Hebrews 12:1-11 Running the Marathon of Faith

Hebrews  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Christians must endure the marathon of faith and not grow weary when we suffer.

Notes
Transcript

Intro

If you were going to run a marathon what would you do to get ready?
Obviously you would need to start training. You would need change the way you eat, go to bed a little earlier, and start spending your free time running and getting into shape.
You would do everything you could to prepare yourself to endure all 26.2 grueling miles of the race.
You would do whatever it took so that when you hit mile 21, you wouldn’t grow weary and give up, but keep going.
The Bible says the Christian life is a marathon. But its not an athletic marathon, its a marathon of faith.
And if we are going to persevere, we need to train to run the race of faith so that we won’t give up no matter what comes our way.
The Big Idea I want you taking away from this sermon is this.

Christians must run the marathon of faith with endurance.

Hebrews 12:1-11 is a passage that is all about perseverance, in a book that is all about perseverance.
The Author wrote Hebrews to help Christians endure in their faith.
He’s told us to take care, hold fast, don’t give up on following Jesus!
Because if we don’t persevere to the end, we won’t be saved.
The question then is How?
How do you persevere? How do you train to endure the full marathon of your life and finish the race?
Hebrews 12:1-11 tells us three ways to persevere. Three ways to finish the marathon of faith.

I. To Run the Marathon of Faith We Must Get into Spiritual Shape

Hebrews 12:1Therefore...
Now When the Author says therefore he is pointing back to everything he had just said right before this verse that all started at the end of chapter 10.
Hebrews 10:36-39 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38  but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
And then Hebrews 11 shows us that truth in action.
Hebrews 11 is the Hall of Faith. It is example after example of godly men and women who lived all of their life, no matter the circumstances by faith in God.
And the reason why the Author gave us this list of past saints was to show us in the lives of real people what real faith actually looks like. What it looks like to persevere by faith.
Because what the Author is trying to get the Hebrews to see is that want to and a plucky attitude is not enough to persevere.
If they want follow Christ all of their life and receive the reward of their salvation and preserve their souls, they will need to do so by faith.
By an absolute trust and total dependence on God and his promises.
That’s why he says...
Hebrews 12:1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…
The cloud of witnesses are the saints mentioned in Hebrews 11.
And the author says that because we are surrounded by such godly men and women who by their example of faith bore witness to God and his promises, we should follow their example and run our marathon of faith.
The key phrase in this verse is Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
The Author describes the Christian life as a race. Not just any race but a marathon. A distance race. One that will take determination, and focus, and an unrelenting will to keep placing one foot in front of the other when everything in us cries out to stop.
The word race is actually the Greek word ἀγών which is where we get our English word agony. Elsewhere in the NT it is translated as a struggle or a fight.
So the Christian life, as the Author sees it, is not a luxury stroll, but a grueling and sometimes agonizing distance marathon.
This is why it needs to be run with endurance. Endurance means a steady determination to keep going. To keep running even when everything in you wants to slow down or give up.
Putting these two together, one thing is clear. The Christian life is not one that will always be easy. We will struggle and we will suffer for following Jesus, but that is why we need perseverance.
So that when we want to give up and shrink back, we can remember that the race God has set before us is a marathon, not a sprint.
Paul said it like this...
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Now we can’t press this metaphor to firmly because we as Christians are not competing with one another.
We are not in a race where the first one to finish is the one that gets eternal life and everyone else gets the participation trophy of eternal death.
Christians run for an imperishable inheritance. A great salvation that is laid up in for us in heaven. And Paul’s point here is run so that you may obtain it. Run in order to win the prize! Run with a purpose, Don’t settle for running aimlessly.
And that kind of running takes discipline. Paul calls it self-control. Its this idea of a focused and fully committed life.
Olympic runners have to have self discipline in every area of their life to compete with the best in the world. From what they eat and how they sleep, to how they rehab their body and train, there is no aspect of their life that is not touched by the race set before them.
In the same way, if we are going to run to obtain the prize, if we are going to run the marathon of faith with endurance, we need to have that kind of focused self-control to bring every aspect of our life into submission to Christ.
Well how does that happen? By getting into spiritual shape.
Go back to Hebrews chapter 12.
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.
To get into spiritual shape, we need to lay aside the things that weigh us down and trip us up.
Literally to lay aside something is to take it off. It can even be translated more forcefully to say Let us throw it off.
And the Author says there are two things that Christians must throw off and leave behind if they are going to run the marathon with endurance: sin and weight.
Sin is easy enough to understand. We cannot run well if we are entangled in sin. That’s what he means by saying the sin which clings so closely.
Living in sin as a Christian is like trying to run the race with your shoe laces tied together. You are going to trip and stumble with every step you take.
Sin makes you ineffective in following Christ and glorifying him.
Part of getting into spiritual shape means throwing off sin wherever it is found in your life.
That doesn’t mean we are going to be perfect, but it does mean that if we hope to persevere, we cannot be complacent with our sin or content to let it linger in our life.
Paul said put to death what is earthly in you. Sin is not something to be toyed with in the Christian life. It is something to be laid aside. Thrown off. Left behind.
More curious is the instruction to lay aside every weight. What does that mean? What are the weights that we need to lay aside to run the race?
This is the only time that word is used in the NT and it basically just means something that is a burden or impediment.
In ancient races like what the author is thinking of, competitors would remove all their clothing before starting the race so that nothing could hinder them from running the fastest they possibly could, and I think that is the idea the Author is getting at.
These are not sinful things, or necessarily even bad things. Rather these are just things that weigh us down. That divert our attention from Christ and his kingdom. They are things that make us less effective in following Christ and growing in our faith.
So these are things that are not bad in themselves, but are not valuable for following Christ either.
What can these weights look like for us today?
These are going to be different for every single one of us. Something that is a weight for me, might not necessarily be a weight for you.
Let me tell you one I’ve been convicted of this past week. In studying this passage, I was uncomfortable with the amount of time I was spending on social media, TV, sports radio, and YouTube.
I was taking stock of my life and I was forced to ask myself, what benefit am I gaining from those things? For me they wasted my time, and distracted me from godliness.
So I thought, what if I cut those things back and started investing that time and energy into reading theology and ministry books and listening to Christ-centered sermons and podcasts.
What kind of gains in godliness could God work in me without those unnecessary things weighing me down.
Now I’m not saying any of those things are sinful or that you can never watch TV again if you want to be a godly Christian.
What I’m asking here is are you giving disproportionate time and energy to wasteful and unhelpful things when you could be investing in your faith?
The question I want you asking yourself is this: “What are the things that I’m giving significant time and energy towards that don’t help me grow in Christ?
Maybe a better way to ask it is Am I as fruitful as I possibly can be? And if not, How can I redeem that time and energy to grow in my faith?”
If we are going to run the marathon of faith with endurance, we need to get into spiritual shape.
Like the Olympian who exercises self-control in every area of their life to make them a stronger runner, we need to have the discipline to lay aside every weight and sin that keeps us from running hard after Christ.
Otherwise we will be weighed down and entangled, unable to go the distance in our faith.
Not only must we get in spiritual shape, But if we want to persevere in the Marathon of faith, then we must also point number 2, fix our eyes on Jesus.

II. To Run the Marathon of Faith We Must Fix Our Eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12:1-2 Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
To understand the weight of what the author is saying here, you need to really focus on who he’s writing to.
He is writing to Jewish Christians who are suffering persecution for their faith. This persecution isn’t just overt acts of violence and imprisonment, it is also public ostracism and rejection.
And all of this pressure is tempting the Hebrews to renounce their faith and go back to Judaism.
And so to encourage the Hebrews to not give up but endure by faith, he moves from the example of the cloud of witnesses to the example of examples. The man of faith who is in a class all on his own: The Lord Jesus Christ.
And he says if you want to find help and encouragement to persevere in your faith, look to Jesus.
Looking to Jesus isn’t actually as strong of a translation it could be. This could be translated “Keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus.”
It implies a definite and complete looking away from other things to focus solely on Jesus and him alone.
And the author uses Jesus’ personal name to emphasize his faithfulness as a man.
You see as Christians we believe that Jesus is God incarnate. He is truly and fully God and at the same time truly and fully man.
And Jesus, the Eternal Son of God became a man and was born of a virgin to live a sinless life on our behalf.
And Hebrews says for the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame.
There was not a more shameful death than the one the Son of God died for us.
Crucifixion was a brutal and horrific way to execute the dregs of society. It was so barbaric Roman citizens couldn’t even be executed by crucifixion.
But they took our Lord Jesus and after flogging him and whipping him into a bloody mess, they stretched his body out on a cross of rough timber that dug into his wounds.
They drove nails into his hands and feet and raised him up and dropped his cross into the ground to bake in the hot middle eastern sun. They stripped him naked and crowds came to mock and ridicule him; “If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross and save yourself!”
But Jesus endured because he needed to die to pay for our sins.
This is what our Lord endured for us all while God the Father placed our sin on Christ and poured out all the wrath he had against us onto his sinless beloved Son as our substitute.
And once his sacrifice was complete, once God’s wrath was satisfied, Jesus said, “It is finished.” and he died for the sins of the world.
But that’s not the end of the story. 3 days later Christ rose from the dead victorious and ascended to heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus endured all this by faith for the joy that was set before him. What was that joy? It was God’s glory in salvation.
Christ despised the shame of the cross, meaning he didn’t even consider it worthy to mention in the same breath when compared to the joy of God’s glory in saving sinners.
And the way God saves sinners, the only way to be forgiven of all your sin, is by placing your faith in Jesus who died as your substitute and follow him the rest of your life.
But here’s what I want you to notice so that you can see what kind of impact this would have had on the Hebrews who were suffering themselves.
When the Author wrote the race set before us and the joy set before Christ, he used the same word translated set before. Why is that significant?
Because remember the word for race, is the word we get agony from. Its this idea of a race that brings suffering to the runners.
So by saying that joy was set before Christ, only to go on to describe his suffering, that’s the Author’s way of telling the Hebrews that joy will come after their suffering.
Until then, they need to fix their eyes on Christ and follow his example becauseJesus knows what it means to endure suffering by faith. To run the race and persevere to the end.
That’s why he is called the founder and perfecter of our faith.
The word founder is the same word from Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
That word founder means he is the pioneer or trailblazer.
In chapter 2 he is the founder of our salvation.
Here he is the founder of our faith. But now he is also given a second title. Not only is he the founder of our faith, He is also the perfecter of our faith.
That means he is the one who carries it through to completion.
So what is the Author saying by calling Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith?
He’s saying That Jesus is the trailblazer of the marathon of faith and that he himself ran the marathon all the way through to the end.
The Author’s point is for the Hebrews to fix their eyes on Christ, who is the premier example of what it means to endure by faith in the midst of horrible suffering.
That if Christ was able to faithfully endure his trials, then surely he can help the Hebrews endure theirs too.
That’s why he tells the Hebrews to...
Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
In other words, the Author knows our suffering can be tempt us to grow weary or lose heart. To give up the race and stop running.
And so the Author’s answer to that temptation is to consider Jesus. To fix our eyes on him.
I think there are two reasons why focusing on Christ and his life, death and resurrection, is able to help us persevere.
First, the gospel drives us to faithfulness.
When the believer considers all that Christ did to save us, all the suffering he endured on our behalf, the only response that makes any sense is to give all our life to glorify him.
God does not give cheap grace. God gave his only Son to give us eternal life.
Jesus perfectly submitted to the Father by faith and gave his own life for us. For a bunch of sinners who were all too happy to nail him to the cross.
How can we not live all of our lives for a God like that? How can we not persevere in our faith? Where else could we possibly go?
For those that truly believe the gospel, anything less than perseverance is impossible.
Second, fixing our eyes on Christ and considering his example encourages us and gives us hope that he is able to to help us stay faithful.
Remember, the Author called Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith similar to when he called Jesus the founder of our salvation in chapter 2.
So chapter 2 is fresh in his mind and it would’ve been fresh in the Hebrews’ mind. And at the end of chapter 2 the Author said this.
Hebrews 2:18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
What amazing news for the Hebrews who are being tempted to renounce their faith. To give into suffering and persecution and give up following Jesus.
He is the founder of our salvation who made salvation possible through his life death and resurrection, and now he is also the founder and perfecter of our faith who is able to help us when we are tempted.
He is able to show us the path of faithfulness because he already blazed the trail and ran it all the way through.
Let me say it clearly. Anytime you are tempted to shrink back in your faith, give into some temptation, or even if you’ve just found yourself growing lax or complacent in following Jesus, Hebrews' answer is to fix your eyes on Christ.
What I’m urging you to do is to look to him and run after Christ with all your life because he died for you.
And when you get tired and want to give up, you can come to him for help. You can pray, “Jesus, will you help me live all my life for you?” because he knows the path of faithful endurance.
We don’t persevere in the marathon of faith by relying on our own strength. The only way we can finish the race is by relying on Christ in faith.

Christians must run the marathon of faith with endurance.

To run the marathon set before us, we must first get into spiritual shape.
We must throw off those things that weigh us down and the sin that trips us up. We must lay aside everything that does not produce the fruit of righteousness in our lives.
And we must also fix our eyes on Jesus. We must live with the sole focus of our life to be glorifying him for dying for us and relying on his grace to help us finish our race.
And finally...

III. To Run the Marathon of Faith We Must Trust the Father’s Loving Discipline

Hebrews 12:4-7 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
With the suffering of Christ still on his mind, the Author takes the opportunity to point out that while the Hebrews are legitimately struggling, they haven’t yet struggled to the extent that Christ did.
The idea here is that Christ stayed faithful under greater suffering, so surely the Hebrews can stay faithful under what God has given them to endure, especially because the Faithful One promises to help them in all their trials.
And what’s more, just like Christ’s suffering was ordained by God to bring many sons to glory, the Hebrews’ suffering was also ordained by God to bring them to godliness.
That’s why the Author continues...
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure.
Here the Author quotes Proverbs 3:11-12 because like a good pastor, he wants to encourage the Hebrews.
Just because the Hebrews haven’t suffered to the point of death, doesn’t mean that following Jesus isn’t still hard.
So the Author quotes this Proverb to show the Hebrews that their suffering isn’t wasted. Just like God used Christ’s suffering to save his people, he is using the Hebrews’ own suffering to grow them in Christ.
The key word of Hebrews 12:4-11 is the word discipline. In Greek, the root word of discipline is the same root word for child. So biblically, discipline here is the instruction or training that God gives to his children to grow them into holy maturity.
What he’s saying is that God actually uses our suffering, and hardship, and affliction to discipline us and grow us in Christ.
Now before we go any further we need to make a clear distinction between God’s discipline and God’s judgment. Because if you don’t understand the difference you will think that God disciplines you because he is angry with your sin.
To be sure, God does punish believers for their sin. He will let believers experience the consequences of their sin to show them the bitter fruit of disobedience and encourage them not to sin again, but instead grow in maturity.
But God doesn’t do that because he hates us. He’s not vindictive saying, “Good. That’s what you deserve.” He’s doing it out of love for us because he doesn’t want us to live in sin.
God’s judgment condemns sinners in their sin. God’s discipline leads his children out of sin.
But letting us experience the consequences of our sin isn’t the only way God disciplines us. He also disciplines us just through the hardships of life that cause us to suffer .
He uses our suffering to purify us. Like a purifying fire, our suffering burns off the dross so that we leave immaturity behind and go on towards Christ-likeness.
So whether it is for punishment or purification God uses our suffering to discipline us so that we might grow in Christ.
Remember, the word discipline carries the idea of a parent instructing and raising a child.
As a parent, you do everything you can to help your child grow in maturity. Even forcing them to go through hard things because you know it is for their good.
God is the same way. What that means is that nothing in our life are random or meaningless. God always has a sovereign purpose, a fatherly plan to grow us from children into maturity and he uses the discipline of suffering to do so.
This turns all of our suffering on its head doesn’t it? Yes it is hard. Yes, it is painful. And No, we would never choose it for ourselves. But God is so great, and so gracious that he actually turns our suffering and hardship into blessing.
The only question is, “How do we experience the blessing of our suffering?” The Proverb actually gives us two answers.
He says do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. That means don’t treat the Lord’s discipline as insignificant. Don’t ignore it.
If we never look at our trials and hardships as discipline the Lord sends to us for our good, then we won’t be able to grow from them.
All of our focus will be on our experience of suffering itself. Not what God is doing through our suffering.
So if we want to experience the blessing of suffering we need to ask, “God, what are you teaching me in this? How are you growing me in Christ through this?”
The second way we can experience the blessing of suffering is by not growing weary. That’s the same word from verse 3 translated as fainthearted.
When we suffer, we can be tempted to just throw in the towel. To say, “You know what? If God is going to let this happen to me, he can take a back seat!”
We can actually lose heart and use our suffering as an excuse to run from God instead of run towards him.
And if we are running from God to the very sin He is trying to purify us from, then we won’t be able to grow through our suffering the way God intends for us.
And then Proverbs tells us why we should embrace discipline from the Lord like the blessing that it is.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.
We do not suffer because God hates us. We suffer because God loves us and wants us to finish the race.
That’s why verse 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure.
In other words, you need to endure, so that you will experience the blessing of God’s loving discipline and grow in godliness because Hebrews 12:14 there is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
God uses our suffering to sanctify us in Christ.
If the Lord were not so loving to discipline us, we would have no hope of persevering in Christ to the end. Our sins and worldliness would draw our eyes from Christ and we would wander off never to return.
God disciplines us, to keep us following Christ.
This can be a hard pill to swallow can’t it? I mean you can almost hear the Hebrews saying, “Wait. God wants me to suffer? He wants me to experience hardship and affliction?
That doesn’t sound like something I can do. I’m already wanting to give up. And now your telling me that God wants it to be this way? How can I possibly endure under these circumstances?"
So, in his wisdom God gave us two reasons why we can trust his loving discipline wholeheartedly by faith.
First, God disciplines us to prove we are his children
And second God disciplines us to grow us in holiness.

1. God Disciplines Us to Prove We Are His Children

Hebrews 12:7-8 God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
What the Author is saying is that if God did not discipline us, he would not actually love us.
If you see a rebellious, disobedient child you don’t blame the child. You blame the parents. Parents that love their children care enough about them to do the hard work of disciplining them.
Imagine how cruel God would be to call us his children, but then do nothing to free us from the very sin that enslaves us.
If he never disciplined us, we would be illegitimate children. Children with no Father.
Isn’t that the life of unbelievers. God simply allows them to have their sin with no discipline to bring them to repentance?
God’s discipline actually proves he loves you because he wants you to be free from sin and worldliness to have eternal life that only comes in worshiping him.

2. God Disciplines Us to Grow Us in Holiness

Hebrews 12:9-10 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Don’t miss this. We can endure any suffering God uses to discipline us. Why? Because it is always for our good.
Our parents disciplined us the way that seemed best to them. We discipline our children the way that seems best to us. But all of us can be wrong in how we discipline.
We can be too harsh or too soft. We can fail to discipline when its needed or discipline our children in frustration when they didn’t deserve it.
But even still, we respect our parents. We trust them. Our children respect us. They trust us.
How much more can we trust our heavenly Father? How much more can we trust our Wise and Sovereign God who never disciplines us as it seems best to him, meaning there’s some room for imperfect discipline, but always disciplines us solely for our good?
And that good is explicitly defined as sharing in his holiness.
God uses our suffering to make us holy. To grow us in Christ.
Thats what Paul meant when he said Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.
This verse doesn’t mean that everything will work out in a way that will be peachy for us. It means everything will work out in a way to make us more like Christ.
If we are going to run the race of endurance, we can’t afford to waste our suffering.
We always need to be asking. “How is God using this to grow me and make me more like Christ?”

Illustration

About 8 years ago I moved to Seattle to work for a church.
I had just graduated college, left a good job, all my friends and family, and my church to follow God’s call to serve in ministry and train to be a pastor.
And all the way there I could not wait to start the adventure. I remember on the 3 days it took to drive out there my mom kept asking me if I was nervous or sad, and I honestly said not at all.
I was ready to follow God where ever he wanted to lead me.
That is right up until I actually got there.
I lived in a house on Capital Hill which is right by Downtown Seattle. I was going to be living with 8 other guys who went to the church, and when I got to the house they were all out of town at a wedding.
I walked inside with my mom, and the house was an absolute wreck. I don’t know what I expected. I guess I expected to live in a house with gentlemen scholars who only loved to clean and talk about theology.
But that was probably overestimating it a little bit.
I went upstairs and opened the door to my room, and it was just as trashed as everywhere else.
My mom was still downstairs and she called up and asked if I found it, and choking back tears I asked if we could please go somewhere else.
It was like God in that moment, standing in that room, let everything hit me all at once.
I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to leave behind everything. I missed my friends. I missed my family. I missed my job. I missed my life! I just wanted to go back home and leave Seattle in the rearview mirror.
That first moment is a good picture of what the next few months of my life was like.
One of my pastors had convinced me to stay asking if I trusted God was sovereign enough to lead me to Seattle and work for that church.
But I was depressed. I’d go to work, come home and try to go to sleep as fast as I could so I wouldn’t have to feel the pain anymore.
I kept telling God I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to go home. But God was working me in ways I couldn’t see.
You see Seattle was the first time in my life I had ever actually suffered. I had no friends. I lived with guys I hated, not because of anything they did but because of me. And I was being overworked at a job I wasn’t being paid for and had barely enough money to make it.
But then one day someone asked me a question that changed my life. What do you think God is doing in all this? What do you think God is trying to teach you through all this pain? And it all just clicked.
I’m not awesome. I am not self sufficient. I had lived all of my life by my own strength. Yea I worshiped God, but I never really need him. I didn’t need him until Seattle.
I wasted a lot of my suffering that year. I have so many regrets for how I stunted my spiritual growth and failed to love other people instead choosing to only focus on myself and my pain.
But by God’s grace he used that year to teach me something that still impacts my life and ministry to this day.
I need him. I can’t do it on my own. I can’t afford the pride of self-sufficiency if I’m going to follow Christ and pastor a church.
Take it from me. Don’t waste your suffering. Ask yourself, What is God trying to teach me in this?

Examples

Maybe you’re under crippling student loan debt. You hate feeling like you have this burden that will always be hanging over your head.
What is God trying to teach you?
Is he trying to show you that you have a love of money because you think your life would be fixed if you didn’t have to pay that student debt?
Is he trying to teach you to rely on him, and not your bank account?
Let’s look at one we are all going through. We are all suffering under coronavirus. I don’t know about you but I’m sick living in this world where everything is difficult and you have to wear a mask to walk outside.
What is God teaching us? Maybe that we’ve all loved the world a little too much.
Maybe that we need to refocus our life on Christ and his Kingdom because we have allowed the things of this world to distract us from the Great Commission.
The big idea here is don’t waste your suffering.
Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Suffering isn’t pleasant. But it does lead to the fruit of righteousness. It does lead joy of godliness. That’s what that word pleasant means. Joy.
Its the same word the author used earlier when he said Christ endured the cross for the Joy set before him.
We have a race set before us. An agonizing marathon, but on the other side, the joy of salvation.
If we want to run that race, we need to trust the Father’s loving discipline.
Like James said James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Conclusion

Christians must run the marathon of faith with endurance.

Following Jesus will be hard, but if we persevere by God’s grace, he promises to save us.
I want you to run with endurance. I want you to keep going, mile after mile, no matter what comes your way.
And the only way you can do that is if you run to obtain the prize, the joy of salvation.
God calls us to to finish the marathon that He has set before us.
And we can finish the race if we rely on the the grace he supplies.
We can persevere if we lay aside every weight and sin that weighs us down and trips us up,
If fix our eyes on Christ, and if trust God’s discipline to grow us in godliness.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Revelation 3:10-13
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