Embrace the Race
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APRIL
Week 1 - Embrace the Race (Need for training and perspective shift)
Week 2 - Run to Win (We do it to get a crown that will last forever)
Week 3 - Running with Purpose (I do not run like someone running aimlessly…)
Week 4 - Fighting Your Opponent (I do not fight like a boxer beating the air…)
Week 5 - Enslaving the Body (I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave…)
Week 5 - Race to Win (We do it to get a crown that will last forever…)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Teambuilding night - March 10th! Topic - how to be a healthy church.
Worship Kitst
Watoto - need host homes!
AGM - reports are ready, pick one up after service. March 22nd - potluck immeditaely after service, AGM immediately after potluck
Marchbreak program - we are still picking dates, we will announce this week. Please stay tuned to facebook.
Story - 72 oz Steak Challenge
I’ve heard it put like this before - ‘I need to find a church that feeds me.’ And I think there’s truth to that logic - but I don’t think it’s the whole picture. So I wanted to talk about what the bible has to say about the path to spiritual maturity.
I want to start by reading from 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
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. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
STORY - Jogging with Katherine
I think when it comes to spiritual maturity, what it means to be in a relationship with God, there’s a few foundational assumptions that we should be carrying around.
Or, to put it more simply - what we know keeps us alive, what we do keeps us healthy.
First and foremost - spiritual growth is a gym, not a buffet.
What does spiritual maturity mean?
Now, i’m not saying that we have to put a limit on how much truth we seek out from God. This is where this illustration falls apart a little bit. But what i’m saying is, a diet of all spiritual food and no spiritual exercise makes us spiritually overweight.
What if we stopped saying ‘I need a church that feeds me’ and started saying ‘I need a church that gives me a chance to exercise’.
STORY - sitting around at crosslands, not wanting to be a person just taking up a seat.
What if one of our main priorities as people who follow Christ is to find a place where we can serve. Not only where we CAN serve - to find a place that makes serving a necessary part of our walk. Find a place that won’t let us just fill a pew, and be a person in a seat - a place that pushes us into ‘strict competition’
Truth is absolutely vital to this process. Understanding God’s revelation about the world, sin, and Himself is foundational to being a Christian. But a church that preaches truth but makes you just sit and listen is missing the point. Beyond that, it’s actually hazardous to your health.
Salvation is a gift - growth is a path
We sometimes get these two concepts confused. We think that because we can’t ever earn salvation, or deserve it, that there’s nothing left to do.
The thing is - we’re all default spiritually dead. There’s this massive gap between us and God, and nothing we can do ourselves will ever bridge it. But through the cross, through Jesus dying for our sin - we now no longer have anything standing between us and God. We have free access, we can approach Him without fear of judgment or condemnation
And through Jesus’ resurrection, we have full confidence that we too will also inherit an eternal life - something that we have done nothing to deserve, or merit, or earn.
These are all amazing, wonderful things. But God still has a plan for us after that moment that we say ‘God, i’m yours’. He still has a recovery plan.
We are still unhealthy. We are still operating in our ‘nature’. And while God has forgiven and forgotten the consequence of every action and thought we will ever have - we’re still broken. And God wants to help put us back together.
WE ARE IN AN EXERCISE PROGRAM, WHERE WE HAVE THE STRONGEST, SMARTEST, AND MOST PATIENT TRAINER WITH ACCESS TO THE BEST AND MOST EXTENSIVE ‘EQUIPMENT’ TO GET THE JOB DONE - THE HOLY SPIRIT
And every step of the way, he’s rooting us on. When we fail, he’s there to pick us up and forgive us. When we are discouraged, he’s there to help us. We can never run so far or fall so hard that when we stop, that we’ve lost God. That’s the beauty of salvation - it’s God relentlessly pursuing us, no matter our failures.
But being a Christ follower is about following Christ. And he’s made it clear here - the path to the ‘prize’ is a training program.
Because Paul here outlines, there’s a prize. There’s an endgame. An eternity in perfection standing before God.
God’s priority for your growth isn’t comfort - it is progress. It isn’t giving you the most comfortable seat in church - it’s about giving you the most effective growth experience.
I know we believe this, but we still hold this value often as an intellectual thing. We affirm that God is true, God is right. We come to church every week, and we sing songs about how Good and Right God is. We read the scriptures and we pray and praise God for being who He is.
And you need to ask yourself, if you have gone long enough without being challenged to do something new, or different - something uncomfortable, that causes you to have to love more or trust more or work more or sacrifice more - if it’s been a while since one of those has happened, maybe your own priorities are more on the ‘comfort’ side of things.
Moral - we ‘do’ God’s truth by imposing a set of restrictions and rules on ourselves, to show that we know God is just and we are fallen.
I think we can learn to thrive in our spiritual walk if we
But the bible doesn’t just say, ‘Don’t just hear God’s truth, accept it as true.’ And it doesn’t say, ‘Don’t just hear God’s truth - make sure you
But right back to the root of it - if God say something… we need to do it.
But the key phrase we’re going to be pushing over the next few weeks is this:
Embrace the race
As a church, this means, we’re not here to be more comfortable. We’re not here to avoid having to be stretched or challenged or pruned. We’re here to grow, we’re here to serve, and we’re here to train. Our mantra isn’t ‘Whatever makes us feel better’ or ‘Whatever makes us comfortable’.
Paul was writing this to the Corinthians - they hosted the Isthmian games. When he pushed this idea, that they were training for a race, he was speaking right to their passion. They were proud of their athletes. They were proud of their games. This was a source of passion, it wasn’t just something to watch for them.
We’re not here just to hear more words. We’re here to do what God wants us to do.
The fact is, we have a race to run. We have training we’ve got to go through here.
The isthmian games were a source of pride for the Corinthians - it was a ‘passion rather than a mere amusement’
the greek word for ‘Crown’, refers to wreath or garland, the prize that runners would win at the conclusion of the isthmian games if they were victorious.
Runners went into a strict lifestyle, strict diet, regular training, and commitment to perfectly observing the regulations of the sport
‘The prize’ here (v24) is eternal life and resurrection from the dead - not simply salvation
It is, death where we stand right before God and go into paradise
For Paul, the path to spiritual maturity was ‘making my body my slave’
We often portray spiritual maturity like a buffet - just get in there and be fed. I want a church that feeds me. Spiritual maturity is a thing someone hands to me that I consume.
Imagine if we considered our place in a church not by how much we were fed, but by how much we were enabled and encouraged to serve. how much we could exercise our faith.
defining church health not as SEATING capacity but as SENDING capacity. Not how many people can we get to sit - how many people can we get to start moving
Paul thought that the fact of missing out on eternal life was so real that he considered he himself a possible candidate, unless he beat his body and made it his slave
Food is a necessary component for survival. But it’s mere presence is not the only component of health.
In order to be a healthy person physically, you need a few things. A good diet, yes - which means, being selective and responsible with eating, and actually ensuring you are getting your proper nutrition. But also exercise. Regular health checkups.
When paul talks about conveying truth as ‘food’, he’s always using it in the context of pointing out how his listener was immature, not ready for solid food, but only for milk like a baby
And in order to be an athlete, you are going through even more. A strict diet that best enables your body to do and be what it needs to do and be. An emphasis on only allowing or doing things that further your goal. Constantly marking your progress and pushing for more.
I’m not suggesting that we need to be careful with our intake of spiritual truth / gluttony - i’m saying that to Paul, truth was a matter of nourishment BUT spiritual health was a matter of training and discipline. That if all we did is sit in church, nod, and say ‘yep, that’s good, that’s good. amen’ and our ‘food’ didn’t pair up with exercise and training, we’re missing the point.
Contrast against ‘feed me spirituality’. Spiritual immaturity is described as being a baby - spirtual maturity is described as being an athlete.
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
The bible allows for the possibility of being ‘disqualified for the prize’.
Now, to be clear, the corinthians would have had a very clear understanding of this - a runner who didn’t train hard enough could not win, and who violated the rules and regulations would not be allowed to compete to begin with. Basically, a person who didn’t stay on course forfeitted their chance.
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
This isn’t being blocked - the bible ties our inability to enter to our faithfulness to holding fast to Christ and His commands. We ‘lose the race’, so to speak
While SALVATION is a choice with no ability to earn or merit it, being a devoted Christ follower is a matter of training and self-discipline, and this commitment makes or breaks our spiritual walk with Christ