As a counseling pastor, one of the things that weighs on my heart is to try to identify passages of scripture that I think are going to be crucial for you to grow in your Christian life. There are certain passages that are mountaintops. There are certain passages that are going to speak to your heart and speak to how you accomplish living your Christian life, and I believe this is one of them. Hebrews 12, it's an amazing passage. I'm really looking forward to getting into it with you this morning. So if you would, please take your Bibles and open to Hebrews 12. If you're not familiar with where that is, it's kind of towards the end of the New Testament near Titus where we've been. And if you have one of those blue Bibles from one of the ushers, it's gonna be on page 1,111. And like I said, this text this morning that we're gonna be diving into is one of the most encouraging and empowering texts for living the Christian life that you'll find in your whole Bible. And leave it to the guy who doesn't get to preach very often to just pull out the big guns. but that's what I've done this morning. This is one of the big guns, and I hope it's encouraging for you. Originally, this letter was written to a community of Jews who had given their lives to Jesus, but who were struggling with their faith, who were trying to figure out why, trying to remember why they had given their lives to Christ. Why had they abandoned the religion of their fathers? Was this really the right choice to make? Should they instead go back to the law of Moses? Should they abandon Jesus? Should they somehow incorporate some of the old laws back in? What was the best way to live? and the author of Hebrews here made it a point to write to this community to answer some of those questions and more. But really what he wanted to make clear in the minds of the saints and to those in their community who had yet to give their lives to Christ as well as to us who are the continued recipients of this letter is this, that Jesus is better than everything. And that's a pretty bold statement, but what the author of Hebrews does is really to boil down that Jesus is superior in every way to everything that this original audience could have wanted from their life or in their religion. And the author of Hebrews, we don't know his name, wasn't preserved for us, but we do know that he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he spent his efforts building this case. And since he was writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we know that this is also valuable for us in our lives. But the author wants to reassure his readers that Jesus has worth above all things. And so what he does is he spends his time dismantling all of the arguments that they would have run into. So, He goes on throughout the letter to explain to them that Jesus is superior to angels, and to the worship of angels. That Jesus is superior to Moses and the law of Moses. That Jesus is superior to the Levitical priesthood in his newfound priesthood. That Jesus is superior to the old covenant and the old ways, and that his new covenant promises were superior. Jesus is superior over the Old Testament sacrificial system, which Hebrews tells us the blood of bulls and goats has no effect of removing sin. But Jesus as the once for all perfect sacrifice for sin, is better, is superior in being able to remove sin and cleanse the hearts of believers. And Jesus is also both the inaugurator and the finisher of the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Jesus is better than everything. And friends, Jesus continues to be better than everything. Jesus will always be better than everything. And that's really what brings us to our text here this morning. And that's the reason that it's so important to know this passage and to put this passage into practice. You see, we have the same problem that the original audience had. We live in a world that's constantly going to tell us that Jesus isn't worth it. That there are other pursuits that are more valuable, more worthwhile, that your race towards Jesus in salvation is not worth running. Just give up, just enjoy life, man. You only get to go around once. You might as well have fun. That's what they'll tell you. In fact, how many of you have had friends that have begun their pursuit of Christ, or at least have stated they've begun their pursuit of Christ, but then have only fallen away? They've only given up on him. Why is that? Why do you think that is? What caused them to stop running? Were they ever truly running to begin with, or were they just pretending? this world and its rulers and its powers, this world will do everything that it can to distract you and to keep you from living your life for Jesus. All of the pleasures, pursuits, wickedness, immorality, money, fame, power, and anything else that your heart could desire, other than Jesus, is gonna be thrown in your way. It's gonna be put in your way to get you to stop running. But the author of Hebrews here reminds us of the how and the why of living the Christian life. And not only that, he also shows us the means by which we have been given to run this race and find success, find satisfaction, and to run in completion of it. And we'll identify those this morning as we look at Hebrews 12. So if you're able, I would ask that you would stand as we read God's word. We're gonna be opening the word this morning again, Hebrews 12, verses one to three. Let me read that for us this morning. This says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. Amen. You may be seated. So based on what we know to be true about the book of Hebrews, what we've already learned, I want us to look at this passage with the eyes that Jesus has already been put to the test and to be found more excellent than all other objects of worship or modes of worship. We're at the point of the book where all of those arguments have already been built. And so now the author is giving these commands to tell the original audience here how to live. So from this text, we're gonna see that Jesus is better than everything. and we're given two practical commands that will help us to look to Jesus in order to run our race toward him and do so in a way that honors him with our lives, okay? Two practical commands, you'll see that in your outline, that will help us to look to Jesus in order to run out our race toward him and in a way that honors him with our lives. Okay, so this is my desire for you. This is the desire of all of the pastors here at Redeemer, is that you would live your life in a way that honors and pleases Jesus Christ. And we'll see from this passage how to do that. We want you to know Jesus so well. We want you to ponder Jesus. We want you to love Jesus so much so that you would never even consider, that you would never even think of giving up running towards him because there is nothing else in this world worth running for. and that you would run in a way that honors him with your life. That's our calling as Christians. And this passage this morning is going to show us how to do that. So in these two commands, the Holy Spirit provides for us our motivations when our life is difficult and full of trials and distractions. He provides for us the means of how to run our race boldly without distraction. And God provides for us an object of worship and our only object of worship, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, by whom we can be kept from those distractions, those disappointments, and those sins that life is gonna throw in our path and throw in our way as we run towards him, okay? So as we dive into this text, the first of those two practical commands that we're gonna find is in verses one to two, and that is this, number one in your outline, run your race with resolve. Okay, and that action can be found, again, in verses one to two. Now, that main action, that let us run, comes towards the end of verse one, but that's what's called a present active command, okay? It says, run the race that is set before us. So what does that mean? Present active command. Now, if you're not a language Bible nerd like I am, and you're sitting in the room wondering, why would I say something like that? Why is he gonna throw out present active command on me? It's important to know that, because it doesn't just say run once. It says run always. Always and continually run. That's how you could read this. Always and continually run your race. But before that, before that action, comes two kind of qualifying actions that help us to understand. Yes, we're to run our race, but God is not a God of mindless action. He doesn't just get out there and say run. He's not a God of empty religious practice. No, our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a God who engages people Completely. Wholly. Okay? He wants to engage our minds, our bodies, our spirits. He desires those, as Jesus said in John 4, 23, who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is engaged fully and completely in worship both inside and out. Right? Living a life that reflects what our heart says. Now this whole analogy of course of running a race speaks to the practical living of the Christian life. Your life cannot be lived in true worship to God unless all of your heart and mind is engaged in worship. Just like you can't run a race unless you've trained and put your whole effort in if you expect to win. So God has engaged our minds, our emotions, and our spirits in this act of running and we'll see that as we study this text. But again, coming before this command, these kind of qualifying actions are meant to help us to see that we need to engage our whole selves in our worship. So as motivation, as proof that the salvation for which you are running is real and is worth it, God sovereignly ordained to have Hebrews 11 come right before Hebrews 12. Hebrews 11 is a long list of faithful witnesses to His grace and mercy in their lives. And anytime we see the passage, a passage of scripture start with the word therefore, all the Bible nerds in the room say, what is the therefore? Therefore. Thank you. So we always have to ask that question. We go back to the previous section. Now we can also see the argument from the whole book, but immediately in the previous section, the text makes it clear to us that it says, therefore, since, or because we are presently and always, again, constantly surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Chapter 11 here is kind of known colloquially as the Hall of Faith chapter of the Bible. That's the cloud of witnesses we're talking about in the immediate context. Those are those who bear witness to the truth and to the power of the Word of God and His saving work in their lives. See, this running that we're asked to do, this isn't running for fun. It's not describing running for sport or for enjoyment, and frankly, people who pursue running for sport or enjoyment might need to come see me in my office. No offense, no. People, if you run for fun, that's fine. You can come see me. But this running, this running is not described as running for fun, running for pleasure, running for enjoyment. This is compared to running a marathon. And if I were to ask you to get up tomorrow and say, hey, get up tomorrow with me at 5 a.m., we're gonna go run a marathon. Most of you would just laugh in my face and say, no, I can't do that. I haven't trained. We all know that a marathon requires training, planning, preparation, proper nutrition, getting ready, running after months and months of kind of working yourself up. And even many who do that and train and put in the effort, get in a marathon, they still can't finish the race. It's hard. A marathon is something many people would describe as agony. In fact, I had a friend who ran in the Boston Marathon, and when he was finished, when he got back and he had completed the race, I asked him, hey, how was it? Did you have fun? You trained for months. How was it? He said, man, it was agony. That's the hardest thing I've ever done. And interestingly enough here, the word for race, run your race, is the word for agony. This is something we're to struggle over. And the original word was actually a description of the place where athletic contests used to be held. It was called the Agone. It was like a stadium. And the word came to mean, came to express that struggle that athletes would go through, all that work that they would go through in order to go into that place and emerge victorious. It was agony. That's how they described it. The one commentator puts the application this way. He says, And I think that's a great expression of what it means to agonize over something. We don't let anything get in the way. We fight, we push. and we exert ourselves to the utmost. And God, in his kindness, has not left us to do this alone. This great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us here isn't given as a picture of sort of a stoic hall of faith that we can walk through with statues and pictures. No, this is rather describing a cheering section that's lining your path as you're running your race. These guys are standing along the roadside cheering you on as you run. They're giving you that joy saying, just keep to it. They stand and cheer for you as you run towards Jesus. Read Hebrews 11, get to know these people. These people are ones that you can look to when your faith is weakened and you need someone to strengthen you. But we're not called here simply to run. We're not called just to rely on the faith of others. We're also told how we can accomplish this. We're given guidelines on a few things here and it'll be important for us to understand why these things are in here. And we'll get there. Verse one continues, after the first reason given that we're surrounded and circled and cheered on by this great cloud of witnesses, it says, because of this, let us also. Let us also. That means in the same manner that these other saints ran and in the same way that Jesus himself ran his race. The verse says, let us also lay aside every weight and sin. And there's an important reason that it differentiates between those. Oftentimes you might hear people say, well, what I'm doing is not sin. I can do what I want. I have Christian freedom. You can't tell me how to live my life. And you know, that may be true. Certain things might not be sinful. Certain things might not be morally bad, but what does Paul say in first Corinthians 10, 23, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. And what God is telling you here is that there are things in your life that are gonna weigh you down and distract you from running the race towards Jesus. Think of it this way. Funny picture. It's not illegal, it doesn't break the rules, for a marathon runner to put on ski boots and a parka and to run his race that way. He stands up and gets to the front of the line, he's got his big ol' honkin' boots on and a big jacket, and he's just gonna run. And we think, that's a ridiculous picture. He's never going to make it. He's, you know, he might get a mile or two in, he'd be sweating, he'd be exhausted, but he's never going to have any hope of finishing that marathon wearing ski boots and a parka. That would be foolish. And all of us, we would be watching him on TV saying, what a fool. We'd be standing on the sidelines going, take that thing off. You got 25 miles left to go. You're never going to make it. And friends, the same thing is true sometimes in our lives. Oftentimes we make choices to pursue things that are not helpful for us. They may not be morally wrong or sinful, but they're not helpful. And sometimes when we're called out for it by faithful brethren, we can get annoyed by that, but it's for our good. So questions for you. Do you spend mindless hours drifting on social media? Do we turn on Netflix and allow ourselves to be taken captive by the next episode begins button? We just sort of sit back and... You laugh because we've all done it. Do we pursue things like hobbies, financial schemes, business dealings, sports, our kids' happiness, building a dream home, traveling the world, retiring a millionaire, experiences, anything like that, anything that is a distraction over and above running your race for Jesus? Do any of those do that to you? Like I said, none of those things are necessarily morally bad, but if they're getting in the way of your ability to live your life for Jesus, then you're commanded here to lay them aside. Don't make the mistake of sacrificing your one and only life that God has given you to live for his glory in pursuit of something lesser in value than Jesus. Remember, Jesus is what? Better than everything, there's nothing else. So this, Christians, when brothers and sisters call you to faithfulness, heed that call. Don't be offended when they call you towards more and more righteousness. Well, this verse goes on to mention the sins also, the sins that cling so closely to us, the sins that distract us. Think about it like wet clothing. You're trying to run a race just in wet clothing sticking all over you. It's as if we're running along here being cheered by the saints, And yet, when we look to one side or the other as we race through the city, we see every enticing thing, every food, every lust, every pursuit, every pleasure is being advertised and thrown in our face along the street. These sins push their way into our lives. We don't have to even go look for them. They're pushed on you. They're thrust on you. They demand your attention. But guess what? That's attention that belongs to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They push in to try to steal it. Again, it'd be like a marathon runner, that same guy running down the street. Now he's taken off his parka and boots and he's actually running. But here, unbeknownst to him, two miles from the finish, he starts getting tired. And instead of fixating on that finish line, he starts getting hungry and he starts looking to the sides. He sees a restaurant. He quits running. He hops the barricade despite all of the faithful cheering him on. He gives in to the temptation. He thinks to himself, man, I haven't had a burger since I started training, what could it hurt? He pushes through the crowd, fights his way to the register, orders himself a Big Mac and sits down and stuffs his face. What a disappointing finish that would be. He's two miles, 24 miles into a race, two miles from the finish, and he loses focus of the race, of the finish line, to fill himself with food that is not going to satisfy his hunger or his body. How many people have you known that have done something similar? In their race towards Jesus, they've given up in pursuit of something foolish, of money, of sex, of fame, of personal satisfaction, of anything besides Jesus. God is begging you here. He's saying, don't make that same mistake. Look at the hall of faithful saints who've come before you. Put off these sins and distractions. Don't fall victim to their emptiness. They promise you joy and they offer only empty heartache. Just like that runner who went to McDonald's and stuffed his face with fast food. He might be satisfied for a minute, but we all know later he's not gonna be happy with that decision. So I would call you, as this verse calls you, to push those things aside. Rid your heart and mind of all distractions that keep you running effectively. If you watch TV for three hours a day, cut down to two hours a day and use that other hour to read the Bible. Do you realize that if you did so, you could read the entire New Testament in seven weeks? You know, we all laugh at, you know, oh, I can't read the Bible in a year. Are you kidding? You could read the whole New Testament in seven weeks, one hour a day. That's all it would take. And we think, what a sacrifice that would be. Really? Just turn off the tube for an hour and you could get it done. And what a way to redeem that time. If you look at social media for two hours a day, cut it to one. Not only will you be happier because you won't be comparing your life to everyone else who's also on social media lying about everything, but what an incredible way to redeem that hour. You could use that hour praying for the church. Get the prayer list from Doug and from the guys on our prayer team. Find those people that you can lift up before the Lord in prayer. What a way to redeem the time and serve the body. What a great way to store up treasures in heaven and not just have time, your one commodity you can never get more of, just waste away. And what a great way to lay aside every weight and distraction and sin and heart idol that takes away time from running your race. Well, the Holy Spirit continues here by saying, as we put these things aside, we strip ourselves to the barest of necessities as a runner, right? We've all watched marathons. These people don't need much. They've got tank top and some little shorts and socks and shoes so they can run the whole race that won't fall apart, maybe a little food and water. That's it. They've left everything else behind as they agonize through the hardest thing that many of them will ever do in this life. But that's not the end of the instruction. The last part of the verse also adds this, where it says, we're to run the race with endurance. We need to run with endurance. And what this says is, it literally means with constancy, with patient continuation, not giving up because we're frustrated. We have staying power in our race. We run with hope. because we understand that it's running towards something and running with value. This is what I mean when I say run your race with resolve. If we look over at Titus 2.11, it says this, it says, for the grace of God, that is Jesus, has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for that blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now the implications from this passage are the same as ours and what it tells us is we need to wait patiently. We need to look patiently. We need to look to the sky for Jesus. We need to be constantly putting our hope and our faith and our trust in his return. And this is what patient endurance looks like. As we run our race, we run with endurance. We look to the saints and the stories of faith that came before us. knowing them through reading our Bibles. We look to the saints in Christian biographies from church history who were faithful through trials and through sufferings, and we look to the lives of those saints that we have known personally who have run their race well, who have finished strong, and who have honored Jesus with their lives. We lay aside distractions, even when they're not sinful, if they keep us, pardon me, from running our race as effectively as we can. and you reject sin as it tries so hard to cling to you, so hard to distract you, and to keep you from doing exactly what verse two calls you to do. But lastly, before we get there, from verse one, look at that phrase, running with endurance. What race, what race does it say we run? The race that is set before us. And that's a very important thing to understand. Let me ask you a question. Does that leave any room for anyone in this room to say, well, I get to choose what race I run? No, this is the race that is set before us. Run with endurance, the race God has set before you. Do we have freedom to choose another race? Can we say to God, God, this race is too hard. I can't run a marathon, I'm just gonna run a half marathon and you're gonna have to be okay with that. God, I'm just gonna run a 5K. Look at how lowly I am spiritually and I'm just out of shape spiritually. I can't handle the race you gave me. No! God says, run the race that is set before you. He doesn't do this out of spite or hatred, He does this out of love because He's a Father who knows what is best for His children. God has planned this for His glory, for your good, He expects you to run, He planned the race, He will equip you to accomplish the race, and you are equipped to run if you are in Christ. And He gave you the ultimate motivation to run, and that is this, as we run our race, as we remember the saints that came before us as they cheer us on, as we lay aside weights and sins, as we endure with hope and joy, as we run the race that God has set for us, verse 2 says this, we do so fixating on Jesus. Now, in the ESV it says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The verb action there, it's a little stronger than just looking. And I like fixating on, because it's the idea of setting your gaze on something to where you're never going to look away, regardless of what's happening around you. So fixing your gaze. And this is one of those verb helper actions that help us to understand how we accomplish running. How we accomplish. If we're to run, how are we to run with no aim and no finish line? We don't run without a goal. We don't run without a finish line. That would be futile. It would be discouraging. That's not the God we serve. God's not looking at you saying, run, slave, run. I own you, run. We serve a God who has given us the greatest treasure and the greatest gift that anyone could possibly give to anyone else. He gave us Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord and Savior, who the text says we're to fix our eyes on. And we do that so that we do not lose hope. Just like Jesus, when he set his gaze on Jerusalem, Luke 9, 51, when he set his gaze on Jerusalem to go there and to accomplish his work of salvation, his work of redemption on your behalf, he set his gaze there to say, that's where I'm going, I'm resolved to go there, nobody's gonna distract me from my goal. That's the same kind of fixation that we need to have on Jesus who waits at your finish line, not saying, run, slave, run, but rather, run, brother. Run, sister, I'm here. I'm at the finish waiting for you. Run to me. But why Jesus? What makes Jesus worthy of our fixation and our focus? Well, verse two goes on to tell us why. And this is just wonderful, just glorious truth on the text of Scripture in front of you. Verse two says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith. And these two statements tell us that Jesus not only founded, established, began our faith by coming, living a perfect sinless life on our behalf, giving his life in death, conquering death and being raised to life, but also that Jesus is the one who's gonna complete it. He's gonna bring it to completion. This word perfecter speaks to a finish line and it speaks to a project being brought to completion. And so we, who are the project, are being brought to completion in our faith, in the inaugurated faith of Jesus, who will finish what he started. Philippians 1.6 says this, and I am sure or confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. The founder of your faith will also be faithful to see you finish the race. Jesus who is waiting for you at the finish line is the very one empowering you to run. And that, my friends, is why Jesus is worth it. Hebrews 4.14 says this, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. We don't have a dead savior, we don't have a dead messiah, we have a lord and savior who has passed through the heavens, been raised to life, and now serves as our great high priest, interceding for us before the throne of God. Because of him, let us run our race with endurance. Doing so fixated on Jesus, who came to live, to die, to be raised to life in order to establish and to begin our faith, and who promised to complete our faith. And lastly in this verse, we not only find our motivation by fixing our eyes on Jesus, read with me here, verse two also gives us Jesus' motivation for doing his work. It says this, Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. So Jesus' motivation here is the joy that was set before him. But what is that joy? What would cause the Son of God, in perfect harmony with the Father, existing eternally in bliss in heaven, leave heaven to take on the form of a bondservant, live a life as a human being, to be mocked, to be betrayed, to die, and to be raised to life. What would cause him to do that? My friends, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've repented of your sins, if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation and you're pursuing him as your Lord and Savior, then Jesus died for the joy of saving you. Jesus, despite the pain and suffering He would endure, despite the tortures of the cross, despite the shame heaped on Him by being rejected and being murdered, despite the shame of bearing the awesome weight of your sin, despite the shame of having the full wrath of His Father poured out on Him in three hours on the cross, accomplishing the work of salvation, despite all of that, Jesus died for us. Why? because of the joy set before him, because of the joy of redeeming you, and because that was in his mind as he suffered. Because the joy, according to 1 Peter 1, 2, 9, is told to us, because you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession. What does that mean for your life? Verse 9 concludes this, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. In verse 11 of 1 Peter 1 confirms this, that the sufferings of Christ led to the subsequent glories. That is what glories? The salvation of the church and Jesus being finished with his work and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, the Father in glory. John Owen, the great preacher in Puritan said this, about this passage, this was the final moving cause in the mind of Jesus. That is the glory of God in the salvation of the church. That was His motivation to go to the cross, despising the shame, and Jesus now glorifies the Father by completing His work of redemption, putting God's full mercy and grace on display for us, and Jesus demonstrates that by being seated at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven forever. and that reality right there, we just need to sit and dwell on that for a second, that God the Father sent His Son to die on our behalf to redeem us, and Jesus found so much joy in that that He endured the cross on your behalf. You, friend, if you are sitting here in this room this morning and you've repented of your sin, and you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you personally, were in the mind of Jesus when he completed his work of redemption. Do you realize that? You were in his eyes as he was being crucified. Your redemption was the joy that was set before him as he sought, despite the shame that he endured on the cross, to redeem you. And that is the answer to the question, but why Jesus? Jesus is worthy of your worship because he went to the cross for you. We've run towards Jesus because he founded our race. He redeemed the saints to cheer on our race. He called us to run our race. He stands at the finish line, empowering and compelling you to finish the race and to finish it well. And that leads us into point number two here, which is quicker, I promise. And that can only be accomplished in the light of number one, and that is ponder the passion of Jesus with assurance. Ponder the passion of Jesus with assurance. We see that in verse three, and it says this, What a marvelous thing. There's so many good things here, but we're told here the other verb action here is to consider, to contemplate, to think about, to dwell on, to ponder. and we ponder Jesus himself, who endured such hostility, and that term really means unthinkable hostility, more hostility against himself by sinners and by God the Father than anyone in the history of mankind has ever endured. Jesus endured all of that for you. Jesus endured all that to redeem a people for himself, to redeem a people who would repent of their sins, put their faith in him for salvation, and follow Him, run their race for Him. But the point of this command to consider Jesus is this, and there's so much grace in this, and I love this. God is such a tender and loving God. God says this, consider Jesus so that for the reason of that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. And again, I mean, God is so kind here. He understands that this race is tough. This is a sin sick fallen world. And God has given us spiritual gifts and he's given us his son, he's given us the Holy Spirit to traverse it, but it's still tough. It's full of trials and difficulties and it cannot be run without grace, without the person of Christ. Our Father knows us. He doesn't want us to grow weary physically or spiritually. He knows our needs. He wants to care for both your body and your soul so that you do not grow weary or faint-hearted. Galatians 6 commands us as a church to bear each other's burdens. This church is your family. Bear them up in love. If you're hurting, let them bear you up in love. Romans 8, 26 goes on to tell us that the Holy Spirit, who is our helper, knows our weakness and intercedes with us, intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. God is on your side. Do you see that? That the Holy Spirit stands before the Father praying for you. God is on your side. And if you're hurting, Let the Holy Spirit bear you up. Let others bear you up. And if you can take the weight, bear others up as well. And so fulfill the law of Christ. But he doesn't only want to see us cared for physically, he wants to see us cared for in our souls, not growing weary or faint-hearted. This is a God who cares for your entire being. And he's given us all of these means to accomplish this race. He's given us Jesus, who suffered and died and was raised to life for your salvation, to be our hope and the finisher of our faith. He's given us his word, complete and sufficient for our spiritual food. He's given us the preaching of his word for the strengthening of our souls. And he's given us his body, the church, to lift each other up before him and to instruct and counsel and care for one another. but all with Jesus as our motivation, our sole focus for worship, and our reason that we run this race. We run our race with resolve, pondering the passion of Jesus, the suffering, the saving work of Jesus, which gives us assurance to keep running all while fixing our eyes on Jesus. And my prayer today is that all of us will leave this place with a better view of fixing our gaze on Christ. We look to Him as our prize, forgetting the sins and distractions that are all around us, that are encroaching, pushing their way in on us, trying to distract us and tie us up. We forget all those, we push those to the side, and we run in such a way that Jesus is honored with our lives. And we also run in such a way that others would see Jesus and the glory of Christ reflected from us, and that they would be drawn to him for forgiveness and salvation because of the testimony that they see in our lives. That is our goal. That is our hope. That is our desire. And friend, if you are here this morning and you have not given your heart to Christ, if you don't know Jesus, This is the Jesus of the Bible. This is the Jesus that is worthy of worship. There are many other versions out there, and they are all to be rejected if they fail this standard, that Jesus is the only person, the only being worthy of our worship. And He came, He lived a perfect sinless life. He died on your behalf. You stood condemned before the Father. He took that punishment, and that forgiveness awaits you if you would but repent and believe in Him. And there are those here at the church who would love to speak to you. I'm one of the pastors here. I would love to talk to you. If you've not given your heart to Christ, I would love to talk to you about the gospel. If you need prayer, there's gonna be people up front here who can pray for you. Our goal is that this text, this study in God's word would strengthen you and that you would leave this place loving Jesus more than you did when you came in. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together.