One of the most famous tests of human endurance is the marathon. Most consider completing a marathon, just running it completely, a feat of endurance. But among the most elite runners, there is a challenge that is essentially impossible to beat, a challenge that pushes the boundaries of human endurance to its very limit. the sub-two-hour marathon. To run a marathon in under two hours, a person must maintain a pace of a four-and-a-half-minute mile for 26.2 miles. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to run a mile at a four-and-a-half-minute pace, but that in and of itself is an oppressive athletic achievement. Maintaining that pace for 26.2 miles is bonkers. Up until recently, that was considered physically impossible. It is so difficult, as of today, only one runner in human history has actually done it. Elliot Kipchoge. On October 12, 2019, Kipchoge ran an event where every detail of the race was shaped around the goal of helping him run a marathon in under two hours. The course of the event was a flat loop. that he had to complete multiple times. The loop was specifically designed to cut down on turns and to make the run as efficient as possible. It was chosen because there were trees at strategic locations to cut down on wind resistance for the runner to prevent gusts of wind from coming in. Kipchoge was assisted by 41 pacers who rotated in groups in order to help him keep his pace. A pacer car equipped with a laser projector was constantly shining in front of him so he knew the exact pace he had to maintain to complete the race. He wore special shoes designed by Nike, which had a carbon fiber plate, whatever that means, and other features intended to help a person run more efficiently. And all of these factors, and with all of this support, Kipchoge became the first human being in history to run a marathon in under two hours. And he came in at one hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds. Well, this morning, you may have zero interest in running a marathon. But if you are a Christian, our text this morning is going to make clear you are in a race. This is a spiritual race that requires far more than physical stamina. And to succeed in this race, you must run in the way God commands you to run. So with that in mind, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians who are tempted to turn away from the finished work of Christ and turn back to Jewish legalism. Hebrews takes key themes in the Old Testament, such as the high priest and the sacrificial system, It explains how everything points to and find its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. So the first 10 chapters describe how Jesus is our great high priest and our perfect sacrifice. He is the one we put our faith in. And then as we read earlier, Hebrews 11 gives us numerous examples of what this faith looks like. Hebrews 12, one and two continues that theme. There's a chapter break in our Bibles for the beginning in Hebrews 12, but think of Hebrews 11 as running into Hebrews 12. Hebrews 11 points us to various examples of faith. Hebrews 12 points us to Jesus as our ultimate example of faith. So follow along in your copy of God's word as I read our passage for this morning. Hebrews 12, we're going to focus on verses one and two. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight in the sin which so easily entangles us, 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. The race of the Christian life begins the moment God saves you. And it continues until the day you die and stand before him. Throughout the New Testament, the Christian life is compared to various athletic events. So for example, in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 through 27, Paul compares our lives in Christ to a race in a stadium. And he urges us to run in 1 Corinthians 9 in a way as to win the prize. In that same passage, he compares following Christ to a boxing match. And he says, don't live as a Christian as if you're shadow boxing. This is a real fight. This is a real race. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 25, that we strive for a real reward that is imperishable. If you're a believer, I trust that you long to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4, verse 7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Hebrews 12, verses one and two shows us how to do that. So from Hebrews 12, one and two, we will see four ways to run the race of the Christian life so that you will run the race of your life to the glory of God. Our four points this morning will be first, run like your examples. Second, run without hindrances. Third, run with endurance. And fourth, run with your eyes on Jesus. We begin first, run like your examples. Look at the beginning of verse one. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, so our first question is who or what is this cloud of witnesses? Well, notice at the beginning of verse one, the word therefore. So whenever you see the word therefore, we know to immediately look at what came earlier in our Bibles. And in this case, we have Hebrews 11. the great list of people of faith, people like Abel and Abraham, Sarah, David and the prophets. We read about people who were mocked and tortured and even killed for their faith. Such people, Hebrews 11 verse 38 says, were people of whom the world was not worthy. At Hebrews 12, 1, the author describes these believers as a great cloud. Now a cloud was a common metaphor used to refer to a group of people. So when you hear cloud, don't picture like you look up at the sky and there's hardly any clouds, maybe one small, wispy white cloud streaking across the sky. That's not the image here. The image here is you look up and you have blue skies, but there are vast, billowing clouds as far as you can see. It's almost as if they surround you in the sky. In the same way, we are surrounded by these witnesses. And a witness is someone who, in most cases, testifies that something happened. Think about a trial. When a witness is called, they have authority because they confirm something to be true. So what do all the witnesses in Hebrews 11 confirm to be true? After all, the saints in Hebrews 11 are different in many ways. They lived in different times in history. They had different experiences. Some, such as Abel, were murdered. Others, like Abraham, died of old age. Some led armies, like David. Others were people of no reputation, like Rahab. Some were male, some were female. But despite all these differences, all of these people had at least one thing in common. They all had faith and died trusting the Lord. They all ran. And more importantly, they all finished the race of faith. The Old Testament, the New Testament, and even church history for the last 2,000 plus years is full of men and women who act as examples or witnesses to us. As witnesses, the point is not that they're up in heaven watching us. It's not as if Noah and Abraham are up in heaven personally watching you live your life on earth. Trust me, they have a more glorious person to focus on. The point is their examples of faith surround us. Their lives testify to us through history, this race can be run. So in the midst of trial and temptation and failure and fatigue, their examples cheer us and they urge us on. They declare to us, keep going. Run the race. They are witnesses to us that they did it, and by God's grace, so can you. Because we serve the same God, and we live by faith, we too can and must finish the same race. We can remember the examples of godly men and women who have fought the fight of faith. So as Christians living in the year 2024, we are not detached from those who came before us. Ask yourself, do you struggle to trust God in your circumstances? Remember how faithful God was to Abraham and to Sarah, who saw no possible way God could keep his promises to grant them a child and make a great nation. But he did. Do you doubt God can forgive or use you because of past failures or sin? Look again to Abraham and Sarah, who at times sinfully took matters into their own hands, but God did not abandon them. Do you lack joy and contentment in your life, feel like a particular trial may overtake you. Remember those described in Hebrews 11. Look at Hebrews 11 verse 35. Hebrews 11 verse 35 says, women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and floggings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. These believers are examples to us to help us apply Paul's words in Philippians 4.11. I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. We can learn from those who came before what it means, what it looks like to run the race of faith. So be encouraged that whatever you struggle with, someone else in the last 2,000 years of following the Lord has struggled with that too. And they finished the race. So can you. Look to these trophies of God's grace so they would spur you on as you pursue Jesus. And one other application before we move on. Remember this great cloud of witnesses includes faithful believers who have run the race and their example in this life spurs us on today by their example. So ask yourself today, what kind of race are you running? What kind of example are you setting now? What kind of example will you leave behind when you join this great cloud of witnesses? If you are older, what kind of witness do you want to be? A witness to God's goodness and grace, even in old age? Or a witness that grows bitter and angry at everything around you? Parents, what kind of witness are you currently modeling to your children? Can they look at you and how you respond to them or how you respond to your spouse, and would they say, that is how you run the race of faith? That is what it looks like. Students, what kind of witness or example are you to your friends, to your siblings? What race are you running? Are you being an example? As you run, remember Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. And the point is not that we draw attention to ourselves, but with our example, we want to urge others to follow Christ as we follow Christ. Like the great cloud of witnesses, your faithfulness and your obedience can encourage others. So with your life, cheer others on in the race, and as you run your race, run like your examples. Second, run without hindrances. Run without hindrances. Look with me again at Hebrews 12, verse one. He continues, laying aside every weight in the sin which so easily entangles us. It makes sense that if we're in a race, we should lay aside every weight that might slow us down as we run. Not just some weight. He says lay aside every weight. All weight must be set aside to run this race well. There are no exceptions. Endurance athletes do absolutely everything they can to make themselves run more efficiently. In the first century, runners would enter a stadium and they would be wearing long, flowing robes. But when it came to actually run, they would remove these robes so that they didn't hinder their progress. They actually ran without literally anything on. Praise God we don't do that when we run today. But the point was, they didn't want anything hindering them. And if you've ever run for any extended period or length of time, or if you've seen a competitive race, you know this is still the case today. Professional runners wear clothes and they wear shorts that stop like here. They wear shorts that we would never wear any other time of life, I hope, but they wear them. Why? Because they don't want to be weighed down. They don't want anything to encumber them. They don't want to get tripped up. They don't want weight. Now, the difficult thing about weight in this text is that something can weigh you down that is not necessarily, in and of itself, sinful. Let me give you an example of something that may weigh you down but is not necessarily sin. Your phone. Your phone is not inherently sinful. Quite the opposite. I trust that your phone is incredibly helpful in your life. But can your phone or media become a weight to our lives as Christians? You ask somebody, how's your time in the Word this week? And they answer, man, it hasn't been so good. I've just got so much going on. I've had no time. And you talk a little bit more, and you find out over the last week they've binge watched an entire season of a TV show on Netflix. Or spent hours scrolling and listening and watching who knows what on YouTube. And I want to be clear, shows and YouTube aren't sinful. I enjoy both of those. But if we aren't careful, they can eat up so much of our time and so much of our attention that we begin to neglect our race. When an athlete trains for an event, he or she should limit anything that might prohibit or hinder their athletic performance. Shannon Sharp is a former tight end in the NFL, and he interviewed D.K. Metcalf. D.K. Metcalf is a receiver with the Seahawks, and during the interview, Sharp asked Metcalf about his diet and his nutrition, and Metcalf explained what a normal day of eating involved for him. This is a professional player in the NFL. He explained in this interview, here's his normal meal for the day. One cup of coffee and one meal of three to four bags of candy per day. Sharp was stunned. He could not believe that a professional athlete actually lived this way. So he pressed the question further, thinking like, no, no, no, there's got to be more to the story. And Metcalf insisted, look, I'm a professional athlete. I'm doing fine, so what I'm doing is working, so I'm just going to keep eating this way and doing my own thing. And Sharp, the older, wiser, retired athlete, told him, but you aren't efficient. Get your nutrition in order, and you will go up to a whole other level in your game. In other words, he was saying, you're an athlete. Stop hindering yourself. Stop weighing yourself down. As believers, we are spiritual athletes in a race. So is there anything in your life that's not sinful, but it's the spiritual equivalent of three to four bags of candy a day? You know something in the Bible that says this is wrong, but it's just, it's hindering you. Is there something you have allowed to take up so much space in your mind and in your life that it is starting to squeeze Jesus out? Are you being weighed down by busyness or a favorite hobby, playing or following a sport? Maybe a relationship. Is there anything in your life you need to adjust or lay aside? Is there weight? But the middle of verse one also says we're called to lay aside not only weight, but also, he says, the sin which so easily entangles us, or ensnaring sin. Now the author gets a little more specific. A weight can be essentially anything that I don't keep in check. But now he's talking about something in our lives that God says is outright sinful. what God forbids in his word. Broadly speaking, these are the sort of sins that are constant threats. These are the landmines in your life that you're just inches from stepping on, the kind of sins that ambush and encircle you. Take your mind back to Genesis chapter four, when God did not accept Cain's offering, God said to Cain in Genesis four, verse six, why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. But Cain did not listen to God. He decides instead to brood over how unfair his life is. He allowed his jealousy for his brother to spiral out of control, and he ends up killing Abel. He was ensnared. A clinging or ensnaring sin is one that, according to one author, is, quote, it's a sin that easily envelops us, that besieges or besets, that easily insinuates its way in through the eyes, the ears, touch, taste, or thought. These aren't necessarily what we would consider the big sins. These are the sins that easily trip you up over and over again. So perhaps you've had a sin that you fall into frequently, and you keep telling yourself, this will be the last time. I really mean it this time. This will be the last time. And then you find yourself doing the exact same thing again the next day. And it's like you're in a spiral that you can't break. That is your ensnaring sin. Or maybe to you, this is a sin that you don't even see yet. You so downplayed this sin that you don't even think of it as sin. You can be ensnared, and you don't even know it. In his book, Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges lists a number of sins we can easily decide to tolerate, that we decide are just okay to have in our lives in moderation. Sins of this nature, Bridges says, include anxiety, frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, You could say lack of self-control, impatience, irritability. There's many that we could put here. If you run a race and something gets entangled in your feet, if you become ensnared, what happens while you're running? You fall flat on your face or you get off course. So what sin clings closely to you? And if you would say, I can't think of anything in this moment, ask yourself, what sin is most likely to creep into your life and cling closely to you? What sin ensnares you and tempts you or keeps you from being fully committed to the race? When we neglect these sins, if we let them fester in our hearts and our lives, we're like an insect getting caught in the web of a spider and you unknowingly fly right into it. You become ensnared. And before you know it, the venom of sin will come down and it will destroy you. Proverbs 7 describes a man who we're told is walking foolishly close to the house of an adulteress. And he gets caught in her web and she seduces him, and Proverbs 7.22 says he follows her as an ox goes to slaughter. John Owen, the theologian from the 17th century, infamously said, be killing sin, or sin will be killing you. So how do you kill your sin? If you see one of these ensnaring sins, what do you do with it? And there is much that we could say to answer that question, but it ultimately comes down to this. You trust God, and you believe His promises to you. And you see your sin for what it is compared to God's glorious promises. Christians, sin is fleeting. Sin is insignificant. Sin is harmful. It's not worth it. Just consider the example of Moses. Look at Hebrews 11 verse 25. Hebrews 11 verse 25 says that Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, regarding the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. How did he resist the lust for power? and wealth, a temptation to just dive headfirst into the world. He looked to his future reward. He compared the passing pleasure of sin to the enduring promises of God. How many lives would not be ruined? How many families would still be intact? How much pain would have been avoided? if we would just see sin as a fleeting source of fake pleasure that is worth nothing compared to the glorious promises of God. Christian, believe God when he tells you that it is far better to run this race free from sin than to give up the race and dive headfirst into sin. Believe him when he says he is worth it. He is our ultimate treasure. Believe him when he tells you the promises he offers are so much better. so much better than the fleeting pleasure that sin provides. So if you see that sin that ensnares you right now, don't despair, don't wallow in guilt, confess it to the Lord. Come to your Savior. You can run to Him, lay it at the foot of the cross, turn from it, and run your race without hindrances. That brings us to our third heading, run with endurance. Run with endurance. Look at the end of Hebrews 12, verse one. and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. To endure, or to have endurance, is to maintain your resolve in the midst of adversity. It means to stand your ground, to remain faithful when circumstances seem difficult or dire. The Christian life is not a sprint. It's more like a marathon, and to run this race, we must run with endurance. In Luke 8, we read about the parable of the sower, And Jesus explains, as the sower plants a seed, some of it's trampled, and it's eaten by birds, and some of it falls upon rocks and thorns, and it grows a little bit, but then it kind of withers away and dies. But some of the seed falls upon good soil, and it grows, and it yields a hundredfold. And do you remember what word Jesus used to describe this soil? Listen to Luke 8, verse 15. But the seed in the good ground, these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it, and by enduring bear fruit. In Colossians 1 verse 11, Paul prays for believers, may you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. In other words, once you start running the race, don't stop. Don't give up. Keep When it comes to running the race set before you with endurance, there are two truths in the word of God that go hand in hand. For you to run with endurance, you need both of these truths. Here's the first one. God promises those who are his will finish the race. God promises those who are his will finish the race. Those he saves, he keeps. Philippians 1 verse 6, 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. Believer, be encouraged. God, who begins the work in you, will finish the work in you. He will uphold you and enable you to run with endurance. And there is a second truth that is emphasized in our verse, in Hebrews 12 verse 1, and that is this. You must run with endurance. You must run with endurance. Yes, God preserves you. Yes, God will not lose a single one that is his. And to enter into the joy of your master, you must run with endurance. Just consider that word for just a moment. You don't really endure something that is easy. Think about it. If I went on an all-expense-paid vacation to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas, and I get back and you ask, how was your trip? And I say, the weather was perfect. The water was crystal clear. I spent all day relaxing. I even swam with sea turtles. I'm assuming you do that in the Bahamas. I've never been. But I say, I did all that. It was beautiful, and nothing went wrong. Man, I endured the whole week. Endurance requires effort. Endurance assumes sweat and struggle. It makes no sense to tell someone to endure something that is always easy. This race is not a walk in the park. Your faith will be challenged. You will be tempted to doubt. You will be tempted to go astray. You know, the Lord saved me about 25 years ago, and I know I have not been a believer as long as many that are in this room. But something that I've noticed, and that I'm sure you have noticed as well, if you've been a believer for any amount of time, is this. You start running your race, you're running alongside other people, They're on your right and left, and you keep going, and you're running for a while, and then as you're running, you glance to your right, and then you glance to your left, and you notice, where did they go? They were right next to me. Now, they're gone. And you realize, the person I was running next to is no longer in the race. They quit. You know, I attended a theologically conservative Christian college. And I attended a theologically conservative Christian seminary. And I had friends from both of those schools who today have completely renounced their faith. Some have strayed away into false doctrine. Others have abandoned any semblance of biblical orthodoxy. Others have renounced Christ and no longer even believe in God. have completely abandoned the church and have deceived themselves into thinking they can just run the race alone. Some have dove head first in immorality or abandoned the Lord when they faced trials of various kinds. This is nothing new. There have always been temptations and circumstances that Satan tries to use to snipe those that are in the race. So the spirit of God exhorts us in Hebrews 12, one, keep running. Run with endurance. Don't give up. I love to tell the story of a group of Christians in the 1500s who were known for singing the Psalms. And there was severe persecution at the time, and some of these Christians were burned at the stake. But some of the executioners faced a difficult problem. These Christians, who they were burning, kept singing the Psalms and bringing glory to God while they were being burned. So they had an idea, to prevent that, we're going to gag them. So they would put gags in the believers' mouths and think that would keep them from singing and glorifying this God they believe in as they die. And you know what many of these Christians, we have reports that they did? They would have gags in their mouths, they would lean forward into the flames, burn out the gag, and then keep singing songs to the glory of God. That is endurance. and you and I probably won't be burned at the stake, but everyone in this room either already has or one day will face severe trials that will threaten your endurance. So notice specifically what race must you run with endurance? How do you remember to run this race of endurance to the glory of God? Well, look what he says at the end of verse one, the race that is set before us. the race that has sat before us. Every race has a marked out course. The race you must run is the one God, in his loving providence, has set before you. Your current circumstances, your current situation, whatever they may be, going into the new year, those are the conditions God has put you in. That's the race God has given you to run with endurance. Maybe you're a student and you're struggling with how somebody's treating you or how a relationship is going. Or maybe your career or your marriage isn't where you thought it would be at this point. Or maybe you have a disease or an affliction that you never imagined having. You were running the race, you were being faithful, and suddenly the course veered hard left and you never saw it coming. Or maybe you're jealous of the positions and circumstances of others. You look at their race and you say, I wish I was doing their race instead of my own. And you look at your race and you say, Lord, that's okay. I'm kind of over this one. I want a different course. Well, wherever you are today, however the race is set, it is set by God. So what does God call you to do today? Run. Run with endurance. So how do you endure? Well, if you want to endure and run the race, the worst thing that you could possibly do is turn to yourself, your own self-will, your own determination. It might give you enough stamina to run a few hundred meters, but it won't enable you to endure the whole race to the glory of God. So to endure, you remember your examples. To endure, like we've seen, you trust God's promises, you lay aside your sin. And if you want to run the race that God has put before you, if you want to finish well and endure, then there's one more thing we must do. Run with your eyes on Jesus. That brings us to our fourth heading. Run with your eyes on Jesus. Look at verse two. I love this verse. Run the race, 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. We're told to remember the witnesses, but we're told to lock our eyes on Jesus, the one who is greater than Abraham, the one who is greater than David, the one who is greater than the prophets. We look to Jesus because he is the author. and the perfecter of our faith. He is the author, or your translation may have it, he is the founder, meaning he is the source. He is the beginning of our faith. He is the perfecter, meaning he is the end of our faith. It brings to mind Revelation 22, verse 13. In Revelation 22, 13, Jesus declares of himself, I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Perhaps you've heard it said that alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, omega is the last letter. So in other words, Jesus is the A to Z of your salvation. In the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 6 verse 20 refers to him as the forerunner of our faith. Hebrews 5 verse 9 calls him the source of our eternal salvation. He is the one who died on the cross to save us and rose from the dead to proclaim victory over our sin. Christian, if you're in the race, it is because of Christ. He is the founder. He is the originator. He is the trailblazer. He is the pioneer of your faith. And if you finish the race, it is because of Christ. He is the perfecter, meaning he is the one that holds you in his hand. If you are in Christ, he is the reason that you, when you die, will be able to stand before God cleansed of sin and washed white as snow. So if he is the one who begins our faith, and if he is the one who perfects our faith, how can we possibly run the race of faith without our eyes fixed on Jesus? It's like trying to dive to the bottom of the ocean without oxygen. It's like sending an army to war armed with nothing but sticks and hoping they survive. Both of those are more likely than you running the race of faith without your eyes fixed on Jesus and you actually succeeding to the glory of God. The middle of verse two says we should fix our eyes on him because for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. He endured the pain of the cross and despised the inevitable shame of being publicly executed for the joy set before him. What an odd thing to say. What joy? He was beaten, spit on, mocked. He had nails driven through his hands and feet. He took the wrath of God for our sin. So I see suffering, I see pain, but joy. Where is joy in all of that? Well, after rising from the dead, Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 24 verse 26, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? What glory did he receive? Because Jesus endured the cross, Philippians 2, 9 through 11 says, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Jesus had joy as he endured the cross because he knew what awaited him. He had joy in dying the most horrific death imaginable on our behalf and taking the wrath of God for our sin because it meant that he would be exalted, bring salvation to sinners who call upon his name and in so doing glorify his father. And at the end of it all, after living on the very earth he created, dying and rising from the dead, the end of Hebrews 12.2 says that he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus taking his seat on a throne is mentioned a couple times in Hebrews. In Hebrews 1 verse 3, it says that he only sat down after he had made purification for sins. Hebrews 8 verse 1 says that because he is our great high priest, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. So in sitting down, he demonstrates his work is finished. So imagine the scene. God planned salvation before time began. All of the Old Testament, all of the prophets, everything in history has been pointing to this moment, and the time comes for the Son to come to earth. He leaves the multitudes of worshiping angels, angels worshiping so loudly that Isaiah 6 says they shake the very foundation of heaven. He leaves the side of his Father, he leaves glory, and he is born. And he accomplishes the Father's will and he rises from the dead, and the time comes for him to ascend to heaven. And after he ascends, this multitude of worshiping angels he had left behind and the throne of God are before him. And I can just imagine every eye fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is it. Jesus, after completing the work of salvation that he has planned from before time begins, comes back to heaven, walks up to the throne at the right hand of God, and in the ultimate declaration that the work is done, he sits down. And we can only imagine heaven erupting and praise for this king who takes his rightful place on the throne. Christian, do not forget this. Jesus sat down. and that means the work is finished. His reign will never end and that is why you can persevere in your faith. Do not grow weary. You can run your race because Jesus has purchased you and has taken his rightful and triumphant place at the right hand of the throne of God. So if you want to run this race, get your eyes off of yourself. Get your eyes off of your circumstances and get your eyes on Jesus. and you will run to the glory of God. I once ran a marathon in Baltimore and the marathon was large enough that there were pacers. Now, a pacer, as we mentioned earlier with Elliot Kipchoge, is an experienced runner that's committed to run the race in a specific amount of time. So the idea was, you get into this pacer group, and you have a time in your head to finish the race. And as long as you stay with that pacer at the front of the group, you will finish the race in the time that you want. And I had a time in my mind, so I found a pacer. And he was an older guy. And before we started the race, he got us all together, and he said, my job is to get you to the end of the race. So all you have to do is just stay focused on me, run at my pace, and I promise I will get you there. And as we ran, this guy was a machine. It blew my mind. He did not deviate from the target pace a single time. He was methodical. He just kept going and going and going. And our group started pretty big. And as time went on, it kind of whittled down and whittled down. There were even a couple moments where I slowed down and I fell back. But my eyes were always on that guy. That's my pacer. That's who I need to stay with. I just need to keep my legs moving so I stay right behind that guy. So my eyes stayed fixed on him, and he never looked tired. He never wore out. He just kept running and running, and I stayed with him, and we're right at the end of the race. And he glanced to the side, and he saw me right behind him, and he said, you've been with me the whole time, haven't you? and I can barely breathe, so I'm kinda like, uh-huh, like I'm just trying to keep going, and he's having full sentences, but he got this little smile, and he said to me, well done, we're at the finish line, now just go finish the race. Christian, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and you will finish the race. Consider him, ponder him, read about him in his word, worship him, sing to him, pray to him, fix your eyes on him. He is your savior. Throughout your day, saturate your thoughts with how amazing he is and run the race to the glory of God. Let's pray. Lord, we praise you that we are in this race only because of your spirit. that you have saved us, that you have called us to run away from the world and the things of the world and the sins of the world and to pursue you. So we praise you, Lord, that our victory in completing this race because of the work of Christ is secure. Help us by your spirit to run faithfully. Help us to run laying aside sin and weight. Help us to run remembering the examples around us and being an example to others. Help us to have endurance most of all as we run with our eyes fixed at the one who even now as we pray is seated, ruling and reigning at the right hand of God. And it's in his name we pray, amen.