Donnie Snyder

April 2022

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In the world of sports, it is too late to actually “Coach the team” in pre-game or during the game. By “Coach the team”, I mean in-depth teaching on the fundamentals or the preparation for the opponent you are facing. Former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, is considered by most the premier example of the complete coach, no matter what the sport. Coach Wooden had a specific purpose for every practice and he wrote down an actual “gameplan” for each practice. His goal was to prepare the players to actual go out and “play” the game. He prepared them and then allowed his players to use their athletic ability to play.

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Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, had much of the same philosophy. He believed that it was his responsibility to prepare his players for each game. He felt that if you had confidence in your preparation, there was not a lot of need for emotional pep talks. He believed in preparation so much, that he began filming each practice, so the coaches could thoroughly review player performance and preparation. This is now the standard for most teams.

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As a former football coach, however, one thing each position coach did do before every game was to go over a checklist of “keys” for the players to remember about their opponent. These “keys” were reminders on what to do in order to be successful in that game. Quarterbacks, Offensive and Defense line, Defensive Backs, all have certain keys to remember.

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We are participants in the most important game ever…… the “Game of Life”. The Apostle Paul had a “Game Checklist” if you will, for the believers at the church in Thessalonica that is relevant to us today as we participate in the “Game of Life”.

Paul wrote this letter to encourage new believers in their faith, to exhort them to godly living, to give them assurance about the eternal state of believers who had died, and to defend the integrity of his ministry as an apostle. Thessalonica (present-day Thessaloniki, Greece) was the capital of Roman Macedonia. It was on important trade routes.

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I want to focus in on Paul’s final instructions to the Thessalonian church in Chapter 5 verses 12-22 which deal with some fundamentals of our conduct.

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I Thessalonians 5:12-22

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12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

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These are all very important and a great checklist for us to remember in the “Game of Life”. I do believe that there are three extra important reminders listed here. I call them “Critical Success Factors”. In football, the two critical success factors are always “blocking and tackling”. If your offense wins the blocking battle you defeat the opponents defensive. If your defensive tackles better than the offense blocks you defeat the offensive. If you do both during a game, you most assuredly will win.

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I want to look at “Three Critical Success Factors” from the text. They are in verses 16, 17 and 18. Paul told the believers to:

”rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I believe these are the critical success factors we must execute to have the one thing we all individually want more than money, more than personal prestige, more than anything else. That one thing is “personal inner peace”. In my years of doing development and fundraising work I have worked with many high net worth individuals and my clear observation is that wealth and success does not buy or guarantee “personal inner peace”. In the final analysis, personal inner peace is what they desire most.

Let’s take a look at these three “Critical Success Factors”:

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“Rejoice Always”

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Verse 17, “rejoice always”. The word rejoice comes from the same Greek word that we get the idea of “Joy”. The Greek word is the noun “chara” which describes a feeling of inner gladness, delight or rejoicing. In the New Testament, “Joy” is almost always used to signify a feeling of happiness that is based on spiritual realties and independent of what happens. “Joy” is a fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5-22.

 

The “Game of Life” like football is tough and hard. You are going to get hurt if you are a player. Injuries and hurt are a part of the game of football and the “Game of Life”. You simply have to come to terms with that if you are going to play football or do life. You may even hurt so much that you sometimes cry, become depressed and get angry. But because of what Christ did for us on the cross out of perfect love for us, our spiritual reality should ultimately overlay the difficulties of earthly life and we should “rejoice” in the truth of God’s love for us and the certainty of His care for us now and in eternity. It is the firm “hope” we have has Christians.

 

Paul wrote in Romans 5:2-5:

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“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

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This by the way, was one of Tom Landry’s favorite verses of the Bible.

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“Pray without Ceasing”

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In our over committed and busy lives, most of us find it difficult to make the time for prayer and yet Paul is telling us to “pray without ceasing”. Wow! I am supposed to pray with ceasing. How do you do that???

Paul words suggest that we should have a mental attitude of prayerfulness, continual personal fellowship with God, and consciousness of being in his presence throughout each day. In other words, we need to be connected to our “power source” as we do life. We must remember that direct prayer and fellowship is an incredible blessing of the New Covenant. It is part of the finished work that Christ did for us on the Cross.

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Documenting Christ’s death on the Cross, Matthew 21:51 says:

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“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.”

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In the temple, the curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was an elaborately woven fabric of 72 twisted plaits of 24 threads each. It was 60 feet (18 m) high and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide. No one was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place behind the curtain except the high priest, and he only once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Heb. 9:2–7). Torn in two signifies the removal of the separation between God and the people. Other verses on this event and the heavenly reality that it symbolized, are found in Heb. 9:11–10:22; see especially Heb. 9:12, 24; 10:19 (ESV Study Notes)

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Pray without ceasing????

 

Charles Spurgeon said, “I can’t remember the last time I prayed for an hour. Neither can I remember the last hour I didn’t pray.”

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Oswald Chambers said, “Pray not for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work”

 

“Praying without ceasing” does not mean praying constantly, it means being persistent and consistent in prayer.

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“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you “

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If we do a personal inventory of our lives, we undoubtedly will recognize that we have much to be thankful for. In recent years, as I have traveled some internationally, God has impressed upon me how blessed I am to have been born in the good ole United States of America. We certainly have our problems, but overall every American citizen is tremendously blessed to have been born here. I am very thankful to be an American.

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Bad things do happen however. I don’t know about you, but I have had several bad things happen to me in my life journey. I have come to realize that bad things can happen to good people. I did not say “perfect people”, I said “good people”. God has taught me that bad things happen to good people for three basic reasons:

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1. Bad choices we make as individuals

2. Bad choices that others make that affect us.

3. We live in a fallen world. (our hope is heaven)

 

When life goes bad for whatever reason, we find it hard to “give thanks”. I mean who among us has as their first thought to give thanks when something really bad happens? Well, we need to remember a few things to turn our mind and heart back toward an attitude of thankfulness. First and foremost our loving, omnipotent and omnipresence Heavenly Father is still on His throne. The Apostle John wrote in Revelation Chapter 4:

 

“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.”

 

Make no mistake, no matter what our personal circumstances, God is still on His throne and still in charge.

 

Secondly, God’s love for us is without measure. Have we forgotten John 3:16?

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Verse 17 says: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

 

Genesis 2:17 says: “ then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

 

Our Heavenly Father formed us and breathed His breath of life into us so that we became a living creature; physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. When man chose to “Sin”, our Holy God continually reached out to man to provide a way for fellowship and blessing. Just read the Bible.

 

His love was so great that in His sovereignty and love, He made a way for us through the sacrifice of His Son who took the “Cup” on the cross so that those whoever believed in Him would never be forsaken.

 

We should remember that Jesus being fully man and still fully God asked three times not to take the “Cup” when he prayed in Gethsemane. Ultimately trusting His Father, he took the “Cup”. That term “Cup” is Hebrew symbolism meaning the “full wrath of God”. Who better to know the full wrath of God against sin, than Jesus?

 

God loves us so much that He allowed His Son to experience His full wrath against sin, so that you and I could have fellowship with Him and live with Him throughout all eternity.

 

Are you thankful about these truths? Christians are to be marked by thanksgiving (Eph. 5:4, 20; Col. 2:7; 3:15, 17; 4:2). Are your thoughts about “Giving thanks in all circumstances” starting to change?

 

God is sovereign, He loves us in a manner that we can’t fully fathom in our humanity. In His sovereignty He has a direct will and permissive will for our lives as individuals. No doubt, there will be time when our circumstances cause us to “wrestle with God”. Oswald Chambers wrote:

 

“Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. ‘We know that all things work together for good to those who love God…’ (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.”

 

We are in a tough game, the “Game of Life”. It is not easy. It is not for the faint-hearted. We can change our culture if we endeavor to live differently than the cultural norm. Let's live in a manor that honors God as we we pursue "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Remember the three “Critical Success Factors” to have a “Life Well Lived”:

 

1. Rejoice Always

2. Pray Without Ceasing

3. Give Thanks in All Circumstances