GO, Dog, Go
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
We’ve been talking about this race called life
We need to lace up our shoes, stretch, and get in our ready posture to run our race
God has a plan for you - desires
Stretch your faith by looking to those before you
Posture - throw off everything that hinders, and sin that so easily entangles - get rid of the stuff that will slow you down
Feet in the starting blocks fingers on the line
a guy in high school that shaved his legs so he could run faster....
What comes after “On your mark, get set...”?
GO - We are going to take off tonight!
Body
Let’s Look @ our Scripture:
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
We are finally going to make it thru the end of verse 1 tonight.
Observation:
“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
What do you observe?
Run with perseverance
What does perseverance mean?
persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success
continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Sounds exciting! suffering and trials and difficulty are what produce this perseverance we need to run our race
Back to my story
God spoke to me 1 morning and told me to get to the hospital and have a ultrasound. I called my doctor and went
Technicians freaked out but couldn’t tell me what was wrong. Doctors said it was a very aggressive cancer. Had surgery the next week. Worst endimetrious the doctor had every seen, had to go on injections for 6 months to try and kill the disease since it was all over inside my body. Then told I had 3 months to get pregnant or disease would take over again making it impossible to have any children.
I was shaken. Had I not believed that God was going to give me the desire of my heart. I believed it was in His time, not that I was sick.... These moments were scary, & hard.
I got pregnant on the 3rd month and had the most incredible beautiful huge baby boy!
No question that those hardships grew something inside of me, something stronger, more faith even, more trust in God - which, trust me, I needed for the next 3 kids!!!!
Trials can be any kind of hardship, right
We mess up, fall down - then we dust the dirt off our knees or face (if we really fell in it) and get up and run again, stronger than before, more sure than before
People hurt us, make life hard. We gain so much from watching others
All hardships can create perseverance if you let them
The race marked out for you.
What does that mean?
There is a race just for you - it shouldn’t look like your friend’s or older brother’s or parent’s or anyone else.
One of Mason’s favorite books as a baby was Go, Dog, Go - my favorite when I was a child as well so that is how old it is!
I loved the bright pictures & the point of the book was every dog was different, special
Blue dog, red dog, big dog, little dog, a dog over a tree, a dog under a tree, 2 big dogs going up, 1 little dog going down...
And all the dogs are heading to the same place at the end some by car, blimp, boat
God sees us all as individual, all special and unique.
God has a plan just for you, and a way in which He wants you to run your race.
He loves the color, the uniqueness of each of our races
Application
So how do we apply this verse?
run with perseverance
Don’t see hardship as something to avoid
Your mistakes are not the finish line, only a means to make you stronger and better
People are going to get in the way, think, how can God use this?
What is your race?
What desires has God put in your heart
No one else is exactly like you - God needs you!
Prayer
Pray for God to help you learn to persevere
Pray for God to reveal the path He has for you