How Faith Runs the Race

I'll start with a story. In the Faith Forward book, I talk about how I ran track when I was in high school. Did anybody here run track when you were in high school? Can I see a show of hands? Right, so I did not, some of you are actual athletes, but I did not run track because I am an athlete. In fact, I am supremely unathletic. My hand-eye coordination is basically zero. I once injured myself with a fork because I missed my mouth when eating and stabbed myself in the cheek. That is totally true. Blood was drawn. That is why I ran track. I cannot catch a ball, zero coordination is needed, right? Gun goes off, you run as fast as you can, the race is over, boom, it's done.

Well, one day, our entire mile relay team comes down with the flu. And so our coach, I ran distance, right? I ran like half mile and mile and two miles. So our coach in desperation turns to me. And I say in total desperation, because in the mile relay, what happens is you get a baton and you hold a baton and you pass the baton on to the next runner while still running. And for me, this complicated the whole thing exponentially. Run while holding something, I was afraid I'd only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. Run, hold, run, hold. I thought I cannot do this. But that is not what made this race unforgettable for me.

This race was the first and only time that my mother ever saw me run track. Mom, you might know raised us as a single mom because our dad died and my sister and I, when we were very, very little. And mom was an immigrant, not a citizen. And so she didn't have a lot of avenues to make ends meet and ran daycare at our house. I'm sure it was some kind of unlicensed daycare, but she did it to make ends meet. But what that meant was most days and most nights, she was taking care of kids at our house and she had no chance to see us in track or in plays or anything else. And we had learned not to even expect that.

But on this one day, and as I look back, it must have been a great sacrifice, she must have found someone to watch the kids and she must have paid them out of her own pocket because she snuck into the stands to surprise me. I had no idea she was there. She didn't tell me she was coming. I only found out on the final event of the day, the mile relay. The two teams were tied and the mile relay was the final event which would determine which high school would win the event. So I had the third leg of four legs. And as you run around the track, one time that's one quarter mile in those days.

And so you keep going, I had the third leg of four. So the gun goes off, the race starts. First guy runs his lap, second guy runs his lap, and I take my place on the track. I'm so nervous to be head of the ton. I get it, I hold it. Then I take off and start running, race around the track, first turn, second turn. I pull into the lead, third turn. And I only discover my mom is there when I'm in the home stretch. And all my teammates are in the stands screaming, go Schlupfer, just like that. And I'm tiring. This is why they're screaming. And the other runner is catching up. And I'm so worried about whether I can hand off that baton without flinging it wildly into the stands.

And suddenly I hear a voice above the den that I would recognize anywhere. My mom's high pitched Swiss accented voice screaming, go Schlupfer. I almost dropped the baton right then. But instead I took off with a new surge of energy. Somehow, I still don't know how it happened to this day, I handed off successfully, and we won the race, and we won the meet, and I still have nightmares about dropping batons to this day.

Well, in the passage of the Bible that we're gonna look at tonight, the writer to the Hebrews is saying, you're all in a race. And whether you know it or not, the ones who did the laps before you, they just handed you the baton. And now they're in the stands, and they're cheering you on. So don't quit. Don't quit. Don't quit. Let's talk about how faith finishes the race tonight.

In this series we've seen how the authors have been addressing Christians back in the first century who started strong. I mean, they loved Jesus. They started with so much enthusiasm in Christ and his way, but now they are tired of waiting for his return. They are losing hope because they're being persecuted, and things aren't turning out as glorious as they thought they would in summer, even thinking of quitting. And the author says, don't give up. And his strategy, we've seen it here in Hebrews 11, has been to say, think of it, that the heroes of faith who came before you, who also had tough times, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Gideon, David, and others, think of those, he's been telling their stories.

And now finally, Hebrews 12:1–3, here's the climax. He says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not," say this last line out loud with me, the yellow line, "not grow weary and lose heart."

Does that describe anybody here tonight? Anybody here weary? Anybody here losing heart? I gotta be honest with you, there have definitely been times that I have grown weary and lost heart as your pastor. I'll never forget one day I walked into our bedroom and flopped onto the bed and I told Laurie, "I don't just wanna quit my job, I want to quit my life." Now before you get too alarmed, I wasn't talking about suicide, I was talking about this life, I was talking about moving to like Dubuque.

Why do we grow weary? If I felt that way, I think it's a pretty universal human emotion. Why do we feel that way? Well, go back to the phrase, "Let us run with perseverance, the race." This is a race, it's a marathon. And in fact, the original Greek word that's used in that sentence for race, watch this, is the word agon. Now, what English word do you suppose we get from the Greek word agon? Yeah, agony, say that out loud with me, agony. As your pastor, I don't wanna mislead you. The race of faith, there's great stuff about being a person of faith, but it's tough. Sometimes it's agony. News flash, this is not heaven.

There will be times that you hit the wall on the race and you begin to doubt yourself and you have trouble and you begin to doubt God, and you begin to doubt your faith. And you start saying things like, "I hate my life and I wanna quit my life and I wanna quit my job." And you begin to say things like, "This faith isn't what it's cracked up to be." Just like the original readers of the book of Hebrews in the Bible. So how do you endure past the agony? I wanna go back to those verses we just read and do a deep dive into them because I see three things in these verses that will keep you running. They're very simple, but these are three things in my own life that I've had to keep returning to you. And I know these things are gonna help you.

Now, how I know them? Well, first of all, they're inspired by the Holy Spirit and the same Holy Spirit as you're in this room. And he's going to apply these things to your heart if your heart is open to him right now. But secondly, I know these will inspire you because you're here 20 centuries after these Hebrew Christians were thinking of quitting. And not only did these words inspire them, these words have inspired 20 centuries of Christians who have been persecuted like the Christians we prayed for earlier. So I know these ideas work. So jot these things down.

Number one, run encouraged, run encouraged. He says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and the word the author uses for cloud here is a Greek word that's sometimes used for a crowd of spectators at an arena. You know, it might surprise you, but when the New Testament was written and the Book of Hebrews is part of the New Testament, sports was the dominant popular entertainment. Any city of any size had a huge sports stadium like this one. In fact, the largest ones could see 250,000 people, more than almost any stadiums in our world to this day.

So the writer is saying, imagine that you are on the field in a stadium like this. And you look up into the stands and the crowd is going crazy cheering for you. Have you ever been in a stadium that is just being rocked with cheers? Anybody ever been in a stadium like that? There's nothing like that sound, right? It just reverberates in your chest. Now imagine them cheering for you. I told some of you that years ago when I was helping with an NFL Films camera crew, I was on the field for a Niners game at Candlestick Park. How many of you have ever been to a game at Candlestick Park? You remember that stadium?

Well, this was the final season there. And I think it might've been the final home game of the season at Candlestick. So at halftime, the Niners decided to honor all the living Niner legends who had become famous playing at Candlestick Park. Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Steve Young, and all of the other living Niner legends who had played there. So they brought them out at halftime and all these guys, these guys I grew up watching are lining the field and they're waving up the crowd and the crowd, you know, this is it at Candlestick. And these guys played here. The crowd was just going just bonkers and standing next to Steve and Joe and Jerry is the cameraman and me. Those are the only people on the field.

Now, I didn't have a camera. The camera opted and I didn't even have a microphone. I didn't have any equipment. I was just kind of standing there next to the camera and I was just like, "Oh, stop, just in case he needed me." So all these, just picture this, all these heroes are right next to me on the field waving at the screaming fans. I look up, 65,000 fans cheering themselves, horse, right next to me. Jerry, Joe, Steve waving. I look back up at the stands, people cheering and I couldn't resist. I started waving. Thumbs up, you know, like this. I'll never forget Jerry Rice. I'm not even joking. Jerry Rice looked at me like, "What are you doing?" But I figured, "What's he gonna do to me? Punch me? You know, they're just gonna, "you might kick me out of the game, but it would be awesome." And it was.

And I gotta tell you something. I mean, the roar of that crowd, I will never forget. And I thought later, you gotta know, some guy was up there with binoculars. Who is that gray-haired guy? Must have been a kicker. I have no idea. Now, try to imagine that you're on the field and you look up into the stands, and it's just the story I told, except there's Jerry and Joe and Steve and all these other Niner legends, and they're the ones cheering you. And the author to the Hebrews is saying, "Well, that is exactly what is happening." All these heroes of the faith in chapter 11, look up, there's Abraham, there's Sarah, there's Moses, and there's my dad. And I can hear my mom saying, "Go, schlepfuh." And maybe there's your mom. Maybe there's your dad. Or maybe a child you lost who went on ahead of you. You're not running this race alone. They are cheering and they are rooting for you.

Now, maybe you feel like the guy who told me once, "René, if all these people can see me, they're booing because I keep falling." But think about it, that great cloud of witnesses, they know all about what it means to fall. Are you kidding me? Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, Rahab, Samson, up in that crowd, they know what it means to fall. And they know what it means to experience God's grace. So they get it. I mean, think of all the stuff that they did. And I mean, so you failed and you fell off the wagon, you lost your sobriety, or you behaved immorally, or maybe even your marriage ended, or you lost your faith for a little bit, but now you're coming back to faith and you're like, "Am I really welcome here?" And the people in the stands, people from the pages of the Bible are saying, "Are you kidding me? That's our story too. Get back up, get in the race." You say, "But I fell in the race." It doesn't matter if you fell, it matters, how do you continue in the race? Don't give up, they're cheering you on. So run in courage, but it gets better, because number two, look at this piece of device, run lights. Run lights.

He says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles." True story, I read the other day about a man named Lloyd Scott who once ran the London Marathon in a 120-pound antique diving suit. This is him now. He said his goal was to become the slowest marathon runner in history. And he was, he finished the London Marathon in five days, eight hours, 29 minutes, and 46 seconds. Well, I read that and I thought, that's just like a lot of Christians running the race of faith, right? Weigh down. And the author to the Hebrews says, "Yeah, I want you to run in courage, but if you really want to make progress, you've got to get rid of a couple of things first. First, everything that hinders." And the King James translates this, every weight. It doesn't have to be something wrong, it doesn't have to be a sin. It's whatever is holding you back, weighing you down.

Maybe worry weighs you down. Maybe all that negative input that you're allowing in from the media, whatever it is, it's got to go. I'll make it personal. This is one of the reasons I stopped doing social media a few months back this year. For me, it was just a total distraction. It was a time sink. I'm talking about Instagram and Facebook. It was keeping me from prayer, it was keeping me out of the word, it was keeping me from interactions with my actual family. So I had to cut it loose. Now what is it for you? That was just me. Get rid of every weight. Don't run in a diving suit. That's why you're not making progress. And the sin that's so easily entangles, it's interesting that the author uses the sin, not just any sin, and I take that as referring to the specific sin that is likely to entangle you. You probably already know what it is. It's got to go, even if everybody else is doing it.

Again, some of you are probably thinking, well, it's too late for me because I've already blown it. I've tripped up too many times in the race. But again, the race is not over. Who cares how you've messed up in the first part of your race? God doesn't. He offers a fresh start every day. What matters is not what you did in the past. What matters is how are you going to finish it? What are you going to do from here on today? Now, it's easy to say this. Turn from the sin that's so easily entangles. Yes, but how? How do you actually do that successfully? Well, you need to have something more attractive to-- if you're turning away from something, you need to have something more attractive to which you are turning. And that's point number three, run focused. Run focused.

The second verse, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Would you do me a favor? Say, "Fix our eyes on Jesus," out loud with me. Let me hear you. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Say it again. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Now, just to be clear, this isn't talking about some actual picture of Jesus. This is talking about who Jesus was, how Jesus died, how Jesus lived as the author and perfecter of our faith. He suffered and died on the cross for us. Think of how he did that. Blessing instead of cursing. Not reviling, loving his enemies, forgiving those who were nailing him to the cross. Fix your eyes on Jesus.

I hope if you remember nothing else from this message, you will remember that phrase. If somebody told me, "René, one day, every single person you ever talk to as a pastor is going to remember nothing from any of your sermons except for one five-word sentence." And you get to choose what that sentence is going to be. This is the one I would choose. Say it again. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Let me just explore this. This is everything. This is all you need to know about your Christian life. Let's just explore this idea for a minute. I'm going to say something radical. This is going to probably alarm some of you. If this offends some of you, email me mark@tlc.org. But here is what this means. Don't place your faith in Christianity. Place your faith in Christ.

This is a distinction a lot of people miss. And I think this is exactly-- do you see the author of Hebrews is addressing people who are ready to bail on their faith. And he's saying, OK, listen, a lot of people say, oh, I lost my faith. But it's usually not in Jesus. They've lost their faith in some church or some church people or something that have let them down. Your faith, I hope, is not in this church or in me or in Christianity in general or some denomination. It's in Christ. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Say it again. Fix your eyes on Jesus. You could tell this is so personal for me. For much of my Christian life, I got an end in my head somehow that I needed to focus instead on my performance.

First on all the things that I was doing that I needed to stop doing. And I had a list. I can't do that. I can't do that. Oh, I can't even think that. And I must do that. I must do that. I must do that better. And guess what that produced in me. Do you think I became more loving and joyful and peaceful and gentle? No, I became very annoying, very judgmental of myself and others, very depressed, and guess what? No holier at all. Now to this day, I still agree with all the sins I was trying to avoid. I was right to avoid them. And all the good habits I was trying to start, Bible reading and prayer and serving others, I was right to start them. The problem was in the name of being good, I was focusing on myself and my performance.

In the name of resisting sin, I was focusing on sin. Like some of you try to quit stuff, substance. Some of you try to quit smoking. I will not smoke. I will not smoke. If I thought about smoking as much as you do, I'd be lighting up every day. The key is to have something more attractive to turn to. How do you turn away from sin and bad habits? Keep your eyes on Jesus. That is the answer. Say it with me. Keep your eyes on Jesus. How do you manage anxiety in these troubled times? Keep your eyes on Jesus. How do you keep your integrity as a Christian in polarized times? Keep your eyes on Jesus. How do you remember how to act in these rude times? Keep your eyes on Jesus.

I got to tell you something. I am dismayed by how Christians let themselves be distracted. You've heard the phrase weapons of mass destruction, right? Well, these days we're dealing with weapons of mass distraction from outside, culture, politics, and from inside. All kinds of Christian fads and teachings keep your eyes on Jesus because there is nothing more beautiful than Jesus. There is nothing ever more relevant than Jesus because there could not ever be a greater example of how to live than Jesus because no one can save like Jesus, like the song that we just sang. There is nothing better than you. There is nothing better than you. There is nothing better than you. He's holier. He's higher. He's greater.

And this is why what distinguishes the Christian message from a mere self-improvement message is this. The Christian message is not try harder. Oh, we get this so wrong. You know, it's not run the race harder. It's trust Jesus because the more you fix your eyes on Jesus, the easier it will be to lay aside every weight. You won't even care about them anymore. Stay focused on Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Think of this, the joy set before him. Jesus knew he would be with his father in glory. And guess what? That same joy is your joy. That's set before you. One day you will be with him. One day you will hear, well done, thou good and faithful servants. And all the trouble and all the worries and all the sin and all the disease and all the grief and all the pain will all be gone, blown away by sheer joy. Amen? Amen.

Here's the point of Hebrews 11 and the beginning of Hebrews 12. Walking in faith is not an easy life, but it is a rewarding life. And so for the joy set before you endure your cross, eyes on Jesus, eyes on Jesus, eyes on Jesus. You know, I want to leave you with an example. Every week in this series, we've been meeting people from TLC, from our community here, hearing their faith stories. So you know, this isn't just like pastor propaganda I'm giving you. This is real. It applies to real life.

Well, tonight I want you to meet somebody who has been a Christian now for 53 years and just retired from 45 years pastoring in Naples, Italy. I spoke to him on Zoom the other day. And I want you to see this because if you have ever given to Twin Lakes Church, you have supported Doug Valenzuela's ministry. Part of every dollar goes to his ministry. And I know this is going to inspire you. Watch this.

You know, we got to Naples, Italy, and a few sparsely located Christians here and there in a very, very difficult city. I'm not talking about Rome, Florence, or Venice. I'm talking about Napoli. Napoli, you know, where the mafia lives and breathes and almost everything has their being in that. Well, you know, we didn't know what to do at the beginning. And we opened this little room where we were meeting. Had 12 chairs on a good Sunday. When I gave up free pizza and panino and coke, we had maybe five people. And there were some Sundays, I'll be very honest, we closed the shutters. We go home. I said, what are we doing here? We left family. We left our nation. We left everything that we had. And I will be very honest, in times that were sometimes overwhelmingly depressing in terms of financial need, in terms of opposition from all kinds of people. I can't even mention who these all are.

You actually were in your car. Somebody pulled a gun on you because they had a contract on your life. He had a contract to kill me because I had offended this big mafia guy whose name is Mr. Smith. And then that person ended up becoming a Christian and becoming a member of your church. Show you. A gunman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's unbelievable. So gangs, also you faced earthquakes. You faced financial near disaster. You faced robbers coming in our youth meeting with guns. Robbers coming in our church, ripping off of all of our church van. This guy comes up to my house. Bam. And he just splits me wide open right there. You're in that point where you don't know what's going on. So I screamed to my wife because she was on the other side of the house. She says she didn't hear me because a vacuum cleaner was on me. Yeah, good way to get rid of me. Well, anyway, she finally comes and sees what's going on and calls the part of my pastor's, Michael and Jenny and Tito. Well, this guy heard the phone call and he runs and he escapes.

How do you keep going in faith setback after setback? Because now people can look at what is visible. Yeah, that's easy. And it's very successful. The churches in Melito and Casoria, they've got beautiful buildings and they've got packed meetings and people are coming to Christ and you put on these annual festivals that attract thousands. So what was the key for you? My daily thing was I got to get up and do what God has called me to do today. He said, I wasn't waiting for tomorrow when we would get money, find the right people. It was simply, I will obey him on this day. I know now that this day has basically turned into 53 years of my walking with Jesus. In the end, you're going to find him patting you on the back and saying, well done, good and faithful. You won't hear that until you get there.

Isn't that an amazing story? Well, you know how Hebrews chapter 11 talks about it, Hebrews chapter 12 talks about there's a great cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on. And sometimes we get to play that role, where we get to cheer on somebody who is nearing the end of their race. This man has just retired from 45 years of that kind of ministry and the guy who you saw me talking with on Zoom, he's here with us tonight. I want to invite him to the stage. Let's cheer on my friend, Doug Valenzuela.

Gracie, gracie. No, no, no, you need to sit down. Gracie. What about my wife? That's the one that deserves it. Thank you, René. Thank you, Doug. And Doug, on behalf of a grateful church, I want to give you this card. There's some special gifts inside. It's a $20 gift card to loft coffee. Thank you for 45 years of faithful ministry.

OK, listen. This room right now is filled with people, including me, who I think generally fall into two categories. There's people who are kind of the veteran believers. And they've been doing it for a while, maybe not 45 years, but they've been doing it for a while. And they just need to have strength to take the next right step in faith on this day. And then there's other people who maybe they started coming during COVID or maybe during this series, and they've been considering taking the first step of faith in Jesus. Do you have a word of encouragement for these people?

Using your illustration about high school running, if there is a high school yearbook in heaven, in that yearbook would be soul less likely to get saved. Douglas Valenzuela. And then behind that would be least likely to serve Jesus. Let me tell you this, folks. You may be serving, not serving. You may be coming back or whatever. What I said is absolutely true. And every single day, you get up in the morning and you hang onto his arm, you know that he's going to carry you through because he is faithful. You fix your eyes on him. That's not just a poem to read in a Sunday message. You better know who you're looking to. He is not only the author, he is the rewarder. And I know, I know what we've done. I can't express thanks to God for all that he's done for me. Amazing things. His grace is amazing. Falling down once, not one, many times and his grace abounds. And if there's one verse that just rings into my mind again and again, as René pointed to, all those prophets and all those men of God who fell in on the book of Jonah, there's that great little verse again. And God spoke a second time to Jonah. And he's done it twice and 30 times. I think, I know he's omniscient and he knows everything, but I think God has lost count on how many times he's had to help me again and again and again. So my thanks go to him. And I ask you here at Twin Lakes or if you're watching wherever you're at, you hold on to him. He's going to carry you through. Don't worry about it. You're going to get there and then you're going to understand what René was speaking about, the great joy of seeing your Savior face to face.

Thank you, Doug. God bless you. Let's thank Doug again. I'm going to hug you, not shake your hand. Make sure I take this. To me, that sounds like a great way to land the plane. So would you bow in a word of prayer with me right now? Let's just come before God in prayer. And with every head bowed and every eye closed and the choir is going to come back for one more song. But I just want to talk to you for a second with your eyes closed because I want to take it from a big room full of people to just you and me here and the Lord. And I just want to challenge you in this moment. I want to speak to you. What is your next step of faith?

Some of you are just thinking about starting the race right now. We've been studying faith for seven weeks. You've been thinking about it, considering it. I just want to urge you to take that initial step of faith with a prayer of surrender to Jesus. It is so worth it. Just pray quietly in your heart, Lord. I don't understand it all, but I want to follow you. And so I choose to place my trust in Jesus. And I will fix my eyes on him, my Savior and Lord. And with our heads still bowed, some of you are in a tough phase of the race right now. And you have grown weary, and you're kind of losing heart. And I want to pray for you, and I want to invite you to pray, dear Father in heaven, help us to finish the race that we've been entrusted with. Fill us with resurrection power through your risen Son, Jesus Christ.

And God, I pray that we would remember that those rewards come to those who don't shrink back and don't give up. So help us to keep pressing forward as we hit that finish line filled with your power. And God, we pray all of this, asking for you to help us take the next step every day, faith forward in Jesus' name. Amen.