Church Gone Wild, Week 6

Tim Rivers | August 18, 2024

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Transcription

What's up everybody? Can you give Jesus some praise in the place? Come on now. Are you glad to be here today? I'm glad that you're here. Is so good to see everyone in this place. If you are visiting with us, a guest with us, we'd like to say Welcome to Embassy City Church. We are delighted that you are here and for all those that are watching online, hey, can we give all of our online family big, warm welcome? I don't know if you know this or not, but there is many people watching online as there are in the room, and many people go back and listen to the podcast, watch online, and we actually, I was just told that we had the 2000000th download on our podcast. That's pretty awesome, isn't it? Lemme tell you why. That's awesome. It means that 2 million times, the word of God entered into somebody's ear. I got to say it again. That means at least 2 million times the word of God entered in somebody's ear. How many know that the gospel changes things? Yes. Alright, grab your bibles. We're going to one Corinthians chapter nine, the book of one Corinthians chapter nine. We are continuing in our series called Church Gone Wild and can you believe that this is our sixth message in the series and we haven't even gotten past chapter nine That just tells you how much content is in here. Before we get any further, can we just give a big thank you to Mike Kelsey last week

Bringing that word. Oh my goodness. Abide in my love. What a foundational message that was preached so eloquently. It was so good, so good. Alright, well I've got a word for somebody today and I hope you came ready to hear it because it's going to change somebody's life and everybody say amen. One Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 24. Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, somebody say, everyone, everyone, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize, so run to win. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an internal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I'm not just shadow boxing, I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified. Alright, here's my subject is coming from the last part of verse number 24, so run to win. My title for today is Run to Win. Look at your neighbors, the neighbor, if you're going to run, if you going to run, run to win, run to win. Look at your other neighbor, say neighbor, if you're going to run, run to win, run to win. And all the winners give God some praise.

I don't know about you, but I love to win. I can't stand losing If you've ever played a game with me, we may be friends before the game and after the game, but while we play the game, I'm trying to play to win. Can I tell you that when you're running for Jesus, it's time to run, to win. God don't want you just to barely make it into heaven, just wheezing on your way in. He wants you to run like you're going for gold, run like you want to win. Run to the finish line. Oh Lord, let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. I thank you Lord for allowing us to be in your presence. I pray that in the next few moments as we get into your word, you'd give us ears to hear a heart, to receive a mind, to understand what the spirit would say to us. Help us to run with purpose. Help us to see that you want us to win, not just in a life to come, but in the life that we are living right now. Do what only you can do. We give you name, the praise, the glory and the honor because you're worthy of it in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, so they tell me that confession is good for the soul

And so I got to confess something. I want to be hot, honest, open, transparent. I want to tell you all the truth. I want y'all to know a little bit more about me. So here it is. I don't like to run. I don't like to run just to run. In fact, let me just tell you this. If you see me running, you better follow me because most likely I'm running from something and we're going to have to get up out of here. And I know there are people that they love running, they're marathon runners. There are people who love, I mean that's their therapy, right? Man, I'm just going to go for a run. Lemme tell you, if I go for a run, that's when I need to go to therapy. I'm not those types of people that love to run and I can guarantee you, I can say this with confidence, I've never experienced what runners call a runner's high and a runner's high is what runners, what they say happens when you run at a certain point in your running, you hit a stride and you have a euphoric experience and they say it's so euphoric that it's addictive. I can guarantee you

I have never had that problem.

Now I will run as part of an exercise routine because I know it's good for your health, it's good for your cardiovascular system, but I'm not just going to run just to run. If I run, I have to run with purpose. If I run, it's because I'm racing someone or I'm running from something. And although I don't race and I don't run on a regular basis, I join millions of people as I watch the Olympics happen. And there are some people that were able to go to the Olympics. There's some even in this room that have went and I'm not jealous at all and I don't want to bring them into this because I don't want beo bon nibo to feel bad, but most of us regular people we're at home watching on the couch. And it's interesting when you're watching a foot race, especially, I love watching a foot race because I'm very fascinated by the runner's ability to spend a lifetime training for one opportunity to win gold. The Olympics happen every four years and these Olympic runners from all around the world who are the best in their countries come to run for a chance to win first place. Now, it's easy for all of us who are sitting on the couch

Eating chips, drinking soda to cheer on our favorite athlete as long as they get gold. But we're one of the only countries that if you get anything less than gold, we don't even remember your name. Tell me if you remember who won silver eight years ago. There's very few of us that would know, but we know who won gold. What's interesting is we can sit there and we can criticize the athletes who lost by a thousandth of a second. This is why it's good to have a goatee, so you just have a little more of a chance. And it's crazy to me to watch this happen, but it's the athlete actually who has spent a lifetime training, discipline, preparing, sacrificing. They're saying no to chicken wings, they're saying no to cookies and cream ice cream. They're saying no to bomb balls and candies and they're training their body because they want to win. And every athlete that goes to the Olympics knows that there's only one gold medal that's going to be handed out every four years per event.

Think about that.

What I'll have also about the Olympics is that it kind of goes against what culture is trying to emphasize. Now with our children in the Olympics, there's only one gold and the winner gets the gold today in schools, everybody gets the participation trophy. Listen, I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that you're participating. I'm glad that you're running, but only one person's going to be a winner. And even the ones that get the participation trophy know that there's still only one winner. It is always interesting when you play a game or a sport and people tell you ahead of time, man, I'm just doing this for fun. I'm not really doing this to win that they are used to losing. If they come with a stack of dominoes and they're like, Hey listen, I'm not trying to win, I'm just trying to have fun. Go to that table with all the other people that love losing. Alright, alright, see, now y'all know if y'all ever played me in a game, we're going to play to win. Here's the thing, when you read the scripture, especially this passage right here, it's interesting that when Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he doesn't say run to finish.

He doesn't say run to participate. In fact, we have just gone through the first nine chapters of Corinthians and all through Corinthians, he's talking about all the wild things that are happening in the church. He said, man, there's fornication. There's people suing each other. There's people who are denying the doctrines of the faith. There's all these issues. Why would Paul, in the middle of all of this, stop and say, Hey, I want to talk about some sports. He stops in the middle of all this theological conversation and he begins to talk about an athlete running and an athlete boxing. And it's interesting to me, we've got to pay attention to this fact that Paul doesn't give people an out just because they're participating in being in the church. He doesn't say, Hey, congratulations, you're now saved. He says, if you are going to run to win, if you are going to do this, do it all the way. No Patty kicking, no kicking back, no slowing down, no taking it easy. If you are going to do it, do it. What's interesting is many want to win, but few are willing to pay the cost.

Now let me give you a little bit of context so you understand why Paul would use this analogy when he's writing to the Corinthians. So the Olympic game started in 7 76 bc. So almost 3000 years ago is when the Olympics started and it started in Olympia, Greece. And when it started, it actually just started as a single foot race. What's interesting is that the Olympic games were actually a ritual, a religious ritual that happened as the athletes were participating as an offering or as a festival to the God Zeus. So if you know about Zeus, Zeus is a mythical God in Greek mythology that actually is the God or the ruler of all other Greek gods and goddesses. And so the athletes would gather, they had had to be Greek, they had to be men, they couldn't be slaves, and they would enter into the Olympics from different types of cities and then they would participate in these sports.

And by Paul's day there were certain sports that were the highlights. One was a foot race, there was wrestling, there was boxing, and then for the wealthy there was chariot races. And what's interesting is as these races would happen, they happened every four years. The winners of the races became heroes in their city. So they would win a race and then they'd get back into their city and they would be welcomed with opulence and great fair. In fact, if you were the winner, they would erect the statue of you in the city. If you didn't win, it was shameful. You'd have public humiliation. In Paul's day, they didn't have silver and bronze. You either won. Oh you didn't. You were either first and if you're not first you're what? Last, last

And what's interesting in Paul, specifically in Corinth, so the Olympics happened in Olympia, Greece, but there was another event that was attached to it called Isan games and this is actually originated in Corinth and it every two years. So if you keep up with Olympics, the Olympics happen every four years, but then you have the World Athletics Series that happen every two years. So this was basically like the World Series back in Paul's day, and what Paul says is that all the runners that participate in the Olympics or in the Isan games, they run to win but only one wins. And he says that they practice and they discipline themselves and they get ready to run and all they get for winning, they don't get gold, they don't get a trophy, they get a crown made out of olive branches that withers away in just a few days. He says, but for us,

We're also in a race, but we're not racing to get an olive leaf crown. We are racing for an eternal prize. And Paul draws this correlation between a runner who is running in a physical race and being a Christian, and the reason he is spending the time to address the things that are going on in the church is because he's trying to remind the people in Corinth that when you run, you are not just running to barely get into heaven, you are running because when you get to heaven, you want to say I gave God everything I had for as long as I had. I ran to win. How many people Christians are in the back of the pact barely jogging, just trying to make it to heaven, just barely hanging on. I want to do the bare minimum that God requires of me. I'm just trying to get to the pearl gates. How many Christians do you know that the only reason why they participate in Christianity is because they don't want to go to hell? This was the condition of the people that Corinth, they were trying to figure out how much can I get away with but still be in the race?

And there are Christians who are getting lapped right now who are in the way backpack and they don't really even care. They're just glad, Hey, I'm just glad to be in the Olympics. Can I tell you that if you show up to the Olympics representing your country,

The United States and you ain't running for gold, you ain't going to be there very long. Here's the thing. God doesn't just want you to run this race, but he wants you to run to win and you want to know why? Because we serve a God who's a winner, winner, winner. Chicken dinner. Can I tell you that God is not a God who barely makes it. He's not a God who is a bronze medalist. He's not a God who just barely makes things happen. He's not a God who barely wins. He is a God who has never lost ever. God has always won every enemy that tried to come at God, God wins over them. Every disease, God wins over God is a winner over disease. God is a winner over marital trauma. God is a winner over drama in your life. God is a winner. When you don't have nothing else, you can go to God and God is a you serve a winning God. Do you know that? And because God is a winner and you are a child of God, God wants you. Maybe I'm just preaching to myself, but I don't want to live this life losing. I don't want to just be in the back of the pack. I don't want to just barely get to heaven. I want to live for God on the winning side.

So if you're going to run the win, there's some things that you need in your life. So if you have your notes, I want to teach a little bit, there are four things that you need if you're going to run to win. Number one is you need focus. Somebody say focus, focus. Let's look at one Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 24. Do you realize, don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, somebody say, everyone,

Everyone

But only one person gets the prize, so run to win. I love that Paul says everyone runs. Not everyone runs the same speed. Not everyone runs the same distance, but everyone has an opportunity to run. But then he says, only one gets the prize. Can I tell you that every Christian, somebody say every Christian, every Christian, every Christian is in the race. When you said yes to Jesus and you said yes to him being the Lord of your life, you just lined up in the blocks and when you said yes, you took off and now you're in a race. Everyone runs. Now here's the difference. Difference. Some are running from something while others are running towards something. What determines whether or not you're running from something or towards something is your focus. It is impossible to win when you're focused on running from something. Lemme say it again. It is impossible to win when you're focused on running from something. Some people, the only reason why they have become Christian is to outrun their past. There are people who the only reason why they became Christians is because they're trying to outrun the party lifestyle. They're trying to outrun their addiction, they're trying to outrun their trauma, trying to outrun the drama in their life. And can I tell you, as long as you are looking back, you will never win

Because as long as you're focused on running from your past, you are not running to win. You're just running not to lose. Alright, y'all want some examples? I got you. Remember lot's wife?

God says, listen, I'm going to rescue y'all. I'm going to pull you out of Simon Gamora and I'm going to send you to a new place and here's the only stipulation when you run, don't look back so lot is booking it with his wife and he's like, we don't have her name. So whatever her name is, Michelle, Michelle don't look back.

And she is dying to look back. Now the city is up in flames, nothing's surviving. There's really no reason to look back. It's going up in smoke. Everything's been their past has been taken care of. God has destroyed the thing that was about to destroy them. God's taking care of the thing that was trying to keep them locked in. God was destroying everything that was intended to destroy them. God was deliberating out of their past and while they're running, there was no reason to look back. Can I just stop and tell you there is no reason for you to look back at what God delivered you from the heartache that those drugs brought you. You know all the drama that those relationship had when God said, I'm burning it up. There's no reason to keep looking at their Facebook and checking their Instagram. Some of y'all deleting your search history right now. God said, look, don't look back. You know what lot's wife did? You know what Michelle did? She took a look back and when she took a look back, guess what happened? She turned salty. I'm preaching that y'all don't even realize it when you look back at the past that God is trying to destroy in your life, you get salty.

That's why some people are just pillars of salty all the time because you're looking back too much. Jesus said it like this in Luke chapter nine, verse 62, but Jesus said and told him, he said anyone, somebody said anyone. Anyone who puts the hands of the plow and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. You know why? Because you can't plow straight while you're looking back. You can't go straight ahead if you constantly are looking back. Some of y'all wondering why your spiritual neck is hurting,

You got a crick in your neck, stop looking back. You cannot win as long as you're focused on what's behind you. So how can you focus on running to win? Here we go. Hebrews chapter 12 verse one through two. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, here again, the writer of Hebrews is giving us a sports analogy of us being in a stadium surrounded by witnesses. Again, if you had the privilege and the opportunity to go to the Olympics, you are part of the witnesses that are witnessing history. The reason why the witnesses are going crazy, the crowd is going, spectators are going crazy. It's because they're watching their athlete run and they want them to win because when they win, they win. Let us strip off every weight that slows us down. KJV says every sin that that so easily beset us, especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance the race God has set. Where could you imagine a backwards race? There's a reason why your legs are created for you to move forward. Let us run with endurance to race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus,

The champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross regarding its shame. Now he's seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. He is the champion of champions. Why? Because when he took off, he was focused. If you want to run the wind, you have got to stay focused on what's in front of you, which is Jesus. Stop living for Jesus just to outrun the devil because as long as you're living as a Christian just to outrun the devil, looking back is going to slow you down. The only time you can look back is never point number two. So number one, you need what? Focus. Focus. Number two, you need discipline. Nobody likes that word. One Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 25. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. The word discipline means to beat or wear down. Literally what Paul is saying is that all athletes, they beat themselves down in training. Now, this is not the type of penance that you see out here where people are flawing themselves and crawling on their knees. This is the type where you take your flesh and you bring it under the subjection of the spirit. You've heard the term no pain, no. Did you know that? If you want to build muscle, you got to break it down first. If you want to build muscle, you got to work through resistance that you know anyone lift weights or you work out. I know some of y'all do,

Right? If you work out and you want to build muscle, the way you build muscle is you got to do what resistance. You need resistance in your life, and guess what? It's not just resistance that you're waiting on. You have to intentionally go to the gym and work out the muscle group that you want to increase. So if you want to live for God, you have to grow an appetite for God. We're reading in the Bible, I can't get down with it. Well, maybe because your appetite isn't about that yet. So what do you do? You read the Bible anyways until you grow the appetite for it, you're not going to start eating vegetables. If you've been eating candy all day, you got to start with a couple of just a cup of vegetables and a cup of vegetables and all of a sudden the candy don't taste as good anymore. If you are going to run the Christian life, you have to exercise discipline winners don't make loser habits. Winners don't have loser habits. What does that mean? Paul, remember is talking in one Corinthians to who? The church and he says, listen, the reason why I'm even spending time writing this letter to you telling you not to do some of the things that y'all are doing is because I need y'all to exercise discipline, self-control.

The reason why you need self-control in your life is because the flesh will try to control you,

But as a Christian, you need to control your flesh. If you have no discipline, your body will control you instead of you control your body. Remember we talked about this two weeks ago where when you have received the liberty, Christian liberty, it's actually the ability to say what? No, no to the bad habits that have caused you more pain that have caused you. Can I tell you that some of the habits that we have just cause us to lose every time? So if you want to reverse losing, you got to start getting winning habits. Here's what Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11 says, no discipline is enjoyable. Why? It happens and somebody say, amen.

Amen.

I don't like green beans. I do love corn smothered in butter and salted

Right?

I love salad, I love lettuce, tomatoes, onions between two pieces of bread and a hundred percent Angus beef wa go preferably. But if I'm going to discipline my body, I have to do some things that I don't enjoy, but look at what the writer says. It's painful, but afterwards, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Did you know that being a Christian takes training? Oh, so y'all just thought you could be saved and coast? No. There is a heavenly gin that we participate in every day. You got to lift those weights, you got to get some resistance. I know that this sermon series, for instance, has hurt some feelings. You got to gr, go ahead and look in the mirror if you need to. You got to do the heavy lifting. You got to have discipline in your life if you're going to run to win. If not, you ain't going to win. Alright, point number three. So you need focus, you need discipline, you need purpose. First Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 26. So I run with purpose. I love this in every step.

I'm not just shadow boxing. I love this because what Paul is saying is that when you run to win, you have to have purpose in every step that you take, and for many people, they may be purposed in one area of their life and undisciplined and unfocused in other areas of their life, but if you're actually going to run to win, especially when you watch these athletes running the one meter for instance, that's not a long way. I mean it's a long way for some of this, but it ain't for these Olympic athletes. They have 10 seconds essentially to win, which means that every step from the moment that you leave the blocks has to count the way you take off, the way you elevate, the way you get to the straightaway. Every step has got to count, and Paul says, every step in your Christian life has to have purpose. You cannot. Purpose means intention. It's literally what the word means. It means that when you run, you have to run with intention. There's no such thing as an accidental Christian. You don't just, oh wow, I'm saved. Oh, I don't know how, but I just ended up in heaven. No, being a Christian means

That you're intentional. In fact, the only surprise that the scripture gives us about professing Christians, you're not going to be surprised to get to heaven. The only surprise that the scripture tells us you're going to be surprised when you don't. Isn't that what the scripture says? Many will come to me on that day and say, well, have we not cast out demons and done all this stuff? And Jesus say, I never knew you because you didn't have purpose. You were running but you were running the opposite. Just because you are on the track don't mean that you're in the race. Yo, that wasn't even in my notes. I'm going to have to write that one down. Romans chapter eight, verse number 28, and we know that God calls us everything to work together. We love quoting this scripture, but check this out, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose

For them. Again, the word purpose means intention. So everything works out for the good to those who are called according to the intention that God has for them, not just anything in life. We throw the scripture around way too much for people that ain't living right. Oh, don't worry, you have no discipline and you have no focus and you have no purpose but everything going to work out right? That's where you do your mouth a little bit. I'm sorry, only for those who are going toward the intention that God has for their life and God's intention for you is for you to win. God wants you to win. God doesn't want you to suffer. You are going to suffer at times, but he doesn't want you just to look at living for God as a drudgery. He wants you to live for him. Running to win with intention, with purpose. Here's the fourth and last point. You need focus. You need discipline, you need purpose. Here's the fourth one. You need endurance. Somebody say endurance. Endurance. One Corinthians chapter nine, verse number 27. I discipline my body like an athlete training it to do what it should. Otherwise somebody say otherwise. Otherwise. In other words, if I don't discipline my body like an athlete and if I don't train,

Then I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified. The word disqualified is the word that means phony. Paul says, if I don't discipline myself and I don't train my body, then me going through the motions of being a Christian is phony. It means fraudulent having a misleading appearance. In other words, Paul says, if I don't train my body and if I don't exercise discipline, if I don't have purpose in my life, it's like me putting on that little tight soup and getting up to the starting line, but having no ability to run the race. And here's, oh, Lord.

See, for most of us, we look at these athletes and if you win silver, it's still pretty good. And if you win bronze, it's great and we give them accolades because they are competing at the highest level in the world. But in Paul's day, here's what would happen to athletes that didn't win. They were shamed for it. If you didn't get gold, you were a loser. You would come home and they'd throw tomatoes or whatever fruits at you, they would curse your name and then you had to live in that for four years for another opportunity to maybe get gold or move. That's if you didn't win. But they had a whole nother response if you were disqualified and you would be disqualified if you didn't go by the rules, if you had a false start, if you quit in the middle of the race, the biggest one is if you quit, and you know what they would do with people that were disqualified, they would not only shame you, but they'd have a public flogging for those who were disqualified. They'd bring 'em before everybody and whip 'em.

And the reason why they would do that is because they wanted the public to know that if you are going to be in the race, you better race to win. We know that only one person wins, but everybody that's running needs to run like they're winning. In other words, if you quit, if you give up, if you throw in a towel, if you don't obey the rules, you will be disqualified. In other words, you'll be called a phony. You shouldn't even got in the race. Now, my words, Paul's words, Paul says, if I end my race early, I shouldn't have even started.

My favorite race in the Olympics this year, it was all of 'em were great, but one of my favorites to watch was the 1500 because in the 1500 race men's 1500, there were two favorites. There was Kerr and Ing Brison. Ritson is from Norway and Kerr is from Great Britain and they were the favorites. They were the ones that were racing. One was the world champion and one was the Olympic champion, and they were in the race and really the announcers and everything didn't pay really much attention to anybody else except for these two runners. So they'd take off running 1500 meters. Lemme tell you something, by the time I got to the 50th meter, I'd be like, I'll take the flogging.

They're running and we've got two American runners in there. One guy's name is Hawker and they're running and it's getting to the two minute and then it gets to three minutes and they're in their last lab, and as they get in their last lab, they're booking it and the announcer is talking about it's a tight race between Kerr and Engel Brison, who's going to be first? Engel Brison in the front Kerr and second wait. Here comes Hawker Hawker's in fourth Hawker's in fifth Hawker's coming around the bend and they're running like their life depends on it, and right as they turn that last turn

And they're running with all that, they have much to the surprise of the announcers. Everyone watching call

Who placed, I think it was sixth in Tokyo and seventh in the world, athletics. He didn't even make it on the podium. Passes third passes second, and with 10 meters to go 10 meters, he passes the world champion to win first place and it shocks the world because this guy wasn't even on the radar. He wasn't supposed to win. He wasn't supposed to make it. He wasn't with the elite. His name wasn't even mentioned in the announcement. He was a sick, he didn't even make it to the podium for the last several years. He had no medals. He had no trophies. He was a nobody to everybody else, but Cole Hacker made up in his mind that if I'm going to run, I'm going to run to win and if I got 10 meters to spare, I'm not going to give up and quit just because people think that I'm not a first place winner. I'm here to preach and tell somebody People have discounted you. People have thought you were going to quit early. People wanted to disqualify you, but am I looking at some people here today that will make up in their mind that if I'm going to run, I'm going to run to win. I'm going to run past my trauma. I'm going to run past the drama in my life. I'm going to run past my bat.

I may just be preaching to myself, but you are in a race. I'm looking for somebody who's going to run to win. Quit. Quit just being satisfied with just making it. God don't want you just to barely make it. Can I talk to some gray-haired saints? You've been running for Jesus a long time and you missed that last part. I've been running for Jesus a long time and I'm not tired yet. Why? Because I'm running to win. This ain't about how fast you are. It is about how much endurance do you have while you're running the race? I know there's some people that you feel like quitting. There's some people watching online. You done bowed out of the race, you done threw in the towel, you done quit,

You got to run and you got to run the wind. You got to run on purpose. You got to run with intention. You got to run for your children, you got to run for your family, you got to run for your marriage. Come on, you got to run for your neighbor. You can't quit. You know why? Because people are waiting for you. There's a cloud of witnesses that are cheering you on and they're saying, I don't care if you're seven or 70, you got to run like you want to win. Who am I preaching, Joe? Are there any winners in the house? Why is this guy up here yelling? Because if I yell for Noah Lys, I'll yell for you and I'm telling you, you better go. You better run. You better get out of the blocks. Stop waiting around. The reason why, Hey, let me tell you something. The reason why they line them up side by side is because they don't want you focused on who's behind you, who's beside you, who's got a world record? Oh man, they're really a Christian that don't matter. Run your race. Oh, Lord have mercy. Oh, I've never seen a race

Where it's quiet. Ain't no golf claps in a race. The reason why we get loud is because we are running y'all. Second Timothy chapter four, verse number seven, this is Paul's last epistle that he writes to Timothy. This is literally the last letter that he writes and this is what he says. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my race and I have remained faithful, and now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on the day of his return, and the prize is not just for me, so you mean I don't have to write epistles to get a prize? You mean that it ain't just Paul or Peter or Barnabas or Matthew? It ain't just the disciples. You mean this is what available for what all who eagerly look forward to his appearing? Are you eagerly waiting and running for Jesus? Are you eagerly with anticipation and with grit and with determination? Are you running after Jesus? Don't just be a Christian. Come on. Who's satisfied with status quo?

Run to win.

Why am I preaching this message? There are people in here. You're just trying to survive and there are moments in your life where it is just about survival. I don't know if you watched the 400 meter race. It don't matter what your face looks like. You ever notice, not everyone can pass by and look at the camera. Some of us got the ugly face going, right? If you see me out here running, it ain't going to look nice, but I'm booking it because I'm trying to win. Is anybody trying to win? Am I talking to a room of people that don't just want to live a status quo Christian life, but you want to run to win in this life? I'm not just waiting to enjoy heaven. I want to enjoy my life down here. Want to? If I got to run by myself, I'll run by myself. I run against my own time if I need to, but I want gold. I don't want bronze. I don't want silver. I don't want to be disqualified. I need a run for gold.

Stand here feet across this place and give God some praise. I am done because I'm about to run.

Do it.

This is my encouragement. Don't you walk out of here with your head down low. You may have some stress in your life. Go to therapy, talk to somebody and then run. Well, my marriage is jacked up. Run to the altar, get some prayer. Grab your spouse by the hand and take off running. Run to win. Don't run because you got nothing. This ain't a jog. It's a run.

Just put your hands together.

Somebody used to say the Holy Ghost told me the Holy Ghost, holy Ghost, everything. The Holy Ghost, everything's alright.

Somebody give God some praise in this place. It's going to be alright. Run the win. Somebody said, run to win. I want you to walk out of here with that mindset. You're going to run the win run into your job. Even if you've got to physically run to your desk, triple out. Your boss is going to be like, why are you running? I'm running to win. God's got a plan for your life. God has intention for your life. Run after it hard and somebody say, amen. We want our altar team to go ahead and come our prayer team to come up and come. Hey, listen. If there's anything that you need prayer for, maybe you need prayer for strength to run this race, come up here and get some prayer. If not, encourage somebody high five somebody. Let 'em know how much you love them and tell them if you're going to run the win. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for your grace. I pray God, that every person that has heard this word that it would be seed that's fallen into good ground, that it would be sprout forth in the fruitfulness. Even this week. We give you name, the praise, the glory in the honor in Jesus name and everybody say amen. We love you'll see you here next week.