Being Part of God's Spiritual Olympics

I'm sure you know that the Olympics started in Paris, France. They had the opening ceremonies yesterday. They had over 10,000 athletes that attended. Only Russia and Belarus were banned because of their war on Ukraine. Belarus is an ally of Russia. But it was sad that now the Olympics usually had to do with athletics. Now it became more of glorifying the new type of genders.

They even had a scene instead of Leonardo da Vinci that painted the Last Supper with Christ and his disciples. They actually had the Last Supper but with drag queens. And of course, very offensive to anybody that has a religion. But that's how degenerate things have become. And believe me, it's just one more nail on the world's coffin. We do have a living God.

And unfortunately, he is going to intervene in world affairs. He's not going to let the world just continue flaunting their noses, thumbing their noses at God. He's very patient. He's long suffering. But he did not create us to become just a degenerate Sodom and Gomorrah type of society. And I know there's a lot of good things, too. But turn with me to Revelation 9.

As you know, Revelation is the last book in the Bible. And it's the one where God revealed what was going to happen in the future. It actually reveals when Christ will come back and the state of the world when Christ comes back. Revelation 9, verse 1, it says, Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Because there's going to be a time when God is going to begin to intervene.

And he is going to take charge. And it's not going to be a pretty moment. Unfortunately, man in the last 60-70 years has been headed toward defying God. Notice what it says here in verse 13. Because unfortunately, when I came to this church, we really didn't know how much time we had left. At that time, I still remember, I attended 1970. That's 54 years ago. And the big concern was the atomic explosions in the atmosphere. That they were doing these tests. And then they found out about the electromagnetic pulse and how that fries the electronics.

And so they had to ban it at the time. But it showed, now we've multiplied all of these nuclear weapons. And that electromagnetic effect, having a hydrogen bomb explode in the atmosphere, would fry the electronics of cars, computers, everything in an area probably 20-30 miles around. Cars would stop in the freeway. There would be nothing there. And so that hasn't been solved.

We're just thankful that God has given us more time to live. But it goes on to say in verse 13. Then the third angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, talking about in heaven, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, released the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates.

That's the river that divides the Middle East from the Far East. From east of the Euphrates, you basically get into the Asian nations. And so you're going to have a horde of Chinese, Russians, and all of these. They're going to have an invasion toward the Middle East. And so God knows exactly when that's going to happen. It hasn't happened yet. It says, so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. So you see, a lot of people, they'll just thumb their noses at God, and you're never going to do anything.

We'll do what we want. This Olympics opening was really an affront to God. And if you just look at YouTube and just put down what happened there, just how much it deteriorated, something beautiful like the Olympics, became a drag queen type of parade.

And then it says, now the army of the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them. Now, before the 20th century, you didn't have enough soldiers to have 200 million. That's talking about our days. China can certainly muster 200 million just by themselves. And then it says, verse 18, by these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed. That's approximately over 2 billion people. By the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which was cast out of their mouths. And then notice, it says, verse 20, but the rest of mankind, those who survived, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands.

See, they still are so stubborn now. Their mind is set on their perversions. They're not going to give them up. They will not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons. And of course, mankind worships demons more than ever before. Just look at all the horror movies and witchcraft.

And you probably know some witches that go to your school. They have Satan clubs now and all of these things. Worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. So they have all kinds of religious paraphernalia and all of these gothic type wear and jewelry that you see. And they did not repent of their murders. Certainly, we have more murders. And although they try to tap it down, you look at the statistics. And how many people are killed? If less than four people are killed, they don't regard that as a mass shooting type of thing.

It has to have five or more people. It's not even in the statistics about mass shootings. They play around with the statistics, but I'll tell you, it's a violent world. Or there are sauceries, which has to do, again, with all kinds of magic and spells and seeking demons to tell their destinies, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Well, how many people have been victims of thefts? I just heard one member who had their car broken into, the purse was stolen, and that's just common nowadays. You got to lock your houses, lock your cars. You see, this is all something that did not happen 60, 70 years ago, but it has happened now. So we cannot harden our hearts or our minds. We'll end up paying the price for these things. So what I'd like to do is compare the Olympics that are going on with over 10,000 athletes.

Of course, it's over two weeks long, and the best trained compete for the glory of having a gold medal, if possible. For them, they've trained a lot, all their lives, for this fleeting moment to go there and try to win one of these gold medals.

But did you know we are participating in another type of Olympics? God's Spiritual Olympics. Each person here has been called to be part of God's Spiritual Olympics, something that is not going to fade in time. That people are just going to forget about it, but it's something lasting, something so great and glorious. We really cannot imagine how great it is if we are faithful to the end. And here we are so many decades later, and we're still running that spiritual race. We're still in God's Olympics.

Notice in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24-27, 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24-27, the apostle Paul, who lived in Corinth for a year and a half, raised the church up. Here were these people that had no idea about God's truths, and yet through his preaching and others, they were able to be part of that Corinthian church. Mostly Greeks, but there were converted Jews as well. And so he told these Corinthians, there are old people there as well as young. Nobody was participating in their Olympic games. They actually in Corinth had games that were called the Ithmian games, which were every two years in Greece. The Olympics was every four years. So actually they had two Ithmian games for every Olympics. And right after the Olympics, the next year, the athletes were invited to go to Corinth. And then the year before the Olympics, they would again have another one of these. So the Corinthians were very proud that all of these Greek runners, not only from the area of Greece, but the part of Turkey at that time, that Western Turkey were all these Greek cities that we mentioned before. Ephesus and Sardis and all of these were actually Greek culture. And so they all came for that. And Paul, being a very active man and very intelligent, a studious, he knew about these games, how much they got enthusiastic. And then he told these Corinthians, some people in the church in Corinth, they were already walking around in crutches and old age. Some were very young. But he said, brethren, God has called you to be part of these Olympics that are so much greater. And he says, if you take this seriously, if you really want this more than anything else in your life, you can have the greatest reward. And he compares it to those Ithman games. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, I'm going to read it from the New Living Bible. It's a bit more clear. He says, don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. So run to win. You're winning, or you are running your own spiritual race. The competitor is not someone else. It's you. You yourself. How good can you improve? How can you better yourself? He says, all athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away. But we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadow boxing. They had boxing. It was one of the most rigorous of the sports. They have them in the Olympics today as well. And shadow boxing is when a person is practicing. And he's boxing his shadow. And you learn a little bit of quickness. But guess what? The shadow doesn't hit you back, does it? So he says, I'm not shadow boxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, he was a coach, I myself might be disqualified. He didn't have it all sewed up. He knew that he could still be disqualified. And so that's the way we are. In whatever condition we are, we have to be faithful, be steady, keep doing our part. Notice in Luke 10, who is God calling? Luke 10.21. God could choose the most capable people to be part of his church. They would be far more effective. I mean, he could have a Bill Gates from Microsoft be called. And I'm sure this church would be able to do a lot more with a person that has that capacity, but he hasn't called those men. And here's what Jesus Christ said in Luke 10.21.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit. He was very happy about something that he's about to say. And said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things, these wonderful truths, this way of life, from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. So God is not calling supermen or superwomen. He's not calling the great and mighty. He's calling ordinary people from all walks of life to be part of this spiritual Olympics.

Do you want to be part of that? Everybody has a choice. I remember my life. I had kind of like two paths in front of me. One, boy, the world looked so promising. I was going to follow my dad's footsteps into medicine, and I already had pre-med school prepared and thought my life was just going to be very interesting and all the rewards.

And then I found out about this church how different it was. I was going to lose my father, mother, family over it because they didn't want to go along, and I had no way to persuade them. And so because I started obeying God and His word, people turned against me, and I had all of this persecution going on.

And eventually, as it says about God saying, this is the way if you want to go, you have to follow me, and you have to put me first. Well, God helped me to do that. And I tell you, that life that I had isn't worth a plug-nickel in comparison to what is now if I continue running the race. And of course, all of you have given up so much. I know so many here also called in their youth to be able to follow God's genuine way.

It's God who calls. Notice in Luke 12, verse 32, who is He calling to God's kingdom? Is it a big church? You know, with cathedrals and power and prestige? No. No, it's a small flock, a little church that does not compromise with the truth.

Luke 32, Christ said, do not fear little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Yes, it's that little flock. We're never going to be strong or powerful in this world because you have to compromise with the truth. See, we're Sabbath keepers. Look it up in a dictionary. What day does a Sabbath mean?

It's the seventh day of the week. That is Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week. That is not God's day. That is not the fourth commandment. It is nowhere backed in the entire Bible. And so once you start learning about the truth, then are you going to conform to it? Are you going to obey it or not?

Trust God. Believe me, that spiritual Olympics, if you are part of it, you're going to gain so much in this life and in the next. Notice what Christ said in Mark chapter 10. When His disciples, they were going through tough times and they were wondering, well, is it worth it? Mark chapter 10. It says verse 28. Then Peter began to say to him, See, we have left all and followed you. Verse 29. So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, which means properties, for my sake and the Gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time.

So he says, Look, you're not going to have a cursed life because you follow me. You're going to have a blessed life. But it's not going to be the same as what the world gives you through false values. Those don't last. If you trust in the world's ways, you'll find out it's shallow, it's hollow, it's false in the end. And he says, if you are able to come to God's way, he says you're going to receive a hundredfold now in this time.

Houses. So God will provide jobs for you, but you'll be able to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

Brothers and sisters and mothers. Yes, you're going to have brothers and sisters and mothers in the church, in the faith. I remember, again, just going back to my life because that's the only one I can count on. But when I ended up in Chattanooga in 1970 with my friend from Murphy, North Carolina with me and started this way, I felt like an orphan. And then I said, well, here are God's people. These are the people that are holding on to these truths. These are my father, a mother and family that I have. That's the way we feel. And it says, and lands. So God's going to provide employment with persecutions. Oh, yes, you better get ready because you're going to see the false front of people. They're going to turn against you. Once you start obeying God, they're going to turn against you. They're going to persecute you. They're going to ridicule you. So that comes with the territory. And in the age to come, when Christ comes back, eternal life. You'll be part of that kingdom. You will receive the Medal of Gold from God Himself. And nobody can take away from you.

So we're going to now contrast the difference between being an Olympic athlete and being God's Olympic athlete. The first is how you're elected.

When you are training to be an Olympian, part of the Olympics, you're going to go through competitions. And here in California, they have local competitions, and they're continually being eliminated until the top rise up. And I met one of these great Olympians from California at the camp that we had in High Sierra. That used to be the camp called Bob Matthias camp. Bob Matthias was this young man, 17 years old, from the area of Fresno, California. But he was an extraordinary athlete at 17. He was already like 6'3 or 6'4, built like a tank. But he'd never been out of this little area that he lived in there. His coach said, Bob, you're such a good athlete. I'd like for you to go to Los Angeles and see if you can qualify for the Pentathlon, which is the 10 different sports that you can do. I heard him talk to the youth. I was part of the camp there. He gave us a speech. He said, I always wanted to go to Los Angeles. I live in this little podunk of a little place. He said, yes, I'll go. He went to Los Angeles out there in the Coliseum area. All of these were UCLA, all of these great colleges. He was competing as a high school fellow. They were looking at him. Who's he? Well, they competed. Guess what? He was number one in the Pentathlon. The 10 different sports. The Catalon. That's right. The Pentathlon is five. The Catalon means ten. The Catalon. The coach said, do you realize what you did? You just want the regional qualification. Now it's going to be the All-State. He said, okay, you're going to go over to San Francisco now. They're going to have the finals there. Would you like to go? He said, I always wanted to see San Francisco. He went number one in the Catalon. The coach said, do you know what you realize? Now you're going to go for the national championship to go into the Olympics. I think it was in Boston that they had the finals. He said, would you like to go? He said, I've always wanted to go to Boston. So there he went. After all these guys that were competing, 20, 22, 24-year-olds, here's this 17-year-old guy. He hadn't even finished high school yet. He was number one in the Catalon. He said, do you realize what you've done? You just qualified to go to London for the Olympics. Would you like to go? Oh, I'd love to go. Well, then here's a 17. I think he's 18 by now. It's about six months period. He's 18. He goes there and he sees these towering guys in the Catalon. Some of these were Germans, powerful guys, and they're looking at him and this little kid from high school. He does the 10 different... well, it's five one day and then five the other day. Different sport. So he does his part, looks up, Bob Matthias, number one for the five, and then the second day he runs the other five competitions. You know, this throwing everything. You can imagine high jump, long jump, 100 yard dash, 200 yards. And he looks up, number one, Bob Matthias. So he won the gold when he was 18 years old. And then he went when he was 22. That was in Australia. He won the gold again. And so you see these type of athletes, but they have to be very well qualified. What about our qualifications? Let's go to see the election of how you qualify before God.

Notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 26.

1 Corinthians 1 verse 26 says, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh. No, we don't have any college professors here. Not really.

Not many mighty. Any great athletes? No, not really.

Not many noble? No, we don't have any blue-blooded people here with great titles. Our call, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty.

He goes on to say, and the things which are despised, God has chosen. Those things that people don't consider. Who are you? Well, since I attended the first time, they were simple ordinary people. But we all had one thing in common.

And that's the same way here.

He goes on to say, and the things which are not, as far as recognizing the world or praised, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. So you see, God's not going to call somebody who thinks, oh, of course God had to call me. I'm such an incredible person. I'm so talented. I'm so brilliant. Of course he's going to call. Well, God doesn't want anybody boasting about their calling. So you have to be virtually just a run-of-the-mill ordinary person to be part of the church. I remember as ministers, when we'd go visiting people, I served over in San Diego, and we would always go to visit people. And usually it was kind of the worst house on the street. We could almost say, yep, must be this house. Can't be that one on the hill. That can't be this one. It's got nice cars. No, it was just a really typical and pretty low-income type of person that God calls, because he doesn't want anybody boasting about the calling. It's the same way when he called ancient Israel. Was that a great nation? Was that such an important nation? Notice in Deuteronomy 7, verse 7, he's talking here to the Israelites that he called. He brought out of Egypt. They were slaves for a long period of time. They were looked down upon by the Egyptians and others. And it says, verse 7, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You see, God does the calling, but we have to do the choosing. God leaves the choosing to us. And then, if we choose, then he will select. He will go ahead and say, okay, I'm going to accompany you throughout this life. You committed to me? I'm committed to you.

Notice in James, chapter 2.

James, chapter 2. What kind of people, again, God is calling? If you want to see a fancy church and all the power and riches around, don't come to our church. We don't even own this church. All our literature we don't sell. We use our tithes instead of buying bricks and mortar. We buy free literature so the truth can get out without anybody making a profit out of it. You cannot sell God's truth. James, chapter 2, verse 2. It says, If there should come into your assembly, or church, a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should come in a poor man in filthy clothes. A person can't dress any better, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place and say to the poor man, You stand there or sit here at my footstool, in the back, way out there someplace. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? God does the calling. I've always said, I don't choose who comes in the church. God does. I just serve whoever comes in. I don't do the choosing. I do the serving. I don't look at what they are, their condition, and that's why in the church we all sit together. I don't have a special seat here. I'm not any specc- I sit wherever because we don't show partiality. We're all brethren in the church. He says, Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him, but you have dishonored the poor man. So, like I said, this isn't the typical church that looks at the person that can maybe offer more or give- no, we serve everybody the same way. I'd say those that are even with less income, we have to serve more because they need more. Those that have more don't need the ministry quite as much.

In Luke 19 and verse 17, this is what God is offering. And, of course, first of all, you need God's Holy Spirit in you. You weren't born with God's Spirit in you. That's something that you have to ask and you have to qualify to receive God's Spirit.

In Luke 19, it says here, verse 11, Now, as they heard these things, he spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God should appear immediately. They thought, oh, Christ is going to bring his kingdom now. And he said, no, it's going to take a long time. He said, therefore, he said, a certain nobleman, talk about himself, went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, do business till I come. So what does God provide us?

He provides us with his Holy Spirit. And he says, use it, develop it, grow, because that's what the spiritual riches that I'm giving you. He doesn't give you a house. He doesn't give you a degree. He gives you of his Holy Spirit, the fruits of God's Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, meekness and self-control.

Those are all spiritual values that we have to grow. And then it goes on to say, in verse 16, he returned that he might know how much every person had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, Master, your mina, which is a certain amount of money, has earned ten minas. Through God, he was able to develop ten times the Holy Spirit than initially he received. See, God's not looking at the bank account, not looking at all the materials. He's looking, what's inside you? What kind of character is there? How much have you developed in these fruits of God's Spirit? And then he says, verse 17, here's the reward.

Here's the Olympic medal. And he said, well done, good servant, because you were faithful and very little. And the world isn't going to look at how much you develop materially. He says, look, I gave you this. I put you in the church. And I didn't put you over so much. But whatever you did. And I'll tell you, we have widows that have developed ten minas. We have persons that when they get rewarded, people are going to go, wow, I had no idea that little old lady was so dedicated.

And he says, have authority over ten cities. When Christ rules, he's going to distribute the cities to his servants and be able to govern them for a thousand years under him. That's what we are doing, running our race. Now, how do we develop also?

What do we have in common? Let's go to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9. And again, this is a calling from God to have the love of the truth. That's not something we can just do on our own. It comes from him. Notice 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 through 12. Talking about, again, future events. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonder. There's going to be a false prophet and there's going to be a man called the beast.

These are the two that are going to set up a world kingdom, but based on Satan's way. That's why it's called the lawless or the lawbreaker one. And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. So remember when you received that first love of the truth? Kind of like a first love.

It's like being in love, but not with a person, but being in love with his wonderful truths. Based on God's holy commandments and laws, which we resisted at one time, but now we love them. We love God's way and his laws.

Every one of them is for our own good. And instead of being an enemy of God, you become a friend of God. It says here, And for this reason, because the world doesn't accept that truth, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. They will be so deceived that they'll actually think the beasts and the false prophets are God's agents.

That they're good and wonderful. It's almost like what happened in Germany back in World War II, and how the German people were deceived to follow Hitler. And they just thought he was so great because he did a lot of things for them, but they didn't see what the motivation really was. He wanted to conquer the whole world and set up this system of class. And he had a lot of people convinced. Thankfully, it didn't prosper at that time, but we're going to have something that's even worse that is coming.

It says that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Unrighteousness is simply disobeying God's laws, not following it.

So in order to be a good spiritual athlete, we have to obey the rules. God's rules. Those are God's laws. For instance, soon, here in September, we'll start keeping the Feast of Trumpets. That's one of God's holy feasts. It's set in time, in the calendar, that God has biblically established. And so that is a test of God's people. Are you going to do things by God's rules or for man's rules? Notice what it tells us a bit more about these rules in 2 Timothy 2. We're finishing up 2 Timothy 2. This is one of the key verses that Paul explains how to be this great athlete before God. It says in chapter 2 verse 5, he says, And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So our rules are God's laws, based on the Ten Commandments and the extensions of those Ten Commandments and all the principles that are throughout the Bible. So that extends the body of law. Now, of course, with law comes God's grace. Notice what it tells us now as we are concluding Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. I'm going to read it to you from the Message Bible. It says, Do you see what this means? All these pioneers in Hebrews 11, it talks about men and women who are faithful, who cross the finish line in their Olympic spiritual race. All these pioneers who blazed away, all these veterans cheering us on. It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running, and never quit. No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it, because he never lost sight of where he was headed. That exhilarating finish. In and with God, he could put up with anything along the way. Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there in the place of honor right alongside God. So, as Paul was finishing his life, he had been persecuted and sentenced to death in a Roman prison from the best we know. He was arrested at that time. And he wrote in 2 Timothy 4-8 this letter to Timothy. He says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. Talk about the day when Christ comes back. And not to me only, but all who have loved his appearing. Wouldn't it be great? All of these spiritual athletes throughout time. The first one we know of is righteous Abel, who was killed by Cain, his brother. He's the first one that died for the faith. All the way through time. And righteous Abel is going to be resurrected along with all the people that have been faithful, that cross that finish line through all the generations to the time of the return of Jesus Christ. Somewhere in that group, we are in it. We are going to be resurrected with them. And then we're going to rejoice when God gives us that spiritual Olympic medal and say, good servant, you have been faithful over little, you have been faithful over much. Come, receive the reward from your Lord. That is worth winning that spiritual Olympic medal.