THE SUPER BOWL OF LIFE
INTRO: Whether you like football or not most of you have heard that today is Super Bowl Sunday.
1. The New England Patriots and the St. Louis Rams are in this year’s edition of the Super Bowl.
2. Why do people watch the Super Bowl? There are a variety of reasons.
(1. Some watch the Super Bowl because they like football and this is the premier event in football pitting the top two professional teams.
(2. Some watch the Super Bowl because strangely enough they like to watch the commercials.
1. I think that I’m in that category to a certain extent. Compared to what we usually see on television the Super Bowl commercials are in a category all by themselves.
2. You could call them the super commercials and they have a super price tag as well.
(1. Advertisers pay as much as two million dollars for a 30 second ad.
(2. There will be 60 commercial spots during the Super Bowl but two of them will be anti-terrorism spots from the government.
3. The commercials are so entertaining that CBS aired a special Friday night called “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials II.
(3. Another reason some people watch the Super Bowl is the halftime show which always has “star attraction.”
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(4. And there are probably other reasons like everyone is watching it so I’ll watch it too. Or there’s nothing else on TV tonight. That kind of thing.
I. Most people in the world including us will never know what it is actually like to participate/to play in a football Super Bowl.
1. However, there is a Super Bowl that we can all participate in and in fact participation is mandatory.
(1. You could call it the Super Bowl of Life and whether you like it or not you are in it.
2. The apostle Paul knew that well even though they didn’t have football back then.
(1. And Paul wanted to win the game. He wasn’t interested in setting on the sidelines.
3. Listen to what Paul has to say in Philippians 3:13-14 or as the old KJ puts it: Paul is, “press(ing) toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
4. Paul was looking at the goal line and giving it everything he had.
5. Sadly most of us Christians are not like the apostle Paul in our single minded devotion.
6. For various reasons we get off course and life is not about giving it all to the Lord
(1. instead we are much like the viewers of the Super Bowl and have many different reasons for the passions we have in life.
1. Paul obviously was passionate about His Lord he says Philippians 3:7-10
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2. Paul has only one great passion in his life and that all consuming passion is Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior.
II. Unlike Paul we have other passions it may be that we have developed what the writer of Hebrews calls a besetting sin or an ensnaring sin.
1. In Hebrews 12:1 the Super Bowl of Life is spoken of again as the writer says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
2. Developing a besetting sin seems in this 21st century to be an increasingly easy thing to do.
(1. Alcohol has always been available but now we have refined it and added to its’ potency making it even more addictive and dangerous.
(2. There were always some natural drugs but now the potency of even marijuana has been increased tenfold over what it was 30 years ago.
(3. We have methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, rock cocaine, angel dust, LSD, and all of the designer drugs.
(4. And we have the Internet which makes other addictions more powerful and easier to develop.
3. Then there are others who are not involved with any sin as we would normally think of sin.
(1. There are some who have been led astray and gotten on the wrong path, involved with a cult or a false religion.
4. Paul speaks of some who have turned away from God in Philippians 3 (vs. 18-19).
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4. However, there are so many of us that have just gotten sidetracked from the goal.
(1. We enjoy the commercials and the halftime show and the pageantry of life.
5. We’ve gotten busy living life and making a living. It’s not that these are bad things it’s just that they are not where are ultimate priorities should be.
6. Many are concerned only with what is best for them and for their immediate family.
(1. Many are just wondering how they can cope with an illness or situation in their life much less reaching the goal Paul speaks of.
7. Somewhere we have gotten off track. The still small voice said to do that and instead we did something else.
(1. Once we had started down that side road more decisions followed that made it harder and harder to turn back.
8. Finally we give up and think what’s the use, I’ll never be what or where got wants me and so why even try.
(1. “I’ll just try to do as best I can” we think and eventually we never even think about the priorities God would have in our lives.
(2. Those of us in that situation are probably thinking “what does it matter?”
9. The fact of the matter is that you are in the game and it does matter. The clock is ticking, daylight’s burning and soon our time to reach for the prize/the goal will be over.
10. It matters for you because you are living on a level far below your privileges as a Child of God.
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11. Why did Jesus come? He came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
12. When does eternal life begin (John 3:16/John 5:24). And as Peter puts it once you are a child of God you are “aliens and strangers” here on Planet Earth.
(1. Because your actual home is no longer here but Heaven.
III. We can have life and we can have it more abundantly just as the apostle Paul did if we press toward the mark seeking to know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings.
1. God does not give us eternal life and let us live here as aliens and strangers without a purpose.
2. There is a purpose for our still being alive, there is a reason just as Paul had a reason for living.
(1. Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul knew if He died he would be in Heaven but that wasn’t God’s purpose for him at that point.
(2. There was still work for Paul to do on Planet Earth. And here on earth he would have as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:10, “the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death.”
3. We to have a purpose, a reason for living. For us to live is Christ and to die is gain as well.
4. How we live our lives makes a difference. It makes a difference for us and for countless others we encounter in this life.
5. We cannot have and experience the abundant life without pursuing whole heartedly the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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6. What is God’s purpose for our being here for our still being alive?
I Corinthians 3:9, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”
7. We are God’s fellow workers. Co-laborers with God. If we are working with God what should our priority be?
(1. Instead of looking to see where I want to work and to see what I want to do.
(2. We should do as Henry Blackaby says and look to see where God is at work and join Him in His work.
8. But you think “how can my work be of value to God?” The answer is in I Peter 2:11 where we are referred to as aliens and strangers.
(1. Why because when we receive Christ as our Savior and are born again our citizenship has been transferred from this world to out of this world.
(2. We no longer belong to any earthly kingdom we belong to God and we have been bought and paid for at a great price I Corinthians 6:19-20, “do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
9. Because we are God’s and are citizenship is in Heaven we become God’s representatives. As Paul says in II Corinthians 5:20, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us….”
10. Just as earthly ambassadors can bring glory to the governments which they represent by their words and actions.
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(1. So, can we as be represent our Lord and Savior, here on planet earth.
11. And we are not just any ambassadors. We are children of the King and our actions, and our words speak to the hearts of those around us in ways more powerful than we can imagine.
IV. So let me ask you, “Are you a fellow worker with God?”
“Are you by your life and actions bringing glory to God?”
“Are you actively conducting yourself as an Ambassador for Christ?”
1. Most of us probably are somewhat hesitant at saying we are 100% a fellow worker bringing glory to God as His Ambassador for Christ?
2. So if we are not giving it 100% where are we at. Is it 90, 80, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5
(1. or are we on the other side dragging the very Name of Christian through the mud bring shame to the cause of Christ?
3. How can we ever change? How can we get back on the right track? How can we pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?
4. We have to begin where Paul began. We have to move beyond where we have been to where God wants us to be.
5. The apostle Paul was not always an apostle and he had a lot of baggage and he considered himself the very least in the Kingdom of God.
(1. He may have actually been the one orchestrating/controlling the execution of godly Stephen.
(2. As a result of Paul’s actions many suffered, were imprisoned, and died terrible deaths.
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6. Paul was on his way to Damascus to inflict more damage on the cause of Christ when the resurrected Christ appeared to him in a literal blinding vision.
7. Paul was never the same. He was no longer employed by planet earth, he had become a representative of the Kingdom of Heaven.
(1. And what an Ambassador for God he became.
8. Paul tells us what we have to do in verse 13, “Brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
9. What person/what Christian had accomplished more for God or was more learned about Christianity and the things of God than Paul?
(1. Most likely no one was. But Paul says “Brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended”
(2. In spite of his service, knowledge, and godliness Paul says he hasn’t yet arrived and never will arrive at a point where he can lay down and point back at all the great things he has done.
(3. No, Paul says, I press on. He’s not laying down, he’s not retiring as a co-laborer with God. As long as he has breath he’s pressing on, he’s moving forward, there is more to do.
10. We must do the same. No matter how much we have done for God, No matter how much we know about God it is not over until we are called to home to Heaven.
11. The second thing we see from the example of Paul is that he says he is “forgetting those things which are behind.”
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12. Paul is not dwelling on his failures of the past. They are over, they are past, they are done. He’s forgetting them and moving on, moving on toward the goal line.
13. We have to do the same. We may have failed God. But there is still time left on the clock and still work that needs to be done.
(1. And I believe God would say to you what John says in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(2. He forgives us of those confessed sins and He remembers them no more and puts them as far as the east is from the west.
V. Put it behind you. Let us move on. And that’s the next thing Paul says that he is doing. He’s moving on. “reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
1. We must do the same. But how do we? Paul says,
(v. 18)Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”
2. And how did Paul walk?
“(v. 7) but what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. (v. 8) Yet, indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
“(v. 10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
3. Paul’s constant goal was to know Christ, to draw closer to Him to be more like Him, to serve Christ more fully.
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4. That must be our goal as well. We must major on Christ. Focus on Christ. He must be our all consuming passion as He was for Paul.
5. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way 12:1-3, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (v2) looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (v.3) For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”
6. Let us know Christ, Let us look unto the author and finisher of our faith, let us focus in on Him so that we won’t grow weary and lose heart.
7. And when we do we will find that God has us busy working beside Him being His Ambassador, bring glory to Him.
