Running The Christian Race To Win — Zac Poonen

The Christian Life as a Race of Faith

I was thinking today of the Christian life being like a race. There are only two places in the New Testament where the Christian life is called a race and I thought I would look at them. First of all, of course, in Hebrews and chapter 12.

Now, Hebrews chapter 12 is a continuation from chapter 11. Let me repeat what I've often said, that when the books of the Bible were written, they were not divided into chapters and verses. They may have been paragraphs, but chapter divisions were made by man maybe three, four hundred years ago, long after the Bible was written, just to enable us to be able to access a particular verse quickly.

So Hebrews chapter 12 begins actually in chapter 11 verse 40 and chapter 11 is a description of all the great men in the Old Testament, how they lived by faith and that is an example for us because our race is also a race of faith.

Faith in Jesus Christ and the Father. Now, the Old Testament people did not know Jesus Christ and they did not know the Father. They only had faith in a God who did miracles for them. But here we are told of all these people who did many wonderful things by faith, but it was all external.

They defeated enemies, they pulled down the walls of Jericho, they split the Red Sea. Everything was external, even Abraham getting a son. There's nothing spiritual in all this. In that entire, Noah made an ark and then it comes to the last verse of Hebrews 11 and it says God has provided something better for us.

Think of shutting the mouths of lions in chapter 11 verse 33 and people being raised from the dead further down in that chapter and then it says there's something better for us than all that. When you read about splitting of the Red Sea or people raising the dead and shutting the mouths of lions, you think, boy, I wish I could have done something like that.

I want to tell you, every one of you, brothers and sisters, God has provided something better than pulling down the walls of Jericho, better than stopping the sun like Joshua did. You take any miracle in the Old Testament done by anybody, for everyone sitting here, you and me, we have the opportunity to do something better than the greatest miracles done in the Old Testament.

I've said this before but I need to repeat it. Hebrews 11 is full of the miracles and the last verse says God has provided something better for us. But we need to have faith to understand that that is better.

And what is that better thing? And that is in chapter 12 verses 1 to 4. It's a continuation. He's just saying, now I'll explain that better thing. He says the ones in chapter 12 verse 1 says all these people, all died and they've gone to heaven, they are witnesses and we are, chapter 12 verse 1, we are running a race.

So the picture here is of a stadium like the Olympic Games stadium and sitting in all the stands are the Old Testament people who already died and gone. And in the race today are you and me. That's the picture here.

Remember this. The Old Testament saints are witnesses, perhaps they can see us from heaven. And they're watching you, how you run this race. And me. Have you ever thought of that? That some of these men like Noah and Abraham and David and Elijah and Elisha and all these people are witnesses it says here.

That's perhaps one of the verses that indicates that perhaps they can see us. There's no clear verse that tells us that but Paul said to depart is to be with Christ. So from there, here it says chapter 12 verse 1, they are witnesses.

Witness means someone who's seeing something. You can't say I witnessed something unless you can see it. So this verse seems to indicate that they can see us running the race here. And of course they can't do anything for us, they can't pray for us from there.

But I think they'd be terribly disappointed with this, with the way some people are running the race. And they'd have thought, boy, if we had the opportunity that these New Testament Christians have, wow, what we could have done.

God never gave us that. That's what Elijah is saying. That's what Elisha is saying. That's what Daniel is saying. That's what Moses is saying. I wish I could have the opportunity that these folks sitting in CFC today have.

Do you see your calling like that? You know, it's wonderful when we realize what a privileged position we are in. God has given us the resources for it. So I plead with you, don't miss out on what God has for you in this one life.

It's one race. It's like a marathon race. And all of us have been running. Some have been careless in their running. Some haven't got rid of some of the chains in their legs while running. Then it slows down.

You can run with a chain in your leg, but it will slow you down. I remember the Lord told me once that what I had done at the beginning of my Christian life, when I was born again in 1959, I was nearly 20 years old, 19 and a half, the Lord reminded me of in my unconverted days while I was working in the Navy, how I had not paid all my taxes properly, like the other officers in the Navy, you know, were like that.

So I did like them. And the Lord said, that's cheating. You must give it back. So I calculated and gave back. It was about four months salary I had to give back. And that took a long time to save that much money.

But many years later, the Lord said to me, if you had not done that way back then, 20, 30 years ago, you would have been running with a chain on your leg all these 30 years. Thank God you did it immediately when you were converted.

Is there any chain on your leg as you run this race? Any unsettled matter about the past? You know, Zacchaeus, when he met the Lord and the Lord met him, he said, yeah, I remember now I've cheated some people.

I want to give that money back. And he said, I want to give it back with interest, more interest than he'd got from the bank. He was so upright. And I'm going to, I'm absolutely certain I'll see Zacchaeus in heaven.

Such people end up in heaven who are so radical. And boy, he must be so delighted today in heaven that he set those matters right. What did he lose? Maybe a few thousands of rupees, but look what he gained today.

He took it seriously. So in this race, we have to make sure that there's no weight that weighs us down. It says here in chapter 12, verse 1, let us lay aside every encumbrance. Encumbrance means some heavy thing that's like dragging you back, something hindering you, a chain on your feet, something unsettled.

It may not be money. It may be just the fact that you didn't go and ask forgiveness from somebody you hurt. And you can't run the race. You're running, but your race, you could have made 10 times more spiritual progress by now.

You had settled that matter. I remember when I settled those matters, how suddenly the Lord anointed me and began to give me a gift to serve him right from that time, right from the time I was 23. So how thankful I am that I did not miss out on that.

And if you have not settled those matters, I want to urge every one of you, do it now. The earliest opportunity. So it says here we must lay aside this encumbrances and weights that entangle our legs.

And we must run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, who also ran this race. So when we see that he also ran this race, he didn't have anything to set right because he lived a perfect life.

But he had to fight against temptation. Let me see right from the beginning of his baptism. The very first thing before he preached a sermon, he was being tempted just like us. And that's where he was faithful.

That was the race. His race was every time he overcame a temptation was one step forward in the race. Another temptation is another step forward. That's why God allows us to be tempted every day so that we can make a progress in the race.

You overcome a temptation, you've taken one more step forward. Another temptation during the day, another step forward. Can you imagine how in a year, what a long distance you would have run? But if you don't, if you're not faithful, then you're not just standing still, you'll be going backwards.

So it says we look unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who endured the cross. This is how he ran the race. Endured the cross means in very simple words, he died to himself. And we get plenty of opportunities to die to ourselves.

Every day, Jesus said, if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross daily. That means every day we have opportunities to forgive somebody or not to retaliate if somebody treats us badly or yells at us or somebody behaves as if it's the bad conscience and we keep our conscience clear and don't respond to that.

And be willing to take the blame for something which we never did. I remember the days when I was riding the scooter here in Bangalore, I used to ride a scooter here for many years. And I discovered through the years that whenever two scooters collide, there'll be a yelling match.

And because the rule in India is whoever shouts louder, he's right. And I discovered this over a period of time, that even if somebody else came and hit me, he would get up, he would stand up and stop and start shouting, because that is the way he would prove that it was my fault.

So I decided that even if somebody came and hit me, I would immediately say, I'm sorry, sir. Oh, then he'd smile at me and say, it's okay. He would forgive me for hitting me, and then he'd move on. So I discovered, and what do I lose by saying, I am sorry?

I have said that hundreds and probably thousands of times to different people and never felt ashamed to do it, never felt too proud to say it to people who are much younger, even to unbelievers. If accidentally I hurt them in some way, I mean, if you, for example, you travel in a crowded bus, and you accidentally step on somebody's foot, what do you do?

You say to him, hey, listen, I didn't purposely do that. No, you say, it was accidental, I know, but you still say, I'm sorry, sir, please forgive me, even though you did not do it deliberately. That is, even the worldly people know that, how much more a Christian.

Sometimes it's not deliberately that you say something to hurt your husband or wife, accidental, just like stamping on somebody's foot. Husbands and wives are stamping on each other's foot, spiritually speaking, many times.

That's not the time to say, hey, I didn't mean that, I didn't, no, you don't say that to the man in the bus. Don't say it to your husband or wife, just say, I'm sorry, I think I hurt you there by those words, please forgive me.

Can you remember the last time you asked somebody to forgive you? You would be running much faster today if you did it. I know it may increase the speed in my life of running, that I decided I'm going to do it even if there's the slightest suspicion that I hurt somebody, I'm going to ask their forgiveness.

I'd even write it down, and if they're not around, I would send them an email, let them have a permanent record that they can keep, that Brother Zach Poonen came and asked my forgiveness, sure. They may think it's humiliating for me, I personally don't think so.

I think it is just setting something right so that I can run the race. I don't look at that person, I look at Jesus. It says you're fixing our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of faith, who endured the cross.

And this is a sort of cross, a cross where when you have to die in some situation, it is a cross. And if you're unwilling to die in a situation, you're not taking up the cross and you can't run this race efficiently.

That is a shame. Yeah, yeah, there can be a shame when you ask forgiveness, so there's a shame. People may mock you, but it says Jesus despised the shame. It says in verse 2, because he's not bothered what people thought about him.

Imagine him hanging on a cross, completely stripped except for an underwear there, everybody laughing at him. It's a shameful thing to be stripped like that. At least if he's wearing clothes and he's crucified, that's one thing.

But stripped and nailed, there's a shame there, but he despised it. He said, it's okay. If my father wants me to go like this, I'll accept it. And there may be situations in your life as well, in your office or in your home or with relatives where you're put to shame because you stand up for Christ, or they think you're acting like a woman instead of being a man.

That's okay. Let people think what they like. If I'm doing what is pleasing to the Lord, I despise the shame. The result was Jesus said he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now compare scripture with scripture.

How did he sit down at the right hand of the throne of God? Read carefully. He endured the cross and despised the shame of hanging on that cross, 90 naked. Despised that shame. People laugh at me, make fun of me, it's okay.

He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So he endured the cross and despised the shame. That's how he reached the right hand of the throne of God. Now compare scripture with scripture and turn to Revelation and chapter 3.

God has given us this Bible in our own language so that we can compare scripture with scripture. I want to make this very practical in your life, brothers. Don't listen to this as some theoretical message.

Intensely practical. You'll need it every day of your life. Because Jesus said we have to take up the cross every day. Even you children, young people, you start now, it'll be very easy. I'm glad that I started when I was 19.

Overcoming Through the Cross and Self-Control

That's made it so much easier for me as I've grown up. Now how did Jesus sit down at the right hand of the throne of God? Now here in Revelation 3 .21, it is spoken in another way. Jesus says, he who overcomes, I'll make him sit with me on my throne as I sat on my father's throne by becoming an overcomer myself.

Did you see that? The last part of verse 21, chapter Revelation 3 .21. Because I overcame, I sat at the right hand of the throne of God. And if you overcome, you can sit down with me on my throne. But in Hebrews 12, we are told that he sat down at the right hand of the throne because he despised the shame and endured the cross.

So when I put the two verses together, I understand what it is to be an overcomer. In Revelation 3 .21, it is said, this is an overcomer. And he will sit on my throne. In Hebrews 12, that overcoming is explained as despising the shame, enduring the cross.

That's being an overcomer and sitting on the right hand of the throne of God. I can get there too. So in this race, the other place where you read about a race is in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul says, here again, actually chapter 9 verse 24 should be the first verse of chapter 10.

If I were dividing the Bible, I'd put chapter 10 verse 1 at chapter 9 verse 24 because the rest of chapter 10 and 13 verses are a continuation of that subject. So read it like that. Let's begin at chapter 9 verse 24.

Don't you know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize. It is called overcoming in chapter 12, Hebrews 12. Here it is called receiving a prize. The prize is the throne of God.

We saw that. All can run, but not all get a prize. But the wonderful thing in the Christian life is, Paul is writing to these Corinthians and saying, you must run in such a way that you win. But you say, hey, Paul, you said only one person can come first.

Yes, all of you can come first. This is the wonderful thing about the Christian life, that if 3 ,000 people are running, all 3 ,000 can come first. And all of you sitting here, is it what, 500? All of you can come first.

There's not a single person sitting here who cannot come first. You can come first. And decide that from now on, every day, you're going to die to yourself. That's enduring the cross. And you're not going to be bothered about any shame that comes to you, because you stand up for Christ in your place of work, or with your unconverted relatives, or some shame that comes to you because you take a stand for the Lord in some way.

Don't, I mean, despise that shame. Don't be bothered by it. And you'll receive the prize. The prize is the right hand of the throne of God. All of you can get it. But he says, if you want to win, you have to exercise the 25, verse 25, self-control in all things.

You have to discipline yourself, if you want to win in this race. It's a spiritual discipline. Dying to yourself is the equivalent of what the marathon runner See, a marathon runner, for example, is very careful about what he eats.

Because if he puts on, eats whatever he likes, and puts on a lot of weight, he's not going to win in the race. And if he's not practicing every day, he will not win in the Olympics. If he's lazy to train for the race, he will not win.

So it says here, everyone who competes in games, verse 25, exercises self-control in all things. I've seen that many believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit, genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit, because they prayed, and they still don't grow spiritually because they don't exercise self-control.

Being filled with the Spirit and taking up the cross must go together. This is what the Lord showed me when I began to seek the Lord as a young man. I used to go to an assembly that did not preach the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

They preached the study of the Word. So I studied the Word, I was thankful for that. When I read the Word, I found that John the Baptist said that Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. You know, the first two promises in the New Testament, the very first two promises in the New Testament, Matthew 1 .21, Jesus will save you from all your sins.

Not forgive your sin, save you from your sins. Every sinful habit, He can save you. That's the first promise in the New Testament, Matthew 1 .21. And the second promise is telling us how He will do it.

How will He do it? Matthew 3 .11, He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. And that's what I sought the Lord for. And the Lord met with me. And I realized that I have to continue in that all the time.

You know, like a charcoal fire. It won't just burn forever. You've got to keep stoking it and putting more charcoal in, and then it keeps burning. Or even a wood fire. You've got to put wood in. So this fire of the Holy Spirit, we've got to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

To experience that continuous fire. And then we have the strength to run the race. So the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 .22 and 23 is self-control.

Self-control means when somebody provokes me to anger, I can keep quiet. When somebody doesn't forgive me, I can forgive him. That's self-control. If somebody yells at you and you yell back, obviously you don't have self-control.

You're not running the race. You're, you know, grieving the Holy Spirit. So everyone who wants to be serious about this race to follow Jesus must exercise self-control. That's why we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot control ourself. Self-control means controlling this big ruler in our heart called self. Self is easily offended, hurt. And you've got to put self in the proper place. That's why God gives us the Holy Spirit.

And if I do that in the different situations in life, I'll make progress in the race. Little by little by little by little. And one day I finish. Come to the finishing line. And so Paul says here, I also am running in such a way, not without any aim.

I've got a definite goal. You know, every race, whether it's a hundred meters or a marathon race, they know there's a finishing line somewhere. And this is the track to go there. And they never go outside the track.

It's a waste of time going out there. You just stay in the track and get to the finishing line. Whether it's a hundred meters or a 40 kilometer marathon race, there's a goal. We work towards it. So he says, I don't run in such a way as without aim.

I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, lovingly. Do you have an aim in your Christian life? When you send your children to school, the kindergarten, you encourage them to have an aim. You must learn the alphabet.

You must learn to read. Gradually, you must learn addition. And then you go to chapter, I mean, first standard. And then you have an aim. You got to study some new subjects. And every standard, there is an aim.

There is a race to be run. And that's how a student goes all the way to 10th standard and finishes school and then goes to PUC or 11th and 12th, and then goes to college. We all have an aim. All of you who are working today, you wouldn't be working today if you didn't have an aim.

And in the Christian life also, you must have an aim. And I want to tell you that aim is, should be, that you want to become more and more Christ-like. Not necessarily every day. Say over a period of a year or at least two or three years, you become more Christ-like.

And if you're married, the best person who can tell you is your marriage partner. You ask your husband or your wife, and they'll tell you whether you've become more Christ-like in the last two or three years.

Or whether you're the same stubborn, selfish person who's only thinking about yourself. Even your children will probably be able to tell you. Now, you don't have to ask them, but I think you know what they think about you, because you know how you have been behaving.

And even in your office, the people around you who work with you in the office will be able to give a testimony about you, whether you conduct yourself in a Christ-like way. It's not how successful you are in your business or how much money you make.

Those are not the tests. The test is, how much have I reflected Christ in my place of work? That is the mark of success in our Christian life. In the world, they evaluate success by how much money did you make?

How much did your business prosper? How much promotion did you get in your job? How much did your salary increase? But for a Christian life, how much did I reflect the life of Christ in my place of work?

More and more, then you're running the race. Are you going backward? That means at one time you were more Christ-like and now you're not. But many married couples, it's like that. Many married couples in the first year of their married life, they have behaved in a Christ-like way to each other and see them five years later, and they are fighting and quarreling with each other.

Which way are they going? They're going backwards. And only because they're not willing to die to themselves when they are insulted or provoked or tempted. So he says, I run in such a way not without aim.

I've got an aim. And so, verse 27, I discipline my body and I make it my slave. What that means is when I'm provoked by somebody to anger, my body says, I want to speak back to him in the same way. And I say, no.

Tongue, keep quiet. That's disciplining my body. Otherwise, you're not the master of your body. Your tongue is the master. Or it could be your eyes and your eyes, men especially, you're tempted to look at something.

Or nowadays, you can see filthy things even on your phone. Look at something and you tell your eyes, no. You're not going to be the master in my life. I'm going to be the master. I'm going to tell you what to look at and what not to look at.

I'm going to tell you what type of stuff you should read and what you should not read. I'm going to tell you what type of movies you should see and what you should never see. Most of today's movies, you should never see.

That is to run the race. It's a daily affair. You may not see much progress in a day. But over a period of five years, people will be amazed if they hadn't seen you for five years. Supposing someone, some other believer had not seen you for five years and sees you and say, wow.

See, that brother has really become Christ-like since the last time I saw him. Isn't that a good testimony for the glory of God? Not for your glory. No, no, no. If you seek your glory, you destroy yourself.

But that Jesus Christ and the angels can rejoice that there's a brother or sister who's glorifying Christ in his life. So Paul says, I discipline my body. I make it my slave. And one paraphrase of that verse is, verse 27, my body does not tell me what I should do.

I tell my body what it should do. I tell my eyes where to look. And I tell my tongue what to speak. And I tell my inward being how to respond to different provocations. And if I don't do that, it says in verse 27, I can preach to so many people.

And when I come to the end of the race, the Lord will say, disqualified. Imagine running a race and coming to the end of it. Marathon races, even the world record is about two hours, some few minutes.

Imagine running a race for two or three hours with all your effort and all the training. And at the end, the referee says you're disqualified. That'd be terrible. Imagine somebody trained for the Olympic Games for years and years and years, finally was selected to represent his country in the Olympic Games and ran the marathon race with all his heart.

And at the end, even though he came pretty high quickly, and the referee says you're disqualified because down there you made a foul. He says, I can be disqualified. Even the apostle Paul says at the end of the race, I could be disqualified.

Because he did not follow the rules. In many of the races within the stadium, they have a rule that you must stay within your lane. If you go outside your lane, you're disqualified. So when some person may carelessly go outside the lane and come first, and the referee says you're not first.

Down there, that particular point, you went outside your lane. In the Christian life, when we go outside the lane, we can set it right by immediately asking God to forgive us. The Lord says, okay, forgiven, now continue the race.

My dear brothers and sisters, please take this seriously. I've taken it seriously, and it has made my life supremely happy. It's not a strain. It's more of a strain when you live in sin. It's not a strain when you set everything right.

I mean, I look at sin like a thorn comes into my foot. Well, I don't know what I do when a thorn comes into my foot. As soon as possible, I take it out. If I accidentally cut my hand, as soon as possible, I try and wash it or put some medicine or something.

If you break a bone, as soon as possible, you fix it. These simple rules, if you do it, you remain healthy. And the same thing in the Christian life, as soon as possible, set it right. Make that a law in your life from today.

That when your conscience tells you there was something you did wrong, as soon as possible, set it right. Then you'll never be disqualified at the end of the race. Imagine Paul saying, I can preach to others, and at the end of the race, I'm disqualified.

Finishing the Race Like Paul

Before Paul became Paul, his name was Saul. And originally, you read of him as Saul of Tarsus. They changed his name to Paul. But Paul completed his race in a wonderful way. See, in 2nd Timothy, because he was careful about these things that he said, he says in 2nd Timothy in chapter 4 and verse 7, the middle, I have finished my race.

I finished my race. And now verse 8, I'm going to get a crown. Now, he was not perfect. But as soon as he did something wrong, he said it right immediately. I fought a good fight. I finished the course.

I kept the faith. And so, and remember this, this is a man who wasted 30 years of his life committing terrible sins like imprisoning Christians and murdering some Christians, as far as we know. A man who was eager to kill Christians for 30 years of his life, got radically converted and finished the race.

Now, some of us may think, oh, I wasted so many years of my life. How can I finish the race with great joy? Yeah, think of Paul. That was not God's plan for him that 30 years of his life, he should be against Christianity and fighting with Christians.

No, he missed out on God's will for 30 years. And some of you may have missed out on God's will for many years. And at the end of your life, can you say, I finished the race? If Paul can say it, why can't you and I?

And you may say, how is that possible? I'll tell you how. Because God knew that this man, Paul, would not come to Christ till he was around 30. Or he wouldn't take the Christian life seriously till then.

And God knows with some of you that you're not going to take the Christian life seriously till a certain point in your life. OK, God says, I overlook. I don't look at those previous years. Forget them.

I blotted them out. You can still run from where you are today and win the prize. That's the encouragement in the Christian life. You don't have to say, oh, Lord, I've wasted so many years of my life.

Never mind. Start today. Paul is a great example. And you can also get the crown in the final day. So when Paul says, there's a crown later for me, remember, he died when he was 67. But for 30 years, he was going the wrong way.

Not just that he was not a Christian, he was killing Christians, putting them in jail. He was dead against Christ. And still, he got a crown at the end. That shows us, even though we have wasted many years, you can still get the crown of righteousness and sit on the throne.

You take it radically from now and say, Lord, I'm serious about running this race. And in 1 Corinthians 9, I told you that chapter 10 should begin there, 9 verse 24. Because it goes on to say, let me give you the example, he says in chapter 10, of people who, 1 Corinthians 10, who were baptized.

They came under the cloud, that means there's a picture of the Holy Spirit. They ate the same spiritual food, picture of reading God's word. They drank the same spiritual drink, chapter 10, verse 4, picture of the Holy Spirit.

So picture of a Christian saved from sin, baptized in water, verse 2, reading God's word, verse 3, filled with the Holy Spirit, verse 4. But verse 5, God is not pleased with them. They had all these experiences, but they backslid after receiving all this, and God punished them.

Will that happen to us? Verse 5, verse 6, these things happened to them as an example for us. Who are running the race today, that we should not crave for the evil things they craved for. And don't act immorally, in an impure way, sexually, verse 8.

As some of them did, and 23 ,000 people were killed in one day. Don't tempt the Lord by playing the fool and saying, it doesn't matter if I sin, I can always ask God to forgive me. Don't grumble, verse 10, like some of them grumbled and were destroyed.

And these things all happened to them as an example, written for our instruction. Therefore, verse 12, if anyone thinks that he's going to run the race perfectly, take heed. If you're careful about all these things, you will run the race perfectly.

But otherwise, be careful that you don't fall. And as a comfort, he says in verse 13, a great verse, God will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able to bear. That's like saying a teacher in a school will not give a 10th standard paper to a third standard student.

That's understood. He won't even give a fourth standard paper to a third standard student. Third standard student will only get third standard question paper. His elder brother who's in sixth standard will get a sixth standard question paper.

God will not allow you to get a test which is beyond your ability. It's a great encouragement to me. I find God tests me today in areas where he never tested me 10 years ago. In the early days of my Christian life, I was tested and tempted in small, small things.