Rules of the Race

Do you all feel good? You feel comfortable? You feel happy? I feel some joy. There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today. You don't go to church to be sad. You go to church to experience joy. Amen? All right.

So, today is a special day. We're going to honor two of our graduates. So, if you want to... You got three claps here, you know. I know.

Come on. So, all right. All right. There you go. There you go.

Everybody got their coffee. Everybody got their coffee and ready to celebrate here. It's an honor to have two people here today that are very, very special to me and my family in this ministry. I'm going to start... Yeah.

We're going to start off... Normally, we do the high school and then the university, college and university first. But this week, I'm going to do the university... There's a reason behind this. So, I want to invite Todd Grant Sappington.

I know he loves the first name Todd. Come up. I want to honor him. Go, Todd. Somebody, Jill and Todd.

Love this guy. Love this guy. I love this guy. So, he is... If you don't know, he is one of our elders here.

And if I have anything to do with it, he's going to be working on his ordination and become a pastor. Salt Church hasn't scared him away yet. So, we're still good to go. But let me just share a little bit about what Grant... By the way, he goes by Grant.

So, if you call him Todd, he'll probably not answer. But yeah, Todd Grant is a very special name. That's your name. And God gave you that name, amen? And we thank a lot of Grant.

He graduated this spring from Regent University. In fact, he kind of walked through the whole process through Regent. Am I correct? I mean, you went from undergrad to graduate to earn his degree, his master's degree in pastoral leadership. And he's super, super excited about leadership is needed, needed in the church, Christian leadership.

One of his favorite Bible verses is found in Isaiah 53 5. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we were healed. He was born November 1978 to Todd Sappington and Charlotte Long.

And God came into his life in May of 1994. Praise God that God showed up and changed his life forever. Some of the things he remembers about, you know, you know, church and salt is the laughter in our leadership meetings. Grant has a way of when things get tense and we're trying to talk business, he can just, you know, and it gets a little bit edgy. He has a way of just making everybody laugh all of a sudden, right?

So we do appreciate that. And one of the greatest influences in his life is his grandmother, Bertha Webster, that took care of him as a young boy and learned a lot of the ways of life and just how to love others. She loved him deeply and how to love others. And some of the extracurricular, this is kind of funny. I asked for some extracurricular things that you did while you were in college.

He said kids ministry, extracurricular. But to be honest, he's done everything in this church. I mean, he served in every area. He comes in, and he's like, okay, what do I need to do? What do we need to do today?

What place needs to be filled? And it's just been really special to have him as a part of our ministry. One of the things that he wrote, some love and encouragement to those, he says, I want to thank my wife, Christina, who, y'all know Christina, who always encourages and listens to me and helped me continue when I wanted to quit. I also want to thank Matthew, Emmeline, and Olivia, who supported me during this time. And I also want to thank Salt Church family for showing me the love of Jesus in everything that you do as you serve him on a daily basis.

And then, this is special. I want to thank Pastor Leon, who has shown me how to be a servant and love people inside and outside the church. And I'll say one more thing about Grant. Grant, I made him come up here today. He wasn't going to come up.

And not because he didn't want to be honored, necessarily, but he wanted Matthew to have his time. And I told him, don't be foolish, okay? Your church needs to honor you. A great accomplishment to earn a master's degree, a lot of hard work. He put a lot of time and effort, working jobs and doing his schooling and everything at the same time.

So we celebrate you today, Grant. We celebrate you, brother. Thank you. I'll call you back up one more time in a minute. All right.

Matthew Johnson, come on up to the stage. This is like what guys do, you know. No, we just love each other in church, right? Right, right. All right.

What a very, very special young man here. The reason his mom knows Jesus today is because of him. During the pandemic, we were meeting over at MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art at the time. And this family comes in and, you know, with their kids and Matthew's the teenager. He was a little shorter then.

He wasn't much shorter. He was pretty tall already and a couple of friends and just, it's been quite a story that they, you know, just coming into our lives and being a part of our ministry. We couldn't have asked for anything greater to have this young man who I believe is an old soul. I mean, the way he operates and the way he thinks about spirituality. I wasn't thinking that way at his age.

At 18, 19 years old, I wasn't thinking the way he is at the level he is. And we're just so proud of you and graduating from. From Gateway Christian Academy. And not only that, he was honored with the Christian Honor Society, he was accepted into the Christian Honor Society, which he knew nothing about, I don't think, right? So he's a smart guy, ready to change the world.

And Matthew's favorite Bible verse is found in Matthew 19, verse 26, With men nothing is possible, but with God all things are. All things are possible through Christ. That's a powerful, powerful verse. Born August 16, 2005, he came into this world, and God had a plan for his life from the very beginning. Amen.

He gave his life to Jesus five years ago, about five years ago. And the song that they walked in on, if you noticed the track that was playing as they walked in, was the very song he was listening to when God called him into his grace. And we wanted to honor that by them coming into that tune. Some of the memories of Salt, he said, you know, I've loved serving with the tech team. He's usually back there on the board or running the pro presenter and presentation software and things like that.

And I remember when George put me and my friend Alex, I remember Alex, too. He and Alex walked in, and then he was baptized here in this church. So, awesome, awesome. He says some of the greatest influences in his life is stepdad Grant, for showing him the way to Jesus and his Bible teacher. He played soccer.

He played basketball. He was always busy with sports, man. I mean, always something going on with sports. He told me the other day after the season was over, basketball season was over, well, a few months ago that is, he says, I don't know what to do with myself now. I don't have anything to go to.

But this is the greatest thing. He wants to major in theology. He wants to be a pastor. Get his major in theology at Biola University. So, he'll be heading to California.

I was really sad about that. I was hoping Regent University would be it. And there was talks of it. But sometimes God says no. So, and says yes to him, to where he needs to go.

And so, he'll be, and he hopes his dream is to go into pastoral counseling. We need that. Amen. Yeah. Yeah.

Be a counselor and help those who need counseling. He has an academic scholarship there because he's a smart young man. And I believe in it. He's going to do great things. Here's what he wants to leave you with today.

Always follow Jesus because he is the truth and he is the life. I'm thankful to my family and church family for always being there for me and supporting me. Praise God. And by the way, yeah. And by the way, we do have gifts for you and Grant as well after the service.

I'm going to spoil the surprise. It's a Bible, okay? You got a Bible. But the reason we don't have it up here is because any of you guys, if you want to go into the Bible, highlight some of your favorite verses so he can take it with them. Or, you know, leave them a little message in the Bible, that would be great.

But I want to take an opportunity to pray for them before we... If we could have a little bit of background music while we pray, guys, that would be great. If you want to come back up, Grant. And if everyone, as a church, would just kind of lift your hands towards him. Just point your hands towards him as we pray for these guys and their future.

Father, we just thank you, God, for these men. These men that you have called and you have blessed and you have brought into your presence by your grace, Lord. And called them into ministry, Lord Jesus. Both of them ministers, God. We can't wait, Lord, to see what you have in store for them, Lord.

God, I pray an anointing over their lives as they take on the next chapter. As they walk into the future, Lord. That they would never forget that they would... That your presence would be with them today. That they look at yesterday with grateful hearts and know, Lord, you have brought me through so much.

Thank you for being there. And that we can look into the future and say, you know, you have every promise available to us to accomplish that which you have laid before us. You don't call us to things, Lord, and not provide. Amen. You are a provider in Jehovah Jireh.

Yes. So, God, I'm believing for great things for these Matthew and Grant as they walk into your glory, their calling, and all that you have for them. And we ask this as a church. Amen. Amen.

Amen. All right. One more picture real quick, George. Here you go. Here you go.

One more picture before we leave stage. All right. All right. Amen. Let's start this new series.

It has already been a year since our last summer of salt. Every summer, we like to kick it off, kind of the unofficial kickoff of summer. And by the way, thank you for being with us here today. Many of our people are vacationing and doing things here on Memorial Day weekend. We actually have some people that are out sick today, too.

So, sadly, there's some sickness going around. So, I pray for those who are watching online. If you're out or you're sick. Today, we are thinking of you and praying for you, but we are starting our series today, and if you're new with us today, there is a blue card in your bifold. I'd love for you to fill that out.

You can connect with our Next Steps area right outside the room, and they will be glad to give you a gift and get you connected in what we have here for this church. We're believing that God's going to do great things. We're praying for a great summer, amen? We're praying for a great summer this summer. God's going to do some things in our church.

And what I love about Summer of Salt is that we have different guest speakers come in. We have different people come in during the summer to share what's on their hearts. So, next week, by popular demand, y'all have requested my wife, Miranda. She's going to share next week with us. So, if you want to hear a powerful message, a great communicator, you'll hear her.

And also, Grant, who was up here on stage just a second ago, will be sharing with us the following week. And in Father's Day, he'll be sharing with us as well. So, we're excited about that. John Bayer, one of our missionaries, he'll be here. I think he was supposed to be here today.

I didn't see him. They're in Illinois. So, it started today. Okay. Okay.

I was thinking that was next week he would be gone. He's going to be communicating with us. And we've also got Michael Simone, founder of Spring Branch Church. He's going to come in and share with us. And we'll have some other people coming in in July that we'll share.

So, this kind of goes through about mid-July. And we'd just like an opportunity for just to hear different voices and some of our overseers outside the church coming in as well to share with us. So, we're super excited about that. And I'm going to kick it off today by sharing with you a message I call Rules of the Race. Rules of the Race.

And to kind of give you an overarching idea of this series is joy is not based on what you're currently going through. Jesus said, these things I have spoken to you that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you that we find in the Bible are so that you can have joy and joy to the full. A fullness of joy. And the overarching idea of summer is, you know, when we come into Memorial Day, a lot of people are thinking hot dogs and hamburgers and vitamin C and beaches and barbecues and all these things.

It kind of brings some, after a long, cold winter, you come into summer and you get a little joy in your heart. But you know what? We can experience summer all year long. If summer's for you, some of you are not summer people. You're more winter people and that's when your joy comes.

Well, you can experience winter all year long, okay? And I'm praying for you because I don't understand that, but some people are definitely there. And so we're going to talk about that today. And it's Memorial Day as well. And I think it's important for us to honor those who have given their lives for freedom and for our country.

Amen? There's a beautiful scripture in Hebrews that speaks to that. And many of you know, let us run with perseverance the race that is before us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He endured the pain. He endured the cross.

And he kept his eyes on the prize, the reward. And that's what those who have gone and fought for us. I had an uncle who, at 18 years old, registered to serve in Vietnam and never came back. Why would an 18-year-old guy that was barely old enough to know anything about the world give his life? Because he saw something.

He saw something that maybe others couldn't see. He was willing to fight for something, a reward, a thing that's in front of us. And I would say even for the graduates that are here, you know, you've got a future. You've got something ahead of you to look at. It may not be all crystal clear right now, but there is something as you face the future, as you face your next step, in your walk and in your calling, you have an eye on a prize.

And when we keep our eyes fixed on the prize, it makes the circumstances a lot easier as we walk through that. And that's what the writer of Hebrew talks about. The joy that's set before him. The joy that is set before us. We have a joy set before us.

And there's more to life than just getting what we want. There's more to life than just existing. There's more to life than living, retiring, and dying. We were made for a purpose. We were made for more.

And God put you on this earth for a really good reason. There's a reason. I think of John Stephen Aquari. He was in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. A guy from Tanzania.

During a race, he broke his leg. Marathon. He ran for miles and miles and miles. And about 7 o'clock in the evening, he walks into the arena. Most everybody had left at that point.

Tens of thousands of people had left the stadium. Only about 7,000 people were left. He comes limping in. His leg broken. Bruised.

Bleeding. And they asked him, why didn't you quit? Someone asked him that. Why did you not quit? Why did you not give up?

And he gave this classic answer. He said, my country did not send me 7,000 miles around the world to start a race but to finish it. I'm not going to quit. And the Bible teaches very clearly that life is a race. Unfortunately, most people don't finish that race.

Most people grow tired. They go wayward. They sidetrack. They get distracted. They get disqualified or whatever it is.

And they die with unfulfilled dreams in their hearts. God has placed a calling and a dream in all of our hearts. We can call it a dream. We can call it a calling. We can call it a vision.

Whatever that is, God has something for all of us. And the Apostle Paul wrote a lot about that. About walking in that. And it's a tragedy when people miss out on what God has for them. It's a tragedy to know that when people bow out of the race, what they are missing out on.

Paul said it like this. I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me. I consider my life worth nothing. At the end of Paul's life, he writes to his protege, Timothy. It's near the end.

He knows the time is coming. He knows the end is near. As we know in church history, Paul was beheaded for his faith and for his belief. And he said this in 2 Timothy 4.7, I have finished the race.

I finished the race. Do you want to say that? Do you want that in your life? Do you want to get to the end of your life and before God say, Lord, I have done what you've called me to do. I have finished the race.

I have fulfilled my purpose. And what the Bible tells us is the right ways to run a race and the wrong ways to run a race. So I want to give you some rules for the race. If you want to get to the finish line, if you want to knock it out of the park, if you want to be... In the winner's circle, if you want to stand before God one day and say, I've done it, Lord, if you want to be there, if you want to do that, then you need to follow these rules that we see in Scripture, that we see in the Bible.

The first rule is remove every distraction. You've got to remove every distraction. The writer of Hebrews says, let us strip off anything that slows us down and holds us back and let us run with patience. And I chose this living Bible paraphrase on purpose because of this last part, the particular race. Pull out your notes, look at it, circle that particular race.

You go to your Bible app, pull open those Bible apps, okay, come on, let's do it. Let's pull out those pieces of paper. And I want you to circle this because it's adamantly important, that God has set before us because you have a particular race. You have a particular race. You have a race that has been created just for you.

But the problem is, many people are running everybody else's race. You're allowing someone else to say, run my race. Because they're telling you, you need to be this way. They're telling you, you need to live this way. Society tells you, you need to look like a certain person.

You need to act like a certain person. When the Bible tells us, you have been created for something special. If you don't run the race God intended for you to run, it's not going to get ran. And that's the problem. A lot of people are running the wrong race.

I had a young man, when we first started the church, he came to me and wanted to meet with me. So I met with him. And he had these pieces of paper, something like this. And he had this whole theological explanation written out about why we are doing church wrong. And why America's church is terrible.

Why we should go back to this type of, you know, New Testament church. And this and this and this and that. And there was nothing wrong with his ideas. There was nothing wrong with this theology. There was nothing wrong with considering that.

But what I told him is this. I said, God has given you specific callings. God has given you specific instructions, maybe. God has given you abilities. He's given you gifts.

But you can't impose those gifts on everybody else. Just because God has given you a heart to start house churches, or start some type of underground movement, whatever that might be. Doesn't mean the whole church in America has to follow suit. So we have to be careful about how we manage what God has called us. Are we running our race?

Are we trying to get other people to run our race? Are you dropping into somebody else's race? Are we staying in our lanes? God has given us something. And we don't want to get distracted from what God is calling us or commanding us to do.

So you need to ask the question, what is distracting me from my mission right now? What is that? Write that down. What's distracting me? Take that home with you.

Think about it. What's distracting me from the mission? And what can keep you from being what God wants you to be? What's keeping you from what God wants you to be? The opinions of other people?

Is that what's doing it? Or maybe it's some riches or hobbies or the wrong friends. They all can be grave distractions in your life if God has called you to something. But the number one thing that keeps people from becoming what God wants them to become is the past. That's really the biggest issue.

As a pastor, I see that more than anything. People are stuck in their past for two different reasons, guilt and bitterness. Guilt and bitterness. And some people are living in guilt because they've been told there's something or they feel bad about themselves. And some of you need to realize that God has changed your heart.

He's changed your life. You don't have to look back to the old self. That's what God does. He changes us from the inside out. He makes us a new creation.

It's a new season. And we don't have to focus on the past. You need to forgive yourself. Or you need to forgive somebody else because you're living in bitterness for what somebody else has done in your life. You've got to get past your past because today is a brand new day and the rest of your life is going to be your future.

And if you can't walk into your future, you're just going to be stuck. You're going to be stuck right where you are. And Isaiah says it very simply, don't dwell on the past. Isaiah 43, 18. Paul had every reason to be filled with regret.

Paul was a terrorist to Christians. He was a part of murdering one Christian, at least in the Bible we see in the accounts of Scripture. But Paul says this, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race. I'm not focused on my past. I'm focused on my future and I'm getting all the distractions out of my life because God has changed me.

He's given me a calling. He's given me a mission. And it leads me to my second point. Remember your reason and reward. Remember your reason.

The reason you're doing the why behind the what. There's always a why that gets us. If you don't have a why behind your life, then you're just going to be stuck. You're not going to last. Life's not going to be fun for you.

Life's not going to be filled with joy. And the reason always determines the motivation. Our reason always determines the motivation. And we have so many people that are discouraged and depressed and out because they don't know the reason they're living. What am I here for is the question.

They have no reason. They get up. They go to work. They come home. Maybe watch TV or do some kind of and then they go to bed and every day is the same.

And that just doesn't doesn't meet what they're really designed to be and do. And they get discouraged. And discouragement is one of the places one of the places that really get us to where we want to quit. We don't we don't think we can make it. Even even I get discouraged.

A lot of times I get discouraged. I have to fight discouragement. Somebody asked me, well, how many times, you know, how often do you get discouraged? I say every Monday morning. That's true for many pastors.

Every Monday morning, it's it's someone and I think it is someone else's turn. Maybe maybe I've taken this church as far as it could go. Maybe another pastor needs to come and take it to the next level. I have those thoughts all the time. But whenever I get discouraged, I remembered this.

I remember that my life's mission comes from God, not from man, not from circumstances. If God called me to it, he's going to give me everything I need to fulfill the mission. He's going to give you everything you need because your God provides. He will not call you to what he can't provide for and give you the resources to do. And if God gives you something to do, he's going to give you the power to do it.

And God doesn't ask you to do something without you having the energy, without you having the intelligence or the brains or whatever it is to do that. He's going to give that to you. So if he tells you this is your life mission, it's actually going to end up easier than if you don't follow God's mission for your life. That's why 2 Corinthians says God has given us this work to do so we don't become discouraged. If you're not doing the work that God has called you to do, you're going to be discouraged.

You're going to feel like there's no purpose, there's no drive, there's no destination in life. So I remember, why am I doing this? Because it's what God assigned me to do. And then I think that's what God wants to do. And then I think that's what God wants to do.

I realize that I'm going to be rewarded someday. I'm going to be rewarded someday. First Corinthians says to win the contest you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best. This is really hard because we want to do God's will, but we also want everything that the world has too. Can I have both?

But that doesn't work. It doesn't work that way because God says we're going to have to let go of some things. If we're going to follow God's will, we've got to get rid of some things in our life. God says it's not possible to win a race if you aren't disciplined, if you don't deny some things. So he says to win the contest you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best.

And then he gets to this next part, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. Circle that word, never disappears. Something that never disappears. So I run the race straight to the goal with purpose in every step. There is a reward here in heaven that we can't get here on earth.

Trophies, they're thrown in the trash eventually. They just are. Your sports trophies, your accolades, even your diploma at some point, it won't mean anything in eternity. Dr. James Dobson, who started Focus on the Family, founded Focus on the Family and many other family organizations, shared a story one time years ago.

He said his number one goal in college was to be a pro tennis player. He would play tennis and he would work really hard and he won a trophy. He won his trophy. He got number one this year and he was the best in that particular season. And they put his trophy in a case for everybody to see, you know, in the college.

And then years later, he got that trophy in the mail. And that trophy had a little note with it. And it said, it said, I saw this in the trash. And I saw the name on it. And I knew who you were, so I wanted to make sure you had this trophy.

And his point was, eventually, all your trophies are going to be thrown in the trash. The only true trophy you need to be striving for is the trophy we get in heaven, the reward that God gives us. So we have many different motivations. We have internal motivations. We have external motivations.

Internal motivations, we want to please people. We have some type of inferiority, perhaps. You want to get famous. You want people to like you. You want to be top of your class.

All those are just, they could be good things in some respects. But in a lot of cases, they're just pride issues, right? We just want people to look good, look at us and say, yay. And then there's external motivations. Like, I want to win the reward.

I want to get the pay raise. I want to win the race and all those things. I want to get the trophy. I want to get the pitcher. But neither of those last.

Those internal or external. Really what lasts is the eternal motivations. Do we have an eternal motivation? If you're going to make it to the finish line, if you're going to win the race, you need an eternal goal. You need a goal of heaven.

And you're going to spend far more of your life in eternity than you are here on this earth. So why not run the race with joy in our hearts, believing that we've got something way more great ahead of us. And whenever you're discouraged, just a little point here, you need to focus on the purpose instead of the problem. Focus on the purpose than the problem. Because you can get through problems a lot easier when you know there's a why behind it.

There's a purpose behind everything. There's a purpose available for it. I mean, there's an end goal. I worked with a guy years ago. And he would always, if anything went wrong, I mean, you could, he built houses.

And I was really young at the time. And he would, something would mess up. I'd mess up something. Or he'd mess up something. And it just seemed like, oh man, I thought, wow, this is really, really bad.

And he'd always, with just a calm voice, just say, no problem, just solution. No problem, just solution. Really, really quiet voice. Just very, very, no problem, just solution. No problem.

What's the problem? It's just solution. Right? When we have a goal in mind, there's the problem, the purpose behind the problem really gets us to where we're going. And most people in this world are just living for today.

That's why people are without hope, they're just living for the now. Focus on your purpose, not the problem. Obstacles are what we see when we take our eye off the goal. But when we have our eye on the goal, there's no obstacles. There's no obstacles.

Which leads me to number three, I must renew myself daily. Renew yourself daily. To last for the long haul, you have to renew yourself daily. That means 24 hours. In that 24-hour day, you need to be renewing yourself.

You're not waiting until the end of the week. You're not waiting until a month out. You're doing that every day. 2 Corinthians 4.16 says, We do not become discouraged because our spiritual beings is being renewed day by day.

Not week by week or month by month. It says day by day. You need to know what renews you. You need to know what gets you going. And do that over and over again.

Make a list of the things that keep you going. You need to do that. The Strategic Air Command, it was actually ended in the early 90s, but was a defense unit that was up in the air. There was planes up in the air all the time, 24-7, ready to defend our nation if anything happened. And what's interesting about it, they fueled the tanks or fueled the planes in the air.

How do you fuel a plane in the air? And it's real interesting when you see these fueler planes come in and they kind of hover right side by side and the little thing goes out and it goes into the fuel gate and you see that happen. It's just like this amazing thing. I watched that happen and it just amazed me. What I want to say is you need a mid-flight refueling in life.

Because you just can't stop life. You can't just say, you know what, boss? I'm having a bad day so I'm taking the next month off flying to Tahiti and get my act right, okay? No, that's not going to happen. What's your boss going to say?

Well, you can go find a job somewhere else. You've got to continue life. You've got to do life. Life is tough, but we need to recharge ourselves in the middle of our hectic lives. How do we do that?

I like the term, I got this from someone, divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually. But I want to focus more so on divert daily. Divert daily. Know what relaxes you, what recharges you. You can't, you know, you can't annually go away every month because you would never be around, right?

You can't do that. So, what do you do? Let me look. Psalm 94, 19 says, Lord, when doubt fills my mind. Have you ever had doubt fill your mind?

And my heart is in turmoil. Have you been in turmoil in your heart and in your soul? What does the Lord say? Quiet me and give me renewed hope and cheer. You know what the Lord is saying?

He says, be quiet and listen to me. Take some time and listen to me. How many of you have a hard time being quiet? In this culture, how hard is it to stay quiet? I mean, you've got social media, podcasts, radio, TV on all the times we're not working.

There's things going on all the time. And there's very little of your life. So, all as you can do is no time sell my way with me. Thanks for me to try and why stop me doing this. Yep, futredist.

Thank you. It's honestly quiet. We don't know how to be quiet and God's saying shut up and get alone for a few seconds and I'm not talking about a Bible study necessarily Bible studies are great that you need to withdraw daily yes and do a Bible study begin your day we talked about that in God first last week we need to do that but today I'm just talking about taking a second and just calming yourself down if it's going to your backyard for a minute and just walking around if you work from home and you're just having a stressful time I need to go out I need to walk around for about three minutes and and and and just get my heart right I need to do that and maybe for you it's just going to a back room after the day is done and just sit in a chair for a minute and just refocusing or maybe you're at work you just need to sit down for a second and and and and you know between calls or before you go and say Lord I need you I need to hear from you and just be quiet and listen listen for a minute allow God to just input some stuff in your life it's just constant refueling once a second refueling once a day go out and and get quiet for a second and ask God the question what God I really need your guidance I really need you can you help me and just wait for an answer wait for an answer little mini breaks during the day I mean it might be four or five little breaks with God during the day to keep you renewed and refueled so why am I saying this because because because race the race of life is tough it is and you have to keep going so you need to remind yourself every day remember when yesterday that God is so good he brought me through he's here today we need an attitude of gratitude be be just just looking back to yesterday and saying man God you have been so good to me remember God's presence today that he is with me today he has never left left left me or forsaken me and tomorrow I he will be with me always because he's left that promise with me he will provide everything that I need he will be with me he will never leave me he will never leave me he will never forsake me amen do you believe that today which leads me to my fourth point because you know there's 7,000 verses in the Bible that claim God's promises so with those I can I can resist discouragement you got to resist discouragement Galatians says let us not get tired of doing what is right for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged if we don't get discouraged because we get discouraged and God cannot use discouraged people trust me I know I've been discouraged and God cannot use you when you're discouraged he uses people of faith who believe that God can do the impossible that there is no obstacle and I will not get discouraged then the Bible says you can resist discouragement you can fight discouragement and great people are really just ordinary people with extraordinary amounts of determination extraordinary amounts of faith believing beyond what the current circumstances are and some of you are probably going through some things right now your kids your marriage your economy the economy is crazy your health I want to say to you discouragement is a choice discouragement discouragement you choose to be discouraged you've got to choose not to be discouraged you got to choose you got to change your thoughts change your mind focus on the purpose not the problem God's power in weakness Christ in my circumstances my circumstances don't determine where I'm going God determines where I'm going and I'm walking with him you resist it and great people always fight discouragement they let let it go sorry I'm not sorry I'm not you're not you're not going to come into my life I'm not going to allow this oh it's coming it's coming nope nope fight it off we got to beat it off we got to walk through it and believe God that he's got it because it says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me nothing is impossible as Matthew's favorite verse is nothing is impossible with Christ and he says Lord I am with you always Habakkuk says it says it like this these things I plan won't happen right away some of you have been praying for a long time for something and they're not happening yet this is a verse for you slowly steadily surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled if it seems slow do not despair some of you need to hear this at Salt Church our vision's been being fulfilled very slowly be honest with you okay at times times you know we got ups and downs and this and that and we've got big visions for our church and we got we got we got skewed and we got stirred and we've moved to seven different places during the pandemic people left our church because they scared to come in and in church you know because of that and never came back and we had to rebuild and we had to relaunch and we've we've had to move and we've had to do this and and we're like slowly steadily surely oh God really and if it seems slow he says do not despair this is from the Lord for these things will surely come to pass because I promise because I promise them just be patient they will not be overdue a single day God's delay is not God's denial and maturity is knowing when God says no and God says not yet God says no and he's testing us to know our commitment our faithfulness how faithful are you to me I'll honor faithfulness says the Lord but I need to know whether you're faithful so don't quit God says don't quit I'm with you which leads me to the last point see God's giving you the skills he's giving you everything that you need don't think he hasn't don't think that God hasn't can't can't use you but you need to rely on him rely on Christ rely on Christ your mission cannot be completed by human power alone you can't do it on your own Colossians says this is my work and I can do it only because Christ's mighty energy is at work within me his is my work and I can only do it through Christ so I don't do my work alone first Peter said it like this are you called to help others the obvious answer is yes we're all called to help others do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies and God will be glorified because where God guides you he provides for you you got to believe that where God guides you he provides he calls you to do something he equips you to do it if he's called you to to talent opportunities skills he provides all those things for you but you've got to rely on Christ you got to rely on him maybe for some of you you're like well it's too late I'm in the last part of my life and I I've just messed up can I tell you the race isn't over the race isn't over until we step in the wrong room of Jesus Christ that's our reward Lord if you have one last day left on this earth you have a race to complete don't give up you haven't wasted half of your life you haven't wasted your time you've gotten knocked down you've stumbled you you've been pushed out by other people those things have happened to you but don't give up the race it's it's endurance it's how well we finish it's not how we start it's how we finish it's how we cross that line even if we're stumbling even if we're bruised even if we're hurt and God says in the Bible in Philippians God who began a good I Thank you. work in you, Paul rather, God who began a good work in you, and I love this, will keep right on helping you grow in His grace until His task within you is finally finished. I love that prayer phrase.

Most of you know it as, He who began a good work in you will finish that good work until the day of Jesus. Did you know He doesn't leave anything unfinished? It's us who unfinished it. We decide we're out. We decide it's too hard.

We decide we just can't commit. We can't do it anymore. We're the ones that hold on to that, but God says, I've given you everything you need. You just need to walk in purpose. You need to walk into that calling.

I want to give you the Hebrews 12 verse, and we're closing by the way here in just a second with a prayer, but I've got this translation. It's not up on the screen of Hebrews 12. Let me read this to you in this paraphrase. You've never heard it from the Eugene Peterson version, possibly, so I want to give you the Eugene Peterson here. Do you see what all this means?

All of these pioneers who blazed the way of faith before you, all of these veterans, how about all these people who have passed and gone on? It's Memorial Day. We're thinking about our loved ones that we've lost for freedom, to be able to live the way. Those who serve here today, we thank you. Those who have served and have gone to war.

And you're facing a lot of mental difficulties even today because you were in battle. We thank you. My grandfather suffered from PTSD. They didn't even know what it was in World War II. He was in World War II.

Struggled his entire life to even hold down a job after war. He sacrificed something there. But in spiritual reality, we have people, pioneers, that blazed the faith throughout the Bible who have gone before us. And here's what it means. We'd better get on with it.

That's what the scripture says. Strip down. Start running and never quit. No excess spiritual fat. No parasitic sins.

Let's get those sins out of our lives because God's got something much greater than what those things are. We need to let go of the sin that, as the original version says, so easily entangles us. Keep your eyes on Jesus who both began and finished this race that we're in. So study how he did it. Get your Bibles and study it and watch him and look at him and walk it out with others because he never lost sight of where he was headed.

That exhilarating finish in and with God. He could put up with anything along the way. The cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there at the place of the honor at the right hand of God. And when you find yourself dragging your faith, oh, I got to get my faith, you know, I got to.

It's sometimes it's hard to keep the faith. Amen. It is. It is. Go over the story again item by item.

This long itinerary of hostility that you plowed through that will shoot adrenaline into your soul. It shoots adrenaline into yourself. Finish the race. Finish the race. If you got out of the race, get back into the race.

If you've gone wayward, come back to the race. If you haven't started the race yet, get in it. God's got things in store for us that we don't even know, that we can't even comprehend. The will of God is our aim. Acts 13, 36.

I'll leave you with this very simple verse. David served God's purpose in his generation and he died. Isn't that a fine thing to have on the tombstone? To be able to say, I finished the race. I've done it.

Paul said, I finished the race. David, he finished the race. All those patriarchs that went before us and matriarchs that went before us and those that are even coming after us. And today we can say, we can finish the race. I want to be able to stand before God one day and be able to say, Lord, I did what you called me to do.

I did everything, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what the world says success is. My only success is in you, Lord. I want people to be able to say that about me, that he fulfilled his purpose in his generation. So let me ask you a frank question. What are you doing with the rest of your life?

What are you going to do with the rest of your life? What's next? What's holding you back? What's keeping you from jumping back in? What's keeping you from starting it?

You want to be able to say, I did what I was called to do on this earth, and I wasn't selfish. I thought about something greater than me. Wherever you're at in this walk, wherever you're in your spiritual life, ask that question. What do I want to do from here on out? The Lord has something great for you, brother and sister.

If you don't know the Lord, he's got something so good for you. You don't even know. He loves you so much, he gave his life for you. If you walked away from the race, he still loves you, and he wants you back. He wants you back in his family.

If you're walking, you're discouraged, and you're doing everything, he says, don't give up. Don't give up. It's not over yet. Let's pray. Father, I realize that you've made me and everybody in here for a purpose, and we all have races to run.

Please help us, Lord, to have a crystal clear, laser clear view of the goal of the reward, Lord, that we can trust in you presently. Forget about our past, head into our future, Lord, that you've given us a race to run, but we can run it with joy. That outside of your purpose and outside of who we are in you, Lord, that we can't not only run the race, but we can't live in the fullness, because you've taught us these things about joy. You said, do what I do, and your joy will be full. If you're in me, if you watch what I do, if you walk with me, if you allow me in your life, I will show you joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So, God, I pray for anybody and everybody in here, their hearts are stirred to run this race harder, or their hearts are stirred to come back into the race, or their hearts are stirred to begin the race, that you would do that for them right now, that you would just trigger that in their hearts and their spirits, Lord, that it's time to get busy. It's time to build the kingdom of God. It's time to grow the church. It's time to take it to the next level, because we have little time left, because God is coming back, and we want to see everybody in heaven with us. So, God, I pray today that your spirit work in the hearts of people.

And if there's one here today that doesn't know you, that they would turn to you. And if that's you here today, if you would just pray that with me. Say that prayer. Just say it from your heart. Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin.

I want to turn away from my sin, and I want to turn to you, Lord, today. I give my life to you. I don't want to live for myself. I don't want to be selfish anymore. It doesn't work.

But I'm trusting you today, because you have given me the promise of joy in the name of God. Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.