Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow / Livestream
Riding off the emotions of the American and National Football Conference championships, Grand Canyon University Pastor Dr. Tim Griffin measured the reaction of Chapel attendees as he asked them to recall their frustrations over an official’s call that negatively affected their sports teams.
He showed a video clip of usually stoic New England Patriots former coach Bill Belichick, who was shown angrily spiking a red flag at the feet of a squatting referee to challenge a call that went against his team in a game against the Miami Dolphins last September.
“Sometimes we feel like there needs to be somebody in charge of righting things and fixing things and overruling things that just are unfair and not right,” Griffin said of everyday life. “Who's going to do that? Who's going to fix these injustices in my life now?”
Griffin, speaking Monday at Global Credit Union Arena, referred to Psalm 110, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. It is quoted or alluded to 27 times.
“The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. … The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind. You’re a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek (king of Salem and a priest of God Most High).’”
Furthermore, Griffin applies this to a current event.
“Today, if you're paying attention to what's going on around the world, there's this growing anti-Christian view of people of faith,” Griffin said. “Followers of Jesus are being persecuted all over the world. Businesses and companies and laws are being postured against people of Christian faith. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Griffin said God uses His passages through His Spirit to make a connection in a time of need.
“As you begin to study God's word and you begin to see and understand the message of the New Testament, it is not a self-help book,” Griffin said. “It’s a series of gospels and letters, and a revelation that points to the great King of the universe, the one that intercedes for us, who sits at the right hand of His Father.”
And there is a moment when you’re wondering if someone will correct an injustice in your life, or you lose control and believe it is time to drop that red flag, and you realize that is not what God wants from you.
“It's the default of a humble heart to say, ‘King Jesus, You're the authority of my life,’" Griffin said. “‘I can't control what happens here. I’m yielding to You right now. I'm letting You be the Lord of my life. I'm humbling myself before You – in that moment where sin and disobedience has broken you – and you seem to run to this and to that to bring some consolation to your soul, some peace.
“And yet you stop in that moment,” Griffin continued. “And you bow your head in your heart ... You ask Him to intervene on your behalf.”
Let Him make the call.
GCU News Staff Writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
Next week's Chapel speaker: Des Wadsworth, lead pastor at Grace Community Church
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