RUN THAT BALL, BOY. RUN THAT BALL
Thanksgiving and Christmas greetings to all of you who are visiting with us today.
We wish you and your families a joyous time meeting together around the table and tree, thanking and singing about the most glorious One, Jesus Christ. He, our eternal one, who gave His All so we could have all. We truly are blessed to be able to write to you about the fullness of Christ in our hearts. Not thinking but thanking Him during these special days. He is forever and always, mine. Is He yours? He can be if you want Him to be.
This time of year, (football season), I am always reminded of a message I heard preached back in 1974. I was driving home to Greenville, South Carolina after spending time in North Carolina with my sweetheart and soon-to-be-wife. I turned the radio on and the late Dr. Jack Hudson, then pastor of the North Side Baptist Church, Charlotte, North Carolina, was preaching. The title of his sermon was “RUN THAT BALL.”
In his sermon he did an analogy between the game of football and the Christian life. The gist of the sermon was taken from verse three in the book of Jude. “ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” We should make sure that we continue to carry that same faith and to hand it off to others by our testimony, our preaching, and ultimately, our living for Jesus.
Dr. Hudson’s analogy continued with the spiritual comparison of our lives being in the fourth down. There are two choices in the fourth down, run the ball to try to get to another first down or kick the ball. If kicked, the ball is lost to the other team. Sometimes the coach will call a timeout and talk it over. “Kick the ball, or run it?” If the call is made to run the ball, and it is late in the game, usually it is because kicking the ball means most likely the game will be lost. In the last critical move, the coach and the team decide to give it all they’ve got and “RUN THAT BALL.”
Examples are given of God’s saints who by faith are “running the race that is set before them (II Timothy 4:7). These are they who are facing the fourth down in their lives. “Kick it or run it?” Each had to make that all-important decision, not only for their lives but for those who would follow them. Abraham kept the faith and handed it off to Isaac. Moses preserved the faith for Joshua. Elijah ran on the fourth down and left the faith for Elisha. All through the scriptures, example after example. The Bible speaks of those who had the faith and in very difficult times refused to give it up but “ran that ball,” so to speak.
One of the greatest examples is the apostle Paul who had the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Galatians 2:20) “I am crucifed with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” It was fourth down in Paul’s life and they were about to behead him because he would not throw his faith away. He would not fumble that ball. He would not kick that ball. He would not turn it over.
The fourth downs will come in our lives and when it does that all-important decision will have to be made concerning the faith once delivered to the saints. That saving faith is in Christ. Kick it, or run it!
Certainly, the fourth down came in Paul’s life. He was unchained from his cell in Rome, led out to be executed and at that point while they were placing Paul’s head on the chopping block, “fourth, down, Fourth Down, FOURTH DOWN, WHAT TO DO?” Paul then laterals that faith back to his son in the faith, Timothy, and say’s “RUN THAT BALL, BOY, RUN THAT BALL.” Hallelujah!
That faith is yet being carried by the saints who are facing fourth downs but will not drop, fumble, nor kick that ball for the sake of keeping the faith going that others might receive it, that others might believe it, that others might be encouraged to keep the faith!
Jesus wrought out our faith in His birth, perfect life, His death, and resurrection. Thank God for our faith once delivered. I am glad it was delivered unto me by the saints who have carried it through the fourth downs of life. Year after year they carried this gospel in their lives and handed it off through their lives lived. Let us, for this next year, realize that there will be some fourth downs, but others need us to carry the precious faith once delivered unto the saints!
RUN THAT BALL, BOY. RUN THAT BALL