{"id":296,"date":"2014-06-17T02:02:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T05:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/?p=296"},"modified":"2014-06-17T02:02:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T05:02:39","slug":"world-cups-stanley-cups-and-nba-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/2014\/06\/world-cups-stanley-cups-and-nba-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cups, Stanley Cups, and NBA Championships!"},"content":{"rendered":"

2ndTimothy 3:1-4 says\u00a0 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures<\/span> more than lovers of God;<\/em><\/p>\n

In the 1700’s thousands and thousands gathered to hear men like John Wesley and George Whitfield preach.\u00a0 Today men pack stadiums\u00a0to watch sporting events.\u00a0 I am not slamming where we are at, but I do have some thoughts,\u00a0I have had\u00a0a season\u00a0that the sports seasons were not big obsessions for me, and I have seen\u00a0God show me a lot of truths with sports.<\/p>\n

First, in\u00a0general, pro sports is a major distraction\u00a0that sucks\u00a0our time\u00a0and energy.\u00a0 It also\u00a0very easily becomes an idol.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0was a sports nut before I was saved, and followed every sport there was.\u00a0 Football for\u00a0example, I followed the Buffalo Bills\u00a0every Sunday during the sports season.\u00a0\u00a0 Then I followed UB college football,\u00a0 Monday night football, playoff football, and\u00a0soon the World Football League came about. I\u00a0liked the American\u00a0teams like the NY New Jersey Knights and the foreign teams like the Barcelona Dragons. Then I followed Arena football and soon Buffalo\u00a0had their own team, the Destroyers.\u00a0 I was a sports card nut, and had boxes\u00a0and boxes of unopened cards.\u00a0 My walls were covered in pennants and memorabilia.\u00a0\u00a0 Soon there was Thursday night football, Saturday night football, and Sunday night football.\u00a0 I would watch the high lights on HBO, and ESPN and read them in Sports Illustrated.\u00a0 I went to games, I went to bars to watch games.\u00a0 We had Superbowl parties each year.<\/p>\n

If that wasn’t enough, I also watched Major League Baseball, Major Indoor Lacrosse, professional tennis, Olympic events, National Hockey League, the NBA, and NASCAAR.\u00a0 I don’t know where I fit in a love for Hollywood movies.\u00a0\u00a0 I loved expansion teams, and I loved the underdog. I was the perfect Bills fan.<\/p>\n

When I got saved, I soon saw that you can’t serve God and sports.\u00a0 There was a time for maybe several years where I basically had no clue who was playing in the playoffs, I no longer knew who the “superstars” were, and I had no idea where some teams went, and my life went on.\u00a0 I was preaching at the NHL games and some other sporting events, and I saw clearly how much this was a worship service and how much of an idol these things were.<\/p>\n

I also have in recent days seen some of this idol creep back because I started out of curiosity giving some attention to who was in the playoffs.\u00a0 I had no idea the Heat won the last 2 NBA championships, or that the Blackhawks and Bruins became good teams, or the Spurs won 5 championships.\u00a0 I didn’t care.\u00a0 But slowly this love for sports became more of a force in my heart as I started checking scores again and looking at the Sports page and getting captivated by the upsets and surprises.\u00a0 When our family would go out to dinner, and the prosports were on, I was drawn to them like a moth to a bug zapper.<\/p>\n

I now see the World Cup in action and how captivating that is.\u00a0 Our passion in America is mostly the NHL but the world is in a frenzy over soccer.\u00a0 I find watching it interesting and get sucked in fairly quickly just like everyone else.<\/p>\n

I am not better, I was not more spiritual because I had a season I ignored the sports seasons.\u00a0 I am writing this to share that I have some perspective on what I am writing.<\/p>\n

Here is what I learned about pro sports.\u00a0 They are a false substitute for our need for action and adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 We are meant to worship God and we get suckered instead being in awe of a man like Lebron James who makes $50 million a year to dribble a ball and dunk it through a hoop.\u00a0\u00a0 Christians are meant to be fully in love with Jesus and fully surrendered to the adventure he has for our lives.\u00a0 Instead, we settle to be passive observers in these games, and we miss the “game of life”.<\/p>\n

The LA Kings won the ultimate NHL prize, the coveted Stanley Cup.\u00a0 The Bible says thou shalt not covet, yet that is what the teams all do.\u00a0 And now they won 2 of the past 3.\u00a0 They have to return the Cup at the start of next season, and the only thing that will temporarily satisfy them and their fans next year is to win it again.\u00a0 The Miami\u00a0 Heat won the past 2 championships the previous 2 years and were losing this year to the Spurs.\u00a0 Despite being in the finals, and despite winning the past 2 Championships their home fans BOOED them during their last home finals game.<\/p>\n

Too many Christian men today go to church and talk about their teams before the service, check scores during church, and talk about the game after the service.\u00a0 Then they rush home to watch the game and it has their hearts.\u00a0 God doesn’t.<\/p>\n

I think following ProSports ruins and poisons and deadens our desire to follow the Lord Jesus.\u00a0 He said in Matthew \u00a06:24 that No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

You can’t follow Jesus and your favorite team.<\/p>\n

You need to make a choice.\u00a0 The Bills or the Bible.\u00a0 The Colts or Church.\u00a0 The NBA or the KJV.\u00a0 Jesus or the Jaguars.<\/p>\n

Going evangelizing or getting entertained.\u00a0 Being a fanatic for God or being a Sports Nut.\u00a0 Praying or playing.\u00a0 Getting on your knees or turning on you TV.<\/p>\n

Drinking from a World Cup that is full of holes that leaves you thirsty for more, or drinking from the living water that quenches all thirsts?<\/p>\n

Today’s Christianity says Enjoy Both!\u00a0 You can have your cake and eat it too.\u00a0 Go to church on Sunday and then the rest of the day is yours!\u00a0 However, the truth is our hearts are deceitful and our hearts will not be satisfied in the “neutral zone.”\u00a0 We either will serve God or serve ourselves.\u00a0 Either God will slowly have control of our hearts or the idols of this world will push God out.<\/p>\n

The main reason we accept pro sports as normal today in Christianity is our version of Christianity is so blah and boring that Pro Sports appeal to our nature for action.\u00a0 The key is to repent, but to replace our love for Pro Sports with serving others and getting busy preaching the gospel to every creature.\u00a0 Instead of going to a game, try preaching outside it one time.\u00a0 You will more action than a Game 7 Sudden Death Overtime Game.\u00a0 And then, just maybe, some men will see the vanity of professional sporting events.<\/p>\n

After all, these are just games, and games are for children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2ndTimothy 3:1-4 says\u00a0 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}