Run and Don’t Get Weary—Heb. 12:1-3
When I think about a race of this magnitude I think about the Olympics, where you have trained for years to compete in. You have toiled and sweated and suffered for the opportunity to run this race that is set before you. For this moment in time all of your training, sweat, and toil is going to come intro fruition. The one thing that makes this particular race special is the witnesses that are in the stands watching and cheering you on as you take the track. Encouragement makes a difference in performance.
None of us do as good as we could when we are doing it alone. But during the struggles of life sometimes we feel like we are doing it alone. Generally it’s not true that you are going through alone. But the enemy knows that if he can get you to feel like you are all alone you will be isolated, invariably you will begin to feel intimidated by the competition and stop running this race.
HALLMARK OF FAITH: For this cause the 11 chapter of Hebrew is brought to us. Thusly we have the hallmark of faith; being defined as the substance of things hoped for….then goes on to say (read). It goes on to talk about great patriarchs of faith came through by faith. These people are completely different and have only faith in common. I want to ask you a question today, do you have any faith. I saw you singing songs, clapping your hands, looking religious, but do you have any faith? And do you have any faith for what you face right now? Not the generic brand of inclusive faith but specific faith according to your situation. Not faith in the man upstairs but in God our Father in the face of Jesus Christ. The faith that says I will come out of this. You know you have faith when you take away all of your exit clauses and plan B.
After reading about all of the great women and men who survived we step into the 12th chapter; and it says wherefore seeing we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses; or seeing that all of these people made it with no counseling, cars, great sermons, mega churches, padded pews, and great amenities of the church today. Let us run this race. Not only did they make it but they’ve come to the Olympics of your life to cheer you on. They are standing in the balcony of heaven exhorting you to run this race. Tell your neighbor somebody is watching, cheering, praying, and encouraging you. You are not alone.
HALLMARK OF FAITH 2: If we could update the 11 chapter of Hebrews for a brief moment I’m sure you could put your ancestors in somewhere. How they sang and praised God with little or no help from anybody, but they praised until they got a breakthrough. They used to get in a corner and sing steal away, your grace and mercy, my soul is anchored, come this far by faith, blessed assurance, etc. The same faith that worked then can work now. While we are adding please include the survivors in the room today. Somebody is going through what someone else just came out of. Some people come to church only to take, but there are some of us that come to give. We have been there and done that and we are here to encourage you to run on because you can make it.
DISCLAIMER: however there is a disclaimer on this promise. It says let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. Isn’t it interesting that it makes a distinction between weight and sin. Anytime you have sin actively operating in your life it’s a weight. A weight to a runner is a hindrance. You can’t run as well as you could without the weight, and every sin is a weight. So if you are serious about running you have to lay aside every weight and THE sin that does so easily beset you. It almost suggests that everybody has a certain sin.
We are all vulnerable to sin in general terms, but you know your sin is. You know the one that does so easily trip you up. The other sins have to work to get you but that one sin you have to watch out for. The good thing is once you know what it is you need to realize that it’s not going to change. The enemy can’t create he can only duplicate and bring it back up again. So if you whipped it last month you can whip it this month. Have you ever noticed it’s the same thing coming back again? That’s why you need to lay it aside.
WEIGHTS: Lest we be too narrow in this expository sermon lets realize that some things in our lives aren’t sin they are weights, just weighing you down. I dare say some people are weights. They are not necessarily sins but they are weights. Have you ever carried somebody that was just dead weight? You are running with a corpse on your back and this is your moment in the Olympics and everyone is looking at you. But you are running with a dead weight (drop it, shake it off).
Everybody in here has something to drop. Blind bartemaeus dropped his coat; the woman at the well dropped her pot. What do you have to drop? Some of you may have to drop lil willie, mary joe, john john, addictions, afflictions. Whatever is keeping you from reaching your goal you have to drop it. You ought to shake it off and run this race. You are too significant, this race is too important for you to allow your circumstances to stop you from reaching your goal. If it was the first lap you could’ve gotten me, the second lap maybe, but I’m coming down the home stretch.
NOT BE WEARY: always watch out for weariness. Paul told the church in Galatia you ran well but who hindered you. He later says let us not be weary in well doing for you shall reap in do season if you faint not. You got rid of your sins and weights but until you get rid of your weariness you won’t thrive in this race. How do you get rid of your weariness? You can do something you love, believe in, been trained in, and still get weary in well doing. Sometimes when people see you get weary they think you didn’t want to run. You can be in the race of your life and find yourself getting weary. Weary is defined as being physically or mentally exhausted; impatient or dissatisfied. Your sense of enjoyment decreases and you’re not getting out of it what you used to, thusly you become impatient.
When you first start running you are enjoying it. You are in stride and all of your mind and body are working together. Somewhere in the process your muscles and mind gets fatigued. Not that you don’t want to run anymore, it’s that your flesh is fighting your mind. When you get weary you want to quit. If you’re not careful you will make a permanent decision over a temporary feeling. Then regret the decision because the weariness was only a temporary delay in overall gratification. You need to pray for the Lord to renew your strength. When you pray for strength you tell the Lord I haven’t changed my mind.
RUN THIS RACE WITH PATIENCE: you have to learn to be excited on the outside while pacing yourself on the inside. Because the race is not given to the swift or to the strong but to he that endureth to the end. Pace yourself, and run with a strategy. You pace because you know you’re not there yet. It’s not what you do on the outside that takes your strength; it’s when you tighten up on the inside that takes your strength. The closer you get to your goal the harder it is for you to run. The closer you get to your goal your flesh will begin to fight you. That’s a sign that you’re almost there. So what happens is as you’re going around the track, about the time your lungs begin to burn and your muscles begin to ache. Everything in you says quit. If you can press your way beyond your pain you will change your limitations. Pain will try to make you think that you can’t take what you can take.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS: There’s a place in the process of running that during the process when you feel like you’re going to give out, but if you keep on running, you’ll get a kick. All of a sudden you get a second wind. This is a sign of a true believer; that you look unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of your faith. Jesus started it and He can finish it (He that hath begun a good work….). He wrote the blueprint of your faith and finished what He started. He is the great finisher; because of the joy set before Him He endured the cross and He set forth a pattern for us.
Just when the devil thinks you have lost it and he’s laughing at you saying you can’t take anymore, you ought to say surprise, he restoreth my soul and I got my second wind now, I feel my kick. Run on children, don’t you get weary now.