Run The Race, The Relay Race

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

The race of faith is being run by us all. We really need each other in this race. Why? Because this is a relay race. Not a sprint or a one man show. Join us this weekend at 9am or 10:30am in person or 10:30am online as wetake a look at how to "Run the Race, The Relay Race".

Why is this important?

The writer is addressing professing Jews who might be tempted to deny Christ to avoid persecution.

He uses the example of the Jewish people from the Exodus.

Remember that they hardened their hearts against Moses and God and thus died in the wilderness rather than crossing into the promised land.

This became part of the oral tradition of the Jewish people. They told of the works of the Lord, including the fact that the Jewish disbelief and rejection of God had led to their perishing in the wilderness.

That is why Psalms 145:4 says

Psalm 145:4 ESV

One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

So what!

What does that mean to me?

We are all running this race fo faith.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

We all want to make it to the end and hear “good and faithful servant”.

How do we accomplish that?

How do we reach the end with honor and victory?

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

What is this race then? And, how do we run it well.

The race is the advance of the gospel not the advance of yourself.

Psalm 96:3 ESV

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

We have to set ourselves and even our desires aside for the betterment of the gospel.

Sometimes this is the hardest in a group. Not everybody is easy to get along with but,

You run the race well, because you run it together with other believers.

Proverbs 27:17 ESV

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Romans 12:4–5 ESV

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

We know there will be different people, from different backgrounds.

This is our time but it won’t be our time for all time.

So what does this mean for us?

This race is a relay race

Legs of a relay

runners run equal distances, but it is important to know strengths and weaknesses.

No matter what,

The baton is passed on while both runners are running.

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

For both to be running, we must exhort one another.

why is this so important?

Jesus is Greater!

greater than one generation, one tradition

The Gospel must advance and it will advance as we learn to exhort the runners and hand off the baton

Let’s Cheer each other on to the end

Let’s be prepared to hand the baton

Let’s run the race, the relay race