The Tebow Rule :: Christian’s Edition

Tebowing is an actual verb now meaning to get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different. If you live near an electrical outlet, you can’t have helped hear the TebowMania that has swept the world in the past 13 weeks. As many of you know, he launched an 80 yard TD pass in overtime yesterday, throwing for 316 yards, rushing for 50 while adding 3 total TDs (2 pass, 1 rush) in the Broncos first playoff victory since the days of the John Elway.

However, some of you may not know that there is actually a rule in football called ‘The Tebow Rule’. The NCAA instituted this rule after the national championship in 2009, where Tebow wrote John 3:16 on his eye black. The NCAA adopted a new rule outlawing any writings on eye black. By the way, within the next 24 hours ‘John 3:16’ dominated the search engines and was Googled over 90 million times. I personally think it’s awesome that Florida embraced the signature eye black when they created his statue in front of the other two Heisman Winners & National Champions (Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel) which are standing in front of Gainesville’s The Swap.

Tim Tebow is a Sinner

⁸ Suppose we claim we are without sin. Then we are fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us. ⁹But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, he will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar. His word has no place in our lives.
-1 John 1:8-10

As TebowMania sweeps the nation I have seen several comments that are very funny but after thinking about them (maybe too much) they become disturbing. The funniest that I read from an outspoken Atheist said, “I can no longer root against Tebow in case he is the Messiah.” I saw that and laughed out loud cause I thought it was funny on so many levels but then I have begun to see how some people are now escalating Tebow to Messiah levels. Some articles out of Denver have coined him as the ‘Mile High Messiah’. Here is the problem, although Tebow is an amazing role model and something we want our kids to look towards to see how Christ can be glorified we can’t pass off Tebow as Jesus. This happens to often in our culture and mostly in our churches. Last year a pastor that was very instrumental in helping plant churches, grow churches, and spread the message of Jesus Christ came out about his affair with his secretary. It destroyed his ministry and there were many people that have a warped view of Christ because of those actions.

Tebowism

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
-1 Corinthians 10:14

It is because we get so caught up in one person that we don’t focus on God. When that person lets us down, we relate that to God letting us down. People will disappoint you not God. When we start basing our religious beliefs on a person it becomes idolatry not Christianity, following Christ. It is a very dangerous situation. People leave churches. People turn their back on God. People go to Hell because they had so much faith in their grandparent, parent, or friend and they made a mistake or a bad decision so they relate that to God being a wavering God. We, as Christ followers, are called to reflect Christ at all times but we don’t; we can’t. We aren’t perfect but we should strive to be. For us to uplift someone to standards that they can’t attain is what I refer to as The Christian’s Edition of The Tebow Rule. Whether it’s (in this case) a sports figure, a pastor, a friend, or a family member we can’t elevate them to the level of Christ and expect them to maintain. Not only are we setting them up for failure, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. So as TebowMania sweeps the nation, I have to ask where does your faith lay? Does it lie on the arm of an unorthodox, left handed QB that’s the biggest player in the backfield? Does it fall directly on your spouse? (For women this would be more true cause the man is called to be the spiritual leader and the man will be held accountable for leading his family but that is another blog post.) Does it lie squarely on the man who stands on stage or in the pulpit each week?

Pulpits Don’t Make Perfection
***Do not warp, twist or miss what I am about to write. Read it. Reread it. Keep it context.

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.¹¹ The Bereans were very glad to receive Paul’s message. They studied the Scriptures carefully every day. They wanted to see if what Paul said was true. So they were more noble than the Thessalonians.
-Acts 17:10-11

Some Pastors give the impression that to question them is insubordination. I would immediately question the health of that church. Not only is it not insubordination, it is exactly what the Bereans did in Acts 17 and the bible tells us they were more noble than the Thessalonians who just accepted it an went on. Can you imagine standing before God on judgement day and you say, “well… my pastor… he said…” oh boy!

¹² My dear friends, you have always obeyed God. You obeyed while I was with you. And you have obeyed even more while I am not with you. So continue to work out your own salvation. Do it with fear and trembling. ¹³ God is working in you. He wants your plans and your acts to be in keeping with his good purpose.-Philippians 2:12-13

That’s not going to be a good day. In Philippians 2:12-13, the bible tells us to work out our own salvation. In 1John 4:1 it warns us to put spirits to the test and warns us of false prophets.

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Put the spirits to the test to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² How can you recognize the Spirit of God? Every spirit that agrees that Jesus Christ came in a human body belongs to God. ³ But every spirit that doesn’t agree with this does not belong to God. It is the spirit of the great enemy of Christ. You have heard that the enemy is coming. Even now he is already in the world. ⁴ Dear children, you belong to God. You have not accepted the teachings of the false prophets. That’s because the One who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world.  ⁵ False prophets belong to the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view. The world listens to them. ⁶ We belong to God. And those who know God listen to us. But those who don’t belong to God don’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of lies.
-1 John 4:1-6

I would go as far as to say that if a Pastor is not open to you asking honest, truth seeking questions then you should find a church that has a staff and/or a pastor that will cause, again, I question the health of that church but be sure to read more, further below. Pastors are called to lead their church and they will be held responsible for that in the end. But I think that God uses the analogy of a shepherd and sheep so we can’t over think it. Pastors are shepherds of flocks but a shepherd can’t lay down with every sheep, tear up the grass and push it down the throat so that it will eat the right amount of calories for its diet regime nor can a pastor do this with each “member” of their congregation. Now their maybe a time when a shepherd has to care for a sheep in that capacity or a pastor has to care for one of his congregation in that manner. Personally, I think that falls more to the staff and leadership as well but that is my opinion and mostly based on Jethro’s advice to Moses.

¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing isn’t good. ¹⁸ You will just get worn out. And so will these people who come to you. There’s too much work for you. You can’t possibly handle it by yourself.

²¹ “But choose men of ability from all of the people. They must have respect for God. You must be able to trust them. They must not try to get money by cheating others. Appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²²Let them serve the people as judges. But have them bring every hard case to you. They can decide the easy ones themselves. That will make your load lighter. They will share it with you.

²³ “If this is what God wants and if you do it, then you will be able to carry the load. And all of these people will go home satisfied.”
-Exodus 18: 17-18, 21-23

But overall a Pastor that is called to lead can’t be blamed for us not following God’s Word. He will be held responsible by God but not by you or me.

Don’t Be Stupid
As I disclaimed earlier, don’t be ignorant. For many years and in one case I was, in essence, denounced from the church cause I asked a question in midweek service (How do we know the bible is real? I’ll blog about that later) but the bible tells us to do so. But we also have to check our attitudes, egos, and self righteousness at the door. If we are going in there with the notion to blast our pastor because some car salesman wrote on his blog some scripture to prove that the bible says to do it then you are just ignorant and don’t have the heart of God. Learning the scripture and understanding it in context is not your intentions and for that I wish that the local church would staff some MMA fighters to deal with you accordingly but again, that’s my opinion and not very biblical. You also have to be open to the notion that your beliefs for upteen amount of years may be just basic traditional beliefs and not be biblically based. You must be open to that cause a Pastor may sit down with you and ruin your view of a “fluffy, prosperity for everyone Jesus”. But and I mean HUGE but if you are seeking understanding, if you are seeking knowledge and looking to gain confidence in your faith and working to improve your relationship with Jesus Christ by learning more about Him and the magnitude of God then any right minded church, church staff, and Pastor will welcome you with open arms.