pressing on to victory

from my message on 8/5/12, part of my "Olympics" series, from I Cor. 9:24-27, II Tim. 4:7-8

I started lifting weights in the 8th grade (pick up my bar).  The bar weighs 10 lbs.  It wasn't football season, or basketball season, or track season.  Coach called it "off season."  We lifted weights 3 times a week.  Let's add 10 more pounds to each side, which brings us up to ....30 lbs.  I continued to lift weights all thru high school.  My first semester in college, I gained the freshman 15.  It's time to stop exercising and time to eat all you can at the cafeteria.  But my spring semester, I took weight lifting (lift the 30 lbs.) and lost a lot of weight and gained a lot of muscle.  I lifted weights all thru college.  Let's add 10 more lbs. to each side....which brings us up to .....50 lbs.  But thru seminary and marriage and having kids, I stopped lifting.  Then more than 20 years ago, I bought this set of free weights from Academy and started lfiting again.  (lift the 50 lbs.)  I have read that as we get older, it is important to do strength exercises to prevent muscle loss and bone loss and even memory loss.  Let's add 5 more lbs. to each side, which would get us to ....60 lbs. 

Which leads me to the Olympics (fanfare music plays).  Paul was familiar with the Olympics.  Mt. Olympus is in Greece.  Paul was a sport fanatic if you are to read all of his sports analogies in his letters.  In our passages today, he talks about running, and boxing, and getting in shape.  He compares being a follower of Christ to that of being an athlete.  (lift the 60 lbs)   He talks about disciplining the body.....discipline is the same root as disciple.  I watched a video this past week that talked about the difference between trying and training.  Do you watch the women's marathon run this morning?  Did those athletes decide 2 days ago that they would try to run a marathon?  NO!   For years they have been training to run!  So it is with us Christians.  We don't try to be Christian.   We train to be Christian.  We may walk up front and make a professsion of faith, but it doesn't stop there.  We read the Bible, we attend worship, we pray, we do acts of mercy.  And we grow in our faith and in our following Jesus.  We get better at it as we train.  Following Christ is a marathon.  It is a long race.  It takes our whole lives long.  We press on to victory.  Let's add 2 1/2 lbs to each side...which gets us to ...65 lbs. 

Paul talks about winning an imperishable prize.  There were games held at Corinth in Greece every other year.  The prize for winning was celery leaves.  Can you imagine going home and saying, "Look, Mom, what I won....celery leaves."  Maybe it was a laurel bush branch at other games.  These prizes would soon decay.  We press on to victory for an imperishable prize.  We have peace in our hearts now, that our sins are forgiven, that we are loved by God.  We have hope for eternity, the assurance that there is life after death.  It is not some joyless discipline we practice.  We press on to victory.  (lift the 65 lbs.)

Let's add 2 1/2 lbs to each side...which gets us to ...70 lbs.  (lift the 70 lbs).  Let's add 2 1/2 lbs to each side...which gets us to ...75 lbs.  (go over to the bar, but leave it there).  That's enough for me.  It is important to know your limits.  You don't have to do everything in the faith.  That's what the community is for.  We Americans tend to make Christianity an individual sport, but really it is a team sport, more like basketball or soccer.  Even those athletes in individual events in the Olympics are not just individuals.  They have coaches and training partners and nutritionists and physical therapists and family members.  No one gets to the Olympics alone.

So you have been holding onto those cans of food for the food pantry in Granite Shoals for Grace UMC there.  I want you all to lift them up.  Look at how much more we can lift together.  We can do so much more as community.  Now lets do a relay race.  Pass those gifts of food up to the front.  Help each other.  We press onto victory as community.

The good news is that we press on to victory by training, not by trying, for an imperishable prize and not alone but with others.