No Man's Gonna' Take My Crown

These two following verses are the source for the title of this message today.

Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Now please go with me to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, this is where we will be camping out.

1 Co 9:24-27 [24]Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. [25] And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. [26] I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: [27] But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

By these scriptures and others it is very clear that the Apostle Paul had himself participated in arena type sports, or at the very least he had been in the stands and had seen and cheered on the competition.

With his words, he paints a vivid picture of this competition, then he masterfully takes that natural illustration and weaves it into a spiritual interpretation.

We see that in Hebrews 12 where he's talking about running the race before us with patience, then he adds that there are a great cloud of witnesses that are watching us.

Here in our Corinthian text he gets very detailed, and it is clear that he has either participated in the games, or he was at the very least one actively involved in cheering for the competitors.

So now we are going to unpack this text. Paul starts by asking the question and giving the answer in the question.

*So he says, don't you know that in a race there are many runners, but only one receiveth the prize? So the question is also the answer.

This speaks of competition, with a reward given to the winner. Paul doesn't say... don't you know that everyone that runs is a winner.

No, he speaking difinitively of a competition, that ends with one winner receiving the crown.

A crown is a symbol of accomplishment, and victory. So it symbolizes the victor in a challenge, a competition, or a battle.

It is clear from these scriptures that everybody is not walking around with crowns. If everybody were getting a crown, there would be no distinction from a winner in a hard fought battle, and everyone else who never even engaged in the competition, or the fight.

—So I have to stop right here and ask you a question... How many have ever won something? I don't mean some kind of sweepstake or something where you just got picked randomly. I mean something you worked for. You fought for, you struggled for. You put forth effort and energy. You competed against someone else, or a number of people and you won?

Was that a great feeling or what?

I remember my first big win in life, I was about 10 yrs old, and it was a contest to bring the most people to Sunday school. And I won. But I have to be honest, I love the Lord for sure. But that 6ft candy bar prize had a lot to do with it. I had never seen a 6ft candy bar and I wanted to win it, and I did.

I worked hard for that candy bar, I invited every kid in town to come to our church , and then we got in that station wagon and rounded em up, and I won that 6ft candy bar. And it was worth it. I can still remember when they presented it to me in the front of the church.

I actually won something. For the first time in my memory, I had competed for something, and I won. I was a little sorry for those who didn't win, but not enough to share my candy bar.

I wrestled that candy bar into the car with the window open and 3ft of it hanging out the window. And we drove to my grandma's house where I started un taping those candy bars from that stick.

I could not have been happier if I had won a million dollars.

Now I want to ask you a question, how would I have felt if right after I was presented my 6ft candy bar, some big high-school kid would have come rushing through the side door and stole my 6ft candy bar? Sad, hurt, angry.

Now add to that the fact that this big high-school kid, didn't need my 6ft candy bar, he just didn't want me to have it.