GOING FOR THE GOLD
Introduction:
Some time has passed since the 26th Olympiad. For a little more than
a century have been coming together in international competition in order to
bring home ; Some of the world greatest athletes come from all over the world
to compete in events for which they have trained religiously. Some experience and enjoy the thrill of
victory while others experience the agony of defeat.
As
Christians we are going for the gold (metaphorically speaking). In this lesson I will parallel the summer
Olympics with the Christian life.
A. God is in your corner
B. The crowd is cheering you on
C. Someone is there to pick you up
D. Don't give up on the Gold
I.
God is in your corner -- One of the events in the
Olympic games is boxing. The opponents have their respective corner
from which they leave to do battle in the ring.
How does this relate to the Christian experience?
A. Paul compared the Christian's struggles to
a boxing match (1 Cor.
1. Christians are to fight a good fight (1
Tim.
2. Paul himself put up a good fight and won
(2 Tim. 4:7-8)
B. There are other parallels we can make to
the Christian experience from boxing
1. There
is someone in your corner -- after we have gone out into the ring of life to do
battle with the enemy we afflicted and beaten, though not defeated, we need to
go to our corner where God is and other members of the team are
a. There
is where we get encouragement and strength (Isaiah 40:29-31; Eph.
b. There
we are able to be refreshed and rested in the one place where we come in from
the battle: our corner (Matt.
2. With God in our corner how can we lose
(Rom.
C. In another fighting event, wrestling, there
are some similar parallels also
1. Talk about the Russian who is feared by
his opponents -- most give up
2. We wrestle against one more fierce and we
can't give up (Eph.
III. The crowd is cheering
you on -- Sometimes the roar of the crowd and knowing that the people in it are
cheering for you helps boost the adrenaline (story when I did the long jump);
in our Christian race we have a crowd there cheering us on (Heb. 12:1)
A. Jesus
is waiting at the finish line (Heb. 12:2) -- the people's champion who himself
has run this very race and was victorious
B. We must
run in such a way as to obtain the prize (1 Cor.
1. One can run in vain (Gal. 2:2; Phi.
2. Could have a good start but a poor finish
(Gal. 5:7)
3. We must run according to the rules (2
Tim. 2:5)
4. We must not run aimlessly (1 Cor.
III. Someone is there to pick you up --
Keri Shruggs, a
A. When we fall
God is there to pick us up (Psalm 37:23-24)
1. Notice
Psalm 145:14; it speaks for itself
2. This he
will do for us if we are humble toward Him (James 4: 1 0)
B. We need to be there to lift up one
another; for we are members of the
same team striving for the same goal
1. We
need each other (Ecc. 4:9-10)
2. Some
of us might not make it if we are not there to help lift them up (Heb.
3. There
are things we must be willing to sacrifice for the good of the team
IV. Don't give up on the
gold -- Nike has an ad that states, "You don't win the silver; you lose
the gold. As we compete in our struggles
toward the heavenly prize there will be no second or third place finishers
(Matt.
A. We must run
the entire race; we cannot quit
1. The
crown is given to the faithful (Rev. 2:10)
2. Notice
James
B. Those
who receive the prize in the Olympic games receive a perishable one we an
imperishable (1 Cor.
1. Notice
1 Peter 5:4
2. Those
athletes only have to compete in the Olympics every 4 years; our struggles are
everyday
Conclusion: Those who competed in last
year's Olympics were athletes
who represent their respective nations and do their best to make their nations
shine. As Christians we represent the