WINNING: ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

"Winning: Any Given Sunday"

Tailgate Sunday, Restoration Fellowship

September 10, 2017

VIDEO INTRO

CONNECT All of us have a play in our memory that either fills us with joy or makes us groan in pain... The Play... The Catch... The Immaculate Reception... The Comeback... The Iron Bowl miracle...

TENSION What is the difference between success and failure?

SOLUTION The fact is that the difference is about teamwork, process, and motivation.

TEXT 1 Corinthians 9:24 (NKJV) Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  PRAYER

INSTRUCTION

Three of the greatest football coaches today are Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, and Urban Meyer. 

Let's see what they can teach us about how to achieve lasting victory.

1.  Coach Belichick and the New England Patriots are known for "The Patriot Way: Do Your Job".  We all have a simple understanding of that mantra. In a football sense, you have an assignment and you execute that assignment. 

NESN writes: Bill Belichick has coached 305 games with the New England Patriots, including the playoffs, and won 225 of them. He has led the franchise to seven Super Bowls. Even before all that greatness happened, though, Belichick preached the importance of his “Do Your Job” mantra, instilling discipline and finding players who fit his system, not the other way around. In a June 2000 interview, just before his first Patriots camp, it’s almost as if the 2000 Bill Belichick is channeling the 2017 Bill Belichick. “The main point to me is that they have to be coordinated,” Belichick said 17 years ago of his players, “and the 10 people have to support what that 11th guy is doing, and vice versa. … The only way that can happen is for there to be discipline, for everyone to be disciplined enough to do their job, knowing the guy beside him is doing his, too, so that you can count on him and he can count on you, and go right down the line.”

Sound like the Apostle Paul writing to the Galatians:

Galatians 6:1–5 (NKJV) Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. ⁵For each one shall bear his own load.

2.  Nick Saban formulated his coaching philosophy during his tenure at Michigan State.  It is called "The Process".  He applied process thinking to football with the help of psychiatry professor Lionel Rosen.  Saban and Rosen broke complicated tasks like football games—and entire seasons—down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Rosen emphasized that the average football play lasts only seven seconds, so coaches and players should concentrate only on those seconds, take a rest between plays, then do it all over again.  In this process, execution is more important than outcome.  Don't worry about the last game or the next game; forget the last play and don't think about the next play.  Concentrate on one play at a time.

Coach Saban comments to his players, "Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you need to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand.”

Saban added, “So it’s the process of what it takes be successful, very simply. The greatest athletes, like Michael Jordan and Mariano Rivera, understand that the “last race doesn’t matter.” They focus on the next game, the next quarter, the next pitch or next shot."

Isaiah 43:18–19 (NKJV) “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. ¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Matthew 6:34 (NKJV) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Philippians 3:13–14 (NKJV) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

My father in the Lord has a saying, "Stay in process!"

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Philippians 2:12–13 (NKJV) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

                                                                                                                              

3.  Urban Meyer of Ohio States says of his model, “It’s a militaristic model, called the ‘Power of the Unit.’ There’s nine units in football,” Meyer said. “In team meetings, there’s 120 guys in there, and you’ve got an attention span of four-and-a-half or five minutes, and you lose them. I studied this for many years. There’s research in the United States military in surveys. The military, at one point, was not very efficient, because they thought you would fight for love of country. The second thought is that they would fight for survival. “For love of country, when the survey was done, was 10-15 percent, a soldier would pull the trigger. Obviously, that’s not very efficient. The second was, how many soldiers would pull the trigger for survival? I was astonished when I saw it was 20-25 percent. However, for love of unit or love of family, it’s 100 percent. That’s the Navy SEALs, that’s the Green Berets, special forces mantra, that it’s all for each other. We have the creed of the Navy SEALs here, our own creed that’s similar to it."

John 15:13 (NKJV) Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

1 John 3:16 (NKJV) By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

INSPRATION So there you have the three of the greatest football minds on the planet today.  They touch on three areas...

1.  You trust yourself, your leaders, and your fellow players to do their job: FAITH.

2.  You believe that the process will produce results: HOPE.

3.  You act sacrificially for those closest to you: LOVE.

Does this sound familiar?

1 Corinthians 13:11–13 (NKJV) When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. ¹³And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

These coaches have tapped into what the Bible says is important. 

We must have faith!

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We must have hope!

Romans 8:24 (NKJV) For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?

We must have love!

1 John 4:7–11 (NKJV) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

APPLICATION

Take an area of your life where you do not have victory or would like to see breakthrough...

1.  Are you doing all you can do in that area?

2.  Concentrate on one thing this week you can work on in that area.

3.  Imagine how changing that area of your life will help someone you love!

HASTAG #stayinprocess