Are You a Good Runner

Hebrews 12:1–18 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, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

The Christian walk is repeatedly compared to different everyday events, activities, or practices. Christian living is often compared to warfare, and it highlights our greatest enemy which we know is not flesh and blood, but the devil himself. We are instructed Ephesians 6:11 to put on the full armour of God as a soldier would for battle. Christians are often compared to as slaves or bond servants of Christ, and we are even compared to as Olympic runners running a race and achieving a victors crown at the end.

The race of faithfulness is what we will be talking about today.

I am not much for running anymore. I know some of you may be avid runners, but I am far from in shape and running does not light my fire. But in our scriptures this morning the author is comparing our lives to that of a race. A race of life if you will. This race is the journey of faithfulness. It is the obedient walk in Christ that we are constantly learning about in the sermons that we listen to, the classes that we attend, and hopefully our daily Bible study. It is the understanding of God’s commandments, and our faithfulness to follow them. As the book of James would put it it is being a door of the word and not just a hearer (James 1:22 ) The race is standing strong when the professor tells you that God does not exist, that Christians are ignorant for give so much trust to a deity we have never seen, and proceeding to tell you that you came from a monkey. The race is when the people at your job are using means of gain to get ahead, but you keep to your morals. The race is when your peers are being degraded behind their backs, but you stay out of the negative mess (or even better stand up for them). The race is watching the gentleman in front of you drop a $100 on the ground and you return it to him rather than pocketing it. You see where I am going with this. The race is a daily struggle to do what is right by God contrary to what the world would have you do. You follow where I am going. The race is being a Christ follower even when it is hard for us.

And everyone is in a lane. There is not a single person in this world who is not running the race. They may be running poorly, but they are still in the race. This life race is meant to be ran. Some people are jogging in their lanes, some people are taking a leisurely Sunday stroll, and some people are sitting there looking around themselves avoiding the race entirely. The Greek word here for race is agon which is where we get the word agony. Now you understand the pains of the race. The race is not meant to be a walk in the park. It is not something where you can take a break and catch your breath while you take in the scenery. It is not a hike in the mountains, even though it may seem like an uphill battle at times. The race that we run is constant, it is vigorous, it is demanding, and it is persistent. It makes most want to bow out at times and many do along the way. The race of faithfulness is grueling. The race requires the utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance.

There are a few things that you will need to run a race. One of those things is motivation. It is pretty hard to get up and run a race without a reason why.

It pleases God:

2 Timothy 2:4 “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” We are soldiers for the Lord, called into His army at salvation. We cannot allow the things of this world to distract us from our goal which is pleasing our master.

2 Colossians 1:10 “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;” We are to conduct our lives in a manner that pleases God. We will know we are on the right path when our knowledge of the Lord is increasing, and the fruits of the spirit are increasing.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Do you know what the term “Christian” means? It means little Christ. Essentially what someone is calling you when they say you are a Christian is someone who mimics Christ. A little mini-me of the Lord. Someone who tries to change their lives in such a way that they resemble Him.

-Its seems that every decade had a fad. The 60’s had Beatlemania, bell bottoms, and bouffant hair, 70’s had 8-tack tapes, disco music, and daisy dukes, 80’s had parachute pants, leg warmers, and mullets, 90’s had tomagatchi and Gia pets, high wasted jeans, and the Grunge style, the 2000’s had silly bands, Skip-its, and High School Musical. Everything had a fad that kind of faded with time.

-We all had someone that we wanted to mimic. A movie star, a musician, an athlete, everyone had or has someone. You wanted to dress like them, you wanted to talk like them, you wanted to act like them, you wanted to be as close to being like them as you possibly could because you thought that that was the way to be. You thought that was going to make you look the coolest, and that being like them personified you you were the most.

-We need to be like that with Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you need to be like Him. You need to act like Him. You need to treat others like He would treat them. You need to love those around you like He loves them. When you are a Christian, it is no longer you who lives, but Christ who is alive within you. The old you has been put to death, the new you is alive in Christ. Resemble Him.

Remember, Jesus said that those who love Him follow His commandments.

Is is Easy to follow Christ? Not always. Sometimes is can be exceedingly difficult. One of the our motivators that boost our confidence as we run our race are those who have gone on before us. This cloud of witnesses mentioned here are faithful Christians from the past who have run the race, they have fought the good fight, they have remained faithful, and now they are in heaven as a guide for you and I as we strive to stay in the lanes of our own races.

Abel- By faith Abel gave a more acceptable gift than Cain.

Enoch- By faith Enoch escaped the hand of death, and enter heaven by a simple walk with God. (How many of you would like to go out that way? You just take a walk with the Lord and He carries you to eternal Paradise. Everyone has their choice way of going, mostly peacefully in their sleep, but if I could pick it would be this way.)

Noah- By faith Noah built an arc in a time where there was not a word for rain. Rain did not exist, but God told Noah that it was coming, and Noah had faith in the Lord, and Noah built that ark. Thus escaping the flood.

Abraham- In a land of pagans, Abraham kept his faith in God, and God called him out of Ur.

Sarah- By faith Sarah prayed and was granted just one son, Isaac, whom she and her husband cherished greatly.

Abraham- By faith Abraham went up on mount Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac. The one thing he loved the most.

Isaac- By faith Isaac gave his life into his fathers hands in order that he might be sacrificed, and by that faith Isaac was spared. By faith Isaac blessed his son.

Joseph- By faith Joseph commanded that his bones be carried out of Egypt and back to the land that God had promised them. Which was not theirs yet. And by faith Joseph spoke of the future exodus which we know will be led by Moses.

Moses- By the faith Moses mother, Jochebed, hid the infant boy in the reeds of the Nile. By faith when Moses was grown he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and rather chose the suffering with his people. By faith he fled Egypt, and returned to free God’s people, by faith Moses participated in the sprinkling of the blood during the passover.

Israelites- By faith the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, and by faith they marched around the walls of Jericho and by faith those walls fell.

Rahab- By faith Rahab the prostitutes life was spared because she was friendly to the Israelite spies, and she understood that God was in charge, and He was about to give the city into the hands of the Israelites.

Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets- Through faith these men conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Hebrews 11:35-38 “Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

Every one of these men and women listed, quiet a few named here but many represented nameless in verse 35-38, they all died. They lived a faithful life, they ran a faithful race, and they died. Do you know what they obtained? A crown of righteousness and a pass into the joys of their master. Is that not what we are looking for?

How many of you ever see a daunting task before you and you seem to shut down? Maybe you wake up in the morning and you know what the work day will be like so you just sit there in silence for a moment. Maybe you brain is so overwhelmed with tasks that need to be completed within a short amount of time, and you realize that there needs to be 36 hours in a day for you to fulfill your list, and it bogs you down. So you take a time out. It is normal to space out when you are overwhelmed by difficult (maybe seemingly impossible) tasks. Leading a faithful life and running the race for the Lord would be one of those moments you would say “How in the world can I do this??” You have examples that have gone before you. Is your life going to look like Abraham’s? No. Will it look like Rahabs’? It will not. It will look like your personal race, with your own faith. The same faith that they took into their race, you will take into yours, and the fact that they have gone on before us gives us encouragement that some other imperfect man or some other imperfect woman has already gone on before me who faithfully walked the path that we are walking now. If they can do it, so can we.

Now you might say “Colter that is hard. My life is so hard. You do not know what it is like.” No, I do not know what it is like, but I know how my own walk is, and it is not easy. I would not expect yours to be any different. Not in this world anyways. We have examples who were facing the same or similar situations as we do. They had doubt, they had fears, they had temptations, they had triumphs, they had failures. What happened to them? They remained faithful, they ran their race resiliently, and they are reigning in heaven know with our Lord.

Our second motivator is this. Jesus Christ has gone on before you. Jesus said in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” Jesus tells us that this world is not going to be friendly to us if we run our race for Him. This world is going to put us down, we are going to be left out of its engagements, we are going to be mocked and scoffed at, we are going to miss opportunities that we think will benefit us, but will likely cause us pain in the end, we are going to face hardship all in the name of Christ. But He says “take heart when you feel you are at your lowest point. I am leader, the author and perfecter of your faith and I have over come the world that is giving you troubles. You know that race you are running? I ran it and I am waiting on you at the finish line. I went to the cross. I endured the long road dragging my weapon of demise, I took the beatings, I suffered the piercings, I was spat on, they pulled my hair out, they stripped my of my clothes, they tried to take all of the dignity I had left. The world threw everything it had at me, and guess what? I still stand victorious over all at the end. I won the race. You can too.

You see Jesus suffered, and bled, and died. We have only come to the point of a *little* suffering. We are not bleeding, we have not given up our lives, we have not even been beaten for our faith. Therefor, we can go on.

Paul, a servant of the Lord, ran a race that had him thrown in prison on multiple occasions, countless beatings that were often near death, five times he had recieved 39 lashes, three times he was shipwrecked, he spent a night and a day adrift at sea, he was constantly on the move, he was constantly in hostile environments and dangerous situations. He was in danger with foreigners, he was in danger with his own countrymen, he was in danger in the wilderness, he faced sleepless nights, he was often hungry and thirsty, without food, in cold and exposure. On top of all that he had the weight of all the new found churches that were weighing down on him. Paul was afflicted, but do you know what Paul also said? “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.”

Paul boldly stated that he walked so closely with the Lord that if you mimicked him, then you would resemble Christ closely. Paul’s race was not easy, but it was right. Your race will not be easy either, but I do not think we will face what Paul faced, and he did it with joy.

The Prize: And what is running a race without a price? What do we get for running this race? 1.) We will lead a good life. It may not always be easy or fun, but no one will be able to say that it was not a good life if you follow the Lord. 2.) You get Heaven. Hebrews 3:14 “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” You place your trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul and you are in. But running the race of faithfulness is how we please the Lord. It is also evidence of your salvation. Are you perfect? No. No one is. Will your race be perfect? It certainly will not be, and that is okay because we are not called to be perfect. Jesus Christ is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the One who ran a perfect race so that we would not have to. Now we still have to run, and we still have to give it all that we have, but we are going to fail at times. Rather than throwing in the towel, know that Jesus is the only one that is perfect, and if your trust is placed in Him then that is all you need.

How Do We Run Well:

When you run a race do you do it in boots? Do you run with a backpack on? Do you run carrying weights? Not if you want to with you don’t. You need to be as light as you possibly can be. Ever watch a track meet? What do they run in? Short shorts and light tank tops that stick to your body. Their outfit might weight 3/4 of a pound and most of that comes from shoes.

As a Christian, sin and guilt weigh us down. When Christ sets us free, we are free indeed. Stop carrying around the baggage, stop thinking back on the old filth, and let the weight go. Fix your eyes on Christ at the end of the race, and run forward with all you have forgetting what you are leaving in the past. That is what Christ Intends for you and I to do.

No Runner is without a Good Coach: God will guide you along the way as you are running your race. When I was younger I ran track. I became fairly decent, even having some ribbons and a medal to show for it, but I was not always in the shape that got me the prizes. My basketball coach, Steven Powell, went to the track coach at the time, Mrs. Hiegel. He said “Mrs. Heigel, I think you could have a good addition to your team with this one (talking about me). He’s pretty quick on the court. You should try him out.” So I joined the track team. The first year students had to try their hands at everything to see where they might fit in best. I did it all. The throwing, the jumping, the running, and at the end my coach came to me and asked “How’s it going?” to which I replied “this is harder than it normally is.” She laughed and said “Yeah, running a race in track is a little longer than running a race in basketball. You are used to running 40-50 yards in a sprint and then stopping to play defense. We run at least twice that in one race. You’ll get there.” And I did. I had the time of my life, but it was very difficult. The coach gave us guidelines on our meals, she gave us instructions on how to stay active throughout the weekend, she gave us lists of ways to maintain what we had gained over the breaks so we did not have to regain lost ground when we came back, and some days we would show up to practice and regardless of your events, she would make us run long distance. My longest race was the 800 meter relay, and I thought I was going to die with that. I remember one day our best long distance runner came jogging by and the coach said “Colter, when he gets here I want you to run with him these last 2 laps. Now I want you to keep his pace the entire time. Don’t let up.” Mind you this was at the end of the practice, and I had already finished my training, or so I had thought. Also, this guy was training for the military and was in phenomenal shape. He really made the mile look like a 200 meter dash. But I jumped in line with him, and we took off. I kept his pace for 2 laps, and I about died at the end. 2 weeks later he and I stood side by side holding all-state metals for the 4X200 meter relay.

-When a person decides they are going to run a race, it is not a decision that is taken lightly. They prepare. They practice. They improve, and they maintain their abilities to carry on. When you and I were saved, we were placed in a lane that will ultimately end with us standing face to face with Jesus Christ. He is our ultimate prize, but the race is long. It is a sprint, but the finish line is *hopefully* far into the future, and we must keep our pace and determination up as we go.

You are going to make mistakes at times. It happens, we are human. But God wants you to stay in the race. He is going to come along and push you back into your lane by whatever means necessary. If you veer left, He is going to prod you right. If you falter right, He will pull you to the left. He will make sure that His children stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to righteousness. He does this because He is the Good Father. No good father see’s their child failing and does not help. Now you may watch your child try on their own and fail just so you can show them the right way. God does this with us as well, but a good father always comes along behind and guides the child back to where they need to be in order to succeed. They do this because they love the child. Discipline may sound mean, and it may hurt at times, but if we are not disciplined then we will never stay in the race of faithfulness, and if God loves you then He will discipline you so that you will stay on track. Running the race which leads to the best life you can possibly have.

Finally

Runners Avoid Pitfalls: You will not see many runners sitting at Krispy Kreme filling up on donuts, or down at Dairy Queen shoveling back blizzards. They avoid what will make them sick, and what will make them heavy. Christians avoid the behaviors that would make the world question their authenticity. Christians avoid hateful conversations, and rude talk. Christians avoid bullying, and slandering. Christians seek love over revenge, and they try to keep the peace rather than stirring up strife. Christians walk, talk, and act like Christ. When the world looks at us as we run our race, they should do a double take thinking they saw Christ in our lanes. Behave as to draw people to Christ, not repel them.

It takes faith to run this race. It is no coincidence that these verses are coupled with the famous “Faith” chapter of the Bible. No one can force you to do anything, and God will not even force you into something. It is your own choice. If you do not want to run the race, you do not have to, but let me tell you if you decide to lace up your shoes and run this race of faith you are in for a hard fight. But God knows what is on the other side. This is why He encourages you to carry on, this is why He guides you back when you stray. This is why Jesus endured the cross. He said “Yeah this is a hard bit, but look at the outcome though. Look where I am, look who’s coming to me. Look who are running their races because of what I have done for them.” The race is difficult, but it is worth it.

The book of Hebrews is written with two people in mind: Those who are saved, and those who are yet to be.

If you are sitting here and you know in your heart that you know about Jesus, but you have never really taken that first step in the race of faithfulness, which is placing your trust in Him for your eternal salvation, then I would encourage you today to begin your journey. Take the first step in the race. You know what the end result is going to be when you do, but you also now the end result if you do not. The choice is yours.

And if you are saved, but your race is looking more like a saunter, if your daily fights with this world and sin look more like a little scrap rather than an all out battle, if you have never really taken your walk seriously it is high time to draw the line in the sand and say “I am running my race for the Lord, and no one else. Come what may, I am going to follow Him.” And do so faithfully.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for… Things we have not yet seen, but we believe are coming our way. Do not grow weary, do not lose hope, continue to run your race in strength and integrity, and fight the good fight.