Run The Amazing Race From Start To Finish, VBS 2007
| Title: | Run The Amazing Race From Start To Finish, VBS 2007 |
|---|---|
| Bible Book: | Hebrews 12 : 1-2 |
| Author: | Franklin L. Kirksey |
| Subject: | Vacation Bible School; Christian Living; Running the Race |
| Objective: | Editor's Note from Lifeway, "Pastor Franklin Kirksey is the author of 'Sound Biblical Preaching.' He preached this sermon to his church and shared it with pastor at a 2007 Vacation Bible School training clinic at the Baldwin Baptist Association in Silverhill, Ala. We appreciate Dr. Kirksey allowing us to publish it here." |
| File: |
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| Introduction | ||
| I. Before The Race: Preparation | ||
| A. Looking Back | ||
| B. Laying Aside | ||
| II. During The Race: Determination | ||
| III. After The Race: Jubilation | ||
Introduction
We often associate greatness with fame. We glamorize others' actions and assign them hero status. There is nothing wrong with heroes. We need more of them as role models in our world. But, we must not think less of ourselves because we have not or cannot achieve hero status. The fame we associate with heroism requires more than greatness-it often requires special circumstances.
Could Audie Murphy have become the most-decorated American soldier if he had been drafted in peacetime?
What if Mary Lou Retton had been born before the modern Olympics?
What if George Washington Carver had been born in an area that did not grow sweet potatoes and peanuts?
Could Roger Staubach have been a hero if he'd been born in a place or time where football wasn't the king of sports?
Of course not. So while part of being a hero-of being the best-comes from within, some of it comes from without. For this reason, you can't judge yourself harshly just because situations do not come along to prove your heroic qualities.
Most of the people we call heroes were going about their business, doing their best when special circumstances arrived. An old motivational speaker liked to say, 'When opportunity knocks, you have to jump up and answer the door!' 'How do you know it's opportunity?' someone in the audience would invariably ask. He would answer, 'You don't. You have to keep jumping!'
Roger Staubach, writing in "Winning Strategies in Selling," talked about the role events outside our control play in success. A quarterback has no control over the field position his team has when he gets the ball. He said if the defensive team gives you the ball in good field position, then you're in a good position to be a hero. On the other hand, if you get the ball deep in your own territory, being a hero isn't easy.
In life, some of us inherit better field position than others. If your ancestors ran from 5'6" to 5'8" tall, you're in poor field position to become a professional basketball star. There have been short basketball stars, Spud Webb is an excellent example. Although less than 5'8" tall, he is a true superstar and has won the NBA dunking contest against players a foot and a half taller! Basketball today is a game of giants. A player of less than average height like Spud couldn't do a thing about his 'field position', all he could do was do his best-and that was enough to make him a superstar.
That's the point. Good field position is a blessing, but poor field position can be overcome. . . .
We become great by using our motives, means, and opportunities to continually work toward our best. If the special circumstances present themselves, we may achieve fame, but that's icing on the cake. The true superstar was great before he or she became famous, and many famous people are not great at anything. . . .
A golfing buddy once lost a round by 12 strokes and was ecstatic! Even though he lost, he had played the best round of golf of his life. He was happy because he wasn't trying to beat his opponent's score-he was trying to beat his own best score.
Being the best was not as important to him as doing his best. The same is true with each of us. You may never be the best-but you can be the best you can be. You can be better tomorrow than you are today and better next week than you are tomorrow. It takes time, training, and dedication-but every individual can do it! You can succeed because you're not in a game where there's only one winner and everyone else is a loser. You're in the game of life, a game in which everyone can be a winner. You're not competing against the best in the world you're competing against your own previous best effort. Leaders know the only record they are trying to beat is their own."
Source: Randy Pennington & Marc Bockman, On My Honor, I Will (Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House, An Imprint of Destiny Image Publishers, Inc. (r), 1995), pp. 30-33.
In a message titled "Where Have All the Heroes Gone?" Kenneth O. Gangel emphatically states: "In reality, of course, there is no hero in the Bible except God. But there were those people God used, and in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have a record of sixteen individuals specifically named and thousands of others implied who make up the 'heroes of the faith' through the ages of the Old Testament and even to the present hour.
The Bible writer took quill in hand to pen his tribute, and, describing their torture and death, he wrote, '(Of whom the world was not worthy. . . these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect' (Heb. 11:38-40).
As Hebrews 12 opens, we are called to face up to our responsibility in the great race of the Christian life.
Source: Kenneth O. Gangel, "Where Have All the Heroes Gone?" Hebrews 12:1-2 Available from: http://library.guidogardens.com/
"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)
I. Before The Race: Preparation
"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us. . ." (Hebrews 12:1a)
A. Looking Back
Hebrews 11 highlights the "Heroes of the Faith". It has been called the "Hall of Faith" or "Faith's Hall of Fame".
We are told "Remember the Alamo!" There is a sign at the entrance to this fort in Texas that reads: "Be silent, friend, here heroes died to blaze a trail for other men."
Someone writes, "Note that the word is 'witnesses', and not 'spectators'. The popular conception is that this refers to those who have gone to Heaven and who are now watching us run the race down here. The real point that is emphasized in this section of scripture, however, is that the great heroes of faith who are mentioned in Hebrews Eleven, and all others who have lived by faith, witness to us of the power of faith-as Abel, for example, who 'being dead yet speaketh' (Hebrews 11:4).
Though these witnesses encourage us in the race they all failed in the race, and they are not perfect examples of faith. We emphasize this again because it is so important in view of what follows. Abraham failed, Isaac failed, Jacob failed, Moses failed, Gideon failed, Samson failed-they all failed. Where then, is there an example of faith which is perfect? Is there one in whom faith has been supremely revealed in its working? Yes, there is!
The perfect example of faith is Jesus. Notice that it was Jesus, as man, and as our representative Who perfectly demonstrated the power and principle of faith. We think of Abel worshipping by faith, Enoch walking by faith, of Noah working by faith, of Abraham obeying by faith-but the Lord Jesus is the supreme illustration of faith. Think of Him worshipping, walking, working, obeying . . .! As the perfect man He perfectly trusted God."
source: Available from: http://library.guidogardens.com Accessed: 01/24/07
B. Laying Aside
"every weight"
Weights are lawful things but they are not expedient-1 Corinthians 6:12
"sin which so easily ensnares us"
Sin must not be tolerated in any shape or form-2 Timothy 2:19
II. During The Race: Determination
". . .let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. . ." (Hebrews 12:1b)
Marchant A. King explains that the word "race" means "a grueling contest." He also states: "So then we are to run this race and press forward in this contest with sin, self and Satan 'with patient endurance; (or 'perseverance') by the strength that faith knows is in Christ."
King also comments on the phrase "set before us"-"We can find real help, too, in the truth given in the phrase 'set before us' or 'laid out for us.' He who is 'too wise to make a mistake and too loving to be unkind' is the One who has marked out the course. The provision in Christ will be adequate to the need."
Source: Marchant A. King, "Let's Study Hebrews 12" Available from: http://library.guidogardens.com Accessed 01/24/07
A Spiritual Race (Philippians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 9:24-26)
A Steady Pace (Galatians 2:2; Galatians 5:7)
A Set Face (Isaiah 50:7)
Calvin Coolidge, thirtieth President of the United States, said, "Press on: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Source: Randy Pennington & Marc Bockman, On My Honor, I Will (Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House, An Imprint of Destiny Image Publishers, Inc. (r), 1995), pp. 42.
III. After The Race: Jubilation
". . .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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).
One commentator explains, "The Greek word translated "looking unto Jesus" literally reads, 'looking off unto Jesus'. Do you see?-not looking to Abel, or to Enoch, or to Noah, but looking off from these to Jesus, for only with Him will the vision be satisfied. Here also is the secret of the life of faith, of running the race with patience, without weights and without sin to encumber us, and of being a victorious, holy, happy and useful Christian-'looking off unto Jesus'-away from sin, away from self, away from failure, away from people, and away from circumstances-to Jesus.
As we contemplate Jesus as the Perfecter of faith we must remember that He is the One Who perfects faith in us.
He is 'the author and finisher of our faith'. . .He does initiate faith in the believer, bestow faith upon the believer and maintain faith in the believer, because faith is the gift of God-Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:8-10 and Philippians 1:6. The faith we possess is His gift to us, and He perfects it in us. One meaning of the word 'Perfecter' is this: He is One Who brings us safely through to the end. Therefore, let us look off unto Jesus, to Jesus only, and to Jesus always and for ever. He will never change, He will never fail, and He will never let us go-Hebrews 13:5-6!"
Source: Available from: http://library.guidogardens.com Accessed: 01/24/07
Marchant A. King makes the following observation about the phrase "joy set before Him"-"What then, was this 'joy set before Him'? Primarily it was the joy of accomplishing the Father's will, the providing of redemption for man, that God might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus."
Source: Marchant A. King, "Let's Study Hebrews 12" Available from: http://library.guidogardens.com Accessed 01/24/07
Hebrews 12:1b-2 says, ". . .run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
The psalmist, David, writes in a similar fashion: "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).
May we run the amazing race from start to finish!
