“Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.” — John 15:4
Imagine this scenario. The season just ended and you are cleaning out your locker. Before everyone leaves, the coach comes in and lets you know that he will still hold optional practices in the offseason for those who want to keep working on their craft. When the next season starts, who do you think will be best positioned for success? The ones who continued practicing with the coach and followed his training program or the ones who did their own thing?
In John 15:1-7, Jesus has a similar locker room-type discussion with His disciples. He knows the cross is near, marking the end of the season of life with His followers. But He encourages them to stay connected with Him. In fact, He repeatedly tells them to remain. Jesus implores His disciples to stay, to remain in Him and in His words because He knows it will best position them for spiritual success. The message echoes to us today. Will we stay connected to Him and His words, or will we navigate sport—and life—on our own?
WARM-UP DISCUSSION
Who are you most connected with in your sport? What do you do to stay connected?
What do you think it means to be connected to God?
WORKOUT
Relationship > Results
Did you know that there are 18 recorded miracles performed by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark? He calmed a storm, fed thousands of people with limited food, healed sickness and paralysis, walked on water, and even raised someone from the dead. Aside from performing miracles, He also lived a sinless life, sacrificed Himself on the cross as a payment for our sin and rose from the dead. That’s an impressive career! The Father must have been really proud of His Son, right? That’s how things work within the economy of sport. Affirmation, value, worth and connection are offered after we perform and achieve success in competition.
But God’s measurement for connection rests on an entirely different scale. We see a glimpse of this in the beginning of Mark, before Jesus has performed any miracles or even started His ministry on earth. In Mark 1:9-11, Jesus gets baptized and when He comes out of the water, the Father’s audible voice from heaven declares, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:11).
Wait. How can He be pleased with Jesus before Jesus has done anything spectacular? Wouldn’t these words be better placed at the end of Mark when Jesus sat down at the right hand of God?
God proved that His connection to and pleasure with Jesus was not based on results or stats. It was based on a relationship with His Son. What does that mean for the rest of us?
Q: How are your results (stats, performance, playing time) connected to how others feel about you? How you feel about yourself?
Q: How does it change your perspective knowing God does not look at the results but the relationship?
Starting the Relationship
You don’t need to perform for God. You don’t have to do or prove anything to earn His favor or His love. You may swim fast in the water, but He doesn’t require you to be the best—or even to walk on it in order to be connected to Him. He gives it freely to those He calls sons and daughters. This should lead to an obvious question: How do we become a son or a daughter?
The Bible is pretty clear that we are not born into God’s family. In fact, quite the opposite. It says in Ephesians 2:3 that we were born as “Children under wrath.” At some point in our life, to be connected relationally to God, we need to be adopted into His family. You can check out page 3 to fully understand what God has done to make it possible for this to happen—and our required response. But here is the short version. Our sin not only disconnects us from God in the present, it also makes us deserving of disconnection (death) from Him for eternity. Knowing that we cannot prove our way out of this, God sent His Son, Jesus, to prove it for us. Jesus lived perfectly and died on our behalf. This perfect life and substitutionary death proved to be enough to cover the sins of the entire world. The only requirement on our end is to place our faith in Jesus and declare Him as Savior and Lord. To connect to Him, we must confess our sins and commit our allegiance to Him. That’s it!
All of us long to hear that someone is well-pleased with us. Those words are available to you today. Stop striving and straining to earn God’s favor through your performance and place your faith—and your life, in Jesus.
Q: Why do you think it’s hard for athletes to receive something without earning it?
Q: Why do you think God wants to be connected with you?
WRAP-UP We’re proven when we understand how God is connected to us.
God desires intimacy with us.
We are able to connect, remain and flourish with Christ as God’s son or daughter.
God declares His good pleasure with us based on relationship, not results.
Key Action: If you want to know more about being connected to God through Christ go to The FOUR. If you haven’t connected your heart to Jesus Christ, talk to your Huddle leader about making that life-changing decision today.