Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This morning we are continuing our Christmas series.

We are in the 3rd message of a 4 message series.

And so far we have seen The Great Need of Christmas.

Last week we learned about The Arrival of Christmas.

And we are going to end next week on the eternal benefits of Christmas, but before we get there I want us to be encouraged about the current benefits that we get being found in Christ.

I mentioned last week, briefly, that sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that being saved, being found in Christ is largely a future impacting relationship.

But our God is not just a God of the future, He’s a God of today too.

All the days belong to Him and He is concerned with all of the days of all of His people.

I have just recently taken on a role with Corporate Chaplains of America.

I’ll be the chaplain for about 6 businesses right here around the Lakeside area.

And my goal is to love the employees well and share the gospel with them.

So it’s kinda of a no brainer.

You are going to pay me to do something I would gladly do for free?! Absolutely.

And as part of the onboarding process I’ve received all of these emails letting me know about the benefits of the “job”.

Thinkgs like paid vacation, retirement account, discounted clothing for work, tax deductions, etc.

And if you are found in Jesus, in a very real way—the moment you were born again—you received benefits as a result of being found in Christ.

Just like when you receive new employment you will get benefits and privileges you didn’t have before—in Christ you immediately receive benefits that bless and effect your current life.

And it’s important to know what they are.

When I worked at Verizon Wireless years ago they offered lots of benefits because it was a call center job and that meant that every day you’d die a little inside until you were a husk of your former self.

Where life used to live in your eyes eventually there would only be cold ashes as your joy burned away little by little.

And you were left questioning your own humanity....But I digress.

They would give all of these amazing benefits because of the aforementioned difficulty of the job.

And I remember that HR said to really listen and take note of what was offered to us because regularly they would hear from employees that they had “no idea about some benefit” that they could have been using.

And I wonder how many believers do not have in mind all that is theirs in Jesus.

I wonder how many benefits you might have this morning that you don’t regularly think about.

So this morning my goal is to encourage you with 7 current benefits/gifts that Christmas has afforded the Believer.

So let’s jump right in...

1.

We Are Forgiven of Sin

This is a benefit that falls into last weeks sermon where I brought up the human propensity to get used to amazing things and treat them as common and everyday.

In Jesus you and I have been forgiven and are forgiven of all of our sin.

And this is glorious!

Here’s the truth…follower’s of Jesus will sin.

Real, true, saved followers of Jesus will sin against God—and that is very serious—so serious that the Son of God came and died to forgive sin—and yet the power of Christ’s sacrifice in our place is total over your offense.

It is not that believers are made to be sinless here on this earth—no while we are still in this body of death we will struggle with sin—but even though we sin freshly every day we are fully forgiven!

When Jesus died for you he paid for all your sins!

All of them.

There is not one that can damn you because the full wrath of God for your sins has already been poured out on Christ.

He paid for it fully!

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Colossians 2:13–14

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

The forgiveness of your sins will have it’s full effect in your sinlessness when your sanctification is complete, but it certainly has great effect on you now!

This brings us to our second benefit...

2. We Are Freed from the Slavery of Sin.

Before you and I were saved by Christ we were enslaved by sin.

Our will was in bondage to sin—it was our master.

Slaves obey their masters—they are not to have a will of their own but do what they are told.

And the Bible tells us that you and I born in sin are enslaved to our sin.

When our spiritual parents fell they passed onto you and I a spiritual bondage of our wills.

John 8:34 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave[a] to sin.

The person outside of Christ will sin because they are ruled by sin.

Look at what

Ephesians 2:3 says

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b]

When we were dead, without life in Christ we lived in the passion of our flesh.

We carried out the desires of our bodies.

What does that mean?

It means we were passionate about doing what felt good to us in our bodies and minds.

It means that in our actions and our thoughts we sinned freely, unconcerned with God.

We feared natural consequences, but we were not afraid of God.

We did what felt good to us and what felt good to us was rebellion against God in a thousand different flavors.

But in Jesus we don’t stay there.

Delivery from sin is not just a future promise—for those in Christ it is a current reality.

Romans 6:6 says

6 We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

On the cross the person of death that you were—the slave to sin that you were—was crucified with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a]

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

This means that you have changed and now can make decisions that are obedient to God…because...

3. We are Given a New Heart

Believer’s are given new hearts—the dead heart, the sin enslaved heart is regenerated by the life that is in Christ and it begins to beat with a sensitivity to the things of God.

And this is the work of God, through and through.

The Psalmist cries out to God in

Psalm 51:10

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right[a] spirit within me.

Why call out to God—because the work of heart transformation is God’s work.

We cannot give ourselves a new heart.

We cannot take the pieces of our hearts before Christ and cobble a working heart that bows toward God in worship and obedience and so the Psalmist cries out, “Create!

Create in me a clean heart!!”

Q.

When your heart goes astray?

Do you try to pull yourself up by the bootstraps?

Or do you cry out to the one who has given you life in Christ and say, “Renew in me a right spirit?” Let’s not get it twisted.

And what sort of benefit to us are these new hearts?

Do you know what a fork is really good at?

Being a fork.

Do you know what it’s terrible at?

Being a steak knife.

If you don’t use a tool in the right way it won’t be of much use to you.

So how are we to use our new hearts?

Are we to follow them like a compass?

No. Why?

Because while we have new hearts we still reside in these bodies of death.

We still have a fallen flesh that tempts us to live contrary to the spirit.