Are You A Good Sport?

By John Stallings


…Lest by any means I should run, or had run in vain. Galatians 2:2

A college football coach walked into the locker room before a game, looked over to his star player & said, “I’m not supposed to let you play since you failed math, but we need you in this game. So what I have to do is ask you a math question & if you get it right you can play.”

The player agreed & the coach asked him, “O.K, what’s two plus two? The player thought for a minute & answered, “It’s four.” “Did you say four?” the coach exclaimed in pleasure.

After a few more seconds of death-like silence in the locker room, the other players began screaming, “Come on coach, give him another chance.”

Paul used many sports analogies, likening the Christian life to different sporting endeavors;

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. –Phil.3:14

….so I fight not as one that beateth the air…1 Cor.9:26

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.—2 Tim.4:7

…And exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith…Jude 3

…Let us run with patience the race that is set before us…Heb12:2

The following are some rules you & I should follow to be effective in running the Christian race.

1. DON’T HIDE, PLAY THE GAME

To be successful at any sport you have to get into the game. You can’t phone it in. Many people want to run away & hide when life treats them badly. They drop out of church & everything else they can that brings them into direct contact with people.

A telemarketer called a home one day & a small voice whispered, “Hello?”
“Hello! What’s your name?
Still whispering he said, “Jimmy.”
“How old are you Jimmy?”
“Four.”
“Good. Is you mother home?”

“Yes but she’s busy.”
“Okay, is your father home?”
“Yes but he’s busy too.”
“I see. Who else is there?”
“The Police.”
“The Police? May I speak to one of them?”
“They’re busy.”
“Any other grownups there?”
“Yes, the firemen.”
“May I speak with a fireman?”
“They’re too busy.”
“Jimmy, you have all those people in your house & I can’t talk with any of them?” “What are they doing?”
“They’re looking for me.”

I’ll bet that if little Jimmy wasn’t already in trouble he was going to be after this. No telling what he did.

When I was about four years old I hung up the phone on a lady one day after she called the parsonage & said my father was supposed to marry her at three o’clock that afternoon. Just before dropping the phone into its cradle I explained to her that my father was already married.

Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champ from 1937 until he retied in 1949. In 1946 he was preparing for his title defense against a skilled fighter named Billy Conn. Louis was warned to look out for Conn’s great speed & ability to move out of his opponent’s range.

In a famous display of confidence Louis replied, “He can run but he can’t hide.”

Some people try to do both when the pressures of life start to build. They try to run away & hide.

JONAH

We’re told in Jonah 1:1-2—The word of the Lord came to Jonah….Go to the great city of Nineveh & preach against it…But Jonah ran from the Lord….He went down to Joppa where he found a ship for that port. After paying the fare he went aboard… but Jonah had gone below deck where he lay down & fell into a deep sleep.

Jonah was in trouble so he decided to try to run away. I don’t know if you realize it but preaching is a tough job because you never know where God will send a preacher.

Old buddy Jonah didn’t care about the Ninevites. In fact he hated them & wanted God to destroy them. Jonah’s big idea was that if he preached to these people they might be saved so instead, he ran away. Hid on a ship. Went below deck. Was so depressed he fell asleep. Life causes many depressed people to go to sleep & try to hide. DON’T DO IT!!

Here’s what the Devil tells people; --Stay away from people. They’ll just depress you. Don’t have any friends, just have acquaintances. That won’t cost you anything.

Jonah is an interesting character but I don’t believe there’s a greater example of a hypocrite in the entire Bible. Jonah isn’t famous for what he says. As a matter of fact, you can look at another Minor Prophet, Amos, & find nine chapters of incredible teaching about what God intends for the life of His people. But when you look at Jonah, at least what we have in English, we only have eight words that he preaches;--Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.

Its not so much what Jonah says that makes him a stand-out, it’s what he does; he runs from God.

As a rule when God tells one of His prophets to do something it’s with Israel in mind. But in this case God tells Jonah to go & preach to outsiders. Not only is Nineveh not Israel, Nineveh is the enemy of Israel. Mostly because of these things, Jonah decides to run. He says, -I hate Ninevehites. They’re the enemy of my people. They’ve hurt my people. I won’t go.

I’ve been studying this man Jonah for a long time & I can’t bring myself to believe he’s an idiot, although he’s now acting like one. I don’t think he reasoned that God was like a cell-phone & if he got far enough away, he’d be out of God’s reach. He knew he couldn’t get out of God’s reach but he may have reasoned that if he got far enough away it would make it inconvenient for God to use him. If I get far enough away, if God has any type of working timetable he’ll call somebody else to go to Nineveh. I don’t know what was in Jonah’s mind but he was human & being human he saw something he flat didn’t want to do so he scrambled to find ways to get out of it.

Now Jonah is going to be famous for his inability to get away from God. What makes the book & the man famous is that he tries to run & hide. Moving along, Jonah gets on a boat. A storm hits. The people on board wonder what’s going on. They start throwing things overboard. Nothing they do works. The sailor’s ask Jonah if he understands what’s going on & he tells them he’s running from God. So they throw him overboard.

Now God prepares a great fish to pick Jonah up. The fish isn’t there to judge him but to save him. Some folk don’t take this story literally but I do. If it said Jonah swallowed the fish, I’d believe that. If the Bible said a sardine swallowed Jonah I’d believe that. Its not a matter of my great spirituality, it’s just for me it’s always better to just believe whatever the Book says, rather than to try to inject my faulty reasoning. You can get so much more accomplished that way.

Isn’t it interesting that there isn’t a lot of screaming in this story? There’s no, “Hey God, it’s dark in here. Get me out God, why me? Jonah cried out to God for deliverance & God caused the fish to spit him out on dry land. Now Jonah is prepared to commit himself to God who has been patient & compassionate with him.

I think the bottom line, at least one of the bottom lines in Jonah’s story is that you & I can’t successfully run from God & if we do run we’ll never successfully hide.

In pastoring over the years, I’ve seen many “rolling stones,” just passing through. They’ll stop by the church & ask for a hand-out or a few hours work. That’s all they want & they’re on their way. It’s plain to see they’re running from something, maybe even themselves. How sad. I know life can be pretty tough sometimes, downright miserable but never withdraw from society. What happens if we do that is we end up withdrawing from people who really care about us.

I remember one time when I was a kid that my dad brought one of these disheveled travelers home & my mother seated him at the dining room table & fried him about a dozen eggs, with bacon & toast. He kept asking for more & after he got his stomach full he left with hardly a grunt of thanks. I remember a lot of bums drifting by but that’s the only one we ever fed like that without at least having them mow the lawn. I don’t remember all the details but I think the attitude that guy had taught my folks a lesson.

2. BE A TEAM PLAYER

Paul said,--Each of you should look not only at your own interests but also to the interests of others. Phil. 2:4

It’s obvious that we’re not in this life by ourselves; we’re surrounded by family & friends. Consequently we should be team players, always considering how the things we do impact others.

We’re all guilty at some point for watching out more for ourselves than for others.

James 4:17 says,--Anyone who knows the good he ought to do & doesn’t do it, sins.

Actress Shirley McClain says, “The most pleasurable trip we’ll ever take is through ourselves. The only sustaining love involvement is with yourself….”

Huh? Is she crazy or what? God didn’t put us here to live for self. Existential author Ayn Rand espoused the same sort of tripe. What planet are these people circling in their “beautiful balloons?”

Paul said,-Bear one another’s burdens & so fulfill the law of Christ.-Gal. 6:2

Scripture is full of admonitions about considering others. Is God talking to you about this? Have you ever seen these people, men & women who work hard in the gym to build up big muscles? They call those “show muscles.” Some of them, especially the ones who compete, get so ripped it’s almost grotesque looking. [Someone might say—hey wait a minute, those muscles look better than fat-& they’d be right.]

My point is, why go to the trouble to build a strong body just to enjoy the adulation of others? That would also be true of anyone who takes an inordinate amount of time to have a body to arouse the admiration & adoration of others. A healthy body, by all means, but we should always be on guard not to become narcissistic & self-absorbed.

One cold day a crowd of people stood in front of a pet shop window & watched a litter of puppies snuggling up to each other. One woman laughed & said, “What a delightful picture of brotherhood. Look at how those pups are keeping each other warm.”

A man next to her said, “No ma’am, they’re not keeping each other warm. They’re keeping themselves warm.” We could look at this story two ways but I prefer to think when we seek to keep others warm we will also keep ourselves warm.

3. YOU’LL GET HURT IN THE GAME OF LIFE -BUT PLAY ANYWAY.

People in every sport get hurt. I didn’t realize it until someone told me a few years back, but did you know golfers get hurt almost as frequently as those in other sports? If you watch the news you’ll find that golf’s top money winners are always having some sort of surgery; back surgery, knee surgery, elbow surgery, finger surgery, foot surgery, skin lesion surgery, all kinds of surgery. A few weeks ago I saw Tiger Woods on T.V playing here in Orlando at the Bay Hill tournament. He won despite having just come back from having knee surgery eight months earlier.

People get hurt playing sports. The Christian life is no different.

Peter said,-Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though some strange thing has happened to you.—1 Peter 4:12

Have you been to the dentist lately? In spite of all he can do he’ll hurt you if with nothing more than that water-sucker-upper they hang in your mouth. Have you been to a chiropractor lately & felt that pop when they adjust your neck or back? Just the thought of these things make me hurt & very nervous. But you know folks, those things are supposed to hurt a little.

Growing older hurts. At my age if I stop & think about it I can find a pain somewhere in my body at all times. Some things are supposed to hurt. The other day I saw a real-life drama of a fireman rescuing a man who’d had a building collapse on him. The man was moaning in pain, telling the rescuers how bad his legs were hurting him. One of the firemen finally said, “Sir, if your legs are hurting, that’s a good sign. That means they’re not paralyzed.” After that the man relaxed & stopped fretting.

THE PAIN CHRIST ENDURED

Go back & read Isaiah 53 again & marvel with me at that chapter & the way it depicts the pain Christ endured. This chapter is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other portion of the Old Testament.

It’s truly hard to believe that this incomparable prophecy was written 750 years before Christ lived. Nothing explains it better than the words of Apostle Peter, --Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In my opinion a man would be a fool to try to deny that the Bible is God’s Word when he reads Isaiah 53.

As you read the words of this chapter, you might think you are reading the report of a man who was standing by when the Son of God died on that cursed tree. But these are the words of a man who lived almost a millennium beforehand. Isaiah wrote of the sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ & did it with such precise detail & accuracy because the Holy Spirit breathed out the words as he wrote them. Nothing else can explain this prophecy.

Listen further to Hebrews;

Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight & the sin that doeth so easily beset us, & let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author & finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross despising the shame, & is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.—Hebrews 12: 1-2

Friend, we have to play the game even though we get hurt in life. But the Lord has promised to be with us, to strengthen us, to give us grace.

Yes we must stay engaged in life’s game, but we don’t have to play it alone!

Blessings,

John