Red Rover Series

Games People Play

Pt. 1 - Red Rover

I. Introduction

It is without a doubt a hall of fame worthy playground game! It is a perennial favorite. It was in fact on of my favorites because even though I was small, tiny in stature I was quick and in a very short amount of space I could generate enough speed to break through the interlocked hands of my classmates. Lest I make assumptions about your level of expertise in this great playground game. I need to remind you of the basics of Red Rover, Red Rover.

Two teams of people face off over short distance and lock hands. One team picks out their targeted foe and starts the chant - red rover, red rover let slow poke ______ come over. Oh, slow poke would determine where he thought there was the weakest connection and run into the locked hands to see if he could break through. If in fact, he did have the speed and strength necessary to break through he could pick one of the people whose arms he broke through to go back to his original team. If he was unsuccessful in breaking through, then he joined the team that was able to keep him out. The object was for one team to be illuminated by removing all their players but one.

As I grew older, I learned to appreciate the strategy of the game because you to carefully consider who to call out and if you were called out you had to strategize about your best chance of breaking through was. Honestly, as I grew older, I also learned to hate this game because as we got bigger and stronger the more painful it was to try to repel someone's attempt to break through.

The single most significant impacting force in our lives is relationships. Relationship management is life management. This is true spiritually because our relationship with Jesus impacts us eternally. On this side of eternity, it is the relationships in our lives that determine our quality of life and the trajectory of our life. Show me your friends show you your future.

I think the issue we have is that a lot of us come to church to be taught how to do spiritual things but can’t seem to manage relationships! You can win spiritually and lose relationally. And the truth is Jesus didn't just want us to win spiritually. He was constantly showing us how to win relationally. I think that He recognized that relationships would cause us to live in purpose or live in pain! So, He knew that it is important to figure out how to play the game properly.

So, let me tell you that in order for you to win in relationships you must learn to be a Red Rover Expert.

The entire premise of Red Rover is keeping people out or letting them in. We must learn to let the right people break in and to keep the wrong people out. I want us to examine an encounter Jesus has where this is illustrated.

John 9:1-6, 13-14, 28-34 (NLT)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses! We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”

“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.” “You were born a total sinner!” they answered. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue.