The John 3:16 Story | Tim Tebow

when I was at the University of Florida going into my junior year we were getting ready to play a rival and I was in the training room and I was getting stretched by one of our trainers and I looked over and I saw some of my teammates putting eye blacks under their eyes and so I started to think you know they were like putting their mom's name or the area code and different things like that and so I started to think you know I wonder if I could put i black and put grab a silver sharpie and put something on there that could be encouraging or inspiring or I don't know uplift somebody I started to think well what should I put and I started to think well god bless and I was like I don't know and then I thought of Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me cuz I got some awesome verse for a football player that's what I'm gonna go with so I put Philippians 4:13 in her eyes and we went out there and played and honestly it really wasn't a big deal a couple local newspapers wrote about it but it wasn't that big of a deal but I kept wearing it under my eyes every single week and as most of you know fans in the SEC you're extremely passionate about your teams and so the next couple weeks they start selling it at the Gator bookstore on the sides of the street they're selling Philippians 4:13 and like I'm seeing fans and like alright go you know go Gators Philippians 4:13 I'm like you don't even know what that means I actually had one guy come up to me his name was Phil and he said did you put that under your eyes for me no what is the 4:13 mean but I kept wearing under my eyes the entire season and we get to the SEC championship game against Alabama [Applause] calm down and we're getting ready to run out of the tunnel and that's a football player so often it is really tunnel vision it's the next thing the next thing the next thing you don't really you can't afford to step back and look at the big picture because you can just lose focus so so many times it's it's just locked in to the next thing we have to do why this moment I really felt like God was putting out of my heart to change the verse are they really right now but I kind of step back for a second and realize that if we won we'd be playing in the national championship and that would be maybe the biggest stage that I would ever get to to change the verse and put something meaningful on there so we were blessed to win in the next six weeks leading up to the national and championship game I was contemplating really agonizing over what verse I was going to go with but God kept bringing it to my heart in my head John 3:16 because as a Christian that's the essence of our Christianity it's the essence of our hope for God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life that's what we believe in as Christians so I decided that's the verse I'm going to go with so two nights before the game I go until my parents hotel room in Miami Florida and they open the door and I was like all right mom dad I'm gonna change there first my mom's super supportive and my dad's like have you told coach Meyer because coach Meyer says he just likes his routines but that dude is so superstitious it's ridiculous if we win with long socks next week they're even longer so it's just whatever was working he's gonna stick with it so he was like you really need to talk to him the next day we have our walkthrough after the walkthrough finishes I was like hey coach Meyer can I talk to you is like yeah said he's like how is your arm you lay you feeling good you got the game playing out yeah yeah I'm good I'm good you know the verse I wearing in my sees like yeah Philippians 4:13 I love it I was like well I'm gonna change it tomorrow night to John 3:16 what what are you talking about you can't change the first that first got us here like no so I explained to him why I wanted to go with John 3:16 and he understood and he was supportive and honestly really after that moment I didn't really think about it next time it just went out there and we were blessed to win the national championship and two days after that game I was sitting in ballyhoo restaurant eating grouper with my mom my dad one of my aunts and coach Meyer and coach Meyer gets a call from our PR guy at Florida and he's like hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm all right bye I looked at him I was like was that all about he told me who it was our PR guy and he said Tim he just told me that during that game 94 million people googled John 3:16 and honestly my first thought was how the heck do 94 million people not know John 3:16 it's like Sunday school bro that's the first thing you hear but it was just so humbling for me sitting in that restaurant thinking about how big the God that we serve really is like really how big the God that we serve really is so many times we put him in a box we put him in a box but no they got him the God that loves us the God that created us the God that has a plan for us the God that wrote a poem about your life he is a big God that wants to do amazing things and when we just turn around and say hey hear God might not feel like a lot guess what he can perform miracles he can do amazing things and I really believe the God that we serve wants to do amazing things in US and through us what was really cool about that game is it was on January 8th of 2009 will exactly three years later January 8 2012 exactly three years later to the day we just happened to be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the playoffs I didn't think of John 3:16 one time so I can't take credit for it I had nothing to do with it I just went out there and tried to do anything I could to try to win a playoff game and we were blessed to win this crazy game in overtime and after the game weird when we were done celebrating I changed really quick and I was going down the hall to do my press conference and I was really looking forward to it because I love talking to the media and so I was getting ready to turn left and go into these curtains to talk to the media and Patrick our PR guy steps in front of me he says Timmy did you realize what happened and I was like yeah we just beat the Steelers we're going to play a Patriots like let me do this it was Timmy did you realize what happened I could tell he's being serious so I was like Patrick whoop what's up man he looks at me and says Timmy this is exactly three years from the time you put John 3:16 into your eye so I was like oh really that's awesome that's really cool he says no you don't realize during the game you threw for 316 yards your yards per rush were 3.16 your yards per completion were 31.6 the time of possession was thirty 1.06 in the ratings for the night were thirty one point six and during the game 90 million people Google John 3:16 and it's the number one thing on all social media right now and I was just standing in that hallway thinking god I didn't know that you were doing anything like I thought that was like three years ago but it's amazing how God how big the God is that we serve he took something that did three and a half years ago to make a decision put Philippians 4:13 and then change it for one game but I thought hey this is really cool we impact some people but it's done but no God has an awesome plan he has an awesome plan and you might not even see what he's doing you might not even know how he's working but the amazing thing is is when we step out and we show a little courage we step out we show a little boldness what God can do with it in our lives through our lives but he's a big guy he's a big God and he can perform miracles he can perform miracles I really believe that he wants to you have to understand the god of this universe loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you if he loves you that much is he not gonna want to fight for you is he not gonna want to fight with you is he not gonna want to come through for you now that doesn't mean that life is going to be easy it's not but it means that it's going to be worth it it means that it's going to be worth it

Channel: Lifeway Christian Resources

Views: 526,218

Rating: 4.9272342 out of 5

Keywords: tim tebow, tebow, john 3:16, football, tim tebow john 3:16, lifeway, lifeway voices, lifeway christian resources, lifeway stores, the main event, main event, florida gators, SEC, voices, courage, shaken, tim tebow shaken, john 3:16 eye blacks, john 3:16 football

Id: nyxjRcyrj8s

Length: 9min 6sec (546 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019