God's Coaching #157

God's Coaching #157

Yesterday you learned how serious Major League Baseball is about its record keeping. But baseball isn’t the only sport with records and statistics. All sports keep them, and they are an important part of each sport’s history.

See if you can answer some of these trivia questions (answers are below, but don’t peek!):

1. Who is the NFL’s all-time rushing leader?

2. Who is the NBA’s all-time scoring leader?

3. Who is the WNBA’s all-time leader in rebounds?

4. Who has won the most major titles in PGA Tour history?

5. Who was the youngest girl to play for the US national women’s soccer team?

What’s the Score?

Baseball and other sports may keep records, but God doesn’t keep a record of wrongs for any true follower of Christ. Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, God doesn’t hold the sins of his children against them anymore. What an amazing promise! But as important as this truth is, the Bible has much more to say about the subject of records. When it comes to record keeping, we are very good at remembering other people’s sins against us. If people wrong us, it’s easy for us to hold on to anger toward them. Maybe we speak unkindly to him or ignore her. Or maybe we just silently seethe with bitterness.

But if God doesn’t hold our sins against us, we shouldn’t hold other people’s sins against them. That would be hypocritical. In Matthew 18, Jesus told a story about a servant who was forgiven a great debt by the king. But that servant went out and treated one of his fellow servants unkindly because of a much smaller debt. When the king found out, he punished the wicked servant severely. The moral of the story is clear: we must forgive others since we have been forgiven of much more than anything anyone could do to us. Record keeping might be fun in sports, but don’t hold records of wrongdoing against others!

On the Ball

Read Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18:21-35.

Coach’s Comment

The master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” Matthew 18:32-33 (NIV)

Trivia Answers:

1. Emmitt Smith (1990–2004), 18,355 yards; 2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1969–89), 38,387 points; 3. Lisa Leslie (1997–2009), 3,307 rebounds; 4. Jack Nicklaus, 18 major PGA titles; 5. Mia Hamm, age 15 in 1987