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BREAKING RECORDS IS GOD’S BUSINESS

It was one of the gold-medal sweeps of all time. A good-looking California swimmer named Mark Spitz had disappointed his fans in 1968, coming out of Mexico City with one second-place prize, one third place, and one LAST place.

But now it was 1972, the Olympic Games were in Munich, Mark Spitz was four years older and four years wiser. And people began to wonder how many gold medals Spitz would take home out of his seven events.

Well, you’ve probably heard the story, and if you’re from that generation, maybe you’ve seen the poster. In the 100 meter -- gold. In the 200, gold. In the 100-meter BUTTERFLY, gold. Two hundred meter butterfly, gold. And in three team events — the 400-meter freestyle relay, the 800-meter relay, and the 400-meter MEDLEY relay . . . Spitz and his American teammates draped three more gold medals around their necks. The Olympic orchestra got a lot of practice playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as Mark Spitz went a smooth seven-for-seven.

But all this week, friend, as we figuratively travel to Sydney, Australia, in search of SPIRITUAL truths from the 2000 Olympic Games, here’s the bit of trivia I want you to notice. In all seven events, swimmer Mark Spitz set — or helped to set — a new WORLD record. He accomplished things that had never been accomplished in a swimming pool before. No one had ever swum so fast . . . and somehow, with the prize of Olympic gold at stake, Spitz was able to reach deep inside and do greater things than anyone could have imagined.

And as the years have ticked by since 104 years ago and the very first MODERN Olympic Games held in Athens, we’ve seen the steady march of progress as athletes have consistently done better and better . . . and BETTER than even the most hard-driving coach could have envisioned.

Back in 1896, a hometown hero named Spiridon Louis won a gold medal for the marathon race in a field of — get this — 25 runners. He spent the two nights before the race praying; the DAY before, he fasted! What would today’s trainers think?

A Colonel M. Papadiamantopoulos fired off the starting gun and Spiridon started out on the exact same course that the ancient runner, Pheidippides, allegedly took so many centuries before, carrying the news of the battle victory at Marathon all the way to Athens. But listen to this finishing time: two hours, 58 minutes, and 50 seconds. Now, Ken and David and I are duly impressed, but in the 104 years since then athletes have shaved almost an HOUR off that time. Twenty-four years ago, Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany did it in a cool 2:09.

Here’s the point, friend. There’s just no limit to greatness, no barrier that can’t be broken. Four-minute miles turned out to NOT be impossible. All those unbeatable swimming records? Mark Spitz shattered seven of them in one Olympic year. Climbing Everest? Not impossible after all.

Here’s what that means to me: if HUMAN BEINGS can achieve such greatness through their own efforts, if athletes can push back the boundaries of world records just by sweating harder and trying harder and maybe even CRYING harder . . . what does that tell us about what you and I can do for the Lord as HE adds HIS power to our efforts?

I know you’ve read this verse with me over these airwaves before. I imagine every Christian athlete in Sydney has it pasted up in their locker. Philippians chapter four, verse 13:

“I can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Just a few pages earlier, where this same writer, Paul, is encouraging the believers in the city of Ephesus, he adds this thought:

“Now to Him [Christ] who is able to do immeasurably MORE than all we ask OR IMAGINE, according to His power . . .” Then he adds this: “ . . . that is at work WITHIN US.”

Don’t you love that? I can hear Paul shouting out that cry of hope loud enough that WE’D be able to hear it some 1900 years later. “With God at your side,” he says, “get ready to tear up the record books. Push back the boundaries. Expand your thinking! Prepare to rewrite history . . . because God’s on the move!”

In so many Bible stories, people encountered situations where it seemed like there was an impassible barrier ahead. There was an Olympic record that just couldn’t be broken. Jesus and His disciples had to feed 5,000 people — and just had one tiny lunch. According to every law of math and calorie counting and every restauranteur’s handbook, that’s an impossible situation. But Jesus just looked up, said a prayer, blessed the food, and set an Olympic record people are still talking about today.

This same Jesus was hiking to make a sick call on a friend’s daughter. Halfway there, He received the news: “Don’t bother going any further; the little girl’s dead.” Well, you and I rush to a person’s bedside as long as they’re still breathing. Maybe there’s something we can do. But as soon as we hear they’re dead, we stop. We turn around and go home — because there’s a barrier human beings just can’t break. Death seems to us to be an unshatterable record; nobody can beat it. But Jesus just keeps on walking at the same pace and in the same direction. Because for JESUS — getting to a house five minutes AFTER someone dies isn’t any different than five minutes BEFORE. He can wake them up on either side of death! No problem! That Olympic record’s shattered; it’s history! In three short years on this planet, He completely rewrites the record books. “I have CONQUERED death,” He shouts in triumph as He comes out of the tomb Himself.

Friend, in your own life . . . God wants to take you to heights you never dreamed of. He wants to give you more victories than ever got listed in your high school yearbook. And it doesn’t matter what you are or WHO you are or what your ethnicity or GENDER is.

We were fascinating by that Newsweek article we mentioned yesterday, going back to 1996, entitled “The Women of Atlanta.” It’s absolutely incredible how female athletes have pushed back the IMPOSSIBLE barriers. Did you know that women today, right now, in Athens and in recent Olympics, are surpassing the top MEN’S marks of just a few decades ago? That’s right. Listen to this:

In 1924, Jackson Scholz, one of the fastest men alive, did the 200 meter in 21.60 seconds. How did Florence Griffith Joyner do in the ‘88 games in Seoul, Korea? 21.34 seconds. Side by side, if we had a time machine handy, she’d BEAT Scholz and the whole MALE Olympic field of Paris hands down. Back in 1904, Meyer Prinstein gave the U.S. a gold medal in the long jump with a big St. Louis leap of 24 feet 1 inch — 7.34 meters. How did JACKIE Joyner-Kersee do in the ‘88 Games in Korea? 7.40 meters. In the swimming pool, the same thing. Back in 1960, Australian swimmer John Devitt brought the crowds in Rome to their feet with a time of 55.20 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle. Just eight years ago in Barcelona, Chinese swimmer Zhuang Yong, the top female, beat THAT time by .56 of a second, winning the gold in that same event with a time of 54.64.

So friend, if your driver’s license has an “F” for female on it, don’t let that stop you. If you got bad grades in school, don’t say to yourself, “God can’t use me.” Some of the spiritual records OTHERS are setting here in the year 2000. . . might be YOURS to break in the year 2004 or even sooner.

You know, we don’t want to be proud of our SELVES or of what WE think WE can do. But let’s be confident in Jesus Christ; what do you say? I loved the story back in ‘96 of 14-year-old gymnast Dominique Moceanu, who went to Atlanta hoping to do like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comeneci and win a gold medal. Remember her? She had that nasty moment on the balance beam where she hit her head, and the whole world gasped and winced. But before that . . . working for YEARS, training and sacrificing, aiming her efforts toward Atlanta, Georgia and the 26th Olympic Games. Except for Sunday, her one day off, she would check in at the gym every day at 7:30 a.m. for a three-hour workout. Then home for lunch and school lessons on videotape, then physical therapy, a massage, and back to the gym by mid-afternoon for another FOUR-hour workout. Dinner, homework, chores, and a couple of quick computer games and TV would get crammed into a two-hour slot right before bedtime . . . and then the alarm went off at 6:50 again the next morning.

A year before, she took the U.S. title at the age of 13, the youngest winner ever. And if you recall, she was one of the tiniest too, at 4 foot 6 and just 71 pounds. But during those endless days and months and YEARS of practice, she had just one word in mind: Atlanta. She KNEW she was going to get there and be a part of the Dream Team. She had maybe the greatest coach in the business, Bela Karolyi, and she was committed to doing her best. In fact, ever since she was just ten years old, this diminutive athlete had been signing autographs this way: “Dominique Moceanu, Olympics 1996. For Sure!”

You know, I like that confident glow. And as I read my Bible and discover all the records God wants to break THROUGH US, friend, there’s no reason we couldn’t sign our names the same way. “E. Lonnie Melashenko, on the way to the Kingdom. For Sure!”