The service this Sunday was led by the KidsZone kids. Pastor Joel was away unexpectedly and the wrap-up of the four Services on the Olympics was read by Cameron Brauer:
We have seen through all of these 4 services on the athletic language that some of the New Testament writers use, that there are some similarities between us and Olympic athletes, and that there are some glaring differences.
In our “race” of faith, our life of believing in God, he wants everyone to win, not just one. And no matter how hard we work, how good we are, we simply cannot reach the goal of eternal life and the prize of a perfect relationship with God on our own.
We need to realize, that just like the bodies we have, the faith we have, (in other words, the ability to even believe in God) is a gift from him.
But this doesn’t mean that we can expect to just sit on the couch eating junk food and still be able to do well in the race he has for us.
No, we take care of what he has given us, we try as hard as we can to do everything we can to give glory to him as the one who made us, and the one who is bringing us to heaven.
We are also different to runners in a race, in that we want EVERYONE to win. We don’t see other people on their race through life as opposition, do we?
No, we cheer for others who are running the same race. That means other people here in our church. It means other churches too. It means other people who don’t even know about God yet.
We want them all to win.
Ho far will you go in your life? Will you be “Faster, higher, stronger”? If you do amazing things for God, remember to give him the glory always, not to point to ourselves and say “look at me”. If you feel like you have not done as much as you want to, or as much as you think you can, remember that sometimes our job is to help others, to coach them along, or just to encourage and cheer for them, too.
Let’s finish with the words from Hebrews Chapter 12 that we looked at last week, but from the “Message” paraphrase of the bible that puts it a different way:
“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.”
Amen.
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