Run the Race

Well we finished our study of Christ Jesus' “I AM” saying from the Gospel of John. I pray you enjoyed that study. So what now? I didn't want to do a book study since we are working through Genesis for our mid-week study, so I found a series by Rick Ezell. The series is titled Becoming A Champion. I preached through this series a few years back in our evening service to encourage the saints. So welcome to the Panhandle and to this new study.

Imagine a group of people coming to your home and interrupting your Twinkie-eating, TV-watching routine with an urgent message: “Good News! We are from the United States Olympic Committee. We have been looking for someone to run the marathon in the next Olympics. We have statistics on every person in the entire nation on computer. We have determined that out of the two hundred seventy-five million people, you are the one person in America with a chance to bring home the gold medal in the marathon. So you are chosen. You are on the team. You will run the race.”

You are surprised because the farthest you’ve run in years is from the couch to the refrigerator. The one time you began a running program you ran down your driveway, onto the sidewalk in front of your house getting to the end of your yard only to turn around exhausted and panting barely making back to your La-z-boy. And just yesterday you were sweating so profusely, dripping like a faucet on the clean kitchen floor, your spouse asked, “Did you go for a jog?” “No, I just walked out to the mailbox.”

After the shock of being selected passes, you are gripped by the realization of what’s happening in your life. You picture yourself mingling with the elite athletes of the world. You allow yourself to imagine that maybe you do have what it takes to run the race. At night you dream about standing on the podium after the race and hearing the national anthem, seeing the flag raised, and bending low to receive the gold medal. You begin to feel a rush of emotion. You say to yourself, “This is the race I was created to run. This is my destiny. This is why I was born.” This race becomes the great passion of your life. It dominates your mind. It occupies every waking moment. To run the race well—to win it if you can—becomes the central focus of your existence. It is what gets you out of bed in the morning. It is what you live for.

This morning as we think about becoming a champion in Christ Jesus we look at Hebrews 12:1-3. We are told by Paul that we are to live our Christian life as if in a race. If we are to be successful in this race we must know The Characteristics of the Race, The Principle of the Race, and The Need for the Race. So let’s get started.

I. The Characteristics of the Race – As a believer in Christ Jesus, you run a race. It, too, is the race of a lifetime. It, too, dominates your mind. It, too, occupies your waking moments. It, too, becomes the central focus of your existence. It, too, is what you live for. The writer of Hebrews spoke of this race in Hebrews 12:1-3 ~1 Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.

2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God.

3 If you want to keep from becoming fainthearted and weary, think about his patience as sinful men did such terrible things to him.

You have been chosen for this race. However, the Olympic Committee has not done the selecting; God Almighty has picked. He has chosen you to run the race of a lifetime.

Imagine the thrill if an Olympic committee knocked on your door selecting you to represent our country? Imagine, God knocking on the door of your heart selecting you for His team. If you have trusted in Christ Jesus, God has done just that.

This race is both a contest and a conflict. This is no ordinary race. The Greek word for race is agon from which we get our word agony. Our race is a daily progress toward Christ-likeness, and we do not race against opponents, but against ourselves. Are you more like Christ Jesus today than you were yesterday? Are you engaging in the necessary disciplines and activities that will enable you to grow and mature in Christ- likeness?

This race is unique to you. It has been marked out especially for you. Like the orange cones or flags that indicate the path of a long distant race, God Himself has marked out a race distinctive for you that will take you on an adventure. While the destination is the same for everyone—a life like Christ Jesus, the journey that gets us there is different for everyone. Don’t compare your track to someone else’s track.

This race has no time outs. It has no breaks, no intermissions, and no halftimes. We are instructed to run and keep on running.

This race is full of obstacles, barriers, hurdles, and hazards. They can’t be avoided or erased, and they come in all different sizes and at different stages of your life.

You run to win this race: 1 Corinthians 9:24 - Run in such a way that you may win. Winning is not beating the other runners. The prize is becoming a spiritual champion. A spiritual champion is one sold out to Christ Jesus, straining to become more like Him everyday. The goal of our faith is not perfection, but progress.

Winning the race will require great endurance. It will require perseverance, patience, and resolve. When this life is over then you will cross the finish line. On that day how will God say you finished? As a winner I pray.

II. The Principle for the Race
Back to your home and the U.S. Olympic Committee’s invitation. It dawns on you: You cannot run a marathon. More to the point, you cannot run a marathon even if you try really, really hard. If you are serious about seizing the gold and standing on the winner’s platform, you will have to enter into a lifetime of training. You must arrange your life around certain practices that will enable you to do what you cannot do now by willpower alone.

Do you realize the number of hours an Olympian trains? The average Olympian trains four hours per day, 310 days per year, for six years before succeeding. That translates into more than 7,000 hours of training for an event that may last less than sixty seconds. This need for training is not only for athletes; it is required for playing a musical instrument, learning a new language, or acquiring a new skill. In fact, it is mandatory for any significant challenge in life—including becoming a spiritual champion.

The single most important principle for running the race toward becoming a spiritual champion is: Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely. The apostle Paul encouraged his young protégé Timothy to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;” (1 Timothy 4:7)

A similar thought lies behind Paul’s advice to the church at Corinth: “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 9:25). We arrange our lives around certain disciplines that help us gain power and strength to become more like Christ Jesus each day, to live a life as Christ Jesus taught and modeled.

The activities of prayer, Bible Study, worship, service, evangelism, and stewardship are among the needed disciplines for running your spiritual race:

1. Prayer: How often are you talking with the Father each day?

2. Bible Study: Are you engaged in a regular time of Bible reading, devotion, and study?

3. Worship: Are you praising the Father in regular times of worship?

4. Service: How are you using your gifts to serve God and His people?

5. Evangelism: Have you spoken to someone recently regarding his or her relationship with God?

6. Stewardship: Are you investing regularly and consistently in God’s church with your time, talents, and financial resources?

The secret to winning the race, to truly live a Christ-like life, is to order your life around those activities, disciplines, and practices that were modeled by Christ Jesus, in order to accomplish through training what you cannot now do by trying.

How is your training coming along?

III. The Need for the Race
Returning to the notion of running a marathon in the next Olympics, you begin working out; you quickly understand the need for intentional training. The Olympic Committee enlisted you to run, not sprint a 26.2-mile endurance competition. In a sprint, you run a short distance as fast as you can. Speed is of utmost importance. But in a long distance contest such as a marathon, endurance is the key. You want to make it to the end. 

I read that two critical times exist in a marathon race. The first one is at the beginning. As you leave the starting line, you feel so good that you believe that you can keep up this pace throughout the race. The temptation is to run too fast too soon. Energy is expended and none is left for the end of the race. The second critical time in a marathon is at the halfway point. You suddenly realize that you still have as far to go as you’ve already run and you’re already very tired. Runners call it “hitting the wall.” You’ve come to the end of your stamina and you’re not sure you can put one foot in front of the other anymore. 

Races are not always won by the fastest. But rather by the one that keeps hanging on, who refuses to give up. Those who persist prevail. D.H. Groberg in his poem “The Race” describes a young boy who ran a race, falling many times, yet finishing. He wrote in one stanza:

And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do too well.”

“To me, you won,” his father said. You rose each time you fell.”

Likewise, the great need for spiritual races is persistence. Time and time again The Scripture exhort us to persist and endure. The apostle Paul prayed for the Colossians “May you be strengthened with all power . . . for all endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). Paul reminded Timothy, “if we endure, we will also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12). The writer of Hebrews states, “For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:36).

In the spiritual race you are running, don’t quit. Never give up. Keep on going. If you have tripped and fallen, don’t stay there, get up and get going. Maybe life has thrown you some curve balls. Maybe in your race you’ve been knocked off your feet a few times. Maybe you are thinking since you’re already on the ground, there’s no point in getting back up. Rather than getting up you’re planning on hanging it up.

The movie, Chariots of Fire, is the true story of Eric Liddell, a man who ran in the 1924 Olympics for Scotland, then went on to become a missionary. Before his run in the Olympics, Eric Liddell ran in a meet between England and France. He ran the 100-, 220-, and 440. In the 440, he got off to a bad start. When the gun sounded, there was a lot of shoving to get in front to the inside lane, the advantageous position. Liddell tangled feet with J. J. Gillies of England and tumbled to the track. He sat there dazed for a moment, not knowing whether he could get up, when the official screamed, “Get up and run!” He jumped to his feet and took off after the pack, which was now a full twenty yards ahead of him. In a quarter mile, that’s a long distance to make up. In his unorthodox style of running he took off after the pack. He pulled into fourth place ten yards behind the leader, J. J. Gillies. With forty yard to go, he pulled into third place, then second. Right at the tape he passed Gillies, stuck his chest out, won the race, and collapsed to the track in total exhaustion. Medical personnel had to assist him off the track that day.

An article appearing the next day in The Scotsman newspaper said, “The circumstances in which Liddell won the race made it a performance bordering on the miraculous. Veterans whose memories take them back thirty-five years and in some cases longer in the history of athletics were unanimous in the opinion that Liddell’s win in the quarter mile was the greatest track performance they had ever seen.”

There is something to be said for not quitting—about getting back up and dusting yourself off and continuing to compete. Remember it is not about finishing last or finishing first, but simply about finishing. Don’t give up on God because He hasn’t given up on you. You can do this. You can finish the race. You can bring home the gold.

Conclusion: Back to your home, the Olympic Committee leaves. You are left pondering their proposal. It all comes down to one question: Will you engage in the training so that you will have the endurance to run the race? Will you get off the sofa and get in the race?

The same question applies to your spiritual race: Will you engage in the training so that you will have the endurance to run the race? Will you get off the pew and get in the race today?