Well, good morning, Mission Grove. How are we doing today? Yeah, I love it. Uh, this is a wonderful day. Would this be a great day to go for a run? Let me see the hands of those of you who got up early this morning and you went for a run. Come on, raise your hand, raise your hand, raise your hand. OK, that's not looking real good. Let me see the hands of those of you who are runners. OK, 3, let me see the hands of those of you who are ex-runners, used to be, used to be, ever did, and, huh? Running late, ah, that's good. And now let me see the hands of those of you who feel like, no way, no how, when hell freezes over, I'll be a runner, OK? Yeah, these are the smart people in the room. Um How do you know, by the way, how do you know if your neighbor is a runner? Don't worry about it, they'll tell you, uh. The summer of 2012, summer of 2012, that would be uh 13 years ago. I had a dream. My dream In the summer of 2012 was to complete a triathlon, specifically what they call an Ironman triathlon. It was an absolutely crazy dream for those of you who are not familiar with it, an Ironman triathlon, uh, uh, I hope we're gonna get some slides, an Ironman triathlon begins with a 2.4 mile swim, which is roughly the distance of, uh, from here to the Walmart Supercenter down the road. Followed by a 112 mile bike ride which is roughly the distance from here to Tucson and then the participants get off the bike and uh proceed to do a running marathon which is 26.2 miles roughly the distance from here to Sky Harbor Airport. And then they're checked into an insane asylum. Uh, or the morgue, whichever seems appropriate, uh, and I wanted to do this thing. Now, honestly, I had done it twice before. But since then I had added 20 years to my life. I was 58. I had added 20 years to my life and about 80 pounds. This is what I looked like when I had that crazy idea. Does that look like an Iron Man to you? Don't answer that out loud. Um, Now some of you are thinking that is not something that any uh any sane person would do and you'd be right and so I initially I didn't tell anybody of my interest in doing it but I did started to train. I started to swim. I started to bike. I started to run. Only problem was that the running was in Minnesota throughout the winter months and so this is a picture of me after one of my many, many winter runs, uh, before the sun came up. The training was, uh, brutal. One year later, 1 year later at age 59, uh, this was me about as ready as I could be. Uh, I was feeling good. I had uh I had done a lot of training. I've done a couple 60 mile bike rides, an 80 mile bike ride, a 90 mile bike ride, and a 100 mile bike ride. The race, if you remember, is a 112 mile bike ride in addition to the swim and to the run. I had done all of those bike rides at just a little bit under 17 MPH, which is not particularly good unless you're 59, which I was. I felt prepared. The day came. I wasn't. What I wasn't prepared for was uh the heat, the the the uh hills and the humidity. I was ready to jump into along with 3000 other people. I was ready to jump into the Ohio River. This thing was happening in Louisville, Kentucky. The 2.4 mile swim was an open water swim in the Ohio River. I was ready and I thought I was prepared. How naive could I get? I went into the water. The swim went pretty well. I came out 86 minutes later, which was a reasonably good time for me, uh, and that had been better than I had expected and so now it was time to get on the bike. Initially in the bike ride. I felt pretty good. I thought, OK, this is going not too bad. I had trained. I had done 60, 80, 90, 100 miles. I felt prepared. I wasn't. I wasn't prepared for the hills heat and humidity, and by mile 40. It was really clear to me that this was gonna be one really long day and that I was in deep trouble. I mentioned that I had done my training rides at just a little bit under 17 MPH and I was at mile 40 and my average was already down to under 15 MPH. That was not a good thing, but I had nothing to do but keep going. I wasn't gonna quit. I finished the bike ride part in 7.5 hours and by the time I was done, I was, I was so dead, so dead. I was actually looking forward to getting off the bike and starting to run. Yeah, that's wasn't very smart. Um, by mile 2 of the 26 mile run, I knew I was in a deep trouble. My pace had already slowed to. This is mile 2 had already slowed to 14 minutes per mile. Now most of you, let me just give you some perspective, uh, the average person in this room, if you worked at it a little bit, you can walk a mile in 14 minutes. My running was already down to the pace that you could walk if you're walking fast. And I know this was, I knew that this was not going to be good. Honestly, by that point in the race, I didn't know if I could finish. By mile 2. There were voices in my head that were already telling me to quit. I was in trouble. I had 24 to go. And I just wanted to be out. Now you've been there. Now you haven't been, most of you haven't been in a little literal triathlon swim bike run, but you've been there, you've done the work family marriage. You've been there at work when your boss is such a jerk you desperately want to quit you've been there in your marriage, some of you, you remember those that wonderful day when you stood before people and said for better or worse and now you're looking back and going, hey, I didn't know it was only going to be worse. And there's something inside of you that just really, really, really wants to be out and for this thing to be over or you remember when you had their kid had your kids and they and and they started to smile and they started to make little cow sounds and you thought that they were the best thing ever and then they turned into the terrible twos which eventually evolved into the terrible twelves and you're going what in the world did I do? You're in a triathlon. And some of you just want to be out. I was at mile 2 and I had 24.2 miles to go and what I knew was that my wife and my daughter were going to meet me at mile 11 and I couldn't not get there, which meant that I had to keep going because my wife and my daughter were going to meet me at mile 11, so I had to keep going. I also knew that I was a pastor at the time and uh before I had run this race, I had let everybody know he. Next week I'm not gonna be here. I'm gonna be at the the race you all can follow it online and they'd all said wonderful things and I knew that they were watching me and they were following me online and so I knew that I couldn't give up on this thing and uh at mile 11 I met my wife and my daughter Joy and Jenna and by mile 11 of 26 miles 15 miles to go I couldn't even stand up straight. Forget the running, forget the walking. I had been trying to uh run a quarter of a mile and then walk, run quarter of a mile and then walk. By this point I was reduced to uh run a little bit and then and and then walk a bunch and I couldn't stand up straight. The sun went down. This was to turn into a 16 hour race for me. The sun went down and the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, which was where this race was. Turned into haunting shadows in the darkness. Gone were the cheering enthusiastic crowds. Go down, did they do it. Just empty dark streets of Louisville. The race had turned into A death march I could no longer run a quarter mile. I couldn't run 1/8 of a mile. I was pretty sure there was no way I was gonna make it to the finish line. But what I did know is that there was a street light down that street. And so I decided. I'm gonna make it to that street light. And then when I would make it to that street light, then I would see that there was another street light. That I would make it to yet another street light. And then another street light. And then another street light. I couldn't make 26 miles, but I could make it to the next light. I met Joy and and my daughter Jen at mile 24. And they walked with me. You know, I ran by then I was shuffling. They walked along with me, uh, walked Dad and her husband, me, the last two miles. And at 11:20 in the evening it had started at 7 o'clock in the morning. At 11:20 in the evening, I rounded a corner and saw the most beautiful sight imaginable, the finish line. And for the first time in several miles I began to run. And at 11:22 p.m. I crossed the finish line and was met by Rachel. Who is Rachel? I have no idea she was just the most beautiful volunteer in the world with a smile as I crossed that finish line. She met me, held me up, escorted me to the finish area, gave me water and chocolate milk. I love chocolate milk. And she wrapped the metal around my neck, gave me an Ironman finisher hat and a shirt with the beautiful words finisher. And I was so glad to be done and so glad that I hadn't quit. Now some of you are thinking that guy really is stupid and you would be right, but many of you are exactly where I was. Oh, not running a literal triathlon, you're running the triathlon of life. Many of you are at mile 20 of the marathon part of it, and you don't know if you can finish this thing. You don't know if you want to finish this thing. I'm not talking about suicide. I'm talking about you don't know if you want to hang into that marriage you don't know if there's any way that you can continue to deal with the kids that God has given you or the relationships in your life or your career or your finance or or or and everything see inside of you screams I wanna quit. I wanna be done with this thing. And you're just trying to hang on. Some of you here this morning are just trying to hang on to your marriage. And you're not sure you want to. And some of you are just trying to hang on to your sanity. Some of you are trying to hang on to your sobriety. And every week another Friday and Saturday evening comes or you're trying to hang on to your house in the face of a foreclosure or to your kids or to some of you you're at the point where God, where are you? And you're just trying to hang on to your faith. So this morning, uh, I want to unpack some lessons from a long run because we're all involved in a long run. And we're gonna take a look, uh, a little bit at a group of Christians, uh, in ancient Phil in Philadelphia rather, who are, who like you are just trying to hang on. And we're gonna take a look at the encouragement that Jesus gives to these Christians living in Philadelphia. You can find it in Revelation chapter 3. We're not gonna read it all. I'm just gonna excerpt a few pieces, uh, from it. What do we know about this group of Christians about this church? It's one of the seven churches that Jesus writes a letter to in uh in the opening chapters of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. It unlike the rest was a model church. Uh, some of the churches we've looked at got a solid minus or maybe a D minus. This church gets a solid A plus, uh, Mission Grove of Phil of ancient Philadelphia. There we go. I mean, and they were doing well. They were faithful, they were true, they were hanging in. There they were obedient under duress. They had stayed faithful to Jesus. They were a great church. Jesus has in the in Revelation chapter 3 verses 7 to 13, has nothing negative negative to say about them except that if you call this negative, is how they felt. They were late in the race and they were feeling weak. They were barely hanging on. Oh, I don't mean that they were uncertain as to whether they wanted to be Christians. They wanted to be Christians. They wanted to be true to God. They wanted to be faithful like many of you, but they were going through it and it was everything that they could do to hang on. That Jesus says to them that they are weak, and that wasn't an insult. It was just an acknowledgement where he's saying, I know how tough it is for you right now. Jesus to them in in chapter 3 verse 8, he says, I know that you have. Bob, I know that you have. Jessica, I know that right now you have. Sue, I know that you have little strength. But keep my word. But you've kept my word rather and you haven't denied your faith and you have held on to me and I just want you to know I'm proud of you. And I want you all to hear that from Jesus. If you're going through late in the race and you're feeling like there ain't no way I'm gonna get this thing through this thing that Jesus is going, I know. And I'm proud of you. And Jesus to them in verse 38, I know that you have little strength, but you've kept my, you've kept my word and you haven't denied me. And what they, what they had was they had some of their closest friends who were opposing them. You see, most of these early Christians, actually most of the first century Christians were Jews, right? Now you and I have a tendency to think Jew or Christian, which is it? And the answer is that almost all of the first, most of the first century uh Christians were all Jews and so most of the Christians in Philadelphia, they had grown up in a in a in a good synagogue, and all of their friends, all of their, their cousins and their aunts and uncles and good buddies were all good Jews who went to the synagogue and now those same people. We're saying to these Christians, you what? You believe in who? You think he rose from the what? What is wrong with you? And so instead of all of their friends rejoicing at what they had found in following Jesus, all of their friends were trying to talk them out of it. And in the face of this, the race was getting harder and longer. And harder And longer And to these discouraged Christians, Jesus says. I'm coming soon. Hold on to what you've got and don't let anybody. Steal your crown. Say what? I ain't got no crown. Hold on, I'm coming soon. Don't let anybody take your crown. Now when you and I think a crown, we usually think of something that the uh king's royalty wear. But that's not the kind of crown that's in view here. First century Olympics, the winners of the, uh, various Olympic races would receive a not a gold medal, they'd receive a crown, a crown that was woven out of plant material and placed on the head of the winner, and that was their, uh, their reward. And, and Jesus is saying to them, you're running this race. And I'm proud of you and I know it's getting really hard, but you can do this, you can finish this thing and don't let anybody stop you from crossing that finish line. That's what they heard? That's what I think God wants you to hear this morning. So what do we learn from uh from my race and from uh these uh these early Christians from Philadelphia some lessons from a long run, lessons from a long run, 4 things. Number 1, expect some pain. Hey, glad you came this morning. Expect some pain, uh, expect some pain. James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3. James, by the way, who happened to be the literal physical brother of uh of Jesus, uh, by the way, how would you like to grow up being Jesus's younger brother? And how many times you'd hear now why can't you be like your older brother Jesus? Um, anyway, James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, he writes, uh, uh, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith is gonna produce perseverance. I want you to catch something. He doesn't say, consider a joy, my brothers if. He doesn't say if you ever have a problem if things don't go the way you planned in your job or your career or your finances or your marriage or your kids. It's when. And the one thing I really like about the Bible is it's just the it's just terribly honest. You're gonna, there's gonna be moments in my race. I thought when I lined up at the start line that there was gonna be some hard times. I didn't know it was gonna turn from hard to brutal. And that's probably not what you expected in your career, not what you expected in your family, not what you expected in your marriage. None of us signed up for, hey, I hope it's, I hope this gets brutal. And James says, consider it joy when you encounter those really tough times. Some misconceptions that Christians have misconception number one. See if any of these fit you. Number one is that pain is a punishment from God. And news flash. No, it's not. But what a lot of Christians do is when everything when anything starts to go bad in their life, they immediately ask the question, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? And to you, I want to say, by the way, these Christians in Philadelphia, what did they do wrong? Absolutely nothing. Life was not going hard for them because of anything they did wrong and what I want to say to you is don't add guilt to your discouragement. Don't add guilt to the difficulty that you're going through. That pain is probably not a punishment for something that you've done wrong. Another misconception that that Christians oftentimes have is that the reward for doing good is if I do good things are going to go well. If I do good things will go well. And so if it's not going well, I must. Done something wrong, but if I do go, if I do, if I do the right stuff, it's gonna go good. And so we, we, we trust God, we pray, we go to church, we give a little bit and and we're doing all the right things and then and then pain happens and then trials happen and our question is God, what did I do wrong or God, this is not fair. God, this is not fair. I have been, I've been being a good boy, but doing everything you told me to do and. And that's just not the deal. Misconception number 3, is it God. Uh, and frankly there's a lot of um. Lying preachers who will tell you that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and problem free. If you're a good Christian and trust God, you will be healthy and you will be wealthy and your life will be problem free and that's a lie from the pit of hell pit of hell. I don't care if the guy who is talking about it is, uh, pretending to use the Bible, but it is a lie with a certain little bit of truth in it to it in it in that what scripture does say. What scripture does say is that. This is the owner's manual given. To us To tell us how to live and what it's telling us is follow the owner's manual and things go well for you. Now when I got, uh, when I got, uh, When I used to get a car, it came with an owner's manual that told me that I was supposed to change the oil. How many of you changed the oil in your car on a regular basis? You changed it. Why do you do that? Does it stop running if you don't? No, it doesn't stop running. It just keeps right on running. It keeps running and running and running and running and running and running and running until it doesn't. The owner, the manufacturer knew the manufacturer knew that it would be good for your car and your car would run better longer if you would change the oil in it. Oh, by the way, my owner's manual doesn't include oil changes because I have a Tesla, but anyway, that's another story, you know change oil, um. What scripture does say is this is what the manufacturer recommends do this and and as a principle it will go better for you, but it's a principle, not a promise, a promise to obey God, you will be healthy and you will be wealthy and nothing will ever go wrong, right? The fourth misconception that many Christians embrace is that if I just trust God and pray, then all my trials will go away and they will get fixed. Is that true? Nope. Not necessarily. At least not on this side of eternity. So we all know you probably have a friend, maybe a relative. Who they were only in their 20s, maybe in their 30s, maybe in their 40s. They went to the doctor and they heard the C word. They heard the cancer word, and they were a believer, they believed in Jesus and they proceeded to pray and they proceeded to ask God and they did all the other right things that the medical community uh would advise for them. They did the right things and they prayed. And they were surrounded by other people, maybe including you who prayed for them. And now the only way that you can visit them. is at the cemetery. And there's a part of our heart that goes. God. How is this fair? How can this be? This was a good person who did the right thing and then we all prayed, they prayed and you didn't fix it. Why? Because not everything gets fixed this side of eternity. I'm sorry. But it did get fixed. Just on the other side. The owner's mandel doesn't come with a promise that everything always goes right. Number 1, lessons from a long run expect that there will be pain. Number 2, attitude will determine the outcome. Did you notice that in James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3? James says consider it all joy. What a sicko. Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, by the way. Uh, may I suggest that if you have a friend who's going through this, going through it. Uh, do not say to them, hey. So everything's going really bad for you. All right, let's rejoice. No, don't do that, but he does say. To us When you're going through it, consider it all joy, but then he goes on to tell them why the why is because it's going to produce something in you. It's gonna produce perseverance and character and faith and it's gonna make you stronger. When I was training for this uh this crazy thing, you know, there were times when I get up on Saturday morning. Saturday morning is is a time when the marathon runners and triathletes oftentimes do long runs. And when I was anticipating this particular triathlon, I knew that they, the long ones had to be really like really long. So I get up on a Saturday morning and God, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this, and I'd go out and bike for 60 miles and when I was done, I wasn't happy because I knew that the follow. On Saturday morning I was going to go out and bike for 80 miles, and I wasn't happy because I knew that the following Saturday meant 90 and the following Saturday meant 100 because then it would be time for me to do the race that was 112 and every one of them were really, really difficult but. The good thing was after the 60 and the 80 and the 90 and the 100 that two positive things. Number 2, number one, I'd come home and, and I knew that I was stronger. I knew that next Saturday's workout was gonna be easier because of this Saturday's workout, and the other thing I knew is I'd get on the scale and I'd find out that I was just a little bit lighter, which was gonna help me with the race so God says there are gonna be times when you're gonna go through it. And your attitude is gonna be everything. Try to see what God is doing in you. Through those really tough moments, your prayer, God, how do you want to shape me? God, how do you want to shape me? In the middle of this. Number 3, no fuel, no finish, no fuel, no finish. Um, marathoners and triathletes understand this. It meant that the first thing that I did when I got out of the, uh, when I got out of the Ohio River was to immediately start to drink. Immediately start to drink and eat. I wasn't thirsty. I just got out of the higher river. I wasn't hungry. I hadn't been up that long, but I knew that if I didn't eat and drink, there was no way I was going to make it to the finish line, you see, they've calculated that the average triathlete is expending about 600 calories an hour in exercise, 600 calories an hour over the course of the race day. Over the course of the race day, about 8000 to 9000 calories. Now the good news is, if you're expending 8 or 9000 calories in a day, you can eat anything you want. Don't worry about it. The bad thing is, if you don't eat, you're not making it to the finish line. You see, your body, God has put into your body. About 2000 calories of uh of a sugar called glycogen. It's what your body uses as its standard fuel, glycogen. It's how you do everything that you do. And the good news is it works really well. The bad news is you've only got 2000 calories in your body, and after you've expended 2000 calories of g glycogen, uh, your body is like a, um, a car that runs out of gas. Have you heard the expression, uh, marathoners use it hit the wall. Hit the wall simply means that a marathoner is running, running, running, running, running, running, running, running, boom. Like what happened? I can't run anymore. That's because they literally run out of fuel now, so, uh, what that means is for somebody who's going 8000 miles, 8000 calories of exercise instead of only 2000. As soon as they get out of the water they gotta start stuffing their face with bananas and any kind of sugar and any kind of water and any kind of sugar water that they can possibly get as fast and as much of it as you can possibly do while you're biking because no fuel, no finish, no exceptions. And um and so Isaiah 4031 talks about that same principle as it pertains to our spiritual and uh life on this uh this side of eternity. Isaiah 4040 31, those who hope in the Lord, that is those who are got their eyes fixed on him and are trusting in Him and are connected to him, those who hope in the Lord will renew. Their strength They'll get the mile 4 and be going, yeah, I got this. They'll get the mile 10 and go, yeah, I got this. Why? Because they've got a source of fuel. Um, uh, those who hoping the Lord will renew their strength, they're gonna soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, boy, don't I wish on that day they will walk and not faint. We all need fuel to make it to the finish line. Now, Christians were oftentimes not too smart. The fuel that we need, the basic fuel that we need is to stay connected to Jesus by. OK. By regularly getting along with him and and in prayer by. Opening up his letters to us, reading them, meditating on them and letting them transform our minds by thirdly getting together with other Christians. Hebrews chapter 10 says, let us consider how to stimulate one another. You're not here today so that you can get something out of what I have to say and some of you going, well, that's good because I'm not. You're here today, you're here today to encourage somebody else. We get together in order to stimulate each other to hang on to do good to do right and to trust in God. Every one of us needs fuel or we're not finishing we need to be. Regularly connected to Jesus by prayer, the word and through being with others to encourage each other. Now the problem is that a lot of Christians go, uh, uh, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I might try that someday and when someday comes. It's too late. There's a uh uh an acronym among marathoners, DNF. It means did not finish. DNF. You know why some marathoners, DNF don't finish. Because they didn't drink and eat. And by the time they figured out that they needed to drink more and eat more, it was too late. And by the time you figure out that you need to be not simply believe some things about Jesus but be connected to Jesus by regularly talking to him by regularly reading from him and by regularly being with his people by the time you figure out oh I need that it's too late. I'm glad that you're here, man. I'm I'm talking to the wrong people, but I want you to know that we are here together to build each other up and to connect each other uh to Jesus. No fuel, no finish. And finally, number 4. Whatever race you're in. You can do this. You can do this. Philippians chapter 4 verse 13. The apostle Paul, who was in prison when he wrote it. Writes these words. To a group of Christians in Philippi. He's in prison, he's writing to Christians who are free, and he says, I can do everything. Some of your translations, I can do all things, I can do anything through Jesus who gives me strength. Interesting verse, uh, in a lot of marathons and a lot of triathlons, uh, there will be Christian runners who will oftentimes have this verse emblazoned on the back of the shirt that they're wearing as they run this race. They're in for the long run with a verse that says I can do this. Through Jesus through Christ who gives me strength, what many of them are unaware of is that when Jesus when when Paul wrote those words, he was in prison and he didn't know if he was gonna get out. He didn't even know if he would survive. In fact, we don't know today whether he survived writing those words. And so he writes to a group of Christians saying, I can do this through Christ who gives me strength. No place in the book of Philippians does he ask those Christians, hey, pray for me that God would get me out of prison. Getting out. It's not what God wants for us. Forming us, shaping us. Is what God has for us. You can do this. I don't know what this is for you. It may be about your family, it may be about your job, your career, your finances, your marriage, your kids, your emotional stability, the anxiety that you're going through the depression you're going through. I don't know what it is. I just know you can do this through Christ who gives you strength. Remember You can The only question is whether you will, but you can. Through Christ, who wants to give you the strength. His words to those. Those who were just holding on in Philadelphia was, I'm coming soon, hold on. Hold on. Don't give up and don't give up your crown. Don't stop short of the finish line. You're gonna want to. And you can I knew I could stop. I was at 14 hours. It was nothing but darkness around me. I didn't know if I could make it to mile 26, but I knew I could make it to the next light. And you can make it to the next light and with God's strength, whether it's marriage, family, kids, finance, sobriety, you can make it. To the finish line. I knew I could always give up. No one else would care and only I'd know. And it felt like it would be forever till I reached that finish line. But it wasn't forever and I wasn't alone and neither are you. You can do this. Jesus says to them and to you, I'm coming, hold on, don't give up your crown. Cross that finish line. Receive the crown and a shirt that says finisher. You can make it Today you don't believe you can make it to mile 26, but you can make it to the next light. You can make it. August 25th, 2013, there were 78 people in my age category who started, 68 of us who finished. So glad That I was one of them. And you will be glad. When you see the finish line. And two nail pierced hands ready to greet you at the finish line with a crown that says you did it. You did it. You can do this. Would you stand with me. In a moment we're gonna pray, the band's coming out. We're gonna pray. The band's gonna lead us in a song. And I want you to remember that the Jesus that we follow. He is Lord of all. He's king of all and whatever the race you're in, he's more than capable of getting you to the finish line. That's great. Lord Jesus, there are moments where we don't like the race that we're in and we're not sure that we can finish the race that we're in and we're pretty sure that we don't have what it takes to finish the race that we're in but you do. And God, I pray for those who are running the race today and are feeling weak. That you would make them strong. That you would give them grace. That they would experience your presence. And that you and they. would finish the race. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.