YOU NEED TO:

1) Have the right equipment

2) Know Your Position

3) Play the Game Right

4) Keep Going

The late Walter Payton, a Hall of Fame inductee, is considered one of the greatest running backs to ever play professional football. When he retired, he held the record for the most rushing yards gained in a career (this record would eventually be broken by Emmitt Smith… you know… the guy from “Dancing with the Stars!”). Now Walter Payton was only about 5’10” tall and weighed just over 200 pounds and was running directly at guys like Lawrence Taylor who was 6’3” and over 240 pounds. During a Monday Night Football game between Payton’s Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers made the observation that Walter Payton had amassed over nine miles in career rushing yardage. “Yeah,” replied the other announcer, “and that’s with somebody knocking him down every 4.6 yards!” In our daily walk with Christ, we sometimes find that somebody or something keeps knocking us down every once in a while, but we are to press on.

In 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul gives us a glimpse of the finish line when he says: (4:6) As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. (7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. (8) And now the prize awaits me – the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of His return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return. (NLT)

What keeps knocking you down in your life? What keeps getting in the way of you fighting the good fight? Get up! Keep going… if you can hear me this morning, your race is not finished… keep running.

YOU NEED TO:

1) Have the right equipment

2) Know Your Position

3) Play the Game Right

Reggie White was a great football player. He was a Hall of Fame defensive lineman that played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers and was selected for 13 Pro Bowls. He was known as the “Minister of Defense” because he was an ordained minister who had a passion for Christian evangelizing during his playing career. He was a frequent speaker at churches and religious events and was quick to turn post-game interviews into opportunities to proclaim God. Shortly before his death in 2004 at the age of 43, Reggie gave an interview in which he surprisingly said,

“Most people who wanted me to speak at their churches only asked me to speak because I played football, not because I was this great religious guy or this theologian. … I got caught up in some of that until I got older and I got sick of it. I’ve been a preacher for 21 years, preaching what somebody wrote or what I heard somebody else say. I was not a student of Scripture. I came to the realization I’d become more of a motivational speaker than a teacher of the word.”

Some initially misunderstood White’s changed rhetoric as a sign that he had lost religion. Hardly. Tired of having the meaning of faith spoon-fed to him so that he could spoon-feed others, White decided to learn Hebrew so he could study the original texts of the Old Testament — go straight to the source, in essence. White told his NFL Films interviewers that some Christian ministers had warned people to stay away from the new, heretical Reggie.

“I used to have people tell me, ‘God has given you the ability to play football so you could tell the world about him.’ Well, he doesn’t need football to let the world know about him. When you look at the Scriptures, you’ll see that most of the prophets weren’t popular guys. I came to the realization that what God needed from me more than anything is a way of living instead of the things I was saying. Now I know I’ve got to sit down and get it right.”

In Matthew 6, Jesus really starts getting into our motivations. He says, “It’s good that you pray, but are you praying to be seen, or are you praying to talk to me? It’s good that you give to the poor, but are you giving to be seen? Are you looking over your shoulder to be sure that someone notices when you give to the needy? Why are you fasting? Where are your motivations?

What kind of player should you be? In order for your team to win, what kind of player should you be? Should you be committed to helping the team win? Are you the kind of player that REALLY wants the team to win… as long as you get to run the ball at least 30 times in the game… and if you don’t get to, you don’t REALLY care what happens to the rest of the team? Or would you be okay with it if you made the key block that freed up your team’s running back to score the game-winning touchdown even though after the game you knew that no one would take notice of your efforts? Guess what… the coach notices… God notices! What kind of player would you be?

Revelation 3:15-22 tells us: (3:15) I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! (16) So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (17) You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (18) I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. (19) Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. (20) Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (21) To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (22) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (NIV)

[tags]Reggie White, Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers, minister, Revelation, NFL, Matthew, lukewarm, motivation, Hebrew[/tags]

YOU NEED TO:

1) Have the right equipment

2) Know Your Position

If Darren McFadden showed up tomorrow to play in the Capital One Bowl and he discovered that Casey Dick and Felix Jones have decided to go shoot fireworks and Marcus Monk and the other receivers are out playing golf and the entire offensive line and defense decided to go to Disney World again and all of the second, third, and fourth string players went home because they assumed that they wouldn’t get a chance to play, what would happen? Now, McFadden finished second in this year’s Heisman award voting. That’s the award that is supposed to be given to the nation’s best college football player. McFadden is supposedly the second best player in the nation, yet if he were taking on the University of Wisconsin Badgers all by himself, the Razorbacks would have zero chance of winning and the score would probably go into the record books as the biggest bowl blowout ever. Sadly, there are many times in the life of a church when it seems that two or three members have been left to take on a task of overwhelming proportions. Some of you have been that person… many of you have caused a situation like that before (maybe unknowingly). How can a team survive if its players don’t actually care to play? 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 says:

(12:12) For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. (13) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free–and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (14) For in fact the body is not one member but many. (15) If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? (16) And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? (17) If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? (18) But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. (19) And if they were all one member, where would the body be? (20) But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. (21) And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (22) No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. (23) And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, (24) but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, (25) that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. (26) And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (NKJV)

So, what makes up a football team/church?

Every church has an Owner – God/Jesus Christ

Every church has or is looking for a good Coaching Staff – Pastor and other Ministerial Staff

Every church has people who prefer to take care of the little things like taking notes from game footage or answering phones

Every church has its star players like the quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. These are usually the people in the church that you often notice doing a lot of the important work… these players/members often have a lot of responsibility given to them and often receive a great deal of the credit or the blame for an event or project.

Every church has its other starters. These players/members often do just as much work as the star players, but only get noticed on rare occasions.

Every church has its substitute players. These are members that stand on the sideline waiting for an opportunity to play… some are hoping for an opportunity and will jump at any chance they get…they’re just waiting to be asked… others are hoping that nobody asks them because they really don’t think that they have the skills to help the team. These players in a game and in a church should always be ready to fill in for the other players.

Every church also has 2 sets of fans. These are members that only occasionally come to church. The first set of fans will still claim an affiliation with your church as long as things are going well, but they will stop showing up at the first sign of a losing season. The second set of fans… well, you can’t ever please them because they don’t want to be pleased. They think that the coaching staff should have been fired three years ago and they certainly don’t want anyone to know that they belong to that church.

Where do you fit into this team? Most of you here this morning are players, but if you think that you might be sitting in the stands… may I encourage you to come and join the rest of the team as a player? The good thing about our football team is that we never get penalized for having too many players on the field. If you are a substitute player, don’t wait on someone to come and ask you if you want to get in the actual game or not… go to the coaches… come talk to the staff.

[tags]Arkansas Razorbacks, Darren McFadden, Casey, Felix Jones, Marcus Monk, Disney World, Heisman, church, coaching staff, players[/tags]

Besides a helmet of salvation, you should be bringing ALL of the right equipment…

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10-18, he says:

I preached this past Sunday morning (only my third sermon ever) using football as a backdrop for explaining a couple of concepts. I thought that some of you might enjoy one of the points (I may eventually post the entire sermon in pieces). Keep in mind that this was on New Year’s Eve… the day before the “BIG” game that Arkansas lost to Wisconsin…

Take a look at this picture… notice the grey helmets of the team in white. Their helmets have little stickers placed all over. For those of you who don’t know, these helmets belong to THE Ohio State University’s team (who, by the way, will be playing Florida in the upcoming national championship game). The stickers on the helmet idea was pioneered in the late 1960′s by Woody Hayes, one of their former coaches. These helmet stickers are sometimes referred to as “pride” stickers. Now the point of these stickers was to reward an individual player that made an outstanding play to help his team in a game. So, maybe your kicker makes an open-field tackle to save a touchdown… he would get a sticker on his helmet… or maybe your linebacker puts a really good hit on the other team’s running back causing them to lose significant yardage… he might get a sticker. Eventually, a player’s helmet could begin to have lots of stickers. Fans (and opposing players) could show up to a game and be able to tell which players had been having the most impact for their team by the number of stickers placed on their helmets.

What if we applied the same concept to Christianity? What if you received a sticker for every person that you led to Jesus Christ? What would your helmet look like? Take a second and think of how many stickers would be on your helmet. Would it look like this?

Not bad… would it look like this?

How many of you are thinking that your helmet would look more like this?

For those of you thinking that your helmet would most closely resemble this one, I would like to suggest that you are maybe doing a little better than that… maybe your helmet would look a little more like this one.

If my salvation could be expressed in one sticker that was given out to everyone involved in leading me to the Lord, it would be broken up into hundreds if not thousands of tiny pieces. You see, to use another metaphor, some people have been called to harvest while others are called to plant seeds.

(***NOTE – I read about this study in someone else’s sermon on a different topic and I liked it… I tried to find information about this study and could not confirm that it ever happened, but I liked the idea behind it nonetheless. So, I would like to give proper credit to the study’s authors, but don’t know who they are… this study is not my information!***)

Some years ago, there was a study done by an agricultural school in Iowa. It was reported that production of a hundred bushels of corn from just one acre of land required:

• 4 million pounds of water
• 6,800 pounds of oxygen
• 5,200 pounds of carbon
• 160 pounds of nitrogen
• 125 pounds of potassium
• 75 pounds of yellow sulfur
• Rain and sunshine at the right times

For this yield of corn to happen, many hours of labor were required from the farmer, yet, the report also indicated that only 5% of the produce could be attributed to the efforts of the farmer. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says in chapter 3, verses 5-9:

(5) Who is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels? Why, we’re only servants. Through us God caused you to believe. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. (6) My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. (7) The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because He is the one who makes the seed grow. (8) The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose. Yet they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work. (9) We work together as partners who belong to God. You are God’s field, God’s building – not ours. (NLT)

So, what are YOU bringing to the game? You need to bring a helmet that is consistently gaining more and more “salvation stickers.”

[tags]football, pride, stickers, Ohio State, helmet stickers, Woody Hayes, harvest, planter, Apollos, Paul, Corinthians, salvation[/tags]