Welcome to Super Bowl week!\u00a0 For football fans this is a fun week, the best part about it is at the end of the week, all the analysis, breakdown, and talk about the game will be over.\u00a0 For the next three and one half hours, the two best teams will play against each other to see who is the best.\u00a0 The majority of America will tune in this Sunday, albeit many just for the commercials.\u00a0 As I was listening to the radio this morning for a little while, an interesting conversation broke out between the hosts, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic (ESPN radio’s Mike&Mike).\u00a0 The conversation centered around the legacy of Peyton Manning, the quarterback of the Denver Broncos.\u00a0 This will be the third Super Bowl that he has played in.\u00a0 He has won one and lost one.\u00a0 By many account Manning is one of the best quarterbacks of all time.\u00a0 However, he only has one Super Bowl win whereas many other great quarterbacks have led their teams to multiple Super Bowl wins.\u00a0 Would Manning be considered the best quarterback ever if his team wins this year was the question that Mike Greenberg asked.\u00a0 Or does Peyton face a problem like another Hall of Fame quarterback, Dan Marino?\u00a0 Marino has or had many of the all-time passing records for the NFL, but there is a “but” after that statement.\u00a0 The rest of the statement is, but he never won a Super Bowl.\u00a0 Greenberg then makes an interesting argument when he says “Dan Marino will be largely forgotten years down the road, because all of his accomplishments won’t last.\u00a0 Records are meant to be broken, and many of Marino’s have been broken or will be broken.\u00a0 Only Super Bowls last.”\u00a0 That is an interesting notion, only Super Bowls last.\u00a0 You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with faith and my relationship with Christ?\u00a0 In short, everything!<\/p>\n
Jesus said in Matthew 6 to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”\u00a0 The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians about the fact that every Christian will stand before God and be judged based on their faithfulness and service to Christ.\u00a0 Specifically in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 Paul writes, “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”\u00a0 There are six “things” Christians can build on their foundation.\u00a0 Before we get too far, I want to talk about this passage for just a moment.\u00a0 First, there is only one foundation, that is Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We are saved by God’s grace based on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (John 3:3, 16; 14:6; Acts 4:12).\u00a0 The “wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, and precious stones” here refer to our faithfulness and service to Christ.\u00a0 It is important to realize that we are not saved by our works, but our works prove that Christ has saved us.\u00a0 We know this passage is speaking of saved people because of verse 15 where it says “he shall be saved.”\u00a0 It is important to see the difference here between these verses and references to hell.\u00a0 In hell passages, the Bible speaks of the person being judged.\u00a0 In this passage, the works of the person are what is being judged.\u00a0 So what does this passage in 1 Corinthians 3 teach us?<\/p>\n
First, it shows that although some people are saved, they are not investing in things that matter.\u00a0 Paul talked about if he was the smartest, the best preacher, and did many wonderful things, if they weren’t motivated by love, it doesn’t really matter (see 1 Cor. 13:1-3).\u00a0 The two greatest commands of Scripture deal with love, love for God, and love for others.\u00a0 So it’s not just what I do, it is my motivation behind it.\u00a0 Secondly, this passage shows that our works do not save us.\u00a0 Again, three out of six of these works will get consumed by fire, but the person is saved.\u00a0 We must always remember that salvation is through grace (Eph. 2:8-9).\u00a0 Finally, this passage shows that we will be judged.\u00a0 We are going to give an account for our life, as believers specifically for our faithfulness and service to Christ.\u00a0 We need to make sure that what we are doing in life is going to last, not just for a lifetime, but for all of eternity.\u00a0 So in a sense, it is only the Super Bowls that will count.<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to Super Bowl week!\u00a0 For football fans this is a fun week, the best part about it is at the end of the week, all the analysis, breakdown, and talk about the game will be over.\u00a0 For the next … Read More