Man, the title of my sermon this morning
is lessons from ultra running.
Lessons from ultra running.
Now, ultra running is a sport
where you run really long distances,
longer than a marathon,
and usually they're run off-road
on really difficult terrain
and maybe even in bad weather conditions
or things like that.
Now, I'm not a big ultra runner myself
or anything like that.
I've dabbled in it a little bit
and I've learned some valuable lessons
that really carry over into the Christian life.
And I wanna give those lessons this morning
that are gonna help you in your Christian life
because the Bible often relates our Christian life
to a race.
It talks about running with patience,
the race that is set before us.
But the first place I wanna have you turn
is Hebrews chapter number 10.
Hebrews chapter number 10.
One of the most important lessons that I've learned,
number one, is that fellowship is important.
Fellowship is important.
Camaraderie is important.
You know, in our Christian lives,
we need to be around other Christians
that can encourage us and motivate us.
And this is really what the local church is all about.
It's about getting together
with other like-minded believers,
encouraging and motivating one another.
Look what the Bible says there
in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24.
And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works.
And so the Bible says that we can provoke one another
to love and good works.
We can motivate each other to be better Christians.
Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching.
And so you see that kind of one another aspect
of the fact that this is a mutually beneficial relationship
when we get together as a church, when we assemble together.
And think about when you go soul winning,
how much easier it is to go soul winning
with a soul winning partner than to go by yourself.
I've gone soul winning by myself many times.
When I first started the church,
I was constantly going by myself
because I didn't have a soul winning partner.
And it is a drag to go soul winning by yourself.
But when you have a partner with you,
it makes it so much more enjoyable
because that friendship and fellowship
and camaraderie helps you to keep on going.
You know, the Bible says in Acts 2 42,
and they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine
and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
So this is a part of our Christian life.
Well, we read our Bibles, we pray, we go soul winning,
but we also have fellowship with one another.
And that relationship that we have
with our fellow Christians, our fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ is important.
You know, the Bible says iron sharpeneth iron,
so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Now, here's what I noticed this about running.
Now, I'm the type of person
where I like to exercise by myself.
Some people, they are big on exercising with other people.
But for me, it's more of a solitary activity.
And so the vast majority of the time,
it's something that I do by myself.
But you know, I've noticed
that when you're running a really long distance,
like when you're actually running
one of these really long races or something like that,
that the camaraderie of running
with other people can be huge.
It can actually make a big difference.
And the reason I realized that is because I participated
in an event where there were very few people signed up.
And so I was pretty much just by myself
for a really long time.
And what's funny is that I never even thought
that I was necessarily benefiting that much
from being with other people.
And I never would have thought that I kind of needed
that camaraderie or fellowship on the trail.
But yet when it wasn't there, I noticed that it was gone.
And then not only that, but after hours and hours by myself,
I started running with this other guy and talking to him.
And you know what I noticed is that not only
did I start running a little faster
and feeling a little bit better,
but I noticed like it seemed like he started
to go a little faster.
He started feeling better, kind of running up
some steeper hills and everything like that.
And it was just amazing how just talking to somebody
and just having that camaraderie can instantly give
a little boost even to both parties.
And you start going a little better, faster
and feeling better.
And you know, that's the way the Christian life is.
We might think that we don't even need that support
or we can do it on our own or whatever,
but yet when it's there, you do better, right?
Whether you think you need it or not,
when you're in a church, you're gonna do better.
When you have a Christian buddy, you're gonna do better.
When you have a soul winning partner,
you're gonna do better.
Whether you necessarily think so or not,
it's true that Iron Sharp is there.
We as Christians, as a group are greater
than the sum of our parts.
And one verse that I like to think about,
you don't have to turn there.
If you wanna turn to back to Ecclesiastes four
where we started, but I like to think about this verse
where in Joshua, it says one man of you
shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God,
he it is that fight for you as he had promised.
So there's that verse where it says one man of you
shall chase a thousand, but then in Deuteronomy,
verse 30 of chapter 32, it says,
how should one chase a thousand
and two put 10,000 to flight,
except their rock had sold them
and the Lord had shut them up.
And I always think about the fact
that it talks about one of you chasing a thousand
and two of you not putting 2,000 to flight,
but putting 10,000 to flight.
It's almost like two people are 10 times
as effective as one person, right?
So as a group, we can sometimes be greater
than the sum of our parts.
And so that's why we don't wanna forsake
the assembling of ourselves together.
And some people would just maybe listen to preaching online
as a substitute for actually joining a local church,
but there really is no substitute
for being a part of a local congregation
and having Christian friends.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse nine,
two are better than one,
because the Lord for their labor,
for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow,
but woe to him that is alone when he falleth,
for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat,
but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him
and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
And again, if you weave three cords together,
it's not three times as strong,
it's more than three times as strong
because of the fact that it's greater
than the sum of its parts.
And that's how we are as Christians as well.
So number one lesson is that fellowship is important, okay?
So don't underestimate the importance
of spending time with God's people.
It's important that you get fellowship.
You know, and this is why, by the way,
when we go on these trips, like to the Hopi reservation
or the Navajo reservation
or other small town soul winning trips,
it's never a wasted time when we, you know,
sit down at a restaurant halfway through the day.
You know, we do a bunch of soul winning
and then we sit down and actually have a meal
and hang out for an hour, hour and a half in between.
That's not a waste of time because that fellowship
is part of the trip, is part of the experience.
Not only are we doing soul winning,
but it's also like a team building activity right there
at the lunchtime.
Because different times people have had an idea of,
hey, why don't we just do like a sack lunch
and then we can make it real fast
and we can just only have a half hour
and just crank it out, eat, get right back on.
So it's like, whoa, buddy, you know, no,
we want to sit down and we want to take a break
and want to hang out a little bit.
And you say, well, you know,
and it could be easy for people to just kind of
not see the point of that, but guess what?
There is a point in that.
It is important for us to have fellowship as God's people.
So that's number one.
Number two lesson from ultra running is
follow the course markings carefully, okay?
Follow the course markings carefully.
Now go, if you would, to Proverbs.
Actually, you're there in Hebrews 10.
Just flip over to Hebrews 12.
Go to Hebrews 12.
I'll read this for you from Proverbs 13.
It says, who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed,
but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
That's Proverbs 13, 13.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life
to depart from the snares of death.
Good understanding giveth favor, and I love this part,
but the way of transgressors is hard.
The way of transgressors is hard.
You say, oh, the Christian life is so hard.
You know what's even harder is when you get off course.
You know what's even harder is when you're not following
the word of God and not living the Christian life
because the way of transgressors is hard.
The Christian life is hard in a good way.
Life is an unsaved person or life is a worldly person
out there is hard in a bad way.
And so the way of transgressors is hard.
Now, you know, why do I say this
about following the course markings carefully?
Because, you know, it can be extremely demoralizing
to go off course and end up already adding distance
to something that's already super long.
I mean, think about if you're already going
some super long distance, 31 miles, 50 miles or something,
you wanna do a little detour and add a mile to that
or two miles back
because you're not following the course markings.
That could be super demoralizing.
You know, I was running and this guy comes running up to me
and I could just look at this guy and think to myself,
this guy is a way better runner than I am.
Like this guy looks like he knows what he's doing,
he's flying.
So why is he running next to me at this point?
It didn't make any sense.
Like, how could I be at the same point as this guy
when he's clearly a way better runner?
And he said, oh, I took a wrong turn
and accidentally added three miles.
You know, it's already some super long thing
and then he adds three miles.
I mean, can you imagine how depressing
and demoralizing that would be?
And so, you know, the lesson that I would bring over
into the Christian life from that is,
you know, the Christian life is hard enough
when you're following the rules,
when you're following God's plan,
when you're staying on course.
You know, how much harder when you don't listen to advice,
when you don't follow the markings,
when you don't follow these things.
And I'm not just down on this guy
because, you know, on the same day,
I got confused and went off course and a lot of people did.
And let me tell you something,
when you're not sure that you're on the right course,
it can be so extremely stressful
and just physically draining because it's like,
you can't focus on what you need to do physically
because you're worrying too much.
You're worrying like, am I even going the right way?
Is this the right way?
You know, I was running along and all of a sudden,
several miles into this thing,
all of a sudden, two guys just run past me
going the opposite direction of me on the trail.
And I'm like, what are you guys doing?
And it's like, they didn't really give me a clear answer.
I couldn't understand what they were saying.
Like, and I'm like, are they going the wrong way
or am I going the wrong way?
Because I feel like I'm going the right way,
but they're going the other way.
And so then it's like, then you just spend hours wondering.
And I'm telling you, like, I noticed physically
that it like drained me physically thinking about it
and worrying about it and wondering about it.
I mean, doubt can be really stressful
and it can really drain you physically
when you just don't know.
Now look down at your Bible there
in Hebrews chapter 12, verse one.
It says, we're foreseeing we also are encompassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us
and let us run with patience
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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God
for consider him that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and watch this and faint in your minds.
So when you're running, typically the weakest link
is not your feet or your legs or your lungs or your heart.
It's typically your mind.
Your mind is what quits first.
You're just like, I wanna stop
because I don't wanna do this anymore.
And so this is a mental game,
especially when you're dealing with really long distances,
it's really a mental thing
of just being able to stay with it for that long.
And so if it's all about your mind
and you don't wanna faint in your mind
and you need your mind to keep going,
do you see how doubt and uncertainty and stress
about whether you're even on the right course,
can you see how that could really mess with you?
Yeah.
And you're wondering, like, am I adding distance
to something that's already so long?
Or you're wondering, am I gonna be disqualified
because I'm not even on course?
Am I gonna go through all this and then I'm disqualified?
You don't know and it's the not knowing that is stressful.
Now flip over to 1 Corinthians 9,
1 Corinthians chapter number nine.
So in the Christian life, what am I saying?
I'm saying, look, in the Christian life,
we need to follow the course markings,
which is basically God's word, God's rules,
his statutes, his precepts,
the wisdom found in the book of Proverbs,
the teachings found in the New Testament epistles,
Christ teachings, all throughout the Bible,
we have all these wonderful course markings
telling us how to live our life.
And we need to pay attention and follow them to the letter
because life's hard enough when you follow the rules
and it's even worse when you don't.
Or how about just the not knowing?
How about just going through your Christian life
and constantly wondering, I don't know,
is this what God wants me to do with my life?
Am I doing it right?
Am I, do I believe the right doctrine?
Am I at the right church?
Am I doing the right works?
It's stressful when you don't know.
Okay, well, the answers are in the Bible, black and white.
We need to get in the word of God and get some confidence
where I could see a verse in the Bible
that clearly makes a statement and I can say,
well, I know that's what that verse is.
I know that's true.
And that provides certainty instead of doubt.
I like what it said in the book of Daniel
about how God, about how Daniel was a dissolver of doubts.
He's someone who can basically give certainty unto people
and remove doubt from their mind.
And as a pastor, that's what I wanna do
on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
I wanna get up and preach the word of God
and remove doubt from your mind.
You know, I want you to be sure, like, okay,
this is what it takes to be saved.
I'm sure I'm saved.
This is what it means to be married.
This is what it means to have kids.
This is what it means to run a business.
You know, from the word of God,
basically have clear teachings from the Bible.
And obviously you've got to do it on your own as well,
reading your Bible every day.
Figure out what you believe and get solid on it
so that you're not going through life doubting and uncertain
because it's so much harder if you're not sure.
It's a lot easier when you know you're on the right track.
Even if it's hard, I mean,
it's never gonna be easy to run long distances,
but at least when you know you're on the right track,
that's comforting, isn't it?
Look at 1 Corinthians 9, verse 25.
It says, and every man that striveth for the mastery
is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we in incorruptible, he's talking about athletes,
they earn a corruptible crown.
In ancient Greece, it was literally a corruptible crown
because it was like an olive leaf crown
that would literally just decay and be physically gone.
And you know, now they've got the gold medals
and the silver medals, but guess what?
Even that is just temporal, isn't it?
It's still a corruptible crown.
It doesn't have any eternal value, but we as Christians,
we are competing for an incorruptible crown.
We're striving for something greater.
But I love what he says here in verse 26.
I therefore so run, I run, and look at the next phrase,
not as uncertainly, right?
Because that's what we're talking about,
running uncertainly.
Am I going the right direction?
Am I even on course?
Am I even gonna finish?
I don't even know if I'm going the right way.
Hey, that's not how we wanna live the Christian life.
Paul said, that's not how I'm running my race
as a Christian.
I mean, I hope this is what it takes to be saved.
I mean, I hope that the King James Bible
is the right Bible.
I mean, I hope being Baptist is the way to go.
Folks, we don't wanna be uncertain like that.
Get in the word of God and figure out what you believe
so that you can run not as uncertainly, okay?
He said, I run not as uncertainly.
So fight I, not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,
lest that by any means when I preach to others,
I myself should be a castaway.
You know, I love what it says
at the beginning of the book of Luke.
You wanna just flip over there quickly to Luke chapter one.
While you're turning there,
I'll read for you a couple other verses,
Psalm 119, 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light into my path.
You know, God's word shows us we're on the right track,
we're going the right direction, we're on the right path.
Proverbs 6 23, for the commandment is a lamp
and the law is light and reproofs of instruction
are the way of life.
But I love what it says at the beginning of Luke
when there's this little introduction to the gospel
where Luke is writing to Theophilus
and he's giving the purpose for why he's writing this gospel
because there are already other gospels out there.
And so why write another gospel, right?
So look what it says in verse one of Luke.
It says, for as much as many have taken in hand
to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us.
So he's saying, you know, many people have set out
to write down the story of Jesus Christ and so forth.
Even as they delivered them unto us,
which from the beginning were eyewitnesses
and ministers of the word, verse three,
it seemed good to me also,
having had perfect understanding of all things
from the very first,
to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus.
Here's the purpose for the book of Luke.
Look at verse four,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things
wherein thou hast been instructed.
He's saying, look, I wanna give certainty.
I wanna write this down
and obviously he's being inspired by the Holy Ghost
and obviously what he wrote down is scripture
and God was using Luke to give us the gospel.
No human being could have written this book,
but it's written by divine inspiration.
But it says here that it was written
so that Theophilus could know the certainty
of the things wherein he'd been instructed.
He's saying, look, I don't want you to doubt.
I don't want you to wonder,
is this really how it happened with Jesus?
Is this really how the gospel went down?
He's saying, no, no,
I want you to know how certain these things are
and I want you to know the certainty.
Well, you know what?
God is really addressing all of the Bible at us as Christians
so this isn't just one guy Luke
writing to one guy Theophilus,
but rather all of us as Christians
are recipients of the Bible from God
and God wants us to know the certainty
of the things wherein we've been instructed.
That's why we have the word of God.
And so even when things are going really badly,
even if you're in a lot of pain,
even if you're really tired,
even if you're facing all kinds of difficult obstacles,
it's very comforting to know
that you're actually on the right path
and that every step that you take
is getting you closer to the finish,
getting you closer to the goal.
Whereas if you don't know,
if you're off course,
maybe you're even getting further from the finish line.
You don't know where you're going and this is stressful.
And so pastors,
part of what we need to do as pastors is
we need to provide people with a well-marked course.
Whoever puts on these raises,
they mark up the course
and they put out little flags and arrows and things
telling you where to go.
Well, you know, as pastors,
it's our job to help mark the course for you.
Obviously we got the Bible,
but it's also our job to help you with that.
And so 1 Corinthians 14 says this,
you don't have to turn there.
If you wanna turn somewhere, turn to Isaiah 40.
But in 1 Corinthians 14, it says,
for if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall prepare himself to the battle?
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue,
words easy to be understood,
how shall it be known what is spoken
for you shall speak into the air.
The Bible is saying, look,
we don't want the trumpet to give an uncertain sound.
And so when words are spoken in church,
that's the context of 1 Corinthians 14,
preaching, going forth in church
or prayers being prayed in church,
the Bible says that we need to use words
that are easily understood.
That's why I don't just constantly include
a bunch of theological jargon in my preaching.
Okay, because I wanna say things
that are easy to understand.
And if I do use a theological jargon for some reason,
I would explain it and break it down.
And I try to just avoid that kind of jargon
because it's really unprofitable and vain.
We want to speak in words that are easy to be understood
so that the church can be edified.
And so that's like a clear well-marked course
of this is the way walk ye in it.
You know, you don't wanna go to a church
where the preaching is vague and it fills you with doubt.
It ought to be filling you with certainty
and dissolving the doubts that you have.
And so point number one was how important fellowship is.
Point number two is follow the course markings carefully.
But here's the thing about these two points.
These two points can actually be brought together.
Because here's the thing,
I personally have like the worst sense of direction ever.
And so every single time I go hiking,
I get lost 100% of the time,
unless I'm with somebody else who knows how to navigate.
So I'm the type of guy that I just get lost hiking.
So when I go trail running,
I end up just doing the exact same trail over and over again
because I know I'm not gonna get lost
because I know my one little route.
And so I just do the same route.
Even though it'd be fun to get all the variety,
I just, I know I'm gonna get lost.
So I just do the same thing, same thing, same thing.
And if I go hiking with other people,
I always tell someone else, hey, you get out front.
Okay, you get in the front.
I don't walk in the front
because I will take us off course, okay.
I'm bad at navigating.
You know, I'm a spiritual leader, okay.
I can lead you spiritually,
but don't expect me to lead you hiking.
It's not gonna work, okay.
I'm not good at that.
I'm good at following maps, but without a map,
you know, I can't, I'm just not good at it.
Who here has been hiking with me
when I led you astray and got us lost?
Okay, brother Ramon, my son Solomon, of course, you know.
But you know, we were up at, was it Humphreys?
Or a different time?
There's too many times, yeah.
Beecroft, yeah, I remember.
There's too many examples.
You know, I remember I led a whole huge group astray
when we went to Mount Humphreys one time
and we got off course
and we're just wandering in the wilderness.
It wasn't 40 years, but we wandered in the wilderness.
And finally, I just saw the ski lifts off in the distance.
I'm like, well, I know those ski lifts
are gonna lead to the parking lot.
So we just bushwhacked to the chair lifts
and then just headed down to the parking lot.
And that's how we made it back.
But man, I'm not good at hiking and staying on course.
That's just, it's just, you know,
some people are good at that sort of thing.
I always miss a switchback or something, you know.
That's how I am.
And so what's funny is that, you know,
what I've learned is enter races
that have hundreds of people in them
because then there's just like this mass of people
and you just kind of follow that group of people
and you can kind of stay with the group
and then you don't get lost.
See, the problem with me, if I'm in a race
where there's very few people and I'm by myself,
then I have to navigate and that ends up being a disaster.
So that's why I like get around other people.
And so you can see how like following the course markings
was point two.
Point number one is the importance
of fellowship and camaraderie.
But here's another use for your fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ is that they can help you
not miss that switchback.
Because think about it.
If I'm with other people and I start to go astray,
hopefully they're gonna say,
hey buddy, let's get back on the course here.
If you're by yourself, you don't have anybody
to tell you when you're going astray or making mistakes.
And obviously as Christians,
we need to be around other Christians
because sometimes they can hold us accountable in our lives
and maybe point something out to us.
Now obviously we don't wanna be rude about this
or judgmental or going around
like policing people spiritually.
That's obviously, you could go too far
in the other direction,
but there's obviously a way to humbly and gently
and kindly let people know,
hey, you need to get back on course,
you need to get the sin out of your life,
you're making a bad decision.
Sometimes we have to tell people that, don't we?
I mean, obviously, yeah,
the preaching is coming from the pulpit,
the Bible's there and it has all the answers,
but sometimes we have to actually take aside
a brother or sister in Christ and let them know,
hey, you're going off course here, this is a bad decision,
you shouldn't be doing this.
And sometimes it's well-received and sometimes it's not,
but the bottom line is being around other Christians
can help keep us on track.
Even if they don't even say anything to us,
it just kind of holds us accountable a little bit
because we might be tempted sometimes
to just not go to church or not show up for soul-winning
or not do whatever, but then if we kind of know like,
well, people are gonna wonder where I was at.
Why didn't I come to church?
Why didn't I show up for soul-winning or whatever?
And sometimes we could hold each other
a little bit accountable that way.
And so we need the fellowship, we need the comradery,
iron sharpens iron, we could exhort one another,
we can provoke one another to love and good works.
And then number two, we need to follow the course markings,
we need a well-marked course.
God has given us some great markings
right here in the Bible.
We need pastors to point out what the Bible says
and point us to those directions.
And then getting around a group of other Christians,
we can follow their faith.
Be ye followers of me even as I follow Christ.
And so it's easier to follow Christ
when other people around you are following Christ
and then you start to go off track.
Maybe they don't even say anything to you,
but you just observe them taking that right turn
and you know, oh, I see these are good Christians,
they're taking that right turn,
I think I'm gonna take it too, okay?
And that can be helpful.
Now obviously, at the end of the day,
we need to make sure that the Bible's our final authority.
If there's a big course marking saying,
hey, the course is this way and everybody's going this way,
at the end of the day,
even if everybody's going the wrong way,
we need to follow that course marking.
You know, like I said, I was cruising along,
next thing I know, two guys are coming toward me
the opposite direction.
And I'm thinking to myself, who's wrong here?
Who's going the wrong way here, you know?
Now, but you know what?
I had seen a course marking pointing the way I was going,
so I just stayed with it.
And it turned out I was on the right track.
Now, later I got off track, but that's, you know.
But I mean, at that point, it turned out
I was actually the one that was on the right track.
But of course, I spent hours doubting and wondering
and stressing and worrying about it
because of the fact that I see other people.
And you know, that's how it is in the Christian life.
When you're the only one doing something
or believing something or saying something,
it can kind of freak you out.
When you see everybody going the other direction,
even when there's a clear marking,
it can still freak you out and make you wonder,
like, am I really going the right way?
At the end of the day, the clear teaching of scripture
overrides what we see people around us doing.
But in general, looking at what other Christians are doing
is beneficial and helpful, and that should give us pause.
You know, if I believe something totally different
than all my pastor friends, you know,
that would kind of give me pause, wouldn't it?
And be like, wait a minute, hold on.
I better check these markings.
It doesn't necessarily mean I'm wrong,
but it's helpful to see what other people are doing.
It helps.
But at the end of the day, what's the final authority?
The Bible.
But it is helpful, though,
to follow in the footsteps of others.
So many things that I believe and preach,
I learned from other people, right?
And so I'm following their example.
I'm following their advice.
I'm getting their teachings.
I'm not going to let those trump the word of God.
The word of God reigns supreme, but you know what?
It's helpful when you got both, isn't it?
You got a well-marked course,
and then you can follow other people,
and you're thinking to yourself,
hey, maybe I'm not good at navigating,
but this guy looks like he knows what he's doing.
I'm just going to follow this guy.
I don't even have to worry about it.
You know, and that's how it is in the Christian life.
We need some people that we can follow who are veterans.
You know, they've done this race five times, 10 times,
and just kind of get behind them and follow them.
That's helpful.
And so we need camaraderie.
We need to follow the guidelines that God has given us,
and that other Christians are modeling for us.
So that was number one, the importance of fellowship.
Number two, following the course markings carefully.
But number three lesson from ultra running is
that when you think you can't go any further,
you still can't.
You think you can't go any further.
You think I'm done, like I can not go further,
but yet you still can.
Look what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 29.
He giveth power to the faint.
And remember, what did it say in Hebrews chapter 12?
You've got faint in your minds, right?
That failing at running was referred to as fainting.
For which cause, or excuse me, Isaiah 40, verse 29.
He that he giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might, he increase its strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary.
And the young men shall utterly fall,
but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength.
So what's the Bible saying here?
You're fainting, you're fading away,
you're weary, and you feel that you are ready
to utterly fall, but yet if you patiently wait
upon the Lord, you will renew your strength.
You will get the proverbial second wind,
where you think I'm done, there's no more fuel left
in the tank, I can't go any further,
and then boom, the second wind hits, right?
And that's what the Bible's saying here.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary,
and they shall walk and not faint.
And by the way, that's another lesson from ultra running
is sometimes you have to walk,
and it's better to walk than to quit.
You know, you keep moving forward, you walk,
and then eventually you can start running again.
They shall run and not be weary.
Okay, that sounds great, running and not being weary,
but if that fails, then you can do what?
You can walk and not faint.
Because at least if you're walking, you haven't quit.
You haven't fainted.
You're not out of the game yet, you're still in.
And so that's another powerful lesson to be learned
is that if you hang in there, even when you think I'm done,
you can renew your strength.
You see, a lot of people, they're looking too far ahead.
And if you would go to 2 Corinthians chapter four,
a lot of Christians I think look too far ahead
in their Christian life, and what does the Bible say?
Take no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
And too many Christians, they look too far forward,
and I've had Christians say things like this to me,
like, well, I just can't do this for five years.
I just can't do this for another decade.
I just can't spend the rest of my life X, Y, and Z.
And they've got these big stories
about what they don't want to deal with for a year
or five years or 10 years or 20 years
or the rest of their life.
But here's the thing,
you don't have to necessarily handle anything
for a year or five years or 10 years.
It's just one day.
It's one day.
The Christian life is one day at a time
because the Bible says,
you don't know what a day is gonna bring forth.
So you might think, oh, this situation,
I can't handle it for this amount of time.
But hold on, that situation might change tomorrow.
You don't know.
You have no idea what a day is gonna bring forth.
And even if you are for sure gonna deal with that
for 10 years, 20 years,
you still gotta just take it one day at a time
and just hang in there.
Because even if right now you're fainting and saying,
I can't do it, I can't go any further,
I can't deal with it,
if you wait on the Lord,
how do you know you're not gonna renew your strength?
Where even if the adversity is still there,
even if the bad situation is still there,
maybe tomorrow you're gonna feel differently about it.
Maybe a month from now,
you're gonna feel differently about it.
Maybe two months from now,
you're gonna feel differently
and you're gonna be saying, bring it on,
I can handle it, I can do it,
because you're renewed in your strength.
And so don't quit.
When you think you can't go any further,
you can still go further.
Even when you think it's impossible.
I mean, people do things every day
that seem like they're impossible.
But yet, people do it.
You know, the Bible says,
let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
Look at 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16,
it says, for which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
What did the Bible say in Isaiah?
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Our inward man on the inside is renewed day by day.
No matter how bad things are on the outside,
if we read our Bible, if we pray,
we can be renewed in the inward man,
no matter how bad things get on the outside.
For our light affliction, verse 17,
which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory.
While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
And here's the part I wanna focus on here.
For the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
So in verse 16, he said that the inward man
is renewed day by day.
That ties in with what we saw in Isaiah 40,
but now he's saying, you know,
don't look at the things which are seen.
Those are temporal.
Think about the things that are not seen,
which are eternal.
Here's what I've noticed about these really long
running events or hikes or whatever it is that you do,
whatever physical challenge you put yourself through.
You know what I've noticed is that they always end,
but at the time they seem like they're never going to end.
You feel like you're just in this time warp.
You feel like you're just in this vortex.
And as long as like you're looking at your watch
and just time is not passing, distance is not passing.
You know, and it's just like, you know,
I remember this one time
and anybody who's gone hiking knows this.
Like those of us that have hiked up
to the top of Mount Humphreys and stuff.
When you hike up to the top of Mount Humphreys,
you keep thinking that it's the summit
and it's just like fall summit, fall summit, fall summit.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
And it just keeps being a fall summit
until you get to the real summit.
Or you keep thinking like it's just around this corner
and then you go around the corner and it's another corner.
And it's just back, forth,
and you keep thinking it's going to be over.
I remember one time I was doing this thing
and like I felt like I was on that level
of Super Mario Brothers,
like the old Nintendo Super Mario Brothers
where you're in the castle
and like it just keeps repeating the same.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
See what I mean?
These illustrations connect with people.
You know, basically people are,
you know, you're talking about running
and people are just like,
you know, Super Mario Brothers, like what?
What'd you say?
Now you're speaking my language.
But anyway, you know,
you're on that level of Super Mario Brothers
where it's like you just keep facing
the same part of the castle over and over again.
It just never changes.
And it's because you have to do something different.
Like you have to first take this route
and then you got to go to the top,
then the bottom, then the middle.
And you have to keep like trial and error
until finally you break the code and move forward.
But why am I explaining this?
You guys already all know this
because you've all, everybody's played,
you know, Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo,
except you young pups in here
probably don't even know what I'm talking about.
Back when, you know,
we actually had real challenging games,
you know, back in those days.
You kids don't know.
But anyway, you know, the point is that like,
I just felt like every time I went around a corner,
it was just the same again.
And again, it was just like,
I felt like I was making no progress
and it just felt never ending.
But yet I'm preaching here on Sunday morning right now,
so it must have ended because I'm not there anymore.
And so all of these painful events, they all end.
It's always over,
but at the time it just feels so long and never ending.
But then once it's over, you're just laughing and talking.
Oh yeah, that was fun, that was cool.
You know, but at the time it's just like torture
and it's just never ending.
Well, that's how the Christian life sometimes can be.
You're going through something bad and it's torture
and it feels never ending
and you just start to despair and faint in your mind,
but just realize everything ends.
Everything comes to an end.
Hang in there, push through.
And so the third point is,
when you think that you can't go any further, guess what?
You can go further.
You can actually keep going.
You have other reserves of energy
that you didn't even know about.
Because what it is is that our brains
wanna protect our bodies, okay?
But our brain sometimes is like a little bit
of an overprotective mother.
She's a little bit too hyper about protecting us.
So she'll kind of like turn things off,
start turning things off
before they really need to be turned off.
Like, you've run enough, buddy.
You know, you've been hiking long enough.
You're done, buddy.
And then you're like, no, I'm not done, right?
And once you keep pushing through,
your brain figures out like,
this guy's not gonna listen to me.
And so, all right, turn it back on.
Let's just get this over with.
Let's get out of here.
But I'm telling you, like your brain,
it wants to protect, it doesn't want you to get hurt.
Your brain doesn't want you to get heat stroke.
It doesn't want you to break bones
or tear muscles or tendons, you know.
So basically, it starts like shutting you down
and shutting you off.
It's all mental.
You can really, your body can do more.
Because think about it, you know,
let's say you were super tired
and you were completely worn out
and you're like, I can't go another step.
But what if like a lion started chasing you or something?
You think you're just gonna be like,
I'm too tired, forget it.
You know, all of a sudden,
you're gonna just jump up and start running.
Which proves that you could have all along.
It's just your brain was like,
no, this is stupid and there's no reason to.
But if all of a sudden there's a danger,
all of a sudden there's like,
yep, there's a reason, let's go.
Because our brain is trying to protect us.
So that's a physical thing that's going on.
And you know, it doesn't mean
that you're actually completely drained.
You feel totally drained because your body
is trying to like protect itself from damage.
And I mean, that's a good thing
because a lot of us would otherwise, you know,
you could do something stupid and really go too far.
So obviously our bodies are designed that way purposely
to give us a little safety zone
so that, you know, if we really need some more energy,
it's there.
Never to run the tank all the way 100% empty,
but always to keep a little something in reserve.
That's the way our bodies are designed.
And it's that way for a reason.
Well, guess what though?
Spiritually, it's the same way.
You know, you think that you can't go any further,
but isn't it amazing how some people do though?
And if you just push through, endure,
eventually God will bless you with that second wind.
You renew that inward man.
You keep going.
So number one, the importance of fellowship and camaraderie.
Get in the church, spend time fellowshipping
with other Christians, get to know Christians.
And you say, well, you know, I come to church,
but I haven't really got to know anybody.
You know, first of all, the Bible says,
a man that hath friends must show himself friendly.
Sometimes you have to be the one to reach out
to other people and start conversations.
But number two also is that, you know,
a great way to get to know people is to go soul winning.
If you show up for soul winning,
you get paired up with people and, you know,
you're stuck with them for an hour.
You know, you get to know each other a little bit.
Or better yet, you know, even signing up
for some of these soul winning trips.
I mean, think about all the memories
that we've made on these trips.
And we have all kinds of stories to tell
and we hang out and have meals together,
see sites together, win souls together.
So the fellowship and camaraderie is important.
Number one, number two,
follow the course markings carefully.
You know, life's hard enough,
even when you're following all the thou shouts
and thou shalt nots.
But it gets way harder when you don't follow them.
Jack, oh man, all these rules, you know.
It's too, God's too strict.
Trust me, you want those rules
because they are the way of life.
They will actually bless you.
They're for your benefit.
It's hard enough on the course.
Getting off course is a disaster
and you don't want to doubt.
So you want to know what the course is
so you can stay on it.
And number three is when you think you're done,
guess what?
You're not done, so keep going.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord,
and that your word is a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
Lord, help us all to follow your word.
Help us to get around other people who follow your word
and help us to just keep pushing through
and not quit on the Christian life.
Help us to push through all the way to the end
because no matter how bad things are,
whatever it is, it's just temporary.
And if we can push through, the glory on the other side
is greater than the suffering
that we're facing in this life.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.