Sermon Tone Analysis

WHY EVEN BOTHER?

It’s hard to believe the semester is already almost over!

Today is December 1st! That’s crazy talk.

Speaking of this semester though...

How many of you have learned a lot from this semester of youth group?....

Okay.

Now how many of you have been encouraged by what you’ve been learning?…

How many of you have been discouraged by what you’ve been learning?

My goal today is to be a source of encouragement, not discouragement.

Lord willing, you’ll all leave here challenged, but ultimately encouraged by what the Bible says is one of the main things that should drive everything we do in the Christian life: the imminent return of King Jesus… the imminent return of King Jesus.

Why do these things even matter though?

Why bother ourselves with the return of Jesus?

Why should we actively use up our precious brain space on the reality that Jesus is coming back?

For this very reason: how we think about the end times drives how we live in the present time… how we think about the end times drives how we live in the present time.

More on that in a moment.

We all have to admit: the culture we live in has influenced us in many ways… often, in a lot more ways than we may think.

For example:

Our culture champions the idea that we should eat, drink, and do whatever we want in life because we’re gonna die anyway.

But that goes completely against - we as the creation are required to be holy because God the Creator is holy.

Our culture tells us that you can be any gender you wanna be, and that there are no distinctions between male and female.

However, according to God, there are sharp distinctions between male and female, not in form, but in function.

See and .

We could go all day with examples like these, but the point is this: It’s foolish of us to act like none of the pushes of the culture affect us, at least a little bit.

If you spend time in the world and spend a lot of time around worldly things, the result is that there’s a high chance you’re gonna be worldly too!

Here’s the problem with that: worldly and godly don’t go together… worldly and godly don’t go together.

tells us that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” Enmity.

Hatred.

Intense conflict.

We can all admit that that’s kind of like a big deal.

So we don’t want to be friends with the world because it’s evil.

God hates it.

Our culture also preaches that instant gratification is so much better than delayed gratification.

Quick thrills and happiness highs, they say, are what we should spend the rest of our lives chasing after.

This idea right here is what I want to camp on with our time today.

If you and me are honest with each other, that last one is hard for us to handle… especially us young people.

We don’t like waiting for anything!

But some of you may be saying, “But Mr. Matt!

I’m so patient!

I’m content just waiting on the Lord.”

Oh really?

Allow me to give you a checklist to help you see whether or not you struggle with waiting for things.

Do you find it easier to play video games than to read a book?

You probably struggle with instant gratification.

If your parents aren’t making you do it, do you have trouble sticking with a commitment longer than 2 weeks?

Longer than a month?

Longer than a year?

Then you probably struggle in this area.

Or, do you tend to spend your money as soon as you get it?

Or are you saver?

And if you do save your money, do you spend it on things that’ll be helpful in life long-term, or things that don’t have much value past tomorrow?

Past this week?

Past this year?

If that’s you, then you probably struggle with instant gratification.

There’s a ton more examples just like these, but you get the point.

Why should you care?

Simply for this reason: that type of thinking bleeds into your spiritual life.

A penchant for instant gratification can absolutely ruin your spiritual life.

It’s hard to keep fighting your way through a tunnel when you can’t see the light at the end of it, and the Christian life is often like that.

Our problem is that in our wordly minds, we think the light should be here right now rather than coming soon.

I want to show you that the Light is a lot closer than you think, and how you react to that truth will be one of the most important things you ever do in the Christian life.

My topic today is on the Rapture and the Second Coming.

There’s a lot of different ways we can approach that, and I thought about quite a few of them.

However, I chose a passage today that we don’t really associate with the Rapture or the Second Coming, but actually, in context, deals with both topics in content and context.

Turn in your Bibles, if you will, to , verses 3-4.

Here in , Paul provides two truths to cling to when discouragement has hit you: life in Christ has come, and life with Christ is coming.

Can I get someone to read?

Start in verse 1 and go thru 4.

LIFE IN CHRIST HAS COME ()

INTERPRETATION

Here in verse 3, we find the first truth to cling to when discourage hits you: life in Christ has come… life in Christ has come.

Notice what Paul says at the beginning of the verse:

“For you have died...”

Context: Paul is writing this letter to the church in Colossae, who are a mighty fine group of young believers.

They’ve been growing, they’ve been learning, but they’ve got one problem on their hands: an up-and-coming false teacher in their midst.

So, Paul wrote this letter to them in order to:

1) remind them of the wisdom of the true gospel,

2) reveal to them the folly of any false gospel,

and 3) remind them to show the fruit of the true gospel.

is the opening act for part 3 of the letter.

In verses 1-2, Paul gives the commands that should be the overarching drivers in the Christian life, and in verses 3-4, Paul gives the reason why we should obey those commands that should drive the Christian life.

We’ll come back to the imperatives later, but I want to camp out for now on the indicatives.

Back to the first phrase in verse 3. “You have died” is all one word in the Greek.

It’s in the aorist tense, which in this case, means that this action already took place.

It’s also an indicative verb, which means that this is simple fact.

EXPLANATION

But when Paul says, “You have died”, he’s not talking about a physical death here, is he?

The death he’s speaking of us is spiritual.

Look back a couple of verses at chapter 2, verse 20 -

“If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world...”

That’s in reference to the basic things of this earth.

The principles of this earth.

The rules and ways of this world.

The evil and wicked mindset, principles, and values of the world.

What Paul is saying is this: “If you’re a believer, then guess what?

You have died to the things below!

You have died to your sin!”

IMPLICATION

So let’s think through this a little bit.

A natural implication we can draw here is that in order to see the Light at the end of the tunnel of the Christian life, you have to actually be a Christian first.

Paul had confidence in the faith of the Colossians, and that’s evident from his praise of them back in .