When God's On Your Team

-I don’t know whether y’all played any organized or disorganized sports growing up

-Did any of y’all play any team sports either interscholastically, in intramurals or on the playground?

-Obviously, it is a lot more fun playing sports when your team wins

-Playing a game is a lot more fun when you have the best player on your team

-I’m sure the Cleveland Cavaliers are very thankful that LeBron James is on their team after he hit an amazing three point shot to win the game as time expired the other night

-Have you ever noticed how great players seem to raise their game when the game is on the line {PAUSE}

-I have been part of some pretty good teams in high school and college athletics

-Our teams were pretty tough to beat from top to bottom but knowing that you had the best person on the field or the court was comforting

-When the game is on the line, you know that if you have the best player on your team, they are going to make a play to win the game more than likely

-When I was a junior in high school, we had a great football team

-We were playing our major rivals in the second to last game of the season

-We were both undefeated so this was going to be a big game

-It ended up being televised on one of the local stations

-It came down to the last play of the game

-We were driving the ball. We had it down to their ten yard line with only a few seconds left on the clock. It was 4th down and we were down by six. Our quarterback got the ball, was chased out of the pocket. As he was running toward the sideline, he was quickly running out of room. He threw the ball up in the end zone. One of my classmates, a very talented receiver jumps up and reaches with his long arms to bring the ball down and get his feet in just inside the back line of the end zone.

-If that wasn’t enough, our kicker got hurt earlier in the game during a long runback by the other team and our backup kicker was one of our offensive lineman who had never attempted a kick in a game.

-He kicked with the old, straight ahead style and knocked it through the uprights. It was one of my school’s biggest wins. Everyone flooded onto the field to celebrate the amazing victory.

-The best players always have a way of raising their game to another level when the game is on the line {PAUSE}

-Have you ever been at the end of your rope?

-Have you ever thought that everyone was against you?

-Have you ever been at the place in your life when you had nowhere else to turn but God?

-That is what this message is about today {PAUSE}

-This past week in our Monday bible study, we looked at the life and rule of King David

-Talk about a guy who had his life’s ups and downs

-He started out as a lowly shepherd boy but then was selected by God for the priest Samuel to anoint as the new king

-Although he was already anointed to be king, he had to wait years to actually take the throne

-While he was waiting, the current king Saul was trying to kill him on a regular basis

-On top of that, he then had to fight off all of Israel’s enemies to finally enjoy the spoils

-On the other hand, he was held in high esteem for killing Goliath and for his military prowess

-As soon as he had the opportunity to rest from his labors a bit, he realized that he able then to enjoy life but God was still being carried about in the ark of the covenant in a makeshift tent

-There is a great story in 2 Samuel 7 where David asks the prophet Nathan if he can build a house for God

-Initially, Nathan says yes but then God speaks to Nathan to change that course of action

-God says to Nathan, " ’The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

-As great a promise as that was, it wasn’t enough for David.

-There is something to the old adage, “idle hands are the devil’s handiwork”

-Not having much to do anymore, David gets himself into trouble with the White House intern, Bathsheba