No one finishes the race and says Jesus isn't worth it | Clip from Looking Unto Jesus

But let me give one example, Moses. We're told in Hebrews 11 how he found courage to walk away from Egypt. We might say, well, you know, that was super easy. Anybody could have done it. He's raised in the palace of the Pharaoh.

He's got all the privileges. He's the heir apparent. He's about to get everything handed to him, silver platter that he really already was raised with, the silver spoon. But we're told in Hebrews 11, he was able to walk away from all of that because he considered, this is quote, the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.

Next verse, he saw him who is unseen. So there was something more compelling about his redeemer than all the treasures of Egypt. And he counted it no sacrifice to give up all of that to have Christ. Because we're surrounded by people who have proven Christ to be of greater value than anything and everything.

Abraham leaving it all, going to a land he didn't even know, you know, where it was going to end up. And Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Jephthah, the prophet, all these people, folks being sawn in half.

I mean, that's in the passage. They're literally put in a log that's hollowed out and cut in half. People it says, hiding in caves and holes in the ground, shutting the mouths of lions, Daniel I presume.

Because we have people like this, let us look to Christ also. Because not one of them finished their race and said he wasn't worth it. None of them. So the common denominator is Christ is faithful and he's worth any possible sacrifice that we might make.

So that's one aspect. We're surrounded by plenty of examples, but it also says they're not made complete without us at the end of chapter 11, which I think means in large part, especially that our faith should be so seamless with theirs, that when the completed totality of the redeemed, old and new covenant believers, both redeemed by the same Savior, are all united in one mass in glory, our faith looks pretty identical to their faith.

We're going to complete them. We're going to perfect them is the way it ends in chapter 11. So therefore do a couple of things. Lay aside anything that would slow you down. Maybe good things, definitely sinful things, cast them off.

You can't run a race, bogged down with all those things. Look at Christ and as you do that, consider the hostility he endured, verse 3. So I'll pause there and see what thoughts you have or how you want to jump in.

I think that pointing that out really is an encouragement. To the Christian, to consider that there are apparently insignificant little races that we run. Imagine a mom chasing kids around the house, almost a literal race, and then dad getting in the car and going to the same work that he went to.

He's been there for 20 years. Is it really that important? If we don't understand how important the life that God has given us here is, we're okay with tossing it away. If I drop a penny down a drain, I don't fall to pieces.

I don't call for help. If I drop a $100 bill down the drain, I'm like, okay, all the earth has to stop until I get my money back. So is my life a penny life or is it something extraordinary because I've been united to Christ?

You mentioned the men and women of chapter 11 and the seamless faith, like precious faith, Peter says. And then Peter says almost the exact same thing you said about Moses, that having not seen Christ, we rejoice in him with a joy unspeakable.

We love him, even though we have not seen him, like Moses. So wonderful realization that what's about to come in the command to run well is part of that great company of all believers from the beginning of time.

And my obedience today, my loving, cheerful dependence upon God today that results in obedience is part of completing the great race that they began.

Yeah. Well, I think one of the most precious phrases of all of Hebrews, which comes in chapter 11, is not about any of the faithful. It's about God. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

Well, of whom would God speak like that? How can I, is it possible that I could be among that precious privileged subset of humanity? It is because Christ the priest, chapter nine, we'll talk about this later, has taken his blood into the true holy of holies and anybody who rests by faith on him, the risen redeemer, is somebody about whom the father would say, I'm not ashamed to be called their God.

And you know, there's no Hebrews, heroes, as I said, in chapter 11, there are no heroes in Hebrews chapter 11, except Christ. Oh yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. And so now he's telling us how we on this side of the cross, at this stage of redemptive history, are to run the same race that our forebears ran in the old covenant.

As they look forward to the redeemer, as we look back upon him and his coming, returning glory, how we are to run this race and it be said of us, God's not ashamed to be called our God. Well, what would that look like?

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