Sermon Tone Analysis

Scotty loved to fish.

He had spent most of the day fishing in a small aluminum flatboat.

It wasn’t until he got ready to get out of the boat that he saw it.

Gasoline!

He had been sitting in it for hours.

What it did to his skin was horrible.

But how could he not have known?

That must’ve burned like fire.

Not for Scotty.

You see, Scotty is a paraplegic.

He can’t feel anything from the chest down.

He didn’t know the damage that was being caused because he couldn’t feel anything.

Bad things can happen when you stop feeling.

It’s true physically and it’s true spiritually.

I wonder if you know what it’s like.

When there is no soul in your song, when there is no passion in your prayers, when there is no burden for your Bible.

It has happened to me.

It can happen to you.

You can look up one day and realize there is no fire for your faith, no passion and emotion in you walk with God.

You’re still going through the motions, but you don’t feel anything.

Our faith does not rest on feelings and emotions.

But the realities of the Christian faith should deeply affect our mind, will and emotions.

But what do you do when your passion has waned, when your feelings have faded?

Well, you have to rekindle the fire for your faith.

Tonight I want to tell you how you can do that.

You can rekindle your passion by stirring up two powerful emotions.

Forsaken, deserted, abandoned, left behind.

This is how our Lord felt.

In that moment he bore in his body on the tree the sin of all humanity, causing a separation between Him and His heavenly Father.

Somehow He could sense an abrupt loss of communion with the Father.

His intimate fellowship with the Father that had been so significant throughout His life had been interrupted.

And the awareness of that tore His heart so deeply that His grief erupted for all to hear.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

These words from our Lord can help to rekindle the fire for your faith by stirring up two powerful emotions.

Here’s the first one:

I. Hatred for your sin

Hatred for your sin

The question: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Are you ready for the answer?

Sin.

Your sin.

My sin.

God turned His back on His Son as He hung on the cross.

And He did it because of your sin.

It was your lust that severed Jesus’ fellowship with the Father.

It was your greed.

It was your anger.

It was your lying tongue.

It was your self-centeredness.

It was your sin that left Jesus abandoned on the cross.

Let that sink in.

Worse than all the physical pain was the agony of being separated from His Father.

And it was your sin that made it necessary.

Does that make you feel something?

It should.

It should stir within you a hatred for your sin.

Not only will your sin separate you from God, it separated God from God.

Jeannie Williams and her 11-year old son Jeffrey were staying the night at the Best Western motel in Boone, SC.

They were in town to pick up Jeannie’s daughter from camp the next day.

They were in town to pick up Jeannie’s daughter form camp the next day.

During the night Jeannie started to feel sick.

As her symptoms continued to get worse, she struggled to call for help, but says Jeffery never responded to her calls.

Carbon monoxide gas had seeped into their room from a swimming pool water heater on the floor below.

Eleven year old Jeffrey was dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, along with two others who were staying in the hotel that night.

"It's day by day, sometimes hour by hour," mother Jeannie Williams says.

Jeannie and Jeffery were staying at the hotel for the night before picking up her daughter from camp.

She says she remembers feeling sick in the room.

As her symptoms continued to get worse, she struggled to call for help, but says Jeffery never responded to her calls.

She says she misses the intimate moments with her son the most.

"Just everything, being able to hold him and touch him.

His smile.

His sense of humor.

He was a wonderful boy," she said.

Though the Williams say they have no ill-will towards hotel management, they are hoping the legal system will provide some form of justice in their child's death.

"I want there to be accountability and I want Justice.

That's a part of the system is to have that justice.

People did some things that they shouldn't have done and they need to be held accountable for," Jeannie said.

Do you want to rekindle a fire for your faith?

Do you want to regain passion and emotion in your Christian life?

Hear the words of the Lord, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Let the answer to that question echo in your ears until you despise your sin and are determined to wage war against it.

Wednesday, a judge ordered the company that installed the used water heater to never again work as a plumbing, heating or fire sprinkler contractor.

The owner of the hotel was indicted on three counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of assault in January 2014.

In memory of their late son, Jeannie and husband Jeff started the Jeffery Lee Williams Foundation.

They say the purpose of the foundation has four pillars: To educate the public about carbon monoxide, provide carbon monoxide detectors to families who can't afford them, assist rural fire departments to have carbon monoxide detectors installed on their trucks and to start an online list of hotels that have carbon monoxide detectors in each room.

This is what I want you to see.

When carbon monoxide poisoning took their precious boy, they were moved to do something.

They channeled their grief into waging war against what took their son.

That’s what you have to do.

Your sin left the precious Lord Jesus abandoned on the cross to die.

Let that move you to do something.

Do you want to rekindle a fire for your faith?

Do you want to regain passion and emotion in your Christian life?

Hear the words of the Lord, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Let the answer to that question echo in your ears until you despise your sin and are determined to wage war against it.

And this haunting question from the Lord can help rekindle the fire for your faith by stirring in you another powerful emotion.

II.

Love for your Savior

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Even as He asked the question, he knew the answer.

the short answer is sin.

But there’s a little more to it.

Why would Jesus allow our sin to separate him from his Father?