Sent To The Sidelines

Our goal in life is not simply to be in the race. It is to finish the race. In fact, we want to finish well. We should be in it to win it. This is the illustration that the apostle Paul uses for the Christian life. He likens the Christian life to an athletic contest–– specifically a race. And like a runner in a race, we must be dedicated, determined, and diligent to prepare in order to win. The goal is not to enter the race; it is to win the race.

This is how chapter nine ended. And this thought is continued into chapter ten. The chapter division is somewhat unhelpful here. While it may be a new chapter in your Bible, Paul is building on the thought of being disqualified from the race. Look at the verse immediately preceding the passage before us.

Paul’s concern was to keep himself in a position where he could continue to compete for the prize. He did not want to do anything that would disqualify him from useful service for Jesus Christ. It is with that in mind that we turn our attention to chapter ten. Here we will learn how we can avoid being sent to the sidelines. That is what happens when you do not play by the rules.

The first thing we notice when we look at the first few verses in our passage is that the word "all" occurs four times.

The point being made is that all of the people that came out of Egypt were all in it together. They had all been delivered. They all enjoyed God’s presence as symbolized by the cloud. They all were delivered from Pharaoh’s army by passing through the sea that had been parted by the hand of God. They were all followers of Moses, God’s chosen servant. They all were partakers of the spiritual food and drink that came from the spiritual rock of Jesus Christ, who accompanied them. There was no distinction among them. They were all God’s chosen people and they all enjoyed the benefits of his presence in their midst.

But that alone did not seem to give them what they needed to be fully devoted followers of God. Although they enjoyed the presence of God in their midst and the benefits of deliverance, they do not take seriously their relationship with the living God. Their hearts turned away from him and they began to sin. Look at verse five in the text:

As a result of their sin, they were judged by God and prohibited from entering into the Promised Land. Some were judged immediately for various sins, and others simply lived out their days in the wilderness. In fact, only two adults of the initial number that came out of Egypt were allowed to enter into the Promised Land–– Caleb and Joshua. All the rest of the adults over 20 years of age died in the wilderness. Those are the facts.

So what is the moral of the story for us? It seems to me that there are two very clear lessons from this account. The first is that opportunity is no guarantee of success. All of them had every opportunity to please God. All of the benefits of God’s presence and power accompanied the entire group. Every individual who came out of Egypt had the same access to God as every other individual. Yet it was not enough to keep them out of serious sin.

History is filled with examples of people who had tremendous opportunities yet squandered those opportunities. You probably know people who have done the very same thing. It is so easy to do. And in no society do we see this any more clearly than right here in America. After all, we are the land of opportunity. And yet, seeing the opportunity does not translate into success. It takes hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and discipline. Far too many people want the prize without ever having to run the race. Some enter the race and, because of laziness or distraction, drop out. Opportunity is no guarantee of success.

This applies to our spiritual life as well. Being a part of the family of God does not guarantee that we will have an intimate, meaningful, living, abundant life. I’m sure you know many, many Christians who have done absolutely nothing with their Christian life. Perhaps this describes you. We all have access to the presence of God through Jesus Christ. We can come boldly before the throne of grace to receive help in time of need. But more than that, we can come boldly before the throne of grace any time, and all the time. We have the opportunity to develop a living and dynamic relationship with God! Yet, so many Christians do not. Why? It is not because they do not have the opportunity to do so. We all have access to the Bible. Think of that. We take it for granted, because we have grown up in a country where there are Bibles in every hotel room. We do not realize just how blessed we are. The early Christians do not have access to the New Testament. It was being written during their time. And when the church was plunged into the darkness of the Middle Ages, the common people were denied access to the Scriptures. Many were also denied access to education as well, and so could not read the Scriptures if they had them. Even today, in many parts of the world, there are societies where people do not have access to God’s word. But we do! In fact, most of you have copies of the Bible in several translations. Do you read it? Studies have shown that American Christians read their Bibles very little. Additionally, we live in a free society where we can attend church without fear of imprisonment or death. In the average church, there are numerous opportunities for Bible study, prayer, and Christian service. Those opportunities are sadly passed over by people who think they love Jesus, but apparently do not love him enough to adjust their schedules to put him first.

Opportunity is no guarantee of success. That is the hard lesson that these Israelites learned. Indeed, it is a hard lesson for anyone to learn. There are many Christians in the Church of Jesus Christ today who will never reach their spiritual goals because of missed opportunities. It will be a hard lesson for them as well.

There is a second lesson as well. The Israelites had been saved from the bondage of Egypt. Their deliverance, however, did not translate into obedience. The activity of God in redeeming them from the bondage of Egypt did not automatically transform them into his faithful followers. The lesson for us is that salvation is no guarantee of discipleship. Just because one has experienced the deliverance of God in their lives does not mean that they grow into full maturity in Christ. That sad fact is everywhere observed in churches of all denominations, even conservative, evangelical churches that hold to a high view of Scripture.

Why is it that so many Christians never move on to full maturity in Christ? The problem is epidemic in size. Just as our text says that God was not pleased with most of them, most meaning almost all, so we see that most American Christians never reach spiritual maturity. Why? No doubt there are many reasons, chief among them the fact that we do not really expect or require a full commitment to discipleship from all of God’s people. Dallas Willard has rightly observed that the church has made discipleship optional. Many seem to believe that discipleship is only for those in the ministry, or missionaries, or super Christians. But that is not the teaching of Jesus. His charge to the church was to go and make disciples, not merely converts. The goal is not to sign people up but to grow people up.

Simply put, discipleship is a process by which we become like Jesus. The minimum requirement for every new convert ought to be a commitment to that process. If we really intend to be like Jesus, we will intentionally arrange our lives, schedules, priorities, and relationships to that purpose. We will not just dream about becoming like Jesus, we will do something about it. But this is precisely the point at which most Christians fail. Most Christians never do anything about reordering their priorities and changing their schedules. They talk wistfully about the day when they can do that. They imagine that there will come a day when the time is right, when everything falls into place, when the pressures and responsibilities of the daily grind are lifted, when they have more time and energy. Then they can become real disciples. But it’s a fantasy. That day will never come. And unless they take life by the horns and wrestle it to the ground, nothing will change, and they will not change to be more like Christ.

The apostle gives us some practical instructions on how to move toward maturity. He tells us how to avoid being sent to the sidelines. He tells us how to stay in the game. And the first thing we need to do is to focus our hearts on God. Paul says that these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things. In order to do that, we must replace that negative focus with a positive focus. We must focus our hearts on God. As our vision of Jesus Christ grows more captivating, our desire for the things of this world will diminish.

The second piece of practical advice is that we must forsake sinful attitudes and actions. He mentions for specific areas of sin in which the Israelites were involved in the wilderness: idolatry, sexual immorality, testing the Lord, and grumbling. Paul is referring to specific occasions where the Israelites engaged in such practices and were judged by God. They built a golden calf and threw a party after which they engaged in pagan revelry (Ex. 32:6b). The tested the Lord by constant acts of disobedience and murmuring both against God and Moses. They grumbled and complained in their self-centeredness and self-indulgence. They are an example to us of what not to do. And the sins are mentioned only as examples–– the list could include anything that is displeasing to God.

The point is that we need to forsake sin. By that I mean that we need to come to the place where we are done with sin. That very concept is alien to the thinking of many Christians. They think it is impossible to be done with sin, after all, doesn’t the Bible teach that we will never be totally free from sin in this life? So how can we honestly say that we’re not going to sin anymore? By that logic, however, we are still in bondage to sin. The thinking goes against what the Scripture plainly teaches–– namely, that we had been set free from the penalty and power of sin. We now have the power to say no to sin. And until we have decided in our heart that we do not intend to sin anymore, we will never experience a life of holiness and usefulness to God. We will still sin, but it should be by accident, not on purpose. But when we accommodate sin as a necessary part of our lifestyle, we have lost the battle before shot is fired. We have, in fact, surrendered.

As Christians, our standard is not imperfection. Our standard is to be like Christ in every way. That means we take seriously the command to be holy as he is holy (Lev. 11:44, 1 Pet. 1:16). Only as we strive for perfection will we ever come to the place where our attitude is that we are done with sin. And only when we come to that place will we quit accommodating sin.

Why do we need these warnings? We need them because we underestimate the danger we are in. And we do that because we overestimate our own ability to stand. That is the essence of pride. It is overconfidence. And it is dangerous. One of the greatest dangers of pride or overconfidence is that it distorts reality. In other words, it gives us a false perspective. We do not see things as they really are, but as we hope them to be. Somehow we believe that we will be exempt, that we are not like other people who slip and fall, that our sins are minor, and that we are smart enough were strong enough to stand when others are falling. That kind of thinking simply sets us up for a fall.

The other way that pride sets us up is that it dulls our responsiveness. In other words, it makes us slow to respond, to put up our guard, to raise our shield. So we must fight against overconfidence and take seriously the warning that we see in Scripture to avoid sin that all costs and to pursue every opportunity to grow in our relationship to Jesus Christ.

If we’re going to avoid being sent to the sidelines and disqualified from the race, we are going to have to be alert. We cannot afford to be lulled to sleep, thinking there is plenty of time to do it one day. We must run the race to win. It’s not enough to start the race. We must be in it to win it. Don’t be distracted. Don’t allow the cares of this life to draw your attention away from the things that really matter. And your walk with God really matters.

Paul did not want to be disqualified from the race. He did not want to be sent to the sidelines. He knew that he had to run the race with determination, dedication, and deliberation. The Christian life takes a commitment of 100%— anything less will not work. The challenge we have before us is clear. We must give our all, burn our bridges behind us, and press on for the prize. Oswald Chambers called it "My Utmost for His Highest."

Copyright © 2003 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

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