Well, as it turns out, Calvin's lesson kind of somewhat flows into mine a little bit because he talked about, How to be a Christian or Why be a Christian. My sermon is more on the Christian race. So for those of us who are Christians, whether you know it or not, you're running. I know some of us it's been a while since the last time we ran and that's okay I'm right there with you. As you see the title of my sermon is Go the Distance. If that sounds familiar, yes, it is a Disney song.
- 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Speaking of running, in two weeks, two and a half weeks, give or take, athletes from all over the world are going to converge in Paris, France, and the Olympics will start. And the Olympics, I'm sure you all know, have been around for a very long time. The original Olympics started approximately 776 B.C. And so, Paul is going to use a reference that they're all familiar with because they were familiar with the Olympic games. There's also another set of games that occurred in the city of Corinth in between those times.
- 1 Corinthians 9:24
I want to draw out just three things from this set of verses.
Go the Distance with Self-Control
The first thing is temperance or self-control. As you know, athletes, especially the ones we see on TV, most of them have a crazy insane diet. Michael Phelps, when he was doing what he was doing and winning every gold medal possible. I believe his breakfast alone was something like 10,000 calories. And the average person has a 2000 to 3000-calorie diet in a day. And he was doing 10,000 calories just for breakfast. I doubt any one of us could probably eat that. That's insane to me, but obviously, his diet worked out well for him.
Another athlete, and I hate that I have to mention this athlete, but, Tom Brady, we either love him or we hate him. But the man played football well into his forties and that's because of the diet that he had. His diet allowed him to perform at the highest level, even to his age.
So, just like these athletes, we have to have self-control. They have it to have the proper nutrition, we have to have, self-control for our spiritual nutrition.
- Galatians 5:22-23
Temperance is a fruit of the spirit and it's the fruit of our label self-control. Again, as Calvin talked about this morning Why be a Christian, once we become a Christian, we have that faith, but we have to have more than faith.
- 2 Peter 1:6
You know, if we have self-control, we're going to have patience. If we have patience, we're going to have self-control.
I know my patience could use some work. So I guess I need to try to have more self-control, have more patience.
- Titus 2:11-12
So, if we have self-control, we're going to deny ungodliness and the worldly lusts that are out there. And we will again, live, soberly, righteously, and godly.
I'm kind of reminded of Jesus when he was tempted by Satan in Matthew chapter four, where Satan tempted him in three different ways, and in each of those ways, Jesus rebuked him.
And the one that always sticks out to me when Jesus was tempted is when he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I would imagine he was pretty hungry. Cause I know me, I get hungry after two or three hours and he did it for 40 days and 40 nights. And even after Satan tempted Him to turn those stones in the bread, Jesus responded with scripture to Satan.
Jesus was able to keep that self-control.
Go the Distance with Endurance
The second thing I want to bring out about is endurance. So we need to endure. I don't know how often you guys watch the track and field portion of the Olympics. There's a marathon and in a marathon, they're running for about 2.5 hours. I think the world record is somewhere around two hours and 10 minutes, something like that. So, they run at a nice, slow pace, so they don't use up all their energy at once because they have 26 miles to run.
Unlike, the sprinters, I think the world record for the 100 meters, is under 10 seconds, which is insane to me, that someone can run that fast, and run about the size of a football field in under 10 seconds.
I've often heard it said that the Christian life, is a marathon, not a sprint. So, Jesus tells His disciples that they will have to endure various things and that they need to endure to the end.
- Matthew 24:13
He's speaking to His disciples here and telling them they would need to endure until the end. And that in the end, after they endured, they will be saved.
- Philippians 4:13
This is not a physical strength. Just because we're Christians, it doesn't give us immediate strength. That would be nice, right? But that's not how it works. This is talking about how Christ is our strength and our rock, spiritually. We can rely on Him mentally and emotionally as well.
The Christian life it's not all rainbows and butterflies. That's just the truth of it.
- James 1:2, 12
We need to endure throughout this life. Again, we weren't promised an easy life. There are things that are going to happen to us. One of the things Jesus told His disciples was that they were going to be hated for His sake.
- Mark 13:13
So, a similar thing to what He said in Matthew. Again, we have to endure in this life. You know, we're here for what seems like a long time. The average lifespan is about 80, which seems like a while. But compared to eternity, it's not.
So, we need to endure through everything as much as possible. And, you know, we have the Bible that we can rely on. We have our brothers and sisters in Christ that we can rely on when we're maybe having trouble with the endurance part of our Christian race.
Go the Distance for the Prize
And lastly, we have the prize, the prize is that which we're striving for. The prize that we get when we endure to the end. Olympians or in any competition, the prize that they're going for is a nice shiny gold medal.
You guys know me, I've never been much of an athlete. So I know that's one thing I'm never going to get and that's okay. It's not for me, leave it to the professionals. But you know that gold medal that they get, if they don't take care of it, it's going to corrupt. And I think in ancient times, the Olympians received a wreath of some kind. Even today, they still give them flowers. Those flowers are going to die. But the prize that we have is incorruptible.
- Philippians 3:14
"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3:14
Our prize is Heaven. And that is the greatest prize of all. It is greater than a gold medal or a big shiny trophy. And the great thing about being the prize is it's for anyone and everyone who is willing. It's not a participation trophy. It's one that when we cross the finish line, each one of us can have that prize. In God's eyes, we're all winners. Again, Heaven is the greatest thing. Ever.
- Romans 8:18
We're going to have sufferings in this world, whether, you know, it's personal, or other things, or physical, but it's nothing compared to what Heaven is going to be like. Because in Heaven there's no tears, there's no suffering.
It is, like I said, greater than all. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is the vision that John has of what Heaven looks like. He has this vision that I'm sure after this vision, He was probably thinking, what in the world?
- Revelation 21:18-21
That is a beautiful description. I think I say this every time I read this verse. My mind can't even comprehend what that would even look like. I wouldn't even know where to start. But that is our prize, and you know, we have to
Again, we have to have self-control. We have to train ourselves. All athletes, whenever they're preparing for a game, they're training. They're not sitting by watching TV, leading up to game time.
I think the only type of athlete that is doing something similar to that would be a heavyweight MMA fighter. Several years ago, I saw a video of a heavyweight MMA fighter. He was Getting ready to fight for the championship belt. He was in New York City. While everybody else and the other weight classes were probably working out making sure they were on weight, this guy was walking around New York eating a pizza and showing the whole world that that's what he was doing. And he was bragging about it. My thought was that must be nice that he didn't have to do hardly anything because in MMA heavyweight there's really no weight limit. So he could kind of he kind of had free reign I was thinking I bet every other fighter is probably jealous of him for doing that.
But you know, we must obey God in order to get this prize. It is ready and available for anyone and everyone willing to do that. But again, we have to be temperate. We have to have our self-control to continue to study God's Word, obey those commandments, and endure through it when things get hard. Because it will be like I've been saying, we weren't promised an easy life, but you know, with God, this life can be made a lot easier and we can rest assured knowing that we have that promise of Heaven.
- Revelation 2:10
This is something that has been echoed throughout the New Testament. Endure to the end, and be faithful unto death. You know, that's how we get this prize, this grand prize of Heaven.
I'd like to read the text one more time because, again, we're in a race, but it's a marathon and we can all get that prize whenever we cross the finish line.
- 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
So, we need to run in this manner, where, you know, we're running with self-control. We're training ourselves to obey God. You know, we have to, we have to study God's Word. That, that's our training manual.
If you have a need, if there's anything we can do to help you please don't be afraid to contact us, we'd be thrilled to study with you.
