It's certainly good to be here this morning with all of you and
as was mentioned we have visitors and we're so thankful
for your presence here this morning and.
I pray that something that can be said this morning that is
beneficial and edifying to the body of Christ and may help us
out in our daily lives this. Lesson I put together for me.
This is something that I needed that over the past few weeks
noticed that there's things in my life, and maybe in your life,
that tends to consume us sometimes and overtake our
thoughts and our emotions or whatever.
It may be, and I'd never heard of a a a sermon on sports in and
of itself. So I started looking.
I started looking for a an outline.
And I found one that would that really, really helped me.
We're going to be studying in First Corinthians 10 and in
First Corinthians 10, so before 1st Corinthians 10.
Of course, we have chapters 8989 and in 10 specifically, it
revolves around the theme of idolatry and and how the
Corinthian church was to follow Christ in a culture that was
full of idols at that time. And that tendency for us, if
we're not careful, that tendency that that we can feel, you know,
maybe we we have that tendency today that to have idols around
us that we don't even know about.
You know, the meat that we buy at the grocery store is not
likely to have been offered to as worship up to some wooden
statues like it was back in the 1st century in Corinth.
So what does that, what does that mean for us?
Does that have an application for us today as far as idols?
There may not be, of course, wooden statues that we see or or
come across or golden figures around us, but our, you know,
our culture is filled with idols and it uses kind of the language
we see in Ezekiel 14. Our hearts are drawn to idols,
every one of us. The more thought about the
application, this text, the idols that stay, the more I
realized, you know, that I'd never heard a sermon on sports,
a sermon that equips us as Christians with what God says
about these types of things. It's a huge part of our culture,
in our lives. So I want us to see, does it?
Does having being a Christian have any unique effect on the
way that we approach sports today and how that transforms?
Of course, the way we view it as well?
Now, before we really get diving into the sports, I want to
quickly kind of summarize what is in First Corinthians 8
through 10. Quick summary, There's a clear
command that lies at the heart of these three chapters, and
it's summed up in chapters 10 in chapter 10, verse 14.
Paul said there, therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry.
So we see these three words, flee from idolatry.
And that is the central command of these three chapters.
Flee idolatry. Run from it just as you run
away. As we've been seeing before in
in some of the studies, you run away from sexual temptation.
You run. You flee at any hint of idolatry
from it. You don't flirt with it.
You don't play from it. And then of course then we see
in verse 14 that flee from idolatry.
And Paul gives 2 primary reasons why we must flee from idolatry.
#1 is because idolatry is inconsistent with the teachings
of the Bible. Paul starts talking about the
Lord's Supper, which is a a poignant illustration because he
was addressing the matter of foods that had been sacrificed
to idols. And what Paul said is that it
makes no sense for us to participate in this item of
worship that will partake in here in a little bit that
symbolizes Christ's body in the blood in the New Covenant and
then go into the world and in our lives, in our everyday life,
identify with something differently throughout the rest
of the week. It's inconsistent with what the
Bible teaches. We've been saved to worship God,
not to worship idols. And then the Christian
Corinthians were doing what they were.
They were doing what sometimes we tend to do in this room if we
look at this as just a. Ritual that we go through once a
week and then the rest of the week we go throughout it just.
Forgetting what we've done Sunday morning and throughout
the rest of the week and and that is very, very dangerous.
And Paul says we cannot have that kind of idolatry.
It's completely inconsistent with the gospel and is actually
an offense to to God. The severity of this text.
It comes to the head in verse 21 and 22 where we see that worship
of various idols is actually a worship of demons.
It says in First Corinthians 10/21, you cannot drink the cup
of the Lord and the cup of demons.
You cannot partake at the table of the Lord and the.
Table of demons. In other words, you can't turn
aside from the worship of God and worship demons and the
worship of demons. And then verse 22, it says shall
we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
We need to understand that idolatry is extremely serious.
Even though it's rare to talk about sports.
I want to make it clear that God will have no competition in this
world. None.
He alone is holy. He alone is worthy.
He alone is glorious and he alone is a God and and.
He. Everything is for him that we
do, and he is worthy of that praise.
So flee and run from idolatry. Run from it.
Now this command of what not to do, of course that we see to
flee from idolatry so don't worship idols, is then followed
by the text in verse 23 through 30 on what to do, Expectation of
what to do. Paul summarizes all these things
that he already said in chapters 8-9 and ten, and then he comes
to a conclusion in verse 31 of chapter 10 where it says so
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God. That is an all-encompassing,
consuming expectation that. Whatever you do, whatever,
whatever covers everything, whatever we do, do it for the
glory of God, Flee from idolatry in all of its forms, and then
glorify God in every facet of our lives.
Not to bring. We don't do it, of course, to
bring demons glory, not to draw attention to anything like like
it is a God, but instead to live and eat, drink, breathe, sleep,
work, play. Whatever we do, do it all to
draw attention to God, to give glory to God, and then to
connect this with everything else Paul's talked about here.
He helps the Corinthian Christians see how they can
glorify God. So how do we glorify God?
And Paul says to them, we will glorify God when we live for the
good of others. The whole point of the
discussion about food sacrifices in the previous chapters to
idols that leads up to this chapter, Chapter nine, was to
say you do what is best to do what is beneficial for the
building up of others. Whatever you do, make sure
you're building up somebody else around you.
Right after. In verse 32, he says give no
offense to Jews or to Greeks or or the Church of God.
Just as I tried to please everyone and everything I do not
seeking my own advantage but that of many but that of many,
that they may be saved, Paul said.
I'm laying down my life for the good of others, specifically
those in the church. In the very next verse, Chapter
11, verse one, it says imitate me just as I also imitate
Christ. That's Paul's desire.
That's his desire to show others how to follow Christ.
He wants us to serve those in the church, but obviously not
just those in the church. Paul wants us to live with the
good of those that are around us.
You know that we come in contact with, you know, we're living for
everybody, not for ourselves. That was the whole point.
At the end of Chapter 9, I become all things to all people
that by all means that might be saved.
They make me saved. And then he says in verse 33
here, the purpose for which you were on the We're basically born
for what we're doing to enjoy God, to glorify God and spread
the gospel wherever we are and whatever we do.
And the beauty is to follow this living like like this is laying
down our lives for the glory of God by serving one another in
the church, by leading others to to Christ, we glorify God in
those actions that we do. Paul's whole point is to show
the Corinthians that this is where true life is found, joy is
found, meaning and meaning is found, and satisfaction is found
in focusing every single detail on our lives and living to the
glory of God by laying down our lives to serve others in Christ
and to lead others to Christ. So the the the point of First
Corinthians 8-9 and 10 is to flee every single point, every
single hint of hydrology that may be in our lives.
So, and everything you do, including including how you eat,
drink, do it all for the glory of God.
So how do we watch and play sports to the glory of God?
How do we do that? First Corinthians 10, verse 31.
Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, whether we eat
or drink or play sports or watch sports, how do we do that?
For the glory of God, specifically, in our culture
that idolizes sports in a all consuming.
Way. How do we do that?
Listen to this illustration I came across.
Some of you may understand where this is coming from, some may,
you may not. But this is an illustration set
in Birmingham, AL. Imagine for a moment that you
live in another country, one completely foreign to this one,
and you have an opportunity, one fall, to spend a week in
Birmingham to come on a Sunday morning, and you observe many
people, maybe even most, slowly rising to make their way to a
building they call a church. They groggily approach that
building for some sort of ceremony.
Clearly whatever happens after at the beginning of that
ceremony is not particularly important because most of the
people don't come in till after it started.
And so you watch them fall in and begin to mouth the words to
a song, many of them almost expressionless, virtually
emotionless, after which they sit down and passively listen to
someone, talk to them for a time, a period, a period of
time. You notice people start to get a
bit fidgety, uneasy at that time for the ceremony to end
approaches and it's finally. Over.
They will quickly walk out, but as you walk with them, you
listen to them and you hear many of them talking about something
else. They're talking to each other
about something that happened maybe the previous day.
They smile and they laugh as they recount another ceremony
that they've been to, apparently a bit more interesting than this
one. A ceremony that happens
apparently on Saturdays. In fact, the rest of the week,
they almost all hear people talking about this ceremony that
may be coming the following Saturday.
Even the people who were at the Sunday ceremony are strangely
silent about what they heard and sing about.
They're very enthusiastic about the Saturday and they can't seem
to get here soon enough for that weekend.
So as you curiously your curiosity is piqued, you begin
to eagerly anticipate the coming Saturday ceremony with them,
that that then that Saturday comes.
Usually people wake up and leave their houses dressed in some
sort of outfit that they love to wear for these type of days,
maybe even drive out of the city, some in our W others a
couple hours South where they gathered together what they
called hallowed grounds for the Saturday ceremony.
They get there early for this ceremony, way early, where they
eat, drink and laugh and play not just with their family or
friends, but with couple complete strangers.
You've never seen a community like.
This and when it comes, when the time comes, they, all 10s of
thousands of them, enter a shrine together.
You can't think of another word for it, where they raise their
voices with passion to applaud some sort of assembly of
children they don't know. They play a game on a field.
As that begins, they shout and chant and sing until they
virtually lose their voices with far more passion than the
previous Sunday's ceremony. For sure, people don't look at
their watches at this ceremony. They're so engulfed with that
what they've seen because and experience and they actually get
excited when it comes, when it goes and what they call
overtime, because going long in this time is a really exciting
game. That's what it means.
And the fun doesn't end after the ceremony is over anyway.
When the boys and everybody has cheering for the for when the
game and the celebration. When that is done, the boys come
out the celebration. Has only begun.
And the amazing thing is that it's not just the people who are
at the ceremony who are celebrating.
We've come to find out that back at in Birmingham, at home,
hundreds of 10s of thousands and thousands of other who couldn't
get there, stayed at home and watch this game on what they
call ATV. Though many of them are large
enough to be virtual movie screens, they're actually
designed that way to make the most of watching ceremonies like
this. And back in Birmingham, scores
of people have circled up together around their screens to
be part of the ceremony. From a distance, they too in
their homes are jumping up and down and high fiving each other,
celebrating the ceremony when it's over and when it's all
over. Late in the evening, almost.
If there's nothing to prepare, be prepared.
For the next day, they go to bed.
So let's ask the question if. We were that.
Visitor from another country. And you came.
Into the city on this week during the fall, Which would you
identify as the religion that is most important to those?
People. As the religion that most
excites this people, as a religion that most consumes this
people, listen, we live. In a land.
Where sports war for our attention and our affections and
our devotion and our time and our money.
And it's not just college football that we just went over.
That's a glaring example. There are upcoming games today
and following weeks in the NFL. That many.
Feel are extremely important. All the professional sports as
well and children's sports, playing sports, watching sports
and running, running our kids all over the city into the
state. And for the sake of sports,
whether it's football or golf, basketball, baseball, soccer,
CrossFit, running, biking, swimming, gymnastics,
cheerleading, or any number of athletic activities to which we
devote. So much time and our lives too,
and our families lives too. If we're not careful, we will be
too far removed from the church. We will not be too far removed
from the church in court. So we need to be careful.
We land. We're in a land that's covered
with church buildings and and filled with profession
Christians and and we are tempted every single week.
You know, we come here, we commute on Sundays only to dine
with idols every other day of the week.
And we must consider how to flee idolatry and to live every
single moment here in Bakersfield to the glory, God,
whatever we are doing. So what I want to do is I want
to look at some biblical foundations that affect the way
we view and understand God and the sports and idols in our
lives. And then from there I want to
challenge us to do some personal examination in our own life.
I want to, I want us to. I want to put some questions
before ourselves in some areas that we can examine, that we are
all to see if we're giving these emotions and all this attention
to to sports or something else that should really only be
reserved for God. I want to look at some biblical
foundations and I want to go through some practical
application just based on scripture to help us think or go
through OK, whether we eat or drink or play or whatever we do.
How do I play sports? If I don't play sports, I watch
sports. Is there a way that I can do
this for the glory of God? So the first biblical foundation
sports are a good gift from a gracious God-given to us for the
glory of God. In First Corinthians 8 to 10,
especially in chapter 10, Paul's talking about how food is a gift
from a gracious God. Food is that gift from him given
to us for the glory of God. And he talks about how
everything God gives us is good and intended for God's glory.
The fact that we see in verse 26 He quotes from Psalms 24.
He says the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness.
And that's a prayer that would often have been prayed in
Judaism before a meal to acknowledge all his all the good
gifts that we that they had. So food is a good gift from a
gracious God-given to us for his glory.
So food is not bad enough itself.
Of course we know that. But the point was, it could be
used for the glory of God or it could be used in the worship of
idols. So similarly sports are not bad
in and of themselves on the you know, we we could argue On the
contrary, you know, sports, rest, recreation, have been
created by God for our good, for our enjoyment and for God's
glory and our enjoyment of them. God is God over everything, and
that includes some things that we may not think are so
insignificant. You know, everything that's good
is good because God made it good.
We need to understand that and everything and every good thing
is evidence of his grace towards us because we deserve nothing
good from His hand, because we are sinful people.
Yet God is gracious enough to give us those things and it's
given to us for the glory of His name.
Sports is a good gift from a gracious God-given to us for the
glory of God. But as soon as we introduce our
humanity, our our sinful ways, if you want to say, things get
very complicated, because the human heart tends to have to
take these good things and begin to worship and serve them
instead of the Creator who gave them to us in the first place.
In Romans one we see that God gave them over to sin where they
exchange the truth of God for the lie and they worship and
served created things rather than the creator who is forever
praised. And this is huge.
When we think of sin, we usually think of, you know, we think of
doing bad things like lying or stealing, cheating, whatever it
may be, and that is sin. Absolutely, those are sin.
But according to Romans chapter one, there's something a little
deeper here. Sin is not just doing bad
things. According to Romans, one sin
includes taking that which is good and turning it into an idol
of worship. When you read Romans one, you
realize that this is a fundamental problem.
Problem. We turn good things into gods
that we worship and serve instead of the God who gave us
the good things in the 1st place.
And when you begin to realize the number of good things that
become can become a God, an idol in the human heart, we take
things like. Love or material possessions or
a career work. All these things are good
things. But when our heart begins to be
consumed by them, we begin to center around them, thinking
that this is where our joy or our fulfillment is.
This is what we are. Our identity is in our work.
Our identity is in our team, our identity, and is in whatever it
may be. That's where the problem lies.
And we start to slowly pursue these things instead of pursuing
God. And this is where we realize,
you know, when we think about idols, even idols in our culture
today, our mind. Immediately starts beginning of
thinking of bad things or bad idols, when in reality that
really is not really the case if we think about it.
Secondly, good things can become idols.
The reason things become idols in our lives, in our culture, is
because really they're really good things.
Are they not? You know the reason.
In fact, the more good they are, the greater.
They are. The more likely were to look at
them instead of looking at God. It's important for us to realize
this. Think about beauty.
Is beauty a bad thing? No beauty is a good.
Thing, but we turn it into a God.
We become a become a culture that agonizes of what we look
like, what we spend spending all kinds of money, all kinds of
time, working out and eating right and wearing certain
clothes, even convincing ourselves that we look a certain
way. That we'll become happy.
None of these things are bad enough themselves.
Understand that working out, eating right, wearing clothes,
beauty itself, those are all good things.
But we tend to take the good things and turn them into the
ultimate things that captivate us and consume us almost.
Unknowingly. And then they'll control us and
and when we. We absolutely do sin when we
take sports, which is a good thing, and we turn it into a God
and an ultimate thing that captivates and consumes.
And and unknowingly begins to control us.
The real danger is here that good gifts make lousy gods.
That's the next point. Good gifts make lousy gods.
Created things were never intended to provide the meaning
or identity or ultimate satisfaction of unending joy
that we can only find in God. That was never the intent.
Of created things. Listen.
Idols always disappoint. Idols always disappoint.
Any honest person who has put energy or time or money and
affection or devotion towards sports.
Know that the sports act as an idol.
Will let you down. Listen to this.
Testimony from a man who has tasted everything that sports
has had to offer Tom Brady. Winner of seven Super Bowl rings
making multi $1,000,000, married to a supermodel.
Lives in a mansion. When you name it, this guy has
achieved it in the NFL. Listen to what he said.
Having an MVPMVP season? Undefeated in this season going
into the Super. Bowl.
He sat down and he had a an interview with 60 Minutes during
this season. This is what he said and I
quote, you can look this up, he said, why do I have 3 Super Bowl
rings? This was that time he only had
three. Why do I have 3 Super Bowl rings
and still think there's something greater out there for
me? The interview and interviewer
asked him, well what's the answer then?
What do you think that is? And he said, I wish I only knew
all the things that this guy has achieved, all the all the the
championships, all the rings, everything.
If he created that as an idol, it was not satisfactory to him.
If Tom Brady only knew how close he was to understanding what God
can provide for him, could you imagine that?
Idols always, inevitably disappoint.
Far more serious, far more seriously.
They ultimately destroy. Satisfaction is to be found in
God himself, the giver of all the good gifts, gifts.
The Bible says, examine yourself, test yourself.
Examine our lives to see if there's any hint of idolatry in
in when it comes to sports, or anything that may be.
Becoming an idol. First of all, examine our heart.
I'm sure there's a lot of people in here today who said, you
know, I don't, this is not a problem in my life.
You know that I don't worship sports.
But you know, let's let's look at our lives and let's ask
ourselves a question. Is there anything else in my
heart that I'm living for, consumed with, focused on in a
way that should only be reserved for God?
Anything. Is there any hint of idolatry in
my heart and life? And and and and I'm tempted to
go towards or have it consume me.
Some of you in here could. Could care less about sports.
You don't like sports. You don't watching or playing or
whatever. You want nothing.
To do with sports, but let me not to let me.
Encourage you to not sit back. Maybe a little.
Prideful over your lack of worship of sports, however, is
there. Anything in your lives?
That has a hold of your heart, your mind.
Like we're talking about here. We're sports.
So let's examine our heart. Remember, this is the 1st and
fundamental commandment that we've seen from Jesus.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and
on your all your mind to examine your heart.
And is it set on sports in a way that may be unhealthy?
Maybe another way to ask this question, or a better way to
think through this, is a personal examination.
If if somebody wants to look at your life in a way, how would
they? How would they perceive you?
What would they think that is most important to you?
What would they know as your priorities?
If someone else was to look at your life, would they observe a
person's heart and know that you're devoted to the Lord?
Or is your first priority? Who wins the game this
afternoon? Well, they see some division
somewhere. What occupies your mind when you
have nothing else to think about?
That's another question we need to ask ourselves.
What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think,
think about? Are sports or related things
where your mind goes when you don't have anything else to
think about? Now, we know, of course, it's
not obviously wrong to think about sports at all.
That's not the point. But is our mind preoccupied?
Whether it's a team or an activity or sport that we're
involved with in, or something you do for your children or
taking them places, Does your mind default to sports in any
way? Also, examine our conversations.
What's on what? What What's on your mind comes
out of your mouth. What we think about comes out of
our mouth. That's what we're talking about.
What are our What are our passionate conversations about?
Is this or that sport or this or that activity?
This team? Whatever you talk about, you
know, is there anything else that comes out of your mind or
out of your mouth? What are your conversations
about? Of course, remember, again, the
key is that it's not wrong to talk about sports.
It's not wrong to talk about a good thing.
It's wrong to talk about a good thing like it's a God.
In our life. So this is where we need to do
the hard work of examination. As do I?
Do I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about sports,
whether it's NFL, baseball, working out our favorite team,
whatever it is, Do I spend an inordinate amount of time
talking about sports in some way?
And then in what way do I do I talk about the sports?
You know, we say things like, I love this.
Team. I love OU.
I love Alabama or I love Auburn. I love the Dodgers.
I love the sport. I love college sports.
I love college basketball. We've seen things like I sure do
hope this about this team or I belong to this.
Team shouldn't we sing that those things about?
God. I belong to God I love God I
worship God. God alone.
Or are we taking those emotions that we should only be reserved,
that should only be reserved for God and putting them towards
something else? That's where we need to be
careful. You know, with the 49ers, you
know, most of you know, I'm the 49ers fan.
You know, I find myself saying like, yeah, we won.
We're going to the Super Bowl as if I had anything to do with
their season this year. You know what?
It's, you know, we need to be careful, not that it's.
Wrong in saying that kind of things, but we just need to make
sure that we're on the right path towards the right goal of
worshipping God. Examine our conversations.
Also examine your emotions, the sports.
Ignite your affection in an unhealthy way that causes your
emotions to swing in such a way that you that you're sad or
grumpy or depressed, even angry, when you're when the team loses,
or your team doesn't do well at all, or maybe on the other side,
maybe you're feeling really good because they're doing really
well. Does your emotions swing because
of the team that you follow? Are you inordinately happy and
fun to be around just because you won, or just because your
team won? Will your emotions, your
happiness, your sadness, depend on the outcome of a game?
It may be that your heart is at least in some way consumed or
controlled by sports. If that is the case, examine
your use of money. Jesus said what your treasure is
there. Your heart will be also.
The principle here is as clear as can be.
Your heart follows your money. Your money is a sure indicator
where your heart is. So how much money do you spend
on playing sports or watching sports or supporting teams
buying sports equipment or paraphernalia?
I found out that the combined revenue.
Of the SEC and the Big 10 is over $2 billion a year.
That's two sports athletic conferences in college on the
Southeast and the Northeast of the of America, $2 billion.
And that is more than the gross domestic product of 24 of the
world's poorest countries spent on college athletics in a land
in in an area of the country that is covered.
With churches And just imagine what that number would be if you
would include what we spend on professional sports as well as
our sports for our own kids, money for leagues or equipment,
private lessons, and sports in our own lives from golf to gym
membership. Again, it's not bad in and of
itself. These things are not bad.
It's not bad to spend money on sports.
What we need to examine is how much we're spending on sports
and what that says about where our heart.
Is examine your use of time. An average week.
How much time do we invest in sports?
Playing real sports, playing fantasy sports, watching others
play sports, involving our kids in sports, watching ESPN?
On and on and on and on and on? How much time are we spending
for that? And then think about the time in
relation to the amount of time we spend in reading scripture.
That one got me. That's where I need to improve.
Getting into the scripture more and more than what we spend on
sports, praying, teaching our children God, teaching them
God's word, sharing the gospel, serving in the community.
These are questions that I think that we need to ask.
And then the last challenge we have here is to examine our your
perspective, where you put your time, where you put your money.
And we think about it. What we what?
You talked about what you focused on, on sports.
Small ways. Big ways.
And we begin to forget, if we're not careful, that the grand and
global purpose of God. What is his purpose and
redemption? Listen, it matter matters little
who wins what game on a Saturday or a Sunday in any way.
It is insignificant if we are not.
Following God's will that He has given for us in the Scriptures,
don't let artificial battles on ball fields blind us from real
spiritual battles waging in the world.
What matters more? What matters more here?
Praying and pleading for those here in Bakersfield, the USA, or
beyond to hear the gospel of Christ, Christ and realize that
they need a savior. Or whether or not the San
Francisco 49ers win the NFC Championship today and go on to
the Super Bowl. What matters more?
We need God to help us realize what matters more and what,
ultimately, really doesn't matter at all.
So we need to examine our perspective.
Examine your hearts, your thoughts, your conversations,
your emotions, your use of money, your use of time, your
perspective on sports. Honestly asked the question Is
my attention to sports, my affection in sports, My
investment in sports, glorifying.
God. Is it glorifying God?
And if it's not glorifying God, then the immediate follow up
question is we're not glorifying God, then who are we glorifying?
So is it possible to glorify God in sports?
We've already established that sports is not a bad thing.
And so, yes, I think there is a way to glorify God in sports.
So how do we glorify God? With this good gift that he's
given us? And there's a few different ways
there that we can treat sports as a good gift that glorifies
God. Some of them are simple, so
maybe you just haven't even thought about.
And the first one is first, we well, you should use sports to
draw attention to God. So if you, instead of using
sports to draw attention to the team or draw attention to us
personally, if we're playing sports, use it to draw attention
to God. Whether you or I step out onto a
field or to a court or a course or whatever it might be in our
driving, our motivation is how can I?
Best exalt not myself not How do I get that lowest score on the
course today? How do I glorify God in what I'm
doing? And all of a sudden, every play
carried out. Every.
Swing we make every shot taken, every word spoken, every
interaction with your teammates or someone you're playing
against or whatever it may be. It kind of puts it into
perspective. Of what we're trying to do
there, use the opportunity to draw attention to God.
Now I know I'm. Going to get a lot of Flack for
saying this in here. Because I know there's a lot of
sports fans in here, but the goal of playing sports is not to
win, OK? That's hard.
Got coaches in here. We have former players.
The goal of sports is not win, not to win.
Some of you may have had the responsibility or or the
privilege to coach, coach youth sports.
I've coached our kids sports a few times.
But there's a We need to understand that there is a
greater task at hand when we're coaching those kids the
responsibility to coach and teach these kids to learn the
game, to learn. How to trust their teammates,
Learn how to sit on a bench and be the best supporter of the.
Team We have to teach them what character looks like.
We have to teach them how to win gracefully and to lose with your
head high and to not be sour about it.
You have the responsibility to show these teams discipline.
There was one of Kylie's softball teams when she was a
kid, just a local rec team to even Taylor was helping me coach
that year. We had a girl on our team who
was our pitcher. Her nickname was Skittles.
I don't know how she got that name, but she was a good pitcher
for her age and she was actually the only pitcher we had on the
team. The only one in the last game of
the season before we went into play offs, Everybody got into
play offs, but he was a one and done.
But. Last game of the of the season,
she was pitching and she had a bad game.
And she had a bad game to the point to where it affected her
emotionally in the circle where she was throwing pitches,
yelling, screaming, I mean to a point where we had to pull her
out of the game. Because she was so far out of
control. One of the hardest things I had
to do knowing that she was our only pitcher.
After long conversations and good advice from my wife, we had
to sit her the next game. She was not our starter.
That discipline. You have to teach those kids the
difference between right and wrong.
I don't remember if we won the next game or not.
It didn't matter. The winning and losing did not
matter. What matter was you're trying to
take an opportunity and teach a kid that maybe they're not
learning something at home and you got to glorify God in that
instance. Is it to the glory of God?
Remember in? All that we do glorify God.
God all. Famous quote from Eric Lydell.
Some may know this guy showing a story of how he.
He was a future missionary and a gold medalist runner in the
Olympic Games, he said. God made me for a purpose, but
he also made me. Fast.
And when I run, I feel his pleasure.
In other words, I run fast to the glory of God.
That is the purpose of sports. But it's a purpose that can be
quickly lost if we're not careful.
So how do we keep that purpose central?
One way that I found is we need to keep sports in its proper
place. We need to keep.
Sports in their proper place, far behind our family and church
and a myriad of other things. We need to keep sports in its
place. So where does sports fall upon
our priority list? Men, ask your wives.
Do sports in any way show a hindrance to my love towards
you? And you just.
Sit back and wait for the answer.
Then ask Are sports in any way a hindrance to your relationship
with your children and your responsibility to your children?
There's more than it's more important than who wins the
game. It's knowing what's going on in
your child's heart. And shepherding and caring and
teaching your child. If that means that you don't
know the stats the next day at work to talk about with your Co
workers, then so be it. So what if you don't know who
won the game? So what if you don't know how
many yards and touchdowns Christian McCaffrey had
yesterday? Who cares?
You're busy tending to your family, being where you ought to
be, understanding your child's heart, understanding your
spouse's heart, and and tending to the things that are
important. To our lives.
Back to Eric Lydell, the guy who withdrew from the race.
This guy withdrew from a race that he was best at in the
Olympics because his race. Was on a Sunday in the Olympics
every four years you only get this shot.
And he decided to not run that race that day because it ended
up being on a Sunday. He refused to run in the
Olympics. He made it clear that running in
the Olympics was not as important as worshipping on the
Lord's Day. So is there anything good in
sports? Of course, there's a lot of good
things and it also comes from God.
Also express gratitude for God. So before we begin to play, any
sport, whether you watch a sport.
Before you begin to do anything sports related, pause.
Take a moment and maybe pray give Thanksgiving.
But let God know that thank you for giving me this opportunity
to play sports. Thank you for giving me the
gifts you've given me to play these sports, whatever it may be
when we give a gift to someone. You know, wherever we give a
gift to maybe our child or to someone close to us.
You know, we we enjoy seeing them enjoying that gift.
Right. I think God's enjoys us enjoying
the gift that He's given us, but we need to be careful not to
enjoy the gift more than the giver we need to.
Give praise to God every time that we have that opportunity.
Honor your teammates. Team sports is not intended to
be monuments to individual achievement, so we look for ways
to build up and affirm and encourage and honor the people
around us. This honors God, and it honors
our teammates at the same time. Some of you may know the story
of this lady here, this girl here, Sarah Tilchotzky.
I think I'll say your name right.
Softball player for Western Oregon back in 2008.
Some of you may know this story, some of you may not.
This was a softball player from Western Oregon who had never hit
a home run before the two runners on a strike against her.
She creamed one over the fence, knocked it over the fence during
a 2008 playoff game, and when she began to run the bases, she
realized that she had missed tagging first base.
So as she got to second, she realized that she needed to turn
around and go attack first base so this home run would count.
Well, as she turned, she blew her knee out.
She couldn't walk. She couldn't put any weight on
it. So her team mates and the coach
understood that if, you know one of her team mates helped her
around the bases, that the home run wouldn't count, or if they
put a pinch runner in, it would only count as a single.
So the opposing first baseman went to the Empire and said, is
there anything that will keep us from helping her around these
bases? Umpire said.
There's no rule against it. So the opposing team picks up
this gal who can't walk and helps her around every single
base, touching the base with her good foot and the home run
count. There's so much more things
bigger than winning a game, honoring your teammates, even
the opposing team. How do you honor them?
And when and when she was interviewed about this later on,
this is what the opposing team player said in that first
baseman that helped her. Said it's not about winning or
losing so much as it was about this girl, she.
Hit it over the fence and she was in bad pain and she deserved
that home. Run amazing display of honoring
team mates. Honor that glorifies God.
Look for the opportunity to demonstrate honor and develop
self-discipline. It's a good thing for sports to
teach us how to work hard and to practice to achieve a goal which
we turn it. It sets up, you know, all kinds
of parallels between sports and the Christian life that we live.
Develop self-discipline. Maintain self-control when your
emotions get out of hand in a game where as a player, as a
coach, as a parent or a spectator, and those emotions
lead to yelling this or that or arguing, is that bringing glory
to God? When we do that, the fruit of
the Spirit is what? self-control?
Galatians 523 That's one of the fruit of the spirit.
So when something doesn't go the way that we hoped or that we
have liked to, we need to glorify God by maintaining our
self-control or modeling self sacrifice.
Philippians 2/3 through. 8. Let nothing be done through
selfless ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind.
Let each esteem others better than himself.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but
also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
Taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of
men, and being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the
death of the cross. Let our attitude be like that of
Christ. Humble ourselves, Christ came
here to serve. We read through God's word.
We'll never we'll never see any athletic gifting, personal
stats, championship games, trophies, anything like that.
Instead, we see things like humility and honor and
self-discipline and self-control and self sacrifice imitating
Christ. As parents, we must be
particularly intentional with our kids.
We think, of course, you know, we get into the habit of I've
fulfilled my duty as a as a parent.
You know, I've, I've, I've come to their games and I've cheered
for him. That's all I need to do.
That's the easiest thing to do. There's so much more than you
know. We're called to to lead them and
to teach them wisely. Maybe that looks like preparing
our children to keep a biblical keep the biblical priorities in
mind while they're playing the game, and after the game, maybe
encouraging. Their expressions, expressions
of godly character more than we celebrate their skill or the
final score. Every moment we have with our
kids is a teaching moment and we need to make sure that we're
taking advantage of those. Things those times.
If we're not careful as parents, we're going to stand before God.
They'll have all their trophies, they'll have all their
achievements, they'll have all their stats, and then they'll
burn up. Because we as parents have not
done the duty that we need to do to teach them that all their
satisfaction, all their pride and all their identity is in God
and God alone. So in our life and our
children's life, we need to prioritize what matters in
eternity over what seems to matter here on earth.
So if there's any hint of idolatry in sports or anything
else in our lives, anything. God invites us to repent of
idolatry this morning. We need to examine our hearts
this morning and then days to come.
And do we love God with? All our heart.
Maybe there's one here this morning who needs to be.
Baptized for the remission of their sins this morning.
Maybe there's one who loves God with all their heart but hasn't.
Take that final step. You know the the invitation is
always out there for for us to to become a Christian, to
believe that Jesus is who he is, to repent of our former ways to
confess. The name of.
Christ that he is the Son of God and be baptized for the
remission of our sins we have brother Jean just get baptized
here Wednesday night last week. It was a beautiful moment and
and you could see the happiness on his face that he was now a
newborn Christian in Christ. It was beautiful, really awesome
moment. We can do that again today.
If there's someone here who needs to just make a public
confession in any way, or just ease the prayers of the Church,
we ask you to come while we stand and while we see.
We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by The Church
of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
If you would like any additional information or you would like to
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