More Than Survivors

The Test of Endurance

Hebrews 12

Chances are you saw it, or at least a video tape replay of it. It was the Short Track Speed Skating event at the Salt Lake Olympic Games just two months ago. Apolo Ohno, the American favorite to win four gold medals was in first place going into the last turn of the last lap, when he and four others were sent sliding out of control into the padded walls surrounding the track.

At the back of the pack, hardly in the same zip-code, was Steven Bradburry. He had made it to this gold-medal round because three skaters had fallen in his qualifying heat, and now he skated past the four sprawling and struggling skaters to take gold in the Olympics.

"Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater," he said. "I don't think I'll take the medal for the minute and half race I actually won. I'll take it for the last decade of the hard work I put in."

Of course any Olympian puts in years of dedicated training and sacrifice to reach the games, and Bradburry is no different. In 1994, he flipped during the race and had another skater's blade slice all the way through his leg. He lost nearly a gallon of blood. "I wouldn't let myself become unconscious," he said, "because I thought I was going to die." It took 111 stitches to close the wound. Then in 2000, he broke his neck slamming into a wall in another accident. And in the 10 years of competition, he had never finished higher than 2^nd in international competition.

So before we dismiss him as a person who did not deserve a medal, perhaps his endurance and determination is what the Gold is all about. In the final analysis, the medal went to the one who was still standing at the finish line. Some questioned how he got there, through the misfortune of others, but the real way he got there - the sacrifice, the pain, the near death injuries – seemed to melt away in that moment of victory. The price paid was worth the prize won. The pain was worth the gain.

For the last 7 weeks we have been looking at the lives of people who were able to look beyond the pain, and keep their focus on the gain. They looked to the prize to be won, and were willing to pay the price.

For Moses, it was the price of denying himself the position of Prince of Egypt. Turn to Hebrews 11:24-26 (pg. 810). This was the text of our first week’s message in this series. Follow along as I read:

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward.

Like an Olympic athlete, who looks beyond the pain toward the reward, Moses looked beyond the reproach of being identified with slaves, and looked toward his final reward. But even more than accepting the pain, he was also willing to deny himself the pleasures. That middle verse, verse 25, is one that I think we could all do well to commit to memory, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin.” That could, in fact be considered the summation of all that we have studied in this series.

Each of the characters we have studied made a similar choice. Moses taught us to make wise choices, Joseph taught us to agree to flee sin and temptation, Esther taught us to gather friends who would support and pray for us. Nehemiah showed us the importance of building walls around a portion of our week for communion with God. Paul showed us the importance of being relative to the world in which we live – being in this world, but not conforming to it. Daniel’s example encouraged us to cut out the excess baggage that the world presses on us, and to not defile ourselves with toys and distractions of our culture. Last week we saw that even when life is filled with disappointments and discouragement, we can walk by faith, trusting that God is in control – even when there is no visible source of joy or success.

In each case, we have seen people who were in situations that were beyond their control. In most of the stories we have seen, the main character was in a hopeless, unfair, discouraging circumstance - in slavery, in prison, a refugee, an outcast. It would have been easy for any one of them to give up. Faced with similar circumstances, many have given up over the years, but God has preserved these for us in His word as examples for us to follow.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are in similar circumstances today. We find ourselves more and more in an alien culture. When things like partial birth abortion and the promotion of homosexual lifestyles are embraced by our culture, we, as Christians, are aliens. Our children are told in school that our beliefs are intolerant and dangerous. Our co-workers forbid us from sharing our faith. Our government forbids us to pray in public meetings and, as of this week, from making social commentary in our churches prior to elections. We are, as our memory verses from this series has labeled us, “sojourners and pilgrims” in a strange land.

How, then, do we fulfill the command of God in those verses to “keep away from all evil desires that battle for our very souls”? How can we emerge from our difficult circumstances as More than Survivors?

We do it the same way they did, Moses, Ruth and all the rest. More importantly, we do it the way Jesus did. Today is Easter Sunday, the day when we celebrate His victory over death and the grave. It is a day when we celebrate our independence day – freedom from the bondage of sin, the decay of flesh and the finality of death. The story of Easter has been told so many times to us over the course of our lives that at Easter we tend to focus more on the new clothes, the ham, the eggs, and the candy, and forget the real-life battle that was fought to bring us this life.

We forget that while Jesus was fully God, He was also fully man. We forget the incredible battle that raged within his soul the night before He died. When he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, and prayed to God, listen to his words from The Message – “My Father, if there is anyway, get me out of this, burt please, not what I want. What do You want?” Matthew tells us that Jesus prayed to the Father three times for release from his pending death. Three times! Do you hear what He’s saying there – His will is not to do this – He wants to find a way out! He does not want to this. There is no part of His being that wants to go through the humiliation of the trials, the suffering of the beatings, the horror of the cross, and worst of all, the separation from the Father that would happen when our sins were placed on Him. His will was to find another way, but He placed His will under the rule of the will of God. “Not my will, but yours be done.”

If you are still in Hebrews chapter 11, turn the page to the first verse of chapter 12. Let me read the first several paragraphs of this chapter to you from The Message:

Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way [our examples from this series], all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running, never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourself flagging in your faith, go over the story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through – all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat their children, and that God regards you as His children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline;

But don’t be crushed by it either.

It’s the child He loves that He disciplines;

The child He embraces, He also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble your in isn’t punishment, it’s training, the normal experience of children.

So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

Over the last weeks we have talked about how these great character, including Jesus, were able to be more than survivors – the were victors – they made a difference in the world by living all-out for God. Each of us has been encouraged to do the same – to follow their examples – but how? How do we do it? It’s easy to talk about it – it’s easy to agree with the message, but how do we make it happen in our lives – when we go to work tomorrow, when we go home after church, when we go to school?

The answer is found in the image of Moses, Esther, Nehemiah, Ruth, Daniel, Joseph, Jesus, and Steven Bradburry.

Yes, Steven Bradburry.

Think about it. A leg nearly severed. A neck broken. All the pain and strain for years and years, never to win first prize. Even in the race at the Olympics, he was in last place, so far behind the lead pack that the TV cameras didn’t even have him in the picture. It would have been easy to give up. To have just said, “What’s the use, I’m never going to beat these guys,” and quit. But he did not quit. He kept racing, and when the race was over, and the rest of the pack was sprawled on their backs, their dreams crashed with them, and the one who stuck with it, and stayed on his feet, won the prize.

It may seem to us today that the rest of the pack is far ahead of us. It seems like those who don’t care about godly living are thriving. It would be easy to say, “What’s the use? All I’ve had for my effort is disappointment and trouble, illness and ridicule. I quit.” But one day, the rest of the world will be on it’s knees, all its hopes and dreams destroyed, while those who were faithful, and endured, will gain the prize. When we feel like quiting, when we feel like praying as Jesus did, “Get me out of this!” We need to remember the rest of His prayer, “not what I want, but what you want.”

On this day, when we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ over the grave, let’s resolve to be victors along with him, to keep our eyes on Him, to follow His example, and to do much more than simply survive this race, let’s endure and win!

Prayer.