Get in the Game

This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantParquay.org.

Father, we all have a story in this room.

So when we say this is our story, we are recognizing that you are the God of the universe who started this whole thing.

That our stories are wrapped up in who you are and how you've acted toward us.

We have a story.

As we just saw and witnessed a father baptizing his daughter.

It's the beginning of a story.

It's not the end, it's not the finish line, it's just the beginning for Michaela.

So we stand as a church and we witness to publicly proclaim and testify to what you're doing in the lives of young children.

Because you're in the business, God, of bringing a people back to yourself.

And for some of us in this room, we're part of that story.

So when we sing an old hymn like this, there's something that resonates within us where we can't just help but lift up hands and say, Yay, God, because you're better.

Better than my our sorrows, our discomfort, the trials, all the things in the year 2013.

We just want to tap out and say goodbye.

Father, you're you're better.

We trust you.

Speak as you always do.

Let us give give us ears.

Listen, we love you.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

If you guys uh would grab a seat for me.

Uh, my name, as I said earlier, if you walked in, uh, is Aaron Cotton, and I am uh the student pastor here at Grant Park.

When I want to say up front, in Neil's absence, uh, it is a privilege uh to be in front of you uh this this morning.

Uh if you have your Bibles, uh we're gonna be in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 12 this morning.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's some Bibles on uh we call them pews, uh they're really chairs out there.

There's a Bible out there for you.

Uh we're gonna be on page 1008.

Uh 1008.

In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, the Bible says this.

Hebrews 12:1

It says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also, let us also, along with these witnesses, lay aside, throw off every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run.

Church, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder or author 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.

Verse three, consider him, consider Jesus, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.

Short three verses uh this morning up front to say this.

The title of this morning is The Get in the Game.

Uh for some of us when we when we hear that phrase, we think that's pretty cliche.

I'm okay with that.

I'm gonna lean into it uh this morning.

Uh, it comes actually from a quote uh from uh from my coach uh when I used to play ball uh down the road.

Some of you guys uh out there like to update me on that team like I still play.

Uh that was six years ago, and I don't.

Uh but there was a time uh when I did play some ball, and uh I was uh coming across as a freshman and sophomore, and uh part of being uh part of the underclass classman, our job was to be the hitting dummy.

I'm not talking about holding like a pad up uh hitting dummy.

I'm talking about just me, the hitting dummy.

Uh, and we were known as the whiteheads, all right?

As demeaning as that is, there was there was a reason for it, is because when we showed up to the games, everybody else had decals on their helmets, sweet decals with stripes with revolution helmets, which were uh which were you what you wanted, but the the guys that were just the hitting dummies, we showed up with white helmets, all right?

And everybody knew who we were because we'd be on the sideline, and everybody that was playing the game would be in the center of the field on the 50, and us, we'd be over here on the 20, all right?

Uh over here all of us clustered together.

Game day, what I thoroughly enjoyed uh was the Gatorade.

Uh I throw a little Gatorade.

Uh occasionally I get a hot dog thrown at me uh and uh enjoy some of that uh because I knew I wasn't gonna get in the game.

I I knew that uh my playing time was uh was awaiting for me.

Uh uh there's no way that I was gonna get in the game, and I'll never forget uh first round of playoffs.

We were playing a team and we were, man, we're we're we're killing it, man.

We were doing so well.

I mean, scoreboard 55 at the end of the half, all right.

We're up by so much.

Uh and when that tends to happen, uh all the second strings and third strings get a little excited, all right.

And they get a little jittery, like, hey, I'm gonna get put in the game.

All right.

For us six strings over here, the whiteheads, like there's no way, right?

Where I'm where I'm at, there's no way that we're gonna be put in the game.

But we keep racking up points, all right, and the team ain't doing nothing, all right?

Uh and uh and as I was sitting over there, I'll I'll never forget it.

Uh my coach looked over at me with the long-jawed self as he is, looks out at me and says, Cotton, cotton, get in the game, which is my last name.

He goes, Cotton, get in, get in the game.

When I heard that, I thought it was a joke.

Uh I thought for a second, this is you got you gotta be kidding me.

All right, because uh I'm just I'm just a whitehead.

I I I'm not even gonna get any playing time, but literally called my name out in front of all my buddies and and my family in the stands and hearing my name saying, get in the game, I you would have thought that the play was going on, I was sprinting so hard on that field.

I was like, yes! Finally, it's about time.

I'm gonna get me get me some playing time.

I was on peaceing out to my buddies on the sideline because my coach called my name specifically.

Cotton.

You over there, thinking you're a nobody.

I'm about to make you a somebody.

Get in the game.

And we're gonna learn this morning, uh, we're gonna see in the author of Hebrews is he's gonna be calling to his readers, he's gonna be saying, It's time to get in the game.

It's it's time he's gonna call our names out specifically, whatever name that you got, and he's gonna say, It's it's time to get in the game.

We don't know this author.

I like to call him the anonymous author.

All right, if I was writing the Bible, uh I think I would like to throw my name out to get a little credit.

All right, but this this guy doesn't.

He continues to write the scriptures, leaves his his name out to encourage his audience to, hey, come, don't quit shrinking back, quit, quit caving, caving in.

There's confidence in Jesus because he's better.

They were they were cowering, they were in their comfort circles, and the author is saying, hey, get out of that.

I know you got your prophets, I know you got Moses, I know you got Abraham, I know you got all those guys, but Jesus is calling to you to something better.

Something better.

So if you've got your Bibles, chapter 12, verse 1, we'll start there.

The Bible says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.

My question as I was preparing for it this morning is, Who are these witnesses?

Who who are who are these guys?

And anytime, church, you see a therefore in the Bible, always ask yourself, what is the therefore?

And it usually means that the author is bringing you back to the to the previous statement, or like in this case, the previous chapter.

Because in chapter 11, it is known as the hall of faith.

Not the hall of fame, but the hall of faith, because over and over, 25 times plus, we see the word faith occur alone in that chapter.

By faith, by faith, this person did this.

By faith, Abel did this, by faith, Abraham did this, by faith, Isaac did this by Rahab, by Barak, by Samson, by faith, all these guys, all these nobodies.

All these nobodies, God selected and said, Hey, I'm gonna make you, I'm gonna make you a somebody.

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna use you.

I know you don't think you got talent.

I know you you you think that you don't got the ability, but because I'm God Almighty, I'm gonna create that ability in in you.

And the whole point of chapter 11 is to say is to say this is that people were placing their faith in God, and God was approving them, and because of God's approval, a fire was set ablaze in these people, and these people did things that we marvel at.

And the author of Hebrews is putting these people in front of us as you're walking through, and to say to us, looking at us, not as with eyes of condemnation, but eyes to say, Hey, we did it.

We, we, we did it.

Nothing based upon us, but solely based upon what God has done.

These people, these these surroundings, these these this great cloud of witnesses is intended to bring a sense of uh uh inspiration to say, these people aren't just cardboard cut figurines that we colored in children's ministry.

No, these these are real life examples of people, of people of the faith.

If you were to ask me this past Christmas, um Aaron, what what is something that you uh that you did?

And uh first something thing is that we I just hung out with family.

Uh just sat around as we have that we that we tend to do, uh, and a show came on uh that I forgot I enjoyed so much uh called Duck Dynasty.

Uh and we sat around uh and watched some Duck Dynasty.

Um I'm still working on my beard.

Maybe one day.

Uh maybe one day I'll I'll I'll get it I'll get it there.

I enjoy the show.

Uh I enjoy watching, I think they're they're hilarious.

But what I what I what I think a lot, especially in our media, what we're hearing is this guy named Phil Robertson.

Uh I was uh paning through my emails and looking through uh some things, and I get stuff that's sent out to me uh kind of like a blast.

And one of the titles of my emails of this article was The Most Dangerous Man in America.

And I thought for a second, I thought for a second, like, okay, whoever this most dangerous man is, I want to know and I want to I want to read about.

And sure enough, reading through the article, big old picture of his beard and all was Phil Robertson.

And part of the article is as the guy was writing, he was saying that the reason this guy is so dangerous is because he has so many eyes on him, yet he's not he's not panic, he's not he's not shrinking back.

He's fully confident in what he's convicted in, in his beliefs.

He's a man of conviction.

That these the these these surrounding witnesses not only involve uh chapter 11 of years ago, but real life, real life examples of people of conviction.

If I were to state an intro introductory statement, uh it would be this in the year of a new year coming, and in New Year's of 2014 in the horizon, this is a thought that I would want to put before you that the solution, the solution to authentic transformation, the the the solution for for us as believers for transformation is not a halfway New Year's resolution based on us and our own ability, but solely rooted in conviction wrought by the Spirit.

If you notice in New Year's, man, the one thing that's popular is, hey man, what do you what's a resolution?

And I almost feel anti-Christian for saying, I don't know, I got nothing.

Let me pray about it.

That's what we usually say.

But man, for some of us, when this New Year's season comes around, we have all these resolutions that we tend to make based upon our own ability at the exclusion of God and his conviction that he brings about us.

That's why we get so frustrated.

That's why when we make these commitments that there's these halfway commitments that always lead in frustration and shame, is because we're trying to do it on our own.

And and God is saying this morning, as people who've been placed in front of us in chapter 11 of the Hall of Faith, that change only happens, transformation only happens in the church when conviction happens.

When you identify sin for what it is and you deal with it.

Let me read you a quote that is on our fridge at home by Richard Foster.

It says, in our day, in heaven and on earth are on a tiptoe, waiting for the emerging of a spirit-led, spirit-intoxicated, spirit-empowered people.

All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered martyr people who know in this life, and the life and the power of the kingdom of God, it has happened before, and it can happen again.

That the world is on their tiptoes and they're watching, they're watching the church, and they're watching us.

In this new year, I want to put before you four points, four, four things uh to be thinking about.

And if I was in a preaching class, I'd probably be kicked out.

I haven't taken it yet, uh, but I'd probably be kicked out throwing four at you, not three, but we'll be that'll be okay this morning.

So we'll go with our first thing uh what the author is bringing to our attention is uh to throw off.

Is to throw off Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bibles, look with me.

Verse 1.

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

Let us throw off, literally to put off, to do away with, to lay, to lay aside.

This is this is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 4, the putting off of the old self and the putting on, the putting on of the new self.

We throw a word out here uh in the in the church called sanctification, which is a big, it's just a big word to say that that Jesus has called us to be like him, that it's it's a process of conforming to his image and not and not our own.

And if I could summarize that, that word in two phrases, it would be this it would be to put off and to put on.

And the Bible says, the author of Hebrew says, every weight.

Every weight, these things may be good in themselves, not necessarily bad or wrong, good in themselves, but uh the these these things, these weights that we we tend to transfer as good to ultimate.

And this this surfaces when we have when we have this thought here, is this if if I don't have blank in my life, if I don't have blank in my life, my life just ain't right.

What to throw off ever every every weight, these good things that we turn into ultimate things, may may be money, it may be finances, it may it may be things.

If I don't have money or things in my life, then I'm not gonna get the security that I that I'm so longing for.

If I if I don't have entertainment in my life, if I don't have the right and the entitlement to come home after work and veg out in front of a screen because that's what I so long for, then I then I'm not gonna get the comfort that I that I so want.

Whether it be entertainment, whether it be people that we use for our appreciation or acceptance, whatever it means, these these good things that are good in themselves.

I love some entertainment.

I love me some Netflix.

When we start using good things as ultimate things to meet needs, God calls that idolatry.

And the author of Hebrews is saying, uh throw it off.

Throw off the weight, and maybe even some of those things that you're attempting to give up this for for for New Year's, a New Year's resolution that's solely rooted in yourself.

But I want to put in front of you this morning is that transformation will never happen unless conviction takes place.

So if you got your Bibles, go with me to Colossians chapter three.

Colossians chapter three.

We see the author saying, not only to throw off the weight, but also every sin which clings so closely.

And if I was in front of my students, I would say to them, I had to nerd out a little bit right here.

I look at the original language and see this phrase, because only this phrase appears in the New Testament alone.

That every every sin which clings so closely, literally within the original language, it says the easily distracting sin, or the sin that clings so closely, the ensnaring sin, or the the besetting sin.

And I thought to myself, what like what uh what what is what is the author talking about?

I think he's talking about this is that if I were to ask you, if we're getting small groups, and I and I were to ask you, hey, what is what is the sin that you've been dealing with?

I think each and every one of us in this room would have a sin, the the sin that we're dealing with.

And the author's gonna say, Hey, wage war on that.

Plant a stake in the ground, don't go any further or go any longer without dealing with it and doing something about it.

Every summer we take our uh our kids uh to camp, and uh for the first time uh we decide to take our senior high students to Colorado on a charter bus for 18 hours uh uh up to um uh to Camp Red Cloud, uh, which was a thought of a great idea until we're actually there.

Uh most church camps that we go to are fun and we stay in really cool places.

Like this year, uh we're gonna be saying a sweet resort in Winter Park for our high school students here in high school.

Come on.

Uh but this year we decided uh in summer of 2011, we decided to go to this uh camp called Camp Red Cloud, which I like to call Camp Boot Camp, uh, because it wasn't no church camp that you usually go to.

Uh we went there and we start immediately started hiking.

Uh they had all these team exercises for us to do.

I'm a team player.

I I'm a part I was been part of a team, part of a uh been the whole thing.

But when it comes like to team exercises uh about how we can get you over the rope uh and all those types of like we're doing all that, and I was very thankful that I was the leader because I get to I get to stand back because I'm leader and all and say, all right, students, do it.

Like you gotta do this thing, all right?

Team building exercise.

So we start doing some team building exercise.

There's high ropes.

I'm not talking about just high ropes, I'm talking about high, high ropes, uh things that uh that would, if you're afraid of heights whatsoever, don't get on it.

Uh uh.

Don't don't get on this one day.

We decided that we were gonna do a 12-mile hike uh up up this mountain.

All right.

We're gonna six miles up, I'm sorry, six miles up, and we're gonna go six miles back, all right, to do some some team building exercise.

This is church camp.

I love Jesus and all, like, but uh we gotta do we're gonna work out while we're here.

Like, is this what this is all about?

So we get, and I'm trying to hype it up.

Uh the thing with Soon Ministry, hype it up.

So I do I'm hyping it up like it's gonna be a fun, it's gonna be great.

Get on your hiking boots, and we start going up this six miles.

Kids are dropping down, like I can't get like altitudes getting them.

They're getting dehydrated.

Come on.

We got Jesus.

Let's get up the mountain.

So we get up the mountain, great view, come back.

We get back, and it meant we were done.

Uh at the end of that night, kids are collapsing.

Usually you have to get on them.

Like you start threatening them.

I'm gonna call your mom.

I'm gonna call your mom if you don't start acting none of that that night.

Man, kids were just out.

They were uh man passed out.

And uh I was staying with the high school guys, and uh, as I was dozing off, I heard a little chuckle outside where we were standing.

We were staying, usually staying in a like I said, like a nice resort or some type of fancy, like where there's AC and electricity.

We were staying in this glorified tent.

Uh they call the dome.

Uh but from the looks of it, it looks like what uh what the Texans practicing.

It's not that at all.

You walk in, it's cold, it was damp in there, uh, the beds were wet, it's already freezing.

All right, and I'm trying to I'm trying to go to bed, and I hear this chuckling going on on the outside because you can hear things.

And my first thought was is what high school guy do I need to talk to about changing his laugh?

Uh, because you sound like a junior high, a junior high girl.

Uh, and as I'm trying to doze off, uh I began to realize, oh no, this is the last night of camp.

Uh so they're about something something's about to go go down.

So I'm all trying to be sneaky.

All right, I'm trying to be like, I see what you're doing.

And the girls had planned this whole thing of what they were gonna do.

All right, and I didn't know this, I hear it.

I open, I go to open the door to go scare them, I let them know, like, I'm the leader, I'm the leader, I'm the guy in charge, I'm the protector of this household, and I get out there, and as soon as I open that door, I'm not no joke, there's about 25 high school girls with pillows in their hand, and as soon as I open that door, a pillow right to the face, uh, and I go back, they storm inside where we were staying.

The fellas are going, what in the world?

Like a bad dream just just happened, and uh, they finally got their need met, all right, and they get out, and like I looked at all the fellas and I said, Not on my watch.

And I forgot to mention before any of this that this is the under the administration of Wade Collier.

Uh, I was not in charge uh with uh the begin the rest of this story.

Uh so I began to get the guys together.

All right, I said, it's about 11 30, 12 o'clock.

It's about midnight, all right.

And I'm like, we're gonna stay up because this is war.

We're gonna stay up so late.

Uh we're gonna get we're gonna stay up so we're gonna let the girls get their beauty sleep, and we're gonna go over there and we're gonna get them back.

We're gonna get them back good.

All right, so we decided that we had a campfire that night, so we got these big old logs, uh, and decided that we're gonna make as much noise as possible.

Uh so we get those logs and put them in the front where they couldn't get out.

All right, it's a brain great idea.

Uh, and all of a sudden one of the leaders, and also we start making so much noise.

The girls are going crazy.

They're thinking, what, like, what what is what is going what is going on?

And then all of a sudden I hear from inside, go get your leader.

I sure will.

I'll be right back.

So I come back and I'm like, fellas, fellas, it's time to go, it's time to go to bed.

All right.

But all I know from that moment that moment, from that summer, is that it was war.

There's no way that we're gonna let the senior eye girls come in and own the night.

Like we're gonna remember that night as victorious, and it was.

It was good.

Because you offended us.

You came in and came in on came in on our territory.

You think, Aaron, why would you go on and tell a story like that?

Because there's things in our lives, church, that the author is writing.

He says, every weight and every sin, it you have to put a stake in the ground and declare and declare war.

That we get more offended, we get more worked up and bothered when someone sins against us than when we sin against God.

We get so we get so bothered, like, how could you do that to me?

But yet we're okay, and we make excuses and we blame others for the weight and sin in our own lives.

You've got Colossians three, look at your Bibles.

Colossians three, I told you to turn there.

Here we go, Colossians three, verse one.

Paul's gonna be writing about waging about waging.

Waging war, he says this.

He says, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

I love this verse.

Look at verse three.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Verse 4, when Christ, who is your life, who is your everything, who is the one who, when you placed your faith in him, became your everything, the sole price that everything else pales in comparison to pursuing after Jesus, when he appears, who is your life, then you will also appear with him in glory.

And because of this truth, because of his appearing, and because you have died, and because you are hidden in Christ, look at the next verse.

Therefore, based upon this truth, put to death.

Put to death what is earthly in you.

And Paul's going to give us a list.

What are these things we put to death?

What are these things that we wage war on?

Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.

In these two, you once walked, E.

D.

past tense, walked, when you were living in them.

But now you must put away, put them all away.

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and you have put on put on the new.

That Paul is calling us to say these things in our lives that we tend to make excuses about, or things that we tend to direct the attention towards and not really talk about the whole list that makes us maybe in our seats cringe a little bit, even just in just reading, Paul is saying along with the author of Hebrews, is wage war on those things.

And instead of instead of doing those things, he says, verse 12, put on.

Put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.

Church, if I could just stop here and say this, I would I would say this.

Don't let anybody, if you're a believer in Christ Jesus and you have a relationship with him, you are God's chosen.

You are his holy and you are his beloved.

Despite the noise from the channel, despite what people may tell you, that is who you are and that is your identity.

Because Christ has purchased that for you.

You're chosen, you're holy and you're beloved.

Therefore, put on compassionate hearts, because this is who you are.

Put on kindness, humility, meekness, or gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, or literally, literally enduring discomfort, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.

And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be and be thankful.

All these things, Paul is saying, Here are the deeds of the flesh to wage war on.

It's time to put church, it's time to put off those things and to start to put on these this robe of righteousness of God's chosen, holy, and beloved.

Let me read you a quote from Hen Henry Barclay says this about waging war.

He says, The Christian must kill self-centeredness.

He must regard as dead all private desires and ambitions.

There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the heart.

Something's radical has got to come within you, within your center, within your heart, within your will.

Everything which would keep him fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be surgically removed.

Must be surgically removed and part of waging war, part of surgically removing is only through the Spirit.

Only through conviction of the Spirit.

So the first thing this morning is not only to throw off, according to the author of Hebrews, you got your Bibles, go back with me to Hebrews chapter twelve.

Not only we to throw off every weight, those good things that we've made, ultimate things, or those the or those the easily distracting sin or the specific sin, but we're also called, according to verse one, not only to throw off, but to run.

And literally in the original language, this word run is pronounced eggon, which where we get our our English word agony.

I couldn't think of any better definition than a race, than agony.

Literally, the inward conflict of the soul a race is.

That's what the author is saying.

That a race is grueling.

It expects something out of you.

It's agony.

Church, I can't, I as much as I uh would like to say, as much as I uh would like to tell you that I run, uh I don't uh because I can't stand running.

Uh I can't I can't do it.

Uh I was scarred.

Uh I I blame my junior high coaches um for uh throwing me at uh the 300 hurdles uh the ever since I did that event.

It's been disastrous ever since uh for uh man for for me.

Some of you guys like running, some of you guys like talking about it.

Some of you guys talk about your cool trendy parks that you go to at 4 30 o'clock, 4 30 in the morning.

Have at it.

Uh you can have your your your running parks that you go to.

I just can't do it.

I I just can't, I really don't enjoy running.

I think it really is.

It is agony uh for me.

When I was in junior high, like I said, I did 300 hurdles and uh I was uh a coach kind of threw me out there because they needed somebody, and uh I was not only in the last heat, uh I was in the last lane.

All right.

So uh I'm like the worst of the worst, right?

Uh as demeaning as that is, but it was good for me.

So I get in there, I'm in the last lane, all right.

And what they do in a race uh when you run 300 hurdles is they stagger you according to which lane that you're in.

The seventh lane is way ahead, and it goes on and on until the first lane looks like it's it's up by the by the by the finish line.

And I had no idea what I was doing.

I I was just called to do 300 hurdles.

I'm out there getting in the blocks, and I'm thinking in my mind, I'm cheating.

Something is up here.

I'm in front of everybody.

Like something something is off, right?

So I'm like, whatever.

So I get my blocks, they sound, they hit hit the gun, bang.

I'm more scared than uh than anything by the noise of the gun because I'm thinking someone's got a gun.

Uh someone do something, but I go, I get off the blocks, I'm I'm sprinting, and I'm in front of everybody.

All right, because if I'm in this thing, I'm in it to win it.

I'm in it to win this thing.

I'm gonna I'm gonna go and get that and show all my buddies that I'm I mean, I punked all you guys and get my ribbon, hoorah, get some CCs, right?

That was that was the goal placed before me.

All right, so getting my blocks, I'm running in church.

I look good.

I got the form going.

I got one of these, I'm not like running like this.

I'm I got the true form going.

Straight fingers up front, roaming in front of everybody, no one's around me, and all of a sudden we hit the curve.

And all those lanes that were before me all of a sudden catch up.

And I'm realizing, okay, I'm that's not good.

Uh that's that's not good.

I'm going and I'm sprinting.

My legs are already starting to feel like jello.

I haven't even hit the second hurdle yet.

All right, when I came in that first hurdle, I jumped at the thing like a deer.

I was like, I'm dominating this thing, so I get over it.

I might jump in way over, and you're not supposed to do that.

And I go over and I'm running to the second hurdle, and I'm I was out of it, man.

I was so out of it.

I'm I'm heaving already.

Uh I go to this, the which is the second hurdle.

All right, the second mind you second hurdle.

I get to it.

Uh, I'm about to jump over this thing.

I do a little stutter step and I jump over, and my right toe stays down for some reason.

I don't know why.

It's like, come on, lift your toe up, but it didn't in that moment.

I hit that hurdle face first, out in front of God and everybody.

You would have thought I was sliding the home base, but I wasn't.

I was on the track running hurdles.

I got my dad in the sins, I got my mom in the sins, I got big brother, I got baby sister that's looking up to me, and here I am, sprawled out in front of God and everybody, and all I could hear, or even even just sense, was everybody just going, ah.

And every time I think about running, anytime I think about getting on a track, the smell of a track, it's like I still think about that moment.

Still makes me gag.

Still, still, still to this day, I can't stand running.

I can't stand it.

I can't stand, I can't stand the race.

Because there's something grueling about it, there's something that is agonizing about it.

But the author of Hebrews looks at the people as he's writing, he says, not only to run, but to run with endurance.

Because life isn't a sprint, it's not a 40-yard dash like I thought.

No, it's a crawl.

It's a process, it's putting one foot in front of the other.

The course, the race that is set before us.

There's a course marked out for you, church.

There's a specific plan, there's a specific purpose, there's a specific people, there's a specific situation God has placed you in for a reason.

You don't know what's ahead?

God does.

And God says that He puts you in, He says not only to run, but to run with endurance.

This this hoopamone, this steady determination to keep going.

It means continuing.

When everything in you and everyone around you is giving up and tapping out and saying, No, no more.

Hoopamone says, Don't give up.

Keep going.

A person with hoopamony does not swerve to the right, to the left.

It keeps relationships alive, it keeps marriages alive.

The hoopamone.

When some things really when you some things you're supposed to do that you just don't really don't feel like it, hoopamone cries out and says, Endurance.

Endurance, not only to run, but to run with endurance.

Part of the track, part of our running, part of my the hurdles that I was taught is to never go outside the lanes.

You got outside the lanes, you disqualify yourself.

And the author is bringing up this language for reason because he knows his people, he knows what they're thinking about, he knows what they're surrounded with.

And he's drawing on this imagery to say, hey, if you go outside the lanes, you're gonna disquali you're gonna disqualify yourself.

Some of us in this room are gonna disqualify ourselves because we're running outside the lanes.

God has specifically placed boundaries, and what are you doing to stay inside the boundary?

What boundaries have you set up?

Because, church, we become what we what we consume.

We do, we we become what we what we consume.

Of all that is out there, all the music that is played, all the shows that that are out there, the things that we that we listen into, what are we doing to guard our heart?

Because Proverbs 4 says that above all else, guard your heart, for from it from your heart flows everything.

Everything that you do to run, to run the race, the course marked out for you.

This past August, specifically August uh 31st of 2013.

Husbands, I got it in my mind because that's when I got married uh here at here at the church.

Uh and yes, amen to that.

Uh and we're starting to plan and prep over the summer, doing ministry, and then having uh a wedding in the future that I was planning for.

Let's be honest, I wasn't planning anything.

Uh I just showed up and looked good.

Uh and um Chloe did everything, uh, as well as some uh some team members, some of you, you guys in in this church, um and rallied together.

And part of the preparation as I was talking with some people in the back was I mean, what do you want on the screens?

And part of the uh, if you guys were here for the ceremony, is we we we had this, but in the center of our screen is we we had the words, let us run.

Let us run.

And it was from it was from Hebrews 12, and some of you guys have been asking me, like, what's that what's that about?

Like, what uh that doesn't really make didn't really make sense.

My senior year high school, I was given a book called Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper.

My older brother came home, he said, Hey man, this book will ruin you.

All right, and back then I was like, oh man, I need to read it.

Uh serious talk, all right.

So I'd opened that book up, and uh, from a wise pastor uh began to challenge me at a young age to don't waste it.

To don't don't waste your life.

Just like Paul said in 2 Timothy, that I I want to agree with Paul and saying I have I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race well, that I want to be a person of running when I'm single, whatever season of life that I'm in, I want to I want to be running.

Since it's the holidays, I know some of you guys who traveled from college and you're and you're back home with your families.

And if I could just talk to the single people just for a moment, just to say to say this is how you are running now.

How you are running now as a junior higher, as a senior higher, as a college or young adult, or even the adults in the room, how you are running now will set the pace for when you get married.

That running and pursuing involve two things either your glory or God's glory.

And my prayer is for our church is that we would be a people of God's glory, finding our ultimate joy and our ultimate satisfaction and denying ourselves and making much of God.

That we would run in such a way that everything else that this world throws at us or offers us would pale in comparison to King Jesus.

That we that we would run, church.

That we would be a people if you're a single person in that house that you just keep running.

You keep running, you look to your right, you two look to your left, and you see whoever God has has put before you, and if He does, go with it, man, run.

So it's not a question of will you go out with me, because that's that's just temporary, that's just in the moment, but no, it's it's will you run with me?

Will you run with me?

Let's partner together and pursue the life God has called us to live.

Church, let us run.

Let us run.

Not only are we to throw off, according to verse one, not only are we to run, but also the author encourages us to look.

To look.

If you've got your Bibles, look at me in verse 2.

It says, and let us run with endurance, the hoopamone, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder or the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endure the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

That when we sing about this is my story, this is my song, we are identifying that Jesus is the author of it all.

That where we were, to what we witnessed for some of us, as we see an eight-year-old young girl get baptized, as we sing old hymns, hopefully for some of you guys, as it does me, it just brings up a remembrance of where you were, of being in the Monaville Baptist Church, out in some country church, thinking, God, what are you doing?

And trusting yourself to the fact that he who is faithful then, he who is faithful then, when you place your trust in him, will continue, continue to be faithful, that he's the author, he is the perfecter, he is the one tempted in all things, yet without sin.

The author says, hey, glance at the the the hall of faith people, glance at those guys, but fix look to Jesus.

There's a question I was I was preparing this is what was the joy set before Jesus?

The joy that was that was set before him.

I uh on December 21st of 2008, we were going through Advent, uh, but this is uh a couple of 2008, a couple years ago, and I was sitting uh in this front row, and we were going uh over a sermon called The Consequences of Joy.

It was called The Consec Consequences of Joy, and it was said in that sermon up front from right here, it said, Joy is not dependent upon circumstances, it's not a feeling, it's an absolute reality.

And it's like I heard that, man, hearing from the stage down to where I was, man, just my mind was blown by what man, by what I was hearing for where I was at in life.

That's what I needed to hear.

That despite circumstance, joy was was present.

But the question that was in my mind and still in my mind that I that I wrestle with is the same joy that Jesus experienced then.

How do I get that?

How do how do how do I how do I get that joy?

And I believe it's in the garden.

The garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says this, says, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Translation, God, if you have a different plan, if there's a plan B, let's do it.

I don't want to go through uh there's a part of me that my humanity is tending to surface, and I I don't want to go through this part of me that don't want to go through with this.

If this is all possible, if this cup can pass, if I don't have to endure the cross, then let it not be so.

But if it is your will, not my will, but but your will be done.

How is this joy present?

How is this joy present in the midst of Jesus enduring the cross?

How is it present?

It's in the attitude of not my will, but your will be done.

It's in the attitude when things are going bedlam, kids are going off the deep end, when things and plumbing issues are surfacing, when the house is going crazy, all right, when there's so many activities you don't even know what to do with yourself, like with all your kids and what they're involved with, and you're going, man, what what is going on?

What is what is happening when you're when you have the case of what I call the why me syndrome?

When you just, why God, why, why is this happening?

Why, man, what is it, why am I going through this?

God is specifically putting us in a position for us to trust Him in ways that we never would have before.

And it's in those moments where joy becomes present, is when we have the attitude of Christ of not my will, but but your will be done.

And based upon that, joy is a byproduct of submitting to and surrendering yourself into God's sovereign plan.

I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know what the future holds, but God, I I trust you.

I I trust you.

And why should we trust him?

Look at the Bible, it says this who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand, at the right hand of the Father.

That he endured the cross.

When we are incapable, he is capable.

He despised shame.

The shame that we experienced.

Jesus said, Enough with that.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna punk that in the face, I'm gonna do away with that, I'm gonna I'm gonna say no no more, no more to that.

He despised shame.

And now he sits at the right hand of the Father.

Growing up in my household on uh on Saturday mornings usually consisted of uh of cartoons and cereal uh in in my house.

And man, there's most of the time that we would uh we would be there.

My dad would come in after our shows and he would say, It's time to go to the farm.

All right, and we had a play a property out in uh in Monaville, uh which is out in the middle of nowhere, all right.

Right before we get to 290, you blink, you miss it.

I think there's a gas station there.

That's about it.

Uh and we go out there and uh and we just go to work, just just work.

Uh, and uh there'd be times uh I didn't want to do anything.

Uh I didn't really feel like working.

I wanted to go back home uh and play my games.

Uh Legend of Zelda was calling my name, and I wanted that.

All right.

I didn't want uh to do work.

When we get out there, there was always horses to feed, there was always grass to be mowed, and uh my brother was always like a fight to who was gonna get on the lawnmower.

Uh because uh you get on the Ryan lawnmower, at least you can sit down and do work, right?

Uh but uh if you if you didn't, you actually had to get the weed eater out uh and actually have to have to weed eat.

So we just fighting for whoever gets the Kubota, and it's always work.

It was always always work out there.

And we'd be sitting down, my dad would be coming in, and he's like, Boys, which usually meant, what are you doing?

Usually it usually meant we were sitting down, we were having a little lunch break and enjoying it way too much.

Uh Dad, you told us to rest.

Uh so we're resting, uh, but we we'd like to rest a little bit, a little bit too long.

And he and he and he'd come in and said, There's work to be done.

And sure enough, we'd get up and we'd work.

And that would that would be our schedule.

Be constantly, there's all there's always work to be done.

My dad would always say, Look around you.

There's always work.

When the priests, when they offered, come in with sacrifices at the temple.

There was never a chair in the temple.

There was never a place to sit down for the priests because they were constantly at work.

There was always a sin that needed to be atoned for, there's always animals to offer.

It was constant, it was it was work.

But Jesus comes.

And he ain't working, he's sitting down because the price that he paid, the the death that he died, and in his rising was complete.

It was full.

And he earned the right to sit down at the the Father to say, I'm the one in authority, I'm the one, I'm the one in charge.

King, King Jesus.

Paul puts it this way that God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.

Every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord, the glory of the God of the Father.

He is worthy of all honor, worship, and glory, and highest praise.

So not only, church, are we to throw off, not only are we to run, not only to we are we to fix our eyes on Jesus, but the Bible says also to consider.

To consider to consider.

Look at with me, verse three, and we'll be done.

Consider him who endured, who pamone, such from from sinners, such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary, or you may not get faint hearted.

If I could just speak to something, for us in the life of Grand Park Way, 2013 has been a hard year.

And uh for some of us, this this holiday season, uh, we're reminded of uh of loss, we're reminded of of hardship, we're we're reminded of those that once used to sit around the table.

With us are no longer there.

Or maybe it's not a loss of a family member, or maybe it's a loss of a job.

Maybe it's finding out of a son or daughter who's gone off to college and has gone their own way, and you're sitting and you're just praying for them.

Maybe for us 2013, just ready for it to be over.

You're faint-hearted and you're weary.

And Jesus not only says, come to me all who are weary and I'll give you rest.

But the author of Hebrews says, consider.

Consider Jesus.

So whatever it is for you, this going into the new year.

The question is, how do we need to respond?

Do we need to throw off?

Do we need to throw off something specific, sin in our life?

Do we need to run?

Do we need to put our faith into action?

Maybe for some of us that means that we get involved in a Bible community.

Maybe we get involved in a community group.

Maybe we get on a team and say, hey, I can cook.

I'll just cook.

Maybe it's a conversation we need to have.

Maybe we need to send under some wisdom.

Maybe we need to look.

Maybe we need to pursue after Jesus.

Or some of us, maybe we need to consider.

I'm going to ask Clyde to come up front, and uh, and what that's exactly what we're doing.

We're simply going to respond.

Because what we've heard this morning, we've heard an author, an anonymous author, looking and challenging his people to, hey, get in the game.

Don't shrink back.

Church, don't shrink back this new year.

Don't shrink back and get in your in the comfort circles because the author of Hebrews is saying, hey, get in the game.

Get in the game.

Consider him.

Consider Jesus.

I want to close out with a quote.

Someone who has endured suffering.

Her name is Glinda Raval, and I was given her book in one of my classes, and it just talks about her story.

The suffering that she endured.

And she writes this about weariness.

I know that God did not forsake me during my dark night of sorrow.

All the time he was drawing me to himself by peeling away one by one those objects of my longing that, if given, would have kept me for longing for him.

God was on my side, his strong arm, which in his great wisdom so sorely bruised me, would eventually, in his merciful tenderness, gather me to his bosom.

Those things in life that we tend to think that are separating us from God.

God is saying, No, I'm using those things to woo you to myself, to cause you to cling to me more faithfully and simply.

Not to drive a wedge, but for you to learn things about me you never would have before.

So I'm asking Clyde to play just an old hymn.

An old song that brings me back.

And as he plays, just think, what, how should we respond this morning?

Do we need to throw off?

Do we need to run?

We need to look?

Or do we need to just consider?

You guys do me a favor, stand to your feet.

We'll end on a blessing.

If you would, lift up your hands for me, and let me speak a blessing over you.

Jesus is better.

He's the great high priest.

Whatever you're going through, he went through as well.

And he achieved, and he endured, and he succeeded.

Fix your eyes upon him.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

You're dismissed.