At the beginning of the youth flag football season we plant the seed of getting the players and families to look forward to playing their final game on the local Carmel HS field. A field that many of them go to on Friday Nights with their parents to watch their local heroes play.
From being in touch with my own feelings at their age I know that it is a goal for many, at the elementary age, to play on that field someday and represent their HS. In the following Gospel presentation I simply brought that desire to the surface then paralleled it to a desire to be with God forever.
You certainly might word things differently and place more or less emphasis in places than I did but I think it is a very adaptable Gospel presentation for most any sport. whether you take a trip to the local field for the presentation, awards ceremony, or play your final game there.
Maybe this is what you've been looking for or maybe it spurs you on to come up with your own. I just think our devotions in our Christian sports leagues need to be more about the Gospel than they are life lessons using skills and concepts in sports.
Play Here Someday?
Setting:
The Local HS Football Field (Center of the field if possible)
Audience:
Elementary age children
How many of
you have ever been to this field on a Friday night to watch our local HS team
play?
Have you
ever thought when you were here that you’d like to play for the HS team when
you grow up? Wouldn’t that be awesome?!
Most kids
just like you think the same thing when they are here on Friday nights.
Do you
think they all will play for the HS team someday? As much as they want to they
probably won’t.
What do you
think will keep them from being on the team?
Answers…
Poor grades, Poor decisions, Injuries, Not willing to sacrifice other things
for the time it takes, Something else becomes more important, etc…
What if I
were able to tell all of you today that there is a way for you to know for sure
that you would be on the team? That would be pretty exciting wouldn’t it? It
certainly would be something to look forward to wouldn’t it? The truth is I
cannot tell you that today because of all the reasons we just listed. Bummer =(
But let’s
talk about another place I hope you might want to be…How many of you have heard
about Heaven? What do you know about it? Do you hope to be there someday with
God? I want you to know today that I want you to be
in Heaven with me more than I want you to be on the HS football team…And I like
football a lot! =)
Did you
hear me when I said “Join me?” I used those words not because I think it would
be cool to be there with me, but to tell you that I do know that I’ll be in
Heaven someday. Would you like to know that you will be too? Then listen closely to this…
Heaven is a
place God wants all of us to be with Him in our forever home, but just like
there are things that keep us from being on the football team there is
something that will keep us from being in Heaven with God. It’s not that we
haven’t done enough good things or that we haven’t done many bad things. The
Bible tells us that none of us are good enough to be with Him because He is
perfect and can only have perfect people around Him (Romans 3:23)
Because we
aren’t perfect He says that when we die here on earth we cannot be with Him
forever (Romans 6:23.) That’s bad news, but the good news is that God wants us
to be there with Him so bad that He came up with a plan. Instead of letting us
be separated from Him forever He sent His only Son Jesus to die for you on the
cross….for all the wrong things you’ve done or will do in your life (John 3:16.)
It’s kind of like someone fixing all the reasons you couldn’t be on the
football team. They fixed things you couldn’t fix yourself and you didn’t even
ask them to. If somebody did that for you wouldn’t you be thankful the rest of
your life and do your best to make that person proud of you for the chance they
gave you?
It’s just
like that with God…If we really believe in our hearts that Jesus came into the
world sent by God to die for us on the cross so we could be with Him forever
the rest of our lives we’d do our best to show God that we are thankful with
our lives. It wouldn’t mean that we would be perfect here on earth, that our
lives would be easier, or that there is a list of things we could do to make
God like us again after we’ve failed Him (Ephesians 2:8,9.) It would just mean we would try our best and
trust, love and obey Him with our lives because of His love for us.
How does
that sound to you? To me it sounds better than knowing if I would be the
football team playing on this field when I grow up!
If you
would like to make the decision to believe God’s plan for you, what Jesus did
for you and live the rest of your life for Him let’s go talk with Mom and Dad.
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