Dodgeball is life

I have spent many years of my life as a youth pastor. I love spending time with teenagers. They are a beautiful mix of curious and arrogant, ridiculous and awesome and the rapid nature of change that they experience as they move from childhood to adulthood makes them the most exciting people to be around, to me. Being a youth pastor, one of the things that marks that ministry are games, because fun builds community and we remember community more than we remember lessons. In my time as a youth pastor, we played “KGB Run” where leaders in cars chase students on foot around the town and try to catch them. We played Earthball, where we body-checked an 8 ft. air-filled ball at each other, knocking students around violently and often breaking collar-bones. We played hours and hours of a Mission Impossible, running around in the dark at the church or at a camp, complete with theme music. We even hosted the Jello Olympics, where we had a variety of Jello-themed games including finding out how much Jello you can stick to a person by throwing it at them. But of all the games we played, the most-popular game was by far, dodgeball. There is something so attractively violent about the game of dodgeball that most teenagers love to play it. If you have never played dodgeball, the title is pretty explanatory. You throw balls at each other and you try to dodge the balls. If you get hit, you are out and you win by hitting everyone on the other team. Students, especially Jr. high students loved being able to throw balls at hit each other not only because it is satisfying to beat someone else and thrilling to make a good dodge, but because it also usually hurts.

And as the youth pastor, I often enjoyed it too. Pastoring students is a tough job. You maybe get paid to play with teens, but they can be frustrating, unresponsive and downright disrespectful at times. The very students you are trying to help navigate the challenges of adolescence are the ones who climbed up on the roof of the church during a game (Looking at you Trevor and Josh). The opportunity to legally hit a child in the face with a ball was a balm to the soul and a way to remind them of who was in charge.

Dodgeball is a game that some students obsess with. Just like Dani Rojas from the brilliant TV Show Ted Lasso might say, “Football is Life”, so some of my students would say “Dodgeball is life.” And in a metaphorical sense, it is. Dodgeball is about seeing the things that want to attack and destroy us and getting out of the way. So we duck, juke, jump and bend ourselves to get out of the way of that which wants to take us out.

In life, there are situations and dare I say it, temptation, that may look like fun opportunities, but they are actually tools of our enemy designed to take us out.

Who is this enemy that I am talking about?

1 Peter 5:8 NIV

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

The devil? Really? Yes. Kaiser Soze, a character from the movie, “The Usual Suspects” said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” But he does. In Christianity, we believe that there is a literal, spiritual enemy, called the devil, that is looking to entrap you and cause you to distance yourself from God, rendering you ineffective and spiritually impotent.

But you are not impotent and weak. You are a mighty warrior of God who can stand up to the devil. The Apostle Paul tells us to

Ephesians 6:11–12 NIV

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

and James, Jesus’ half brother, says,

James 4:7 NIV

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

We are to be people who are spiritually wise enough to see the schemes of the devil and to dodge them. In other words, we need to be people who forsake sin - who avoid temptation - and who pursue holiness and intimacy with Jesus. When Jesus came, he came to save us from two things: 1) The penalty for our sin (which is what the New Testament calls Hell) and 2) The power of sin.

Romans 6:22 NLT

But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

Sin has this ability to entangle us and keep us from moving forward in our lives. Our habits of self-centeredness and our pursuit of pleasure and comfort can keep us from knowing God more intimately.

1 John 1:5–7 NIV

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

When we walk according to God’s ways and we turn away from sin, our intimacy with God gets deeper and deeper. But when we indulge those desires for sin, when we allow the temptations that our enemy throws at us to hit us, we can become useless to the Kingdom. You were loving created by God, but you were created with purpose. God made you uniquely and placed you specially where you are: in your community, at your job, in your family- that you might represent him to those in your spheres of influence and by doing so, partner with God in drawing people a into loving relationship with Jesus.

Choosing to turn your back on God and indulging sin is foolishness. So for the sake of your faith journey with God and for the sake of your testimony of God’s saving power to the people that God has brought into your life, I want to share with you from the book of Proverbs, three tips to help you avoid sin and “fool-proof” your life.

1. Be careful of traps

We live in an old house out in the country, 15 minutes north of Stratford. One day, I was sitting on the couch when I heard a blood-curling scream from the kitchen. I bolted off the couch and soon found out from my wide-eyed wife that we had a mouse in the house. I have never seen her so freaked out as that day when she saw this tiny little bundle of fur scurrying across the counter. So what did we do? We put traps out for them. And in order to entice the mice to come to the trap, we put a generous helping of nutella on them. And it worked - we caught the mouse and now my wife could finally sleep more securely.

In life, we have to be wary of traps. They are often baited with something that looks good, but in the end, will destroy us. One of the temptations that we are warned about in the book of Proverbs is sexual sin. The voice of the proverbs, speaking to his son, warns him of the temptations offered by an adulterous woman. Her words sound like honey and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end, she is bitter as gall and she leads him to death. So the author of Proverbs gives this advice for dealing with this temptation:

Proverbs 5:8 NIV

Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,

He says, STAY AWAY! Avoid the spaces where she is so you can avoid the temptation. Don’t go near the temptation. Too many people try to get as close to a sin as they can get. As a youth pastor talking to students about sex, the question of “how far is too far?” would come up over and over again. But that’s the wrong question because it actually asks, “how far from God’s will can I get and still get away with it?” But if we flip the script and do as Andy Stanley suggests in his book “Irresistible” and ask ourselves the question “What does love require of me,” it guides us into ruthlessly avoiding those traps and snares that would lead us towards disobeying God.

19th Century preacher Charles Spurgeon, when talking about temptation said, “What settings are you in when you fall?  Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them.  What people are you usually with?  Avoid them.  There are two equally damning lies Satan wants us to believe: 1) Just once won't hurt. 2) Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God's use, and might as well enjoy sinning. Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."

Looking at the things, people and places in your life where you experience more temptation to sin and making some changes will help you to enjoy a deeper intimacy with God and free you from the feelings of guilt and shame that giving in to temptation burdens us with. If pornography is an issue, don’t be alone in a room with internet access - move the computer to the family room where other people are. If certain friends always seem to drag you into situations that you know you shouldn’t be in, it’s time to drop those friends. If debt is an issue, maybe switch to cash and leave the credit card at home instead of in your wallet.

But these are just examples. You need to do a self-analysis and determine what things do you do that are not an expression of love towards God and what things, people or places are traps. Then work out what steps do you need to take in order to keep a path far from that which tempts you.

2. Be content with what you have (5:15)

Have you heard the phrase “The grass is always greener on the other side?” I read a story about a woman who kept looking over her fence to her neighbours yard, and to her dissatisfaction, she saw that it always looked better than her yard. So, being on friendly terms with that neighbour, one day she walked over to that house and looked back over the fence to her own yard. To her amazement, her yard looked greener and nicer than the neighbours yard that she was in. The woman asked a columnist why this was and the columnist said, “The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence because you’re not close enough to see the dirt.” Most of us think that other people’s lives look better because we can’t see the dirt -the mess.

We look at other people’s homes, and are jealous of their wealth. We look at other people’s relationships and we wish we had what they have. We look at other people’s jobs and desire to have their influence. But the problem is that we don’t see the dirt - the mess those things bring.

We don’t know if that person with the big house is actually happy. We don’t see the fighting and arguing in that couple’s relationship that happens behind closed doors. We don’t see the complaints, conflicts or responsibilities the person with greater influence has to deal with. We look at other people’s life like it’s the instagram story of them on vacation in paradise with no problems. But that’s not reality, it’s fantasy and too many people, discontent with what they have, pursue that fantasy, even if it leads them to sin. Pastor and Author John Piper once said, “sin gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier."

So how do we deal with this temptation? By learning contentment. Still talking about adultery and sexual sin, the author of Proverbs challenges us to

Proverbs 5:15 NIV

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

His point? Don’t go looking for satisfaction elsewhere. Be satisfied where you are. Unhappy in your marriage? Make your marriage better, don’t go looking at other women or other men. Unhappy in your job? Before you look elsewhere, look at yourself and figure out why you’re unhappy. Is a different job the solution, or do you need to make an attitude adjustment and find contentment where you are?

The apostle Paul, throughout his life, had his fortunes change. He was a well-respected legal genius, on track to lead the Jewish religious council. He gave all that up though when he met Jesus one day and everything changed. As a apostle, he experienced seasons where life and ministry was going well, and other times where the people tried to kill him by throwing rocks at him, or soldiers would flog him with leather whips with bits of glass, metals and bone tied in. He had times where he was amply supplied by the churches he served and others where he was starving to death.

In the latter part of his life, he was under house arrest in Rome. At his own cost, he had to rent a place to live, pay for his own food and drink, while he was under constant guard by Roman soldiers. While there, the church in Philippi, started sending him money for his needs. In his letter to them, which we call Philippians, he thanks them for this gift and he says this,

Philippians 4:12–13 NIV

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Paul learned the secret to contentment and we should as well.

Hebrews 13:5 NIV

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

The temptation for more - or for better - than what we have leads many people to sin against God and compromise their integrity. Let’s be people who choose contentment - who drink from our own cisterns and so honour God.

Tip #1 for avoiding sin is to be careful of traps. Tip #2 is to be content with what you have. Tip #3 is to be aware of the presence of God

3. Be aware of the presence of God (5:21)

Proverbs 5:21 NIV

For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths.

Did you know that it is only 132 days until Christmas? My family and I love Christmas time. We love giving each other gifts - we enjoy decorating the house and we revel in worshipping the coming of Jesus - our Emmanuel (which means “God with us”). But I have one problem with Christmas - Santa. It’s not the idea that there is a creature who delivers gifts to children. No, that’s fine. It’s the idea that he only gives gifts to good children. Who is he, to determine what is right and wrong and who has been naughty or nice. And in particular, I find the idea that he is always watching you to determine your worth super creepy.

I wonder if some people think the same thing about God? I admit to having those thoughts and being a bit bothered by them. But when I think about it more and look at what the Bible actually teaches, I realize that the difference between them is Santa is judging me if I’m good enough to receive his toys and that God loves me, even though I am not good enough. He sent Jesus to die for me for my sins, not because of how good I am, but because of how good He is. I see that God is love, that God is just, and that, as a follower of Jesus, there is no condemnation for me in Christ. God is watching, but not from a distance, but up close because God is present with each of us all the time. We call it being omnipresent.

Psalm 139:7–12 (NLT)

I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

God is with us, all the time. Often, when temptation comes for us, there is a voice in our head that says, “it’s okay, no one will know.” But that is not true! The Lord knows because he is with you and he loves you. If we were to remember the presence of God in our everyday lives - when we are at work, when we are driving, when we are home alone - then we would be filled with the strength to overcome temptations.

Because God is with us, there is no temptation that too powerful for us. We can overcome all things because we are not alone in the battle, but we have the omnipotent King of Kings standing with us. We have Jesus, who himself was tempted and yet overcame all his temptations on our side, helping us. When we forget that truth, it’s easy to let the temptations that we face, whether they be lust, fear, apathy, or busy-ness overtake us. But when we remember this truth - we become infinitely powerful and can overcome any temptation.

Conclusion

For many people, the point of life is to do “what feels good / what feels right.” I believe that way of thinking leads to momentary pleasures but spiritual death. I believe that the point of life is to walk in intimacy with God, follow Jesus and be led by the Holy Spirit. To do that, we need to see the temptations that our enemy throws at us and dodge out of the way. After all, dodgeball is life.