Make Your Race Count

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

1 Cor. 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

God’s grace, His unmerited favor in our lives, surpasses everything that makes any sense, to anyone who is in the world.

If your not a born again Christian, saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you might not understand the things that I’m about to tell you.

God has used the last couple of weeks and my recent circumstances to help me to understand some very basic, very simple truths, that we must all learn to apply to our lives.

God has a call and a unique purpose for everyone’s life.

Not just some of you, but ALL of you…

God wants us to breakout of mediocrity and to step up to a life with purpose and vision, to fulfill that task God has for you.

I want to tell you what we can do, to bring that to pass with some concrete and practical steps,

Let me outline these for you.

To fulfill God’s destiny in your life you need to be certain that:

You are a believer: and that you are part of a bible believing faith building church.

Our purpose and life is directly linked to our relationship with Jesus Christ. You cannot, and will not find your purpose outside of a committed life to Christ.

Acts 2:42 says,

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The NIV says, “They devoted themselves”

Being committed is being sold out; it’s not hap hazardly living for God, it’s serving him with all your heart mind soul and strength.

Carrying out his will without regard for your own life!!

It is God who brought us into existence;

It is God who knitted us together in our mother’s womb.

And He did so, with a diffident set of plans and a diffident purpose that is very unique to us.

It may not conform to what you think your life should be like.

It may not allow for thing to be the way you think they should be.

But you can be assured, it is God, who is orchestrating our lives, and apart from Him, there is no ultimate meaning!

It is only through Jesus Christ, that we can be integrated into the divine plan of God

So the first step into finding God’s purpose in your life is to be sure and make sure we are believers, followers of Jesus Christ.

There are a lot of people in America (or in the world)

That because they live in America,

Or because they are from a believing home,

Or that they do good things or treat others good,

And they indeed believe they are believers, or what we have come to call a Christian.

I want you to understand that none of those things are sufficient.

(Romans 5:1) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

It is only through direct relationship with Jesus Christ that we are believers.

First of all make sure that you indeed are believers, and that you know Jesus Christ personally.

II Peter 1:10

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

The Bible tells us to make our calling and election sure.

So that’s the 1st thing we have to do.

Appreciate your unconditional acceptance by God:

Everyday we get bombarded with signals from society and culture, about what we have to do in order for us to be acceptable.

They tell us that we have to be cool, you got to measure up, and you have to use the right product or wear the right clothes.

THAT’S HOGWASH!!!

We are told that our clothes are all wrong, our teeth are dingy, or our skin is lifeless, we don’t smell right, we are too fat, or too skinny, our hair is dull and lifeless or we drive the wrong car.

BOLOGNA!!!

If we carry that over to the spiritual realm,

Satan, our enemy, continually uses one of his main weapons, and that is accusations. He tries to make us feel as if we are unworthy as individuals.

He tries to convince us that God cannot love or forgive us.