We want to consider the most important aspect of running our Christian race well: keeping our eyes on the prize. Yes, we need proper motivation and encouragement to run, we need to rid ourselves of things that would encumber our progress, we need to prepare for the long haul. But none of this matters if we don’t keep our eyes on the prize. In this case, that doesn’t mean a trophy or a finish line. It means “looking to Jesus.”

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2a)
The above is one of my all-time favorite passages in Scripture. Indeed, in numerous places in Scripture the Christian life is compared to the effort and exertion of a race (1 Cor. 9:24; 2 Tim. 4:7). These few words from Hebrews teach us four things about what it means to run the Christian’s race well.
1. Run the race well by finding your motivator to run.
These verses begin with laying out some of the motivation we have to run our Christian race well. That motivation is the example of those who have run it before us. Remember, this verse follows immediately on the heels of the “Hall of Faith” in chapter 11. There the author describes a whole host of committed believers who have run their race well. They are to be our examples (for instance: “let us also lay aside…” that is, we should run the same way they have).
More than being our examples, they are also our cheerleaders! In chapter 12 they are now referred to as “a cloud of witnesses.” Picture running a race on a track and the stands on every side filled with people who are cheering for you. Though we can’t see it, that’s what’s going on in the Christian life. We are surrounded by the saints who have gone on before, and that is meant to encourage us to run well.
If you have ever run a race or sat on the sidelines and watched one, you know the power of hearing people cheer one another on. Someone who is winded and barely able to lift their feet suddenly hears the voices of supporters rallying them on, and just like that they have renewed vigor and motivation to keep going! As we run our race, we must remember the example and encouragement set by all believers who have run before us, not just pillars of the faith, like Abraham and Moses (although certainly them). We should also remember others whom God has graciously placed in our lives: parents, siblings, pastors, teachers, friends, and mentors. Let their godly example motivate us to run well.
My wife recently completed a half marathon, and she explained to me the importance of finding another runner who can be your pacesetter—someone whose speed will challenge your own. You make it your goal to stick behind them during the race. This illustrates a biblical principle. The apostle Paul said,

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. (Phil. 3:17; emphasis added)

So, who in your life can be your “pacesetter”? Who will you join in imitating their Christian life? Who will be your example and encouragement? Who will motivate you to run that race that is before you? Answering that question is the first step in running well.
2. Run the race well by casting off your weights.
Second, we see that in order to run well we must cast off our weights. Lighter means faster. If runners want to perform their very best, they will make sure they are not weighed down by a cumbersome load. In this context, the word “weight” could refer to extra layers of clothes that slow us down or get in the way. Flowing robes aren’t the attire for running. The analogy to the spiritual is explained in the next clause: “and sin which clings so closely.” Trying to run the Christian race with sin clinging to us is like trying to run a marathon in a ballroom gown while carrying a backpack filled with bricks.
Sin is a weight that ties us down and prevents us from serving Jesus to the best of our ability. Remember Levi the tax collector? His profession was rife with corruption, and it kept him from following after the Savior; but when he was called by Christ, we read that he “left everything” (Luke 5:28). We need to have that same sort of determination.
We cannot afford to be hindered in a race that has such important consequences, so we must cast sin off from us.
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The way a service is structured will inform the way we are structured. A God-centered and gospel-focused service will produce people who are the same. Corporate worship is one of the primary ways we behold the Lord and are “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18).

I recall guest preaching at a church once and the blank stares I received from the congregation. Blank stares are never ideal, especially when you are a visiting preacher. I had said early on in the service, “I invite you to turn with me in your liturgies…” None accepted the invitation. No one turned. Then I realized the problem: we were lost in translation. I started again, “Turn in your bulletins…” There we had it!
Who Is Liturgical?
“Liturgy” does sound like a foreign word to some of us, and, in one sense, it is. It comes from the Greek leitourgia, which is a combination of two other words: people (laos) and work (ergon). Literally, a liturgy is a “work of the people,” or perhaps more helpfully, a “public service.” Therefore, at its most basic, “liturgy” refers to the order of a corporate worship service.
All churches from every denominational stripe have an order of worship. Sometimes we think “liturgical” is only a fitting adjective for churches that meet in cathedrals and still use Gregorian chant. Not so. If your church worships, it has a liturgy. Churches that claim to be “non-liturgical” still follow a pattern of worship. Maybe it begins with announcements, then singing, a sermon, and some more singing, before concluding with a sending prayer. That is a liturgy. “Liturgical,” therefore, is perhaps not the most helpful descriptor—much like “canine” would be a less-than-satisfying answer when someone asks what type of dog you have.
Since we are all liturgical, the question to ask is what kind of liturgy do we have? What should our services look like? While the Bible’s relative silence on this point offers latitude and freedom, the Reformed have sought to structure their services on key principles gleaned from Scripture. I will mention four.
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When properly understood, election teaches us not just about how great God is, but how good he is: “God’s love is the fountainhead of the gospel. God’s Son did not come into the world to persuade the Father to love or to win His love for us; He came as the gift of the Father’s love to us.”[3]  He is a sovereign God, and yet also a saving God. Some people might tend to pit John’s “God is love” (1 John 4:16) against Paul’s predestination. But they go hand in hand. If God were not love, we would be lost. Yet while we were still sinners, God loved us—God chose us.

A hurdle many Christians cannot seem to get over is accepting and embracing the doctrine of election, or predestination. By nature, we don’t like the fact that God is the one who does the choosing. We want to be the masters of our fate and the captains of our soul. Yet Paul seems to make the case very clearly in Ephesians 1:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,even as he chose us in himbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In lovehe predestined usfor adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:3–5; emphasis added)

What brings Paul to doxology is distasteful to many. R.C. Sproul accurately describes the feeling of most people towards the concept:

The very word predestination has an ominous ring to it. It is linked to the despairing notion of fatalism and somehow suggests that within its pale we are reduced to meaningless puppets. The word conjures up visions of a diabolical deity who plays capricious games with our lives.[1]

Yes, this is a hard truth to come to terms with, but such a fatalistic view tragically eclipses the beauty of God’s work for undeserving and incapable sinners like you and me. To help us grapple with and grow to love this essential aspect of the gospel, consider the following three points about election.
1. Election is a biblical doctrine.
First, the doctrine is biblical. This should seem evident enough, as it is clearly spelled out in the section of Ephesians 1 quoted earlier. Nor is this the only place we run up against the concept in Scripture. Just a few verses later on Paul will say—even more bluntly—that we have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). In Romans 8:29-30 we read,

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestined, these he also called; whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified.”

These are places in which these theological terms are used explicitly, but if we broaden our radar to also pick up allusions to and themes of choosing, predetermining, and electing, the list gets longer.
There are some out there who have a false notion of predestination and election, namely, that it was the invention of some ancient French madman named John Calvin. No doubt, Calvin would mourn the fact that history has dubbed this doctrine “Calvinism,” as though it somehow belonged more to him than to God.
Others who are more informed would recognize that the idea of election is not strictly Calvinist and is in fact a scriptural concept. Indeed, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, and so-called Calvinists all hold to different nuances of predestination.
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A common critique is that this doctrine makes for lazy Christians. The objection goes something like this: If I am justified merely by faith and not works, then there is no need for me to do good works. But the Reformers scoffed at that notion, because it misinterprets what God is doing for us through faith in Christ! Since our salvation is secured by a gracious gift of saving belief in Christ’s works, then that will stir us up to love and good works.

To understand the importance of the statement “faith alone,” we need to remember why the Reformers sought to recover the doctrine of God’s grace. They wanted to emphasize the fact that we are made right with God not through any merit of our own but rather through God’s own free grace. In Christ, we receive unmerited favor from God.
The Roman Catholics in the sixteenth century would have agreed with this to some extent. They indeed believed we needed God’s grace to get to heaven. But how do we get the grace? Here’s what they said at the Council of Trent in 1547 (which is still Roman Catholic doctrine today):

If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be accursed. (Sixth Session, Canon IX)

Faith is the gift of God.
This is very strong language. What Rome is saying is that if you believe that it is purely by faith that you receive God’s grace, you will be accursed—that is, damned to hell. What’s the problem with this? It’s the very teaching of Scripture that they are condemning! Paul could not be clearer:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:8-9)

Rome wanted to say that we are saved by God’s grace in cooperation with faith and works. In fact, it even saw faith itself as one of the works that earns us God’s grace. But you can’t earn grace—otherwise, it’s not grace, not a gift. Rome taught a theological contradiction, one that Paul warned against in Ephesians 2.
In response to Rome’s perversion of biblical doctrine, the Reformers returned to the Scriptural truth that nothing we do can earn favor with God.
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If God is not sovereign, he is not God at all. If something can be decided or determined apart from, outside of, or before God, then that means that there is something out there that is greater than God. And if something is greater than God, then God isn’t God at all.

A hurdle many Christians cannot seem to get over is accepting and embracing the doctrine of election, or predestination. By nature, we don’t like the fact that God is the one who does the choosing. We want to be the masters of our fate and the captains of our soul. Yet Paul seems to make the case very clearly in Ephesians 1:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined usfor adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”(Ephesians 1:3–5; emphasis added)
What brings Paul to doxology is distasteful to many. R.C. Sproul accurately describes the feeling of most people towards the concept:
The very word predestination has an ominous ring to it. It is linked to the despairing notion of fatalism and somehow suggests that within its pale we are reduced to meaningless puppets. The word conjures up visions of a diabolical deity who plays capricious games with our lives.[1]
Yes, this is a hard truth to come to terms with, but such a fatalistic view tragically eclipses the beauty of God’s work for undeserving and incapable sinners like you and me. To help us grapple with and grow to love this essential aspect of the gospel, consider the following three points about election.
1. Election is a biblical doctrine.
First, the doctrine is biblical. This should seem evident enough, as it is clearly spelled out in the section of Ephesians 1 quoted earlier. Nor is this the only place we run up against the concept in Scripture. Just a few verses later on Paul will say—even more bluntly—that we have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). In Romans 8:29-30 we read,
For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestined, these he also called; whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified.”
These are places in which these theological terms are used explicitly, but if we broaden our radar to also pick up allusions to and themes of choosing, predetermining, and electing, the list gets longer.
There are some out there who have a false notion of predestination and election, namely, that it was the invention of some ancient French madman named John Calvin. No doubt, Calvin would mourn the fact that history has dubbed this doctrine “Calvinism,” as though it somehow belonged more to him than to God.
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At this meal, God came to eat with his people in the flesh. As Jesus fed the four thousand, he foreshadowed that coming day when we would all feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). To eat at the end with God is the sign of ultimate blessing. Isaiah prophesied that at the end of all things, God would feast with his people and this would be the sign of consummate salvation. At this Supper would be the eternal bliss begun and the effects of sin destroyed.

In some churches the Lord’s Supper is referred to as the “Eucharist” (pronounced yoo-ka-rist). In fact, it is used predominantly in Roman Catholic circles, so Protestants might be prone to have an aversion to such a name. But is it bad? Is it unbiblical? On the contrary, “eucharist” is a helpful term derived from Scripture that gives further insight into how we ought to think about this blessed sacrament.
Background of the Word Eucharist
Eucharist comes from the Greek word eucharisteō, which means “to be thankful on the basis of some received benefit” (Johannes P. Louw, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 299). Jesus uses this word during his ministry at a very interesting point: during the miracle of feeding the four thousand in Mark 8. In verse 6 we read, “And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks [eucharistēsas], he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.” Here Jesus establishes a practice that many of us (hopefully!) still practice today: giving thanks to God for his provision before we eat a meal.
God Feasts with His People
And yet this particular meal was different from our regular meals at home. At this meal, God came to eat with his people in the flesh. As Jesus fed the four thousand, he foreshadowed that coming day when we would all feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9).
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What can we do to move our worship services in a God-centered direction—a worship that exalts Him and humbles us? Terry Johnson says: “The single most important step is to fill them with biblical content. Bible-filled services, services in which the songs, prayers, readings, and sermons are full of Scripture, will inevitably be filled with God as well.” This is to simply affirm that God calls the shots in worship. He sets the talking points. He is the Lord; we are the servants.

Christian worship takes place in the context of a covenant relationship between us and God. It is vital that we remember the roles we each take in that relationship: He is the Lord, and we are the servants. Therefore, worship should be an extremely humbling act, reminding us of our own creatureliness. After all, the god we are most tempted to worship besides the living and true God is the god of self. But real worship reorients us and corrects that idolatrous impulse by making it primarily about God and what He desires.

Does the corporate worship we engage in on a weekly basis impress on us our status as servants of the living God? Or do we implicitly think that we are in control, that we can call the shots in this meeting with God? I think there are at least three things that we should ask to evaluate if our worship meets the biblical criteria of asserting the supremacy of our covenant King.
Who Talks First?
The first question is simply this: Who talks first? Is it us or God? It ought to be God—it must be God. Why? Because it’s God’s Word, not man’s, that has the power to constitute a relationship with Him. If we are to come and engage with Him—which is what is happening in worship—then He needs to call us. The Westminster divines explain, “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part” (WCF 7.1). He is too great for us to grasp, unless He makes Himself available to us. This is why Reformed and Presbyterian churches have historically begun their worship services with a “call to worship.” The call to worship sets the stage and structures our services in such a way as to remind the worshipers that God is supreme, and we are His servants.
Who Talks Most?
The second question to ask is this: Who talks most? Is the service predominantly God speaking to us in the reading, singing, and preaching of the Scriptures, or is it us talking to Him? Both are important, but what are we implicitly saying if 75 percent—or even 50 percent—of a worship service is taken up with our words to God? Do we think what we have to say is more important than what God has to say?
Some U.K. readers will be familiar with the voice of Oswald Lawrence, though they likely do not know the name. Lawrence was a largely unsuccessful actor, albeit for one role: since the 1970s he was the voice of the London Underground, reminding commuters on the Northern Line to “mind the gap!” as they stepped off the tube. He served in that role until 2012, when the Underground phased out his voice in favor of an automated voice that would be used uniformly across the entire subway system. No one probably noticed, except for Lawrence’s dear widow, Margaret.

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What led the Roman Catholics astray was their understanding that the church birthed the Word of God, rather than the Word being the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). Yes, God gives us consciences, good sense, and even the traditions of the church from which we can glean insight into life, but knowledge of salvation is found in Scripture and Scripture alone.

When we talk about sola scriptura, we are talking about the fact that it is God’s word—not man’s—that gives us the instruction we need to attain everlasting life. It’s not to say that Christians should only read the Bible and nothing else. If your sink gets clogged, a plumbing manual will be of more use than anything in the Old or New Testament. Sola scriptura means that the Bible gives us everything we need to know about everything that truly matters—specifically, our salvation.
The Sufficiency of Scripture
At the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church did not deny the importance of the Word of God but rather its sufficiency. Rome said Scripture was insufficient to reveal to us the way to heaven. Rather, Rome argued that we needed something in addition to Scripture: the traditions of the church. According to theologian Michael Horton in The Christian Faith,

The Council of Trent [in the sixteenth century] established the view that Scripture and tradition are actually two forms of God’s Word—”written” and “unwritten”.” (p. 188)

What led the Roman Catholics astray was their understanding that the church birthed the Word of God, rather than the Word being the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). Yes, God gives us consciences, good sense, and even the traditions of the church from which we can glean insight into life, but knowledge of salvation is found in Scripture and Scripture alone.
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In prayer the Spirit perfects our requests, petitions, and praises and brings them to the Son, who in his authority as the righteous Son of God has access to the throne of the Father, where he makes our prayers his own. This is why we pray “in the name of Jesus”—his name is what grants us access to God. Otherwise we would be shut out on account of our sin and unrighteousness.

Prayer is an essential means by which we can commune (fellowship) with God—and not just God as an abstract being, but God as a personal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each member of the Trinity gives himself to us in the work of prayer. Indeed, prayer wouldn’t even be possible if not for the Trinity.
Theologian Carl Trueman writes,

The New Testament makes it quite clear that the human act of prayer is intimately connected to the trinitarian actions of God and is in fact enfolded and subsumed within that larger divine action.[1]

We wouldn’t even pray at all if it were not for the Spirit.
Thus, in Romans 8:26 Paul declares that the Spirit intercedes for believers in their weakness, when they do not know what they should pray for. Even more fundamentally, we wouldn’t even pray at all if it were not for the Spirit. Prayer is a discourse not simply between us as creatures and God as our creator. Prayer is a discourse between us as children and God as Father. And we would not be able to recognize God as our Father if it were not for the Spirit.
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As Christians, we should be considered (in a sense) the most well-rested people in the world, because we have been given spiritual rest from God! That spiritual rest will spill over into every aspect of our lives if we allow it. We will be able to lie down at night and fall asleep, for we have committed the cares of the day to the God who has completed all the work that really matters in Jesus Christ.

Unless the LORD builds the house,those who build it labor in vain.Unless the LORD watches over the city,the watchman stays awake in vain.It is in vain that you rise up earlyand go late to rest,eating the bread of anxious toil;for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1-2)
Do you have trouble sleeping? Paradoxically, the busier life gets, the more tired we are and yet the harder it is to get good rest! We don’t have time for it, or when we finally do lay our heads down at night there are so many things racing around in our minds that we can’t fall asleep. Work is meant to be fulfilling, but ever since the fall it can often be tiresome; or as Psalm 127 puts it, it can feel like “toil.”
We’re exhausted keeping up with it all.
We burn the candle on both ends, and we end up being burnt out because of it. It may not be a normal nine-to-five job that’s wearing you down, either. It could be the work of motherhood, the stress of dealing with relatives, the unending demands on your schedule of school and sports and society. It’s exhausting to keep up with it all—but we do our best! Shouldn’t we get some credit for that? Actually, no.
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