January 12, 2025 | The Race of your Life

Transcript

This morning we're going to be in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And really what we're going to do this morning is two different things.

One, exactly what we're just saying about, turn our eyes toward Jesus. We're going to think on who He is and what He did for us. And then, I want to ask you this morning to look at your life. to consider how you run the race of your life, and to just ask the questions, am I running that race as if Jesus is worth following or not?

Last week, we looked at Paul's incredible contentment, his inner strength of his soul through Jesus that allowed him to have ambition and drive for Christ. This week is really a follow up on that teaching because it's easy to dream big and have large ambitions and big ideas about what you're going to do and then go, well, I don't know what steps to take.

We've all been there, right? We've had big ideas about what this year is going to hold. And you say, well, I want to become really great at this skill. And then you start to say, well, what on earth do I do to actually get better?

Really, this week is about taking, dream big for Jesus, dream big about the way you can grow in your own life, the way you can help others to do so, the way you can honor him. Think big, but then, let's talk about how you take steps in that direction. And we're going to use a metaphor for that process that's found in Hebrews 12. I'll read just a couple verses at the beginning of Hebrews 12.

The author says, 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 the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Back a few months ago, in the Olympics, Cole Hawker stepped to the starting line for the 1500 meters. You might remember that race, you might not. He was there, and everybody knew it, but all eyes weren't on him. They were on Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr who had had this fairly public feud about who was gonna win and who was gonna win this time because different ones of them had won other races.

You hear the announcers talk. You know how they they hype up the Olympic event that's coming. The only reason they're talking about Cole Hawker is because he was an American and they were American announcers. Nobody else is thinking about him. And yet when they crossed the finish line, Cole Hawker had a new Olympic record and a gold medal.

And when we were, when that happened, it was like the day afterwards, there was a text thread that went around in here and somebody said this phrase, I don't remember who, they said, He ran the race of his life. I thought, you know, that's good. And as I was thinking about this passage, that phrase came back to my mind.

The race of his life, two different ways. One, what was actually meant there is he ran the best race of his life. He might never run a better one. Sure. That's good. And when we think about the way we run our race, we should say, I want to run the race of this life, the best that I can. But in another sense, we could use the same phrase and say that race was really the culmination of his life for years.

He had been building up to that moment. It wasn't just 3 minutes and 27 seconds of his day. I'd have a hard time starting my car and going that far in that amount of time, and he ran it. But it wasn't just three minutes and 27 seconds. It was a whole life of training, of having everything about his life oriented around this goal. I want to run as fast as possible. So in a lot of ways, it was the race that consisted of his life.

And as we come to Hebrews, I want to ask you. How's the race of your life? Can you say I'm, I'm running this race better than I ever have? I don't mean literally running, we'll get to that in a minute.

How much of your life is oriented around the right goals?

A Great Cloud of Witnesses

There are questions we need to ask ourselves. But let's walk through how he talks about it in this text. First he says, look at the witnesses that you have. And if you know the book of Hebrews, you know the previous chapter, we call the faith chapter often, it talks about all kinds of people.

And you could just scan your eyes down the page if you look back and see going back through it, you say Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, Prophets, and others who aren't named here. The Israelites at Jericho, the Israelites at the Red Sea, Rahab, he keeps going back. Moses, Isaac, Jacob, Abraham. You can go back and he said there's all of these people. And because he ends by saying that there were others who suffered, others who were killed, others of whom the world was not worthy. So he says, you know some of these names, but there's even a greater cloud of witnesses.

We know what that's like. We know what it's like in an athletic contest. If you have watched any college football recently and you see some of these stadiums and you have a hundred and five thousand people sitting in the stands. And you imagine, like, what's it like to run out onto that field as an athlete with the deafening roar of the home crowd? What's it like to be Cole Hawker and feel everyone yelling and screaming as you run and see he's about to win? That's the picture. There's a great cloud of witnesses. Well, what do these witnesses tell us?

Three simple things. There's something real, it's better, or it's worth it, and they have, in a sense, seen it. Three things.

There's something real. You could go back and see how he talked about Abraham. Back in verse, uh, Abraham, in verse 10. Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations, who designer and builder is God.

Abraham said, there's something real that I'm looking forward to. There's something real, it's better. Moses said, I would rather suffer with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of Egypt for a season. Part of what these witnesses are telling you is, this is better than what you could have if you did something else.

If you don't act in faith, if you don't trust in God, if you don't do that, what they're doing is saying, there's something real and it's better than anything else you could find. And then they're saying, I've seen it, in a sense. Now we don't often maybe say that, we'll say they believed it, we'll say they had faith, they didn't have sight.

Well, I used this illustration last week in, in teen class, I thought I'd bring it back here. If I were to tell you that there is an 80 foot tall pink and yellow striped cat stalking around the parking lot right now. First I'll say, would you believe it? And you'd say, no, I think, maybe. You trust me way too much if you'd believe that.

Uh, but second I'd say, could you? Like right now, could you just flip a switch and say, oh yeah, wholeheartedly, I believe that. I don't think you could, because that's not how belief works. It's not a light switch that you can just go, that's absolutely absurd, and you go, flip, oh, now I believe it. No, what you would have to do is you would ask some questions.

You could think about what you know of me. You could ask somebody else. You could text Jimmy Cannington, working parking lot, and say, is there a cat out there that's gigantic? You could do a lot of different things to try and see if you should believe it, but you don't have a switch that you could just go, boom, there it is, I believe, because faith is in some ways like seeing something.

Do you ever, you remember the, uh, the magic eye puzzles where you kind of stare at them until something pops out of the page at you? Have you ever looked at one of those that somebody else said, there's something there and you look at it and you go, I don't see anything. And you sit here and you look silly because you're going like this and going cross eyed and you're like, I, I got nothing.

Now you might believe that person because you've seen things like that. But it's different when you finally start to see, Oh wait, there is something here. I see something. That sight is something that gives you a sense of belief. Now I want you to notice really quickly in chapter 11, a few places, because this is the way Hebrews 11 talks about faith.

Look at verse 3. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. So he sets up with this at the very beginning. There's things that are seen and there's things that are not seen. Look down at verse 10. We read it.

There's a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. Well, he was looking forward to a city that he hadn't physically seen yet. But go down to verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar. This is the language we could walk through the whole chapter, see a few examples. But over and over, it's, faith is not the same thing as physical sight. But faith is compared to physical sight. It's like a type of spiritual site that says, yes, that's real. And it's better. That's what these witnesses are telling you.

You might not believe me if I said there was a giant cat. Sure. But if person after person, after person, after person comes past and tells you that you might start to wonder, these witnesses are telling you there's something real, it's better. And they didn't just flip a switch and go, Oh yes, I believe this. They're like, I've seen something with the eyes of faith.

That's what the witnesses tell you.

What is the Race?

Now, we said he refers to a race. He says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Now, we're going to come back and pick up the pieces of how to run the race. But let's establish at the beginning, what is this race? What is he even talking about? The race that you have is your life.

It's the course, it's like Paul says as he comes to the end of his life. He says, I've fought the good fight. I've finished the course. I've run the race. It's your life. It's literally the race of your life in the sense that every part of your life is this race. It's this journey. And this text is written to believers, so this journey is about the process of maturing as a worshipper from new birth to glorification where you'll be like Jesus. It's your life, from when you're given new life through the new birth through when you would as a believer die and go to heaven and be like Jesus, and you have glorification. That is the race.

How Are You Running the Race?

And the question before you is how are you running that race? How are you running it?

Scripture describes this process in different ways. We could say, Philippians 2, working out your salvation because God is at work within you. That's describing a process from new birth and a new heart that goes all the way to when you're transformed to be completely like Jesus. That process of maturing as a worshiper, that's your race.

It describes it as being renewed after the image of God. That's a process. You start at one place and you're changed to be more and more like God. That's the race. How do you run your race?

Well, what is this race like, even? Let's start there. First off, it's hard. In case you haven't noticed, spiritual growth is difficult. It is. It's hard. And this text drives us to that. The word for race here is interesting. There are words that just mean foot race. And it could mean that. This one could mean that. But it's also used to describe the, the ancient pentathlon.

That's five events that were competed in, in Olympic Games. These five events have a, like a high jump, a discus throw, a foot race, so that's the part we're used to, a javelin throw, and it ends in a boxing slash wrestling match. So when he says the race set before you, don't think this is like casual Saturday morning jog. Some of you might think that hurts too, and that's okay, I think so. But it's not like that. It's go run this race, and by the way, after that, go throw this javelin. And then there's a guy waiting to smack you around, because it's boxing.

It's a contest, really. You could say, let us, let us, um, let us compete in the contest that's set before us. The word that's actually there is the word we get our word, agony, from. Life's hard. I don't mean life's hard categorically. I mean, spiritual growth from new birth to glorification is difficult. It is a challenging contest for a prize.

That means life is not like, the race of your life is not like a bobsled race. You think about the picture, the difference between a runner and a bobsledder, right? A bobsledder, it's hard and dangerous, but you sit in it and then it goes. Once you start running that thing down the hill and jump in, you just hang on for the ride, right? That's not life. We might feel that way, we might want it to be that way, But Christians are not called to a passive life where we sit in our bobsled and hope it lands at the right place safely. That's not the image.

The image is, it's a difficult race, we're going to fight and pursue, and as he says, run with endurance. So if we're going to use, if we use the metaphor, and say, well, physical exercise, we're all familiar with the phrase, no pain, no gain. We know how that works. And it's true, right? From a physical standpoint, the whole physical exercise is to tear down muscles, make little micro tears, so that they grow. So that then you're stronger. In fact, the whole point of exercise equipment is to make it harder to do what you're doing. Right? That's the whole point of weights. Is to make it harder.

But if that's true for your muscles, what do you think it takes for your spiritual maturity to grow? What do you think it takes for your faith to grow? Or for your commitment to Christ to grow? What do you think it takes for your patience to grow? For your compassion?

It's not going to be easy for those things to grow. Muscles grow because you did something harder In the same way, difficulties in our life are necessary for growth and maturity. You can do whatever you want. You will not get stronger without doing harder things, physically.

God made it that way on purpose. And if you continue the parallel, if you ever go lift weights, you think about, you get towards the end of your set, say you're doing bicep curls, and your arms just feel like spaghetti. You're like, I can't lift this anymore. You feel you're absolute weakest right then. And yet, you're doing the exact thing that's making you stronger.

So sometimes when you go through your life and you say, I just can't take this anymore, I'm too weak. Pause and think about that. Because at that moment when you're lifting weights and you feel too weak, that's actually when you are getting stronger.

The same thing is true in our maturity, in our growth. If you meet the difficulties of life in the right way, in the way God describes in scripture, you may not feel like you're getting stronger at that moment, but you are. God is strengthening you by stretching you. This race is difficult.

Your expectations are important then, right? I remember one time, a couple years ago, I was running and training for a race. And, as often happens, I start running and I get maybe a half mile in. And I'm like, why am I doing this? I'd much rather go sit on the couch. Why am I doing this? I don't get it. And I was running and I, in my mind, there was all this, you know, self pity of why would I do this? What am I doing to myself? I could just be sitting at home. All this is going on and it just like hit me out of nowhere. I'm like the whole reason I'm running is to be uncomfortable right now. That's the whole point. I knew that when I came out here. I didn't come run to be comfortable. I came and ran to be growing in fitness.

If you live your life as if your purpose of your life is to be comfortable, I can guarantee you won't grow like you should.

So when life's difficult, and it stretches your patience, and it tests your faith, and it tests your commitment, and you say, it's hard, but what's my goal? What am I trying to do? It will be uncomfortable, because this race is difficult.

Another thing, this race is long. Now, he doesn't say that directly here. The word that's used for race here, though, was talking about a long context. And because he says we're gonna run with endurance, it makes sense. And if it's your whole life, from, from new birth to glorification at least, then you could say, this is a long race. It's not a sprint. Life is not about use all your energy in a quick burst to try to be as godly as you can and you can never sustain it.

We've tried that, right? Sometimes we have New Year's resolutions that it's far enough into January that we've failed in. Because we set out, I'm gonna run this part, I'm gonna run this race really fast. No, this race is long. It's not a sprint. Eugene Peterson said discipleship, and we could put in here the race of your life, is a long obedience in the same direction. The long obedience in the same direction. Life, this race is, is a few big turns with millions of little steps.

If you live for 90 years, that means you will live 2, 838, 240, 000, 000 seconds. And you'll make some really big decisions in your life, right? Of course, you already have, you'll make some more. But the race of your life isn't just about the big turns. If you go out to run a 5k and it goes out and it turns around and comes back, you'd better know where the turn is. That's important. But if you stop taking the little steps, you're never getting there.

The life we live is difficult and it's long. The little steps along the way are the way we grow.

The last thing about this race is it's personal. Notice he says, Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. He doesn't say you need to run somebody else's race. The idea of set before us is like somebody has laid, they put out the cones so that you know where to run. Somebody has gone ahead of you and has put out this is the pathway. You don't have to just guess and say I'm gonna run until I feel tired and hope that's a 5k. The race is set before you. It's carefully marked out. Your race is not my race. I don't know all of your difficulty, and my race is not your race.

Our race as Berean Bible Church is not the same as another church's race. The race that is set before us. The turns are different, the challenges are different, but we're all on the same process, if you're a believer in Jesus, from new birth to glorification, to complete maturity in Him.

Now, if you ran out to the field out here and said, I'm gonna run a race, and somebody had laid out cones and marked out this course for you, I don't think any of you would think, Wow, those cones just randomly fell into place. Of course not. You'd say someone laid out this path. That's why he says it this way. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. God has providentially given you your race. He set out your cones. He said, this is the path you need to go. And you might say, I'd really like to have somebody else's race.

You might not if you actually had it. But you might. God has laid out your That means some of your races include physical challenges that other people don't have. Some of your races include mental challenges that other people don't have.

It's not a race, but a contest. In the Olympics, you see those, those high jumpers? There is zero chance somebody my height can win that event. Absolutely none. That's okay. God doesn't say, here's one race to be a super Christian and if everybody runs it exactly the same, then you're good. No, He says, you run the race set before you.

You can do that.

How Do I Run Well?

So how do we run well? Alright, we've got witnesses. There's something real. It's better. It's worth it. We've seen it. Okay, there's the race of our life from new birth to glorification. It's difficult. It's long. It's personal. Well, how do I run? Well, it's going to give us a couple of things. He says, run with endurance.

There are difficulties. It's a conflict, but we keep right on running. Do you ever get up as a believer in Jesus and think, I really don't want to do this today. I really don't want to be godly. We don't usually say it out loud. Okay. Be honest with yourself. I really don't want to be patient today. I'd like to not be selfless. I would much prefer to be selfish today. Sometimes that's the thought that's in our mind. Sometimes it's just, I don't want to run and fight, I want to drift and coast today.

But we run with endurance because God is at work in the difficulties. That's where this text goes, by the way, if you read from verse 3 down through about verse 15. He's gonna say, God disciplines, I'm gonna put a different word in there, God trains His children. God trains His athletes running this race.

When God sets out that course and he says you need to run this hill that this person doesn't need to run and you say that's so not fair. That's because God knows where you need to end up. And he knows how to strengthen you. He knows how to work with each of his athletes. Each of his people. He is at work in all of these difficulties.

Now I want to, I want to say one thing quickly here. If you look down in verse 5. About halfway through the verse, the author says, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline or training of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

Sometimes we get the idea that this means, well, God, Jesus took all the punishment for my sins, but now he's going to somehow punish me a second time.

That's not what God does . Jesus absorbed all of God's wrath. For the sins of his people. If he didn't hear me, if that's not true, we sang lies. Jesus absorbed 100 percent of God's wrath. On your sin, if you are a believer in Jesus. But, God is really committed to helping you run your race well.

And so, God has laid out this course, and He knows if you need this challenge in your life, so that you will go from new birth to glorification well, and that you will get to His presence to hear, Well done, good and faithful servant. He will train you and give whatever difficulties He needs to. So that you will run that race well.

He's not against you. He's not punishing your sins again. But he is going to help his people run their race well. So if you are relying on yourself or anything else other than Jesus, you don't have this hope.

Scripture doesn't give you this hope to say God's just giving you all these things so that you will run the race well. If you're relying on yourself, that's not true. But if your faith is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, God has already absorbed all the punishment for your sins, and He says, I am going to help you run so that you will hear, well done, good and faithful servant.

That's what God did. While we were His enemies, as Isaiah 53 said, turning to our own way, Jesus came. lived a perfect life and died on the cross to absorb all of God's wrath on toward our sins so that now For anybody whose trust is in Jesus, God's attitude towards you is 100 percent mercy. Mercy.

Now, if you know that's who God is and you say, He's completely for me, He's 100 percent for me because I have my trust in Jesus. Then when the difficulties come, you say, I will run with endurance because God is at work in them, in the challenges that I face. Athletes might understand the training program that they're in, but they don't have to. Think about that picture. They don't have to understand the training. They just have to follow.

Sometimes we understand the training. Sometimes we say, Yes, coach, and we run again. We follow, because we trust our God is at work in the difficulties. So you run with endurance. You run with commitment. If you've ever started running, and, or, actually, better, if you, if you go to sleep the night before, maybe I'll get up and go run. I don't know how it works for you. I, 100 percent of the time, don't run the next morning. I don't. I don't. I'm not committed to it. I wasn't then. We run with commitment. That's why he says in verse one, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

Lay aside. Let's start with the second one first. Lay aside the sins that cling to us. Imagine if you were going to start a race, starting at the, at the starting line and all of a sudden there's 20 monkeys come and they cling on to you as many different ways as possible. And now you're thinking I've got to run and I'm about to step on curious George up here. Those monkeys that cling to you and then you kick one of them off and he jumps back on a different part of you. You would say, this is not going to help me run. Now there's nothing inherently evil about monkeys, but in the illustration, it's like a sin that clings to you and gets in your way and you can't run.

So I want to ask you a couple questions. What sins always seem to be in your life? What sins just pop up over and over and over and over again? What sins have you so excused that you forgot they were sins in the first place?

Say, I'm just a person who speaks my mind. Good, or maybe you're not very kind.

What sins surprise you? Do you find yourself over and over saying, I didn't think I was going to be that angry. What surprises you? What sins feel like? You could never beat them. What sins feel like, I could never change? Like, those are the sins that cling so closely.

You're so used to having the monkey on your leg that you don't even realize it's there when you start running.

And don't be satisfied with the sins you might find easy to observe, or diagnose, or fight. Where does selfishness cling to you? Where does bitterness cling to you? Or lust? Or the love of money? Or pride? We could go on and have a whole big long list of sins.

The point is, run this race with commitment and take whatever sins God's Spirit puts on your heart. Because He is more than capable of pointing to different sins for all of us. And He does, that's what He does, convicts the world, convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment. Whatever sins those are, you're going to run this race well. You run with the commitment that says, I'm putting that sin aside.

But He doesn't just say sins. He says, let us also lay aside every weight. This might confuse us a little, because sometimes we train by running with weights so that we can run faster when the race comes. But in life, you don't get that opportunity. You don't get another chance at life. You get one shot at January 12th, 2025. I know that still sounds weird. One shot. One shot at January 13th, 2025. One shot at this year. One shot at however many years you have. You get one chance. If you have one chance to run your race, You don't put ankle weights on.

When you have one chance, you take the weights and you push them aside. So as you look in your life, years ago, when John Piper preached this passage, he said, don't just ask, is this thing a sin? He said, and he's right, it's the lowest question you could ask.

Teens, I want you to listen to me real quick. I'd like you to listen all the time, but listen right now. It's so easy, I think, especially for young people to think that All the Christian life is, is, is this a sin? And if it's not, well, good, I could do whatever I want to.

No. That's the lowest question you can ask. Instead, ask, does this help me run? Does it help me run the race? If you're going to go run a race and you want to get your absolute best time, you're asking Cole Hawker before he ran the fifteen hundred meters was saying everything in my life, how does it help me run this race? A hundred percent of his life was oriented around that. So does this help me run, or does it make it harder for me to be kind, and loving, and peaceful, and gentle, and patient?

There are a million things, if we could make a long list of sins, there's even more here, that could be weights that get in your way. And remember, your race is not the same as somebody else's, so maybe something's a weight for you, and you say, I just need to stop looking at social media. And you don't have to then crusade and say, Everybody has to stop looking at social media. You say, does this help me? Does it help me run?

I like sports. I think a lot of us do. A couple years, it was probably six, seven years ago, I remember I was getting to the end of games. I was a Florida State fan, still am. Just sad this year. But I was a Florida State fan, and they weren't doing really well. And I found I'd get to the end of games, I'm like, I'm just irritated.

And that question stopped me. I'm like, you know, I just need to stop watching games for a while. This is a weight that's making it harder for me to be patient and peaceful with people around me. Football's not worth that. Does it help me run?

What you do with your sleep, does it help you run the race? Your entertainment choices, not just are they a sin, does it help me run? If not, then ask God, is this a weight I need to get rid of, at least for a while? Your goals for your life, are your goals helping you actually run the race of being more like Jesus or not?

And we could go down the list of all kinds of things. When an athlete runs, they think about sleep, they think about nutrition, they think about exercise, they think about all of these different things that they're doing. Does this help me run the best race I can? If Cole Hawker does that for the 1500 meters, For 3 minutes and 27 seconds and a gold medal.

When we look to Jesus who died for us, shouldn't we say 100 percent of our life is oriented around how do I best run this race to go from new birth to mature as a worshiper, to be like Him completely. 1 John 3 says it this way, Everyone who has this hope in him, Purifies himself, looks and says, how can I run this race well?

I'm not saying I want to make sure I paint this the right way. I'm not saying 100 percent of your day should be sitting in a closet, reading your Bible and praying. Not saying that. I am saying 100 percent of your life should be oriented around the fact that if you're a believer in Jesus, God has changed you and you will one day be with him in glory.

So how do I do that well?

You need the last way that you run. You run with endurance, you run with commitment, and you run with worship, looking to Jesus. He's already run this race. All the way to glory, and that's where he is now. He's already run it, so you know following him is the right path to get to glory.

So we look to him in worship, and the more we look to him in worship, the more we run with endurance and commitment. If you try to run with endurance and commitment like I just described, without looking to Jesus in worship, you won't make it, you will fall flat on your face. You might try for a little while, you'll be exhausted, but if you look to Jesus with worship, that's what empowers endurance and commitment because He is the founder and perfecter of our faith.

The author or the pioneer of our faith, you could translate it. Hebrews 2 says, It was fitting that Jesus, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory. That's what He would do, bring many sons to glory. He was the pioneer. He came first and he went through the cross to glory so that we would know I can follow him running this race and arrive at glory.

He's the author. He's the perfecter, the finisher of our faith. So we run looking to Jesus because as he says here, he ran for the joy set before him. There's a joy before him that made every step of difficulty worth it. And as we look to Jesus, we say, Yes, that's true for me too. There's a joy of knowing God and worshiping Him and loving Him forever. There's that joy that makes every step of difficulty, every step of endurance worth it.

It says He despised the shame. He thought the shame wouldn't stop Him. The sacrifice wouldn't stop Him. There was a joy that meant the shame and sacrifice along the way was nothing. That's what Jesus did. So look to Him and run like He ran.

There was a joy that resulted in him receiving the highest honor and praise. That's what Jesus did for us.

So the race set before you is long and difficult and personal. It's hard. How do I run? I want to. You run with endurance. You run with commitment. You lay aside anything you have to in order to run this race well. And you run with worship looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

So if the goal of your race is to reach glory, to worship God, and enjoy your place as one of the children of God, forever. If that's the goal, consider carefully all of your steps as you run. If your steps are full of feeding your own addictions, whether that's substances, or social media, or approval, or control, or entertainment. If your steps are full of living selfishly, your choices are all about you. If your race is full of living for the immediate, what can I get right now? If your race is full of avoiding accountability, nobody can tell me what to do, then you will either be lazily floating or running to the wrong goal.

But, if your steps are full of one loving action after another. Doesn't have to be big and huge loving actions. One loving step, if they're full of one joy filled moment of worship after another, if they're full of one God honoring, laying aside this sin, laying aside this weight after another, if your race is full of one step towards peaceful rest instead of bitter worry,

if your race is full of one patient thought towards a spouse or a child or a co worker after another, then by God's grace, you will endure. Thank you. You will run this race and you will reach joy and glory just like the author and the one who will complete your faith. I I invite you to take just a moment and think over these things.

I know God's spirit longs to point you to Jesus and to point out any sins in your life that you should lay aside, any weights that get in your way. So Do business with God. Talk with Him. Just take a moment. We'll take a moment in silence. And deal with God's Spirit.