Brothers and sisters, let's hear the reading of God's Word, which is taken from Hebrews 12, as Eric just said, verses 1 to 17. 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 said before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Verse 3, "'Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.' In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of Spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. This is the word of the Lord. And you may be seated. Would you pray with me for a moment as we look to the word? Lord, I do thank You again for this beautiful day, and thank You for Your grace to us abundant because of Jesus. Lord, I thank You for waking us up this morning to live and to come and worship. And whether we are here in person or via live stream, we thank You that we can be in worship together in spirit and in truth. And we ask that Your Holy Spirit would truly enlighten us to have delight in the promises of God. Lord, I need that for myself. I pray for everyone here, Lord, that You may give us true faith if we don't have it already. That You may revive us again, O Lord, as the hymn writer says. I pray, Lord, for my own heart and for everyone in this room that you would give us eyes to see your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And it is in his wonderful name we pray. Amen. I am in chapter 12 today, and as Pastor Jeff and I have been sharing about the book of Hebrews and faith, we come to this section that has some beautiful imagery about running. And I wanted to share a bit with you about that. I'm going to give you three points today, and then we'll look at this passage rather quickly, although it has sections that can stand on its own. Even verse 1 and 2 could be a sermon in itself, and perhaps you've heard sermons on that. But we will go through it a bit quickly through verse 17. Three ideas. 1. Run well. Notice that both parts are important. I'm not just asking you to run, I'm saying you must run and run well. Secondly, embrace discipline. Accept the discipline of the Lord as it comes into your life. And thirdly, seek spiritual strength in order to go on and to keep running. Because if you're like me, and as you get older, you just can't run like you used to. It's hard to run. And I admire those of you who run and run well, and you have no knee issues and all that kind of stuff. Praise God. Help us, Lord, to run well, to run spiritually. One of my favorite missionary stories with athletics is one that you know well. And last week I shared about a missionary, and I'll share one today too, although he's probably considered a modern missionary. And you have all heard the name, perhaps, Those who have been around the church have heard the name Eric Liddell. He is one of my very, very favorite missionary stories because he was born in China, as far as I remember, reading biography stories when I was younger. And he was also a well-accomplished runner. He comes from a heritage from Scotland, but he was born in China. He was an MK. He was a missionary kid. And he is most famous because of the Olympics in Paris which took place in 1924. I was sharing in the earlier service just a couple of years ago, we were in Japan as a team from Trinity. And you know what we saw everywhere? The excitement for Tokyo 2020. What a sad thing that we cannot see the Olympics right now, that we cannot see those amazing runners. And I particularly was... I love speed events. And so, especially in the Summer Olympics, to kind of look at those runners and to kind of imagine, will that shoe give them the edge? Or will that outfit be just aerodynamic enough to beat out their megastar co-runner in order to win the race? And over the years, you have seen some amazing races. Eric Liddell was an MK who God made fast. He loved to run. In fact, as you know his story, he says, you know, when I run, I feel God's pleasure because that's what He made me. He made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure, right? Well, the story is well told in the movie, Chariots of Fire, that came out years ago with a beautiful soundtrack, which you probably have already heard. But Liddell, this is his story. He was a solid believer in the Lord. He was also somebody called to the ministry, but he knew that God made him to run too, and that this could be a platform for even his faith. And in the 24 Olympics, he found out that the race he was supposed to run, which is his best race, the 100 meter race, the heats were going to be on Sunday, and he had a conviction that he was not going to do anything on the Sabbath, on the Lord's Day, and that he was not going to run. And so he told them, and not only the parliament of his country, But the British papers were all against him. But he stood his ground. And you know, one thing he said is, the nations are a drop in the bucket. God is in charge, and I will not go against my conscience. And so he said, he's not going to run. Whatever you think about that whole thing, you have to admire his faith and to say, I don't care who tells me, including the king. There is a greater king who I will follow, and I will not go against my conscience. Well, it turned out that he got to run an alternate race, which was a 400 meter race, which he was not really even prepared to run. And he broke the Olympic record and the world record running the 400 meters at the 24 Olympics, and he was well known. But you know, on the ship going across, the story says that he pondered and he realized, you know, the Lord had a call on his life, and that was to return to China. And during the breakout of World War II, he sent his wife and children ahead to Canada, but he remained back. And I will tell you how the story ends in a little bit. But here's the dichotomy in the story of Liddell. He ran against another runner who took his place in the 100 meters, and that guy named Harold Abrahams won the race. Little ran a race which he wasn't supposed to run, and he won that race. And the dichotomy of these lives is what makes up the story of Chariots of Fire. You know what's beautiful about that missionary story? He knew there was another race that was way more important than the Olympics. And that is the race of his Christian life. And so my brothers and sisters, if I had a box of batons here to you, I would love to hand one to each and every one of you and to say, don't forget that you are in the race. Every believer is in the race. The baton is being given to us. And this is how chapter 12 begins. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who are those? All those heroes that we just heard about in chapter 11. Noah, Enoch, Abel, Moses, all of them. 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." The Apostle Paul uses the imagery of athletics many times in his writings, right? You've come across that. Our faith is like a race. And every single one of us must run. And to the congregation that the writer of Hebrews, whether it's Apostle Paul or someone else, whoever that is, as he's writing, he's saying, listen, to drop out would be catastrophic. You don't have an option to drop out. Because what it means is that you're turning your back on Christ. And to turn your back on Christ, having professed Him, having tasted of His goodness, is to be lost forever. And so the writer is saying, you've got to run. And you've got to run well. You've got to endure. This race, by the way, isn't a sprint. It is a long race. It is a marathon. And you must run well in order to finish, and to finish well. clothing, in order to be able to edge out their competitors so they would do anything to get to the end and to finish well. Well, one of the aspects of running well is to lay aside everything that holds you back. It's no wonder that runners wear such professional athletic clothing or those professional shoes because they know that every millisecond counts in a race. And it's an endurance race, as I said. It's not a sprint. And you must throw aside everything that weighs you down. And so, if your Christian life is a race, can I ask you, my friends who hear me, what's slowing you down? What's got you? held back. Are you carrying around some weights that you really shouldn't be and it's too much baggage? Every single one of us has those things in our lives. Look, it could be your family. It could be your occupation. It could be your vices. It could be anything, but all those things are hindering us from running well. And the Scripture here says, as you run this race of faith, You must lay aside every weight that entangles you. And the greatest one is sin. And then it says, run with endurance. My race is not like yours. Your race is not like mine. Every one of us has a unique race to run with the challenges that God has given us in our own life. And He says, press on. Press on well. Well, going back to the Apostle Paul, listen to this. talking about Endurance Philippians 3, which we read earlier. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on, endure on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Cut aside all, cut away all the things that entangle us and weigh you down. We are to be dead to sin. And in Christ we are dead to sin. I want to remind you of that. Listen to Romans 6. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Verse 8, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen? We can run without these entanglements. The reason you continue to have them is because you, like me, like our sins. We like them. We like them too much to completely let them go. Be honest. Whatever your vices are, the things you're holding on to. Remember when I talked last week about gripping things a little too tightly until the Lord pries your fingers loose? Sometimes that's what He'll do. But wouldn't it be great if we can let them go now? Lay aside every weight of sin and run with endurance. Press on to the end. Verse 12 of Romans 6, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Verse 14, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace. Amen. You know, I can run because of the Lord, and praise God for that. You know, it's a lifelong process sometimes to become a good runner, as you begin to just get better and you discipline yourself. Let me mention how Hebrews 12 says, Man, I wish I could just spend all today just on these two verses. You know those cloud of witnesses? It's like they are at the meet, and they are in the stands, because they've already run, and they've finished the race, and they've run well, and now they're cheering us on, and it's your turn. You've got to run. And the way to run is to see the end in sight and to realize that King Jesus is waiting for you. You know, I get tired. I get weary. And I have to continually go to the Word that reminds me that Jesus is waiting at the end for me. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord that He's calling me toward Him. He's drawing me like a magnet toward Him. We are asked to look to Jesus. As the others have, as the Old Testament heroes did. You remember the passage where it says, Moses saw Him who was invisible and did not fear the earthly king, Pharaoh. He saw Jesus. And all of those Old Testament heroes saw Jesus, and that's why they were able to run the race and finish the race. But it's more than just that. Jesus, you know, in this line of all the people that have been mentioned, now it's come to Jesus. Jesus isn't just one more add-on, one more person to, wow, what a great endurer. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith race. He is the ultimate one. He is the one who gives us the faith. He is the one who gives us the power to keep going. He is the one who, as the word perfector says, is the one who is the finisher of our salvation. Brothers and sisters who are in the Lord, and those who don't know the Lord yet, do you know why Christianity is so powerful? Because God gives you the power to do what you cannot do. He finishes it for us. He finishes salvation for us. He attains salvation for us. Look to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the founder of our faith. He supplies everything we need to run well. Listen to Ephesians 3. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints and hear this, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Jesus gives it to you and He's waiting at the end, at the finish line, waiting for us, giving us all that we need, supplying everything we need to run well. He's not just an example, but His example is magnificent. The most heinous crime in all of world history is the cross, right? And yet, He endured it. 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. He ran His race better than anyone ever ran, and now He's waiting for us and enabling us to run well too." So, I'm going to challenge you with those words again. Don't forget that you're running. You're in the race. Dropping out would be catastrophic. So the next section, verses 3-11, is kind of a parental example, which I love because I could use all the parenting help I can get. But it's a family example, but still it has this athletic imagery still in it. And it's all about discipline. Verse 3, "...consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord." Every Christian believer, Hear me, every Christian believer will get disciplined in one way or another by the Lord because He loves us. That's a hard one sometimes. Because I always kind of think of discipline like punishment. Like, you know, when I've done something wrong, and I'm going to get punished. Well, the imagery here is discipline to make us better. Discipline to make us stronger. Discipline to make us faster. And only a father can lovingly discipline his children. Or he will discipline his children. Otherwise, you're not really children. You know, to my own children, I'm harsher with them because they're mine. And because I want them to be better. I want them to yield fruit. I want them to be productive. I want them to be good citizens and part of my family. I want them to live well. And so I discipline them. I said in the earlier service, my dad was one of the strictest people I've ever met. He was hard on us. But can I tell you one thing? That discipline in many ways paid off. Although at the time, I, of course, to myself, yelled and screamed for having to be woken up on Saturday mornings to go and cut the grass and rake the lawn and all that. And you know what it's like where there are a lot of trees, right? It'll take you half the morning. But that hard work has turned me into the person I am today in some ways, although not perfect. Good discipline from a heavenly Father is even better than that of an earthly Father, who may have had good intentions for your welfare, but how much more, it says, the Father of Spirits who disciplines us for our betterment, for our good, and for His glory. Listen, if you've had hard things in your life, and I'm sure you've had hard things in your life, but everyone's race is a bit different, it's all because He loves us as children and not as illegitimate children. Because otherwise, He would just leave you alone. He makes us better. He refines us. He grows us until we're fruit-bearing trees. you may grow weary and tired. The Jews were weary because of hostility and persecution. The people that the writer is speaking to, they were very tired. But the whole imagery is, listen, the Lord does everything in your life and brings every discipline for a reason. I have to tell you, as a Reformed church, it's very, very important for us for a moment to stop and realize that the great The doctrine of the providence of God is evident here. Hear me again. The doctrine of the providence of God reigns. Every single thing that comes into your life is to improve our lives in our sanctification and to bring glory to Himself. Everything, friends, everything. Even the losses. Even the pains and the hardship. All of it was to grow us. And guess where the word discipline comes from? Disciple! They're related. If you are a disciple, then you will have discipline. Because our loving Father, the Father of the Spirit, He disciplines us for His good. For our good in His glory. Let me move on. In John chapter 15, this is a fabulous passage which I think you have to look at. John 15, I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Man, I like to complain, but in light of this passage, you have to stand back and you realize the discipline's there for a reason. And as you run the race, the more disciplined you are, the better you'll run, the faster you'll run, and you'll endure to the very end, to the very finish line. Why does the Father do all this? It's not to discourage us. It's to make us better. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves. And every single thing that comes into our lives is under the hand of the providence of God Almighty. I'm going to go to the final section, which is this. If you, like the Jewish people that we're being written to, and like me, if we get weary, what do we need to do? You need to seek spiritual strength. I can't do this on my own. Can I tell you, one of the encouragements I got from this passage, by the way, I'm running through it. You're going to have to read it again and meditate on it in family worship or your small groups or whatever. But seeking spiritual strength in this passage has a lot to do with the church. I'm so glad for all of you. I'm so glad for my brothers and sisters in the Lord who, as the passage says, we aren't just to seek spiritual strength because We have drooping hands and we need to strengthen our weak knees, but also you seek spiritual strength through peace and holiness. By the way, in this little section at the very end, it all comes through Old Testament passages. We don't have enough time to look at it all, but for one example, Isaiah 35 is where some of this comes from, where it says, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. And then in Isaiah 40 it says, He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Do you know what to do when you get tired? When you don't feel like running the race? You seek His strength and not your own. He's there to give you strength for every step that comes in front of you. Believe me, if I told you, I could tell you a story when I absolutely wanted to give up and the Lord said, just take the next step. Just trust Me and take the next step. But we're also told to seek spiritual strength through peace and holiness. Now, what do I mean by this? Listen, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And within this body, we need each other. At all times, do your best to be at peace with one another. Work out your issues or conflicts or mistakes with one another. Bear up with one another. Because together, we are running the race. Together. How important the local church is. And He calls us to holiness. Not just any kind of living. Not just casual living. But being set apart as God's people. We run this race together as holy people called to certain things the Lord asks us to do. We need one another. We are each other's keepers. as we try to do that. And finally, there's this example of Esau which I kind of frowned at when I looked at the end of this passage and I thought, why is he bringing up Esau at the very end? When we had all these heroes of the faith earlier. Well, Esau was the one who was supposed to have the blessing from Abraham and Isaac. The great blessing of Abraham was to continue in Esau. And you know what he got? A bowl of soup. He gave up for the eternal things, for the things that were passing. He opted for the temporal instead of what would last for all of eternity. He opted for the now instead of God. And that's why it says you've got to look out for one another. Pursue holiness. Pursue peace. Seek the grace of God which is available to us in Christ Jesus. If you'd only realize Jesus is waiting for us and the cloud of witnesses are cheering us on, and live for what matters instead of what doesn't matter. My brothers and sisters, I am preaching to myself because all too often I want the thing that's right in front of me. I want that which will satisfy me now." And what the writer is essentially saying, just like he said to the Hebrews is, if you give this up now, you may never have that chance again. You will be lost forever. Don't turn your back on what's most important, on the Lord Himself. Run to Jesus. Embrace Him. Keep Him in view. Run with perseverance and endurance until all the blessings are yours, all the eternal blessings. Well, let me just finish with the story that I began with Mr. Little. Two runners. Two lives. The other runner, Harold Abrahams, lived into his seventies according to the biography. But he lived for the now. He didn't know what to do after the race was done, because that's what he lived his whole life for. Nothing else mattered. Winning is all that mattered. And this is what happened to Eric Liddell. He went back to China, served as a missionary, got a brain tumor, and he clinged to God more than anything else. Who won the better race? Who got the better trophy? I know I'm over, I'm going to read this to you. Every Sunday outside of his hospital, a band would play and one day this biography says, he requested them to play this hymn, Be Still My Soul. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on, when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change and tears are past. All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. There's a better race. There's a battle race. Run with endurance. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that You have called us, and that You sustain us, and that You cause us to endure to the very end because of the perfecter, the finisher of our salvation, and I thank You for Him. Lord, may everyone in this room have eyes to fixate on Jesus. Lord, may we run. May we run well. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.