Be in it to Win it: Part 1

Living life to win the race.

I believe most of us want to live life well. We want to be able to live in a way that is significant.What we find though is that some people seem to run the race of life well and others seem to stumble through it. What does it take to live life well? What does it mean to be able to live a life of significance over the long term.

Our society is an "instant" society. We want everything now, but life is not an "everything now" proposition. There is a saying that good things come to those who wait.This is really about patience and teaching kids to be patient. But life doesn't come to those who wait. Life comes to those who choose to live a significant life.

I'm using the term significant because we often think in terms of success,and prominence, but significance is more important. Significance is more about the legacy we leave for others than it is about success. Significance is about how we live and not about what we have.

We are all called to a significant life, but a significant life does not just happen. A significant life comes from understanding who we are in God and what he has called us to, then living our life from that.

Eph 1:4
Long ago before the creation of the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

This is our position in Christ.

Eph 1:18
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realise what a rich and glorious inheritance ha has given us.

In Hebrews 11 we read of the people of faith and then in Hebrews 12 the writer says, because of all this, because of who we are, because we have such an inheritance, run the race of life with perseverance.

Hebrews 12: 1-3
Therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip of every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.

Run with perseverance the race set before us. Hebrews 12 in the KJV says "Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race set before us."

Notice we do this keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
This verse has some great thoughts about living the life set before us and being in it to win it.

Lay aside - put off and out away, get rid of burdens weights and encumbrances. The NLT says strip them away.

KJV Get rid of sins that beset - the word beset or entangle means the things that skillfully surround us, that try to entrap us and prevent us from running freely.

The word here for sin is a word that includes both sins of deed and of thought.

Here are some thoughts around what Jesus said sins.

Matt 12:34b-36
For whatever is in your heart detetmines what you say. A good person produces good words from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil words from and evil heart. And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgement day of every idle word you speak.

Hebrews says to strip away the things that stop us living the life we are called to and to especially deal with the things that come from our heart and cause us to sin.
Be deliberate!

Remember that the good news is that God will bring to completion that which he started.

Phil 1:6
And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ comes back again

God is at work, and we too are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling or as the NLT says:

Phil 2:12b-13
Put into action God's saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.

God is at work in us to will and to act. What does it mean to run with perseverance?

When I think about perseverance, knowing all this I think about the marathin runner. The Marathon runner runs a great distance, and originally it was a great distance run on purpose to get news of the ooucome iof a battle through to commanders: A race with purpose

If we are to run with oerseverance,what do marathon runners do? They train alot and they train diligently with an end goal in mind, they eat the right things and they prepare well. On the whole, most of the innformation around marathon running was about dress right, prepare well, hydrate properly. Proper preparation, then good follow through and aquital of the race is what is important.

In 2013, what does perseverance look like in an instant gratification world. How can we over come the temptation for short term gratification instead of long term gain? What does our marathon look like? How well prepared are we for the race we are to run?

The writer to Hebrews probably had the ancient Greek games in mind when he wrote this. When those guys ran their races they stripped off everything so that there was no hindrance to the progress. This is what the writer means when he says get rid of the things that slow us down. Those things are an encumbrance that we don't need to be carrying and we actually are not supposed to be carrying.

In fact in Hebrews what this means is that we exert ourselves to the utmost, against struggles, annoyances, obstacles etc that stand in the way of faith, holiness and a desire to spread the word. Colossians speaks of patient endurance with joy; the ongoing, the long haul, not a "tried that and it didn't work" attitude.

Anything worthwhile takes time and energy and perseverance. Paul says in Phil 3 he will put behind him everytjing he once counted important and push forward - not that he already attained it, but he would forsake all else and push forward to receive a heavenly reward.

Some thought around putting off short term gratification for the long term gain.

1. Get rid of excess baggage

The excess baggage we carry stops us from running the race well and from running to win. It trips you up. If you are going overseas and you have excess baggage you pay for it, it costs you.  It's the same when we run God's race of life for us. We need to be running the race; we are in it, but if we are to win it, we need to lose the excess baggage that trips us up and costs us a lot of time and energy.

The writer to Hebrews says get rid of the excess baggage.

What is the excess baggage that we carry ?

People that pull us down - the people in our life who take our time and energy and are always negative.

Bad habits that we have developed - those things that hinder us - sleeping in, eating the wrong food. Following and holding on to things that stop us moving forward - music and movies that feed us with rubbish

Grudges and  unforgiveness that cripples us spiritually and emotionally.
Sin - he things that we do that we know are wrong and that we struggle with.

Matt 5:30
If your hand - even if it is your stronger hand - causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your  whole body to be thrown into hell.

Matt 18:8
So if you hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter heaven crippled or lame than to be thrown into the unquenchable fire with both hands and feet.

If something causes you to sin get rid of it.

The past that intrudes and trips us up and lies to us - Paul says he will put the past behind him.

Phil 3:12-14
I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working towards that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No my dear brothers I am not yet all I should be but I am focussing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the need of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven.

Paul says he is working to make the changes necessary and to get rid of the things that trouble him. He is not focussing on the past, or letting it intrude, he is forgetting the past, and looking at what lies ahead.

What is your excess baggage?
What is God asking you to throw off?

Are you getting caught up in sin - the enemy has set it up to entagle you and to craftily beset you?

2. Wear the right Clothes for the race

This is not about our physical clothes and how we dress although can I suggest wearing clothes appropriate to the occassion.

Going to a ball - wear a ball gown; running, wear running clothes; walking - wear good hiking boots and clothes etc.

The right clothes I speak of here is the right attitude - wear the right attitudes and the right characteristics.

Col 3:8-10
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage,  malicious behaviour, slander and dirty language. Don't lie to each other because you have stripped off your old evil nature and its wicked deeds. In its place you have clothed yourself with a brand new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.

Col 3:12-14
Since God chose you to be holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. You must make allowances for each others faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others also. And the most important peace of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what ninds us all together in harmony.

Don't put off getting the right clothes. Get rid of what is inappropriate; chuck out the clothes that are no longer working for us; chuck out the attitudes that are not right, they don't work for you long term.

Notice that the runner in a marathon, or in any race for that matter is not worried about what others are wearing. They make sure that what they have is right and they don't make a fuss about the person next to them. We are each running our own race and we are to get rid of the behaviour and the attitudes that slow us down and clothe ourselves with the right clothes for the race.

Get rid of the things that hinder. Our attitudes can hinder us or help us

What attitudes are we carrying around that we need to get rid of?
What pieces of "clothing" are we wearing that is hindering us?
What will you replace it with?

Phil 2:2-8
Our attitude is to be like that of Christ's. He did not demand and cling to rights instead he humbled himself and became obedient.

3. Focus on what is ahead

Run the race set before us. We are in the race and in it to win it. Our life is spread out before us and is set before us. The race is not behind us, it is not what has already happened. Its the race that is set before us, which means it doesn't matter where you are at today, what is important is that which is ahead of you.

Endurance, living for the long haul, requires us to have a focus. What is our focus? The writer to Hebrews talks about looking to Jesus who enables us to run and not grow weary. He says, keep your focus on Jesus, keep your focus on what he has called you to.

Paul says to the Philippians, that his focus is the reward in from of him, the heavenly reward. He is focussing on what lies ahead and not what is behind. When we focus on what is ahead of us, we stop being distracted by the past.

Ecclesiastes 5:19-20
And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life that is indeed from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reason for joy.

Eph 1:3 says that God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. We are blessed, we are wealthy. God has placed us here in this time and place to run the race set before us, not to run each other's race but to run our race. When we understand that God has given us a purpose and we accept that and run the race before us, we have very little time to worry about what has already gone because the focus in on the future.

Focus on what you are supposed to be focussing on and the past won't be an issue. Focus on rewards and eternal outcomes. We often want to focus on short term gain, not long term reward and fulfilment.

What is it that we want to achieve?
What is it that is important to us and what is it that is the reason for being?

Whether we are in business, professionals, sports people etc, the long term is important and the goal that lies ahead is important. Those who are training for the Olympics train for many years, they keep the long term in mind which enables them to move forward in the short term. Focus on what lies ahead.

Where is your focus?
What is it that God  asking you to focus on?
What goals has he set before you to pursue?
What will you change to ensure you stay focused?

Conclusion
God has placed before us an amazing life of purpose. A race that he has set up and planned for us to win.We are to run that race to win.Throw off the things that hinder, clothe ourselves with love and run with perseverance focussing on the purpose of God and the end goal.