Because our original speaker came down with laryngitis, I was asked to step in for the preaching slot this Sunday morning, continuing our Philippians series from 3:12 – 4:1.

The original message was delivered at our Tuesday service so my starting point was to watch the video. Since I edit and publish our online service, I had easy access to that and I typed up a quick transcript. It was absolutely fine but it wasn’t really what I would have said about the passage so it was back to first principles to work something up.

One of the things that particularly struck me was Paul’s use of sporting metaphors, which also occurs in some of his other writings. I decided to play on that (pun spotted and kept) and use some sporting themes as I ran through it, including some images on the screen from various modern sports. Those who know me will be aware that sport is not high on my list of priorities but I am aware enough that I wasn’t entirely stumped. That’s a cricketing reference that I think I slipped past the congregation! With a lot of Leicester City fans in the house, there were some things that just had to be included: the team’s ‘King Power’ emblazoned jerseys were an obvious target as I pondered on how Paul worked in the power of King Jesus!

I suspect it will be a while before I try tapping that particular channel again in sermon imagery. My sporting knowledge doesn’t extend that far and, when I have the responsibility and privilege of speaking at church, it isn’t in order to entertain people with cheap jokes. However, today, I think it was justified in taking this line to encourage the congregation to press forward. May we all, with Paul, cross the finish line.