Road Rules
Pt. 4 – Running to Win
I. Introduction
We have almost completed our journey in this series. We have been talking about running and the lessons that I learned as I ran cross country in High School. This is your last opportunity to gaze at the amazing, awe inspiring picture of me with my cross country team. I want this picture to be burned into your mind because it is possible this picture will be burned in the trash can!
Out of the lessons that I learned running we have talked about Indian Running. This is the concept of encouraging one another and helping those coming after you to run faster. We have talked about the concept that running hurts and the only way to endure is to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, to recognize that pain is an indication of our Father’s love, it is our birthmark, it makes us legitimate, and if we will endure we will harvest righteousness and peace. Then last week we talked about hurdles. We make the devil’s job way too easy. We allow what are supposed to be pit stops to become parking lots. We already possess enough power and authority to overcome the hurdles in our path. To conquer those hurdles we must take the series of steps beginning with the first one that will get us over!
So today I want to wrap up by discussing running to win! There is no sense in running unless we are going to run to win!
Let’s go back to our text!
II. Text
Hebrews 12:1, 16-17
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (NIV)
And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Living Bible)
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (KJV)
16-17 Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
1. Pace is paramount!
I can still remember one of the first competitive races I ever ran. We all lined up and when the gun went off the mad dash began! I was inexperienced and seeing the blazing speed of the start I felt like I had to keep up! I took off at a full sprint. After about a mile I realized I had made a crucial mistake and that I couldn’t continue that speed. Interestingly enough a lot of those guys that took off so quickly at the beginning ended up finishing at the back of the pack! I learned that pace is paramount. I discovered that sometimes you may just have to let some folks pass you at the beginning of the race so that you can pass them later in the race.
Some of you are great sprinters when it comes to gaining material possessions! You have more things right now than your parents had at the end of their race.
Some of you are incredible sprinters at the beginning of relationship. You know how to win the other person’s heart. You can turn on the romance and the charm.
Some of you are outstanding sprinters spiritually. You sprint from one spiritual high to the next.
But I need to remind you that pace is paramount! If you are going to win you must have a sustainable pace! Starting the race is not nearly as impressive as finishing the race. Thousands start . . . few finish! 1 Kings 20:11 – ’One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.’
What good is it to sprint to owning enough stuff to bankrupt you and put you in financial bondage? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?
What good does it do win the heart and yet be unable to keep the heart? What good does it do to have the most incredible first date, but have the relationship end up on the ash heap with hearts broken and shattered 6 months or worse yet 6 years and 2 children later?
What good does it do to sprint from one feel good service to the next only to discover that you can’t find that next spiritual high this month? What if it is 6 months until you have another knock you off your feet encounter with God?
Listen . . . This is not a sprint, we are in a marathon! We are supposed to be running with patience, endurance. Pace yourself. Set a sustainable speed so that you can finish the race.
Do the things necessary now to ensure that you will still be running 20 years from now. Get a financial plan. Live within your means. Save! Don’t live on romance, but discover love! Spend time with each other on your worst day not just your best day. See her without makeup. Meet his family. Secure your devotional life. Commit to disciplined attendance. Diligently guard your mind and heart. These are things that will determine if you are still running in the next decade. Continued and long term running doesn’t happen by accident. You have to do the things that make that possible.
In the spiritual arena it never ceases to amaze me to watch those that start the race at a mad dash only to crash and burn 6 months or 6 years later and they can’t seem to figure out why. Then you begin to talk to those sprinters you find out they never did the things necessary to stay the course. They didn’t read their Bible, they never put themselves on a growth plan, they had no accountability, they were sporadic in their attendance, they never grew and “suddenly” they fall away. No they were on the way down from day one!
Pace is paramount to your victory!
2. Run your race.
Notice the way the writer says it. Run the race that is set before you. Run the race that is marked out for you!
The Greek words used for “set before” carry with them the idea of “to be appointed, destined.” In other words, run your race. This is an assigned race. Your life . . . the things you are facing now are part of your destiny.
I mention this because some of you didn’t get the race or the course that you expected or would have chosen! Some of the scenery and experiences that have marked your race is not what you would have selected!
But I just came to tell you that you can’t use the excuse of not liking the race to keep you from running the race!
Some of us spend more time complaining about our race than we do running our race. We have forgotten that He knows our beginning from our end . . . this is the assigned race. You may not like it, but it is essential that you keep running your race!
Some of you are squaring off against diseases you would have never chosen to face. Run any way.
Some of you are watching your children do things you would have never thought they would do. Run any way.
Some of you thought you would be happily married by now and instead you find yourself alone and by yourself. Run any way.
Some of you would have never chosen the financial predicament you are caught up in, but run any way.
Just because it isn’t your preferred race or the path that you would have chosen doesn’t excuse you from running your assigned race! Some of you watch others run and you think, “If I could just run their race. Their race is easier. Their race is prettier. Their race is more fun! Their spouse is better. Their job is better. Their life is better!” But their race isn’t your race and you can’t win their race. You can only be victorious in your race!
It was released in 1981 and is perhaps the greatest running film of all times. All I have to do is this . . . SOUNDTRACK . . . and most of you immediately know the movie. But do you remember the story? A Scottish Christian runner by the Eric Liddell is set to run in the 1924 Olympics. The race he has trained for and is supposed to win is the 100 meter dash. A quick straight away dash to glory. The only problem is that the race he preferred and would have chosen to run was scheduled on Sunday and due to his convictions he refused to run that race. Instead, to have any chance at a medal, he must compete in the 400 meter race. It isn’t his specialty. It isn’t his preferred race, but he runs the assigned race. The American coaches dismiss Liddell saying, “He has no chance of winning this longer race.” But Liddell runs the race that is set before him and defeats the favored American runner, wins an Olympic gold, and runs into sport’s history.
But perhaps the greatest example of running a set race is Jesus! We read this statement about Jesus as He is approaching crucifixion “He set his face like flint.” We read of His agonizing night of prayer in the garden where He is so distraught that His sweat turns to blood. Yet, we fail to recognize that Jesus was anything but excited or looking forward to His set race! The cross was undesirable experience even for a God man. He begs His Father for any way out of this horrific conclusion, but once He determines that this is His set race He determinedly states, “Nevertheless not my will but Yours be done.” I will run and I win and I will declare “It is finished!” He teaches us that even though the set race can be difficult we have to run the assigned, destined race in order to win.
I know your path isn’t easy, but run any way! Run to victory! Don’t quit. Don’t lust so hard for someone else’s path that you fail to run your own! Don’t settle for the less!
3. Run for what matters!
Run for what matters. Sounds like an unnecessary statement. But how many of us are spending effort, energy, time, money to chase things that don’t really matter and when the race comes to an end we won’t even count those life eaters as trophies?
To win you must to avoid the Esau Syndrome. How many of us continue to falter and throw the race or lose the race due to impulses? We have too many short term appetites that we have failed to deal with and overpower that cause us to lose!
You must understand that an impulse can destroy your marriage! An impulse can cripple your witness. An impulse can bankrupt your financial future. An impulse can abort your kid’s future!
We are not to be driven or controlled by our impulses. We don’t live by feelings. Feelings will cause you to follow impulses that feel good at the moment but have hell wrapped up in the harvest. Run for what matters. We run for the eternal things not the temporary satisfaction and goose bumps. This means that we must stay the course even when we don’t feel like it. This means that we run when we don’t feel like it.
“In a race all the runners take part in it, but only one of them wins the prize. Run, then, in such a way as to win the prize. Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline; he does so in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last forever.” 1
Corinthians 9:24-25 (TEB)
What are you running for that matters? What is consuming your life that really matters in the end? What momentary impulse (another way of saying this is what selfish reason) are you allowing to destroy what really matters in life?
We laugh at Esau – bean boy! Threw hundreds of thousands of dollars, wealth, position and favor for beans! And yet we throw away a marriage for a quick peek at the picture, for a flirt that we had no intentions of closing the deal on, or for a few minutes of so called “freedom.” We throw our financial future away for a bowlful of nice clothes, nice car, or acceptance by people we don’t even know or like. We throw our kids away for a promotion. Beans . . . beans . . . that is all those things are. Access what matters again. Run for the right things!
