Life, the NFL & Jesus

Life, the NFL, & Jesus
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

I want you to realize that there isn’t one person on either of the teams, not one player, one coach, one trained, one medical person, one equipment person, one assistant of any kind, not one person connected with any team in the NFL that is there in his or her position that is there without intensive training in their field of expertise. Be it a player who knows and runs the routes his position calls for or a coach that decided what play to run. Every person is a well-trained professional. And yes that includes the Buffalo Bills and every other team in the league that didn’t do so good this year. Every single person you see on the television connected with a team has practiced their profession for many long hours, read books, studied films, learned plays, spent hours in a classroom, hours in a gym working with weights, running lifting and sweating. And all for the right to call themselves an NFL player or a team member. And should that team make it to the Super Bowl and win the game, they all get a ring, not just the players.

This is what we have to do in life as well. For the most part, in this country, just about every person has to train long hard hours getting some kind of education if they are to rise to be any level of self sufficient, productive and mature adult. Granted there are many places in the world where education isn’t as important in their culture or as easy to obtain as it is in our country. But for the most part in the great United States of America, we educate our children and adults at least in the basics to enable them to compete in life. And when looking at all the people in juxtapose to the NFL players, the NFL players making up the entire NFL and the people making up our society, we can see that just as they are one cut above the average in their field of sports, we are one cut above the rest of society as Christians. As the NFL player has to take it to a higher level to go to the top of his game likewise we, as Christians have to take it to a higher level to be Christians.

In the NFL, most of the players get to play in the games throughout the season be it a starter or a backup who gets the call in the event of an injury. But once they start the playoff games many teams and many players fall by the wayside. They no longer get to play and they are like the rest of us, they are watchers, no longer are they participants but just viewers. Once they get to the playoff games the starters are actually able to take their game to yet another level and many of them put out so much extra effort that they play through many an injury. They play through something that in the regular season would have put them on the sidelines for a play or a game. When they get to the playoff games they turn into super players. And throughout the playoffs as each team looses they are dropped to the level of viewer and only the winners advance to the next level or play. They continue to follow this pattern until they come to the division championship game. And then from the ranks of what was once many, only one team from each side gains the right to go to the Super Bowl and try to win that coveted title of world champion and walk away with a super bowl ring on their finger.

And who is the winner? Why they are the one’s who usually work the hardest, practice the hardest, put the most into their game and are the most hungry for that title and ring. While all of them worked really hard to reach that one elusive game, it is usually the ones that put the most extra effort into it that walk away the winner. The ones who win are the ones who execute the plays just a little better than the other guys. They’re the ones who ran just a bit faster, turned just a little sharper, stopped just a fraction quicker and over all preformed just a little better than the other guys. And it’s this special group who did just a little better that gets to have the bragging rights for the next year and who get to wear that super bowl ring for life. While all the players in the league can say, “I’m a NFL player” only a few can say, “I’m a super bowl winner and here’s my ring to prove it”.

Now how do we tie this into the Christian experience? How do we make that leap from NFL player to the everyday person that is walking the street and how do we apply this to us today?

The world is filled with people. Just about anyplace you go you are going to run into people. Red, yellow, white or black, there are going to be people of some kind, of some color, just about anyplace you go. I think with the exception of Antarctica there are people just about anyplace you look. And the only reason they aren’t all over Antarctica is that the climate is so harsh it’s really super hard to live there. And even in that, there are people going there, I have an aunt who went there on vacation, she went in the summer because then it’s only 20 below zero rather than the 90 below in the winter. She stayed in an “Ice Hotel”! Somehow that doesn’t sound like a great vacation to me. Usually I’d say “Oh cool” but that is just to cool to suite me.

And out of all these people in the world there is a select group known as Christians. Again in looking at us the people in juxtapose to the rest of society we, the Christian, are to be the cut above who have advanced to the higher level. We are the ones who have risen above the rest to claim that title that eludes the rest of the world. We’re the ones who are set apart from the rest and for this we have to give the glory to God because it sure isn’t anything we’ve done on our own. (1st Peter 2:9) “9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Or perhaps it is better stated in the Amplified Bible as
“9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Either way what it says is that God chose each of us and he’s made us a special people. By the standards of God we are the ones who can say we are Christians much like the football players say I play in the NFL. And as they get the ring to show and proudly display we have the cross of Jesus.


And just who are these Christians? What makes us so special? How did we become so special? We’re the ones who have bent the knee and acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings. We’re the ones who acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and he is God. That’s the only difference between us and them, the rest of the people in the world. For the most part we all walk the same, look the same {taking into consideration some obvious differences}. We all use a form of communication known as language, we reproduce the same, eat the same way if not the same kinds of food. We try to get comfortable in the same ways, we try to keep warm or keep cool seeking to keep our bodies in about the same range of temperature. In short we all pretty much act the same as everyone else. It’s not until we become followers of Jesus Christ and acknowledge Him as our Lord do we show or exhibit behavior any different than everyone else. Like the football players who are all members of the NFL, we are all members of the human race, people created in the image of God and loved by God. But we the Christian have been set apart, we’ve gone to the next level solely by our belief in Jesus, and that only by the grace of God.

But here we see the juxtapose between the NFL and the Christian take a far different turn of events. You see in the NFL the object of the game is for only one team to make it to the Super Bowl. Only one group is to earn that title and wear the ring. In the Christian faith we want to see everyone get to the big game, we want to see everyone make it to what we call heaven or eternity with God. While the football player wants his team and only his team to be the winner, we want everyone to be a winner right along side of us because we would like to see everyone on the same team as we are. We want to see every person in the world right there with us in glory, right there in Beulah land standing shoulder to shoulder with us. We want to see everyone with the title of Champion, we want to see them all wearing the title of Christian and go to the cross to be covered by the blood of Jesus where all sin and iniquity is washed away by that blood. We don’t want to see anyone left behind or missing the boat.

In Matthew 28 we read the words of Jesus. “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach these new disciples to obey the commandments I have given you”.

If we were to paraphrase what Jesus said in that verse it could come out like this. “Go get all the players on earth, bring them into my Christian faith, get them to my Super Bowl and my father and I and my Holy Spirit will make all of them winners. You bring them in and we’ll make them champions”.

How are we going to do this? Just like the NFL players. Preparation, preparation and more preparation. The NFL uses a game plan and a play- book; we use God’s game plan and His Bible. What’s one of our main plays as Christians? Number 1, Prayer! The Bible instructs us to pray.

• Ephesians 6: 18 … “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”.

• Philippians 4: 6 … “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God”.
Do you realize that we can pray anywhere and anytime? We can pray anywhere and anytime even in this slightly off center world in which we live. Prayer is one thing we can all do inside our own mind and no one else need know that we are doing it. We don’t have to be vocal to pray, prayer can be a shout or a whisper but it can also be a mental conversation that is only heard between us and God. Mental prayer is great; it’s as good as speaking in tongues. Mental prayer and tongues are like a person to person telephone call directly to God and Satan can’t listen in.

Another part of our game plan and playbook from God is number 2, Study! We need to study God’s word on a regular basis.

• 2nd Timothy 2: 15 … “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. That’s from the KJV, the NIV translates it as; “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, an workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”.
Unless you are one of the few that are truly gifted to have a photographic memory knowing and understanding the scriptures will require study on your behalf. Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear though, there is nothing in the scriptures that is beyond the grasp and comprehension of anyone unless there is a server learning disability. And even then the power of the Spirit can come upon the person and endow them with a gift of learning that exceeds many others. Remember we are dealing with a God of miracles and nothing is beyond his scope or range of doing. There are no hidden messages in the scriptures, there is no secret codes that need to be unlocked, there is nothing but the pure word of God and in his infinite wisdom God has put foreword his word in a book that anyone can use. Granted it may take some diligence on behalf of the reader, it may take some searching to find the meaning of some of the beautiful jewels of wisdom to be found. But with the ample supply of resource materials available finding the meaning, the knowledge and beauty of the Bible will be a pure pleasure for you.

Game plan and playbook rule number 3, Commitment! We need to commit our work to God.

• Proverbs 16: 3 … “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed”.
{A word of caution here … if we want success in our plans then our plans need to be done in God’s way and in His will.} No one is ever successful at anything if they aren’t committed to what they are doing. We’ve been comparing the Christian to the NFL player; neither will be where they want to be unless there is a level of commitment involved. The football player must commit time and energy to the game plan; the Christian must commit the same to their faith. If we commit the entire Bible to memory and never use any of it in life it is of no use at all. Whether we know the Bible or not has no effect on our salvation, salvation comes through belief in Jesus Christ and without exception there is no other way. But the Bible, God’s instruction manual for our walk through life is a key element for that walk. The Bible instructs us in how to behave, how to talk, how to pray; how to witness for Christ, how to do just about everything there is to be done and we need to commitment in our use of this wonderful book. But please remember what I said at the start of this segment, our commitment needs to be within the guidelines of God’s desires for us. And to know what God’s desires for us are we need to know what his word says to and about us. And in order to know the answer to what the desires of God are we need to know the Bible and to know the Bible brings us back to commitment.

• Proverbs 16: 9 … “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps”. We can make all the plans we want, but in the final analysis under the divine providence of God it’s God who determines the outcome of our plans. If our plans don’t come to fulfillment it’s because God allowed them to fail for whatever reason He deems to have and He doesn’t always let us know why. We have to remember … He’s God and we aren’t.

Game plan and playbook rule number 4, fellowship! We need to regular fellowship with like believers. We need to make it our habit to have regular fellowship with other Christians. Regular attendance at church is nice, attending Sunday school, attend a Bible study, in the church or in a home. Host a Bible study and have fellowship with other Christians. Do whatever it is to gain knowledge of God’s word. Surround yourself with knowledgeable people, people that can assist you in learning God’s word. We need to seek out people of Godly knowledge and having a Godly spirit, people who are spiritually mature.

• Proverbs 15: 22 … “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed”.

Friend all of this is known as preparation. We need to be prepared for what we have been called to do, no not just called but directed or commanded to do by our Lord. If we are to bring the unsaved into the knowledge of Jesus Christ we need to be prepared for the task that lies ahead of us. Like a football player we need to be fully equipped both physically and mentally but we also need to carry it one additional step that the football player isn’t concerned with. We need to be fully equipped in the spiritual realm as well. Our spirit needs to be prepared because the opponent we are going against is equally ready to wage a war against us. Satan has been playing in this game for a long long time, he’s studied his game plan, he’s studied his playbook and he’s fully assured that he can win the game, and he can if we allow him. Although Jesus has already gained us the victory of that final Super Bowl in the heavens we can loose a game or two down here on earth if we aren’t prepared. The championship is ours to be had, Jesus has already assured us the victory, he’s already guaranteed us the ring of a champion and accepted us as members of his team, but it’s up to us to take up the preparation. As a member of the winning team of Christ we’ve looked at what it’s going to take to make it through the final game and on to glory. We already saw how we need to be in a state of prayer life on a regular basis. How we need to study to show ourselves to be approved workmen, approved team members. We’ve already seen how we need to be committed to the task of winning our super bowl ring and how part of that commitment is found in fellowship with the other team members.

The final stage of preparation I want to close with is suiting up for the game. Just like in the Super Bowl both football teams wear a uniform so that they can see each other in the crowd of people on the playing field, so likewise are we to wear the uniform our team owner has selected for us. God has laid out our uniform. He’s given us all that we need for protection in the game of games so that we can walk away victorious and without injury. Just like the football player who wears padding and protection to cover the areas where he is most likely to be struck by his opponent, God had given us this same kind of protection in his uniform. You may have already guessed where I am going with this. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, starting with verse 10.
“Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is now against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints”.

I want to call your attention to just a few things about this reading. First and foremost, notice that our struggle isn’t in this world, not our physical world of flesh and blood, it’s in the spiritual world, that’s where the real battle is going on. In this world we are going to have ups and downs, pains cuts and boo boos. That’s just a part of life in a fallen world. My friend we aren’t going to see perfection here on this earth until Jesus Christ returns and gathers his bride and carries us off to the new earth. It’s not going to happen! God doesn’t promise perfection here on earth, but what he does promise is that when we leave here, it’s going to be perfection in heaven. That’s the promise of God. Now look at the list of verbs in this reading. Put on the full armor of God! God doesn’t dress us; he just gives us the uniform. It’s up to us to put the thing on. God provides us with his armor but it’s up to us to take it and put it on. God provides us with armor but we don’t wear it and we get hurt whose fault is it, God’s or ours? If we are given armor to wear into battle and we elect not to wear it aren’t we acting a bit foolish? If we have the proper armor at our disposal it’s our responsibility to put it on.

Stand firm then with the belt of truth. We have to stand firm, it’s our responsibility to take a stand and not waver back and forth. We wouldn’t go to a football game wearing the helmet of one team and the jersey of the other would we? Of course not! We pick our team and stay with them, that’s what makes us a fan of our team, we support them in their endeavor to win. When we pick the team of God we need to stay with that team, we need to stand firm in our decision and not waver back and forth. In the book of James we are admonished about not being like a wave in the sea tossed back and forth by the wind. Pick your team, stand firm and don’t look back! Jesus even told us that once we put our shoulder to the stone we can’t go back any more. If we’ve selected the helmet of God we need to quit putting on the jersey of Satan! We need to quit falling back into a sin lifestyle. In the Super Bowl when we run with the ball we have to run in just one direction, we don’t get to pick which goal like we want to cross, we don’t get to say “I think I’ll run to the one that is the closest or the easiest to reach”. If you really think about it isn’t the goal we’re after the one that is the hardest to get to? Isn’t the goal the one that is most defended by the opposition? That’s the way it is in football and that’s the way it is in life. Satan is going to love it if we run to his goal line but we don’t score any points by not standing firm in our belief. Stand firm, every time we get to the goal line we need to score points for God, don’t waver and score any points for the other team.

Take the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation, and take the sword of the Spirit. God has provided all these things for us, He’s laid them out for our use, but it’s up to us to take them. God isn’t going to force us to take them but He has provided them for our use. God’s provided all these things and he’s telling us in his word to take them, grab hold of these things and don’t fumble they away, like a good football player, hold on to them with all you have. And like any football game, remember that the opposition is trying to take from us what we have, Satan is trying to cause us to fumble. Satan would love to see us fumble away our faith, he would love to see us doubt and question, don’t do it, stand firm. He would love to see us fumble away our salvation, to fall into a sinful state and reject Jesus and his mighty work on the cross, don’t do it, stand firm. And Satan would love to see us fail to use the gifts of the Spirit, to see those gifts lay useless like a Bible on a shelve gathering dust rather than opened and read. Don’t do it, stand firm, use the Bible, use the gifts of the Spirit and use them wisely and often. Take advantage of everything offered by God, if he didn’t want us to have it and use it he wouldn’t have offered it to begin with. Any other thought, doubt or question is a lie and a trick of the enemy. Satan is trying to win the Super Bowl of all super bowls, let there be no doubt about it. He would love to be the champion but in reality he is already a defeated foe. Satan isn’t going to get the ring, he isn’t going to get bragging rights and he’s not going to like it when he sees the final score. When they post the final score and it shows the number of souls under God’s name and the number of souls under Satan’s name the entire universe is going to know who the winner really is. We have to do all that we can to make sure that our name in the right column. And we have to do all we can to make sure that no one else’s name is in the wrong column because we didn’t do our part in getting them on the winning team with us. Every player deserves to win the Super Bowl ring and every player deserves to be a winner; not for what we’ve done; but because of what was done for us by Jesus on the cross. This is the most important game we will ever play in, lets go out there and play out hearts out, and lets go out there and show the world that we are champions and our team owner is a King.

Grace and peace