Team Christian

Matthew 28:16-20

New International Version (NIV)

The Great Commission

^“16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

For those of you that know me personally, you know that I am a football fan.  NFL and I are tight.  More specifically, I am a Steelers (Pittsburgh, PA) fan.  Now If you know anything about Football, you know that the Steelers have 2 major rivals; the Ravens and the Patriots.  Growing up in The Burgh, it is difficult to even say these teams names, or type them in this case, with out getting a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach.  As a Steelers fan, you just cannot like either of these two teams.  It is an impossibility to like them. 

Sometimes I feel like being a Christian is like being on a sports team.  Team Christians.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the Steelers are like being Christians here, I am saying that there is a similarity between the concept of a sports team and being a Christian. We have obvious starters and leaders, but every person on the team is vitally important to the success of the organization.  The players that aren’t starters, still important as both back up and practice partners.  The people that aren’t the most flamboyant are needed to balance out those that are.  When a team works together, it can be amazing.  It can be something that is absolutely beautiful.  But when the team isn’t clicking, it can be hard to watch and almost painful to see.  It can be physically painful to the players and emotionally painful to the on-lookers. 

I am part of team Christian, and we have a playbook, it is called the Bible.  It has mapped out the plays we are supposed to do and the way that we are supposed to do them.  God has told us how to live our lives and he is the Head Coach and will give us “audibles” (what the head coach usually tells the quarterback when he is determining the play) to live life by.  He guides us and leads us along the way and tells us to follow what we have learned in the playbook.  Unfortunately, the plays don’t always go as planned, sometimes the plays fail terribly and we start feeling defeated, but when you start feeling defeated, it is easier to be defeated in the long run.  It is important to know that your coach has the teams best interest and your best interst at heart.  What is awesome though is that I know no matter how we play, we are still winners because we have everlasting life! 

If you have ever watched a sports game, the umpire, referee or judge makes a lot of large decisions.  Life’s judge is God, he is our Head Coach and the Um.  He is the one that is going to be telling us if plays need to be “called back” or “re-played”.  The difference is that His son plays for our team.  He already knows who is going to win.  He is biased yes, but His son died so that our team could win, so He has every right to be, not to mention that He created us and the game. 

Although I do not like either or the two rival teams of the Steelers, I do like one or two of the players.  I can’t like the organization or the team in general, but I can like certain people from it.  With that said, it is important to note that we can like others that are not Christians, we can love them actually.  Often times, they aren’t following the same playbook as us though.  Their plays aren’t going to get them anywhere, sometimes, they will have a good play and it will seem like they are getting ahead in the game of life, when in reality, they don’t have the Creator of the game on their side.  They might score and you might feel defeated, but ultimately, the Heavenly Father is on your side.  It is our responsibility to recruit new players to our team.  We want to “draft” them to our team.  There is no money to offer them, but there is everlasting life which is so much more valuable.  And we don’t have a spending cap!  We can recruit as many as we want. 

Once recruited, we need to train our team members, get them to study and read the playbook so they know how to play the way that our team plays.  Just like the Bible says.  Who are you going to recruit or train today?  Are you going to keep your training up?