The Race

Q: What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

Hebrews 12 teaches that we should run the race of faith with patience, looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2 encourages believers to run the race set before them with endurance. The metaphor of a race illustrates the Christian life, where believers are called to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that easily entangles them. The focus is on looking to Jesus, who not only initiated this faith but also finishes it. This running implies an active, persevering effort in faith amid trials, requiring both discipline and patience, reflecting the believer's journey toward ultimate sanctification and glorification.

Q: How do we know grace is essential in running the Christian race?

Grace is fundamental for running the race because it empowers us to start, continue, and finish our faith journey. The significance of grace in the Christian race is emphasized throughout Scripture, particularly in Hebrews 12:28, which states that we are to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear through His grace. Without grace, we lack the means to embark on this journey or sustain ourselves in the trials we face. It is God's grace that motivates and enables believers to persevere, reminding us that our strength and righteousness come not from ourselves but from Him. Importantly, it is by grace that we will ultimately finish our race, secure in the assurance that Christ's redemptive work covers our shortcomings.

Q: Why is looking to Jesus important while running the race?

Looking to Jesus is crucial because He is the ultimate example and source of strength for finishing the race of faith. In Hebrews 12:2, believers are instructed to fix their eyes on Jesus, who is described as both the author and finisher of our faith. This focus is pivotal because it prevents distractions and discouragement from the challenges we encounter along the way. Jesus, having endured suffering and humiliation, exemplifies perfect faithfulness and obedience, offering both inspiration and encouragement. As we consider His life and sacrifice, we draw strength to persevere amidst our trials, knowing that He understands our struggles and has provided a way for us to triumph through Him.

Q: What does Hebrews say about discipline in the Christian life?

Hebrews teaches that discipline from the Lord is a sign of His love and is essential for our spiritual growth. In Hebrews 12:5-11, the author addresses the nature of God's discipline, presenting it as a loving act of a father towards his children. This disciplinary action is not punitive but corrective and intended for our benefit, helping us to grow in holiness. The passage emphasizes that enduring discipline aids in producing the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it. Thus, rather than resenting challenges or chastisement, believers are encouraged to recognize them as necessary components of their sanctification process, ultimately leading to a deeper relationship with Christ.

Q: Why is the race of faith often depicted as requiring patience?

The race of faith requires patience as it involves enduring trials over a lifetime, and not all obstacles can be overcome quickly. The call to run the race with patience in Hebrews 12:1 underscores the understanding that the Christian journey is not a sprint but a marathon. Life's challenges, trials, and tribulations can be prolonged, requiring steadfast endurance. Patience is developed through the testing of our faith, which aligns with James 1:2-4, asserting that the testing of faith produces perseverance. Thus, patience is both a fruit of the Spirit and a necessary characteristic to achieve the goal of being conformed to the image of Christ, enabling believers to navigate life's journey with hope and assurance in God's promises.

I'm grateful that sometimes it
can't be, but I'm grateful that I know that. And I'm grateful
that I know on Sunday morning where I'm supposed to be. And
I have to tell you this, the highlight of my week, because
on all Sunday mornings, I have a great privilege of teaching
the children the 13th privilege. And I have from the 5th grade
to the junior high school, there's about 15 of us that meet, and
I do this study every Sunday morning. And I regard it, as
I said, as a great privilege. And it does something interesting. You know, when you talk to children,
big words don't mean anything. Being intellectual doesn't mean
anything. And if you don't communicate
with children, you're not talking to them, they don't understand.
So, everything I try to study is to say in words that they
understand. And I'll tell you what, there's
a good foundation for that. You know our Lord Jesus Christ,
how he talks. He told stories. So, apparently,
it's a story. He told stories. He said things
in words. that even the children, how do
you suppose that little child, how many of you, having never
had a little child and you encounter one for the first time, how many
of you find you can talk so that in a few minutes that little
child can sit in your lap? What do you describe to him?
He spoke to the children. He had a memory. He had a memory. It was a serious life. So this morning, I decided that
if I took a lesson that I taught it to my children, Maybe everybody
here doesn't understand it. How do I prepare? How do you
understand it? There's a lesson being taught,
and I may be able to use it and grab a quote. So I'm going to
take this morning a lesson that I taught my children. It's actually
a lesson I've taught them for several weeks, and I'm going
to kind of get some of the high point for you. But it's in Hebrews
12, and I tell you what, the children that are here this morning,
If you listen to me, pay attention, you just might learn something.
You might really understand what I'm talking about. Because you
know what? This lesson that we have this morning, the grace. Y'all like to race out there,
don't you? Huh? I'm talking about Randy, you
said he plays basketball, baseball, soccer. Racing, I mean, it comes,
it just comes natural to us, doesn't it? That competitive
spirit, and it's handsome, you've learned how to walk. It's not
wrong for you. You're willing to get out there
and race with us, aren't you? Huh? It's fun. Race you to the
top! You ever do that? My children
still love to do that. It's almost where I live in the
studio. And it says here, look at Hebrews
12, and it says, Wherefore seeing, we are also encompassed about
and surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses. Did you ever look
at a stadium full of people, children, and think it looked
almost like a cloud of people? It's all kinds of people going
to watch this race. You see, a great lot of people
are going to watch this race and say, we're surrounded by
a great lot of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
this is the end which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
the pages. The Rays that have set the course.
You ever think about the fact that from the time you know Christ,
you can go to be with Him? That's the beginning of the race.
The minute you see Christ, the race is over. It's begun. That's why somebody goes, BANG!
When they start the race, they're going to step out, on your marks,
now set, BANG! You sit one day somewhere, maybe
you've been there for a long time, listening to some fella
talk. They call him a Christian. And one day, BAM! I see Christ. I don't see what he's talking
about. I see you, I know who that is. Generation. And he puts
you in a generation, you see. And you start in it. And you
don't want to teach him to hear that. He tells you how to run
the race. That's what this is all about. And the way he tells
you to run the race... Now, if I said that we were going
to line up Brandon and Stephen here and let them run from here
to the back of the church for you guys to get ready, wouldn't
you? And when I said, come on, just go through all the house
to the back of the church, that's not very far, is it? And I thought
if I said this, I'm going to have you fellas line up right
here, run out the door, and run all the way to downtown Rocky
Mountain. Boy, you're not going to start
out here like that now, are you? Because if you do, see, you're
going to run a little while and move all over. No, you will.
So it says here, run this race with patience. It may be a long,
long race. Boy, in this town, in this verity,
some of these folks have been running the race all the time.
Yeah, and you better learn to run in
patience. I mean, you better just take it one day at a time. Just don't sprint. You know what's
funny about this race? It doesn't matter who finishes
first. It's just that you can finish. As long as you finish. You can
finish way up front for those in the lead. He finished way
in the back. In fact, the scriptures somewhere
else say something about it. He who would be first, shall
be last, and he who will be last, shall be first. So there's some
things about this race that aren't quite normal races. And one of
them is discipline and patience. Run just as fast as the horse
makes you run. That's how fast he wants you
to run. You get it. And he's not going to run hard
at times, he's just got you to run. But notice, what about this
big crowd watching? Are they all up there going,
go, go, go? Now, there's several ways to
interpret this, and one is this. Do you know what the folks in
the crowd are doing? They're going home. I don't know
what he's talking about. I hope people fall over and just
kind of take one too and not ever finish it. I told most folks
in this town, in fact, this group even right here, a lot of them
take one down or two. I hope that just goes away. Unfortunately, most of this crap
is not for you. They're a gift. They're a gift. But there are some, there are
some who are for you. Every day in this town over there,
she's having a hard day. You know what we did this morning?
We had a crowd cheering for her. Come on. Come on. And we're saying
to our Lord, Lord, even though I may be sick, I thank You, Lord,
that You see me. Now, here's something else. This
is another, this is, I think, probably the best interpretation.
You know who that real cloud is, or witness is? The cloud
is called a cloud. It's those who are all living
on the premise. They're a group. And boy, they
got names like Moses, and they got names like Abraham, and Lydia,
and there's women in this race, too, fellas. It's not just a
guy's race. Now, what girls run to is, We're all in. And you know what it is? It's
when you get tired from running this long race, look, look to
those witnesses, and you'll find out they were in the race. You
think about old Moses running that race. Moses had a tough... Paul! How's it Paul ran that
race? They stoned him, they beat him,
they scourged him. He finished the race, didn't
he? Huh? I tell you what, I believe that
if God will enable him to finish this race, I believe he can too.
I believe he'll enable us to do it too, don't you? Yeah, I
think so. So it says, run the race with
patience. And it says, the race that is
set before us Oh, you mean we don't just run a blind race?
We don't draw a line here and say, how about if I told Brandon
or Steven, I said, OK, here's the start line right here. Line
up, fellas. Hey, go! What's the problem? You don't know where you're running,
do you? I didn't tell you where the finish line was, did I? But
now if I say run from here to the back of the building, that's
easy. You know where you're going. I've set the race before you.
You see, this book right here, Christ set out the race for you. He said, this is where you start,
and here's where you finish. So we know where this race ends.
We know where it ends. You know where it ends? It's
when you get to Christ. That's how far you've come. When
you get to Christ, you're there. You finished. You see then, it's
step before us. And again, this is great. The one who sets the race out
for us, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the master builder,
and He laid out the course. But not only that, and there
are some mountains and some valleys, right? Been in both those places,
ups and downs. But you see, if there's not any
trials and tribulations, no chastening, then you're not in God's grace.
I say, if yours is just a downhill run, maybe you ought to back
off and say, what kind of race am I in here? Did I put me in
the race? Did I make this race up? Did
I build a course? Because if you've got a race course, it's
always down this hill and up that mountain. Down this path
and up that mountain. That's it. So, don't look for
an easy run, okay? Don't look for an easy run. But
there's also, you see, these are means he uses to keep you
in place. If ever, if ever, you know something, maybe I can even
go on and say, I'll just quit. I'll just quit. If it's all valleys,
he quits and goes away. If it's all mountains, we quit
sometimes. If he gets you up to the top
of that mountain sometimes, then you can look around and go, yeah,
lay back and go another round. Lay back and go a little further.
You see that? And here's something else in
this first verse. It's a lot right here, but you
see it says, Now, Steven, I know you and Brandon
don't know each other. I know that. Do you see him on
Colorado there? Do you see him on Indiana? Are
you willing to run him in a race that you can't? You want to talk
to Brandon? Might be a tough race, but I
bet you will learn. Yeah. Well, I think you feel pretty
confident that you can get this race, don't you? How about we
do this? We'll line you up here. We'll
let you go start right here. I'm going to let you do something
special, Stephen. I'm going to let you carry this
with you when you run. Okay? How's that? You want to
do that? And you carry that in one hand,
and we'll let you carry the flyer basket in the other. Now, if
you drop me one, you lose. You want to try this race? Now,
nobody's going to rule a run with that, is it, huh? You know
what the problem says right there? Don't run the race with a new
automobile on your back. Now, you can do that. You see? I mean, if you don't need that,
I'm going to get it. I mean, now, there's
no such thing as nothing wrong with having a nice car, and homes,
and clothes, and all the things of this world, isn't that kind
of game? They're made good, but I tell you what, if you don't
need it in the race now, be careful what you pick up. You may have
to carry it a long, long way. A long way. Just lay it aside. It's a lot easier, huh? Without
this, it's not easy. Yeah. You can see that, huh? Yeah. Now, look at this. Verse 2. The rest of this goes
a little faster, okay? Verse 2, it says, when you're
running this race, looking on the deep. You want to know where
you keep your eyes fixed when you're running this race? At
him. At him. If you just keep looking
at him, okay, you're going to find out that has a place to
look. But here's the interesting part.
It tells us right here who it is. Y'all, I don't like you children.
I know you see enough religion on television when you're jumping
on television. or Sonny Horton kind of cartoons
and stuff. And, you know, I've read a lot
of cartoons and most of that stuff on television that fellows
call themselves creatures, too. But when you're changing those
channels, and, you know, this fellow on this channel is talking
about this Jesus, and somebody over here is talking about Jesus,
and somebody else says Jesus Christ, and somebody says the
Lord, you know, ooh, you know, they're talking about different
people. They're not talking about the
one that your pastor or your mom and dad worshiped, the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, that's what he's saying.
That's what he's using here. And it tells us right here when
it says, when you run in this race, that he's looking to the
Lord Jesus. That's what it tells us who he
is right here. You know what I mean? It says, He's the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was sent
before Him in the earth and the cross, despised and ashamed,
and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. You
see, that Jesus Christ, when we look at Him, He's the author.
That means He laid out the course for you before you ever knew
you were going to run this race. He said, you'll start here and
you'll end there. This is the way you'll go. Why should you
back off? This is the way our course runs.
Huh? Huh? He's a lot smarter than
we are. I mean, have you children gotten
old enough now where you figured out that even when it's 8 o'clock
or 9 o'clock or whatever time that's not supposed to be, you're
out? Have you figured out yet that even though you want to
stay up, and a lot of the night you're doing that, it's just
another 30 minutes, another 15, that's tired. I don't know, I
think it's always your best to make sure that your folks know
that you need to kind of stay up a little longer. But have
you figured out yet that they know better than you when you
need them, really? I know. Have you figured out
that shit? They do. I'll tell you what. If they let
you stay up till 1 o'clock in the morning on a school line,
you know what happens? You'll be sitting in class, and teaching
math there, and the teacher isn't all of a sudden gonna go, move
it. And where will you be then? You'll
be in a principal's office. You see, they've done what's
best for me, and I know what's best for his children, for his
people, you see. So he's set the course now. He's
the author of it. But not only that, he's the finisher
of it. How do you suppose your children,
how do you suppose your parents know what's the right time for
you to go to bed? You know how they are? Sometimes, they stay
up too late. And they got to work or something,
and they'll sit in their dorm. And they learn, see, you don't
stay up too late. Or maybe when they were children,
they snuck and stayed up too late one night. And it happened
to them. They fell asleep. So they know
what's best for you. Because they've already done
all the stuff you did. How are you supposed to know
sometimes, sometimes, that your parents go, Brandon, you did
this, and you do this. Move it. Move it. Move it. You
know how they do? They did it. They did it. They've been where you are. You
see, they were kids one time. Yeah. And you know how the Lord
Jesus Christ knows all about this race? He finished it already. He ran it. He ran the race already. He knows all about it. You don't
want to run over any mountain, or any ditch, or any tree, that
he didn't already contact. He's already in there, in this
race, you see. He would be offering to finish
it up. And also, I want you to see that
when he ran into the race though, you know the difference between
how he ran and the way we run? He ran perfectly. You know, he
never stumbled upon that. Not once. He came to some huge
dishes, and he was completely disheveled with those dishes.
And he came to a mountain and didn't slow him down a bit. He went up that mountain, and
how mighty he was. And you see, there was pitfalls,
and how many people came along, and torpid boulders, and there's
a statue in the sky, and you'd have thought he killed him. He
got right on them. Right on them. And they took
whips and tried to beat him. And they even tried to nail him
to a cross. He ran it perfectly, perfectly. And someday, when you and I get
to the end of the race, you know how we ran the race? Even though
we stumbled and fell and did all these terrible things in
the race, you know what the Lord Jesus Christ does when the race
is over? He hits the forgotten father and he says, you see,
I ran the race for Rick. And he said, I won the crown. for the victory in the race.
I got first place. I'm the only one that ever finished
the race. And he says, I don't give birth to that crown. Give
him the wreath. And God looks at him and says,
why, he ran a perfect race, son. Son, man, you're a killer. All his children appeared to
God, and they ran a perfect race. And you say, Rick says, I didn't
run a perfect race. I didn't do this and that. What
happened to that bad race I ran? God says, well, I gave that to
my son. That's what would be described as happening in the
Calvary. The beast is being punished for
the bad graces that the great man showed from the Antichrist. The bad graces that we have.
In fact, if you get Christ in his hands, we get the perfect
grace. That's what it says here. He's
the offering and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy
of the second morning, he didn't have a bunch of sons and daughters
that were perfect. He endures the cross, despises
the shame. He doesn't like the race with
the man, almost understandably. But he takes it. And when all
that happens, what happens is, if you run a two-mile race, what
do you think you're going to do when you're done? Sit down,
right? Boy, he's just tired, right?
You want Jesus Christ to be the one who finishes the race? He's
that man. He's sitting there. God's right
here, right now. That's where the Lord Jesus Christ
is. He's not up in heaven still running. He's not up there looking
down at you going, Oh, I hope he finishes the race. Oh, I hope
he can. That's the Jesus somebody saw
on TV. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
sitting up there in this room. The race is over. He's already
running. He's done. He's finished. He's
just waiting. You know he's waiting for him?
Till we get there. Till we get there. After that,
that's what he's doing. Now look at this. Or consider
him that doeth such contradictions, verse 3, of sinners against him,
lest ye be weary and faint in your mind. Oh, don't get, don't
get so tired, and don't, don't, I know the race is tough, but
don't faint. Don't get weary to where you
just go, I'm gonna quit. Don't do that. No, because we
haven't had to do what he did, you see, verse 4. We've not resisted
unto the blood of the God we have sinned. And then look at
verse 5. When you feel that way, you know
what it means? It means you have forgotten the exhortation. Forgotten
what exhortation? Now, an exhortation is just something. You ever get in a tough situation
and your parents say, come on now, come on now, you can do
it, come on. That's an exhortation, you see. That's encouraging,
right? And your parents say that sometimes
in a tough situation. You're sitting there doing homework
and you go, I didn't finish this paper, I can't ever get it right,
I'm tired of this, I won't do it again. You ever been like
that? And when you do it, you say, my son, honey, come on,
you can do it. It's an exhortation. Don't forget
those. Don't forget those. That's just
as God was saying here, we forget them. We forget the exhortation.
What is the exhortation? It says, children of the citizenry
have forgotten the exhortation which speaks of us as children.
You can tell us, listen to this, God speaks to us just like children.
We are not children. He says, my son, despise not
the chasing of the Lord. Don't despise the valleys and
the mountains. He says, nor faint when you are
rebuked of the Lord. You know what a rebuke is? When
you children are rebuked, that means, a rebuke usually sounds
something like this. You know, you're standing there
doing something, and you folks go, quit! Stop that now. You know better than that. You're
sitting there eating at the table, and you can't get your peas to
stay on the fork. So you go, and your parents go, use your
fork, honey, don't do that. That's a rebuke, right? See,
that's a rebuke. When you do something you're
not supposed to do, you get a rebuke, right? Your parents rebuke you
if they scold you. And it says here, And you've
forgotten the education that God gives to children that don't
despise or chase Him over to be with Him. If you chase Him,
do you know what chasing Him is? Children know what it is. Let me ask you, parents. I want
you children to just learn something right here. I want you to do
this thing. I want all the adults here to tell me, do you ever
remember the day that Jesus died? This is what Jesus said. I've
got to raise my hand. Raise your hand if you ever remember
this man. A lot of hands up, children.
Do you see that? A whole lot of hands up here. Maybe you don't
know it. Maybe you've forgotten about
that. Maybe your mom or your daddy's got a switch in some
of that? Yeah? Yeah? You see, that's chasing. He's hitting the switch. With
a rod, it's called, in Scripture here, and that can be with a
switch or with a palm on the hand or a leg. That's a switch
of chasing. But that's not punishment. It's
almost an offense. That's not punishment. Chasing
and punishment are two different things. Now, this would be punishment. Punishment would be, and this
may be hard to imagine, punishment would be, as Terry said to Stephen
Stevenson, Son, take out the trash. If you don't take it out,
I'm going to take you out in the backyard and tie you up in
the fridge and beat you to death." He said, that's a big deal. But
God, He told you that, see? He said, that's the law of this
house. He told you that. If you didn't take the trash
out, you know, He had heard her right when He came home to take
you out and tie you up and beat you to death. You know what I
mean? That's the law. And if you broke
the law, that's the punch that you deserve. If you know it,
you didn't do it, you could just get what you deserve, couldn't
you? Ooh, that's smart, doesn't it? Ooh. Well, he said, that's
what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. God said, Adam, don't eat
that tree. What Adam said, did you get an
opportunity? He said, no. What Adam do? Adam went out there
and ate that tree, didn't he? God said, Adam, don't eat that
tree. See, that's punishment. You see that? And you see, for
all like Adam and Eve, we broke the law too, and we deserve a
punishment for it. And God's going to punish every
man and woman who's broken His law. Someday we're going to have
to die for that. He will punish men. But that's
not chastening. What do you think what chastening
is? Chastening is doing whatever it takes correct the situation. You see, what your dad may do
is say, see, take out the trash, son. If you don't, I'm going
to have to give you this thing. And if you don't take it out,
what's going to happen? You're going to be a spanker. You're going to be a spanker.
If you don't take it to your room and say, son, I told you
to do that, you didn't do it, you're a spanker. If you get it, when it's over,
you're going to look at it and say, son, I told you how important
you are. Next time, I'm going to take a crack job at it. Right? And you know the difference between
punishment and chastening? It's one difference. Chasing is grace and love. You children don't get upset
if you leave your books hanging. You don't. You know what it means?
It means it's done. You ever hear the story about
Walter Rupert having to commit a crime to save his own child?
And a lady showed up one day, this is a missionary in Mexico
showing up, and a lady showed up at a doorstep one day with
a lady and a little girl and said, I need you to take care of this,
I want you to take care of this. And the lady said, yeah. And
then this lady and a little girl came in her home. And she did
so fine, and I thought, why is she so happy? And I said, well,
she certainly is. He started just talking back. You know how you children can
do that, can't you? You need to be up here sometime. And Chalo started coming up here.
And Mr. Higgins was doing all kinds of
this stuff. And finally, Lord Walker said,
I've had enough of this. He had to grow up quicker in
his study and raise a timber to prepare for a good span. And
you know what was all over what Chalo did? She leaped up and
hugged his neck and said, oh, she said, thank you, thank you.
She said, now I know who you love, and you treat me like you
love children. Your parents don't thank you. You know what I mean?
They thank you for being there. See, it says right here, see
what it says, it says you've forgotten the actual patient. What's the actual patient we're
supposed to remember? If we complain about being chastened and refused
to the Lord, that's what it says in 1 Thessalonians, for whom
the Lord beloved, he chastened and scourged every son whom he
received. Tell you what, if your parents
loved you, They'll deal with it. They'll chase you. You may not have time to read
your bulletin yet. See what the pastor said here
about quotes of the week? Listen, all three of you, if
you're going to raise your children, the best time to tackle a minor problem
is before he grows up. That's right. If you want to revenge your son
or daughter, you just let them go. Don't chase them. Let them
go. It's easier. I know it is. It's
a whole lot easier when I'm sitting there reading the paper, you
know? I don't know what he's doing,
he's just sitting there a little bit, and the way he's doing it,
what's the difference? Instead of putting the paper
back and saying, son, I told you to do that, you didn't do
it, now come on. Take him to his room and say,
you disobeyed me. This is your chastisement. Lay
it to him. Lay pride out. Go back and put
him on the lap and say, son, what'd I tell you? Well, you
just did. And you didn't do it. And what
happened? I got him to sing. Because you
deserved it, right? Yes. And what are you going to
do next time? I'm going to do what you did.
He said, well, I need you to sit there on the couch instead
of going through all that. But I love my son. I love him. And I'm going to do what the
Lord says, if I love him, I'll pay him. That's the spirit of
resignation of the Lord. And he said, I love you, my son.
And I told that stuff about a year or two ago. And I'm telling you
what, if you don't have the problem for yourself in this life, you've
got God and the Lord, then you need to just back off and ask
yourself, can I love you too? And the reason this principle
is important is that we have a good understanding that And everyone's up on their merry
way through this life, no trouble, no problems, everything's easy.
And you know, we shouldn't be doing that. We shouldn't be doing
that. But if it occurs to me, maybe
I need to kind of drop it. Maybe I need to get under the
words and kind of cry. You see what I'm saying? All
right, now. I could pick a lot of things
to cover here, but I'm going to wrap it up with just some
practical things. Here's, I'm going to show you
some ways to run the race, okay? Some ways to run the race, and
the first one is, look over here in verse 12. It says, Wherefore
lift up the hand, which hang down in the feeble knees. You children ever get in trouble,
having a hard time, and you finally just go, just kind of clap your
hands on your legs and bend your knees and go, I did that right,
I wasn't wrong, I just did this other way. You ever get to that
point? I've never been to that point. Just like that, right? Don't do that when you're running
a race. You can't run when you're standing there like this. Can't
you do that? Can't you? Huh? No! I don't have
that attitude. I don't have a spell. I'm not
a cow. I'm not a cow at all. A cow is... How many of you got cows to live?
Two or a bit? You know, yeah, yeah, I can cut
a little bit of that. It's not catastrophic. My father's
got a problem, so if I can't pull him out of there, I won't
run at all. Okay? So it says, lift up your hands,
okay? Put your hands down, your feet
beneath. Don't get like, get up to a running position, alright?
Ready to run. Then when you do this, it says,
verse 13, and make straight paths for your feet. Now, this is easy
to illustrate. If I go with Stephen and Brandon,
I'm picking on these guys, aren't I? If I got you up here and say,
run to the back door, and I say, go! And, boy, Brandon just heads
straight to the door. Stephen says, OK, I'm running. And Stephen jumps up here, goes
out that door, runs around here, and comes out that door, and
jumps over to you, and down to the side, and out there, and
then to the door. Who's going to win? You got a friend who's
gonna leave you bad, isn't he, huh? Yeah, that's not the straightest
way there, is it? Not to mention the fact you might
drown up there if that thing's full of water, or you might break
a leg jumping over one of these here. It's a new run of the race. The crisis isn't quite... I don't
know, the crazy place. I love the trouble, huh? I get
it why I'm talking now if it's not there. You know? But it's
free! It's free! Don't take some job
down at this salon hall where you can eat shit under the gospel.
See, believe your heart, when you take what's the number one
priority, it's under the gospel. I tell you what, I may be out
of work, and there may be a lot of work to do off in California.
There's no gospel there. It's straight past the stand,
right where I am. I don't need all the way to those other things
to get me a better job or something along the way, but there's probably
going to be that and those other things along the way. All right,
but he didn't. First, get meat. Look killer
to me. That's meaty man face, okay? of the grace of God, look guilty,
when you run up a race, how about if I'm going to run a race and
here's an accident, how about if I run my race looking at that
place above that window over there? Now, it may go real well
for me, but I get just about here. And the first thing you
know, I'm going to run into this person I like. So, sometimes,
look at where I'm going. You see this? You say, look,
tell us where you're going. Hey, I'm kind of, I'm from this
race, obsessed with something else. Look into it. Look into
it. I mean, get a bigger house, a
better job. I'm not dwelling on those things
about the beauty of America. I'm talking about myself and
all of us as a nation. As a nation, we're running into
the things of this world. And what we can do to be a team
on those is to look at it from this side of the prize. If you
can do it right in the 1990s, you can light it up. Look at
Christ, and I'm looking at the door the whole time. If that's
where I'm supposed to be, I'll run through it for you. Okay? And then, turn the page
here, and I'll show you a couple other things real quick. In verse 14, I'm sorry. Verse 14, I skipped that actually. Verse 14 is, follow peace with
all men, and holiness. Now, let's be grand and sweet
one moment. If you sit down and my arms are
up, you're going to get a great lunge and a great kick. And I'm
going to get a great kick and a great kick. Now we get a point. And we start out running, okay?
And we're going to run a long, great shift. And we're going
to run, and all of a sudden, I'm running, and I have a skinny
build here. See, and I go, wham! I've got a skinny. And this kid's
like that. I'm going to run a little further,
and all of a sudden, I go, wham! Wham! And in a minute, I go,
boom, boom! I've got a skinny. Come along
here, all of a sudden I go, dang, you don't want to know that person,
I want to know your person. You know what you're going to
do? You're going to go, oh yeah? Wham! You're going to hit me
back, actually. Huh? You don't think I deserve
it, do you? No? Huh? Keep peace with it all. You don't want a choice. Swinging
elbows, kicking people in the foot. You've got to live with
that. You don't have to go down to work and come in here and
say, I don't know why neither of those Jesus Christ you dummies. You don't have to do that. You don't have to push down on
your neck wherever they cross in your hotel saying, I'll send
you all the way to the church and rock you down. Now, we can
find a few answers in that. Just go on through the course,
learn, keep these things in. You know, I had one lady just
tell me this morning about the wisdom one of the men of this
church had, in terms of just over time, not just telling me,
just this, kind of opens up these doors. But don't go in. I tore my family all to pieces. The first three months after
I saw the Lord Jesus Christ, I kind of felt that attraction
and predestination and all those things, instead of just telling
Him who Christ was and what He revealed to me in His Word as
God enabled me to do. It never has been the same before,
but I'm proud of those in my family, so why don't I interview
them? I had any sense and grace and wisdom at that point, I kept
peace with it. Just let it go on until they
got curious enough to say, what happened to you? You did what
you got on me. You just waited. That's how I'm
going to look at it. But I have to confess, I'm not
sure if that was love, but I wouldn't even tell them that. I hadn't
imagined that there was a romance at heart on me, you see. How
many little bags? What's up there? I need you to
keep this job, man. You're a good job. See? I couldn't
take any of that if I had to give it to him back. So, keep
these all, man. And then, quickly, we'll hear
verse, let me verse 25. And this is important. See that you refuse not to deceive.
What that means, gentlemen, is this. It's a burden. Constitution
is a few words. Everyone has their own attitude,
their own constitution. It's a good question. I'm sorry about the sound, but
I'll take it. This is what I hope. The other constriction is, what
he did well, first of all, is that he generated a conversation. He had a conversation. He had
to play the sound. You've got to sound like a school. You've got to be all the time. He's an international actor,
but he did work out that voice. He had just enough of it. He
doesn't have it. I'm sorry, he didn't. He made
it. There you go. It's a fascinating conversation,
isn't it? And I'm always scared that there's
a spiel going to watch me, you know, that I'm not making what
I'm supposed to be, that you guys are making me, you know, that I'm speaking
to you in a different context. Because you can't be talking
to yourself if you're not going to do something. It goes all the way down there. It's amazing, isn't it? Isn't that what he
says? Let's just do one more round, shall we? It's a pretty
girl, isn't it? She's a girl too. She's got a popular career.
She doesn't have all that good, but she does excel at it, too.
She deserves to get an appointment. This can be a terrible project. I can't say that that's real
or what it's meant to be. But I'm going to talk about this. I'm sorry every time I talk.
Okay. I said nobody got 62. 62 people. I told them, you know, you're
legal, I'm your dad, or like, your pastor, or your teacher,
and they're interested in you, they love you, and they want
to hear the truth. I would say to Hannah, I said,
I think I'd like to have an A. with his mother along the road,
and we talked about the block, and bringing it in and putting
it on the stairs so that he could say, do you read me? She wouldn't
be mad at you. Or even if she said, I wasn't
big, you're going to have to go find a rat and I can't go
to one of her parties. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Let me see. I'll tell you the
best. So now I'm speaking to you through
an entertaining pastor, OK? And if people don't teach you,
we just want you to know the truth. The truth. And here's
the most important place I'll speak to you. It's that hope
you've got in your life. The only thought that comes to
your head is that if you don't have a math problem when you're
in school, where do you go to figure it out? You ask your teacher,
don't you? She explains it. Put your math
book out, don't you? Isn't that simple? You might
be into the math book, can't you? But if you want to know
that part of Jesus Christ, if you want to know what's good
for you, I just did this book, and it says, as soon as it says,
it says, see that you refuse not. Don't go. If you go get
a math book and find the answer, you wouldn't go, oh, that math
book better go away instead of you. I'm not going to listen
to that math book. No, not me. I know better math. Now, listen
to math, OK? Whatever it says that's true.
You can trust that. You can believe that. You can
do what that says. It's going to be okay. And don't
confuse it. You see, don't confuse it. And
here's the last thing, very quickly. Then quickly, verse twenty is,
Wherefore, when we receive in a kingdom which cannot be moved,
That's the prize at the end of the race. You see, a kingdom
which cannot be moved. You know why it can't be moved?
What's every kingdom got? A king. If it's a kingdom, it's
got a king. And this king is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the reason this kingdom can't be moved is because he's
the king. He's God. He's God. Don't let it overcome
God, can you? We're going to carry on the ways
of that Saddam Hussein, aren't we? Paul Bridenstine, he had
a big, he didn't listen to anybody, did he? He said, I can stand
with these guys all night, with the whole world. He said, I'm
going to beat up those murderers, isn't he, huh? What's happened
to him? He was out bombing his whole country. Paul Bridenstine,
you know why? Because he wouldn't listen. He
wouldn't listen. It'll happen to you if you don't
listen. It'll happen to you if you don't listen. But you see,
our king, he can't be moved. I'm sure they got it. I'm the
same, moving around all over the place. He's scared. Nobody
moves the Lord. He's practicing on his throne.
He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to. Well, let's follow him,
you know. And it says, we have a kingdom which cannot be moved. Here's the last thing. Let us
have grace. Let us have grace. That's the
one thing. We need, more than anything else
in this race, is to hold the court to the gospel of the grace
of God. It's by grace that we're in the
race, it's by grace that we stay in the race, and it's by grace
that we finish the race. You can't do it yourself. I don't
care how strong you are, how tough you are, God's grace is
on you. You can't stay in this race.
That's what this race is all about. It's grace. Grace in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? That's, that's what the
race is. That's what the race is. And
if I got a race, he'll, he'll put our children in a race someday. That's my hope. And I'm convinced
that the thing to do is to have a fight here. There's no time
to open up. I have them here. It's only about
how it works that I want to say anything. Well, we're going to
have to listen to you about it. All right. That's all. We'll
take our break. You know where you are? I haven't explained that enough. You're out all the way. Okay.

The Race

What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

How do we know grace is essential in running the Christian race?

Why is looking to Jesus important while running the race?

What does Hebrews say about discipline in the Christian life?

Why is the race of faith often depicted as requiring patience?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

The Race

What does the Bible say about running the race of faith?

How do we know grace is essential in running the Christian race?

Why is looking to Jesus important while running the race?

What does Hebrews say about discipline in the Christian life?

Why is the race of faith often depicted as requiring patience?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from Bob Coffey

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book