Well, good morning, we want to welcome you this morning to Grace Life Church and we are Always interested and always Looking forward to looking into the Word of God and we want to do that this morning as we allow the Word of God to speak to us turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 is where we will be most of our time this morning and Well, as we continue on in our end of the summer series on practical Christian living, we want to continue to examine the Bible's teaching on how we're to honor the Lord with our lives. The Bible was written to detail God's sovereign plan to redeem sinners back to himself. But as you know, its purpose does not stop there. In fact, the preponderance of the Bible details how we are to then live in light of his work of salvation in our lives. So this is what we have been examining the past few weeks as we've looked into the word of God. And this is what we would like to do again this morning. One of the coolest vacations that we have ever taken as a family was to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Now, we've been there several times since, but the first time that we were there as a family was amazing. We arrived at our hotel in Castle Rock, Colorado in the late afternoon. The scenery was breathtaking. Out in the distance was the showcase of the Rockies, the showpiece of the Rocky Mountain Range, Pikes Peak. There it was. One of the reasons why we had traveled all the way to Colorado, we were going to drive up and ascend Pikes Peak. What a neat thing to be able to point out to the kids. Right before their eyes, there's the mountain that we're going to drive up the next day. As we think about the Christian life, we have similar thoughts. When a person trusts in Christ for salvation, there's a journey ahead of them. For the Christian, it's the glories of heaven that we can see out in the distance. The Bible paints a very vivid picture of what it is going to be like in heaven, our eternal destination. Oh, that's where we're going. It's a certainty for the Christian, but the road to get there may be very steep at times, with some unpredictable hairpin turns. There may also be some very deep potholes in the road And it may even seem pretty lonely along the way, but our destination is sure. Well, since there were no cars around when the Bible was written, the imagery that we have before us in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 is not of driving, but of running all throughout the scriptures. Imagery is used to illustrate important truths. The Bible often speaks of the Christian life as a race. The Apostle Paul used this analogy often in the epistles. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 24 through 27 says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable reef, but we an imperishable. Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body. I make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. Galatians 5, verses 6-8 says, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. And then Philippians chapter 2 and verse 16 says, holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. And so this is the imagery that we have in the passage that we want to look at today. That of a race. Look at verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 12. 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 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. In this passage, in these two verses, we find three essential things about the race. Three essential things about this race, the race of the Christian life. If you're taking notes this morning, these three essential things we will need to wrap our hearts around and our minds around this morning to understand the fullness of what the writer of Hebrews is conveying to us. We're going to learn of the nature of the race. We're going to learn of the navigation that is necessary to run the race. And we're going to learn of the necessity to stay focused while we run. So first, I want to cover the first essential thing about this race. And I want to consider with you the nature of the race that the writer of Hebrews describes for us here. Notice here in verse 1, the key phrase of this passage Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. As I said earlier, the Christian life is being compared here to a race. And so you're either in the race or you're not in the race. OK. So we can only go so far with imagery, but we can certainly say that you are either in the race of the Christian life or you are not in the race of the Christian life. And so there are two types of people in the world. We saw this a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the child of God and the child of the devil. The child of God is in the race of the Christian life. The child of the devil is not in this race. And so the race that we're going to look at this morning is a race of those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The race that we're going to talk about this morning is the Christian race. It's the race of the Christian life. So you're either in the race or you're not. If you've repented of your sin and you trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation and deliverance from the penalty of your sin, then the Bible says you are in this race. You are in the race. Now, if you're trusting in your own wisdom and your own good works to bring some merit before God, then the Bible says you are not in this race. This is the race of the Christian life. And so in light of the last three messages that we have looked at together, we need to ask ourselves the question, how are we, you and I, how are we running this race? How are we running the race of the Christian life? Because let's be honest, Some of us got a cramp in our leg early on in the race, and we've been limping along ever since. Some of us took a wrong turn somewhere along the course of the race, and we've been trying to find our way back ever since. Some of us came sprinting out of the gate, and early on in the race, we were setting the world on fire. But we got tired. We got real tired, and we started to walk. So, let's consider today how we are running. Verse 1 begins with the word therefore. And if you've been around the church for any length of time at all, there's this saying that goes with the word therefore. You always ask what the word therefore is there for. And so it's important for us to determine why does he start with the word therefore. Generally, in scripture, it means that he's referring back to what has been previously written. In fact, it seems, as I've gone back and defined the context here, it seems that he's referring all the way back to what he said beginning in chapter 10 and verse 19, moving all the way through chapter 11, because his subject has been faith. What is faith? Who are some examples of those who have had faith? Now, as we have said before, salvation has always been by grace, through faith, in what God has revealed to man. Always on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. People were not saved in the Old Testament by keeping the law. The whole purpose of the law was to show people they couldn't keep it. So people have always been saved from the beginning of time. They've always been saved by grace through faith in what God has revealed to them on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Salvation has always been, always been by grace through faith. Chapter 11 begins by defining faith. He says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Good definition. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And as we've seen in previous messages, true saving faith that comes from God always produces something. It always produces something. And one of the things that it produces is obedience. Obedience. So chapter 11, that precedes our passage, chapter 11 gives us example after example after example of men and women who exhibited their faith by being obedient to their God. And so this is important for understanding as we move into chapter 12 verses 1 and 2, because he's referring back to the author's whole discussion on faith. He says in chapter 12 here in verse 1, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, This is a direct reference to those faithful men and women who had gone before us that he mentions in chapter 11. It's almost like he's referring to these great heroes of the faith, these cloud of witnesses. It's almost as if he's referring to them as the gallery who are watching us run the race. They ran the race a long time ago. By grace, through faith, they ran the race. They've already crossed the finish line. And so now it seems, as we look at this, that they are now spectators watching how we run. So what can we determine here about the nature of this race that we are running? The nature of the race. Well, our first clue is found in the word race itself. Now let me just say this before we look at some of these words. Words mean something, okay? One of the big problems that I have today, and I've expressed it in any forum that I've been allowed to express it, and you certainly have heard this before, the problem that we have in Christian circles today is that people are deconstructing the meaning of words. They're changing the meaning of words. Words mean something. How do we know what a word means in the Bible? Well, we know what a word means in the Bible based upon authorial intent. What was it that the author intended for us to know about the word that he put in the Bible? That is where we derive the definition of a word. Words mean something. Don't let people change the meaning of words. Words mean something. The culture cannot change the meaning of a biblical word, because the meaning of that biblical word was established long ago. Language is important. And so today we're going to look at a number of words, and these words are going to help us to wrap our arms around what it is that we are to do in the race of the Christian life. And so now as we look at the nature of this race, how do we determine the nature of the race? Well, our first clue is found in the word race itself. Now, do a little homework. The Greek word for race is agon. Think about this. Agon. What do you know that sounds like agon? Agony, right? The English word agony is derived from the Greek word agon, which means race, and so this race that he's referring to here is not a jog around the block. See, words mean something. This is the great agony race that he's speaking of here. The race that he's describing can be extremely demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing. And as we're going to see here today, it requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance. So that's our first clue as to the nature of the race. The word race itself. The second clue, as we consider the nature of this race, is found in the word endurance. Endurance. This is the Greek word hoopomenai. It's also part of this phrase, let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. Endurance here means a steady determination to keep going. It has the idea of continuing when everything in you wants to slow down or just to flat out give up. When I was a sophomore at Lanphier High School in Springfield, Illinois, I was on the varsity baseball team as a sophomore. I'd come up a time or two as a freshman, sat on the bench primarily on the varsity, played most of my freshman year on the JV, but as a sophomore it was no question I was going to be on the varsity. Well, it was a different coach. The coach of the JV was not the coach of the varsity. And so it was a totally new coach. And the coach of the varsity was a legendary coach. He had coached for years upon years upon years. He was a legend. He had won hundreds and hundreds of games as a coach. He had played at a high level. He played at Eastern Illinois University. He was a legend. And he was a pitcher, and I was a pitcher. And so I pitched, and I played first base. But anyway, I'm a sophomore. I'm moving into My first practice with the varsity and this is while it's still cold outside It's still snowing out and we're starting to practice But but one of the things and this is something that I had known was coming but one of the things that they did on the varsity was they made you pass a course a running course to be able to move on with your further training. So in other words, every player had to run this course. And it was in our old gym, which was kind of like an old Hoosiers-looking gym, where you had the floor and then you had the elevated bleachers up here, and there were steps that went up and steps that went down, steps that went up, steps that went down. And so, anyway, we had to run for 30 minutes. 30 minutes is a lifetime for me, running. I don't know about you, a lot of you like to go out and run, but 30 minutes, that's a long time. And we had to get a certain number of laps in within 30 minutes, and then once we accomplished that, then we didn't have to do it anymore. So all the guys that had not done that already had to come, and we did it every day, every day, every day, the whole season. Every practice, the whole season. I could not get the number of laps in, in 30 minutes. I was close so many times, I was right there, and they yelled time and I didn't get it. And I would try harder, and I would try harder, and I would try harder. This is sort of the imagery that we have here when we see this. When we look at this race, this race of the Christian life, It's the race that just keeps on going. It's the race that is a marathon. It's not a sprint. The imagery that we have here about this race of the Christian life, as we've looked at the word race, as we've looked at the word endurance, this is talking about a marathon here. By the way, my junior year, I got it the first time, just so you know. First time junior year, I was ready. But I didn't ever get it as a sophomore, but I did get it as a junior. Marathon, not a sprint. In fact, here in context, the Hebrew Christians to whom this letter was written to, they had started out well. They had seen all the signs and the wonders and they were thrilled with their new lives. But as the new began to wear off and problems began to arise in their life inherent to a believer, They began to lose heart. They began to lose their enthusiasm. They began to lose their confidence. They started to look back at the old ways of Judaism and ahead of them at the persecution and suffering that may be coming their way. And they began to weaken and to waver. This race, as we consider the nature of the race, it's different than that of an athletic race. Some of you have participated in track and in cross-country. You've ran races before and you compete against all the other guys. I went and watched Stanley run last year and he ran the 100 meters and the 200 meters and he lined up against a bunch of guys and they all lined up and they fire the gun and then they go. So they compete against one another. This is not the imagery that we have here. This is not the imagery. We are not to compete against other Christians in this race of the Christian life. We're not to try to outdo one another. The race of the Christian life is not a race of works, but in context, what is it? It's a race of faith. We run by faith. All of the great heroes of the faith are outlined for us in Hebrews chapter 11. We run by faith. We run together with our fellow believers by our side. Not against them, but with them. And as we saw a couple of weeks back, our competition in the race is not against our fellow believers, but it's against Satan, his world system, and our own flesh, the three great enemies of the Christian. And so first, We're not to compete against other Christians. Secondly, our strength to run the race of the Christian life doesn't lie in ourselves. Here's the problem. People are operating in the flesh as a Christian. We are to operate in the Spirit. We talked about Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18 and the results of the Spirit-filled walk. We're to be Spirit-filled. We're to trust the Lord, be filled with the Spirit. And when we are, folks, Satan and sin have no power over us. And so this is the nature of the race. Secondly, we want to consider the navigation that is necessary to run the race. The navigation. This is where we start to get into some of the particulars. It's one thing to know the nature of the race, but now we're going to see what does he say? What does the writer say about how we navigate through this race? Verse one again says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, those great heroes of the faith that are mentioned in Chapter 11, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us Then let us run the race with endurance that is set before us There is a reason why Runners don't run with their eyes closed why because There are things that we need to avoid when we run now I'm quirky. You don't know this probably but I'm quirky and When I played baseball in high school, I was very quirky. I had certain things that I liked to do. In fact, it doesn't really make me look that great. It just shows my quirkiness. But when I would strike a guy out, I would not catch the ball from the third baseman after they threw it around. It always wound up back in the third baseman. I would never catch the ball with my glove hand. I would always catch it with my non-glove hand. Why would you do that, you weirdo? Why would you do that? I don't know. From the moment I was a younger kid, I just had this routine that when I would strike a guy out, and of course if there's nobody on base, the catcher throws the ball to third, he throws it to second, throws it to the shortstop, sometimes to the first baseman, but it always ends up back at the third baseman. And so when I strike a guy out, I turn and I face the third baseman, and guys that played with me knew not to stand over by third base and throw the ball to me because I'm just going to go like this and move out of the way. Not catch it with my glove hand or I'll try to catch it with my bare hand But they would come in close and then they would flip the ball to me and I'd catch it with my bare hand Okay, that's weird. I understand that and that's extremely quirky But There's a reason why in the Christian life that we don't run with our eyes closed So I'm quirky when I played baseball, but sometimes at my house, I will walk up the steps of my house with my eyes closed Just to do it just I like to count the steps I always try to remember how many steps there are and so there's 13 steps by the way and so I walk up the steps oftentimes with my eyes closed to see if I can do it without tripping and I make up these games. We had no money when I was growing up. And so me and my brother would make up these stupid games that didn't cost any money. And so I still do these weird things. I don't tell a lot of people about it. Till now. But I do this. And so I sometimes will walk... You ever try it? Go home today and try it. Try to walk up your steps. I don't know how many you got. Walk up your steps with your eyes closed. It's tough. It's tough to do because you're not sure if you're going to get that next step. So go home and try that. This is why this is why runners have their eyes open when they run. They're not quirky, weird like me. They have their eyes open when they run. And the reason why they have their eyes open when they run again, more imagery here in this passage. The reason why is because there are potential hindrances along the way when they run, which is why I try to test myself walking up the steps to see if I can do it. The first potential hindrance that we find here in this passage are encumbrances. And again, words mean something, right? He says, let us lay aside every encumbrance. Now, the Greek word here for encumbrance is enkas, and it's only used this one time in all of the New Testament. We don't have any other passages to go to to compare this word. It's used one time here, and the meaning of it is a bulk or a mass of something. So you understand, again, this race and the imagery here. What is he saying? He's saying we are to cast aside. In the race of the Christian life, we are to cast aside anything that weighs us down, or diverts our attention, or saps our energy, or dampens our enthusiasm for God. I just watched on TV last week the World Track Championships. Allison Felix by the way who my wife and daughters have met who is a Or they met her mother. She is a Christian lady Her father teaches at the master seminary out on the campus of Grace Community Church She's a wonderful Christian gal. And so I am very interested in track I always follow her career and I want to watch her and she's the world's best in the 200 meters She's an Olympic champion several-time world champion. Well, she came up lame. She pulled a hamstring and she was not able to finish and But I watch the World Championships. I'm interested in track and field. I like to watch it. But if you watch track and field and you watch what these people wear when they run, they're not wearing sweatpants and hoodies. They're not wearing backpacks in case they need a drink along the way or a sandwich. These guys are wearing next to nothing when they run, right? Why? Because they don't want something to weigh them down when they run. The whole purpose of running is to run as cleanly and clearly and as strongly and as well as you possibly can. And so again, this is what we have here, this imagery of an encumbrance. Notice here that every encumbrance is to be laid aside. We're instructed here to get rid of anything and everything that weighs us down or can divert our attention from what we are to accomplish in the race of the Christian life. But notice here this. An encumbrance is separate and distinct from sin, right? Look at this. It's separate. It's distinct from sin. An encumbrance is not sin, but it acts like sin. Because it's something that weighs us down. It affects how we run. And so, we have to ask ourselves the question, what is weighing you down in your Christian life? What is it that is weighing on you that's causing you not to run the race of the Christian life in the way that God would have you to run? What's holding you back from running the race that God wants you to run. If you're listening, by the way, you probably have things going through your mind right now. You're thinking about things in your life, real things that are the cause of you not running the race of the Christian life in the way that you should. You see, we can fool one another, right? We can come to church, we can play church, dress up on Sunday morning. We can come here, we can fool one another. But we cannot fool God. And I would contend that while we can fool ourselves a little bit in the alone times, in the times where we really are introspective, in the times where we really think about things, we know ourselves. We know and we understand that in the race of the Christian life, We're not running it the way we should. Most of us are not running it the way that we should because we're allowing things to weigh us down. And the things that are weighing us down most of the time are not sinful in and of themselves, but we allow them to really affect how we run. And so I'm not going to answer that question for you today because I got to answer it for myself. What is weighing you down in your Christian life? What are the encumbrances in your life? What's holding you back from running the race that God wants you to run? Encumbrances, a weight, a mass of something, something that weighs us down, diverts our attention. The second hindrance that we find here in the race of the Christian life is sin. Again, an encumbrance is not sin. It's different and distinct from sin. But it acts like sin. So, anything in moderation? You've heard that. Anything in moderation can be good. But when we begin to allow something to really press us down and weigh us down, it can become bad and it can hinder our race. So the second hindrance here is more black and white. It's sin. The second hindrance in the race of the Christian life is sin. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us. And so the first hindrance here was encumbrances. The second hindrance is sin. This is the Greek word, harmartia, where we get our systematic theology, harmartiology, the doctrine of sin, the study of sin. Sin has a full meaning. Certainly sin is lawlessness. But sin means to miss the mark to miss the mark of righteousness to miss the mark of God's Design or his demands upon us So sin is lawlessness. This is the second hindrance in the race of the christian life Go with me back to first john chapter one This is the most practical thing that we can talk about today because all of us are in the same boat the same camp This is something that we all deal with. We all struggle with. First, John, Chapter one. And verse seven. Says this, but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, We are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Look we will struggle with sin in the race of the christian life It is the hindrance that will that will sneak up on us. It's the hindrance that will willfully participate in It is the hindrance that we will struggle with in the race of the christian life from here until we reach our final destination In heaven, we will deal with the ugliness the lawlessness of sin. We will deal with it The flesh will war against the spirit We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. He has cleansed us from our sin in that we are not held accountable for our sin any longer. We have been given an executive pardon for our sin. We will not be punished for our sin, not because we have cleaned up our act, but because He views us through the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we talked about last week. So we're clothed in His righteousness. He looks at us through the lens of Jesus, and He sees us as holy. That's how He views us. We've been justified, we've been declared righteous, we've been sanctified, we've been set apart unto holiness. And so when God looks at us, He sees us as holy, but we are not in practicality holy. We're not made holy, we're declared holy, we're declared righteous. And so, we deal with sin in this life. Yes, old things pass away, behold, all things become new. But very clearly here, we are going to deal with sin in this life. Are we going to practice it? Is that going to be our practice? Well, we saw a couple of weeks ago that the child of God practices righteousness, but he also deals with sin. The child of the devil practices sin, and he attempts on his own power to be righteous. Completely and totally different paradigms to complete completely and totally different ways to live So we live as Christian people those who have been redeemed Verse 7 by the blood of Jesus. We've been cleansed from all sin, but we're gonna still struggle with sin So what do we do with it? Now? This is where we all are in the same boat. We deal with sin every day certainly So what do we do with it? What do we do with it? Do we allow it to be a continual hindrance in our life as we run the race of the Christian life? No. What do we do? Verse 9. By the way, this is not a salvation verse. This is in the context of fellowship with God. This is for believers. Remember first John chapter 5 in verse 13 that we looked at a couple of weeks ago These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life He's writing to believers here. He's not writing to unbelievers. He's not talking to unbelievers He's talking to believers if you believers those who struggle with sin Here's how you deal with your sin if you confess your sin and He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Folks, he is he Jesus never turns his back on his people. But we turn our back on him. And when we're in unconfessed sin, we turn our back on the one who bought us who paid for us. the great hindrances in the Christian life, encumbrances, those things that are not sin in and of themselves, but we allow them sometimes to become sin because they weigh us down, they divert our attention from what we're supposed to do. Sin is black and white. It's blatant. Right? It's black and white. How do we deal with it? Guys, look, this is one of the evidences of a true believer in Christ. One of the evidences of a true believer is that you recognize how much God loathes sin, and how much He hates sin. If you can go on sinning, and sinning, and sinning, and sinning, and you have no conviction about that in your life, I would ask some serious questions to you. And you want to ask some serious questions about whether or not you are truly a child of God. We will deal with sin in this life, but we are to confess it, we're to recognize it. As we do it, we are to recognize our sin and we're to confess it to a God who is faithful and righteous to continually forgive us our sins and to restore the fellowship with him, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He never turns his back on us. When we sin, if we're a true believer in Christ, the relationship does not change. He's still our father, we're still his son. But the fellowship changes because we have turned our back on him, and we have sinned outright, and we have not recognized it as sin, we have not confessed it as sin. And so the beautiful picture here is that when we do confess our sin, after we've turned our back on our God, and we confess our sin, and now we have that beautiful fellowship that we once had. And so we are to confess, regularly confess our sin. And so if there's open sin in your life, unconfessed sin in your life that's restricting you from running the race that God would have you run, then you need to deal with that sin. Some of you are running in the mud. You're not going anywhere. You're running in place. You're going nowhere for God. And perhaps it's because you have unconfessed sin in your life. And so we regularly confess our sin. We recognize our sin. This is one of the evidences of a believer. We see sin the way that God sees sin. That's really the true definition of confession. We recognize sin. We see it the same way that God sees it. And so these are the two great hindrances as we navigate the course of the Christian life. Encumbrances, those things that weigh us down, that in and of themselves are not sin, but they act like sin. because we allow them to press us down, to weigh us down, to divert our attention from what is important in the race of the Christian life. And of course, sin is something that we are going to deal with in this life. But God has given us the mechanism to be able to be completely in fellowship with Him by confessing our sin. And He, every single time, is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we've looked at the nature of the race. We've looked at the navigation that's required to run the race. Now, let's look at the necessity to stay focused as we run. The necessity to stay focused as we run, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, which we just talked about, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. Now, I've already said that we don't run with our eyes closed, right? We don't run with our eyes closed. What if I had closed my eyes and started to drive up Pikes Peak? It would be pretty scary, right? Think I scare Kathy and the girls enough with my driving with my eyes open Let alone if I close my eyes and tried to wind my way up one of the tallest mountains in the United States of America What we do with our eyes is very important We use our eyes to see where we are going You ever noticed a runner? who is running in a race, and they start to look at themselves, they start to look at themselves when they run, instead of looking to where they're going, they start to look at themselves, what happens? They slow down. And so here the imagery is that our eyes should be fixed upon Jesus. Our focus should be fixed on Jesus. Why? Why are we to focus on Jesus? Well, we're to focus on Jesus because it says here that he is the author and perfecter of our faith. Again, words mean something, right? Two descriptive words here. First, Jesus is the author of faith. He's the author of it. The Greek word for author here is archegos. This means Jesus was the pioneer or the originator of faith. Ephesians 2.8.9 reminds us that faith is a gift. It's a gift from God. It comes from God. He is the author of faith. He's the originator of faith. It's the gift of faith that leads us to believe in Jesus. Man is not a ghostwriter for Jesus. Where Jesus' name is on the book of our life, But we're really the author. No, Jesus is the real author. He's the real author of our faith. But not only was He the originator of faith, He was the chief example of faith. Hebrews 4.15 says, He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin, Jesus lived the supreme life of faith. If Jesus' perfect faith had not led him to the cross, our faith would be in vain. But here it says he's not only the author of faith, he's not only the originator of faith, the giver of faith, but he is the perfecter of faith. The perfecter. This means the one who carries it through to completion. He is the perfect example of faith. It's good for us to glance at the Old Testament examples, the great gallery of those who went before us, the cloud of witnesses. It's great for us to look back at their life. But it is imperative that we fix our eyes on Jesus. We see both of these truths in Philippians chapter one and verse six, that he's the author and perfecter of faith. Paul says, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. This is why we say that all the credit, all the glory, and the honor for salvation does not lie in the hands of sinful men who think they found Jesus. It lies in the hands of the author and perfecter of faith, Jesus himself, King Jesus, the one that we sang about this morning. I got to be honest, we never made it up Pikes Peak. Here we were building it up with the kids. This is where we're going. That's it. That's where we're going to go. And so we began to talk with people at breakfast, and they said, you know what? It takes like 12 hours to drive up Pikes Peak. Because, I mean, it's ridiculous. There's all kinds of different ways to go, and it takes hours upon hours upon hours upon hours, because a lot of people are doing it. They're going very slow as they go up. I don't know if it really takes that long, but that's what this guy told us. He said it takes forever to get up there. There's all kinds of things in the way when you get up there. There'll be a tree that's falling across. the road and you'll have to go a different way and you lose track. This is long before GPS. So, you know, I'm thinking, okay, do we really want to do this? After my experience as a 16-year-old getting lost in the Rocky Mountain Range for a week, do I really want to take my family up this windy road to try to make it up to the top of Pikes Peak? So what we decided to do was we decided to go that way. And so we drove that way, and we got down to the base of Pikes Peak, and then we started to kind of go up, and then, you know, we decided, hey, you know what, at least we can say we started to go up Pikes Peak. There were things in the way, hindrances, whether it be from what we had heard or potential things along the way. We never really made it up to the top of Pikes Peak. As I have thought about this message, as I have thought about what we have shared today, as we have looked at together in the Word of God, the thing that keeps coming back to me is not necessarily sin, because that's black and white and we can see that, right? We can see the sin that we commit, that we are a part of. We hate it. Paul says, why do I do the very thing that I don't want to do? And I say the same thing to myself. Why in the world would I do something that I don't want to do? But I do, at times. So do you. Sin is black and white. We can see it. It's lawlessness. We can look at the Word of God and say, this is sin. This is wrong. I think the big problem in the Christian life, the big problem for me, and the big problem, if I can speak for you, I think the big problem are encumbrances in the Christian life. As we run the race of the Christian life, the sins black and white, but the encumbrances are gray to us. We look at them, we say, it's not black, it's not white, it's just gray. And so we buy in to what the world's selling, that we got to have our kid involved in all these different activities, because if not, They're not going to be well-rounded when they grow older. They're not going to be well-rounded citizens. They're not going to know these things. You know, they have to be involved in this and this and this and this and this. And we need to be involved in things, too, because, you know, we have to have an outlet in our life. And so we got to be involved in in this activity, in that activity, in this activity, in that activity. And then all of a sudden, these things start to consume our life. I think those things can be encumbrances in the race of the Christian life, things that are weighing us down. Not that they're bad in and of themselves. And I ask myself the question, what are the encumbrances in your life, meaning me? What are the things in my life that are really weighing me down? They may not be huge hundred pound weights, but they're five pounds here, five pounds there, four pounds here, three pounds here. I really want us to think about this. I'm not going to answer this question for you today, because I don't know. But I got to answer it for me. And when I look at this passage and I see that the things that can cause us to not do what God wants us to do, to not run the race of the Christian life in the way that he wants us to run it. We got these two things we got to deal with, folks. Sin. Black and white. It's these encumbrances, I think we need to really look at our lives and say, what is it that's standing in the way? What is it that's really pulling us down? What is it that's weighing us down in the Christian life? So this message this morning was for those who are in the race of the Christian life, but you heard how you get in the race. You heard what God does as the author and perfecter of our faith. What salvation is? Salvation is deliverance from the penalty of our sin. We talked about that every person who has ever received this deliverance, this salvation from the penalty of their sin, it's always been by the grace of God, through faith, in what the Lord has revealed to us based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Some of you that are here today may not be in the race. You listened to what I had to say today. It's alright. But you may not be in the race. So I would ask for you to consider where you're at. Are you in the race of the Christian life? Have you repented of your sin? Have you trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin? Have you trusted in His righteousness and His righteousness alone before a holy and righteous God? Because I'm going to tell you right now, you cannot earn your way to heaven. There's nothing you can do in and of yourselves to bring any merit before a holy and righteous God. You need to come to the end of yourself. You need to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus. Who's Jesus? He's the author and perfecter of our faith. And aren't you glad? Let's pray. Lord, thank you this morning for your love and your grace and your mercy. And Lord, I want to even thank you for those who have gone before us, those examples that we can learn of in your word, that these great heroes of the faith, the cloud of witnesses, those who walked with you and can serve as an example to us, But Lord, may we not just look at them, but may we keep our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. And Father, if there's somebody here today who is an unbeliever, they're a child of the devil. They're not a child of God. They've never trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Lord, it is You, through Christ, who is the author of faith. Grant them the faith to believe today, I pray. Open their eyes to your glorious gospel today. May they turn from their sin and turn to Jesus Christ, the only one who can save them. For it's in the name of the author and perfecter of faith we pray. Amen.