Last year's new year's message

First series of based on Francis Chan Quote 2015 preview sermon: It is no great secret that my heart beats for people, for young people and for sports. I love competing in and playing sports and I also love coaching sports. I love comparing the first week of practice each season to all of the hoopla that is created about players coming in. I hear how great they are, how they are going to be varsity starters and division 1 college prospects and all this before the set foot on the field. I can usually tell you by the end of the first day who is going to live up to the hype and who isn’t, and more often times than not they will not come anywhere close. The problem is the game is played on an open field in public and against others of real skill levels. Not in a batting cage, at a closed workout or in a backyard where there is no comparison and no pressure. Well, several years ago they decided at Ancient City that they wanted to have a church softball team. I explained to them at the time that we had no athletes in our church. It was true my youth groups there were big but at first there were zero athletes. I didn’t even have anyone to play catch with at the beach with a football. But, I told them I would give it a try but I am a little too competitive for this go and have fun picture they were painting. Day one, we meet at a ball field and I have about 17 people show up. Good deal, problem though 4 of them had played before and 3 of those it was in PE at school. Problem #2 we had 17 people there and about 10 gloves, 4 of them belonged to my dad and I. This is not looking good. Then in church the next Sunday a young high school kid who looked a little athletic but not really came up to me and apologized for missing practice. Said he and his family really wanted to play and they were good at baseball. I couldn’t argue with that so I told them to come out the next week. He showed up brand new cleats, a pair baseball pants(like bright white brand new for picture day at Little League), brand new batting gloves and a batting helmet. I told him this was church softball and I was excited about his enthusiasm but that he wouldn’t be needing the helmet or the metal spike cleats or the baseball pants and cup he had gone out and purchased(I knew I was in trouble then) . He walked out to start playing catch and he had a glove for the wrong hand, he was right handed and his glove was for his right hand. You ball players get the picture. Then, I loaned him a glove and kind of lost track of him until he was ready to bat. I threw a pitch it arced came down and he took it. He said he was just getting his timeing right. Next pitch up came down and whiffff! He swung and missed, this continued for about 12 swings( I know if I had a heart I would have stopped after 3-4 but he looked so sharp in all of his new stuff). After practice he told me Jeff, this is the first time I ever played baseball( I said nooo really?) He then told me he and his buddy were headed home to play some more MLB on their playstation so they would be prepared for our first game. That’s right folks, he decided he was good at playing baseball because of his skills on the video games he had purchased. This whole series I am doing now is on mobilization. Get out of your pew, get out of your comfort zones and share God’s word. Show Francis Chan Quote from Pinterest: Simon says, “Pat your head we pat our heads. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples we memorize that verse.” Matthew 28:16-20 All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me Therefore go and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Acts 1:7-8 It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you And you will be my witnesses in JerusalemJudeaSamariaAnd the ends of the earth. Why do we fall short and fail in this area so often? Proverbs 29:25; Galatians 1:10 Because in our own little way we all strive to be people pleasers. I read a book by a famous baseball coach and he had an entire chapter in his book on hecklers. Hecklers are people who show up at games just to make fun of people, attempt to demean the players and coaches and break them down mentally. They will call them names, make fun of their names and possibly even dig up something from their past to get inside their heads. Well, the coach said, if you are listening to the stands as a coach or a player you are going to be sitting there very soon. It makes sense, it is your job as a coach or a player to perform and not to worry about what is being said in the stands. What about Jesus? What about God? Our lives unfortunately are full of hecklers.People who only want to see us fail, or possibly they want to see us be successful in their eyes rather than God’s. The people pleasing trap is a huge one and it is the main reason we don’t share God’s message with more people. There are 5 harmful affects of people pleasing: 1. It causes you to miss God’s will for your life God created you to fulfill His expectations not the expectations of others. God never called you to be the absolute best in the world at anything, He called you to be the absolute best you can be based on the tools and the abilities He gave you. God made you to be you, and He gets great pleasure in watching you simply be you. 2. It prevents your faith from growing. When the opinions of others mean more than the opinion of God it causes insecurities. Be honest, what are you most insecure about? Your looks, your height or weight? Your intelligence level or your abilities in some area? What truly causes those insecurities is valuing far too much the opinion of others. Here is a test for you, whose opinion matters the most to you in your life? If it is someone other than God then that person is your god! 3. It leads you quickly into other sins. The Bible is full of people who did things their way or gave in to peer pressure or did things based on their fear of others. A few examples are: Samson – the strongest man who ever lived wanted so badly to be accepted and worried so much about Delilah that he broke his covenant with God to make her happy. Peter denied Jesus three different times because he was afraid of what others were going to do or think of him. Pilate- knew that Jesus had done nothing worthy of any form of punishment, certainly not death and yet he let the people vote and thereby allowed Jesus to be crucified. If we are completely honest we can all think of a time or times where we made bad decisions, and those decisions were driven by our longing for the approval of others. That is what peer pressure is. 4. It causes hypocrisy. I really don’t think there is any one word that causes more distress than the word hypocrite. No one wants to be a hypocrite and no one wants to be called one even if they aren’t being one. The word hypocrite actually comes from an ancient Greek word used to describe stage actors who played multiple roles in the same play by wearing different masks in different scenes. Basically it was a budget way of making a play work with less actors and actresses. People pleasers wear masks, there is no way around it. When they are with their family, they try hard to be what their family wants them to be and who they want them to be so that everyone is happy. When they are with certain groups of friends they are who those friends want them to be and they do it to avoid any form of negativitiy from that group. Some people even fit in several groups and so they wear several masks. Many people wear a mask at home, a mask at school or at work, and a mask at church. The saddest thing is that they miss out on being themselves and truly pleasing God. 5. It completely silences your life message. Your testimony finds all of it’s strength in the conversion that you received the moment you accepted Christ. Accepting Christ did not take away all of the things you do in your life it gave them a different meaning. I played baseball, basketball and football before accepting Christ as a young boy. I loved drag racing and playing with my hot wheels and playing video games. None of that had to go anywhere, they just all slipped down a slot in the meaning category. And by placing God first those things had more meaning because now I was doing them not just for me, for my enjoyment or even for my parents I was doing them for God. Your testimony is weakened not by sins or mistakes but by not being who God designed you to be and become. Satan’s greatest weapon is the fear of rejection. Be honest, we all hate being rejected. There are days that I am stuck in the office all day, the girls are all at school and I want to text or call and see if someone wants to do lunch but I don’t because I would rather sit in a restaurant all alone reading a book than be rejected. And in reality I it wouldn’t even be that big of a rejection, it’s the fact that others would rather be with someone else than me or the fact that hey here’s a news flash Jeff they already had plans and they aren’t going to invite you to tag a long with the person they have plans with.