How are we doing? It’s good to be with you this morning if I haven’t met you my name is Colby Flowers. I am the student pastor here at Valley View. I’m so thankful to be opening up God’s Word with you this morning. If you’ve got your scriptures, we will be in Hebrews chapter 11 this morning. We’re going to look at a couple of verses there, and then we’re also going to be in Hebrews 12 sort of bookends for us this morning, because we’re going to do this this month is we’re going to look at this idea of walk by faith, and I’m going to kind of kick us off, so to speak, and talking about what is faith and how we’re supposed to walk in and how we’re supposed to live in it. And I remember as I was preparing this, I remember the very first five K that I ever ran in my life. I was in college, a couple of the guys on our college baseball team, actually, several of them wanted to go and do this. And so we went and participated in A5K that took place in Lexington downtown, and it was called a midsummer’s Night Run. They still do it to this day, and it’s a really cool race, but it’s A5K and they run around downtown and we participate. We all ran down there and participated in it. I was really excited about this, but five K is like the perfect distance for me. I love A5K because you have to be in decent shape to do A5K, but you don’t have to like train for it and die it for it like you do for a marathon. That’s not me, I can’t, I don’t know if I can do that, but I really like the distance of A5K. And so I remember starting the race and from the beginning to the end, I pretty much stayed in the middle of the pack, which was totally fine with me. I wasn’t looking to become a marathon runner, but I was in the middle of the pack. And then I remember as I was turning off of Rose Street to get back on Main Street and heading towards the finish line, I could see it about, I don’t know, a quarter mile down, and there were people that were standing around the finish line, which was surprising to me because this was my first five K, I didn’t know what to expect. And so as I’m getting closer towards the finish line, I noticed people are jumping up and down and screaming and celebrating. They’re pushing or they’re screaming for you to continue to keep going. You’re almost there. And I also notice some of the runners who had finished before me, because you saw the big numbers on their chest, they were also rooting for us to keep going, to keep pushing. And I remember having such a unique experience. When you cross the finish line that first time, Philip being filled with joy and triumph and excitement and community. It was such an awesome and great feeling. And today, what we’re going to talk about when it’s when we talk about walk By Faith or as we’re going to see this morning as a race with endurance, we’re going to see this picture played out. Because here’s what we’re going to see this morning. The believer must run with an enduring faith now so that in the future we can experience an unending joy later on. So when we talk about walking by faith, or here in Hebrews chapter 12, we’re going to get to to run this race with endurance then requires an enduring faith. Now we’re to unpack what faith is in Hebrews 11. But then we’re going to talk about, okay, well, how do I walk by faith in chapter 12. So we’re going to use these as bookmarks for us because as we’re going to see in the next couple weeks after following this Sunday in Hebrews 11 is Hebrews 11 is famously called the Hall of Faith because it dives into various Old Testament stories of Old Testament saints who had walked by faith, and they followed Yahweh. And so what I’m going to do for us is look at the beginning and the very end of it, two verses on either side, and we’re going to unpack what it means to walk by faith. Y’all with me. All right. Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. This is what it says. It says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So the author of Hebrews here gives us a definition of faith. This definition is a general definition. It’s not necessarily a religious definition. There’s a guy named John Lennox. He is a Christian Scientist and an apologist. He’s a he’s an incredible man. Just to listen to and talking about faith and reason and science. And he says, one mistake that we can make is claim that faith is just a religious term, that faith can only be had by religious people. When that’s not true. Faith is something that is that is for every person. We’re unpack that a little bit later, but faith is a common thing that we all deal with. Just like having a reason or logic, faith is important. And so the author of Hebrews isn’t just talking here about faith in Christ in a biblical sense, but this is a general definition. And he gives us two things here. Two things. First, he says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Your Bible translations, if maybe if you’ve got a King James, the word assurance here might be translated as a substance and all. That’s kind of a wooden literal translation. It’s still good, because what it’s saying here is, is faith is a is the ground or foundation we can step on. Faith is a confidence. In other words, faith is having a confident assurance of something that I’m hoping for in the future. Faith is often future oriented. It’s something that has not happened yet, but I have confidence or assurance that it will happen. The second part of this is that faith is the conviction of the evidence of things not seen, things that I can’t see, or things that have not come about yet. So faith is is trusting in something or someone or something to happen that that I have not seen yet. Does that make sense? And I think the word evidence or there’s a theologian named John Calvin, he uses the word demonstration. But all the points to this idea that we have evidence or logic or reason behind our faith, because here’s what we see today. We see today a lot of people that will say that faith is just a religious thing. And if people like Christians or anyone of who are religious, if they would just ask themselves or examine the facts or have used their logic that their faith is going to fall, skeptics and secularist people who aren’t religious will make these claims that if religious people, if Christians would just pause and look at the facts, they won’t believe anymore because they say that faith, you don’t look at the evidence, faith, you don’t look at conviction. But that’s not the way the Bible describes it. There’s a man named Richard Dawkins. He is a he’s been titled as a new The New Atheist, a group called the New Atheists. And he’s written several books about atheists and about religion, and he is obviously against it. And he wrote this book called The God Delusion. And here’s what he says about faith. Just do you see what our opponents would say? He said, Faith is the great cop out. He says it’s the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. In other words, faith just says, I don’t have to look at the facts. I don’t have to look in the evidence. I just have a blind faith. He says. Faith is the belief in spite of even perhaps because of the lack of evidence. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. That’s not what the Christian faith tells us, that faith is not an evasion of evidence. Faith is not the Bayesian of evidence. It is a close examination of it. Faith means we take into account what is true. We look at logic, we have reason, and then we base our life and our commitment off of that. So you might hear the term a leap of faith, right? My son, who is now 20 months old, 21 months old, is a daredevil, if I can put it that way. He is evolving and growing into the things that he likes to fall off of or jump off of. He is increasingly finding things that are taller, bigger, and to be frank, more dangerous. But he has a habit of climbing on pieces of furniture and then leaping off of them onto other pieces of furniture. But for him, it’s really lately just been a blind leap of faith. He doesn’t look, he doesn’t take into account, he doesn’t look at the evidence. He just leaps. And with pieces of furniture moving and shuffling sometimes, sometimes that distance might change a little bit, you know what I mean? And he’s starting to learn very quickly that when your head hits the ground, it hurts. So he’s learning right now something that’s very important I have to take into account. If I jump off of this, will I make it so he’s looking at the evidence, he’s looking at the facts, and now he looks and pauses and thinks, I can make it. Then he leaps or he’ll say, come and get me. He’ll hold his hands up because we need to pick him up because it’s too far. But this is a in a in a childish way. This is a faith based on reason. I have evidence, I have logic, but today we get this rap out there in our culture that the that the church doesn’t look at logic, it doesn’t look at evidence, it doesn’t look at the facts. Its exact opposite. When Thomas, the disciple, told his told his friends and said, listen, unless I put my hand in the side of Jesus and I get to touch the the whole nails and his hands in his feet, unless I touch them, I will not believe. I will not have faith. So Jesus enters the building. Thomas sees it, feels it, touch it, collects evidence and realizes, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God. I believe and trust in God that you did raise from the dead. Did Thomas see Jesus come out of the grave? No, but he sees it right in front of him. The evidence is clear. The logic is clear because we are have a faith that is based on logic and evidence. Don’t let the culture tell you anything different. So if I can say it this way, biblical face is not a blind leap, but an investigative walk. It’s not that we believe in Jesus blindly. Like I really don’t know anything. I don’t know the Bible. I don’t know the gospel, I don’t, I don’t have it. I just believe. I just believe because I believe, I know because I know that’s not the biblical faith. Because it’s possible you could be in this room having believed in Jesus, but never really thought about actually placing your faith in Jesus. Meaning we can make the right decision to follow Jesus, but never really actually consider it. So. To walk by faith, you have to slow down and think, have I really believed? If I can bring to this point biblical faith is a confident trust in Christ, and it’s grounded in reason, in evidence. And here’s what it does. It enables you. It empowers you to commit your whole life to Jesus. That’s what faith is. That’s what biblical faith is, that we trust in Christ. And here’s the beautiful part about the gospel is it doesn’t end with faith. Faith is the beginning for you. We recently just walked through a couple students who were accepted Christ, and they’ve placed their faith in Jesus. But that’s not the end of their journey. That’s the beginning of their journey. Faith starts your walk with Christ, but it’s faith that gets you to the finish line. But here’s what faith does. Faith gives us perseverance. Faith gives birth to it. It gives birth to patience. Faith gives birth to hope. Meaning. When you believe in trusting God, what it does is it gives you perseverance that no matter what trial, what difficulty you face, you can persevere. Faith gives you patience that no matter what you’re dealing with and the slowness at which something might be going, you can trust that God will work it in his time. Faith says that I can have hope that no matter the dark, how dark the days may get, I have a bright hope for the future because I have faith in God. So faith is this thing that we can’t miss from the Bible. It is a conviction. It is a unwavering confidence that we have. And look here in verse two, Hebrews 11, verse two, for by it the people of old received their commendation. Notice that does not say condemnation, but commendation. And what is he saying here is for by faith the people of old being the Old Testament saints, that he’s going to talk about through the whole chapter, Moses and Aaron and David, all these people who walked by faith with God. Here’s what they received a commendation from God. The word is this is like a passive form of to testify that God will testify for every believer who believes in Jesus and walks by faith to the finish line. So what this says here is that there is a celebration, a recognition and acknowledgment for those who walk by faith and make it to the finish line. So if I can say it this way, the finish line of walking by faith is God’s future commendation. It is God’s future celebration. It is God’s future, if I can say it. Party for us to finish the faith. I think Paul said it best to second Timothy chapter four. Paul says it in a beautiful way and applies directly to what we’re talking about here. Second Timothy four verse seven says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. You see it. I have kept the faith, this faith race that I have, I have been running, I have kept it, I have maintained it. I have not stopped. I have fought the good fight. Verse eight henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on the on that day. And not only me. Because, listen, it’s not just for people like Paul. It’s for all who have loved his appearing, all who have placed their faith in Jesus, all who have completed their race. So this is a beautiful picture. We get that if we walk by faith and finish our race, there is a commendation, a celebration and acknowledgment and a full party for all those who come by faith to Jesus to the end. But here’s the catch. Before you can walk by faith, you must be born again through faith. Before you can start following Jesus by faith, you need to actually place your faith in Jesus. Because here’s the danger we can walk into a church. We can get acclimated to a church culture, get acclimated to the programs, get acclimated to all the things that are happening in a church community. And we start walking and we never really stop to consider it. Have I replaced by faith in Jesus? John three three Jesus says, you must be born again or else you won’t see the kingdom of God. Ephesians two tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, meaning we were born dead on arrival. We were born separated from God. But but the gospel was so beautiful because in verse four, Ephesians two he says, but, but by the grace of God, he has made us alive together with Christ. By grace we have been saved. Through faith we need to be born again. We need to place our faith in Jesus so that we can have life and have it eternal. So here’s your first point this morning. Simple place your faith in Christ. If I can make it any more simpler, trust Jesus. If you’ve never really placed your faith in Christ. Today’s the day that tomorrow, tomorrow was not promised. It’s today. Place your faith in Christ because before we walk by faith, we have to place our faith in Jesus. Do y’all see that? A.W. Tozer has a beautiful quote on this? I may have shared this before I could. I couldn’t sort it out if I had or not, but A.W. Tozer says something beautiful here, but it challenges you. Says if your Christian conversion did not reverse the direction of your life, if it did not transform it, then listen, you are not converted at all. You are simply a victim of what he calls the accept Jesus heresy. Accept Jesus into your heart and you’ll be saved. Don’t you really have to think about the evidence, the logic, the pursuit, what you have to give up? John MacArthur, pastor who passed away since he wrote a book called The Gospel According to Jesus. He wrote it because there was this easy believing that was happening in our culture. In other words, if you believe in Jesus, you’ll be saved. But you don’t have to worry about anything else. You can follow Jesus, but don’t change your life. But what this quote is getting at is if your life hasn’t changed, have you really been converted? If there’s been no transformation in your life, is it really true and genuine? So the question you have to ask yourself has I have I truly placed my faith in Christ? And is my life been changed ever since? So let me put it this way. This is this is maybe a simpler way to put it, a profession of faith without a practice of faith is a dead faith. James two says, faith without works is dead. That is, I profess Jesus, but my life doesn’t change. Well, is that faith real? Consider. Do you have a profession of Jesus? And are you practicing your faith and living it out and following him? Or is your faith dead because all it has been is words and not a heart change? Friend, if that’s you this morning, it can change in a moment. Placing your faith in Jesus saves you now and for the rest of eternity. And by placing your faith in Jesus, you’re saying, I can’t save myself, but you can, and I surrender my life to you? Would you do that this morning? Hebrews chapter 12. Let’s jump ahead now. This is one chapter later, verses one and two. This is now. We’re going to get into this idea of how we walk by faith, how we walk by faith, what this looks like. Hebrews 12 one therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, meaning because of all of these testimonies, all of these stories about Moses and Aaron and David, all of these faithful saints, in light of all of these things, therefore we need to do something. It goes on in verse one. Let us also lay aside every weight. In other words, you could use. There is burden and sin. Two things here two categories. Lay aside every weight and lay aside every sin which clings so closely to you. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So the author of Hebrews says, you know how you run your race? Two things. Two things you have to do lay aside and run with endurance. Let me unpack those two things for us this morning. So first it says, lay aside every weight, this idea of weight or burden is saying, I can’t run a race with endurance holding something. This is like you’re going for a run, but you’re putting on a weighted vest, you’re going for a run and you put weight on your ankles. You’re not going to run as fast, you’re not going to run as long. So the point is, he’s simply making this point that you can try to run this race of faith as a believer, as a Christian, while trying to carry things you shouldn’t be carrying. And you might be thinking, what is that? Wait, what are burdens or weights that Christians might be trying to carry with them? Trying to follow Jesus? And this could be a number of things, but let me give you a couple things that kind of categories that kind of apply for several things. If you have a love for this world, your race of faith is going to be very hard. If you have a love for money, your race of faith is going to be very hard. If you have a love for possessions, a love for fame, a love for, feeling important, a love for comfort. If you have a love for these things, then trying to follow Jesus is going to make it very, very hard. So we can try to run our race. But if our life is built and centered on our life in this world, then it’s going to be a tough run for us. But not just those things, but it could be sin. So those burdens are weights are things that we choose to pick up and carry. But sin is something we all have to continue to deal with. You may have placed your faith in Jesus, but because of the way the situation is, we still have the influence of sin in our life. There is sin, as it says, that clings closely from thoughts, attitudes, your actions, anything that disobeys God, we’re stealing, we’re still dealing with. But I like the way that the author of Hebrews talks about it, that it clings to you. Y’all ever met a clingy person? Anybody? No. Don’t be. Don’t be moving elbows right now. Y’all ever met a clingy person before? And it could be someone like that automated call you get every day from that same sales person that’s trying to get you to buy something, and they just won’t go away. Or it could be that clingy for my maybe for students or college young people, or clingy boyfriend or girlfriend. How do you get rid of the clingy? Because there are clingy people. What do you do to get rid of people that are clingy? And notice I didn’t say kids because kids are blessings. Okay, but what do you do with clingy people? You have to bluntly tell them get away. You have to create space. And for some of these instances, you might have to put a restraining order on somebody. But if they’re clingy, you have to make the choice that I want to push and get away from you. Because here’s the truth sin will cling to you if you let it, if you let it. I want you to hear this this morning. You cannot run your race with endurance if you are clinging to this world, or you’re allowing sin to cling to you. You cannot run this race with endurance. If you are clinging to this world with a tight grip, not letting go, or you are allowing sin to cling to you. Because here’s our promise that I want to remind you of. If you are a believer and a faithful follower of Christ, if you have accepted Christ, here is the reality in the gospel. Hear me out. In Christ you have the blood. But choice to lay us out every burden and every sin. When Jesus died on the cross for you and for me, he wasn’t just paying the price and the penalty of our sin, he was paying so that the power of sin in your life is removed. He doesn’t just give you power over the grave and over the enemy. He gives you power over sin. Which means the reason why we’re struggling with sin today is because we allow it to cling to us. So the question has to be asked, are you carrying any unnecessary weight and sin this morning because it’ll slow you down. Second point this morning. Lay aside every burden. This isn’t involved effort of you trying to be good. Trying to be better. Trying to write every wrong. Know what it is is Jesus. I’m a sinner. Take away the things that I’m struggling with and take away the weight that I’m dealing with. Because Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy, in my burden is light. Some of you this morning are carrying things you don’t have to carry. Mental anxiety, sin that you’re struggling with, problems and issues you may be facing between work or family and all of those things you can come to them to with, to Jesus and give those to them so you can continue to run your race with endurance by faith, because walking by faith says, Jesus, I trust you with these things because I can’t deal with them. Going on here. Verse two, last verse, verse this morning, verse two, Hebrews 12, verse two says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. So you want to know how we run our race with endurance we lay us out every weight, every sin, and we run with endurance. So how do we run now with endurance? Here’s what you do. You look to Jesus. You look to him. You look to the perfect example. In fact, this is why this says here the founder and perfecter of the faith, he is the founder because he’s the architect. He built the faith. He was the first one to complete the Christian life, and he was the only one to do it perfectly. He’s the perfecter and the founder of our faith. So yes, you can look to people like Moses. You can look to people like David, you can look to people like Abraham, you can look to people that are even around you, that are following Jesus. But listen, the perfect example for you to follow on how to walk by faith is who? Jesus? The whole book of Hebrews is this way. Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Abraham. Jesus is better than Melchizedek. He’s better than Moses. He’s better than law. He’s better than the priest. He’s better than the sacrifices. Jesus is the best example that you have to follow and listen. You have to ask yourself, am I looking to him? Where’s your focus? Listen. Your focus determines your endurance. What you’re focused on will either make you endure through the tough times, or it will leave you wanting. Your attention is crucial, which is why the enemy loves to get our teenagers on phones. Which is why the enemy wants to get you as parents on screens. Because he wants your what? Your focus. God gave us the word. God meets with us in prayer so that our focus can be on him, not on anything else. You feel tired this morning. You feel like you’re you’re at the end of your rope. You feel like you’ve been been stagnating your faith. You’ve had a couple weeks, you’ve been good and you’ve had a couple months have been off. You haven’t been in your word. You haven’t in prayer. Here’s the thing. Are you looking to Jesus? And if you can think of it this way, in the running analogy, Jesus is the forerunner we need. He’s the one who gets out of head of us, and we can follow because he inspires us. He motivates us that I want to be like, Jesus. I’m not going to be perfect, but I’m going to follow his example step by step. And he’s also our pacesetter, so that John Benson and I were going out for a run, I’d have to keep up with him. He’d keep me going because we need someone out in front of us to help us keep the pace so that we don’t slow down or give up. But he’s our pacesetter. He’s our forerunner. We look to Jesus and we go. Where’s your focus at this morning? Last part of verse two. Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. And notice how he did this, who for the joy that was set before him in the future, not here yet, the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross and despising the shame. And this is where it resulted. He was. He is now and forever seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Don’t miss this church. How was Jesus able to get through to the cross? Through the cross, through the shame? You know why? Because he had joy on the other side. Not only was Jesus the most joyful person ever, he sought ahead to what the future held and his joy was set on the future. It wasn’t here yet, but he had faith and trust that when he would go through the cross, he would not only be seated at the throne of God, but he would take all of us with him, that if we would believe in Jesus, that he would be able to dwell with his people forever. So Jesus wasn’t focused on the cross. He was focused on the joy to come. Church, I don’t know what you’re facing today. I don’t know what you’re dealing with. Is a medical illness, some issues in your family, some finances, concerns about your future, whatever difficulty you’re walking, you may even be approaching death. But here, this, this morning, we can walk through the valley of death. Here’s why. Because Christ has already walked through it on our behalf. Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don’t have to fear evil because Christ has already done it for you. Talk about faith. Talk about hope. Talk about perseverance. Talk about having a faith that will get you through anything. And if Christ went to the cross, died and rose from the grave, I guarantee you he can give you the faith to get through it. Whatever you’re dealing with. Want you to hear me that the reward that you have in Christ at the end of your journey, the reward that is awaiting us, is an unending and satisfying joy, and they can get you through anything. If you would only look to Jesus. And I love this in Psalm 1611 you may have heard this verse. You make known to me the path of life and your presence. There is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forever more. Praise God! You have a joy in the future that can get you through the the difficulty today. So here’s what you got to do. Final point look to Jesus. Look to Jesus for your joy and for your endurance. Find joy in the moment right now as you’re walking through faith, but know that there is a greater joy that far exceed, far outweighs, and exceeds what you’re dealing with right now. He’s a challenge this morning. Have you laid aside every weight and every sin so you can run your race with endurance? What unnecessary burden and love for this world are you clinging to that’s slowing you down? What sin are you allowing cling to you that’s hindering your walk in your race? What if today was the day said, you know what? Jesus. Here it is. I’ve never confessed this to you before. Jesus. But here it is. I’ve never confessed this to anyone. But I need to go talk to someone. Here’s this burden that I’ve been trying to solve and sort out and keep and hold on to. Here it is. Because I want to ruin my race with endurance. And as I close with this, been working with our staff and a couple people in our church on a new ministry and a new club that I want us to start at Valley View, and this is the perfect time to talk about it, since we’re talking about running a race with endurance. So we are going to start a run and walk club of value. Here’s what that means. Any pace, any age is welcome. We are going to meet in the mornings on Saturdays. The first one is going to be July 18th. This this July 18th. And we’re going to eat some breakfast together. Hang out. Open up the Bible a little bit. Say a prayer and we’ll do some fitness. If you don’t want to do fitness, you want to watch other people sweat. I guess you can come. That’s fine too. We encourage you. We want to build some endurance in you, not just through God’s Word, not just through prayer, not just through community, but walking. And for some of us, who wants to run will have, you know, you can run a mile. We even have some that’ll go with the distance and do A5K. And all of that can be happening at here at the church. And we’re going to have some breakfast for you. Okay. So all that makes sense. So I encourage you to come to that. It’s a great way to start or to push through this summer and start some healthy habits in our life, but also a reminder that we’re called to run our race with endurance. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for this scripture and this word this morning from Hebrews. I pray, father, that we would be honest about the weights and the burdens that we’re carrying right now. I pray, father, that we would confess our sin to you and confess our sin to one another. I pray, father, that we would be laying down burdens that we’ve been carrying that we don’t need to. I pray, father, that we would look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy of the that was set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame. And we believe. Father, that if if Jesus can go through all of that for us and give us life and salvation, we can get through any problem thrown at us in this life. So I pray over all of our people. I pray for those God who haven’t accepted Christ yet, that today’s the day that they would place their faith in Jesus. But for those who have confessed Christ, who have just maybe grown, who have wandered and have been distant lately, that they would reclaim God, the truth, to walk by faith and to endure by looking to Jesus. Pray all this in Jesus name and everybody said Amen.