Some of the:
• Fastest swimmers
• Fastest runners
• Best boxers
• Best Basketball players
• Best Volleyball players
• Best weight lifters
… all will gather at one place and compete.
We all enjoy watching these amazing athletes. We have nothing but admiration and respect for them. However, we do not have any admiration and respect for the quitters.
Illus: Remember when Shannon Faulkner made headlines as she crusaded to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, an all-male military academy? After a prolonged court battle, you’ll remember, she finally won the right to enroll. But she couldn’t endure the exercise program required of all cadets. So a few days later she dropped out and we’ve heard nothing of her since.
Illus: In contrast, there is the professional tennis player, Monica Seles. You may remember that a few years ago a crazy man jumped out of the stands and plunged a knife into her back. It was a terrifying experience, but she did not allow that to stop her.
Once her wound healed, she began a rigorous exercise program, regained her strength, and a short time later she won the British Open and placed 2nd in the U.S. Open.
We all like people that KNOW HOW TO ENDURE AND SUCCEED!
Illus: Do you remember the man that came to Jesus and said, "I’ll follow you wherever you go"? Jesus said, "Before you make that kind of decision, you need to realize that foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
The Lord was telling him that there would be difficulties.
• There will be times when you will not know where you’ll sleep
• There will be times when you will not know where your next meal is coming from
• But after you realize that, and then put your hands to the plow, He said, "Don’t look back."
Illus: Can you imagine if you were going to buy a new car and the salesman started pointing out all the bad feature of that car? If such a thing happened, you would be asking yourself, “DOES THIS SALESMAN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SELLING A CAR?”
A good salesman would not do that. He would tell you all the good things about the car, and omit the bad and let you find these things out for yourself.
The Lord Jesus does not operate like this! He wants you to know that even though the Christian life is the greatest life a person can have on this earth, it also comes with some dents and scratches!
This is why Hebrews 12 tells us that living the Christian life is going to require some things of us that some are not willing to give.
In this passage, the Christian life is not compared to a wind sprint, but to a marathon.
• In a wind sprint, you run as fast as you can for a short distance, and speed is the critical factor
• In a marathon, endurance is the critical factor. Will you make it all the way to the end?
Paul said, "I’ve kept the faith. I’ve finished the course. Therefore there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. And not for me only..."
The Scripture brings out three things to help us run the race of life faithfully. For example, we are-
I. INSPIRED BY THOSE THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE US
The first thing that inspires us is to remember that a great cloud of witnesses surrounds us.
• Notice that chapter 12 begins with the word "Therefore."
• The word “therefore” connects it with the previous chapter.
And what do we read in chapter 11? The writer of Hebrews gives a long list of people that have run the race faithfully.
For example:
• Hebrews 11: 7, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
• Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
• Hebrews 11: 22, “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.”
The list goes on. There’s Moses, Samson, Samuel, David and many more victorious Saints of God.
WHY DOES GOD GIVE US THIS LIST OF SPIRITUAL HEROES?
(1) God does it for a very specific reason. God wants us to see how He helped them as they were running the race. If He helped them, HE CAN ALSO HELP YOU AS YOU RUN THE RACE!
(2) He also mentions them to inform us that they are in Heaven’s grandstand watching for you to complete the race you are in as a Christian.
Not only do we have those that are listed in Hebrews 11, but also we have loved ones (parents, spouses, aunts, uncles, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors) that are in that heavenly grandstand pulling for us.
There is a great cloud of witnesses that gather to cheer us on. They whisper in our ear when we become discouraged, and they say to us:
• Don’t give up
• Don’t lose heart
• Don’t quit, whatever you do
So when I think about quitting, I feel their hands on my shoulder. I hear them saying, "If we could do it, then you can do it too." This great cloud of witnesses motivates us to run this marathon.
We are INSPIRED BY THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US and -
II. INSPIRED BY THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US
What makes sports so exciting? Sports are exciting because they challenge us to be the best we can become. That is, we are willing to endure all kinds of things because we are motivated by something.
Illus: Two donkeys met in a market:
• One donkey said the other, “Why have you become so weak? You have lost a lot of weight. Doesn’t your owner treat you well?”
• The other donkey replied, “My owner makes me work throughout the day and does not give me any food. He is very cruel.”
• The first donkey said, “Why don t you leave his house and run away?”
• The other donkey said, “No, I shall not leave his house even if he tortures me, because my owner’s daughter is very beautiful. Whenever she does any mischief, my owner always abuses her saying that, ‘One day I will get you married to this donkey,’ and I am waiting for that day to come.”
Sometimes people can’t get motivated because it takes a lot to get some people motivated.
Illus: That reminds me of this beautiful businesswoman that just made a million dollars for an Arabian Oil Sheik. When she was leaving, the Oil Sheik offered her diamonds and rubies and a Silver-plated Rolls Royce, if she would marry him.
• The Sheik insisted on giving her something, so she said that she just started to play golf and maybe a set of golf clubs would be nice.
• A few weeks later she received a telegram from the sheik.
• “So far I have bought you 3 golf clubs. I hope you aren’t disappointed that only 2 of them have swimming pools.”
To win THE GOLD, we have to be inspired to be the best we can become. Years before the Olympics take place, athletes begin their rigorous training, hoping one day to GET THE GOLD!
It does not matter if it is running, swimming, football, baseball, basketball, or boxing; sports challenge us to become the best we can become.
A sportsman understands this challenge. A non-sportsman does not understand the challenge that makes these men and women do these things.
Illus: A guy took his girlfriend to her first football game. Afterward he asked her how she liked the game.
• She said, “I liked it, but I couldn't understand why they were killing each other for 25 cents!”
• Boy friend said, “What do you mean?”
• Well, everyone kept yelling, “Get the quarter back!”
Sometimes the biggest challenge in sports is the challenge for a coach that has to take these athletes that are not always the smartest and turn them into good athletes.
Illus: That reminds me of the football coach that stormed into the President's office at the University of South Carolina and demanded a raise right then and there.
• "Please," protested the college President, “You already make more than the entire History department.”
• "Yeah, maybe so, but you don't know what I have to put up with," he said to the President. Let me show you what I mean. He went out into the hall and grabbed a football player that was jogging down the hallway and said to him. "Run over to my office and see if I'm there,"
• Without saying a word, the football player ran over to his office. Twenty minutes later the football player returned, sweaty and out of breath. He reported "You're not there, sir!"
• The President said, "Oh, I see what you mean," scratching his head. "I would not have run over to your office, I would have phoned."
These athletes are not always the smartest, but they like a challenge.
LISTEN, THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THIS WORLD IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. IF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE WAS EASY, THERE WOULD MORE PEOPLE LIVING IT!
The writer of Hebrews tells us that to run this race we must be willing to get rid of any weight or sin that would hinder us.
Illus: Marathon runners tell us that there are two critical times in the race.
• The first one is at the beginning. When you begin to run, you feel so good that the temptation is to run too fast too soon. You expend all your energy and don’t have enough left for the end of the race.
• The second critical time in a marathon is at the halfway point. You suddenly realize that you still have as far to go as you’ve already run and you’re already very tired. Runners call it, "hitting the wall."
The Bible says that we are to, "…run with patience the race that is set before us…." Don’t grow weary and don’t lose heart.
We are INSPIRED BY THOSE THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE US, INSPIRED BY THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US and -
III. INSPIRED BY THE JUDGE BEFORE US
The final word is this; we must focus our attention on Jesus.
Notice Hebrews 12:2, we read, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The Judge before us knows the difficulty of running this marathon.
Look at Hebrews 12:3, we read, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
He stayed the course. He ran the race. He paid the price.
So the writer says that when we get weary and tired, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus.
We all have seen Christians give up their positions in church during hard times and say, “I quit!” What happened to them? They took their eyes off the Lord and were looking at circumstances.
As we FIX OUR EYES on Him, we recognize that He is the Judge and we all will stand before Him one day and we will give account of how we ran this race. When that day comes, HE WILL JUDGE EVERY ONE OF US FAIRLY!
In every Olympics there is a lot of cheating. Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes it goes undetected.
Illus: In the Olympics held at Bejing, we discovered some cheating took place. For example:
• From the start, it was discovered they cheated by putting on a fireworks show that was not really a fireworks show.
• Then they cheated on the singing of their national anthem. They had a 7 year old Chinese girl who was supposed to sing at the opening ceremonies that was not attractive enough, so they decided to have a more attractive girl lip sync.
• China is believed to be cheating by using underage athletes for their gymnastics team. Some evidence showed some were only fourteen years of age.
Cheating is a very common thing in the Olympics. Other nations are not much better than China. For example, back before they could test for steroids, women on one of East Germany’s teams, which was under control of the Soviet Union at the time, pumped themselves with drugs and won Olympic medals.
Oh, and remember the U.S.-USSR basketball gold-medal game in 1972? Those last three seconds were replayed three or four times until the Soviets won. Members of the U.S. team boycotted the medal ceremony and refused to accept their silver medals in protest.
Often in the world of sports there is a lot of cheating that is taking place and many times they get away with it because of judges that are not fair.
As we run the Christian race, we are to focus in on the Judge of all judges, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO WILL JUDGE ALL MANKIND FAIRLY.
As we run the race, we are to keep our eyes focused on the Lord Jesus, the final judge.
Conclusion:
We are -
I. INSPIRED BY THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US
II. INSPIRED BY THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US
III. INSPIRED BY THE JUDGE BEFORE US
