Gentlemen, This is a Football
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Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Body
Body
From “Deliberate Practice, Minimalism” by James Clear
It was July of 1961 and the 38 members of the Green Bay Packers football team were gathered together for the first day of training camp. The previous season had ended with a heartbreaking defeat when the Packers squandered a lead late in the 4th quarter and lost the NFL Championship to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Green Bay players had been thinking about this brutal loss for the entire off-season and now, finally, training camp had arrived and it was time to get to work. The players were eager to advance their game to the next level and start working on the details that would help them win a championship.
Their coach, Vince Lombardi, had a different idea.
In his best-selling book, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi, author David Maraniss explains what happened when Lombardi walked into training camp in the summer of 1961.
He took nothing for granted. He began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before… He began with the most elemental statement of all. “Gentlemen,” he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, “this is a football.”
Lombardi was coaching a group of three dozen professional athletes who, just months prior, had come within minutes of winning the biggest prize their sport could offer. And yet, he started from the very beginning.
Lombardi's methodical coverage of the fundamentals continued throughout training camp. Each player reviewed how to block and tackle. They opened up the playbook and started from page one. At some point, Max McGee, the Packers’ Pro Bowl wide receiver, joked, “Uh, Coach, could you slow down a little? You're going too fast for us.” Lombardi reportedly cracked a smile, but continued his obsession with the basics all the same. His team would become the best in the league at the tasks everyone else took for granted.
Six months later, the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants 37-0 to win the NFL Championship.
The 1961 season was the beginning of Vince Lombardi’s reign as one of the greatest football coaches of all-time. He would never lose in the playoffs again. In total, Lombardi won five NFL Championships in a span of seven years, including three in a row. He never coached a team with a losing record.
This pattern of focusing on the basics has been a hallmark of many successful coaches. (For example, basketball legends John Wooden and Phil Jackson were known for having a similar obsession with the fundamentals. Wooden even went so far as to teach his players how to put on their socks and tie their shoes.)
However, it is not just football and basketball where this strategy is useful. Throughout our lives, a focus on the fundamentals is what determines our results.
It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one critical event or one “big break” while simultaneously forgetting about the hidden power that small choices, daily habits, and repeated actions can have on our lives. Without the fundamentals, the details are useless. With the fundamentals, tiny gains can add up to something very significant.
In the modern era, we have more time-saving devices than in anytime in history. And yet we have less time available than ever before.
If i can get enough time-saving devices, I’ll end up with more time. NOT TRUE!
Why don’t I instead learn to manage the time I’m given? Discipline myself to spend it wisely?
One solution is external. The other is internal.
One solution actually complicates matters. The other simplifies and streamlines everything.
One solution involves placing the blame on something else. The other places the blame solely at my feet.
In Christianity we do the same thing.
We like to overly complicate our religion
Let’s focus on the gifts of the spirit!
No, let’s focus on the fruit of the spirit!
No, let’s focus on prayer and fasting!
No, let’s focus on soulwinning!
No, let’s focus on holiness!
We can’t focus on everything!
Do you know how many messages I’ve heard on how to have revival?
“If you’ll just do this, you’ll have revival!”
T.F. Tenny has said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!”
What is the “main thing”?
The “main thing” is to focus on Jesus!
Boiled down, at its core, Christianity is a relationship. With Jesus Christ.
If we can focus on Him, everything else comes into focus.
I know, this is a bit underwhelming. A bit too simplistic
We’d like something a bit more sophisticated. A bit more 21st century.
Naaman and the river Jordan
1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
Naaman hears there is a solution to his problem in Israel
He brings silver and gold, ready to pay for services rendered
He will not be a debtor to man or to God
He will pay for the mercy of God
This is something clean. Something I can do. Something I can control.
6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
The king of Israel thought he would somehow have to heal Naaman.
He was wringing his hands trying to figure out how to take care of this situation and could find no solution
He concluded that Naaman is trying to find occasion against him with this impossible request
Looking for all the complex and sophisticated solutions, he completely missed the simple, and correct, solution
8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
The prophet understood the situation, and knew what the solution was. The solution was the God of Israel.
He rebukes the king for being distracted by the situation and not seeing the answer in God.
9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
As a side note, I find it interesting that Elisha sent a messenger out to Naaman and didn’t go out himself
Naaman did not appreciate that slight, or Elisha’s proposed solution
I though Elisha would come out...
I thought God would just heal me here
He left in a rage!
How many times have we done this?
When the solution was right there, but we turned and walked away because we didn’t like the answer?
Or maybe we didn’t like the messenger that delivered the answer to us?
Beggars can’t be choosers. In our hour of need, the best solution is the one prepared for us by Jesus Christ!
13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
His servants spoke wisdom to him in the midst of his arrogance and pride
You’d have accomplished any number of great and difficult tasks to get your healing, why not this simple one?
It’s almost as if God doesn’t understand how difficult my situation is! Surely the answer must be equally difficult?
The situation does not matter. The answer is always the same: Jesus Christ.
We get ourselves into trouble by allowing ourselves to become distracted
We get our focus on the details of life, even the details of Christianity, and lose sight of the basics. The fundamentals.
The answer for these difficult times, and it has been for all times, is Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Paul asserts that we cannot move forward under our own wisdom, or cleverness, or strength, but only by relying on God.
Trust only in Jesus!
Don’t trust your doctor over Jesus!
Don’t trust the news outlets over Jesus!
Don’t trust the politician over Jesus!
Don’t trust even your pastor over Jesus!
Stand on God’s Word in every area of your life.
The main thing is to stay focused on Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Don’t get confused being a citizen of two kingdoms. Two worlds.
Our focus needs to remain on God’s kingdom
When our focus remains on Jesus, everything else falls into place
We’ll have the fruit of the Spirit
We’ll exercise the gifts of the Spirit
We’ll be a holy people
We’ll be potent in prayer
We’ll have revival
Don’t listen to the world. Don’t be afraid because of everything going on out there.
Listen to Jesus. Listen to God’s Word and trust in Him.