Well, thank you very much You ever thought about how much? Sports have in fact the way we talked to one another sports metaphors how much they have Just infiltrated the the common vernacular think of how we'll say things like well, that's a slam dunk No harm no foul I'm doing all the heavy lifting here You want to compliment somebody will say well, she's a real heavyweight or you want to put him down and say well, she's a real lightweight Golfers your sport has given us that's par for the course. That was really subpar But I really landed in the rough on that one. You're really in a deep weeds now Baseball alone is given probably more metaphors than any other one sport. You got to really step up to the plate here But I really struck out on that one That one took a real bad hop on me You took the bat right out of my hands or probably the most common one all that was a real homerun You really knocked that one out of the park thought about how much Even if you're not a sports fan how sports metaphors have infiltrated the way we talked to one another We could be surprised if I tell you that the Bible also uses Sports metaphors a new testament in particular the possible Paul He talked about how we do not wrestle against flesh and blood bringing us those Principalities those powers those forces of darkness of the air he Talked about how in training to be a disciple. He he boxed such a way. It wasn't just buffeting the air how he he liking it to Competing in the games in the era on corn. They had the isthmus or isthmian games or sort of like a smaller version of the Olympics how he trained to compete in those games He says like running a race in our Texas morning the rider of Hebrews We don't know who wrote Hebrews every was he picks up the same theme and he likens the Christian faith to running a race Relive me if you will from Hebrews chapter 12. No reverses one through three I will not be able to deal with verses four five and six this morning, but Hebrews 12 This is one through three the writer says Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Let us throw off everything the hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him Endured the cross Scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand Of the throne of God Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart Let us pray Lord, this is your word These are your words, and this is your word. It's alive and active Lord it penetrates down to the very division between our soul and marrow It exposes us it lays us open before you now Lord we ask that you use this word like a surgeon uses a scalpel this morning. They may have to cut and wound some places but then it Goes back to heal or where we've been stiff necked and arrogant and proud Then we ask that you Take that scalpel and cut through our pride and cut through our pretense Remind us that you're God and we're not But what we have been wounded and broken by our own sins and those those have committed against us Then please would use this word to heal us So that at the end of the day at the end of this service the end of this hour We're more like Jesus than we were we got here I pray in his name. Amen As I was considering what I would preach on this morning Taking a break from the study and first Timothy because of communion I thought this would be a particular appropriate text as we look at the year ahead and think of it as that that run that race that is set out before us I thought this would be a particular appropriate text you can't tell about looking at me now But I participated in a lot of sports growing up most of sports guys participate Participate in when they're younger I still enjoy following sports. I did not enjoy following the dolphins this year and not one little bit I enjoy following sports and All the sports that I'm aware of I believe every single sport It involves running as conditioning for that sport in fact our middle daughter Allison Savannah runs cross-country regulver. They have shirts. Let's say our sport is what other sports do for punishment Running is something that all sports participated in at one Level or one way or the other if nothing else just for conditioning for their sport So thinking of the year ahead as a as a long runner as a race I want to want to lift the author of Hebrews Speak to us about how we are to run this race first thing he tells us is we're run with perseverance Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Let us throw off everything in hinders and the sinless so easily tangles and let us run with perseverance the race Marked out before us. We are easily fatigued and discouraged. Are we not? I am I'm about you every time I get in that big beast of a van of mine and get out in rush hour traffic I come this close to abandoning my faith I want to forget that I'm a Christian and drive like everybody else in Miami Which is to say badly nature of wars of vacuum Traffic on us one awards at times 10 if there's that much space between this car and one in front of it Somebody will pull in and fill that vacuum try moving that big beast of a van of mine around that kind of traffic I did something this past Year that I have not done in many moons I braved Daydland Not long before Christmas I Expect your undying admiration and respect for this I had to go over to daydland a few times before Christmas You want to talk I mean I consider becoming atheist just so would not to mess with Christmas anymore Or at least a Buddhist just so not to have to mess with I wasn't there on Christmas related business Before everybody else was and man. It was a madhouse I wanted to forget I was a Christian just run over those people Now you don't do that but I am easily discouraged I get fatigued More seriously the My own frailty my own be setting sins. I know what they are. I'm not about to tell you I get discouraged by my lack of progress my lack of sanctification after all these years when I Watch the news or hear it on the radio or read it on the internet And I see the evil The monstrous evil man's inhuman into man I'm so close to going over the edge sometimes if you ever hear that they put me in that that white coat with a long white sleeves and carting me off to the padded room it will be because There are times I find it so difficult to deal with the reality of evil Even though I can explain it theologically It just crushes my soul We or least I we get discouraged Over our christian walks away and so the writer Hebrews tells us to throw off Everything that hinders us And to and to put down the sin that so easily Intangles if you've ever done any running you don't put on a long raincoat to go out for a run Long run or short run you don't pick up concrete blocks Before you go out to do some running you last side those things you You you dress lightly you you put on light clothing and you carry the minimal amount of equipment with you for running The things in hindering our culture man. They are endless are they not In our culture we are endlessly distracted not all necessarily bad things They're just trivial things. They're just irrelevant CS Lewis and the screw tape letter which is I guess 50 almost 60 years old now He tell he has screw tape the senior devil tell his nephew warm wood the apprentice devil how to get his patient to hell He says you don't have to get him to commit murder just give him a deck of cards You have to get him to commit a great sin Just distract him and in our culture today we can be distracted endlessly can we not? Zieg Ziegler Interesting calls television and the number one income suppressant in America I think if you were to rephrase that today he might say I mean my guess is today is angry birds The number one and number two and number three income suppressants now I also guess for you students the number one two and three grade deflators Television youtube the internet The video game they're not necessarily bad things. They're just trivial. They're just irrelevant Neil Postman's great phrase the title of his best-selling book. We are amusing ourselves to death I want you to know preachers are immune to that either Rick Warren says that Preaching today is 50% Bible exegesis 30% sermon preparation 20% not being distracted by the internet There's always something interesting flashing up on the internet There's always something there to distract us preachers too. I understand. I feel your pain These are not necessarily bad things. They're just trivial things or things that distract us We're gonna throw off those things and hinder and then the sin that so easily Intangles us the image Is that of a man wearing a robe who has to suddenly Run has to move quickly the image there is that man in that robe reaching out having to grab the hem of his robe and pull it up Just so he can move his feet more effectively Those besetting sins You know what your besetting sin as are your besetting sins are I suspect? I know what mine are as well, but let me just talk in broad terms and I'll probably I'll probably hit just about everybody's in here anger lust fear racism greed Critical spirit those besetting sins that just plague us with Confest him and Confest him and Confest him And the writer Hebrew says those are the things that make it hard to run Everyone knows if you've ever done any distance running Sooner or later you hit the wall And even if you didn't and the walls where your body literally runs out of its reserves And to go any farther has to begin to feed on itself and it hurts Abominably Or even if you don't run that far you just have those runs where it just gets hard to run after while it just begins to hurt after Or hurts the whole time I'm very grateful to probably 35 years ago I read in the book the complete book of running this very very Helpful phrase I've mentioned to you before it has helped me a great deal One wise old runner said this if you quit when it hurts All you learned is how easy it is to avoid pain If you quit when it hurts all you learn is how easy it is to avoid pain And the writer Hebrew says no you got to persevere we got to we got to push through that pain Perseverance is the opposite of fatigue and depression Perseverance Charles had spurred and said by perseverance the snails reach the arc Perseverance By perseverance the snails reach the arc how about these studies in perseverance A testing director mgm once summarized up a man who auditioned before him this way can't act slightly bald can dance a little He was talking about Fred Astaire or how about this one one older Expert said of a younger coach. He possesses a minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation He was talking about Vincent Thomas Lombardi Vince Lombardi for whom the superboltroofy his name He turned out okay, too How about this one a teachers assessment teachers assessment of a student He's too stupid to do anything and yet Thomas Edison turned out all right
Before he succeeded Henry Ford failed and went broke five times Before he became Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company And then there was the newspaper editor who once Terminated dismissed a younger employee for having a lack of ideas But Walt Disney had a few ideas up his sleeve Perseverance these are people who hit the wall these are people who ran into the brick wall and they persevered And they kept riding on through and the rider of Hebrew says were to run with perseverance He knows there'll be times Most tough to keep going think what they went through the the Bible especially the New Testament was written by persecuted Christians Two persecuted Christians a number of whom especially the New Testament riders went through their deaths For their faith they knew about perseverance I think of those of you that I know that you've told me your stories I've been alongside you for your stories your physical ailments and your emotional ailments The family problems the difficult marriages the emotional distress the loss of a loved ones depression Those you who are survivors of sexual abuse Chemical addictions and so on and I've sat with you and I've pray with you and I've watched as you persevering You carry on I want you know you're my heroes for the way you do this You are living models of what the writer of Hebrews tells us to do you carry on heroically I love the Olympic games. I really do 1968 This is how old I am 1968 the Mexico City Olympics over the first one that I really was old enough to appreciate what was going on In the in the marathon there in that rarefied area in Mexico City and I've been in Mexico City They are in serious need of importing some oxygen who'd be an active mercy We would all just UPS and FedEx over them a bunch of oxygen because it's thin up there And there in Mexico City about 8,500 feet above sea level of memory serves There in Mexico City the marathon the last runner to finish was the runner from Tanzania He had a little fall on the way and bruised and bloody to know yes with a broken leg In seven hours after he began that marathon he limped into Olympic stadium there in Mexico City There's still about 7,000 people in the stands and they waited and when he came through That gate and onto that track and made his final lap They all stood and they applauded at his perseverance his tenacity and he was asked later on why didn't you just quit? Why didn't you just drop out and he said this My country did not send me halfway around the world to start the race They sent me to finish it We're not just called to start this race We're called to finish it and we run with perseverance. We're to run with purpose The right of Hebrew says we're to run with purpose. I got to hear the great Aussie Guinness The number of years ago and he talked about sitting with a very wealthy man as he sat in the man's office People came in his office and went out with instructions do this do that do this do that This wealthy man said to Professor Guinness I hire people to do what I don't like to do The one thing I have not been able to hire anyone to do and then with this he began to weep I haven't been able to hire somebody to find a purpose for my life
You probably read this as well the two most important days in your life One is the day you were born and the other is the day you find out why One is the day you're born the other is the day you find out why You know of course I've taught before on called your divine design I tell people before we die we need a sense of whether or not we've accomplished our purpose in life Before we die we need a sense of whether or not we've accomplished what it was We were brought into the world to begin with what is your purpose? Now Dr. Guinness through these distinctions and I will give them to you I think you might find them useful as well. He says there's a primary calling For a Christian our primary calling is to the Lord It's not to some thing but to someone that's our primary calling and then we have a secondary calling And that's our vocation. That's what we're called to do as Christians As Christians we are called to a vocation a teacher or professor An attorney an accountant an engineer a Doctor a nurse a therapist a housewife a mom or a dad These are our secondary callings first to the Lord secondary to what we are called to do He said there's an individual calling and a corporate calling the individual calling versus the corporate calling Individual we're all called is Christian we're all called to be loving We're called to be holy We're called to be peacemakers. We're called to be servants We're called to be evangelists to do the work of evangelists And then corporately this is where the New Testament uses that marvelous word the Ecclesia The called out ones of God where Jesus is called out people We are called out to be salt and light to a dying and decaying and a darkening world We're called to be wherever we are whatever our earthly kingdom. We're called to be the conscience of the nation We're called to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves We're called to defend those who cannot defend themselves. We're called to love the unlovable to comfort the afflicted To afflict the comfortable to lay down our lives for one another and to sacrifice all For the upward and the onward the high calling a lordship of Jesus Christ as we were called to do corporately as the church and then dr. Guinness is there's an ordinary versus an extraordinary calling Most of us almost all is we have that ordinary calling where at some point in our life if you know crisis lord at some point in our lives By faith we received Christ as lord he called us to himself before the foundations of time We experience it as a decision. We make somewhere along the way or being raised in a covenant home For me as a 14-year-old kid and Birmingham Alabama and I heard the gospel I'd heard it before But when I heard it it penetrated my thick skull and my dead Spear for the first time and I said that's what I want And that's why I'm here today because Jesus Christ changed my life If you know crisis lord you've received that calling now. It's not ordinary in the sense of boring or unimportant, but that's the calling all Christians have and if you're here today and you've never received Christ as lord I urge you This is the day. This is the year for you to receive that calling From Christ to be his own man his own woman's own young person to become a son or daughter of the Lord most high Most Christians we receive that calling is an ordinary calling but then there are those Christians who exceed a extraordinary calling David being sought out by the prophet and said you're going to be the king or or Isaiah in the temple where He saw the vision of the Lord high and lifted up Jeremiah and said I was set apart in my mother's womb to be a prophet of God Paul in the road to Damascus knocked on his conscience and The risen Christ appeared doing that binding vision Those are the extraordinary colleagues and then dr. Guinness says the vast majority of us We don't receive an extraordinary calling and so we sit and do nothing and the writer Hebrews is saying no We run with purpose and even if you receive the ordinary calling of Christ It's still a calling of your lifetime The western world view is you are what you do the biblical worldview is no you do what you are You let what you are drive and determine what you are to be If you remember the parable the talents of Jesus told the one that's got the ten talents I mean the one's got five makes it ten one's got two makes it four one's got one He buries it The only one they get criticized the only one that gets criticized the one who does nothing With what God's giving What is your purpose we are run with purpose now if you are a Presbyterian you know Your purpose Man's chief in man's purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever If I put that to a vote in here it'll pass
But beyond that what is your calling your personal calling what is your purpose in this life The great theologian Lewis Carroll said in Alice in Wonderland Conversation between Alice and the Chester cat Alice asked would you tell me please Which way I ought to go and the Chester cat says that depends a good deal on where you want to get to I don't much care where said Alice Then it doesn't matter which way you go We're called to run not aimlessly not in every witch direction But with purpose we're the realm of perseverance we're on with purpose Yes, we're run with pleasure We're run with pleasure our pleasure some of the time not always But for his pleasure all the time for his glory all the time I hope you've seen surely you've seen classic movie chariots of fire About the 1924 Olympic Games Where it's the contrast primary the two great runners Ben Abrams of England Eric little of Scotland Little of the committed passionate Christian The missionary and training on his way to China to be a missionary when he qualifies for and goes on to win the medal in the 1924 Olympic Games And his sister Jenny takes him to task one day calls him aside and says to him Eric Eric God's called you for China What is all this silliness this Superfluousness of these games and if you see in the movie you probably will remember the conversation with an Eric and his sister Jenny Jenny Jenny I know God's called me for China I know he's made me for China But he also made me fast And when I run I feel this pleasure When I run I feel his pleasure When you're doing what God has called you to do you have a sense of connectedness a sense of satisfaction a sense of fulfillment that you will not get doing anything else no matter how lucrative No matter how popular You will have a better sense of satisfaction fulfillment scrubbing floors for God Then you will being a tycoon for any other reason and you'll have a sense of his pleasure Now I've just spent the last what 15 to 20 minutes talking about persevering when it gets tough. So why am I talking about His pleasure I read you Hebrews 12 1 through 3 remember the writer didn't write in chapters and verses. This is all one document If you know your Bibles and you will if you keep reading them with us Chapter 11 is what we call that great hall of faith or the hall of fame of faith all the great men and women who went before Who served God heroically faithfully and many lost their lives in the battle This is how Hebrews chapter 11 ends with verses 39 40 then in chapter 12 and verse one where we read to begin with Writer says these great men and women these were all commended for their faith Yet none of them received what had been promised God had planned something better for us So that only together with us would they be made perfect all those heroic men and women Chapter 12 verse 1 Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Let us throw off everything in the hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us roam in perseverance the race marked out before us You've got a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you watching you you run the race those great men and women Of faith that you just read about in chapter 11 They are your cloud of witness there you're cheering section Abraham Isaac and Jacob Joseph and the rest of the patriarchs Moses and David and Elijah and Elijah and Isaiah and Ezekiel Jeremiah all the great men and women the 12 Peter James John Matthew Philip all the rest there cheering you on We just confessed in the affirmation of faith we talk about we believe in the Holy Catholic Church and people often ask me Will why aren't you Protestants? Catholic just means universal. It's a little see just means the church all over the world the Catholic Church and the communion of saints right here right now All around the world and throughout time and space God's people past present and future in that cheering section cheering you on you don't see him you don't hear him But they're there They're there and at the end of that race when we go through the entryway into the Coliseum You're going to hear them cheering you on the Apostles themselves My hero is in the faith your hero is in the faith I just mentioned the guys in the Bible. Guston's gonna. I'm gonna see a gust. I'm gonna slap him a high five Along with Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Knox and Jonathan Edwards Spurgeon's gonna be there and Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones Billy Graham. I think we'll probably get there before most of us He'll be there Francis Shafer's gonna be there your hero is in the faith the great men and women you've admired that there And they're cheering you on and at the head of the table. There's a banquet there, you know at the head of the table Jesus himself Fixed your eyes on the author and the perfector of your faith. He's gonna be there to welcome you home I mentioned to you that I I brave daydland before Christmas Here's my confession. I have This is one of my best settings since I have gone over to the dark side computer users. I have become a Mac user I don't know how to use it. I can barely spell Mac But I'm learning and I go over there once you're twice a month for them to pound into my skull full of mush How to use this Mac book of mine my new laptop The first time I went over there for one of my tutorials The first time I went there my appointment was at 10 And the Apple store doesn't really open until 10 o'clock and you can get in there early for lessons But it doesn't open to the public until 10 o'clock. I saw something Because I don't go to malls. I don't shop and I don't go to dailin. I saw something I have never seen before if you've been in an Apple store. You know what I'm talking about I got there early the doors are still closed and there were conservatively speaking a million people outside that door All right Not a million but a hundred thousand. Would you believe a few thousand? I don't know how many people are outside that door but I promise there were dozens Maybe close to a hundred outside that store and when they Electronic open those doors and people came pouring into Mac world To Apple world. You know what those people in the Apple store did. You know what they did Everybody in there when those Apple T-shirts They're all standing there applauding Their customers as they come through the doors They're applauding those Apple devotees. They're applauding the people in the pilgrimage to Mac world They applaud them as they go in that store To buy computers. I remember looking at that thinking That's great PR That's great customer service and they really do have it. It's not like I'm shielding for Apple. I'm not They had great customer service. They make their customers feel appreciated Just imagine ladies and gentlemen Just imagine When those doors open for you You go through those doors and there they are all the great men and women of faith standing there applauding welcoming you home showing you your seat at the banquet table and at the head of the table Jesus himself This is a picture of that this morning. This is a picture of what it's going to be like when we get there Let's come to the table together. Let's pray
Lord God Almighty. Thank you for calling us to be your own. Thank you for Setting before us this race Thank you for teaching us how to run it Our prayers that you give us the endurance To teach us how to run with perseverance how to run with purpose and a great sense of your pleasure in what we do Lord
Meet us in this event. We ask in Jesus name before his sake Amen Thank you again for being here with us this morning. We ask that you receive the Lord's benediction now Go now in the love of God the Father the grace and mercy of God the Son the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life Amen