The Ways Of Winning | Pastor Joel Wolfe

Well, I want to jump right into the word here.

And I was excited when I found out I was

going to be able to preach today. But about a

couple months ago, it was last fall, I had a situation,

an experience that as I was experiencing it, I thought,

there is a sermon here. And so I've been waiting

and waiting, and you know, while I was in Florida,

sitting there waiting for Knowing to be done teaching, I thought,

this is it, this is so it. So I want

to welcome you into an experience that I had last fall,

and you're going to be right up there, right on

the sidelines with me, all right. So what happened was

we have four children, as you know, and our third born,

his name is Austin. He's married Andrea. How many of

you know Austin Andrea and how many? Yes, they're wonderful.

He drums for us. We are so blessed. Anyway, they

have two kids, and the oldest is Judah. The next

one is Kai. Judah is four years old. Kai is

two years old. And so they have been teaching these

children how to ride bikes, and now they have these

new fangled bikes out now that don't have pedals. Have

you seen those? So there's strider bikes are called strider bikes.

And when the kids can kind of latch onto the

strider bike thing, they can. I am gonna get to

the Bible just a minute. I think some of you

are like, wait, I came to church and she's telling

me a story. You bet, because it's gonna work really good.

You just wait. We're gonna get to the Bible in

just a minute. Okay, So back to the strider bikes.

And if you can get your kid to get on

this strider bike and kind of understand that there's no pedals,

they end up being able to go really fast. So

they have these legs and they're gonna be going running

as fast as they can with these strider bikes. Well,

in pewallup at the Pull Fairgrounds, they have a motocross

flat track racing. Anybody ever heard of that? You can't.

I didn't either. So they to get you to get

your you know, the bait on the hook, they run

these little races with strider bikes. And so they'll fill

the arena up at the pub fair with dirt and

then they'll build this track with kind of hills and uh,

the rest of the night. For the rest of night,

it's gonna be you know, screaming motorcycles and craziness. Right,

But they kick it off with these little kids, and

so Mimi and Papa had to go and watch, of course,

So they have Judah and Kai, the four year old

and the two year old down in the pit down there.

When we get there and we're up in the grand stand,

you know, up in the stands or whatever. But you know,

Mimi cannot sit down on the bench. That's not the

place for Mimi. So Mimi found her way right to

the right to the rail watching. And as I'm watching

these kids and they're out there, they're they're going around

as Andre down there with their kids and and kind

of giving them, giving them hints or whatever, I notice something.

I noticed that my little Judah, she he's going really good.

He's he's he's he's gonna win. He's the cutest one

out there. He's got the best helmet, it's got the

you know, the spikes on the top, the mohawk thing. Oh,

he is good win, I just know it. But there's

another little guy out there that catches my eye. He's

in green Judah is in a red jacket and this

little guy in green is actually on pretty fast, and

I'm thinking to myself self, we got a problem here.

This little guy just might win. We have a problem.

So I'm starting to analyze, how many of you ever

analyze a sporting event? And you could be the coach

if you were let, if you were allowed. So I'm watching,

I'm thinking, we have a problem. That little guy's seat

was raised up so high that it wasn't like he

was sitting. He could actually his legs were straight, and

he was running with that thing. And I looked over

at Judah and his seat was a little lower, so

he was kind of sitting, and so he didn't have

the right angle right. So no, this is not gonna work. No, no, no, no,

no no. So I'm standing at the rail. We got

to take care of business. Mimi. Can't have little guy losing,

So I yell, I said, I said, And he's like

a Sai call here. So he comes over to me.

I said, Austin, raise that seat up right now. He's

gonna lose if he doesn't. We have got to get

this situation fixed. He's like, mom, no, you don't understand.

So much is on the line. So they raised the

seat and that little guy had the bestled little option,

you know, possibility to win. Right. So they clear the

track and they get them all over in the pit

over here, and then they bring them all on and

they line up at the starting line right here, and

the dads are bent over at each one of the

kids and they're like, you know. The kids are like,

I'm so happy, you know, where's my lollipop? I don't

know what I'm doing. And the dad's are like, come on, buddy,

old poll you're gonna do this. Now. Look down there

there's the end line right and you're gonna go okay,

you know, but the dads are down there and Mimi's

over here going come on, buddy, old pal. So but

you know, down on the track, the kid is, you know,

having a great time. Anyway, I videoed it and I'm

gonna share it with you. Are you ready to see it?

Are you with me here? Okay, let's go ahead, and

says race day. Do you see the video? Okay, see Austin.

Now watch for Juda's face when that guy gets out

of the way. He's got his game. Now look at

that first place. Listen to me, God, that is Pi

right there. Took him forever to get around. He doesn't

he doesn't know. He's got something else taking out. Don't

come on, watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it.

Who that was a race. Mimi was hob a right

to lose it. But he won. Did you see that?

Just barely? His adversary, the guy, that little kid in

the green, he was a fast one, but he won

just barely. And I'm sure it's because of his Mimi

screaming at him the whole time, keeping him focused. So yeah,

when I yes I was loud, and yes I was ridiculous,

And if you listened really well in the back there

there was the lady standing next to me, goes, she's

really loud. And I didn't know that until I watched

the video. I'm like, okay, shut up over there. I'm

naem anyway. I know that I was in my place

and doing my I was in my lane because the

Bible says that we are all surrounded with a great

crowd of witnesses, and when you are relegated off of

the track, your race is done. Now you have to

be in your great crowd of witnesses, and your job

is to cheer them on. And let me just tell you,

this is sideline, and this isn't my sermon, but I

will tell you that that will be my job, and

I will do it well. And when I die, if

I look down and I see you run in your race,

you might hear me screaming, especially for see you slowing down,

especially if I see your adversary sneaking on you. So

just be listening. Just be listening. So let's go ahead

and turn to Hebrews twelve, because I want to prove

to you that is in the Bible. We're gonna be listening,

yeah uh, Or we're gonna read it out of the NIV.

It says, therefore here you go. 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 perfector or some of your your translations might say,

the author and the finisher of your faith, for the

joy set before him. He 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 grow or lose heart in

your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to

the point of shedding your blood. In other words, quit

whining till I see blood dripping. Go down to the

end of that chapter or not well, kind of midway

Verses twelve and thirteen. Therefore, strengthen your feeble knees and arms,

and feeble arms and weak knees, make level the paths

of your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled,

but rather healed. Now, this passage of scripture is so powerful,

so powerful, and so today I want to take a

few minutes and just kind of break it down for you.

I want that when you're finished, that you have a

new kind of vision for your day to day life. Okay,

so Jesus won his race. Would you say he crossed

the finish line? The adversary could not keep up. Jesus

won his race. My question to you and I is

how are we doing in our race? So we're on

the track. If your second heir, if you're alive, your

heart is beating, you're on the track, and you will

not get off that track. The race is not done

until the day you go to glory. So we're in

the race. The race is competitive, you have an adversary.

You may win, you may lose, but you're running the race.

And so today I want to bring to you some

points out of this passage, and I call them the

ways of winning. These are some things that Paul, well,

we say it's Paul, the writer of Hero Hebrews. He

gave us some really good inside things, kind of like

when I said, Hey, Judah's gonna lose if we keep

that seat too low. We got to make some adjustments.

And if we make some adjustments, Judah will win. But

if we don't make some adjustments, Judah will lose no

matter how hard he tries. Amen. So let's look at

this passage and see what we can do here with this.

Let's pick up some ways of winning. Therefore, let's go

back to verse one. 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. Okay,

so this is our first little bit, our winning way.

Let us throw off every in everything that hinders and

the sin that so easily entangles. Let me break this

down just a little bit. So note the word throw.

We'll get back to that one. Everything that hinders and

then sin. So there's two things that he's telling us

here that we need to watch out for, something that

hinders and sin. So what I'm hearing is that the

thing that hinders is not sin. It hinders. It's not sinful,

but it hinders. So the word for hinders in the

Greek is the word There's a couple of words there,

but the one that I kind of grabbed onto is bulge. Bulge. Yes,

I said it bulge. And you know, bulges aren't sin,

but they sure keep you from being able to do things.

And the other day, you know, I mean, I don't know,

a while back, things are getting a little bulgeer than typical,

and I bent over and it's kind of hard to

bend over, and I thought, wait a minute, what is that.

It's a bulge. Bulges aren't sin, but they're a problem

that get in the way. So what is a bulge?

It might be an attitude, it might be a habit,

it might be something that you got in your life

that isn't a sin, but it's hindering. You, and so

he's telling us. This writer says, hey, listen, look for bulges.

May the Lord right now identify bulges in your life.

There's a meme that I saw about ten years ago

on Facebook that still sits in my head. So I

want us to keep with this idea of running a race.

And the top half of the meme says what I

think I look like I run, and it is just

the coolest, like one of those pictures they're just the

athlete lady just run and just sleep and just sweating,

and she's winning her race. And then the bottom half

is what I actually look like, and it's kind of

this with a lot of bulges right, kind of barely

making it right. So the writer says, here though, watch out,

watch out for the bulges, watch out for the sin.

The sin is so easily entangles. The thought is that

you're running and all of a sudden you trip up

because there's stuff around your feet, and you have all

the abilities, you have, all the strength, you have, all

the talent, but there's this thing that's kind of wanting

to get get around your feet, that kind of and

have you ever just go ahead and start keep running

even though you're kind of got stuff. But you know

you don't want to take the time to get rid

of this stuff, so you're just gonna run with it.

How far can you run? And how fast can you run?

And will you win the race? Now? Doctor Brian Simmons

also adds to this, and in his translation he says,

let go of every wound that has pierced us. So

he takes the hinder the bulge, and he likens it

to a wound. So he's saying, people have got the wound,

has got to go. Oh no, wait a minute, I

deserve that wound. They hurt me. I'm a victim here.

I didn't ask for the wound, but it's become my identity.

What would you be like if you didn't have that wound?

Have you seen yourself without your wound? Have you seen

yourself without your offense? Can you still see yourself without it?

I don't know. But wounds that we keep on the

inside end up being a hindrance. Wounds that we keep

inside that hasn't been let out into the light, where

light can heal, where the anointing salve of the Holy

Spirit can come and heal. I am calling you, the

writer here is calling us to throw off your bulges,

throw off the sin that entangles, and deal with your wounds.

Because Jesus wants you to run your race to win.

He wants you to run the body of Christ is

supposed to run the race individually and collectively to win.

The wind is bringing Kingdom of God to earth. The

wind is becoming more. The wind is more more of

Christ in me. We can't do it with bulges, we

can't do it with wounds. We can't do it with

the sin that so easily entangles. So he says, to

throw it off. Now, if you're gonna throw it off,

that takes think of throwing it takes I don't know

how many muscle groups to and it takes a little

bit of oomph, little grit. It's not this cannot be.

I don't want to, okay, I don't know. No. This

means people have got today right now, throw it off,

throw it off, be done. Please talk to you about

this before be done. This is your day, This is

your day. The way of winning is to throw it off,

all right, say number one, throw it off. We got

a lot more to go, oh dear. Then it says,

let us run this race with let us run with perseverance,

the race marked out for us. So here's another way

of winning. Number one is to realize you are in

a race. How many human beings wake up and just

think it's another day, and they were gonna drink their coffee,

eat their food, drive the work, get out, yawn, come on,

do nothing. They think they that's their life. But that

was the day of their race. That was a day,

that was a lap around the track. And there were

others on that track, some being your adversary, and they

took that day very seriously, and you didn't because you

didn't realize you were running a race. The first race

that you are set and this Bible says, my word

says the race set out before you. In other words,

God has a race set up for you, and you

are running it every minute of every day, and you're

meant to win that race. The first race that you

have to win is the race inside of yourself. Your

race every moment of every day is to subdue the

flesh and sinful carnal nature withinside of you. That is

your first race, and that is your first adversary. Your

first fight is what happens between your ears every day.

Do you get prideful. Do you get frustrated, do you

get angry? Do you rise up? And whatever? Are you

in disobedience? Are you drawn away with fleshly desire? The

first race, the first adversary, is within yourself. And every

day you run that race. And I will say to

you people, if God win it, work with me to

win it. I'm in that same race. But when I

can look over and see you and go, you got this,

then come on and you're looking at me, tewing joel,

You're better than that. Come on, you got this. You're right,

You're right. Okay, okay, okay, I'm gonna win. First race

is within Another race is in your marriage. Every day

you get up, every word that you speak, every interaction

you have with your spouse is part of the race.

And either you are lacks a daisical or negative or

ruining of that race to the victory, or you are

getting yourself to the victory in your marriage. The Bible

says he who creates trouble for his family will in

hair at the wind. Our marriages are supposed to reflect

our marriage with the heavenly Father. It's to make the

world jealous of us. I want our marriages to be

so strong. I want your sexual lives to be so

pure and so good that the world wishes they were you.

How many of the churches wishing they were the world

in the sexual realm? Come on, people, they don't have it.

I just spit all over. Just don't ever sit close

to me, because I will spit on you. I promise

it's the glory spit coming. I'm gonna baptize you in

one way or the other, so the word of God

coming out of my mouth anointed spit. Sorry, my brain,

It's just I wish you could visit me inside of

my brain. I work so hard to keep it cool.

Where was I? Oh? Your races, your marriage, Stop trying

to look at the world and wish you could be

that you be godly husband? And what? Get game face on?

Our community? Our church. This is our race. This church

is not a mistake. This church is divinely planted right

in the middle of Hell itself. And He gathers all

of you to come. And we're all a little weird. Okay,

we're all a little off, we're all a little wrong,

and yet we have to settle in next to each

other and look at each other. And then God says,

we actually have to love one another and we have

to get along. So deal with me. People love me,

and I will with you. But don't cause a problem

in this church because when we do have problems. Oh,

I work so try, I try so hard. May it

not be me? Because we're running a race. Every Sunday.

We run a race when we get together, you guys worshiped, Ah,

how beautiful was this morning? How beautiful this morning? For

early morning prayer where you know, be pre service prayer. Usually,

you know, we have a little circle of people. But

I was noticing people were coming in and just kind

of filling in this sanctuary praying. They weren't sitting there

checking their phone. They were they were they were starting

to pray. We got a church of prayer warriors here.

This is our race. You're a you have an assignment.

This is the race you're assigned to. I better keep moving.

We have a nation. I mean, we can keep going.

What is your race? You have a lot of races,

A lot of things are on your race docket. So

talk a little bit about what does race mean? Race

is the Hebrew word agona, a g ona agona. I

don't know, it's agona algona agona no l or agona.

The word means to a struggle, a conflict of many kinds.

So I'm just here to tell you that your race

is gonna be a struggle. So if you wake up

in the morning you go, what is like the hold, Well,

it's because you're on your race, and your race is

an agony. And your race is to make you sweat,

and your race is to make you get up and

stretch and say I'm gonna win and I got this,

and I'm gonna work hard, and you got all of

me today, God, and I'm gonna do my very best.

And when my spouse snart is snarky to me, I'm

gonna go I love you, honey, instead of going back

at him. And you know, when the thing's your race

is the race to win in it is a struggle.

So stop whining and thinking it's just you and everybody

else has it easy. That spirit of self pity wants

to just rise up. I'm tired. Oh no, what it

is anymore? Well, that's for the day you die, and

you're not gonna die for a very long time. So honey,

get on your bike and ride. It's been way too

long since I've been up here. Let's run with endurance

or perseverance. The race set up for the word perseverance

is hoopo mone. It means it has the word patient

involved in it. You cannot run with endurance or perseverance

without patience, So it's a different It's a certain kind

of patience though people, how many of you love patience?

I am the worst in a's office when you have

to sit in the waiting room and be patient because

you're a patient. They call you a patient because you

have to be patient as you wait in the doctor's office.

But there's two, there's different kinds of patient. Barkley says

that this patience is not the patience that sits down

and accepts things as they are, But perseverance and endurance

is the kind of patience that masters the problem. So

what he's saying here is when you're in your conflict,

when you're in your struggle and you're in your race,

you gotta keep there, you gotta stay there, you gotta

have patience. But it's not the patience just says throws

up your hands and says, this is just the way

it's gonna be. This is just how I am get

over it. It's the patience that says, get to work,

girlfriend and friend out here. I can't call you a

boyfriend that would really go not go over well, Church

friends out here, because you're gonna master it. And I

am here to say, you are gonna master your marriages.

You are gonna master your children, You are gonna master

your families. You are gonna master yourself. You are gonna

master this church, is gonna master this community. In Jesus' name. Okay,

next next section here, I gotta keep going fixing our

eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith.

Maybe your Bible might say author and finisher. The word

fixing there has a very interesting connotation. It means more

than just to look at. It means to choose to

look away from everything else and do fix How many

of you, how many of us? How many times have

I said, yeah, Jesus is my thing, But look at them?

How come they have it good? I kind of want

what they have. My eye isn't fixed on Jesus. My

eye scans Jesus when it's convenient, and I spend the

rest of my time looking everywhere else but his word here,

says another way of winning is that we fix our

eyes on Jesus and we look away from every temptation

and every distraction and everything around us. Jealousy only happens

when you're not looking at Jesus. Disappointment only happens when

you're not looking at Jesus and you're looking down at

what you got in your hand right now. But Jesus

calls those things that are as aren't as though they are.

Sorry about that. Kind of lost my power there because

I got my words all mixed up. I know what

I'm saying. Fix your eyes on Jesus, Oh so good,

throw it off, square up, and endure everything you got

in front of you, and get in the race. Get

on that starting line, race every day number three. Fix

your eyes and finally, for the joy set before him.

He endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down

at the right hand of the throne of God for

the joy set before him. For the joy. Now, here's

another winning way that is not normal. And if you

want to be a good Christian and get over your

finish line with a win, you're gonna have to embrace

joy in your race. Now, remember what the word race means.

What's the word race mean? What? You want me to

be joyful in my agony? That's not normal. You don't

understand my life. You know what happened yesterday? I lost

my job, So you're gonna look like everybody else who

lost their job? Are you gonna win your race? And

I will tell you right now, Jesus endured the worst

on that cross, and this passage tells us it's a

little hint as to how his flesh was able to

endure that cross. Because in the middle, in the middle,

not afterwards, in the middle, while they're spitting on him,

streaming at him, ripping his clothes off, betraying him, pounding

nails into his skin, dying agonally, an awful death, he

was able to look and somehow reach outside of and

beyond his struggle to the finish line. Now, when somebody

crosses the finish line and wins the gold medal, what

do they do? What do they do? They are incredibly joyful,

And so what Jesus is telling us. Come on, brother,

the saints of the Living God, you are in your race,

and I dare you in the midst of your struggle,

in the midst of this where your heart is aching

and your spirit is growing faint. I want you to

just take a minute, and I want you to stop,

and I want you to fix your eyes Jesus, and

I want you to somehow reach all the way to

the end, when that marriage is reconciled, when those children

come to the Lord, when this community feels revival, when

you win over all of those things inside of you

and find what that's gonna feel like, what's your attitude

gonna be like. And if you grab that, you drag

it to your now. And this is how you position

yourself for the joy. He was able to endure the cross,

and I will tell you, brothers and sisters, this is

his way of winning through you Psalm five. I'm gonna

read it out of the passion and I'm gonna read

one more thing and I'll be done. Okay. I pray,

I pray, I pray that the Lord is talking to

you in the midst of this. Oh Jesus, right now,

just say Father, speak to me, Father, speak to me.

I'm in my race, I'm in my struggle. Speak to me,

Speak to me, Speak to me. FA. Just open your

heart up even now, to change, to shift, to throw

something off, to step into endurance. Hallelujah. Here's Psalm five.

I'm gonna start at verse eleven. For the first ten verses,

David is telling us very eloquently how evil everything is

and how horrible life is. And then on verse eleven,

always watch when David and the Psalm says the word.

But now let's not be dt. Don't go there. But

because he shifts, and in the midst of all of

the horribleness of verses one through night through ten, he says,

but let them all be glad. Whose those who turn

aside to hide themselves in you, may they keep shouting

for joy forever overshadow them in your presence as they

sing and rejoice. Then every lover of your name will

burst forth with endless joy. Lord, How wonderful you bless

the righteous your favor? Wait a minute, did he write

this at the finish line? He wrote it in his struggle,

How wonderful you bless the righteous? Your favor wraps around

each one and covers them under your canopy of kindness

and joy, the ways of winning the ways of winning.

Throw it off, square up and endure You got this

fit your eyes? What are you looking at? Henry Joice?

Henry Joye. Let's all stand. There's one more thing, one

more point, and we'll be through the barbed wire fence.

Like Dunaway says, just one more point, Holy Spirit, Just

close your eyes right now, take a deep breath, and

let the Holy Spirit touch your heart. I'm almost done,

Holy Spirit. We are in our race, we are in

our struggle, we are in our fight, we are in

our conflict. Hallelujah. Each one of you right now, just

determine you're gonna win. You're gonna win. Your adversary might

be sneaking up, but you're gonna cross that finish line. Oh,

you're gonna do it. He ain't gonna win, he's not

gonna nudge you out. You're gonna win. You're not going

to succumb. So let me read it in the passion.

So just let this, these waters words just roll off

of you, soak you. As for us, we have all,

we have all of these great witnesses who encircle around

us like clouds. So we must let go of every

wound that has pierced us and the sin we so

easily fall into. Let the Word do the preaching here.

Then we will be able to run life's marathon. Race

with passion and determination, for the path has already been

marked out for you. You have a path. Don't be fooled.

You have a path. We look away from the natural realm,

and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus, who birthed faith

within us, and who leads us forward into faith's perfection.

His example is this. His heart was focused on the

joy of knowing that you would be his. So he

endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation,

and now sits exalted at the right hand of the

throne of God. I'm gonna go down now wait to

hear these ones. Are you ready for these ones? This

is that twelve and thirteen that I read earlier, But

I love how he says it. So be made strong

even in your weakness, by lifting up your tired hands

in prayer and in worship. This is a house of

prayer and of worship. And we will do that in

this house. And when you cut me in those doors

and you are tired, and your hands are tired, on

your feet and legs and knees are tired, all you

gotta do is come in here and praise and worship.

Don't stand there watching don't stand there in your troubles.

Don't stand there and whine. I would say, lift up

your tired hands and worship and pray. Lift up your

tired hands in prayer and worship, and strengthen your weak knees.

You can't run when your knees are weak, So when

your hands are busy worshiping, your knees can run. As

for you, as for you, keep walking forward on God's path.

On God's paths, all your stuff ways will be divinely healed.

Let's say it. As for me, let's read it. It's

up here on the screen. But ask for me. I

will keep walking forward on God's paths, and all my

stumbling ways will be divinely healed. That is your promise. Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Ho take that one home, memorize that one, because people

of God, you're gonna win. With God's help, You're gonna win,

and you're gonna start pedaling. You're gonna get your gang

face on, you're gonna go fast, and just as the

adversary thinks he's got you, you're gonna cross the finish

line and you will win. Hallelujah, per team, come on up.

Prayer team, Come on up. I want to challenge you

if there is any bit of this sermon that your

heart has said that is my word. I want you

to come up here and pray it, settle it, make

it be. And if you don't want to come forward,

I might give you a little out and that would

be turned to your neighbor and say that really got me.

Pray with me on that, because our house is not

a house of fake okay. Our house is a house

of transparency and honesty and accountability and wonderfulness. Amen, Father

God in Jesus, name us in the ways of winning,

Train us in the ways of winning, us in the

ways of winning. We love you, we praise you. Halleluja.

Let's worship