God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Enduring Faith: Running the Race with Purpose
About this episode
Pastor Rusty Railey of Victory City Church in Joliet, Illinois, joins Philip Cameron for a conversation that reframes how believers understand their place in God's eternal story. Drawing from Hebrews 11:40 — a verse he admits he had "read before many times and just kept going" — Railey unpacks a revelation that stopped him in his tracks: the heroes of faith listed in the faith chapter cannot be made perfect, or brought to completion, without us. That single insight transformed his leadership and ignited his congregation. Pastor Rusty explains that the Christian life is not a marathon run in isolation, but a relay race — Abraham, Moses, David, the apostles, and the martyrs each ran their leg and passed the baton. Now those saints wait in the grandstands of heaven, not merely cheering, but unable to receive their reward until we finish our leg. "Dreams don't die in the vision stage," Riley warns. "They die in the implementation stage." He also shares a personal word the Lord gave him at the start of the year: "The dreams of a previous season are now going to become the assignments in this new season." This episode is a powerful call to endurance for pastors, church leaders, and every believer in a waiting season. Visit victorycity.com to connect with Rusty Railey and Victory City Church.
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“When the Lord said that to me, he really meant it — that there was a changing of seasons, that the dreams that we had are now going to become the assignments.”
“It's not a marathon, because a marathon can be run alone, without any attachment to anybody else. Our pathway of purpose is always tied to others. We are running a relay race. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, the New Testament saints, the apostles, the martyrs, our loved ones that have blazed the trail for us — they all ran their leg of the race. And what did they do? They passed the baton to somebody else.”
“When you're passed the baton, you don't drop it. All the running, all the agony that the guys behind you have expended, all the pain and the shortness of breath and the stitches in their side from running against everything — all of it is in that baton. Everything. When they put that in your hand, all the way back to Moses, everything is in that baton. And saying, okay, now it's your turn.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Rusty Riley of Victory City Church in Joliet, Illinois shares a revelation from Hebrews 11:40 — that the heroes of faith 'should not be made perfect apart from us,' meaning they cannot receive their reward until believers today finish their leg of the race. Riley reframes the Christian life not as a solo marathon but as a relay race, with Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Testament saints having already passed the baton. He also shares a prophetic word received at the start of the year — 'the dreams of a previous season are now going to become the assignments in this new season' — and explains how this insight has fueled explosive growth and volunteer mobilization at Victory City Church.
- A Change of Seasons Prophetic Word
- Dreams Becoming Kingdom Assignments
- Hebrews 11:40 — Made Perfect Together
- The Relay Race vs. the Marathon
- Saints in Heaven Awaiting Our Finish
- Knowing Where You Are in God's Calendar
- Philip's Personal Relay Race Story
- Prayer for Endurance and the Harvest
Scripture in this episode
Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hello, my friend. Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron. We are delighted to have you with us. We have a great guest today — Rusty Railey — pastors a tremendous church, Victory City Church in Joliet. I think I'll find out, and how we — while — help me, Lord Jesus, you Americans talk funny. And you name your towns funny too. Now when it comes — let me, while I'm on this soapbox — you call Edinburgh, Edinburgh. It's ridiculous. It's Edinburgh, and you call Glasgow, Glasgow. So you do the same to us as I'm doing to y'all, as they say.
Philip:But we have got a great program for you today. We had a busy 24 hours since I was last on Daily Faith. We are working just now, as you know, we do mission work in Moldova. As you know, we have a home in Ukraine and we've had to abandon that home and evacuate the girls from Ukraine because of the war into Moldova. At the same time we're trying to buy the house that the girls have been evacuated from, because the owner is selling the house and we're trying to get the funds to get that house so the girls can go, when they can go back to Ukraine, they have a place to go. On top of that, we have been challenged in the last few days by a pastor in Istanbul, Turkey.
Philip:In Istanbul, there is — as you know, the earthquake is in the eastern — sorry, the eastern part of Turkey, besides Syria. And Turkey is a Muslim country and the Christians are not getting so much help, and we are trying to gather tents and food, and my son Andrew is leaving for there in a couple of days. So we'll be talking more about that the next few days. As you know, there's a horrendous earthquake that took place and subsequent earthquakes taking place. So it's happening, and I was there in 1990, I think it was, when they had the same thing that is happening at this moment.
Philip:And I was in an aftershock that absolutely nearly stopped my heart. I have never been so terrified, and we took a truckload of supplies to that earthquake and were able to preach the gospel to people that have never heard the gospel before, because we had in our hands help and care. And so we've done this before a couple of decades ago, and we're going to do it again by God's grace and your help. At the moment we have been feeding and continuing to go up into Ukraine with our teams from Moldova. The situation there is dire — way more dire than your news is telling you.
Philip:Now I know that a lot of politics are involved just now, and you have a lot of folks saying, well, why should we send any help to Ukraine when there's this terrible thing that took place in Ohio? And I agree with that. At the same time, if there's a mother whose husband is fighting or has been killed in the war and she's got a couple of kids or four kids and she's got no food and the Russians have bombed her village and there's no electricity and there's no water — what would Jesus do? What would Jesus call us to do? And what we've been doing is the teams from our ministry in Moldova have been traveling the miles across through the border into Ukraine and carrying the gospel and carrying supplies.
Philip:My son was there last week and fed a thousand people — a thousand folk lined up with no food. It's unbelievable. A week before that they were there and they sent me a video, and I would watch this and get an idea as to how they live. And as you're watching this, put yourself in this situation — and wouldn't you like someone, wouldn't you want someone to pray and ask God to help? Watch this video.
A year ago their world was a happy place. They had jobs, their kids were in school, the corner shop sold bread and cheese and everything else. Their world was just like yours. Until, through the mist and snow, monsters came. The tracks rattled on the ice-packed fields, the guns pointed towards the world they lived in. It takes less than a second to obliterate everything they had spent their lives building. There are no accurate numbers of how many have died. The end is nowhere in sight.
We have been in Ukraine for years. From the first explosion we were involved. We took this assault personally. The orphan's hands could not stand on the sidelines and do nothing. Our amazing group of young men and women did the unimaginable. Once again they drove into a war zone. Once orphans themselves, they have felt personally the hand of grace and redemption. To go to this devastated world seems to them as normal as having a meal or going to church. They drove for hours, unable to stop and stretch their legs, as inches on each side of the vehicles were live mines. Every few miles they were stopped at checkpoints by nervous soldiers. They were running along the line between the Russians and Ukrainians.
Our team finally reached recently liberated cities, still held in the grip of desperation. They had brought food, wood-burning stoves that will save lives in the bitter, deadly cold that is to come. They brought blankets that to many is the only barrier between survival and death. On a dreary day, within the sound of guns and bombs, the most astonishing thing took place. The rescued became the rescuers. Hundreds waited in the rain, shuffling along in a line that ended up in love — smiles, bread, fish, and words of care from the heart of the redeemed.
As they traveled they came across bombed-out villages, scarred by the strife of bullets, destroyed by the landslides of death. Their water, electricity, and everything else was gone. But the wood-burning stove had become the guardian against the deadly cold. We know it is impossible for most to even imagine this world. But by giving and praying together for this unfolding tragedy, we can join our hearts and hands to bring the hope that was sent to Earth by a loving God. If it were us, we would wait in line hoping that someone somewhere was thinking of us. We must go back. Will you send us? Every gift you give allows us to be his hands.
Philip:And since that video we've actually been back, and my son was there and a thousand people came. And I was so proud — his students, an orphan pastor, to see him share the gospel and tell these folks who have lost everything. I mean, you talk about — imagine waking up in the morning and by evening time your house is blown to pieces, everything you know as normal has gone. And that's taking place every single day, every single day. And the two vans that you're looking at, those cargo vans that we have — they carry a great deal, you can see how much stuff they can haul. They are being moved this week from Moldova down to Turkey and we're going to start provisioning these vehicles and hauling all the old gear out and into the earthquake area. And so we're leaving, I believe, this coming Saturday to get to Turkey to begin the process of helping people.
Philip:We need your help. We need your help to help us continue in Ukraine. We need your help to help us in this desperate effort to rescue these Christian families that are struggling mightily under this situation. They live in an environment and a society that is anti-Christian, and so without saying too much, you know what I'm saying — we want to help the body of Christ survive. So please, if you can: PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. It's very simple — just the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. You can go right now to dailyfaith.tv, hit the give button on that site, and you can give right now. Or you can call 833-Daily-Faith, and by doing so you're partnering with us.
Philip:We have been there long before the war. I was in an earthquake in Turkey and helped and brought supplies — a semi-truck load from Scotland, actually, 20-odd years ago when the earthquake happened there before. So this is what we do, along with reaching out to the body of Christ here in America. So please help us if you can, and God will bless you for it.
Philip:I am delighted to have with me Rusty Railey — a great man of God with a great church, my goodness, a great church, and a passion for the world. And Rusty, the first thing I want to do is ask you to correct me. How do you say it? Joliet — there is a T, it's not French. You see, the European part of me sees that and I'm thinking that's Joliét, as a Frenchman would say. But of course I should have known better. How are you doing, my friend?
Rusty Railey:I'm doing wonderful. It's so great to be with you again, Philip. I'm always excited to be with you, and I just admire the ministry of what God has given you and placed in your hands, and I just want to honor you this morning and tell you it's an honor to be here.
Philip:Thank you so much. Your kindness — this has been an amazing year between Ukraine, and then just when we think, you know, this whole thing opens up with Turkey. And I'll be honest with you, the pastor contacted our team in Moldova because of the work we've been doing in Ukraine, and he says, look, what you're doing — we need you here. And he began explaining to the team in Moldova, and it was them that contacted me and said, what can we do? And so they're not just content with going to Ukraine, which will continue — here they are now saying, how can we help the church down in this earthquake zone? So to have kids that you've rescued from an orphanage grow into men and women with a vision and passion like they have is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen anything like it. The orphans we found who became sons and daughters who now are missionaries — it's just amazing.
Philip:God is doing some amazing things in your church. You're telling me that you're about to expand, and from the beginning of this year you felt a real uptick in the moving of the Spirit. Is that correct?
A Change of Seasons Prophetic Word
Rusty Railey:Yeah, we did. Due to a travel schedule, I had to start our 21-day fast a little earlier, which again I thought was just the thing to do, but the Lord had it strategically in my life. Because as I got close to the first Sunday of January, I felt like the Lord signaled to me that it was a change of seasons. And when he said that to me, I said, Lord, what are you saying? And he said these words to me. He said, the dreams of a previous season are now going to become the assignments in this new season.
Rusty Railey:And I said, okay, Lord. And so we started a journey. And you know, in every church your first couple of Sundays in January people are just getting back into the routine, so we didn't have our — probably our faith expectation wasn't where it should have been. But that first Sunday it felt like heaven released, and we had people parking on the grass, we had standing room only. And it hit me that when the Lord said that to me, he really meant it — that there was a changing of seasons, that the dreams that we had are now going to become the assignments.
Rusty Railey:And so I began to teach on that — everything in the kingdom of God comes in seed form. So what does that mean? That means that we must prepare to implement these dreams. In fact, I came across a quote not too long ago from the great theologian Russell Wilson — now I'm joking about that — but he said these words: the separation is always in the preparation. And I began to really hone in on the focus of what the Lord is wanting to do.
Dreams Becoming Kingdom Assignments
Rusty Railey:And so the Lord began to speak to me and he showed me something out of the book of Hebrews, and I think it'll be a really encouraging word for some today. Maybe somebody listening, somebody sharing this. I was reading in the faith chapter, Hebrews 11, and we're very familiar with that. And I never saw this in all my life — how he ends the faith chapter. It's kind of like, you know, when you read the word of God you get to the end and you almost skip that last sentence just to get to the next chapter. And I'm guilty of that. And I was doing it. Let me just read it, because in Hebrews 11:40, the writer — he awakened me to the realization that he closes the faith chapter with sobering words.
Rusty Railey:And he says these words, and I'm going to read it. He says, they should not be made perfect apart from us. Now I've read that before many times and just kept going, right? But I started to study that phrase, as the Lord — I felt like he impressed on my heart to study it. And I realized that when it says they should not be made perfect apart from us, it means they should not be made or brought to completion without us.
Hebrews 11:40 — Made Perfect Together
Rusty Railey:And then when you begin to read Hebrews chapter 12, what hit me was — in other words, all these people that were written about in chapter 11, that's the faith chapter, right? They never can complete what they started without us. And Hebrews 12:1 says, therefore, since we've been surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, he says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that's set before us. Now we both know that the history of Christianity in the earth has always been likened to a race, right? Which again, that's great, because we all get to participate. Now most believers understand that it's not a sprint, but I've heard many believers say it's a marathon. And then it hit me — it's not a marathon, because a marathon can be run alone, without any attachment to anybody else.
The Relay Race vs. the Marathon
Rusty Railey:And I started to really drill down into that — that our pathway of purpose is always tied to others, particularly here in this scripture to those that have come before us and those that will come after us. And it hit me, and I started to teach on this, that we are running a relay race. That's what we're really running. So Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, the New Testament saints, the apostles, the martyrs, our loved ones that have blazed the trail for us — they all ran their leg of the race. And what did they do? They passed the baton to somebody else.
Rusty Railey:And the scripture says, having completed their turn, where did they go? They went into the place of the grandstands in heaven. Now I've always known that part. What caught me by surprise was when I felt impressed of the Lord that they want us to win — not because they're just in heaven like, yeah, rah rah rah, win — but they can't finish without us. Have we ever seen an event where they handed out awards before the race was over? And it mind-blew me. It energized our congregation to realize we matter. People in heaven are waiting for their reward based on whether we finish.
Saints in Heaven Awaiting Our Finish
Rusty Railey:And I started telling them, Moses needs us now. Paul needs us now. I have never seen that. And so I started talking about this, and I noticed there was a thirst that began to happen in the congregation, because greatness has a remarkable thirst. And I started to talk about the dreams that God had that are now the assignments, and why they're the assignments — because people already in heaven and the people behind us will never get rewarded if we don't finish our leg of the race. It's that big of a deal, because scripture says without us they cannot be made perfect.
Rusty Railey:I'd never seen that before in my life. Never. It revolutionized how I'm leading, it revolutionized everything I do. And we have always been an intentional church, but now we're trying to say, okay, let's look around the corner, because we can't win until we help them win. The ones behind us will never win if we don't win. And then the Holy Spirit started to show me — it's coming in seed form, but we've got to implement, because dreams don't die in the vision stage. They die in the implementation stage. I wonder how many frustrated saints of God in heaven today are like, come on, somebody please finish, because I can't get rewarded until we finish the race.
Rusty Railey:And that right there has revolutionized — and I think it was the catalyst moment as we began to run into this new year. And we're going to talk about the building program and all these things. Our congregation is just so hungry to make a difference. Not a difference — we've changed the language — we're making the difference. The difference.
Philip:I can see that. And we've started to go into this new calendar year, and this is what I told them, and maybe this will encourage somebody. We talk a lot about the body of Christ, of who we are in Christ, and we know that's important. But I've never heard anybody talk about how to understand where you are in God's calendar. And I thought I've been really honing in on that, because it's important you know who you are, but it's also important to know where you are in God's calendar.
Rusty Railey:And the minute I pushed in on that, the Lord began to talk to me about it. He began to reveal it to me. And I know it'll be different for everybody, but I would encourage people to ask the Lord, where am I at in your calendar? Because I'm in this relay race. It's not a marathon. I'm not alone. And there are people cheering me on right now because they can't be made perfect, they can't receive the reward, unless I finish my race.
Rusty Railey:And that has been a major motivator. It's been a major — I think it has just unleashed something in the body of Christ around here. And I've even seen it around our team and our church. People realize, man, my life does matter. People are waiting on me to finish. And I get it — the separation is always in the preparation, because greatness has that kind of a thirst. And so I've watched our volunteers — I think we've onboarded more volunteers in the last month than we have in the last six, because people are hungry to make the difference, to keep the kids always — man, I just want to encourage, if you're in a waiting season, realize that's God's incubation season. But there's coming a moment.
Philip:Because this is the word the Lord told me. He said, son, it's your turn now. And that word has been resonating. Thirty-three years ago I was sitting in my house in Montgomery, Alabama. I'd come to America, I'd moved over here. I'd written a book that had sold 300,000 copies. I was on all the TV shows. Oral Roberts was my friend. I mean, all the boxes that I wanted to check, I checked. I was 30-odd years of age, 37 years of age, and the phone rang. It was my dad, and he said our babies are dying. I said, what are you talking about? He said, I'm watching the BBC — the British Broadcasting — there's babies dying. And that began an assault on me by my dad about these orphans in Romania.
Knowing Where You Are in God's Calendar
Philip:And it made me go. He said, if you won't go with me, I'll go by myself, and if I die on the way, it's your fault. He was recovering from cancer surgery. We didn't know if the cancer had spread. I had no idea that he was preparing a race for me. He's been in heaven for 22 years now. I adopted a boy in the orphanage that I first helped — that God used as a hook in my jaw to make me keep running this race. And here I am now sending my son — the adopted son that I found in the orphanage. He is now going forward. He's going to Turkey this week. He was in Moldova two weeks ago. So what's happening is I can see this baton.
Philip:And the times I'll talk to my dad — I don't think he's got busier things, more important things to do than listen to me talk — but I'll say to him, Dad, I'm still here. I'm still running. I'm still going. Because I am very aware that when you're passed the baton, you don't drop it. When you're passed something, all the running, all the agony that the guys behind you have expended, all the pain and the shortness of breath and the stitches in their side from running against everything — all of it is in that baton. Everything. When they put that in your hand, all the way back to Moses, as you said, everything is in that baton. And saying, okay, now it's your turn.
Philip's Personal Relay Race Story
Philip:You've just shown me in scripture what I've known in my spirit for years. That's just what the Lord did for me. And to encourage those who are in a waiting season — you know, Psalms 30 says weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. I like to say it this way: joy is the reward of the harvester who endures. Joy is the reward of the harvester who endures. They that go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, will doubtless come again bringing the harvest.
Philip:I know I've got a couple of minutes left today, and I know there are pastors watching, and what you've just articulated into their spirit has let them see, oh my Lord, I'm not doing this alone. I'm not in this time zone of beginning and end — this is a continuum that continues. It's like Interstate 10 from Los Angeles all the way across to Jacksonville. You can go on and go off, and many have gone on, but the road continues and the challenge continues. And how about — give us, if you will, pray for the pastors watching us today. You tell them, and the moms and the dads who are saying, I'm in this race not just for me, but I'm handing this thing forward to the next generation.
Rusty Railey:Absolutely. I would be honored to do that, and I just want to encourage people — do not quit. You're living in the greatest days right now. You're living in the greatest days. Jesus always saves his best for last. He waited to turn that water into wine when the party was almost over, and the wine steward said, hey man, this is the best I've ever tasted. He always saves his fastest runners, his best runners, for the last. Those who do not quit — it matters. And we are taking this thing home. I believe it.
Prayer for Endurance and the Harvest
Rusty Railey:Yes. Amen. Jesus, I thank you for today, and I pray for all those watching. I pray for those wonderful pastors that have been enduring, Lord. They've been sowing seed, they've been watering the seed, Lord. May they realize that joy is coming in the morning and we are in that last leg of this journey. And I just sense there is a moment and there's a movement in the earth. I can hear the sound of abundance in the earth. I can hear the sound of the mighty outpouring of God and what he's going to do. The enemy has overplayed his hand and now it's God's turn.
Rusty Railey:And Lord, we thank you. And so Lord, we're going to hold on, because your word declares those who endure to the end shall be saved. That means those that are listening that are saved, we have to endure. But I believe right now it's the body of Christ's turn now. I believe this season is now. The harvest is ripe, and I believe the greatest movement of God is in the earth and we are going to get to see it as we finish this race, because our race matters. What we do matters for the kingdom of God, because people are counting on us — both in front of us and behind us.
Rusty Railey:Lord, give us the stamina, give us the grit, give us the courage to go another day in your presence, trusting in your grace and believing for the greatest victory, because it's not behind us, it's in front of us. I pray right now in Jesus' name for that release over those watching. In your name, Lord, we pray, and in that great name we pray. Amen and amen.
Philip:Amen. Whoa. What a thought. I can't wait to go to a church and start preaching that the way it ought to be preached. I'm telling you now, that is something. The Lord spoke to me about — I would say in praise and worship — the song that we are singing now is not a new song. It's the song of Moses from the beginning of time. And like the interstate, one day I was praying and he showed me like Interstate 10 from Los Angeles to Jacksonville. And it began way back in Los Angeles and they began to sing, and as that has progressed and moved forward it may have changed flavors and changed design and stuff, but as they go off as their time ends, the next generation comes on to the interstate and keeps the song going. And that's exactly what you're talking about. I am only a baton carrier for the next generation.
Philip:Rusty, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Please come back again anytime. We love having you with us. You can go to see him — if you're anywhere in Joliet, Illinois, he has Victory City Church. It's on Nursing Home Road and the website is victorycity.com. And they have got some incredible purposes in the next few weeks — they're starting to build a brand new building, and I believe that God is going to open the windows of heaven and provide beyond our wildest understanding.
Philip:Thank you, Rusty, for being with us today.
Rusty Railey:Thank you, Philip. God bless you.
Philip:God bless you. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. You are a blessing to us. We pray that you will stand with us as we are believing God for our next adventure in Turkey, along with Ukraine and Moldova. We thank you for your time with us today. We'll see you again soon. Bye-bye.
Common questions
What did Rusty Railey mean when he said the Christian life is a relay race, not a marathon?
Rusty explained that a marathon can be run alone, but our purpose is always tied to others — those who came before us and those who will come after us. Figures like Abraham, Moses, and Paul ran their leg of the race and passed the baton forward, and now they're in the grandstands of heaven waiting for us to finish ours.
Why does Rusty say people already in heaven are counting on us to finish the race?
He pointed to Hebrews 11:40, which says the heroes of faith 'should not be made perfect apart from us' — meaning they cannot be brought to completion, or receive their reward, without us finishing our leg of the race. That realization, he said, completely revolutionized how he leads and how his congregation sees their own lives.
What did God tell Rusty at the start of the new year that set the tone for his church?
During a 21-day fast, Rusty felt the Lord signal a change of seasons and speak these specific words to him: 'The dreams of a previous season are now going to become the assignments in this new season.' That word, he said, was confirmed the very first Sunday of January when attendance exploded and people were parking on the grass.
What does Rusty mean when he says dreams die in the implementation stage, not the vision stage?
Rusty taught that everything in the kingdom of God comes in seed form, which means dreams must be actively prepared for and implemented — not just envisioned. He warned that many saints in heaven may be frustrated because someone on earth never moved from dreaming to doing, leaving the relay race unfinished.
What encouragement did Rusty offer to people who feel like they're in a waiting season?
Rusty urged them not to quit, saying a waiting season is actually God's incubation season and that 'there's coming a moment.' He also reminded viewers that Jesus always saves his best for last — just as he saved the finest wine for the end of the wedding feast — and that the greatest movement of God is still ahead.
Topics
rusty rileyvictory city churchhebrews 11relay race of faithchristian legacyendurancejoliet illinois