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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Spiritual Athletes

You know, there was a time when running wasn't something I enjoyed.

The idea of pounding the pavement with your feet, What's appealing about that?

And maybe some of you here today can relate.

You know running isn't everyone's idea of a good time.

Something a bit like many of us are going to experience, are preparing for with the footprints of Hope 5K happening tomorrow.

Well, maybe I could use a different word.

To be more honest, they strongly persuaded me to participate and to join them in a 5k race that took place during a Michigan camp meeting.

We lived in Michigan and so camp meeting was you know a summer experience and and and they do they do a 5k every summer and and I figured you know why not it's just for fun.

In fact many of them called it a fun run.

Ron Dupre, some of you may recognize him, he's a seasoned marathoner.

He walked over to me and he said, Christian, with some training, with some consistent training, you could go from being a jogger to a runner.

I don't know why that impacted me so deeply, but it did.

And I could hear his words again and again in my mind.

And from that moment I made a decision I will run I will run.

Little did I realize that that would truly change my life because for the last 18 years, since that summer, I've ran 18 marathons.

I've trained to run a marathon under 3.30.

And I could say, for the glory of God, I've ran a few marathons under 3.30, 3.28 or so.

I've done, I've ran for 5Ks, countless 5Ks.

And again, with training, I ran a few sub-20s a number of times.

And I learned something powerful from that experience, and that was this.

When you begin with the goal in mind, your daily choices begin to align themselves with your desired destination.

That vision, that finish line shaped how I lived.

It determined what I ate, and I had the end in mind.

It determined when I slept and how much I slept.

It determined how I trained, even what I said no to.

And I realized that wow, when Ron Dupre spoke those words to me, it wasn't just about running.

The message I want to share with you today is spiritual athletes.

Let's pray together as we meditate on this theme.

Father, Lord, we are here today because you've called us here.

And Lord, we pray that you would speak a word to us.

You know what areas of our life need some conviction.

You know what areas of our lives that are comfortable need to be disturbed.

You know areas of our life that are disturbed.

And Lord, we've come here today because you're the God of all comfort.

And so we ask Lord that you would meet with us during this time in which we open the Word of God.

Speak to us Lord and we thank you in Jesus name.

Paul, the Apostle Paul knew something about running a race.

Come with me to First Corinthians, First Corinthians, chapter 9.

There are Bibles in your pews, most pews, and of course you're welcome to use those.

Use your devices, get to the Word of God.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and we're going to look at verses 24 and 27.

And I particularly appreciate how the new living translation renders these verses.

But this 1 just uses words that I really appreciate.

Listen to how New Living Translation puts it.

Don't you know that in a race all the runners run, but only 1 gets the prize.

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.

You know, Paul understood the power of purpose.

He knew where he was going and he knew what it took to get there.

And that goal is to finish strong in Christ.

No 1 registers or takes time to stand behind a start line without the intention or the explicit purpose to cross that finish line.

And I remember when my dad and I had an experience.

I have to admit that My dad is the 1 who started to run in my life, inspiring me to run, calling me to come and run with him when I was a teenager, and I refused.

But then after this summer experience at Michigan camp meeting, something changed.

I began to run and my dad had never ran a marathon.

And I told my dad, I said, dad, come on, me and you, let's do it.

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Spiritual Athletes

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