SERMON
“The Game of Life”
Romans 8:1-11
Sunday, July 13, 2014
As a kid one my favorite board games was Milton-Bradley’s The Game of Life. It was more than just
a favorite game…it was an obsession! I could not get enough of it. I especially liked the spinning wheel and
praying to spin tens all the way through the game. I had to be the winner! And if I wasn’t I would force my
brothers to keep on playing until I won…the only problem was that my older brother always seemed to
collect the most money. He was the one that always landed the best job, got the tax refunds, and collected
inheritances. I would get hit by a tornado and have to pay out $125,000. I would be forced to go to tennis
camp when I didn’t even like tennis and have to pay out $25,000.
The whole goal of the game of Life was to make it to Millionaire Estates. My brother always made it
there first. I usually made it only to Countryside Acres (a retirement home). The game ends when everyone
reaches their final destination; the players’ money is tallied and the richest person wins the game.
All games whether its football, baseball, bowling, Monopoly, Poker, Trouble, or Checkers are about
winning. In every game there will always be losers. Even though the Game of Life may mimic real life the
goal of the Game of Life; like all other games, is to win.
Unfortunately, many have taken that which mimics life and live life as if it were nothing more than a
game; a game in which only one wins and the rest of the players lose. They approach life selfishly thinking
only of winning the game.
From the Bible translation The Message Paul, in Romans 8:6-7 says something similar: “Obsession
with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.
Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God,
ends up thinking more about self than God.”
When we live life as though it is nothing more than a game we are in essence doing what Paul calls:
walking in the flesh. It was just like my obsession with the game of Life: I had to play to win! I had to be the
millionaire! I was, for all intents and purposes, walking in the flesh.
Before we go any further in our biblical study for this morning I believe it necessary to further define
what Paul meant when he talked about walking in the flesh. Throughout his letter to the Romans Paul uses
the catch phrase “the desires of our flesh” as code for selfishness. Therefore, when we are acting selfishly we
are being motivated by the flesh, or what Paul calls: “walking in the flesh.” Walking in the flesh opposes
God’s Spirit. That’s what selfishness is…is it not? Selfishness is not just the placement of our needs before
the needs of the other; it is the placement of our desires before that of God’s.
So what stops us, or prevents us from being selfish? In Milton Bradley’s game of Life the rules were
invented to ensure that no one would become too selfish. Players still might become millionaires and win but
at least they played by the rules. Here are the opening instructions to the rules to the Game of Life:
“To win the Game of Life, two to six players must collect as many Life tiles as possible and have the
most money at the end of the game. Players collect tiles from the draw pile or other players upon landing on
Life spaces.
If you act as the banker, distribute $10,000 to each player. Put the Life tiles down near the board,
with the Life side facing up (so no one can see the values); this will be your draw pile. Without looking at the
tiles, pick four and put them on the Millionaire Estates space (where players can "retire" to at the end of the
game).
Place a person in your car of choice. Before your first turn, decide to begin a career or go to college
(which takes longer). Pick one career and salary card each; if you chose career, you want a career card that
does not require a degree. Choosing college, you must take out $100,000 in bank loans.
Put your car on either the college or career space. Unless you reach a ‘stop’ space, move your car
the number of spaces you spin and follow directions of the space on which you land.”
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The instructions also contain the following warning: Sometimes life doesn't work out the way you
want it to and that's also true in the Game of Life. Even if you do not get the salary you want or end up with a
car full of kids, you must continue to play by the rules. If you try to cheat your way to success in the game,
just as in real life, you will find that you will probably fall before you reach the top.
Sounds pretty simple to follow but wait until you start actually spinning the wheel and life takes you
directions you never wished for. That’s when the rules begin to fail us. This is Paul’s argument in the 8th
chapter of Romans as well. The Common English Bible Commentary on verses 2 and 3 says, “Although the
Law was intended to give righteousness and life, it was disabled by sin and human selfish desire.” I don’t
know about you; but when I am losing at the game of Life, I start playing by my own rules. And if that
doesn’t work I quit. Rules, even though they were intended to protect us, cannot and will not truly save us
from ourselves. Sin and our own selfish desires will always sidetrack us.
Someone once said that when the game is over the king and the pawn go back into the same box. It
does not matter if we’re winners or losers...at the end of the game whether I am green car or an orange car,
whether I am pink peg or blue peg, whether I am on Millionaire Estates or Countryside Acres we all go back
into the same box. Romans 8:6 says it best: “The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death.”
The Good News of the 8th chapter of Romans however, is that death does not have the last word.
Even though our selfish desires place us all in the same box, it is the Spirit of God which provides us with
that which we seek and need but cannot achieve on our own. This is what Paul in Romans 8:6 calls: “the
attitude that comes from the Spirit that leads to life and peace.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary
commenting on Romans 8:6 says this: “Life is the golden thread that runs throughout this passage in
Romans, the gift of God that the law wanted to give but could not, the gift that comes because God’s Son has
dealt with sin and death and God’s life-giving Spirit has replaced sin as the indwelling power within God’s
people.”
It is told that Isaac Asimov only gambled once in his life. In his book Treasury of Humor Asimov
tells the following story: “It was shortly after I had married; my wife left to visit her folks. I was at loose
ends, and I was lured into a poker game with the boys. When it was all over, my conscience smote me, for I
had been brought up by a puritanical father to eschew gambling in all its forms (and I had never rebelled).
All I could do was confess. On my next trip home, I said with all the casualness I could manage, 'I played a
game of poker with the boys, Papa. For money.'
My father stared at me in astonishment and said, 'How did you make out?'
I said, 'I lost fifteen cents.'
And he said, 'Thank God. You might have won fifteen cents.'
Asimov learned a valuable lesson the hard way. When we put our selfish desires first sin will always
pervade. Thank God, however that sin and death are not the last word. Paul, in verse 11 puts it best: “If the
Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will
give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.” When it comes to the real game of
life we do not win because we obeyed the rules of the game, nor do we win because we were the first to
make it to Millionaire Estates; neither do we win because we tallied up most of the money. We win because
the victory has already been won in Christ.
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