Pastor Craig

Running a good race.

By Pastor Craig Sicilia

Hebrew 1:1,2

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

Take note: of but in these last days he (God) has spoken to us

Hebrews 12:1,2

Therefore, 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here in this great text the Christian life is compared to a race.

Every Christian is engaged in this race.

Every Christian has a race to run.

This text declares that we are running the race,

The Christian life

The race that God has set before us.

The older we get, the more we realize how difficult life can be.

Especially will those who are serving the Lord the best that they can.

You may be a pastor, a pastors wife, a missionary or a Sunday school teacher

Maybe you do handy work helping out others in your Christian family

You could be a deacon or youth leader

But you are serving the Lord to the very best of your ability.

We all recognize the struggles that go on in our lives.

They challenge not only our faith but also our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we face these things, we must realize that we are running a race.

The key word in this chapter is “endure”.

This word endure means perseverance

We see it again in verse 2

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross

And look at verse 3

Consider him who endured such opposition

Look at verse 7

Endure hardship as discipline

And verse 20

For they could not endure that which was commanded

“Endure” is an interesting word because it means

to bear up courageously under suffering

it means to stand up under trials

it means to keep on going when it gets tough

just keep on keeping on <you know what I mean>

As a Christian and servant of God, you will face difficulties in your life and in you Christian run.

Paul was a missionary, a pastor and a theologian.

He was a great preacher and a tentmaker.

But he also loved sports.

From his pen there are frequent references to sports.

In Ephesians 6:12 he talks about wresting.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

In ll Timothy 4:7 He talks about boxing

I have fought a good fight I have finished my course, I have kept the faith

In l Corinthians 9:24 he talks about racing

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize

Hebrews 12 is a context with a sports motif.

There are several things I want you to notice.

First I want you to notice the Arena

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses

The arena is in Heaven, but the race is being run here.

The picture I get as I read this text is that it is like a huge coliseum.

The stands are filled. People are looking on and cheering us.

They’re looking down on us because the grandstand is in Heaven and we are running our race here.

The arena is crowded, in fact he says there is a cloud of witnesses

That word “witnesses” is another interesting word.

It comes from Latin word martus. We get our word martyr from it.

It’s talking about one who has seen, heard or performed something usually while suffering at the same time.

So there are countless martyrs who are looking down on us

Yes, martyrs at the portals of heaven are watching you and me as we run our race.

Isn’t it wonderful that in scripture and in the history of the Christian faith we have great men and women to whom we can look up to.

They have run their race and they ran it well.

Their strong and their weak points are easily seen.

We can see how they ran the race.

What a blessed encouragement it can be to you and me as we read about their lives and their ministries.

We can see how God used them in spite of their failures

Their circumstances and their opposition.

We know these witnesses are the Old Testament saints, since he is writhing to Hebrews here.

That is all the Scriptures they had at that point, so he has to be referring to the old Testament.

Here recently Spokane just had a major wrestling all star event with all the biggest names. Many of you might have even watched it.

I’m sure God has an all star roster of His own. Its Hebrews 11

Think about them-Enoch, Noah, Jacob, Gideon, Samson, Daniel, Abraham and Sarah, Joshua, Joseph, Moses.

That’s a pretty impressive lineup of all stars.

But every one of them had failure in his life somewhere along the way.

They all know the agony of defeat, yet they kept going until they finished their race.

The race we are in is not a short-distance race; it’s a long haul, a marathon.

This text is an encouragement to us to run the race

Its like the story of the flock of wild ducks that were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a beautiful V in the sky, and were admired by everyone who saw them from below.

One day, Wally, one of the wild ducks in the formation, spotted something on the ground that caught his eye. It was a barnyard with a flock of tame ducks who lived on the farm. They were waddling around on the ground, quacking merrily and eating corn that was thrown on the ground for them every day. Wally liked what he saw. "It sure would be nice to have some of that corn," he thought to himself. "And all this flying is very tiring. I'd like to just waddle around for a while."

So after thinking it over a while, Wally left the formation of wild ducks, made a sharp dive to the left, and headed for the barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks, and began to waddle around and quack merrily. He also started eating corn. The formation of wild ducks continued their journey south, but Wally didn't care. "I'll rejoin them when they come back north in a few months," he said to himself.

Several months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and spotted the flock of wild ducks in formation, heading north. They looked beautiful up there. And Wally was tired of the barnyard. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled, nothing but duck doo. "It's time to leave," said Wally.

So Wally flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne. But he had gained some weight from all his corn-eating, and he hadn't exercised his wings much either. He finally got off the ground, but he was flying too low and slammed into the side of the barn. He fell to the ground with a thud and said to himself, "Oh, well, I'll just wait until they fly south in a few months. Then I'll rejoin them and become a wild duck again."

But when the flock flew overhead once more, Wally again tried to lift himself out of the barnyard. He simply didn't have the strength. Every winter and every spring, he saw his wild duck friends flying overhead, and they would call out to him. But his attempts to leave were all in vain.

Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had, after all, become a barnyard duck.

Sometimes we get tired of being wild ducks-followers of Jesus Christ. It's not always easy to be obedient to God and to discipline ourselves to hang in there for the long haul. When we are feeling that way, that's when Satan tempts us to "fall out of formation" and to join the barnyard ducks - the world.

But look what happened to Wally. He thought he would just "check it out" for awhile and then leave when he wanted to. But he couldn't do it. Sin is like that. Sin is a trap, and it has a way of changing us into people we don't even want to become. Eventually we lose touch with who we really are--the sons and daughters of the Most High. We become barnyard ducks.

Running is not without cost.

There is a great price for every Christian to pay if he’s going to run this race

But Philippians 2:7,8 says it best

But what ever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord

You will lose some things along the way if you run the race.

It will not be easy; you are going to encounter difficulty as you run.

It will test your endurance, but you’re well advised to keep going in the race no matter what happens.

I’m convinced that a major difference between a successful Christian and a Christian who is a failure is that the successful Christian will ask God to forgive him

Pick up the pieces and go on serving the Lord.

He doesn’t falter in failure; he doesn’t despair in defeat; he doesn’t resign when the going is rough

This applies to the ministry as well

There is not one man in this room today who has not faced some failures in his Christian run in the last 6 months

How well you do as a Christian depends on what you do with your failures.

You can wallow in your defeat.

You can give place to discouragement

You can whine in the midst of the mess

Or you can pick up the piece, go forward and serve the Lord to the very best of your ability

Can you imagine being in heaven, you are sitting by your mansion. Daniel comes by. You are all excited, Daniel come up here over here Sit in one of my cracker barrel rockers, you bring him upon the porch. He is sitting there. You say “tell me about your race” Daniel says, “oh, it was something” “what about the den of lions Daniel? Were you nervous well were you scared ‘well let me tell you. I was a real favorite of Darius, but I was not a favorite of the politically in crowd. They all got together and conspired and fooled darius.

I’ll be honest with you, when they led me to the den of lions, my heart was pounding in and out of my chest.

You say how do you know that preacher/ Because Daniel was a human being. I can just imagine that Daniel would have felt the very same way we would have felt.

Cant you hear him praying Lord, if you don’t deliver me, I’m liable to go to pieces over this whole thing.

My heart was just pounding inside me, and I didn’t know what God was going to do. But I made up my mind, if the lions den was the end of my race, I was going to finish it.

You see, folks, sometimes we come to the end of our rope, but we’re not at the end of the line

There's a difference

Then Daniel looks at you and says

Tell me about your race How did you do in your race

Oh, Daniel you really don’t want to know

Yes, I do Tell me about it. You read about my race in the Book of Daniel, and I just told you a little more about it.

What was your race like

I quit. I quit, Daniel. You have no idea the pressure that I faced in that church.

Do you understand what I’m talking about?

That miss clap trap running her mouth

And all those un grateful Christians people you have no idea

Do we see how silly we look and at one time or another we all have done it

That misses clap trap may be the lion on you

You sit back and say Oh, good night

I can’t fight her. I’m going to throw up my hands and just quit.

Somehow the lion of gossip won’t look like much when its compared to Daniels’s lions.

I believe the same God who shut the mouths of Daniel’s lions can shut the mouths of your lions

You need to concentrate on the race

You need to stay at it, and trust in Christ let him show you the way

You may be going through some fiery trial right now.

All of us who run the race do face the fire from time to time.

Maybe there might be only short periods where your not having trials

But if your serving God, you’re either headed into one or coming out of one

I’ll guarantee you

Once upon a time, Satan was having a garage sale. There, standing in little groups were all of his bright, shiny trinkets. Here were tools that make it easy to tear others down for use as stepping stones. And over there were some lenses for magnifying ones own importance, which, if you looked through them the other way, you could also use to belittle others, or even one's self. Against the wall was the usual assortment of gardening implements guaranteed to help your pride grow by leaps and bounds: the rake of scorn, the shovel of jealousy for digging a pit for your neighbor, the tools of gossip and backbiting, of selfishness and apathy. All of these were pleasing to the eye and came complete with fabulous promises and guarantees of prosperity. Prices, of course, were steep; but not to worry! Free credit was extended to one and all. "Take it home, use it, and you won't have to pay until later!" old Satan cried, as he hawked his wares.

The visitor, as he browsed, noticed two well worn, non-descript tools standing in one corner. Not being nearly as tempting as the other items, he found it curious that these two tools had price tags higher than any other. When he asked why, Satan just laughed and said, "Well, that's because I use them so much. If they weren't so plain looking, people might see them for what they were." Satan pointed to the two tools, saying, "You see, that one's Doubt and that one's Discouragement -- and those will work when nothing else will."

A little wile after I got saved, I was coasting in my Christian life.

I was not running the race in a steady, dedicated manner.

I have had to rededicate my life to the lord several times

We are constantly being flooded with ways and reasons not to worship the Lord

But just as God delivered Noah from the Flood, God can deliver you from your floods as well.

Just reach in side of your heart and give God the chance, ask him, pray to him

That’s what a prayer is us talking to God you know like hey God Craig here just was thinking of you

Stand your ground run the race. Just run Keep on running

Don’t worry about being politically correct

You ought to worry more about being biblically correct

As servants of God, we must run the race

It dose not make any difference what's going on in your town.

The heartaches do not matter the trials don’t even make a difference

No matter the burdens keep on running the race. That’s the arena.

Those old testament saints in the heavenly grandstand are looking down on us.

Who else is there watching us, maybe Jim and Bev and lorral

Your mom dad grandmother grandfather as far back as you can think

Their cheering us on they’re saying just keep on

There all watching are you running a good race

You might ask yourself why are they cheering us on

There's a reason for their cheering us on. They’re interested in the race

How do you know that you ask

Look back at Hebrews 11:39 and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise

You know what they haven’t received their rewards yet they’ll get them when the last Christian goes across the finish line

So there is the arena- all the witnesses. By the way, the judge at the line is the Lord Jesus He is there

The Christians there are encouraging us

They’re saying keep on going

Keep on just a little longer

Just a little farther down the road

Just keep on going

There watching us from the portals of heaven make sure you are running a race that you can be proud of

There are 2 problems mentioned in this verse and the first is things that hinder us.

Hinder That’s an interesting word, because it refers to holding one back, to get in the way, obstruct, encumber and delay

How will these effect you in a race, you won’t be able to run the race

Things that hinder you are not necessarily sins in themselves; they are just encumbrances to us and may hinder the race.

If we can not run as we should, then the things that hinder us should be discarded

They slow us down we have a race. It is important. We need to run it well.

We cannot do what God has called us to do if we are laden with things that hinder us

You know any serious athlete is going to trim himself down. I look at Lance Armstrong who just finished up the tour de France wining it 4 or 5 times in arrow

There's not an ounce of fat on his body to hinder him

Where did he win the race. He won it in the mountains where the going was the toughest.

You can talk about the mountaintop if you want to, but it’s a hard climb getting there

If your going to run the race you must rid yourself of everything that’s in excess

It may be your recreation not that recreation is wrong

But if every minute of your time is taken up with hunting, fishing, golfing what have you

If that’s your primary interest in life

That’s something that hinders you

If its interfering with your bible study, your prayer life, your worship and serving the Lord effectively,

Then that’s something that hind3ers you-not a sin, but a hindrance and it needs to be discarded.

Some men will spend more time on the golf course or a bar or some other place every week than they ever will in the word of God

The hindrances that are holding us back in the race must be identified, surrendered and discarded.

These Hebrew Christians had things that hindered them

They were faltering in their faith.

What were their hindrances

I don’t know, but they could have been some of the old associations from their former lives.

Sometimes our former associations hold us back

It might have been some of their Jewish or legal customs which they were trying to hold onto while still trying to serve the Lord.

Sometimes you and I get so locked in tradition that if the Holy Spirit of God wanted to do something he couldn’t because we have our own traditions.

I'm just talking about letting the Lord have his way in our service- the freedom of the Holy Spirit

The weights that hinder us can be not only our pleasures but also our homes, our cars and our investments.

Most people know more about their stock portfolios than the word of God

Something is wrong there.

Set aside the distractions. Get in the race! Run it! Run it steadily! Run it well

First there is the problem with the things that hinder us

When your running a race you take off as much as you can while still being decent

You wear light shoes

You wear a jersey.

And you run as quickly and as swiftly as you can run the race

Think about it. If you’re so loaded down with the things of this world

You're not going to be able to run your race effectively

I’ve never seen a track person funning a race in a football uniform.

You know why Because you can’t run the race that way

Sometimes we Christians suit up for football when it’s race time

We are out of uniform, and consequently the race doesn’t go well

There is another problem with which we must deal and that is sin

The text addresses the things that hinder us and then “the sin”

The sin that so easily entangles us

Every person in here struggles with sin in some area

The word entangle is actually translated from the translated word beset

Beset is an interesting word because it means to surround to encircle cleverly, to ambush

Do you see the point if we allow a sin free rein in our lives

It will become a besetting sin, and we’re going to trip on it

We can’t play with sin without it burning our fingers

Ill guarantee you

Our besetting sins may be different

My besetting sin may not be yours

Yours may not be mine

But we have a responsibility to get victory over that sin because

Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world

Though we may have a besetting sin, a sin which so easily besets us

We have no excuse for giving in to that sin

The desire the will and the lust of the flesh must not control our live

We’ve seen the arena, we’ve seen the awareness lets look at applying this

This great texts says clearly that we should run…the race

Don’t be just a spectator

There's no room for spectators in this arena

The spectators are in heaven but down here on earth we are all participants

It says run the race

Every believer is entered into the race

Not just preachers not just full-time Christian workers, but every one of us has a race that he is running

The idea of this scripture is to run with perseverance, self-denial, discipline, endurance giving every ounce of energy to the completion of the race

Run the race with full energy. Run excitedly. Fun to win

You may be at the end of your rope, but you hang on, stay at it until you get to the finish line.

You’re not there yet. You keep right on running the race.

No matter what the difficulties, no matter the heartaches

No matter the trials no matter the burdens suit up get on the track, run the course and finish the race.

The object of the race is to please our Heavenly Father

That was Jesus' objective too to please the Father

His whole purpose, his whole reason for being, as the very incarnate son of God, was to please the Father in everything He did.

That’s all I have to do, and having done so, I can finish my race with honor

Hebrews 12 is saying

There's the object

Your keep your eyes on the object the Lord Jesus Christ

You stare intently at the Lord Jesus Christ

You just keep running your race

Don’t look to your right; don’t look to you left

Don’t look behind you. You just keep running.

The course is before you; I’ve given it to you

You keep looking at me

If you look at others, you’re going to be come discouraged.

If you look at yourself, you’re going to become depressed.

If you look at Jesus, He’ll delight you… Run! Run the race! Run till the finish!

Let us pray

My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. and I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

pastor Craig Sicilia productions