February 8, 2015 - For God's Sake... Compete!

As a coach there is always one thing I expect of my players… I expect them to compete! Effort & Attitude are the cornerstones to my coaching philosophy. If we get beat I always want the other team to know, even if they win big on the scoreboard, that they had to earn it. At the end of games scoreboards have been turned off and each individual player has to look at himself in the mirror and be satisfied that he is a competitor, or dissatisfied in that he rolled over… (Of course this is only true if the player cares about the game.)

This past week I laid my mom to rest and got to preach her funeral. It may sound a bit morbid but I love preaching funerals because everyone is faced with thoughts about the “end of the game”; each is faced with the reality that people die. I get to talk about the hope we have as believers that is founded not in how good we are but instead in how good God is… and the sufficiency of Christ to be our Savior and provide our hope through His death and resurrection. (“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…”)

 

In the grand scheme of things God has chosen to leave His children “in the game” with a “game plan” to reach others with the glorious Gospel. My question to you is, “Do you care about the game?” Or let’s ask it another way, “Are you competing? Does the opponent even know you are in the game?”

People are dying all around us! Does your Effort & Attitude need an adjustment? Are you sticking to the “game plan” that commissions us to share the good news?

This is a time I find it appropriate to use the phrase “For God’s sake…”

For God’s sake compete! Fight for the souls of the unsaved! Do your job in sharing the Gospel!

 

Ephesians 6:19 ...and or me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel