{"id":41745,"date":"2014-12-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preemptive-autograph\/"},"modified":"2014-12-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T12:00:00","slug":"preemptive-autograph","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preemptive-autograph\/","title":{"rendered":"The Preemptive Autograph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>J.J. Watt was a defensive end and tight end for the NFL&#39;s Houston Texans (retiring in 2022). He was one of the best players in the NFL, and of course, often asked for his autograph. But the tides were turned on him when a seven-year-old sent Watt an autographed game jersey. The accompanying letter read, &quot;I am sending you my autographed game jersey so you will know me when I am a famous NFL player.&quot; Talk about a kid who knows what he wants to be when he grows up! Watt loved it and tweeted a photo of the letter and jersey with the response &quot;This kid has some guts &hellip; I like it.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>Sometimes, we need to look to the future with earnest expectation that God&#39;s work is so sure that it&#39;s as if it&#39;s been done already&mdash;like the present day autograph of a pro footballer from the future.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3569,3665,3828,4033,4066,4146,4546,4911,5066,5314],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,387,395,401],"class_list":["post-41745","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-confidence","tax_ctp_tags-dreams","tax_ctp_tags-future","tax_ctp_tags-goals","tax_ctp_tags-heroes","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-self-confidence","tax_ctp_tags-sports","tax_ctp_tags-youth"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Preemptive Autograph - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preemptive-autograph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Preemptive Autograph - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"J.J. Watt was a defensive end and tight end for the NFL&#039;s Houston Texans (retiring in 2022). He was one of the best players in the NFL, and of course, often asked for his autograph. But the tides were turned on him when a seven-year-old sent Watt an autographed game jersey. 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