What Cannot Be Taken Away

Greeting

Reading

1 Corinthians 9:24–25 NIV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

What Cannot Be Taken Away

Introduction

A couple of years ago I was helping Coach my son’s second grade flag football team.

We weren’t good, at all.

We lost every game.

Then the playoffs came and the boys were so tired of losing that I could see in our final practice that the lights were turning on. Things were clicking.

I remember trying to motivate the boys at our last practice telling them that the playoff winners got a medal. I was trying anything I could to motivate these boys…

And one boy said, “I don’t think that’s fair! We should all get medals!”

Naturally, me being the kid who grew up in the 80’s was ready to give this kid a life lesson about how the real world works, but I simply smiled and let him know that only the winners were going to get a medal.

And since these boys won… they all got one of these medals.

Transition

I think stories like this resonate with us because at some point we come to the truth that everyone isn’t going to get the reward.

Not everyone who applies for college gets into every school they apply for.

At some point you don’t get the job you applied for.

At some point someone else gets the promotion.

And we come to our text today and it almost feels out of place in a Bible, because the church has said, “Everyone is welcome!”

If that’s the case, then why is Paul talking about running to win the race?

Does that mean that there will be losers?

Don’t we all win?

Is this all just Christian hyperbole?

Or, is Paul bringing us into a the loop on something about the Christian race that he discovered?

Is Paul waving us into a back door, closed door meeting where he has some good information that he wants to share with us.

Text

What I want to do is take us into an approach where we examine what Paul is writing to the church.

Do you not know

that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

Paul begins by questioning the knowledge of his reader.

“Do you not know?” is an appeal to what they know, and it is rhetorical. He’s not being rude, because he knows that they know, but is a literary device to move them.

Paul needs to move the reader from cognitive awareness to action.

For example, there are things that we all know that we need to do…

We should eat better.

We should sleep more.

We should move our bodies more.

In our faith, this is also true.

We should pray more.

We should fast more.

We should get water baptized.

We should join a Connect Group.

We should join the Dream Team.

Paul is encouraging us to move from what we know to do, to actually doing what we should do.

While doing this, he is going to show us something…

In order to make this leap it comes down to the word; discipline.

Discipline moves us from what we know to do, to the action of doing.

And it is also the same root word for disciple.

So let’s put these tow things together…

The gap between what you know and what you do is the result of discipleship.

And we want you to be discipled…

Paul wants you to be discipled…

How do I know that? Because Paul puts it this way:

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

This is Paul’s big appeal!

He is telling us, don’t settle.

Don’t put your faith on cruise control.

Don’t settle for a participation trophy.

Paul would contend with us and tell us that we shouldn’t live this version of Christianity…

Attending Sunday services not to truly come and worship Jesus but out of obligation.

Looking the other way when someone is in need.

Treating giving to the Kingdom of God in contempt because our hearts love money more than we will be honest enough to admit.

So Paul contends that we have to run to win the race…

[Transition]

So how do we get there?

Let’s look at this contrast that Paul shows us.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last,

Paul, who was an absolute genius with words, was pulling on the Corinthian connection to the Olympic games. At the time of Paul’s writing there was something founded in Corinth called the Isthmian Games, which was a festival of athletic competition meant to honor the pagan gods in that region. These games would go on to become the Olympic Games, and so Paul like he would often do, was use an example that was near to them to draw them to better understanding.

That said, we understand that Olympic Athletes will train for events that most only get one shot at in their lifetime. Some get more than one, but they are in the minority.

Imagine, training your whole life for that one event that could last only seconds, and maybe even minutes, and yet they do it. They do it for the glory of having set their mind to something to achieve something…

Paul argues, that in the end in they receive a corruptible award.

It will not last…

Can I ask you a hard question?

What are you chasing that will not last?

We are all chasing something… let’s be honest.

Not everything that you are chasing is bad…

Chase good health.

Chase a good financial plan for your family.

Chase security for your loved ones.

But, is there something that you are chasing that really is not only inconsequential, but reckless?

You need to examine the those things that have your time and attention and ask yourself, when I get to the end of my race, the end of my life, will I say, “That was a worth while pursuit! That was worth sacrificing time with my family over!”

Now, contrast that to Paul’s last words here…

but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Paul is showing us that there are things that have eternal consequence - and we need to do those things!

Application

All That Remains, our guiding theme of 2025 was a shift for Lighthouse to get back to the things that we believe God has called this church to do.

It was asking us to take our focus off of the temporary things that we give so much of ourselves to, and put more of our focus on things that are eternal.

Jesus has taken away the sting of sin, He has reconciled us back to the Father, and we now have a new and abundant life in Christ; so now let’s focus on all that remains for us to do until Jesus comes back for his church again.

Our theme for next year will be Arise. A call to wake up to the life God has called us to live.

Today, there are three things I want to both ask and celebrate today.

First, today there are six people who are making an eternal decision and they are getting water baptized.

Can we once more celebrate them?

But there may be more than these six and you’ve been putting off this next step… I want to tell you that today can be the day that you take that bold next step and give your life to Jesus!

This is how you not only finish the year well, but it is how you begin to live out All That Remains in your life.

If you want to get baptized today, we can do that now after this service. Or, you can make some phone calls and get your crew here for our next service. Or, if you need a bit more time, we have baptisms in March of next year. But there are many of you that need to make the decision to start running after the eternal things.

Second, we begin the year with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.

An email already went out with resources and next steps, so you can read through that tonight and begin to prepare your family for this spiritual journey of tuning into the Holy Spirit and blocking off the noise of everything else.

Kick it off by being here on Saturday for our worship night. It’s heavy on worship. There are no frills, just truly chasing after God’s presence in worship to set the tone for your time of fasting. Join our Women’s Prayer Connect Group or our Men’s Morning Prayer during this time, and commit to going beyond that as well.

Let’s truly lean in, because we said in our Light Up The City Campaign, we want to see 100% engagement with our church.

Lastly, we ended our year announcing our Light Up The City campaign generosity goal of $2,100,000 over the next two years. After our Commitment Sunday offering, we reached $1,621,700 of $2,100,000. Church we are so close to reaching our goal and we need to celebrate this amazing accomplishment.

Here are some things that God did:

We had a crazy belief that God would send us a generous donor to give $250,000 over the next two years… and one family did step up to that!

We had two families step up to give $50,000

We had three families give over $40,000

We had seven families commit to give more than $20,000

And then there are so many of you that committed to giving a one time gift, or step into more generosity in your giving.

If you are wondering how you can jump in, we have more commitment cards. You can make a one time gift, or the way that I am asking more of you to consider joining, is to look at what you already regularly give, and commit to giving sacrificially above and beyond that. And we can all jump in to this together…

If you already regularly give a tithe, what can you give above and beyond your tithe?

If you regularly give, but do not tithe, can you step into tithing?

If you do not regularly give, can you take your next step and become a regular giver?

If you gave nothing at all, and you want to start giving, what can you start to do now?

This is not about amounts, but it is about your heart.

This is about you purposing in your heart to not settle for a participation trophy, but to run for the prize! Run after an incorruptible crown! Invest into lives being changed for eternity. Run for what will remain…

What can you purpose in your heart to do today?

Call

Church, what a joy it has been to see what God has done this year!

And, he is not done yet. Let’s go on ahead and send out everyone who will be getting baptized today and also anyone who just right now decided that you would like to get baptized today, you can go at this time now and our team will be there to meet with you.

For everyone else, I’m going to invite you up to this altar. This is for everyone… gran your family and come forward and pray together as we thank God for all that he did this year, and as we look ahead to next year. I want you to allow God to speak to you here today regarding your fasting, your giving, and how you can Arise to your purpose in 2026.