Walk the Walk - Lombardi Effect

Walk the Walk - The Lombardi Effect

Intro

James 4:1–10 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

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Pray

pictureofdads

Father’s day is such a tricky day. Mother’s day is pretty straight forward for us men. We wake up, and then proceed to, hopefully, do stuff that helps you to feel loved, and forget that you are a mother in some way.

Maybe we make the bed, or make breakfast, or watch the kids for a little bit. But we do something to help you know you are appreciated by not having to “mom” on that day.

But on father’s day, at least for me, all I want to do is be a better dad.

I don’t want that day off from being a dad, I want to cram a bunch of dad stuff in there! And when you think about it, that is kind of what being a Christian is like for us. Six days a week we spend our time just L-I-V-I-N…livin. But on Sunday, we don’t want to just keep on living, no we want to dress up and get to church and cram as much Christian stuff into that couple hours as we can!

Now I mean that with all love. But we do that. We are never more Christian, it seems, than when we are in church on Sunday morning.

This series on James has been talking about that idea. How we need to live our faith out in the world, to walk the walk.

But I think that Father’s day is a great time to remind us all that we all tend to do that same thing. To treat Sunday as a day to cram instead of a day to worship and recharge. Likewise, this day we celebrate isn’t one to just cram stuff into, but a day to celebrate the things that should always be going on between men and the world around them.

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As I said during the children’s message, fathers aren’t just those who have raised a child, or fathered a child. No fathers are people who accept their role as a loving protector and nurturer. Father’s are men who look after all those around them. They stand watch and make sure that everyone gets what they need.

But they do more. They also impart wisdom, work ethic, expectations, and perhaps most importantly - stability.

Father’s are the ones we look to as experts sometimes. Experts at their field of work, or experts at changing a tire or changing the oil. Experts at plumbing, or mowing the grass. Experts at fixing appliances, or lifting heavy things. Dad’s are supposed to be good at stuff.

And in that sea of expectations something happens to us. We become changed. We start to believe that we really need to be the best at things. We start to wonder how we will keep up this charade until they graduate, right? We wonder, and then we go about trying to get better. So we try new things and push ourselves toward new goals.

And as we keep doing that, we eventually start to lose a grasp on those things that don’t seem as important any more. Sure we can teach you to change a tire in 3 minutes flat, but did we forget how to just sit and hold you when you are unsure of yourself?

And when we forget that stuff, the basics, eventually we get off track. We value the wrong stuff. And then we start to make mistakes. Listen, once you start messing up, even if just in your mind, it doesn’t take long to start doubting yourself, and more importantly to start getting angry and fighting everything and everyone!

[setup idea of dads, and christians, grasping a task and then forgetting the basics…have stories, keep it light…]

James 4:1 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

James 4:

I think that is a part of what James is saying here. Because if you think about it, there is very little in modern society that we need to get that upset over! And for the believer, there is even less than that! Listen God has got all this in His hand, why am I so upset about it?

It is our passion that drives us. Passion that is derived from the love of being thought of as good, or right, more than actually wanting to be or do good, or the right thing.

Being a good dad. Being a good man. Being a good Christian.

We would give anything to be well thought of, sometimes; anything except the thing we need to do to be well thought of.

picofvincelombardi

Vince Lombardi, is probably the best coach to ever live. He had 5 championships in 7 years. His methods and game plans are copied to this very day. His name, given to the trophy that is awarded to the Super Bowl Champion every year, is a constant reminder of greatness and success.

Now Vince, he wasn’t a lovie-dubie type of coach. There was no hand holding on his team. If you messed up you knew it. He insisted on perfection, and demanded that his players give everything they had on every play, whether in practice or in a game.

On one particular evening, he showed up to practice in a bad mood. It happens. As he watched his players, he got more and more angry. He barked at them, saying that they had a lot to learn. And when his frustration hit it’s peak, he held up a football above his head and shouted, “We’re starting at the beginning. Gentlemen, this is a football.” It was then, by the way, that Max McGee interrupted him, asking, “Coach, can you not go so fast?”

Sometimes we need to go back to the basics, no matter how good we might think we are.

Not only that, sometimes we have to get brought back to earth a little bit, to understand that we aren’t quite as good as we think we are!

That happened to Hall of fame guard Jerry Kramer. He was amazing at what he did. One of the best in the game. But one day, Vince had to get in his face. Kramer recalled coach saying, “The concentration period of a college student is 5 minutes, in high school it is 3 minutes, in kindergarten it’s 30 seconds. And you don’t even have that, mister. So where does that put you?”

Kramer was obviously frustrated by this mans lack of faith in him, and went back to the locker room thinking about quitting football altogether.

When Lombardi finally came into the locker room, he went over and put his hand on his shoulder, and then tousled his hair and said, “son, don’t you know that someday you’re going to be the best guard in football?”

Sometimes you have to be brought low to remember where you are going and what you have the potential to do. You have to unlearn what you have learned in the hopes that you can rebuild everything the right way. Getting those basics right first. That is the Lombardi Effect. When you focus on the basic things, you can achieve your greatest potential.

[move from there to how we as men need to move back to basics with our faith…]

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Men, church, this happens to us all. And to be honest it needs to happen!

I remember when it happened to me. I was growing in the faith quickly after I was baptised. At least I thought I was. I was learning a bunch and I was experiencing a bunch. And pretty soon, I started to think I was pretty smart!

You ever get that way?

And in all my wisdom, all of my intelligence, I looked around to find someone to mentor me. I wanted to be shown how to be a Christian man. But no matter where I looked, it seemed I couldn’t find them.

I mean sure there were some who tried to exhibit the most tenderhearted aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry. They were caring and loving and gentle. But to me, they weren’t men. They were too soft.

And then there were others who were all into sports ministry, or being ultra macho, but they didn’t show any signs of being changed by Jesus.

The common thread between them, and me, was that we all had gotten to a place where we THOUGHT we knew what Jesus was about, and we ran with it, or became critical of other’s in my case. We chased after it like we were become professional Christians! We tried to take on the biggest tasks of faith in the only way we could understand at the time, but we didn’t really train up to it the right way!

It was kind of like going to a gym. Guys we do this, whether we admit it or not. But we go to the gym and we see a group of guys who have been training for years - YEARS - and they are doing some move. Let’s say they are power cleaning 225 pounds for reps. And we go in there, and what do we do?

We think about, or actually do, put the same weight on our bar, and on our untrained body!

That is what we do, and what I was trying to do in faith! And when we try to jump in like that, and forget the basics, we mess it up. We mess ourselves up. We cause pain. We create unnecessary tension. So in that tension, and our exposed weakness, what do we do?

[story about my walk trying to find a Christian male role model....they were all interested in the end times, or being ultra macho sports ministry, or with being tenderhearted…they had forgotten the basics of faith in an effort to look like they were pro’s. They wanted to take on the bigger tasks of faith without training up to it! They, like all males right, walked into the gym and saw someone over there power cleaning 225, and thought that they could do it too!

But when we do that, when we forget the basics and jump into the difficult, we mess it up. We mess ourselves up. We cause pain. We create unnecessary tension. So in that tension, and our exposed weakness, what do we do?

We fight! We get aggressive! We find fault! We tear down others because we know at this point, in all our pain and our situations that we ourselves jumped into, that there is no other way out really!

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

And right there, church - men - right there is our “Lombardi Moment.” There when we think we are so strong and so smart, but are in fact struggling as hard as everyone else, there in that moment, the great coach speaks to us.

“This is a football!” He shouts. And let me be so bold as to steal a play from his book for us all right now.

[Hold up Bible] This is a Bible! In it is the story of the one who created every thing that has ever been and will ever be! It is the play book! It is the user’s guide to the faith that we lay claim to! And perhaps more important than that, it contains in it the one thing we need more than anything else in this life men!

ALL THOSE MOMENTS WHEN YOU THINK YOU NEED STRENGTH, ALL THOSE MOMENTS WHEN YOU WANT TO BE THE ROCK, ALL THOSE MOMENTS YOU THOUGHT YOU NEEDED WORDS TO SAY OR A PATH TO WALK - THEY ALL POINT TO THE ONE THING, THE MOST BASIC AND IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR FAITH - THE ONE THING YOU NEED MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE!!!

pictureofgrace

Grace.

He gives more grace.

From cover to cover, this collection of the writings articulates God’s story; guiding us from guilt to grace. It is the story of Grace fulfilled, grace sustained, and grace personified in Jesus. It is the story of the victory of Grace over all this world has to offer, even death.

That is the moment I had to come to on my own journey. I had to get to the point where I could stop pointing fingers at others and give them grace. I had to stop pointing fingers at even my own shortcomings, and give myself grace.

I had to be broken by me, to be rebuilt by Him.

Just like Jerry Kramer, I was broken. We must be broken. We must get to that point where we realize that no matter how much we think we know, we are never above dwelling on, and living out, the basics! We must get there because when we do, God comes in, and just like coach Lombardi, He reminds us of the overwhelming greatness that He has called us towards!

But we can’t get there unless we focus on what He wants us to see! The basics! It is only through the complete and consistent mastery of the basics that we can ever hope to be what God made us to be! You can’t move on to advanced theory if you can’t grasp basic theory. And even once you move on, if you don’t look back and remind yourself of the basics they will get lost in all that you pile on to your life!

You see, it is only through the complete and constant mastery of the basics that we can ever hope to be what God made us to be! You can’t move on to advanced theory if you can’t grasp basic theory. And even once you move on, if you don’t look back and remind yourself of the basics they will get lost in all that you pile on to your life!

You have to submit your life, your thoughts, your faith, your moments - everything - to God! Because when you do that, when you submit all that you are to God, whether you are where you think you should be or not, all the evil of this life runs away!

James 4:7 ESV

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

You see it is all about grace.

Before Christ, there was no way for us to fully comprehend that fact. There was no way for us to understand the plays that God was calling for us. There was no way to perform up to our ability before Grace! Before God got in our faces and reminded us that we needed to get back to the basics!

And listen, if you don’t get back to the basics and understand that, there is no way that you can do what God needs you to do! You see, Grace isn’t just some pretty theory about how we are able to go to Heaven! No GRACE IS THE LIFELINE OF THE BELIEVER! IT IS EVERY STEP WE TAKE AND EVERY THOUGHT WE THINK! GRACE ISN’T JUST THOSE MOMENTS WHEN WE FORGIVE. IT ISN’T JUST THOSE MOMENTS WHEN WE LOOK PAST OUR OWN SIN OR THE SIN OF ANOTHER.

NO GRACE IS THE STRENGTH TO LOOK EVERYTHING YOU EVER THOUGHT YOU WANTED IN THE EYE, AND REMEMBERING THAT GOD HAS SOMETHING BETTER! GRACE IS SUBMITTING TO GOD IN THE GARDENS OF GETHSEMANE IN OUR LIVES. GRACE IS NOT FIGHTING WHEN YOUR LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE. GRACE IS STAYING CALM IN THE FACE OF PERSECUTION! GRACE IS EVERY LASH, EVERY BLOW, EVERY CRY OF PAIN, EVERY DROP OF BLOOD, EVERY STEP TOWARD GODS ULTIMATE GOAL FOR US! GRACE IS STRETCHED OUT FOR US IN SACRIFICE AND RISES TRIUMPHANTLY FROM THE GRAVE SO THAT WE WILL KNOW THAT GRACE IS ALL THAT WE NEED!

BEING A MAN, OR A CHRISTIAN FOR THAT MATTER, IS ALL ABOUT MASTERING GRACE. MASTERING THAT MOST BASIC PART OF OUR FAITH. THE FUNDAMENTAL OF FUNDAMENTALS. GRACE IS WHAT ALLOWS US TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD! GRACE IS WHAT ALLOWS US TO BE CLEANSED AND PURIFIED! GRACE TAKES AWAY DOUBT. GRACE FREES US TO BE WHAT WE WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE, NO MATTER WHAT THAT MIGHT LOOK LIKE!

MEN, CHURCH, If you want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. If you really want to be great. Walk in Grace. Take that first step in grace, and keep stepping in it every day.

[maybe end the celebration with vs 8-10…]

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Hear this clearly, y’all: don’t you know that one day you are going to be the greatest? Don’t you know, that someone, somewhere, will look at you an think you they want to be like you? Don’t you know you are someone’s hero? Don’t you know, that you were made to be those things? You hold within yourself the potential for unbelievable things. Don’t you know that?

Whatever you are struggling with, don’t give in to it. Whatever you are facing, turn from it and toward God. Today isn’t the day for quitting. Today isn’t the day for laying down. In fact, no day is the day for that, because that isn’t what you were made for!

You were made to change lives.

Focus on Grace. Master the basics. Keep plugging away. When you are lost, look back at the playbook. There you will find the story of the Grace you need to keep going.

Today is the day we can choose to do that together…Invitation

Invitation.