Sports And The Bible | Chris Osburn

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.

1 Corinthians 10:31

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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