Super Sunday

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

February 4, 2007

(Intro music)

Welcome sports fans.  In a few hours a game of great importance will be played. Large men will face off across a line of scrimmage. A call will be made, leather will slap, and bodies will collide and crash. A battle has begun. For four 15 minute quarters men will expend enormous energy and Herculean efforts to move a piece of pig skin up and down a field of grass. In the end one team will emerge victorious.

Around the world tens of millions will be watching.  Today fortunes will be made and lost. Unofficial estimates of sports betting topped over 4.5 billion dollars as of yesterday afternoon. Tonight Americans will be glued to their television sets, and after all the new commercials and the half-time show, we will all be anticipating the answer to one question: "Who will win?"

I’ve got a secret—I already know who will win.

The winner of tonight’s game will be the team that exhibits 3 specific traits:
The team that has the greatest desire,
The team that is the most disciplined, and
The team that has the most dedication and focus.
That team, whether the Colts or the Bears, will win the Super Bowl!

You see, in football, many people play the game. But there are only a few that rise to the status of a Super Bowl Champion. Do you know where the rest of the NFL will be tonight?  Watching the game on TV, probably at the home of one of my beloved Jets.

Vince Lombardi, former coach of the Green Bay Packers, and the winning coach of Super Bowl I stated in a speech called "What it takes to be number 1":

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up-from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play."
In other words, it takes a total commitment to win.

Friends, I want you to know that another game is being played tonight, and that you are a part of that game. But, unlike the Super Bowl, which is played out one day a year, your game is continuous and it has eternal consequences.
Unfortunately, like in the NFL, only a few Christians will rise to the level of play exhibited by a Super Bowl Champion, whom we will call the Super Bowl Christian.

As we heard in our scripture reading this morning from 1 Corinthians, Paul likens our Christian life to a marathon runner, in that we must exhibit the three traits that define a Super Bowl champion: desire, discipline, and dedication.

In this passage Paul speaks of the Isthmian games which were held every two years in Corinth . There athletes would compete for crowns made of leaves. However, Paul was encouraging Christians to compete for a prize with more lasting significance when he says, “They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Paul also tells us in Philippians 3:13-14:
"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

(That attitude it explained here.  Show “ irun ” video clip, 8:30 service)

And so the first trait of a Super Bowl Christian is to run with desire.
Desire is to want something. Great desire is to want something so bad that you can taste it, so that you will persevere even when the going gets tough.

For the Super Bowl Christian running the race, there is no greater desire than to be in a close dynamic relationship with their Savior.
Such a desire should compel us and propel us to run with all that we have. Unfortunately, instead of going for the gold, we too often settle for silver or bronze. In fact I’m convinced that most believers never venture too far past the starting line. Instead of straining and pressing on, we get comfortable on the sidelines.

Vince Lombardi said, "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."

Yet, to win the prize, desire alone is not sufficient. Desires only take shape when they are accompanied by discipline and training!
A lot of us desire to lose weight; but, without discipline it won’t happen.

Without discipline in the Christian life you will never grow. You will be forever doomed as a spiritual weakling.
Paul tells us that a competitor goes into "strict training".
Like a body builder who adds more weight and extra reps in order to increase his muscle mass, we need to build up our spiritual muscle with a regimen of Christian education, Bible study and prayer.

Brothers and sisters, maturity in Christ doesn’t just happen. It takes hard work.
I Timothy 4:7 says, "Train yourself to be godly."
Now I realize that the word discipline has become a dirty word in our culture. It isn’t easy, it’s not fun; yet, discipline is essential to success.
But as there are no short cuts to peak physical condition, there are no short cuts to peak spiritual condition.
Unfortunately, too many Christians run aimlessly. They’ll never win the prize because they refuse to train.

Discipline puts feet to a Christian’s desire to become a Super Bowl Christian. Yet, to perform at the highest level, a Christian has to be focused and dedicated to attaining their goal.

Focus and dedication will determine whether you view Christianity as a recreational sport or a serious pro competition.
Unfortunately, dedication is a dying quality in American life.

When life gets tough, we check out other options and alternatives. We get distracted, wanting to do everything.  Focus and dedication, stick-to-it-iveness, have become passé. Yet, a Super Bowl quality performance cannot be achieved without it.

In Philippians 3 Paul said that he pressed on toward the goal. He was focused and committed to completing his own Super Bowl. He didn’t give up on "4th and 20".

He kept the end game in mind.

Eventually, Paul lost his life to a Roman sword.
But with the drawing of his last breath he crossed the goal line of glory. The time clock sounded and he had won the game. Paul was a Super Bowl Christian! Waiting for him on the other side was a prize. A prize greater than any Super Bowl ring or a crown woven of olive branches.

For Paul there would be crowns that will last for eternity.

And so in a few hours a game of great importance will be played. Large men will face off across a line of scrimmage. A call will be made, leather will slap, and bodies will collide and crash. A battle has begun. For four 15 minute quarters men will expend enormous energy and Herculean efforts to move a piece of pig skin up and down a field of grass. In the end one team will emerge victorious.

A trophy will be rewarded, rings will be presented, cash will be given, glory will be bestowed, advertising contracts will be awarded, and one team will have bragging rights for a year.

Yet today a greater game of importance is being played, and you are a key player on the field. You have the opportunity to play for eternal rewards. You can win a prize that will never dim.  But the outcome is up to you.

Do you have the desire?  Are you willing to discipline yourself?  Are you focused and dedicated to the cause?