It is a race we all begin – when we are born again or when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.
Hebrews 6:11-12
“We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realised. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
The Bible shows us that Christian life is like a race!
It is a race we all begin – when we are born again or when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.
This race will only come to an end when you leave this earth and reach Eternity.
How are you right now? Are you moving, are you running or are you standing still ???
In this race, the further we go, the more intimate we get to God and the closer we are to Him
Hb 6:11 He wants each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for, may be fully realised
Many people started off the race very well, they were in love with Jesus , but now they stopped , they are standing still and they do not love God as they did when they first started running!
Revelation 2:4
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
Many Christians have forsaken their first love for Jesus!
There is no more passion, no excitement, the messages you hear do not move you anymore, you don’t tremble at the word of God,
you have received many Words from Him but there is no reaction from you!
You can pay a high price for not getting excited about serving Jesus and running this race market out for you !
We have to respond with excitement or we are gonna miss unbelievable opportunities from God
Dare to move! Because I believe that God has great things for you!
God wants you to move towards him.
He wants you moving, running this race of faith !
He said: let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Some Christians they are in church , visiting Church , bust not running with perseverance! They are standing still!
Move, and start running the race of Faith, fixing your eyes on Jesus!
This is important: you need to move, but not fixing your eyes on your brothers and sisters running along with you, but on Jesus!
You are here because of Jesus, you are in the church because of Jesus, then stop looking to your brothers and sisters. You are in the Church not because of them, but because of Jesus
God has an excellent life for each one of us!
Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10
I believe God is raising in this town people full of faith, people who will experience and live in the supernatural of God!
John 14:12
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
My beloved, God is doing a great work in Brazil and in many different countries, and Ireland is not being left out of this spiritual wave!
Ireland is gonna experience the power of God ! A revival is coming to Ireland ! The Holy Spirit is going to visit this country!
Please : Raise up your hands and let’s pray:
Jesus died at the cross to raise a glorious church!
Matthew 16:18 Jesus said: I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.”
Jesus said: I will build my church
1 point: “He’s going to build this church, this is his church!”
This church does not belong to any man,
this church belongs to Jesus – he is the one building this church and we are just his servants!
2 point – The gates of Hell are not going to overcome the church!
If you are linked to the church, if you are an active member of the church, you will not be overcome, but you are gonna win,
because as a member of the church you are more than a conqueror!
With Jesus Christ we are more than conquerors!
You are a winner trough Jesus!
However, the church is not perfect
Matthew 9:12 Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
Never think the church is perfect!
Jesus compared the Church to a hospital, a place where there are patients who need healing, who need liberation, who need to learn the word and be changed into the image of Jesus!
If you think you are well, if you think you are perfect, that you never make mistakes, you are wrong!
We are all in the process of transformation and every day you come to church, the cell meetings, the prayer meetings, you are being moulded into the image of Jesus!
A great illustration for the The church is Noah’s Ark!
In Noah’s time, Without the ark no one could be saved,
to be saved from the flood they would have to go into the Ark!
The Ark was the only place to be saved!
But can you actually imagine how it must have been like inside the ark? Hundreds of animals inside the Ark, all of which they had to take care of, feed and give water to…
They had to live with all these animals, I’m sure they also had to clean up a lot of animal poop, they literally had to put up with a lot of bullshit!
Can you imagine what the smell was like inside the ark?
It was not pleasant at all – but it was the best and safest place to be!
For all who did not enter the ark died in the end!
Just as the Ark was a means of salvation the church is a place of salvation too!
Matthew 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Jesus said that everything we bind in the church here on earth will be bound in the heavens!
In other words, people will be saved by being part of the church.
No one can live without the church that is the body of Christ
Do not criticise the church! Do not criticise your brothers and sisters! The church belongs to Jesus!
The Church is still imperfect, but the church is also Jesus’ bride!
So stay in church and help it to become a better place!
Help clean up the mess, help take care of the babies, help form more disciples for Jesus.
If you leave the church because of people, then you did not first come to church because of Jesus!
I believe in the word of God …… and this church will be a tremendous church and you will see tremendous things happening amongst this church.
1 Corinthians 2:9 “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—”
Our eyes will see tremendous things happen here in Monaghan, our ears will hear beautiful first-hand accounts of miracles, let’s see thousands of people being saved!
We’ll see lives transformed by Jesus Christ, people addicted to drugs, alcohol being freed and being made disciples of Jesus!
How many here believe this?
But you must have the courage to move, you have to run the race that God proposed to you!
Hebrews 6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
The Bible says : do not became lazy ! Some have stopped running, they do not want to go to church anymore, they skip meetings, they do not go to their cell meetings anymore, they do not go to prayer meetings, they are standing still in their faith!
They stopped running the race!
Hebrews 10:25
“not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Another version says: not neglecting to meet together !
When you come to church or the cell meetings you are being strengthened, renewed, you are able to grow spiritually.
The Bible says we need to do like those who are persevering, moving and running this race of the Christian faith.
Because through Faith and patience you will inherit the promises of God!
Some have faith in God, but have no patience! They do not persevere in being faithful to God.
The history of the people of Israel teaches us a lot:
In the past, God used Moses to bring his people out of Egypt!
They left Egypt (where they were Pharaoh’s slaves) to go to a land called Canaan in Israel.
To reach the place God had promised them they had to move through the desert, they faced difficulties and many trials by God and had to fight many enemies on the way ……
But the sad thing is that most of those who left Egypt did not enter the promised land because of disobedience along the way ……
The book of Hebrews talks about this journey, this race for Eternity, for our heavenly Canaan…
God took us out of the World… we were slaves of the devil and of sin and God wants to take us into his heavenly Kingdom.
But to get there we must fight against the world, the devil and our flesh. Because in the same way that happened to the Israeli people, we can leave the world and come to Church but still be unable to come before God because of disobedience along the way!
Hebrews 13:14 “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
This land is not your place, we are here in passing and you need to get moving!
Please dare to move ! We have a race ahead of us – a race for Eternal Life –
For that we need to remove from our lives any weight that is holding us down and keeping us from running, things that may not necessarily be sins! But they are still holding you back!
Of course, we also need to repent from our sins and leave them behind
God wants to heal your spiritual life!
He wants to strengthen your knees for this walk.
Knees talk about our praying life …. How is your praying life? God is waiting for you to move, God is waiting for you!
Dare to move !
God is waiting for you to move!