Sermon Tone Analysis

*Signs*

 

*Intro*

There are signs all around us.

When you are traveling and in a new area, you rely on signs a lot…whether looking for a certain street, a restaurant, or finding an ATM machine, or the right gas prices.

We are all influenced by signs…

Ever been with someone just living in a different reality than the rest of us…you know the kind…they see the SLOW CHILDREN PLAYING sign and they think it means be careful because there are some retarded children in the area who may jump in front of your car at any moment?

Even clueless people are influenced by signs.

You ever been in a situation where you had some important choices in front of you, and you just cried out to God for a sign to help you choose?

You ever been at a horrible point in your life, yet found the hope to go on.

Have you ever been caught up in something wrong, and you just couldn’t escape the nagging in your conscience to get away from there?

We are going to be talking about signs tonight.

However signs are no good unless you pay attention to them!

 

~*~*SKIT~*~*

 

Story of Yes! Michigan sign on the way to WWR.

God has put up road signs in this life.

He has given directions to those that place their faith and trust in Him and have become followers of Christ.

And He has also given and placed signs in this life to those who have yet to place their trust in Jesus Christ, and it is on those signs that we are going to focus tonight…

 

Movie recently called “Signs”  starring Mel Gibson as an ex-Episcopalian priest who had lost his faith and left the church after his wife died in a tragic car accident.

Freaky stuff starts to happen…crop circles which turn out to be signs for an invading alien army.

~*~*Video Clip~*~*

*/(TONY:  unplug cord to computer, go press play, watch for my signal to stop, press stop, turn VCR power off, go reattach cord to computer)/*

 

Tonight you are going to have to ask that same question of yourself.

What do you see?  Will you see and understand the signs that are all around you…

 

The signs that there is a loving God who would rather die than live without you.

The sign that in this messed up world, there is a plan and a purpose for you.

The signs that tell you that you are not alone in this world.

| Click! |

 

 

* *

\\ *Is there anyone out there?*

While I believe that there is a mountain of proof for anyone to find if they are truly seeking objectively…the fact is that it does boil down to faith.

Heb.

11:1 states that “Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

~*Maybe you’re not a big fan of faith…well let’s break it down logically.

*Lepers logic*

*/2 Kings 7:3-4(NLT) "/**/Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates.

“Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other.

“We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city.

So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army.

If they let us live, so much the better.

But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”"/*

‘we’re miserable here…and we’re going to die if we stay here.

Why don’t we go to the enemy, where there is at least a chance that we will live.

Life miserable right now?

Not working…something missing.

Stay where you are and guarantee misery continue.

Reach out your hand to Jesus Christ, and maybe there is a chance that your life will turn around.

What have you got to lose?!

(AA definition of insanity)

Dating losers all the time…you’ve deve

 

*Christian vs. atheist.

*

A:  why do you believe there is a God, it is foolish.

C:  If you are right, Mr. Atheist, that there is no Heaven, no Hell, and no God.

The best that you have to look forward to when you die is rotting in the ground…If you are right.

If you are wrong and I, Mr. Christian, am right, the worst that can happen to you is that you would burn in Hell forever.

If I am wrong and you are right the worst that I have to look forward to is rotting in the ground when I die, but in the mean time I have had some moral guidance for my life, instruction on being a good husband and father and a hope that carries me.

If I am right the best that I have to look forward to is enjoying the Presence of God in my life and I get to live with Jesus forever!

If you are totally satisfied in your life and are completely fulfilled…keep doing what you are doing.

But most of us, that is not the case.

| Click! |

 

 

\\ *The Sign of Jesus*

The man who split time in half.

Has influenced more people, cultures and nations than anyone else ever.

The Man who told us there is a Heaven to be gained and a Hell to be shunned.

Jesus spoke on Hell more than anyone.

He said that He was God in the flesh.

He said that belief and following Him whole-heartedly was the only way to escape Hell and live in paradise with Him for eternity.

Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?

 

Don’t you think that through the years it would have come out if He faked anything?

All the thousands of people He touched and they were healed…where are the reports of them still in sickness?

Why after He died would His disciples go on and live a life of poverty while spreading the news of Him…even to the point of it costing their lives?

What about the Bible?

With all the effort given over the past 2000 years still there is no evidence that truly discredits it.

In fact it is a seamless story of God’s love for His creation that spans thousands of years.

| Click! |

 

 

\\ *The Sign of the Holy Spirit*

*/John 16:8(NLT) "/**/And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment."/*

The simple fact that there is a right and wrong.

If we were just animals, where did our sense of morality come from?

| Click! |

The third Person of the Trinity is among us in the world today.

He is not Casper the Holy Ghost, He is God and some of His roles are to convince the world of their state of sin, to point people to Jesus and confirm that He is the Answer to their existence, to point people to an understanding of the Truth, to comfort us when we are beat up and broken, to refresh us and give us hope, to empower us to be world changers

 

 

*The Sign of the Cross*

Last week we talked about cardboard crosses.

If we just stop and think…how ridiculous is it that we have a cross, which was an instrument of torture and a terrible death as our symbol of faith?

If it was modern day, we would be going around with little golden electric chairs dangling from the chains around our necks.

The Cross when I think about is so mind-boggling.

The idea that God Himself would leave Heaven, take on the form of His creation, live for 33 years as a human, teaching me how to live a better way and then knowingly and willingly go to His death on the worst form of capital punishment available in my place…all of this not just so that I could escape Hell, but so that I could be with Him forever in paradise…it is unfathomable.

Yet it is true.

*Altar~/Summary*