If you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Timothy. Once you get there, if you want mine, we'll stand for the reading of the word this morning. 2 Timothy, I didn't tell you where exactly. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, verse 6, says this. It says, I am now. For I am now ready to be offered, 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. Let's pray. Father, I do just ask now as we open your word, Father, I pray that you set me aside. Father, I pray that you just use me this morning. Father, I just ask that if there's anything between you and I now, Father, please cover that under the blood. The last thing I want is to be a stomach block to anyone in here or online. Father, I just ask that you just use me this morning. I pray that there's nothing between you and I now. Father, I do ask that as we open your word, just Help us to get something from you, Father. Help us to see that time is drawn short and that we need to stay in the Christian fight as much as we can. Father, I thank you so much for the people that came this morning to hear your word preached. I just ask that you just give them a blessing. This morning, I pray that you, again, as already prayed, I just ask that you please be with Pastor as he's away, just be with his family now. We love you so much, Father, and I do look forward to that day. What a day it's going to be when we get to see you face-to-face. Father, help us to stay faithful to you. You call us home. Father, again, I ask that you use me now in your name. Amen. All right. Thank you. Now, the books of Timothy are some of my favorite books, and I find myself probably saying this more than I realize. I don't know, maybe the teens can verify, but a lot of times I will go somewhere in the scripture and I'll say, well, this is one of my favorite stories, or this is one of my favorite chapters, this is one of my favorite people, and the more I've gotten into the word, the more I realize that, you know what, it's kind of all my favorite. I've gotten to a point where I just, I love the Bible, and I'm so thankful for the Bible, and I just, I do love to be able to go to God's word. And we're gonna be, it's in 2 Timothy this morning, but seriously, the books of 1 and 2 Timothy really are some of my favorite books in the Bible. And this morning what I wanna do is I just wanna lay a little bit of groundwork for where we're going. So 2 Timothy is Paul writing to Timothy, And Paul's in prison at this time. Paul's realizing that he's probably going to be executed, which does end up happening soon after this letter. And so he writes this letter to Timothy, his spiritual son, if you go over to chapter 1. The beginning of chapter one, verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus. So we see it's Paul's spiritual son, Timothy. Now, if you read through the book of of 2 Timothy, you see that it's written very much like a general or a commander sending his troops out. Paul used the analogy of a soldier throughout the book of 2 Timothy. And you see he gives Timothy charges of how to live his Christian life. He gives Timothy charges of how he should be acting, what he should be doing And it's very much written as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And we see that analogy. But where I really wanted to focus this morning is what we read. in chapter four, verse six and seven. Let me read them again. It says, for I am now ready to be offered, 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. Paul, as I said, realizes that his time on earth is drawing short. His time on earth is pretty close to the end. He's in prison here, he knows the chances are he's gonna be executed, and we know that he was beheaded sometime after this letter. But we see in verse 7, we see Paul has three declarations. He says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. And that's where we're going to be in a minute. That's where we're going to come back to. But before that, I wanted to focus a little bit. We're going to look at Paul's journey a little bit. But my question to us this morning is this. Would you, when you ask yourself, how am I going to finish my course? How am I gonna finish my life? How am I gonna finish the race that I've started as a Christian? How will I finish this morning? How will I finish my life? I want you to ask yourself that question. Now, I used to watch a lot of NASCAR. Anybody, any NASCAR fans in here? We're down south, there should be more NASCAR fans. Used to, right? Yeah, I used to. They went the way a lot of sports did. They started getting a little political. But more, I just don't have time to watch them anymore. But you watch NASCAR, you watch a race, and you have a certain amount of laps. You got to go a certain amount of laps, or whether it's a running race, or whether it's a NASCAR race. But really, when you look at a race, there's only one lap that really matters, doesn't it? It's that last lap. I've watched races, and I've seen people start from pole position. They started from up front. and something happens, they get in a wreck, or something happens to their car, and they're out of the race, they're done. But you also see an opposite. You see people that start dead last, and they end up winning a race. So it's not necessarily about that race, it's about how you finish that race. And my question to us today is, how are you gonna finish your race? How are you gonna finish your race? I'm gonna be honest with you, church. I really think we are very close to the end times. I really think we are living in a time where we can see the Lord come back at any moment. I really believe that. You say, you know what? Preachers have been saying that forever, and I get that. Let's look back at something. I want you to see this this morning. Let's turn back one chapter to 2 Timothy 3. We're starting in verse 1. It says, this know that in last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge and truth. So I was looking at this list and I started to think about this list. And I want to just kind of look at this list of you this morning before we really get into our message. I want you to keep this list in mind. Now, in verse one, it says, know also in last days. That's what I just said, I believe we are living in our last days. I believe we're getting close. It says, perilous times shall come. Now, perilous means dangerous or hazardous. Now, I think we'd all agree, we're kind of living in some dangerous times, are we not? We're in some perilous times. But wait, there's more. Verse two, it says, men, lovers of their own selves. I definitely think we are living in a selfish society. Everybody thinks they're so important, the world revolves around me, and I'm only looking out for me. Covetous, always wanting what someone else has, never satisfied. You know, always trying to keep up with the Joneses. That's why everybody's got such high personal debt. I have to have what they have. My neighbor goes out and buys a brand new truck, I need a brand new truck. Covetous. Boasters. The first thing that came into my eyes is sports. If you watch sports, it is just all boasters. I am the greatest. I am the best. But you know what, there's a lot of people, you talk to them and the first five minutes they'll tell you how awesome they are. They'll tell you all the stuff they've accomplished. Boasters. Proud. Hmm. Is that a word we hear kind of often nowadays? Every group's got pride after them, right? Proud. Blasphemers. Blasphemers. I can't, it drives me crazy when I hear somebody talk about the man upstairs. The big guy. No, it's God. He's the Lord. Using the Lord's name in vain. Blasphemers everywhere. Disobedient to parents. If you don't think that's nowadays, I challenge you after this, go to Walmart. Go to the toy department at Walmart, go to the candy section, and just wait as parents come through with their kids. If you don't see disobedience, I don't know where else you can find it. But you have those kids that, I want this, and they throw a fit. I hate you. Disobedient to parents. Next, unthankful, that's self-explanatory. That's everywhere. Unholy, again, everywhere. Without natural affection, we've lost that natural affection we should have. How do I know? Abortions, rampant in the United States. Abandoned babies. Used to be marriage, man and a woman. Now it's whatever the world decides. That natural affection that God put is now gone. Truce breakers. The first I thought of was poor Israel over there, surrounded by enemies. We have a peace treaty. What's the next thing that happens? Rockets coming in. Truce breakers means absolutely nothing. Your word means absolutely nothing. False accusers. What our last president went through when he tried to have the judge nominee Kavanaugh there. False accusers. They tried everything they could to slander him, to discredit him. Incontinent, now I'm gonna be honest, I didn't really know what this meant in this context of this, so I looked it up. Here's what incontinent means. Not restraining to passions or appetites, particularly lustful appetites, indulging in lust without restraint. Kinda sound like society a little bit. Fierce, fighters, aggression. If you read the news, it's everywhere. School shootings, mall shootings. All the time. Why is it that it used to be that boys could bring their rifles to school, and they would have riflery class, and they'd go out hunting after class, or go out plinking. Never school shooting. What's changed? Fierce. Despises of those that are good. You know, do you realize Christians are some of the most hated people right now? Do you realize that? For what? What, think about this. What evil has Christians done that they should be so despised by the world? Despisers of those that are good. They're hated even though they did nothing wrong. Traitors. Hmm. Yeah, I'm gonna try to keep myself, I'm gonna keep myself out of trouble. Probably, maybe, I'm gonna try. But recently, a big pile of American supplies got left somewhere and ended up in the hands of enemies, terrorists. Somebody did it. Whether it was intentional or not, you can be mad. I don't know. But I think we see there's some traitors around. Heady, gives no thought before acting, violent, impetuous, high-minded, thinking highly of yourself. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. How many people put their own self, their own pleasures above God? Well, I can't go to church because it's a beautiful day and I gotta go to the beach. Put our pleasures before God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Sounds like religion. One more, verse seven. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth. Kind of sound like science? Being pushed all the time, ever learning. Always learning something, but never quite the truth. That's quite a list, isn't it? It's quite a list. You know, and I'll keep something in mind here. The list is out of 2 Timothy 3. It was written to Timothy in 67 AD. Now if you're sitting there like I was when I read this list, you think, wow, that sounds like a list for today. Am I right? Now let me remind you, verse 1. It says, and know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come. And then it gives that list. If you can't sit there, if you can't see that this sounds exactly like the world we're living in today, I actually, I'm impressed, because that means that you're not seeing what's going on with the news or anything like that, because this list, to me, is exactly the time we're living in. This time, like I said, this was written in 67 AD, but this is our world now. So if that's the case, and we're getting closer to the Lord's return, then what are we doing? Are we going to finish our course? Are we going to finish the race set before us? Are we going to be able to be like Paul and say, you know what, I've done the best I can? Or are we even still going to be in the race? I want to look at something before we really get into where we're going this morning. We'll turn back over to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. in verse 9, Paul mentions a few people. Now I just want to take a quick look at them and probably this is familiar to you. Verse 10 it says this, it says, Well, verse nine, it says, do thou diligence to come shortly unto me. He said, Timothy, can you come to me? I'm here in prison, can you come? He says, in verse 10, he says, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. I have sent Tychicus, and Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. So we see a few people here. We see Demas has forsaken me, and he gives a reason why, because he's loved his present worlds. Now I want you to think back to that list I just went over with you. That's our present worlds. Demas says, you know what, I don't want to finish my course. I don't want to finish my race. I like what the world has to offer. I'm going to drop out. And so we see that he went to this present world. Now, I want you to ask yourself, after thinking about that list and looking at that list, how many people do you know that have dropped out of the race? How many people do you know that used to sit in one of these pews that's no longer here? And you know, that's the same thing with churches all over the world. People that used to be in the race, people that used to be running, people that used to be doing something for God, now dropped out. They're not even in the race anymore, just like Demas. You see a couple other people mentioned, Luke, Mark, Titus, he says, you know what, they're still doing something, they're still working. My question to each one of us is, where would we fall on that list? Would we be one of the faithful that stays in the race and finishes the race and finishes that fight? Or it would be maybe more like Demas, where, you know what, at one time, he was doing something, but he decided to leave for the pleasures of the worlds. You know, Demas at one time was doing something, Colossians 4.14, it's him and Luke. Paul's saying, you know what, Luke is here, Demas is gone. He wanted the pleasure of the worlds. I just want to give you us three things, just three things that challenge us this morning, and then we'll be done. And it's just three things that, looking back, that Paul talked about. I see those as, Paul was saying, you know what, this is what I've done, but to me, when I look at those, it should be our challenge to each one of us. It should be our challenge to each of us that so when we get done with our race, when we can look back at our life, when our time has come, we look back, we can say, you know what? I've done those same things. First thing, fight the good fight. Fight the good fight. Do you know, who should we even be fighting? Do you even know the answer to this? First Peter, turn over in your Bibles, keep your finger there, First Peter 5.8. You see, it's kind of obvious, but there's a reason I'm asking the question. 1 Peter 5, 8, it says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Our enemy is the devil. Our enemy is the world, the flesh, the devil. That's our enemy. So why is it that so many Christians are fighting each other? Why is it so many brothers and sisters in Christ are fighting with each other as opposed to the fight we should be fighting, which is the world, the flesh, and the devil? You know, listen, fellow believers are not my enemy. Good Bible-believing, good Bible-preaching churches, not my enemy. Pastors and preachers that are preaching the word and doing what they're supposed to be doing, not my enemy. You know, yesterday when we were at men's prayer meeting, Brother Anderson brought up, we need unity again. We've spent too much time, we're in fighting in churches instead of fighting the world like we're supposed to be. Instead of fighting the devil like we're supposed to be. We should be in the fight, but we've lost who the enemy is. We've lost, and listen, I'll be honest with you, I think COVID did a lot to that. If you don't take the vaccine, you're my enemy. If you do take the vaccine, you're my enemy. If you wear a mask, you're my enemy. Listen, if they're a Christian, all that other stuff doesn't matter. We should be together fighting the devil like we're supposed to be, not fighting each other. You know something about a fight? A fight's not easy. Do you realize that? A fight is not easy. I know Pastor told you before, Pastor and I took karate together. And there's a lot of different aspects of karate, some of its forms and kata and all that stuff. We hated that stuff. And learning techniques, and that was OK. But we loved the time where you could just put the gloves on and spar. That was our favorite part. We absolutely loved to spar. And I think of, he's probably going to want to see this. But I think there's some times where him and I would get together, because we train a lot. We always train together. And I think of some of our sparring sessions, and it kind of got me laughing as I was putting this together. But we'd be sparring, just kind of practicing. We'd be like, OK, at the beginning, we'd be like, so what do you want to do today? We'll go like 50%? Yeah, I'll go 50%. Sounds good. All right, so we get ready. We start training. And one person tags the other person, hits them with a pretty good shot, like, oh, that was a good one, okay. So I'm, next, I'm gonna hit you back. And it was 55%. And he's like, well, you ain't gonna hit me 55%, I'm gonna hit you back with 60. And next thing you know, it's just, we're duking it out for fun. And you realize quickly, it's hard. So every once in a while, you'd be happy like your strap would come undone. You'd be like, oh, I got to fix my strap. It'd take a half hour to put that strap back on. It's only Velcro. But a fight is a hard thing. Many people fall out of the race because they lost sight of the enemy or because the fight got hard. They started to get hit a little bit, and it knocks them off course, and they get out of the fight. You know, I thought of, as I was thinking about being in a fight, I thought of a saying that Mike Tyson had. Mike Tyson had a saying that said, everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. Every time I interviewed Mike Tyson, he said, listen, they can say whatever they want to, I'm going in there to fight. Everybody's got what they think they want to do until they get hit. What's gonna take us out of our fight? Did we forget who our enemy is? Did we get banged around a little bit? Is the world hitting us a little too hard, getting our nose out of joint a little bit? Is that gonna be what it takes to get us out of the fight? Is that gonna be that one thing that knocks us off our course so we don't finish the race that we started? Listen, a fight's hard. We're in a fight. Christians, listen. We look at that list and we think, you know what, if that's what's going on in the world, man, I really have my hands full right now, don't I, as a Christian? I mean, I'm in a world that really has no desire to serve God. When we take it as a whole, it's going to be a fight. Are you going to let getting bumped around, banged around, kick you out of your race? Are you going to forget, you know what, my true enemy is? Fight the good fight. Let me give you the next thing. Paul says, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. Finish your course. I said, you know what, it doesn't matter how you start. It matters how you finish. Let's look at Paul for a minute. A lot of us know who he was, we know the story about Paul. But let's look at Paul, and for most of you that know, you probably know that Paul's name was originally Saul, Acts 3.19. If you want to turn there, you can look there. Acts 3.19, I'll turn it real quick, says this. As soon as we get glasses, I don't think that's the right verse. Oh, it's not, 3.9. See, I got my glasses on, and even that's not the right verse. Wow, even glasses didn't help me. I'm sorry, I wrote down the wrong verse. 13.9, somebody got that? Let's try one more, Acts 13.9. There we go. See, if I did read it, I'd be able to give you the right verse. Acts 13.9 says this, then Saul, who also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. So we see that Paul, who wrote 2 Timothy, originally was called Saul, but I want you to see his beginnings. So Acts 8.3 says this. It says, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church. Havoc of the church. entering into every house, inhaling men and women, committed them into prison. Acts 9.1, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest. 1 Timothy, I want you to hear Paul's description of himself. That's only two that we looked at, but 1 Timothy 1.15, Paul's description of himself. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all exception, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, this is what he says about himself, of whom I am chief. Paul starts with someone who killed the persecuted Christians. By his own account, he was the chiefest among sinners. That's a pretty big statement. You know, I think of some things I've done, I think, wow, man, to call yourself the chiefest of sinners. That's Paul's start, but that's not where Paul ended. You know, I said it's not about where you start your race. It's about how you finish your race. I was watching a few years back. I was watching the Olympics. Anybody watch the Olympics? I didn't watch them really this year at all. But I used to like watching the Olympics. And for some reason, it's that one time where I'll watch just about any sport. I'll watch curling. I'll watch, I didn't even know what curling was, but it actually is kind of cool, I guess. But I'll watch any sport. And so I put the Olympics on, and it happened to be marathon running. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. That's not one of the coolest things to watch on TV, marathon running. It's 26.6 miles or 2 miles or something. What was it? 26.2 miles. That's way more than I will ever run in my entire life combined. I'm telling you. But these people are running. And so there's a small pack that broke away from everybody else, and they're out front. And this small pack, I think it was like five racers, and they had a little bit of distance between each of them, but not much. And so they're coming to the end, and you know it's going to be one of these five is going to win this race. One of these five, they're going to get that gold, they're going to get that silver, they're going to get that bronze, they're going to be on the podium. And you could see, what they had to do is they ran down the road, and there was a building that they had to run into, and they run into the building, run around, and cross the finish line. That's how it ended. And they see, you got the cameras, and they're following these runners, and they can see that building. There's only a little bit of a race left of this, and it's going to be done. They've already run 25 miles or whatever it was, but they could see that finish line. They could see that end. And there's this one lady, she's running, she's just going, and she sees that building. She knows, I'm just about there. I'm just about ready to finish this. I'm going to pour it on. I'm going to try to get that gold. And I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, she falls. And she falls hard, skidding across the pavement. And there was like a curb. She hits the curb. She's laying there. She's all scraped up. She's crying. And I thought, wow, how awful is that? She's done. She's out of the race. And here comes the medical staff, comes and looks at her. And she's sitting there. And I thought, well, that's it. She's out. A minute later, she stands up, still balling. I don't blame her. She's all scratched up. She's hurting. And she starts to hobble. And she starts to get a little bit more speed. And you could tell every step she's taking, she's in pain. No possible way she's going to win. No possible way she's going to be on a podium. While she was there, people were blowing by her. That five was already way ahead now. No possible way she's going to win this race. But she finished. She crossed that line. banged up, beat up, scarred up, broken hearted. She had every right in the world to stop. She had every reason in the world to quit. I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna be able to finish. I'm not gonna be able to, no, I'm going to. I started this race and I'm gonna finish this race. I'm not gonna let this take me out. You know what's sad? So many Christians start the race but never finish. They started doing good. Maybe at one time they were doing something. They were running hard. They were doing something for the Lord. But they're not going to finish their race. They dropped out. I'm the type of person that if I'm going to start something, I want to finish it. I don't like second place. I want to do the absolute best I can. I'm going to push as hard as I can to finish what I start. I don't want to be somebody that coasts across the finish line. I want to be pushing as hard as I can when I cross that line. You know, back to NASCAR, I just, I was thinking, how often, for those of you that watched, is there a wreck on the last lap, on the last corner? Right as they're coming to the finish line, why is that? Because they pushed as hard as they could. They'll come upside down, skidding across, parts flying everywhere. But they finish because they pushed as hard as they could to the very last corner, the very last ends. That's how I want to be. I don't want to give up on the Lord. I don't want to say, you know what, I would hate for somebody to someday say, you know what, I remember when he was in the race. You know what, I remember at one time he was running pretty good. He was cranking. But somewhere along the line, something got him out of his race. He's not even racing anymore. He used to be doing something for God, but he's not doing that anymore. So many Christians are out of the race. So many Christians started strong and aren't even going to finish. I don't want that to be me. My question this morning was, how are you going to finish? Keep your figure there. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 9 verse 24. First Corinthians 9 verse 24. It says this, it says, No ye, not that they which run in a race run, what's that next word? All. Run all, and one receives the prize, so run that ye may obtain. We need to run all. If you start your race, I'll be honest with you, physically, I hate running. I know you probably look at me like, yeah, we know. We can tell you don't run. I just don't like running. It's not fun to me. But every once in a while, I'll do it, just because I want to challenge myself for some stupid reason. I have no idea why. But I'll set a goal. And no matter what that goal is, I will get to that goal. If I say, you know what, I'm going to run a mile today, I will run that mile. I might be huffing, puffing, ready to throw up, but I'm going to reach that goal. If I say, you know what, I'm going to run from here, I was going to say to the back wall, but I'm going to be realistic. I'm going to run from here to the front pew. I'm going to get there. That is how we should be as a Christian. Listen, I am going to finish my race. I am going to finish strong for the Lord. I am going to run all. I'm not gonna let something take me out of my race. Fight the good fight. Finish the course, finally the last one. Keep the faith. Stay true to God and God's word. Listen, so many people are compromising nowadays. And I'll be honest, that's probably part of the reason why when we read the list there, we could see so much of what the world is like. Because somewhere along the line, so many things have been compromised. Those little things. Oh, it's really not that big of a deal if I use a different version of the Bible. Oh, it's really not that big of a deal if we get rid of Sunday night service. Oh, it's really not that big of a deal if those little compromises, those little compromises where we stop keeping the faith. Listen, I don't want to be a Christian that compromises. I don't want to be a church that compromises. I want to make sure that I keep the faith to the very last breath I have in me. Romans 10, 17, it's a familiar verse to most of us. If you want to turn there, you can. Romans 10, 17. How do I make sure I keep the faith? Romans 10, 17 says this. It says, for then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Hearing by the word of God, it's where my faith comes from. It comes from the word of God. I need to make sure that I'm staying in my Bible. Even more so now. I need God's word more than ever probably in any time in history. But churches are empty. See, that list, that's the world's. But why are churches empty? Why are churches getting away from preaching the Bible? I was talking to my teens about that this morning. You know, we'll only preach the things that we think that is gonna draw a crowd. We'll only preach the things that are gonna keep everybody happy. Well, listen, that's not what God's, God's Word is entire, you put it in there for a reason. It needs to be said. If it's in the Bible, it needs to be said. But so many people get offended, get knocked out of their courts. So many pastors, so many preachers won't say something because they don't want to offend somebody else. But listen, it's up to the Christians to stay in that fight. Our churches should be full. Our churches should be full. There's two reasons for that. So many people. have gotten out of their course. They've gotten out of their race. And also, we haven't stayed in the faith like we should. We haven't done what we're supposed to be doing. We haven't told people like we're supposed to be telling people. That's part of our race. 2 Timothy 4, 6 and 7, it's where we were. It says, for I am now ready to be offered, and my time of departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith. Paul knew, he says, you know what? My race is just about done. I told you, you look at, when it says in the end days, we look at that list. Church, I really believe we're in the end days. I don't, and listen, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to put a date. I'm not, I'm just saying, you look at, you look at that list, you look at the world we live in while they're, they're pretty tied 67 AD today, 2021. They sound like the same list that I would make. We're, we're getting close. How are you going to finish? In verse 10, we looked at this earlier, Demas left because he wanted to be in the world. He got his reward. He wanted those pleasures. He wanted what was going on in this world. Verse eight, I want you to see verse eight. Here's what Paul says. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not me only, but unto all them that love his appearing. How's your race? Are you looking forward to the Lord's return? Are you still in the fight? Are you still running your course like when you started? Look back for a second in your minds when you first got saved. Now, I think about how on fire I was all the time. I had tracks with me all the time. I was telling everybody I could, but sometimes We get a little off course in our race, don't we? For some reason we get a little tired, we get a little burnt out. We get a little distracted, whatever the case is. Listen, we need to get back in the fight. We need to get back on our course. We need to make sure that we're running the best race we can for the Lord. You know, Paul didn't start the best of races. We looked at where he was. But he sure finished strong, didn't he? I think we would probably agree that Paul was one of, if not the best Christian ever to live. He didn't start that way. His race definitely didn't start that way, but he sure finished strong, didn't he? One more verse and we're just about done. James 4, if you would turn with me, James 4. James 4, verse 14 says this. Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow, for what is your life, it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. Church, time's running short. We have no guarantee it's tomorrow. We're not guaranteed the next five minutes. Let's do all we can for the Lord until he calls us home or till he comes back. We all started our race, if you're a Christian and you started your race, are you still running today? Are you still going strong for the Lord? Are you still fighting as hard as you fought way back when you first started? How are you gonna finish today? Are you gonna be able to say like Paul, I fought a good fight, I finished my course, I've kept the faith? Let's pray.