Shannon Faulkner made headlines a few years ago as she crusaded to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, an all male military academy.  After a long court battle, she won the right to enter the academy.  However, she couldn’t endure the exercise program required of all cadets, so a few days later dropped out, never to be heard of since.

In contrast there is a professional tennis player, Monica Seles.  Years ago she had a crazed man jump out of the stands and plunged a knife into her back.  It was a horrifying experience, but she did not allow that to stop her.  Once wounds were healed she began playing again.  Since then she has won the British Open, and has placed 2^nd in the U.S. Open.1

When someone starts the Christian life, and then gives up when thing get bad, they get a lot of ridicule and become a discouragement to others.  A familiar saying is, “winners never quit, and quitters never win.”  That can be true in the Christian faith as well.  If you will turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12 in verses 1-3 we see what I am talking about.

Here it says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

In this passage the Christian life is compared to a marathon and not a sprint.  In a sprint you run fast for a short distance.  In a marathon you have to have endurance.  You have to go through a lot to reach the end.  The question is will you reach the end of the race.

As Christians it is very important that we finish the race with perfection.  As we look this morning I will give you four steps to consider in order to, achieve perfection in the race towards God.

In this scene we will see step one. (show clip)2

Step one to consider in achieving perfection in the race is to be inspired by those who have gone before you.  We have to be inspired by those who have gone before us in this same race.  If you notice chapter 12 starts with the word “Therefore.”  That connects it to chapter 11 where it lists people who have been faithful in the past.  It mentions Noah and his patience while working on the ark.  Or how bout Abraham, who followed God even when the world wouldn’t.  Maybe it is Joseph who was faithful even when things were falling apart.  The list goes on with many other people and great lessons to learn.3

When you think of those before you, don’t simply think of the people of the bible.  Think of people who have influenced your life.  For instance, a youth minister who helped lead you into the ministry, or a parent that got you started in attending church.  Maybe it is a guy at work of school who you admired for their faith, and noticed they never quit running the race.  We defiantly need to look at those before us who have inspired us, and also realize that we are inspiring those younger than us in the same way.  Someone is watching us, and we need to run a good race as an example to him or her.

Now step two to consider in achieving perfection in the race is to run freely.  We are to run the race unhindered.  Could you imagine a race that the top athletes in the world are competing against each other?  Fractions of a second separate each runner.  As they approach the start line of the race you see that one of the runners has attached to his ankles 25-pound weights.  Of course this would never happen.  There would be no way possible for this man to win the race.  In the same way we as Christians can have now weights holding us back.

The scripture says to lay aside every thing that hinders us and the sin that entangles us.  We are to lay aside everything that is going to slow us down.  Get rid of any sinful thoughts, actions, or habits.  These things will trip you up and cause you to lose the race.

There is a terrible story told of a man who went out to play golf early one Saturday morning.  His wife became very concerned when he had not returned by dinnertime.  It wasn’t until about mid-night when he returned and came through the front door exhausted.  “Where have you been?”  she demanded.  “I’ve been playing golf” came the reply.  “But that was 18 hours ago.  What happened?”  “I was having the best game of my life.  I was two under par on the seventh hole.  It was then that right on the tee Harry had a heart attack and died.”  His wife still didn’t understand.  “After that it was hit the ball, drag Harry, hit the ball, drag Harry…”4

Is there something in your life like this that is slowing you down.  Do you carry something that hinders you race, are you dragging something behind that slows you down?  Why not get rid of it and run freely.

The third step to consider in achieving perfection in the race is to focus your attention on Jesus.  This is one thing that is absolutely essential in the race toward Christ.  We have to always be focused on Jesus, and we cannot allow ourselves to become unfocused on Him and focused on any other object.  Jesus went through many trials and temptations in His ministry, but He always focused on God.  We too have things that we go through in our lives, we too have to focus on Jesus and God in these times.  The author says in verse two, “…fix our eyes on Jesus.”  He doesn’t mention the prize that is Heaven, he mentions Jesus which is the only way that we can reach that prize.

A great example of keeping focused can be found in Walter Payton.  During a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers observed that Walter Payton, the Bears running back, had accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage.  The other announcer remarked, “Yeah, and that’s with someone knocking him down every 4.6 yards!”  Walter Payton, the most successful running back in the game, knew that everyone- even the best, gets knocked down.  The key to success is to get up and run again just as hard.  In the race of life we need to run in such a way as to get the prize.  We may get knocked down from time to time, but we always need to keep focused on Jesus.5

Another scripture that fits in here can be found in I Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24.  Here it says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  Well in order to run in a way to get the prize, we must focus on where we need to go.  As Christians and those who are not, the only way to get there is to go through Jesus.  Therefor, we must focus on Jesus.

Finally the fourth step to consider in achieving perfection in the race towards God is to run to the finish.  In an NCAA cross-country championship race held in Riverside, California, 123 of the 128 runners missed a turn.  One competitor, Mike Delcaco stayed on the proper course and attempted to wave others on to it as well.  He was only able to convince four other runners to follow him.  Asked what his competitors thought of his mid-race decision not to follow the crowd, Mike responded, “They thought it was funny that I went the right way.”6

I was in a similar situation when I ran cross-country in high school.  It was me and about 20 or 30 other people in the lead after about 1 mile of the race.  The lead man took the wrong turn, but none of us even realized it and continued following him.  The rest of the field of competitors stayed on the course and ran past us.  Finally we realized that we had done something wrong when we came to a tree line and a barb- wire fence that was un-passable.  By this time it was too late, the rest of the field of runners, were far to ahead of us to be caught.  However the group of us that had made the wrong turn decided to finish the race together.  We turned around and walked the rest of the race and all crossed the finish line walking side by side.

It is very important that we finish the race that we start.  If we don’t, we run the risk of giving a bad image to those who are attempting to run in such a way as to gain others to Christ as well.

By 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, at the Mexico City Olympics stadium it was beginning to darken.  The last man to finish the race was barley able to limp his way around the track.  He was bandaged and bleeding badly.  He had taken a serious fall earlier in the race and was bandaged up, however he demanded that he finish the race.  When finally crossed the finish line, one man dared to ask the question that all were asking, “You are badly injured.  Why didn’t you quit?  Why didn’t you give up?”  The man responded with dignity and said, “My country did not send me seven thousand miles to start this race.  My country sent me here to finish.”  In most races awards are given to those who finish first, in the Christian race awards are given to all those who finish.  God didn’t just send us here to start a race.  He sent us both to start and finish the race or task He has set out for you.

Henry Morrison was a great missionary in Africa for over 40 years.  Finally one day him and his wife decide to return home, not sure if they will even be remembered.  When they loaded the ship to go home they were on it with President Teddy Roosevelt, who they did not know.  As the boat pulled into the harbor there were thousand of people there, cheering and bands were playing.  People were carrying signs with “Welcome Home” written across them.  Morrison was surprised to see every one there, seemingly cheering for him.  As they grabbed their luggage and turned around everyone was gone.  They had not come to see him, but to see and welcome Roosevelt home.  As Morrison went to his hotel he was heavy hearted.  He asked his wife, “why was no one here to welcome us home?”  She responded to him with words that Henry Morrison never forgot.  She said, “Henry you have forgotten something, you’re not home yet!”7

How true is that.  We are not home until we reach Heaven.  It doesn’t matter what takes place in this life; your reward is in Heaven, not here.  We have to always remember that “We are not home yet.”

In closing it would have been easy for the runners in the race to give up, or for the injured guy to quit the race.  It would have been no stretch for Henry Morrison to be upset and give up as well.  However, they didn’t we are to not give up either.  V. Raymond Edman was the former president at Wheaton College.  Edman once said, “It is always too soon to quit.”  It is always too early to give up.  How did Edman live this out you may ask.  The Wheaton College president was in the middle of a chapel address when he died of a heart attack.8  You never know when the race is going to be over, you just have to make sure that you don’t quit until you have finished the race.

Once again the four step to consider in achieving perfection in the race toward God are; be inspired by those who have gone before us, run freely, focus our attention of Jesus, and run to the finish line