The Winning Team

Heb 12:2-4
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
(NIV)

How spiritually tough is your faith in God? How strong is your offense? Now imagine that your faith was a football team. What would the score be? Could you imagine if you went to a football game and the other team did not show up and they went ahead and played the game. They kick off, run down the field pick up the ball and score. Then they do the same thing again and again. How much fun would that be? Who would stay and watch? There are times where we expect our walk with Christ to be that way. We don't want any opposition, no problems, no trials; everything should be creamy and perfect. When a problem comes our way we get mad at God and say "How could you let this happen to me?" That is like a football player on the field going up to the coach saying "Did you see that guy run into me and knock me down?"

The best games are the close games; the games in the mud; the games where one team scores then the other team comes back and catches up. The crowd is riding on the edge of their seat one minute it looks like they are losing; then a great play is made and they score! They are in the lead again. Have you ever seen a team quit in fear of losing and just walk off the field? Our faith in Jesus is very much like a football game. We are the offensive team striving toward the goal of heaven. The ball is our soul. The play book is the Bible. Our Pastor is the coach. Jesus is the team owner. Satan is the defense. You make a good play and gain some yards. Satan reorganizes his defense waiting for you to hike the ball and hits you harder to drive you back a couple of yards. The closer you get to the goal line the tougher the defense is going to be. He wants to break us, make us feel defeated, drive us backwards, and the whole time he is trying to intercept our soul. God owns the stadium and at any time you can wave at him and he will reset the scoreboard 0 to 0. That is why Satan tries to make us feel like when we sin that Gods is mad at us and he is not going to listen to our prayers. The truth is God bought the stadium so he can reset the score at anytime. He enjoys pushing that reset button even more then you would enjoy pushing the button for your favorite team when they fall behind in the Superbowl. The joy set before Jesus is us making the touchdown and wining the game. When we are on God’s team Victory is assured every time and in every situation!