The Game Changer

Today, a large group from all over the world will gather around a TV and focus themselves on one of the greatest sporting events that happens every year: The Super Bowl. Literally, millions will watch 22 men engage in strategic combat to either move a leather ball or try to prevent the movement of a leather ball.

I thought this morning would be good to highlight for a moment what we would call the Super Bowl of the Bible: The death, burial, and resurrection. I want to try and draw our attention this morning by using a sporting phrase as the title for the message: THE GAME CHANGER.

Now, when you hear, think, talk, or study the subject of the crucifixion, it is easy to land your thoughts that Jesus went to the cross, was tried, beaten, stripped naked, crown of thorns, cat of 9 tails across his back, the logistics of carrying the cross down the Via Dolorosa, the nails in His hands and feet, being suspended between heaven and earth for hours. Suffered one of the cruelest and painful deaths – all of this was for the payment of our sin and our reconciliation to God. This is the primary reason why Jesus came to the earth, right? To atone for our sin, to bring us into right relationship with the Father, to offer eternal life.

But what if it was much more than that? What if the crucifixion was not only to pay our sin debt but had much more on the line and an even greater purpose than just our salvation? What if it really was a GAME CHANGER, but The Game Changer was much more than a sin payment? I want to spend this morning proposing some Kingdom thoughts that we need to understand for 2024.

Before I jump into this, I want to share a couple of quotes from 2 great men:

• “The greatest enemy of man is Ignorance” – Myles Munroe
• “These men are not suffering from a lack of evidence. They are suffering from rebellion and Kingdom Ignorance.”

I want today to share with you a Kingdom principle that is a Game Changer and that I also believe that the Church is ignorant of.

Psalm 8

1. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.
2. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You have ordained strength because of Your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have established,
4. What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You attend to him?
5. For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
6. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
7. All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8. The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever travels the paths of the seas.
9. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Vs 5: Let me stop here and talk about how the translators struggled with this verse.

Adam was crowned with glory. He sinned and lost the glory. Jesus, the 2nd Adam, came to restore the glory. While He was here, we beheld the glory, and that was fitting for the captain of our salvation to raise many sons that their salvation is perfect.

Is there such a thing as imperfect salvation? It’s not that the blood of Jesus has imperfections. What it means is until we are restored to glory, we have not taken full advantage of the cross/death of Christ. The cross of Christ was not to get you to church, sing some songs, and pay your tithes. All of that is good, but the blood of Jesus Christ was to have a people on the earth that when they speak, things move and shift, and they can govern their earth and govern their world, and when they speak, heaven backs them up.

So Jesus spent the 3.5 years with the disciples to teach how the glory works, how when you operate in the destiny and identity for which you were created, how glory, dominion, and authority work.

I have so much more but need to wrap this up. Have you ever thought about how much you pray about something and yet no results? Could it be there are things you are praying for that you should be speaking to? Don’t pray about your mountain; speak to your mountain. Don’t pray about your enemy; tell your enemy to get behind you.

When the will of God is not known, you pray.

When the will of God has been established, you speak.

When you get a revelation that Jesus came to re-establish you and I to His original intent, that we are to be clothed in His glory, we are to operate in a whole new level; that is a Game Changer. The Super bowl is not Jesus died for sin; that was the pre-game. He came to re-establish what was lost.

Today, if you haven’t had your sins forgiven by Him who loved and died for you, then you need to deal with that 1st.