Sports and Idolatry

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Ebendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio.

My name is Steve Cooley. And I'm Mike Ebendroth. Is that how I sound? That's exactly how you sound.

The melodious tones. I'm trying to think of different shows, TV shows, that had cool announcers, cool sidekicks. What about Gary Owens? Gary Owens, you know, that was the guy that was in my mind, but I was thinking Doc Severinsen instead.

Gary Owens, wasn't that Ronan Martin's laughing?

I think that was, and No Compromise Radio is not in any way, shape, or form approving of the content of laughing.

Something that almost nobody has ever seen before, because if you're younger than, what, 45, you never saw the show.

I'm 51, and Steve, now how old are you? I'd rather not say. Just to maintain the mystery. Steve's 61, but he sounds like he's 51. And here at Bethlehem Bible Church, we're working on Steve's transition time as he would get closer to retirement, and who would replace him?

Oh, that's so nice of you. Today on No Compromise Radio, we would like to talk about the subject that's near and dear to all your hearts. Sports. This show is taped in advance, but last night, the Boston Bruins became the, I guess, would that be world champions?

Well, that's kind of pushing it. NHL champions. The Stanley Cup, they won the Stanley Cup, because world champions, you know, they actually do have a world hockey championship like every two years or something.

That's probably true,.

And then they have the Olympics and other things. So we began to think, Steve and I, about sports, and we would like to talk to you about sports and how you prioritize sports in your life. And do you miss church worship services on Sunday because of your kids' sports?

Do you miss Sunday's worship service because of the Super Bowl? There's lots of questions we could ask, but Steve, let's start off in a non-no-compromise way, and that is to say, is there anything inherently wrong with sports?

Well, that's a fluffy, huggy question. No, there's nothing inherently wrong. Otherwise, I wouldn't have my beloved UCLA Bruin basketball team and my beloved USC Trojan football team. Now, see, how does that work out?

You're supposed to be consistent, and if you have a team, you root for the team. You don't pick and choose some kind of lottery form.

Yeah, you know, I just grew up in LA, and I sort of, I fell in love with the coaches, and so it's just always, you know, John Wooden and John McKay, and that was just sort of the way it was.

Steve, it wasn't that the UCLA Bruins were winning in the 60s and the USC, the basketball team and the USC Trojans were winning in the early 70s? That might have something to do with it, too. That's right.

You know, what can I say? I'm a front-runner, but Cal State Long Beach, I really like the coach.

But you know, the thing is, still today, I mean, if the Bruins are horrible, I still follow them, and if the Trojans are horrible or they're getting slapped with ridiculous sanctions,.

I still, you know, follow them, so. Well, from now on in no-compromise land, when you say Bruins, it's the Boston Bruins.

It might be, although I'll probably always preface it by saying the Boston Bruins, because it's pretty, I mean, you know, I have nothing against the Bruins, but they're not, you know, the Bruins, so.

Sports, obviously, there's nothing wrong with sports. Maybe some of you don't like sports because you're pacifists and you don't want competition. Maybe you're a socialist and you don't like competition.

Maybe you're a communist and you don't like Pacifists? I mean Yeah, where you can't hurt someone. Pacifists don't like war. No, well, they don't like sports either because they don't want any elbowing or checking or cross-checking or, you know, blindside blocking or something, and you just need to stay at home.

And so, see, I have my own rules.

And live in a hermetically sealed bubble. I like that.

Thank you. If I put an envelope to my head like Kreskin, what would be in the envelope, Steve? Mm.

So It's not Kreskin, by the way. Kreskin was the guy who bent spoons into Oh, yeah, who's that? It was the amazing Carnac. Carnac, for years. So you said that a few weeks ago in a sermon, and I just go, it wasn't Kreskin.

Oh, it was Cognac. No, Carnac.

That's right, Carnac. So we like sports, and I think if you think about life Jewishly, that is Old Testament, New Testament, like a Jew would, and you think of shalom and wholeness, certainly exercise and leisure, at your leisure.

That was Brian Regan, I think, is at your leisure. Bored at your leisure. I think it's fine to play sports. I like sports.

I like sports, too. I used to, you know, I always say the biggest joy this side of heaven for me would be if I could play basketball again. That's probably not gonna happen, not unless they come up with Miracle Knees, you know, something like that, but that would be awesome.

I love sports.

Sports on Sunday and the Danger of Missing Corporate Worship

But what about sports on Sunday, especially Sunday morning? Let me give you another kind of caveat, Steve. I'm not a Sabbatarian, and so I'm not against throwing You're not. No, I'm not. I am not against throwing a Frisbee in the front lawn on Sunday with my son.

I almost said with my brother, but I call my brother my son sometimes.

I hope nobody in the church listens to this.

Frisbee, Frisbee on Sunday? Yes, yes, I think that, isn't that associated with some hippie beach crowd in the 60s? It's pretty shaky. Frisbee. It's pretty shaky. You're on the verge. And so Slippery slope.

If you wanna shoot a basketball It's all going downhill. It is. Compromise leads to no more compromise. If you'd like to shoot a basketball on Sunday, or you like to play hockey on Sunday Shoot a basketball.

Yes, get your 45 out. Once I set a sod off 45, now that would really That would be a good Be a problem, yeah. It'd be hard to shoot that.

Well, you know, bottom line, there's nothing wrong with sports. Here's my first issue, before we get to the parenting thing. I just think too many men are so caught up in it that, like you said, they will actually miss church, or they'll, you know, I mean, here, NFL season.

What's more important, to stay and to have fellowshipping with the Saints, or to race home so that you don't miss, you know, the kickoff of your favorite NFL team?

Race home. Why don't we just stay home and get the Fritos ready, and then we don't have to go to church and find a spot and don't have to run into people. Maybe it'll be a convicting sermon about idolatry and loving the Patriots with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We don't wanna do that. Let's just stay home. Would you ever stay home for a football game to watch, or would you ever go to a football game instead of going to corporate worship service? Not unless Harold Camping told me to.

Oh, no. The only, you know, the only thing that bothers me even more than that is the Saturday night worship service so that you don't have to waste your Sunday morning. I mean, it is just all wrong. When the Bible says, you know, not to forsake the assembly of the Saints, the gathering together of the Saints, to think that we would push that aside for something as trivial as a football game or a basketball game or any game.

Yeah, but Steve, you're just a legalist.

No, no, no, no. And if people knew me, you know, and could follow me around, they'd go,. I don't know what this guy is, but he's not a legalist.

Yes, let me fill the air while Steve spits his tobacco juice out. Now, what happens in the Christian life? And if you look at 1 John 5, verse 21, John the apostle, the dear apostle, the apostle of love, he says, little children, guard yourself from idols.

And Calvin is right. It's the cliche, but still true quote, that our hearts are idol-making factories. And so things that God has given to us for good and for our pleasure and for recreation, if they take preeminence and they take a priority over worshiping Jesus Christ, worshiping the triune God, then there's a problem.

And so let's think about this for a minute, Steve. Food isn't bad, but it can turn into worship and gluttons can eat too much food and they worship food. Sleep isn't bad, but if you nap too often and become lazy, there's a problem.

And the list goes on and on. It's the same thing with leisure and the same thing with sports. We are to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the other things I actually think you can worship by playing.

It's the Eric Liddell running. He said, when I run, I feel the pleasure of God, the great Scott runner. And so I think you can, if you're a good athlete, you can glorify God doing your athletic feats.

Certainly, I mean, if you give the glory to God and you're mindful of him at all times, and just think about what he did, setting aside his own glory for the Lords and doing what he believed God wanted him to do.

But getting back to this whole thing, I just find it frightening, frankly, that men that you talk to can tell you what David Ortiz, what his power numbers are, but they can't, you know, it takes them a minute to find Habakkuk in the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's in the letter of the Ortiz.

I mean, they have to go to the index to find the minor prophets. You know, I mean, they're just completely lost when it comes to the Bible. And you go, there's something wrong when you know more about your team than you do about the Lord and his word.

Well, Steve, I think you've done this before. Maybe you still do it, I'm not sure. But then I even find it more fascinating that fake leagues, non-real, unreal leagues, rotisserie kind of leagues, people know more about their players than, and that's not even a real game, is it?

Well Are you kidding?

Of course it's real. I haven't done it for a few years now. I just don't have time. But, oh, it's a real game. Oh, trust me, it's very real. It's a fairly time-consuming thing, which is why I haven't done it.

But, you know, fantasy baseball, fantasy football.

Wii football, Wii soccer.

Yeah, I mean, there's all, I mean, our society is really obsessed with sports. It doesn't take long to figure that out. I mean, let alone looking at the TV and seeing Vancouver. I mean, realizing that Vancouver's not in the United States, but just watching them turn cars over and burn things and, you know, taunt the police up there and everything else over a hockey game.

I know. Now let's, on No Compromise Radio, we're talking about sports today. Let's just get to where we want to really go. And here's where we want to go as two pastors sitting in West Boylston. I find it shocking.

I find it appalling when fathers especially, and certainly mothers do it as well, but fathers are the leader of the home. Fathers will allow their children on Sunday mornings to go play soccer, to go play hockey, to go play baseball, to go play basketball, and miss Sunday corporate worship service.

And what is that father teaching that young son about priorities, life, worship? What is that father teaching the daughter? And what does that say about the father's view of corporate worship in the body?

I don't know, but I'm just waiting for the next testimony before baptism. When a young person gets up, of any age really, 18, 19, 20, 30, 40, says, the one thing I remember about my dad was he always made sure I got to my Little League games on Sunday, and that really strengthened me spiritually.

I learned so much about the Lord while I was smacking the ball around the field or turning double plays, and I'll never forget the spiritual lessons learned. I mean, what you are teaching your kids is, you know what, kids, church is important, but there are bigger priorities in life.

Can I just tell you that?

It's amazing to me when I, and sadly, we know people who do this, some do it more than others, and some have learned the lesson. And of course, there's forgiveness found at Christ Jesus's cross because of our idolatry and because of our practical idolatry as well, putting sports ahead of corporate worship.

And again, we're not Sabbatarians, but what I find sad is that parents, maybe they're chasing a dream, maybe they want recognition for themselves through their kids but 99 .99 of the time, their kids aren't even going to go anywhere in college or professionally, and so they're chasing this dream fueled by the world.

Steve, listen to Romans 12. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing, rather, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And so I think the world has put some of these believers in a bind and the believers are just saying, okay, world, you worship sports, you've moved all the sports from Saturday now to Saturday, Sunday, we'll buy it.

Well, what about the idea that maybe that passage in Romans is, you know, basically could be taken by a coach and he said, sacrifice your body for the good of the team or, you know what, there's a runner on first and we need to run, why don't you lay down a sacrifice in keeping with Romans 12?

Well, there are many, many, many, there are many spiritual metaphors in the Bible that contain athletic imagery. I'm all for that. And you think about the Isthmus games in Corinth, you think about the Olympics, you think about Paul training and beating his body.

I think of 2 Timothy chapter two about the athlete and training. Obviously, we live in a society where there's athletic competition going on and Christians can be a part of it. But when they sacrifice the worship of Christ Jesus and act like pagans in Romans chapter one, not giving thanks to God or acknowledging him as God and then go to the baseball field, the soccer field, there's a major problem and I don't know why the men don't take ownership and say, son, let me just teach you something about Christianity.

It actually costs you something to be a Christian and for you, it's going to cost you that playoff game and being a soccer champion.

Family Priorities, Confession, and Repentance

Well, and you know, just think about this, just imagine, especially for the men right now, just imagine that your home is running perfectly. You love your wife like Christ loves the church. You lead your kids in prayer every morning and around the dinner table, you lead a devotion and you quiz your kids on their Bible knowledge and you do all those things and you guys go to a one and you do all these great things as a family.

And then when it's sports season,.

What takes over the house? And these days, it's always sports season. It's always sports season. It's rabbit season or duck season. I mean, there's always something to do, right? We love you enough to tell you the truth and that is if you are at games on Sunday morning, whether you're watching them down at Foxborough or you're watching them down at the sports camp little league thing on Sunday morning, not at worship service when the saints are gathered, you have got a problem and your problem can be solved by A, confession and B, clinging to the cross.

That's what you need to do. What are you thinking?

But Pastor Mike, you don't understand. We go to church on Saturday night. So our consciences are completely clear.

Well, maybe that's why the Roman Catholic Church has a lot of people going to it because then you can go and kind of get your thing out of the way before this games on Sunday. We'll sort of saddleback.

Oh, did I say that? Well, you did. I have MacArthur's view on that whole thing. And that is if you want to have a worship service every day of the week, that's fine, but don't exchange Friday or Saturday for Sunday when it's the Lord's day.

It's the day that Jesus was raised from the dead. It's the day he ascended. It's the day he's going to come back. It's, you know, Revelation 1 and the Lord's day he was caught up into this worship. What would you say about this, Steve, regarding sports?

We don't worship sports. It's not really adoration for our sports. It's just veneration. It's, it's, it's not dulya, it's latria.

Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah, that's classic. Yeah, it's not really idolatry, you know, kind of a lesser form of worship. Yeah. Let me think about that. No, I mean, just, just think about it. What you are doing is you are, you're saying kids, let's exchange the eternal things of God for the temporal things that, that really have no significance at all.

They are all going to burn all those little ribbons and trophies and everything. You know, when, at the end of the year, when your last place team gets up to get its trophies and everybody gets the MVP, because that's how you do it these days, most valuable player, everyone on the team.

If everybody's special, then nobody's special.

Oh no, if nobody's special, then everybody's special. Steve, let's extract a little bit.

I was an unbeliever for 29 years. Can you imagine I stand before God as an unbeliever and I say, Lord, here's what I have to offer you. I went to a couple of Lakers parades when they beat the Celtics in the 80s and saw Magic Johnson.

Am I supposed to play the Lord right now? And I was, I saw a couple of the Nebraska championship games when Tommy Frazier ran these great runs through 19 defenders in Florida, all these things. What good is that?

That is, that is an indictment against me that I worship sports over Christ Jesus, that I was, my mind was revolving around, I was thinking about time spent, perspiration, money, all devoted, excuse me, to sports.

That is an indictment. That is not something that I'm going to be proud of one day.

And you know, again, nobody's saying we're not condemning Little League or, you know, AYSO. Well, I am. No, just kidding. And that's not really the point, you know? And is it a sin to take your kids to play these games?

No, but what we, we universally as a church are teaching our kids about the supremacy of Christ, the primacy of Christ in our lives, is that, well, you know, that's mostly true, but there's this little asterisk.

And if you have something really important to do, well, that can take the place of church. You know, and I've known people who've had really important things to do other than that too, you know, take their kids to Six Flags or whatever, you know, really, really important things.

And it just speaks volumes about what you're teaching your kids about how Christ comes first in everything, because apparently sometimes he just doesn't.

What you should do if you're a father and you regularly let your children, or often let your children go to some sports event because you can't say no to the ungodly coach, you should just set your kids down at a family dinner with your wife and say, kids, dad has been convicted about loving Jesus Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And I'm the leader of the family, and I know what it says about people who make gods will be like them. I've been teaching you the wrong lesson. And the lesson I've been teaching you is this. There are more important things than worshiping Jesus Christ corporately.

And daddy is wrong. There's nothing more important than that. And we believe as a family that if we honor Jesus Christ first, then he'll take care of everything else. And you could still get your scholage, scholage, your college scholarship.

Your scholage scholarship. Yeah, that's right. You can tell I'm tired today. You can still get all that. And of course, sports are fine, and they're fun to play as a family. They're fun to play on church picnics, et cetera.

But we're not going to do that anymore. And short of us being sick, we're going to be in the house of the Lord on Sunday, worshiping Jesus Christ. Not because we have to, but because we want to. Not because we're legalists, but because Christ, his great work, has earned that for us.

And he'll take away your voice if you don't obey him. Maybe that's the judgment of God,.

Is that people are thinking God is striking my voice now.

It's just so important. I mean, we fail as fathers and husbands in a myriad of ways. I mean, when I said earlier that you're doing everything right, we know that nobody's home is perfect. But why just kind of throw gasoline on the fire, as it were, and do things that you know are not right?

I mean, you know it's not the best thing to do, and to somehow kind of put a parenthesis around it and pretend like it's okay, when you know it's not, is to him who knows what is right to do and doesn't do it, it's sin.

You know, that's my own paraphrasing. There you go.

Practical Wisdom for Sports, Worship, and the Heart

The Steve paraphrasing. It's almost as good as the massage. I mean, the message. What would we say to people if they said, well, you know, 51 days of the year we're at corporate worship service, but my son does have a big playoff game.

It's at 10 o 'clock on Sunday morning. We'll be there on Sunday night worship service. What would you say to them? You want to know the truth or you want me to lie? Well, let me tell you what I would think, and then we can disagree if we want.

If my son or my daughter was really doing well spiritually, and they had the right priorities, and they were walking through these things properly, I might be tempted to say, do you know what? We'll be here on Sunday night.

You can travel with the team. But nine times out of 10, I don't think that's going to be the case, and I think I would just be hypocritical for reversing everything else I've said.

See, I was going to say the same thing. I just thought 51 out of 52, you know, big deal. I mean, a big deal game coming up, and then you could still be there on Sunday night. Okay, you know.

So see, we're trying to prove that either A, we're hypocrites, or B, we're not trying to be legalist in imposing things, but what I think, those people that miss the Sunday mornings usually aren't there on Sunday nights.

Most people only have worship services on Sunday night, but it's just what are you teaching the kids? And we have a slogan in our house. Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do. And so when it comes to worship, do what you get to do by a privilege of God that we are allowed to worship through one mediator, and then you can do what you want to do later.

I'm all for sports. I play them all the time, but I'm not trying to say this is our way for identification of our family. This is the way to get out of our poverty line.

Well, and let me throw something else in there. If God says that he loves a cheerful giver, do you think that that's part of worship and that he loves a cheerful worshiper? So if you go to Sunday morning or your kids go on Sunday morning, and they're like, I'd rather be doing this, or I'd rather be doing that, well, that's a great teaching moment because to go before the Lord and to just say, I'd rather be somewhere else, it reveals something about the state of your heart.

So, you know, I mean, for anyone, I mean, I could just imagine what I would have done as a kid, not that I got to play Little League anyway, but if I would have been able to play Little League and my mom said, look, we're going to church instead, you know, and you're just gonna have to wear a happy face, that would not have been me.

So I think that's a great opportunity.

To teach your kids too. Yeah, well, some of these kids we have, I think we anticipate their salvation and then therefore think that they're saved, when many of our children are not saved at all. And so can you tell a kid, we're not gonna worship Jesus on Sunday because you're a baseball game?

And then the retractor says, well, they're not even Christians anyway. Well, that's not the point. I'd like to have them sit under the word of God so they might become Christians.

Right, and it would reveal something about their heart the other way too, if they were complaining about it. That's right.

So today on No Compromise Radio, we've tried to just dig into your mind a little bit regarding sports and we want you to enjoy sports, but not to worship sports on No Compromise Radio.

Any closing thoughts? Does your mind hurt as we were digging into it? I mean, it's a tough issue, but Christ must come first.

Or you'll get the dull butter knife treatment from us. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE in staff or management.