Description
Quarterback
“Church Cheers”
By Ed Young
October 4, 2015
“2…4…6…8!” In our sports-crazed culture, cheers are a part of the routine. From pee-wee football to the NFL, cheers are designed to motivate and encourage. But it’s not just the sports world that needs cheers. They should be part of the church culture as well.
Like any other team, the church needs encouragement and motivation. We need something to bring us together as we continue to play the game God has designed for us. In this message, Ed Young teaches us some of those church cheers. And we see that as we cheer for the church, we also discover that all of heaven is cheering along with us.
Transcripts
Once I heard my Grandma say,
the Laurel team is coming this-a-way.
With a vevo, with a vivo.
With a vevo, vivo, vumbo and
a rip tail, rat-tail, sitting on a cat tail,
Bump bump bump!
What’s the matter with that team that they can’t see that they can’t play as well as we.
With a vevo, with a vivo.
With a vevo, vivo, vumbo and
a rip tail, rat-tail, sitting on a cat tail,
Bump bump BUMP!
ILLUS: I spent my summers in Laurel, Mississippi. Hot, humid Laurel, Mississippi. I have fond memories of playing football in the front lawn of my grandparents’ house and my grandmother, who had a booming voice like I do would do that cheer over and over again. We said, “Grandmother! Do the cheer! Do the cheer!”
“Once I heard my grandma say…” and she would do it. And I remember when I heard that cheer it would make me run faster, jump higher, play harder. I loved the cheer. I’d have to confess to you, in fact I’m going to put it out on the table, I fell in love with cheers as a kid. And to show you the power of cheers right before my grandmother passed away she could barely speak. She could recite the 23rd Psalm and that cheer that I just gave to you. Right before she died we would go,
“Grandmother, do the cheer! Once I heard my grandma say…” and she’d go,
“Once I heard my grandma…” The power, the power of a cheer.
Ed, you’re talking about cheers? This is church, man. You’re talking about cheering? Yes, I am. I believe that to cheer is an act of God. I believe that we’re made to cheer. I believe that we’re made to cheer for God, which is a good definition of worship. I believe we’re made to cheer for others. The Bible says encourage one another, pray for one another. The one anothers 50-some-odd times. One another, one another, one another. We’re also made to cheer for ourselves.
Think about it just for a second. Do you cheer for God? Do you cheer for others? That’s kind of difficult for others. Do you cheer for yourself. Again, cheering, this expression, is nothing that we’ve been taught. We just do it.
My mother loves to tell me the story of when I would do something relatively smart as a kid. I would clap for myself. I would go, “Smart Ed! Smart!” No one taught me that. It’s just a natural thing. The Bible says that we have a standing ovation. We have a cheering section that never sits down. Isn’t that great? Here’s the church, there’s the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. I would say, here’s the church, here’s the steeple. Open the doors and see all the cheering people.
Have you ever wondered what the sound is like from the heavenlies cheering for you and me? Yeah, I love that! Don’t you? I wish I could have that just piped in, that applause, during the day. I’d do something… yeah! They’re cheering for me, they really are. Well the Bible says in the book of Hebrews 12:1, this is out of The Message, “Do you see what this means? All these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we better get on with it.” We have a cheering section that doesn’t sit down. We have to cheer for God, yes. And we do that individually and also as a team. We cheer for others. That’s what we should be about, church. And I want to compliment you. And in all of our different locations we are a church that understands the power of a cheer and we’ve got to learn how to cheer for ourselves.
I like that phrase ‘cheer up.’ Well, literally that’s where a cheer begins. I looked up the word cheer. To cheer means to shout for joy in praise or encouragement. The Bible says in the gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, “These things (Jesus speaking here) I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace in the world, in me you will have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.” In other words, in the world we’re gonna have some problems. In the world there’s gonna be some crazy stuff happening. In the world we’re gonna get pancaked. In the world we’re gonna get injured. In the world strange circumstances will happen. In the world bad things and horrible things will occur. In the world some awesome things will occur, yet the Bible says God is gonna use all things, whether they’re bad or whether they’re not so bad, to work for good for those of us who love him and are called according to his purpose. Now, here’s what Jesus says. I can hear the crowd already. They’re ready! They’re ready! It says, “But be of good <cheer.>” We can do better than that… <Cheer!> Yes! I might just have this applause thing piped in all the time. It helps me as a speaker. I mean Hollywood does it, why not the church? It encourages us, right? To cheer.
Anyway, “Be of good cheer,” Jesus says, “I have overcome the world.” This word cheer – you might want to jot this down if you’re taking notes or on your iPhones or whatever, this good cheer phrase means feasting and merry-making. Maybe we would say tailgating. This tremendous tailgating thing we’re doing. It could mean confidence, courage, being unafraid. To cheer, to cheer.
What if we could hear the cheers ringing in our ears? What if we could hear the cheers from Heaven? What if we could hear the cheers that we should recite in this church? What would they sound like? Well, I’ve limited them to 5. That’s right, I sort of collect cheers. I’m going to concentrate on 5 cheers. You might be saying Ed, why do you like cheers? I like rhythm, I like rhyme, and I just like cheers. Plus, I’ve played a lot of sports and a lot of my career I spent on the bench, especially in college. And when I was sitting on the bench the opposing cheerleaders would be right there in front of us. I never looked at them, Lisa, but I did memorize – I did memorize – some really cool cheers. So I thought about what would these cheers sound like? What would they be like? Is there any Biblical or theological significance to a cheer? I say yes. I say this desire we have to cheer and to love cheers is a microcosm of who God is.
The first cheer, and I love this one:
You’ve got to want it to win it,
and we want it bad.
You’ve got to want it to win it,
and we want it bad. Come on.
You’ve got to want it to win it,
and we want it bad.
How many of you have ever heard of that cheer before? A few hundred. Good, good, good. The Bible says again, I read it to you earlier. Hebrews 12:1, it says we have a great cloud of witnesses, we have pioneers, we have raiders. We have people who understand offense cheering us on. I can see Abraham up there in the stands saying, “It’s by faith!” I can see Joshua saying, “Step out into the river!” I can see Nehemiah saying, “Build it!” I can see Jonah saying, “God will give you another change.” I can see the Biblical body builder, Samson, saying, “Rely on the Lord’s strength!” We have so many people cheering us on and we need to understand that and realize that, and lean into that. So think about this. You’ve got to want it to win it, and we want it bad. God has given us this desire to play on the fields of life.
Last time we learned that Jesus totally blew the doors open off of where our field is located, where our arena is. He’s pretty much told us that every field that we face is a field where we have home field advantage. The field is the world. It’s not just a Jewish thing. Jesus said in the Great Commission, no, no, no. It’s a world thing! So you have a field that I don’t have. I have a field that you don’t have. Let’s play the game. Let’s get on with it. There ain’t nuttin to it but to do it. That’s not a cheer, that’s just something that I’ve heard.
The second cheer, before I get too excited. I really like this one. This is kind of a trash talking cheer. It really is. This is a cheer like when you’re way up, several touchdowns up, two minutes to go in the game, you just say:
Take your hat, your coat, and get on outta here.
Take your hat, your coat, and get on outta here.
Take your hat, your coat, and get on outta here.
Isn’t that the truth? We allow the devil to trash talk. We allow him to whisper all of these lies to us. We are winners. We’re victorious. We’re not victims. 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.”
So when I keep a secret I get sick. Alcoholics Anonymous says we’re only as sick as our secrets and that’s so true, and it’s right from the Bible. Yet as I reveal my stuff, I’m like, man if I reveal it people will judge me. People will go, oh I can’t believe you’re dealing with that. I can’t believe you processed that. I can’t believe your mind is going there. Oh man. No, no, no. When we reveal what we struggle with there is acceptance and empathy in this house. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.”
I call this the F-250 verse. You know what a truck is, I mean a pickup truck especially. Most of us know in Texas. In Miami, you ever heard of a pickup truck? Well anyway, they’re different sizes of the pickup trucks. There’s the one-ton, half-ton, three-quarter-ton, whatever. That tells you what sort of load the vehicle can bear. That is what is talked about in 1 Corinthians 10:13. God will never overload us. If we are three-quarter ton, he’s not gonna give us three tons. Isn’t that great? So when we feel like we’re overwhelmed we know God is gonna give us the juice, the octane, the power to fight through it. But, it says, when you’re tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. So if you feel like, oh man! The devil’s after me, I feel this pull around this person, around this place or this thing, just say, “Take your hat, your coat, and get on outta here.”
And some of us are in toxic relationships right now. You’re dating this guy and this guy is not for you.
Nah-nah-nah-nah, Nah-nah-nah-nah,
Hey-hey-hey, Goodbye!
Some of you are going to places that cause you to stumble.
Nah-nah-nah-nah, Nah-nah-nah-nah,
Hey-hey-hey, Goodbye!
Some of us are involved in things…
Nah-nah-nah-nah, Nah-nah-nah-nah,
Hey-hey-hey, Goodbye!
Take your hat, your coat, and get on outta here! Yeah! Let’s keep going…
Matthew 4:10, Jesus said after the trifecta, after the temptation, some of you will get that later, he said, “Away from me, Satan, for it is written, ‘Worship (in other words-cheer), Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” So we’ve got to realize who we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with a defeated foe.
And I’ll just throw another cheer in for extra credit:
Push ‘em back, push ‘em back, waaaay back!
That’s not one of the cheers but I just wanted to. I know so many cheers it’s scary.
Here’s the third big cheer. Don’t you love this? I do, I do. I might. This is my favorite. I mean I’m gonna tell you this is my absolute favorite. The Bible says in Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Wow. So any defensive scheme the devil throws your way or my way or the church’s way ain’t gonna work. It’s not gonna work. So that means the church needs to understand that we are the church, the living, breathing body of Christ. We need to understand that we are an offensive unit. We need to understand that Jesus is our quarterback. We need to understand (and this is not the cheer, either) that we should
Be A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!
Be aggressive, be aggressive.
Be A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E!
Be aggressive, be aggressive.
I we think because we’re Christians we should play on our heels and just spend all the time in the holy huddle.
Kumbaya, Lord, Kumbaya.
Those in my field can go to hell, Lord, Kumbaya.
If they happen to just join the holy huddle by themselves, Lord, Kumbaya.
I’ll turn my back on the great commission, Lord, Kumbaya.
That’s not it.
One time I went to a gym and I heard this cheer. It’s my favorite cheer, the third cheer.
We are the Raiders, oh yeah.
We eat potatoes, oh yeah.
On Sunday morning, oh yeah,
We eat bologna, oh yeah.
With cheeeeeeeeeeese! And with ease!
Say Oh yeah!”
Say oh yeah. Say oh yeah! That is Biblical, man!
We are the Raiders, we eat potatoes. Bread of life. Cosmic carbs every day. We are the Raiders, yeah we’re aggressive. We’re raiding. We’re taking Hell by the square foot. We are the Raiders! The crowd’s going wild.
We are the Raiders, oh yeah.
We eat potatoes, oh yeah.
On Sunday morning… we eat what? Protein! Bologna and cheese.
We eat bologna, oh yeah.
With cheeeeeeeeeeese! And with ease!
And the Scripture tells me in Hebrews 10:25, don’t turn your back on gathering together with the believers. I mean we’ve got to team up. And we’ve got to cheer up. We’ve got to cheer. That’s right. You’re God, I’m not. We’ve got to cheer out to others. Cheer, let them hear the cheer! And cheer in as we grow. The Bible says that. Are you cheering? Are you cheering for God? Are you cheering for others? Are you cheering for yourself? The gates of Hell will not prevail against it. We’re the raiders.
This one school, same school, Keenan High School did this, too. I’ll just throw all this in ‘cause I have 7 minutes left. I’m on a strict clock here. They, like, get mad at me if I go overtime. We have a meeting afterwards and it’s not pretty. Anyway, I have a hard time doing this because I’m not that great at spelling. I have a processing disorder. But anyway, they go..
“R… RA… RAI… RAID… RAIDE… RAIDER… RAIDERS! Raiders, whoo! Raiders, whoo! Raiders, whoo!!!
Yeah, we’re the raiders. See, I messed up but that’s OK, that’s OK. God understand.
#4 – the fourth one. Now this is old school but it’s good. This is really good. It’s powerful. It’s theological.
That’s all right, that’s OK.
We’re gonna beat them anyway.
That’s all right, that’s OK.
We’re gonna beat them anyway.
You’re not doing it with me!
That’s all right, that’s OK.
We’re gonna beat them anyway.
We’ve already won. I knew I’d get an applause from somewhere. I knew it, I felt it! Now the Bible says in 1 Samuel 30:6, David – that’s right, David, the man after God’s own heart – did what? He encouraged himself in the Lord. Do you encourage yourself in the Lord? We should. Sometimes if an audience is not really with it and I feel like, boom! Man that was totally from the Spirit of God. I’ll just walk off the stage and I’ll just, yeah! Woo-hoo!! I’ll just clap for myself. I’ll just encourage myself. Man, that was good! Put this sermon on my play list, hear it again. I like it! Log onto Fellowshipchurch.com and watch that again. Amen!
Then I when I see other people I need to encourage them. Because let’s face it, we’ve had the Hell beat out of us during the week. I say that theologically speaking. So every time I come out here and speak I want to give you some Heaven. Because people have been giving us Hell all week. I want to encourage you and hopefully with the words I say from God, and hopefully by your attitude and your smile and your charisma and your posture you’re encouraging to so many people. And I see it all the time. People will come up to Lisa and I and they’ll talk about Fellowship Church being such an encouraging place.
I’m not saying we don’t talk about the real and the raw. I mean, let’s face it. Our world is absolutely evil. If you don’t believe in evil, I mean what’s right is wrong and wrong is right?
Our own president in the face of these Christians being murdered, his response is gun control? What?!? Killing police officers. Racism is rampant. Our economy is totally and completely schizophrenic. We don’t know where to go these days. In education, we’re the most educated culture in the world yet we’re absolute morons. These morons are running – so many of them – our country and they have all of these ivy league degrees. Are you kidding me? What’s right is wrong and wrong is right. Really? Really? And we’re funding Planned Parenthood? Our tax dollars are going for taking the lives of developing babies? What?!? What?!?
And here we are, our officials flying around doing deals with the devil. I mean, we’ve gotta wake up and smell the espresso. The hope of the world is the church. It’s not about legislation, it’s heart transformation. And until our leaders bow down and say, “For me and my family, we’re going to serve the Lord” it’s not gonna happen.
But again, I’ve got Godfidence and so do you. You should. It doesn’t matter what they do to us. We win. I mean, it really doesn’t matter. We win. But it’s time for us to speak the truth in love and to stand for what we believe.
David encouraged himself in the Lord. Wow. The Bible says in Hebrews 3:13, “Encourage one another daily.” Wow, it’s encouraging to know that you are encouraging.
There’s one more. And I did this in one of our other services and people had never heard this cheer. I thought this was like old school. Because see, I’m from the dirty south. This is one of my favorites. This is like trash talking. You’re ahead, and again, we win. I want you to know that. You’re not defeated. We win. And Fellowship is a place of grace. It is. That’s all right, that’s OK, we’re gonna beat them anyway. It doesn’t matter what you’re dealing with, what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter what your past is, this place is a place of grace. So that’s why we can stick our finger in the devil’s face and say,
Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon rind,
Look at the scoreboard and see who’s behind!
Surely you’ve heard that. If you’ve never heard that cheer, lift your hand. I’ve got so many more! But the team here will not let me. I mean, I’ve got so many cheers in me. No, I can’t. I want to but I can’t. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. No, no.
OK, I’ll do a couple more. You twisted my arm. OK! I’ll play to the crowd. OK. No wonder they have the laugh track and the applause track in Hollywood. I mean, no wonder! It gives you confidence. I like it! Did it help you cheer more? Maybe we should do it. Maybe it’s like, man, we let the world take that from us. Maybe we should do that. It gets people going. I like it. I like it.
1 Corinthians 15:57 says, “But thanks be to God who gives us victory…” This is
Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon rind,
Look at the scoreboard, devil, see who’s behind.
You’re defeated. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here’s something that’s so profound. We only cheer – my friend told me this – when we’re winning. I mean we don’t really cheer if our team’s losing. I mean a little bit, but our cheers are sort of decaffeinated. But if our team’s winning it’s like yeah! Any little thing, whoa! We should have that kind of attitude. Again, we’re gonna cry. again, we’re gonna go through suffering. Again, we will face tribulation. I understand that. We know that. We’re not gonna leave planet Earth unscathed. But we have to know that through the tears, through the pain, through the doubt, through the suffering, that Jesus is Lord and we win.
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
That’s another one. And I got another one. You want me to do some more cheers? I’ll do some. Like the Raiders again. I love the Raiders. They have this thing where it’s the long cheer. I’ll make it short where they would stand and they would go,
Freshman, freshman, break it on down.
Freshman, freshman, break it on down.
Can we holler? Yeah! Can we shout? Ow!
Can we break it on down?
So it’d go from freshman to sophomore, sophomore to junior, junior to senior. Then the whole student body:
Keenan Raiders, break it on down!
Man, I would stand even though I didn’t go to Keenan High school! I got some more.
Bang, bang! Choo-choo train!
Come on church, do your thing. Ah!
What’s our thing? Well, our thing is to celebrate and care, communicate and share. That’s the four purposes of the church. Let me see, some more cheers. Oh!
You’ve got it, now use it. Yeah.
You’ve got it, now use it. Yeah.
You’ve got it, now use it. Yeah.
The first thing we know about God is the fact that God is a creative God. In the beginning, God created. We should be the most creative people anywhere and the church should be the most creative thing and the creative force in the Universe! So the question should not be how do I become creative? It should be, God, what is keeping me from unleashing and using the stuff you’ve already deposited in my life?
You’ve got it, now use it. Yeah.
You’ve got it, now use it. Yeah.
That’s about it. But I do want to say this. Did you love the interview with those quarterbacks? Those guys are true celebrities, man. And I love that cheer!
Who are we? The Eagles!
What do we do? Dominate!
Who are we? The Eagles!
What do we do? Dominate!
Who are we? Fellowship!
What do we do? Dominate!
Who are we? Fellowship!
What do we do? Dominate!
So I believe right now in the upper deck, in the skyboxes of Heaven, those who have field passes in Heaven, I believe the cheer is going something like this.
Once I heard the church say,
Fellowship is coming this way!
With a vevo, with a vivo.
With a vevo, vivo, vumbo and
a rip tail, rat-tail, sitting on a cat tail,
Bump bump bump!
What’s the matter with that team
That they can’t see
That they can’t play as well as we?
With a vevo, with a vivo.
With a vevo, vivo, vumbo and
a rip tail, rat-tail, sitting on a cat tail,
Bump bump bump!
Let’s cheer for God, and let’s cheer for others, and let’s cheer for ourselves!
[Ed leads in closing prayer.]