Lessons from a Game of Checkers

By Pastor Ken Gorman Jr

I like how God uses everyday life to teach or remind us of lessons we need to remember. One year, my wife and I celebrated my birthday in Lancaster County. One thing we love to do to get out there is antiquing. If you're unfamiliar with antiquing, it is going to different antique shops and looking for treasures. There's one antique mall out with many shops set up, and then you can walk around. They have a general store-type setup at one end of the mall. In old movies and TV shows, you see people sitting around the general stores playing Checkers, and this place had A giant game of Checkers set up, and when we see a giant game of Checkers, we end up playing most times. We are pretty even on who's winning in our games, but my wife is slightly ahead by a win. 

This game of Checkers actually reminded me of two lessons I'd like to share with you. Before I get into that, let me tell you about this game. It all started standard. I made a move; Beth made a move, and so on. However, my moves at the beginning of the game were flawless, leading me to become overconfident and proud. This Attitude brings me to my first point from this game of checkers, as Solomon wrote in the often-misquoted verse Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."  Let me tell you that I did not win that game of Checkers.

1. Avoid Pride

Before we can go into dealing with pride, we have to understand what pride is. There are three definitions for Pride in Miriam-Webster's dictionary. It defines pride as: the quality or state of being proud, such as

1. Definition of Pride

   1. reasonable self-esteem: confidence and satisfaction in oneself: SELF-RESPECT

This is an OK definition for pride because we need to remember who we are and belong to. We need not think so low of ourselves that we get trampled on by other people. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are children of the Most High. We should be proud that we are in Jesus, and we should be boasting more about this. We should be out there proclaiming this to all those around us. We should be sharing this great relationship we have with the Lord Jesus. But we need to make sure we keep it in balance. I'll explain what I mean in a few moments, but let's look at the following definition of pride.

2. Pleasure that comes from some relationship, association, achievement, or possession that is seen as a source of honor, respect, etc.

We could be proud of things in our lives, our children's lives, our friends' lives, or organizations that we belong to. But let me make something very carefully stated here: we need to make sure what we are doing and are proud of does not come before the Lord. I am proud that I was ordained a little over 3 years ago, but if that gets in my way of worshiping and serving the Lord, I would say what the apostle Paul said when he was talking about his accomplishments to the Philippian Church, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Nothing we do in our lives or the organization we serve should come before the Lord Himself. When we think we are doing it all, it brings us to the third definition of pride, which is the one we must avoid at all costs.

3. exaggerated self-esteem: CONCEIT

If we return to the game of Checkers momentarily, this was the pride I started to feel. I started exaggerating my self-esteem and confidence. I started bragging somewhat and taunting my wife about how she would lose. This Attitude is what the Lord hates. The Bible is quite clear on this. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 16:5, "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished."  James 4:6 says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Even the Lord Jesus Christ says this in Luke 14:11, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled." What the Lord thinks of those who are prideful or conceited in themselves is pretty straightforward, but let's look at what the Bible says about what happens to somebody who lets pride take over.

The writer of the book of Proverbs must have dealt with pride a lot because he talks a lot about the consequences of pride. He says in Proverbs 11:2, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom." Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."  And in Proverbs 18:12, "Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor." Destruction is the keyword here. Does this mean that we will be utterly destroyed if we have this prideful spirit? Not necessarily, we may be as Proverbs 29:23 says, "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor." 

In this game of Checkers with my wife, I became proud and lost a game I should have won. My pride was stripped, and I was made humble.

2. Overcoming Pride

You may ask yourself, now, pastor Ken, how can I stop myself from falling into this destructive, prideful way, or how can I overcome this in my own life? First, it is not easy, and it's going to be a lifelong battle because I still suffer from it. After all, our enemy knows us better than we know ourselves, and as I was learning from the game of Checkers, I still battle with this pride. Every few years, it pops up, and my wife can attest to it with a visit either to the hospital or telling me I told you so. However, we can still do things to mitigate its occurrence.

3. Admit that you cannot do this on your own

The battle with pride is a battle we cannot win alone. We need the Lord Jesus to help us. The Apostle Paul even states this. Many of you know his famous passage about wrestling with a thorn in a flesh but just in case you did not know it lets read from Second Corinthians 12:7-10, "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

We need God's grace to deal with all sin issues, including pride. We, on our own power, cannot do it. If we could do it ourselves, then we would not have needed Jesus to come to this world and die for our sins. We would still be in Paradise with God. Our spirit may be willing, but our flesh is weak. We need God's grace.

4. Get more mature believers to help you.

Another thing that we should be doing is getting help from more mature believers in the faith. This does not have to do with age; it has to do with how they are in the Lord. A younger person can be more mature in faith than somebody older in chronological age. I am not saying that they have it all together by no means, as I shared with you, I don't have it all together. I have slipped up, especially with pride, but I know I can work through it and help others deal with it. More mature believers in the faith will share their faults with you and show you how they overcome them. As Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." We are there to help one another be the better person we need to be in Christ Jesus.

5. Turn to the word of God

We need to be connected to God's word daily. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 15:33, "The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor." We need to be in the Word of God daily and have that time to be connected and filled with the Word of God. At first, getting into the Word of God may seem challenging because you may have a hectic schedule. Being in the Word of God is like eating; you will die if you do not eat. And if we are not in the Word of God daily and every chance we get, we will spiritually die. It is that important to stay in the Word of God. 

6. Be in prayer

We need to be connected to God, not just in the Bible, but through communication. We communicate with God by talking to him in prayer. Not that he needs to hear us to know our needs, but we need to share with him, and he wants to hear from us. Let me ask you a question: what if I stop talking to my wife every day and walk by her, not saying a word? How long do you think my marriage would last with her? A day, maybe, a week thing might start getting a little rough, in a month tensions will definitely have risen in the house, but after probably 6 months, one of us is moving out of the house. Communication is essential, and it is what we need to do with God.

7. Remember

Always remember that pride will always be there, and it will be a battle for you. Once you think you have mastered it, pride will rear its ugly head. One of Satan's tricks is to make us feel that we have it all figured out and that we do not need to remember the above steps, especially needing God. You can still fall with pride if you are in your 50s or 90s. I know people who are in their 80s and still deal with pride, but they have it all solved. I'm here to tell you I'm in my 50s, and I will never have this solved. I must rely on God's Grace until he calls me home.

2. Perseverance

As you know, I alluded to the fact that I did not win this game of checkers against my wife. And it was not just because of my pride that I lost. It wasn't because my wife is a grandmaster at Checkers either. She had perseverance, and this is a wonderful thing. While I was learning about dealing with pride, she was showing perseverance.

As with pride, let us define perseverance. Merriam-Webster's dictionary makes the definition of perseverance easier. Perseverance is defined as: 

1. Definition 

continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition: the action or condition or an instance of persevering: STEADFASTNESS

A perfect and solid definition of what perseverance is, and that is what my wife was doing in this game of Checkers. She lost piece after piece and would not give up, even with my taunting her. The Bible talks about this type of steadfastness in our faith. This Kind of perseverance reminds me of a line from a comedy movie called Galaxy Quest, A spoof of Star Trek starring Tim Allen, who plays an actor who plays a character on a TV show named Commander Peter Quincy Taggart. This character would say, "Never give up, never surrender." We should have that Attitude, just like my wife did in the game of Checkers against me.

  Look what the Apostle James wrote in his epistle, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4) When we are faced with difficulties in our walks with Christ, we will face difficulties in our walk if we stick firm to Biblical principles. These kinds of trials, according to James, will produce steadfastness in us. The Apostle Paul echoes this in his writing to the church in Rome when he wrote, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-4) 

You may ask Pastor Ken, Why do we need to have perseverance? If we read Jesus's words in Matthew 24:12-13, He tells us, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved." We see this in our world today. Evil is calling good and good being called evil. Parents' rights are being stripped away from them. It is becoming more and more hostile to stand on biblical principles because it hurts people's feelings. We need to stand fast in our faith in Jesus Christ and on what the Bible says.

2. Promises

Promises are given to us throughout the scriptures for us to hold onto as we build up our endurance, steadfastness, and perseverance. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia saying, "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." But what will we reap? 

As I mentioned earlier, Jesus said in Matthew 24 that we will be saved if we endure to the end. Now I want to make a very distinct note right here. You should be made aware that being saved doesn't necessarily mean we will not lose our lives. What it means is that we will be saved from the second death, which is set aside for Satan and those who follow him. Following Jesus can be dangerous, mainly when we are commanded to go to areas hostile to the gospel, but if we remain steadfast in our faith, God will use that to move that area and bring people to him.

Back in 2005, there was a perfect movie about a group of missionary men who flew a plane in 1956 to witness to the Waodani tribe. These five missionaries were martyred because the villagers were hostile to the gospel, but God changed that village. Because of those five missionaries' steadfastness to Christ, the village came to know Christ, and one of the men who killed the five missionaries approached the son of one of those missionaries and confessed that he killed his father. And there was forgiveness there, and these two men became lifelong friends until their death.

That is the crown of life The James said was reward, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." (James 1:12) Yes, those missionaries lost their lives, their family lost their fathers, husbands and friends but a whole village came to know Christ and because of their steadfastness. 

You may ask yourself How can I attain this steadfastness, this perseverance that we are called to do? Let me give you five things we can do.

I. Admit that you cannot do this on your own

The Apostle Paul Tells us what we need to do when he wrote to the Hebrews, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." (Hebrews 12:1-3) 

We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. Just like dealing with pride, we need help with perseverance. We cannot do it on our own. Only through God's power can we persevere through the many trials and difficulties we will face.

II. Turn to the word of God

I cannot emphasize nearly enough that we need to be in God's word daily and every chance we get. It is the foundation of our faith. It helps us build on every aspect of our walk with Jesus. 

III. Be in prayer

This is another one of those things I cannot overstate. Prayer is our communication line to God. We need to be talking with him every chance we get. The Bible says to pray without ceasing, and we need to practice that to build perseverance.

IV. Get more mature believers to help you

Fellow believers are wonderful people we can learn from. More mature people have been through a lot more things than younger people. And as I mentioned with pride, it does not necessarily mean age, but in this case, it could mean an older person has been through a lot more than a younger person and knows how to deal with things. Those in their late 70s to early 100s know about going through hard times and dealing with things like the Great Depression and World War II. We, as younger people, can learn from them about perseverance.

V. Practice perseverance

Unlike pride, which does not need to be practiced, perseverance must be practiced. We should be putting it into practice in our lives and not giving up on the littlest things at all. Just like when my wife did in the game of Checkers, she persevered to the end and ended up winning the game. She said something amazing to me when I complimented her on her perseverance after the game. She told me she tries to practice perseverance in every aspect of her life. She practiced it in the game of Checkers, she practiced it with me, with my pridefulness and dealing with me every day, and she's practicing it in every aspect of her life. We should follow her example. No matter what we are going through, we should practice perseverance.

I want to tell you this in closing: no matter what you are going through, whether you're battling with pride, health issues, or other issues, Jesus wants to help you to persevere and overcome those things. It will not be easy; that is why the body of Christ is here to help. We are all in this together in Christ Jesus. And if you do not know Christ Jesus, please come up to me after the service, and I'll be happy to talk with you about it, and it will be the first step you can take into perseverance and overcoming what you are battling with.