Today we're going to be in Hebrews 12, looking at just a few verses at the very beginning of the chapter, but we're also going to be stepping back into Hebrews 11 to get a lot of context around that. Today's passage is all about running the race of faith with endurance. There are three main points that we're going to really look at heavily throughout this message. First of all, that there are great saints that ran a race of endurance And some even had to persevere all the way to the point of death. We also see that secondly, that there is a way that you are to endure and to run your own race of faith. And this passage will give you a lot of very practical advice on exactly how to do that. And then we'll also see that we have an ultimate race runner. We have someone who, that we can, as we'll say, fix our gaze upon, that we can look unto when we run our race, because Jesus ran a race that required great endurance, and he was greatly rewarded for it. Those are the three points we're going to be working towards today. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and read Hebrews 12, 1-3. Let me pull it up on the screen here. Hebrews 12, 1-3, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So at the very beginning we see, therefore, since we have so great of witnesses surrounding us. Anytime you see the word therefore, that is always an invitation to look at what preceded it, to contemplate that, because it has some sort of context and connection to it. So let's go ahead and do exactly that. If we flip back just one chapter, go back into Hebrews 11, we're gonna spend some time here as well, just to get context on it. Hebrews 11, of course, is the famed hall of faith, as a lot of people call it. You see a recurring phrase throughout this chapter over and over and over and over again, and that is by faith Depending on the version you're looking at it occurs generally around 20 times new American Standard. It's 19 times Which is what I'll be speaking out of here today, and it is amazing things that God did through his saints of old And he did those things by faith you ever trying to think of how do I you know? How do I really wrap my head around this idea of faith? What is faith? You know, this is a really good one, even as kids, you know, if the kids are listening in, you can really even, you know, really focus on this. It's something I learned as a kid. It comes with a nice little, you know, cute acrostic, and that is forsaking all, I trust him. So forsaking everything else, you fully trust the Lord. That's what we consistently see in this chapter from the saints of old. By faith, that's what they did. It's exactly what this chapter is talking about, these long dead saints forsaking all and trusting God, even when circumstances were difficult, no matter the circumstances, they knew that they would trust the Lord. This chapter is also, of course, old. It jumps all the way in the way back machine, as people like to say these days, and that is it goes all the way to the starts in the second generation of earthlings, starts with Cain and Abel, all the way back towards the very beginning, and it bullet points the lives of these saints of the Old Testament. It's an encouraging chapter, but as it goes and it progresses, especially in the latter part of the chapter, it becomes more and more and more trying for the saints that you're reading about. These runners who are running their own races in the latter part of the chapter go through increasingly difficult circumstances, which we're going to look a little bit at today. We'll look at verses 32 to 38 there. We're going to see three main categories that I've just kind of given, you know, cute little names that kind of are a way to kind of segment them and break them down just to look at these three different groups. We have one group, the first group that I'm just going to call the mountaintoppers. They're kind of like the people that were on the helicopter. They just kind of got dropped down at the top of the mountain. They didn't have to go up the mountain. They didn't have to fight their way up there, at least for the most part. Now, one thing to keep in mind before we look at them though, is even though there's three different categories that are laid out here in these verses, even though we're really trying to understand what are these saints really go through, A mountaintopper type of person is not somebody who necessarily never went through anything else. They didn't just have their whole life was generally a mountaintop experience where everything was just easy breezy and they just lived by faith and trusted God in easy circumstances. There are times when they're in all three categories for many of the people that we're gonna see here, even the most difficult of circumstances. So, look at Hebrews 11, 32 and 33. It says, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon. of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises. We'll continue in that verse in just a moment, but if you look right there, so far we see that faith led them to conquer kingdoms, to perform acts of righteousness, to obtain promises. These are on the happier, kind of easier side, the miraculous side, the side that would be super encouraging to us, of course, but it doesn't sound like quite as much of a struggle as what we're gonna see with some of these other groups. They're basically crushing it, and they're having wonderful mountaintop experiences through it all. Secondly, we see a group of what I guess I dubbed the brave battlers. They're in the face of uncertainty and difficulty, and they're fighting through it. They're bravely trying to run their race of faith through all these difficult circumstances. And that we see in the latter part of verse 33 through verse 35. By faith, they shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire. They escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness were made strong. They became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection." So like the mountaintoppers that we previously talked about, these brave battlers still have the amazing blessings, but they went through a lot to get there. They weren't just kind of more dropped in at the top of everything, where everything's kind of like smoother sailing and easier coasting. I mean, think about it. If you're shutting the mouths of lions, that means you're encountering lions. If you are, you know, quenching fire, that means you're coming really close and encountering fire. If you're going to battle with sword, that means you're in a battle with someone with a sword. Those are scary, dangerous things. They fight from weakness and go to war to become strong and mighty. They go against armies that put them to fight. They even die so that they could be raised again. So they did not have quite as easy a road, perhaps, as at times the mountaintoppers might have. The third group that we have are the tortured trustors. These are the ones who really went through the ringer. Sometimes, again, these are some of the people in the previous categories, people who really went through it. But their faith sustained them, even in these many cases, what put them in harm's way, because sometimes their very faith was the thing that put them in harm's way. It was the reason they were despised. It was the reason they were tortured. It was the reason that they went through all this. Look again at verse 35 all the way through 38. It says, And others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they may obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were put to death with a sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world is not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground." That's a pretty dark, difficult passage of scripture to think about with people of faith going through all of these things. But they definitely endured it. So what do we know about the end results of these people that endured all of this, whether they were on a mountaintop, whether they were battling, whether they were ultimately tortured and just trusting the Lord, even in difficult circumstances? We'll look at verse 39. It says, and all these, having gained approval by their faith, did not receive what was promised. Probably not, if you're thinking about, you know, Hebrews 11, you're thinking of, oh, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the conviction of things not seen. You know, by faith, these people did great things. Now we think of the first three-fourths of that chapter, we forget all these tortured things they went through, and then we kind of miss this whole verse right here. But it is not a typo. That is not me misstating it. Look back at verse 13. It says, all these died in faith without receiving the promises. So they lived in faith, they died in faith, and yet they did not fully receive the promises of God. So, you have to ask, but why? Why, oh Lord, did they endure all this and not receive the promises that you made to them? Well, look at verse 40, because we, of course, broke it up right in the middle of a sentence. Verse 40 continues it. Because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. Even for all that they endured in life, even to the point of death, they did not receive all that God promised because God had something better planned. He had something better planned for us. And what was that something better? That apart from us, they would not be made perfect. So it is better that God rescues and delivers us so that along with us, they would be made perfect. They would receive the fullness of his promises. But these saints of old, who conquered and battled and were tortured to the point of death only saw God's plan in a reduced part from what we see because they also did not know of the holy and perfect life of Christ and his teachings. They did not have his words to study. They knew that God had something he was doing. They had an amazing plan. He had something that was going to be greater. They did not consider him unfaithful. They were faithful all the way to the point of death. They were willing to die for the faith that they exercised in him. But they walked in faith in some of these miraculous circumstances even to the point of death and were promised a rich eternal inheritance. But part of God's plan in that that ultimately they probably didn't really understand or fully appreciate or fully see was that God's plan involved you and me. And that apart from us, they would not be made perfect. So these are the giant footsteps that we walk through when we approach Hebrews 12, this is what precedes it. This is what it's all pointed to in the therefore. Therefore is pointing to what we just saw in chapter 11. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and look at Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 starts with, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, so these saints of old that we just looked at and just kind of briefly, you know, move through very quickly in Hebrews 12, or excuse me, Hebrews 11, they start out in Hebrews 12, yet again, being referenced. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we've obviously talked about their greatness. So that is kind of self-explanatory since we already have covered that, but they are also called a cloud. The only time that this word is used in the Greek, in the New Testament, and is often used in general Greek writing to discuss a crowd or a multitude. So you could even say that we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses or a cloud of witnesses. They're encompassing us on all sides. Notice also that it says that they are witnesses. It's exactly what it sounds like, that they are eyewitnesses and earwitnesses. They testify to what they see and what they heard. There are a great dense multitude or crowd of faithful witnesses who have relayed the wonders that they have seen and that God has done through them. But notice that they are doing something. They are also surrounding us. These Hall of Faithers aren't fairy tales. They aren't just good stories. They aren't just things that somebody kind of made up with just to go, oh, this is a good correlation that you can be like, oh, I can take some encouragement from this in life because somebody kind of handcrafted this made up story just to kind of apply to circumstances like these. It's none of that. Instead, it says that they are surrounding us. This word for surrounding is the same one that is used talking about Paul and the chains that he was bound with. He is surrounded by them. They are inescapable. They are a part of him. He cannot go anywhere without the chains that he is completely engulfed in. In Luke 17, it's the same word that Jesus uses to describe a millstone that should be put around someone's neck if they would even do so much as to lead astray one of these little ones. Think about that. You tie a millstone to them and you throw them out into the sea. It's like they're out there drowning. They're trying to save themselves, but they have this heavy weight around their neck they cannot be detached from, and they're sinking. That is how much these great witnesses of old, they're not just people that we can look to and think, oh, they did some great things, and we can be encouraged by that. They're actually surrounding us. They're bonded with us. They're at one with us. And our salvations or our eternities are so inextricably linked, just like Hebrew says. Paul could not cast off his chains, and a deceiver of God's children cannot cast off the stone that is around his neck. And likewise, we cannot cast off these faithful witnesses. They completely engulf and surround us, and that is why Hebrews 11 is essential to lead us into Hebrews 12. We can't understand the great cloud of witnesses if we don't contemplate the great faith of the men and women who have gone before us all these years before. Notice also that there is that little word that we kind of glossed over. It says, therefore, since. Since, or because you have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you. There are five results that really should follow that we're going to see that are going to be laid out right here in these verses. Two of them are framed in the negative. They're the things that you should let go of, the things that you should put aside, the things that should no longer burden or encumber you or weigh you down, which we'll look at a bit more. Then, ultimately, we'll also see three things that are in the positive, the things that you should put on, the things that you should be about in your race of faith. So look again at verse one. It says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. So let us, in the negative, let's go ahead and remove, get rid of, part ways with, let us lay aside every encumbrance. So of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you what today is encumbering you from serving the Lord in a greater capacity than you do now. You know, sometimes you're like, oh, if I hear questions like that, sometimes, you know, in a service, I might be like, wow, they're really trying to pressure me into something or pressuring me to like figure something out or, you know, figure out how, you know, how lacking I am or, you know, what have you. But honestly, this is a question I think we should be asking ourselves all the time. We should be thinking about, you know, is there anything that could in any way be hindering me in running a race of greater faith, of forsaking all, not forsaking some, forsaking all in our trust of the Lord. Some versions also translate that as lay aside every weight. So laying aside weight that's kind of weighing you down or burdening you. There's some consequences, of course, to being encumbered or being weighed down, and that is that you expend more energy. It can distract you. It can slow you down. could also think of it like a prize fighter who has to make their weight before they go into their fight. Now, the difference is that a fighter is preparing for a fight, whereas the illustration that's given here is we're not preparing for a race, we're in a race. So these are things you do as you run. Really comical, you know, somewhat comical to me anyway, in hindsight, illustration came to mind was back in the early 2000s, I really got into mountain biking. And I would go out there, you know, most Saturdays, sometimes even one other time during the week. And of course, mountain biking in South Louisiana is a really comical term because we don't have mountains. So, you know, it's like more like what I always would always say was I was like, it was more like man-made hill biking, you know, somebody went out there and kind of made a hill. So you had something to go over, you know, and then you had something to go down the other side of and have some fun with doing it well. And this whole idea of being encumbered or being hindered by something, I was writing in a really large group of probably 12 or 14 people, much larger group than I was typically writing in. And, you know, we're actually in this flat stretch of, you know, land, not really, you know, just kind of tooting along, not really paying attention. I hear something go by my head. I don't really think much of it. I get about a minute or two up the trail, and suddenly I hear something in my ear, inside of my head, rattling around. And, of course, I did what any sane person would do. I immediately unbuckled, unclipped from my pedals in motion, let my bike careen off into a tree, jumped, threw my helmet on the ground, started clawing at my head, trying to get whatever is in my head out of my head, because I was very, very scared of this at this point. So, anyway, obviously I'm not in a race, but I'm, you know, kind of out there riding and stuff, trying to make progress towards the end goal, which is getting through this whole trail. I'm seriously encumbered from doing this because I have something that is alive that's just looking for a free ride wherever I'm headed, you know, and I'm not, not okay with this. Obviously distracted me. It slowed me down. It took a whole lot of energy because it really freaked me out for about four or five minutes and I never saw it fly away, but I didn't hear it anymore. And I'm like, this is still in there. Did it go away? Well, anyway, some of the guys that I would ride with, which was always weird to me also. I mean, we're amateurs out there. We're not in any way very good at this mountain biking thing. We're certainly not riding up, you know, like, I don't know. I was in Colorado or something like that. There were guys that I knew out there who were like, they were really intense about it. They were like, they shaved their arms. They shaved their legs. They were committed to this. They were like, even body hair is going to slow me down. I'm like, I don't know about all that, but okay. I was, I was not that guy. Um, But they were looking for every advantage they could get they were looking at what are the encumbrances to me being a faster writer to being out here faster and they all have little ways they went about it, I mean they would get the. I was one guy who was very big on snacks, he was like he would not take trail mix because he thought it way too much. Earlier talking like a two ounce difference you think that's gonna make a difference for 160 pound guy come on. But think about that, how much greater that gets when you get to professionals, people that are, you know, in races that actually have significant consequence, they make their living doing this. Some of you might remember that back in the 2008 Olympics, that there was all the controversy was the swimsuit that all these, you know, Olympians were using. So they used a polyurethane swimsuit, which basically allowed them to glide through the water that much faster. And there were an unprecedented number of world records that were broken in swimming by people who wore these swimsuits. And the next year they were all banned. They were like, no, that's that's like an artificial advantage because there are people who are, you know, they're wearing brands that don't have that technology and they're immediately at a disadvantage as soon as you get in the water. So, you know, we see that they're like, what can I possibly do even for the equipment that I'm using to the point that I can be more sleep, that I can have less drag, that I can have less of an encumbrance in this race that matters to me, that this is the centerpiece of my life and my, you know, my living. And I say that not lighthearted because many of these people take it on even more than a career. They don't just spend 40 hours a week at it. They like spend their whole sleep schedule, their whole food schedule, their whole life is built around whatever their sport, their chosen sport is. you know, and what are they chasing? They're chasing a metal, something that is going to, it could be just melted down in a furnace. Something that honestly, it's like, wow, that's, that's really cool. You won, you know, but I started thinking back. I was like, honestly, I can only tell you about a handful of Olympians who ever even competed. And I can't even tell you if most of them even won. I just know their names. Cause I remember hearing them, you know, How about this one? This is another really crazy example that came to mind. How about changing your own body chemistry? I mean, we think about people who take steroids, but you know, it was ultimately revealed that Lance Armstrong went so far as to during the tour de France, which he won seven of was ultimately stripped of all of them. But he had a, he had, they called it a doping scheme, which a lot of people think, Oh, you inject something into you. Well, kind of, but what he actually did was before they would race, He would basically take blood out of himself, keep it in bags, and then they would go into the truck after the race day, and they would give themselves blood transfusions. They didn't just put something in themselves. They put their own blood back in as they took out worn out blood, just so they would recover that much faster. That was the degree to which this guy, yes, illegally, yes, not holding him up as a good example, just saying that is the degree of which he was motivated to be that much less encumbered, to be that much faster in the race that mattered more to him than anything else in all of life. But again, he chased a bunch of glory and a bunch of fame and a bunch of trophies. Ultimately, well, first of all, he got a lot of that. Ultimately, he lost all of it. Ended up getting sued by all of his, you know, all the people that supported him and all the people that, you know, actually sponsored him and stuff because he fraudulently did all this stuff. He had to give back winnings. He had to give back trophies. He ultimately became a massive disgrace to a lot of things. He's not even allowed in virtually any kind of cycling competition anywhere. That's ultimately where, you know, this drive led him and all of that for temporary glory, fame and trophies. Or, you know, we can also remember back just to kind of add a little context to that, of Jesus's comments in Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart, there your heart will be also. So what about you? Again, another question is begging to be asked, what treasure or what is it that you treasure? What is it that you are unwilling to lay aside? Even if it means glorifying the Lord even that much more, even slightly more, what is it that we are not willing to just lay aside? That and those things should be the focus to lay aside to run a race that is less encumbered. So of course, the thing to implore you to do is to seek the Lord to reveal those things, but then also that he would give you the grace to trust him, to replace him with something significantly greater than that thing, that you wouldn't even miss that ultimately. Notice also that it says that we're in a race, but it says that we're surrounded. It's kind of an interesting, uh, you know, image also that you get. I mean, you think about that, maybe in a, in a marathon you would be surrounded, but, or, you know, some race where there are a lot of people that all like take off at about at the same time. But typically those people aren't there to support you. They're there to beat you. That's a very different context. Most races, you know, otherwise, You know, it's like we have this crowd of witnesses or this cloud of great witnesses that are surrounding us, and they're there for our benefit. In Hebrews 12, it is since or because we are surrounded that we are laying aside encumbrances of this race. That means that these great witnesses aren't encumbrances themselves. That means they aren't getting in our way of making progress in our own race. They're somehow enabling or propelling us. Their faith, their battles, their successes, their failures, There are a lot of people who are, you know, I don't know, we can think of David, we can think of as great a man of faith as he was, you know, we have David and Bathsheba. Whoa, that guy had a massive failure. We can even look to those things. We can also look to their commitment, that they're men and women of faith. That even though this was written 2,000 years ago, that even though these people did many of these things 8,000 plus years ago, we can still take great faith in them surrounding us even to this day and encouraging us and propelling us to go forward. That should be hugely encouraging to you in your race. That they live their lives of faith without the life and teachings of Christ is even more incredible. That God was faithful to them before Christ even stepped into history as a man. Last week in the devotion that I led, we also looked at Psalm 89, verse one of which says, I will sing of the graciousness of the Lord forever to all generations. I will make your faithfulness known with my mouth. God's great faithfulness unto all generations. not just the generations from this point forward, not just to your generation, not just to the generations of old that we're supposed to take encouragement from. God is faithful to us today. He was faithful to them then. He is faithful to all generations. Even if 10,000 come after us, he is faithful to all generations. So in addition to our shedding weight and laying aside any encumbrance that distracts from our mission or distracts or detracts from God's glory, we also have in Hebrews 12.1, we also have a second encouragement. That is, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles you. So lay aside the encumbrances, lay aside the sin that so easily entangles you. Entangle is another word that is really interesting to me that is this the only place again that it is found in in scripture Means to slow or to hinder or to attempt to prevent kind of like keep you from making progress another Kind of an example of this that came to mind was, I've never actually watched the show, although I've seen the clips, but apparently there's a show called Wipeout, where people try to complete an obstacle course, and the whole entire course is meant, of course, just like an obstacle course would seemingly mean, is meant to keep them from getting to the end. And if they do, they're gonna be really wet, they're gonna be really messy, they're gonna be really exhausted, and somehow this is winning, I guess, getting to the end of this thing. I'm not sure that's winning, but. But I watched a clip last night when this came to mind, and it was like, this guy starts out, he's totally dry, he's totally fine, he looks happy and healthy, he's excited, you know. The announcers, of course, offer their little comical commentary in the meantime. His very first thing is he has these rolling pylons that are on water. He has to move one to the next. You can imagine how well that goes. That's just the first thing. That's just the first obstacle that he's on. Then he has a wall of boxing gloves that he has to manage to move by that are, of course, popping out of the wall to push him off into a pit of mud that's down below like 10 or 12 feet. Then he has these big bouncy ball things he has to bounce one to the next to the next to the next just to get over. there's water below. And you know what? I don't know. I mean, I, I remember asking, you know, somebody about this. Cause that was, I think the only thing I associated with the show and they were like, I'm never wants this person watched all the time. They're like, never wants to make it past that thing. Never. They always end up in the water. So you can't get through this thing dry. Apparently it's virtually impossible. And of course, this is all a race. There's a little clock down the corner. You're actually seeing where are they at in regards to everyone else who's gone on the show before them, you know, or even in this, in this particular episode, um, So it's a pretty intentionally miserable event, is I guess how I would call it, because I don't really want to do any of those things. But that's kind of sin in a nutshell. It's a deterrent and a distraction from the race that you're really there for. If you're really like, I want to get from A to B, I want to do it as fast as possible. You know, sin is what is saying, oh, I want to punch you off into mud. I want to knock you off into the water. I want to go ahead and figure out ways to hinder you from doing this. I want to entangle you. That's what we're supposed to be laying aside in our race, you know, to glorify the Lord. We're not supposed to seek out the obstacle course. We're not supposed to seek out the most treacherous, dangerous sin, you know, like sin infested way to go about it. Lord is saying, lay all that junk aside, let go of it. Um, Key versus 12 says to drop it or to let it go. So think about that idea of dropping it. If I'm standing here stationary and I drop something, really not that much further from it than when I was holding it. That's not the idea of what we see here. You're in a race. If you're in a race and you're moving in a direction, I'm running along and I drop something, I'm still running. That thing stops moving. It stays where it was, and I keep going further forward. I'm less encumbered by that thing. You are literally running away. You are literally fleeing. You are literally going away from the thing that was encumbering you and weighing you down. That's consistent with what we see in 2 Timothy 2.22, which is about one of the easiest to remember references, points, addresses in the entire Bible. Now flee from youthful lusts, or lay them aside. Get far, far away from them. Flee them, get away from them. And instead pursue, or instead run your race of pursuit of righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Which I would say sounds a whole lot if you're doing that with other people. That's your brothers and sisters in Christ now, but that is also a great crowd of witnesses that surround you. That is also the men and women of old that you can take great encouragement. Not only them, but even in this church, you have running mates to run alongside you. They can encourage you. They can hold you accountable. They can set pace with you and say, oh, let's not take that on yet. We're running at a pace that's consistent with the Spirit, what the Spirit's doing or the Spirit's leading us. I'll run alongside you. We'll keep each other accountable. We'll run together. We'll do this together. So now that we've talked about all that negative, all the laying aside, all the things that we're kind of putting off, we get three positives on how we are to run the race laid out here in Hebrews 12. First we see, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. It's at the latter part of verse one. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Run with endurance. Greek word for endurance also means steadfastness or perseverance. Steadfastness is being steady and consistent. Runners typically pick a pace. that they can maintain over a distance. I was really terrible at this. For some reason, I was completely out of my mind and thought running might be fun when I was a kid. I no longer think that in any way, but my dad would actually, he just thought it was fun. He did not want to run, but he was like, I'll tell you what, I'll go out there with the car and I'll just like drive it like whatever miles an hour you want to run. And you know, which seems about the most inaccurate thing, but to a 10 year old, you're like, wow, this is cool. I got an entourage. I got a car pacing me, you know, sounded really important and cool. But running, you typically tend to pick a pace. You don't go, oh, I think I'll run really fast, and I'll run really slow, and I'll run really fast, and I'll run really slow. It's like steady, steady, steady wins the race. So they get in a steady, consistent rhythm, and how their body feels based on their energy levels, based on the weather sometimes. Definitely here in South Louisiana, we get that thick, heavy weather. It's probably significantly harder to run in, I would assume. But runners must also persevere. So they're steady, but they're also persevering. They have to deal with cramps. They have to deal with not wanting to go on anymore. They have to deal with being a long way from where they started, but still having to go on because they don't have a choice. They have to get back, unless they're going to call an Uber or something. There's no plan B. They may even have to deal with the occasional dog chasing them, which, again, may change your pace, and you may not be so steady. You may all of a sudden be a lot faster than you were. But before ultramarathons proved that there were completely insane people who also happen to be really, really fit. Marathons were about the highest benchmark that you could possibly have in all of running. I didn't realize this, but I looked up modern marathons kind of became a really big thing in the mid 80s. And in the very first one, I think it was in the Olympics. It was one of the big competitions for it. They had 25 people set out to do it and only nine of them finished. So you had to qualify for this thing and only nine of the 25 people. So that tells you how far we've come in just 40 years from People could only a small portion of people could even complete a marathon that we have people that are now like, oh, you know, run 80 miles crazy things like that but. I also thought it was really interesting that marathons also have. an interesting story of origination. Now, this is a bit debated, but I'm going to share it anyway because it's kind of interesting. There was a guy named Phidippides, who was a Greek messenger who was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, and he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or to raid some Greek land while they could. And it is said that he ran the entire distance from Athens to Marathon, the first 10 miles of which is a very hilly path. I actually looked this up just to see. I was like, what does that entail? Is it just flat? I mean, or is it actually like the challenge? Oh, it's 10 miles of a lot of up before you really get any kind of a break. And along the way, he discarded weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, which to me, of course, sounds like our first principle right here, laying aside every encumbrance. He's like, What do I need a weapon for if I'm running like I don't need to fight anything. I'm trying to get somewhere as fast as possible. So ultimately, he arrives in Athens and he claims we have one and then immediately collapses and dies. So, is it true again? Who really knows, but it perfectly illustrates that running an endurant, steady, persevering race, even at high cost, can ultimately mean achieving your goal, which in our goal, it's not just warning people, it's not winning a medal, it's not winning a trophy, it's not duping people into giving you a trophy because you really did a bunch of shady stuff, you know, but it is actually God glorifying. There's a much greater goal in it than just simply winning a race and getting a medal or a trophy. We'll look at endurance a bit more in a few minutes, but look at the second positive way that we are to run. It says in verse two, it starts with fixing our eyes on Jesus. So, we're to fix our eyes on Jesus. Not glance at Jesus, not occasionally gaze at Jesus, fix your eyes. There's a laser set focus that you are doing, you're like laser focused right there Jesus. Again, going back to my mountain biking days, one thing that we told people constantly when they were new to it, because you'd get out there and you could always tell the people who had no clue what they were doing, you know, and there are places where you can get seriously hurt. So you're constantly trying to tell people, you know, when you're on the trail and you see them out there, like, I don't want you to get hurt. Let me give you a pointer here. You know, one of the core pointers for mountain biking is look where you want to go, which might sound really obvious. But there are a lot of times when you encounter really scary stuff. I mean, you could be on the side of a mountain with a sheer drop that's 100 feet. You could be, you know, going down a mountain at 45 miles an hour that's really rocky and you're shaking and you're, you know, you can barely even think, you know. You might be going down a straight vertical drop that's 20, you know, 20 straight feet. There might be a root off to your right and you may have only about a two or three inch span where your tire better land. Otherwise you're going to hit that root and you're going to fall. I can vouch for that landed on my head one time when I 15 foot drop on a metal grade at the bottom because I was looking at the root, not where I wanted to go. It's always look where you want to go. Um, one illustration that really came to mind with this was there was one specific trail out of our part of the Hooper trail where you had to bike between two trees and it was in a very flat stretch where you're generally moving really fast, but it was only about the width of a handlebar. So you don't have a lot of room for margin for error. If you look at that tree or that tree, you're going to end up running into that tree or that tree. But you had to look dead center down the middle. And as long as you did that, it was miraculous. Even in not being a very good biker, you would probably land right down the middle of those two trees. Look where you want to go. Fix your eyes on Christ. That is where you want to go. That is the race that you're running. Fix your eyes on Christ. Temptation will come from Satan, will come from the world. The trees will emerge. The cliff that you can fall off of and get, you know, get seriously hurt or even die will come up. Sin will go ahead and try to re-entangle you, but fix your eyes on Christ because he's more than capable of sustaining you. Verse 2 continues, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. So we're fixing our eyes on Christ and we get some additional descriptions about him. He is the author. He is the source. He is the founder of our faith. Jesus is how you said, starting today, forsaking all, I trust Him. That is how your faith was established. Jesus is also the perfecter. He is the sustainer. He is the finisher of your faith, because Jesus is how, even decades into your walk, you are able to say, continuing today, even if I'm in difficult circumstances, forsaking all, That's what a fixed gaze can do. It kind of even puts us into the mind of, you know, someone like Peter, who in John 6, 68 said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Like, what is plan B? There is no plan B. There's a plan. I don't even have a plan A. I have a plan, period. I'm gonna be fixed upon you. You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. There is no other. He is the all-sufficient author, perfecter of your faith. He is the one that you are to fix your gaze solely upon and wholly upon. Verse two goes on in describing our author and perfecter. It says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So for the joy. Jesus is motivated by joy. This is a wonderful thing. This was really, this was really amazing to me, even as I studied this. I was like, wow. I mean, yes, I thought about Christ wants to glorify God. Christ wants to see him glorified, you know, to the utmost. But I never thought about, maybe I did, but I don't know, I don't remember ever thinking, wow, Jesus does this joy that comes to him by doing this. We know from our time in the fruit of the spirit, the second one, the fruit of the spirit is love joy. We know that that is not some sort of temporary happiness that a lot of people want to confuse it with. There is an eternal, there is something so much more significant than the here and now, what we're going through in the here and now. Even if it's all good, as wonderful and as blessed as we are to have sweet little Annie and as happy as it is, It pales heavily in comparison to the joy of seeing God glorified. I hope that she has the wonderful blessing and opportunity to contribute to that, of course. But it's not just anything that makes Jesus happy. It's something that brings him eternal, lasting joy. Joy is the eternal truth, the contentment, satisfaction, not a temporary happy circumstances. And it was the joy that was set before him. This is not just some flimsy thing. It's not something that may happen. It was set before him. It was in front of him. It was before him. And it was put there intentionally. It is Jesus returning ultimately to his rightful place in heaven, which is how we see verse 2 ends. It says that the right hand of the throne of God is where he will end up. First he had to accomplish his work here on earth. After leaving the right hand of God in his throne above, he had to endure the cross, despising the shame of becoming a sin on your behalf and on my behalf. A sinless for the sinful, resurrected to give us newness of life and to author faith in us and ultimately to perfect it. There's nothing and no one greater God could have given us to author and perfect our faith. There's no one who even could have authored and perfected our faith, let alone anyone greater who could have done it. And there is nothing and no one greater God could tell to fix our eyes upon than to have the laser-like focus on Christ. Look at verse three for the final of our three positives. For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So here we have consider Christ and his race of faith. Meditate on him, study him, put your mind to work alongside your eyes who are already fixed on him. If your eyes are fixed on him, now you're putting your mind to considering him, to meditating on him, seeing how wonderful and sweet he is, to finding the things that brought him joy and saying, I want those things as well. Those are imperative to me as well. That is how you stay encouraged. That is how you endure. That is how you are steadfast. That is how you persevere. So look at the repeating message in this passage. In verse one, we see run with endurance. Verse two, we see fixing your eyes on Jesus who endured the cross. Verse three, we see considering him who has endured hostility. Verse four, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart, which sounds a lot like to me, like enduring, like pressing on, so that you will steadily endure and persevere. Just kind of wrapping it all up. If you are one of God's people, you are running a race of faith. A great cloud of witnesses has gone before you and surrounds you with encouragement as you run in their footsteps. And there are five ways that we should be running our race. Two of them, we should be laying aside. We should be laying aside anything that would weigh us down, anything that would encumber us, anything that would, you know, make us even that much less able to glorify and serve the Lord to the utmost. We should also be laying aside the sin that so easily entangles us. What is the sin that is distracting you from the soul gaze upon Christ? That is something that we want to make, first and foremost, something that we call to the Lord to call our attention to, but also give us the power to get rid of. We should also be running our race by running with endurance. That's what we see here. See, by fixing your eyes steadfastly on Christ, this author, this great perfecter of our faith. and by considering him who endured hostility so that you will endure, so that I will endure, so that we will not grow weary and we will not lose heart. In this race, Jesus knew that the glorious throne that awaited him was sitting at the right hand of the Father, and there in his presence is where our finish line is. That's where the finish line for our race is found, where we celebrate with him, with all the saints of old, the saints of new, great witnesses that surround us from old, that's where we all get to do it together, maybe even generations to come if the Lord should tarry. If he is faithful to do all these things, we are faithful to endure. So let's go ahead and take a few moments and pray, and then I'll ask Mr. Jack to come up for a Lord's Supper meditation. Lord, thank you so much for the rich blessing of your scripture, Lord, that has been preserved for all these many years, Lord. We thank you, Lord, that it seems like I pray more and more and more often. You do not call on me to blaze a new trail, Lord, to figure it out, to do something that's unprecedented that no one's ever done before, Lord. But you, of course, given me your spirit. This relationship that I'm only in because of the sacrificial, incredible incomprehensible life, death, and resurrection of Christ. You've sent a great cloud, a multitude of witnesses, Lord, before that have been documented, Lord, that we get to still read about and study and contemplate. Mistakes we can even make that they committed in their lives, Lord, but also great successes that they had as they lived out their faith in their own races. And Lord, even brothers and sisters in Christ that I get to go out on the trail with, out to run, Lord, alongside, locked arm in arm, Lord, setting pace together, but all laser focused with our gaze on you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, so much for the power of your spirit at work within us, for the race that you've put your people on, Lord. We thank you for the encouragement of the saints, as much as they have been in my own life. Thank you for the study of your word, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would give us great encouragement and give us great fellowship in our time with the saints today as we participate also and partake of the elements that we would remember. We would remember the blood and remember the body, the blood that was spilled and the body that was broken, Lord, for our sin, the sinless for the sinful, Lord. Thank you so much, Lord, for the power to endure through your spirit and for the encouragement that you give us, Lord, through your word.