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Welcome to our YCC Anglican podcast. This is the first of five sessions from our 2023 church camp held in Phuket, Thailand. Our speaker, Reverend Peter Chun, begins with session one. Are you in the race?

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To spend a few days with you and sharing with you a theme that is truly close to my heart. Now, Pastor Daniel and I have uh met a couple of times uh not only to talk about the theme of this uh church camp, but also for him to share with me his uh concern about spiritual formation and growth of uh YCC uh members. Uh and uh he has chosen what Paul uh said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 14. I press on toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus as a theme for this uh church camp, and it really resonated with me uh very much. And I really praise the Lord uh because your pastor certainly has uh uh a shepherd heart for the sheep at uh uh uh YCC. Now when I was uh preparing uh the talk and I asked, I prayed and I asked God to show me what he wants to say to all of you at this search camp. But I believe uh he has uh directed my mind, my thoughts, to uh two things. Yeah, first is uh about the substance and health of your faith. Because he wants to speak to you, and I am the messenger to speak to you. You know, what is the substance and health of your faith? He came to mind. And uh and uh as like all church can and the time to spend together, then there is also a need for you to review, to repair, and to recharge so that you can uh press on. And then a few questions uh about where you are now came to my mind. First question is how strong and resilient is your faith? Is your love for God? Can it go the long haul? Yeah, and how would you assess your spiritual health at this point in time? You know, especially after COVID, you know, is your health healthy? Is your faith healthy, growing strong, or is it on the decline? Or you are losing some uh passion, uh, some uh fire for God's word and doing his will? And is your and how is your your walk with God? When was the last time last time you uh spoke to him? So these are the uh few questions that came to mind. So in the next few days, I will be focusing on what authentic faith is and what is essential to build such a faith that is steadfast, robust, and vibrant. Okay, and I'll be talking uh on these few topics tonight. Are you in the race? Based on uh Paul's letter to the Philippians. Are you in the race? And when you are in the race, you you need to stay focused, press on to reach the finishing line. When you're in the race, you don't stop, you reach the finishing line. And then in running the race, in building a phase, what is most important, obviously, is a stepfast and vibrant phase. And how do you build a vibrant and uh uh steadfast phase? It depends on the response of your heart, the soil condition of the heart, like the soil of your heart, yeah, so to speak. And then we also need to know what kind of phase that's there, what kind of faith that will fail. So, lesson session four, I will touch on that. And finally, as we uh as we live in this difficult world, you know, uh we need to know what it means to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh. So these are the uh topics that I'll be focusing on in this final session during these three, four days. And I believe God is uh challenging uh all of us, you even me, you know, at this stage of my life, to be always intentional and disciplined, to grow in spiritual maturity. Yeah, we want to grow maturity, but it must be disciplined, it must be intentional. And I believe God wants you uh to be serious about strengthening your faith, not just over the next few days in Bukit, but for the rest of your life until you meet Jesus again. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we we thank you for uh calling us uh to this uh camp at Book it for a few days. Lord, we know that this is not by accident or by any coincidence that we are here. You called us here for a purpose. And I pray that you will pour up your spirit on each and every one of us, that hearts and minds will be open, and our will and volition will be willing for you to use, for you to work in our lives, so that our faith can be authentic, faith can be set fast and vibrant and faithful to you to the end of our lives. So I pray that during these few days, but may your word dwell richly in our hearts, and may your love and your grace abound more and more in us so that we can persevere to the end of our life. So that whatever we hear from you and whatever impact you have made in us will last long until the end of our life, as we begin a race of growing our faith in Christ Jesus. So thank you for uh each and every one of us here that you have called us here just uh to be strengthened by your spirit, by your word. So let it happen, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So the first lesson is are you in the race? Are you in the race? Have you signed up for the race? You know, you know coming to church is different from coming to faith. You know, we can come to church out of habit, we can come to church out of uh cohesion by our family and friends, or because we like the activities in the church, we like the music, we like the worship, and sometimes some of the worship are quite entertaining. Yeah, we like all this, so we can't. But to come to faith is different. We need to be born again, and we need to believe that Jesus has died for our sins. And because he died for our sins, therefore we need to repent of our sins and to be ready to take a step of commitment, to live in obedience to God, and this is where faith begins. It begins with repentance and commitment. We can be in church but not in Christ, yes, but we cannot be in Christ and not be in church or not be part of the church community to worship God together and to serve God and serve one another. Yeah? So, well, it doesn't matter. It does not matter why and how you decide to join the church. What is important is that you want to be in Christ and you want to have Christ in you, yes? To help you, to guide you, to enable you to live your life for God, to be faithful to Him till we meet Him again. That is our aspiration. So, my dear friends, we are not called to a religion. You know that. We are not called to be pious in performing rituals and and uh and rites. We are called to a relationship, we are called to a father-child relationship with our God Almighty, our God most kind. You know, and therefore, conversion is the beginning of a personal, intimate, and deepening relationship with God. It is to know God, our Father, more and more, and to experience his fatherly love and care for us daily. And conversion is also the beginning of becoming more and more like Christ. In what way? In our doing, as well as in our being, and it is to know him not only as our savior, but as our Lord, which many people miss that part. So, faith is a lifelong journey of walking with the spirit, because the spirit empowered and makes it happen, and experience his transforming powers in our lives. Now, as we know for a relationship or for that matter, any relationship to grow, both parties must know each other. The depth of our relationship depends on how much we know the other person, yes? Now, to be in a relationship with God is not just to know about him, not enough, but to know him personally, intimately, to know what is on his mind, what is on his heart, to know his to share with his concern, to know his will for the world and for us individually and as a body of Christ. So let me ask you, how much do you know God? Do you know his will for your life? Now I want to I'm gonna pause for a while to ask to say something. This is just the first two questions I'm asking. In these five sessions, you will hear many questions. I believe in life. How do we make it in life? You know, three rights are very important. To ask the right questions. Secondly, because you ask the wrong right, wrong question, you get the wrong answer, you will be led astray. You marry the wrong person because you asked the wrong question. So you you ask the right question, find the right answer, then pursue to follow the answer. The right answer. Three rights in life. What you are now, where you are now in life, whether you consider uh uh successful in God's life or still struggling, is the sum total of all the decisions you make. The question you ask or somebody asked for you, answer for you, and you just follow the decision. But are they all the right decisions in God's eye? So these are the questions, there are many, many soul-searching questions, so to speak, I will raise up in these uh talks. It may find uncomfortable. You know, you may not find the answer today, but I trust that the question will penetrate your minds and will reach your heart. And then you find the right answer that is rooted in your heart, that will lead to conviction and will to follow the answer that you have found. And that will be the transforming work of God. Okay, so I I pause here to say that please don't ignore these questions. You may not get the answers right now, but in time to come, find the right answer, search for it, and then you know uh do it as you have found the right answer. Now, to grow in faith is to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and to present and represent who God is in this dark and sinful world. And it is about loving God wholeheartedly as well as loving others, even though even those who have wronged us and and hurt us, that is the the two greatest commandments, yeah, to love God with all our beings and to love our neighbor as ourselves. So, this is the the centrality of our Christian faith. In essence, the Christian life is a lifelong journey of growing to be like Christ in our being as well as in our doing. Now, what compels us to grow in faith is our love for God because He first loved us. Our love for God must be the motivation that compels us to grow in faith. And we want to live, or rather, we do what we do because we love God. That must be the basis, and we want to live our lives to honor God and to please Him by being faithful to His word, to Him. It's simple demand, but it's very demanding, and we must rise to that expectation. Now, in the or several times in the New Testament, the Christian life is described as like a race, a marathon. Yeah, the apostle Paul described the Christian faith as a dynamic, ongoing, transforming, and persevering journey of faith before we meet Jesus. And he said in Philippians chapter 3, verse 14, I press on toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, which is our thing for our care. Right now, this verse gives us a picture of a runner whose every muscle, every nerve, every ounce of energy is singularly focused on reaching the goal, reaching the finishing line. When you are in race, the thing in your mind is to reach the goal. Otherwise, why go into the race, right? Reaching the place, the goal and the finishing line. It portrays a disciplined, intentional, focused life set on fulfilling one purpose alone. That is to meet Christ. So for tonight, or rather, before that, Paul shared with us in this passage, in this religion passage passage, some essential principles for Christian growth to help us get in shape so that we are ready to run the race and to win the race before us. So for tonight, I want to uh just highlight two lessons, first two lessons which we can uh learn from Paul on what it means to run the race to grow spiritually. What it means to run the race to grow spiritually. So the first lesson for tonight is you've got to be in the race. You've got to be in the race. Have you signed up in the race? What I like your response. You know, anyone of you have been in the race? Anyone? School race in the race? Or marathon? Anyone? Run or a few marathon, or it's not marathon about cross-country. One marathon, I thought it's more exacting, more demanding, and cross-country. You know, uh, those those of you who have entered such a race, how do you feel when you're running? Excited? Or many times you feel like giving up? You know, I I I come from the armed forces, supposed to be fit, but I'm not that fit. But many a time, race, marathon, or marathon, I may not do. But cross-country, I have the body spirit. And many times I feel like giving up. But because of kind soul, coming alongside me, pays me. Come, let's go, you know, finish it. I finish the race. You know, that is the spirit of a Christian race. You know, we come together, race, but are you in the race? Okay. You know, many of us are actually quite well versed in things about race. We we talk about how to persevere, how to finish the marathon, right? Uh but we ourselves have not been in one. Because why? We never entered the race. We are just observers or commentators or spectators, uh, commenting on how those in the race are doing and what they should do. Yeah. So we we we never we never experience ourselves, you know, what it really feels like in the race. And the challenges faced by participants who are in the race. And therefore, we never have a personal experience and satisfaction of running the race and winning the prize, reaching the end. We never. And this is this is the the same for many Christians who may know what it means to have faith in Christ, but never live up that faith. They are not in the race of that faith. We do not have the experience of what it means to trust God in difficult times or to have to experience his love and power in our trying circumstances. And we never live out or stand out for God's words. Instead, we choose to do what everybody is doing in order to fit in, in order to be accepted. We are on the sideline, we are not in the center of the race. Yeah? Now, let me ask you that there are more spectators, spectators instead of marathon runners in the church today. Do you agree? Okay, that's good. First of all, we need to agree, otherwise, we think that we are in a race. You know why? Because many of them have yet to enter, have not resisted, entered the race of growing in faith. Why? Many are reluctant or afraid of joining the race of spiritual growth because they do not know whether they can make it to the finishing line. You you think you have halfway in the journey, or you are almost done in your spiritual or in the discipleship. Well, Jesus spent three three years, the disciples, 12 of them know that in these three years, Jesus has done tremendously in discipling them. But have you ever seen whether you have done on someone or you have been discipled by someone that you are? This journey, so again, let me uh let me ask you a few more questions again. As I said, I promise you to ask a lot of questions, right? Are you in the race or a mere expector in the race? So, are you in the race? It's not right here a few. Are you in the race? Seriously, think about it. You are in the race. I am. I'm not expectator. That is an important decision. If everybody can say that, of course, we are not hypocrite, we will fulfill it. We got the right answer, we will pursue the answer, then you will find you are in the race, you are running, and you will come to the end of the finishing line. Do you think joining the race of growing in faith is an option or a mandate? Mandate. Yeah? Mandate, very good, thank you. Because some Christian thinks that I'm a Christian, but I don't have to be a disciple. Disciple is for Pastor Daniel, uh, Pastor Peter, uh Richard, and then others. It's for them or leaders, you know, or they are the disciple makers, not me. So let's before we talk about disciple and disciple making, just run the race of growing in faith. Is it a mandate? Of course, right? I thank God that you have the answer, right? Ancer. So is growing in spiritual maturity a choice? No choice. Yeah, very good. No choice. It's a very positive one. Uh just say, I think, I think it's not a choice. No, no, no choice. Yeah, tell it to the rest of uh the congregation. Yeah, we are here to to race in spiritual maturity. We're not to compete, who mature first or run first, no, no. The race is to the end, not to compete with each one. Yeah. Lastly, what do you think God expects of those who believe in Him? Who says that some we are a child of God? Yeah. See, I'm a child of God. What do you think God is expecting us to be and to do? So these are the things that I trust that you know we think about it, you know, and then find the right uh answer. Some of the answer it takes some time, some of the answer you found it, but it takes some time to work this thing. But at least you are on the race. You are in the race. Amen. Right? So, this is what Paul said about God's expectation. Paul said to the church in Philippi, in uh Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 to 15. Let me read for you. You can read right, see, not too small, huh? Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, see the Philippians Christians already have a sense of obedience, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Obey what? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, that they may, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as light in the world. So God expects us, God expects those who believe in him to what? To work up our salvation. Now, Paul is not saying that we are to work for our salvation, he's not saying that we are to work towards our salvation or work at our salvation. He's not saying that. He's not saying that we should work to earn our salvation, but to express our life of salvation, a life that is saved by Jesus, you know, to live out this, to live out what it means to be saved and free from sin, because Jesus fleeed from sin for eternal life. How do we work it out with fear and trembling? What does it mean? It is to it is to take our spiritual life and growth seriously, with fear and trembling, serious. Yeah. And it's why we do that, why are we so serious? Because it is God who is working in us for us to grow spiritually, there is no possibility, zero on our own. But here, Paul recognized that it is God who works in us, you know, it is not only God's will that we grow in maturity, but he is the one who will transform us to be blameless and innocent, and to be children without blemish, and to shine as lights in the world, in the NIV version, as as stars in the universe. Can you imagine we are stars in the universe? Wow. So church, how can we what do we say? Is growing is spiritual maturity and option or mainly? I trust that we kill this question. You have four, we have asked the right answer, you have got the answer. Let's study the implication. What should we follow up? Okay? Now, let's look at it this way. There is a difference between Christian who are in the race and Christians who are not in the race. Do you know why it's a difference? Yeah, because the says that not all the Christian or all the church members more are spectators than runners, right? So, yeah, so how do you know that you are in the race? Well, Christian, first, Christians who are not in the race, uh, as I said, they are sideline spectators. They are running stock and then drink coffee and then and then uh uh uh you know sidetrack and and maybe drop up, you know. So so they are very selective, they are selective and being obedient and faithful to God, faithful to the race, yeah. And they will only do what God expects of them, like reading the Bible or praying, only occasionally when there is a need for it. Yeah, and you know, like some of us, periodically we will go for a run, right? We go for some exercise. Why? Because we want to improve our our physical health, our stamina, our fitness, right? Yeah, so we are Christian in conduct occasionally or periodically, as and when we feel like it, as and when it is convenient and beneficial to us. These are some postures, these are postures for some Christians. No, some professing believers may even be involved in church or doing what a Christian is supposed to do on Sunday. Very beautifully done on Sunday, but they are Christian only two to three hours per week, including the traveling time. You know, on Sunday, instead of you know uh being 24-7 believers. Basically, they are in church but not in Christ. And just though uh the 10th commandment said, many of us are in church, but we don't even know how our fellow body of Christ members, you know. Yeah, so so you see, there's so much, you know, in church. What does it mean? We must be in Christ. But they are not, they are Christian by name, not in heart. And they did they believe that they behave like Christians outwardly, but inwardly they are not in their being. Like the the Pharisees that Jesus called them hypocrites, and we and they claim to know God, but they have no personal relationship with God. This is the the crux of the problem, and I call them baptized unbelievers. Those who think they are believers, but actually they are not. You know, I was once a baptized unbelievers for my first 25 to 30 years. Would you believe it in my life? You see, I was raised in a Christian family. Going to church every Sunday as a kid, going to church every Sunday was not negotiable. I cannot bargain with my mother. We go to church, but I was not there to worship. You check whether our young children, you know, not say dragged by the parents, will come with the parents. Did they really come to worship? Second generation Christian. So in my adult years, I also uh will be thinking about my work and where to go after the service. It's quite normal, you're so busy at work. You know, I've learned and mastered the the art and skill of sleeping with my eyes open. I think some of us also I cannot pay him credit for this kind of skill. You know, by the way, I was a smoker for for some 10 years, since my A levels. It was uh in my years, it was uh a cool thing, you know. We studied together for A levels, we start drinking du Mori or whatever, you know, and I became a chain smoker, you know, uh two packs a day. And I would go to church with a pocket of secrets in my pocket. Well, I was uh baptized as a child, but I did not know God personally. I I I never prayed, I didn't know how to pray, and I don't know what the Bible teaches us. I don't know how to read the Bible, I don't even own one. That's how I grew up in a Christian home. Well, God did not write me off. Hallelujah! He will never write anyone off, he didn't give up on me. Alright? Now, my wife was concerned with my spiritual condition. She was the first generation Christian. Mother was a Taoist Buddhist kind of background. She became Christian in the family. He knew the decision. She knew the decision she had to make, the price she has to pay. You know, facing the unhappy uh mother at that time. So she was concerned with my spiritual condition, and she prayed for me, you know, for two things, you know, in during our courtship, especially. She told me later that she literally went on her knees twice a day to pray that God will reveal himself to me. And this is what I pray most of the time as a priest. When people come to us to pray, somehow I will pray that they will connect to God. God will reveal to them rather than keep coming to me. You know, I want them to connect to God. So she got it right. She prayed that God will reveal Himself to me. And she prayed that God will set me free at that time from the bondage to smoking. And God answered her prayer miraculously. We got married in 78. In 79, one year after our marriage, one day I suddenly stopped smoking completely. Somehow I lost the appetite, lost the craving for smoke, and I never come back again to a point, hallelujah, to a point, you know, at that time in the leaf, you still can smoke. You know, and every time in the list, people still feel like choking. Uh could not stand the smoke, and that is how bad, how drastic the change is. Yeah. Now, second thing, she also prayed that God will reveal himself to me in such a way that I would become the person God wants me to be. Not the person she wants me to be. She's praying, God reveal to him and make him the person you you know you want him to be. And then she also prayed that God will be number one in my life, not she. You know, wives sometimes one uh wives should be number one, right? I mean, rightly so, apart from God, that should be number one. Correct, yeah. But but wives, pray, pray that your God will be number one in your husband's life. Serious, I because I was such a rascal that I could not, even I I laugh at it. You know, you pray to God that God will be number one in my life. But such is a powerful prayer, it will happen, it takes time to change. You know, surely you'll find God is really number one in many things you consider in life. Even you consider why it's number one, because God is number one. That's why you give that number one to your wife on this side of eternity. No, praise the Lord, you know, after praying persistently and consistently for my conversion, because although I was a Christian, unbeliever, baptized unbelievers, you know, of course, she didn't know that term, uh, only I call it myself. You know, for uh praying for my conversion for one year and during an evangelistic service. I still remember in Good Shepherd, I went there, Shubisky, Switchy, and I went up to the auto call after he asked, you know, and asked Jesus to come into my life. I said, Who wanting to see Jesus? I just go. I just go, and that was the beginning of entering the race of faith for me. And I told God that I will take my faith seriously because I knew that for the last 20-30 years, I think that I had my faith, but I did not take it seriously. Because after all, I didn't know so much things, I didn't experience so much personal uh enjoyment of God. So I decided to take. Now, on this point, I want to ask you how many decisions that you have made in your life journey that you consider you make a very serious decision, almost like a promise, a vow to God that you you fulfill it. You know, like marriage vow. You make a decision, it's not just for sure, you know. That's why sometimes the people ask the priest, go to the seaside to to to do wedding. I say, yeah, I can do that, but can you make it are you making the vow? Are you making once you make the vow, you don't break it. You know, so so we must really so I ask, hey, I need to be serious about my faith. Otherwise, why why I tell people that I'm converted, I I I not say I speak in tongues, so great, but yeah, I feel feel the baptism of the Holy Spirit like I feel thoroughly converted to what changed. So I think it's very important that we on our side make the right decision and fulfill it. Yeah, and life will be presented with so many kinds of milestones. You know, you'll be surprised one after another, where a tough decision is required of us. And that is why Jesus, in Sermon of Mount, in this series, we'll talk about it. How Jesus presents to us to make a decision. You know, any sermon must come to a point where you made a decision. You know, don't read the sermon by the flowery language or what kind of decision you expect me to do. Otherwise, what why please to me? You know, God wants us to be with Him. We must decide, right? Now, so my dear friends, don't write anyone off. Don't write yourself off. Pray for yourself, pray for your loved ones, pray for your family, your friends. Pray that they will encounter Jesus afresh and will decide to enter the race of growing in love of God and for God. You know, sometimes we pray for Peter to become a Christian. The selling point is you go to heaven. I understand that. I tell them that I pray for you that you become like Christ. The point where you get excited that I can be like Christ, you know, many Christians that no, it's for him, uh, for Apostle Daniel, for others, why me? No, we have to be like Christ. It's a privilege, it's a it's a miracle to be taking place, right? So pray for people right there. Who will be like Christ? Now that's and and and and you know, Jesus has not forgotten anyone seeking or in struggling. Yeah, and this is what uh Prophet Isaiah uh said of Jesus. A bruised wheat he will not break, and a faintly burning wheat he will not quench. So remember, when we are weak, when we are about to fall away, Jesus is there holding up. The community is there to run the pace, the race with us. So, no matter how useless or how hopeless you think you are, God will not reject you. God, He has called you and enabled you to grow to be like Christ in your doing and being. Remember that. Okay, so let me give you an example. Paul. Before Paul's conversion, Paul, as you know, was uh uh was zealous, committed, and passionate about the law. He knows everything about the law, but there was one major problem in him. He did not believe that Christ is the Son of God who has come to die for the sins of the world. That's a big problem. And Paul also did not believe that everyone who has faith in Christ can come into God's presence anywhere, anytime. He was of the old school. You study Hebrew, you'll know. The new covenant, old covenant. So Paul, you know, he got a major problem here. And on the road to Damascus to persecute Christian, Jesus revealed himself to him. He just showed up in his journey, stopping him from what he was supposed to do, he wanted to do. Paul was converted instantly to faith in Christ and began to live the Christian life with a new purpose and new zeal. He has the zeal to persecute the church. Now he has a new skill to build the church. So from church persecutor, he became a church planter. From rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, Paul's life goal was to live for Christ alone. And in spite of what Paul did before his conversion, arresting and killing Christians, Jesus did not write him off. In fact, Jesus chose him to be the church planter, to do the work for him. So again, let us not write anyone off, not even ourselves, okay? God has called each one of us to himself. He has a purpose for us, a higher purpose. He has a mission for us. He has something good for us. But we must take, we must first take the step of commitment to be in the race. So that. Things will fall into place as we run the race. In the race to be what he wants us to be and to do what he wants us to do. So, my dear friends, Paul's testimony is not peculiar or applicable only to Paul alone. No. The race to grow in faith, to know God more deeply, and to be wholeheartedly in our love for God is every for every believer who love Jesus and believe in him. That is how Paul has been converted. That not only is converted, he is seeing that this is the conversion that every one of us should experience. Yes. The Christian life begins with a humble decision to follow Jesus. For whatever blessing or reason that you come to your decision to follow Jesus. And this is a good decision in response to the outward call of God to salvation. But conversion and baptism are the beginning, not the end, of a lifelong journey of growing in faith. It is a never-ending eternal relationship with God. And we need to take ownership and personal responsibility to take part in the race. We need to go there and run in the race, you know, of spiritual growth. Now you and I belong to Christ. We are all in the race. Do you know that Jesus has signed up for you already? Registered for you already. You just didn't turn up. You are still thinking whether to go or not to go, to sign up or not to sign. Everybody for this can. Okay. And he's saying to you and me, I want you to run for me. I want you to run with me. Run to me. Can you hear what Jesus is saying? You know. You know, this kind of thing we need to hear again and again. Because every time I run for a race, someone will come and show you what come, you can do it, you can do it. You know, and I did it. Yeah, maybe the last one arriving at the finishing point. But last baby first, you know, in God's kingdom. So now I I'm not asking, I'm not going to so I'm not going to ask you whether you want to be in the race or out of the race. My question to you is now this are you ready? Are you ready to run the race of spiritual growth? Ah, well done. Thank you, God. Go for it. Yes. Are you ready to complete? Hey, not just to run, huh? To complete the full distance to the finishing line. When Jesus is waiting for you. And this brings me to the second prerequisite or second essential quality in order to run the race well. And that is, you've got to train hard to complete the race. To complete a marathon. Do you agree? You know, Paul, Paul is very clear of what he what we ought to do to run the race. And also what God will do in our race, run in our lives. And he is also very sure that God will complete, will complete the work of spiritual transformation, spiritual formation and spiritual transformation. Your pastor is really concerned. He reminded me many times. And this is the work of God. He encouraged the church in Philippi. He says that, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Now if Jesus has signed up for you and registered for you, you think he will not turn up. He will just let you go, no, he will run with you. Just like those guys, you know, accompanying me, you know, cheering me up. He will be there. Okay. He'll be there. You see, the Christian life is not a hundred-meter sprint. It is a marathon. The growth to spiritual maturity is a lifelong process. And the process of life transformation is really serious work. Don't take it like this. It's serious work. You know, I tell you, you go to those families whose son is in and out of prison, and one day they are totally changed. You know how much joy the parents' face and life will be. It is, you know, trust me, it's a serious work that will bring joy and eternal life. And it is the work of God that makes us shine like stars in the dark world. But we must want it. We must also be prepared and ready to train and to be equipped, yes? So that we can overcome the challenges, so that we can finish the race. Many people give up. I want to tell you, if you see Christian life as running away, many cannot make it. But we can, with the help of God, we have to succeed. George Burke, who wrote the book, The Life You Have Always Wanted, said that the problem with many Christians is that we are trying to live the Christian life instead of craving to live the Christian life. So he said we need to change our trying mentality to training mentality. You see, a trying mentality is having an attitude that when you come across something good and you want it, you you like it, and you are quite happy to give it a go to try it out. Yes? Yeah, and you give a shot at something new, something fresh, something exciting or even challenging. But after a few uh attempts, you know, you give up. Either because it is no longer exciting or the demands, you know, or it demands too much from you. That is a trying mentality. You see, there are there are many areas of our life where a trying mentality just won't work. Yet, no one, those of you who run the marathon, just uh uh uh Andrew run marathon. I see his science probably is true. But just now we we we say about lie and truth, you should use this and other I run the marathon. I'm not racist. I think there are there are a few hands-only run marathon just now I saw. You know, no one really no one wakes up on a Saturday morning, opened the newspapers, and saw a notice that there is a marathon that they say, then say, hey, I'm not doing anything today. You know, I I think I'll give it a try. No one will do that. To run a 42 kilometer marathon, months of careful preparation are needed. You know, mental discipline and physical training are a must. Now, in the context of our faith, let me give you an example. Suppose you are convinced by the preacher of the need for you to be patient, or uh how you can control your temple or be disciplined in prayer. You are convinced of his preaching, and then you say you said, okay, I'm good, I'm gonna give it a try. I'm going to you know give it a shot. You know, would you do this? The problem is that with such a training, a trying mental mentality is that it often gets nowhere. And and only to end up with a few attempts of trying. It cannot sustain. It is training. The nature and virtue of being more patient or the have having the habit of praying really requires serious discipline and effort in training and daily practices. Use a church prayer meeting for your practice. A few more times you'll find that you know you go every every church parameting. It becomes second nature to you. That must go. Just like it must bring water, you know. Now, indeed, learning to think like Jesus, to feel and to speak, to act like Jesus is demanding. If not more demanding than learning to run a marathon. Now we all know that, right? That to become a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, a banker, technician, or to really achieve something significant and worthwhile in life, we need to put in a lot of time and effort in training and be committed to long years of learning, right? We accept and strive to fulfill the high standards and expectation of training. We gravitate to that kind of thinking, emotions. But somehow the problem is that we think that following Jesus is relatively easy. Yeah, we don't apply the same standard of training and discipline in our effort to be Christ-like, to be disciples of Jesus. How can it be? My dear friends, we need to change our mindset. We need to live the Christian life the way an athlete trains to run and complete in a marathon. Really, we cannot do without discipline and practice. We cannot do without training, routines, and repetition. So my question here is how do we train? How do we train to grow in spiritual maturity and to finish the race? The training that will enable to run the long haul, not a short distance, not drop out halfway. How do we do that? So we will look at these questions in the next few sessions. But for tonight, good athletes must have enough rest. So I'm going to let you go out to take some rest and come back.