Running the Race God Marked Out for You (Hebrews 12:1-4)

How to Find Focus and Strategy for a Winning Faith. Life is not a sprint but a race that requires endurance, focus, and purpose. In this message from Hebrews 12:1–4, Pastor Chris uses the illustration of Olympic snowboarding to show how God calls each believer to run a unique race with perseverance, fixing their eyes on Jesus and trusting Him through every stage of life.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18490060

Key Points:

1. Run the race God designed for you
    Hebrews 12 reminds us that every believer has a specific race marked out by God. Our stage of life, resources, and circumstances may differ, but faithfulness matters more than comparison.
2. Focus your heart and attention on Jesus
    Fixing our eyes on Jesus keeps us from distraction, discouragement, and envy. Christ is both the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, and our confidence grows when we stay centered on Him.
3. Remember the reward of Christ’s victory
    Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. His finished work assures our salvation and gives meaning to our perseverance today.
4. Consider the cost Christ endured so you do not lose heart
    When faith feels heavy or progress feels slow, reflecting on what Jesus endured strengthens us to keep going and resist sin with renewed resolve.

Personal Stories
 Pastor Chris reflects on different life races, including young families, middle age pressures, retirement, restarts after failure, and seasons of hardship. He shares how God continues to use believers at every stage when they remain available and faithful.

Quotes
 • If you woke up this morning and you are still breathing, God still has a purpose for your life.
 • Your race is different from everyone else’s, and that is by design.
 • Jesus created the race, ran it perfectly, and now walks with you as you run yours.

Takeaways
 • Reflect on the stage of life you are in and ask God how He wants to use you right now.
 • Identify distractions or sins that may be slowing your spiritual progress.
 • Commit to fixing your eyes on Jesus through Scripture, prayer, and daily obedience.
 • Take one intentional step this week to serve Christ with the time and resources you have.

Scripture
 Hebrews 12:1–4 – Running with perseverance and fixing our eyes on Jesus
 Hebrews 11 – Examples of faithful endurance
 James 1:2–4 – Endurance through testing
 Ephesians 2:10 – God’s purpose prepared in advance
 Philippians 1:6 – God completes the work He begins
 Psalm 16:8 – Keeping eyes fixed on the Lord
 Philippians 2:8 – Christ’s obedience unto death
 Hebrews 10:12 – Christ’s finished sacrifice
 1 Peter 2:21 – Following Christ’s example
 2 Corinthians 4:16 – Renewed inwardly day by day

Keywords
 Christian endurance, Hebrews 12, running the race, faith and perseverance, fixing eyes on Jesus, spiritual growth, purpose in every season, Well Faith Podcast

Challenge
 This week, ask God to clarify your race, remove what hinders you, and recommit to running faithfully with your eyes fixed on Jesus.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

This month we're talking about training in the Christian life and also training of Olympians. And then next month we're going to talk about being a champion, what it means to be a champion for Christ, what it would mean to be an Olympian champion and stuff like that. So to find focus and strategy for a winning faith. To find focus and strategy for a winning faith. Now, when you think about the Olympic events, the winter Olympic events, I don't know which ones you like the best. There are so many. Is it the biathlon where they cross-country ski and then they shoot things? That's pretty cool. To ski and then to be focused enough and your hands not shaking and stuff to shoot targets, that's pretty cool. Or there's just, you know, speed skating, sledding, all these different things. But the one event that really applies to my message that I really think fits here is snowboarding. Now, snowboarding is kind of weird because it wasn't even really an Olympic sport until I think like the 1990s or something like that. And the traditional half pipe that they have now, where they go down and they snowboard. For I don't know, I'm sure you're familiar with it. They go up on the edge, they skip on the edge, and then they go down and they go up on the wall, and then they like and do flips and whatever else, and they come back down again. And usually the competition isn't timed, but you're judged for how high you get in the air and for the stunts you do and stuff like that. And so they think about what exactly it is they're going to do in their routine if they have the choice. And I was not able to find any licensable video of that, but I'm just going to assume you know what I'm talking about. And so as they do that, they know that they have to go down this course and do their thing. And they also have to go up on one edge and do whatever, but they also have to come down and get enough inertia to keep going to snowboard to the other side to do it again. And for some reason, if they miss, if they don't hit the side of the snow, the ice correctly, then they won't have any inertia and they'll just be done. They'll be stuck down in the bottom of the half pipe. But the way this applies to your life, and the way that I want it to apply to your life in this message, is that we all know that we only get so much time from beginning to end. Maybe we'll live to be 80, 90, maybe even some of you will live to be 100. But we know there's only so much time. And we know that in our lives there are certain things that we just have to do. So many of us have to work. So that's not a negotiable. We just can't quit our jobs and do whatever we want. Just like a snowboarder and the half pipe. They know the non-negotiables. They've got to go up the one side and up the other side and work their way down and then do their plan, their stunts, their tricks, the things that put points on the boards in between that. And you in your life also have to do those main things, but then you have to plan, like they plan, have to plan what exactly you want to do in the span of the time that you have to make the difference. Now, unfortunately, we don't know what happens in the span of our life. We all hope that we'll be healthy and strong and prosperous and everything will be good. But sometimes things change. Sometimes jobs change, sometimes we're unexpectedly laid off and didn't see that coming. Sometimes we have health issues, sometimes our life is interrupted by tragedy, someone we love dies, or sickness, or all those difficult things. So we're not in control of all of that. But we have to take what we have for this day and the resources that we have and what we know we can do, and we have to we have to do our routine, we have to make our plan, we have to live our lives in a way that makes a difference for Christ. So this message is for you, no matter how old you are, it doesn't matter. Because if you woke up this morning and you're still breathing, there's still time for you to do something for Jesus, to serve Jesus, to worship Jesus, to make a difference, to tell people about your legacy. So many different things. And there are times like a snowboarder in your life where things just don't work out like you thought. And James, it says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. When we fall, and sometimes it's our fault, sometimes we just slip, but sometimes it's like, oh, I wish I hadn't done that. It's all my fault when we wipe out. We got to get back up, we gotta try it again. And when that snowboarder gets out there, he doesn't think about how he messed up in his last run. He doesn't think about the other people around him, behind him. He is focused on what he plans to do and the way he plans to do it, and that's what we need to do too. And so that's what I wanted to talk about as a preview for that. So the passage that we're looking at is Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, see Hebrews chapter 11, 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. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the auth, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, for the joy set before him, he 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 sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. All right. So that is the main passage that we want to focus on as we look at this. And really, what this is, it's giving the people that the author of the book, if no one really knows who wrote the book of Hebrews, wrote. The author wrote to a people who were discouraged, to people who often felt like giving up, a people who were being talked against or being persecuted by other people, they were just discouraged. And that's why the author of Hebrews points out in Hebrews 11 consider all of these from the Old Testament heroes of the faith, the whole list, you can read about it. Consider them. They lived their life faithfully. Some of them didn't even receive everything that God had promised in this life, but they still lived faithfully. And then Hebrews 11 also says that the world was not worthy of them. God was impressed with them. And hopefully we can live a life that God is impressed with. And it will help us to strategize running the race that God has set before you. To strategize running the race that God has set before us. So when we think about the race that God has set before us, again, let's run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. We really have to think about where we are in this stage of life and what God can do with us, do for us, do through us. Even if we messed up in the past, we need to persevere. Even if we tried something and it didn't work out very good, we need to keep pushing on and we need to persevere. You might be in a new stage of life or coming to a new stage of life, or you will have more opportunity than you know what to do with. Some people are able to retire early, get a pension, and then do whatever they want. I've known a few people that have retired younger than me that get a check and then go do something else. Some, many for ministry. Many people retire, like military people, police people. They're usually supposed to retire earlier. And so then they have the rest of their life to do whatever, and a lot of them plug into full-time ministry. There's a lot of pastors that are like second and third career coming out and doing. I knew a pastor in my last town that he was the principal of a big elementary school in L in Minneapolis. So he retired from that and he went to seminary and became a pastor. He's called it his second stage of life. And so maybe that's the kind of race you get to run. Maybe you are retired, but you're kind of done doing all the fun things that you thought you would do, and you're boring and you're trying to figure out what to do and think about what you could do for God? What could you do to help people find Jesus? What could you do to make a difference in the world and really pray about it? Ask God, what is my purpose for my life now? And how should I live my life? What could I do? How could I make a difference? What do I need to learn? What resources do I need? What training do I need? I might be able to help you find some of that actually. But to not just sit around and waste away, but to stay engaged for every day of your life until you take your last breath and go to be with Jesus. So just think about all of the different races in life. Maybe you've already run some of them. So the young husband race, trying to figure out how to support a family, how to love and care for a wife, how to be humble yet strong, how to provide, protect, and grow, how to love your wife like Christ loves the church, how to be a spiritual leader in your home. That's part of the young husband race. The young wife race is very similar to that. Building a partnership, communicating, sharing expectations, often helping raise kids, all of these different things, growing in grace, wisdom, and faith as she helps shape a Christ-centered home. So the young parent race in itself is a lot of work. You've got the little one who keeps you up all the time. You're always deprived of sleep. It's very time-consuming, those different things. But you enjoy it because you know it won't last forever. And soon those little kids will be growing up. But your race, if you're a young parent, is measured in bedtime, prayers, consistency, discipline, and modeling faith. So God calls the young parents to run with patience, trusting that the seeds they planted today will bear fruit in time. There's the single adult race where you're often misunderstood because all the married people are like, why aren't you married yet? In which you know that God has given you the gift of not getting married. And so you are able to actually do more to invest in helping grow the kingdom of God. You have more time to do whatever you want. And so sometimes you can feel isolated, but you trust God's timing and you keep moving forward in the single adult race. Then there's the middle-age race where sometimes you're the young person trapped in an old person's body, and you look in the mirror and go, Who is that? Looks like my grandpa. But you try to balance out maybe career pressures, family pressures. Maybe now you've got adult children who are needy and aging parents, and you have an opportunity to pass on wisdom. You have an opportunity to pass on legacy and spiritual maturity, but you're also often tired and wondering about the next chapter, what happens when you get to be a certain age. You want to go out in life and make a difference in the world, but you know there's also things as age discrimination, which can be tough. Sometimes that rolls into the empty nester race, which can be good, can be a delightful time. I'm enjoying an empty nest, actually. I mean, we love all of our children, but sometimes the empty nest doesn't work out because mom and dad were so focused on the kids that they never focused on each other. And now that the kids are gone, they don't, mom and dad, husband and wife don't really know what to do with each other, and that can be tough. So the retired race, I don't know a whole lot about that, but sometimes you have more time, sometimes you have lots of resources, sometimes you don't. Sometimes your health holds you back, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you find great things to do, and other times you're bored, you have to figure that out. Then you come to the end of your days. But there's also other races that people have, different paths. Sometimes people serve Jesus faithfully every day over all of their years. And when it's hard, they trust God and they just keep pushing through. They know that life is like an endurance race, like a marathon, not a sprint, and they just keep moving forward. I like that one. I want to be in that race. But sometimes there's the uphill race where life feels really hard because there's more bills than you can pay. You have health issues or caregiving issues or relational problems, or it can be discouraging, it can be difficult, it can be hard even to put one foot in front of another and to just keep pressing forward into trusting Jesus. And one encouragement I would give for that is I do know that sometimes that's just a stage in the race, it's not the rest of your life. And sometimes things turn around and things get better. So hold on to hope and know that things will get better. There's the restart race where you made a mess out of your life, maybe fell into addiction, your relationship fell apart, you made a huge mess, and you've asked for forgiveness, you've gotten some help, and you're ready to get back up and get back in that race again, and so many others. But to know that Ephesians 2 10 says that we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. I know I've said this before, but I always wonder, in my life, am I still going to do the most significant thing in my life that God has created me to do? Or have I already done it? Did I already do the most significant thing? Did God in the beginning of creation say, someday Chris is going to do this and this, and that's going to be the purpose of his life? And maybe I already did it, maybe I'm going to do it, I don't know. But since we don't know, and since there's so many things we can do, to pray and ask God, what is it that you have for me to do now? What is my stage? What is my purpose? What can I do? And don't just sit around and wait for something big and you know say, well, maybe I can work with vacation Bible school, and I just won't do anything until June 8th, I believe, this year. But maybe you can find little ways to plug in and little ways to serve, and it will grow into bigger things. But look for opportunity, pray for opportunity, ask for opportunity. Say, hey, I would like to learn how to do this. Can I help you with this? Can you teach me how to do this? Can I don't know anything about this, but I'd like to help on the sound and video booth, or maybe I would like to learn how to play an instrument or something? So many things can happen even later in life. But to pray about that and to ask God, in this race, the race of my life, my personal race, which is different than all of your races, what is it that I am to do? How am I to do it? What could I do to do it better? How can I plan it? How can I schedule it? How can I prioritize it? How can I focus on it? That's point number two. To focus your heart and attention on Jesus. To focus our heart and attention on Jesus. The verse is fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. So when we focus on Jesus, when we think about all that Jesus did, when we think about all that Jesus endured, it's supposed to motivate us. But when we think about our life, and we think about our race, and we think about all that Jesus endured, it should help us to be content. It should help us to be content on who we are and what we can be in Christ, and to take what Jesus gives us as our assignment. So again, everybody's got their individual race. And don't look to someone else's race and say, oh, my life would be better, my life would be easier. Don't focus on them. Focus on Jesus. Focus on everything that Jesus has done. Focus on everything that Jesus is. Focus on the fact that Jesus promises to reward you for being faithful in your service today. Focus on doing what you're able to do in the place that you're at with the people that you have and the resources that you have. You can always go get more training and become better, become more skilled. But to keep serving and to be content. Let me just show you a video for a minute that shows a bunch of names of Jesus. I found it really encouraging because if we're going to fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, let's just really remember all that Jesus is and did.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Jesus is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the root of Jesse and the rock of ages. He's the ancient of days, the commander of God's army, and the radiance of God's glory. He is the holy one, the heir of all things, the bread of life, and the author of life. He is the perfecter of faith, the overseer of souls, the horn of salvation, the desire of nations, and the son of righteousness. He's the constellation of Israel, the lion of Judah, and the man of sorrows. He is the gift of God, the Lamb of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, the image of God, and the angel of God. He is the son of God, the son of man, the son of David, the son of Joseph, and the son of Mary. He's the king of the Jews, the king of Egypt, the Lord of Lords, the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Lord of Bullock. He's the wonderful counselor. Everlasting Father. He is Yahweh, Lord, God, Savior, Christ. He is Jesus.

Chris T 19:44

I just thought that was so encouraging to remember all those things that Jesus is according to what Scripture teaches us and what Scripture tells us. And to know when we're focused on that, that when we're faithful, when we're doing what he's called us to do, whether it seems big or small, whether people recognize it or not, whether we serve up front or we serve behind the scenes, Jesus knows. Jesus takes notice that he is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, that he established it, he set it up. It was his plan for the way that creation would go and the way that we would live our lives. And then he was, he came down and lived among us. He started as a baby. He lived a perfect life without sin. And then he sacrificed that life so our sin could be forgiven. But so he created the race, he ran the race, he finished the race perfectly. And Psalm 16.8 says, I keep my eyes always on the Lord, with him at my right hand. I will not be shaken to push forward again. Discouraged believers are encouraged when they keep their eyes on Jesus. When other Christ followers encourage them to keep their eyes on Jesus, to follow Christ, to know that this world is just a small sliver of the rest of eternity, of our eternal lives. That if this were a football game, that this isn't even the pregame show. This is nothing in comparison. But our lives are rewarded, our lives are greatly tested, and we glorify God by the things that we choose to do, the choices that we make. Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. That Jesus is going to return, that Jesus will reward us, that what we do makes a difference. What we do can make a difference in other people's lives. So it was fun in our Sunday school class in the fellowship hall there that starts at nine o'clock that you should come to that they're sharing about someone who, a couple who had made a difference in their lives by living out their faith. Someone in this church who made a difference, who is making a difference through their faithfulness and their encouragement. And it's a good thing. Be one of those types of people. That would be good. Number three, remember. Remember the reward of Christ's victory. Remember the reward of Christ's victory. So when Jesus did this, when Jesus went through all this, he had a reward in mind. A reward in mind. It said, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So the joy, the contentment, the knowing that what he was doing was right, not a momentary happiness or emotional comfort. It refers to a deep, settled confidence in the outcome God had promised. Because when Jesus was victorious in running his race, it would bring sinners back to God. It made it possible for us to be redeemed, for us to be saved, for us to be made right with God when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Some people don't understand what that means. And what it means is that we all by default are sinful, and our sin separates us from God. The Bible makes it clear that a holy God cannot accept a sinful person, but God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, that he opened the door, he made the payment, but we need to receive that by repenting, by changing from our sinful ways, by turning from our sinful ways and running to Jesus so that we can be forgiven, so that we can be saved by believing upon him, by confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believing upon him, that we can be made children of God, that we can be saved. And many people in this church and many people around have prayed a prayer, and we know it's not the prayer that saves you, but it's a great way to invite Jesus into your life, praying something like, Dear Jesus, I acknowledge that you lived your life, a perfect life, and that you purposefully went to the cross to give that life as a sacrifice for sin. And that by turning from my sin and pursuing you, turning to you, receiving you as my Lord and Savior, by receiving that gift, that I can be saved from the penalty of my sin, saved from who I would have become if I didn't have you in my life, assured heaven, and given the opportunity to make an eternal difference in the world. Jesus, I want all that. Please save me, come into my life, help me to live your purposes in Jesus' name. Or something like that. And we have a How to Find God New Testament that's really helpful for that. But Jesus, he sat down at the right hand of God. Scorning at shame means that the cross wasn't just a torture device, it was a shameful device. So when you were put on the cross, people mocked you, people spit on you, people laughed at you, people looked at you with disgust. And Jesus endured that for us. But then it says, when Jesus had done all that, he sat down at the right hand of God because it was finished, because it was done, because he had run his race and was victorious, and now the race was done, and he could celebrate the victory, and he was able to sit down and be done with that. It's a one-time sacrifice, doesn't have to happen over and over again. But again, Philippians 2.8 says, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. That was his race, that was what he came to do. He sure he came to live among us and teach us how to live. We read about that in the Gospels and the Bible. But then he also said, When I leave you, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to help you. And we look forward to Jesus' return. We claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer and the reading of the word and all those things. There's so many things I could talk about. But again, Hebrews 10, 12. When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God because he had finished it, because it was done. Number four, we need to consider the cost Christ endured, so you do not lose heart. And that was so clear in the passage in Hebrews. What's right here? To consider Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. So consider all that Jesus did for your salvation. Consider all that Jesus endured so that you could be in a relationship with him. Consider all that he endured from sinners who opposed him. And Jesus said that if they persecuted me, you can expect they're gonna persecute you. Becoming a Christ follower doesn't mean that everybody's gonna like you or life is always gonna be easy, but God can help you through it and give you courage. And sometimes it's the local church that encourages you and helps you. And so consider that so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So sometimes we're discouraged, and when we really think about all of what Christ has done and how he did it, it encourages us. And so we need to read our Bibles more for more encouragement. But and then in your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. That isn't like, oh, it could always be worse. That's if you are still alive, if you have not shed your blood on the cross like Jesus, if you have not been persecuted for your faith, you still have an opportunity to move forward, you still have an opportunity for life change, you still have an opportunity to keep running your race, you are still in the race. And if we look at the if you read more of Hebrews, you'll see, and even next week, we'll see that sin is something that's really gonna hinder your race. And next week we're gonna look at how God is like a divine coach that encourages us and disciplines us and helps us to move forward. But to know that it is a struggle. It is a struggle to say no to sin. It is a struggle when you're caught in an addiction, it is a struggle when other people around you seem to pull you the wrong way, or and sometimes at the end of the day, you just feel so discontent. And that's a good time to just pray and confess that and say, Lord, I didn't want to do that, say that, think that, forgive me and help me not to do it again. But 1 Peter 2, 21 says, For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you, he is your example, and you must follow in his steps. If you're really gonna be serious about running the Christian race, this context is more like Summer Olympics, more like running a marathon than a sprint, more like an endurance race, more like you need to plan how you're gonna keep moving forward, how you're even when you're feeling so tired, how you're gonna keep moving forward, how even if you suffer, you're gonna keep pursuing Jesus, keep living for Jesus. And that's where the reward is, Paul writes. That is why we never give up, though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. And to just keep pressing on, to keep knowing that Christ has a plan for your day, a plan for your life, a plan to use you if you'll let him, no matter how old you are, no matter how young you are, to help you to keep moving forward. And that is a good thing. So as you keep your eyes on Jesus, he'll strengthen your heart, steady your steps, and sustain your faith for the race ahead. So next time we get together, we're gonna talk about how God coaches us for a faith that endures. And that's gonna be a really good one, too, I think. But let me pray. Jesus, I thank you so much that you have given us your word to encourage us. I thank you that in this owner's manual for life, that you've made it clear that there is a beginning and an ending to our days, and in this race of life, you have a plan for us. And I thank you that you can allow us to do amazing things. Lord, help us to be like a good Olympic athlete and figure out what it is that puts points on the board, what it is that scores high among the judges, what it is that would be the best use of the time we have to do our routine, to do our plan, to live our life. And Lord, I pray that no matter where we are in the race of life, that from this day forward, that when we look back, we'll be content, we'll be pleased with what we did, we'll be surprised that when we've stepped out in faith to do new things, how you've used us, we'll be surprised at the wonderful things you do in our life as we put you first. We'll be strong against persecution, against people that talk against us or misunderstand us. We'll be compassionate in the way that we respond to them. So, God, we pray that you'd grow us, you'd grow this church, and this week you'd use us to do something significant in Jesus' name. Amen.