2-7-10 Fundamentals: Football and Faith

Prop: Football

 Does anyone know the significance of this day? Yes, it’s Super Bowl Sunday! Does anyone here throw a big Super Bowl party? Are there any passionate football fans here this morning? Who do you think is going to win tonight? Ok, let’s not go there.

 I played four years of high school football, so football is one of my favorite sports. One of the reasons why football is my favorite sport is because there are many similarities between Christianity and football. Did you know that? Did you know that there are many similarities between football and our faith?

 Let me give you a little pre-game instruction first.

Jesus’ primary message was “The kingdom of heaven is near”.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heaven has invaded earth. The values, the virtues, the blessings of heaven have come down. They are available, they are within reach, they are present to those who seek them. This is what Jesus was saying and this is what he was doing during his ministry on this earth. This is what Matthew 9:35 says about Jesus:

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.

Jesus went into every city and every village and every synagogue and he preached the good news of the kingdom of God. The good news is that the kingdom of heaven is here, it is present to people on earth. The goodness of heaven – that place where we hope to go someday when we die, is available in some form today, here and now. That was the message of Jesus. That was the good news.

The great problem of the ages since the beginning of time, since Genesis chapter 3 where Adam and Eve begin to choose their own way instead of God’s is that they begin to think that they can do better without God instead of with him. Throughout the whole Old Testament there is an absence of God in a saving way. It’s not about all the wars and hurt and pain that comes from sin, but rather the absence of God in a saving way. People are separated from God.

The great solution then is the presence of God in a saving way. Jesus, the king of God’s kingdom is coming and the first words out of his mouth in Matthew chapter 4 and the very last words that Jesus speaks in Matthew 28 is about the kingdom of God. Jesus mentions the church twice, but he says over and over again it’s all about the kingdom of God.

Jesus comes speaking about where he comes from. He tells us about heaven and how heaven can invade our lives. He tells us who God is and who we are in him. On every page and in every story he is declaring and demonstrating the kingdom of God, heaven on earth – he is declaring and demonstrating how God created us to be and how God created us to live.

And as Jesus taught his followers he expected that they would do the same. His famous words are, “Come, follow me.” Do as I do. There was more healing in one week of Jesus’ ministry than in the previous 2000 years. In Jesus’ ministry, heaven was invading earth.

Demons were fleeing. People were being healed. It was like light had been turned on in a dark room and the darkness fled where ever Jesus went, where ever Jesus spoke. Jesus wants his central message to stick to you. He wants it to impact the way you think, the way you act and the way you speak. The kingdom of God is at hand.

So, why tie that message to football? I created this analogy in order to help you hear with fresh ears and see with fresh eyes what God’s will is for your life. I created the analogy to help Jesus’ message stick.

So let’s get to the game.

Here’s the definition of football: 22 players on the field, badly in need of rest, watched by 22,000 spectators badly in need of exercise. There’s a lot of that in the church. There is a lot of spectator Christianity in the American church. Christians sitting on the bench, coming to worship on Sunday mornings, but they never have gotten into the kingdom ballgame that Jesus announced. People come to watch on Sunday, but they don’t ever get into the game.

They think that heaven on earth is a good thing – they say “I’d buy a ticket for that, or getting into heaven when you die that’s a good thing, “I’ll buy a ticket for that. But they misunderstand that Christianity because Christianity is not a spectator sport and it’s not an individual sport. It’s a team sport that requires all of us to work together.

It is statistically well know that men leave the church first and then the youth – the young people, and both groups do it for exactly the same reason. They do it because they don’t know there’s a game going on, that there’s a game to be won, and that there’s a lot at stake on this game. They show up and sit down, they might even put money into the plate – pay for their ticket, but there doesn’t seem to even be a game going on in most churches. They get bored because they look around and there’s nothing really going on, and they leave, telling themselves “what’s the point in this?” Nothing really going on, no real game to watch, certainly no game to get involved in, and they leave.

In case you’ve never heard about football in the Bible, let me lay it out for you. 

What’s the field where the game is played? Jesus talks about the field where the great contest of the ages is being played, and where the opponents are colliding, because you know that football is a collision sport right? Baseball and basketball are contact sports, but football is a collision sport. People are running at each other as fast as they can and colliding. There are great collisions happening, so much so, that you can hear the pads popping from clear up in the stands.

The kingdom of heaven has been having a violent collision with the kingdom of Hell, since the day that Jesus began declaring that the Kingdom of God was at hand. What he was announcing was that God has put together a team to challenge the Kingdom of Hell. Up until that point the kingdom of hell didn’t really have any opposition. They went unchallenged. There was no game, but when Jesus came announcing that the kingdom of God was at hand, it was as if he were announcing a worthy challenger.

Do you know this? Every day Jesus faced a fight. Every day the religious leaders fought Jesus and he fought them back, attacking spiritual deadness, attacking legalism, that is, living by the rules, but without mercy, grace, compassion and love. Jesus fought against demons and drove them out. Jesus was always battling evil.

And the enemy was always fighting him. Indeed, they hated him, and finally there were enough people that sided with evil that they crucified Jesus, the son of God. It was the ultimate quarterback sack, where all eleven players dog piled Jesus and their plan was to take him out – they crucified him. They killed him. Jesus was DOA at the local hospital. Evil had once again triumphed. They thought they were on there way to the Super Bowl, but God had something else in mind.

3 days later, Jesus came running out of the tunnel and the crowd went wild. The King of Quarterbacks was back!

What’s the field of play? The field is the world. It is the battlefield and the prize. What will become of the earth? It went to hell once and God sent a great flood to destroy every living creature, except Noah and his family, and to cleanse the evil from it, but he promised he would never do that again. What will become of the earth this time? Will evil win? Will the earth again be completely evil, or will heaven on earth be restored? It is the great battle between two teams – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan – the kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness – the kingdom of hell vs. the kingdom of heaven. It’s the battle of a lifetime and the world is the field.

Did you come to the game? Are you watching the game? Or, are you playing in the game. Let me explain it a bit further because the game is still going on today.

The field is the people around you. It is the people of this world – your co-workers, your friends, the person who cuts your hair, the person who serves your food or pours your coffee at the local restaurant. The field is the people all around you. The people who have addictions, the people who are controlling, the people whose marriage is failing, the person who’s hurting, the person who’s empty, the person who’s done some bad things in the past and they can’t forgive themselves – it’s all the people of this world who were created for heaven, but are experiencing a bit of hell. That’s what’s at stake. Will they go to hell or will they experience heaven. It’s like a cosmic teeter-totter. Whose going to win

Jesus was constantly on the field running plays, pushing back evil, taking ground, moving the ball forward. Jesus was constantly healing people, he was constantly helping people, he was constantly teaching people about truth and about life. Jesus engaged and accepted people where they were, but he was always about pushing back evil, pushing back the opponent, pushing toward the goal of heaven on earth. It was a violent collision between two bitter enemies.

Let me help set something straight. Jesus is not about pushing back evil people, but the evil in people. God loves people, in fact he was willing to give up his life, so that good people could be set free from evil. There are no evil people in the world, just good people filled with evil.

We’ll talk about the line of scrimmage in just a minute, but first let me explain how you get in this game? No player starts at the Super Bowl. You might start playing rocket football and then you might play some high school ball, and then college – often times one of the Big Ten schools and then finally the pros. Everything is a contest. The collisions get more powerful the better you get, but you always play on a team. There has never been a great football player who played alone. They always play on a team. You can’t do it on your own.

God is calling you to join a team and whatever team you start on, God, the great coach, will grow you if you work hard, and if you do it with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. If you haven’t even begun to watch, then start watching closely how others are playing the game, because there’s a game that’s being played here and the outcome has cosmic consequences. You’re going to want to be apart of this.

Why get involved? What’s at stake? When Jesus came to earth, he brought his world with him. He brought heaven to earth. There was no sickness in heaven. He didn’t have to ask God if he should pray for that person, that person was sick and there were no sickness in heaven, so he prayed for the person to be well. Jesus came as the quarterback, calling the plays that would push the enemy back. Jesus’ plan was to always be on the offensive, moving the ball forward toward heaven on earth – that’s the goal – that’s our end zone. Jesus was always pushing towards that goal, but even he had a team that he worked with. He had his disciples. When we see heaven on earth, that’s when we score. The game plan is to score. The game plan is for more of heaven to invade earth.

I hope that you, today, begin practicing and training to fight against evil and that your goal would always be the kingdom of God. Have you raised your hand and said to God, “Sir, I want to play ball for you” and allow him to begin to coach you in this great game called life.

The enemy loves it when you’re not coached. The enemy loves it when you don’t realize there’s a game going on. They love it when they’re pushing us backward toward their goal. Their goal . . . is hell on earth. They love it when we don’t read the playbook and we’re reactive in our marriages and raising children, hurting each other with words and actions. You know what the playbook is right? It’s the Bible. The enemy loves it when we haven’t even read the playbook, because then they just push us backward, gaining territory, gaining ground, moving us backward towards their goal, destroying our marriages and our children, our souls and those around us. The enemy loves it when we’re not reading the playbook or talking to the Coach, because then he just pushes us all over the field, losing ground toward, experiencing more hell as they push us backward toward of hell.

Hell is not someplace where bad people go when they die. Many of you have already experienced the brokenness, hurt, and loneliness that’s hell. Are you tired of backpedaling and being pushed backward in life? You need to join a team. We practice here every week on Sunday mornings. We huddle up once a week in Life Groups, and as we work together to teach our youth and worship every week. We go to the line of scrimmage every time that we pray against evil in the world. We push back evil every time that we read our Bible, because we learn how to defend against the plays of Satan and we learn how to run the plays of God. We go to the line of scrimmage every time we share the story of what God is doing in our lives with those around us and every time that we recruit someone to join our team. Remember, there are no evil people, just good people filled with evil. We go to the line of scrimmage every time we, together, combat evil inside of us or inside of those around us. Evil is understood as anything that isn’t of heaven, anything that isn’t of God.

Some of you have, at times, already experienced bits of heaven on earth. But the question that I want to ask is how do we experience more touchdowns in this game called life – how do we experience more of heaven on earth? Because the game didn’t end at Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection sent the game into overtime. The outcome was determined at Jesus resurrection, but the game of the cosmos is still being played. The question is what side of the ball are you on?

The only people who win are those that are on the field playing the game, because you can’t score, you can’t get to your goal unless you’re on the field.

Here’s the deal. Football is a team sport. If you don’t show up with a team you forfeit the game. Christianity is not an individual sport. It is a team sport. We show up here every Sunday to be reminded of who our Coach is and what plays we’re running. We show up here to understand the plays and the book that they come from. We show up here to learn from the coach how to play better, but the other six and a half days we’re called to be playing the game. This is the sidelines. Ir’s not bad to be on the sidelines – at least you’re not in the stands. Here, I hope you come suited up and ready to play. Don’t be satisfied with being on the team. I pray that you want to be in the game.

Life groups are the huddle. We come together regularly so that we can talk to one another, support one another, and to help one another. In our high school football huddles, we’d talk a lot. It wasn’t just about calling the next play. I’d say, I need help blocking #55, I can’t do it on my own. We’d adjust things so that I could get some help. Sometimes we’d get in each other’s face and say, “You can beat that guy. I know you can beat him, push hard, move your legs, stay low. Life groups are where we work together as a team. If you’re not in a life group, I invite you into one of the five that we have during the week. We work together as a team, with Jesus calling the plays, in order to push the enemy backward and to take more ground and to get closer to heaven on earth in our lives.

Outreach is the line of scrimmage. Most Christians never get to the line of scrimmage. It’s where we do real battle with the enemy. It’s where the real game is being played. It’s where the game is going won or lost. If we’re a Christian we’re on the team – worship – and we root and cheer every time our team makes a great play and someone’s life is changed by it, but you’re not in the game. If you come to life group – the huddle – It’s great to be in the huddle, we’re all close and we talk about things that we don’t talk about on the sidelines, and we’re so close to the action. It feels almost like we’re playing. Many Christians stay on the sidelines and just as many stay in the huddle and never break and go to the line of scrimmage.

Let me remind you that Evil flourishes when good people do nothing. When good people sit on the side lines and when good people stay huddled up, evil flourishes. It takes people who are willing to go to the line and fight against evil and to fight for goodness, to fight for love.

How do we push the enemy back. How do we experience more touchdowns – more of heaven on earth, it’s first by loving our Creator and Coach with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love those people around us as much as we love ourselves.

Right now, there are a lot of people here who’ve been on the field playing their hearts out, taking ground from the enemy. They’ve scored some great touchdowns and have seen Heaven come down to earth in amazing ways, but they’re breathing hard. They need some rest.

I don’t say this to make you feel guilty. That’s not my motivation behind what I’m going to say, but it may very well cause you to feel uncomfortable. Football is a team sport. Throughout the Bible Christianity is identified as something that we do together. Right now we have some people who are looking toward the sidelines, wanting the coach to send some relief in, but there’s some of you in the stands, but you’ve not decided what team you’re on. There are some of you on the bench, and you’re wearing the team colors, but you’re not working with the team. There are some of you in the huddle, but you’ve not decided to join your team and line up against the enemy and through teamwork, push the enemy backward

There are people who need rest, but we have nobody to sub. The people who need to come out of the game aren’t quitting, rather, they’re very excited about playing, they just need some rest for a series of downs.

So here’s the question? Who’s going to win the game tonight? Here’s the bigger question, who’s going to win the game of all eternity. These, maybe, are the biggest questions? Which side are you rooting for? Are you going to join God’s team? Are you going to read the playbook regularly, so that you know the offensive plays of your team and the defensive plays of your enemy? Are you going to suit up and take the field? Are you going to stay in the huddle, small groups, or are you going to go to the line of scrimmage. Are you going to talk to and listen to your great Coach often through individual and team prayer? The stakes are high! The clock is running. Time is short. Make the right choice!