CMLC 2025-08-17 Sermon

Howdy! You know, we're getting ready for another

academic year. And we're about to start up our

next confirmation class. You know, we've got

next Sunday, Rally Day, during the 930 Rally

Day event. We're going to have the youth and

confirmation families start up in the youth room

at 930. then we'll come down to the gym to join

the rest of you as we learn about the different

ministries that are happening here at Christ's

Memorial Lutheran. But after we talk about some

of the expectations and look over the schedule

and some of the fun events that we have going

on, and then get a chance to see how we're part

of the larger church. Now, I think it's great

to think about bringing up young people to learn

more clearly about their faith and to encourage

them. to confirm their desire to follow Jesus.

Every time when our confirmation students stand

up here and confess their faith before God in

the congregation though, I admit that I'm filled

with both joy and a little bit of nervousness.

And not just because I'm always worried if they

might decide to make a random joke I'm not expecting.

You see, joy I feel because I see young people

stepping into the race of faith, making promises

to run with Christ no matter where the road leads.

But nervousness, because I know that the part

of the race they've run so far has been in many

ways familiar ground, surrounded by family, supported

by church, encouraged by their friends. See,

anyone who has followed Christ for more than

a little while knows that the course is not flat.

See, there are going to be hills ahead. Hills

that test their endurance, their loyalty, their

courage. See, following Christ as a young person,

it's not always easy. They're expected to navigate

when their friends start drinking too early,

when they navigate working with others in a cutthroat

world while acting like Christ. and actually

talking to people on the phone instead of just

texting them. Scary, I know. It's called telephobia,

and apparently, it's a thing. But we see glimpses

of the hills that we face when a teenager has

to stand for their faith in a classroom, or when

they wrestle with doubts in a culture that often

doesn't share what they believe. But we also

know that there are more challenges ahead as

they step into high school. adulthood, jobs,

and families of their own, the race will take

them places they cannot yet see. And yet, how

often are we struggling, even when they're in

high school and beyond, to even have them here

with us in this place? And here's the truth,

they're not the first to run this kind of race.

Hebrews 11 and 12 tell us about those who have

gone before. Men and women who faced all kinds,

of hills, each one shaped by different conflicts

in their life. Maybe a conflict with other people

who are opposed to their path. Maybe conflict

with the sin that they feel and sense within

themselves. Or maybe conflict because of shame

that the world may try to inflict upon them.

See, these runners in the faith who have gone

before us, they're not just runners though. There

are also witnesses cheering us from the stands,

encouraging us to look at their faith and to

take courage. If we look closely, we can see

the course they ran, and we can see those like

Abraham, Moses, and Christ Himself, along with

the whole cloud of witnesses who have pushed

forward to conquer the world and to seek out

what God has in store for them. Because running

the race of faith It's very different from the

type of running that we may do with our bodies.

You see, we may be able to split people up in

the world into two different categories. Those

who get up every morning with the joy of feeling

the road beneath their feet as they make each

stride along the road. And those of us who are

actually normal. But when it comes to the life

of faith, That is a race that we are all called

to tackle ourselves and endure. See, some of

the stories like Abraham and Isaac, they strike

us strangely when we hear that Abraham was called

to sacrifice his son Isaac. And we think about

this idea of killing his firstborn, and we might

imagine people saying, Abraham, that's terrible.

You can't do that. But then, we realize that

they were still standing back and watching him

while he did. And even realizing that Isaac,

the firstborn, is still walking alongside him

the whole way. Because in Abraham's world, human

sacrifice, even of children, it was tragically

common to convince the gods to give you prosperity

and abundance. In order to make it through the

world, many of them would have seen it as normal

or even noble, even with Isaac being older, it

would not have been any less tragic. But the

real conflict came, though, because Abraham didn't

actually do it. See, Abraham believed God's promises.

He believed that they were so certain that even

if Isaac had died, that God could have raised

him again. He was willing to obey. He was willing

to sacrifice, even without knowing how God would

provide. But when God provided, the ram Abraham

stopped. See, the normal thing would have been

to keep forcing his way forward to prove his

devotion to the gods, but instead, he saw what

the true God provided, and he embraced God's

mercy and accepted the substitute. But could

you imagine what it would have been like to come

back down to all the people who were expecting

that his sacrifice of his firstborn would somehow

provide for everyone? Could you imagine some

of the things that might have been brought up?

You didn't follow through with it, Abraham. Wow,

Abraham, you must have gone soft. You didn't

give the Elohim your best, and now there is no

way to guarantee that we will not suffer for

it. You see, to many people, blessings always

require destroying other people to provide for

your community. There are many people who believe

that blessing requires destruction of others

to provide for yourselves. See, to Abraham though,

Obedience was trust, trusting in God's grace,

trusting in God's mercy, trusting that God's

way is better than the way that everyone else

may approve of or understand. That's the hill

that we sometimes have to climb. Sometimes people

oppose us because we refuse to follow what might

be normal in the eyes of the world. Sometimes

we're being urged to do things that may look

faithful or strong but actually go against the

heart of God. Sometimes we lose those who are

closest to us or even those that we wish were

closest to us. But that's also where it might

become uncomfortable because sometimes we're

the ones who are on the wrong side of it. Sometimes

we're the ones who are encouraging someone else

toward a path that God wants to pull them off

of. Following Christ means being willing to stop,

to turn, to choose mercy over the momentum of

the crowd. Sometimes the three are following

Christ, while the two are not, but sometimes

it's the majority that betray the heart of God.

And sometimes it's all of us. When we first begin

to run, it can be hard to push through to that

runner's high. Even getting over the first hill

in the first place. Abraham shows us that the

first hill in the race of faith though, it's

learning to trust God's direction even when everyone

else thinks you should keep going your own way

or maybe start going theirs. But others have

often been able to get over that hill as well.

Moses knew what it was like to climb that first

hill. In Egypt he could have lived in luxury.

He could have been surrounded by power with all

the approval the world could offer. But Hebrews

11 says he chose to be mistreated with God's

people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures

of sin. In other words, he conquered the hill

that Abraham faced. The hill of walking away

from the crowd's approval to follow God's call.

He and the children of Israel went up to the

Red Sea. They drowned. They trusted that God

would provide even as He parted the sea and then

drowned the Egyptians who attempted to drag them

back to the world that they had left behind.

Walking away from the expectations of others

was not the struggle for Moses as he led Israel,

but when Moses crested that first hill. He discovered

another one rising up in front of him. But this

time, the battle wasn't out there. The battle

wasn't here. See, Moses wrestled with fear, insecurity,

anger. At the burning bush, his fear told him

things. You're not good enough. You don't speak

well enough. God should send somebody else, maybe

even your brother. Your parents loved him and

your sister more. They kept them. They threw

you down the river in a basket. You're just not

good enough for this. And later, when the people

complained, those doubts must have come back

again as his anger boiled over. And instead of

just talking to the rock, because talking to

a rock, that's not really going to assert your

authority now, is it? He went over and struck

it instead of obeying God. He knew what God wanted.

But in the heat of the moment another voice inside

says do it your way you saw it work before Do

it again See this is the hill of the inner war

inside of us When voices battle for control and

we have to decide which side to listen to the

angels the demons Sometimes we hear three voices

speaking encouragement while to drag us down

And then sometimes the deciding voice says we're

not good enough instead. Paul describes it in

Romans 7, for I do not do the good I want, but

the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

And it's a hill that we all know. We may have

walked away from the crowd's expectations, like

Moses did with Egypt, but we still find the harder

fight to be what's happening inside of ourselves.

The pride. The fear. the bitterness, the impatience,

the self -reliance, or the self -doubt. It's

the battle between the Spirit calling us forward

and the flesh pulling us back. We feel strong

and bold and we're willing to let go of the world,

but as we do, we see our own flaws. We see our

own faults. and we stop believing that we're

the ones called to serve or that God could possibly

use someone as broken as us. Even when the majority

of the voices inside cry out that God is in control,

we oftentimes feed the other voices until they

become dominant, until their hunger threatens

to consume us. We know our own impatience, the

risk of a temper flaring up within, and we believe

that everyone must see it as well and expect

the worst of us. There are times when we feel

the aches and pains as we run down that path

and we stop believing that we can make it to

the end. But this hill teaches us that while

the hardest opponent may be the one within, we

need to listen to the witnesses cheering us on

from the sides, reminding us that it's not about

our power, but by God's Spirit. But maybe we've

learned to stand against those who oppose our

path like Abraham Maybe we've learned to face

our inner demons the battle with sin and to discover

that our weakness is where Christ's strength

is Revealed the weakness doesn't have to win

because his strength is made perfect and yet

even conquering those hills Sometimes the third

one is just the fact that the road is too long

and hopefully not like this sermon See, Hebrews

11 doesn't sugarcoat it. Some were mocked, flogged,

imprisoned, stoned, destitute, afflicted, mistreated,

of whom the world was not worthy. And when we

read Acts in church history, we meet names that

bring that reality into focus. Stephen, the first

martyr, stoned while praying for his attackers,

mocked even to the point of death. Peter. Imprisoned

multiple times, eventually crucified upside down,

a death meant to humiliate and terrify. Paul

beaten, flogged, shipwrecked, ridiculed, thrown

into chains, enduring hardship again and again

for the sake of the gospel. Who really wants

to look at the path of faith and say, yes, I

can tackle that? But even these witnesses, even

these heroes, they remind us that the final hill

isn't just about the external enemies, or the

internal battles. Sometimes the race of faith,

it feels like running through a cheering section,

but other times it feels like running through

a gauntlet. Sometimes instead of the witnesses

urging us forward, we feel them pushing us back,

sneering at us, trying to convince us that finishing

isn't worth it. Instead of a cloud that welcomes

us, it's the strong wind of rejection time and

time again. And that's where Jesus comes in.

Hebrews 12 reminds us that He endured the cross,

scorning its shame. He didn't just survive the

suffering, He conquered it. He ran the course

before us, breaking through the wind, cutting

through every obstacle, and making a way where

the path seemed impossible. He didn't just survive

it, but He stripped it of its power. by going

through it. He took the ugliest, most humiliating

death the world could throw at him, and through

it, turned it into the doorway of life. And here's

the good news. Jesus didn't just give us a pep

talk from the sidelines. He ran the course Himself.

He took every hill. He climbed the steepest ones,

even the Hill of Shame, and at the top, He broke

through those headwinds. He tore open the barriers,

He cut through the hostility, and He cleared

a path. Picture it, the steepest hill ahead,

the air thick with opposition, the wind trying

to push you backward, and Jesus is already there,

pushing through those headwinds for you. Through

the hardships, clearing the way, calling us forward,

and on the sides of the hill, the cloud of witnesses

with water for us, not to jeer, but to cheer.

They can't make it easier, but they can remind

us that this path has been run before. They've

seen what's on the other side and they've made

it. And at the summit, Jesus is holding out a

baton. Because He's not just encouraging us from

the sidelines. He ran the race and He conquered

the hills and now it's us who are to run the

next leg. This is the moment when the endurance

of those who went before becomes a bridge, a

path ahead becomes ours to run now, because we're

not meant to be spectators. Because part of the

fear for every group of young people that we

confirm and teach is to ask, who are they following

if we don't follow the path that Christ has walked?

How will they have anyone to follow themselves?

Hebrews 12 reminds us that it's our turn to run.

The baton is in our hand. The hills are ahead.

The cloud of witnesses are surrounding us and

cheering us. And even when we see Jesus going

down a path that we don't think anyone else has

run, we still see Him blazing the trail of death

and despair to bring us into life. So which hill

are you facing today? Is it a hill of opposition

from others like Abraham? Maybe it's a difficult

conversation with a co -worker, a friend, a family

member who doesn't understand why you're making

certain choices to follow the path that God has

given you. Or maybe it's the hill of inner conflict

like Moses. Maybe it's a daily struggle to be

patient instead of letting anger or fear dictate

decisions or sometimes choosing humility when

pride wants to take over. Or maybe it's the hill

of shame and scorn like Stephen, Peter, Paul,

and ultimately Jesus. Maybe it's the embarrassment

or ridicule you feel for living out your faith

in a culture that doesn't share your values.

A place where the sideways glance, the snide

comments, or even the internal shame that whispers

you're failing. But no matter what, this is your

section of the race for you to run. This is the

time to lean on God's strength when you don't

feel it. Because that hill may be steep, that

road may be long, but only this step is what

matters. and others are counting on us. Our kids,

the people around us, they need to see us grab

the baton and keep running. Fix your eyes on

Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

So when the hills rise up, remember, you're not

the first to climb them, but you also won't be

the last. So take heart, take courage, take the

baton because the race is on and you're not running

it alone. Thank you. Amen to that.