Gold Medal Living
“Passion of a Champion”
August 8, 2004
Intro: Looking at how to live as spiritual champions. Last week we looked at determination and the need to press on. This week we are going to look at the passion it takes to be a spiritual champion. Again, we are using the life of Paul as a backdrop for our study. For this purpose, we are defining Passion to mean “Focus”
Today we are going to look at a letter Paul wrote to Christians in the city of Corinth. He had spent a long time there helping them establish a church and now he was writing back to answer questions they had sent him.
In order to fully appreciate all of this, we need a little background on the city of Corinth.
• Corinth was a city along a major trade route of the ancient world.
• It had an extremely wild lifestyle that became the object of jokes to ancient playwrights.
• It was seen as an obscene and vulgar place that was shameless and immoral.
• It was no small town. Corinth had a population of 700,000 and was second in size only to Rome itself
• Every race of people was represented in Corinth.
• Traders and profiteers from all corners of the globe came to make money off the city.
• Religions of all types flourished and a temple to the goddess Venus employed 1,000 prostitutes
• Yet as Christianity began to take root, the church grew to be one of the largest in the 1st century. It is against this backdrop that Paul writes I Corinthians to answer some problems that have erupted in the church.
Paul’s Focus
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
I Corinthians 2:1-2(NIV)
Paul points out the focus of the time he spent in Corinth. For 18 months he lived in Corinth, working as a tent maker and speaking in the synagogue on the Sabbath.
Wherever Paul traveled, his focus was to proclaim Jesus.
As we read scripture of this travels, we find that as Paul headed to Corinth he constantly preached Jesus at every point along the way.
Acts 16-18 tells of Paul’s travels and some of his trials as he approached Corinth. Many scholars believe Paul showed up at Corinth beaten, frustrated and depressed. He had good reason.
• In Philippi, he was arrested, flogged, put in stocks and run out of town.
• In Thessalonica a riot breaks out and he is sent to jail.
• In Berea the people who ran him out of Thessalonica stir up another riot and he has to flee.
• In Athens, he speaks to the city’s intelligent community and is sneered at.
Trouble seemed to always follow Paul. One noted evangelist said, “When Paul goes into a town to preach a riot breaks out. When I go they throw a tea.”
After suffering all he did, he spent 18months in Corinth. Ultimately the Jews attacked him and he was beaten again.
Through all of the difficulty, Paul held on to his focus for Jesus.
Paul determined that he would at all times preach Christ no matter the cost.
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
I Corinthians 2:1-2(NIV)
“Preach Christ at all times. If necessary, use words.”
St. Augustine
How focused are you to let Christ shine in your life? What does it take for you to back down?
Paul’s Struggle
It is easy to think of Paul as having no fear or no regret. But Paul was very honest about his condition in Corinth.
“I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.”
I Corinthians 2:3 (NIV)
Paul had all kinds of struggles.
Physical
Paul suffered some type of condition that he prayed to be taken away repeatedly, but it never was.
“I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan’s messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. Three times I prayed to the Lord and asked him to take this away.”
II Corinthians 12:7-8(Today’s English Version)
Spiritual
Paul struggled with temptation to sin like everyone else.
“The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but its pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Part of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge! I’ve tried everything and nothing helps, I am at the end of my rope.”
Romans 7:21-23(The Message)
The enemy of God will place in front of you the one thing you try to avoid.
The choice is to give in to the pain or push through it.
** Dave Johnson won Olympic bronze medal in the Decathlon in Barcelona, Spain in 1992 on a broken ankle.
“My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.”
II Corinthians 12:9-10(The Message)
God’s grace comes to light in our weakness.
Paul’s Passion
Paul made a commitment to know nothing but Jesus and to preach nothing but who Jesus is. In doing so, he was able to share in the reward of seeing God work in powerful ways, even in a pagan city like Corinth.
Paul’s passion was to know Jesus as revealed to him by God.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
I Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
This is quote of Isaiah 64:4
Paul understood that a life focused on Christ was a life worth living.
**Eric Liddell
**PP- Picture
In the movie “Chariots of Fire, two runners are followed in their pursuit of the Olympic dream. Harold Abrahams, and Englishmen with a Jewish background and Eric Liddell, a Christian from Scotland, both chase the dream of Olympic glory.
Abrahams runs to win for the pride of his heritage and to prove his worth. Liddell, the son of missionaries in China, runs to gain a platform to share his faith. In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Liddell gives up running in the 100 meters because the race is on Sunday. Instead he spends the day preaching in a church. He went on to win a gold medal in the 400 meters and the bronze in 200 meters.
Before the Olympics, his sister fears he is being sidetracked from his mission to God.
**Video Clip
God make me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure. “If I win, I win for God.”
After the Olympics, Liddell went to China as a missionary. He died of a brain tumor in a prison camp at the end of World War II.
A “Gold Medal Life” is passionate about Jesus.
