The Olympics hook something in us.   Maybe it is our latent desire to be a big-time athlete.   Maybe it is the regrets that we have in some other arena of life where we did not strive or where we did strive and then failed.   Maybe it is the wish, just one time in life, to be “on the podium” and be recognized for our efforts and accomplishments.

One thing I am sure the Olympics hook in us is the reality that life is pretty much a competition—maybe not always with other people but always with the world.   Thus, we look at the challenges the athletes face and we feel our own challenges weighing in on us.   We feel keenly the disappointment of the skater who falls because we too have fallen.   We feel the pain of the skier who finished .08 seconds out of the medals because we at times have fallen short too.   We feel deeply the thrill of the unknown skater who wins the gold—coming out of nowhere—because we have had those rare times in life when we have won against the odds.

The athletic challenges of the Olympics simply feel like life to us.   They feel like life with all of its hurdles, joys, pains, and defeats.

In all of us, unless we have just given up, there is an ache to do better—to live better and to be better.   We want to be different people and we want to be more Christlike.   We want to be more sacrificial and kind.   We want to be more truthful and honest.   We want to be more gracious and less anxious.    We want to be more effective and we want to make a real difference—if not in the whole world at least where we live.  

In short, we want to live like champions.

For the next seven weeks in our Sunday morning worship services we are going to examine the life of Jesus and uncover the keys to living like a spiritual champion.   We are going to see what He said, what He did and thought, and how He went about life.    And in seeing all this we are going to strive to imitate Him.   Strive to be champions.   Strive to “finish in the medals” and stand on the spiritual podium.   We are going to strive in the power of the Holy Spirit to rise above mere survival to true spiritual thriving.  

Our next seven messages will focus, in what I believe will be a fresh and compelling way, on Jesus’ baptism, temptation, transfiguration, triumphal entry, resurrection, final commission, and current activities.   And in that focus we will see the compelling choices that made His life so full of joy and impact.

In “teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:30, 31) there is potential for terrific transformation.   He is the one compelling Man Who ever lived on the globe.   Other people have done well and inspired many but Jesus is the utterly unique Person.   He is the flawless life around Whom we can build our lives.

I have had so many times when I came out of a movie that was based, however loosely, on a real life person and wanted to be a better person myself.   I have seen films like “A Beautiful Mind” and “Blindside” and “Amazing Grace” and “Luther” and “Braveheart” and “Hoosiers” and “Rudy” and “The Pistol” and “The Rookie” and “Chariots of Fire” and “Miracle”—and I have walked out of the theater and back into the sunshine wanting to live a better life and make a greater impact.   I have come out truly inspired and made a new commitment, right on the way to my car, to live a better life.  

The life of Jesus, accurately and deeply considered, is the essence pure motivation.   If we walk away from the study of the life of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels and are not motivated to imitate Him then we were not paying attention with our hearts.

Please, please, please, please:   For the next seven weeks will you give serious attention to the life of Jesus and faithful energy to the journal that we are providing in order to imitate Jesus, the one compelling life that was ever lived?  

Will you listen from the heart and be able to walk out of the sanctuary with a fresh and compelling motivation to imitate Him?   His life is far more compelling than any movie figure you have every seen!