Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is week #2 of our series called Game Time. In this series, we are declaring war on the deflated and defeated way that a lot of Christians live their lives. We have been called to something much higher. We are called to live in victory through Jesus Christ.

Last week, we talked about preparing to win. If you want to win today, you’ve got to forget about the losses of yesterday. Wallowing in guilt is going to keep you imprisoned. Dwelling on your past sins and failures will never let you move forward. And it will definitely keep you from living a victorious life.

Guilt will mean constant and chronic defeat. So before you every step on the playing field, you’ve got to prepare to win. You prepare to win today by forgetting about the losses of yesterday.

Today, we’re going to talk about what happens when you do step between the lines. When you get on the field, you’ve got to play to win. You prepare to win. And then you play to win.

Most of you probably don’t remember Super Bowl 44. Even though the Super Bowl is a huge deal at the time, you usually don’t remember it for very long unless your team was in it.

In Super Bowl 44, my team was in it. My team is the Indianapolis Colts, and they hooked up with the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl. And the outcome didn’t make me happy. The Saints won the game 31-17.

But the thing I remember most is how the second half began. Sean Payton, head coach of the Saints, made what some have called the riskiest decision ever in a championship game. He started the second half with an onside kick by a rookie punter.

It was the defining moment of the game. Had the Colts recovered the ball, they would have had incredible field position to start the half and the game might have turned out very differently. But the Saints recovered the ball and they never looked back.

Before the game, Sean Payton's mentor, Bill Parcells, told him, “You are going to have to have guts to win this game. You can’t coach scared in the big games. You’ve got to try to win.”

That was the difference in Super Bowl 44. The Saints played to win. Playing to win involves risk. It takes courage. But the Saints won their first-ever Super Bowl because they were led by a coach who was playing to win.

You’re involved in something infinitely more important than the Super Bowl. You are living a life that has been given to you by God. The only reason you are able to step onto the playing field of your life is because of God’s grace and kindness to you. How you live your life is your response to Him and this incredible gift that He has given you.

Far too many people, including far, far too many Christians, are not making the most of this gift. Instead of playing to win, they are simply playing not to lose. There’s a huge difference between the two.

This series comes from Philippians 3. Starting in verse 12, the Bible says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14, NIV)

This text is all about playing to win. It’s not about playing defense. It’s not about playing conservatively. It’s not about playing it safe. It’s about going on offense. It’s about playing to win.

But in reality, there are way too many Christians who simply play not to lose. Playing not to lose is a whole lot different than playing to win.

If a team plays not to lose, they will usually lose. And what’s more, they deserve to lose. If you’re not willing to hit the field and lay it all on the line to win, then you deserve to lose.

If your faith is kind of a humdrum existence…no risk…no adventure…not exciting…just safe and secure…you’re playing not to lose.

But if Jesus has messed you up…you are willing to go to any length to please Him…you’re willing to give up anything, go anywhere, do anything for the Kingdom of God…you’re playing to win.

The difference between the two is as different as night and day. Most Christians, unfortunately, simply play not to lose. Jesus is more of their Snuggie than the Savior.

But then there are a few who go all in. They don’t ask how deep the water is. They just dive in. They play to win.

This series is all about challenging you to be a part of that amazing minority. This text from Philippians should mess us up. It is a clear, direct call for us to go on offense. It is a clear command that God expects His people to play to win.

Let’s go back and just work through these verses. In verse 12, Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12, NIV)

The first thing Paul said is, “I’m not there yet. I’ve got work to do. I haven’t arrived yet. There is a lot of game left to be played.”

For some of you, you hear all this talk about living victoriously and playing to win, but in reality you feel like you’re losing. In fact, you’re losing badly. Let these words from Paul permeate your heart and your mind.

Paul said, “I haven’t already obtained all this. I haven’t arrived at my goal. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep playing. I’m going to keep working.”

If you are still breathing, if you still have a pulse, then the game isn’t over yet. There is a lot of game left to be played.

I told you that the Saints beat my Colts in Super Bowl 44. The Saints were actually losing at halftime. But halftime is when Sean Payton decided on the onside kick that turned the tide of the whole game. He made that decision while he was losing.

If you’re losing, it’s time to do something different. Something bold. Something way out of your comfort zone. You may be called to take an audacious risk to turn the tide, but the point is that the game is not over. And until it is, you’ve got to keep playing.

One of the most overlooked and underappreciated principles in the Bible is perseverance. That’s probably because perseverance is hard. It takes work. And it’s not fun. And in a culture that is all about instant gratification, perseverance isn’t a real hot commodity. But in God’s eyes, perseverance is everything.

In Hebrews 12, the Bible says, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1b-2a, NIV)

We’ve got to run the race, which means we keep pushing. Keep pressing. Keep playing to win. We run with perseverance. God wouldn’t have told us to persevere if everything was going to go our way. When He tells us to persevere, there is an automatic assumption that everything is NOT going to go our way.

Some of you don’t feel like you’re in a season of victory. You feel like you’re in a season of total defeat. Persevere. Understand that this race that we run is not perfectly straight. There are pitfalls all around us. And at times, we’re going to fall flat on our face.

The question is not, “Am I going to fall down?” The question is, “What will I do when I fall down? Will I stay down, or will I have the perseverance to get up and keep running the race?”

The writer of Hebrews gives us the key to getting up and moving forward: keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

What are you living toward? Your life is in constant motion. It’s like an arrow that is racing toward its target. The question is, what is your target? Where is the trajectory of your life taking you? What are you living toward?

If you are not living toward Jesus, then difficult seasons and hard times will knock you down and keep you down.

When I was in Jr. High, skateboarding was my life. Seriously. It was all I thought about. It was all I wanted to do. I read skater magazines. I wore skater clothes. I was eaten up with it.

The only problem was…I wasn’t very good. At least not at first. For a while, the only skateboard I had to ride was one that my older brother had built about ten years earlier. Not exactly a good one to learn on.

For the longest time, my skateboarding progress looked like this. Roll a few feet, fall down. Roll a few more feet, fall down again. And this was back in the day when protective equipment like helmets were considered very uncool. When I fell down, I felt it.

It was obvious that I didn’t have a lot of natural ability for this sport, but that didn’t stop me. Every time I fell down, I got up and tried again. And the reason was simple. I wanted to be in the skater group.

All the people that I thought were cool were skaters. And I wanted to be one of them. And because I kept my eyes fixed on that goal, I kept getting up every time I fell down. And after a while, I actually got to be a pretty decent skater. But it would have never happened if I didn’t have my sight fixated on a goal. If I didn’t have a goal in my sights, I would have never gotten up after I fell down.

When you keep your eyes focused on Jesus, it changes your perspective on everything. That’s why it’s so key to spend time in the Word of God. That’s why it’s so important to listen to those promptings of the Holy Spirit. That’s how we keep our focus clear.

Your focus, your perspective, are so incredibly important. The problem most of us run into is that we live with a self-centered focus instead of a Jesus-centered focus.

Richard Rohr said, “Most people do not see things as they ARE; rather, they see things as THEY are.”

Our call is to see things as Jesus is. To look at our lives through the lens of Jesus.

When I look at life through the lens of me, I am completely miserable. When I see things through a self-centered lens, I get discouraged. I feel hopeless. I am defeated.

But when I see things through the lens of Christ, everything changes. When you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, it changes the way you see failure. It changes the way you see things when life isn’t going your way. It changes the way you process hurt and pain and disappointment.

When your focus is locked on Jesus, you have a completely different perspective on setbacks. What we perceive as a setback is almost always a setup. What seems like a setback to me is almost always a setup for the activity of God.

When I see things through the lens of me, I am completely powerless. When I see things through the lens of Jesus, I am filled with hope because His power is greater than any struggle that I’m facing.

This week I was reading about a pretty obscure dude in the Old Testament named Amaziah. Amaziah was the king of Judah. And Amaziah is the only king in the Bible to be described like this.

In 2 Chronicles 25:2, the Bible says, “[Amaziah] did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.” (2 Chronicles 25:2, NIV) That is one of the saddest commentaries of a person’s life that I’ve ever heard. And that perfectly explains what happened next.

Amaziah was preparing his people for war. But in his preparations, he started to worry. He didn’t feel like he had enough troops. So he took money that was supposed to go into God’s temple and instead used it to hire mercenaries. Instead of being obedient to God, he beefed up his army.

He was seeing things through the lens of himself instead of the lens of God. And that caused him to worry. And that worry caused him to sin.

After he did this, an unnamed man of God came to him and called him out. The man told Amaziah that if he went into battle with these troops, God would cause his army to be overthrown. He had to get rid of the mercenaries and go to war with the troops he had.

Here was Amaziah’s response in verse 9. “Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?”

The man of God replied, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” (2 Chronicles 25:9, NIV)

Amaziah’s perspective was still on himself. How could he dismiss all these troops? What about all the money he spent?

I can almost hear the man of God sigh. He just shook his head and said, “Do you not understand that money is nothing to God? He can give you so much more than you lost? Do you not understand the power of God? He can give you victory without all the extra troops? Stop looking at this through the lens of you and start looking at it through the lens of God.”

For a lot of us, we’re staring down a fight and we don’t feel like we’ve got enough money or enough troops or enough anything to go into this battle.

I might not know what your fight is, but I do know this…if you approach this fight on your own power, you’re doomed. If you look at this situation through your own eyes instead of God’s eyes, you’ll lose hope. If you allow the risk or the danger or the uncertainty to become your focus, you won’t be victorious.

What is your doubt? What is your fear? What is keeping you from taking that step of faith? What is holding you down? What is scaring you to death?

Your God is greater. He can supply you with what you need. Whatever you lose, He can give you more. Whatever you can’t do, He can do.

That’s why we can persevere. The road to get there is bumpy and windy. It’s filled with potholes and, honestly, you’re going to fall down. A lot. But when you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus…when you understand the love and provision of God…when you believe in the power of God, you can get back up.

Go back and look at 2 Chronicles 25:2 again. “[Amaziah] did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.” (2 Chronicles 25:2, NIV)

That was the source of the entire problem. Amaziah did some good things, but he wasn’t with God heart and soul. He was religious. He did religious things. But he also exemplifies the downfall of religion. Religion is all about safety and the status quo.

The problem there is that following God never involves safety or the status quo. It is a hard, windy, dangerous journey. And religion will fail you every time. But God will not.

Let’s go back and keep working through this text from Philippians 3. In verses 13-14, Paul said, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)

Did you catch the language Paul uses here? “Straining toward what is ahead.” “Press on toward the goal to win the prize.”

In other words, playing to win. Living life on offense.

As you take stock of your life right now, do you believe that you are moving toward the prize? Are you living the life that God planned for you?

Now, the answer to that question has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with power or prestige. It has everything to do with fulfilling the calling that God has placed on your life. You can be a ditch digger and be living on offense, playing to win, living out your calling. On the other hand, you can be a CEO and simply play not to lose, missing out on the potential that God planted in you.

We’re not talking about social or economic position. We’re talking about aggressively pursuing God’s call for you. And that’s going to be different for each one of us.

What is it for you? Are you living out the call of God in your life? Are you aggressively pursuing the vision that God has placed in you?

Or are you wasting precious time just spinning your wheels? Are you stuck? Or even worse, are you moving backwards?

If you’re stuck, it’s time to ask yourself some clarifying questions.

1.    What has God gifted me to do?

2.    What am I passionate about? What lights my fire?

3.    Where do those gifts and passions intersect?

4.    How can I use them to build up God’s Kingdom?

Notice that none of those questions has anything to do with moving up the corporate ladder or achieving a more prominent social position. It has everything to do with moving God’s Kingdom forward.

The problem with most of us is that we’re more concerned about the kingdom of me than the Kingdom of God. The more you build up the kingdom of me, the more miserable you’re going to be. It sounds backwards, but it’s absolutely true. The more you devote your life to building up your kingdom, the more miserable and unfulfilled you’re going to be.

But when you passionately pursue ways to build God’s Kingdom, you find joy and fulfillment because you’re doing what God has wired you to do. You are pre-programmed to build His Kingdom. When you fight against it, you’re miserable. When you embrace it, you’re fulfilled.

What are you doing to build up God’s Kingdom? If you’re only answer is, “I come to church every week,” you’re probably miserable. That’s a playing not to lose answer.

To play to win, you’ve got to get in the game and start building up His Kingdom in the way He has wired you to do it.

We talked earlier about persevering during the tough times. One of the greatest ways you can persevere is to serve others when you’re hurting. It sounds ridiculous at first, but it works. It works because it takes the focus off of you and your problems. Remember, we said that a self-centered life never works. The way to live a Jesus-centered life is to orient yourself around building up His Kingdom by serving others. The best time to serve someone else is when you are miserable.

Brian Jones tells about a time when he was pastoring a church early in his career. He said, “I was miserable beyond description. I was angry, bitter, depressed. I slept too much, ate too much, and withdrew from people. I stopped smiling.

Then something happened…I reached out to hurting people. Over time, while throwing myself into the lives of other people, serving them, and loving them, both in our church and outside, each act of love and service brought me a little closer to home.

Do you find yourself in the lethal grasp of despair right now? God has provided a second way for you to hold on during life's difficult moments. In addition to living in authentic Christian community, serve others. As you serve others in the midst of your pain, orienting your entire mind, heart, and soul around serving others in Jesus' name, supernatural things will happen that will loosen the…grip [of despair] on your soul.”

If you want to persevere, serve others. Build the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of me.

Now, let’s go back to our verses one more time. There’s one last thing that I want to pull out of this.

In verse 14, Paul said, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14, NIV)

This is the ultimate reason we play to win: the outcome is already determined. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, victory is guaranteed. It’s already ours. We win!

Listen to how Jesus talks about us in the book of Revelation. I’m going to rip through these in rapid-fire style.

Revelation 2:7: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7b, NIV)

Revelation 2:11: “The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” (Revelation 2:11b, NIV)

Revelation 2:26: “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations…” (Revelation 2:26, NIV)

Revelation 3:5: “The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” (Revelation 3:5, NIV)

Revelation 3:12: “The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.” (Revelation 3:12, NIV)

Revelation 3:21: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (Revelation 3:21, NIV)

If that stuff doesn’t absolutely blow your mind, then I just don’t understand you. I really don’t.

This is our victory. And because of the victory that Jesus won through His death and resurrection, our victory is guaranteed. It is secure. It is certain.

We will win! The only left for us to do is run up the score.

That’s really what our earthly lives are all about. We win in eternity. So the only thing we’re really here to do is run up the score.

Every time we minister to someone who is struggling, we run up the score.

Every time we make a bold move in faith, we run up the score.

Every time we use our gifts to make Jesus more famous, we run up the score.

Every time we reach a lost person for Jesus, we run up the score.

That’s how you play to win. You put the pedal to the metal and you run up the score.

You keep going. You persevere during the tough times. You center your life around Jesus instead of yourself. And you go all out to build His Kingdom instead of yours.

That’s playing to win.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Game Time, perseverance, Philippians 3