sermonette: Play to Win
Jarod Ritenbaugh
Given 10-Oct-26; Sermon #1896s; 13 minutes
Description: (show)
Driven by the innate desire to win that characterizes athletic competition, this reflection explores how a fiery competitive spirit aligns with a biblical framework. While earthly victories offer fleeting satisfaction, the apostle Paul reframes competitiveness as an essential virtue in the Christian walk, comparing faith to a high-stakes race for an imperishable crown. Rather than competing against fellow believers, Christians face a spiritual adversary—Satan—and fight against worldly distractions with Jesus Christ as their greatest ally. Given the eternal consequences of defeat outlined in scripture, believers are encouraged to channel their drive into intense, purposeful pursuit of God's Kingdom, ensuring that, like Paul, they can fight the good fight, finish the race, and secure the crown of righteousness.
I've been competing since I was very young. Be it baseball as a kid, swimming as a teen, running now as an adult, flag football with the guys at church, putt putt competitions at the feast. Video games with my brother and cousins, you name it. I've tried competing in it and giving it my all. Me and my brother Eric have talked in the past about this very fact. That we basically competed together in competitive video games since we were very, very young. And we got on the topic of what we found so fundamentally fun about it. We both essentially had the same answer. That winning is fine. Don't get us wrong, we both find great joy in simply participating in a competitive match, even if it ends in a loss. But the motivation behind that joy is very simple. You play to win. If you do not, how can the competition for victory be fun? The only way you play without the motivation to win and still win is if there is such a great talent mismatch or knowledge mismatch that you just coast to victory due to your superior athleticism or game knowledge. And where is the fun in that? Does anybody truly enjoy beating down on somebody new to the sport or somebody who's far less gifted than you in a particular competitive discipline? How is that fulfilling? What did you prove besides inflating your own ego? You see, this is an idea that's been bouncing around in my empty skull for several years now. I even gave a speech on it for a speech club, though I'll take this sermon in a much different direction than that speech. It began when I started to develop a great admiration for some all-time greats in their disciplines, people like Tom Brady or Michael Jordan, for instance. But my admiration was not really for their accomplishments on the field or court, though those definitely contributed. But more for the part of their game that most people did not see if they only watched their games and moved on. It was their hunger. Their borderline psychotic obsession with being the best, with winning. Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, was asked in an interview once, which ring is your favorite? And his answer was very simple. The next one. I could probably fill this entire message, retelling stories of guys like Tom Brady and Michael Jordan doing or saying wild things all to serve the purpose of winning. So, in order to avoid having to talk about Tom Brady's insane diet, I want to examine this idea of playing to win by asking the question, how is competition framed biblically? We're going to come at this idea of what I'll call the Christian competition by posing and answering some questions that we might throw at the concept. And just to set everyone's expectations up properly, I'm coming at the concept with the idea that the Christian competitive mindset is a generally good thing, and something worth pursuing. But only if properly channeled. But we will address some of those questions as we go. First, we have to identify what we are competing for in the first place. What does victory look like? This is probably the easiest question we will answer today, and the one with the simplest response. We're going to answer this by turning to the verse everyone probably expects me to find my way to eventually in I Corinthians chapter 9. This is out of the ESV as usual. We'll be picking up verses 24 and 25. I Corinthians 9:24-25. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath. But we, an imperishable. This is the most striking imagery of comparing our calling to a competition. Paul puts essentially my entire point into two short verses. We'll put the rest of these verses on the back burner for now and focus on answering the question. We are competing for an imperishable wreath, the crown of life, eternal life. Pretty good reward, wouldn't you say? But it's one that's hard to keep your eye on. In physical sports, you play for a trophy, or money, or the ability to tell your friends they suck. Competing for a goal that our minds can barely comprehend is significantly harder. There are old adages like, keep your eyes on the prize that are extremely applicable and even easier to follow through with when you're obsessed with winning, like my examples of Tom Brady and Michael Jordan from earlier. Second question I want to address, who or what are we competing against? It's not a competition without competitors after all. I think this has a couple of answers that essentially point back to the same thing. We're competing against ourselves, meaning our human nature, against Satan the devil. We real, and really there are adversaries all around us. The world is against God's way of life fundamentally, making them our opponent as well. However, it's not a very productive mindset to go around thinking everyone is against you and falling into a victim mindset. So Uh, truthfully, I could go, I could spend so much time going over who and what we are battling against, first and foremost being our own carnality, in my opinion. But let's focus in on who the Bible specifically labels as our adversary, Satan the devil. And we will go ahead and pick up this verse where it's brought forward in First Peter. I Peter 5. We'll just be picking up verses 8 and 9. Verse 8 Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. It's a dangerous game we play against Satan. An opponent so cunning and dangerous that even giving up one point might send you on a slide to losing the entire competition. To extend that metaphor, we are fortunate that we have the greatest player of all time on our team to help us in our fight, referring to, of course, Jesus Christ. Asking what the stakes of the game are. May not immediately come to mind when asking about a standard pickup basketball game, but in this case, we do have to consider it. What happens if we lose? Usually, it would be some frustration. Maybe you'd feel a little dejected or humiliated if you got absolutely rinsed by somebody. We already answered the question of what we gain if we win this game. But not the consequences of defeat. Again, the answer shouldn't surprise anybody. Losing the good fight of faith is eternal death. Condemnation to the Lake of Fire. But like with the other questions we posed, let's take a look at it from the Bible, this time from Hebrews. Hebrews 10 We're picking up Versus 26 through 31. Verse 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Look, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Rather harrowing, is not it? If we wanted, we could look at Revelation 14:9 through 12 as well, where it talks more about falling to temptation, the temptation of the beast, and forsaking our calling. It's a serious game we are playing, one where there really is not the option to lose. As we begin winding down this metaphor of our conversion process as a competition, I want to bring it back a little to the idea we started with. How can those of us Who are unreasonably competitive. Channel that character trait in a positive manner. I think most of us who are like this have come to the conclusion over the years that more often than not, being a fiery competitor doesn't really mesh well with the message in the Bible. We're supposed to love one another, outdo each other in generosity, defer to each other, clothe ourselves in humility, and so on. None of those things are really the mark of a great competitor. So we should just squash that side of us, right? Well, maybe not. Much like how godly zeal must be treated with a great deal of self-control. Just look at Peter for an example of that. I think having a competitive streak can also be controlled and channeled towards the right things. Paul extorts Timothy in I Timothy 6:12 to fight the good fight of faith. And to the Philippians in Philippians 3:13-14 to strain towards the goal. Both of these verses picture a great intensity of competing for the prize. Of taking our conversion process seriously and approaching it with the fervor it deserves. Now, do I think having a fiery competitive nature should be listed in the fruits of the Spirit or something? Absolutely not. Frankly, it really is more dangerous of an attitude than anything when you can't control it properly. But I do think it's an incredibly useful tool in the Christians' toolbox if they can redirect that energy in a positive manner. It just has to be channeled properly and with control at the right things. Competing brother against brother is not very helpful and oftentimes will cause far more harm than good. However, that doesn't mean we have to completely quench our fiery passion for winning completely. Because at the end of the day, we do have to win. Losing is not an option in our race for the kingdom of God. I want to close by reading II Timothy 4. II Timothy 4 will pick up versus 7 and 8. Whenever I get there. II Timothy 4:78, we will be reading Paul's estimation of his own competition as he approached the end of his life. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Do we want to also receive that crown when we cross the finish line in our race? Then we'd better play to win.
JTR/aws+/
Sermon Topics
The Gospel
