Are You a Spiritual Athlete?

Are you a spiritual athlete? I started thinking about this sermon a few weeks ago when Dale talked to me about giving something especially for Trinidad and Tobago. I would always think about your athletes there and how impressive, as I remember telling someone, I was at a hotel and didn't think much of cricket players.

I didn't play much and I was in St. Lucia, staying at a hotel that the guys from Trinidad came in and they were just playing a game. I looked and they made me look small and they were they were impressive looking athletes.

So I ask you the question, are you a spiritual athlete? Perhaps you are a runner. Do you run? Have you ever run a marathon? 26.2 miles. I remember running a 10k which was just six and a half miles and it was it took me so long to train for that. I can tell it was a few pounds ago and a few years ago. But I wondered what it was like. I wondered if I could ever, and that was kind of on my bucket list, that bucket got thrown out a long time ago, of running a marathon in my lifetime. Because I looked and saw how much dedication and training and what it took to be a great runner.

I know the greatest runners in the world are from Kenya, in Kenya and Africa. And so they they went back and did a study because no matter where a marathon would be, if there was a Kenyan in the race, they would always win. Sometimes if there were two or three they would place first, second, third. They were so so much better than everybody else. What was it about them? And they went back to some of their homes and where they were going to school and started when they were very young. And many of them lived quite a distance from the school. And so they would run to school every morning and then they would run to home in the evening.

But they trained as athletes to run in competitions at 12 noon when it was the hottest. And they found out here they were. It was, you know, 95, 100 degrees. And that's the time that they chose to train and to practice and to run. So when they get somewhere it just doesn't seem like it's that big a deal.

As a matter of fact, it's so impressive that anyone that can come over from Kenya has been able to to run for the United States even in some Olympics because even there, there are some of their 20 through 25 runners end up at some of the top universities as top runners. Impressive being able to run, run the race as we've been told, as we heard just in the song about running the race.

Do we realize we're running that race now and that we are to be spiritual athletes? And you may say, well, wait a minute because I just had my 62nd birthday. And I'd say, well, I'm not like I was 10 years ago. And I was like 20 years ago. What does God expect from me as a spiritual athlete, even if you're older or are a lot older than I am?

Maybe it's time. Maybe I've run my race. Have we? Have you run your race to the end? Let me give an example. Sometimes we may look as humans. We may look as individuals and say, well, that's not very impressive. I'm not impressed by that. Look at over here. And this is an incredible example. Why doesn't God call them? Well, God has his reasons, and he's smarter than all of us. And he calls us a lot of times because of what's in here, not what's out here. I think a good example of that is a man by the name of Cliff Young.

Cliff Young, 61 years of age, lived, was a farmer, a potato farmer, and raised sheep and cows in Australia. And Cliff Young, at 61 years of age, heard of a race they were having, a race from Melbourne to Sydney, 544 miles, or 875 kilometers. It was not a marathon, but an ultra-marathon, that they were having this grand race, and they have it every year now. Top athletes in the world come as they make sure that they've run many marathons because they are to run the 544 miles. In Trinidad, that would be like starting at the very bottom of the island and running up to the very top end of the island, then running back, and then running halfway again in a race.

This ultra-marathon usually took five to six days to run this ultra-marathon. Now get that, that's over 100 miles a day. 100 miles a day running. And so most athletes showed up in 1983 when Cliff showed up. Most athletes were 30 or under. They were sponsored by Nike, ASICS, Puma. All these athletes had all this athletic wear as they had been running. And so as they're getting in and stretching and ready for this incredible race, up walks Cliff Young, 61 years old, in bibbed-over als and a pair of rubber boots.

They look at him and say, what are you doing? He said, I'm here to run the race. They said, have you ever run a marathon? No. You've never even run a marathon in your life? He said, no, no, but I have chased my sheep and goats and cows all over the ranch. And one time when I was younger, I was working on a place that had 2,000 acres, and we had 2,000 head of sheep, and I had to run after them. We didn't have a tractor. We didn't have anything to go after, and we didn't even have dogs. So I ran, and so I've done that all my life.

And they said, you don't belong here. You've never even run a marathon. You don't look the part. You don't have the experience. And he said, do you realize that these athletes have been training for years and that they will run for 18 hours, sleep 6 hours, get up, and do it again for 5 to 6 days? He said, well, I'll just try it my way. And he did. He did. And he didn't, in the first day when they only took off, he wasn't really running. It was more of a shuffle. It became known as a Cliff Young shuffle, as he would just plod along, kind of like the tortoise and the hare, except all these runners, man, they were out of the box.

18 hours, they ran, left him in their dust, and they went to sleep. The only unique part was Cliff Young didn't go to sleep. He ran all day and all night, and he ran, and he ran. And they were asking him as they were giving him water at different times that he was running. He said, no, I've had to run after cows and sheep for two or three days without even sleeping, so I think I can do this.

And he kept running. And the next morning, they get up, and he's a little bit closer, and they continue to run until it finally comes to the last day.

And as they get up that last morning, they realize that Cliff Young, 62 years old, non-athlete farmer, had something inside that they didn't have. He didn't sleep for five days, and he did the shuffle all the way to in the last day. He crossed the finish line way before any of the other runners, and he won the prize, which was at that time like ten thousand dollars, which would be thirty, forty thousand at the time now. And you know, when he got done, they looked at those rubber boots. They looked at these these bibbed-over awes, and they just looked, and they were in awe.

And he decided, it's all right, you guys really worked hard, and you really practiced hard. So he split his earnings with the top four people. An incredible true story of a man who was an athlete. He just didn't look the part. How about us? Sometimes we do not look the part, perhaps, of a spiritual athlete. We do not look the part of a deeply spiritual person. But it is what's in here. And God is blessing us. And he wants us to win the race of a lifetime. You might even say the race of eternity. I'd like you to go with me, 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 24. I'll read from the New Living Translation. As Paul is trying to tell us, he's trying to let them get the picture that this is big, and it's big for us. It's big for us, brother. He said, don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? And then he says, so run, run to win.

Verse 25. Verse 25. He's saying all athletes are disciplined in their training. How disciplined are we in our spiritual athletics? They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it. Why? We do it for an eternal prize, eternal life. Brethren, we run. It is a gift from God, as it says in Romans, but we have to do things to show that we deserve the gift.

So I run with purpose in every step. Are we like Paul? Do we run? Do we get every day and have a step? I am not just shadowboxing. Not where you go against the wall and you check your see if your shoulder's up, see if your chin's down, see your jab. Shadowboxing. It doesn't really accomplish anything other than just gives you a little bit of training. But Paul is telling, I'm not just shadowboxing. I'm in this race. I'm being an athlete, serious spiritual athlete, because there's eternal life at the end of the line, at the finish line. It's eternal life, brethren, for you and for me. Verse 27. Verse 27, I discipline my body like an athlete. Wow! Paul is telling us what we need to do. We have to discipline our body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Yeah, what about this? Do we study the Bible? Do we pray? Do we do all these things? Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be what? Disqualified. Disqualified. That means he needed to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Is that for us too? In these times, it's so unsettling. In these times where people worry, people are fearful, and everything else, what are we to do? Continue training. Continue training. Being a spiritual athlete, putting everything into this run. This race we are to run. I'd like you to go with me too, 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, verse 7 in the New Living Translation. Paul tells Timothy, Paul's at the end of the line. He's about to be killed. He knows that. And he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. Brethren, what I wouldn't give to say those words. What I wouldn't give to say those words like Paul. How about you? And then he says, And now the prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward. To what? To his appearing. We look forward to that when we're changed in a moment and a twinkling of an eye. But Paul, even in his last moments, he's relating this not only to Timothy, but to those that Timothy will teach, and to those who are now almost 2,000 years later of running the race. And he's telling us to run. Run! Run, brethren! Run with passion! Get up in the morning! Oh, well, no, I just, man, I'm tired. I don't feel really like doing anything today. Hmm.

There was an athlete, incredible athlete. His name was David Thompson. He's a basketball player. I happen to know it because I was a young kid of 14, 15 when he was just graduating from college. He was one of the top college players in the nation, went on to be an amazing pro. But David Thompson had a coach at this camp that I went to to try to be a better basketball athlete. I went there and spent a week, and one of his coaches that actually coached him said the amazing part about David Thompson, we all knew he was a best athlete, best basketball player. He was like the apex of everything. And so he told us, he said, you know, I coached him three years in college. And one of the things that he did is that every single day, every single day, whether he was sick, whether he was tired, no matter what happened, he grabbed the basketball and he went out for at least two hours. And many times it was four hours, and he just shot the ball. Just shot the ball. Just kept practicing. Practicing his moves, practicing his dribble. Every single day he did not miss one single day. Becoming a better athlete. Brother, what about us? Have we have been sick sometimes? I know I'm guilty of this. I was sick, that man just felt miserable, and I just like tried to read the Bible, and I didn't really. Didn't get much if I got any. I'm sick! Well, you know, I've known people who have cancer who are dying, and they didn't feel very good, and I could relate to how that was at one time, but people who ran the race at the end, and you know a lot of many of them just had their Bible reading it. Why? We're still running the race. He just knew what was important to be a spiritual athlete, just like David Thompson knew what it was for basketball. He knew he must practice every single day, and one of the reasons he said that was he wanted to become a pro, and he became an all-star. He went into the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest basketball players ever. Michael Jordan called David Thompson the reason he was a player that he was, because he watched, and he wanted to be like David Thompson. But David Thompson, I always said, even in college, that, well, if I'm not out there, maybe somebody else is, and they'll be practicing, and I'll have to face that person. I want to be the best I can be is what he told his coaches. Do we have that same passion about this, about the Word of God, about the race that we're running, the race that Paul ran? I could see Paul as a incredible spiritual athlete, can't you?

Do we? Do we want to do that? Do we want to be one of the greatest?

Will we end up in the Hall of Fame? You know, in the Basketball Hall of Fame? It's in Springfield, Massachusetts, and you can go there, and you can see the greatest ever, whoever played. And then you can go to Canton, Ohio, and you can see the Football Hall of Fame. It's those for the greatest football players of all time there, and they have their bus there, and they have all this writing about them, and now they have video and so forth about them. And then you even have the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, for the greatest baseball players that ever played. They are enshrined, as they say, in the Hall of Fame. Do you know God has a Hall of Fame like that? And he puts it here in his Bible. He puts those members in the Bible.

And it's what? T-Bruise 11. T-Bruise 11. You can find out who's in the Hall of Fame. And maybe someday our name will be in the Hall of Fame, because those will be in the Kingdom of God. Eternal life, experience, eternal life. Yes, are we going to have little issues like, really? And I say, well, you're going to say, little issues with this COVID thing? Yes, brother. Yes.

This too shall pass. We'll overcome this. And there's a Bible that will be even, I'm sure there will be even more and bigger problems down the road. But we're conditioning. We're conditioning ourselves to handle that, to handle those problems, handle those things. We're getting in shape, brother, and we need to be in shape. We are God's spiritual athletes on this earth.

Do you want to be? Do you want to be? One of the greatest basketball coaches ever. Women's basketball was Pat Summitt from Tennessee. Year after year she would win. Win and win and win. The only thing people didn't realize or even forgot was that she was an all-American player. She played hard. She knew what it was. And so she pushed her girls for not only being the best they could be, but coming together as a team. And she won title after title because she could pull people together to have the same goal, to have the same passion. We need that in Tobago and Trinidad. And I went through the whole entire Caribbean. But I'd like to see Trinidad and Tobago lead the way. I'd like to see some of those top athletes that come out of there so that we understand. Let's go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 and verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses, where are we? What witnesses? Hebrews 11, the chapter before, was all about the Hall of Fame, the Spiritual Hall of Fame. Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us trip off every weight that slows us down. How about those sins? Especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run. Run! What? Run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We know those sins. We need to be working on those. Can we? Do we? Take, for example, Dwight York. Dwight York. You know him? He's one of Trinidad's greatest footballers or soccer players ever. I found an interesting story about him. He's retired now and lives a different life. But when he was at his peak, when he was at a peak athlete status, he went and played a game and it was a tie game. And it went on for hours and he was just exhausted and the whole team came in and everybody was just tired so they all just kind of rested and went over to get a beer or something to drink. And he went up to his room and his coach went up and found him. Sitting there after he'd done all this and he was doing sit-ups. He was doing 200 sit-ups and 200 push-ups and he's going, what are you doing?

And he said, I don't want to have another tie. I could do better. What an example in boxing, as Paul mentioned even before about boxing. The greatest boxers ever was Rocky Marciano. Rocky Marciano. Not that big. Barely 200 pounds. But he's the heavyweight champion of the world and he was undefeated. One of the things that people don't realize as I was reading a story about him not long ago is that he never went out of shape. He never got out of shape. He would train for a fight but when he wasn't training for a fight for the next match, he was getting up every day running six miles at least and sometimes up to 16 miles. And if he didn't didn't quite if he was sore or whatever and couldn't do it, he would run the six miles and then walk 10 more in the evening after he had already trained hitting the boxes, hitting the bag. He went so far as the average heavy bag, as they call it, that you punch, most of them were 210 pounds. He had his 300 pounds so that even his impact, he could move the bag and it was it was it was more of a challenge for him than anything else. Do we go above and beyond? And everybody said he out trained us. He couldn't he he wasn't that good of a skill of a boxer. And then he said, man, Jersey Joe Walker better, Ezra Charles better, Joe Lewis better, but he just gave it everything he had all the time. These are examples for us. We need to be spiritually in shape, not allow different things from the outside to affect us. Matthew 12. I mean, Matthew 24. We know is a sermon on the mouth. Matthew 24 in verse 12 in the New Living Translation said, sin will be rapid. When? In the last days. That's what he's talking about. They said, well, what will be like the last day? So he's saying in verse 12, sin will be rapid everywhere and the love of many will wax cold. Do we see that now? Do we see that? Yes, sin is rapid. Do the love of many wax cold? Will it happen to us? Will it happen in Trinidad? Cold! Sorry, you guys in Trinidad don't know what cold is. Cold to you is very comfortable a lot of times to us. But I've been in cold weather. I've been in freezing weather. The coldest I've ever been in is about 15 below zero. And it just, everything hurts and stings. The love of many will wax cold.

It will grow cold. What's your temperature? Has this year, has the issues and problems even in your personal life or nationally or internationally, has it caused you to turn cold to where you're going? Well, I don't know that this is really what I don't know if it's that big a deal. It is something that we need to look at. Are we cooling down? Brother, have we allowed things to get us colder, as I say. You play a game as a kid. I don't remember I was talking to Mary about this and it was like you would tell somebody, you're getting as they get to wherever something is hidden. You're getting colder, you're getting hotter, you're getting colder, you're getting colder, colder, colder. Or you go hot, hot, you're burning up. Remember that game? Does God look at us sometimes that way and want to say, you're, no, no, you're getting hotter, you need to get, you know.

Are we just getting colder and colder? And he worries about us. He worries that we're getting too cold, we're getting, we're getting cool, we're moving away from him, we're moving away from the passion from being a spiritual athlete. This is what we need to do.

We must have that relationship with God. We must, we must know what it takes to stay in shape. Brethren, the more of God we want, the less of earth we covet. The more of God we want, the less of earth we cover. What has, what has this earth got for us? What is God gonna plan for us? It can't even compare to this.

Do we? Do we want more of this than we do? What God has promised us? Do we look around and say, I want the car. I want the nice car. I want the car. I drove somewhere in Miami just the other day and there was this parking thing and there was this Lamborghini, it's $250,000, $300,000 car. And so I even felt odd as I was pulling in to the shipping company and here it was sitting and I thought, well I sure don't want to scratch that. And as I got out, I just couldn't help but look.

But is that where it ends? It has to. Look and go, hey that's a nice car, but I don't want to pay $250,000. I couldn't even probably pay the insurance on what it costs for it. But it's so important to that person to be known, whether it's important for us to be known as spiritual athletes. Are we? See, because we are only mortal. We are only mortal until God's work in us is complete. I don't know when that's going to be, but he does. We have to leave that in his hands. He just tells us to run. Run! Run my race! Run! Are we spiritually conditioning our bodies every day? Are we reading? Are we studying? Are we sharpening our body? Just like a lot of athletes find now that it's easier to find somebody they can run with. They can run with and the person pushes them.

Perhaps we need somebody that we can spiritually run with that can help push us, or we can push them, or we can work to cross that finish line together. That wonderful finish line in Trinidad. Matthew Henry, the great theologian, says, it ought to be our business of every day to prepare for our last day. That's right. It ought to be our business of every day to prepare for our last day. Are we that way? Are we looking at the line? Do we get up every morning, realize there's a finish line, and that we're running that race? And we want to finish.

You see, true spiritual athletes never retire. Not until God's done with us. We do our best. See, great athletes are not just conditioning themselves by running and keeping their body fine-tuned, but they also stay away from things. They have to stay away from certain foods. They stay away from drugs. They stay away from people who are a bad influence. Why? So they can win the race. What does that tell us? What we need to do as spiritual athletes? There's some things that we need to stay away from. There are some people we need to stay away from if we're going to finish the line, finish the race, make it to the finish line. Just over 60 days from here, we have what they call in Miami for the Miami Dolphins training camp. It's where they come in and they're weighed, and they come in and see how well they're conditioned, their body fat, how they run sprints, how they do all this stuff. They do that before the season even begins because they want to see what condition they are in. They examine them. They examine them. They have doctors examining them, their health. They have their feet from their head to their toes. A complete examination, and in 60 days God's going to ask us a little over 60 days to do an examination for our spiritual condition as we enter the spring holy day season. Is it time for us to start examining our condition now? 60 days out? If you want to be a top athlete by the time spiritual athlete, by the time Passover gets here, by the time the spring holy days are here, maybe we should look now. Maybe we should start looking, looking inward, seeing ourselves. See, an athlete is dedicated to their sport if they're going to be great, if they're going to be in the Hall of Fame. They're truly dedicated day in, day out to that sport. Brethren, we, we must be dedicated to our God. That's what defines a spiritual athlete, one who wants to make it happen. We're committed, brethren, to being holy, putting away some things that keep us from that, looking at ourselves and being honest, and saying, God, I know I come up short. Help me. Help me be a better athlete. Help me to get, help me to get in better shape. We build character. Build character that says, I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to quit just because it may be easier, an easier path, easier road when I feel like I'm already burdened down. Brethren, there can't be quit in us. We cannot quit. We must be able to continue. I want to look as I wrap this up today. Time always goes so fast when you're passionate about something and I'm passionate about you guys. I am. I love all of you. I can say that wholeheartedly and anybody that knows, spend time with the brethren in Trinidad, same way. And so, I want us to cross that finish line together. I want to work. I want to spend time with you for eternity. I want you to be with me. I need to do my part. I want to help you do yours because you do help me do mine. I want to look because Paul uses that word run. Run. Running. In the Greek. In the Greek, it's a word called traco. It's pronounced traco. T-R-E-C-H-O. Traco. And it not only means to run, but it means to strive, to run, and to give awe, to run, and give extreme effort. That means you lay everything, as they say, out on the field. As I heard an athlete say the other day, man, I, he got beat in the NFL playoffs or whatever, and he said, I left it all on the field. When I came on, I was exhausted. I couldn't do anybody. I couldn't give anymore. I gave it all. Brethren, shouldn't that be us?

Shouldn't we be like that? Because this traco, it's even used in other Greek literature. And that's the amazing part. It's used not only for athletics, but for one who, like a love story, they would actually use it there. They would use traco, because it meant that the person gave it all. He gave that other person everything they had. He loved with all his might. What was soul? Can we run with everything? All our heart, all our soul, and our mind. Isn't that what Christ was talking about? Isn't that what Christ said of what the first commandment was all about? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your being. This is what he's asking us to do. Honestly, I can do a better job. I want this message to motivate me. I hope it motivates you, because I want to do better. I want to do it. I want to give all, because my Lord and Savior did it for me, and He did it for you. He gave it all.

Let me ask you another question.

Is a lazy Christian really a Christian? Is a lazy Christian really a Christian? How can you be? Because you need, I need, we all need to give it our all. To have passion, to have zeal. That's why I like working with people. Dale has passion. Lennox has passion. Julia has passion. Junior has passion. And Deira has, all of you have passion.

And some of the younger, Stephian, Tiffian, the Marron boys, I mean, have passion. We need that. We need that if we're going to cross the finish line. If we're going to run that race, run that race, and be in that race, even if we fall down, even if we stumble, and sometimes we will. Sometimes we're going to be running that race, and we'll stumble. And what are we to do? Get up. Get up. The poem says, and run that race. Get up! Don't just lay there, because God wants us to finish. Wants us to finish. Let's go to the last, last scripture. Last scripture is Philippians 2. Philippians 2. New Living Translation. Philippians 2. Here Paul is telling one of his favorite churches, because they were one of his most dedicated churches. And he says, dear friends, you always followed my instructions, and when I was with you, when I was with you, and now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. Obeying, what? Obeying God with deep reverence and fear. Verse 13. For God is working in you, giving you the desire, the desire, brethren, and the power to do what pleases him.

Do everything without complaining and arguing. Isn't that hard to do sometimes? Oh wow! We just went, oh yeah, but look what happened to us, and look what that is, and I had the opportunity to help somebody this week. And I wanted to help them, but it turned into, wow, a bigger job than I ever thought. It was more challenging than I thought. I just thought it was going to be this, and next thing you know, ah, I was shocked. But you know what? It was part of the race. It was part of the training.

If God didn't require spiritual athletes, anybody could do this. He wouldn't even even give the Holy Spirit. But you know, at that time, the day before yesterday, I needed the Holy Spirit on my drive back home.

Because it got in my head. I knew it because even Mary goes, what's wrong with you? You're not talking. Well, I realized I still had some conditioning to do. I still do, and I need your help, and you need each other. We all need each other because we have the same father and the same elder brother.

So let's go to verse 15. So that no one can criticize you to live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people, was not useless. This advice of living this way, it's not useless. Hold firmly to the Word of Life. Then, on the date of Christ's return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain, and that my work was not useless. Let us not run the race in vain, but let us run, run, looking for that finish line, looking to cross that finish line so God can say, well done. Good and faithful servant. Cross it, Tiffy. Cross that line. Cross that line, Carlos.

This is what we need to do. This is what our attitude needs to be, so that we realize we get up every day, it's a race. And we're conditioned and we're going to run that race, and we're going to win that race, because God is going to help us. What do we need?

We need the book. We have our instructions. We have our coaching. Our coaching is here. Our running coach. Our track coach is in here. We just need to read those instructions about how to become a stronger, better spiritual athlete. It's all in your Bibles.

And then we have to do it.

So, brethren, let us run the race. Let us run to win.

That's what God wants from us. Are you conditioning yourself? Or is it time that you looked at yourself and say, I need a new pair of shoes? I need to, I need some more weights. I need to do some things, because I want to run to win.

Brethren, I want to inspire you. Let us all run to win.