Sermon Tone Analysis

Procrastination

The devil and his cohorts were devising plans to get people to reject the Gospel.

“Let’s go to them and say there is no God,” proposed one.

Silence prevailed.

Every devil knew that most people believe in a supreme being.

“Let’s tell them there is no hell, no future punishment for the wicked.”

offered another.

That was turned down, because men obviously have consciences which tell them that sin must be punished.

The concave was going to end in failure when there came a voice from the rear: “Tell them there is a God, there is a hell and that the Bible is the Word of God.

But tell them there is plenty of time to decide the question.

Let them ‘neglect’ the Gospel, until it is too late.”

All hell erupted with ghoulish glee, for they knew that if a person procrastinated on Christ, they usually never accept Him.

And the gates of hell are wide and all the people are stampeding to get in.

But the way to heaven is a single stairway with people one another behind each other going in.

[Opening prayer]

Let us pray.

Father open my mind to your Holy Spirit’s word.

Let nothing come out of my mouth that belongs to me, but only of the Holy Spirit.

Open all here to be receptive to accepting your word of knowledge and truth.

In Jesus name I pray, amen.

What’s next?

The big question is, Once you die and move on to the next life where do we go to spend eternity?

There are three possible answers, and they are:

I would go to hell to be with all my friends

I might go to heaven, I have been good

I know I will go to heaven

This can be boiled down into three points

I won’t go

I might go

I will go

1.

I won’t go

Romans 3:22–23 “even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:10 (NKJV)

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

If you do absolutely nothing, then your default location will be hell.

You may say well I don’t mind because I’ll be with all my friends.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

Amos 5:18 “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

For what good is the day of the Lord to you?

It will be darkness, and not light.”

Mt 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Outer darkness seems to symbolize pain, death and separation from all that is good, including God.

Think of it as a sensory deprivation tank.

There is no feeling, no hearing, and no light.

There is no outside stimulation at all.

Some people who go through this experience in a tank cannot take the experience for very long.

Now imagine the exact same thing for all eternity.

By the way this is an experience for one person only, no friends here.

When you are in the darkness of hell that literally means the absence of God.

When you are away from the pure light of Jesus, you will not be able to see or hear anything, therefore no friends will be around you.

Just in darkness, and a burning torment.

And then after the great White Throne judgment, you will be thrown into the burning pit of fire.

Still no friends around you.

Imagine spending all of eternity, all alone with burning skin and no way to get it quenched.

Scary isn’t it.

But sorry, that is straight out of the Bible.

This is what you have to look forward to for all eternity.

So maybe going there is kind of a bad idea.

Let’s look at the next possibility.

2. I might go

I have lived a good life.

Ever since I was a real young child my parents have sent me to Sunday school and church.

I am on three committees, I go to the prayer group all the time, and I am in many small groups.

As far as I know my sins have been few if any at all.

I’m sure we have all seen the senior citizens sitting in church listening to the sermon and never going to sleep, they must be going to heaven, aren’t they?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

There’s a saying that goes, When you get to heaven.

There are going to be great surprises waiting for you.

There will be people missing that you thought sure were going to be there, and people that will be there that you thought sure would never have made it.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Most Lamentable Thing)

Most Lamentable Thing

It is a most lamentable thing to see how most people spend their time and their energy for trifles, while God is cast aside.

He who is all seems to them as nothing, and that which is nothing seems to them as good as all.

It is lamentable indeed, knowing that God has set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end, that they should sit down and loiter, or run after the childish toys of the world, forgetting the prize they should run for.

Were it but possible for one of us to see this business as the all-seeing God does, and see what most men and women in the world are interested in and what they are doing every day, it would be the saddest sight imaginable.

Oh, how we should marvel at their madness and lament their self-delusion!If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do, or what was before them in another world, then there would have been some excuse.

But it is His sealed word, and they profess to believe it.

Richard Baxter

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:”

So being a good person is maybe not such a good idea after all.

Lets see if we can fix that.

3. I will go

So let’s see what the Bible says about you definitely will go to heaven.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Jesus left heaven and came to earth to become fully God and fully man to help us get to heaven.

In Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, he did not just suddenly come into being at that time.

Jesus came down from heaven, and took on the form of a baby to be among us on earth.

Jesus has always been around in heaven with God, He even created the world.

(John 1:1) He was and is the Son of God.

At just the right time God sent his son into the world to take on the form of a man and die on the cross.

The whole plan from the very beginning, was to save us from our sins.

Permission to Backslide

As a teenager, J. Stephen Conn sensed God calling him to be a preacher.

But he felt a certain disadvantage.

Because he had been saved when he was 7 years old, he would never be able to hold an audience spellbound with stories of a wicked past.

So he asked God for permission to backslide—just long enough to get some experience in a life of sin to “enhance” his preaching later on.