Sermon Tone Analysis

*Call to Worship* \\ \\ L. We are the community of faith that has been created by the love of God.

\\ P. We are the people who have been set free by the word of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

\\ L. We have come not to parade our own goodness but to praise the holiness of God.

\\ P. We have come not to boast of what we have done but to proclaim the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

\\ All.

With all our being, we will praise you, O God, and tell of all your kindness toward us.

Amen.

\\ Praise time - National Life  # 415 - 419

Scripture Reading :  Psalm 98

Offertory Prayer - We dedicate these gifts and ourselves to you, generous God, for we want to accomplish the greater works to which Christ calls us.

Increase our generosity that we may learn to give in proportion to the mercy we have received.

Ready us for the sacrifices that may be required of all who seek to live in faithful response to the way, the truth and the life.

May the programs supported by our offerings turn us and many others from our vain idols and distracting pursuits.

Amen.

\\ \\

 

 

Make Me a Servant # 653 \\ Near to the Heart of God  # 542

\\ \\ *Prayer*God of love, source of strength, giver of new life, there  are many of us who come to thee bearing guilt for failures past.

I have left undone good works which might have made an important  difference for someone else.

My poverty of faith weighs heavily  upon me.

Yet through Jesus I have learned that there is still  time, still opportunity to become what you would have me be.

Empower me, then, to become that person.

In Christ's holy name.

Lord’s PrayerAmen.

I Need Thee Every Hour   # 538

 

John 14:1-14

 

Sermon: This Is Certain

 

Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1 NRSV).

others who have listened and interpreted these words for you and me remind us: "Let your hearts not be disturbed.

Believe in God and believe in me" (Lattimore).

"Don't be worried!

Have faith in God and have faith in me"  (CEV).

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God still, and  trust in me" (Jerusalem Bible).

"Set your troubled hearts at rest.

Trust in God always; trust also in me" (New English).

"You must not let yourselves be distressed - you must hold on to your faith in God and to your faith in me" (Phillips).

" 'Do not be worried and upset,' Jesus told them.

'Believe in God and believe also in me' " (TEV).

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.

You have faith in God;  have faith, then, in me"  (The Anchor Bible).

~/~/  Jesus is saying to us, have faith and trust, ~/~/ in face of uncertainty about death, uncertainty about life, and uncertainty about whether anything is to be done about either one of them anyway.

As Jesus puts it a little later, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid"  (John 14:27 NRSV).

In face of death, there is a future for you - it's with Jesus.

In face of life, there's a way for you - it's with Jesus.

In face of uncertainty about whether it's worth trying at all, you have Jesus’ promise.

"If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it," (John 14:14 NRSV).

Die unafraid.

Live unafraid.

Ask unafraid.

That's it!

What God wants for you and for me is for us to quit being fearful people and for us to start being faithful people - a faithful person being not just one who believes a lot of doctrine about God, but  rather one whose trust is in God in the uncertainties of life and death.

Believing, "That in life and death we belong to God (and) with believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Nothing!

But in spite of that affirmation, drawn from the  apostle Paul, we've all got a list of things we think might separate us (or others) from God's love.

Clarence Macartney catalogued some of our problems in a Memorial Day address a while  back:  "Widespread murder, rampant divorce, the decline of family religion, rising hemlines, blatant hedonism, and apostate  preachers all (signal) a seriously diseased society."2

He's as right now as he was on  Memorial Day, 1927!

There's a lot about the way we live and the  way we die that would lead one to wonder whether there is any  hope for you and me, here or hereafter, which makes us uncertain about both.

But when our wondering hearts become worrying hearts,  Jesus says, "Don't worry.

God is still God.

I am still with you.

Do not be afraid."

He didn't say, "Don't be concerned."

He didn't  say, "Don't try to do anything about it."

On the contrary, he  said, "Do something about your concerns without fear.

I am with you all the way!"

That means.  1.

In death, there is a place for you.

2. In life, there is a way for you.   3.

In uncertainty, we'll find our way together.

In death, there is a place for you and me.

If it will help  you remember, attach this point to the popular song, "There's a  place for us," from West Side Story.

I don't remember where the place was in the song, but in death your place and my place is with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said so.

There is a place for us in the  kingdom of God.

Eugene Nida a world renown American Baptist biblical translators, says, "“My Father's house” is best taken as a phrase descriptive of heaven as a place having many rooms (that is, room  enough for all)."3

Kings James translates these rooms as mansions.

a mansion can be a fairly exclusive place.

Jesus clearly intends that there is room in his "mansion" for us all.

~/ When death is what scares you, the death of someone you love, the death of hopes and dreams, the death of some fondly-held belief, or the death that comes to everyone who lives, even you, find your security in me, says Jesus.

In death there is a place for you with me.

But as "Dr.

Death," Dr. Jack Kervorkian, all too uneasily  reminds us, for some of us there is something worse than death.

It's called life.

~/~/ Jesus said, "In life there is a way for you."

There is a way to live that's worth living.

Not just what Kervorkian offers - or what drugs or alcohol offer - a way out.

But what Jesus offers - a way through life and into life worth living forever.

Not only is there a place for you at the end of  life, there is a way for you in life.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life," said Jesus   (John 14:6 NRSV).

That could sound a bit arrogant, unless you understand that what is being offered is the truth about life and a way to live it.

The truth is, life is worth living.

It's worth living well.

And Jesus' way is the way to do that.

~/~/~/~/~/ Too often these words, coupled with Jesus' words, "No one  comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 NRSV), have  been misused by some to say, "No one comes to the Father except us...."

There is only a "place" for those who believe as we do,  who walk the way we walk.

Sometimes that's a misguided attempt to take Jesus at his word.

Other times it's a blatant attempt to have the last word for ourselves.

We know the way, and others better get with it, or God will get'em!

That way is not the way of the God we know in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John  14:9 NRSV).