Running to Godliness

1
Running to Godliness

• Hide and Seek
• We have a race to run for God
• Sometimes things stand between us and our goal
• We must do everything we can to finish

2
The Reason We Run

• We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses
• Who are they?
• Picture a contest
• Not so much that they are watching us
• They have passed the torch on to us
• Tips

3
1 Lighten the Load

• Hinders
• Clothing
• Sin
• Prov 418-19, The path of the righteous is like
  the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter
  till the full light of day. But the way of the
  wicked is like deep darkness they do not know
  what makes them stumble.
• What are things that can trip us up?

4
Wrong Friends

• High School
• Trouble
• Build you up
• Be careful when you pick your friends
• Prov 2224-25, Do not make friends with a
  hot-tempered man, do not associate with one
  easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get
  yourself ensnared.

5
Wrong Influences

• TV
• Internet
• Music
• Read
• Matt 186-7, But if anyone causes one of these
  little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
  better for him to have a large millstone hung
  around his neck and to be drowned in the depths
  of the sea. Woe to the world because of the
  things that cause people to sin! Such things must
  come, but woe to the man through whom they come!

6
Bad Decisions

• Drugs or alcohol
• Spend our time
• Not spending time with the Lord study or prayer
• Bad decisions can hinder our ability to run the
  way God wants us to.
• Eph 515-16, Be very careful, then, how you
  live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most
  of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

7
2 Dont Stop Running

• Run with perseverance
• Marathon not a sprint
• 1 Cor 924-26, 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. Everyone
  who competes in the games goes into strict
  training. They do it to get a crown that will not
  last but we do it to get a crown that will last
  forever. Therefore I do not run like a man
  running aimlessly
• Run like you have to win!
• When you run toward God like this, its hard for
  sin to catch up to you.

8
3 Trust in Jesus

• Run the race marked out for you.
• Jesus has it mapped out.
• Talents? Gifts?
• Read, pray, listen to other Christians
• Acts 1923, About that time there arose a great
  disturbance about the Way.
• Trust that God will show you, as you seek Him and
  follow His lead

9
4 Focus on the Goal

• Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
  of our faith
• Why?
• Look at Jesus
• Focused on the cross and he spent his entire life
  running there!
• Focus on the goal!
• Focus on what God has in store for us and less on
  ourselves, we will be more likely to finish the
  race!
• Others, sin, problems
• Focus on Him and His mighty power and trust that
  He will bring us safely home!