Real Faith

Shane Grant · Tidal Church Moncton · September 6, 2026 · Heroes of the Faith series

Shane Grant closes the Heroes of the Faith series in Hebrews 12:1-3, inviting us to run the race by laying aside what weighs us down and fixing our eyes on Jesus, who began and completes our faith, and to take our next step of obedience.

More from Shane Grant · The Heroes of the Faith series

Topics: Faith, Grace, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] I'm honored to be closing our series, "The Heroes of the Faith." For the last several weeks, we've walked through Hebrews 11. We met Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, and a bunch of others. We watched people trust God when they couldn't see the outcome, obey when they didn't fully understand, and step forward when they were afraid. They persevered when the journey was difficult. But today, the question changes. We spent the series looking at other people and their faith. Today, we have to ask, what does faith look like in us? There was a time in my life when I believed I knew what God was asking me to do, and honestly, I really hoped He would change His mind.

[0:52] Maybe you've been there, too. Maybe you knew what the next step was. Maybe you knew what obedience would require. You just weren't sure you were willing to take that step. That's where Hebrews 12 meets us. Join me as we open our time in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for this passage from Hebrews. Help us to learn from it and to become transformed to be more like Your Son. Spirit, help us as we take steps in our spiritual journey. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's read from Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 3 in the NLT, our scripture for today. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

[1:57] Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people, and then you won't become weary and give up." As I said, we spent this whole series looking at faith in other people, but today, it's our turn to ask what faith looks like in us. If you're here and you're not sure what you believe about Jesus, this passage begins with an invitation, not to pretend that you have all the answers, but to look at Him. There's something important we need to remember about Hebrews 11. The author isn't giving us a biblical hall of fame so we can stand back and admire them and say, "Wow, what amazing faith these people all had." He's telling us the stories because he wants to do something in us, and that brings us to Hebrews 12. The very first word of the passage gives us the transition from their story to our story, therefore. One of the first classes I took at Kingswood University was Inductive Bible Study, and I'll always remember the phrase, "Whenever you see therefore, you need to ask what it's there for." Now say it with me.

[3:16] What's it there for? What's it there for? Because of everything we've seen in Hebrews 11, because of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, Deborah, Barak, Gideon, and all the others, the author now turns the questions towards us. Now what? What do we do with everything that we have learned from their stories? And the answer is, we run the race. Faith isn't simply believing the right things about God. Real faith keeps moving with our eyes fixed on Jesus. But we spent the last several weeks looking at their faith. We've had them under the microscope, but now the microscope turns to us and to our faith. What do we see when we look at our faith?

[4:03] Let's read through verse 1 again. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." Verse 1 begins by giving us the what. Run the race. Real faith keeps moving, but it can't run well if we're carrying everything that's slowing us down. But there's something else important in this verse. The author says we, not you. The Christian life is personal, but it was never meant to be individualistic. We each have a race to run, but we were never meant to run it alone. Which raises an important question, who are the witnesses?

[4:54] The witnesses are the people we spent the last several weeks studying in Hebrews 11, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, the whole lot of them. Their lives testify to something. God is faithful, and God can be trusted. But here's the good news. The point of Hebrews 11 isn't for us to stare harder at these people and simply try harder to become heroes like them. Eventually, we have to stop looking at their examples of faith and start asking questions about our faith. And that brings me back to what I mentioned earlier. There was a time when I believed I knew what God was asking me to do, and honestly, I really, really hoped that He would change His mind. It was my second year at Kingswood University.

[5:41] I was studying for ministry, and I found myself doing a lot of thinking about my life and about where I was headed. I'd already completed my first year of my Bachelor of Arts in Religion, but as I settled into my second year, I wasn't sure this is what I wanted to do. I had grown up in a pastor's home, and I had seen some of the ugly side, kind of the underbelly of the church. Maybe you've seen it, too. Maybe you thought, "I love Jesus, but the church is just so messed up." And listen, I understand that. The church is made up of imperfect people, including you and including me. In fact, if there were a perfect church, come on, let's be real, you couldn't attend it, and neither could I.

[6:33] My parents protected me from a lot of the difficult things that happened in the church, but they couldn't protect me from everything. There were things that caused real pain, not just in my life, but in the life of my family, and maybe in your life as well. I remember sitting alone in my dorm room thinking, "I love Jesus. I believe in Jesus, but honestly, I think I could do without the church." I thought, "I can love Jesus without having to deal with all these problems. Maybe I should do something else with my life. Maybe I shouldn't go into ministry. Why would I want to spend my life serving an organization that can be so messed up?" And in that moment, God spoke the second half of Ephesians 5:25 to me.

[7:23] "Christ loved the church and gave His life up for her." The implication was clear. If I was going to follow Jesus, if I was going to imitate Him, I couldn't simply walk away from the people that He loved enough to give His life for. I was being called to love and to serve His church. As much as I didn't want to continue with my degree at that moment, I knew that God had a plan, and I knew that I could trust Him with my future. My disappointment with God's people could've been an excuse for me to disobey God's calling, and I wonder if some of us have something similar.

[8:10] Maybe it's not a calling into ministry. Maybe it's disappointment, fear, pain, uncertainty, or something from your past that just makes you hesitate to obey God. Maybe you already know what God is asking you to do. The question isn't really whether you know what the next step is. The question is, will you trust Him enough to take it? Or, as Pastor Jim likes to say, maybe our posture towards God should be, "Yes, Lord. Now what's the question? Yes, Lord. Now what's the question?" The writer continues, "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down." And that makes sense if you've ever tried to climb a mountain carrying something you didn't need.

[8:59] Let me tell you about a hiking trip to Katahdin we did a couple years ago. So if you'll see up on the screen, there's Mount Katahdin. A couple years ago, we went on that hike. It's the highest mountain in Maine, over 5,000 feet, and it's not really a casual stroll. The hike was almost 20 kilometers long, and it took us around 10 hours of straight hiking. And there's a next photo here is of us in front of the mountain there. Now, before we left, I had a very important philosophy about packing. What if I need it? Extra clothes, what if I need them? Extra food, what if I get hungry? Extra water, I should probably keep the extra water. Probably a few things that I had absolutely no reason to bring.

[9:48] Well, you never know. I was determined to be prepared for anything. The only problem was, I was a little heavier back then, and my backpack probably weighed 50-ish pounds. So by the time we started hiking, the mountain was dealing with well over 300 pounds of Shane, equipment, snacks, emergency supplies, and apparently everything that I thought I might possibly need in the event of a zombie apocalypse. I was prepared. I was very prepared, possibly, probably too prepared. And then the next photo here is of us at the top. Honestly, the hike up went pretty well. We made it to the top, we took pictures, we enjoyed the view, took a little rest, and then we began the long hike back down the mountain.

[10:39] But in the last hour or two, I pulled my hamstring, and suddenly, carrying all that extra weight didn't seem like such a great idea anymore. I was in a lot of pain. I had to borrow some hiking poles just to finish the hike, and let's just say I didn't finish strong. I made it back to the car, but I made it back to the car. And then when we finally got there, I looked at one of the guys I was hiking with and I said, "If you ever see me putting on a massive backpack like this for another hike, please stop me." Not maybe you should stop me. Stop me. Because sometimes the problem isn't that you're carrying something bad. It's that you're carrying things you simply don't need.

[11:25] And after enough miles, even good things can become dead weight. The weight may not be sinful, it may not even be bad, but if it's slowing you down, eventually you have to ask, "Why am I still carrying this?" And I think that's exactly the question that Hebrews is asking us. The writer tells us to lay aside every weight that slows us down and the sin that so easily trips us up. Notice that he makes a distinction. Certainly, sin can hold us back and trip us up, but there can also be things in our lives that are not necessarily sinful that still hinder us from running the race that God has set before us. Things like endless entertainment, constant distraction, or spending hours scrolling through social media.

[12:15] None of those things are necessarily sinful in themselves, but we have to ask, are they helping me run the race or are they slowing me down? Because the question isn't, is this a sin? Sometimes a better question would be, is this helping me become more like Jesus, or is it holding me back? Real faith keeps moving, so what is slowing you down? What are you carrying that God never asked you to carry? What needs to be laid aside so you can take the next step? Let's read verse two together. "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne."

[13:15] Verse one gives us the what. Run the race. Verse two gives us the how. Keep your eyes on Jesus. But real faith doesn't just keep moving in any direction. Real faith keeps moving when its eyes are fixed on Jesus. This means more than just simply glancing towards Jesus every once in a while. The Greek word used here, aphorō, carries the idea of turning your eyes away from one thing in order to fix your eyes then on something else. In other words, the invitation isn't just, "Look at Jesus." It's also, "Stop looking at everything else that is competing for your attention." Turn your eyes away from the things that distract you and fix them on Jesus.

[14:01] And that connects with what we talked about earlier: entertainment, distractions, social media, and 100 other things that may not necessarily be sinful in themselves, but are constantly competing for our attention. The question is, what has your eyes? Because eventually, what has your attention will begin to shape your direction. The same grace that initiates our faith is also the grace that empowers us to mature in it. We don't begin the Christian life by trusting Jesus and then spending the rest of the time trying to accomplish everything on our own. This is where keeping our eyes on Jesus changes the way we live.

[14:51] Peter describes this as a call to holiness in 1 Peter 1:14-16. "So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back to your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'" Holiness is what happens when people who belong to God increasingly learn to live like Jesus. It isn't about earning God's favor. We pursue holiness because we already belong to Him. His grace not only saves us, but also empowers us to faithfully endure and to become more like Christ.

[15:42] As individuals and as a church, holiness means turning away from whatever keeps us from following Jesus fully and allowing God's character to shape every part of our lives. We're set apart, not because we're better than anyone else, but because we belong to God. And so as the Holy Spirit reveals the next step in our journey, holiness is continually responding, "Yes, Lord. Now what's the question? Yes, Lord. Now what's the question? Yes, Lord. Now what's the question?" And as we fix our eyes on Jesus, we discover why He is the one worth following. Hebrews calls Him the one who initiates and perfects our faith.

[16:27] He is the beginning and the completion of our faith. Jesus has gone before us. He endured the cross. He disregarded the shame. He completed the work that He came to do. He rose again, and now Hebrews tells us He is seated at the place of honor beside God's throne. That word seated would have carried special significance for the Jewish readers. The priests of the Old Testament continually offered animal sacrifice after animal sacrifice, and their work was never finished. There was always another sacrifice to offer. But Jesus is seated. Why? Because His work as our priest is complete. He's removed the need for animal sacrifice by being the ultimate sacrifice.

[17:15] He doesn't just tell us to run the race. He has gone before us. He doesn't just tell us to endure. He endured the cross. He doesn't simply point us toward the faith. He is the one who initiates and perfects it. So I don't want any of you to hear this as, "Try harder to become a better Christian." The invitation of this passage is first to look at Jesus. See who He is, see what He's done, see what He endured, and see why He is worthy of our trust. I love this quote from Dallas Willard. It's always stuck with me, and I think it illustrates this really well. "Grace isn't opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning."

[18:01] There's effort involved in following Jesus. We practice discipline. We make choices. We lay aside things that weigh us down. We turn away from distractions. We pursue holiness. But none of that effort earns us more of Jesus. We don't earn God's love. We don't earn His grace. And we don't transform ourselves through sheer willpower. Yes, put in the effort, but don't confuse effort with earning. We run the race, but we keep our eyes on Jesus. We take the next step, but we trust the Holy Spirit to guide and transform us. Because from beginning to end, the Christian life is not about what we can accomplish for Jesus. It's about trusting what Jesus has accomplished for us and allowing His Spirit to make us more like Him.

[18:52] As we surrender more of our lives to God, His Spirit continues to make us more like Jesus. Let's look at verse three. "Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people; then you won't become weary and give up." Verse one gives us the what, run the race. Verse two gives us the how, keep your eyes on Jesus. And verse three gives us the why, faithful endurance is worth it. When the race becomes difficult, we remember why real faith keeps moving, because our eyes are fixed on the one who has already gone before us. Think about what Jesus endured. At the cross, we see the King of the universe willingly submit Himself to the death of a criminal.

[19:47] We see Him endure hostility, rejection, suffering, and shame at the hands of His very creation. And for what? Why would He do that? Because of the joy set before Him, the victory, the completion of His mission, and the redemption His sacrifice would accomplish. This is why He endured the cross. The shocking part for the original audience wasn't simply that Jesus died. Crucifixion was horrific, but the scandal was that God's Messiah willingly accepted such disgrace. And when we consider the hostility Jesus endured, again, from His own creation, His endurance becomes an example for us when we face opposition, suffering, or the temptation to give up.

[20:39] After showing us all these examples of the faith, the writer doesn't leave our eyes fixed on them. Their stories matter. Their lives testify that God can be trusted. They show us what faith can look like. But ultimately, they point us beyond themselves. They are witnesses, not the destination of our attention. The writer says, "Keep your eyes on Jesus." You can actually see that idea in the bumper for the series. It begins with a group of Greco-Roman statues representing the biblical hall of fame, the heroes of the faith. But if you look beyond them, at the end of the hallway, there is a bright light, and that light represents Jesus. The heroes are along the way, but that is not where the journey ends.

[21:27] They point us forward. The heroes of Hebrews 11 were people of remarkable faith, but they were also imperfect people. Their faith inspires us, but Jesus is the one we fix our eyes on. Jesus is not merely the greatest example among the heroes. He's the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. We don't get it right all the time, but we set our trajectory toward being like Christ. Jesus has already gone before us. He endured suffering. He completed the work the Father gave Him to do, and now He is seated at the right hand of God. So when the race becomes difficult, we fix our eyes on the risen Christ, the one who sustains us as we run, and the one who we will meet one day at the finish line.

[22:22] And on that day, I want to hear those words from Matthew 25:21, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Real faith keeps moving when its eyes are fixed on Jesus, because faith is easy to talk about when obedience costs us nothing. The real question is, what do we do when following Jesus actually requires something of us? So what do we do with this? We take the next step forward in the race. Salvation is not merely a moment of conversion. It begins a lifelong journey of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

[23:15] So what is your next step? What is the thing that God has already been asking you to do? Did He want you to forgive someone? Did He ask you to let go of something? Let go of some offense? Did He ask you to serve? Did He ask you to give? Did He ask you to take a step of faith? Did you obey? If the answer is no, then don't make another excuse. Repent. Go back to the road where you left Him and obey Him. You can trust Him with your future, as I learned in university. And this isn't just personal. We each have a race to run, but we were never meant to run it alone. What would Tidal Church be like if we didn't just say we go the distance to bring people closer to God, but we actually stepped forward to serve?

[24:17] What if being one that the Maritimes would believe meant we consistently prayed for our city, for our province, and for our nation? What if saying Hope Is Rising meant we were actually actively making our communities better? What if people lingered in the atrium together to share, to pray, or to encourage one another rather than immediately everyone racing out the door? What if we actually ran this race together? Because real faith doesn't just change what we believe. It changes the way we live. Don't solve your whole life today. Don't try to run someone else's race.

[25:07] Just ask the Lord, "What is my next step?" Take a moment right now and ask Him. We will take 30 seconds right now. Ask Him and listen.

[25:52] Real faith keeps moving when its eyes are fixed on Jesus. Don't just admire the heroes of the faith. Don't simply be inspired by the stories. Run the race. Keep your eyes on Jesus and take the next step. Let's close in prayer. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Give us the courage to obey You, even in the face of opposition and excuses. Holy Spirit, have Your way in our personal and communal transformation. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

[26:51] And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."