South Congregational Church Dr. Adam Söderberg November 01, 2020 Sermon Series: Giving It All to God Part 4: “Rosie Ruiz” Hebrews 6:10-12 November 01, 2020

Alright my friends, I am in the fourth and final message in my sermon series entitled, “Giving It All to God.” We are in the letter to the Hebrews this morning. Let’s talk a little bit about the letter to the Hebrews first. One of the reasons that the letter to the Hebrews was written was to tell these new believers – we have to put ourselves in these folks’ shoes for a moment. Christianity is new. It hadn’t been on the scene before. So, they had been Jewish for their whole lives; their fathers had been Jewish, their mothers, their grandparents had been Jewish and their great grandparents had been Jewish as far back as they can remember. And now, all of a sudden, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament Jewish prophecies had come true, and that meant some things were going to change.

We don’t do good with change, especially in the church. Let me tell you firsthand. One of the things the church despises the most is the one thing that it cannot avoid – change. So, I understand these folks here in Jerusalem, in the Jerusalem church. Things had changed, and Paul was writing this letter to remind them that, hey, you know this animal sacrifice thing (to which they had been so connected, was such a part of their worship)? It was no longer of any use. The idea that the death of a bull or a lamb or a sheep or a goat or a dove covering their sins – no, it doesn’t work. That’s not how it works. Those sacrifices were not intended to be forever. They were a precursor, a picture of the coming sacrifice of Christ. The idea that a living thing had to lose its life in order to cover the sins of the living started in the Garden of Eden, remember? They were naked in the beginning, and then they sinned and they realized their nakedness. So, to cover their nakedness, to cover their sin, God gives them what? Animal skins. An animal cannot live after it’s been skinned. So, for the first time, when Adam and Eve waked over to that rock and picked off the animal skins which God had prepared for them, perhaps they saw not to far off, the dead carcasses of two animals who had given their lives so that their sin could be covered.

Well, that was institutionalized in the church, and the death of an animal covering sin continued on for thousands of years. But suddenly, they understood it was a precursor, it was a picture of the coming sacrifice of Christ. Now that Christ is here, they had served their purpose, these animal sacrifices. They were no longer needed. God’s people must now look only to Christ for redemption and salvation.

The problem is, we are creatures of habit. We like order. We like stability. Don’t you hate it when you have to get a new phone? I know I am! You’ve got to learn how this old phone works. You knew how your old phone worked, why can’t they just make my old phone faster! But they have to change it. I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t gone up to Windows 10. I don’t want to have to learn something new. Change is hard. We are creatures of habit, and when something works for us, we want to continue to use it. (This is going to date me a little bit, but surprise surprise…) You know what technology this guy fought against? Cassette tapes. I was an 8-track tape man! And I was not going to give up my 8-track tapes for this newfangled technology of cassette tapes! It took me so long to realize the stupidity of that position and the error of my ways. I finally gave in and started repurchasing my music collection in cassette form about a month before CDs came out. I still have cassette tapes. I have a cassette player in my office, and one in my car.

We like the way things used to be, and the Jews were very comfortable with the idea of animal sacrifice. That happens to a lot of Christians too. There are a lot of similarities here. I know when I first came here, there was a gentleman who had been a long-time member here. Let’s call him Joe because I don’t want to name his name. He no longer worships here. Joe and I hit it off. We were friends… at first. And then we came to a place in our theology where we butted heads, and I could not convince Joe of the truth. The conflict South Congregational Church Dr. Adam Söderberg November 01, 2020 was this: Joe was one of those people, and there are many, who believe as long as you’re a good person and as long as you do good things, you will be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And I understand that thought process, but that’s not in here. In here, it has nothing to do with what you do. It is only and completely based upon what Christ did. Only because of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross can we be saved. John 6:29 says, The only work I require from you is to believe in the one I have sent. Our faith in Jesus is what saves us. John 14:6, very clear: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Now, I understand why Joe wanted to believe this. Because there were people he loved that were not Christians. And he couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that those beautiful, special, good people that he loved wouldn’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’m sorry, Joe. I’m in sales, not management. I didn’t write the Book; I just read it. The offer for salvation is for everyone, but it needs to be received, it needs to be accepted. It’s only through Christ that we are saved.

Now, these folks thought, I like animal sacrifice, I’m used to animal sacrifice, I understand animal sacrifice. I just want to keep doing animal sacrifice. Now, there were a couple reasons for that, which we’re going to talk about in a minute. But you have to hear me, folks. It’s important. Jesus Christ, and only Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on Calvary is what opens the gates to salvation. Now, I am not saying it doesn’t mean we have to do good things. Not in the least! Of course not! Of course we do good things. It just doesn’t earn us our way into heaven. We don’t do good things to be saved; we do good things because we are saved. Because once God takes our stony hearts out and replaces it with a heart of Christ, we can’t stop ourselves now. We are kinder. We are more patient. We are more loving and forgiving. We want to serve our community. We want to help those in need. We can’t stop it. It’s instinctive because now it is a part of us. So, yes, we still do good things, and we need to do good things as evidence of our conversion. And God is paying attention to the evidence. That’s where we’re going to be going this morning, so please join me in the unison prayer as we prepare to study the Word of God. Let us pray.

Lord, upon the pages of this book is Your story. It is also our story. Open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, our minds that we may understand, and our hearts that they may be transformed. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 10 For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. 11 Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. 12 Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promise because of their faith and endurance. [Hebrews 6:10-12]

God will not forget how hard you are working for Him. He will not overlook that which you are doing with your new life in Christ.

Now, one of the things that jumped out to me when I read this preparing this message was in verse 11, it says, our great desire. I always wonder, who is our? Who is the group whose desire this is? Could be Paul, who wrote Hebrews. Could be Luke or Barnabas or Silas or Timothy who often traveled with Paul, they could be part of the our. It could be Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos, Philip. I don’t know. But there was a group of believers whose desire for the Jerusalem church was that these new Christians would keep the faith – the new faith in Christ – and not turn back to their old practices of animal sacrifice and the belief that if I do something I can earn my way into heaven. South Congregational Church Dr. Adam Söderberg November 01, 2020 I mean, think about that for just a minute. If we could do something to be saved, why Jesus? Why’d He have to come? Why did God put Him through what He went through? Why did God nail Him to a cross if all you needed to do was be Mr. Rogers?

Because it requires Christ. This was change. This was new for these new, formerly Jewish, now Christian leaders, and they were struggling with not worshiping and believing the way they used to. I love this quote. The late Dr. Walter Martin, founder of the Creation Research Institute and author of the best selling book “The Kingdom of the Cults” said it this way about the letter to the Hebrews:

The book of Hebrews was written by Hebrews to other Hebrews telling Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews.

Tongue in cheek, but that’s basically what he was saying. You don’t need to do animal sacrifice anymore. Things have changed. There is one sacrifice that has taken place, it is good for all time, for all people.

They were slipping back. Why? Why were they slipping back? I wonder sometimes, people so close to the original event (Jesus), and they already are slipping back? I can see us 2000 years later slipping back, but these people it was like 100 years, less than 100 years. It was the first century. Jesus walked the earth. Hebrews was written in the 60s I believe. So, you’re talking Jesus walked the earth 30 years earlier. They’re already slipping back into former rights and rituals. Why? Why would they do that?

Well, number one as I said, it’s comfortable. We don’t like change. Number two, and this probably had more of an impact, they were trying to escape mounting persecution. See, when you were a Jew, the Jews had an understanding with the Roman Government. As long as you paid your taxes, as long as you didn’t cause any trouble, we’ll leave you alone. You worship however your conscience dictates. Everybody else needed to worship the way Rome said. They needed to worship the pagan pantheon of gods. They needed to worship the emperor, Caesar, as a god. So, if you weren’t a Jew, you needed to follow the government line. If you didn’t, you were harassed, you were persecuted, you were jailed, you were sometimes executed. So, you have folks that were safe and comfortable as Jews, now all of a sudden as Christians getting persecuted. I could see how somebody might be like, “You know what? I don’t mind just putting the knife to a goat every once in a while, and being left alone.” So, I get it.

Paul is trying to encourage these folks in this letter, and he’s trying to encourage us in 2020 to hold on. Stand strong. Don’t lose your faith. Persevere. I know it’s not easy, but keep with it, keep on keeping on. It’s a marathon. Has anybody here ever run a marathon? No. I’m not talking about winning, I’m just talking about running. Because I’ll tell you, simply running 26.2 miles is an incredible accomplishment, it really is! I don’t really understand the whole running thing unless somebody’s chasing you anyway, but nonetheless… Have you ever been driving down the road and you’ve seen that oval shaped bumper sticker on a car that says 26.2? That was saying that somebody inside that car has run a marathon, 26.2 miles. So, what I want to do, because I want to put one of those stickers on my car. I think the church should sponsor a 26.2 meter race, which is about 86 feet. I can run 86 feet! Then I can put that sticker on the back of my car!

The point is, our lives are like that. They are a marathon, not a sprint. Its hard for me to believe, but as you know from a month ago, I turned 57 years old. Where has the time gone? My little boys, my cute little boys, are now 36, 34, and 32. Look at those guys! Aren’t they sweet? All of a sudden, they’re adults. Everyone once in a while you sit back and wonder, where has the time gone?

Our faith journey is like that too. Since I got saved in 1989, it’s been 31 years, I began knowing little, I know a little more now, but there’s still so much to learn. It’s a marathon. I attended church for seven years, as you know. I went out a got three degrees. I pastored a church n ow for twenty-three years, and still, every South Congregational Church Dr. Adam Söderberg November 01, 2020 Wednesday night at 6:30 at Bible Study, when I come, my two Bobs, Bob Surmolian and Bobby T have something new to share with me about the Bible. They constantly amaze me. I’m still learning.

Your faith is a marathon as well. And what I want you to hear this morning is it is the journey; it is the marathon that is the accomplishment. You ran 26.2 whatevers. Don’t focus on the finish line. Focus on running the race. That’s what God is looking at, our journey. How we ran the race. Not what place we came in. Because look, we all know Romans 3:23, we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Nobody here is going to come in first place. Sorry. He knows that too. God just wants to see if we gave it our best effort. God is about effort, not always results. Did we do our best?

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, my mom would always say to us boys, “If a C is as good as you can do, then a C is acceptable.” You know what was wrong with that, though? She knew me better than anyone, and she knew when it was not my best. The sad part is, I knew too. You know who knows His children? He knows when we’re not giving our best as well. He will accept a C if it is our best.

Anybody here ever hear of the name Rosie Ruiz? Well, Rosie Ruiz was a woman who was declared the winner of the Marathon in 1980. Interesting story. She qualified to run the by running the Marathon in 1979. She had a time of 2 hours, 56 minutes, and 29 seconds. Eleventh woman overall; very good race. Rosie’s application for the arrived after the cutoff date, but they still let her in, special dispensation, because she claimed she was dying of brain cancer. Well, as it turns out, Rosie didn’t run the entire Boston course. She jumped in with about a half a mile before the finish line and ran across the finish line! One of the fastest times we’ve ever had! I could do that! After it was discovered, the New York City Marathon folks investigated her race in New York, and guess what? She didn’t run that one either! So, they retroactively disqualified her. Rosie Ruiz. What about Jacqueline Gareau? Poor Jacqueline Gareau was the woman who really did win the Boston Marathon in 1980, because she came in second behind Rosie Ruiz! I only mention Jacqueline because Jacqueline actually bumped into Rosie in Florida in 1982. They met each other. Rosie refused even then, as she continued to do every day for the rest of her life until she passed away last year, she refused to concede that she hadn’t won the 1980 marathon. She never admitted that she cheated. Now, I would like to think that this was a one off, just a silly prank that you pull off when you’re a young person, and since you got away with it in New York, you thought, Hey, why not try Boston? I could run ten marathons and keep coming in first place! But unfortunately, that wasn’t how she ran her race, because the same year she bumped into Jacqueline Gareau, 1982, she was arrested for larceny. And then the next year, again, was arrested for selling cocaine. Rosie wasn’t running her race very well.

How we run our race is what God is paying attention to, not what place we come in. I don’t know if you remember the story of when the people of Israel were begging for a king. They wanted a king, a human king. They had the King of Kings, but they wanted a human king like all the rest of the other nations. And Samuel, the prophet, was arguing with them. “No you don’t!” “Yes, we do!” “No you don’t!” And Samuel would bring the objections to the Lord, and the Lord would say, finally, after a while, God even specifically laid out exactly what a king would do to them. How he would abuse them, how he would disappoint them, how he would fail. They still wanted a human king. We want what we want. What does God know?

Well, God finally relents, He says, “Fine, let them have a king.” So, they have King Saul. King Saul started out pretty well, did a good job at first, and then guess what? God was right. Surprise! So, God withdraws the kingdom from Saul and sends Samuel on a journey to pick another king. And he goes to a man named Jesse, and he wants to look at Jesse’s sons. Well, when Eliab walked by, Samuel said, “That’s him. That has got to be the king. He looks like a king. He has regal bearing. He’s handsome. He’s fit. He just looks the part, it’s got to be him!” And God says this in 1 Samuel 16:7: South Congregational Church Dr. Adam Söderberg November 01, 2020 “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” [1 Samuel 16:7]

And God ended up choosing the scrawny little David the shepherd boy to be the next King of Israel.

God looks at our hearts. God looks at how we run the race. During the marathon, during our marathon of faith, our marathon of life, did we give it our best effort, or did we mail it in? Did we fake it when we knew people were looking? We all fall short of God’s glorious standard; we’re not going to come in first place. I get it. But it’s the effort that matters, not what place we finished. When all is said and done, did we give our all to God? Did we go where He told us to go? Did we share the gospel as He commanded us to share the gospel? Did we use our gifts and talents to glorify Him? It’s about effort, not results.

Jeremiah, the prophet from the old Testament, from a human perspective would be one of the most abysmal failures in all of the Bible. For forty years, Jeremiah shared the truth of God with the people. Forty years; not one convert. Not one. Humans would say, “What an absolute waste of time! What a loser! What a failure!” But Jeremiah was one of God’s greatest successes in God’s eyes. Why? Because Jeremiah never lost the faith. Jeremiah answered God’s call. Jeremiah went wherever God told him to go. He said whatever God told him to say. He used his gifts and talents to glorify God, and God was pleased. He is looking at our efforts, friends, not the results.

It took eight days for us to realize that Rosie Ruiz did not win the marathon. It takes much shorter of a time for God to know our effort in running our race. He will not forget, verse 10 said, how hard you have worked for him or how you have shown your love to him for caring for others. He will not forget how you ran your race, and you will inherit God’s promises for your efforts, for your faith, for your endurance. Run your race well. Give it all to God. Let Him use you. You will amaze Him. You will amaze yourselves. Give it all to God.