Renewing Your Spirit: How to Keep Running the Race of Life

And we'll continue to be looking forward to hearing the good

things that come out of Heritage Baptist Church.

If you're not familiar with Southland Christian Ministries, it

is primarily a youth camp.

We have 25 full time employees.

We have a year round facility that is serving local churches and

we have a lot of resources available to you.

I mentioned this morning a lot of adult events.

I would really encourage you to take a look at the adult events

at the website southlandcamp.org and like us on

social media and follow us on social media.

That'll help you keep engaged in the camp that your, your juniors

and teens come to.

But it'll also show you some opportunities that might be good

for you as adults.

We also have a family camp that we do always the July 4th week

during the middle of the summer and we have a good time with,

with that.

I encourage you to take a take a look at that of course as well.

We also have a Ministry of Music, southlandmusic.org you can

check that out.

We have a lot of recordings that we've produced that are all

available digitally for you to enjoy and with full orchestra.

The teens might remember our theme recording this summer.

What we try to do is set a theme and then give them music that

they can enjoy throughout the week of camp and then they can listen

to it on an ongoing basis to remember their decisions.

And the theme was, anybody over there know teenagers take courage?

That's right.

Good job.

You guys listened well and we had a theme song.

And we studied the life of Daniel who in the midst of a wicked

culture as a young man was willing to take courage and do the

right thing and definitely want to continue to remind the young

people about that.

We do a podcast also that's available for anyone to listen to.

It's specifically meant to be for the teenagers that come to help

them on a regular basis hear the word of God and walk and walk

what they say, they talk what what their talk is.

And it's called Walk Talks.

So you can listen to that podcast.

And we're doing a study through the greatest sermon ever

preached, the Sermon on the Mount.

And that's the theme right now.

And we just actually started that.

The Way of the King is the title of the podcast series on the

Walk Talks.

And so we also have a sermon podcast so you can hear a lot of

the sermons.

So if you're interested in hearing some of the preaching that

goes on at Southland Christian Camp, you can all take advantage

of that in those digital formats.

And if there's anything we can ever do to be a blessing to you and

your ministry and to your families, the families here in this

ministry.

We want to do that.

And we're so thankful for the young people in particular.

This past summer, we saw over 150 professions of faith as the gospel

was preached throughout the summer.

About 2,400 campers that came through the camp.

That's roughly around 300 a week as we go throughout the summer.

If you're ever traveling I20 across east of here, of course we'd

love for you to stop by and visit the camp, show you around a

little bit.

It's just about 15 minutes off of Interstate 20, just south of Minden,

Louisiana, and a little town called Ringgold, Louisiana.

Southland was the Bible Memory association camp.

BMA Miracle Camp is what they called it.

And they had several camps around the country up until the early

90s.

And then it changed overhands and became Southland Christian Camp

at that time.

And there's a history of that on the.

On the website if you're interested in seeing a little more

of the history there.

But ministry for the word of God and the gospel sake has been

going on on that property since the 1940s.

And so we're thankful for the camp property.

We're updating the facility.

We have some projects going on, new sandlot volleyball courts

and pickleball courts that we're finishing up right now, a new

guy's cabin and several other things that are going on at the camp.

We definitely covet your prayers.

We love partnering with churches just like yours.

And thank you for praying for us and involving yourselves with

the ministry of Southland.

It's been a joy to be able to be here with you today.

Now, I told you this morning, we're going to look at a passage

of scripture that I hope will be an encouragement to us and a blessing

to us and a challenge to us with this theme, having the energy

to endure.

If you'll do this with me and stand, we're going to read the scripture

together and we're going to do this responsively.

I'll read the first, the odd numbered verses, the first, the third,

and then together you join in on the even numbered verses.

So we'll end together in verse 18.

And I want you to let the word of God to fall on your ears as we

hear it and to soak into your heart.

And then we'll make reference to some points that I hope will be

a help to us as we study the life of the apostle Paul and his

own personal testimony and desire to not quit his desire to

not faint.

So I'll begin in.

We're in second Corinthians, chapter four, and we'll read together.

I'll read the odd numbered verses and you join with me on the

even numbered verses.

Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy,

we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.

Not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully,

but by a manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every

man's conscience in the sight of God.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom

the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe

not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is

the image of God, should shine unto them.

For we preach not ourselves, but but Christ Jesus the Lord, and

ourselves your servants.

For Jesus sake.

For God, who hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness,

has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of

the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency

of the power may be of God and not of us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.

We are perplexed, but not in despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken, Cast down, but not destroyed.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For we which live are alway delivered unto death.

For Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest

in our mortal flesh.

So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written,

I believed, and therefore have I spoken.

We also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised

up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present

us with you.

For all things are for your sakes.

That the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many,

redound to the glory of God.

For which cause we faint not.

But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed

day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh

for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while

we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things

which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which

are not seen are eternal.

Lord, would you add your blessing to the reading of the Word

of God and the preaching of the Word of God.

Fill our hearts with your Truth.

Holy Spirit, speak and convict and confront and challenge us to

change.

Tonight, in Jesus name I pray and everyone says Amen.

Thank you for reading the scripture with me.

And we'll make reference to these verses as we go throughout

the message tonight.

The books of first and second Corinthians are good books for every

church to study.

The first book, the Apostle Paul spends a lot of time dealing

with specific issues that all churches go through.

And that's why it's still a very good book.

And under inspiration, every book's a good book.

And the second book is a book where the Apostle Paul is actually

defending his own apostleship.

Here in this text, where we are, we are looking is in a section

of scripture where he's personally trying to communicate

his heart and his testimony of not quitting, not fainting, but continuing

to minister even though his ministry was seemingly falling on

deaf ears.

Have you ever had a time where you wanted to throw in the towel?

Have you ever had a time where you wanted to quit?

Have you ever had a time where it felt so dark, so heavy that you

couldn't trudge forward?

Well, that's where the Apostle Paul is in this text.

Now how many of you, that's an encouragement to you that if the

Apostle Paul can go through what he went through and continue

to be faithful, how many of you know we can be faithful as well?

Many years ago, my brother Mark and I, we were traveling in

an evangelistic team.

I have an identical twin brother.

His name is Mark.

He looks just like me.

If he was here, you would, you would only tell us apart because

I wear glasses and he does not.

We both marry girls with the same name.

My brother married a girl by the name of Amy and I married a girl

by the name of Amy.

And it was always funny because we would show up to churches

to do our evangelistic meetings and people would ask the

Amy's if they were sisters.

I thought that was always funny.

No, they're not sisters because their mom would not name

them the same name.

But anyway, they were definitely sisters in law.

We named all of our children with M letters, my brother Mark's

kids, as we traveled the road in RVs church to church.

My brother Mark's kids were Megan, Madison, Morgan and Meredith.

And my kids were Micah, Malachi, Michaela and McKenna.

We tried to confuse the churches, that's for sure.

Well, you know, churches even, even this, this weekend, churches

like to take care of the preachers.

And so one of the ways they like to take care of the preachers,

which I was Always glad for is to feed them.

And we loved, I love to eat.

Anybody else out there like that?

My wife's the type of person that eats to live.

I'm the type of person that lives to eat, that's for sure.

There's a big difference between the two.

And what we decided to do is after several years of traveling

on the road and all the desserts and all the things that

people were given to us, we decided that we better do something

regular in physical exercise.

So a friend of ours challenged my brother Mark and I.

This was a college friend and after we did this, I don't know if

he's still my friend, but anyway, he challenged us to train

and run a marathon.

Now how many of you in here?

Is there anyone in here that has ever run a marathon or more?

Anybody at all?

Okay, anybody?

10K?

Some 10k ers out there?

Okay, a few people.

5K, 50 yard dash.

The most I had ever run was in elementary school at field day.

That was the most I had ever run like a 50 yard dash or 400, 400

meters around the track as an elementary school kid.

That was the most I had ever done in any kind of race.

And so I had never really thought that running would ever be

fun.

And guess what?

After training and running two marathons, I still will tell you,

running is still not fun.

Amen.

I never got to the point where, yeah, I just look forward

to that run.

Well, what I learned in running two marathons, which I would

definitely encourage you to train for a marathon if you're still

in, in condition that to do that, I would encourage you to do

it.

Life lessons galore.

Some of those I'm going to share with you even in the message

tonight.

But I Learned I ran two marathons.

My brother Mark actually ran 15 marathons.

Good for him.

I always cheered him on.

Like I did two and I was like, that's enough for me.

And I've run a few other like half marathons and things like that

since.

And the fact of the matter is I exercise so I can eat whatever

I want.

That's, that's the reason I exercise.

It's never been really fun, but I learned a lot of things from

the marathon race.

See in the first marathon, it's 26.2 miles.

I had never run any kind of distances and every training run

that I did in the 18 weeks prior to the marathon was giving

me the next record for my amount of running.

So the one first started off like I had never run more than three

miles.

And so When I ran five miles, I was like, wow, I actually can do

this.

Then the next week I ran seven miles, and the next week I ran like

nine miles, et cetera.

Up till 21 miles was the most that you run during the training.

So when you come to the marathon, you've never run 26.2 miles.

You've just run, in my case, 21 miles at one time, which was bad

enough, I will tell you, but the marathon is, is actually really,

really awesome.

You're like, come on, are you serious?

Well, there's people cheering you on.

There's places along the way that are giving you Gatorade and

water and other treats along the way.

And then at the end of the race, your family's there and there's

elation and you get a medal.

Now you paid to get the medal and everything else that comes along

with it.

You paid to tear up your body like that.

But there's a lot of cool aspects of the marathon that I want

to relate to us, because life is like a marathon.

Did you know that?

Well, my first marathon, being a competitor, that was.

Mark and I decided we were going to try.

We didn't really study it a whole lot, but we were going to try

to run the whole race without stopping, without walking, without

resting, without stopping at all.

And if you've ever done any kind of long distance run that's

not recommended.

Well, I found out in that first marathon at mile number 23

in Washington, D.C. i did what marathoners call hit the wall.

Do you know what hitting the wall is?

It's when you're.

When.

When your mind says go, but your body says no.

It's when literally, physically exhaustion sets in.

Your muscles don't have the right nutrition, and before long

you start pulling muscles.

Some people collapse, some people pass out.

Some people actually quit the race when they hit the wall.

Thankfully, I didn't have to quit the race, but I did have a major

hamstring pull, if you know what I mean.

It didn't rip in half, but it actually seized up like it was going

to rip in half.

I basically hobbled like this from mile 23 for the rest of the

marathon.

Did my brother Mark wait for me?

Did my brother Mark help me?

Did my brother Mark stay with me?

No, he didn't.

Shame on him.

But anyway, no.

One of the things you learn is you got to run your own race.

But the other thing you got to learn is you got to bear one another's

burdens, right?

Anyway, he should have stayed with me.

There's A spiritual lesson in that.

But I did finish the race.

But I learned something very valuable in that first marathon that,

that I put into practice in my second marathon in Akron, Ohio.

And I finished that marathon still under the four hour timeframe

that I was shooting for.

I finished in like 3 hours and 48 minutes.

The first marathon this.

And we didn't stop, but I definitely had to walk, basically

walk trot from mile 23 to mile to the, to the finish line.

But in Akron, after understanding that it would be really

wise for me to take advantage of the rest stops, not necessarily

sit down, take a nap, though.

Some ultra marathoners do that when they're running the 300 kilometers

or the 150 kilometer, 150 miles that some of those guys that

are insane, that's what they do, you know, the ultra marathoners.

I mean, I'm a wimp, just running a marathon.

Get out there and run an ultramarathon.

That's something I will never do, I promise you that.

I just saw a documentary about these guys that, that ran a 300 kilometer

trail, trail marathon, ultra marathon, four different trails in

Hong Kong that took them up over the mountains, 300 kilometers

continuously.

They slept on basically on the trail.

10 minutes here, 15 minutes there.

And for.

That can't be good for you.

But anyway, that's, that's not part of the message.

But anyway.

Second marathon, Akron, Ohio.

Stopping at the rest stops, getting the nutrition that I needed,

getting the Gatorade, taking time with the Gatorade, taking time

with the water and enjoying those stops along the way, usually

every mile and a half, every two miles or something like that.

Guess what?

Never hit the wall.

That was a good experience.

Finished with a smile on my face.

It was still somewhat painful because you're tired, you're exhausted

at the end of the race, but you finished better.

Why?

Because you had energy inputted into your system along the

way.

You had rest stops along the way to give you the fuel that you

needed to finish the race strong.

Are you seeing where I'm going spiritually?

Well, here in this text, what we find is some spiritual rest points.

We cannot endure the marathon in life without taking advantage

of the rest stops and making sure we are fueling our life with.

Well, now I'm the type of person when I drive my car and I

start to see it getting too empty in its fuel, I like to kind

of press the envelope and see how far I can go.

Is anybody else like that?

Most men are kind of, kind of like that.

My wife's like you better.

We better get.

Better get fuel.

Oh, it's okay.

It's running on fumes right now.

And that has caused me to run out of gas a few times in my life.

Some of you are smiling.

You know what I'm talking about.

And my wife's like, why didn't you just stop and refuel ahead of

the game?

And that's a good question.

You can't make it to the destination if you don't refuel.

And I want to talk about these refueling stops, what they look like,

and relate that to the physical experience that I had in

the physical marathon, the physical race, and talk about the

race of life and what we need for our life.

And again, this is coming directly from the Apostle Paul in

a moment where he's going through it.

He's going through the hard trial of the more abundantly he loves

them, the less he's being loved.

All right, so as we go through this, we're going to go kind of step

by step through the text.

The first thing I want you to notice that relate is relatable from

the physical marathon.

That actually is very easy to see in the first few verses here.

Number one, There are certain things in those rest times that have

to be rejected out of our life.

If you're taking notes tonight, number one is the rest stop

of rejection.

Rejection.

See, when I choose to run a marathon, there's certain things

I start to say no to.

I'm not running along the marathon, eating Dunkin Donuts along

the way.

I'm not getting Coca Cola at the rest stops.

I'm getting water at and electrolytes and Gatorade at the

rest stops.

There are certain things marathoners just say no to.

Right?

Because they want to be physically in shape in order for

them to run the race.

Well.

Well, spiritually speaking, folks, how many of you know, there

are a lot of things that we have to say no to.

And we, in the times where we feel like we can't go on, is not

the time to continually go after things that are going to harm

us or.

But to continually reject things out of our life that would

delay our.

Our trip of life and that would hinder our relationship with

God.

Now, in the Apostle Paul's case, in the first few verses, we

know this is a theme.

He says, we're not going to quit.

We're not going to faint.

He says it in verse 1, and he says it in verse 16.

We faint not.

But instead, I will continue to renounce the hidden things of

dishonesty.

I will renounce the hidden things that dishonest.

You know what this is?

Denouncing lies out of your life.

You know, anytime we fall into sin, it's because we're believing

a lie.

We need to wake up and not deceive ourselves and be deceived

by the world and the flesh and the devil.

But renounce the things of dishonesty, the things that are going

on inside that or outside of our life, cleansing our hands, cleansing

our hearts.

Not walking in craftiness as a preacher.

He's saying, I'm not going to be a swindler.

I'm not going to be somebody that manipulates.

And this, this translates into all of our lives where we try to

save face with our lives many times and act the way we should when

we know it's not real.

That has to be renounced out of our life, doesn't it?

Renouncing deception, renouncing the manipulation of our

life to.

And the hypocrisy out of our life.

He also says, nor handling the word of God deceitfully.

This is of course, as a preacher, very important.

We better preach what the Bible says and handle it well and

honestly.

And he's saying, guys, he's talking to this church that's not

listening to him.

They're doubting his apostleship.

And he says, look, I'm just speaking to you, the truth of God,

straightforward.

I'm going to give it to you as thus saith the Lord.

I'm not teaching it deceitfully for my own good.

How many of you know there's a lot of religion and a lot of churches

that are teaching it falsely and in a deceptive way and in a manipulative

way.

But Paul is saying, I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to renounce that.

The tendency to try to appeal to the crowd, the tendency to try

to not be what I actually.

And to live in hypocrisy.

I'm going to renounce that.

To renounce hidden things, the lies and the deception that's all

around us.

But instead I will but by manifestation of the truth, commend

myself to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

I will.

I will stand before God.

You're only as spiritual as you are before the eyes of God alone.

Commending yourself to renounce anything out of your life

because you will not make it in the marathon of life if you harbor

sin, hide sin and cover it up.

He that covers his sin shall not prosper.

But whoso confesseth and forsaketh it shall have mercy.

Praise the Lord that there's mercy with God.

So confess, don't cover.

God sees it already.

He already knows what's going on.

Stop trying to run the race of life with all the baggage.

Lay aside every weight and the sin that that does so easily beset

you and run with patience the race that is set before you.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, it's all

through Scripture.

Life is like a race, but we can get weighed down if we don't

renounce the things that need to be renounced out of our lives.

You will never endure in faithfulness.

If you're hanging on to harboring or hiding wickedness, renounce

it.

Paul says, number one, that's a priority.

It's almost a prerequisite for your race.

But it's as you go throughout the race, you're not grabbing a hold

of the things that are going to make you heavy in the race.

You're actually trying to stay lighter in the race, eat healthier

in the race.

And that's what we need in our life as well.

So number one is renouncing certain things, rejection out of

our life.

What needs to be rejected out of your life so that you can faithfully

endure?

Number two, I want you to notice, not only is there rejection,

but number two, there's reflection.

The second word is the word reflection.

And this is when in verse three, he says, and by the way, if

you do not reject, you will not reflect.

Say that.

Let me say that one more time.

If you do not reject the sinfulness out of your life as a

Christian, you will not be properly reflecting the light of

the glorious gospel to the lost people around you.

But this is also encouraging for us because here we find the motivation

for our existence is to be reflected on and reflected out of

our life.

Two ideas of reflection, right?

It's like the thinker statue.

I want you to reflect in the sense that our lives are to be consumed

with two things that are in the verses to follow.

The gospel and the glory of God.

Say them together.

The gospel and the glory of God.

One more time.

The gospel and the glory of God.

We must spend a lot of time reflecting and thinking and being

motivated and stirred in our soul about the gospel and about the

glory of God.

This is our motivation.

This is why we do what we do.

This is what gets us to the finish line, which in the spiritual

sense is when we cross over Jordan, right?

And.

Or he comes and takes us home.

And don't you want to finish?

Well, you keep the Gospel and the glory of God.

In mind you reflecting upon it, the death, burial, resurrection,

the glorious truths that the gospel, the salvation theology brings

to light to keep us encouraged, to keep us motivated.

And then second of all, the glory of God.

You see, it's not just all about the gospel.

The it's actually more all about the glory of God.

Our lives are to be magnific magnification devices for the greatness

and the character of our great God.

And whatsoever you do, the Bible says, glorify God, whether

you eat or drink or whatever, you do, do all to the glory of God.

All right, so reflecting on that motivates us.

It keeps us running in the race.

You know, to be honest with you, the physical marathon, there

has to be something that's motivating you because why in the

world are you out there kind of putting your body through that

26.2 miles, in that case in a marathon.

I was thinking that when I was watching the documentary, what possesses

somebody to do what they were doing?

And they started to talk about some of the different motivations.

And some of those things would not motivate me, however, to run

300 km in a mountain race.

But something motivated me to put one foot in front of the other,

to run a full marathon, to run two marathons.

There's always a motivation.

Mark this down.

Everybody has something that's motivating them.

The problem is when we're motivated by the things that should

be renounced out of our life, then our motivation takes us the

wrong way in life.

But when the motivation is proper, reflected upon in the sense

of thinking upon it, letting it stir our lives, helps keep us

moving forward, helps us to be faithful when it seems like all is

lost.

Why?

Because we're not here for ourselves.

We're here for the gospel and we're here for the glory of God,

folks.

That's what's motivating us.

And one day, if we're faithful in the short marathon race of called

life, will hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Now this text also brings to light the second idea of this idea

of reflection.

It's not just good enough to think about it, be motivated by it.

No.

Now it needs to come out of our existence.

It needs to shine out of us.

Because if our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost.

Do you know there's a lost and dying world out there?

There's people all around you.

You need to be very serious about your sphere of influence.

And if you hang on and don't reject sin, your sphere of influence

is going to see sinfulness and hypocrisy out of your life.

But when you are motivated by the gospel and the glory of God,

you can reflect the light of the gospel in the way that you behave.

And what we believe determines the way we behave.

And when we go out and we live the way we're supposed to live and

we make decisions the way we're supposed to make the decisions,

then our gospel shines brightly.

It's not hid do you remember the old, old Sunday school song?

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

We won't sing it tonight, but hide it under a bushel.

No, you know, don't let Satan it out.

Let the light of God shine, folks.

That's what motivates our existence.

Whom the God of this world hath blinded the mind.

So the devil's at work blinding the minds of those around

us.

And Paul, remember, he's reflecting this in reference to his

own experience.

I'm not going to quit because I'm not here to serve just you.

I'm here to serve God.

I'm here to preach Christ.

I'm here to give the gospel.

I'm here to glorify God.

Not everybody's going to like that.

Not everybody's going to welcome that.

But it's not going to hinder us running the race and it's not

going to cause us to hide our light, you see, lest the light of

the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine

unto them.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

We read these verses.

Notice verse 6.

For God commandeth the light to shine out of darkness.

How many of you are glad for that?

He shined in our hearts it if you're saved tonight, say amen.

He shined the light of the gospel in your heart.

Don't let Satan blow it out.

Which by the way, he can't blow it out in the sense of take

away your soul.

Once you're saved, you're always saved.

Hallelujah.

But he sure can dim your light.

He sure can yield your light ineffective.

He sure can make your light very confusing to the lost world.

He says there he has shined it in our hearts for this purpose to

give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ.

We're the lower lights mentioned that this morning.

We're to be burning brightly, shining for the glory of God.

And folks, verse seven is one of my favorite verses in all the

new Testament.

This is the treasure that we have in this earthen vessel that

God wants to use us to declare his gospel and to shine his glory.

That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

What a wonderful verse.

What a humbling verse.

What a powerful thought.

You don't live for you if you're a child of God.

You live for the glory of God.

You live to magnify Christ in your body.

Whether you live or whether you die, the Bible says, and that

is an incredible privilege to motivate our existence, to live for

the gospel and the glory of God.

Folks, this is a rest stop that we need.

In times where we want to quit, this is in times where faithfulness

is hard.

In times where we want to falter or give up, we need to remember

that it's about the gospel and the glory of God, not about our comfort,

not about our ease, not about the applause of men.

It's about the applause of God to hear him say, well done.

Now I just want to encourage us to reflect on that.

Everybody faces.

I mean, the Apostle Paul's facing it.

We face it.

Times where we want to quit, times where we want to faint.

But we got to remember what this is all about, why we're all

here for the gospel and the glory of God's sake.

Reflection.

Reflection.

This is the motivation for our.

For our race called life.

Number three, rest stop.

As we're running, we're into mile like six or eight now, and we're.

We're getting to the next rest stop.

What's the next one?

Renounce.

Reject certain things out of your life.

Number two, reflection of the gospel and the glory of God.

Number three.

Renewal.

Renewal.

This is where in the marathon they give you these cool things that

are sometimes put in gels or stuff you squeeze in your mouth or

in jelly beans or little gel cubes, and sometimes you mix it in

some water, extra electrolytes, extra energy, extra

nutrients that immediately go to the right place.

They say so that as you're running, you're renewing your physical

body.

I learned in the first race that that's very, very important

because I hit the wall in the first race because I hadn't renewed

myself well in the nutrition that was necessary for my life.

I was hurting, I was struggling.

And the reason was because I hadn't renewed myself.

The second marathon, I changed my tactic and I read up on it and

I actually took my time, actually walked and sometimes even

physically stopped at those rest stations to took advantage of

the nice people that were There giving us all the food and

the extra nutrients that I needed along the way.

And guess what?

It made a huge difference.

Renewal makes a huge difference.

Now I want you to notice why we need renewal.

The verses talk about the apostle Paul going through trouble

on every side.

Perplexities, persecutions, being cast down, bearing about the

suffering of the body of Christ.

You see that working, and he reflects that suffering.

To be called like then death worketh in us.

That's in reference to the suffering that he's partnering in

the death of Jesus Christ.

So as we suffer, God brings forth life out of our suffering.

That's what he says in verse, in verse 12.

So then death worketh in us.

But life you.

So even though I'm going through these.

These times of suffering, I want to renew myself.

Because what God is doing out of the suffering or the hurting or

the times of difficulty in our lives is he's actually going to work

that out for good in our lives and in the lives of other people.

We having the same spirit of faith and talking about his own faithfulness

in walking forward.

And the way.

The way we see the idea of renewal is, is in verse 16.

For which cause we faint not, though our outward man perish.

Ever been there yet the inward man is what renewed day by day.

So this physical renewal can be related to the spiritual renewal.

The physical renewal is internal nutrition going to the body

to physically help us maintain the energy, to continue to put one

foot in front of the other even into the latter parts of the

marathon.

So that you're getting to the end of the race and you're still

feeling strong.

Don't you want that?

Spiritually speaking?

And it's all internal, spiritually speaking as well.

It's all about our heart.

It's all about guarding our heart with all diligence.

For out of it are the issues of life.

And so in order to do that, we need to renew ourselves.

Here's the phrase.

Day by day, day by day is the only way.

Say that together.

Day by day is the only way.

One foot in front of the other could be termed each day after another.

Right?

Just doing what you know is right.

Doing those spiritual disciplines that will renew your

spiritual life.

Your heart will be in touch with God.

Getting to know God, disciplining yourself day by day

to be in His Word, to memorize His Word, to meditate on His Word.

Spending much time in prayer, communicating with God, listening

to God, which I think is a lost art these days.

Meditation is all consuming in all of those things.

It's taking in the word of God, letting it soak into our lives

and listening to the will of God.

And as we pray and say, lord, speak to me, guess what?

God will speak and we will hear.

Not a physical voice, but spiritually speaking through his

Word he will renew our hearts.

Folks.

That's why we need this book every single day.

Make much of the word of God more to be desired.

Are they than gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is thy servant warned.

And in keeping of them there is great reward.

Can I just say that we are living in a day with more tools,

more access, more availability to to this wonderful book.

But we're in the most Bible illiterate society known to mankind

because at the same time the devil takes the technology and he

turns it into worldliness, flesh, selfishness.

And people are spending hours and hours and hours on social media

and on video games and all the other aspects of technology and then

say they don't have time to read their Bible.

No, we need to make time for our Bible.

We need to love this book, we need to learn this book, we need

to listen to this book and we need to live this book.

This is the key to our day by day renewal.

And it's not just something the kids sing.

Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow.

No, that is actually true.

It is absolutely true.

There is a miraculous work that God does through the inspiration

of scripture as it falls upon our hearts and, and as we heed it

and we obey it.

The Bible is so clear, we need to love this book so much more than

our necessary food.

Is not my word like a hammer that break at the rock in pieces?

God's word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path.

Is it not like the snow and the rain that falls from heaven?

So is my word.

It will not return void.

It will accomplish that which it pleases in our life.

You say?

Well, it's hard to understand.

Well, get some a commentary to help understand it.

Read a devotional and devotional journal.

Take notes to what God God is and take a takeaway with you every

single day.

And it will encourage your heart to stay faithful in the race

no matter how many perplexities, no matter how much

trouble is coming.

That's how the Apostle Paul could say we were troubled, yet not

distressed.

We were perplexed, but not in despair.

Can we live in a perplexed world and a troubled world and still

rise to the challenge not being in despair?

I believe it's wrong to be in despair.

God's people should not be in despair.

Anxiety should not fill our hearts.

Peace should fill our hearts.

That passeth all understanding.

Is it possible to be cast down but not destroyed?

Absolutely.

And by the way, when you suffer, you're suffering for the

sake of Christ.

You're suffering for a reason and for a purpose.

And.

And it's right alongside with the suffering of Jesus Christ.

And are we any greater than our Master?

If he suffered, we're going to suffer too.

And in order to make it through the suffering, folks.

Which, by the way, pales in comparison to Paul's suffering.

It pales compared to the suffering of those like you read

in the Fox's Book of Martyrs.

It pales into comparison to Hebrews, chapter 11, type suffering.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And it pales in comparison to the suffering of most of the world

right now for the cause of Christ.

However, there is still suffering if we faithfully live for

Christ.

If I'm faithfully running the marathon and I'm doing the best I

can to nutrition my life, there's still some painfulness.

I will tell you.

Your muscles are still getting tired, you're still worn out.

And that's why you need the daily renewal of the soul.

This is so crucial for our energy to endure, to refuel our life

day by day.

All right, so rejection.

We have reflection.

We have renewal.

Now, towards the end of the chapter, I want you to notice the

fourth word is that of remembrance.

A rest stop of remembrance.

All through Scripture we get challenged to remember our God, to

remember his promises, to remember, to not forget the works

of God.

It's crucial for us to remember certain things.

And here he says in verse 17, some things that we need to remember

about life and about this race for our light affliction, which is

but for a moment.

Now the Apostle Paul's writing about his own suffering and he's

calling it light.

I find that interesting.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt.

It didn't mean that.

I mean, he talked already about the persecution and the perplexities

and the trouble.

I mean, surely in his humanity that that hurt.

But he's saying, really, it's light in comparison.

It's light in comparison to what the eternal life that is, that

affords us the one day that when the short, simple life is over,

it's light, really, it's light and it's short, which is but for

a moment.

That's the second thing we need to remember that this life and

what we face in this life is light and short in comparison to

what is ahead.

And so we should live with the eternal in mind.

Higher ground.

We sang it.

To live in the eternal realm is what he's talking about here.

Not living based upon the things which we see, but on the things

which are not seen, because the things which we see are temporal.

How many of you are glad this world's not our home?

We're just passing through.

But the things which are not seen are eternal.

You know what?

We need to remember that life is not about the here and now.

Are you listening?

Life is not about the here and now.

It's about the ever after.

We don't live for here.

We live for there.

And when you live for there, it motivates your race, it causes

you to be confident in your God and in his promises, and you're

able to, in obedience, follow his path even when you don't see

all the results as quickly as you want to see them, which is challenging

at times.

You know and trust that it's bearing fruit because you're being

faithful.

Just trust it that God is bearing fruit out of your faithful

life.

And that one day he, we, we will stand before God and give an

account of what we did or didn't do for the cause of Christ.

I don't think we're going to be judged for our sin at that, that

judgment seat of Christ.

Hallelujah.

It's all under the sin, is all under the blood.

But I do think that there will be crowns passed out based upon what

we did or didn't do for the cause of Christ.

And the Bible teaches that you can either have gold, silver, or

precious stones or wood, hay and stubble.

Which one sounds better to you?

This is why we got to endure.

We got to live for the eternal.

We got to live for the praise of God, for the crowns of heaven,

and know that God will honor and reward the faithful soul.

The faithful servant of God.

Don't live for the here and now.

I'm telling you, most Christians today live for the here

and now.

And they need to get their eyes on the ever after.

This is a struggle for all of us as believers because we live in

what we see.

And we have the struggle of what we see.

The world, the flesh and the devil, and it's all around us.

But we got to keep our eyes fixed on the prize.

Live for that which is eternal.

This is why I love CS Lewis.

Some of the things that he's written.

He's not perfect and definitely, definitely not everything

I would recommend for you.

But the Chronicles of Narnia and how he relays through those wonderful

stories.

And even some of the renditions that have been put to

film have bring to light that we're not living for this world.

We're living for another world.

We're living for that world.

Heaven is our eternal home.

Live on a higher plane.

I want to live above the world.

Though Satan's darts at me are hurled Though some may dwell where

these abound My prayer, my aim is higher ground.

That's where we need to live.

You will not make it in life if you're not living on the higher

ground.

There's one final thing, and I want you to see it.

And it's not in chapter four.

It actually flows into chapter five.

And they're definitely connected.

As Paul continues the thought we need rejection, rejection of stuff

out of our life.

What needs to be rejected out of your life so that you can have

the energy to endure?

What sin, what lack of motivation, what focus needs to be

readjusted?

What worldliness needs to be purged out of your life, reflecting

the gospel and the glory of God.

Live with a motivation of what Jesus Christ did for us and live

for the glory of God's sake.

Renewal moment by moment, day by day in the word of God.

Walking in the will of God, spending time with God, our spiritual

disciplines, living and remembering that this life is not

what life is all about.

Life is about the ever after.

And then the final point I want you to see is that of you probably

guessed.

Start with the letter R. It's the word resolve.

It's the word resolve telling you, running the marathon, if you

don't have resolve, you're going to quit about halfway through.

The hardest part for me in that first marathon was they had

half marathoners running.

And we got to the spot where the half marathoners were finishing

the race, and it had an arrow pointing that way to the finish of

the half marathon.

And all the marathoners were passing by their finish line.

Had to run another half marathon.

That was a tough spot for me.

I had to have a lot of resolve to continue to run my race, which

was the marathon race, even though it sure looked nice for the

half marathoners to finish their race right there.

What I learned is that everybody has to resolve to run their

own race.

Stop comparing yourself among yourself.

That's not wise.

Take personal responsibility for your own race.

Resolve to rise to the challenge regardless of anyone else

around you.

Be confident in your God.

Be confident in the way that you're living.

And walk by faith and not by sight.

These are all truths that are in chapter five and continuing that

theme, Paul is expressing it for himself and on behalf of some

of the other apostles.

I believe as well, because he says, for we know that if our earthly

house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of

God we're not concerned with.

We want you to respond to our ministry, but if you don't, we're

still going to be faithful because we answer to God, not you.

For in this we groan.

In this life we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed

upon from our house, which is from heaven.

Skipping down a few verses, verse 7.

I'm sorry, verse 6.

Therefore watch the confidence of the apostle Paul, having gone

through the hard times, wanting to have the energy to endure

the resolve to continue forward.

Therefore, we are always confident knowing.

We are always confident knowing.

That sure relates a lot of resolve, does it not, that whilst

we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

We're not actually here.

We're here, we're living for there.

We're here to live for the glory of the Lord, he says, and we're

walking by faith and not by sight.

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from

the body and to be present with the Lord.

And notice verse nine.

Read the first three words of verse nine.

Wherefore we labor.

One more time.

Wherefore we labor.

Paul, you could have given up.

Some would say rightfully so.

Humanly speaking, you went through this and this and this and

this.

And you read the stories of people in the Bible.

And in some ways, humanly speaking, we're like, boy, they would

have every right to give up.

But no, they didn't have every right to give up.

And I'm glad they didn't give up.

He says, in spite of all of this, we will labor more.

We'll continue to move forward.

We're not.

God's not done with us yet.

Wherefore we labor.

And that's a wonderful phrase in verse nine, Wherefore we labor.

That whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

And I want you to notice this as we think about this idea of resolve.

Because resolve is not just picking ourselves up by our bootstraps.

Self dependence.

We preached against that this morning.

This isn't just girding up in our own strength.

I want you to notice what motivates his resolve.

It's everything we've already talked about.

But look here as we continue in verse 10.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that

everyone may receive the things done in his body according

to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

You know what was motivating his resolve?

That he didn't want to get to heaven someday and stand before the

judgment seat and have his Savior look at him and ask, why'd

you quit?

Why'd you give up?

It was hard, but I was with you.

You should have remained faithful.

So what was motivating his resolve was the gospel, the glory

of God, everything we've already talked about, his daily renewal,

his living for that which is eternal, and.

And one day being willing to stand before God, having laid it

all out, knowing that he did his best for Jesus Christ, having

given his all, all the way to the finish line.

Let me tell you, the finish line is elation.

The finish line is like glorious when you run a physical

marathon.

But if you quit, it's like nobody.

You don't want anyone to know that you quit, right?

So I believe there's going to be elation.

There's.

When we.

When we step foot into heaven and we stand before our God, there's

going to be elation for those who faithfully gave all they could

give to resolve to live for the glory of the Lord and faithfully

endure.

Endured to the end.

But I do believe there will be tears of regret and at that judgment

for those who were saved.

Maybe so as by fire, the scriptures talk about who maybe have

just wood, hay and stubble.

So we need to be motivated properly.

We need to run the race well.

We need to renew ourselves day by day.

We need to live for eternal things.

We need to remember that we will give an answer for whether we

were faithful or weren't faithful with all that God wanted

us to do as individuals, as families, as a church.

And I sure want to hear him say, well done.

I want to get to that finish line and know that I've done my best

for Jesus Christ.

Don't you looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

So I'll say what Paul said in Philippians, chapter three, I press

toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ

Jesus.

Can I encourage us to press on, to endure?

It's way more important than a physical marathon to nutrition ourselves

well, to run the race right, to have the right motivations to

take the rest stops that are necessary.

So tonight, as you think about your life, and I think about my life

and the toil that oftentimes life brings, or maybe where you're

at even right now in some of the struggles that you're facing

and the difficult difficulties that maybe you're facing personally

in your life.

What needs to happen so that you will refuel and not run out of

gas, if you will be stuck on the side sideline?

When God wants to keep using you, God wants to use you right where

you are, with the sphere of influence that you're around, with

the community that you're in right here, right now.

Let's not quit.

We faint not.

Say it together.

We faint not.

Lord, would you minister to our hearts the truths of the word

of God?

From the Apostle Paul to our hearts Tonight.

We look at the world, the mess that we're all in.

It shouldn't surprise us because the Bible says it will wax

worse and worse.

But so often we allow it to deter us, to cause us to be idle

rather than more fervent.

Help us to set aside the world, the flesh, the devil.

Renounce the things out of our life.

Meditate and think about our purposes, to live for the gospel

and the glory of God.

That there are people around us that need, need the Savior, that

our light matters.

He would help us to endure for that purpose, Lord, renew our hearts

day by day.

Our outward man is perishing.

But we know we can endure when the inner man has that renewal.

Day by day, with grace and thanksgiving, the glory of God can

redound out of our life.

Help us to remember that life is short.

We're here for a moment that the hardships we face and the difficulties

that we go through, they will pass their affliction.

They're real.

They hurt sometimes, but they're light and they're short.

And we're not living this life for the here and now.

We're living for the ever after.

Encourage our hearts to live by faith and not by sight so that

we'll resolve to labor more for you.

You're not done with us yet.

We're still here.

You've called us to serve.

You want Christ to be lived out of our lives in the light of

him shining brightly to the world around us.

So Lord, would you please help us all to have the energy to endure

all the way to the finish.

And we look forward to being there, face to face with you, walking

the streets of gold, living forever on that true eternal plane

of higher ground.

Speak in a powerful way in our hearts tonight as we conclude with

the invitation.

Would you help us to respond, Confess, recommit, make changes in

our life so that we won't quit, we won't faint, but we will

have the energy to endure.

We pray these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Let's.