Feel God's Pleasure

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever.  Amen.               1 Peter 4:10

 

Most of you probably have no clue who this is. If you saw his name, maybe only some of you would know his story.

This is Eric Liddell.  Part of Eric's life is the subject of the 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire.  He had an amazing life of faith, conviction and endurance. He felt God's pleasure because he was obedient and he embraced how He was created and used it to bring Glory to God.

Eric was born in China to Scottish missionaries.   He was a faithful Christian and a gifted athlete.  When he qualified to run in the 1924 Olympics, he found out his best races, the 100 and two relays, were scheduled on a Sunday.  His conviction to only rest and worship on the Lord's Day led him to withdraw from those events.  He was forced to switch to the 400 and began to prepare for that race instead.  Since this wasn't his normal event, many did not expect him to win. He was up against two runners that held previous records and he was assigned to the last lane.
Before he took to the track, an American competitor handed him a note with this scripture:

"Those who honor me I will honor"   1 Samuel 2:30

Fully abandoned and running to give it all to God, he won the Olympic gold medal that day, breaking both the Olympic and world records.   

Eric later told the press his secret for success in the 400:

"The secret of my success over the 400 meters is that I run the first 200 meters as fast as I can. Then, for the second 200 meters, with God's help, I run faster."

Later his wife was quoted as saying:

‘Eric always said that the great thing for him was that when he stood by his principles and refused to run in the 100 metres, he found that the 400 metres was really his race. He said he would never have known that otherwise. He would never have dreamed of trying the 400 at the Olympics.’

He returned to Scotland a hero.  But, his story does not end there.

Liddell followed God's lead, returned to China and served there the rest of his life.  He married a fellow missionary and had a family.  Japan's WWII invasion and hostility towards Christians, made life for his young family very unsafe.  He sent them to his wife's parents in Canada when she was pregnant with their third child....they never returned.  Soon after, he was interned by the Japanese, and spent the last two years of his life in prison camp, dying there of a brain tumor in 1948, at the young age of 43.   It was reported by fellow missionaries that his last words were,:

"It's complete surrender." 

In 2008, the Chinese government released information that Liddell refused early release from this prison camp and, in a prisoner exchange, had them release a pregnant woman instead.  Until the end, he lived a life in complete surrender to God and His will above all else.

 

The life of Eric Liddell encourages us to do several things:

1.  Know God.  Study Him by studying His word.  Don't just go on what others are teaching you, get into the word for yourself and let the Holy Spirit mold you as you read His words.

2.  Know yourself.  Who did God create you to be? Look at how you are wired.  What are your special talents and gifts?  What brings you the most pleasure deep inside your soul?  Is there something that others have recognized in you that is a special way that God uses you to bless them?

3.  Obey God.  Listen to His word and to His Spirit as He guides and directs your path.

4.  Trust God.  Commitment and obedience will sometimes fly in the face of the world and of those around you.  Don't let them scare you....just do it!

5.  Serve God.  Don't be afraid to go!  Do what he is leading you to do, even if it is not what is popular or what others understand.  If it is in line with the Word of God and it is where God is pulling your heart, then go!  Step out and do it.  Find others that are going in the same direction and get with them!

Whatever you do, don't just live your life in a boring, dead trap.  Let God infuse life into you and live your life in abundance.  Do big things for Him and do not be afraid.  For me, there are certain things that really rev me up.  I can feel God moving and working through me.  Find what that is for you and do it.  Maybe that's where He will use you to scatter the most seeds.

What are you going to do this year for the Kingdom of God?  What will be your legacy?

It might not bring you fame or recognition.  In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Eric Liddell was an Olympic runner, it's possible none of us would know his name or his story.  There are people serving all over your church, town and this world, whose names we will never know.  But they choose to obey and are great heroes of faith, conviction and endurance.  What they do brings God glory and draws people to Him.  When they do this, they feel God's pleasure.

Step out in faith and run where God is telling you to run.  There you will also feel God's pleasure....

 

 

The Race



The Race

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...  Hebrews 12:1-2

Track practice started this week for one of our daughters.  In preparation for the season, they run, eat right, buy the perfect running shoes, and workout in the weight room. The track suit for high school is a tank and shorts.....Imagine how ridiculous it would be if at the first meet of the season, they got out on the track, down in the blocks, wearing Uggs, jeans, a winter parka and a mountain climbing backpack. I wouldn't expect a fast run and there would be stumbles along the way, I'm sure.

In essence, Christians do the same kind of things everyday in our race of faith.  We have stuff weighing us down, tripping us up, and making us ineffective and frustrated.  We are running the race weighed down and we are fighting the fight entangled.  The writer of Hebrews tells us to "lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us".

The race and cloud of witnesses....

The Christian life has a goal, to look more and act more like Christ.  At the start of this new year, how would you answer the question, "do I look more like Christ today, then I did this time last year?" Like a race, where you run and actually go from one place to another, your faith should be moving you along.  This race can be run successfully, and there is a "great cloud of witnesses" that can attest to it. It is not suggested that they are like spectators in a stadium watching us, but more as though they are people that we can look to as having successfully finished the faith race...they are the heroes of the faith, spoken of in Hebrews Ch. 11.  They are not witnessing us in the race, but are bearing witness that God can see us through the race. The word for witness here is the same word for martyr, and race is agon (where we get our word agony).  The race isn't easy.  It is set before us to run.  It shouldn't be comfortable, it should call for sacrifices and putting ourselves aside.    I have people in my life that I consider to be part of that cloud of witnesses and I hope that I can be that for others.  The writer of Hebrews was saying, look at all of the Old Testament saints and their stories and endurance in the faith race....they are your inspiration....it can be done!

Lay aside every encumbrance....

When we have encumbrances (literally weight, mass, burdens), they slow us down.  It is not implied that these weights are sinful things, the sinful things are later said to entangle.  Sometimes the weights are things that are not inherently bad or evil, just things that for us, are slowing us down.  It's like when Jesus commended Mary for choosing the "better part".  Sometimes it's not a choice of what's good or bad, but of what is the better part.  My weights may not be the same as yours.

I heard a story on the radio years ago that illustrates this perfectly:




"Why in the world....what's wrong with checkers?"

Elisha Carter loved to play checkers. This was before video games or even video tapes, 
so checkers was high on the list of fun things. In the evenings, Elisha and his brothers would eat, then sit down to a rousing tournament of checkers. One morning Elisha came to the breakfast table and informed his brothers that he could not play checkers anymore.  They said, “Why in the world…what’s wrong with checkers?”  

He replied, “You know, every night as I go to bed, I spend that time focusing my whole mind and heart on Christ.  I talk to Him.  I go through the things of the day and I think about the next day.  It’s a very special time with Him.  And I vowed years ago that I would never let anything come between me and my relationship with Jesus Christ.  And last night when I went to bed all I could think about was the moves I could have made on a checkerboard.”*

And Elisha Carter never played checkers again.

(Story told by Bill Elliff, Elisha’s great grandson. Pastor Elliff says his great grandfather passed down a great legacy of faith that still resonates in the family today)

the sin which so easily entangles us...

Here's another scenario.... A close quarters combat battle where your weapon is the sword you have tucked into your clothing.  It is imperative that you are able to pull it out quickly.  Imagine, someone coming at you and you having to say 'hold up a sec, my swords all wrapped up in my cloak, I can't get it out".  Too late, you're attacked....having the weapon, but it being rendered useless because you couldn't use it correctly. 

The sin in our lives trips us up.  Ultimately, the sin that entangles us is unbelief and lack of faith.  In what area of your life are you refusing to believe God ?  Why won't you give up yourself and allow God to work and flow through you?  What are you afraid of if you totally submit and give Him authority in your life? Those are the things that entangle us and cause us to be ineffective.  To fight the fight and finish the race we must trust that He who has called us to run it is faithful. 

It is my prayer that we will seek to be consecrated and to be faithful in this race.  I pray that God will give us wisdom to see what is weighing us down and what is rendering us useless.  Then when He shows us, that we will be obedient to do something about it. 

"Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." 
James 4:17

Fixing our eyes on Jesus...

While the cloud of witnesses, heroes and martyrs of the faith, can inspire us and show us that the race can be won, only One can equip us to actually do it.  By setting our eyes on Christ, not the track, not the circumstances surrounding the race, not the other runners, we can find the strength to endure.  Especially when the race seems like agony!  The secret to running the race, looking more like Christ this time next year, throwing off the heavy weights and tossing fear and unbelief aside, is Jesus.  Let Him give you strength for the day, or hour, or minute.....  Our own strength fails, our best earthy advisors and mentors fail, but, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me".....