Contrast that with this YouTube video clip that has sadly become popular, using speculation upon extrapolation (and a few outright misstatements) to show that Jesus warned in Luke 10:18 that President Obama is the Antichrist. I commend to you this excellent response by New Testament Scholar Dan Wallace.

I found it interesting to juxtapose two uses of the same passage in ways that could not be more more different. In Ken’s approach we see a great example of challenging our assumptions and letting the Bible speak. In the popular Internet video we see someone abusing the Scriptures to bend them to his suit his personal agenda.

In that post, I covered some background on the final judgment. Now I would like to expand on the question of why believers stand in judgment if Christ has already been judged in our place. This is something that was cloudy for me before I examined it more closely and now brings a lot of things together. Much of this comes from the message What Happens When You Die? All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ by John Piper.

There are a series of premises I’d like to establish from the Scriptures, then I’ll wrap it up with what I am persuaded it all means.

Christ has already been judged in our place…

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8–9)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone…

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (Ephesians 2:8)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

All will be judged…

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10–12)

Unbelievers will be judged for their deeds…

…envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–10)

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:26)

Believers will be judged for their deeds…

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; (Romans 2:5–7)

… for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)

We started with Paul saying “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” and concluded with Jesus saying “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

This appears to be contradiction until we unpack a few more things…

Only acts of faith please God…

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Our acts of faith will be revealed…

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:10-14)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-7)

Faith is proven by works…

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:14-26)

Hebrews 11 (notice how faith is displayed by actions)

With that, we have what we need to put all this together. Unbelievers stand before God in their own righteousness and are condemned for their deeds. Because of their faith, believers stand in Christ’s righteousness. That faith is proven and displayed to all of creation by the fruit of the faith. On that day, everything we’ve done that was not done in faith will be burned away, revealing our acts of faithfulness to Christ. Some will enter glory with a wealth of fruit that survived the refining fire; others will enter with very little.

Our acts of faithfulness are not something to boast of because the faith that enables them is a gift. At the same time, we should take heed of Jesus’ words to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where they will last for eternity.

If someone fully believes that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, yet they are a murderer and kill a ton of people, will they still go to Heaven? Why is there Judgment Day if it is black and white – People who believe in Jesus go to heaven and people who do not go to Hell? What is Judgment Day when we stand before the Lord for then?

Who Goes to Heaven and Why

There is a lot going on in this question. We’ll start by taking a look at the questions raised in the first sentence.

If someone fully believes that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, yet they are a murderer and kill a ton of people, will they still go to Heaven?

Strictly speaking, people do not go to heaven because they believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again. Heaven is the eternal destination of all righteous people. Everyone who is without sin is going there. Of course, no one but Jesus Christ is righteous. That’s bad news.

Fortunately, there is good news! Christ has made his righteousness available to his followers. Anyone who has faith in him will be saved from their just punishment. This saving faith is sometimes referred to as “belief in Christ.” When the Bible uses that phrase, it is another way of saying faith in Christ. Simple belief in historical events or theological truths do not constitute saving faith (see James 2:14-26).

Assuming that our questioner means saving faith, we still have the question about our hypothetical convert being a murderer and still going to heaven. There are two ways to understand the question. Perhaps the believer in question was a murderer before coming to faith. Or perhaps the person in question is a professing believer who kills “tons of people.”

In the case of the murderer who is converted after killing many people, I think of Romans 5:6, which says “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” I also think of I Corinthians 6:9-11…

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Here, Paul could not be more clear that God saves some pretty terrible people. No one is beyond God’s ability to redeem. The fact that we even think that some people are too far gone to be saved betrays our own lack of understanding of how far we were gone when God saved us. We may not have a stack of dead bodies, but our sin is just as heinous to a righteous, holy God.

Now let’s consider the case where the believing person goes on murdering, thinking he will go to heaven because he has his ticket punched, so to speak. Our I Corinthians 6 passage speaks pretty directly to this. While no redeemed person will live a perfect life of obedience, Paul warns us not to be deceived into believing that a life that is characterized by a continued lack of remorse over sin is a sign of one who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Judgment Day

Our questioner goes on to ask…

Why is there Judgment Day if it is black and white – People who believe in Jesus go to heaven and people who do not go to Hell? What is Judgment Day when we stand before the Lord for then?

To answer these questions, we need to clear up some details about the final judgment. While there will be separating of believers and unbelievers, this is only the beginning of the judgment–not the end. The judgment is more about our works than our beliefs.

Here are three critical aspects of the final judgement that Wayne Grudem points out in his Systematic Theology.

1. Jesus will be the judge. This is clear from 2 Timothy 4:1, Acts 10:42, and John 5:26-27.  

2. Unbelievers will be judged. Unbelievers will be held to account for their deeds.

Look at Romans 2:5-11.

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

Notice that each person is being judged “according to his works,” not for failing to believe in Jesus Christ.

3. Believers will be judged. See Romans 14:10-12…

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,

     “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
     and every tongue shall confess to God.”

12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

The difference between judgment of unbelievers and judgment of believers is that believers stand in Christ’s righteousness and will not be condemned for their sin. When the chaff is burned away, what will be left are the deeds that were done in faithfulness to Christ. These works will be the evidence of our faith. For much more on this, see this message by John Piper.

A Final Note

It is important to remember that no one goes to hell for not believing in Jesus. People go to hell because they have transgressed God’s law.

Imagine a killer who is sentenced to death for murder. His family then appeals to the state governor for mercy, asking for a pardon. If the governor refuses to grant the pardon and the sentence is carried out, we would not say that he was executed because he failed to get a pardon. He was executed because he committed the crime.

Why are Catholics persecuted when for the most part we believe the same things that any normal protestant church believes?

As I read this question, I have to make a few assumptions.

• The alleged persecution is coming from Protestants and or protestant churches like ours.
• The persecution is inappropriate and unloving.
• This question is directed to the leaders of Grace Fellowship because we have participated in this persecution.

Why Focus on the Differences?

There are clearly differences on topics such as the authority of the church, the nature of justification, the relationship between grace and works, the role of the sacraments, to name a few. The existence of these differences is not disputed by either side. The mere fact that both Catholic and Protestant churches continue to exist is a testament to this fact.

The questioner points out that there are more similarities than there are differences between Catholics and Protestants. The implication seems to be that focusing on the differences and the consequences of those differences amounts to persecution.

It may be true that there are more similarities between Catholicism and Protestantism than there are differences, and if you compare Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam, then Catholicism and Protestantism look relatively similar.

However, as Greg Koukl once pointed out with a wonderfully simple illustration, it is the differences, and not the similarities, that tend to matter. Imagine you have two white tablets—both are 500mg, white, and round. From that, we could say that they are for the most part the same.

Now imagine that we notice that the letters on the two tablets are different—one says “Aspirin” and the other says “Arsenic.” Now the many similarities are insignificant when compared to their differences.

Teaching about the differences, especially when there are questions of God’s honor and people’s eternal destiny is on the line, does not constitute persecution.

The Catholic Church is equally as interested in teaching the distinctive aspects of Roman Catholicism to its faithful (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church or any Catholic apologetics organization). This is not wrong. If they believe they are correct on the matters where they differ with Protestants, they are duty bound to teach what they believe to be true and to contend earnestly for the faith.

Persecution or Love?

Dictionary.com defines persecute as follows.

1. to pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment, esp. because of religion, race, or beliefs; harass persistently.

2. to annoy or trouble persistently.

We find ourselves in a culture where merely disagreeing with another’s religious viewpoint is considered mean and unloving. This view is grounded on an unstated assumption that there is no spiritual reality and one’s religious beliefs are merely emotionally beneficial make-belief. If spirituality’s only purpose is to give us an emotional boost and criticizing another’s views is emotionally hurtful, then that criticism must be wrong.

However, we know that there is a spiritual reality. We know that the cost of betting one’s life on a false hope is far higher than hurt feelings. To attempt to persuade a friend or loved one that he is mistaken in his understanding of God’s nature is not unloving, but quite the opposite. In the same way, although it might create some temporary discomfort, it would be a loving act to grab a friend’s hand as he is reaching to put two tablets into his mouth that he believes to be aspirin, but you know to be arsenic.

I recently visited another church with a friend who wanted to start going to church again. They (husband and wife) wanted a church that was big so that they could “ease” into the whole church thing. So, I went along to encourage them. We went to a “mega” church in the area and I was blown away. It was like a rock concert! The message was good (in a creative sense) but seemed very shallow. I didn’t even need to use my Bible. So, now I am in a pickle. I want my friend to go to church, but I fear that they will see Christianity is a warped way by going to this “mega” church. What should I do?

In my answer, I said that it was important to focus on what makes a church healthy and not on style or size. I mentioned Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church as a good resource for taking a look at what the Bible either says or implies about a healthy church.

This is a summary from the 9Marks Web site…

The Mission of 9Marks

We believe the local church is the focal point of God’s plan for displaying his glory to the nations.  Our vision is simple: Churches that reflect the character of God.  Our mission is to cultivate and encourage churches characterized by these nine marks:

1.  Expositional Preaching
This is preaching which expounds what Scripture says in a particular passage, carefully explaining its meaning and applying it to the congregation. It is a commitment to hearing God’s Word and to recovering the centrality of it in our worship.
2.  Biblical Theology
Paul charges Titus to “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). Our concern should be not only with how we are taught, but with what we are taught. Biblical theology is a commitment to know the God of the Bible as He has revealed Himself in Scripture.
3.  Biblical Understanding of the Good News
The gospel is the heart of Christianity. But the good news is not that God wants to meet people’s felt needs or help them develop a healthier self-image. We have sinfully rebelled against our Creator and Judge. Yet He has graciously sent His Son to die the death we deserved for our sin, and He has credited Christ’s acquittal to those who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection. That is the good news.
4.  Biblical Understanding of Conversion
The spiritual change each person needs is so radical, so near the root of us, that only God can do it. We need God to convert us. Conversion need not be an emotionally heated experience, but it must evidence itself in godly fruit if it is to be what the Bible regards as a true conversion.
5.  Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
How someone shares the gospel is closely related to how he understands the gospel. To present it as an additive that gives non-Christians something they naturally want (i.e. joy or peace) is to present a half-truth, which elicits false conversions. The whole truth is that our deepest need is spiritual life, and that new life only comes by repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus. We present the gospel openly, and leave the converting to God.
6.  Biblical Understanding of Membership
Membership should reflect a living commitment to a local church in attendance, giving, prayer and service; otherwise it is meaningless, worthless, and even dangerous. We should not allow people to keep their membership in our churches for sentimental reasons or lack of attention. To be a member is knowingly to be traveling together as aliens and strangers in this world as we head to our heavenly home.
7.  Biblical Church Discipline
Church discipline gives parameters to church membership. The idea seems negative to people today – “didn’t our Lord forbid judging?” But if we cannot say how a Christian should not live, how can we say how he or she should live? Each local church actually has a biblical responsibility to judge the life and teaching of its leaders, and even of its members, particularly insofar as either could compromise the church’s witness to the gospel.
8.  Promotion of Christian Discipleship and Growth
A pervasive concern with church growth exists today – not simply with growing numbers, but with growing members. Though many Christians measure other things, the only certain observable sign of growth is a life of increasing holiness, rooted in Christian self-denial. These concepts are nearly extinct in the modern church. Recovering true discipleship for today would build the church and promote a clearer witness to the world.
9.  Biblical Understanding of Leadership
What eighteenth-century Baptists and Presbyterians often agreed upon was that there should be a plurality of elders in each local church. This plurality of elders is not only biblical, but practical — it has the immense benefit of rounding out the pastor’s gifts to ensure the proper shepherding of God’s church.

In identifying and promoting these nine marks, we are not intending to lay down an exhaustive or authoritative list. There are other significant marks of healthy churches, like prayer and fellowship. We want to pursue those ourselves as well, and we want you to pursue them with us. But these nine are the ones we think are most neglected in most local churches today, with the most damaging ramifications.  Join us in cultivating churches that reflect the character of God.

Afterwards, it was pointed out to me that as nice as my answer was, I hadn’t actually answered the question. Oops.

I would suggest that the questioner talk to his or her friends about the purpose of the church and why it is so important to be vitally connected to a healthy local church. It sounds like these folks are seeking to avoid this and prefer anonymity while they “ease into the whole church thing.” I think they would be well served by basic discipleship. I would approach concerns about the church they are attending (and why) as they come up in discussions about what we are are called to as Christians.

Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed The World

Passing God’s Greatness to the Next Generation – Dr. Tripp lays out a vision of what it looks like to pass on the truth of God to the next generation.

The Sowing and Reaping Principle in the Word of God – Here he relates Biblical concept of reaping what we sow to the discipline process with our children.

Loving Leadership – Dr. Tripp speaks to the men about leadership within the marriage and the home.

Motivating and Encouraging Your Children – Dr. Tripp’s wife (I assume) speaks to the ladies about how to motivate and encourage children.

If you are an MP3 junkie, you can find more where I found this at this site.

Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Teenagers

This is the time where the child transitions from the faith of his parents to owning his own ideas and belief system. This is when children tend to question things they never have before. It can be a scary time for parents who are not mentally prepared for it.

In this valuable lesson, Dr. Tripp focuses on communication and how to keep it open with your kids. As always, he gives the Biblical basis for his teaching, then he shares lots of scenarios and examples from his own life and those he’s counseled over the years.

Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Age 6 to 12

In this message, Dr. Tripp covers the important issue of addressing the heart over of manipulating the child to get the desired behavior. When our children are very young (say toddler age), they learn right from wrong through training in obedience; however, as they get older, mere obedience is not enough. Continuing to focus simply on obedience will tend to create children that learn to manipulate the system so that they look good and get what they want.

Addressing behavior is easier than shepherding our children’s hearts, though. So Dr. Tripp’s Biblical justification for it and encouragement and examples are a welcome resource.

The first message is Shepherding Your Child’s Heart: Ages 0-5.

In this message, Dr. Tripp lays the foundation you need for those important early years. I am a firm believer that these years are far more critical than many parents believe. We might think that the important stuff comes later when the child is making meaningful choices, gets to choose his own friends, and can begin to articulate a world-view. But much of the child’s world-view actually gets shaped way before he can put it into words.

In this message, Tripp lays out two fundamental concepts we must grasp as parents…

The first is that parents are set by God as authorities over their children. This is not a fashionable notion in today’s culture, but if we don’t get this this, we will rob our children of the firm boundaries they need as well as the training they need in accepting that they are not the center of the universe. In these early years, parents are like proxies for God to their children. If a child isn’t taught to respect the authority of his earthly parents who are tangibly present, he will have a hard time accepting the authority of God, an employer, or the civil authorities.

Second, Dr. Tripp lays out the why, when, and how of Biblical chastisement (aka spanking). This is another unpopular practice these days. Many parents are uncomfortable with it. To be honest, from what I’ve seen in many parents, I am too. This is because many parents have not thought through why they spank, when to spank, and how spank. This is so critical. While I believe that spanking is a Biblical mandate, I believe that doing it poorly is worse than not doing it at all. Dr. Tripp provides great advice in this teaching. I recommend listening to it a few times if this is new for you.

I’ll post the links to the other messages with brief synopses as I listen to them.

As good as the course is, I feel a little like it starts in the middle when it comes to parenting. There is a more foundational level that many Christian parents lack. At this foundational level, we must answer some basic questions about what our mandate is as parents.

There were a handful of men who helped me in the process of forming my foundational parenting philosophy. The one who had the greatest influence on me in grounding my parenting in the Scriptures was Tedd Trip, through his Shepherding a Child’s Heart. This book covers bedrock issues that so many parents miss, like the importance of parental authority, the Biblical place for corporal punishment, and dealing with the heart instead of just behavior. As a young parent, this book helped ground my parenting in the Scriptures in a way that gave me much needed confidence when the going got tough (and the going always gets tough at some point) and we were tempted to doubt our approach because some days it didn’t seem to be “working.”

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is not filled with clever techniques or quick fixes but I am confident it will make you a better parent for the time you invest in it.

I haven’t seen a copy, but with features like in-line color maps and figures (see Solomon’s Temple example), extensive background notes and introduction (see Psalms example), it looks like it will set a new standard for study Bibles.  Of course, at 2752 pages, you may need to check with your doctor before making this your carrying-around Bible.

Ken gave me this book when I was in the process to become an elder. He claimed it was the best book he knew of as far as capturing what being an elder is all about. I am just as enthusiastic about the message Anderson passes on through this relatively short work, and I recommend it to anyone who leads and shepherds people (or aspires to) at any level within the church.

Anderson starts out the book by giving some background on sheep and shepherds–not pastors and congregants, but literal sheep and literal shepherds. Because shepherding was a common vocation in the Ancient Near East, this all would have been common knowledge to the folks that heard Jesus, and the writers of Scripture use all sorts of shepherding metaphors. This background brings out some of the richness that we would tend to miss in passages like John 10 where Jesus uses an extended sheep and shepherd metaphor and talks about things like the sheep knowing their shepherd’s voice.

The key element from actual shepherding that Anderson highlights, and becomes the thesis of the book, is that shepherds smell like their sheep. This is because they spend so much time in the sheep pen caring for the sheep. The rest of the book works through what that looks like.

Part I of the book looks at what spiritual leaders do. They shepherd, mentor, and equip. Shepherding is about care and relationship. The shepherding elder will ensure that the congregation has all of the infrastructure it needs to create lots of time for the shepherd to be with his sheep. Mentoring is like teaching but happens up close, one-on-one. The authenticity and example of the shepherd is as important as his words. The equipping elder realizes that his primary job is to equip the sheep for ministry more than it is to do all of the ministering himself.

Part II of the book looks at what spiritual leaders are like. They are men of experience, character, and vision. This section of the book also has a wonderful section contrasting authority that comes from a title or an office with authority that comes from a concept Anderson calls moral suasion. He argues that Biblical shepherding takes place not when leaders exercise power derived from ecclesiastical office. It takes place when shepherds influence their sheep through the moral authority shown through their lives in the way they live as well as how they shepherd, mentor, and equip the church.

Biblical shepherding is a high calling. If you see eldership primarily as making decisions and running things and not first and foremost about caring for and investing in people, this book will challenge you. Even if you do not have aspirations of being an elder, I recommend this book. It will help you as a small group leader, class teacher, friend, or parent. We all, whether men or women, should be growing in our impact for Christ as shepherd, mentor, and equip those God puts within our influence.

Simply go to the Free Downloads page and follow the directions for the free download.

This, along with Austin’s growing interest in sports, has me thinking more about the role of sports in the Christian life. So, it was nice timing when I came across an excellent sermon by C.J. Mahaney entitled Don’t Waste Your Sports.

The message is an application of 1 Corinthians 10:31 to the area of sports. He seeks to answer the question “How can I glorify God in my participation in sports?” I found it both helpful and personally challenging. As you listen, see if you don’t agree with me that much of what Mahaney talks about in relation to sports is equally applicable to many other areas of life.

First, Mahaney offers two basic principles…

1. Participation in sports must be informed by the knowledge of God. We must behold the glory of God before we can play to the Glory of God.
2. Participation in sports must be done as worship of God and not as an opportunity to bring attention or glory to ourselves.

Second, Mahaney recommends two basic practices…

1. Give thanks to God for sports. Sports are part of God’s kind design of humanity and a means of rest and refreshment, joy, and improved health.
2. Displaying godly character in sport. Sports can be an opportunity for the development and display of godly character. However, if our understanding of sports is more informed by culture than by Scripture, then the development and display of athletic skill will be more important to us than the development and display of godly character, turning a beautiful gift from God into something ugly.

Mahaney asserts that we can only glorify God when we play with humility. The humble athlete…

• pursues and welcomes critique and correction from coaches and teammates
• recognizes his own limitations
• recognizes that others are more skilled than he is
• encourages his teammates
• is gracious in defeat and is modest in victory
• respects coaches and officials
• assigns all glory to God and refuses to allow others to assign it to himself

Mahaney then gives some great advice for detecting when sports has become idolatry…

First, examine your heart and your time. Are you preoccupied with sports? Is your conversation more dominated with sports than God, family, church, etc.? Do you have an excessive passion for your favorite team, becoming overly elated when they win or depressed when they lose?

Second, are you more committed to playing or watching sports than to your local church? Mahaney gives a good, extended treatment of this that you’ll have to listen to yourself.

Whether you play, coach, parent, or watch, I highly commend this message to you. You can download it here.