Sermon Tone Analysis

! IT’S A GREAT YEAR TO BE A CHRISTIAN!                                           Jan 5, 2003 pm

Let me ask you a question: Has it really sunk in that this is the year 2003?

Hard to believe: It’s really 2003 already!

We’re in the 3rd millennia.

We’re now just a few days into the New Year.

It’s hard to believe that a three years ago the world was caught up in Y2K hype.

I think some people were almost disappointed when 12:00am on Dec 31, 1999 rolled around and not much happened.

I wonder how many survivalists are still living off the C-Rations they stored in their basement for Y2k!

As I thought about tonight, I thought of all the things that I */could/* speak on.

I thought of challenging you - get into shape, start a Bible reading regimen, and so on.

This is the time of the year that the most people join gyms and exercise classes and weight-loss programs.

Just try going into Weight Watchers in the next few days - you’ll probably have to take a number.

The problem is that most of our New Years resolutions get dropped.

I could challenge you tonight to start a new regimen, but most of us have given up on New Year’s resolutions.

So that simple fact is that we need more than a New Year’s challenge to make things right in our lives.

*So, what I want to do instead is to relieve you of a burden.

*This week you officially enter a new year.

And one of the biggest problems that many of us have is that we’re carrying too much junk around inside of us!  */We need to let some of that junk go./*

*Listen to Hebrews 12:1*: /“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.

And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”/

If you want to get free of some of the junk you are carrying around, this is a very liberating word from God.

As we enter into a new year, we can’t afford to be carrying along a lot of extra weight - especially the weight of sin and the memories of sin.

We’ve got to leave some of that junk behind.

We’ve got to make a fresh start.

I’ve never watched a footrace where a runner carried a garbage bag down the track.

But I’ve seen a lot of people carry along guilt, sin, and other junk throughout life.

They’ve never let it go.

I’d like nothing better than to see you prepare for this New Year by making a clean start.

Who do I want to talk to tonight?

I want to talk to people who have messed up this last year.

I want to talk to people who’ve failed, and you’ve come here tonight expecting a spiritual beating.

I talk to people who all the time come to church looking for a good beating so they can feel better about themselves.

*/“Okay, I got what I deserved – now I can go in.”/*/

/I want to talk to people who are feeling lousy about themselves.

Maybe they’ve really messed things up this last year.

Maybe they’re feeling low about where they are in life.

*/And my message for people like this is from /**Psalm 103:8-13*

*/The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him./*

How can I get ready for a new year?

The message is *real simple* - just four actions:

!! I.  RECOGNIZE THAT FAILURE IS UNIVERSAL

If you’ve failed – recently or a long time ago, you’re not alone!

What an insight that is!

So the first action I want you to take tonight is to recognize that failure is universal.

*Ill.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *once decided to play a practical joke on twelve of his friends.

He sent each of them a telegram that said, */“Flee at once . . .

all is discovered.”

/*/ /Within twenty-four hours, all twelve men had left the country.

Why?

Because *ALL* of us have failed at something!

All of us have done things we regret!

All of us have things in our lies we wish we could hide!

*Broken lives are universal.*

The first action that you need to take in 2003 is to recognize that failure is universal.

Martha Stewart has taken a real beating recently over that insider trading stock scandal.

But if you go to Martha Stewart’s web site, you’d learn how to make a dip with Rosie O’Donnell, how to plan the perfect New Year’s Eve party, how to surprise guests with unique party favors, and how to plan a party that is so good, your guests will be talking about it until the next one.

I always I feel guilty when I compare myself to Martha Stewart.

I’m not very good at Martha Stewart sorts of things.

I don’t live in a Martha Stewart sort of home.

I am not Martha Stewart.

*/I have a letter here that Martha Stewart sent to Erma Bombeck . .

./*

Hi Erma,

This perfectly delightful note is being sent on paper I made myself to tell you what I have been up to.

Since it snowed last night, I got up early and made a sled with old barn wood and a glue gun.

I hand painted it in gold leaf, got out my loom, and made a blanket in peaches and mauves.

Then to make the sled complete, I made a white horse to pull it, from DNA molecules that I had just sitting around in my craft room.

By then, it was time to start making the place mats and napkins for my 20 breakfast guests.

I'm serving the old standard Stewart twelve-course breakfast, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I didn't have time to make the tables and chairs this morning, so I used the ones I had on hand.

Before I moved the table into the dining room, I decided to add just a touch of the holidays.

So I repainted the room in pinks and stenciled gold stars on the ceiling.

Then, while the homemade bread was rising, I took antique candle molds and made the dishes (exactly the same shade of pink) to use for breakfast.

These were made from Hungarian clay, which you can get at almost any Hungarian craft store.

Well, I must run.

I need to finish the buttonholes on the dress I'm wearing for breakfast.

I'll get out the sled and drive this note to the post office as soon as the glue dries on the envelope I'll be making.

Hope my breakfast guests don't stay too long, I have 40,000 cranberries to string with bay leaves before my speaking engagement at noon.

Love, Martha Stewart

P.S.

When I made the ribbon for this typewriter, I used 1~/8-inch gold gauze.

I soaked the gauze in a mixture of white grapes and blackberries which I grew, picked, and crushed last week just for fun.

*/Response from Erma Bombeck: /*Dear Martha, I'm writing this on the back of an old shopping list, pay no attention to the coffee and jelly stains.

I'm 20 minutes late getting my daughter up for school, packing a lunch with one hand, and holding the phone with the other.

I’m on hold with the dog pound, seems old Ruff needs bailing out again.

Burnt my arm on the curling iron when I was trying to make those cute curly fries, how DO they do that?

Still can't find the scissors to cut out some snowflakes, tried using an old disposable razor...trashed the tablecloth.

Tried that cranberry thing, frozen cranberries mushed up after I defrosted them in the microwave.

Oh, and don't use Fruity Pebbles as a substitute in that Rice Krispie snowball recipe, unless you happen to like a disgusting shade that resembles puke!

Well, the smoke alarm is going off, talk to ya later.

Love, Erma

*/I love that!

/*But the application isn’t so light-hearted: See, a lot of us come to church on a Sunday morning expecting to find Martha Stewart Christians everywhere.

They read their Bible seven days in a row last week.

They prayed an hour every day.

They didn’t blow up at their kids even once last week.

Their priorities are in order and their lives were practically perfect!

And the reality is that *none of us here tonight are Martha Stewart Christians! * All of us mess up.

The Apostle Paul was probably one of the greatest Christians who ever lived.