September 12, 2022 - Put The Ball In The Right Basket

This week’s game plan is a result of time spent this past Friday sharing with some high school athletes in Oregon… and the topic is one that I am sure we have covered over the years BUT a topic we need to be continually reminded of…

Let me start with asking you some questions? How many different plays are used in basketball? That is a bit of a silly question as plays are innumerable as they are the product of a coach’s imagination… We could talk about the 12, or so, basic sets that plays start from… I’ll get back to this…

As I spoke to the group Friday, I asked the question of how many known religions there are… and one of the guys immediately responded, “thousands.” I was a bit shocked as that is the first time I have received an accurate guess (according to the internet there 4000+ known religions.) I followed up with a simple question, “can they all be right?” To which I had numerous immediate responses of “Yes”…

I greatly appreciated the feedback from the athletes… appreciated their openness… appreciated their sincerity… BUT THEN had to explain that sincerity and truth are not synonyms. Being sincere has the of being genuine with how you feel or what you believe… yet that is no guarantee that what one feels or believes is true… (i.e., I explained that if one of them gave me sincere directions to go east to get back to the airport Wednesday, he may have meant well but I would be heading the complete opposite direction of where I needed to go…)

Back to the basketball plays and sets… How a team sets up has many different variables… who they are facing… are they trying to utilize speed… size… getting to the lane… bombing the three… BUT ALL MUST END AT TRYING TO GET THE BALL IN THE RIGHT BASKET!

There are 4000+ sincere groups trying to “score” with God, BUT God says there is only one way… you see if the idea doesn’t end at the right basket, we fail to score!

Any game plan for making God’s team MUST end at [by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!] (And I also mean some plans, under the guise of Christianity, that try to make the criteria what we do for God instead of what He has done for us, are in error and fail to score…)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

(And the cool thing last Friday is that many of those guys that initially thought there were many ways to “score,” came to the realization that Jesus is the one that “scored” for them…)

LET’S PUT THE BALL IN THE RIGHT BASKET!