March 31, 2025 • 58 mins
In this episode, Brody encourages listeners to stay focused, positive, and walk in the light, drawing inspiration from the life of the Apostle Paul. He reminds us that it's God’s power that saves, and we can trust Him to lead others to repentance.
Brody talks about staying faithful to God’s call, following Scripture, and not giving up, no matter the challenges. Using Paul as an example, he shows how we can live with purpose and run your race well. Whether you're a pastor, teacher, or doing something else, you can be faithful to Jesus in everything you do.
This episode is a reminder to keep pressing forward, trust God’s plan, and finish strong in the race of life.
- 2 Timothy 4:6-8
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
- Luke 9:62
- Facing Difficult Trials | Looking at Paul’s Example
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Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, in this week's episode I'm hoping to just
encourage you.
We all need to be encouraged,especially when it comes to our
walk with the Lord.
I don't know what you're goingthrough this week.
It could be family drama, itcould be work drama, school
drama, it could be conflict, itcould be parenting struggles and
difficulties.
We try to tackle a lot ofdifferent things on this podcast
(00:23):
, but sometimes kind ofeverything comes under one
umbrella or one roof for thebeliever, and that is, we need
to be encouraged to fight thegood fight, to run the race, to
stay focused, to keep our handto the plow.
The most important thing we cando is keep our eyes on Jesus
and stay positive and live inthe light and walk in the light.
(00:44):
It's a dark and dying world.
It's a broken world, andsometimes that brokenness is
personal.
We feel it, we're part of it,and sometimes we feel it from
the outside.
We're living in the light,we're doing our best but, man,
sometimes the pressure of theworld around us is overwhelming.
So I'm hoping that this weekand this episode you will be
(01:05):
encouraged.
I just want to share some wordsof encouragement from God's
word and from some practicalexamples in the scripture.
So with that, welcome to noSanity Required.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
All of us are familiar with a guy named the
Apostle Paul.
If you're a new Christian, he'sprobably one of the first names
you've heard outside of Jesus,his story in the Gospels and
maybe some of the earlydisciples.
Jesus, his story in the gospelsand maybe some of the early
disciples, the apostle Paul issomeone who came out of a world
of not only was he not walkingwith Jesus, not only was he not
a Christian, but as a professionhe opposed the gospel, he
(01:57):
opposed the words and the workof Jesus.
Paul had done terrible things.
He'd killed people, had peoplehad people killed, separated
families, imprisoned people, and, and the crime that he was
imprisoning these people for, orpersecuting these people for,
was the crime of uh followingJesus and trusting and believing
(02:20):
in the way of Christ.
And so Paul, in the midst ofthis career, as as most of us
are familiar with, in the way ofChrist.
And so Paul, in the midst ofthis career, as as most of us
are familiar with, in the midstof this career, literally in the
act of persecuting Christians,god comes to him and just
radically saves him.
And I don't want to go down adiff different rabbit trail here
, but in the later this yearwe're going to be doing an
(02:41):
episode where we talk about thetension between the sovereignty
of God and the responsibility ofman and salvation.
A lot of people believe that ifyou hold a high view of the
sovereignty of God, somethingthat's maybe Calvinistic or
Reformed, that it does away withyour view of it, diminishes
(03:03):
your view of missions andevangelism.
And I would just say theapostle Paul is someone who was
not looking for Jesus.
He was not seeking arelationship with God through
Christ.
He thought he had arelationship with God through
his uh, worship of the ancientreligion of Judaism and he was
not looking for a relationshipwith Jesus.
And he was not looking for arelationship with Jesus.
(03:23):
Jesus came to him, struck himdown, blinded him, overwhelmed
him and drew him into arelationship, and Paul then held
a very high view of thesovereignty of God.
Because of that and because ofall that God revealed to him,
paul also then became probablythe most influential Christian
(03:46):
in church history.
He did that by plantingchurches, going on mission,
being a missionary.
I was in a conversation with apastor friend this past week, a
very faithful brother.
He's a local guy, he's SouthernAppalachian.
We come from the same type ofbackground, same culture.
(04:07):
We're both from the same areaof Western North Carolina and
very few people in this areahold a high view of the
sovereignty of God.
Most churches, most most ofwhat is taught in churches is
that we need to convince peopleto become Christians.
So there's a lot of tensionthere, because I do want to
(04:30):
plead with people to give theirlives to Jesus, but ultimately I
trust in the sovereign hand ofGod to draw people to himself,
to convict their conscience, tooverwhelm them with the reality
of their own sin and their needfor a Savior, and then to bring
that person to a place ofrepentance, submission and
(04:51):
surrender.
And that's what the story ofthe Apostle Paul is.
So I was sharing with thispastor friend.
We were just talking about thedifficulty of doing ministry
sometimes in a culture wherepeople put the bulk of
responsibility on human work andendeavor.
If you can preach the sermongood enough, if you can give the
(05:12):
invitation aggressively oremotionally enough, if you can
convince somebody that they'rewrong and you're right, then all
these things that you can do totry to get someone to become a
Christian.
Listen, brother or sister, theonly way a person's going to
become a Christian is if theHoly Spirit of God convicts them
, arrests their conscience andby his overwhelming grace and
(05:33):
conviction, he draws them into arelationship with himself.
For me, that motivates me toproclaim Christ, to be engaged
in missions to tell people aboutJesus, to proclaim Christ, to
be engaged in missions to tellpeople about Jesus.
I've had people say to me I'vehad this happen often, not a
time or two, but often I've hadpeople question the integrity of
(05:57):
Snowbird as a ministry becausethey say well, you guys, you
hold a reformed position.
If you don't know what that is,you can go look it up, don't
worry about it.
We don't buy into labels.
I'm not going to label Snowbird.
I'm not going to, I'm not goingto pick a label and attach it
to Snowbird.
We we hold a high view of threethings.
Okay, and and this couldprobably be its own episode and
(06:18):
maybe it will be we hold a highview of the sovereignty of God,
which, just when we're talkingabout the sovereignty of God,
we're talking about that Godorders things.
He has the authority and thewisdom to order things according
to his will and he doeswhatever he pleases.
We hold a high view of thesovereignty of God.
We do not believe that God isanemic or impotent or incapable
(06:41):
of doing what he intends to do.
There are things that I wouldlike to do, that I want to do
that I just don't have theability to do.
I don't have the power, theauthority, the wisdom, the gift,
the gifting or whatever.
So we hold a high view of thesovereignty of God.
There's not an I can't mindset,when it comes to who God is,
that there's something he can'tdo.
That's that there's somethingthat's not in the scope of his
(07:03):
sovereign power.
So we hold, number one we hold ahigh view of the sovereignty of
God.
Number two we hold a high viewof the authority of scripture.
This is why we teach the wordof God expositionally,
expositorily.
We are very careful in how wehandle the scripture.
We preach and teach the word ofGod the way the prophets of old
(07:24):
did, where we can say here'swhat God says In the old King
James typically it was quoteunquote the prophet would say
thus saith the Lord.
So we're going to say here'swhat God says thus saith the
Lord.
Okay, we hold a high view of theauthority of scripture.
We believe that God's word isbreathed out, that it is in its
(07:45):
original texts and its originalwritings and its original form
that was breathed out by God andis profitable.
It's useful to convict us ofsin, to give us wisdom, to point
areas of our lives where weneed to grow.
It's profitable for rebuke,reproof, for correction and for
instruction in righteousness, orfor me to live my life the way
(08:08):
that God would have me to livemy life.
So we hold there's two thingswe hold a high view of the
sovereignty of God, we hold ahigh view of the authority of
Scripture.
And the third thing, we hold ahigh view of the responsibility
of man.
That means I have a deep andgreat responsibility to respond
(08:29):
to a sovereign God because hesaved me, because he called me,
because through his word now getinto the second one, because I
hold a high view of theauthority of scripture.
I have a responsibility to beobedient to God's word, to know
God's word, to study God's word,to be actively pursuing
relationship's word, to knowGod's word, to study God's word,
to be actively pursuingrelationship with Christ through
his word.
So if I hold a high view of allthree of these things, what
(08:53):
that's going to do is it's goingto drive me to be missional, to
be on mission, to beevangelistic, to share Christ
with others.
Someone that questions uh, Iremember years ago someone that
questions uh, I remember yearsago someone questioning well, if
you believe so highly in thesovereignty of God, then you're
not going to want to do missionsor be evangelistic.
Listen, as you know and asyou've heard in recent episode,
(09:17):
my daughter served in a remote,oftentimes unstable part of the
world where people need Jesusand she is there and we are
supporting her being there, herand her husband and their
daughter.
We support it, we encourage it,we believe in it, because those
people that God has called themto need Jesus, they need
discipleship, they need anopportunity to be brought out of
(09:41):
the dark and into the light toreceive the gospel.
And we believe that God hascalled us to take the gospel of
the dark and into the light toreceive the gospel.
And we believe that God hascalled us to take the gospel to
the nations.
We also believe he's called usto take the gospel to our
neighbor.
So we hold a high view ofmissions because of our high
view of those other things.
We hold a high view of sharingJesus with your neighbor because
(10:02):
of those things.
We hold a high view of thesovereignty of God, the
authority of scripture and theresponsibility of man.
So before we launch into themain idea today, let me just set
this up.
Paul believed in a high view ofthe sovereignty of God, a high
view of the authority ofscripture, a high view in the
(10:25):
responsibility of man, and itcomes through in all of his
preaching, teaching and writing.
So this is who Paul is.
He came out of a world where hewasn't seeking Christ and he
was brought into the light, intorelationship with the Lord At
the end of Paul's life the LordAt the end of Paul's life.
(10:51):
He has lived an incrediblyeventful life when it comes to
his pursuit of, when it comes tohis faithfulness to the calling
God had placed on his life.
Paul traveled multiplemissionary journeys spanning the
majority of the Roman Empire.
He planted churches on threecontinents.
He trained pastors and elders.
At one point he's writing toTitus and he said the reason I
left you on the island of Creteis so that you could appoint
(11:12):
elders in every town.
I think that one verse is asnippet, a quick shot of Paul's
mindset and methodology andphilosophy of church plant life.
He's planting churches in everytown.
He's training up elders who aretraining up elders, elder being
an overseer or a pastor.
He's equipping the saints.
(11:34):
He's doing the work ofequipping the saints.
He said in another place.
He gives instruction on how toorder and set up church,
leadership and government.
He gives clear instruction andthen lives it out by example how
to mobilize missionaries andsend them out.
Paul did so much work to spreadthe gospel and establish the
(11:56):
church in the first century thatto this day is impacting us.
In the course of his life he wasimprisoned multiple times.
He was arrested often.
He was beaten.
He was beaten in a publicsquare as a punishment from
Jewish leadership.
(12:16):
He was beaten in public as apunishment from Roman
authorities.
Ultimately, it was the Romanswho would execute him, tradition
says, by beheading.
He was persecuted by friendswho turned their back on him.
He experienced incredibleadventures, going through
(12:37):
mountains and over deserts andacross oceans.
He was shipwrecked on an islandone time where he was bit by a
poisonous snake and God usedthat situation to preserve his
life.
And then, through those local,native, indigenous population,
god used that incident orscenario to reach those people
(13:01):
with the gospel in a way thatthey said oh the God who has
saved this man's life from thisviper must be real.
He must be very powerful.
He used his platform in frontof government officials.
He went before local kings.
Imagine in your ministry as,just as an American or whatever,
(13:24):
if you're Canadian or if you'refrom an African country and
Asian country, but for for thoseof us that are here, where I'm,
where I live and where I'm acitizen, if you're an American,
if you get to go share thegospel before your County
commissioners, your local policechief or sheriff, you get to
share the gospel between theassociation, the ecumenical
(13:47):
interdenominational associationof churches.
You get to proclaim Christ tothe ecumenical interfaith
ministries of the Muslim andJehovah's Witness and Mormon and
Hindu and Sikh religions inyour city or at your university.
You get to be the voice, theChristian representative.
(14:10):
Um, I had an opportunity onetime years ago, little, and I've
told this story before, but we,we were tasked with I.
I gave a lecture before.
Uh, an open forum on a on asecular university campus is a.
This is a university with30,000 enrolled students, so a
major state university that, ifI said it, everybody knows who
(14:31):
it is and could say what theirmascot is.
And I was given on thatparticular week they had
different folks coming in eachweek.
I gave the position of the likethe Judeo-Christian belief,
about biblical, about thebiblical stance on sexuality and
marriage.
Then Little came on stage withme and we fielded questions.
(14:52):
It was a very intense, hostileenvironment to some degree, but
it was also a warm environmentto some degree because this was
pre-COVID pre-things have gottenso crazy and combative in the
last few years.
But there were people that wereantagonistic, that disagreed
with us.
There were people that heckleda little bit and yelled, but for
the most part most people wereattentive as we gave the
(15:15):
biblical perspective.
I've often thought about that,standing on that stage in that
auditorium with 400 or 500students, many of them
nonbelievers, lesbian couplessitting right down front that I
kept making eye contact with.
I think about Paul going infront of the Areopagus on Mars
Hill and defending the faith.
It'd be like arguing for theChristian faith in front of the
(15:38):
Supreme Court.
It'd be like going in thehalftime of the Super Bowl,
being in the halftime show ofthe Super Bowl and getting to
preach the gospel for 10, 15, 20minutes.
It would be like the biggeststage of the day.
Paul also got to go before theequivalent of mayors, governors,
(16:00):
the Senate, the Congress, kings, prime ministers, presidents.
He got to speak to wholebattalions or brigades of the
Roman military and every singletime he had that opportunity he
proclaimed Christ and hisresurrection and his lordship.
(16:22):
He preached the gospel.
That's why he could say inRomans one I am unashamed of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's the power of God untosalvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first andalso to the Greek.
So it doesn't matter if you'reAfrican, asian, north American,
south American, doesn't matterwhat your background is, what
(16:44):
your parents' lives were like,what their faith was or wasn't.
The gospel is for you, and Paulunderstood that and he
proclaimed it.
I've always appreciated theministry of Billy Graham because
wherever he went, he preachedthe same gospel and he preached
it hot and non-negotiable.
This is who Jesus is, this iswhat Jesus has done, this is
(17:06):
what Jesus says, and peoplewould be saved.
And when Paul would travel andpreach, people would come to
faith often.
But he would also often bepersecuted.
And so he came to the end ofhis life and after laboring for
decades and having an impactfulbut difficult ministry, he came
(17:26):
to the end of his life and wrotesome words to Timothy in the
final months of his life,knowing that his death was
imminent.
He was imprisoned often, but atone time he was stoned in the
street and left for dead.
I've often imagined how brutalthat punishment must be to be
(17:46):
stoned, to have people standaround you and throw large rocks
into your body, into your head,into your shoulders, your back.
You know.
I would imagine you'd ball upin the fetal position, try to
cover the back of your head, butthen that exposes your ribs.
You take enough shots in theribsal position, try to cover
the back of your head, but thenthat exposes your ribs.
You take enough shots in theribs and then you try to cover
that because you're hurting sobad and then a rock hits your
(18:08):
neck, your jaw, your head, andthe goal with stoning was to
kill somebody.
So they stoned him to the pointthat they thought he was dead.
They then left him for dead andGod preserved his life.
And what he did after that washe got up and he kept preaching.
Paul labored for decades and hisministry was difficult.
(18:28):
But what I want, what I want todo, what I want to think about
in this episode, is how hefinished strong, but also how he
had consistently labored andrun the race.
So his strong finish came atthe end of a strong race.
What's that look like, to beable to say that at the end of
your life, to be able to saywhat Paul says in 2 Timothy,
(18:51):
chapter 4.
Let me read that to you here 2Timothy, chapter 4, second
letter.
Paul wrote to Timothy, who wasa pastor.
He had discipled and trainedand equipped.
He says in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 6, 7, and 8 For I'm
already being poured out as adrink Offering.
The time of my Departure hascome.
(19:14):
I fought the good fight.
I finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there's laid Up forme the crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteousjudge, will award to me on that
day, and not only to me but alsoto all who have loved his
appearing.
He said these three thingsafter saying hey, I'm getting,
I'm being poured out, my, my, mydeparture is coming soon.
(19:35):
I'm going to die and leave thisworld, but I I can say these
three things I fought a goodfight, finished the race.
I fought the good fight,finished the race.
I kept the faith.
Might we be able to say thosethings at the end of our lives.
I fought the good fight.
That's.
That's 100% my goal.
It's 1000% my goal.
(19:56):
I want it to be said of me thatI was faithful to Jesus.
It was a prominent missionsmobilizer several hundred years
ago.
You might have heard of him.
His name was Count Ludwig vanZinzendorf.
That's a mouthful and he'squoted with one of my favorite
quotes ever.
And if you've been around thisministry at all, you've heard me
say this, quote this guy.
(20:17):
He said preach the gospel, dieand and be forgotten.
This was a man that was.
He was rich, he personallyfunded an enormous missions work
, but I just appreciate wherehis heart and his vision was.
And you know we're in this worldthat's just surrounded by
materialism, technology, thedistractions of entertainment,
(20:40):
abundance.
That leads, honestly leads tomore wantonness, more saturated
in self and a hedonistic andhumanistic approach to life.
People celebrate individualism,but everyone tries to look the
same.
If you pay attention to quote-,quote, unquote influencers,
(21:02):
everybody's trying to find theirlittle niche, but still stay in
the lane.
You know people are.
You know, in one sense, youeverybody tries to be the same
and fight for the same things,which is that's just all about
approval, approval of others,and sometimes that approval
leads to, you know monetarybenefit or you don't have people
to follow your liking.
Make some money at it.
But honestly, most people justwant to be approved.
(21:24):
In social circles, socialmovements, agendas like this
driving desire to be approved bysociety, we want the world to
approve of us.
We want to figure out how can Ilive in the world and have the
world celebrate who I am, whenthe reality is we.
The world celebrates the thingsthat God hates and speaks
(21:45):
clearly against in his word andthen the what the world does is
it takes those things andrenames those things as heroism.
Or you're a hero because youreject against what God says in
his word.
I mean you rebel against whatGod says in his word.
You reject that authority ofGod in his word.
I mean you rebel against whatGod says in his word.
You reject that authority ofGod's word.
But I love there's a quote inPaul's life.
(22:09):
He had written to the church atGalatia, which actually was like
a super religious culture, theopposite of a place like Corinth
, where they were super secularand hedonistic.
He wrote to these folks inGalatia and the believers in
that city were facing a lot ofsocial pressure to conform to
these religious norms and ethicsthat, honestly, paul said they
(22:31):
were contrary to the gospel.
But he said this am I nowseeking the approval of man or
of God, or am I trying to pleaseman?
If I were still trying toplease man, I would not be a
servant of Christ.
There's a fine line when itcomes to winning the approval of
people, having a genuineconcern and care for people.
I don't want to become an enemyto people simply because they
(22:53):
don't embrace the gospel.
So you know, you feel that inPaul's words, he doesn't want to
be an enemy to people and whensomebody doesn't embrace the
gospel, he doesn't want toreject them, as you know, as his
enemy.
And the thing that we like to,I try to teach here, is we love
(23:14):
the world for what we offer theworld, not for what the world
offers us.
And Paul, you know he woulddescribe that we are like
messengers and that we'recarrying the greatest message in
history, but we're carrying itin these jars of clay.
In other words, we're fragileas messengers, but the message
is not fragile, it's powerful.
I was sitting around a fire atB-Strong and a guy did something
(23:36):
that I remember my granddaddoing when I was a kid.
I remember sitting in front ofthe fireplace.
It something that I remember mygranddad doing when I was a kid
.
I remember sitting in front ofthe fireplace.
It wasn't a wood stove, itwasn't a wood heater, it was an
open fireplace and I remember mygranddad putting a styrofoam or
paper cup of some sort into thefire.
He set it on a log that wasburning but the cup was half
(23:58):
full of water and so the fireburned the cup down to the water
line, so it burned away the toppart of the cup and it was down
to the water line and then thatcup set I don't know how long
I've done it through the yearsand a guy was doing it at a fire
at B-Strong a couple weeks agoand it'll sit there and it won't
(24:19):
burn.
That water in that cup keepsthat cup from burning.
It's pretty crazy.
We're like that the flames willburn away the part of us that is
not holding water.
You know, as it were.
Um, we're like that the life inthe world will melt away.
The things that are notsustained by jesus.
It's like he's the life-givingwater in us.
(24:40):
Love of Christ, the gospel ofJesus in us, will withstand the
pressure and the heat of theworld around us.
You can believe that, andPaul's living proof of that.
So I want to consider somelessons from Paul's life, and
this passage is the mainlaunching point.
But I want to look at someother places, some lessons that
we could, I think, simply andeffectively focus on and even
(25:04):
imitate.
Paul said it.
He said imitate me as I imitateJesus.
So here's the first lesson fromPaul's life, and this is new
content compared to last seasonor season.
Before.
I did an episode.
It was like a list of things welearned from Paul's life.
I don't remember how manythings it was, but that was a
(25:25):
popular episode.
So this would be like a sequelto that.
Maybe.
1 Corinthians 15, 58,.
Paul shows us how to be faithful, and in that verse he wrote and
I think I memorized this yearsago maybe in a New King James,
but I say it different than theESV or the KJV, I say it I think
it was a new King James.
Anyway, it was this Therefore,my brothers, be steadfast and
(25:51):
immovable, always abounding inthe work of the Lord, for we
know that our labor in the Lordis not in vain.
Now here's how he says it inthe ESV.
Therefore, my beloved brothers,be steadfast and immovable,
always abounding in the work ofthe Lord, knowing that in the
Lord your labor is not in vain.
(26:12):
So very similar Be steadfast,be immovable, be abounding, and
that's be faithful.
Steadfast and immovable, justbe faithful.
Paul showsfast in him.
It would just be faithful.
Paul shows us what that lookslike.
Next, be obedient.
Paul was a very.
He was very obedient to thescripture and to the call of God
on his life.
So he's coming to the end ofhis life.
(26:33):
When he's saying I fought thefight, I finished my race, it's
because he was faithful and it'sbecause he was obedient.
2 Chronicles 16, 9, for the eyesof the Lord, run to and fro
throughout the whole earth togive strong support to those
whose heart is blameless towardhim.
In the context of that versethere's a king that was seeking
approval and strength fromsecular and humanistic allies.
(26:56):
And in seeking this help andapproval, that king had
compromised the most sacredthings he had been entrusted
with.
He had used temple treasuryfunds to buy secular, worldly
support.
I'm telling you, man, it's ashort distance from that to the
parallel in the modern churchculture and progressive
(27:17):
Christianity.
This king had abandoned theconfession of his faith to try
to win the approval of peoplearound him.
So that's the context for thatverse for the eyes of the Lord
run to and fro throughout thewhole earth to give strong
support to those whose heart isblameless toward him Paul was.
Paul was blameless before theLord.
(27:37):
He's faithful.
He was obedient.
One perfect, faithful andobedient.
Um, paul was blameless beforethe Lord.
He was faithful.
He was obedient.
Wasn't perfect, faithful andobedient.
The next charge from Paul wouldbe to not let go of the plow.
Don't take your hands off theplow.
Don't keep your hand to theplow.
Your eyes are on Jesus.
Luke 9, 62,.
Jesus said no one who puts hishand to the plow and looks back
(27:59):
is fit for the kingdom of God.
So when he says I finished myrace, I kept my eyes on Jesus, I
charted a course, I put my handto the plow, I didn't look back
.
He's echoing those words fromJesus Don't let go of the plow.
The next thing I think that Ilearned from Paul and that I'm
(28:22):
challenged with and would wantto challenge you with, is be
real, be real, find yourself inChrist, be authentic, be your
authentic self.
I can tell you, I will say thisOkay, there's a lot of things I
do wrong.
None of us are perfect.
We all make mistakes, but Iwill tell you this wrong.
There's a.
(28:42):
None of us are perfect.
We all make mistakes, but Iwill tell you this it is so
freeing to just be yourself, tobe who you are.
For me, there's times where Ifeel a little out of place in a
certain atmosphere, and it'sbecause I'm authentic to myself.
I'm not going to try to fit inthere.
You know there's a, there's a,there's a balance of.
You know, when Paul says be allthings to all people, I've been
all thanks to all people sothat by any means I might win
(29:04):
some there's a sensitivity, acultural sensitivity in a
situation.
But not to try to win theapproval of people by not being
true to myself.
Find yourself in Christ, loseyourself in Christ.
That's what that Galatians one10verse was about that we read
earlier.
Hold fast to the gospel.
There's no other gospel.
In fact, any other gospel willbring judgment and condemnation.
(29:28):
Paul said that in Galatians 1.
He said if you preach any othergospel, you'll be accursed.
And that was a Greek wordanathema, that means to be
condemned.
So be faithful, be obedient,don't let go of the plow, be
authentic, be real and then lastfinish strong.
(29:50):
And that's where we get intoPaul's final words that we just
read in every season and everylife.
So he said I fought the goodfight and I would.
I would just let me read anexcerpt from a previous.
This is from a previous podcastepisode that we did.
Paul's spirit was unconquerable.
I'm not going to unpack all ofthis.
This is just some bullet pointsfrom that previous episode.
What was it?
To fight the good fight?
(30:11):
Unconquerable spirit, clear andstrategic vision for ministry,
faith that was deeply rooted inwhat God had done and revealed
through the risen Lord to him.
Paul believed in the power ofprayer.
Paul preached with authority.
That was not his own authority,it came from God.
Paul showed us how to engagehostility.
(30:35):
He didn't look for trouble,didn't start fights, never ran
away from it, though.
Always to address hostilitywith composure and strength, but
with humility.
Humility, I think that's that's.
That's that's what it lookslike to fight the good fight,
cause you read those words fightthe good fight.
It's like oh, we're not calledto a militant crusade, so how do
(30:58):
we fight If we're not, you know, taking up arms against
somebody, or stepping into theoctagon with somebody or getting
in a street fight.
How do we fight the good fight?
With a spirit that'sunconquerable, or inconquerable
even when it's scary?
A ministry that's clear andstrategic, the power of prayer.
(31:20):
We fight through our prayerlife.
We fight by proclaiming, withauthority that's not our own,
the truth of Scripture and weengage hostility courageously
but with humility.
Those are all very importantaspects of fighting a good fight
, and so a few verses that Ithink reflect that fighting of
(31:42):
the good fight.
If I could, just I want toaddress something that came from
a comment on social media.
This was a comment on theSnowbird Instagram a few weeks
ago and it was a clip.
You might have seen that.
It was a clip from NSR that theteam posted and I didn't know
(32:04):
they had posted.
I don't have Instagram, so Ihave to look at other people's.
I try to look at it becausethere's a few things I like to
follow along and see whatthey're doing.
I like to follow Tuck'sfootball, I like to follow the
stuff that Swo's posted, andthat's really about it.
But I don't remember exactlywhat I was saying.
I was talking.
(32:25):
It was an excerpt where I wastalking about hey, we're in a
battle, it's a battle for themind.
We're in a war.
It's not just a spiritual war,it's a mental war.
We've got to arm ourselves, etcetera.
Well, the Scripture says armyourselves with the same mind
that was in Christ.
Peter says that Arm yourselveswith the mind of Christ, 1
(32:48):
Timothy 6, 12.
This is right in the middle.
Okay, hold up.
So a guy comments and saysyou're wrong about this.
The scripture describes thearmor of God, which is for
defense.
So we're just to be able tohave a defensive mindset and
know that the world's not goingto harm us or hurt us is what he
(33:09):
was implying, I guess.
And he called me buddy, which,to be honest, just made me mad.
It's, it's, uh.
I realized why I I'm not suitedfor social media.
I can't be on social mediabecause people they talk ugly to
each other, but they say thingsthey wouldn't say to somebody's
face.
So I can tell you I feel veryconfident that if I was
(33:32):
face-to-face with this guy, thathe wouldn't speak to me in the
tone he spoke to me from behindhis phone, you know, or whatever
.
Not because I'm intimidatingand scary, it's just people they
talk in a different tone.
They're ugly when they're ontheir phones, and so he was
saying something implying that,hey, the armor of God is all
(33:55):
defensive, so there's no placefor the kind of talk that I was
sharing, which was, you know,hey, we're in a battle.
Well, 1 Timothy 6.12 says fightthe good fight of the faith,
fight the good fight of thefaith.
I think it's hard to argue withthat.
(34:15):
You know, ephesians 6, I meanit uses the word fight.
Go, do a Greek, go get yourStrong's Concordance and do a
Greek word study on what theword fight means.
It means fight.
Ephesians 6, where we go throughthe whole armor of God in verse
12 of that passage.
(34:36):
So the whole armor of God isEphesians 6, 10 through 20.
It's the 11 verses.
But in verse 12, he says wedon't wrestle against flesh and
blood.
So he paints this picture thatwe're in a combative wrestling
match.
And then, in verse 17, he saystake the sword of the spirit,
(34:57):
which is the word of God.
You'll remember that in Hebrewshe says the word of God is a
double-edged sword, which anyonethat knows anything about the
history of Roman weaponry, thedouble-edged sword, was the
choice combat weapon of mostRoman soldiers.
2 Corinthians, 10, 4, and 5 saythe weapons that we fight with
(35:19):
are not of this world.
They have divine power todemolish strongholds, including
arguments and pretensions, whichmeans that's the point I was
making in that post was thatclip that was posted is we're in
a battle for the mind.
It's a philosophical battle,it's an existential battle.
It's a battle against.
It's an existential battle,it's a, a battle against pagan
ideologies and ideas.
(35:41):
And so, uh, anyway, um,something to to really consider,
I think, um, is that it is a,it is a battle, and that if it's
a battle, you need a weapon.
So anyone that says, well, it'sthe armor of God is defensive
armor, so it's a battle, youneed a weapon.
So anyone that says, well, thearmor of God is defensive armor,
so it's not about weaponry,Well, it's a battle, you don't
(36:04):
go to battle without a weapon.
So there's that.
So whoever that guy is, he's adummy.
Let me just say that, let me bereal clear, and then I know
that will offend some peoplethat I said that and so I'm
sorry I probably shouldn't saythat, but you're a dummy If you
think you're going to battle andthat you don't need a weapon.
That's dumb.
Romans eight, 13, romans, eight,13 says, for if you live
(36:26):
according to the flesh, you willdie.
But if, by the spirit, you putto death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
Put to death.
How you put something to deathyou put on armor and curl up in
a fetal position and take yourshots.
No, you put it to death, dummy,okay.
So when Paul says that he foughtthe fight, we know he means he
fought the good fight, theChristian fight.
(36:48):
It's a spiritual battle, it's aphilosophical battle.
You're at war, so armyourselves.
I really do think.
Let me find this verse.
It's in first Peter.
I think this is maybe one ofthe most like fire you up.
Verses 1, peter 4, verse 1.
Since, therefore, christsuffered in the flesh, arm
yourselves in the same mind orwith the same way of thinking.
(37:09):
Arm yourselves.
It's this aggressive, offensiveidea of arm your mind, have the
mind of Christ.
It's an offensive thing.
And so Paul fought the goodfight.
Paul then said I finished therace.
Now, his race was a race ofpreaching missionary work, but
it was a race of endurance.
(37:30):
I got two of my kids are doingtrack and field.
Um and oh, dear law, I'll, I'llwatch those kids run that like
the two mile race.
It's.
It's a.
What is that?
Eight laps, and I just think,bless their hearts.
What are they thinking?
Are their mamas making them dothis?
(37:50):
Do they really truly enjoy this?
It looks awful.
And I know people like there'speople that like to run, know
some, I know what some of ourlisteners like to run.
You know, like when I say runlike not sprint but jog, you
know like at like long distance,like you're jogging, at a
you're you're long distancerunning.
People like to go out and runfive miles and so you go out,
(38:12):
get into a good jog, and youjust, you just go.
Maybe it's a good clip sixminute mile pace or whatever and
you go out and you just go.
Maybe it's a good clipsix-minute mile pace or whatever
and you go out and you jog forfive miles.
You don't sprint for five miles, you jog, you don't sprint, you
sprint.
I think in track and field thesprint is the 100 and the 200.
(38:35):
Some people might would say the400.
The 400, that's a full lap.
I don't know if that's a sprint, it's a pretty, it's close to
it, but but there's.
You know there's a differencebetween sprinting and long
distance running.
You just settle into a goodpace and you've got.
Paul's race was a race ofendurance.
He ran and he ran it andfinished it and he's saying that
(38:58):
and he can say that, um.
And then he said I kept thefaith and the idea of keeping
means to, to keep guarded Likehe guarded it.
Guard ourselves, we guard ourminds.
We guard our time.
We guard our treasures, ourfinances.
We guard our marriages andrelationships.
We guard listen, let me explainsomething If you are married,
(39:20):
the primary focus of your lifeoutside of advancing the gospel,
um, in your own life, like likethe work of the gospel in your
own life.
So your first, your firstprimary responsibility is your
spiritual growth, okay, butoutside of that, it's your
marriage, then your children andyour home.
(39:42):
It's not making your mama happy.
You left you know.
The scripture says that we leaveour mother and father and hold
fast to our wife.
And so I got to guard mymarriage, guard my family guard,
my home guard my thoughts.
Marriage guard my family guard,my home guard my thoughts.
And when, when Paul said I keptthe faith, he also said in
Galatians 6, 17, I bear in mybody the marks of the gospel, I
(40:04):
carry in my body the marks ofthe gospel.
I mean he's carrying scarsaround.
And then he get to verse eight.
So he says I've, I've, you knowI've.
I fought the fight, fought thegood fight.
I finished the race.
I've kept the faith, I'veguarded it.
That's a very.
Again, it goes back to whatwe're saying about the sword of
the spirit.
(40:25):
He guarded his faith, heprotected himself.
We've got to protect ourselvesfrom the snares of the devil.
And then, in the end, what weget is he says I received the
victor's crown.
It's a royal crown.
He received the crown of life.
That's a gift given to thevictor.
There's two different types ofcrowns mentioned in scripture.
(40:46):
There's the crown that a Kingwould wear, and we see Christ.
We see Jesus wearing a crownlike that.
But then there's the what'scalled the victor's crown, and
the victor's crown is a crownthat was awarded.
You know like we've seen thisin the olympic games.
It's like a wreath, you know, acrown of leaves or whatever.
Um and so the the word that heuses in second timothy 4 8.
(41:09):
At the end of his life he saysthere's laid up for me a crown
of righteousness.
It's the victor's crown, it'sand and and.
For the believer it'simperishable because what he's
done is he's laid up treasuresin heaven.
And so Paul finished the raceman.
So the encouragement this week.
So I said I want this to be anencouragement, this episode.
(41:29):
There's times where we justneed to be encouraged.
So I want you to be encouragedthat you can put your hand to
the plow and don't look back.
You can fix your eyes on Jesus.
You can open the word of Godand read it every day and listen
to the truth and the life thatcomes from the words of
scripture.
You can walk in the light, notin the darkness.
(41:51):
You can reject the lies of theenemy, which might mean putting
your phone down or disabling.
I've been experimenting withthis because I think I've
thought about a couple of ushave thought about getting dumb
phones, but sadly we're at apoint.
You know where you kind of needyour phone for email or some
work stuff.
I need to have access to GoogleDrive, yada, yada, yada.
(42:11):
So you're trying to figure outhow do I dumb this thing down
where it's not consuming me.
And so I took the web browser.
I just I had someone get rid ofthe internet on my phone.
So, whatever it is, I've stillgot my iPhone.
It's an older iPhone but I'vegot.
Right now I'm experimenting.
I've only I'm only a week intothis I'm experiment with.
(42:32):
I can do email on it.
Uh, I can use my you know, mydirections, my maps, my GPS.
Uh, let's see what else can Ido Internet wise.
There's a handful, a smallhandful, of apps that I've got
on there, one that I use forhunting.
I've got an Onyx app that I usefor hunting.
Some of you might be familiarwith that.
Uh, what else have I got?
Uh, the weather app.
(42:55):
I kept it Uh that's about it?
I think the app that theteachers use to communicate from
the school, and so that's aboutit.
So trying to eliminate somedistractions, you know what I
mean.
So easy to get distracted.
So anyway, you got to put yourphone down.
Man, and and and and just getout of the lull of that man.
(43:17):
I watch people, you watch justnext time you're around a bunch
of people.
Look how many of them arestaring at their screen.
Most of them are on socialmedia.
So anyway, I don't want I knowI ran about this all the time.
I'm not just trying to rantabout phone stuff, but I'm
saying if you're going to, ifyou're going to plow forward,
you're going to need to removesome distractions.
(43:38):
Put your hand to the plow,don't look back.
Fix your eyes on Jesus, pursueholiness, tell others about
Jesus.
But if I could sync all of thisup, if you want to live
positively, hold a high view ofthe sovereignty of God, a high
view of the authority ofScripture, and put a whole lot
of responsibility on yourself tobe faithful, to be obedient, to
(44:01):
run the race to finish the taskthat God's put in front of you,
because we've all got a task,you can do it, and you do it by
the power of the Holy Spirit inyou.
If you're a police officer, afirefighter, a truck driver, if
you're a school teacher,administrator, if you're a CEO
of a corporation, if you're anaccountant, if you're a medical
professional, if you're in themilitary, if you are a
(44:22):
stay-at-home mom, if you are ondisability because of an injury
or an illness, whatever yourlife looks like, you can be
faithful to Jesus.
You can be obedient to his word.
You can do that.
You can do it here.
We are at the end of Paul'swatch, we're at the end of his
life, and he's saying thesethings that we can all resonate
(44:43):
with, you know, and so I think,not seeking the.
I love a verse in Paul's letterto the Corinthians when it comes
to being faithful, beingobedient, don't let go of the
plow, be real, finish strong.
It's that verse that Spencerreferenced in last week's
episode, where Paul says hey, I,basically my life is of no
(45:08):
value to me.
If only I can finish the raceand the task of testifying to
the gospel of Jesus Christ andGod's grace.
It's in Acts 20.
Let me just challenge you withthat, encourage you with that.
It goes along with that.
1 Corinthians 15, 58 that weread earlier, that therefore, my
(45:28):
brothers, be immovable andsteadfast, always abounding in
the work of the Lord.
Somebody needs to hear thisthis week Just keep your hand to
the plow, be faithful, beobedient, be faithful, be
obedient, be authentic and knowthat one day you're going to
have an opportunity to finishstrong.
Right now, today's not the daythat 99% of us.
Today's not the day we're beingcalled home.
(45:50):
Today's not the day, buttoday's the day we're in the
middle of the race, we're in themiddle of the fight, we're in
the middle of the wrestlingmatch.
And so, fight the good fight,fight it and know that you're
running the race right now.
Paul said to the Philippiansanother time, when he's in
prison run with race, run withpatience the race that is set
(46:12):
before you.
Look into Jesus, the author andthe prophet.
I'm sorry, I'm quoting Hebrews.
I get.
There's two verses, passages.
I get confused.
One that says, um, look intoJesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, but the other onesays, um, that we fix our eyes
on Jesus, and and uh, hold on,let me just read the Philippians
(46:34):
one.
I'm I'm crossing up, uhpassages.
Okay, hold on, let me just readthe Philippians one.
I'm crossing up passages.
Okay, I got that Hebrewspassage confused with the
Philippians passage, philippians3,.
Not that I have already obtainedthis or am already perfect, but
I press on to make it my ownbecause Christ Jesus has made me
his own Brothers.
I do not consider that I'vemade it my own, but one thing I
(46:57):
do forgetting what lies behind.
That goes back to Jesus sayingno man who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit forthe kingdom of God.
Forget what lies behind,straining forward to what lies
ahead.
Some of us need to hear thisword this week Let go of the
past, let go of it, let go of itand just know it's under the
(47:18):
blood of Jesus.
Forget what lies behind,straining forward to what lies
ahead.
I press on toward the goal forthe prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus.
Pursue Christ, finish your race.
Right now you're not finishingthe race, you're running the
race.
When I think of a race, um, Ithink of you know.
(47:40):
You might think of an ultramarathon, you might think of a
sprint we talked about, you know, uh, running a sprint, or
running a two mile race, orrunning a five mile, a five K,
or running a marathon or anultra marathon there's all
levels of races, but for me whenI think about running a race, I
think about NASCAR.
As a kid, when I was growing up, my granddad would take me to
(48:01):
races all the time.
I mean a lot.
Um, I was uh gosh.
I have a lot of fond memories.
It was a place called the newAsheville speedway.
It's no longer there, but wewould go to the races.
This was when I was inelementary school, so from about
my second grade to sixth grade,I would go to the races with my
, my granddad, all the time.
(48:21):
My papa and I loved it, and youknow the two things that that
people love about races are uhwrecks.
And then, just, you know thecrazy passing like when somebody
gets to the front of the pack,watching a car move through the
front of the pack and, um, youknow Hank.
Hank's been on here before.
He's one of my partners atsnowboard, one of the executive
(48:42):
partners, and he had an awesomeNASCAR career and I love hearing
him tell stories.
But my favorite NASCAR finish ofall time was at Bristol, up and
up and on the TennesseeVirginia line.
At the Bristol race I was witha buddy of mine, me and little
had gone there with a with abuddy of mine and uh, dale
(49:04):
Earnhardt was still alive andracing and he had the car to
beat and he got wrecked and hewent to pit road and they duct
taped his car back together andhe came back out onto the track
into the race.
He's a hundred laps down and hemade up a lap.
So he goes from being a hundredlaps down to be at 99 laps down
in a direct car.
He comes out and and, uh, andgets, gets a lap back is awesome
(49:25):
, it's a long race, y'all.
We're in the middle of it rightnow.
You might be in a spot whereyou've pulled on a pit road,
banged up, and you're ducttaping and putting things back
together.
But look, get back out there,get in a race, fix your eyes on
Jesus.
One day you're going to finishyour race and Paul to get there.
There's this story that Hanktold me one time Paul didn't
(49:47):
work alone.
He understood the need for ateam.
He worked to carry out hismission and you'll always see
that he builds a team around him.
In fact, the passage that we'rereading right here uh, when,
when it gets, you go a littlefurther down in second Timothy
four and he says hey, I've gotthis team of people Crescens and
Titus and Titus had to leave.
(50:10):
He's gone to Dalmatia.
You know, one guy's gone tothis other town, one guy's gone.
I'm kind of here just with acouple of dudes and I need you
to come join us.
I'm sending someone to takeyour place.
It's this real cool interactionwhere you realize Paul always
was with the team.
He never worked alone, hewasn't a lone ranger.
And I remember talking to Hankone time about this and I said
(50:32):
how many people are on a NASCARteam?
And he said, gosh, like on acup team, like the, the top
level team, there's 50 guys, 50to 70 guys.
And then he said on like a, thesecond tier team, what used to
be called bush I forget whatit's called now infinity maybe.
Anyway, the second tier, likeyou got the cup cars in the next
(50:56):
level used to be called theBush series.
Um, hank said he was running arace and he was in second place
in the Bush race at Las Vegas,had the fastest car.
He's literally.
He said I had the fastest carand I'm going to, I'm going to
pass the leader and the winnerof this race, the the winner
takes $125,000 home that day.
(51:17):
This race, the the winner takes$125,000 home that day and he
pulls in for his last pit stopand there's one guy whose job is
to tear off the windshield.
What they do is they've gotthese tear away windshields so
the windshield is in layers,it's kind of like a big decal.
So as you're getting road grimeand grit and oil and stuff on
the wind and it starts to getreal cloudy to look through,
(51:37):
they rip a layer of it off andnow you can see clear, you've
got a new layer, that's clear.
And this guy goes to rip andtear off the windshield.
And that was his only job totear the windshield sticker off
so that the driver would have aclean windshield coming out of a
pit stop.
He didn't get it torn off, itbunched up and, as a result,
(52:00):
hank got stuck on pit road anddidn't win, you know, fell way
back, didn't win.
$125,000 mistake.
It takes a team and everybodyneeds to do their part.
And Paul, you know he ran hisrace with, with a team and, and,
and within that team hepracticed mentorship, he was
invested in relationships, heloved the church, and so if
we're going to run our race.
(52:21):
Let's run our race, loving thechurch and doing the best we can
to do our part.
And yeah, and he kept the faith.
Paul kept the faith and I lovethat, and that is, he guarded
what was entrusted to him.
He guarded relationships, heguarded what God had given him
(52:44):
in terms of ministry.
He guarded his own personalholiness and I love that.
So, all right, that's what Igot for y'all this week.
I do want to read a couple ofcomments from social media.
I mean not social media, wecall it like Spotify, apple,
podcast, stuff, like that.
But just before I do that, justsaying I hope this is an
encouragement to you this week.
(53:05):
I hope you'll be encouraged andthat you will run your race
well this week.
You will guard what's beenentrusted.
If you're discouraged, beatdown, beat up.
It's a rough patch for you.
Just be faithful.
Just be faithful, just beobedient.
Keep your hand to the plow.
Okay, all right, before we go,I did want to read.
I got a dude.
I want to give a dude a shoutout here.
(53:26):
Give me a second, okay.
So I read a negative or shared anegative comment.
I wanted to give a couple morenegative ones that were pretty
funny.
One dude said, uh, and this wasfrom instagram, the quote that
swore posted.
This wasn't an nsr quote, itwas a swore instagram post, but
it was, uh, it was an excerptfrom an sr episode.
(53:49):
He said, uh, this is, this islike the christian version of
larping, which I thought waspretty funny.
He's basically basically saying, uh and I think I might've
mentioned this already in aprevious episode, I don't
remember LARPing is live action,role play and where people
dress up in medieval outfits andpretend to be in medieval
(54:12):
battles, it's kind of like civilwar reenacted.
You know you're pretending tobe in a battle.
So, anyway, I thought that waspretty funny.
But not true, but funny.
Um.
So I wanted to read, uh, somepositive, some positive uh
ratings and reviews.
Rather, uh, it's calledwonderful podcast.
(54:32):
This came in about a month ago.
Started listening to episodesafter I went to winter SWO for
my fourth year back at MLKweekend.
Had a month ago.
Started listening to episodesafter I went to winter SWO for
my fourth year back at MLKweekend.
Had a great time.
Heart of SWO is so Godglorifying such an awesome group
of people Podcast.
Great to listen to.
I especially loved hearing theinterview of SWO staff.
I've definitely enjoyed hearingpeople's different insights on
topics.
I'm excited to see what more isreleased.
(54:55):
Appreciate the time taken toupload new episodes.
That's from William.
William's from Ohio and he saidwould love some SWO swag.
So, william, we're going tohook you up.
We're going to hook you up,william, you need to email and
the team will take care of you.
So William from Ohio gets ashout-out out and he's getting
(55:18):
some SWO swag Pretty cool.
Love Snowbird, go to turn.
This is from a dairy.
It's called SWO for life.
Love Snowbird, go to Turner'schapel, which the church has
been bringing students for over20 years.
There's a reason for that.
Always godly, biblical teaching, godly, insane adventures NSR
is an awesome extension of thatministry.
Appreciate teaching godly andsane adventures NSR is an
(55:40):
awesome extension of thatministry.
Appreciate that.
Derry Jay Stewart, jay StewartJay says I've been sharpened.
I've been keeping up with SWOfrom the time I was a sophomore
in high school.
Now I'm 24, married and have adaughter.
Swo's teaching podcast, noSanity Required and the sermons
from Red Oak have made asignificant impact on my life.
Its refreshing emphasis onexpositional preaching, the
(56:04):
character displayed by theteachers and leaders and the
consistent encouragement for themissional living have served me
as a necessary antidote tocultural noise.
I'm a member of a local churchand I'm pretty involved, but
these podcasts have helped tofill gaps in my discipleship
lately, getting insight on thedisciplines, attitudes and
values that Brody and other menpractices really sharpened me to
(56:27):
be a better Christian, husband,dad and employee.
I tell everyone looking for aplace to go to go to SWO,
looking for a summer camp to goto go to SWO, thankful to God
for you all.
I appreciate that, jay Stewart,it means a lot and thank all of
y'all for sharing.
If you haven't done a rating orreview, we're at like on Apple.
(56:49):
Let's see, we've got 331ratings.
That's not a lot, but Iappreciate those of you that
have, and we're like a 4.9, sothat's good.
You don't want to be a 5.0.
If you're not making somebodymad, what are you doing?
And I think on Spotify it'ssimilar.
I think we're like we got 400,300 and something.
(57:11):
So, anyway, give us a reviewplease.
That'd be awesome and it helps.
I think it helps distribute ourstuff.
We, we, uh, we've grown so muchby volume in terms of how many
downloads we're getting eachweek, how many subscribers.
It's pretty awesome, but wedon't have a ton of reviews.
So if you're like me, you'renot a big reviewer just I'm
(57:32):
asking you to go in there and dothe five star rating and just
say a three word sentence welove n, nsr or something like
that.
That would be really coolBecause when we've turned down
we've chosen not to be monetizedor to do advertisements and
stuff like that, so it's alittle harder to get it
distributed and pushed around,but volume and sharing and
(57:54):
liking and stuff like thatreally helps with that.
Anyway, thank youall forlistening.
It's been an hour of merambling.
I hope it's been beneficial andfruitful and I hope you're
encouraged to go live.
Like Paul, you're in the race.
There might be somebodylistening and you're finishing
your race.
Finish it well, but all of uswill one day finish our race.
That may not be today ortonight or anytime soon for you,
(58:17):
but finish our race.
That may not be today ortonight or anytime soon for you,
but finish your race by runningit well right now.
Don't look back.
Look ahead, keep your eyes onJesus, keep your hand to the
plow.
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no Sanity Required.
Hey, in this week's episode I'm hoping to just
encourage you.
We all need to be encouraged,especially when it comes to our
walk with the Lord.
I don't know what you're goingthrough this week.
It could be family drama, itcould be work drama, school
drama, it could be conflict, itcould be parenting struggles and
difficulties.
We try to tackle a lot ofdifferent things on this podcast
(00:23):
, but sometimes kind ofeverything comes under one
umbrella or one roof for thebeliever, and that is, we need
to be encouraged to fight thegood fight, to run the race, to
stay focused, to keep our handto the plow.
The most important thing we cando is keep our eyes on Jesus
and stay positive and live inthe light and walk in the light.
(00:44):
It's a dark and dying world.
It's a broken world, andsometimes that brokenness is
personal.
We feel it, we're part of it,and sometimes we feel it from
the outside.
We're living in the light,we're doing our best but, man,
sometimes the pressure of theworld around us is overwhelming.
So I'm hoping that this weekand this episode you will be
(01:05):
encouraged.
I just want to share some wordsof encouragement from God's
word and from some practicalexamples in the scripture.
So with that, welcome to noSanity Required.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
All of us are familiar with a guy named the
Apostle Paul.
If you're a new Christian, he'sprobably one of the first names
you've heard outside of Jesus,his story in the Gospels and
maybe some of the earlydisciples.
Jesus, his story in the gospelsand maybe some of the early
disciples, the apostle Paul issomeone who came out of a world
of not only was he not walkingwith Jesus, not only was he not
a Christian, but as a professionhe opposed the gospel, he
(01:57):
opposed the words and the workof Jesus.
Paul had done terrible things.
He'd killed people, had peoplehad people killed, separated
families, imprisoned people, and, and the crime that he was
imprisoning these people for, orpersecuting these people for,
was the crime of uh followingJesus and trusting and believing
(02:20):
in the way of Christ.
And so Paul, in the midst ofthis career, as as most of us
are familiar with, in the way ofChrist.
And so Paul, in the midst ofthis career, as as most of us
are familiar with, in the midstof this career, literally in the
act of persecuting Christians,god comes to him and just
radically saves him.
And I don't want to go down adiff different rabbit trail here
, but in the later this yearwe're going to be doing an
(02:41):
episode where we talk about thetension between the sovereignty
of God and the responsibility ofman and salvation.
A lot of people believe that ifyou hold a high view of the
sovereignty of God, somethingthat's maybe Calvinistic or
Reformed, that it does away withyour view of it, diminishes
(03:03):
your view of missions andevangelism.
And I would just say theapostle Paul is someone who was
not looking for Jesus.
He was not seeking arelationship with God through
Christ.
He thought he had arelationship with God through
his uh, worship of the ancientreligion of Judaism and he was
not looking for a relationshipwith Jesus.
And he was not looking for arelationship with Jesus.
(03:23):
Jesus came to him, struck himdown, blinded him, overwhelmed
him and drew him into arelationship, and Paul then held
a very high view of thesovereignty of God.
Because of that and because ofall that God revealed to him,
paul also then became probablythe most influential Christian
(03:46):
in church history.
He did that by plantingchurches, going on mission,
being a missionary.
I was in a conversation with apastor friend this past week, a
very faithful brother.
He's a local guy, he's SouthernAppalachian.
We come from the same type ofbackground, same culture.
(04:07):
We're both from the same areaof Western North Carolina and
very few people in this areahold a high view of the
sovereignty of God.
Most churches, most most ofwhat is taught in churches is
that we need to convince peopleto become Christians.
So there's a lot of tensionthere, because I do want to
(04:30):
plead with people to give theirlives to Jesus, but ultimately I
trust in the sovereign hand ofGod to draw people to himself,
to convict their conscience, tooverwhelm them with the reality
of their own sin and their needfor a Savior, and then to bring
that person to a place ofrepentance, submission and
(04:51):
surrender.
And that's what the story ofthe Apostle Paul is.
So I was sharing with thispastor friend.
We were just talking about thedifficulty of doing ministry
sometimes in a culture wherepeople put the bulk of
responsibility on human work andendeavor.
If you can preach the sermongood enough, if you can give the
(05:12):
invitation aggressively oremotionally enough, if you can
convince somebody that they'rewrong and you're right, then all
these things that you can do totry to get someone to become a
Christian.
Listen, brother or sister, theonly way a person's going to
become a Christian is if theHoly Spirit of God convicts them
, arrests their conscience andby his overwhelming grace and
(05:33):
conviction, he draws them into arelationship with himself.
For me, that motivates me toproclaim Christ, to be engaged
in missions to tell people aboutJesus, to proclaim Christ, to
be engaged in missions to tellpeople about Jesus.
I've had people say to me I'vehad this happen often, not a
time or two, but often I've hadpeople question the integrity of
(05:57):
Snowbird as a ministry becausethey say well, you guys, you
hold a reformed position.
If you don't know what that is,you can go look it up, don't
worry about it.
We don't buy into labels.
I'm not going to label Snowbird.
I'm not going to, I'm not goingto pick a label and attach it
to Snowbird.
We we hold a high view of threethings.
Okay, and and this couldprobably be its own episode and
(06:18):
maybe it will be we hold a highview of the sovereignty of God,
which, just when we're talkingabout the sovereignty of God,
we're talking about that Godorders things.
He has the authority and thewisdom to order things according
to his will and he doeswhatever he pleases.
We hold a high view of thesovereignty of God.
We do not believe that God isanemic or impotent or incapable
(06:41):
of doing what he intends to do.
There are things that I wouldlike to do, that I want to do
that I just don't have theability to do.
I don't have the power, theauthority, the wisdom, the gift,
the gifting or whatever.
So we hold a high view of thesovereignty of God.
There's not an I can't mindset,when it comes to who God is,
that there's something he can'tdo.
That's that there's somethingthat's not in the scope of his
(07:03):
sovereign power.
So we hold, number one we hold ahigh view of the sovereignty of
God.
Number two we hold a high viewof the authority of scripture.
This is why we teach the wordof God expositionally,
expositorily.
We are very careful in how wehandle the scripture.
We preach and teach the word ofGod the way the prophets of old
(07:24):
did, where we can say here'swhat God says In the old King
James typically it was quoteunquote the prophet would say
thus saith the Lord.
So we're going to say here'swhat God says thus saith the
Lord.
Okay, we hold a high view of theauthority of scripture.
We believe that God's word isbreathed out, that it is in its
(07:45):
original texts and its originalwritings and its original form
that was breathed out by God andis profitable.
It's useful to convict us ofsin, to give us wisdom, to point
areas of our lives where weneed to grow.
It's profitable for rebuke,reproof, for correction and for
instruction in righteousness, orfor me to live my life the way
(08:08):
that God would have me to livemy life.
So we hold there's two thingswe hold a high view of the
sovereignty of God, we hold ahigh view of the authority of
Scripture.
And the third thing, we hold ahigh view of the responsibility
of man.
That means I have a deep andgreat responsibility to respond
(08:29):
to a sovereign God because hesaved me, because he called me,
because through his word now getinto the second one, because I
hold a high view of theauthority of scripture.
I have a responsibility to beobedient to God's word, to know
God's word, to study God's word,to be actively pursuing
relationship's word, to knowGod's word, to study God's word,
to be actively pursuingrelationship with Christ through
his word.
So if I hold a high view of allthree of these things, what
(08:53):
that's going to do is it's goingto drive me to be missional, to
be on mission, to beevangelistic, to share Christ
with others.
Someone that questions uh, Iremember years ago someone that
questions uh, I remember yearsago someone questioning well, if
you believe so highly in thesovereignty of God, then you're
not going to want to do missionsor be evangelistic.
Listen, as you know and asyou've heard in recent episode,
(09:17):
my daughter served in a remote,oftentimes unstable part of the
world where people need Jesusand she is there and we are
supporting her being there, herand her husband and their
daughter.
We support it, we encourage it,we believe in it, because those
people that God has called themto need Jesus, they need
discipleship, they need anopportunity to be brought out of
(09:41):
the dark and into the light toreceive the gospel.
And we believe that God hascalled us to take the gospel of
the dark and into the light toreceive the gospel.
And we believe that God hascalled us to take the gospel to
the nations.
We also believe he's called usto take the gospel to our
neighbor.
So we hold a high view ofmissions because of our high
view of those other things.
We hold a high view of sharingJesus with your neighbor because
(10:02):
of those things.
We hold a high view of thesovereignty of God, the
authority of scripture and theresponsibility of man.
So before we launch into themain idea today, let me just set
this up.
Paul believed in a high view ofthe sovereignty of God, a high
view of the authority ofscripture, a high view in the
(10:25):
responsibility of man, and itcomes through in all of his
preaching, teaching and writing.
So this is who Paul is.
He came out of a world where hewasn't seeking Christ and he
was brought into the light, intorelationship with the Lord At
the end of Paul's life the LordAt the end of Paul's life.
(10:51):
He has lived an incrediblyeventful life when it comes to
his pursuit of, when it comes tohis faithfulness to the calling
God had placed on his life.
Paul traveled multiplemissionary journeys spanning the
majority of the Roman Empire.
He planted churches on threecontinents.
He trained pastors and elders.
At one point he's writing toTitus and he said the reason I
left you on the island of Creteis so that you could appoint
(11:12):
elders in every town.
I think that one verse is asnippet, a quick shot of Paul's
mindset and methodology andphilosophy of church plant life.
He's planting churches in everytown.
He's training up elders who aretraining up elders, elder being
an overseer or a pastor.
He's equipping the saints.
(11:34):
He's doing the work ofequipping the saints.
He said in another place.
He gives instruction on how toorder and set up church,
leadership and government.
He gives clear instruction andthen lives it out by example how
to mobilize missionaries andsend them out.
Paul did so much work to spreadthe gospel and establish the
(11:56):
church in the first century thatto this day is impacting us.
In the course of his life he wasimprisoned multiple times.
He was arrested often.
He was beaten.
He was beaten in a publicsquare as a punishment from
Jewish leadership.
(12:16):
He was beaten in public as apunishment from Roman
authorities.
Ultimately, it was the Romanswho would execute him, tradition
says, by beheading.
He was persecuted by friendswho turned their back on him.
He experienced incredibleadventures, going through
(12:37):
mountains and over deserts andacross oceans.
He was shipwrecked on an islandone time where he was bit by a
poisonous snake and God usedthat situation to preserve his
life.
And then, through those local,native, indigenous population,
god used that incident orscenario to reach those people
(13:01):
with the gospel in a way thatthey said oh the God who has
saved this man's life from thisviper must be real.
He must be very powerful.
He used his platform in frontof government officials.
He went before local kings.
Imagine in your ministry as,just as an American or whatever,
(13:24):
if you're Canadian or if you'refrom an African country and
Asian country, but for for thoseof us that are here, where I'm,
where I live and where I'm acitizen, if you're an American,
if you get to go share thegospel before your County
commissioners, your local policechief or sheriff, you get to
share the gospel between theassociation, the ecumenical
(13:47):
interdenominational associationof churches.
You get to proclaim Christ tothe ecumenical interfaith
ministries of the Muslim andJehovah's Witness and Mormon and
Hindu and Sikh religions inyour city or at your university.
You get to be the voice, theChristian representative.
(14:10):
Um, I had an opportunity onetime years ago, little, and I've
told this story before, but we,we were tasked with I.
I gave a lecture before.
Uh, an open forum on a on asecular university campus is a.
This is a university with30,000 enrolled students, so a
major state university that, ifI said it, everybody knows who
(14:31):
it is and could say what theirmascot is.
And I was given on thatparticular week they had
different folks coming in eachweek.
I gave the position of the likethe Judeo-Christian belief,
about biblical, about thebiblical stance on sexuality and
marriage.
Then Little came on stage withme and we fielded questions.
(14:52):
It was a very intense, hostileenvironment to some degree, but
it was also a warm environmentto some degree because this was
pre-COVID pre-things have gottenso crazy and combative in the
last few years.
But there were people that wereantagonistic, that disagreed
with us.
There were people that heckleda little bit and yelled, but for
the most part most people wereattentive as we gave the
(15:15):
biblical perspective.
I've often thought about that,standing on that stage in that
auditorium with 400 or 500students, many of them
nonbelievers, lesbian couplessitting right down front that I
kept making eye contact with.
I think about Paul going infront of the Areopagus on Mars
Hill and defending the faith.
It'd be like arguing for theChristian faith in front of the
(15:38):
Supreme Court.
It'd be like going in thehalftime of the Super Bowl,
being in the halftime show ofthe Super Bowl and getting to
preach the gospel for 10, 15, 20minutes.
It would be like the biggeststage of the day.
Paul also got to go before theequivalent of mayors, governors,
(16:00):
the Senate, the Congress, kings, prime ministers, presidents.
He got to speak to wholebattalions or brigades of the
Roman military and every singletime he had that opportunity he
proclaimed Christ and hisresurrection and his lordship.
(16:22):
He preached the gospel.
That's why he could say inRomans one I am unashamed of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's the power of God untosalvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first andalso to the Greek.
So it doesn't matter if you'reAfrican, asian, north American,
south American, doesn't matterwhat your background is, what
(16:44):
your parents' lives were like,what their faith was or wasn't.
The gospel is for you, and Paulunderstood that and he
proclaimed it.
I've always appreciated theministry of Billy Graham because
wherever he went, he preachedthe same gospel and he preached
it hot and non-negotiable.
This is who Jesus is, this iswhat Jesus has done, this is
(17:06):
what Jesus says, and peoplewould be saved.
And when Paul would travel andpreach, people would come to
faith often.
But he would also often bepersecuted.
And so he came to the end ofhis life and after laboring for
decades and having an impactfulbut difficult ministry, he came
(17:26):
to the end of his life and wrotesome words to Timothy in the
final months of his life,knowing that his death was
imminent.
He was imprisoned often, but atone time he was stoned in the
street and left for dead.
I've often imagined how brutalthat punishment must be to be
(17:46):
stoned, to have people standaround you and throw large rocks
into your body, into your head,into your shoulders, your back.
You know.
I would imagine you'd ball upin the fetal position, try to
cover the back of your head, butthen that exposes your ribs.
You take enough shots in theribsal position, try to cover
the back of your head, but thenthat exposes your ribs.
You take enough shots in theribs and then you try to cover
that because you're hurting sobad and then a rock hits your
(18:08):
neck, your jaw, your head, andthe goal with stoning was to
kill somebody.
So they stoned him to the pointthat they thought he was dead.
They then left him for dead andGod preserved his life.
And what he did after that washe got up and he kept preaching.
Paul labored for decades and hisministry was difficult.
(18:28):
But what I want, what I want todo, what I want to think about
in this episode, is how hefinished strong, but also how he
had consistently labored andrun the race.
So his strong finish came atthe end of a strong race.
What's that look like, to beable to say that at the end of
your life, to be able to saywhat Paul says in 2 Timothy,
(18:51):
chapter 4.
Let me read that to you here 2Timothy, chapter 4, second
letter.
Paul wrote to Timothy, who wasa pastor.
He had discipled and trainedand equipped.
He says in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 6, 7, and 8 For I'm
already being poured out as adrink Offering.
The time of my Departure hascome.
(19:14):
I fought the good fight.
I finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there's laid Up forme the crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteousjudge, will award to me on that
day, and not only to me but alsoto all who have loved his
appearing.
He said these three thingsafter saying hey, I'm getting,
I'm being poured out, my, my, mydeparture is coming soon.
(19:35):
I'm going to die and leave thisworld, but I I can say these
three things I fought a goodfight, finished the race.
I fought the good fight,finished the race.
I kept the faith.
Might we be able to say thosethings at the end of our lives.
I fought the good fight.
That's.
That's 100% my goal.
It's 1000% my goal.
(19:56):
I want it to be said of me thatI was faithful to Jesus.
It was a prominent missionsmobilizer several hundred years
ago.
You might have heard of him.
His name was Count Ludwig vanZinzendorf.
That's a mouthful and he'squoted with one of my favorite
quotes ever.
And if you've been around thisministry at all, you've heard me
say this, quote this guy.
(20:17):
He said preach the gospel, dieand and be forgotten.
This was a man that was.
He was rich, he personallyfunded an enormous missions work
, but I just appreciate wherehis heart and his vision was.
And you know we're in this worldthat's just surrounded by
materialism, technology, thedistractions of entertainment,
(20:40):
abundance.
That leads, honestly leads tomore wantonness, more saturated
in self and a hedonistic andhumanistic approach to life.
People celebrate individualism,but everyone tries to look the
same.
If you pay attention to quote-,quote, unquote influencers,
(21:02):
everybody's trying to find theirlittle niche, but still stay in
the lane.
You know people are.
You know, in one sense, youeverybody tries to be the same
and fight for the same things,which is that's just all about
approval, approval of others,and sometimes that approval
leads to, you know monetarybenefit or you don't have people
to follow your liking.
Make some money at it.
But honestly, most people justwant to be approved.
(21:24):
In social circles, socialmovements, agendas like this
driving desire to be approved bysociety, we want the world to
approve of us.
We want to figure out how can Ilive in the world and have the
world celebrate who I am, whenthe reality is we.
The world celebrates the thingsthat God hates and speaks
(21:45):
clearly against in his word andthen the what the world does is
it takes those things andrenames those things as heroism.
Or you're a hero because youreject against what God says in
his word.
I mean you rebel against whatGod says in his word.
You reject that authority ofGod in his word.
I mean you rebel against whatGod says in his word.
You reject that authority ofGod's word.
But I love there's a quote inPaul's life.
(22:09):
He had written to the church atGalatia, which actually was like
a super religious culture, theopposite of a place like Corinth
, where they were super secularand hedonistic.
He wrote to these folks inGalatia and the believers in
that city were facing a lot ofsocial pressure to conform to
these religious norms and ethicsthat, honestly, paul said they
(22:31):
were contrary to the gospel.
But he said this am I nowseeking the approval of man or
of God, or am I trying to pleaseman?
If I were still trying toplease man, I would not be a
servant of Christ.
There's a fine line when itcomes to winning the approval of
people, having a genuineconcern and care for people.
I don't want to become an enemyto people simply because they
(22:53):
don't embrace the gospel.
So you know, you feel that inPaul's words, he doesn't want to
be an enemy to people and whensomebody doesn't embrace the
gospel, he doesn't want toreject them, as you know, as his
enemy.
And the thing that we like to,I try to teach here, is we love
(23:14):
the world for what we offer theworld, not for what the world
offers us.
And Paul, you know he woulddescribe that we are like
messengers and that we'recarrying the greatest message in
history, but we're carrying itin these jars of clay.
In other words, we're fragileas messengers, but the message
is not fragile, it's powerful.
I was sitting around a fire atB-Strong and a guy did something
(23:36):
that I remember my granddaddoing when I was a kid.
I remember sitting in front ofthe fireplace.
It something that I remember mygranddad doing when I was a kid
.
I remember sitting in front ofthe fireplace.
It wasn't a wood stove, itwasn't a wood heater, it was an
open fireplace and I remember mygranddad putting a styrofoam or
paper cup of some sort into thefire.
He set it on a log that wasburning but the cup was half
(23:58):
full of water and so the fireburned the cup down to the water
line, so it burned away the toppart of the cup and it was down
to the water line and then thatcup set I don't know how long
I've done it through the yearsand a guy was doing it at a fire
at B-Strong a couple weeks agoand it'll sit there and it won't
(24:19):
burn.
That water in that cup keepsthat cup from burning.
It's pretty crazy.
We're like that the flames willburn away the part of us that is
not holding water.
You know, as it were.
Um, we're like that the life inthe world will melt away.
The things that are notsustained by jesus.
It's like he's the life-givingwater in us.
(24:40):
Love of Christ, the gospel ofJesus in us, will withstand the
pressure and the heat of theworld around us.
You can believe that, andPaul's living proof of that.
So I want to consider somelessons from Paul's life, and
this passage is the mainlaunching point.
But I want to look at someother places, some lessons that
we could, I think, simply andeffectively focus on and even
(25:04):
imitate.
Paul said it.
He said imitate me as I imitateJesus.
So here's the first lesson fromPaul's life, and this is new
content compared to last seasonor season.
Before.
I did an episode.
It was like a list of things welearned from Paul's life.
I don't remember how manythings it was, but that was a
(25:25):
popular episode.
So this would be like a sequelto that.
Maybe.
1 Corinthians 15, 58,.
Paul shows us how to be faithful, and in that verse he wrote and
I think I memorized this yearsago maybe in a New King James,
but I say it different than theESV or the KJV, I say it I think
it was a new King James.
Anyway, it was this Therefore,my brothers, be steadfast and
(25:51):
immovable, always abounding inthe work of the Lord, for we
know that our labor in the Lordis not in vain.
Now here's how he says it inthe ESV.
Therefore, my beloved brothers,be steadfast and immovable,
always abounding in the work ofthe Lord, knowing that in the
Lord your labor is not in vain.
(26:12):
So very similar Be steadfast,be immovable, be abounding, and
that's be faithful.
Steadfast and immovable, justbe faithful.
Paul showsfast in him.
It would just be faithful.
Paul shows us what that lookslike.
Next, be obedient.
Paul was a very.
He was very obedient to thescripture and to the call of God
on his life.
So he's coming to the end ofhis life.
(26:33):
When he's saying I fought thefight, I finished my race, it's
because he was faithful and it'sbecause he was obedient.
2 Chronicles 16, 9, for the eyesof the Lord, run to and fro
throughout the whole earth togive strong support to those
whose heart is blameless towardhim.
In the context of that versethere's a king that was seeking
approval and strength fromsecular and humanistic allies.
(26:56):
And in seeking this help andapproval, that king had
compromised the most sacredthings he had been entrusted
with.
He had used temple treasuryfunds to buy secular, worldly
support.
I'm telling you, man, it's ashort distance from that to the
parallel in the modern churchculture and progressive
(27:17):
Christianity.
This king had abandoned theconfession of his faith to try
to win the approval of peoplearound him.
So that's the context for thatverse for the eyes of the Lord
run to and fro throughout thewhole earth to give strong
support to those whose heart isblameless toward him Paul was.
Paul was blameless before theLord.
(27:37):
He's faithful.
He was obedient.
One perfect, faithful andobedient.
Um, paul was blameless beforethe Lord.
He was faithful.
He was obedient.
Wasn't perfect, faithful andobedient.
The next charge from Paul wouldbe to not let go of the plow.
Don't take your hands off theplow.
Don't keep your hand to theplow.
Your eyes are on Jesus.
Luke 9, 62,.
Jesus said no one who puts hishand to the plow and looks back
(27:59):
is fit for the kingdom of God.
So when he says I finished myrace, I kept my eyes on Jesus, I
charted a course, I put my handto the plow, I didn't look back
.
He's echoing those words fromJesus Don't let go of the plow.
The next thing I think that Ilearned from Paul and that I'm
(28:22):
challenged with and would wantto challenge you with, is be
real, be real, find yourself inChrist, be authentic, be your
authentic self.
I can tell you, I will say thisOkay, there's a lot of things I
do wrong.
None of us are perfect.
We all make mistakes, but Iwill tell you this wrong.
There's a.
(28:42):
None of us are perfect.
We all make mistakes, but Iwill tell you this it is so
freeing to just be yourself, tobe who you are.
For me, there's times where Ifeel a little out of place in a
certain atmosphere, and it'sbecause I'm authentic to myself.
I'm not going to try to fit inthere.
You know there's a, there's a,there's a balance of.
You know, when Paul says be allthings to all people, I've been
all thanks to all people sothat by any means I might win
(29:04):
some there's a sensitivity, acultural sensitivity in a
situation.
But not to try to win theapproval of people by not being
true to myself.
Find yourself in Christ, loseyourself in Christ.
That's what that Galatians one10verse was about that we read
earlier.
Hold fast to the gospel.
There's no other gospel.
In fact, any other gospel willbring judgment and condemnation.
(29:28):
Paul said that in Galatians 1.
He said if you preach any othergospel, you'll be accursed.
And that was a Greek wordanathema, that means to be
condemned.
So be faithful, be obedient,don't let go of the plow, be
authentic, be real and then lastfinish strong.
(29:50):
And that's where we get intoPaul's final words that we just
read in every season and everylife.
So he said I fought the goodfight and I would.
I would just let me read anexcerpt from a previous.
This is from a previous podcastepisode that we did.
Paul's spirit was unconquerable.
I'm not going to unpack all ofthis.
This is just some bullet pointsfrom that previous episode.
What was it?
To fight the good fight?
(30:11):
Unconquerable spirit, clear andstrategic vision for ministry,
faith that was deeply rooted inwhat God had done and revealed
through the risen Lord to him.
Paul believed in the power ofprayer.
Paul preached with authority.
That was not his own authority,it came from God.
Paul showed us how to engagehostility.
(30:35):
He didn't look for trouble,didn't start fights, never ran
away from it, though.
Always to address hostilitywith composure and strength, but
with humility.
Humility, I think that's that's.
That's that's what it lookslike to fight the good fight,
cause you read those words fightthe good fight.
It's like oh, we're not calledto a militant crusade, so how do
(30:58):
we fight If we're not, you know, taking up arms against
somebody, or stepping into theoctagon with somebody or getting
in a street fight.
How do we fight the good fight?
With a spirit that'sunconquerable, or inconquerable
even when it's scary?
A ministry that's clear andstrategic, the power of prayer.
(31:20):
We fight through our prayerlife.
We fight by proclaiming, withauthority that's not our own,
the truth of Scripture and weengage hostility courageously
but with humility.
Those are all very importantaspects of fighting a good fight
, and so a few verses that Ithink reflect that fighting of
(31:42):
the good fight.
If I could, just I want toaddress something that came from
a comment on social media.
This was a comment on theSnowbird Instagram a few weeks
ago and it was a clip.
You might have seen that.
It was a clip from NSR that theteam posted and I didn't know
(32:04):
they had posted.
I don't have Instagram, so Ihave to look at other people's.
I try to look at it becausethere's a few things I like to
follow along and see whatthey're doing.
I like to follow Tuck'sfootball, I like to follow the
stuff that Swo's posted, andthat's really about it.
But I don't remember exactlywhat I was saying.
I was talking.
(32:25):
It was an excerpt where I wastalking about hey, we're in a
battle, it's a battle for themind.
We're in a war.
It's not just a spiritual war,it's a mental war.
We've got to arm ourselves, etcetera.
Well, the Scripture says armyourselves with the same mind
that was in Christ.
Peter says that Arm yourselveswith the mind of Christ, 1
(32:48):
Timothy 6, 12.
This is right in the middle.
Okay, hold up.
So a guy comments and saysyou're wrong about this.
The scripture describes thearmor of God, which is for
defense.
So we're just to be able tohave a defensive mindset and
know that the world's not goingto harm us or hurt us is what he
(33:09):
was implying, I guess.
And he called me buddy, which,to be honest, just made me mad.
It's, it's, uh.
I realized why I I'm not suitedfor social media.
I can't be on social mediabecause people they talk ugly to
each other, but they say thingsthey wouldn't say to somebody's
face.
So I can tell you I feel veryconfident that if I was
(33:32):
face-to-face with this guy, thathe wouldn't speak to me in the
tone he spoke to me from behindhis phone, you know, or whatever
.
Not because I'm intimidatingand scary, it's just people they
talk in a different tone.
They're ugly when they're ontheir phones, and so he was
saying something implying that,hey, the armor of God is all
(33:55):
defensive, so there's no placefor the kind of talk that I was
sharing, which was, you know,hey, we're in a battle.
Well, 1 Timothy 6.12 says fightthe good fight of the faith,
fight the good fight of thefaith.
I think it's hard to argue withthat.
(34:15):
You know, ephesians 6, I meanit uses the word fight.
Go, do a Greek, go get yourStrong's Concordance and do a
Greek word study on what theword fight means.
It means fight.
Ephesians 6, where we go throughthe whole armor of God in verse
12 of that passage.
(34:36):
So the whole armor of God isEphesians 6, 10 through 20.
It's the 11 verses.
But in verse 12, he says wedon't wrestle against flesh and
blood.
So he paints this picture thatwe're in a combative wrestling
match.
And then, in verse 17, he saystake the sword of the spirit,
(34:57):
which is the word of God.
You'll remember that in Hebrewshe says the word of God is a
double-edged sword, which anyonethat knows anything about the
history of Roman weaponry, thedouble-edged sword, was the
choice combat weapon of mostRoman soldiers.
2 Corinthians, 10, 4, and 5 saythe weapons that we fight with
(35:19):
are not of this world.
They have divine power todemolish strongholds, including
arguments and pretensions, whichmeans that's the point I was
making in that post was thatclip that was posted is we're in
a battle for the mind.
It's a philosophical battle,it's an existential battle.
It's a battle against.
It's an existential battle,it's a, a battle against pagan
ideologies and ideas.
(35:41):
And so, uh, anyway, um,something to to really consider,
I think, um, is that it is a,it is a battle, and that if it's
a battle, you need a weapon.
So anyone that says, well, it'sthe armor of God is defensive
armor, so it's a battle, youneed a weapon.
So anyone that says, well, thearmor of God is defensive armor,
so it's not about weaponry,Well, it's a battle, you don't
(36:04):
go to battle without a weapon.
So there's that.
So whoever that guy is, he's adummy.
Let me just say that, let me bereal clear, and then I know
that will offend some peoplethat I said that and so I'm
sorry I probably shouldn't saythat, but you're a dummy If you
think you're going to battle andthat you don't need a weapon.
That's dumb.
Romans eight, 13, romans, eight,13 says, for if you live
(36:26):
according to the flesh, you willdie.
But if, by the spirit, you putto death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
Put to death.
How you put something to deathyou put on armor and curl up in
a fetal position and take yourshots.
No, you put it to death, dummy,okay.
So when Paul says that he foughtthe fight, we know he means he
fought the good fight, theChristian fight.
(36:48):
It's a spiritual battle, it's aphilosophical battle.
You're at war, so armyourselves.
I really do think.
Let me find this verse.
It's in first Peter.
I think this is maybe one ofthe most like fire you up.
Verses 1, peter 4, verse 1.
Since, therefore, christsuffered in the flesh, arm
yourselves in the same mind orwith the same way of thinking.
(37:09):
Arm yourselves.
It's this aggressive, offensiveidea of arm your mind, have the
mind of Christ.
It's an offensive thing.
And so Paul fought the goodfight.
Paul then said I finished therace.
Now, his race was a race ofpreaching missionary work, but
it was a race of endurance.
(37:30):
I got two of my kids are doingtrack and field.
Um and oh, dear law, I'll, I'llwatch those kids run that like
the two mile race.
It's.
It's a.
What is that?
Eight laps, and I just think,bless their hearts.
What are they thinking?
Are their mamas making them dothis?
(37:50):
Do they really truly enjoy this?
It looks awful.
And I know people like there'speople that like to run, know
some, I know what some of ourlisteners like to run.
You know, like when I say runlike not sprint but jog, you
know like at like long distance,like you're jogging, at a
you're you're long distancerunning.
People like to go out and runfive miles and so you go out,
(38:12):
get into a good jog, and youjust, you just go.
Maybe it's a good clip sixminute mile pace or whatever and
you go out and you just go.
Maybe it's a good clipsix-minute mile pace or whatever
and you go out and you jog forfive miles.
You don't sprint for five miles, you jog, you don't sprint, you
sprint.
I think in track and field thesprint is the 100 and the 200.
(38:35):
Some people might would say the400.
The 400, that's a full lap.
I don't know if that's a sprint, it's a pretty, it's close to
it, but but there's.
You know there's a differencebetween sprinting and long
distance running.
You just settle into a goodpace and you've got.
Paul's race was a race ofendurance.
He ran and he ran it andfinished it and he's saying that
(38:58):
and he can say that, um.
And then he said I kept thefaith and the idea of keeping
means to, to keep guarded Likehe guarded it.
Guard ourselves, we guard ourminds.
We guard our time.
We guard our treasures, ourfinances.
We guard our marriages andrelationships.
We guard listen, let me explainsomething If you are married,
(39:20):
the primary focus of your lifeoutside of advancing the gospel,
um, in your own life, like likethe work of the gospel in your
own life.
So your first, your firstprimary responsibility is your
spiritual growth, okay, butoutside of that, it's your
marriage, then your children andyour home.
(39:42):
It's not making your mama happy.
You left you know.
The scripture says that we leaveour mother and father and hold
fast to our wife.
And so I got to guard mymarriage, guard my family guard,
my home guard my thoughts.
Marriage guard my family guard,my home guard my thoughts.
And when, when Paul said I keptthe faith, he also said in
Galatians 6, 17, I bear in mybody the marks of the gospel, I
(40:04):
carry in my body the marks ofthe gospel.
I mean he's carrying scarsaround.
And then he get to verse eight.
So he says I've, I've, you knowI've.
I fought the fight, fought thegood fight.
I finished the race.
I've kept the faith, I'veguarded it.
That's a very.
Again, it goes back to whatwe're saying about the sword of
the spirit.
(40:25):
He guarded his faith, heprotected himself.
We've got to protect ourselvesfrom the snares of the devil.
And then, in the end, what weget is he says I received the
victor's crown.
It's a royal crown.
He received the crown of life.
That's a gift given to thevictor.
There's two different types ofcrowns mentioned in scripture.
(40:46):
There's the crown that a Kingwould wear, and we see Christ.
We see Jesus wearing a crownlike that.
But then there's the what'scalled the victor's crown, and
the victor's crown is a crownthat was awarded.
You know like we've seen thisin the olympic games.
It's like a wreath, you know, acrown of leaves or whatever.
Um and so the the word that heuses in second timothy 4 8.
(41:09):
At the end of his life he saysthere's laid up for me a crown
of righteousness.
It's the victor's crown, it'sand and and.
For the believer it'simperishable because what he's
done is he's laid up treasuresin heaven.
And so Paul finished the raceman.
So the encouragement this week.
So I said I want this to be anencouragement, this episode.
(41:29):
There's times where we justneed to be encouraged.
So I want you to be encouragedthat you can put your hand to
the plow and don't look back.
You can fix your eyes on Jesus.
You can open the word of Godand read it every day and listen
to the truth and the life thatcomes from the words of
scripture.
You can walk in the light, notin the darkness.
(41:51):
You can reject the lies of theenemy, which might mean putting
your phone down or disabling.
I've been experimenting withthis because I think I've
thought about a couple of ushave thought about getting dumb
phones, but sadly we're at apoint.
You know where you kind of needyour phone for email or some
work stuff.
I need to have access to GoogleDrive, yada, yada, yada.
(42:11):
So you're trying to figure outhow do I dumb this thing down
where it's not consuming me.
And so I took the web browser.
I just I had someone get rid ofthe internet on my phone.
So, whatever it is, I've stillgot my iPhone.
It's an older iPhone but I'vegot.
Right now I'm experimenting.
I've only I'm only a week intothis I'm experiment with.
(42:32):
I can do email on it.
Uh, I can use my you know, mydirections, my maps, my GPS.
Uh, let's see what else can Ido Internet wise.
There's a handful, a smallhandful, of apps that I've got
on there, one that I use forhunting.
I've got an Onyx app that I usefor hunting.
Some of you might be familiarwith that.
Uh, what else have I got?
Uh, the weather app.
(42:55):
I kept it Uh that's about it?
I think the app that theteachers use to communicate from
the school, and so that's aboutit.
So trying to eliminate somedistractions, you know what I
mean.
So easy to get distracted.
So anyway, you got to put yourphone down.
Man, and and and and just getout of the lull of that man.
(43:17):
I watch people, you watch justnext time you're around a bunch
of people.
Look how many of them arestaring at their screen.
Most of them are on socialmedia.
So anyway, I don't want I knowI ran about this all the time.
I'm not just trying to rantabout phone stuff, but I'm
saying if you're going to, ifyou're going to plow forward,
you're going to need to removesome distractions.
(43:38):
Put your hand to the plow,don't look back.
Fix your eyes on Jesus, pursueholiness, tell others about
Jesus.
But if I could sync all of thisup, if you want to live
positively, hold a high view ofthe sovereignty of God, a high
view of the authority ofScripture, and put a whole lot
of responsibility on yourself tobe faithful, to be obedient, to
(44:01):
run the race to finish the taskthat God's put in front of you,
because we've all got a task,you can do it, and you do it by
the power of the Holy Spirit inyou.
If you're a police officer, afirefighter, a truck driver, if
you're a school teacher,administrator, if you're a CEO
of a corporation, if you're anaccountant, if you're a medical
professional, if you're in themilitary, if you are a
(44:22):
stay-at-home mom, if you are ondisability because of an injury
or an illness, whatever yourlife looks like, you can be
faithful to Jesus.
You can be obedient to his word.
You can do that.
You can do it here.
We are at the end of Paul'swatch, we're at the end of his
life, and he's saying thesethings that we can all resonate
(44:43):
with, you know, and so I think,not seeking the.
I love a verse in Paul's letterto the Corinthians when it comes
to being faithful, beingobedient, don't let go of the
plow, be real, finish strong.
It's that verse that Spencerreferenced in last week's
episode, where Paul says hey, I,basically my life is of no
(45:08):
value to me.
If only I can finish the raceand the task of testifying to
the gospel of Jesus Christ andGod's grace.
It's in Acts 20.
Let me just challenge you withthat, encourage you with that.
It goes along with that.
1 Corinthians 15, 58 that weread earlier, that therefore, my
(45:28):
brothers, be immovable andsteadfast, always abounding in
the work of the Lord.
Somebody needs to hear thisthis week Just keep your hand to
the plow, be faithful, beobedient, be faithful, be
obedient, be authentic and knowthat one day you're going to
have an opportunity to finishstrong.
Right now, today's not the daythat 99% of us.
Today's not the day we're beingcalled home.
(45:50):
Today's not the day, buttoday's the day we're in the
middle of the race, we're in themiddle of the fight, we're in
the middle of the wrestlingmatch.
And so, fight the good fight,fight it and know that you're
running the race right now.
Paul said to the Philippiansanother time, when he's in
prison run with race, run withpatience the race that is set
(46:12):
before you.
Look into Jesus, the author andthe prophet.
I'm sorry, I'm quoting Hebrews.
I get.
There's two verses, passages.
I get confused.
One that says, um, look intoJesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, but the other onesays, um, that we fix our eyes
on Jesus, and and uh, hold on,let me just read the Philippians
(46:34):
one.
I'm I'm crossing up, uhpassages.
Okay, hold on, let me just readthe Philippians one.
I'm crossing up passages.
Okay, I got that Hebrewspassage confused with the
Philippians passage, philippians3,.
Not that I have already obtainedthis or am already perfect, but
I press on to make it my ownbecause Christ Jesus has made me
his own Brothers.
I do not consider that I'vemade it my own, but one thing I
(46:57):
do forgetting what lies behind.
That goes back to Jesus sayingno man who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit forthe kingdom of God.
Forget what lies behind,straining forward to what lies
ahead.
Some of us need to hear thisword this week Let go of the
past, let go of it, let go of itand just know it's under the
(47:18):
blood of Jesus.
Forget what lies behind,straining forward to what lies
ahead.
I press on toward the goal forthe prize of the upward call of
God in Christ Jesus.
Pursue Christ, finish your race.
Right now you're not finishingthe race, you're running the
race.
When I think of a race, um, Ithink of you know.
(47:40):
You might think of an ultramarathon, you might think of a
sprint we talked about, you know, uh, running a sprint, or
running a two mile race, orrunning a five mile, a five K,
or running a marathon or anultra marathon there's all
levels of races, but for me whenI think about running a race, I
think about NASCAR.
As a kid, when I was growing up, my granddad would take me to
(48:01):
races all the time.
I mean a lot.
Um, I was uh gosh.
I have a lot of fond memories.
It was a place called the newAsheville speedway.
It's no longer there, but wewould go to the races.
This was when I was inelementary school, so from about
my second grade to sixth grade,I would go to the races with my
, my granddad, all the time.
(48:21):
My papa and I loved it, and youknow the two things that that
people love about races are uhwrecks.
And then, just, you know thecrazy passing like when somebody
gets to the front of the pack,watching a car move through the
front of the pack and, um, youknow Hank.
Hank's been on here before.
He's one of my partners atsnowboard, one of the executive
(48:42):
partners, and he had an awesomeNASCAR career and I love hearing
him tell stories.
But my favorite NASCAR finish ofall time was at Bristol, up and
up and on the TennesseeVirginia line.
At the Bristol race I was witha buddy of mine, me and little
had gone there with a with abuddy of mine and uh, dale
(49:04):
Earnhardt was still alive andracing and he had the car to
beat and he got wrecked and hewent to pit road and they duct
taped his car back together andhe came back out onto the track
into the race.
He's a hundred laps down and hemade up a lap.
So he goes from being a hundredlaps down to be at 99 laps down
in a direct car.
He comes out and and, uh, andgets, gets a lap back is awesome
(49:25):
, it's a long race, y'all.
We're in the middle of it rightnow.
You might be in a spot whereyou've pulled on a pit road,
banged up, and you're ducttaping and putting things back
together.
But look, get back out there,get in a race, fix your eyes on
Jesus.
One day you're going to finishyour race and Paul to get there.
There's this story that Hanktold me one time Paul didn't
(49:47):
work alone.
He understood the need for ateam.
He worked to carry out hismission and you'll always see
that he builds a team around him.
In fact, the passage that we'rereading right here uh, when,
when it gets, you go a littlefurther down in second Timothy
four and he says hey, I've gotthis team of people Crescens and
Titus and Titus had to leave.
(50:10):
He's gone to Dalmatia.
You know, one guy's gone tothis other town, one guy's gone.
I'm kind of here just with acouple of dudes and I need you
to come join us.
I'm sending someone to takeyour place.
It's this real cool interactionwhere you realize Paul always
was with the team.
He never worked alone, hewasn't a lone ranger.
And I remember talking to Hankone time about this and I said
(50:32):
how many people are on a NASCARteam?
And he said, gosh, like on acup team, like the, the top
level team, there's 50 guys, 50to 70 guys.
And then he said on like a, thesecond tier team, what used to
be called bush I forget whatit's called now infinity maybe.
Anyway, the second tier, likeyou got the cup cars in the next
(50:56):
level used to be called theBush series.
Um, hank said he was running arace and he was in second place
in the Bush race at Las Vegas,had the fastest car.
He's literally.
He said I had the fastest carand I'm going to, I'm going to
pass the leader and the winnerof this race, the the winner
takes $125,000 home that day.
(51:17):
This race, the the winner takes$125,000 home that day and he
pulls in for his last pit stopand there's one guy whose job is
to tear off the windshield.
What they do is they've gotthese tear away windshields so
the windshield is in layers,it's kind of like a big decal.
So as you're getting road grimeand grit and oil and stuff on
the wind and it starts to getreal cloudy to look through,
(51:37):
they rip a layer of it off andnow you can see clear, you've
got a new layer, that's clear.
And this guy goes to rip andtear off the windshield.
And that was his only job totear the windshield sticker off
so that the driver would have aclean windshield coming out of a
pit stop.
He didn't get it torn off, itbunched up and, as a result,
(52:00):
hank got stuck on pit road anddidn't win, you know, fell way
back, didn't win.
$125,000 mistake.
It takes a team and everybodyneeds to do their part.
And Paul, you know he ran hisrace with, with a team and, and,
and within that team hepracticed mentorship, he was
invested in relationships, heloved the church, and so if
we're going to run our race.
(52:21):
Let's run our race, loving thechurch and doing the best we can
to do our part.
And yeah, and he kept the faith.
Paul kept the faith and I lovethat, and that is, he guarded
what was entrusted to him.
He guarded relationships, heguarded what God had given him
(52:44):
in terms of ministry.
He guarded his own personalholiness and I love that.
So, all right, that's what Igot for y'all this week.
I do want to read a couple ofcomments from social media.
I mean not social media, wecall it like Spotify, apple,
podcast, stuff, like that.
But just before I do that, justsaying I hope this is an
encouragement to you this week.
(53:05):
I hope you'll be encouraged andthat you will run your race
well this week.
You will guard what's beenentrusted.
If you're discouraged, beatdown, beat up.
It's a rough patch for you.
Just be faithful.
Just be faithful, just beobedient.
Keep your hand to the plow.
Okay, all right, before we go,I did want to read.
I got a dude.
I want to give a dude a shoutout here.
(53:26):
Give me a second, okay.
So I read a negative or shared anegative comment.
I wanted to give a couple morenegative ones that were pretty
funny.
One dude said, uh, and this wasfrom instagram, the quote that
swore posted.
This wasn't an nsr quote, itwas a swore instagram post, but
it was, uh, it was an excerptfrom an sr episode.
(53:49):
He said, uh, this is, this islike the christian version of
larping, which I thought waspretty funny.
He's basically basically saying, uh and I think I might've
mentioned this already in aprevious episode, I don't
remember LARPing is live action,role play and where people
dress up in medieval outfits andpretend to be in medieval
(54:12):
battles, it's kind of like civilwar reenacted.
You know you're pretending tobe in a battle.
So, anyway, I thought that waspretty funny.
But not true, but funny.
Um.
So I wanted to read, uh, somepositive, some positive uh
ratings and reviews.
Rather, uh, it's calledwonderful podcast.
(54:32):
This came in about a month ago.
Started listening to episodesafter I went to winter SWO for
my fourth year back at MLKweekend.
Had a month ago.
Started listening to episodesafter I went to winter SWO for
my fourth year back at MLKweekend.
Had a great time.
Heart of SWO is so Godglorifying such an awesome group
of people Podcast.
Great to listen to.
I especially loved hearing theinterview of SWO staff.
I've definitely enjoyed hearingpeople's different insights on
topics.
I'm excited to see what more isreleased.
(54:55):
Appreciate the time taken toupload new episodes.
That's from William.
William's from Ohio and he saidwould love some SWO swag.
So, william, we're going tohook you up.
We're going to hook you up,william, you need to email and
the team will take care of you.
So William from Ohio gets ashout-out out and he's getting
(55:18):
some SWO swag Pretty cool.
Love Snowbird, go to turn.
This is from a dairy.
It's called SWO for life.
Love Snowbird, go to Turner'schapel, which the church has
been bringing students for over20 years.
There's a reason for that.
Always godly, biblical teaching, godly, insane adventures NSR
is an awesome extension of thatministry.
Appreciate teaching godly andsane adventures NSR is an
(55:40):
awesome extension of thatministry.
Appreciate that.
Derry Jay Stewart, jay StewartJay says I've been sharpened.
I've been keeping up with SWOfrom the time I was a sophomore
in high school.
Now I'm 24, married and have adaughter.
Swo's teaching podcast, noSanity Required and the sermons
from Red Oak have made asignificant impact on my life.
Its refreshing emphasis onexpositional preaching, the
(56:04):
character displayed by theteachers and leaders and the
consistent encouragement for themissional living have served me
as a necessary antidote tocultural noise.
I'm a member of a local churchand I'm pretty involved, but
these podcasts have helped tofill gaps in my discipleship
lately, getting insight on thedisciplines, attitudes and
values that Brody and other menpractices really sharpened me to
(56:27):
be a better Christian, husband,dad and employee.
I tell everyone looking for aplace to go to go to SWO,
looking for a summer camp to goto go to SWO, thankful to God
for you all.
I appreciate that, jay Stewart,it means a lot and thank all of
y'all for sharing.
If you haven't done a rating orreview, we're at like on Apple.
(56:49):
Let's see, we've got 331ratings.
That's not a lot, but Iappreciate those of you that
have, and we're like a 4.9, sothat's good.
You don't want to be a 5.0.
If you're not making somebodymad, what are you doing?
And I think on Spotify it'ssimilar.
I think we're like we got 400,300 and something.
(57:11):
So, anyway, give us a reviewplease.
That'd be awesome and it helps.
I think it helps distribute ourstuff.
We, we, uh, we've grown so muchby volume in terms of how many
downloads we're getting eachweek, how many subscribers.
It's pretty awesome, but wedon't have a ton of reviews.
So if you're like me, you'renot a big reviewer just I'm
(57:32):
asking you to go in there and dothe five star rating and just
say a three word sentence welove n, nsr or something like
that.
That would be really coolBecause when we've turned down
we've chosen not to be monetizedor to do advertisements and
stuff like that, so it's alittle harder to get it
distributed and pushed around,but volume and sharing and
(57:54):
liking and stuff like thatreally helps with that.
Anyway, thank youall forlistening.
It's been an hour of merambling.
I hope it's been beneficial andfruitful and I hope you're
encouraged to go live.
Like Paul, you're in the race.
There might be somebodylistening and you're finishing
your race.
Finish it well, but all of uswill one day finish our race.
That may not be today ortonight or anytime soon for you,
(58:17):
but finish our race.
That may not be today ortonight or anytime soon for you,
but finish your race by runningit well right now.
Don't look back.
Look ahead, keep your eyes onJesus, keep your hand to the
plow.
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (58:29):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no Sanity Required.
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