Run the Race (Part 1)

Run the Christian Race to Win

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

Well this morning I have good news, I have bad news and then I have good news. So here's the good news. Many of you, in light of the gospel, because of what Christ Jesus has done personally for you, dying for your sins, raised from the dead for you.

You've responded with ministry, with endurance, with perseverance, with love for the saints, an evangelistic heart and I'm very, very pleased that that's your response and really proud to be your pastor.

The bad news is, some of you here haven't responded that way to the gospel. You know plenty and you just tend to be a Sunday Christian and you take up the pew seats and that's about all you do. The good news is, for those of you that are doing that second category, God loves repentance and he often grants repentance through the preached word.

So let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 where Paul is going to see the Christian faith as a race, running the race. I wonder if you think about your life as a race, running to win the race that God has granted you.

Of course, in light of who you are in Christ, because of what Christ has done, you're going to see Paul focus in on a very common metaphor and that is a sports metaphor. I'm not a big poetry guy. I don't really like poetry very much but since so much of the Bible is poetry, I've tried to learn how to read poetry.

And so if you are a person who doesn't like sports, then I suggest you try to learn a little bit about sports because the motif in scripture oftentimes is a sports motif. You are running a Christian race.

If you're a Christian, you're running the race. The question is, are you running fast? Are you running slow? Are you slow in your Christian walk? Are you staying in your lane? Christianity isn't for couch potatoes.

Christianity isn't for we fitness people. I think there's only one thing in my mind worse than we fitness. It's people who on Facebook say, I've been injured on we fitness. That's about the worst thing.

I've grown up in an environment in my Christian faith early on where religiosity was this, lay back and let God. It was called pietism. I just lay back and let God do the work. And you're going to see in this passage here, Paul doesn't do that.

He said, because of what God has done, I strive, I agonize, I try, I sweat, I toil in the metaphor of my Christian life called the race. And if you ask yourself honestly, what is my ministry like in response to the Lord?

I don't mean just underneath this building, this roof of this building, but in my life as a Christian, ministering to other people, loving the lost, am I really running a race with endurance and with a sense of mission and a sense of striving?

Number 15, this is going to be a great passage because for many of you, it will confirm this fact that the gospel of Christ Jesus is worth burning out for and dying for. It's worth it. And you're going to see that there's a reward for those that by the Spirit's power practice self-control and discipline.

The reward is going to be great for you. I think that's good news. But this passage is also going to really go after the Christian who says, I'm glad to be saved. And maybe early on in my Christian faith, I tried to excel for the Lord and I tried to burn out for the Lord.

But now I'm kind of beyond that because I have other things that compete for my time. I'm all about career, I'm all about hobbies, I'm all about sports, I'm all about finances, I'm all about this, that, or the other, whatever it is.

Christianity is good, especially on Sundays, especially in the community. But when it comes to all or nothing, Christianity is over here and we have new things competing for our affections. For the Christian, in response to God's magnanimous grace, sacrificial obedience brings great reward.

That's 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 24 through 27. And again, Paul is going to use this great sports metaphor to spur Christians on to run the race and to look for the ultimate prize that God grants.

And here's what Paul is going to do. He's going to use the Olympic Games and the Isthmus Games, which were going on close to Corinth, probably 10 miles away, 15 kilometers away. These games would happen every two years.

And we think one of the times that Paul was there in 51 AD, this game went on. I remember it was 1984. I know the Cooleys were there as well. 1984, we had the Olympics come to Los Angeles and it was a fascinating thing to be there during the Olympics in 1984.

And even if you didn't like sports, everyone knew about the Olympics and how much it cost the athletes and what they had to do and the strive and the prize and everything else. They knew. And so you've got the culture of Corinth and they're surrounded by these games that everyone knew about, like the Olympics.

And so Paul being there, maybe even he made some tense for some of the people who were the athletes in the games. We don't know, but it could have happened. Paul was immersed in the culture and he used the sports metaphor to say, you've got to run, you've got to race, you're in the Christian race and stop laying back and let God instead trust God and get going.

So this passage is all about, in the context of Christian liberty, running the Christian life with self-control, self-discipline, with an eye towards reward. That's what this passage is all about. And it's going to be interesting because next week, wait till next week, I think that's bad to say maybe in a sermon, today's okay, wait till next week.

No, but next week you're going to see people, the Israelites, who didn't do what this passage is talking about. It's related. Sadly, there's a chapter break. Here in chapter 10, people who didn't run with self-discipline, who didn't run strenuously, who didn't run with self-control, they flamed out and actually lots of them got killed is what happened.

So Paul tucks this in and he says, if you're going to say no to yourself when it comes to Christian liberty, you've got to have self-control, you've got to have self-discipline. There's times not to eat things, times to, time to eat things.

And he really develops this theme of reward for the runner who has self-discipline. And for me personally, as I said to the men in discipleship this morning, the gospel of Christ Jesus is worth burning out for.

I've got one life to live and here the king of the universe has condescendingly sacrificed his own life, Christ Jesus, for me personally, for my sins. And if you're a Christian, for your sins. And he has put the scepter out to you and said, you can come into my presence based on my son's work.

The father has said that. And for a king to do that at his own expense, it causes us to respond with gratitude, with obedience, with thankful sacrifice. So today is going to be very encouraging for some and for others who just sit here week in and week out.

Oh, if you're new, of course, you don't have a ministry yet here at the church. But if you're new and have no desire for a ministry, or if you're old and have no desire for ministry, if you're old Christian here and say, you know what, I'm just coasting, I just coast to the end, that's what I'm doing.

It's just cruise control, then frankly, this passage is going to blister you. This is one of those passages where if a church is struggling with size of the church and we don't have many seats, this is the kind of sermon that gets us more seats.

And really, if you only come here on Sundays, and that's all you do because of whatever reason in your mind, I really want you to repent, I don't want you to leave. But if you won't repent, and God drives you away, so you go to another church where the standards aren't as biblical, so you feel better about yourself, well, this isn't my church anyway, and so God can do whatever He wants with His purchased possession.

I want to be faithful to the text. This is one of those texts that drive you to say, if I didn't have the incarnate Savior, who could measure up? Who could do these things? You know, for the liberal that says, I want Jesus as my example, to me, that's pretty bad news because if Jesus is my example, I fall woefully short.

I need Jesus as example, yes, but I need Jesus as example and substitute for when I don't measure up. And for Paul, it's all or nothing. If you were around Paul, he would be like a huge boat, a huge steamboat that you would be behind and it would just suck you into the tow because Paul was all or nothing.

It was really, you know what, this is not a game. If you really know about your sin and how bad it is and how your sin deserved hell, how you deserved hell, and then God saves you at His own expense. For Paul, this kind of coasting deal, I have other things to do, I have other priorities, my family, this, that, or the other.

Paul doesn't, that's a different language, that's speaking in tongues to Paul. So Paul writes to the church of Corinth and he says, excuse me, because of Christ's grace, self-disciplined running, the metaphor of the Christian life, it's worth it.

So run well. It's okay to forego your rights. You will never forego your rewards. Let's read chapter 9, verse 24 and following and find out, let me ask, let me do it this way. Find out what the key verb is here.

There's an imperative tucked into chapter 9, verses 24 through 27 that is the main verb. You want to do Bible study, one of the things you do is find the main verb. What is he saying to do? And in this particular case, he's telling us to do something.

There's one verb in here that overrides everything and dominates the theological passage and exegetical passage. And you're going to see very quickly that what we don't recognize in, let me phrase it this way, in business, lazy people never succeed, unless they inherit money, I guess.

In sports, lazy people, men or women, never succeed. How much more when we run the Christian life that we ought not to be couch potatoes and Sunday only Christians because they never succeed any either.

Why didn't you like Manny Ramirez? Maybe you liked him when he was winning. Many people don't like Manny Ramirez because he has all this potential, but he never runs out the base. He never tries as hard as he could try.

Now, in a much higher plane, a spiritual plane, making Christ's fame known in the context of Christian liberty through every avenue possible with sweat and toil, Paul says this verse 24. See if you can spot the main verb.

Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. What is the command there?

There's one and only one command in this context, and it's a present command that is ongoing. You're to keep doing this. It's continual. It's durative. Keep on doing this, and it's found in verse 24, and it's the word run.

Run that you may obtain it. Run, keep running. You start well, keep running. You're a brand new Christian, keep running. You're 85 years old, keep running. That's the spiritual metaphor of the Christian life, to run.

Paul says to the Church of Galatians, you were running well. Paul says in Philippians 2, I did not run in vain. This idea that you're Christian life, Paul says, has many things, but here the context is it's a race.

You're running a race. Have you ever run a race before? I think I've only run three races in my life. I ran a 10K in Catalina, on Catalina Island. I ran a half marathon in Long Beach, and I ran a marathon in San Diego, and I'll tell you what, to train for those races, laziness wasn't the issue, could not be the issue.

Lack of control, self-control wasn't the issue. Indulgence wasn't the issue. Gluttony wasn't the issue. I had to self-sacrifice and to train. Actually, if you want to just have a little breather for a second, when I ran the 10K, here's a little unknown fact.

I ran it, and there was a couple movie stars racing it, and one guy came up to me and said, you ran pretty fast for running in basketball shoes, because I wasn't a runner. I didn't have any running shoes.

I ran in basketball shoes, and he came up to me, and he said, how could you run a race like that with basketball shoes on? I said to Tom Cruise, I don't know. It's a true story. Isn't that special? We know if you're in a race, train.

How does anybody win the Olympics? They sacrifice what? Everything. The guy who was training Bruce Jenner years ago, he wanted to win the Olympic gold. He said, what will it take and cost me? And the trainer said, everything.

And it cost him his wife and children and everything, and he won, running a spiritual race. And Paul is the model. Of course, Christ is the ultimate model, but Paul's the model. Remember Charles Barkley, the basketball player?

I'm not no role model. Paul's the role model here. Let me give you, for an outline this morning, six training tips, six training hints on running your Christian life. Kind of a regimen, six things that you need to be reminded of as you run in light of your position in Christ.

Justification has taken place fully, freely, based on Christ's work. And in light of that sanctification, how do I run? I'm running. And for those of you that aren't running the Christian race, today's the day.

As I said before, and I want to say it again, God often grants repentance through preaching. That is to say, you hear a message, and it convicts you, and then you respond rightly. God, that's true. I have other things more important in my life.

I have hobbies. I have my career. I have money. I have power. I have kids. I have sports. I have Nintendo. I don't know what it is, school. By the way, WPI students, this is great for you. Because if you think you're going to put your Christianity on hold for four years while you get your degree and then serve, or if you're in pharmacy school and you say, I'm going to got my ministry later, Paul would just look at you saying, what are you doing?

You've forgotten your Savior. Of course, we have to have a job. Of course, we have to go to school. But in light of that, Paul, with this whole living that a Jew would think about, says it's one aim, one goal, one finish line.

That's why we run. It's for the fame of Christ Jesus. So let me give you six P90X training tips for spiritual life. I won't do the yoga one, because maybe you'd think that was bad. May Bethlehem Bible Church, like Paul himself, run to win and arrive at the goal.

Run With Self-Control

Number one, first training tip for the Christian life in light of your salvation, run your Christian life to win. Run to win. That's what Paul means in chapter 9, verse 24. You see there that first sentence?

It's a question. It's a common question, isn't it, for Paul? He'd been there 18 months, and he had taught them all this. Do you not know, meaning you know. Do you not know that in a race, all runners run, but only one receives the prize.

So run that you may obtain it. Run to win. Run to capture. Run to get the prize, the reward. Now let me say this up front. You're not competing against other Christians. I'm not trying to run, and my goal is to beat Gary, or to beat Tom, or to beat Dan.

My goal is, if I'm in a race, I run it to win. The competition isn't against each other. The determination that Paul is after is, if you're in a race, you don't kind of, this is what we say in Nebraska, you don't lollygag.

We know what that word is around here, probably. But it was big in Nebraska, to hanker and to lollygag. Just because you're in the race, you don't win. Could there be a better prize than the glory of Christ Jesus?

Like it or not, you have to take your spiritual life seriously. If you don't feel an urgency to serve, if you aren't tired in your ministry. Let me stop there. When's the last time you were tired because of gospel ministry?

Exhausted, couldn't sleep, had to stay up late at night. That's the kind of thing Paul is talking about here. Of course, not to be saved, but in light of your salvation. And by the way, as I talk about all these things, you can think about Christ Jesus.

As he was setting his face towards the cross and sleeping in the boat, exhausted in gospel ministry. Think of one famous person in Christianity as a missionary, who wasn't A, gospel centered and B, who didn't run like they needed to win.

Think of anyone. Think of Amy Carmichael. Think of Mary Schleser. Think of Elizabeth Elliot. Think of Adoniram Judson. Think of John Calvin. Anybody that you want to think about, who you know that God, of course, gifted and equipped, but they with their own human responsibility.

This is not hyper-Calvinism. God does it all. This is God's in charge of everything and he orchestrates the ends through the means and you're the means. But not one person that I can think of. I have a little section in my library, biographies, famous biographies.

And I like to read biographies for a couple reasons. One, because I say to myself, that guy was a sinner just like me. And look what God did through him. And I also say, do you know what? That person burned out for the gospel.

And Lord, that's a worthy life to burn out for the gospel. When I'm on my deathbed, that'll make it a lot easier to die. You're in the race. If you're a Christian, you're in the race. You've been given a number.

Lowest possible effort. By the way, that's America. What can we do? At least it's a lot of entitlement in America. What's the least amount we can do to get by? See, that's not it for Paul. You know, I need to have a ministry, so what can I do at the church that requires the least amount of effort?

Interestingly, when you look at that word race there, do you not know that those who run in a race? Let me give you the Greek word for race or the equivalent of the Greek word, stadion. Stadion. Greek 600 feet.

One lap around. Running the race. That's where we get the word race. It's from stadion. And you can imagine, every two to three years, these races going on, the equivalent of an Olympic race going on at Corinth.

So Paul uses that illustration. He could use an agricultural illustration. He could use military. Here he uses sports because everyone knew. And by the way, during these sport games, do you think there was a lot of food offered to idols?

And a lot of times you would have to say, you know what, I could eat that food, but in light of having the Christian brother who's weak or stumble, I better say no. And if you ran a race back in those days and you won, you were just like people in the Olympics today.

On the cover of Sports Illustrated, never have to work again a day in your life. Exalted, rewarded. You're not running against other people, but you're running. I'd like to know how fast are you running?

Oh, you know, I'll run later. They used to say in seminary, and I know Steve and Harrington know this, they used to say, you know what, if you say to yourself, I'll study the Bible later, but in school I just have to do these Greek tests, that when the later comes, you never do it later.

You're trying to put these habits down now early. And it's possible to finish well. The last chapter Paul ever wrote includes these words, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

To all those who he could have said, run, and run well. All right, Christianity is not a spectator sport. So why don't you resolve today, Lord, help me to run well. Number two, the second cross-training tip, training hints for the Christian faith in the context of liberty.

As Christians, number one, run to win. Number two, run with self-control. Run your Christian life with self-control. The first part of verse 25. And, of course, runners have to have self-control, and if we're in the Christian life, we have to have self-control as well.

The runner in the temporal world, we in the spiritual world. He says every athlete exercises self-control in all things. Self-restraint, self-control, strict training, strict diet. To me, our society is indulge, consume, gorge.

Paul uses an athletic metaphor. And he says if you're striving for the glory of God and excellence, you've got to run with self-control.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.