“Eyes.” The word has a special meaning here. When the Rogers Mountaineers hear it, it’s as if an automatic instinct kicks in. 

“Eyes!” they echo back while in a crouched stance ready for the next command, their eyes staring right into their coach’s. But for 30 senior Mountaineer football players on this night — a warm, muggy, crystal-clear evening in the dog-days of August in the middle of Central Arkansas’ mountainous wilderness — there’s no need for the command. That’s because Ronnie Peacock, the head coach at Rogers High School, already has their full attention.

I need You, Jesus...To come to my rescue...Where else can I go...  From the streets you could hear their song. The collection of voices grew louder as the sound of worship drifted down the newly cemented driveway and floated into the humid summer night breeze. Within the walls of the recently erected Gulf Coast home gathered a group of young adults from Church of the Good Shepherd — a group whose lives one year earlier had changed as quickly as the flood waters rose on August 29, 2005, the day Hurricane Katrina hit.

1 – Today we will discuss ironic nature of rewards in sport.

• The rewards are the same for the freshman playing his first season as for the senior playing his last season.
• The rewards for the first year coach are the same as for the twenty year veteran of coaching.
• At the end of the game or the end of the season, the rewards are the same.

2 – Jesus told a story about this in Matthew 20:1-16 (read the text aloud).