Training The Faith

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

So we were there there's an event in in the Virginian Saloon today or like in that conference area, which is why we're here at the park. If you have been a part of our tribe fam, if you've been on this journey for any length of time, you know that one of the hallmarks of Tribe, we have the luxury of being very agile and nimble, which allows us to meet in a place like this. Right? Instead of everybody throwing a fit that you can't, like, sit in your normal pew seat. So I'm glad that you're flexible.

Thank you for being available to be stretched and move and flex, and here we are in the park. There are going to be a few more upcoming dates. What?

This is the livestream here.

So Hello, livestream.

Because you wanted to address them at

all. To all of our livestream families watching, good morning. Welcome. I'm gonna

show the livestream.

Oh. Everybody's here. Everybody wait. Hi. Hello, Brooks.

Oh, there's Christian. Here we are in Jackson Hole. These mountains are very beautiful mountains. No. There's really no mountains more beautiful than these than I would know.

I've seen a lot of mountains. No? Okay. That's good though. Very popular.

Alright. So here we are. There there are a number of there are a few more upcoming dates in the next in the next few weeks or so that the Virginian where we have been meeting has an event. And so just keep your lawn chair handy so that we can use these lawn chairs a few more times. And we're always if you know if you know our tribe fam, we're always on the hunt for our next home, something that could be a little more permanent.

As nice as this is, it does tend to get cold here in the winter. The winters are really cold. No? Okay. Alright.

Sorry. No more of that. Colin's like, no. Keep going. Colin likes it, Liz.

So the the we're always on the hunt for for a next home. We've been at the Virginian since Mother's Day of last year. I'm so glad that you found us here today. We're not gonna go long because the weather is just so beautiful. We need to get outside and enjoy it.

So with that in mind, if you have your bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of first Corinthians? First Corinthians. And I'm gonna read just a few verses. And I'll probably first Corinthians chapter nine. We do have some very distinguished guests among us here this morning.

In fact, it's only point 03% of the world's population and less than one half of 1% of The United States population that has ever started and completed an entire marathon. And we've got a bunch of young adults that ran a marathon this morning. They were up. The gun went off. Yeah.

Isaac's young. The gun went off at what? 04:30 this morning? 04:30 this morning. And so for those of you who ran in the marathon this morning and it was your first marathon that you've ever run, raise your hand.

Okay. Let's give them a hand. Look at that. That that is pretty that is pretty amazing. And so if you see people, like like, after we, after church, after sitting around for a little while, which is further incentive for me to keep it short and sweet and poignant.

Before they cramp up. Before you before you get cramped up. We have donuts and bananas in the back. We'll keep it really short, but I'm really proud of you guys and what you did. Could you could you say this was the idea that you just threw out to to a group of young adults?

Would you say maybe this is your genesis? No? Oh, yeah. It was all good. Jay Jay forced you to?

He tricked you into it? It was Jay's goal for the year. It was Jay's goal. Well, thank you guys so much for supporting Jay and his goals. Let's all give Jay a hand.

And those of you on the livestream yeah. So I I just think I just think it's amazing that you guys would, like like, throw that out there. Hey. What if we ran a marathon? And the fact that you trained for it, most of you trained, some of you didn't, and you still did it, that's pretty amazing.

But whenever we whenever we for those of you let me ask you this really quick. Anybody here that did not run a marathon with the rest of the young adults this morning, but you have run a marathon before? Who else has run a marathon? Oh, nice. Dustin.

Dustin. Steph. Mhmm. Mhmm. Marathon family right there.

How about a half marathon? Half marathon? Oh, yes. Mare. Yes.

10 k. 10 k. Five k? How many of you how many of you run run back and forth to the fridge? Okay.

Yes. Okay. Adam, he owns it proudly. So we're all used to, in some shape, form, or fashion, used to feeling a stress or a load on our bodies and physical exertion, whether it happens every day at work or whether we're exercising. It's something that every single one of us can relate to.

And the apostle Paul uses, man, hey. It's what you get you out of park. Come on in. The apostle Paul uses physical exercise and exertion as an analogy. Oh, guys, this one time, we were, like, doing, like like, drama, like, street evangelism in, like, downtown Lima, Peru at this crowded bus stop, and we had, like, three, four hundred people gathered around hearing the gospel, and I get up like, alright.

It's time. Like, I've got everybody's attention. Time to preach the gospel. And two dogs come right in the middle of the circle of where we were preaching and do what dogs do, boy dogs and girl dogs, right in the middle. So, yeah, this this ain't nothing.

Apostle the apostle Paul uses the analogy of physical exertion. He's like, oh, this is a great way. I can relate this to the gospel. And so in first Corinthians chapter nine in verse 24, which is a few verses that should be familiar to all of you. The apostle Paul says in verse 24, don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one gets the prize?

And then he exhorts his readers, run-in such a way as to get the prize. All these athletes are disciplined in their training. They they do it for a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I'm not shadow boxing.

I discipline my body. The Bible in some translations, in your translation, it may say, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. Now how many of you for how many of you you have read that before? That that yeah. Yeah.

We've we've most of us have come across that verse at some point in another. Preaches really good at a FCA camp. I beat my body and make it my slave. But here's what a lot of people don't do is continue to read that passage. And remember when it was originally written down, Paul didn't say, so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified period, and then a big number 10 and then starting a new sentence.

He just continues on with a thought. And that's what we're going to do in just a moment. We're gonna we're gonna keep reading in just a moment. But first, we need to talk about this for a second. I love that Paul uses this race, that this this analogy of a race.

And the truth is all of us are in a race. Only thing worse than being in a race is being in a race and not knowing it. I remember the the first trail race that I did in Oklahoma some years ago. They had a big obvious map of where you were, like, you are here. Right?

And then here's the registration and the check-in. And then on the big obvious map in, like like, neon highlighted colors, it says race start. And the race start, for whatever reason, was about a a ten minute walk from the registration check-in parking area. And so got there with plenty of time. We did the registration.

We checked in, tried to go to the bathroom like you should because nobody wants to have to go to the bathroom mid race. Right? Nobody. Right, miss Bates? Nobody.

So you go to the bathroom beforehand, and and we're staying around. We're looking at our watches. Like, yep. It's, like, half an hour till. It's, like, fifteen minutes till.

It's, like, ten minutes till. Okay. We should start queuing up in line. And we're like, where is everybody? And we we hear the announcer that's like getting everybody fired up and his voice is like far distance away.

And we're like, where is the start of this race? We had walked right past the big obvious sign that says, here you are. Here's registration check-in. And the start of the race is actually like way down the hill. And so we're kind of like looking around and we're like, there was a big giant map right when we walked in.

Leave it to a guy to not read the instructions. Right? And we checked the map and we're like, oh my gosh, the race start is actually a short distant, a walk away. And as soon as we said that, we hear the of the starter pistol, the gun goes off. And you can't just like like like, okay, we'll catch up with everybody because, you know, you have the timing chip either on your shoe or in your bib.

And so you could jump in with everybody, but your time doesn't start until you go through that entrance. Shake your head Mhmm. If you know what I'm saying. Right? So so everybody is running this way, and we were running against the flow of everybody on this this trail marathon so that we could go through the start and then catch up with everybody.

So David's like, that's just literally the worst. Look at verse 24. Don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one gets the prize? All of us, whether you are a Christian or not, a follower of Jesus, all of us are in a race. Some of us know exactly where we're going, what where the course is.

Some of us are bopping along, having no clue, just going from a small goal to the next small goal or thinking, oh, this sounds like a good idea or I don't know how I ended up in Jackson. I just here I am. But the truth is that all of us are in a race. And if you have made Jesus the leader of your life, if he if he is the boss of your life, then we have a very specific race. A race that requires endurance, a race that requires effort on our part, a race that requires sacrifice, a race that requires we've all been watching the Olympics, and all of the athletes in the Olympics except for the break dancers have really had to sacrifice a lot and commit a lot to the craft.

Okay. Excuse me. Just the Australian women's Olympic break dancer. The rest of the athletes really had to put a lot of of time and commitment and sacrifice into this. Nobody gets to be the world's best by just showing up.

Right. There's something that is required. I think a lot of people follow Jesus as if he is an addition to their life. Like, I've got this going on in my life and I've got this part of my career and I have these values and I want to accomplish these sort of things. Oh, yeah.

Jesus. Like, yeah. Sure. I'll add him into my life. Can you be a top athlete if you just add training into your life?

Maybe breakdancing. Okay. Maybe breakdancing. But for the rest of us, it requires some amount of commitment. And if this is where we're gonna pick up reading in just a moment.

If you think that you signed up for the race and you got the bib number, like, hey. Look. I stood up at camp and I got saved. Look. I got the bib number.

Just because you got the bib number doesn't guarantee that you'll ever cross the finish line. Let's see what Paul says. He keeps he keeps on going. Well, let's do a little word count here. Look at me one more time before we start reading.

K. Hold your finger up every time you see Paul say all of them. Okay. With that in mind, keep reading. I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.

All of them, yes, were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and let's all say it together. All of them. We are in chapter ten, first Corinthians chapter 10 verse one. So let me let me take a fresh run at this verse one. I don't want you to forget put your hands down, reset.

I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them, yes, were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them. And let's say it together. All them, and use your fingers, walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea All of them.

All of them were baptized as followers of Moses. Verse three, all of them ate the same spiritual food. Verse four, and all of them drank the same spiritual water for they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them. And that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with, it's a little different.

What does it say? Most. Most of them. And their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now what's our count?

Five. Five times. Five, yeah, five and a half. Five times Paul says all of them. Now I'd like to hear from you.

I'll repeat it in the mic since I have this mic today, But I'd like to hear from you. What do you think the point that Paul is trying to make? In first Corinthians chapter nine verse 24 through 27, he said, in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Run-in such a way as to get that prize. He's exhorting people to have endurance, endurance, endurance.

And then he rolls right into chapter 10, and he uses the nation of Israel in the desert after Egypt as an example. What point do you think he's trying to make? Because five what's our count? Five different times. He says all of them.

All of them. All of them. And then, well, most of them. Something happened to most of them. So what is Paul trying to say?

What do you think? What do you see? Venetia?

People don't really like

to generalize. It's easy to deflect. Like, an example would be all women miss, like, all women. That's not me. So he's like, hey.

Nope. You guys love deflect. That's why you're lost three years of deflecting and putting your problems on others.

Like, all of us Okay. Are part of this cause. Okay. Okay. So so you're you're seeing that Paul is talking about, like, all of the nation of Israel.

And are you saying that they don't like that? I wouldn't like it. You wouldn't okay. Yeah. In here as in Okay.

It's easy to hear all you guys need to change. And then you individually go, yeah, all you guys.

Yes. All of you except for me. Uh-huh. Yes. Okay.

Alright. Alright. Alright. Else are you seeing in there? Because Paul's making a very sobering, challenging point.

Yeah. Some of it. Yeah. Right. Oh, oh, yes.

Yes. They all had thank you. They all had access to the same God, the same rock, the same food. They were all led by Moses, but yet God was pleased with very few of them. They all had the same access.

That's a really good point. Somebody sees something additionally or or or different. Uh-huh.

Sad is not one of them chose to be different and believe different after all they had seen. I could not want.

Yeah. So, yeah, you're exactly right. Nancy is saying, how could the nation of Israel go through all that they went through, all the miraculous things that they went through, and yet still all or most, besides Joshua and Caleb, still didn't get it. Okay. Now let me let me just twist your little theological undies for just a second.

You can go back and listen to somebody else and untwist them, but right now I have the mic. There is a popular doctrine that says once a person gets saved, they will always be saved, and there's nothing that you can ever do to lose or maybe even misplace your salvation. Once you've said that prayer, you're sealed, and that's it. You can go live your life through any way you want the rest of your life. But when the piano falls out of the sky and squashes you flat as a bug, off you go to heaven because you said that prayer, you know, at youth camp sometime.

That's not what the Bible says right here. Look carefully. This is why Paul in first Corinthians nine twenty four is preaching about the necessity for endurance, and he's coming alongside us, shaking us, saying, have endurance. Have endurance. You started the race.

Have endurance. And then he uses an example. The nation of Israel, they started the race. They were delivered, and you can see all three baptisms. Baptism of salvation, the baptism of water, baptism of the holy spirit.

You can see all of those baptisms in those few verses that we read. All of them this. All of them why don't we substitute a few words? All of them had a bible. All of them went to church.

All of them tithed. All of them served. All of them had a Christian bumper sticker on their car. But then what does Paul conclude with? But most of them didn't make it through the wilderness.

Just like you said, they all had the act they all had equal access. Oh, Nancy said it. Nancy said it. She goes, just like us. I think it was

even worse. Only one. He's saying only one wins

the race. Only one wins the race. Make sure that you who is that one? Who is the one? Who who is the one that gets to win the race?

You. Okay. Let's look at one more passage. Go to Hebrews. We're this is the last place we're going.

I think for the longest time, I mixed up nothing can separate you from the love of god. No height, no depth, which is absolutely

Here here here. You're on a roll.

I think I'm just thinking about my own journey and seeing salvation and once saved, always savored. Can you walk away from the Lord? I And think for the longest time I confused the scripture about nothing can separate you from the love of God. No height, no depth. Totally true.

But the love of God and our endurance to the end of staying true to him and our commitment to him are different. Salvation and the love of God, they're not the same. I thought, nothing can ever separate me from I would probably have inserted my salvation, but I was reading that wrong.

Absolutely. Nobody goes to heaven at the end of their life against their will. You said that prayer. That's it. You're going to heaven.

Nobody's in heaven against their will. Meaning, yes, it is true that nothing can separate us. Like, it as far as it is up to God, nothing. There he will allow nothing to get in his way of continuing to express his love for us. However, we still have free will, and we have the ability to to choose to walk away from him.

Even if our mouth is saying,

I love you, Lord. I love you, God. I love you. I love you. I love you.

But our lifestyle and our thought patterns and our choices and our life reflect a different message. Jesus himself was quoting some people that at the at the end of the age, he says many people will come to me on that day and say, Lord, Lord. And then they list off all these churchy things that they did. Didn't we heal the sick? Do we cast out demons?

And didn't we, like, go to church? And didn't we do didn't we do all these religious things? And Jesus says, depart from me, ye who work iniquity, I, what? Never knew you. I never knew you.

Oh. Yeah. Nancy.

And in second Peter two twenty one, in NIV, it would have been better for them to have not known right the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. So to me, that's saying, you know, yeah, you may have said the prayer, but it would've

been better never to have said the prayer

and known him and then walk away from it. Mhmm. You know, you're gonna choose your life rather than what you committed to.

Say that address one more time, and I'll say it here.

Second Peter two twenty one.

Second Peter two twenty one.

Better to have never known him than to have known him and walked away.

Better to have never known him than to have known him and turned away. You don't need to raise your hand, but for those of you who ran this morning, was there any point during the run where you felt like, this is so ridiculous. Like, I I can't keep doing this. I'm that's it. I'm out.

And you live, like, right here in Jackson. You're like, you could just call somebody and, like, get picked up or something. I I do I don't think I ever go on a run ever without being like, this is I can't do this. I'm too tired. I don't have to do this.

I'm going home. Were you gonna say something? Okay. So who run only one gets the prize run-in such a way as to win the prize. Who wins the prize?

If we have endurance, we get the prize. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. How about chapter 12? Skip on a bit, brother. Chapter 12.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. Here's one of the last few things that I'm gonna say. I get all the way out here so that Tyson can hear me in the mic. It's not for you, Tyson, but I just wanna let you know here I am.

Part of our human nature is to get tired and exhausted and become weary and wanna give up. Part of our human nature is to get distracted by shiny, sparkly things and run off course. It's just a part of our human nature, isn't it? We've all experienced this. Whether it comes to pursuing Jesus in this thing called faith, we get tired, weary, what's what's the point?

Or maybe it's in work or maybe it's saving for a house or maybe it's that thing that you have your sights set on. We all get weary. But here's the amazing thing about Jesus is that one of the amazing things about Jesus is that the Bible says that he is the author and the finisher of our faith. Meaning, as we get tired, as we get weary in pursuing and following the Lord. If we're honest with him, oh, I'm so tired.

He's like, I'm so glad that you would say that. Remember what the bible says, for it is by grace that you have been saved, not through work, so that no man can boast. We get saved by his grace, his supernatural enabling power, but it's also his grace that enables us to continue to run the race that he has set out before us. So that even if even if we lose track for a little while and get back on course, even if we slow down because we had too many Red Bulls at the beginning of the race, Even if we get to a point in the race where we're like, I don't think this is even worthwhile. And you stop, you sit down for a little while.

But then after a while, the Bible the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, for the righteous man falls down seven times, but he gets back up. It is by the supernatural enabling power of Jesus. When we ask him that he strengthens us and encourages us. And this is the last thing that I will say in terms of strengthening and encouraging. Sometimes it looks like the comfort of the Lord.

How many of you remember me talking about the comfort of the Lord before? What the Chris, what is the comfort of the Lord? Yes. Yes. The comfort of the Lord does not look like, oh, you you you widow feet hurt.

Come here and let me wag your little full widow feet and put some hocus on it so that they're nice and spongy. That big, bad, mean, old Marathon here. We'll just we'll just put the finish line right here for you. Wouldn't that be great if God did that? If we got, like, tired and complaining, and God's like, oh, and his comfort looked like rubbing our belly.

Wouldn't that just be that would be great. If he could be like, hey. He stretched out the span of the universe. Surely he can contract it so that, like, I get full credit for running 26.2 miles, but I only had to run five. Like, just squeeze a little bit.

That's what we want for comfort when life gets hard. When we when we have either done dumb things and must face the consequences of them, or which we all have, or I like standing over here because Nancy's helping me preach. She she's really helping me preach, which we all have. Or bad bad or dumb or horrible things have happened to us that we didn't ask for, but we have to walk through anyways. The comfort of the Lord, which is our strength, is not him just supernaturally shortening the distance.

Just like Chris Bates said, the comfort of the Lord is his supernaturally infusing us with strength and endurance to keep going. Yes. The race is long to follow Jesus. Yes. You're gonna get some blisters, but all blisters turn into calluses.

Yes. There'll be days where it's hot, days where you where you feel cramped up, days where you're like, I don't even like, where is this finish line? But Paul and the writer of Hebrews says, don't give up. Have great endurance. And that endurance is accessed when we just come to him.

When we surrender and we come to him and we invite him, fill me with your strength. Help me. As long as you continue to run the race on your own strength, he just sits back and goes, amen. Have fun. But when we come to the end of our own strength and we cry out to him if that's every day, if that's every five minutes, Never once has he failed to supply any of those who are following after him.

Never once has he failed to supply them with strength and comfort and encouragement since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses. Anybody here have a a parent that died loving Jesus, they're cheering for you. Anybody here have a grandparent that died loving Jesus, they're cheering for you. Anybody have a great grandparent that died loving Jesus, they are cheering for you. We have all of the saints in the bible cheering for us.

We have the martyrs around the world that are exponentially increasing in this day and age cheering for us. And remember, just like in any like athletic sporting event where the score is close, the last two minutes are the most intense because the clock is almost up. We've seen we've seen more people, more Christians martyred for their faith in the name of Jesus in the last ten years than happened through all of human history for the last two thousand years. Think about that. Things are ratcheting up.

Time is running out. Strengthen those weak knees. Grab ahold of that race, that promise that God has placed in your heart. Get back up. Tie your shoe retie your shoes if you need to.

Receive a spiritual, encouraging swat on the butt from pastor Brian and get back out there on the race. Can I pray for you? I'm gonna be still for just a moment. Oh, there've been so many miles that I've not wanted to run. For your great love.

Like that old third day song, I can't go on. I can't go on. Can you go on? I can go on. Thank you for your great love.

Thank you for your comfort that strengthens tired and weary limbs. When you say, I just can't keep forgiving. God says, come on, one more mile. When you say there's just no way that I can see this ever happening, God says, come on, one more mile. Let's run this one together.

I've run a lot of lonely miles with the Lord. I said I was gonna pray for you, but let me I need to find out who I'm gonna pray for. So if today, in whatever way, maybe spiritual or health or financial or relational, if you feel tired and weary of the race and you need strength in the comfort of the Lord because nobody's looking around right now. You everybody else's eyes are closed just like yours are. Will you just slip your hand up so that I know who I can pray for?

Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. Just keep it there as like a little act of surrender like Lord. And that's so good.

Wow. They're their raised. Need comfort, strength, and endurance to run the race that you have marked out for them. God, would you do a miracle right here in Powderhorn Park right in the middle of this open air sanctuary? And by the spirit of the living God, would you impart strength, endurance, comfort?

Hear the voice of the holy spirit. Say, come on. Let's run one more mile. Let's run one more mile. Let's do it together.

Just touch our hearts, He says, need you to forgive one more time today. I need you to give her one more chance today. I need you to give him one more chance today. Save one more penny. Run the race with endurance.

Run the race with endurance. Now you take just a moment, and you just talk to him from your heart. We're in the homestretch here. We can see the finish line for today's service. Lord Jesus, thank you that your strength and endurance is unlimited.

It's infinite, and it is accessed by us when we just simply come to you. God, would you grant your children strength and endurance to run the incredible race that you have lined out for them. Help them to keep their eyes on the prize. So that at the end of the race, whether that's when their blood pump stops working or when you return riding on the clouds, we will see you face to face and all of the blisters, all of the shin splints, all that we've sacrificed, all that how we've hurt, all that we've given up will all be worth it. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God.

And everybody said, amen. Thank you guys so much. Let's clear out these donuts. Enjoy each other's company, and enjoy the rest of your day in this week. I love you.

And remember, you got this.