Getting Drafted

Intro

The NFL scouting combine is the league's biggest event in terms of gathering draft prospects in one spot for one even, consistent evaluation.

Most players, especially the top prospects, get a thorough look during the long weekend in Indianapolis -- but not all of them.

Every year, there was players from small schools -- and overlooked players from big schools -- who get passed over for a invite to the combine.

Usually, not getting invited to the combine is a huge sign that NFL teams don’t want you and they don’t see you as good enough for the NFL.

That’s what happed to one young man named Julian Edelman he played at Kent State College. But he was only 5’10 and that was too small to be a QB.

Edelman left a strong impression with scouts and analysts when he beat every time clocked at the combine with a 3.91-second 2 0-yard shuttle.

But one coach was known for taking risk on those who had be overlook. Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots had built a winning time by drafting those that other teams had overlook. And in 2009 Julian got drafted to the Patriots....

Background

Today we find ourselves in the book of Ephesians, this letter is different from some others by Paul. It doesn’t have his usual personal messages, and the earliest versions don’t even mention Ephesus. The letter isn’t dealing any particular problem.

It isn’t a troubleshooting letter like some of his others.

It may be that Ephesians is a letter that was taken around to various churches in Asia Minor and read out. It could be a teaching letter or sermon to Christians whom Paul has never met, and (because he is now in prison) will never get to know. So he writes to them some practical things that all Christians need to know.

He writes to them and in the first few chapters he want them to understand why they are saved.

He’s writing to people were exposed to the finer things of life. They lived in the most important city in the Roman province of Asia. They lived in the leading commercial city so money was there. I

t was a city where East met West, so they had all kinds of ideas and philosophies, the smart people were there.

Ephesus had the temple of (Diana), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Four times the size of the famed Parthenon in Athens.

Not only that the temple also served as the bank of Asia Minor it was like a world bank, one of the few places where money could be safely deposited.

They had a huge theatre in the center of the city .

In the first few chapters Paul wants to understand that I know who you are and I understand that you have a lot of stuff but that’s now why you are saved. He says you need to understand that you are not saved because you deserve it, you are not saved because you earned it, you are not saved because you are good enough… you were already dead in your sins… but the gift of God in Jesus Christ has brought you back to life and not because of you but because of God’s mercy and love.

He says God was putting a team together and all though you don’t deserve it he drafted you for his team… you should not have made the cut, but God’s mercy and love picked you.

He does that for three chapters, read it when you get home then when we get to chapter 4 he says now because of that, because you’ve been drafted here’s what you need to do.

I. Put in the Effort

One of the reasons why non-Christians don’t care about being Christian and don’t care about the church and don’t care about Christ is because when they look at church folk they see people who don’t care about church and don’t care about Christ.

They see people who say I’m a church member or who say I love Christ but all they do is talk and never walk. Paul helps us.

Pauls says I “Implore” your… in the original Greek this is sort of an urging… but it’s not one that’s a command to do something but he’s trying to get you to want to do something, the word means join with me, it’s sort of like Rocky running through the streets in Philly and when people saw him running they decided to join in and run to. He saying get off the sidelines of your Christian experience and join with me.

Join with you in what Paul, join with me in walking worthy.

Ok so Paul are you saying there’s something that I can do that will make me worthy of my salvation?

Are you saying that there’s something I can do that makes me worthy of God’s love?

Absolutely not, in a real sense there’s no way that anyone can do something that makes them worthy of God’s love.

What Paul is saying is recognize that God has allowed you to be a part of the family, God has allowed you to be a part of his team and because of that you ought to walk better.

He’s saying because you are now on God’s team you need to understand that the standards are high and you don’t get a pass. Now that you are on God’s team there are expectations. And even though the expectations are high, even though the standards are high, it’s still a goal for you.

Paul’s words are a jolt to believers because many of us are glad to be on team God but we’ve stopped trying.

We’ve simply gotten comfortable with the way our life is, so we make excuses for not walking better.

We tell ourselves well, at least I aint like so and so.

At least I don’t have that issue.

And because we don’t have someone else’s problems, we make ourselves comfortable with our own problems.

We are on God’s team not because we deserve to be but because God was merciful and many of us simply too God’s mercy for granted and stopped putting effort in our walk.

If you call yourself a Christian but you aren’t putting effort in the walk you are embarrassing the team.

… but you’ve become comfortable with sin in your life, you are embarrassing the team.

… but you are not trying to walk worthy, you are embarrassing the team.

Paul says join with me.

… let’s walk better.

… let’s serve better.

… let’s love better.

… let’s worship better.

… let’s give better.

… let’s simply do better as believers.

LET’S PUT EFFORT IN OUR WALK.

Paul says you’re on team God by the grace of God but you need to know that there are some expectations and you need to walk worthy then he says, let me tell you how to do it.

Vs. 2-3 he answers the question How to walk worthy.

II. How to walk worthy

For some of us it’s not that we don’t want to walk worthy, we simply don’t know how.

In the summer of 1976, Kermit Washington was in trouble. He was a power forward in the N.B.A., and had just finished his third season with the L.A. Lakers.

He had been a high ranking player coming out of American University, where he averaged twenty points and twenty rebounds a game. But with the Lakers his performance had been horrible.

His problem was that he really didn’t know how to play basketball. He lucked up an got on the high school team but even then he was a bench warmer, and never learned the skills needed to be good in the N.B.A.

In college, his size (he was six feet eight) and athleticism allowed him to dominate other players, who were typically smaller and weaker. But in the pros, where most players were big and strong, His lack of skill caught up with him. By his third season, his playing time had diminished, and he was worried that his career was on the line.

What Washington did next changed the N.B.A.: he called a man named Pete Newell and asked for help. Newell had been a legendary college coach, and was working for the Lakers as a special assistant. But his coaching skills were being wasted, because N.B.A. players didn’t want to admit that they “still had something to learn.”

That summer, Newell put Washington through a series of gruelling workouts, and schooled him in the basics of footwork, positioning, and shooting. The following season and every season after, he improved in every aspect of the game. He kept working with Newell and he kept getting better so much that he became an All-Star player. When other players saw the change in him they began to call coach Newell and said hey can you help me to.

In vs. 2 and 3 Paul says come here let me coach you.

He says if you want to walk worthy there are three basics that you need to have,

-humility / gentleness

These are two words that many of us don’t like to hear because they seem week, they seem like works that will cause people to take advantage of you.

Paul says I want you to get the fundamentals to help you as a Christians. The word humility during Paul’s time and even in our time was viewed as a bad thing. It’s often viewed as the mindset of a servant or a slave. People don’t want to be humble.

But Paul had a different take on the word, Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin Counsel, Paul was an educated Jew that had studied the OT. So Paul knew what God has said about being humble.

Paul understood what Proverbs 29:23 said about God bringing down the proud but exulting the humble.

Paul understood that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Sometimes we miss out on what God has for us because our attitude gets in the way of our altitude. Paul says humble yourself and let God exalt.

And he says be gentle in other words you can have strength but you know how to control it. You don’t have to tell everybody off, you don’t have to curse everybody out, you don’t have to clap back all the time… be gentle.

But not only do we need to humble and gentle in this walk, we’ve go to be patient and tolerant.

(My time is getting away for me I’ve got to move quickly)

-patience / tolerance

He says we’ve got to be patient and have tolerance for one another in love.

He’s saying that there is no “I” in team, and because of that we’ve got to learn to be patient and tolerant with one another. This word is often translated “Forbearing”.

In other words “put up with”.

Paul is saying, when you’re on God’s team you’ve got to understand that not everyone will gonna be like you. When you’re on God’s team, you’ve got to be willing to put up with peoples differences, their weakness, their faults… because the truth is you aren't’ all that, and God puts up with you.

You can’t get mad at folks because they aren’t the Christian you want them to be, we’ve got to be patient with folks as God works on them.

Paul says we you need to be humble because you don’t deserve to be on the team so don’t get proud, not only that realize that on every team there are different kinds of people and you’ve got to be patient and put up with some folks just like folks put up with you… this is how you walk worthy.

Then he says, after you put effort in your walk, and humble yourself and be patient with one another this is what will happen you’ll realize that as a team, we are one.

III. We are one Team

He shows us that when we as believers come together on God’s team, we become one. And our oneness reflects our God.

He says there is one body… in other words there is one church.

The church is made up of all of us whom God has chosen to be on his team.

The Bad News Bears… we are a rag tag team but God can take a rag tag team and make them champions.

I know I right about because in Gen. he took Moses and Aaron a ragtag team and made them into liberators.

He took Joshua and the children of Isarel a ragtag time and turned them in to conquerors.

Jesus took the disciples… a ragtag team and turned them into world changers.

And God has join us together as a ragtag team with your weakness and my weakness, with your difference and my different with your streanghts and my strengths… God wants to turn us into a church that uplifts a community.

God wants to transform us into a church that makes a difference in people’s lives.

God wants to transform us into a church that makes a difference in the world.

Because our unity reflects his divinity and when the world looks at us that ought to be able to see God at work.

He says we are all different but when we joined God’s team we became one.

We are one body, one spirit under one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

With one God, one father of us all who is over all and through all and in all.

I’ll never forget an experience I had when becoming an Alpha… Don Breaking Down.

Call To Salvation

Maybe there’s someone here right now… you’ve heard about God’s team and you are wondering how do I get on a team like that, I’ve got good news for you, he’s still building the team, there’s still room for you. Here’s how you get on the team…