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I had a big benchmark birthday recently. And so, neither of us risk insulting both of us. I turned 40. And that may not be very old to you, but it's the oldest I've ever been, and it's certainly the oldest I've ever felt. I my movie references are getting more dated.
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I've got more gray in my beard now. And whenever I go to back the truck out of the driveway or I stand up from the couch, I'm starting to make that involuntary noise that my dad did. Even worse, the few pro athletes that are left that are my age, they don't sell sneakers and cars anymore, they sell Advil and life insurance. And that just kind of hurts me to admit. But my point is, these sort of seminal events, they get you thinking about what's occurred so far in your life.
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The time that you have left and and what to do with your days. And the crazy thing is none of us have any idea how much time we have left. We have no assurance as to the number of our days, whether we die or Jesus comes back. Everybody feeling chipper now? Good.
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Because I'm I'm just trying to reset to reality. Because thousands of times every single week, we are bombarded with marketing and with cultural messages with the implicit underlying assumption that this life is all that we're ever going to have, that we need to grab comfort and seize control and consume, consume, consume, baby. But I'm just trying to remind you of the truth today. The truth from God's word. It's the idea of the good life.
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Because what the culture sells us is shallow happiness or pleasure. When what your soul really needs is identity, purpose and joy. We need not the good life that's sold to us in television ads and on our phones, but the good life that comes from deep connections in service of others. And this isn't even me getting into the biblical text yet. This is stuff that social scientists have proven time and time again.
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That it's deep connection, that it's service and purpose in others. It's that weird thing where scientists keep proving true what the Bible has been saying for millennia. And we we're we're curious why anybody's surprised. The good life is not found in vacations, in Netflix, in hobbies, in nicer cars or bigger houses. It's found in seeing people eye to eye as images of God.
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But through Jesus, we as Christians, we get to create those connections not just with finite mortal humans, but with the infinite creator God who transcends space and time and invites us to do so along with him. So instead of shallow materialism, we get to live in light of eternity. Does that get your attention? Because it should. So let's dive into the text.
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But we're gonna read this again because God's word is better than anything that I have for us today. My job is to help you see this text on a deeper more foundational level. If you forget every single word that I say today, but you can read this better and you can apply it more to your life, then I've done my job. In many ways, it's the best possible outcome. Because for both of us, the goal today, both for me as speaker and you as listener, is less of me and more of Christ.
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Less of you, more of Christ. Now to that end, I love Eugene Peterson's The Message for for some application. And if you don't know, Eugene Peterson was a scholar and expert in Greek and Hebrew. And what his message translation or really paraphrase tries to attempt, is he's telling us here in a modern translation what the original recipients of the letter, how it might have fallen on their ears, if that makes sense. So here it is Hebrews twelve one through two.
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Do you see what this means? All these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on, it means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running and never quit. No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus who both began and finished this race we're in.
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Study how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed. That exhilarating finish in and with God. He could put up with anything along the way. Cross, shame, whatever. But now he's there in the place of honor, right alongside God.
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When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item. That long litany of hostility that he plowed right through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls. Adrenaline in your souls. Gosh, I love that.
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When we look to Jesus, that's what we get. Looking to Jesus, the real Jesus, the historical biblical Jesus, that is adrenaline for our souls. Because I get tired. When headlines like what we've seen happen this week hit, it's discouraging, it's fatiguing. But Christ on the cross or seated at the right hand of the throne of God that is adrenaline for my weary soul.
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Now one of the reasons why I love this specific text is it creates such a vivid image for me. It's the the the the start of a running race. And maybe for you that's a track stadium. Maybe for you that's a mountain trail. Or maybe it's a like a local five k, like what we saw for Old Bills.
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But with this image, there's spectators. But these are not your normal spectators. What the writer of Hebrews has described in the chapter before this in Hebrews 11 are those that went before us in the faith. These are the veterans cheering us on. So they're not your normal spectators.
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We're talking David, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Jacob, Joseph, David. But they're not our focus. They're outside the tape. They've already run their race and they're going, come on Brad. Leave all the extra stuff behind.
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Get running. So I'm getting ready to run and I look up, but my eyes don't fix on the spectators. If you look at the crowd, you've already lost. Right? So you focus on Jesus.
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These guys, they're just the coolest background noise in the world. Right? Like, David and Moses going, ah. That's cool. But this is what we're gonna look at today.
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Running the whole race with endurance, the full distance. We have to run the entire race all the way. So that's our outline. We're gonna take this image. We're gonna break it into three different pieces directly from the text.
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We're going to rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles. We are going to run with endurance the race set before us, and we're going to look to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of our faith. Now, like to keep things really simple because, well I need it and it also helps us remember it as we go about our week. So, I'm using three one syllable imperatives. Rid, run, look.
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Now, you're all gonna say it with me and we're gonna do this until you all participate. So you might as well do it the first time. Rid, run, look. Very good class. Wakes our brains up.
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Rid. Let's rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us. This is one of those sayings in the Bible that I feel like we've probably heard, but we hesitate to actually take seriously. It says every. Let's rid ourselves of every obstacle.
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This is like when Jesus says to cut off your hand or pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. But in our temptation, we're always trying to water that down to make it more palatable to ourselves. He didn't really mean that when he said that. Right? He didn't really mean every obstacle, did he?
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We keep trying to make the commands in scripture less radical. As if it's perfectly normal somehow to enter into a personal relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe. As if it's somehow no different than deciding what country club to join or what political party to affiliate with. No. It has radical claims on our lives.
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So let me put this to you another way. How much of your assumed rhythms of life is based on the culture around us as opposed to the biblical call on your life and the pursuit of God and those around you? How do you spend your day or your money or your energy? Is it informed by what the culture says is good and normal Or are you submitting it to Christ and his word? Or how about this?
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What would it mean to waste your life? John Piper, almost thirty years ago now, taught a really famous sermon on this that turned into a book that I would commend to any of you. Just look up John Piper Waste Your Life. But seriously, what does a wasted life look like? I think most of us would agree it's not good to spend our lives smoking weed and playing video games in the basement.
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But what about beyond that? What about vagabonding? Just traveling for yourself. What about any other sort of self centered life? What about spending most of your free time and money on self advancement or hobbies, so that you can have more stuff and the world thinks better of you?
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Or if you're not uncomfortable yet, what about working hard, retiring early, and then doing whatever you want for self enjoyment? Is that a wasted life in view of eternity? Now, I'm not bashing hobbies or self advancement or retirement. What I'm trying to surface in you is a recognition that we are all subject to the cultural norms, particularly as it pertains to the unspoken religion of the day, which is selfism. Selfism is a systematic selfishness.
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It's how you use people to get things and experiences as if this life is all that you're ever going to get. It's how you look at everyone around you and you think, what can they do for me? Selfism is how we end up in this weird place where somehow being a good person just means leaving everybody alone. Good fences make for good neighbors. Right?
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We hang out on our back porches now and not our front porches. We want everybody to think well of us based on the image that we present, but we keep them at arm's length so that they can't get to know the real us. And that's the opposite of the gospel. I would pause it. It's why the tenth commandment given to Moses on Mount Sinai is summary of the prior nine when it says, you shall not covet.
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When you want what others have and you think yourself more deserving of it, that is coveting. And and God used that as a summary of the entire 10 commandments. The Apostle Paul states it really succinctly in Galatians five thirteen, 14. You my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself.
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Church, you were set free to give your life in service to God and others. And it is actually a blessing to do so, but that will never make sense to you if all you ever do is hear me say it. It will only make sense to you when you trust God and try it and experience the joy that is available to you in living out your purpose. Joy. So bringing this idea right back to the text.
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What are the things in your life that you need to get rid of? What are the what is the every obstacle? What is the sin that so easily entangles? Now, need to make one really clear and important point here because the text does. It says, let's rid ourselves.
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Does not say, let's rid our husbands or our wives or our community groups or our children of that. So, the sharp elbowed among you, keep it to yourself. You don't get to go home and get in the car and start picking on whoever you're in the car with and blame Brad. Because I made it clear, it says ourselves. Okay?
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We take Jesus said we take the plank out of our own eye first, then we can see clearly to remove the speck from our brother's eye. But we've gotta do it. And it's different for each of us. Every human heart experiences the pull of selfishness just a little bit differently. For me, as I've said before, my tendency, my drift away from God usually comes from one of two things, a desire for comfort and control.
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What's been helpful for me though in combating that is to think about what the fear is that underlies those two compulsions. If I feel myself being pulled instead of loving my neighbor or loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. If I can feel myself wanting to do something, can usually say, okay, what's the fear that needs to be addressed here? What am I afraid of that's causing me to feel this way? And it takes my reactive nature and it puts it in a way that my logical brain can deal with it and I can speak the truth of God's word into it.
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So when I feel the need to control outcomes, I can articulate that what I'm afraid of is that God might be doing something differently than what I want. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. God might be doing something different in your life than what you want. And when I say that part out loud to myself, I can immediately start preaching the truth of God's word to myself. Because I don't want God's job.
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I've tried and I'm terrible at it. God is writing my story and I keep trying to grab the pen. But that ain't it. I've just had to learn, and boy am I struggling with it every day, that God's way and his timing in particular are just better. Or the other fear I've learned to recognize in myself is that if I let somebody in, if I'm vulnerable about what I'm actually experiencing or what I'm struggling with, that they might either misunderstand me or just think less of me.
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And that might limit my future opportunities with that person. Doesn't it sound silly to say out loud? What if by admitting that I was wrong before or confessing that I'm a sinner in need of grace, if you don't take me at my word? What if you had to evaluate my statements on a rational or biblical basis? Wouldn't that just be the worst?
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But God in his kindness, he's revealed this tendency in my flesh to me, and he's been using circumstances to just slowly strip this away. It's not been pleasant, it's not been comfortable, and I have no control. So what is this for you? What needs to be stripped away? Like in our text today, some of it will be sin, which can be a little bit easier to to pick out.
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Sometimes it's an outsized desire for wealth. Maybe it's an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or pornography. Maybe it's your phone or your hobby or social media. Maybe it's an inappropriate relationship with someone or a need to feel human approval. Whatever it is, spend some time thinking through it.
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What are these motivations that are pulling you away from God? Confess it to God, bring it to somebody else in your community. James five sixteen is the classic text on this and it says, confess your sin to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. It's been well said that God forgives our sin, but confessing and praying with a righteous person heals our sin. So name it.
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Spend some time thinking about what drives your impulses away from God and then share it. And then you can give it over to God and to somebody else. You can cast it off. Because when you confess your sin and you move to kill it, it no longer owns you. Statistically, there's somebody here today that is struggling with one of these things.
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Please give it to God, talk to a friend, don't let it continue to own you. Same with anything that hinders, though these may be less obvious. These can be good things in our life that are just getting in the way of living the life that Christ has for us. Providing for your family is not sinful. Kids playing travel sports or having a hobby or or being influential in your neighborhood, those are not inherently sinful things.
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But if that good thing is getting in the way of living a life for Jesus and for others, then this the author says we need to cast it off. And then you run. So we have rid and then we run. Let's run with endurance the race that is set before us. This is a pretty simple concept here.
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Run. But running hurts. It's hard. And yet we're each called to do it every one of us. Because remember, this letter is not written to pastors or elders or deacons.
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This letter is written to the church. All of us. It doesn't say watch or cheer on or sit comfortably. It says run. We only get to sit comfortably and cheer the others on after our own races run.
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That's after you die. So don't be the guy in the bleachers wearing another man's last name on a jersey, armchair quarterbacking what their decisions are. Can't believe they threw that interception. Don't be the guy that only goes to the pep rally and never gets in the game. In God's kingdom, once you start running, you will be astonished at how often you make mistakes.
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And you will be quicker to show grace to yourself and those around you. I think a lot of our hypercritical church culture is due to the fact that we live in unprecedented times of comfort and ease, and a lot of us are spectators. It is so much easier to be critical of those doing the work for the Lord when we're just imagining ourselves in their position and we have not yet actually begun to get our hands dirty. And that's not just us at First Bee, that's everywhere. That's a that's a human compulsion.
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But we need to name it. Because God is calling you Christian to get in the game. And if you don't feel compelled to, if you don't believe the writer of Hebrews, if you don't believe the just litany of biblical references for you getting to to do the work, if that doesn't compel you at all, will you be honest about that? Will you stop lying to yourself and those around you about your motivations? Confess it to a friend, bring it to God.
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Ask God, hey God, why do I not feel what I'm being called to? Why do I not have the joy to serve you in gratitude based on what Christ has done for me? You can have that chat with God. He is big enough. There's precedent all throughout the Psalms of having hard conversations with God.
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Just bring it to him. This is an opportunity to break free from the lie that so many of us live in regarding our lack of relationship and submission to God. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not what you're called to. And to be clear, I'm not saying that we're always going to be excited about running. As I started with this, running is hard and we get tired.
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But we need that adrenaline for our souls and we get that by looking to Christ. But here's what's cool. There is a race marked out for each and every one of us. That has two main implications. One, your race is your own.
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I'm reminded of the biblical narrative where Jesus is walking next to Peter. And Jesus has just told Peter that he's going to be and this is the resurrected Christ. Jesus has just told Peter that he is going to be brutally martyred. And John is walking somewhere right next to him. And Peter goes, well, about him?
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Which is a really natural reaction. And what does Jesus say to Peter? He says, what's it to you? You follow me. Church, I need to hear that on a regular basis because I see other Christians, I see what God has called them to in some capacity, and I go, well, what about them?
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What's it to you? You follow me. God has a race marked out for each and every one of you, And they're gonna be different. Ray does things naturally that I could never even conceive of. Same with the Baxter's or the Gibson's or the Jordan's or any of the other elders or any of you.
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God has given each and every one of you different temperaments, talents, convictions, and resources so that together, we might not be independent, but together we can accomplish all the work that God has for this church to do. And there's a lot. Look around. It's dark outside and wear the light. But there is work for you to do and it could be here in the church.
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It could be leading a Bible study in your home. It could be discipling the next generation. It could be setting up a tent or a table on the town square or on college campuses and having honest conversations with those you disagree with like Charlie Kirk did. I don't know what God has for you, but not even starting on something, that's not running your race. And you're called to run.
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So that's first point. Your race is your own. Second, you wanna know how to win this race? You just don't quit. Winning a race of one means finishing.
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You don't need to worry about the pace that anybody else is running at. I don't need to look at Ray and go, well, he's doing this and this. No. I run my race and I encourage my brother when I see him. For example, I like to race bikes.
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Not motorcycles. I'm not that cool. Like pedal bikes. Some mountain bikes, gravel bikes, road bikes. But I'm what they call a category racer.
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So what that that's a polite way of saying, I got no shot at being the first across the finish line. You know, everybody's kinda like left the finish line, that's when the category racers come in. So I can compete against, you know, like the narrowly defined other guys, in that. And it's fun ish. And if any of y'all saw me come across for LaToya.
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But if but if I'm in a category by myself, you know what I have to do to win? Finish. That's it. If the category is Brad Yates from Jackson, twenty twenty five, 40 years old, all I have to do is get across the finish line. And it's the same for each and every one of us.
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You are in a category of your own. Sometimes the race is easy and it's natural to live on mission. Other times it takes more work and intentionality and the encouragement of others. But you keep running your own race and it's the only way to win. And the irony is even when we're racing in our own category, we don't operate on our own strength.
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We operate on the strength of Jesus. And this brings us to our third point. Look. Looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame. I like the NIV's translation of this just it says, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
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There's an intentionality there that I just love. But if we're being linguistically accurate here, you know, I gave us rid, run, and look. Look in this context is actually not an imperative. Looking is what enables us to run. Whereas if you fix your eyes on Jesus, you neither get too high nor too low.
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Neither of those are good fuel for running the race. If I'm accomplishing things in my own strength, I'm gonna get built up from accomplishing things for Jesus. Then I'm gonna think highly of myself, less of others, or just less of God. And that's not the point. Or if I operate out of my own strength, if I'm trying to get something done in the church and it doesn't work out, if I'm operating in my own strength, I'm gonna get into the shame and guilt cycle.
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I'll become despondent and discouraged. And that's not worth it either. But if you look at the subtle difference, what if my only job is to just be faithful with the inputs? Right, left. Right, left.
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And let God dictate the outcomes, then if I try something and it doesn't work, I guess that's what God didn't have for us. Or if I try something and it does work, then I get to give God the glory, which if you haven't noticed is the point of the whole darn exercise. Now I want to park here for just a second because I think this point is is an important one. Because our job is not to be predictors of the future. We are not necessarily called to figure out where everything is going and get ahead of it.
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Our job is to be faithful in the six inches in front of our face. So if you're curious in a given season or a situation, what would God have you do? Just do the most faithful thing you can in that moment. You don't have to overthink it. Sometimes that means stillness.
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Sometimes that means action. It never means acting in a way that God's word has called unfaithful. And I think God cares a lot more about how or why we do something than what we do. God is sovereign and he wants our hearts. So if you're wrestling with, well, what would God have me do?
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Would he have me do this or that? Make sure first that you're following God's revealed will in his scripture. That you're not being rebellious to the things that he's already shown you about the ways that you are to live your life. Another great text on this, I don't have the slide for it. It's first Corinthians ten thirty one.
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For whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you do it all to the glory of God. Christian, you have freedom in Christ, but we do everything to the glory of God. So these things go together. Ditching everything else, running the race with endurance. It requires setting your eyes on something else.
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For example, if I tell you not to think about a brown cow right now, you know what every single one of you is thinking about? Different version of a brown cow. But if instead, if I dwell on the goodness of God, if I think about Christ, the eternal begotten son, taking on flesh, setting aside his glory, living the life we could not live, dying the death that each and every one of us deserve, being outstretched on the cross for my personal sin because God loved me that much. You know what I'm not thinking about now? I ain't thinking about a brown cow.
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I'm thinking about the goodness of God. And it's the same with our day to day lives. You fix your eyes on Jesus. Then and only then will we have the power and the right motivation to do the work that God has for us. To turn away from what was distracting us and towards the race marked out for us.
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So please don't hear me say, do better, try harder. That's not the message today. That's not in the text and it ain't the gospel. We're saying fix your eyes on Jesus. A saving faith will produce works.
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But we do not achieve our salvation. We receive it as a gift and the grace of God as it says in Ephesians two. If you look to Jesus though, you will run. An example of this is my wife Natalie hates bugs. Hates them.
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Like she's pretty convinced that not only are they armed and dangerous, but they've got a personal vendetta against her. So if if if I'm sitting next to Natalie, and I say, hey, there's a bug on your shoulder. And she keeps working away, doesn't do anything, or just goes, okay, thanks honey. I know she hasn't heard me or she hasn't understood me. When Natalie hears me or understands me, if I say, hey, there's a bug on your shoulder.
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She's gonna pop up and do the thing where her feet are spinning before she hits the ground like Wile E. Coyote. That's the reaction that she will have to actually understanding what I am telling her. And Christian, it's the same when we say Jesus died for sins. If there's no change, we go, they don't get it.
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They ain't running. Because if you understand, if you can live out of the gratitude that is implanted upon your heart, necessarily by looking at the cross and the empty tomb, you're gonna run. You're gonna run your race. We need to be reminded of this all the time. So the works that we talked about, the running that happens, that only happens in looking to Jesus, but who is Jesus?
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Because there's so many narratives about who is Jesus. But if we look to the historical and biblical and long prophesied Christ, that is the adrenaline for our souls. The text gives us a great summary of who Jesus is right here. It says, the originator and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame. This originator and perfecter of our faith, that word in the Greek is archegos, a r c h e g o s.
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Archegos. And it can be translated as the ancient idea of a champion. So think about how like David was the champion for Israel, Goliath was the champion for Gath, Or from the Iliad, you can think about like Hector and Achilles for Troy and for Greece. The the the whole battle and therefore the whole nation was going to go as that one duel went. Both sides sent, that's my guy.
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He fights for me. He fights in my stead. That's the idea of a champion. And that's what this text is saying Jesus is. He stands as the substitute and the representative because this is the core of our faith, that God knew we could not do what he called us to do, that we could not win the fight put before us, but he gave us a champion in Jesus, and what a champion we have.
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But he's only your champion if you make him your champion. If you don't say Jesus is your champion, then his victory does not belong to you. Oh, but if we do. If we make Jesus our champion, then it's as if we actually loved God with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength. As if we actually loved our neighbor as ourselves.
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That joy Jesus had in accomplishing all of this, It was for two things. It was for the love of you and for the glory of God. Amen. And there's a joy that comes from understanding that. Isn't the most that the most beautiful thing in the world?
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That Jesus, the eternal son, loved you so much that he was willing to do anything for you. And because he was God, he knew exactly what he was buying on the cross. You have not out sinned the cross and you have not surprised Jesus. He ain't filing a warranty claim. And he did it with joy.
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But he wasn't smiling through it. He had anguish and tears as his flesh was ripped apart for us. But it says he had joy. Doesn't that contrast harshly with our thin veneer of the idea of happiness and pleasure in our society? That Jesus on the cross is the joy we all seek?
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Or the ads that say that we can have happiness. But because that work was accomplished, he is now seated. And this is our fourth point. If you've been paying attention to text, you realize I left a big hanger of a phrase right there. And I'd love to spend a week on each of these, but that's what we don't have time for.
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And has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We call this the session of Christ. The session of Christ shows us three big things that we'll cover quickly. That in sitting, his earthly ministry is finished for now. That in sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, he is still reigning and ruling.
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And third, that he is waiting for something. We're first introduced to this idea in Psalm one ten famously. This is one of the pieces of the Old Testament that is probably the most often quoted throughout the New Testament. This is important. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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Those two words that we have is Lord there. That's Yahweh and Adonai. So it's like the Lord saying to my God. But that seat at the right hand of the throne of God, it portrays an equality with God that no created being, even an angel could ever possess. And he's seated.
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The work is done. Jesus came and accomplished our salvation. He's the perfecter of it. It was his idea from the beginning and he's the one that achieved it. This is not a religion where a teacher tells you how to live a good life and then leaves you on your own to do it.
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This is the creator, God of the universe. This is the good news of the gospel. That if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior, that today you can make him your champion. There is nothing you can do that out sends the cross and the empty grave. And the brilliance of appointing a champion is that his victory becomes ours, and what a champion we have in Christ.
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But right now he's seated and he's waiting, and he's waiting for something. That means there's more to come. Jesus isn't quite done yet. What does the Psalm say that he's waiting on? Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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This is predicting the glory of Christ in the submission of all of his enemies to Everyone will submit to Christ on the last day. You can bend the knee now in in in gladful submission or you can be bent as his enemy into a footstool for his feet. Those are the only two options. Because we in the modern church, we tend to think too often of the gentle Jesus. The friend of sinners, the kind pastor, and he is so much that, but he's also so much more.
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He's not just the lamb that was slain, he is also the lion of Judah. The best text on this is Revelation nineteen eleven through 15. With righteousness he judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire and many crowns on his head. He's dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the word of God.
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And from his mouth proceeds a sword from which he will strike down the nations and he will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. Church, we take too light of you at Jesus. He is a friend of sinners. He is our brother, but he ain't your homeboy.
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He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And he is coming soon, but not yet. Right now he is seated and he is waiting and we don't know for how long. So in the meantime, we rid ourselves of everything that hinders. We cast off the sin that so easily entangles.
37:44
We leave this gathering of saints, this pep rally that we're attending now, And we go out into the world, and we run the race marked out for each and every one of us. But we fix our eyes on Jesus. So we rid, we run, and we do all of it looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. That church is adrenaline for our souls that we need. Go.
38:14
Be the church and have a great week of worship. Thank you.
