back to index4-28-2021 Run With Endurance
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So we're going to be reading verses 1, 2, and 3, but we'll most likely spend most of 00:00:22.240 |
Initially I prepared a two-part message, but it looks like it might turn into a three-part 00:00:32.680 |
"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay 00:00:36.440 |
aside every encumbrance and a sin which so easily entangles us. 00:00:41.040 |
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the 00:00:45.040 |
author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising 00:00:49.760 |
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 00:00:53.840 |
For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will 00:01:03.520 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for grace, we pray for guidance, we pray for your word to come 00:01:14.200 |
Whatever it is, Lord God, that we have wrestled with this week, I pray that you would allow 00:01:22.600 |
Allow us to see a glimpse of who you are, that we may hear from you and your children, 00:01:27.600 |
hear your voice, and follow you and you alone. 00:01:32.440 |
May this time be a time of sanctification and glorification for your name. 00:01:42.080 |
All right, so we are finally making a transition from chapter 11 to chapter 12. 00:01:47.440 |
And if you notice, chapter 12, verse 1, begins with the word "therefore." 00:01:52.400 |
And so "therefore," whenever you see that in the Bible, is very significant because 00:01:56.320 |
it's connecting or concluding a thought that was started in the previous chapter. 00:02:02.920 |
But this "therefore" is not just any "therefore." 00:02:06.080 |
This "therefore" not only connects it to chapter 11, which is the immediate context, 00:02:10.360 |
it really is a connection to all of 11 chapters. 00:02:14.280 |
And so there's a big shift that happens between chapter 11 and chapter 12. 00:02:19.000 |
So what happens in chapter 12 to chapter 13 is a conclusion of what he's been saying in 00:02:26.240 |
Therefore, all the things that we have said, this is the conclusion. 00:02:31.600 |
So we're moving from indicatives to imperatives. 00:02:34.280 |
Now the main emphasis in chapter 12 and 13 is considering who Jesus is. 00:02:39.120 |
If he is truly superior over everything else in this world, what should that look like 00:02:47.000 |
And so he's moving into not only just this verse, not only just for the next few sermons, 00:02:52.840 |
but again, into the imperatives where he's going to give us instructions on what a Christian 00:03:02.120 |
You know, all of us probably fall into one or the other category. 00:03:07.000 |
I find that there are some people who naturally gravitate toward theology. 00:03:12.360 |
You love to read and you love to ask questions and dig and you get frustrated that people 00:03:17.480 |
don't want to have conversations about dispensationalism and, you know, hypostatic union of Christ. 00:03:22.760 |
And you love deep things and you get frustrated when people are not that way. 00:03:28.360 |
And then there are some of you that fall into the other category where as soon as we get 00:03:32.840 |
into something that's a little bit deeper than what we see in scripture, we think it's 00:03:36.760 |
like, "Oh, you know, we don't want to get into that. 00:03:39.720 |
You know, if we get too deep into theology, it divides the church. 00:03:47.040 |
And so we don't need to know all that other stuff. 00:03:50.400 |
And we just, we just like teach us how to disciple and raise children and evangelize. 00:03:54.560 |
And so some of us fall into that other category. 00:03:57.960 |
Well, if you do one without the other, you're going to really miss the whole point of scripture 00:04:02.760 |
because the point of scripture is not to get somebody who's not in the church to be in 00:04:06.800 |
the church and to have people who are in the church to become members and to have members 00:04:12.480 |
come out to Bible study and then have Bible study people to serve in the church. 00:04:16.600 |
The point of Christianity isn't to get a group of people who is not doing something to do 00:04:23.600 |
That they're not doing something outside or inside and get them to behave differently. 00:04:29.400 |
So they didn't wake up early in the morning, so they need to wake up. 00:04:32.240 |
They didn't read the Bible, so then they need to read the Bible. 00:04:34.620 |
The point of Christianity is not simply to change our behavior. 00:04:38.280 |
So if all we do is go to the imperatives and say, "Just tell me what to do and I'm just 00:04:42.440 |
going to do it," then you can completely miss the whole point of Christianity because the 00:04:47.480 |
whole point of Christianity is to radically change our inner being so that we can see 00:04:52.160 |
the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we can become worshipers. 00:04:58.160 |
So if all we're doing is changing our behavior, we're not necessarily worshiping God. 00:05:06.040 |
If making disciples is just getting people to act differently, all we're doing is institutionalizing 00:05:12.840 |
This is our expectations in the church and this is how everybody behaves. 00:05:17.400 |
But what our true desire is to—what God desires is to be worshiped. 00:05:22.400 |
And worship, true worship has to happen when there's a transformation happening inside 00:05:27.440 |
And that's why the indicatives of who Jesus is is to show us his glory. 00:05:33.320 |
So the reason why theology is important is theology basically is a study of God. 00:05:41.000 |
And so the study of God causes us to see a greater glimpse of his glory and the more 00:05:45.600 |
we dig, a greater glory is revealed to us in his work. 00:05:49.900 |
And so when that glory is revealed, therefore, if you know this, this is how you ought to 00:05:56.920 |
So you cannot have the imperative without the indicatives. 00:05:59.440 |
You cannot have the indicatives without the imperatives. 00:06:01.240 |
And that's why almost all the letters in the New Testament is written in that pattern. 00:06:06.880 |
Book of Romans, 16 chapters, first 11 chapters are the indicatives. 00:06:16.200 |
And therefore, in view of this mercy, this gospel, we ought to live our lives as a pleasing, 00:06:24.640 |
It wasn't that long when we started the book of Ephesians, we have three chapters 00:06:28.760 |
about his election, his predestination, and how he saved us, why he saved us, his purpose, 00:06:36.800 |
And then we get to chapter four, five, and six, and he says, "Therefore, live up to this 00:06:43.100 |
So if you have a tendency to kind of like, "I don't want to get into these deep things 00:06:49.960 |
Give me instructions one, two, three," then you're not really truly worshiping God. 00:06:55.300 |
Or if you're learning all these indicatives and you know, you know, especially if you've 00:06:58.560 |
been in the church for a long time, you know so much and yet you do so little. 00:07:05.160 |
And you completely missed the point of Christianity. 00:07:09.480 |
So that's why this "therefore" here is so important because we're transitioning from 00:07:15.040 |
So this is what it's going to look like in the practical life of a Christian. 00:07:22.440 |
If you look at Hebrews chapter 12, 1, and we're probably not going to even make it out 00:07:28.360 |
Hebrews chapter 12, 1, it says, "Therefore, since all of this, since the supremacy of 00:07:33.320 |
Christ has been established for you, therefore, since we have such great a cloud of witnesses, 00:07:38.240 |
these people who've gone before us as an example, let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin 00:07:43.560 |
so that so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before 00:07:51.380 |
In the English, when you read it, there's a bunch of imperatives here, right? 00:07:56.920 |
Consider to let us, let us put aside every encumbrance and let us put aside the sin. 00:08:08.060 |
But in the Greek, there's only one imperative in the Greek. 00:08:12.920 |
In English, it sounds like there's a lot of instructions going on. 00:08:15.840 |
But the only imperative in these three verses is let us run. 00:08:22.220 |
And so what that means is everything else that he says here are supporting, supporting 00:08:28.800 |
How do we run this race with endurance, right? 00:08:31.840 |
And so that's what we're going to be focusing on today and tomorrow and possibly the week 00:08:38.500 |
Since you know all of this, if you truly believe that Christ is supreme over everything that 00:08:45.180 |
we are tempted by, everything else in this world, if that's the case, therefore, let 00:08:51.140 |
us run this race with endurance, the race that is set before us. 00:08:55.180 |
So there are four things that I want to highlight and I outlined it this way. 00:09:15.300 |
Usually I don't come up with these clever outlines. 00:09:22.180 |
So even if it doesn't fit well, let's just go with it, okay? 00:09:26.600 |
So the first instruction in running with endurance, he says to look forward, meaning to look at 00:09:33.460 |
The final prize that God did not set us here just to start the race. 00:09:41.580 |
We started this race in order so that we can finish this race. 00:09:46.580 |
You know, in 1968 in Mexico City, there was a marathon that took place and all the winners 00:09:57.000 |
So they already had the ceremony to award the gold medal, the silver medal, and the 00:10:03.000 |
And as they were wrapping up the ceremony, there was this one man that came into the 00:10:07.500 |
stadium by himself, John Stephan Akwari from Tanzania. 00:10:11.940 |
And it was a strange sight because even the ceremony was all done. 00:10:19.460 |
So if you didn't know the context, you'd say, "Well, this guy is stubborn." 00:10:24.500 |
You know, clearly, I mean, it must be embarrassing for him to run so late. 00:10:30.500 |
Because after everybody was done, he was just kind of limping into the stadium. 00:10:34.380 |
But what happened to him is about midway through the run, this man from Tanzania basically 00:10:43.420 |
He bruised his shoulder, his head on the ground, and then he actually dislocated his knee. 00:10:49.620 |
And so he didn't know if he was going to be able to run, but he was so determined, he 00:10:55.220 |
He began to limp, and he limped the other about 12, 13 miles. 00:11:01.260 |
And so that's why it took him so many hours to get in. 00:11:03.300 |
And as he was limping in, the people knew what had happened to him. 00:11:07.460 |
And just the fact that he finished, they gave him a standing ovation. 00:11:12.180 |
And he's known as the greatest last place finisher in Olympic history. 00:11:17.100 |
And that's why we talk about him today, even though this happened in 1968. 00:11:21.180 |
So after all the things were over, they came and asked him, an interviewer said, "Why 00:11:26.860 |
did you go through that excruciating pain of running 13 hours with a dislocated knee?" 00:11:34.460 |
And his answer was this, "My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. 00:11:50.740 |
He justified us, and then we just kind of trickle in, into the finish line. 00:11:56.900 |
The reason why he writes this, the whole letter, is to get people who are drifting. 00:12:03.100 |
They were drifting because they were simply neglecting their faith. 00:12:07.340 |
You know, backsliding doesn't happen because you wake up one day and say, "You know what? 00:12:16.820 |
Most people, it just happens simply out of neglect. 00:12:20.940 |
You get busy in life, you start making a little bit of money, you travel a little bit, you 00:12:27.820 |
buy this and you buy that, and after a while, your priorities kind of mixed up. 00:12:33.300 |
Have children and just busyness of life, concerns of this world. 00:12:37.940 |
And so we start to neglect our walk with God. 00:12:41.380 |
And that's why the whole letter, he doesn't say, "Don't reject Jesus. 00:12:48.260 |
How can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? 00:12:51.620 |
And he keeps saying, warns us about drifting. 00:13:04.660 |
Just breathe in the fresh air and you just start drifting. 00:13:10.340 |
And so he, the whole letter is written to people who are just kind of drifting because 00:13:17.540 |
Our natural tendency is when we're young, we're ideological and say, "We're going to 00:13:23.700 |
And we're in college surrounded by friends who are encouraging us, almost shaming us 00:13:31.540 |
If you're in college and you're not doing well in your faith, you get persecuted. 00:13:41.620 |
And all of a sudden you graduate and then you get a job and you don't have that pressure 00:13:47.660 |
In fact, you know, where in college you were like 80%, you had this accountability. 00:13:53.380 |
Now majority of the time with non-Christians where it's difficult to live your faith. 00:13:58.740 |
And then you struggle for a little bit when you're young and then a lot of people by the 00:14:02.260 |
time they're in their mid-20s has kind of accepted that. 00:14:07.100 |
And so you do a little bit of church and a little bit of this, a little bit of that. 00:14:10.020 |
And by the time you're in your 30s, your heart has hardened. 00:14:14.660 |
And so you created a Christianity that doesn't really look anything like the Bible. 00:14:19.500 |
And you just assume, "Well, maybe that was true of them. 00:14:23.380 |
Maybe it's just for the apostles, but not for everybody." 00:14:26.980 |
And so we end up prioritizing other things in this life, knowing full well that it's 00:14:32.860 |
Knowing full well we're just sojourners passing by, but we just simply out of neglect. 00:14:40.260 |
And when we neglect our salvation, we end up compromising. 00:14:45.540 |
So when trials come, temptations come, when we are tested, it's much easier to compromise 00:14:50.820 |
when we've been neglecting our faith, when we haven't been striving after the things 00:14:54.820 |
And then when we are in a compromised state, apostasy isn't far away. 00:15:00.840 |
So backsliding doesn't happen one day you wake up. 00:15:05.620 |
And that's what he was trying to say to the runners here, to the listeners, the recipients 00:15:13.880 |
That it's not enough that you started this race, you need to finish this race. 00:15:18.840 |
God didn't justify you so that you can just fizzle out sometime five years, 10 years, 00:15:24.680 |
We have a tendency, the older I get, the more I hear this. 00:15:35.420 |
And it's very dangerous when you're 30 years old and you begin to say, "Oh, when I was 00:15:51.760 |
And then the 40 year olds hear that and it's like, "Oh my God, you're only 30 and you're 00:16:01.900 |
And then the 50 year olds will hear that and it's like, "Oh my gosh, you little infants. 00:16:09.600 |
And I'm sure the 60 year olds don't even say anything because it is just so ridiculous. 00:16:17.620 |
You know what ends up happening is physically we don't retire until we're in our 60s and 00:16:24.800 |
But so many people retire spiritually in their late 20s and early 30s. 00:16:31.440 |
That this striving after God, this running with all our might, that's something you do 00:16:36.480 |
But as we get older, we have to raise kids, we have jobs, we have responsibilities. 00:16:46.640 |
You know, and then we just like, "Oh, it's great to see the younger ones living out their 00:16:59.160 |
See, God is calling us to finish this race, to finish what he started, to be justified, 00:17:06.760 |
to be sanctified, and to ultimately be glorified. 00:17:10.760 |
And that's why the word that is used here for this race is agonai, a marathon, not a 00:17:18.760 |
Our natural inclination is to give attention to the sprinters. 00:17:36.360 |
I don't know what his time is, but he's really fast. 00:17:46.960 |
You don't have to be a track and field, like a connoisseur, I don't know what it is, like 00:17:58.560 |
He makes commercials because we naturally gravitate towards the sprinters. 00:18:06.680 |
Unless you're some weirdo who likes to run marathons, most of you, most of you probably 00:18:20.560 |
The fastest recorded marathon runner is a guy named Eliud Kipchoge, which you're not 00:18:26.520 |
going to remember and neither will I after today. 00:18:29.480 |
His time was set in 2018 Berlin Marathon, and his fastest time recorded is two hours 00:18:40.160 |
We don't keep track of that, or at least the record keepers do, but most people don't know 00:18:44.880 |
because we naturally gravitate toward the sprinters. 00:18:49.440 |
And even in our spiritual walk, we have a tendency to elevate people who are sprinters. 00:18:56.240 |
They're gifted, they're talented, they have large churches, wrote great books, and they 00:19:00.600 |
write great things, have great blogs, have more than a million followers on Facebook 00:19:11.240 |
But the ones who are just chipping away, just being faithful in the background, they don't 00:19:21.040 |
A lot of people just kind of flash and then once they're done with the sprint, they're 00:19:33.320 |
And that's the word that is used here to describe a Christian walk. 00:19:36.680 |
In other parts of the Bible, our spiritual life is described as a struggle, a strife, 00:19:42.920 |
a wrestling, a boxing match, and even warfare. 00:19:52.960 |
In modern day history with the church growth movement, we hear a lot of talk about the 00:20:07.680 |
But I think the problem with that is a lot of people in our generation only see the church 00:20:12.600 |
as a hospital, a place to be loved and be safe. 00:20:16.800 |
But when we start talking about agonizing and struggling and striving and warfare, it 00:20:25.200 |
Even though the Bible clearly states, I mean, if you're talking about percentage, more of 00:20:31.000 |
our spiritual life is described as agonizing, where we get the word agony. 00:20:37.760 |
And we are challenged not only to simply sign up for the race, but to run as to win. 00:20:44.800 |
In 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27, Paul says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race 00:21:02.880 |
Because the Corinthians got entangled with who's better, who's more spiritual. 00:21:08.560 |
You know, I like Apostle Paul, I like Apollos, I like Peter, and then some is like, I like 00:21:18.260 |
So they were competing with each other, all kinds of chaos in the church, and they've 00:21:24.640 |
taken their eyes off of where they were supposed to go. 00:21:27.240 |
And so the whole letter is written to kind of encourage them and to rebuke them to get 00:21:33.320 |
That you're just satisfied that you're on this journey, you signed up, and you're comparing 00:21:40.540 |
And that's why he's saying, everybody runs, but to run to win. 00:21:47.700 |
You know, some people who just kind of get on into the race, sign up for the race, you 00:21:53.160 |
know, but you can clearly tell that they're not there to really win. 00:21:57.240 |
You know, they wear the wrong shoes, you know, maybe they got a coat on because it's cold, 00:22:04.160 |
and they're talking and chatting with their friends while they're running. 00:22:07.160 |
You know, they're high-fiving their friends, they're posing for pictures. 00:22:11.820 |
You could tell who's in this race to tell their friends that they ran the marathon, 00:22:17.320 |
even though it took them four and a half days, right? 00:22:20.440 |
Because they're not interested in the race itself. 00:22:23.060 |
They're interested in the fact that they actually went. 00:22:30.740 |
But the ones who want to win, you know, they got the proper shoes on. 00:22:35.200 |
Sometimes they won't even pick up a drink because they're afraid it's going to slow 00:22:38.680 |
They're not going to sit and like take pictures while they're running, because that few seconds 00:22:45.760 |
And so Paul says, we all run the race, but he said, you need to run to win the race. 00:22:51.700 |
Not just be satisfied that you are in the race. 00:22:54.880 |
Verse 25, everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. 00:23:00.440 |
Self-control meaning everything is determined by this race. 00:23:06.400 |
They practice this self-control by asking themselves, is this going to benefit me or 00:23:15.680 |
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 00:23:21.820 |
Even non-Christians pack up their bags and their young children and they'll go to a very 00:23:26.240 |
difficult part of the world, living a very difficult life because they believe that that 00:23:32.260 |
will give them the greatest success in this world. 00:23:37.600 |
Maybe that's where you want to go because you'll get the greatest amount of money. 00:23:44.200 |
They'll live in Alaska because the pay is much better. 00:23:46.720 |
So even the secular world will sacrifice many things and be disciplined to get an imperishable 00:23:54.560 |
And so Paul is using that as saying, everybody practices this. 00:23:58.880 |
How much more should we for what is imperishable? 00:24:01.720 |
If they do it for perishable, we should do it for imperishable. 00:24:05.400 |
Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. 00:24:10.640 |
Not without aim, meaning that there's no clear goal. 00:24:15.000 |
That everything that we do is what makes me happy today. 00:24:31.520 |
But that's kind of like the mantra of our day. 00:24:47.280 |
Nobody's hitting you and you're not hitting anybody. 00:24:51.400 |
And you don't need to train for shadow boxing. 00:24:57.600 |
And there's no goal of knocking anybody else out. 00:25:02.700 |
So when you're shadow boxing without aim, it doesn't matter if you pray. 00:25:07.780 |
It doesn't matter because you're not trying to knock anybody out. 00:25:16.820 |
If you have the number on your chest, that's enough. 00:25:25.400 |
So if you do Bible study, you do Bible study because your church asks you to do Bible study. 00:25:33.640 |
The Word of God, all it is is just information. 00:25:40.600 |
If I don't do it, there's no effect because I'm not necessarily using the Bible for any 00:25:46.720 |
other purpose other than to show people that's what I'm doing. 00:25:50.880 |
So if you're shadow boxing, it's enough to just go through the motion. 00:25:54.360 |
If you're shadow boxing, it's enough to just attend church. 00:25:59.660 |
But if you're committed to the struggle to win, shadow boxing is nothing. 00:26:08.000 |
And that's what he's trying to tell the Corinthians. 00:26:18.280 |
And that's part of the reason why prayer in our generation is so weak because we're just 00:26:26.480 |
If you are wrestling to bring non-Christians to Christ, no amount of strategy, no amount 00:26:33.680 |
of reading books, no amount of learning, no amount of talent can change a man's heart. 00:26:43.520 |
And it forces us to recognize that what God asks us to do is beyond us. 00:26:50.620 |
So if you're not wrestling and there's no clear aim and just going through the motion, 00:27:05.720 |
I showed up to praise and prayer and I did the assignment. 00:27:11.440 |
But when we are wrestling to win, that's where the struggle comes in. 00:27:17.360 |
But again, like I said, the greatest struggle in our generation and where you and I live 00:27:23.440 |
is that the normal, the normal average Christian behavior is shadow boxing. 00:27:30.320 |
There's a lot of spiritual things that are happening. 00:27:44.760 |
If you get too excited about your faith, one of the first things that you'll hear from 00:28:14.760 |
And so we have all these things that we say to kind of calm everybody down so that we 00:28:20.120 |
can kind of live a average life and just kind of coast along. 00:28:27.360 |
And if you get beyond this, like, oh, he's a fanatic. 00:28:31.000 |
And if you get really serious, why aren't you in ministry? 00:28:37.200 |
So if you're passionate about God, right, and you're wrestling and struggling, you belong 00:28:43.720 |
The rest of us, we're just going to sit back and watch you. 00:28:52.920 |
He said, to run, therefore, considering the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, 00:28:58.000 |
let us run this race with endurance, to finish this race. 00:29:03.160 |
In Amos chapter 6, verse 1, the greatest problem of the Israelites was not that they weren't 00:29:11.840 |
In fact, during that period, right before the Assyrians came and took them into captivity, 00:29:17.440 |
there were more sacrifices were given at that temple than probably any other time before 00:29:23.880 |
But the primary message of the prophets that God sent was that all that you're doing is 00:29:36.800 |
In Amos chapter 6, verse 1, it says, "Woe to those who are in ease in Zion." 00:29:53.840 |
And those who feel secure in mountain of Samaria, meaning they relied on their topography, right? 00:30:01.560 |
When the enemies come, we have this great mountain to fight on, and we can conquer all 00:30:06.480 |
Ease at Zion and feel secure at Mount Samaria. 00:30:10.760 |
Again, in Amos chapter 6, 4 through 6, those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on 00:30:17.520 |
their couches, beds of ivory, which you and I don't have, right? 00:30:25.720 |
But modern-day version of it would be your memory foam, right? 00:30:31.280 |
Those who recline on your nice king-size memory foam and sprawl on your recliners and eat 00:30:39.080 |
lambs from flock and calves from the midst of the stall, your Korean barbecues, who improvise 00:30:49.700 |
And like David has composed songs for themselves, who drink wine from the sacrificial bowls 00:30:55.200 |
while they anoint themselves with finest oil, skincare. 00:30:59.360 |
Now, is this saying that all of this is sin, that we can't sleep on bed? 00:31:05.520 |
Now we've got to sleep on cement ground, right? 00:31:19.440 |
There are plenty of people who are very wealthy who did godly things with their finances. 00:31:25.960 |
He says, "Yet you have all of these great things that God gave you because he blessed 00:31:33.120 |
God wasn't saying like, "All my children need to be poor and be suffering and can't have 00:31:38.960 |
He said, "I blessed you with all these things, yet they have not grieved over the ruin of 00:31:46.320 |
When it came to the things that really mattered, instead of seeing these good things as a blessing 00:31:52.400 |
to use for God's glory, you just self-indulge and that's all it was. 00:31:58.360 |
You use all the blessings, all the finances, all the things you have so that we can live 00:32:05.200 |
And when it came to lost souls who are going to be judged when God comes, you just kind 00:32:15.200 |
And that's why the judgment was coming, of their constant shadow boxing without really 00:32:27.340 |
Everything that he said up to this point, "Therefore," knowing all of this that I've 00:32:32.320 |
said, knowing all of this of who Jesus is, "Therefore, let us finish this race. 00:32:40.400 |
He says the word for endurance is literally "hupomone," it means to submit. 00:32:46.920 |
It means to place yourself, to bear yourself under pressure. 00:32:52.520 |
And the reason why he says this to them is because they did well in the sprint. 00:32:59.560 |
In fact, in the sprint, these guys were Usain Bolts. 00:33:03.620 |
They got there fast and they were celebrating even their material goods being confiscated. 00:33:08.960 |
People were going to jail and they're like, "Man, we're being persecuted for Christ." 00:33:12.600 |
But then when they realized it was a marathon, they started slowly, started being discouraged. 00:33:17.560 |
It's like, "Oh shoot, they're actually dying. 00:33:22.720 |
You know, it wasn't like Joseph where he suffered and then at the end he was magnified 00:33:32.520 |
They realized maybe they're Jeremiah, you know, that this suffering wasn't going to 00:33:39.640 |
And they started drifting out and that's why he says not only to run this race, to 00:33:46.080 |
Because our natural tendency is when we're under pressure, either to change our circumstance 00:33:57.040 |
So our immediate action is to change our circumstance. 00:34:03.680 |
We lived it with this tension between heaven, we're not there yet and we're saved. 00:34:08.920 |
So we're kind of in this middle ground and because of that we feel pressure. 00:34:19.240 |
And we're living nice but we feel people suffering. 00:34:22.760 |
We know people who don't know Christ and we feel like we need to share the gospel with 00:34:28.080 |
We're going to lose our job and we're living with this tension. 00:34:30.720 |
So our natural tendency is change our circumstance, change our neighborhood, change our job because 00:34:47.920 |
Oh, they're not interpreting the Bible correctly. 00:34:55.160 |
And so we change our theology so we create a theology that accommodates this easy life. 00:35:03.800 |
But the Bible says this pressure is normal because we're aliens and strangers. 00:35:09.760 |
It's when we think that there is no pressure, there is no longer this struggle, that you've 00:35:15.800 |
run this race and let the kids take care of it. 00:35:18.440 |
And we're just kind of coasting along and then when you see the waves coming, we got 00:35:25.200 |
And yet the Bible constantly reminds us of this pressure that we are under. 00:35:33.160 |
That is normal because we're aliens and strangers in this world, in a foreign land that is hostile 00:35:38.240 |
to the message that you and I have embraced and loved. 00:35:45.220 |
So he says do not think it's strange when they don't accept you. 00:35:48.640 |
Do not think it's strange when you don't belong, when you don't fit in. 00:35:53.480 |
Do not think it's strange when you say things that are straight out of the Bible and they 00:36:01.000 |
Do not think it's strange because we live in a fallen world that is hostile toward God. 00:36:04.760 |
So those children who actively follow Christ are also going to face some sort of hostility. 00:36:18.120 |
That pressure that you feel as an alien and stranger in this world is supposed to be there. 00:36:27.860 |
That's a part of a reminder that we don't belong. 00:36:31.920 |
And our constant wrestling and tweaking and planning to have it better fit in this world 00:36:41.740 |
To make the church as palatable as possible so that the people who have committed to the 00:36:46.720 |
pattern of this world can feel at home in the church is what's killing the church. 00:36:53.520 |
This is a completely different kingdom with a completely different king. 00:36:57.960 |
And our followers are supposed to be completely different. 00:37:01.680 |
So this struggle, this agony, this wrestling match, this warfare that we are a part of, 00:37:11.560 |
Don't forget the race that we're in, that we're in this struggle, we're in this battle. 00:37:21.720 |
He says to consider as we fix our eyes on this path to look back, consider the cloud 00:37:32.560 |
Not that they are looking at us, cheering us on. 00:37:34.880 |
He said no, they've been set before us as examples for us to follow. 00:37:40.240 |
Some of them endured much agony and God delivered them. 00:37:45.000 |
And so they were all mentioned in chapter 11. 00:37:46.960 |
And then some of them, no fanfare, no great hoopla, no names being written, just died 00:37:59.400 |
And whether they saw any glory, whether they died in a difficult situation, they all finished 00:38:08.560 |
And that's exactly what Paul says at the end of his life. 00:38:14.840 |
He doesn't give a compliment, I planted a church here and I did this and I wrote so 00:38:22.080 |
At the end of his life and he's summarizing his life, he says my life is being poured 00:38:26.800 |
out as a drink offering, meaning I'm going to die. 00:38:34.480 |
You know, I think every single one of us, if I asked you what's your favorite character 00:38:38.640 |
in the Bible and you would probably name somebody, right? 00:38:45.080 |
Me like automatically I would say Moses is one of those guys, right? 00:38:50.760 |
And it's not because of his great leadership. 00:38:53.800 |
Moses is a guy that always stands up to me as an encouragement too because this guy came 00:38:57.840 |
into ministry kicking and screaming, you know? 00:39:01.200 |
And I told you last week, Jeremiah is another guy, you know, because he's agonizing. 00:39:05.800 |
I mean, if you're too happy one day and you want to balance some of that, read Lamentations, 00:39:21.640 |
And then you're going to have to go to Philippines to bring you back up. 00:39:25.680 |
Jeremiah is a guy who's just like, oh, he's like, why? 00:39:32.760 |
You know, the letter that I gravitate toward is 2 Peter and 2 Timothy. 00:39:38.800 |
I mean, man, 2 Peter is hard to read, you know? 00:39:43.000 |
I mean, he risked his life to bring the gospel to these people and they're saying, because 00:39:47.080 |
they didn't like what he had to say, it's like, that guy's not an apostle, right? 00:39:51.240 |
I mean, his letters are strong, but his appearance is not impressive, right? 00:40:02.360 |
And the only reason why he's defending himself is because he's trying to tell them to listen. 00:40:10.840 |
And then Apostle Paul, the last letter he writes, he basically tells Timothy, don't 00:40:19.480 |
They love the world more than God, and so they went back. 00:40:24.120 |
He said, you preach, even if they don't want to listen, in season and out of season. 00:40:28.660 |
You keep preaching it, even if they don't want to listen. 00:40:38.640 |
You know, I've always gravitated toward these people, and only recently I realized, like, 00:40:48.680 |
They're all people who are reluctant, but remain faithful. 00:40:54.320 |
And I find great encouragement in them, not because of the great things that they've done, 00:41:01.840 |
They had their eyes on the prize, and they just made it to the end. 00:41:24.040 |
I mean, we put it on, you know, plaques, and we quote it. 00:42:06.200 |
And so living in a fallen world is naturally, there's going to be struggles. 00:42:12.480 |
There's struggles when you're young, and there's struggles that come when you're old. 00:42:18.640 |
There's a struggle because you're single, and then there's struggles that come because 00:42:26.560 |
There's a kind of struggle that comes because you don't have children, and there's a kind 00:42:31.320 |
of struggle that comes because you have children. 00:42:35.280 |
There's a struggle that you have from being unemployed, and there's a kind of struggle 00:42:43.320 |
When you're working, when you're retired, every stage of life, there's a struggle because 00:42:54.160 |
The struggle isn't just the first mile, or the second mile, or the eighth mile, or the 00:43:02.600 |
Until we finish the line, finish and finish this race, the marathon isn't over. 00:43:07.960 |
So until our life is over, there is no real rest. 00:43:23.720 |
Look at the people that have gone before us as an example. 00:43:28.040 |
You know, I mentioned all these people, and Martin Luther, and James Frazier, and Jim 00:43:32.520 |
These are people that made an impact in my life in reading the biography. 00:43:36.280 |
But now as a bit older, I look back at my life and say, you know, probably outside of 00:43:43.520 |
my immediate family, the guy who discipled me when I was in college, and he discipled 00:43:48.000 |
me for about three years, probably made the biggest impact. 00:43:51.280 |
And part of the reason why is because I was so hungry. 00:43:55.320 |
And he just, he wasn't gifted, he wasn't necessarily, said something, I don't remember a single 00:44:01.880 |
I should have listened to him better, but it wasn't because of anything he said. 00:44:09.120 |
And he dedicated himself to be there when I needed him. 00:44:18.520 |
We have a tendency to put people on a pedestal that are far off. 00:44:23.000 |
That's why we write books about, you know, Martin Luther. 00:44:25.400 |
And every once in a while, I'll read, you know, stories of missionaries, like, oh, you 00:44:28.440 |
know, like, Jim Elliot did this, and, you know, we had Amy Carmichael woke up at three 00:44:33.760 |
in the morning and, and, you know, visited 50 villages and brought 10,000 people to Christ. 00:44:41.200 |
And it's like challenging, but like, who does that? 00:44:47.400 |
Martin Luther, you know, like, we have a cult from him, it's like, oh, you know, when he 00:44:51.160 |
was busy, he prayed four hours, but when he was really busy, he prayed seven hours. 00:45:01.480 |
But we have a tendency to kind of highlight the good things from people from a distance 00:45:04.960 |
and then say, well, these are cloud of witnesses that have gone before us. 00:45:10.960 |
You know, you go to funerals and, and no flawed people ever die. 00:45:19.080 |
Because at the funeral, they're perfect, because we don't highlight their flaws. 00:45:24.100 |
So we tend to appreciate people who are more farther away, because we highlight the good 00:45:32.600 |
But the greatest cloud of witnesses in our lives are usually very, very flawed people 00:45:40.980 |
People that we know their flaws very well, inside and out. 00:45:51.840 |
But they dedicated their life to help us, to love us, to persevere with us. 00:45:58.280 |
And we don't usually appreciate them until they're gone. 00:46:01.840 |
And it isn't until we're way older, we look back and say, well, it's like, you know, you 00:46:13.880 |
Or Moses, you know, like all the hard years of my life, Moses, like really was the one 00:46:22.480 |
Usually at the end of our lives, we mention somebody obscure that nobody else would know, 00:46:32.120 |
Maybe you did a lot of complaining about them. 00:46:37.640 |
You know, the older I get, the more I realize how much of my dad's faith is in me. 00:46:49.680 |
You know, when I get to heaven, I'm sure, you know, I'll tell him. 00:46:52.880 |
But when I got saved, I got saved in a charismatic group. 00:46:57.760 |
My dad was a Presbyterian conservative all his life. 00:47:00.280 |
So I've never seen like, you know, outpouring and like emotions. 00:47:04.280 |
And it was just preach the Bible and sing the hymns. 00:47:07.360 |
And to me, it was dead because I didn't understand it. 00:47:11.500 |
So I got saved in a charismatic church where we were, you know, praying and, you know, 00:47:20.120 |
And my dad's faith seemed very foreign to me, very legalistic. 00:47:27.480 |
And then after I got a little bit older, I became a Baptist. 00:47:41.640 |
He taught Greek and Hebrew, wrote a book on church history. 00:47:44.960 |
And I couldn't read it because it was in Korean. 00:47:48.400 |
Neither did I really want to because I felt like there was such a distance between his 00:47:56.600 |
It wasn't until I got older, I started realizing how much of his day to day, day to day, the 00:48:05.360 |
way he lived, who he was, made an impact on my life. 00:48:12.780 |
I don't remember too well when he was 30 because obviously I was too young. 00:48:16.920 |
And I kind of vaguely remember him in his 40s because I was a teenager at the time. 00:48:22.360 |
But I was in my 20s and probably already married, you know, by the time he was my age around 00:48:29.360 |
So I remember very vividly how I felt, the conversations I've had with the brief things 00:48:34.240 |
that he said here and there and how much I hated him telling me about ministry. 00:48:38.560 |
I hated it because he would because he saw how I was struggling and he would always give 00:48:44.840 |
me ministry advice and I didn't want to hear it. 00:48:48.680 |
I didn't want to hear it because I was already struggling. 00:48:53.040 |
And I didn't want my dad pointing out like do this and do that. 00:49:01.920 |
I don't read the books that you do and I don't want it. 00:49:04.680 |
So anything he said, it was just kind of like, okay, okay, you know, I'm trying to be respectful, 00:49:12.440 |
So when I thought about my faith, I always thought about these great people and the people 00:49:16.720 |
that made an impact, even though it was only for two, three years in my life. 00:49:20.880 |
But the older I get, I hear myself saying, my dad said this. 00:49:35.400 |
It's just the things that is the most prevalent in my head are the things that my dad said 00:49:40.680 |
and sometimes in passing that it just kind of came in. 00:49:45.760 |
And I look back in my life and realizing the greatest cloud of witness was in my house, 00:49:55.440 |
And I remember very vividly, specifically this one time, and I was already a pastor, 00:49:59.880 |
oh, not a pastor, but I was a committed Christian, really grown in my faith. 00:50:05.000 |
And I went to my dad's church and there was a lot of turmoil at the church and people 00:50:09.400 |
at the church were trying to vote my dad out. 00:50:15.280 |
And so something happened and I was in the Wednesday service and one of the elders stood 00:50:19.440 |
up after the sermon and tried to physically attack my dad. 00:50:24.040 |
It wasn't a big room, probably no more than about 25 people in the room. 00:50:28.720 |
And I was sitting between my dad and that elder. 00:50:31.840 |
And when he got up and he started to go toward my dad, all I could think of was if I was 00:50:37.760 |
not a Christian, that's all I was thinking about. 00:50:41.400 |
If I wasn't a Christian, I would put him in an arm bar, you know, and this is before MMA, 00:50:50.320 |
I would have twisted his legs and did something and it's like, how dare you, you know? 00:50:55.720 |
Because I was a Christian, I was trying to hold back. 00:50:58.560 |
Like I don't want to, as offended as I was, I didn't want to, I didn't want to offend 00:51:04.240 |
So I kind of held my tongue and just sat there and watched this and burning in anger, but 00:51:11.600 |
You know, my dad's character, you know, I can't remember any time that he actually lost 00:51:23.160 |
But I remember specifically that Sunday, after that Wednesday, he came to Sunday worship 00:51:28.920 |
and he was preaching a sermon in front of the same elder, in front of a room filled 00:51:33.960 |
with people who are trying to get him out of the church. 00:51:41.120 |
All I remember was sitting in there angry at the people in the church and the whole 00:51:46.160 |
time looking at my dad thinking, how does he do this? 00:51:54.880 |
Like what, what, like what do you need to have to do what he's doing and just not quit? 00:52:03.120 |
And I realized at the end, and again, all of this was just kind of deep in my memory 00:52:08.080 |
until recently, I remember that so vividly and the greatest impact, the greatest cloud 00:52:16.120 |
of witness was somebody that I never even thanked. 00:52:21.720 |
Oh man, I didn't lose it in the first service. 00:52:38.720 |
James, a bond servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes who are dispersed 00:53:11.440 |
I'm pretty sure in your life, flawed people, probably very flawed people and in their flawed 00:53:24.320 |
state, they did their best to reflect the love of God. 00:53:34.320 |
I pray that as we do our best to finish this race, think of the cloud of witnesses that 00:53:49.800 |
Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect 00:53:54.880 |
Actually, the verse actually fits so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in 00:54:02.520 |
So that one day when this race is finished, we can thank them ourselves. 00:54:15.200 |
Let's take a few minutes to, to really come before the Lord and pray. 00:54:30.840 |
And I know that to bigger or smaller degree that the struggle is constant. 00:54:41.600 |
Let's come before the Lord and ask for strength to remain under the struggle and persevere 00:54:48.160 |
so that we may also finish the race along with those who have gone before us. 00:54:53.160 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.