There is absolutely nothing wrong with watching and/or participating in sports.  Sports help us to keep our bodies fit and aides in building a strong, determined character as well as skills in teamworking.  However, when sports is worshiped in place of God (or when God has to take a "back seat" to your interest in sports) -- sports becomes a sin.  Let me give you an example:

My friend called me today on the phone and told me about a retired gentleman who is a resident at a retirement village where she works.  This man is so addicted to sports that he refuses to go to church or any other events unless those events are scheduled during a time his sports is not on television.  And to make matters even worse -- this "nut" actually has the nerve to tell the preacher: "I would love to come to church but I have a time conflict. You hold church during the time my sports show is on and I won't miss it for anything."

Why do I call this man a "nut"?  Let me ask you a question.  Let's say you have a son that you dearly love.  He grows up and moves out on his own.  One day you call your son and ask him to stop by and see you for a few minutes.  He says "okay" but never shows up.  So you decide to send your daughter to his home.  Your daughter tells your son that you love him dearly and would like for him to come by and see you for a few minutes.  But your son sends back the reply: "Dad, I would love to come see you but visiting you would interfere with my sports shows."  The "nut" doesn't even have enough common sense to realize the cruelty of this statement.  Even if he "thought" it -- this statement would be very hurtful to say to your parent wouldn't it?  What sane person would say something like this?

So if most people wouldn't say this to their Dad -- why would they say it to God?  This is the very reason I call this man (or anyone else like him) a "nut."  He is totally out of his mind and doesn't even realize it -- and will probably never admit it.

It totally amazes me about the people who exist in the world today.  It used to be that when people committed a sin, they hid it.  But today -- people just accept their sin as normal human behavior and never understand the hurt and abuse their actions cause others. People like this are absent the Holy Spirit and you better watch them.

What will happen to this man when he dies?

My friend and I continued our conversation and it went like this:

Me:  "One day" this man will be standing in front of Jesus Christ and it will be interesting to find out what excuse he will come up with then.

Friend:  We are not suppose to judge.

Me:  You are correct. I am not judging -- Jesus Christ will be doing the judging.  (Ref: Hebrews, Chapter 9, Verse 27: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:")

Friend:  But how can we know we have the right to judge people?

Me:  Because God encourages us to use "righteous" judgment -- not a judgment that will send people to Hell.  In Deuteronomy Chapter 1 Verse 16, it says: "And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him."

Friend:  But remember in John Chapter 8 Verse 7 where Jesus says: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Me:  But here Jesus is talking to people who are accusing a woman of prostitution.  He is trying to get them to look at themselves as sinners just like the prostitute. Her sin is no better than other sins. Jesus is NOT saying the prostitute is not a sinner. The people who want to stone the prostitute are right in their identification of this woman's sin but this is not the issue referred to in this passage.

I went on to say ...

My friend, you are taking one sentence out of context (which a lot of people do.)  Think about it this way.  Suppose I wrote down my recipe for making cookies.  You could remove one sentence from my recipe and turn that recipe into any number of different recipes.  In fact, you could turn my cookie recipe into a seafood recipe -- just by removing one sentence and building another recipe around it.  This is what people do when they try to interpret the Bible.  They take one sentence out of an entire chapter and build a false opinion to support their own viewpoints.  People like this are dangerous -- and most of them don't even realize what they are doing.  This is the sad part.  Without the Holy Spirit to guide you, you are nothing and your earthly wisdom is worthless.

The AV 1611 King James Bible

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