Finish The Race
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 32 viewsToo many people start the race of faith in Jesus, but either walk away, or finish poorly!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Mention about Dr Mark Dufrene doing this coming Wednesday evening’s service. He will be speaking about end of time events (specifically: The Big Picture, The Shifting of World Governments, The Fate of the United States, Until He Comes, What Are We To Do?) There will also be a time for questions and answers if anyone would like to ask him anything pertaining to these issues. That will be this Wednesday evening, September 4th at 6:30 pm! Invite someone to come with you, as there are many people in this day and age who are looking for Biblical answers about the times in which we live, and Pastor Mark has been studying eschatology for some 37 years!
Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone!
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.
Labor Day is of course the day in which our nation celebrates the contribution of its workers to our economy. Ironically, we celebrate this by not working!
This reminds me of the woman who came home one afternoon to her husband just absolutely raging about her boss. She said to her husband, “I am NEVER going to work for that man again!” Her husband asked her, “Why, what did he say to you?” She said, “You’re FIRED.”
And a quick question for everyone. If a train station is where a train stops, and a bus station is where a bus stops, what exactly is a WORK STATION?
READ: ,
Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.
Well, first of all, let me start off by saying what a powerful and timely message Pastor Claudio delivered to us last Sunday morning!
Well, first of all, let me start off by saying what a powerful and timely message Pastor Claudio delivered to us last Sunday morning!
His message was centered around the understanding that many people have stopped waiting for the Lord and what He is going to do here, in the days to come.
He spoke of how there have been things mentioned and prophesied over this body of believers throughout the years and because these things have not yet happened, many people have just stopped waiting and simply walked away and moved on to other buildings and other congregations looking for something else there.
He also asked us about what is our individual visions for the future and who are we looking to for that vision and for the future fulfillment of it?
He also asked us about what is our individual visions for the future and who are we looking to for that vision and for that future fulfillment?
And Pastor Claudio used the analogy of us not quitting the race.
And it is that thought and that point, with which I am going to pick and run with this morning!
This morning’s message is titled, “Finish The Race!”
This message, or rather the emphasis behind this message, has been on my heart for a couple of weeks, due in part to some recent stories that have come out in the media and caused some major uproars on social media!
This message, or rather the emphasis behind this message, has been on my heart for a couple of weeks, due in part to some recent stories that have come out in the media and caused some major uproars on social media!
Several weeks back a man who is the author of the best selling book, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”, which talks about sexual purity and dating and who was also the pastor of a mega church for some 11 years, came out on social media and announced that he was no longer a Christian.
He went on to say that he regretted writing the book, as his stance on certain issues had changed. He informed the public that he and his wife were divorcing at this time as well.
One of the things that he said that he had changed his stance upon, was addressed in his post to the general public on the social media platform, where he made the following statement, “To the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. I hope you can forgive me.”
He recently took part in a gay pride festival in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Then, within the last two weeks, another major icon in the Christian genre, who was a noted singer and songwriter for Hillsong Worship, came out on social media and made the following statements:
"I am genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn't bother me. Like, what bothers me now is nothing. I am so happy now, so at peace with the world. It’s crazy. How many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send four billion people to a place, all ‘coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it. Christians can be the most judgmental people on the planet—they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people. But it’s not for me. I am not in any more. I want genuine truth. All I know is what’s true to me right now, and Christianity just seems to me like another religion at this point.”
And with these media icons and others like them, who make such statements about their diminishing or completely severed relationship with Jesus and the Christian faith, there ultimately comes the feeding frenzy of the secular world about the hypocrisy of this religion, known as Christianity and those who still follow it.
And because there are so many people with very shallow amounts of faith who put so much trust and stock into other men/women, as their icons and heroes of the Christian faith (like, authors and musician/singers and worship leaders and preachers and evangelists), then when these people make such shocking and daunting statements as I just mentioned from the past few weeks, it causes major ripples across the waters of the Christian world!
And these things serve only to glorify the god of this world, the devil, and to ultimately make other people begin to question the reality of their faith and belief in God and the Son of God, Jesus the Christ!
Does this sort of thing come as a shock to most of you?
Are the two scenarios that I just read to you a moment ago absolutely mind blowing to a true Christian?
NO, or at least they shouldn’t be.
Paul tells us in ,
Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
The Apostle Paul goes on to say in ,
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
And it was the Lord Jesus, Himself, who warned us in ,
And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
In the parable of the Sower and of the four Soils, Jesus mentions about the those who receive the seed, (which is the Word of God and His gospel message) and of how it falls onto the different soils, which is the different hearts of people. The third soil in that parable, is that of a person who receives the word of God into their heart, but as soon as it starts to grow and develop, it is quickly choked and becomes completely unfruitful because of the thorns in the soil, which represent this world and the cares and concerns and things of this world.
In other words, this person started into a relationship with the Lord, but they walked away with the cares and the concerns of this world overriding their walk with God!
And also the very real warning of Yeshua, in His letter to the church of Ephesus in , where HE says,
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
In each of these passages, we can see that the Bible clearly warns us that there will be those who will walk away from the faith and from any true relationship with the Lord!
Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? What did Jesus say that the youngest son did in that parable?
He left his father and his relationship with the father for the world. He, of his own free will and choice, walked away from the father and into the world.
Thus, we see that he was with the father and under his protection and care, but he chose to walk away.
I know and understand that there is more to this parable than what I am mentioning, but I am simply using this as an example.
They may be doing good works in the name the Lord and that of religious pretense, but their hearts have grown cold and are indifferent to that relationship!
And God has said that these people and their works are not acceptable to Him, as He said through His prophet Amos, in ,
Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. “I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
“I hate all your show and pretense— the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
Did you hear that last part of the passage that I just read to you? God said, “I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
Did you hear that last part of the passage that I just read to you? God said, “I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.”
Now let me ask you a question, what does the word, “endless” mean?
Right, it means what exactly what it sounds like; it is without end.
An endless river is one that is filled with running water that is constant and continual.
And God clearly states in this passage that He neither wants, nor accepts false works and false praise offered before Him.
That never changes throughout the entire Bible; from Cain’s rejected offering in opening book of Genesis, til the church of Sardis in the closing book of Revelation and its proclamation of being a active and thriving part of the Body of Christ and all of its “works” that it has been busy doing.
Only to have Jesus denounce their works and call them a “DEAD CHURCH”. And then warn them that they were to repent and return to that which they had recieved, which was the truth of the gospel message and the commission that Jesus had given to His body.
And with this, Jesus left the church body a warning, that if they didn’t repent and turn back to serving Him and His Father as they once did, then He would come against them in judgment "as a thief", that is, by surprise.
So, God says that He desires an endless river of righteous living from His people. Well, how do we live our lives as a continually flowing stream of righteousness?
Which works do we do that are counted as righteous in the eyes of almighty God?
The only way that we can be righteous and live our lives that way, is to abide in Him and through His Spirit living active within us!
God makes it very clear that our works, our religious practices that many people perform, to look godly and to look Christian, DO NOT COUNT, because we, in and of ourselves, are not, nor can we be RIGHTEOUS!
We are sinful by nature and a sinful vessel cannot produce righteous acts. This is what the prophet Isaiah said to the people in , where he said from the Lord, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags."
6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
Paul reminds us in ,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
Apart from the Lord, our works are never righteous!
they are nothing but filthy rags.
You and I are only ever found to be righteous through the shed blood of Jesus and through our true and lasting faith in Him!
Paul reminds us in that Jesus died for sinners and that it is His shed blood that makes us righteous in the eyes of God!
It is not through our works that we become righteous, but rather, it is our faith and belief in Jesus, that is credited to us as righteousness!
And from that time forward, when you and I first hear of and respond to the gospel message, we are to walk CONTINUALLY in and by our faith in Jesus Christ.
Just as tells us,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
We must walk DAILY, hour by hour, minute by minute in complete belief and faith in the Lord if we are to be endless rivers of righteous living!
Once we act on our own accord and take our eye off of Jesus, then it becomes our works and not His will, and our natural minded works, are not righteous acts.
Yes, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness, but that is not a “get out of jail for free card” and an open ended license to live however you want!
The Bible clearly states that our faith is directly related to our righteousness!
Without FAITH, it is impossible to please God!
And the righteousness of God is revealed from FAITH to FAITH!
Which simply means that we learn more of and increase more in the righteousness of God, as we draw closer to Him from one act of faith, to another!
So, God said that we are to be as endless rivers of righteous living, right?
Endless, as we said earlier, means it is always flowing, but that doesn’t mean that at times, it may not slow down some with adversity and sin, just as a river hits a rocky, narrow place that impedes the flow of the water.
But once the water is past that point, it picks right back up again and flows on!
And the river continues to flow until it reaches its destination. (As in, when it hits the ocean and becomes one with that body of water and you can’t tell one source of water from the other!)
So it is to be with you and I, we are to flow as endless rivers of righteousness, until the time comes when we reach our destination and we become ONE with Him and we become nothing but His RIGHTEOUSNESS for all eternity!
Or, let me say this another way, as Pastor Claudio mentioned last week and as the Apostle Paul mentioned in the Bible, WE MUST KEEP RUNNING UNTIL WE FINISH OUR RACE!
Paul clearly used the analogy of running a race, to that of being a faithful Christian. And in that analogy Paul mentioned that someone who is going to run a race but train. Not train to enter the race, but rather, they train so that they will finish the race and with excellence!
Paul clearly used the analogy of running a race, to that of being a faithful Christian. And in that analogy Paul mentioned that someone who is going to run a race but train. Not train to enter the race, but rather, they train so that they will finish the race and with excellence!
Paul said in ,
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
And Paul clearly stated for his own life, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul intended to finish his race and claim the prize at the end of that race!
The prize was being with Christ and fully knowing Him and becoming His righteousness!
And it is this same mindset of running the race and enduring till the end, that we see Paul stressing to his beloved spiritual son, Timothy, in , where Paul tells him to endure suffering as a soldier and follow the rules as an athlete, so as to win the prize.
And in the very closing of that letter to Timothy, in fact, the very last letter that we believe that the great Apostle Paul wrote, before he was executed, Paul makes this statement about his life and about his race.
In , Paul says,
As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.
“I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE..............I HAVE REMAINED FAITHFUL!”
Notice the correlation that Paul makes between finishing the race and remaining faithful! Great starts in a race do not matter, it is how and whether you finish the race, that truly counts!
We must remain faithful to the Lord, if we are going to finish the race! There is no other way into eternity with Him, without remaining faithful and entrusting our lives completely to Him and in His care.
When we remain faithful to God, God comes alongside of us and helps us in our weaknesses and our struggles, so that we can finish our race and claim that eternal prize!
FAITHFUL TO THE FINISH
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Derek Redmond of Great Britain was considered a favorite contender for a medal. It was the evening of August 3, 1992 as Redmond was pitted against seven others in a semi-final in the 400 meters. Redmond knelt poised, waiting for the race to start. As the gun went off, his body was translated into a human locomotion, feverishly charging against the other runners.
As Redmond prepared to round the curve after the halfway mark, however, he suddenly heard a pop. It was his right hamstring. Redmond soon found himself trapped by the searing pain of his leg.
The other runners finished the race as he desperately continued his painful trek to the finish line. He waved off the stretchers, however, determined to finish the race.
From the stands, his father had been watching. He pushed his way past security guards to meet his son on the track. He then reached his weeping son. “Look, you don’t have to do this.”
Redmond then replied: “Yes I do.”
His father then said: “Well, if you’re going to finish this race, we’ll finish it together.”
With his arm locked around his son, Jim Redmond helped his son to the finish line to the sounds of a cheering stadium.
We have to remember that God is like that in the race we are running. Sometimes we may get injured in the race, but God is always there ready to come out of the stands, put His arm around us, and help us to the finish line.
Right now, there is a company called Revelation Media, who has done a masterful job of taking the classic book by John Bunyan, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and transforming it into an animated masterpiece! I believe that through tomorrow, you can log in and watch it for free, before it is released onto blue-ray and DVD.
Right now, there is a company called Revelation Media, who has done a masterful job of taking the classic book by John Bunyan, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and transforming it into an animated masterpiece! I believe that through tomorrow, you can log in and watch it for free, before it is released onto blue-ray and DVD.
But in saying that, I wanted to mention one part of the story of The Pilgrim’s Progress to you, where the main character, Christian, is speaking with another character, Hopeful and they are talking about yet another character, (who is only briefly mentioned in the story), named Mr. Temporary.
Mr. Temporary is someone who started off in the faith and wanted to reach the Celestial City (heaven) and had made his proclamation and his declaration of who he was and what he believed in and then all of a sudden, he just dropped out of the picture all together and was not longer on the path of faith, and running the race!
The book, in and of itself, is an allegory of the Christian life and this character, Mr Temporary, is a prime example of MANY, MANY people who have entered into the race for an eternity in heaven and then fallen away from that race of faith!
Hopeful said this of the character, Mr Temporary and those like him in the story, which they refer to as “backsliders”, he said, “Though the consciences of such men are awakened, yet their minds are not changed; therefore, when the power of guilt wears away, that which provoked them to be religious ceaseth. Wherefore, they naturally turn to their own course again.”
Remember what Paul stressed to us in , where he says that we are to not conform to the world, but rather, we are to be transformed by God, through the renewing of our minds!
Well, Mr Temporary and those like him, never allow their minds to be transformed and changed, DAILY, and thus, they begin to drift back to what they knew before their encounter with salvation.
As Peter said of people such as this, in , where he says,
And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”
The Mr. Temporary’s of the world, drift away from their walk with the Lord and do not finish the race!
If all that we had to do to get the prize, was just enter the race, then the Bible would say so, but it actually says quite the opposite. It says that we must FINISH THE RACE to get the prize!
We must endure till the end. It is only the victorious runners who claim the prize, as Jesus, Himself said repeatedly in all seven of His letters to the churches in , where He emphatically states, “To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, I will......” and then Jesus proceeds to list out what the overcomer, the conqueror, the victorious ones will receive from Him!
26 To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To them I will give authority over all the nations.
Not once, does Jesus ever say, nor do any of the epistles ever say of the Christ, “You get the prize just for trying out a relationship with me!”
To them I will give authority over all the nations.
Listen to me carefully people, there is no PLAN B option for an eternity with Jesus!
You either stay in the faith with Him and FINISH THE RACE, or you don’t!
Let me begin to close my message this morning with this Biblical example of NOT FINISHING the race well.
Let me begin to close my message this morning with this Biblical example of NOT FINISHING the race well.
How many people would agree with the understanding that the Apostle Paul was spirit filled and walked in the anointing of Holy Spirit and thus, was someone who had spiritual discernment and could smell out a phony, or an imposter in the faith?
Well, in the epistle letters of Paul, we find a man by the name of Demas, who is mentioned only three times in the New Testament, (, and ).
The first time that Paul mentions Demas, in , Paul says this of him,
So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers.
Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
So here, Paul calls Demas a “fellow worker”; that is, someone who is walking and serving alongside of Paul in the faith!
The next time that Demas is mentioned is in , where Paul says,
Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas.
You see Luke, listed as the beloved doctor and then just “Demas”. Not a fellow worker, close friend, ally, just plain old, “Demas”!
And then finally, the last time that he is mentioned, is in , where Paul says this of him to Timothy, “Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica.”
Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to Dalmatia.
Some people may say that Demas was never really a believer, but most all agree, based upon Paul’s mentioning of him, that he was in fact a faithful follower and servant of Christ, until the heat turned up and he saw that it was becoming very costly to continue following Jesus!
Why did he walk away and stop serving? Simply put, “ because he loves the things of this life!”
Demas, just like Mr Temporary and just like the two young men that I mentioned at the beginning, walked away.
Now, I can not say that the two young men, may not repent and return to Christ. That is entirely up to them and their choice to return and follow in faith and FINISH THE RACE, or they can stay their present course and do like Demas and follow their love for this world! (Mention , if you feel led!)
Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
My question for each one of you today, is what are you going to do? Are you going to FINISH THE RACE? Are you going to do as Paul said, and “press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize, for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us?”
My question for each one of you today, is what are you going to do? Are you going to FINISH THE RACE? Are you going to do as Paul said, and “press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize, for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us?”