SERMON NOTES: CELEBRATION SERVICE, August 10
I always begin my msg. with something funny:
I saw a billboard sign that said:
NEED HELP, CALL JESUS 1-800-005-3787
Out of curiosity, I did.
A Hispanic gentleman showed up with a lawnmower.
Today we continue a new sermon series entitled GOD’S OLYMPICS…
Today’s Focus is Focus…hee hee
I mean we’re talking about FOCUS
Have you been watching NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing??
(thoughts on viewing…)
Today's Pentecostal Evangel: Laura Wilkinson
Did you hear the theme for this year’s Olympics?
ONE WORLD ONE DREAM
There’s two directions I could go in response to this theme…
One is to see the surprising link to what Revelations reveals about the end of days…
Scripture says in Rev. 13 that ALL the world will marvel and follow the Antichrist…all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast…
Christians have always been leery of anything that begins with ONE WORLD…
Yet, with much wisdom, we could look at the theme thru the eyes of the Olympic spirit (lower case s)…
The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games explains the theme this way…
“One World One Dream” fully reflects the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit – unity, friendship, progress, harmony, participation and dream. It expresses the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace. We belong to the same world and we share the same aspirations and dreams…
This theme very much reflects the ideals of Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic games…we talked about him last wk…
along these lines, Pierre explains the Olympic flag and rings…
These five rings – blue, yellow, black, green and red – represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other. Moreover, the six colours (including the white background) thus combined represent those of all nations, without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden the blue and white of Greece, the French, English, American, German, Belgian, Italian and Hungarian tricolours, the yellow and red of Spain are side by side with the new Brazilian and Australian flags, the old Japan and the new China. It is a true international emblem…
Truth is, this all reads like the scriptures mandate for love, unity, peace…We’re all God’s children…
And, yet that truly is what begins to separate us…so many do not want to belong to God…they want to be God…and this is where the Olympics gets dangerous…sometimes it promotes worship of man, even the human body, idolatry, worshipping the created instead of the Creator…let alone its’ link to greek mythology…
Sounds like the wrong FOCUS…
Moving on, This week I decided to become incredibly creative, so I made an acronym for FOCUS…
all the scriptures I found are ofcourse the apostle Paul…he compared the Christian life to athletics constantly…
F is for Faithful
2 Timothy 4:7…I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…
O – Obedient
2 Timothy 2:5…And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules…
C – Christ (you may notice, Christ is in the center)
Philippians 3:14…I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…
U – Unwavering
Hebrews 12:1…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, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…
S – Secure
Philippians 2:16…Holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain…
This series of course centers around the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Cor 9:24 thru 27… (front of bulletin)
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…
This scripture says so many things…
This week the words: TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS smacked me in the face…
Have you ever struggled with your own temperament…
I know I have…sometimes I drive myself crazy!
How can we truly be TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS
Always giving the right emotional response no matter the circumstance…
First of all ONLY BY HIS STRENGTH
BY HIS SPIRIT
and truthfully, you will never arrive
I think we’ll be TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS when we reach heaven…
Until then, we’re running this race trying to achieve it…
We are all athletes in God’s Olympics…If we are Running the race of the Christian life, Focus is an important ingredient to success…
Rome, 1960…Throughout her childhood, all Wilma Rudolph wanted to be was a normal kid. As a toddler, double pneumonia and scarlet fever kept her bed-ridden while other kids played outside. When she was just four years old, she contracted polio, which crippled her left leg and forced her to wear a heavy, metal brace wherever she went.
For seven years, she and her mother made weekly 100-mile treks for treatments on her leg and her brothers and sisters took turns massaging it daily. Then, when she was 11 years old, Wilma could finally walk without the brace and her hope of being a normal kid was finally in sight.
But a strange thing happened. Rather than just keeping up with the other kids, she outran them. At 16 she won a Bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics. At 20, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympiad. It turned out that her dreams of being a normal kid never came true after all.
Have you ever heard it said…YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY???
I think if the woman in this story would have focused only on her problems she would have never had her miracle…
I always begin my msg. with something funny:
I saw a billboard sign that said:
NEED HELP, CALL JESUS 1-800-005-3787
Out of curiosity, I did.
A Hispanic gentleman showed up with a lawnmower.
Today we continue a new sermon series entitled GOD’S OLYMPICS…
Today’s Focus is Focus…hee hee
I mean we’re talking about FOCUS
Have you been watching NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing??
(thoughts on viewing…)
Today's Pentecostal Evangel: Laura Wilkinson
Did you hear the theme for this year’s Olympics?
ONE WORLD ONE DREAM
There’s two directions I could go in response to this theme…
One is to see the surprising link to what Revelations reveals about the end of days…
Scripture says in Rev. 13 that ALL the world will marvel and follow the Antichrist…all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast…
Christians have always been leery of anything that begins with ONE WORLD…
Yet, with much wisdom, we could look at the theme thru the eyes of the Olympic spirit (lower case s)…
The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games explains the theme this way…
“One World One Dream” fully reflects the essence and the universal values of the Olympic spirit – unity, friendship, progress, harmony, participation and dream. It expresses the common wishes of people all over the world, inspired by the Olympic ideals, to strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace. We belong to the same world and we share the same aspirations and dreams…
This theme very much reflects the ideals of Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic games…we talked about him last wk…
along these lines, Pierre explains the Olympic flag and rings…
These five rings – blue, yellow, black, green and red – represent the five parts of the world now encompassed by Olympism and ready to compete against each other. Moreover, the six colours (including the white background) thus combined represent those of all nations, without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden the blue and white of Greece, the French, English, American, German, Belgian, Italian and Hungarian tricolours, the yellow and red of Spain are side by side with the new Brazilian and Australian flags, the old Japan and the new China. It is a true international emblem…
Truth is, this all reads like the scriptures mandate for love, unity, peace…We’re all God’s children…
And, yet that truly is what begins to separate us…so many do not want to belong to God…they want to be God…and this is where the Olympics gets dangerous…sometimes it promotes worship of man, even the human body, idolatry, worshipping the created instead of the Creator…let alone its’ link to greek mythology…
Sounds like the wrong FOCUS…
Moving on, This week I decided to become incredibly creative, so I made an acronym for FOCUS…
all the scriptures I found are ofcourse the apostle Paul…he compared the Christian life to athletics constantly…
F is for Faithful
2 Timothy 4:7…I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…
O – Obedient
2 Timothy 2:5…And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules…
C – Christ (you may notice, Christ is in the center)
Philippians 3:14…I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…
U – Unwavering
Hebrews 12:1…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, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…
S – Secure
Philippians 2:16…Holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain…
This series of course centers around the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Cor 9:24 thru 27… (front of bulletin)
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…
This scripture says so many things…
This week the words: TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS smacked me in the face…
Have you ever struggled with your own temperament…
I know I have…sometimes I drive myself crazy!
How can we truly be TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS
Always giving the right emotional response no matter the circumstance…
First of all ONLY BY HIS STRENGTH
BY HIS SPIRIT
and truthfully, you will never arrive
I think we’ll be TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS when we reach heaven…
Until then, we’re running this race trying to achieve it…
We are all athletes in God’s Olympics…If we are Running the race of the Christian life, Focus is an important ingredient to success…
Rome, 1960…Throughout her childhood, all Wilma Rudolph wanted to be was a normal kid. As a toddler, double pneumonia and scarlet fever kept her bed-ridden while other kids played outside. When she was just four years old, she contracted polio, which crippled her left leg and forced her to wear a heavy, metal brace wherever she went.
For seven years, she and her mother made weekly 100-mile treks for treatments on her leg and her brothers and sisters took turns massaging it daily. Then, when she was 11 years old, Wilma could finally walk without the brace and her hope of being a normal kid was finally in sight.
But a strange thing happened. Rather than just keeping up with the other kids, she outran them. At 16 she won a Bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics. At 20, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympiad. It turned out that her dreams of being a normal kid never came true after all.
Have you ever heard it said…YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY???
I think if the woman in this story would have focused only on her problems she would have never had her miracle…
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