Running the Race to the Finish (Hebrews 12:1-2)

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typically in the book of Genesis that's a series that we've been in for quite some time but we are taking a somewhat unplanned break from the book of Genesis this morning and so if you have a
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Bible and I hope you do take it and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11
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Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 we're going to study
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Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 through 2 but I want to read in this context so we're gonna start in chapter 11
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Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 and beginning in verse 32
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Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32 I'm gonna read it in its context and so we'll start in chapter 11 verse 32 and read down to chapter 12 verse 3
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Hebrews chapter 11 from verse 32 if you've got one of the Bibles we give away page 1068 page 1068
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Hebrews chapter 11 beginning in verse 32 if one more time
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I can invite you to stand with me we like to stand for this reading in our services in this moment
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God is speaking to us by his very word and so we want to honor that even with the posture of our bodies so Hebrews chapter 11 beginning in verse 32 brothers sisters these are
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God's words and what more can I say time is too short for me to tell about Gideon Barak Samson Jephthah David Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms administered justice obtained promises shut the mouths of lions quenched the raging of fire escaped to the edge of the sword gained strength in weakness became mighty in battle and put foreign armies to flight women received their dead raised to life again other people were tortured not accepting release so that they might gain a better resurrection others experienced mockings and scourgings as well as bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were soared into they died by the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and gopes skins destitute afflicted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them they wandered in deserts and on mountains hiding in caves and holes in the ground all these were approved through their faith but they did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us so they would not be made perfect without us therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us let us run with endurance the race that lies before us keeping our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith for the joy that lay before him he endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God but consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself so that you won't grow weary in giving and give up excuse me pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding let's pray ask for the
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Spirit's help and we will launch into God's word this morning let's pray together Oh God our help we ask that as we open up your word and you speak to us from its pages pray that you would give us open and receptive hearts pray that you would allow your
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Holy Spirit to be at work in us opening our eyes that we would see wonderful things out of your law pray the heart the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened so that we would know the hope of the calling to which you've called us well
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I pray that as we think about the race of the Christian life that you have set before us father
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I pray that you would help us in that race through what we will hear from your word this morning all those you pray for our time together now we also pray for our friends at first Baptist Church in Phoenix thank you for Pastor Brett his co -elders there
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Paul and Dustin pray for them as they prepare for their Christmas service next week all that goes with that pray that they would know your blessing pray that they would know your help pray for their witness there in Phoenix as they seek to honor you through the ministry of your word and through fellowship together we pray your blessing on them and pray for your blessing on us now we ask these things in Jesus name and for his sake amen please be seated
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I've titled the message that's before us this morning running the race to the finish running the race to the finish
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I don't know if you find marathons fascinating I find them deeply fascinating I'm from London originally we host one of the most well known marathons in the world on the marathon if you don't know where the marathon comes from it comes from a story we don't entirely know if it's true or not but legend has it the marathon gets its name from a battle that took place called the
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Battle of Marathon and during this battle that waged for quite some time it was the
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Persians versus the Greeks Greece led by Alexander the Great won a massive victory in that battle and so following the defeat of the
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Persians a messenger boy history tells us his name was by Dippity's the story goes like I said there's some debate as to whether it was quite this long but the story goes that this messenger boy having seen the victory and now wanting to announce it ran a staggering 25 .4
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miles from the battlefield at marathon to Athens the more wild version of the story says he did it in one burst again there's some debate about that but the story goes he ran 25 .4
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miles from marathon to Athens to declare in what was in Greek just one word named
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EK common we have one and then the story says that he collapsed and died who said that running is necessarily good for you but be that as it may that story kind of inspired the modern marathon in 1896 when the
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Olympic Games first started that actual route from marathon to Athens was the first modern marathon today marathons are held around the world
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I believe here in the US one of the bigger ones is the Boston Marathon 1924 at the
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Olympics they expanded it from 25 .4 to the number that we all know now if you know anything about marathons 26 .2
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and the marathon has become in the world of sports the one of if not the ultimate showcase of endurance and discipline it's often been said that if you can run a marathon there isn't a whole lot you cannot put your mind to now running may not be your favorite thing in the world and I wouldn't really blame you but whether you recognize or not
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Christian you are in a race do you realize that reality do you realize that you are in a race that you are in something of a marathon and if you recognize that are you prepared to run that race but are you prepared to run it well because you can run races badly and you can run races well most importantly are you running in the kind of way that prepares you to win
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I don't know if you think much about that often but if not consider this a opportunity for us this morning to actually think about that if you haven't thought much about the fact that you are in a race and how you run this race matters this message may be the one for you since we're kind of parachuting into Hebrews chapter 12 a little bit of background might be helpful here
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Hebrews is one of those books that we actually don't know a whole lot about so who wrote it nobody really knows some older versions of the
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Bible have the title the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews but we don't really know that for certain that's a guess some say it was
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Apollos some say it was Luke I suppose if you woke me up at 3 in the morning and asked after I told you not to wake me up at 3 in the morning
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I might say I think it was Luke but honestly we don't know where was he writing from no idea there's a mention of Italy in chapter 13 but again we don't really know it could be he's writing to people he's writing from Italy or he's writing to people that we just don't know we do know he was writing so we do know that he's writing to Hebrew Christians we get that much from just reading the letter but where are these
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Hebrew Christians no idea some people say it might be Jerusalem some say it's Rome again no idea it's almost as though when you come to the book of Hebrews it strips away anything that might draw attention to people which actually if you've read the letter to the
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Hebrews and I encourage every Christian to read it if you've read the letters the Hebrews that makes sense because this whole letter is written to remind
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Christians that Jesus is better and since Jesus is better what better way to even demonstrate that by not making it about you the author or the people who are being written to as you come to the letter to the
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Hebrews the writer of Hebrews draws on the Old Testament to show his audience that the
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Old Covenant with its prophetic line with all of its heroes with its priesthood with its sacrifices that the
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Old Covenant as good as it was it has nothing on what has come to light in the coming of Christ and in the dawn of the
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New Covenant and as you read the letter it becomes really obvious that the audience that he's writing to are being tempted to as it were to look back to glance back to what they had left behind in Judaism like I said these are
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Hebrew Christians so at one point they were practicing Judaism they heard the gospel they came to believe in Jesus and they left
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Judaism behind but that now had created some problems it seems to be external pressure from the outside to go back to Judaism and you also get the sense that internally there is some struggle as they are still seeing the temple and they're still seeing the sacrifices and all of these things and thinking maybe maybe we can have both of them the tone of the letter to the
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Hebrews can be described as a coach on the sidelines who is marshalling every ounce of strength to tell runners who are tempted to drop out of the race to press on to not look back to keep one foot ahead of another in the pursuit of Jesus because Jesus is better and scattered throughout the letter are passages of encouragement passages that seek to propel the audience and we become part of that audience as we read these passages to encourage them to keep on pursuing
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Jesus because Jesus is better and like I said though I didn't plan to be here this week in Hebrews chapter 12
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I do think it's a little appropriate given that we are coming towards the end of the year consider this something of a spiritual pit stop this morning any
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Formula One fans in the room you should watch Formula One it's fun in Formula One you have these things they call them pit stops the idea is in a race a driver can elect to take a few moments get his car worked on they do these very very quickly get your tires sorted get everything realigned they try and get this done as quickly as possible so you can get back on and race consider this one of those pit stops this morning because in our passage the writer to the
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Hebrews is going to encourage us and please bear that word in mind he's here to encourage us this is not him browbeating this is him being an encouragement the writer to the
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Hebrews is going to encourage us to run the race of the
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Christian life and to run it in the kind of way that gets us to the finish well what do you need to know to run the race in that kind of way how can you run the race that is set before you with purpose and with conviction that kind of leads to my big idea for this message you know every message
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I tried to have a big idea that summarizes what we're going to learn well here's my big idea for this morning beloved the race of faith is won by deliberately focusing on Jesus while keeping a close watch on ourselves the race of faith is won by deliberately focusing on Jesus while keeping a close watch on ourselves now you think wait a minute that sounds kind of contradictory
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I'm okay I'm supposed to focus on Jesus by watching myself actually I think in the two verses we're gonna look at we're gonna see that those two things if we do them rightly don't contradict each other but actually you can't do the latter you can't keep a close watch on yourself without focusing on Jesus so once again my big idea for this message the race of faith is won by deliberately focusing on Jesus while keeping a close watch on our selves well for the rest of our time this morning
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I want to consider four directions that you need to follow if you're going to run the race of faith well four directions that you need to follow if you're gonna run the race of faith well they all come to us from verses 1 & 2 first direction that you need to follow is this if you're going to run the race of faith well you need to look around at those who ran the race before you you need to look around at those who ran the race before you so again can
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I invite you to look back at that passage Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 author says therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let's stop there for a moment if you're going to run this race of faith well you need to look around at those who ran before you for us to get the most out of these simple words there are two questions that we really need to ask it if you're taking notes
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I'm gonna write these two questions down so he mentions here that we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us and he makes that the basis when he says therefore in light of this reality this is why you should do about to tell you well that raises two questions number one who are these witnesses when he says that we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us the question becomes well who exactly are they so who are these witnesses the question number two not only who are these witnesses but how are they witnessing how are they witnessing so question number one who are these witnesses question number two how are they witnessing now some people have taken this to mean that there are you know as it were the
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Saints who have gone on before us they're in heaven you hear people use this language all the time especially at funerals this idea of well they're looking down on us from heaven you know your great -aunt
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Bessie who died and went to go be with Jesus is you know up there in heaven and she's looking down on you and you know all these other
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Saints who've gone on to glory they're looking down and you don't want to disappoint them you know almost as though up in heaven you know there are these really nice curved
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QLED screens and all these people are basically watching us from glory excited when we get it right and holding their hands in their heads and yelling at the screen when we get it wrong like they're watching an
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NFL game is that is that what the author is getting at here as we look at these verses you
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I hope you can gather from the way I'm speaking probably not but one thing about makes it very clear that those who pass on into glory don't know what's happening here
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I'm also why would they want to know what's happening here they're in glory so I don't think that's the meaning that we get here
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I think the key to answering the question of who are these witnesses comes to us in the first two words of verse one so looking it look again at the text so verse one therefore since we have we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us when you see that word therefore allow me to give you a basic Bible study tip when you see the word therefore in your
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Bible ask yourself what it is there for so let's ask the question why does it say therefore here that's why and I heard the confusion in the audience this happens every time
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I teach this passage there was it wait you said we're looking at chapter 12 why do we start in chapter 11 because you can't understand chapter 12 without understanding chapter 11 so what happened in chapter 11 well chapter 11 if you're familiar with the
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Bible some people call it the hall of faith chapter it's this litany of people and the ways in which they're simple and at times imperfect faith manifested itself as God's people in fact here's the total listing in that chapter you have
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Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Sarah Isaac Jacob Moses and then a little section at the end that's where we read it's called the honorable mentions
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Gideon Barak Samson Jephthah David Samuel and the prophets I put it to you and look at this with me and see if it makes sense that the witnesses that the author is talking about in chapter 12 are the very people he's just told them and told us about I put it to you that the witnesses here are not people in heaven well they are in heaven in a sense but when he talks about this such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us he's talking about the people he's just reminded us of all of these great characters from the
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Old Testament are witnesses to us well that leads to our second question remember I said two questions you have to ask who are these witnesses and how are they witnessing easy way to answer that question beloved they are not witnessing us they're not looking at us they are witnessing to us do you catch the difference there that the focus here is not that they are looking at us as much as they are maybe if I swap the word it might help they're not witnessing to us they are testifying to us you see
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I put it to you that the authors of the Hebrews wants his listeners which include you and I this morning to be reminded of the fact that those who went before us testify to us catch this that it is possible to finish the race again we don't have time but I encourage you in your own time this week take some time to just glance over chapter 11 and you'll notice that the phrase that is repeated over and over and over again by faith
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Abel did this by faith Enoch did this by faith Noah did this and on and on it goes what is he getting at by as it were summoning these witnesses what he's getting at is very simple he points to them he says brothers and sisters do you see what faith in God can propel us to be and to do
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I mean it's very clear when you read this list of names not all of these people were perfect and that's exactly the point notice that he doesn't say that so -and -so did this and he was wonderful and amazing or so -and -so did this and he was wonderful and amazing no he prefaces it every time by saying by faith it's almost as though the author wants you to make the connection if I put in the form of a question how did all of these people in previous ages make it to the end by implication how will you my brothers and sisters those who read these words how will you make it to the end if you want an idea look at how they did it they witness by testifying to us that this race can be run yes imperfectly yes with fits and starts as I said we're actually in the book of Genesis in our week to week messages here have you all seen just how many fits and starts have taken place we're not even that far in the story of Isaac and Jacob and yet they make it to the end and the implication of the letter to the
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Hebrews is they made it and by God's grace so can you and this point isn't limited to the water the
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Hebrews of the Bible makes this point over and over again so Romans chapter 15 and verse 4 the
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Bible says for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope
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Paul will say again in 1st Corinthians 1 Corinthians 10 11 now these things happen to them as an example but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come these examples that you read in the
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Old Testament yes they have their moments of failure or weakness but they also have moments of great triumph and great spiritual experience all of these things are designed in the goodness of God to testify to us that simple flawed fallible human beings are more than capable of walking with God here's an idea
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I don't know if you have moments like this sometimes I do well you get discouraged in your walk can
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I give you a piece of advice this might prove helpful to you it's helped me every now and again the next time that you get discouraged in your walk and I encourage you to pick up the
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Old Testament and read through the life of one of God's people I'm doing that at the moment as you know as I said
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I'm preaching through the life of Isaac and Jacob and week by week as I'm reading their story yes
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I have my moments where I am somewhat horrified at times but I'm also encouraged
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I'm encouraged like God was patient with them and since he was patient with them and God doesn't change that means he's patient with me and that when even when they didn't deserve it
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God opened doors and made ways and was a blessing to them if that's the case then he will do that for me too and what ends up happening these characters in the
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Bible inspire me not by their perfection but by their recognition of and their reliance on and their trust in God and the authors of the
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Hebrews look back at our text with me know how he describes it says since we have such a large cloud of witnesses that word picture carries this idea of the there are so many of them like you can't even count them all in fact did you catch it in 1132 where we read he says and what more can
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I say he says time is too short I'm of the view that the lesson to the
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Hebrews was actually a sermon that was written down and as he gets to this point in the sermon he goes I'd love to say more but I don't have time
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I know that pain all too well he has to cut it short there's so many people he could line up and say guys you are not the first to struggle you are not the first to find difficulty and find challenge you're not the first ones to have gone through a hard patch but the wonderful thing is by faith in God you can make it there's so many you have to cut it short and so he begins by encouraging his readers don't just hear these stories and think that was great for them no you need to look around it those who ran the race before you if I can can also make a plug for reading the stories of great
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Christians in previous ages this is one of the reasons I encourage every Christian at least once a year read a
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Christian biography read the story of somebody's walk with God for the year that's coming
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I want to read the story again I read it a few years ago of John G Patton John G Patton was a missionary to the
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New Hebrides from Scotland man suffered greatly gave up a lot to go serve the
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Lord in this culture oh by the way they were cannibalistic literally taking his life in his hands that's just one example there are countless of them down through the ages
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I encourage you once a year to say you know I'm gonna read the story of some great Christian and see what
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God did in and through them and hopefully find some encouragement so how do you run the race of faith run the race of faith by looking around those who ran the race before you but not only do you need to look around the second direction you need to look in is you need to look at yourself and see what might stop you you need to look at yourself and see what might stop you so again come back with me to our text
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Hebrews 12 1 therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us not only do you need to look around and see all those who ran before you you also need to look at yourself and see what might stop you in 2012 my home city the city of London hosted the
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Olympics kind of a high point of London life I'll never forget
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I love cycling you may not know that about me I'm a big fan of cycling I used to love outdoor cycling and then a certain man called
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Lance Armstrong happened but I also love indoor cycling and I still watch that and in 2012 arguably my favorite indoor cyclist ran his final race he was getting ready to retire his name was
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Sir Chris Hoy Scotsman that was his nickname the Flying Scotsman because you boy was he fast and knowing that this was gonna be his final race they kind of put together a little
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VT package that they played before the race and it showed his training regimen so you can just picture me
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I'm 21 at this point yeah 21 I'm sitting on my sofa in the house
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I grew up in in London and I'm watching this five six minute piece on what his training regimen looked like and by the time they got done even
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I felt tired and I hadn't done a single thing because what they showed was how he prepares for his races you ever seen indoor cycling it happens in a flash it's very very quick and they showed him doing forget the number now it was somewhere between 10 and 15 miles on an exercise bike in his personal gym 10 to 15 miles with no break like pedaling with all of his life veins bulging in places you didn't even think was possible like just completely in the zone he gets done and he can't even walk they have to put a gym mat next to him because he just collapses off the bike straight onto this gym mat he actually threw up in the video pushing his body to what clearly looked like breaking point and then they showed the race and it was fascinating because again this is last race you think he might want to take it easy absolutely no he crushed his opposition wasn't even close and I gained it
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I really had a lot of respect for Sir Chris Hoye but I gained a ton more in that moment because I came to realize that his preparation to run for a few sec or in this case the cycle for a few seconds was as rigorous if not more than actually running or cycling as the case may be and that reality
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I put it to you is true spiritually just as it is physically that being able to run faithfully doesn't just happen it's not just well you know
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I'm gonna try harder and do better and kind of pull myself up by my bootstraps and that's how I'll be able to run that's not how this works it requires some preparation on our part
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Paul said it best to Timothy if you're taking notes 1 Timothy 4 7 told
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Timothy have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths rather train yourself some of your
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Bibles will say discipline yourself it was the way it's actually the way we get gymnasium from train yourself discipline yourself in godliness if you're gonna run the race well you need to look at yourself and see what might stop you now
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I need to pause for a moment because there is a right way to look at yourself and a wrong way to look at yourself the wrong way to look at yourself is in a sort of some writers have called this morbid introspection in other words that you're kind of looking at yourself and thinking man
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I need to try harder I need to do this bit I need to do this bit and it's constantly turned in on you that's
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I would argue that's the wrong way why because it's making it all about your ability to run the right way
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I would argue yes we are looking at ourselves and we are thinking okay what could I do better but we're doing so through the lens of careful self -discipline that is empowered by the
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Spirit of God not empowered by trying harder and doing better within ourselves and to help us out the writers of the
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Hebrews gives us two things that we need to consider I'm told by those who are more athletic than me that when you're thinking about performance you have to think about external factors and internal factors things within and things that might be outside of your control but you still need to think about and so the author gives us both something actually both of these are internal in a sense but he gives us two things for us to think about as we think about running this race well to understand this you need to understand the context of races in the first century when this is being written prior to the
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Olympic Games the big games all were known as the if smearing games in their day they rivaled the
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Olympics games quite significantly and when athletes wanted to run well they wanted to run in the kind of way that they lost as much weight as possible without hurting their performance and they often wanted to wear clothing that was light and allow them freedom of movement in fact you know what some runners did in the ancient world to give them an advantage anybody know they ran naked excess weight chafing clothing they recognize all of that could be the difference between victory or defeat and I put it to you that the author the he was kind of picks up that language and so look at verse 1 again therefore since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us know the two things he says let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us two different things first of all he says lay aside every hindrance of your
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Bibles might say lay aside every weight in other words lay aside the things which slow down your spiritual progress this time for lay aside was used for those athletes who would actually disrobe and run naked because they didn't want to be weighed down by the clothing that they had here's what's interesting about that follow the logic with me here for a second our clothes in and of themselves a bad thing all of you are dressed here today
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I am very thankful for that reality clothing is a good thing but in the context of a race some clothing might be less practical and less helpful to running the race
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I told you I'm from London in one of the things they do in the London Marathon I wish they wouldn't it just I don't understand it so the races again it's a marathon so professional runners from around the world come but then you have folks who run the marathon something about doing it for a good reason they're running for charity and stuff like that that's fine they're not professional runners and we all know it but then you have some who decide to wear these awful costumes to run in I mean literally they it takes them like two three days to run the marathon and you're like you know
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I I get why you want to run the London Marathon I don't think that's the most practical thing to wear it makes you wonder like why are you even bothering is a costume wrong in and of itself no at a party or something that's a great thing it just doesn't work in this context okay coffee where you going with this very simple can
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I put it to you that a weight is not necessarily and in fact I go so far as to say it's almost never something that is inherently a bad thing as John McArthur put it in his commentary on this section quote often it is something perfectly innocent and harmless but it weighs down it weighs us down diverts our attention saps our energy and dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God can
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I put it to you that a weight is not necessarily something that is sinful it's whatever slows you down in running the race in the race of faith you cannot be you cannot afford excuse me to be weighed down by things that will slow you down in running so okay let me get practical for a moment can
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I ask you if you think about your own life what is weighing you down can
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I ask you to consider what may be stopping you from running the race well here's the thing in and of itself it might be a good thing it might be something that in a totally different context is completely worthwhile but for the purpose of running the race well it might be something that in and of itself isn't sinful but it is slowing you down and can
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I put it to you that if you know there is something or if you start to think about this and realize oh there's there's something in my life that's slowing me down and it's costing me performance in the race as it were can
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I encourage you by the mercies of God to get rid of it it's not worth it Christian the reality is certain activities might need to go certain affections might need to be reined in certain affiliations might have to come to an end but whatever it takes
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I encourage you with God's help labor to get rid of it and while I'm on the subject can
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I put it to you that what is a weight for you will not necessarily be a weight for someone else this requires some humility on our part there may be things that are a problem for you but are perfectly fine for everyone else well they're perfectly fine for other people why do
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I say that because a danger that can happen in church at times is we start to project what is a weight for us on to somebody else we start to project well this is a struggle for me therefore it must not become a struggle for everyone else again if we're talking about something that in and of itself is not sinful we may want to just pump the brakes a little bit let's exercise some humility here what is a weight for you might not be a weight for somebody else but the point remains if it is a weight for us we need to lay that aside but not only is there the danger of legitimate things that might weigh us down again look at the text because he doesn't just say let us lay aside every hindrance he also says the verb there lay aside carries to both of these things let us lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares us
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I grew up on the King James Version King James Version it says the sin that so easily besets us entangles us some other translations say now there's some debate as to whether there is particular sin being mentioned or just sin in general the original language
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I think leans towards being more general so for example if you've got an English Standard Version here they just translate it and sin which clings so closely they don't put the word thee there because there's some debate there and I think actually makes more sense given the context put it to you that he's not just highlighting that there are unnecessary things that might weigh us down but there's also sin that may need to be dealt with a weight might not be a bad thing but I think we can all agree sin always is but of a sin has the ability to entangle to ensnare you like a animal in a trap to trip you up and the reality is that if a weight is something that some most of the time is external to you sin and the
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Bible's understanding is something that's internal it's close enough to ruin the race for us and the
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Bible is painfully clear when it comes to this reality so Romans chapter 8 verse 13 Paul says but if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the
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Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live I need a whole sermon just to cover that one verse we don't have that time this morning so let me just summarize real quickly the
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Christian lives in a dual reality he is a saint but he's also a sinner and he's both of those at the same time this came out the
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Reformation the phrase of simultaneously saint and sinner this
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Christian is a saint because of the work of Jesus on his behalf and because the Spirit of God is working at in him to transform him more and more into the likeness of Jesus and yet the
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Christian has remaining indwelling sin that needs to be put to death and I believe the point that Paul makes in Romans 8 13 is very simple if you are a
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Christian you are called to be killing sin all the time in this week's study guide
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I recommended a resource called the mortification of sin in that book John Owen who writes the book based on Romans 8 13 has a very famous phrase you hear people use it all the time be killing sin or sin will be killing you to put it in the our race analogy that's kind of guiding the message this morning if unnecessary things slow you down sin undealt with and unchecked will disqualify you from the race entirely now let's be clear
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I believe the Bible teaches that salvation cannot be lost so please don't hear me when I say that's hitting me as saying oh
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I can lose my salvation I don't believe the Bible teaches that but I do believe what
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Paul describes in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 is a very real reality that if we are not careful we can disqualify ourself from the race so again
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I put it to you like this let's get practical with this for a moment is there a sin in your life that is ruining your ability to run the race maybe you're here today and you can't think of one to which
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I say praise the Lord keep on keeping on and you always hear me say here don't just keep on keeping on help your brother or your sister who might be struggling and if you're here and that's you praise the
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Lord I'm really thankful that that's you but maybe you're here today under the sound of my voice and you know exactly the sin that it has you in spiritual knots as it were brother and sister
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I'm pleading with you for the sake of your joy in Jesus start putting that sin to death yes it's the work of a lifetime yes there will be victories and failures yes it will hurt at points but can
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I encourage you with this God is on your side in this God has not left you on your own to do this he gives us the means of grace these wonderful things that we're able to partake in he gives us his word he gives us prayer he gives us the gifts of baptism in the
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Lord's table we're gonna partake of the Lord's table in just a few moments he gives us all of these things all of them empowered by his
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Holy Spirit who lives within us and through the spray that he is made to dwell in us he gives us the power to be able to put sin to death remember what
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Paul said Romans 8 13 but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live it was never
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God's design for you to live the Christian life in your own power if you're going to look at yourself and see what might stop you that can only happen the right way in the
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Spirit's help so how do we run this race of faith well we run by looking around those who ran before us by looking in seeing looking ourselves and seeing what might stop us third direction you need to finally if you don't all that preparation you need to actually look ahead and run the race before you again look what the writer to the
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Hebrew says 12 1 therefore since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us let us run with endurance the race that lies before us okay you've done all of that preparation well now you actually need to go run the thing a few observations first of all the the race that he describes like I said it's a marathon it's not a sprint this is not something that okay we do one time and then okay
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I did it one time for a really short burst all good this requires a sustained effort over a long period of time and you catch how he describes the way in which we should run so he says let us run with endurance some of your
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Bibles might say perseverance endurance is such a necessary quality for living the
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Christian life in fact Jesus often taught his disciples the need for endurance the need for patience the need for perseverance and if I even in the letter to the
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Hebrews twice already he's encouraged his audience to persevere again
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I don't have time to read them so if you're taking notes Hebrews chapter 6 verses 11 through 15 he looks at Abraham's example as a encouragement to perseverance and then chapter 10 verse 36 to 39 he quotes
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Habakkuk as another example of the need for perseverance endurance is such a necessary quality and thankfully we may not have that in and of ourselves but God graciously gives it to us read this verse already
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Romans 15 for remember what Paul said that through the let's read it let's read it again
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Romans 15 verse 4 let's look at it together Romans chapter 15 and verse 4
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Paul says for whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the
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Scriptures I put it to you that you will not develop the endurance you need without the
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Word of God that it's as we read of the faithfulness of God as he fulfills his promises as we read of the ultimate end of those who persevered in faithfulness
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God uses what we read in his Word to encourage perseverance in us that's why not knowing your
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Bible and not knowing your Bible well is such a tragedy because if we neglect this book we end up neglecting the very means that God has given to grow us in perseverance and so he says that we are to run with endurance no way he says the race that lies before us this might be stating the bleeding obvious and I apologize if it is but can
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I put it to you that every believer has a race that they are called to run and that race is not necessarily the same as everyone else's the destination is the same but how we get there might differ from person to person
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God may give us all the same tools the same means of grace to accomplish that end but let's be clear while the destination is the same and the tools are the same how we get there might not always be the same from person to person we know this by experience some of you in this room grew up in Christian families you've only ever been around believing people your journey to faith was very smooth and seamless some people are like that but some of you your journey to faith is a little more complicated there were a few detours a few flat tires here in there but praise
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God you are where you are by the grace of God amen for some of you the journey of the
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Christian life has had its moments but it's not been that difficult there are some
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Christians I think of one of my favorite hymn writers Fanny Crosby had it hard right from the beginning you know
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Fanny Crosby wrote Blessed Assurance safe in the arms of Jesus a bunch of other really great songs that we sing blind her entire
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Christian life actually her entire life if I remember correctly but definitely from the point where she was believe the entire
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Christian life was lived blind which I always thought was interesting because in Blessed Assurance he writes visions of rapture now best on my side
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I always wondered what that must have been like to write as someone who didn't have her sight her journey was a little more complicated than others but regardless we all have a race that is set before us and if we have a race that is set before us number one we must be diligent in running that race but can
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I also put it to you that means you need to be diligent about running your race not trying to run other people's if you've been around church you've all met the type they kind of set themselves up as the spiritual police church
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I was in at one point they used to call them the temple police see you do some brother
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I need to have a conversation with you about that great what did I do now constantly supervising other people's races and not taking care of your own
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I used to play rugby at one point and I remember after one particularly bad game my coach coach he pulled me aside one day and he said hey big man you were looking at everybody else and you were not marking your man you don't need to look at everybody else let them take care of their job you mark your man the bony finger in my chest telling me you need to mark your man and can
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I put it to you that when it comes to the race of the Christian life sometimes the temptation to be to start looking at everybody else and what they're not doing yes we're called to help one another but helping one another does not mean becoming a busybody run the race that is set before you run the race you must do you need to look ahead and run the race before you so how do you run this race you need to look around at those around before you need to look at yourself and see what might stop you you need to look ahead and run the race before you and finally in fact this is important let me pause five and jump into this last point there's a so you can hear me say everything
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I've just said and if it's not done with this final direction in mind it will end up in one of two places or either end up in pride look at me and how well
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I'm running or it will end up in despair look how badly I'm running this is a problem how do you avoid both pride and despair direction number four you need to look up to Jesus who is the example for you you need to look up to Jesus who is the example for you so look at verse 2 with me let me start reading from verse 1 therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us let us run with endurance the race that lies before us keeping our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith for the joy that lay before him he endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God you need to look up to Jesus who is the example for you as we run this race our focus has to be entirely set upon the
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Lord as one right to put it we might glance at others but we are to gaze upon the
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Lord Jesus another right to put it like this he called it a formula for spiritual success he says if you want to be distressed only look within if you want to be defeated only look back if you want to be distracted only look around and if you want to be dismayed only look ahead but if you want to be delivered look up so he says to his audience that we are to keep our eyes on Jesus this is by getting into all the technicalities of grammar here this is explaining how you do the action of running you run with an eye firmly placed on Jesus in fact both eyes and why do we look to Jesus he says we keep our eyes on Jesus because he is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith again
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I grew up on the King James Version King James Version says the author and the finisher I like that translation he starts it and he finishes it but he is the one
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Hebrew chapter 2 verse 10 if you're taking notes he is the one who is the captain of our salvation he brings our salvation about because of his sinless life because of his obedience to the father and his all -atoning death because of him we can have a faith and because of him he will keep us to the end so the
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Bible can say that he is the pioneer he is the author and the perfecter of our faith he's the one who blazed the trail for us because he ran his own race perfectly and in doing so the
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Bible tells us that he as a forerunner has entered into the very presence of God and has cleared a way for us and so he enables us by his spirit to be able to complete the race and to complete it well and nothing then look at the example just as we close look at the example that the author gives us he says for the joy that lay before him he endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for the potential that stood on the other side think about all that Jesus went through it's
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Christmas season we often think about this that he was God he had all the prerogatives of God he had full and unfettered communion with God he had none of the limitations of a human nature that we all experience but he gave all of that up he added to his divine nature a human nature and accepted all of the genuine limitations of humanity in his human nature he does that for you he submits himself to the law of God obeying it in thought word and deed he endures all of the temptations that come to the those who would seek to be righteous in this world yeah he doesn't sin and why does he do all of that the text says that he did it for the joy that was set before him the joy of knowing that on the other side of this would be an innumerable host of redeemed sinners who would join him in glory but the fact that on the other side of this was the ascension and his session the fact that now he sits in heaven with all authority given to him the fact that a kingdom is now his that he will one day take full possession of when he returns for that joy that was ahead of him he went through everything he went through he endured the cross the author says he despised the shame that came with the cross there was a lot of pain but all what gain also followed because the text says that he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God Jesus was able to push past the difficulty of what he faced knowing that there was joy on the other side and here's the implication from the altar
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Hebrews as we call it time this morning Jesus looked ahead to the joy that was before him and if you're going to run the race of faith well you need to look for the joy that is ahead of you what's the joy of every
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Christian you might ask that one day we will see him as he is that this life as we know it is not the end of the story so I Paul could say if first Corinthians 15 10 if we only have hope in Christ in this life we are of all people to be most pitied but praise
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God we don't just have hope in Christ in this yes we have hope in this life but it's not just in this life is it no we have a hope that transcends this life it puts this life in perspective it puts the difficulties and the challenges of the race before us into perspective as I wrap up this morning
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I put it to you that the race that is set before us yes it has its challenges yes it has its difficulties but guess what in the midst of all of that there is joy on the other side and the reality that there is joy on the other side enables us and empowers us to run now that's what we celebrate every time we come hold the
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Lord's table there's a reason why we end the Lord's table by saying that you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes even in partaking of this table that we're gonna partake of in just a few moments even in that we are reminding ourselves that this is not the end but one day we will finish the race and now we will make it to glory where we will enjoy unfettered unbound and unending communion with our
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God who gave himself for us in Christ and that enables us to run this race and to run it to the finish let's pray together our father and our
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God we thank you so much that the Lord Jesus did indeed endure the cross and despise the shame for us that he was willing to lay all of that aside for the joy of seeing us come to know you for the joy of bringing us to glory for the joy of enjoying the fullness of the authority and power that you gave him the father we thank you that his example empowers our own but it empowers us to run the race of faith well knowing that one day we will see him who is our souls reward so father
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I help pray that you would help us to run the race in the right kind of way that we would look around at those who ran before us that we would look in on ourselves in the right way and see what might be hindering us that we would look ahead and run our race well and that ultimately we would look up and remember