Howdy! You know, we're getting ready for another
academic year. And we're about to start up our
next confirmation class. You know, we've got
next Sunday, Rally Day, during the 930 Rally
Day event. We're going to have the youth and
confirmation families start up in the youth room
at 930. then we'll come down to the gym to join
the rest of you as we learn about the different
ministries that are happening here at Christ's
Memorial Lutheran. But after we talk about some
of the expectations and look over the schedule
and some of the fun events that we have going
on, and then get a chance to see how we're part
of the larger church. Now, I think it's great
to think about bringing up young people to learn
more clearly about their faith and to encourage
them. to confirm their desire to follow Jesus.
Every time when our confirmation students stand
up here and confess their faith before God in
the congregation though, I admit that I'm filled
with both joy and a little bit of nervousness.
And not just because I'm always worried if they
might decide to make a random joke I'm not expecting.
You see, joy I feel because I see young people
stepping into the race of faith, making promises
to run with Christ no matter where the road leads.
But nervousness, because I know that the part
of the race they've run so far has been in many
ways familiar ground, surrounded by family, supported
by church, encouraged by their friends. See,
anyone who has followed Christ for more than
a little while knows that the course is not flat.
See, there are going to be hills ahead. Hills
that test their endurance, their loyalty, their
courage. See, following Christ as a young person,
it's not always easy. They're expected to navigate
when their friends start drinking too early,
when they navigate working with others in a cutthroat
world while acting like Christ. and actually
talking to people on the phone instead of just
texting them. Scary, I know. It's called telephobia,
and apparently, it's a thing. But we see glimpses
of the hills that we face when a teenager has
to stand for their faith in a classroom, or when
they wrestle with doubts in a culture that often
doesn't share what they believe. But we also
know that there are more challenges ahead as
they step into high school. adulthood, jobs,
and families of their own, the race will take
them places they cannot yet see. And yet, how
often are we struggling, even when they're in
high school and beyond, to even have them here
with us in this place? And here's the truth,
they're not the first to run this kind of race.
Hebrews 11 and 12 tell us about those who have
gone before. Men and women who faced all kinds,
of hills, each one shaped by different conflicts
in their life. Maybe a conflict with other people
who are opposed to their path. Maybe conflict
with the sin that they feel and sense within
themselves. Or maybe conflict because of shame
that the world may try to inflict upon them.
See, these runners in the faith who have gone
before us, they're not just runners though. There
are also witnesses cheering us from the stands,
encouraging us to look at their faith and to
take courage. If we look closely, we can see
the course they ran, and we can see those like
Abraham, Moses, and Christ Himself, along with
the whole cloud of witnesses who have pushed
forward to conquer the world and to seek out
what God has in store for them. Because running
the race of faith It's very different from the
type of running that we may do with our bodies.
You see, we may be able to split people up in
the world into two different categories. Those
who get up every morning with the joy of feeling
the road beneath their feet as they make each
stride along the road. And those of us who are
actually normal. But when it comes to the life
of faith, That is a race that we are all called
to tackle ourselves and endure. See, some of
the stories like Abraham and Isaac, they strike
us strangely when we hear that Abraham was called
to sacrifice his son Isaac. And we think about
this idea of killing his firstborn, and we might
imagine people saying, Abraham, that's terrible.
You can't do that. But then, we realize that
they were still standing back and watching him
while he did. And even realizing that Isaac,
the firstborn, is still walking alongside him
the whole way. Because in Abraham's world, human
sacrifice, even of children, it was tragically
common to convince the gods to give you prosperity
and abundance. In order to make it through the
world, many of them would have seen it as normal
or even noble, even with Isaac being older, it
would not have been any less tragic. But the
real conflict came, though, because Abraham didn't
actually do it. See, Abraham believed God's promises.
He believed that they were so certain that even
if Isaac had died, that God could have raised
him again. He was willing to obey. He was willing
to sacrifice, even without knowing how God would
provide. But when God provided, the ram Abraham
stopped. See, the normal thing would have been
to keep forcing his way forward to prove his
devotion to the gods, but instead, he saw what
the true God provided, and he embraced God's
mercy and accepted the substitute. But could
you imagine what it would have been like to come
back down to all the people who were expecting
that his sacrifice of his firstborn would somehow
provide for everyone? Could you imagine some
of the things that might have been brought up?
You didn't follow through with it, Abraham. Wow,
Abraham, you must have gone soft. You didn't
give the Elohim your best, and now there is no
way to guarantee that we will not suffer for
it. You see, to many people, blessings always
require destroying other people to provide for
your community. There are many people who believe
that blessing requires destruction of others
to provide for yourselves. See, to Abraham though,
Obedience was trust, trusting in God's grace,
trusting in God's mercy, trusting that God's
way is better than the way that everyone else
may approve of or understand. That's the hill
that we sometimes have to climb. Sometimes people
oppose us because we refuse to follow what might
be normal in the eyes of the world. Sometimes
we're being urged to do things that may look
faithful or strong but actually go against the
heart of God. Sometimes we lose those who are
closest to us or even those that we wish were
closest to us. But that's also where it might
become uncomfortable because sometimes we're
the ones who are on the wrong side of it. Sometimes
we're the ones who are encouraging someone else
toward a path that God wants to pull them off
of. Following Christ means being willing to stop,
to turn, to choose mercy over the momentum of
the crowd. Sometimes the three are following
Christ, while the two are not, but sometimes
it's the majority that betray the heart of God.
And sometimes it's all of us. When we first begin
to run, it can be hard to push through to that
runner's high. Even getting over the first hill
in the first place. Abraham shows us that the
first hill in the race of faith though, it's
learning to trust God's direction even when everyone
else thinks you should keep going your own way
or maybe start going theirs. But others have
often been able to get over that hill as well.
Moses knew what it was like to climb that first
hill. In Egypt he could have lived in luxury.
He could have been surrounded by power with all
the approval the world could offer. But Hebrews
11 says he chose to be mistreated with God's
people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures
of sin. In other words, he conquered the hill
that Abraham faced. The hill of walking away
from the crowd's approval to follow God's call.
He and the children of Israel went up to the
Red Sea. They drowned. They trusted that God
would provide even as He parted the sea and then
drowned the Egyptians who attempted to drag them
back to the world that they had left behind.
Walking away from the expectations of others
was not the struggle for Moses as he led Israel,
but when Moses crested that first hill. He discovered
another one rising up in front of him. But this
time, the battle wasn't out there. The battle
wasn't here. See, Moses wrestled with fear, insecurity,
anger. At the burning bush, his fear told him
things. You're not good enough. You don't speak
well enough. God should send somebody else, maybe
even your brother. Your parents loved him and
your sister more. They kept them. They threw
you down the river in a basket. You're just not
good enough for this. And later, when the people
complained, those doubts must have come back
again as his anger boiled over. And instead of
just talking to the rock, because talking to
a rock, that's not really going to assert your
authority now, is it? He went over and struck
it instead of obeying God. He knew what God wanted.
But in the heat of the moment another voice inside
says do it your way you saw it work before Do
it again See this is the hill of the inner war
inside of us When voices battle for control and
we have to decide which side to listen to the
angels the demons Sometimes we hear three voices
speaking encouragement while to drag us down
And then sometimes the deciding voice says we're
not good enough instead. Paul describes it in
Romans 7, for I do not do the good I want, but
the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
And it's a hill that we all know. We may have
walked away from the crowd's expectations, like
Moses did with Egypt, but we still find the harder
fight to be what's happening inside of ourselves.
The pride. The fear. the bitterness, the impatience,
the self -reliance, or the self -doubt. It's
the battle between the Spirit calling us forward
and the flesh pulling us back. We feel strong
and bold and we're willing to let go of the world,
but as we do, we see our own flaws. We see our
own faults. and we stop believing that we're
the ones called to serve or that God could possibly
use someone as broken as us. Even when the majority
of the voices inside cry out that God is in control,
we oftentimes feed the other voices until they
become dominant, until their hunger threatens
to consume us. We know our own impatience, the
risk of a temper flaring up within, and we believe
that everyone must see it as well and expect
the worst of us. There are times when we feel
the aches and pains as we run down that path
and we stop believing that we can make it to
the end. But this hill teaches us that while
the hardest opponent may be the one within, we
need to listen to the witnesses cheering us on
from the sides, reminding us that it's not about
our power, but by God's Spirit. But maybe we've
learned to stand against those who oppose our
path like Abraham Maybe we've learned to face
our inner demons the battle with sin and to discover
that our weakness is where Christ's strength
is Revealed the weakness doesn't have to win
because his strength is made perfect and yet
even conquering those hills Sometimes the third
one is just the fact that the road is too long
and hopefully not like this sermon See, Hebrews
11 doesn't sugarcoat it. Some were mocked, flogged,
imprisoned, stoned, destitute, afflicted, mistreated,
of whom the world was not worthy. And when we
read Acts in church history, we meet names that
bring that reality into focus. Stephen, the first
martyr, stoned while praying for his attackers,
mocked even to the point of death. Peter. Imprisoned
multiple times, eventually crucified upside down,
a death meant to humiliate and terrify. Paul
beaten, flogged, shipwrecked, ridiculed, thrown
into chains, enduring hardship again and again
for the sake of the gospel. Who really wants
to look at the path of faith and say, yes, I
can tackle that? But even these witnesses, even
these heroes, they remind us that the final hill
isn't just about the external enemies, or the
internal battles. Sometimes the race of faith,
it feels like running through a cheering section,
but other times it feels like running through
a gauntlet. Sometimes instead of the witnesses
urging us forward, we feel them pushing us back,
sneering at us, trying to convince us that finishing
isn't worth it. Instead of a cloud that welcomes
us, it's the strong wind of rejection time and
time again. And that's where Jesus comes in.
Hebrews 12 reminds us that He endured the cross,
scorning its shame. He didn't just survive the
suffering, He conquered it. He ran the course
before us, breaking through the wind, cutting
through every obstacle, and making a way where
the path seemed impossible. He didn't just survive
it, but He stripped it of its power. by going
through it. He took the ugliest, most humiliating
death the world could throw at him, and through
it, turned it into the doorway of life. And here's
the good news. Jesus didn't just give us a pep
talk from the sidelines. He ran the course Himself.
He took every hill. He climbed the steepest ones,
even the Hill of Shame, and at the top, He broke
through those headwinds. He tore open the barriers,
He cut through the hostility, and He cleared
a path. Picture it, the steepest hill ahead,
the air thick with opposition, the wind trying
to push you backward, and Jesus is already there,
pushing through those headwinds for you. Through
the hardships, clearing the way, calling us forward,
and on the sides of the hill, the cloud of witnesses
with water for us, not to jeer, but to cheer.
They can't make it easier, but they can remind
us that this path has been run before. They've
seen what's on the other side and they've made
it. And at the summit, Jesus is holding out a
baton. Because He's not just encouraging us from
the sidelines. He ran the race and He conquered
the hills and now it's us who are to run the
next leg. This is the moment when the endurance
of those who went before becomes a bridge, a
path ahead becomes ours to run now, because we're
not meant to be spectators. Because part of the
fear for every group of young people that we
confirm and teach is to ask, who are they following
if we don't follow the path that Christ has walked?
How will they have anyone to follow themselves?
Hebrews 12 reminds us that it's our turn to run.
The baton is in our hand. The hills are ahead.
The cloud of witnesses are surrounding us and
cheering us. And even when we see Jesus going
down a path that we don't think anyone else has
run, we still see Him blazing the trail of death
and despair to bring us into life. So which hill
are you facing today? Is it a hill of opposition
from others like Abraham? Maybe it's a difficult
conversation with a co -worker, a friend, a family
member who doesn't understand why you're making
certain choices to follow the path that God has
given you. Or maybe it's the hill of inner conflict
like Moses. Maybe it's a daily struggle to be
patient instead of letting anger or fear dictate
decisions or sometimes choosing humility when
pride wants to take over. Or maybe it's the hill
of shame and scorn like Stephen, Peter, Paul,
and ultimately Jesus. Maybe it's the embarrassment
or ridicule you feel for living out your faith
in a culture that doesn't share your values.
A place where the sideways glance, the snide
comments, or even the internal shame that whispers
you're failing. But no matter what, this is your
section of the race for you to run. This is the
time to lean on God's strength when you don't
feel it. Because that hill may be steep, that
road may be long, but only this step is what
matters. and others are counting on us. Our kids,
the people around us, they need to see us grab
the baton and keep running. Fix your eyes on
Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
So when the hills rise up, remember, you're not
the first to climb them, but you also won't be
the last. So take heart, take courage, take the
baton because the race is on and you're not running
it alone. Thank you. Amen to that.