Different for Jesus!

 

Here it is – the final chapter of our current series ‘Different for Jesus’. This week we step off the pitch and into the changing room…

 

The journey so far:

 

1. Our motivation to play – 1 Peter 2v11-12

2. Winning and losing – Matthew 6v19-21

3. Referee! – Matthew 5v43-48

4. Chirpy Opponents – Matthew 5v39

5. Caught Cheating? – Matthew 6v1-4

 

Changing room banter

 

If it wasn’t hard enough to represent Christ on the field of play then here’s the next challenge – the pre and post match banter that comes with being involved in a sports club.

 

After a year out of the game, and the boots gathering dust under the kitchen sink, the phone call came. Bobby Hancock, an old manager from my youth days was in need of cover for the end of the season, so out came the old kit bag and the brief retirement period was over!

 

I tell you what the hardest thing was re-entering the sporting environment and it wasn’t the on-pitch attitude - it was the banter in the changing room and the bar after the game. I’d seriously forgotten how bad the language and general topic of conversation was. The biggest challenge was getting to know the boys without over stepping the mark, and joining in conversations which were certainly off limit.

 

How then do you build good relationships with team mates as a ground for sharing the gospel without dishonouring God in your conversation?

 

James encourages us to be ever so careful in our general banter and language…

 

James 3v9-10:“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers this should not be.”

 

You see one minute we are singing praises to God in church and the next we are joining in un-wholesome banter in the changing room. James says - friends this should not be. We must guard our tongues because as James mentions earlier in his letter, although it is just a small part of the body it can do untold damage (James 3v5).

 

As hard as it is friends, be different for Jesus this week and represent Jesus well in the way you play…

…both on and off the field

 

The Youth Department