Sermon Tone Analysis

If You Don’t Have a Relationship With Jesus, You are DEAD

This is not popular.

No Relationship with Jesus = You are Dead.

For those who are not believers in Christ, it’s not a popular thing to hear that no matter how good they might be, they are dead.

It’s the offensive part of the Gospel.

To the person who believes that they are living a moral or a good life; to have the message come along that in spite of living morally and ethically, they are dead is offensive.

To the strong athlete who is young and feels invincible, but who is outside of Jesus Christ, to realize that if he continues outside of Christ, his physical strength and skill are nothing because He is DEAD - it’s offensive.

To the person who is financially successful and lives without a care in the world, or the hard working person who is simply trying to put bread on the Table for his family, yet hears that as long as he is outside of Christ, He is DEAD - it’s offensive.

We have to understand that when we are outside of having a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are DEAD spiritually.

One day we will all die physically and our bodies will be DEAD, a mere corpse and unresponsive to any external stimuli… unresponsive to talking… to anything.

A dead person cannot do anything.

That’s what Spiritual Death is.

When we are outside of Jesus Christ, we are totally helpless and we cannot save ourselves.

We will never be good enough to earn forgiveness… We are lost and can’t do anything about it.

We can’t do anything to gain eternal life because we are DEAD and unresponsive to God.

That’s why Paul talks about GRACE being a Gift.

We are unable to respond to the Lord unless His Spirit touches us and makes us alive.

Death has occured because of our Transgressions and Sin.

Transgression means to misstep.

It’s like walking off the edge of a platform and falling down.

Lots of people have come into bondages and strong holds by making missteps.

Sin is the failure to be what we ought to be and what we could be.

Def. - Sin is missing the Mark.

Paul says we are Spiritually Dead if we are without Christ.

So, How does a person end up Spiritually Dead?

1.

We are Dead Because We followed the Ways of the World

The “Rest of the World” refers to culture we live in that is apart and even anti-God.

At one time, we were in that mold too.

“Rest of the World” = Our Secular Culture

Most people are somewhat conformers… We conform to our surroundings due in part to peer pressure.

Even believers are impacted by peer pressure.

Society expects us to conform.

That’s probably why Paul says in Romans to stop conforming to the patterns of this world.

The pressure is on to conform spiritually, intellectually and definitely physically.

Young people especially are under pressure to conform to the group around them either at school, work...

We all face struggles to conform to the Culture we live in. the way we dress… speak… etc.

Have You Ever Noticed How Our Culture is Always Trying to Get Us to Conform to Their Way of Thinking?

They want you and I to believe the Lies they that they promote or even believe.

Lies That THE WORLD Tries to Force On You

There are NO ABSOLUTES

TRUTH is Relative

It’s relative and un-attainable, because truth is a perception.

The criteria for mental illness now includes whether or not it causes distress in the person.

If a Pedophile doesn’t feel distress about molesting children, it’s not a mental illness.

They Were BORN That Way

All Religions Worship the SAME God

It Doesn’t Matter What You Worship as Long as You are SINCERE.

God Understands Where I’m Coming From

How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell

Unfortunately, many folks who are Christians are fooled and pressured and begin to believe these lies.

Often people we know and love uses these lies and we begin to believe them as well.

Often Guilt over an issue can cause us to begin to believe these lies.

(Aunt Mary with Bill)

2. We are Dead Because the Devil Makes Us Dead

The Devil is the commander of the unseen powers and is at work in the heats of those who disobey the Lord.

When you Disobey God, You Open Yourself Up to Attack From the Devil

Jesus talked about the devil so he is real and he hates you and he hates me.

He is actively working in the culture we live in to kill, steal and destroy our lives and witness.

He is not some force out there, he is limited to space because he is an individual angel that rebelled against God.

Think about this, the Devil is the only world power whose principle foreign policy is to convince people he doesn’t exist.

He works behind the scenes in the spiritual realm, but he is real and We need to take him seriously.

The Devil is always trying to figure out how to trip us up.

So how do we fight him and over come him?

We humble ourselves to the Lord and obey the Lord.

When we do this we can overcome the devil who is always opposing the work of God.

3. We are Dead Because We Had the Cravings of Sinful HUMAN NATURE.

Some translations call this the FLESH.

The end result of following the culture is that the Prince of this world (devil) along with the DESIRES of our sinful nature become alienated from God and become objects of WRATH.

If We are Apart From Jesus Christ, Is God Mad at Us?

NO.

Is God waiting to nuke us for doing wrong?

NO Is God waiting to hit us across the head with a baseball bat?

NO.

These are images the culture has dreamed up of who God is and flooded us with those ideas.

That’s how many people see God.

Let me ask, Does that Kind of God (who wants to club us, to nuke us) sound like the kind of God who would die for us?

NO

The Wrath of God is not like that at all.

It’s more like this.

The Wrath of God is the LAW OF CONSEQUENCES

Think about it for a minute.

Gravity

The Law of Gravity carries wrath with it.

How?

If you do certain things that defy the law of Gravity you will pay the consequences.

If you are walking on the roof of your house and step off the edge, you will experience that wrath… of gravity.

The Law of Wrath is simply the Law of Consequences.

If you break the law of Gravity, you will experience the consequences of breaking that law.

It’s the same in reference to the Wrath of God.

If we break the laws of God, we will experience the consequences of breaking that law.

We step outside of his favor and into his wrath which one day could include His judgement.

If your dog runs out into the street, he may face wrath… either of the car that hits him or of you who spanks him so he doesn’t do it again.

The Wrath of God is NOT something an Angry God Uses

Wrath is not something an Angry God uses to smack another human.

The fact is that God has built into our world, His universe, consequences that relate to the moral and spiritual decision we make.

God Built into the World CONSEQUENCES

So, we fall into and under His wrath when we step outside of Him.

We do need to have a HEALTHY FEAR of God because we don’t want to live with the consequences.

(Jim Bakker)

When we Come to Faith in Christ, We come Out of Death Into Life