I’m done with the NFL…
You as a SINGLE CHRISTIAN MAN who is NOT gay should be too…
For those of us who ENJOY watching PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL via the NFL, I hate to admit this but WE have been DECEIVED into IDOLATRY…
I’ve been noticing this DISTURBING trend for well over a decade…
SATAN is sooooo DECEPTIVE…
Let’s review a typical NFL week…
Sunday (3 games) 1pm, 4pm, 7pm- Football PREGAME shows start at 8 am until the start of the first game- EACH game last 3 hours…
*3 hours-remember that…* 👆🏾🙄
Monday night football (1 game WEEKLY-4 weeks during the season have 2 games) starts 8pm…
Thursday night football (1 game WEEKLY-) starts at 8pm…
THANKSgiving day (3 games) starts at 12:30pm until 11:30 pm…
CHRISTmas Day- (3 games on a Thursday this year) starts at 1pm until 11:15pm….
Don’t forget the PRE-game shows…
*Christmas👆🏾…THINK about that…*
And then the playoffs begin…
Season length including Preseason: August-February = 7 Months
Those who participate in FANTASY FOOTBALL whether FREE or PAID (over 92 MILLION Americans), are CONSUMED with managing a “Make Believe” team or MULTIPLE teams during the week in between games as if it were a PART-TIME job.
The average fan spends 2 + hours WEEKLY doing that 😳
You can’t forget tuning in DAILY to see what STEPHEN A. SMITH, a plethora of ESPN / FOX sports shows and our favorite YouTube Channels have to say during the week.
You can EASILY add an additional 5-20 hours WEEKLY with this…
You do realize no one is getting paid a salary by the TEAMS to watch their games and talk shows but instead WE PAY to watch them… 🤔
GAMBLING your MONEY through FanDuel and DraftKings is NOT to be considered a “paid salary”…
In just NFL viewership time alone, the average FAN spends close to 20 hours WEEKLY consuming some type of content regarding the NFL.
There’s only 168 hours in the week which means 12% of our week is dedicated to ONE SPORT…
This isn’t even taking into account COLLEGE football ALL DAY SATURDAY…
Not to forget all the OTHER professional sports leagues such as: NBA, UFC, MLB, NHL, PGA GOLF TOUR, TENNIS and other COLLEGIATE sports…
We are “round the clock” being ENTICED to fill our days with things that have NO ETERNAL VALUE and are merely DISTRACTIONS from what God desires us to focus on…
Can we honestly say we are spending at a MINIMUM 12% or 20 hours of the REST of our week with JESUS???
For 90% of AMERICAN Christians the answer is a resounding NO…
And we wonder why our disturbing MENTAL HEALTH rates are SPIRALING out of control…
Just think…👇🏾
If we spent 20 hours a week STUDYING and MEDITATING on the SCRIPTURES…
Our LIFESTYLES, DESIRES and CONVERSATIONS would change so DRAMATICALLY, Non-believers would notice a SIGNIFICANT difference even if they didn’t hear the NAME of JESUS…
“Brother Gavilan you’re being too LEGALISTIC and need to extend more GRACE. We all have SINNED and FALL short…”
If you are thinking 👆🏾, I agree God could possibly be gracious and not concerned with this type of entertainment consumption from those who CLAIM to be His POSSESSION, but what if we die and find out he was NOT pleased…
It’s a little too late at that point to use the classic line…
“See what had happened was…”
I have NO interest in playing “HEAVEN ROULETTE” to find out…
Consider this…👇🏾
Many American churches have been SLOWLY scaling BACK and CONDENSING the SUNDAY service duration times to cater to SPORTS DRIVEN MEN for the last 3 DECADES now in fear of losing the few they have that actually attend regularly who are not apart of the leadership staff in some capacity…
My 83-year-old Grandma who LOVES the NFL even acknowledged this…👆🏾
Now think about this…👇🏾
We have ZERO PROBLEM maintaining our attention span to watch a 3-hour game on the EDGE of our seats PRAYING for OVERTIME but we want our local Pastor to preach a TikTok SERMON in 25 minutes or less! 😏
Make that make sense…
If the Pastor doesn’t, we will begin a search for a new church that caters more to our liking….
Reminds me of the CLASSIC Burger King slogan, “Have it your way”
Can you imagine a FIRST-Century believer walking up to the Apostle Paul right after his sermon on the Lord’s day saying:
“Hey Brother Paul your sermon about NOT conforming to the World was FANTASTIC 🙌🏾, but next week can you trim the message length down some?
The Roman GLADIATOR fights start at NOON on SUNDAYS…”
Some Churches have actually POPULARIZED over the last few decades the CELEBRATION of NFL team WINS and have begun ENCOURAGING members to watch games and even wear their FAVORITE team’s jerseys periodically on SUNDAYS throughout the NFL SEASON and many have even begun to conduct SUPER BOWL PARTIES in the name of Christian fun and fellowship…
Do you think the Apostle Peter, James and John along with other FIRST century Christians got together to ROOT on their favorite ROMAN GLADIATORS for the weekly FIGHT DAY at the local AMPHITHEATER with some Lemon-Pepper WINGS and a cooler FULL of ICE-cold BUDWEISERS???
No…
Do you think STEPHEN the Deacon before being MARTYRED went around wearing his FAVORITE GLADIATOR JERSEY during the WEEK talking and boasting to other believers living in JERUSALEM about the latest 4-match winning streak of his most BELOVED fighter “Maximus” and how their favorite gladiators SUCK in comparison???
ABSOLUTELY NOT…
Do you think the Apostle Paul would have been ecstatic to hear while sitting in PRISON in CHAINS that GENTILE BELIEVERS were paying LARGE sums of MONEY to ATTEND or ACCESS the next ROMAN GLADIATOR event while CHRISTIANS in Jerusalem were experiencing FAMINE and many others within the church had needs???
You already know the answer 👆🏾
This is just SPORTS but what about all other forms of entertainment and diversion people consume themselves with DAILY…
SOCIAL MEDIA, NEWS OUTLETS, TV/MOVIES, MUSIC, LIVE EVENTS and even OVER-prioritization towards YouthSports for our kids…
Our FAITH has become the CHERRY on top of the ICE CREAM SUNDAE…
It’s OPTIONAL…
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has become the LIFE INSURANCE policy we ALL know we need but hope to NEVER use and GRUDGINGLY acquire it JUST IN CASE…
For many, JESUS has become the complementary ADDITION and NO LONGER the CORE FOCUS of their lives…
Many AMERICAN CHRISTIANS have substituted BIBLE CONSUMPTION for WORLDLY ENTERTAINMENT…
We need to ask ourselves… 👇🏾
Is this EN-TERTAIN-MENT
or EN-TRAP-MENT?
David said in Psalms 1 “the CHRISTIAN man DELIGHTS in God’s Word and he MEDITATES on it DAY and NIGHT”…
I’ve yet to find a BIBLE TRANSLATION that says the Christian’s DELIGHT is to be CONSUMED with things the WORLD considers POPULAR and NORMAL…
What happened to CHRISTIANS being SET APART like in Acts 2 ???
What happened to being a “PECULIAR PEOPLE” as the Apostle Peter said in his first Letter???
Many no longer say within themselves “Maranatha” (Come now Lord)…
Instead…
We ❤️ it down here on EARTH…
We would prefer to put off Heaven as long as possible or until someone dies and then all of a sudden, HEAVEN becomes a “better place”….
We now declare and say openly in conversations “ACCEPTABLE” things such as:
“It’s a blessing to be alive and ABOVE ground…”,
“I’m believing God for 120 years…”, “I want to go to Heaven but I do NOT want to go TODAY…”
Which makes me wonder this..👇🏾
If God were to send a CHARIOT from HEAVEN and park it right in front of your DOORSTEP, just like he did ELIJAH, to take you to be with him IMMEDIATELY and FOREVER..
Would you GET IN…
or
would your response be…
“Can you COME BACK in 30 years?”
Think about that… 👆🏾
Has this been the “CHRISTIAN STANCE” for previous GENERATIONS prior to the TWENTIETH CENTURY ???
No…
Were Christians saying these type of things during the Roman Empire while knowing they would eventually be PERSECUTED, TORTURED and/or MARTYRED???
No…
Which leads me back to this… 👇🏾
Am I saying we should ABANDON watching all professional sports?
No…
But where do we draw the line???
Where is YOUR line???
Did Holy Spirit draw it or did you???
Are we deciding what is PERMISSIBLE in our lives based on our “feelings” and then MASKING it with the FAMOUS PHRASE…
“God told me ________________”
I believe it’s time WE return to the God-Intended BLUEPRINT…
#Jesus
#Bible
#Prayer
#consistentchurchattendance
#Holiness
#Revelation2
#ChurchinEphesus
#FirstLove
I 🙏🏾 you have a PRODUCTIVE, PROSPEROUS, PURPOSEFUL and PRAISEWORTHY week.
Live Now Live Later 