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Man, the part of the chapter I want to focus on is there at the very beginning where the Bible reads, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The title of my sermon this morning is Run with Patience. Run with Patience. Not only do I want you to see that phrase in verse one, but also notice verse two uses the word endured. And when we think of endurance, that could often lead us to think of running, wouldn't it, right? Running with patience, a long distance running, an endurance event. You see the Christian life is run with patience. What does it mean to be patient? It means you're not in a hurry. It means that you're taking the time necessary to do things right. You're not too hasty in spirit, but you are diligent and patiently doing what you are supposed to be doing. So I have several points this morning. First of all, number one, the point is run at a sustainable pace. You've got to run at a sustainable pace. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. You see, we as Christians, we want to make it all the way to the finish line. It's better to be a finisher than a starter. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And he says the opposite of being patient in spirit is being proud in spirit. Now what is pride? Pride is having too high of a view of yourself and having a low view of other people often and thinking that you're better than other people, right? If we were to say someone was very prideful, it means they're lifted up, they're boasting and think that they're great and maybe even putting other people down. Well, what would lead someone to run the race too quickly? Sometimes it could be pride, thinking that they're better than everyone around them or hey everybody look at me and wanting to show off or something like that. We need to be patient and run with patience the race that is set before us. Now when I say run at a sustainable pace, we have to realize this is going to be different for everyone, especially because we have people in our church that are babes in Christ that are brand new believers, they're not going to be running the race as quickly as someone who's been saved for 10 years or 15 years or 20 years. So different people are at different stages of growth or different stages in the training you could say and so they're going to be running at different speeds. So it's not about trying to match the performance of someone else, it's about running at a pace that is sustainable for you. Now I don't want to slow anybody down this morning. I mean if you are just running the Christian life and you're going full speed ahead, you're doing a ton of work for the Lord, you know, if you can sustain that then keep on going. But you got to know yourself and you got to know your limitations and run at a sustainable pace for you. This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make in running is they run too fast and then they can't finish the course. I would much rather run a little slower and actually finish the course. You know one time I took my kids to a running thing because they were part of a home school PE group and they put on an event for the kids. It was a 5 kilometer race so it's 3.1 miles and so my kids were all excited about this and they showed up ready to compete and they wanted to win this thing and there were about 120 children participating in this race. And my kids actually practiced and trained for this, I mean they were running around the block, they would run to a certain mailbox down the street and back X amount of times and they were serious about wanting to do a good job. So they actually put in a training, well a lot of the kids didn't put in any training, they just went to the PE once a week and they showed up for the event because everybody showed up for it. So I remember when the event started, some of the kids just took off running really fast. They're just flying. And you know what, those are the kids who hadn't trained because they didn't know anything about it. They didn't even understand the distance. They didn't even know what it means to run three miles, they'd never experienced running three miles. They didn't understand, hey it's 94 degrees Fahrenheit and you have three miles to go and you're just sprinting off the starting line and you know what, they were crashing and burning literally two minutes later. Three minutes later. The thing has barely even started and they're walking. My kids weren't in that group because they knew what it meant to run three miles. They practiced, they'd run three miles in the training to see what they were capable of. But let me tell you something, it's pretty tempting when you're at that starting line and you see those people just firing out of the gate. You know what you want to do is you want to show them and you want to get in front of them and you want to compete with them and you want to run with them. But it takes great discipline to say, no, no, I know what I'm capable of and I'm going to run the race that is set before me with patience and I'm going to pick these people off later. I'm going to reel them in later if I can, you know, and if not, whatever. But all I know is what I'm capable of and in order to run an effective race, you have to know your limitations and what you're capable. If you don't pace yourself properly, you'll get halfway through the race and just run out of steam. And then where are you now? Not only are you not winning, not only are you not doing well, you're not even finishing. You're a crash and burn. You have to quit. And so we need to be careful that we don't look at what other people are doing and start running at a pace that's not sustainable for us. We need to know our limitations. Now I'm not saying that the Christian life should just be a tiptoe through the tulips. You know, it is a race. We ought to be running and we ought to do our best. You know, we want to leave it all out there on the field, but we also want to make it all the way to the end. So we need to learn what we're capable of, what we can handle, and yes, push yourself to the limit, but don't push yourself beyond the limit. So I want to be careful when I preach this. I don't want to slow people down, but at the same time, people who need to be slowed down, they do need to slow down when they hear this kind of preaching. Because I'd rather see people continue in the Christian life for five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years, than to be the Roman candle Christian, where it's just... And then it's just gone. Where are they? Man, that guy was so fired up. That guy was killing it. That guy was doing so much work for God for four months until he was gone and we never saw him again. You know, I'd rather... And look, I've been soul winning now for nineteen years, consistently for nineteen years. That's life. You know, I want you to be here nineteen years from now. I want to be here nineteen more years from now. I want to run this race for thirty years, forty years, fifty years. So I've got to run at a sustainable pace. I've got to know my limitations. You've got to know your limitations. Don't be proud. Be patient. But number two, don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. So number one, run at a sustainable pace. But number two, don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Now, the Bible talks a lot about being diligent. And being diligent is contrasted with a few things. Go back if you went to Proverbs. We're going to look at several verses from Proverbs. Go back to Proverbs 21. One of the things that being diligent is contrasted with is being hasty. Being hasty, right? And we've all heard the saying, haste makes waste. Why? Because anything that's worth doing is worth doing right the first time. Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right the first time. You do something hastily, you end up having to redo it. And you end up wasting more time. Those of us who've worked in construction, we know about that. It probably goes for any trade. It probably goes for the computer programmers and the landscapers and anything else. But you know, I worked a lot in construction and you know, there's people who just hurriedly do something. You end up having to redo the whole thing. You end up wasting more time. See the diligent man, he takes his time and does a good job. Doesn't mean he's slacking. Doesn't mean he's lazy or slothful. But he's taking the time necessary to do it right. But a lot of people are just in a hurry to get done. Why? So they can take a break. So they can go home for the day. So they're just in a hurry to just get done. So they can go home for the day. And they'd often say things like, hey, it's going to look fine from my house. Have you heard that one? Look, yeah, this will look level from my house. I'm out of here. You know, and then they just quit early. And you know, children often are guilty of this. When you give children a job to do, right? And you say, hey, do this job. And they just do it really quick. Why? Because they want to go play. Instead of slowing down, taking their time, and doing it right. And whenever I've had employees, whether it was when I was running my fire alarm business or employees here at the church or when I'm giving jobs for my children to do, I often make the same speech over and over again. Listen, I'd rather that you slow down and do this right, even if it takes a long time. Don't mess it up. Don't be hasty. Don't screw it up. Just take your time and do it. We're not in a hurry. We just want it to be done right. I'd rather have you do one thing perfectly than three things sloppily that I have to go back and fix. Just do it right. Get it done. Be diligent. Don't be hasty, right? What does the Bible say? Proverbs 21 verse 4. Isn't it interesting how pride comes into the picture again in the context? Proverbs 21 verse 4, a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin, whereas what? The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. So the guy who's hasty is going to fail. The guy who's diligent is going to have plenty. And the guy who's hasty often is associated with pride as well. I don't think it's a coincidence that verse 4 precedes verse 5 here. Here are some other verses on diligence. Go to chapter 10 verse 3 which will crank through some of these verses in Proverbs on being diligent. So number 1, we said run at a sustainable pace. Number 2, we said don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Don't take shortcuts. Stay away from gimmicks. Put in the real work necessary to do a real quality job. The Bible says in Proverbs 10 verse 3, the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casted away the substance of the wicked. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Notice that the diligent here is contrasted with the slacker, the one that deals with a slack hand, the one who's slacking off. Why? Because he's hasty. Proverbs is just crank out the work so he can slack off for a while. He deals with a slack hand. Verse 5, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son. That means he that goes soul winning in the summer, amen, even when it's hot. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Look at Proverbs chapter 12 verse 24. The Bible says the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. You know what it means to be under tribute? To pay taxes. So what the Bible is saying here is that a lazy people is going to end up paying a lot of taxes. Why? Because lazy people, slothful people, they need all the freebies from the government and then we all end up paying a bunch of taxes because we become a lazy generation or a lazy society. People who work hard and make a lot of money, they're not really interested in big government. They're interested in paying less tribute. People who sit around and don't go to work, don't take care of their bodies, they want, they need the government to step in and do everything for them. So that's why the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. Also, when it says the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, this is good advice on how to become the supervisor at your job. You want to bear rule at your job, be diligent. Work hard. You want to lead in the local church. You know, you want to be a leader anywhere, you got to be diligent. You got to work hard. You got to run with patience and not take shortcuts, right? You got to do real work. Verse 27, the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. Go to chapter 13 verse 4, the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Chapter 22 verse 29, see is thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. Did you see that? Chapter 22 verse 29, see is thou a man diligent in his business? I mean a guy who takes the time necessary. He stays late. He does a good job. He does a quality job. That man will stand before kings. He won't stand before mean men. Mean there, it doesn't mean that you're not nice. Mean means basically what we would know as average, right? When we talk about the different averages, the mean, the median, and the mode. So those from math class might remember what this word means. And when it says he won't stand before mean men, it means he's not going to stand before average men or men of low degree. It's the opposite of the kings that he's going to be standing for, guys that are of low degree is what that means. So we need to be diligent, not take shortcuts, and not use gimmicks and so forth. And listen, this is exactly what's wrong today with the new evangelical movement. Okay. Now there are different styles of churches out there, aren't there? This church is not a new evangelical church. What does that mean? That means that our church is not a trendy church that's trying to be new and modern and contemporary. This is not considered a contemporary service, in case you didn't know that. This is what people call a traditional service or a fundamentalist type church or traditional church or old fashioned type church, right? But the new evangelical movement is a movement that says, hey, we need a new style of evangelism. You know, we need a new way to do it. And the idea is reach people where they're at, man, and become like them to win them. But they take that philosophy too far because, of course, there is some truth in that, amen? There's some truth in both of those things. But they take it so far that they basically just will throw out any kind of doctrinal teaching that's too heavy for them. You know, they'll throw out any kind of hard preaching against sin because that's going to offend people, right? And then they'll bring in just a very worldly carnal style of music, a worldly carnal style of service, shallow preaching that lasts 15 or 20 minutes, 45 minutes of emotional music. And basically it becomes more like an entertainment show or a concert or a nightclub or what I call them the fun center. You know, we don't come to church to come to a fun center. We come to church to worship the Lord, to learn the Bible, and to get organized to do some real work for God, not to just come and have fun and feel good and have an experience or whatever. But the new evangelical movement, instead of working hard diligently over the course of years to accomplish something real for God, they want to have instant results and instant success. Because they say, we're failing to reach people. We need a new evangelism. We need to get worldly. We need to bring in the Christian contemporary artists and whatever. Why would they even say it's not working? I've never seen it not work. I mean, I've never seen people who work hard, go soul winning, and preach the word of God fail. They're always succeeding. They're always reaching people. It's like I've heard it said, that if people aren't being saved, either the gospel's not being preached or the gospel's lost its power. Soul winning is always going to work. Preaching the word of God with fire in your belly is always going to work. It always has. It always will. So why are these people saying it doesn't work? And that we need something new? Here's what. Because they don't work. It's not that it doesn't work, it's that you don't work. You see, they're slothful, they're hasty, they want things right now, they don't understand that success takes time and diligence and hard work. So instead of waiting for something real to grow, they plant weeds. They plant tares. And you know what? Weeds grow up in a night and they perish in a night. Weeds grow very quick. Have you ever pulled all the weeds and then you go out like a week later and you have weeds up to your waist? What in the world? How is this even possible? You can almost see them growing before your eyes. And that's how these fun centers are. When I was a kid, we used to race trees at my grandparents' house. We'd all go to my grandparents' house and we would find a pine tree that was our height. Our exact height. When we were a little kid, we'd find a little tree and we'd find the one that was our height and say, okay, this is your tree. We put our name on it and we're going to race that tree to see who can grow faster. And you know, sometimes you'd be winning when you're going through those growth spurts as a kid, right? But then it was fun to come back years later and see that that tree would be 30 feet high. You'd be winning, winning, winning, and then it would just pass you up. Now it took a really long time, though, for that tree to grow. It grew very slowly, but eventually it's going to win. It's going to beat you. It's going to be huge, right? I mean, you know, we see all these trees and cactuses and things. Many of them have been growing for literally 100 years. Whereas weeds just, they just shoot right up. Remember the gourd of Jonah? It just grew up in a night and it perished in a night. And this is what weeds are like. So basically the New Evangelical Movement, what they want is for the Christian life to be a sprint instead of a marathon. And it's not. They want to have that Instagram. I mean, they want to be running 100 and 1,000. They want to have 3,000 people after the first five years. Look, Faithful Word Baptist Church didn't grow that way. You know, we grew in the first year from nine to seven in the first year of working hard diligently, going soul winning, knocking doors, preaching the Bible. The first Sunday we had nine. The one year anniversary, we'd grown to seven, okay? And the first year we averaged about 10 most of the year. The second year we averaged 20. The third year we averaged 30. The fourth year we averaged 40. The fifth year we averaged 50. You know, not exactly the stuff that successful books of how to build the church and everything, you know. I wasn't exactly getting the book deals in that fourth year when four years in our church is averaging 40. Nobody was impressed. Nobody thought, oh man, this church, you know. But here's the thing. People are noticing us now. Why? But why? Because it took a long time to get here. It was a slow process and there were many temptations along the way to do what? Shortcut. Dip the sails, censor the message, go a little soft. Don't preach people. Look, there's certain times as a pastor that you get up and preach and you know, you know when I preach this sermon, people will leave. You know that they're going to and are you going to preach the truth or are you going to water it down? So the point is that, you know, starting a church takes a long time. Seeing that church grow and succeed takes a really long time. It takes patience. You know, you got to wait 10 years to really see the fruit bountifully coming in and now we're enjoying the fruit of all that labor as a church and it's exciting and everything like that. But you know what? What about when it was just 8, 9, 10 people in my living room? That's not that exciting. But it's the diligence that keeps you going. So we don't want to be like the new evangelical gimmicks. We want to have patience. We want to do it right. And if that slows down the process, so be it because here we are 12 years later, we've had more people saved than the evangelical fun center. Okay. But it took a long time to get there. Takes a lot of work. We've got to be diligent. Stay away from it. But here's the thing. It's, you know, you get, you always get a lot of amens when you're ripping on the Neos and talking about, yeah, our church, rah, rah, rah, that fun center down the street and everybody's like, amen. But here's the thing. You know, this philosophy can even creep into our church and into churches like ours, even amongst good Christians where we can get impatient and we can get hasty and we can start cutting corners and we can start turning to gimmicks. Let me give you an example. And this is something that I've been fighting literally for almost 10 years is this idea of people who want to go, they want to go soul winning in Spanish, but they don't want to learn how to speak Spanish. And I've, I've been literally against this for almost 10 years now. I remember back in 2008, people printing out like a script, a soul winning script in Spanish and they're like, yeah, we're going to memorize this and then we can, you know, give people the gospel in Spanish, but they're not learning the language. So they're trying to take a shortcut, right? And just memorize the script. Now let me ask you, is that how we do soul winning in English? I mean, would we just go read a track to somebody and then pray with them and call it soul winning? We would never do that in English. We would never say that's a legitimate soul winning to read off a script, to read off a track and then pray with someone. No, that's that. But all of a sudden in Spanish where you use the gimmick, no, I'm against it. I don't believe that that's the right way to do it. Here's the thing, English is spoken by most people here in Arizona, okay? So here's what you do if you don't speak any other language, you give the gospel in English, okay? You give the gospel in English. And if you want to be a missionary and you only speak English, guess where you're going? A country where they speak English, right? I mean, I know it's common sense, but it makes sense, right? You go out and you go so many years and people say, well, but it's better than nothing. No, it's not better than nothing. It's not better than nothing at all and let me tell you why it's not better than nothing. Because while you waste 10 minutes at that door with your gimmick that doesn't work, there's another door down the street of a guy who speaks English that would have gotten saved if you actually went to him and preached the gospel the right way and did a thorough, effective, quality job. See, there's always another door to knock. You're never going to run out of doors to knock. So what are we going to do? Just let this Spanish speaker go to hell? You're letting the guy down at the end of the street go to hell if you want to play that game. Does everybody see what I'm saying? Because there's an English speaker all the way down at the end of the street. You didn't get there because you were too busy reciting your memorized Spanish plan that you don't even know what you're saying. You don't even know what it means. And then when they respond to you, you don't even know what they're responding. And look, I'm all for reaching the Spanish speaking community with the gospel in Phoenix. I'm for it. In fact, when I first got here 12 years ago, right away I saw the need there, that people needed to be saved and they only speak Spanish. And so I set about to start learning Spanish and learning how to give the gospel in Spanish. And over about a year and a half, oh, but there's no time. Slow down, buckaroo. And don't be hasty, be diligent. It took me about a year and a half or so to get to the point where I could effectively win someone to Lord in Spanish. And you know what? There was a time when I'd won probably more people to Lord in Spanish here in Arizona than I had in English. So I'm giving the gospel to people in Spanish all the time. I love it. Okay. But you need to learn the language, okay? I already knew a lot of Spanish going in. Number one, because I took it in school, I took it in college and everything like that. And then I studied and I learned the language. Look, you don't need to be memorizing a Spanish, so what you need to be doing is downloading Duolingo on your phone, a free app, and learn how to speak Spanish for crying out loud. Or whatever other method you want to use, the Pimsleur method or what, you know, whatever you want to use. But you've got to learn the language. Don't just be hasty. No, do a thorough, diligent job of actually learning the language and then preach the gospel in that language. And I'm not saying you have to be perfect in that language. I'm not saying you have to be an expert. But you need to learn conversational Spanish for crying out loud before you try to go soul winning in the Spanish language. That's where I stand. That's the way I'm leading this church and I don't want to see this trend. And I've been fighting it literally for nine years. It comes up from time to time. And I hit on this because of the fact that we need to make sure that our soul winning doesn't become hasty. And by the way, same thing goes for knocking on the door and just going through the plan of salvation sloppily or not taking the right time and just getting in a hurry of, oh, let's see how many people, oh, five people say, ten people say, hey, I'd rather just give one person the gospel and do it right and do a good job than to just be in a hurry to get to the next. What are you in a hurry for to get to the next door? If you're at that door, do a good job. Now I'm not saying to beat a dead horse or to take too much time, but take the necessary time. We don't want to take too much time, but we also don't want to be hasty, do we? We want to do a good job, be diligent. So stay away from gimmicks. And by the way, also, I am against using a translator for soul winning. No translator for soul winning. I don't want anything to do with a missions program that uses a translator for soul winning. I want to do missions trips to places where they speak English or I want to take a group of people who know how to speak that language. See now it gets a little quieter in here, okay? But listen, when we went down to Mexico, we made a rule, you got to speak Spanish to go on this trip. And we went down there and we spoke Spanish and we won people to the Lord. The shortcut method of, oh, I'll just hire somebody to translate. How do you even know what that guy's even saying? The stranger that you hired to translate. You don't even know what that guy's even saying. But you're in such a hurry, oh, we can get more people saved with the translator. No, no, no, do it in English. Get the people saved in English. Oh, there'll be less, hey, slow down, buddy. And do your job right. And don't be hasty, be diligent. Slow it down, do it right. And by the way, well, I don't want to go into a big thing on that, but that's where I stand on that. Number three, run your own race. So number one, we said run at a sustainable pace. Number two, we said don't take shortcuts, don't be a gimmick, right? Be diligent. And by the way, this is where these pastors who go back to the Greek, they're the biggest gimmicks of all because they don't learn how to speak Greek, do they? No, they look at a lexicon, they look at a dictionary, they know the alphabet barely in Greek, right? And they know how to look things up and look at common terms. Well, if you go back to the Greek, it's baloney because they didn't learn the language because they're hasty, they're not diligent, they're lazy, they're not diligent. I mean, good night, I've always, I always said this, I always said, hey, before you study the Bible, read the Bible. Before you, my pastor taught me in Sacramento, before you study the Bible, read it five times cover to cover. I took that, I said, that's good advice, I'm going to follow that. I read it five times cover to cover and then when I got to the fifth time, you know what I said? I said, you know what? It's ten, not five. And I read it five more times before I started studying the Bible. You know why? I read the forest for the trees so I could get the big picture, so I could get the overview, right? But those that are hasty, they're coming out with radical new doctrines, they've read the Bible two times cover to cover and they're rolling out all these radical new teachings and stuff. But, you know, the point is that these guys who are going back to the Greek, how about this? How about this? Read the Greek New Testament five times before going back to the Greek. They'd never go back, none of them would ever go back to the Greek, ever. And guess what? We shouldn't ever go back to the Greek as preachers. You know what? Because if I get up here and I'm preaching and I go back to the Greek, you know what I'm basically saying? Your Bible's not enough. English language isn't enough. I'm destroying people's faith in the word of God if I were to do that. And it's a lie anyway because guess what the Greek says? The same thing as the English? It says the exact same thing. So you don't need that. All it is is just to puff themselves up. Well, if you go back to the Greek, what this really means, and then people are like, well, I got to show up to church or I'm not going to know what it really means. No, guess how you're going to know what it really means? You and the King James and the Holy Spirit, that's what it really means. You don't need any man to teach you the Bible. It's all right there through the Holy Spirit. So number one is run at a sustainable pace. Number two, don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Number three, run your own race. Run your own race. Don't go by that. What I mean is don't try to push other people to run at your same pace. And don't try to follow other people's pace if it's not right for you. Now go if you would to 2 Corinthians Chapter 10, this is an important verse, 2 Corinthians Chapter 10. Run your own race. Don't try to push other people to keep up with you if it's not the right pace for them. And don't try to keep up with others that are going too fast for you. Run your own race. See, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verse 12, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that command themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Do you see that? If we compare ourselves amongst ourselves and if we measure ourselves by other people, we are not wise. And notice that the people who are comparing themselves with other people, what's the real agenda? Look halfway through the verse. They command themselves. You know what it means to command yourself? It means to tell how great you are. See, people like to compare themselves to other people in order to command themselves. So again, all three points so far in the sermon have dealt with pride. Pride. Okay. See, if we compare ourselves to Jesus, we're not going to be commending ourselves at all. When we start comparing ourselves to other people, we can start feeling pretty good sometimes, right? Commending ourselves by comparing ourselves amongst ourselves and measuring ourselves by ourselves. Now go through with the Genesis Chapter 33. Genesis Chapter 33. First of all, you got to run at your own pace. Run your own race. Run at a pace that's sustainable for you. Don't let other people push you to do things that you're not comfortable doing. And don't push other people too hard either. You know, and again, this is a fine line because we obviously want to motivate each other, right? We obviously want to encourage each other and exhort one another. But do we want to be responsible for somebody crashing and burning? No. I mean, think about it. If I get out there and I'm running the marathon, right? And let's say I'm pretty well trained and I've done this 10 times before and I'm flying, right? I mean, should I just grab the novice? It's his first time. Come on, man. Run with me, man. Stay with me. You're slacking. Come on. Are you in it to win it or what, man? Stay with me. It's his first time. You know, I'm trying to break three hours, right? I'm trying to run a sub three-hour marathon, right? This guy is his first time. He needs to shoot for four and a half hours or five hours. You know, just finish the thing. You see what I'm saying? What am I going to do? And by the way, I'd be that four and a half hour guy, just so you know, okay? But anyway, you know, let's say I'm doing that and I'm pushing for the sub three-hour pace and I grab that new guy and say, come on, keep up with me, man. I'm going to motivate you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to make you do better than you ever thought you could have done. You know what? No, I'm not. I'm going to ruin his race. You can't run an hour faster than you're trained for. No one can do that without destroying their body, destroying the race. They won't even finish. You're not helping them. You're hurting them at that point. You see what I'm saying? You need to be careful that we don't try to push people to run at our own crash and burn pace. First of all, that crash and burn pace, you might not even be able to sustain it. Let alone when you're pushing other people to try to sustain it, it's wrong. Don't compare yourselves amongst yourselves. Run your own race. Look what Genesis 33 verse 12 says. He said, let us take our journey and let us go and I will go before thee. And he said unto him, my lord, know it that the children are tender and the flocks and herds with young are with me. And if man should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant and I will lead on softly according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure until I come unto my lord unto seer. Jacob's saying, look, I'm not going to keep up with your crash and burn pace Esau. I've got pregnant animals here. I've got little children. I've got people in all different situations and I'm going to go as fast as they can endure and not any faster. I'm going to lead on softly. I don't want to overdrive them or they're all going to perish. And you know what? There are churches where the pastor overdrives them. There are ministry leaders that overdrive them. Soul winning Christians could overdrive the people around them and lead them to a crash and burn instead of like Jacob leading on softly. And you know what? Yeah, lead people, prod people, motivate people, but not more than they can endure. You know, David's hands were taught to war by the lord and his fingers were taught to fight, but in the next verse he said, thy gentleness has made me great. You know, God doesn't tempt us above what we're able, so we need to make sure that we don't push other people above what they're able. We don't need to compare ourselves amongst ourselves. Go if you would to the book of Galatians in the New Testament, Galatians. And listen, that's why when we do our soul winning trips up to the Indian reservations, we don't push people too hard. We don't push it too hard. Why? Because we want people to have a good time so that they'll want to come again, number one. We want them to enjoy it so that they'll want to come back and we don't want them to burn out. We want them to be able to renew their strength. I mean, you have to understand, people are going up there to go soul winning on their day off. This is their day off, right? This is their personal time, that they're devoting to the Lord to go on one of these trips. Now, look, obviously if, you know, if we're going up there, we're buying a hotel, we're buying gas, we're buying food, we're not going to go up there and fool around and do an hour and a half of soul winning or something. Okay. But here's the limit that we put on it when we go on these day trips up to the Indian reservations is five hours a day of soul winning. Why? Because that's a sustainable amount of soul winning where we can enjoy and have a good time and still get a serious amount of work done. I mean, if you go soul winning for five hours, that's a serious amount of work. So we'll go for two hours in the morning and then we'll take a long leisurely lunch and enjoy and fellowship and relax and recharge. Then we'll spend about three hours in the afternoon. Then we have an enjoyable dinner and we sit back, we enjoy, we fellowship and always on these industries, we build in some recreation. We build in not only meals, but we'll build in, hey, we're going to go look at these Indian ruins or we're going to go look at Horseshoe Bend or we're going to go see some nature or we're going to go see a waterfall or whatever. We're going to go look at the Grand Canyon, whatever. Why? Because of the fact that we don't want to overdrive people and just be a slave driver and you know, of course the holier than thou's might say, hey, we need to skip this recreation. People are dying going to hell. We can't sit down and eat this food. But you know what's funny is that these people, they could go do that whenever they want. Nobody's stopping them from going up there and doing a 12 hour day of soul winning. But you know what? I'm not going to do it. And you know what? I've been soul winning for 19 years and I've won a ton of people to the Lord and you know what? I've never done a 12 hour day of soul winning to this day. Is that all right? Is that okay? Or am I a bad Christian? Am I a bad soul winner? Am I a bad? I mean, I should step down as pastor because I'm so lame that I limit myself to five hours a day of soul winning max because after five hours I'm toast. Why? Because soul is not just physical, it's mental and it's not just mental, it's spiritual. I feel like virtue has gone out of me. Now look, if you want to go solely for eight hour days, 10 hour days, 11, I don't want to stop you. I want you to do it. But what I fear is that the person who goes out for the eight, 10, 11 hour day, they don't just go do that quietly to serve the Lord. They want to tell her, well, I'm going for eight hours. I'm going for 10 hours. I'm going for 12. I don't know about. What? You don't care about souls? You don't love people? That's when it becomes a problem. You can go soul winning for as long as you want until you start demanding that the people around you do the same thing. It's ridiculous. And you know what? If somebody comes on one of these Indian trips and we're scheduled to do five hours of soul winning and after three hours they say, hey, I'm burned out. You know what I'd say? No problem. No problem. Let's take you over to the, you know, let's sit you down, chill out, you know, and some people have said, hey, you know, I, I've got physical problems. I'm ill. I, I don't think I can go the whole day. And we say, just go as much as you can go. Just go as much as you go. Take a break whenever you need to. Hello. Right? I mean, we don't want to overdrive people, be a slave driving. People are volunteering. And you know what? This culture is out there. There were people like this at Howells Anderson that just, if you're not putting in a 16 hour day on that bus route, you're not right with God and all this junk. And you know what? How many crash and burns have come out of that Howells Anderson? A lot. Now, look, there were a lot of good things about Howells Anderson. I'm not saying it was all bad. There was a lot of good things. But there was a lot of this grandstanding pride, vainglory of comparing yourself amongst yourself and pushing people too hard and just not caring whose life you destroy just so that we get the work done. Well, look, I want to get the work done, but I don't want to destroy people's lives. I don't want to burn people out. Hey, I want to go on a missions trip or a, a Indian reservation trip or a soloing expedition and I want to get some serious work done and I want to get a lot of people saved, but I want people to come home from that trip saying, let's do it again. Let's do it. Why? Because you don't do much in one trip. I don't care how good it was. You don't do, you do much in a decade. How you really get a lot done for the Lord is in 20 missions trips. I'd rather do half as much 20 times than to just leave it all out there on the field one time and then it's like never doing that again. It doesn't make any sense, people. It doesn't make sense. Even when we do the nationwide soul winnings, when we have a big soul winning marathon in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Portland, Toronto, Paul, you've been there for all of them, right? Hey, how long do we go soul winning, Paul? About four and a half hours. We go from 10.30 to 12.30 in the morning. Then we have an hour of lunch and then we go soul winning from 2.30 and wrap it up by 5. We do four and a half hours of, well, how is that a marathon? Okay, let's, why don't you go run a marathon and then tell me how long it takes. You know how long it's going to take you to run a marathon? If you're a beginner, four and a half hours. So I think four and a half hours is a soul winning marathon, amen? It's not called a soul winning ultra marathon. It's not called a soul winning 24 hour race. Those exist too. This isn't the Sri Chinmoy self transcendent 3100 mile ultra marathon. It's a marathon. It takes four and a half hours, right? So we need to make sure that we don't overdrive people and grandstand and be prideful and arrogant talking down to people because I love souls, I'm doing more. You know what? I'm for you going six, seven, eight hours. Shut up about it and do it. And then your reward will be great in heaven. And when you fast, shut up about it. And when you pray, go in the closet and shut the door and pray to your father which is in secret and great will be your reward in heaven. Well I pray three hours a day and so should you. I've heard it. I've heard that come out of somebody's mouth who's in federal prison right now for being a pedophile. He's got about six more years to go and he bragged about praying for three hours a day. Well he's got plenty of prayer time now. When he's not out on his exercise period, he's got plenty of time to pray. You know, that's garbage. If you pray, you pray to your father in secret. If you fast, you fast in secret. You give alms, you give alms in secret. Now obviously church attendance and soul winning are not done in secret. But you know what? Just show up, do the work, be humble and run your own race. Run your own race, right? Don't feel like you have to keep up with some breakneck speed and don't force other people to keep up with you when you're going faster. Run your own race. And again, I'm not trying to slow people down. I'm trying to basically make sure that people stay humble and run with patience the race that is set before them. This is what the Bible teaches. Look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 26. The Bible says, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. You see, we are to provoke one another to love and to good works, but we don't want to be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another and envying one another. See, that's the balance there. Go to 1 Thessalonians 2 and I'll give you the last point. Number four, run for the right reason. Run for the right reason. So we said number one, run at a sustainable pace. Number two, don't take shortcuts, be diligent. We said number three, run your own race. And number four, run for the right reason. By the way, on the subject, while you're turning to 1 Thessalonians 2, on the subject of running your own race, I remember one time about eight years ago, we had an elderly man in our church who got saved later in life. This elderly man came to church on a Wednesday night and he was excited and he said to one of our church members, he said, you know what, he said, I'm excited because I just finished my 15th time through reading the Bible because I've been saved for 15 years and I read the Bible once a year for the last 15 years and I just finished my 15th time through cover to cover. And you know what, somebody, the person that he told that to said, well that's not enough. Once a year, that's not, you should be reading it two, three times a year. But you know what's funny is that the person who said that had not even come close to reading it 15 times. Are you listening? They didn't even come close to reading it 15 times and was out of church less than a year later, right? Here's a guy who's consistently, slowly but surely, plugging away at the race, right? He's running his four and a half hour marathon, right? He's going to make it to the finish line and then somebody who's at mile two, come on buddy, it's the race. You're going to take off the parking brake or what? You're going to try to keep up or what? It's stupid, isn't it? You know what, that person should be praying. Hey, good job man. Good job. Keep it up. Now look, I do believe if you're training to be a pastor, once a year is not enough. If you're training to be a pastor, come on. But for average Joe church member, if they're reading the Bible once cover to cover every year, great. Amen. Praise God. I wish every church member would read the Bible once a year, cover to cover. It's great. I just wish every church member would just get out soul winning every week. If it's for an hour, if it's for two hours, just to get out every week is a victory. Just get out every week. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with being a silent partner. And you know what? You can be a silent partner for six months, a year. You can be a silent partner for the rest of your life in this church. And no one should ever talk down to anyone like, when are you going to be a talker? People want to be talkers when they're ready. And I've never had to push anyone to talk. I've never even given anyone even the slightest prod. Because you know what? Naturally, people who are a silent partner will eventually start talking. Eventually you're going to get bored of just letting someone else, hey, let me get the next door. There's no reason to push anyone to that. Brother Dave Berzins, who's a pastor now, and he's a great soul winner, hey, he was a silent partner for like three months. Every week for three months. So what? He was out soul winning for 20-some hours before he started talking. And you know what? I don't care if you are a silent partner for the next five years. And you know what? You're still part of the team. And that's why when we come back from soul winning, it shouldn't be like, well, I got this many saved, and he got this many. It should just be like, we got this many. The team. It's even better if the whole group of 20 people or whatever can even get a group total and come to church and say, here's the total. Because you know, when we count up the soul winning at church, it's not for grandstanding and vainglory. It's just to track our progress. That's the only reason to track the progress. That's why it's better if we can lump it all in so that it's not about individuals, right? Now look, obviously there are going to be individuals, and we count it off. But it's even better when we can just say as a team. And I'm constantly telling people, I'll say, hey, we got three people saved. And then my silent partner will be like, well, no, you did. I'll say, no, we did. We did. You're part of the team when you're a silent partner. Look, if we have two talkers and two silent partners, we're knocking twice as many doors if just the two talkers showed up. We get half as much done. Silent partners are part of the team. That's the stage that they're at. That stage, they're running. Look, if you're a silent partner, you're in the race. You've got a number pinned to you. You've got your electronic tracking chip and your ankle bracelet. And you are part of the race. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. But run your own race. Number four, run for the right reason. Run for the right reason. James, did I have you turn? Where did I have you turn? First Thessalonians 2, verse 6 says, nor of men sought we glory. That's the wrong reason, desiring vainglory. Paul said, nor of men sought we glory. We didn't seek glory for men. Neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to impart it unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Here's what Paul says. We worked night and day, but we were gentle with you. We weren't a burden to you. We weren't a pain in the neck to you. Why? Because we loved you. We cherished you. You were dear unto us. We weren't just trying to use you to do a bunch of work. No, no, no. We care about you. That's what Paul's saying. So look, this isn't a lazy man. He worked night and day. But was he a burden to the people around him? No. Was he driving them, over driving them, pushing them? No. He was gentle among them as a nurse cherishth her children. Go to 1st, why? Because he was doing it for the right reason. Go to 1st Corinthians chapter 9. Paul was doing it for the right reason. He wanted the work of the Lord to be done, but he didn't just care about the work. He also loved the worker. Right? Why? Because he had his heart right before the Lord. He wasn't just trying to get praise of man and glory for himself, and the people under him are just pawns. That's how the world leads. That's how a wicked businessman would lead. That's how wicked politicians would lead. That's how the military might lead. But you know what? This is church. We want to lead people to do work for God, but we also love and care about the worker. And we want them to be here five years from now, ten years from now, safe and sound. We don't want to just run people into the ground and then discard them when we're done with them. 1st Corinthians 9, 22, to the weak, became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some, and this I do to impress people. Is that what he said? And this I do so I can outdo my neighbor. No, he said this I do for the gospel's sake. That's the right reason. The wrong reason is the glory of man. The right reason is for the gospel and for the love of people and for the love of Christ, that I may be a partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run and erase run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. But let me tell you something. If you're doing it for the praise of men, you're doing it for a corruptible crown also. Because you have your reward and it's going to fade away. If you're doing it for the right reason, if you're doing it for the gospel, if you're doing it before the Father in heaven, then you'll get that incorruptible crown. Verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Go if you would to James chapter 5. James chapter 5, we'll wrap up with this, James chapter 5. What's the title of the sermon? Run with patience. Run with patience. Number one, run at a sustainable pace for you. Number two, don't take shortcuts. Don't use gimmicks. Be diligent. Number three, run your own race. Run your own race. And that goes for not demanding others to run at your pace and not letting others demand that you run at their pace, but that you run your own race. The race that is set before you, look unto Jesus, compare yourself to Jesus, measure yourself by Jesus, and you know what that's going to do, that's going to humble you. Comparing yourselves amongst yourselves is going to lift you up with pride. And fourthly, we said run for the right reason. Make sure that you're in the race for the right reason. You know, a lot of people when they run, and I'm not a super-duper runner or anything, but I run just as a hobby. You know, I'm an amateur runner. But I do a lot of running, and I like to read a lot of books about running just to motivate me to get out running, because you know, I think the hardest part about running is to stay motivated. It's the hardest part. Because there are so many times when you're just asking yourself, why am I doing this? Nobody's making me do this. My wife's not going to care. If I cut this run short and just walk into the house and demand some awesome meal, she's, you know what, my wife would like that more than me finishing this run. She doesn't care. If I tell her, honey, I ran next to my wife, she's not impressed, she doesn't care. So if I'm running to impress her, it's not working. The point is that when you're running, sometimes you ask yourself these questions, why am I here? Why am I doing this? Because you want to stop. And I'm just saying to myself, my wife doesn't care. I'm going to come home, she's going to have a cold glass of lemonade, she's going to have some meal ready, my kids aren't going to care, my wife's not going to care. Nobody cares. And then I'm thinking to myself, am I running to get in good shape? I'm in good enough shape. I mean, you know, how good of a shape do I need to be in? I mean, it's okay. Why not just stop? And then I start thinking, I have other more important things to be doing right now. I have all this work piled up that I need to do. Why am I out here? Right? And then just all the rest. So here's the hardest part about running consistently is to be motivated. And other people, you know, they get deep into a race or something, and they just, why am I here? Why am I doing this? Why does it matter? And they, it's hard to stay motivated, right, a reason to run. So for me, you know, I try to read books about it and to try to come up with different goals and I want to reach this goal, I want to run in this race. Just even if I'm never going to hit those goals, it's just something to motivate me because it's hard to stay motivated, right? Well, here's the thing. It's the same way in the Christian life. You got to stay motivated, right? You got to stay motivated. So here's the thing. If you're running the Christian race for the wrong reason, you're going to quit. If my reason was, you know, I'm going to impress my wife, I'm coming home. I'm not going to finish. She doesn't care. Okay. So the thing is, guess what? If you're running to impress the people around you, they don't care either. They feel about it like my wife feels about running. They're not impressed and they don't care. You know, you've got to be looking unto Jesus, right? And look, here are some good reasons to run the Christian race because you love lost souls and want them to get to heaven. You want them to be saved. That's a good reason. Or how about this? You love Christ and you know He wants you to do it, so you're doing it for Him. You're doing it for Him. That's why so many of these runners, they always have like a charity that they're running for. Have you ever noticed that? Why? Because they're trying to use that to stay motivated like, well, I'm doing it for a cause. I'm doing it for a good cause. You know, they're running for the foundation for some kind of a disease or illness and they're pulling out a picture out of their wallet of some eight-year-old child who's suffering from that disease and they're going to help, you know, get the funding to get the prosthetics or the medicine or, you know what I mean? And that's, why? Because it's hard to stay motivated. Well, in the Christian life, you've got to know why you're doing what you're doing. And if you're doing it for Jesus Christ, that's a great reason. And if you're doing it because you love lost people and want them to get to heaven, that's a good reason. If you're doing it because you don't want God to punish you and chastise you, that's a good reason. And if you're doing it because when He shows up, you don't want to be ashamed before Him at His coming and you want to earn rewards and rule and reign with Him, that's a good reason. That's four great reasons. If you're doing it because you think you're earning your way to heaven, that's a real bad reason. You're going to hell when you die. That's right. If you're doing it to impress other people, that's a bad reason. If you're doing it because you say, hey, I'm doing it for the money, I want to get that job of pastoring. You know, there are pastors who make a million dollars a year. There are pastors who, and then they write the books, the TD Jakes and the Jola, they teach lies for filthy lucre's sake. Okay. Those are bad reasons, right? But vainglory, envying one another, provoking one another, or emulations, where you're trying to emulate someone else and be like them, not because you love the Lord, not because you love the lost, but because you're just trying to envy someone else's status or position, I want to be them. You know, be yourself. And so we need to make sure we're running for the right reason. Here's the conclusion, James 5-7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and had long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold the judge standeth before the door. Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience, behold, we count them happy, which endure. You've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Listen to me. It is not a coincidence that verse 7 is about what? What's the first two words there? Be patient. What are the first two words of verse 8? Be patient. Okay, what's verse 10 about? Look at the last two words, patience. Look at the last verse, 11. We count them happy, which endure. You've heard of the patience of Job. We've seen the end. So verse 7, 8, 10, and 11 are saying, be patient, be patient, be patient, endure, endure, make it to the end, make it to the finish line, get to the end. And then right in the middle, verse number 9 says what? Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. You know what that tells me? That the people who are struggling to be patient, the people who are failing to follow this advice to be patient, they're the same ones who are grudging one against another, envying one another, provoking one another. You see what I'm saying? Why? Because prideful people, where envying and strife is, there's confusion in every evil work. And what we see is that constantly, pride is the opposite of patience in all these scriptures. And so that's why these prideful people, they can't get along because it says only by pride cometh contention. Only by pride cometh contention. That's why he's saying, be patient, be patient, be patient. And by the way, grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Be patient, be patient, be patient, be patient. Why? Because it's the same problem. It's the same problem when you're prideful and vainglorious, right? And you're not getting along, and you're hurting people, and they're hurting you. You need to just run your own race and run it with patience and start getting motivated by the right things and check around. And look, don't just be sitting there thinking about who else this applies to. Take this and apply it to yourself, because I think every single one of us could take something from this morning. Even if all four points don't apply to you, I guarantee you one of these points applies to all of us. Are we doing things for the right reason? Are we running our own race? Are we at a sustainable pace? And you know, some of you need to speed up. You're not at a sustainable pace. You're walking. You're not even running the race, right? Some of you need to speed up, but some of you need to slow down and need to realize, find that sweet spot. Find that sustainable pace, right? And it doesn't have to be the same as your neighbor. Find your sustainable pace of Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, and church. Something that you can maintain for years, because you'll get more done for God by staying in the race. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the race that you've set before us, Lord. Our life really has meaning, Lord. You hear about so many people committing suicide and people that are depressed and they have no point for existence, Lord. And these people who running is their purpose, Lord, they end up getting depressed because they realize that running is vain and meaningless. But Lord, the race that we're running spiritually is not vain and meaningless. We're not doing it for a corruptible crown. It's an incorruptible crown. And Lord, I pray that you would help us all to run with patience and to win the race, to cross the finish line, Lord, and help us to do it for your honor and glory and for the salvation of the lost souls that surround us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. But number two, don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. So number one, run at a sustainable pace. But number two, don't take shortcuts. Be diligent. Now the Bible talks a lot about being diligent and being diligent is contrasted with a few things. Go back if you went to Proverbs. We're going to look at several verses from Proverbs. Go back to Proverbs 21. One of the things that being diligent is contrasted with is being hasty. Being hasty, right? And we've all heard the saying, haste makes waste. Why? Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right the first time. Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right the first time. You do something hastily, you end up having to redo it and you end up wasting more time. Those of us who've worked in construction, we know about that. It probably goes for any trade. It probably goes for the computer programmers and the landscapers, anything else. But you know, I worked a lot in construction and you know, there's people who just hurriedly do something. You end up having to redo the whole thing, you end up wasting more time. See the diligent man, he takes his time and does a good job. Doesn't mean he's slacking, doesn't mean he's lazy or slothful, but he's taking the time necessary to do it right. But a lot of people are just in a hurry to get done. Why? So they can take a break. So they can go home for the day. So they're just in a hurry to just get done. So they can go home for the day and they'd often say things like, hey, it's going to look fine from my house. Have you heard that one? Look, yeah, this will look level from my house. I'm out of here. You know, and then they just quit early. And you know, children often are guilty of this. When you give children a job to do, right? And you say, hey, do this job. And they just do it really quick. Why? Because they want to go play. Instead of slowing down, taking their time and doing it right. My kids were all excited about this and they showed up ready to compete and they wanted to win this thing. And there were about 120 children participating in this race. And my kids actually practiced and trained for this. I mean, you know, they were running around the block. They would run to a certain mailbox down the street and back X amount of times. And you know, they were serious about wanting to do a good job. So they actually put in a training. Well, a lot of the kids didn't put in any training. They just went to the PE once a week and they, you know, they showed up for the event because everybody showed up for it. So I remember when the event started, you know, some of the kids just took off running really fast. They're just flying. And you know what? Those are the kids who hadn't trained because they didn't know anything about it. They didn't even understand the distance. They didn't even know what it means to run three miles. They'd never experienced running three miles. They didn't understand, hey, it's 94 degrees Fahrenheit and you have three miles to go and you're just sprinting off the starting line. And you know what? They were crashing and burning literally two minutes later. Three minutes later. I mean, the thing has barely even started. And they're walking. You know, and my kids weren't in that group because they knew what it meant to run three miles. They practiced. They'd run three miles in the training to see, you know, what they were capable of. But let me tell you something. It's pretty tempting when you're at that starting line and you see those people just firing out of the gate. You know, what you want to do is you want to show them and you want to get in front of them and you want to compete with them and you want to run with them. But it takes great discipline to say, no, no, I know what I'm capable of and I'm going to run the race that is set before me with patience and I'm going to pick these people off later. I'm going to reel them in later if I can, you know, and if not, whatever. But all I know is what I'm capable of. Man, the part of the chapter I want to focus on is there at the very beginning where the Bible reads, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The title of my sermon this morning is run with patience, run with patience. Not only do I want you to see that phrase in verse one, but also notice verse two uses the word endured. And when we think of endurance, that could often lead us to think of running, wouldn't it, right? Running with patience, a long distance running, an endurance event. You see the Christian life is run with patience. What does it mean to be patient? It means you're not in a hurry. It means that you're taking the time necessary to do things right. You're not too hasty in spirit, but you are diligent and patiently doing what you are supposed to be doing. So I have several points this morning. First of all, number one, the point is run at a sustainable pace. You've got to run at a sustainable pace. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. You see, we as Christians, we want to make it all the way to the finish line. It's better to be a finisher than a starter. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And he says the opposite of being patient in spirit is being proud in spirit. Now what is pride? Pride is having too high of a view of yourself. And having a low and in order to run an effective race, you have to know your limitations and what you're capable. If you don't pace yourself properly, you'll get halfway through the race and just run out of steam. And then where are you now? Not only are you not winning, not only are you not doing well, you're not even finishing. You're a crash and burn. You have to quit. And so we need to be careful that we don't look at what other people are doing and start running at a pace that's not sustainable for us. We need to know our limitations. Now I'm not saying that the Christian life should just be a tiptoe through the tulips. You know, it is a race. We ought to be running and we ought to do our best. You know, we want to leave it all out there on the field, but we also want to make it all the way to the end. So we need to learn what we're capable of, what we can handle, and yes, push yourself to the limit, but don't push yourself beyond the limit. So I want to be careful when I preach this. I don't want to slow people down, but at the same time, people who need to be slowed down, they do need to slow down when they hear this kind of preaching, because I'd rather see people continue in the Christian life for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, than to be the Roman candle Christian, where it's just bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, and then it's just gone. Where are they? Man, that guy was so fired up, that guy was killing it, that guy was doing so much work for God for 4 months, until he was gone and we never saw him again. You know, I'd rather, look, I've been soul winning now for 19 years, consistently for 19 years. That's life. You know, I want you to be here 19 years from now. I want to be here 19 more years from now. I want to run this race for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. So I've got to run at a sustainable pace. I've got to know my limitations. You've got to know your limitations. Don't be proud. Be patient. No view of other people often, and thinking that you're better than other people, right? If we were to say someone was very prideful, it means they're lifted up, they're boasting and think that they're great, and maybe even putting other people down. Well, what would lead someone to run the race too quickly? Sometimes it could be pride, thinking that they're better than everyone around them, or hey, everybody look at me and wanting to show off or something like that. We need to be patient and run with patience the race that is set before us. Now when I say run at a sustainable pace, we have to realize this is going to be different for everyone, especially because we have people in our church that are babes in Christ that are brand new believers. They're not going to be running the race as quickly as someone who's been saved for 10 years, or 15 years, or 20 years. So different people are at different stages of growth, or different stages in the training you could say, and so they're going to be running at different speeds. So it's not about trying to match the performance of someone else, it's about running at a pace that is sustainable for you. Now I don't want to slow anybody down this morning. I mean if you are just running the Christian life, and you're going full speed ahead, you're doing a ton of work for the Lord, you know, if you can sustain that, then keep on going. But you got to know yourself, and you got to know your limitations, and run at a sustainable pace for you. This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make in running is they run too fast and then they can't finish the course. I would much rather run a little slower and actually finish the course. You know one time I took my kids to a running thing because they were part of a home school PE group, and they put on an event for the kids. It was a 5 kilometer race, so it's 3.1 miles.