Children Day Sermon

My topic for today is entitled:
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.
Please turn your bibles with me to Hebrews 12: 1 and 2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin
that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer
and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God.
Let us pray
Sermon begins
The story is told of an athlete, by the name of John Stephen
Akhwari, who was a long distance marathon runner and who
represented his country Tanzania in the 1968 Olympic
marathon in Mexico.
Akhwari was competing in the Olympic Marathon in Mexico
City. Approximately 19 km into the 42 km race, there was
jostling between some runners and he fell badly. He wounded
his knee and his shoulder also hit hard against the pavement. In
fact, his leg was bleeding and his knee was apparently
dislocated.
Medical staff urged him to withdraw from the race but Akhwari
continued running; actually, it was a combination of walking
and a slow limping run at points.
And so, more than an hour after the winner, Akhwari crossed
the finish line in last place, cheered home by a few thousand
spectators who had remained in the stadium after the sun went
down. By the time he reached the stadium, he was limping and
the bandage around his leg was flapping in the breeze. He had
finished last among the 57 competitors who completed the
race.
He was asked in an interview, why he'd carried on, and his
response has gone down in sporting history. “My country did
not send me 5,000 miles to start the race,” he said. “They sent
me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”
As a matter of fact, of the 75 who started the 1968 Olympic
marathon, 18 others did pull out. And really, no one even
remembers the name of the gold medal winner that year. But
Akhwari was honoured and remembered because he had
finished the race in the most difficult circumstances.
The Apostle Paul used a game that was well known not only in
his era but very popular around the world especially, in our
country Jamaica today to beautifully epitomize the Christian
journey.
An athlete has to train very hard to win a race. They have to get
up very early when most of us are still sleeping to train. They
have to do various exercise to build endurance, strength, speed
etc. even in conditions that are not always favorable in order to
win to become the best at what they do. Take for example
Usain Bolt, Jamaica’s Track and field star, as an athlete he
shared in many of his interviews how he trained twice as hard
as his fellow athletes in order to win all the competitions he
entered in. teamwork, perseverance, responsibility, physical
endurance, commitment, time management, and personal and
emotional health.
Like Track and Field, Paul elude that participants in the Christian
race consist of painful training process, practicing
Paul's time is used to illustrate the Christian race. The
participants in the race submitted to a painful training process,
practicing the most rigid self-denial that their physical powers
might be in the most favorable condition, and then they taxed
these powers to the utmost to win the honor of a perishable
wreath. Some never recovered from the effects. In
consequence of the terrible strain, men would sometimes fall
by the race-course, bleeding at the mouth and nose; others
breathed out their life, firmly grasping the poor bauble that had
cost them so dear.
It’s the older Apostle Paul, under house arrest of the Romans,
facing the prospect of trial and death, perhaps just a little
lonely. But in 2 Timothy 4:7 he says those famous words…
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith.
It’s not how you start the race that counts. It’s that you finish.
God entered you in the race when he opened your eyes to the
glory and grace of Christ… The Christ who died for you and has
“destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light in
the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10). And God has set his Spirit on you so
that you might finish the race (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Christian friends, wherever you’re at today – if you’ve

wandered or got distracted, if you’ve fallen and are hurting
badly, whether it’s your own fault or others have knocked you
around – let John Stephen Akhwari encourage you: Finish the
race!
Walking or running, stumbling or limping, it doesn’t matter.

Finish the race.
Fix your eyes on Jesus and finish the race.

Children Day Sermon

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Children Day Sermon

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Children Day Sermon

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

My topic for today is entitled:

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.

Please turn your bibles with me to Hebrews 12: 1 and 2

Christian friends, wherever you’re at today – if you’ve

Walking or running, stumbling or limping, it doesn’t matter.

Fix your eyes on Jesus and finish the race.

You might also like