Sermon Tone Analysis

The Race

Hebrews 12.1-11

 

Video

This video footage is of the great Clarence DeMar, at age 41, winning his 7th Boston Marathon.

I can’t imagine running 26 miles, much less being able to win a marathon.

Neal and I were talking this week and he mentioned that he has a long term goal of running a half marathon.

The he asked if I wanted to run with him.

After I stopped laughing I explained to Neal that Running is not my favorite thing.

But it started me thinking, what would it take to run a marathon?

How much training is involved, how hard is it on the joints?

You know, I’m a little older than Neal.

Then I thought, “Is it worth it?”

Is it worth all the pain and sweat and time.

As God would have it, I was reading this week and the passage I was reading asked me the same question that Neal did.

Do you want to run the race with me?

 

Read Heb 12.1-11

 

The word “Therefore” at the beginning of this passage signals us that we need to start reading before this chapter to understand the context of this chapter.

There is a pattern in Hebrews.

The writer, presumably Paul, gives instruction or information and then follows it with a “therefore” or a “now”.

He does this 24 times.

I am going to teach you a truth.

Now that I have taught you a truth, here is what you do with it.

It is not enough to know the truth, you have to do something with it.

Knowing this pattern we need to look at the preceding chapter.

Immediately before this we find the Great Faith chapter where the heroes of the faith are listed.

The writer gives us a large list of those who were faithful and what they endured.

And we know that these were not perfect people, but God used them, anyway.

Now we see the beginning of Chapter 12

 

*Hebrews 12:1 (NASB95) \\ 1 **Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,*

 

 

So we see that God has a race for us.

I.

God has a race for you.

It doesn’t begin when you are born; it begins when you receive Christ and His gift of complete forgiveness.

God has a different race for each of us.

Your race will not be the same as my race.

Let’s examine this race this morning.

A.

What kind of race does He have for us?

1.    God’s race    he has set the course before us, we didn’t pick it out.

a.

Runners don’t get to have any input into what the layout of the race will be.

b.                 Have to follow the prescribed race course.

c.

The course is designed to challenge the runners, to test them.

It is not meant to be an easy course.

d.

Our personal faith is tied to God’s course for our life

a.

Every Christian has a calling from God that requires acts of faith.

Paul writes

2 Timothy 4:7 (NASB95) \\ 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;

2.    God’s race is a Relay race    so great a cloud of witnesses…

a.

These witnesses are not merely spectators that are sitting in a stadium cheering you on,

they are veteran runners who have already run their leg of the race.

They understand what you are going through and how hard it is to run the race.

They have passed the baton off and now their job is to encourage us.

We learn from and draw strength from other veteran runners.

I talked with Pam Rice this week.

She has run several marathons.

I asked her how she knew what to do to prepare for the marathon.

She found a book that was published by a veteran runner that told her how to train and that gave her inside information on how to run the race.

We have just such a book.

The Bible is a unique source of strength and we can learn from Old and New Testament figures.

We learn what to do and not to do.

It is a great “how to” book.

If you don’t have a regular Bible reading plan, this is another reason that you should start.

Learn from the veterans.

Learn from their mistakes and learn from their successes.

3.    God’s race is not just a relay race it is a Marathon and not just any marathon, it is a steeple chase.

It has hurdles and obstacles and pitfalls.

it is an endurance race.

The first verse says  “Let us run with endurance.”

This word is repeatedly used in this chapter.

Jesus endured the cross, v 2 and endured hostility by sinners against himself so that we could run the race.

V3

 

In an endurance race you have to pace yourself.

Have you ever watched a race where a runner gets out early and looks real good out in front of the pack only to find that at the end of the race he doesn’t have anything left.

He gets passed by other runners or he falls out of the race.

Coaches recommend trying to maintain as steady a pace as possible when running a marathon.

A lot of novice runners make the mistake of trying to "bank time" early in the race by starting with a quicker pace than they can actually hope to maintain for the entire race.

This strategy can backfire, leaving the runner without enough energy to complete the race or causing the runner to cramp.

We see new Christians do this at times.

They start out on fire for Christ, but then they get tired, things get hard and they have not been trained how to keep going, nobody told them it was a long hard race..

 

The focus on endurance here tells us that this is going to be hard.

Why else would the author exhort us to endure?

You are going to be tempted to quit the race.

As I thought about this I wondered how many people who start marathons actually finish them?

Shocked!!

Percentage that finish marathon –2006 Boston 97.8% finished.

New York City Marathon 98.6%  2006.

Thousands more signed up for the race, but they never showed up to the starting line.

Serious runners not only start the race, but they finish the race.

Even serious athletes with major handicaps finish the race.

I looked at results for wheelchair and hand pedal entrants in last year’s Houston Marathon and every one that started the race finished it.

That tells us something.

God uses imperfect people all of the time.

Our imperfections shouldn’t keep us from running the race (my life is messed up, when I get it straight I will come to church.)

They don’t keep us from running the race and they definitely shouldn’t keep us from finishing the race.

Once we decide to start, the important question becomes: