Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Karma Church podcast.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: So, if you've got your Bibles, we are in Philippians today, Philippians 3, starting at verse 12, Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. So why don't we stand together as we read God's word?
So Paul has just been talking in the earlier passage about knowing the power of God's resurrection. And he goes on in verse 12 to say this. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if anyone thinks otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join me in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to their example you have in us.
Amen. Do be seated.
On Tuesday morning, the 8th of July this year, I woke up at about 2 o' clock in the morning with chest pains.
I realized it wasn't indigestion, it was higher than that, it was chest pains.
And I decided it was nothing to worry about. I turned over and tried to go back to sleep.
A health and safety warning at this point, guys, if you get chest pains and you wake up, don't roll over and go back to sleep.
I found out the hard way in the morning when I shared this with my wife. With Ro, I was, in no uncertain terms told that if you get chest pains, you get it sorted out. I went to the gp, who sent me straight to Accident and Emergency. I had a very happy time in Accident and Emergency for three or four hours.
I have to say, they were brilliant, by the way.
I know that our NHS gets a bad press sometimes, but I'm so grateful for the doctors and nurses that care for us that I could walk in and get seen to straight away.
They were remarkable. They were helpful, they were encouraging, they were even humorous. And it should be no surprise that our NHS is that good, because actually it came from Christian foundations. I don't know if you know that, but when the NHS was formed, it was formed from a variety of different hospitals and trusts, many of whom, possibly most of whom, had been started by Christian philanthropists, Christian doctors and nurses. So I was very grateful. And so it was at the end of about four hours, we did eventually identify what the Problem was, a couple of days earlier I'd been up in Manchester, I'd been lecturing on church history and I stayed at a hotel there where the air conditioning had broken down.
In fact, the air conditioning had been broken down for most of the week. They were a bit naughty and not telling their clients that, you know, there was no aircon when you arrived. I'll spare their blushes. I won't say who they were, but if they're going to hire a comedian from Birmingham to tell you that their beds are super comfortable, they really should sort out the air conditioning as well. It was a very hot night. It was a really hot night. In typical hotel windows, you could only open it a little way. So I thought, how am I going to sleep? I'm not going to sleep, I'm lecturing tomorrow, or what am I going to do?
So I decided I would do some exercises. I did some press ups and some pull ups and it worked pretty well. It did help me to sleep. But what I hadn't realized is that I'd kind of taken the press ups a little bit too far and I'd managed to stretch the muscles in my rib cage, hence the pain.
So at that point, my youngest son, Josh, having heard the news, texted me to say, dad, this is exactly why I don't exercise.
I mean, it's a humorous story, but at that point in time, when I was sitting in A and E, it wasn't so humorous.
I was sitting there thinking, you know, is this something serious?
You know, rather morbidly thinking, is this the end? Is this the end? You know, is it really serious?
I'm 70 years old now. I know I don't look 70 years old.
I know I don't look.
That was good.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: That was good.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: That was a better response than the first service. You get the points.
No prizes, you get the points.
So, yeah, I mean, it was a sobering thing for me.
I'm glad it was kind of a happy outcome. But I think for all of us, it kind of is sobering, isn't it, to face that day, to think about that day.
We may not want to talk about death, we may not want to think about death. Death may come slow, death may come suddenly, but it will come.
And it's something perhaps that we don't major on. There was a group of French monks in the 1600s who did centre on this, because their greeting to each other when they woke in the morning was the Latin phrase memento mori, which basically means, remember you're going to die.
Can you Imagine that as we arrive on a Sunday morning. Tim.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Hi.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: How are you doing today, mate?
[00:05:57] Speaker C: Remember, you're going to die.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: I don't think we will follow that particular course of action that the French monks did. But Paul here in the passage we've read, is aware of his frailty.
He's aware of his humanity.
He is writing from prison.
It's near the end of his life. He's in Rome by now.
And he's aware that he may not even get out of prison. He doesn't know if he has a future.
He doesn't know if he's going to die, whether he has a future or not. He's writing to friends. He's writing to his friends in Philippi. It's Paul and Silas that built that church. They started that church. They saw a business lady called Lydia saved. She opened up her house and that's where the first church was. The church may still be in Lydia's house as Paul is writing. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure Lydia would be there leading that church. I'm pretty sure that the. The prison jailer, the Philippian jailer will also be there because his whole house got saved. If you know the story, we actually read it earlier in the summer in Acts 16, the whole house got saved. So the Philippine jailer would have been there in the church as well, with his family and the girl that was saved on the streets, the one that was full of demons and Paul cast them out, she'd have been there too. So he knows who he's writing to.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: He.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: He's writing to his friends, he's writing to people he led to Christ.
So it's a very personal letter, Philippians. It's like a father writing to his children. He knows who he's writing to.
What he doesn't know is what's going to happen to him, whether he will get out of jail or whether he will stay where he is. We know with the benefit of history, that he doesn't get out.
But ultimately he's beheaded somewhere around A.D. 64 under Emperor Nero. As a Roman citizen, Paul would have been beheaded, killed for his faith. And he's writing this letter just a few years before. Most theologians think it's probably around A.D. 61, 62, so probably two, three years. That's all he's got, two, three years. So he's writing to his family, to his friends with a passion.
And in, earlier in the same letter, we have some very famous words which really is showing his heart in all of this, in Philippians 1:21. It says this. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I have to say that wasn't the quote I was quoting in a.
I wasn't super Christian at that point, saying, God take me. No, I wasn't. But anyway, Paul is. He knows the Holy Spirit so well. He loves Jesus so much. He goes on to say here, if I'm to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor, yet which I shall choose. I can't tell. I'm hard pressed about the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is better, but to remain in the flesh is necessary on. On your account. So he's really wanting to go to be with Jesus. He's so passionate about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and what glory is. I love this picture on the back, by the way. I understand these are AI pictures. There's somebody that's really clever in our office that does all this sort of thing and basically they've read my notes because you can see there, we're going on to eternity. We're going through the doors there.
So well done, you guys. Very clever.
Paul is so aware of God's presence. He's ready to go, but he's also ready to stay. And if, as he puts it, he's ready to stay on our account, then what are those words of encouragement? What is he saying in this passage that would cause him to stay and not go to glory?
Well, Steve last week talked about running out.
And if I were to give this a title, it's Running On Keeping. Keep on running when you run out. Run on when you have no strength. Push through, keep going. In this Christian race of life, Paul says, I press on to make it my own, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward towards the goal. Keep running, keep pushing on, even when you don't feel you can. It was the writer D.H. lawrence who once said, if only we could live two lives, the first in which to make one's mistakes and the second in which to profit by them. That'd be rather sweet, wouldn't it? But we have one life. We only have one life. Let's use that life well. And that is what Paul is saying in this passage to his friends in Philippi. He's in prison. He doesn't know whether he's going to live or not. But he brings words of encouragement to the church in Philippi and. And in the 21st century, he brings words of encouragement to the church in Leicester and Those words are, one, don't consider the past.
Two, push forward into the future. Three, look towards the finish line.
Don't consider the past. Don't let the past shape our future. One thing I do, forgetting what is behind.
Push forward into the future. Straining to what lies ahead and looking to the finish line. The prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. So first of all, then, don't look to the past. If we are to run this Christian race, if this Christian race is like a marathon, if we are to run this race, well, don't look to the past. Don't allow the past to affect your future. I was not very athletic at school.
In fact, I was pretty much the last to be picked in football and cricket and stuff like that. Bit of sympathy would be nice.
Thank you.
It wasn't helped, I don't think, by my parents still putting me in shorts in senior school. That wasn't a clever move.
I also wore glasses, so I looked a bit kind of geeky.
And I wasn't very athletic. When I got into my 30s, I began to put weight on and I thought, I've got to do something about this. I really can't start carrying a lot of weight. So I decided to start running.
My natural sport is tennis. I love tennis, but tennis means you've got to book a court, you've got to find a partner. All that stuff running, you can just put a pair of shoes on and go out the door. And that's what I started to do in my 30s.
I entered a number of half marathons with the view of then doing the London Marathon. That was my goal, that I would do the London Marathon. And my first decision had to be that I could do it at all.
My first decision had to be that I could do it at all. In other words, I wasn't looking to my past. I wasn't looking to being picked last for football.
I wasn't looking at at my last athleticism. I was looking to what God could make me. Now does that make sense?
Say yes, Ralph.
I wasn't looking to the past. And guys, in this long distance race that is our Christian life, can I encourage you?
Let go of your past where you need to let go of your past.
Don't hold on to what is holding on to you. Don't let your past shape you. Whatever you've been through, there is healing. Whatever you've been through, there is forgiveness. Don't say I can't. Don't accept the shackles of the past. For the race that we've got to run in the future.
Let's run without those things holding on to us.
Tonight at the 5:30 service, I'm going to interview somebody who has let go of his past. He was a top criminal in the uk. He even worked for the Mafia for a while. He was nearly killed on a number of occasions.
Today. He knows and loves Jesus Christ.
He let go of his past. He almost lost his life with a heart condition. And God healed that too. So 5:30 tonight. I will see you there. But here's the question this morning.
Do you want to live with that moment in the past still affecting you or not? Of course you don't. That's the natural answer, right? Of course we don't. We don't want the past to be our companion.
And can I say whether it was done by you or whether it's done by somebody else, there is forgiveness.
Don't say over your life, I will always be like that.
Don't say over your life, I will never be anything because of.
Don't say over your life. That's okay for you, but it's not okay for me. Don't let the past shape your future. That is what Paul is saying.
Let the past go. There is forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
There is unconditional love from Father God. So step out of the shadows of your past and run the race well, number two, push forward. Push forward. Paul says in verse 12, I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
There's a beautiful translation of that from the theologian Tom Wright. Tom Wright has translated those words.
I am eager to overtake because Christ Jesus has overtaken me.
I love that. Just let those words wash over you. I am eager to overtake because Christ Jesus has overtaken me.
Isn't that beautiful?
He's overtaken us in his love.
He's overtaken us with his salvation.
He's overtaken us with purpose and direction. He's overtaken us with life itself.
What a glorious God we love and serve. We have been well and truly overtaken.
Verse 13 says, Strain or push forward for what lies ahead. The Greek word there. The Greek word for strain or push is dioko. And dioko means to run or pursue. It is a running word. Paul is using a running.
So he's saying to us, church, run the race.
Cromer. Church, run the race.
Philippian. Church, run the race.
Push forward into what lies ahead. There'll be problems, there'll be issues, but let's run well. As I started training for the marathon, I made a number of rookie mistakes. The first one was within a couple of weeks, I got shin splints. Shin splints are where the muscles on the front of your shins begin to really hurt. And the reason for that was simple. I thought I could just go running in my normal trainers.
I learned very quickly, you can't go running in your normal trainers. I learned the word pronation.
Apparently, I pronate. You can pray for me later. Pronate means, I mean, most people, when you run, the best runner will hit the heel first, then the middle and then the toe, right? You run like that with your foot. Somebody who pronates is fairly common, is you hit on the outside of your foot. So as you hit the outside of your foot, your foot begins to roll in to the pavement, to the concrete, whatever you're running on. And that causes the muscle spasm in your legs. So I learned very quickly that I needed to invest in good footwear. When you go running, by the way, wear what you like, but you need good.
What are your good shoes?
What are your good shoes for running your race?
How are you doing running the Christian race? If we are to run this race of life, well, we need good footwear. How are you doing in reading the word, reading the Bible? How are you doing in praying? How do you start each day?
How are you doing in running this race? How good your footwear?
If there's people here and you're new as a Christian, or maybe you're watching this online, you're new as a Christian. If you go to my website, I put a little article on there that will help you just begin to read the Bible and just begin to pray. So if you go to ralfturnerwriter.com, you'll find that article and that will help you. But we need to develop a program. As Christians, we need to develop how we run.
Let us run this race. Well, let's make sure we have the right footwear. I put in a training program. That was the next thing I did. So I got the right footwear, and then I put in a training program. If I'm going to run a marathon, I have to build up my resistance. I need to build up my ability to run that race. So at the time, Ro and I lived on the edge of the fens. So what would happen is Roe would drop me off in the fens and I would run home.
And then she dropped me off in the fence and I'd run home and so on and repeat, repeat, repeat again. I kept doing it, dropped off in the fence. Run home. Dropped off in the fence. Ran home. Somebody in the first service suggested that Ro was dropping me off further and further away, but I didn't get the hint.
Not true. Love you.
But it did build up my resistance because, of course, I just kept repeating that discipline of running. Repeat the discipline of reading the word, Repeat the discipline of prayer. Repeat the discipline of being together as God's people. It will help you run.
Well, what is your training program?
We can help you here. We do courses and stuff here. If you're a new Christian and you've not been to New Life yet, get onto the New Life course. It will help you run. Well, if you're an older Christian and you need help, who's discipling you?
Who's discipling you? Who's encouraging you, like Paul is encouraging those people at Philippi, who is encouraging you? Look around you, you'll see some older faces here.
Many of those older faces have been on the road a little bit longer than you in terms of their Christian walk.
So just as I found a guy at the specialist shoe shop to help me get my right footwear. Why don't you find the equivalent to the guy in the specialist shoe shop here?
Go and ask somebody. Hey, can I invite you for coffee? Can we chat? Even better. Buy the coffee. Right. That's pretty good.
I think for those of us who are older, we would love to help and encourage and disciple, but I find it a little bit awkward. I can't really go up to a younger guy and say, hey, I think I can disciple you. It just feels a bit odd. But if you want to come and ask us, we would be privileged to help. Not just me. There are loads of folks here who've walked faithfully with God who are running this race. Well, go and ask them, Buy them a coffee, allow them to disciple you, disciple yourselves, read Christian books, read devotional books, listen to Christian podcasts, worship on YouTube. We have all of these resources. Make sure that you use those resources to run well in Leicester. Here there are so many people that encourage us to run well. Did you know John Wesley, the great evangelist, preached in Leicester? He's encouraging us to run well. Did you know Evan Roberts, the Welsh revivalist who saw over 100,000 people saved.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: In Wales, lived in Leicester and prayed.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: For us, prayed on our streets. Did you know William Carey, the first modern missionary, was a pastor in Leicester? Did you know FB Meyer lived here, who stood outside the prison gates welcoming people out and bringing them into businesses and helping them with walk on the straight and narrow. These are the men who have changed this city.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: These are the men and women who.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Have gone before us, who are calling us to run well. Will you run well?
Will you run well? Where are the new Wesleys?
Where are the new robbers?
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Where are the new carers, the FB mayors?
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Where are the preachers? Where are the revivalists? Where are the evangelists? Where are the businesses, entrepreneurs? They're here.
Run well the race that God has set before you step out. Run well. Push forward. Start racing. I did many half marathons before I eventually got to the marathon. Let me encourage you to do the same. Train yourself well. Get stuck in. Get stuck into team.
Sign up at the connect desk. Develop your skills.
Work as a team.
Build up your faith. There's a lovely story of John Wimber at one of his services many years ago, a young man came up to John Wimber at the end of the meeting and said to him, I didn't get anything out of that worship.
Oh good, said John.
What do you mean? Said the young man?
Well, it wasn't for you.
It's not for us, it's for him.
Everything is for Him.
We serve because of him.
We run this race for him.
He has overtaken us.
Let's overtake in this race. Let's run this race well. Get yourself on team. If you're not on a team, you're missing out in building your resistance, in building your ability to race the race that is before us. Don't burn out. Don't run an empty. Set some boundaries. But sign up. Sign up. You may not enjoy it. You may not enjoy every aspect of making coffee or cleaning loo's or helping grumpy people in the car park. Who knew Christians could be grumpy? But anyway, it's not for us. It's for him.
It's for him.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: It's always for Him.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Number one, don't consider the past. Number two, push forward into the future.
Number three, look to the finish line.
Look to the finish line. To the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. We push for the finish line. One day, you and I will cross that finish line. One day we will hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of the Lord.
That day will come.
And there is a prize. There is a prize. Actually, it's the only time in scripture where you see rewards are given. But they're given in eternity. I'm looking forward to that. But eternity itself is such a prize. To be with him. To be with him forever. As we cross the finish Line. It's an amazing thing, an amazing thought, isn't it?
Isn't that incredible?
I don't know about you, but I find it quite difficult to get my head around eternity, how big eternity is.
And I found something really helpful that helped me understand it. And it's actually.
The origin is a fairy tale in Grimm's Fairy Tales. So I'll share a little fairy tale. Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I'll begin.
Imagine for a moment a wall 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. You can just about get it in your head, right?
Imagine a wall 100 miles high and 100 miles long. That's pretty big. But we can just about get that understanding in our head. Now imagine that a bird comes along and sits on the top of the wall once a year, scrapes its beak on the wall and flies away. Then another year, scrapes its beak on the wall, flies away, and so on. By the time that wall has been worn down to the ground by that bird scraping its beak, one day will have passed in eternity.
Hmm. I love that.
I love that picture of how big eternity is, but also how short our life is. How short our life is where we are now. Let's make our life count. What's going to be your legacy?
What's going to be your legacy?
What will last when you've gone? What are you writing into eternity right now?
Look to the finish line.
Press on towards the goal of the prize, the upward call. In Christ, we have an upward call. Eternity beckons. One of my favorite quotes is from CS Lewis, right at the end of the Narnia stories, the story of the children in Narnia, right at the end, almost the last page, he writes this.
All the children's life in this world and all their adventures had only been the COVID and the title page.
Now, at last, they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.
Oh, that's so beautiful. That's what eternity is. But it's telling, isn't it, that the whole of this life, as C.S. lewis puts it, is just the COVID and the title page. It's just the beginning of the book. It really is just the beginning. So don't consider the past. Run well. Push forward into the future. Be practical about how you train yourself. And look to the finish line, because eternity calls. Paul says he hasn't obtained it, but he presses on.
He's pushing for what lies ahead. He's straining forward for what lies Ahead, he presses on towards that prize.
It won't come without challenge, it won't come without some struggle, but let's push on. Actually, one of the the most used words in the whole of Paul's letter to the Philippians is the word joy. Just remember for a moment he's in prison. He doesn't know if he's going to live or die. In fact, history tells us he did die quite soon after that. But he's using this word joy again and again in Philippians. Rejoicing, praying with joy. The joy of faith. Complete my joy. Receive my joy. The crown of joy. This race is joy.
This race we're running is joy.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: It may need a little bit of.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Discipline, but what a joy to run the race that God has called us to run. Isn't that true?
Isn't he worth it to run this race? And he gives us that joy. He gives us the Holy Spirit that enables us to run. Well, I've run this race now for 55 years. I've been a Christian for 55 years. Can I commend it to you?
It works.
It works.
I'm still running and I'm not stopping. Some of you are young in the faith, some of you are young in age, but can I say to you, don't consider any other path. Don't consider any other course. Run the race.
Live in the Spirit.
Know the joy of what God has. Has called you to. He has a perfect plan for you. Run in that perfect plan. I want to finish by reading that passage in Philippians, but I'm going to read it in the message version, modern version. I think it really works. Well, have a listen to this.
I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made, but I'm well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. That's me. I'm not saying I've got this all together, friends. Don't get me wrong. By no means do I count myself an expert, absolutely.
But I've got my eye on the goal where God is beckoning us. Onwards to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.
So let us keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.
If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision. You'll see it yet. Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it. Let me encourage you, folks. Stay on the track that God has called you to run on. It is glorious, it is joyful.
Well, my marathon story does have an ending. I did eventually run the London Marathon.
In fact, I ran it twice.
When I say I ran it twice, I didn't run it twice at the same time. It was a few years apart. But I remember the first time I ran the London Marathon being near the start line. I was stood on Blackheath just outside Greenwich Park. There were thousands of other runners around me and I made the mistake of looking at them.
Every one of them looked to be younger than me and fitter than me. And I was thinking, what am I doing?
[00:31:24] Speaker C: Ralph, you are an idiot. Why are you doing this?
Everything in me was no. How stupid. 26 miles.
Who want to do that?
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Clearly not my son. But anyway, the gun went off, the race started and actually I had trained fairly well.
So for the first 10 miles or so I was really doing quite well. I was in my stride, I was keeping my time, I knew what I was doing. It was about the 10 mile mark when I was overtaken by a 15 foot long caterpillar.
You have no idea what that does to your self belief.
Honestly, I thought, what am I doing? I might as well give up now. I've just been overtaken by a 15 foot long caterpillar. Actually, I learned later that the three guys inside the caterpillar were army cadets. So I didn't feel so bad after that. But I only learned that after the race.
At about the 20 mile mark, you hit what's called the wall. It's a thing in running, in long distance running, your body kind of runs out of its natural energy. And so when you get to 20 miles or so, you have to push through. You just have to keep running. You've got no energy, but you have to keep running. But the beautiful thing about the London Marathon is that for those last six miles, there's thousands of people there, thousands of people lining the streets. As you run through Westminster, past the House of Parliament, past Buckingham palace, up.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: The Mount, there's all these thousands of.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: People cheering you on.
And I had my name on my shirt. They were cheering me on by my name.
I was running out of energy, I'd hit the wall. And as I'm running past Westminster, someone.
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Shouts out, come on Ralph, you can do this.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: I thought, who's that?
[00:33:18] Speaker C: I didn't know any friends had come down. But of course it wasn't a friend. I've never met him, I probably will never meet him. But he was cheering me on by name because he saw my Name. And as I ran further into the race those last few miles, everybody was cheering, Come on, Ralph. Keep going, Ralph. You can do this.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: Hebrews 12 tells us there's a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on across the finish line.
[00:33:47] Speaker C: Let's run well.
There's a great cloud of witnesses saying, come on, you can do this, you can run.
Give up. Keep going. Let go of the past.
Run into all that God has got for you. It is joyous.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Run the race.
Can you imagine that great crowd?
[00:34:08] Speaker C: There's John Wesley.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Don't know if you see the pictures of Wesley, Bible in hand, hand in.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: The hair, finger in the air, and he's cheering you on from eternity. Run this race. There's Evan Roberts, the Welsh revivalist, saying, more Holy Spirit, God, more Holy Spirit.
There's William Carey, one of the first.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Missionaries, saying, don't forget the world.
[00:34:29] Speaker C: Remember the world. There's FB Meir saying, remember the poor. Don't forget the poor. So many people cheering us on. There's that old lady in her back bedroom, by her bed, on her knees, who for 50 years has prayed for the city of Leicester that she lives in. She's cheering you on. Next generation, this is your time. Run the race and run it well.
There's that Nigerian missionary who came back from Nigeria because an English missionary had been out there and saved his parents. He's cheering you on. Run the race.
There's that evangelist who goes out into the streets of Leicester every day, despite.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: The police trying to stop him. Talking to the Hindus, talking to the Muslims.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: He's cheering you on.
Run the race. There's that businessman who gave up his whole business to lead a small church.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: In the back streets of Leicester.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: He's cheering you on. This is your time.
Run the race. This is our time. Let us see all that God has.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Got for us in this glorious city. This is a city of revival. Let's run the race well.
And one day, one day, you and I will cross the finish line.
And in that moment, I'll receive my medal.
And the first thing I will do is take it off and lay it at the feet of Jesus, the one who ran the race for me.
Lay all at the feet of Jesus.
Guys, can I pray for you?
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Let's stand.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: Lord, I thank you for my friends.
I thank you for this race that we run.
And I ask you, Jesus, in your love and in your grace and in your mercy, enable each of us to run well.
May none of us fall off the path.
May none of us slow down.
May none of us miss the direction you've got for us in our life.
May we run this race well for the sake of our city, for the sake of our nation, God, would you enable us to be a people on fire for you, burning for you, running every moment as you have called us to run. We choose to lay off anything that entangles us. We choose to run with determination and discipline in all that you have for us. We choose to look to the finish line. Lord, I pray for my friends. I pray blessing, I pray and anointing in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
[00:37:53] Speaker C: Sam.
