Be Prepared // Run the Race to the End, Part 3

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

So many people start off running the grace race – walking with Jesus – with the expectation that it’s a walk in the park. And yet so often, it’s anything but that. Seems that from the beginning, we can have the wrong expectations.

If you've joined us on the program over these last couple of weeks, you'll know that what we've been talking about is running the race of life. A race that Gods called each one of us to run. A wonderful race. An invigorating race. An exciting race. A race littered with blessing. A race full of challenges. And a race with victories along the way as God leads us through those challenges and over the obstacles.

Sadly though, so many people start off wanting to run a race like that, ah, somehow it all gets too hard. And so many of them give up. They don't run the race to the end. "No, no. Too hard. I give up. I'm packing up my bat and ball and I'm going home."

We start off expecting the race to be easy and as we saw the other day on the program, that's not what Jesus meant it to be. This is what He said:

Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take that one. But the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

It's like we haven't prepared ourselves for what lies ahead. It's as though we haven't soberly sat down and figured out that when, when we give our lives to Jesus, it ain't going to be easy. There is a cost. It's going to cost us our lives. So we head off with this kind of fairy floss expectation, completely unprepared for what lies ahead.

Most of us would have heard the old boy scouts’ motto "be prepared". But that could be interpreted in a whole bunch of different ways. So someone, one day, asked Lord Baden Powell, the founder of the scout movement, what it meant. What should we be prepared for? His answer was, "Why, for any old thing."

So many people start a course of study at college or at a university with all the best intentions. Why? Because they want the qualification at the end. But then, when they get into it, they discover it's so much harder than what they expected. They have to give up their social life to do assignments. They have to give up income to spend time learning. And so you go to any college or any university and you'll discover a pretty significant drop out rate.

I went to become an officer in the Australian army. I trained at the Royal Military College Duntroon. 7,000 young men applied to do the four year degree course. 7,000. Of those, 148 were accepted and after four years only 62 of us, of the original 148, graduated. Less than half. 86 of our colleagues fell along the way. It happens in sport. Happens in music and the arts. Happens in just about any part of life and it happens in our walk with Jesus.

See there's a very simple dynamic at play here. See we want to win the prize in the future but in order to do that you have to make sacrifices today. And many people get into that and they go, 'ooh, ooh, these sacrifices today, they hurt. I'm not prepared to make them.' That's why Jesus said this to His followers. You can read it if you like, it's in Luke chapter 14:

A large crowd was travelling with Him and He turned to them and said, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me 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. Otherwise, when he's laid the foundation and isn't able to finish, all who see it will ridicule him saying, 'the fellow began to build but wasn't able to finish.

That's why today, we're going to count the cost. We need to be prepared for the reality. And actually, once we get our hearts and minds around that reality, it's actually not that bad. Have a listen to the apostle Peter. This is what he says about getting our minds around this reality. Getting our expectations right. Comes from 1 Peter chapter 1, begins at verse 13. He says:

Therefore prepare your minds for action. Discipline yourselves, set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when He is revealed. Like obedient children, don't be conformed to the desires that you once had in ignorance. Instead, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all that you do. For it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy’.

See this whole thing about preparing your minds for actions, literally he writes "gird up your loins". It's a picture of a Roman soldier, going into battle, girding up his tunic so that he doesn't trip over on his tunic in battle. Getting ready for battle. Disciplining yourselves and setting your hope on Jesus.

See, in those old battles they always had a banner or a standard or a colour. A flag bearer in the middle. And in the heat of the battle the soldiers would look to that flag and rally around it. They would set their hope on their banner, their flag.

That's the picture that Peter is painting here. Get prepared for the realities. Get real. It's a battle. It's going to be hard. Set your hearts and your focus and your hope on Jesus and get into it. Things are going to get tough because when we decide to run the grace race, the rest of the world is not going to be pleased with us. Have a listen again:

Like obedient children, don't be conformed to the desires you once had in ignorance.

Give them up. The selfishness. The money. The greed. The laziness. The slander. The back biting. All those things. It's not going to be easy because we're stepping out of the worlds parade and we're going to march to the beat of a different drum. "Instead (he says) as He who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy in everything you do because it is written, "You shall be holy for I am holy."

Holy means, means "to be clean and pure and set apart like a vessel to be used by God for His glory". That's a hard call some days. You know, the little hidden compromises. Giving up those for Gods pleasure. For God's glory.

Let's be prepared. Let's expect those difficult days to come. So when they do we walk into them thinking, "Well Lord, I always knew a day like this would come. I need your help. We're going to get through this. I'm going to run the race today for you and with you and through you. But I need your help."

Because if we're not prepared, I tell you, we're going to think something else instead. We're going to think, "Oh God, what's going on here? Why is this happening? How long is it going to be?" Go on, wake up. That's like a soldier going onto a battlefield expecting not to get shot at. By definition, the soldier is going to be shot at when he walks onto the battlefield. That's why he's a soldier on a battlefield. And it's the same for us.

Ditch this airy, fairy notion that following Jesus is about floating around on a cloud nine. I have a lot of joy in my life because I follow Jesus. I do. A lot of joy. But boy, there are some tough things that you have to deal with.

When we step out of the worlds parade and we start marching to the beat of a different drum. It is precisely like stepping onto a battlefield. We are going to get shot at. "Therefore prepare you minds for action. Discipline yourselves, set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring when He is revealed."

And, don’t be conformed to your old desires. Instead, as God is holy, you yourselves be holy in everything you do.

Here's the thing. The whole point of believing in Jesus is that we run the race to the end. Because the end is worth it. The end is a beautiful, wonderful, eternal life with Jesus Christ. Run the race and run it to the end.