GYC 2017: Arise

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Competitive Christianity: Sports & Spirituality

Wes Peppers

1. Prayerful Character or Prideful Contempt?

This message was presented at the GYC 2017 conference, Arise, in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Is that oatmeal weighing heavy on your bellies this morning, huh?

Well, I'm glad to see you guys, and we're going to get started here.

I was trying to find a clock for my phone.

I was standing there because I want to make sure there's no clocks in here.

I want to make sure that we are moving at a right direction.

So we're going to take a little journey here.

I don't think that this subject has ever been covered at GYC, At least not as a whole seminar, maybe somebody touched on it.

But it is a subject that I think has not been 1 that's very popular in the last several years.

But I think that as time, as we're, and it's 1 that I think, honestly, God in his mercy has somewhat laid in the quiet for a while, if that makes sense, in the last several decades.

But as we're getting closer to the soon coming of Jesus, I believe that this is a subject that is increasingly relevant for God's people.

And those who are seeking to become like Christ, It's especially important.

And so we're going to take a very fair, very balanced approach looking at this.

I'm going to give you the information, and I'm going to invite you to make your own decision based upon the conclusions you find in the Bible, Spirit of Prophecy, science, and many other things.

And so I'm excited to share this with you.

I hope that you'll pray for me because this week has not been the best week for me.

Monday night, Christmas, I ended up in the ER.

I had a fever, I was vomiting, I had a migraine, I had dizziness, and it was really bad.

And so they gave me some medication and I came out.

Tuesday I felt pretty good, then yesterday I felt really bad again.

And they gave me some more stuff, and I'm feeling better today.

Like, what is exactly this guy going to say about this?

I'm not sure, you might be skeptical in here.

I'm going to share a little bit of my testimony.

But we're going to just see what the Lord has to say ultimately.

I took off my suit coat because I don't, does it seem hot in here to you guys?

Before we dive into this, I'll just tell you that the first 2 presentations are probably going to bleed over into the afternoon presentations.

And so, so we'll probably end up with 4, I mean 3 and 4 today, but that's okay.

And then tomorrow, I have a very special subject I want to encourage you to be here for.

It's going to talk about competitive sports and the role of righteousness by faith.

How does it actually impact our direct daily relationship with God.

And so, that's going to probably be the most powerful 1 that's going to wrap up all these other ones.

So, how many of you know what church hopping is?

Yeah, you're going to different churches.

And what's the problem with church hopping?

You're not grounded and you're not becoming actively involved in your local church.

You're not, you know, some people I say, some very talented people in the local church, as a pastor, I would ask them to do certain duties or take certain offices, and they would say, oh no, pastor, we couldn't do that because we're gonna be here, we're gonna be there, we're gonna be everywhere, right?

So is church hopping a very good thing to do if you wanna strengthen your local church?

So there's a very similar thing called seminar hopping.

So I want to encourage you don't just, if you don't want to be in this 1 fine go now and find another 1 But don't jump to every seminar because you're not going to get the greatest blessing the greatest blessing We found if you stick with 1 while you're here, and then listen to the rest on audio verse or whatever that makes sense But if you're just getting a piece here and a piece there, it's not gonna be as great a benefit to you.

So I'm hoping that if you're in here, you're gonna stay in here.

Well, let's have prayer together, and then we're gonna dive in.

I think I told you everything I wanted to tell you ahead of time, that I'm sick, and it's a popular, becoming a popular, not a popular subject, but a relevant subject, and I think you'll see why.

It's very, very important and I think it's much broader and much deeper than most people realize.

So let's have a word of prayer, then we'll dive in, okay?

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here together.

Such a relevant topic for God's people in this age.

In the final moments of earth's history, Lord, we recognize that our lives need to be in harmony with heaven's ideals, heaven's principles, heaven's culture.

And We pray today, Father, that that would be the deepest desire of our own hearts, that we would be 1 with you in heaven, 1 with each other on earth, and that we would seek to elevate and uplift humanity.

This is our prayer today, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

All right, I want to recommend to you a resource.

Much of this talk, there's a DVD that I've done.

I only have 1 of these and I think they're here and they may have some there at the booth I don't know But if you go online and type in competitive Christianity You can either find it online for free or you can get the DVD somewhere another 1 I want to recommend is a book called Wounded in the House of His Friends.

How many of you have ever seen this book?

It's by Ron Duffield, a very excellent book.

And there's another book that he has called The Return of the Latter Rain, and he's about to come out with a part 2.

This book right here has several chapters that deal with this subject, and some of the stuff I'll present tomorrow will be based out of this book, and so I want to encourage you to get that book and read it.

All right, I want to share my testimony just a little bit.

How many of you grew up as Seventh-day Adventists?

Yeah, grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist home?

How many of you did not grow up as Seventh-day Adventists?

All right, that's a very small majority of you.

I'm among, or minority I should say, I'm among the minority here.

I did not grow up as a Seventh-day Adventist.

I've been in the church now for about 15 years.

2. Self Worth or Self Period?

And we'll have stragglers that'll come in, so that should fill us back up.

So I know that probably several of you had questions after that first session.

I mean, you had questions, what about this, what about that, What do you think about this and this?

We'll probably answer those questions as we go.

And we're gonna talk about, like I said, I'm just gonna tell you this ahead of time, that and then we'll come to it and we'll unpack it a little bit more.

But as I said at the break, what I'm not doing is saying you should not do any kind of sport.

But the balancing element is, does it, am I striving to have dominance over someone else?

And so, I want you to understand that before we keep going here.

But let's pray, and then we'll dive back in.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come back for part 2.

And we just ask your special blessing to be with us now, that the Holy Spirit would enlighten our minds and our hearts, that you would give me energy and clarity of thought from being sick this week Lord I just pray that your presence would be in this room but more importantly in our hearts and in our minds we ask this in Jesus name amen.

Alright so in the first segment we talked about the idea or the concept that sports build what?

Based upon science and evidence, did we find that in most cases, sports Build character or do sports typically decline character?

Competitive sports, when I say that, sports.

And not necessarily building character, but revealing character, right?

So the second point that many people make is that sports will build self-esteem.

How many of you have heard this concept before, that sports build self-esteem?

And this type of setting, in the setting of competitive sports, self-worth is based on my own performance or my dominance of other people.

Does my self-esteem build, I mean, how many of you have ever played football?

Just raise your hands if you've played like high school football or college football or something.

Does it build the offensive lineman's self-esteem when the quarterback or the running back gets all the touchdowns and all the glory and all the girls, so to speak?

And so my point is, does it build my self-esteem in competitive sports when others do well?

But it only builds my self-esteem when who does well?

Therefore, in order for me to do well, someone else must do worse.

I mean it's just going to be the natural effect.

If I'm going to do better, someone else has to do worse.

I remember when I was in high school, we were in a practice and there were 2 other guys that could even remotely come close to my level of playing and I'm not saying that again boastfully but I just was the biggest and the best on the team is just the way it was just the fact But these 2 guys came the closest.

The 1 guy was about this tall and he was about this wide.

And the other guy was actually taller than me, but he wasn't as broad or as.

And I remember we were in a drill, and I had to be the best.

And I remember both of them, they were coming off and I had to come out and I had to hit them.

And 1 of the guys, I caught him off guard, knocked him flat on his back so that everybody would know who's the best, right?

The other guy, he was kind of like staggering like this because he lost his footing.

I plowed him when he had lost his footing just so that everyone else would see how hard he would hit the ground and that everyone would know that he was nowhere close to me.

I mean like you might say well that's extreme but the reality is when you truly think about it and when you truly are honest with yourself.

That is the mindset of most team players.

They may it you may you may you may string them up on a rack before they would actually admit that.

But that is the mindset that I might be on a team, but I'm going to be the best on the team So in that setting self-worth is based upon my own performance or domination of others it comes from myself Not from who?

Not from God Shall we find out who is the greatest, the prettiest, the best, the strongest, and the smartest?

Bigger, as you can see from this picture, is not always what?

I mean, if I'm a big fish and I go in the same size bowl as the other fish, I'm in trouble, right?

You ever heard big fish in a little pond?

But when I got to the big pond In college, as I told you my first day of college football practice in the last session, I found out that I was a little fish in a big pond, right?

And there's always somebody, no matter how big, no matter how strong, no matter how good you are, There's always going to be somebody bigger, stronger, and better than you.

2 Corinthians 10 verse 12, the Bible speaks very powerfully on this.

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.

But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise." So that whole concept of competitive sports where I'm going to be the best, is that wise or unwise according to scripture?

We're commending, we're comparing ourselves, classing ourselves, commending ourselves, measuring ourselves.

That just leaves, how many of you get stressed out when you have to do that?

I mean with guys it's who's the biggest, strongest, and baddest.

For girls it's who's the prettiest, who's the skinniest, who's the most fashionable or whatever.

I mean, it goes, same thing with girls, just as it does with guys, right?

And the Bible says, look, what a wonderful thing that we can be free from that and not have to live that kind of a life.

That's what the gospel offers to us, you understand.

It offers us freedom from that kind of anxiety and stress of always having to worry that I'm number 1.

How many think God is good to offer that to us?

Because there's only 1 that's the best, amen?

First Corinthians 13, 4-6, love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous.

Does not take into account a wrong suffered.

3. Enhancing or Endangering Spirituality?

All right, well, are you ready for part 3?

We're going to finish this presentation and we're going to talk a little bit in this segment about balance.

And then, how many of you knew that the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the General Conference, the voted world body, actually has a position on competitive sports.

They actually have an official statement on that subject.

And you know, there's a lot of confusion about a lot of subjects in our church, music, dress, all kinds of things.

And did you know that like the church manual just highlights and hits all those things.

The church manual is a beautiful guide that directs us in issues and and matters of that come up in the church.

But so many people, how many of you ever, no maybe I shouldn't ask that question, How many of you have ever read the church manual?

When I say read it, I don't mean like page 122.

But I want to challenge you today to go and read the church manual.

It's like 100 and something pages, maybe closer to 200, but it's not boring at all.

And a lot of the things that you wonder, like why is the church doing this?

And it's all laid out in the church manual.

And some of those things are good things that the church isn't doing, maybe your local church or whatever.

Some of those things are bad things that are good things that they should be doing that aren't.

Some of them are bad, and they shouldn't be doing them, but they are.

But if you read that thing, it's a beautiful thing.

And if we would be committed to A, the Bible, first and foremost, yes, B, the spirit of prophecy, and then if we would view that church manual as something of authority because God's world church came together, put that thing together and voted it.

It is a document of man, so it certainly doesn't hold the authority of scripture, but it does have authority in church policy matters.

And if we would adhere to that church manual, I can promise you that like probably 85 to 90% of the issues would just kind of dissolve away.

I mean, we wouldn't have issues if people said whatever the church, whatever the Bible says, the Spirit of Prophecy and the Church Manual, I'm gonna follow it, as long as it doesn't conflict with Scripture, which it doesn't, we would have amazing things.

And the rest of the problems would dissolve if we all committed to winning souls wherever we are.

If we would go about giving Bible studies and doing missionary service and etc., then the rest of the problems in the church would fade away and we'd become more and more like the Book of Acts.

How many of you think that would be a good place for our church to go?

And so I want to challenge you at GYC this year, that by next GYC, or hey, you could do it by the end of next month, read that church manual.

How many of you are willing to accept that challenge?

All right, How many of you are willing to think about it?

Alright, well let's have prayer together and then we're going to get back into it.

I've been feeling better and you know if I say something just off the wall, you blame it on the sickness, because I do have a moment or 2 of dizziness, but the Lord has given me strength that I know I don't have, so it's evidence.

You know, I hate to even say this, but, because I don't want it to be weird, but I won't even say, I won't say who it was.

But there was a very well-known person in our church that I respect very much, and I believe that this person is really full of the Spirit of God.

And last night, 1 of the most humble people I know, and last night we were in the back preparing to come out to present, to talk about our seminars.

You guys remember that if you were there?

I was just sitting there and I was talking to a few people and I just felt bad.

And this person came up to me to greet me, because I know them.

I don't want to get you sick, so I'll just greet you from afar.

And he just put his hand on my head for about 3 or 4 seconds.

And then he just, and then he started talking to me.

And it was not but a few minutes later that I started feeling much better.

And when I went out on the stage, I felt like I wasn't even sick.

And that was a testament, I know the Lord was in that.

And let me tell you, the Lord wants to do those kind of things for all of us.

You know, and we don't put our faith in miracles, but when they happen, they are a blessing.

And, and it's a joy because we see firsthand the Lord working.

Okay, let's have prayer and then we're going to dive in.

Precious Father, we thank you once again to be in this place.

We ask for your spirit to be close to us, to speak to us, to move our hearts, Lord, towards decision.

And we ask, Father, that as we compile this information, that it would turn into transformation.

That it wouldn't just be something we take home and say, those were nice things to think about, but they'd actually make a difference in our lives.

And that's only going to be the case if you are uplifted and you are in the center of that.

So I pray that you would be uplifted today.

I pray that you would speak to our hearts.

I pray that you would convict our hearts.

And Lord, afflict us if we need to be conflicted, But draw us near to your heart Lord, whatever it takes.

Make us, break us, and mold us into your image Lord.

So I kind of Beat you up a little bit and the first 2 seminars But now we're going to look at a little bit of the opposite side And we kind of ended by asking the question in our session 2 Is God trying to take away our fun?

4. Friendly Competition or Great Controversy?

Alright, I think we were going to start at 4.05, but here's what I want to do.

Before we go into the last segment here, I wanted, because I've been wanting to do this and we always run out of time, but I want to take some questions.

And I know that a lot of you have come up to me to get some clarification on certain things, but does anybody have any questions that you want to ask before we jump into the next 1?

Can we get somebody to use the mic and take it around so that, because they'll be recording it.

Let me just, yeah, just hand this to that brother here.

So this is my first time, This is my first class here.

I was just wondering, is playing in any type of sport something that God wouldn't approve of?

You mean when you say any kind of sport, what exactly do you mean?

Yeah, and I talked a little bit, were you in the last session?

But basically, the overall bottom line element is, is whatever I'm doing causing me to strive for superiority or dominance over someone else.

But organized competition, really, there's no way to do that.

Series

Competitive Christianity: Sports & Spirituality

3. Enhancing or Endangering Spirituality?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

GYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Resurrecting the Church

52m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

2. Encountering God

1h 5m

The How and Why of God's Sanctioned Fasts

05 The True Spirit of Fasting

55m

Plenary

My Testimony

1h 9m

Competitive Christianity: Sports & Spirituality

4. Friendly Competition or Great Controversy?

1h 4m

GYC 2011 Seminar: If I Go, He Will Come

What On Earth Is HE Waiting On, Part 1

1h 50m

GYC 2013 Plenary Sessions

GYC 2013 Sabbath Divine Service

59m

Following in Their Footsteps

46m

GYC 2011 Plenary Sessions

Fitting In To Heaven

59m

Devoted Devotions: A Vibrant Devotional Life for the Last Days

Solitary Time with the Savior

1h

Plenary

Arise, Go

1h

GYC 2012 Seminar: Streams of Light

The “In” of the “In and Out”: The Shaking, Literature, and Eschatology

52m

Sound Doctrine