In the game?

It was the 1st day of basketball practice at Wingate High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Coach handed a ball to each player. “Boys,” he said, “I want you to practice shooting from the spots you might expect to be in during the game.”

One of the boys, who most likely would be at the end of the bench and never see the court except in practice immediately sat down on the bench and began shoot the ball toward the basket from there.

Now we might try and justify this by saying that boy didn’t expect to get to play much. And we might suggest that he was just trying to get a laugh out of his teammates. But, there are some people who sit the bench, because that’s where they’ve gotten used to being. They never strive to much more than that - because they don’t believe in themselves enough to put in the extra effort and practice to change their status. And because of that: they’re always going to sit the bench.

It’s as if we’ve made Christianity into a spectator sport. We just sit back in church and listen to the music, and the sermons and never really get involved in the game. We need some Christians today to get off the sidelines and get on the front God has so much for you and I but we will never discover it as long as we watch safely from the sideline. We need to put our faith into action and get involved in the spiritual battle that is taking place all around us.

So I want to quickly give you a "test" so that you can see if your faith is active or if you're sitting on the bench:
1.If you are not attending church with an expectation that a great God wants to do great things in worship that day, get off the bench.
2.When you are no longer or not concerned about the spiritual condition of neighbors, family members, or your co-workers, get off the bench.
3.When you haven't shared your faith with the express purpose of someone coming to know Christ, get off the bench.
4.When Bible study is a drudgery and it seems lifeless to you, it's time to get off the bench.
5.when ones happiness on a Sunday mornings is more important than holiness... when simply making sure you get your parking spot, your seat, and hear the music you like, everything’s fine, it's time to get in the game.
6.With the mention of the word "missions" you think to yourself "I hope they are listening" rather than saying like Isaiah "Here am I, send me Lord" - then you have willingly taken yourself out of the game.
7.When giving cannot be done cheerfully, the hearts not right and the coach can't send you in the game.
8. When it never dawns on you that God might do something radical in your life at any moment today, when that's not even on your radar, you have lost touch with the coach.

Let's put down the spiritual remotes and get off the pew and start walking by faith with the Father.