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Stateline Ardmore Seventh-day Adventist Church

Norman McNulty

The Cross and the Super Bowl

Before we get started, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Our Father in Heaven, I just Thank you so much for bringing us out this Sabbath day to worship you.

And I pray that your Holy Spirit would be here in a very powerful way.

And may anything that we have in our lives, any idols, anything from the world that we are still hanging on to, may we see it for what it is when it's put next to the cross.

Give me the words to speak and may each 1 of us here hear exactly what you would have the spirit for us to hear today.

So the title for our message today is The Cross and the Super Bowl.

Just this past Sunday, 6 days ago, America Yet again went through another Super Bowl Sunday, and it got me to thinking about What our priorities are as seventh-day Adventists Because I'll have to tell you first of all for full disclosure, I'm a recovering sportsaholic.

I grew up a big fan of any sport and every sport, and I knew more about sports and the statistics and the whatever about the players on the team more than I knew about the Word of God, and I'm not proud of that.

And yet my experience is the experience of so many Seventh-day Adventists.

I've been through our schools from grade 1 all the way through the end of residency and fellowship training at Loma Linda, and I'll have to say that many of my friends were fairly, should I say it, lukewarm about their Adventist experience, but I'll tell you what, they were on fire for something.

And they were on fire for their favorite team.

If there was some sacrifice that they could make so that their team could be Super Bowl champions, you bet they would do it.

But if it meant doing a sacrifice to get a soul into the kingdom?

In Galatians 6, verse 14, we read, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Here the Apostle Paul, speaking to the Galatians, he is saying, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the only thing that brings glory and honor and power.

It's not the Crimson Tide or the War Eagles.

I might be heading close to home, or the Tennessee Vols.

That's not the glory that Paul is talking about.

God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." There is something about the cross that when we see the glory of Jesus on the cross, the world becomes crucified to us.

Now, there's something wrong with your Christian experience if you think that you can be a follower of Jesus and take part in the pleasures of this world.

Because Scripture says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

That means the world has nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with the world when I see the cross.

Now many times perhaps in present truth circles we can do a pretty good job of showing what is wrong, and we can show the Bible verses and we can show the Spirit of Prophecy quotes, but the bottom line where it all starts, if we're going to gain the victory over the things of this world, which all of us are naturally attracted to.

I mean, look, if you're a Crimson Tide fan or an Auburn fan or Seattle Seahawks fan for that matter, or if you live in that area and that's your tendency, look, you're going to be rooting for your team and you're going to be happy.

It's not a natural tendency for human beings to say, oh, that's, well, at least maybe for guys, at least.

I don't know, women so much aren't as into sports as men.

I'll tell you what though, that's changing.

There's a lot of women that have gotten into the sports scene as well.

And I'll tell you, growing up in the church, sports is sort of that taboo topic that nobody talks about in church anymore.

Because so many people have gotten into it.

Yet the scripture says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

Now why is Paul saying this to the Galatians?

Well, if you start off and you go back to the beginning of the book of Galatians, Paul is writing a letter, an epistle of rebuke to this church, because Paul came to this church and He preached the gospel in all of its clarity, and then after he leaves other teachers come along and bring in a false gospel that brings confusion to the church in Galatia.

And they start teaching the Galatians, hey, the cross isn't enough.

You need to do the Jewish rites of circumcision and those things again.

So that's the immediate context of what Paul is talking about.

But he's also, if you study this carefully, This issue that came into the Church of Galatia was an issue where a gospel came in that opened the door for the Galatians to go back to the world and have the cross and the world together.

And Paul is saying that is not the gospel.

In fact, in verse 6 of Galatians 1 he says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Paul is saying, you have heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ from us who came and preached that message to you.

And if you hear any other gospel than that which was preached unto you, let him be accursed." And then when you get to the end of the book, "...but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." So the cross of Christ, which causes us to be crucified to the world and the world to be crucified to us so that there is no mingling of the 2 between the people of God and the world.

Galatians 2.20, which is part of this true gospel, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

When I am crucified with Christ, Christ lives out his life through me and I live by the faith of Jesus.

So the true gospel of Jesus Christ is the third angel's message.

And if any man is preaching any other gospel than the gospel of the third angel's message, as the scripture says, let him be accursed.

It's the everlasting gospel that has not changed.

And yet in the church today there are gospels that have come in, other gospels, gospels that say you can be saved in your sin and take pleasure in the things of this world and just wait till Jesus comes.

Go out and have a pizza party for the Super Bowl, put on your mascots, dress up with your idol images and worship your teams and cheer them on.

That's the false gospel that have been coming in to our churches.

Because look, if we're saved in our sins, then take pleasure in whatever you want to do, and that's what people are doing.

And God is saying He wants something better from Seventh-day Adventists.

He is looking for a group of people through whom we will experience the gospel so that we will be crucified with Christ.

When we see Jesus on the cross, we will see what it's all about for following Jesus.

You see, when Jesus died on the cross for us, He was willing to give up everything in heaven.

And He's simply asking us to give up the sorry, sinful things of this world to be followers of Him.

And the amazing thing is that the devil has tried to convince us that if we give up the sorry things of this world, we're giving up so much.

You know, if anyone gave up anything, it was Jesus.

We're giving up bad things so that we can get good things.

Jesus was willing to give up His eternal existence as God Almighty and we as sinful human beings somehow think that we're giving up something if we have to surrender our sinful tendencies to Him.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live, in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Listen, Seventh-day Adventists should be a demonstration of Jesus Christ to the world.

We shouldn't be a demonstration of our favorite sports teams.

And I'm on Facebook on after the game's over and people are like, they went down, we took them out, how does it feel?

Is that the spirit of Jesus or is that the spirit of someone else?

Galatians 3 verse 1 Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?

Listen, if you're bewitched, that means you are under demonic influence.

Who have bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." When Jesus Christ has been set forth, crucified among us, and we see Him hanging on the cross, the Scripture says, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?

Are we Meditating upon Jesus as Ellen White says it would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day Meditating upon the life of Christ.

Oh, that's way too much time I don't have enough time to spend an hour and the desire of ages and the Gospels thinking about Jesus for an hour I have I'm too busy man I've got to keep up with my favorite hockey team or baseball team or basketball team or the latest sitcoms or whatever.

I can do 3 hours of that a night, but I can't do an hour with Jesus.

Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?

So we have all this time for all these idols and all these things that are in the world.

We can watch American idolatry and the Super Bowl halftime show that's clearly demonic and all of these things And yet we can't spend a thoughtful hour each day.

And yet we say that we're marching to Zion?

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The Cross and the Super Bowl

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