You are called to leave comfort behind and pursue Christ with reckless abandon, even when the path feels painful. Start small with daily prayer and scripture to build the spiritual strength needed for the race. Trust that when you stumble, His mercy is always there to pick you up and carry you home.
Alright. Real Church. Good to see you. Good to be here.
Yeah. Alright. Like I said, my name is Philipp Chevrier, but everybody calls me Chevy. Okay? And in the Chevrier household, we got some exciting times going on.
My wife is 9 months pregnant. Okay? She's over there in the orange dress. Say hi if you ever want to see her. Okay?
Rachel, she she's ready for this baby to come. I'm ready for this baby to come. Our 2 little ones are ready, our extended family. We are all ready for this baby to come. But apparently, this little boy wants to wait for me to preach before he comes.
*Amen*. So church, just get ready because God's got a word for you today. Alright? Let's get right into it. Bow your heads and close your eyes.
*Holy Spirit*, you're here. You're right here with us right now. Lord, give me your words. Lord, let it pierce their hearts and their thoughts. Let this be something that catapults them into a greater relationship and a greater understanding of who you are and where you want us to go.
In your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen, church. I love football.
Okay? I really love football. My wife says I love it too much. I do not have a problem when football season comes around, it's 8 hours sitting in front of the TV and watching all the games. That is not a problem for me.
But, see, that love for football started in high school because I played football in high school. Okay? In North Carolina, the backwoods. Okay? I played for the rebels, the Parkwood rebels.
And, it was a strange journey because I started off as a wide receiver. Boom. I'm catching the ball. The next season, I was a tight end. So, I'm blocking a lot, I'm catching a little bit.
Senior year, I was an offensive lineman. Okay? So, I'm just blocking the whole time. Look, my high school would have loved me if I was this size then. Okay?
They would have loved me. Okay? But I was not. I was skinny as a rail, but they thought I could be an offensive lineman. Okay?
Halfway through my football career in high school, we got a new coach, coach Buford, and he wanted to change the culture because we were terrible. Okay? So, he brought in all his guys. Okay? And they get everything started.
And there was this 1 time, this 1 moment that I will never forget in my high school career. So, are we're all ready. We're decked out, the whole team. We are about to go out and play. Coach Buford comes in, big guy, massive mustache.
Okay? And he's standing there, and he looks all of us in the eyes and says, I got 2 words for you. **"Reckless abandon"**. I I don't remember anything else he said after that. Okay?
But I knew what he was saying. I everybody knew what he was saying. You can hear a pin drop in that room because he wanted us to give every single ounce of our strength, we had for the next 60 minutes of football. Yeah, we lost that game. We actually lost a lot of games.
And the funny thing is, we didn't start winning until I graduated. What does that mean? It's I I don't think that's I keep on telling myself, it's not your fault. It's not your fault. But 20 years ago, when I heard that speech, those words have never left.
They are still ringing in my ears today, but they don't mean football anymore. They don't connect to that. It connects to the call of *Christ* and what he requires of us. I think of the *disciples* and how they're they're doing their jobs. They got their nets, and they look to Jesus, and he says, "follow me", and they drop everything that they're doing, and they go after him.
The tax collector who says Matthew, the tax collector, he stops what he's doing, and he chases, and he goes after who Christ is. Abraham left everything behind. He abandoned all things because God told him something, and he believed him. He believed. And so, this is right here, this is what I want you this is the foundation I want to set for this sermon right here.
I want to look at the beginning, want to look at a this interaction that Jesus has with a few people to really emphasize what it means to be a follower of Christ, and it's not very comfortable. Okay? So, we're going to look at Luke-9:57. Okay? 3 times.
There are 3 different people that are talking to Jesus. Okay? And he gives them 3 different answers. So, we're going to if we look at verse 57, the first person says, as they're walking along the road, a man said to him, man said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. I'll follow you wherever you go.
And Jesus replied, foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to rest his head. So this guy says, I'm I'm gonna go wherever you go, Jesus, wherever you wanna go. And Jesus said, really? Because I'm homeless. I don't have a place to go.
And he points to his poverty. And he said, are you willing to actually do that? And so, and we look at that. The next person, another man said to Jesus, follow me. And Jesus, in this moment, says 1 of the most shocking things in the New Testament.
Okay? Because Jesus says to the man, follow me. The man replies to Jesus, Lord, let me go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. See, in first century Judaism, it was a supreme honor to bury your parents.
The 10 commandments says honor your father and mother. Right? And if we actually look at this, this man gives an excuse. He has given an excuse on the reason why he can't go after Jesus. And Jesus immediately flips it back on him.
He says, let them bury themselves. We're not talking about them, we are talking about you. You go and *proclaim* the kingdom. Yeah. And Jesus actually has said this many times in the old test in the New Testament.
Right? He says he's actually said, if you love your brother, your sister, your father, your mother, your parents more than you love me, you are not fit to be my disciple. Church, who in the world, what man can command you to love them more than your parents? Well, in the Old Testament, they knew exactly who it was. The only person that you could love more than your family itself was God.
And so, this moment, Jesus, he is proclaiming his **divine identity** to let everybody know who he is. He is the Messiah, he is the chosen 1. Okay. So, finally, we have this last 1. It says, Jesus said to him Okay.
Look. Still another. This is this is the third, this is verse 61. Still another says, I will follow you, Lord, but first, let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Okay?
So, he says, I'm going to follow you, but then he gives an excuse why he can't do it right now. Okay? Then Jesus says something that is of another thing, 1 of the scariest parts in the New Testament. He replies, no 1 who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Because this is what Jesus is saying, once you set out on the path of discipleship to follow me, don't look back.
*Amen*. Amen. There's no turning back to your old life. Just like the Israelites. Okay?
There's no going back to Egypt. We're not going back to that old life. *Discipleship* for the kingdom requires total adherence, total self give. Okay? With everything that is you have is going to be given up to follow him.
Nothing is put ahead of him, even family, even friends, children, parents. He is first above all else. Now, again, we have to look in the context of this first century Jewish community. Okay? Because it is so interesting because he's actually referencing 2 different moments in the Old Testament.
Okay? Because we look at it's putting your hand to the plow and also looking back. Because we have putting your hand to the plow, he's actually talking about the call of Elisha, the prophet. Because Elijah sees Elisha in the field, and he says, come follow me. And so, in this moment, he's letting everybody know, I'm the new Elijah, and he's like, I'm calling you who is going to be my prophetic successors, okay, to be able to take what I've given you and go.
Okay? And so, he's and so, what Elisha Okay? Elijah Elisha, man, those names get they're they're so close to each other. I don't know why. Okay?
But, Elisha, what did he do? He was plowing in the fields. He dropped everything that he was doing and he went after Elijah. Okay? And so then, Jesus is saying, he says Jesus is pretty much saying, don't even put your hand to the plow.
Okay? Or you're not fit to be my disciple. The other image is from Genesis-19, Lot's wife. Okay? What did she do?
She looked back at the sinful city of Sodom and longing for what had lost as the city was destroyed. And so, there's your parallel right there. Jesus is calling here for radical detachment of past life, past sins, but also good things. Okay? Like parents, family, land.
When you think about it, those 3 things are natural good things. Okay? But Jesus says, none of those things can come ahead of me. And that is the cost of discipleship. And, the big question is, is it worth it?
Oh, worth it, church. It's worth it. John-10:10 says, he said, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I come to give you life, and not just life, "life abundant" and overflowing. Okay? And then even in Ezekiel.
In Ezekiel, he says, I will put a new spirit inside of you. I'm gonna take out your heart of stone, and I will put in a "heart of flesh", a new creation, a new being. And church, we're trying to live we're trying to live through this new creation. We're trying our hardest to do it sometimes. But church, trying will not get you there.
Living out of your own effort to be like Christ, you will fail every time. Church, we have to go into training. We have to go into training to be like him. And so, the title of this sermon is Born to Run. So, let's look at *1 Corinthians-9:24* through 27.
This this scripture right here is awesome. This is this is a famous 1 right here. Paul says to the Corinthian church, do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only 1 gets the prize? Run-in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run aimlessly. Okay? I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified from the prize.
Church, we got to go into training. 2010, my best friend Aaron calls me up and he says, hey, me and my cousin, we're going to run the Disney Marathon. Do you want to do it? The Disney Marathon, 26.2 miles running through all 4 Disney parks. Without hesitation, I was like, let's do it.
I'm in. And so that started 6 months of training to run this marathon. Now, see, now, what I wasn't prepared for were the lessons that God would teach me along the way. And I wasn't prepared for the mistakes I would make that would land me in a wheelchair at Walt Disney World thinking that I had broken my foot. But we'll get to that later.
Alright. Okay? Look, there's something universal, okay, about the sensation, way running combines 2 instincts that seem like they're embedded in humanity. Okay? Fear and joy.
Fear and pleasure. Okay? When we're scared, we run it. Okay? When we're ecstatic, we're running around.
And when we want to have a good time, those little kids, what are they doing? They're just having a blast running everywhere. But when it looks the worst, we run the most. 3 times, America has seen distant running skyrocket, and it's always in the midst of a national crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression when more than 200 runners set the trend by racing 40 miles a day across the country in the great American footrace.
Running then went dormant, only to catch fire again in the early seventies when we were struggling to recover from Vietnam, the cold war, race riots, a criminal president, and the murders of 3 beloved leaders. The third boom, 1 year after September eleventh attacks. Trail running became the fastest growing outdoor sports in the country. We're runners. And then, we let's I I looked look in the Bible.
Let's look in the Bible and take a look at that. Somebody that jumped out to me immediately was Jonah. *Jonah-1:3*, but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He didn't want to go to Nineveh. He didn't want to proclaim that God was going to bring judgment if they didn't turn to him.
He didn't want to do it, and so he ran from God. Judges, you ever run from God? You ever know exactly what God wanted you to do, but you decide in your heart, no. I don't want to do that. There's no way I'm gonna be there.
And, you know, sometimes we know exactly what we need to do, but we want to push God away because we think we know what's best, and then other times, we do it subconsciously. We slow there's there's a slow drift away from the things of God, and we don't even know it, but we're actually running away. Our spirit is running away from God because of what he is calling us to do and what he wants us to be. But we know what happened with Jonah. The fish, he ended up doing what God wanted him to do.
Okay? And you see, we get to this point where finally, we "come to our senses". Right? We we come to our sense and we realize, man, with God, everything was better. Everything was better with God.
*God* was taking care of me. God was there was this peace about me even though things were uncomfortable. God had my back, and I knew he was with me. And so, go back. Sometimes, reluctantly, sometimes, head is down, and we're like, alright, God, I'm really sorry.
But again, *Luke-15:20*, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw his son and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. You see, we're expecting to come to God, and it's going to be like, you know, we're groveling hands, oh, I'm so sorry. But God runs to us. He chases after us even when so many people in that time period, the head of the household, would not have done that.
It's undignified to run after someone like that. And yet, from this story that Jesus told, he was running after him. And he runs to meet us immediately when we make that decision, when we understand, God, I cannot do this on my own, and I'm in desperate need of you. You know, in my mind, as the the son is going back to the father's house, I can remember the father saying, Hey, son. Let's get to training.
Let's get started. So let's go back to that scripture, first Corinthians. Okay? So, we have Paul, you know, in this time period, he is referencing, okay, something that the Corinthian people were very familiar with. It was the ismiths games.
Okay? Where every 2 years, they had this big competition. Okay? And, the competitor's strict training was intense. It really was.
There was a Greek philosopher by the name of Epictetus, who also lived around the time of Paul. And he had some commentary on the training that these athletes had to go through. He wrote, the athletes' training involved thirst and embroiling heat and swallowing handfuls of sand. Look, when I played football, they would make us run a lot. Okay?
They had this thing called gassers, where you would stand on 1 sideline of the field and you would sprint to the other 1, and then you'd come back, and that was 1. And they would go, alright, everybody's running 10 gassers. Okay? It was brutal. But see, if 1 day, the coach says, okay, everybody, we're eating sand.
No. I'm out, coach. I gotta go. I'm gonna join the bands. I'm gonna I'm gonna learn the trumpet.
We're gonna have a blast. Okay? I can imagine, okay, that this training for these people were no was no joke. And a lot of them wanted to quit. Okay?
But, Epictetus tells us that if an athlete withdrew without sufficient reason, they would be whipped. Now, it's it's different. Right? Alright. Do I get my coach Let's say my coach, he's like, alright, you want to go?
Well, let's get started. I I don't know what's worse. Do I eat sand? Do I get whipped? I have no idea what's going on right here.
Okay? But see, look, Paul was using this to describe the type of training he embraced when moving towards his finish line. He said, I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. He was not taking any shortcuts. And so, the word training in the Greek means to enslave.
Paul was not going to let his thoughts, okay, his emotions, his passion, or his feelings determine his actions. He was running his race to determine, and he was determined to do whatever it took to meet his goal. Paul entered into a life of training, and he encouraged others to do the same. If we look at 1 Timothy-4:7, Paul is telling Timothy because Paul was a mentor to Timothy, okay, and he said, train yourself to be godly. Train yourself to be godly, Timothy.
Now, we look at the word train in the Greek, and it says, to exercise naked. Okay, Paul. What's up with that? Where are going with that, Paul? Because the athletes at those times, a lot of the times, they exercise naked.
They would train naked because they didn't want anything to stop them. They didn't want any clothes. They didn't want anything to be in the way of what they were trying to do. This doesn't mean you can go to the gym in your birthday suit. Okay?
But, I think, we're we're kind of following where Paul is going right here. Okay? He says, "throw off everything" that is stopping you. Throw off everything that is getting in the way of what God has for you to do and for who you to be because he is the prize. He is the 1 that is worth every single moment of everything that you do.
That's right. Nothing will stop us. And so now, gotta look at what's the difference, trying versus training. Excuse me. So to try, okay, is to do the right thing by exerting effort in the moment.
Something comes up, I'm gonna I'm gonna try and do good. I'm gonna try and make in that moment, I'm gonna try. But look, to train is a commitment to build "strategic habits" to equip you in the moment. That's good. Come on.
Trying, okay, can prevent relying. When I try, I do what I can in my own strength. Trying can actually keep me from allowing God to give me his strength to do and to do something through me what I cannot do. By trying, I may unintentionally be denying God the generous offer to make his power perfect in my weakness. Trying, in a sense, is kind of like denying God.
Training. Done right is a partnership with God. So, let's look at training. This was a definition. I love this, but it's a little confusing.
Okay. Look at this. So, is doing today what you can do today so that you can do tomorrow what you can do today. What I can do today through strategic habits so that tomorrow what I can't do today, avoid temptation, advance toward my goals. **winning comes to training**, not trying.
And you see, we we kind of know this principle. This principle is so obvious in other areas of life. But people miss what's important. And a Christian theology, you know, there's this theology of trying. Okay?
Because it's, I'm gonna put my best foot forward. I'm gonna come to Christ by my own efforts. We think we can get where we want to go by just simply trying as hard as we can, and we are just convinced that this works. I'm going to try to be closer to God. We're going to try to have a good marriage.
I'm going to try to be a better parent. We're going to try to have have try to stop having sex before marriage. I'm going to try to be more loving. When that's our approach, we are setting ourselves up for failure. That's right.
Because trying doesn't work. Training does. Church, and we know this. Okay? If you're studying for a test, you just don't show up on test day, and you try really hard to get an a.
No, you don't do that. Okay? You get the good grade by committing to strategic habits, going to class, taking notes, studying, all before the test. Okay? Those equip you to do the right thing, have the right answers in the moment.
So, when you take the test and you do this day by day, what you can do today, go to class, study, so that you can do tomorrow what you can't do today. Get the a in the test. He's calling us to a life of training. And so, I went into training for the marathon. Now, this next piece of information, it's really not that important, but I just feel like I need to let you know.
I run weird. Yeah. So, I found this out in high school, Of course. Okay? I'm running my doing the 40, the 40 yard dash.
Man, that's like a big thing for football. Okay? And so, boom, the it goes off. I'm running as fast as I can. I'm getting it.
Okay? I'm done. And somebody out of the corner yells out, he runs like a duck. My offensive line coach, he had my back. He's like, yeah, he does.
That's a fast duck. So, allegedly, church, I'm I can only I'm not gonna do it, but I'm just to let you know, apparently, when I run, I run with my legs just popping right out. Okay? I mean, it's Look, nobody's I I haven't seen it, but other people say that is what I do. Okay?
And so, look, my roommate at the time Okay? I Look, I wish I could. I I can't run. I I got I got an injury last year, like, my my foot is numb. So, it's gonna look even weirder.
Okay? Because I can't even push off of this foot, so I'm just gonna be like, blah blah blah. Okay? But 1 of these days, I'll do it all
for you.
Okay? So my roommate at the time, he was just a little extra. You know, you know people who are just they're just way too much, the overdramatic. He pulls me aside and he says, Chevy, you can't run this race. You're gonna die.
He said he said, I pulled up this article on the Internet. People die when they run marathons. And, we know how you run, you're just not built for running. And I said, respectfully, shut up, get out of here. No.
I'm I'm doing this. Okay? I'm doing this. And so, I went into training, and I had to get equipped with the right gear. And so, look, when when you're running, there's just some things that you gotta have.
Okay? 1 of the things you gotta have, you got to have the right gear, you got to have the dry fit shirt. Okay? Look at this shirt right here. It's got the arms cut out to show the guns.
Okay? Okay. So dry fit because whenever you're wearing just a regular shirt, it's cotton, your sweat I'm a sweater. Okay? I sweat a lot.
And so, those things, it makes the fabric even heavier and it slows you down. Okay? So, you got to have the right shirts. This fabric, the sweat wicking technology. Okay?
Let's see. Where's the other thing? The shorts. These are really bright red. Okay.
So, you gotta have the right shorts. Again, the fabric gets lighter. Okay? I'm I'm not really a short shorts kind of guy. I'm kind of like a mid shorts.
Pastor, you know, are are you a short shorts guy? Yeah. He's a runner. He wears short shorts. I knew it.
Pastor David, he wears short shorts. Okay? I knew it. Okay. But the final thing, the most important thing.
Okay? You gotta have the right shoes. You gotta have the right shoes. Man, these shoes are ugly. I don't like these shoes.
But look. Okay? These shoes, they even got a dumb name, Zirconia. But, these shoes right here, these are super thick. These soles are exactly what you need when you're running a long distance.
Okay? Because running is dangerous. Really, if if you if you talk to your doctors, say, hey, I'm gonna take up running, they're like, maybe you should ride a bike. Okay? Maybe You ever tried an elliptical?
They're like, maybe you should do that. Okay? Because running, it takes a toll on your body. Oh, it's the cardio, the full body workout. It's awesome.
Okay? But, 8 out of 10 runners get injured. They do. That's why you need the right equipment. That's why you need the cushioning because when you think about it, every single footfall that you take is twice the amount of your actual body weights.
Okay? If you look at a piece of stone and you keep on hammering at it over and over again, eventually, that's going be turned to dust. And so that is what happens when you run over and over and over again. Your muscles, your ligaments, all those things, your knees, those will break down over time. But you need the right equipment to do that.
Church, we need the word of God. We need the word of just like in Ephesians, how it says to put on the "full armor of God", we need the word. It is in Hebrews, it says, it is sharper than any double edged sword. Okay? It pierces through the heart.
It it said it's it separates bone from muscle. It is alive, and it is constantly speaking to us. But how will we not know if we don't read it? And you know what? It's not enough to read it just like a regular book.
Right? You can't just read We read books a lot, and then we're done with them, and we put them away on the shelf. No. We gotta do this all the time, constantly, every day. We gotta get into the book.
We gotta get into the word of God. We have to memorize it, put it to heart. So when things happen, when life comes our way, okay, when the the negative thoughts, we're like, I will take every thought captive and submit it to the word of God. When we know their negativity comes that wants to break your family apart, okay, break your thoughts and give you a horrible week, a horrible day to push you away from God, whatever is beautiful, whatever is lovely, whatever is powerful. It's like all those things.
Those are the things that come from God. And that's what happens when we have these strategic habits, when we go into training. Okay? We are preparing for when the things come. Because then, when temptation comes our way and wants to drive us away from our family, our jobs, and wants to distract us from what God wants us to be, we got the word.
We have it. Now, if you remember that statistic, 8 out of 10 runners get injured. Church, even if you have all the right gear, the best cushioning, the dry wicking fabric, all that stuff, there's a good chance you're still going to get injured. Because church life happens, Tragedy happens. As people, as followers of Christ, we are not exempt from suffering.
But you know what we are exempt from? *Condemnation*. We are exempt from shame. We are exempt from from the things that sin wants to bring in our life because he his righteousness is now ours. And so, though we are weakened by this life, what comes to us in our weakness, he is made perfect.
He is strong. *Isaiah-40:31*, but those whose hope is in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.
You know, there's a saying in the fitness world, you don't "skip leg day". Leg day is the worst. Okay? Because your legs, your thighs, they're the biggest part of your body. Okay?
And then, you got your calves, and you got all this stuff, your glutes, hamstrings, all those things. And when you work those out, man, it's it's a mess. You ever you ever do squats and then try to go to the bathroom the next day? Oh, my gosh. It's like you're you're knocking on the stall.
Hey, can you help me out? I can't get up. Okay? But it's there for a reason. You don't skip leg day.
Okay? Because it's important. It actually contributes to the rest of your body. And you'll know people who skip leg day because they're like this. They got little chicken legs, but they got a massive upper body.
Okay? And, they're just walking around, it's all weird. But, as people of Christ, okay, it's not about the head knowledge. Okay? It's not about up here.
It's not about knowing all these things. It is about full body knowing what God has for us, and then going out and enacting it, putting it into action. Because we're going into training, and the training prepares us for what we're gonna do next, for what God wants to do at your job and in your family. And so when nobody's looking, you're reading the word, you're praying, because it's the preparation for what's to come. So church, I started my training, and I was doing real good.
I was running, I was getting up there, 3 miles, 5 miles, even my my best friend Aaron, he came over, he visited, he's like, hey, we're going to do a big run together, we're going to run 10 miles. I did it, I ran 10 miles at a time. But see, got sidetracked. Mistakes were made. Okay?
And I decided to change my workout routine halfway through. And I started going to a more lifting approach, doing the weights and all those things instead of running. I don't even know what I was thinking. What It doesn't make any sense. But it doesn't stop me from that's what I did.
And so, that was a terrible decision because it gets to race day, okay, it gets to race day, Disney World at the marathon, and the furthest I had run was 10 miles. I was terrified. But I paid a $125. I gotta do this. I didn't have a lot of money at the time.
I can't waste this. Church, you ever get sidetracked? You know where God has you, and you're going on the road. You're you're going, everything is looking good, but then, something else catches your eye. Something else you decide to change things.
You know what? The workout that I was doing, it wasn't a bad 1, but it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. Because I was running a marathon, I wasn't lifting weights. Church, we cannot get sidetracked. There is a mission, there is something that God has for us to do, there is someone he has for us to be.
And we cannot get thrown aside by the things of this world. They want to bring us down, they want to take us out from the plan and who God has called us to be. And so, I got sidetracked, and it was it was terrible. Okay? But race day comes on, and I'm running with my family.
The fireworks are going off, we're in front of Epcot, the big Globe. There's like thousands of runners. It was it was epic. It really was. Okay?
And we're running. It's it's early and things aren't going so good. Okay? I'm falling behind for my friend now. My friend Aaron, he's like half my size.
He was like super slim and he was a born he was a runner. He was a great runner. So him and his, they're they're pulling away from me and he says, hey he said, hey, Chevy, can you like speed up? Get fast, I like, okay. So, I end up like burning a ton of energy at the beginning because I was going at a pace that I didn't even wasn't even wanting to go by.
And so, I'm passing all these people like, hey, look what I'm doing. We're we're we're we're going great right here. And then, got to the point where finally, my friend Aaron, he's like, hey, we're gonna have to leave you. He's like, we we gotta go. And I was like, hey, I completely understand.
And so, I'm running, I'm running, I'm getting more tired. There are there are signals in my body, they're just saying, red flags, red alerts, this isn't good. You're not feeling good. You're not ready for this. This, you need to stop.
I'm going, I'm constantly going, I'm feeling like the pain. Okay. I'm I'm And, look, we're at a Disney marathon. There's people like dressed up in costumes. Alright?
They got Marvel, you know, people dressed up in Marvel costumes. You got some people girls like tutus and, you know, wearing goofy hats, and, you know, they're having a great time. Okay? Even there were even the the big What is it? Those people dressed up in the full costume suits that you could take pictures with.
We're at a marathon, I see a line of people, you know, and they're just taking pictures with Goofy, and I'm over here looking at them, and I am dying. I'm dying. I'm like, oh my God. And I'm looking at them, they're having a great time and I'm having a terrible time. **"Comparison is a killer"**.
Comparison is a killer. You have no idea what other people are going through, and yet, our social media will show you someone the snap perfect picture of what their life And you're like, I wish my life was like that. I wish my family was like that. I wish my kids acted like their kids because my kids are terrible. Okay?
My kids are acting up. And it's like, that person's job is awesome. Why do I have this job? Why can't I have that job? Okay?
Why am I continuing to struggle with the same things, but everybody else seems like they're doing fine? Church, that's not how we live our life. It's not healthy, it's terrible. *God* is someone for you to be, and he has something for you to do. He's not asking you to run somebody else's race.
He's asking you to "run your race". He's asking you to reach the people that are in your circle. Okay? He's asking you to read the scriptures and to dig in and to put into action, not for somebody else in some other location, but for where he has you in this moment, in this time and place in history. We cannot compare ourselves to somebody else.
Oh, but I did it. I did it for sure. I was looking at some other people. They're over here, they're stretching. I'm gonna stretch too.
I go over to the side, I'm like, let's go and stretch. Bam, my legs, they just lock up immediately. And I was like, oh, nope, not stretching. We're we're not stretching, we're going. And so, the amazing the cool thing about Disney, I mean, you're going through all these parks, and they have the mile markers.
Right? Each mile, they got a big sign going up there. And each mile marker, I'm feeling worse and worse. And then my foot starts hurting. Okay?
And at this point, Jude, I'm going super slow. I mean, you could have walked faster than me. I'm just like, you know, I'm just I'm trying to get through it. And about the 20 mile marker, the pain in my foot is so great, I can't jog anymore. I'm literally just going like this.
I'm I'm walking around, I'm trying to I'm trying to get to the finish line, and I can't pick up my right foot because it's in pain. So much pain. But I'm going to push on. I wasn't going to stop. There's this 1 moment that I remember, there's people on the sidelines, you know, they I feel like I'm close.
I feel like I'm close to the end. And this lady, she looks over, she's like, it's you're almost done. It's right around the corner. I get to the corner and there's another stretch. And in my mind, I'm just like in my mind, I'm like crying.
I'm like, you're such a liar. Why did you say that? You're giving me this "false hope". There's so much more to go. Church, I finally get to the end.
I get to the finish line, it's a big thing, you know, finish, and I muster up the last amount of strength I can. And I'm like, I'm not walking over the finish line, I'm going to jog over the finish line. And it hurts so much. It hurts so much, but "I made it". I made it.
I finished the race. I did it. It took me 6 hours and 30 minutes. You know, they said if they said if it took you 7 hours, they were gonna take a truck and pick you up and drive you to the finish line. 6 hours and 30 minutes.
I found my friend and I'm I'm just I'm just standing there, and he's like, you okay? I can't talk. I'm just like, okay. My my friend, he's just, he's about as look, he's about as wide as they come. He's like, you're about as pale as I am.
He's like, are you okay? Again, okay. I can't even get words out of my mouth. And he's like, dude, let's get you to the tent. So, they get me to a tent.
Okay? They lie me on a stretcher, they put Icy Hot on my legs, they give me a juice box, they put blankets over me, and I'm just like, I'm just gonna stay here. I'm not gonna leave. This is where I live now. I'm gonna stay here the night.
Maybe I'll be better in the morning. And But I didn't drive, it was my car. So my buddy is like, hey, we gotta go. I was like, I can't I can't walk. They're like, well, we got these wheelchairs.
And so, put me in a wheelchair, and my friend, my best, he's he's just wheeling me out to the car, all the way to the car. There wasn't even a drop off point. We had to go all the way out to the car. Okay? And I like rolled into the car seat, and I thought I broke my foot.
Thank God I didn't. I could have sworn I did, but my training was terrible. There was no I had no right running that marathon because I didn't equip myself to do what I needed to do. Thank God I thank God I made it. It was awesome.
But church, the word of God and the strategic habits that we have to do to live this life, you can't skip it. You cannot skip those things. These are things that are vital for our survival, and sometimes, we're just we're just so thrown off as, okay, well, how do I do this? How do how do I pray, okay, to God every day? How do I read the Bible every day?
How do I set myself up for the future? Okay? How how do I do that? Okay. 1 of the biggest things if if you're ever struggling to read the bible or any book whatsoever, it says, you "start small".
A page of the bible a day, A chapter a day. You ask God. You seek after him. God, I don't know what I'm doing, but I want to "get to know you better". I want to be closer to you, Lord.
So please help me. A page a day. What about praying? You know, we just got through this awesome series, okay, about prayer and conversations with God. A sentence.
Literally, it could be a sentence. *God*, thank you for the day. Help me through the day. And that's how you start. And then, you build.
And then, all of a sudden, you got all sorts of stuff to say to God. And But, it doesn't stop there because then, you're talking to him and then, you actually start hearing God through other people, through other things around you because God is always speaking. And when we can open ourselves up, we can actually hear what he has to say and the direction of where we want to go. But church, we got to go into training. We got to "stop this trying".
We got to start stop doing things in our own mindset. You know, I'm going to do my very best. But, we know it's not enough. You will fail, and you will fall short. All have fallen short of the glory of God.
But, thank God he's there for us. Thank God of his mercy, and his love, and his kindness. Because when we falter, when we mess up, even when we when we mess up our training, he's kind enough to be able to run to us, wrap up wrap us in his arms, and say, I love you. Let's get back to it. Amen, church?
*Amen*. Amen.