Sports and the Gospel, Part 1

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, I invite you to open it with me to 1 Corinthians 10. So 1 Corinthians 8:9–10 specifically revolves around the theme of idolatry and how the Corinthian church was to follow Christ in a culture that was full of idols. Now, the tendency for us if we’re not careful, the tendency for us is to feel kind of distant from a text like this. The meat you buy at the grocery store has likely not been offered as worship up to some wooden statues. So does this text really have any application for us? And the answer is it absolutely does. Though there may not be wooden statues or golden figurines around us, our culture is filled with idols and touse language from Ezekiel 14, Our hearts are drawn to idols. Every one of us in this room.

The more I thought about the application of this text to idols in our day, the more I realized. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon that deals with sports, a sermon that equips God’s people with God’s Word and how to address such a huge part of our culture and our lives. This is worth a pause. So what we’re going to do this week is we’re going to see: Does the cross have any unique effect on the way we approach sports? And I want us to show how it does maybe even this week, next week, so that some of you who are not followers of Christ might see the uniqueness of the cross of Jesus and that you might even this week, next week be drawn to worship Him as the son of God for the first time in your life. And the process for Christians to see how the cross transforms the way we view sports.

Now, before we dive specifically into sports, I want to summarize what we’ve seen in 1 Corinthians 8:9–10. There’s a clear command that lies at the heart of these three chapters and it’s summed up in 1 Corinthians 10:14. You might underline it in your Bible just like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, flee sexual immorality. We spend time talking about that here. He says in verse 14, therefore my beloved flee from idolatry. So those three words flee from idolatry. That’s the command that’s central In these three chapters, flee idolatry, run from idolatry. Just as you run from any hint of sexual immorality, run from any hint of idolatry, any hint of idolatry, run from it, don’t flirt with it, don’t play with it, run from it. And then you read the verses that follow, verse 14. And you see Paul give two primary reasons why we must flee for idolatry.

One because it’s inconsistent with the gospel. As we read a few weeks ago, Paul starts talking about the Lord’s Supper, which is a poignant illustration because he was addressing the matter of food that had been sacrificed to idols. And he basically says that the Lord’s Supper, which we’re going to celebrate in a few minutes, represents our fellowship with Christ as God. We believe in Christ, we know Christ, we worship Christ. And that’s what’s represented in this communion with Christ through a meal, a symbolic meal. And what Paul’s saying is it makes no sense for you to have this meal that symbolizes your identification with Christ and then go into the world and into your everyday life and identify with idols that are inconsistent. You’ve been saved to worship Christ, not to worship idols, and that Corinthians Christians were doing what they were doing. What we in this room are tempted to do every week which people across our church culture are tempted to do on a continual basis.

How many of us in this room, how many people across churches today are tempted to take this Lord’s Supper almost like it’s a religious ritual routine team, and then go out into the world this week and bow at altars of money and sex and sports and power and beauty and the corporate ladder and the applause of men, whatever it may be, all the while assuming, well, I’m a Christian, I go to church, I take the Lord’s Supper, and yet our everyday lives are consumed with all kinds of other idols. And Paul says, no such idolatry is completely inconsistent with the gospel and it is an offense against God. The severity of this text just comes to a head in verse 21 and 22 where just as Matt taught on a few weeks ago, we see that the worship of various idols is actually the worship of demons. Verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. In other words, you can’t turn aside from the worship of God to the worship of demons. And then verse 22, shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Oh, see this, feel this. When we join in the worship of false gods in the culture around us, we are collaborating with demons in defiance of the one true God.

Idolatry is extremely serious. Even as we’re prepared to talk about sports, let it be clear, God will have no competition. He alone is holy. He alone is worthy, he alone is glorious and he alone is God. And to live as if anything other than this were true, is to live an outright offense to God. So flee, run from any and all hints of idolatry, flee it. Now this command of what not to do so don’t worship idols is then followed in this text by a corresponding example of what to do. In verses 23 through 30, Paul summarizes all that he said in chapters eight and nine, and then he concludes in verse 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And that is the all-consuming, all-encompassing exhortation in this text. Whatever you do, whatever pretty much covers it, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God, flee idolatry in all of its forms and then glorify God in every facet of your life.

This is what you are to live for. This, not to bring demons glory, not to draw any attention to anything like it is a God, but instead to live, eat, drink, breathe, sleep, work, play whatever you do, do it all to draw attention to the glory of the one true God. Now 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 do this? How do we glorify God? And Paul says to then we glorify God when we live for the good of others. The whole point of this discussion about food sacrifice to idols then leading up to chapter nine was to say, you do what is best. You do what is beneficial for the building up of others. Even listen to what Paul says right after verse 31, verse 32.

He says, give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage but that of many that they may be saved. This is Paul saying, I lay down my life for the good of others, specifically those in the church. The very next verse 11 verse one, Paul says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. That’s Paul’s desire to literally lay down his life, to show others how to follow Christ. He wants to serve those in the church, but obviously not just those in the church. Paul wants to live for the good of those, those who are without Christ. That was the whole point. At the end of chapter nine, I become all things to all people that by all means that might save some that they may be saved.

He says in verse 33 here, remember, this is the purpose we talked about. This is the purpose for which you’re on the planet to enjoy God, to glorify God as we spread his gospel from where we live to the ends of the earth. This is how we glorify God by spreading his gospel from where we live to the ends of the earth. And the beauty is so follow this living like this, laying down our lives for the glory of God by serving others in the church, leading others to Christ, we glorify God when we realize living like this is good for ourselves, this is good for us. Paul’s whole point is to show the Corinthians that this is where true life is found. Joy is found, meaning is found. Satisfaction is found in focusing every single detail of our lives on living to the glory of God by laying down our lives to serve others in Christ and lead others to Christ. That’s the point of 1 Corinthians 8:9–10. Flee any and every hint of idolatry and everything you do, including how you eat and drink, do it all to the glory of God. So then, how do we watch and play sports to the glory of God?

1 Corinthians 10:31, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do. So whether you eat or drink or play sports or watch sports, how do you do that to the glory of God, particularly in a culture that idolizes sports in so many ways. Maybe to get more specific, particularly in a city like Birmingham that idolizes sports in specific ways. 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. So you 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 groggy approach that building for some sort of ceremony. Clearly whatever happens at the beginning of that ceremony is not that important because most of the people don’t come until after it has started. I’m not looking at anybody, I’m just saying.

And so you watch them file in and begin to mouth the words to songs, many of them almost expressionless, virtually emotionless after which they sit down and passively listen to someone, talk to them for a period of time. You notice people starting to get a bit fidgety, uneasy at the time for the ceremony to end approaches when it’s finally over, they quickly walk out. But as you walk with them, you listen to them and you hear many of them talking with one another about something that had happened the previous day. They smile and they laugh as they recount. Another ceremony 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 that’s almost all you hear people talking about the coming Saturday ceremony. Even the people who were at the Sunday ceremony are strangely silent about what they heard and sing about there, but very enthusiastic about the Saturday.

They can’t seem to get here soon enough. So as your curiosity is peaked, you begin to eagerly anticipate the coming Saturday ceremony with them. That Saturday comes and you see people wake up and leave their houses dressed in some sort of outfit that they love to wear for these types of days. Many of them drive out of the city, some an hour west, others a couple of hours south where they gather together on what they call hallowed grounds for the Saturday ceremony. They get there early for this ceremony way early where they eat and drink and laugh and play not just with their family or with their friends, but with complete strangers. You’ve never seen community like this. And when the time comes, they all, tens 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 playing a game on a field.

As that game begins, they shout and chant and sing until they virtually lose their voices with far more passion than the previous Sunday ceremony. For sure. People don’t look at their watches at this ceremony. They’re so engulfed in what they’re seeing and experiencing and they actually get excited when it goes into what they call overtime because going long like this is a sign of a really exciting game and the fun doesn’t end after the ceremony is over anyway, when the boys that everybody has been cheering for win the game, 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. You come to find out that back in Birmingham, thousands and thousands of others who couldn’t get here stayed there to watch this game on what they call a TV. 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 a 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 then when it’s all over late in the evening, almost as if there’s nothing to be prepared for the next day they go to bed.

So let me ask you a question. If you were that visitor from another country and you came to this city on a week during the fall, be honest, which would you identify as the religion that is most important to this people as the religion that most excites this people as the religion that most consumes this people. We live in a land where sports war for our attention and our affections and our devotion, our time, our money, and it’s not just college football, that’s the glaring example, particularly as we entered in this fall. That’s the timing even for this. But it’s professional sports as well. It’s children’s sports. It’s playing sports and watching sports and running our children all over the city and the state for the sake of sports, whether it’s football or golf, basketball or baseball, soccer or CrossFit running or biking or swimming, gymnastics or cheerleading or any number of other athletic activities to which we devote so much of our lives and our family’s lives too. Oh to this church in Birmingham. We are not too far removed from the church at Corinth. We in a land covered with church buildings and filled with professing, Christians are tempted every single week to commune with Christ on Sunday only to dine with idols every other day, particularly Saturday. And we must consider how to flee idolatry and live every single moment in Birmingham, eating, drinking, and even playing to the glory of God.

So what I want to do, so I want to put on the table based on Scripture, some biblical foundations that affect the way we view and understand God and sports and idols in our lives. And then from that I want to challenge you to do some personal examination in your own life. And I want to put some questions before you to ask some areas of your life for you to examine to see if you are giving to sports that which should only be given to God, then I want to walk you through some practical application just based on the whole of Scripture to help you think through, okay then whether we eat or drink, play, whatever we do. How do I play sports? How do I watch sports? How do I use sports? Is there a way to do this to the glory of God?

And I want to give some practical application instruction on that level and then all of that will lead us to an invitation that I believe this text gives to every single person in this room. So first biblical foundations one, sports are a good gift from a gracious God given to us for the glory of God, a good gift from a gracious God given to us for the glory of God. In 1 Corinthians 8–10, and especially chapter 10 right here, Paul’s talking about it, how food is a good gift from a gracious God given to us for the glory of God. Talks about how everything God gives us is everything that God creates is good and intended for his glory. In fact, in verse 26, he quotes from Psalm 24, he says, the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. That’s a prayer that often would’ve been prayed in Judaism before a meal.

To acknowledge all of this is a good gift from your hand. So food is a good gift from a gracious God given to us for his glory. So food not bad in and of itself, but the point was it could be used for the glory of God or it could be used for the worship of idols. So similarly, similarly, sports are not bad in and of themselves. On the contrary, sports, rest, recreation have been created by God for our good, for our enjoyment and for God’s glory and our enjoyment of them. So we can include it here, whether you eat or drink or play, do it all to the glory of God For are a good, great gift from a gracious God who loves us, God loves us and he gives us good things like sports for his great glory. We must be careful not to compartmentalize God as if God only has to do with church or God only has to do with the Bible and God doesn’t have anything to do with sports or God doesn’t have anything to do with work next week.

No, by nature of the fact that God is God, he is God over everything and everything that’s good is good because God made it good and every good thing is evidence of his grace toward us because we deserve nothing good from his hand and it’s given to us for the glory of his name sports good gift from gracious God given to us for the glory of God. But as soon as you introduce the human heart to the equation, things get very complicated because the human heart has a dangerous tendency to take created things and begin to worship and serve them instead of the creator who gave them to us in the first place. This is Paul’s fundamental definition of sin in Romans 1. Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor cave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile. Their foolish hearts were darkened.

They claimed to be wise that they became fools and exchanged the glory, the immortal God for images and to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. God gave them over to their sin where they exchange the truth of God for a lie and they worshiped and serve created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. This is huge. When we think of sin, we usually think of doing bad things, lying, stealing, cheating, whatever it might be. That’s sin and that is sin. But according to Romans 1, there’s something deeper here. Sin is not just doing bad things. Follow this in your notes. According to Romans 1, sin includes taking that which is good and turning it into a God.

When you read Romans 1, you realize this is the fundamental problem in our hearts. We turn good things into Gods that we worship and serve instead of the God who gave us the good things in the first place. In this sense, you begin to realize a number of good things that can become a God, an idol in the human heart. We take things like love or sex or material possessions or work a career or even a family. All of these are good things. But when our hearts begin to be consumed with them, we begin to center around them thinking this is where our joy or fulfillment or security or safety, our identity is found and we slowly subtly begin to pursue these things instead of pursuing God to love these things more than we love God, to treasure these things more than we treasure God and ultimately to worship these things instead of worshiping God.

This is where we realize when we think about idols, even idols in our culture, our mind immediately starts to think of bad things when the reality is that’s almost never the case. The reason things become idols in our lives and the culture in the first place is most often because they’re good things. In fact, the more good they are, the greater they are, the more likely we are to look to them instead of God. Does this make sense? This is hugely important for us to realize. You think about beauty, is beauty a bad thing? Beauty is a good thing, but we turn it into a God. When we become a people, an entire culture that agonizes over what we look like, spending all kinds of money, all kinds of time on working out and eating right and wearing certain clothes, even convincing ourselves if we look a certain way, we will be happy. None of those things are bad enough themselves, working out, eating right, wearing clothes, beauty itself. Those are good things, but we take good things and turn them into ultimate things that captivate and consume and almost unknowingly control us. You feel your heart being diagnosed here by the Word of God.

So we must realize then that we sin when we take sports a good thing and we turn it into a God, an ultimate thing that captivates

And consumes and subtly and unknowingly actually begins to control us. And the real danger is third biblical foundation here. Good gifts make lousy gods created things were never intended to provide the meaning or identity or ultimate satisfaction or unending joy that we can only find in God. You mark it down. Idols always disappoint, always disappoint. Any honest person who has put energy, time, money, affection, devotion towards sports knows that sports is an idol will let you down. Hear this sad testimony from a man who has tasted everything that sports has to offer. The winner of three Super Bowl rings. Tom Brady once interviewed on 60 minutes in the middle of an undefeated season with the New England Patriots having an MVP season as a quarterback in relationship with a supermodel making millions and millions of dollars. And this is what he said, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean maybe a lot of people would say, Hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life, me. I think God, it’s got to be more than this. I mean this isn’t, can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. The interviewer asked him, well, what is the answer then? And Brady responded, I wish I knew.

Idols always inevitably disappoint and far more serious idols ultimately destroy. 1 Corinthians 6 has already been clear that idolaters those who live with a fundamental orientation away from God, even toward the good will not inherit the kingdom of God. I truly pray that a guy like Tom Brady will come to realize that there is more, there is more, but it’s not to be found in more good gifts. It’s to be found in God himself, the giver of all good gifts. I pray that he comes to realize this so he will not be found standing before God holding on to all kinds of good gifts, yet having turned from the giver of those gifts one day. And I pray the same for every single person in this room that you won’t be found in that position on that day. Here are the words of JC Ry, his classic book on holiness. He said thousands have trodden the path that you are pursuing. They fought hard for wealth and honor and office and promotion and they have turned their backs on God and Christ and heaven and the world to come and they have awoke too late to find it end in misery and eternal ruin.

So in light of this, ask urge you today to personally examine your life. Two Corinthians 13, five. Next letter. We’ve got to the church of Corinth. In our Bibles it says, examine yourselves, test yourself to see if you’re in the faith. So I want to invite us to do this today. I want to invite us, challenge us to examine our lives to see if there is any hint of idolatry in it, particularly when it comes to sports. So realize this idols are not the kind of things we like to admit, have any reign in our hearts. It’s part of the deceptive power of idols is because they blind us to their very presence. And so I know many of us, maybe even most of us in this room profess Jesus as God. Well not say I don’t worship sports, but let’s look at our lives and ask the 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? Is there any hint of idolatry in my heart and life and mind when it comes to sports? Any hint on it?

And I realize also that even as we’re talking about some sports, some of you in this room could care less about sports you don’t like sports, watching, playing whatever you want, nothing to do with sports. And so let me encourage you not to sit back in pride over your lack of worship of sports. I invite you to see you pride and then consider anything in your life that has a hold on your mind or your heart like we’re talking about here with sports. So I want to give you some, I want to probe some specific areas of your life, personal examination here. And I want to be careful even as I’m probing, I want to be clear. I’m going to ask some questions and I’m not saying, well, if this is true in your life, then you’re clearly an idolater when it comes to sports.

So there’s no legalistic checkoff list here that says if I’m doing this, this, this or this, then I’m in an idolatry. This is where we’ve got to do the hard work of personal examination and let the spirit of God through the Word of God now. And even as you process this small groups this week and otherwise, let the Word of God and the spirit of God diagnose your heart. Is there any hint of idolatry in it? And if there is, I want to challenge you to flee from it. So first, examine your heart. Your heart. Remember this is the first and fundamental commandment from Jesus. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind all. So examine your heart. Is your heart set on sports in any way whether watching or playing your life, your children’s lives?

Maybe another way to ask this, maybe a better way to think through all these personal examination here. If someone else were to look at your life and know your thoughts and know your actions and know your words and know your commitments and know your priorities. If someone else were to look at your life, not even just the person who knows you best. I mean that would be good too if my wife or husband or whoever who knows me, but even somebody who just were to look is a passive observer at every detail of your life, would they observe this person’s heart is wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord? Or would they see some division somewhere in your heart? You say, well, how do I know? Well, keep going here. Examine your thoughts. What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about?

Are sports related things where your mind goes when you don’t have anything else to think about? Now obviously it’s not wrong to think about sports at all. That’s not the point. But is your mind preoccupied with sports, whether it’s a team or activity, a sport you’re involved in something, you do something your children do. Does your mind default to sports in some way? Tim Keller said The true God of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else that is demanding your attention. So our sports, what you think about and talk about more than just about anything else, which leads to the next challenge. You examine your conversations, what’s on your mind comes out of your mouth. So what are your most passionate conversations about Is this or that sport, this or that activity team, what you’d love to talk about more than just about anything else.

Again, the key here is it’s 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 God. So this is what we need to do. The hard work of examination. Ask, do I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about sports? Whether it’s college, football, baseball, working out your favorite team, whatever it is. Do I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about sports in some way? So how much time do I spend talking about sports? And then in what way do I talk about sports? We say things like, I love this team. I love Alabama. I love Auburn. I love the Braves. Or I love the sport. I love college football. I love college basketball. I love working out. We say things like, I sure hope this about this team. Or even say, I belong to this team we use, we like we’re actually on the team.

I talk about Braves baseball and I find myself, we won saying we won 14 games in a row as if I had anything to do with winning a game for the Braves. We say these things casually, but we need to be careful. We’re using language here that is at least similar to worship. I love this. I put my hope in this or I belong to this. It’s my identity. So we need to be careful. Examine your conversations, examine your emotions. Do sports incite and ignite your affections in unhealthy ways? The sports cause your emotions to swing in such a way that your sad, grumpy, depressed, even angry when you lose or the team you’re cheering for doesn’t do well or on the other side and maybe more potentially dangerous because it feels good. Are you inordinately happy and fun to be around just because you won or just because your team won? When your emotions, happiness and sadness depend on the outcome of a game. It may be that your heart is at least in some ways consumed and controlled by sports. Examine your use of money. Jesus said, where your treasure is there, your heart will be. Also the principle is as clear as can be. Your heart follows your money. Your money is a sure indicator of where your heart is. So how much money do you spend on playing sports, watching sports, supporting sports teams, buying sports equipment and paraphernalia? Did you know that the combined athletic budgets of the 12 schools in the SEC is over $800 million close to a billion dollars. That’s more money than the gross domestic products of 24 of the world’s poorest countries

Spent on college athletics In the south. In the south, A land covered with churches. We need to ask the question, where is our heart?

And just imagine what that number would be if you include what we spent on professional sports as well as sports for our own kids, money for leagues and equipment and private lessons, and then sports in our own lives from golf to gym memberships. Again, it’s not bad to spend money on sports. What we need to examine is how much we are spending on sports and what that says about where our hearts lie, particularly in a world of urgent, spiritual and physical need. Examine your use of money, examine your use of time in an average week. How much time do you invest in sports, playing real sports, playing fantasy sports, watching others play sports involving your kids in sports? And then think about that time in relation to the amount of time you spend reading scripture, praying,

Teaching your children God’s Word, sharing the gospel, serving in the community. These are questions we need to ask now lead us to the last challenge here. Examine your perspective, your perspective. Put all this together. When you spend your time and your money, what you think about, what you talk about when that’s focused on sports, small big ways, you begin to realize the number of ways that you lose perspective on sports in relation to God and the world. You begin to forget if you’re not careful and the grand and global purpose of God and redemption that it matters little who wins what game on Saturday or any other day. And it matters little what, whose stats are in what season. Just come back from the Middle East where I was reminded of people, groups, some of them in the millions where there is no Christian among them, no Christian, no gospel for millions of people and a people group. 40 million people, a hundred believers, some just handful of believers with millions of people. There are real battles. There are eternal battles here and around the world that demand our time and our money and our thought and our attention and our affection. Don’t let artificial battles on ball fields blind you from real battles waging in the world what matters more praying and pleading for a visa for our brothers and sisters to engage one of the hardest people groups in the world and working with them to get the gospel to them so they’re reached and they’re saved

Or whether or not Alabama goes undefeated this season. And the sad thing is if we are honest, if we are honest, many many of us would say, I really want that. And we think about that and we talk about that our emotions are caught up in that. While we give token attention, if any tension all to this God help us to realize what matters ultimately and what doesn’t matter. Ultimately examine your perspective. Have you lost perspective? It’s really easy to lose sighted perspective here. Warren St. John said, I grew up in Alabama, perhaps the worst place on earth to acquire a healthy perspective on the importance of spectator sports. Examine yourself, your heart, your thoughts, your conversations, your emotions, your use of money, time, your perspective on sports. Honestly, ask the question

Is my attention to sports, my affection in sports, my investment in sports glorifying to God? And if it’s not glorifying to God, then the immediate follow-up question is then well, who are we glorifying them? You say, well, is it possible to glorify God in sports? And this leads us to the practical application. We’ve already established that sports are not a bad thing. They’re a good thing in the economy of God given to us for the glory of God. And so yes, it’s possible to glorify God with sports even in a world where there are major battles, there’s much work to be done, sports are a picture of rest and relaxation and recreation given to us by God. So how do we glorify God with this gift? And what I’ve done here is I’ve just listed a different way that you and I can treat sports as a good gift that glorifies God.

Some of them are simple, some of them maybe you’ve not thought about. I want to serve you with some practical ways to think through sports to the glory of God. How do we take any time, any money, any thoughts, any conversations about sports and maximize them to the glory of God, eat, drink, play. How do we play to the glory of God? Well first use sports to draw attention to God’s greatness, attention to God. So instead of using sports to draw attention to sports or even to ourselves or others, use it to draw attention to God. You think about it, sports in the hands of sinful men and women are custom made for self-glorification who can assert themselves the most, who’s the best, who can make the best name for themselves. And so sports looks radically different. Whenever you or I step out into a field or a court or a course or whatever it might be, and our driving motivation is, how can I best exalt not my name but the name of God and what I’m about to do and the way I’m about to play?

All of a sudden then every play carried out, every shot taken every word spoken, every interaction with your team or the other team in every single detail you are playing to draw attention to God. And this is more than just bowing in the end zone and pointing up every time you score a touchdown. This is deeper than that. This is maximizing all of sports for their intended purpose. Their purpose is a way to worship God. So the purpose, purpose, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. What’s the purpose of your life on this planet? To enjoy God, to glorify God as you spread his gospel from where you live to the ends of the earth and sports is under the umbrella of that purpose. So the goal in sports is not winning. It’s not winning. The goal in sports is worship and not the worship of an athlete but the worship of God.

This is the famous quote from Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, the story of how he a future missionary gold medaled as a runner in the Olympic games. And he said, God made me for a purpose. Liddell knew his purpose was to glorify God. So 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 I found, and this is what’s next in your notes, to keep this purpose central, is to keep sports in their proper place far behind your family and your church and a host of other things. So where does sports fall upon you or a priority list? Families all across this community spend the majority of their time together if families are ever together at sporting events. So I want to encourage you to ask the question, is that a good thing? Is that the best way to spend focus time with your family? Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. Men, ask your wives if sports are in any way a hindrance to your intimacy with her and wait for her to answer, then asking The sports are in any way a hindrance to your relationship with your children and your responsibility to your children.

Dads more important than who wins. What game is you knowing what’s going on in your child’s heart and you shepherding that child well? And if the attention required for that means you don’t know the stats when you’re talking at the water cooler with your buddies, then so be it. You’ve given yourself to that which is more important. Perspective moms and dads as you cart your children all across town, are they getting a healthy perspective on the place of sports in their lives, particularly when compared to the time you’re devoting with them to learning God’s Word and participating in things like family worship or worship is the church which has the priority in your life and your family, the church schedule or the sports schedule when they come into conflict, which wins out. To go back to Eric Liddell, this is a brother who withdrew from the race he was best in Aum, was running that race would mean running on Sunday. And so he refused to run in the Olympics. It was on Sunday that the race event was talk about clarity that sports are not an idol as much as he enjoyed running as good, running was not his God. How far have we come from that? Quite simply, I am shocked by how easy it is to pull church members away from a Sunday gathering for the purposes of sports or recreation.

I’m not saying that you’re an idolatry anytime you miss a worship gathering here or there even for a sports event. But the pattern of traveling sports teams on Sundays and recreational weekends at the lake clearly demonstrates that we can far too easily be pulled away from that which God’s Word says is primary in our lives as Christians gathering together with the church and we’re robbing ourselves and we’re robbing our children in the name of what our culture has said is more important. God help us parents show your children the importance of love for and commitment to the local church for their good, for your good, for our good, for the glory of God. And every other night of the week, you think about it amidst the business of running around from sport to sport, event to end. Is there time where you’re gathering with a small group or your teenagers gathering together with other teenagers to grow in Christ and to spur another on toward him?

Or are you so controlled by this that you are neglecting getting together outside of even just this gathering, keep sports and their proper place and relation to your family, your faith, family, and a host of other things. This will go a long way in helping you glorify God with your sports. Draw attention to God’s greatness. Second, use sports to express appreciation for God’s grace. So anything good in sports, which there’s a lot of good here, we’ve talked about it, it comes from God. And so sports provides all kinds of opportunities to express gratitude to God. So in all you do in relation to sports, intentionally and continually offer thanks to God continually. What does Romans 1 say? Although the new God that glorified him is God nor gave thanks to him, never see in gratitude is sin. So before you begin to play any sport, before you begin to watch a sport, before you begin to do anything sports related, pause for a moment either in your heart or even better out loud.

And thank God for this gift that he’s given. This kind of thanksgiving brings glory to God. And when you’re thanking God continually and intentionally like this, you’re much less likely to turn sports into an avenue for self-centeredness or self-gratification, glorification. And in the process of thanking God, let the enjoyment of sports lead to ever increasing affection for God. So when I give a gift to someone, I give it to them for their enjoyment. That’s the giver of that gift. I’m honored when I see that person that I’ve given a gift to enjoying it. So when I give my kids a gift right now it’s Legos for my five and 7-year-old boys. So whether it’s on a birthday or reward for reading goals or whatever, Heather and I give them this gift. We are honored. Not when they take the Legos and put them to the side and just say thanks.

But when they light up and they dig into the box and they spend time enjoying the gift. In the same way that when I receive a gift, my birthday a few weeks ago, my kids got me a rain jacket because the jacket I had before just did not work anymore. It would rain, I’d put it on, I’d walk through the rain, I’d take jacket off and it was clear I had hardly been wearing a jacket at all. So they give me a rain jacket. So now when it rains and I’d put it on and I walk through and I get inside and I’m dry, oh, my affection for my children just gross because of this gift that they have given me, my enjoyment of the gift they gave leads to ever increasing infection for the givers. So here’s the deal. When you play sports and you enjoy it, I mean really enjoy it when you play sports, enjoy it.

When you enjoy watching that touchdown scored that home run, hit that three point shot, drained. Let your enjoyment of this lead to ever increasing affection for the God who gave the good gift to you in the first place. This is how we watch and play sports to the glory of God with gratitude in our hearts to God. Don’t let your affection center on the gift. Let your affection rise to the giver. Third, use sports to grow in sanctification. So we glorify God by becoming more like Christ as a result of our sports. Sports are intended just like everything in life for our sanctification, for our growth in godliness. This is particularly true in playing or coaching sports though I think there are ways this can be applied to watching sports too, but we need to be intentional here. Think of ways that sports can be used to help us become more like Jesus.

Sports are good tools in God’s hands to help us cultivate humility. Sports is an arena where we come face-to-face with our limitations, our weaknesses, which we all have. I think about basketball for me, I used to be alright at basketball, but man, now every time I get on the court, I feel like that guy who still thinks he’s got game but doesn’t have a game anymore and it’s clear to everyone else except for him that he doesn’t have it anymore. It’s a good exercise and humility. This is where sports could go either way. If we’re not careful. Sports in many of our lives, particularly we’re good at a sport, can lead to pride. And you thinking you’re all that and you play so that people think you’re all that. Don’t do it. Play with humility. Recognize your limitations. Welcoming others. Critique. It is a sure sign of pride when a player won’t listen to a coach.

A child won’t listen to a parent when it comes to how to get better at a sport, at a sport. So cultivate humility and let that humility be evident when you win. Be modest in victory. Do not gloat over your performance. This does not glorify God when you lose, be gracious in defeat. Do not sulk over your performance. That too does not glorify God. James four, six, God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble God is opposed to those who play sports to glorify themselves. I Isaiah 66 1, he esteems the humble and contrite in spirit. So cultivate humility in the process. Play to the glory of God. Second, demonstrate honor for the people that you play with. People you play for it glorifies God. When you honor authority like a coach, it does not glorify God for a player to dishonor the authority over him.

Honor the coach. Honor officials, even when they make a bad call, it does not glorify God to dishonor them. Does that glorify God? No. You say, well, I’m concerned for justice. Okay? And he may have missed it, but this is a person created in the image of God. How can you honor him to the glory of God in that circumstance? Honor your teammates. Team sports not intended to be monuments to individual achievement. So look for ways to build up and affirm and encourage and honor the people around you. This honors God, honor the other team. I read the story of Sarah Tulsky softball player at Western Oregon University who had never hit her home run before, but with two runners on a strike against her. She did knocked it over the fence against Central Washington University in a 2008 playoff game. But when she began to run the basis she got past first base realized she’d missed it and turned to go back to it.

And when she planted her right leg to turn around, she collapsed with a knee injury. She couldn’t walk much less run the basis. The situation was if her teammates helped her around the basis, the home run would be called off. They can’t do that. If a pinch runner was called in the home run would only count as a single. So what happened? The Central Washington first baseman who just happened to be the career home run leader in that softball conference, asked the umpire if she could help Tulsky. The umpire said there’s no rule against it. So she and a teammate from central Washington carried tulsky around the field, helping her to touch each base with her good leg. The home run thus counted. And western Oregon won in advance to the playoffs afterward. That first baseman from Central Washington said in the end, it’s not about winning and losing so much.

It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain and she deserved a home run. Honor that glorifies God who’s given gifts on a field. Look for opportunities to cultivate humility, demonstrate honor, develop self-discipline. We talked about a couple of weeks ago in 1 Corinthians 9, part of the point of sports is to teach us to discipline our bodies. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for sports to teach us how to work hard and practice to achieve a goal, which in turn sets up all kinds of parallels between sports and the Christian life. Develop self-discipline, maintain self-control. When your emotions get out of hand in a game as a player or as a coach, or as a parent, or as a spectator. And those emotions lead to yelling this or that or arguing this or that. This is not bringing honor to God.

The fruit of the spirit is self-control. So let sports be a sanctifying experience for you. When something doesn’t go the way you hoped or would’ve liked. Glorify God by maintaining self-control model, self-sacrifice, model self-sacrifice. Philippians two, three. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or VA conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to his own interest but the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus being a very nature of God. And it gives a picture of the cross. Did not consider equality with God. Something being grasped, made himself nothing. Taken the very nature of a servant being made in human lightness, being found in appearance of man. He humbled himself, became obedient to death, even death on a cross whole picture there. Let your attitude be like that of Christ who stooped to serve.

So how does the cross then affect the way we do sports? To cross compels us, to put interest of our team above our own, the interests of others above our own children. Students. It will shock your coach, but I challenge you to try this. Go up to your coach, him or her, and say, coach, how can I best serve this team this season? Not just with what I do on the field, but what I do off the field. So not just with my stats, but with my serving. This is an approach to sports that glorifies God, which is the purpose That leads to the next thing in your notes. Value growth in godliness over athletic achievement. Now I’m not saying athletic achievement is bad or unimportant. Competition is not bad. Competition is good. Winning is good as well. But if we’re not careful winning and achieving this or that athletic achievement will rise to become the ultimate goal when it’s not glory to God through growth and godliness is the ultimate goal.

And we live in a culture that misses this at every turn. Whether it’s baseball players taking steroids or football recruits who commit to this school until this coach over here says whatever the coach can say to try to get ’em to come to their school. So they decommit from here and commit to there. And there’s all this dishonesty in line that goes around and we say, well, it’s just the way it and it’s what you got to do in order to get a good team. Don’t begin to think that whenever you begin to think the end of winning justifies means to get there. You are going in a very unhealthy, dangerous direction and your mind and your heart.

So value, growth and godliness over athletic achievement. You read through God’s Word, you’ll never see athletic gifting, personal stats, championship games, trophies exalted as success. Instead, you’ll see things like humility and honor and self-discipline and self-control, self-sacrifice, imitation of Christ. Chapter 11 verse one, held up as success. And this is where parents we must be particularly intentional with our children. So CJ Hanney, a pastor and a friend of mine, wrote a great little book, just a little booklet called Don’t Waste Your Sports that I would highly recommend Help Me even in preparing for this week. And he wrote a short section to parents that’s so helpful. He said to parents, our children will pursue what we applaud. They will emulate what we celebrate. If we celebrate scoring and winning, then our children will define success in those terms. But if we celebrate evidences of godly character in our children, we will help them define success far more biblically.

And so he encourages parents to maximize sports for their children’s growth in godliness. Listen to what he says. Every practice in every game is an opportunity to lead our children. Often as parents, we think we fulfilled our duty by simply attending our children’s games and cheering not so. We are called to so much more informed by the gospel. We are called to lead our children wisely. Hear this. So how’s the gospel? How’s the cross change the way we view sports before the game? This means preparing our children to keep biblical priorities in mind while they play after the game. This means celebrating their expressions of godly character more than we celebrate their skill for the final score. Every moment our children spend in sports is a teaching moment. This is where CJ so helped me. He and his son actually have a podcast called Mahaney Sports, comes out once a week that is helpful and entertaining at the same time where he and his son talk about things that he did with his son intentionally when it came to sports to help his son grow in godliness and apply a gospel worldview to even things going on in sports around us.

It’s just really helpful. But in that’s so helpful for me to begin to think intentionally, okay, before a game. When I’m coaching a game with my kids after a game, what am I doing intentionally here to promote growth and godliness? That’s the goal. And not just in playing sports. Even in watching sports, when my boys and I sit down and watch a Braves baseball game, I’m an active watcher with them. And I don’t want to just celebrate home runs with them. Instead, when I see some evidence of good character in a game, the things we’ve talked about here, humility, honor, self-sacrifice. I’m going to point that out to them. We’re going to talk about it. When I see evidence of ungodly character in a game and there are plenty of opportunities in a game for this, and I point out that to them as well.

I want them. I want to grow ungodliness as a result of playing and watching sports. And in the process, I want to prioritize what really matters in eternity over what seems to matter on earth. This is huge. It goes back to what we talked about with perspective and especially parents here. Parents, I want to warn you, so please hear this. If you are not careful, you are going to cart your kids all over town, taking them to practice for this and lessons for that. Teaching them to play this or that sport well and teaching them to be consumed with this or that team. And in the end, if you are not careful, you are going to lead them to build their life and their schedule and their passion and their priorities on what won’t last. And if you’re not careful, they’re going to stand before God with all their athletic achievements and all their team’s pride one day and it’s going to burn up and they’re going to be left with nothing in their hands and it will be because of you.

So in your own life and your children’s lives, prioritize what matters in eternity over what seems to matter on earth, which leads right into this last expectation. Use sports to lead others to salvation sports. One of the most common and enjoyable means for bring people together in relationship. I love how members of our church lead vapor sports, use soccer around the world to lead people to Christ, to fuel disciple making in the church. They’re intentionally using soccer in all the ways we just talked about, to glorify God and to introduce others to the gospel. Why then should we not do the exact same thing here with sports in our city, we play sports. Our children play sports. We watch sports. Why we do this so that as we find ourselves surrounded by a host of other people, we have all the more avenues to share the good news of God’s grace toward us in Christ sports for the glory of God.

Sports is an incredible avenue for this. Even as Paul was saying, in first Ians nine, to this person I became as this person, this person became. As this person, as we identify with others in different sports, different teams, whatever it might be, that commonality is there, then use that commonality, use those relationships, use that time for the spread of the gospel. Why would we spend an entire season with a whole team worth of people and their parents families, and never one time share the good news of God’s grace toward us in Christ? We’ve missed the point of sports. We’ve wasted an entire season.

So how do we maximize those relationships in sports? As you’re working out with people, as you’re watching a game with people, how are these relationships, the people you work out with, you watch games with, whatever it might be. How are these relationships? How are you intentionally praying for rearranging your life for Corinthians nine to lead them to salvation? Wouldn’t it be a tragedy to work out with somebody? Some group of people spend an entire season with a group of people focused on things that only last on Earth only to never intentionally share truth and love that will ultimately last for eternity, which leads to the final invitation for people all across this room who are surrounded by potential idols. Wherever you look even or especially in a good thing like sports, I invite you better yet, the word of God invites you this morning to repent of idolatry, repent of idolatry, including any and every hint of it.

Examine your heart. Examine your heart this morning in days to come. Do you love God with all of it? See the center of your affection. See? See the object of your devotion is the only one to whom you’re looking for joy and meaning and identity and satisfaction. Or is there any evidence in any of these things we’ve mentioned? Does sports have even a hint of an unhealthy place in your thoughts and your conversations, your emotions, your use of time, your use of money? And if there is any hint of idolatry at any point, I urge you to flee from it. Flee from it, repent of it, run from it, and to keep running from it as you live in a culture that will becken you back to it at every turn. I urge you to live counter to this culture on this point. I urge you for your own good and for the glory of God to live counter to this culture on this point.

And as you repent, I invite you to rest in Christ who has paid the price for all your sin. This is good news for every sinner in this room who has succumbed to the temptation to take something that’s good and turn it into a God. To every sinner in this room that has been disappointed to find that, that God does not ultimately provide all that you hoped for, I give you hope this morning, the one true God who we have offended by our devotion to false gods, the one true God to whom we will stand before as judge one day that God has sent his son to pay the price for all of our idolatry against him. Jesus, the son of God, has paid the price for every time we’ve lived or played for self-glorification. He has paid the price for all the countless time.

We’ve enjoyed this good gift, but not paused to thank the giver. He has paid the price for every way we have ever given our heart over to sports or anything else as an idol. And Jesus, the son of God, is our only hope, and I invite you to rest in him today, rest in Christ. And as you do rejoice in God, think about it. We’ve seen how good things can become God’s in our lives when we inordinately look to those things for a joy or meaning or satisfaction or identity. So how do we keep from doing that? Here’s how. By finding greater joy and deeper meaning and sweeter satisfaction and more perfect identity in God as the only God who can provide all of these things. If you are tempted to make sports an idol, how do you fight that temptation? You fight that temptation by setting your heart and your mind and your affection and your devotion on a daily basis upon God.

The only one who is worthy of your worship. He’s the only one who deserves your affection. He’s the only one who deserves your devotion, and he’s the only one who is worthy of your worship, and he’s the only one who can satisfy your soul. Every other idol in this world will let you down. I assure you of this, the gods of this world cannot give what they promised, but the God over this world is guaranteed to give you everything you need and everything you want in himself. Oh, non-Christian, let this be the day you come to this church. Cattle. We’re talking about sports. Let this be the day where you realize whether it’s sports or anything else in this world, nothing. No one else is able to save and satisfy you. So today, turn from yourself. Put your faith in what Jesus has done for you to be forgiven of all your sin, to be reconciled to him and in God. Find what? Find the one your soul longs for most. And Christian, you know him, you know him. So stop running after stuff in this world. Even good stuff to find joy, satisfaction, meaning giving time, attention, devotion, money, all these things. When you have been satisfied in God and you have a feast of joy and meaning and identity in him and in the process, find yourself free to enjoy this good gift, but not to worship it, to enjoy this good gift to the glory of your God.

Observation (What does the passage say?)

• What type of writing is this text?
  _{(Law? Poetry or Wisdom? History? A letter? Narrative? Gospels? Apocalyptic?)}
• Are there any clues about the circumstances under which this text was originally written?
• Are there any major sub-sections or breaks in the text that might help the reader understand the focus of the passage?
• Who is involved in the passage and what do you notice about the specific participants?
• What actions and events are taking place? What words or themes stand out to you and why?
• Was there anything about the passage/message that didn’t make sense to you?

Interpretation (What does the passage mean?)

• How does this text relate to other parts of the Scriptures
  _{(e.g., the surrounding chapters, book, Testament, or Bible)?}
• What does this passage teach us about God? About Jesus?
• How does this passage relate to the gospel?
• How can we sum up the main truth of this passage in our own words?
• How did this truth impact the hearers in their day?

Application (How can I apply this to passage to my life?)

• What challenged you the most from this week’s passage? What encouraged you the most?
• Head: How does this passage change my understanding of the Lord? (How does this impact what I think?)
• Heart: How does this passage correct my understanding of who I am to the Lord? (How should this impact my affections and what I feel?)
• Hands: How should this change the way I view and relate to others and the world? (How does this impact what I should do?)
• What is one action I can take this week to respond in surrender and obedience to the Lord?

[Note: some questions have been adapted from One to One Bible Reading by David Helm]