Long Distance Runner
Text: Heb. 12:1-3
Introduction
1. Illustration: You are a long distance runner
You can feel the pain in your side
Yet you must run on
You are a long distance runner
Keep your face in the wind
And you’ll soon be home
I can see the strain on your face
Keep your eye on the goal and you’ll win the race
2. The Christian life has been compared to a race. In that race we must:
a. Lay aside all that holds us back
b. Run with determination
c. Run looking ahead
3. Read Heb. 12:1-3
Proposition: As Christians, we are not sprinters, but long distance runners.
Transition: In order to win the race we must...
I. Lay Aside All That Holds Us Back (1)
A. Lay Aside Every Weight
1. The writer of Hebrews begins this chapter by connecting it with the previous one - often referred to as the "faith chapter."
2. He says "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses..."
a. The picture is that of a race. The scene is a great coliseum filled to capacity with spectators ("great cloud"). The race is about to begin.
b. The crowd, the heroes of Hebrews 11, have participated in the race.
c. They have run and finished the race themselves—enduring to the end and winning.
d. Therefore, they are witnesses and examples for us.
3. The point is this: a great cloud of witnesses surrounds and envelops us—witnesses who believed God and stood fast for God—stood fast against all kinds of trials, temptations, and opposition.
a. Their great faith and endurance should stir and inspire us to believe and to endure in our belief.
b. They never buckled or crumbled in their faith.
4. However, if we are going to do what they did, we must throw off anything that will slow us down. We must "lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us..."
a. The words "lay aside" mean to take off, strip off and to remove as in taking off clothes.
b. This means any excess weight and bulk of body.
c. All serious athletes train and strain to remove all excess weight.
d. This refers to things that may be legitimate and innocent in and of themselves, but they hinder the Christian runner.
e. They hamper and slow him down instead of helping him run faster.
5. Anything that does not build us up and make us stronger is excess weight that slows us down.
a. The Christian runner must do exactly what the Olympic runner does: strain to remove all excess weight.
b. Do nothing—absolutely nothing—that hinders or hampers him from running at full speed.
c. But it is especially important to strip off the sin that so easily hinders our progress.
d. Sins such as greed, pride, arrogance, lust, gossip, dishonesty, and stealing can cause believers to drift off spiritual course. —Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
B. Put It Off
1. Illustration: We can become distracted and look away from the goal of becoming like Christ. If you saw the movie Chariots of Fire, then maybe you remember the great runner Abraham. He had won so many races. His coach held up such discipline. But he finally lost one of the races because he looked to the side. Just as he was about to finish the race he looked to see where the competitor was. His coach said to him, that look cost you the race. He was not single minded on the finish and the prize that lay ahead.
2. Like that runner we can let things distract us from the race of faith.
a. Pride
b. Stubbornness
c. Anger
d. Jealousy
3. Eph. 4:22-24 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
4. We must put off those things which hold us back.
a. They will weigh us down and make it difficult to run.
b. They will slow us down and make us lag behind.
c. If we are not careful, they will take us down, and we will not finish the race.
5. We must look at the things in our lives and ask ourselves is this going to help me win or make me lose the race of faith?
Transition: We must also...
II. Run With Determination (1)
A. Let Us Run With Endurance
1. The writer of Hebrews tells us to "run with endurance the race that is set before us..."
a. The word means endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, constancy, perseverance.
b. " let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (NIV).
c. The word endurance is not passive; it is active.
d. It is not the spirit that just sits back and puts up with the trials of life, taking whatever may come.
e. Rather it is the spirit that stands up and faces the trials of life, that actively goes about conquering and overcoming them.
2. When trials confront a man who is truly justified, he is stirred to arise and face the trials head on.
a. He immediately sets out to conquer and overcome them.
b. He knows that God is allowing the trials in order to teach him more and more patience (endurance).
3. The Christian runner must be determined; he must have true grit. He must be filled with steadfast endurance, letting nothing stop or hinder him.
a. Our flesh can be against us.
b. Our mind can be against us.
c. Our family and friends can be against us.
d. Satan can be against us.
4. Rev. 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
5. We must prepare our:
a. Minds for a marathon
b. Hearts for a marathon
c. Spirits for a marathon
B. Be Determined
1. Illustration: Up from the gun - you are no sprinter
The soles of your feet are on fire
Yet you must run on
You came to run - that’s why you entered
So put one foot in front of another
’Till your race is won - I can see the strain on your face
Keep your eye on the goal and you’ll win the race
2. We must be determined when our flesh fights against our spirit.
3. We must be determined when friends and family tempt us to stray from the path.
4. We must be determined when the enemy comes and tells us to give up.
5. We must be determined when we get weary and we want to stop.
6. Phil. 2:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Transition: Above all we must...
III. Run Looking Ahead (2-3)
A. Looking Unto Jesus
1. Believers who have trusted God and endured in their faith are great examples for us.
2. We have seen this in the Great Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. And we see it in the example of believers all around us—believers who really live for Christ.
3. But as great as these examples are, there is one supreme example of faith, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. We may and should look at the example of other believers, but we should always be looking to Jesus.
4. The author tells us, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
a. The word "looking" means to fix your eyes upon Jesus.
b. It also means to fix your mind upon Him (Kenneth Wuest. Hebrews, Vol. 2, p.214).
c. The Christian runner is to focus his eyes and mind upon Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ Himself ran the race of faith when He was upon earth, and He shows us exactly how to run it.
5. Jesus Christ participated in the race Himself; He actually ran the race of faith. In fact, He is the very Author and Finisher of faith.
a. The word translated “author” is rich with meaning and can communicate variously the idea of a champion, leader, forerunner, or initiator (Guthrie, 398).
b. The Finisher means that He perfected, completed, and consummated the race. He ran the race to the finish.
6. The idea is that Jesus Christ ran the course of life perfectly. He was sinless, perfectly righteous, always obeying God in everything. He ran the race of faith—of utter obedience and trust in God—all through His life upon earth.
7. He also “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”
a. He followed the rules of the race even to the point of dying in order to create the race.
b. He obeyed God perfectly. He ignored and despised the shame of the cross in order to finish the race of perfect obedience to God.
c. And because He was perfectly obedient, He has blazed the path of perfect righteousness, of the very faith that makes us acceptable to God.
8. As a result “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
a. He kept his eyes focused on the goal of his appointed course, the accomplishment of his priestly work, and his seat beside God’s throne in heaven.
b. Knowing that a great reward was coming for God’s people gave Jesus great joy.
c. He did not look at his earthly discomforts, but he kept his eyes on the spiritual, invisible realities.
d. Like Christ, we should persevere in times of suffering, looking to Christ as our model and concentrating on our heavenly destination.—Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
B. Look Ahead
1. Illustration: You are a long distance runner
When others are falling away
Your race begins
You are a long distance runner
The Spirit that strengthens your soul
Will ensure that you win
2. We are long distance runner, and like Jesus we need to look straight ahead toward the prize
3. We cannot look to right or the left.
4. We cannot look behind us.
5. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, and do what He did; keep the faith and finish the course
Transition: Let us keep our on Jesus and we will win the race of faith.
Conclusion
1. In the race of faith we must lay aside all that hinders us, run with determination, and run looking straight ahead.
2. It is not a sprint; we can’t rush out of the gate and expect to win.
3. We must be determined to be in it for the long haul.
4. If we do we will run the course, finish the race, and win the prize.
