Sermon for Sunday July 13th, 2008

IT ISN’T THAT BAD! by Bruce Ball

Ephesians 2:1-2:5


How many times in your life have you heard people say that nobody is going to tell them what to do? Many people have this false assumption that they are in control of their lives and they do just fine in the management of how they live.

I say that is a false assumption, because every human is under the direct management of somebody. It might be your parents; it might be your teachers; a boss; or even the government. But no matter whom you have over your life, all of us have one of two ultimate bosses: God or Satan. We might not realize it, we might not care, and we might even deny it, but that is the truth of the matter.

Last week, I told how we spend our lives telling God to just leave us alone! We don’t go to church; we don’t read the Bible; and we don’t even like to hear anything about God. We think we can manage our lives just fine without Him.

I am reminded of the story about a young couple who were raised in the backwoods of Kentucky. They married and moved to a nearby big city to live. Shortly thereafter, they were invited to a church.

It wasn’t long before both had accepted Jesus and were baptized. In that church, they both went to the same Sunday school class, and they noticed that on the first Sunday of the month, all the people wore a dark blue shirt. So the wife went home and being the good seamstress that she was, made them both shirts that matched the color of the shirts the other people wore.

Come the first Sunday of the month, they proudly wore their shirts, but noticed that everyone else’s shirt had a little saying over the pocket area. When she got home, the first thing she did was to embroider a little saying over the pockets of their shirts. Since she couldn’t read, she sewed three words she had seen in a store window.

The next time they wore the shirts, everyone "oohed" and "aahed" over their shirts! They said those shirts described their new lives in Christ Jesus better than anything else they could have sewed on them. The words she sewed on their shirts very aptly read, "Under New Management."

Today, I would like to talk about something most people hate to hear about. It is a subject that instantly puts a negative feeling in our minds and spirits. It is something that we all do and many see no harm in it because they justify it.

Today, I want to talk about biggest and most profound problem we have in life. Today, I want to talk about sin, and how our view of Christ corresponds with the amount of sin we let into our lives.

Our biggest problem in life is our ...


1. SIN

There is a short passage in the Bible that tells us what we are like when we try to live under our own management. Please turn with me to …

EPHESIANS 2:1-3 – (The Message Version)

’It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.’

Without Jesus, we are mired down in that old stagnant life of sin. That is the only kind of life the world can offer. The world really doesn’t know anything about real life, as the One who gives real life is not a part of the world. And when we take what this world has to offer, we become just like this world; corrupt, evil, selfish, and rebellious against God.

And it really is a wonder that God didn’t lose His temper and do away with all of us! Aren’t we glad that God treats us better than we treat each other? And aren’t we glad that God loves us more than we love him?

Most people say they aren’t "that bad", whatever "that bad" means. To me, "that bad" means telling God to leave you alone, to live "on purpose" away from God. But who does that? The answer is: We all have the capability of doing that. And when we live without God, we are inherently evil.

In 1960, Israeli undercover agents kidnapped one of the worst killers in Hitler’s army from his hideout in South America. His name was Adolf Eichmann. They took him to Israel to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors called a long list of witnesses who had either seen Eichmann commit those crimes or had seen the evidence of his crimes. One witness was a small elderly man named Yehiel Dinur, who had escaped death in Auschwitz.

When it was his day to testify, Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man in the bulletproof glass booth – the man, who had murdered Dinur’s friends, personally murdered hundreds of Jewish men, women, and even young children, and presided over the slaughter of millions more. As the eyes of the two men met something happened that shook the enter courtroom.

Yehiel Dinur stood in silence, looking at the man who had done all that, and then he began to sob uncontrollably. He collapsed on the floor and had to be carried out until he was composed enough to go back and testify.

What made Mr. Dinur react that way? He was interviewed by Mike Wallace on TV years later and this is what he said.

He said he had always pictured Mr. Eichmann as this hideous monster who had nothing but evil in his eyes. But when he entered the courtroom that day and saw him, he saw a small, older man who had soft eyes and a vulnerable expression on his face. He said he saw nothing but an average man.

He said it was at that moment he realized everybody has the same capabilities of being evil. He said he began to sob because he was afraid of what he might do in a different set of circumstances. He told Mike Wallace, "I saw myself in him and it scared me to death.:" And then he finished by saying that all of us have an Adolph Eichmann lurking somewhere in us.

How could that be? We are good people, right? We aren’t "that bad", are we? We claim to be good people, but let me ask you a question: Have you ever told a little white lie? Now, let me ask you another question: Have you ever thought that when you did, it wasn’t all "that bad?"

Have you ever taken something that didn’t belong to you? Say, for instance, a pen or pencil? If you have ever done that, you did it because you didn’t see it as a really bad thing, did you? After all, it was nothing more than a little pencil, or whatever it was didn’t seem that important, did it?

What I am getting at is this: When we do something even that small, we know in our hearts if it is wrong. And when we do it anyway, we are committing a sin in God’s eyes because, at that very moment, we don’t care about anything but what "we want." That is what the world gives us. That is called unrighteousness by God.

One of the worst things we do is justify our sins. We start out by saying, "Oh, it’s just a little thing", but the next thing you know, we are cheating on income taxes or telling lies to our spouses, and it just gets easier and easier to do more and more. And it also keeps getting easier and easier to keep telling ourselves that those things aren’t really all "that bad."

In reality, they are that bad. God sees all of these "little sins" as being as big as the crimes Mr. Eichmann did.

When we step back and look at everything with an objective mind, we realize that everything is involved in a spiritual war – a war between God and Satan. It isn’t a fairy tale and it isn’t a scary bedtime story. It is as real as it gets, even if we are too afraid to take a look at it.

We hate hearing about sin and evil, don’t we? Yet we say we love to read the Bible. Did you know that the word “evil” is found over 600 times in the Bible? The word “sin” is found over 500 times. The Apostle Paul uses the word “evil” over 50 times and the word “sin” over 600 times.

The writers of the Old Testament and the early teachers had no problem calling things as they are. My definition of sin is purposely doing something against God, and my definition of evil is the carnal condition our hearts are in unless we ask Jesus to come into our lives.

But today’s church doesn’t talk about sin or the consequences of sin. It’s too "yucky" so we change our description of it and say we are "broken" people. We say we are in a "spiritual wilderness" instead of saying we have turned our backs on God.

We use words that have been watered down so much they seem like nothing more than a surreal concept, or something from a self-help book you buy at the check-out stand.

Why am I talking about it today in such a bold manner? Not because I want you to leave here feeling badly about me or yourself, but because I want you to leave here today knowing what you have to do in order to get right with Jesus Christ, the living Son of the Living God. If I do anything less than that, I am not being fair to you and I am not being fair to my God.

The Bible says, "People perish for lack of knowledge." I am trying to give you knowledge today that can save your eternal lives. It is your decision whether you will take it or reject it. I fervently pray you take that knowledge and let it change your life.

If we are on the wrong side, we live in the evilness of that side. And in certain circumstances, we are capable of committing atrocities, too. But if we are on the right side, we walk in the goodness of God, and our old nature has been replaced with the new nature of Christ Jesus.

A moment ago, I read a passage that told how we were when we walked on the wrong side. We were spiritually dead in our sins. Now, I want to take a look at how we are, or how you can be, when you walk on the right side, the side of the Almighty God.

Let’s talk about our ...


2. SALVATION

There is a passage that tells us how very much God loves us.

EPHESIANS 2:4-5 – (New International Version)

"But because of His great love for us, God (who is rich in mercy) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins – it is by grace you have been saved."

"But because ... " I think those are two of the most beautiful words in the Bible.

We were dead, "But because..." God loved us so much, He offered us eternal life through His loving grace.

What is grace? I heard it explained this way:

··· God’s mercy is NOT giving us what we deserve: hell
··· God’s grace is giving us what we do NOT deserve: salvation

We cannot get His grace, however, until we are willing to live under new management; until we are willing to humble our hearts and admit that God is God and we are not.

We are like the by-product of oil before we receive Christ Jesus as our Savior. Let me tell you about it.

When Standard Oil Company began to refine petroleum, there was a black substance, a by-product, that no one knew what to do with. It was black, sticky, and stinky. It couldn’t be buried because it would just find its way to the surface again. It couldn’t be burned because the smoke and stench would keep people from breathing anywhere near it. If that by-product was drained into a river, all the fish died.

So Standard Oil offered a large reward to anyone who could come up with a solution to get rid of it.

One day, a chemist went into Mr. Rockefeller’s office and showed him a brick made from a cloudy white substance. It had no smell or other offensive quality. As a matter of fact, the scientist showed Mr. Rockefeller a long list of useful purposes it had.

What was this substance? The scientist called it paraffin. And how do they make paraffin? They refine that black, sticky, stinky stuff that is a by-product of oil and make something useful and non-offensive from it.

We were dead in our sin. We were as useless and as offensive as that ugly, smelly, and lethal by-product. That was how we were before Christ. Now let’s take a look at how we are after Christ.

When Jesus comes into our hearts, He begins to refine us; to clean us up from the inside out. We start changing to be of a higher quality spiritually. In short, we become useful and saved by the grace of God.

There is a true story of a family in New Mexico who had a pup named Brownie. Brownie got out of the yard one Saturday afternoon and, like all good animals he went exploring. Unfortunately, Brownie ventured out in the street and got struck by a passing car.

The family tearfully buried the little doggy in their back yard. Come the next day, they all got in the car and drove to church. When they got home, they found that the other dog, Brownie’s mother, refused to believe he was dead, so she went out and dug him up!

They saw Brownie lying on the back porch. He was all dirty and broken, but he was breathing. To make a long story short, they took him to the vet, got him fixed up, and they have since changed his name from Brownie to Lazarus.

How are you living today? Are you like Brownie? Are you just wandering around doing what you want to do, being oblivious to the danger that awaits you? If you are, I can guarantee you two things.

First of all, I will guarantee that you will say you are perfectly happy with your life. The second thing I will guarantee is that you aren’t. You are not really happy, because you are hiding out from what a true life with Jesus could give you.

What you must learn and then remember is that God loves you. You do not have to be big, or smart, or eloquent. All you have to be in sincere.

Scripture says we were dead in our sin. But when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you literally raise the dead. You become alive in Christ, even though you were once dead in sin. That is the greatest act of faith; trusting in the Lord Jesus, with the knowledge that what He has done for others He will do for you.

Faith is to be able to see that, despite all your faults, all your shortcomings, all the sin in your life, God really does love you. He loves you enough to chase after you, offering you chance after chance to come to Him through His Son.

When you are in Christ, you walk in love and you walk in His protection. You are kept safe, not because of anything you can do, but because of your total dependence upon Him. For somebody like me, to know that God loves us enough to carry us when we fall short, that becomes the greatest news of my life. And I am praying this morning that it becomes the greatest news in your life, too.

The moment you accept Jesus into your life, you begin a journey. That journey will take you from the world to the Lord, but that journey must be taken one step at a time.

Let’s talk about the need to ...


3. CHANGE

In 2nd SAMUEL 9:1-13, we find a story about a 5-year old boy. His name was Mephibosheth. (Mĕ-fĭb’-o-shĕth). It is a very simple story really.

His grandfather was King Saul. King Saul’s son Jonathan was the little boy’s father. Word came that they had both been killed on the battlefield and a new king would lead Israel.

In those days, a new king would kill every person who was related to the old king so that he would never have to worry about one of them trying to take his throne back. Politicians try to do that today with character assassinations.

Anyway, this little boy’s nurse was taking him away to hide him. But on the way there, she dropped him and crushed both of his ankles, and he was crippled for the rest of his life.

Eventually, King David came and asked if there were any living relatives of Saul. One of Saul’s servants by the name of Ziba told him about the boy. And then David sent for him.

When the boy got to David, he bowed to the new king. And David told him not to be afraid. He told the boy that he was going to give him back all the land that his grandfather Saul had owned, and that Ziba and his sons would farm it for him. And then King David told the boy that he would always eat at the king’s table from then on.

Let me quickly go back over that story and bring out some things that help explain our relationship with Jesus today.

The nurse dropped him, crushing his ankles. The young boy suffered because of someone else’s failure. When Adam and Eve fell from grace, we now suffer because of their failure.

Because of his nurse’s failure, the boy could not walk by himself. Because of Adam and Eve, we are unable to walk by ourselves, too. It is impossible for man to walk anywhere by himself, except on the path of unrighteousness.

Since the tradition of new kings was to kill the relatives of the old king, the boy had to live in hiding, in fear, and always under the threat of certain death.

Since we walk in the world, hiding from our Lord, we live in fear knowing that there will come a day when we are judged, and on that day we will be cast into hell - - forever. It will be a place where teeth are gnashed together in misery and anguish. A place where there is no sanity or sight.

Have you ever noticed how every time there is bad news God also gives good news? He’s like that. I like that in a person. I like that in my God.

There came a time when the king called the boy forth. The boy was afraid. But the king showed great mercy and restored what was his. And then the king showed love by making a place for the boy at the king’s table, which meant that the boy was considered as one of the king’s sons.

There will be a day when we are called forth to see our King. Most will be very afraid on that day. Jesus told us that He came to save the first time, but the next time He will come to judge. And we know that. We try to hide from that, but we cannot.

But if we have taken Him as our Savior, He will look as favorably on us as King David did on the boy. Jesus will restore us and will forever let us sit at the Table of Grace with Him forever – as a joint heir to the Kingdom of God.

As I was reading this passage in 2 SAMUEL, I began to visualize the boy sitting at the table with King David. Here is what I saw in my mind’s eyes.

When Saul’s grandson was sitting at the king’s table, his crushed ankles could not be seen because they were under the table. When we sit with Jesus, our sin cannot be seen either, because it is under the blood. And because of that covering, we are now considered joint heirs with Jesus – not because we deserve it, but because of God’s love for us. See, it’s Him, not us.

Just as King David blessed the boy, I believe that the boy also became a blessing to King David. And just as our Lord blesses us, I cannot help but feel that we bless Him, too, when we walk in His Light, for His glory.

I am reminded of a story where a salesman was driving through town and became hungry. He saw a sign for a restaurant and parked his car and went in. The first thing he noticed was how dirty the windows were, and then he saw how dirty the table tops were. The waitresses were sitting at a booth looking like they all had hangovers. As he stood there, a foul stench came from the grill. One of the waitresses called out and asked him what he wanted. He just said, "Nothing" and left.

Several months later, he was driving through the town again, and he was also hungry again. As he passed that restaurant, he saw a new sign in place of the old one. He slowed down and looked, and the windows were spotless. In the window was a sign that read, "Under New Management."

He took a chance. He parked his car and went in. Everything was clean and in order, and the smell of delicious food came from the grill. New waitresses were there and all were professional and friendly.

He took a chance. He ordered a burger with all the fixins. It turned out to be the best food he had ever eaten. He couldn’t help but think how much better things can be when they are under new management.

How about you? Do you now realize that the way you live your life might really be "that bad"? You might want to change, but don’t know how. You cannot do it by yourself. You need Jesus. He will take you and change you from the inside out if you will only let Him.

He will lead you step by step on that journey to receiving God’s mercy and grace. To walk in His favor in all you do only takes your honest admission that you cannot have a full life until you take a chance on Jesus.

We’ve all heard the story about the footprints in the sand. Where there were two sets, one belonging to Jesus, and the other belonging to the one who was following Jesus.

But there were times when there was only one set. Those were the times when Jesus was carrying him because he just couldn’t walk any further by himself. As we stand to sing, will you let Jesus carry you? Will you just give your heart to Him today?