As Christians, we’re engaged in a life-long race appointed by God Himself (Heb. 12:1-3). And God’s Word shows us how to faithfully run the Christian race in a hostile world by learning how those who came before us faithfully endured. Drawing from these examples, Alexander Strauch will present practical suggestions for running the Christian race with our eyes fixed firmly Jesus Christ—the greatest example of endurance—“so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb. 12:3). 

Thank you, my dear brother, for all those lovely things. And I want to say they're all true. Well look at, look at, I'm on the big screen. I never thought I'd arrive. Wait, hold it.

Get my hair just right. Okay. Yes. It's a joy being with you. And actually I'm only enjoying being with the children.

If you're over 25, I'm not that enjoyable with you, but I love all these children. Look at them all down here. They're the future. They are the future. And that future comes very quickly.

So take your Bibles now since we're talking about preaching and we're gonna look at Hebrews chapter 12. When dear brother asked me to speak, he we were talking about topics and I said why don't we do Hebrews 12 1 to 3? By faith we endure and he said that's the perfect one. Run the race, run the race. So I don't know what your practice is but would you stand with me as I read these words?

Therefore, in light of chapter 11, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted, which is very easy to do in this world. You may be seated. I've entitled this, Running the Race of Faith. After listing the great heroes of the faith in chapter 11, the writer turns to the greatest hero of faith and endurance, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, endurance is a major theme of this book. Therefore, connects chapter 11 to chapter 12. It actually applies chapter 11. Now the writer begins with runners of the past. He's going to move to runners of the present, but it begins with the past.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, notice it's a great cloud of witnesses. Now cloud is simply a metaphor for a throng, a large host of people. We are surrounded, we are surrounded by this large throng of witnesses. Well who are they witnesses to? They're witnesses to us, to the Church of Jesus Christ.

These are the great Old Testament saints. They are witnesses to us of the principle of faith and endurance and God's loving care over us. Now, He begins with this cloud of witnesses, biographies. Do you realize how much of the Old Testament is biography? You have 66 chapters of David.

Much of the early books of the Bible are about Abraham, many chapters about Joseph, the wonderful life of Joseph, we're teaching that in our church right now, and then the life of Moses and Daniel and Jeremiah come to the New Testament, four gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ. Book of Acts, Peter and Paul, the Lord gives us witnesses. He gives us biographies. So dads and moms, I want to just say to you, biographies are important in raising your children. I was not raised in a Christian home.

I was saved at a Bible camp. Didn't even know what a Bible camp was. But I went there to go fishing. That's the only reason I went there, and I realized they're fishing for me. And I got saved.

First time, this is interesting, the very first time I heard Christ died for my sins, I'm a sinner, I need to be born again, I believed. I knew right away, this is true, it's true of me, I need to be saved. We had a wonderful director of that camp, and as I grew older, I spent my summers, we had no mother and father at home, we'd have been in real trouble all summer. But all summer I went to this Bible camp, and we had a wonderful director, and he made us read biographies. And the very first biography I read, which changed my life to this day, many years later, I'm not gonna tell you my age, is the life of Hudson Taylor.

You're a teenager, 14, 15 years of age, you're idealistic, you got so much energy, you're bouncing off of walls. You need a model, you need a hero. And mine was Hudson Tale in the China Inland Mission. I've been interested in China ever since. And then the next year we had to read George Mueller of the orphanages and his marvelous faith in how God provided for the orphanage.

Biographies are very important. Read biographies as a family. Young people need models. They need role models. And there's a great cloud of witnesses of them he says.

It's a large number. There's many he says. You're not alone in this race. You're not the first who has run this race. Eric Zauer writes always and at all times there have been heroes of the faith.

David Gooding says faith is not always seen to be triumphant in this life but it is from God's perspective. So heroes of the faith are people who believe God and move forward in the race for the Christian life Now next he moves to the present runners of the present verse 1 Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race. Now here's what I want you to know. The race that is set before us. This is a God-appointed race.

It's a privilege. It's an honor. It's a duty to run the race of life. Now the race begins the moment you're born again. You enter the lifelong race of following the Lord Jesus Christ, and it ends at the moment of death.

It doesn't end at any other time. We're all in a race. But I know what some of you are thinking, I'm 65, I'm retiring. You're in a race. You say, but I'm 75 years of age, it's getting hard to walk, you know.

You're in a race. You say I'm in a wheelchair, you're in a race. You say I'm in a hospital bed and I'm lying here, you're in a race. And by the way, when you're in a hospital bed, think of all the people you can witness to. All the phone calls you can make, all the letters you can write.

Come on! People got so many excuses why they can't serve the Lord. I don't know what to do. Come see me after. I'll give you some things to do.

Plenty of them. Yes, you're at 99 years of age. You're in a race. We had a man in our church lived to be 103, had his mind right to the end, and when he was 99 he came to the elders because he had been teaching our seniors for years. At 99 he comes to the elders and he says, listen, I think you need to replace me with a younger man, someone about 90.

That's a true story. At 103, you know when you get together with 103 year old people, you know what they're like, right? Oh, this hurts, that hurts, all my medications, I've got more medications than you can believe no at 103 when I would get together with mr. Risto He wanted to know what's the newest commentary on first Thessalonians because he's thinking of going through first Thessalonians 103 he's in the race He's running the race. So if you come here and think you're going to get a vacation, forget it, you're in the race.

And not to run the race is disobedience. Now how are we going to run this race? It's a God appointed race. It's the race of life. Well he gives us great advice here.

First thing he says is run unencumbered, run unencumbered. Lay aside, he says, every weight. Now this is interesting, a weight. What is a weight? Well, a weight is something that is not sin, but it's something that's impeding the race.

For example, 1 Corinthians 10 23 says, all things are lawful. There's a lot of liberty in the Christian life. We're not the Old Testament book of Leviticus with a hundred rules, 613 commandments. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. So what is a weight?

A weight is not sin because we're going to deal with sin next. A weight is anything that impedes the race, that mars the race. Now I can't tell you what that weight is. Only you know what it is. It is different for everyone else.

So often young people come they want to know the do's and the don'ts. Can I do this? Can I not do this? Can I drink alcohol? Can I go to R-rated movies?

Can I go to Las Vegas if I only spend a dollar? What about the clothes I wear the friends I have the music I have the entertainment I use sports certain habits Are they legitimate? Are they a weight? Well sports could be a way television can be a weight Reading novels can be a weight. It's anything that impedes the race of the Christian life And it may be something very legitimate, and what is a weight for me may not be a weight for you.

So before the Lord, when you want to know the dos and don'ts, ask yourself this question. Is it a weight? Is it hurting my Christian walk? Is it slowing me down, impeding me, blocking my advancement in Jesus Christ? That's a wait.

Only you can deal with that before the Lord. Now sometimes a brother or sister may come to you and say, you know, I noticed this particular habit you have, the music you're listening to, some of the friends you have, they're hurting your Christian life. What do you do? You lay at a side. You lay at a side.

You know, when runners run a race, they don't run in the night. Isn't this a lovely jacket? A brother gave this to me one Sunday morning. Glory to God. But you don't run a race with this jacket and look these are really modern shoes.

I would never buy these, but my girls told me, this is what you wear to be modern. So I'm modern. And these are really nice pants, aren't they? But you don't run in a race with them, do you? You strip them off.

Every pound in a race could cause you to lose the race. Same thing's true in the Christian life. Go light. I like what the Puritans said. They were always packed and ready to go.

And recently I've been talking to some brothers who just keep accumulating, accumulating, accumulating. They're gonna have to rent storage lockers or get a truck or something for all the junk they're accumulating, it's weights. It's weights, well you don't need that. Travel light. We're only here a short time.

I think we're pilgrims, aren't we? Strip it off. Strip it off. All right, second, lay aside every sin which clings so closely. Now we're talking about sin.

We're not talking about weights. We're not talking about marginal things, liberties, freedoms you have in Christ. And he says something very interesting. Sin wishes cunningly to encompass and to lay siege to us, to attack us from every side. It literally encloses us.

It comes from every side and it wraps itself around us. That's the nature of sin. Sin mars the race. Sin stops the race. The world, the flesh, the devil are against us.

Demonic hosts are against us. Sin blocks the way. It ruins the spiritual life. You can't play with sin because when you play with sin, you always lose. It's like gravity.

Gravity is a principle that is true in all occasions. The same thing is true with sin. If you play with sin, it will wrap itself around you, and when it wraps itself around you, you can outrun the race. So I live in Denver, and in the newspaper there was this story. This man, he has a 25-foot Balkan stricter, and he takes it to parties, and he displays it at these parties, and they get everyone lined up in a room, puts their arms out, and they lay this huge 250-pound snake, not a little garter snake, by the way, and they lay this snake on everyone's arms, they put it around people's necks, and they play with this snake.

It's not gonna be in my party, so if you come to my party, it's not gonna be there. But people have this man come with his snake to different occasions to show the snake off and maybe to eat people I don't know. But anyway it sounds really ridiculous. So anyway it was in the newspaper that he had this snake and he's showing off and he puts this big snake around himself. The snake starts slowly, he's not paying attention.

The snake slowly curling, curling around him, seizing him. And the second he was dead, snapped his neck just like that, playing with the snake. That's what sin's like. You don't play with pornography, you don't play with alcohol and drugs, you don't play with a thievery or anything like that, greed. It'll get you.

It clings to you. It wraps itself around you and it mars the race. You can't run with a snake all around you. Lay aside every sin which clings so closely. Now next he says Run with endurance.

Now endurance is really the theme of this great epistle to the Hebrews. Just a little side trail here. Sometimes you wonder, don't you? Come on, be honest with me. You wonder, Is this really the truth?

Is this really the Bible? I mean, is this really from God? Did a bunch of men, there's all kinds. There's the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita and the other books, the holy books they call them. Is this really true?

How do you know it's true? Well, here's a way to know it's true. Read it. I'm not joking. Read it.

Read this book of Hebrews. No man would ever write this book. It has a dignity and an elegance and a genius to it that other books don't have. So you have second century, third century writers. I've read all those writers.

In fact, I've read them in different translations. There is no comparison between the second, third century writers, the Gospel of Thomas, which is a joke, and when you come to Hebrews, it's divine. No man could write this book outside of the Holy Spirit of God. So if you have those questions, they're perfectly normal questions, you're not abnormal, Let the lion loose, the word of God, and you will see, no, this is of the Lord. This is from God.

God is speaking to us, no man. Now, one of the themes of this book is endurance because some of these Christians were going backwards. They were not even attending church any longer. So he says here, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Well, that's what a race does, right?

When you're in a race, you endure. The first goal of a race is you have to finish the race. You don't have to win, but you have to finish the race. So let us run with endurance the race. Remember, it's set before us.

He's thinking of a marathon, not a sprint. This demands sustained effort that needs to be made. You must go the distance. It's a cross-country race. One of the things that encourages me almost more than anything else is to see brothers and sisters who are 60 years old, 70 years old, 80 years old, 90 years old, 100 years old, going strong for the Lord.

That is so encouraging to me. So many start out but don't finish well. But when I see men in their seventies and women in their eighties, and they are serving the Lord, serving the Lord's people, that is so encouraging. The exhortation here is to endure the race. It's not an easy race.

There's ups, there's downs, there's bad weather, good weather, there's obstacles in the way. It's a cross-country race, but you're to finish the race. You are to endure. You're not to stop. E.

Stanley Jones was a Methodist missionary to India for over 50 years, and at the end of his life, towards the end of his life, he wrote his own autobiography, and he wrote these words, There are scars on my faith, but underneath those scars there is no doubt. Christ has me with the consent of all my being and with the cooperation of all my life. The song I sing is a lit song, not the temporary exuberance of youth that often fades when middle or old age sets in in which there are disillusionments and cynicism. Now listen to this, no I am 83 years old and I am more excited today about being a Christian than when I was 18 when I first put my feet, my feet on the way. I'm 83 and I'm more excited about Jesus and the Bible and the word of God and the preaching of God and the people of God than when I was 18.

Now normally it's the reverse. We're runners in the race, even if you're 83. And The interesting thing is this, the last part of the race could be the best part. There is a sprinter, Usain Bolt, and he has won three gold medals in the 2012 Olympics. But he had a problem, and the problem is this, that before the gun would go off, he would start going and he'd be disqualified.

He'd just start too fast before it was the right time. Well, finally he brought that under control and he was asked by the news media, how is it that you learn to conquer this problem? And he writes this, My coach said, don't worry about the start. The strongest part of my race is the end, so don't worry about getting a fast start. You know, the end years of the race can be much better than the beginning.

Your best years may be ahead. That's what I want in my life. I'm not looking back going, Oh, I've I've done an awful lot for Jesus. No, I'm just getting started. I'm expecting by God's grace and power that my best years are ahead.

You look at many men of God, women of God, and they will tell you it was in their latter years, 50s, 60s, 70s, that they accomplished what God wanted them to accomplish in the ultimate sense. Run with endurance. Press forward. Don't let all those vain excuses take over your mind. All right, run with aim, run with aim.

Oh yes, this is very important in a race. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some translations have fixture eyes on Jesus. That's a great one there. So I have four daughters.

They're all lovely ladies now and have their own children. But my youngest one, who's about 42 now, she's just a little tiny wiry thing, but boy, she is strong. And she would get in races and win, and you'd say, well, where's those muscles? She's just a little tiny thing, but they're in there someplace. She didn't get muscles from me, that's for sure.

So one day, we went to one of her races, and I was standing on the sideline. I usually don't do that, but I was standing on the sideline so I could see the girls go by me. So the gun goes off. She's taking off, I'm watching her at the head of the group, and then she looks back at the girls. Guess what happened when she looked back?

The girls went right by her. So at the end of the race, my daughter came to me and said, Dad, what happened? I said, honey, you looked behind. And the moment you looked behind, you slowed down and the girls went past you. Keep your eye on the goal.

You run for the goal. You don't run from looking behind. By the way, when you get out on the main highway here, don't drive on the highway looking through your rear-view mirror. It doesn't work. Okay, I'm just good solid advice, keep you alive.

All right, what do we do? We got a race, we got to have a goal. Run for the goal. What's the goal? Looking to Jesus.

We look to him. What that means is, follow Jesus' example. How did he do it? And we're gonna see that in a moment. Eric Zauer writes these wonderful words about the supreme example of endurance is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eric Zauer writes this, if you wish to be disappointed look upon others. If you wish to be downhearted Look at yourself. But if you wish to be encouraged and to experience victory, look upon Jesus Christ. He goes on to say this, all depends on how one looks at life. He who would live aright must see aright.

In the arena of faith, Look to Jesus. Sociologists tell us today that this is the age of distractions. Never in human history has there been so many distractions. We have TV, which one sociologist called the greatest time-wasting machine ever made. We have the TV, we have movies, we have the internet, we have magazines.

We have endless books, we have sports, we have gaming, endless entertainment with the people of entertainment. These are distractions from the goal, from the race, and the devil loves nothing more than to entertain you to death. How much time is wasted of the short life we have here with distractions. Now he says, Jesus is the founder of the faith principle. Look to Jesus.

He's the originator. He means he's the pioneer, the forerunner, the captain, the champion, the initiator of the race of faith. The Son always trusted the Father even before this world. He originated the principle of faith, trust in God. Then he says Jesus is the perfector of the faith principle.

His entire earthly life was the very embodiment of trust in God. He lived in total dependence upon the Father. It was his absolute faith in God that enabled him to go through the mocking, the crucifixion, the rejection, the desertion. He believed in his Father and trusted his Father's will. His Faith is the most perfect example of faith.

Never has anyone exercised faith as Jesus did at Golgotha. Faith was brought to absolute perfection in the life of Jesus Christ. So Jesus initiated The race, the principle of faith, endurance, and we're going to see in a moment the great principle of fixing your eyes on the joy set before us. So let's look at Jesus for a moment. How is he the model for us?

How is he the one, the vision before us that helps us live the life race? Remember everyone's in the race. Start it when you're born again, ends when you enter the glories. Let's just look at four things about Jesus, he says from the text. First of all, he endured the cross.

You might complain, boy, I've got some real problems I'm dealing with. No one here has ever endured the cross. He endured the cross by faith. He went forward, did not turn back. The cross was the lowest form of capital punishment, torture, and humiliation, and yet he looked ahead to the goal of the joy set before him and endured the cross.

There's nothing you endured in this life comparable to what Jesus endured. Now secondly, he despised the shame. In other words, he thought nothing of it. He treated it as insignificant and of little consequence. One commentator puts it this way, they despised and scorned him, but he turned it all around and despised the scorn and the shame as if it was insignificant.

That's what we keep our eye on, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then as a result of this he seated at God's right hand to the highest place in glory. The highest position in the universe are Lord Jesus Christ's halls. Look at Revelation chapter 5. All of the hosts of heaven worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

But now here's the secret. Now, if you have not been paying attention, I can't see you anyway, so I don't know, but wake up now, all right? Are you all awake? Yes. That's weak.

Are you all awake? Yes. One more time. Are you all awake? All right.

I like a awake audience. I hate it when they all go to sleep on me. All right, now this is the big principle. If you get this, you'll know how to run the race. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.

For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. As he entered the somber valley of death, his gaze penetrated the darkness around him and he saw already the light of the coming triumph. He saw the glorification of God the Father as a result of the cross. He saw his own personal victory over Satan and sin and defeated sin and Satan at the cross. He saw that.

He saw many sons and daughters would be one for eternity as a result of his suffering on the cross. You're it. He saw you. He looked through the suffering, he looked through the pain, and he saw millions and millions of sons and daughters going to be made like him in resurrection. He saw them.

He saw the position as exalted Lord at his father's right hand. He saw the homecoming, the reunion. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10, the reconciliation of all things, the triumph of all things. Things have been scattered by sin, and Satan, it's all going to be brought together in one united, perfect new heaven and new earth with Jesus Christ as the sender and Satan put away in the lake of fire forever. He saw that all that he was going through.

Now, I want you to, I'm going to put it on the screen, but I want you to look at 2 Corinthians 4 16 to 18. 2 Corinthians 4 16 to 18. This is very, very important text of Scripture. Temporal things are seen from the view of eternity and the unseen. Are you with me?

Oh, it's on the screen too. Okay. All right. So we do not lose heart. Now, if there's anyone who should have lost heart and get depressed as the Apostle Paul, he had more problems than all of us in this auditorium together.

We do not lose heart. How'd you do that? I want to know we do not lose heart though The outward nature is wasting away now how many of you here don't lie. Don't not lie You're in the house of God. How many of you over 55 raise your hand?

Okay, the rest of you I don't know. If you're over 55 you know what Paul's saying, the outward man is decay. So my father lived to be 94 and he lived in New Jersey, I live in Colorado, several times a year I have to get back here to help him do things. And one day I was in his bedroom and on his dresser is a whole line of pills and vitamins and things. And I said, Dad, what is that?

He said, I don't know, I just take it. Doctors keep handing pills to me, I'll just take them. Oh, I said, we need to figure this out. Then he told me a story. One of his friends, who was also a widower, my mom had died, he said he was so confused about all the medications he has to take, not having his children, there are wives there, that he just took them all, poured them in a bowl and every day took a handful.

My dad said, should I do that? I said, dad, They're not M&Ms. No, don't do that. We'll figure this out. Well, you get knee replacement, hip replacements, hair replacements, hearing aids, glasses.

The body is just falling apart. That's right. That is right. And then it just finally dies. That's a result of sin.

It's a result of sin. The outward man is wasting away. Now this is my philosophy of aging, by the way. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day. Yes, my body is going to just decay.

One thing after another is going to fall apart, and then finally something big is going to go, like my brain or my heart, liver, and I'm dying. But in this process of decay, the inner self, the new man in Christ, He's having rejuvenation every day. Do you see what he's saying? Talk about positive living. I don't need to listen to Joel Osteen.

It's right here. Every day I'm being renewed as I read the Word, as I serve, as I pray, as I interact with brothers and sisters, there is a daily renewing. In other words, inside I'm getting younger, more vibrant. If you're old, don't be a grouchy old person. That's terrible.

Be a gracious loving joyous older person all right now stay with me for this light now notice each words this light momentary affliction whatever it is, is preparing for us, get the words now, an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So look up here. Over here, problems, afflictions, breakdowns, things in your life that you never thought would happen to you but have happened to you. Over here, afflictions. But notice what he says, they're light, they're momentary, afflictions.

They're light and momentary. Afflictions. They're light and momentary. Over here, eternal weight of glory. There's no comparison.

It's beyond comparison. As we look, none of the things which are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. This is God's scale. It all depends how you look at life in the race of life.

Jesus faced the greatest suffering that is imaginable, but He looked through it to the joy that was set before Him. We have suffering on this earth. You cannot be on this earth without suffering and afflictions. Terrible things can happen to us, things you never expected. They can happen to you, But you have to have the right perspective and look through them to the eternal weight of glory, which is not comparable to the present light momentary suffering.

You get it? This is how you run the race. Keep your eye on Jesus. Now let's look at this last point here. Jesus is the supreme example of endurance.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. It is so natural to go weary and faint-hearted. So natural the world just wears us down. Life wears us down. Our bodies wear us down.

All the problems wear us down. But he says consider him. Now that word consider is a strong word. It means carefully calculate, not just a glance, carefully calculate the sufferings and the unflinching behavior of our Lord Jesus Christ when he faced the greatest trial of human life on the cross, how he handled this. He looked through it all to what's ahead and what is ahead is glorious.

The reunion in heaven, someday having all of us with him, with our new imperishable glorified bodies in the new heaven and the new earth. Whew, That's heavy. All right, let's get really practical because I know you're sitting out there sort of theoretical look to Jesus look to Jesus watch Jesus Here's how you do it now in practice. Here's how you do it. Number one number one.

I'm gonna give you six ways You look at Jesus the Lord's Supper What do we do in the Lord's Supper praise ourselves? What do we do in the Lord's Supper? Praise ourselves? What do we do in the Lord's Supper? Do this in remembrance of me.

Every time you take the Lord's Supper, you remember Christ in his chief work of the cross. That's why the Lord's Supper is important. It's not just a little ritual we put on the side here, let's get it over as quick as possible. It is a time to reflect on the central work of Jesus Christ, the cross of Christ, His penal substitutionary atonement. Every word's important there.

That's how you keep your eye on Jesus. If you do it regularly, you're coming back. You're coming back congregationally, together. You're all focusing on Christ. You're not focusing on yourself, you're focusing on Christ.

And it's one of the few requests he has for us. Do this, do this in remembrance of me and of the New Covenant and of my blood and for the forgiveness of sins. All right, second way scripture. Every time you open the Bible, you were looking at Jesus for whole gospels on the life of Christ. Much of the Old Testament points to Christ concerning himself, he said.

If you don't know Jesus Christ because you don't read his book, what an insult to Christ. What an insult to God. You won't even read his book, but I bet you read in other books. The way we keep our eye on Jesus Christ is Scripture. The Scripture is supernatural.

It's breathed out. It's breathed out by God and profitable. There's no other book on this planet breathed out by God. Where's your breath? Your breath comes from inside of you, right?

You breathe it out. The scripture comes from within God's mind and heart. He breathed it out. It's from Him. He's the author.

He uses human writers. So, you must read the Bible. We read a lot of other books, read some good things, but ultimately the primary source is God's book. Don't insult God by not reading it. Alright, in song, now we heard this last night, thank you dear brother, the importance of song.

You're filled with the Holy Spirit when you're singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, right? So sometimes you get down. I know you get down. And sometimes you don't feel like reading the Bible. Now, don't be so self-righteous.

Sometimes you just, oh, I just don't feel like reading the Bible, and I'm tired, and here's a way to turn that right around. Sing. Play some good Christian music. And it's amazing how music works on the emotions, and it can turn your emotions around. One minute you're down, next minute you're high.

One minute you don't want to open the Bible because you know, I don't know, I just don't feel like it right now. Put some good Christian music on or if you can sing half decently, but don't worry the angels don't mind if you can't sing well. They know it's all going to be straightened out someday. You're going to be a great singer someday. Don't get proud about it now.

No. When you sing unto the Lord, make melody in your heart to the Lord, he says, the bustle says. Make melody in your heart to the Lord. Well, turns you around just like that. It changes those emotions, those feelings that that are stopping you from going to the Bible.

Play good Christian music. I have a house where my wife's walking around with her phone, listening to music, and I have a daughter who comes over quite a bit and she's going around listening to music, and I'm trying to get something done. Got Christian music coming in, but it's good, it's good. Yeah. I'm going to just get mine louder.

Okay. All right. Four, prayer. Prayer. This is how we keep our eyes on Jesus.

Prayer is simply communion with God. Now, the book of Hebrews is wonderful on prayer because he says, draw near to invitation, draw near. In fact, on the top of my prayer list, I have draw near. It's an invitation from God. He wants us to come with boldness to the throne of grace to receive help in the time of need.

It's a great privilege to pray, talk to God. You know, when we speak to others is because we want to be in communion with them. Now girls, if you get a guy And you think he's real handsome and he's got a big head of hair and he's got big muscles, but he won't talk to you Dump that guy He's got to talk to you and someday he's got to propose to you. You know, he's got open his mouth. Oh Communion commune is so important as human beings.

God wants to commune with us. He invites us. You know, this is the age of prayer. We have an opening that the Israelites never had. We're sons and daughters of God.

We have the Holy Spirit that gives us immediate access to God the Father. And we had Jesus say it in my name. You ask whatever you want. This is the age of prayer. That's how we keep our eye on Jesus.

And the great thing about prayer is you can bring anything to the Lord. I had a man just the other day said, I just hate to ask the Lord for little things. I said, hold it a second. That's okay with you. You can only take so much.

God is infinite. Do you know what that means? Infinite, there's no limits, there's no boundaries. Don't worry, he can take the little things. If he can count all those trees out there on the leaves Your prayer isn't even that little just bring everything to the Lord And if you don't feel like reading your Bible and you don't feel like praying, tell the Lord that.

He's not shocked. He's heard that before. All right, five. Now this is different. This is a spiritual conversation.

Spiritual conversation. This is something that's come to my mind in the last 10 years. So I get invited, it's a hassle let me tell you, to anniversaries and birthday parties and all these things. And I go like, you know, okay, I'm becoming a good Christian man. But I noticed something that these parties, they pray for the food and then the rest of the time it's games and eating and joking around.

Nothing wrong with that. And then you go home. And I realized something. There's no spiritual conversation. And so, maybe about 10 or 15 years ago, I don't remember exactly what it was, I got fed up with this.

So we're at a big party, it's out in the back yard, it's probably 35, 40 people celebrating a brother's 50th birthday. So we're out there and I go, hey, hey, everybody, come here, come here. Now it's not my party. Come here, Come here. Let's get in a big circle, and I want everyone to go around and you are to tell us what Tim Odo has meant in your life and how he's ministered to you.

So we went around and I said, give him a scripture text or give him a blessing or tell us what he's meant to you. So we went around to I don't know 30 people or something like that took about an hour and at the end we had a nice prayer. So when we got done I was expecting either be thrown out of the party or what I didn't care though. Everyone came up to me said, oh thank you for doing that. That was the best part of the party.

So I do this in all the parties I'm at. People know don't invite me because I'm gonna take over. I don't care. At my age I don't care anymore. If I'm with a group of Christians, okay, talk about the weather.

It's the biggest thing. Talk about sports. I hate sports, but I just make believe I like it. Yeah, your team won. I'm happy for anyone who won.

I don't care who wins. I'm just happy for you Okay, do that do that. I'm not saying being like sort of a monk Don't ever start me laughing because it's over the the message is over. So anyway turn it to spiritual conversation, which is edifying. And at the end, people say, thank you for bringing that up.

I got to tell you guys something today. I was reading this verse today. It really struck me. I had read this and I didn't. And then you start spiritual conversation.

Or you ask someone, how are you doing with the Lord? Or I ask this question, are you praying for your children? And then the head goes down. You're not even praying for your own children. Come on.

Spiritual conversation is a way to keep your eyes on the Lord and to direct other people's eyes to the Lord. So, you want me at your party? I'm giving you fair warning. I'm taking over. I hope you have some good food.

Spiritual conversation is a way you keep your eyes on the Lord and help others to keep their eyes on. And then last, hearing of the word preach. We've heard a little bit about this this weekend, I think. As the word is preached, you keep your eyes on the Lord. So right now, right now it's happening right now, your eyes are on the Lord.

Now I know you're looking at me and I used to be on the big screen, but anyway, okay, I've never been on the big screen before. When the word is preached, someone is up in front of you talking, and you're looking at a human being. But the Holy Spirit is taking what that person is saying from the word of God and putting your eyes on Jesus Christ. He's refocusing you when the word is preached. Because it actually isn't my word.

These are the words of God. These are God-breathed-out words, which are profitable for teaching and correction and rebuke and for training in righteousness that you might be fully equipped for what God has given you to do. So right now, you're focusing your eyes on Jesus. Every time. You know, many times in my car, I'm listening to, I'm listening to podcasts and I'm listening to preachers.

I've listened thousands, thousands of hours of preaching. Although I'm driving my car, I'm looking to Jesus as they're preaching. My eyes, spiritual eyes are on Jesus Christ. So when the word is preached, you're looking unto Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus.

That's how you do it. These are the practical ways you do it. Well, it's now two minutes over time. I hope I can be forgiven. Either way, it's done.

Let's pray. Lord, thanks for this marvelous passage of Scripture where you tell us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the one who endured all things, exalted at your right hand. Ah, but for the joy that was set before him, he endured some of the worst suffering and humiliation that humans can give. We thank you for his example. May we keep our eyes on Jesus.

Amen.