{"id":489,"date":"2018-01-11T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/?p=489"},"modified":"2018-01-10T10:47:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T15:47:41","slug":"lessons-from-the-national-championship-game-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/lessons-from-the-national-championship-game-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons From the National Championship Game Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we started to look at some lessons from the national title game in college football to see some truths that can help us grow in our walk with God, but also help Christian leaders grow in their leadership. \u00a0If you missed it, you can read it here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/lessons-from-the\u2026ship-game-part-1\/<\/p>\n<p>Today we are going to look at the final two points.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be flexible (Prov<\/strong>. <strong>16:9)<\/strong>. Proverbs 16:9 says, \u201cA man\u2019s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.\u201d\u00a0 As I watched the national title game it truly was a tale of two halves.\u00a0 Alabama had a plan.\u00a0 It had been the plan they used all year and it got them to the most important game of the year.\u00a0 Rely on your strong, fast defense, and have an offense that does just enough to win the game while avoiding any big mistakes.\u00a0 However, it was clear at halftime that the plan wasn\u2019t going to work in this game.\u00a0 How it all transpired is known only to the coaches and the players in the Alabama locker room.\u00a0 But a new QB was put in to start the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> quarter, and suddenly Alabama came to life.\u00a0 As James 4 tells us we shouldn\u2019t say what we are going to do today, tomorrow, or a year from now, because we don\u2019t know what will happen in that time.\u00a0 Instead we should say in our heart that if this is God\u2019s will, then we will do this or that.\u00a0 We always need to leave room in our lives for God to be God.\u00a0 And since He is the One who has the right plan for our lives, we always want to consult Him before we make plans.\u00a0 To be so rigid in making our plans without praying and reading God\u2019s Word to know His will for our lives is arrogant and sinful.\u00a0 Nick Saban could have stayed with his QB who was 15-2 as a starter at Alabama.\u00a0 He could have stuck with the system that got him to the national championship game.\u00a0 And if he did, most likely we would be talking about the Georgia Bulldogs winning their first national championship in 20 years.\u00a0 Do I think Nick Saban prayed in the locker room asking for God\u2019s wisdom?\u00a0 No I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t even know Coach Saban.\u00a0 But I did see that Coach Saban knew his objective, saw his plan wasn\u2019t working, and was willing to call an audible.\u00a0 And I can see that it resulted in him winning his sixth national title, tying the legendary coach Bear Bryant.\u00a0 When you are confident in who you are, when you know what your objective is, then you can be willing to scrap your plan for something better. Which leads to the final lesson learned from the national championship game.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Know your people (1 Cor<\/strong>. <strong>12:12-26)<\/strong>. No one outside of the Alabama football program knew who Tua Tagovailoa was until the third quarter of the biggest college football game of the year.\u00a0 This was a freshman who hadn\u2019t taken any real meaningful snaps all year.\u00a0 This time last year he was in high school!\u00a0 What we did know is that he was on Coach Nick Saban\u2019s, Alabama Crimson Tide, and so he was probably a pretty good football player.\u00a0 The Alabama coaching staff knew this kid, they watched him in practice day in and day out for the past several months.\u00a0 They knew that he could provide a spark for the team.\u00a0 It is so vital for leaders to know their people.\u00a0 To know their strengths and their weaknesses.\u00a0 To know them as a person. We see in 1 Corinthians 12 Paul talking about how the body of Christ is made up of many parts.\u00a0 In verse 24 Paul reminds us, \u201cGod has put the body together.\u201d\u00a0 He has brought each person to the church and He has placed them right where He wants them.\u00a0 He has gifted them in such a way as to strengthen His body at that local church.\u00a0 But if the leaders don\u2019t spend time with their people, how will they know who God has placed in the church?\u00a0 If the leaders of the church don\u2019t spend time with their people, how will their people know that the leaders live a life that is worth emulating?\u00a0 If we as leaders are to say as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 11:1, \u201cFollow me as I follow Christ\u201d, then we must make sure that we are with our people, and allow them to see our life to prove that we are following Christ.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learning to walk with God is a lifelong process. \u00a0The simple truth is the more we rely on God, the more we become transformed by God. \u00a0Christian leadership is the same. \u00a0True Christian leaders are not born, they are made by God. \u00a0Hopefully something over the last couple of days challenged you. \u00a0If so, we would love to hear from you about it.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Justin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday we started to look at some lessons from the national title game in college football to see some truths that can help us grow in our walk with God, but also help Christian leaders grow in their leadership. \u00a0If &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/lessons-from-the-national-championship-game-part-2\/\">Read More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[323],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}