Hebrews chapter number 12. One of my favorite passages of scripture. How many love the book of Hebrews? It is such a rich, rich book of the Bible. It's fun to read, but it's deep. I'm just going to focus on three verses. We could really drill into these verses today, but I just have a couple of simple thoughts for us. Look at Hebrews chapter number 12, and let's read verses 1 through 3. The Bible says in verse one, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every what? Every what? Weight and sin which so easily beset us. And let us run the race with patience. The race that is set before us. Looking unto who? Now Pastor Rogers, you didn't know I was gonna preach this when you said that to me this morning. He said, this is a church that looks to the Lord. And this is what the verse says. It says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Would you read verse three with me? Ready, begin. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. How important is our focus? How important is our focus? I met a few folks coming in. How many are in the military or been in the military? How many of you know in the military, focus is very important? Keeping your focus. As a pastor, keeping your focus is very important. Whatever, family business, in business, your focus. In sports, your focus. But certainly in our Christian life, focus is so important. It is so important. What are you focusing on right now? What is your focus right now? My family and I just moved into a house probably about three or four months ago, five months ago, and we moved, and how many of you have ever remodeled the house while you lived there? How many of you know that changes your focus a lot, right? Like, let's please get this kitchen done, you know? Whatever you're focused on the day-to-day, that's certainly something we should focus on, but I'm talking more about big picture. What is our focus in life? What are we focusing on in our life? I brought with me today, and this is not something that I carry around with me very often, but I went to your Walmart this morning, which we had to wait. I was late for Sunday school because I had to wait for them to unlock the cabinet to get a $2 mirror. But anyway, how many have one of these at home? You have a mirror at home so you can see what the back of your head looks like? How many don't care what the back of your head looks like, eh, Matt? One thing funny about mirrors is, and this is true for me, it may not be true for you, but I think it's true for most of us, No one ever looks in a mirror and then is like super happy about it. How many know what I'm talking about? No one looks like, oh wow, I'm surprised at how good I look. No, you look in a mirror and you think to yourself, where did that pimple come from? Oh, I have more gray hairs than I thought I did. What's going on with, I'm starting to go bald on the back of my head right here, so I'm looking at, every day it's less and less hair back there, you know? Nobody ever focuses on the mirror and walks away happy. Mirrors don't make people happy. As a matter of fact, the more you look in the mirror and the more time you spend on that, probably the less happy you are. Years ago, I had an office. I'll let you sit in just a second. But years ago, I had an office. And my office was on a, kind of like here, where people would walk past. In my window, people walked past. And it was a two-way, it was a one-way window. I could see out, but you really couldn't see in. And so I'd sit there and the school would let out, Brother Rogers, and all the high schoolers would walk past that mirror all the time. And literally all I did all day was sit there and watch, you know, guys looking at their nose, you know, popping, you know, doing all kinds of stuff in the mirror all day long. The mirror, we love to look in the mirror. Matter of fact, statistics tell us that adults look in the mirror at least eight times a day. I think it's probably more like 20 or 30 times. But what's true about most of us today is this is our focus right here. Our focus is on who? It's on me, it's on us. Our focus is on us. And so today, I just wanna challenge all of us to change our focus from us and what's going on with us and to focus on Christ and to focus on him. So let's pray together and we'll jump right into the message. Lord, we love you. We thank you for this church and its testimony. Thank you for Pastor Rogers and his wife giving 34 plus years to this church. And I pray, God, that you would please help this church to be a lighthouse here in Sacramento. That people that drive by see it. There would be people that come in that need the gospel. Thank you for those that are here that are helping. We pray, God, that you bless the message today. Help us to maybe switch our focus. Maybe our focus has been too much on us. Maybe our focus is too much on the negative. But help us to focus on you. We need to do that today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Paul says in this passage in verse one and two, he says the word wherefore right there in verse one. How many see the word wherefore? How many see that? And I don't know, Pastor Rogers, you probably have said this many times. If you ever see the word wherefore, you need to find out what it's there for, right? So what is Paul saying? Why is he saying wherefore? He's referring back to Hebrews chapter number 11, which what is Hebrews chapter number 11? Who knows what it's called? the hall of faith or the faith chapter. And if you read Hebrews chapter number 11, you're going to see several stories about different people in the Bible who did amazing things and stepped out by faith. And it's all about faith. It's not about them necessarily and what they did. but their faith in God and Him blessing that faith. So you read Hebrews chapter 11, you read about Abraham, you read about these people that had faith, and then you jump into chapter 12 and Paul changes gears. He's saying, okay, wherefore, or because of that, because of those people that we just read about, were compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us, so he says, okay, we see all the people in the past, I think about great people, who've gone on before. I think about my dad over here. I've watched him get saved. He got saved later in life, but served the Lord his whole life. Him and my mom and their great faith. Pastor Rogers, your great faith and what you've done for the Lord over the years. I think about my pastor who I work for now, Pastor Chappell. almost 40 years, next year will be 40 years, he's been in Lancaster and just watching what God has done there. And we see those next generations and even farther back and all the wonderful things that they've done. And Paul's saying, hey, there's been some people that have gone before you and done some incredible things before you, but now I want you to think about yourself and focus on yourself and focus on what we're doing. And he says, now that you've seen what they have done and what we talked about what they have done, let us lay aside the weight let us lay aside the sin that so easily besets us in our race. And then he makes a statement in verse number two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If you ever read Hebrews chapter number 11, there's some key verses there that I love. Verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things what? Not seen. I love verse six, you know this verse, but without faith it is what? It's impossible to please him. Faith is so important. We have to have faith. In the name of your church, it's faith. Baptist, tabernacle, faith. Faith is so key and it's so important. Faith is the fuel for our race, faith. How many of you need to have faith for something in your life right now? I mean, you really have faith right now. I've had conversations in the last probably two or three days of incredible needs and incredible, and you hear things and you, and you absorb them, and you just, Pastor Rogers, you have to have faith, we have to have faith that God can help this person, or help this church, or help this ministry, or whatever it is, or our own lives. The word wherefore tells us that there have been some witnesses. Now, as we read this, so great a cloud of witnesses, I used to think that there's all these guys up in heaven watching us. I mean, you know what I'm talking about. There's a ring of people around us, and they're like, Five dollars, he makes a mistake right here. That's not what this is talking about. What he's saying is they are witnesses to the incredible mercy and grace that God had in their life and how God blessed their life. They are witnesses to the power of God and what God can do. Their lives are an example and an encouragement to us. They're not watching us to see if we mess up or how good of a job we're doing. Their life is a witness. It is an encouragement and an example to us. One commentator said this, he said, they're not as much as lookers-on, but examples and encouragers. Someone else said, they are bearing testimony to the value of their enduring faith. So I want to give you three thoughts here, just three quick thoughts today. on keeping our focus on Christ, keeping our focus on Jesus. How do we do this? How do we keep our focus? How many ever, I mean, you have seasons in your life where you're like glued in and you're clued in to what God is doing, but then you go through a season where, man, it's like our focus gets way off. How many know what I'm talking about? Three of you, how many know what I'm talking about? Amen, our focus gets off. How do we keep our focus, and what do we keep our focus on when this says, looking unto Him? First today, I wanna mention this, keep your focus on His expectation. Keep your focus on His expectation. Yes, we're passed about with these cloud of witnesses, their example, and we're to lay aside every weight and the sin that easily besets us. And we are also to run with patience the race that is set before us. Did you know that you have a race set before you? You have a race. How many of you, it's been a long time since you've been in a race? It might be a long time since I've read a statistic the other day, like very small percentages of adults sprint after a certain age. And most of us aren't sprinting anywhere unless, you know, we're chasing after our dog that ran away or whatever. But we have a race. We have a spiritual race, a purpose in our life. We don't know when that race is over, do we? None of us do. We don't know how long our race is. We don't necessarily know what God has for our race. Sometimes he has us switch racetracks. We weren't expecting that. Sometimes we feel like we're losing the race, but it's the race that God has for us. Have you ever noticed, no matter how hard you try in your life, you just don't meet someone's expectations? No matter how hard you try, it might be a boss at work. Man, it doesn't matter how hard you work. It just doesn't seem like it meets that expectation. Or maybe your family, a family member. And family can be some of the most honest and know the most about you. And so sometimes you don't match up to their expectations and you feel that way. How many feel that way sometimes? It doesn't matter how hard you try, someone is just not going to be happy with you. And Pastor Rogers, you know that as a pastor. It doesn't matter what decision you make. If you choose blue, somebody wanted red. Somebody wanted blue. It's the way it usually is. It's a part of life. But there are somebody's expectations that we should be running after. It's not our family. It's not necessarily our spouse or our boss. The expectation that we are running after is Christ's expectation of us. Christ has an expectation of you and an expectation of me. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better son, or a better sibling, or whatever it is. I want to do those things, and I want to be a blessing to other people. But more importantly than everyone else's expectation of me, more important than that is His expectation of me. In my race, how is my focus? Am I focusing on His expectation? In verse 12, we see the writer uses the metaphor of the race. And there is a race that we're all on. God's expectation for us, by the way, is not to beat someone on the race. God isn't looking down and saying, you didn't beat so-and-so in the race. You're not doing as well as so-and-so. And no, that's not his expectation for us to do better than someone else in our race. to have a bigger ministry or to read the Bible however many times more than someone else. The race isn't a competition for us to beat. God's expectation, what is his expectation for us in the race? What do you think his expectation is? To keep running. Can I get an amen right there? Just keep running. You may not be running as fast as someone else, that's okay. Stay in the race though. Stay in the race. You may not be running as fast as you used to run. Stay in the race. Well, people are passing me by, man. Stay in the race. Years ago, this was years and years ago, probably 20 years ago or more. I don't know. Maybe not that long. There was a time in my life where I wanted to be a police officer. And so I decided I was going to work for some agency or whatever. So I thought, I'll go get the test done. And so this was up in Napa area. They were doing the test. And, you know, I was a lot younger than I am now. And I was probably 23 or something, 24. I don't know how old I was, but I was younger. And, you know, in high school, I played soccer. I played sports. And so I was okay. I wasn't like, you know, running every day. But I thought, you know, I'm fine. I can do this. I didn't exercise. I didn't try. I didn't, you know, plan on this physical test. And so I get to the test there and they do pushups, like how many pushups you can do. Man, I did tons of pushups. It was fine. And then like, OK, let's do the sit-ups. I did the sit-ups. I did plenty of sit-ups. No problem. And then like, OK, you got to run a mile and a half in 15 minutes. I thought, pfft, a mile and a half in 15 minutes. Come on. Anybody can run a mile. I mean, you could crawl a mile and a half in 15 minutes. I thought, no big deal, right? So we all line up. And there's people there. They got running shorts on. And they're all into it. And I'm thinking, pfft, these guys. And so he said, go, or whatever. And so I start. And I thought to myself, I thought, you know what? I'm not just going to do this in 15 minutes. I'm going to run this faster than anyone else here. And so the guy said, go. And I started running. And I mean, I ran. I think I ran the first quarter mile in like three minutes. I mean, I just booked it. I don't know how fast that is. You're probably like, no, that's not true. But anyway, I booked it all the way around. I mean, I sprinted. And I started lapping people. And they're watching me like, what is this guy's problem? And I kind of ran past him. And I think I ran, I don't know, half a mile, then 3 quarters of a mile. And I'm just running my guts out. And then I don't know if it was the elevation, or the fact that I hadn't run in 10 years, or maybe it's because I had McDonald's for breakfast. I don't know what happened. But all of a sudden, my lungs said, hey, we're done. We're not doing this anymore. And they just kind of seized up. And I couldn't breathe. I mean, I just couldn't breathe. So I went from a sprint to a jog, and I'm literally, huh! And all of a sudden, here comes those people. I passed up. They start running past me one by one, like, yeah, that's what you get, you know? Literally, I had to stop and catch my breath two or three times. I finished the race, but I finished it like three seconds before 15 minutes. I almost didn't finish. I started off strong, but then something happened. I didn't exercise ever for like five years, and then I couldn't. That's the way many of us are. Boy, we get excited about something. We hit a revival service. We hear a message that we really enjoyed. Oh, man, we are excited about a new ministry or whatever it is. And we get really excited. We get in the race. We run and we run. And then all of a sudden, man, those things start happening in our life, those distractions, those weights that so easily beset us. Let me give you a couple of thoughts here. If we want to stay focused on the race and His expectation, letter A, get rid of the weight. Get rid of the weight. Wherefore, seeing we are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight." We see people like Abraham in the Bible. Abraham had such incredible faith when God asked Abraham to offer Isaac. What did he do? He obeyed right away. Isaac was the most important thing to Abraham. He was the most important thing in his life. By faith, just said, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna give Isaac my son. And God blessed him for that and said, because of your faith. And we see these things that these people have done by faith. And in our life, boy, sometimes faith is just, doesn't seem like it matches up to theirs, but it's still a step of faith for us. And we need to take those steps of faith. And we need to have, lay aside those weights. How many have ever been on a diet? How many have ever done, come on, be honest. How many have ever done a crash diet? Don't raise your hand, but man, I hope you didn't do Ozempic. That was a joke, but we'll just keep moving on. All right. Somebody's dieting because statistics tell us that the dieting industry has hit almost $80 billion. It's a huge industry, dieting. You never turn on the Olympics and you see a chubby Olympian running a race, right? No, you watch the Olympics, these people are in peak physical condition. There's not an inch of body fat on them. Their diets are very restricted. Why? Because they want to win the race. They're focused on what God has for them, the race that God has for them. Most of us don't want to be in the Olympics. Can I get an amen right there? We love tacos too much. But we have a spiritual race to run. And sometimes we gain weight, we gain these weights of the world. And sometimes God says, I want you to lay that aside so that you can focus on me. Weight means in the Bible here, the word weight is like a bulk or a burden that we carry. Sometimes a weight is not necessarily sinful, but it slows us down spiritually. Barnes says this, he said, he warns us against external hindrances. These are distractions, possessions, comforts, These are things that keep us from running the race. It's summertime and we're on vacation. I'm thankful that we get to take a vacation. I remember when I was pastoring in Manteca, I didn't like summertime as a pastor because everyone's on vacation. You didn't know who's going to show up on Sunday. Although it was like flip-flop. People would come in from out of town and other people go out of town and come back into town. You just didn't know what you're going to get on a Sunday, you know. But some people, some Christians, they kind of treat God like they're always on vacation. Like, I don't need to serve, I don't need to be involved, I don't need to, and I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but we have a race to run. We have a race to run. I'm from Lancaster Baptist Church. It's a larger ministry, there's a college there, and summertime rolls around, and guess what? We're short on workers. How are we going to have workers in the children's ministry? How are we going to have workers? Because so-and-so is over here, and so-and-so is over here. And it's amazing how some Christians will come to church week after week. They're not in the race. They're on the sidelines. Did you know that nowhere in the Bible does God call us as Christians to be spectators? There are no spectators. You say, well, I used to do this, and I used to do that. Yeah, what happened? You got out of the race. What happened? Was it like me, you kind of started off strong and you were sprinting and all of a sudden something happened and you had to slow way down and got discouraged? That happens to all of us. We need to get in the race and stay in the race. His expectation, lay aside the weights. Let me give you a second thought here, letter B, run with patience. So lay aside the weights, maybe there's some weights in our life, and then run with patience. We all need patience. There's a race that is set before us, the stadium, in which the Christian race is run is the world. The prize is for his heavenly glory. The mark is directed at Christ. Many are the runners, yet none but the overcomers have the prize, which being held by Christ is given to them. The race is set before the saints, that is, by God. The way in which they are to run is marked out by him and his word. The troubles they shall meet within are and appointed for them by him in his counsels and purposes. The mark to direct them is set before them in the gospel. Even Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, whom they are to look unto. The length of their race is fixed for them. How far and how long they shall run and the prize that is determined for them and will be given to them and which is held out for their encouragement to have respect unto. And it becomes to all saints to run this race. which includes both doing and suffering for Christ. It is a motion forward, pressing toward the mark for the prize, and going from strength to strength, from one degree of grace to another, and to its swiftness and agility are necessary. And when it is performed right, it is with readiness, willingness, and cheerfulness. Brother who led the music today, I appreciate your cheer. And in Sunday school, your cheer. It's a cheerful tone, and I appreciate that. I'm sure your pastor does too. And you said it this morning, you said, out of all Christians, out of everybody in the world, Christians should be happy. How many agree with that? We should be, and we ought to be joyful and be running our race with joy. To run indicates a strenuous effort. To run, to keep moving forward with patience means endurance. especially and specifically under pressure. How many of you feel today maybe you're under a little bit of pressure? Under a little bit of pressure? One of you in the back. How many today feel a little bit under pressure? Be honest, it's okay. Be honest, raise your hand. How many feel under pressure? We have this pressure. Keep running. Keep running. Christianity is not a free plane ride to heaven. Sometimes I'll witness the kids. A couple weeks ago, a young couple got saved. And it was such a cool thing to watch them get saved. And he works for Nickelodeon down in LA. What a job. And his little kids got to lead his little kids to the Lord. One was seven. One was nine. Man, they were so hyper. It was hard to witness them. They were bouncing off the walls the whole time. But it was fun. But a lot of times when I'm witnessing the kids, I'll talk about, you know, it's probably not super theologically correct, but I'll say, you know, when you ask Jesus to save you, it's like opening the door to your heart and you get saved and Jesus comes in. He's inside of you forever. And I kind of explain that to them. And I say, he'll shut the door. He locks the key and throws it away. Once you're saved, you're never unsaved. Can I get an amen right there? So you're saved, right? Eternal security. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And I was explaining this to the kids. And one of the kids said, so does that mean he's going to take me on a plane to heaven? I said, no man, it's much cooler than that. You are going to be the plane, you know, right? But being a Christian is not a free plane ride to heaven. That's not what it's all about. In the Bible, the Christian life is described as a war or a race. It's never referred to as just a free ride. If you are a submitted and committed Christian, don't lose sight of this. Don't lose sight of this. We're not spectators, we're runners. So let's keep our eyes on him. Let's focus on him. Let me give you number two. So keep our focus on his expectation. And the number two, this is a much quicker point, and all God's people said thank you, amen, all right. Number two, keep your focus on his example. On his example. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. This thought of looking here in this verse, looking, it means to fix your gaze, to fix your gaze, to look right on. How many of you, your dad or your grandpa or someone taught you how to mow a lawn? How many of you have ever been taught how to mow a lawn? How many still today don't know how to mow a lawn? You just do whatever your heart desires, amen? You can tell by your yard. But anyway, when you learn how to mow a lawn the proper way, what you're supposed to do is, let's say it was this room, You're supposed to have a fixed point that you look at when you push the mower, right? How many know what I'm talking about? How many don't know what I'm talking about? Yeah, you're supposed to look at something. You're supposed to fix your gaze. And if you do that, by the time you get to the other end, you should have a straight line. When I was a kid and I would mow, I would not do that. I would look at the ground the whole time. And I'd play games with the mower, you know, up and down and whatever. And by the time you get to the end, it looks like that. It's all like this. In our Christian life, when we look at his example, At His example, it helps us to keep moving forward in the right direction, to keep focused, to fix our gaze. Christ not only begins our faith journey, but walks every step with us and helps us till we reach the end. When we get saved, when we become a Christian, Christ becomes a part of you. Whether you like it or not, He's there forever. He's with you. And sometimes we get off track, and we start to kind of go our own direction, and we feel that Holy Spirit tugging us back, don't we? And when we feel that Holy Spirit tugging us back, we want to obey that impulse. You all with me? We start listening to something that we know we shouldn't listen to. We start thinking thoughts we know we shouldn't think. We start having, you know, desires to do something we shouldn't do. and we know it goes against the race that God has called us to, and we need to obey the impulse to come back and to focus on His example. No one understood suffering the way that Christ understood suffering. He endured the cross, the Bible says. What an example. Why did He do that for us? The Bible says, for the joy that was set before Him. He did that for you and me. We were His joy that was set before Him. Matthew 25, 21 says this, His Lord saith unto Him, well done. Thou what? Good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Have you ever thought about the day you step foot in heaven and you see Jesus face to face? And what he's gonna say to you? And at that moment in time, everything that we're experiencing now is gonna be gone, it's gonna be over. Everything in life that we experience, everything our race is gonna be over, When we see Him face to face, what do we want to hear Him say to us? Well done. You know that nowhere in the New Testament do we see where God expects us to do better than someone else, but we are expected to be faithful. We're expected to be faithful. We are judged on our faithfulness. I'm thankful for His mercy and His grace, aren't you? How many are thankful for the grace of God? And when we get off track, He lets us come back, and He lets us get back on track. This is why we need to fix our gaze on Christ. He is our example. He's our example. He endured the cross. Think about what He endured for us. Say, Brother Delzel, sometimes this Christian life is kind of tough, you know? I could be out, you know, partying with my friends when they're out partying. I could be doing this. I could be doing that. or I give to this, or I give to that, or I gave up this to do this for the Lord, or whatever it is, sometimes in our minds we think it's tough, but the truth is, is really the Christian life is the best life. It's an amazing life. Keep your focus, keep your gaze on His example. He endured the cross for us. And let me give you number three. Keep our focus on His endurance. His endurance. Look at verse three, for consider Him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. I love the verse Galatians 6, 9. How many know Galatians 6, 9? You know it. And let us not be weary in well-doing. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we will, what? will reap if we faint not. I grew up in the construction trade, and I used to work with my dad as a young guy. We used to do tile work and different things like that, and I can't get away from construction. As hard as I try, I end up doing something, remodeling my house. It's just expensive to have someone else do stuff for you, so you end up doing it yourself, right? But I grew up in the construction trade, and many of you have done construction. It's hard work. How many agree it's hard work? It's hard work. I don't know. I enjoy it. I enjoy the work. I enjoy doing the project. I enjoy the finished product. I enjoy looking back, standing back and saying, wow, that looks great, whether it's painting a wall or putting in kitchen cabinets or whatever it is. Boy, that looks incredible. That looks nice. I enjoy the work. You know, I never got weary. Working in construction, it didn't weary me. I was tired physically, but not weary. Weariness and being tired are two different things. Did you know that the work of God is fun? One amen! How many know the work of God is fun? Teaching little kids is fun, singing in the choir is fun, doing things and serving the Lord is fun. And this is what the writer's saying here. He said, don't be, where's Paul? He said, don't be weary in well-doing. You know, when I go to church on a Sunday, and I serve, and I teach a connection group, or I do whatever it is that I do on a Sunday, man, that kind of stuff is fun, and it's enjoyable, and it gives me, it kind of fills my tank, you know what I mean? Like, it gives me, I'm glad that I, I'm always glad I go to church. I always feel like my tank is full, right? So why is the writer saying don't get weary in well-doing? Don't get weary in well-doing. I don't think it's about working hard. I don't necessarily feel like it's about the actual work of doing the Lord's work that makes us weary. What I think what makes us weary and why the writer is saying don't be weary is because we face spiritual opposition. Some of you face spiritual opposition to get to church today. you couldn't find your shoe. Or even more serious things than that, health issues and family issues and whatever the case might be. What makes us tired in the Lord's work and doing what God wants us to do isn't necessarily the work itself, it's the opposition that we face when we're doing what God wants us to do. You will not do what God has called you to do and not face opposition, it doesn't work that way. As soon as you decide to say, you know what? You're right. I haven't been in the race like I should. I'm going to get back in the race. That week, for whatever reason, is going to be the hardest week you've ever tried to get back in the race in your life. It's opposition. I don't know how many times we'll see a young couple get saved or get baptized or something, and it doesn't, I mean, it's like clockwork. The week after, marriage problems. The week after, man, my boss said I'm switching shifts, now I can't come to church. I mean, it's opposition after opposition after opposition. And the Bible tells us, we know the verses, that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities and forces that we cannot see. This church right here in this area of Sacramento, The devil and the spiritual forces against this place is incredible. That's why we get weary sometimes. So today, if you're tired and you've worked hard this week and you've provided for your family, you've commuted and you've done all the things, that's part of life, being tired. But if you're weary, that's a spiritual thing. That's spiritual opposition. Maybe your soul is depleted. What do we do? What do we do? We look at and focus at His endurance. Christ's endurance. He endured for us. If He endured for me, I can endure for Him. He endured for us. He endured what? He endured contradictions of sinners. Contradictions is hostility and opposition. Jesus, His whole three years of ministry was filled with opposition and contradiction, all the way up until He was crucified on the cross. He endured for us. Let us not be weary in well-doing. Consider Christ and His endurance. How many of you have ever been surprised at how much opposition you're getting for spiritual work that you're doing? How many of you have ever been surprised? Isn't it amazing how often we get surprised by spiritual opposition when we know it's coming? I don't know how many times my wife and I will feel spiritual opposition in our lives. And then it's like it'll hit us all of a sudden, hey, God is doing something. There's something going on that maybe we don't see. We had a few months ago, actually, now it's around Easter time. Our class, we lead a connection group, and it's all kind of younger couples. And we live pretty close to an Air Force base there in Lancaster area. And we wanted to reach out to the Air Force base. A lot of younger couples up there, a lot of families that the Lord and help. And so we decided, hey, let's have a barbecue, you know, let's go up there and have a barbecue at a little park there and just invite them to come. And so it seems pretty simple. You rent a little, you know, pavilion and you bring hot dogs and you barbecue hot dogs and people are going to show up and it's going to be fine, you know. Man, I can't believe how much opposition I had. Just this barbeque. We couldn't get this thing done. We couldn't get this thing done. We couldn't figure this out. We couldn't find someone to rent. We couldn't unlock the doors to the bathroom. I mean, we fought and fought and fought and fought. Then finally the day came, and I said to myself, I kept telling my class, they're like, They're like, Brother Delzel, this isn't going to work. I mean, this is going to be dumb. No one's going to show up. We weren't allowed to advertise here. We weren't allowed to do this. And I said, guys, I don't know why, but God put it on our hearts to do this. And I said, I don't care if two people show up. We're just going to do it, right? But there's a lot of opposition. I just kept telling myself, man, there's a lot of opposition. There must be something good that's going to happen, right? We show up that day. There's probably three or four couples from our class. We're just kind of hanging out there at this park. It was way off, kind of off the base in this area. There wasn't very many people. And I thought, well, you know, we'll just have a good time. And, you know, we'll figure out how we'll do this next time better. And I kind of was saying this whole stuff to myself in my mind. I didn't say it out loud, right, because I had faith. We're kind of standing there. There's no one around. It's supposed to start in like five minutes. It's just us. And I'm like, well, just start grilling hot dogs. I can eat three hot dogs, you know? So throw them on the grill, and they start grilling hot dogs. And I'm telling you, I'm not sure how this happened, but people started coming out of nowhere. And they're showing up and showing up and showing up until I look around. There's hundreds of people around. And they're all eating hot dogs and playing basketball. And we were able to talk to a bunch of people about the Lord, invite them to our church. Several people came to Easter. One lady got saved, came to Easter from it. It was really cool. But there was a lot of opposition. And what's funny is, when the opposition happens, it's like I'm surprised by it. What does the Bible say? We're not wrestling against flesh and blood. Some of y'all, your lives are too easy. Your lives are too easy. You're just going with the flow. You're going with the flow. Boy, when you start getting back in the race and doing what God has called you to do, there's opposition. So what do we do? We focus on His endurance and what He's done for us. We look at Him, we endure the opposition because He endured opposition for us. How are we doing today? How are we doing in our race? There's only two things that God really, and I'm done, there's only two things really that God calls us to in this race. He calls us to keep running. Let's say that, keep running. Ready? Keep running. And he calls us to finish. Keep running and finish. I watched a video the other day. It was a marathon, some crazy marathon. And this lady was winning. She was going to win this thing, whatever, 60 miles or whatever, some crazy ultra marathon thing. And I mean, you could tell she'd been running a long time. She was just like, you know. trying to get to the finish line. And she's almost there, and I don't know what happened, I didn't watch it very closely, but she got distracted by something. She was looking at, waving at the camera, she was doing something, and this guy just blew right past her from behind and won. Haven't seen many videos like that. Don't get distracted. Keep going until you finish. Finish the race. And so today, as we close, let's keep our eyes, let's keep our focus, not on the mirror so much, right? This isn't gonna make you happy. You can look in this mirror 100 times today, you're gonna be like, oh, oh, right? No, keep our eyes and our focus fixed on him. I'll close with this thought. How many know who Don Sisk is? Who's ever heard of Don Sisk? All right, just a few of you. Dr. Don Sisk, probably one of the greatest Christians of our generation, just turned 92, I think two days ago, 92 years old, was a missionary in Japan for many years, and his wife went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. We just had a special event at our church, and Brother Sisk always preaches. He's 92, right? 92 years old, can barely get up the steps. Somebody helps him up. And it was really kind of a surprise to all of us. It was kind of a really unique moment. He was moving to Lancaster. He was going to live there in a house across the street from the church. We were going to try to help him in his retirement years. He retired at 92. How many want to make it to 92, amen? He gets up to the pulpit, and he spoke for a few minutes. And then he said something that just kind of shocked everybody in the room. He said, this is the last time I'll talk behind this pulpit. And we're all just kind of like, what? I think it shocked our pastor. He said, I'm going back to Tennessee. He goes, I'm going to live in a retirement home. He said, I just can't do it. I can't remember all the things he said. But essentially, he said goodbye to the church family. Of course, I think everyone in the room started just bawling their eyes out. This incredible Christian missionary, just such a sweet, sweet person. And he said, well, I won't be back, you know, he went to go live in a nursing home. And I think it's Ohio or Tennessee or something kind of back east. And our pastor was talking about him the other day and how he would talk to him on the phone and doctors just 92 years old in a, in a retirement home. He doesn't have enough room in there to have anything. His office is right next to mine. All of his things were in his office. He said, I can't take any of it. He doesn't have room for it. He said, but while I'm here in this nursing home, in this retirement home, he said, I'm gonna witness to as many people as I can. Pastor Chappell went back and visited him a few weeks ago and saw him and Dr. Sist introduced a lady that he had led to the Lord there. That's called finishing your race. all the way to the end. How many want to do that in your life? You want to finish that race? Let's pray together. Father, we love you.