Sermon Illustrations

RUNNING WITH A STOPWATCH

Long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi of Finland was an Olympic champion, winning twelve medals (nine of them gold) in the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Games. Nurmi was famous not only for his achievements, but also for running with a stopwatch in his hand to check his performance. It’s good to know how you’re doing along the way if you want to win a long-distance race.

How’s your performance, your spiritual performance, that is? And what’s your spiritual stopwatch? It’s your Bible. We must check it often to see how well we are doing. And you won’t perform well if you don’t train well.

What is spiritual training? Bible study, prayer, worship, church, etc. And what are we pursuing in these? Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. The Bible can change you if you’ll let it, because it’s the living, breathing Word of God! The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible.

(From a sermon by Steve Shepherd, The Pursuit of Holiness, 9/16/2011)

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