Are You Ready For Some "Football?"

This blog is actually an adaptation of sermon notes preached on the Super Bowl Sunday 2010
New Orleans “Saints” vs. Indianapolis Colts
Taken from [Luke 24:1-8]

A “Super-Bowl” Sermon

“The Greatest Contest—Ever”

(...God vs. Satan—Who Do You Think Is Going to Win?)

Opening Statement:

I thought that since everyone’s mind is already in Super-Bowl mode already, that I would take advantage of  this opportunity and talk to you about The Greatest Contest—Ever…a cosmic conflict of epic and eternal proportions.

Today all around the world folk will be watching the Super-Bowl. It is estimated that more than 100 million people will be watching the live game and the same amount or better will be recording the Super-Bowl to be watched later.

And out of all of those people, you would be surprised as to how many really even know the rules and signals of football. But because it has been hyped as the greatest one day sporting event by its sponsors—all available eyes will be focused on this contest between two football teams.

I can only imagine how many times today—during the span of the game that folk will inquire as to;

“Who’s Winning and What’s the Score?…”

This sermon could be as short as me saying that; God’s Word says the devil loses…So, who do you think is going to win? But since we live in such a skeptical society, I thought I’d better lay out the facts about this contest so that as a Christian you’d be educated and equipped to tell people why you believe what you believe about God, Satan and spiritual warfare… so I’ll be using familiar football language and metaphors along with Scripture to get you as excited about God and His victory over Satan—as you and others are and will be excited about the Super-Bowl.   

*Can you believe it? But right now—before the contest even starts, they are people so confident that the team that they have picked is going to win—that they have put financial wagers on it.

They are people so confident that the team they want to win is going to win, that they have painted their faces, their team’s color, they are wearing their teams color, they are even planning to ridicule, make-fun-of, and insult everyone who doesn’t believe, what they believe about the success that their team is going to have…

I find that interesting that people can be so confident, cocky, and certain about football and the Super-Bowl…

But some of those same people lack having confidence and being certain that God can’t defeat Satan…

*Now I said I find it interesting—but God finds it insulting that folk will get excited about a temporary champion, when He is a permanent-eternal everlasting champion…

I pray after this presentation you will be as excited about God as you will be today while watching the Super-bowl.

Contextual Points:

In this contest between God vs. Satan

Kick—off [Genesis 3:15]

Half—Time [Calvary/Graveyard…Luke 24] Everything in life leads to or away from the Cross—Half-time…

2 Minute—Warning [Rev. 19… 2^nd Coming of Christ] As believers we won’t be around for this so I’ll stop at halftime today

End of 4^th quarter and—the Game [Revelation 21:10]

Observation:

Every year during the two weeks prior to Super Bowl there’s a lot of trash talking between the two teams—about what they are going to do to each other and with each other on the field…

Well, even though God did something similar—I feel it would be irreverent for me to call it trash talking, but both God and Satan engaged in some “I Wills”-talking…

Satan [Isaiah 14… declares 5 “I Will’s”] and God [Genesis 3:15… declares 1 “I Will”]

Notice that it doesn’t matter what we declare, no one and nothing can stop what God declares.

With that look at what verses 5-8 says in Luke chapter 24

READ SCRIPTURES HERE

 Today at half-time they are going to review all of the exciting, game-changing and scoring plays…

So,  me not wanting you to miss any of God vs. Satan, game-changing and scoring plays I thought we’d spend a little time reviewing some of them.
And like the commentators on TV, I’m going to do my best to be as descriptive as I possibly can…

HALF-TIME PLAYS IN REVIEW …

The first notable play by God that we will review is when God created the world which included the entire angelic host Gen. 1. [God Scores]

Satan’s response to that is he rebels and encourages a third of the angels to follow his foolishness. [Satan moves the ball but no score]

The next highlighted play is God creates a man named Adam who is not an angel—but lesser than an angel, to rule over earth. In other words, God goes to the bench and brings in a scrub, a 2^nd-string player. [And guess what? God scores again]

Satan’s response to that is—he’s goes after the cheerleader and tempts her to mess-up the only player on the field. [Satan doesn’t score with that move but God now has an injured player on the field an play was halted]

God shows just how powerful He is—by telling the opposing team [Satan] what His next play was going to be… God tells Satan that through Eve another man would be born that would redeem mankind, so Adam and Eve began to have children—Cain and Abel. [God scores again]

Satan thought when God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain that Abel had to be the fulfillment of God’s prophecy for redeeming mankind—Abel had to be the number 1 draft choice that was going to be a threat to Satan’s team…So Satan put murder in the heart of Cain and Cain kills Abel. [For the first time, Satan looks to be in field-goal range]

God blocks the punt of Satan by sending in a substitute Seth; another man-child of Adam and Eve who would reintroduce the godly linage and now according to Gen. 4:26 men began to call upon the name of the Lord again.

[God scores again but this time from deep in Satan’s territory]

Satan now is thoroughly confused because he don’t know who has the ball—he don’t know who the righteous seed is, that is going to redeem mankind because there are hundreds of thousands of men on the face of the earth, and since he couldn’t be sure which son was the righteous seed, he just corrupt the whole human race. [During this entire contest this is the first time it looks like Satan is going to score he’s on the goal line, but he doesn’t score]

Because God still had one righteous man named Noah who still had favor in God’s eyes, Noah listens to God and even though it doesn’t seem like the right call, he builds an ark, a big boat on dry land, which would provide salvation for Noah and his family while preserving the righteous seed. [Not only does God scores but with this play He sets a record for the longest scoring drive in all of history]

After all the unrighteous people are destroyed with the flood, and the world is being repopulated through Noah’s family Satan gets him a number 1 draft pick named Nimrod, who lead a world movement that tried to declare its independence from God by building the Tower of Babel [Gen. 11]. [Even God said that since they had so much unity that might be able to pull off what they were planning—but once again God stop the drive and Satan was unable to score]

The next season God drafted a Heisman trophy winner named Abraham they eventually end up calling him “The Father of Faith” because of his moves on the playing field. And with that one man God build a nation that would obey Him.

After God acquire Abraham, and did what He did with and through him, every Heisman Trophy Winner from there on wanted to be on God’s team; Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. After Abraham there was never a season where God didn’t have at least one Heisman Trophy Winner on His team. God was scoring every time His team had the ball… [God scores from every place on the field, in the mountains, in Egypt, Jericho, Jerusalem, Canaan, Babylon, in a valley, in a sea, on a river, in the wilderness—it didn’t matter where God’s team was they always scored when they listened to God]

Listen, God had ran the score up so much that for 430 years in between the Old Testament and New Testament, God didn’t even send in any plays, so even when God wasn’t coaching, Satan’s team was moving the ball but they weren’t scoring…

Satan tried to score in Bethlehem, by calling a play to kill all the baby boys that were a couple of years old, but once again no score—he missed…

So Christ become a young man and Satan now knows that this is who God is going to redeem all of mankind with so right after Jesus wilderness experience Satan tempts Jesus [Matt. 4:1-11]. But he puts no points on the Celestial Score Board. What you must know about this is, that prior to this point in the game of history every play was played on God’s side of the field, but now every play is played on Satan’s side of the field.

Satan realized that before half-time came he had to put at least one score on the board—or people wouldn’t see him as a worthy opponent. So he gets drastic, instead of continuing with the contest by beating, or out-maneuvering God, Satan tries to end the contest by killing God’s on Son, Jesus Christ. He must have thought that this would end the game and God would not bring the rest of the team out after half-time if he could somehow kill Jesus the Son of God.

Well, right before the end of half-time, he did, [Jesus died]… Satan was successful in killing Jesus…

But…I needed for you to know this; because what the devil thought was the end of regulation time, was just half-time…

The devil thought he had won—when Jesus died… But Jesus’ death was God’s way of proving that we who are “In Christ” are more than conquerors, and we win…Who wins? We win!…

—The “Saints” win…

We don’t have to guess who wins—we know who wins…

The “Saints” Win… Not the New Orleans Saints, but the New-Birth-Saints-in-Christ…

*God said He would win in Genesis, God show us who He would win with in Matthew, Satan knows that God is the winner at Calvary and the Graveyard, The entire world comes to know that God is the winner in Revelation.

And each of us [who are In Christ] comes to know that God is the winner the day we accept Him as our Lord and Savior!... [Romans 8:37]…

That’s another interesting point: Today there are people who live in other cities, states, and countries—who are rooting for, teams and they don’t even know anyone on the team—not even the equipment manager, but if the team wins, they are going to be shouting “We win!” –I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad that I can say with confidence “We win!”

I can say “We win!” Because being “In Christ” means that Christ is in me, so when He wins and as He wins, I win also, so I can really celebrate each victory—unequivocally… And guess what? Everyone on my team knows my name… The Owner—God knows my name, The “Head” Coach—Jesus Christ knows my name, and even The Equipment Manager—The Holy Spirit knows my name.

Summation:

The reason why I’m not going beyond half-time today is because the first half of this contest should have shown you that God wins…

I don’t know what the record is for Super-Bowl half-time comebacks in the NFL, but what I do know, is that one of the greatest comebacks that ever happened—happened in a graveyard and not a football field…

Things you should have noticed…

*There is no wild-card games are any divisional playoffs with any lesser ranked opponents…

*There is just one contest between two contestants and they are God and Satan…

*There will be no tie or sudden-death; this contest will end at the end of regulation time…

And finally, in this Greatest Contest Ever there were no fumbles or turn-overs on behalf of God, whenever Satan got to the ball to move it—it was as a result of a hand-over, not a turn-over…

I know it looks like some time that as a result of some fumble you made, that the devil is going to score, but that’s not the case—for folk “In Christ.” If devil is being successful with moving you up and down the field of life. If it seems as if the devil is being more victorious with you than God is…
Just remember if you are “In Christ” it wasn’t a fumble, it wasn’t a turn-over, it was a hand-over.

Don’t be surprised by a hand-over, because just like with Peter if the devil asks for permission God might let him use you for a while, but only for a while.

Conclusion:

I want to close with this; it is said that some folk are more interested in the commercials that air during the Super-Bowl than the actual contest… Because the sponsors are aware of how many people are watching the contest that the sponsors invest a great deal of their budget into the brief commercials…

Well, I got news for you, that business idea is not original with those sponsors, because God, way back before this contest between Him and Satan began, God had decided that every child of God who would trust Jesus Christ as their Savior would be used as advertisement for Him during the contest, so God invested not some of His budget but all of His budget in His Son, and His Son in-turn invested it all in us…

Why do you think Jesus who is the Light of the World said to us, we are the light of the world?… [End]

*Keep returning to this blog site, soon I will list like in football the penalties that the church incur when it gets penalized by church members not playing by the rules…

Penalties like:  [false starts, illegal procedures, their acts of encroachment, holding, chop blocking, blocking in the back, clipping, making illegal contact, face masking, illegal celebration, unsportsmanlike like conduct, roughing the preacher, and last but not least…delay of game].