FORMED ON THE WAY: What the Road Teaches Us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Morning everybody, it's me with you and this morning I want to take you back to the year 2000, specifically September 2000, the Sydney Olympic Games.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was for many Aussies the most memorable sporting event in our history.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was epic, it was electric, it felt like the entire country tuned in and held its collective breath.

[SPEAKER_00]: Australia you've finished with 58 medals.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is still, come on, that is still to this day, the highest total medal count.

[SPEAKER_00]: Australia has ever achieved at an Olympic Games.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kathy Freeman, lit the Olympic flame and then won gold in the 400 meters.

[SPEAKER_00]: We won gold in swimming, hockey, beach volleyball, a question, archery, sailing, and cycling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just the gold medals.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could talk about any number of stories that came from the 2000 Olympics this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So many victories.

[SPEAKER_00]: So many proud Aussie moments.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today, I want to talk about a certain swimmer at the Sydney Olympics and tell you about a very different race.

[SPEAKER_00]: The star of my story is Eric.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you know the story, you may remember him as Eric the eel.

[SPEAKER_00]: There he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eric found himself at Sydney having never competed at an international level.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he had never even seen an Olympic-sized swinkle before he arrived in Sydney.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how did he get to be at an Olympic Games?

[SPEAKER_00]: Eight months earlier, Eric decided he wanted to learn how to swim.

[SPEAKER_00]: that's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eight months of swimming.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was accepted via a wild card entry for developing nations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly, he found himself preparing to leave his country for the very first time ever to go to the Olympics.

[SPEAKER_00]: His training, a 13 meter pool in a nearby hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the days he couldn't use the hotel pool, he trained in rivers and lakes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where local fishermen get this, taught him how to move his arms and legs to stay afloat.

[SPEAKER_00]: So picture Eric's race, and I do have a couple of photos here of Eric.

[SPEAKER_00]: Picture him standing on that starting block above the Olympic size pool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking out across 50 meters of water, he would have to swim up and back for his 100 meter freestyle event.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quite a different experience to the 13 meter hotel pool he knew from his eight months of training.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were two other competitors

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, both his competitors were to squallified for false starts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eric found himself swimming alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: He dives in.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first 50 metres, he manages.

[SPEAKER_00]: 40 seconds, consistent.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: but the second 50 nearly broke him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said later, I got a bit worried.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I wasn't gonna make it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone watching, wondered if he would make it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Life guards were positioned on the edge of the pool, ready to jump in in case he went under.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, during the struggle of the second 50 metres, something happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: 17,000 people in the arena joined together and cheered him on, willing him to touch the wall.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't cheer for a medal or a record.

[SPEAKER_00]: They cheered for a man who was determined to finish.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: One minute, 52 seconds.

[SPEAKER_00]: The slowest 100-meter freestyle time in Olympic history.

[SPEAKER_00]: A few days before Marco Clim broke the 100-meter record in his leg of the 4 by 100 freestyle when we beat the Americans.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eric took more than twice as long, but when he reflected on the response of the crowd during his hate, he said, I felt like I had won a medal or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: When asked what his aim was, he said this, my soul aim was to finish.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was aware that everyone was observing me.

[SPEAKER_00]: My family, my nation, my mother, my sister, my friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I kept reminding myself that I needed to continue, that I had to complete the race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if I was the only one in the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in the midst of an incredibly successful Olympics for Australia, I'm sharing Eric's story, a man who was not fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: He risked sinking to the bottom of the pool, and he nearly didn't make it to the end of his race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes the most significant thing you can do is just finish.

[SPEAKER_00]: The writer of Hebrews says something similar.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, we are running a race, but we are not formed in isolation.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and we're not formed in the destination moments of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're formed on the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: God forms us through people, through surrender, through perseverance, and ultimately by fixing our eyes on Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we're going this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got your bibles, turn with me to Hebrews 12 verses 1 to 3.

Hebrews 12:1–3

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll read it together and then I'll go through the verses by bit

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking to Jesus, the founder and professor of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: despising the shame and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.

[SPEAKER_00]: So firstly I want to talk about the cloud of witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've learned on my race

[SPEAKER_00]: This includes at the broader level, a church community, just like this, to belong to, to contribute to, to gather with regularly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It also, my, means finding your people on a personal level.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before I go any further, a little context for these verses, this letter is thought to be written to Christians with a Jewish background who are facing persecution and possibly imprisonment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some were considering abandoning their faith because the cost of following Jesus was getting so high.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a way to inspire and encourage them, Hebrews 11 is a role call of the heroes of faith, as the writer reminds them that they are not alone and not the first people to run a race of faith and endure.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lists name after name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Reihab, Gideon, Barack, Samson, David, men and women who ran their race, faced their trials and persevered.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are the cloud of witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reminder from Hebrews 11 is just as relevant today as well as the heroes of faith and others who's a race might inspire you from a distance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your witnesses are also the people around you in life right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people who are investing in you and watching your race running their own and encouraging you to keep going.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what does it mean today to be surrounded by witnesses and find your people?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look for people beyond beside and behind you in your race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, the beyond people.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are people ahead of you in the race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Often older, further along with Jesus, they've run parts of the track you're on right now and they can tell you what's ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're the mentors.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're the ones who've weathered storms.

[SPEAKER_00]: You haven't even seen yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know from my own journey, if I didn't have people in that beyond category, I don't think I'd be a Christian today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've had make or break moments in my own race, where I might have quit, could have sunk to the bottom of the pool.

[SPEAKER_00]: But because I had some beyond people in my world who cared about my race,

[SPEAKER_00]: They reached down, pulled me up, helped me course correct, and I'm still in my race today.

[SPEAKER_00]: The beyond people are those with a witness that stirs us to run and finish our race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then there are the beside people.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are the ones running alongside you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the same season, they get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're facing similar challenges to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: They understand your race because they're running one more or less like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need these people and they need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so grateful for the people beside me in life who are in the thick of it with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many for years and some for decades.

[SPEAKER_00]: and finally behind, these are the people behind you in their race, younger in their faith, often younger in age.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've run on their current stretch of track.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're their witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you do matters to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're watching how you run.

[SPEAKER_00]: And before you disqualify yourself from being a witness for others, take a moment to consider the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11.

[SPEAKER_00]: Among those listed as examples of great faith, there are stories of murder, adultery, lies and cover up, as well as those with significant family dysfunction and very sketchy pasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet God still uses the lives of these very fellow, very imperfect people in his greatest story, and they become the heroes of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: God can use you as a witness and encouragement for someone else's race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't disqualify yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: A word to the teenagers and the younger adults in the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might not think you have much to offer yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: But please know there is a younger generation looking up to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: They watch how you serve, how you treat people, how you follow Jesus, your their witness.

[SPEAKER_00]: You other people, they look up to and want to be like.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a unique witness and ability to speak into the lives of younger people that parents

[SPEAKER_00]: And to those closer to the finish line than the start, please don't check out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily you spend a strong in your race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't stop investing in the younger generations.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need your counsel, your wisdom, your advice that only comes after many, many years in your own race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't underestimate the difference your voice makes to someone who's still in their first 50 metres.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let me ask you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you found your people?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have people beyond beside and behind you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you looking to for wisdom?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you sharing life alongside?

[SPEAKER_00]: And who are you investing in?

[SPEAKER_00]: a challenge for the week.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you can name at least one person in each of those categories, reach out to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Reach out to the one running ahead, appreciate them for how their race has encouraged you or spend some time with someone who you're running alongside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Enjoy the company of one who understands your part of the race simply because they're in it with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: or plan to make a specific investment in someone behind you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This could be one on one, or maybe serving a group of younger people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have a gap in any one of those areas beyond beside or behind, your challenge is to preferably consider who could feel that gap.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who was beyond you, who was beside you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, lay aside every weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read the next part.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let us lay us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely.

[SPEAKER_00]: In my preparation, it was really interesting to note that the verses distinguish between two things here, sin and weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: things in our lives that are clearly wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible is pretty clear about what sin is, passages such as Galatians 5, Romans 12, call out sinful behavior.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it's sin, the call is straightforward, identify it, seek forgiveness, and walk with Jesus in repentance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice the phrase, sin which cling so closely, the NLT version says, the sin that so easily trips us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should never fall ourselves into thinking where a moon from sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keep or watch over your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are never beyond the capacity to be tripped up.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then there's the second thing mentioned in the verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wake doesn't necessarily mean sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wake is mentioned separately here, so what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Wake here are those things that may be fine in of themselves, but they still slow you down.

[SPEAKER_00]: They become hindrances in your race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the context.

[SPEAKER_00]: The metaphor here is all about running a race.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what do you not want when you have to run a race?

[SPEAKER_00]: extra weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thing to be aware of here is that what's wait for one person may not be wait for another.

[SPEAKER_00]: The race is personal to each of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: What will be a wait for me may not be a wait for you and vice versa.

[SPEAKER_00]: To help us with this idea of weight in our lives, I turn to a concept that has helped me enormously in my race.

[SPEAKER_00]: So much so that I try to evaluate my life fairly regularly through this lens.

[SPEAKER_00]: The frame comes from the spiritual tradition of Ignatius of Loyola and sets before us the concept of consolation and desolation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The idea is to look at the activity of your life, what you do with your time, who you spend with, what you default to, and ask, does this thing, does this part of my life

[SPEAKER_00]: movie, Netflix series, book, pastime, social media platform, perhaps the comment section of a certain post on that social media platform.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does it bring a sense of consolation, an inner moving towards God and others or does it bring desolation, a moving away or a sense of separation from God in

[SPEAKER_00]: To be clear, consolation and desolation aren't about emotions or feelings.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can experience negative feelings of grief or sadness when you're moving in consolation and positive feelings of excitement or comfort when you're in desolation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about how you feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the direction this part of your life is taking you in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you moving towards God or being led away from Him?

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll know that you're moving towards God when you're experiencing the fruits of the Spirit in greater measure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Things such as peace, joy, self-control, patience, these are the markers of consolation.

[SPEAKER_00]: desolation by contrast are those things that pull us away from God and we see a lessening of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can look like confusion, apathy, fear, self-absorption, a lack of desire for the word for prayer, for gathering with other believers,

[SPEAKER_00]: Returning to our verse, if we are to lay aside every weight, things that bring desolation to your life can be those weights for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the things that pull your way from God, even if they don't feel bad in the moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you some examples of weights that aren't sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Habits or pastimes that aren't sinful but lead you away from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I talked about a few of those before.

[SPEAKER_00]: unresolved hurt, carrying something that happened years ago that still slows your pace today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over commitment, saying yes to everything, when you're called to steward your time well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Comparison, comparing your everyday life to someone else's high light real.

[SPEAKER_00]: anxiety, overthinking everything, becoming trapped in your thoughts, being unable to move forward for fear of making the wrong decision.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many years ago, a spiritual mother in my life said something to me that I've never forgotten.

[SPEAKER_00]: She said that people tend to get bitter or better as they go through life.

[SPEAKER_00]: have never forgotten it and the older I get, the more I observe it to be true.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I think about running our race, I think that how we handle weight and sin determines whether we grow bitter or better.

[SPEAKER_00]: The good news, sin and weight don't have to define us, but they will slow us down if we don't deal with them as we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to lay them aside to run a race well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So can I suggest examining your life and asking, what's the weight that I'm carrying that I need to lay aside?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are there weights in my life that are resulting in desolation, a moving away from God and not towards Him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thirdly, run with perseverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read the next phrase.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That word perseverance in Greek is Hupo-mino, Hupo-mino.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word comes from two Greek roots.

[SPEAKER_00]: people, meaning under, and mean no, meaning to remain.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it literally means to remain under a heavy load.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the picture of someone standing under pressure without giving up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perseverance here is not passive patience.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's active, determined, endurance.

[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of endurance that masters difficulty rather than just sitting under them and waiting for a moment of escape.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's unhurried, but it's underlaid.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just keeps going.

[SPEAKER_00]: In our race, we are not always called to be the fastest.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to be faithful with what is set before us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to persevere.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a challenging truth in life that we tend to be formed more by the heart things rather than the easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should was the other way around.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perseverance during hard times forms our character in ways that ease never can.

[SPEAKER_00]: And on this Mother's Day, I want to take a moment to speak specifically to the mums.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of you might be in the parent's room as well, so this is for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Motherhood, especially in those younger years, is one of the most hupo-meno seasons you can walk through.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's often not glamorous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Much of it is unseen.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's showing up day after day, year after year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can be repetitive and at times pretty thankless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Showing up consistently for your little people who need the same thing over and over each and every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: It requires a special kind of endurance that digs deep and pushes your limits.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you own a season where running your race feels like repetition, exhaustion, unseen sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you sometimes wonder if it even counts.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's what you may not yet see what God is doing in the seasons of mothering.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is forming you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ingerence is not glamorous, but it's forming resilience and patience in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sleepless nights are forming your capacity to trust God when you are at the end of yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: The repetition is teaching you faithfulness in small things and preparing you for the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sacrifice is shaping your heart to love like Jesus loved by laying your life down daily.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mums, can I give you a piece of advice?

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish I could go back and tell my younger self in the midst of the baby and toddler season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be kind to yourself, be kind to yourself,

[SPEAKER_00]: women and moms in particular, we tend to have allowed in a critic.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk to ourselves in ways that we would never talk to a friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hold ourselves to standards we'd never impose on someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please know that Jesus has so much grace for you and you can give yourself grace as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also know that every season has a purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: The toddler season, the school years, the teenage years, the empty nest, the grandmother years.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not wasting a single one.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is forming you on the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for everyone else listening, whatever season you're in, God is using it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a race set before you, and he's calling you to persevere to the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let me ask you, what season are you in now?

[SPEAKER_00]: What might God be forming in you through it?

[SPEAKER_00]: And can you give yourself grace today?

[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of grace that Jesus gives you?

[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, look to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's read verses two and three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking to Jesus, the founder 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: Consider him who endured from sin as such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted,

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look to our ultimate example, Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just start the race.

[SPEAKER_00]: He finished it.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we ever need encouragement to persevere, we just need to look at Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about a life of Jesus for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did some incredible things during his ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: He healed people from terrible afflictions and diseases.

[SPEAKER_00]: He miraculously fed thousands of people with a young boy's lunch.

[SPEAKER_00]: He spoke words of wisdom and life that astonished crowds.

[SPEAKER_00]: He welcomed the outcast and the sinner and even the weather obeyed him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could imagine that after the miracles and incredible stories that it would have been enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus knew his race was not complete, his focus was the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: We go to guess so many in the scriptures, the night before the cross, Jesus praying in the garden.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's before him and what he has to endure.

[SPEAKER_00]: He prays, my father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, I want your will to be done, not mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he goes to the cross with perseverance and obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' best work was his final work.

[SPEAKER_00]: His strongest step was his last step.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is Hupo Meno.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is perseverance under the heaviest load imaginable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And why did he persevere for you and for me to bring us forgiveness and new life?

[SPEAKER_00]: to give us hope, joy and peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you don't know how to keep going, there's a very simple instruction, look to Jesus, fix your eyes on Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is the founder and perfecter of your faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens when we fix our eyes on Jesus and look to His example?

[SPEAKER_00]: Courage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Courage for your race.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse three says, consider Him so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who is persevered will help you persevere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Want to invite the band up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: So where are you at today in your race?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you are like Eric the eel.

[SPEAKER_00]: You started strong and are now flagging in the second 50.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're wondering if you're going to make it or sink to the bottom of the pool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, there's a cloud of witnesses cheering you on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think of a specific name, a witness who knows

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're a mum facing a tough endurance season.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got this, stay faithful even in the smallest things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And remember, be kind to yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: This mama is cheering you on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Find your people who are sharing your stretch of the race and cheer each other on.

[SPEAKER_00]: maybe you've persevered in your race and have wisdom and encouragement that you could impart to someone else who could you cheer on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe today you're still standing on the starting blocks and haven't begun a race with Jesus yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'd love to help you get started.

[SPEAKER_00]: A life following Jesus is one of purpose, peace and hope, and you have a cloud of witnesses here who would love to do you one as you begin.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to talk to someone about starting or restarting a journey with Jesus, please come and talk to us at the end of the service.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, let me leave you with a couple of questions to stick with this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are my people who's beyond beside and behind me in this race and what's one step I can take this week to connect with or invest in them?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's seen a weight and my carrying that I need to lay aside, examine your life is there a sin that's tripping you up in your race, what's bringing desolation, what's adding unnecessary weight to the race you've been called to, and what would it look like to throw it off today?

[SPEAKER_00]: What might need to change so you can become better, not better.

[SPEAKER_00]: What might God be forming in me through the current season?

[SPEAKER_00]: Your race will look different in each season.

[SPEAKER_00]: No matter what part of the race you're in, can you trust that God uses every season?

[SPEAKER_00]: However, your race looks today, know that you're not in it alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're surrounded by witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a savior who finished his race, and will help you finish yours as you fix your eyes on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God is forming you on the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we stand together and pray?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we look to you as the one who persevered and ultimately who went to the cross so that we could have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: that as we run the race set before us, you are the one that we can fix our eyes on.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a founder and professor of our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we ask with hearts that are open to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you help us follow you to lay aside the sin and weight that slows us down, to help us persevere when it seems hard, and Lord, perhaps even start or restart our race with you

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, would you stir our hearts to respond to your call today?