2 MINUTE WARNING

Team sports give every person who plays them a great opportunity:

To Be A Great Teammate

In a stat driven world, this is hard to measure.  But it is very easy to see.  And it is so easy to see that I can remember great teammates on every team that I have played on and coached.  And these guys are the guys I have a heart for even today that goes well beyond their athletic performance.

Though hard to define, I can think of a few things that made them, in my mind, great teammates:

• A great teammate makes the people around him or her better.
• A great teammate motivates others and they want to play well for him or her.
• A great teammate celebrates team victories and others’ accomplishments.
• A great teammate takes responsibility for his or her team.

As we walk in the freedom of America and celebrate the fact that we live in an amazing country, let’s not forget about these very principles.

Because they are the foundation of the Christian faith.

Philippians 2 ⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The celebration of our faith is about Jesus rising from the dead.  But the only reason that happened is that Jesus went to it in the first place.  He “humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross”.

He was a great teammate.

As I began to write this today, I thought of a Kristian Stanfill song from 2017.  I think the words ring true from 2017 … but they also work for all of us as we move forward in 2022.

I needed rescue, my sin was heavy

But chains break at the weight of Your glory

I needed shelter I was an orphan

Now you call me a citizen of heaven

When I was broken You were my healing

Now Your love is the air that I am breathing

I have a future my eyes are open

Cause when you called my name

I ran out of that grave

Jesus celebrates a victory with you that you never could have attained on your own accord.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

One of the greatest disservices that we can give someone is to tell them:

“You can dream your dreams and be whoever you want to be”

“You have something in you that is unstoppable”

All of us need to hear the TRUTH.

My kids needed to hear this truth.

And I told them this truth from an early age:

You are NOT the center of the Universe … God is

You are NOT the most important person in our family … your mom is

You were born into sin … and without God, you have NO HOPE

For me, I needed to hear:

“You are selfish.  You are impatient.  You are sometimes very hard to get along with … But God loves you anyway.” … “In fact, He loves you so much that He chose to give His life that you might start again.”

Amen.

I need Jesus.

And I need Jesus because from the beginning of my conception I was rotten to the core.  Not just part of me, but ROTTEN TO THE CORE.

So this gospel for me today — TODAY — it is vital.  It isn’t just a small piece of who I am — it is literally my only hope.

And I might add to this that:  I am in no way capable, nor recommended, to be writing this blog.  I am inadequate.

But that’s just it.  That’s the whole point.  My inadequacy creates in me a need for the gospel that goes well beyond just a minor need.

It is oxygen to me.  It is the only way that I can survive.

So when I hear people disregard or disrespect or devalue it, I bow up.

And I am here to tell all who read this today:  Our society NEEDS this God, this Jesus, and His spirit.  We need His moral compass.  We need His hand.  And we sure as anything need His forgiveness.  We aren’t as great as we think we are and we have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITHOUT JESUS.

Paul knew this.

And he knew this because on a road to Syria in his most hideous of moments, he encountered Jesus and found out that he was not only not doing right by God, He found out he was flat out fighting against Him.

And so he dropped everything and found his life, and he found his life by losing it.  

This is not an easy word today.

It is not a “rainbows and lollipops” message.

This is a challenge from a broken man.

FIGHT FOR OUR GOSPEL

And fight for it like it means something.  Because IT MEANS EVERYTHING.

Philippians 1 ²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel

It is a simple message today.

And it is a simple message written from a man in prison.

IN PRISON!

When Paul found God, He found more peace being chained for Jesus than anything that the world could give him.

So what does Paul tell us?

Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel

Contend (of fight) as ONE man (or woman) to stand firm

Contend (or fight) for the faith

People are dying out there.  They are living as if there is no god and fighting for themselves.  They are utterly miserable because they are finding out that they aren’t nearly as great as they thought they were.

When I came to the realization that I was broken and got Jesus, it brought a freedom on me that I did not realize that I could have.  It brought truth to me.

And this TRUTH in Jesus is what will save me today.

So Fight today.  Fight to be in alignment with Him.

Fight to tell Him that you are utterly NOTHING without Him.

And, if you have to, FIGHT ALONE. 

Because He is worthy of your praise.  And He is your only hope.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Don’t Take The ANSWER Out Of The Life Equation.  When we are in need of where to go and what to do and who we are — we can never forget that we have God.  And in all things, He is not an answer—He is the ANSWER.

Every summer I start working with a new crop of football players.  It is exciting and fun.  But I always struggle saying goodbye to the ones who are leaving.

Keegan Patterson is already at USC.

Jack Moll is soon to be working out in San Diego.

Caleb Johnson will soon be in Flagstaff.

And this is just the beginning.  We will say goodbye to 

Kale and Emi and Sam and Austin and Kinnick and Ari and Trey

and Rylan and Gavin … and Kayla.

They will move on and start a new “season”.  And so will we.

Football season is a grind.  It can be exasperating.  It can be exhausting.  But in the midst of all of that effort, something happens in the locker room, on the field, and under the Friday night lights that is incredible.  Boys turn into men.  Players, and teams, do things BEYOND their ability.  There is exhilaration, and heartbreak.  The grind makes it go slowly,  but it also goes quickly, and before you can blink, it is over.  And it always takes me a couple of weeks to get over it.  

And when we start again in the summer, I see that “getting over it” continues on into the next season.  Every year I struggle at the “new” moments.  The first lifting.  The first practice.  The first game.  This summer is unique in that I will be contemplating not having my son Caleb and “my nephews”.  It is incredibly hard to say goodbye.

And yet, it is necessary.

God’s plan is to move us on and to grow us up.

His plan is for us to not stay connected to a routine that will not allow growth.  

His plan is for us to “step into the next season”.

I contemplate this “change of seasons” a lot.  Especially in my line of work.  But, as is always the case, God has the answers to the questions I have BEFORE I even ask them.

Solomon was writing the answer to my questions, and yours, before we even came to be.

Ecclesiastes 3 ¹ There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven: ² a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What does the worker gain from his toil?¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  ¹² I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  ¹³ That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil–this is the gift of God.  ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

God addresses some very real issues in the book of Ecclesiastes.  He addresses the meaning of life and our role in life as it rolls on.  I love Solomon’s comment:  ”He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

It is the classic “You Only Live Once” line.  

In fact, we do “only live once”.  But God assures us that when we are BORN AGAIN that we enter into something that is bigger than life when we take our last breath here on earth.

You see, we are spiritual beings in a physical world.  This is why we ask questions about life and about all of our trials and it is why we sometimes feel out of place or broken or down.

It is because “He puts eternity on our hearts but does not give us the answer.”

Take God with you where you go.

Don’t let go of His words and don’t let go of Him.

He was with you in your last trial, and He will be with you in your next one.

He is not one of your answers in your quest to navigate the road ahead.  He is your only ANSWER.

Love deeply.

Forgive.

Seek God in all of your decisions.

Give to others.

Give up your rights and surrender to Him.

It is in these things that you will find hope … and a future.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I might be wrong, but I wonder how often I have misrepresented Jesus in the public eye.

I first considered this when listening to a missionary who went to Beirut, Lebanon.  He made the comment that if he told people “I am an American Christian” his conversation did not go well (no kidding!).  His talks with people went differently, however, when he told them that he was a follower of Jesus.  Even the Koran says that the “followers of Jesus were greater than these”.

Following God can be totally misunderstood … by family, by friends, by colleagues, and certainly by people who do not know us.  Writing “More Than A Conqueror” on a shirt, demanding a political stance, or heaping accusations at a person who does not know God can lead people to misunderstand who God is.

And after all, the disciples themselves had no idea.  They were certain that he was there to overthrow — 

To Overthrow the religious establishment, 

To Overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Romans, 

and To Overthrow anything else that stood in their way.

And then Jesus was arrested and they scattered.  As they beat Him, strapped a cross on His back, and hung Him in humiliation and excruciating pain, they were devastated.  Their plan to “rule the world” was crushed, their hero was killed, and their hope was extinguished.

And then, He did the unthinkable.

He rose from the dead.

I am sure that they were greatly amazed BEFORE the questions arose in their minds:

Why couldn’t He have been discovered by men whose legal testimony would be valid, instead of by women?

Why did He invite the gentiles to come and worship Him as well?

And Romans?  Greeks?  Women?  What in the world was He doing?  What was He thinking?

He was Overthrowing the kingdom EXACTLY the way that He said He would.

He was making His followers die to something.

The issue of racism, and misogyny, and hatred of people who are different was settled 2000 years ago on a wooden cross — by Jesus!

Galatians 3 ²⁶ For all of you are God’s children through faith in the Messiah Jesus. ²⁷ Indeed, all of you who were baptized into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah.²⁸  Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female. ²⁹ And if you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants indeed, and heirs according to the promise.

I am shocked as I see people go at each other with passionate hate.

Our fight is not about politics.

It is not about abortion.

It is not about walls or health care or gas prices.

Our fight is about the entrance of Jesus into our society.

If we allow Him in — we can be saved.

And if we don’t, we will have a mess.

And all of us, ALL OF US, will have to give up something that we want for something that we need.

When people ask me if I am for something or against something — my answer will always hinge around what He says.

Because WHAT HE SAYS … Is the only thing that truly matters.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As I worship this morning I am compelled by Zach Williams words in his great song:

“You never gave up on me.  This is my testimony.”

His testimony is that God never gave up on him.

My testimony is that God never gave up on me.

And your testimony is that God never gave up on you.

We come with an offering:  Nothing

And He makes a trade to give us:  Everything

As I sit in my classroom for the final time today …

As I read the names of hundreds of kids as they cross the podium to graduate today …

And as I watch my son graduate with his greatest of friends …

I can’t help but celebrate and point a finger to the sky.

“You never gave up on me.  Or them.  This is our testimony.”

Mark 10 ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Can it be so simple?

Yes it can.

Jesus goes in my place, in your place, in all of our places, to free us from what we could never escape.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

There is nothing quite like competition.  

It brings out the best and the worst.

It forces an individual into a corner and challenges him or her to fight their way out.

It exposes.  And highlights.  And sometimes shames.  And it can also make one feel “bigger than they truly are”.

I have had the privilege of being in competitive situations for over 45 years.

I have seen it ruined.  And overemphasized.  And I have seen it done well.

Watching my father walk through a broken locker room and hug his kids still brings me to tears.  These are moments of love that are etched in time, and they are important moments that go way beyond the competition itself.

To pray with an athlete, or another coach, or even an opponent, before, during, or after a competition—there is NOTHING like it.

Why?

Because the King of the Universe shows up.  And He comforts and encourages and loves.

When we need Him—-He shows up.  And He shows up big.

When I think about this this morning, I am shocked:

James 4 ¹⁴ …. you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

God shows up for us.  And … if it is important to us—it is important to Him.

How can this be?  We are selfish.  We are full of sin and rebellion.  And we are of no consequence.  There are places on this planet where people literally mean nothing.  Life is not valued of even remembered.

But not to Him.

Our existence of little consequence means something to Him.

It means EVERYTHING to Him.

So much so that He sent Jesus.

This is not just a small deal—it is a trillionaire giving his estate to a homeless peasant.

What will you do with that estate?

Join me.

Let go.

And give it ALL to Jesus.

He knows how to manage it.

As I sat and wrote this this morning, I was reminded of this awesome Casting Crowns song.

Take some time to worship Him.  And thank Him.  And rest in Him.

It will be the best part of your day … and the only part that is  important

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I heard a pastor once say that “your heart will take you places that your head can not go”.

Nothing could be more true.  And nothing could be more eternally important.

Jeremiah warned us about how the heart can deceive us:

Jeremiah 17 ⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?

Solomon encouraged us to guard our heart:

Proverbs 4 ²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Solomon also encouraged us to give all of our heart to the Lord:

Proverbs 3  ³ Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

And Ezekiel quoted God, who told him that we would have a new heart—that God could actually replace our calloused heart with one that could love.

Ezekiel 36 ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And in His ministry, Jesus told us that whatever we chose to treasure, that our heart would follow us to it.

Matthew 6 ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Everyone who has used the terms “He showed heart”, “she loves him with all her heart”, or “the team played with a lot of heart” knows that there is more to this idea of heart than just the organ that pumps blood through our body.  It transcends how fast we are or how smart we are or how much time we have left to live.  Heart shows up in marriages and in teams.  It shows up in compassion and it shows up in our faith.  It reveals itself in our actions and in our financial transactions.

And the Bible is clear about this:  God WANTS our hearts.  He wants our hearts because when they belong to Him, they can not deceive, they can not be hardened, and love can flow from them in abundance.  He wants to give us a heart of flesh—a heart that beats for Him in all of His glory.  And He wants us to store up treasures in heaven and to have our hearts long for heaven.

God doesn’t want our knowledge or our good deeds.  He doesn’t want our resumes or our money or our fame.  He wants our HEARTS.  He wants us to pursue Him and get filled by His love so that we can give it away to others.

Gods’ love inside of us gives us purpose and power and impact.

If God is in our heart, we have a chance to make an incredible difference inside of OURSELVES AND OTHERS.

No one understood this more than Paul.

His vicious contempt for the rising of Christ followers was expressed in His heart.  He wanted to crush them and kill them and humiliate them.  It became an obsession.

But God captured His heart on a journey into Syria.

And He changed Paul’s heart in such a radical way that Paul changed his life in the craziest of ways.

And in His new journey he wrote this:

Ephesians 3 ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Fill your heart with God.  Fill it so that you know that you know—so that your love surpasses all the science and knowledge and logic.  Because when your heart is full of God, “your heart will take you places that your head can not go”.

Go to those places.  God is there.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Without food,

Without water,

And alone,

Jesus wandered into the wilderness to face our greatest foe.

In our desperation to find God, we sometimes question Him about where He is, what He is doing, and why He has left us to face things on our own accord.

But the truth is that He has walked in our shoes, He has faced the trials that we face, and He has been “hung out to dry” much more than we have.  And He has done this to show us that we, in fact, are not alone.  Even though we might feel like it.

The enemy has gathered support.

He has convinced a multitude to focus on things that mean nothing while he steals the things that mean everything.

I want to encourage you to stand up and draw a line in the sand.  Because if you don’t, his plan is to find out where your line actually is.  And while you are pondering this very important question, he plans to take everything … he is not a negotiator, he is not out for the common good, and he is not a lover of the King.

So draw your line.

Tell him to take a hike.

And declare Jesus as the King of the world — his world.

As you read the following passages from Matthew, focus on what Jesus says:

Matthew 4  

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan!  For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

• Verse 4:  Jesus is the bread of life.  He is the Living Water.  He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.  He—is our only hope.
• Verse 7:  We need to put our trust in Him and not look to other things for comfort, refuge, or help.  He—is our only hope.
• Verse 10:  We are to worship Him—and only Him.  As the Bible says:  We are to “worship in spirit and in truth”.  He—is our only hope.

The enemy is not going to defeat Jesus, or those who follow Him.

But we have to bring the gospel to those who don’t.

The enemy’s schemes and brainwashing and attempts to conquer will be grand.  But they will not succeed.  

And as I was writing this blog, I was reminded of an awesome worship song.

Enjoy it.

And as you enjoy it, I want to remind you of what John wrote in Revelation.

Revelation 19 ¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 

Our King rides a white horse.  

He has a golden sash across His chest.  

And he will decapitate anyone who stands against Him or those who love Him.

The earth, and everything in it, belong to Him.

So follow Him.

And share His gospel.

It is our ONLY HOPE.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIE33oW1m1E

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Coach J

When John wrote this verse 2000 years ago I think it meant more than the way we might read this today:

John 21 ²⁴ This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

This was written in Koine Greek and the word testimony is, in the Greek,

μαρτυρων

It is pronounced:  Mar-too-reh’-o

And is a derivative of the word Martyr.

In other words, this uneducated Jewish fisherman wrote this gospel and then said:

“We know that his testimony is true”

Now John often referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved and often talked about himself in third person.

I have meditated on this verse a lot since I heard a man named James Ryle talk about it many years ago.

I think a better translation (sorry NIV, NAS, or any other translation) might be:

I have seen this Jesus and these things with my own eyes.  I testify that they are true.  And I am willing to give my life for this testimony.

After all … isn’t that what a martyr is?

I believe this with all my heart and it inspires me.

This eyewitness.  This fisherman.  This man.  He saw Jesus and he decided that this earth was no longer his home.

And he wrote a book of the Bible to let us know that.

He truly ANSWERED WITH HIS LIFE.

This is not a watered down gospel.  This is the gospel of Jesus and it is written to EVERYONE.  Your resume, your money, your status or popularity, your talent — they literally mean nothing.  At the end of your life, the only thing that will matter is your standing with Jesus.

And this isn’t just the recipe for the eternal.  It is the recipe for the now.

John 5 ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Upon first view, this is the dumbest question in the Bible.

But, as usual, God is right—and we are wrong.

This is the question that all of us must answer.

Do You Want To Get Well?

In your life?

In your relationships?

In your marriage?

In your work?

In your sports?

In your business?

In your raising of kids?

In your dating?

In your … (you fill it in)

When I have not included Jesus in things—They have NOT GONE WELL.

And I am so convicted by this that I am willing to leave it out there with you if you don’t want to do it that way.

JUST REMEMBER THIS WORD.

Because when it all goes poorly come back to it.

It is the key to your eternity.

And it is the key to your now.

Do what John did.

Do what the guy at the pool did.

ANSWER WITH YOUR LIFE

You will not regret it.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J