Participants: Ron Dozier
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000222A
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00:01 Stay tuned to find out how you can get off the bench
00:03 and into the game for Christ. 00:04 I'm Jason Bradley 00:05 and you are watching Urban Report. 00:31 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report. 00:33 My guest today is Ron Dozier, 00:35 he's the author of the book 00:36 entitled "The Gospel According to Sports". 00:39 Ron is the director of stewardship 00:40 at his local church. 00:42 He's a member of the Saving Grace Prison Ministry team 00:45 and he's also the Development Director 00:47 for Columbus Adventist Academy. 00:50 Needless to say Ron is busy. 00:52 Welcome to Urban Report, Ron. 00:54 Glad to meet you. 00:56 Good to have you. 00:57 So we have so much to talk about 01:00 in a short amount of time. 01:02 But let's start with your background. 01:05 Well, basically I was born in Seventh-day Adventist church, 01:09 in Seventh-day Adventist Church, 01:10 my mother used to tease me 01:12 and she was baptized while carrying me 01:13 so like baptized twice. 01:16 And I've been an elder in church in variety, 01:20 couple of churches for probably about 30 plus years. 01:25 And I've been a Yankees fan 01:27 for equally that long along the Buffalo Bills fans. 01:29 So you can't be an elder 01:31 and be a Bills and Yankees fan at the same time. 01:35 Okay. 01:36 So we share that in common not the... 01:38 well, Yankees fan, yes. 01:40 Bills, I don't know about that one. 01:42 But we'll talk about that later. 01:44 But the baptism, 01:46 my mom carried me as well 01:48 and Pastor C.A. Murray baptized her. 01:52 Well, of course, my mom carried me, 01:53 but baptized her while I was in the womb. 01:57 Oh, wow, 01:58 and Pastor Murray and I go back a little ways too, 02:01 'cause he is also from Buffalo. 02:02 Yes, yes. I wonder if he's a Bills fan. 02:05 If he is, he better not tell anybody. 02:09 So you have so much going on. 02:12 How do you find the time to manage all of the things? 02:17 Well, fortunately I'm retired, that helps. 02:20 But one of the good things about being retired, 02:22 you get a chance to do the things 02:23 which you have a passion for. 02:25 And I always liked writing 02:27 when I was a director of human services 02:29 for non-profit organization. 02:31 I used to write lot of grants and proposals. 02:33 So this gave me a chance to move it to another level 02:36 in terms of doing some writing. 02:37 And you always have, 02:39 you know, you have a passion for your church. 02:41 And I tell people that I love my church. 02:43 And when you love your church, 02:45 you'll look for ways which you can be of service. 02:48 While, you know, being a member of the church 02:50 and serving them for writing capacities. 02:52 Yes. 02:53 And so you are a life long Adventist, 02:56 been serving all throughout growing up, coming up? 03:00 Right, exactly. Okay. 03:02 Now, you wrote a book 03:05 called ''The Gospel According to Sports''. 03:10 We have a copy of it here 03:12 and they have a copy on the screen there. 03:15 Now, when I first read that title, 03:18 I was little, little thrown 03:20 by ''The Gospel According to Sports''. 03:22 But as I talk to you 03:24 and as I went started looking through the book, 03:27 I was like, he's on to something here. 03:30 What was your motivation for writing this book? 03:34 Well, actually what the Gospel According to Sports is, 03:37 is a bridge between sports and spiritual values. 03:42 We typically kind of put sports on one side 03:45 and say Jesus on the other side. 03:46 But this looks at the gospel 03:49 through the binoculars of sports. 03:50 Okay. 03:52 So it's design to appeal to a person 03:54 who has a heart for God 03:55 as well as the heart of an athlete, 03:57 so that you can basically, instead of saying, 04:00 well, one is separate and divorce from the other 04:02 that we can literally use sports characters, 04:08 use sports personalities 04:09 and sports lessons as a segue 04:12 to things that deal with the gospel. 04:14 Okay. Okay. 04:16 So it's kind of like a conversation starter 04:19 and then a look, 04:21 a way to compare different aspects of sports 04:26 with the events that are going on in the Bible. 04:29 No doubt about it. 04:30 It's interesting because so much of the Bible 04:32 is considered years ago. 04:37 But sports is everyday, sports is very visible. 04:40 So when you do a presentation, 04:41 you're literally using visible images 04:43 of sports characters 04:44 and then related them to biblical events 04:47 and biblical values. 04:50 Now before we dive deeper into the book, 04:54 you put together a trailer for this book. 04:57 I'm not familiar with seeing a bunch of trailers for books 05:01 and I thought this was very unique. 05:02 I'd love for our viewers to take a look at it. 05:04 I think, they will enjoy it. 05:06 All right. 05:32 They are on the 16th fairway of about 200 yards to the pin. 05:38 It's counting three up. 05:42 Second down and nine for their own three-five. 05:46 Just over nine minutes to go in the quarter... 05:53 From the face-off. Back to the points. 05:56 Takes a shot, passes to the other, 05:58 one timer, deflection, run off to the post. 06:01 And with one minute left go in the game, 06:03 the score remains exactly... 06:08 Battling along the board. 06:11 Passed to the corner. 06:13 All alone, he shoots and scores. 06:34 Wow, 06:35 now I feel like I was about to go into a movie after that. 06:38 I thought it was going into a movie, 06:40 that's why it makes you want to dive in this book 06:43 and learn more about it. 06:45 Ron, let me ask you a question. 06:46 What makes this book different 06:49 from the other books that are in the Christian... 06:52 the other sports books that are in the Christian book store? 06:54 Well, mostly 06:56 what happens when you go into Christian books store, 06:57 you see some books that relate to sports. 06:59 But usually, they are written by the athlete, 07:02 who's been had a life story involved in a particular sport. 07:06 What make this book different, 07:08 one it covers a variety of sports, 07:10 it covers hockey, baseball, track, even cycling. 07:15 It covers a variety of sports, football, the draft, and... 07:20 but it's presented from a fan's perspective. 07:22 A fan wrote it for the benefit of other fans. 07:26 Okay, Okay. 07:28 Now so it offers a different spin. 07:31 It's from a different viewpoint. 07:33 Yes, I mean, often you hear stuff of guy 07:35 tells his life story in his book 07:37 that focuses on his life in a particular sports. 07:41 But this is... 07:42 takes a spin on it and says, "Hey, look, 07:44 there's a variety of correlation 07:46 between Bible figures and sports figures." 07:49 And some of those can be very... 07:51 can seem kind of abstract at time, 07:53 but when you compare them, 07:54 they really kind of come together 07:56 and it gives you a great object lesson, 07:57 so you go away from, you say, 07:59 "Wow, I never thought about that way." 08:01 And that frankly is the gold, 08:02 to be able to present sports in such a way 08:05 that people who have an appreciation for the gospel 08:08 say, "Yeah, I never thought about it that way." 08:10 As well as those who may have never thought about the gospel, 08:13 and always looked at the gospel as kind of a negative, 08:16 but sports can be presented in a way that's very positive 08:19 and proactive as opposed to negative. 08:23 When I say negative, sometimes we talk about sports 08:26 and we talk about the gospel 08:27 and say, "Well, this is limited. 08:30 Well, you can't do this or you can't do that." 08:32 But when you present it from the gospel, 08:34 from the sports prospective, 08:35 it's based on sports principles 08:37 that people can identify with him 08:39 and it make sense to be able to promote it in that way. 08:43 Okay. 08:45 If only people would realize that the gospel isn't, 08:47 it's not a bunch of you can't do this, 08:50 you can't do that, 08:51 it's actually a blessing in terms of... 08:53 it's all because God loves us and cares about us, you know. 08:58 I was sharing with somebody, in the first chapter one, 09:01 Referees. 09:03 We typically talk about, 09:05 it shares things about the commandments 09:07 and we typically think of commandments 09:09 in terms of what you can't do. 09:11 But when you look at referees, 09:13 and you look at the whole idea of sports, 09:15 the reason for referees 09:17 is because they bring order out of chaos. 09:20 If you don't have a referee, your games will be chaotic. 09:23 All of us at some point times, 09:25 athletes have played pick up games. 09:27 You had to pick a baseball game, 09:29 pick up hockey game, baseball, football, 09:31 whatever is game, it's a pick-up game. 09:34 And pick-up games have one thing in common, 09:36 everybody acts as their own referee. 09:39 And as result, 09:40 there is always gonna be an argument about he did this, 09:42 no, he wasn't, why wasn't he call for this. 09:44 And it tends to be, you know, 09:46 that kind of friendly combativeness, 09:49 I mean, in terms of pick-up games, 09:50 but a referee brings order through it. 09:53 And so therefore, 09:54 when we start talking about the law of God, 09:57 the law of God basically brings order 09:59 in the chaos of our lives. 10:00 And when you perspect, 10:02 when you use it from the perspective 10:03 of what it does from sports, it just makes sense. 10:07 That's an excellent analogy. 10:09 Now, what are some other examples 10:11 that you can give us from your book? 10:14 One of the things that I enjoy writing was 10:17 the analogy about basketball, 10:22 beating the odds, 10:23 think about the odds of being able to make the NBA. 10:26 In the book, it specifically talks about 10:28 who was the best NBA player under 6 foot. 10:34 And do a correlation between that individual 10:36 and David's taking down the giant in his life, Goliath. 10:39 So we identified a couple but as it turns out, 10:43 we identified Tyrone Muggsy Bogues, 10:46 who was a tall, 10:48 who was a some tall of 5'3" inches tall, 10:51 played twelve years in the NBA 10:53 and led his team to the playoffs. 10:55 And that takes a lot of doing 10:57 to be able to take down the giants 10:59 that he had to confront 11:00 in order to be successful in NBA. 11:02 Then the book talks about 11:03 then how do you as an individual... 11:05 He was 5'3"? He was 5'3". 11:07 I remember him being short, 11:09 but then also those guys are like 7'0", 7'3" or... 11:14 The average height in the NBA today 11:16 is approximately 6'8", that's the average. 11:20 So imagine being under 6 feet 11:22 and competing successfully in NBA. 11:24 You have to have a lot of confidence, 11:26 and the book talks about how do you take down the giants 11:29 in your own life. 11:30 Are you able to do those kind of things 11:33 that make you successful when the odds are against you? 11:36 Oh, man! Oh! 11:40 What else is in this book? 11:42 I mean, the examples that you've given so far 11:45 have been... you can see the correlation. 11:49 You can see the correlation there. 11:50 But what are some other things that you have in here? 11:53 Well, one of the things that I talked about 11:55 and it was on the segment on track and field. 12:00 I told somebody and they were talking about the book. 12:03 I say, "If Apostle Paul were alive today, 12:05 he would be a fitness trainer." 12:07 You know, run the race, you know, we fight not against, 12:10 we wrestle not against flesh and blood. 12:12 I see Paul would be a great fitness trainer. 12:14 And so on track and field, 12:16 they tell you with whom you run a marathon, 12:18 to have somebody to coach you through, 12:21 and I can imagine, 12:22 Paul would be a good coach for doing fitness training 12:25 in terms of being prepared for marathon. 12:27 And in the segment on fitness 12:32 in particularly in running a marathon, 12:34 how do you get through when you hit the wall? 12:37 Any person who's ever run a marathon, 12:39 any long distance race, 12:40 you hit a wall, 12:42 when literally your body starts to run out of energy. 12:45 And how do you power through that? 12:48 As off times for Christian, 12:49 we can be going to church, and going to church, 12:51 but then you hit the wall. 12:52 How do you power pass the wall? 12:55 And talk about how you turn, 12:58 what could be a something that would inhibit you 13:00 from going forward to being able to power through it, 13:03 and being able to get that refreshment. 13:05 If you've ever seen a marathon, 13:07 there often are people on the side, 13:08 they're giving them a little refreshment, 13:09 when they get that certain point in the race. 13:12 And that's what happened, 13:13 Christ give us that little bit of refreshment 13:15 as we're going through to help power us through, 13:17 and it makes the great difference 13:19 in what happens to us. 13:20 I'm glad you said something about a marathon, you know, 13:22 something else that's interesting 13:24 about a marathon and spirituality, 13:25 our walk with Christ, 13:27 is that people don't just show up at a marathon and say, 13:31 "Hey, I'm gonna do a 10k 13:34 or I'm gonna do however many miles, 13:36 and I'm gonna run that race, 13:38 it's the same thing with Christianity, 13:41 like you have to study the word, 13:43 you have to pray, 13:45 you have to constantly be training 13:47 and filling your mind with spiritual things. 13:50 You don't just show up like, hey okay, you know, 13:52 you have to be prepared. 13:54 You wouldn't show up for a marathon wearing high heels, 13:55 I mean, you got to be prepared for marathon. 13:59 And it's interesting, 14:00 one of the things that a marathon, 14:02 when we're doing the research on marathon, 14:04 one of the things that came out, 14:05 is they tell you six months before the marathon, 14:08 there are some things you should start eating, 14:10 and some things you should stop eating 14:12 just to get your body physically prepared 14:14 for marathon. 14:15 And the very things they tell you shouldn't eat 14:18 are some of the things 14:19 we shouldn't be putting in our bodies anyway. 14:21 So instead of saying, 14:22 "This is what you shouldn't eat, 14:23 this is what you shouldn't eat." 14:25 This is the proactive look at how our bodies operate 14:28 and say, "If you gonna run a race, 14:30 then this is what you need to be doing." 14:31 And since we're in a race for our lives 14:33 and for a race for our souls, 14:35 hey, that's why diet, not diet restrictions, 14:39 but those things that in hit that, 14:41 that promote good health 14:42 are foremost part of what it goes on. 14:45 That's what we need to be taking in, 14:47 all the good stuff. 14:48 Exactly. Yes, yes. 14:51 What are some of the responses that you've had? 14:54 It's interesting, I had one lady 14:57 who looked over and she said, "You know something, 14:58 I don't even like sports, 15:00 but I started reading your book, 15:01 I really liked it," and she said, 15:04 "Wow, I think the Holy Ghost was looking over your shoulder 15:07 when you were writing that book." 15:08 And I laughed at it 15:10 and then I thought about it, I said, "You know something?" 15:11 I think she was right, 15:12 because you know when something is driven by God, 15:16 that when you finish writing 15:18 and then you look at it two, three days later, you say, 15:20 "Wow, did I write that?" 15:21 And I found myself saying that a couple of times 15:24 because of just the way in which the inspiration 15:26 kind of flowed. 15:28 But more importantly, 15:29 it really creates an opportunity 15:31 to really hit people 15:32 that we typically don't get in our churches. 15:35 And in fact, frankly, 15:36 one of the things that got me started on the book 15:38 was, we were doing, 15:41 feeding homeless 15:43 and we used to feed the homeless 15:44 every second Sunday of the month. 15:46 And I was... as the elder of the group, 15:49 I would go and give devotional thought 15:50 and they say, "You know, Elder Dozier, please, go in 15:52 and give a devotional thought before we eat." 15:55 Now if you go into a men's homeless shelter 15:57 on a Sunday afternoon, 15:58 you know what the guys are doing, 16:00 they're watching sports. 16:01 Whatever it is, 16:02 they're watching golf, basketball, 16:04 they're watching sports. 16:05 And I found myself having to turn off the television, 16:08 say, "Now, this is what the Bible said." 16:10 And some said, "You know, that's not the way to do this." 16:13 And that became the inspiration 16:15 for going forward and promoting the book. 16:17 And as a result, 16:18 the flow worked out very nicely 16:21 in terms of being able to segue 16:23 between some of the things there in the Bible 16:25 and things that we confront on a everyday basis. 16:27 Nice. 16:28 Now you've also been able to do some, 16:31 an evangelistic series as a result, correct? 16:34 Yes. 16:35 Last year at the North America division pastoral conference. 16:42 I had a booth there, while I was there, 16:44 a couple bought a book the night before. 16:47 I think, they were from Georgia-Cumberland Conference. 16:49 They came back and says, 16:50 "Hey, we were reading this thing last night, 16:51 you got to put together a series on this." 16:54 And as a result, 16:55 I put together a seven-day series 16:58 on the Gospel According to Sports 17:00 that's designed to do an evangelistic outreach 17:03 to the people who typically are not in our church, 17:06 primarily, men. 17:08 And so it's designed to present the gospel 17:10 in a way that's proactive 17:12 and that's specifically identifies 17:15 those kind of things that are relevant to men. 17:19 And what kind of information have you gathered 17:22 in correlation to men and their church attendance? 17:26 I found that in terms of doing some research, 17:28 there was on any given weekend 17:30 and this is some from the U.S Census department, 17:32 they said, "On any given weekend, 17:34 13 million more women go to church than men." 17:38 And they referred to that as weekend widows. 17:40 13 million! 17:42 13 million more women go to church than men. 17:44 They found that a lot of men say they believe in God, 17:47 but they don't attend church. 17:49 There are also some stats that indicated that 17:53 in most churches, 17:54 there are programs that have either women's ministry 17:57 or children's ministry, 17:58 but less than or about 10% 18:01 have relevant men's ministry programs, 18:03 so as a result, 18:05 it just doesn't really relate to church attendance for men. 18:09 There was one pastor, who did a broadcast, 18:12 and a lot of churches have broadcasted their sermons, 18:14 you know, their messages. 18:16 But one weekend, 18:17 he decided to put the camera behind the rostrum, 18:20 and so afterwards he looked out to what he had recorded. 18:23 And he looked at it and he realized 18:24 that the men were sitting kind of lethargically there, 18:27 while the women were very engaged 18:28 and involved in sermons. 18:30 He realized 18:31 that he was preaching more to the women than to the men. 18:34 So the challenge 18:35 of what the Gospel According to Sports is 18:37 and putting the evangelism series 18:39 that I put together 18:40 is designed to reach men what's relevant for them, 18:44 where they respond in a way that's proactive, 18:47 that's positive 18:48 and it contributes and empowers their lives. 18:50 So in a sense, like how, 18:54 when Jesus would speak to people, 18:56 He would use different parables 19:00 or He would talk about being a shepherd to shepherds 19:04 or He would talk about being a fishermen to fishermen. 19:10 Is that along the lines 19:12 of what's going on in the book as well? 19:15 Exactly. And I think it's more than just a gimmick. 19:18 Some people think of that 19:19 the Gospel According to Sports is kind of a gimmick, 19:21 just to get them in the door. 19:23 But it shouldn't be a rubber band event. 19:25 You know, a rubber band, you stretch it out 19:26 and it goes back, 19:27 but it shouldn't be a rubber band event, 19:29 that if you make messages relevant to men 19:32 and you make messages relevant 19:34 to the things that are important in their lives 19:36 and correlated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 19:39 not only will they participate, they will stay. 19:42 And the Bible illustrates the fact, that the fact that, 19:45 you know, we talk about in the Book of John 4, 19:52 that the woman at the well went told though, you know, 19:55 when she, when Jesus confronted her, 19:57 she ran to town and told the folk, 20:00 you know, I met a man, 20:02 now the only person she could go to were the men. 20:05 Obviously, the women weren't talking to her. 20:06 Yeah, yeah. 20:08 So she brought the men to Christ. 20:09 And when the men came to Christ, 20:11 these are men who may had issues of their own, 20:13 but as a result of their enthusiasm 20:15 and their involvement with Christ 20:16 and asking Him to stay three more days. 20:19 The Bible says, many people in town, as a result believed, 20:22 that's because of the enthusiasm of the woman, 20:25 but the evangelism of the men 20:27 that brought not just the men she knew, 20:28 but brought many people in that town to Christ. 20:31 And so therefore, when we reach men, 20:33 we can make our churches grow. 20:35 When we reach out to make sermons and messages 20:38 relevant towards reading the minds of men, 20:41 they would not only attend, 20:43 but they will bring others to Christ as well. 20:46 And so, how do you partner with the churches? 20:51 Well, one of the things 20:52 that is part of this whole evangelism outreach thing 20:55 is to go to church. 20:57 Had privilege of being able to go to a church 20:59 in Titusville, Florida, last year. 21:02 And we gave the message on sport fishing. 21:05 Now sport fishing is based on the fact 21:07 that there are three types of fishing. 21:08 Okay. 21:10 There's career fishermen, 21:11 those are the folk who like to disciples, 21:12 who make a career out of it. 21:14 Those are people who go out and hunt fish, 21:15 I mean, they're with big nets and with big devices nowadays 21:18 and hunt fish. 21:20 Then the recreational fishermen, 21:21 the recreational fishermen is the guy who goes out 21:23 just kind of stands out there with the friend 21:25 and have a good time. 21:27 But the sport fishermen 21:28 is the guy who knows to use the right lure 21:31 at the right time to get one kind of fish, bass. 21:35 And it's based on the bass fishing 21:37 that they're able to be successful. 21:39 And it works for you similar, if we can use the right lure 21:42 of the kinds of things that relate to men, 21:45 you will get men. 21:48 So one of the first things you do, 21:50 when I put together is a message on bass fishing 21:53 or sport fishing. 21:54 And then I outline a series of seven messages 21:58 that relate to men. 22:00 And one of the messages is called the fan. 22:03 And that message 22:05 the participants are invited to wear the jersey 22:09 of their favorite team, regardless of what it is, 22:12 and the challenge is, 22:13 can you be as loyal to Christ 22:16 as you are today to jersey that you have on? 22:20 That's good, speaks to priorities. 22:22 Right, it speaks to the fact that, 22:25 I heard somebody saying once that, you know, 22:28 if you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ, 22:30 you're just a fan. 22:31 And I thought about, I'm just like, wait a minute, 22:32 some of the most ardent supporters I've ever met 22:35 are loyal fans who with it, win, lose or draw. 22:40 And when we're with Christ, 22:42 even when the team doesn't seem like is winning, 22:46 Christ ultimately wins 22:47 and so the loyalty is encouraged, 22:51 not to abandon loyalty to your favorite team. 22:54 Yeah. Don't be a bandwagon. 22:56 Yeah, don't be a... after the superbowl, 22:58 how many people suddenly put on 22:59 New England Patriot's uniforms. 23:01 After the club winning world series, 23:02 how many people started wearing clubs uniforms all of a sudden. 23:05 The loyal fan is the fan as they are all the time. 23:09 Absolutely. 23:11 So tell us more about some of the points 23:14 that you are making in regards to the Bible? 23:18 Well, one of the things in the segment on hockey, 23:23 one of the things we talk about, 23:25 I put in the book is 23:26 the fact that we often feel that when we're in life 23:31 that we're being bombarded, 23:33 and I use the metaphor, the analogy of the goaltender, 23:38 who in hockey is got a lot of mask and stuff on it, 23:41 it's almost like to say, the full armor of Christ, 23:44 except you get all this armor on. 23:47 And I say, you know, 23:48 can you imagine trying to stop a puck by Sid Crosby 23:53 without protection? 23:55 It would be deadly. 23:57 Similar, we can't stop the temptations of the devil 24:00 unless we're fully protected. 24:02 But the reality is not only we'll be able to stop him, 24:05 the reality is, it's a power play, 24:08 you know, hockey has a power play, 24:10 in life, it's a power play. 24:12 Except the power play is on our side. 24:14 We had the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit 24:16 and the devil's just on one side, 24:18 only one third of the angels were taken out. 24:20 So it's a power play. 24:22 And you got a power play, you have the advantage. 24:25 Okay. Okay. 24:27 And what famous athletes 24:32 have read this book? 24:34 Well, in the Referee section, 24:36 a copy of book was given to Ed Hochuli, 24:40 who is a NFL referee, 24:42 enjoyed the book. 24:44 And there was a former NFL receiver, 24:46 I think his name was Ray Hall, 24:48 who really identified with the football segment. 24:52 And then there's also a segment for women, 24:56 there's a segment in it called Dedicated Women in Sports. 25:00 And even though 25:02 lest we think only men are involved in sports, 25:04 women are great sports fans too. 25:06 And one of the segment deals with women, 25:08 women in sports, 25:09 both dedicated mother and dedicated athlete. 25:12 And it reflects on the life of athletes, 25:15 particularly women in the WNBA. 25:17 We often think about NBA players 25:19 was being high paid sports, you know, super stars, 25:23 but in WNBA, in 2012, 25:27 the average salary 25:29 for three year vested in athlete in the WNBA 25:32 was only $75,000 a year. 25:34 Wow! 25:35 So therefore, when those young ladies, 25:37 who have children and many of them do, 25:40 they have to not only go on a rope 25:41 but they had to carry the children with, 25:43 they don't have like entourage of nurses 25:45 or something do, yeah, but do that. 25:46 And in the book I talk about the life of Tina Thomson 25:50 who had a child, literally raised her child 25:53 while playing in NBA... WNBA. 25:56 And so she was both the mother and a athlete. 25:58 And the correlation is we can have full plates 26:01 and still be able to serve the Lord. 26:05 Nothing should keep us so busy and keep us away from God, 26:11 we have to make our relationship with God 26:12 a priority. Exactly. 26:14 Yes. 26:15 And give us, we have a short amount of time, 26:18 give us one more, 26:20 one more correlation between 26:23 the Gospel According to Sports and the Bible. 26:26 In the boxing section, 26:28 I talk about a guy named John Tate, 26:31 who when, I think it was 1998, 26:33 became the heavy weight champion of the world. 26:35 And he went out to defend his title. 26:38 And his corner 26:40 he got head in different rounds, 26:42 he was really heading rounds 26:43 and I was, actually I gave this story 26:44 when I was doing a men's conference 26:46 up in Canada. 26:47 And he was heading the rounds 26:49 and he's caught on one thing, 26:51 you're head, stay away from the last round, 26:54 stay away from him, 26:56 but he wanted to punctuate his fight with the knockout, 26:59 so the last round, he got too close for too long, 27:03 for too longer period of time 27:04 and he got knocked out. 27:06 But not only did he get knocked out, 27:08 he lost his title and his career, 27:10 never ever recovered. 27:12 The bottom line is when the Holy Spirit, 27:14 and when our corner tells us something, 27:16 do we listen? 27:19 Or do we ignore it? 27:22 And get knocked out. Yup. 27:23 'Cause that's the result. 27:26 That's a humbling experience. 27:27 It can be quite a humble thing, 27:28 the humiliating experience sometime. 27:30 Absolutely. 27:31 Well, based on the response that you have, 27:34 are you working on another project? 27:36 Well, right now, 27:38 because of one of the things people asked about the book, 27:40 I'm putting together something called "Game plan". 27:43 So as the Gospel According to Sports, 27:44 "Game Plan" with a Q&A for discussion groups 27:48 and individual development for individuals 27:50 and hopefully go on to the next one called 27:52 Gospel According to The Sports, The Next Level. 27:54 Nice. Well, thank you so much for joining us. 27:56 It's been my pleasure. 27:57 And thank you for joining us. 27:59 Remember, with Christ you can gain the victory. |
Revised 2017-03-20