{"id":5580,"date":"2016-08-16T03:47:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T08:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/training-in-the-gym-of-the-soul\/"},"modified":"2016-08-16T03:47:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T08:47:00","slug":"training-in-the-gym-of-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/training-in-the-gym-of-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"TRAINING\n  IN THE GYM OF THE SOUL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><b>Topics:<\/b> Accountability; Choices; Church Attendance; Community; Conversion; Self-reliance; Spiritual Disciplines; Spiritual Formation<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'><b>References:<\/b> Proverbs 22:6; 1 Corinthians 9:24\u201325; 1 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 10:24\u201325; 12:1<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Sylvester Stallone surprised the entertainment world by resurrecting his iconic movie hero, Rocky Balboa, for one last film in 2006. Then, while promoting the film, Stallone shocked Christian fans by saying that his faith in Jesus Christ had influenced the writing of the first <i>Rocky<\/i> screenplay. His renewed affiliation with Christianity had motivated him to write the last one.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>In an interview with Citizenlink.com, Stallone said, \u201cI was raised in a Christian home. I went to Catholic schools, and I was taught the faith. I went as far as I could with it until I got out into the so-called real world and was presented with temptation. I kinda lost my way and made a lot of bad choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Those bad choices, especially his decision to place fame and career ahead of his family, left Stallone unsatisfied. So he went back to church. \u201cThe more I go to church, the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus and listening to his Word and having him guide my hand,\u201d Stallone said.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Stallone also realized he had to trust Christ more than himself. \u201cYou need to have the expertise and the guidance of someone else,\u201d he said. \u201cYou cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity and the church. The church is the gym of the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:right;line-height:normal'>\u2014Stuart Shepard, \u201cThe Gym of the Soul,\u201d Citizenlink.com (November 15, 2006)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Topics: Accountability; Choices; Church Attendance; Community; Conversion; Self-reliance; Spiritual Disciplines; Spiritual Formation References: Proverbs 22:6; 1 Corinthians 9:24\u201325; 1 Timothy 4:8; Hebrews 10:24\u201325; 12:1 Sylvester Stallone surprised the entertainment world by resurrecting his iconic movie hero, Rocky Balboa, for one last film in 2006. Then, while promoting the film, Stallone shocked Christian fans by saying &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/training-in-the-gym-of-the-soul\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;TRAINING<br \/>\n  IN THE GYM OF THE SOUL&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}