{"id":43851,"date":"2011-11-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/umpire-claims-i-wrote-rulebook\/"},"modified":"2011-11-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T00:00:00","slug":"umpire-claims-i-wrote-rulebook","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/umpire-claims-i-wrote-rulebook\/","title":{"rendered":"An Umpire Claims, &#8220;I Wrote the Rulebook&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <em>The Gospel of Matthew: God With U<\/em>s, Matt Woodley writes:<\/p>\n\n<p>A number of years ago, when I was playing in a friendly men&#39;s softball game, the umpire made a call that incensed our coach. My coach didn&#39;t agree with the ump&#39;s interpretation of a specific league rule. The game stopped, and a heated discussion ensued. Finally, the ump sighed as he pulled a rulebook from his back pocket and proceeded to read page 27, paragraph 3b, section 1.<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;As you can clearly see,&quot; he concluded, &quot;this rule means that my call must stand.&quot; Unconvinced, my coach yelled, &quot;But you&#39;re not interpreting that rule correctly.&quot; To which the ump replied, &quot;Uh, excuse me, I think I should know: I wrote the rulebook.&quot; After an awkward silence, my coach walked back to the bench, shaking his head and pointing to the ref as he told us, &quot;Get ahold of that guy. He wrote the rulebook!&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Throughout his ministry, Jesus didn&#39;t just affirm and endorse the words of Scripture; he talked and acted like he had <em>authored<\/em> the Scriptures. He lived with the authority of the One who wrote the &quot;rulebook.&quot;<\/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":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3459,3460,3461,3587,4098,4389,4893,5212,5291],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-43851","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-authority","tax_ctp_tags-authority-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-authority-of-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-christ-the-word","tax_ctp_tags-greatness-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-lordship-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-scripture","tax_ctp_tags-uniqueness-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-word-of-god"],"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},{"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},{"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},{"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},{"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>An Umpire Claims, &quot;I Wrote the Rulebook&quot; - 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\/umpire-claims-i-wrote-rulebook\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Umpire Claims, &quot;I Wrote the Rulebook&quot; - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us, Matt Woodley writes: A number of years ago, when I was playing in a friendly men&#039;s softball game, the umpire made a call that incensed our coach. My coach didn&#039;t agree with the ump&#039;s interpretation of a specific league rule. 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