Gridiron Day 2: The Nature of Sin, Overcoming Sin, and Spreading the Gospel
- RD Montgomery
- Jul 19, 2024
- 7 min read
Now that is a long title! I enjoyed going to Gridiron Men this year, but I am happy to say this is my last blog entry about the conference. I am ready to get back to writing instead of reporting.
Daniel Dickard was the first speaker on day 2 of the Gridiron Men Conference. The conference Bio they gave for him was out-of-date, so I looked up the one from his current church:
Daniel Dickard is the Senior Pastor of Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia, SC. He is the author of Church Together: The Church of We in the Age of Me and a two-time graduate (Ph.D. and M.Div.) of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. Daniel is also a graduate of North Greenville University (B.A.) in Tigerville, SC.
In addition to his service to the local church, Daniel served as the President of the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at North Greenville University and serves on the Board of Reference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. With a focus on expository preaching, intercessory prayer, and the Great Commission, his aim is to see God’s church grow in health and strength. Daniel is married to Cassie and they have four children: Conrad, Kesyd, Carolina, and Kali-Jane. In his downtime, Daniel enjoys running, outdoor adventures, spending time with his family, and reading.
A quick Google search revealed that he is currently in his early 30s. His preaching style comes across as nuts and bolts, which I appreciate up to a point. My only complaint is that it was a 2-for-1 special, meaning that he could have either gone longer or broken his sermon into two parts.
His sermon started by describing the process of temptation and the nature of sin and ended with a four-part action plan for dealing with temptation. I doubt the sermon he presented to his church is exactly the same as what he gave to us, but here is a YouTube of it:
While there is too much to cover, I would like to hit on the screen that shows that temptation is the belief that temptation is that something other than God can satisfy me. I think that is part of it, but I also believe it has much to do with instant gratification. The way God satisfies me may be more complete, but I may have to wait years to get it. The answer I see all around me, and I have participated in myself, is trying to have both—quick satisfaction and hanging on to God for far better. The problem is that it is like saying to your fiancée, I know you won’t have sex with me now, so I am going to get what I can on the side until we get married.
The problem with him giving two sermons in one was in his action plan. He gave 4 points, which is more than some Baptist ministers give. They were also good points, but I believe that overcoming sin (repentance) needs more explanation, and we must use all the available tools. I think my post on the 7 R’s of Repentance gives you a more complete picture. I also believe it is a mistake to tell you that the goal is to rid yourself of sin; the Bible says that we are more than conquerors, and I believe that when you and the Holy Spirit team up to tackle sin, it will not just result in a sin flatlining, it will result in new life. It will allow you to be alive in Christ in a new way.
Willie Robertson was our second speaker.
Willie Robertson is the CEO of Duck Commander and Buck Commander and star of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty”. Robertson has expanded his family companies, from a living room operation to a multi-million-dollar enterprise and destination for all things outdoors. He is a Christian speaker, an author of several books, and the father of six children.
I am going to be completely honest. I have the most challenging time watching Duck Dynasty. I tried again after hearing Willie talk at Gridiron, but it doesn’t work for me. The problem is that none of them are good liars, making the engineered portions of the show hard to watch. We know it has to be scripted because while everyone has TV moments in their life, most of them are dull and boring. No film crew is going to watch some guys assemble duck calls for 8 or 9 hours to catch 5 minutes of potentially usable material. The answer was obviously to take something real, like the headaches of working with family, and grossly exaggerate it.
That said, Willie Robertson was my favorite speaker at Gridiron this year. He was, of course, funny at the beginning, and he got a lot of laughs, but when he got serious, you could tell he was passionate. He recently wrote a book entitled Gospeller, which I plan to read in the near future.
There was a brilliance to Willie’s message because it laid out a very simple plan for spreading the Gospel. I have heard many sermons about the woman at the well. In the US we have so many resources at our disposal we can go deep on just about any topic. There is nothing wrong with depth, but it should always come back to simple. An entire Samaritan town believed in Jesus, but it all began with a simple question, “Can I get a drink of water?”
Willie made it very clear that he owes everything to the Gospel, as do we all. We don’t all have big transformation stories, but his family does. They have evidence of how their life literally went from a trajectory of running from the law to being prominent citizens of this country and the Kingdom.
What many people think of evangelicals is they push their religion because “misery loves company.” Trust me when I say that some of the time when I was “missed” at church it came across like that to me too. It didn’t feel like I was missed, it felt like I should be guilty or that if they had to be there, I should too. In fact, there is a man I love who wants me to know I am missed when I miss an event or a service, and when I see the text, it always takes me a moment to remember he is not being passively aggressive.
Willie wants to spread the Gospel because it has and is doing transformational things for him and his family. I am not talking about him being rich and famous. I am sure he sometimes considers money, success, and fame a hassle or even a curse. That is something the Prosperity Gospel doesn’t tell you. Sometimes, these kinds of things need to be endured because they give him a different level or platform to serve God. He used that platform to write a new book. His quote about writing it:
"I'm so glad I wrote this book, and the subtitle is 'Turning Darkness into Light: One Conversation at a Time.' It's about the word 'Gospeller,' a real word. My wife found it. I was writing this book on how to share your faith with people, and I had some different ideas. She came in and said, 'Willie, I found this word. It's called "Gospeller." It's an old word that used to be very common, but now it's kind of like a dinosaur in our language, which is kind of ironic because it's about sharing your faith. But there used to be people known as Gospellers. They were known for preaching the gospel, not necessarily pastors, more just like common guys and girls who would go out and just share their faith, and they became known for that.' And that idea kind of struck me, and I was like, 'Man, I love that idea.'"
Simple. Do you want to know how to start spreading the Gospel? Care about the person sitting next to you enough to start a conversation. The conversation may rarely lead to the Gospel or anything about faith, but sometimes it does! Fishing and catching are not the same thing.
Phil Waldrep was our final speaker.
Phil Waldrep is the founder and CEO of Phil Waldrep Ministries and the wildly popular Women of Joy, Gridiron and Celebrators conferences. Waldrep’s vision to speak encouragement into the lives of people unite powerful Bible teachers and speakers now inspires nearly 60,000 annual attendees. He is also author of the acclaimed parenting book, “Reaching Your Prodigal.”
His message was all about deception and how it pertains to sin. It also shows the nature of sin which ties it to what Daniel preached.
He started by lying about why he was wearing a suit. The premise was that a wedding would happen about 90 minutes after we closed the conference, and he needed to go ahead and wear a suit. I am sure I am not the only guy who thought it was absurd that he couldn’t speak in his dress shirt and pants and add the tie and jacket later, but I let it go.
When he got into the meat of his message, we were in Joshua 7, on the tail end of a major victory over Jericho. We learn that Achan took spoils from the victory and hid them in his tent. God would allow them to have spoils in the future, but he was very clear that at Jericho, they weren’t to take anything for themselves. God allowed them to go and get defeated at AI, which everyone believed would be an easy win. God explains it to Joshua, who begins an investigation. Eventually, Achan’s sin comes into the light.
Phil didn’t bring anything new to this sermon, and it is one I have heard many times. However, it doesn’t need anything new. Sometimes, the reason to preach something is to simply remind people of it.
The object lesson Phil used to illustrate his point is also something I have seen before, but it grabs your attention. He began to remove his outer clothing, and we saw that what was underneath was dirty and tattered.
I wish I could tell you more about what we learned and the worship and fellowship of being with a large group of men, but I hope you will read this and want to check Gridiron Men out for yourself. It doesn’t have to be Gridiron Men but look for any gathering in your area. Obviously, this article is highly directed at men, but there are women’s conferences you can attend, too.
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