Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Introduction:

Memorial Day is an American holiday that affects me in a way that none of the other holidays do.

So many times we get caught up in the hustle and the bustle of a long weekend and we forget the purpose that the day holds.

As a matter of fact, Congress responded to this over a decade ago, and passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, declaring that at 3:00pm on Memorial Day, all Americans should stop what they are doing and reflect on those that have given their lives for their country.

Many radio stations and other public events play taps during that time.

The holiday began as a way to commemorate the soldiers that had lost their lives to the Civil War.

Over 600,000 soldiers were killed in our nation's bloodiest conflict.

On that day, women decorated the soldiers’ graves with flowers.

The tradition spread, and over the years grew to include every American soldier lost in every conflict.

How much time do we take to consider the magnitude of that sacrifice?

On Memorial Day tomorrow, we commemorate the loss of over a million American soldiers.

Over a million!

That is enough American soldiers to fill Comerica Park in Detroit twenty-six times!

It would take over 5000 sanctuaries this size to fit them all.

The Bible makes it clear that we are to give honor to whom honor is due.

Jesus Himself said in , “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Today, we as a nation owe a great debt to over one million men and women who cared enough about honor, and freedom, and duty, to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

I thank God for the men and women who sacrificed their lives so that my children and I could enjoy freedom in our lives.

As Christians, we know Another, Who died not for our civil freedom, but for Spiritual freedom.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, made the Ultimate Sacrifice so that we could be free from the power of sin.

Romans chapter 5 sheds some light on this sacrifice.

Read Text:

– For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Organization:

In this passage we find three truths about Christ’s Ultimate Sacrifice.

First, we see how Christ’s Sacrifice is a Remarkable Sacrifice (6-8), second we discover the Result of the Sacrifice (9-10), and finally we examine Our Response to the Sacrifice (11).

Proposition:

Men and Women sacrificed to secure our Individual freedoms, and we take time to honor that.

Think about this now: The sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf secured our Spiritual freedom.

Do we live in light of that?

Transition:

Let’s look first at how remarkable Christ’s sacrifice is, as found in the first three verses of this passage in .

The Remarkable Sacrifice

– For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Performed for the Powerless

A. When we were without strength

We had no hope.

We had absolutely no chance at heaven.

Heaven is for the righteous

None of us is righteous

We were dead in our sin.

– And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

4. We were completely without hope.

4. We were completely without hope.

– That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

We deserved nothing but hell.

– For the wages of sin is death.

The Bible says that we were the children of wrath.

Storing up God’s judgment against us with every day we lived in sin.

There was absolutely nothing that we could do about it.

We were without strength, no ability, no chance.

(Performed for the Powerless)

Performed Punctually

The phrase that comes to mind is “just in the knick of time.”

Christ came just when we needed Him too.

Those who lived before the cross looked forward in faith to when He would redeem mankind.

Those of us who live after the cross look back to His sacrifice in faith in what He has done for us.

He came just in time to offer salvation to anyone and everyone who has ever lived.

He came because we needed Him too.

There was no other reason for His sacrifice than you and I.

We needed a Savior, and Jesus Christ answered the call.

(Performed for the Powerless)

(Performed Punctually)

Performed for the Profane

He did not come to offer salvation to a bunch of people that deserved it.

We were not righteous!

We never will be on our own.

Christ did not come to offer Himself as the sacrifice for a bunch of good people, He came to give up His life for sinners.

For the ungodly.

For this humanity that is flawed and hateful and violent and depraved.

We did not deserve it, but thank God that He came for the ungodly!

If Christ’s sacrifice applied only to the righteous, then no one would have salvation!

He came to rescue sinners like you and me!

– For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

What did Christ die for?

He died for sinners like us.

Think about those one million plus soldiers.

What did they die for?

They died for honor.

They died for freedom.

They died protecting their families and their friends back home from tyranny and oppression and all threats foreign and domestic.

They had a cause worth dying for.

They had people that loved them that counted on them as they made that awesome sacrifice.

Yet Christ died for a sinful, wicked people.

People that cared nothing about Him.

People that lived their lives in constant rebellion and rejection of Him.

Christ died for those tyrants.

Christ died for those oppressors.

Christ died for every single human being that ever lived and will ever live.

He laid down His life for me.

Why?

I do not know.