Covenant Sermon by Tina on Sunday
Super Bowl Sunday
It is Super Bowl Sunday! This evening millions of people will gather together to watch a football game. Many will not even know what two teams are playing. Others will be glued to the screen in their favorite Bucs or Chiefs tee shirt or their Brady or Mahomes jersey. In 2020 an estimated 102 million people tuned in to Super Bowl 54. This year it is estimated that these people will consume over 1.4 Billion chicken wings and 12.5 million pizzas. Many people tune in to simply watch the commercials. There seems to be as much hype about the commercials as there is about the game. In 2020, a 30 second commercial went for over 5.6 million dollars. Anhueser Busch spent $42 million dollars last year advertising during the Super Bowl.
All of this got me to thinking. If I had millions of eyes on me. What would my commercial or message be? Better yet, what does God want our message to be? Matthew 5:13-16 says:
13″You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14″You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Every moment of our life belongs to God. Each minute is working toward a greater purpose – a Godly purpose. Most of us miss that. We go about our daily lives not realizing the incredible opportunity God gives us to be a light to those that walk in darkness, or flavor to those who have no seasoning in their own life. He wants us to be a Super Bowl commercial for Him.
We tend to compartmentalize our life. The few hours a week that we spend on “religious” things belong to God and the rest we tend to keep to ourselves missing the fact that God has something special planned for that time too.
The 40 or so hours you spend on the job, or the casual time spent talking to your neighbor, or the time you spend at the hair dresser’s salon or at the garage getting an oil change are God moments. Times that God has put in your day to give him glory. I think we underestimate the importance of these times in our day. We see them as nothing special. God sees them as times to shine.
These times during our day are probably more important to God than our time here on Sundays. Why? It’s our time to be a commercial for those who need the peace, hope, joy and love that Christ can give. Super Bowl commercials were seen by 102 million people last year. Our audience is much, much smaller. We may only touch one person, but Jesus said in Luke 15:10, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10) There is a celebration… just like in the Super Bowl.
Every relationship and responsibility you have plays an eternal part in the divine script of God. If you look at it that way, every action and interaction we have each day is our commercial for God.
How do we get our point across? How can we let our light shine brightly?
I suggest there are three ways. We offer peace, we live a life of character and love one another.
Everyone today is looking for peace. This last year has been brutal. Covid 19, civil unrest, racial tensions, and a heated and often ugly presidential election. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard, “I am just so tired of the ugliness.” Where then do they go? Medicine, self-help groups, support groups and entertainment.
We must be the peacemakers, because authentic peace stands out. It’s a way we can shine. How do we show that we have peace? I think back to the story about a king who announced he would award a prize to the artist who would paint the best painting depicting peace. Many great painters sent the king several of their best art pieces. One of the pictures among the various master pieces was of a calm lake perfectly mirroring peacefully towering snow-capped mountains. Overhead was a blue clear sky with fluffy clouds. The picture was perfect. Most of the people who viewed the pictures of peace thought that it was the best among all.
But when the king announced the winner, everyone was shocked. The picture which won the prize had mountains too but they were rugged and bare. The sky looked very angry, there was lightning. This did not look peaceful at all. It looked like the artist has mistakenly submitted his painting depicting a storm rather than peace. But when you looked closely at the painting, you could see a tiny bush growing in the cracks in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. In the midst of the rush of angry weather, the bird sat on her nest with peace.
Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise or trouble. Peace means to be in the midst of all the chaos and still be calm in the heart. That is what we need in these uncertain times.
The Bible gives us a number of suggestions as to how we can be calm in heart.
Titus 3:2 says, “Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude toward everyone.” I can tell you that this is a difficult one for me. Do you know anyone who never says a negative word about anyone? If you do, they make an impact. If we want to bring peace to others, we must control our tongue. It’s the negative words that sneak out. The gossip, the criticism, and the negativity do the opposite of bringing peace. We also should remember that it’s more than just the words. Albert Mehrabian was a pioneer researcher of body language in the mid-1950s. He found that the total impact of a message is about 7% verbal (words only), 38% paraverbal, which includes tone, pitch, and inflection, and 55% non-verbal. This is how you look when you say it. It adds an additional dimension to our communication and one that we can’t forget. Even if we say nothing at all, we communicate a message.
Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” If we are going to live in peace, the peace of Christ must control our thinking. To do that we must spend time with Him. Sarah Young says if we live in the radiance of His presence, His peace shines on you. I don’t know about you, but there is a drastic difference in Tina Pinkoson when I am living closer to my Heavenly Father and the Tina Pinkoson who is trying to do everything on her own. To me this says, we can’t help others until we help ourselves by developing a closer relationship with God. Psalm 29:11 says, “The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.” And Romans 8:6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is. Death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
What if your peace and happiness are not merely for your benefit? Have you ever wondered about that? What if God is using it to bring others to him? When real peace shines on the lives of those who lack it, it illuminates their emptiness. Just like the Super Bowl viewers are going to think they are missing out because they are not eating Doritos or driving a Mercedes, our commercial can make someone stop and think; I want what they have.
The second way we can be a beacon for Christ is by living a life of character. We will be talking a great deal about Character in the training we will be doing with boards and superintendents this year. Do you know why it is so important? Because it builds trust and if we are going to bring others to Christ we must build their trust.
Many people define character as doing the right thing when no one is looking. Character does involve doing the right thing – the God thing. It is such a rare thing that it often draws people’s curiosity. When someone shows Godly character, some people wonder what their hidden agenda might be, others show admiration for a choice well made. Along with Character though, comes another “C” word. Consistency. The choices that we make must consistently be Godly choices. It is not easy.
Romans 5:1-5 reads: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have PEACE with god through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand: and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character hope; and this hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Paul believes that our tribulations have a gracious and purposeful place in a Christian’s life. What does he mean by tribulations? They could be tribulations from loss of health, or tribulations in broken or strained relationships, or tribulations in vocational hardships and disappointments, or tribulations in accidents or natural disasters, or simply everyday inconveniences from traffic jams to plumbing problems. Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in the goodness and power and wisdom of God is tribulation.
Now he says in Romans 5:3 the astonishing thing: “Exult in them.” This is what Paul did. This is what he calls us to do. How can this be? The answer comes from verse 2.We are standing in grace. This is God’s omnipotent power to help us even though we don’t deserve it.
How are we doing today when things go bad for us? Do we rest in the grace of God and experience joy in God and keep on loving people? Or do we forget the grace of God, overflow with complaining and become self-absorbed and critical instead of loving? This is when our true character shows.
Verse 3 of that passage says, “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance [brings about] proven character.” The focus here is on this word “proven” (dokimen). The idea is that when you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is “proven” or “authentic” or “genuine.” That’s the sense here. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it perseveres, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. It has been tested. It has stood the test with perseverance. And it, your faith is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine.
These tribulations are supposed to help us develop uncompromising character and gives us an opportunity to let people see God through us.
The last thing we can do to let our light shine, and be a Super Bowl commercial for Christ is to “Love one another.” John 15:12 says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.” I believe that this concept throws a lot of people for a loop. I look at this simplistically. It is the most important thing that we can do, but. The shortest part of this message. Christ sacrificed his life for us. He wants us to sacrifice for others. I believe the sacrifices He wants us to make are what make our commercial spectacular. It could be the sacrifice of time. It could be the sacrifice of listening to someone who needs someone to talk to. It could be sacrificing the pleasure you might get from a sarcastic response or belittling someone. It could be the sacrifice of judging others. It could be sacrificing your comfort zone and doing something for someone you don’t care for. We can sacrifice those parts of our lives which will lessen the effectiveness of our commercial. The truth is, people need our commercials. It’s the primary way they can learn a Christ.
This evening when you are watching the commercials, stop and think about what your commercial for Christ looks like. Is your light shining bright? Are you sharing peace by your everyday choices? Are your choices showing your true character and are you consistently someone of strong character? And are you loving one another?
Some of the commercials are going to be memorable. And some will be duds. What’s yours going to be?