Spiritual Game Planning #1 The Draft 09/09/12
Pastor Jeff Faith Community Church
We are starting a new series this morning called “Developing a Spiritual Game Plan”. We’re tying it into football to have a little analogy there but we’ve got a media I want you to see. Jesus had to pick a team. It was draft day for the Lord the day when he said here’s the guys I want to be on my team, to help me spread the gospel, this good news. He did not pick the team that you would think he would pick. See if you can identify some of these apostles in disguise here in the description. Go ahead and show that media and then we’ll talk about it.
Did you identify some of those people there? Who was the pessimist? Fisherman is easy we won’t use that one. Pessimist, Thomas. Who was the braggart? Peter. He was always bragging about what he was going to do and not do. Who’s the white collar criminal? Matthew, the tax collector. Who was the terrorist? Simon the Zealot wanted to overthrow the government. Interesting.
We are starting this new series called Developing A Spiritual Game Plan and I want to share a little story with you. I have a golf club; this is my 7-iron since we’re in church I chose a 7-iron, God’s number. I have recently taken up the sport of golf. I made a vow to myself at age 20 that I would never play this game again. I was so frustrated by it, so bad it, I decided I was never going to play again.
A few years ago my son decided he was going to play and he said, “Dad, I’d like you to play golf with me.”
And I said, “But I hate golf.”
He said, “But, you know what, you’re not getting any younger. You can’t play basketball forever and you know, it’s outside, it’s pretty, it’s nice, enjoy the sunshine and plus we can do it together.”
I got to think about all this and I said, “Okay, I’ll play.”
But I was as horrible as I remember. It was so frustrating to me I could not wait ‘til the ninth hole would come I was excited. Thank goodness the ninth hole is here and it’s done. I never wanted anybody to see me because I was so awful. If I had to tee off I just hope nobody was looking. I usually avoided that but I remember one time we were at a golf course in DeKalb. There was a father and a son who were just starting to play and he was using my son and (me) as object lessons to teach his boys how to golf. We had to do a couple chip shots on the green and he looked at my son who was getting ready to hit—my son has good form and everything—he says to his boys, look at this guy, watch this guy. Look at that follow through, see that? Now watch this guy. (It’s me.) He’s thinking I’m the older one and probably have more experience. Ya know, I hit the ball and he yells, “Look away, children.” No, I don’t know if he did that. “Children, run to the car.” I know we apologized to the boys. He probably used that as object lesson of that’s not how you hit a golf ball--over the green, no touch at all—it’s terrible.
And so after two years of this agony, this year I said to myself, “I’m going to change. I am going to get a golf lesson. I’m going to learn what I’m doing out there.” I got a golf lesson and I’ve gone from horrible to bad. That’s progress. Now I’m just bad. I’m hoping to one day reach mediocrity like the rest of you golfers out there. And so, the first thing he did was, “I want to teach you how to hold a golf club.”
(Pastor speaking gruffly) “There, just grab it like that and I hold it like this.”
The instructor says, “No, no, no, you see you have this V right here, you put your left thumb right there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you’re going to hold it in your fingers.”
“Oh, I thought you hold it in your palm.”
“No, hold it in your fingers. Not too tight, I can’t pull it out of your hands; it’s still pretty loose in there. Then, you’ve got another V here, you’ve got a V with your index finger and your thumb and you’re going to put that V on that V. You’re little finger’s going come in here and you’re going to hold it with your other hand and you’re going to take your club head, face your club and put it right like that and then here’s what your back swing is going to look like and it’s going to be right like that. When you follow through it’s going to be right like that.”
And he just began to teach me stuff. I begin to notice that I started to get a little better. I’m actually enjoying it. The other day on my day off I got a golf cart all by myself and played nine holes and I was sad when it was done. See? So, what I found out was, I’m still bad, but I learned some things and I wanted to get better. What I found out was the reason I was bad and stayed bad for those two years—I was practicing bad. I didn’t know how to hold a club. I didn’t know how to swing a club. I didn’t know all about my posture and so what I was doing was continuing to do the bad. When I would hit a ball and it went well I had no idea what I did right and I had no idea how to duplicate it. I did things that defy the law of physics. I could have had a physics professor follow me, watch me swing and go that defies the laws of physics. You could not hit the ball this way and have it go that way. But I could do that. I was practicing bad. When I began to go back to the fundamentals, how to hold a club and other things that I’m going to learn, my game began to improve.
Maybe your spiritual walk is like that. Maybe your spiritual game, if we could say, is a game you don’t want anybody to see. You know, you want people to turn away and not look, not use you as an example because you’re embarrassed and ashamed. Your game doesn’t improve; it stagnates or maybe even digresses. Maybe it’s because you’re practicing bad. Did you ever think about that? Maybe you forgot some of the fundamentals and you’ve gotten a little bit sloppy in your walk and so you’re practicing bad and you’re not growing? You’re not learning; you’re not changing. What this series is about is going back to some fundamentals—to learn how to hold the club, to learn who we are. Every week we’re going to build on what we’ve learned before and to develop a solid spiritual game plan. Okay?
Now, before the whistle blows and before you put on your uniform and you kick off for real there’s something called the draft. The team, on draft day, they have the war room and they’ve studied game film and they’ve studied their team, first of all. They know their weaknesses; they know what positions they are weak in. They know they need a receiver or a line backer, whatever it is, and they’re going to draft to make their team strong. They’ve looked over all the colleges, all the game films. They’ve studied statistics. They’ve watched them work in the combine and they know their speed and all that and then they make a pick, they make a choice. Some players are elated because they get a phone call or their name is called and the team says we’ve chosen you. We’ve studied you and we think you’re going to help our team win; you’re going to make our team better. Other players are dejected because they’re not picked in the first, second, or even the third round. They’re not picked at all. Their dreams are dashed, their hopes are gone and they don’t know what to do.
Have you ever been in a line to be picked for something on a team? Do you remember that in grade school or high school in sport? Man, if you were good at the sport and everybody knew it that’s fine. But if you weren’t very good that can be a very traumatic thing. You know, I grew up playing basketball in high school and college but when I was in grade school I had gone through a growth spurt. In seventh grade I was short and fat with bad arches. I knew what it was like to be picked the last or next to last. I knew what it was like to have your heart pound when there are only two people left and you’re one of them. You don’t want to be the person when they say, “Well, I guess I’ve gotta take Jeff.” That hurts. Maybe you’ve been in that position where you’ve been picked last or next to last or maybe you’ve been in that position where you’ve been picked first or second and how good that feels.
I want to share a verse of scripture with you that I think will do two things. #1) I think it will encourage you and #2) there should be a feeling of inferiority with it as well, a feeling of unworthiness. Okay? This is going to be our theme verse which we are going to unveil one week at a time. Now you can cheat, you can read the whole verse in the bible but we’re going to memorize this verse together so we’re going to unveil it little bit by little bit each week. We’re going to spend the entire month, this entire series with this one verse. This is a verse we’re going to study for a month and the verse is found in the book of John. John 15:16. Jesus has given his farewell discourse, (chapters) 14-17 and as we say this verse keep in mind he’s talking not just to his disciples but to you as well. We know this because of how? John (chapter) 17 (verse 20 paraphrased), Jesus says my prayer, my thoughts are not just with those who are here but for all who will come to believe in me through their word. So he was thinking about you and (me) and he says this, “You did not choose me but I chose you…” I’m the drafter, I’m the picker, not you. You did not choose me, but I chose you. One of the ways we learn and memorize is to say it with our mouths as we read it. So we’re going to say this twice together, Okay? Let’s read it. You did not choose me but I chose you, John 15:16. One more time, you did not choose me but I chose you, John 15:16.
The fact that God chose me is so significant, that I matter, that he wants me on his team. You know? It’s humbling and it’s joyful at the same time. God picked me and God picked you—if you name the name of Christ today, you’re on his team. He’s picked you.
Now there is another world view that we’re going to talk about and why this is so important, because that other world view says something entirely different. Every religion and science, mankind, asks three ultimate questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Correct? That’s what we ask.
I want to take our faith and put it in juxtaposition with another prevalent world view that’s going to be expressed through an atheist/author/biologist/writer by the name of Richard Dawkins whom you might have heard of. He wrote an article called Evolution is Not a Controversial Issue that I’ve copied and there are a few copies out there. Maybe if you want to read it, take it home. He wrote a book called The God Delusion which I’ve read and it actually strengthened my faith rather than diminished my faith. But what he says is this, when he’s asked a series of questions. This question is how you think evolution should be taught to children? He says, “I think it needs serious attention. Children should be taught where they come from, what life is all about, how it’s started, why it’s there, right? Those are all good questions. Why is there such diversity of it? Why it looks like it’s designed.”
As an aside, Pastor Jeff inserts, it’s not (designed), it looks that way.
(Dawkins continues) “These are all things that can be explained to a pretty young child, I’d start at age about 7 or 8. There’s only one game in town as far as serious science is concerned. There are not two different theories. No serious scientist doubts that we are cousins of gorillas, monkeys, snails, earthworms. That we have shared ancestors with all animals, all plants, and no serious scientist would doubt that evolution is a fact.”
Richard Dawkins believes that there is no God, not a creator God, not a God who guides, there’s simply no God. And so we address those three questions…Who am I? Jesus says you are here as part of God’s divine plan. You have been made in his image—Imago Dei, the image of God. You are here by design. You are here for a purpose, created by an intelligent being. Dawkins would say, “Who are you? You are the product of chance. You are a cosmic accident. You happened to be on the right planet, the right distance from the sun, the right set of conditions, this primordial ooze in the right amount of time, billions of years passing and lightning strikes and somehow simple life forms and that life begins to evolve and survival of the fittest, diversity comes in because of change and from nothing has come everything. And from non-intelligence has come intelligence. From non-intelligence has come a being that can contemplate eternity and our own being, right? So who are you? You are an accident. That’s all you are.
Why am I here? Jesus says this; you are here because God has a plan for you. God has a purpose for you. God has a reason for you to be here. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, let’s read these words by the apostle Paul, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Your workmanship is a poem, poema. As you write a poem, create a poem, it says God is writing a poem in your life. There is a verse, as he created the world, there was a verse with your name, a place for you, something that you are to accomplish and it was made in advance. There was a divine purpose and reason for you being here, you’re not an accident.
Dawkins would say, you know you can create your own purpose, you can create your own reason to be but ultimately there is no why. It simply happened, the right place the right time the right planet. It just happened. There’s no why, there’s no reason at all.
Where are going? Jesus talked about eternity. He talked about Heaven and Hell, he talked about us being on a path, on a journey to another life after we die. Remember he said he who believes in me will live even though he dies?
Richard Dawkins (was) asked what’s going to happen to you when you die? He said I’m going to die. My brain’s going to die and all my thoughts and feelings and emotions are going to die with me because I’m dead and that’s all there is. Everything about me is in my brain.
The scripture teaches that’s not true, that you have a soul. Part of you that’s been made in the image of God, which can connect with God, will live on past death. This soul is what God created to have fellowship with him. It’s what makes you YOU. It separates you from the rest of creation.
So, you put those world views together, you could not have two more opposite world views, could you? Each of those answers the ultimate life questions in a completely different way. So who do you believe? Are you going to believe what Jesus said or are you going to believe what Richard Dawkins said? Or is it just wishful thinking on the part of the Christian? We just want this to be true so bad that we just believe it in spite of the facts. Alright? That we are just foolish to believe this message of the gospel.
Dawkins says this, “What you cannot really logically do is to say well I believe there’s some kind of intelligence, some kind of divine physicist who designed the laws of physics; therefore Jesus is my Lord and Savior who died for my sins. It’s not permissible, it’s not logical, but unfortunately many people resort to it. You can’t do that. You can’t say I see law there must be a law giver, I see design there must be a designer; therefore Jesus is my lord and died for my sins.”
I would say to Mr. Dawkins, nobody says that. Christians don’t say that. You don’t look at creation—if you never heard the name of Jesus—you don’t look at a sunset and go, “Beautiful sunset, I think I’m going to receive Christ as my Lord today.” You don’t connect those, there has to be revelation given, correct? The gospel has to be proclaimed for you to connect those thoughts. If I see art or a sculpture or a painting, I don’t know who did it, I don’t know why they made it. But if the artist themselves come and say this is my painting, here is why I painted it, here’s what I call it, here’s why I did it, now I know who painted it, why they painted it, and what it’s significance was to the one who made it. Jesus came to give revelation as to why this planet is here, how it got here, and what is our significance on it—much like an artist who interprets his paintings.
Now there are two kinds of revelation I want you to understand. One is general revelation. General revelation is what science studies. General revelation is when God reveals himself in the world around us. Romans chapter 1 verse 20 is an example of general revelation, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities (His eternal power and divine nature) have been clearly seen being understood for what has been made so that men are without excuse.” Paul says look at the world around you, look at the majesty of the mountains, the seas, the thunder and lightning, the rain, the seasons. Look at the complexity of life. Study a flower. Look at the pregnancy and the birth of a child, how life comes into being. You can know because you see design, there’s a designer. You see laws, there’s a law giver. God revealed himself in revelation. But that does not immediately make us connect the dots and want to receive Jesus, I would agree with Richard Dawkins. That’s not logical. There is another step and that other step is called special revelation, special revelation.
One of the things Jesus came to do was to reveal God to us. In John 1:18 Jesus says, “No one has ever seen God but God, the one and only, who is at the Father’s side has made Him known.” That’s special revelation. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, it says in the past God spoke to our forefathers from the prophets and many times and in various ways and these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe—Special Revelation. Christ came and God took on flesh, came into his creation and spoke as no man has ever spoke and works as no man has ever done and began to exclaim to us you have a father in heaven, he made you, that he loves you, that he’s created a way for you to know him and follow after him and I am making a way for you. I am making a way for you to be with God forever and then one of the disciples says Jesus, how do we know the way and how do we know what God is like and Jesus looked at him and said, “Have I been with you so long Philip that you do not recognize me? He who has seen me has seen God.” He’s in the boat and the disciples are terrified in Mark 4, they’re terrified of the wind and the waves and the storm at sea, that they’re going to drown and they wake Jesus up and say don’t you care? He says, “Peace be still…and immediately the wind dies down and the waves become calm they turn to one another and they say what manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?” The artist himself has come into his own creation. He’s come into his own painting and he is explaining why he made it and what is our role?
Mr. Dawkins says this further, he was asked if there were a God and you were to meet him after death what would you say? Answer: If I met God in the unlikely event after I die? Well, the first thing I would say is, well, which one are you? Are you Zeus, are you Thor, are you Baal, are you Mythras, are you Yahweh? Which god are you? Why did you take such pains to conceal yourself and hide away from us? Friends, Jesus did not conceal himself. Jesus did not hide away. When he came he raised the dead, he calmed the storms, he healed the blind eyes, he gave hearing to deaf ears, recovery to the lame, and he fed thousands of people with a few loaves of fish and bread. He performed incredible wonders and taught as no man has ever taught, said before he died after he died in 3 days I will come back. In case you haven’t known the tomb in Jerusalem is still empty. Then, the bible says he appeared for 40 days to hundreds of men, and Paul writes in 1Cor15, most of whom are still alive today. At the time he wrote 1Cor15, he said most of those 500 men are still alive and you can ask them. So for 40 days for years he taught and performed miracles and then rose from the dead and taught for another 40 days.
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Richard Dawkins can complain and say why didn’t he stay, why didn’t he continue to remain with us? That’s God’s choice but while he was here he revealed himself, clearly, he did not hide. He did not conceal. And so, in the Old Testament there were prophecies that told us what city he would come from, the little town of Bethlehem, that he would be born into poverty that he would come as a male child. It told us in Daniel that he would die for us and Isaiah 53 that he would die in suffering. Psalms 22 that he would come and suffer upon a cross and then it spoke of his resurrection in Isaiah 53 and other places—in Ezekial, Zachariah that he would suffer for our sins. Christ came and fulfilled all those prophecies and he revealed to us who God is, why we are here, and where we are going.
It’s true, Mr. Dawkins, general revelation does not bring you to faith in Jesus but special revelation does. When the artist himself comes and says here is why you are here, here is who you are, here is your purpose, and here is your destiny. The second thing that that realization does that we’ve been picked or chosen is it makes us feel very unworthy. I’m not smart enough, I’m not strong enough, and I’m not good enough to be on God’s team. Paul would agree. He addressed that very concern and he says to the Corinthians in chapter 1, if you’d like to turn in your bibles this is page 1128, it’s rather lengthy so we’re going to read it out of our scripture, it says, “Brothers, think now what you were when you were called. Notice he says what you were, not what your currently are but what you were. “Not many of you were wise by human standards.” Now God has given them wisdom. “Not many of you were influential.” But now God has given them influence. These uneducated men, these common men changed the world. God used them to change the world. Kings, princes, emperors, governors tried to stop them but they could not. They changed the world. “Not many of you were influential, not many of you were of noble birth.” Notice he didn’t say all of you are not because some were influential, some were of noble, some were wise by human standards, but not most. But if God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong, the lowly things of this word and despised things and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, God is going to do things a new way. His way. “So that no one can boast before him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus.”
It’s a natural response. I hope when I say God picked you your response is not, well it’s about time. It’s about time he realized how good I am. I mean, he’s lucky to have me on his team. The response of all of us is I’m not worthy. God knows that. But God is able to use us in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our lack, in spite of our short comings, in spite of our sin. He is able to work and transform us so that our lives can bear fruit.
The next part of John 15:16, “You did not choose me but I chose you that you may bear fruit…” What does that mean? To bear fruit? What kind of fruit? How do we bear it? Okay? That’s the next part of the verse we’re learning and studying. We’re going to talk about that next week, Part Two.
Let’s pray, “Father we thank you for meeting us here today. We thank you for the example of Paul and of our Lord. We thank you that we can understand the difference between general revelation and special revelation. In special revelation we connect the dots. We come to understand who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. If you understand that those ultimate questions have answers, that you selected us and chose us not to sit by, not to sit on the bench, but to be in the game, to bear fruit. As we prepare to get together next week, minister to us and teach us what that is, and help us to assimilate the things we have learned already today. It’s in your name we pray, Amen.
