S5 E27 - God's Fantasy Football Team

Fantasy Football is back! To draft a good team, you have to remember several things. One, you can't overload on one position - you need to cover all your bases, because each position is important. Second, you need depth - have compitent back ups ready to go. Third, you need to keep your eye on the waiver wire and expand your team. 

The church is not all that different. You can't focus on one person - each role is important in the body. Second, we need depth in the church - those who are being trained and equipped to step up and serve. Third, we need to expand our "roster" and go out to fulfill the great commission! 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

It’s that time of year again! If you know me, you know that I am not only a huge baseball fan, but I am also a huge football fan as well. Fall is one of the most wonderful times of the year, because it’s the only time of the year that I can simultaneously follow both. While my greatest love will always be college football and my Oregon Ducks, I enjoy watching professional NFL games too. However, what makes watching the games even more fun is when you are also involved in fantasy football. I don’t know if you’ve ever played fantasy football before, but it is one of my favorite activities to be a part of each year. I’m in several leagues – 8 different leagues to be exact. The point of fantasy football is to draft a team of individual players that you believe will perform well in their designated roll. And each league is a little bit different – some leagues are two quarterback leagues, others have defensive players, others are full points per reception while others are half points per reception, etc. So, depending on the set up of your league will many times alter exactly how and who you draft. 

To do well and draft a team that can potentially make it to the championship game, there are several things that you have to remember. First, you have to draft every position. You can theoretically take 10 top quarterbacks with your first 10 picks, but if you only have a spot to play one quarterback at time, you’re better off drafting other positions in order to fill out your team – like running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. You can’t just have a team composed of one position – you need each position for your team do well week in and week out. Second, you need to have depth to your team on your bench. Simply because you drafted a rock-solid running back in your first round doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have someone else waiting in the wings on your bench (just ask Christian McCaffrey owners the last several years). Sometimes our star players let us down or get hurt, and suddenly it’s the “next man up” mentality. If you didn’t draft a solid back-up, someone who could step into that role and do well and make an impact right away, you might end up in trouble down the stretch because you put too much emphasis on one player and built your team around them – but now they’re gone. Finally, you should never be content with just the team you started with. In fantasy football, you’re always looking for talent and potential on the waiver wire – trying to pick up new players each week to help fill holes in your line up. I’ve never ended a season the same way that I started it – there have always been changes and hopefully growth in my team. There are many other strategies of course to drafting a good fantasy team, but if you stick to these three basic concepts, you’ll put together a good team.

I wonder who Jesus would draft if he joined one of my leagues? I couldn’t answer that, nor do I think God cares all that much about football – though if he did, it would probably be the Rams or the Saints (you’ve gotta love a good Bible joke). However, one thing I do find fascinating is how many parallels there are between drafting a good fantasy football team and the nature of the church which Christ organized and instituted. Every local church is slightly different in its needs and its individual members, but as the author of the church, its purpose, mission, and organization, the Lord from Scripture gives direction that applies to each local church. 

First, the church is not composed of only one role or one member, but many. This is the truth we learn from 1 Corinthians 12, starting in vv. 14. “Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” Within the church, there is a need for many different roles, isn’t there? There is a need for elders. A need for deacons. A need for preachers. A need for teachers. A need for servants. A need for those who show hospitality. A need for youth. A need for the elderly. We could go on and on. Perhaps you have a church that is composed of twelve preachers…well, that’s great – but you’re not going to be able to accomplish God’s work in God’s way without elders, are you? As Paul states, “if all were the same part, where would the body be?” No one role is more important than another, each and every single person and part is needed for the growth of the body. In the church, God is putting together a super team composed of individual Christians in order to fulfill his will. 

Second, the church is not simply built around one person or a group of “star players”. Within the body is a need for mentorship, depth, and discipleship. Consider the text of 2 Timothy 2:1-2, “You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” There is sometimes a temptation to really lean on a select few within the church to do the majority of the work. This is sometimes referred to as the 80-20 rule, that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. However, this is not God’s plan for his people. God desires for there to be discipleship and mentorship – that we are continuing to train others up to be ready to step up and step into different roles of service in his Kingdom. I remember long ago having a conversation with a friend, who told me a sad story about how their preacher had been caught in an affair and resigned earlier that week. When I asked him what they were going to do going forward, he responded, “What can we do? We’ll have to shut down the church.” I’ve never forgotten that conversation, it shocked me. They had built the entire local church and it’s work around 1 person, and no one else had been equipped or ready to serve – that is not God’s plan. We need depth in the church, that each and every week we are being “equipped for the work of ministry” as Paul would record in Ephesians 4. Inevitably sometimes people will not be able to serve, for a variety of reasons – do we have the “next man up” mentality in the church? Are we equipping and preparing others to be able to do so? 

Finally, a local church should never be content to just remain as it is. Far too often, year after year a local church’s “roster” so to speak has no changes made to it. In other words, they’ve not grown at all. Maybe they have grown, but simply because those who were already Christians have moved into the area – that’s not what we’re discussing here. What we are suggesting is that far too often local churches have become comfortable and have neglected to fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28 – “Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” We have been given an evangelistic mission as God’s people, and no matter where we are or where we go, we ought to be looking for opportunities to teach others about Christ and adding them to his body. As Jesus came to seek and save the lost, are we devoted to continuing that mission as the body of Christ? If the church is going to continue to grow, then we must commit ourselves in the way the church did in Acts 8:4, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.”  

My friends, we have been given divine instruction as the people of God. The church and its mission are among the most important things that our Lord has ever created and given to us. Do we realize and practice these things? Let’s conclude with the words of Ephesians 4:15-16, “But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.” 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 27 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped every Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.