“Communicating Jesus to a world of “leisure and pleasure” (Ray Vander Laan).
Galatians 5:1-8
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion {did} not {come} from Him who calls you.” (NASB)
The main point of Sunday’s teaching was: The way we run will show people that Jesus is King.
The main verse for the message is Galatians 5:7
“You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (NASB)
The question is not necessarily what keeps us from God, but who keeps us from Him. There are so many other things that get in our way, for example: our time, our money, our family, our religion…these things keep us from running hard after Christ effectively. But are the things in our lives really the inhibitors? Are we being kept from Christ because of our time? Or is it that we ourselves are keeping our relationship with Christ on hold? We looked this past Sunday at the idea that Paul was speaking from, and with regard to the imagery he was using at that time: the Olympian Games.
There were 40,000 people cheering in the stadium all agreeing that Caesar was god, and the athletes would sacrifice themselves to run the race without giving up no matter the consequences to show their honor to the god. Paul’s imagery in Galatians is effective for so many reasons, but namely it brings us to this concept: the runners would give everything to run for the Caesar’s approval and glory.
Are we giving everything for God? Are we running to the best of our ability, or are we holding something back? What if we gave our all? What if we chased and surrendered to God as if He was and is the best thing in our lives, that He had and is doing the best thing for us, and that He is all-satisfying and worthy to be desired relentlessly? We should.
We should worship our God through running, through our running towards Him and showing others how we run for Him and to Him. We should run so that in the end there is NOTHING left to give!
Christ gave everything and all, He emptied Himself and drew close to death so that we might live; how much more should we draw closer to Him so that He be lifted up and we decrease to His glory.
What is valuable? What is valuable is whatever the "authority" places value on. In our world the multitude determines how valuable something is by how much they desire it. The multitude does not desire Christ, they desire (like the Greeks) "leisure and pleasure", but to we Christians, the ultimate Authority, the One who places value on everything because He created it is the Lord, and He says that Christ is supremely valuable to everything that is constantly being chosen over Him. God knows what is valuable, and it is Christ. So if we are to put our lives behind what we believe to be most valuable and most satisfying and most worthy of our lives... this must be Christ.
Run to grace, run for Christ, and for His glory alone. It's not like we are sponsored by Nike or anything, but we are lifted up and pressed on by a greater Presence, and He is saying compete.
COMPETE AGAINST THE WORLD.
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it." <---- 1 Corinthians 9:24
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