Sermon Tone Analysis

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.