The Race Set Before Us

If you take your Bibles, turn to Philippians chapter three and Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to be reading from both of those passages here in a moment. I think in the bulletin, I have it as Hebrews There aren't there aren't 13 chapters in Philippians. You'll find that out pretty quickly. The the slide up here was correct.

It's chapter three verses thirteen and fourteen. So, Philippians chapter three and Hebrews chapter 12. I remember though somewhat vaguely graduating from high school and heading off to college. I remember arriving not knowing hardly anyone. Matter of fact, I knew one person, it was a girl on the other side of campus that had little to do with me, but she did graduate from the Sun High School.

I remember registering for classes, which was quite a feat, and thinking about what lied ahead. This wasn't the end, it was just a new beginning. A new beginning with new obstacles, new hurdles, new adventures, new goals to make and to reach, a new race to run. Sometimes, I got discouraged. Sometimes, I got complacent.

Sometimes, I just wanted to quit. Other times, I was excited. Other times, I was encouraged by successes. I was diligent in my work, optimistic about the future but always moving forward, recognizing the race was not yet finished. Lot of ups and downs often in a race but you gotta keep going till you get to the what?

To get to the finish line. When we were saved, those of us who trusted in Christ Jesus as Lord and savior of our lives. We became new creations in Jesus Christ. New creations, new masterpieces, created in Christ Jesus, Philippians two ten says, to fulfill God's will in our lives, to bring glory to our savior, by our lives, to be remade in the image of Jesus Christ. To make our way to the shores of heaven.

As carried and led and empowered and propelled by our savior. When the day when we will be like him indeed and forever. Salvation is not the end. Salvation is the beginning. A new beginning with Jesus Christ.

A new beginning that every day brings new opportunities and new challenges, new potential pitfalls but there is one who has run the race before us. Overcome the pitfalls, defeated the enemies along the path, and sits enthroned at the right hand of the father where he is awaiting for us. To cross the finish line. He promises to help us in the race but we need to keep running and we need to keep our eyes fixed on the finish line And Jesus Christ, our savior. Who awaits us there?

Paul addresses that in Philippians chapter three. Verse thirteen and fourteen, that we read earlier off the screen. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, I haven't finished. My race isn't done. I haven't arrived. God's still working on me like the song I sang at the end of the service last week. He's still working on me.

Paul says, I haven't arrived. This one thing I do. But in those things which are behind me, behind me, I press forward into the things which are before. Particularly, I pressed for the mark of the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To the day, Paul says, when I will stand before him and hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Take if you would turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. Just a brief comment about the context in which we find these two verses. We'll read this morning. Hebrews chapter 11 is called often called the chapter of the Hebrews of the faith. And in Hebrews chapter 11, we read about Abel and his faith and we read about Enoch and his faith and how he was translated to heaven that he should not see death.

We read of the faith of Noah who warned of God was moved by God to to build the ark for the saving of his household. We read about Abraham and how he left his homeland to go to a place that God would lead him. How he trusted the Lord so much as to even be willing to sacrifice his only son and the seed of promise of Sarah and of her faith as she followed her husband and trusted in the Lord and gave birth to Isaac. We read of the faith of Isaac and of Jacob and of Joseph, of Moses as he left the palace of Pharaoh to join his people and lead them out of the land eventually. We read of the faith of Rahab and the faith of Joshua and the Israelites when the walls of Jericho fell down and in verse 32 of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, David, and Samuel, and the prophets and were reminded of their faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. God has given us the faith to trust in him, that he might by his grace and mercy. Through faith in his son, transform us, convert us, place us in a different race than we were in before. One that leads to heaven and the blessings of the Lord and an eternal partner in that race who will never leave us nor forsake us.

Praise God for his grace and his mercy and for the faith to trust in him. In verse chapter 12 verse one and two, following all of those mentioned in chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews, Hebrews says, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us might put the word also in there. Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us also run with run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking also and I'm adding the also's.

Looking also unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, whoever the joy that was set before us, endured the cross despite the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. God isn't asking us to do anything that he hasn't asked others to do before us and by faith, they did it and by God's grace, they did it and by faith, through his grace, and by his help and power, we will too. Run the race that is set before us. The apostle Paul love to use military and athletic illustrations in his writings. He seemed very fond of racing.

In his day and both in Philippians three and Hebrews chapter 12, he uses racing running a race as an illustration for the Christian life and for progressive sanctification in our lives. As God molds us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ, as we follow him to the day that he calls us home to be with him to receive our reward in Jesus Christ, our savior. And so, I want us to look at this race here this morning for just a few minutes. And how it applies to our life. Notice first of all, the race and the prize are both before us.

They are not behind us. The race is before us. Until the day God calls us home, there is something for us to do and there is something for us to learn in the race of life. God isn't done with us yet. There is something to do.

There is something to learn. Paul certainly had learned much in his relationship with the Lord and his knowledge of the word of God in his service to the Lord but he himself says, I have not apprehended. Now, the day will come at the end of second Timothy as he is awaiting his execution that he says, I have finished the one. I finished the race. I have run the race.

Finished it. God is about to take me home. But he hasn't finished it yet. Here. There was still work to be done in God's service.

There was still work for God yet to do in Paul's life himself. He hadn't arrived. He was still on the journey. The first thing we must realize here is that we too are still on a journey with the Lord. That isn't over yet.

For some of us, there is more race behind us possibly than before us but we are compelled to keep our eyes fixed on what is ahead and not on that which is behind. Fact is none of us know how far we have to go. For some of us, at least in time wise, it may be days, hours. It happens. People get in car accidents.

The fact is, we assume we have years. The Bible says our life is but a vapor. It is here and then it vanishes away. This life is fleeting. We have this one opportunity.

To serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We have this time for him to work in our lives and to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ that others may see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. We have this opportunity to lay up treasures where? In heaven and not on earth. To look ahead, set goals that are of an eternal nature.

And not a temporal nature. Too many people in this world, their goal is related to what many of them call the American dream and sad to say, for most people in our country, the American dream has come to mean a certain level of economic success and a certain amount of finances, a home and two vehicles and a large stereo with what what are we up to? 72 inch TV screen now? Whatever the case may be. So much money in the bank, such a level of education, that's the American dream.

The American dream as it should be is about freedom. About freedom to worship and serve the Lord. Not about financial success. The things of the earth, the Bible says, are passing away but he that doeth the will of the Lord will abide forever. Our goals for today and tomorrow, the next day, and the next year should be related more to getting to know the word of God by reading it daily.

Memorizing scripture. You know, that just isn't for kids in Sunday school that are eight years old. We should be hiding God's word in our heart, our entire life. It should have more to do with leading people to Jesus Christ with getting the word of God into their hands and into their ears and into their heart. It should have more to do with conquering sin in our life by God's grace and overcoming the weakness of the flesh.

It should have more to do with being faithful to the Lord, the church, and the family. It should have more to do with the time we spend in prayer and not the time we spend counting our coins. It needs to have more to do with helping someone in need, ministering to someone who needs help, encouraging someone who is down. Being more like Jesus Christ. And less like the world around us.

Goals are for the future and not the past. Godly goals are goals related to looking to who? To Jesus Christ. Who is the prize? And the one awaiting us at the finish line.

He is in front of you. Not behind you. Next, we see this, not only it is about the race before us but it is about letting go of the things of the past and laying aside the sins and the weights of the present. In Philippians chapter three, Paul says, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are what? Behind.

And in Hebrews chapter 12, it says, let us lay aside every weight in the sin with just so easily beset us. There's some things that hold us back in this process of being transformed and conformed into the image of Christ and bearing fruit as we should in the Christian life. One of those things is our past. Our past successes. There are many people today, many Christians that they've they've they've worked hard their whole life.

They've they've earned a lot of money. They've they've they've they've been faithful to the church and they've worked in many ministries and they reach a certain point in their life and they say, okay, it's time to what? It's time to retire. And there may come a point in your life where you can retire from a job but there should never come a time in your life when you can retire from the work of Jesus Christ. When a carpenter builds a beautiful piece of furniture and he looks at that piece of furniture It was well done.

Boy, that looks good. Is that where he stops? No. He sells that piece of furniture and he begins what? He begins a new one.

As the home builder starts a new house to build. As the painter starts another painting. There are some people, I appreciate brother Harry Poole. I appreciate him for this. He he likes working in the yard.

He likes working with the bushes. He likes trimming and doing all of that and I appreciate him for that because it's something that I have no desire to do. But yet it's something that makes the place look much more beautiful and welcoming. But you see what happens with grass is you cut it and you step back and you go, oh, the grass looks nice. And then, a week later, what happens?

It again. And you've got to cut it again, and again, and again, and again, and you've got to trim the trees again and again. It helps to know what you're doing, which which I don't know. I can't run a lawn mower, but that's about it. But we can't be we can't be hindered by the successes of the past, and that we have to keep what?

We have to keep going. Go on to the next thing. The grass is going to grow, you've got to cut it again, it doesn't matter how pretty it looked two weeks ago, it's going to grow and you've to cut it again. Same thing with life. We can't allow the successes of the past to hold us back from the task that is before us.

We also can't allow the failures of the past to hold us back from that which is before us. Many people are held back in the race because they're mired in the failures of the past. There isn't one of us here that hasn't experienced many failures In every facet of our life. Jacob, how did Jacob start off his life? Well, his name means supplanter and deceiver and that's exactly what he was.

He connived. He didn't trust in who? The Lord to do it. He had to step in and he had to make it happen himself and that made a mess. He had to run from home.

His brother wanted to kill him. He ended up in a in a marriage with two women and two concubines and all kinds of turmoil and problems. He in some ways was a failure. He had a dysfunctional home but he had a wonderful what? He had a wonderful savior and that wonderful savior never left him nor forsook him even when he wasn't succeeding in certain areas of his life and in the end, he ended up back in the land, right?

Where God wanted him to be. Moses, Moses left the palace. We, that's in Hebrews chapter 11. He went out to his people to be with him and immediately, he saw an Egyptian beating a Jew and what was his reaction? He killed the man.

He killed the man. He killed the Egyptian. He hid him in the sand. The pharaoh found out and the great leader Moses was exiled to the backside of the desert for how long? Forty years.

He was 40 when he left Pharaoh's palace. Forty years, he spent on the backside of the desert before God said, okay, now it's time. Come back here, Moses. Now, you're ready to do what I want you to do. Peter Peter, who preached on the day of Pentecost?

3,000 souls got saved. Peter, who weeks before that denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times before a crowd and even swore that he didn't know him. Peter, Peter could have let the failures of the past hold him back but he didn't. God forgave him. God's forgiven us by his grace and mercy.

He doesn't want us to be held back by the failures of the past. He wants us to look to the what? To the future and learn from the failures of the past. Somebody asked Thomas Edison if he failed a thousand times in making the first light bulb. He said, I didn't fail.

He said, I learned how to make a how not to make a light bulb a thousand times. He learned from his what? His failures and he kept his eye on the task and the goal that he had set for himself. We give up far too easy and we allow the failures of the past which by the way happened to everybody to hold us back. Paul had successes and Paul had failures.

He had planted churches for the cause of Jesus Christ. He had been kicked out of towns. He had been beaten. He had been stoned. He had been rejected time after time after time.

But he got back up and he followed the Lord and he went to the next town by God's grace. He left the past and the past and he kept his eyes fixed on the future. Not only do we need to lay aside the past but Hebrews 12 says, we need to lay a lie lay aside, cast aside the weights and the sins which just so easily beset us. Paul called himself the chief of what? Chief of sinners.

He was the chiefest of sinners and indeed, he was a very vile sinner. He was responsible for the execution of many Christians for their imprisonments, for their beatings, but yet the Lord saved him and the Lord forgave him and the Lord worked in him and the Lord used him to bring glory to his name. And Paul and so Paul didn't allow the sins of the past to stop him from doing the work of God in the future. The Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is what? Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What do we need to do with our sins? We need to confess them, repent of them, forsake them, and then we need to move on. David committed adultery and murder. God saw fit for some reason not to take his life. He showed mercy on him and so David accepted the mercy and forgiveness of God and what did he do?

Well, he repented. You can read about it in Psalm 51 and then he did what? He moved on. He continued to perform the task of being king that God had set before him. As a humbled servant of the Lord.

And he moved on. Abraham, you say, Abraham, great picture of faith in scripture. God said to Abraham, I'm going to give you and Sarah a son. Sarah comes to Abraham and says, well, don't have a son yet. Maybe God wants you to have a son with my my maid servant, Hagar.

Abraham listens. He does that very thing, has a child Ishmael, who was still in the thorn of side to Isaac's descendants today. He messed up. He sinned but God forgave him and he what? And he moved on and God used him and God changed him and he continued in the what?

He continued in the race. That was set before him. Some of the greatest servants of the Lord have son some of the greatest failures before the Lord. But they are illustrations of the grace and mercy of God toward us. We're to lay aside those sins and move on in the race.

We're to lay aside the weights, the struggles, the hurts, and other things that come into our life and continue in the race. There are many examples of people who have failed, who were hurt, who have faced physical difficulties and tragedies and have overcome them and kept moving forward in their life. I I had a a record jacket up here a few months ago of Joni Eareckson Tada dove into a pool or some place, broke her neck, was paralyzed from the neck down but after that, not long after that, she was saved. She met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ gave her the power to move on and be a testimony and there are many others like her that didn't allow the weights of the past to hold them back in the race of life and service for the Lord and in their growth as a Christian. You see, when a runner comes up to the blocks to run the race, he's not dressed like I am.

No, they they dress in as little as possible that weighs as little as possible so that nothing holds them back in their race. They want to run the fastest. They want to run the the farthest. They want to do their best and so they get rid of the weights. Sometimes as Christians, it seems like we're collecting them and we complain about them and we use them as reasons why we can't move on.

Well, somebody said this about me and somebody did that to me and and this happened in my life and that happened in my life and and often times, the one that complains the most are often the people who have the least problems. The people who complain the least are often the ones that have the most issues of which they have no control. God says, don't be hampered by those weights. Give em to me. Let me carry them.

Let be anxious for nothing. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Yet, that, yes, that happened to you. Yes, that was wrong. Yes, that wasn't your fault.

Yes, maybe it was. It happened to you. There may be scars. There may be burdens. But trust the Lord.

Let him help you carry those. And move on. You can. You can. Look at Joseph in the Bible.

Joseph, he had dreams. Dreams that came from who? From God where that his family was bowing down before him. He told them about his dreams. Were they happy?

No, they weren't happy for him. No. Matter of fact, how did they react? Jealousy. That's right and to the point to where his brother schemed to take his life and then they decided not to take his life but to sell him into slavery thinking that he probably wouldn't make it there either but at least making a little bit of cash in the transaction.

He ended up in Potiphar's house. He he administrated very well and Potiphar's house served very well. He rose to the top of the heap and Potiphar's wife lied about him, falsely accused him. He got thrown in what? Jail.

Jail. There he was in jail for several years, in jail. He told these two men the interpretations of their dreams, the one that was good and went back to his position, said he would remember Joseph. At first, he didn't and still Joseph sat where? In jail.

You see, Joseph could've let those things be weights that held him down. He could've got angry. He could've got frustrated. We don't read that in scripture. He just continued on and the Lord used him and the Lord lifted him up.

The Bible says, the Lord exalts the what? The humble. God indeed thee, did, and used Joseph and he will use us too. One of the things that The weights that often hold us back in our races is bitterness. I I I think of Moses and all he went through and how the people griped and complained and rebelled again and again and again and again and again but Moses just kept serving the Lord and kept doing what God had asked him to do.

I also think of Absalom, a man so eaten up with bitterness As to desire to kill his own father and take his father's throne. Who ended up dying while hanging from his hair from a tree. A very ignominious death. Bitterness is a weight we cannot afford. We cannot afford to hold grudges against other people.

There are only weights that weight us down in serving the Lord. I was watching football yesterday, little bit. I was watching Clemson versus Pittsburgh. Did anybody watch the Clemson versus Pitt game? I'm kind of a Clemson fan and and anyway, I was cheering because they they were undefeated so far this year and it got down to the end of this game and this guy from Pit kicked a field goal, won the game, and Clemson had their first loss.

It was rather sad for Clemson fans. However, it's funny. It's interesting. This guy makes a good example. This morning, the guy who kicked the ball, he missed a field goal earlier in the game.

He even missed an extra point which is just a chip shot in college football and yet at the end of the game, he had to make a 48 yard field goal. He came out there. He kicked it and he put it right through the uprights and he won the game. He didn't allow the past. He didn't allow the failures of the past to keep him from the task that was set before him.

He went out there and he did it. In the race to the forest, we have to learn to do the same thing and to trust the Lord. He won't fail us. We also need to run the race with patience. It says here in Hebrews 12, with hopeful endurance.

You see, the race that Paul is using illustrations more like a marathon than it is a sprint. The Christian life isn't a sprint. It's more like a like a marathon. The race lasts a while. There's ups and downs.

There's obstacles in our path. We need to be what? We need to learn patience. Don't give up. The Bible says in Proverbs 24, for a just man, falleth seven times and rises up again.

Don't give up. Don't give up. Satan is saying, oh, do give up. Do give up. He doesn't want you to be a testimony for the Lord.

He doesn't want you to have joy. He doesn't want you to produce fruit. He's whispering in your ear, give up. You can't get victory over that sin. Give up.

You are no good in the use of the Lord today. You've messed up too much. Give up. You don't have enough time left. Don't worry about it.

Give up. God says, no. Be not weary in well doing for a new season. We shall reap if we faint not. Don't give up.

Don't give in. First Corinthians ten thirteen, there is no temptation taking you but just such as common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able with the temptation. Also, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. God says, don't give up and don't give in. Don't give in to the devil.

Don't give in to the lust of the flesh. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Don't give in and don't lose hope. Push forward. Isaiah forty thirty one, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Don't give up hope. Don't lose hope.

Push forward. Don't give up. Don't give in and don't lose hope. In this past Olympics, there was a man. He was an endurance runner.

He was running. I think it was the first or second lap of many and somebody tripped him and he went splat on the ground. I didn't know that when I was watching, I missed the first part of the race. I watched the end of the race, and here is this man sprinting ahead of everybody winning at the end of the race. Wasn't until later when I saw the replay that I realized at the beginning of the race, he fell.

And you hardly see anybody come back from a fall in a race like that, but he did. He fell and he got back up and he kept going and he won the race. He didn't give up, he didn't move in, he didn't lose hope, And we shouldn't either because we have who with us? Jesus Christ. We have no reason to lose hope.

He will finish what He started. And then finally, we need to keep our eyes on on who? Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the prize that is awaiting us at the end. He is the author of this race.

He set up the race. He is the guide with us in the race. He is running the race beside us. He is there to pick us up when we fall. He is the author of the race.

We can trust him. You can trust him. Keep your eyes on Jesus. The prize, the author, the finisher, You know, he also ran the race. He came He died on the cross.

He finished it perfectly So that we who are far from perfect might finish the race in him. By his grace. Justified by his righteousness. Who is the author and the finisher. He followed through.

He is seated at the right hand of the father. He asks us to follow him. He is the prize, the author, the finisher. He is the example. Let this mind be in you which was what?

Also in Christ Jesus. To being in the form thought it not robbery to be with God but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of servant, was made in the likeness of man, that's you and me and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly what? Exalted him and in Christ Jesus, we are exalted with him. He is our savior and he is also our example and in Matthew sixteen twenty four, he said to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

There is a race before us. It is before us, not behind us. The prize is before us, not behind us. The prize is Jesus. We are told to look to him, the author, the finisher, the example, and the one who is here by grace to help us.

As I conclude this morning, two questions. One, are you in the race? You see, if you haven't trusted Christ as savior, you're not in the race. Instead, you're being drugged by your sins into a place of torment called hell. God wants to rescue you.

God wants to deliver you. He sent his son to die for you. And if you put your faith and trust in him, he will save you from your sins today but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso believeth in him should not perish but have what? Everlasting life.

Everlasting life. God wants you to be saved. And if you don't know him, you're not in this race and there isn't a place in heaven for you. But there can be today if you'll trust him. And secondly, this morning, Christian, are you looking forward?

Are you living only in the past? Are you pressing on? Are you allowing the besetting weights and sins to hold you back? Are you complacent? Are you distracted?

Have you stumbled? What does God say? Get back up. Get back up. Follow me.

Maybe there's a sin that needs to be confessed. Maybe there's a weight that needs to be let go of. As we pray in a moment and have this hymn of invitation, take that moment. To tell the Lord about that weight he's placed on your mind and heart. Deal with him about it today.

Trust in him. And move on. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord. We thank you Lord for our savior who is the author and finisher of our faith.

We thank you Lord that you run with us in this race, that you placed us here, that you are conforming us to the image of your son. And Lord, that you will never leave us nor forsake us nor will you fail to perform that which you began in us. Lord, we thank you for those precious promises and we pray that you would forgive us of our sins, that you'd help us to let go of the weights, that you would help us to keep our eyes fixed forward on Jesus Christ and look for ways that we can serve you and learn more about you today and tomorrow and the next day. We thank you Lord. Forgive us for our ingratitude.

Forgive us of the the things that catch our attention, distract us from the race that is before us and help us Lord today and tomorrow and every day. To take up our cross and follow you. We pray Lord if there's one here today that's not saved. We pray that we give this hymn of invitation. Lord, if they're at all unsure that they would come as we sing.

That we might be able to show them from God's Word today how they might be saved and knowing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.