God, Don't Give Up On Me - A Mid-morning Sermon.

As I have said in previous posts, it seems that sermons sometimes find me in the middle of the night. Although this sermon did not come to me in the middle of the night like some, it came to me as I was studying Romans 1 this morning. I guess as preacher's we always look at things through "sermon colored glasses" so to speak so here it is:

God, Don’t Give Up On Me!

(Romans 1-2:5)

Introduction  

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

v.19, what can be known about God is plain; v. 20 clearly seen…man is without excuse

  I. Though man knew God he……….did not honor him v.21 or give thanks to Him.

    A. v.21, their thinking became futile (useless or pointless)

    B. v. 21, their hearts turned dark

    C. v.25, compromised the truth

    D. v.28, did not even acknowledge God

 II. Therefore God “gave them up”

    A. v.24, to sins involving the body and the corruption thereof

    B. v.26, to sins involving passion

    C. v.28, to sins that involved things that men and women did that ought not to be done

    D. v.29-31, Paul lists these sins they engaged in. Many engaged in today.

III. They knew the consequences of their actions.

    A. v. 32, knew they deserved to die but continued

    B. 2:1, they had no excuse

    C. 2:4, they presumed that God being good would overlook such sins

    D. 2:4, God’s goodness is there to lead us to repentance not to excuse sin

Conclusion

God is storing up His wrath for judgment day, v. 5. He will render to each according to his works, v.6.

Yes, God gave up on them when they continued to ignore Him. God don’t give up on me. Let this lesson be a call to repentance. I won’t ignore you and longer and if I have, I will repent and through the gift of your Son I can begin anew.  2 Cor 5:17. And if I’m not already “in Christ” I will obey and be baptized into Him, Gal. 3:27 so that I can be made near to you through the blood of your Son. Eph. 2:13. Lord I won’t give up on you, please, “Don’t Give Up on Me”.

The Process - A Midnight Sermon

I am an Auburn fan. Most of all I am an Auburn football fan. The first Auburn game I can ever remember attending was when I was 10 years old. My father and grandfather walked to the end of my grandfather’s street in Homewood and caught the bus to downtown. At the Tutwiler Hotel in downtown Birmingham we boarded the shuttle bus to Legion Field to watch the Auburn-Tennessee game. We sat in the upper deck where we watched a scoreless game until it started raining and did it rain. Try as we might to stay dry we couldn’t so we ended up watching in the pouring rain. I will never forget the players sliding in the water on the field. Right before halftime in the deluge Auburn kicked a field goal and went into the half leading 3-0. At halftime the sun came out and Tennessee came alive and ended up winning the game 10-3.

The first Auburn game I ever took my wife to was the Tennessee game in Legion Field. We will never forget the Auburn fans throwing oranges on to the field as the Tennessee team entered the stadium. Brenda was not very impressed still being an Alabama fan. (Later on I finally converted her as she says it was impossible to live in the same household with me and be an Alabama fan).

So it is you see a little difficult for me to sing the praises of anything to do with Alabama football especially their coach, Nick Saban. But I believe in giving praise where praise is due hence the title of the lesson, The Process. Everyone who follows football especially SEC football is familiar with the Saban process. His drive to succeed, his winning attitude and his attention to details has made him the greatest college football coach of our time. I believe that it is evident that his number one priority is that process, that attention to detail, that excellence in striving to be the best, that drive to the goal to be the best. 

Nick Saban spoke at a leadership conference at the civic center in Birmingham. He said that he grew up in West Virginia in the country and his wife Terri grew up in the city in the same town. His Daddy owned a service station and he went to work at age 11 and made $1 an hour and when he was 16 he got a raise to $2. When he played pee wee football at the age of 10 he saw Terri on the sidelines cheering and said that was the girl he would marry someday. Later he wanted to ask her out but she was already dating someone named Mickey Schaffer. Well finally she and her boyfriend broke up and Nick asked her out and they have been together ever since. They recently went back to their hometown in West Virginia and were riding down the main street when Nick saw a service station and sure enough the owner’s name on the station was none other than her old boyfriend Mickey Schaffer. Nick turned to Terri and said, “See if you had married him you could have owned that service station there.” Without hesitation Terri came back and said, “If I had married Mickey Schaeffer right now he would have been the head football coach at Alabama”. Nick says that most of the time she thinks she is the coach.  

We as Christians should have a process. It should be the process of Christianity. What is our process? Do we pay attention to the details, to the excellence to be the best in our Christian life? It is known that if something is repeated over and over after a while it becomes a habit. Are our Christian habits what they need to be for us and those that surround us to see us as Christ like and strong Christians?

1    

          The Attendance Process – Most of our American workers show up for work on a regular basis (everyday) in order to receive a paycheck. It is a habit with us, an expectation to receive compensation. School children go to school regularly it is required by law but most of us went on our own because we knew the good things that would result from our attending. (Hebrews 10:25-26)
What about our church attendance? How about the process? Is it striving for excellence, mediocre at best or just pitiful?  What do we need to do to make it a winning process?

2     The Home Process-What about our process in the home? Of bringing Christ into our families, into our homes at our dinner tables. Many of us don’t even sit down together anymore.

Do we have fellowship with those in our local church families? We will never get to know one another in the church by just attending the assemblies. Eating together is a good form of fellowship. How many of us will attend the fellowship activities of the church?

Jesus was “all in” on fellowship. The disciples ate together. Jesus was found at a wedding feast in Cana as recorded in John 2:1-11. When Jesus would preach and heal, the people became hungry and Jesus fed them Mark 6:30-44. Jesus ate the last supper with the disciples in John 13 and ate after the resurrection as we find recorded in John 21:12-14 and Luke 24:35-48.

The fellowship of eating together helps us develop a relationship with others that goes beyond the assembly. Other forms of fellowship serve the same purpose but for those of us who live in the South the fellowship of eating together is always welcomed and encouraged.

So we can foster the process by eating together, talking together about being an everyday Christian, praying with one another and reading scripture together. This today is lacking in our homes even in our Christian homes.

(Add other points if you like, ie. Bible Study, Prayer, Evangelism, etc.)

Conclusion

We need to take care of the details in the process and it will foster strong Christians as the result. The result of Nick Saban’s process is that the University of Alabama has won multiple championships and the result of adhering to the process of Christianity will be stronger individual Christians and families for God. The result will be that the Kingdom of Christ will increase and more people will be exposed to the love and forgiveness found in a relationship with our Lord.

Midnight sermons

If your like me an "older" man you probably get up during the night at least once every night. Thankfully once is my usual but sometimes I have a difficult time going back to sleep. Often while lying in bed wondering if I will ever fall back asleep I get sermon ideas. (If you get sermons ideas in bed you might want to keep a pen and paper handy like I did). Before retiring from preaching these ideas were very welcome and helpful to my expectation of presenting two sermons most every week for the past 25 or so years while also working a secular job. Now not so much, but I always have enjoyed sermon writing. After all to me that's the fun part of the whole sermon thing creating it, the presentation was sometimes a little stressful and the trite compliments received afterwards weren't much either. I just liked the whole writing part of it maybe you do too. It would be an interesting poll for the preacher types, What is your favorite part of the sermon process. Anyway back to the point, now that I am retired what am I to do with these "midnight sermons"? You guessed it, post it to my blog. (Next post......my latest midnight sermon.....The Process) Thanks, Larry