As our calendar has now turned to August, the season of fall is approaching. We are, it seems in the depths of summer heat (the first half of August is always miserable throughout the South it seems), and yet as you look on the page of your calendar, summer is soon to end and cooler weather will come along with the falling of the leaves. School is starting up (for some, it already has), and with it some of our beloved pastimes such as football. We would do well to recognize that all around us, there is a religion of sport. It is that which men hold up high, they erect high places (palaces even) where the competition and its glories are worshiped by thousands of adoring fans praising their respective teams and the struggle. We whip ourselves into fanatical frenzies. Sport is serious business, yet like so many things that we take seriously, sometimes we allow these serious things to eclipse and obscure where our true focus should be.
Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).” First, foremost, above everything else we faun after, we must put God and the kingdom of God before all others. Let us consider a few things related to this thought.
Does this description of a sports fan include you? Are you among those worshiping at the altar of sport either in person or on your television set? Men pour out their funding for such spectacles. We find deep pleasure and pride in our team and their triumphs. We wouldn’t dare miss the observance of our traditions – the cookouts, the comradery with our friends, the way all of it makes us feel.
Do we have this same kind of careful observance and devotion to serving God? If you study your Bible, then you are familiar with the concept of putting nothing before God. After all, God has described Himself as a jealous God (Exodus 20: 3, 5-6). It is said that our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). Jesus simplifies it as he is challenged with determining the greatest of God’s commandments: [Mat 22:36-40 NKJV] 36 “Teacher, which [is] the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is [the] first and great commandment. 39 “And [the] second [is] like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Loving God with all of our being and with all of our conviction should by necessity make us raving fans of serving God.
Our fanaticism should be more demonstrable in our lives concerning our relationship with God and with the church than it is in our sport teams. This thought then should beg the question in all of us, am I more devoted to God than I am to my hobbies, my pleasures (recreation), my sport? If the answer is no, then maybe we would do well to recognize our modern idols which are just as deadly and destructive today as the idols of ancient Israel and that of their neighbors.
Paul says that as Christians, we are to be “living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1-2). How does this draw our minds to the kind of seriousness that we should offer in our religious service before God? Recall the seriousness with which Abraham’s faith compelled him to offer his son Isaac on the altar as God had commanded him (Genesis 22:1-14). Abraham was offering his all, even his son, his inheritance, all offered in belief that God would fulfill His promises. Are we giving our ALL? Our me, energy, resources? Are we truly serious and
dedicated to serving God with all of our being? In Christ, we are called to bear daily our cross (Luke 14:27-28) and follow after Him. What are we sacrificing and what perspectives do we have on eternity? Let us understand that eternity is something that requires our serious consideration and a seriousness of our efforts. We strive after eternal life through Jesus Christ, not because we seek to earn that homeland, but because by faith we are compelled to put Him first, compelled to seek His way, and have then assurance of eternal life through the very Son of God.
Let us live with an eye on eternity like that of the Psalmist – [Psa 84:10 NKJV] 10 For a day in Your courts [is] beer than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in
the tents of wickedness. [Phl 3:7-11,14 NKJV] 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which [is] from the law, but that which [is] through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. … 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.