August 2, 2026

Indianola Presbyterian Church

"A pep talk for the life of faith"
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch

August 2, 2026                                                                                                                                  Based on 2nd Timothy 2:1-2; 8-15

If you are anything like me, you spent more time than you’d care to admit in June and July watching soccer. The World Cup was on of course, and the eyes of every soccer fan on the planet was tuned in for this once every four year event.  

  As a pastor who is also a soccer fan, of course, the whole time I was thinking…   

How many of the stories here might I be able to draw from for a sermon??

So here it is… my no holds barred, full throttle, World Cup inspired soccer sermon.   

But the good news… You do not have to be a soccer fan or really know anything about soccer this morning to get something out of this.   

We'll start with a man who didn't know the sport either. In fact, He has nothing to do with this year’s World Cup except for making an appearance in the halftime show of the final. 

Ted Lasso.   

He’s from the TV show of the same name that was popular a few years back and is coming back on the air.   

The whole concept for the show started as a joke. What if an American football coach, a guy from Kansas who coaches the football game we play here, gets hired to coach a football team in England?  

A sport he has never played. A sport he does not understand. And the character Ted lasso was invented… A sweet Midwesterner who is equal parts endearing, and foolish, while also being relentless in loving the people around him.

Here is the strange thing about Ted. He is a terrible fit for English soccer but he’s also a wonderful coach, both at once, because as the show goes on you realize the job of coach is not just about how well you know the game, but how well you can lead a team.

What Ted does best is believe in people. He believes in them before they have done a thing to earn it. There is a man on the staff, Nate, who washes the uniforms and fills water bottles, and everyone walks past him like he is part of the furniture. Ted learns his name. Ted asks him what he thinks about the team. And by the end of the first season, Nate is a coach. 

There is a famous player on the team, Roy, who is a total bear, just fully angry because he’s aging and on his way out the door of his soccer career, but Ted sees a leader in him before the player can see it in himself. 

Ted keeps doing this. He believes in someone, he hands them real opportunities to prove themselves, and then he watches them turn around and hand it to the next person.

That is the gift of the coach. It’s never just about the plays on the chalkboard. It’s about the belief. Someone that sees something in you before you can see it in yourself, and then they trust you to carry it on.

Which brings me to this year’s World Cup.

There is a country called Cape Verde. Cabo Verde, if you ask them. 

The country is a handful of small islands out in the Atlantic, off the western coast of the African continent. There are about half a million people. That is smaller than the city of Columbus. A whole country, smaller than our city.  They made it to the World Cup this year, their first time ever, on the same year that  they marked fifty years of independence from Portugal. Fifty years as a free state, and their team walks out onto the biggest stage in the world.

Here is the only thing you need to know about the World Cup stage. There are giants there. Countries that dwarf them with more people, more money, more history, more of everything. At the World Cup there are National soccer teams whose budgets rival those of small countries… And then there is Cabo Verde.

They gave people the day off back home so the whole country could watch. 

Cape Verdeans are scattered all over the world, more of them living far from the islands than on them, and every one of them, everywhere, watched at the same time.

Their first game was against Spain, the champions of all of Europe, one of the best teams there is, in fact they are the team that would go on to win the whole cup. In their first game Cape Verde held Spain to a tie. Nobody scored. 

Their forty-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha, stopped everything that came at him. Then they played another giant, and held on again. Then a third game, and a third time they refused to go down. They may not have won a single one of those three games but they proved themselves to be the little team that could because they just would not lose. 

And when the third game ended, something nobody had planned for had happened. The little islands were still standing while many giants started packing for home. Cape Verde moved on from the group stage to the next round. Further than anyone believed this first timer small country could go.

Hold on to Cape Verde because we are going to come back to them. Because their story I think is the story Paul is telling. 

Paul is in chains when he writes this letter. By any scoreboard you could name, he is losing. He calls himself a common criminal. Locked up. Going nowhere. And from inside that cell he writes to a young man named Timothy, and to me it reads like a coach at halftime with his team down and bruised and ready to walk off. Draw your strength, he says. Draw your strength from the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Remember Jesus, raised from the dead, descended from David. He reminds Timothy… I may be in prison… but God's word cannot be imprisoned.

Notice where Paul says the strength comes from. From grace. That is a thing you receive, not a thing you build. Someone hands it to you. It is the gift of the coach who believed in you before you had earned a thing, and here is Paul saying it plainly to the young man he raised up. Take what you heard from me. Pass it on to faithful people who can teach others. Somebody believed in you first. Now you carry it on.

And remember Jesus, descended from David, he says…  

Because David was the small one too. The youngest brother. The boy they left out in the field when the prophet came looking for a king, because nobody thought to call him in. The one who walked out to meet the giant with nothing in his hands that should have been enough. That is the family Jesus comes from. The small ones. The overlooked ones. The last name anyone would think to call in from the field. That is the family Paul is preaching from his cell, and it is the family we were baptized into.

Paul knew what the scoreboard said. And he wrote this down anyway. If we have died together, we will also live together. If we endure, we will also rule together. He stays faithful, because he can't be anything other than what he is. That is the hope of this passage. The hope was never that we would be strong enough.   

It is that the One who called us is strong… that the one who called us does not quit. Whatever the board says at half time.

Now let me bring Cape Verde back, because their tournament was not over when we left them.

Moving on meant one more thing. It meant Argentina. The best team on the planet. The reigning champions of the entire world. For their first knock out match…  the little island country walked out to meet Goliath…

Here is what happened.

A soccer game is ninety minutes. . For all ninety of those minutes, the best team in the world could not beat Cape Verde. They could not do it in the time the game gives you. They needed more. The game ran past its own end, into extra time, before Argentina finally found the goal that put them through.   

Three to two. Cape Verde was knocked out and went home. But nobody who watched would tell you they lost.

Sit with that, because its Paul’s message lived out in today’s world. 

You can be the smallest one on the field. The most underestimated. You can be outmatched on every sheet of paper anyone hands you. The whole world can be bigger than you. And still, in the time you are given, you can refuse to be defeated. Cape Verde did not have more money or more people or more history.  They had a team who would not stop, a whole scattered nation holding its breath, and a refusal to go down. And they held the champions of the world to the very last minute of the game and passed it.

Paul is in his cell writing the same thing. You may not win the way the world counts winning. Paul didn't. He is in prison. But God's word cannot be imprisoned. The score is not the story. The endurance is the story. The faithfulness is the story. And the One keeping faith with you does not know how to quit.

So let me talk to the people in this room now.

Some of you came in this morning already down at the half. You know exactly what I mean. The first half of something went badly, and you are tired, and the scoreboard is not kind, and part of you came here just to sit down for a minute. A diagnosis. A marriage that is harder than you tell anyone. A kid you are worried sick about. A checking account that does not stretch to the end of the month. A grief that has not lifted. Work that is grinding you down. You are not imagining it.   

The other side really is bigger.

Hear me. This is the whole reason we tell the story of a man raised from the dead. The good news of Jesus was never good news for the people already winning. It is good news for the poor. Good news for the ones who suffer. Good news announced first to the small and the scattered and the overlooked, the ones left out in the field when the important people got counted.

Look at who God keeps choosing. David, The youngest brother nobody called in. Paul, A prisoner in chains still telling the story. A handful of islands with half a million people and a forty-year-old goalkeeper.   

That is not an accident. That is the pattern. That is what God is like. God keeps walking past the giants and calling in the one left out in the field. And if that is what God is like, then the smallness you walked in here carrying is not a disqualification. It might be the very thing God came for.

You are not promised that you will win the way the world counts winning. Cape Verde did not. Paul did not. Jesus, on a Friday, most certainly did not. What you are promised is that the One who called you will not quit on you. If we endure, we will also rule together. He stays faithful, because he can't be anything other than what he is. Your job is not to be strong enough. Your job is to endure, and to let the grace that is stronger than you hold the line.

And then, one more thing. Do not keep it.

Paul is in a cell, and what does he spend his last strength on? Not on himself. He writes to Timothy, the young man he believed in, and he says pass it on. Take what you heard from me and hand it to faithful people who can teach others. That is Ted learning the water boy's name. That is the coach who believes in you before you have earned a thing, and then trusts you to go believe in someone else.

Somebody believed in you first. Somebody said your name when you were part of the furniture. Somebody saw a leader in you before you could see it. Grace came to you through a person. So go be that person. Learn the name of the one everybody walks past. Believe in somebody before they have earned it. That is how the word stays loose in the world. That is how it keeps running, from one small, overlooked person to the next, and no wall has ever been built that can hold it.

The whistle is about to blow for the second half. You do not go back out there because you are the biggest team on the field. You go back out there because grace is holding you, the coach believes in you, and the One who called you does not know how to quit.

Draw your strength from that. And go.

Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                         “Morning Has Broken”                                                    arr. Melody Bober

                                                                                                             Guest Musician: Lynn Singleton                                                                              

WELCOME                                                                    Rev. Trip Porch

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*CALL TO WORSHIP

One: Come into God’s sanctuary, out from the burdensome realities of our world
‍ ‍Many: We come, the gathered and the scattered, the steady and the tired.
‍ ‍One: You do not have to be the strongest one here.
‍ ‍Many: We come as we are, and grace is enough.
‍ ‍One: God has been saying your name since before you could answer.
‍ ‍Many: So we worship the One who chose us first. Amen.

*HYMN 741                                                                                         “Guide My Feet”                                                               GUIDE MY FEET

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                                               Rebekah Gayley

God of grace, For too long we’ve tried to be strong enough on our own. We size up what we are facing and decide we do not measure up. We forget that our strength was never the point.

You have offered us grace we cannot earn and community to hold us up and still we reach with our own hands first. Turn us back to you. Hold us when we cannot hold ourselves and teach us to lean on the One who does not quit. Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

*RESPONSE OF PRAISE 582   “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me”   GLORY TO GOD

*PASSING OF THE PEACE

     One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

     All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

MUSCAL OFFERING                       “How Great Thou Art”                                     arr. Ann Britt Guest Musician: Lynn Singleton 

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE                                                        Sharon Renkes

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

SCRIPTURE   2 Timothy 2:1-2; 8-15   CEB

So, my child, draw your strength from the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Take the things you heard me say in front of many other witnesses and pass them on to faithful people who are also capable of teaching others.

Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and descended from David. This is my good news. This is the reason I’m suffering to the point that I’m in prison like a common criminal. But God’s word cannot be imprisoned. This is why I endure everything for the sake of those who are chosen by God so that they too may experience salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is reliable:

“If we have died together, we will also live together.

       If we endure, we will also rule together.
        If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we are disloyal, he stays faithful”
    because he can’t be anything else than what he is.

Remind them of these things and warn them in the sight of God not to engage in battles over words that aren’t helpful and only destroy those who hear them. Make an effort to present yourself to God as a tried-and-true worker, who doesn’t need to be ashamed but is one who interprets the message of truth correctly.

SERMON                                                                                               Rev Trip Porch

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN 69                                                         “Here I Am, Lord”                                                                  HERE I AM

ORDINATION/INSTALLATION   David Blackmore/Elder, Kate Wilkinson, Deacon

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

 On Sundays where uncredited African American Spirituals are sung, any loose offering will go to support the Columbus Cultural Orchestra, whose mission is to advance a collective of multi-generational musicians of color by performing high-quality jazz, classical, and hip-hop music.

OFFERTORY                           “Aria” from Magnificat, BWV 243                              Johann Sebastian Bach

                                                                                                     Guest Musician: Lynn Singleton                                      arr. Donald Waxman

COMMUNION

INVITATION TO THE TABLE

GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

SHARING OF BREAD AND CUP    507             “Come to the Table of Grace”                                       TABLE OF GRACE

      PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Faithful God, you have fed us at a table we did not set, with grace we could not earn.

Send us back out to hold on and to endure. May we carry what we have received to the next hungry, overlooked, waiting person. You have never quit on us. Make us people who will not quit on each other. Amen.

*HYMN 536                        “Rise, O Church, like Christ Arisen”                                           SURGE ECCLESIA

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING

Charge & Benediction

POSTLUDE                              “Joyous Sound”                          Robert D. Vandall

Guest Musician: Lynn Singleton

Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452