Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): What do you need to lay aside to run the race of faith like a champion? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Nobody runs a race in an overcoat. At least I've never seen one run a race in an overcoat. Why? Because an overcoat would weigh you down. Nobody wants to run with pockets full of lead. There are certain things that may not be wrong in themselves, but if they are weights, get rid of them.

Life would be simple if it were a choice between good and bad. It is a choice between good and best, and good things become bad things when they keep you from best things. Lay aside every weight.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the profound truth of the gospel presented in the practical biblical messages of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Living the Christian life is much like running in a race, one we are in until our very last breath. Pastor Rogers said we are called to be spiritual athletes.

There is no retiring or quitting from this race. We don't compete against our peers, but against ourselves. Hebrews 12 shows us how to run like a champion. If you have your Bible, turn there now, beginning at verse one, as Adrian Rogers shares part one of how to run like a champion.

Adrian Rogers: Now we come all the way through Hebrews chapter 11 of those who ran the race, and now a challenge comes to us. Let me read to you Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and two. "Wherefore," now the wherefore refers to everything that is already given us in chapter 11 and this wonderful hall of heroes, champions of the faith.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." You may be 90, I'm talking to you. You may be in a wheelchair, I'm talking to you. You may be on a sickbed, I'm talking to you.

You may have disease, I'm talking to you. You may have palpitations and flutters, I'm talking to you. There's not a mother's child in this building that I'm not talking to about running the race. Now it is true that sometimes physical things keep us from running as we ought. Former athletes look back on the olden days.

I can remember playing football in high school and went to college on a football scholarship, and I thought, well, that's a good game to play. I don't play any football anymore. But I can remember that as a younger preacher, when we would have holidays, maybe it would be Thanksgiving or maybe the Fourth of July or maybe it would be New Year's Day, Labor Day, or whatever, I would ask the young men in the church to meet me out at the football field, and we played touch football.

Now remember, I was a much younger man and I loved to get the deacons out and knock them around, and I loved to get the youngsters out and outrun them. And they said, "Look at the preacher! Look at the preacher!" And well, that was good for my ego and a chance for me just to kind of show off. And I can remember like it was yesterday, we were playing touch football and Larry Freshour had the football and I decided I would run him down and tag him.

But you know what? The closer I got to him, the further he was away. And the last time I saw him, he was clean out of sight. I realized that these legs were not what they used to be and my mind was making contracts that my body could not fulfill. Now that happens. That happens in life. But friend, in your spiritual life, you are to be forever an athlete.

The Bible says though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day. And you can run for Jesus from a sickbed. You can run for Jesus no matter what your physical or emotional condition is, if you will run. Now whoever wrote Hebrews, and I believe it was Paul, lived in a world that was enamored with sports very much like our day is enamored with sports.

They had three great events that were comparable to Super Bowl. They had the Olympic games that began at Mount Olympus. They had the Isthmian games, these were run at Corinth. And they had the Pythian games run at Greece. And they were staged throughout the year. So those people who were sports fanatics could go from one to the other and to the other.

Very much like our day. A man said to his wife, "Now before football season begins, is there anything you'd like to say to me?" We love sports. and Paul evidently loved sports because he talked about running, he talked about wrestling, he talked about boxing. He was aware of sports. And he uses the analogy here, or whoever wrote Hebrews, of the Christian life and he says it is like running a race.

So look up here and let me tell you, folks, you're the one now on the field. The heroes of the past are gone, and now the Bible speaks to us. and it tells us that the heroes of the past are in the stadium. They're watching us. Now we are encompassed about with a great cloud of witnesses. There they are from the heavens peering down.

Now there are some commentators who say, no, that's not what it means. It's not that they are witnessing us run, they are witnessing to us. I think it's both. They witness to us, but the Bible says we're compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses and so there they are. They're watching us. You are called to be a spiritual athlete.

"Wherefore let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run." So let me tell you some things how to be a champion and run like a champion because this book of Hebrews is not written just to inform us as to what others did, but to encourage us to do what we ought to do. Because he says, "Wherefore." Because they did what they did, now wherefore, let's see what God wants us to do.

All right, let me give you some points. You ready to jot them down? First of all, friend, there is a purpose to pursue. There is a purpose to pursue. You're not just here to draw your breath, draw your salary, just endure. You are to be a spiritual athlete and there is a race for you to run. Look in verse one.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses," there they are, rank upon rank in the stadium, "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run." Now God has a race for you to run and you never get over the race until you draw your last breath.

There is no way for you to retire. There is no way for you to quit. There is no way for you to move aside. Now we're not running to make it to heaven. No, no. Salvation is what puts you in the race. You have to get saved even to get at the starting block. You have to be born again to qualify for this race.

No man could run in the Olympic games, that is what our writer is referring to I believe, unless he was a citizen of that country for which he ran. You have to be a citizen of heaven to get in this race. No one is excused. The Apostle Paul, when he was late in life, said this in Philippians chapter three, verse 14, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

That is, I'm running for the tape and I'm pressing with every inch and every ounce of me. And then he said in Acts chapter 20, verse 24, "That I might finish my course with joy." Paul said, "I'm not going to stop running until the race is over." Now you know we are, we're not in a race with one another. We're in a pilgrimage.

I'm not trying to outdo you and outrun you. But I am in a race today, I am in a race today against sin, against Satan, against self. You know, it's kind of bad in a church where you have people trying to outdo somebody else. I'm not in competition with you. You don't need to be in competition with me.

I heard about two men who were out hiking and they looked behind them and there was a giant grizzly bear sniffing at their tracks. One man sat down on a log, took off his hiking boots and began to put on his running shoes. And his friend said, "Why are you doing that? You can't outrun this bear." He said, "I'm not going to outrun the bear. I'm just going to outrun you."

We're not in that kind of a race. We're in this thing together and I'm not racing against you and you're not racing against me, but God has put me in a race and there is a purpose to my life. And God have mercy on you if you don't have a purpose for your life, just drawing your breath and drawing your salary. No, you are in the race. There is a purpose to pursue.

Number two, if there's a purpose to pursue, there is a person to prepare. and that person is you. Now no athlete can run a race who does not prepare to run that race. And so how do we prepare? Well, look again in verse one. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Now he says in order to run a race, first of all, you have got to lay aside every weight. These are the things that would slow us down. Nobody runs a race in an overcoat. At least I've never seen one run a race in an overcoat. Why? Because an overcoat would weigh you down. Nobody wants to run with pockets full of lead.

Now what he is saying is, there are certain things that may not be wrong in themselves, but if they are weights, get rid of them. I think that we have a lot of people in our congregation today who are living fairly good lives, but they're just dragging around a lot of excess baggage. They can't do what they ought to do for the Lord Jesus Christ because of the excess baggage.

It may be a hobby. It may be a vacation home, and if you have one, I'm happy for you until it keeps you from running your race. It may be some friendship. It may be some reading material. Not bad in itself. You just don't wear an overcoat when you're running a race. Listen to me, folks. Life would be simple if it were a choice between good and bad.

It is a choice between good and best and good things become bad things when they keep you from best things. Good things become bad things when they keep you from best things. Lay aside every weight. In my life, I've had to come up, snub up against some things that I really wanted to do, things that I loved and would enjoy doing, but I said, nope, that's not for me.

Now there is no law in the Bible said I can't do it. That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient." That is a word we don't use a whole lot, isn't it? Expedient. When you think of expedient, what do you think of? What is another word like it? Expedition.

If you're on an expedition, you're going somewhere. Paul says, everything may be lawful for me, but if it doesn't help me in my expedition, if it's not expedient, if it's an anchor that keeps me out of the harbor, then I have got to lay it aside. Now I can't tell you what it may be. But is there something that is hobbling your influence for Christ?

Is there perhaps a job in the church that you could do or perhaps some witnessing that you could do or something else, but there is something competing there? And you're not running as well as you ought to run. You lay aside every weight and then the sin that does so easily beset us. And the word "beset" is a word which literally means in the Greek, to entangle.

Now there are some things that weigh us down and we need to get rid of them. There are other things that trip us up. Sin will trip you up. You lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us. Most of us want more faith, right? Now I tell you, the most deadening thing to faith is sin. Faith and sin are antithetical.

And you say, "Why don't I have more faith than I have?" Well, it's because you've got sin in your life. You say, "Pastor, you ought not to talk to me that way." Well, you come up after the service and apologize to me and I'll forgive you. Sin in your life keeps you from believing God. That's the reason that same writer of Hebrews says, "Beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief."

You say, "Well, I have intellectual problems." No, you've got dirty rotten sin. An evil heart of unbelief. You say, "Well, now wait a minute. I know some intellectuals who don't believe." Well, I know some intellectuals who do. You say, "Well, I know some very plain and uneducated people who believe." I know some plain and uneducated people who don't.

What we believe is not contrary to reason, it just goes beyond reason. Unbelief never comes out of the head, it comes out of the heart. "Beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." The Holy Spirit is come to convince the world of sin because they believe not. Unbelief is not an intellectual problem. It may show as an intellectual problem, but down in the heart, it is sin.

And if you're going to run the race, and the race is the race of faith, you have to get rid of those things that weigh you down and get rid of those things that trip you up. Now I don't know what your sin is. People have a besetting sin. Something they come back to and fail at over and over and over again.

Now I can't look at you, you all look holy this morning. You all just look so sanctified. But look into your heart. Is there a besetting sin? Something that you wrestle with over and over and over again? And you wonder why you don't have the faith that you ought to have. Lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us.

What I'm trying to say is this: if you're having difficulty with faith, try repentance. Did you know that God puts certain things in order in the Bible? For example, the Bible says, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you." Grace always comes before peace. It never says peace and grace, always grace and peace. Again, here's another order: believe and be baptized.

The Bible never says be baptized and believe. We don't baptize little babies, they can't believe. The Bible teaches believer's baptism: "If thou believest with all thine heart." Now if you were immersed or sprinkled or something before you were saved, that doesn't count as baptism. That is like having your funeral before you die.

God's order is believe and be baptized. You say, "Well, Pastor, what are you driving at?" Well, just as the Bible speaks of grace and peace and belief and baptism, it speaks of repentance and faith in that order. Repentance and faith. If you're having difficulty, I say with faith, try repentance.

There is nothing more debilitating, more stultifying to faith in your heart as a harbored sin, sin that does so easily beset us. And so if you're going to run a race, there has got to be some conditioning. There is a person to prepare. You lay aside the weights and you do away with that sin by confession and repentance that would trip you up and cause you to fail in your race. There is a person to prepare.

Now next thing I want you to see, there is a price to pay. I've done enough running and so have some of you to know, in a sprint like that, when you get to the finish line, your lungs are like they're on fire. You say, "If I can just reach that finish line." But you're taking that one more step. You pay a price to be an athlete.

Now look at it again here in Hebrews 12:1. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." Now here's the price: "and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Now the word patience here doesn't mean the ability to thread a needle.

The word patience is a much heavier word than that. It means endurance. Endurance is a chief factor in running a race. Now listen. I don't care how far ahead you may be in any race, if you quit running, you're going to lose. You're going to lose. I don't care how far ahead you are. You're going to lose if you quit running.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Are you looking for a cheap way and easy way, a lazy way to serve God? Forget it, you're not going to find it. We are called on to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We are called on to run with patience, endurance, the race that is set before us.

If you possess it, it must possess you. You must weep over it, pray over it, work over it, concentrate on it. Nobody just ambles over the finish line. You set your heart, your mind, and you finish your course. Second Timothy chapter four, verse seven, Paul said, "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course."

I finished my course. He did not quit running until the course was finished. John 19, verse 30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished" and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. They endured. So must you endure. One of these days we're going to cross the finish line.

You will have come to the end of the line. We don't know when that's going to be. You may be a teen, but you might be at the very end of your course. One of these days, however, I'm going to breathe my last breath and I'm not going to stop running, God helping me, until I do. I don't want to stroll over the finish line.

I want to hit the finish line with a blaze of energy and power going for the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, "Well, you'll be an old coot." Make no difference. Make no difference. Though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day. That is the reason you are to be an athlete no matter what your physical condition is, no matter what your economic condition.

You are in a race and that race is not over until you bow your head like the Lord Jesus and say, "It is finished. It is done." There is a price to pay. And next, there is a promise to plead. Because it may sound difficult to you today and many of you are saying, "Well, I don't think I'm able to do what the pastor's preaching about today."

Well, the Lord God who calls you is the Lord God who enables you. Notice verse two. We are to be "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now this passage of scripture says that we are to be looking unto Jesus.

Why? Because he is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the originator of our faith and he's the goal of our faith. You see, our Lord has not just told us to go out and do our best. If the Lord Jesus Christ wants me to have faith, he is the author. That word means file leader, example, originator. He is the author of the faith.

Faith is not something that I can conjure up. I can't make myself believe. Jesus gives me faith. Jesus gives me faith. He is the author of my faith and he is the finisher of my faith, that is he is the one to whom I am running. He is the goal as well as the coach as well as the one who fires the gun at the starting block.

From A to Z, he is the author, the finisher of our faith. Faith comes by looking to Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. Now it doesn't say looking at Jesus. There is a subtle thing here, but I want you to notice the difference. Jesus is not merely our example. He is our example, but this says looking unto Jesus.

It doesn't mean look at him, but look unto him. Depend upon him. That's what this verse means when it says, "looking unto Jesus." Jesus, I look to you. You're the one who is going to put faith in my heart. You're the one who is going to encourage me along the way. You are the author and the finisher of our faith.

That is the reason I frequently say that it's really not a big compliment to call someone a great man of faith. Now I hope that you're a great man of faith and I hope you're a man of great faith or a woman of great faith. But if you are, that's wonderful, but you can't boast about it because Jesus is the author and the finisher of your faith, isn't he?

He's the one that you gain faith from by looking unto him. I often use this example. People say, "Pastor, do you travel?" Yes, some. "Well, does Joyce always go with you?" Not always. "Well, when you are away from home, who keeps an eye on Joyce? Who watches her for you?" I say, "What do you mean?"

"Well, how do you know she doesn't have a boyfriend? Or how do you know that she's not going down to the casinos or whatever while you're gone?" I'm not worried about it. Not worried? Not worried. Not at all? Not at all. Not even a little bit? None, not a none. Don't worry about it. "Oh," you say, "what great faith." I said, "No, what a great wife. Amen. What a great wife."

So if I have faith in God, I really shouldn't take a lot of credit for it, although I want faith. I don't say what a great believer I am. I say what a great savior I have. You see? Looking unto Jesus.

Guest (Male): Are you living that way, thinking about the great Savior that you have? Coming up tomorrow, part two of this vital message from Adrian Rogers. But as you've listened today, maybe you have questions about who Jesus is, what he means to you, how to place your faith fully in what he did for you on the cross.

Go to our Find God's Love page at the website lwf.org/radio. You'll discover resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a nonprofit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers.

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