God Plays Golf! #1- Improving Your Grip
Hebrews 11:1-3, 6 – Victory Fellowship
August 18, 2024 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
I. Introduction: Golf and Religion
One golfer asked his friend, "Why are you so late in arriving for your tee time?" His friend replied, "It's Sunday. I had to toss a coin between going to church or playing golf." "Yes," continued the friend, "but that stills doesn't tell me why you are so late." "Well," said the fellow, "It took over 25 tosses to get it right!"
a. The pros know the importance of coaching and instruction, dedication, and practice.
i. The best golfers use a strategy of “course management” to improve their game. In other words, they ask “How did the course designer intend for this hole to be played to achieve par?”
b. In our Christian walk, we should be no different.
i. We should be asking ourselves, “how did God design my life to be lived to the fullest?”
II. Improving our Grip:
a. Don’t play to your slice – don’t overcompensate for a weakness.
b. To improve our game, we learn the fundamentals
A preacher is playing a round of golf at the local public course when he arrives at the 15th tee. This hole is a 160 yard par three with a lake in the front of the green. It is also the pastor’s nemesis, no matter how well or how poorly he is playing. Upon arriving at the tee, he tees up his ball, gets ready to hit and, at the last minute, looks toward the heavens and says, "God, I have been a good and decent man. Please, just this once, let me hit a shot which will carry the lake and get onto the green." As he is about to swing, a loud, deep voice booms from the heavens and says, "Use a new ball, they go farther." The preacher steps back, thinks about the heavenly advice and goes to his bag and gets a brand new ball.
He takes his stance and once again the heavenly voice booms, "Take a practice swing first." The preacher is now awestruck by the heavenly advice, so he steps back from the ball and takes a practice swing. He takes his stance and gets ready to hit and the heavenly voice booms, "Use the old ball."
c. Getting a good grip in Golf or on our FAITH, we play to our our STRENGTHS, not our Weaknesses
III. Improving our grip on Faith – the Fundamentals:
a. Truth #1 - God IS – that is, He EXISTS
i. This is the point of Hebrews 11 and 12.
ii. It is impossible to please God w/o faith – we must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
iii. Some people may believe there IS a God but they don’t know Him personally. They assume faith in God, like it’s obvious – but many people miss the obvious.
Two long time golfers were standing overlooking the river getting ready to hit their shots. One golfer looked to the other and said, "Look at those idiots over there fishin' in the rain."
iv. We must be intentional about expressing our faith in God and our belief in Jesus. Don’t trust it to the obvious!
b. Truth #2 - God is LOVE
i. (man complaining to wife about bad game. She said why don’t you quit? He said “I love that game!”) We should not judge God’s love by the example of a few hypocrites or by what we don’t understand about the world events.
c. Truth #3 - God is RIGHTEOUS
i. People who struggle with this concept tend to view God’s righteousness 1 of 2 ways:
1. They think they are too bad for God to love them
2. Or they think that they know better than God (too many Christian hypocrites, too much pain and suffering in the world)
ii. Often it is the thought of God’s righteousness that creates a fear to think we measure up (previously, me with any water in front of the tee box – it was self-induced fear)
IV. Conclusion:
God has a plan for us to succeed in this life – and for all of eternity. When we are intentional about improving our grip on faith, our Christian walk will be renewed! Trust Jesus to lead you.
Prayer
Song: Faith
Hebrews 11:1-3, 6 HCSB
1Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For our ancestors won God’s approval by it. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible…
…6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.
