1st Place

What is 1st place? What is the prize? Find out on this episode!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Running Our Race. Today's episode is titled First Place. When I was reading the Bible, I came across this verse in 1 Corinthians 9 24, which says, 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. Now, me personally, I asked myself, I was like, hey, what is the prize? Two thoughts came to my mind. One was salvation and the other one was being raptured. Now, here to me it brought clarity on why we are running the race. We as Christians, regardless on if we're pastors or leaders or we're not any of those things, we still have a duty, we could say, to go and spread the gospel. Whether that's sharing something on social media, whether that's uh talking to someone on the street, whether that's doing something to intentionally share the gospel. We are supposed to be that extension. When I was making music, I never considered it evangelizing. Even though I had a few people that would reach out to me and say how music impacted them, or some people came back to Christ because of the music. To me, I feel like this is more evangelizing because I feel like right here I'm spreading more of the word rather than just kind of rapping or like making music with songs with this one of the person actually pushing me. Obviously, Hebrews 121 to 2, but this is one of the ones that was like, yeah, go and do that. Bringing up Hebrews 12 1, it tells us to put off things such as weight and sins. I was watching your preaching the other day. Uh, I realized that those aren't the only things that we should be put up be putting off. And the apostle that I was listening to, he touched a few points and he said, burlas, which I believe is like making fun of. He quoted Psalms 69 20. Uh, he also touched on sadness, which he used uh Psalms 119 28. He spoke on hope deferred, uh Proverbs 13, 12. And after all of that, I kind of asked myself, you know, okay, so then the Bible says rather put on. And to me, that is like okay, it's stuff that's supposed to motivate us, to encourage us. And I started thinking, okay, we know to put off these things, um, such as sadness or hope deferred. However, besides, you know, obviously the sins. But how many times do we act like that? I also came across this verse in 1 Corinthians, and it's 9 26 to 27. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly. I do not fight like a box chip eating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slate so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Once again, we touch on this prize, but we also touch on practicing what we preach. And in addition to that, not running aimlessly. I feel like a lot of times when we're carrying weights and we're carrying sins, we don't really we we don't remember our objective and we don't remember our value as Christians. We also have to put off those things so that we can also be a light. After all of this, I ask myself, what is the goal then? That's when I came across uh this verse, which is Philippians 3 12 to 14. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind me and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Some people may quickly read it and think, oh, it's talking about going heavenward, that's the prize. And while it is to a certain extent, not just in the preaching that I heard originally, um, but in quite a few, I kept coming across this, which is when we stand firm in what God called us to do, and when we continue to endure, patiently waiting for Christ's return, um, patiently, you know, enduring in everything in trials, um there is a reward. And in Revelation 3 10, it touches on it and says, Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. In Matthews 24, 13 it says, But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Both of these touch on the same thing, talking about an ending. Revelations 3.10 touches more on it where it's like always the hour of trial. That is the tribulation. You've read Revelation, you know that there's a bunch of bad things, you probably wouldn't wish them on your worst enemy, uh, that are gonna happen. And a lot of people have been saying, you know, it's gonna be soon, it's gonna be soon, and I believe it's gonna be soon too. And that's why I feel like we all have a duty as well to go out and preach the gospel and share the gospel and share verses. You never know who is gonna see something and be like, wow, I needed that today. Like, even if it's just a Bible verse on your story, like you never know. Mainly just made this episode to keep encouraging people, keep uh persevering in your race, keep enduring, keep standing firm. You never know when the trumpet's gonna blow, but you also never know who you're impacting. So keep persevering and thank you for listening or watching to this episode. And I pray that it's a blessing to everyone that listens to it. And make sure to like, comment, follow wherever you are listening on, and I'll catch you all on the next one. Peace out.