Run Toward Him

Jan. 3, 2021 

It’s a new year and I’m so excited we’re starting it off with this series: “Run to Win!” As last year ended, I heard a lot on TV and social media, about how 2020 was a terrible year. It was a tough year. Now I can’t stand here and say, “2021 will be a great year. What could possibly go wrong?” I can’t guarantee, and you can’t guarantee that it will be a perfect year. A perfect year is impossible, but a better year is not. Let’s not just let life happen to us, or let our circumstances define us. In this series we’re going to learn how to run to win! (We’re not physically running, we’re spiritually running.) So, next week we’ll learn how to pray with confidence and purpose. Week 3 we’ll learn how the word of God gives us encouragement. Week 4 we’ll learn how to study and learn from Gods word. And Week 5 we’ll talk about one of the most important parts of our spiritual race: the people we run with. Today we’re going to learn from the magi or wiseman what to pursue, what to make our goal in 2021, so that we have the right perspective and run to win. 

Our Scripture verse for this series is 1 Corinthians 9:24, where the apostle Paul says: “Don’t you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. So run to win!” Let’s not get too competitive! We don’t have to beat everybody else. But we don’t want to run out of gas and not make it to what is most important in life. If life is a race, you might as well run to win! 

The story of the magi is a strange story, because the magi are not Jewish. They study the stars. They don’t know God. And yet, they are the ones who find the Baby Jesus, while all the Bible people (except the Shepherds) miss him! The magi make a stop in Jerusalem to ask, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Somehow the magi know their purpose is to worship this newborn king. They know they need to drop what they are doing and go on a long trek. They are going to do anything, to seek and worship the baby king.  

The magi teach us that our purpose in life is to love God. The goal of the Christian life is to pursue a relationship with God, to run toward him. Do you want a winning year? You win, when you run toward him! 

The magi know that, and they set out on their trek. They come from the East. Who knows how many miles they travelled, or how sore they were from riding on those camels! I know a long trip in a car gives me aches and pains, I can only imagine how it feels to travel by camel! To their surprise, King Herod in Jerusalem doesn’t know about the new king. Herod asks the chief priests and teachers of the law where the Messiah was to be born. 

The religious leaders look at the book of Micah, chapter 5 verse 2, which says, “But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” The religious leaders tell Herod: the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. 

And here is why Herod and the chief priests and teachers never find baby Jesus: they don’t pursue him. Herod tells the magi, Ok, you go find this baby and report back, because I want to uh,…worship him. Yes, that’s what I want to do: worship him! 

The magi go and find the baby Jesus, but they are warned in a dream not to go back and tell Herod where Jesus is.  

Herod and the chief priests and teachers didn’t pursue baby Jesus. If you don’t pursue God, you don’t experience God. You don’t have a relationship with him. You win, when you run toward him! 

Jesus said in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. The second greatest commandment it to love your neighbor as yourself. You start with loving God. It’s first. Loving God helps you to love everybody else in life. You realize God has done the heavy lifting: creating, loving and forgiving all of us. He’s got you. So, you can be loving and forgiving to others. You love, not on your own power, but relying on the power of God. 

When you love God, the people in your life benefit. When you love God, everything else, the things of life, your job, your finances, they get put in the correct priority. You win, when you run toward him!  

The wisemen show us that. They brought expensive gifts to Jesus. they brought what was precious to themselves. They parted with what they adored to adore the Lord.  They put God first. And they experienced the greatest gift of all: the gift of being in the very presence of God. The wisemen were overjoyed when they found Jesus! They bowed down and worship him. 

Then verse 12 says, “The magi left for their own country by another road.” An angel in a dream warned them not to go back the same way and not to revisit Herod. The wisemen teach us that once you have met the Christ child, you do not keep plodding along the same old pathways. It is a new day and a new road. Your life is different, and better, when you seek God. 

With Jesus, winning starts with losing. He said, “If anyone would follow, he must take up his cross and follow me. To win the race, you have to lose. To add God into your life, you have to subtract. You make room for Jesus by dropping something else. Maybe you watch less TV, or don’t look at your phone as much. You permit less distractions. You do less, so you have some time for God. What you feed grows. Whatever you are doing, ask yourself: “Is this helping me fulfill my purpose?” Is this helping me love God and love my neighbor? Or is it standing in the way of it? The wisemen dropped what they were doing to search for and worship the newborn king. Can you spare 10 minutes a day for God? You win, when you run toward him! 

The Goal of this series is that you make God a greater priority in your life than he was a year ago. That’s the goal.  

We’re doing something new with this sermon series. I will send out a post 6 days a week on facebook; something to encourage you or inspire you to run to win. We’re all going through this together.  

So I hope you’ll read the posts, and feed your spirit as we seek to grow in relationship with God. That’s your homework this week. 

Life is a race. It’s easy to get distracted or get discouraged. We can’t have a perfect year, but we can make 2021 a better year. So let’s journey together toward what’s most important: God. Like the wisemen, let us make it to the finish line, choosing the best life. You win, when you run toward him. Amen.