Introduction
A. People who win a lot, teams that win a lot and people who succeed in life all have a lot in common. There are certain things they do and certain things they don’t do that somehow they all figure out. This is called the Winner’s code. What does it take to be a champion?
B. A few years back, Marion Jones, an Olympic athlete made the news. She was caught taking steroids in her quest for the gold in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals, but had to give them up. She even had go to jail. This was a total embarrassment to the United States. She was the first woman to ever win five medals at one Olympics. She wanted to win but along the way decided to cheat to get there. Everyone wants to be a winner but we need to follow the rules along the way.
C. I am sure we all remember the Lance Armstrong scandal. He won the Tour de France seven times in a row, but was stripped of those victories a few years ago after he was caught cheating.
D. In sporting events only one athlete or one team can win. All the other competitors will return home having failed to achieve their goals. And although they may be some of the best athletes in the world many would consider them losers because there can be only one winner. However in the Christian life this is not the case. In the Christian life we can all be winners. We can all bring home the gold. What does it take to be a champion? What does it take to be a winner? Today I would like to look at a few characteristics that are common among all winners. Let’s start by reading a passage in the book of Hebrews 12:1-3.
Have to “give up to go up”
A. In order to rise to the top there are some things that you have to let go of because they are holding you back. There are some things that you have to give up if you are going to make progress. This involves making sacrifices.
B. World-class athletes understand that they have to give up to go up. While others are munching on chips and sodas they are snacking on health food bars and vegetables. While others are lying on the couch watching sports on TV they are in the gym working out. Most of the Olympic athletes that compete in the Olympics are not like the professional athletes who earn enormous salaries. They are regular people who make a living by holding down regular jobs. And that means that they have to give up most of their “free time” to train for their sport.
C. To be a world-class Christian you will also have to give up to go up. There are things that you will have to say no to while everyone around you indulges in them. There are sacrifices that you will have to make and things that you will have to go without.
D. However, all this talk about giving up things and sacrifice doesn’t sound very appealing. You might be thinking that you’re not too interested in that. Why is it that some people are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to take their athletic performance to the next level and some aren’t? The same could be asked of believers in Jesus Christ.
Why are some willing to make the necessary sacrifices to grow in Christlikeness while many won’t?
A. In today’s passage we will see what it takes to develop the willingness to give up to go up, be motivated by previous champions. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”
B. The image here is of an athlete who is participating in the ancient Greek games. As he prepares for the race that is about to be run he looks up into the stands and sees the crowd of cheering fans and is inspired by them to do his best. Many times athletes have credited a cheering crowd of fans with giving them the extra motivation they needed to fight back and win the game or contest. That is why so much importance is placed on having home field or home court advantage in team sports. The crowd can literally change the game.
C. Tell story of when people cheered me on at my first Triathlon!
D. As Christians, we have a cheering section encouraging us on when we are tired and calling out to us to do better when we are not feeling our best. The author of Hebrews says, “We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” What in the world does he mean, “Great cloud of witnesses?” The author of Hebrews is telling us that we are a part of something much bigger, richer and deeper than we know.
E. What are we a part of? In this case the stadium is not just filled with fans. This stadium is filled to capacity with the great champions of the past. These men and women are the heroes of the faith who are enshrined in God’s Hall of Fame in chapter 11. Abraham. Moses. Joseph. Rahab. King David. And on and on the list goes. So many that the author cannot even list them all. They are all in the stadium to watch you compete. Now tell me. Do you want to make a fool of yourself in front of them? No way! Look at them and be inspired be motivated to do and be your best for God. Follow their example. Seek to be like them. If you are not motivated, you will never be willing to make the sacrifices needed to become a world-class Christian.
F. Let me tell you a secret this morning. Not only can each of you win the gold, but also each of you can make the Hall of Fame. That is not true of any sport, but it is true of the Christian life. In sports just giving your best effort isn’t always enough. Sports history is littered with the names of unknown men and women who gave their sport everything they had, but never won championships, or earned multimillion dollar contracts, or made the All-Star team. Why? Because in sports it’s not giving your best, but being the best that counts. However that is not true with God. He wants you to be your best, not be the best. Your goal isn’t to be the best Christian in this church, but to be the best Christian that you can be. That is what God requires and that is what God rewards. But it will require sacrifice. You will have to give up to go up.
What do you have to give up to go up?
A. If I have to “give up to go up” what do I actually have to give up? By answering these questions you might have a better idea of what you need to give up.
B. What are you putting ahead of God in your life? What is consuming so much of your time that you don’t have time for church or for serving in ministry? What is taking up so much of your budget that you don’t have enough left to pay your tithe? You have to give up to go up. There are many things that may need to be looked at but I have chosen just two here today, in hopes that this will get you started.
Choose what is great over what is good
A. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders” Other translations read “throw off every weight.”
B. When I was in high school in the early part of football season we put ankle weights around our legs to help us build up more strength in our legs as we ran. Of course we would lay aside these weights when it was time to actually compete. What would help us during training by building muscle would hinder us during the game by slowing us down.
C. You see we need to be aware that at some point the things that have helped us can hinder us. We need to realize that at some point we may need to lay these things aside and go on without them. These things are not necessarily wrong or sinful. They just aren’t the best.
D. Not all of our choices are between black and white. Not all of our choices are between what is right and what is wrong. Paul talked about this in I Cor 6:12, 10:23. “All things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient.” Many of our choices are between what is good and what is best. Those are the really tough choices. Sometimes we have to give up what is good to go up to what is best.
E. To become a world-class athlete it is not about having a good training program, but having the best training program. It’s not about have a good coach, but having the best coach. It’s not about having a good diet, but having the best diet. It’s not about having a good game plan, but having the best game plan. To become a world-class athlete one must realize that good isn’t good enough. You need to be willing to lay aside even some things that may be considered “good” in order for you to become great.
Play by the rules
A. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
B. If you want to be a world class athlete or world class Christian you have to play by the rules, you can’t cheat. This is where Lance Armstrong went wrong. He was willing to make sacrifices, he was willing to give up things that others might allow. He was willing to work hard, but then he crossed the line and cheated. He thought he could break the rules and for a short time he enjoyed himself. He enjoyed the sense of victory as he crossed the finish line first. He enjoyed the cheers of the crowd. He enjoyed the prize money of almost ½ million dollars. And now it is all stripped away. No more 1st place finishes. No more competition. The cheers have turned to jeers and his celebrity turned into humility. His accomplishment turned into embarrassment.
C. It is also true that you must play by the rules in order to be a world-class Christian. That is why the text says that we must cast off sin. Sin for the Christian is like breaking the rules. In His word God has established certain rules for living. He has established laws that govern our relationships with one another as well as our relationship with Him. When we violate these rules for living that is called sin.
D. You may cheat and break the rules and find pleasure in it for a while. But God knows. You will test positive for sin in your life and all of your so-called accomplishments will be stripped away. You can’t hide it from God. Athletes keep searching for different ways to mask the drugs that they use. And they find a way to hide it for a while. But the testers always eventually find a way to detect what they are hiding and then they are caught. You might think that you are hiding it but you can be sure that your sin will find you out.
E. Take a look at Moses, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up … chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking forward to his reward” (11:24-26). He was looking forward to winning the gold.
F. Moses had his priorities straight and he was determined to play by the rules rather than trying to take a short cut to pleasure. The RSV says that Moses chose not to enjoy “the fleeting pleasures of sin.” Moses understood something that we would do well to understand. There is pleasure in sin but it is only a fleeting pleasure or a passing pleasure as another translations says.
G. No cheaters allowed on judgment day. What about when people stand before Jesus on judgment day and try to get in? They wanted to win, but they didn’t want to do it His way. Jesus said, He was the door and no one would get in any other way.
H. An important part of the winner’s code is to follow the rules. Jesus spelled them out clearly in His word.
What Is Your “If Only?”
A. We are all created with so much potential and with so many gifts and if it weren’t for our ‘if only’ we would all go so much farther in life. The problem with our ‘if only’ is that most of us don’t ever really see it for what it is, or if we do, we tend to minimize its impact on our lives.
B. “Mary would be such a great secretary ‘if only’ she didn’t talk so much.” “John would be such a great person to hang out with ‘if only’ he would use some breath mints!” “Joe would be such a great drummer “if only’ he didn’t play so loud.”
C. For many of us the difference between mediocrity and greatness is our ‘if only!’ One of the great challenges in life is to find out what our ‘if only’ is or maybe what our ‘if onlies’ are. The trick is to have people in your life who love you enough to tell you what they are. Although, even if you have some great people in your life, it usually takes an invitation by you, an opening so to speak, before even your best friends will share what your ‘if only’ is. The amazing thing about our ‘if only’ is that everyone else seems to know what it is except us. So if you are wondering what is holding you back, or what you need to do to get to the next level, take someone who knows you out for a cup of coffee and ask them what is your ‘if only.” It may hurt a bit but if you listen and make the effort to attack that ‘if only’ life can get really exciting!
Conclusion
A. In the Seoul Olympics, sailing competitions were under way at Pusan on September 24, 1988, with winds raging at 35 knots and playing havoc with the boats. Two sailors of the Singapore team, Joseph Chan and Shaw Her, were thrown overboard when their boat capsized. Canada’s Lawrence Lemieux was sailing alone nearby in a separate event when he saw the sailors in distress. He rescued Chan, who was exhausted from struggling against the strong currents in his weighted sailing jacket. By the time Lemieux finished helping the Singapore team, he had fallen well behind in his race. The judges awarded Lemieux second place, the position he was in when he went to the sailors’ aid, and the International Olympic Committee gave him a special award for his gallantry. “It’s the first rule of sailing to help people in distress,” said Lemieux, downplaying the incident.
B. It is the same way in the Christian life. It is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that counts. If you model your life after the previous champions and follow the winner’s code, learn to choose what is great over what is good and play by the rules, and find out what your “if only” is, you will make God’s Hall of Fame. And you will hear those most blessed of all words at the awards ceremony, “Well done good and faithful servant,” as God himself slips the gold medal around your neck.
