Running the race

Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

cross. Now let's join the service.

Thank you, it's working out a lot better already, See?

All right. Anyway, He is all the time,

right? And He opened our eyes and we

might see that better. You know, it's one thing we can

verbalize stuff and say it and you know, we say a lot of stuff,

but whether we live it out day by day and really believe it is

a totally different story. And sometimes it's real easy to

get to looking at God with the wrong perspective.

You know, instead of remembering that He's good all the time, we

base how good He is based on our circumstances around us and what

we see with our natural life. And that's that's a mistake.

We need to try and avoid that. How many of you, anybody in here

ever been a runner? I mean, you run, you know, or

you used to. OK, yeah.

Good marathon. I, I used to run.

I don't know, every other day I'd run between 4 to 10 miles,

something like that. And I messed up my knee and it

kind of gradually changed. But anyway, I want to talk about

and look at some scriptures about a couple different types

of runners. OK, when I was a young man, not

that I'm real old, but when I was, I was a younger man, I ran,

you know, like I said, but I didn't just run for my, my

health or, you know, to be physically fit.

I ran in other ways too. And sometimes I, I don't know,

I'd look at other people that would run around the tracks and

stuff at school, you know, and, and some of them were so slow

that they thought they were first and they were last, you

know, but everybody else had caught back up to them and they

thought, hey, I'm in front, you know?

Yeah, sometimes life can be that way too, where that we think

that we're in a different spot than we are.

We need to be paying attention. If we'd go to Jonah, the book of

Jonah, I want to talk about him for a minute because he's one of

the classic examples of a runner.

We're going to start with Jonah Chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

We'll read quite a bit of Chapter 1 and talk about it.

And and then we're going to look at a couple of other things too,

if we have time. So Jonah chapter one, it says

now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amitai, which

by the way, I looked it up to see what Amitai or Amitai means

and his father's name meant loyal or true.

Keep that in mind. And the word of the Lord came to

Jonah the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great

city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up

before me now. When I was a child, I saw it

after the Lord with all my heart really did.

I mean, I like everybody else, just kids.

You do some stupid stuff. But I really saw it after the

Lord. And I remember going down for

hours at the altar, leaving at midnight when everybody else had

already left a few hours ago, you know, because I really

wanted to not, I wanted to be like that dog that would hold

on. You see the, the working dogs

that the police use, you know, and they'll bite onto their,

their forearm and they can lift them up off the ground.

They won't let it go. And that's the way I wanted to

be. I wanted to, I wanted to latch

on to God and make sure that I didn't leave or quit until I

knew that I had left different than I came, you know, I wanted

something from the Lord, not spend time there.

Just like Jacob who wrestled with the Lord, you know, and,

and his name was changed to Israel because he wrestled with

the Lord and he prevailed and, and in my spirit, I wrestled

with the Lord the same way and until I knew that I had

prevailed. But later in my life, my father,

who was a, a, a pastor, he had retired Air Force and he was a

pastor and I started as a lot of teenagers do, started looking at

other places and other things, see what all the world's got to

offer. And sometimes it looked pretty

good. And so even though my father was

faithful and true and loyal to the Lord, just like Jonah's

father's name was, maybe that was his actual character too.

I don't know. But my father was that way.

And I was more like Jonah because I'd experienced the

Lord. I knew better, but I didn't

really want everything that he wanted me to do.

And I would run away. In fact, by the time I got to be

in my early 20s, I went to the point of this.

I, I was so determined to run. I mean, I was running physically

at the time and I was in pretty good shape, but I was running

from the Lord just like Jonah did.

And I was under conviction because whenever you run from

the Lord, the Lord has a way of trying to corral you and trying

to steer you back because he wants what's good for you,

right? And so I would find myself under

great conviction and I would say, oh man, I, I've, I've got

to go to the church, but I didn't want to go to the church,

but I had to go to the church. So it was this struggle, you

know, and, and I would take a fifth of whiskey and I'd stick

it in the freezer. Of course, it wouldn't turn into

an ice cube. It's got too much alcohol in it,

but it'd get nice and cold. And I'd chug that bottle of of

whiskey before I'd get to the church because I was trying to

push God out of the to the side and trying to do this right, Put

my fingers in my ear and say, I don't want to hear that from the

Lord. You know, I, I want to, I just

want to do my thing. Leave me alone, right?

Thank God that thank God for praying mothers and fathers, you

know, because God didn't leave me alone, you know, they kept,

kept coming up and kept coming up when I'd go to the church and

I was half intoxicated and I'd sit there in the altar and I

mean, at the pews and church and I kept remembering or feeling

this, this sensation as the Lord speaking to me, but I didn't

really want to hear it. And it was this, it's like

you're supposed to be up there, you know, you're, I knew the

Lord had a call in my life and a long, long time ago, but it took

me a while to, to totally collapse and have nowhere to go

but look up, you know, 'cause I was flat on my back.

And so unfortunately, that's where some of us have to get.

We got to get flat on our back. And guess what?

God will let you get flat on your back if it means that

you're going to look up, OK? It's not that he wants you to.

It's not that he's got things something against you.

It's not that he's forgotten you.

It's not that he hates you, but he's going to let things happen

to you if it'll cause you to turn, because that's the

ultimate goal. He's got your welfare in mind,

your end resolved in mind. And, and I would hang out with

agnostics and atheists and, and I would claim that there was no

God, but that was just me choosing to be stupid because I

knew better, you know? And anyway, I was a runner.

I was a runner a lot like Jonah and in verse 3 of that first

chapter it says, but Jonah rose to flee or run to Tarshish from

the presence of the Lord. Now, Tarshish was a place that

was on the southern tip of Spain, and it was the remotest

spot or one of the most remote spots of his world.

You know, it's like, I'm going to go as far as I can from here.

Maybe somewhere out there I won't feel that conviction

anymore. Maybe somewhere out there I

won't really. God will say it's OK and I can

just do whatever I want, you know, and I'll go do my thing.

And Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.

So he paid the fare. If you're running from the Lord,

you're going to end up paying the fare.

It's going to cost you again. And and it says that he went

down. That's the direction that every

runner that's running wrong, there's a right kind of running

too. But the runner that runs wrong

always runs down. He's not going to run up.

He's going to run down. OK.

And it says he went down into it into the ship to go with them to

Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Now if you're looking for help when you're running from God,

you can find it easily enough. Jonah had to actively you think

about this. He had to actively be engaged in

running. It wasn't just that he gradually

drifted off. It wasn't that he just forgot to

go to church once in a while and he kind of gradually drifted.

He purposely went and looked for a ship to get him way out of

here. OK, it was an active thing, but

one can't expect anything to go well when you're in rebellion of

the Ancient of Jet days, the Creator, you know you won't do

well if you're going against the one who is omniscient and knows

everything anyway. You won't do well if you're

going against the one who's omnipotent and can do anything,

you won't do well. And so he didn't fare very well.

But in verse 4, it says the Lord sent out a great wind on the

sea, and there was a mighty Tempest on the sea, so that the

ship was about to be broken up. Now in Hebrews chapter 12, you

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

don't need to turn there, but I'm just going to make reference

to it. But in Hebrews chapter 12 and

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

verse 6, you'll find a reference that kind of fits here.

It says for those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He

scourges every son whom he receives.

So if we're not going to discipline ourselves to make

sure that we're following after the Lord and doing what He's

called us to do, then he's going to be disciplining us because He

loves us. OK?

So it's little wonder that we find there's great storm on the

sea where he is right in verse 5 it says I'm back in Jonah

chapter one, verse 5. Then the Mariners or Mariners

were afraid and every man cried out to his God and through the

cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load.

But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship and

laying down and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him and

said to him, what do you mean, sleeper, arise, call on your

God. Perhaps your God will consider

us so that we may not perish. Now these guys were Pagan guys,

OK? They weren't Jews.

They were merchants and headship that they were traveling by in

order to exchange goods and so forth.

What they were throwing over was important to them.

I mean, that's their livelihood. What they were thrown over had

value that they were hoping to get something out of.

And now I'm throwing that away and I don't know what I'm going

to do to eat for tomorrow and next month and whatever because

I'm getting rid of my goods, right?

When we run from the Lord, we need to be assured that we're

not on the boat by ourselves. Your actions will bring about

adversity and harm to others. Maybe your sons and your

daughters, your your loved ones, you know, probably first ones to

be affected. For Joan, it was these other

guys in the boat. Jonah had a prime opportunity to

tell them. If you think about it, he had a

tremendous opportunity to tell them about the one true and

living God because they were serving all these other gods.

What did Paul do out there on Mars Hill?

Whenever he's talking to those that were supposed to be wise

and they have all these right idols from different gods and

they worshipped all these gods. And he said, hey, but there's

that one that you don't know. You got the sign over there says

to the God that we don't really know.

And I'm going to tell you about that God that you don't know,

right? And he had an opportunity to do

a very similar thing, but he didn't because it's not easy to

tell people to run to a God that you're running away from.

In verse 7 it says, and they said to one another, Come, let

us cost cast lots that we may know for whose 'cause this

trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot

fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Please

tell us, for whose cause is this trouble upon us?

When or what is your occupation, and where do you come from?

What is your country, and of what people are you?

So he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord.

Now you got to stop for a second and think now is Jonah a lion

here or what? Because he doesn't act like he's

fearing the Lord. To fear the Lord means what not

necessarily you're scared of the Lord, though that can be, you

know, a a good thing to have two at times.

But what's it mean to fear the Lord means to Revere the Lord

that you realize how awesome and how mighty and how great this

God is, right? And and then because he's so

great and because he has a love for you, the logical thing is to

run to him, right? Stay over there, close by him.

But that's not what he was doing.

And it says that I fear the Lord, or Jonah said, I fear the

Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

And the men were exceedingly afraid.

I think they feared the Lord more than he did at the time.

You know, sometimes we walk around with a lot of head

knowledge and we get comfortable playing church and we don't

really have a fear of the Lord. We can we can be running just

like the rest of the world and blend right in with the rest of

the world when it the Lord's saying, hey, stop that and come

back. And you wonder why you're having

such troubles. Might be that you need to turn

around and run the other direction, run to the Lord

instead of away from him. So he says, why have you done

this? They ask him.

For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the

Lord because he had told them. Then they said to him, What

shall we do to you? That the sea may be calm for us,

For the sea was growing more Tempest, it was growing bad.

I, I can do a little bit like Lance, he sometimes I didn't get

those words right either, so sometimes I don't either.

Anyway, so here's the storm getting really bad.

They're wanting to know if this guy is running from a God that's

created the heavens and the earth.

It's a powerful God. We don't want to get in the way,

you know. And it continues in verse 12.

It says, and he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the

sea. Then the sea will become calm

for you. For I know that this great

Tempest is because of me. Verse 13 Nevertheless, the men

rode. They didn't do it.

They're if he's really a belongs to that God.

I don't want to get into God's way, right?

I don't want to harm that guy. So they didn't and they rode

hard. So they were rowing that boat

hard, that ship hard to return to land, not knowing what to do.

They tried doing what they saw Jonah doing.

That was just doing it on his own, and they could not for the

sea continue to grow more tempestuous, is that it?

Tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the

Lord. Now they were doing what Jonah

should have been doing a long time ago.

OK, they cried out to the Lord and said, We pray, O Lord,

please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not

charge us with innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it

pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and

threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly said, oh wow, we

never seen anything like this before.

We threw that guy into the water and everything stopped.

The storm just stopped. It got calm and they offered a

sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.

They were led to go to the Lord, right?

They drew close to the Lord. They honored the Lord.

They submitted themselves or humbled themselves before the

Lord. Jonah's not yet quite there.

He's just wet right now. OK.

And verse 17 says now the Lord have prepared a great fish to

swallow Jonah. See it?

It doesn't say now a great fish just happened to come by and get

him, Says the Lord prepared that fish to get him.

Yeah. The Lord's still chastising,

still trying to discipline, still trying to pull him back.

And he prepared because he knew what was coming.

We don't know what's coming. Jonah didn't know when he got on

that ship, but he was going to get swallowed by a whale, right?

But God knew. God's got it all planned out.

He's got it all figured out. He's the one we need to be

drawing close to and seeking so that his wisdom can be shared to

us, right? And and that's what Jesus said

to the Holy Spirit, that he would come and, and share that

what, what is his? It's the Father's, right?

He said, what's mine? It's the Father's.

And whenever I I'm out of here and the Holy Spirit comes, he's

going to share with you what is mine.

So if we draw a close, we would know better.

But when you're running away, you do stupid things like

getting swallowed by a whale while in the belly of that

beast. Scripture says that he went down

to the foundations of the mountains, so he's at his lowest

possible place. He's in the depths of the sea.

He's inside a whale. And in chapter 2, you have his

prayer because now he's finally got him flat on his back looking

up. He's fine.

God's finally got him where that he'll listen and turn and be

humble. OK, so in chapter 2, we're not

going to read it, but you can take time to read that later.

And in that chapter it, it, it's his prayer, realizing what a

mess he's made and turning back to the Lord.

And when you get to chapter 3, well, let's do that.

Go to chapter 3. You'll find in the first couple

verses interesting thing it says.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Let me say it again. Now the word of the Lord came to

Jonah a second time. See, God is the God of second

chances. And though you run, he knows

right where you're at and he keeps trying to give you another

chance and another chance because he loves you.

A lot of the stuff we go through is because we made stupid

decisions, you know, and, and we were, we had wrong priorities

and we thought, well, I know better, or I want this more or I

want that more or I'm concerned about what others are going to

think of me, etcetera, etcetera. And it affects your judgement.

God sitting there all the time saying, oh just come on, come

on, come on, 'cause I'll give you another chance.

I love you. So it says.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,

arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it.

The message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to

Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now a couple things there. The message to Jonah didn't

change just because you messed up, just because you got off

track, just because you did like I did and spent several years

running from the Lord and doing stupid things and really not

bringing any glory to the Lord at all doesn't mean that he's

given up the plan that he already had in place for your

life. You know, here's Jonah totally

did that, ran the other direction, did the wrong things,

made a big blunder and God's still willing to use him, just

like he was willing to use him to begin with.

Sometimes the devil will have you think the opposite.

So no, you messed up too much. God wouldn't want to use you

anymore. You know, you remember that

thing that that God shared with you when you were young?

Just forget it. It ain't never going to happen.

And sometimes, unfortunately, we buy off on the line and we

believe the enemy instead of believing the Lord and his

character. But you remember what happened

to Judas when he didn't believe the character of Christ didn't

end up too well for him. You know what about Peter?

Whenever he messed up and he, he ran the wrong way, right?

But then he turned around and said, Oh, the character, my God

is forgiving and loving and he'll, he'll take me back, He'll

forgive me. And and that was a whole

different story for him because it wasn't too long later.

Guess what? He's leading thousands of people

to the Lord and the Lord's using him in a great and mighty way.

So when the Lord gives you a second chance, take it.

Now, I got to think for a second here that whenever that fish,

that whale spit Jonah up, 'cause he, that's what Scripture says,

he after he repented, he's vomiting him up.

Vomit never smelled too good. And I smelled it, you know, and

it, I don't imagine whale vomit would smell very good either,

tell you the truth, you know, And here's this guy that spent

three days down inside this great big old fish.

No telling how nasty that was. And, and, and I'm thinking, Gee

whiz, no wonder the people at Nineveh believed him when he

came, even though he might not have done it with great vigor

and, you know, and really pronouncing the, the, the word

of the Lord, he, he was still believed.

And they turned real quickly. And I'm thinking could it be

that maybe those merchants who now lost a lot of their

valuables made it there before he did, got over there somewhere

nearby anyway, and told this story about this crazy guy that

belonged to the the God of Israel, you know, the God of the

Jews and, and how that he had been thrown overboard and they

saw some big old fish looked like it got him, you know, and

it was a wild and crazy experience.

And that's why we don't have the stuff that we told you that we

were going to bring to you. And now Jonah shows up and he

smells like vomit. You know, he's got seaweed

hanging all over or whatever. You know, he doesn't look his

best, I'm sure. And he gets there and he tells

them this to repent, right? And gives them the word of the

Lord. You got to think that they

surely God used the bad stuff for his good.

And the reason why I'm bringing that up is because there's a lot

of times whenever we get off track, we mess up and God can

use the bad things what we would consider bad.

He can use it for his glory still, if we'll just surrender,

right? And and I remember in my own

life, I'm telling you a bunch about myself today.

But anyway, I remember at one point in time, the last, well,

growing up, I hated school. The last thing in the world I

wanted to do was to be in school.

So a lot of times I skipped out at lunchtime.

I would go, we had an open lunch, you know, I'd go outside

campus, I'd jump in the cars with some other guys.

We'd go down to the park and we'd do things we were supposed

to be doing. By the time I came back, it

school started a long time ago, you know, and, and I come in

reeking probably a lot of like Jonah, you know, I, I smelled

really bad because of what I've been doing, you know, and, and

so I, I think, you know, I hate school.

I don't want to do that. I don't want anything to do with

it. I get a little bit older and

when I surrender my life to the Lord, I was coming out of the

military. I could have gone back in, but

the Lord allowed me to fall to my flat on my back.

And guess where I ended up? Not only flat on my back, but I

ended up teaching school. And I hated school.

You know, I don't want, I don't want to be locked up in a little

prison called school. But that's where I was for 26

years. And, and I believe with all my

heart that the Lord somehow used some of the stench that I hated

being down there in the school. So that maybe one day, a little

bit later down the road, he's able to use me in a greater way

than he would have been able to use me before.

Because I've learned a little something about teaching, right?

So I'm just pulling these analogies together because if he

did it for for Jonah and use the bad for good and and he did it

for me, he'll do it for you. So another little thing you got

to think about in chapter 2. And we didn't read it, but it's

his prayer, right? Where is he praying?

In the belly of that fish? Way down in the depths of the

sea. How do we know what he said?

Who heard it and recorded it? God knows everything.

He sees all things, He hears all things.

There's nothing that is hidden from him, right?

So when you kind of get a grip of that and you say, wow, he

knows right where I'm at, best thing I can do is just surrender

myself to him, right? Well, that's what happened to

the people in Nineveh, because they were told that if they did

not repent, right, they're just going to be destroyed.

And instead of taking the destroy side, they said, hey,

let's repent, maybe God will change his mind.

And so they did. They, they wore sackcloth and

ashes and they fasted and they prayed and, and they humbled

themselves before the Lord. And he gave them 148 years

before they had to get destroyed because they hadn't turned once

again, right? I thought about that with the

United States. There's been times whenever we'd

really seek after the Lord and we'd humble ourself before the

Lord. And these days, it seems like

very few people are doing that as a nation.

And a lot of them don't even want to admit there is a Lord,

right? That there is a God above all

others. And if we'll just turn as a

nation, that's why we need to pray for revival 'cause if we'll

turn as a nation, I believe that the Lord will extend our good

years, OK? And He will allow us to

continue. I'm not so sure you know of the

timeline. I don't think we've got a whole

lot of time left to tell you the truth.

But I'll tell you one thing. If we'll humble ourselves before

the Lord and seek Him instead of running away from Him, guess

what? We will have greater days ahead.

There, there it will, because He won't give us a second chance.

He's the God of second chances. Now I want to talk about real

quickly a second and runner. OK, so flip over to Ephesians

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

We'll start with verse 8 and let's read.

This is Paul. And he says to me, who am less

than the least of all the Saints, this grace, this grace,

whatever that is, was given that I should preach among the

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see.

So this grace was given that he should preach and to make all

see. What is the fellowship of the

mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been

hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ.

Now, if you're a lot like I have been and I no other people would

have been in my reading classes or whatever.

Well, here's what they would done.

They read it with their lips, but they didn't really get it

in. You know what I'm saying?

There's a difference between reading over something and and

actually understanding something, and that seems like a

difficult passage in the He spoken these words that seem

difficult. What is this fellowship of the

mystery? What is the mystery that he

speaks of God's plan of salvation that that existed from

eternity past because he knew forever in eternity past what he

was going to do and what was going to lay out an eternity

forward, right. So God had a plan of salvation

that existed for eternity and that plan of salvation that this

royal God who speaks and planets, you know, he breathes

out stars and he speaks and there's planets come into

existence and he made man out of the dust to the ground.

And and that guy who always was and always will be this same guy

that he would come down and take upon himself flesh that he would

die. For who?

Somebody really great, I guess. No.

For who? For a bunch of scummy sinners,

right? That's the truth of it.

The truth of it is we can look in the mirror and say I'm just a

scummy Sinner except for him that saved me.

And that's a mystery, that God would come in the second person

of the Trinity, Godhead, and give himself for filthy sinners,

that they might have eternal life, and that he would

transform such people and fill them with his spirit.

Now think about this here you got a holy God, right?

There's nothing in him that's dark, there's nothing that's

bad. He's holy and he's good and and

he's willing to put his spirit inside some scumbag like me

because he was willing to clean me up and keep working on me,

right? So he puts his spirit in US if

we'll believe and call upon him in humility and run the course

of our life and obedience to him.

Now the fellowship of the mystery that we read about there

refers to the fact that the great mystery of how God would

step down to be placed on our cross because we're the ones

that we're deserving. We are the ones that were the

sinners right and to live in US. It's it's much more though.

Look at the word fellowship. It's much more than just a head

knowledge. There's a fellowship, it's an

experiential thing where that you can walk with the Lord

instead of running from Him, and you can experience Him in you,

because if you've accepted Christ, He is in you.

Imagine that. Who are we that this awesome

almighty God who knows exactly the garbage that we've been in?

No, it's just how deep in the belly of the fish we are.

No, it's just how far down in the bottom of the sea, at the

depths we are and is willing to pull us out, wipe us off, clean

us up and live in US. That's a mystery.

First Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16 and six chapter 6,

1 Corinthians 3:16

verse 19 and 20 speak of that. It says for know you not that

you are the temple of God and that His Spirit dwells in you.

Now let's keep going there in verse 10, Ephesians 3, verse 10,

Ephesians 3:10

and it says this mystery, the fellowship of the mystery to the

intent. So I was about to tell you what

the purpose of this was, that now the manifold wisdom of God

might be made known by the church to to who?

To the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

This is where you find in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

We'll go there in just a second, just real quick.

But in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, you believe it is he speaks

Hebrews 12:2

of a great cloud of witnesses, right?

You've heard that right. OK, and you've got a great cloud

of witnesses here because you got the IT says the

principalities and powers in heavenly places.

So the angels themselves in another spot in first Peter

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. Maybe it's no, I forget, but

it's in first, first Peter. The Peter said this, he said of

the angels and of this mystery called salvation said the angels

peer into it, longing to understand this mystery.

How would an awesome God be willing to do that for those

people? And how can he transform this

scummy, Sinner, messed up person into someone who could live

forever? How can he make them holy like

he is? How can he even abide?

How can they go into his presence?

It's a mystery to me how does all that happen?

And that's what he speaks of. And verse 11 says according to

the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our

Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence

through faith in Him now in 490 BC.

So think about it for a second. I'm not talking about, you know,

5000 years ago or something. I'm talking about 490 BC.

So maybe half that, maybe around 2500 years approximately, right?

The Greeks were engaged in a battle with the Persians, and

while they were in battle they were very victorious over the

Persians. And one of the victorious

soldiers did something very interesting.

He ran 25 miles from Marathon. Say that to you from Marathon to

Athens to bring the good news to his countrymen.

Now I'm just thinking that's pretty neat and there's more to

the story. But if a heathen, gentile Greek

paganist can run 25 miles, that would wear you out.

OK, 25 miles. He runs to tell the good news.

That kind of puts some of us to shame because we won't hardly

even go across the street or down the road very far.

It can't go more than, you know, a mile or something because it's

just too far right now. Fast forward to the year 1896

AD. So not too long back, 18196 and

the Modern Olympic, Olympic Committee introduced a long

distance foot race, which they called marathon.

That's right. It was approximately 28 years

after that in 1924 that this distance of this run that they

were calling the marathon was standardized to 26 miles, 385

yards. And this race has now become the

final event at the Modern Olympic Games.

I guess it still is. I mean, far as I know, they

hadn't changed that. Everything changes quick as you

can turn around. But anyway, it's the last thing

now. At the end of their exhausting

race, these competitors circle back around this track and

there's this crowd of people that are cheering them on.

Maybe you remember even whenever you were in junior high school

or middle school or high school and, and the coach would have

the guys line up over there and cheer you on and say, come on,

come on, come on. Right.

To encourage the people that were coming in.

Yeah, 'cause they were about to give up and they were getting

tired. And he said, no, cheer them on,

bring them on, you know, and, and they, that's what they've

done. They would run that big race and

then they would run around the lat or run around that track and

the crowd would be cheering for them.

OK. The cheers of the people

motivated them to continue on wholeheartedly.

Now let's look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse one and two,

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

and we'll quit here in just a minute with this, but let's turn

for a minute and look at Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Now the writer of the Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in Chapter

11, you might recall, sometimes it's referred to as the Hall of

Fame for faith. And so he lays out number of

people. I don't know, it's 1213.

Anyway, he's, he's talking about all these people from the Old

Testament who, who ran right instead of running wrong.

OK, they ran the right way. Now you think if he was telling

us about people that ran the right way, why, what's, what's

Sampson doing in there? Because he was.

And you go, y'all know better than that.

Sampson messed up big time. Guess what?

God is the God of second chances.

So even though he was flat on his back, had lost his eyesight

because they gouged out his eyes and he was a slave and made a

mockery by the enemy, guess what?

His heart turned back to the Lord, and the Lord heard his

prayer and used him once again. And he made the Hall of Fame

saying, just because you messed up doesn't mean the Lord can't

use you ever again, right? OK, now let's read here.

It says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so

great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and

the sin which so easily ensnares us.

Now the word and is really important here because if you're

not careful and you just kind of read it, you know, just blow

through it, you think, OK, I need to rid myself of the sin.

That's so, you know, much weighing me down.

Well, that's true. But that's not the only thing

that's weighing you down because he says, let us lay aside every

weight and the sin it's they're two separate things.

Now, sin will weigh you down and it'll hold you down and it'll

trip you up and it'll bring you down.

OK. But sometimes we're just so busy

doing so many other things that we get weighed down.

We're so busy looking at all the problems and trying to take care

of all the needs. And and we got this to do and we

got that to do. And and we left God out of it,

kind of like some people do intentionally, right?

Or try to. And here we see that that weighs

you down as well. It might not be a sin in itself,

but it can still 'cause you to have a burden that you're,

you're, you're trying to, you can't run like you should be

running, right? And you're carrying this weight

on you and you can't keep the speed.

You can't do the things that you should be able to do.

Sometimes we just need to clear the stage of the clutter in our

life. And it says, and let us run with

endurance, the race that is set before us.

Now, how do we run with endurance, the race that's set

before us, looking unto Jesus. Scripture also says, in fact,

depending on your translation, it'll say having your eyes fixed

upon the Lord. OK, I think of a radar, you

know, being in the military and stuff.

You know, I've been around some radars and they'll lock on and

when they lock on, you got problems, especially if they're

fixing to send a missile your way, right?

Because if it's locked on, it isn't going to just suddenly get

sidetracked and go squirrel, you know, and look at the wrong way.

It stayed and our eyes have to stay that way, have to be fixed

upon the on Christ. OK, That's the way we're going

to succeed. And it says here the author,

Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy

that was set before him endured the cross.

Now hang on a second. I thought he said, Father, if it

be or will let this cup pass from me, right?

And he was sweating drops of blood.

He didn't necessarily want to go to the cross, right?

Just saying. But for the joy that was set

before him, he endured the cross.

What joy did he have when he thought about the cross?

He realized that it's not just me going to the cross, but it's

all these other people that don't have to, right?

That I can now for eternity not have them far away, but have

them close because I love them. And it says despising the shame,

he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now in that verse it says a great cloud of witnesses were

there. And it's kind of like what I was

talking about a while ago on the track.

You got all these witnesses, right?

These people cheering you on, except this group is an Angel.

It's like we talked about a while ago in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

3. This group is the people he just

talked about in Chapter 11, that they had run right, that there

was something admirable and good.

And even if they were late and they're running right like

Samson, they were still counted among the good.

They're honorable. They're ones that were worth

mentioning. And I'm just thinking it wasn't

just those 12 or 13. It's everybody who's put their

faith in Christ throughout all the generations when we run and

we're giving it all we got. And I'm not talking about

physically, but I'm talking about for the Lord to, to run

the race to, to eternity. And we weren't, we weren't

right. We need to be remembering not

that they are up there in heaven with holes in heaven looking

down going, oh, I wonder what's going on down there.

That's not what it's talking about.

Their their lives are witness to us about the good that comes if

we run right? So we can remember that.

And it's kind of like those that sat in the crowd and cheered

them on and clapped and said, come on, come on.

OK, That's essentially what their lives are for us because

we see what happened to them, that the Lord accepted them

despite their faults, that the Lord used them, that they ended

up doing great things that they're in heaven, right?

And and we go, wow, all I got to do is just do this one more, one

more day, one more day. I can just push in a little bit

further, right? That's where we're at.

That's it. That's that's the idea.

And I'm just thinking, OK, we got two different people here

running, one that's trying to run away from the Lord and look

where it got him. Thank God for second chances.

And then you got the others who are running right?

And the Lord has his use them as a witness for us to go.

Wow. Yeah.

OK. I just need to even he won't

care. I mean, he does care if you mess

up, but he will forgive me and he'll take me back.

Right. And he.

I can still do this. I'm going to run with the Lord,

not against him. Praise the Lord.

All right, well, let's let's bring this to close and say a

word of prayer. Thanks for listening to the

Cross Power Church podcast. May you know that true hope,

peace, and salvation can only be found in Jesus.

If you're near Campbell, TX, we would love for you to join us in

person. You can find service times at

crosspowerchurch.com.