Christine Caine - Run To Win - Part 5
Hey everyone, I am so grateful that you've joined us today. I know that God has a word for you, and this is an on-time program for your life right now, so keep your heart open, keep your ears open, and I'm believing that the Holy Spirit of God is gonna speak a now word into your heart and in your spirit. You've joined us during one of my favorite series that we've ever done. We're talking about running the race of life that God has called us to run. Do you realize that you are not here by accident? You were created by God for a relationship with God. It's Jesus that connects you to God and it's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God. God created us before we were formed in our mother's womb, the scripture says.
God knew us, he knitted together our inner most parts in our mother's womb. He put us on this earth, filled us with God-given destiny, filled us with God-given potential so that we could fulfill his purposes here on the earth, so you're not here by accident. This life is not an accident. You were created on purpose for purpose. This life is liken to running a marathon race. We've been learning through this series that we are not running in a sprint. I know we live in a generation where we just think man, we want to be an overnight success, I want to get to my purpose tomorrow. But we're not running a sprint. We're running in a marathon, and a marathon runner runs very very differently to a sprinter. You've got to build different muscles, you've got to build different disciplines, you've got to build a different strength, you've got to have a whole different mindset to run a marathon than a sprint.
So we've talked about so many facets of all of that. We're focusing at the moment on the very act of running. We know that is there an art to running, and we want to learn how to run this Christian life very very well. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul talks about the fact that we're running in a race and that we should run to win. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, again we are liken to the spiritual running race that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, therefore let us also, the writer to the Hebrews says, run the race that is set before us. The running imagery is rampant throughout scripture. It's woven all the way through scripture. So I figure since scripture talks a lot about running, we ought to get very good at understanding the art of running. And I love this because Paul repeatedly uses the word run.
We see that throughout his epistles, and he draws the image of an athlete in a stadium. So what might he be trying to show us do you think? What is it about the art of running that is so crucial? What is it about running itself that is so crucial that we see it as a repeated thing throughout scripture? You know, why doesn't Paul say so stroll to win? Or walk to win? Or crawl to win? Or skip to win? Or hop to win? Or push back to win? Or swim to win? He actually says run to win. He uses the term "Run" extremely deliberately. So I've been so fascinated by the image of a runner that Paul uses that I went to runner's world. Yes, the Bible. The runner's world to research what is it about running that you and I should know. If Paul says run, run, run, run to win, what is it about running? So what better magazine than runner's world to learn how to run to win. So apparently you're about to learn as much as I did. We learned a lot about marathons, we're gonna learn a lot about the art of running. So apparently there are many different ways of running, but there is a way of running that means we can each win.
Now, I want to know how should I run in order to run my race and to finish my course. I think it's so important that we not only realize we're running in a marathon and not a sprint but that we also know what athletes know about the very act of running that enables them to win. So this series, it's gonna help runners and non-runners alike. Don't tune off if you don't like to run because this is especially for you. If you don't like to run, naturally speaking, then you need to know the principles of running so that you can run your spiritual race. Our spiritual running race is the kind of running we do not get to vote on. We're all called to run our race and to finish our course whether we like to run or not.
So this teaching applies equally to every single one of us. I've been a runner for many many decades. I use that word very loosely but I do frequently jog, and before I was as old as I am now, I used to jog a whole lot more, but my knees and my ankles, I've become that woman now. My kids roll their eyes. But I still love nothing more than to go to a new city where I'm going to have the opportunity to preach the Gospel and then just run through the streets of that city. I've done it for decades. It just helps me feel just my feet on the pavement of the city just makes me feel very connected to the city, connected to the people of the city. I love being out in nature. I love running along the coastline. I love running anywhere. And so I'm not a marathon runner but I do regularly run, maybe five or six miles, and it's one of my greatest passions.
So when I first started running, the truth is I had no idea what I was doing, and as more seasoned runners came alongside me, they began to give me some tips which actually helped my running process. I learned how to enjoy and to thrive in my newfound running hobby. So before some of my running friends helped me, I had great intentions but I'd run out of steam after running around like one block. I'd go around the block and go, okay. The first time I ran out to the letter box and then I ran out of steam. Then I could make it to the end of the street. Then I did a block. If I was honest, even in those early days I have to admit before I really knew what I was doing that I hated every single second of it. It's just like I'm sure some of you can relate, I'm like what am I doing? Why am I doing this for?
So maybe to extend this metaphor into the spiritual realm, I want to say that I realized some of us are just barely getting by in life, so like me in my early days of running, man, we are not loving this spiritual race. We're struggling if we're honest in our faith. We don't feel like we're living the life of purpose that we're here to live. I'm talking about God creating you on purpose for a purpose and you're like Chris, this is just hard work. I don't feel any purpose. Chris, this is just hard, this is really difficult, this is very painful, this is not what I thought it was gonna be, so in this series, I want to be to you what my friends were to me in my early days of running. Someone that comes alongside and gives you some wisdom that I've gained from all of my experience, and it might help you to run a little more effortlessly in this race of life and to actually get to the point where you start to love it and where you earnestly desire to live the abundant, purpose driven, passionate life that Jesus Christ came to give us. You don't have to dread your race.
I know right now that some of you, you feel like that, like Chris, this is just too hard and I'm dreading every day. I'm believing God by the power of the spirit that you're gonna get to this place where you no longer you're not dreading your race, where you can love it, where you can actually enjoy it, where you can thrive in it, where you get up with a spring in your step, with a glint in your eye, knowing that following Jesus it not easy but it's an adventure. There is no life like the life of following Jesus. There is no life like running your race and finishing your course. There is no life like discovering you were created on purpose for a purpose, that you are not an accident, that God has a plan and a purpose for you. There is no life like living the God life that God's put you on this earth to live.
And so firstly, let's establish just for the sake of it what running actually is. So the dictionary says that to run is to exert one's self. I guess we get all of that, don't we? It's to spend one's strength in performing or attaining something. So here is the deal, God wants us to spend our strength to exert ourselves in pursuing the life of purpose that he has given us. See, our goal as Jesus followers is not to just sort of sit back and just wait for life to happen. If you're as old as me, you might remember there was a song that doris day used to sing, and most of you might not even know who she is, but it was like "Que sera sera, whatever will be will be. The future is not ours to see, que sera sera".
Well I'm here to tell you that is not true. You do not have to just sit back and wait for life to happen. But we have agency in Christ, the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of us. We can be who God says we can be. We can do what God says we can do. We can have what God says we can have in his word. We have agency through the power of the Holy Spirit to rise up and be all that God's called us to be. Life is not que sera sera. God is sovereign, God is in control, and God invites us into this passionate purpose driven adventure. In John 10:10, Jesus said I came that you might have life and not some boring, religious, small life. He said I came that you might have life and life more abundant. When the life of God lives on the inside of you, you can know what it is to have an abundant life, a passionate life, a purpose driven life, and I want us to get up and go after that life, to start to run the race that God has set before us. Not just wait for things to fall into our lap, but to get up and to run our race.
If we're gonna finish strong, then we need to look after every single area of our lives. I want us to turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians, and we're gonna see here how important all of this is to God. So in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, the Bible tells us in verse 23, he says now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. May your whole spirit and soul and body. It all matters to God. You see what happens is some people, they focus so totally on the spiritual and they neglect their souls and their body, and then they wonder why they burn out or simply do not make it to the finish line. So to be a strong and a healthy Christian, you need the whole package, body, soul and spirit.
So for optimal performance, we need to train all three areas as followers of Jesus Christ, we need to understand that our bodies are the vehicles that will take us to our destiny. This body houses the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. It blows me away that God would put such treasure in this earthen vessel. 1 Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If that does not blow your mind, I actually don't know what will. That the same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of me and lives on the inside of you. You see, you and I, we are so aware of our frailties, of our brokenness, but somehow the God of the universe, such a mystery, has chosen to place his spirit on the inside of you and me. This is a profound mystery that we are Carriers of God to our generation, that these flawed, broken, marked, stained containers carry the very presence of God. Jesus said out of you will flow rivers of living water into a lost and a broken world, so it matters. Our bodies matter.
Obviously, God thinks our body is a good thing and he's given us lots of keys and knowledge on how to best look after this body. Our health is critical because you could have the best spiritual intentions but if your body can't function then you inadvertently cut your destiny short. We should to the best of our ability, and of course I know there are so many mitigating factors, but to the best of our ability we should ensure that we exercise, that we eat well in order to function well. You know, this is a health and fitness issue, not a vanity issue. I'm not at all talking about vanity. There's so much knowledge and information available nowadays on how to maximize our energy and to function at whatever is our own personal optimal capacity. Everybody is different, and we all need different things in order to fuel our bodies, and let's be committed to doing what we can to run long and to run well.
We of all people have an eternal reason to look after our bodies. We know it's going to wear out one day. There is no denying it. Every single one of us. And we don't need it though necessarily to wear out sooner than it needs to. It's the only one we're gonna get this side of eternity, so we ought to make a decision that we're gonna carry God well in this body. Paul says I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection. He doesn't let his body do whatever his body wants to do. He does not let his body rule when it comes to carnal pleasures, to immorality, or gluttony, or drunkenness, the things that the scripture talks about. Paul made his body submit to a spirit man. You see, the fact is every single one of us, you and I, we've been given the Fruit of the Spirit called self-control. Man, that's a word for this day and age.
We don't need to live out of control lives because we've been given self-control, and there are many areas in our life that we need to begin to exercise that fruit, give it some work to do, so I'm not just gonna go and do whatever it is I want to do. I'm not gonna give into whatever craving it is that I've got. I have got the Fruit of the Spirit of self-control. And greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. You know some of you, you're listening to this and you're like but Chris, what about 1 Timothy 4:8 that says bodily exercise profits little but Godliness is profitable for all things. I mean, I know some of you, you have got that sign up on your mirror. Bodily exercise profits a little. I laugh. It's amazing in three decades just how I've heard people use this as an excuse to literally not look after their own bodies. It's just like no, I don't want to do that.
And you know, it is true, you're absolutely right, according to scripture this tent, it's not eternal. But let's allow it to be used up properly before we get our new and our eternal body. It doesn't say that bodily exercise does not profit at all. So I want the little profit that it does to actually benefit my body. So some people will not fulfill their purpose simply because they have not looked after themselves in a way that they could so that their body could take them to their purpose, and of course I want to pause right now and say I certainly understand that everyone's got different physical limitations, perhaps others have got different abilities, and it's like Christine, I was born with certain conditions. There is no condemnation here, there is no judgment here. Not at all.
And I understand the fact is that we all have our own limitations, but I'm talking to those of us that can make choices about the kinds of things that we eat, the things we put into our body, the exercise and the nourishment that we give to our body. What I'm saying is if we can make a difference, listen to mama Chris, it is going to help you run your race and finish your course. Some of you are not sleeping well and it's because of your exercise habits, it's because of your food habits, and some of you just constantly feeling bad every day, and people always, I'm saying this to help you, people ask me Chris how do you seem to be perky, and get up and keep going, and travel so much, and preach the Gospel, and do the things that you do? And a large part of that of course it's the grace of God, the divine enablement of God, but you see me in my jet lagged delirium states, I'm still on an elliptical or on a treadmill in certain parts of the world or running or making sure that to the best of my ability where I'm able that I'm making wise choices about the things that I fuel my body with so that my body will go longer.
So just take this as friendly encouragement from mama Chris that in order for us to do what God has called us to do, we've got to maintain a certain level of fitness and alertness. I just do so much traveling, I do so much speaking, I want to be an active grandmother. I'm saying this in case my kids watch this show, I want them to get married and have grandchildren for me and nick, so you know what, I'm 55 as I'm speaking to you today, so that means I'm not likely to become a grandmother I don't think well and truly until I'm into my sixties, so I better be fit if I want to hold my grandkids, if I want to run with my grandkids, if I want to push my grandkids on the swings, I've got to be fit.
So the fact is that I'm in my mid-fifties and I feel stronger spiritually and emotionally and physically than I have done so in years, but it comes with great intentionality and great purpose because I want to run my race well. So my why is the thing that helps me make those choices. You know one of my favorite verses of scripture is 3 John chapter 2, and I love it because this is where John writes beloved I pray that you prosper and are in good health just as your soul prospers. I love the fact that in this verse John prioritized the importance of a very very healthy soul. And next week when we come back, we're gonna talk about the fact that not only does God want us to have a strong body that's gonna help us run our race and finish our course, but he wants us to have a healthy prosperous soul. You will be stunned at how important a healthy soul is to be able to run your race and to finish your course.
Some of us, we are blaming things and making things spiritual issues that are actually not spiritual issues, they are soul issues, and if we would address our soul issues, we would find that we would be able to run unhindered, that we would get a new spring in our step, we would be able to kind of metaphorically speaking put our foot on the gas a little harder and run our spiritual race and finish our spiritual course. Our bodies matter to God, our souls matter to God, and our mind matters to God. I cannot wait to see you next week.