Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Worship God With Football Enthusiasm

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” -- Matthew 6:24

I’d really never heard it described as a “worship chip.” But when Pastor Danny used that term to describe that place inside all of us that only God can fill, it sure did make sense.

And then he talked about football. Now this is Alabama and Alabama knows football. We live and breath it. We plan our lives around it, especially those who follow college football. We expect every year for our team to be headed toward a National Championship. We moan and groan. We get excited. We focus intently on the field.

The day after, the next morning, on Sunday, we file into church. We’re probably a little hung over from all the excitement. Maybe even a little hoarse from all the yelling. But we’re in church and we pat ourselves on the back for that.

Then Pastor Danny wants to know if we’re as excited about Jesus as we are about football. He asks if we’re just as enthusiastic about worshipping our Lord as we are about cheering on our favorite team. He wants to know if we’ve got that same intensity on Sunday mornings to worship God as we do when we’re watching the football game.

Sometimes truth is anything but pleasant. We don’t think of God and football as being in competition. We don’t consider football to be an idol. We don’t really worship football. We just enjoy it immensely. Like God wants us to enjoy Him.

God created us with a worship chip deep inside. We’ve got to fill ourselves up with someone or something. So do we do that with Jesus? Or do we do it with football.?

Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a little football. Okay. A lot of football. This is the Deep South after all. The problem comes when we’re more excited, more enthusiastic, more determined to experience the game than we are to worship God.

Sunday afternoon our recreational ministries hosted a tailgate party. We had team mascots, tents, a worship band, flag football and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. We all shared fellowship and laughter as we gathered for some church-wide fun. The only problem was that the tailgate party began at the same time that our Women’s Bible Study meets.

Choices. We all have to make choices. And we did. We had a wonderful study session that blessed us all. Afterwards, we headed downstairs to join the party. God blessed us with enthusiasm for His Word and for His people. That worship chip honed in on Jesus and filled us up inside.