You Play To Win The Game

On one fateful Friday in 1984, my family was eating at a family restaurant called the Golden Skillet. I was ten years old and very impressionable. I was learning the things that I liked and didn’t like, and I was starting to pick out what teams I would cheer for in professional and collegiate sports. Like many restaurants, as you get ready to walk out the doors, there was a line of gumball-style machines. You put in a quarter, you get something in return. That day, I put in a quarter and got one of those plastic containers that resembles a bubble, and inside of that bubble was a poster of the 1983-84 Chicago Bulls. I remember being enamored with the mascot and how cool they looked in their red and black uniforms. On that day, I became a lifetime fan. Little did I know that a few short months later, a young man named Michael Jordan would become the greatest player in the history of the game, and the Bulls would threepeat as NBA champs, not once but twice. 

Getting to watch Michael Jordan’s career unfold was unbelievable. Over the course of 15 years in the league, he was a 6-time champ, 6-time finals MVP, 5-time league MVP, 14-time all-star, 3-time all-star game MVP, 10-time All-NBA first team, All-NBA second team once, NBA Defensive player of the year, 9-time All-Defensive first team, NBA Rookie of the Year, NBA All-rookie first team, 10-time NBA scoring champ, 3-time NBA steals leader, and 2-time slam dunk champion. He also won an NCAA Championship in 1982, was an All-American first-teamer twice, won the national Player of the Year award, and was the Sporting News national Player of the Year in ’83 and ’84. No one in the history of the game has carried accolades like that.  Truth be told, the personal accolades were nice, but it was the 6 NBA Championships and the NCAA National Championship that mattered most to him.

Jordan was a winner. It’s all he cared about. He was laser-focused on making sure that, at the end of the game, his team had a higher score than the team on the other side of the court. One other stat that I didn’t mention earlier was the fact that he played all 82 games nine times in his career. As physical of a game as the 80’s and 90’s NBA was, he was able to play every single game of the season NINE TIMES. Today, that would be unheard of. Star players today take off games regularly in order to try and lengthen their careers. Unfortunately, those games usually end in losses for the team. That’s what Jordan couldn’t do. Many NBA players today are ok with losing some games during the regular season as long as they reach the playoffs. Michael couldn’t do that. He was a fierce competitor who wanted the “W” every single time he stepped on the court. 

Jordan, during his 10-part documentary, “The Last Dance”, was quoted as saying, “Winning has a price, and leadership has a price.  So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled.  I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn’t going to take anything less… [But if] you ask all my teammates [they will say], “The one thing about Michael Jordan, he never asked me to do something that he didn’t do [himself]. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”

Intentionality. Defining what the win is and then mapping out the path that gets you there was how Jordan became the greatest ever and the Chicago Bulls became the greatest team of the 1990s. But what does this have to do with discipleship? How does winning translate to sharing Christ with others and helping them grow in their faith?

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:19–23

Paul was as relentless at winning the lost as Michael Jordan was at winning basketball games. The main difference? In eternity, those NBA wins mean nothing, but those souls will be rejoicing with Christ in Heaven. So what does “winning the lost” actually look like? Some would say the moment a person surrenders their lives to God. Others would say when a person is baptized. I would say that both of those are only the beginning of the season, not the win. The win comes when someone truly becomes a disciple of Christ: someone who follows Jesus, is changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus. It carries a heavy cost.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:37–39

Following Christ means He comes first…. no matter what. Many would see following Christ as the easiest part of being a disciple, but it may be the hardest, and it is definitely the most pivotal. Imagine Jesus coming to the earth today and telling us to pick up our electric chair and follow Him. Most would think he had lost his ever-loving mind, but that’s what he was telling the first-century Jew when he said to take up your cross. He was telling them to pick up a device used to punish evil-doers unto death and carry it around. Life in Christ can mean death for us on earth. This tells us that simply calling on Christ and being baptized isn’t what we were called to do. That’s more like the college degree that gets you in the door of employment. Most of us don’t go to college just to say we got a degree. We get the degree so that we can get a job. While we desperately need to be baptized, it’s what we do after that that will define the win. 

When we are telling people about Christ, it shouldn’t just be our intention to see them dunked in the baptistry on a Sunday. It should be to help lead them into a life that is forever changed and longing to follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus. This is our “W”. This also means we don’t just get them to attend church and hand them over to the ministers to do the rest of the work. It means we are part of the team and have to embrace our role in that as well. Legendary coach Herm Edwards once said, “You play to win the game.”

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
2 Corinthians 5:20–6:1

We have a job to do. We need to be relentless in our pursuit to make disciples, but more importantly, we need to be intentional. You play to win the game. Let’s do everything we can to win.