Sermon Tone Analysis

| Romans 5:1-11What to Do When Your Life Is a Mess \\ When you find yourself in a mess, you need God's grace.

\\ Steve May |   |

| | *Topics: * | Forgiveness; God, grace of; Help from God; Mercy |

| *Filters: * | Evangelism; Seekers; SermonNotes.com

|

| *References: * |

| *Tone: * | Commend |

 

Maybe I hang out with a rough crowd, but everyone that I know well enough to know the details of their life has, at some point, found themselves in a mess.

For some, that part of their life is ancient history; for others, it is on-going struggle—they seem to move from one mess to the other.

Still others—probably most of us—fall somewhere in between.

Again, maybe I hang out with a rough crowd (mostly church people, by the way), but I've also learned that the vast majority of our messes are of our own doing.

A friend admitted to me recently, "I have sabotaged every significant relationship I have even been in.

I'm alone today and it's my fault."

A high school buddy of mine called me not too long ago and said, "My son is in jail.

His drug problem began about the time my wife and I got a divorce—because of my affairs."

A pastor I know said, "I hid my alcoholism from my congregation, and even from my wife, for years before it caught up with me."

Of course, we can create more respectable messes than these.

By this I mean messes that don't have the same stigma as drugs, alcohol, and extra-marital affairs.

We can create a mess of our marriage by subjecting our spouse to years of stern disapproval.

We can create a mess of our health by overeating and neglecting physical activity.

We can create a mess of our careers through financial mismanagement or lack of leadership skills.

And if we're really good at it, we can make ourselves look like victims in the process: "Poor guy, his wife just up and left him for no reason; poor guy, he had a heart attack out of the blue; poor guy, the economy turned and he went bankrupt."

The fact is, when life becomes messy it's nearly always our own fault.

How's that for good news?

Am I cheering you up yet?

It gets better, I promise.

We all have something in common.

We're all sinners.

*For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

(Romans 3:23) *

And sin, by its very nature, messes things up.

That's all sin can do, because

*The wages of sin is death.

(Romans 6:23) *

Nothing good can ever come of sin, because sin is incapable of producing good.

It wreaks havoc.

When we mess with it, it makes a mess of us.

Therefore, in order for our lives to work, we need to experience God's amazing grace; we need to become brand new people in him.

There is a sense in which this happens at salvation:

*Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!

(2 Corinthians 5:17) *

But this is just step one.

God's work of grace in our lives doesn't end at salvation, it begins at salvation.

And as we walk with him, his grace transforms us—changes us into brand new people.

When you find yourself in a mess, you need God's grace.

The good news is: even if it's a mess created by your own sin, God's grace is available.

In Romans 5, Paul wrote...

*Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

(Romans 5:20) *

That means as much grace—or as much help—as you need to get out of the mess you've created, God will give.

As much mercy as you need to experience full and complete forgiveness, God will give.

As much of his power that you need to turn your life around, he will give.

As much peace as you need to overcome your fears, he will give.

As much acceptance as you need to be free from guilt, he will give.

You cannot out-sin God's grace in your life.

You cannot make such a mess of things that he is no longer able to help you out.

That's how powerful his grace is.

Now, every time I teach this truth, inevitably someone will say to me, "Are you implying that I can go out and sin all I want—live it up and party down and have a great time, and then ask God for forgiveness and he'll forgive me?"

This question has a serious flaw, because it reveals that the person who asks it doesn't have a clue about what sin really does to you, or what experiencing God's grace does to you.

Here's a personal example.

Last week, in a rush I picked up a computer monitor and felt a surge of pain go through my shoulder.

I ignored it and went about my usual business through out the day.

The next day at 3:00 a.m.

I woke up and literally couldn't move.

The pain was unbearable—not only in my shoulder, but in my right arm, and my fingers were numb.

After a couple of days of this, I went to the doctor.

He prescribed some medication, some physical therapy, and told me to stay in bed for a week.

As it turns out, this injury isn't fatal; it won't kill me.

In fact, through the miracle of medical treatment, I can expect a full and complete recovery.

So then, what's to stop me from going out in a few weeks and doing it all over again?

After all, the doctor can cure me.

What's to stop from picking up two, three, or four monitors at a time—and tossing them in the air and catching them?

I'll tell you what's stopping me: I know how bad a shoulder injury hurts, and I don't want to go through that again.

In fact, if I could afford it, I would hire someone to pick up everything for me from now on—my ink pen, my knife and fork, the TV remote, and on and on.

If you make a mess of your life with sin, God will forgive you, but why in the world would you intentionally want to create that kind of pain for yourself?

Anyone who views God's grace as a free ticket to go out and "have fun" with sin is in for a rude awakening.

The wages of sin is death and it always, and I mean ALWAYS, leads to misery.

And anyone who has made a mess of their lives with sin already knows this.

So, today, as we look again at Romans 5, I want to show you three things you can do to get out of the mess.

*1.

Accept God's grace.**

*

Forgiveness is a free gift.

You don't earn it or deserve it.

And his forgiveness is total and complete.

Your wife may not be ready to forgive you—neither may your boss, your children, your parents, your friends, or your enemies—but God has forgiven you completely.

Look at what Paul wrote:

*(v.

6) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

*

The ungodly: you and I fall into the category.

We're the ones he died for.

And then Paul said,

*(v.

8) God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

*

God forgives us in spite of the fact that we don't deserve it.

In fact, even before we had considered asking for forgiveness, before we felt even a hint of remorse, he had already died for our sins.

Notice what it says in verse one:

*(v. 1) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

*

Justified—it means forgiven, declared not guilty, just as if I'd never sinned.

We receive this justification through faith, through accepting it as a free gift.

Remember the verse in Ephesians:

*For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

(Ephesians 2:8-9) *