Sermon Tone Analysis

When Good News is Great

In September of 2021, my family and I had just come back from vacation over the weekend of the 10th, mine and my son’s birthday.

That following Tuesday, while spending time with a group of friends, I get a call from Stacy.

The long and the short of it: our hot-water heater, located in the middle of our home under the stairs, had apparently leaked while we were gone, the drain hadn’t drained, and there was water and mold everywhere in the closet.

She sounded more than a little frantic.

I rushed home to see what the damage was, and it was…bad.

Very bad.

So I did what I could; I ran to Walmart, bought a nice stainless steel shop vac, and I sucked up as much water as I could, and there was a lot of water to deal with.

The mold was bad.

It was here that we found out that the carpet in the closet where our water heater was sitting was not sitting on any flooring, but on sub-flooring.

Not.

Good.

And it got worse.

The walls had soaked up water.

Tons of it.

And that meant, likely, that there was mold behind it, inside the walls.

I called a plumber out, great guy, who helped me turn off the water to the hot water heater, as it was painted over and, with my MS acting up at that time, I was unable to get the knob to turn.

At least there was that.

Then we called a different plumber company out, one that did water-damage and restoration: Roto-Rooter.

I cannot say enough kind things about their restoration team, led by a man named Bob.

If you live in this area and you end up needing water damage restoration, call these folks.

They went through everything checking the extent of the damage, and found that all of the water barrier below had been soaked and that water was pouring into our crawl space.

And that there was a ton of mold there too.

Very not good.

It just seemed that things were going from bad to worse with each syllable that came from their mouths.

Oh, and fun fact, something all of you should check on: did you know that most home-owner insurance companies do not cover mold damage?

Yeah! NOW imagine my horror at hearing this.

And imagine that the mold is bad enough that we probably shouldn’t be living in the house.

Needless to say, I was in panic mode.

But the Lord is good and the Lord is faithful, and He, in His Kindness, Mercy, and Compassion, blessed me with a wife that has gifts from He Above, to include a healthy dose of foresight.

While I was dealing with the water damage restoration people, in a total internal panic, my wife was on the phone with our insurance company.

The restoration guy was going through a rough estimate on how much it was going to cost to clean up the mess, which, by the way, did NOT include the fixing of the mess.

You see, my flooring was contiguous flooring, which means that, due to the extent of the damage, I would need tons of sub-flooring replaced, and the entirety of the flooring replaced.

Almost.

The.

Entire.

First.

Floor.

Flooring.

Imagine my panic.

We can’t afford that!

That’s going to cost thousands of dollars, not to mention our deductible!

And then, my wife, who had been on the phone with our insurance company spoke the most beautiful words she had spoken to date (with the exception of our wedding vows, that is): “Our policy covers mold damage up to $10,000.”

PRAISE JESUS AND HALLELUJAH!!!!

That was AMAZING news!

We were saved!

All we had to do was pay Roto-Rooter our deductible, which I promptly did, and we were golden.

Two months later, our amazing contractor (whom Bob, remember him?

had referred us to) fixed up our house so amazingly with new vinyl flooring.

It’s pretty awesome.

But this whole incident got me to thinking: if the good news of me having mold coverage was such amazingly good news to hear, how much more amazing is the Good News of Jesus?

Turn with me to our Scripture reading, 1 Corinthians 15:1-6

This is a pretty good telling of

I would argue that the good news is the best news because He lived, He died, and He rose again.

He Lived

Jesus of Nazareth.

A name that is so disputed in the world, that people have died for the sake of it.

A name that causes, even today, such controversy that you almost can’t guess a person’s reaction any more at the mention of His name.

According to the Big three, meaning the Abrahamic faiths, that is Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, He was born of a woman named Mary in Jewish Palestine.

From there, things get a little…interesting.

According to those of Islamic faith, Jesus was the penultimate prophet of God.

They believe that he was born of Mary who was a virgin, that He performed miracles, had disciples that followed Him, and that He was rejected by the Jewish leadership.

They even accept that Jesus was the Messiah long awaited for the Jewish people, and that He was taken to Heaven.

Not bad.

That said, they reject the fact that He was crucified.

They DEFINITIVELY reject that He was God, rejecting even the notion that Jesus ever equated Himself with God, stating rather that the apostles said that and created that story.

Hmm.

Then there is the Jewish version of Jesus.