March 14, 2022 - He put the team on His back...

Planning for this week’s time to be short and to the point… there is a twofold reason for that… 

First, I am on the road and exhausted; I have had less than an hour’s sleep over the last two days, and now sit in a hotel room with the realization it is Monday and time for Game Plans for Life!

Second is because I heard my pastor use a phrase in his sermon yesterday that really jumped out at me… and… I’ll get to that in a bit…

I am traveling a lot this month for our March MADness push to share awareness about InBounds, and to raise funds for our outreach; and have been sharing a lot about STEWARDSHIP or INVESTING, which I have defined as “GIVING ON PURPOSE!” (Or “giving with purpose!”)

We need to decide what is important to us and do what it takes! There is an oft-used phrase that says, “he put the team on his back” (which is defined in the urban dictionary as “to do something amazing or impossible for the overall good of the team”)… I like the definition other than the fact that it is not possible to do the impossible… I agree it is cool when one does the improbable, but if it can happen, it wasn’t impossible!

Another great phrase I hear about the player that does the amazing and improbable is that “he refused to lose!” In other words, it is a player that is resolute on giving all to win!

In our basic Biblical understanding of the state of man apart from salvation, it is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for man to earn salvation; It is not simply improbable! No amount of grit and determination can change this state… BUT GOD! Christ was capable of doing what we could not do… and thus paid the penalty of sin in full! [Remember "what is impossible with men, is possible with God!" Luke 18:27)

He put the team on His back by putting His back on the cross! He refused to lose us!

Pastor Matt worded this incredible and encouraging truth this way: “God took our sin personally!” And I would ad. “so He gave on purpose!”

And as I alluded to in last week’s Game Plan… we have been entrusted to share this good news! (1 Thessalonians 2:4) 

Make a plan to celebrate what God has done for you by sharing the gospel this week!