Are You On The Team?

When I was nine years old, early in baseball season I heard about an all star game that would be played at the end of the season. Being a baseball fan, I knew what an all star game was, so I wanted to make that all star team more than anything. But I wasn’t that good. So when players were picked (just a couple from each team), and I was never notified that I made it, I couldn’t accept it. When the day of the game came at the end of summer, I got up early and put my uniform and cleats on, anyway. I got my glove and jumped on my bike and rode to the field where the game was being played. And I sat on the bench with the other players, with my glove in hand. I thought that just maybe one of the coaches would not know the difference and would put me in. But that never happened. I sat there the whole game, watching, with glove in hand, ready to go. But I never got in the game, because I wasn’t really on the team.

But anybody who drove by the field that day would have thought that I was on the all star team. I sat with the other players with my uniform on (a sponsor shirt), cleats on my feat, and glove in hand. It looked like I was on the team and was playing. But it was all look. It wasn’t reality.

It hurts me to know that Jesus said this is also the case for many who have the look of being a Christian. They go to church (or watch online), use Christian lingo, turn on Christian radio when other people are in the car, and maybe have a Bible verse or two hanging on the wall of their home somewhere. But it’s just a look. Not reality.

Jesus gave this warning in Luke 13: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:24-28 ESV).

That is sobering to say the least. Right? There is so much at stake. Knowing that you are entering in at the narrow door (Jesus claimed he was that door) is big deal. In fact, there is no bigger deal. There is nothing in your life today that compares in importance. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?

I’m not asking you if it looks like it. I’m not asking you if you have the uniform on and your glove in hand, or if you are sitting with other people on the team. I’m asking you if you are on Jesus’ team. Have you turned from your own way and received Jesus, with a sincere desire to follow him, trusting him to forgive you and give you eternal life?

Because it doesn’t matter what people who are driving by think. It matters what the coach knows.