Achieving Victory in Faith

In this sermon, Marcel Hall discusses the parallels between the Olympics and the Christian faith journey, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and training in our spiritual lives. Using scripture from 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy, Marcel highlights the concept of achieving spiritual victory by remaining faithful to God until the end. He draws inspiration from the stories of Olympians and their dedication to their sport, encouraging listeners to stay committed to their faith, fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. The ultimate reward, he explains, is the crown of righteousness promised to all who have longed for Jesus' return.

00:00 Introduction and Olympic Excitement

01:15 Spiritual Lessons from the Olympics

01:49 The Goal of Genuine Faith

02:29 The Importance of Spiritual Training

03:11 Achieving Victory in Faith

04:33 Paul's Final Words to Timothy

06:02 The Crown of Righteousness

07:35 Living a Life of Faithfulness

13:41 Encouragement to Stay Faithful

16:54 The Eternal Reward

33:14 Communion and Final Prayer

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OC Church of Christ

My name is Marcel Hall, and I'm one of

the ministers here in Orange County and

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grateful and honored to be able to preach,

got word haven't been able, uh, haven't

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spoken in a long time, so I might be a

little rusty, and so I'm sorry about that,

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I'm just playing, but, alright, so, uh,

actually I might be a little rusty, but

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anyhow, we're gonna have a good time, as

was mentioned, the Olympics end today,

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and I don't know about you, but I've been

fired up about the Olympics my daughters,

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they do competitive swimming, so we've

been we've had a different angle this year

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looking at the Olympics because we can

appreciate the swimmers a whole lot more.

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And so we've been into it.

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We just caught up.

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We recorded things and we're fired up

to see what's going to happen today.

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Hopefully USA gets a couple more

golds and, uh, gets beats, has the

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number one slot as far as golds go.

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Uh, but the Olympics are inspiring

to see and to hear the story.

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People who persevered or people who had

challenges when they were growing up

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and now to be elite athletes and just to

make it to the Olympics is a huge feat.

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But then for those who have

the ability and the fortune to

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medal, that's pretty incredible.

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And then you also have the

other side, the agony of defeat.

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Those in the pain and the working so

hard, but yet not achieving their dreams.

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And we know in the scriptures that.

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They're actually parallels to

athletes and really the Olympics

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and our spiritual journey.

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And so we started, as Daniel mentioned,

a series during the Olympics which

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we called the greater worth in gold.

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And so we're learning from the

Olympics, things that apply to our faith.

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And how we can take these lessons

and apply them in our walk with God.

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And the Christian faith and journey

actually is compared many times in

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scriptures with athletic events.

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And so the first week,

we talked about the goal.

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And the, this is the scripture

that was the main text.

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It says, these have come so that

the proven genuineness of your

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faith of greater worth than gold.

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Again, it's been our main scripture

here throughout the couple of weeks.

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Which perishes even though refined by

fire may result in praise, glory, and

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honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

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And to have a proven genuine faith

that is of greater worth than gold.

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That's what you and I have, and this

is the goal that God is trying to do

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in our lives, is refine this faith,

so that it can be imperishable.

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And then we talked about the training.

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Dallas Kawhi, uh, priest on this

passage, 1 Corinthians 9, 24 27.

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Do you not know that in a race all the

runners run, but only one gets the prize?

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Run in such a way as to get the prize.

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Everyone who competes in the

games goes into strict training.

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They do it to get a crown that

will not last, but we do it to get

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a crown that will last forever.

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Therefore, I do not run like

someone running aimlessly.

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I do not fight like a

boxer beating the air.

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No, I strike a blow to my body and

make it my slave so that after I

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preach to others, I myself will

not be disqualified for the prize.

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And we talked about how training

is required in our faith.

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And today we're going to be

talking about, , victory.

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that's supposed to say

victory, but it says faith.

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I told you I'm a little rusty.

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So there you go.

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So it's victory.

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We're going to be talking about

victory today and achieving

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the victory in our faith.

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Let's go to God in prayer.

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God, thank you so much, uh, for the

chance to have some fun, to, uh,

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compete, to be able to sing out to you,

to already encourage one another, to

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hear about how, uh, one another, how

we're doing and father, we continue

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to pray for each other and God, we

pray right now that your word may be.

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spoken.

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Father, I know you have a

message for every single one

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of us, no matter where we are.

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Father, we pray that you cast it aside

anything that disrupts so that we may

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hear from you in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Again, we're talking

about victory in faith.

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You know, to achieve victory

in the Olympics is the greatest

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achievement in all of athletics.

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The joy, the relief, the excitement,

the change for their future.

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You know, spiritually achieving

victory in faith is even

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greater, the joy, the relief, the

excitement, but the eternal rewards.

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You know, we have to ask this question,

what is the victory of our faith?

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The Apostle Paul inspired by the

Holy Spirit is going to give us

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this answer here to this question.

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So we're going to go on

over to second Timothy.

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Chapter four.

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Brothers and sisters, are

you with me this morning?

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Second Timothy chapter four.

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This is a letter by, , the apostle Paul.

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He writes a letter to his

protege, Timothy, who is

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really like a son in the faith.

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They've been through many battles

and went out and shared the faith and

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he's trained him and in this letter he

writes, giving him some more wisdom.

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He's imparting wisdom and he's

charging Timothy to take the

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mantle, to take the baton and to go

ahead and continue the good work.

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In which he's been trained in now thing

that's also important to know is that

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Paul at this time He's actually imprisoned

and he's awaiting the sentence and he's

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convinced and he knows that actually

his death is Coming and so that's the

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context of the overall letter And so we

take it up in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 we

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come really to the close of His letter

to Timothy and he says for I'm already

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being poured out like a drink offering

You And the time of my departure is near.

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I have fought the good fight.

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I have finished the race.

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I have kept the faith.

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Now there is in store for me the

crown of righteousness, which

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the Lord, the righteous judge,

will award to me on that day.

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And not only to me, but also to all

who have longed for His appearing.

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We'll stop right there.

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Paul uses this imagery of the Greek

sporting games, the Phanhelic, uh,

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uh, Greek, uh, games to, to describe

and to reveal this incredible truth

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that lays for every follower of Jesus.

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And he goes on, and, and, and

really to capture what he says is,

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Here's the victory of our faith.

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And it's this, is that

achieving victory in faith.

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It means remaining faithful

to God until the end.

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The victory in our faith isn't a medal,

it's to be faithful to God till the end.

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And that's how he summarizes

our spiritual journey.

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You know Olympians, they're

achieving, to achieve victory is what?

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A medal.

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Gold, silver, bronze.

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But for the disciples of Jesus.

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Achieving victory is to end

our lives faithful to our God.

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That's our victory in faith.

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And so we're gonna break down

this text some more, and so let's

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go ahead and let's look at it.

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He says, For I am already being

poured out like a drink offering, and

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the time for My departure is near.

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This is a euphemism.

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He's, he's alluding to

his, His impending death.

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And so he says, Hey, my

time to depart is near.

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He's not talking about

departing from his sentencing.

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He's talking about departing from life.

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And so this is really interesting.

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It's so cool.

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When you think about that is his

perspective and the things he reveals

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after sharing this, you know, I was

just in Virginia a couple weeks ago

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with my dad who was literally dying

and there's something different

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when you know, you are dying.

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What you want to connect, what you want

to say, there's something different.

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Your view about life changes drastically.

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And so Paul here, knowing that his death

is coming, he goes on and he says this,

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he says, I have fought the good fight,

finish the race and kept the faith.

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He uses these athletic metaphors

to help us understand what

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our Christian journey is like.

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And you know, the ancient Greeks,

they had four, uh, kind of sporting

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games, which the Olympics were

the, the, the ground jewel.

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That was the biggest one.

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And, and many people, many scholars

believe Paul is referring, referring

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more to the, this mean, uh, games,

which would take place every two years.

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So you had the Olympics.

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And then you have these games,

and then every two years, you

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would have, uh, these games here.

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And he goes on and he says, I

have fought the good fights.

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And so in these games, they

would have matches of wrestling.

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That's one of the most classic, you know,

battles and competitions you could have.

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And they would have battles

and they would wrestle.

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And you know, it's kind of a weird

thing that they would wrestle naked, but

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we're not gonna talk about that, okay?

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so that they would fight and

they would have boxing matches.

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And so he says, hey, he's alluding back.

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And so that everybody can understand

because they're familiar with the games.

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He says, I have fought the good fight.

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I've wrestled.

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I've had opposition.

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But I've fought the good fights.

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He says, I have finished the race.

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They would have uh, horse races or chariot

races, but they also had foot races.

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And they would run around and

it was, you know, you look up,

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it's almost the equivalent of

the 400 meter race that we have.

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So one time around the track.

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He says, I have finished.

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The race, and he says, I have kept the

faith and this probably or possibly

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could be referring to the, again, the

athletes in the games, because before

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the games officially started, they

had a ceremony and they had to pledge

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that they would compete by the rules.

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And so he could be saying,

Hey, I have kept my oath.

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I have followed the rules of Christ.

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I think more likely meaning

I have been faithful to God.

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But what is the results?

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What is the prize that Paul says?

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Okay, if we have the victory,

where does that victory lead to?

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What's the reward for completing our

faith, for finishing faithful to God?

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He says this, it's the

crown of righteousness.

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Now for the ancient winners, they would

receive, uh, the, the, the, the, the

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laurel, uh, laurel, uh, uh, wreath here.

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And so sometimes it might be

a celery, depending on the

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games, or a pine, or olives.

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And so this was a prize, and

so you would receive this.

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And we've all seen pictures, right,

where we've seen somebody from,

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from ancient Greek times, and

they had the wreath on their head.

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And so that was the crown that

they would receive for being a

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victor in their specific game.

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And Paul says, okay, hey, look, we're

not receiving this type of crown.

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He says we're getting the

crown of righteousness.

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The crown of righteousness.

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And you know, this crown could be

because Paul has been righteous, which

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would mean because Christ was upon him.

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He said, I'm righteous

only because of Christ.

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And if you read others of Paul's

letters, you know, that is definitely a

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possibility of what he's referring to.

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Not righteous as if I've never sinned, but

righteous because Christ has been in me.

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Also, the possibility that the crown

is what's righteous and it says here

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is given by the righteous judge.

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So only a righteous judge would give a

righteous crown, therefore completing and

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fulfilling our righteousness in Christ.

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Whether it's both, the point

is that we receive a spiritual

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crown from the almighty judge,

Jesus, the righteous judge.

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You know, judges.

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They, they might be able to be paid

off back then or, or, or whatnot.

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But he says, or he may be

referring to his judgment that

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awaits, which will be unrighteous.

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But he says, the righteous judge will

give me a crown of righteousness.

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You know, that crown that

we showed earlier, obviously

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that crown wouldn't last.

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It would wither after a couple of days.

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But Paul is certain that our

crown, the crown that awaits him,

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is one that would never fade.

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We go back to 1 Corinthians 9, he

says they do it to get a crown that

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will not last, but we do it to get

a crown that will last how long?

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Forever.

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This doesn't fade, this doesn't dim

when there's too much light exposure.

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This isn't going to wither and

fade, this won't get old and

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crusty, no this crown will last.

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Forever, he has finished the

competition and now awaits

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the award ceremony from God.

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And this is when the Savior returns.

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You know, this is an amazing

perspective, isn't it?

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When you think again, like, wow,

what perspective about life?

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What perspective about death?

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About the Christian journey

and our faith journey.

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Amazing confidence and resolve and trust.

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I don't know about you, but I want

to be like that when I get older.

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I want to have that same confidence,

that same trust, that same

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resolve, but I don't want to have

it just when I'm on my deathbed.

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I want to have that today.

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And I believe that the scriptures are

leading us to have this faith, resolve and

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trust Today as well, because here's the

incredible thing, brothers and sisters.

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I hope you caught it.

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We're going to talk about this right now.

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Here's the incredible thing

is that here's what he says.

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Is that crown of righteousness?

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What did he say?

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It's not only for him, but also to

all who have longed for his appearing.

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Not just for Paul is this cool

crown of righteousness, but this

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crown will be placed upon every

soul who is in Christ Jesus.

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Jesus, you know, we can think

this is only for the superstars.

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We're like, Paul, he's a superstar.

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It makes sense for him to get one.

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He's like the Simone Biles in the face.

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He's a superstar, you know what I mean?

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And we can think, well,

yeah, it makes sense.

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But no, he's saying no.

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Guess what?

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Everybody who's on the team

who completed the race, they're

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going to receive the same reward.

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Because that's you and me.

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You know, it made me think of, uh,

the, the, the women's gymnastic team.

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And some of you guys ran

into it, man, it's crazy.

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There's some drama going on

right there if you read about it.

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They're trying to rescind one

of the bronze medals, but we

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won't get into that right now.

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Um, in this you can see there's five.

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Now some of you, you might be

looking going, you know what?

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The one on the, uh, look on the far

right, I don't remember that girl.

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What did she do?

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Her name is, uh, Hesley Rivera.

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She competed in one event to qualify.

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For the finals, and then you

never saw the girl again.

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They would only show her in the stand,

and she'd be smiling like, yeah.

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She wasn't even on the side,

like, she wasn't even geared

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up, she wasn't even dressed.

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But guess what, when it was time for

the awards, what did she receive?

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The same gold medal that Simone Biles has.

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Now think about that for a second.

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She put in the work, she put in

the efforts, but she's not the

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superstar, but guess what, her reward?

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It's the same thing.

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Brethren and sisters, what does it say?

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Did y'all catch that?

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What does it say?

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That what?

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It's for all who long for His appearance.

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It's for you and me!

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So we don't have to be the superstar.

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Yes, we should try our very best,

but if we're not the superstar,

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we're going to see the same

spiritual reward as Paul the Apostle.

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That's incredible.

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That's incredible that

we get to receive this.

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What, what, what, what, oh my goodness,

I wish we could understand this.

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We get a chance to receive this

reward, all who are in Christ Jesus.

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You know, Paul says something interesting.

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He says, I have finished the race.

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He didn't say I finished the race first.

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Did you notice that?

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He actually didn't claim gold.

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He said, I just finished the race.

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Guess what?

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And we just finished the race.

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It's not about really trying

to be first in this race.

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It's about finishing the race of our

faith and the eternal award awaits us.

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But now it does say this, for

those who longs for his appearing,

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that word long actually is the

same, uh, word for love, agape.

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So it actually could be.

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Actually, more accurately translated as

for all who have loved his appearance.

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And so there's the same principle,

there's this desire for Jesus.

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There's a longing for Christ to

appear for his second coming.

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But there's this love, this longing,

this attitude to be with Jesus forever.

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Now, again, we have to make

sure we understand this caveat.

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It's not for all who just

claim to be a Christian.

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He says this is the word for all who have

loved or longed for Christ's appearing.

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And so we have to ask this question.

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Am I longing or loving His appearing?

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You know, I, I, I want to caution

because my fear is some of us will answer

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that question too quickly with a yes.

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What's that?

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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That's me.

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But as I had a chance, and actually it

was a little more yesterday than prior

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in the week, I was really humbled and

sobered by, you know what, I, I do

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long for his appearing, but I focus

too much on the blessings in the now.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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It's like, yes, I want you to

return and I'll tell God, I say,

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God, I want you to return, but I

just have some family members that

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haven't made the decision yet.

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So can you just hold off a little

bit until they get into this?

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You know what I mean?

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And that's sincere.

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I'm like, I just, God, you know this.

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I want you to come over.

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You just hold off on that.

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I would like to see Europe,

but it's okay if I can't.

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You know what I'm saying?

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But I'm like, God, but then I

noticed that I, I battled this

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tension and I'll tell God this on.

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I'm like, God, I.

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I, I, I just, the way I am right now,

I need your help because it's hard for

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me to keep in view eternity and, and,

and not mess up the here and now or

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I look too much at the here and now

and then I forget eternity's on us.

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So I need your help.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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And so I love God.

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I can't wait to be a God, but my challenge

here is that I, I, I really appreciate and

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enjoy the blessings of the here and now.

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And so God, I have to pray.

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And if you want to say a prayer for

him, pray that again, that I can

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hold it in tension, both of these

things that yes, I can be, you

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know, presence with what's going on.

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I can appreciate and praise God.

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But yet that's not my reward.

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My reward is the crown of righteousness

of eternity with God Almighty.

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And so again, it's a war.

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It's for those who are keeping or who

have fought the fight, who has finished

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the race and have kept the faith.

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You know, Paul's comments, you

can say, wow, that sounds either

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he's either possibly arrogant or

he's deceived about where he's

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at or he's truly lived this out.

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I think it's that.

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I think Paul knew who knew God.

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He knew.

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He knew what his life was like in Christ.

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And so it wasn't arrogance, it wasn't

deception, but he knew real from the

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fake, that he wasn't counterfeit.

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He knew the character of God,

he knew God's love and the grace

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that he found only in Jesus

through his relationship with God.

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He knew he wasn't perfect, but he

knew he was a real disciple of Jesus.

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You know, you can tell if

you long for Jesus paring.

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By how you are living today,

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we can tell if we're longing or loving

for his appearing by how we live today.

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Does your life reveal that you desire

to be with God, that you're looking

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forward to the coming of Jesus someday?

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Do you spend time with God,

making every effort to add to your

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faith to become more like Jesus?

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And do your choices show that Jesus

would accept it if he came back today?

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Again, let's hold off on answering the

question too quickly so that we can

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make sure the spirit can minister to

us and refine this where necessary.

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And wherever you are, the beauty

of the day is that God's grace

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is being offered to you today.

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Meaning you have an opportunity to

make a decision to either get back on

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track, or for some of us, we've never

made a decision to truly follow Jesus.

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You can make decisions today.

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And so every one of us, no matter where

we are, there's hope today for our

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lives, and we can make a decision to

go on this faith journey with Christ.

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Brothers and sisters, are

you still with me here?

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You know, Olympic athletes, they

dedicate their lives to their sport.

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As we see here from Paul, he, he gave his

life to the only cause worth his devotion.

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And you know, we too, we too need

to live wholeheartedly for God in

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response to Jesus for all that he

is and all that he has and all that

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he is and will do in our lives.

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You know, the Olympic athletes, they

need to give it their all and just

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like them, we need to give it our

all because giving half won't cut it.

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Giving yourself half commitment won't

cut it in the faith spiritually.

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Why?

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Well, we'll be less

confident of our salvation.

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I'm not really sure.

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I, uh, well, if I'm giving my all,

I don't need to have this fear.

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But also, when we're given

half commitment, oftentimes

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it leads to quitting.

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And what, we know the old phrase,

quitting, what, quitters never what?

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Prosper.

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Some of you know it.

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Okay, listen, everybody,

quitters never prosper.

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Okay, here you go.

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Why?

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Because they stop.

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So there's no prosperity.

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They stop before they can receive it.

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And when we give half commitment,

it will lead to ultimately quitting

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and therefore forfeiting and missing

out on that crown of righteousness.

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Wow, how sad would that be?

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But when we give full commitment,

we don't have to worry about that.

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Why?

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Because we're going to stay faithful.

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Here I believe the application

here for all of us today is

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to stay faithful to the end.

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To make a decision that Jesus, I

will be faithful to you for my whole

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lifetime because you were faithful

on the cross, you didn't come down,

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you've been faithful to me, and the

only proper response is to be faithful

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to you until the day you call me home.

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It's a decision.

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It's a mindset.

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I am going to see you face to

face and it will be a welcoming

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and not a day of judgment.

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Amen.

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I might not be perfect, but

I'm going to finish this race.

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I may stumble and fall, but trust

I'm going to finish this race.

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I'm going to be faithful to the end.

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That means we need to

daily fight the good fight.

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You guys with me here?

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That means we need to daily

run to the finish line.

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That means daily we

need to keep the faith.

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You know, it's the training that Dallas

referred to a couple of weeks ago.

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The training that now

leads to eternal reward.

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I love what he said.

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He said, life is too short and

eternity is too long to take days off.

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You know, you can't take days off if

you're trying to win an Olympic medal.

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Hey, I want to win the gold.

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Now, I'm going to take a month off

to just kind of chill and relax.

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That doesn't work, buddy.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And so we can't be like,

yeah, man, I'm just looking

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forward to the eternal rewards.

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But you know, for the next

two weeks, I just got to be

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about me, give it to my flesh.

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Let me go ahead, God, you know, I love

you, but I'm going to just take a step

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outside of your will for a week, that's

not going to lead to eternal rewards.

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We need to go back to the basics, you

know, personal devotional time with God.

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Remember that?

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The basics are the basics for a reason.

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If you don't have the basics,

then you can't do anything else.

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We need to be involved in

people's lives and allowing others

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to be involved in our lives.

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We're getting open about

our sin, our temptations.

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Hey, here's what I'm struggling with.

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Here's what I'm fearful of.

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Can you help me?

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Can we pray for each other?

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Can I be in your life

and help you as well?

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It's showing up.

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Being, not only on Sunday service,

but being when the family group

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meets together, being together

when the midweek happens.

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Oh, no, did he go there?

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Yes, I did.

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I would say it again,

but I forgot what I said.

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I'm just playing.

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But again, we can't be pointing fingers.

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If any of us are like, yep,

that's where so and so, you

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need to think about me first.

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Am I doing the things daily in my

life that show I'm still on the

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path and I'm still running the race

that God has called me towards?

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And again, it's like this.

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Hey, let's do this together.

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It's not like, Ooh, look at you.

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You did.

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Uh huh.

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Yeah.

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No, no, no, no, brother.

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Hey, let me help you on up.

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Hey, you know what?

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I'm a little slow.

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Hey, hey, hey, help me out, man.

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I'm getting a little tired.

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I'm thinking about stopping.

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I need your help.

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For instance, it's the basics.

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It's that training that

leads to eternal rewards.

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Serving in the church.

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Sharing the good news of people who

aren't running toward the finish line.

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You know, there's a lot of people who

aren't running toward the finish line.

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And here we are, we're trying,

but we see people on the

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sideline, we're not calling them.

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What's, what's, oh wait, they won't

have that crown of righteousness.

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But God wants to use us

to join Him in His work.

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To bring others into the fold.

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So that they too can have

the crown of righteousness.

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Brothers and sisters,

are you with me here?

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You know, some days

are harder than others.

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Some days we do better.

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Some days they're tough.

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Some days they're awesome.

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But this is that genuine

faith that Daniel referred to.

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That genuine faith that's

worth more than gold.

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That faith that's been tested

and it's proven to be genuine.

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Anything that's tested to be genuine,

you have to, you have to examine it.

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Let's make sure.

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Let's run it through some tests.

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Let's examine to make sure it's real.

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And so as we persevere, we can see for

ourselves, but most of all, to the glory

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of God, our faith is genuine and real.

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And it's worth more than gold.

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So let's remember the

eternal crown that awaits us.

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I love what, uh, there's the,

uh, track star, Gabby Thomas.

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She, uh, she ran, uh, man, she had like

three gold medals, but she ran a 200

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and we were watching it and after the,

uh, the second heat, I believe, yeah,

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second heat, but it was the semifinals.

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She said this, and they

asked her this question.

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They said, hey, You know, you're so good

down the back stretch, the last 60 meters.

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You know, when you're coming in because

of the 200, so they make a turn.

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And so they said, why are you

so good down that back stretch,

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the last part of the race?

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And here's what she said.

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She says, I feel so happy running when

I see the finish line in my sights.

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I just have that boost and I know I can

get there, stretch my legs out and go.

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She says, man, I'm coming across

that turn and I see the finish line.

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And she said, I just get

happy and it gives me a boost.

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She's like, well, I'm

gonna get these girls.

523

You know what I'm saying?

524

She said, it's the finish line though.

525

It says, see the finish line.

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And it motivates her.

527

She's already running fast.

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But it gives her that extra boost.

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You know, our eternal finish

line can give us that boost.

530

It can motivate us to persevere when life

gets hard and we have some heartache.

531

It can motivate us to overcome

that sin and that temptation.

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It can give us that boost to

motivate us to focus on the right

533

things and prioritize correctly.

534

And I believe one of the things

I love is when you see the

535

Olympians, especially those who

win medals, how fired up they are.

536

You know, the ones who win

gold sometimes, or even silver,

537

bronze, and they're crying.

538

And, oh, I can't believe it.

539

You know what I mean?

540

Like, are they sad or are they happy?

541

You know, sometimes you don't really know.

542

But they're just crying

or they're so elated.

543

They just can't, they're

just jumping around.

544

They're so excited.

545

And the thing that hit me the

other day as I was watching, I

546

was like, they have no regrets.

547

When Olympians, they

medal, there's no regrets.

548

You never see them.

549

You know what?

550

I kind of regret training so much.

551

I really wish I wouldn't

have done all this.

552

Oh, you know, it's not really all that.

553

I don't think it's worth it.

554

Have you ever seen that?

555

No, they go into today's show the next

morning and all they do is just smile.

556

Because they're talking

about man and what they say.

557

It was worth it.

558

The hard times, the discipline,

the training was worth it.

559

You know, I believe spiritually.

560

When we get to heaven,

we'll have the same mindset.

561

It was worth it.

562

When the day of that spiritual

podium, when we're receiving

563

the crown of righteousness, not

one of us are ever going to say,

564

you know, it wasn't worth it.

565

I wish I wouldn't have given so much.

566

I wish I wouldn't have

sacrificed so much for this.

567

I don't believe we'll have one regret.

568

If any, we'll have regret

that we didn't give more.

569

And so we can learn again.

570

The lessons from the Olympics.

571

You know, another thing that hit me,

modern Olympians, they step off the

572

podium and they usually go celebrate or

some of them retire depending on their

573

age or something about the next Olympics.

574

Right?

575

You know, but for us, we have

eternity with God, the angels and

576

all of God's people to celebrate.

577

Doesn't even compare.

578

And so as we come in for a close for

the sermon and for the series, you

579

know, the Olympians will remind us

again, the Olympians achieving victory

580

is gold, silver, or bronze, but for the

disciples of Jesus, achieving victory

581

is to end this life faithful to God.

582

And God wants you and I to have

the same confidence that Paul has

583

and achieve victory in our faith.

584

God wants us to persevere so we too can

receive the eternal treasures in Jesus.

585

So let's remember that the faith, which

really is our life in Jesus, that it's

586

proven and refined, that it's a greater

worth than gold and that our faith in

587

Jesus requires training and that our

faith in Jesus leads to eternal life.

588

Victory.

589

Let's celebrate the journey of faith

and the ultimate reward that awaits

590

us all who fight the good fight, who

finished the race and keep the faith.

591

Right now we're going to take communion

and community time where we reflect

592

and remember Jesus is a sacrifice

upon the cross and we take the emblems

593

representing his blood and his body

of a sacrifice for our salvation.

594

Amen.

595

And amen.

596

I want to say this last thing, and, and

again using the analogy and the metaphor

597

of, of the Olympics here, is that the

Olympians, you, when, when they're on

598

the podium, what do they, they usually

have on their either USA outfit right?

599

Or whatever country they're from,

and uh, or they have, uh, may

600

maybe their sponsors are on right.

601

Nike, Adidas, or whatever the case may be.

602

Right?

603

But, you know, we have our uniforms.

604

It's Christ in the cross.

605

Because on them, we represented

because again, as they're

606

representing either USA or Nike or

whatever, we're representing Christ.

607

We've been sponsored by Christ.

608

We've been covered by the blood

of Christ and we've been empowered

609

by what Jesus did on the cross.

610

Let's close out here in second

Timothy four, verse seven and

611

eight, I have fought the good fight.

612

I have finished the race.

613

I have kept the faith.

614

Now there is in store for us the crown

of righteousness, which the Lord, the

615

righteous judge will award to us on

that day and not only to us, but also to

616

all who have longed for his appearing.

617

Let's pray.

618

Father in heaven, I thank you so much

for the scriptures, for the comfort, for

619

the encouragement, for the perspective.

620

That you give us the revelation that we

have a, we have an eternal crown that

621

awaits us on the day that Jesus returns.

622

God, we thank you so

much for that promise.

623

We thank you that we can have victory

today by being faithful to you.

624

Thank you for Jesus and

his example in his life.

625

How he was faithful to his cause.

626

Thank you for his faithfulness

by staying upon the cross.

627

Thank you by showing your faithfulness

by resurrecting him from the dead.

628

And thank you so much for calling

us to run the race of faith.

629

I pray, Lord, that not only you accept

our offering, but Father, that we

630

too can follow Jesus example, that

we can fight the good fight, we can

631

finish the race, and keep the faith.

632

It's in his name we pray.

633

Amen.