One Way

Praise Night May 21, 2005

I. Introduction

a. Thinking of One Way

i. Direction of getting something done

1. when I first come out to California

2. had a motorcycle and went to Redondo Beach

ii. One way sign

1. there was a cop waiting there for me

2. paid the ticket

3. wait in line to show proof of payment and then I had to wait in another line to get my license reinstated

iii. life is a series of lines

1. progression of educational system

a. we get in line through elementary school

b. through Jr high- proceed in the line through high school

c. then through college, we are so used to lines that we don’t get out\

i. some of us become professional students find comfort in lines

2. sometimes we come to a crossroads

a. we’re not sure what direction to take

i. “Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.” -Don Marquis

b. We go through hell to know what life is all about

i. Movie Castaway

1. FedEx truck picking up a package with pink wings from farm sign “Dick and Bettina”

a. Song playing is Elvis singing Heartbreak Hotel and then changes to All Shook Up when she says she has another package to picked up on Thursday

b. Picks up pace as it is delivered to her husband having an affair in Russia

2. Chuck Nolan, being in control of everything, giving a speech

a. Three points

i. Time rules over us w/o mercy (rather than God who rules us with mercy)

ii. We live or die by the clock (rather than the grace of a Sovereign God)

iii. Never turn your back on the clock or commit the sin of losing track of time (rather than the sin of turning your back from the compassionate, loving God)

b. He then opens a package he had mailed from the US with a clock in it

i. 87 hrs- that is an eternity

ii. Man’s time vs. God’s time- theme of the movie

1. he even testifies he had to steal a bike to serve his taskmaster- time

3. we see him on the trip home, speaking with his friend Stan- wife has cancer

a. “I will get you a number to a good doctor, we will get this fixed.”

i. Life is a series of problems to be fixed rather than to be lived

4. When Chuck is stranded on the island

a. The first thing he notices

i. His watch has stopped and his pager is filled with water

1. his master is no more and he is left alone- cast away

II. Opening Prayer

III. Life can be humbling

a. Humbling to realize the things we serve, the things so precious to us

i. Actually has no value in terms of giving us answers

1. “Whatever a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines or rather indicates his fate.” - Henry David Thoreau

ii. So actually where are we going in life?

1. many of us stand in line, doing what life has conformed for us to do

2. many of us are taught that certain things are right and have shaped our values and shaped a direction in life

3. some of us live in fear- fear driving us

a. some of us are just clueless and not even given it a single thought

i. “Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believe.” - Walter Lippman

iii. what’s it all about?

1. movie Alfie

b. whenever we are lost, at a crossroads in our lives

i. we need to two points

1. where we are

2. where we want to go

IV. Where are we?

a. Beyond the obvious

i. DFC, Saturday May 21, 2005

b. we live in a society that is plagued with problems

i. we need to open the history books

1. read stories of genocide, mass killings

a. WWII

i. Holocaust 6 million Jews

ii. Recent story of protest of the Chinese against the history books of Japan dispelling the atrocities of Nan king- rape of Nan king- 300,000

iii. Firebombing of Japan- 3,000 tons of incenary bombs

1. 330,000 people were killed

b. Genocides in Rwanda in 1994

i. 800,000 were killed in ten months

2. watch the news

a. we are cast into fear

i. stories of accidents, murder & fraud

1. recently heard the story of a man who hung his five year old son to get back at his wife

2. the woman who allegedly found a thumb in the chili is now in prison

c. that’s where we are

i. The question is how do we explain it?

1. Why are there war, death and disease?

2. if we believe this world was created by a transcendent God

a. How could He possibly allow these things to happen to us?

b. If God is love, isn’t this a very cruel way of showing His love?

i. This is one of the most difficult questions for a Christian to answer

d. It is formidable but there is an answer

i. Christian world view does have answer and it is the best answer available

V. God created us in His image- to be holy and to live righteously

a. Yet He loved us so much that He gave us the unique dignity to be free moral agents

i. Make free decisions- choose right from wrong- good and evil

ii. To set the arena for that environment- He set one restriction

1. do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil

a. by choosing not to obey Him, we made an independent choice to reject His way of life and opened the door to death and destruction

i. this is called theologically- the Fall

ii. in short the Bible places the responsibility of sin which opened the floodgates to evil, squarely on the human race

b. the Problem with that

i. not that’s its not clear, its not palatable

1. Christian world view of sin is not pleasing to the dignity of man

a. Modern times, many influential thinkers have dismissed the idea of sin as repressive and mythological

ii. Utopian view

1. asserts that humans are intrinsically good

a. that with the right conditions

i. right social climate, improved environment, improved education, enhanced economics conditions

ii. human perfectibility has no limits

2. “you can take the boy out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of the boy”

a. All we need to see is within our own hearts

i. I am an opportunist

1. the world would be chaotic is not for fear

2. we would do things we would be proud of if not for the fact

a. we go to jail

b. we are embarrassed

c. In this crossroads we have a choice

i. Either you have the Christian worldview to say that there is a God and the problems we face in this life is attributed to “SIN”

ii. Or we are naturalist who happen to be here as a mere accident in the universe and this is just a means

d. You can’t say the Bible’s explanation is unrealistic

1. we are prone to make such moral decisions

a. that causes pain and suffering upon others

b. not when we can just open the history books to see long history of moral decisions gone wrong

i. “The doctrine of original sin is the only philosophy empirically validated by thirty-five centuries of recorded history.”

e. Christianity Not only Offers the Accurate Problem but also the Accurate Diagnosis

i. Whenever you have an ailment- one needs to know the source of the problem

a. When we go to the doctor, we are looking for answers

ii. World has been misdiagnosis

1. Basic problem is a moral one: we have guilt before a Holy God

a. God created us and set up a moral dimension for us to live

b. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God Rom. 3:23

2. Converse attitude toward guilt

a. Guilt is just a subjective feeling- that it can be cured

i. We know we are in the wrong when we displace responsibility

1. talking with a brother who was late to service last night- its my girlfriends fault

2. sex offenders, drug addicts and alcoholics

3. that’s why the church becomes very hollow in power

a. people come for other reasons than guilt

i. longing for peace, longing for friendships, place to fit in, social activities

b. some point we have to confront the truth, the objective truth of our moral condition- we have sinned against God

i. we are sinners in the hands of a righteous God

ii. no matter how hard you heart maybe, the Holy Spirit will penetrate it and show you how sinful your heart is

VI. Where Do We Go From Here?

a. Christianity Provides the Only Answer to the Problem of Sin

i. God has reached out over the moral chasm to bring us back to Him

1. scene from ROTK

a. Smeagal reaches in the miry pond and grabs Frodo

2. it is the second person in the trinity that reaches into human history

a. living a perfect life of obedience

b. death paying the price of our sins

c. satisfying the demands of divine justice

b. It is God who is the initiator

i. when Adam fell in sin

1. very much aware of his sinfulness

2. his alienation from God

3. he did not roam around the garden saying, "God, where are You? God, where are You?"

ii. It was God in Genesis 3:9 "Adam, where are you?"

1. intent of that is to let us know that it is God who initiates out of His own gracious love the saving work

2. Fallen and redeemed man does not even seek after God in Romans chapter 3.

a. It is God who is the seeker

b. It is God who took the initiative to call man back out of gracious love

c. from the first call in Genesis 3:9, "Adam, where are you?" to the last call in Revelation 22:17, "Come, the Spirit and the bride say come, let him who is thirsty come and take of the water of life freely."

d. From the first invitation to the last invitation of Scripture, and all in between, God is a God who longs to redeem fallen man to Himself.

c. Yet as sin has entered into the world through one man, redemption for all comes through one man as well

i. “I am the way, the truth and the life and no man may go to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

John 1:12- “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

VII. What’s In a Name?

a. Every name has meaning and represents our identity

i. Adrienne Maul-Sari 40 , Joppatowne, MD

1. she legally changed her name to “Maul” because of the sense of power and confidence she derived from the Stars Wars series character Darth Maul.

ii. If you notice almost every 1.5 Korean American has a biblical name

1. girls- Esther- the most beautiful woman in the bible

a. Grace

b. Wife changing her name from Midian to Marion to Christine

2. boys- Daniel, David, Peter, James, Peter, Phillip, Thomas,

a. most popular name John- 73% all Korean American men are called

i. 99.9 % are John Kim probability that we all know 4 different John Kims

ii. Brother at DFC that changed his name

3. why didn’t you ever changed you name

a. Chang- regal

b. Sung- tall, dark & handsome

c. Ho- magnificent, magnanimous, majestic, noble, opulent, perfect, splendid & humble

b. The Most Important Name of All

i. His name is Jesus- “Lord is Salvation”

ii. John 14:6 “I am the way.”

1. He is “I AM”

a. 23 times we see in the Book of John

i. “I AM the bread of life” (6:35, 41, 48, 51)

ii. “I AM the light of the world” (8:12)

iii. “I AM the door of the sheep” (10:7, 9)

iv. “I AM the Good Shepherd” (10:11, 14)

v. “I AM the resurrection and the Life” (11:25)

vi. “I AM the WAY, the truth and the Life” (14:6)

vii. “I AM the true vine” (15:1,5)

iii. When Moses was sent out by God Ex. 3

1. when I go to the children of Israel and say that the God of their fathers have sent me, they shall ask me His name?

a. “I AM who I AM.” Exodus 3:14

b. “I AM has sent me to you.”

2. what does that mean?

a. Self explanatory, it describes His self existence

i. That He is who He is and there needs no explanation

1. He is the alpha and the Omega

2. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore

b. You can depend upon ME

c. Every other name needs credibility

i. Whenever we tell a story and we need credibility

1. “I swear” anything that is scared

2. when we are in a courtroom, we testify as we place our hands upon the Bible- the name of God

a. the name of God needs no credibility, it stands upon itself

b. He not is able to make this promise but is able to fulfill His promise- upon His name

ii. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”

1. this time Moses is not sent, no other prophet is sent to give us a message of salvation

a. God sent Himself to not only give us the message of salvation but be the means of salvation

2. we look at like and look to those who love you

a. who would die for you?

b. Even the most righteous person we can think of

i. Most venerated- Pope John Paul II

1. no one can die for our sins

2. it took the lamb of God who had no sin to become sin for our behalf

iii. Castaway

1. Where the main character, Chuck delivers the package that he claims has saved his life

a. The sign of the ranch no longer says “Dick and Bettina”

b. And the angel’s wings are no longer pink but now white

2. Bettina tells Chuck as he looks lost, the destinations of the crossroads

a. The road she takes is white while the other roads are dark

b. And she has an angel on the tail of her truck

3. Chuck derived from Charles- “man”

4. Bettina means ‘pledged to God”

a. What’s in a name

VIII. Conclusion

a. That’s where we are, life filled in corruption, filled in sin

i. We know the pain of sin-

1. psalmist says, when I have kept quiet, my bones have grown old, through my groaning all day and night for you Hand is heavy upon me.

2. therefore I will confess my sins to my Lord and you will forgive the inequity of my sin

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.