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I have lived long enough to see that a lot of people who did run well stopped running well. I wanna give you an illustration, see if you can figure this out. This is the very difficult illustration. This is how sometimes you can be put on a spot. Have you ever tried, you walked upon your two kids and they’re fighting and you try to settle it and both of them blame the other one? Have you ever had that happen? If not, wait long enough and it’ll be, it’ll come around.

And so you got to be the arbiter. I mean, you’re the judge and you’re trying to solve a problem between two kids that are fighting and you didn’t see what happened. Regardless of whose side you take, you’re in trouble. And you got to say who was right or who was wrong. So you just figure out, you can just forget about it. Shake hands, kiss and make up, whatever. Or you beat both of them half to death. I’ve had that happen a lot of times to me.

Well, one time I had two guys. We were in a ministry where we were doing some things for the Lord and it was very important. At the minister, I had my mind on a thousand other things because we were at a camp, so I’m trying to get everything run. And a lot of decisions. And then two guys get in a conflict. So they got in a conflict and somebody came and told me that Yankee, you better get over there.

There’s two guys that are having trouble. And of course, this is going on in front of others. So you go over there and you’ve got to solve a problem. And you’ve got to solve it quickly. And you don’t know who’s right. You don’t know who’s wrong. You ain’t got really too much time to find out. And you really don’t care who was right or who was wrong. It’s just that they shouldn’t be doing it. And you’ve got to solve a problem.

But you know, whatever decision you make, one of them is going to get offended. And if you make the decision and one of them gets offended, And it doesn’t matter which one, they don’t take it out on themselves, they take it out on the person who had to make that decision. So I had to make a decision. I thought that I was making a decision in favor of the one that was the weak of Christian so that the stronger Christian could handle being offended.

And that makes sense? That all of them could handle it. The younger one I thought would probably not be able to handle being reviewed or a decision made that would prove that he was right or he was wrong. So whichever one you made, you’re in trouble. So if you offend them, that means that they got hurt and they got their feelings hurt. So I made the decision. And did it work out great? No, it didn’t work out great. a person was hurt and I could not resolve the difference.Parent267 ):, And I could not resolve the difference.

What should have been done is that they should have solved their own problem. Shouldn’t two adults be able to solve their own problem. But they didn’t get mad at the other guy. They got mad at me because I didn’t side with them. So there’s our consequence to pay. Because you can be so easily offended, it means you got hurt. That wounds your pride, it hurts your spirit. And you went, how can you go through life and you wish you didn’t have to make any decisions that would offend anybody?

Boy, that would be great. But it doesn’t work that way. In the Bible, it talks in several places. One in Matthew also talks about where in John Christ said some things. very strong things, chapter 6. And he says, does this offend you, and evidently… It had. They got offended. So he says to some, he says, will you also go away, and? And Peter? And Peter? And Peter. And Peter. It’s. It had to them. Did Christ know before he did what he did and said what he said that he was automatically…

He knew it was going to offend him. He knew that what he was going to say was going to upset some people and hurt them. And he did it anyway. Now he did it on purpose. I don’t know that I do that on purpose. I try my best not to hurt or offend anybody. But I know that it’s going to if I have to make a decision. But I’ve never been afraid of making decisions. I make them boom. But Christ did it knowing that they were going to be offended.

When he said what he did in Book of John, multitudes went the other direction and that’s why he asked the disciples, well you also. So Christ said it, he did it and he didn’t seem like he really worried too much about their feelings. Me, I’m always concerned about people’s I always feel that way. But it didn’t seem like Christ did. He just says it. You live with it. He was strong. In the book of Hebrews, I want you to look at real quick.

Hebrews in chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12, and follow my thinking. He says, He did run well. We’re all in a race. We know that. We understand that therefore it says in verse one of chapter 12. Wherefore seen we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us believers lay aside every weight and The sin which thus so easily beset us and let us run With patience the race that is set before us every one of us Has a race to run God has set a course Now in this race that we run, God has and allows obstacles to be put in our way.

God allows in this race that we’ve got to run all these problems. I’ve watched those who used to run around the track and they’ve got these little high bars out there, you know, kind of like a saw horse and they’ve got to jump over this one and then they go and then they jump over another one and then they jump over another of, well, they run in a race and they’re just clearing it. It’s an obstacle. As we run our race, the Lord allows there to be obstacles put in our way.

But He says, keep your eye on the goal, and God says He will help us over every obstacle. And there’s people on the sidelines that are hollering and yearling and cheering and some bullying and making fun and so forth to try to distract you or to let you know what they think about whatever you’re doing. And it can be humiliating at times, or it can be encouraging at times. But the key thing is is you’ve got a race to run and you want to run the race, you want to run the race with joy and you want to finish your course that God has set before you.

I’ve lived long enough to see many who have begun the race, but I’ve seen them stop the race they stopped running. So the Scriptures talking about you did run well. Who did hinder you? And I should say who or what did hinder you from running your race? Because if you dedicate your life to the Lord and you start serving the Lord, who hindered you? Who stopped you? What caused the problem? They caused you not to serve the Lord. They cause you not to run the race.

Now, I want you to take your Bible and look over to the book of Acts. The book of Acts in chapter 20. The book of Acts and look in chapter 20. This is an attitude that we should have. It’s why the Apostle Paul was not only able to dedicate his life to the Lord but why He was able to finish his course. At the end of his life, he was able to say, I have run my race, I have finished my course, I finished it, I ran it, I finished.

Did Paul have any obstacles in his way during his life? He had everything you could think of, but he always kept going. You don’t stop. You just keep running. Your side may hurt. Your calves may hurt. Your feet hurt. But whatever the problem is, just keep running. Just keep running. Never stop. And here in the book of Acts in chapter 20, I want you to look down there in verse 22. And now behold, he said, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall befall me there.

In other words, I’m going somewhere. I don’t know what’s going to happen. You and I are running our race. We don’t know what’s going to happen today. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. But you set your face like a flint and you make up your mind. But regardless of what happens tomorrow, I’m not going to allow myself to be so offended and so hurt that I stop running. Don’t let there be anything or any body, anything that could be said or done that would hinder you from consistently staying faithful to God and running your race.

Just keep running. you ought to know because it’s in the Bible that somebody or something is going to happen that’s going to offend you. It means you’re going to get your feelings hurt. Wouldn’t it be a shame for you to stop serving the Lord just because somebody hurt you? Somebody hurt you. I’ve seen grown adults. Let one little thing get them so sidetracked they stopped serving the Lord for the rest of the life. to stop. And it was only a little bitty thing, but it grows until it becomes so big and you could have got over that molehill, but the only difference between a molehill and a mountain is just more dirt.

So you throw more dirt on it and more dirt on it. Next thing you know it’s such a hill, you can’t get over it and you’ll stay on that side of the hill for the rest of your life. And that is shame. But it will happen. Here he makes a statement in verse 23, save that the Holy Spirit witness in every city saying, bonds and afflictions abide me. In other words, I got something bad, wait, numb me. I don’t know all of what’s going to happen, but I know that it’s going to be some more problems down the road.

He says in verse 24, but none of these things, the bonds, the afflictions, afflictions by people, put in jail, whatever, that doesn’t move in. That’s not the problem. He says, none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto myself in words I’m not living for me and if you don’t live for you then then a lot of things won’t hurt you a lot of things won’t bother you but if you live in your life for yourself then everything that goes wrong makes you hurt angry mad you take feelings upon yourself you become easily offended and because of that you just gotta do whatever makes you happy and strike out against God or people or anything that goes against your, I guess, runs your day for you.

That’s not the Bible. A person not a strong Christian if they allow themselves to be so easily hurt or offended because of the scriptures. Tell them that’s what to do. Look what he says here. He says in verse 24, Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might and get this finish my course with joy Because see if if you get your eyes off the Lord you won’t run your right you will not finish your course And you won’t finish it with joy Serving the Lord should be one of the most joyous Happy things that a man could ever do in his life knowing that this is the will of God and I’m walking in it This is what God wants me to do with my life and that’s what I’m doing And that’s a wonderful thing.

Give what he says. He says that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord. Do you understand that your ministry is your life and your life was given to you by God? So God gave you your life to live and the way you live is how you minister. And as you live your life, you’re ministering two people, whether they’re lost or whether they’re saved. That’s a ministry. See, your life was given to you to minister.

Christ did not come to be minister too, but to minister to give His life as a ransom for all. He came to serve. So God gave you a lifetime upon this earth to live. So how you live your life is that’s your ministry. And so you’re ministering. And so many people just here to be served. And you don’t serve me right. They think they got all these rights that you owe me. You owe me. Well. You’re going to be in for a great disappointment because people don’t always respond the way you want them to or expect them to.

But anyway, this is a tremendous portion of Scripture talking about, I won’t quit. Now, I want you to see this other verse before I go back to Galatians. Look in 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. I read this to you before, but I want you to sit one more time quickly. In verse 8, this is the Apostle Paul talking about this race that he’s running, the ministry that he has. See that in verse 1 and chapter 4, we have this ministry, we don’t quit.

It means we don’t think we don’t quit. But verse 8, we are troubled on every side, but we don’t quit. We are just perplexed, but we don’t quit. And we’re persecuted, but we don’t quit. We’re cast down, but we don’t quit. And all the way down through here is that we just don’t quit. We’ve got problems and they get offended and they get hurt but they just keep on going. Paul says in chapter 11 of Corinthians, he says, and we burn not means that you don’t think we get hurt and angry and bitter, he says it happens to everybody.

But you keep going. Just always keep certain Lord, be faithful. allow things that happens to sow this point or discourage you that you stop serving the Lord. And see there verse 16 says, for which cause we faint not this is why we don’t quit because it is for you, for other people. You’re not here for you, you’re here for them. I preached to sermon years ago called, it’s not about you, it’s not about you. Your life is not about you.

It’s about somebody else, it’s about what God wants you to do for somebody else. It’s not all about you, it’s about somebody else and it will help you in your attitude of why you can accept things and keep going and so forth and it will greatly help you. Now go back to the book of Galatians in chapter 5. When he says he did run, well I want you to see this, he says you did run, at least you ran.

These are people in Galatia and There was Listera and Derby, Antioch, Iconium. These are the various places and there were churches there. Paul had gone to these towns and he had won people to the Lord and got them to grow in the Lord. They loved Paul, they loved the gospel, and they were growing and they were joyful. They were excited about the things of the Lord. While he was gone, somebody else came in and these wolves and sheep’s clothing.

sheep’s clothing by the way are people that devour. And they devour because they feed upon the people. They’re not interested in the person, but they feed upon them, their wolves. The sheep is not actually totally consumed. The Christian is just lost to the will of God. They got sidetracked. Something happened to them. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, he doesn’t use his real teeth. He’s using a message. He’s telling them something that isn’t true. And so it warps the person’s mind.

He says, this persuasion, see in verse eight, this persuasion, come up not of him that call of you. In other words, it didn’t come from God. God does not keep you from obeying the truth. And what’s the difference? Look in verse seven, you did run well. Who did hinder you that you should You cannot obey the truth because see, if you don’t obey the truth, you won’t run. And if you don’t run, you don’t win. You don’t win. You lost.

So you’re talking about the most important race in all the world. Now I know some of us, we love to see sports. We love races and some of y’all love stock car races. Some love to see the Olympics and people racing. love the competition. You are in the greatest race of all time. Your life, you’re running a race. You have a course that’s set before you and you’re not to let anything or anybody deter you from your course. There’s a lot of problems and heartaches and you don’t know what all’s coming out there but you know whatever it is.

I’m gonna just keep on a running, just keep on a running, just keep on a running. Because you see that’s why he says you keep your eyes on the Lord and and let the people holler and yell or whatever they do, but that is not to affect you. The praise or the booze. Just keep running because those people that it prays you today will be cursing you tomorrow. Same people. Just keep running and don’t worry about it. As long as you can hear the Lord looking over the banister of heaven and says, there runs my beloved in whom I am well pleased.

As long as you don’t, this is pleasing God. It doesn’t matter if somebody else prays you or don’t prays you. You’re not running for the Lord. You want His compliments. You want his hand to be upon you, but look again in verse 7. He says you did run well. Well, what happened? He says this persuasion didn’t come from God. It came from somebody else now look there in chapter 1 chapter 1 chapter 1 in verse 4 He tells him that Jesus Christ came into the world and died on the cross the paper sins in in order to deliver us from this present evil world.

Running your race is being able to run through the obstacles of sin in the world without it getting you. Can you run your race without your old sinful nature destroying you? Can you run it without falling to the lust of the the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Can you beat that? Majority of Christians can’t win. They can’t fight it. The things of the world are so strong and so powerful that he gets some of them, and this will get some of those.

And some because of the pride of life, pride don’t hurt me. They were their feelings right there. And because of that, won’t be able to run. They won’t win. But He makes the statement, He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Now, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, you were delivered from the penalty of sin, which is death and hell. Present evil world means the power of sin in your life.

Can you run your race without getting you? Otherwise, what’s the purpose of running. What is this race? You see, you’re after souls and keeping yourself clean while you do it. Because if you don’t keep yourself right with God, you won’t be around to do it. So you have to stay clean and right in order for the sins of the world not to dominate your life. Now you still have the desires. You have all the desires everybody else has because you have a sinful nature.

The lust in the pull of the wall is strong in a Christian’s life. Is it anybody else? It’s just that he wants to win more than what somebody else perhaps wants to win. But you’re not racing against another Christian. Understand, no Christian runs the race against another Christian. You and I are not in competition. It’s so difficult sometimes for people to understand. I am never, never competing against a Christian. the race that God has for us. I want to help every Christian that I know of to run his race.

I’m not against the Christian, but I will try to help a Christian. And if behind, I will love you enough. I will rebuke you because I care. I want you to run your race. I want you to finish your race. And if I see something that’s going to hurt, I want to tell you, I want to love you enough to do that. There are some people that are more concerned about themselves. And if somebody they did or say something, they would never say a word, I’d never want to offend anybody.

And you don’t care about anybody. You would never say or do anything that would cause somebody to maybe explode at you, get mad at you. I care enough that I’ll do just that. And then like Paul says, you mean, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? Look what he says here. I want you to see this. Look there in the book of Galatians in chapter 4. Galatians chapter four, look in verse 11. He says to these Christians, he says, I’m afraid of you.

Unless I had bestowed upon you labor in vain. Well, say we know that you don’t be stole labor in vain. And the Lord, because God’s got to be word you for what you do. But the work with the people, how many years I’ve spent in laboring with people. Only to be totally in vain and accomplish absolute zero. in their lives. But you labor anyway. See I’m going to run my race. I’m just trying to help others to run theirs because you care.

You want them to win. So you tell them this is what God wants for your life. And then you tell them this is what’s going to hurt. You’re accomplishing that. And so many who start run well. They run and they run well. They correct. They discipline. But then something happens. Always something happens. He says in verse 11, I’m afraid of you, unless I’ve been stored up in you labor in vain. He said, but brethren, I beseech you, be as I am.

For I am as you are, you have not injured me at all. He says, you haven’t injured me. It’s not about me. It’s not against me. But he let him know that this is what God said. And that the message that they turned against was the message that God gave. He explained to them in chapter 5 about the two natures and that God is not mocked into whatsoever man’s soul. That shall he also reap, but he told them all of that.

But he says, not between you and me. Serving God is not between you and me. It’s always between you and God. But we’re not in competition. I’m not in competition with Leon or Tim or Robert or anybody. We’re to try to help encourage each other to serve the Lord. But if I have to say something that I think is going to hurt your testimony, and I do that and you hate me for it. It’s not me you hate. It’s not me you’re mad at.

It’s God. Why do you think the scripture says in chapter 5, chapter 12, in verse 5 of Hebrews, My son despised not thou the Chasing of the Lord nor fate, when thou art rebuked of him. God rebukes through his God-given appointed messenger. So you have a responsibility. You have to rebuke. And when you rebuke, the Bible says, in Titus, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Rebuke sharply. And God said, don’t worry about their feelings.

That’s hard. This is why I’ve been a preacher that’s worth anything at all. It’s the difficult thing because you run the wrist and you hurt so many people. But you have no desire to hurt a soul. But you want people to do what is right because it’s right to do. I want you to see this. Look there in verse 13. He says, you know how to infirmity of the flesh. I preached the gospel unto you at the first and my temptations or testings, which was in my flesh, you despise not nor rejected, but receive me as an angel of God, even as Jesus Christ.

In other words, when I first came to you, man, you thought I was the greatest. I was the best. You welcome me with open arms. You thought I was an angel of light that came here. That’s what Paul says. He says, but in verse 15, where is then the blessedness she spoke of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, he would have proked out your own eyes and have given them to me. And this is why many believe that Paul had bad eyesight.

Because in the last chapter of the book of Galatians, he says, you can see what with large characters that I wrote. So we believe that Paul had bad eyesight and he had to write such big letters because of that. He says, and you would have given your whole eyes to me. You loved me that much. And yet, now, the same people have turned and changed. You think I heard Paul grow his heart? Yeah, but it didn’t injure him in the sense that it caused him to stop, not to run his race.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bible line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our homepage.

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org. Thanks for joining us on Vital Line, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.