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Run with endurance!

John Carter · Sunday, 30 August 2026 · 46:47 · 6,572 words

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The sermon uses a Spartan race illustration to explain the call in Hebrews 12 to run with endurance the race set before us. It stresses laying aside every weight and sin that clings closely, recognizing that extra burdens, even well‑intentioned ones, slow us down. The speaker challenges listeners to keep their eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, and to support one another as they persevere through difficulties.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

race 61 endurance 50 run 41 carry 23 obstacle 11 quit 12 man 48 finish 15 text 14 endure 16 mile 9 picture 17

Topics

Faith 4 Sin 3 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 The Gospel 1 Suffering 1 Hope 1 Righteousness 1

Scripture referenced 8

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Hebrews 12 0:56 Hebrews 12 4:10 Hebrews 12:1-3 4:10 James 1:4 23:24 Hebrews 10 23:45 Hebrews 10:36 23:51 Matthew 25:21 40:37 2 Timothy 4 40:53

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:33. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Lorena, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

We're so glad that you're here, and we want to connect with you and your family.

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You can also visit our website, theriverchurch.cc, to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us, and we hope that you are blessed by today's message.

But hot dogs, I hope you came hungry. We'd love to have you stay after the gathering.

I know we have a team working on that and would love to have you stay and enjoy a meal and learn a little bit about our growth community.

So I want to just keep that in the front of your mind as I will keep you here for a little bit to open the Word of God.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Hebrews chapter 12.

We've been walking through Hebrews and really examining the let us.

Let us statements, and we are going to walk through the let us statement today of run with endurance.

And so I know this might be a shock to some of you, but I used to run endurance races about 10 years ago called Spartan races.

And so today I want to reflect on some of the things that I learned as a runner running through these and hopefully apply it to what the Scripture says.

And hopefully you will find it humorous.

You will also find it encouraging and hopefully challenging.

So one of the first images that we will see is me post race.

Let me give you some context of this image.

A buddy of mine called me about four weeks before this picture was taken.

And he says, hey, I've been training to run this race.

Would you like to go run a race with me?

And in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, I used to do cross country in high school.

How hard can it be?

What am I actually signing up for here?

And he's like, yeah, here, I'll send you some promotional videos about what this is.

And, of course, every single one of these promotional videos sells it so well.

You're like, oh, man, anybody can do this.

I appreciate the humor.

So I'm like, oh, yeah, that's no problem.

I'm in.

Let me do this.

This is the Black Mountain Quarry right outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

Okay.

And so this is me.

Pre-race, super excited, saying, yeah, I'm going to climb that mountain.

I was looking at what was there and what we were up against.

And I'm going to be honest with you.

If I go back to my mentality of what is there, man, I'm excited.

I have no fear.

I am amped and ready to conquer this race.

So with that, with that lack of really understanding of what I was signing up for,

it's really hard to tell what I had to endure in those mountains.

That is just a small portion of the race.

It was a 10.2 mile race.

Okay.

10.2 mile race.

And I decided to run this without any kind of preparation, any kind of training, any.

And that's just the running part.

That does not include the obstacle parts that are all part of it.

I think there were like 10 or 15 different specific obstacles that you had to accomplish.

And if you didn't accomplish the obstacle, you had to do 10 or 15.

That was the race that I signed up for.

Little did I have any understanding of what I was signing up for.

But man, as you look at that picture before the race, I'm eager, I'm excited, and I'm ready to go.

And a lot of times this is where we are as Christians.

We experience this.

And this is as we read the text.

In fact, let's go ahead and read the text from Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse one through three.

It says this.

Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, 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.

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 cross.

Of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.

Let's pray and then look at how this text can apply to our lives as followers of Christ and those who want to draw near to the Lord.

Lord, thank you so much for this morning.

Lord, thank you for the rain.

One of my favorite songs.

Thank you for the sunshine, but also, Lord, thank you.

Thank you for the rain.

Lord, be with us this morning as we open your word.

Help us to understand the importance of these scripture verses, these texts, and help us to apply them.

Lord, may your spirit move through us to grasp this and apply it to our life.

We ask this in Jesus' holy name.

Listen, part of what we have been doing in this series is I'm going to just reiterate these fundamental foundational questions.

The Let Us series is all about us remembering what, in fact,

God has called us to do together, right?

What has God called us as a body of believers, those who profess the name of Jesus?

What has God called us to do together?

And the second question is equally as important.

They cannot be separated.

But what is your response?

How are you going to personally respond to the voice of his son in your life?

That rain's heavy.

How are you personally going to respond to the voice?

How are you personally going to respond to the voice of his son?

And so those two questions are very critical and foundational in this series.

We have to not escape those questions.

But today, I think I'm going to focus a little bit more and really introduce this, I guess you could say,

controlling question as we navigate this text.

And that is this.

Will we continue faithfully when the race becomes harder than we expect?

Will we continue faithfully?

Will we continue faithfully when the race becomes harder than we expect?

If you look at the next picture that I have, now, the race sponsors, they had photographers all through the course.

And so these were taken by them.

You'll probably have to see the Spartan Race logo there.

But this is first mile.

Man, look at that smiling young man.

Where did that guy go?

Look at my face.

I'm super excited, man, at this point in the race.

I'm super confident, man.

I'm like, this is a breeze.

Look at what I'm carrying.

So most of you may not know this, but I'm a diabetic.

And so I thought, because I had no training and proper understanding,

that I would carry all the things that I might need during the race.

This included a knee brace.

This included a couple packs of water.

This included, I think I had a granola bar or four in there and a sack lunch.

I mean, at this point, you would have probably thought I was headed to a picnic.

I mean, that's pretty much the expression.

I mean, nothing is super challenging yet.

I haven't hit an obstacle course.

This is just the first mile.

We're in a big group of people.

Notice nobody else is carrying anything.

Yeah, I missed the memo, apparently.

Well, this is some of the aspects that we can recognize and understand that, man, starting something is pretty easy, is it not?

Starting something can be pretty easy.

Maybe not always.

But for the most part, getting involved, starting something isn't extremely difficult.

There may be fears attached to it.

There may be anxieties attached to it.

But once you get started, there is a sense of excitement.

I mean, I want you to think about this.

The wedding day is not where, when we talk about endurance, where marital endurance is tested.

Isn't that true?

I mean, we have an expression called the honeymoon phase, right?

I've been married for 20 years.

You know, some people's.

Honeymoons last a week.

Some people's last a month.

I'm going to get some brownie points here.

Mine has been 20 years.

I love it.

Okay, I get it, right?

It's okay.

This is a reality.

Our marriage endurance, the endurance of our marriage doesn't happen, obviously, on the wedding day when we start our marriage.

Neither is it the same in ministry, right?

The first day of ministry is never when endurance is tested.

And as Christians, when we walk through our faith with Christ.

It is very rarely the very first day that we choose to follow Christ that our faith, the endurance of our faith, is actually tested.

Endurance is really something that becomes visible when what we have started actually becomes difficult.

Man, we live in a culture that has trained us in a lot of ways to just look for an alternative as soon as something becomes more difficult.

Or it becomes hard.

Or it takes too long.

Man, we are in a world where.

I'm going to use, I think this is the Burger King model.

Get it your way right now.

I'm going to kill it.

I'm not even going to try it.

Your way right away, right?

Something like that.

Am I getting it right?

I'm starting to get some head shakes.

The whole idea is this, man.

We've been trained that, man, if it doesn't come easy, it doesn't come right now, and it isn't the way I want it right now, then I'm going to go somewhere else and find another alternative.

That is the culture that we live in, live around, and we have, quite frankly, brought that idea sometimes into our own faith and into the church.

But the reality is, as we look at this text and we are looking at what the author of Hebrews is saying for us, he even, we didn't read this verse, but earlier in chapter 10, verse 36, the author says very clearly to the people he is writing to, listen, you are in need of endurance.

Scripture doesn't say, hey, listen, run until things become uncomfortable.

Run until you don't have to deal with anything that's hard.

No, it says very clearly in the text, run.

Run with endurance.

And so one of the first questions as I was working through this is, what will keep us from enduring?

And the text tells us very clearly in the very first verse, it says, let us lay aside every single weight.

Let us lay down.

In the NKJV or one of your versions, it may say, putting down every hindrance and sin that is so easily ensnaring us.

I mean, consider that, that ensnarement.

That trap.

That's what sin is, right?

If you're running a race and you have a ball and chain or a snare attached to your leg, obviously you aren't going to be able to run very well, are you?

It's a beautiful picture.

And we don't want to ignore what this author is pointing us to several different ideas.

First and foremost, the concept of sin in our life.

Man, we cannot casually as believers and followers of Christ run after what God has set before us, a race that God has set before us.

We try to hang on and manage other sins in our life that God has already told us to set down.

Sin is a very clear thing we must be acutely aware of when we are running a race.

There's another thing here in this text, this word that is used, let us lay aside every weight.

Now, if you go back to that picture that I was wearing, that backpack had every good intention in mind.

Listen, I don't know if you caught this, but I even had a, I was so arrogant.

I put a GoPro in front because I thought, yeah, everybody's going to want to see me do this.

No one wants to see that video because I don't even think I hit record once.

The point is, I was carrying things on me that I didn't need.

All good intention, right?

Like, oh man, I'm going to need water on the race.

I didn't realize that they had water stations laid out throughout the whole course.

And I was just carrying extra weight.

I had a snack.

I didn't need a snack.

I don't think I ate one single one of those granola bars.

I was halfway through that race.

And a man comes up to me.

I remember it very, very clearly.

Halfway through the race, I am dying.

Like, my legs are cramping up, not prepared, wasn't trained.

And a guy could see very clearly, man, this guy's struggling.

And he asks me, hey, where's your mustard?

Now, if you've never ran, you probably don't, like, I didn't understand.

I got a sandwich, but I didn't put mustard on it.

What are you talking about?

Where's my mustard?

He's like, oh, no one told you?

No one explained to you?

Man, when you're running and you've got cramps, you need, like, salt packs.

And that'll help your muscles not cramp up so much.

Where's your mustard?

I'm like, you got a spare?

He's like, oh, man, I'm out.

You want to guess what I asked every other runner that started passing?

Hey, you got mustard?

You got salt?

I need some.

I'm dying.

Luckily, someone gave me some mustard.

And that helped me.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

Oftentimes, we carry things we think we're going to need.

And this is what this author is pointing us and helping us understand.

Sometimes we carry a weight that is a hindrance.

And sometimes that weight isn't sin.

It's something different.

Could be something we consider good.

We will carry sometimes other people's expectations.

We will carry sometimes, and this isn't to not have a generous, caring heart,

but sometimes we will be the one to try to solve everybody else's problems.

We will carry on everybody else's offense, even though it is in our own offense.

We may carry on everybody else's anxieties.

Everybody else's comments.

We will carry on everybody else's comparison.

And we will carry that weight.

And none of those things in and of themselves are wrong.

Please don't misunderstand me.

I'm not saying it's wrong to be compassionate and caring, helping someone with their anxiety,

especially if that's where God has placed you and God has called you.

But sometimes we try to carry everybody else's problem, everybody else's comparison.

This is why we even have this expression, keeping up with the Joneses in our culture.

Trying to fit and carry what we think we must carry to fit in, to be successful, to be a good person,

to do what God has called us to do.

And we think it's compared to everybody else.

And that's not what this text is telling us.

Consider what our social media has done.

Consider what the social media has, and all of this comparison, right?

What we promote and what we show on Facebook.

It's often the best.

I mean, just go back to those promotional videos that I saw.

My buddy sent me, man, listen, they did not show anybody dying like I was dying on that race.

Everybody was smiling.

It looked like the picture that you saw when I, the very first picture when I was walking through the creek.

Those are the pictures that the promotional video had.

Oftentimes we think that is the weight we must carry.

This is the image we must present ourselves with.

And that's not what the scripture is telling us here.

Sometimes we will assume responsibilities and carry those responsibilities because we have an attitude that says,

well, nobody.

else is going to do it.

So if no one else is going to do it, I'll do it.

That actually comes from a place of pride.

And I'm just going to be very straight up with you.

That might be something I struggle with as a pastor.

It's easy to get into that mindset and say, well, I'll do it.

No one else will do it.

But that's not what God has called us to do at all.

This is the let us statements, right?

Here, here, God and the author is telling us every single one of us has been called to run with endurance a race.

And if you're a follower, you're a follower.

If you're a follower of Christ, that means you are, in fact, called to run a race with endurance.

That word endurance, man, it's a it's an incredible word.

You see this in the first verse.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Endurance is a Greek word that carries this idea of steadfastness.

Perseverance is another closely related term.

The reality is when you see that word endurance, it's not pretending like something isn't difficult.

Marriage is difficult.

Me and Liz celebrated our 20th this last week.

I'm still in my honeymoon phase, guys.

But that doesn't mean that for 20 years we were smooth sailing.

We didn't have problems.

We didn't argue.

We didn't have fights.

No, not at all.

In fact, you can ask Liz.

I'm a hard guy to be married to.

Endurance is this element of, man, sometimes we're going to.

In fact,

the very word implies, expects there is going to be hardship.

There is going to be difficulty.

So as Christians, we have to understand when this text is telling us to run a race with

endurance, man, we have to know that that means there are going to be times in our lives

where difficulty is going to come, where hardships are going to be present.

And so the reality is we don't need endurance when everything is going easy, do we?

When things are smooth sailing, we don't need endurance.

Often times we need endurance when we've been praying, nothing seems to ever change.

Often times the times we need endurance is when we've been obeying, but we recognize

that obedience has an extreme cost to it.

That could be you're choosing to follow Jesus and your partner doesn't, or your girlfriend

or your boyfriend doesn't, and it creates a tension in your relationship.

And you have chosen to stand on God's word and they choose not to.

And that creates a tension in your relationship.

That creates a rift and a hardship and a difficulty and a tension.

That might be you being in a workplace saying, man, I'm going to choose to do what's right

and follow God's word and his integrity and his character.

And it creates tension in the job place.

And it makes things a little bit more uncomfortable or a little bit more difficult.

It might be you as a man in your household saying, no, we're going to choose.

I heard this phrase today.

Thanks, Mike, for reminding me.

For me and my house, we will stand on God's word.

We will stand on God's word.

We will serve the Lord.

That's not easy to do that in this world.

And that may create tension in your own family to say, hey, no, I'm choosing to follow God.

I'm choosing to build my household and my family in God's word and follow his character

and his behavior and example that.

That, that takes endurance.

It might mean when we are serving one another, whether that's in kids ministry, on the security

team, greeting team, the ladies.

Man, sometimes.

Sometimes you might be exhausted serving one another.

Endurance is what shows up when you are serving and tired and exhausted and you still show

up.

Endurance is necessary when you've been fighting a sin for years.

You've been haunted with the same temptation for year after year after year.

And it's easy to just say, well, what's the point?

I'm going to fight this for the rest of my life.

Why even try?

Endurance is what shows up when that sin comes to tempt you.

And you say, well, I'm going to fight this for the rest of my life.

And you say, no, I know I'm tired.

I know I'm exhausted, but I also know who my Lord and my Savior is.

And I'm choosing to walk in his character, in his promises, in his truth.

James says it like this.

Let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

It's James 1.4.

Paul says it like this in Romans.

We also boast in our affliction.

We boast in our suffering, is what Paul says.

Because we know that that affliction and that suffering, it produces endurance.

I read earlier this passage from Hebrews chapter 10, just the first part.

For you need endurance.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 36 says this.

So that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

Notice that passage.

It's very important to see this.

Notice that the endurance.

Endurance comes after doing the will of God.

Sometimes God's will is exactly why we need endurance.

See, all through Scripture, the biblical assumption is super clear.

Being faithful to God, to Jesus, will eventually become difficult.

I want to show you this next picture.

This next picture is a picture of me at an obstacle course.

I'd love to tell you I climbed that rope.

That I was super strong and I was capable.

But I did not climb that rope.

I failed that obstacle.

Quite frankly, the way the...

I'm just going to blame the designer of the course.

Because they made me run like two or three miles.

My muscles were all nice and loose and relaxed.

And then they thought it would be a great idea to throw a giant, cold, icy mud pit

just before this obstacle.

And all my muscles began to...

And I...

I remember it vividly.

It is from that moment that I started to fight muscular cramps all through the rest of the race.

I couldn't climb...

I could not climb up that rope.

I was tired.

I was unprepared.

My body was angry at me for not training and not preparing like I probably should have.

But that picture actually gives us a clear understanding that we need to understand as believers.

And that is this.

Endurance isn't a guaranteed success or a conquering of everything.

Endurance is sometimes walking in failure and still continuing on the race.

Endurance is sometimes recognizing,

I couldn't do it.

I can't do it.

But I'm still going to continue on with what God has asked me to do.

I had an opportunity to quit after this.

See, the way this course was designed,

there was the quarry, which is pretty flat ground.

And so the first...

I want to say three miles or so of the course was designed to be within this quarry.

And I think this was one of the latter obstacles before they started to send you on this grueling uphill

for like a hundred miles, it felt like, straight incline up that mountain.

And I remember seeing to myself as I couldn't do that,

realizing what I had, seven more miles of uphill, more obstacles,

and I'm already experiencing pain.

I've already experienced failure.

And I remember saying,

Man, if I'm going to quit, now's the time to do it.

Because the car is right there.

If I'm going to quit, this is the best place to do it.

And as I was failing at that obstacle,

you know what I didn't hear from the runners that ran?

I mean, these are total strangers.

You know what I didn't hear?

Ah, yeah, man, you suck.

You should quit.

Like, dude, what are you doing?

Come on, get out of my way.

You know what I didn't hear?

I didn't hear any of that.

I heard people saying,

Hey, dude, keep going.

You can do this.

Don't quit.

You've got this.

come on, let's go. Pick it up. Let's go. Keep running. You've got this. You can go. Man, I know

that is a secular, non-Christian event. Please understand that. I'm not trying to, but man,

that is what the body of Christ is called to do. When you see someone fall, you don't sit there

and say, you suck, dude. No. We are called, we are called to be the cheerleaders for one another.

Hey, come on, get up. Yeah, you fail. It's okay. Let's keep going. Keep running. Keep going after

what God has called you to do. Man, so many of us often see our failures and go, oh, that race is

over. I'm done. I messed up. Fell back into a sin that I thought I would never deal with again.

I've screwed up. There's no hope. Man, I didn't handle the season that I was in there very well.

I failed this person or that person. My race is over. It's all done. Man, I thought I would be

stronger than this, and I have failed. And we limit the race, and we,

end the race with the failure. And that is not what endurance is. Oftentimes, we have this

temptation in our own mind of asking ourselves, well, what's the point? Why go any further?

This text tells us over and over and over again, no, don't quit. Endurance, that very word implies,

yeah, you're going to have difficulties. You're going to have failures. You're going to have

hardships. But endurance speaks of this very notion of not quitting, not giving up, and moving

forward. Keep running the race that has been set before you.

See, the Bible is telling us something very important here. We run a race. We all have this

race. It says, let us run. This is kind of tying directly into what we covered last week in Hebrews

10. Consider one another. Encourage one another. Gather together with one another. Stir one another

up. Help one another keep running. That's the let us statement. I want to show you this last picture.

I love this picture. This picture reminds me of many things. When I,

when I ran the race, hopefully it'll come up here shortly, you'll see it. When I ran the race,

not this one, the one just before it, this one. I don't know if you remember that smiley,

arrogant face at the beginning of the race. This is 10.2 miles, six hours from the time I started

the race. You know how many times in my head I thought I should just quit? What's the point?

I am, I can remember it. I am beaten, hurting. I took, I'm glad I packed my knee brace because I,

I needed it. My knee was throbbing. In fact, you might not know what was crossing my mind at that

moment, but you can see just a little bit at the bottom there. One of the things they do is they

set this finish line stacked with fire and they light it on fire. And it sounds really cool.

In my mind, I didn't know if I would actually make it across and that if I would stumble onto

the fire and I was thinking maybe I should go around it. Probably one of the hardest things

physically I've ever had to do.

But I love this picture because it shows that I'm still moving. I'm still moving in a direction

to go towards the finish line. Oftentimes we think that hitting the finish line is this glorious,

fantastic, victorious moment. Man, sometimes it looks really ugly. Sometimes we're dragging,

we're crawling, we're doing everything we can to just take the next step across the finish line.

Our faith and our example with Christ is no different. Sometimes we have to drag and we have

to be fearful. Man, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm not

going to collapse. This is enduring and running the race faithfully with God, spiritually with

his word, not giving up, not quitting and enduring in our faith. Just moving forward, taking the next

step. Man, you might think you're, you might be watching online in this gathering. Man,

I'm failing because I'm exhausted. Endurance doesn't always look pretty.

Endurance doesn't always look victorious. It doesn't always look glamorous.

Being faithful and enduring in our faith means I'm still going to pray even though the answers

aren't coming. Enduring in our faith means, man, I'm going to trust him through the tears,

through the confusion, through the lack of clarity in circumstances. Man, endurance as a believer is

I'm still going to gather with my brothers and sisters in Christ even if I don't feel like it

today. Endurance as a Christian says, man, I am going to continue to fight the sin that I know I

should not have in my life. Endurance for a Christian is, man, I'm going to love my family

the way God exampled for me in his character and his behavior. I may have failed, but I'm going to

keep doing what I know I should be doing, following the example of Jesus in my life.

I'm going to follow and hang on and hold fast to his promises that he's made for me.

I am still going to follow Jesus even if it's hard. See, spiritual endurance is when you keep moving

towards Christ. You can be dragging. You might even be crawling, but you're still moving. And I

love, I love this. You might sit here and say, Pastor John, how, how do we do this? How do we do

this? Man, I've got nothing left in me. How do I keep moving forward when I'm, I'm at my limit?

Listen, I just want you to know the answer's already been given to us in the scripture.

Verse two, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Look at what

it lays out for us to understand and what it, what it tells us to look at and where to,

to get the example from. Who for the joy that was set before him endured, there's that word

endurance, endured the cross. Look at verse three, consider him, that's Jesus, who endured. Man,

I love that Jesus isn't some God that just says, hey, go do this and has no understanding of what

in Hebrews he says, listen, you who are struggling with sin, have you, have you even bled for your sin

yet? The answer we can all say is no to that, because someone already bled for your sin for you,

who endured the cross for you, who endured the shame for you. Look at what it says there and

there. He despised the shame, but now he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider

him who endured, look at this, from sinners such hostility against himself. If you want to know how

how do I continue in my spiritual endurance? How do I take another step forward? Listen,

the answer is very clear and very simple. Look, look to Jesus, consider Jesus, what he endured,

the blood that he shed on behalf of you and on behalf of me. Consider him. Last week, we looked

at the passage pointing us to consider one another. I love that here in 12, he brings us back to the

same thing. Consider him. Consider him who took on the cross, who took on sin, who took on the grave

for you and for me. What difficulty are we experiencing that could even compare to what

Christ experienced? What rejection are we experiencing that would even compare to the

rejection that Christ felt? So to that question we laid down as a foundation, man, how am I

personally responding to the voice of his son? Listen, when you're tired, pay attention to where

you're looking. When you're disappointed, pay attention to where you're looking. When you're

disappointed, make sure you're paying attention to where you're looking. When you failed, make sure

you pay attention to where you're looking. When you want to quit, make sure you're paying attention

to where you're looking. The passage tells us very clearly, look to Jesus. He is the author and the

finisher of our faith. He endured and he finished what we could never finish. This is the gospel.

This is the good news. We have someone, a God who loves us enough to step into this flesh, to step

into this broken world. We have someone who loves us enough to step into this broken world. We have

someone who loves us enough to step into this world and show us that there is a way for redemption.

I want to show you this last image. You got a glimpse of it just a little bit earlier. This is

minutes after me crossing the line. My buddies finished the race in like three hours

and something. That's what training will do to you, I guess. Close to six hours later after I

finally crossed that finish line and they were there waiting for me, encouraging me. This is

the body of Christ. Now here's the thing. I want you to understand this. I want you to know this.

Yes, we finished the race. I want you to know this. Yes, we finished the race. I want you to know this.

We finished it together. And yes, there was this encouragement. But what the text is telling us

is something infinitely greater than anything that I could have experienced on that day. Quite

frankly, my illustration falls short and is incapable of accomplishing and showing us what

we have in the person of Christ. Matthew 25 verse 21 says this, and this is what the promise of a

finished race looks like. When we hear the words from our Lord and Savior, well done, thou good and

faithful servant. Later in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul, he is getting ready to end his life and he

can confidently proclaim these words to his predecessor. He says, I have fought the good

fight. I have finished the race that was set before him. I have kept the faith. Finally,

there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to

me on the cross. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,

that day. And he says, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Yes,

we are called to run a race, but we are not called to run that race alone. The let us statement there

says that we are called to run it together. So when we ask that question, what are we called to

do together as a body of believers? Let me just answer that from this passage. We are called to

encourage each other to continue.

We are called to run the race, to remind each other of the finisher and the author of our faith,

Jesus, and to continually point people in the difficulty, in the failure, in the hardship,

in the things that they don't understand, to continually point them, hey, listen,

follow Jesus. His words are true. Get into his scripture, his promises that we can hang on to,

to hold fast to. This follows everything we have already said and already laid down.

Let us draw near. Let us hold fast. Let us consider one another. And here we see this

proclamation. Let us run this race together. This race that requires endurance. Because we know

this race is not easy. This race comes with its difficulties. So I'm just going to end with a

couple of questions for you to consider. What is it that first and foremost you need to lay down

today? What weight, what sin are you carrying that is prohibiting you from running and running?

An effective race that God has laid out before you. Where are some areas in your life you are

tempted to quit? There's a lot of places we can say, man, I'm ready to quit. Relationship, work,

families, ministry. Lastly, I want to encourage you to examine where you are looking. Listen,

don't look to, I hope you don't get this. I'm not trying to promote you to go run a hard race. That

doesn't do anything. But as followers of Christ spiritually, where are you looking for your

faith? I want to encourage you to examine where you are looking. Listen, don't look to, I hope you

don't get this. I'm not trying to promote you to go run a hard race. That doesn't do anything. Listen,

don't look to, I hope you don't get this. I'm not trying to promote you to go run a hard race. That

doesn't do anything. But as followers of Christ spiritually, where are you looking for your

faith? What is God calling us to do together? Help each other finish. How am I personally

responding to the voice of his son? I hope that the answer is, I am keeping my eyes on Jesus and I

am continuing to run the race that is set before me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for this text, this reminder. Lord, endurance is something that we all need to

be very acutely aware of in our life when things get hard, when things are difficult. Lord, that we

would, we would look confidently to you. Lord, that our trust would be so deep, so capable of just

coming to you and saying, Lord, man, I'm at my, my end. I need you. This is really the gospel when

we ask people to come to the place when they know they can't fix their own sin. But so Lord, Lord,

so often, even as believers, we, we as Christians, we know what you've done on the cross, but man,

we so often try to take a hold of it, try to do it in our own strength. Lord, we just need to be

looking at you, the one who already accomplished, who wrote it down, the author of the finisher.

Lord, may this be a, something we examine as a body and learning how we can, in fact, encourage,

build up. I remember so vividly seeing these military men carrying a man with no legs, Lord.

He could do the obstacles fine. They carried him across that finish line. Such a beautiful picture

of what we are called.

To do as the body. Some may not be able to walk. Lord, we are called to pick them up and carry

them. Help us be that body. I ask this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.

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