WORLDLY or WORLD CLASS
Scripture: Romans 8:29–32 says, “For those [you and me] God Foreknew [before you came to earth] he also predestined [Had a special plan for] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. . . . And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Wow! What a purpose, an empowering, and a promise. Christ died for you, was raised to life for you, and is with the Father right now and is interceding for you. This is true love, and it shows the successfulness of God’s special plan for you and me. How significant is this?
Keep in mind that you can be Christian coach or player and have great success in this world. You can achieve something from nothing and receive great respect and honor from those around you. I’ve been there and done that several times. The problem is that success in the world we live and in the eyes of men and women mean achieving only by the world’s standards. Such success is seasonal as is the game you play and coach. So you live from one season to the next and that’s how you get measured up for your next opportunity to succeed. Sounds kind of normal and we have all been in this cycle of success before.
The cycle becomes, as compared to eternity, a moment in time which doesn’t last. When we chase this kind of success on our own and for ourselves, our players, teammates, schools, our family and community, but we are really serving our egos. We pray for wins, championships, and bigger budgets (or to keep the ones they have). It’s all about success, control, pleasures and what we want. As Christian we sometime bring to the table what we want and not what God’s plan is for us.
For the Christian coach or player, soccer must be about how God can help you reach success, achieve goals, and fulfill purposes for His significance, not your own. In God’s eyes, success happens when you make a commitment to serve Him wholeheartedly (100%). When you do that, He can work through you with the gifts He’s given you, so the outcome of your efforts ultimately will impact others significantly in the game for great spiritual purposes.
Worldly coaches and players know they are on a mission to serve themselves or someone else, and their success is short term. World-class coaches know they are made for a mission and see that the outcomes of their successes will be used to serve God significantly long-term.
World-class coaches and players become servants to those around them. Their significant work for Christ through their personal qualities and passions truly becomes their influence to serve and to teach not only the game of soccer but Christ through Biblical principles. These men and women are ready to be used by God and will go boldly before their players and the world to be significant. They glow with confidence and peace, having a joy about them that’s contagious. Those who have the opportunity to be around them, learn from them, and be mentored and prayed for by them will be impacted. They think, speak, act and teach about His Kingdom through soccer for significance, not for the personal success of their leadership.
God has given you a mission, and it’s not an impossible job for you. He tells us that He’ll never leave us or forsakes, and His promises are real, true, and justified. He wants you to impact others significantly. Most of our successes have been by the world’s standards and have been based on our personal hard work. Work is a natural part of success. But God wants us to look past the immediate impact of success to a higher level of thinking, acting, and repeating—impacting those around us for His significance.
Philippians 4:13 relates the key concept that it is through Him (not ourselves) that we have strength for success to be significant. You see, Christ gave up His life so that He could give life to you and that He could live His life through you and in you. The Lord’s promise in John 10:10b is this: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
We’re on a planned journey that God has for us, and it’s a day-to-day process of growing that takes place during our lifetimes. He wants to fulfill Himself in us as we journey with the Great Counselor, the Holy Spirit. We are His partners (teammates), designed specifically for His team. Being significant for Christ in this world means that we need to be a world class imitator of Christ and remaining in Him is part of that growing process and the fullness of life He has planned for us.
Do the game and the Game of Life for Him alone.
Paul Banta
President/Founder of GSM International
www.GlobalSoccerMinistries.org843.235.3762
pbanta@sc.rr.com
