Summer 2025 | Keep Running - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 | August 24

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What I want to do is pray for us first, and then I'll introduce Elliot and what's

happening this morning so that all of the confusion can be out of your minds

completely, maybe not completely, but hopefully a little bit. So let me pray.

God, as we were singing some of those songs, I got this picture.

We use this phrase already, but not yet, that you look at us and you reckon us as righteous.

You've given us your righteousness. You reckon us as holy.

You reckon us as complete. You see the final image of who we are becoming, even when we don't.

So we're in this weird stage of we are already the people that you have made us to be.

And yet we are still walking into that. So we are already, but not yet.

And I just got this picture as we're singing of these songs of marching forward

with our hearts wide open, of opening our hands and serening it all to you.

I just got this picture and probably I'm stealing it from somebody,

but of this reality that we are butterflies who still think we're caterpillars.

We can fly, but we're still walking around. I just pray that you would,

in your spirit, empower us to see a bit of the reality that lies under,

under the tangible, under the physical, under the things that we fixate on so

much, the spiritual reality that permeates all of life and is more real than

what we experience day to day in the flesh.

I just pray that you would give us that picture, that you would speak deep into our hearts.

That we would run this race and persevere in whatever trials and whatever successes

and whatever victories and whatever stumbling blocks and whatever obstacles

come along our way that will run in faithfulness,

keeping our eyes on you.

And even if you're just revealing the next step forward, that we'll just walk

firmly into that reality of who you have called us to be and who you see us as already.

I thank you God for your spirit. I thank you for Jesus.

I thank you that you are a God who does not leave us or forsake us.

And the beauty of the gospel is that you are here with us in the mess that Jesus

came to us when we couldn't get to him and that you are still here with us today.

You have never left us and you will never leave us. You have never abandoned us.

You are our constant companion and I thank you and I praise you for that, Lord God.

So speak into our hearts through your word this morning, through Elliot's lived

experience and all of the riches that you have to offer us through your word

and through your spirit. Amen.

Alright, so Elliot, do you want to come up here? Give him a round of applause.

It is probably not without trepidation that he agreed to do this this morning.

So this summer, we've been going through this idea of soaking in the Word of

God, of being filled with the Word of God, of replacing, this is something that

I've been saying, but replacing our thoughts with God's thoughts, right?

Of being so inundated with the Word of God that that is the dominant voice that we hear in our lives.

And as we came to this week, which I know some things got shifted around.

So this week ended up being the last week, which worked out pretty good.

I had the thought that, you know what? We have somebody who can speak with authority

into the metaphor that we're talking about today, whether he really wants to

stand up in front of people and talk or not.

You have to use the microphone, by the way. I got it.

And so, Elliot agreed to be a part of this.

And I know that we will all be blessed with what God has for us through Him. So, I guess,

Would you like to start off by telling all those who don't know,

but reminding those who do, what do you do for a living?

Hello, everyone. My name is

Elliot. I am an athletic trainer for the App State track and field team.

I'm not a runner myself and don't have that skill set. I work with a lot of

very high-level athletes, so I take care of all of their medical needs within my capacities.

So if someone rolls an ankle or if someone has shin splints or if someone is

feeling sick or breaks their arm, they come to me and we figure out what we

need to do, whether it's working with me, doing rehab,

doing some treatment or referring on to see one of our doctors or see a sports psychologist.

It's a pretty fun job because I get to walk with these athletes in the good days and the bad days.

The athletes will come to see me pretty much every day for one reason or another,

whether they need to or not. And it's fun because I get to see them in training.

I get to see them on the days of competition. I get to walk with them on the

good days and the bad days and, you know, on the days that they get hurt.

I get to walk with them as we go through surgery and rehab and through the months

of that process as they return back and finally to get to walk with them as

they're cleared and get to compete again.

And so it's a pretty fun, pretty fun job. I've got a lot of cool experience

with it. I've got to build some deep relationships. And so I think it's a pretty cool job.

Very good. I guess before we go too much further, would you like to explain

what we're wearing? Because I have no idea.

We are wearing basketball jerseys. Oh, I know that. They are of Trae Young specifically.

They look a little different, but it's the same guy.

Okay. We talked about matching today, so we're wearing matching Trae Young basketball

jerseys. And who is Trae Young?

I went to high school with Trae Young. He's currently a basketball player for

the Atlanta Falcons. He's very good. Dropping names.

He's very talented. Makes a lot of money. He probably doesn't remember me,

but I'm a big fan and I support him still.

So I have multiple jerseys that we can match in.

If you want to match with me next week, there's probably a signup sheet or something for that.

All right. Thank you. As we kind of talk about this, you're athletic trainer

for the track and field team.

You work with high level student athletes. What's,

I guess give us a little bit of a picture of what's something that we might

not expect or might not be able to guess from working with athletes.

I would say, I mean, athletes are just ordinary people like you and me.

They have the same problems that we have.

They just happen to be very athletic as well.

But they have the same problems we have. So many of my student athletes talked

about how they got lost walking to class this weekend.

The ones who were living on their own for the first time, they burned their

food like every night this week. and so they're average people just like you and me.

I know with some like the bigger higher level athletes especially when you get

to like basketball and football you see them on TV and you can kind of like

idolize them and just see them do these awesome athletic feats,

and really kind of see that they're like larger than life but they're just humans

like you and me. They have the same problems we have.

Our message today is talking about you know running the race.

And to spoil it, we're comparing that to running and running as a sport.

And we're going to mention some like, varsity level Christians today,

some people that are like, really mature in their faith.

But James 517 reminds us that Elijah was a human being, even as we are.

This is Elijah who, with the help of God, rained down fire from heaven, which is awesome.

And this Elijah was a human being, just as I am, just as Zach is, just as any of us.

And so as we're talking about, you know, striving forward and working towards

this goal and giving our all for Christ, I'd just like to encourage us and remind

us to think, how does this apply to us?

You know, what more can we be doing in our walks knowing that?

Yeah. What more can we be doing knowing that Elijah, knowing that Francis Chan,

knowing that Brother Lawrence, all these big names people are humans, even as we are.

And the only thing that's standing in between us and that level of intimacy with God is ourselves.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that kind of gives us a perspective,

and this is what I want you to kind of speak into of, when we think about student

athletes, when we think about professional athletes,

when we think about in comparison to us, and we kind of make this transition

as we're going to read in a minute, as Paul says to that, that he,

the way he trains, and we're going to make that comparison like he does.

What is the difference between all of us in this room and your athletes,

as far as working out goes?

What's the difference between someone who is an athlete versus someone who is

just trying to get in shape?

I'll speak from my own personal experience because I don't want to call out

anyone else in this room. But for me, I like to work out when it's convenient for me.

I may work out like two to three times a week for like 30, 40 minutes when it's

convenient for me whenever I like can make time for it. But these athletes,

they are working out every single day, two to three hours a day.

All my guys will go for multiple runs a day. They'll go do six miles in the

morning and then come back and do two miles in the evening.

And then they'll have weight training. Then they'll have prehab and rehab.

And so it's quite the substantial difference. And I'd even go as far to say

that there's a big difference between my athletes, the person who's getting

10th in a race and the person who's winning the race. because there's even all

these small things that they can adjust and change in their schedules and everything.

The athlete who's winning the race, they are structuring their social life,

their work life, their sleep cycle, what they eat, when they eat,

all around this one specific objective.

And that's just to run as fast as possible. It's to make themselves the best version of themselves.

In the book of First Kings, during the dedication of the temple of God,

king solomon is praying for the temple and he finishes prayer his prayer and

by saying but your hearts must be fully committed to the lord our god to live

by his decrees and obey his commands,

and which just had me thinking what would it look like if our hearts were fully

devoted to god would we be reading the bible not just when it's convenient but

also when it's inconvenient,

would we restructure our daily schedules would we alter how

we carry ourselves and even how others may

perceive us you know would it change our desires or how we spend

our free time and just what would it look like if our hearts were fully devoted

to god like these athletes lives are just fully devoted and tailor their entire

lives around this goal of running fast yeah and that's a good word gold so if

you want to join me on this first passage 1 corinthians chapter 9.

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

It's the end of the chapter, verses 24 through 27. And this really speaks to

kind of what Elliot's talking about here with the athletes, right?

That they have a purpose in mind. They have a goal in mind. They want to win a race.

And so all of their life, for the ones who are really striving to be the winners,

the ones who are winning versus the one who gets 10th or even 5th,

they're structuring their entire lives around this task.

Like all that they eat, all that they socialize, I know that it's true for a

lot of top level athletes, maybe not the ones that like are the basketball and

football stars, but certainly in the Olympic sports specifically.

Like they're not drinking, they're not going out and partying.

They are watching everything that they do because it can all affect their performance

a year later or six months from now.

So they're structuring their whole lives around it. And Paul writes in verse

24, starting verse 24, Don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs,

but only one person gets the prize. So run to win.

All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that

will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.

So I run with purpose in every step. I'm not just shadow boxing.

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.

Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified."

So Paul talks about the purpose of the goal, the prize,

the object of his life, that all that he does, he is training his body to win the race.

And we'll talk about what that kind of looks like later as far as what the race

is, but it begs the question for us, what is the prize?

And of course there is this idea of prize with regard to life,

which is kind of what he's getting after.

What is our prize? And so we can talk about the presence of God,

of seeking his presence that ultimately in our life.

Now we talk about in this church and the mission statement that we want to be

a place where heaven meets earth.

Like we want to experience the realities of God and eternity now,

which is what we've been promised, not just something for the future,

but also in the fullness of the future and eternity. the prize is the presence

of God, it's being with God.

Paul will talk about the prize in other letters that he writes as being people,

that the people that he shares the gospel with and respond to Jesus and are

welcome into the kingdom, welcome to the family, that they are his prize.

And so we can talk about the prize of our lives, the goals of our lives in kind

of these different ways.

Like ultimately it is being with Jesus and then missionally it is welcoming

other people into the family, into the kingdom of God.

We can talk about prize with regard to, in this setting of soaking in the word

of God of what is, what is your goal when you open the Bible?

Do you have a goal when you open the Bible or is it just to like check off,

check it off your box, read the word of God? And that's, that's the goal.

And I would say if that is the goal is just, just reading, then that's probably

not going to sustain you for the long run. When we talk about reading the word

of God, our prize is hearing from his voice.

It's seeing Jesus in the words.

It's being changed by him. And we are changed by him as we hear clearly the voice of God.

And so it's looking into the scriptures to increase in our knowledge and love

of God, not to increase in our knowledge alone, which is kind of what happens

when we just read the Bible,

but to increase in our knowledge and love of God that produces action,

to hear His voice and to respond to His voice.

And so that's what we're talking about this summer, we're ending today,

growing in our fear of the Lord is a great way to put it.

That we would live our lives in such a way that we just can't go through a day

without hearing from the voice of the Lord.

So we read to see, to hear His voice. We look into the scriptures, we pray to be with Him.

That we hunger and thirst as David writes in such a strong capacity that we

want His voice in our lives.

So that's what we can talk about with regard to a prize, a goal.

But I think there's another part to it you hinted at as well at the beginning of that last answer.

So I want to go back in some ways and have you kind of expand on this idea of

how important is consistency,

for those athletes, especially on days when they don't feel like training.

Consistency is everything with runners, specifically with how the cardiovascular system works.

And if you want to build your cardiovascular fitness, you have to be training,

all the time, multiple times a day, which comes out to be a lot of work.

I mentioned earlier, they are running multiple times a day. They're doing their weightlifting.

But even on top of that, bigger picture, they are running six days a week.

And on the day that they're not running, they're doing cross training,

they're biking, they're swimming, they're doing something extra.

And if they take large amounts of time off, they start to lose that fitness.

And so even in the off season, they're still running.

And so I'd say like of the 52 weeks in the year, they are probably training for 50 of them.

And so as they're trained in every day, almost every week, you're bound to not be feeling good.

I have a job for a reason because it doesn't feel good to train that much.

I have to try to keep people healthy for that long.

And so it's really important to show up on the days you're not feeling good.

We had, when I was a student in college at Wichita State, I worked with the baseball team there.

And we had this pitching coach there. He was named Mike Pelfrey.

And this coach, he played professional baseball for 12 years.

He was a starting pitcher. He started in a total of 256 games,

which what that means is he was a really good pitcher and he was a good pitcher for a long time.

And he would always tell the athletes, he'd always tell the baseball players

that there's no such thing as 100%. There's no such thing as feeling like you're at 100% capacity.

He'd tell them that of his 256 starts, he only felt good in 30 of them.

That every time he stepped up onto the mound, he majority of the time felt bad.

But he would tell the athletes that you may only feel up to 80% today.

You may only be able to give 80% of what you're capable of, but I need you to give 100%.

Of that 80 percent which is some weird math

but you need to give a hundred percent of what you're capable of and so obviously

in our walks in our spiritual lives speaking for myself i'm not at a hundred

percent on most days i'm generally tired or fatigued or there's something troubling

my soul and i know that we all have our own troubles and struggles in life that are bringing us down,

and so we may not be able to have a hundred percent capacity to give to the

lord i may only be operating at 60% for a day.

But what is important is that we give all of that, all of what we're capable of to God.

So even if I'm only at 60%, I'm giving 100% of that 60.

I could be using that 60%, all that 60% to dwell in scripture or all that 60%

to pursue God and all that 60% to serving others.

The Holy Spirit will guide you on where to invest your capacities.

But we as a church just need to be willing to show up and give 100% of what we are capable of,

whether that is on a day that we're feeling good and are capable of 100,

or if it's on a day that we are really being weighed down by life and are only

capable of even 20 and 30%.

Yeah. I just think about when I don't, so like when I physically don't feel

good and we all have this perspective, like what do we do? I typically sit on the couch and watch TV.

And so when I physically don't feel good, I'm not invested in anything but distraction

because I just want to be distracted from what I'm feeling.

But we do that when we're even feeling mostly fine, right?

It's kind of said that one of the devil's first and most successful tactics

is to just keep us distracted.

And I think that's true in a lot of our lives, at least for mine. I wonder if you have,

a particular story. So we talked about the importance of consistency.

And you mentioned earlier the fact that there's a huge difference between people

who are winning and people who are coming for their third, fifth, tenth.

I wonder if you have a particular story in mind, someone who maybe had all the

potential in the world to be the winner, but they didn't invest in that consistency.

So prior to being at App State, I worked at the University of New Mexico,

and not to compare, but New Mexico had a little bit of a better caliber of athletes there.

Don't tell my athletes that. It's a larger school. It's a larger school.

It's known for distance running.

And this was before my time when I was there, but I heard the stories of this,

but we had this freshman athlete come in from the UK.

His name was Josh Kerr, and he came to America to run. That was his purpose of coming here.

But upon getting to America, he kind of realized he really liked how Americans do college,

and he really liked the social aspect of college and got

to partying and got to drinking and really got really enjoyed

that aspect of college and by the

end of his freshman year this is a guy who was like 130 pounds but he had a

beer belly he was out of shape he wasn't running well and the coach was like

you like are one mistake away from getting cut from the team like if you mess

up one more time like you can't run here you're most likely going to go back

home to the UK like your career's done.

And so he flips the switch. He kind of has a reality check and starts to actually be dedicated.

He starts to train. He starts to put his life focus into this training.

And he turned out to be pretty good. He won three national championships when

he was at New Mexico. And in 2023.

Two years ago, he was the world champion for like the 1500 or like the one mile.

So he literally became the best athlete in the world.

And then a few years back, I think in 2016, he was like one mistake away from

getting cut from the team.

So he had all this potential that he was on the verge of just throwing it all away.

Whenever we give our lives to Jesus, we become new creations.

We're filled with the Holy Spirit and with that Holy Spirit working in us and

through us, how much more are we capable of?

What outstanding works can be done since we are these new creations?

What is our potential now that the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us?

But I oftentimes kind of reflect on my life and I ask, am I limiting my potential

by serving multiple masters?

Am I suppressing these possibilities by not being fully devoted to God?

When I read the Bible, I've never heard any of the prophets in the Bible speak

about how they regret listening to God.

I've never heard, I've never read Brother Lawrence talking about how he regrets

spending time in the presence of the Lord, or Francis Chan saying he wishes

he hadn't spent that much time in prayer. It's always the opposite.

All of these mature believers will always speak about how they wish they spent

more time serving, more time giving, more time reading the Bible,

more time sitting in the presence of God.

And I just have to ask myself, is there a level of intimacy that I am missing

with God, or is there something that I'm holding myself back with?

Am I missing out on my full potential because of distractions or one thing or another?

Is there more potential out there that I'm limiting myself in?

Yeah. And you mentioned distractions. So I imagine it correlates pretty well

to us, but what are some of the distractions other than kind of what you already

mentioned with this young man, but that athletes find themselves...

Distracted from their consistency, from their commitment, from their prize?

It's not too complicated.

The exact same distractions that affect us as Christians, the exact same sins

that affect our spiritual walks are exactly what affects the student athletes.

They'll get distracted by thinking that they know better than everyone,

laziness and pride, pursuing sex, money and entertainment.

Like I said, the exact same sins that the Bible warns us about,

that the Bible says it's going to ruin our lives are exactly what derails these

athletes from their goals and from their dreams.

So it's a pretty universal statement, like sin is vile and disgusting,

and it ruins everything it touches.

And so whether you're secular or Christian, sin will try its best to ruin and destroy everything.

So with that, I want us to linger a little bit here before we move on to the next question.

But if you want to open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4, it's kind of where

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

we're going to read and hinge off of that for this part.

That's 1 Timothy 4, verses 7 through 11.

1 Timothy 4:7–11

And what I wanted to continue to linger on a little bit is this idea of commitment and consistency.

Because they seem like the same word. They both start with C.

They have some similarities.

But there's quite some drastic differences that I think are important for us to pay attention to.

So again, 1 Timothy 4, verses 7 through 11.

1 Timothy 4:7–11

Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales.

I'm not sure what your translation says, this is the NLT.

Instead, train yourself to be godly.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better,

promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

This is a trustworthy saying and everyone should accept it.

This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living

God, who is the savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

So teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. So,

so Paul's instruction for us here is yeah, like physical training,

like Elliot does with his athletes is good. It is important.

And so how much more is it important that we who are believers train in godliness,

train in righteousness, as he mentioned earlier, like beat our bodies into submission

so that we are walking in faithfulness to the Lord.

How much more beneficial is spiritual training than physical training?

And so there's this idea of commitment and consistency where the definitions

I'm going to give for them would be that commitment is a heart posture.

It is our strong desire.

That's what a commitment is. You are committed to your spouse.

You are committed to things.

You have a strong desire for them. That doesn't mean you're always consistent in your actions.

So consistency speaks to the overflow of that desire.

And how it is realized, how it is acknowledged in things that we do.

Because it's very easy for us to have a strong desire, but be inconsistent in it.

I think for many of us, we've probably at times, and maybe we're in that season

right now, we've had a strong desire to commit ourselves to reading the word

of God, but we are so inconsistent in it that our actions are not proving that desire true.

When we think about Jesus coming into the world, he talks about the kingdom of God is at hand.

So what Jesus is teaching with the kingdom of God when he enters into creation

is that the kingdom of God, which was here always has now entered into a new

reality for all who believe.

There's a new experience that I'm ushering in as the savior, as Lord, as God.

And so Jesus comes in that embodiment and desire, that commitment of showing up.

And then he consistently reflects and acknowledges that commitment by what he does.

So much to the fact that when John the Baptist is experiencing his doubt and

he sends his disciples to Jesus,

he said, Are you the one who's to come or should we expect someone else?

And Jesus answers not by saying that I am the kingdom and the life.

He answers by saying the blind see, the lame walk. And He gives these physical,

actionable acknowledgements of this is the kingdom of God walking out,

showing up in life around you.

It's springing forth in a new way, as it says in Old Testament, right?

And so as we think about the example of Jesus, we think about commitment,

we think about consistency, we think about these athletes who are committed.

And they display that commitment and the way that they show up day after day,

regardless of how they feel.

And I don't know if you caught up, but he said that they run six miles during

in the morning and two miles at night. That's eight miles.

I don't want to run one mile, even when I feel a hundred percent.

So the commitment and consistency of the athletes that is necessary for them

to perform at a high level.

And Paul is saying that's good, but how much more important is physical training?

And I think about the question. So like, are we committed?

We probably would all say that we are committed. Do we have a strong desire?

Do we hunger and thirst for the word of God?

And most of us at many times will acknowledge yes, but then we have to ask that question.

Do we live our lives in such a way in a consistency of action that it reflects

that strong desire that we have? We have to weigh these things.

Your story reminded me of another story. There's a professional football player named Derwin Gray.

Well, he was a professional football player. Now he's a pastor,

but he tells a story. He grew up in Texas.

So he played football in Texas, which is high school football in Texas is bigger

than professional football.

And so he played, you know, one of the best schools in Texas.

He came in and he had all the talent in the world and they would do these assessments

of all the athletes of where they ranked as far as the athletes regarding football were.

And the first year he did it, it was like 300th or something like that.

And so he was supposed to be a leader. He would show up late for practice.

He wouldn't invest in it. He had all the talent in the world and he's ranked like 300 on this list.

And he had a great coach, great mentor who told him like, hey,

you're not putting in the work.

You're not training to the level that you're capable of. You're not investing

in this as if it's something that is important to you.

And so that whole next year, he was a captain of the team. He showed up early.

He stayed late. He invested in his career at that time as a high school athlete

who would eventually turn pro.

The next year, he was third on that list.

And so there's this idea that we all want to be Christians. We all want God to change us.

We all want to be shaped by him. We all want to be committed.

But there is this reality that we all got to face and ask this question,

like, am I consistent in that in such a way that like, I actually expect to see results?

Because if we're not consistent, we shouldn't expect to see results.

So are we being consistent in that perseverance?

The Bible emphasized talking about being steadfast in devotion and love and

faithfulness in the example of God, the description of God, the way he describes himself is, right?

Full of steadfast love and faithfulness and keeping that for thousands of generations.

And so when we think about that, we think about God's example,

we have to be investing, we have to be training, we have to be,

as Elliot was saying, giving God 100% of whatever we have available each and every day.

And it's not, if we're, like I said, if we're doing it to read the Bible,

just to read it or to acquire knowledge, or because we feel guilty that we're

not invested enough, that's never gonna result and it's never gonna keep us consistent.

It's that hunger and that thirst that we must experience the spirit in such

a way that we don't want anything else. And that also comes from consistency

as we abide in Christ regularly.

So commitment and consistency, we've been talking about,

We've been hinting around this idea. We haven't used this word, but sacrifice.

The top level performing athletes sacrifice a lot. And to them,

it's worth it for the prize.

So to keep on some practical stories that you've experienced,

can you think of an athlete who has suffered, who has sacrificed in such a way,

but as a result, seen that pay off in a big way?

Yes i'm gonna go to another story of my athletes in new mexico and this guy's

life story of how he even got to this country to run is incredible i'm not going

to share that today because that's his personal story and if you ever meet him

he'd probably gladly share it with you but,

he made this big sacrifice in his life to come to the united states to run and

this is a very very very talented athlete and we were it was in november in

madison wisconsin we were it was cross-country nationals.

So like this is the big race. This is what people have always trained for.

And Madison, Wisconsin in November is not really a beautiful time of the year.

It was like barely above freezing, maybe like 33, 34 degrees,

kind of raining. So the ground was like muddying some parts and frozen in the others.

And the athletes were racing 10 kilometers this day. They're going 10 kilometers

as fast as they possibly can to see who can finish first.

What's 10 kilometers in something I understand. A six point, a few miles.

I don't know the exact number, but around six miles, a little over.

And halfway through the race, well, the race gets started. They're going,

this athlete's at the front of the race. He's doing well.

There's a pack of people at the front and someone steps on his shoe and his shoe goes flying off.

I don't know how it like very comically just flies off into the distance.

And this is like the national championship. So

he doesn't have time to go and get his shoe he doesn't have time to stop

and like take off his other shoe to be balanced he just has

to keep on going because the the field is moving this

fast and you can kind of see like as he's running like something's not right

like his face looks a little different like it hurts to run this race as hard

like as hard as you can but it also hurts to run it with that one shoe because

like i said the ground was frozen his foot was getting cut up you could see

that there His foot was bleeding. You can't really see the extent of it, though.

And he runs over three miles on this foot that's kind of getting mutilated each step.

And unfortunately, he gets second at this race, which was really heartbreaking.

But second in the entire... He gets second without a shoe. Yes.

In freezing weather. Yes, absolutely.

It was really impressive. Obviously, I wanted him to win, but second's not too bad.

But after the race, he had to get like 10 stitches in his foot,

which really shuts you down for a while.

Like this guy tore up his foot this badly because he wanted to win this badly. He was so focused.

He was so locked in. He wanted to win that badly that he went and obliterated his foot.

He sacrificed a lot that day. And it's like I said, second place isn't bad by

any standards. when would have been a little bit better.

But that's not important. That's not the takeaway from that.

Generally though, that suffering, that pain that he was enduring,

I mean, it brings to mind what Paul suffered in the New Testament.

I think every book in the New Testament, Paul talks about how much he was suffering.

He was constantly suffering for one reason or another.

He talks about being flogged and beaten and stoned and shipwrecked.

And despite all of this, Paul says in Philippians 3, that I press on toward

the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward for Christ Jesus.

And so in the midst of these suffering, as Paul is like literally floating out

at sea with not much hope that he'll ever see land again, Paul is thinking to

himself that he wants to press on towards this goal.

This goal that, you know, it could be the fullness of the blessing in the age to come.

It could be simple, like simply just intimate fellowship with God,

or even to save more souls and bring more people to Christ, to share the gospel to everybody.

Whatever it may have been that he mentions here, Paul's just heart,

mind, and soul is so set on God that he just makes every human effort to strive

and press on towards this goal, even in the midst of suffering and affliction.

Yeah, that's such a beautiful passage of scripture for us to memorize and to internalize.

And I know it's been good for me to read some of Paul's letters this year and

realized for the first time, acknowledging that he had suffered so much, but realizing that.

As you started talking today, talking about Elijah, like Paul's just a regular dude as well.

And he suffered anxiety and he suffered doubt and disappointment and suffered greatly physically.

And still he's like, does everything. He makes it his goal to press on,

to pursue Christ. Last question.

You see these athletes pouring their whole lives into a race that might last,

I don't know, they're really fast. So like 10, 20 minutes.

For the sprinters, it's like 10 seconds. 10 seconds for a 100 meter, whatever, 400 meter.

So they're pouring their whole lives into these moments that last seconds.

What keeps you kind of grounded, oriented, fixed on Jesus?

And as Paul says, the spiritual training aspect, What keeps you grounded in

that as you see these athletes pour so much into tiny moments?

I think it's a matter of reminding myself of what a win looks like from a Christian perspective.

This may not be the greatest example because I was just talking about how great

a win would have been a second ago, but nonetheless, a win from a Christian

point of view isn't necessarily winning the race. It's not a personal best.

It's not like a pat on the back.

A win from a Christian perspective is just going to be.

Reflecting God's love to these athletes on the good days and the bad days.

It's souls being saved and lost sheep being found.

I have a great opportunity of just being able to sit with athletes,

like I said, on the good days and the bad days.

And so, you know, I've worked with some great athletes who win the races and

it's so much fun to celebrate on those days, but it's also fun,

maybe not fun, but it's important on the bad days when they lose,

when they have a horrible day, when they're so down and out about themselves

to reflect this love of God onto them and remind them of what really matters.

Some of my athletes are Christian, some of them aren't.

And so it kind of varies with person to person, but just trying to help them

remember that, you know, a win in this world, winning this race isn't actually

what we're striving for. It's not actually truly what matters.

Yeah, I was wondering, I was thinking about as you're sharing that,

like it's not unusual for a top level athlete to have a career injury,

right? So, I mean, it's not, thankfully, the most common thing that exists, but it's not rare.

So, for an athlete who has poured everything and sacrificed all this for this

moment, to then have that all taken away, like without Christ, there's hopelessness.

There's, even with Christ, there's going to be still a bit of like,

okay, what do I do now? But especially without Christ, there is a purposelessness

that comes into that questioning all that they've dedicated their life to, right?

So with Christ, though, we have such immense purpose that that's why Paul can

so confidently say it is so much more valuable to train ourselves spiritually,

so much more valuable to sacrifice for the mission of God and for what God has

called, the call that God has on our lives.

I think the good news for this, as we kind of wrap up, is we're not running against each other.

So when Paul uses these metaphors for races and for training,

we can easily get into a false belief that I just got to be better than the next person.

There's that kind of joke, right? Like if you're swimming with a crocodile or

like a shark, you just have to be faster than the person next to you.

That's not how salvation works.

There's not 144,000 and we got to be in that number because if there was,

I think we're all out of that number already.

So we're not running against each other. We're not competing against each other.

In a sense, we're competing against ourselves. We are battling against our flesh.

We're battling against the things that hold us back and will prevent us from

finishing, prevent us from winning, prevent us from striving with all that we

have, the distractions,

the disappointments, the disagreements, all of these things that the devil uses

to keep us out of the race.

That's what we're striving against. That's what we're fighting against.

And my mind, of course, in this always goes to Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2,

Hebrews 12:1

which is a beautiful passage.

It says, Therefore, since we have been surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

all the people who have run this race and finished before us,

we are surrounded by them.

And because of that, we press on. We throw off every weight that holds us down.

We throw off every sin that entangles.

And we run the race with perseverance, pressing on to the prize, which is Jesus.

And so that's just a beautiful way for us to kind of end this discussion about, in a sense, keep going.

We've heard all about soaking in the Word of God and replacing our thoughts

with the thoughts of God and being filled with the Word of God in such a way that.

Permeates all of our lives. And there's no other exhortation that we can have

after that, except keep going.

Endure to the end. It says, Jesus talked to his disciples and talked about all

of the tribulation and suffering that they would experience.

Then he said, those who persevere to the end will be saved.

And Paul talks about the fact that he didn't want to disqualify himself,

even after sharing the word with so many people, he still had to keep going.

And that's such an important word.

There are all of these finish lines in life that we think will fulfill us.

There's all of these prizes that so many of us pour our lives into,

but there's only one that really matters.

And so let us pour ourselves completely and wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y.

Completely into God. Let's put all of our, all that we have on him and don't

have a backup plan for anything else.

That's what belief is. When we talk about the word belief and the way that the

Bible talks about it is about putting your full weight on Jesus and not trying

to hedge your bets with anything else, your own performance or anything else

at all. So thank you, Elliot.

At this time, we're going to respond yes with song, but before that,

we're going to respond with remembering what is of utmost value and importance.

And that is Jesus, that is God, that is what Jesus came to do when he came to

us, laid down his life for us. He lived a perfect life that we could never live.

He laid down his life and bore the punishment that we deserve so that we might

rise in newness of life with him.

Conquered death so that we could live as well. And we do this every Sunday.

We celebrate communion together, the Lord's Supper, because it is so important

to be reminded of this truth all the time, because we so easily forget it.

And we join with the generations before us as we celebrate and we remember and set our hearts to this.

And I know you had a thought that you wanted to share as we kind of go into

communion. So if you want to share that.

Yes. I think the most important one thing to clarify with all this is that as

we've talked about, you know, striving and working hard and pressing on,

these are all things that we do in response to our salvation.

This is not what actually earns us our salvation.

I'm not going to get into heaven by running as far as I can or memorizing the

entire Bible. We are simply saved by God's grace and God's grace alone.

I think we all, I know we all have been utterly helpless in sin,

that we were creatures of wrath.

But God sent us, sent Jesus to be the perfect and complete sacrifice for our lives.

This is a grace that we don't deserve. It's a grace that there's nothing I could

do in my life to ever get to this point to earn this.

But we have been blessed and we have, we've been blessed with the incomparable riches of this grace.

And because of that, that's why we strive. That's why we push forward.

That's why we dedicate our lives to this consistency in the gospel.

And just to clarify, it's not our own works. It's through God's full and complete love of us.

That's beautiful. I remember another Paul's words. I don't know where it is,

so somebody can look it up and tell us.

But he says, I press on to take hold of that which Christ has taken hold of me.

So all that we do is response.

God has already made the first step and He will always make the first step.

And so, all that we do in life is response to that.

So, I invite you all to respond this morning. The way we do it is come,

come together, come as a group, celebrate together.

This is a family event that we celebrate, not just our individuality in salvation,

that Jesus comes to be our personal Lord and Savior.

That's important. That's good. But we come to celebrate the fact that we are

welcomed into a family and that we are a people who are saved by the Lord and set apart.

So come and eat, come and drink. And let's remember that together,

that all we do is because of what He has already done. Amen.

Music.