Running Our Race: Making the Transition

I'd like to start off today with a question. What do people call a race event that is comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and then finished up with a 26.2 mile run?

Anybody know? I'm not hearing the right... It's called crazy, insane, or ridiculous is the truth. But no, if you said triathlon, I heard a few people say triathlon. You are technically correct. If you said Iron Man triathlon, you're the winner of today's chicken dinner.

For those not familiar with the Iron Man triathlon, again, it's a race comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, followed up by a 112 mile bike ride, and then finished with a 26.2 mile run. It's a race. It's a full marathon at the end of finishing those other two events. A lot of times, these types of numbers, to me, I hear them, and yeah, I understand how many miles, the distance of a couple miles or even a hundred miles, but I like to sometimes try to wrap my mind around exactly what this would feel like if I was to do it.

So if we all agreed, which we're going to after church today, I don't know if you know that, we're all gonna... If we all agreed to run this race today, what we would do, if we were scheduled and we were all trained, and this is the facility we were leaving, and there's not a really good mile marker for 2.4 miles from this building, so imagine there's a high school track next door, and it's actually made of water, so we're gonna be swimming it. We'd have to swim... What did I say? It'd be 10 laps around that track, because each lap around a track is a quarter of a mile, so the swim portion would consist of 10 laps swimming around this racetrack, and then we would crawl out of that water, and then we would put on our helmet and our bike shoes, we'd jump on our bikes, and the bike portion would take us all the way to downtown Detroit from here, and then back, but we're still not done, because that really only covers about 100 miles. The last 12, we'd have to jump back on that track, and then ride our bikes around it 48 more times in order to complete the bike portion.

And then once we got done with that, we'd take off our helmets, we'd put on our running shoes, and for those who are familiar with the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, we would leave here, run all the way to the stadium, and have to come back, and the finish line would be back here in the parking lot. That would finish the marathon portion of our race. So, is anybody ready for this? You guys got your shoes? No? The history of the Iron Man Triathlon is an interesting one. As with so many things dealing with sports, athletics, and men, it came out of a group of men who were together celebrating the awards ceremony for this big event that they were doing. And you get a whole bunch of guys with too much testosterone, and they're trying to figure out who's the most fit athlete, and then you get the Iron Man Triathlon. It arose during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oahu Perimeter relay. Among the participants were representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Roadrunners, so this is a running group, and the Waikiki Swim Club, so it's a lot of swimmers. And these two groups members had been long debating which athletes were more fit, runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that in a recent Sports Illustrated magazine, it had declared that Eddie Merckx, the great Belgian cyclist, had the highest recorded oxygen uptake of any athlete measured. So he was thinking, well, perhaps, cyclists are more fit than anyone. Collins and his wife were familiar with the triathlon idea, because the triathlon concept was kind of new. They had ran a couple smaller scale ones in California, so it was really no surprise when they started describing, hey, what about if we create this monster of a triathlon and we run it here in Hawaii? And so those in the room who were with him and hearing this conversation were aware of the triathlon idea. And so Commander Collins decided and suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island. The first one being the Waikiki Rough Water Swim, which was an open ocean water swim comprised of 2.4 miles. Then he said they would follow that up with the Around Oahu bike race, which was at that time 115 miles, not the 112, but they completed it in two days at that point. And he's saying, well, we'll finish it up in one. And then he says, and then we'll follow that up with the Honolulu Marathon, which is the 26.2 aspect. Up until that point, no one had ever done the bike race or done this together. And so Collins started out with a kind of an application. And he put all the information in there. He contacted the Coast Guard, the local police, because for something like this, you need their sign off so that the race can go off without a hitch.

And in this write-up, in this application, Collins hand-wrote at the top this exhortation. He wrote, Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles, Run 26.2 miles, Brag for the rest of your life. And this is now a registered trademark for the Iron Man triathlon.

With a nod to a local runner who was notorious for his demanding workouts, Collins said, Whoever finishes first, we'll call him the Iron Man. So where the name came from. Each of the racers had their own support crew to supply water, food, and encouragement during the event. Of the 15 men to start off in the early morning on February 18, 1978, 12 completed the race. Gordon Haylor, a U.S. Navy communications specialist, was the first to earn the Iron Man title by completing the course in a time of 11 hours, 46 minutes, and 58 seconds. Almost 12 hours it took him to finish this. The runner-up, John Dunbar, a U.S. Navy SEAL, led after the second transition and had a chance to win, but he ran out of water on the marathon course. I like this part. His support crew resorted to giving him beer instead.

I don't know, Ed, that must have helped. At least it took away the pain, probably. So this was the first, the history of the first Iron Man triathlon race, and it's continued to be a premier triathlon race to most athletes who feel it's actually the pinnacle. But there's an aspect of the triathlon that you may not have thought about. I hadn't thought about until it occurred to me. But it's a critical part of the race. With most type of races, someone performs one sport or one aspect of the competition. If you go and you sign up for a race, like a running race, you're running the entire time. Or if you decide you're going to be a competitive swimmer, well, your race is comprised of primarily swimming or biking, just one event. You're on your bike from the start to the finish of the race. But when someone competes in a triathlon, they must transition from one stage of the race to the next until the race is complete. It's at these transition points that the athlete faces some unique obstacles. Even though the athletes have trained for a long period of time for this endurance race, they've rarely trained for the transitions themselves.

Transitions consist of, as I described in the opening, you start off your race with a swim cap and goggles, and you're swimming through the open water. But then when you finish that 2.4 miles, you come out, you take off the gear that you had before, you switch into your bike shoes, a bike helmet, and you find your bike, and you start off on the course. So you're transitioning from one stage to the next.

And then as you finish that up, as you finish off the bike portion, you're again stowing your equipment, your bike, and you're putting now your running shoes on, and probably some sunglasses, maybe a visor, and you head out onto the course.

But what I understand is one of the most hardest parts of this transition phase is what has happened to the athlete's bodies themselves.

As you can imagine, you're racing, you're running, your muscles are moving and performing in a certain way for that portion of this race. And these races are so long, each section is so long, that your body builds up muscle memory. The muscles get used to working in a similar pattern over and over and over, and they build a memory, and they get comfortable. And you get comfortable with that. And then when you are, it's time for you to make that transition, your muscles must also transition from that previous motion over and over. So if you had that flutter kick in your legs, well now those leg muscles are kind of used to working that way, and now they've got to switch to a bike, which is now that circular motion. And so the muscles are kind of complaining, saying, I don't like working this way, I was pretty comfortable working the other way. But the mind has to come over the body, and you have to work through this transition of pedaling now. And then when you come out of that and you start to run, you would think, well, the pedal motion is similar to a run motion, but it actually is quite different as your stride is different, your stride is stretched out, uses different muscles in your foot and your leg. Once again, you have to transition, and your muscle memory has to go away, and you build a new memory of this new way that you're running. I had a friend that competed in a triathlon, and actually in an Ironman in Ohio, and his experience was it's so funny because your body is feeling one way, especially coming out of the bike to the run, and your legs are trying to still do that circular bike motion as you start to run. And he goes, you see all these people out there kind of running like new kids, first learning how to walk because it's kind of this cumbersome thing, and it's not a rhythm, but you see all these men and women out there going through the same muscle problem as he was until you finally get into a new rhythm as you're doing that.

Successfully executing these transitions is critical for an athlete in continuing this race. It's this aspect of making the transition I'd like us to look at today specifically, I'd like us to consider how are we making the transition in our lives after returning home from the Feast of Tabernacles.

It's been a few weeks since we've been back. We've gotten back into the flow of a lot of things in our life because it was just a few weeks back that we were there. It was a few weeks ago that we were observing God's Feast. I'd like you to think back a few days earlier to that end, that seventh day and then the eighth day, Holy Day. Think back a few days earlier when you first arrived at the Feast. When you first got there and that joy, that excitement that was in our hearts for that opening evening or that first church service, to hear everybody singing praises together to our God and that joy that fills our hearts when we're all there. Do you remember being excited for the sermons that you would hear? The messages that were prayed over and God had inspired. Were you excited about the themes that many times pop out that God inspires within one congregation? Your theme might be different than somebody else's theme at their site. But do you remember being excited for that? For the people that you would get to meet? The relationships you'd get to continue to build? Maybe somebody you haven't seen in a few years and you see them and you're hoping you'll meet people that you had met in previous? There is an excitement that we have for celebrating God's Feast. It's a wonderful time. A wonderful time that has to come to an end because God's Kingdom is not here yet. And until we celebrate it next year, we have to transition back into our normal day-to-day lives. So here we are. We've returned home. Most of us, and I assume all of us, have started to get back into our normal swing of life. We're getting back into school. We're getting back into our work. We're getting back into caring for our children. Some of you are getting back to your retirement, which I have no idea what that is like. But I hope to someday. But you're getting...every all of us are in a transition period where we have just completed the Fall Holy Days. And we're entering a period of time which is about 145 days from now until the Spring Holy Days, until Passover again comes around.

It's probably a little less than five months now until Passover. This is a long stretch of the year that we are now entering.

As we entered and exited the Fall Holy Day season, we are now transitioning back to our normal spiritual race that each of us are running.

In Hebrews 12, Paul uses the analogy of a race when describing the work and effort that each of us are expounding as we struggle against the pools of this world and against our own human nature.

Not expounding, rather expending. That effort, that energy that we're expending.

This is in Hebrews 12.

And verse 1 and 2.

Verse 12, verse 1 and 2.

And after we two run triathlons prepare and they train with a focus, with an intent to deliver results on race day, they don't just wake up one day and after a really good night of sleep and feel pretty refreshed and say, you know what? I think I'm going to go out and run an Iron Man triathlon today. They really don't do that. Now, there are those cases of that crazy one person that was able to do something like that. There have been a few documented stories of somebody who can go out without training and somehow manage their way through these type of events. But the majority, that's a very rare occasion, the majority of people have to spend hours, hours, hours training for each segment of this race.

They work hard. They log many miles training and preparing their bodies for the event that's ahead of them. And an aspect of their training is not just on the individual components of the triathlon, the swimming, the biking, or the running, but they also focus on, and they do plan for these transitions they will need to make to continue running their race. As with an athlete who runs a triathlon, we must also run our spiritual race with a purpose, with a focus on the end results that we desire to achieve. We run with a purpose. What is your purpose? What is your individual purpose? Let's look at 1 Corinthians 9 as we ponder this question.

What is our purpose? 1 Corinthians 9, Chapter 24.

1 Corinthians 9, Verse 24.

This is Paul saying, Another usage of the word temperate would be they exercise self-control. Exercising self-control.

Verse 25 again, Therefore I run thus. And Paul is saying, Here is how I run. Not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air. I love this analogy he uses here because we can all visually see this boxer, trained, muscular, ready to take on anyone who gets in his path.

Yet he is swinging and battling the air. No resistance. What is he doing other than just tiring himself out? He is swinging his arms, beating the air. But it is not to any effect for him other than to just tire him and make him weak and unable to continue.

And Paul says, Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body. And I bring it into subjection lest when I have preached to the others I myself should become disqualified.

He is saying, I have a purpose in my life. I have a way that I have to live. I have a way that I have to teach others how to live their life. But regardless, if I teach according to God's Word, he is saying, but yet I fail to do it myself, he is going to become disqualified. Not able to finish the race. Not within the boundary set up for God for the race that you and I are running.

And it's running with a purpose that allows us to make the transition into the next portion of our year.

Can it become tough at times to make the transition?

Are we busy at our school? Are we busy at work? Are we busy maybe still getting unpacked? I have one suitcase that I haven't fully got unpacked from the feast. Are we busy getting things handled again situated in our life?

Maybe a medical issue or financial problem that is still on your plate after returning home that you are dealing with? Whatever types of things that are on your plate can be a difficult aspect to our transition.

But the professional athlete expects the unexpected because this isn't their first rodeo. This isn't their first race. And I know from being part of congregations, being part of the church, this isn't your first race either. Many of you have ran races for a long, long time. This isn't something new to you. You've made that transition yourself back from previous feasts.

This isn't your first feast or your second. You're way up there in the double digits. And so you know what it's like to run your race. You know what it's like to make your transition. And for those who is new, maybe this is your first feast. Maybe this is a few feasts. This is an important aspect about transitioning from the feast back to life. To take those messages, to take that encouragement, to take that joy, our hope that can't be squashed, can't be put out.

And then to say, how do I continue this after I return home? How do I continue running my race? As we run our race with a purpose, we must make the transition with a purpose. Both require a purpose. It's also during this transition phase that a runner's race, he will take time to refuel. Hopefully at the feast, we partook in all the messages, all the opportunities to be at fellowship, the time to spend with others.

As some have said before, I'm not a math major, so don't quote me on these numbers, but I've heard it said that if we were to take in every sermon and sermonette, and the Bible studies, and the opportunities that we have to be fed spiritually, we would have about 20 hours of our yearly amount in just that one week, those eight days. About 20 hours.

And while 20 hours doesn't sound like a huge amount of time, this would equate out to about 15% of our yearly scriptural instruction that we receive from elders and from others at the feast. So about 15%. Once again, maybe you were thinking it would be a bigger number, but when you think about 15%, that is a large amount. Who wouldn't like a 15% raise if they could get one today from their boss?

15% raise is pretty nice. Who wouldn't like 15% off their taxes for this next year? Or 15% off your college tuition? So you can see that 15% does add up. It is not just a meaningless amount, something that's trivial, something that, if you miss it, it's not that big of a deal. It is a large amount. The spiritual race refueling that we receive at the feast is what will give us the spiritual boost for this next stage that we are in.

The long, cold winter months can be a time of the year that seem to just drag on between now and Passover. You can only imagine what it would be like to run a marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and then biking 112. It can be daunting to come up to that point and say, I've still got a full marathon ahead of me. That's kind of where we're at right now. We have the, well, four, five months of time between now and the spring holidays. It's a time that can maybe be a little daunting.

Maybe we'll miss the whole eight days and we'll really look forward to it. And that's the time that we are entering right now. During this time, runners many times use energy gels or they use these chews that will give them a boost of energy along with water or energy drinks to replenish the energy that they used along the race. This allows them to continue in their run and to be sustained for that next portion. God has positioned His Feast of Tabernacles perfectly where He has.

And the instructions that we get from that allow us to make it through the long winter months so that we may be refilled, we may be fueled, ready for this next stage. And our refueling is so vital to our spiritual health. And so if you had the best feast ever spiritually, that's wonderful. That is something that is awesome to have in our lives. Your spiritual tank should be filled to the brim. And you are ready to take on the rest of this year. Using the race analogy, once again, let's imagine you are running an amazing race.

This is that race that you had dreamed about, you had trained for, and you're running it. And if you're not in first place, you're pretty close up to the front of the pack. You're feeling good. Your training has paid off.

Your body is feeling perfect. And you may be thinking, I'm ready for that next stage. I'm ready for the marathon. Bring it on. Bring it on. This is you, and this is the feast that you had. I encourage you to keep it up. Keep up whatever it was that helped you to have this spiritually full feast. If it was that extra prayer or study time or a new habit that you developed. Or if it was overcoming a sin or a difficulty that you had, we've got to keep it up. Keep it up. Keep running your race. By doing these things, you are continuing to run a successful race. But maybe your feast didn't go as well as it should have spiritually.

Maybe the physical aspects took more of a front seat than the spiritual. You may have had some regrets now that you were back home, that your refueling didn't go the way it should have in one aspect or another. Back to the race analogy again. Maybe you're entering this transition phase of the race further back in the pack. You're not feeling 100% right now. You're cramping up. Maybe there's that sore spot on the bottom of your foot that just won't go away. You might be wishing that you had a do-over for your feast.

But like an athlete running a race, you can't just go over to the coordinators and say, Well, I'm finding myself unprepared. I didn't get the training that I wanted to. Can we reschedule this in a few months? I'd like everybody to go home. Where I'm going to focus more on my training, and we'll bring everybody back. We'll keep running the race then when I'm ready. No, the athlete can't do that. Their only option is to keep running or to quit.

But they keep running. Once you start a race, you can't midway change your mind and decide not to run. The only option that each of us has is to continue running our race. We don't have an option to quit. In Luke 9, verse 62, Jesus said to him, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. We don't have an option to quit.

Even if we did make a mistake, we don't have an option to quit. It's moments like these that we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is talking with us. He's walking with us. He's making us rethink our feast a little bit and the decisions we made. He's reaching to our hearts and he's causing us to pause for a moment and consider our performance. And you know what? That's okay. That's okay that God would reach out and talk to us.

That would make us reconsider our performance. Because it's moments like these that can have a fundamental impact on how we go forward and how we handle future feasts of tabernacles. These are those life lessons that we have to learn and then resolve to handle it differently going forward. You may need to go before God and to ask for forgiveness for some of the decisions you made and then refocus and redeem the race that is still in front of you.

But maybe there's a third category that you fell into this year and so you hit this transition period. For some of you, this could have been a really strange or different feast. It might have been a difficult feast. You did everything that was within your powers to have the best feast ever. You were doing your study. You were doing your prayer life. You were keeping everything the way it was going. You were executing your plan. But then something in life came out of nowhere.

Something impacted your feasting, your ability to continue these things. It distracted you. It dramatically impacted your feast. Things that were completely out of your control but just couldn't be ignored or put on the back burner. Examples would be a death in the family or a health trial that you or someone close to you, a close family member, was dealing with. Maybe a physical problem like your car broke down and it's just a pain to have to get it fixed and it's distracting you. We had a friend at the feast just this year.

He had a pretty severe cut in his thumb prior to the feast. He had gone to the doctors, had it all stitched up and they removed the stitches just before going to the feast. He was there in Florida doing what he was supposed to, serving on the sound crew. He developed an infection in his thumb. One that he couldn't figure out what was going on.

It actually swelled almost twice as big as his other thumb. He went to the urgent care. He had to get antibiotics. They hooked him up to IV antibiotics. He took those for a while. He had a couple of good days and was feeling better. Then the swelling came back. The infection was still there. He ended up having to go to an emergency room. He was weighing out whether he was going to fly back to Canada or not, where he was from home. But what happened is, this just kept hanging over his head.

It wouldn't go away. It was a distraction. He tried to do everything within his power to maintain the focus. It was hard. It was difficult. It's one of these things he just couldn't ignore. These are just some of the things that can significantly impact your feast and your ability to get everything out of it that you hoped. If you've been in the church long enough, if you've had enough feasts of tabernacles, you're going to have a difficult, strange, different feast.

These things, because life just eventually happens to us all. Things out of our hands, things surrounding us, things that are not able to be completely controlled by us, sometimes happen. It can be frustrating. It can be disappointing. Or it can even be difficult to understand, why has this happened? Why would God allow this? Right right in the middle of my feast.

It may be difficult to put into words exactly how you're feeling as you go through these. And that's why you may describe it as just strange or different than any feast you've ever had. But even through this type of a feast, you can gain insight by going through it. It's not always easy. What's the easy thing to do? Why me?

What's the easy thing to do? Ask God, why would you do this? This isn't fair. This isn't what I wanted. This isn't what I prayed about. But God, I don't think anywhere in His Word, I know He hasn't promised it to me, that life would always be fair. That life would always be easy. That things would just go according to my plan.

He hasn't done that in my life. But what we can do is to work to maintain a good attitude through it. We can maintain a focus on why are we there. Yeah, we're doing our part, and life has hit us across the forehead like a board. But what are we going to do? Choose to go the downer route? Or to choose to plow forward and to keep beseeching God? God, I don't know why this has happened, but there's something that can be learned from this.

There's something I can apply to my life. And maybe it'll fix this year. Maybe it'll help me get through this. But maybe it'll be an example for next year. Somebody else who has a difficult feast, and I can be that encourager to them. Because like I said, if you're keeping enough Feast of Tabernacles, life is going to eventually hit us. To where, out of our control, something happens.

And it makes it difficult, maybe, to rejoice. Maybe it makes it difficult to maintain that laser focus that you intended to have when you went. Regardless of how you are making the transition, though, this year, from the Feast back to your normal life, the important thing to keep in mind is that you are moving forward in your spiritual race. And that you still have a great opportunity to run a very powerful race with God's help and His assistance. Another aspect of the transition I'd like to look at today is that as we have returned home, we are transitioning back to a world that is not God's.

There's no shocker in that, is there? As Jesus Christ was being questioned by Pilate before His death, in John 18, verse 36, Jesus answers Pilate by saying, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Christ is saying very plainly, we all know this in the middle of our hearts, that the world that we are a part of is not God's. It's of Satan's. We just experienced, though, a taste of what it would be like to live in the kingdom of God, what it would be like as we observed the Feast of Tabernacles.

And while we partook of this taste, this small amount, we can already see the stark contrast between God's world and the one that we are a part of.

And that someday things will be changed. There will be an accomplishment on this earth when Christ returns and puts down the powers of the nations around us, and He puts down the impact that Satan has had on this world. We see clearly right now that this world is not God's. This world is not God's. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul describes who is at fault.

If we go forward just one chapter or one book, 2 Corinthians 4, Paul describes who is at fault, who is the cause of deception, and the lies that permeate our society and why people can't see today. This is in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4.

I was trying to figure out why my verse was a match, and if then I realized in my notes I have the New Living Translation. So that's what I'm going to share with you. This is 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 from the New Living Translation. Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe.

They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. We know, this is not a surprise to anybody sitting here, that this world is Satan's. That he has been the one who has blinded those around us. He's the one that is the root cause of why people are living the way that they are. The damage, the war, the hatred, everything that we see that is not godly is from Satan.

And so we know this. While we were at the feast, we were presented with an opportunity to step away from the world for a bit. This is always one of the personally most encouraging aspects for me. Because for one week, I don't have to turn on the news. For one week, I don't have to turn on the TV at all.

None of us are forced to ever turn it on. But for one week, we're usually focusing. We're usually fellowshiping. We're usually busy with activities and services and things like that. And the TV doesn't come on maybe as often as when we're at home.

And for one week, I enjoy not knowing what's going on in the world. Because for one week, my focus is right here. My focus is right in front of me. My focus is on the family that I'm celebrating the feast with. That's a joy to me. For one week, I get to focus on the hope that is before us. The joy that comes from following God.

The hope in His promises. Knowing that the world can try to squash our hope, but they can't. Not if we don't allow them to. Our hope is secure on God. For one week, we get to rejoice in fellowship with those of like mind. And even maybe with new people for the further that you're meeting for the first time. For one week, we get to partake in the abundance of all that wonderful spiritual food that we'd prayed for.

That we'd ask God to inspire, and He does. And for that one week, we get it for eight solid days in a row. There's no other time of the year like that where we get those sermons focused, concentrated with the point and the purpose. Like we do at the feast. It is an absolutely wonderful time of the year. But it's also a time that we can see so clearly the contrast between who we are as God's people, our focus, our desires that we are to have on our heart, and yet society that we are part of.

Where our homes are at, where our neighborhoods are, where our schools are at, what's being taught. We see that contrast. Through the feast, we are reminded that we must become less and less like the world around us. And as technology and knowledge had spread without limits, the world has moved away from God at a similar pace.

And it's at this transition point that we must ask ourselves, are we slipping down the slippery slope along with the rest of the world? Or are we running our spiritual race against the world's tide?

How's your race going? We have to ask ourselves questions like, are we becoming more tolerant of sin? Whether that's in our life, or if we're becoming more tolerant of sin in the world. Are we apologetic of our Christian beliefs? Is our conscience becoming seared or desensitized to the ways that are contrary to the way that God says we should live our lives? Mankind is continually becoming desensitized to things in this world that couldn't be stomached just a short while ago. Things that used to be viewed as indestructible violence or crimes against humanity, sadly and horribly, are commonplace.

It seems now. Just prior to the feast, we were traveling. And then that tragedy that happened in Las Vegas pops up on the news. And for a moment, I couldn't turn the TV off because it's tragic. It's horrible. But then, you know what? I moved on. Am I becoming desensitized a little bit to these things in life? We all have to ask our questions. We all have to look through and say, Am I becoming more tolerant of sin? Am I apologetic of our Christian beliefs? Is my conscience becoming desensitized to the damage that we see around us? I've had to contemplate these questions. I've had to ask them of myself. As we make the transition, we must be very careful that we don't transition back to a world that is against Godly values and His teachings.

There's a passage in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that we often turn to when we consider the state of our world and the state of our society. This is in 2 Timothy chapter 3. It's hard not to be impacted by the world. It's hard not to be desensitized to the things around us. But we need to think about it. We need to contemplate, How am I living my life? How am I running my race? Here in 2 Timothy chapter 3, in verse 1, this is quite a sobering list.

Sometimes we can run through the Swiss pretty quickly, but I'm going to slow it down a little bit because I'd like us to each contemplate what these words are. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, The defenders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, they will be traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Paul finishes up here saying, From such people, turn away. It is a sobering list when you realize what is going to come of the world that we're part of. Can we think of things? How sad it is that so many of these things that are listed here, we can pick out examples today.

We can pick out probably way too many examples, more than we could count. But here, Paul's saying that in the last days, these things are going to come. So imagine just the depth that we're going to eventually see in each of these words, in people's actions, in their hearts, in their choices.

But what does God expect? What does God expect? Let's look at 2 Timothy 2. So turn back with just one chapter. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 1. Because he expects that we become more like him. So just across your page in my Bible, 2 Timothy 2 verse 1. You therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

So here Paul's speaking to Timothy, who's a minister, admonishing and encouraging him to do these things. But these are all things that we should each be doing in our lives. These are responsibilities that we all have to be this example and to be developing this fruit in our lives. Verse 3. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. This is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him.

If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless... I'm sorry, I jumped down by the way, just so you know, I'm now in verse 13. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. And if you'll flip one book forward to Titus, again, another one of Paul's letters to a minister.

This is in Titus, chapter 2. We have another list that we should all try to heed. We have to heed. There's no try. We have to do these things. This is in Titus, chapter 2, verse 1.

Again, Paul is admonishing a minister. These are the things that you need to teach to your congregations. These are the ways that God's people are to live their life. Here in Titus 2, verse 1. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men will be sober. Compare and contrast the list that we read previously to this one right here. That older men will be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

That the older women, likewise, that they may be reverent in their behavior, not slanders, not given to too much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

Imagine that for a moment. Your co-workers. They see the way that you live your life. They see the ways that you've changed. They see the direction and the choices that you make. And yeah, sometimes they'll be critical. Sometimes there's... Why do you worry about that? Why do you live your life that way? But yet, he says right here that those who is an opponent, that they may be ashamed. That they might look at their life and say, you know what?

I should be doing better myself. They're setting a standard, the bar. They're showing an example. You're showing an example of how to live a life. So much that they can't even come up with anything evil to say of you. That they try to think of something evil to say of you.

There's just nothing there. This is what Paul is telling on Titus that he must be teaching to these congregations. And in verse 11, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works, zealous for good works, that zeal, that drive that you have, for good works.

The feast days that we just finished observing a little over a week ago represent radical change for this earth and all who live in it. Radical change must also be occurring in our life. So any good habit that you developed at the feast this year, keep it up. Any positive change that you made, any sin that you overcame, keep it up.

Any area of your life that you made progress that just doesn't measure up to the level that God expects for you in your life, keep it up. Keep up whatever it was that you have been doing. Making it to a transition point in the race doesn't mean that we have already arrived at the finish line. It means that there is more race still to run in front of us. It means we must keep up the pace we have been running so far this race.

We must keep up everything that we have been doing up to this point. All of our training, all of that effort that we put out, we must keep it up so that we can continue the race that we've started.

This also doesn't mean, though, that the last part of the race is going to be easy. I've seen people hit a transition point in their race just to run into difficulties. They hit the transition point from the swim to the bike. Just a few miles in, they get a flat. That wasn't expected. That wasn't what was in their training. That wasn't part of their race day plan. Or maybe they transition from the bike, get their shoes on, and they start running only to get a cramp in their leg. They've never cramped in their leg before. And all their other races. Why now? What happened? Nobody wants this. They don't want it.

But what do they do?

They keep it up. They fix the flat. They work through the leg cramps, and they keep going. Our race doesn't have a finish line for you and for me until God says this is our finish line. Till He says our race has been ran. So through the difficulties that may occur over the next few weeks or months, we must keep up our race. As we make the transition back into our lives, we must remember that our race is also being ran through the power of God in our lives, through His Holy Spirit. It's through this power that we all have the support that we need. When we are weak and we rely on Him, then we can be made strong.

In the Iron Man Triathlon World Championship, this is the pinnacle of even the Iron Man races, it's held every year in Kona, Hawaii, and those who qualify for this race get an opportunity to run in it. So they have Iron Man triathlons all around the world. They have them in different cities, different states, and if somebody competes and gets a good enough time, they're invited to the World Championship. This is the final one to see who is the best Iron Man, who gets that title. A few years back, I watched a documentary on this race, and as I described earlier, this is the pinnacle of the triathlon. The top finishers of this race competed in a little over eight hours. So the original first person to ever do it was about 12 hours. These are pros. These are people with sponsorships. This is what they do for their career. But still, they compete this entire race in a little over eight hours. But to be counted as finishing the race, each participant must finish it within 17 hours. They can't just have people going on all hours of the night until they show up the next day, so they actually do put a cap. If they don't make the transitions in certain periods of time, they're not allowed to continue on the race. They're pulled. Their race is done for the day. So from start to finish, they must complete it in 17 hours. I noticed something extraordinary at the end of the race around the 15th or the 16th hour. The race starts at 7 a.m. because in order to complete it before it gets too late and you've got volunteers and you've got roads closed, they've got to finish this. So the race starts at 7. So when you get to the 15th or 16th hour, it's now dark on the course. And to think about it, these are pros. This isn't their first Iron Man. They ran other Iron Mans in such a fast time that they were invited to this pinnacle world championship. So the few people who are at the 15th, 16th hour now, running in the dark, they are struggling. They are really, really struggling. But there are people like you and me, average people, who come out onto the course with their flashlights. They come out onto the race portion, the roads, because they know where the race is going by. It's going by their homes. It's going by their apartments. And so they come out with their flashlights. And they find these people who are really struggling because they know they've got about an hour left in their race to make it to the finish line. And they want to help them. That's their sole purpose for coming out. They take their flashlights and they run along with these runners. And they shine their flashlight down in front of them so they can see where to put their feet. And when the runner stops, because they're struggling, they stop with them. And they encourage them. And they tell them to keep running. Don't quit. And then they start running again. And they run alongside of them, encouraging these lone, struggling runners. Runners who have prepared their bodies, they'd fought through the pain of all those injuries, maybe they had. That time that they wrecked their bike and broke their leg, or they broke their arm. But they said, I'm not going to quit. I'm going to heal. I'm going to get out there because this race is in front of me. And all of a sudden, they're alone in their thoughts. They're alone in their discouragement. They're alone in their pain. Except for these few people, average people, trying to just encourage, just to push, just to help. They can't run their race for them, but they're there.

They're encouraging, and they're doing all that they can to help these lone, exhausted athletes make it to the finish line before the 17th hour.

We have a Savior that gave up His own life.

He's the author of our faith, and He's running alongside of each one of us.

He gives us encouragement through His Word. He gives us bread and water that feeds and nourishes us our entire lives. He will not leave us. He will not forsake us. When we feel like our legs are giving out and we can't continue on.

Let's look at Hebrews 13. One book forward from where we're at in Titus.

Or two, I believe. Hebrews 13, verse 5.

We're going to break into the thought here in verse 5.

Hebrews 13, verse 5. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Is our race hard? Oh, yeah. It's hard.

But our God is great, and His Son is our Lord and Savior and soon-coming King.

There is no one greater, no one more powerful.

And this is who we have on our side, cheering us on and encouraging each of us.

Christ is not only alongside of us. He's also in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

He is that inner peace we feel when we are on that road alone, racing in the dark, and we reach out to Him in prayer.

He is that extra boost of energy when we are tired and ready to quit.

He comforts us when we hurt, when we have our scrapes and bruises from the obstacle course of life.

Let's look at Isaiah as we contemplate this. Isaiah 43.

Isaiah 43, verse 1.

But now thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by your name. You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.

Verse 3. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I really like verse 2 because it does sum up a lot of our runs.

When you go through the deep water, have you been through deep water?

Have you gone through the rivers of difficulty? Have you walked through the fire of oppression?

But he says, For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

We won't be harmed by these things if we keep our focus and our faith strong in Him.

This is who we have on our side. This is the author and the finisher of our faith.

We are committed to running our race.

We are, each of us, we are committed to running our race.

There is a finish line ahead. Can you see it?

Is your vision focused on that finish line? The end of your race?

Not that we need to focus on the end of our physical lives, but to maintain that focus ahead.

That desire to stay on the course, that desire to complete our race.

We have a shared vision of reaching the end of our triathlon.

A picture in our mind what it will be like to cross that finish line, to raise our hands in triumph, to say that I am an Iron Man. I've completed this race.

A race that we thought might have been too crazy to ever start.

Imagine when we were thinking back and I was describing the ins and outs of this Iron Man. I said, that's all go do it. What was the first thought that ended your mind? This is crazy.

This is insane. This is not for me.

There are others who have in times been called, at times that have seen God's Word opened up.

And to them, running an Iron Man triathlon is as crazy as you and I sitting here today.

But you chose to run this race. You saw the fruit that you wanted to develop. You knew that this is what you needed to do, the next step of your life.

And so this was a race that maybe we thought was too crazy to start when we first considered running it.

And many others, when looking at this race, determined that this was not something that they were going to do. It's too difficult for them. Yet here we are, in the midst of our race. We're running it.

You are running your race.

I look forward to running this year's segment of our race together.

We all have a race. We're all doing this alongside of each other.

And as we run alongside our older brother, who encourages us every day, is there as well.

Running alongside of us, encouraging us to keep running.

So as we come back home from the feast, as we get back to life, let's all make this transition. Let's keep running our race.