Run the Race

Mm hmmm, it's.

Okay, that's speak right, it's back.

It's working. It's working now.

M h I think it's I think it's the boy.

I might swap it when I got okay, can we

do the first song? Battle belongs.

So when I'm.

Fine, a fine on my knees with my hand lifted high.

Oh God, the battle belongs to.

Everything.

The battleville longs to. You will never run out.

Your bank account will always be fall amen, because the

Kingdom of God will never run out if you sow

to the kingdom.

Amen.

Second, with us, they're all the way from Calgary and Canada.

Ian leads the network we're part of, so he's responsible

for I guess with all the other networks. We're connected

with thousands of churches around the world, probably in a

country near you if you're from a different country. So

in we've known one another for too long, haven't we.

There's a network. But actually the reality is this never

too long because he's going to be for eternity anyway. So,

so Ian came across in about came across and they

spoke at a conference that many of us were at

just last week. Wow, well, goodness, time flies, So please

make yourself at home in You're a dear friend. You're

going to come and preach the word to us. Are

we ready to hear church?

Yep?

So, Father God, I pray that you bless him as

he brings the word this morning, Open our ears, open

our hearts, and for those listening online. Father, I pray

that there will be a moment of change and an

impact and a blessing in Jesus' name. Amen, VAL's got

a few first, Okay, We've got the star coming first.

Oh.

It is such a privilege to be with you, such

a joy to have seen this church body growing and

knowing what God is doing and accomplishing. And I just

want to command David and Julia and team for the

faithfulness of all the years. I just had a little

word of encouragement I wanted to.

Bring to you.

Thought's okay. It comes out of for Samuel fourteen, the

example of Jonathan. And it took a little different turn

for me today as I was out walking in the

in the you call it a football field, and I

would call it a soccer field. Maybe I don't know

about the thank you for forgiving me anyway, And I

just was meditating with the Lord walking out there in

the beautiful sunshine today. And that passage is really important

to me because in the new year, I asked the Lord,

what is his heart for me this year? What is

a verse that he would give me this year? And

instantly in my spirit I heard perhaps God. And what

the Lord said to me was, he said, val, you

stop dreaming. You've stopped, You've stopped trusting me and pressing

into the more that I have for you, because you

have a lack of there's a lack of faith sometimes

a lack of certainty, and you want to make sure

that things are going to go well. You have an

assured end. And he said, Jonathan was different. He had

a different spirit, he had a different heart. And if

you know scripture just before that, for Samuel thirteen, his

father gave him a very different example of faith. His

dad failed a very important test, and sadly, from the

very beginning of the assignment that God had given Saul,

he failed. He failed to show faith in God, in

God's timing, in.

God's prophetic word.

He forgot and he just he panicked and out of

fear and especially fear of man, because the soldiers that

he was using to come against the Philistines. They were

disappearing on him because they were afraid, and so he

panics and he offers offerings that he wasn't supposed to.

There was an order, There is an order that God

had set up, and Samuel, He's supposed to wait for

Samuel to come. And how many of you can relate

and know that God rarely comes on time. He rarely

comes on our time, right, And so God had to

rebuke Saul and tell him that he actually was going

to move his anointing to another. And do you know,

Jonathan would have been there, Jonathan, the son of the

newly appointed king, would have been there, knowing that what

happens in succession is he would be the next king,

wouldn't he That was his destiny. He was supposed to

be the next one to carry that anointing in kingdom.

If that, if they were going to follow the system

of the regular order of things. But I love his

heart and his spirits. So after that fiasco, they are

in enough for Samuel fourteen, and lots of people had left,

And so Saul is sitting under a tree with the

remnant of the Israelites, not knowing what to do, feeling

afraid and intimidated by the enemy, and Jonathan leaves that

company and instead with his armor bearer, he said, let's

go up and see what we can do. Let's see

the difference we can make. Perhaps perhaps the Lord will act.

In the NIV, it says, perhaps the Lord will act

on our behalf. And he says, for nothing can stop

the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.

And what I felt in my spirit today for some

of you, I believe this is for some of you,

was that sometimes for us, we can come from maybe

a background where they're are fathers. We haven't been fathered

spiritually in a healthy way, or we haven't had a

family of origin that we're proud of, and there's some

shame connected to that, and there's some discouragement, and we

think I don't have much of an inheritance. But I

felt like the Lord wanted to say to you that

you haven't changed in his eyes, right, you and I

haven't changed. We are sons and daughters of the Most High.

And then I was as I was walking in your

football field and I saw the lines on the ground,

I was reminded of Psalm sixteen, or it says the

boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely

I have a delightful inheritance. And the Father wants to

reassure you that you're not limited by your past, or

by your family of origin, or the things that were

or were not given to you that have let put

you in a precarious place. Perhaps because the Father Jonathan

didn't stop believing that who he was in God had

not changed. It didn't matter what the circumstances were or

what had happened before. But he knew he was in God,

and he knew who the Lord was, and his zeal

for the Lord compelled him to go and take the territory.

And do you know that his actions inspired the rest

of the army. There was an earthquake and it caused

God to act on his behalf. It did I think

he honored his faith. And then there was an earthquake

and the Philistines started fighting each other. And when you

and I step out in faith, when you and I

step out in courage and believe God for the more

that He has for us. We're not defined by our families,

we're not defined by our origins.

Or the past.

The Lord says, you step out because perhaps God Father

wants to honor that faith. So, Lord, I bless this

church family. I bless each one of them. I bless

the calls that are on their lives. I bless Lord.

They are royalty, they are priesthood, God Father. They have

crowns on their head. Lord, and you love them. And

I pray God, you begin to open up doors and

give them assignments Lord that they would know are from you.

And I prayed give them the courage to move forward

into the things that you've called them for. And I

bless them in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

It's great. Such a good worsh good word she had today,

just us taking risk, being willing to trust the Lord.

Sometimes you don't have all the plan right. You know,

God's leading you to do something, but you don't have

the full plan. And we always like to have the plan.

And it's good to have the plan. But sometimes God says,

as you step out and walk, I will reveal the plan.

So that is so good. Anyway, it's great to be

here today. It was almost a year ago we were

here in this place, and here you are again, and

there's new people people have just met today. It's wonderful.

God's doing some good things here. So excited for you.

Just want to mention, mention it all the time. The

reason is it took me a long time to write

the book that I wrote. I am working on a

second book and got an idea for a third book today.

Maybe it's sitting in Dave's.

House, you know, because he's like writing all these books.

These ideas are coming like today I thought.

Oho, there's another book.

I'm like, oh, so maybe that's what it is Dave,

because Dave is, as you know, writing some really great books.

But anyway, I wrote a book called Life is a Highway,

and it's meant to help you with your spiritual journey.

Lots of stories, easy read, questions at the end, and

so I want to encourage you. If you're interested. There's

a slide up there. It'll take you to the website.

It might take you to the Canadian website. Sorry about that,

but you can get it on Amazon. It's in paperback,

it's in kindle, and it's on audiobook. So anyway, just

a little plug if you're interested. I want to talk

to you today about our Christian walk and about our

Christian walk being a race.

You know, in.

Scripture there are some pictures and images that God gives

us of our journey with Him, And one of them,

which is especially spelled out in the New Testament, is

that of a race. And so I want to talk

to you today about how to run your race. How

many people know that if our Christian journey is related

to as a race, it would be important to run

it well? Right, nobody wants to run it poorly. There

are some things though, that can stop us from running

the race well. And I want to show you a

couple of clips of some people, some difficult situations where

the race didn't turn out so well. So let's look

at the first one.

All right, here we go, set it.

I know they Jordan already blasting his way around the bed, Pearson.

Putting up a good challenge on the outside.

What a displayer of sprinting from the young Britain.

This is absolutely phenomenal. And he's what if he's just

eating up what's happened there?

What has gone on there?

Absolute disaster, Phil Minchell. He has eased out far, far,

far too early, and half the field swept past him

before the finish line. This is going to be a

lesson learnt the very very hard way to what was

for one hundred and fifty meters a masterful displayers.

Yes, So leading for one hundred and fifty meters, thinks

he's won the race, eases.

Up and everybody passes him.

That is a fail. You can tell by his face.

He's like, Oh, I think I made a mistake. So

we don't want to do that. We don't want to

run a race and then ease up and and end

up not winning. Look at this next clip, if we've

got it. This is the La Marathon this year.

This is so current. Watch this right at the finish line. Oh,

this is amazing.

So the man from Kenya was leading the entire race,

and at the very end the man from the United

States just caught him and won by one one hundredth

of a second. Can you imagine It's a twenty six

mile race and he lost by one one hundredth of

a second. If you look at it at another clip earlier,

you can see him tracking him down for quite a ways.

And the man who's leading isn't looking around right because

he's been ahead the whole time.

He doesn't see the other man coming.

Otherwise if he did, I don't think he would have

lost one one hundredth of a second, you could probably

push yourself a little more and win. But because he

thinks he's won already and he doesn't realize this guy's

tracking him down.

He loses. That must have been a heartbreaker.

I know for the American it was like pretty exciting, right,

they were all cell he was a teacher and he

won the Kenyan. He's known all over the world. And anyway,

why do I show you these clips? Well, because this

illustrates what can happen to us in our lives. How

many people do we see today Christian leaders who have

been running a really good race and at the end

they fail.

Have you seen that?

Have you heard some stories people that have been decades

serving God, doing really well, impacting lives, and at the

very end they fail, kind of like by one second

or they just or they let up and they stop

running because they think they've done their lap. They think

they've accomplished enough, and they stop running. And that's a

fail too. God doesn't want us to do that. That's

not the way God wants us to run the race.

And Hebrews twelve says this, I want to read this

to you, Hebrews twelve one to.

Three, and.

I had to write it on the card because I

did it after It says this, Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us

throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so

easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race

marked out for us.

Don't you like the idea?

Listen, this isn't just an idea, It is actually truth,

the race marked out for us. One of the things

I like, especially about being a Christian, about being a

christ follower, is that God has a race marked out

for me. Do you realize that when God got a

hold of your life, because he got a hold of

your life, he tracked you down that when he got

ahold of your life, he didn't just get a hold

of you for yourself, although that's important.

He has a race for you. He's marked out a

race for your life.

And listen, our goal, our objective needs to be to

discern what that race is. God, you have a race

for me. You have a a path that I'm to run.

Help me to discover it and then run it. Well,

that's the way we should be. So he says, race

marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the

pioneer and perfector of our faith, for the joy set

before him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and

sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that

you will not grow weary and lose heart. When it

says at the end here, you will not grow weary

and lose heart. I think that stops a lot of people.

Do you know any believers who have grown weary and

lost heart and stopped racing?

Do you know any? I do?

I know?

Sadly, I know believers who have dropped out of the race.

They've grown weary, they lost heart, they didn't believe it

it was worth it anymore, and they just stopped running.

So Paul is saying.

Here that there's a way that we don't have to

lose heart. And one of the ways, he says, is

fixing our eyes on Jesus. So as we run our race,

the idea is that Jesus is the one in front

of us.

So as we keep focused on him and what he

did for us on the cross, and about his purpose

for our life, we're.

Going to be able to push away all the other things.

They are going to try to stop you from running.

Let me tell you something. You running your race as

a threat to the kingdom of Hell. It's a threat.

If you do it the way God has called you

to do it, you will take down the enemy's power

in many places, and you will take many with you

to heaven. So the devil doesn't want you to do that.

He wants you to stop. And when we take our

eyes off Jesus and what he's done for us, and

we lose that fresh revelation of Him, it is so

easy to stop, you know. I went to had a

situation an example of this in early March. Our oldest son,

he's married, has a little baby now, and his wife

her parents. They have a house in Arizona, which is

a state in the United States.

It's a hot place.

I come from valn I come from Alberta, Canada. And

just so you know, there's snow there today. There shouldn't

be snow there today, but there is snow there today.

But I'm here and it's twenty degrees so I'm happy.

But there's snow there. So in March there will usually

be snow there. But in Arizona it's warm. It's nice.

And I always think it's nice to have relatives with

nice places. Anybody feel that way, Yeah, So, I mean

they're a welcome edition to the family for multiple reasons.

But they have a nice house.

So they invited us down and we went to a

place called Sedona, Arizona. Someone was thinking when they did that. Sodona, Arizona.

And in Sedona, there is a chapel on the side

of a cliff. It's kind of built into the cliff

and I have a picture of it.

It should be next there is a chapel on the

side of a cliff.

There it is so you can see it on the front,

see the cross and then the side. I mean, really clever, right,

So they said, let's go to this chapel and see it.

And I thought to myself, it'll be great, but it'll

be really super religious. Like seriously, I was a bit dismissive.

Like, it'll just be really religious. But that's okay, we'll

go see the architecture. I doubt I'll get much out

of it.

Isn't that terrible? What an attitude. I'm sorry. I just

got to have more faith in the Lord. So I

go into this chapel and it's really nice. You can

you know, there's windows there you can see looking out.

And so there is a a beautiful sculpture of Jesus

on the cross, and you can see that if we

go the next slide. It's hard to maybe see it completely,

but it's on the right Jesus on the cross. And

so there's these two footprints that are beside you know,

that are in front. And if you put your feet

in the footprints and you look up at Jesus, he's

looking right at you.

And here's the thing.

When he looks down at you, he's got I like,

whoever created this was just amazing. He's got eyes of compassion.

He's looking down at me from the cross with eyes

of compassion, not judgment. Well it undid me. Here here's me.

It won't be much of an experience. I'm having experience

with God in this old chapel. I have to go

sit at the side of the chapel and I'm like,

you know, trying to compose myself. I'm watching people go

up and do the same thing. Stand there, look up

and go like, well that's cool, that kind of thing.

And I'm watching them and I'm impacted because I'm thinking

that's the picture for my life. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Now,

I know Jesus isn't on the cross anymore. Jesus is resurrected.

Understand that. But when I looked at Jesus on the cross,

what did it remind me? It reminded me of his

sacrifice for me. It reminded me of what he paid

for my life. And it reminded me of Jesus saying,

take up your cross daily and follow me. He died

on the cross for me. He calls us to die.

I know that's not exciting to talk about, right, I

am called.

To die, But that's what scripture says.

Scripture says you and I, like Jesus, are called to

die or our own desires and pursue him with everything

in us. So when I looked at Jesus on the cross,

and when I fix my eyes, I'm inspired by him.

I remember that he died for me. I remember the

cause that he's given my life, and it's a cause

that's worth everything, folks. So when I looked at him,

I was like, his sacrifice for me inspired me. But

the other thing that inspired me is as I watched

all these people come and look up at the same

image but not have any reflection because they.

Didn't know him. That gutted me.

I sat there and thought, this is the picture of

what my goal in life is. To be part of

my race is to help other people to come to

know that man who died for them, and know his

look of compassion, not his judgment, and know he loves

them and he's for them. That is my So I

sat there with all this going on, and I was

messed up, But it was a good being messed up.

You ever been messed up in a good way? Fixing

our eyes on Jesus, reminding ourselves every day?

Why do I do what I do? Oh? Yes, I

have a savior.

Who died for me. He paid the price for my sin.

He marked out a race for me, and I'm going

to run it today. What lap should I run today?

Too often we get careless. Too often the enemy focuses

us on things that.

Don't really matter.

We get all knotted up about stuff that isn't going

to affect eternity. It's distraction and we are in a

distracted age. I just did a podcast, life leadership podcast.

I just did one about the anxious generation, which is

a book about social media and how it's impacting the

current generation. If you want listen to it. There's some

truth in there. Because we are distracted, we are being

our thinking and our mindsets are being pulled everywhere. But

God says to us, there's a way for you to run.

One Corinthians nine twenty four says this. Do you not

know that in a race, all the runners run, but

only one gets the prize. Run in such a way

as to get the prize. How many of you are competitive,

and be honest, it's not sinful to be competitive.

I'm competitive.

When I was a kid, I would cry at losing

board games. I was a poor loser. Now that's not good,

but I didn't. I want to win. And Paul saying,

run to win, there's no second place.

That's kind of what he's saying. But here's the good news.

He says in this passage that you're to run for

the prize. Let me just say this. There's a prize

for every one of you. That's the good news. Every

one of you has a prize. And I'll show you

what the prize is. Let's look at it. Here is

Filippians three. Let's look at Flippians three. This is a

famous passage by Paul about his race. He says, whatever

we're gains to me. I now consider loss for the

sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a

loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus

my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage or rubbish. You would say over

here that.

I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

Not having a righteousness of my own that comes to law,

but that which is sue faith in Christ, the righteousness

that comes from God on.

The basis of faith. Here's what he says, verse ten.

I want to know Christ, to know the power of

his resurrection and participation in his sufferings. How many of

you like the power of the resurrection part, but not

so much the participation in the sufferings part?

Right? Can we just cross the participation in the sufferings

part out? I want the part of the resurrection how much?

How many times we celebrate the part of the resurrection today, right?

Resurrection power?

How many times we celebrate the participation in the sufferings?

Not very often?

Sorry, maybe in your church, but not not the places

I hang out.

We don't generally talk about that too much. And yet

it goes together.

Resurrection power, but participation in his sufferings. That's the cross

I talked about, right, But he Paul gets it. Paul says,

I want to know the part of the resurrection. I

want to participate in his sufferings. In other words, don't

want to be numbered with Jesus becoming like him in

his death. There it is so somehow attaining to the

resurrection from the dead. How many of you know there's

no resurrection power without death. This is truth, right. You

can't be resurrected if you don't die first. And so

the resurrection power in our life comes out of the

death that God brings into our life.

That's the sufferings.

But this is the good news, is that resurrection power

and what God does through us is worth everything. In fact,

when Christians get careless and they get casual and they're

not living the life God called them to do, they're bored.

I think there's nothing worse than bored Christians. You know

what bored Christians do. They get into sin, troubles. Bored Christians,

you know, aren't happy. Bored Christians are the ones who

often end up not running the race because they think,

what's the value here, what's the purpose? But God doesn't

want us to be bored. There is nothing boring about

serving Jesus if we're truly serving him, and He's got

a race and he wants us to run it. Not

Verse twelve, not that I've already obtained all this or

already arrived at my goal. But I press on to

take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold

of me.

Now, remember I said to you, there's a prize. Here's

the prize. You ready?

Paul says that when Jesus took hold of you, it

wasn't just for you.

He took hold of you for that purpose.

And Paul says, I want that that.

For which he took hold of me. I want that.

And Paul is actually saying, that's the prize. If I

run the race.

God's called me to run, and I apprehend and take

hold of that for which he took hold of.

Me, I won the race. Do you see it?

So this is not comparing yourself with anyone else. This

is not saying, well, I.

Need to be as successful as that Christian, or I

need to do this.

No, what has God called you to do. That's a

discerning part, you know. The one person wrote they said,

the greatest day of your life is the greatest days

of your life is the first one is when you

were born, and the second one is when you realize

why you were born. So all of us need to

realize why we're here. And Paul says, once you realize

that and you have a sense of that and you

start running after that, you're gonna run the race, and

you're going to win the race.

That's winning the prize. See, for me, winning the prize

will be.

If I have a sense of what God's called me

to do, and my attitude is I'm not laying anything

down on the table.

I'm not going to leave anything on the table.

I Am going to run this race fully and every

way I can, by the grace and strength of God

to see his purpose fulfilled. If I do that to

the end and I don't get careless and stop running,

and I don't allow myself to be overcome by other things,

I will have won the race.

I'll have the prize. Do you see it?

So you have a prize to run after and it's

unique to you, to you, So if you haven't thought

that way, God says, I want to stir you to

consider what is the prize? What is the that? Why

did God get a hold of my life? And I

want to find that out?

Why?

God, what do you have for me? What's the race

marked out? And then Lord help me run, show me

how to run so I can get that. Ah, get

myself all excited. You see what I'm doing right now?

Is that for me? Do you understand that? That's why

I'm excited because this is my race. I'm meant to

do this and inspire and help you by the spirit

of God. That's that for me, and you have that too.

And it will look different some of you. It will be,

you know, declaring and saying things over people. For some

of you it might be more quiet in the background.

But you are doing the things that are going to

advance the kingdom. So he says, I do not consider

myself yet to take in hold of it.

But one thing I do. How many people know.

If Paul the Apostle says there's one thing he did,

we should do the one thing you think. So he

wrote forty percent of the New Testament probably knows a

few things.

He goes, one thing I do.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

Forgetting and straining, he says, I press on toward the

goal to win the prize which God has called me

heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Here's what Paul say.

If I'm going to run the race, am I'm going

to stretch to break the tape, Think.

Of what we just saw.

If I'm going to lean in to break the I'm

going to strain to break the tape and get that

for which Christ took a hold of me, then I

can't be living in the past. You know, the guy

that stopped running, What if he'd been running backwards, would

he have won? He would have been even more of

a failure. He would never never have gotten anywhere. You

can't run backwards, or you can't run looking backwards, Paul saying,

I'm going to put behind me what has happened, and

I'm going to strain.

How many people love the words strain. There's some words

that are just.

Uncomfortable, right, I mean literally straining is uncomfortable.

Like I don't we don't like those kinds.

Of straining, stretching, pushing like the you know, these all

require effort. But Paul saying, and when I think of straining,

I think of reaching for something just a little beyond

what's comfortable. That's why most of us don't like straining,

because we like comfort. I don't really want to put

out extra effort. But it's like if I want to

find something and it's, you know, just a little higher

on the shelf, then I can get So I'm up

there and I'm straining, and I just so I can

get it.

That's what I see.

And Paul when he's talking about running, he's thinking, I'm

just going to stretch beyond what would be normally comfortable.

He's going to strain, but he's also going to forget.

And Paul had a lot to forget. Ye Now, I

had some bad things to forget. I mean, how many

of you been involved in killing other Christians? Oh good,

I'm glad to see that. Like I figured that, but

it's just good to know. But none of you, right,

thank god, Paul was Paul was responsible for killing believers

at his order. That was something he had to live with,

that's something he had to put behind him. But Paul

also was a really smart man. He was a pharisee

of pharisees. He was one of the best trained, and

so Paul had, you know, a lot of credit to

his name. He was a smart, intelligent man, so he

had some good things he needed to forget because he

could say, well, I'm pretty good, I've you know, I'm

quite learned and done a lot, and he would stop running.

Or he could say, I'm such a loser. I did

so many bad things, like how could God ever use me?

You ever felt that way? Maybe in your life?

Like God's chosen me, but he really isn't very smart,

you know, if he knew he knew me better?

Well, who knows him? You better than you than him?

He knows you the best.

But we sometimes are to see we think God, you

really you know, I know you chose me, but I

think you made a mistake. I think it was a

guy beside me. You look confused, and so he go,

I don't I'm not worthy.

I'm not going to run. I don't have it. So

the devil wins.

God says, forgetting those things that's are behind, both good

and bad.

I'm going to let them go.

So I con strain forward to what God has. Here's

what I believe for your church. Your church has already

entered a new season, and it's going to continue.

It's not going to stop. In fact, it's going to

continue to increase. But here, here's the thing.

So your church has a race to run, and it's

running the race, and Dave and Julia have been leading

for thirty plus years now, God bless him, and they're

running the race, and you're to run with them. And

there's going to be some handoffs in the future this race, right,

Batons will be passed, those kind of things. Right, So

there's a corporate race this church is having, but there's

also personal races here, right, And so God is just

saying to you that he wants you to be ready.

I don't know about you, but when things when God

is moving and he's doing stuff beyond what we would expect,

that is not the time to deal with your past.

I mean, maybe you will have to, But the better

time to deal with some of the things that might

stop you from serving Him would.

Be ahead of that.

Don't you think maybe prepare ahead of time and deal

with some of the baggage that might slow you down.

You know, when it comes to running races, I mean,

you know, I've watched the Olympics and the hundred meter

dash is like the signature event, even though it's over

in less than ten seconds. But it's like everybody wants

to know the fastest person in the world. Right, But

those guys, they don't wear backpacks when they're running. Do

they fifty pounds backpacks? You know, you don't see a

hundred meter dash guy, you know, with like loaded up.

In fact, it's kind of the opposite, isn't it.

They're wearing super skimpy sometimes, like I am not looking

right now. There's too much information, right, like seriously, But

the thing is like it's just they don't want to

wear anything that's gonna like drag them, stop them, or

add weight.

Right, they're leaning down, And that's what Paul's talking about here.

Every sin that would hold you back, get rid of it,

get rid of everything that makes you heavy and lumbering.

You need to be able to run. This church is

already running.

But let me say something, it's going to run at

a faster rate in the days ahead. God we ask

God to move, but we don't always know what that means.

We don't always know the effort it will require when

he does. And He's gonna move even more in this church.

He's going to reach even more people through this church,

in this community. But you know what that's gonna require.

It's going to require more of all of you. Because

new believers need to be cleaned up, they need help,

they need discipling. Right, And what happens if God is

moving and we're not prepared, and in fact, it's at

that moment that all these issues we never dealt with

suddenly come up. I've seen it happen in churches. I've

seen it happen in churches I've led where people who

are there for a long time all of a sudden

something they never dealt with, boom explodes, and it takes

out other people. So he wants to help you to

prepare yourself for the race that this church has, but

also your race.

Because he wants you to run it well. And that's important.

So I want to look today at the key takeaway

phrase today is this, rather than lingering in our past,

God wants us straining toward our destiny. Rather than lingering

in our past, God wants us straining toward our destiny.

There's a reason why in your car you have a

really big you know, this is heavy revelation. You have

a really big wind screen like a front window, and

you have a really small mirror. Right, you were thought

through some of these things. It's because you're not supposed

to drive looking.

In the really small mirror.

We know this, right, You're supposed to drive looking through

the windshield, which is big. The small mirror is just

for occasionally looking to make sure there's nothing behind you.

But what if you drove looking in the small mirror.

You'd kill people probably or end up in the ditch,

and you wouldn't get to your destination.

That's where some of us can be. We're trying to

drive looking in the rearview mirror. We're trying to run

the race looking behind us. God says, I want you

to deal with those things. So I want to look

at three things that we need to deal with. And

this won't take super long, but these are important for

us to consider. The first ones failures and disappointments. Secondly

how others have hurt us, and thirdly our past successes.

These are three things that can cause us to linger

in the past. Three things, so I want to look

at them. First, one's failures and disappointments. Here's the action step,

except that you cannot change what happened, but you can

change how you view it. You and I can't change

the past, can we not at all? But God can

actually change the way we see the past. Look at

Romans eight twenty eight, Paul writes, and we know that

in all things God works for the good of those

who love Him and who have been called according to

his purpose. How many of you been called according to

God's purpose? That purpose is that? Do you understand we're

linking this all together? According to his purpose, according to

the race he marked out for me, according to that

for which he took hold of me.

I've been called according to that.

And it says that God works for good, works things

for good.

For those who are called like that.

So God wants to work the bad things for good

in your life? Anybody ever had bad things in your life?

Of course, these are just metaphorical questions. We know that

we all do.

So how does that work? Well, let me give you

an example.

So when I was twenty and my wife was nineteen,

just finished two years of Bible school, and we've been

dating a couple of years, and I came home from

Bible school. It was midyear, because I started midyear. I

came home with the idea of getting a job and

then we get engaged to get married, which a good goal, right,

And so early January, late December of nineteen five eighty six,

I remember her parents. We talked to each other one

night and she said to me, Hey, my parents set

up a bank account for us, and you know what

that means, right, bank account, Like that's like they're going

to put money away for our wedding. And we didn't

talk about getting married. That was kind of code us.

We never said, hey, we're gonna get married. We just

kind of didn't say that directly. But when she said that,

you know, we just kind of laughed on the phone

and innocent love. And it's like, I'm thinking, yes, they

like me, right, they right, they're gonna get married. We're

gonna put money behind it. That means I'm approved. And

so we were, you know, that's where we were at.

And I remember, I remember we we would we had a.

Like a double date with them once at a restaurant,

probably you know, the summer before that. I remember thinking,

this is great. I love these guys. They were great parents.

We're gonna have many double dates throughout our life together. Well,

life changes sometimes a week after the whole my parents

set up an account for us. Her parents were killed

in an auto crash, and my wife is the oldest

of four, so she was nineteen, Her brother was seventeen.

She had a sister fifteen and one thirteen. For orphans

kind of changes the picture for us, doesn't it a

little bit? That innocent we're gonna get married really changes

so we had to adjust. We did get engaged, We

did get married ten months later, but it was very different. Obviously,

the parents weren't there, and her two sisters live with

us for periods of time. In the first few years

we had impact, we influencing her brother as well. There's

some key things we walked through with him. My wife

went through a depression about a year into it, and

she ran away three times from me, which is hard

to fathom since I'm such a great guy.

But.

She would just her way of dealing with grief was

to get in the car and drive off until the

fog kind of boo, and then it was like oh.

And also she had a really gutless four cylinder car

which couldn't go over the mountains. Thank the Lord. I

was like, I don't think I'm gonna make it. Yeah,

come home, right, so she'd come home. Meanwhile, she'd already

emptied money out of her account. Anyway, I don't say

this this lagger. It's just we went through some things

so not long ago. So you think that that was tough, right,

that's a tough story. And you know, God did good

things through it, and we didn't turn away from him

and we looked to him and he loves us and

he's been gracious. But there was a time here, not

too long ago, where I pondered this and I thought about, like,

we have four sons. They've all been married now, so

we've been there for them, right. We were there at

all their weddings, We supported their weddings, We had those

bank accounts, right, we were able to they were able

to kind of be young and in love and learn

to live together, and you know, and they had us,

and you know what I'm saying, just normal. And I

was thinking about how abnormal it was for us, and

I had that moment where you just felt ripped off.

You ever had that your life, kind of like I

think we were ripped off.

I feel ripped off, just an angst, like ah, you know,

the all the double dates for their parents. There's one

there was no more, and just thinking what would it

have been like to have had them? What would it

have been like if we didn't have to do Like

when I was twenty three, we had Veal's younger sister

with us. She just started driving, and I remember we

had to ground her and she was a pain in

the butt. I mean, we love her today, we loved

her then, but she was difficult. I was twenty three,

she was sixteen.

You were trying to parent her, and I was thinking,

what would it been like it we didn't have any

of that, and we were traveling and doing all these

things before we had kids. I just had that moment.

But thankfully I didn't live there, because if you start

living there, you're in trouble. Listen, if you start living

in I was ripped off and where was God? And

I've been hard done by. You're in trouble, You're gonna

get bitter, you're gonna stop running, You're gonna get stuck

in the past. And thankfully I know enough to not

stay there. So you know what, I heard the Lord

speak to me, and this is where we need God

every day. So something had come up in my heart Okay,

let's just unpack this. Something had come up in my heart.

I was tempted to be offended. I was struggling with

the why. So what do I do? I spend time

with the father who knows me, and you know what

he said to me. He said, Ian, actually, you need

to see this from my perspective. Actually, marrying val not

just for her sake, but for the sake of her

family and being part of her family was actually part

of my call on your life. I actually chose you,

not just for your wife, but I knew. I knew

this was going to happen, and I knew that you

would be the right person to be there with Vou,

and that Vou would be the right person to be

there for her siblings. And I trusted you both so

that they could move forward and you could move forward.

They all serve the Lord. There are twenty how many

twenty three grandkids of Veals and now great grandkids, Like

it's a big family. Now sixty people now I think

out of four and me so five of.

Us sixty people. So that's multiplication. That's great.

But my point is God did some things, and so

but what changed it? Do you see what changed it.

He said, I called you. In other words, that was

part of your marked out race. You say, Ian, that

doesn't make sense, like how would Yeah, we're we're finite,

God's infinite.

But God's saying in the big picture, I called.

You, and and what that did is it changed it

from being I was ripped off.

To what an honor to be chosen by God for

that assignment. That was a privilege. That was part of

taking up my cross and following him.

That was part of pursuing and even fellowshipping in his sufferings.

Do you hear me? That changes it?

So you can't change the past, but you can change

how you view the past and how God helps you

view the past.

Let me ask you a question. Are there some areas

of your past where you're stuck?

Are you stuck in some areas where it's like I've

been ripped off or I'm angry, or I can't forgive

or whatever.

Let me say something.

God wants to come into that with you and help

you understand His perspectives. So important to do it so

failures and disappointments. The second one is how others have

hurt us. We've all been hurt by other people. Right,

and we've all hurt other people. It's just that's what happens.

So how others have hurt us? Here's the thing. Listen.

If you can't help how you respond and how you

are affected by how others hurt you.

You are now a victim. Do you hear me?

You have no control then, like whatever anyone does to

you every day is going to cause you pain and

you cannot do anything about it.

Do you hear me? Now we know that's not true.

Correct, people will hurt us, but our response is up

to us. And so Matthew six point fifteen tells us,

if you do not forgive others their sins, your father

will not forgive your sins.

This is tough.

Forgiveness is a huge issue, folks, and by me talking

about it, I'm not minimizing things at all. But Scripture

is really clear that we need to forgive as we've

been forgiven, that there's a grace in God wants to

give us to release others and forgive others in a

process so that we can be released, they can be

forgiven and we can receive God's forgiveness and grace in

our lives. When we stop releasing forgiveness. There's a gra

thing that dries up in our own lives. It's important

that we not walk in unforgiveness. Cautions three thirteen says,

bear with each other and forgive one another. If any

of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the

Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love,

which binds them all.

Together in perfect unity.

So Scripture says, bear with each other, forgive one another,

forgive as you are forgiven, and then let love, the

love of God, encompass everything. I want to look real

quickly here with regarding forgiveness. I want to spell some

things out to he is a teaching by a man

named Nelson Seriously that I really appreciated. I want to

include it here. What forgiveness isn't forgiving others is not

justified their actions. Sometimes we think, if I forgive that person,

I'm saying what they did was okay. So if I

forgive them, I'm saying it was okay, and therefore I

can't forgive them.

Well, no, you're not. You're not justifying what they did.

You're not saying, hey, I forgive you, therefore what you

did is okay. No you're saying, it's still wrong what

you did, But by the grace of God, I choose

to forgive and release you. I'm not going to hold

a grudge anymore. Forgiving others is not trusting the passage

of time. You ever heard of the myth that time

heals all wounds.

I'll just leave something festering long enough, and you'll get better.

The very nature of what I said just shows it.

Won't tell that to the person who's whose arm was

cut off because a gay green that was never dealt

with and they lost their arm over it. Like it

did not get better, it got worse and they had

to lose their limb because it wasn't healed.

And that's the way we are.

If we just ignore things, say wow, eventually, I'll get

over it. Well, no, if you don't focus on it,

you don't intentionally ask the God for his grace to

heal you, you won't get over it. Forgiving others is

not denying that you're hurt. I'm saying I was okay.

One of the things I want to encourage you to

do is don't minimize your pain.

Some people do this.

They minimize Oh no, it was okay. They deny that

they were ever hurt. They deny that anything bad happened,

and they know that it wasn't good, but somehow they

want to, you know, minimize it.

No, don't minimize what has happened to you.

God wants you to acknowledge that it was significant, but

he wants you to bring him into it and have

his grace to help you release it. It's not forgiving others.

It's not confronting them personally. It's not getting vengeance. It's

not having to make sure they understand your perspective. That

isn't forgiveness. What is forgiveness. It's remembering how much you've

been forgiven. You know the parable of the unforgiving servant

in matthew At he really highlights that.

You know the story.

There's a there's a king and somebody owes him millions

of dollars. I was looking at the actual totals that

they say it would relate to, and the man owes

the king millions of dollars. The king calls him forward

and says, hey, pay up. I want my money, and

the man says, I will never be able to pay

this ever. Please have mercy on me, don't throw me

in prison right and the King, in graciousness, says, okay,

I forgive you like millions.

I release you.

Man leaves being with the king, just being show an

incredible grace, finds someone that owes him like one hundred dollars.

And grabs him by the collar and says, pay me

right now.

The man says, I can't pay you right now, has

him thrown in prison. News gets back to the King

and the King hears, like, wait a minute. The guy

I just forgave millions of dollars can't forgive him one

hundred dollars. Calls the man in and says, I forgive

you so much, and yet you couldn't forgive this person.

So what happens?

The King throws that man into a debtor's prison until

he'll pay back everything. Can that man pay back anything

from prison? No, he's locked in there. Do you see

what unforgiveness is. It's a picture of unforgiveness. If you

and I walk in the forgiveness, we put ourselves in

a prison that we cannot pay our way out of.

The only way to get out of that prison is

to exercise the forgiveness that God calls us to do

by his grace so important, so we remember how much

we've been forgiven. Then we release, We release the other person.

We set them free, and releasing them means that we're

no longer going to play the tape in our minds

anymore of what they did. Like forgiving someone and yet

remembering all the time and recalling and telling them all

the time what they did is not really forgiveness, is it. No,

And sometimes we do that, well, I forgive you, but

then at every moment we have we kind of remember

I haven't quite forgotten, you know, Like that's not forgiveness.

Forgiveness is And I'm not saying this is easy. Listen

to me, but forgiveness is like I forgive, and Lord,

I don't want to keep rehashing that. And when I'm

tempted to rehash it, I'm gonna say, oh, not going there.

I'm gonna pray for them right now, Lord, and I'm

not going back there. I don't want to replay that

in my mind constantly. God help me burn the tapes,

because I don't want to live in this being stuck.

It's been said that holding unforgiveness is like drinking poison

and expecting the other person to die right, I'm gonna

take and ingest this terrible thing in my life, and

you're gonna You're the one who's going to pay.

And it's like, sometimes people don't even know.

Do you realize that people don't even know that they

hurt you, but yet you hold a grudge. I'm One

of the worst stories I've heard is a man and

his brother who when they were young, the one man

was picked on by the older brother and he made

a vow that he was going to have nothing to

do with his older brother his whole life. He never

ever connected with his older brother, even like his son,

who I know, said, we just didn't understand why we

never saw our uncle Malcolm. We never saw him, we

never went to his house, we never did anything.

Finally asked his dad, and his dad went.

All the way back to when they were kids and

the vow he'd made, and Uncle Malcolm didn't even understand

why his brother, why his brother wouldn't hang out with him,

He didn't even know why. Mind blowing right, and you

lose decades over unforgiveness that started when he was what ten,

Like this is the kind of stuff that happens. God says,

don't drink the poison, get rid of the poison, let

me come. Forgiveness is re established in the relationship as

much as possible. Shouldn't reestablish it if it's going to

lead to additional harm. That's not prudent, right. It shouldn't

be established if the other person isn't aware of the offense.

I just heard lately of.

Something where somebody had done something which they felt guilty

about towards someone else. The other person wasn't aware. They

probably shouldn't have told the other person. They should have

repented talk to someone else. Instead, they went and told

the other person, And now that's affected the relationship because

it's weird. They should have just kept it between them

and someone else and released that person. We need help,

and you know what, when it comes to forgiveness some

of these serious issues. Get counseling and get people to

walk with you. Right, he is the best place to

gain healing. We just sometimes make mistakes on our own,

so we can be hindered from running by failure's disappointments,

how others have heard us, and finally, lastly, by past success.

Like the guy who was coasting running and then stopped.

Flipping's three eight says everything else is worthless when compared

with the infinite value of knowing Jesus. For his sake,

I've discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so

I could gain Christ.

You know, one of my counselors in one of.

My professors in college, he said this that every time

I preach, and it's like, you know, it went well,

and someone comes up and say, how's a good word,

he says, you know what I do, I treat it

like a trophy, and I just kind of go, there,

you go, it's yours God, thank you, and then I

move on. And that's helped me my whole career. It's like,

you know, that's great, Lord, for your glory. Anything I do,

I try to by the grace of God. Lord, thank you,

you help me. Now I'm going to keep moving on.

I'm not going to sit here and just you know,

think of this. I mean, it's good to celebrate, but

I'm not going to let it bog me down. I

give it to you and I move on past success.

Rather than lingering in our past, God wants us straining

toward our destiny. So here's a question today, how can

you stop lingering in your past? And begin straining toward

the destiny God has for you. Here's some questions. You're ready,

I'm going to ask you some questions. I'm realistic God,

and we'll be done. What are the failures and disappointments

you need to deal with so you can run your race?

And how might you get the help to do that?

Are there some things you're stuck in? Failures disappointments kind

of what I shared about Valini and it hurts and

you realize I want to get past that. Howe others

hurt you and you need to release forgiveness. What might

be your next step to doing that? Who could you

ask to help you? Something to think about? And what

past successes do you need to give up to God

like a trophy and then forget about them and continue running.

Can you stand with me? I want to pray for

you right now. Let's pray. Can you close your eyes?

One thing I like to do every time is just

say God, what are you saying? See there's a message

I just gave, But within that message, it's probably one

or two things God zeroed in on in your life.

He knows the next thing for you. So let me

ask this question.

What's the one or two things that God highlighted to

you today. What's he saying, Hey, this is something I

want to work on. I want to help you. I

want you to run your race. Well, you're a little stuck.

I love you, and I know that person hurt you.

I'm not standing here telling you it didn't matter. It

matters so much, and my art hurts for you. But

I want to help you. I want to help you

get through that. I know you're disappointed. I know that

didn't turn out the way you thought. I know that failure.

I know, and I know it still haunts you today.

But I want to help you.

Can you open up and let me tell you my perspective.

Can you let me heal you? Or I know you've

been successful. I celebrate with you the things that you've

done already. But son, daughter, there is so much more.

And you're not too old to keep running either, don't

you dare stop running? Might look different as you get older,

but you keep running.

There's still more.

There's still that that to get hold of, that race

that's marked till the last breath.

Keep running.

Who Holy Spirit, touch hearts right now, Give strength to

people right now, Holy spirits speak to these people, You

know them, you love them, apply it to their life.

Right now? What are you saying to them today?

There's a race for this church to run, and he

wants a whole family of believers who are running without baggage. Listen,

there's more, a lot more coming. God says, I want

you lean, I want you running fast without encumbrance because

I got lots for you. So get rid of the baggage. Today,

Lord spoke to you these areas. I don't need to

know what it is. I want to even ask what

it is. But he spoke to you, and you know

there's a next step which you put your hand up.

I want to pray for you today. Put your hand up. Yeah,

I see the hands. Don't be shy. It's not for me.

I won't even be here next week. It's for God.

You're just acknowledging God. Yes, yes, God Father, we need you.

Lord. The issues of the heart are difficult, they're hard.

We get hurt. We're so tempted to be offended. It's

so badly want to be but we want your.

Life, and we're so tempted to stay in that failure disappointment.

We so and yet you say no, come out of

the cave, come out of the cave.

I have more for you. And I pray for these people.

You know exactly the story of why they put their

hand up, you know it.

Would you give them grace right now? Holy Spirit? Would

you speak to them?

For those that need a new narrative around something that happened,

would you just speak to them and show them the truth?

Where were you? What were you doing? For those that

need to forgive, they're like, I don't think I can

do this. Would you give them grace, help them walk in.

Community, help them make that choice, and then come by

your spirit and strengthen them and free them.

And for those that.

Said, yeah, I kind of slowed down in my pace,

kind of it's celebrating how well I've done to this point,

and I realize I've slacked off, and I just I

want to pursue that again. I want to go after it.

I sense God's calling me, or maybe here you're saying,

I don't fully know what that is, but Lord, show

me that.

I want that.

Lord.

I pray you bless them right now.

I pray this week would be that you would speak

to them about these matters and they would hear more.

And Lord bless this house, this church, this faithful group

of people, this beacon in Egham, this light, this city

on a hill.

Father, I pray bless.

Them, let their light shine ever brighter. Thank you for

the students Lord at Royal Holloway you're touching. Thank you

for the others in this community who are moving in

and are being affected and are connecting.

And I pray for more.

And Lord, I pray for this church that just as

the goal that we would all have is that we

would share about the risen Jesus, and that the people

around us would come to know that Jesus on the cross,

who look down with us with compassion, God would open

doors for this church to show and to lead others

into that relationship.

I pray for favor, open.

Doors, and this community opportunities to serve that are unique.

I feel like there's opportunities to serve in this city

that are that are gonna be, this town that are

gonna be. You know, there's things that are sometimes they're

they're like token. We want to do things, uh to

serve and and and way in a way has made

for us, but there are many others that could do it.

But I feel like there's doors they're gonna be opened

for industry in this city. And it's like it's like

it's like they're gonna say, we need you, like we

need your church, we need what you represent, we we

need what this church has to offer, and here's an

open door, and we're really thankful that you're contributing. I

feel like there's I feel like there's another door like

that going to open, and it's it's a real need

that this community has and this church is going to

be able to step up for that real need. And

the gratitude that's gonna flow is going to be great.

But the opportunity to show the love of Jesus is

going to be amazing. And when you see this opportunity,

it's going to create such a synergy and energy in

this place. There's gonna be like a wind that comes

out of it, like a like it requires more of you.

But because it requires more of you and you serve,

it's going to actually like put wind in your sales.

Not to mix up too many metaphors, but that's what's

gonna do in your personal life and in the life

of this church. I just really feel that there's a

door that's going to open, it's gonna be unique.

And I think God has already opened doors. I think your.

Influence on the campus and so forth, these are doors.

But I think there's another door. It's gonna be a

key one. When it opens. You might even feel.

Like, oh, man, can we really go through that door?

I don't know, are we big enough have to go

through that door? Seriously? Do we have enough?

But I feel like God says, if you'll take this

step of faith and go through the door when it opens,

watch what I'll do, and watch the impact you're going

to have. There have been so many years that the

roots have been put down in this community. It's like

the foundation of the giant building that goes down and

it takes weeks to see anything coming out.

Dave and I were talking about this, and.

I feel like this church, there's been lots of foundation

through the years, faithfulness that has been invested, and there's

deep roots here. And I think I believe in a

sense that Lord's saying the upward growth now is going

to happen.

It's our already is, but even more.

And it's been because of faithfulness and enduring and pushing through.

This church is known in the heavens.

This church is known in Egham, and not just by people,

This is known in the heavenlyes. This is a faithful

this many churches don't make it, certainly.

Not thirty years, Dave. The Lord is rewarding you.

Even now, but even more you and Julia for your

faithfulness through the years. Things you have prayed and wept about,

things you journaled about, disappointments you had at times, things

you were like.

God, why doesn't this happen like I since it should?

You just but you kept going every time. You just

kept going and kept moving, faithful, faithful, keep moving, keep

doing it.

And now you're seeing the beginnings. And the Lord says,

it's just the beginnings. It's going to overtake you. It's

going to overtake you, You and Julia, and you've been there,

You've solid there for so many people. A family, parents

of this house, but of others. The Lord says, because

you're faithful parents.

I'm going to give you more sons and daughters.

And you're going to multiply yourself too. It's not just addition,

David's multiplication. You're going to multiply your heart and your

leadership into others. And it's going to increase in the pace. Lord,

Thank you for Dave, Thank you for Julia. Bless them

as they keep running their race.

Show them how to keep doing that. In Jesus name,

Bless them. Amen.

I was feeling this earlier actually, when I was first

up sharing that. As I was praying for you, I

really felt the Lord wanted to encourage because this is

meant to be a family. It's not meant to just

contain any particular age group of people. It's meant to

be a family. And God is doing it and you

see him doing it. But the sense that I feel

in my spirit is that for some of you that

are older, the Holy Spirit is inviting you into a

season of mothering and fathering, and that He is needing

and calling you into a place of being spiritual mothers

and fathers. And so don't limit yourself, don't limit yourself

to just your life. We're meant to look different than

the world who's very individualistic. And the Father's wanting you

to link arms and take someone under your wing and

pour into them and start with prayer, give yourself to

praying for them. And the other thing I just wanted

to say too, is I want to be obedient. I

saw you this morning and you yes, you, and I

just felt like the Holy Spirit wanted to encourage you.

I saw you with a tear on your head, and

he sees you as somebody very special he's got. I

saw you praying, and he wanted you to know he

hears your prayers. He hears your prayers, and in the

days to come, there's going to be different things. He

speaks very specifically to your heart. And as you step

out in faith and you start doing those little assignments,

more and more doors are going to open for you

of influence because he loves you and he sees you.

There's a lot of faith and a lot of equity

that you have with the Lord because of your relationship

with him. So I just speak blessing over you that

you see yourself the way the Lord sees you, That

the Lord's hand is on you, not to minimize who

you are, but that that faith of Jonathan that I

talked about earlier too would be on your heart, and

you would have a heart that would multiply and inspire

others as you just begin to obey. Because as Jonathan obeyed,

others were inspired to run after the Lord too, so

I bless you with an increase of faith and confidence

the Lord.

Amen. Amen.

Sometimes we're in a hurry to just get back to

the pot roast in the oven. Asimes, we just need

to linger a little bit because God's doing something.

God is doing something.

Lord, Thank you, Thank you for what you've spoken today,

thank you for what you've imparted to us by your spirit.

And we just say, yes, we want you.

You're the prize. We fix our eyes on you.

Bless each one as they leave here, keep speaking, keep leading.

Thank you for open doors, thank you for good days ahead.

We give you glory. Will run a race in Jesus' name. Amen,

mm hmm