Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us – Wisdom Needed to Finish Well – Part I

Hebrews 12:1 says, "Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." The part that surprised me the most about Solomon and other kings isn't that they turned from the Lord, since many people turn from the Lord. The part that surprised me is They did it when they were older after serving the Lord for so many years. This shows how hard it is for people to run with endurance the race that is set before them us (or them) and finish well. https://youtu.be/1bWgx-sLQdA Hebrews 12:1 says, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Kings turned from the Lord, showing it is hard to finish well. Table of ContentsSermon Lessons for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us - Wisdom Needed to Finish Well - Part I Family Worship Guide for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us Sermon Notes for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before UsLesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (example 1) SolomonLesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (example 2) Saul.Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (part 3) Hezekiah.Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (part 4) Asa.Lesson 2: Jesus is the King of Kings who finished well for us. Sermon Lessons for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us - Wisdom Needed to Finish Well - Part I Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well: Example 1: ______________ (1 Kings 11:4, Job 12:12). Example 2: ________ (1 Samuel 31). Example 3: ________________ (2 Kings 20:12-19). Example 4: ______ (2 Chronicles 14:8-15, 16:1-12). Lesson 2: Jesus is the ________ ____ __________ who finished well (Matthew 8:20, 1 Peter 2:23, Hebrews 12:1-2). Family Worship Guide for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us Day 1: Read 1 Samuel 31, 2 Kings 20:12-19 and discuss: why do you think Charles Templeton committed apostasy when he was older? Why was Solomon’s heart turned away from the Lord when he was older? Why do you think Saul finished so poorly? Why didn’t Hezekiah finish well? Why did Hezekiah show off storehouses and all of his wealth to Babylon? What is surprising about these people turning from the Lord when they’re older? Day 2: Read 2 Chronicles 14:8-15, 16:1-12 and discuss: why did God give Asa such a great victory over the Ethiopians? How does Asa reveal that the test of obedience is not whether things go well for us? Can you think of a time in your life you disobeyed, but it looked like things went well at first? Why didn’t Asa finish well? How did God reach out to Asa at the end of his life? Day 3: Read Matthew 8:20, 1 Peter 2:23, Hebrews 12:1-2 and discuss: how is Jesus better than Solomon? In what ways did Jesus finish well? How did Jesus entrust himself to him who judges justly? Explain the balance between us finishing well and Jesus finishing will for us. Sermon Notes for Let Us Run with Endurance the Race that Is Set Before Us The title of this morning’s sermon is, “Wisdom Needed to Finish Well – Part I.” We have been in a series called, “Pursuing Wisdom.” Let me begin w/ a quick question. Have any of you heard of Charles Templeton? I hadn’t, but this past week I read about him. He ministered w/ Billy Graham. Together they were called, “The Gold Dust Twins.” The two of them, along w/ Torrey Johnson, founded Youth for Christ. John MacArthur said, “By all accounts, Charles Templeton was the more gifted preacher…intelligent, handsome, winsome, eloquent, oratorical, brilliant, persuasive, effective. All those words were used to describe him. Charles Templeton overshadowed Billy Graham.” They went on an evangelistic tour of Europe, preaching to large audiences in England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, and other places. In 1946 the NAE, the National Association of Evangelicals, gave him the award: “Best Used of God.” What a weird award and how did they determine who won? In the 1950s Charles Templeton was given an opportunity to have weekly television programs on NBC and CBS. He preached in the United States to as many as 20,000 people per night across the country, and in youth rallies with thousands of young people. He became a church planter and pastor. He attended Princeton Seminary and had a week of gospel preaching at Yale University. Then in 1957 Charles declared himself an agnostic. He rejected the Bible and Christ. He attributed his rejection to the reading of Thomas Paine. Over ten days he also read Voltaire, Bertrand Russell, Robert Ingersoll, David Hume, and Aldous Huxley. By the end of those ten days he was virtually an atheist. He left the ministry with $600 in his pocket, returned to Canada, and became a journalist. Then he became a politician, and almost became the Prime Minister of Canada. Only five years before his death, he wrote, Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. The part that surprised me the most about Charles isn’t that he turned from the Lord, since many people turn from the Lord. The part that surprised me is he did it when he was older after serving the Lord for so many years. When people commit apostasy, don’t we expect it to happen when they’re young? We hear all the statistics about people leaving the church, and the statistics almost always refer to young people. I understand the concern for young people to turn from the Lord, but in scripture when people turned away it was typically when they were older. This is surprising to me b/c it seems like the opposite of what we’d expect. We’d expect older people to finish well…but that’s not the case. Go ahead and turn to 1 Kings 11, a familiar chapter. I just want to show you one verse, which gave me the idea for this sermon. Look at verse 4… 1 Kings 11:4 For WHEN SOLOMON WAS OLD his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. We spent the last few weeks looking at Solomon and notice his heart was turned away from the Lord when he was old. If Solomon was the only example of a king turning from the Lord when he’s old I wouldn’t have made this a sermon, but since it’s a theme I thought it deserved attention. If Scripture makes something important through repetition, we should make it important. And this brings us to lesson one… Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (example 1) Solomon Isn’t it’s surprising that it says when he was old? Don’t we typically think the older the wiser? Job thought this… Job 12:12 Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days. We expect the old to be wise, and when we think about the foolish, we expect them to be young. Since the aged are supposed to be wise, and Solomon turned from the Lord when he was older, this is one more instance of his foolishness. The next part of lesson one… Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (example 2) Saul. Since I’m trying to look at many examples I can’t give each example much attention. But hopefully as we move quickly from one example to the next it will sink in just how frequently this occurred so we can be on guard against it. Saul finished so poorly you can easily forget how well he started: Early on he was humble, and so afraid of the spotlight that he couldn’t be found when it was time for his anointing. He was hiding among the baggage. God gave him a new heart and a great supporting cast. He defeated the Ammonites and defended the men of Jabesh Gilead. But over time he neglected his responsibilities because he became jealous of David and consumed w/ killing him. By the end of Saul’s life there’s nothing good we can say about him. He failed as a commander, father, friend, and king. Israel’s defeat was his fault. His leadership was terrible. Instead of preparing Israel for war, the night before the battle he was consulting a medium. FB Meyer said, “It is a very solemn thought! No career could begin with fairer, brighter prospects than Saul had, and none could close in more absolute midnight of despair; and yet such a fate may befall us, unless we watch, and pray, and walk humbly with our God.” The next part of lesson one… Lesson 1: These kings reveal it’s hard to finish well (part 3) Hezekiah. Go ahead and turn to 2 Kings 20. Hezekiah was one of the two greatest reformers. He purified the temple, reestablished Passover, and had a great victory over the Assyrians b/c he trusted God. But later in life he became proud. The context is Hezekiah was sick, God told him he would die, he insisted on living, and God allowed it. He recovered and look at verse 20… 2 Kings 20:12 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.  This visit was completely political and had nothing to do with Hezekiah’s sickness. Babylon was under the yoke of Assyria, so Babylon wanted Judah to ally with them against Assyria. 2 Kings 20:13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.  Babylon was a superpower at the time, but Judah wasn’t. Hezekiah wanted to impress them so he showed off his wealth. He wasn’t trying to make God look good, he was trying to make himself look good…to ungodly people who were part of an ungodly nation. Look what happened next… 2 Kings 20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said,...