Running the Race of Life

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Running the Race of Life
Acts 2024 Selected
Pastor Dave Martin, Cross Creek Community Church,
October 26, 2003
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Running the Race of Life

• Acts 2024 However, I consider my life worth
  nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and
  complete the task the Lord Jesus has given
  me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's
  grace.

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Running the Race of Life...

• 1. I Must Be PREPARED.
• 1 Cor. 924-27 Do you not know that in a race all
  the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run
  in such a way as to get the prize. 25 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. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man
  running aimlessly I do not fight like a man
  beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make
  it my slave so that after I have preached to
  others, I myself will not be disqualified for the
  prize.

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Preparation is an Ongoing Growth Process...

• Salvation by Grace through Faith. Eph 28-10
• Faithfulness to Gods Word and Prayer. Jn 1421
• Committed to Serving others. Mt 2026-28
• My Personal Heart Attitude. Phil 25

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Running the Race of Life...

• 2. I Must Remove DISTRACTIONS.
• Hebrews 121 Therefore, since we are surrounded
  by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw
  off everything that hinders and the sin that so
  easily entangles, and let us run with
  perseverance the race marked out for us.

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Distractions...
LET GO of your Past to GET ON with your Future...

• Guilt
• Bitterness

Isaiah 4318 Forget the former things do not
dwell on the past.
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Running the Race of Life...

• 3. I Must Remain DETERMINED.
• Galatians 69 Let us not become weary in doing
  good, for at the proper time we will reap a
  harvest if we do not give up.
• Proverbs 2416 for though a righteous man falls
  seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are
  brought down by calamity.

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Great Destroyers of Commitment...

• Fear
• Procrastination
• Discouragement

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Three Types of People in every Church...

• Risk takers They march ahead!
• Care takers They maintain the flock!
• Under takers They kill momentum!

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Running the Race of Life...

• 4. I Must Focus on the Eternal GOAL.
• Philip. 313-14 Brothers, I do not consider
  myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
  thing I do Forgetting what is behind and
  straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on
  toward the goal to win the prize for which God
  has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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Running the Race of Life...

• To Impact people I know for Jesus!
• To Please Christ whatever the cost!
• To Win the Prize of Eternal Rewards!

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Paul said...

• I have fought the good fight, I have finished
  the race, I have kept the faith 2 Tim. 47

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• Be inviting your family, friends and neighbors to
  this Saturday night, 7pm presentation by
  VISION, a ministry team from Liberty
  University. Itll be a time of worship music,
  drama, and personal testimonies!
• Lets pack the church for Jesus!