"The Race of Your Life" Dr. Kent Nozaki August 2, 2026

All right, well this morning, this morning, uh our speaker for the morning is our very own Dr.

Kent Nozaki.

Dr.

Kent is usually with the children's ministry teaching Sunday school, sharing his love for God and God's word with the kids.

And so I've heard from mentors in the past that teaching kids is actually much harder than preaching to adults.

Uh kids have this amazing ability to let you know the exact moment that you've lost their attention.

So it takes a special gift to be able to take these big, important truths and communicate them in a way that's simple and engaging and memorable.

And Dr.

Kent has that gift and skill.

And so we have the privilege of receiving that from him today as we hear God's word for us through Dr.

Kent.

And so would you please join me in welcoming Dr.

Kent and Aiden up as he gives a message?

Okay, so good morning, everyone.

So I figured since today's topic is going to be about the race of your life, I thought, hey, why don't you guys watch a real race?

And so I thought it'd be kind of neat to have the old race against the young.

And so, Aiden, he just came back from Mexico.

He's in great shape.

Aiden, thank you.

We already agreed, we're not gonna run like a sprint because he would absolutely wipe me out.

We're gonna do something a little bit shorter uh than uh marathon, but like half a mile, okay?

But but because I want to commemorate this, I need you, I need you to uh take these pictures while you're running.

Not too many, you know, just maybe 20 or 30 while we're running.

Okay, and then I've also got, you know, you might get thirsty on the way, so I've got a backpack with snacks and food and water.

Okay.

Uh you can run with that, right?

No problem.

And then, you know, you're awfully young, and so I thought it'd be let's level the playing field here a little.

Would you mind like wearing some ankle weights?

Is that okay?

Yeah.

So I just brought this ankle weight.

And yeah.

Um, okay.

Obviously, this would not be a fair race because he would probably still beat me.

But anyways, there's a Bible verse that applies to this directly.

It comes from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Hebrews 12:1

And so let's take off this weight so that you can run unimpeded.

Thank you.

And Aidan's going to read Hebrews for us.

Oh, could we have the congregation stand to hear God's word, please?

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 perfect the perfecter of faith.

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning his shame, and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Thank you.

So, Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

Hebrews 12:1

It's actually a longer verse than what I'm used to teaching to kids, and so we're gonna break this down this morning.

You may not even know that you guys are all in a race right now, and it's called the race of life.

The race of life.

And for a Christian, it actually is not just a sprint, it's a marathon.

And it's not a marathon that might last four, five, six hours.

It lasts for your whole life.

And so we want to know, not gee, am I running in this race?

But the question we need to ask ourselves is, am I running well?

So this morning we are going to learn what it takes to run well by looking at these two verses.

Would you please join me in a word of prayer?

Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you so much that you have given us the privilege and opportunity to come into your house this morning and learn from your word.

Pray that your Holy Spirit would guide me in what I say, that I would be able to bring out the truth found in your words.

And I pray that the eyes, ears, and hearts of all the people who are here, that they would be open and listening to you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Okay, so if we're going to talk about this verse, we can go back one.

It starts off with the words, therefore.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, what does that mean?

Well, when you see that word, therefore, obviously it means that you're going to look at the passage just before it, which is chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

And you may know chapter 11, it's frequently referred to as the hall of faith, where certain individuals are commended for their faith.

And so these individuals, as an example, there would be Noah and Abraham, Sarah, Moses, these people were all commended for their faith.

And so we can look at them as witnesses for what we can do to enhance our faith and to run well.

These individuals ran well.

So now, next slide.

Now I want to talk about how we can run well.

And I made it simple because I'm used to teaching Sunday school kids.

And so for Sunday school kids, I said, wow, this is a lot of words here.

Let me just break it down into just three steps.

Everyone can remember three steps, and I'm gonna make it easy.

I'm gonna make the steps just one word long each.

And then I'm gonna make it even easier.

Instead of the basics that you think of like A, B, C, I'm gonna make it D E F.

Okay?

So it's easy to remember because if I say, all right, what is the word that begins with F?

You would say focus.

If I say, what's the word that begins with E?

Endure.

And finally, if I say, what is that first step in running well?

The word that starts with D, you would say discard.

Okay, so let's take that word discard.

What's the definition of discard?

Well it means to throw away.

And in other versions of the Bible, it actually says, instead of throw off all the things that get in our way and all the sins that entangle us, it will actually say lay aside every weight.

Lay aside every weight.

And so some of you may not be used to running marathons, but one thing I am sure many of you are used to, because you've done it with me, is traveling.

Everyone has traveled, and if you travel, you know my mantra, which is travel light.

Okay, so when I travel, I picked the lightest suitcase I could get, the lightest backpack, and I pack very, very minimally because I know when you have extra weight, that hinders your progress in traveling.

And so you all know what it means to travel with too much weight.

And then some of you may even make the mistake of once you've traveled to your destination, then you pack more stuff in to travel back, and that hinders you even more.

So what I'm talking about here is when we want to run well, we want to throw off everything that hinders.

Now, the things that we're talking about here is not necessarily sinful because we're going to talk about sinful things in a couple minutes, but right now we're only talking about the things that hinder us.

What things might hinder us in our walk with God that is not sinful?

Well, I can think of a few.

First off, would be hobbies, passions, interests, things that you might be interested in like, some may be interested in sports.

They go golfing or they play tennis or pickleball.

Okay, that's something that is not sinful, but only sinful if it's taking up more time than your progress with the Lord.

Or what's another one?

Interests, hobbies.

Some of you have been smart because you've taken your interests, such as different crafting, and you've used it to glorify God.

And that's wonderful.

I have interest in building car Legos, but that's a problem because I haven't found a way for car Legos to glorify God, but I'm working on that.

Okay, what's something else?

Oh, it could be, oh, this is a tough one.

It could be this, it could be this.

And I'm not talking about just your cell phone.

I'm talking about anything that you might use for entertainment, whether it be streaming certain shows on television or computer.

Um, hmm, I'm gonna ruffle a few feathers with this one.

It could be K dramas.

Okay, let's move on.

Let's move on.

Okay, let's talk about, besides throwing off everything that hinders, let's talk about the sin that so easily entangles.

Now, some sins, some sins, I'll admit, they're not going to easily entangle me.

So I'm not going to go out tomorrow and murder someone or rob a bank.

So those don't easily entangle me.

But what about the sins that are easily entangling to me?

What about that sin of harboring a grudge against someone?

Non-forgiveness?

What about the sin of not being loving, compassionate?

That's a problem.

Those are the sins that easily entangle.

The ones that we commit time after time after time again.

And so, gee, when that happens, what do we do?

Well, the apostle Paul had that same problem.

He was tired and frustrated with the fact that he would commit certain sins over and over and over again.

And so, he actually talks about it in the book of Romans, chapter 7, verse 15.

Romans 7:15

And I'm going to kind of entice you with this one because I call it the Gaufer's verse.

That's right.

The Gauffers verse.

When I came to Romans 7.15, I said, look at that.

I bet Paul was a golfer.

So let's see.

This is what he says.

I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do, I do not do.

But what I hate, I do.

Okay, so if any of you have ever gone golfing, you can totally relate to this.

But if we're talking about sin, we also can relate to this, right?

What do we do when we're committing these sins over and over?

There is a solution.

And just a few verses later in Romans 7, Paul talks about it.

He says, What a wretched man I am.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's the solution.

Jesus Christ went to the cross and he died for our sins.

No matter how many times we commit them, all of our sins are forgiven because of Jesus Christ.

So remember that.

We are running this race, yes, we're running this marathon, and this part is very important for you to understand.

Number one, yes, our our finish line is heaven.

That's what we're looking for in this marathon race.

But our goal, our goal in running this race is we want to become more Christ-like day by day.

We want to become more like Jesus each and every day.

That's what our goal is.

But we're not doing this so that we can earn brownie points from God.

We're not doing this so that we can become more acceptable to God.

God loves us already as we are.

We're doing this in response to what Jesus has done on the cross.

That's why this picture shows this person with the chains broken loose, because he is no longer bound by sin.

That is a very freeing thing.

And once you understand the magnitude of what Jesus has done for all of us, each and every one of us, you can't wait to become more like Jesus.

You can't wait to be more loving.

You can't wait to be more patient.

That's what I'm talking about here.

And there's a second thing about this about Jesus, and that is step two.

In step two, we had a word that starts with E.

What is that word?

Endure.

Endure.

Okay, so next.

After endure, you all know that it's very difficult through life.

You're going to come through places where it's hard to continue with your marathon, to continue with your walk of life.

And you're going to feel like you want to quit.

But our verse says, no, we can endure.

We can run with perseverance because of what Jesus has done for us.

That gives us encouragement, gives us strength.

And then, oh, I kind of already showed you it.

The third step, which is the word that begins with F, is focus.

Yes, okay.

So, focus.

Let's define focus, that word focus.

Kind of interesting because if an eye doctor was talking to you, this is how he might define focus.

He would say, Well, focus is when you take the accommodative muscles in the eye and you take an object out in space and you bring an image of that into direct, perfect alignment onto the back surface of your retina, creating clear, maximal visual acuity.

Okay, what does that even mean?

That doesn't mean anything.

Here's what it means: it means that if you hold something here, here, or here, your eyes will focus so that you can see clearly.

The problem, of course, is that when we reach our mid-40s and 50s, we no longer can focus and we have to hold things out here.

But as I survey the congregation, I see that applies to none of you, so that's great.

I can move on from the optometrist definition of focus, and I can talk about the Sunday school teacher definition of focus.

What does focus mean for us who are following Jesus?

What do we mean?

We mean we're using our spiritual eyes to focus on Jesus.

We are taking all of our attention, all of our thoughts, all of our actions, all of our, even our heart, our attitudes, and we are aligning them with Jesus.

And the funny thing is that happens is that when you align all of your thoughts, actions, attitudes towards Jesus, then you begin to fulfill God's will for your life.

When you are utilizing those spiritual gifts and talents that He's given to you, that is just a wonderful thing.

And then you're going to find that you are running well.

So when we fix our eyes on Jesus, next slide, we follow this kind of truth.

This is not found in the Bible, but I find it's true in many aspects of life.

Where you look is where you go.

Because when you're driving, if you look off to the side, you may not even realize it, but your hands start to steer that way.

Or if you're snowboarding, you might remember when you're snowboarding or skiing.

You don't look down the hill because that's where you're going to go.

You look to the side so that you can go back and forth.

Or even a better one would be cycling.

As you know, I ride my bike every day.

I love this.

But I've heard from certain sources that if you ride your bike down a hill and at a moderate rate of speed, you can actually take your hands off the handlebars.

Not that I do this, okay.

You can take your hands off the handlebars, and by merely looking like this, I'm not even moving my body.

I just move, well, you're not supposed to move your body, but I just move my eyes, and the bike magically moves this way or this way, and I can steer around manhole covers and things like that without ever touching the handlebars.

It's amazing.

But last week, even more exciting was this maxim, this step of looking to Jesus, and that's where you'll go, it was right at our retreat when we went to Biola University.

If any of you have been to Biola University, it's not laid out in nice north, south, east, and west directions.

The paths go this and this, and it's difficult to get uh to where you want to go.

And so on our first day, I knew that my wife, she would have to, in the future days, get from our dorm room up to the cafeteria and the session, which was right next to it.

And so I was looking around and I said, Wow, how am I going to tell her how to get there without her getting lost?

And she will readily admit that she doesn't have a good sense of direction.

So I said, Janet, this is all you have to do.

From the dorm room, you can see the baseball field.

All you have to do is walk around the dugout and you're gonna see a hill.

It's the only hill.

You walk up the hill and you look for Jesus.

You look for Jesus.

And as soon as you see Jesus, you start walking towards Jesus and you're gonna get to the cafeteria.

I'll show you what I mean.

Look at this first slide.

This is me walking up the hill.

You're looking for Jesus.

Do you see Jesus?

Kind of I do.

Well, then you walk a little bit more up the hill.

Next slide.

Ah, now I'm seeing Jesus.

Then you get a little bit closer and you're at the top of the hill.

Next slide.

There it is.

There's Jesus.

She just has to walk towards Jesus and look.

Right to the right hand side, there's that red brick building.

That's the cafeteria.

That was keeping your eyes on Jesus.

And where you look is where you're going to go.

And that's wonderful.

Now, the problem we have sometimes, of course, is that as we walk towards Jesus, as we model our lives towards Jesus, as we try and become more and more like Jesus, we fail.

We're not perfect like Jesus.

So what do we do?

We're not perfect like Jesus.

We end up committing the same sin over and over again, and then we beat ourselves up.

No, you don't have to do that.

Because, again at Biolo University, while I was just walking through the parking lot, it's amazing how God brings these things to me without even looking.

Next slide.

The next slide is we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

And while I was contemplating these verses, knowing that I would be speaking this week, I said, gee, what happens when I fail?

What happens when I'm not perfect?

Next slide.

Oh, I don't know if it shows up on here.

Can you read what it says?

I'm not perfect, right?

That's why I need Jesus.

I'm not perfect.

That's why I need Jesus.

Again, the most important thing that you can remember from this sermon this morning is not the DEF.

That was just so that you can kind of remember the bulk of the message.

The most important message you can remember to remember today is this.

It is that Jesus went to the cross for you and I.

Let's that sink in for you.

Because until you can grasp the fact that I am a sinner, I deserve death.

There is nothing I can do.

I can't be more patient with my wife.

Or be more loving towards my friends and expect that that's going to get me to heaven.

It's because of what Jesus has done for me.

That's the important thing to remember.

And because of what Jesus has done, gosh, I can, in response, be more loving, be more patient, be more gentle with others.

And that's a powerful thing.

In fact, it's pretty unbelievable because when I stopped and thought about it, I said, wow, look at this.

Jesus went to the cross, but it says, for the joy set before him, he went to the cross, right?

Scorning its shame.

And now he's sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

How can it be joyful for Jesus to go to the cross?

How can it be joyful for him to be rejected, betrayed, spit upon, and eventually put on the cross by the people that he loves?

How can that be joyful?

He did it because he knew that that was the only way you, you and I could ever be forgiven.

And now have this opportunity to establish this relationship with God.

That's mind-blowing.

With the God of the universe we can have a relationship with, it's because of what Jesus has done.

Again, that's the most important thing to remember.

And now he is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

That means that Jesus is the perfect ultimate example of someone who ran his race well.

He ran his race well.

He completed the mission that God had set out for him.

And now that's our job.

We need to run our race well.

So let's summarize this what we learned this morning.

How to run well.

Easy.

We're going to D, E, and F.

D-discard.

We're going to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

E, we're going to endure.

We're going to run with perseverance.

Yes, times are going to get tough for us.

Yes, there's going to be trials and tribulations that we go through, but we're not going to give up because Jesus did not give up on us.

And then finally, F, focus.

We need to focus.

Fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

And so right now I just hope that once you run well and you get to that finish line eventually, and we all don't know when that's going to be, we can be like the Apostle Paul.

In 2 Timothy, as he was coming to the end of his life, he says in chapter 4, for I'm already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

And so right now I just pray that all of us would be able to say, when we get to that finish line, wow, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.

So please join me in prayer, please.

Dear Heavenly Father, gosh, we just thank you so much for what you have done for us.

You have given us your Son Jesus, even when we were sinners.

Gosh, you loved us so much that you let him come to earth and suffer and sacrifice himself for our lives.

Lord, I pray right now that we would just glorify you in everything we do.

That we would look to you in our thoughts, our attitudes, our actions, and be more Christ-like day by day by day.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay.

Thank you, Dr.

Ken, for this message, the reminder of Jesus' work on the cross for our sins, and the reminders to run the marathon of life with faith and focusing our eyes on Him.

And so this morning, this is something that we're invited to do as we observe and practice communion.

Communion is a time to remind us that our hope is in Christ because of his body broken and his blood shed for our sins on the cross.

It's a time to remember his sacrifice for us.

And so communion is a practice that's reserved for those who have made a confession of faith in Christ.

It's something that we do as an act of remembering, receiving God's love and mercy and grace for us as his children.

So the way that we do communion here is that we do it in small gatherings around the tables.

There's two tables up front.

I'll be up here with Dr.

Kent, and then there's another table in the back with uh Deb Nishi.

And so when you're ready, feel free to come through the middle and we'll gather in about groups of six to ten or so.

If you would like to receive communion in your seats, uh Ryan will be available to do that.

Um Ryan, you give a wave, just let him know, he'll come by and serve you in your seats as well.

And so would you join me in prayer as we uh receive communion?

And Jesus, we we do thank you for your sacrifice on the cross and the reminders of this demonstration of love for us as sinners.

Um may you continue to invite us to more of your your grace, more of your love, your forgiveness and mercy.

Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So please feel free to come up whenever you're ready.