Run to Win!

Well, good morning. I feel like I, first of all, need to make an apology. I just discovered here a few minutes ago that we were actually supposed to go to Orstown Home this morning, so I was the schedule got switched around there and it never crossed my mind to look at that. So whoever's filling in on my behalf, I want to say a big thank you for that and admit to definitely an oversight on my part. You can turn to Book of First Corinthians.

Our text this morning is Chapter 9, over to Chapter 10, verse 13. And the title of the message this morning is "Run to Win," and that is found in the key verses for that title is found in verses 24 to 27 of Chapter 9. So I think we're going to go ahead and read this passage.

The key verses there are written in the context of an athlete, someone who is trained and has a definite purpose in mind. So as we read this, just keep that in mind. Chapter 9, verse 1: "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit, or who tends to a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law say also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.' Is it oxen God is concerned about, or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be a partaker of this hope.

If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me, for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant of all, that I might win them all. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews. To those who are under the law as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law as without law, not being without law toward God but under law toward Christ. That I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things excuse me, as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters as some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also have tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our abomination upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

You know, we live in an age where there's a lot of talk about our rights.

In fact, our country was founded on the Bill of Rights. We have the right to free speech, the right to a free press, the right to have freedom of religion, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, the right to bear arms, and it goes on. And that has given rise to these catchphrases that we hear.

There's talk about civil rights, there's talk about voting rights, women's rights, human rights, gun rights, animal rights. In our day, a lot of talk about LGBTQ+ rights, and again, the list goes on.

You know, Paul claimed some rights as well. And we're talking here this whole last few times we've been talking about the whole concept of freedom, Christian freedom. And the last time we talked about the whole thing of eating meats offered to idols.

And Paul says, makes it clear that he had the freedom, he had the right to eat that which God created. He said that food doesn't commend us to God. In verse 8, chapter 8, he says, "But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse."

And so Paul understood that in his mind he had these rights.

You know, to an athlete, diet is very important. The purpose is to win, the purpose is to gain strength. And Paul's conclusion, and I think our conclusion, is that if our rights hinder the purpose or hinder our purpose, then it's better to forgo our rights. And so he talks he gives another example here in chapter 9 of some of a right that Paul said he had that he was going to expound on a little bit. And so we look at Paul's purpose, his overarching purpose we see it again and again, we touched on it this morning in Sunday School, is to preach the gospel, to share the good news with others, and to win people to that, to help them experience the same thing that he experienced in his own life.

And so he says at the end of the last verse of chapter 8, he says, "If food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat lest I make my brother stumble." So he makes the comment that if my right impinges on the purpose that I have, and that is to share the gospel, then I will lay aside that right that I have.

And so he gives another example, as I said, in chapter 9 here. And the right that he's talking about is the right to be supported materially as a minister of the gospel.

And so, you know, Paul had his detractors. He had any time you have someone who's in a high-profile maybe position or does a lot of speaking or teaching, there are people out there who try to downplay that. And we saw in the beginning of Corinthians in the Book of Corinthians here where there were some who were saying, "Well, I'm of Paul and I'm of Apollos," and others saying they were from Peter and some were doubting his apostleship. And so he says here that, "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free?" I mean, I've seen Jesus Christ the Lord. And then he goes on to say that, "You're my work. And if anyone of all should be accepting of my apostleship, it should be you, because you're the seal of my apostleship."

And then he gives he gives three natural examples of why he believes that he has this right. He says, "My defense to those who examine me is, do we not have the right to eat and drink?"

And I would even he goes even further to say, "I mean, don't I have a right to take along a believing wife, and she should be supported just like Peter and some of the other apostles?"

And just a little side note here, it's interesting that the Catholic Church viewed Peter as the first pope. And here and of course, celibacy is part of that. And here we have a clear understanding that Peter apparently had a believing wife who went along with him on his travels.

So he gives these natural examples. He says, "Whoever goes to war at his own expense," I mean, "whoever goes out and fights a battle and pays for it all out of his own pocket," normally you're doing that in lieu of a country, of a nationality, and so on. Or he says, "Who plants a vineyard and goes out and works hard and hows and rakes and pulls the weeds and then harvests the grapes and then doesn't partake whatsoever of the fruit?"

Or he says, "Who tends a flock and doesn't drink of the milk?" I mean, what farmer out there? I mean, there might be a few oddballs out there who actually milk cows and then go to the store and buy their milk somewhere else. But most farmers, they partake of the fruit of their labors.

And so he gives those three examples. And then he says, "Well, and just in case you're thinking this is just a natural example," he says that it's written in the law, that Moses said in the law that the ox that labors, when it treads out the grain, you're not supposed to muzzle that ox. He's supposed to be able to eat of that. So he's building a case here that he should be supported as a minister of the gospel, that it's only right and fair. And then he even says in verse 14, he says, "The Lord even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel."

And then he also talks about a principle.

He says that God wasn't saying all this about the ox and all that for the ox's sake. He said, "No, He was doing that for our sake." I mean, He did care about the ox. But is it oxen God is concerned about, or does He say it altogether for our sakes? And then he goes he says it for our sakes.

No doubt this is written. And then he goes on and talks about this sort of principle that when you plow, you plow in hope. When you you know, when I work all week long, we do it in the expectation of a paycheck.

And Paul's doing it because he wants to win that crown of life. That's what motivates him. And so I think, you know, sometimes we talk about, you know, what motivates us to be a Christian. And we talk about the reward. And we maybe downplay that sometimes because it can become a selfish thing where we say, you know, "I just want to go to heaven when I die and, you know, sort of do the least amount possible and make the appeal through the flesh." But there is a principle that I don't think we can negate. And that principle is that there is a hope of a reward. There's this fact that "He who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be a partaker of hope."

And so there's a sense in which the reward is a motivator. And I don't think we can negate that. And Paul recognizes that fact here, that the reward can motivate us. And so then after making this case, a pretty strong case, I think, that he should be supported, he then says that in verse let's see what verse is it? Verse 12. "Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ." So he says, "Well, we haven't I haven't used this right, and I don't intend to," because he doesn't want to hinder the gospel. Well, we're back to this thing of what's motivating Paul? It's the sharing of the gospel.

And the word "hinder" there is a really interesting word. It's the Greek word "enkopen," which means to cut off. And it has the picture of a road that's dug up where you can't you can't you can't pass through. A couple months or so ago, Brethren and I went to a service school in Baltimore, and we were on our way home, and we turned in onto Black Gap Road, and there was a sign at the end that said, "Road closed." Well, we kind of knew that the road was closed, but we thought there was a turn-off road before that, to where you can make the we can make the detour. And we got there, and there was the road was all dug up.

It was completely cut off. And the road that we wanted was on the other side of the and so we were like, "Should we should we go back and just go clear back to Route 30 and make the...?" And then we realized that Ridge Road is also another road, and it actually takes you up one South Mountain and back down. And we actually came down past Curvin and Kathleen's house.

But it was a long detour, and it really was not we would have been much better to go back on Route 30. The point is the point is that Paul was concerned that by his accepting support, there would be a hindrance to the gospel. It'd be like a barrier, something that's there that he wouldn't be able to that others would not be able to get across.

And why did he his reason for that, he says, is that he wanted to share the gospel with no strings attached, that the message could remain pure, and that his motivation could remain pure. And there's this temptation or this possibility when you're being supported for something like sharing the gospel, that your message could become tainted, and your motivation could sort of become swayed by that. And we have some examples of that in the Scriptures with Eli, you know, Eli's sons. They were supposed to, you know, eat of the offerings that come in, but they started cheating and pulling out parts that they were not supposed to and became fat in the process. And I think in modern Christianity, we see a little bit of the same thing happening.

When you read out in like larger Christianity about a lot of the conflicts that happen with ministries and leadership in churches, it comes down to money. And a lot of a lot of people are pressured into saying correct things that things that cause people's ears to itch or whatever, just because they're afraid that if they say the truth, that it's going to... And I think it's for this reason that, you know, historically, the Anabaptist people have not supported their ministry in a paid in a paid way, salaried, and so on. And so Paul says that

he's going to exercise the right not to exercise his rights. It's basically what he says there. He says, "I've used none of these things, nor have I written these nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me." So he makes it clear that, "I'm not writing to you and making this case so that you go out and actually do this." He said, "No, this is a deliberate choice on my..." And so it brings me back again to what when we talk about this whole idea of freedom and my rights and so on, that what Paul is driving at is that those rights and freedoms that we have are only useful if they do not hinder the gospel.

And he felt that in this case, that accepting that would do that. And so he says then, "When I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel." And so he had the right just because he had the right to eat meat and because he had the right to material support, he didn't feel like either of them were supporting his purpose and his goal.

And we see this goal again in verse 22, at the end of verse 22, where he says, "Now I do this for the gospel's sake, that I'm maybe a partaker of it with you, that he might save some." So then he switches a little bit, and he says that in this drive to present the gospel, that he has made himself servant of all, that he might win them more. And so he says that to the Jews, "I became like a Jew."

And he's not talking here I think some people use this passage as sort of an excuse, "Well, we got to be like the world to win the world." Paul is not at all putting his stamp of approval on that kind of syncretism.

But he did say that to the Jew who became as a Jew, he participated in some Jewish maybe some rituals and so on. We see that in Scripture where he did that. And, you know, some can question whether that was the right thing to do.

And he says, "Those without the law as without law." And he sort of anticipates what the gut reaction to that is going to be. And so he says, "No, not that I'm without the law toward God, but he's under law toward Christ."

And so as I think about it, and I think Paul realized this, that relationships are the key when it comes to sharing the gospel. We have to have relationships. And so when I was thinking about, you know, what kind of practical examples could we could we take from this? What did Paul mean when he says that he became all things to all people? And I was thinking about, you know, there's some communities out there now where there's a large Muslim community, and people are reaching out in the Muslim community. If you were going to invite a Muslim person to your house for a meal, you were trying to get to learn to know them, you want to share the gospel with them.

What kind of meat are you going to serve if they come to your table? You're not going to serve pork, for sure. And you might even go to the market and buy some halal meat, which, well, in their mind is good. In other words, it's a sensitivity. You're being sensitive to their belief.

What about to those without law? What are we what are you talking about there? And I remember an example Brother Harry Argo gave in one of the messages that I heard, where he's saying he was talking about, again, the importance of relationships and how do we reach out to people. And of course, his big thing is media. And, you know, so he said, "When you're talking to an unbeliever and they say, 'Hey, have you ever seen that movie?' and they go on," and he said, "We have one or two responses. We can say, 'Well, you don't watch movies.'

Or we can say, 'No, I haven't seen that movie. Tell me about it.'" And he said, "Oftentimes, many oftentimes," the guy says, "Yeah, well, it's this movie where this, you know, this guy jumps from a bridge onto a moving truck and he starts to explain it. And the more they explain it, the more unreal it starts to become. And it actually opens the door to actually sit down with that person and say, you know, 'What does this what does this really all mean?'" And I've tried to use that a little bit in my relation with people when I'm out on a job or whatever. And I have found that it really does open doors more to take a little bit of an interest.

Now, he's not saying there's a world of difference between that and saying, "I'm going to have to go out and watch this movie so I can relate to this." That's not what Paul's talking about. But I think what he is talking about is having a real sensitivity.

Remember, he's running for the prize. He's running for the goal. And Paul's goal and just the overriding drive in his life is to share the gospel, to have others experience the same thing that he experienced.

So he's not talking about losing sight of the goal. He's not talking about using this as an opportunity to indulge in my own fleshly indulgences. But he is talking about being sensitive when you're dealing with people to the things. And so to the Jew he became as a Jew, to those without the law as without the law, to the weak he became as weak, tried to get on their level so that he could have a relationship with them.

You know, there's two things that characterize an athlete, two things that drive them. And one of them is purpose, which we already talked about. And the other one is, if you're going to be a good athlete, you need a lot of self-discipline.

And an enemy, one of the enemies to winning for an athlete is overconfidence. And that's where he goes to in chapter 10 here. He gives the history of the children of Israel. And recently we had VBS in Chambersburg, and I was supposed to teach a class about Israel's deliverance from Egypt. And we've grown up with those stories all of our life. But when you're trying to explain that to some people who maybe have never heard it before, it's really a fantastic story.

Fantastic in the sense that it's almost unbelievable, these plagues that come around, you know, that river turned to blood. And then, you know, it's almost like one of those movies that we were talking about, because Moses raises his rod and things happen, and rivers turn to blood, and they turn into snakes, and then, you know, darkness that you can feel. And it's just pretty fantastic. And then they finally, Pharaoh says, "You go." And they went, and they said, "Well, how are we going to go? How are we going to know where we're going?" And there's this cloud by day that just moves, and at night it turns there's a fire. And then they get hungry, and what are we going to eat?

And God says, "Well, I'll take care of you there." And this manna comes down, and they ate of it for 40 years. 40 years they ate of this manna. And it was a desert, and there was no water. And Moses took out his rod again, and he whacked the rock, and water came out.

And they all experienced these marvelous things. And he makes the comment. He says, "I want to warn you. I want to warn you that all of the people that came out of Egypt experienced these things. All of our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." And I think it's interesting here that when we look in the Old Testament so often, it's a foreshadowing, a foretaste of what was to come. And Paul makes the very clear distinction here that that rock was Jesus, and that their rejection of that was a rejection of Christ Himself.

And yet they all experienced this wonderful thing. They all experienced it. It says, "Yet with most of them God was not well pleased, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." And the picture there is like a battlefield at the end of a bad battle where things went wrong, and there's just corpses everywhere.

That's the picture that he's putting forth. There was probably well over a million people that went out of Egypt. And it says, "With most of them God was not well pleased." How many of those original million actually entered into the Promised Land? Two.

Joshua and Caleb.

Some, it says, succumbed to the lust of evil things. Some became idolaters. It says, "They ate, they drank, they rose up to play." Does that sound a little bit like our society today? Some were sexually immoral. Twenty-three thousand of them died.

This morning Cedric talked about thankfulness. Some of them complained. Remember, who were they complaining against? They were complaining against Christ.

And it was a very serious thing. Someone has said that few great men finish well. And if we just think about that a little bit, how many people have a good, strong beginning? They're a great person. And then the same thing that happened to these Israelites happens to them. Something comes along, they succumb to something, and they don't finish well, and their corpses, in a sense, figuratively, are scattered in the wilderness. Joshua finished well. Caleb finished well.

And so he ends this in verse 12. He says, "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall." And I think it's a very apt warning. I know it's a warning for me. There's plenty of examples, and I think I've shared some here before, and I didn't actually look a specific one up, of athletes who the race was basically over. The snowboarder who just whipped it up on the course, and he's coming down the home stretch, and he starts to grandstand, and he slips and falls right before the finish line, and someone zooms ahead of him.

And I think that's the kind of that's the kind of attitude that Paul is really concerned about: "Let he who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall."

You know, an athlete who is sloppy, overconfident, proud, starts to grandstand is not in a very good position. And Paul says that we're going to be put to the test. He said, "No temptation"—the word temptation here is the word test—"there's no test that has overtaken you, except as common to man." We're not unique. The things that I'm going through are not unique to me. Others have gone through. And he says—and I like this promise—he says he's not going to tempt you beyond what you're able.

But with every test, there's a way through. There's a way out. There's a way to win. And so he says that rock was Christ. And if we reject these things, we can fall.

Spiritual maturity is not knowing how close to the line we can walk, but it's to recognize our weakness and distance ourselves from that which can cause us to fall. And I think there's this mentality out there that a really mature person knows exactly how far he can go, you know, and still be okay.

That's not true spiritual maturity. True spiritual maturity is having the humility to say, "I'm not going to go there because I don't want to stumble and fall."

So now I'd like to go back and end with the picture of this athlete. Paul makes the statement. He says, "Don't you know that those who run in a race, they all run, but only one gets a prize?"

In our society today, everyone gets a medal. Everyone wins. And we talked about that a little bit in our Sunday school. You know, no matter what you do, in the end, when our obituary is written and someone is preaching our sermon, we're all going to make it.

Paul is not saying here that we can't all be winners. And I think that's why he says we need to run to win. Run in such a way that you may obtain that prize.

So in a sense, the prize is within all of our grasp. And it's a challenge for each of us to take personal responsibility in that. In verse 25, he says that everyone who competes for a prize is tempered in all things. And that has the idea of training, discipline.

If you remember in the introduction here that Corinth was the site of the Isthmian Games. They were second only to the Olympic Games. And in order to participate in the Games, the athletes had to swear that they had trained diligently for at least ten months. So you couldn't even be a part of the Games unless you could testify that you trained for ten months.

Training changes everything. It changes your habits, your diet, your relationships, your routines. It all changes when you're training. Here were some rules that you had to follow to compete in the Isthmian Games. You had to be a citizen of the empire, which at that time was the Greek Empire.

You had to understand the language and speak the language of the empire. You had to arrive to the Games one month before they began. You would be inspected and tested by a governing body. Once you were approved, you couldn't withdraw from the Games. So once you're in, you're in. No backing out. There was to be no bribery or self-promotion.

Any athlete found to be in violation of the rules would be whipped, fined, and then disqualified from ever running again.

If you false starting in a race, you know, you jump ahead of the line, you go before the starting gunfires brought you a weapon.

And then, like I said, you had to swear that you had trained for at least ten months.

And Paul says, "Why did they do this? To obtain a corruptible crown." It was actually their crown was kind of a letdown. It was a laurel of olive leaves, is what it was. It wasn't even a gold medal or a bronze medal or a silver medal, as they give today. But it did, it gave them—there was more involved. It's sort of like today when an athlete wins something and they win a gold medal. It's really not the gold medal that's valuable. It's the perks that come along with that. And it was no different here. So a person that won could have a tax-free life.

No more taxes. They could have free meals at the city hall, the ability to marry whoever they chose. And of course, they were welcomed as a hero wherever they went. And again, that's a little bit the same way it is today.

When you win a gold or something like that, I mean, the sponsorships and the companies call you, and you make way more money and prestige from that. But the athletes were motivated by a couple things. Remember, they had sworn an oath that they weren't going to sin against the Games. In other words, they weren't going to cheat. They were going to play fairly.

They were motivated by being financially and socially set for life, if they so desired. And also there was the shame or fear of being disqualified. And Paul talks about that here.

If you were disqualified in one of these Games, they were required to—my understanding is—to sort of fund a statue of Zeus in bronze, and they put their name on it. And then in the arena, they would line these statues up. And all the athletes, as they come through, would have to see these statues with these names on it.

And Paul talks about being a castaway, and that's the picture. These statues that had—this person was a cheater. This person is—and it had to go past all these statues of—so there was a real big fear of being a castaway or being disqualified. And so Paul says that they do it for this crown that passes away, that is temporal. And he said, "We do it to obtain an imperishable crown, an eternal, incorruptible crown." And Paul says that, "I don't want to be disqualified."

When I think of being disqualified, I think of Lance Armstrong, who won many, many titles as an elite cyclist in the Tour de France, only to find out that he was cheating, that he was taking chemicals that helped him. And he was—he was stripped of all his medals.

And it's interesting. I go to a thrift store or something, look through the book section, and there's books that he has written. You know, it's not about the bike. And there they are on the shelf. And like, I think, who's going to buy that book? Some disqualified guy that, you know, it rings hollow. It's fake.

And Paul says that he's going to run with a purpose. He said he has a goal. "I run thus not with uncertainty."

When a runner's getting ready to start a race, he's on the starting block, and he has the goal out in front of him, whether it's hundred meters, whether it's a marathon of so many kilometers. But they look straight ahead, and they have a goal. And he says he's not going to run with uncertainty. You're not going to make a bunch of deviations in your race.

And he also said that he's not going to shadow box. You see people training, and they're just beating the air. There's really nothing happening. It's almost like the runner standing at the street corner, just running in place. I mean, running with a purpose, he says. "I'm going to box with purpose."

The word there, he says, "I discipline my body." Again, that's an interesting word in the Greek. It means to give yourself a black eye. It literally means to hit yourself under the eye. And Paul realized, I think, that the biggest hindrance to win in the race was his own self, his own selfish desires. And so basically, figuratively saying, "I gave myself a black eye. I'm training. I'm bruising my body. I bring it into subjection so that when I preach to others, that I don't become disqualified myself."

I'd like to end or in closing with the story of two races. Both of these stories involve a hundred-meter sprint. The one just happened a few weeks ago. The FISA World University Games were held in Chengdu, China. And the video of the women's hundred meters went viral. And it went viral for a very unusual reason because of runner Nasra Ali Abuqar from Somalia.

Her time of 21.81 seconds is the slowest ever in a global contest.

The problem? Ms. Nasra Abuqar Ali was not a trained runner. She wasn't even a sportsperson. She was the niece of the chairwoman of the Somali Athletic Foundation. And if you watch the video, it's incredible. I mean, there's the line. They're all on the starting line. And you can see right from the start that she didn't know what she was doing.

And the runners took off. And she's sort of running. I mean, I think she gave it all she had, but she wasn't trained. And she was almost twice as fast or twice as slow as the rest of the runners.

And she's way, way, way, way behind.

The chairwoman was subsequently suspended and relieved from her position. Ilhan Garad, a Somali commentator, wrote, "It's disheartening to witness such an incompetent government. How could they select an untrained girl to represent Somalia in running? It's truly shocking and reflects poorly on our country internationally."

So there we have a case where someone wasn't trained. They weren't trained in running. They weren't trained in a race. And they were a disgrace to the country that they represented.

The other hundred-meter race involved Eric Little. And some of you know this story. Eric was born to parents who were missionaries to China. He came back to Scotland. They were from Scotland. He came back to Scotland for boarding school and realized that he had a tremendous talent for running.

And it came to the point where no one could beat him in the hundred meters. And so he was entered to run in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. While he was preparing for the Games, he realized that the hundred-meter race was to be run on Sunday.

And he said that he would not dishonor the Lord by running that race on the Lord's Day. And he faced tremendous pressure. The Prince of Wales personally talked to him and said, "Listen, just once? It's for your country." And he refused. He said, "I will not."

So at the last moment, he entered into the 400-meter race, which was not his best time, best race at all. And he trained as much as he could, but he had very little time. As he headed for the starting line that day, he opened and read a note that one of his trainers, actually a masseuse, handed him as he was going out. It said simply this: "In the old book, it says that he who honors me, I will honor, wishing you the best of success always."

Eric went on, to the amazement of everyone. He had a very unusual way of running. He put through his head back and his arms back and just gave it everything he had.

He not only run the race, but he set a new world record in 400 meters. And the Edinburgh Evening News that night said, was quoted as saying this: "It was the last 50 meters that was the making or breaking of Little."

And you know, that's kind of the way it is. He didn't win fame for the first 200 meters. He could have really done a great job in the first 200 meters and faded at the end. And that's what Paul was warning about, you know: "He that thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall."

Years later, when asked, Little said, "The secret of my success in the 400 meters is that I ran the first 200 as hard as I could. And then for the second 200, with God's help, I ran even harder."

What I like about this story is the rest of the story, though. Less than a year later, he left fame and fortune. He left it all behind and returned to China as a missionary.

As he left the station on his way, thousands of people showed up to see him off. Many of them probably thought he was being foolish, giving up all this and going back to China. China wasn't a good place at that time. It was when the rumblings of World War II were happening.

Hundreds of people gathered to watch him depart. And he spoke to them out of the train window, and he said this: "Let our motto be this: Christ for the world, for the world needs Christ." He then led the crowd in two verses of the hymn: "Jesus shall reign."

And I thought, wow, that's a sign of the times. I mean, today, try getting thousands of people and have them sing a hymn like that. They wouldn't even know what you're talking about. But "Jesus shall reign wherever the sun does his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretched from shore to shore. Till moon shall wax and wane."

And as I said, China wasn't a good place to be for a foreigner leading in the years leading up to World War II. As it became more dangerous, he sent his daughter and his two daughters, I believe, and his wife to Canada. He stayed on and was rounded up and put in a detention camp in terrible conditions. But even in those conditions, the testimony of those that knew him said that he was the bright spot of the camp. He spent a lot of time with the children, helping them in their recreation and so on, was just a blessing there.

And his health deteriorated. He died at a young age. He died in 1945 in the camp of a brain tumor that he didn't really know he had. And there's a couple quotes I'd like to that have been attributed to him. He actually has—I think there's a book that he has written. But there's a couple quotes I thought were worthwhile to mention.

He says, "It's been a wonderful experience to complete the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I've been a young lad, I've had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris." And I'm sorry. "And this race ends when God gives out the medals."

He said this: "We are all missionaries. Whether we go, wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ." And that was really challenging to me. Whether we like it or not, we're missionary. Are we drawing people, or are we repelling them? "A disciple is one who knows God personally and who learns from Jesus Christ, who most perfectly revealed God. One word stands out from all the others as key to knowing God, to having His peace and assurance in your heart. It is obedience." And that goes along with our Sunday school this morning. So I guess the question: when we think about the Apostle Paul and his goal, what was the driving factor of his life?

The race that we're all involved in, my rights, my right to what I perceive as my rights. And I have to ask myself, who am I more like as a runner? Am I like Ms. Nasra Abuqar, untrained, sort of relying on my lineage, maybe, relying on the connections that I have to qualify? Or am I an Eric Little?

I think we'd be remiss not to read Paul's words in Hebrews chapter 12. We talked this morning about the faith chapter, all those who were faithful. And I have a picture in my mind. You know, in a marathon, the largest group of spectators gather around the finish line. That's where it really is all at.

How is this person going to finish? And I'd like to sort of have the picture in my mind of a—I mean, in Paul's day, there was this arena, and that's where it all happened. And I'd like to have in my mind a picture of the finish line sort of ending up in this arena with all the spectators, the great cloud of witnesses that Paul talks about, others who are faithful.

And so Paul says Hebrews chapter 12, and I think Brother Philip read this a couple weeks ago: "Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, whether it be our rights, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Let's run to win this morning. Does anyone have any comments?