I want you to turn in your Bibles tonight in the book of Galatians. Galatians, New Testament. Galatians chapter number five, right after the book of second Corinthians. Galatians chapter number five. I'm going to read verse seven and eight. Look at this little phrase in verse seven tonight. Bow at your place, say hallelujah, amen. Amen, good. Verse seven, ye did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. In verse number seven, it is implied that there was a time that the believers that Paul is challenging here, they did run well at one time in their life. They were running the race well. They were walking for God right. They were faithful and consistent. They were overcoming things and walking for God, running for God, as it said, running. A lot of pews testify today that a lot of people not running the way they used to run, not running well. And there's a lot of things that can happen there. Notice in the verse he said, who did hinder you? That's not always a who, sometimes it's a what. But usually that what is connected to a who. And that who might not be you, it might be me. The who that might be the problem sometimes might be the man or the woman in the mirror. But sometimes it could be other things. We're gonna look at several things in this message on what has hindered you. Now, the Bible says in this verse that there were some running well, then they got hindered from that race and apparently implying they are no longer running well And he's asking, who hindered you? You need to think about who got in between you and God. Who stopped you from running your race for God? Because nobody's worth stopping the race over. Nobody. And, but you know, I've heard some people say, well, this, this, that, and this happened, this person, that person, this person, that pastor, this church, this whatever. Well, okay, let's just say that you're right and all those others are the guilty party. Why do you quit God? Go find another church and go walk for God. Don't quit God. Don't let that hinder you from walking from God and that race for God. Number one, I want to give this thought here. Were you hindered by people? Because he said, who did hinder you? So we'll look at some people that are being classified in different ways. But one of them tonight I want to bring out. Were you hindered by people? And in general, maybe somebody who was a hypocrite. Well, people love to throw that word hypocrisy out or hypocrite out. A hypocrite is just basically somebody who is something that they are not what they appear to be, is what I'm trying to get across. They come across one way, but when you really find out, they're nothing like that at all. And then there are hypocrites, like the Bible says in Matthew 7, verses 3 and 5, they're talking about that person who's got a moat in their eye, And then someone with a beam in their eye is judging them and talking about them and complaining about them or criticizing them when they are in worse shape than the person that they are attacking or criticizing. And that can hinder people and discourage people. Now, real quickly, we'll look at this verse at the end as well. If you can go forward to 1 Peter chapter number 1, Find your place there. I encourage you to get familiar with your Bible if you can. Read it, try to figure out where everything is. Don't get discouraged if you don't know all the books by heart. You can always not cheat by going to the index. It's not cheating, you're not gonna fail the test. But it'd be good to study it, know where things are, kinda get a layout. But 1 Peter chapter number one, look at verse 21. Make sure I got my verse right here and don't get it all out of whack. Let's see, that ain't looking good, amen. Let's see, I'm trying to find, I think I scribbled something. No, yeah, 1 Peter 2. One chapter can sure make a lot of difference, amen. I was like, what in the world is that verse? That had nothing to do with what I'm preaching. I know my bifocals are betraying me, amen. 1 Peter 2, to go along where we are in Galatians 5. 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For even hereunto were ye called. Now, what I read a while ago in verse seven and eight in Galatians, I'm gonna re-read it to you, okay? This persuasion, you did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth, that you're now disobeying? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you, who called to salvation, called to service. Now, listen to 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. As I said in Galatians 5 there, the thought of who has hindered you or what has hindered you Sometimes we are hindered by people, but it's usually because we have gotten our eyes off of Jesus. Who is to be our example anyway? I'll just say that. It's not your pastor. Yes, I should be a good example, but I am not the standard of the example. Christ is. And so when you see that I'm not being what I ought to be, maybe, and you say, that's not lining up with Christ. Follow Christ. Get your eyes on Him. If we'll do that, we'll keep running. He's the prize, is He not? He's the finish line to give Him glory and honor in our life as we run this race for Him. So many times, the hypocrisy of people Those who are trying to portray or say that they are something when you know that they're not. You know, I've heard this in the ministry a lot, especially when you do funerals for people. Sometimes you'll have a funeral and everybody, well that person's got halo, they got wings, they all went to heaven and they died in a bar fight Saturday night. Preachers will sometimes be challenged on what to do about that. One thing you shouldn't do is lie, amen? But if you don't know everything, then you surely don't have to tear down somebody. You can try to just point people to Jesus Christ. He's the one that they need anyway in their life. Now obviously if somebody died in some kind of sinful situation, you do not know what took place in the heat of the moment of their life. Their only hope would have been Christ. That's the only hope they would have had, to be able to call upon the Lord to save them. And then people sit in a funeral. And they complain about maybe something the pastor said, or maybe there's somebody that's a neighbor of theirs, or a co-worker of theirs, and their co-worker goes to church, but he cusses, tells dirty jokes, talks filthy around them at work, but they serve the Lord, or they worship in church. That's hypocrisy. And that hinders some people from running for God or walking for God. It also becomes a stumbling block, and some people just flat out go to hell because of people like that. All I can do is say, you know what, I can only control me. I don't want to be a hypocrite. I don't want to be a stumbling block. And the only way I can avoid that is to keep my eyes on Jesus. He is the example I should follow. He has the steps he already laid out. Praise the Lord. And I need to focus on following in his steps. Those are the steps that I need to look to. That's what our trouble is, is that we're looking at other Christians who may not actually be Christians at all, may not even be saved. They just be talking religious. Looking at other people as our example, and we get discouraged and disappointed by each other when we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, but if our eyes were always on Jesus, my hope is I'm gonna just walk in his steps, keep my eyes on that, and try to live for him, then I wouldn't get so hindered as the thought is. Who did hinder you? You remember this hindrance thing can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Satan tempts Eve. Adam follows in that sin with Eve. God comes and calls them out on it. And ask Eve about what happened, or ask Adam, excuse me first, ask Adam first. And remember he says, the woman that thou gavest me, y'all ever read that in the Bible? He's like, with that woman you gave me, you know, the rib thing when you gave me that woman, but I loved her so much, but now throwing her under the Eve bus route, amen, throwing her under the bus. She hindered me. Boy, if we would have kept our eyes on God's obedience, following him, serving him, what his word says, and things like that, the hindrances that Galatians 5 talk about here, you did run well, who did hinder you? There might be some people that are hypocrites in our lives. There may be some people who are very critical in our lives. There just may be, listen, we could go 1,000 pages probably of the types of people. that can hinder you. from running your race, but is it worth the cost of stopping the race and then going to the next part of the verse that you should not obey the truth, you know the truth, he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, the Bible says in the book of James, to him personally now, to him it is sin. When you know to do right and you don't do it, it becomes personally your sin in your life. And he said, would that be worth it to quit running because somebody else, and we see it all the time, it happens. Husbands and wives and children can blame each other. People in the church can blame each other. You can blame somebody you work with. There might be somebody that's not even going to church anymore now because of somebody they ran into and something that they did. I've visited before and talked to people who left this church or churches like this church and they bring up sometimes the reason they hadn't been to church in years. Who did hinder them? Somebody hindered them. They could name the name. They could tell you the story. People leave over financial disagreements, they leave over family things, they get out. And again, I call you to the thought, should you quit God Almighty altogether? You shouldn't quit running the race for God. Or were we even running our race for God? Who has hindered you? Galatians 5, 7 says you did run well. Who did hinder you? They should not obey the truth. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. It did not come from God. God's not calling you off the race. God's not the one getting in your way. It might be other people that we get discouraged about. But if that happens, then quit looking at the people. They're going to fail you. They will discourage you. They will disappoint you. And maybe you think you're the only perfect one. But there again, we look in the mirror. We see we're not. We find our own fault pretty quick. But get your eyes back on the Lord. Get back in the race and start running and run it well. And the way you run it well is not worrying about everybody else's race. I can only run the race that God called me to run. As Paul reminded me, not Paul the apostle, but Paul Gunn this morning, he reminded me when we were talking out the door, he said, I believe God called you to preach. Amen. That's probably one of the best compliments I've had in quite a while. I'm glad I didn't pursue my pharmacy degree and my accounting degree. in my history degree. It's been hard to teach class and count pills and count numbers all at the same time. Because I have my mind in so many different directions. God saved me, called me to preach, put me in the ministry. He found me, counted me faithful, and by His grace I want to continue to be that. And as Paul mentioned that this morning in the foyer there, I thought, man, you know what? That was a great compliment. That's what I need to focus on is preaching the word of God, amen, and ministering the word and all the things that come from that. So you can get hindered by people's inconsistencies. You can get hindered by people's broken promises and their fake profession of faith. I can't fix all that, amen. I mean, there are times that as a pastor, you might could call somebody out and say, hey, you better straighten up This happened or this happened, and you could try to preach the messages, hopefully to prod and awaken people's hearts, but it comes down again to that great Holy Spirit I talked about this morning. He does that work of convincing and convicting. And I need it in my own personal life. And if I am truly saved, He has called me to a race. And I want to run it well. And Paul looks here and he challenges these Christians at this church of Galatia. This was a real church, had real people. And he said, you did run well. There was a time you were running well. Who did hinder you? And boy, they were being, he talks about being bewitched. These foolish Galatians were bewitched. They were tricked. They were persuaded. False doctrine and other things that go on. But here, specifically, the actions of people that can discourage us. We need to get our eyes on the Lord. If somebody else beside you that walked with you a long time quit, would you quit too? You shouldn't. Amen? If a pastor were to leave a church, he should not leave. Before I came here, we were talking back in the prayer room in here almost 19 years in September. That blows my pea brain to think about that. But there was a pastor here before that, and he was here almost 16 years or so. And the pastor before that was here a good chunk of time with Ray Robinson. And every time there might be a change, if people were not keeping their eyes on the Lord, they would have all left. And some of you, Brother Bob and Sister Jo, Sister Susie Jordan, I know, and they probably get even called out, Brother Bob Howell, Sister Susie Hamby, there's some of them. They were here through some of those transitions. Some of you were here through multiple transitions of that. And if you would have had your eyes on people, you could easily quit running your race. You're not supposed to do that. Keep your eyes on the Lord. The thought is, were you hindered by people? Number two, were you hindered by persecution? The Bible, this is a topical message, of course, I'm just throwing it together, but it all stems from Galatians 5, verse seven, when Paul said, did you run? You did run well. The Bible says in John 16, 33, in the world, ye shall have tribulation. You live in this world, you're going to have tribulation, trials, adversities. Things will be adverse against you, against your faith. If you are light and you start locking heads with darkness, you're going to feel it time and again. You're gonna feel it. If you are salt, salt is a flavor enhancer. Praise the Lord. Put it on your french fries, amen. Get your blood pressure up. That's what it does, okay? But if you put salt in somebody's eye, You missed a fry there, brother. That don't belong in there. Then salt becomes an irritant. And there are times our saltiness for God irritates other people's lives. And when that happens, Sometimes persecution can come back on us. Anytime you try to emulate or copy or pattern or follow the example and the steps of Jesus, this world of darkness and wickedness is not going to be your friend. There are strangers to grace that don't understand it, and there might be times that you might suffer persecution. And sometimes people get hindered from their race because things start getting hard. You know, when you first get saved, you might think everything's gonna go perfect, gonna go well. You're on cloud nine, got my sins forgiven. Man, I like this church culture and singing, and we have a good time in the Lord. And then there's wintertime that can come in your life. There are wintertimes that can come in the church's life. You know, some people hop churches and leave looking for the fire from place to place. I can't blame them. They're trying to find a warm place to get around. But if you just hang in there maybe a little while, Maybe the firewood will get gathered in. Maybe the fire gets back started. Maybe you could be one of those involved in that. Boy, it'd be good to have some people fanning those fires, amen? Persecution comes sometimes, and it gets hard to be a Christian. And everything's not easy and flowing freely. Everything doesn't go smoothly. and some people quit walking for God. There's been a lot of young people in the faith, and sometimes those people are not, they might be young, sometimes they might be older, but they just got saved. They're new in the faith. And that adversity and trials come, you know, and they think everybody, Brother Carl, they think everybody in the world got to love Jesus like I love Jesus. And they say, I want to invite you to church. And they said, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. They get cussed out from every A to Z. And it's like, oh my goodness. And some of them just like, well, I don't want to do this anymore. Makes you wonder if some people really got their root of the seeds really grounded or if it's just on the surface. Because when that heat that comes, those fowls that come, the enemy comes, need to be rooted and grounded in that truth. Shake off some of that persecution and try to keep going on and being a light for the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be misunderstandings and oppositions from family. You know, there's some family, when you get around them at holidays, they don't love the Lord, they don't go to church, and you're like, you almost got a, you need your poster child of that when you show up at the event. I mean, you are known for going to church. You're so weird, you go on Sunday nights. You're so messed up and weird, you even once in a while go on Wednesday nights. You're so crazy, sometimes when they say, let's just do it some extra time and do Monday, Tuesday or whatever, go four Mondays in the month of April. You're so crazy, you do that sometimes. And when you get around them, sometimes they persecute you or you feel persecuted. You feel the friction. They don't agree with your excitement and your exuberance about the things of God. And then it's like, you know, I sure would love you to come to church. Don't you judge me! Y'all ever dealt with somebody like that? They think you're attacking them just as soon as you say Jesus. As soon as you say praying for you. Why are you praying for me? I don't need your prayers. And some people get persecuted like that. They get injured in their spirit. They get discouraged. And they get hindered. and they quit running. And I don't want to be one of those. I don't think you'd want to be one of those. Jesus told us that in this world, we're going to have tribulation. And if we're going to be like him and take up his cross and follow his steps, if they persecuted him, they're going to persecute us. And we got to realize that we might not understand this. We're definitely not experiencing persecution in this Western culture like many do across the world. Our persecution is very light compared to many. Some people die for their faith. We get our feelings injured for our persecution sometimes. I think we could do like Paul did, not Paul Goodwin, I have to clarify myself tonight, amen. He might have done this a time or two, but as Paul reached into the fire there when they were shipwrecked, a serpent, a viper bit him on the hand and he just shook it off into the fire. Maybe we have to shake some things off, shake some hindrances off. And maybe you're hindered by persecution. I hope that you're not. But the Bible says and taught the disciples, if you are persecuted, we are to rejoice. That's one thing we can rejoice over. Not that the spirits are subject unto us, that the demons will obey us and cast out, but because our name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, we can rejoice over things like that, and we could rejoice that we were counted worthy to be persecuted like our Savior. But instead, a lot of people get persecuted, get discouraged. A lot of new people that took their Bible to public school, and they get mocked and made fun of, and they tucked it away and never messed with it again. It's easy how quick we just quit running the race because of persecution. And I wonder, number three, would we be hindered by punishment? And this is another thought of chastisement. In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, you'd have to turn with me there, Hebrews 12, real quickly. It's in the same neighborhood where you are, Hebrews, right before first Peter, we were at a while ago. Hebrews chapter number 12. In verse six, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and discourages every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. That ought to encourage us instead of discourage us, doesn't it? God takes time, He's dealing with me, and He's treating me like one of His sons. He's taking time to chasing me. For what son is He whom the Father chastened us not? He will chasten every one that is His. Some of these kids run out in the street there, and they run out with the wrong crowd, and no mom and dad ever say a word or repeat. You wonder, do they even have a mom and dad? Who's little kids running around out the street there? Who's that little kid laying in the median? Do they not have a parents across the department? Is there nobody at the church? Somebody, do they belong to anybody? Boy, God lets us know real quick by chastisement or the punishment that we receive for our disobedience that we belong to him. to think about this because in the context of this verse being corrected and having to go through this, obviously chastisement's not joyous in verse 11, but it's grievous. Nobody, ain't nobody ever enjoyed getting a spanking. I've never enjoyed one. Amen? You say, well, your heavenly father spanks you. It still don't make it no fun. I don't like being chastened by the Lord, but it's not worth quitting my race over. because he's trying to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in me. He's trying to correct me to get me out of the walk of disobedience, getting me from disobeying the truth to obeying the truth, getting me back in the race to run for him. And yet sometimes when people are chastened, they quit all together. I've met a lot of people who've quit, but thank the Lord, I've met a lot of people who still run in the race. I'd like to keep my eyes on the Lord and I'd like to run with that crowd. If I ran a marathon, now please don't snicker during the service here for that, but if I were to run a marathon, a whole 26.2 or whatever it is, I think I could do the .2. I think I could do that. But if I were to get in that, they got this big crowd, all this hype and stuff, Boston, New York, whatever. And they take off running. And there's some people that take off running. They set a high pace. And they run that 26 miles in almost two hours, maybe less, some of them. Now, that would not be the pack that I would be able to run with. and I'd feel more comfortable and I'd feel more inspired by somebody who's running the pace that I'm running or they're running and they kind of make a reflection and say, you know what? That guy looks overweight like me. He's got a little belly like me. I think maybe I can hang with him. I might be able to run faster than him. And maybe I can, maybe we can run together, but whatever, I'm gonna hang with that pack. Now, the reason I brought that up is you need to fellowship with other believers who have like-minded faith as yours so that you can run the race and you can endure some things that you're going through. And some of that hardness that you endure will not cause you to just quit and walk away from the race that you're running. Because every one of us are in the same race and every one of us have experienced chastisement and punishment if you truly are saved. Because there's not one child of God, not one son who's without punishment or without the chastisement. Because if we are, then it reveals that we don't belong to him. And so we're all in that same race. So let's be encouraged by that instead of hindered and quit. If you think, I don't know, I'm always chasing, always being, always struggling or whatever, well, a lot of other people are going through things as well. Only thing you can do with chastisement is search your heart. Is it me that has sinned or is God purging me from some other way? Because either he's doing that or he's got other plans, but keep running your race. Don't quit running for God because chastisement or punishment, being hindered by punishment, it comes into your life. Maybe the test of those things is trying to help us see how bad we really want to run the race for God. Do we really want to finish well? Do we want to overcome through His blood? Will we lean upon Him for that? Number four, were you hindered by the pull of the world? The Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 15, talks about the love of the world and the love of the Father. and that you can't have the love of the Father and you can't love the world and you can't, as the Bible implies as well, that we cannot serve God and mammon. And the word mammon means, in the New Testament, the world. I can't fall in love with the world and follow in love with the world and follow my Savior, my Master. I cannot follow both and run both races that way. And the pull of the world, the allurement of the world can hinder you from running your race from God. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul the Apostle says this, Demas, called him out by name, hath forsaken me. Having loved this present world, he fell in love with the present world around him and he quit running his race. He used to run and hang out with the Apostle Paul. What a man to hang out with. Can you imagine who some of your buddies? Well, hanging out with Apostle Paul some. Nice, that's good company, amen. And yet he forsook Paul and he fell out of walk and race and he went and followed the present world around him. Now, as we cannot serve both these masters, we gotta decide then, are we gonna run that way or that way? Are we running for God or are we gonna run with the devil? And I'm not talking about a song. I'm talking about a legacy, a lifestyle. To say I'm going to run and walk in the world and walk in the darkness and the pull of the world. And listen, we've heard it even today in prayer requests. People that have gone back to the drugs and things like that. And such were some of you. Any of us could be drawn away from the pull of this world. Some of you used to drink and you're here right now. If that pull of the world, if you answered that call, if you submitted and you surrendered and you gave into it and you got hindered from your race and said, well, I'm just going to stop running for God just for a minute. I'm just going to take one little drink. I know it's been 30 years or whatever, but it won't hurt anything. Yes, it will. It'll hinder you from running your race from God. And it could wipe you out and take you out altogether. It's easy to get like that. So we've got to be understanding that the pull of the world, just as soon as you think the world is not knocking at the heart door, it's not trying to draw you back down, well, that's when you'll fall. That's when you could give in, and that has hindered a lot of people from running for the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of people have given in to sin. They've fallen. and willful acts of sin, as I give you this thought, where you're hindered by a passive view of what sin is in your life, you think that somehow you can't fall, you think somehow that, well, this is a little small, insignificant thing, and even though the Bible says this or this and this, well, it still comes down to disobedience. Sin is missing the mark. You know the mark, you know the target, you know what's required, and you miss it. Sin is missing the mark. When he went to Bible college, the doctrine of sin was called harmatology. I always thought that was very intriguing. Harmatology. Sin harms you. So you keep getting hindered long enough there's going to come something along like sin. Our passive view of what is sin and what is not sin can hinder you from running your race and it may harm you so badly that you may not ever be able to run again. There are people that have been locked up and they're in jail that used to walk for God and live for God and God chasing them and they kept just rejecting the chastisement. They kept on walking the wrong way and God had put them in jail and instead of getting their heart right and trying to serve in jail, they kept living ungodly. And there are people in the grave today because they never would walk for God. They never got back on that because sometimes that chastisement is finally, he says, that's enough. I'm no longer gonna wink at sin. I'm no longer gonna ignore it. I'm gonna chasten them with a final chastisement, suddenly without remedy, as the scripture says. So that pull to the world, that passive view or opinion of sin, having a willful act of disobedience towards God. The Bible says this in Jeremiah 26, 13, Therefore now, this is Jeremiah warning the people of God, the Hebrews, therefore now amend your ways, what a phrase, amend, fix your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God and the Lord will repent of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. If you'll amend your ways and listen to God's voice, then he will back off with the plans of, and he'll repent not from sin, but repent from that judgment upon you. If you'll get right, he'll back off of chastening you or maybe even destroying. We act like this is just, well, you know, I used to walk for God, but I don't anymore. You have a race God called you to. As I read that verse a while ago, this persuasion cometh not, this is Galatians 5a, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. He didn't call you to quit running. He didn't call you to start disobeying the truth of God. You made those decisions and you followed in sin. And the Bible says in Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, he will not hear me. That's pretty devastating to me. And I think it's more than prayer, but prayer is the priority of that verse. If I regard iniquity and sin, and I hold it in my heart, and I will not give it up to God, and I'm not, listen, you got all these hindrances. The book of Hebrews talks about that as well. The sin that so easily besets you. You've got these weights on you that are slowing you down in your race, and many times hindering us from running at all. And you put these things in your heart and you regard them. You hear preaching about something, and it might not be something specific. It may not be specific, but I preach it, and the Holy Ghost, who is very specific, goes to where you live and says, that's you. That's your pornography. That's your drugs. That's this. That's what I know that's on your tablet, on your phone. That's what I know that's on that email. That's what I know that you've been watching. That's what I know that you've been thinking. You've been meditating on. And boy, the Holy Spirit began to deal with us. And if we will regard that and say, I will not give that iniquity up, I'm going to regard it in my heart. I'm going to hold on to it. The Bible says in Psalm 618, he will not hear you. He won't hear your prayer. He's gonna cut you off. Only prayer he's gonna be listening to then is God forgive me, I repent, I'm sorry. And I believe this, I also believe he won't hear our praises. That's a sad position to be that I've regarded my sin, I've cut off my prayer life and my praises to him. Technically my whole relationship is hindered and it's harmed. And there's no wonder when somebody regards those kind of things and they have a passive opinion or view of sin and disobedience. They get out of the will of God. You know what the first book people quit reading when sin becomes between them and God? Reader's Digest. Does that exist anymore? I'm so old, I got old references. Do people even read books anymore? Maybe I need to really get that in my mind, right? Some people read books, okay. First book that most people quit reading when they were reading it is the Bible. It's amazing our appetite Even in our striving to walk right, our flesh can come to the forefront. Even when we're striving and fighting, reading that Bible is a challenge sometimes. And our appetite, I can read anything else. I can read stupid cheese puff stuff all the time. To be an example, I know none of you do this. Cut your phone on. None of y'all do that, do you? And then that one takes you down another rabbit hole, and then another rabbit hole. And then you go, man, I've been on this stupid phone for 15 minutes reading nothing. Trump did this. This one did that. All kinds of stuff out there. You can get all kind of algorithms connected to your appetite. And then those algorithms send. You know what an algorithm is, right? I know that's a big word today. I thought that's a big one. I threw out a big one on you. Facebook has algorithms. I can't even say it now. TikTok has algorithms. They have programs that assess the information of your appetite of what you're feeding off of. And they send articles relative to that, more articles to you. And then it can get worse and worse and worse and worse. And it's amazing. The first book we quit reading is the Bible. We quit praying and talking to God. We start regarding that iniquity. We won't give it up. Our race for God doesn't matter. Our walk for God doesn't matter. Going to church doesn't matter. Being a witness and a light to others doesn't matter. Applying the scripture of the word of God doesn't matter. Knowing where we are in the time frame, if the Lord might could come back soon. Loving his appearing, give me a crown, but I'm not worried about that crown. I'm not interested in his appearing. I want to do this. I want to follow this. A lot of things can hinder us. The pull of the world, passive view of sin. The Bible says in John 15, four, that we are to abide in him and his words abide in us. And that word abide means we stay put, we stay in and that'll be that abiding place. And, and I think about Well, could I be hindered by a procrastination or a postponement or a putting off of the things I know to do right? I need to read my Bible every single day. I think that should be not just a challenge, that should be a requirement. should be a duty of ours. You know, I need to keep myself in the love of God. And one of those ways to do that is to read my Bible every day, put some of the word of God into my heart and in my mind. And think about this church in our modern day of what we are bombarded with. How much do we really read and saturate and soak ourself with the word of God compared to all the other words that are flowing out there today? How much were you influenced by other things? Church days and Sunday morning, Sunday night, if you come to both services, you probably have a higher proportion of feasting and meditating on God's word today than you do the average day of the week. But even still then, so many things call and draw us away. Be easy to get hindered and neglect those things. Our prayer time. Walking with God. I know I seem like I harp on these things sometimes of reading your Bible and pray and it sounds elementary It sounds simple, but are they not the things that get stolen from us the easiest in our life? Just go a couple of days. If you don't watch it, say, man, I hadn't really even prayed, talked to the Lord, fellowship with Him, thanked Him for anything. I haven't asked Him for things and guidance in my life. I hadn't really just really prayed and prayed for other people. I just got in the trench and kept grinding away. Every other book became more important. And I know many of your lives are overloaded. Your plate is full. You wear many hats, many responsibilities. But as Paul calls out, ye did, you did, you used to run well. Who did hinder you? A lot of times it's us. A lot of times it's I hinder myself. You know, when I decide I'm going to devote extra time to reading the Bible. It's amazing how the phone will ring and the text will come. And some are good. I'm not just not criticizing, not complaining. But those things have priorities that I can get to later. If my priority was I'm spending time in the word, spending time with my Lord, I'm going to read. and listen to the Spirit's guidance, and I'm gonna pray, encourage you to pray over the scriptures, that's a powerful thing, praying over the word that you're reading, and then pray for other things as the Spirit guides us to do, because if you neglect that fellowship with the Lord, you'll find yourself hindered in your race for God, you'll find yourself fellowshiping more with the world or people that are in the world, you'll find yourself not staying put or abiding in Him, find yourself getting loose and cold, and many people become backslidden. And that is a real Old Testament phrase, but it's a New Testament problem for sure. Her heart's backing away from God, backing off from God. And there are many that are in that position. But just because you're here tonight doesn't mean that you could not get in that position. And to say that a pastor, a preacher could not get hindered from running their race because of some person, some circumstance, some pull to the world, some kind of thing goes on, they get chastised, they get punished, things don't go their way, they want to walk away, they want to quit. Listen, there's never a reason to quit God. Quit running your race for God. Never a time that you should do that. If you regard iniquity in your heart, he won't hear you. But the Bible teaches us in Isaiah 59 that his arm is not short, that it cannot save, that his ear is not hardened or hindered or limited, that he cannot hear you if you will repent and ask God to forgive you, ask God to help you, that you desire to, Lord, I haven't run my race in so long. I even go into church, but I'm really not walking for God. I'm not doing what I should. I'm so distant. I'm not even the person at all that I used to be. And Paul says, you did run well. You used to run it well. Who did hinder you? Well, my mom did it. My dad did it. My husband did it. My wife did it. My preacher. See, I'm the only one that can really genuinely get away with blaming it on the preacher. Isn't that the truth? Y'all could say it, but the Lord could show you it's not all the preacher's fault. I think you have some, you know, there's some accountability. But I can say it's the preacher's fault. And then it usually would be. my fault, that man in the mirror, if I choose not to read my Bible or I choose not to receive what's within that word, if I choose not to pray, if there's some kind of thing I can do to keep myself in the love of God, keep myself in tune with the Lord for something that I surrender to and disobey the truth of the word of God, applying it in my life and it hinders my race, that's on me. I made that decision. I know we won't want to blame everything on somebody else, but one day we're gonna stand before God. If you're saved, you're gonna stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ. And we're gonna give an account of the deeds, deeds, the race that we've run and how we've done it in our body, whether it be good or bad. And I do not believe there's any indication that I can see. that I have any other hope but the advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not going to be able to say, Jeremy, man, Jeremy, just see, I couldn't, Jeremy, I can't run it. Lord, Jeremy just irritates me. He takes this well. He's not going to leave, at least not right now. He might not leave in a minute, OK? It's like, is that how it's going to work? You know, that woman you gave me, that's a real good one, Adam, really good. That woman you gave me, I'm gonna blame it on somebody, some reason, some circumstance, some hypocrite, somebody who wasn't real, something. So was it something else or someone else or was it you? That's a deep question, isn't it? And notice in verse eight of Galatians 5, he said, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. I need to be reminded of 1 Peter chapter 1 again. I want to read it to you. Excuse me, chapter 2. I keep looking at that wrong. Verse 21. For even here unto, this is the purpose, were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, he died for us, and he's leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. So I go from Galatians 5, verse 7 and 8 where I used to run well, now I'm hindered. He says, who did hinder you? What a question. That you would disobey the truth. You'd walk away and not obey the truth and disobey. And now I can make that decision that it was not God that did this. It's not his persuasion to call me away from the race. His persuasion is to call me to the race. He saved me, called me, put me in that race, particularly called me to the ministry, particularly called you. Many of you have obligations that are having to do with the work that you have and all that. Those are important. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I appreciate those. But your call to your family and your individual walk for God is the highest call you have. It's God first, then your family. And you're not going to take care of your family properly if you're not running your own individual race into God properly. That's a challenge for us all. I need my eyes on Him, listening to His voice, following His steps. Sister Virginia, I want you to come play something for us. It's Galatians 5. Seven and eight. I want you to put your name in that. Maybe he could hear your name. Ye did run well, Brian. Who did hinder you? That ye should not obey the truth. I know some preachers that have quit God altogether. They got upset by how they were treated. It's hypocritical that some preachers will attack their members like, you shouldn't get mad at the preacher and run off and leave, but many preachers run off and leave when they get upset with their members. And they, instead of saying, well, I'm going to just reset, get my heart right, get my mind fixed. And I'm going to go over here to this good Bible preaching church. And I'm just going to, I'm just going to get healed and get some help, get my hope back. I'm going to get back on my race. But I know many brother Carl, they quit God. I don't know how else to describe it. They quit God. They don't go to church anywhere. They're mad at somebody or many people. They're upset with church in general. And behind it all is God. It's really who they quit running the race for. I can be a better pastor for East Georgia Road if I'm reminded I'm running a race for God. But if I keep thinking I'm running the race for me or for this church, I'm gonna get hindered. But if I run it for God, I can run it better with those other priorities and responsibilities in line. You can be a better father, a better wife, better husband, better mother. As a child, children obey your parents. What is it? And the Lord for this is right. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Ye did run well, put your name there. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? I hope that doesn't apply to any of us. I hope it won't come to be a prophecy over our lives that one day you quit running for God. Just got upset, got burned out, and you got drawn this way, that way, this happened. Hypocrisy over here, chastisement, punishment over there, and just everything, maybe all of it, and maybe more. And you just got tired of walking for God, and it didn't matter anymore, and you used to run so well. Something hindered you and got you off the track, got you off path. I don't know if you're there right now and somehow you survived by continuing to come to church faithfully, but your race is hindered. That'd be good to acknowledge and say, Lord, even though I'm here, even though I'm preaching, even though I'm teaching, even though I'm this and that, even though I try to do this and that, I know I am hindered in my race. Maybe there's something that was preached or something the Holy Spirit showed you that that isn't even preached tonight. And you know that your race is in danger of being hindered. Does anybody here say, preacher, pray for me. I don't want to quit running my race. I know, thank you. Preacher, I know my race is hindered. I'm struggling with this or that, the other. Amen. Well, it's good to acknowledge that. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I don't want to be a has-been or a used to be. I don't want to be put on a shelf. I wanna run my race the best I can for God. Oh, you may outrun me by a thousand miles an hour, but I cannot run your race at your speed. I gotta run my race. I've gotta run my race the way God called me to run it. Anybody who's a preacher, pray for me. I feel like I'm so close to quitting. So close to giving up. Paul said this in 2 Timothy 4. He said, I'm now ready to be offered up. Offered, excuse me. And the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Church, if we'll stay in our race and keep running and being faithful to the end, we will get a crown of righteousness. From God Almighty, He will place a crown upon our heads. And most, I know the spirit of most believers, Sister Susie, we're gonna lay those crowns. If we get any at all, we're gonna lay them back at His feet. Because He's the one that died for us. He endured His race and He died on the cross for my sins and your sins. If I get a crown at all, and this is one church, this is one that we can really strive for, to finish our race, to keep that faith, and love His appearing. Keep our eyes on Jesus, looking for Him to come back. You can't love His appearing and be looking for Him to come back and not be running your race. Because I promise you this, if you're not running your race, He's the last one you want to see. You don't want the Lord to come back when you're not walking right, living right. Boy, if you get those things right, get back on track. Church, if there's some of you here, you say, I don't even know what that is, running a race for God, walking for God. Man, you're missing out. I don't know if you're even saved. I don't know. But I remember when I got saved, He put me in the race. He didn't put me in the ministry until several years later. But until then, I wasn't born a preacher. I didn't come out with a Bible in my hand, amen. I was lost. He saved me at the age of 19. So many wasted years. But He put me in a race. And later on, He called me. As I began to keep running and getting my mind and heart on Him, He called me to something different, something better. He has a purpose for us all. He has a race for us to run. And I wish I could stir all our hearts to say, Lord, I want to run that race you've called me to. I want to run it well. I want to run it faithfully. I want to run it until the day you call me home or you come after us. Maybe pray that prayer that God will do that in your heart and your life. Father, I pray you take these words tonight and challenge our hearts. As the song she's playing, keep our eyes on Jesus. Lord, I want to follow your steps, put my feet in the footprint. I want to run the race you've called me, follow you as an example. Keep my eyes on you and not be looking at everybody else, worrying about everything else and everything else. Oh God, help us to run well and not be hindered. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.