Sermon Tone Analysis

*He Ought to Stick Out!* \\ Sermon by Charles L. Koester \\ Easter 6, Easter 7 - 1 John  : 1 John 4:13-21

\\ "By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his own spirit."

\\ \\ \\ If you’re looking for a creative challenge, attempt explaining where Jesus is now to a group of young children.

To explain God as Father and creator can be done through objects in nature.

A child will comprehend the Creator through trees and flowers.

The life our Lord lived on earth can be explained, too.

It is tangible history.

But try to explain, to a child, where Jesus is now, now that he took off into the sky in the event we call the Ascension.

A most difficult task it is, to explain Christ in terms of his Spirit.

\\ \\ \\ I once made the attempt with a group of pre-school youngsters in our Church School.

I began with a large framed picture of Jesus.

I explained how we are his hands and feet, eyes and voice in our world today.

Slowly, logically, methodically, I began leading them to make a concluding observation on their own.

\\ \\ \\ "Well, if we are Jesus’ hands and feet, eyes and voices, in the world today, where do you suppose Jesus lives today?"

I concluded.

\\ \\ \\ The answer sought was the answer received.

"Jesus lives inside of us," the children replied.

\\ \\ \\ All except for one skeptical little kid.

He kept looking at his hands and feet.

Then he would look at the huge picture of Jesus brought into the classroom.

I could read his thought process - I’m so little, and he’s so big.

How can that big guy fit inside of little me? \\ \\ \\ Finally, with a puzzled look on his face, he said to me, "Pastor, if Jesus lives inside of me, it seems to me he ought to stick out!" \\ \\ \\ Wisdom from the mouth of babes.

But didn’t that little lad say it all?

"If Jesus lives inside of me, he ought to stick out!"

After all, as John asserts in our text, "He has given us his own spirit."

Paul, with candid frankness, said, "You cannot, indeed, be a Christian at all unless you have something of his spirit in you."

\\ \\ \\ Allowed by free will to our own devices, the results are always disastrous.

Every self-improvement program is doomed to eventual failure.

We are unable to produce any radical changes within ourselves.

But we keep on trying, and keep on striking out with mere positive thinking.

\\ \\ \\ Ours has become the "instant, can’t wait" society.

We want everything to occur instantly.

Instant breakfast, rice, and potatoes.

Instant relief from headaches, heartburn, indigestion.

Instant credit, loans, financing.

Advertising media constantly bombard us with the themes of the "now" generation.

Is it any wonder we venture the hope for pills to cope?

A pill to relieve guilt.

A product offering instant relief from all spiritual ills.

Something to give us "instant insight," "instant peace."

But there are no such products, are there?

Peace, happiness, and real joy do not come instantly, but through the long haul, not the impatient pull.

Nor will we find peace or contentment or fulfillment of life by taking prescriptions of cheap and poor substitutes for God’s spirit living deeply within us.

\\ \\ \\ At the center of becoming Christian is only one thing: a miracle.

The miracle of faith.

God, through his spirit, gives us a changed heart.

This change is the reason "he has given us his own spirit."

In a real sense, being Christian does not depend upon what we would do with our life at all, but rather what God’s Christ chooses to do with it, when his spirit is allowed to live in the depths of our being.

How can Christ "stick out of us" if his spirit has not found a home in us in the first place?

Without Christ’s spirit dwelling inside, where we really live, we are lost in inner space.

\\ \\ \\ What is the real secret of living, do you know?

The real secret is learning to live with yourself.

Learning to like yourself.

If you can’t live with, and like, yourself, you will never learn to live with, and like, others.

God gives us a choice with our free wills.

We can live life, inside, as an empty hulk, deceiving ourselves that this is really life, or we can live, inside, filled with the fullness of God in Christ who yearns to so live with us.

Take your choice!

\\ \\ \\ Life without God’s spirit has its little gods of conformity, expediency, and luxury.

We hardly think anymore.

A little box, smaller than a refrigerator, dominates us.

We sit for hours clobbered by fantastic commercials and inane programs.

Others stand in long lines waiting to see what some are willing to do with their bodies in a Blue Flick.

Sexosity plus violence equals sales.

It appears our nation buys the pitch with the fervor of the true believer.

We’ve been manipulated.

What a public relations job has been done in normalizing our abnormalities!

Even a queer isn’t queer anymore.

Ask a psychiatrist.

\\ \\ \\ We’re smart people!

In our little "show and tell" we can relate who made a homerun in what inning.

Who passed to whom for a touchdown in what quarter.

Who made par on what green.

But tell me, do you really know what happened just for you on Calvary?

At Easter?

The Ascension?

\\ \\ \\ Exactly who, or what, is the dominating control of your life?

Is Christ sticking out because his spirit has found a home in you, or is your life out of control?

\\ \\ \\ "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." Making a good confession almost sounds too easy, doesn’t it?

But Christ comes to live within us when we simply confess and request, "Come, Lord Jesus, be my guest.

I can’t go life alone."

\\ \\ \\ Christ comes to those who truly want him.

He didn’t make any stipulations with strings attached to obtain his spirit, only that you want him.

He did not say you would not stagger and fall flat on your face in sin, only that you want him to pick you up and guide you when you do fall.

Nor did he say you must be perfect to obtain his spirit.

But he did say his spirit would work his perfection within you.

\\ \\ \\ Ever so slowly, when Jesus is the guest of our life, he begins what we think is a household remodeling job on our life.

Actually, he is tearing down the old house and building it anew.

Paul put it this way: "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, behold, the new has come."

When it does, "He ought to stick out!"

In fact, if he doesn’t, Christ is still a foreigner to us.

\\ \\ \\ Does Christ stick out of your inner life?

He will if his spirit has found a home in you.

Life then becomes a stewardship lived as God’s representative in this world.

\\ \\ \\ I read somewhere of a boy whose father’s will provided him with $10,000 per year as long as he was in college.

Do you know what that boy did?

He continued in college for 46 years, and when he died, he had accumulated 11 degrees!

But his education and life were useless.

He never used them.

He did no great evil with his life, but he did no good either.