stuff in your life that isn't just NOT unlawful,

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it may in some respects be good,

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but you could replace it with stuff much better.

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I'm often reminded of Paul's words in Phillipians 1:9-10.

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"It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

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so that you may approve what is excellent..."

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I often think of that. When I was a young Christian, I heard John MacArthur do a sermon on that text.

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He really hammered that into my head.

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Don't give your life simply to what is good. Strive for excellence!

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A lot of times we have to think that way.

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I heard this somewhere: some guy had a pair of running shoes on

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and he was out training. But when it got time for the race, he put on a different pair of running shoes.

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So somebody asked him about it.

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He said, "Well, these are lighter." They were so light.

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It's this kind of thing: a pair of running shoes is good, but a lighter pair of running shoes is better

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if you want to make it to the end; if you want to do really well.

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Christians must discard a lot of 'good' things.

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That's the thing: if you look down this path

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that the Christian runs, it's got all these 'weights' discarded along the side.

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A lot of the things are likely going to be good things.

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And the better you run this race, the more good stuff that's likely going to be on that.

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Not because you got rid of the good, to replace it with the bad;

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you got rid of the good to replace it with better,

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with that which is excellent. I mean, it's just madness

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that professing Christians fill their lives with so much garbage!

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I just marvel at it.

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	I'll just leave you with this thought about examples of weights:

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What you conclude is a weight in your life, may not be in somebody else's.

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You be slow to judge what others allow.

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There's a place to encourage people to think about these things,

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but be careful before you condemn somebody else.

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Because you may actually find what somebody else allows

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may actually be helpful to them in a way that you never really figured out.