Weekly Content for P.A.C.K. MeetingsP – PRAYERPray for your time together. Ask God to give you open hearts and ears and a willingness to be open and honest with each other.
Wrap up your time together by having guys share additional personal prayer requests and pray specifically for one another.
You can also pray this prayer as a follow-up to the topic: Heavenly Father, forgive me for focusing on the wrong things and for the times I act and think in a way that doesn’t align with You. Please help me not to get consumed with worldly things or get so caught up in myself and selfish ambitions. I pray I’ll remain humble and committed to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
A – ACCOUNTABILITYAsk guys how their week was. Follow up on last week’s topic about Moneyball and thinking differently.
Also, it can be an opportunity for guys to share any struggles or challenges from the week that need to be confessed or held accountable for.
If married, ask how everyone is intentionally serving their spouse…and if a parent, what the biggest challenge is right now.
C – CONVERSATIONTalk about weekly content that connects sports to life and faith.
UNPACKIN’ IT DEVOTIONAL CONTENTKicking and Screaming – Losing Our WayAs we continue our series, “Movie Mondays,” for July, we look back at the 2005 sports comedy Kicking and Screaming. This outrageous and hilarious film stars Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall, with Mike Ditka playing himself.
The movie is about Phil Weston’s (Ferrell) relationship with his highly competitive dad, Buck Weston (Duvall), and how their dynamic plays out when both of them coach opposing youth soccer teams.
Phil Weston coaches his son’s rag-tag team after his dad trades his own grandson to the lowly Tigers. Phil starts out as a calm, quiet, and humble coach taking over a losing team, but as the season goes along, the Tigers add two skilled soccer players that help them begin winning.
Once they experience success, Phil becomes an entirely different person: loud, obnoxious, mean, crazy, and obsessed with winning at all costs. He gets addicted to coffee, which contributes to his erratic behavior. Spiraling out of control and focusing on all the wrong things, his actions are way out of character.
Phil hits rock bottom when his son doesn’t even want to show up to the championship game because he’s tired of sitting on the bench. But his wife finally helps him understand the error of his ways, and Phil tells his son, “I screwed up, Sam. I just got caught up in everything. I really lost my way, I mean, I apologize.”
Phil also addresses his team: “I just want you guys to know that I know that I blew it. I completely blew it. And we should’ve just been having fun all along and honestly, I don’t know what happened. And I owe you, I owe all of you an apology.”
Even though the Tigers go on to win the championship and beat his dad’s team, what matters most are the lessons Phil learns along the way and the changes in his relationship with his dad and son.
The takeaway from this movie I want to unpack today is how we, too, can “get caught up in everything” and “lose our way.” We may not become lunatics like Will Ferrell’s character, but we can easily focus on the wrong things, get caught up in ourselves, and become consumed, addicted, and obsessed with things that cause us to spiral out of control.
Before we know it, we might do or say things out of character, negatively affecting those around us. We might need to snap out of it and get our priorities straight.
In the movie, Phil Weston allows winning to be the most important thing at the expense of everything else, and he forgets why he’s coaching. Thankfully, he finally listens, realizes how wrong he is, and is willing to apologize and change.
As followers of Jesus, we must remain diligent about not losing our way, drifting away from His path, and getting so consumed with “winning” that we allow our love for God to become less important.
Having people in our lives who call us out is crucial. By honestly examining our lives, we must willingly listen to what they tell us, along with the Holy Spirit’s convictions, and admit when we screw up.
Thankfully, God is merciful as 1 John 1:9 (AMP) tells us, “If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].”
We must refocus our lives around Jesus and keep our minds thinking about the right things so we don’t get obsessed with distractions, caught up in the world, and consumed with ourselves.
Colossians 3:2 (AMP) implores us to “Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].”
Today, if we’ve gotten off track, preoccupied with the wrong things, let’s repent, experience God’s love and grace, and pray like Jonah in Jonah 2:7 NLT: “As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to You in Your Holy Temple.”
I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!
PODCAST:
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:Psalm 119:176 (NLT): “I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.”
Titus 2:12 (NLT): “And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God.”
Additional Topics/Points of Emphasis:* We need people in our lives who help us realize when we are losing our way, and we also need to help others get back on track. * How quickly we forget what’s most important. * Examining if anything in our lives is consuming us. What are we addicted to or obsessed with?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:1. What are your thoughts on the movie Kicking and Screaming?2. Did you play soccer growing up? Did you ever coach?3. If you could play sports for any fictional movie coach, who would you choose and why?4. Why do you think it’s common to see parents get aggressive and angry at their kids’ sports events?5. What has caused you to get off track in your walk of faith in the past?6. What are some of the underlying sin issues that can lead you to get caught up in the wrong things as you follow Jesus?7. How can you know if you’re getting out of balance or placing too much emphasis on the wrong things?8. How has God used other believers to help you get back on track when you’ve veered astray in the past?9. How should you approach fellow believers if you perceive they might be getting caught up in the wrong stuff?10. What is one practical change you can commit to making in your life this week that will help you better prioritize your life in a way that more accurately lines up with scripture?K – KICKING AROUND INTERESTING AND RELEVANT SPORTS STORIES AND TOPICS – YOU CAN START WITH THIS:THIS WEEK’S SPORTS HEADLINES/TOPICS:* NFL training camps open up * NBA Summer League * The Open Championship * The Olympics starting up – what will you watch? * LeBron James is playing great and carrying the USA basketball so far in exhibitions * MLB trade deadline * College football conference media days
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