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1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (HCS
²⁴ Do you not know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly, or box like one who beats the air. ²⁷ Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Title: Becoming A Champion

Introduction

Recently, the golfing world and the world in general watched in shock as Tiger Woods, the world's undisputed number one golfer, lost a major after have a 54-hole lead for the first time in his career. Going into that Sunday, Tiger’s Major’s record was 14-0. Everyone expected him to win on Sunday. So-much-so, that by the end of day on Saturday, every Tiger shirt at the place was sold out! However, at the end of the day on Sunday—after playing amazing golf on Saturday and Sunday, Y. E. Yang became the champion. The general consensus were in, Tiger had let this one slip away.

Anthony (Tony) Tian—CEO, Founder and Managing Partner of Cue Ball, a venture and early growth equity firm investing in the information media and consumer sectors., wrote in a Colum in Harvard Business that there are two things we can learn from Tigers’ lose:

“First, there is inordinate pressure at the top. Tiger Woods' focus and mental intensity are peerless, but he is human, just as businesses are, well, just businesses. Companies that are on top today have the odds stacked against them being leaders in the long run. Getting there is easier than staying there.

At the end of the day, statistics win and the statistics of business say that those in a top market-share position will almost certainly lose it or cede share. The question is not if, but when. It does not mean that the companies will not stay strong, important, and highly relevant, but it means that existing and new competition will take some shine off the star. Think of IBM today versus a couple of decades ago or GM as a government bailout asset versus its glory days. Heck, don't even go back that far. Just look at the top ten Internet properties today versus those three to five years ago and you find that many were barely in existence let alone on a top list a few years ago.

Second, competition will come from where and when you least expect it. Y.E. Yang was hardly a household name (at least in America) before this weekend. He was the 110th ranked golfer in the world with only one prior PGA tour win. There are business parallels. I don't think when Sony was on top of the portable music player market they ever suspected Apple to rise from the dead and dominate that space today. I doubt that the Clinton contingent ever imagined that the Junior Senator from Chicago (who they helped get elected) would move a nation behind him to win the presidency. And I doubt that Tiger Woods ever imagined that he'd lose this major to Y.E. Yang in the last major of the year. Padrig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, maybe, but Y.E who?[1]

Being on top can foster complacency or an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude. But to stay there, you need to continue to reinvent and learn. You need to pay attention to people and areas where you don't suspect a threat. Staying relevant means staying abreast of those who want to be relevant and of customers in your industry and your adjacent industries. This is so challenging because it requires both intensity and open-mindedness.”

 Where is tiger today? Playing golf! Because a champion may lose a round, but they never stop fighting…They never quite. Conrad Hilton—founder of the Hilton Hotel Chain, once remarked, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They Make Mistakes, but they don’t quite.

·         You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round. James Carbett

·         A Champion views resistance as a gift of energy. Michael J. Gelb

·         Michael J. Gelb, There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

·         Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, and they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. Muhammad Ali

One of the chief reasons why so many of us are not God’s champions; is because we have become addicted to the gym. We are gym rats. Sunday service, bible classes, prayer meetings and fellowship has become a gym experience and we leave the gym with no intentions and no expectations of, or getting into the match! We have neither will nor skill. What good does it do an athletic to workout everyday and then go home and drink a fifth of Jack Daniels! We never take off the practice gloves! We never fight back.

 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (HCS
²⁴ Do you not know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. However, they do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly, or box like one who beats the air. ²⁷ Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

I.              Champions Run To Win (v. 24)

²⁴ Do you not know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

Every two years outside of Corinth there were famous Olympic-type games, called the Isthmian Games. They had all the events that our Olympics would have: boxing, wrestling, and all kinds of different foot races. The winners of these events were given a wreath or crown to wear on their heads. It was woven of either pine boughs or olive branches.

The value of the prize was not monetary but symbolic, and the prize for Paul was a sense of delight that he was being used by God in ministry, knowing that he had used all his energies and talents and gifts to God’s glory, for the good of the kingdom. That’s what Paul lived for. He described that prize in Philippians 3:14. He said, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

A.   The Marks of A Winning Champion

1.     Strong Desire 

“²⁴ Do you not know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”

·         Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is a habit and so is losing.” 

·         Vince Lombardi said, "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."

·         I may have the ’wanna’, But if I don’t have the ’gotta’, I’m never going to have the ’getta’.

             2.    Studious Dedication

^‘26 Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly, or box like one who beats the air.” 

3.    Straight-Forth Disciple

“I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified”

The battle of Marathon was fought around 490 B.C. when king Darius launched an attack on Athens. Since the surrounding city-states would offer little support to the Athenians, the Athenians were outnumbered by the Persians. Although the Athenians were outnumbered, they caught the Persians by surprise by running the full length of the plain and catching the Persians unorganized.

The Athenians were able to defeat the Persians by not only striking from the front, but they also flanked the Persian army from the sides. Because of this sudden attack the Persian troops broke ranks and fled back to their ships. Since the Athenians won they wanted to send word back to Athens to tell of victory so the city could prepare for the Persian fleet attack from the sea. So Miltiades sent his best runner Pheidippides to take word to Athens. He ran the whole distance, about 26 miles, and when he arrived he was able to say one word . . . and then he died.

What was the one word that Pheidippides was able to say before he died? It was “Nike!” He cried “victory!” The Athenians ran the whole distance of the plain of Marathon, which is some 26 miles. This could not have been accomplished without hard training and discipline

Seven Keys to Pulling It All Together 

1.    Purpose (Get Fuelled) 

There’s a well-worn story of a man who approached a laborer who was laying bricks and asked him, “What are you doing?” The laborer said, “Can’t you see I’m laying bricks?” The man then walked over to another bricklayer and asked, “What are you doing?” And the workman answered with pride, “I’m building a cathedral.” Both were physically doing the same thing, but the first laborer was occupied with the present task, and the other was concerned with the ultimate goal.

If we forget the outcome of our task, we will become bogged down in what we are doing. Let us keep our focus on the eternal crown of glory.

2.    Prepare (Get Fixed)

·         To win the race requires that we are ready.

·         We must be in a state of constant readiness We must be ready when God calls us to serve

·         We must be ready for when we cross the finish line

“The secret to success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.” – Benjamin Disraeli. 

When it comes to being on the alert and ready at any moment to do the job, it’s hard to beat the Pony Express. This historically famous mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and California depended on constant movement and readiness. Relay stations were established every ten to fifteen miles. A rider would shout aloud as he approached a station, giving the station master very short notice that he needed to be outside waiting with a fresh mount. Even when a rider came to the station where he was to spend the night, another rider was already mounted and waiting, ready to grab the first rider’s bundle of packages and continue the trip.

The completion of the transcontinental telegraph system rendered the Pony Express obsolete after just eighteen months. But we have this service’s intriguing example of what it means to be ever watchful,. Jesus used two parables to teach us the value of readiness and watchfulness as His servants.[2] 

3.    Perceive (Get Focused)

Henry Ford said, “A weakness of all human beings is trying to do too many things at once. That scatters effort and destroys direction. It makes for haste, and haste makes waste. So we do things all the wrong ways possible before we come to the right one. Then we think it is the best way because it works, and it was the only way left that we could see. Every now and then I wake up in the morning headed toward that finality, with a dozen things I want to do. I know I can’t do them all at once.”

When asked what he did about that, Ford replied,

“I go out and trot around the house. While I’m running off the excess energy that wants to do too much, my mind clears and I see what can be done and should be done first.”[3]

4.    Produce (Get Fruitful)

·         Biblical construct + Biblical Conduct + Character = Clusters of Fruit

5.    Proceed (Get Faithful)

One stormy night an elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room. The clerk said they were filled, as were all the hotels in town. “But I can’t send a fine couple like you out in the rain,” he said. “Would you be willing to sleep in my room?” The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted. The next morning when the man paid his bill, he said, “You’re the kind of man who should be managing the best hotel in the United States. Someday I’ll build you one.” The clerk smiled politely.

A few years later the clerk received a letter from the elderly man, recalling that stormy night and asking him to come to New York. A round-trip ticket was enclosed. When the clerk arrived, his host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, where stood a magnificent new building.

“That,” explained the man, “is the hotel I have built for you to manage.” The man was William Waldorf Astor, and the hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria. The young clerk, George C. Boldt, became its first manager.[4]  

a.    “We cannot expect to hear ‘Well don’ if there is not first a ‘will do.’” 

6.    Pursue (Get Favor) David at Ziglag

There’s a wonderful story about a Chicago bank that once asked for a letter of recommendation on a young Bostonian being considered for employment. The Boston investment house could not say enough about the young man. His father, they wrote, was a Cabot; his mother was a Lowed. Further back was a happy blend of Saltonstalls, Peabodys, and other of Boston’s first families. His recommendation was given without hesitation.

Several days later, the Chicago bank sent a note saying the information supplied was altogether inadequate. It read: “We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work.”

Neither is God a respecter of persons but accepts those from every family, nation, and race who fear Him and work for His kingdom (Acts 10:34-35).[5]  

7.    Persist (Get Forceful)

1 Cor. 9:27 reads, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” The word “discipline” is the Greek verb “hupopiazo literally means “to strike under the eye” and gives the connotation of giving someone a “black eye.”