Finishing the Race

SERMON: 2017-10-08--ac17183--finishing-the-race-part-5 SOURCE DURATION: 00:52:47.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the speaker setting up the main theological exposition (running the race of Christian life) and concludes with a final exhortation/benediction, making all segments part of the continuous sermon material. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, I pointed out last week that as we seek to run the race of the Christian life, and as we seek to accomplish successfully the tasks that God has assigned to us, we are bound to run into the three traditional obstacles to the Christian faith. You'll recall they are the devil, the world, and the flesh. The flesh we saw is our sinful human nature, which neither can nor will submit to God. I said last week, don't ever be surprised when inside yourself you find a resistance to submitting to God or to doing His will. That comes naturally to all of the children of Adam. Even Paul said, "The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not do, that is what I do." We saw too that the world, the people all around us, combined together to fight the Christian life. Jesus said, "Don't be surprised that the world hates you. They hated me. If you're my follower, they're going to hate you also." The third enemy of course is the devil himself, who through deception and temptation and accusation will do whatever he can to discourage us along the way. Just to show you how real that is, I'm going to ask Penny Slimmons to come up here for a moment. She caught me after the service last week, and she told me some of her story in recent weeks having received a remarkable healing of the Lord. Come on up, Penny, and how real the spiritual warfare for her has been since that time. This I was telling Pastor John is not a pretty story, but it's a true story. I just felt the need to talk to Pastor John about it, because as Satan would have it, he would like to keep us in isolation, so I kept myself in isolation with the battle that was going on. I'm going to come out of isolation, and I'm sorry, Powell. Powell didn't even know that I was having this struggle, because that's another thing that Satan uses is shame. He put me into shame. He put me into isolation, because those of you who know me here know that I've had a miraculous healing, and that was just awesome. But before that, Powell and I, and in my life, my personal life alone, I have had many struggles, and God has been so good to deliver me from that, from the tumor I had with no ill effects, and it's just miraculous. I'm reminded of the verse, 1 Corinthians 10-12, "Be careful if you think you are standing firm, that you don't fall." So Satan is roaring, walking around, ready to devour us, because what happened to me after that wonderful healing, and thinking that I would never, ever question God again? How on earth could I question God? For all that he, that Christ has done in me, would you think you could ever be deceived? You sure can, because then the enemy took that, and when Lesley Ann passed away, sort of got into my thinking, and started saying to me, "But who are you?" That he would save you, and that he would not save other people. Is this really God? Is this just a random thing? Was that tumor really there? Or was it just a blip on the CAT scan? And you know, you think you know your own mind, but be very careful, because I started, it was a crack in that armour, and the enemy tried to take what was good, and what would glorify God, and in my mind, start deceiving me, and making me think that wasn't true, and that, "Well, I'm not even as good as Lesley Ann, and that can't be true. He can't do that." And so I wrestled with that, and I just kept going to my Bible, and I kept having faith. And then one morning, at Tim Hortons, no, yes, it was one morning at Tim Hortons, we were meeting with some of the people we meet there, and we just try to witness to, and one of the people there showed me this Facebook clip, and the gist of the clip was, if archaeologists can find bones from six million years ago, and they can't find any archaeological evidence of Jesus when he walked on this earth just from 2000 years ago, sorry, it's still very raw, then how can God be real? And so I started looking into that, and I really, really struggled, and I kept praying out to God, "God, if you're really there, please help me with this, because if you're not really there, I can't do this life. I don't want to do life. I will not do life if you are not the God you say you are." And so Pastor John's book has been, of course, timely in helping me walk through that, but I just felt that I needed to reach out, and Pastor John asked me to, and let you know that be careful if you think you're standing firm. Your faith, you think you can have great faith, and you would think that on the top of all that God has done for us that you won't fail, that he can never get in there, the enemy can't get in there, and use some tiny, small bits to get in your mind. And if I hadn't have made the habits that I do of staying in the Word and being at church and being with community and being to be, or just me being able to be honest with people, that he'll take you down. So I would covet your prayers. I would ask that you still continue to pray for me, because this is still a journey, and I've been claiming it is well with my soul, because somewhere in me, in my teaching, I know it is well with my soul. It may not look it right now, but I keep praying to that God that I know is there to help me through the storm. And so as a church community, I really, really encourage you to be honest and to let somebody know so that we can all pray for each other so that we may be healed. So I hope this is encouraging to all of you, that we are a community and God is still a God that is always there. And he will take this too, and he will turn it into something good for his glory, because the enemy, he can just be slammed, crush his head. We have an enemy of our souls, and the more determined we are to run the race, the more determined we are to complete the task God has assigned to us, the more we're going to be aware of the devil, the world, and the flesh. And the question is, how do we push through that so that we're not taken out as are so many people, but can stand one day before God without any wrinkle or blemish or spot or any such thing, because Scripture teaches us that God wants us to run the race successfully, and he wants us to complete our callings in life successfully. Listen again to these verses from Hebrews. I shared them with you last week. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. How do we run the race? Well, I ended last week with a testimony to the fact that ultimately our hope, of course, lies in the person of Jesus Christ. And the verse that really sums it up the best, I believe, is Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy said before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Very familiar verse, but a couple of things in that verse that are really significant for us to lay hold of. And the first is the emphasis on, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus." Very interesting Greek word that is used here because the emphasis is not only on fixing on Jesus, but fixing on Jesus to the exclusion of everything else. That is to say, look away from everything else and only look to Jesus. And that's significant because as we run the race and as we encounter the obstacles along the way, the temptation, of course, is to begin focusing on the obstacles. Here's a dot. My body has passions and desires that are at odds with the will of God. And so that becomes my preoccupation. My friends oppose me and make it hard for me to live the Christian life. My husband, my wife, they're in disagreement with me. And that becomes the sum total of my thinking. And the devil throws obstacles, temptations, and lies into my life. And before I know it, I'm preoccupied with those stories. And it's good to live in the real world. It's good, as Penny just did, sharing with us the reality of the struggle. But if that's all we do, we're going to be discouraged and we're going to be blown out of the water because the obstacles will only become bigger, will they not? And so the writer to the Hebrew says, "What you gotta do is you gotta fix your eyes on Jesus." Ultimately, it is Jesus who is the one who is going to help us to get through that. And the reason for that, says the apostle who ever wrote the book of Hebrews, is that he is both the author and the perfecter of our faith. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Now, I referred to this verse a number of weeks ago, but I want to come back to these two terms and enlarge on them just a little bit because there is so much wisdom in those two terms. Let's look at each of them in turn. First of all, he is the author of our faith. The word author can also be translated as prince or champion or pioneer. I really like the term pioneer because Jesus is author of our faith in at least two dimensions. The first is he cleared the path back to the Father for us. He pioneered the road. Think of it this way, he is the first member of the human race, remember he was fully human, he was the first member of the human race to successfully live his life faithfully before God and to complete the tasks that God has assigned to him. Before he died, he was able to say that jobs that you've given me, I have completed them. And the reason he was able to do that is because he was born of the Virgin Mary, but conceived of the Holy Spirit. See, why do you and I have such a hard time living faithfully before God all the days of our lives? Well, it's because we share in Adam's fallen sinful human nature. We are conceived and born in sin, that is the true human condition. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He didn't share Adam's sinful nature. He was born of the Virgin Mary and still fully human. Please remember this, he was human. He wasn't just God in the flesh, he was fully, fully human. And because he was fully human for that reason, there was no sinful flesh in him to pull him away from God. Because there was no sinful flesh in him, the world couldn't get at him, he overcame the world. And because there was no sinful flesh in him, Satan had no hold over his life. And so though the devil threw everything but the kitchen sink at him, tempted him in all things like you and I are tempted, Jesus never went under. Isn't that an amazing thing? He always loved God above all and he always loved his neighbor. He loved his neighbor as he loved himself. And so for that reason, he pioneered the way. Does that make sense? He completed the journey. In Jesus, you have the first member of the human race who succeeded where Adam failed. That's what Paul talks about in Romans 5 verse 19 when he says, "Justice through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous." See the contrast? The disobedience of the one got us all into trouble. The obedience of the other sets the road for us to be declared righteous before God. So author of our faith means that Jesus does everything that needs to be done so that you and I can be saved before God. He is the production model, if you will, of a new creation. He succeeded where all of us have failed. That's one way in which he is the author, but there's a second way in which he is the author of our faith, and that is he creates faith in us. He helps us to come to faith. I love the old hymn, "I know not why God's wonders grace. To me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for his own." Second verse "I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart." Verse three, "I know not how this spirit moves convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the word creating faith in him, but I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Think it through with me. How does a person come to faith? By nature we're self-sufficient. By nature we're antagonistic towards God. By nature we don't believe that he's there, or if he's there we don't believe that he's good, we don't like him, and we know that he doesn't like us, and so who needs God? I'll just do it myself. But by the word and through this spirit and by the circumstances of life, God will bring us to a place where we know that what we bring to the table is not enough. Can't be the kind of husband that I'm supposed to be, can't be the kind of wife that I'm supposed to be, can't face disaster with a stiff upper lip, I cannot walk, I can't love God above all, can't love my neighbor the way that I love myself. And out of that awareness of what the catechism calls my sin and misery, somewhere along the line I hear the good news of the gospel, that God so loved the world that he gave his Son. And I start to understand and to believe that he has done for me what I cannot do myself. And somewhere in the mystery of the new birth, the Holy Spirit brings me to that point where I bend the knee and I pray the sinner's prayer, whatever that looks like, and I say, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." And I come to salvation and I put my faith in Jesus. And I now understand two things about Jesus. The first is that by faith in him, I am already complete before God. That is to say, because I belong to Jesus, please run the race on my behalf, in him I have already finished the race, in him I have already completed the journey. That's hard to get our head around, but that's the doctrine of justification by faith. Whatever Christ attained, he attained for me, I'm already made complete. Paul talks about that in a verse that we often misread, Romans chapter 8, 29 and 30, where he says, "For those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Let me stop there a moment and point out that Jesus considers us his brothers, sisters, if you want to add that into it. He is the firstborn among many brothers. We're coheirs with him. What he has accomplished, he has accomplished for us. But then it goes on to say, "Those he predestined he also called, those he called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified." Now you've got to put your thinking cap on here, because what is the tense of that verb? He has glorified. You don't think of yourself as being in glory, and in the body, and in the here and now, you are not. But because you're in Christ, and he's glorified, from God's perspective, it's already done. It's already done. That's why you believe in Jesus. That because of Jesus, you're our heir of God, and you're coheir with Christ, and while it does not yet appear what we will be, you know that by faith in Christ, you're already there. That's why Penny keeps talking about faith. What clenches the fiery darts of the evil one? It is the shield of faith. You don't own me anymore. I don't care what it is that you throw at me. I don't care how many lies you give me in Christ, I am already secure. You know that verse, if we can put it up, that's an earlier verse. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. So in Christ, we're already there. He gives me that faith to understand that and believe that, and that's a progressive thing. But beyond that then, he works in my heart so that I can learn to trust him with the practical realities of running the race. And that brings us to the second element that is here, which is that he is not only the author of our faith, but he is also the perfecter of our faith. Other translations say he is the finisher of our faith. And the contrast here is he's at both ends, he's not only the author who brings us to faith, he is also the perfecter of our faith who will help us to keep on in the journey until we stand before God one day and inherit his kingdom. I can think this through with me. And again, Penny's story is a good illustration. We will not have been in Christ for very long before we discover that we've bit off more than we can chew. Isn't it true that the initial enthusiasm and the mind-blowing encounter with God and our experience of his goodness, well it tends to wear off fairly fast in the realities of life. Isn't that true? I mean, you think back, those of you that came to Christ at a later age, or for those of you that have had a spiritual awakening or encounter with Christ, remember the joy you had when first you got to know the Lord and you said to yourself, "I will never ever doubt again. And I know God's real and I know God loves me and boy, I am going to serve me all the days of my life." Isn't that true? You know, those were the days when you wanted to come to church. Those were the days when you wanted to sing praises to God. You wanted to read your Bible. You wanted to pray. You wanted to be with God's people. And then life happened. You know, the bottom fell out. You got sick. Your prayer didn't get answered. You were disappointed. Life was hard. And the devil found a crack in your armor, just like Penny was describing. And he put that little burning arrow in there. And you began to question. You know, I was happier before I came to Christ. I didn't have all these troubles that I have now. And where's God when you need him? And slowly but surely, even if outwardly you have kept up the pretense of faith, and many don't because they fall away and you never see them again, inwardly you close off your heart because it's just too hard and too difficult. Isn't that true? Isn't that why many Christians wipe out? Isn't that why many people make profession of faith? Many people say, "Oh, I want to love Jesus." And then a year later, two years later, five years later, they're nowhere to be found. Because having put their hand to the plow, they've looked behind and they've decided like demons of old, they fell in love with the world and they love the world more than they love Jesus. That's what the whole book of Hebrews deals with. These were people who'd come to faith. They loved Jesus and then trouble hit. And they said, "This isn't what we bargained for." Well, Jesus is not only the author of our faith, he is also the completion, the finisher of our faith. He helps us to walk it out no matter how many times we fall flat in our fannies, no matter how much trouble comes our way. He's promised we will not be tempted beyond the strength that he gives us or the way of escape that he provides. And he says in Philippians 1 verse 6, "One of the first verses I memorized in my own life when I came to a living relationship with Jesus, I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." I remember as a youngster lying in my bed saying to myself and to the Lord, "Lord, don't ever let me grow up like so many people that I know losing my faith and my hope in you." And Philippians 1 says that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. Jesus is not a quitter. And when he has brought you to faith and you abide in him by faith, he will help you run the race and endure all the obstacles, get back up no matter how many times you fall down until one day you stand before God and you hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little. I will put you over much." In the time that remains, I want to give you three ways in which Jesus is the finisher of our faith as well as the author. Number one, he shares his resources with us. Listen to these words from Hebrews chapter 4, 15 and 16, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin." Let me stop there. Jesus was tempted in every way like you and I are. You know, sometimes we have this disembodied view of Jesus that denies his humanity, and when we read about him facing the devil's temptations and all this other kind, we think, "Well, it didn't really take. Well, it didn't really take, but it was there and it was real and it would have been disastrous if he had said yes to Satan's temptations." But remember, where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. And so he was tempted. Don't ever think that you face a temptation that in principle Jesus has not already faced. And because he faced it without sinning, the text goes on to say, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." See, when by faith we're joined to Jesus, and you've often heard me talk about this, we're not only placed in Christ, but Christ is placed in us. His Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and His Holy Spirit imparts to us the life that we have in Christ. Our job is to obey those promptings of the Holy Spirit, allow Him to help us to put off the old and to put on the new, and to run the race that is before us. In John's Gospel, Jesus put it this way. He says, "It's for your good that I'm going away. The disciples were all upset. We can't do without you. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you." The counselor there is the periclate. It's the Holy Spirit that he promises to pour out on the church when by faith we're joined to Jesus. And then he goes on to say this, "I will ask the Father," in John chapter 14, "He will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth." Remember, I said the word is periclate. You've heard me talk about that before. The word periclate literally means one who is called alongside. It's an advocate. And the picture here is this. I'm running the race. I'm trying to go around the track. I'm trying to complete my task. And obstacles abound. I'm tired. I'm weary. I'm tripping up. People are trying to stop me. And everything inside me says, "Lord, I just cannot do this anymore. I don't want to face this sin. I don't want to face the issues of my past. I don't want to face my brokenness. I don't want to face the ugliness of this. I just cannot stand." And then along comes the periclate, the one who is called alongside and he says, "I'll help you walk it out. You're not alone in this. I'm with you not only, but I am in you." That's New Covenant Christianity. It is the Holy Spirit imparting to us on the inside the life that we have in Christ. And practically speaking, that means this. Practically speaking, it means that Christ in me through the Holy Spirit helps me overcome the downward pull of the sinful nature and helps me rise above the works of the flesh so that I can bear the fruit of the Spirit. Remember that agonizing cry of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter seven, "For what I do is not the good I want to do. The evil I do not want to do. This is what I keep on doing." Then he says in verse 24, "What a wretched man I am who will rescue me from this body of death." And a lot of people stop reading right there. I had a seminary professor years ago. He said, "Reformed people are so committed to believing in the doctrine of total depravity, they feel they need to practice it all the time." But Paul doesn't stop there, does he? What's the next verse? "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, my Lord." Put it up for you. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And what he is saying there is that, yes, my body. I mean, think this through, okay? I mean, read the lists of what Paul experienced in being an apostle for Jesus. You and I, we have a cakewalk compared to him. I mean, beat by 39 lashes, how many times? Five times by the Jews, shipwrecked three times, hungry, 24 hours in the sea. You think your body might protest a little bit there and say, "Look, this is not what I bargained for when I signed up for Jesus." These Hebrew Christians, they haven't even yet shed their blood for Jesus' sake and they're already wanting to throw in the towel. And it takes a lot less than that for you and me to want to throw in the towel. But see, when we're joined to Jesus, the Holy Spirit in us helps us to say no to the flesh and helps us to say yes to the Holy Spirit. And no matter how many times we fail and fall down, he helps us get back up and eventually we become stronger and the works of the flesh are replaced by the fruit of the Spirit. Do you see any of that in your own life? Or if you don't, does somebody around you see the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Because that ought to be the natural outcome of being joined to Jesus. You spend time with Jesus, you spend time in Scripture, you spend time in prayer, you spend time with God's people, your life will change and you won't even notice that it's changing because you don't have to work at it so hard. The power of Christ in you. Well, the same thing is true with regard to the world. How do you overcome the pull of a world that is constantly coming at us with glitter and glamour and the promise of riches and the promise of glory, all outside of and apart from Jesus, and how do you handle it when your spouse doesn't like you, when your kids are rebellious, when your co-workers want you to cheat and it's going to cost you your job? Again, Jesus provides his resources because Jesus, the Bible says, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." Remember, the devil came and Jesus offered him all the riches of all the kingdoms of the world if he would only bow down and he said, "Devil, go to hell because God alone has the authority to give the kingdoms to those who are obedient to him." And that victory over the world Jesus shares with us by his word and by his spirit. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. And the same thing is true with regard to the enemy. Jesus resisted Satan even to the point of death and received from God the Father the name that is above every name and shares his authority over Satan with you and me. And there's a verse in the gospels where the disciples have gone out and they come back all excited and Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven because as they were proclaiming the kingdom, as they were casting out evil spirits, as they were doing the will of God, Satan's power was being diminished." And Romans chapter 16 tells us in verse 19 and verse 20, "I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus will be with you." See, in Christ we have the resources that we need to run the race. It doesn't mean we're not going to have trouble. It doesn't mean we're not going to fail. It doesn't mean that we're not going to be discouraged. It doesn't mean that the journey isn't sometimes going to be hard. But I love this promise in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 3, "The Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." See, Jesus has run the race. He gives us faith and then he gives us faith to believe that he will also help us to walk out the journey the rest of the way. That's one of the ways in which he gives us his resources. Debating. Watching our time here. We can do number 6 if you allow me to lie to you and say that we're not finishing it this morning. Or I can take another 10 minutes and finish the last two points. Ten minutes? Ten minutes? Take it? All right. Just want to have your permission. So he gives us the resources that we need. But then secondly, and this is really important and that's why I'm hesitating because I really want us to get this. He helps us overcome our fear of suffering. He helps us overcome our fear of suffering. Earlier on in the book of Hebrews, there are two verses which I've always found extremely fascinating. They read like this, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death." That is the devil. Here there's an emphasis on the true humanity of Jesus on our behalf. "That he might destroy him who holds the power of death." That is the devil. Now listen to what goes on. "And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death." What is Satan's ultimate power to try to discourage us from walking faithfully before the face of God? And I submit to you, it is the fear of death. Not just dying physically because you see when life is painful enough than dying physically is often seen by us as a way out. That's why people commit suicide. People don't commit suicide because they want to die. They commit suicide because they don't want to live. It's too painful to live. And yes, the fear of physical death is a powerful tool that Satan can use to hold us back. For most of us that's not the big issue that we face. The big issue that we face is the fear of losing something as living sacrifices. It is the fear of what it's going to cost me if I say yes to Jesus. If I say yes to Jesus and He calls me to fast, then I'm not going to be eating for X numbers of days. And I don't know if I want to live with my body in pain or in hunger. If I say yes to Jesus and obey Him at my job, I could lose my job. Happened to lots of people before. If I say yes to Jesus and go all out, my spouse may turn against me and make my life a living hell. If I say yes to Jesus, my children may not want to speak to me anymore. And if I step out in faith and practice my gifts, then I run the opportunity of rejection and held up to ridicule. And if I stand up for Jesus in the presence of my friends, I may lose my good friends and I don't know if I can handle that. Do you see what I'm saying? The fear of death holds us in lifelong bondage. And unless that issue is settled in your life or in my life by having become a living sacrifice before God, I can guarantee you it's only a question of time before the devil comes along and he ups the ante to where you are no longer prepared to pay the price. Not true? And so here I am Lord, but I don't want to go there because I can't bear the pain. And so Satan uses the fear of death to keep us under his thumb. And so when we're joined to Jesus, and he comes to live in us by his Holy Spirit, and he is helping us on this journey, and we start running into this kind of barrier, this kind of fear, then his promise is that he is going to deliver us from the fear of death because that's what he did. Have you noticed how Hebrews 12 verse 2 is worded? Let me read it to you again. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy said before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." How did Jesus get to glory? He scorned the shame and bore the cross, and he cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane in all his humanity, "Lord God, take this cup from me, nevertheless not what I will, but your will be done." Overcame the fear of death and was crowned Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Apostle Paul. And that's how this series started in my mind a good many weeks ago. The Apostle Paul, in Acts chapter 20, of course, puts it this way, "I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me." And you and I, in our journey, I'm not saying that we're going to have to suffer, you know, I'm not trying to paint a negative picture here, but I'm telling you that if we're obedient to God, there will come a place and a time where we feel the price is too high, I am afraid of the pain. And I'm telling you, Jesus says, "I am a sympathetic high priest. I've gone through everything that you go through. I will take you by the hand and I will walk you through the valley so that you can come out on the other hand." And what God is looking for is people who overcame him. You'll recognize this verse in the Book of Revelation, "By the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they loved not their lives even unto death." Some of you have heard me tell the story of the Christian who was persecuted for his faith in the Middle Ages and he was locked in his cell and he had been found guilty of whatever and was going to be burned at the stake the next day. Now you can imagine the prospect of being burned alive at the stake is a pretty daunting thing. And of course, the temptation is, you don't have to do this if you will only renounce your faith in Jesus, right? I mean, tons of martyrs have gone through that. And so here he is all night agonizing, had this little candle in his cell, and he put his finger through the flame in the candle trying to convince himself that he could bear the pain and crying out to God, "I can't do this. I can't do this. This is going to hurt me too much." Well, it's often said God doesn't give our dying grace until we need it. Because Jesus heard his prayer the next day, proudly he walked onto the funeral pyre, they burned him alive with a testimony of faith to Jesus because Jesus overcame even the fear of death. And he can give that to you and to me no matter what the situation is that we find ourselves in. One more thing to put this all in perspective then, and this is really important too, is he helps us keep our eyes on the prize. Why do athletes expend enormous time, energy, and money to compete in the races? Why is Josiah running that marathon today? It's going to hurt him. It's going to give him pain. We all know the answer to that. Because there is a prize at the end. Sometimes the prize is a trophy, sometimes the prize is money, sometimes the prize is just the satisfaction of a job well done, sometimes the prize is fame and fortune that follows. And remember Paul said, "In the world we do this for a worldly crown, but in the kingdom we do it for a crown that will never fade away." Why did Jesus endure the cross? Why did he suffer the shame? Why did he put himself through this humiliation? The Bible says it was for the joy that was said before him. He endured the cross and he scorned the shame and he sat down at the right hand of God. And Paul says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 417. He says, "Our light and momentary troubles." This is Paul talking light and momentary troubles. "Beat up, suffered intensely." Light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. I don't know what your life is like. Don't know if you're going through happy times or if you're going through bad times. I can tell you that if you're going to follow Jesus, there will be times when life gets hard. The devil, the world, and the flesh will throw at you every obstacle they can. And when they throw it at you, everything inside you is going to say, "I cannot do this any longer." And you may fall down on the job. And when that happens, you've got one of two choices. You can stay down. You can wipe out. Lots of people do. Lots of people never find their feet back. Or you can do what the Scripture says. Keep your eye on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And you can say, "Jesus, you paved the way for me. You've given me faith. You've promised to walk this out with me to the end of my day. So here's my brokenness. Here's my weakness. Here's my failure. I cannot do this without you. I draw from your resources. I need your help to face the pain. Help me to see the glory. Help me to see the prize that awaits at the end of this journey. And Lord God, help me to run the race because I know that by the time history is done, it will be more than worth it all." And I don't know, I don't know if what Paul says about the light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in eternal glory that far outweighs them all. If that's because our reward in heaven is going to be in proportion to what we have suffered for Jesus in the here and now. Or if it is because this suffering will have enlarged our capacity so that we can receive greater glory in the age that is to come. Maybe it's both. But I'll tell you one thing. Come eternity, nobody's going to remember what happened in the here and now. And everybody is going to say, "Wow, Lord God, look. Look at the prize that you have awarded me so that I can share your glory," whatever that looks like, "forever and ever and ever." That, folks, is why we run the race. And that is why it is worth completing the task that God has given us. And you're welcome to say, "Amen," and "Amen." Stand [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:52:40.460; remove through 00:52:47.000] with me. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:52:47.000; resume after this marked segment]