We’re all running a race. It’s called life. So many people trying to win at so many things. But… well, what if we’re on the wrong race track. What if the prize we’re striving so hard for, isn’t worth winning? Now there’s a scary thought.

It seems to me that so many of us are on a treadmill. Is that pessimistic? I don’t think so. I just think it’s the plain reality of life. It seems to me that this world is more and more and more about running a race. About winning the prize. Not just amongst the elite athletes, the Olympians. Although in that arena, it’s definitely a case of winner takes all. Just a split second is the difference between millions of dollars of endorsements and complete and utter obscurity.

The “winner takes all” mentality, well we take that into our lives too. Life seems to be a competition in so many areas. Now competition, in and of itself, it’s not a bad thing. I mean it’s great entertainment on the sporting field. It sharpens our senses and helps us to achieve things. But it becomes a problem when the normal everyday things that we do in life become a competition. With everything we do. With every pursuit. Everything is a race. Trying to beat the next guy.

That sort of life, well that’s a stressed life. Maybe that’s why the biggest thing people that complain of these days is too much stress. There are so many races that we seem to run and today, today we’re going to take a look at that from a different perspective.

We want to win at all sorts of things. Having the smartest and brightest kids. I mean these days, at least in the affluent west, people are now paying not only big dollars to send their kids to private schools but on top of that they’re paying for expensive tutors. Now I don’t know. I attended a government school, no tutors and I’ve managed pretty well. But these days it’s so much more competitive. There’s more pressure to win.

Political races. I mean as an Australian peering in on the US Presidential race every 4 years, how much did Barrack Obama raise in his campaign? Something like a billion dollars, all to win. I mean beauty, beauty is an almost pathological competitive obsession amongst teenage girls. Success in our careers. The cars we drive. The houses with live in. On and on and on it goes. So many people competing with one another. It seems that whether it’s pure survival or the excesses of a wealthy society, life’s all about running hard and winning.

Now I was brought up with a post-war European work ethic so I’m the last person to criticise hard work. Actually, I believe in applying ourselves and working hard but there’s an ugly underbelly to that. There’s a part where people pour their lives out to win a prize but the question is, is that prize worth winning? The goal that we’ve been programmed to go after so hard. Let’s just stop and look and think in the cold hard light of day and ask, is this a race worth winning? Well, is it?

This week on the program we’re starting a series called Running the Race, Winning the Prize. Because actually, part of believing in God is running the race and winning the prize. But the question we need to ask ourselves though (and that’s what today’s all about) is this; am I on the right track? Am I running the right race?

So often the world’s just kind of, I don’t know, programmed us to run this particular race. The career we’ve chosen maybe. Or a race about winning lots of money. Or whatever it is we’re running in the race. We’re giving it our all. We’re slogging hard. We’re working hard. But let me ask you this. Stand back; take a hard look at your race, the race that you’re running. Is it the right race?

How do you answer that question? How do you assess whether it’s the right race? Whether it’s worth it? Well, you look at the prize at the end. What’s the prize? What do I get? What do I end up with? Well given what I want out of life, given my hopes and dreams and plans, is the sacrifice that I’m making for this race justified by the prize?

Hard question. We don’t often ask ourselves that. Because we’re addicted to running the race we’re running at the moment. We’ve been programmed to believe that if we don’t win this race then we’ve failed. If we give up we’re a failure. We’ve been duped into thinking that the prize is worth it even when it’s not.

You wouldn’t believe the number of businessmen, I’m deliberately talking about men now, who believe that if they work really, really hard when they’re young, they’ll be able to retire in their mid 40’s. Live a life of luxury. Most of them don’t. Many of them lose their marriages and miss out on their kids growing up. Many of them have high blood pressure. They’re overweight. They end up having a stroke or a heart attack in their 50’s when they’re still working like idiots.

Do you see how easy it is to end up running the wrong race? To pour our lives out for a prize that, at the end of the day, just ain’t worth it.

We behave as though it all depends on us and then the stock market crashes. And all the wealth that’s been generated by so many busy, hard-working, industrious people, is wiped off the ledger in a matter of moments. Or a war breaks out. Or oil prices plummet. Or sickness strikes. Or the crops destroyed. Or – come on, whatever it is. We put our faith in the works of our hands as though there’s no tomorrow. As though it all depends on us. But you and I know life just isn’t like that.

King Solomon was one of the wisest men that ever walked the earth. And towards the end of his life, listen to what he writes. It’s from the Old Testament, if you’re interested, Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verses 11 and 12. He says:

Again I saw that under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor the bread for the wise, nor the riches to the intelligent, nor the favour to the skilful but time and chance happen to them all. For no-one can anticipate the time of disaster like fish taken in a cruel net. Like birds caught in a snare. So mortals are snared at a time of calamity when suddenly it falls upon them.

We think that if we’re swift and strong and wise and intelligent and skillful, that’s it. We can do it all. That’s all there is. Come on. It’s only part of the equation. We know that. Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m a great believer in taking the gifts and abilities that God’s given us. And applying them diligently and working hard and running the race. But which race? The race that this world has told us we should be running or a different race?

Is there a better race than what I’m doing today? A race that, well, isn’t just about blessing here and now. But a race that brings an eternal prize. See, that’s the race that the apostle Paul is talking about when he writes this. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 24 to 27. This is what he says:

Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath but we, an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly nor do I box as though being the heir but I punish my body and I enslave it so that after to others, I myself should not be disqualified.

See Paul’s making a really clear distinction here. Between the race that the athletes run. The race that this world programs us to run for a perishable wreath. A wreath that will die and disappear. As against the race that he’s running in. Which is a race that has an imperishable prize.

We’re going to look at that over the course of this week. Paul is focused but he’s focused on the right race.

Let me ask you again. Which race are you running? Is it worth it?

You and I can be masters of self-delusion. We kind of know that things in our lives aren’t quite right. But we ignore them. They’re just too hard to think about. So little by little, moment by moment – this one life we have slips away.

One day Linus and Charlie Brown are walking along and chatting with one another. And Linus says, “I don’t like to face problems head on. I think the best way to solve problems is to avoid them. In fact, this is a distinct philosophy of mine. No problem is so big or complicated that it can’t be run away from.”

We are masters of self-delusion and delay. I know I am. For years I ploughed along on a track that I was on – wealth and career. I was convinced, absolutely convinced that I was on the right track. And yet, I always knew that I wasn’t. How did I know, deep down, that I wasn’t? There was no satisfaction. There was no joy. There was no contentment. There was no real sense of peace and achievement.

But as so many people do, I ignored all of that. I rationalised it. I buried it. I pushed those emotions down and out. I had to be on the right track. I just had to be. I’d invested so much of myself in building a career and a big house. It had to be right. But it wasn’t. And every now and then, God would send someone along to tell me that. I had to ignore them. I just had to.

We are all masters of delusion and delay.

We’re going to have a look at that today. Because life is no dress rehearsal. It’s slipping away a moment at a time and in figuring out whether we’re on the right track, we don’t have a moment to lose. No man is a total loss. He can always be used as a bad example. And that’s what we’re going to do today with Governor Felix.

He was a man of power and influence. We’re going back to a time when Paul the apostle was arrested for telling people about Jesus. He’s taken before Governor Felix in Caesarea. And have a listen to this short passage that records what happened. If you have a Bible it’s in Acts chapter 24, verses 22 to 27:

Felix, who was rather well-informed about the way, adjourned the hearing with the comment, ‘When Lysias the tribune comes down I will decide your case.’ Then he ordered the centurion to keep Paul in custody but to let him have some liberty and not to prevent any of his friends from taking care of his needs.”

Some days later when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speaking concerning faith in Christ. And as he discussed justice, self-control and the coming judgement, Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go away for the present. When I have an opportunity then I will send for you.’ At the same time Felix hoped that money would be given to him by Paul and for that reason, he used to send for him very often and converse with him.”

After two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus and since he wanted to grant the Jews a favour, Felix left Paul in prison.

Now Felix was well-informed about the way which means he understood what the good news of Jesus Christ was all about. His wife was Jewish. He knew what the whole Jesus thing meant. But he wasn’t particularly anti. It’s not like he was persecuting people. I mean Paul was a prisoner. Paul had been dragged up on these charges in front of Felix but it was okay because Felix said to the centurion:

‘Keep him in custody but let him have some liberty and let his friends come and help him.’ 

See, he wasn’t persecuting Paul. Yet he found what Paul was saying, what Paul was talking about was scary. Paul talked about what? Justice, self-control and coming judgement. And Felix went, ‘Wow, that is scary stuff. Send him away. I’ll think about that later. I’ll deny it. I’ll delude myself.’ And he did call Paul back over those 2 years, often. But for all the wrong reasons. Not to hear what Paul was talking about. Not to wrap his heart around it. He called him back to get money out of him.

Aren’t we so often like Felix? See, this whole thing about justice and self-control and judgement. See, justice was something Felix should have been dispensing as Governor. Self control – why would he need any of that? I mean, come on, he’s the Governor, he can have whatever he wants. And the coming judgement, that is scary stuff.

And aren’t we so often like Felix? We kind of know that God is God. We’re not particularly anti. Luke warm’s a good description. Half baked is another. Ever drunk a lukewarm cup of coffee? You want to spit it our right? It’s terrible. Have you ever eaten a half-baked cake? It’s all sloppy and doughy. It’s not what it’s meant to be.

And Felix was rightly frightened. He sent Paul away because he didn’t want to deal with the injustices that were going on. He didn’t want to start applying self-control to his life. He didn’t want to consider the coming judgement. That one day there will be a day of reckoning. No, Felix didn’t want to deal with that. He just sent Paul away time and time and time again.

Paul was telling him something. He was saying, “Felix, in your heart of hearts, you know that you’re on the wrong track. You know there’s a price to pay. You know you need to change tracks.” Well, there was a price to pay.

I mean, when we change tracks. When we leave behind our excesses and our wrongs and our sins and we say, “you know something, I’ve heard the message of Jesus Christ. I actually want to come and live my life for Jesus.” There is a price to pay. Jesus said this, you can read it in Luke chapter 14, verses 27 to 28:

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot (CANNOT) be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it.

And that’s what we so often do. We’re so committed to the track we’re on, the race we’re in, when someone challenges us we’re, “No, go away.” We deny it. We delay it.

Felix didn’t want to pay the price. He counted the cost, okay and he said, “nah ah, no. No I don’t want this. Following Jesus. Cross. Sacrifice. Giving something up. Maybe giving up wealth or at least our obsession with it. No, no. No, I’m not changing races. I’m going to stick with the current race. Better the devil you know, right?” Ain’t that the truth!

But here’s where we get it wrong. We only count the cost of the change on one side of the ledger. We only count the cost of actually laying down our lives for Jesus. We don’t count the cost of doing what we’re doing now. Of keeping on with this current race. The race that we know, deep down, isn’t right for us. The obsession with wealth or career or family.

I mean there’s nothing wrong with any of those things in themselves. They’re all good things. But when they’ve become our masters and we their slaves, there is a cost to that. We sacrifice our lives on the altar of career and money, the cost is enormous. A lifetime dissatisfied. Never content. Chasing the next thing. Never finding what we’re looking for. Missing out on our kids and friends and wives and husbands because we’re so exhausted.

Come on! We don’t count the cost of those things because we’re so used to them. We ignore. We deny. We rationalise. “Ah, it’s just a dull ache. It’s just a nagging sense of something I can’t quite put my finger on. I’ll get over it.” NO YOU WON’T!

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We don’t count that cost because we have nothing to compare it with. But if we were to sit in the middle of a full, abundant, joyful life with Jesus Christ and look back on the old life, we’d see the cost. Very clearly. When we get into the “grace race”, all of a sudden we see the fine clothes that once we boasted in for what they are – dirty torn rags.

I want to encourage you, today, to count the cost. To sit back. To take a cold hard look at life. What is it costing you? Is it worth it?

We all know that priorities are important. Priorities dictate how we live our lives. What we do. How we spend our time and money and energies. Question is – what are your priorities? What’s number one in your life?

The delusion I laboured under for much of my life was this. If I ran my own race I was free. But if I accept that Jesus is my Saviour and Lord, well then, then someone else would be the lord of my life and I would no longer be free. I’d be under the bondage of religion and of some God, who really I didn’t have much of a clue about. I didn’t want to be one of these, these bland, lifeless, narrow-minded Christians. I had money. I had a career. And have Jesus? Well, I’d have to give them all up wouldn’t I?

That’s what I thought. Now I was going to run my own race. Okay, it wasn’t perfect. Okay, deep down I wasn’t really satisfied. But I ran and I ran and I ran. And yet I never seemed to reach the place I was heading for. It was exhausting, it was. But I couldn’t admit it. I’d run too far. I’d paid too much of a price. I’d made too many sacrifices. It was mine. The prize was mine. I was almost there, almost. Just a bit further it would be in my grasp. Comfort. Success. Recognition. Contentment. Peace and joy. Just a bit further. Just a little bit harder. Just a little bit more.

And God? God? Well no! No-one was going to take this away from me. Nobody. But well, what if that’s not how it works?

Have a listen to how Jesus puts it in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. He says:

No-one can serve two masters. For a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Now to be sure, a few times, Jesus tells people to sell all their possessions and give them to the poor because He’s challenging them as to who’s in charge, who’s number one in their lives. But the point that He’s making here is that we’re going to be slaves to something.

Some people are slaves to their money. Others to their reputation. They tie themselves in knots to live out their reputations. Some people are slaves to beauty. Some people truly are slaves to wealth. Some to their families. In a sense that’s not too bad but so many parents in the west pamper their children and in doing so, ruin their lives.

Let me ask you this: Who or what are you a slave to? Just stop and think. Maybe list the major things in your life. The things that you really care about. Even jot them down. Perhaps there are 3 or 4 or 5 things that really matter. Now the next bit – what are each of those things costing you? What’s the price that you’re paying? Come on, be honest. Let’s not deny and pretend it’s not a problem. Let’s get out of this delusion, this delay, this denial game. What is the race, that you’re running, costing you? And is the prize worth it?

When you’re in your 80’s and your teeth are in a jar on the bedside table and the skin’s all wrinkled and the kids have gone their own way; and there’s more of your life on this earth to look back on than there is to look forward to; when you’re in that place, what will the prizes of those things, on your list, be worth to you? And will the cost, the price, the sacrifice along the way have been worth it? Are you running in the right race?

The apostle Paul interestingly changed tracks. He was a somebody. He was a Jewish leader. A member of the leading Sanhedrin. He had a name and a religious career all carved out for himself in the establishment. In fact he writes about it. If you have a Bible, come and have a look. It’s in Philippians chapter 3, begins at verse 4. This is what he writes about himself. He says:

I too have reason for being confident in my flesh. If anyone else has a reason to be confident in the flesh, actually I have more. Circumcised on the 8th day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew born of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the Church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I regard them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

See, he’s a Pharisee. He’s worked hard at this religion thing. He’s got a career, he’s made it. But he counts it all as zero compared to the saving grace of God. He poured his life out for his career. I can relate to that. For me it was my IT consulting firm. It’s nice to build a patch for yourself and go hard after something. But now, Paul counts all that as lost, as nothing. Literally as rubbish, as dung. Because now he knows Jesus. He’s now on a new track.

He compares the two. He looks back. He says, ‘you know something, I had it all back then. I have lost it now but this is so much better.’ Here is a man who has counted the cost and weighed up both sides of the ledger. And he’s not got some easy life now. He’s suffering. He’s being persecuted. He’s been locked up in a jail.

He says this in Romans chapter 8, verse 18. He says:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that’s about to be revealed to us.

Not some sugar-coated, candy sweet, soppy thing he’s talking about here. This is real life. Paul suffers on this end of the transaction and yet he says, “This is so much better.”

We’re going to be slaves to something in life. We are and ultimately, what I decided was to become a slave to Jesus. To run a race and pay a price for a goal that was actually worth it. I can’t come up with better words than what Peter the apostle writes in his letter. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 8:

Although you have not seen Him (He’s talking about Jesus) you love Him. And even though you did not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. Literally a joy unspeakable. A joy so fantastic there are no words to describe it.

And the difference, the difference is this. Jesus. I know I’m saved. I know that I have eternal life. I’m certain in my assurance of that. But Jesus the Lord ends up using who I am and what I have, which after all, are who He made me and what He gave me, for His glory and not mine. This life, like Paul’s, is so much more fun. It’s so much more fulfilling. It’s so much more everything. And instead of enjoying my life less, which is what I thought would certainly happen, I enjoy my life more. So much more. Infinitely more. There are no words to describe it. A joy unspeakable.

All because one day I was put in a place where I had to think about the race I was running. And I discovered, in my own experience, that no, actually, it wasn’t worth it. And changing tracks was just the most obvious thing to do.

I don’t care who we are or where we’re at. Whether we’ve been walking with Jesus for a lifetime or never even met a Jesus worth knowing. What we need to ask ourselves today is this: Is my life on the right track? I mean, really!

Christians tell us it’s all about God’s grace. Fair enough. I’m sick of working to impress people. So it works for me. But then in the next breath, they talk about changing our lives. About running a new race. Hang on a minute…

You know there’s something that’s confused me for a while about this whole Christianity thing. Something that really took me a long while to work out. My hunch is I’m still kind of working through it. It’s this: On the one hand, those Christians tell us that it’s all about grace. No, not rules. Not some god with a big stick.

The guts of this Christianity thing is a deep belief that all the stuff that you and I have ever done wrong in our lives. All that stuff you and I have ever done to turn our backs on God. It’s forgiven completely if we believe that Jesus died for us. To pay the price for those things. Those things being what God calls “sin“. At least that’s the word those Christians use.

Okay, fair enough, I can cope with that. Takes a while to get a handle on the fact that you don’t have to work your way into God’s favour. There’s no effort or work that we have to put in to be forgiven by Him. It’s about simply believing in His unmerited favour. That’s a good thing.

Most of us have been working so hard at the race that we’ve been running. Well, a bit of a rest is a good thing, don’t you think? Don’t have to strive anymore. Don’t have to be beautiful or successful or good to be noticed by God. That’s good stuff. But then, then these Christians start talking about doing good things. About changing their behaviour. About being good. Makes sense I think on its own but when you hold it up against the “grace” thing, isn’t this a glaring contradiction?

So many people call themselves Christians yet they seem to be working so hard, even harder, at this grace race that they’re in and well, the rest of the world is at its own race. God forgives by grace and we believe and we’re forgiven and we have a new life. Good-O! Well, why isn’t that the end of the story? And if it isn’t, do I really want it?

I guess that’s what we’re just doing today. Is to try and figure out what it really means to put our faith in God. What does it mean? Does it make sense? Does it work?

Paul the apostle puts this whole “grace” thing, well he puts it this way in a letter to his friends the Ephesians. These days it’s one of the books in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. Not the result of works so that no-one may boast.

This is the good news of Jesus Christ in a nutshell. This is the executive summary if you like. And it’s a mighty thing for us to get our minds around.

See, most of my life, the first 36 years, I spent running away from God. In my head, I believed it was because, as I said yesterday on the program, I thought I had a right, the right, to run my own race. And by and large, I was happy with that race. Okay, just quietly, it wasn’t as satisfying as I would have liked it to be but hey, life’s not perfect.

In my heart of hearts though, I guess I always knew that there was a God and that He was loving and that one day, one day… But I was running my own race. And deep down in my heart I knew, I just knew that I wasn’t good enough for God.

I knew that the way I treated people and the way I behaved. I was greedy and arrogant. I wanted to win and to beat everyone else at the same time. And that’s what winning was for me. For me to win it was really important for me to see you lose. That was the fun of it.

So it was hard, very hard for me to come to grips with grace. It’s easy to rattle off Paul’s words now:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. Not the result of works so that no-one may boast.”

But being able to believe that God would be like that towards me, that He would show me His unmerited favour. It took me some time to come to terms with. Until one day I realised, and I apologise if you’ve heard me say this before but it’s so profound. I realised that grace is only grace and mercy is only mercy if they’re undeserved. If it’s something we deserve it would be a right.

As it is we don’t deserve it and that’s precisely why it’s called grace. And that’s precisely why Jesus paid the price for you and me on that cross. And that’s precisely the reason why we can only have that relationship with God through faith in Jesus. Make sense? Well, anyway that’s how it makes sense for me.

So all my life I had been working and working and working and working to succeed and for people to recognise me and reward me and finally, finally I discovered something where I can resign from this shameless self-promotion thing and discover a place of incredible rest. I don’t have to make myself into someone anymore. Because when you meet Jesus you discover that you are someone already, in His heart.

How do you know that? The price He was prepared to pay to purchase you back. To set you free from that treadmill of self. That’s how you know. You look at Jesus hanging on that cross suffering. The Son of God being punished. Dying for thee and for me. Then you know.

But when I read this passage that Paul writes in the New Testament, this bothered me. He says, Philippians chapter 3, verse 10:

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death. If somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I already have it or that I’ve reached my goal but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. But I do not consider that I have made it my own but this one thing I do. Forgetting what lays behind and straining forward to what lays ahead. I press on to the goal, for the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And I think, “Hang on a minute, doesn’t that sound like the same old, same old thing again. Work. Race. Sacrifice. Suffering.” See the conundrum I’m in? It sounds like a whole bunch of work and I thought it was about grace.

Let’s go back to that first thing we read. That nutshell. That executive summary of the gospel in Ephesians chapter 2:

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of your own doing, it is a gift from God. Not the result of works so that no-one may boast.

But now listen to the very next verse. Verse 10:

For we are what He has made us. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

That’s nice! Not only a relationship but a purpose. Not only a faith but a life. To be used by Him, a new way of life, a way of life that works out the faith that we have in our hearts.

I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t be satisfied for too long being a spiritual couch potato. I want to do something with my faith. I want to tell people about Jesus. I want to love people. And to tell you the truth, doing those things over the last decade and a half or so, that’s what’s made my faith real.

We are God’s workmanship. Unique. Handcrafted by Him for a purpose, for some good things to do. Good works to walk into which God intends to be our new way of life. The works are a consequence of the faith and the relationship.

So not only do we have an eternal life but we have something that works now. Something that we can throw ourselves into with all that we are. A race to run that, well it’s not for us, it’s for God. And yet in doing that, it brings the deepest sense of satisfaction. A race that’s custom-made for who we are. A perfect fit between who we are and what we’re called to do. It doesn’t get any better than that does it?

We’re all running in some sort of race. It’s called life. But God – God wants us to run in his race. It’s a race worth running. A prize worth winning. It’s hard, make no mistake, but it’s worth it. It’s called the grace race.