3 Run with Endurance
Run with Endurance.doc SD21
August 17, 2008 File: E
Go For The Goal—Part Three
(from series by David Mains)
RUN WITH ENDURANCE
Hebrews 12:1
We are in a race—a marathon—we call it LIFE!
We are running to win
We are running to complete the race…So we can say with the Apostle Paul who wrote near the end of his life—“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
PPT Believers with a “go for the goal” mindset remember the witnesses. Believers with a “go for the gold” mindset remove any hindrances. Then, believers with a “go for the gold” mindset Run with Perseverance.
Last week we gave you a challenge in regard to “Laying aside the weights and the sin that so easily beset us.”
Removing the hindrances..
The stuff that hinders our progress…
We don’t run marathons with extra weight…
Like briefcases, shopping bags, or pet boa constrictors…
We asked you to come today with your proclamation of victory because you applied yourself to dealing with those weights and sins that so easily hinder us…
BECAUSE OF SOME VICTORIES THIS PAST WEEK I AM AN IMPROVED RUNNER IN THE RACE GOD HAS SET BEFORE ME! Signed:
So let’s take another offering---let’s bring it to the front!!!
PRAY!!!!
NOW TODAY---
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”
Matthew 10:22 “He who endures to the end shall be saved…”
In the parable of the different kinds of dirt (soil) Jesus said
“But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.” – Matthew13:20-21
Don’t you want to finish strong????
Some of you are saying – Pastor, I just want to finish!!!
Well listen to the encouragement of the scriptures:
“Run with endurance…”
“Run with perseverance…”
(NCV)So let us run the race that is before us and never give up.
“run with endurance…”
You have to stick with the plan!!!!
If you did it this week you can do it next week
Don’t listen to the devils lies that says you can not change and you can never be any different—
The real problem in too many cases is not so much that you cannot change, as it is this: You really don’t want to change!
Is that true???
Let’s talk about developing a “Go for the Goal” Mindset…
What does it take to have a mind and heart that desires to go all the way with Jesus!!!!
The Summer Olympics in Atlanta Georgia in 1996 are remembered for the explosion in the Centennial Olympic Park (1 killed and over 100 injured)—but I want to draw your attention not so much to the big boom of the bomb, put to a small “pop”
After their first night of competition the U. S. women gymnasts trailed the favored Russian team by just a tad over 1/10th of a point.
Two nights later, on July 23rd, a huge television audience watched spellbound as the lead changed hands and the U. S. A. moved ahead by 4/10ths of a point. With the floor exercises finished, their razor thin margin was doubled going into the final event. That was the vault, a springboard leap over a padded metal horse.
The first four American women got solid scores. If the fifth to vault could just get a 9.7 it would clinch the gold—which the American women gymnastics team had never won. But falls on her landings silenced the deafening chants from the crowd of “U. S. A., U. S. A.” The 32,000 in the Georgia Dome murmured nervously when a 9.2 score was posted.
The last member of the team was 18-year-old Kerri Strugg who weighed all of 85 pounds. Her words were, “I could feel the gold slipping away.”
“The vault is my strength,” she wrote later. “And I hadn’t missed my difficult twisting vault with a 1 ½ turn in the past three months. But I landed short on my first attempt and fell backwards. The moment my feet hit the floor I heard a pop. As I scrambled to stand, a fiery pain shot up my left leg. When I tried to walk, my ankle felt loose, as if it would fall off. But I tried to shake it off as I limped down the runway.”
“I heard my coach yelling, ‘You can do it.’ I stared back with my eyes ready to burst, thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know if I can do this—something is wrong.’”
(Do you remember what happened next on that night?)
“Everyone was counting on me,” Kerri Strugg recalled. “I owed it to them to try. Then I said a little prayer, ‘Please God, help me out here.’ Amazingly, the pain eased. I sprinted pain-free to the springboard. After a quick twisting blur, I landed on both feet and heard another snap. I lifted the throbbing ankle, balanced on one foot to salute the judges, then collapsed to my knees.”
Well, the crowd just erupted in applause. That was true in the stadium and in homes all across the country. Yes, she did it. Her score, 9.712. The gold medal belonged to the U. S. A!
Kerri Strugg’s ankle was wrapped tight and paramedics prepared to take her to the hospital. “No,” she pleaded. “Let me stay!” And most you may recall the U. S. coach Bela Karolyi carrying Kerri Strugg in his arms up to the winner’s stand for the gold medal ceremony.
Somehow I think that may well be how we will get to the medal ceremony as we stand before the judge of all the earth…
There we are---not in our own merit, but in the arms of Jesus!
“The Bible often depicts the Christian life as a race. If this is true, then we can be sure endurance is critical to our success. What builds endurance in our spiritual lives? James 1:2-3 say, ‘Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.’
“Endurance is an inner strength that enables us to face any difficulty without quitting. The runner needs endurance to finish the race. So he conditions his body for success, even though it hurts. As believers, we’re called to do the exact same thing.
Our “training” comes through trials. As we face different challenges, the Holy Spirit builds us up more and more. This is God’s “training camp.” If you’re facing a hardship today, ask yourself this question: Am I willing to go through this intense workout today in order to win the race tomorrow?”[1]
"For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:" Hebrews 10:36
Believers with a “go for the gold” mindset remember the witnesses. Believers with a “go for the gold” mindset remove any hindrances. Then, believers with a “go for the gold” mindset Run with Perseverance.
They run with perseverance.
What kind of mindset was needed for an Olympic champion like Kerri Strugg to do that—as a gymnast, to do what’s referred to in this verse as run with perseverance or with endurance? Four simple observations.
PPT Four Simple observations:
PPT 1. Early on Kerri Strugg had to realize that going for the goal would not be easy---it would require sacrifice. Living away from family for certain seasons. Not eating at fast foods all the time. Practicing when the other girls would be going to the mall.
We too need to realize that if we are to had the mindset of champions we must realize that it will not be easy—but it will be worth it! There are sacrifices that must be made.
We are all too much into ourselves and into our own comfort.
But you can make it further than ever before if you will start out with the mindset of a champion and realize that it won’t be easy…
2. Winning requires great discipline.
Any Olympian has gone through years of disciplined training.
Nobody gets up on Friday morning and simply decides hat they will run in the Boston Marathon on Saturday…
Discipline requires us to focus on a larger goal…not merely to get through this test or trial…or this day of training…it requires us to see that we are destined for --- Eternity! For Heaven…we were not made for this world…we are created with eternity in our hearts and we long for home…
But we are not home and until we are there God asks us to submit to His training schedule…because he is preparing ;us for something beyond our imagination….
Better than Olympic gold….
“They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” 1 Cor 9:25
So don’t be afraid of the discipline of the Lord!!!
It is good for you! it is for your Good!!!!
3. We must put the welfare of the team ahead of personal pain
Kerri Strugg learned that lesson…remember her words:
“As I scrambled to stand, a fiery pain shot up my left leg. When I tried to walk, my ankle felt loose, as if it would fall off.” A lesser competitor might have said, “I need to stop. I’m hurt—I can’t do this.” Instead, her words were, “Everyone was counting on me. I owed it to them to try.”
All too many believers give up when they have been injured in the work—they stop going to church and enjoying the presence of the team…because someone hurt them…
Those with winning attitudes place the welfare of the team above their own experience of pain…
They are willing to endure, because they want you to win!!!!
4. We must exercise faith at all times that this is something we must do.
Again Kerri Strugg had to believe that she could go on. That she could do it!!!
You can do it! You can endure to the end!!!
You can achieve greater things!
You must! There is not option here! You have to go on! Giving up is not an option!
You cannot give up on yourself
You cannot give up on your brothers and sisters, no matter if they have disappointed you
YOU CANNOT GIVE UP ON GOD
Who in Christ Jesus has made the way possible for you!
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
“run with endurance the race that is set before you…”
He that endures to the end shall be saved!
Don’t be like the seed among the thorns…that “endured only for a time…”
· Realize that to “go for the gold” will not be easy.
· Agree that any expectation of winning will require great discipline.
· Put the welfare of your team ahead of any personal pain; and
· Exercise faith at all times that this is something you can do.
So—let perseverance mark your life of faith!!!!
Go for the Goal! The high calling of God in Christ Jesus!
--from last week--
BECAUSE OF SOME VICTORIES THIS PAST WEEK I AM AN IMPROVED RUNNER IN THE RACE GOD HAS SET BEFORE ME!
Signed:
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Go For The Goal
Part three
RUN WITH ENDURANCE
Hebrews 12:1
“…Run with endurance the race set before you…”
Four observations:
1. Realize early on that to “Go for the Goal” will .
2. Realize that any expectation of winning requires .
3. Put the welfare of your team ahead of .
4. Exercise faith at all times, that this is something you .
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[1] Charles Stanley, “In Touch” devotional, from Crosswalk.com