Great thoughts Brad. Actually, last night on College Football Scoreboard, they asked Lou Holtz about the current state of Notre Dame Football, and his response went like this

"It starts with developing a culture of winners. Hard workouts in the winter as soon as the season ends. If you want to win, you must make sacrifices. Whether it's in your marriage, in football, or in a business, if you want to win, you MUST SACRIFICE. You show me a proven winner, I show you their sacrifice. You see, losers call it punishment. Winners call it sacrifice."

Champions do what it takes. They sacrifice. They give up. They work harder and train longer. They never give up, and when they want to, they remind themselves of the goals they are striving for. It's true for the way I live as a husband and father, and also for the way I live as a Pastor to Students at The Summit Church. More importantly than all, it's true for the way I live as a follower of King Jesus.

Thankful for you guys at Newspring and the movement of the gospel taking place in the Upstate area on the middle and high school campuses. One.

We had a similar quote that we were given at the beginning of this season and it was by Ali and it said: "I run on the road long before I dance under the lights"

The initial parallel that I draw is one correlating to basketball (or any sport for that matter). Growing up I've heard the old cliches, such as you play how you practice but the one I never understood was, practice makes perfect and earlier in the year, I would try and justify the fact that since we are not going to be perfect what is the point of practicing [I MEAN WE TALKING BOUT PRACTICE, not the GAME!!! sry had to do it]. Then I had a friend of mine tell me that they've changed it in their mind to "Practice makes PROGRESS" and that makes a lot more sense. I once heard someone say that if a boxer had a 5 round fight then they would train in preparation for 50 rounds so they can be their best in the limited time they are given because they trained. Even if we never get to be THE BEST, we still have got to focus on being OUR BEST because that is all we can control. Being OUR BEST means learning from past mistakes so we can see improvement and progress happening in our life.

Same thing applies to the life of a Christ-follower, it starts from the inside and then works it's way outward (Matthew 12:34). If everything we do for the church and for Christ was for man's approval then our walk in Christ is in vain (Col. 3:23). If we stay focused on God and work at everything as if working for Him then he will make our enemies a footstool for our feet. Metaphorically, that could mean reducing our enemies to a level lower than ours OR that he will raise us to a level higher than our enemies.

We are not champions when we come to church and serve... it starts within our heart and not in the public eye. The "champion" inside of us leaks/spills out into the world.

- Champions trains vigorously and hard. When the fight comes, they are Victorious
- Christians trains the same way spiritually. And when "Fight Night" (going into the world) comes, we WIN and are gloriously Victorious.

Champions don't back down from the challenge they rise to the occasion and as Christ followers we are called to do the same. Hebrews 10:35-39 But you can't be a champion until you've put in the work before. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27