Run the Race

Text: Hebrews 12:1-3

Running and ending up on the wrong track.

Sagmount Youth Camp - couple dozen runners started five or so ended up off track and came out at the wrong spot. Didn’t finish the race because somewhere they started running the wrong race.

I. Faith is supported by the Cloud of Witnesses. (1)

Abel - The one who brought the appropriate sacrifice to God

Lay aside weight

Set aside his preference and obeyed with the offering, Cain did not.

Run with Patience

Even in the face of his brother’s pride Abel obeyed.

Enoch - The man who walked so close to God that he just went to heaven without dying

Lay aside weight

Set aside this world to the point that in a wicked day he was the friend of God.

Run with Patience

He was faithfully preaching and prophesying and then one day boom lift off.

Noah - The builder of the ark and the survivor of the flood

Lay aside weight

Felt like a fool building an ark when the had never seen rain. The world hated him for it and he set aside his own logical explaination and went obediently to work

Run with Patience

Worked against opposition for 100 years

Abraham - The one who was known for following God by faith

Lay aside weight

Left his home and all of his comforts

Run with Patience

Kept traveling until God brought him a promise, then stayed faithful then God brought a son to see the promise through.

Jacob - God changed his name to Israel and become the source of the 12 tribes

Lay aside weight

Overcame a past and flawed character when God met with him. Then became a man who wanted to make things right with those he had wronged

Run with Patience

Would be faithful even at the loss of his wife and son. Only to watch God save the world with Joseph.

Moses - The one who led God’s people out of Egyptian captivity.

Lay aside weight

He would turn his back on his home, and friends of the palace and take his place as a hated enslaved group of people called the Jews.

Run with Patience

Would lead the people to safety and to the promise of God. Among all kinds of opposition he would just walk with God.

Rahab -

Lay aside weight

Saw her city defy the God of the Jews but believed God was greater.

Run with Patience

She obeyed and her family was saved.

Samson -

Lay aside weight

Finally surrendered his strength to the hand of God and threw his disgusting pride down.

Run with Patience

As he pulled the temple down he caused more freedom than at any other point in his life.

II. Faith sets out to Finish the Course

Hebrews says to this that seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, you lay aside every weight and sin that keeps knocking you down.

Run with patience - run all the way,

This is a reminder to the Hebrews that had received Christ but are now being drawn away to the old religious system. He is reiterating that turning away from Christ will not bring them the happiness that they are hoping for.

He then tells them that the temptation to leave Jesus should be avoided by throwing off the sin and weights that easily set before us.

I have heard this text preached that we have “besetting sin”. This passage is not talking about that particular sin that trips you up. It is instructing the Saints to see themselves experiencing a common temptation that all Christians share.

Witnesses are not watching you

its

You watch them

God is modeling before the Hebrew people those who as Hebrews were willing to

Set aside

Stay Patient

Why would God use these amazing people?… yeah wait there. these were not amazing people. Some were really bad people. What God wants for you is not set aside for some chosen few. It is available for you and I as ordinary people.

This is why God will go on and command us to Lay aside weight and sin, because they had like we “weight and sin”.

We so often forget the fact that God does His best work in the lives of ordinary people. God makes it a habit of doing the impossible through people who are not that much different from you and I. The only difference is that those heroes of the faith opened their lives up to allow God to do His work.

The only ability God is looking for is availability.

So if then is as the writer suggests it does not Go to the one who is faster or more skilled it is the one that has chosen to run the right way.

two runners

one weighted down.

We are all weighted down… Weights - these are things that though they may not be bad, they prevent you from giving everything to the Lord.

Hinderances - This refers to removing excess weight such as packs or heavy clothing. Anything that draws you away from being able to give your best for God and His service.

Entanglements - This refers to things that might cause a runner to fall or to stumble. Anything that causes us to lose ground in our walk with Christ has got to go. Examples: pleasure, pride, the tongue, worldly desires and the list could go on. What is it in your life that causes you to stumble the most? Figure it out, ask for God’s help and do your best to get rid of it.

Faith is focused on Saviors Witness.

Okay I get it we look to those that have gone before and they give us the motivation to go forward. - WRONG!!!!!

They were merely examples of people who ran the right way and because they chose to keep going when others quit then they succeeded.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. vs 3

Lay aside weight

Splendor of Heaven

Shame he would have to face

Run with Patience

Endured the unbelief of others and you as well.

Chapter 11 is not about the greatest and best sacrifices ever made or the most faithful people.

Chapter 12:2-3 is about the greatest sacrifice and the most faithful man.

The greatness of those in chapter 11 is how they resemble or reflect the Christ in chapter 12.

We know they are faithful because God said so. But he only said so because they were resembling his dear and loved son Jesus.

Here is a very important lesson. Greatness, success, winning in Heaven is not about who has it all together, its not about who has the most talent.

Winning the race in Heaven is about the man and woman who set aside their own life and sins and aim to reflect the image of Jesus by modeling his Faithfulness.

In other words - Whoever looks like Jesus wins.

And you can’t win this race without setting your pride, anger, lust and whatever weight or sin your holding on to tonight and you can’t get it by making a move for an evening but instead being a person that says, God I want you to have me until you see it through.

Your Strategy for winning this race is spelled out in 2-3

Vs 3

Keep your focus on Christ

One of the greatest problems in churches today is that too many people take their focus off of Jesus and place it where it does not belong. Jesus is the beginning of our faith because He is the author. Faith must start with Jesus because He is the right foundation, the only foundation.

We get focused on possessions - we have blessings from God that can get in the way of our walk with Him

We get focused on problems - we have hardships that have to be faced

We get focused on public appearance - we hide secret sins from everyone but God

Keep your focus on the cross

We get right priorities - When you fix your eyes on the cross of Christ the things of the world no longer seem so significant because the cross forces us to forget ourselves and focus on Jesus. When this happens, reaching a lost world, will become one of the chief goals of your personal life and the life of the church.

Keep your focus on the conquest

Quit playing Games - Far too often we forget the fact that we are engaged in a spiritual struggle. This struggle takes a toll on us spiritually, physically and emotionally. There will always be times in our lives when we feel like we have lost the struggle and in those times we need to remember that through Jesus we have victory.

Jesus has already ran this race, he has marked the course and has won a victory that every believer shares. We may lose a few battles here and there but in the end with Jesus we will win the war.