Principle #2: Inside Game

Principle #2: Inside Game

 What motivates me?

 Luke 15:11-32

 

1. What motivates you?

Recognition                Money             Coach

Friendships                 Pride               Winning

Revenge                     Parents           Fear of Losing

Success                      Anger              Accomplishment

 

2. If your motivation is up one day and down the next, how will that affect your performance as an athlete?

 

You will be inconsistent, and it can make you less reliable.

 

Luke 15:11-32 The Prodigal Son

*Dubbed the tale of the 2 prodigals. Jesus is telling this parable in front of Pharisees and tax collectors (sleeze bags = charged more than they were supposed to and took the rest). The Pharisees are like the older son, and the tax collectors are like the younger son*

 

1. The Younger Son: Motivated by __worldly___ ____pleasures____. Looking for life

___independent____ from God.

 

A. The pursuit of a life independent of God (vs. 12-13)

- Why did the younger son choose to pursue a life without God?

- Why do we pursue a life independent from God?

 

We may not understand God’s love and think its restricting, while sin is perceived to be fun. In reality sin always promises, but never follows through.

 

B. The result of a life independent of God (vs. 14-16)

- What are the results of the younger son’s pursuit of life without God?

- What are the results of our pursuits to find independence from God?

 

*Son is Jewish and is working with pigs. According to Jewish law this makes him ceremonially unclean, and creates a physical separation from anything to do with God.*

 

C. The response to a life independent of God. (vs. 17-21)

- What does the younger son discover about his pursuit of independence from God?

- What have we discovered in our pursuits to find independence from God?

 

He finds out that the worldly things are not satisfying and temporary, eventually leads back to God.

 

 
2. The Older Son: Motivated by ___personal____ ____preference_____. Looking for life by___performing____ for God.

 

A. The pursuit of a life of performance. (vs. 29)

- What are some of the signs we see that indicate the older brother is

pursuing performance?

- How are some of the ways that we pursue lives of performance?

 

He wants a reward, and becomes jealous because he thought he had been doing it right all along, but the younger son was still accepted back. (Comparing to the wrong thing: instead of each other, compare to God)

 

B. The result of a life of performance. (vs. 28, 30)

- What is the older brothers attitude toward the younger brother?

- What is our attitude toward others when we are living a life of performance?

 

The older brother has an attitude of disownment towards the younger brother, “this son of yours.”

 

C. The response to a life of performance. (vs. 31)

- What does the father hint that the son needs to do?

 

3. Us: Motivated by __God’s__ __love___ & __grace___. Finding life in __Christ___ __alone___.

 

 A. God pursues you.

 - How does the father respond to the younger son (vs. 20,22)?

 

“He ran to him.” We serve a God who is chasing after us.

 *The father running is inappropriate for the Jewish culture.*

 

- How does the father respond to the older son (vs. 28,31)?

 “Went out and pleaded with him.” Shows unconditional love, even when it is tough to swallow our pride.

 

B. His result for you.

 

Formulas for self-worth:

1. World’s formula = Our Performance+ Other’s Opinions

2. God’s Formula = What God Declares to be true about You

 

World’s Lie                                                                            God’s Truth

If you fail, you are unworthy of love               God’s anger is satisfied; you are

and deserve punishment.                              deeply loved by God and will never

  be punished (Propitiation) I John 4:9-10

 

I must meet certain standards to feel                You are completely forgiven and fully

good about myself. If I don’t…                         pleasing to God (Justification) 2 Cor. 5:21

 

I must be approved and accepted by others      You are totally accepted by God and

to feel good about myself.                               He calls you His friend forever.

 (Reconciliation) Col. 1:19-22

 

I am what I am; I cannot change.                   You are absolutely complete in Christ and

have the power to walk in His truth by faith.

(Regeneration) 2 Cor. 5:1

 

God Declares That These Are True About You As You Follow Jesus Christ:

1. I am accepted and worthy Romans 15:7; Psalm 139

2. I am never alone Hebrews 13:5b; Romans 8:38, 39

3. I am adequate II Corinthians 3:5-6; Philippians 4:13

4. I have boldness and confidence Proverbs 3:26; 14:26; Hebrews 10:19

5. God will be faithful to me Philippians 1:6; 2:13; Thessalonians 3:3

6. I have the mind of Christ I Corinthians 2:16; II Timothy 1:7

7. I have hope Romans 15:13; Psalm 16:11; 27:13

8. I am seen as perfect Hebrews 10:14; Colossians 2:13

9. I have been chosen and set apart I Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; Ephesians 1:4

10. I lack nothing Philippians 4:19

11. I am free from fear Psalm 34:4; II Timothy 1:7

12. I have all the faith I need Romans 12:3

13. I have strength Daniel 11:32; Psalm 37:39

14. I am victorious Romans 8:37; II Corinthians 2:14

15. I have wisdom Proverbs 2:6-7; I Corinthians 1:30

16. I am free Psalm 32:7, II Corinthians 3:17

17. I have comfort John 15:6; 16:7; II Corinthians 1:3,4

18. I am protected Psalm 32:7

19. I am perfectly loved John 15:9; Romans 8:38, 39;Ephesians2:4-5; 5:1

20. I am an adopted child of God Romans 8:16; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5

21. I am totally forgiven Psalm 103:12; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 10:7

22. I have been declared righteous Romans 3:24; I Corinthians 1:30; 6:11

23. I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit Acts 1:8; Ephesians 1:19; 3:16; I Cor. 12:13

24. I have direct access to God Ephesians 2:6; I Peter 2:5,9

25. I am blameless John 3:18; Romans 8:1

26. I have been created for good works Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 37:23

27. I am a new creation II Corinthians 5:17

28. I have authority over Satan Colossians 1:13; I John 4:4

29. I am dead to sin Romans 6:11

30. I am dead to the law Romans 6:14; 7:4-6

31. I am an eternal inheritance Romans 8:16-17; Ephesians 1:11,14,18

32. I have been raised with Christ Romans 6:4-8; Galatians 2:20; Col.2:12

33. I will be with Christ in heaven Ephesians 2:5, Colossians 2:15

34. I have eternal security I John 5:11-13; John 10:27-30

35. I have spiritual gifts for His service I Corinthians 12

The “GOOD NEWS” is that this list is not exhaustive!

Have a great time discovering the things that are now true of YOU in Christ!

HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO GOD’S LOVE?

* = additional background information

- Sarah

Principle #1: Audience of One

Principle #1: Audience of One (AO1)

Who or what do I worship?

1Kings 18:20-40

1. What is/was the purpose of sports?

Sports is a ___ gift____ from God and a ____privelege____.

2. What has sports become?

Sports has become an ____idol_____.

Culture tells us that _____success in sports_____ is the meaning of life.

“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.” --Luther

1 Kings 18:20-40 Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

What was the problem with the Israelites?

There worship was ______divided______.

IDOL:

ATHLETE #1

1. Everything is compartmentalized ---> If we are a house, some rooms we let God into and others we don't

2. We fit God into our lives.

God exists for ___me___! (Good Luck Charm/Genie in a Bottle) ---> To serve my own interests

CHALLENGE: Be a _____DEVOTED_____ worshipper!

What is the greatest commandment? (Matt. 22:37)

Love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. Love God completely, don't leave anything out.

ATHLETE #2

1. All areas of life exist __for__ God.

2. God is not in your life....He IS your life.

Reflection:

Which athlete (#1 or #2) do you relate to?

We have a choice

1. Will we go along with the culture and worship sports and allow people to

worship us?

2. Will we give our allegiance to God as the only one worthy of our worship?

When we worship God, how does it change our perspective on sport?

Winning is not everything, so it frees us to a better competitor.

When we give our allegiances to God He becomes the

only thing that matters and we begin to compete for

an ___Audience ___  _of_  __One__!

-Sarah

Unmistakable Faithfulness

Sorry for the recent lack of week recaps.  Someone (cough cough Sarah) hasn’t been keeping up with her duty! 

Two weeks ago I spoke on Unmistakable Faithfulness.  The main point of the night was this: If you believe that God is faithful, you will never need to worry again.  Sound Cliché? Maybe. But, I think that scripture heavily supports that statement.

By Faithfulness, I mean “the quality of being faithful.”  In the Old Testament, faithfulness is often used in tandem with the word truth.  This is because they both derive from the same Hebrew root of Aman, which means to confirm, support, or uphold.  In the Greek, faithfulness derives from the word Pistis. In the active tense it means faith, and in the passive it means faithfulness.  Scholars actually differ sometimes in the New Testament in terms of translation on whether a passage should say “faith in God” or “God’s faithfulness.” 

Anyway, how do you test to see if someone is faithful?  One way is to see if they follow through with their promises.  Throughout the Bible, there are many stories of God making promises to people. Check out the story of Noah in Genesis 6.  God promises to bring a flood, and he also promises to keep Noah and his family safe.  If you are familiar with the story, both of these promises come to pass.  Can you imagine how foolish Noah would have looked if he spent multiple years building a giant boat and then the flood never happened?  What about the story of Moses and the Israelites in Exodus 3.  God was faithful to bring them out of Egypt and into the promised land EVEN THOUGH they constantly rebelled and did not trust Him.

God is faithful even when we are faithless.  We see this in the story of the Israelites, but Paul even mentions it specifically in one of his letters to Timothy.  2 Timothy 2:13 says “if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”  Faithfulness is a part of God’s character.  When he says something will happen, it has to happen.  And, nothing can stop it from happening because he is all-powerful.  You see, I can’t be 100 percent faithful to something because I don’t have power over everything.  I can say I will be faithful to come to Athletes in Actions meetings, but if a drunk driver hits me on my way, I don’t have the power to follow through with the promise.  God is omnipotent, so nothing can keep him from following through with that which He has promised. 

So…..what does God promise us.  He has promised us salvation (Romans 10:8, I John 5:13).  He has promised us help in temptation (I Corinthians 10:13).  He has promised us help in witnessing (Matthew 28:19-20).  He has promised that He works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).  This last one is sort of a “catch all” for worry.  Worried about money? God will work everything out for your good.  Worried about your future job? God will work everything out for your good. Worried about your future spouse? God will work everything out for your good.

If you believe that God is faithful, you will not need to worry.  When you start to worry, remind yourself that God is faithful.  Write it on your refrigerator.  Tape it to your steering wheel.  You can never be reminded enough about this attribute of God’s amazing character.

-Brandon

Guest speaker: David Williams

David Williams has been on staff with CRU for 9 years, and currently serves as the chaplain for the Cincinnati Bengals.  He was gracious enough to come speak to us on Monday night.  You definitely need to watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EylnH0d2ftw&feature=youtu.be

Unmistakable Grace (Week #6) and Unmistakable Rest (Week #7)

WHOOPS! Looks like we got a little behind on our blog recaps.  Let me catch you up with what has been going on in AIA at CSU. 

The last two weeks (with one week in-between with no meeting because of a national holiday) have been Unmistakable Grace and Unmistakable Rest.  I spoke on the former, and Samba spoke on the latter.  You can find the videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfb2iMY3XBw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn-Y3lKYclw&feature=youtu.be respectfully. Thankfully, they go hand in hand! 

Ephesians 2 explains that we are objects of wrath.  Humans are not good.  We are BROKEN.  We are guilty of rebelling against our Creator.  However, in His grace, God took our penalty upon Himself and gave us the opportunity to receive eternal life if we would only believe in Him.  Grace is defined as a FREE GIFT.  It is not something that we can repay.  Isaiah 64:6 says that even our best deeds are filthy rags in comparison to the magnitude of what God did for us. 

Think of it this way.  You are a convicted criminal standing before a judge.  If the judge(God) is to be just, He needed to give you your penalty.  However, as the bailiff goes to put the handcuffs on to take you to serve your penalty, the judge steps down from his bench, takes his robe off, allows the cuffs to be put on Him instead, and proceeds to serve your penalty.  That is what God did for us by sending his Son! That is God’s grace.  Giving us something that we did not deserve.  After that happened, it wouldn’t make sense for us to continue standing there to tell the judge all the good things that we have done which fail in comparison to our actual crime.  Likewise, we should not do things to try to earn our salvation or to repay God for what He did. Rather, we should serve God as a response to the grace He showed us. 

Now we get into Samba’s territory: REST.  You see, if you are trying to earn your salvation, you can never take a break.  What if you have only gone to church 99 times in your life and God expects 100?  How do you know where the line is?  And, what happens if when you inevitably mess up?  The beauty of grace being a free gift is that since there is nothing we did to earn it, there is also nothing we can do to lose it.  We do not need to wonder about what will happen to us.  If we have chosen to trust in Jesus, our future is secure. 

After hearing Samba speak, I reflected upon Jesus’ last word on earth.  “Teleo.”  Meaning “It is finished.”  Salvation is not something we have to earn.  Jesus paid the full price once and for all. Our sin was finished at that moment.  All we have to do is believe in Him. 

-Brandon

Unmistakable Kingdom Vision (Week #5)

Do you ever feel like there has got to be more?  Do you wonder what your purpose is, or what life is for? 

Nate Berkey addressed these types of questions on Monday night.  The following is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGXm2WxoOko&feature=youtu.be

Becoming a Christian has implications that reach beyond our own salvation.  When we make the decision to trust in Jesus, we realize that the world does not revolve around us.  Our identity no longer depends on performance, but on who God says we are in Him.  However, when we decide to follow Jesus, we also inherit a problem.  A global problem.  A problem that has life and death consequences.  A problem that we have the ability to correct.  The problem…..people don’t know Jesus. 

Nate defined Kingdom Vision as understanding God’s heart and call for every person on the planet.  He said when we become Christians, it alters every decision we will ever make.  We have the knowledge that can save people from eternal damnation.  We can’t just take that information and stare off into the sky for the rest of our lives.  We are Athletes in ACTION.  We have a mission to fulfill.  That mission is found in Acts 1:8.  Jesus calls us to be witnesses for Him in our communities, in our states, in our nation, and in our world.  We don’t have to do it alone either! Jesus promises in that very same verse that the Holy Spirit will empower us! 

I’m a guy who likes to think in analogies (probably because I’ve watched too many episodes of House).  But, for all the other analogy lovers out there, imagine you had the power to save someone from a burning building.  In that instance, nothing else would matter.  You wouldn’t be thinking about the game winning shot you hit, or about the fast time you achieved.  Nothing would be more important to you than saving that person’s life.  As Christians, we have the ability not to save someone from physical death, but to promise them eternal life. What could possibly be more important? 

Okay, so you have the WHAT.  Now all you need is the HOW.  Stay tuned, we will be talking about that throughout the rest of the semester.

-Brandon

Unmistakable Assurance (Week #3)

When you watch the news, do you encounter people who you feel are unforgiveable?  Jerry Sandusky….Rae Carruth.  People who have inflicted unspeakable pain onto others.  What about when you examine your own life?  Are there things that you have done that you simply cannot forgive yourself for? 

Samba preached the Word on Monday night out of I John 1: 5-10. (The video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX7IW6bhgbc&feature=youtu.be&fb_source=message) 

Verses 5-7 make an analogy of light versus darkness where God is the light, and everything without God is darkness.  As Samba’s grandma used to say “When the light comes on, everything comes out.”  Samba also talked about cockroaches.  When you shine a light on a cockroach, it scatters.  In other words, light exposes things!  And, to follow the analogy, there is nothing that has not already been exposed to God.  Nothing we have done is hidden from His sight. 

As you can see, we have a problem.  God knows about all of our sin.  What do we do about that?  In the Old Testament, people used to have to transfer their sins onto a blameless animal, and then slaughter the animal as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for their sin.  However, we have one huge advantage, and His name is JESUS!  Jesus died as our sacrifice, knowing everything that we would do and knowing the full extent of our brokenness.  Jesus allows verse 9 to happen.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  Samba told us that this is the best insurance anyone can ever give you! Fireproof insurance that nothing we can ever do is outside God’s forgiveness.  We say we are unforgiveable, Jesus says His love is UNCONDITIONAL. 

Lastly, Samba talked about the confession we read about it verse 9.  Confession is necessary, because we need God’s power to overcome sin.  It shows that we agree with God, that our sins are truly our sins. It shows we are not hiding from anything.  But, we do not need to be fearful when we confess our sins to God.  When you apologize to another person, there is always a chance that they will not forgive you.  When we confess our sins to God, we have security in the fact that He will always forgive us.  No exceptions.  God’s love is so great, that nothing we could ever do is outside of it.  Confession frees us from the guilt Satan likes to use to hold us down.  It empowers us to stay strong, and encourage one another. 

Stay strong, and encourage one another.  God’s forgiveness is UNMISTAKABLE. 

-Brandon