Sermon Tone Analysis

*SO I’M A CHRISTIAN, NOW WHAT?*

*#3: “We’ve Got to Get Connected”*

Pastor Greg Henneman

February 18, 2007

 

Text:           1 Corinthians 12:12-27

 

Key Idea:    God calls us to do life together, on purpose for him.

Goal:           To get people connected in the SOD.

*Introduction*

 

Last Sunday we talked about the power of habits.

Once we come to Christ we need to develop certain habits in our lives that will help us grow.

*Illust:* Speaking of habits, I came across a great exercise that will build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders.

I’ve been doing it and it seems so easy that I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can.

Try to reach a full minute, then relax.

Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks.

Then 50-lb potato sacks.

Eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

(I'm at this level) After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each sack.

(Gotcha, didn’t I!)

 

Habits!

We need good habits to stay healthy physically, and we need good habits to stay healthy spiritually.

Last week we looked at Colossians 3 and we used the word GROW.

*[PUT ON SCREEN]*

 

G – Get new habits

R – Relate to new friends

O – Own up to your struggles

W – Walk with Christ

 

Today I want to zoom in on the R. Relate to new friends.

This is one of God’s key purposes for us!

Once we come to Christ, God puts us into his family; and he calls us to do life together, on purpose for him!

So many people are lonely.

They feel isolated.

Ironically we live in a time when we’re more connected than ever before!

My daughter’s going to college – over 200 miles away at AU.

But because of the internet and cell phones, we’re connecting with each other every day and it doesn’t feel like she’s gone!

When I went college years ago, I felt like I was going to outer space with no connection back home!

But the irony is that in spite of our cell phones and email and instant messaging and text messaging, more people feel lonely and isolated today than ever before!

Why is that?

Because in spite of all the connections –we’re not really connecting!

 

We’ve become a nation of superficial acquaintances.

Add to that the fact that so many families have divorce situations and so many people just living together without the commitment of marriage, people feel like they’re not really loving and being loved, knowing and being known!

*Illust:* Guy Doud was a school teacher who was honored as the Teacher of the Year a few years back.

He noticed how lonely many of his students were.

He wrote…

“What shocked me most, as I read their papers, was that so many of the students wrote about being lonely.

I thought peer pressure and drugs were the most significant problems, but the student who wrote, "I feel so alone, like there is no one I can talk to" voiced the sentiments of a majority of students in my class.”

(BI, loneliness)

 

It’s not just High School students who struggle with loneliness.

Even famous rich people are lonely.

*Illust:*  O.J. Simpson (years ago when he was still adored by everyone) said, "I sit in my house in Buffalo and sometimes I get so lonely it's unbelievable.

Life has been so good to me.

I've got a great wife, good kids, money, my own health -- and I'm lonely and bored...I often wondered why so many rich people commit suicide.

Money sure isn't a cure-all."

(BI, loneliness)

 

*Illust:*  Ralph Barton, the Cartoonist, left a suicide note that said, "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of the day."

(BI, loneliness)

How can that be?

How can you have all the pleasures of life at your fingertips –and still be lonely?

I’ll tell you how: by not connecting with your Creator and not connecting with the family that he’s made for you!

We are designed for connection!

And when we’re not connecting nothing else works right!

Even our health is affected!

*Illust:* In 2005, results from the U.S. Framingham Heart Study demonstrated that lonely men had raised levels of IL-6, a blood chemical linked to heart disease.

A 2006 study conducted by the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago found loneliness can add 30 points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of 50.

(wikipedia, loneliness)

Loneliness –it’s not God’s will for your life.

He wants you to connect with him and with others!

So let’s talk about two biblical truths…

 

*Two Truths That Can Change Your Life*

 

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12:12 & 27.

It’s also on your outline…

 

/1 Corinthians 12:12 and 27 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.

So it is with Christ… //Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”/

The first truth that can change our lives is this…

 

*1.

We are the body of Christ.*

This is mind-blowing if you really think about it!

You and I (the church) are the body of Christ!

Do you realize that God’s will is for you and you…and me…as Christ-followers to come together and relate to one another on the basis of our common commitment to Christ?

Do you understand that we are to connect –like parts of a body?

Do you grasp the fact that Christ wants us to be his hands and his feet and his mouth in this world?

Astounding, isn’t it!

Christ wants to touch this world through us!

What a privilege!

What a responsibility!

Now think about a body.

Your body has many parts, right?

You have eyes and ears and a nose.

You have hands and feet and elbows and arms.

And every part of the body is designed for certain functions, right.

The eye doesn’t hear!

The ears don’t see!

The parts of the body are different and they do different things –and yet they are connected in such a way that they are one body!

*Illust:* I think it was two summers ago that I pulled my hamstring while playing softball.

I’m standing out there in left field and a guy rips a shot down the left field line.

I scoot over to pick it up and I feel a shot up my leg.

It felt like a snake bit me!

I thought “Woe!

What is that?”