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Running
a good race.
By Pastor Craig
Sicilia
Hebrew 1:1,2
In the past
God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various
ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Take note: of but in these last
days he (God) has spoken to us
Hebrews 12:1,2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who
for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
Here in this great
text the Christian life is compared to a race.
Every
Christian is engaged in this race.
Every
Christian has a race to run.
This
text declares that we are running the race,
The
Christian life
The
race that God has set before us.
The
older we get, the more we realize how difficult life can be.
Especially
will those who are serving the Lord the best that they can.
You
may be a pastor, a pastors wife, a missionary or a Sunday school teacher
Maybe
you do handy work helping out others in your Christian family
You
could be a deacon or youth leader
But
you are serving the Lord to the very best of your ability.
We
all recognize the struggles that go on in our lives.
They
challenge not only our faith but also our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
As
we face these things, we must realize that we are running a race.
The
key word in this chapter is “endure”.
This
word endure means perseverance
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us
We see it again in verse 2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross
And
look at verse 3
Consider him who endured such opposition
Look
at verse 7
Endure hardship as discipline
And
verse 20
For they could not endure that which was commanded
“Endure” is an interesting word because it means
to
bear up courageously under suffering
it
means to stand up under trials
it
means to keep on going when it gets tough
just
keep on keeping on <you know what I mean>
As
a Christian and servant of God, you will face difficulties in your life and in
you Christian run.
Paul
was a missionary, a pastor and a theologian.
He
was a great preacher and a tentmaker.
But
he also loved sports.
But
he also loved sports.
From
his pen there are frequent references to sports.
In
Ephesians 6:12
he talks about wresting.
For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
In
ll Timothy 4:7
He talks about boxing
I have fought a good fight I have finished my course, I have kept the faith
In
l Corinthians 9:24
he talks about racing
Do
you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize
Hebrews
12 is a context with a sports motif.
There
are several things I want you to notice.
First
I want you to notice the Arena
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses
The
arena is in Heaven, but the race is being run here.
The
picture I get as I read this text is that it is like a huge coliseum.
The
stands are filled. People are
looking on and cheering us.
They’re
looking down on us because the grandstand is in Heaven and we are running our
race here.
The
arena is crowded, in fact he says there is a cloud of witnesses
That
word “witnesses” is another interesting word.
It
comes from Latin word martus. We
get our word martyr from it.
It’s
talking about one who has seen, heard or performed something usually while
suffering at the same time.
So
there are countless martyrs who are looking down on us
Yes,
martyrs at the portals of heaven are watching you and me as we run our race.
Isn’t
it wonderful that in scripture and in the history of the Christian faith we have
great men and women to whom we can look up to.
They
have run their race and they ran it well.
Their
strong and their weak points are easily seen.
We
can see how they ran the race.
What
a blessed encouragement it can be to you and me as we read about their lives and
their ministries.
We can see how God
used them in spite of their failures
Their
circumstances and their opposition.
We
know these witnesses are the Old Testament saints,
since he is writhing to Hebrews here.
That
is all the Scriptures they had at that point, so he has to be referring to the
old Testament.
Here
recently Spokane just had a major wrestling all star event with all the biggest
names. Many of you might have even watched it.
I’m
sure God has an all star roster of His own.
Its Hebrews 11
Think
about them-Enoch, Noah, Jacob, Gideon, Samson, Daniel, Abraham and Sarah,
Joshua, Joseph, Moses.
That’s
a pretty impressive lineup of all stars.
But
every one of them had failure in his life somewhere along the way.
They
all know the agony of defeat, yet they kept going until they finished their
race.
The
race we are in is not a short-distance race; it’s a long haul, a marathon.
This
text is an encouragement to us to run the race
Its like
the story of the flock of wild
ducks that were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a
beautiful V in the sky, and were admired by everyone who saw them from below.
One day,
Wally, one of the wild ducks in the formation, spotted something on the ground
that caught his eye. It was a barnyard with a flock of tame ducks who lived on
the farm. They were waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating
corn that was thrown on the ground for them every day. Wally liked what he saw.
"It sure would be nice to have some of that corn," he thought to
himself. "And all this flying is very tiring. I'd like to just waddle
around for a while."
So after
thinking it over a while, Wally left the formation of wild ducks, made a sharp
dive to the left, and headed for the barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks,
and began to waddle around and quack merrily. He also started eating corn. The
formation of wild ducks continued their journey south, but Wally didn't care.
"I'll rejoin them when they come back north in a few months," he said
to himself.
Several
months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and spotted the flock of wild
ducks in formation, heading north. They looked beautiful up there. And Wally was
tired of the barnyard. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled, nothing but duck
doo. "It's time to leave," said Wally.
So Wally
flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne. But he had gained some
weight from all his corn-eating, and he hadn't exercised his wings much either.
He finally got off the ground, but he was flying too low and slammed into the
side of the barn. He fell to the ground with a thud and said to himself,
"Oh, well, I'll just wait until they fly south in a few months. Then I'll
rejoin them and become a wild duck again."
But when
the flock flew overhead once more, Wally again tried to lift himself out of the
barnyard. He simply didn't have the strength. Every winter and every spring, he
saw his wild duck friends flying overhead, and they would call out to him. But
his attempts to leave were all in vain.
Eventually
Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks flying overhead. He hardly
even noticed them. He had, after all, become a barnyard duck.
Sometimes
we get tired of being wild ducks-followers of Jesus Christ. It's not always easy
to be obedient to God and to discipline ourselves to hang in there for the long
haul. When we are feeling that way, that's when Satan tempts us to "fall
out of formation" and to join the barnyard ducks - the world.
But look
what happened to Wally. He thought he would just "check it out" for
awhile and then leave when he wanted to. But he couldn't do it. Sin is like
that. Sin is a trap, and it has a way of changing us into people we don't even
want to become. Eventually we lose touch with who we really are--the sons and
daughters of the Most High. We become barnyard ducks.
Running
is not without cost.
There
is a great price for every Christian to pay if he’s going to run this race
But
Philippians 2:7,8 says it best
But
what ever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
You
will lose some things along the way if you run the race.
It
will not be easy; you are going to encounter difficulty as you run.
It
will test your endurance, but you’re well advised to keep going in the race no
matter what happens.
I’m
convinced that a major difference between a successful Christian and a Christian
who is a failure is that the successful Christian will ask God to forgive him
Pick
up the pieces and go on serving the Lord.
He
doesn’t falter in failure; he doesn’t despair in defeat; he doesn’t resign
when the going is rough
This applies to the ministry as well
There
is not one man in this room today who has not faced some failures in his
Christian run in the last 6 months
How
well you do as a Christian depends on what you do with your failures.
You
can wallow in your defeat.
You
can give place to discouragement
You
can whine in the midst of the mess
Or
you can pick up the piece, go forward and serve the Lord to the very best of
your ability
Can
you imagine being in heaven, you are sitting by your mansion. Daniel comes by.
You are all excited, Daniel come up here over here Sit in one of my cracker
barrel rockers, you bring him upon the porch.
He is sitting there. You say
“tell me about your race” Daniel
says, “oh, it was something” “what
about the den of lions Daniel? Were you nervous
well were you scared ‘well let me tell you. I was a real favorite of
Darius, but I was not a favorite of the politically in crowd. They all got together and conspired and fooled darius.
I’ll
be honest with you, when they led me to the den of lions, my heart was pounding
in and out of my chest.
You
say how do you know that preacher/ Because
Daniel was a human being. I can
just imagine that Daniel would have felt the very same way we would have felt.
Cant
you hear him praying Lord, if you don’t deliver me, I’m liable to go to
pieces over this whole thing.
My
heart was just pounding inside me, and I didn’t know what God was going to do.
But I made up my mind, if the lions den was the end of my race, I was
going to finish it.
You
see, folks, sometimes we come to the end of our rope, but we’re not at the end
of the line
There's
a difference
Then
Daniel looks at you and says
Tell
me about your race How did
you do in your race
Oh,
Daniel you really don’t want to know
Yes,
I do Tell me about it. You read about my race in the Book of Daniel, and I just
told you a little more about it.
What
was your race like
I
quit. I quit, Daniel. You have no idea the pressure that I faced in that church.
Do
you understand what I’m talking about?
That
miss clap trap running her mouth
And
all those un grateful Christians
people you have no idea
Do
we see how silly we look and at one time or another we all have done it
That
misses clap trap may be the lion on you
You
sit back and say Oh, good night
I
can’t fight her. I’m going to throw up my hands and just quit.
Somehow
the lion of gossip won’t look like much when its compared to Daniels’s
lions.
I
believe the same God who shut the mouths of Daniel’s lions can shut the mouths
of your lions
You
need to concentrate on the race
You
need to stay at it, and trust in Christ let him show you the way
You
may be going through some fiery trial right now.
All
of us who run the race do face the fire from time to time.
Maybe
there might be only short periods where your not having trials
But
if your serving God, you’re either headed into one or coming out of one
I’ll
guarantee you
Once upon a time, Satan was having a garage sale. There,
standing in little groups were all of his bright, shiny trinkets. Here were
tools that make it easy to tear others down for use as stepping stones. And over
there were some lenses for magnifying ones own importance, which, if you looked
through them the other way, you could also use to belittle others, or even one's
self. Against the wall was the usual assortment of gardening implements
guaranteed to help your pride grow by leaps and bounds: the rake of scorn, the
shovel of jealousy for digging a pit for your neighbor, the tools of gossip and
backbiting, of selfishness and apathy. All of these were pleasing to the eye and
came complete with fabulous promises and guarantees of prosperity. Prices, of
course, were steep; but not to worry! Free credit was extended to one and all.
"Take it home, use it, and you won't have to pay until later!" old
Satan cried, as he hawked his wares.
The visitor, as he browsed, noticed two well worn,
non-descript tools standing in one corner. Not being nearly as tempting as the
other items, he found it curious that these two tools had price tags higher than
any other. When he asked why, Satan just laughed and said, "Well, that's
because I use them so much. If they weren't so plain looking, people might see
them for what they were." Satan pointed to the two tools, saying, "You
see, that one's Doubt and that one's Discouragement -- and those will work when
nothing else will."
A
little wile after I got saved, I was coasting in my Christian life.
I
was not running the race in a steady, dedicated manner.
I
have had to rededicate my life to the lord several times
We
are constantly being flooded with ways and reasons not to worship the Lord
But
just as God delivered Noah from the Flood, God can deliver you from your floods
as well.
Just
reach in side of your heart and give God the chance, ask him, pray to him
That’s
what a prayer is us talking to God you
know like hey God Craig here just was thinking of you
Stand
your ground run the race. Just run
Keep on running
Don’t
worry about being politically correct
You
ought to worry more about being biblically correct
As
servants of God, we must run the race
It
dose not make any difference what's going on in your town.
The
heartaches do not matter the trials don’t even make a difference
No
matter the burdens keep on running the race.
That’s the arena.
Those
old testament saints in the heavenly grandstand are looking down on us.
Who
else is there watching us, maybe Jim and Bev
and lorral
Your
mom dad grandmother grandfather as far back as you can think
Their
cheering us on they’re saying just keep on
There
all watching are you
running a good race
You
might ask yourself why are they cheering us on
There's
a reason for their cheering us on. They’re interested in the race
How
do you know that you ask
Look
back at Hebrews 11:39 and these all
having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise
You
know what they haven’t received
their rewards yet they’ll
get them when the last Christian goes across the finish line
So
there is the arena- all the witnesses. By
the way, the judge at the line is the Lord Jesus
He is there
The
Christians there are encouraging us
They’re
saying keep on going
Keep
on just a little longer
Just
a little farther down the road
Just
keep on going
There
watching us from the portals of heaven make sure you are running a race that you
can be proud of
Therefore, since
we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run
with perseverance the race marked out for us
There are 2
problems mentioned in this verse and the first is things that hinder us.
Hinder That’s an
interesting word, because it refers to holding one back, to get in the way,
obstruct, encumber and delay
How will these
effect you in a race, you won’t be able to run the race
Things that hinder
you are not necessarily sins in themselves; they are just encumbrances to us and
may hinder the race.
If we can not run
as we should, then the things that hinder us should be discarded
They slow us down
we have a race. It is important. We need to run it well.
We cannot do what
God has called us to do if we are laden with things that hinder us
You know any
serious athlete is going to trim himself down.
I look at Lance Armstrong who just finished up the tour de France wining
it 4 or 5 times in arrow
There's not an
ounce of fat on his body to hinder him
Where did he win
the race. He won it in the
mountains where the going was the toughest.
You can talk about
the mountaintop if you want to, but it’s a hard climb getting there
If your going to
run the race you must rid yourself of everything that’s in excess
It may be your
recreation not that recreation is wrong
But if every
minute of your time is taken up with hunting, fishing, golfing what have you
If that’s your
primary interest in life
That’s something
that hinders you
If its interfering
with your bible study, your prayer life, your worship
and serving the Lord effectively,
Then that’s
something that hind3ers you-not a sin, but a hindrance and it needs to be
discarded.
Some men will
spend more time on the golf course or a bar or some other place every week than
they ever will in the word of God
The hindrances
that are holding us back in the race must be identified, surrendered and
discarded.
These
Hebrew
Christians had things that hindered them
They were
faltering in their faith.
What were their
hindrances
I don’t know,
but they could have been some of the old associations from their former lives.
Sometimes our
former associations hold us back
It might have been
some of their Jewish or legal customs which they were trying to hold onto while
still trying to serve the Lord.
Sometimes you and
I get so locked in tradition that if the Holy Spirit of God wanted to do
something he couldn’t because we have our own traditions.
I'm just talking
about letting the Lord have his way in our service- the freedom of the Holy
Spirit
The weights that
hinder us can be not only our pleasures but also our homes, our cars and our
investments.
Most people know
more about their stock portfolios than the word of God
Something is wrong
there.
Set aside the
distractions. Get in the race! Run it! Run it steadily! Run it well
First there is the problem with the things that hinder us
When your running
a race you take off as much as you can while still being decent
You wear light
shoes
You wear a jersey.
And you run as
quickly and as swiftly as you can run the race
Think about it. If
you’re so loaded down with the things of this world
You're not
going to be able to run your race effectively
I’ve never seen
a track person funning a race in a football uniform.
You know why
Because you can’t run the race that way
Sometimes we
Christians suit up for football when it’s race time
We are out of
uniform, and consequently the race doesn’t go well
There is another
problem with which we must deal and that is sin
The text addresses
the things that hinder us and then “the sin”
The sin that so
easily entangles us
Every person in
here struggles with sin in some area
The word entangle
is actually translated from the translated word beset
Beset is an
interesting word because it means to surround to encircle cleverly, to ambush
Do you see the
point if we allow a sin free rein
in our lives
It will become a
besetting sin, and we’re going to trip on it
We can’t play
with sin without it burning our fingers
Ill guarantee you
Our
besetting
sins may be different
My besetting sin
may not be yours
Yours may not be
mine
But we have a
responsibility to get victory over that sin because
Greater is he that
is in you, than he that is in the world
Though we may have
a besetting sin, a sin which so easily besets us
We have no excuse
for giving in to that sin
The desire the
will and the lust of the flesh must not control our live
We’ve seen the
arena, we’ve seen the awareness lets look at applying this
This great texts
says clearly that we should run…the race
Don’t be just a
spectator
There's no room for
spectators in this arena
The spectators are
in heaven but down here on earth we are all participants
It says run the
race
Every believer is
entered into the race
Not just preachers
not just full-time Christian workers, but every one of us has a race that he is
running
The idea of this
scripture is to run with perseverance, self-denial, discipline, endurance giving
every ounce of energy to the completion of the race
Run the race with
full energy. Run excitedly.
Fun to win
You may be at the
end of your rope, but you hang on, stay at it until you get to the finish line.
You’re not there
yet. You keep right on running the race.
No matter what the
difficulties, no matter the heartaches
No matter the
trials no matter the burdens suit up get on the track, run the course and finish
the race.
The object of the
race is to please our Heavenly Father
That was
Jesus'
objective too to please the Father
His whole purpose,
his whole reason for being, as the very incarnate son of God, was to please the
Father in everything He did.
That’s all I
have to do, and having done so, I can finish my race with honor
Hebrews 12 is
saying
There's the object
Your keep your
eyes on the object the Lord Jesus Christ
You stare intently
at the Lord Jesus Christ
You just keep running your race
Don’t look to
your right; don’t look to you left
Don’t look
behind you. You just keep running.
The course is
before you; I’ve given it to you
You keep looking
at me
If you look at
others, you’re going to be come discouraged.
If you look at
yourself, you’re going to become depressed.
If you look at
Jesus, He’ll delight you…
Run! Run the race! Run till the finish!
Let us pray
My
Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I
cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the
fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually
doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
and I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that
if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about
it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the
shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never
leave me to face my perils alone.
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