Sports are a part of culture. The left, in their march through the institutions, have tried to destroy the joy we get from sport. Team USA gave us a wonderful show and something to be proud of. It's also a taste of what's to come in heaven.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with some perspective and peace. New headlines every day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here. Let's get to the true story.
Sorry I was gone at the end of last week. I've been a part of a men's Bible group since 2012 when I first moved to San Diego. And we've met pretty much every Wednesday until I moved away from San Diego. A bunch of us have moved since. The group still meets, the guys who We're still back there, but we all, wherever we are across the country, we all get together once a year, at least. So we spent the weekend in Arizona, catching up and studying the Bible.
It was great. So that's where I was this last weekend. And I missed the hockey game and I was able to stay away from all social media. I was able to watch the game on the plane, but it was awesome. It's about as good as it gets here. If you missed it, or if you want to relive it, I made a little thing to get fired up.
The guy who scored the goal is 24 years old. Right before the end of the regulation, he got slammed in the face with a stick, lost a bunch of teeth, kept playing. If that happened to someone in the NBA, they'd be out for the year. Keeps playing with no teeth. Then wins the overtime goal. First gold medal since 1980.
Miracle on ice, which was the exact same day, 46 years ago, which also happened to be on George Washington's birthday. Poor Canucks never stood a chance. This game was really fun because it had a lot of really important themes to it. First it was just very American and just the grittiness of it, the grind, the Canadian players were probably more talented, the team was more talented, and they had, the expression was, the ice was tilted in their favor most of the time, playing on their toes, and we were playing on our heels a lot of the game, but we just never gave up. Just never give up, never give up, just grinding the entire time.
And the two goals that we did score were so beautiful. And you could just, every time I see those goals, especially the first one, but I just see years and years and years of work put into this craft, and it was sublime to see the excellence of it, especially at that speed. So that was fun. Also, you had brothers, and I want to get back to this point in a minute, but let me play this clip here. There's two sets of brothers. The Hughes, Jack Hughes is the one who scored, and then you had the Kachuk brothers as well, and here they are at the end of the game.
Okay guys, you told me you're watching Miracle, growing up, dreaming about this. You're living it right now. How does it feel?
Hockey's our game. Hockey's the United States of America's game. It's the greatest country in the world. We have the best support ever. Hundreds of millions of people back home. So many people in St. Louis.
Everyone in St. Louis. We could feel the support whether they're hockey fans or not. Everyone's watching. Everyone better be partying right now. Everyone better be wearing the red, white, and blue for as long as they can. It should be like a month mandate where the red, white and blue in the United States and celebrate us and the other Olympian gold medalists.
Those two, those two brothers, their dad played on the Olympic hockey team 20 years ago. They were there at that Olympics 20 years ago. I was picturing them as kids. And now here they are. They want to go metal with their dad in the stands. I come on.
And then the Hughes brothers, the one who scored the goal, there's a video of them when they were like 12 years old and they were asked, you know, one day, do you want to play on the same team? Or do you want to play against each other in the NHL? And the 12 -year -old Jack Hughes is like, nah, it'd be way better if we were on the same team because we love each other so much and he's such a good player, I'd rather we be on the same team. And here they are, they just won the gold medal together. This is.. one of the women hockey players.
We also won the gold in that game, in an overtime goal against Canada too. Here's one of those players right here.
What were you thinking when you were listening to the anthem, seeing the flag go up?
I just, I think just taking pride in our country. I just, uh, it was an honor, uh, to win gold is what we came to do. And getting to sing the anthem just made it that much more sweeter.
Great.
Uh, and then she was asked this question.
So much. Uh, I think, um, the Lord, the most for everything and all of you guys. Um, but yeah, you know, God is good and this is awesome.
God is good. And this is awesome. I want to play one last video here. There is a woman on the women's hockey team who has two, excuse me, three brothers and her brothers get fired up for the games. They get all decked out, Team USA merch, and they recorded a voicemail message for their sister. And the images are all videos from when she was a kid learning how to skate for the first time and all these different times when the three brothers showed up to support their sister.
Go girl, go.
Get those feet under you. Go girls!
Good girl!
Hey Bugs!
Hey Jess!
What's up with your brothers?
We've watched you on skates before you could even walk and listened to you talk about your dreams of becoming an Olympian since the first time you were asked.
Now you're living it.
You continue to impress us daily. Your ability to handle pressure, your ability to smile through it all, and your ability to love through it all. We are just so proud of you.
Hey, stick with him!
Continue to be you through all the externals. Continue to trust yourself through the toughest moments and the highest highs and continue to love and be because you are powerful. You deserve everything that's coming. The U .
S.
Women's Hockey team deserves everything that's coming to you. You've worked so hard, thousands of shots, all the hours in the weight room, all the early mornings and just everything you've sacrificed. We're sorry we have to be loud sometimes in our support. We just, we can't help ourselves. We can't wait to cheer you on as you continue to push for gold. Watching you get to live out your dream is a blessing.
No matter the outcome of these games, it doesn't change who you are. You have three older brothers that now look up to you. You will always be our champion.
Love you, bud.
Love you, sis. Love you, sissy.
You can do it.
You don't even need the bucket. The video's on my Twitter, Slater Radio, if you wanna watch it. I mean, that's one of my prayers right there, to have four kids who love each other that deeply and support each other. That's wealth right there. How do you put a price on that? All right, let's get to the Bible.
Sports are good. Does anyone listening now, and if you think this and you've made it this far, thank you for listening for so long, but there's a lot of people who are like, oh, who cares about sports? Who cares about hockey? Who cares about? Sports are a part of culture. We wanna win the culture.
We need to take the culture back. We have to have sports. The left knows. that sports are important as they've marched through the institutions of our country. They were sure to try and have been successful in many ways to take over sports. This is why they had all these pride nights in the NHL.
Probably like rainbow tape on the hockey sticks and nonsense like that. It was part of the march through the institutions. Colin Kaepernick. No one ever mentions with Colin Kaepernick that he was adopted when he was like six weeks old by two white parents, given everything in the world, including life. And then he turned around and betrayed them. And Conley Kaepernick himself is mixed race.
His birth mom is white and dad is black, too. The whole thing is ridiculous. His example of his racist parents that raised him, problematic, is his mom, when he was younger, his mom wouldn't let him get cornrows because she said it was unprofessional. Very often, if you press a black person who says they've been discriminated against, the hair is the issue, their hair. So they'll apply for a job. agree to the terms of the job, which means you pay me in exchange for me presenting myself and working on behalf of your company.
And then they don't present themselves according to rules and regulations. And they say they're discriminated against. And Colin Kaepernick did it on his poor mom. But Colin Kaepernick was a tool to divide people. And to do that in a thing that unites people is particularly insidious, especially because sports is one of the last things where merit matters. It's merit based.
but they try to DEI as much of it as they possibly can. Anyway, I digress. Let's bring the Bible into this. This Bible is full of metaphors about sports and games and play. 1 Corinthians 9 .24. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize.
So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self -control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, that gold medal. But we are, by the way, back in ancient Greece, when Paul was writing this, They got a wreath, like a crown, instead of a gold medal. But we do it for an imperishable thing. We do not run aimlessly.
I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. Hebrews 12, 1. Let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us. 2 Timothy 4, 7. I fought the good fight.
I finished the race. I've kept the faith. 2 Timothy 2, 5. An athlete's not crowned. unless he competes according to the rules. So lots of sports references in the Bible.
Sports are also good because it's good to see joy. When the teams win, I'd say both teams won, men and women hockey team, throwing their helmets in the air, throwing their gloves and sticks and jumping into each other's arms. It's good. I don't know if there's like a Christian mentality, you know, be dour or all that stuff. No, it's good to have joy. Now, this is a secular joy and a thing that, you know, quote, unquote, doesn't matter, but it's a taste of the real joy to come.
It's a partial, it's a little hint of the joy that we will experience when we're in heaven. A true joy that comes from being in union and abiding with God. One last point on play, and then I want to get back to the joy. Zechariah 8 .5. So this is a prophecy when the Jews came out of Persian rule, they're rebuilding Jerusalem, but it wasn't going well. So Zechariah is here to encourage them with a vision for the future.
So this is Zechariah 8 .5. Thus says the Lord, I've returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city in the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. Each one with his staff in his hand because of great age, the streets of the city.
Okay.
So it's like a good future, Jerusalem, joyful, wonderful. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
Isn't that cool?
Playing in the streets, fun, joy, play when you, you were to drive around, you see kids maybe playing street hockey in the middle of the street. That's a biblical vision of joy and goodness. These are all just tastes, little hints of the greatest joy that there is, and that is joy of abiding in God and Jesus. John 15, Jesus says, I am the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the fathers loved me, so I loved you.
Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. " It is good to enjoy these little moments of joy. And also in the meantime, to be full of a true joy, which is one of the fruits of the spirit. Knowing also that when this is all over, you're going to heaven.
And because of that, we should be jumping for joy. Like you just won the gold medal. Mike Slater . locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website, Mike Slater .