Running Our Race - Going for GoldSample

As we move toward the Day of The Lord, and the end of time, new heroes will emerge and be identified with those who have gone before. These new heroes won’t likely travel to far off lands or penetrate lost tribes, they will do their work in the jungles of every day in the marketplace, in schools, and in neighborhoods as we disciples and followers of Jesus live among lost, lonely, and hurting image bearers that surround us. In our study, I will propose that we can each win the gold.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with ALL our hearts. soul, and mind. ALL means undivided, not segmented. A divided heart is always at war with itself struggling with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Of course, an undivided heart is tempted too but when it becomes aware that it is being tested there is no choice, the undivided heart chooses God and His will.

Let me give you the bottom line of our study. Winning the gold for us will be hearing the voice of Jesus cheering as He smiles and wraps His arms around us and looks us in the eye and says “Well done runner, welcome home!” with a bearhug at the end of our race. Can you imagine it? If there is anything more important to us than that it is an idol and we will never win a Gold medal until we dump it. We are here to be His disciples and Ambassadors no matter where we are or what the world says about us, good or bad. The world’s judgment about us is truly eternally irrelevant. Only One opinion is ultimately Important. In reality, we live our lives and run our race for an audience of One.

If we would hope to be among the heroes of heaven we must begin as they did, with our hearts. God makes it possible for any one of us, or all of us, to become heroes and to win Gold. He isn’t a respecter of persons. It isn’t the size of our accomplishment that will bring us into The “Heavenly Hall of Fame”, there will be thousands of members that were totally unknown during their lives on earth, and what they did may have seemed to be minor league.

No one may have known of them but God. They weren’t famous on earth, but they were faithfully obedient out of a sold-out heart. They were “all in.”