Simply Jesus
Running for Eternity
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Welcome!
Call to Worship:
Hebrews 12: 18-19, 22-24, 26-29 18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them,
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 6 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Let’s pray
Praise Songs Let your imaginations see this kingdom we receive as we worship. Let your praise be heard to Your King, Your Savior, and Your Redeemer.
Intro: My family has been brought into the world of long-distance racing through our daughter Riley’s passion for running. Jon and Jonny both had their turn at sprinting in high school, and what we know to be true whether racing longer distances or fast sprints, there is much extensive and sometimes agonizing training involved in getting one ready to compete in a race. There are many variables of training involved that target building muscle, building endurance and lung capacity, building mental toughness, flexibility, proper diet, sleep, setting goals, and having a vision for the result of the race-knowing what it is you are racing toward specifically. We have witnessed and walked through all of the highs and lows with Riley in her journey so far.
Runners, chase after PR’s, or personal records whatever their event is. Each new personal best has you evaluating, adjusting, and digging in deeper to draw from that well within of sheer perseverance and determination to go after a new PR. You have to love this sport, because it is going to cost you in many ways, it is going to tax you and push you way outside your comfort zone many times over, and there will most definitely be pain involved along the way. But for those who do love it, you know the highs you reach with every PR achieved in a race, every bit of training, every early morning and late night, every time you brave the elements knowing each time you show up; it’s preparing you that much more for that next race. And when you get to that race and you have been properly trained and conditioned, you have the physical, mental, and spiritual toughness to endure and push past your previous limits time experiencing the joy of new victory far outweighing all the work that went in before the race. You also learn when there are setbacks, that same developed toughness will help you overcome, heal, and continue training again. You don’t give up. You may stumble, you may fall, but you keep your eyes on getting back into the race. So you persevere again and again. Runners know all about developing endurance and staying power.
Isn’t this the same with our faith? We have this overall race we are in the one God calls us to and the end is receiving the fulfillment of His promises experiencing absolute victory over this broken world and sharing in the unending joy of eternity with Him. Within this overall race, there are many other races we enter each time asking God to help us dig deeper to reach new heights of faith, courage, strength, peace, and joy. These other races are the many trials and times of hardship we will face in this lifetime. Apart from Christ as our running mate, our coach, and the power within us we will surely crumble and want to throw in the towel. Maybe you have been there at times in your life. Maybe you are there today. Remember with Him, we remember victory is already ours and His power is infinite to draw from, so we can persevere. We build our endurance the more we trust in Him because we know the end prize is worth it. We hold on in faith and have a confidence of that which we hope for and an assurance about what we do not see. This is living by faith.
In Hebrews 11 we read the Heroes of Faith who were documented for our benefit. Not because on their own they were such amazing human beings or had superpowers no. These men and women had weaknesses and fell short of righteous and holy living again and again. What they had-what they trained for through their trials and hardships was a rock-solid faith to stand on. Their stories of learning to trust in and follow God as their personal God, are there for our benefit. Think of it as PR’s of faith. Each trial was overcome had they received a new PR. So we too can chase after PR’s of building faith-not to give ourselves glory but to give God glory as we obediently trust in and follow the path He sets before us.
What these stories also teach us, is there will be times God will correct us, rebuke, and discipline us all so we can grow in our faith and our holiness. You see the truth is, we aren’t likely to change unless there is some pain involved. Think about times you have made changes in your life; was there something painful at work that brought this need to change to the surface? We don’t change when we’re comfortable. We change when it’s painful and there is discomfort. And yes our God will allow times like this to come about for the development of our godly character and to manifest spiritual fruit. These times of correcting and discipline are our training ground-just like the athlete who is working hard they don’t get better without some pain involved pushing them past their comfort zone.
But the beauty is our breakthrough that is found when we push past our comfort and we allow ourselves to be inconvenienced-we find new levels of endurance; we walk in greater strength; we grow a deeper faith as we see what God is doing in our lives that only He can do.
So as we bring Hebrews to a close, the call is for endurance. Don’t quit in your faith. Don’t quit when life gets hard and it’s painful and uncomfortable wherever you are. Don’t quit on God because you don’t like your circumstances. You run your race and you persevere to the end, in faith. You accept the discipline and you learn from times of training and then behold the glory of God on display in your life. It’s worth every sacrifice and time of pain! The harvest will be abundant!
Heed the call to persevere in faith.
Hebrews 12:1-13 NIV
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,”
- Fix Your Eyes on Jesus.
Jesus is not only the object of our faith; He is also the author and perfector of our faith. So we lock our eyes on Him as we run. We aren’t looking at all the things that could trip us up. We aren’t looking if the weather if calm or stormy. We aren’t looking to see how far away the finish line is-we are eyes locked in on Him and knowing He will see us through and we keep running.
Hebrews 12: 1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 11 reminded us of the greats recorded in history for their faith, In Greek the word “cloud” was often meant to refer to a large group of people. We are surrounded by a large group of people-witnesses to what it takes to persevere in this race and finish well. They have gone before us, shown us the way, shown us how to train and stay in the race, and they are cheering us on so we finish too! So let us consider all they did to pave the way!
So what are we to do? Get rid of the things in our lives that hinder us and entangle us the things that are tripping us up, you know what they are for you. What do you need to let go of that is causing you to stumble or tempting you to sin, causing you to miss the mark? Get rid of it so you are free to run! Then we fix our eyes on Jesus.
Then we see we are to consider Him.
Hebrews 12:3 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
To Consider here means to spend some time pondering, thinking about, and looking at Jesus. None of us have endured all that Christ did while on the earth. Some of us have endured much more than others to be sure; but not to the fullness of Christ. So when we look to Him and consider all He did, and He focused on the joy that would come through His death to share eternity with all of us- we can be strengthened and encouraged to keep running our race. When we look to Him, strength builds, hope rises, courage mounts, and we receive a fresh supply of all we need to keep going forward. He has all we need to run each day’s leg of this race.
We also see in His Word that while we share in His sufferings, we will share in His comfort. And that isn’t meant just for us-He comforts us in our suffering so that when we see someone else suffering in the same way, we can comfort them. This teaches all of us patient endurance-we endure with patience in our trials and we can later help someone else in their time of need to patiently endure also.
2 Corinthians 1:5-6 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
You see God is all about developing our holiness and forming us more and more into His image. To do that we need correction and discipline. This is what any loving father does for their children to help them develop righteous, moral, loving character. To run our race, we must accept our Father’s correction. He is helping us patiently persevere in the race He has marked out for us.
- Accept Fatherly Correction.
Hebrews 12:5-6 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
God only corrects those who have been received as His children and He does so from a place of love. We need to learn to have the right understanding of His correction and chastening of us.
Don’t we as loving parents discipline our children? God commands us to do this. Why do we do it? To teach them what is good, right, true, safe, and honorable in ways of living right? We might all have different ways of doing this, based on what we know or were taught by our parents. We do our best to help guide our children.
At the moment our children don’t like it any more than we probably enjoyed it when our parents disciplined us. But assuming it was not harmful and was done in love, as we mature, we can be thankful for their correction; we can see the benefit and good in it. We can see what it produces in our lives as we heed it.
Hebrews 12:10 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
The difference is we discipline from our finite understanding and out of our brokenness it’s certainly not perfect or always good. God disciplines out of His purity and holiness and infinite wisdom so it is always working for our eternal good.
In this race we are running I want to encourage us to be aware of what we magnify. Let us not magnify our afflictions, but instead magify Christ’s mercy mixed in with them. While He is disciplining us, He never leaves us alone or forsakes us. He is there, offering us a way out, offering wisdom when we ask for it, and strength in Him to overcome every trial and hardship.
Hebrews 12:11 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
The truth is trials are trying….and discipline can be painful or uncomfortable. This is how they serve their purpose to cause us to change, develop, grow, and mature in our faith.
Think about this, there is a direct connection between Discipleship and Discipline. You won’t have one without the other. We can’t say we are disciples of Christ without being willing to be disciplined by Christ, our Master. This is not a sign of rejection but one of love from the Father.
So let us run, together, with patient endurance.
- Run with Patient Endurance.
Hebrews 12:7 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
If we resist or rebel against God’s discipline, we produce no fruit. Guess what we are not enjoying in our lives then? The fruit of peace. We don’t have it. Some people refuse and resist God’s discipline, some are completely oblivious to it and they live moving from one crisis to another crisis. They have no peace, no joy because they aren’t allowing His discipline to take hold and help them develop the fruits of the Spirit in their life. Let this not be you.
Let’s also understand when God corrects it is to prevent death and destruction to our soul. If we remember this, isn’t it worth it to heed His correction? Look what God promises to manifest in each of us as we follow Him.
2 Timothy 1:7 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Honestly, who can use more self-discipline? We need these gifts to run with patient endurance.
Hebrews 12:28-29 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
So we see we practice being thankful for who Christ is and the kingdom we are inheriting. In our gratitude, we worship Him with reverence and awe-we acknowledge who He is. I want you to ponder what it means that our God is a consuming fire. He is removing all filth, and all impurities, and refining us to bring out the very best within so His light shines brightly through all of us. So let His fire burn in your heart and cleanse away all that is not of Him.
Hebrews 12:1-2 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Conclusion: We have a cloud of witnesses, the heroes of faith, as an example of patient endurance. We have Christ Himself as both the object of and author of our faith. Let us consider Him to help us persevere in this time of training to receive our eternal reward.
Let’s pray.
Offering: love offering for our Rio Area Food Pantry
Prayers:
Final Song
Final Blessing: Romans 15: 5-6 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
