As we begin tonight, I want to ask a question to you guys. How many of you have ever run in a race by raise of hands? Okay, quite a few hands out there. It could be any race. There's all types of different races, short races, long races, some races run through mud, some through obstacles, all types of different races out there. But tonight, we're gonna go step by step through kind of the process of a race. And it turns out that the race is actually a really good analogy for the Christian life. And we actually see that in scripture several different places. And I wanna focus in on specifically our kind of theme passage tonight, if you will, where we kind of get the idea of this message. And that's the analogy of a race you'll find in Hebrews 12, 1. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Hebrews 12, 1. And we'll read verses 1 and 2. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. 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. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with this message tonight. I pray that you would help me to be able to convey the message that you would have and the words that you would have. Give me wisdom, Lord. Be with our pastor as he's traveling and the people in Israel, the nation of Israel, Lord. There's so many different things to pray for, Lord, but I pray that you'd help the message tonight to be conveyed properly. And Lord, again, thank you for this opportunity. And it's in your name we pray these things. Amen. So last year, actually it was in October last year, like next week, but last year, I had an awesome experience. I got to run a marathon. It was really, really great. And we're gonna talk about that tonight, not because it was anything great, I didn't do very well, but it was fun, it was a good experience, and I learned a lot of things in the process of that race. And tonight we're gonna look at 11 different things. And what's crazy about these things, these 11 things, is that all of them, I actually have a story with them of something that happened to me, whether it's during training or during the race itself. And each one of them applies to our Christian life in an amazing way. Hopefully I'll be able to convey that to you tonight. Let's jump right in. We got a lot to cover. Our first tonight is preparation and training. Seems pretty obvious, right? Having a good plan, understanding exactly what it's going to take to complete a race like that is super important. So for my race, I thought, okay, I gotta come up with a training plan, right? You wanna definitely prep what you need to do. And another part of this is also dedication. Because if you're not dedicated to the race, you're not going to be putting very much effort into your training. So I sat down with a couple people that had run a marathon before. I was doing some research online, trying to come up with the right plan. I wanted something to fit my schedule, but still that got me ready for a marathon. And like I talked about, commitment is a huge part of this. And I was committed to that race, mostly because it costs money to do it. So I was kind of stuck at that point once I had signed up. I know some of you are like, it's crazy that you would pay money to actually go run. But the reason this is important in the process is because if you were to go out tomorrow and you had no training, you had no preparation, Do you think you would make it very far trying to run a marathon? Unlikely, right? Seems unlikely, and maybe you would. Maybe you would finish. I wouldn't be able to, but kudos to you if you could. But the point I wanna look at tonight, and you probably are gonna hear me say this a few times, is that if we're able to follow these steps that we're gonna look at, we're gonna be able to run farther for Christ, and we're gonna be able to run faster for Christ, and we're gonna be able to do more in our Christian life. Before running the race, like I said, you need to dedicate yourself to the training. You have to be committed. If you're having any doubts, all the training, all the preparation is a complete waste of time. If you're not going to show up on race day, there's no point. No point at all. And this is a big commitment. It's a lot of time, a lot of effort. On average, you're spending like maybe 20 hours a week during those peak weeks of training where you're running, and you're running a lot of miles. It takes a lot of things, and the training plan is a long time. It's usually like 16 to 20 weeks. I think mine was 21 weeks, which is pretty crazy. That's a lot of dedication. It requires discipline and consistency. There were days that I had to get up early, I didn't really want to, or I had to go on a run after work, and I didn't really want to. But those things are things that I committed to, even though I knew it was gonna be maybe a little bit of a sacrifice, and maybe I would miss out on some things, miss out on free time or things in my social life. But I actually found that I kind of enjoyed it. I did kind of enjoy it. I guess I grew to enjoy it. I didn't enjoy it at first. But no matter what, every day that I was training, every day that I ran, the last few miles of every run were always miserable. Couldn't help it, because you're dead, you know, you're dead tired. But the reward, the satisfaction of finishing that step, that day of training, that was always fulfilling. Always, every time. What I love about this, and we're gonna see in Romans 12, one and two, is that Paul actually tells us, in our Christian life, if we wanna be effective, that we have to present ourselves a living sacrifice. It says in Romans 12, one and two, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And I love this verse, it says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. And you see, I underlined it in your verse sheet, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That word prove has this idea of like, you're going to test it out. You're going to try it for yourself. And when you actually present your body, a living sacrifice in your Christian life, You're gonna be able to prove, maybe to yourself, maybe to those around you, you're gonna be able to prove that God's will for you is good and it's acceptable and it's perfect. I just love that because when you become a sacrifice and you test it out for yourself, it always ends up working out. And the same is true on race day for the marathon. When you put in the time, you present yourself a sacrifice in your training, man, it's an amazing feeling. And the same is true in our Christian life, because when we're in the will of God, there's really nothing greater, nothing greater at all. So moving on, number two, we got a lot to cover, like I said. Number two is diet and hydration. Eating right and staying well hydrated is essential. I remember one morning, I had gone out for a run. I think it was 16 miles that day. And I came home, and I didn't really realize it at first, but I had run out of water on the race. It was a little warmer than I thought it was going to be. No big deal. And I didn't really feel any different after the race, but I remember I got home and after the adrenaline kind of wore off, I started feeling awful. I mean, absolutely awful. I was dizzy. I didn't feel good at all. And I think I was getting a little bit dehydrated because I had run out of water. As Christians, we have to eat and drink the word of God. I know that sounds kind of funny, right? But I look at like coming to church, you're going to go to church, you're going to hear a message that's drinking in the word. And you hear that every week here, sometimes three times a week, you're drinking in the word. And that's part of the Christian life. And our diet, that's like, I would compare that to our personal life with God, right? My devotion time, that's me eating, that's my diet in my Christian life. And those things are essential. When we skip those things, if you don't believe me, try it, but when we skip those things, we're gonna feel the effects. And maybe it's not right away, maybe it's gonna take a little bit for that to catch up to you, but you are gonna feel the effects of that. So this diet and hydration is so important. Matthew 4, 4 says, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We need to drink in God's word. And when we skip this process and we run anyway, we're going to feel awful. This is totally a side story and probably not even relevant to the message. But we were running and during the marathon there were different stations. And every station had a certain drink or a certain food or whatever. And I was super excited because I knew what all the stations were. And there was one station that I really, really wanted to stop at. That was the grilled cheese station. And I get to the grilled cheese station, and I'm in a hurry, and they were out of grilled cheese. I was so mad. I didn't wait, because they were cooking more. I still regret it to this day. That's my biggest regret. But anyway, diet and hydration, super, super important in our Christian life. Because again, if we're not going to do these things and follow these steps, we're not going to be able to run as far. We're not going to be able to run as fast. We're not going to be able to accomplish as much for God in our Christian life. Number three, proper equipment. When I started training, I had these really old running shoes. They were bright orange. They were like Nike running shoes. They were great shoes. They served me well. I had used them in a couple smaller races, like I had done a 10K and a 10-mile race. And I think I had worn them for conditioning in high school, like conditioning for basketball. And so they were well used. They were great shoes. But I had started training for the marathon with these shoes. And all of a sudden, we're starting to do like five, six, seven miles, and my feet hurt, my legs hurt, and I know I sound like a wimp, but it turns out, I think it was the shoes, because I had talked to a couple people who had more experience in that area, and they said, well, maybe just try getting some shoes that aren't totally worn out. So I did. I went to Roadrunner. I don't know if you've ever been there, but they do the whole thing. It's like a workup. They analyze your gait, and they give you these custom insoles and whatever. So I did the whole process. And it was great. I remember coming back after my first run with the new shoes, and I remember going inside and telling my wife, like, whoa, these shoes are amazing. I feel great. I feel like I could do the whole marathon today. That probably wasn't true. But even though it was only six miles, the equipment was an important part of the process. Ephesians 6.11 tells us to put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The devil's gonna test us along the way when we're training and when we're in our race. The devil's gonna throw things at us. You might experience that so-called joint pain in your Christian life. But if you don't have the proper equipment, if you don't have the armor of God to protect against it, you can end up hurt, sometimes badly. And again, you're going to be less effective for God. And that's the point that I want to stress tonight, is that when we follow these steps, we can be the most efficient that we can be. All right, moving on, number four, rest and recovery. Rest and recovery are vital in training to prevent injury and to prevent burnout. Muscles need time to heal and grow stronger. I would usually go for long runs on Saturday. So the plan was kind of like a short run maybe on a Tuesday and a Thursday, and then a long run on a Saturday. It was pretty much every week. And Saturday morning, if I were to go out and do a 15-mile run, I never ever one time went through the day Saturday, got to three o'clock in the afternoon and decided, I'm gonna go for another 15 mile run. It just, it didn't happen. That'd be silly, right? You'd be like, duh, you need time to rest. Oftentimes I didn't even run again until Tuesday. So sometimes two days of nothing to rest. And that's usually how long it takes for the muscles to recover. And this is an important part of our step. And Jesus actually tells us this. In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Isn't that an amazing thought? That when we're maybe on the brink of burnout or we've been running so hard, we can find rest. in Christ. That's an amazing, amazing thought. And that's kind of what the song talked about tonight. And Isaiah 40, 31 says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. That's a verse you probably all heard before. But again, that's an amazing thought that when we're tired, when we're burned out, we can go to Christ. We can find rest in him. We can renew ourselves and we can recover As Christians, we have to rest and renew ourselves. Again, these steps are important to make us more effective for God so that we can run our hardest, so that we can run our fastest and our farthest for God. Number five, moving on quickly, we've looked at four so far. Number five is community. There's two aspects of this I wanna look at. Community, when we were running our race, and there's a couple guys in the room that actually ran with me, and I'm gonna talk about that in a second, but when we were running our race, there was a group of friends, family, that came to watch us. And you might think, okay, that's great, that was nice of them, but what you might not know is that, Seeing those people, I remember when I would come around a corner or over a hill, and you see the spectators. Like, there were certain points at the race where they could come and watch. And I remember thinking, like, wow, that's amazing. It was so encouraging. Like, I can't even describe how encouraging that was when you're bogged down in the race, and you see that group of people cheering for you, right? And some people that were cheering, you didn't even know. They were there for Jack in the back, and you had no idea who they were, but they were still cheering for you. And that was an amazing, amazing feeling. In our spiritual race, the same thing is true. Our text, verse Hebrews 12, 1, tells us there is a cloud of witnesses. They're cheering us on. When someone comes to know Christ because of something that I do or that you do in your Christian life, they're cheering for you. And the Bible actually says that. So when you think your efforts don't matter, you think people aren't even watching, nobody cares, know that there's that cloud of witnesses. And at the very, very least, if you can't even admit that, at the very least, know that the God that created you wants you to succeed. That's an amazing thought. Luke 15 10 says, Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Just one. One sinner. Isn't that amazing? When you are in the grind of your Christian life and you think nobody cares, just one person that's affected by what you do in your Christian life, the angels are rejoicing. To me, that's an amazing thought. Wow. That's amazing. And the other aspect of community I want to look at is those around us. Go ahead and put up that first picture that you guys have. Like I said, I was able to run with three other guys. We had a great time. It was an amazing experience. There were days when I had to get up on a Saturday and do a long run, and I didn't get to go with those guys. And those were the days I dreaded. It was awful. It was the days I didn't want to get out of bed and go for a run because it's not as fun, right? And that's true in our lives. In our spiritual race, we have to have these friends. When I would get up and I knew that I got to meet a few friends and we could all run together, that was fun, right? I looked forward to that. And that's true for us. We need people around us, whether it's fellow believers or family members or friends, we need people around us who are going to encourage us, support us, lift us up. Church, know that you are not in this race alone. Like I said, there's people cheering for you, God wants you to succeed, and there's people around you, maybe even sitting next to you that you don't even know that someone is thinking, man, I hope they succeed, right? There's always people around us. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. We're building each other up. That's so important in our Christian life. And it was amazing to have that in our race, to have friends to run with, and it was amazing to have that community of bystanders. And we're going to talk about it later, but the weather on that day was not great. So for those guys, the family and friends that came out to watch, Like kudos to them, because they actually had to stand in the rain. And they came to watch at every single stop. And every time I knew there was a place where they were going to be, they were there. And that's how it is in our Christian life. There are people in your life, you might not know it, maybe you do. There are people in your life that will not give up on you. There are people that want you to succeed. And at the very least, as I said, if you can't even admit that, God, the one that created you, wants you to succeed. Moving on to number six. What are you listening to? What are you listening to? This is really important, and it's actually one of the coolest things I think that I learned from this race, something that affected me. When I had started training, I was listening to music, and it was great, no problem with that. But as we started to get longer runs, sometimes you're running for two, three hours at a time, I was like, there's got to be something better, like something more productive that I can listen to while I'm running. So maybe it was a podcast or a message. I settled on audiobooks. And I had listened through quite a few audiobooks, actually. Like I said, sometimes you're running for hours. I had started this book on my very last long run. So the very last long run, it was 21 miles before I did the marathon. Before that, I had started this book and I had listened to it through that whole day, that whole 21 miles. It was a great book. It was actually about a Green Beret unit that was fighting the Taliban shortly after 9-11. An incredible story. They were having victories, they were gaining ground. And I finished my last run, my last day of training, but I hadn't finished the book yet. So I thought, OK, that's fine. No big deal. I'll finish it on race day. It's a great story. It's encouraging. And so I did. I planned for that. And I enjoyed listening to it. So race day comes, the day of the marathon. I continued listening to that book. Again, it was an amazing story. But about maybe 12 miles into the marathon, the book took a turn. And I didn't know how the ending was going to be. I actually had never heard the story before. But as I kept listening, that story that was encouraging turned into a tragic story. One of the men in that unit accidentally called an airstrike on his own team. It was a very sad ending. I don't necessarily recommend the book if you're looking for a good ending. But he mistakenly gave his coordinates, his team's coordinates, to the pilot instead of the enemy that they were engaged with. And everyone in the unit died except the commander and the man who called in the airstrike. So it was a terrible turn of the story. Tragic story. These were brave men that were fighting. And what I didn't realize is how that would affect me. Because when you're running a race, you're looking for encouragement, right? Like I said, with community, it's such a boost. And so I was looking for that while I was running. What I was listening to, that's what I wanted to hear was something encouraging. And that book ended at like mile 22. And right about 22, 23 is where I hit the wall. If you've heard of anybody running a marathon, you've probably heard that term before. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later. But I don't know if the book affected my body physically. I don't know. I can't say for sure. But what I do know is the way that that story turned affected my mind. And it left me discouraged. It left me saddened by the story. As anyone would be, it affected my morale. in my mindset because I was I was thinking about that. I wasn't excited about finishing anymore. It just that that thought of the finish line had kind of gone out of my mind. I was saddened by the story. And the point here is that what we listen to in our Christian life matters, even if we don't think it does, it does. So I want to challenge you to ask yourself the question, what am I listening to? What voices are in my head? Who am I listening to? John 10 verse 4 and 5 say, And when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. Circle and underline that in your verse sheet or in your Bible, for they know his voice. What voice are you listening to? What voice is in your head? Do you know the voice of God? John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Is the voice you're listening to, is whatever's in your head, is it encouraging you? If it's not, get rid of it. If it's not lifting you up, get rid of it. The voice in your head, the voice that you're listening to should be encouraging you. It probably should be the voice of God. And if you don't know the voice of God, learn it and follow it. It's so important. What you listen to, whether you think so or not, it matters. Number seven, weather the storm. When preparing for a marathon, runners need to be ready for all types of weather. It could be rain, heat, snow, wind, fire. Well, probably not fire. I guess that's not really something you'd want to prepare for. You can't really control those conditions, but you can maybe prepare for that. And our marathon was, like I said, it was last October. So October's tricky because it could be 75 and sunny. It could be 35 and rainy. Unfortunately, we got to 35 and rainy. It was not exactly pleasant. So I remember waking up that morning and I look out the window and it just, it was pouring. I was like, seriously, you gotta be kidding me. But you're excited, you've trained for 20 weeks and you push yourself. So I woke up and I remember just my, like right off the bat, my attitude, my morale was like down, but I was like, okay, whatever, it's fine. I have a raincoat, it's no big deal. I'm not gonna skip now, I paid money for this stupid race, you know. So I was down, but I put the raincoat on, I dressed for the weather, and I tried to prepare the best I could. And what I want to focus on here isn't necessarily the preparation, but more the effects of the storm. And something that I didn't prepare for, and I frankly, I couldn't have told you this would happen, I didn't even think about it. But if you're outside and it's wet and you're running, your shoes get really, really, really heavy. And I didn't even think about it. Like at one point, I legitimately considered like taking off my shoes and just throwing them on the side of the trail because they felt so heavy. Hebrews 12 one tells us to lay aside every weight. The weather made the race difficult to run. Like I said, it made the shoes really heavy. But we find in Scripture that the Bible tells us to get rid of the weights. I didn't. My feet probably would have been terrible condition after that, so I didn't do it. But the Bible tells us to get rid of the weight, lay aside the weight, put it away and run the race. So the weather made the race difficult to run, but it also created obstacles. And that is going to be number eight. It kind of brings us to our next point. The weather, the storm, sometimes brings obstacles in our Christian life. And number eight is overcome the obstacles. Our marathon was on a gravel path and pretty much right away when we were running, obviously it was muddy, right? Gravel and rain, pouring rain, not a good combination if you're looking for a nice dry gravel path. And when we started, I remember we kept stepping in puddles. And the four of us guys that were running that day were running together. And you know when you step in a puddle, it kind of goes everywhere? And we kept apologizing to each other, like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But it was happening every three steps. So there was really nothing you could do about it. I think Caden actually said, guys, shut up. You don't have to apologize anymore. It's OK. We get it. We're going to get wet and muddy. Right? But in the Christian life, this kind of compares because sometimes storms present obstacles for us, present trials or difficulties in our life. And what's so crazy about this point is that the Bible actually says that in our Christian life, we can be blessed when we face these things. Matthew 5, 11, 12 says, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And I love this, it says, rejoice and be exceeding glad. Not even just glad, it says, be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. So God actually tells us to rejoice when we face obstacles like this. And I know this is specifically, this passage is talking about what others say about you, but it can apply here. Another part, you can go ahead and put up that second picture that I have for you. another part of this overcoming obstacles. Is that up there? Yeah, there it is. OK. So the race that we ran was on the Des Plaines River Trail, which runs with the Des Plaines River. A lot of the trail runs next to the Des Plaines River. And there was this one part of the trail that went under an underpass. And you can see in the picture. The water level was up a little bit. There were two points in the race where we had to run through that. And that water was so cold, I can't even tell you. It was ridiculous. And it's one thing to run in the mud, in the water. Your feet are kind of wet. But when you have to go through knee-deep water, there's no hope for your shoes at that point. So the point is that Christian life will have these obstacles, and sometimes they're not pleasant. I don't think anyone in that race was excited to run through that, right? You'd look at that, and I heard a couple, you know, groans as soon as that picture came up, because that's not pleasant for anyone to run through something like that. But the Bible actually says, brethren, in James 1, 2, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And yeah, these things are hard. They're unpleasant. But what I realized, and it kind of just happened because there's really no other way around it, but what I realized is that in the race, I couldn't finish the race if I didn't run through that, right? There's no way to the finish line if you don't go over or through the obstacles. And that actually brings us to number nine, which is stay on the path. Go ahead and put that picture back up if you would. When we encountered that water, it was an out and back style race. So we ran through it on the way out and we had to run back through it on the way in. When we encountered that on the way out, some people ran through the water. I ran through the water, I think my friends did too. But when I was running through, I saw some people, you can see on the right side of that picture, there's those rocks up on the underpass. Some people went up there and were trying to, you know, scurry across the rocks to avoid the water. And what I didn't know happened is that some people had gotten hurt. So on our way back, there were actually like event staff, race staff, leading up to this point saying, don't go on the rocks, stay on the path, stay on the path, don't go on the rocks, you're gonna get hurt. And what's crazy is that, again, people actually got injured and it's sad, but, Proverbs 4, 26 and 27 says, ponder the path of thy feet. Let thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand or to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. The truth is we can trust God to guide us on the right path, even if we can't see the path. I couldn't see the trail at that moment, but I knew it was there. I knew I had to run through there. He promises to be with us even if the water's up. Isaiah 43, 2 says, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walk through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. So just because you come across a challenge in your life, and you will, if you're following God, you will face challenges. You don't try to go around because you're gonna end up hurt. Know that God can guide you through the path even when you can't see it. Even when the water's up, God can guide you through the path. Number 10, endurance. During the race, there will be moments of fatigue or doubt or even pain. Endurance is the key to pushing through when things get tough. At mile 22, 23 is when I hit the wall. I mentioned that before. And that was not great. I had never experienced a cramp like that before in my entire life. I didn't even know that was possible. I couldn't walk. It hurt so bad. So I'm standing there on the side of the path. I'm trying to stretch it out. And my good friend Joe blows by me. So that was like a little bit of humility lesson. But again, when that happened, I knew that if I wanted to finish the race, I had to run. I had to run even though it hurt. I actually walked for a little bit. Don't tell anybody. But I knew that I had to keep going. That's the point. And so when you face pain in your life, know that there's no way to the finish line unless you endure the pain. Christ actually gives us the ultimate example of endurance. Hebrews 12, two, our kind of theme verse for tonight says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, notice that, for the joy, why did he do it? For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God. Christ knew the goal, right? The salvation of mankind. And he knew that that would bring joy to, frankly, to you and me, right? That's an amazing thing. And when we endure things in our Christian life, there can be incredible joy. There can be incredible reward. And you might be like, okay, why do I have to, be joyful about this. James 1.12 says, Blessed is the man who endure in temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him. No race, whether physical or spiritual, is without unexpected challenges. As Christians, we don't have to fear that. We can prepare for that. We can know God will strengthen us. And the truth is, when we endure these things, we grow from it. We can run faster. Next time we face a challenge, we're closer to the Lord, and we can run farther for God, and we can accomplish more for Him through these things. Remember this as we go to our last point. Anything we face in this world, Christ has already overcome. Remember that. Number 11, the finish line. The finish line, what we've all been waiting for. The goal of the marathon is to cross the finish line. Though the journey is hard, the reward is fulfilling. How many of you have ever done something in your life that you felt accomplished? Raise of hands. Should be pretty much everybody's hand. And what's cool is that you can have a goal. You can have a goal in life and you have this accomplishment. But even on your way to that goal, you can accomplish things along the way that can provide you with some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment or joy. And that's true in the marathon. Every mile is an accomplishment. Like the first time that you ever run 14 miles, that's the farthest you've ever ran. That's a great feeling when you finish that, right? And the same is true the next Saturday when you run 15. And the same is true the next Saturday when you run 16. even though you haven't even crossed the finish line. How much greater is it going to feel as we cross the finish line? I remember at the end of the race, we had faced these things. There were some hard things, whatever. That's all fine. But all I could think about at the end, all I could imagine was the finish line. I could think of people cheering. I could think of that delicious free cheeseburger waiting for me in the food tent. I was thinking about these things for the last few miles straight. Nothing else was in my thoughts. Even though my legs were coated in mud, didn't matter. Even though I was in pain from cramping, didn't matter. All of those things were forgotten because when you start to think about the finish line, those things just kind of fade away. Philippians 3.13 and 14 says, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things which are before. Paul says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. When you can focus on the finish line, you're gonna be able to push through the wall. When you have your eyes fixed on eternity, none of the things that we face in this life matter. It says, forgetting those things which are behind. They don't matter, they don't matter. As we are closing tonight, I wanna share one more thing with you. It's possible that there are some people in this room who aren't even in the race. Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. But if you don't know where you're going when you die, if you don't know you're on your way to heaven, if your finish line is not eternity in heaven with God, you can't even be in the race. None of what I said matters tonight if you don't know for sure that you are going to heaven when you die. We are all sinners. We're all in need of a savior. We've all done things wrong. And Christ says that in order to attain heaven, in order to have our finish line be eternity with him, we have to be perfect. And that's, we can't do it. It's impossible, humanly speaking. Romans 3, 23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all fall short. Unfortunately, that all means we're on our way to hell. Now imagine trying to run a race, and you're facing all these things, and you're facing obstacles, but your finish line is hell. How hard is that gonna be to finish the race? That's horrible to look forward to, but that's our human condition. Romans 6.23 tells us that. The wages, the penalty of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and that's the good news. God wants you to be in the race so much that he sent his son for you. John 3, 16 on that side says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you believe Jesus died on the cross, he paid for your sins, you can be in the race. And I want you to be in the race. God wants you to be in the race. That's why he sent his son. You have to recognize that you can run all you want. You can even beat the next guy. You can have the fastest time. You can go the farthest. Doesn't matter. If your finish line isn't heaven, it doesn't matter one bit. And if you haven't settled that, I challenge you to settle that tonight before you walk out of these doors. Because the finish line being hell, that's a terrible thing to look forward to. When I think about running the marathon, when I think about my experience, I think about the things I've learned, these 11 things that can apply to our Christian life. They're good points. And what I love is that learning all of these things, I learned how fulfilling it could be. I learned how to press through trials and how to endure, right? You learn so many things, how to overcome obstacles in weather, learn so many lessons. And the goal is not just to finish, right? Not just to start the race, but the goal is to finish and to finish strong, keeping our eyes fixed on the ultimate prize. The Christian race, is the most fulfilling race that you can ever run. Way better than a marathon or a 50 miler or an Ironman, it doesn't matter. The Christian life is way more fulfilling than any of those. The reward of your Christian life is eternal. The impact is forever. I can't really explain to you the joy that I felt in that moment, crossing the finish line, seeing my friends, seeing my wife, getting that cheeseburger, that was great. I can't really express the joy that I felt, but that is nothing compared to the Christian life. And yes, it felt in that moment like everything was worth it, but that is nothing compared to the Christian life. In your Christian life, your impact, what you do for Christ is eternal. It's forever. I'm going to leave you with this last verse. 1 Corinthians 9.24 says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. If you can remember these 11 things, hopefully, I've expressed it tonight, but hopefully if you can remember them in your life, you'll be able to be more effective for God. You'll be able to run farther, run faster for Christ. And skipping them doesn't guarantee failure, right? Like we talked about, maybe you could run a marathon without training, maybe. Skipping them doesn't guarantee failure, but what it does guarantee is that you're not gonna be the best you can be for God. Are you running the hardest that you can for God? Are you able to run the farthest that you can for God? That's what I want to challenge you with tonight. I don't know about you, but I want to be the most effective runner I can be for Christ. And I challenge you to have the same goal. And let's follow what that verse says in 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Run that you may obtain the prize. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I pray that you would help the word that was preached, Lord, to be effective. And I pray that we could remember these things, that we could be efficient in our race, and that we would be able to accomplish things for you that we never thought possible, not because of our power and our strength, Lord, but because of you. I pray that you'd help us to apply these to our life so that we can be the most effective runner that we can be. We can run the farthest for you and we can accomplish amazing, amazing things with your power. It's in your name I pray these things. Amen.