“TRAINING FOR THE RACE OF FAITH”
Hebrews 12:1-11
February 1, 2009
Pastor John L. Harper
Warden Assembly of God
Introduction:
Kurt Warner back for second Super Bowl fairytale with Arizona Cardinals
By Oliver Holt on Jan 31, 09 12:00 AM in Superbowl
This is what makes Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner special: he’s on his second fairytale; he’s lived the American dream not once, but twice.
The Cardinals will be underdogs when they go into the Super Bowl against the heavy hitters of the Pittsburgh Steelers tomorrow but Warner is used to that.
The NFL went into romance overload over him once already, back in 2000 when he led the St Louis Rams to Super Bowl victory.
What a story he was then, the average college quarterback who nobody wanted, the guy who screwed up his one NFL tryout with the Green Bay Packers.
The guy who earned $5.50 an hour on the night shift stacking shelves at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and clawed his way into the big time via the Arena Football League’s Iowa Barnstormers.
He finally took over as a starter for the Rams in 1999 and that season took them on an unlikely run to one of the most dramatic victories in Super Bowl history over the Tennessee Titans.
Warner, 37, the ultimate underdog, broke passing records in the game and was named the Super Bowl MVP. He was the NFL’s new poster boy, a brilliant ambassador for the game.
But then things began to slide. He gradually fell out of favour with the Rams and was released. The New York Giants rescued him but he only lasted a year there before he was moved on again.
Then he was picked up by the Cardinals, a dubious privilege even for a man down on his luck. The Cardinals were a joke team back then, a team that was the laughing stock of the league.
Warner was widely assumed to be washed up, a man coming quickly and ingloriously to the end of his career.
Warner was just a back-up anyway but then the team’s up-and-coming quarterback Matt Leinart broke his collarbone at the start of last season and Warner took his chance.
So now, he’s on that second fairy story. He has led the Cardinals to the Super Bowl for the first time in their history and no one in America can quite believe it.
Warner, a born-again Christian, a man of admirable character, a serial doer of good deeds, is reveling in his renaissance but also considering retirement.
“In the back of your mind you say, ’Man, this could be a perfect scenario to leave the game’,” Warner said.
“But what I’ve continued to realize about my career and my life is that nothing takes on a perfect scenario. What people think would be perfect doesn’t seem to work out in my situation.
“So I’m going to step back and I’m going to pray about it. And I believe God’s going to show me whether He wants me to continue in this game and if He’s got more for me to accomplish, or if He’s got some other calling in my life.
“Bottom line, end of the day, I believe God’s going to send me what He wants me to do.”
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/fourth-down/2009/01/kurt-warner-back-for-second-su.html
I. FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF THE FAITHFUL(vs. 1-2)
A. Lay aside every weight
1. Don’t let anything hold you back
2. Don’t let sin trip you up
17-year-old tripped up in women’s 800
by Jeff Smith, The Oregonian
Friday June 27, 2008, 11:15 PM
EUGENE -- In the same month she graduated from high school, 17-year-old Chanelle Price lined up against some of the nation’s best runners.
But whom did the public announcer remind a record 20,964 at Hayward Field to "keep an eye on" in the moments before the 800-meter preliminary race Friday? Price, of course.
It has been that way all year as the Pennsylvania phenom has excelled under the glare of the national spotlight.
Price hoped the opening day of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials would be no exception. She thought she did everything right in her preparation for the biggest race of her career.
What she didn’t prepare for was something she couldn’t have predicted: getting tripped up 200 meters into her 800-meter race.
"It’s something I’m not used to, but I can’t use it as an excuse," Price said.
Price bumped into competitors twice in a couple of seconds and never recovered, finishing her heat in sixth in 2 minutes, 5.93 seconds. Overall, her time was 21st out of 28 finishers and failed to qualify her for tonight’s semifinals.
"It was just a bad race," Price said. "It’s disappointing. I wanted to make it to at least the semis. I felt I had a chance to be there. I put a lot of hard work into it. It just wasn’t my race."
Price’s trip-ups reminded her of last year’s IAAF World Youth Championships in the Czech Republic, where she tripped and fell in a race.
"It just throws a runner off mentally when those type of things happen to you," said Price, the Gatorade national girls track and field athlete of the year. "I kind of had a flashback to when I was at the Czech Republic. I was just happy that I didn’t fall this year."
Price, a three-time Pennsylvania state champion at 800 meters, placed sixth at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene this month in a personal record 2:01.61 -- second-fastest all time among U.S. high schoolers. Had she come within three seconds of that time, she would have made the semifinals at the trials.
B. Let us run the race
1. That is set before us
a. you are responsible for your race
b. don’t try to “run someone else’s race”
2. With patience
C. Look unto Jesus
1. He is the author of our faith
2. He is the finisher of our faith
3. He is the one that suffered on the Cross
a. The joy was set before Him
b. He endured the Cross
c. He despised the shame of the Cross
4. He is now at the right hand of God
II. FAINT NOT IN THE RACE (vs. 3-8)
A. Consider Jesus
1. who endured the contradiction of sinners
2. who endured the jeers of sinners against Him
3. He shed His blood to pay for our sin
B. Consider the discipline of the Lord
1. As a way to mature
2. As proof we belong to Him
3. As proof that He loves us
III. FORFEIT YOUR RIGHTS (vs. 9-11)
A. Submit to His correction
B. Stay in the race as a partaker
C. See the fruit of righteousness
CONCLUSION:
ILLUS. - Many of you will remember this scene from the last summer Olympics. It was the running of the marathon. Long after all the other runners had come in, the siren sounded announcing another runner.
And the runner from Tanzania came limping into the stadium and finished his final lap...obviously in great pain. Those remaining in the grandstands gave him a standing ovation.
Later in an interview he was asked: "Why didn’t you drop out of the race? You injured your leg and you were in pain, everyone would have understood. (sustained a severe injury to his leg which required medical care). Why did you keep going?"
His reply: "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to begin a race, but to finish it!"
http://www.sermoncentral.com/outsideurl.asp?outsideurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nauticom.net%2Fwww%2Fjh
Marathons are about perseverance and endurance. Bill Broadhurst is an example of
perseverance and endurance… Bill Broadhurst was running in the Omaha, Nebraska, Pepsi
10k, a race of 6.2 miles. Broadhurst, who is a Christian, is slowed by a brain aneurism he
suffered as a young man, leaving him partially paralyzed on the left side. He wanted to finish
the 10k despite this obstacle. He was determined to run because Bill Rogers, his hero, was
in the race that day.
Rogers is a great runner and ran the race in 29 minutes and 37 seconds. The other
runners finished in 30 to 50 minutes. The joggers crossed the line in 60 or 70 minutes. It
would take Bill Broadhurst much longer. As he ran, some kids didn’t understand he was
competing and said, "Hey mister, you missed a good race."
As he ran, his left side got so numb he wanted to quit. He wanted to drop out. After two
hours, the cars were back in the streets, it was getting dark on Saturday afternoon, and
running through intersections became difficult. One policeman stopped cars to let him
across; a nice lady handed him some water. At two hours and twenty minutes he said the
pain was so bad and so throbbing, "I didn’t want to make it; I didn’t want to go on."
Then he saw the end. They had already taken the banner down. Broadhurst ran down
the street on the sidewalk, saw the banner had gone, and his heart sank because everybody
had left. He thought, What’s the use? But he decided to finish. When he got to the end, out
of the alleyway stepped Bill Rogers and a gang of people. They were waiting for him.
Rogers opened his arms, welcomed Broadhurst across the finish line, and hugged him.
After Broadhurst willed his partially paralyzed body the last few steps to the end of the
race, Rogers took the gold medal from around his own neck, and put it around the neck of
the last runner to cross the line.
Rogers said, "Broadhurst, you’re the winner; take the gold."
http://www.fbcnoble.org/userFiles/551/the_finish_line6-10-07.pdf
