Put Your Game Face On!

Put Your Game Face On

Today’s Passage – Deuteronomy 19 – 22 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read –  Galatians 4 – 6Psalms 31 – 35Proverbs 7)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Micah 6:8

Read the “0307 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon. 

Read a previous post from this passage – “Feminine and Modest”

“And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.” – (Deuteronomy 20:8)

In Deuteronomy chapter twenty, God gives instructions to the people of Israel regarding going into battle. Before going into the fight, God weeded out anybody whose hearts and minds would not be in the fight (vs. 5 – 8). If these soldiers were not not fully committed and focused on the battle ahead, they may be a danger to the other men. If they were consumed with fear, God knew that their fear may spread to the others and discourage them as well. God wants those who fight for him to be “in the fight”.

These verses bring several thoughts to mind, but the one I will share with you is one that I have given quite a bit of consideration to lately. In Christianity today, there is an awful lot of “half-hearted” effort in the battle to fulfill the Great Commission. So many are distracted, and so many more just do not seem to care at all. We need men and woman who are willing to give their all to and for the Lord. Consider these verses:

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” – (Revelation 3:16)

“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” – (Luke 9:62)

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” – (1 Corinthians 10:31)

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” – (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

We are in a battle today: against the devil; against the evil of this world. We are fighting for the souls of men, and God needs us to be focussed and determined as we fight. We need to decide whether or not we want to be in the battle, because turning back is not an option. We need to get in all the way or get out of the way. By the way, I understand that there will be times when we need to break from the battle temporarily for rest and restoration, but that does not mean we give up altogether. Sometimes we will have to fight on even when we are weary, but we must keep fighting. The time of eternal rest will come soon enough, but right now we have something to fight for. Christian, put your game face on!

I heard Brother Roloff (via a tape) sing this song years ago:

I Came Here To Stay

Well the champion marched, for forty days
said “Gimmie a man to fight!”
The Israelites said “We got a brave heart,
but our feet are sorta full of fright!”
Then a boy with a sling and a pocket full of rocks,
who knew how to trust and pray said:
“If you’re gonna run, may as well start now cuz I came here to stay!” 

Run if you want to run if you will
cuz I came here to stay
If I fall down, gonna get a right up
cuz I didn’t start out to play
Its a battlefield brother, not a recreation room
Its a fight and not a game
Run if you want to, run if you will,
but I came here to stay

The kids wouldn’t bow, the king got mad
said: “Turn that ol’ furnace up high!”
“Tie ‘em up, throw ‘em on in,
those Hebrew boys are gonna fry!”
A little while later, they looked in the furnace,
they heard brother Shadrach say:
“Pull up a chair boys, warm your hands,
we came in here to stay!”

Run if you want to run if you will

 


Posted in Thoughts from Deuteronomy by with 3 comments.
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James Giroud
James Giroud
7 years ago

Sometimes a message/lesson just resonates with a person more than others. This lesson is an awesome one. Some of our men including myself have been playing basketball in a men’s league this winter and it revealed a lot of truth to me. There are a lot of parallels to our Christian lives that I could recognize from playing on the court. I realized that I have a lot of room for improvement.

1) We do need to have our game face on. If we walk on the court and just take it easy (think someone else will get points/defend), it takes momentum away from our team and it’s almost as if we are short one guy. The same is true when we take it easy in our Christian lives. Fighting from behind the 8 ball from the beginning is tough.

2) We need to practice. My dribbling was horrible now it’s just bad. Putting time into deliberate practice helps the team. The same is true with the Christian life. We may be able to dribble down the court (listen to sermons/go to church/ where the shirts and ties) but we need to be able to drive to the hole and make a decent lay up ( go soul winning). If we don’t soul win its like we dribbled down the court just to give the ball back.

3) Our testimony needs to be a good one. Sometimes the other team plays a little dirty, sometimes they don’t let up. Sometimes you lose a game, but you can never give up. Others are watching, when times get tough we need to stick with it with a good testimony. Sometimes people are watching to see if the Christian life is real.

Thanks for the lesson this morning!

Sean M Brown
Sean M Brown
7 years ago
Reply to  James Giroud

That’s good brother.

Sean M Brown
Sean M Brown
7 years ago

What I got out of today’s message was that their is no “I” in “team”. Either you are apart of the team or your not apart of the team. The choice is yours. God Bless You All.

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