"Finishing The Race" - by Pastor Doug Batchelor

and happy Sabbath it is a joy to be here with you what an honor and it's a delight to see so many familiar faces and almost said old friends friends from before it's just a delight and an honor for Karen and I to be here this is bachelor Sun Stevens here Bonnie's here and I see a few people from Granite Bay that are here we're glad you're here too of course this church was instrumental in planting many churches around Sacramento including the Granite Bay Church and I'm just also thankful as I read in the book of Romans Paul said I thank God for you always and when I think about Central Church and I see how the Lord is blessing the leadership of Pastor Chris and Mike and your team here that things are thriving and that's just so encouraging to us you know I was thinking of praying about an occasion like this and what can I say that would be appropriate that you might find encouraging and I spent a few weeks praying about it after I received the invitation and I decided to talk about the subject of the Christian race running a Christian raise and more in particular finishing the race now there's a lot of different metaphors of the Bible authors used to talk about the Christian life they talked about sheep they talked about the Christian being a soldier they talked about the Christian being a wrestler you know Paul said we don't wrestle against flesh and blood Paul talked about boxing said I don't box the air like shadow boxing and they talked about you know fishing and marriage and all kinds of metaphors and analogies but the one that Paul seemed to enjoy the most was the race see Paul did not grow up in Jerusalem he grew up in Tarsus it was a Greek city and you know the Olympics had already been in place for many years by the time that Paul was converted and became a Christian and he had probably seen many of these events they talked a lot about it and so the he used that in an analogy to talk about living the Christian life I'm going to go back to our scripture reading that you'll be read a few moments ago in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize run in such a way that you may obtain it now this is not to be a commentary today on the benefits of the problems with sports and competition Jesus also told a parable about a steward that stole from his boss and we're not recommending that either they used all kinds of parables to illustrate things but they were surrounded in the Roman Greek world with the races and Paul said you know this is something like the Christian life you've got to put your heart and soul in it you've got to run with all your might and your strength and you're doing it to receive a prize and he illustrates this run in such a way that you might obtain that prize and everyone who competes for the prize is tempered in all things now they do it to obtain a perishable crown but we an imperishable crown when a Greek runner would win they didn't get a big you know award like someone who wins a golfing tournament or a tennis match gets a million dollar purse they've got a laurel a wreath of olive leaves but what they really got was a name and when they went back to their hometown they were treated some like the sports celebrities today where there's everybody who was so thankful they got to often eat for free and sometimes they'd award them with a house and there are a lot of perks but it was really they were winning for this honor Paul says here you're gonna win for much more than that in the Christian life therefore run thus not with uncertainty thus I fight not as one who shadow boxes or beats the air but I discipline my body and I bring it into some action and maybe with that I should jump over and share with you that there's four points I think we can learn from this verse about running the Christian life and it's very simply this the preparation the purpose the perseverance and the prize these are the things that Paul is talking about first of all let's talk a little bit about the preparation for running this race he said for everyone who competes and this is again at first corinthians 9:25 we compete for the prize and we are tempered in all things it says I discipline my body and bring it into subjection lest when I preach to others i myself should be disqualified if you're gonna win a race and these were not sprints these were marathons these were long races where you go on and on and you needed to train for it needed to prepare you didn't make sure your body was well hydrated with good water and you needed good food and there was some stretching and you needed the light proper clothing and there was some deep breathing and and in the Christian life there's preparation for running the race you need the living water you need the bread of life you need the robe of Christ's righteousness you need to stretch your faith make sure your heart is strong breathe the Holy Spirit there's preparation for this race and then there are rules in a race and the ancient Greek races they had a judge would sit and watch them as they went around the track for some of those and and they were carefully educated and what the rules were and they had to follow the rules and you could be disqualified if you broke the rules and he says here in 2nd Timothy 2:5 and also if anyone competes in athletics he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules we know that there are laws in the Christian life and God wants us to run the race and to follow the rules of the race now he that competes it says is disciplined he trains he prepares sometimes it takes years to prepare first corinthians 9:25 everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things that one tell you an amazing story and a matter of fact an honor of Pastor Chris I've got two Australian stories today back in 1983 there was a 61 year old Shepherd and potato farmer and his name was cliff young now they've got a very grueling race in Australia where they run from Melbourne all the way up to Sydney it's 544 miles I had to convert it from kilometres so we could all understand it and 150 of the best world-class racers show up at this race and they were all rather unused when cliff Young 61 years old showed up wearing his overalls his farm shoot his boots with rubber galoshes over the boots and he signed up to run in the race while people were wondering if he wasn't completely well and so they fired the gun and the race began and pretty soon all the professional runners they took off and lagging behind was old cliff and he kind of was doing something between a shuffle and a run and then normally the runners run for about 16 hours the race takes four days and then they stop and the rest maybe is you know six seven hours and they get up and they run again all day well when cliff finally caught up to where all the racers were bivouac camping for the night he wondered what they were doing because he didn't know you were supposed to stop and so he just kept on and why they were sleeping he just kept on shuffling by so you could have made imagine the amazement of those runners when the next day they took off and they started running again and they're passing ole cliff who was just shuffling along and the next night they stopped again and he passed him a little sooner now because he's making headway and by the third night he was way out ahead of them because he ran all night he'd stop and he'd take a brief rest and he'd get a drink and maybe have a muffin and then he came running by the fourth day he was way out ahead can you imagine the amazement the international media was no longer paying any attention to the other racers originally when cliff started running someone was saying with someone please stop that old guy before he hurts himself but he just kept plodding along and he won the race and he broke the record by ten hours because while they were sleeping he was running totally amazed the media said how in the world were you able to do this 61 years old he said well it's like this I've been training all my life said we have two thousand sheep and often I've got to go round him up and we don't have a horse and I had to run to round up though she and sometimes I run all night long and all day to try to get all those sheep and he said I'm a vegetarian and I don't drink tempered in all things he had been preparing for years he became a national hero for winning that rafe race so you need preparation second thing I said is you need a purpose to run why are you running now originally the first marathon came about because the runner had a purpose his name was fide dip ''tis and it's kind of fun to say that isn't it it's easy to get confused with Philippians but it's different it's fine dip ADIZ and it all began when Darius the Persian king sent an army of 28,000 Persians to fight against the Greeks the Athenians only had 10,000 soldiers so the Athenian generals sent his fastest runner by deputies to go to Sparta and see if he could recruit some help well that was 147 miles so he ran 147 miles that's stopping to drink a little along the way he got there he pled for help they said we can't bring help until after the full moon because we're in the middle of a feast and so he had to then run back didn't even sleep another hundred and forty seven miles told the Athenian general who at that point said it's too late we need to engage the Persians then fight if ADIZ had to join the man go into battle with the Persians those ten thousand Greeks fought the Persians they won he was so excited he needed a run back to Athens and tell everybody that they won and he just fought a battle hadn't slept yet and ran twenty-four miles back to Athens and he arrives in the court everyone sees him coming they're waiting for news and he ran his heart out to give them the news he got into the town he said victory victory is actually the Greek word is Nike Nike that's where you get your sneakers victory victory and then he fell and he died no kind of sad story but he had good news and he was willing to die to deliver the good news can you think of someone else like that that's where we get the story of the marathon you know we have a message don't we we have a reason to run do we have a purpose for running Isaiah 52 7 how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news who proclaims peace who brings glad tidings of good things who proclaims salvation who says the Zion your God reigns you and I as believers we got a reason to run we've got a message we've got the gospel we've got good news amen got another Australian story Jeanette Murray from Melbourne struggled with breast cancer and she found that through some medical treatment but she believed principally a vegetarian vegan diet not if I could raw vegan diet she was able to whip it and was healed she and her husband Alan were so happy they began to run marathons and then she'd they thought this would be a great opportunity to tell other people about what it had done for their health and so they decided to run consecutive marathons you know marathon is 126 miles in change how many 22 miles 26.2 odds right thanks I didn't want to correct - 26.2 miles for a year every day run a marathon to completely circumnavigate the continent of Australia and Tasmania and they ran I got to read you about this this is pretty fascinating I love to run so much they decided to run around the entire continent of Australia and the island of Tasmania the epic 10,000 mile journey would require them to run a marathon every day for an entire year they chose the running in part to promote a raw vegan vegetarian diet Jeanette believes was instrumental in curing her from breast cancer a decade earlier so January 1 2013 off they went rising early every day 4 a.m. to avoid the heat running at least 26.2 miles every day some days they ran longer for the following year they never missed a day no matter what the weather was circling Australia in Tasmania in the process and along the way this is the amazing part they consumed 11,000 bananas between them several hundred green smoothies fruit salads aren't as avocados and many many gallons of vegetable juice on New Year's Eve they arrived in Melbourne completing their 360 v run and in case that wasn't enough they followed it up with one additional marathon on January 1st 2014 to set a new Guinness world record for the most consecutive marathons by the way did I mention that Jeanette is 64 and Allan 68 years of age isn't that amazing they had a reason to run they wanted to promote something they believed in and I remember reading in the Bible about a battle that was won by the forces of David and the messenger asked Joab the general can I go tell the good news to the king in a high-mass ad by the way second Samuel 18 verse 19 Ahava has the son of Zadok said let me run now and take the news to the king how the Lord has avenged him of his enemies finally Joab relented he said run and a high may has ran by the way of the plain and he there's another messenger that had already been sent but he outran the Koosh 8 ah hi MA has wanted to bring good news of victory to the king but there was also a problem the king's son died in the battle sound familiar do we have a victory but our king's son died in the process so you've got the preparation and you've got the purpose now then there's the perseverance a lot of people start a race but they don't finish running the race the Bible says that we must run that race with endurance let me tell you about someone who's called an endurance runner have you ever heard about Dean Karnazes he's actually Greek too but the first Greek marathon runner has nothing on Dean he is Men's Fitness Magazine says Dean might be the fittest man in the world and this is from a 2006 article Dean traveled the country running ultra marathons to promote the importance of physical exercise and good diet in 2006 he ran 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 consecutive days finishing with the New York City Marathon Dean has pushed his body and his mind to inconceivable limits including a hundred and thirty-five mile ultra marathon across Death Valley in a hundred and twenty degree temperature in a marathon to the South Pole in minus 40 degrees but Dean Karnazes has gone even farther than that the longest run he's done is a single 350 miles running for 80 hours and 44 minutes over three sleepless nights you've got to have persistence makes you want to kind of get out and leave John to your car after church right you need to have endurance james511 indeed we count them blessed who endure you've heard of the perseverance of Job and seeing that in the end the Lord is very compassionate and merciful but job had to persevere in his faith you know God made people where were really pretty good runners two men in a pub in Wales got into an argument one of them knew something that the bartender didn't know he said I'll bet you that a man can outrun a horse he said you're crazy said no I'm not a sprint long distance said you're crazy and they actually had some trial races and it took a few years but eventually a man outran a horse new york times are a little article on this it says when it comes to long distance as humans can outrun almost any animal because we cool by sweating rather than by panting we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals on a hot day the two scientists wrote a human can even outrun a horse in a 26.2 mile marathon New York Times October 26 2009 it's kind of like you ever seen a dog chasing a deer a deer can quickly bound faster than a dog but the dog keeps going and it keeps going they can wear out a deer and a human believe it or not God made us different than chimpanzees we are very good runners just not very many people do it anymore but people used to be able to run you know Alexander's army Alexander the Great was able to defeat the Persian army because the Persians had been in power for many years the army was pampered they had lots of money they had good tents and all the comforts and when they camped Alexander took men and they slept on the ground and they would go days without food and they were tough so when they finally engaged in battle the Greeks almost won every time you've heard about Spartans you've heard about Spartan living how they trained and you also need perseverance Jeremiah 12:15 if you've run with the footmen and they've wearied you how can you contend with horses ever try to keep up with horses you know the Bible tells about one character that seemed to outrun horses you ever read about when the rain came in Mount Carmel the Holy Spirit came upon Elijah and he ran ahead of the chariot of King Ahab here you've got the Prophet outrunning the king in his chariot he's actually guiding him back to this city in the storm now the reason I talk about endurance is because very simply some people give up in the race you've probably seen that before where people just say this is too hard and they drop out some people give up in the Christian race it's very sad second Timothy 4:10 Paul wrote for demas has forsaken me having loved the present world and he departed for Thessalonica some get distracted by things along the way you're supposed to fix your eyes on the goal Hebrews 12:1 and 2 let us run with endurance the race that is before us how do you run with endurance looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith you know there's another interesting story in history about am a kind of a self-made olympian his name was Felix Carl al he was 5 feet 1 a mailman in Cuba he read in the newspaper about the Olympics that were gonna take place in 1904 in st. Louis and he found that Cuba had nobody that was gonna run the marathon he thought I'll run he's a mailman but I didn't have any money virtually penniless so he would come into the town square in Havana and he would run in circles and run forward and run backwards and he would create a spectacle and he'd say I'm going to go represent the great country of Cuba and I'm gonna run in the Olympics and he eventually collected enough money running around the country of Cuba to finance his trip to st. Louis a New Orleans so he could then get up the st. Louis but Felix got a little distracted on the boat Rollo might over in some of the Sailor started shooting dice and he couldn't resist and he started shooting nice he lost his little purse of money so when he landed in New Orleans he had no money to get the st. Louis so he had to run and hitchhike all the way up there I had virtually nothing to eat he managed to get to the race just as the race was about to begin and he said I'm here I've just arrived I've come to represent the country of Cuba and it is through a translator he was wearing a wool pants a puffy pirate shirt a beret I think you have a picture of him up there one person said look you know no condition to run there and they got a scissors they just cut his pants off which probably must have been just as hot and so the race took off and they had all these racers from around the world that were well trained now you got to give Felix credit because somehow he was able to keep up but he was so confident about his bill ability he stopped and talked to people along the way he stopped and got a drink and then as he was running along he thought you know I am getting a little hungry and he saw some apples and he stopped and he went and eat some green apples well then as he began to run again he got terrible indigestion in the north and the south and he had to stop begin for that in spite of all of this he finished fourth out of the world field and you think Felix if you had not gotten distracted you would have won he still went back kind of a national hero because at least he tried but some people they could have won but they get distracted you know Jesus he was focused on his mission luke 9:51 it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up the sacrifice the ascension he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem Jesus was focused on his mission if you're gonna run that race you've got to be focused on the finish line amen no you're not those who run in a race all run but one receives the prize so run that you may obtain it Joshua 1:7 said only be strong and be very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from - from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go you know one of the things you learn in running a race the shortest distance between two lines two points is a straight line and you don't want to be wandering when you're running race don't go to the right and the left you can read in Romans 2 verse 6 and 7 who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory honor and immortality you need patience continuance running that race it's not a sprint it's a marathon Jesus spoke a parable to them that men ought to pray always and not lose heart don't grow faint galatians 6:9 and let us not grow weary in doing good for in due time we will reap if we do not lose heart 2nd Timothy 2:12 if we endure we will also reign with him and of course jesus said you'll be hated of all nations but he that endures to the end will be saved now as you're enduring and you're running that race you hope that you see some progress along the way I read about one fellow who was in Austria he was a great runner there his name is Rainer Preda he set a new world record he ran five hundred and thirty miles in seven days he ran a hundred and sixty eight hours during that week with only 15 hours sleep but what I didn't tell you is he did it all on a treadmill you don't get very far on a treadmill he brought the record for treadmill running you don't see very much running on a treadmill have you ever felt in your Christian race you're on a treadmill and you know the devil is gonna try and stop you if you're running the race we all still have those tragic memories of the Boston Marathon where you saw the street and the runners all running and a bomb went off kind of brought the race to an end the devil is going to do all he can to try to stop us and running that race and then I told you the fourth and the final point is the price now you might be thinking what is that price is it the gold crown well that is the crown but what is the price Philippians 3:14 I pressed towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus Jesus is the prize being christ-like is what we're running for I mean there's other benefits you'll have the golden streets and eternal life in a world with no more pain or sorrow you'll get to be with the ones you love for eternity in paradise there's wonderful things but the thing we really press towards is become like Christ in that race you know sometimes we can get mixed up you ever heard about the football player that collects a fumble and by accident he gets a disoriented and he then runs a touchdown all he hears is everybody yelling it doesn't realize is your Elian turn around they think he thinks they're cheering and he does a touchdown for the wrong side because he gets mixed up we need to keep the goal before us there's one Olympic runner or marathon runner in China he ran the beaching international marathon his name is Usha xuan here and it all backwards and backwards you can see and he's looking over his shoulder that would hurt my neck more than anything the amazing thing is running backwards he still got a better time than most people in the race that's like driving a race looking in the rearview mirror we need to have the goal fixed before us look Hebrews 12 verse 1 in order to run that race we've got to lay aside the weight and the sin that does so easily beset us it's hard to run a race when you're weighted down notice there's two things here you got the sin you got the weights not everything is a sin some things are just weight sort of slowing us down and since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses he brews chapter 11 you'll see the victorious runners from the past since you're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily ensnare us we all know how easily we can be ensnared and let us run with endurance that race that is set before us how do you do it looking unto Jesus the only way to win the race is to keep the prize before you look into Christ's love for Christ the author and finisher of our faith he will help us finish the race he gave us an example for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God you know sometimes when you're running a race and I've I've never run a marathon I hope to do it before I'm 50 I actually said that over ten years ago and now if I said I hope to do it before I'm 60 I'm still too late I still hope to do it someday I'm still a pretty good runner but I've run some races and you know after running for a while all you hear is the plod plod plod plot of your feet pound pound pound of your heart the breathing and you just gotta go and go and go and it's exhausting you have to push past the pain and the discomfort because you're running for something and we fix our eyes on Jesus a man one time was walking back from work and he saw a bunch of boys it had recently snowed and they they're arguing and fussing about something on their way home from school he said hey boys how'd you like to do a race if you're gonna fight why don't you just race and I'll give 25 cents to the winner so this is a different race though said I want you to all spread out here on this field by the fence here and I'm gonna have you run across that meadow of snow and whoever has the straightest tracks in the snow wins so that sounded like a pretty cool idea and they said okay and so they spread out on the fence he went to the other side of the field he said on your mark get set go and they took off running through the snow towards him well one of the boys as he ran was really preoccupied with his trail in the snow so he kept looking over his shoulder at his tracks to see if they were straight have you ever tried to ride a bicycle on a straight line while you look over your shoulder you know it's nearly impossible libel says if any man puts his hand to the plow and he looks back he's not fit for the kingdom do you know you cannot plow a straight furrow by looking back you have to look at a point at the end of the field so his tracks got crooked the other boy he was wondering how his friends were doing and so instead of watching his tracks he was watching his buddies the boy in the middle when he began the race he fixed his attention on the man across the field and he ran leave towards the man he had the straight tracks and he won the race don't become so preoccupied with yourself your life will be crooked don't become preoccupied with everybody else if you want to win the win the race you've got to become preoccupied with the man on the other side of the field that's Christ amen we've got to keep our eyes on the Lord you know i I've read before about these greyhounds that you know the greyhound racers their dogs specifically red bred for racing they all look a little anorexic to me but there's supposed to be very fast and we have these dog races back in Florida and it's it's sort of sad because they're trained all their lives to chase a rabbit they're never designed to catch it's a mechanical rabbit and the race starts and dogs are yapping and the bell rings and this rabbit begins to follow a track and the dogs take off after it and they're never really supposed to catch it I heard one time about race in farty it's a little electric track and and it had rained and the grass had grown up and the dogs were chasing the rabbit and everybody's cheering and when the rabbit went across this one wet spot on the track where the grass cross it shorted out the money blew up and the dogs got there and there were all these fragments of rabbit on the tracker is just rabbit fur and they didn't know what to do talk about disappointment they finally caught it and there was nothing to it styrofoam and rabbit fur then I heard about another story during one of these greyhound races where the dogs are all running and a real rabbit somehow got out on the field and most of the dogs kept after the mechanical rabbit because that's what they were used to but one dog looked at that and he looked at the real one and it went bounding and leapt the fence and went after the rabbit I don't know how that ended but are you chasing a real goal so many people in the world are looking for something that will never bring them happiness their bubbles will burst and they'll find that their lives were wasted what are you running for are you running for a Christ are you going after the real prize finally we want to finish the race it's one thing to start the race matter of fact many people have started the race poorly but they finish well and you may stumble along the way but you got to get back up and keep on going acts 20:24 but none of these things move me nor do I count my life dear to myself that I may finish my race with joy God wants you to finish the race I don't know if you've heard this story it's an amazing story about Derek already man who in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was favored to win the 400 meter run and once the race began he took off and he was doing very well about a bout a quarter of the way into the race other runners around them said they could actually hear it they heard a pop and he always had winced with pain he stumbled and he fell he said that he thought he had been shot in the back of the leg but his hamstring had snapped and he went down to the ground in terrible pain and you can still see the footage of it it's very obvious he's suffering the other runners ran by and he remembered I'm in a race this I've dreamed about this race I'm gonna finish the race and he got back up got back in his lane even though he still had three-quarters of the race to go and begin the hobble and with great difficulty and wincing and crying down his lane and the people came up to him and said look you need to stop and he just waved them off his father came out of the stands the security tried to stop him he pushed aside the security his father came up and he put his arm around them and he said son you don't have to do this he said yes I do I've got to finish this race he said then we'll do it together and they made their way around the track several people tried to stop from the father said get out of here we're gonna finish the race and he helped his son across the finish but actually just before they cross the finish line his son said let me do the last few feet alone and they crossed the finish line alone because the rules say that he had across the line alone and by then a hundred and the 60 thousand people were in the stands in Barcelona cheering and if I were to ask you today who won that race nobody remembers anybody else but they remember Derek who said I'm gonna finish the race if you stumble along the way will your father come down if you get back up will he help you will there be angels that are cheering when you cross the finish line and you know right now Derek goes around and he does motivational talks even though he didn't get the gold he really became famous because he would not give up and the Bible tells us Paul wrote second Timothy 4 6 to 8 for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering he was about to be executed by Nero and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give me on that day and not to me only but unto all who love his appearing the Bible says be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life how many of you are likely at that ground we're all in the race friends and sometimes we get discouraged I would have been wonderful if we could have been here or the Lord could have come a hundred and thirty years ago yeah but the work goes on there's still so many people that don't know and that's why the work of this church and this ministry is so important and I praise God for what he's done through this church in preparing people for Jesus coming so let's keep running the race and keep Christ before us what do you say and then God bless you I believe we have a closing song and our leaders will come up to share that let's stand as we see in number 214 versus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] amen he posted their Nicki pasta duck for encouraging us this morning we appreciate it just a couple of quick

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Length: 42min 48sec (2568 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2017