One of the most famous races in the entire world, at least in the United States, is the Boston Marathon. Many avid runners dream and train for the opportunity to run in that race. And each year, the organizers of that race only allow 20,000 runners who meet the qualification by running in another marathon and get a certain time to be able to enter into that Boston Marathon. But what's interesting is the organizers also allow another 10,000 runners to enter who have partners. whether they be sponsors, vendors, running clubs, charities, and the things like that. Rounding out the number to about 30,000 people are running in the Boston Marathon each year. In fact, there's been such a draw for it that they're actually going to be lowering the qualifying time in the next year or two to try to narrow the pool from which people can be drawn from to run in that. Now, I don't know about you, but I have no desire to run in the Boston Marathon. That's right, thank you. There's no desire in me that wants to run 26.2 miles. I just have no desire. I'm curious though, has anyone here actually ever run in an official marathon 26.2 miles looking around? No, no one has. I know my brother ran in a half marathon not too long ago, 13.1 miles. That's long enough. I couldn't even do that. But 26.2 miles, none of us really have that desire. But even though I'm guessing most of us don't like running, all of us can relate to this idea of a foot race. I'm guessing sometime in our life, whether it was when we were really young or sometime along the way, we've either participated in a race, maybe it was running around the cones on Wednesday night at Grace Bible Club, or we've just seen a race. All of us are familiar with the idea of a foot race. And the writer of Hebrews understands that, and so he uses this illustration, this picture of a foot race, to illustrate our life of faith. He compares our life of faith to a foot race. And hence, the title for today's sermon is The Faith Marathon. We're gonna follow that analogy as we go through the sermon today. Of course, I'm guessing most of us, if not all of us, will probably never qualify to run in the Boston Marathon. However, each one of us has the opportunity to run in an even more important race, the faith marathon. Now, there's no actual physical running involved, and you can say amen again to that, right? But that's the word picture that we're going to use this morning, this idea of running, this idea that is used here in Hebrews chapter 12 of living our life by faith. We're gonna use this picture of running and keep coming back to it many times, but we're using it as that picture, the picture that the writer of Hebrews is using here. So as we go through these three verses in Hebrews chapter 12 together this morning, we're going to ask three important questions. Three important questions that each one of us must consider, each one of us must think about as we consider our own lives. I think we all are aware of the fact that we only have one life to live. And it's so important that with this one life that God has given us to live, that we are living it well, that we are living it by faith to the glory of God. And so as we go through the text this morning, I encourage you to examine your own life. Ask yourself these three questions so that you can answer them to determine if you are pleasing God as you live your life by faith in this faith marathon. The first question that we're going to ask ourselves this morning arising from the text is simply, will you run? Will you run? If you're looking at the text, you can see it begins with the word, therefore. Many times in the New Testament we see this word, therefore, understanding that we need to see what it's there for, looking back to see what the writer said before, and then based on the conclusion of what has been said, he makes a statement. And the same thing's happening here, except it's interesting that this word, therefore, is a unique word that's only used two times in the entire New Testament. and in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and it's placing special emphasis. He's saying, based on the conclusion of what I've said in chapter 11, as we've been studying, therefore, and then there's only one main verb in the long sentence, which composes verses one and two. There's only one main verb. The rest of all the other verbs that we can see in English, at least, are modifying that one main verb in the Greek, which is the verb, let us run. And so literally, the text would say, therefore, Let us run. And so that's the question. Will you run? Will you run? Are you in? You see, this is the most important question that each one of us can answer this morning. Each one of us has the opportunity to run in this faith marathon. The only qualification for entering into this race is making the decision to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We read in Romans 10.9, if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. You see, receiving this gift of salvation is the entry ticket into the race, if I could put it that way. This decision is the most important decision that we can ever make because our eternal destiny hangs in the balance. Most of us are familiar with this, but we understand that because all of us have sinned, and it's true, all of us have sinned, we've done wrong things, which the Bible labels as sin. And because of our sin, as we read in Romans 6.23, the wages, the payment for our sin is death. Ultimately, spending eternity in hell forever. But aren't you thankful? The verse doesn't end there. Paul goes on to say in Romans 6, 23, And so those of us who have received this gift of salvation provided by Christ's death and resurrection are in the race. And so if you're a Christian this morning, you have entered this race. You have entered the faith marathon. And so the question for you is, will you run? And if you're a believer, your answers to that question should be yes. As we mentioned numerous times in the weeks leading up to today, it should be our desire as believers to please God. Last week we looked at this verse, Hebrews 11, 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. And these verses here in Hebrews chapter 12 are really building on what we read here in Hebrews 11, six. You see, a person who believes that God is, a person who believes that God exists and believes that God is their savior should desire to please him by faith. And so thus, a person should desire to run. This is the whole purpose of what the writer has been doing for the past 34 verses, building to this point, giving all these examples, saying, therefore, let us run. And so the question is, are you in? Will you run in this faith marathon? Each one of you has to make that decision for yourself. After you answer that question, let's look at the next question that we see arising from the text, which is, will you win? Will you win? Now it's important that we state before we go any further that we're not racing against each other in this faith marathon, okay? It's not like we're going to get first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh place based on how everyone else is running. That's not the idea, okay? Instead, the idea that the writer is presenting to us is if we are all running this life race solo. Each one of us is running this life race with one goal in mind, to please our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so it's possible for each one of us to win this race. It's possible for each one of us, when we get to heaven, to hear our Father say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And so it's possible for each one of us to win. And so the question is, will you? Will you win? Now what's so great about these verses here in Hebrews chapter 12 is the writer of Hebrews gives us the strategy for winning. Remember I mentioned that there's only one main verb in these first two verses. All the other, what they are in Greek, participles, prepositional phrases are modifying that main verb of let us run, and so we look at those as strategies. These are the things we need to implement in our life in order for us to win the life race. And so we're gonna look at those this morning. looking at these four strategies that the writer of Hebrews lays out for us. And if we implement these four strategies in our own life, each one of us will be able to win the faith marathon. So let's look at the first one, which we see in verse number one, is we need to remember the examples. The text says in verse number one, That's the first main modifier of the verb, the main verb. Now there are some people who think of these witnesses as being spectators who are seated in the stands cheering us on as we run. But I think it's better to understand these witnesses as being people who are testifying, people who are bearing witness to the fact that the race can be run. And it makes sense when we think of where we have come. You see, chapter 11 is full of these witnesses, right? We've seen these witnesses, some named, others unnamed, who are testifying, bearing witness to the fact that the race can be run and the race can be won as well. These men and women have gone before us. They have given us an example, given us a testimony of the fact that it can be done. Just like we saw last week with the life of Elijah, these men and women were just like us. We saw in James 5, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. These men and women had their struggles. They had their hardships, just like us. But through it all, they persevered, and they won their faith marathon. And so as we look at their example, as we remember their example, we are able to have the motivation, in part, we are able to have the motivation to be able to run our race and win our race as well. Paul talks about this same idea in Romans chapter 15 in verse four, where we read, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. You see, as we read God's word, we gain instruction, we gain direction, we gave insight from these men and women who have gone before. And as we persevere through this, we are able to have hope. It can be done. We can win this faith marathon. So that's the first strategy that we see if we're going to win our faith marathon. We need to remember the examples of those who have gone before. But secondly, as we continue down through verse one, we see, secondly, we need to remove the encumbrances and the entanglements. The text says there in verse one, First, we need to remove encumbrances. So what is an encumbrance? Well, the word encumbrance could also be translated weight or impediment. In the running world, an encumbrance is anything that slows you down, that keeps you from winning. You never see a runner in the Boston Marathon wearing a tuxedo. You never see a guy wearing a three-piece suit carrying a briefcase. You never see a guy wearing coveralls with work boots on. Now there's nothing wrong with those clothes, right? Those clothes have their purpose at the right time. But a runner who's going to want to win is never going to wear those type of things because it's going to slow them down, right? It's going to hinder them. It's going to hinder their movements, keeping them from being able to win the race. And the writer of Hebrews says the same thing is true for our own life. we need to remove the encumbrances. And so as we think about what is an encumbrance to the Christian's life, I really like how John MacArthur has defined an encumbrance. He says, often, an encumbrance is something perfectly innocent and harmless, but it weighs us down, diverts our attention, saps our energy, dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God. I understand it's probably a slightly different activity, slightly different object for each one of us. It's something that's not necessarily wrong, right? There's nothing wrong with wearing a tuxedo to run in the Boston Marathon, but it holds us back. It hinders us from running our faith marathon well. I want to illustrate this for you, so I've asked Simeon and Jeremiah to give me a hand here this morning, so you guys can come on up here. On Monday, I asked these guys, which one of you runs faster? They didn't really know, and so I took them down here to this room and set up four chairs and made them run around the four chairs to see, and it was clear, based on the second heat, that Simeon was the faster runner. He beat him by a good 12 feet, I think. Okay? Now suppose with me that since Monday, Simeon decided that he was gonna set up some social media accounts, okay? So he set up a Facebook, an Instagram, and a Twitter. And he spent hours setting up that account and then looking at what everyone else did on their Twitter and on their Facebook and all those kinds of things. Then, as he was doing that, he noticed, he learned about YouTube. Ah, yes. YouTube. So great. I mean, there's so many videos out there you can watch. You can learn how to do almost anything, right? And then you have all those silly videos that you can spend all kinds of hours. So he did that for a while, too. Now, his mom was a little bit concerned about all that time that he was spending in front of a screen. So she got him a library card and told him to check out some books. So he got a bunch of books and began to read all of those books. All right. Here we go. Now, his dad was really concerned about all this time that he was spending inside. And so he encouraged him to get on his bike and to ride through all the trails of Wayne and Holmes County, okay? So now, Simeon is ready to enter this race, okay? You're gonna use these cords as the entry, you're gonna run that way if possible, okay? Jeremiah's gonna race against you, ready? We're gonna see how he does with these extra encumbrances. On your mark, get set, go! All right, now what does the text tell Simeon to do with these encumbrances? What does it say there? Lay them aside, right? Set them down. So you can set them aside. Thank you so much, guys. Give them a hand for me. Now please hear me. Is there anything wrong with having a Facebook, an Instagram, or a Twitter? No, there's nothing wrong with having those things. Is there anything wrong with riding your bike? No, absolutely not. But I think we understand as believers, we can allow some of these things to become encumbrances. They can hinder us from being able to run our faith marathon well. Maybe for some of you, the encumbrance that you have in your life is working overtime. Maybe for others of you, it's a hobby. Maybe it's knitting or scrapbooking or woodworking. I don't know what it is. We need to ask the Lord, what is it in our life that is encumbering us, that's keeping us from running our faith marathon well? I think for many of us, it might be sports, right? Whether it's watching sports or participating in sports. I really enjoy sports. I really enjoy college football, right? And I realize how much time I can chew up watching highlight reels Reading articles about who's going to win, who's not going to win, who's going to make it to the playoffs, who's not going to make it to the playoffs, and all these things. But as I think back on it, as I review that in my own life, I can see that that can become an encumbrance. That can become a weight that is holding me back. Maybe for others of you, it's TV, video games. It could be certain friends that you have, certain people that you hang around with. Maybe it's even exercise. It could be some possession, some stuff that you have. Maybe for others of you it's music, politics. It could be a club that you are a member of. It could even be a worthy cause that you are working to support. I don't know what it is for you. But ask the Lord, what is it in my life that is weighing me down, that's keeping me from winning my faith marathon? Really the question that we have to ask ourselves is, as we consider any activity, does this activity help me to run and win the faith marathon well, or does it hinder me? As one man has said, we must not let the good get in way of the best. So we need to lay aside those encumbrances. But secondly, the writer of Hebrews goes on to say there in verse one, We need to lay aside these entanglements. This is actual sin that is keeping us from running the race. Most commentators think that the writer is speaking specifically of the sin of unbelief. And I would agree based on what we saw in chapter three. What we saw in chapter three that really all sin at its root is a sin of unbelief. It's a refusal to trust God. A refusal to believe what he has told us to do. Whether it's the sin of worry, envy, anger, lust. Selfishness, disobedience, stealing, idolatry, hatred, unforgiveness, or pride. You see, all of these can, if we think about it, can be traced back to unbelief, back to not believing, not trusting God. So what sin is entangling you this morning? I've asked Joel to come and help illustrate this for us. I want us to see this, all right? I think most of us are familiar with this passage, but I want us to see this, okay? So suppose with me, Joel wakes up on Friday morning, and he gets out of bed, gets dressed, heads out into the main room out there in his house, and he sees his dad using this really nice pen. And he really wants one of those pens, all right? And so he has begun to be entangled by envy, okay? Now, sin, I think most of us are aware, always starts small, right? It was just a little pen, nothing that big. But what happens? Later that day, Joel gets ready, he heads to work, and when he gets to work, he sees his co-worker has a brand new, I forgot to look what the newest phone is out there, but he has a brand new phone, okay? And Joel really wants one of those phones, okay? He really wants it. And he thinks about it all day, right? And so he's getting more and more entangled in it. But then, to top it all off, Friday, he's hanging out with Jake. And Isaac comes, and he pulls in, driving a brand new Ford Mustang, all right? All right? Here we go. So now, he is very much entangled. He really wishes that he had a Ford Mustang, a brand new one. What color would you like? Blue. Blue, I figured. All right. Would you say Joel's a little entangled? Now, he can move a little bit, right? He can maybe hop a little bit. But remember what sin does? Sin entraps us, right? I'm standing here holding. He's not gonna be able to make any movement forward as long as I'm stronger than him, right? But what I want us to think about is the fact that he is entangled, right? This is what sin does to us. We often don't think of worry as that big of a deal, right? We're just concerned, is how we often like to say it. But this is what happens. We get entangled. It keeps us from being able to run our faith marathon well. And so whatever the sin is in your life, this is what it's doing, all right? It's entangling you. So next time you're struggling with that, think of that. I'm being wrapped up with this yellow rope. Now what does the text tell us to do? What is Joel supposed to do? Is he supposed to stay here wrapped all up in this entangled yellow rope? No. So what does the text say to do? What does it say there in verse number one? Lay it aside, all right? And I really like what Paul says in Colossians chapter three. He says, put it to death, right? The King James says, mortify it. If I had a knife, I would have cut it off him, but I kind of like this rope and I don't want to cut Joel either. All right? So thank you so much, Joel. So this is what we need to do with whatever the sin is in our life. We need to lay it aside. As Paul says, we need to kill it. We need to mortify it. We need to set it aside so that we are not entangled with it, so that we can run our faith marathon well. James gives us this picture of being entangled in a little bit different way. He says, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. That's like the first rap, right? The first rap of the rope. So what is it for you? What is that sin that is entangling you, that's keeping you from being able to run your faith marathon well? Ask the Lord to search your heart, help you identify what that sin is, and then lay it aside. Put it to death. But then we must not stop with putting it to death. Paul goes on to say in Colossians chapter 3 that we need to then replace that sin, right? And so the next time he sees Isaac pull in, next time Joel sees Isaac pulled in with that brand new Ford Mustang, I guess it would be a week old now. Instead of allowing envy to overtake him, he needs to replace that by being thankful. Thankful that Isaac can enjoy such a nice car, but also thankful that God has provided him a car to drive. It might not be the nicest car in the world. that old Taurus, but it gets him from point A to point B, right? And so replacing that sin of envy with the virtue of thankfulness. That principle of removing and replacing applies to whatever that sin is that is entangling you this morning. So that's the principle you need to apply to your own life based on Colossians chapter three as we seek to lay aside that sin that entangles us. So if we're going to win our faith marathon, we need to remember the examples of those who have gone before. We need to remove the encumbrances and entanglements. And third, we need to resolve endurance. The final phrase there in verse number one is, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. James, if you flip the page or two to the right, in chapter one, writes, consider it all joy, verse two, my brother, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. It's the same word that the writer of Hebrews used here. Let us run with endurance. That idea of steadfastness. I like to use the word stick-to-itiveness. That's actually a word, I love that word. Stick-to-itiveness, tenacity. One writer has described it as a dogged determination to finish the race no matter what. You see, that's how we need to live our Christian life. Is that how you're living your Christian life? With that determination, that stick-to-itiveness? Or are you simply content knowing that you're saved, knowing that you're going to heaven, but you really don't give much thought to how you can honor God throughout your entire life with each and every decision you make on a daily basis? It's important to remember that God gives us the strength to be able to endure, right? We're gonna see this next month when we get to chapter 13. God promises to never leave us or forsake us. He promises to give us the strength we need to make it through the difficulty we find ourselves in. But it comes down to each one of us making the decision to depend on his strength to endure. So will you resolve to endure no matter what with God's help? That must be our mindset if we are going to win our faith marathon. You know, sometimes it can overwhelm us when we think of all the stuff in front of us, all that life brings to us. That's partly why God doesn't reveal the future to us, right? He just tells us, trust me today. Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough cares and concerns of its own. Trust me today. When you get tomorrow, same deal. Trust me today. And as we remain, keep our trust in the Lord, we will be able to endure depending on his strength. Let's move on to the fourth strategy that we see here in the text. If we're going to win our faith marathon, we need to refocus our eyes, refocus our eyes. Verse number two, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Maybe some of your Bibles say looking unto Jesus. That really is the idea with this look, this focusing our eyes on Jesus. It has this idea of trusting him. When a person is saved, that's what they do, right? They look to Jesus, they trust in Jesus, and they are saved. But as we talked about last week, it can be so easy, like Peter, to take our eyes off of our Savior, right? To begin to trust ourselves, and we begin to sink. But again, the writer of Hebrews is reminding us to look, to refocus our eyes on Jesus. You may remember the people of Israel, when they were wandering in the wilderness for those 40 years, at one point along the way, they were sinning against God. They did that many times, but at one specific time, they were complaining against God. And as they were complaining against God, God sent fiery serpents among them to bite them. You remember that? And as they got bit by those fiery serpents, they died. But God then provided, told Moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole. And what did God tell the Israelites to do? When you are bitten by one of these fiery serpents, you are to look to the pole. You see, they looked at that bronze serpent on the pole, and they were healed. It was a look of faith. And it's the same idea here in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. We are to look to Jesus. We are to keep our eyes on him. It's a look of faith. Notice how the writer of Hebrews describes Jesus for us. It says here, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. The idea of author could also be translated pioneer. That word was used to describe Jesus earlier in chapter 2 in verse 10. He's the one who has paved the way for us, enabling us to run this race well. He began it, but notice not only is he the pioneer, but he's also the perfecter. It could also be translated the completer of it, okay? And so he finished his faith marathon well and set us an example, enabling us to finish it well as well as we keep our eyes on him. The writer goes on to say, in verse number two, who, describing Jesus, who, We'll stop right there for now. This idea of who for the joy set before Him. When you understand, this joy was not some bliss that Christ experienced before His incarnation. None at all. This joy was a decision. This joy was an attitude that He had as He was on earth, as He was preparing to do the Father's will by dying on the cross as he endured that humiliating death by crucifixion. That's what's talked about with despising the shame. He did that. Christ was able to do that because his joy was in God. He made that decision. And each one of us has that opportunity to have that same kind of joy as well. I really like how Dr. Warren Wiersbe has written it. He says, please keep in mind that during Christ's ministry on this earth, our Lord did not use his divine powers for his own personal needs. Satan tempted him to do that, right? We read that in Matthew chapter four, but Jesus refused. It was our Lord's faith. that enabled him to endure. He kept his eye of faith on the joy that was set before him. And that's taken from Psalm 16. You can check that out later. You see, Christ endured the cross and all the shame that came with it because he knew that this was the Father's will. There was a much greater reward awaiting him. And the Apostle Paul also had that same joy. You can read about that in Philippians chapter four, First Thessalonians chapter two, and we can as well. We can have this joy, this decision to no matter what happens in life, knowing that we have a greater reward waiting for us one day when we get to heaven. Keep your finger here in Hebrews chapter 12. I want to show you this verse in Second Corinthians chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that goes right along with what we're reading here in Hebrews chapter 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we've covered this verse before, but I want you to see it again. Verses 16 through 18, we'll just focus on verse 17 right now. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17, for momentary light affliction. Just stop right there. Momentary, okay, and that kind of makes sense. It's not going to last forever. But light affliction? Now, wait a second here, Paul. Do you remember what he's going to say in chapter 11? He was stoned. He was beaten with rods. He was shipwrecked. And Paul, you're calling these things light affliction? He is, right? From momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. You see, Paul was able to label all these hardships that he endured as light affliction because he understood that the glory that he was going to experience one day when he'd get into heaven far surpassed it all. And thus, he was able to have joy. And the same thing is possible for each one of us as well, as we consider the fact that, yes, it's difficult. I'm not denying that at all. Life is hard sometimes. It's no fun. But compared to what we're going to experience one day in heaven, it is light. Compared to the exceeding glory that we will be able to experience in heaven one day. And so when we have that perspective, when we have our eye of faith on Christ, we are able to experience that same kind of joy as we go through the difficulties of life, enabling us to win the faith marathon. But notice, The writer of Hebrews goes on to say in verse number two, referring to Jesus, has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is such a significant truth. Jesus is sitting down because his work is complete, his work is finished. You see, our salvation is secure, and his example has been set for us. Because Christ's work is complete, we are able to have assurance, we are able to have faith, we are able to have hope. Turn in your Bibles just a couple pages to the left, back to chapter four. We went over this a couple months ago, but I want us to review it again. This is our Savior who is sitting down at the right hand of God. Chapter four, verse 14 says, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, You see, we have access to the greatest connection in the entire universe. We have access to the High Priest, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so are you looking to Him? Are your eyes focused on Him? You see, if we want to win our faith marathon, we need to remember the examples of those who have gone before. We need to remove the encumbrances, remove the entanglements. We need to resolve endurance, and we need to refocus our eyes on our Savior. And that final strategy really is key. I'll go as far to say if we're not refocusing our eyes on the Savior, might as well forget the rest, okay? It's the most important. We need to keep our eyes set on the Savior. Only then will we be able to win our faith marathon. So far we've only covered two questions. First question, will you run? Second question, will you win? And now let's move on to the third question that we see from verse number three, which is, will you faint? The text again says in verse three, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. The writer of Hebrews understands that life is hard, right? Life is difficult. Especially if we're gonna use the running term, when you hit the wall. That time when a marathon runner, they say it's about the 18th mile and you just don't wanna go another step, okay? And that happens in our Christian life as well. We hit the wall, we want to give up. We go weary, we lose heart. But God doesn't want us to quit. He doesn't want us to faint. And so notice what the antidote is. Consider Him. Really, this is a very similar idea to what we saw in chapter two, or in verse two, right? Looking to Jesus. Now we're considering him. It's a different word. Looking to Jesus was the idea of looking with that eyes of faith. Consider is more of a mental idea. That thinking, that considering, that idea of meditating on Jesus. The writer of Hebrews is a good author, right? He's driving the point home. This is the main point. We need to look to Jesus. We need to consider Jesus. And as we do, we'll be able to not faint. You see, Jesus is our Savior. He is our example. Notice the text says, Jesus endured such hostility by sinners. Oftentimes, we think we have it rough, and we do from a human perspective at times. But what we need to keep in mind is our Savior had it much more difficult. Often we only focus on the physical suffering that he endured on the cross, and that was terrible, absolutely. But it wasn't even as bad as the spiritual aspect of his suffering when he was separated from the Father. An incredible, terrible thing. But he did that for us. But he was able to go through that because he had his eyes set on the joy that was before him. And so he's our example. We need to follow his example. We need to look to him. As the text says, we need to consider Christ. As the writer of Hebrews admonishes us, we must not lose heart, even when it's difficult, even when it seems helpless. Like we saw last week in the life of Elijah, God is still in control, right? He has a grand plan that is so much bigger than we can see. He only asks us to trust Him and continue to run the faith marathon, considering Him, depending on His strength, so that we don't faint or lose heart. Consider Christ. So as we close, the question for each one of us, the questions for each one of us are, will you run? Will you win? Or will you faint? Remember, we've seen the strategy that has been written for us for winning. We need to remember the examples of those who have gone before. We need to remove the encumbrances and the entanglements. We need to resolve to endure, and then we need to refocus our eyes on our Savior. You now know what the text says. Now it's up to you to implement it in your own life. I highly encourage you to talk to one another. Maybe you go home later and talk with your family about what this looks like so that together we can work on implementing these strategies in our own lives so each one of us can win the faith marathon as we work together to do this. Running to win.