And so I want to share with you a message that I believe, I hope, will be a lesson of encouragement and uplift to you entitled, Run! The Christian Life is a Race. Run! Exclamation point. The Christian life is a race. Two gas company servicemen, a senior training supervisor, and a young trainee were out checking gas meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck at the end of the alley and worked their way up the alley to the other end. At the last house, a woman was looking out her kitchen window, watching the two men as they checked the gas meter on her house. Finishing the meter check, the two men conversed for a moment. The senior supervisor challenged his younger coworker to a foot race down the alley back to the truck to prove that the older man could outrun the younger one. They took off as fast as they could go down the alley back to their truck. Before they reached the truck, however, they realized the lady from the last house was right behind them, huffing and puffing. They stopped and asked her, what was wrong? And gasping for breath, she replied, when I see two meter men reading my meter, talking about it for 10 seconds, and then running as fast as they could down the alley, I thought I better run too. That lady was running as if her life depended on it, which in that situation did not. In 1968, which is quite a while now, but a true story, the Olympics were held in Mexico. The last runner to finish that marathon race was a guy from Tanzania. During the race, he had stumbled and fallen and had actually broken his leg. He was badly hurt in great agony and physically exhausted, but he limped painfully along, refusing to quit mile after mile after mile. Long after everyone else had finished the race, and in fact, the stadium that seated thousands was now down to just about 7,000 people as the announcer had announced that there was one person yet to finish the race. 7,000 people were waiting. It was getting dark around 7 o'clock in the evening. Here came that man from out of the stadium, L.A., limping along to do his last lap and finish the marathon. The crowd gave him a standing ovation. And later he was asked, why didn't you just quit and give it up? And he gave a classic answer. He said, My country did not send me 7,000 miles around the world to start this race, but to finish it. Now nearly all of us at some time or other in our lives know what it is like to run in a race. whether it's a track mate when you were younger or just a family fun race. We all understand what a race is. There's a starting line. There's a finish line. Sometimes there's a prize when you finish. There's an, if it's a race of any length, there is discipline and sacrifice and focus that is needed to accomplish the goal. And all along the way, especially if it's cross-country. There are obstacles, uphills, downhills. The concept of racing is one of many metaphors used by the authors of the New Testament, particularly the Apostle Paul. He says in 1 Corinthians 9.24 that in an effort to win the imperishable crown, he ran or runs in such a way that he might win. He also states in Philippians 2.16 that he did not want to run the race of life for Christ in vain. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 7, at the end of his life, he said, I have finished the race, the course. I've kept the faith. But there's probably no clearer picture of the race for us as Christians than what is found in Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. And I want to direct your attention there now. These verses were a great challenge to me. Pastor Will has them up there. Thank you, Pastor. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us 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, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. I want to begin tonight by asking you a question, just a personal spiritual question actually, and that is this. How do you feel you are doing in your race in the Christian life? How's it going? Are you expending maximum effort? Or perhaps you're tired. Are you entertaining thoughts of, I don't even know, pastor, if I can go on or should go on. I'm such a failure. I think there may be some people even that are not even aware they're in a race. They just go through life without even knowing that life is a race. But I hope you're one of those who, are filled with the spirit where the wind is rushing through your hair, Christ has your heart, and you're thrilled to be running the God race, as it were, of your entire life. You wouldn't have it any other way. It's not always pleasant, it's not always fun, it's not always funny, but you wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. And for those of us that have run the God race for a long time, there's a gospel song that used to be sung by the Gaither people that says, I've come too far to turn back now. And that's really, I hope, how you feel tonight. Now the writer of Hebrews, knowing our tendency to drift, to dwaddle, to give into distractions gives us three verses that we read to you to put us back into focus on the race that we are running. He helps us with the reasons why running the race is sometimes difficult, and he gives us ultimate motivation to keep running the race. And here it is in a nutshell. When you take your eyes off Jesus, you will struggle to win. When you forget or you get preoccupied and concerned with other things, you'll find there's not much joy in the Christian life if you're not living with a single focus. If you have many masters in your life and Christ is just one of them and church is just one of them, then a person is not very fulfilled. But this outline now has three very simple points in the race analogy. And if you know anything of track and field, here's the first one. I put it down there. On your mark, which means get ready to start well. Start well. Notice verse one, therefore, since we have a great or so great, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Now that therefore pushes us back, of course, into chapter 11, the previous chapter, since this is the first verse, it means what came in prior to that. And that therefore is that chapter 11 is the famous chapter of faith. as the author recounts the lives of faith lived in the Old Testament and by the Old Testament saints. As we enter the stadium, we see very quickly that our race is not the first race of the day. There are multitudes of runners who've already run and completed their race. Many others have run before us, before you and me tonight, living lives of faith and dependence on God. They've already crossed the finish line. Men like Moses and Joseph and David and women like Sarah and Esther and Rahab who triumphed through their faith. And sometimes we look at that and we think, yeah, well, that was Moses and David. And I'm not either one of those that was Sarah and Rahab. Examples of great people of faith and I'm not one of those. But the point the author is making here is that these men and women did not accomplish great things because they were amazing people. I want you to remember that. They were average people that submitted to the lordship of God and God used them in spite of their foibles and in spite of their sinfulness. Notice that these individuals were not a lineup of sinless saints, that's for sure. Moses was a stuttering murderer. Abraham was a liar. Rahab was a prostitute. David was an adulterer. Sarah was a doubter. This is not a list of perfect people. It's not a list of heroes. It's a list of fallen sinners who put their trust in God and watched him do amazing things in their life, just like he is and will do for you and me. As we enter the stadium, the idea is that this great cloud of witnesses is, the idea is not, I should say, that this is a great cloud of people standing around cheering us on, but rather that their lives testify to us that God is able for every person. We walk down the same path, we live the same life, we live in the same manner that they did, just in a different era. The reality is that the men and women have been running this race for thousands of years and are finishing strong, always out of dedication to reach the finish line. There's no guarantee for any of us that the Christian life will be easy, no matter what some television pastors promise us. regarding ease of life or wealth. There's no guarantee of that at all. There's no guarantee that the race will be downhill, the wind will be at your back. On the contrary, the track of life we are confronted with trials and difficulties on a daily basis. We all know that. You say, what are some of those health concerns? We pray about them very often in our church and we should. Health concerns are a major issue. Conflicts at work. Family issues. The loss of a loved one. The list goes on. The encouragement in this great cloud of witnesses is that you are not the only one running, that these other people have run. And if you read the Old Testament, you know they had family issues. Boy, did they. Some of them had family issues like, oh, my goodness, that even exceeds mine. I mean, we just look at them and think, boy, were they messed up. But they finished the race and some of them are in the hall of faith fame. Amazing. Now, it's found in the second verse here is if they ran the race and finished, why can't I? Why shouldn't I? What's the second part of this starting well and continuing well? It's found in the second half of that first verse. Do you see it there? It says, let me read the first part. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, in other words, that's a tremendous motivation of all. We're not in this. There are hundreds of thousands and millions of people that have completed the race. A number of years ago, I was counseling with a young lady that was expecting a child. It was her first child and she was mortified, literally mortified. Now, I have never had a child. But the thing that came to me that was of some comfort to her was I said, think about all the women in the world that have had children and are alive and here. She had a lot of fears. And sometimes people can put even well-meaning individuals. I remember I was in labor for 49 hours. Thought I was going to die. And got all these morbid stories that scare first-time mothers half out of their wits. Don't ever say anything like that to somebody. If somebody's facing surgery, don't tell them your surgery story. Oh my goodness. I remember when I was going down for this aneurysm thing that I did a number of years ago. I had a guy tell me, I hope that doesn't, I hope that goes better than for you than it did for my friend. He was dead about three minutes after they put him on the operating table. And I just thought to myself, I won't tell you what I thought. I just want to tell you tonight, I want to encourage you, when you think, and we all do, it's natural, but when you think I can't go on, I don't know if I could go on or I should go on, just remember that God is with you and he tells us here, let us lay aside, now I want you to see in these notes here I've got down, lay aside every encumbrance, that's the things that are gonna distract you in the race of life. Lay aside every encumbrance. The word for encumbrance is a hindrance, means hindrance or an impediment, literally something bulky. These are things that would slow a runner down, a sweatshirt, a pair of baggy pants, their backpack or tote bag, the items that an athlete has with them before they get up to the starting blocks. Now how does that apply in the Christian life? Just like this, I want this to be practical. Lay aside things that distract. What can that be? Things that will slow you down. It can include family. Sometimes we can almost make a God out of our family, where the kid's desires or the kid's activities crowd out the very things of God. That can be a terrible distraction. hobbies, social media, sports, and even ministry. What are those things that weigh you down? What are some of the things that if you were to look into your own life tonight, things that are a distraction to you, things that are not wrong in themselves, but if you're trying to run a race, if you carry the analogy over to a race, you know that no person running a race intent on winning is going to have those things around him or on him or her. It's, there's more. Staying up so late on Saturday night that you can't get up on Sunday morning. Too much television. Some people just don't have the nerve or the gumption or the discipline to click off the, to click, to take the clicker and click it off. I've seen some people say, well, you know, I just can't shut off a football game or a golf match or a, I just, I just, I just can't do that. Well, yes you can. All you got to do is go click and. It's all. That's all it takes. Seriously. It doesn't take. You know, it's cell phones. Whether it's helpful on them, news, direction, stock markets, games, cameras, social media, music, calendar, emails, to-do list, banking, texting, and even, believe it or not, the ability to make a phone call. And the list goes on. Full of helpful things. But those things can be so distracting as we're racing forward if we don't keep them under control. So, things that distract. Do you have things in your life that are distracting? You say, well, how do I handle that? You know how you can handle that? I'm gonna give you a big tip, big tip. Set limits on your television watching. There's nothing wrong with television. if you control it rather than it controlling you. Set limits on it. Parents, set limits on what you allow your children to watch, both as far as morality and even as far as time. Set limits on it. Delete, those of you adults, delete certain apps from your phone. Take real steps that will slow you down. that will just eat up your time. It's all right to have free time. I like to watch things when I have free time. I enjoy that. But I try earnestly, and I think I can say this legitimately, I try not to let those things ever come ahead of my devotions, of my Bible reading, of my study time, of our family prayer time. Set limits on it. Do that. The second thing that's really a big one is things that destroy. Do you see the second part of that verse? Let us lay aside every weight and King James says, and the sin, which so easily entangles us. Some just say sin in general, but sin is anything contrary to the will and the law of God. And according to this text, sin entangles us. It exerts a tight control or easily trips us up. It baits us and traps us and causes us to forget that we're in a race. Have any of you ever seen those glue traps they use for catching mice? Have you ever seen those glue traps? Those things are brutal. Now, I'm a firm believer the only good mouse is a dead mouse. Now, you might have a tender heart and say, oh, they're just a little creature. We're going to catch him and turn him out in the wild. And the little creature in the wild says, oh, that was pretty good. I think I'll go back there. They were kind. But those glue traps are brutal. You set one in an area where the mouse will most likely run. And if it steps on any part of it, it's not going any farther. It's a sunk mouse. And the more it struggles, And have any of you seen, have any of, you wouldn't know, raise your hand if you did use one. I sat a couple of them here a couple of years ago before we got the exterminator. And I looked at that poor mouse and I thought, man, you really had a tough way to go, pal. Because he was laying there on his side, all glued down to that thing. And he just had one little leg that he could kick that was on his upper leg. And he was still trying to get out of there. Those things are brutal. Those glue traps are designed to destroy. Sin has the same purpose. It's like a snare. The trappers, I like to watch these videos where they set snares for trapping up in the Yukon. Now again, I know some people don't like it, but I'm just going to tell you the way most of the world in Alaska and Canada live. And that's by the sweat of their brow. And animals, they think, actually were put here to be used. And a snare is something, you just, the little rabbit or the fox or the coyote or the wolf is running along there and they don't see the snare that's hanging down and they run through it and of course the loop comes down and it's a painful death. They die and are frozen and they find them there a few days later when they check the trap line. Sin is a snare to the soul. And the Puritans, if you read that there, that word sin is singular. Notice the definite article. If you go back and read that in the original, there's a definite article there that says, set aside the sin. That one thing that trips you up, that sin that holds you back, the sin that you confessed perhaps when you first came to Christ and it's still a struggle in your life, the Puritans call it a bosom sin or a darling sin. You and I call it a besetting sin. It is that sin which like Goliath towers in front of us blocking the light of the sun, holds us back and even threatens to destroy us. Now there could be a general application in that of any sin, but the article in the King James, the definite article is laying aside the sin that so easily besets us. So we've spent a lot of time on that, which was our intention on the first point. The Puritan John Owen said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. If you're to run the race of faith, you need to lay aside those things that distract you and those things certainly that would destroy you. Get set. Number two is run well, run well. You're back there to where these things that destroy and things that distract, now we're getting set to run well. This is part of the verse where your feet are in the blocks, your fingers are on the line, you come up off your knees and you prepare to run. You set your mind on that one singular goal. And before the gun goes off, you take one final look at the finish line and notice what verse two says. fixing your eyes or looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. Do you see that there? If we're to run our race effectively, we must, according to this verse, fix our eyes on Jesus. I like to watch track and field. And when those guys come up or gals come up to that starting to run well, They aren't looking up in the stands and say, I wonder if, I wonder where dad or mom are seated up there. They said they was going to be here. Their focus is on that finish line and they are, sometimes they slap themselves. Have you seen them slap themselves alongside the face and jump up and down to get their blood running and do all kinds of contortions and then they get down there ready to go, all set to get set to start the ration. Colossians 1.18 tells us Jesus is our only prize, our goal, our ambition. It says that he's to have first place in our life. And notice in verse two, it says he is both the author and the perfecter of our faith. He was there at the beginning when we were saved, bringing us into the family of God, and he will be there at the end, taking us across the cold river of death. This text tells us that Jesus ran his race And you'll notice he said, I must do the will. In other words, it was always the eyes of Jesus were on the goal. And why did he do it? Here it is for every one of us. When you feel like giving up, why can we not? Why did Jesus not give up? It tells us there in that second verse, for the joy that was set before him. He knew as he got through these difficult days of his last days on earth and went to the cross, how could he bear that shame and that pain and not say, Lord, save me from this? He even prayed that, if it's your will, but he had his eyes on the joy that was set before him. Number three, go. So you start well, you run well, and the goal is to end well. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The gun goes off and we've got to run. Coming out of the blocks with maximum effort, straining with every fiber. You don't win by taking it easy. You don't win when you are distracted. We're called to run with endurance. And that word endurance means under some burden. Now there's something noble and honorable about not quitting, about going back, getting back up during, dusting yourself off if you fall and continuing the struggle, the race. Remember this, it's not about finishing first and it's not about finishing last. It's just about finishing to where you hear the words, well done, well done. I have down here the story, it's a true story again of a man who was watching his son run a cross country race. The son was a young runner. It was a tough course. Two or three times he stumbled and fell, but he got up and he went on. And when he finally got to the finish line, he knew his dad had been watching the whole time because he was in a viewpoint where he could look out over and around the golf course where they were running. But when he got to the end, he came up to his dad and he said, dad, I didn't do so well, did I? And his dad wisely looked at him in love and said, son, I think you won. You won in my eyes, because I noticed that every time you fell, you got up and continued to run. In my eyes, you won. We need that kind of a faith and that kind of an endurance. There's something noble. Hebrews 3.14 in the whole Holman Christian Bible says, for if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, We will share in all things that belong to Christ. Remember that runner from Tanzania? He stated, my country didn't send me here to start the race, but to finish the race. And I just want these words, I hope that they will speak to you as much as they have spoken to me. In closing, I just want to give you a challenge. I don't know if you'll do it or not, or if you'll have the nerve to do it or not. I guess you can answer that. But I would hope that on your sheet, you would write out two things. First of all, list the main encumbrance that holds you back in your Christian race. What is the main encumbrance that holds you back? that robs you of your joy and of the anointing. It's probably the thing you're thinking of right now. Write it down. And then, what is that bosom sin, that darling sin, that besetting sin that clings so closely to you that you can smell its breath and its stench every day? You might want to write that in code in case someone sees that. But writing those things out, identifying them, sometimes it's so easy for us to hear exhortations to holy living and agree with it, but not make personal application. It goes back to what we said a while back about listening, but not hearing. And the Bible talks to us about that. So my exhortation to you tonight is this, are you running the race victoriously? As I said earlier, it's not about finishing first or second or even last, it's about finishing. Sometimes we think, I've heard it referred to that the Christian life is a marathon, but I don't think it's even a marathon. It's a dedicated, lifelong, disciplined pursuit of serving God to the best of your ability, of confessing the known sins in your life, of crucifying them every time they surface in your thoughts or in your actions, bringing it to the cross and confessing it as a failure, as a sinful failure, and asking God to deliver. I close by saying, I told you this before, but it was helpful in my life during my times of failure. The grace of God is bigger than the grip of any sin. The grace of God is greater than the grip of any sin. The grace of God is greater than the guilt of any sin. Those two things. If you remember that, the next time you fail or fall, confess. get up and go on. Pastor Rich gave me a picture this week that's one of the most meaningful ones I've ever seen. I wish I could have had, I wish I could have it photographed and put up here. It's the picture of a big male lion, majestic lion standing there, looking kind of back over his shoulder. And he says, there are times when I feel like quitting. But then I remember who's watching. And back there behind him a little distance is a little cub looking up at dad just a few feet behind him. And he said, when I feel like quitting, I remember who's watching. Every one of us, every one of us has those who are watching. Let's not quit, but run with patience the race, endurance that is set before us. Let's pray.