Traditional Worship

34:04 Beautiful game, beautiful life. Well, as we conclude our series of sermons today on the game of soccer or the beautiful game and the beautiful life, we're going to focus in on everybody's favorite activity. Today, we're going to talk about passing, passing the ball. This is an essential part of what makes soccer the beautiful game. It's also an essential part of our life of faith. I'm reminded of the Apostle Paul's words that we just read a moment ago. Paul writes, do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility, regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. And I believe we do this every time we pass the ball to another, every time we choose to give away what we've been given. We look to the interests of others first. This is what passing represents. Now, growing up, passing was something that I struggled with.

35:00 And so I'm gonna ask you, do you struggle with passing? Like, what is your passing game like? How well do you share with others? How often do you think first of others' interests before your own? I was reflecting over this this week because growing up, my soccer coaches, they used to always tell me in light of my play, they said, Scott, nobody likes a ball hog in soccer. And I think they told me that because I would prefer, when given the option, to go it alone. I would carry the ball by myself rather than distribute the ball to my teammates because it felt like I had more control that way. I didn't have to depend on others that way. I could rely on my own comfort and my own skill. And yet quickly, I realized that you can't succeed in soccer when you just go it alone, because as we learned last week, soccer is a team sport. It requires that you work together with others. And how you do that on the field is through passing, by sharing the ball, by giving away what was first given to you, by looking first to the interests of others.

36:00 Passing is central to the game of soccer. And in fact, you know this to be true because soccer is one of the only major sports that actually measures as a statistic the total number of quality passes given or made for every single player. Now, there's a lot of sports that measure assists, but soccer measures every quality touch by every player. Every quality pass completed is something that we hold on to. It measures success because passing makes the game beautiful. It's essential to the game of soccer. We almost miss it though, because instead of focusing on passing, we all tend to focus on goal scoring. And so what happens is by focusing on the goal, the glory, we miss out on the substance of the game as a whole. For example, my guess is that that's something that you do too. About a couple of weeks ago, the very first game the United States played against Paraguay in the World Cup.

36:55 We remember that goal because it was the most number of goals scored by U.S. men's team in World Cup history. They scored four goals. And my guess is you can remember those four goals. You can remember the details of those four goals. It was an amazing game. But I'm probably right in guessing that you don't remember the passes that led up to that goal. And so I want to ask you a question. How many passes do you think had to be completed in order for those four goals to be scored? That's almost too difficult to even guess or fathom a guess. So let's just try that last goal. Do you remember the last goal they scored against Paraguay? Can you remember how many passes had to happen, take place before that goal was scored? Do you have any guesses? Do you have an idea? Let's see if you were right. Let's take a look at the video because you can never watch this goal enough, but I want to see if you can count how many passes took place in order to score that fourth and final goal of that first game of the World Cup.

37:52 Let's take a look. The nightcap from Gio Reyna. Oh my gosh. How many, did you guys count the passes yet? How many passes that was on that break? I estimated it was 20 plus. It could be closer to 40. And then to end it with an outside of the boot to the far post, it was beautiful. oh almost to give away there at the end of a long sequence and arena cleans up And Gio Reyna's got to be smart. He's getting in Kaku's face.

38:47 Tyler Adams is going to separate those two. Final action of the game. Tim Weah. Berhalter would love a goal. Heppi, who's meant for Berhalter, takes it away. Freeman. Weah. Freeman. Gio Reyna. Gio Reyna! 26 passes. It took 26 individuals choosing to do the selfless thing, to think about the other's interests before their very own. It took 26 instances of people giving selflessly before they together could accomplish and score that fourth and final goal. Passing is essential to our life together. It's essential to helping us to experience the good and beautiful life. And passing is something that is of importance because it helps us to work more efficiently. It binds us together. I think practically speaking, when it comes to passing, passing is literally the fastest way that you can advance the ball down the field, quite simply because a ball travels faster than any person can run.

39:47 And so a sharp pass, an intentional pass, it allows you to throw the defense off kilter, to move quicker, to advance faster toward the goal. Passing also, it creates space, it creates time, it creates distance inside of the field, but gives you the ability to have perspective. So when you make the right pass and you spread out the field, you can look up. You can catch your breath. You can take a look around with perspective and choose the right next step instead of being rushed without space or time or any of those kinds of things. Passing gives us perspective to make right decisions. But more than those two things, passing also builds a team. It allows us to develop a culture. One of the things I love about soccer is that passing the ball connects us one with each other. It connects the goalie all the way up to the striker. It gives us the ability as we move back and forth, up and down the field, from side to side, back to front, as we engage in these consecutive passes, it builds this trust amongst teammates where you're forced to depend upon each other.

40:48 And then all of a sudden you realize you're not just 11 individuals. You're forged together as one team, bound together by these repetitive acts of selfless or sacrificial love. You're bound together by your team's ability to think of the other's interests before your very own. And the best teams are the teams that are the best passing teams. And when they trust each other, when they depend upon each other, when they're connected to each other, they can accomplish anything. They do the extraordinary. There is power when we pass the ball to each other, when we think of each other's interests before our own. And I was reminded of that this past month when I had a chance to go to the World War I Museum and Memorial in downtown Kansas City. They're running this great exhibit there. It's called The Beautiful Game, which chronicles how soccer was connected to the Great War. And when you're walking through this exhibit, I got to see all sorts of stories about how playing soccer helped soldiers remember who they were in a way that set them free. I got to read stories about prisoners of war who played soccer while being held in captivity. It helped them to remember their humanity instead of their captivity. There were stories of soldiers. They were playing soccer in the trenches or they were playing soccer in the base camps in between battles. And then there's even stories about soldiers who were playing soccer in the middle of an active battleground, in the middle of a battlefield. There's one story that impressed me. It described the Battle of Luce. It happened in 1915 in France and it was a battle between Germans and then the allied forces of Great Britain and in France. And there's this powerful story of what took place in the Battle of Luce. There was a group of London Irishmen, and they were advancing in battle, trying to capture the German trenches. And this is what happened in 1915. As these London Irishmen, they moved toward the Germans, who were fortified in their trenches. They did so under heavy fire and choking gas. They described it as terrifying.

42:44 They couldn't move, but they knew that they needed to press on together. They needed to advance. And And so one of the soldiers in the middle of that battle, in their paralyzed place, grabbed a soccer ball from their trench and kicked it into the battlefield. It was an inspiring story. And what happened was that these soldiers, they weren't afraid of anything when they were playing soccer together. They trusted each other. They knew they needed each other. They knew they counted and depended on one another. They knew that they were bound together by this act of selfless, kind of other-focused love and commitment. But when they are in this battle, engaged in this terrifying experience, they were individuals who were afraid to move forward. They were afraid until one of those soldiers, one of their teammates, kicked the ball into the middle of no man's land. And as he kicked the ball into the middle of no man's land, these London Irishmen, they got up out of the trench and they charged, advancing upon the Germans, passing the ball back and forth and back and forth, knowing that they were in it together, that they needed each other.

43:44 They depended on each other, but it took passing the ball to realize this. After the battle had settled, the British won that battle. They took the German trenches, and then as the battleground kind of cleared, the only thing remained was the ball. And they have this ball from the Battle of Luce at the World War I Memorial and Museum, and it's a powerful symbol and reminder of what happens when we choose to think of others' interests before our own, when we focus on the power of passing the ball or living selflessly, whenever we do that, we can experience together the extraordinary or the good and beautiful life together. So I'm gonna ask you again, how are you when it comes to your passing game, sharing with others selflessly, thinking about others' interests before your own?

44:38 Because there's power there. Sometimes passing the ball or looking to the interests of others first, it doesn't always look like battlefield heroics. Sometimes it looks much more approachable or ordinary. It looks like simple ways of extending hospitality, doing those little gestures, those small acts that help other people to feel welcome or included or a part of the team. And my guess is you've experienced that before where somebody has blessed you in a surprising but small, simple kind of way that helped you to feel seen or welcomed or part of things. These little kinds of things, these passes, our ability to be selfless, it changes the world. And we've seen that not just in our own lives, in our own experience, but all week long, or actually all month long, we've been witnessing that as it relates to the World Cup here locally. I've been thinking this week of the story that comes out of Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas has been the center of not just the nation's attention, but it seems like they've captured the imagination of the entire world. They've been hospitable. They've been selfless.

45:39 They've been accommodating to the team of Algeria as they chose Lawrence to be their host site. Algeria, they were assigned to Group G and they learned that they'd be playing a couple of games in Kansas City in the opening rounds of the World Cup. And as they learned that, they had decisions to make about where they would place their base camp or their home city, home site. And they had all sorts of options in Kansas City closer to the stadium. They didn't choose that option. Instead, they chose Lawrence, Kansas, which is about an hour away from the stadium. And it's kind of set apart from everything else. They could have chosen any place, but they chose Lawrence, this unlikely city, location to host a team competing in the World Cup. And yet they did. And this was a huge surprise. It was also a huge deal for Lawrence. And so they wanted to make the most of this moment. And so what did the people of Lawrence do? Well, they began preparing their spaces. They started decorating the whole town with Algeria's colors. They learned the language, the culture, their likes, their dislikes. They even learned the national anthem. And if you haven't heard this story, you need to look it up because it's become viral. It's become national, international news everywhere. And there's pictures popping up of the things that are taking place.

46:50 There is an earth artist and he created the Algerian flag in the middle of Lawrence as a way of marking a word of welcome to this team and all of its fans as they came to descend upon Lawrence. There's an image of Algerian scarves that have been distributed all throughout the city of Lawrence as a way of supporting the team. The people have been flooding their open practices. The KU marching band has learned their national anthem. They played it for them at one of their very first practices. People met this team in the pouring rain to welcome them once they landed in Kansas City. And then people since then have been delivering baked goods to their hotels. And it seems like everybody's in on it. Even Baby J and Big J are adorning Algeria's uniforms. Everybody is paying attention. Everybody is choosing to be selfless. Everybody is opening their doors, their time by giving what they've been given. And they're showing this team hospitality and it's capturing everybody's imagination. Because I think it gives us a picture of the world as it should be. A world where we welcome strangers and we make them into friends by how it is that we care for them, put their interests before our own, show them welcome hospitality, and help them to realize that they're part of a team. I think people love this story coming out of Lawrence, between Lawrence and Algeria, because it gives us a picture of what it looks like for two strangers to become one, to feel as though they're working the same way, on the same team, accomplishing the same goals. And I think this is so beautiful.

48:27 And I think it's what we're called to do. I think this is when, whenever it is that we choose to give away what we've been given, whenever it is that we seek to share selflessly with others, put their interests before our own, it's like, this is what we were created for. This is the pathway toward experiencing the beautiful life. And it's challenging to actually do because opening your life to other people, choosing to do the selfless thing, sometimes it feels extra or it feels burdensome. But I'm going to tell you, I think this is the way required of anybody seeking to follow Jesus to experience the good and beautiful life. This is what's demanded of us in order to find the life that we're looking for. And I think that's what the Apostle Paul's letter is all about. He's urging the earliest church, the Philippian Christians, he's inviting them to have the same mind that was in Jesus. And then he presses them and he urges them to not be like the leaders of the Roman Empire, these people that hoard or that accumulate or keep everything for themselves. He says, don't be like those ball hogs that would prefer to stay comfortable on their own, in control of their own, playing their own solo game. He says, instead, have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, which was markedly different.

49:43 I want you to hear these words again. The Apostle Paul says,

50:36 What Paul is saying is he's saying, humble yourself. Don't operate out of selfish conceit or ambition, but instead think of others' interests before your own. And when you do this, you'll have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. And yet we know this and we hear this and we believe this to be true. We've witnessed it. We've experienced it, appreciated it when it happens to us. But we still struggle to do it, to give away what we've been given. We struggle to focus on our passing game because we're more drawn to glory, to the goals scored. We can remember the four goals that we put into the back of the net, but we cannot and struggle to pay attention to everything that leads up to that. We struggle to pay attention to our passing game. And we do this because we want the glory. We do this because we want to score the goal.

51:29 We do this because we believe it's easier or it's better or it's more comfortable knowing that we can go it alone because we feel like we're the greatest or we feel like we have the corner on the market of what's right. And so we don't pay attention to passing. And yet throughout his ministry, Jesus continued to urge us and to remind us. This is what he did with the earliest disciples. Like our tendency to focus on goals instead of passing, it's been the same from the beginning of time. The earliest disciples, they wanted to know like which one of us is the best? Which one of us is the greatest? Which one of us is going to be known as like the goat or the goal scorer? And Jesus time and time again tried to teach them and to instruct them about what was in his mind when it comes to what's the greatest. In Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, the 23rd chapter, this is Jesus' last discourse, his last teaching to church leaders.

52:22 And this is what he tells the disciples there. He says, the greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. In other ones, the greatest among you will be the one who is best at distributing the ball, living selflessly. Jesus said the same kind of thing in Luke 9. And instead of using words this time, Jesus responded to the disciples' question of wondering who is the greatest. And he responds to them by simply holding up a child. And he points to this child. You want to know what the greatest looks like? It looks like this child. And then he continues by saying, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, for it is the one who is least among you who is the greatest. I love that. Jesus describes what it means to be greatest in terms of our ability to welcome the least of these, to humble ourselves so that we can welcome those around us, which is another way of saying it's our passing game that leads us to become the best, most beautiful to experience that life together.

53:30 It's in our ability to welcome others, to give sacrificially or selflessly, to put others' interests before our very own. To become the greatest, you need to focus on the passing game, to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. And it's not that we just have to follow Jesus' words, the things that he taught us or instructed us, the way that he thought, but this is also the way that Jesus lived. I mean, if anybody should have been known as like the greatest goal score, if anybody deserved all of the glory, if anybody had all the power to actually go it alone, it would have been Jesus. And even though Jesus, as Paul tells us, had the power of God, he never wanted to be considered equal to God. He never exploited that power. He never lorded it over people. He never held it onto himself. Instead, what he did was he emptied himself of all that power. He gave it away. He shared it with others selflessly, sacrificially, so that we might feel welcome, so that we might feel special like a part of the team.

54:27 So he gave away all of his power. He suffered to the point of death, even death on a cross, all hoping that we might receive life and then one day muster up enough courage to have the ability to go and do likewise, to live like him, to love like him, to pass the ball the way that he did, to humble ourselves the same way that he did. And when we do that together, we have a chance to do the extraordinary, to experience the life that God longed for us to lead, a life rooted in humble, sacrificial service and selflessness. And yet we struggle to do it. We struggle to appreciate the power of passing. It's hard to do. It's hard to humble ourselves. It's hard to show hospitality, to give away what we've been given. And it's really hard, especially if you weren't raised with this kind of worldview, raised with this kind of understanding of how it is that we're called to operate.

55:22 which is why I'm so excited about this year's Vacation Bible Camp. This Vacation Bible Camp, it's a chance for us to celebrate with kids over a week's period of time in July. We're going to be talking about what it means to live like this or to love like this. The theme of this year's Vacation Bible Camp is called Goal. And we're going to be asking this question, tying into the World Cup, like, what does winning actually look like? The answer to that is, of course, you know, whoever scores the most goal becomes the winner. Whoever nets the most amount of scores or goals, they become the winner of all. But the thing is, we're reimagining how we understand that word goal, which is where the beauty comes from at Vacation Bible Camp. At Vacation Bible Camp, what goal means is go out and love, which means whoever scores the most amount of goals, whoever goes out and loves enough people or whoever goes out and loves the most people or serves people or cares for people or shows welcome to people or humbles themselves and thinks about other people more than themselves.

56:20 Like whoever does that the most experiences the kingdom of God. Whenever we score a goal, whenever we go out in love, every time it is that we care for people, we're gonna experience the life that God longs for us to lead. We're gonna experience this good and beautiful life and we're gonna do it together because it changes things. I'm so excited to think about what will happen when these 1500 plus elementary school kids learn all about what it means to go out in love, to live selflessly and sacrificially, to care for others, to focus on the passing game. Like how might the world be different because of it? Elise McBride, she's on our worship staff. She's been really excited about Vacation Bible Camp. She put together this past week, a little video promo that highlights one of the songs that we're going to be singing all week long. And it was written by Braxton, one of our worship leaders at Overland Park. And all of the worship leaders got together to sing this song and everybody's getting fired up about what it would mean for us to go out and love and to do so together with kids leading the way. I want you to hear and sense some of their enthusiasm in this little video that at least put together.

57:24 Go out, go out in love. It's our goal to go out and love. It's our goal to go out and love. It's our goal to go out and love. Sing. G-O-A-L. Sing. I'm in. I'm in. It's our goal. To go out and love It's our goal to go out and love. I love that. Elise doesn't do this as a part of her job. She's just excited about what's going to happen. It's our job to go out and love. It's our goal to go out and love. I mean, this is what we're going to be singing. This is what we're going to be learning. This is how we're going to be leading and living our lives. If you haven't registered, if you have an elementary age school kid, we would love for you to sign up to be a part of this.

58:18 We're so excited about what God's going to do at Vacation Bible Camp this year. And we want you to be a part of it so we can experience the beautiful life together as we go out in love. Which leads me to my last story or illustration. And at the beginning of this sermon series, I connected with John Kempen. John Kempen is a child of this congregation. He has been to VBC, to vacation Bible camps all throughout his upbringing. And he was a part of our student ministries. And as he was growing and maturing and developing, he was also striving to become a professional soccer player. And so John played 13 years in professional soccer leagues, MSL. And in that 13-year period of time, he won five different championships. And he's this like astounding person of great discipline and sacrifice and training. And given all of the accolades that he experienced and accomplished in his professional career, I had a chance when I was talking with him to ask him, like of everything that you've experienced, of all the things that you were a part of as a professional soccer player, like what was the one highlight that stood out maybe before anything else?

59:22 Like if you could all fall back on one thing, and I hate to do that to people, But I was curious, like, what do you hold as your highest memory, your most, you know, kind of the thing that you're most proud of in your career? And when he shared what he was proud of, his kind of like highlight achievement, I was just floored by what he had shared. And I want you to hear what he said to me. Take a listen. I had an opportunity to go on loan, basically, to San Diego. You know, it was one of my best years ended up tying for the Golden Glove, which is essentially, you know, the best goalie in the league. We had a game we had to win. And if we won, we would have made the playoffs and gone on to potentially, you know, win the whole thing. But there was an instance where we were playing a team and they said something they shouldn't have to one of my teammates. And at that moment, our team ended up coming together and saying, you know what, we're not going to stand for this. And so we actually walked off the field before the game was over.

1:00:16 We were up 3-0, and if you don't finish the game, you forfeit, you lose 3-0. So we ended up going, we're going to make the playoffs, and we're going to win this match 3-0, and I was going to get that Golden Glove trophy. And instead, we said, you know, this is bigger than us. So we walked off the field, and we lost the game, and I didn't actually get the trophy. But I think that was probably one of the biggest highlights because we as a team, we're all together. I think that that was a proud moment and special moment. He was up for this Golden Glove trophy. They were about to make the playoffs, and then something bad happened. Somebody said something they shouldn't have to their teammate. It caused a disruption, and they had a choice to make. They could play out the game, make it to the playoffs. He could win the top goalie award of the season, or they could hold together.

1:01:11 And they chose to love one another, walk off the field, forfeit all of those things, lay them down selflessly and sacrificially for one another. They missed the playoffs. He missed the award. Landon Donovan was his coach at the time. He was a famous, infamous national team player, played in many World Cups. And as the coach, this is what he had to say. He had to say, our guys, to their immense credit, just said, we're not going to stand for this. They were very clear in that moment that they were giving up all hopes of making the playoffs, even though they were beating one of the best teams in the league handedly. But they said, that doesn't matter. There are things more important in life and we have to stick up for what we believe in. And so they made the decision to walk off. They stood up for their teammate in love. They gave away what they had been given. They sacrificed selflessly because they knew that they were better together.

1:02:05 And if you're not focusing on loving one another and you're focusing on something else, then you're missing the substance of life. Greater love has no man than this than to lay down one's life for one's friends. This is what it looks like to pass the ball. How are you at passing the ball? At living and sharing and giving selflessly to others, showing welcome and hospitality to the least of these. The Apostle Paul urges us to remember this. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interest, but to the interest of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. And if we do that together, we'll experience ultimately together the beautiful game and the beautiful life.

1:03:00 Would you pray with me? Gracious God, we pause and we thank you for today and for this time together, for drawing us into this space so that we can remember your sacrificial love that never lets us go. that meets us where we are, that invites us in to know that we are loved no matter what, that we're a part of this community, the living body of Christ. So help us to represent you well, to have the same mind that you do, to love others the same way that you love us so that we can change the world to reflect your good and beautiful kingdom. And do that we pray today in Jesus' name. Amen. It has been a privilege to be able to worship with you today. Thank you for choosing this to be where you have an encounter with God. And as we prepare to go, I want to make sure if you have an elementary age child or grandchild, we want to be sure that you register them to join us for this year's Vacation Bible Camp.

1:04:01 It will be a powerful week, the best week of the summer, and it would be an awesome opportunity to learn what it means to go out and love and to experience God's power and God's presence through the art of passing. And so make sure you sign up for that. You can find out more information about all of our area locations by going to core.org slash next. But we would love to have you join us for Vacation Bible Camp. And then next week, we want to invite you to come back for worship. Join us for worship. Next weekend's a really special weekend. We have a chance to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation. And to do that in worship, we have invited a guest preacher to come and share with us next weekend. His name is Olu Brown. And Olu Brown is a United Methodist pastor out of Atlanta, Georgia. and he started Impact Church with just 25 people. And it grew quickly to be the fastest growing church over 5,000 people inside of Atlanta. He's gonna be coming to Kansas City next weekend to join us in worship, to talk about what it means to be a faithful nation, to experience faith as we seek to celebrate a 250th anniversary of our country.

1:05:01 So come be a part of it. It'll be a powerful July 4th weekend and you won't wanna miss it. And with all of that, let's now turn our attention as we close by going to God once more in prayer. Would you pray with me? Gracious God, we pause and we thank you for today, for drawing us together in worship, for loving us without condition, selflessly and sacrificially. Now inspire us to go and do likewise, to think of others' interests before our own, to humble ourselves, to give away what we've been given to the extent that we might change the world by your hospitality in Jesus' name.