Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            All of us have probably spent time looking for a good deal.

I watched the trustees purchase the data projector which we use to put the images on the screen.

Kerry and Lonnie spent many days researching on the internet, trying to discern what we needed, looking at prices in Canada and the United States, going to stores and seeing who would give us the best deal.

They did such a thorough job that I began to wonder if we would ever get it, so you can know that we, as a church, got the best deal possible.

Stores assume that we are looking for a good deal and so you often see them advertising with slogans like, “We will not be undersold.”

Are we as diligent about the way that we make choices with the rest of our life?

What about our spiritual life?

Have you ever looked for what is the best deal for all of life?

As human beings, there are several things that are pretty important if we want to have a whole life.

If we are content to exist from day to day with the hope that tomorrow might be better and if we are content to live as if there is no one to whom we are accountable and if we are happy to live for today without worrying about what will happen after we die, then we can go on living without this kind of a “shopping” trip.

But if we are concerned about the guilt which nags at our soul and if we are interested in a life that has meaning, purpose and in which we have strength to face whatever comes and if we want to know what will happen to us after we die, then we need to do this kind of thinking.

This morning, I want to point to Jesus Christ and tell you what the Bible says about why Jesus is the best answer to the deepest questions we ask as human beings.

I have personally found that what the Bible says about Jesus and what He will do for us is true and leads to life that is whole.

So, I invite you to listen to what the Bible has to say about the blessing of life in Jesus.

!

I.

We Have Forgiveness

!! A. Situation Apart From Christ

            The ten commandments are probably universally accepted as the code expressing what is right.

Although we may not have broken some of the commands such as “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery,” yet we do break some of the others.

Who of us can say that we have never desired what belongs to someone else, or that we have always obeyed our parents or that we have never lied.

When we read Jesus’ interpretation of these commandments, we learn that hatred is as bad as murder and a lustful look as bad as adultery.

If we look at things that way, we do not have to examine our hearts very long to know that we have all broken God’s law.

The Bible summarizes in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned…”

            Because God is a holy God and a just God, our sins mean that we are all under God’s condemnation.

Once again, we look at what the Bible says in Romans 1:18, 19 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men…” God hates sin because he wants things good and He knows that every sin diminishes good.

Because we are sinners and because we are in bondage to those sins and cannot seem to get free from them and because we are under God’s condemnation because of them, we are left in a rather hopeless situation.

Ephesians 2:1 describes it this way, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins…”

I read a story this week about Jimmy Karam.

His parents were immigrants from Lebanon and settled down in the southern US.

They were not accepted because they were foreigners.

Jimmy grew up knowing this and  hating it.

As he grew up, he responded with violence to the rejection he experienced.

He felt hopeless because he wanted so badly to be liked, but he always knew that people either tolerated him or hated him.

In high school, he played football, and lived out his inner hatred on the football field.

This made him very aggressive and, therefore, also a good player.

He learned that people approved of him when he was violent.

After high school and a few years in the army, he returned home and opened a men’s clothing store and then became involved in politics.

But he continued to live with violence in his life.

He ruined one marriage because of a desire to party - gambling, drinking, chasing women.

In politics, he worked for the governor in Arkansas.

His role was primarily as a trouble maker, stirring up strife to maintain segregation, violently working against unions.

He used his violence to stir things up so that the governor could maintain power.

His whole life was a desperate grasp for acceptance which he never found.

He knew that there was a lot wrong with his life, but did not know how to find a way out.

!! B. Christ Gives Forgiveness

Apart from Christ we are dead in our sin and guilt, but in Christ we have forgiveness of sins.

There is a story in Matthew 9:1-8 which tells about a paralytic man who was brought to Jesus.

In front of the crowd, Jesus encouraged the man saying, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

The authorities questioned this statement, but Jesus demonstrated his authority to forgive sins by healing the man.

Jesus still has the authority to forgive sins.

The reason Jesus has authority to forgive sins is because of his willingness to die on the cross.

Jesus is God and His death on the cross was a way of saying, “you are a sinner and need to be punished and I will punish myself so that it will be right for me to forgive you.”

This message is proclaimed many times in the Bible.

For example, Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

I have a little “wet nap” here.

It says on here, “Wash away your sins towelette.”

“Anti-bacterial formula kills sins on contact.”

“Right your wrongs with a wipe.”

On the back it has directions:

1. Remove moist towelette

2. Devoutly wipe away wrong-doing.

3. Spot check for stubborn guilt.

4. Wipe again as needed.

5. Discard sins in waste receptacle.

6. Go forth purified and moisturized.

It will not work to get rid of our sins in this way.

The only thing that will wipe away sin is the blood of Jesus.

The promise is that when we receive His forgiveness, it is complete and we are free from the guilt of our sins.

If you are tired of the guilt of your sins, there is nowhere else that you can get a better offer.

I invite you to receive forgiveness from Jesus.

This is a great blessing found in Jesus alone.

!

II.

We Have Abundant Life

!! A. Situation Apart From Christ

            Have you ever felt an emptiness in your life?

Do you ever question the meaning of life?

Do you struggle to face the trials of life?

What strength do you have to face such trials?

Where do you go for help when you need it?

It is a sad thing to watch people use alcohol and drugs to dull the pain in their life, yet many people are so overcome by their pain that it is the only way they know how to cope.

But drugs and alcohol are not the only way in which people try to dull the pain of life.

Many turn to food in order to cope.

Others strive for one pleasant experience after another - sports, entertainment and so on - to find meaning and hope in life.

What about the use of money?

I suspect that there are many who gamble to find some pleasure in order to cover the pain of life and very many who dull the boredom and heal the ache by making one purchase after another.

Others look to relationships to find the meaning that makes life worth living.

Some of these things, like drug abuse and alcoholism, are harmful in and of themselves, but other things are good things which are, nevertheless, used to fill an otherwise empty life.

Perhaps you recognize the cycle.

You become bored with life and that boredom leads to a mild depression.

You need some kind of a narcotic to help you overcome the pain of the depression, so you eat, or drink or buy something, or go on a trip or do some other thing so that you will feel better again.

For a while, it works.

The narcotic has its effect and you are filled with joy, but before long the boredom sinks in again and the depression follows and the need to buy another toy or experience another high is necessary in order to dull the pain.

Before long you recognize the cycle and the hopelessness of it adds to the pain and life becomes an endless cycle always ending in emptiness and hopelessness and pain.

I spoke before about Jimmy Karam who recognized how this had worked in his life.

He said, “When I think of it now, it’s as though I spent all of my life- until my conversion - halfway under ether, seeing nothing, feeling nothing, knowing nothing…it’s the opposite of what the Communists say.

They tell you that religion is the opiate of the masses.

Not true.

It’s the other way around.

Sin is the opiate...it is the thing that dulls the senses, that pulls the shades over your eyes.”