Amen. You can turn with me to our text, Galatians 5, verse 7 of verse 12. And if you look in your bulletin, the title is Get to the Gym. And I got that from verse 7. You can look there in the text, Galatians 5, verse 7, and you can imagine the apostle Paul coming to the Galatians, telling them to get to the gym. Look what Paul has to say in verse 7 of Galatians 5. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Paul's saying, get to the gym. You were running well at one point, but now you're not running well. You have to train yourself again. Maybe you have a New Year's resolution that you have forgotten about. You could think about the gym and maybe 2024 was your goal to get to the gym and you didn't get to the gym as you would have liked to and so maybe you said, well I'll bring the gym to my home and I'll buy a treadmill and I'll buy weights for the home and you brought the gym to the home but you didn't train yourself as you desired to in 2024 and you look back to your old glory days when you ran well and you worked out well but now You can say with Paul here in Galatians 5 verse 7, now maybe you're not running well physically, and now you're not in the shape that you once were. Well, Paul, he uses this language of an athlete to show us that as Christians, we're spiritual athletes. We ought to be physical and take care of our bodies, but Paul, he uses this natural revelation of how we've been made and it's good to train your body. Paul says in Philippians 3 verse 13, I strain forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal. He's using athletic language. He writes in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25, every athlete exercises self-control. I don't run aimlessly. I don't box as one beating the air. I discipline my body. I keep it under control lest I be disqualified. So Paul uses this athletic language in the physical realm, but then he brings it to the spiritual realm. If you're athletic physically, and you discipline your body, and you run with aim, and you box with tact and precision, Paul says, well, how much more should you take your spiritual athleticism? How much more should you seek to run well spiritually? Because we are spiritual athletes in this marathon, not a sprint, but a marathon. And I love how John Bunyan portrays it. It really is this pilgrimage on the way to the celestial city with many twists and turns and valleys and peaks. We're marathon runners. And the Galatians here, spiritually, they ran well for Christ, but now they're slowing down spiritually. Paul says in verse seven, you were running well. And I won't have you turn there, but the author to the Hebrews, the Hebrew Christians says in Hebrews five, verse 12, for though by this time, you've been running the spiritual race for this amount of time, by this time, You ought to be teachers. You ought to be spiritually mature. You need someone to teach you again, the author says. The basic principles of the oracles of God, you need milk, not solid food. That's what Paul's saying to the Galatians, essentially what the author to the Hebrews says. You've been running this Christian race for this amount of time, then after being a spiritual athlete for X amount of years, Galatians or Hebrews, Now you need to go back to the basic principles of the gospel. You're no longer eating meat, the solid meat of the Word, as mature Christians, but now you're needing milk again. You're needing to be like a little infant in the faith. You ran well, but now you're not running well. And that's the most terrifying rebuke that the Apostle Paul gives in this chapter. What terrifying words to even hear from the Lord. you were running well, that you did take your spiritual life seriously at one point, but now you're not taking it so seriously. You're slacking. And if I were to take John Bunyan's language about the Vanity Fair, and you tie that in with our spiritual athleticism, You can imagine John Bunyan saying that you were running well till you got to that Vanity Fair and then Vanity Fair had all those fast food joints that slowed you down spiritually and got your eyes off Christ and all the pleasures and riches of Egypt and Babylon, well that just slowed you down so you're not pursuing your first love like the church at Ephesus. So what will we see this evening in terms of the exhortation to get to the gym, take our spiritual health seriously? What does Paul do here to encourage the believers to run well and to see their life as a marathon runner, spiritually speaking? Well, he points out the dangers in this race. If you look again in your Bibles, There's five things Paul points out from verse seven all the way down to verse 12. In this marathon race, there's various troublers. You could think of, in a stadium, all those booing and taunting their opponents, trying to slow you down from running the race well, booing at you, troubling you, distracting you. Paul tells the Galatians, these are your troublers. These are the ones watching your Christian race And they're booing at you, they're distracting you, they're seeking to make you not run well. And Paul says, you gotta think of who they are. Look at all the, from verse seven to verse 12, how many times that word who is mentioned. Who are these troublers? Who are those booing at us to slow us down? Look at the first who in verse seven. Who hindered you? Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. It wasn't God who hindered you. Who is this hindrance to you? Verse nine, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence, verse 10, in the Lord that you will take no other view and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brother, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves." There's this question about our Christian race, and we can all personalize it in our own Christian life, and ask ourselves, Lord, who is causing me to not run well? What in my life is Satan or even well-intentioned things that aren't necessarily bad, but what is the enemy using to slow me down? Who is this? Well, I want us to look at five markers of these troublers, the ones who boo at us, the ones who seek to distract us, five characteristics, and I pray that we each can find one distraction that the Lord tells us of in our Christian race that we ought to be aware of so that we run well and are not hindered. So let's look at verse seven, the first characteristic of these troublers is that they, they hinder you, verse 7, from obeying the truth. That's the first aspect that Paul says you got to be aware of. On your Christian pilgrimage, there's going to be those, whoever they are, whatever color they show, whatever caricature they have, They're going to want to hinder you. They're not going to be out there to support you in your Christian run, but they want to slow you down. They want to sidetrack you. They want you to disqualify yourself and get your eyes off Christ. They want to hinder you. And look what Paul says from verse 7, The truth, they're not about truth. They want to maybe throw false truth that looks almost like truth to let you think in your race you may be running for a long time and you're tired and you're weary and you're worn. And then all of a sudden there's this troubler who presents most of the truth that peeks your eye, that persuades you. Look at verse eight, this persuasion is not from him who calls you, So there's those trying to persuade Christians with not obeying the truth by presenting false truth that looks similar. And this truth, if you look back in Galatians 2 verse five, In this context is the truth of the gospel, sound doctrine. There's those who want to hinder you from obeying, from living and believing in sound doctrine, and this doctrine is the doctrine of the gospel. Look at Galatians 2 verse 5. Here's that truth that Paul's talking about. Again, these Judaizers, they wanted them to be enslaved. And look what Paul says in verse five of Galatians 2, to them, these troublers who wanted to slow us down, to them, we did not yield in submission even for a moment. So there's those who want to hinder you in your race. Paul says, don't even give them a second. If you hear falsehood that's opposite to the truth that you've received, don't even give them an ear. Flee because your soul's at stake. To them, we didn't even yield for a moment. Why? So that, verse five, the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. Paul's saying not only does my Christian walk affect my own life, but if I am deceived and if I'm hindered in this church, then there's going to be others in this church that are hindered or God forbid, persuaded from the truth of the gospel. So it is this deception in the Christian race. And it's interesting, if you look back in Galatians 5 verse 7 again, this past tense is used, you were running well. There was a point in the Galatians' life when they were obeying the gospel, when they were treasuring Christ alone, received by grace through faith. There was a point when they were spiritually healthy and living for Christ, and the indicative statements of the gospel of what Christ has done for their soul fueled them in their Christian obedience, that they saw what Christ had done, like Paul said, who loved me and gave himself for me, And that produced a spiritually vibrant life. They walked in obedience to the Lord's commands in the past. But something happened, this persuasion. What is this persuasion? Well, let me give you an example again from Pilgrim's Progress. I was reading it this last week, and Christian's on the way to the Celestial City. An evangelist has already told him how to get to the Celestial City. He said, you gotta go through that narrow gate. And we know the Bible says the narrow gate is Jesus Christ alone. That's the only way to the celestial city. Come to this Savior. And he says, you look to that cross, and when you look by faith to the cross, that burden of sin and guilt will come off. Well, Christian, he was persuaded by someone, like a Judaizer, literally. Mr. worldly wise man came to Christian and he said, oh, you're only in the sluice to spawn because the evangelist, he wanted to make it hard for you to get to the celestial city. So I know a man, that's gonna get you there in a much easier way. His name's Mr. Worldly Wise Man, and he lives in the city of Morality, which is Mount Sinai, and Mr. Legality will find you there, and he'll tell you. He'll tell you how to get to the Celestial City and how you can remove your burden. Christian, he's persuaded. Pilgrim is persuaded here, not obeying the truth of the gospel given to him by evangelists, but he's sidetracked from this marathon. And what does he do? Well, he goes to Mount Sinai and he realizes that the quakings and all the thunder and the guilt of his sin, it only increases his burden. He didn't lose his burden by going to Mr. Legality and the City of Morality. Well, that's a good example of what's happening in Galatia. Paul's saying that. You knew. You knew when I preached the gospel to you the first time. It was through that narrow gate alone. It was through looking to the cross alone. But now the Judaizers, Mr. Worldly Wise Men and Mr. Legality, they're just saying, go back to Sinai. Find your way of salvation there at that thunder and the lightnings and terrors of the law. One commentator says the Judaizers persuaded the Galatians that it's faith in your own works rather than faith in God's word of promise in the gospel. Now, in our context, Satan may be a little more persuasive. Maybe there's not a sign on someone saying, I'm Mr. Legality, and I want you to rest in your own works for salvation. But Satan's more persuasive. That's how the Galatians were hindered. He comes with an angel of light, appearing as an angel of light, but he's... An angel of darkness. And you can hear in our day, I think practically speaking, is you look across the evangelical landscape and you look across even the political landscape and you can hear Mr. Worldly Wiseman coming into the church and saying, oh, don't you long for faithfulness in the church? And we say, yes, I long for faithfulness in the church. I long for faithfulness in my life. And then Mr. Worldly Wiseman says, well, Well, don't you think that God wants that too? Why don't you add your faithfulness, work hard, serve the Lord, because we need faithful leaders in this world. Add your faithfulness and have Christ, and that's the solution to the problems of this world. And then you stop for a minute and say, well, that's what the Judaizers were saying. My works, faith in my works or my contribution plus Christ, Paul says, no, no, no, that's another gospel. That gospel's slowing you down. That gospel, if you die in that false gospel, sends you to hell. But it comes persuasively, and we need to have spiritual discernment of the worldly wise men in our day. No salvation's by Christ alone. Sanctification is where we walk in obedience to Christ and long for faithfulness, but not for our justification. So there's this persuasiveness. He wants to hinder you from obeying the gospel of grace alone. Secondly, if you look in verse nine, these troublers, the worldly wise men, Mr. Legality, whatever it is, They spread like death in the church if they're left in the church. Look what Paul has to say in verse nine. Another characteristic, he writes. In Galatians 5 verse 9, a little leaven, it leavens the whole lump. He's using this imagery and bringing it to the reality of the false teachings in Galatia. A little yeast is only needed to allow the loaf of bread to rise. And Paul's saying, you just gotta tolerate a little false teaching in the church. And it's going to infiltrate the whole thing. If it's not put to death, and if it's not thrown out of the church, it's going to infiltrate the church, and it's going to slow you down. So you're not running well, but you're running on the wrong path. That is the broad road to destruction. Paul, he says, Galatians, you got to know a little poison in the cup. They'll take you out. Don't tolerate it at all, whether false doctrine, whether ungodly living. The most loving thing to do in our day is expose falsehood. That is loving. You could think of some saying, well, it's not loving to be judgmental, but we see in two texts of scripture that God gives the local church the authority to judge that which is in the church. If there's false teaching in the church, Well, the church has the authority to say that is heretical. And the most loving thing to do is to say that this doctrine will send you to hell. I don't want to see you go to hell. I don't even want to see the one throwing that false doctrine around or go to hell. The loving thing to do is to expose it because we know a little leaven, it leavens the whole lump. A little false doctrine infiltrates the church. And we also see that ungodliness, it also infiltrates the church. Now I want you to see two texts for a minute of leaven rising in the church, both in sexual immorality, but then also in an irreverent Bible. So let's see two examples of this. If you look in 1 Corinthians chapter five, Paul uses the same illustration. with the Corinthian church. And look what he says. This is why we don't tolerate ungodliness and we seek to see those who are stumbling in ungodliness to be restored and repent and walk and run for Christ in a manner worthy of the gospel, because 11's the whole lump. Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, verse one, talking about godliness and ungodliness. Verse one, in the Corinthian context, Paul writes in chapter 5, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has his father's wife. And look at the the exhortation in verse 6. Paul writes, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, a little toleration of this sexual immorality in the Corinthian church, it leavens the whole lump. And look what he says, verse 7, this is church discipline issues. He says, cleanse out the old leaven. Turn away from sin, repent of it, cleanse it out of the church, that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." There's this reality. Ungodliness infiltrates the whole church, even our own personal holiness. We gotta think of this in a broader term. My walk with Christ infiltrates and influences everyone else's walk with the Christ. If I just have personal hidden sin, well, that actually is used by Satan to pollute the rest of the church so that we're all brought into sin. It's serious, Paul says. Run well, put it to death. Look at another text in 2 Timothy 2, verse 16 to 20. Again, Paul reminds us that our own personal sin, it affects the whole body. And we all won't run well for Christ. Look at 2 Timothy 2, verse 16, in terms of speech. Respectable sins, as Jerry Bridges says. 2 Timothy 2, verse 16, avoid irreverent babble, why? For it will lead people, so your irreverent babble will lead others. into more and more ungodliness, so that they're hindered in their race, and their talk will spread like gangrene. This spiritual death and decay will infiltrate the church because of irreverent babble in the church, not put to death. And he writes in verse 17, among them, here's some men in the church that are spreading irreverent babble, and notice the consequences, Himenaeus and Philetus, They've swerved from the truth, there's that word again, truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. So their ungodly lifestyle also, it leads to false doctrine and all these perversions. And you can see in verse 18, they're upsetting the faith So ungodly speech and false doctrine, they all, they spread like yeast and leaven. So that's another characteristic of these troublers. They're out to get you. They're out to spread poison in the church and one must run and flee and repent where we get a glimpse of that poison or taste or stumble into that poison. And then third, you can look back in Galatians 5 verse 10, another characteristic. is that they trouble. There's that word again. They seek to trouble you. They're not well-intentioned, but they wanna trouble you. Verse 10 of Galatians 5. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view. I'm confident, Paul says, Galatians, that you're gonna hear this rebuke and you're gonna again run well and take your spiritual health well and seriously. Why? because the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty. whoever he is, Paul knows who it is. He knows it's the Judaizers here, but he's reminding the Galatians that these Judaizers, they wanna trouble. They want you to second guess your convictions. They want to upset the faith of some. They wanna take infants in the faith, you could say, and make them say, oh, man, yeah, I haven't been running this race long, and this troubler says that it's Christ plus this, He seems to be persuasive. I don't know, it seems to be from God. Paul says, no, it's not from God if it's in opposition to the truth you've received, but their nature is one of troubling. It's like the serpent coming to Adam and Eve and saying, did God really say that? I know you've always held to those truths and you see it in the Bible there, but are you sure God really meant it that way? I think you need to think of these things in this light. Well, it's this idea of deception, upsetting the faith, troubling, causing confusion, causing doubts in believers. That's the nature of these troublers, wanting you to pull back a little and say, well, I gotta second guess my convictions and second guess my doctrine because this guy's very persuasive. Paul says, no, run far from that. Why? Well, look at their reality in verse 10. The ones troubling believers or troubling the church, they will bear the penalty, Paul says. There's a coming judgment day. If one dies in this state without repenting of their sin, and they die as an unbeliever, it was troubling the church and trying to lead as many to hell, even without knowing it. Paul says that they're gonna stand before God one day. They're gonna face the king of all the earth, the Lord of glory. And Romans 12 verse 19, the Lord says, vengeance is mine. Paul says he's gonna deal with these troublers. You could think of a scenario, I believe Paul Washer gave this example, but if he was going on a trip, And he told his best friend to watch over his house, his bride and his children, that their offspring are gonna be at home alone. And he says, this must take place and this must not take place. And Paul Washer said, how angry, righteously would you be if you came back and you saw someone that you trusted to take care of your bride and they abused her? And Paul Washer went on to say, well, how much more will God have righteous anger to see those who trouble his bride and those who want to paint the bride of Christ up in all their so-called splendor and all their ideas and all their ways and want to say, no, this is what she should stand on and what she should not stand on. He's gonna have righteous anger for those who trouble his bride. It's this serious warning. Paul says there is a coming judgment for those who die in this kind of sin. And then fourthly, you can continue with me in verse 11. What's the motivation? Why do they want to trouble the church? Why do they want to slow the church down? Look, because the cross was offensive to them. They hated the cross. They were enemies of the cross in verse 11. That's the reason they wanted to hinder the believer, because they hate the cross. That's the root. Look at verse 11 of Galatians 5. Paul goes on and says, but if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, Why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. The lie of the Judaizers is saying, oh, Galatians, you gotta accept circumcision, because Paul's really preaching circumcision. He may use different words than you use, but really at the heart of it, Paul's essentially saying you gotta become a Jew to be in Christ, and you gotta follow the ceremonial laws to be a Christian. Paul's really, he's really saying that. So why don't we all just lay aside our differences and even lay aside our opinion on Paul and just embrace that because Paul, he's well-intentioned. He's just a little confused. He was later, established later as an apostle and he's late to the game. He needs to learn a little more. Why don't we just bring Paul along with us? Well, Paul's saying, well, Galatians, think for a moment. Look at verse 10 again, or verse 11 rather. He's saying, if I still preach circumcision, if what the Judaizers is saying is true, that I'm really preaching Christ plus something for salvation, then why am I being persecuted? In other words, if I was preaching this false gospel, I wouldn't be persecuted. But the fact that I'm being persecuted for this gospel that I preach is evidence that it is the biblical gospel that I preach, and I'm not preaching circumcision. And why is it that I'm being persecuted? Well, it's the offense of the cross. And Paul says if he was preaching circumcision, that would mean the offense of the cross was taken away. And there was really no biblical gospel that he was preaching. Now the question is, well, what was the offense of the cross? You can flip back to 1 Corinthians for a moment. The offense of the cross was that it was a stumbling block to the Jews. It was a stumbling block to the Judaizers even, and they hated this gospel, and they raged against this gospel that Paul and the other apostles preached because it was a stumbling block. It humbled them. It emptied them of all their boasting. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18. This is the cross. Christ alone that enrages both Gentiles and Jews in different ways. Look at the offense of the cross in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians 1. The word of the cross. So he's talking about the same thing. Christ alone for salvation. Received by grace through faith. That message, it's folly. It's foolishness. They scoff, they mock when they hear about a crucified savior for sinners. It's folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Why did God design the cross this way? To make it foolishness to those perishing? But to we who are being saved, the power of God. Look at verse 19, God humbles. Verse 19 says, it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning, I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, but it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. And here's the offense, verse 22. Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are being called, or are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Paul's saying, this is why I've been persecuted, because I haven't taken the offense of the cross out. I've preached this Christ crucified, and the Gentiles who are perishing say that it's foolishness, it's folly. And the Jews who are in alienation to God, well, they're enraged. This is a stumbling block to them. Martin Lloyd-Jones in his commentary on Romans, he defines the offense of the cross and he says that the gospel of Christ crucified, it asserts that the Jew, the one who thought that he always lived a righteous life in conformity to the law, that this Jew who was given the Mosaic law, is such a sinner as the most vile Gentile." That's the stumbling block for the Judaizers to say that we the Judaizers, we the Jews, we the people of Israel that were given the Mosaic law like Paul in Philippians 3, that I thought I had all gain. I thought I had the greatest status as a Pharisee from the greatest tribe, the tribe of Benjamin and all these things. I thought it all earned something in God's courts. But now the gospel humbles both the Jew saying, no, you don't have a righteousness of your own that brings you salvation. You need the Messiah's righteousness. You need to look by faith to him. And it also enrages the Gentiles to say that, oh, you think I need God. You think that I need saving. And we even see that today as we deal predominantly with Gentiles. If you want to share the gospel, you could. share a watered down message and take the offense of the cross out that says something like, and I believe a pastor put it this way, that if you just say to a sinner, God loves you, they'll pat themselves on the back and say, thanks, I love myself too. And they'll feel great and the offense of the cross will be of nothing. But if you tell a sinner that, yeah, you really are bad in God's eyes, that your sin It offends the holy God, and if you die in that state, he'll punish you justly for your sins. That's what we deserve. It humbles us. It's a scandal to us. It's folly to us. But it's also life. That this is who I really am for what I've done. A guilty sinner worthy of hell. But this is what the Savior's done for me. If you preach that gospel, Christ alone, you can't save yourself. Only Christ can. Well, they'll hate you for it. That's the offense of the cross, to humble the proud that thinks they're good on their own. We don't want that offense, they say. But Paul says, That so-called offense, whether a stumbling block to the Jew or folly to the Gentiles, that's the power of God unto salvation. We're all here today because God by his power has saved us and we see the power of the cross through what is folly to this perishing world. So don't be confused if you're persecuted. It's probably a good sign, not always, but that you're preaching the cross. We shouldn't be the offense. Our conduct, our lives should not be the offense or the stumbling block. But if we're living a godly life and preaching the truth of God's word without apology, that's where the offense is. It's in Christ and his gospel. Not in our conduct, but in his message. And that's where the persecution comes and should come from. Peter will say, If you're persecuted for unrighteousness, that's not persecution. If you're persecuted for stealing, well, that's a sin. But if you're persecuted for righteousness' sake, well, that's something that's worthy and precious in God's sight that you'd endure for righteousness. Well, and then finally in verse 12 of Galatians 5, this is the final characteristic or Paul's warning to those troubling the church, to those booing Christians and wanting them to slow down. Serious warnings here in verse 12. Look what Paul has to say. Strong language in verse 12 of Galatians 5. He says, I wish, these Judaizers, I wish those who unsettle you, booing at you, slowing you down spiritually, these Judaizers Galatians, I wish that those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. Now, other translations would say mutilate the flesh or cut off. And I want to read a quote by J.V. Fesco because I think it's helpful. Paul here, as Fesco says, is using righteous sarcasm to the Judaizers in the area of circumcision. They're saying, you need to be circumcised to earn salvation. And Paul here, he's using controlled and righteous anger because we don't see that it It doesn't prolong, he moves on, you can see in verse 13. You recall the freedom, brothers, only don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. And he talks about the whole law fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he'll go on to talk about walking in the spirit and not gratifying the desires of the flesh, of anger and strife. So verse 12's not, unrighteous anger, it's righteous anger, it is disciplined, it is for a moment, it is against their sin and against God who's given this gospel that he uses this language. And Fesco says Paul's essentially saying that that if you insist on adding circumcision, this righteous anger, for these believers, well Judaizers, according to Deuteronomy 23 verse 1, to be emasculated in that sense, was to be seen as one cut off from the people of God. And Paul's saying, you're already cut off from the people of God for this unbiblical truth, so why don't you, who are making men get circumcised, go the full way yourself and allow the knife to slip? because you're already going to hell and you're damned for this false doctrine. Why don't you go the full way? Because you're fully cut off from God according to Deuteronomy chapter 23 and so on for promoting a false gospel. Again, strong language, but Paul, he loves Christ and he loves Christ's bride and he's grieved and troubled when those want to pollute the bride of Christ and promote false gospels that lead men and women to hell. So Paul, again, he ends on a very stark, a rather abrupt note here, and then he'll get into the doctrine of how we ought to live. But he's saying, Galatians, take your walk seriously. Because if you don't take it seriously, men and women are going to be cut off from God. That's the heart of the matter. And so take Take your walk knowing that it's for your soul's sake, but also for the sake of one another in the body that Christ would be treasured. And so I go back to that question, are you gonna take the spiritual gym seriously? Are you gonna be like Paul, looking at your life as an athlete knowing that you have However many years or days or weeks that God's given you to run well for him, as Paul says, I strain forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. A good athlete is always looking at the finish line, looking at the wreath. Paul says you're gonna be given an imperishable wreath, one full of glory. So take your walk seriously. There's God's sovereignty and his grace, but there's our responsibility that both work together. So are you gonna go to the spiritual gym this week to buffet the bodies spiritually, to run the race well that we may receive that glorious crown and see as many with us carrying that imperishable wreath? That's the goal. Let's ask the Lord to help us. Father, we thank you for this text in Galatians. We ask, Lord, that you'd help us to run well in the week to come. Again, we're mindful of all that is around in the world, seeking to slow us down, Lord. We even think of when you saved us from our sin, and I think in my own life, that fresh converted zeal, Lord. We long to have again that first love. We pray that you'd increase our appetite for you, that Lord, if we've grown spiritually cold, that you would revive our love, revive our hunger for your word and speaking with you that we may run the race for Christ and bring you glory and honor in this life. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.