Tom Mullins

I want to give you a pregame pep talk for 2015.

So if you don't mind, I want you to step into the locker room with me.

And for the next few moments, I'm going to put on my coach's whistle and my coach's hat and get my clipboard out.

And we're going to have a little pregame talk here.

Alright?

Are you ready?

Now I want to tell you something.

My my message for today was inspired actually around the Thanksgiving table.

Around the Thanksgiving table, we always take time to share what we're thankful for.

And this year I asked a second question around the table.

I said, tell me a life lesson that you've learned this year or it's been reinforced with you this year that we can share.

We went around the table, and there was a young man there from college named Trent, and he was sitting there and he looked at me and he said, He said, Coach, uh everybody calls me coach at church.

So if you see me, just holler, coach, I'll turn.

I know you're going to.

He said, you know, coach, he said, I went to college and I gotta be honest with you, I found myself on the defense all the time of my faith.

And I was kind of knocked off balance my first year, especially.

He said, I I I found myself compromising in little small areas.

I found myself yielding to the pressure of everybody else's value and lifestyle around me, and then I found myself compromising my very core principles of my faith.

And and I realized one morning I woke up and I realized something you taught us years ago.

The best defense is a great offense.

He said, From that day on, I became intentional about growing myself in my faith.

I could not just maintain status quo, I couldn't just remain on defense because I was losing ground and I realized I had to start taking ground.

And when he said that around the table, it just stuck with me, and I had been chewing on that ever since Thanksgiving.

And I wonder how many of us find ourselves living on the defensive side of life.

We're just trying to hold ground, we're just trying to maintain the best we can.

Well, I want to tell you something.

There's some distinct disadvantages to living on the defense in life.

Let me give you five quick observations about it.

Okay, you ready?

Observation number one.

When you live on the defense, think about this now, you're always reacting to pressure instead of initiating pressure.

When you're on defense, the offense knows the snap count and they fire out first.

You react to their action.

So you're always reacting instead of being proactive in life.

And if we're not careful, we're always letting that pressure begin to move us and shape us in certain directions we don't necessarily want to go.

The offense knows where they're going.

They got a play design, they got a blocking scheme design.

When you're on the defense, you're always reacting to the pressure instead of initiating the pressure.

Think about this.

When you're on the defense, your primary goal is to simply hold ground.

Try to hold your ground.

On offense, you're always thinking, I'm gonna take ground.

I'm gonna be advancing.

On defense, you're just status quo is a good thing on defense, but it's not in life.

You know what I've learned?

I've learned this.

If you're just trying to hold ground, you're most likely losing ground.

Because if you're not advancing, you're going backwards.

There's no such thing as neutral in this thing called a walk of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I just want us to realize we can't do that.

Here's another thing I've I've I've learned about playing defense.

When you're playing defense, think about it.

You're always reacting at your point of weakness instead of living at your point of strength.

Now think about it.

What does the offense do?

The offense always analyzes the defense, figures out where their weak point is, either in their scheme or the way they're structured or their personnel.

And what do they do?

They design the place to attack the point of weakness.

When you're on the defense, you have a real enemy, you have a true opponent, and he's always attacking you at your point of weakness, and you're always defending from a point of weakness instead of living from a place of strength.

Now think about it.

Here's another thing I know about a disadvantage of being on defense.

You can't control the pace of the game, the pace controls you.

You can't control the pace of the game, the pace controls you.

Boy, did Florida State find that out against Oregon.

Now, I I've been rooting for Florida State because Jack Nicholas's grandson is a tight end from Florida State, and he's probably one of the most outstanding tight ends in the country this year, a consensus all American.

And so I've gone to some of their games this year, and I've been rooting for them, and I was rooting for them out there in the Rose Bowl, but I want to tell you something.

Those ducks, they were up there, and about every 10 to 12 seconds, boom, they're snapping the ball, running another play.

There were times at Florida State when he lined up on the line of scrimmage.

There were times that guys are running off the field, another guy's trying to get on the field, and Oregon's running a play.

See, when you're on defense, you can't control the pace of life.

Everything else is controlling the pace for you, and you're and you're trying to stay up with the pace, and pretty soon you find that fatigue will set in.

There's a great theologian, his name was Vince Lombardi.

And this theologian said, fatigue will make cowards out of us all.

Fatigue will make cowards out of us all.

And so many of us are so fatigued in life because life is pushing us at such a pace and we're back on our heels trying to hold on, trying to endure.

And the other simple truth is this.

Without the ball, you can't score.

If you're always playing defense, you're never scoring.

You're never advancing.

You're always struggling at your point of weakness.

You're never taking ground.

You're always finding yourself trying to defend or you're losing ground.

And you can't control the pace of the game, and you're surely not scoring.

I played high school ball in uh in Ohio, and uh it's nothing like Texas football, but you know, we we think we're better than Michigan football, anyways.

You know what I mean?

So, and uh I started as a freshman on our high school varsity team, first freshman to do that on our school.

And um by my sophomore year, I was starting both ways, offense and defense.

And so one night here there comes this running back, he's running around on this Friday night home game.

I remember it vividly right now, and he comes running around.

I stepped in front of him to try to tackle him, and when I did, he was running at a full head of steam.

He hit me, his face mask went right through my face mask.

I had one of those old Larry Zonka little horseshoe things right here for your head, you know, helmet, you know, and we had just barely got good helmets by then.

That was back when almost the leather helmet days.

Anyways, I I go in to stick this guy, and his face mask comes through, breaks my face mask, breaks my nose, and knocks out my four front teeth.

I'm laying on the ground, bleeding profusely, out of my nose.

I'm knocked half unconscious.

They get me up, they drag me off to the sidelines.

Now I had very sophisticated, compassionate coaches.

Not they looked at me, they took cotton stuffed up my nose to stop the bleeding, looked inside my mouth, two of my teeth were still dangling in there by some tissue.

They said, Ah, those are gone.

They pulled those for me, didn't charge me a thing.

I mean, is this stuffed cotton in my mouth, got me a new helmet, said, son, suck it up and get tough and get in the game.

I went back in the game.

I didn't miss a play.

Back those days, you called timeout and you were injured, you can go right back in.

That was the first half.

I didn't miss another play.

Don't remember a thing about that game.

I did come to one conclusion, though.

I think I like offense better than defense.

I think I like running over people instead of people running over me.

Now, listen to me, listen to me.

This is the word God gave me for you.

I've got good news for you.

God says this.

He wants you now running over the things that have been running over you.

He wants you running over the things that have been running over you.

It's time to make the shift.

You need to get off defense and get on the offensive side of the ball this coming year.

You've got to be intentional about the changes you need to make to get yourself out of a defensive position to an offensive position.

I want to tell you something.

Jesus came that we might take the ball and run with it and learn how to win running with him.

You've read that scripture, right?

It's John 10 10.

Coach's translation.

I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly.

That means, baby, we get to carry the ball.

We get to advance, we get to score, we get to make a difference with our lives.

That's the good news.

You can start running over the things that have been running over you.

So let's think about this a little bit.

There's a great coach in the Word of God by the name of Coach Paul.

Not Paul Bear Bryant, but Coach Paul, the Apostle Paul.

He's been my life coach ever since I could read the Bible.

Coach Paul's been my life coach.

And Coach Paul gives us some great thoughts, and I want you to turn with me to the book of Philippians.

Get your iPhones out, get your iPads out, get anything you've got and get scripture on it.

And let's look at this scripture in Philippians chapter 3, beginning with verse 12.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

And I want you to see how Paul thinks offensively.

And he teaches us some great principles about living on the offensive side of the ball.

You ready?

Here we go.

Look at verse 12, chapter 3.

Not that I've already obtained all of this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of for that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Let's stop there a minute.

Think about that.

He said, I'm advancing, I'm gonna be intentional, I'm gonna be proactive to take hold of the life for which Christ came to give me.

Christ came to give me this divine life, this abundant life, this life filled with purpose, this life filled with a divine destiny.

But Paul says, I've got to press, I've got to initiate, I've got to be intentional, I've got to be offensive minded to take hold of it.

And I'm gonna press through and I'm gonna take hold of it.

I love it.

I love this offensive, proactive mindset.

Look what he says.

He says, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind.

I love that because when he says forgetting what is behind, Paul's saying this: I'm not gonna let my past and I'm not gonna let my weaknesses distract me from where I'm gonna focus my life.

I'm gonna run forward in the strength of Christ.

I'm gonna play from my strength, not from my weakness.

Paul wasn't about to sit back and be defending.

If anybody could have got hung up with their past, Paul could have.

I mean, he stood by and watched Stephen be martyred.

He was persecuting the early church.

He had a horrible spirit on him, trying to destroy the things of God.

Don't you think he had to be harassed and battle that harassment?

But he realized the ability to put that behind him through the power of Christ, not focus on that, but focus on the things that God had for him.

And he strained forward, forgetting what was behind.

I like the fact when he said, I'm straining forward.

In other words, I'm always advancing.

I don't know about you, but I love to be around people that are always advancing.

We're never content.

I don't think you should ever be content where you are in your walk with the Lord.

We should always be saying, Father, I want to be closer.

That's what Paul's saying here.

I want to be closer to my Lord.

I want to know him in a deeper and a richer way.

I want to experience him in a more intimate way so that I am better equipped and empowered to fulfill my life mission for him.

That should be our goals for 2015.

Amen?

That we are advancing.

We are going to be intentional about advancing our faith in Christ.

Then he goes on in verse 15 that says this to us.

Now, all of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

Okay?

So let's respond to that.

What Paul's really saying to us, let's get back to some of the key fundamentals here.

You know, I uh I observed this when I was uh coaching at uh a small college called Georgetown College.

I I wanted to take my team up to learn from some of the uh the big college guys, and so I got an opportunity to go up and and and train with Ohio State for three days.

Took my whole staff up, we went with them, went to every school session, every practice session, all the coaches' meetings.

I wanted to learn everything.

We're observing all their drills, everything, how they taped an ankle to how they coached their players, okay?

Because we wanted to learn.

The amazing thing is, after three days up at Ohio State, we realized they were teaching the exact same fundamentals we were teaching at Georgetown College.

And even using many of the same drills.

But here was the difference the athletes were bigger, stronger, faster, and they executed the fundamentals more consistently.

That's why they played at a higher level.

So then I went to the Cincinnati Bengals training camp.

Spent three days in the Cincinnati Bengals staff.

And to my amazement, I discovered the same thing.

They're teaching the exact same fundamentals on the pro level.

They had a few more sophisticated drills, but the fundamentals were the same.

But guess what?

The athletes were bigger, stronger, faster, and they executed it, the fundamentals, more consistently.

You want to know the simple secret for 2015?

Because we're always looking for this new angle, this new approach, this new thing that's going to take me to the next level in my life.

When in reality, it always gets back to the fundamentals of our faith.

And how consistently are we executing those fundamentals?

So let's look at three of them real quick.

Okay, you ready?

Here we go.

The first fundamental is really revealed in verse 15.

When Paul says, if you're mature, I want you to have the same view that I have in my quest to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me.

This life that God has ordained for me.

I want you to have that same view.

Paul was saying, I want you to have a Christ-centered, Christ-centered perspective on life.

Meredith, put that down.

Let's put that up on the screen.

A Christ-centered perspective on life.

And I really believe that Paul was basically saying, I want you to have a kingdom point of view in your life.

It's Christ-centered, we're thinking spiritual, we're thinking kingdom, we're looking at life from that perspective.

In other words, here's another simple way to say it for a football coach.

You've got to think offense.

When I went to college for the first time out of high school, I remember walking into the very first team meeting in college, and the coaches came up and handed me the offensive playbook.

It was about two and a half inches thick.

Now, in high school, we didn't have a playbook.

In high school, our coach would go to the chalkboard and draw up a play, and then we'd go out and try to run it and rehearse it and practice, and then, you know, and we only had a handful of plays.

You didn't have that many plays.

Here he hands me this two and a half inch thick playbook, and he says to us, he gives up, saying, I want you to not only learn your assignment on every play, I want you to learn all the other ten positions that are playing alongside of you on that play, so you understand the entire concept of that play.

And I want you to know this: we have designed the plays around your strengths.

And if you will run these plays effectively, we're gonna win.

But you got to know them and you got to know how to execute them.

And so every day, we would not only be on the practice field, but we would be in what we called back then skull sessions.

Where you'd go in and you would study and diagram the plays.

They would ask you questions, we'd get up, we'd illustrate it, we'd walk through it.

We're constantly doing that.

We had to study our playbook at night and come to practice with our playbook.

We had to be ready, we had to know the offense so that we could execute it when the play is called.

So Paul is simply saying this we've got to, we've got to start thinking offensively.

If that's the case, we've got to start really allowing this playbook to get into us.

Now, here's a simple phrase.

Marilyn, let's put this one up.

This is a good one.

We got to get in the word.

Tell somebody that get in the word.

Tell them, get in the word, and let the word get in you.

Got it?

Get in the word.

Come on, talk to me.

Get in the word.

Let the word get into you.

Hey, hey, day star, repeat that to yourself wherever you are at home by yourself.

That's okay.

You can talk to yourself now.

It's all right.

You're talking with us.

It's okay.

What's Paul say?

I I love this verse that he says in 2 Corinthians 10 5.

2 Corinthians 10 5.

Paul talks about we've got to take every thought captive.

What's that?

Take every thought captive and make it subject to Christ.

See that?

It's a proactive action.

We have to take our thoughts captive and make them subject to Jesus Christ.

Because we're being bombarded every day on how we are to think, what we are to value, how we are to live.

We're being pressured every day, but we have got to not think like the world, we've got to think like Christ.

What did he say?

Set your mind on things above.

Have the mind that is in Christ Jesus.

Let no one take you captive through hollow and vain philosophies of man, he says to the church at Colossae.

We have to battle.

I mean, the battlegrounds right here.

Now get hold of this.

Get hold of this, okay?

Matter of fact, you're gonna want to tweet.

Get your phones out right now.

Tweet this, what I'm about to tell you to you.

Get your phones out.

I want you to tweet it.

Come on.

Some of you are already tweeting anyway, so you might as well do it legally.

Might as well do an anointed of God.

Amen.

Glory to Jesus.

Alright, I want you to tweet this.

You ready?

To advance your life, Meredith put this on the screens too.

Because some of them can't spell.

The men can't spell anything, so you can put that up on it.

To advance your life, you must first advance your thinking.

To advance your life, you must first advance your thinking.

I used to tell my players all the time, before you can ever be a winner, you've got to start thinking like a winner.

You've got to start seeing yourself winning.

But you've got to think like winners think.

You've got to work like winners work.

You got to practice like winners practice.

Then you'll start executing like winners execute, and then you'll start winning like winners win.

But it starts with how we think.

And how do we do that?

Because it's through getting this word in us.

Let the word of God dwell in you richly, the word tells us.

Amen?

Because what I love about this precious book, its wisdom will enrich our lives, its principles will guide our lives, its truth will protect our lives.

Think about it.

And its spirit will always lead our lives into a position of victory.

Think about it.

It's wisdom, it's principles, it's truth, it's spirit.

And if we're gonna capture the mind of God and begin to capture a kingdom perspective, we've got to capture the very mind and heart of God that's given to us right here in this playbook.

So get your playbook and study.

And here's what I want you to commit to do in 2015.

I want you to get up 15 minutes earlier in your day, and I want you to commit the first 15 minutes of the day to get alone with God in His Word.

Get alone with God in His Word.

Let you get in the Word and let the Word get into you.

And I tell you what, you'll find yourself wiser every day.

You'll find yourself, God and His Spirit guiding you in your decision making every day.

You will find the Spirit of God protecting you every day, and you will find yourself positioned to start walking in the fog.

Remember, I told you last time you heard about walking in the fog, right?

You know, there is a fog over Gateway.

You know that, don't you?

Did you see it when you came in?

There's a fog over Gateway.

Oh, yeah, there's a fog here.

James, you don't know about the fog.

The fog is the favor of God.

I don't know about you, but I want to live in the fog.

Remember, I told you about Louisiana friends that told me about when I went down and met him, I said, Hey brother, how are you doing?

I said, Oh brother, I'm living in the fog.

My family's in the fog.

My business is in the fog.

He said, Everything's in the fog.

He said, everything I touch is in the fog.

I said, Oh, brother, what's the fog?

He said, The favor of God.

I said, Touch me.

I want to be in the fog.

Come on, baby.

Come on.

The word, the word will lead you into the fog.

And I don't know about you, but I want to live in the favor of God in 2015.

Don't you?

Come on, talk to me.

I know you do.

So let's be intentional.

Let's be intentional about investing time in the word and in prayer with God in this new year.

That is a fundamental that will take your life to the next level.

And it will move you from the defense to the offense.

Okay, here we go.

Real quick, I'm gonna give you a second one.

You ready?

Now remember, in when you're playing defense, you're always taught to react to pressure.

Wherever the pressure comes, you fire out and hit that pressure and fight through it because it will tell you the direction of the play.

But typically what happens is if a guy's a really good blocker, he's gonna move you and route you around.

No matter how much you try, he's gonna route you around that play, and you will not be able to control the true direction you want to go.

Because you're reacting to pressure.

The offensive guy knows where the play is going, so he's already the one initiating the direction because he's initiating pressure.

If you're on the defense, you're reacting to pressure.

If you're on the offense, you're initiating pressure.

You're setting the direction, you're setting the course of your life.

That's what it means to live offensively.

So here's the key.

You ready?

We must live by principle, not by pressure.

Meredith, put that up.

That's good.

We've got to put that one on.

We're gonna live by principle, not by pressure.

I was uh I was talking with Chris Hodges, a great pastor, he's shared here many times at Gateway and and uh Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, phenomenal.

We were having we were having uh dinner one night and we were talking about life principles, and and he brought this up.

He said, You know, my father always taught me you live by principle, not by pressure.

So, therefore, no matter what Paul faced in his circumstances of his life, no matter what pressure he had to contend with, he did not let the pressure or the circumstances or the others determine the direction of his life.

Because Paul was on the offense, not the defense.

Paul was initiating, he was proactive, he wasn't reacting.

Paul wasn't gonna let anyone else set the pace for his life.

Paul's passion set his pace.

Our passions will dictate the pace of our life.

And when your passions are to pursue the things of God and you seek after the things of God, guess what?

God is there to richly strengthen you and equip you and reward you and help you find the victory that He's ordained for you in your life.

I love what Paul says to the church at Colossians again in Colossians chapter 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

He says, Just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, he said, Then live.

Live, live your lives in him, be rooted in him, be established in him.

In other words, let the truth of his life and his principles be lived out in us.

So here's so here's my here's my challenge to you.

I want you to check your alignment.

Now, in football, we come up to the line of scrimmage.

If I had time, I'd get I'd get ten other guys up here with me, we'd line up for you.

Here's the ball, here's the line of scrimmage right there, okay?

We come up, the center gets on the ball, he establishes the line of scrimmage, all the other linemen get up, and what do they do?

They check their alignment along with this guy on the line of scrimmage.

The wide receivers, they're out here.

You notice they come up to the line, they're looking into the line of scrimmage, they've got to the line judge, they're waving at him to make sure their alignment's right.

Because if you're lined up offsides, boom, the flag's thrown.

There you go, five-yard penalty.

If you're lined up in the backfield and you should be up on the line of scrimmage, boom, there goes the flag.

Five-yard penalty, illegal procedure.

Some of you have got so many penalty flags flowing at you, and you're going, I don't understand this.

It's like every move I make, there's a flag being thrown at me.

Well, have you ever thought maybe you've lined up off sides?

Come on, check your alignment.

Check your alignment.

Is is am I lining up with the word of God?

Is my life lined up?

Wait a minute.

Are my relationships in alignment with the word of God?

Are my finances in alignment with the word of God?

Hello.

We just took 10,000 people through uh Financial Peace University and and we did two years ago, we did the whole Blessed Life Series.

I'm so excited the Blessed Life Series is going.

You do not want to miss the Blessed Life Series.

It it's life transformational for you.

Because here's what we found.

When you get your financial house in order with the principles of God, and you come into alignment with that, it brings everything else into alignment in your life.

It'll bring your marriage into alignment.

It's amazing what it would do.

What's he say?

Seek me first, all these other things will be added into you.

So let me ask you, is your business in alignment with God?

Principles, precepts, and teachings?

Is your marriage in alignment with God?

Principles and precepts and teachings?

Were my tax returns in alignment with God's principles, precepts, and teachings?

Matter of fact, if there's any area you're struggling in, the first question you ought to ask yourself is, Holy Spirit, and through your holy word, will you teach me if there's somewhere I'm off of my alignment with the things of God?

Because I'm gonna be driven by principle, not precept.

Pressure.

Principles and precepts of God's words will drive me.

I was a high school kid, James and I was hanging out uh off season, and we had this place like called a Frisch's Big Boy kind of a place there in Hamilton, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.

And I don't know, 48 Plymouth, it was pitiful.

That thing was so out of alignment, every time I drive it, it jerked me off the road.

And it wouldn't hold, we'd go down and try to put it in alignment, and then we'd get it back out of alignment, wear the tires out, and wear me out.

That was back before power steering.

Hello.

When things were out of alignment in your life, it'll jerk you in the ditch quick.

So I parked the thing in the alley, went up and I'm hanging out, and here comes these guys cruising around, and they're pulling up in like a 56 Shivvy.

Now, I'm gonna tell you, a 56 Shivy was cool in 56.

It was cool in 66, it was cool in 86, 96, 206, 216.

It'll be cool until Jesus comes.

You know what I mean?

It's just it's one of those cars that's just cool.

And these guys pulled up and they said, Hey Mullins, come on, baby, go with us.

And so I I looked at him, oh, oh yeah, okay, I want to.

And so I and so I got in as a two-door deal.

They opened the door and pulled the seat uphead, and I got in, and the guy in the back was my buddy, he lived down the road from me.

We played football together, and I'm getting in the car.

I got one foot already in the back of the car, and I look and I notice that all three of the guys got a bottle of beer.

So boom, I'm faced with a decision.

They were saying, Come on, man, get in the car, get in the car, come on, get in the car, get a car, come on, get in the car.

Let's go, get in the car.

And I backed out of the car.

First of all, I know I shouldn't be in there with those guys drinking or driving.

Secondly, my my grandfather was my pastor.

And buddy, we were raised very conservative.

You didn't mess with anything like that.

In fact, you're a witness for the Lord.

And then my football coach would have killed me if he had found me out drinking.

So I said no, and I got out of the car.

And boy, they made fun of me, they put all kind of pressure on me, but I knew I couldn't get in that car.

I had to make a decision, not based on pressure, but based on principle, not to get in that car.

And I got out of that car.

And they went on.

I later got my little 48 Clinton and headed home outside of Hamilton, Ohio, towards Middletown, Ohio, on Route 4, and I saw this burst of light, and I couldn't figure out what it was.

Boom, I got, what in the world is that?

And I drove up around the corner, and to my amazement, there was a car, had hit an embankment, and it was burning in total flames.

I went up and found one of the guys, I was one of the first people there, went up and found one of the boys that was driving the car.

He's laying up there moaning about 40 or 50 feet away from the car.

He'd been thrown out of the car, and it was the driver of the car.

Then the horn started to blow, and I went, Oh my goodness, where's my friend?

And they found another body of a kid that was laying in the middle.

He had been thrown on the other side of the road, and they couldn't find the boy in the back seat.

And the car's burning and the horn's blowing.

I'm terrified.

In the pitch of that night, finally the police arrive and we're searching.

And I was walking down a little ditch behind the car, and I'm probably about 50, 60 feet away from that car, and my foot hit his body.

And that night I helped lift him out, my friend, out of that ditch.

And I watched him put him in a black bag and zip it up and take him to the morning.

I went home and I'm in my little bathroom weeping.

And I looked down and I see his blood on my hands.

And I thought, oh, by the grace of God, you're gonna be on the offense.

You don't live by pressure, you live by principle.

And finally, I'm gonna give you one final thing here.

Paul said, you've got to run hard.

No matter what you do, develop a spiritual perseverance about you that you will not quit, you will not let up, and you will not give up, but you will keep pressing on.

There's something about spiritual tenacity that when we get that rooted deep in us, we will not be deterred.

We may get knocked down, we may fumble, we may get sacked.

But I'm gonna tell you what, we're gonna get up, we're gonna take that ball back, and we're gonna keep running forward for the kingdom of God.

Amen?

So run hard.

I uh I took over a high school team in uh in Florida that never had a winning season, and uh the most wins they'd ever had were four four wins.

And I I took the team over and I was all fired up, and they only had about 20-some players on the team.

So I went out.

Man, I was I was preaching in churches in the inner city.

I was going everywhere, baby.

I'm I'm going after players.

I'm gonna get my guys fired up and get a team out there.

And to my surprise, a hundred guys showed up for tryouts.

A hundred guys.

So I lined them up according to the most athletic looking guys, right down to the least most athletic looking guys.

And I had this policy, I wasn't going to cut anybody.

If you'll come and work hard and train hard, I'll dress you out and put you in a game.

So we get down to the very last guy.

You got to picture Carl Pierce.

He I was looking for a mic stand up here because he would look like a mic stand, okay?

He's a real skinny little kid, walked like a duck, very unathletic looking.

And he walked up to me and I said, Uh uh, son, what's your name?

He said, My name's Carl Pierce.

I said, Carl, I said, What are you gonna play?

He said, I mean, I'm gonna go wide receiver, Coach.

I said, Okay.

So we got a wide receiver pads.

They said, No.

Coach says, We're out of pads.

We use all the varsity pads, junior varsity pads, freshman team pads.

I said, We've got to have something left in there.

And he said, Yeah, we got one pair of pads left, and he brought it out.

Well, we had had this defensive lineman who had graduated the year before.

He weighed about 300 pounds, and we had these pads.

Now, Carl, I don't know if Carl weighed 100 pounds.

We took these shoulder pads, we put them on Carl, and they fell off his shoulder, and he stuck his arm up through the neck hole, and he said, Coach, he says, I think they're a little big.

I said, No, Carl, you can catch that ball from any position.

You can spin those things.

We we took towels and taped them up under there, but no one he'd run, it'd fall down over his shoulders.

I mean, it was pitiful looking.

I said, son, what size head you got?

And he said, I don't know, little pinhead kid, just a little tiny head.

I said, We got I said, it looks like about a six head.

I said, Got it.

Sixes in there?

No, we got one helmet left.

I said, bring it up, we'll make it fit.

Well, you guessed it.

It was the helmet to fit the guy that wore the shoulder pads.

It was like a nine, an eight and three-quarters.

I mean a big old melon head thing.

I can't, you know.

We put them on him, triple cheek pads, took socks, stuffed them everywhere.

But when he would run, he looked like a bobble doll, and this is no joke.

The first time he ran out on the practice field, he's running out and it's just shaking, and it turns all the way around, and his nose is sticking out the ear hole.

Well, we only had one pair of pants left, you guessed it.

Both of his legs fit down one leg.

And we had no belts, Pastor.

We had no belts for him, so we took shoestrings to strap around him.

We he couldn't do jumping, two-handed jumping jacks because his pants would fall down.

So here he is jumping there, like this one.

You got him pictured?

Boy, they made fun of him, they hawked him.

He couldn't do anything in practice.

He couldn't run, he had to always hold his pants.

So he basically hold his pants and hold a dummy, hold his pants, hold the dummy.

But the kid wouldn't quit.

They made fun of him and everything else, but that kid was determined he was gonna play and be on the team.

He tried to do everything he could, nothing fit, nobody believed in him, but that kid would not quit.

So it came the first game, and I had to honor my commitment to dress everybody.

So I hit him between my two biggest players taking the field, and I told him, get in the back of the line and don't move.

Just stand there holding your pants.

Well, you know we won our first game, we won our second game, we won our third game, we won our fourth game.

We've already tied the school record in wins.

We're playing our fifth game, we're trailing the whole game, and about two minutes left to go in the game.

We score the go-ahead touchdown.

All we gotta do is kick the ball off, hold them for one series.

We're gonna be 5-0.

I'm thinking state championship.

The team lines up to kick off.

I'm out there and looking down, going one, two, three, four, five, six.

I said, We only got ten players on the field.

I turned to my my specialty team coach, this guy named Moore Caesar Jakes, played at Florida State, big guy.

And I turned to him, I said, We're Caesar.

We only got ten guys on the field.

Get somebody on the field.

And I'm saying to the referee, time out, ref, time out! And ref says, You have no timeouts left, coach.

And then the end guy's missing is the end guy that's gonna contain, and they run an end sweep on the returns.

I looked at that assistant coach, I was gonna kill him.

Now remember, I wasn't a pastor yet.

He turns, grabs the first player standing beside him without even looking who it was, grabbed him and threw him on the field, and there went Carl Pierce.

I'm going.

They blow the whistle, they take off running.

Carl went running down the field.

I was shocked he ran the right direction.

He was running down the field, and I know it looked like body parts were falling off of him.

Suddenly, there's this massive collision about the 25-yard line.

Our guys are hollering, fumble, fumble, fumble! I said, Who's got it?

Who's got it?

I got it, coach, I got it, coach.

He comes running over the ball.

My assistant coach is going, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus.

I went and got the game films.

Carl went running down there, his helmet had turned sideways, he didn't even know where he was.

The running back ran and ran right over him and got tangled up in his equipment.

And when he fell down, when he fell down, he fumbled the ball, and Carl's laying on the ground, and one of our players speared Carl in the back and knocked him onto the ball.

So, Monday morning I went to school, went to the principal's office, got a pass, got Carl out of class, said come with me.

I took him down to the sporting goods store.

I said, Son, I'm gonna buy you some equipment to fit you.

We had to go in the Pee-wee football department, but we went in there and we got we got him some equipment to fit him.

I got him a helmet of fitting pants and I got everything.

I said, When you're done, I said, son, you need anything else?

He says, uh, hey coach, he said, uh, I'd like to have uh some uh thumper pads.

I said, thumper pads?

What do you want thumper pads for?

Now, back when I was coaching, our guys called forearm pads thumper pads because they go whoop whoop dad is upside your head.

I'm gonna thump you upside your head.

And so I said, What do you want thumper pads for?

You're a receiver.

He said, I'm gonna become a specialty team specialist.

I said, Okay, what does that mean?

He said, I want to be on the kickoff team.

I said, All right.

So that week, to celebrate him, I put him between my two best athletes on the first kickoff, and I figured we couldn't get in trouble with him being in the center of the line, and I put him down, he ran down there, and you know what I found out?

Running backs were attracted to Carl Pierce.

And this running back ran to him and ran right over him and tripped over him again.

He was like trying to run through some bob wire or something.

I mean, he didn't do anything orthodox, just like at the end of that year, you know what they did?

The team voted him the most improved player, and they nominated him to be the honorary captain of the specialty teams.

Carl Pierce.

I don't care what anybody else thinks about you.

And it doesn't matter if anything doesn't fit right now.

And nothing seems to be going right.

You know, all you need to do is just grab up your spiritual pants and start running hard after God.

Because here's one thing, listen to me, here's one thing I know.

2 Chronicles 16, 9 says, the eyes of the Lord are ranged about all the earth, looking to show himself strong on behalf of that one that's running hard after him.

He's gonna make things right in 2015 for you.

You're gonna get some new uniforms, you're gonna get a new helmet, some new shoulder pads, some new pants.

Just keep running hard, amen.

Now, all right, now here we go, here we go.

Here we go.

Get everything free, get everything off your laps, get everything free, put everything down, get everything down.

We're gonna break out.

But before we break out of the locker room and get on the field, I want to remind you the three keys.

You've got to be intentional about the investment of your time with God and his word.

Amen.

You've got to be intentional to align your life with his principles.

And you've got to be intentional about your relationships because, see, you want to run with people who are running hard after God.

Now we're gonna do our breakdown.

So let's get up.

Come on, get up, get up, get up.

Come on, Frisco, get on your feet.

North Fort Worth, get on your feet.

Hey, day star, if you're home, get out of the couch, get up, come on, get out of that lounge chair.

Get up, let's go right now.

Everybody, get up, let's go.

Here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna holler break down in a minute.

When you break down, you get in a fundamental position.

Your feet are with your shoulders, you get a little slight bend in your knees, keep your back straight.

Don't go too deep, some of you won't get back up.

Here we go.

So there's a little bit of a flex right here, okay?

So when I say break down, you're gonna go to this position.

Okay, let's just try that one time.

Break down.

Oh, somebody you're slow.

If you do that again, you will be running laps.

Come on, come on.

North Fort Worth, I'm watching you.

Frisco, I'm watching you.

Come on, here we go.

Now, here's the deal.

We're gonna break down, and when you break down, we're gonna do our clap.

Our clap is one, two, three, one.

Practice that one time.

Here we go.

One, two, three, one.

Now, after we do that, we're gonna scream out the name of our captain, our leader, Jesus, all right?

Then you're gonna turn to two people and you're gonna say this to them.

Get on the offense.

Get on the offense.

You got it?

Let's do it.

Okay, you guys ready?

You ready?

North Fort Worth, you ready?

Come on, Frisco, you ready?

Day Stark, get up.

I told you to get up, get up.

Here we go.

You guys ready?

Here we go.

Ready?

Bring it down.

Jesus! Get on the offense.

Get on the offense.

All right.

That was not that strong.

Now, when we get done this time, tell two people, and then we're gonna do our locker room clap.

Our locker room crap, you know what that is.

You just stay with me.

Get in rhythm with me, and then we're gonna break out of here.

Okay, here we go.

Let's break down one more time just for the fun of it.

Okay, you ready?

Come on, here we go.

Come on, get get sharp, be sharp, be clean.

Boom, quick, quick, quick, quick.

Here we go.

Ready?

Really?

Break it up! Get them on the fence.

Come on, get them on the fence.

Let's go.

All right, here we go.

Here we go.

You ready?

Let's go.