Some of you may have come to worship today thinking about Super Bowl XLIV as the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts meet to determine the championship football team. While some of you may be Saints or Colts fans, others are disappointed that the Vikings are not in the competition this afternoon. I do enjoy watching a game, but I know that many of you are much more avid fans than I.

While we often tend to focus on spectacular players, sometimes we may remember an extraordinary coach. One coaching genius was Bill Walsh who led the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl Championships. When he left the NFL to become head coach at Stanford University, the Stanford fans rejoiced.

At this time the Stanford stadium had a huge sign advertising their home games. Would you believe at the center of that sign was a gigantic picture of Coach Bill Walsh? If you did not know anything about this coach you might wonder why a university would promote their football program with a picture of their coach. The Stanford players believed that Coach Walsh was going to bring out the best in them, teach them, lead them, and make them winners. What an adventure to be on a team with such a coach.

Do we realize that as followers of Jesus Christ we can experience the adventure of playing on a team led by the greatest coach of all time? He is the Super Coach, Jesus Christ. When we allow Christ to come into our lives, like a great coach, He tries to lead us, teach us, bring out the best in us, and help us to do things we may have thought we could never do. Then life really becomes an adventure and we overcome those barriers that would hold us back from being all that God wants us to be.

Most athletes are well aware of the fact that even with a great coach, they need to develop disciplines to help them progress to realize their dreams. While I believe that Mike Whisner is a fine football coach, I know that to have a good team the athletes themselves need be disciplined and work hard to do well following the instructions of their coach So Coach Whisner and his staff try to instruct and encourage their players to learn and develop skills to make them good players. Jesus Christ, our super coach also wants to bring out our best, to make us winners. To accomplish this, however, requires our cooperation, our discipline, if you will. In James 4:8 we read, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." What a promise for us, a promise that if we sincerely come to God seeking His dreams for us, He will come near to us and guide us in the adventure of life.

In our churches we are preparing to embark on a fifty day spiritual adventure, a fantastic opportunity for accelerated and measurable spiritual growth, individually and as a congregation. I have been following Jesus Christ for over fifity years. Christ has changed my life, but He is not finished with me yet. I am personally looking forward to this adventure as a growing time for me. I hope that you will be involved too!

If you have committed your life to Jesus Christ, you have already begun the adventure of your life. However, most of us, maybe all of us, need some extra encouragement once in a while to help us be imitators of Christ. This adventure is brief. Right now we are asking you to get involved for a fifty day adventure. We might ask, "Why fifty days?" That is a good question. The answer is that psychologists tell us that we can form a new habit, either good or bad in three weeks. We have had some forty day campaigns and fifty days gives us plenty of time to form some new spiritual habits, or perhaps modify some of our previous habits.

Today I want to mention some disciplines that can help us build on the foundation of our faith that we talked about last week. Some of these disciplines already shape the habits of players on the team of Super Coach Jesus Christ.

I. Daily Prayer.

I hope that prayer is an active ongoing part of your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I am too busy not to pray. Perhaps you need that reminder also.

For this adventure I would like to ask you to pray a specific "Daring to Dream Again" prayer every day. Kandi has included it in your bulletin today. You can also find it on page 36 of your adult journal. This is the focus of week four.

Some of you may like printed prayers better than others. I like this prayer very well. In preparation for our adventure sometimes I have prayed the prayer just as it is printed, and other days I have used it as my model and expressed some of it in different words and elaborated on ideas in the prayer. Do as the Lord leads you. I believe if you and I sincerely pray this prayer or a variation of it daily, God may use it to revitalize our personal lives and the life of our church.

II. Daily Bible Reading.

You may already know that reading the scripture is a discipline that is vital to our spiritual growth. If we are listening, and willing, God's Word can challenge us to better understand God's promises to us and to keep our promises to Him.

In our journal we will find a brief passage of scripture to read with a few questions for you to answer for yourself. These are intended to help us think about various teachings on the themes we will be exploring on this adventure. While you could spend longer, you can probably complete this in about five to ten minutes per day.

If you are able to add this short Bible reading and questions to what you are presently doing for your devotional time, that is great. If you don't think you can, you might lay aside your Upper Room, Daily Bread, or other guide, and use this to lead you into the scriptures for fifty days. The themes in these scriptures will be themes I will be reinforcing as I preach.

III. Daily God Hunt

When we are engaged in daily prayer and daily Bible reading we should expect to experience God's presence in some way. I am not suggesting some great mystical occurrence, but a realization that God is with us, an answer to prayer, God's timing, or an awareness of God's help in an act of service. We will deal with this discipline more fully during week two and encourage you to continue to hunt for God each day.

Conclusion

Disciplines are practices, opportunities to help us draw near to God, who will come near to us. I hope that you will be involved and that God will bless us in this adventure with Jesus Christ as our super coach. This can be far more exciting and lasting than Super Bowl XLIV.

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