Run to Win

hey this is pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in Houston texas thank you for listening

to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you

It's good to be in the house of the Lord. You can take your seat for just a minute.

Just take a 30 second break before we stand up again.

But it's good to be in the house of God. Amen. Praise the Lord.

I'm excited to be here this morning and kicking off the new year in the presence of God.

I do want to just ask the church for prayer, you know, over the break.

In fact, I think it was like last Sunday, we had this string of like losses in people's families.

And, you know, the Saldivars, that's why our children's pastors, they're not here.

And children's ministry is closed today.

There was a loss in their families, the Zaratas, Cardona, Medinas.

And this morning, Sister Sierra texted me.

She said that there was a loss in her family and they're going to Mexico.

And so a lot of loss to start this year.

So just be in prayer for our brothers and our sisters.

Amen.

That God would just heal.

Amen.

It's not a good feeling when you start off the year with the loss.

But we're believing that that's not the way that they're going to finish.

Amen.

So I got a word this morning that I want to preach to you.

It's found in First Corinthians.

If you would stand, we're going to read it real quick.

It's not too long. First Corinthians chapter nine, verses 24 through 27. First Corinthians nine, 24 through 27.

If you have it, you can let me know I have it. Amen.

Praise God. The Apostle Paul speaking to the church of Corinth. Ready?

it says this. It says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives

the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control. Somebody say

self-control. In all things, they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline. Somebody say

discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be

disqualified let's pray heavenly father I thank you for this word that you have spoken over your

servant lord I pray lord as I have received it my god your people would receive it this morning

holy spirit be on my lips I pray that there would be nothing from me my god but it would all be you

this morning delivering your word to your people in Jesus name amen amen you may be seated and

First of all, Happy New Year.

I hope you had a restful holiday season.

I know I did, man.

Last week, we got to go visit my brother-in-law who recently moved to Colorado.

And we hadn't seen him about three years because he was in Germany for the past three years serving in the Army.

And so we got to go see him and meet a brand new nephew.

Not a brand new. He's already two years old, but we hadn't met him yet.

And so that was that was nice.

the last two weeks of December. Honestly, I kind of check out a little bit, you know,

after all of our leaders meetings and our planning for the new year, I like to just rest.

Rest is important. You need to rest. And so that's what I did. And I'm grateful for that. I'm

rested. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get into this new year, anticipating a continued move of

God in my life and in this church. And yesterday we had our very first prayer service of the year.

We had a good group of people show up to prayer.

We do that every first Saturday of every month, 7 a.m.

Someone say, dang, that's early.

Everybody's invited.

All right.

And we prayed yesterday.

We prayed for our leaders and our members and our community and everybody that God wants to reach through this ministry of PNEUMA.

And I'm excited for what God has in store this year.

Also, we start our fast today.

All right.

We got like three of you kind of excited.

Like not even all the way excited.

It's kind of exciting.

We're starting our 21 day fast.

We've been doing this every year for as long as I can remember.

And we like to begin the year with an intentional, intentional sacrifice and discipline.

You know, no one fasts the same way.

By the way, we've been doing this for a long time.

And we've learned that people too many times we get caught up on the details of what can I eat and what can I?

not eaten. Oh man, I didn't realize that this had wheat in it and I ate it. So I guess my fast is

over. I'll see you next time. No, we don't want you to get caught up on all of that. Some people,

some people do no meat. Some people do straight up vegan, kind of like just as the Daniel fast and

other people kind of do, you know, a fast, a whole fast couple of times a week. And, you know,

The point is that you would offer something to God of sacrifice and you would stick to it and that during this time you would seek God more.

So if you decide to skip lunch, hey, give God that lunch hour where you would normally be eating lunch.

That's what it's about.

Otherwise, it's just a diet and that's not what we're, we don't like diets, right?

We don't do that here in Texas.

and then and then last last announcement Friday the 31st of this month we're partnering with

some churches we're having a city-wide prayer night prayer night many of you know Pastor Abram

we love Pastor Abram this is an idea that he had since last year and we had been talking about doing

it and this week we met again we kind of talked about what that would look like and so it's a

Friday night. It's not a night of worship. It's not a special service. It's not there's no guest

speaker. It's a night of prayer. OK. And and and so we'll be strategically praying for specific

things. It's all prayer, all prayer. Somebody say all prayer. OK. We were talking about this. You

know, many, many cultures and many religions, they know how just to pray. Right. Like like

Muslims intentionally pray five times a day. And that's all they do. They pray. There's temples

that are dedicated to just prayer. It used to be like this for Christians too, but somewhere along

the way, we felt the need to dress it up. And we have to have music and we have to have at least

two songs and we have to have some pan dulce and we got to have some coffee, right? And we got to

have some guest speakers and some testimonies. And I'm not saying none of that is good. All of that is

great, but this is just about getting the church to pray, to talk to God, right? And if you believe

that prayer is powerful and you're able to make it that night, man, I want to see you there. Amen.

All right. No more announcements. I want to bring a word this morning of encouragement

to kick off this year. Honestly, it's a word that God has been speaking into me for

several months now, but I think it's very appropriate as we get into this new season.

I don't know how many of you make like goals for your life, make goals when you start the new year, New Year's resolutions and all that stuff.

I do. I'm very goal oriented. I make goals all the time. Right.

And because I make goals all the time, I learned something about goals.

Goals mean nothing without changes in lifestyle and changes in habits. Right.

I don't care what you write down on that piece of paper. If you're not changing habits, you're not changing anything. Right.

Goals mean nothing without proper planning and without proper strategizing.

And perhaps the most important element to achieving any goal is discipline and self-control.

We don't talk about those two things, those two powerful characteristics that if we would just live by, we would be so much closer to living the life that we wanted to live.

Right. It takes discipline to say yes to things that you want to say no to.

And it takes self-control to say no to things that you want to say yes to.

This is why Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life.

It wasn't because he couldn't sin.

No, his human nature made it possible for him to sin.

But his holiness allowed him to exercise discipline, to live a life of pain and sorrow for a greater cause and obedience to the father's will.

And it allowed him to exercise self-control to do a 40 day fast in the wilderness.

And so, as I mentioned, we're going to be starting our 21 day fast and you're going to give up some things that by day five.

Self-control is going to need to come in handy, right?

When your co-worker wants to take you to lunch at Whataburger because they got a gift card for Christmas.

But God, you told God, I'm not doing burgers.

you're going to need some discipline and some self-control.

And the thing is, when we talk about discipline and self-control,

they apply to every area of life.

We know how important they are.

They're very important.

But I believe that many of us don't understand how spiritual they are.

Like these aren't just things that you need to get a beach body in the summer.

Discipline and self-control are spiritual things

because we cannot live a Christian life without them.

And so I entitled the sermon this morning,

Run to Win.

Run to Win.

Tell the person next to you, run with purpose.

I'm not here today to give you like a motivational speech.

That's not what we do.

Although I do want you to win in your goals and achieve your fitness goals and your dieting goals and your financial goals and all that Paul says in verse 23 I do all of this for the sake of the gospel

Honoring God is what's in view here.

You know, if your business does great this year, glory to God.

If you lose 50 pounds, glory to God.

But the Bible says, whatever you do, do for the Lord, not for man.

So I want to challenge you to view every single goal, every aspiration that you've written down that you're making this year.

Do it as a way to honor God, because I think that'll keep you accountable a little bit more.

Now, when you live a disciplined life, you make it easier to honor God in every aspect of life.

You can't give God your best when you're not disciplined, when you don't have self-control.

If my finances are out of control, I'm not giving God my best with my finances.

All right. If if my eating habits are out of control, if my mouth, when I speak, I got to I got to curse.

I got to cuss you out because, man, when you when you get me boiling, I got to say something.

If I got no control over my emotions, I'm not giving God the best with my body.

If I've got no discipline with my prayer life, if I can't get my body to get up early to come to church,

If I can't make myself read the word when I don't want to, it becomes very difficult to consistently give God my best.

That's why the way that we need to think about these two things are spiritually.

They're spiritual components.

And many of us, you know, we start out January with our lists and all the things that we want to accomplish.

But we fail to factor in the discipline and the self-control aspect of it.

motivation is only going to keep your focus for so long church how many are you motivated

you don't have to raise your hand it's a trick question but we get into the new year and and

and we're motivated maybe some of you woke up motivated today you told your family you know

what we're going to go to church in 2025 we're going to start going to church more that's great

the fact that you're here is great but but motivation is going to fade and i've i've learned

that I cannot motivate the people of God.

There's nothing I can do.

That's why I tell you all the time,

I'm not a cheerleader for Jesus.

I'm not gonna motivate you into a relationship with God

because it's not gonna lead very far.

I can't motivate you.

I can't motivate our leaders.

I can't motivate you to serve if you don't wanna serve.

I can't do it.

Motivation might draw your attention to the right things,

but ultimately motivation is an emotion

and emotions fade.

And so if you lack discipline,

that lack of motivation

that is eventually going to come on your life

is going to keep you from all the things

that you set out to do.

I want to come to church more

and you're motivated, but you got no discipline.

Once the motivation is gone,

you ain't coming to church.

You know, for so much of my life,

You know, I've been in and out of like seasons of fitness. You know, there's times when I'm dialed in, I'm hitting the gym and I'm there every day and it's a big part of my life.

And there's other times where I've kind of struggled a little bit more with it. Don't eat healthy.

And I remember saying some to somebody one time, I said, I just can't find the motivation to go to the gym.

I just get home and I just want to relax. I just I can't wake up extra early to go get a workout in.

But I've learned now that motivation has nothing to do with it because there are days today when I don't want to go to the gym.

But because I've got the discipline to do it, I do it anyway.

Church, to live in a way that truly honors God, you cannot be looking for motivation.

You can't be looking for inspiration.

The motivation, the motivating song that you put on to help you get into the presence of God, eventually it's going to end.

What are you going to do? You're going to leave it on repeat. You need it every every single time to get into the presence of God.

That inspiring sermon that you heard on YouTube is going to be forgotten about that motivation of the new year.

The new me, it's going to fade in February. Don't don't fail to ask the spirit.

Lord, give me discipline and give me self-control. You need both of them. You need both of them.

Self-control is a fruit for a reason. It's a fruit of the spirit for a reason.

And Paul uses an analogy of an athlete running his race with discipline.

So can I just teach for a second? You still with me? Don't let me lose you. Don't lose that motivation.

Let me let me do a quick little Bible Bible study. Let me break this down here in this passage of First Corinthians.

Paul is he's dealing with several issues at once but all of it kind of has to do with Christian

freedom Christian liberties Christians are free from the Mosaic law right we're not bound by

strict food laws or civil laws or anything like that like the Jews were in the Old Testament so

Christians are free in many ways to do things or not do things that listen might offend other

Christians. This is still very relevant today. We have, as Christians, we have freedoms, as we like

to call them, convictions that other people don't live by. And we argue over this stuff all the time.

We argue over whether a Christian should be able to drink wine or if it's a sin. We argue over if a

Christian should partake in Halloween. We argue over whether a Christian needs to go to church or

they can just watch online and secular music and dancing and movies and all kinds of things.

It was no different in Paul's day. The question that Paul is dealing with was over eating meat

that was previously sacrificed to idols. Corinth was a very pagan city. The odds of you going out

to the local meat market and buying something that was previously from an animal that was

sacrificed to an idol were very high. And so you had Christians who we might call religious

who said, hey, you better not buy meat from that guy

because it was sourced from demons.

And it's got pagan roots, right?

And then you have other Christians in Corinth

who determined that this is not really much of an issue

because they knew that God was their only true God.

They weren't sacrificing the meat to idols,

so why not just eat the meat?

Paul says, that's fine.

There's no sin in that.

But when it comes to making your brother

who might be weaker in the faith,

You stumble because you just have to eat the meat.

It becomes an issue because now you have become a stumbling block for your brother.

And can we just stop there and acknowledge what a huge responsibility the gospel places on us as believers?

Like we really are our brother's keeper.

This, by the way, this is countercultural.

This is counter Christian culture.

What the tech, what Paul is teaching right now.

Our culture says, well, why should your convictions be my convictions?

Right?

Or does that just mean?

That's what we say.

Right?

Our convictions are, I'm sorry, our culture is just because you're offended by something doesn't mean I've got to be offended by it.

You want to take offense to that?

That's cool with you.

I'm not going to be offended by that.

If you don't want to drink, that's cool.

Don't go against your convictions.

I'm going to do what I'm going to do.

And we miss the entire point that Paul makes so clearly in chapter 8, where he says this.

He says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

What does he mean by that?

We would rather be right than to submit to another brother or sister in love.

And I know this is hard to hear because when somebody comes at us in our convictions, immediately we go to the defense mode rather than the love mode.

And so we would rather have an intellectual conversation with somebody to explain why their convictions are invalid than meet them in their weakness and submit to them in love.

And just so you know, I'm preaching to myself before I'm preaching to anybody else because you know what?

I know the word.

I know when somebody might be taking something out of context to try to defend their point.

And the first thing I want to do is tell them why they're wrong.

And I'm a teacher at heart, you know, so I justify.

I said, well, they just need to be instructed the right way.

And there's a place for that.

It's called Bible study.

It's called church.

But as Christians, we need to have that discernment to know when somebody is looking to be educated

or when they are needing support to honor God in the way that they believe is correct.

Because honoring God needs to be encouraged by all believers.

We should be arguing over these little things.

if you feel that by doing this

or not doing this

you are honoring God

brother I support you in that

I'm not going to argue with you

that's what Paul's saying

not a lot of amends here this morning

we're processing

hey I had to process it

but you know what

one day God might ask you about your brother

like he did with Cain

he said Cain where's your brother Abel

what are we going to say

I'm not my brother's keeper

probably over there in the corner crying

because we had an argument about Halloween

and he called me the devil

and if he thinks I'm the devil

forget him

I don't need toxic brothers in my life

you know

go to another church

we get so furious

our blood boils

when we want to defend

our personal convictions

and you know

I believe we should always stand up

for our convictions

but the salvation of my brother

is way more important

than my need to be right.

Now, I'm not, listen,

I'm not saying that we need to adopt

every single conviction

of every single person in the world.

That's not what the text is teaching, okay?

Stay with me.

I want you to read chapter 9, verse 19 with me.

Paul says,

for though I am free from all so he talking about his Christian freedom and his liberties right He not bound to anybody no man denomination or doctrine This is a man transformed by and who lives by the gospel He says for though I am free from all I made myself a servant to all

That I might what? Win more of them. To the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win the Jews.

to those under the law I became as one under the law

though not being myself under the law

that I might win those under the law

to those outside the law I became as one outside the law

that I might win those outside the law

to the weak I became weak that I might win the weak

I have become all things to all people

that by all means I might save some

he says I do it for the sake of the gospel

that I might share with them in blessings

isn't that powerful

but if we're honest

this is a little bit

counter cultural too

because in practice

it might look like hypocrisy

why is Paul acting like a Jew

in front of the Jews

but like a Gentile

in front of the Gentiles

you know when I'm

when I'm around white people

I speak a little bit differently

I say

sir and not bro.

You know?

And then when I'm like in front of y'all,

you know, a little bit more hood comes out.

And I don't know where it comes from because I'm not from the hood, but

it's just that, you know?

When I blend in, when I...

And Paul is saying,

Paul is saying, when I'm around certain people,

I'm going to respect them.

I'm going to respect their convictions.

I'm going to respect their culture.

not because they have an influence on me, but because I want to win them.

So that they can trust me.

So that they know that I'm not here to judge them.

So that eventually the gospel that has transformed me can have an influence on them

and hopefully transform them the way that it transformed me.

That's what Paul is saying.

I'm able to be what I need to be in any given circumstance.

I'm not compromising my faith.

I'm not compromising my convictions.

But I'm respecting theirs.

I'm submitting to the weaker brother.

Now check this out.

This is Paul's discipline.

Everything that we just talked about, that's his discipline.

His goal is what?

Winning people for the sake of Christ.

If Paul was alive today, his 2025 goal would be winning more people for Jesus.

That's his goal.

his strategy is is to become a servant to all people maintaining his own convictions while not

judging others on their conviction this is how paul obtained the prize and so he says i don't run

aimlessly i don't box as one beating the air but but i discipline my body to keep it under control

when i when i want to say something to a person i know is wrong i hold it for the sake of the gospel

for the goal. When I want to punch somebody in the face because they're getting under my skin,

I don't for the sake of the gospel. When I want to talk about somebody who talked about me,

I don't for the sake of my testimony. When I want to stop doing ministry because somebody

talked about how a terrible job I'm doing, I keep going anyway because I'm not doing ministry for

them. I'm doing ministry for the God that I made the commitment to. I don't know what your

kingdom goals are church but God is saying to somebody today don't just run run to win run with

a purpose because there's a lot of runners but your goal can't just be to run it's got to be to

finish and so if you determine that this year you're going to come to church more I hope to see

you all year if this year you said God I'm going to start fasting more well I hope to see you a

little bit skinnier by the end of the year. There are too many runners in the church, but there's

not enough finishers, man. That's the reality. Everybody's running. Everybody believes.

Over the holiday, God gave me a word that I wanted to preach, and I just thought, man,

I'll just throw it in here. He showed me that so many Christians have faith without practice.

You know, as Christians, we should have both. We need faith and practice. You can have one

without the other, but it's incomplete. And very often we see people who have practice, but no real

faith. And they're kind of just going through the motions and they can be very legalistic and

religious, but they don't have a genuine relationship with God. They're not seeking God

on their own. They just, they do it to look good in front of, in front of people.

Oftentimes you have faith, but no practice. Hear me on, hear me on this. I think this is more

common in our day and age because right now everybody's looking for something to believe in.

Everybody believes in something. God is somewhere in your life. And recently I went over to

somebody's house and you know, I noticed throughout the house they had Christian sayings and artwork

and Bible verses and crosses. And if you were to go to their house for the first time, you would

assume that they were a devout Christian because of

what they professed. They obviously have

faith. They obviously believe in God. And I think if you were to go

outside today and you pick a random person and you ask them if they believe in God, they probably

would say yes. There's a lot of people who have

faith. But you know, in the same house, in the same house that had all these

artwork and crosses and all kinds of things,

He was filled with people who were cursing and getting drunk and doing things that weren't consistent with the Christian life.

And God showed me that this is a way that so many Christians run their race.

People think that just because they're in the race, they've already won.

I've been baptized.

I've read the Bible.

I go to church sometimes.

Going to church sometimes is like having a gym membership that you barely use.

there's a difference between having a gym membership and going to the gym.

Paul says, I discipline my body

less after I preach to others, I should be disqualified.

In saying that, he has something very specific in mind.

He had the ancient Greek Olympics

because athletes who signed up for the Olympics,

they were required to go 10 months of intense training.

They had to discipline themselves even before they got to the race.

if they couldn't go through the 10 months of training,

they were automatically disqualified.

So he says, I gotta be disciplined

even before I start preaching

because if I start preaching

and I'm not disciplined in my own holiness,

in my own ministry, in my own home,

then I'm already disqualified.

So he says, run the race.

When it says run the race,

it means we're disciplined.

not just words

not just aspirations

not just hopes

discipline

I believe that there are more

runners in the church than there are finishers

because though you have faith

you don't have the proper

discipline to practice the faith

that you profess

with consistency

this is why people give up

and you know my heart man

My heart is for new Christians, man, because I see new Christians as, like, you know, those newborn, this is going to sound really weird.

It's just coming to me right now as a revelation.

Maybe I shouldn't say it, never mind.

I see new believers as like, this is going to sound so weird.

Don't expect anything spiritual and profound.

I see them as newborn giraffes.

you know, a newborn giraffe,

they're born and then they have to start walking

and they keep walking and they go like that again.

And you're just like rooting for them.

Come on, man, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it.

That's weird, right?

Yeah.

That's my heart for new believers

who say yes, who raise their hand every Sunday

and they say, you know what?

I want to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

And I love to see that.

But there's another piece of me that says, man, I'm still rooting for you because just because you start doesn't mean you finish.

And I don't want you just to start. I want you to finish because there's an eternal prize waiting for you.

And just because you said yes to Jesus doesn't mean you already won.

No, no, no. He already won for you. That gives you access to say yes to him.

But you've got to run your race and you've got to run it with discipline.

So many of us, we quit really before we get started.

Maybe every January you decide to come to church.

You start every year with good intentions to commit more to God because you have the faith.

You just struggle to practice it because there's a lack of spiritual discipline.

And I want to just say one thing that I'm sure so many of you know, but I want to say, especially for those who might be newer in their faith.

This year, I want you to expect some things.

I'm going to just tell you the truth.

Being a Christian is beautiful.

Amen.

How many brothers, sisters in Christ say it's beautiful?

It's beautiful to be in communion with Jesus.

But the Christian walk isn't always beautiful.

Right?

And there will be trouble and there will be trial and there will be pain and there will be waiting.

A lot of waiting.

You're always waiting.

Then you get the thing and you got to wait for the other part.

There's confusion.

As you wait because you start to doubt the things that you prayed for and the things that God said and you like well this doesn look the way that God said it was going to look like And there a little bit of confusion There will be stumbling because you won have self all the time And you might give into temptation and you are going to fall but you got to get back up

There will be church hurt.

There will be people in your life in the church who are good people, but they're not perfect people.

And they might do you wrong and it might hurt your feelings.

And it might make you represent the entire body of Christ that way.

But it's not like that.

there will be ugly

there will be frustrating times

there will be tiredness

and ministry

there will always be

a lack of motivation

and all of this

will only make your walk

with Christ more exhausting

and any one of these

above mentioned points

can be your excuse

for quitting

and so what we need

is a church

that not only adopts

the faith

but the practice

to go along with that faith

and and the practice of faith is something that takes self-discipline and self-control there's no

growth without discipline church and i don't know how many of you are actively praying for those

things but i would challenge you i would urge you to pray god this year make me more disciplined

mold me into being a person

who can contain himself or herself

and also understand that when you ask for these things

just like when you ask for peace, God doesn't just give you peace

he gives you an opportunity to exercise that peace

he throws the opposite of peace your way so that you can

test your peace, it's the same way

when you're saying God give me self control, you're going to be in moments

you're going to be in situations that are going to require

self control from you

Paul says run

run that you may obtain the prize

I'm almost done

to have the worship team come up

run that you may obtain the prize

the prize that

Paul had in mind

you know it was eternal

he says it's

imperishable

and the great thing is that you can apply all of this

sermon to anything in your life okay if you need to go home

and you need to write out

your disciplines are going to go alongside your goals, do it.

But Paul was talking to a church that was on a destructive path.

A church that cared more about being right than it cared for others.

A church that was so quick to divide because of personal preferences.

This was a church that was running the race,

but didn't practice the things that was supposed to make them holy.

So my pastoral challenge to you today for this year,

You ready?

This is my challenge.

Are you listening?

I got your attention.

All right, all right.

You got to ask.

I want you to reach your goals, okay?

In the name of Jesus, apply all of that to your personal life.

But more importantly, there is a prize that your soul is running after today.

Your soul is hungry.

The soul is a little bit more spiritually aware than our minds are sometimes.

it longs for relationship with God when we're too distracted to even realize it there is a an

eternal prize that your soul your spirit is running after and and that prize transcends

anything materialistic and anything perishable it is a divine prize that no man can award only

God himself can give it and and that prize might be your salvation it might be the salvation of

your family. It might be your call to greater levels of holiness. How many of you, God is

calling you to greater levels of holiness and piety. It could be a new anointing that God wishes

to place on your life this year. And you've been asking God for more and saying, God, give me more.

And God says, I got more to give you, but you got to be ready to manage it. It might be a spiritual

gift that has already started to manifest in you. And you know, it's there, but you don't know if

You're ready for it.

Remember, you cannot honor God consistently without discipline.

You can't do it.

And there's people today who long.

You long to have the discipline.

You long to have the self-control that is required to obtain the spiritual price.

I'm talking to somebody today.

I don't know who God is speaking to.

But there is something in your spirit that has said, God, if I could only get rid of this habit.

God, if I could only find the motivation.

God, if I could only get some people out of my life.

I said it earlier.

God is going to start to take some people out of your life.

He's going to start to move some things out your way.

Because he is trying to set you up for the eternal prize that he's got for you.

But it's going to take discipline.

And so you might have to break some things.

You might have to break some habits and form some new ones.

You might have to break some commitments that you already made to other people, but they're keeping you from your God commitments.

That's OK. That's you know, you want to be a man of your word, a woman of your word.

But but but not when it trumps God.

You might have to you might have to cancel some some some Sunday plans so that you can come to church.

You might have to cancel some Saturday morning plans because God is calling you to come to prayer because you need to get, you got to get more involved.

You got to get more on your knees.

And God is saying, well, hey, that doesn't, that's good.

That brunch is nice, but it doesn't fit with where I'm calling you to be.

There's some things that you might have to take out of your life.

Some lifestyle choices that you have made that have made you who you are today.

and God is saying, I am ready to form you into a new person.

You've got to do some things that maybe your body isn't used to doing.

Start to study the word beyond one or two verses.

You got to have a sit down conversation with your wife.

Listen, men of God, women of God, listen.

When you decide to do something spiritual in your home,

it needs to be the both of you.

Now, sometimes, and I'm kind of going a different direction right now, but God is speaking something.

Sometimes there is a disagreement.

Sometimes you determine as a man of God, I'm going to be the priest in my home.

Family, we're going to church.

Your wife says, no, I'm going shopping.

There's not a lot you can do about that, but you be faithful to God.

But when you have a home that is on the cusp of giving everything to God, you have to determine together.

Together.

Somebody say together.

Too many men and women of their homes make decisions without the other one's knowledge.

No.

In order to be effective, men, you sit down with your spouse.

women

you sit down

with your husband

and you say hey

this year

we're committing to each other

we're committing to our family

we're going to be in the house of the Lord

as for us

in our home

we will serve

the Lord

make that decision

some of you might need to go home today

and you need to have those conversations

you need to have a conversation about

how much you're going to start tithing

how much you're going to start giving

how much you're going to start being involved

you need to have those conversations

because they're important

and they involve your family

there's some things

that God is calling you to

that require a shift

in what's been so comfortable

all your life

but God is saying

if you're going to run

run like you mean it

run like you're actually trying to go somewhere.

Run like there is a prize waiting for you on the other side

that once you get it will unleash the glory of God over your life

and over your family.

Run like there's something to run after.

I don't run aimlessly, he says.

I'm focused.

I'm focused on the prize

that is Jesus

I'm focused on the prize

that is winning souls

for the sake of Christ

I'm focused

I don't box beating the air

I box fighting demons

I box fighting spiritual forces

I don't pray to the air

I pray to a living and mighty God

run, run, run to win

run to win

run like you mean it

run with the purpose

I don't want to declare this your year

if you're not ready for it

this is my year because

God's in charge

God's leading it

and I'm just running after him

I want you to run to win church

that's a very simple message

to get us started this year

as you're making these commitments to the Lord.

Do it.

Run to win.

I want you to stand this morning.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church,

visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast,

you can subscribe or share it with your friends

on social media and tag us at mypneumachurch.

Pneuma Church. Thanks again, and God bless.