Well, we made it. It’s the last Sunday of 2020. This stressful, anxiety, fear-filled year is coming to an end. And at the same time...it’s not. You see, nothing magical happens just because the calendar flips to January 1, 2021. The dysfunctions, sins, and bad habits that drug you down in 2020 don’t know that the calendar changed, and they don’t care. Life is marathon, and we must be diligent in our discipline day-by-day, running our race with purpose and intention.

Message Notes

Your dysfunctions, sins, and habits
don’t know the calendar changed –
and they don’t care.

Flipping the calendar
doesn’t fix your issues.

Your 2021 will be
your 2020 – minus the mask.

24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NIV

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV

Know what you want. Acknowledge what it costs.

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
1 Corinthians 9:25 NIV

“Is this right?”
is the wrong question.

26 “Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.”
1 Corinthians 9:26 NIV

Purpose for every person
and every place.

27 “No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV

Today’s sacrifice
is tomorrow’s success.

This is not the end.
But it can be the beginning.