In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of running the Christian race with perseverance and not giving up. He encourages the audience to stand firm in their freedom in Christ and not be burdened by the yoke of slavery. The preacher shares a personal experience of witnessing a powerful response to his appeal for surrendering to Jesus. He also mentions the concept of revival, which starts with individuals dying to themselves and allowing God to work in their lives. The sermon concludes with a vision of a golden disc with two strings and symbols being held high above the earth in the heavens.

Good morning, good to be with you. Okay let's tell you what we're going to do tonight first, okay, if you can come back tonight. Great opportunity to bring friends, there'll be a non-threatening atmosphere, okay, we'll not be preaching at them, we'll not be saying if you're not saved get saved and then if you're in the Church of Scotland get out, there'll be none of that tonight, okay, so we're going to be looking at our charity, we run a charity, we went to Zimbabwe, we went there in January and we're going back in August, so this evening we want to share that with you, I'll preach and Laura will do the presentation at the same time, that's quite clever isn't it? So that's what we're doing this evening. This morning Laura wants to say something, now it's always dangerous, whether I'll have enough time to speak or no remains to be seen. Welcome my wife. Good morning, there you go, thanks very much for welcoming us here and I was just reading in the front of your newsletter there that whoever had put it in there had said that Colin and I would be ministering together, so I didn't expect to speak this morning but as soon as I saw that I thought oops, right, I'm actually going to, you see when we came in this morning we went through into the room there and had a bit of time of prayer and praise and worship with the worship team and I must tell you I had such a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit that I have not felt in a very long time and whilst we were there I got a picture in my mind and that's how God sometimes speaks to me, I'm sure he speaks to many of us in that way, and he brought me this picture and I kind of just, you know, sometimes he does that and I don't know if it's for anybody, if it's for me or what have you, so I just tend to wait on him and you get caught up in a bit of praise and worship and then you think stop, stop, I've got to stop and listen, what's God saying and everything, and so that's where I've been today since we've been here, but I must commend your worship team and the people who got together to pray there because you must have very open hearts to the Holy Spirit, that was incredible. You know we often stand up here and we invite the Holy Spirit to come and be with us, do you know that when we're baptized in the Holy Spirit we don't have to invite him to be with us again, he indwells us, we are to open ourselves to him, we are to surrender ourselves to him so that he can be more in our lives and we become less. Sometimes God has something to say that's unexpected and that's what happened this morning. We need, if he does kind of nudge you, we need, like he did with me this morning, I needed to decide to be available and then to be obedient because none of this was prepared and that's usually the best way really is when you say, God well I don't know what I'm going to say, can you just have something to say, you speak through me, and that's where I am before you today and if this is a message from God may it pierce your hearts because it pierced mine and in fact he had me in tears already this morning. The presence of the Holy Spirit was incredibly strong and this is a church that I know nothing about except last year in November Colin and I and my parents attended the Greenock Revival Conference and that's where I met Alistair and Fraser and we were very impressed that Elam had something to do with it in some way and so you know it was nice. We were disappointed in how few people attended but what we were incredibly, we noticed so much was the desperate hunger in the hearts of the people who did and that's an incredible thing, the hunger in our hearts for more of God and for true revival but what we learned at that conference is revival is not what a lot of us think and it's not what a lot of people preach. Revival is very painful and it starts in the individual and it means dying to yourself and allowing God to do a work. So today I saw a picture, first of all I just saw like a disc, it was like a golden disc, it turned out that it wasn't gold it was just bronze and then coming from it were two strings. They were like, it was strange because they were joined and there was like a hub and then these two strings stretching out for a very long way and then I realised that there was a pair of cymbals that had come together like that and they were being held on the string like that and then eventually I recognised that there were hands holding the string and that this was high above the earth, it was in the heavens and it was over the waters of the sea and then I thought okay I'm going to go and look in my bible what about a cymbal and you know the only thing I knew about cymbal is that if you don't have love you sound like a clanging cymbal you know but I didn't get a sense that this was in any way a nasty thing like a warning that you know there's no love or anything. I just knew that there was something really special about this so I sat there and I just allowed the picture to develop and through the praise and worship it just developed and the cymbals started to open to come apart. The sense was that these cymbals are being held in perfect tension. There was no bias on either way they were in perfect tension and that is Jesus. Jesus is perfect in every way he is in perfect tension between love and hate and everything. He is the exact balance that we need to seek in our own lives and that's what I believe those cymbals represent that perfect balance that is the Lord and then these cymbals came apart and from within the cymbals came a cascade an aspiring cascade of golden stars and I thought oh well that's a little bit weird I don't know what does that kind of mean so I just left and then I thought oh I'm going to go and look in the concordance and see what God says about stars and I went to Daniel and this is when I started to get a little bit I don't know emotional. I'm just going to read Daniel 12 to you because I believe it's very pertinent at that time Michael the great prince who protects your people will arise there will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then but at that time your people everyone whose name is found written in the book will be delivered multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake some to everlasting life others to shame and everlasting contempt those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever but you Daniel close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end many will go here and there to increase knowledge then I Daniel looked and there before me stood two others one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank one of them said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river how long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and I heard him swear by him who lives forever saying it will be a time times and half a time when the power of the holy people has been finally broken all these things will be completed I heard but I did not understand so I asked my lord what will the outcome of all this be he replied go your way Daniel because the words are closed up and sealed until the end time of the end many will be purified made spotless and refined but the wicked will continue to be wicked none of the wicked will understand but those who are wise will understand from the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up there will be 1290 days blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1335 days as for you go your way till the end you will rest and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance in the 80s I think that was when we used to hear a lot about the end of times and then in the 90s it all just kind of stopped and we got into feeling good in church and being blessed and just what we wanted we want to go to church to be blessed and people stopped preaching about the end of times and stopped preaching the book of revelation and Colin and I were led to preach through the book of revelation in our church and my parents who were leaders in the church also joined in and we preached from the beginning to the end of revelation we had many things that told us that that was what we needed to do at that time and it was because we truly believed that people need to know that it's going to happen no ignoring the book of revelation you know that's it says if you're wise you know you're going to shine like stars if you bring many to righteousness is there anybody here who does not honestly believe that we must be living in the end of times when we look around our world today when we see the apostate church developing before our eyes surely we have got to realize that that is where we are coming to and there's something that we have to do we've got to tell people we have got to warn them because hell is a real place it exists and there there there are countless multitudes going and the wicked will remain wicked but we are still to go out and tell them what's going to happen to them and we will give account before the behemoth seat of christ for what we did and what we didn't do so we're living in the end of times i believe it i know that there's many many people and many big international preachers who believe it now many of you probably believe it maybe some of you don't and we have certain things happening in the world today that are leading us to believe that revelation and prophecies coming to pass the latest that that says there about the abomination that causes desolation i have my own personal feelings on that and i think that we've actually seen it come to pass in a strange way and not in the way that perhaps you might have heard um and it's it's all got to do with a very prickly subject of homosexuality and and ministers and in that kind of sphere and everything and recently police went and told a street preacher that to even cause call homosexuality a sin is now considered a crime and you know god when he when he gave us his word and he called sin sin he never you know jesus never messed with that he never called it anything other than what it was and the church is watering down its message against sin today in a in a frightening compromise because we don't want to make people uncomfortable the time is coming when you're going to have to make your stand for the word of god and it is going to cost you dearly and jesus's sacrifice on the cross demands that we stand and we boldly proclaim his word and we don't compromise he did not shed his blood for a wishy-washy lukewarm bride he shed his blood and said follow me pick up your cup of suffering pick up your cross it's gonna hurt but i promise you it's worth it i promise you and that's an absolute assurance that i have in my heart i can't tell you because i've seen it i can't tell you because i can touch it any one of us can't say that we've seen god or that we actually hear his voice coming out of heaven but we have that assurance that it's true because jesus was here in human form to show us the way he is our example and so for those who would be wise please heed heed the words and heed the signs of the times and one thing we know from scripture and if any of you have ever read through the book of revelation i personally think it's a post-trib rapture sorry that's where i'm coming from people think we're going before the tribulation some think we're going in the middle i think we're going after i hope i'm wrong but i'd rather be prepared because it says that we have to overcome we have to overcome and to overcome you need to be trained and to be trained you need to be disciplined and to be disciplined you need to be a disciple of the word so get the word into you and preach it with boldness come what may because jesus says it's worth it that's all a warm cheery word for you sometimes i'm scared to let her speak i'll just move us here in case i want to run up the aisle who remembers my last message when i was here and you made such an impact what's the point alistair i was here 12 years ago and i preached on revival and as laura said we came to the revival conference back in november and i think that was the last time we were in greenock i want to share a wee bit before i say anything else about what happened to me at that conference we were excited about the conference to hear there was going to be a conference where there was going to be no cds dvds books no big worship bands the speakers were coming free of charge i've never heard a conference like it had you hold on a minute who was there okay four or five 12 and so i was excited to see somebody was actually doing something just for god just to seek god so we came with a great sense of anticipation and expectation and personally i got more than a bargain for the first night what was the boy's name she's good with names i'm good with denny kenniston spoke what a preacher and uh he spoke spoke about moses and he spoke about isaiah and you know god touched my heart that night do you know what he showed me he showed me the sin that was in my life i was in my face before god that night or on my knees before him or repenting that's all i could do when i had that sense of god's presence that came that sense of holiness that came all i could do was repent before god i remember after saying to laura you know god just touched me and i was just repenting i wasn't over any particular sin it was over all my sin my great sense of sinfulness before a holy god and that was just the first night by the end of the conference i was on my face before him who was the last guy that spoke the last guy oh um the scary man he's mine that guy oh see when he got on i thought he's a nut job that was my first impression i've got to be honest i thought i've never seen anything like this is just theatrics that's that's what i was thinking as this guy began to minister and by the more he ministered the more god began to get a grip of me and i should have left that's what i should have done to escape it but it was too late god got a grip of me and i was on my face before in the middle of the sermon i couldn't even wait to the end he read that line from isaiah woes me see when he said the woe that was me on my face before god because that's the sense i had woe is me i'm a man of unclean lips and god took a hold of me he sorted me out over those few days i thought i was doing well i thought it was fine all those years in ministry i ought to have been all right but there was god gave me a good slapping told me to wisen up and i left there with a great sense of the anointing and presence of god with me i seen something of god i had not seen before in my christian life my vision of him had expanded somewhat of course going to conferences are one thing because you can get whipped up in a conference nae problem and it makes no difference to your life when you come back home here an example of that i saw a friend of mine who'd been to what's that place called i'm still trying to get that guy's name keith daniel keith daniel's the guy that's that guy not to be confused with the place i'm thinking about uh that todd bentley guy where was that florida lakeland florida the friend went over there for their conference and i met him at broxburn because we went to hear the guy who came from there who was speaking and i saw my house says i've been there oh she's what difference did it make to your life i was excited to hear what happened to him he says oh i got i got more fire what's that that's all he had to say i got more fire well there's no substance in that and if all i had to say to you was i really enjoyed that conference that'd be a waste of time because if we go into the presence of god and we come out and it makes no difference to life there's something wrong so the test for me when we came back home on the thursday night was i was getting into the prison on friday morning because i'm a prison chaplain not because i've done anything wrong i forgot you didn't you know that and on the friday we have the sunday service i know it's confusion it's friday afternoon in clenical prisons when we do our service and i was speaking at it you get to speak for 10 minutes unlike here where you get an hour and a half and we'll get to the sermon don't worry i'm just sharing a wee testimony i went in the prison and three guys showed up for the service and they were all christians i thought well that's no good fortunately one of our chaplains popped his head down he says three is that all you've got but you only get about six you know it's not busy in glenocle and uh i says i'll wait and see if you can get some more so she says i will which he'd never done before none of us had ever done that before you get who came and that was it but he went away and he came in there's two shoved them in the door says get some air so he went away here another three keep at it he went away again got another three is that 10 anyway we ended up with 10 that was better than two wasn't it another three better than three and i spoke like and we have a couple of songs and you get to speak for a few minutes and then you've tea and coffee that's it so now working in the prison as a elan pentecostal minister by the way i'm the only one that i know of that's employed by the scottish prison service and uh just took us a while to get in the door and i thought once you're in there you've got to be wise about these things you can't just get preaching and laying hands on folk and getting them baptised in the holy spirit i mean to give you an example of that one guy got baptised in the holy spirit in his cell fell down the flair and he was speaking in tongues and the guard opened the door and he says what's up with you he said i've been filled with holy spirit and they they sectioned them that's what they did they called the psychiatrist i spoke to the prison officer sometime later says do you not think calling one of the chaplains might have been the appropriate move i know that i come to think about it well he was sectioned he's now out of jail and worshipping in an elam church incidentally so praise god what was i saying the service ten of them and so i so i've always been careful and always you know treading lightly but this day the holy spirit was still on me for this conference and i thought i'm just gonna give it a lull day make an appeal and see what happens and i preached for my 10 minutes and i says right how many of yous want to give your life to jesus how many want to surrender to him three of them were christians seven of them put their hands up we want to give our life to jesus so something happened to me through that conference i had the evidence of it on the friday on the sunday i'm in corton vale we get more at the prison service in corton vale you'll get about 40 up to 70 in the service there and did the same again i preached i made an appeal about 30 of them responded by putting up their hands and practically every week since i've made an appeal and people have responded the one sunday not so long ago in corton vale i preached on healing knowing there was nobody there physically sick but plenty emotionally damaged people and i said how many would like jesus to heal you every one of them put their hands up one of the officers at the back couldn't believe it was happening the evidence is there of what god done in my heart and my life because i came to a place of stopping compromising over how i present jesus how i preach god's words that's a terrible confession because it means for many years i've been compromising particularly within the prison setting i wanted to share with you something i'm sure you've heard before but i'm hoping that somehow i'll just enlarge your vision that you'll see something more about jesus because that's what i want to speak about i want to speak about jesus i want you to focus on him i want you to see him we sang it in many of those songs there as we do about looking at jesus about seeing him one of them says when we see you we find strength to face the day so there's something in looking to jesus that will give us strength as christians something that will bring fresh anointing upon our lives if we see him for who he is and what he is about and we begin to understand something greater of what who our savior is something will happen in our lives that will change us if you've got a bible turn to hebrews chapter 12 and i just want to share from the first two verses but we'll read 13 of them 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 let us fix our eyes on jesus not on the preacher not on the church not on a family you know people will always let you down this morning that's all i want you want to do i want to get you to fix your eyes upon jesus and maybe you've been a christian a lot of years and you think well done that a long time ago son or maybe you need to see him afresh for who he really is let's fix our eyes on jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of god consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood that reads to me stop your whinging that's how that reads and you've forgotten the word the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons my son do not make light of the lord's discipline and don't lose heart when he rebukes you because the lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son endure hardship as discipline you had that word from laura about discipline and what it can produce in our lives god is treating you as sons for what son is not disciplined by his father if you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline then you're illegitimate children and not true sons whatever we have all all had human fathers who disciplined us and we've respected them for it how much more should we submit to the father of our spirits and live our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best but god disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness he disciplines us so that we might share in his holiness be holy as i am holy no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed now what a look at those first three verses well we'll see how far we're going to get but just you know some preachers never get to the point we'll get to the point right away i want you to see jesus perhaps in a way you've never seen him before because that's really what god what laura mentioned we preach through revelation something god did to me there was make me to look at jesus in a new light i saw him as the risen and glorified christ i took john's vision of jesus as he saw him in revelation and i began to see him in a new light and that's what i'm hoping to do to get you to look at jesus because when you're asked to look at jesus what do you see and a lot of christians in their minds i will see jesus on a cross we sing about it a lot look look to the cross we sing about our savior and there's nothing wrong with singing about these things but if all you have done as a christian all your christian days is look to the cross you have not moved forward in your christian walk you have not developed in your understanding of who jesus is for some it's still the baby in the manger that picture we get at christmas time little baby jesus meek and mild we better ditch that one because there's nothing meek and mild about him you'll know that when he comes again he might be the lamb but he's also like the lion of the tribe of judah maybe you've experienced like i just mentioned in revelation seeing jesus as risen and glorify seeing him in his heavenly glory seeing him blazing eyes of fire and brilliant white seeing him seated at the right hand of the father maybe you've looked a bit further to the jesus that's coming again the tattooed jesus i know he doesn't have tattoos but the bible says written in his thigh as king of kings and lord of lords and he's coming in a stallion he's coming victorious he's coming for his church when you think about that kind of jesus we're talking about somebody that's magnificent somebody that's all victorious somebody that's above all that's what i want to say this morning and i'm saying it now in case i don't get to seeing it so you've got the message no blether for a while since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses what witnesses is the writer to hebrews talking about well he's talking about the witnesses that went in the previous chapter you see first of all to to see jesus you need faith faith is being sure of the things hoped for and being certain of the things not seen i teach alpha course in the prisons and i say to them when you pray should you pray out loud and they're going i don't know i mean no you pray quietly i said well where's the faith in that because if you pray out loud you're exercising faith you're talking to somebody that's not there yes he is there but you can't see him faith has been sure of things hoped for and certain of things unseen so to see jesus you need faith that's the beginning point without it and here we're being told since we are surrounded by such a crowd of witnesses a crowd of witnesses that are declared as men and women of faith people who by faith believe god you need your homework go home and read hebrews chapter 11 and in there there's a great turn of phrase certain of what we do not see this is what the ancients were commended for that's the crowd of witnesses that's been spoken about here the ancients those that were of old people from long long long time ago a quick look at some of the names abel enoch noah abraham isaac jacob if you're a man or woman of faith you're in good company let's look at some more we've got moses in there rehab a prostitute jesus what are you thinking about in fact if you look at the list there's a conniver there's a murderer there's a prostitute and it just goes on begin to look at the people that are mentioned in hebrews 11 look at their lives and you'll be appalled at their behavior but that's what paul talks about that we as christians were once like that but he and delivered us and changed us that's why i love working in the prisons i absolutely love working as a prison chaplain i'm working with people who you don't need to convince that they're lost they know they're murderers thieves adulterers criminal there's no convincing needed they know who they are and what they need to know is that god can take men and women like that and change them and make them men and women of faith people that are able to see jesus for who he is others and still others and one of the last verses in hebrews 11 do you like prosperity preaching i'll take it as i know because it's the name and claim it brigade you know blab it and grab it i remember when i was at my worst life wasn't good and i've been through a lot of turmoil and to boot i was skinned you know i'm talking about a time when i was even homeless and this is a christian pastor by the way and i turn on my tv and creflo dollars speaking and creflo says if you ain't in prosperity you ain't being blessed and if you ain't being blessed you're in sin well i really cheered me up thanks brother blessed me out my socks so you did it but then you get to a verse in hebrews chapter 11 verse 39 these were all commended for their faith these are people who had the faith message way back the ancients yet none of them received what had been promised wow none of them were prospering none of them received what god promised they just believed for it it's a bit like the hebrew boys when they were told if you don't bow down to this idol you're in the fire it's the furnace for you well we're not going to do it in fact our god is able to deliver us and i tell you what cv doesn't it we're still no bowing down and in the fire they go and the minute they see in the fire one two three hey there's four in there god didn't deliver them from the fire he didn't save them from it in fact there's a promise that you can claim right now this morning jesus promised in this world you'll have trouble who wants it whoa you don't hear that from the prosperity preachers and he might not deliver you from the trouble they'll be with you through it he'll be the other person beside you they might not have received what was promised but but they believed god for it and he was with them all the way and they're commended for their faith since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses what's a witness somebody who says what they saw and what they heard that's it or you can be a christian witness you can proclaim your faith about jesus it's a verbal thing but witness in any court is somebody that comes up and says what they saw and what they heard so if you're going to speak about jesus you have to have had seen them you have to have heard them i start speaking to prisoners in the alpha course and i tell them about prayer and i tell them prayer is a two-way thing now we all know that don't we it's two-way communication and i go we talk to god through prayer and they go does he answer you back and i say yes he does in fact i was talking to him this morning and this is what he said he answers us back we can speak of what we heard jesus in prayer says i'm not doing nothing unless my father tells me and i'll only do the things that my father says we need to be witnesses for him let me tell you about jesus because i've seen him let me tell you about what he says because i've heard them i've heard his voice his sheep know his voice and they'll not follow a stranger we are witnesses john speaks about it in one john one that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked at and our hands i've touched this we proclaim to you concerning the word of life john was in that fortunate position to be one of the disciples and he saw jesus in his earthly body and he was able to able to speak in the word of god to us about what he saw and what he heard the things that he was involved in he was a witness we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard we need to have an experience of jesus that enables us to be witnesses so you need to know him before you can speak about you need to be in that position where you've put your faith your trust in him since we're surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles a strange place we're in our society today because it's getting confusing what's right what's wrong what's legal what's illegal it's it's very confusing because the government aren't drawing lines of morality they're drawing lines of legality they're saying this is legal but this is illegal and by the way if we change our minds tomorrow we'll change the law accordingly but god draws lines of morality he says this is right and this is wrong do this be blessed do that be cursed it's quite simple quite black and white and we as the church need to keep it that way we need to keep proclaiming what's right and what's wrong and not allow it to hinder our walk with god the acts of the sinful nature are obvious paul says sexual immorality impurity debauchery idolatry witchcraft hatred discord jealousy fits of rage selfish ambition dissensions factions and envy drunkenness orgies and the like the list could go on and on and on of what are obviously the sinful nature and he's telling us to get rid of it throw it off it'll ensnare you it'll entangle you it'll stop you from running the race and sometimes what we need to do is get on our knees before god and acknowledge our sin as christians woe is me for i'm a man of unclean lips and get his forgiveness all over again throw off if it hinders you is any of you in trouble he should pray is anyone happy let him sing songs of praise is any one of you sick he should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well the lord will raise him up and if he is sinned he will be forgiven if we throw off sickness and unhappiness and the sin in our lives we'll expect not only experience forgiveness but healing in our lives you remember jesus in the house it's crowded and nobody else can get in and the four guys bring the the lame man the lower him from the roof and the lower him down and jesus goes your sins are forgiven actually jesus i came forward for healing i was quite hoping you'd do something about my legs your sins are forgiven that's the thing that entangles you that's the thing that stops you running the race that's the thing that makes you lame until your sins are forgiven healings of no value to you i get saved through a woman who went to the elam church in dumbarton when it first opened and during the opening crusade they prayed for the sick and she was crippled with arthritis and god healed her still healed to this day doesn't go to church anymore but still healed in fact she was so healed she phoned the social security and said you need to take my dla back why is that you've been awarded it for life she says well jesus has healed me i said we'll check the book sorry there's nothing in the book that's what they said there's nothing in my book it says we need to take it back you'll need to keep it she says but i don't need it anymore i'm healed i can go back to work no madam you're just a it's been a sign for life it's not the book they had no claws to cover healing anyway it's not her i wanted to talk about it was a cousin who went to the same crusade and she was like this on sticks and jesus healed her the same night that woman gets saved by church the women with the sticks who get healed was asked are you going to go to church now are you kidding i'm going back to the dancing i've not been for years you see healing doesn't change a life forgiveness of sins changes a life and by the way so that everybody knows who i am get up take up your bed walk what am i talking about let's run with perseverance the rest marked out for us we need to be overcomers you've heard already run with perseverance come on percy you're by my side don't stop it's a long road it's a marathon you're in run with perseverance don't start off sprinting because you'll never make it to the end you've got to pace yourself through this christian walk run with perseverance don't give up see i'm not getting to what say what i want to say yet we still okay for time alistair okay anybody gets bored gives a shout i'll give you a sweaty t-shirt it's for freedom that christ has set us free stand firm then and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery you were running a good race who caught in on you and kept you from obeying the truth you see we're not running with perseverance we're giving up we're struggling we don't know if we can keep going to the end things are tough things that you don't know what my life is like you don't know what i've got to go through you don't know the burdens i've got to carry well i might not but i know somebody that does and he says he'll never put anything on you you can't bear so don't give up keep going don't let it get you down don't let entangle you enslave you keep you from running not that i've already obtained this paul says or have already been made perfect by press on to take hold of that for which christ jesus took hold of me brothers i do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it but one thing i do forgetting what is behind straining towards what is ahead i press on towards the goal to win the prize for which god has called me heavenwards in christ jesus sometimes we just got to get some gumption about us and keep going in this christian walk how many do you know that i've gave up how many do you know that used to sit by your side they no longer come to church because they didn't have that overcoming spirit where do you get it from i would like some of it how do you get that keep going spirit fix your eyes upon jesus look at him the author and the finisher the beginning line and the end line the alpha and the omega look at jesus who went through the cross for the joy that was set before him he saw the cross of calvary he said these disciples were going to jerusalem and when we go up the son of man will be put to death and they'll bury him and three days later he'll rise again he knew it was ahead of him he knew we had to face he knew they were going to strip his back with a whip they knew he was going to press thorns into his head put nails into his hands as they crucify them upon the cross he knew the pain the torture the humiliation he knew the shame that he would going to go through and he said come on we're going to jerusalem that's what we need to get within us you want to know how to get it look at jesus he went through it at the cross of calvary it went through because he knew at the end was something glorious he knew there was something great to gain he pressed on towards the goal to win the prize he knew that again he would enjoy that time with his father in heaven where he'd be glorified again where he would be there we talk about him being god's head veiled in flesh when he got there he was flesh veiled in god's head he changed and transformed remember when he rose again and mary went to the tomb he said don't touch me mary i've not yet been glorified and she didn't even recognize him something had happened in his flesh he'd been through the cross he'd been buried and he rose again this was the resurrected jesus and there was something different about about him there was something strange about him that the disciples didn't recognize him on the road to emmaus two of them worked with him talked with him didn't know who he was until he broke bread now we know look to jesus fix our eyes upon jesus the author and finisher of our faith i don't know if we realize just how privileged we are as christians that we can see jesus moses went up to the mountain and said lord show me your glory show me your glory god says well you kind of look at me and love moses you're getting in the rock you ever feel you're there between a rock and a hard place moses was put there by god i'll pass by i'll keep my hand over you until i pass by and all you'll see is the back of me that's all moses got was just a glimpse of his glory and come down the mountain shining and the anointing that attached them we have got more than a glimpse of his glory we have our eyes opened because he's come into our lives we see not just the jesus of the cross not just the resurrection to jesus not just the ascended jesus who's sitting at the right hand of the father but the jesus who's coming again for his church fix your eyes upon jesus let's look at john's vision and revelation when i joined your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that i was in jesus was on the island of patmos because of the word of god and the testimony of jesus he was in the jail for being a witness church you better get used to that one because i think that's where we're going i'm glad i'm a chaplain you know i mean so i'm already in the jail don't worry if you get the jail i'll come visit you but then there's going to come a time when we're going to get the jail for being witnesses for speaking about jesus saying what we've saw and what we've heard on the lord's day i was in the spirit i heard behind me a loud loud voice like a trumpet which said verse 12 when i turned and saw the seven gold lampstands among the lampstands someone like the son of man someone who's a bit like the earthly jesus but there was something different about him john had seen him walk there john was there and saw and heard and touched someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest his heads and hair were white white like wool as white as snow his eyes were like blazing fire his feet were like blonde bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice like the sound of rushing waters in his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword his face was like the sun shining in all all its brilliance he's seen a different jesus risen and glorified the jesus of heaven the jesus who's no longer veiled all his glory is there to see if you read on in revelation it says there's not even any need for lights in heaven his glory is so bright shining like the blazing sun you know we really saw jesus for who he is right now we wouldn't be able to look at him we'd be like isiah in the year that king usiah died he saw the lord high and lifted up the train of his robe filled the temple they saw the cherubim and the seraphim as they surrounded the throne and he cried out woe is me for i'm a man of unclean lips what if you were to see the glory of god what would it do to you what would it change in your life what would it do in your heart and your spirit there's a day coming the bible says when every eye will see him in the last day he's coming like a thief in the night the trumpet will sound and the bible says with a shout he cries come on church and the dead in christ shall rise first and those that are alive those that are still alive in him will be caught up to meet him in the air what a day that'll be when we fix our eyes upon jesus as he comes in the clouds when we glory and all his splendor when he comes with all his angels what a day when we the church say that's my jesus that's the one i fixed my eyes upon what will the world say then about it's illegal and legal about it's right and wrong well what will they say then that we've witnessed to and told you need to give your life to jesus there'll be a whole lot of repenting going on that day i hope it's not too late but i think it may be get your eyes fixed upon jesus people because there's a race that we're running and you may not make it to the end if you haven't got that overcoming spirit within you fix your eyes upon jesus who endured the cross and all its shame that he could gain the glory that god had for him that he could come back again for his church let's pray for a minute let's consider what we've heard