The Walk of Faith

Pacers and pacer groups are a standard part of any 26.2 mile marathon.  A pacer is an experienced marathon runner who runs a steady pace and keeps track of that pace so that those following them can run the race at a particular pace in order to finish with a particular time.  At any marathon, there will be a number of pacers standing at the starting line holding a sign with a goal time above their head indicating the pace they plan to run.  A pace group is a group of runners who run a marathon following a particular experienced marathon runner.  A pacer and a pace group provide tangible motivation and encouragement to finish a race and accomplish their race goal.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a pacer and a pace group for life?

READ:  Hebrews 12:1-2

Living life in the same way as Jesus did requires ENDURING FAITH!  FAITH = Being fully convinced that Jesus Christ is to be the One who sets the PACE for your whole life from START to FINISH.  Jesus Christ stood at the beginning of the race of his life holding a sign above His head that read, “follow me”, “walk in the same way in which (I) walk (1 John 2:6).”  In other words, from birth to death, Jesus set the perfect pace necessary to endure the race of life.  The author of Hebrews says Jesus ran the race of life with “joy” even though it required “endur(ing) the cross”.  Jesus set the perfect pace with every thought, word, action, and decision of His life.  When running the race of life we need enduring faith to live in the same way Jesus did from the very beginning to the finish line.  How are we to run the race of life with enduring faith?

Running the race of life requires laying aside the WEIGHT and SIN that slow us down (Heb 12:1) – Running a marathon would be bad enough, but can you imagine running a marathon with a heavy backpack!?!  In order to keep pace with Jesus we need eliminate any “weight” or “sin” that slows us down in life.  Weight we need to lay aside might include worldliness or selfish priorities.  Sin we need to lay aside includes any way we choose to live our own lives that is in rebellion against God’s righteous standard.  Running with this worthless and destructive extra baggage will do more than just make running difficult, it will make running nearly impossible.

Running the race of life is a MARATHON and not a SPRINT (Heb 12:1) – A sprint is short and requires a brief burst of all the energy we’ve got.  It’s over almost as soon as it starts.  A marathon is long and requires a slow and consistent pace.  It goes on and on and you think you might never get to the finish line.  Many of us because we are running the wrong type of race, we run at the wrong pace, and aren’t running the race at all.  The race of life is not a sprint to church for an hour on Sunday.  The race of life is not chasing vigorously after the next “mountaintop experience”.  The race of life is a daily lifestyle that includes living like Jesus in all our thoughts, words, actions, and decisions.  This type of race is extremely difficult, but God promises to provide the endurance necessary to run it.

Running the race of life requires LOOKING to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) – A pacer in a marathon will do us no good if they are not the focus of our attention.  If we run our own race we will either go too fast or too slow, neither of which will be the right pace necessary to make it to the finish line.  In order to run the right pace we must continually, “look to Jesus”.  He is the “founder” of our faith, the starting line of our faith, the One who is its source and beginning.  Jesus is the “perfecter” of our faith, the finish line of our faith, the One who is our goal and ultimate measure of our success (Eph. 4:13).  Philippians 1:6 says that it is Jesus, “who began a good work in you (and) will bring it to completion”.  As we look to Jesus and keep pace with Him, we can be confident that we are running the race of our lives in a way that will get us to the finish line!

CONCLUSION
In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Living like Jesus doesn’t add a heavy weight to our race, in fact, it lightens us to be able to be free to run.  Our race is lightened because Jesus carry’s our burden’s for us.  Jesus carried the burden of the cross so that our shoulders could be free to run unhindered (1 John 5:3).  Are you running the marathon of life carrying a heavy burden or are you running unhindered by living the same way Jesus lived?

The Walk of Suffering

Louis Zamperini was an Olympic track runner who enlisted into the US military in 1941 at the beginning of World War 2.  In 1943 Louis was captured by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war after surviving a plane crash and 47 days on a raft in the Pacific Ocean.  Louis spent 2 years as a prisoner of war being mistreated and severely beaten.  On one occasion, he was forced to hold a heavy wooden beam above his head at gunpoint.  At the end of the war Louis was freed and later became a Christian at a Billy Graham crusade.  As a result of Louis becoming a Christian, he miraculously returned to Japan to share the gospel with those who mistreated him and he once hated.

READ:  1 Peter 2:19-25, 4:1-5

Living life in the same way as Jesus did requires SUFFERING for the sake of OTHERS!  SUFFERING = Enduring the pain and hardship of MISTREATMENT by others without RETALIATION.  Throughout Jesus’ life, after His arrest, all the way up until the moment He died Jesus endured constant mistreatment including criticism, rejection, insults, false accusations, threats on His life, betrayal, wrongful arrest, being spit on, punched, slapped, mocked, made fun of, and finally crucifixion as a criminal.  Amazingly, Jesus never did anything wrong to deserve any of this mistreatment!  Even more amazingly, although Jesus endured a lifetime of unjust suffering, He never once retaliated in any way!  Why did He do it?  Peter said that Jesus, “suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example, so that (we) might follow in His steps”.  Every time Jesus endured suffering He had us in mind, and He wants us to live our lives in the same way.  How are we to respond to the mistreatment of others?

When we are mistreated by others we should not REVILE in return (1 Pet. 2:23) – Teenagers and siblings are professional revilers.  They tend to say things intended to hurt or injure others’ reputations.  To revile means to “insult”, “mock”, or “speak abusively” to someone.  Sadly, when we’ve been mistreated with words, it’s hard for us not to return the favor.  According to Peter when, “(Jesus) was reviled, He did not revile in return”.  Jesus endured the verbal mistreatment of others by speaking kindly to them or remaining silent (Mark 15:16-20, 29-32; Luke 22:63-65, 10-11, 35-43)!  Throughout our lives we can expect to be abused verbally by people in varying degrees of intensity, and yet we are to have a similar response each time, we are simply not to return the same type of mistreatment to them.  When we do, we are sharing in the suffering of Christ!

When we are mistreated by others we should not THREATEN in return (1 Pet. 2:23) – “I’m going to kill you”!  I’ve heard this threat a handful of times around our house, any one of us might use this threat out of anger when we feel that we’ve been mistreated and we want the one who mistreated us to know it is our desire to mistreat them in return.  According to Peter when, “(Jesus) suffered, He did not threaten”.  Jesus endured the mistreatment of others by doing good to them.  When we have been mistreated we are to refrain from declaring that we personally are going to make sure they get what they deserve.  Not threatening in return may not bring an end to the mistreatment we experience, but it will free us of being guilty of mistreatment as well.  Threats will only escalate the issue, whereas responding with love and kindness provide a powerful opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation to occur.

When we are mistreated by others we should ENTRUST ourselves to GOD who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23) - If we are not to stand up for ourselves when we are mistreated, what are we supposed to do?  According to Peter, instead of reviling or threatening Jesus, “continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly”.  Jesus did not consider it His responsibility to make things right for Himself, instead He fully trusted God to do it for Him!  Paul said in Romans 12:19, “never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’”.  One day, God will judge everyone fairly and give them the consequences they deserve for what they have done to us, which frees us from the need to do it for ourselves!

CONCLUSION
Philippians 1:29 says, “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake”.  Paul wrote these words joyfully while he was “imprisoned” in a jail cell “for Christ” (Phil. 1:4, 13-14).  We are not just called to believe in what Jesus did, we are called to participate in the life of suffering that He lived!  Do you merely believe in Jesus Christ or are you also sharing in His sufferings?