DODGEBALL
How To Stay In When Life Tries to Knock You Out
7/7/04
I. Introduction
Twentieth Century Fox has just recently released the movie DODGEBALL. The story is about a small local gym that is threatened with extinction by a gleaming sports and fitness palace unless a group of social rejects can rise to victory in the ultimate dodgeball competition. Now, I haven’t seen this movie, so I can’t put my stamp of approval on it, but I will say that the game of dodgeball has been around for quite some time. How many of ya’ll remember playing dodgeball when you were in elementary school? How many of ya’ll remember playing dodgeball at the church picnic last fall? The game is basically very simple…you’re the target and if you get hit, you’re out. So the object of the game is to be the last man standing without getting hit.
Life is a lot like DODGEBALL in the respect that you’re the target and the enemy’s going to try to knock you out. And so tonight, I’m going to give you some very basic plays and strategies to help you stay in the game.
II. Don’t Make Excuses
John 5:1-8 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
There is a great tendency among us human beings to put off making commitments and living life to the fullest. The excuses are abysmal: "When I get out of school, then I’ll commit my life to God." "When I get married, then my life will be happy." "As soon as I have some money, my life will change."
In this passage, we see a man who had been sick for 38 years. Jesus asked him the big question: "Do you want to get well?" Notice that he didn’t answer the question with an immediate yes, but hesitated and made an excuse. At times we are so much like the sick man: We know what God wants us to do, but we pause and make an excuse.
One morning a vulture was hungry. While flying over the river, he saw a dead animal’s carcass floating down the river on a piece of ice. The vulture landed on the ice and began to gorge himself with this delightful meal. He looked up to take a breath of air and noticed that he was 100 yards from a waterfall and that the ice was moving rapidly toward the waterfall. But instead of flying away, he kept eating, though keeping his eye on the waterfall. At 25 yards he decided to take one last bite. Then at 10 yards he took one last mouthful. With only a few feet to go before the falls he tried to fly, but his feet were now frozen to the ice, and he tumbled to his death over the falls.
Don’t make excuses! Many a person has wasted his life by putting off the vital long-term priorities for the less important short-term ones.
Is there something in your life that you have been putting off with a feeble excuse? Make a commitment now!
III. Be Flexible
At many times, life is going throw some pretty nasty stuff at you. When those times come, in order to be able to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge some of those things, you’re going to have to be flexible.
You guys remember how David defeated Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Well, after that happened, the women of the town of Israel came out in the streets dancing and singing with tambourines and stuff, and they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”
Well, this made King Saul pretty jealous, and so he decided he was going to kill David. Now, you remember that there was a reward for killing Goliath. He was supposed to become the king’s son-in-law by marrying his daughter and be exempt from taxes. Well, Saul had this plot to kill David and attempted to kill him several times. David became the king’s son-in-law, but King Saul still wanted David dead, so he tries to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David is flexible and escapes. This goes on for several more chapters, and David has to continue to be flexible in order to dodge Saul’s attempts to take his life. David goes all over the place and is fleeing town after town. Then, in chapter 24, David and his men are in this cave hiding out and Saul and his men are so close, in fact, Saul’s men are outside of the cave, and Saul goes inside to use the bathroom. David sneaks up on him while he’s going number 2 and he cuts off a piece of his robe without being noticed. Then when Saul leaves the cave, David comes out after him and says, “Na na na boo boo, I got your robe.” No, he says, “I could have killed you, but I spared your life. I haven’t done anything wrong, yet you’re trying to kill me, stop it.” Well, Saul comes to his senses and makes a deal with David. And then a few chapters later, Saul’s after him again, and David again spares his life because David has made an oath to not touch the Lord’s anointed. Well, eventually, we know that David becomes King of Israel, but he had to be pretty flexible along the way in order to get to that place.
IV. Talk Trash
By talking trash, I mean that you’re going to have to say exactly what you want out of life.
Revelation 12:11 11They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
The Scripture says that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. That means we’re going to have to talk some trash. We’re gonna have to say some things based on the Word.
Repeat magnet confessions!
V. Don’t Quit
One of the biggest keys to staying in when life tries to knock you out is to never quit or give up. In the game of dodgeball, if you get hit with the ball you’re out. So you think it only makes sense to give up. Well, one of the rules says that if one of your teammates catches a ball that the other team throws, then you can get back in the game. So, whenever life gives you a good whack, you may be down, but you’re not out. But if you quit and give up, then you definitely won’t get back in the game. You see, everybody is going to have problems. Everybody is going to get knocked down. Everybody is going to have difficulty. The question is, “Are you going to stay down or are you going to get up?” Success is getting up after you get knocked down.
Micah 7:8 CEV “8My enemies, don’t be glad because of my troubles! I may have fallen, but I will get up; I may be sitting in the dark, but the LORD is my light.”
Back in April of this year, Kristen and I flew out to Colorado to see my brother. Well, one day we hit the slopes up there for some snowboarding action. I had only been skiing once before and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. But, the whole way driving up the mountain, I was picturing myself taking those curves on a snowboard. I could see myself on the board and making the moves. Well, it wasn’t quite that way when I actually got on the board. I must have fallen over a hundred times throughout the day. There was one point where I was just getting the hang of it and the longest I had stayed up to that point was about 15 yards. Well, this time I had gone about 30 yards and I was moving so fast. I was so happy and I looked over my shoulder at my bro to give him a big victory smile and all of a sudden I hit this ridge in the snow and stopped on a dime and did a face plant into the snow. That was painful, and I just lay there for what seemed like forever. A certified nurse was skiing by and she had seen me take the dive so she stopped to check on me. They all told me not to move. And I assured them I wasn’t planning on it. I was down. I thought I was done for. But, a few minutes passed by and I said, “I’m getting up and I’m going to make it down this mountain. Then I’m getting back on the chairlift and I’m going to come back down again.” And I got up. And the falls lessened as the day went on. But if I didn’t get up, I would have never experienced the joy of mastering the art of snowboarding. So, just don’t quit. You may be down, but you’re not out!
VI. Dream Big Dreams
If you want to go somewhere in life, it’s going to start with a dream on the inside of you. If you don’t have a dream, and if you don’t write them down and act on them, you’ll just sort of coast along.
Coach Lou Holtz talks about dreams in his book A Teen’s Game Plan for Life. He says that he started naming his dreams when he was 28 years old. He broke his dreams down to five categories.
Things I want to do religiously and spiritually.
Things I want to do as a husband and father.
Things I want to accomplish professionally.
Things I want to accomplish financially.
Things I want to do for excitement.
Then he started listing all of his dreams in each of these categories, and you have to be specific with your dreams. It’s not, I want to be rich. It’s, I want to have a stable job making X amount of money, or whatever it is that you want to do.
He wanted to go to the White House for dinner, be on The Tonight Show, see the pope, go to the Holy Land, run with the bulls in Pamplona, and many other things. And at the time of writing this book, he had done 101 out of his 108 dreams that he had written down. And he accomplished all of these things because he had named them, written them down, and operated on the WIN principle.
W.I.N. – What’s Important Now.
The way to make your dreams come true is through a series of smaller daily choices. This is where the W.I.N. formula can help.
Do you want to graduate at the top of your class, or be an All-American? Do you want to become a rock star or meet the President? Then ask yourself 25 times a day, “What’s important now?”
You wake up in the morning—“What’s important now?” Get out of bed.
You’re out of bed—“What’s important now?” Eat breakfast. You need your strength.
—“What’s important now?” Go to class.
—“What’s important now?” Sit in the front row. Be prepared.
When you’re out Saturday night and there are opportunities for alcohol, or sex, or drugs—“What’s important now?” If your dreams is to be outstanding in whatever field you’ve chosen, then W.I.N. is to avoid these situations.
It’s those daily choices that are going to add up to determine whether your dream will happen or not.
Mark 9:23 23Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
VII. Review
5 Ways to Stay In When Life Tries to Knock You Out:
Don’t Make Excuses.
Be Flexible.
Talk Trash.
Don’t Quit.
Dream Big Dreams.
Let’s pray.
