Between now and Super Bowl Sunday, every time you turn on the TV, you’re going to be seeing football and football commercials. They’re going to be talking about which side you support. They’re going to be talking about what it takes to make the team, about how each player has a different job on the team, and about what it takes to be a champion.
I’d like to offer you a challenge: every time you hear someone talking about football in the next 2 weeks, let it remind you of what it is to be a follower of Christ, how you need to support the people who have decided to serve Christ’s mission on earth, how each of those people has a different role to play, and what it takes to be a champion in God’s eyes.
I’m not saying God’s purpose on earth is football; just that football is something we understand. When God’s people come together as his church, it’s like when a football team comes together. A football team has a purpose. There are lots of things that they could probably do well, like crowd control or loading a UPS truck, but they have one purpose – to compete at football and win.
Same with the church! The church might be able to do a great job singing songs or teaching kids. But the Church has one purpose – to serve Christ’s mission on earth, to restore the dead to life.
When a football team takes the field, there are two teams, and every player takes the field already part of one or the other. No player walks onto the field undecided. In the battle for this world, there are two teams, and everyone is part of one or the other. There’s no such thing as being a spiritually undecided spectator.
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life - Deuteronomy 30:19
Everyone wants to be part of a great team. Not just a good team, but a great one. I don’t think there is a better parallel between a football team and the church than when a football team comes together to pray. In the locker room or on the field, they call on God to be with them, to protect them, and to grant them victory.
Have you ever noticed, though, when a player on the other team is injured, all the players on the teams will take a knee? That, I think, is when football is the best picture of the Church Christ wanted us to be. A love for all people, whether they are part of our team or not.
But still…There are two teams. At the head of one is God himself, creator of the universe. The one who shaped you before you were born in a special way so that your lives could make a difference in this world. The one who took your punishment on himself so that you could have the opportunity to choose which team you will serve?
At the head of the other spiritual team is Satan. Satan hates you and would like nothing more than to destroy you.
Peter said that Satan is stalking your footsteps:
Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. - 1 Peter 5:8
Now you are in the game, and you have to choose which side you are on. Have you fallen in love with God’s vision for you? Are you passionately pursuing God’s purpose for your life? Or do you believe, like Lucifer, that your future will be better in your own hands? Which team’s jersey are you wearing? There are no sidelines on this field.
Everybody plays.
The greatest battle you’ll ever fight is choosing whose side you want to be on.
You and I have battles we fight every day. Battles against impurity in our live; Battles against compromise; Battles against greed, lust, laziness, and anger. These are not the battles fought with fists or even wits, but instead they are the battles fought in front of the bathroom mirror or in front of our friends. And before each one, God is by your side.
So, who’s side are you on?
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