Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Passion of a Spiritual Champion*

1 Corinthians 9:24-26

He was a baseball fanatic.

Without hesitation he could rattle off batting averages, home runs, and runs-batted-in for every player.

Praising him for his memory, a stranger asked, “Do you ever forget your wedding anniversary?”

“Never!” he answered.

“I was married the day Bobby Thomson hit the home run that won the pennant for the Giants.

I’ll never forget that day.”

Some people will do anything to win.

The early days of baseball provide many notable examples.

Before stadiums had permanent seats in the outfield, for example, teams were permitted to erect temporary bleachers or simply put up a rope if a large crowd was expected and any ball hit into that area was ruled a ground‑rule doubles.

When Ty Cobb was managing the Tigers and a power‑hitting team was visiting, he would have the ground‑crew set up temporary bleachers, turning balls that might otherwise have been home runs into ground‑rule doubles.

And if the crowd wasn’t large enough to justify putting up the seats, Cobb would have the ground‑crew sit in those bleachers so the umpire would not order them removed.

In Chicago, Cubs’ fans standing behind the outfield rope would push forward toward the infield when the home team was at bat, thereby shortening the field, and then back up several steps when the visitors came to bat, thereby causing some would‑be homers to fall shorts.

When Bill Veeck owned the Cleveland Indians, he moved the outfield fences in or out depending on the lineup of the visiting team.

When the league finally passed a rule prohibiting that, Veeck compensated: He would go out to the ball park at night, dig up home plate, and move it a few feet forward or backward.[1]

The Apostle Paul had one

Even though baseball has not been around for centuries, sports have played an important part in history.

The Apostle Paul must have been a sports fan.

Every two years in Corinth, they held the Isthmian games.

They were second only to the Olympic games.

Every two years, Greek men would gather and for ten months they did nothing but train for those games.

At the beginning of the ten months they took an oath about what they would eat.

With this in mind, Paul wrote these verses.

The Christian life involves total commitment in order to win the race.

! I.

Only Singleness of Purpose Wins the Christian Race

The greatest achievements in life are usually accomplished by people who have a singular desire that becomes the ruling passion of all they do.

For example, when Bob Feller was a child, he loved to throw a ball.

By the age of 5 he spent hours every day pitching through a hole in the barn wall.

At 10 his father bought him all the necessary equipment and provided him with a playing field on the family farm.

At 13 he pitched for a local team and averaged 20 strikeouts a game.

At 17 he began playing for the Cleveland Indians.

As a major leaguer, Bullet Bob, he had 6 seasons as a 20-game winner, 3 no-hit games, 11 1-hitters, 266 wins, and he set a record of 348 strikeouts in 1 season.

He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Bob Feller had a singleness of purpose.

·          (1 Corinthians 9:24 NKJV)  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may obtain /it./

A.  The Petition: Perception

Every time Paul uses the phrase, “Know ye not” in any of his thirteen letters, it is an appeal to the obvious.

“All of you know very well.”

Every one knows that those who run a race run to win.

Every Greek knew that those men who trained severely for ten months for the Isthmian games did it to win.

There at the Isthmian stadium with its track of 606.75 feet, they knew that at the end of ten months every one of them would run, but only one would win.

Paul reminded them of what they already knew.

It was an appeal to common knowledge.

We must understand Paul.

He did not say that all those who run the Christian life, only one wins the prize.

That is not the emphasis at all.

His emphasis is on the strenuous of the discipline in order to win.

It takes an agonizing commitment in order to win the race.

We do not compete against each other but against the obstacles ¾ practical, physical, and spiritual ¾ that would hinder us.

Even though many run the race, when the trumpet blows and the judge gives the wreath, only one wins it.

As we think about the Christian life, we should think about it with that kind of intensity.

B.

The Prescription: Persistence

“So run,” 

The imperative in the Greek for /run/ means to /keep on  continually running./

The Christian life is not just a life that has a good start, but one which has a good finish.

Many of us recall our salvation experience.

I was thrilled to be saved.

I didn’t know all about the Christian life, but I had a sense of joy.

Maybe you remember the time you were saved.

The time you walked a aisle at revival service.

Or maybe you were at your home, and your parents led you to Christ.

But you know, for many, that special time in a Christian’s life is the only special time.

The joy of their salvation begins to wear off; that inner feeling of peace vanishes, and reality begins to settle in.

And then it becomes difficult to live for Christ.

Even the desire to serve Him diminishes.

There must be persistence in the Christian life; not only at the beginning, but in the mid years when pressure comes and stress mounts.

We are to keep running the race.

One of the great martyrs of the Christian faith was Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna.

He was arrested after being a Christian for 86 years, and when they drugged him before the Roman governor, the governor said, “Have respect for your age old man and deny Christ.”

Polycarp looked at him having run the race those 86 years and said, “For eighty and six years I’ve lived for my God and King, I will not deny Him now.”

C.

The Purpose: The Prize

“So run, that ye may obtain.”

The Apostle Paul says to run in such a way as to get the prize.

The word that he uses doesn’t mean to casually stroll up and get the prize.

It means to reach out and grasp that prize.

That young Greek who spent 10 months training did not go up to the platform to get his prize in a casual way.

No, he went up and gripped that prize for what it was worth.

Many of us lack to singleness of purpose that wins the Christian race.

! II.

Only Strictness of Preparation Wins the Christian Race 

·         (1 Corinthians 9:25 NKJV)  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.

A.  The Totality of the Preparation

“And every man . .

.”

Every man who participated in the Isthmian games knew they had to prepare.

No one was strong enough that they could get by by not preparing himself.

There were no exceptions.

B.

The Intensity of Participation

“. . .

who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.”

The Apostle Paul calls for that kind of participation on the part of believers.

In other words, they go into strict training.

The word meant that ten months of negative and positive discipline.

That word for striveth is /agonizo/ in the Greek.

It gives us our word agony.

Literally, he said, “Everybody who agonizes for those ten months disciplines himself.”