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The River ChurchSermons

Run to Jesus

Josh Yates · Sunday, 30 August 2026 · 39:21 · 5,982 words

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The race described in Hebrews 12:1–2 calls believers to lay aside every weight and sin and fix their eyes on Jesus. The sermon emphasizes that a great cloud of witnesses from Scripture surrounds us, cheering us on as we run with endurance. Listeners are invited to trust God in hardship, keep their focus on Christ, and lean on community for encouragement. The speaker prays that each person will follow Jesus and finish the race well.

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 42 hebrew 26 hindrance 11 writer 15 athlete 9 run 25 witness 14 entangles 5 gps 5 sports 8 strip 6 army 7

Topics

Faith 7 Sin 5 Atonement & Sacrifice 4 Prayer 2 Abraham 2

Scripture referenced 13

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

Hebrews 12 0:46 Hebrews 12 0:48 Hebrews 12 0:52 Hebrews 12:1-2 0:56 Hebrews 12:1-2 1:16 Hebrews 12:1 4:32 Hebrews 11 4:47 Hebrews 11 5:00 Hebrews 11:6 5:44 Hebrews 11:12 7:56 Judges 4 12:07 Hebrews 11:33-40 12:25 Romans 6:23 28:28

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.

And the easiest way to do that is to text RIVERCHURCH to 97000.

There you can ask questions, submit a prayer request, and even support the River Church financially.

And at the end of the day, we just want to connect with you and be a blessing to you in any way that we can.

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.

Today we continue our study and our look at the book of Hebrews in our series, Let Us.

And the Let Us statements that the writer of Hebrews encourages us to do.

So if you have your Bibles, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 12 today.

Hebrews 12, that's where we will plant for the majority of the morning.

I may talk about a couple other things, but Hebrews chapter 12.

And we're going to read verses 1 and 2. It'll be on the screen behind me, but if you have your Bibles or your devices, please do that.

If you don't have a Bible app on your phone, you can download the River Church app.

I encourage you always to look at a Bible that you hold, though.

Don't just rely on the screen, because there could be a typo. It could be wrong.

I want you to be able to see it for yourself.

So Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2 says this.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy that was set before him endured.

Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Today, let us run. Let us run.

I always joke that if I was to put one of those stickers on the back of my car, it would not say 26.2, it would say 0.0. I don't run.

For me, I've never been a runner. I have played sports all of my life, so I have to have a purpose in my running.

Running toward a finish line, I'm like, okay.

But if I have to put a ball in a hole,

or hit a ball into a field,

or, you know, I don't kick the ball, but I love coaching people who kick the ball,

you know, that I can wrap my head around.

But this is a total sports analogy that the writer of Hebrews is talking about here.

It's right up my alley.

I love sports. I'm a sports guy.

I watch just about any sports possible.

Many here love sports.

There's many of us that don't.

That's okay.

I got to dive back into high school okay.

At Oakland Christian, and now NCAA Division I at Oakland University sports this past week with PA announcing.

And so it's been a blast for me, and I had some fun.

Man, I had a men's and women's soccer game at Oakland University, got to announce there.

I'm doing some volleyball next month, and then I announce all varsity sports at Oakland Christian,

and they've dubbed me, that is dumb, not really, they've dubbed me the voice of the Lancers now.

So here it is, you know.

Here we go, all right.

But these athletes, when they perform, they've got to be ready.

They're running their race to hopefully win the football or soccer games that I got to announce this week.

And I get to be one of the loudest spectators trying to give these athletes a home field advantage, along with the crowd that is behind them.

But it is their race to run in the contest that I announced for.

And the writer of Hebrews is using the same illustration here to a degree.

The reader of this letter would have the Greek.

The Greek races where athletes would race and compete for the prize in their minds.

They would have this thought in their heads.

These athletes would train hard.

They would seek glory and fame for themselves by winning these races.

Fame was often difficult to come by in Hellenistic culture or Greek culture, but could be attained by winning the victor's crown.

This would change a person's station in life.

They ran the race, and they ran hard.

The winner won the laurel crown.

It was a crown of leaves.

It wasn't expensive in and of itself, but the winner would have the honor of sitting with royalty.

And every person reading this letter would have this in mind.

It's the picture we have to have in mind to fully understand and apply this today.

But there's a word here that, again, we have to pay attention to.

Anybody have any idea what it is in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1?

You're getting it.

It's the word therefore.

And we have to figure out what it's there for.

We can't understand these two verses.

If we don't talk about what we just heard in the chapter immediately preceding this in Hebrews chapter 11.

The writer says,

We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.

who is he referring to? Who are these witnesses? Well, when we turn back to chapter 11, we find

out who these witnesses are. It's Abel. Cain and Abel all the way from the beginning, the sons of

Adam and Eve. Abel offered the correct sacrifice to God according to God's command. God accepted

his sacrifice and not Cain's because Cain didn't give what God had commanded. He didn't give his

best. Even though he died, even though Abel died at the hand of his brother, his faith still speaks,

the writer of Hebrews says. It was Enoch. It is Enoch. Enoch was taken up to heaven before he died.

He didn't see death. He walked with God and was commended as pleasing to God. And based upon his

example, we're told in Hebrews 11, 6, and without faith, it is impossible to please him for whoever

would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. It's

impossible to please God without faith. Another one of these witnesses that's cheering us on is Noah.

Noah was warned by God.

About an impending flood to destroy the earth, an event that no one had ever seen. So this guy

builds a huge boat in his front yard that God told him to build and people make fun of him. Look at

old crazy Noah. And he saved his family and he obeyed God. It was one of these, another one of

these witnesses is Abraham. He was called to leave his home and go to a place that God would show him.

He didn't know where he was going. He didn't have a GPS in his camo phone or whatever it was.

He didn't have any GPS. He was basically, well, I guess he had a GPS. He didn't have a GPS. He didn't have a GPS.

It was the God positioning system. But the reality is, is he didn't know where he was going.

God just said, go. He said, okay. And he even got up early the next morning. That tells me he was

serious because he got up early the next morning and he started walking, took everything he had.

And he got to live in the land of the promise, but it was a foreign land living in tents

with his son and his wife, Sarah, who were given the same promise. Abraham was looking forward to

the future city that was designed, built, and founded by God himself. I should say the sons

that would come after that.

Sarah, Abraham's wife is another one of these witnesses who had the power from God to conceive

even when she was way too old and should have never conceived. But God kept his promise because

she considered God faithful in his promise. Here's the thing. The writer of Hebrews said

she considered God faithful, but she even doubted for a minute. There's a, there's a situation where

Sarah hears of the news and she goes, okay. And God goes, what you laughing for? Right? There's a

little, there's a, there's a little scene there in, in, in Genesis. But even though she doubted

for a minute, she clung to God. And because of this, I love how the writer of Hebrews puts it.

Hebrews 11, 12, therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the

stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. Because of their

faith, Abraham and Sarah, they would be a blessing to be the blessing to others that God promised

they would be. How? Jesus is from his family. His faith, because of his faith, Jesus was born from

The savior of the world. We go back to Abraham after Sarah, and he, he was tested in his faith

by offering up Isaac, his only son, the child of the promise, the, the, the, the child of the

promise of God. He would obey God no matter what, having so much faith in God that he could even

raise Isaac up from the dead in order to fulfill the promise. If he actually had to take Isaac's

life in that, in that moment. And the writer of Hebrews says in a way of speaking, Abraham did

receive Isaac back from the dead because he had the knife position.

Ready to go. God said, stop. And then Isaac, he would give blessings to his sons, Jacob and Esau.

And then Jacob would bless each of the sons of Joseph in Egypt, bowing and worship as they died.

And Joseph had faith in God throughout his faith throughout his life. In so many circumstances,

he was sold by enslavery by his brothers to Egypt, to following God and leading Egypt later to loving

his family, even after what they did. And at the end of his life, he gave directions to be sure to

take his bones back to the promise.

Having faith that God would still fulfill his promise of giving them a home. Moses was born,

had to be hidden for three months by his parents because Pharaoh sought to curb the growth of the

Hebrew people by killing male babies. So his parents put him in the Nile River in a basket,

really in God's hands. And he would direct that basket to Pharaoh's daughter and he would be

raised in the palace. Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor. Pharaoh tried to thwart the

in your house, God says. Once he found out he was a Hebrew, he refused his royal power, Moses did,

and he chose to be mistreated with the people of God. He considered following God more precious

than the treasures of Egypt. What an example. And he spurned the anger of Pharaoh. When called upon,

he instituted the first Passover in Egypt so the firstborn of Israel would not be harmed.

And then the people of God crossed the Red Sea and the wilderness on dry ground to get away from

the armies of Egypt. And those armies would be drowned when they attempted to cross the Red Sea

themselves. Another witness is Joshua, because the walls of Jericho would fall. I'm sorry,

if I'm told to walk around walls for six days and shout and shout, and then the seventh day

do seven more times of an enemy that's ready to defeat me, I'd be like, God, are you kidding?

I'm just going to walk around, we're just going to shout, and yet Joshua did it. And what happened?

The walls of Jericho fell. Rahab, what a story. Inside the

city of Jericho, she would help the spies of Israel and hide them. She would tie a scarlet

scarf outside her window, and her house would remain. I have this picture that it's like

just this one column of like bricks are standing, and the rest of the walls are just falling down.

That's kind of my picture. Maybe it's because of the kid flannel graphs that they did when I was

that age or whatever. But that's kind of the picture in my head. Here's the thing. It goes

even further. Rahab was a prostitute who decided to follow the Lord. She was a prostitute who decided to follow the Lord.

And how does God bless her? Jesus comes from her line. He redeems her

in everything she did. Then chapter 11 goes on and says there was Gideon who

set out a fleece to determine the will of God, and he cut down his army to face the

135,000 strong Midianite army. He cut his army down to 300 men.

And guess what? They won. Barak, he stepped into impossible odds to defeat the army of

Sisera and Judges 4 and 5. Samson fell into sin with Delilah, but gave his

life, standing for God with his last breath, destroying the Philistines.

Jephthah marched against the Ammonites and won with God's hand.

The author of Hebrews mentions David and Samuel. But then we have to hear the rest of what Hebrews

says here in Hebrews 11, 33 to 40. And this passage gets me every time. It says,

They were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release

so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even

chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword.

They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. Of whom,

the world was not worthy. Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of

the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, they did not receive what was promised

yet, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made

perfect. This is what all of these great crowd of witnesses did. And they didn't yet receive the

promise. They were looking forward to it. They gave their lives for a future promise. My

friends, we have the promise in our hands because of Jesus Christ. And this is an awesome thing that

we talk about today, that therefore, since we're surrounded by this great cloud of a crowd of

witnesses, those are the people that are cheering you on in heaven right now. These are those that

have run their race and now see the fulfillment of what everything they were waiting for points to

Jesus Christ. And they shout at the top of their lungs to you today,

go for it. He is worthy. You are not alone. But what does this race entail? What does this race

entail? Well, the first thing the writer of Hebrews says is we're to lay aside every weight. When

competing, no one puts extra weight on. It'll slow you down. That would be ridiculous. The picture

here is that of a person getting ready to run the race before them, the athlete. Now, Greek athletes

would literally take every hindrance off of them, including their clothing when they were about to

The Greek word, or training for athletics,

gymnasium, our word for gymnasium, literally translates to train naked. Kind of gives a

little different, anyway. Beginning around the 8th to 6th century BC, Greek male athletes routinely

stripped naked before entering the stadium or arena to train and race because their tunic robes

and heavy garments would catch the wind, trap heat, restrict full stride, and range of motion.

Safety. Legend holds that a runner named Ossipus, there it is, Ossipus of Megra, lost his loincloth

mid-race in 720 BC and won, which prompted athletes to abandon their garments altogether

to prevent tripping or tangled limbs. And they would often put oil on themselves. They would

cover themselves in olive oil, which helped protect their skin from the sun and the dust,

but would ruin any clothing. So that's not what I'm saying. We're not that kind of church,

all right? And I don't anticipate you doing that tomorrow in the gym.

You will be arrested, all right? But that was the getting off the hindrance of anything possible

was taken out of the picture for this athlete to be able to run his or her race. Probably

actually more his races back then. This is what the writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us.

Let nothing get in the way of the race you are running that God has called you to. Nothing.

The writer starts with laying aside the weight, the hindrances of your walk with God. In your

race with God. Commentator said it well. I have to, I have to just say what he said because it was

perfect. Not all hindrances or weights are sin, however. In fact, what is a hindrance to you may

not be a hindrance in any way to somebody else. A hindrance is something otherwise good that weighs

you down spiritually. It could be a friendship, an association, an event, a place, a habit,

a pleasure, an entertainment, or an honor. But if this otherwise good thing drags you down,

you must strip it away. For example, there may be a harmless place,

a forest, a store, an apartment, or a city that because of your past sins still lures you downward.

Such a place must be tossed aside and forgotten. This image is extreme. If we're to finish well in

faith, we have to strip our souls naked of everything that hinders in the sin that so

easily entangles us. The benevolent knowing faces of the witnesses beckon us to do so. We will never

run well without doing this. What is called for here, I believe, is a conscious systematic divestment

of all sin. We have to strip our souls naked of everything that hinders in the sin that so easily

entangles us. All sins, all hindrances, a divestment that is regularly performed. Remember, all it

takes is one sin or hindrance to sabotage the runner's soul. That's all it takes. It's something

small to hinder us, and it hurts our walk with the Lord. The writer says next that we have to lay

aside the sins that so easily cling to us. I love how the ESV puts that. They cling to us. Some

of us cling to us. Some of us cling to us. Some of us cling to us. Some of us cling to us. We have to

strip us up in life when it comes to the sin that entangles. There's a phenomenon in nature,

repeated billions of times, and it's an allegory of sin's billion-fold pathology. Perhaps you've

seen it yourself while lying in the grass by a sundew plant when a fly lands on one of its leaves

to taste one of the glands that grow there. Instantly, three crimson-tipped finger-like

hairs bend over and touch the fly's wings, holding it firmly in a sticky grasp. The fly

struggles mightily to get free, but the more it struggles, the more hopelessly it's coated with

adhesive. The fly struggles mightily to get free, but the more it struggles, the more hopelessly it's

coated with adhesive. Soon the fly relaxes, but to its fly mind, things could be worse because it

extends its tongue and feasts on the sundew's sweetness while it is held even more firmly by

the plant's tentacles. When the captive is entirely at the plant's mercy, the edges of the leaf fold

inward, forming a closed fist. Two hours later, the fly has an empty, sucked skin, and the hungry

fist unfolds its delectable mouth for another easy entanglement. My friends, that is the picture of

sin. It tastes good. Otherwise, it wouldn't be tempting. Sometimes it tastes really good, and all

the while, we are enjoying the sweetness of whatever the sin is that we enjoy. Tentacles of

consequence and the judgment of God are wrapping around and will pull us to a place we don't want

to go.

Once heard it said that sin will take us where we never want to go and keep us a lot longer than we

want to stay. That's what the apostle or what the writer of Hebrews is saying here. The sin which

so easily entangles us refers to the specific sins that each of us individually is most likely

to commit. It's the besetting sin. It's termed in the older translations. We each have characteristic

sins that more easily entangle us than others. Your thing isn't my thing. My thing isn't your

thing. Some sins that tempt and degrade others hold little appeal for us and vice versa. Sensuality

may be the Achilles heel for many men, but not all. Another might have victory over that sin, but

have jealousy as their biggest thing. Not realizing that jealousy is rotting their soul. Dishonesty

might never tempt some souls, but gossip does. What sin is it that entangles you? What's that

sin that you don't want anybody to know that you struggle with? Because I guarantee you

every single person in this room has at least one. Covetousness, envy, lust, criticism, laziness,

hatred, unthankfulness, pride, dishonesty. It must be stripped off and left behind if we're

going to follow Christ, if we're going to run this race. So that's what we're supposed to do.

How in the world do we do this? Well, the writer of Hebrews doesn't leave us stranded. And the next

thing he says is, we look to Jesus. We look to Jesus. We fix our eyes fully on Jesus. We don't

put our eyes on anyone or anything else. We put our eyes on him. It's him. It's always been him.

In 1787, a 28-year-old British member of parliament named William Wilberforce resolved to end the

transatlantic slave trade. He assumed it would take a few years of legislative debate. Instead,

it became a brutal 46-year campaign defined by physical collapse, public ridicule, political

betrayal, and repeated defeat after defeat after defeat. Year after year, Wilberforce introduced

anti-slavery bills in parliament, only to see them voted down by powerful interests. The stress

eroded his health. He suffered from

severe ulcerative colitis and failing eyesight, relying on braces to hold up his body weight.

Exhausted and targeted by death threats, Wilberforce repeatedly considered quitting

politics. But Wilberforce moved into a community in Clapham, South London, with a group of like-minded

Christian reformers. Known as the Clapham sect, this cloud of witnesses surrounded him.

John Newton, who is the author of Amazing Grace, served as his spiritual mentor,

urging him not to abandon his post. Hannah Moore managed public awareness

campaigns, writing poems and pamphlets to rally popular support. Henry Thornton financed the

operation and managed research data to bolster Wilberforce's speeches. And John Wesley, that

John Wesley, on his deathbed in 1791, wrote Wilberforce a final letter of encouragement,

urging him, go on in the name of God and the power of his might, till even American slavery

shall vanish away. When Wilberforce was bedridden, his community wrote his speeches, gathered evidence,

and prayed over him.

When he was mocked, they reminded him of his eternal calling. In 1807, twenty years into his

fight, Parliament finally passed the bill to abolish the slave trade. But Wilberforce kept

running. He fought for another twenty-six years to abolish slavery itself. And then, on July 26,

1833, an ailing seventy-three-year-old Wilberforce received news that Parliament had passed the

Slavery Abolition Act, officially freeing all enslaved people across the British and African

British Empire. He died three days later, having finished his race. See, Wilberforce kept his eyes

on the finish line. He didn't look at everything that was around him, the hindrances that there

would have been that had held him back, the sin that I'm sure he struggled with of being angry

and even questioning the Lord, questioning God, don't get me wrong, that's not necessarily sinful,

but it's about where we find our answers. He laid those things aside, even physical ones, and he set

his eyes on God and his call. And so, we focus on him. His entire life of Wilberforce is our

example, and Jesus is our ultimate example of how we can help people. And so, we focus on him, and

how to run our race, and how to have a relationship with God that sustains us through anything.

How do we know this? 12.2 again. Looking to Jesus, who is what? The founder and perfecter of our

faith, who for the joy that was before him, was set before him, endured the cross, despising the

shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. I mean, look at what Jesus endured.

Described like this, some people actually wrongly imagine that because Jesus was a divine man,

the physical and spiritual sufferings of the cross were somehow less for him. It's not true.

John Henry Newman brilliantly explained, as men are superior to animals and are affected by

pain more than they, by reason of the mind within them, which gives a substance to pain, so in like

manner our Lord felt the pain of the body with a consciousness and therefore a keenness and

intensity, and with a unity of perception which none of us can possibly fathom or compass. Because

his soul was so absent-minded, he was not able to understand the pain of the cross. He was not able to

in his power, so simply free from the influence of distractions, so fully directed upon the pain,

so utterly surrendered, so simply subjected to the suffering. And thus he may truly be said to

have suffered the whole of his passion in every moment of it. Sometimes the pain we experience as

humans rather than, say, our dogs, hurts more because we understand what's going on, and then

it has fear and all that stuff into it. What he's saying is if there's that discrepancy there,

Jesus and us, none of us would have ever understood what it felt like. In fact, none of us ever have to

understand what it feels like to be forsaken by the heavenly, by our heavenly father, because he was

for us. And when the writer of Hebrews says that he endured the cross, we have to let it sink into

our souls what that means. Because his physical pain was absolute, but his spiritual pain

was immense. And he endured the cross, scorning its shame. That is, he endured the cross, scorning

nothing of it. Shame, it didn't matter to him. Why? Because he knew what he was called to do,

and he knew that he had to do it because his father was calling him to do it,

and he had us on his mind. Then can you imagine the joy, Jesus's reunion with the father? If we,

as his sons and daughters, when we come to know him, are his heirs, what's that reunion going to

look like for you and me when we finished our race? Jesus is the founder or the source of our faith.

It's him. It's what he accomplished. When Jesus said, it is finished, he actually meant

that it is finished. He is both the cornerstone and the capstone. He is the foundation of our

faith, and he tops it all off. Because without him, the wages or the payment of sin in Romans 6.23

is our death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ,

our Lord. Because he died for us. And if we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead,

and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, you know what? We'll be saved. And if you're here

this morning and you don't know Jesus as your savior, my friends, we've all sinned, every single

person, including the one doing the talking right now. And we're all in desperate need of a savior.

And we're talking about something and a journey with God that has to start with Jesus himself.

And if you don't know him today, you can call on his name. Believe that he is who he says he is,

that he's the son of God. And believe that he did what he said he did. He died in our place for our

sin and rose from the dead on the third day.

And you will be saved. It's true for every single person. And every single one of us needs that.

So he's the founder, the source of our faith. But he's also the perfecter of our faith

because his work is perfect. His sacrifice was complete. It was once for all. He doesn't have

to die again and again and again and again. If we look at the Old Testament, we see animals dying

in the place for sin. Jesus is the perfect lamb of God who died once for all. And he never has

to die again because he made the sacrifice for our sins. So we'll never die again. We'll never

know anything about

but God's grace if we want him.

We accept his work in our place and our sins are forgiven.

So my friends, let us run our race

with our eyes on Jesus alone.

Let us run our race with our eyes on Jesus alone.

Paul would say toward the end of his life

to his kind of minty Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, 7,

he says, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith.

I pray we're gonna be able to do the same.

Pray we're gonna be able to do the same.

I don't know the race that you've been called to.

Every single person in this room is called to a race to run.

We all have a race to run, every single one of us.

But my friends, this isn't a straight sprint.

This is a winding cross country marathon

for every single one of us.

Your race is not my race.

My race is not your race.

There are similarities at times,

but each one has a different race to run.

It's gonna include twists and turns,

setbacks and ways forward, pain, joy,

sorrow and laughter,

crushing defeat and overwhelming victory.

So there's some of you here today

that are cruising in your race

because you got your eyes on Jesus

and right now things are going well

and you're trying to live for him.

There's some here that are taking some knocks along the way,

but you're still moving forward.

Then there's some people here today

that are probably on their knees,

crawling, trying to move forward.

I know that because I know some of your stories.

Some of us here have hindrances in our lives

that it's time to lay aside.

And there are some that are entangled in sin

and don't see a way out.

There's a song that's hit me right in the feels recently.

It speaks to all this.

By a Christian artist that graduated from Liberty University,

just came, just found her recently.

Her name is Rebecca Ray, R-A-E.

Beautiful voice, awesome music.

And from what I can piece together,

she was married about four or so years ago

and she wrote a beautiful song.

I mean a beautiful song for their first dance.

You can find her video on YouTube

talking about why she wrote the song.

She's releasing a song this Friday

called The Song of Life.

In her Instagram posts with glimpses into this song,

she is very real and conveys that it was written

in the midst of the loss of her marriage.

It's raw, real, and beautiful.

Here's some lyrics.

You never said it won't get hard.

You just promised not to be far.

Sometimes those mountains won't move

and said you just make a way through.

You never said it won't get hard.

You just promised not to be far.

And when those mountains don't move,

it's because you will make a way through.

So God, make a way through.

Make a way through.

I know you will.

I know you will.

I know you will make a way.

Friends, it's about Jesus.

It's always about him.

But as believers, we are in a race.

We're surrounded by a great cloud of lives

whose examples call out our best.

The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Prophets, Moses, Elijah, Samuel, Daniel, Jeremiah.

The apostles, Peter, John, Paul.

The martyrs, Stephen, Polycarp, Cranmer, Elliot, and Saint.

The preachers, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon.

The missionaries, Cary, Taylor, Carmichael.

our departed family members, and on and on. Their faces invite us to finish well. So for those

crawling today, for those weighted down, for those entangled in sin, allow me to be your PA

announcer right now and say, you aren't alone. God is right by your side. You can do this. He will

pick you up. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He's worth it. Let's go. He will make a way through. He will

make a way through. Lay aside that weight. It's hard, but he'll give you strength. Look up. He's

holding out his hand, holding out his hands. Let us run our race with our eyes on Jesus alone. I'm

right here is why we do growth communities. You can't follow Jesus alone. So thankful for the

growth we've seen at Lake Orion, but as we grow bigger, we have to grow smaller. You can't just

come on a Sunday. I hope you're inspired by what you've heard this morning, but how are you going

to live it tomorrow? You're not going to hear,

every day. You've got to live it with people. I can't know every single one of you. I know some,

all of us in a way, but I can't be that person for everyone at this size. That's why we need

each other. Besides, you're not supposed to be following me. You're following him. And we point

each other back to him. It's why we do growth communities. So we can have our eyes fixed on

Jesus alone in our race. Cause your race isn't my race and my race isn't your race. But when those

paths intersect, maybe you're taking a turn that I remember.

Five years ago. Or maybe I'm about to take a few steps back that you took last year. That's church.

And that's the Holy Spirit dwelling in her. That means you. Let us run our race with our eyes

on Jesus alone. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank

you for the fact that these races that we run, we don't run them alone. That God, you are with us

every step of the way. And God, I pray for the person that's weighted down. I pray for the person

that's entangled. God, I pray for the person that's not. I pray for the person that's not. I pray for

the person that's crawling. Lord, I pray that they would hear the crowd of witnesses cheering them

on. But that they would also hear your still small voice saying, I've got you. Follow me. Soul that

may not know Jesus this morning, God, I pray that that person would decide to follow him today. That

they would decide to give you their life and their heart. Thank you so much for the cloud of witnesses

that we can look back to. And that we can understand what it takes to follow you. Give us your strength.

Guide us in your paths.

In Jesus' name we pray.

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