Over the weekend while I was traveling back home, I saw on a small church sign in the backwoods of the Florida panhandle the words “Jesus Did Not Tapout”. My initial reaction was like, what does that mean? Isn’t tapout some MMA fighter stuff? Sure Jesus fought. He fought more then we can ever imagine. So I decided to look this tapout stuff up.
To my surprise, to tap out means to give up. It’s the sign of surrender in MMA or even in just plain ol’ wrestling. Of course that makes me wonder why all these rough and tough MMA guys wear TapouT clothing – since it essentially says “Give Up” on the clothing. As I kept digging to find out what this church sign could be referring to, I found that there is also Never Tapout clothing for MMA followers, and even a Jesus Didn’t Tap website. 
So, even though my initial reaction was one of “what are you all talking about”, I agree with that little sign on this church. It’s not that Jesus would be a big MMA fighter dude. I don’t think that at all. Actually, I am not a big fan of the MMA, and not a hater – just neutral. But that’s not really the message here today. It seems this message fits the idea of buffeting your spiritually body daily. The idea that Jesus did not give up. He was presented with trials and temptations bigger then we will ever face, and he did not give in. He did not tap. That’s the idea. One of persistence and focus and forging ahead no matter what was in his way. When Jesus came to this Earth he had a very challenging mission and he fulfilled it. That’s not to say he didn’t grow weary, or even dread it, but he continued to move, continued to fight and didn’t “tap out”, as they say.
How about you today. Will you tap out, or will you stay focused on your mission?
5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. (Philippians 2:5-8, The Message)