The Art of Holding On & Letting Go: Week 1

As we step into a new year, we're confronted with a profound spiritual question: What do we need to let go of, and what must we hold onto more tightly? The writer of Hebrews paints a vivid picture of our faith journey as a race—not a sprint, but an endurance event that requires us to strip off every weight and sin that slows us down or trips us up. This distinction is crucial: sin causes us to fall completely, while weights gradually slow our progress until we're barely moving at all. The message challenges us to examine what's been holding us back—perhaps it's the heavy burden of our past, unresolved conflicts, unforgiveness, or relationships that drain rather than energize us. Paul's words in Philippians remind us that even he hadn't achieved perfection, but his focus was singular: forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward. The beautiful promise from Isaiah 43 tells us that God is always doing something new, but we can't perceive it when we're consumed by what's old. This isn't about making resolutions that fade by mid-January; it's about doing the hard relational work of making peace with our past so we can truly embrace our future. We cannot start a new year with old baggage and expect different results.

Chapter 1: The Confusion of Holding On and Letting Go (0:00 - 7:00)

We explore the confusion between what to hold on to and what to let go of as believers, introducing the tension between these two actions in our faith journey.

Chapter 2: Running the Race with Endurance (7:00 - 14:00)

We examine Hebrews 12 and discover that every believer has a unique race requiring endurance, and we must strip off both sin and weight that hinder our progress.

Chapter 3: Dealing with Sin and Weight (14:00 - 21:00)

We learn the importance of calling sin what it is and distinguishing it from the weights that slow us down, including unresolved issues and broken relationships.

Chapter 4: Forgetting the Past and Moving Forward (21:00 - 28:00)

We examine Paul's teaching on forgetting what is behind and pressing forward, learning that we cannot simply move past our past without actually dealing with it.

Chapter 5: Holding Tightly to Hope in Christ (28:00 - 35:00)

We conclude by learning to hold tightly to the hope we have in Christ, recognizing that God is always doing something new and we cannot start a new year with old baggage.