THE AMAZING RACE
17 April 2005

I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 2 Tim 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
-- starting a new series of sermons this week based on my favorite television shows -- you know, we always say that life imitates art -- but in a very real way, that is not true -- life always comes before art because all life -- all thoughts -- all ideas -- all creations -- originally came from the Author of Life -- our God
-- so what that means for us is that in everything in this world -- whether we're talking about nature or science or human culture or even our entertainment -- we can see the hand of God in the background -- that is something that we should be looking for in every place we go -- every person we meet -- and every thing that we see
-- now, that doesn't mean that everything that we see is from God or is God-ordained -- we have taken many of God's original plans and desires and purposes for our lives -- and Satan has taken many of them -- and twisted them into something that is not pleasing to God
-- but the principles -- the original desire or the original purpose behind it -- was from God and was designed by God for us
-- take marriage for example -- God put in us a desire to marry -- a desire to seek out a mate and to enter into a covenant with them for the rest of our lives -- but we have twisted that desire and tried to make it happen on our own terms and in our own way -- and as a result we have more people living together without being married than ever before -- as a result we are debating same-sex marriages -- but, if you look back at the original desire, you can see God's hand

-- my goal in this series is two-fold -- first, to present to you some solid biblical principles based either on the title or the premise of the shows I am going to discuss -- and secondly, to encourage you to start looking for God's hand in the world around you outside of church and outside of these walls
-- in the midst of our culture -- even in the midst of the desires and purposes and plans that we have twisted -- God is there and His prevenient grace is working -- seeking to save that which is lost and seeking to draw to Him all those who are in desperate need of a Savior
-- as Christians, we have to be careful of how we live -- we can't isolate ourselves from the world in our safe little Christian communes -- but, at the same time, we shouldn't conform to the world
-- my goal is to help us fulfill what Jesus said in John 17 -- He tells us there that we are not of this world -- we are strangers in this land -- but He is sending us to this world so that we might help them believe in Him through our message
-- by being able to see God's hand in the world around us, we will be able to point Him out to the world and share with them in a new way the message of salvation through Jesus
-- that said, let's start our journey together by considering "The Amazing Race"

II. The Amazing Race
-- The Amazing Race is one of my favorite shows -- it starts out with 11 teams of two people who are in some kind of a relationship with each other -- they start out somewhere in the United States and then they are given a clue that tells them where to go next -- and along the way they face challenges and road blocks and detours that they have to solve -- the ultimate reward for winning the race is one million dollars
-- in this season's race, the teams started out in California and flew to Lima, Peru -- since then, they have traveled to Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Botswana, and now they are in India

-- I think one of the reasons I love this show is that I can live vicariously through the teams as they travel from place to place having great and grand adventures -- I know it is doubtful I will ever travel to Peru or Chile or Argentina or Africa -- so I have to live it out through them and imagine what I would do in their place
-- at the same time, watching the Amazing Race makes me kind of sad -- I want to travel like them -- I want to do what they're doing -- I keep telling Kim, "we should try out -- we should sign up for the next race" -- I have this desire to go to new places and meet new people and have adventures in distant lands -- to be on a quest
-- I felt the same way when I first read the Lord of the Rings and then I felt it again as I watched the movie version -- as Frodo and Sam set out from the Shire on their quest to bring the one ring to Rivendell, I so much wanted to go with them -- I just wanted to step out and to do something that mattered -- do you know what I'm talking about?
-- I believe that God has put this desire in our hearts -- a desire for adventure -- a desire to step out of our humdrum, everyday lives and to be part of a grand adventure -- a great quest -- filled with excitement and danger and with the promise of a great reward at the end

-- John Eldredge pointed out that our favorite stories all revolve around three eternal truths that God has made a desire of our heart and that we have translated into our art -- we just need to learn to see them with our spiritual eyes -- the eyes of our heart -- rather than our physical eyes

-- the first eternal truth is that things are not what they seem -- there is more going on than meets the eye
-- the hero of the story is always living just an ordinary life -- just caught up in day-to-day living of life -- totally unaware of anything but simply making it through their day
-- but, then, the second eternal truth comes into play -- the heroes are made aware that there is some great battle or quest or struggle underway
-- and then they are told of the third eternal truth -- they have a crucial role to play -- not only are things not what they seem, but the heroes themself are not what they seem -- they are part of something greater than themselves and they have to step out and take up the battle or the quest in order to save the world -- they never knew because the truth had been hidden from them

-- let me give you a couple of examples of how we see this played out in a couple of the most popular movies of recent years
-- think about the movie Star Wars -- there was Luke Skywalker living his life on this little back-woods planet as a farmer, completely unaware of the bigger things going on around him -- but then he bought bought a robot that projected an image of Princess Leia telling him about the great struggle of the rebels against the evil Empire and Darth Vader -- and finally, Obi Wan Kenobi comes to Luke and tells him the truth -- he is not a farmer but the son of a valiant Jedi Knight and he must go forth and help fight against the evil empire on the side of good
-- think about the movie, "The Matrix" -- Thomas Anderson worked a boring day job as a computer programmer in a cubicle-filled office -- but then Thomas meets a strange man named Morpheus who informs him that things are not as they actually seem -- Thomas is actually living in a virtual dreamworld called the Matrix which is an illusion perpetrated by a network of artifical intelligence and its agents -- Morpheus is convinced that Thomas is the person that holds the key to bringing the Matrix and it´s ruthless agents down -- and that he must enter the fight against evil in order to save the world

-- I think that's one of the reasons why we like these great stories of adventure and quests -- it's because these three eternal truths have been put in our hearts by God to help us see the truth of our situation
-- in the middle of the Lord of the Rings, as the hobbits are on their quest -- Sam Gamgee asks Frodo, "What sort of tale have we fallen into?" -- Sam has begun to see with the eyes of his heart and he's starting to recognize that their is more to life than just the ordinary
-- I think God put these truths in our hearts to help us recognize that we are in a tale -- we are in the middle of a grand adventure that is bigger than us and we do have an important role to play

III. Paul and the Amazing Race of Life
-- the Apostle Paul certainly knew this well -- he recognized these three eternal truths in his life -- and in almost every one of his epistles, he tried to help the churches and the saints to recognize these truths in their own lives
-- Paul used the metaphor of a "race" to describe the great quest of life that God had put in our hearts -- if you would, turn over to Acts 20 -- in this passage, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem for the last time and has stopped in Miletus, where he speaks to a group of elders from Ephesus
-- listen as Paul sums up his life -- his mission and his quest -- for these elders -- look at verse 17

17. From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.
18. When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.
19. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.
20. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.
21. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
22. "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.
23. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
24. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

-- Paul looked at his Christian life as a race -- an amazing race -- a race that was run with a purpose -- to serve the Lord with humility and to preach repentance of sins and faith in Jesus -- a race that was filled with adventure and danger and trials and hardships -- Paul tells us in his epistles that he faced plots from the Jews -- that he had been flogged and whipped at their hands -- that he had been stoned -- that he had been shipwrecked three times -- that he had been in danger and been without food and had been cold and naked
-- but through it all, Paul continued to run the race -- because he was led by God -- because he recognized his purpose in life -- because he knew that he was running for and fighting for and suffering for something more important than his own safety and security and comfort -- eternal life and eternal reward in heaven with Jesus
-- and now, looking back on the life that he had lived, Paul was able to tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

IV. Our Race
-- now here's the take-home message from what Paul was saying -- here's the take-home message from God that he speaks to your heart everytime you get caught up in the adventure of any of our favorite fairy tales or Star Wars or the Matrix or the Amazing Race
-- you may think that you are just living an ordinary humdrum life -- but things are not what they seem -- you are in the middle of a great quest -- a grand epic battle -- a struggle between good and evil -- that is being played out around you every single day
-- and you are part of the story -- you have a role to play -- you have a purpose -- you are to go out into the world and to help them see the truth -- to show them the light -- and to point them to the life that can come only through Jesus
-- but, it won't be easy -- there will be trials and struggles along the way -- roadblocks and detours and danger mixed in with the joy and the happiness
-- you know that waitress who was so busy she couldn't bring you a refill when you asked? -- you know that cashier who was rude to you the other day in the store? -- you know that person who cut you off while driving to work? -- you know that student that looks to you for help and support? -- you know that lady who comes up to you in the parking lot asking for money to buy gas?
-- they're all part of this story, too -- they're the reason for the story -- an evil enemy is after them -- to steal away their joy -- to destroy their hope -- to kill their eternal life -- and he will do whatever he can to keep you from pointing them to the truth -- from pointing them to life -- from pointing them to Jesus

-- we don't have any idea where our particular race will carry us -- we don't have any idea who we will meet along the way or what adventures we will have
-- but we know our mission -- we know our calling -- we know why we are running the race -- we are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind -- we are called to love our neighbor as ourself -- and we are called to go and make disciples of the whole world, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus taught us
-- and we know what our reward is at the end of the race -- eternal life with Jesus in Heaven

V. Closing
-- Stephen Curtis Chapman has a song about our Christian life called, "The Great Adventure" that I think sums up this concept of our life as an amazing race quite well -- listen to his lyrics as I read them to you

"Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

But I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams
So saddle up your horses... come on get ready to ride"

-- we ARE in a great adventure far beyond our wildest dreams -- we just need to open the eyes of our hearts and see the truth of the matter and start living a life of adventure as God intended

-- I want to close by sharing with you a few thoughts from a great literary genius -- I am, of course, talking about Dr. Seuss -- in his book, "And to think I saw it on Mulberry Street," a father tells his son to keep his eyes open when he walks to school and back, because there are great and grand things going on around him every single day
-- but the son doesn't see with the eyes of his heart -- he only sees the ordinary things of life -- all he saw was a horse and wagon on the street -- so on the way back, he makes up this great imaginary tale of what he could have seen
-- but at the end of the book, when he comes face-to-face with his father, he has to tell him the truth of what he saw on Mulberry Street -- listen to the close of the story

-- "Dad said quite calmly, "Just draw up your stool, and tell me the sights on the way home from school"
-- "There was so much to tell, I just couldn't begin! -- Dad looked at me sharply and pulled at his chin. -- He frowned at me sternly from there in his seat, "Was there nothing to look at..no people to greet? -- did nothing excite you or make your heart beat?"
-- "Nothing," I said, growing red as a beet. "But a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street."

-- at the end of our life, we are going to stand before our Father and He is going to ask us what we saw on our way home to heaven -- the people we met -- the places we went to -- the adventures that we had
-- He's going to ask us what we did with our life -- and we're going to have to answer Him truthfully
-- He has called us to be part of a great adventure -- a great quest -- an amazing race -- He has called us to see through our ordinary lives -- through our day-to-day living -- to the great adventure of life all around us
-- He has called us to fight the good fight -- to finish the race -- and to keep the faith

-- at the end of your life, when you stand before God, what will you say you saw along the Amazing Race -- what will you say you did with your life?
-- every single day of our lives should be an adventure with Christ -- but we have to choose to make it so