Being On The Right Team

Being on the Right Team

Heb 10:14, John 19:34, Heb 9:22, Heb 9:11 - 15, Heb 10:10, John 4:14, John 7:38-39

Phil 2:12-13, John 1:29,

March 17, 2003

I. This week I am going to borrow from Max Lucado again. He has some interests that I don’t, that make good illustrations.

A. This week I am going to be talking about Golf, and how that relates to our relationship to God.

B. The problem with that is, what I know about golf you could put in a thimble. I have hit a golf ball only a few times in my life and I have never played a real game of golf.

C. I am however the family champion at putt putt, but no serious golfer would be that impressed with that.

D. Max Lucado was asked to play in the PGA Texas Open Pro-Am tournament. Now for those of you who know as much about golf as I do, Pro-Am means that one Professional player, plays with three amateurs.

E. They all play all the holes but only the best score is recorded. So even on the holes where three of the players really mess it up, if one of them makes a good score they do good on that hole.

F. Say for instance, if I was playing with them and on a hole where you were suppose to be able to get the ball in the hole in three shots it took me fifteen, but it only took one of the other guys two then we would write down his score and forget mine.

G. Me thinks this would be a good way for me to play golf, because I would get the credit for what the other guys who knew what they were doing did.

H. Now the way that all this applies to our relationship with God, is, that is basically what Jesus did for us.

I. Because of what Jesus did for you, you get a perfect score even if you score a fifteen, when you should have scored a two, as long as you are on his team..

J. It doesn’t matter if you hit the ball into the trees every time, and by the way when those guys on TV hit the ball into the trees and get so upset I figure that a good chain saw would make that a lot easier to deal with. And, I don’t know why they haven’t thought of it.

K. But the most important thing in the Pro-Am and in how you get to heaven, is that you show up, and you get on the right team. And, in the case of those who have accepted Jesus as their savior, they’re on the dream team.

L. Our team consists of us, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

M. Now although I am not into golf I do have a favorite golf joke. Moses and Jesus are standing on a golf course in heaven talking and waiting for the next player to take their shot. Moses has just hit the ball toward a hole that is surrounded by water, and he hit it right at the water, but right when the ball gets to the water, the water parts and the ball rolls up to within a foot of the hole.

N. Jesus had hit the ball and it went toward the water and then rolled across top of the water to within 6 inches of the hole, about that time they hear fooooour, and the ball heads for the water, but right as it gets there, as fish jumps out of the water, and grabs the golf ball in its mouth, and then an eagle swoops down and grabs the fish and starts flying off, but when it gets right over the hole the fish spits out the ball and it falls into the hole for a hole in one, and Moses turns to Jesus and says I don’t like playing Golf with you dad.

O. The moral of the story is that a better team doesn’t exist than the one that we Christians are on. We get credit for the work of others who are better at the game of life than we are.

II. There is a big theological explanation for this, its called positional sanctification.

A. If you boil all that down to a simple English it means that you are given a prize not because of what you do, but because of who you know.

B. There is another big term that applies too, and it is progressive sanctification.

C. Now in the story that Max Lucado tells about his experience in the Pro-Am tournament, on the very last hole he made the best score, and on that hole his score was the one that was recorded.