Run the Race, Hebrews 12:1, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Hebrews 12.1 offers this encouragement, This is part three of a study on Hebrews 12.1 titled, Run the Race.

It was first preached on December 2nd, 2012. Great work of your life. Before you give an account to your Creator, be this, playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment.

Look, Lord, see my shells? That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream.

Over and against that, I put my protest, don't buy it. Do not waste your life. We are not draggers.

We are offered draggers, day in and day out. A wasted life is missing the point of my design. A wasted life is missing the point of my design. And the writer of Hebrews is saying exactly that right here. Therefore, let us run with the endurance, the race that is set before us.

How do we do that? We begin by laying aside the weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. The things in my life that I have a propensity to be distracted by, that want my loyalty, that want my energy to distract me away from the object of my faith. The things that want to become my object of trust and satisfaction.

No. The writer of Hebrews says, let's run the race with endurance. Simply put, how do you do that? You live by faith as those did as described in Hebrews chapter 11. You live by faith.

What does that mean? You pursue God. Pursue God.

Be labor intensive in your pursuit of God. Take action on what I know. What do I know? I know what God has revealed. As I said it before, you don't grow in the faith just by knowing stuff. I live by faith and therefore I grow in the faith by taking action on the information that God has given me. Faith is far beyond mere knowledge.

What I know is not the point. Living by faith and moving towards the object of my faith is the point. And so I live with the end in view because I was designed to fellowship with God.

I was designed to know Him and to interact with Him. And therefore as I live with the end in view and I don't allow myself to be defined by or distracted by my circumstances. I move towards the goal and therefore I make bold choices. Bold choices that many in my environment will probably consider and label as unusual and strange. But it's because I'm living by faith.

I'm taking action on the information that God has given me and I'm living with the end in view. And I do these things with endurance. I do them with endurance. You see the more I persevere the more stamina I build.

I can guarantee you that folks. The more you persevere the more stamina you build. Nuanced in this term, this phrase, run the race. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The idea of running the race nuanced in it is that it is a contest. It is a contest.

What does that mean? Something is competing for your energy and your loyalty. You are in fact swimming upstream. Drift will take you away from the objective.

And that drift looks like these that we considered before. I don't understand. Remember Abraham? Did he understand God's directive to him?

No he didn't. But he trusted God nonetheless. And God doesn't expect you to understand everything. But don't let that drag you down. Don't let that distract you away from living by faith with endurance. I don't understand. What you need to know God has revealed.

And based on what you do know you can trust him for what you don't. That is living by faith. Other draggers. How long must I endure? Some of us are enduring things. Some of us are enduring things at levels that the rest of us are not having to endure them. And some of us might be saying how long do I have to endure this? We are enduring the frustrating characteristics of a fallen creation. And you're saying how long do I have to put up with this? And some of you have resigned yourself to the fact that you may have to endure this the rest of your life whatever this is. But don't let that drag you down.

Don't let that distract you from the objective of your faith. How about I just want normal? I just want normal. I just want to live a comfortable normal life.

As long as God provides me that I will follow him. Really. May God rescue us from that.

And I speak to as I speak to an American as I speak as an American to Americans. Okay. We're so bent on normal, aren't we? Is a normal life distracting me away from living by faith?

The writer of Hebrews is challenging us there. Lay aside that weight. Lay aside the weight.

Because let me tell you this. If you are living by faith, you will be deemed as abnormal. Okay.

I just want normal. Or you could say this is hard. I can't do it. This is hard.

We could be distracted like Peter was when Jesus said come to me on the water and Peter got out and he was looking at the objective of his faith. The moment he took his eyes off the objective and he started to become distracted by the waves, then he started to sink. What are the waves in your life? What is distracting you? What is it about your environment? The difficulty?

The frustrating characteristic of it? What is it that is distracting you and taking your focus off the one who is the object of your faith and your satisfaction? Is your survival more important to you than pleasing God? It's a good thing it wasn't for Jesus, wasn't it?

This is hard. If you're living by faith with endurance, you will do hard things. It's what the writer of Hebrews is calling us to.

These things can distract us. Or even the passing pleasures of sin. There are many preachers out there who say that sin is no fun.

That's not true. It is fun. You know why I know? Because I'm a sinner and sometimes it's fun. But you know what that is? That's the passions of the flesh. It's fun in terms of immediate gratification. But then it gets you in its grip and eventually it will destroy you. And Moses gave that up in order to identify with Christ. You see, he took those draggers off.

He didn't allow himself to be distracted. So these are things. It is a contest. These things vie for my energy and my loyalty. And they want to distract me away from the objective of my faith.

And the writer of Hebrews says, don't do it. Lay aside that weight and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Here's something else we need to understand about this race. It's not a sprint. There might be some good sprinters in here. This race is not a sprint. A sprint is a short-lived impulse. And some of us, we might have this short-lived impulse of a mountaintop experience of faith. Wow, yesterday was so great and I did this and then today something happens and I become defined by environment and I just plummet into the depths.

And now today I'm questioning God. Running the race of living by faith with endurance is not a sprint. It is a marathon. It is a marathon. And it makes little difference that I hold the record in the 100 meter dash if I'm running a marathon. The focus of my effort is the pursuit of God. I don't know, I don't actually know how long this race is going to continue. That's why it requires faith. But we run the race and it is a marathon and it requires endurance. It requires us to lay aside the weight, take off the draggers, put them aside, ignore the old man on the sidelines.

Listen to the witnesses who've gone on before by the testimony of their lives who say it is worth it to make the I am the object of your trust and your satisfaction. Twyla Paris wrote a song. She was one of my favorite authors a couple decades ago. Her song is called Runner. Courier valiant, bearing the flame, messenger noble, sent in his name, faster and harder, run through the night, desperate relay, carry the light. Obstacle ancient, chilling the way, enemy wakened, stoking the fray, still be determined, fearless and true, lift high the standard, carry it through. Mindful of many, waiting to run, destined to finish what you've begun. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.