(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We're going to move to Hebrews chapter 12 in a moment, but I want to read to you today about, out of a few verses in Philippians, 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy, what the writer Paul says about our faith here in the New Testament.

Philippians chapter 3, verse 14, he says this.

He says, basically, I forget about what's behind me.

He says, I press on, in Philippians 3, verse 14, he says, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

He's basically saying, look, one of the things that can hinder our faith is to continue to think about the past or worry about the past.

Nothing wrong with letting the past spur you on into the future.

But Paul says, if the past begins to weigh you down, he says, you know what, you might need to release some things in order to thrive in your faith or move forward in your faith.

And Paul says, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

He also speaks to the church at Corinth, not only to the church at Philippi, but this is how he says it to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 and 25.

He says, don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize.

He says, so run as a winner.

Come on, don't just haphazardly run a race.

He says, run to win the race.

He says, all athletes are disciplined in their training.

They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but he says, we do it for an eternal prize.

In other words, he's saying, have ambition when you live a life of faith.

He says, you know, athletes have an ambition.

They want to win.

They want to score touchdowns.

They want to go to the Superbowl.

Come on, somebody.

He says, you need to have that same ambition with your faith.

Don't just trot the race of faith.

Don't just, you know what, just go day by day by day with a life of faith.

He says, no, run to win with your faith.

He says, run like, you know what, there's an eternal prize at the end of the race.

Don't pull over to the side.

Don't quit.

Don't you throw in the towel.

He says, run to win.

You want to succeed?

Run to win.

Operate to win with your faith.

He says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, as he speaks to young Timothy, who he's raising up to be a leader, he says this in chapter 4 verses 6 to 8.

He says, the time of my death is near.

He's speaking of his physical death.

He says, I'm about to check out of here.

I'm about to be gone, Timothy.

He says, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race and I have remained faithful.

I have remained faithful.

He says, and now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return.

And the prize is not just for me, but for all, that means you and me, all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

In other words, he says, those who continue the life of faith, that don't quit in the life of faith, but endure with their life of faith, remain with their life of faith.

He says, it's going to be a good day in the end when Christ Jesus returns.

It's going to be the day when you and I hear, well done, my good and faithful servant.

You did good.

That's my boy.

That's my girl.

Come on into all eternity and receive all I have for you.

And so Paul speaks to this idea of not just starting a life of faith, not just going through the baptism waters.

That's great to announce to the world that I've died to my old self.

I've been raised to new life in Christ Jesus.

We're having people to do that over and over.

I had some more to do that this morning.

Come on, somebody, let's give them a hand clap.

And we should celebrate that when people start the race, but understand that God doesn't want anybody just start the race of faith, that he desires for you to finish the race of faith.

He desires for you to not pull over whenever life comes at you when there seems to be obstacles in the way.

And he knows that, you know what, our tendency in life, no matter who we are, is to just give up against life and just quit and just wait to the end.

No, Paul says, no, no, no, pick yourself back up and run, run to win.

Don't you quit?

Don't you pull over to the side?

I don't care how many times you get punched in the face, you get back up because the end is coming.

Come on somebody.

And you need to be inspired to not quit with your faith.

I know that there's a lot of people in this room that have gone through some horrific hardships and are currently going through some horrific hardships.

And, and some of you have been through a lot more horrific hardships than I have personally, but I've been through a few in my life.

I've been through relational hardships.

I've been through financial hardships.

I've personally been through physical hardships and I, you know what, believe that there's probably some more hardships out in front of me.

But the reality of it is, I recognize who Christ Jesus is.

I know why he came to earth.

I know what the end looks like because God has given me a snapshot of the end and I don't want to quit in my faith when these hardships come because, you know what, God is too good to us and is going to continue to be too good to us for us to quit and pull over to the side.

So I invite you today for the next few moments to let your faith be inspired so that, everybody say so that, we can all endure to the end.

Again, man, I am thankful.

We've, throughout the month of January, we've baptized nearly 40 people here in the life of Valorous Church already.

Come on.

And we're going to continue to do some of these into February.

I said, hey, let's just keep baptizing people in every service until, you know what, people quit coming and then we'll put it off a few weeks and then we'll do some more, whatever else, okay?

And it's a beautiful thing.

We're here to be a city on a hill, a light into the world.

But again, I want you to know, as God adds to our numbers, God don't want you just to start the life of faith.

He wants you to finish and he wants you to finish well.

He don't want you to pull over to the side.

He has an assignment for you.

And I invite you, as life comes at you and life comes at me, our tendency is to back up and not keep pushing forward.

Life happens.

Look at your neighbor and say, life happens.

But faith is real and we can begin to be inspired in our found faith that we have found through Christ Jesus in our great God.

So how do we endure?

And I wrote down a few things and I hope it encourages you like it encourages me today.

But in Hebrews chapter 12, we'll begin there.

The writer says this, he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, he says, let us strip off every weight that slows us down.

He says, especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance.

Let us not quit.

Let us keep running with endurance.

The race God has set before us right there in the opening of Hebrews chapter 12, he begins to explain to us how to finish and how to finish well.

And he says, you know what?

Be reminded that you have some solid role models around you.

Look at those role models and let it inspire you to keep running.

He says, look what he says again, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us keep on moving forward.

And so who are these huge crowd of witnesses that he's speaking of?

They are found in the previous chapter, Hebrews 11.

And he lists a whole bunch of people here who live a life of faith.

And he says, look at those role models and let them inspire you.

Has anybody ever had a role model in their life?

Come on.

Athletes tend to have role models.

We call them idols or whatever you want to call them.

But they tend to have role models.

They tend to have someone that is ahead of them in the game that they learn from and they want to be like, right?

And so they have these role models and there's good role models and bad role models.

We all recognize that.

But the reality of it is, is people put role models in front of them.

And what those role models are to do is, is to aspire them to become better or to finish or to get to a certain level.

I remember my earthly father, he was quite a role model when it came to work ethic.

In other words, my earthly father, he taught me how to work with my hands.

He taught me how to work with my heart, work with my mind.

He taught me what hard work was all about.

And again, I picked up some things from him, I applied to my life, and he was a great role model in helping me learn what a work ethic looked like.

Come on.

And it was amazing.

And again, different people serve as different role models in your life.

But what all of us need to recognize is God has set some role models to this life of faith throughout history.

And those role models can inspire us to keep moving forward.

And what I want to do is I want to go back to Hebrews 11, and I want to look at a few of these role models that are mentioned throughout Hebrews chapter 11 and see what it says.

It says here about a man named Abel.

Cain and Abel, they were the sons of Adam and Eve.

The Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse four, it was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain, his brother did.

It says Abel's offering gave evidence, everybody say evidence.

It says gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts.

Although Abel is long dead now because his brother Cain actually killed him, right?

He still speaks to us by what?

By his example of faith.

How did Abel exhibit faith?

And the Bible says that his offering exhibited his faith.

What was it about Abel's offering versus his brother's Cain offering that differentiated what God says about Abel's faith?

Well, if we go back to Genesis chapter 4 and we see where they brought these offerings, it begins to reveal to us why Abel's offering was an offering of faith and Cain's offering wasn't so much an offering of faith.

Look what it says in Genesis chapter 4 verses 2 through 7.

It says, when they grew up, Abel, he became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground.

And when it was a time for the harvest, Cain presented some, everybody say some, some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.

Abel also brought a gift, the best, everybody say the best, there it is.

Abel brought the best portions of what?

The firstborn lambs as from his flock.

The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.

This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected.

And the Bible goes on to say that Cain got sideways because the Lord was revealing that Abel's offering was a offering of faith and Cain's was not.

And it really upset Cain.

But why was this so important to living a life of faith?

It's simply because Abel brought his first and brought his best.

But Cain chose to just bring some of what he produced.

And this is significant because it said something.

It's not so much about what he brought, but it said something about the heart he brought it with.

And honestly, this teaches us a lot about the life of faith.

It's not about what we bring to God, but it's the heart we bring it to God with.

And we can either believe God and trust God and worship God, come on, because we believe that God has provided everything that we have in our hands.

And oftentimes when we bring it first, come on, and we bring our best to God, then it shows that we have faith that God is producing not just the best, but all the rest.

But when we bring some of what God offers us or the leftovers that God offers us, then it shows us what we have faith in.

Do we have faith that God is the producer or that we're the producer?

But the Bible says that let this example of Abel be something that inspires your faith.

Let him be a role model.

So again, I want to let Abel be a role model in my life, and I want to show up my best and my first.

And so this is why we set these moments aside for people to be able to bring gifts into the storehouse of God.

Are you bringing your best?

Are you bringing your first?

Because the reality of it is, it's not for me to judge what you're bringing to God, but it is there for you to look at your heart and see the temperature of your own heart.

And I invite you to really look at that because it says a lot about your faith, what your faith is in.

But let's look at another example of faith.

It's in Hebrews 11 verse 7.

It says, it was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.

He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before.

In other words, the world had never been flooded before in the days of Noah.

It had never rained before.

And it says, by faith, Noah condemned the rest of the world.

Why?

And he received the righteousness that comes by faith because Noah was willing to operate in doing something that had never been done before because God said it, though the rest of the world wasn't participating in it.

And what this says to us is, you know, oftentimes God will ask us to step out on faith and do something that may have never been done before.

And the question is, are we going to look around and get everybody's opinion, unlike Noah did, because everybody's opinion was looking at Noah pointing their finger at him and saying, you're crazy.

You're building a boat out in the middle of nowhere?

For what purpose?

And again, because God said he's going to flood the earth and it's going to rain.

Well, how's that going to happen?

It's never rained before.

The earth has never been flood before.

How's that going to happen?

Noah, I don't know, but God said it.

So I'm building a boat anyway, in spite of what you think.

He says, let that inspire your faith.

I wonder how many of us have these good role models in our life.

Another one is Moses.

Look what the Bible says there in Hebrews 11 about Moses, 11 verses 24 and 26.

It says, it is by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He chose, he chose, he didn't have to, he chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.

So Moses wasn't just thinking about here and now.

He wasn't just thinking about what's happening this week or in this decade or this lifespan.

Moses was thinking about what God was doing and how God wanted to leverage him and God wanted to use him in the world that God placed in it.

And the Bible says to let Moses be a good example to your faith and my faith.

And so again, these are good role models.

The Bible continues on and on and on about these good role models throughout Hebrews 11.

You know what?

And some of them did great feats and some of them were treated very, very badly.

But the reality of it is, is there all people that give a testimony to the life of faith.

And if we're really going to succeed with our life of faith in Christ Jesus, I invite you to go back and continue to look at all of these role models down through history because it will inspire your faith to keep on keeping on whenever everything else says quit and pull over to the side.

But the second thing that will help our faith in times of trouble, in times of testing, come on, in times of, you know what, whenever we want to quit, the Bible says if we really want to keep moving forward to the finish line, it says there in Hebrews 12, one again, it says strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

It says, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Let us reduce the weight.

And so I wrote it down this way.

If we're really going to run the race of faith and run it well, some of us may need to consider a downsize.

Think about your own physical life.

I'm going to talk about mine for just a moment.

I need to downsize in my weight.

Okay?

Because again, if I want to run a physical race, if I want to go run a 5k, currently I'm carrying about 20 pounds of weight too much, and I need to get rid of that weight.

And there's a way to do it, right?

It's to discipline myself, go on a diet, say no to some things that maybe I want to feed my body, and say yes to some things that's going to nurture my body.

But this takes discipline.

And again, but if I really want to run the race, and run it well, and have endurance to get to the end, I need to take an act of downsizing my body.

Come on somebody.

I know a lot of you are looking to downsize in January.

And again, I advise you to do that, not just aspire to do it, but take the steps to do it, to take the weight off.

And this takes a little bit of discipline.

It takes faith and seeing what can be instead of just what is.

Come on.

But the Bible says we need to downsize and take weights off of our life if we're really going to succeed in this life of faith.

And so, you know, I wrote in my journal a long time ago that if I'm going to really do that, I need to take inventory of my own life.

Because there's an acronym that someone taught me a long time ago.

It's called busy.

Being under Satan's yoke.

And a lot of times people come to me and say, Pastor, I just know you're busy.

I need to declare to you, you know, many times I am focused.

But I am not busy.

Because I refuse to be underneath Satan's yoke and just be busy for the sake of being busy.

And again, I really need you to consider that.

And again, it's up to me to look at my life of faith and take inventory of my own life.

I can tell you, remove this or remove that.

But some of us are able to carry more weight than others of us are able to carry.

But God's not asking you to examine somebody else's weight.

He's saying, take inventory of your own life.

Are you getting swallowed up?

Because you got all this activity going on in the world around you.

And life is swallowing you up because you are unfocused about what God wants to do in you and do through you.

And you're trying to give up on what God wants to do because you done got too busy.

And some of us need to examine our heart and see what maybe I need to get rid of in order to keep moving forward.

But he also says, be sure to get rid of the sin that so easily trips you up.

He says, take inventory of your life.

Can I tell you a sin, and I'm being very vulnerable here, that so easily trips me up.

But I can get angry very quickly.

But I've been growing in my faith for 25 years now.

And I've learned that it's a sin that can easily trip me up.

And when my body and my life and my mind starts to get angry, because I can do it, I kind of have learned some techniques to back off of that sin that's going to easily trip me up as a pastor, because how many of you know, it's not good to be angry as a pastor, come on.

But I've learned some tactics in my journey of faith to back up and breathe and give some space to the moment.

And though I might be rightful in my anger, okay, or to be upset with you because you just stuck on stupid.

But the reality of it is the way I handle that really matters.

And again, you can look at mine and examine mine all you want to, but what I'm asking you is what sin so easily trips you up.

Maybe it's the lust of the eye.

Maybe it's the pride of life.

Maybe you're so prideful that you don't let nobody in.

You're a recluse.

You stay stove up all the time.

I'm inviting you, if that's a sin that's going to trip you up, then examine that and step out of that and move forward with your life.

But we all have sin in our life, but God has given us the power to overcome that sin.

What is the sin of your flesh?

What is your flesh prone to?

And recognize that, and then take it away.

Don't let it trip you up on the journey.

Take inventory.

It doesn't mean it's not coming at you, but as it comes at you, you've got the spirit of the living God living in you.

Maybe you need to say no to a drink.

Maybe you need to say no to a pill.

Maybe you need to say something, because those are all lust of the flesh to hide the pain, to hide the hurt, to hide all the stuff.

And maybe God's saying, not this time.

No, no, no.

I'm going to rise above it, and I'm going to let God speak to me, and I'm going to downsize.

Come on, somebody.

We need to downsize some things in our life.

See if I want to finish well and finish well with my faith, I can't let my own self take over this life of faith.

I have to look forward to what God's doing.

I'm telling you, we're all human, and we're all tempted to give in to the lust of the flesh.

But the Bible says, greater is he who lives in you than he who lives in the world.

Give the opportunity for the spirit of the living God to speak to you and help you overcome what is tripping you up.

And by the way, if you do get tripped up, we're not a church that condemns you when you trip and fall.

We're a church to say, we recognize you tripped and fall, get back up and let's see what God wants to do through you.

Come on.

The next thing I wrote down is Hebrews 12 teaches us that not only do we need to downsize, not only do we need to have role models, but we need to focus.

Look what it says, Hebrews 12 verses one through three, again, it says, let us run with endurance.

The race God has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Everybody say Jesus.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

The champion who initiates, who starts it and perfects our faith.

Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its shame.

Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God strong.

Bible says, think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people like me and like you.

And then you won't become weary and you won't give up.

After all, you have not yet given your lives in the struggle against a sin.

And so the Bible says when you're tempted to give up because life has beat you up and the brutality of sin has just began to torture you.

The Bible says, look to Jesus because he took the sin of the world on his shoulders and he brutally was crucified on a cross after he was beaten unrecognizable.

The Bible says, look at Christ Jesus and what he endured on that cross.

And then you won't give up in the face of temptation because you recognize that Jesus endured everything for you on that cross and the horrific death that he died.

He did it and He did it for you.

He showed love and He showed mercy on that cross in spite of whatever is making you want to give up.

And the Bible says that Jesus did it anyway.

And the reason He did it is because He had something out in front of Him that produced more joy than the pain of the sin, the pain of the cross, and the pain of the separation that He felt while He was on that cross.

And the Bible says that joy set before Him was men and women possibly sitting here in 2025 learning about a life of faith.

The Bible says, you know what, in 2025 there's going to be joy set before me because if I conquer this sin, conquer this grave, conquer this cross, I'm going to rise again and if I rise above it, possibly somebody that's sitting in a room at Valorous Church in 2025, I'm going to tap them on the shoulder and I'm going to tell them I did it for them so their faith could be inspired.

That's the joy set before Him, my friend.

It don't matter who you are from the top of the room to the bottom of the room, Christ endured that cross because He saw people that would put faith in Him and He endured that cross because it was joy in His heart to do it for you.

He did it anyway.

My friend, if that don't inspire your faith, then the Bible says maybe your faith needs to be infused with who Jesus is.

He's the champion of our faith.

He's the author of it, and He's the perfecter of it.

Focus on Him, not on the pain, not on the suffering, not on what is happening.

Focus on Him.

And when we focus on Him, we can get back up and not pull off to the side.

The last thing I wrote down is we really want to finish with our faith, is not just to have good role models, not to just downsize, not to just look at the champion.

But when God corrects us or speaks into our life, understand that He is for us and not against us.

So I wrote it down this way, don't despise discipline.

You know how many people never grow into what they need to be?

Because they never learn when someone was trying to correct them, maybe that correction was for them and not against them.

And they stay mad all of their life.

I mean, I think about when I was a kid, I remember my father disciplined me once when I was, I guess, probably five or six years old.

We were in the mountains of Georgia near a little town up there called Hiawassee.

And back in the day, my dad would take me and my mom and my older brothers were, you know, teenagers or whatever else.

And so they would all stay at home, but we would go on vacation.

And this particular vacation, my mom and dad took me with them and we were going to go to a laundromat because we were up there for like a week and we were going to wash our clothes.

And as we went into that laundromat, there was a little convenience store across the highway down the road from us.

And I asked my dad, can I walk down there?

My dad gave me some money and said, can I go get me a Coke or whatever, a bag of candy or something?

Sure.

And as I'm walking down to that convenience store on the side of the road, and I remember it like it was yesterday, I turned to go across the road and I didn't look the other way.

And all of a sudden I heard the voice of my father and then a little bit later felt the hand of my father.

But I heard the voice of my father scream at me and yell at me to stop.

And again, it hurt my feelings and he hurt my rear end when he got a hold of it, okay?

But the reason he yelled at me and the reason he got on to me is because he wanted to remind me that, you know, when you don't look both ways, you may be about to step out in front of an 18-wheeler semi and get crushed by that semi and it was about to happen.

Somehow that truck slammed on its brakes and got around me.

The yell of my daddy made me step back and at the end of the day, he was so upset with me but at the moment, it didn't feel good but I learned a valuable lesson about moving forward in my life and when I cross a road, I look both ways.

I wonder how many of us, when the hand of our Creator steps in and does something that don't make us feel good to correct us and get us back on track, we just give up and pull over to the side and say, God wouldn't do that because it didn't feel good.

What I want to say is Hebrews 12 verses 5 and 6 says this, the writer says, look, if you want to succeed at the life of faith, he says, have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?

He said, my child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline and don't give up when he corrects you.

That's there intentionally, don't give up when he corrects you.

So the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.

Why does he do that?

Because God sees our destiny and he knows sometimes if he doesn't get on to us or correct us, we'll never reach our destiny.

And so God steps in and he corrects us.

He gives us a spanking and the spanking hurts.

And what the scripture says, continuing in Hebrews 12 verse 11, it says, no discipline is enjoyable while it's happening.

How many of you like to get a spanking?

Come on.

No, no, no.

It says it's not enjoyable.

It's painful.

It says, but afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

And so what I've learned in my own life is when God is correcting me and getting on to me, it never feels good.

Some people say this don't feel good.

So it must not be God.

Well, have you ever thought about no, no, no.

God may be correcting you because he's for you and not against you.

God sees his ways are higher than your ways.

He sees your destiny.

He sees your future.

He sees what's out in front of you.

He wants you to succeed with your faith.

So he steps in and corrects with his life and he says, you know what, I need you to turn from this and turn to me because I will help you take steps of faith in the right way.

And the Bible says that we're not to despise that discipline.

Now, I know we live in a culture where whenever you correct someone, we're watching it in the worldwide world of sports today.

When someone is corrected on the field by a referee, they get mad and it's like, look, it was a penalty.

It's a correction.

It's okay.

We want to get you back in the game so you can finish the game and play the game.

But we live in this culture where everybody says, no, no, no, I'm my own person.

I do it my own way.

I do my own thing.

Come on.

And if anybody is trying to correct me and get on to me or guide me and direct me, you know what?

They must be against me and not for me.

I need you to know the holy word of God.

The Bible says God disciplines those and corrects those that he loves.

And my friend, he loves you way too much to let you keep running down the wrong path.

He'll step in and he'll give you a spanking.

Don't despise it.

It's for our own good.

He's not mad at you.

He's for you, not against you.

Let's get some good role models.

Let's let God speak into our life.

Let's be a people who thrive in our faith and not pull over to the side.

Let's be a people that God speaks into.

Let me pray for you today.

God, I thank you for every man, woman, boy, and girl here.

God, I thank you that you have created them in your image, as your image, in your likeness.

And God, I pray today your word would get a hold of our heart.

And God, we would have some good role models.

We would focus on Christ Jesus.

We would lift some weights off of us, God.

We would shed some of that weight in our life.

And God, we would not despise your discipline so that we can succeed and win the race.

God, you've called us to a life of faith and to remain a faithful.

And God, our prayer today is every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl, hear these words, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Your eternal prize is great.

Step in because you put your faith in me and trusted me all the days of your life.

You did good.

That's my boy.

That's my girl.

And God, if there is one here today that's not living underneath your lordship, your leadership and allowing Jesus to be the savior, the rescuer of their life, I pray today they would put their faith in who you are, Christ Jesus, one who came and paid the penalty of sin on a cross, defeated death, rose from a grave, offer you God's great power to defeat sin in their own life, the sin that you have paid for.

And God, that they would focus on the future that they have with you.

God, we're eternal beings, not just earthly beings.

May we run the race and run it to win.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.