Super Bowl Christians

Super Bowl Christians

I Cor. 9:25

Intro: For a lot of players it’s just great to get to play in the “Super Bowl” but for others who have been there and lost in the past, just getting there is not the goal. They want to be champions. I’m afraid Christians are that way too often times, we’re just satisfied with being in the Super Bowl, just satisfied to be a Christian, instead of being Champion Christians. To be Super Bowl Champion Christians just like in the game being played this evening, you have to have three aspects to win with. We start with an effective;

I. Offensive Plan One of the famous sports phrases by someone is there is no “i” in team, and that’s true. But from my suggestion for our Offensive plan there are 4 “I’s” to have a successful plan that would help you be a “Super Bowl Champion Christian”

In every football game there is always a coin toss to decide who gets to start on offense or on defense and I just believe it says something about your confidence level when you, say, “hey we want to be aggressive in our plan, we don’t want to be that of reaction but action.” So in our Super Bowl, my recommendation is that we start on Offense. And when we do that, I think there’s no better way then to start the game off and…

A. Go Deep --On offense the QB will call a pass play and sometimes he’ll tell his receivers to go deep, run way down the field and I’ll throw it to you, he tells them go deep.

1. We in our Super Bowl to be champions we need to go deep or (immerse yourself in the Word of God) get deeper and deeper in His word.

2. II Tim. 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

3. Psa. 119:11 says, “thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might no sin against thee”

4. But also our team needs to

B. Run Hard or Run with (intensity) or strength

1. Josh. 14:7-12 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. Jos 14:8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God. Jos 14:9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's forever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. Jos 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spoke this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. Jos 14:11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Jos 14:12 Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spoke in that day;

C. Keep Getting Up (insistence) meaning perseverance

1. Illus. One of my favorite players in the NFL was Earl Campbell of the Houston Oilers back in the 70’s, early 80’s. He’d run the ball more then anyone I had ever seen, and took some ferocious hits, but even late in the game, while he might be slow getting off the ground and you didn’t think he’d make it back to the huddle, kept getting back up, he kept going til the game was over.

2. Vince Lombardi once said, It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.

D. Go for the Score (intention)

1. “Well done my good and faithful servant”

2. I Cor. 9:25 “and every man that striveth (used in athletic games) for the mastery (the prize) is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”

3. To be a Super Bowl Champion Christian you have to have an Offensive plan, but just as important is to have a…

II. Defensive Plan Eph. 6:10-18

A. Defend against the run and the pass (of Satan) Satan came after Jesus with many attacks and he comes at us in the same way as he did with Jesus. He comes with…

B. The Reverse (deception)

1. In football the reverse is when the QB gives the runner the ball and he starts running toward this end of the field and next thing you know when everybody on defense is running that way, the runner gives the ball to another guy who starts running the opposite way. Its deception on the opponents part to get your defense off balance. vs. 11 (nasb) says, Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes (trickery) of the devil.