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Running the Race

 

1 Corinthians 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 

All believers have a race to run,  a purpose, God’s plan for their life. The difference being in a competitive race, only one wins the prize, in this race the Apostle Paul is talking about, we have great encouragement to run because we can all win the prize when we run well.

So what does it mean to run well?

  1. Run Effectively

Galatians 2:1-2 - Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. 

And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. 

 

There are a lot of ineffective runners today, in the pulpit and in the pew, Folks who have taken the grace of God to mean a license to sin. Sin is not something people hide anymore, it’s practiced and promoted openly.

 

To make a difference in this world we must run effectively, not shying away from the whole counsel of God.

  1. Run with Purpose

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 

Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. 

 

We must adhere to the Truth of the Word of God. We live in a time of compromise and questioning of the Word of God. In God’s Word we learn that God is Light, God is Love, and God is Life. Here we see that Light and Life go together.