Run To Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2, Jeff Kliewer)

We're good now folks. It's good to see you glad you came to Cornerstone today to worship with us and we're looking forward to just rejoicing before our Lord today. It's a beautiful day outside and we're just grateful that you're here.

I want to start the announcements with a email we got from our brother Stan. Now Stan has had some kidney stone problems but he wanted to say this. He says I am home and recovering from the kidney stone procedure.

This has been a long while for Stan. He got a stent first and then he had an operation to remove the stone but he says I still have a few more days for the procedure to be completed before removing the stent.

It actually is still isn't out yet. The stent will be removed Monday. So please keep Stan in prayer. Tell all that I am very thankful for their prayers and words of encouragement. I will leave you with the words from the song.

They'll know we are Christians by our we are all one spirit we're all one in the Lord. We are all one in spirit we are all one in the Lord. And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love by our love.

Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love. And I know your love through your prayers for Christ gave me strength and encouragement through this ordeal and I thank you for your love and your prayers.

Stan we give thanks and we praise God for that. We give thanks and praise God for so many of our other brothers and sisters that the Lord is watching over right now. We also found out that Charlotte Fortescue is home now from rehab and we praise God and we rejoice for that.

And we also praise God for Kimberly also feeling better at this point. She's hoping to start teaching the adult Bible fellowship class which is meeting right now for the ladies sometime in October she thinks.

But right now we're also thankful that Jill Deegan has stepped in to be a substitute teacher. So ladies ABF is back on so take note of that. So that's right now at this time. Also another schedule change we had is that Monday night precept with the ladies 630.

That's meeting again tonight or Monday for the first time in a while. So ladies you're back on for Monday night to 630. And ladies there's a lot of stuff with the ladies going on. Isn't there ladies on Tuesday morning the Bible study at 930 to 11.

They don't have childcare for that. But you're all welcome to come. It's it's on a video stream as well from what I understand. But this is gonna be every week now. So all of those things are a little bit new.

Plus we have Sunday night prayer tonight Monday night men's tomorrow the Isaiah study on Wednesday and youth group on Friday night. So all those things coming up. Also is everybody excited about the Eagles today.

Are you. You won't be after pastor sermon. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You have more important things to do though right. Like the ministry fair day. Sure if you have Jesus in your heart. I know I know that you have the heart of service and I you don't want to know why.

I know that because Jesus did. And if Christ is in your heart you also desire to serve. But you may think well gosh where can I fit in. Where can I do something in the body. What we're gonna let you know.

I'm gonna ask a couple of a couple guys to pass out some sheets. Looks like Billy's got it and Jack. These are some possible things you could get involved in in the church and they're all kinds of different categories.

Some of it is watching children. Some of it is teaching. Some of it is being involved in worship. Some of it isn't being involved in the nuts. You know we talked we've talked a lot about love life and we've been thinking a lot about babies recently and how beautiful the gift of life is and I can see a little baby right now too.

We need some nursery workers too to help take care of those beautiful little lives that the Lord brought into the world. So if any of those things the Lord is laying on your heart we hope you'll fill the sheet out.

But also we hope you'll join us outside after the service because we're gonna have a fellowship time with sandwiches from on the left at the end on outside. And we're gonna have tables set up for the ministries of the church and you can come and ask everyone who to see who to talk to how you can get involved.

We're really looking forward to it folks. So I think that's it. For the announcements. For the announcements except one more thing. Well I guess I'll pray through that announcement. I think the guys are done.

So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father we do rejoice in you father if it was a rainy miserable day out there father you are still good and you do not change. And father we are so grateful father to be in your house and worship you today.

But you know what Lord it is a beautiful day and we're gonna rejoice in that. We're so thankful father for the duty that you've created. We're so thankful for that we have voices today to lift up to you.

We're so thankful father that you're watching out over our friends who are being healed by your mighty hand. We think especially father of our sister Janet and Lord just upholding her uplifting her and the loss of her husband.

Rich father we pray for her. We thank you so much Lord that you are our God. You are king and you watch over all of our lives. Lord father we pray for our worship service to honor you to lift up your holy name and give praise to our Lord.

We thank you for the musicians. We pray that you'd be with them. And we pray that you'll be with pastor Jeff as he brings the message.

Today we pray this in Jesus name let's sing together let's go to the Lord in.

Running the Race of Life in Hebrews 12

Prayer. Father we come to you this morning recognizing that we are in a fight we are in a race and Lord when we come to the end of this battle like Paul we want to say I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith.

Lord we pray that you would speak to us now at the beginning or in the middle of the race so that when we get to the end and we stand before you to receive an imperishable crown we'll have no regrets.

We will have run the race marked out before us and have no regret. That's our prayer this morning. So speak to us Lord like a coach to spur us on to teach us in Jesus name amen. My son Tim was probably about four years old maybe five when we went to Laurel Acres Park and we were just walking around the park when all of a sudden we saw a group of teenagers all the way down to little kids running in a pack through the park and they were led by an older guy with a long ponytail and a handlebar mustache.

He was like the Pied Piper he was just running through the park and all these kids were running with him. So we said let's see if we can keep up. And we started running behind this group and we followed him through the woods and over the hill and finally they stopped at the bottom of the hill and I asked the Pied Piper hey what is this group can we run with you.

And it turns out they're called the Mount Laurel Striders. They're a running club cross-country club and he welcomed Tim to join the club and Tim ran for years with the Striders and it turns out that Mike Ritchie who is the coach of the Mount Laurel Striders is an amazing athlete.

To this day he's ranked nationally for his age group. But in the 1970s and going into 1980 he had qualified for the Olympics. He was all set to go to the Olympic Training Center when in 1980 Jimmy Carter pulled the US out because of the Cold War and it was being held in Russia.

So the US didn't compete that year and he never ran in the Olympics. But he was that kind of athlete. And now he devotes himself to these kids year after year teaching them to run. And at the base of that hill when I first heard him start to coach it blew my mind because I would have thought that the coach of a running club would only have to say one word to coach his team run.

Like what else do you say to a running club. Just just run. You'll get better the more you run. But it turns out that in running there are many ways that you can coach to get better at it. Like you need to be taught to run on a tangent directly on a straight line and never go bobbing and weaving because you're wasting your energy.

And how to take a hill how to lean into it and shorten your stride and how to pass people on hills and break their confidence and all of these techniques that a runner learns. But the most important one of all is that you need to pace yourself.

You can't start off by burning out of the gate because you'll crash. And you'll actually turn out slower than if you had gone out slower. So you have to learn how to pace yourself as a runner. All of these things are lessons.

As we come to Hebrews chapter 12 we are taught how to run the race of life. And young people you want to get this early before you've run and wasted half your life. If you've wasted half your life guess what.

It's not too late. All of us are kind of at the starting point of this race. As we come to Hebrews 12 if we're willing to be coached amen. So let's read it first and we'll take some coaching on how to run the race of life and culminate in the most important part which is verse 2 that it's all about Jesus.

We need to look to him. He is the author and finisher. Let's read it Hebrews chapter 12. We finally finished chapter 11 that took us a while didn't it. But it was good. It was beautiful. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 2.

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.

A passage probably all of us who've been in the church for a long time are familiar with one of the key passages about this race of life. But notice Hebrews 12 is picking up on the 11th chapter and the 10th chapter.

In chapter 10 verse 19 the book becomes very much application. Before that it was all doctrinal. It was about Christ as the better Moses the better Joshua the better priests the better everything he's just better.

And then in verse 19 we learned what were to do with that which was faith hope and love. As we get into chapter 11 we begin to see examples of what it looks like to live this Christian life and those who did hold on to the faith even in heart summarizing that.

So now look at verse 1. You might look at this a little differently than you've always read it. When I was a kid I read this first phrase like this. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.

Pause. There I pictured all of these witnesses in heaven that are watching me on earth. They're witnessing how I run. I don't think that's the sense of this. The sense of this. This witness is someone who's testifying.

They are witnessing by the very thing they did in chapter 11. In other words their life is a witness to us. They're giving testimony to the ones who are running now. And we go into the text to read what they have to say.

So we go back in Genesis and Enoch lived his life. Abel lived his life. Abel who obediently offered a sacrifice is speaking to us and saying be obedient. Yes my brother struck me over the head with a rock and I died.

But let me tell you about the glory I saw on the other side. And every obedience in this life is worth it. So run Christian run. That's what Abel is saying. That's his testimony. Enoch says you know I walked with God and then I was no more.

He took me and I went from glory to glory. So walk with him and run with him. Brother. Noah says God spoke to me and told me to do something that everybody thought was insane and I built that boat and they mocked me the whole time but God rescued me on that ark.

So run do what he tells you to do. Don't worry about what people say you run. Abraham is saying to us this morning God called me out of Ur of the Chaldees and told me to go to a place I had never seen and having lived with him in tents waiting on a promise I never saw.

I finally had a son and then God told me to take my son and sacrifice him on a hill and in obedience I went. But God stopped me there and gave a substitute lamb caught in the thicket. And it was like life from the dead when I took Isaac down that mountain and it was worth every moment.

So run Christian run. It's worth it. Don't give up Sarah. I thought my husband was crazy. I wanted to kill him when he was about to kill my son but it worked out. And now I see that the promise pointed to my Christ.

Run Christian run. And Isaac and Jacob and Joseph the patriarchs each of them learned to believe in the God of their fathers. They're cheering us on to run. And Moses had to leave the pleasures of Egypt counting it worthless compared to the treasures of Christ although he only saw him in a shadow.

And Moses left Egypt and identified with the people of God and God sent him back. And God brought the people out and all of the people testify. We were petrified to go through that Red Sea. The walls of water were intimidating but we walked through as on dry land and we were delivered and set free.

So run Christian run. And Rahab says I was a prostitute. I should have been stoned to death I should have been killed. But they spared my life by faith in Yahweh. So you also can be forgiven of anything.

Just look to Christ and run for him. And all of the prophets that came after the judges Gideon and Samson and Barak and Jephthah testify. Run Christian and Daniel in the lion's den and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace coming out unscathed are telling us run.

That is the meaning of the cloud of witnesses. They testify. They still speak. And that is the first phrase of verse 1. Now the second point. Let us also lay aside every weight. I've got a buddy lives in Florida.

I think he's a little crazy because he's gonna run a marathon right there for me at this stage in my life I'm not in 26 miles in Jacksonville in Florida. Of all places you don't want to run a marathon there.

I actually have done that when I was younger and I was all cramped up and hobbling and just stumbled my way across the finish line in a long period of time. But here's his strategy. He is going to strap to his back in February of 2021 in Jacksonville.

I think it is a 50-pound pack of weight and run the 26 miles with that because he wants to set a new world record for carrying military weight gear for 26 miles. That's his goal. I would choose the author of Hebrews method over his look at it here.

Let us also lay aside every weight. Lay aside every weight. What does the author have in view here. Well the image is a runner. He's a cross-country runner. He doesn't want to be wearing a like heavy sweatpants and a thick sweater and a hat.

And you know the armsleeve. Like the basketball player and all the gear that you put on. No a good marathon runner. What does he do. He's down to the short shorts. He's got shoes that don't even have laces.

Nothing to slow him down. He wants to be a streamlined and light as possible. That's his goal. In the Christian life there are many things that are not sin to you. Watching a football game on a Sunday is not sin.

And the ladies are saying well I'm not so sure about that. But ladies watching your home improvement show and real estate show on HGTV. That's not sin. It's just the pastime. But could it be that some good things are not beneficial says in first can first Corinthians 1023.

The point will be here that we need to take things in moderation and lay aside some things that can be weight to us. Because it's not helping us to run to run for the Great Commission to go share the gospel with our neighbor to spend time in the word to spend time in prayer.

We're so distracted. The average American spends 145 minutes per day on social media. Well it's not sin to scroll through and see what your friends are doing as the big tech companies tell you what you're allowed to look at.

It's not sin to do that. But is it dead weight. That's slowing you down from running for this gospel that we have to preach first Corinthians 1023. All things are lawful for me. So this isn't a legalistic kind of message here.

All things are lawful but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful but not all things build up. What are the weights in your life that are slowing you down. Things that you could lay aside and run a little faster.

If somebody told me I had to run a marathon my goal would be to get rid of as much weight as possible because every pound in my body has to go 26 miles. I have to carry it there. So I want to carry as little excess weight as possible if I have to do that heaven forbid.

Next. Also in Hebrews 12 1 the next phrase by the way when it says let us also also refers to the cloud of witnesses like they did this they put aside all of the comforts of this life and they went and endured things for the sake of the promise.

So let's also do that. And what's the next one sin which clings so closely. How many Christians have been derailed by allowing a little sin into their lives. Sadly we know about Ravi Zacharias who preached well for many years but then because of a back injury began to go to a massage parlor and that turned into sexual sin.

And before long he was entangled in it. And now sadly an entire ministry discredited because of that behavior. Or how many people have had a back injury and taken prescription medication to ease the pain but that turned into abusing it and then other drugs.

And before long full-blown addiction. Sin creeps in. In our text it says cling so closely. It's always trying to master you to have you Cain. And Abel Cain was told sin is at your door. It's crouching at the door.

It desires to have you and wants to overtake you. But you must master it. We must kill sin. Don't crack the door a little bit. When you begin to crack the door to sin it begins to move in and invade. Kind of like athlete's foot for you runners it just starts between the toes and then it spreads out to other toes and maybe the side of your foot.

Now imagine athlete's foot that didn't stop with your foot but worked its way up your leg and then took over your entire body. Now it's affecting all of life. That is a picture of sin. And they teach us in seminary to paint vivid images.

So you're welcome athlete's foot overtaking the entire body. Well that's what sin does. It clings so closely it wants to take over and ultimately to kill you. So you will be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

I did that on purpose because sin is disgusting. And yet we allow it. We make room for it see it for what it is. Kill it. Next in the text. What's the next phrase. Let us run with endurance. That word in the Greek does not mean speed.

You would think we're in a footrace. We would be told run with speed. No it says run with endurance. This is not a sprint. This is a marathon. This is a long run from the day that you're born again until you see Christ in glory.

You are in a marathon. You are in a run that requires endurance. The key to it is that you not stop. When I was a kid my grandfather was a runner. Remember the preacher who moved to Guatemala came back.

Well in his older retirement years in Florida he was still a runner. He would come to my house and he would run around our neighborhood before dinner. So the little kids we would say hey grandpa can we do your run with you.

And I still remember lacing up the shoes and running with grandpa. And my conclusion was man is he slow. He's so slow. I just get way out ahead of him. I'm sprinting up the hill. Look back on he's so finally he catches up and then we go around the lake and I keep looking back and walking sprinting over the hill back around to 842 Park Court.

You guys all still remember your address is growing up right. Palm Harbor Florida. So we get back to the house and after all that I collapse on the driveway finally pull myself up go in and drink some of that sunny D sunny delight.

Drink the water Gatorade and look back in. Where's grandpa. He was only warming up on that first lap. He won't go any faster but he was just getting started. He had endurance. He would run that same lap that that wore me out five six seven times.

Because see the race does not go to the swift or to the strong but to the one who endures. Will you still be running 30 years from now. And on your deathbed. Will you still be praising it with joy in your heart.

Set that kind of pace that no matter what happens you will not quit. The runner will do. Well who will not stop even if the pace slows. There's gonna be times in your life where the pace slows down. I have a friend who was pastoring FAC around the corner when he was about my age in early 40s he was running hard man.

The church was growing going from building to building just exploding. But it was wearing him out more than he knew. And all of a sudden he contracted something called Epstein bar. It's kind of like mono where he was so tired he couldn't get into the pulpit.

He couldn't preach. And for a couple of years I think it affected him. But see even in those moments where he couldn't stand he couldn't run. He kept praying. That's what he could do. He kept studying the scripture.

He kept going deeper with God. And there came a day when God said now run again. And he was back in the pulpit for decades. More of faithful ministry. In that time it would have been very easy to just say you know what.

I'm passing this thing off. I'm done. I must not be cut out for the ministry. No you see it was endurance that kept him in the race. When you get hit by a diagnosis or a condition that your child has or a dying parent or a friend that goes unexpectedly.

Will you give up. The key is endurance. Listen to Romans 5 3 and 5. Not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us next. What is that fourth now. Or is this fit. This is fit. The race that is set before us.

The runner will do. Well who stays on track. There is a course that's set for you. We don't get to blaze our own trails. Anybody here ever run the Broad Street run in Philadelphia. It's a 10-mile run right down Broad Street.

Some runners have begun running. But because there's a subway underneath Broad Street they've run a couple miles. Got off taking the subway. Half the race got out and finished in the front of the pack.

You might feel good about yourself. You could show your trophy. You could tell all your friends about your record-breaking time. But when you stand before the judge of all the earth you will not heal here.

Well done good and faithful servant. You've been disqualified. You blazed your own trail. You went where you wanted to go but you did not run according to the map. This book is the map. Many people in our culture today desire to write their own rules to form their own map.

And just because something feels right to them they just go with it. I was horrified to see a little child given over to adoption and winding up in the arms of Pete Buttigieg who ran for president a number of years ago.

And next to him was his so-called husband in the picture. The two of them were in hospital gowns and in a hospital bed. And this baby was given to them for adoption. Now they may raise the child in a number of good ways.

They might teach him to read and give him phonics before he's two years old. He might be a Rhodes Scholar. They may help him to feed him and give him all the best clothes. And and what night. All of these things are possible.

But they're not running this race according to what God has mapped out in his Holy Word. In fact to put on a hospital gown and sit in a hospital bed is itself a lie. They didn't give birth. What are they doing in a hospital bed.

Why are they wearing a hospital gown. It is an illusion of virtue. The beautiful pregnancy of a woman and the birth which comes from God as God has formed this child in the womb of a mother is God's design.

And motherhood should be honored. But they're signaling their own virtue in a hospital bed. It is a lie. And this is a gross and grotesque extreme example of it. But in our lives how many things do we make room for.

Because it feels right. Because it just seems to our conscience to be the right thing. And as long as we're doing other good things we assume that it's okay. See listen in the text it says you must run the race that is set before you.

That means the parameters are given in God's Holy Word. It is not ours to make up. We don't just get to run wherever we want. Over the hills and through the fields to grandmother's house we go. We don't just get to run anywhere.

You must run the course to be found faithful. And that leads now to the final point. Because the course that the Lord has laid out for us for each of our lives the circumstances of our lives. We don't know what those are.

We don't know where where we will live the boundaries of our habitation where God will take us. But one thing we do. And if you miss anything else in the sermon today all of those five points from the first verse are like a running coach giving you advice.

Those things are important. To put off the extra weight to make sure sin doesn't overtake. To stay on track. To run with endurance. To look back to the runners who have done it before like coach Mike who was almost in the Olympics you can see his example.

These are all good things. But without this last thing this main thing we have nothing. The main thing is in this race you must keep your eyes on Jesus. We run to him and he is our destination. And he is the ultimate example.

Every one of the Saints in Hebrews 11 would take off their crown and throw it at his feet. You see Abraham almost gave his wife away and did give her into adultery to protect his own life. He was a sinner like us.

And Moses killed a man and David slept with Bathsheba. And Samson was a mess. And Jephthah I think was worse. The sins that were covered by the blood. We're not present in Christ himself. These were sinners like us.

But Christ he is on a whole other level. So what we're seeing here in verse 2 is the culmination of chapter 11. These who ran before us they're a great example. But don't miss where this is all headed.

It's headed to the better than the ultimate example. The one runner who pierced the heart of darkness and broke through the veil of sin and entered into the Holy of Holies Jesus Christ our Lord. He went through the cross endured that shame laid down in the grave conquered it rose and sat down at the right hand of his father.

He opened a new and living way for us by his blood. Let's read it 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.

You got to keep your eyes on him. You have to be Christ centered. There are many distractions in this life. But Christ must be your aim and your goal. You have to think about him every day. Don't forget what he's done for you.

Don't let your love grow cold. But remember your first love by thinking about Jesus. Never forget what he has done. Look to him next. It says the founder the archagon the architect the one who initiated our faith.

Where did your faith come from in the first place. Were you more humble than your neighbor that you became a Christian. Or was it that God himself sent the gospel to you and his spirit drew you and you believed and your faith in Christ was born.

He is the architect the founder of your faith. But good news born-again Christian. He is also the perfecter of your faith. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

You having heard the word of truth were marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit who is a guarantee of your redemption until all of those who take possession of it. What am I saying. You're called to run.

I'm called to run. But if it were up to me to keep running faithfully to heaven I would trip I would stumble I would fall. You would find me in the ditch. But he is the one who's running through you. If any man is in Christ he is a new creation.

Behold the old things are gone. The new things have come. Christ will run in you. He is the hope of glory Christ in you. Keep your eyes on him and understand this. It is Christ who's running in you. He's bringing you to the promised land.

You're not running alone. How many. Here. You don't have to raise your hand. Maybe you can just give a little moan. If this applies to you are feeling weary in this run. You're feeling like it's beating you down.

You'll never make it. How can you hold on faithful to the end. The temptations are too too strong. The distractions are too many. It's too hard to run the Christian life too much pain and suffering. If you're weary hear the words of Isaiah chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 verses 28 to 31. You can turn there with me if you're fast. Otherwise you might just want to listen. I get going and then I don't give you enough time to get there. Isaiah 40 28 to 31. Have you not known.

Have you not heard. The Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Pause. Right there. All of us will grow weary and faint when we take that hit. That seems insurmountable. That loss of a loved one the pain of this life. But it's he who increases strength. The battle is not to the strong but to those who have faith in Christ.

It is not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts. It's Christ in you that will bring you across this line. Keep looking. Even youths shall faint and be weary. And young men. Young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint the Christian walk. The Christian run is a supernatural run.

He is with us. He promised to never leave or forsake us. He's with us from the beginning to the end and then for all eternity. So I will be with them always. He promised this to us. So let's conclude.

Can I speak to you all like my dad spoke to me. Many of you are as old as my father so maybe I'm speaking to the young men here. But when I was a college basketball player I finished at age 22 came home and we were having a meal.

It's probably the meal that I was eating that prompt my dad to say to me what he said. Probably I was probably eating like a like an alligator or something. But he looked at me and he said Jeff I want to tell you something.

You're at a critical point right now. He told me about how he was a basketball player in college and all of his teammates and most of them when they stop playing all of a sudden balloon. And he said you're used to eating like a college basketball player.

You can eat 4000 calories a day. But starting now you're either gonna have to add some exercise to your life now that you don't play basketball anymore or you're gonna need to cut your diet like in half some of the best advice I ever got because on that day I took up running and for 21 years now I've been a runner so I didn't want to stop eating.

That option was kind of like off the table. I I can't cut down my intake so I guess I'm gonna have to become a runner. That's when I started doing marathons and stuff like that which it's a far cry from what I do now.

But I've kept it up you know just a few miles a day kind of thing. And that advice was huge for me as a father figure as a pastor in your lives. Can I tell you you need to get rid of the extra weight.

And I'm not talking physically now. I'm talking about the amount of time you spend on Facebook the amount of time you devote to football. Watch a football game but don't watch every football game and the college games.

We are in a race and here's the thing of it you can make a decision that is really harmless. It's just you know I'm gonna have a soda with dinner tonight and that does little damage. But what it does is it creates the habits of your life.