Hebrews 12: God Chose You to Run on His Team

Introduction

"God has chosen you to be on his team." That is the good news Matthieu Perraud brings to Église Momentum on the Thursday evening that closes a week of fasting and prayer. During the week, the church heard about David, Joshua and Epaphras. He preaches last, and he opens with a verse that stirs him at the end of every prayer week: the end of a thing is better than its beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8).

Why? Because the end of a week of fasting and prayer marks the start of a new season. Not only because you can finally eat, he jokes, but because something new is about to begin in your life.

A children's pastor for more than ten years, Matthieu Perraud draws on Hebrews 11 and 12 and a series of sports images to talk about the Christian race: a race you do not run alone, one you receive from those who came before you, and one that draws opposition as soon as you really start running.

Outline of the Message

1. Chosen Last, Chosen First

• In high school, during a term of soccer in PE class, Matthieu Perraud saw himself as a center forward, like his idol Gabriel Batistuta. The captains pick their players, and he is picked last.
• Picked last, he plays every position to cover for the injured. The following week he is picked first, but the captain hands him the gloves: he wanted him as goalkeeper. "In the end, I loved being the goalkeeper."
• Whether you were picked in the first round or the second, "God has chosen you for his team." You belong to the army of the Lord of hosts: he fights with you, for you and ahead of you.

2. A Conqueror's Mindset: Every Blow Counts

• If God has chosen us, let's have the right mindset. The mindset of the apostle Paul: "I therefore run like that, as not uncertainly. I fight like that, as not beating the air" (1 Corinthians 9:26).
• Another version, which the preacher loves, says: "I don't run aimlessly. I keep my eyes fixed on the finish line. I make every blow count."
• Paul is not "a Frenchman who will say: what matters is taking part." He is not there to take part but to win, because he understood that we are in a spiritual war.
• Every prayer, every cry of pain, every request, every plea of the week counts. We are on the team of the victorious God.

3. Not a Sprint: a Marathon in the True Sense of the Word

• Usain Bolt holds the world record in the 100 m, but ask him to run a 400 m at the same pace and he will not make it to the end. "The goal is to go far, so don't burn out right away."
• As a child in Sunday school, he heard that the Christian life is a marathon, often as a way of saying: you are going to struggle, you are going to suffer. There is real pain and sacrifice, but Jesus came to give life in abundance (John 10:10), and the Christian walk also has its joys and its victories.
• Marathon is first of all a Greek town. In 490 BC, after a battle against the Persians, a soldier named Eucles ran to Athens, about 42 km, to announce the victory, and died of exhaustion as he delivered his message.
• "You are not going to die at the end, you are already dead at the starting line." We have died to ourselves in order to communicate a message of life: Jesus came to forgive sinners, set captives free, heal the sick and restore broken hearts.
• This is the message we fast for, pray for, preach, and care for children and elders for: "This message has a face. It is your face, my friend."

4. A Relay Race: You Are Not Alone

• The Christian walk is not an individual sport. One of the devil's strongest lies, when we start to struggle, is to make us believe we are alone. Others fought these battles before you, others are fighting them now, and others will fight them later.
• More than a marathon, it is a "relay marathon": there is a baton to pass on. The soldier of Marathon could have stayed to celebrate the victory, but the others had to know. What you received this week is for you, but also so that you can share it.
• Hebrews 11 ends this way: all these heroes of faith "didn't receive the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us" (Hebrews 11:39-40). Why? Because we are on the same team as Moses, Abraham, David and Joshua.
• "Therefore let's also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight," and let's run with perseverance, "looking to Jesus" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Imagine a stadium where, in the stands, Moses cheers you on when you are struggling, and Joseph tells you, when you feel forgotten: "Keep going."
• The preacher imagines the announcer of heaven calling out his entry into the game at the moment he said, "Lord, I follow you, whatever it costs me." Then he invites everyone in the congregation to shout their own name for "the infinite number" of the kingdom's team.
• Paul asks that the cross not be made empty (1 Corinthians 1:17), literally "emptied of its power." May the cross not be "a postcard of an event I once believed in," but my daily life.

5. Their Ceiling Must Become Our Floor

• Others kept writing history after the heroes of the Bible. For France, he cites Douglas Scott, who originally came to learn French and whom God used for a revival.
• In the local church too: a brother in the church passed on to him "a baton, a witness," and a woman devoted her life to God's work.
• The church's first building had 200 seats, and there was not enough money to buy the chairs. The pastor challenged the hundred or so members: buy your own chair and a chair for the person you would bring to Jesus. One woman in the church bought a whole row, because she wanted everyone on her floor to come to Jesus. "You may be sitting in her chair." Today, the church has had to expand and multiply its services.
• "Their ceiling must become our floor." You do not have to relive the same trials and the same battles to win the same victories. In a 4 x 100 m relay, the second runner never starts over from the beginning: he builds on the 100 m already run.
• We benefit from everyone who prayed, fasted, gave without counting and served before us, so that we can build higher and go further.

6. Chosen, Therefore Targeted: Doubt and Discouragement

• Because God chose you, you have become a target. The devil does not bother those who are not running, nor those who have finished, nor the spectators. He goes after those who are in the arena, with two weapons: doubt and discouragement.
• "The devil would not try to discourage you if you were doing nothing." If he is trying to make you doubt, it is because you are becoming dangerous to his work. So keep going.
• The person next to you may be smiling more but be more discouraged than you. "We are a team of misfits, but with the power of the Holy Spirit, we are going to go for it."
• Moses was a murderer, David had major failings, the twelve disciples were nothing glorious, Paul was a persecutor. He is not the one you would sign first in the transfer market, but Jesus bet on him.
• You may not have the spiritual résumé people would bet on. It does not matter what people think: God chose you, because "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says Yahweh of Armies" (Zechariah 4:6).

7. Becoming a Mosquito: Hiding in Jesus

• The second "pearl" of the message: it is always easier to aim at an elephant than at a mosquito. So that the devil cannot reach you, become as small as possible.
• It is the prayer of John the Baptist: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Not only decrease, but let him grow, until there is no room left for ego, failures and doubts.
• To be that little mosquito you hear at night but cannot find when you turn on the light: so hidden in Christ that the enemy can no longer reach us, yet present enough that he hears our prayers. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91:1).
• He hides in Jesus because the enemy can do nothing against Jesus: at the cross, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities (Colossians 2:15). God's strategies are not ours: walking around a city so that its walls fall down would not have been our idea.
• Just as the weather forecast announces 8 degrees "feels like 2," when the enemy sends a "level 8" trial, you will be able to answer: "Feels like zero." And if he wants to bring your faith down to zero: "For me, feels like 40."
• His prayer for the evening: that there be "no spectators," but an army stepping onto the field. There is no other secret and no twelve keys: it is the name of Jesus, the only name by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12), and the Spirit of God in each one of us.

Key Takeaways

• God has chosen you to be on his team, whatever rank you feel you were picked at.
• The Christian life is not a sprint but a relay marathon: you run to the end to carry a message of life, and you pass it on.
• You are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and you build on their legacy: "their ceiling must become our floor."
• Doubt and discouragement are the enemy's weapons against those who run: if he attacks you, it is because you are becoming dangerous to his work.
• Protection comes from smallness: let him increase and let me decrease, hidden in Jesus, by his Spirit and not by force.

Personal Application

1. Do you see yourself as someone God chose for his team, or as a substitute picked last?
2. In your walk with God, are you running like a sprinter running out of breath, or are you aiming to go all the way?
3. What "baton" did you receive from those who came before you, and who could you pass it on to this week?
4. What doubts or discouragements have slowed you down recently, and what would change if you saw them as a sign that you are moving forward?
5. In what area of your life do you need to decrease so that Jesus can increase?

Verses Cited

• Hebrews 12:1-2
• Hebrews 11:39-40
• Ecclesiastes 7:8
• 1 Corinthians 9:26
• John 10:10
• 1 Corinthians 1:17
• Zechariah 4:6
• John 3:30
• Psalm 91:1
• Colossians 2:15
• Acts 4:12

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Matthieu Perraud compare the Christian life to a relay marathon?

It is not a sprint: the goal is not to go as fast as possible but to go all the way. Like the soldier who set out from Marathon to announce the victory in Athens, we run to carry a message of life. And as in a relay, this message is not meant to be kept: you receive a baton from those who ran before you and you pass it on to others.

What does "their ceiling must become our floor" mean?

You do not have to relive the same battles to win the same victories as those who went before you. You start from the legacy they left, their prayers, their fasts, their gifts and their service, to build one floor higher. In a 4 x 100 m relay, the second runner never starts over from the beginning.

Why does the devil attack those who move forward with God?

The devil does not bother the spectators or those who have finished running. He goes after those who are in the arena, with two weapons: doubt and discouragement. For the preacher, being discouraged can be good news: it means you are becoming dangerous to his work. The answer is to hide in Jesus, because it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.