The Race is On - Justin Wadel

Lesson Transcript

There's probably no greater temptation than the temptation to give up, to quit the race, to find an easier way or a shortcut instead of staying on the course. The runners gather at the starting line. The air is charged with energy, along with a mixture of anxiety and excitement, as the reality of the 26-mile race sinks in. The gun cracks, and the crowd cheers as the runners surge forward, the shared goal of finishing the race uniting runner and onlooker alike.

The first dozen miles fly by, with each runner finding their pace, settling into a rhythm, and enjoying the experience, feeling strong and confident, and maybe even surprised at how easy this feels. Mile 13, Mile 14, Mile 15, time starts to slow down. Fatigue sets in, the pace slows down, some runners drop back. First signs of trouble appear: side stitches, cramping, aching muscles, burning lungs. Who said this was fun? Speed loses importance.

This is about endurance, patience, mental fitness, pushing past the feelings of quitting and focusing on the goal ahead. Some have already dropped out, giving in to the fatigue, not willing to push on. The rest keep going, some slowing to a walk, not giving up, moving forward, spurred on by the desire to finish. Spectators' cheers and the encouragement of other runners become a vital source of energy and support, each wanting the other to succeed.

Mile 23, 24, 25, and then the finish line comes into sight, renewing a fresh burst of energy. And finally, the moment of overwhelming relief, joy and pain, and a realization, well done. The race is on. And I was surprised that that was already mentioned a couple of times. People sharing are in, I think, somebody's prayer. They mentioned the race. And Matthew's already been encouraged to get into this race and run well. And that's what I plan to do this morning, talk about some keys to running well.

And just as a disclaimer, I'm not a good runner. Last night, I thought, well, I'm going to go outside and go around the block and see how far I can run. It'd been a while. A couple of years ago, I got into running a little bit, but I never made it that far. I didn't get into any 5Ks or anything like some of the people here. But I went outside and ran, and I made it about half a block. That's not even a quarter mile.

And I was like, oh man, my feet hurt and my lungs hurt, my side hurt, and I could have pushed myself, but didn't feel like it. So I'm not anywhere close running a marathon. And I don't know that anyone here has ever ran a marathon. So I kind of had to imagine how that would be like, how that would feel to actually run a marathon. I think that would be amazing. The race is on.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1, very familiar verse. Each of us here has a race that is set before us. This race has a starting point, a middle, and a finish line. Some of you have been running for a while and are closer to the finish line. You've withstood the test and overcome the obstacles.

Maybe you slowed down, but you're still moving forward. And you're an example and an encouragement to those behind you. But you're not finished yet. Some of you, like Matthew and a few others here, are at the start of the race, fresh energy and confidence, eager to run, driven by excitement and anticipation by what's ahead. But most of us here, we're somewhere in the middle. Maybe it's been a while since we started, but we feel like we're not quite—we got a while to the end, so we're somewhere in the middle.

A little fatigued, a little scraped up, fighting hard to stay the course while facing obstacles, setting a pace for those coming on behind. But no matter what stage of the race we find ourselves in, there are some common tools that we all need in order to run well, and we're going to look at a few of those. I didn't cover everything. These are just some I pulled out when I think about running and the analogy of a marathon and running the Christian race. So let's look at a few of those.

We're going to begin with commitment. Commitment is so important. And commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity. It's an agreement or pledge to something or someone. And true commitment is rare to find these days. Everyone wants a backdoor. They want a way out. If it gets too hard, do I have to stay with it? And we find that with marriages, commitments to marriages. Just in a general way, people are a lot slower to commit.

They're afraid to commit, and especially if it's a lifetime commitment. Although Christ doesn't force us to join this race or even to stay in it, He does require 100% commitment if we want to run and finish well. 100%. My encouragement to Matthew right here at the beginning is to commit yourself completely, 100%, to the kingdom of God and to running this race and sticking to your commitment. And if you do that, I can promise you you won't be disappointed. The next thing is run with endurance.

Maybe the most important point I'm going to make: run with endurance. According to the verse in Hebrews 12 that we just read, we all need to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Why is that? Why is it so important to have this, be able to endure, to have endurance? Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or exertion for an extended period. We could also use words maybe that we're more familiar with, like perseverance, resilience, persistence, patience, determination, tenacity.

They all describe endurance, determination. And I think it goes along with commitment. If we're going to make a commitment, there has to be a determination and a patience that we know this is for the long haul. We're not just in this for a day. We need endurance because our race isn't a one-day sprint. It's a lifetime marathon. And in a lifetime, you will face hardship and suffering at some level. The Christian life is full of joy, but most of the joy that we experience is a result of going through suffering.

And without endurance, we're likely to give up when things get hard. Jesus promised suffering. He also promised that He would be with us and that He would give us the strength to endure. James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him." There's probably no greater temptation than the temptation to give up, to quit the race, to find an easier way or a shortcut instead of staying on the course.

In that context. So people leaving the faith, dropping out of the race, sounds like the time we live in. In order to finish the race and receive the crown, we need to endure to the end, the finish line. All right. My next point is run to win. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. This is a verse that scares me every time I get up to preach, what he says here at the end about being disqualified, lest when we have preached to others, we become disqualified because it's easy to preach something. It's a different thing to do it. Run to win.

So we are not running haphazardly or in such a way that we hopefully barely make it to the finish line. And according to Paul, we're not even vying for second or third place. Okay? That's not even the option to get silver or what is the other one? Bronze. We want the gold. We want the gold. Our goal is to win, and so the way we run should reflect that. We run with confidence. We run with discipline. We run with temperance or self-restraint, knowing what will hinder us and slow us down.

And that goes back to Hebrews chapter 5, where he talks about we get rid of the weights, get rid of the stuff that drags us down, get rid of the sin, get rid of things that hinder us and make us be able to run and focus. That's a lot of hard work. That's a lifetime. This is not a half-hearted attempt that Paul is describing here. He's describing an athlete that has one goal in mind, winning the gold medal. Do we have that kind of single focus? So who or what are we competing against? These verses used to bother me.

I'll go back there. They used to bother me where Paul says in verse 25 that everyone's competing, but only one person. Verse 24, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?" One. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. That used to bother me. And it sounded like Paul is saying that only one of us is going to get the prize. Like, "Sorry, guys. If I'm number one and I'm ahead of you guys, I'm getting a prize.

You guys will have to settle for second." And it also made it sound like we're competing against one another, that we're all running this race, but some Christians are better and some aren't, and some are going to get it and some aren't. Well, in a physical race, this usually is the case. One person receives the gold medal. There is only one gold medal. And the other runners are the opponents. And you're in it for yourself. You're in it to win it.

You're not in there making sure the guy there gets a chance or that you can push him forward somehow when you get there about the finish line. I'll push him forward and let him get it. No, you're in it to get the gold medal. You're in it for yourself. And that's understandable. But I don't think that Paul's point is that only one of us can get the prize or that we are competing against fellow believers. In fact, other Christians are not our opponents in this race.

I am not running this race to beat you or anyone else. Actually, just the opposite, but we'll get to that in a bit. So who are we competing with in this race if we're using this analogy of a race? Who are we competing against? This was already brought up a couple of times this morning. Our competitors are the world and our own flesh.

As John says, "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that which is not of the Father but is of the world." That's what we are fighting against and why it's important that we discipline ourselves and take this race seriously. We're not up against each other. We're not up against other Christians. We're up against our own flesh and the world and Satan himself.

Back to the verse in Hebrews, "Any weight or sin that distracts or hindered us should be viewed as our opponents because they have the capacity to keep us from winning the prize." And if we're going to give in to our flesh, then we may not win the prize. We may not win the gold. So be quick to recognize the enemy and humble enough to confess, falls, and repent when sin gets the best of you. Remember who your competition is. It's not your brother beside you. Run together, not alone.

Very important to remember that we're in this race together. We're not in it just for ourselves. We're not in it to make sure that I do better than another Christian, another brother, or sister. We're actually in it to help each other. Recently, I watched a video of a guy who ran in the largest endurance race in the world. It's called the UTMB race. I don't know exactly what that stands for, but it covers 108 miles over 46 hours. It takes roughly 46 hours.

So if you think about that, you're going through two nights without sleep and passes through three countries, France, Italy, and Switzerland. So you're basically running up and down the Alps. And actually, the total that you climb, even though you're not doing it all at once, is higher than Mount Everest. It's over 30,000 feet that you're going up as you're running this race up and down. So he was basically documenting it. And it started kind of like what I said there in the beginning.

Everyone's cheering the crowds all, "This is great." And man, first 10 miles, this is easy, and it's just beautiful scenery and all that. But then it got hard. It got really hard. They went up high enough that there was snow. They were getting frostbite. The fatigue set in, hallucinations, all this stuff. But something that happened to him along the way, I don't know, maybe two-thirds of the way in, is he got beside another runner who actually had experience. He had done it before.

And he just figured, "Okay, we'll talk for a while, and the guy will just cruise on because he's not going to stick around with me. It's the first time." But the guy stuck with him, and he stuck with him the whole way to the end.

And it was actually really neat because he gave a lot of credit to him afterwards that having him there, just the camaraderie, the fellowship, even though they weren't always talking, said, "We're just running and both hallucinating together." But the fact that he stuck with him and they were together helped him finish. And I thought that was really neat because most people, they're out there trying to do this themselves. And I don't know how many people actually start and finish. I don't know those statistics.

But anyway, we need one another in order to run well and finish well. I can't stress that enough. We need one another. Other fellow Christians are not our opponents in this race. They're our teammates. We are in this race to help others succeed and win as well as wanting that for ourselves. And that's kind of the dual thing here. And Paul or someone, I think it's Paul at one time, talks about, "You have your own burden. Carry your burden. Do this well.

And then carry the burdens of others." It always looked a little bit opposite to me, but he's saying that's true. We do all have our own burden to carry. Nobody can actually do that for us in a lot of ways, but we also help others with their burdens. That is why commitment to one another in the context of a local body is so important. That's why we teach that here, that committing to one another in this context, local body, accountability, commitment to one another is so important because we need one another.

We can also learn from one another. In a literal race, the runners closer to the finish line can't really communicate with the runners in the back. They're just going to have to kind of learn the course themselves. But in the Christian race, we have the opportunity to all run together and learn from each other's successes or failures.

Someone who's been running the race for a while can educate me on possible pitfalls, obstacles that they've already successfully went through, and they can teach that to me, and I can pass that on to someone behind me. We have that opportunity. Encourage one another daily. I think the verse says, "Exhort." We all need encouragement no matter where we're at in life. We're told in Hebrews to exhort or encourage one another daily so that none of us are hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

So in a race, we need this so that none of us lose heart. We don't give up. We don't fall to temptation without somebody there to pick us up and spur us on. This means that we should be regularly providing support, comfort, and inspiration to one another in order to help each other maintain hope, grow spiritually, and persevere through difficulties and temptations. It's really hard to do that for yourself sometimes. This is a big part of keeping each other fit and healthy enough to keep running the race.

This also involves giving warnings and advice in order to help each other avoid potholes and other dangers. So position yourself to give encouragement and receive encouragement because we need both. We need to be giving and receiving. All right. Maintain a healthy diet. Very important if you're going to run well and be successful in a race is watching what you intake, watching what you put in your mouth, how you live.

The regular exercises of prayer, time in the Word, and fasting are crucial components in order to stay healthy and fit enough to run well and not run out of energy. What we listen to and what we watch and the activities that we engage in all have either a positive or negative effect on us. We can't control that. We control what we listen to. We control what comes in. We don't control the effect. Spend as much time in good fellowship as possible. Choose your friends carefully. Volunteer for work projects.

Lend a helping hand when you're able to. Be productive with your time. These things all make a difference for keeping you in shape spiritually in order to be able to run well. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Input directly affects output, and you can control what goes in.

So make sure your intake is healthy. Make sure it lines up with these verses: true, noble, just, pure, lovely. You got your work cut out. All right. Run according to the rules. Very important. You get in a race and you try to make up your own rules, you're not going to last. You're not going to make it. You're not going to get a gold medal for sure. Races have rules, and the Christian race is no exception. We don't get to make them up as we go or change them to suit our own desires. Lots of people have tried.

The rules of this race are already in place, and following them makes it a better experience for everyone. 2 Timothy 2:5. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Many people over the centuries, basically since the beginning, have tried to change the rules of this race to either make it easier, change the way we treat other runners, deviate from the course, or maybe not even have to run at all.

But in the end, even if we think we've ran well, if we haven't competed according to the rules, we become disqualified. And that's not a place we want to be. You got to compete. You got to run. You got to be in this race and follow the rules, or it's not going to work. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

If we truly love God and love being a part of this race, then we will love and obey His commandments and not find them burdensome. In fact, they will make the race easier because we were created to follow them. God knew exactly what He was doing when He gave us His commandments. When Christ gave us His commandments, they weren't meant to be a burden. They were meant to make the race easier and to give us what we need in order to actually make it to the end. Be an example to those coming behind.

Remember that your life, the way you run, is speaking to those looking on, those who maybe haven't even joined the race yet, your siblings, your friends, people you work with. We all have been running. We all have someone running behind us as well, watching how we react to obstacles, how we respond to hardship, and to the runners around us. Be an example. And we can all be that. Whether young or old, we can all be an example to someone coming behind.

1 Timothy 4:12, "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity." So even as a young person, it seems like he's—I don't know how young Timothy was. But even as a young person, we are called to be an example to everyone, even the older ones. Your word, your conduct, the way you love others, your faith, your diligence, these are all ways that even a young person can be an example. So the race is on.

Matthew, you're joining the most important race of your life, the race of a lifetime, the race that leads to eternity. Begin with commitment. Run with endurance. Run it to win it. Run it together, not alone. Encourage other runners. Maintain a healthy diet. Run according to the rules. Be an example to others. And above all, finish well. When you make it to the end of the race and you cross the finish line, it will be worth it. And may you and all of us hear those welcome words by our Lord. Well done. Well done.