Sermon Tone Analysis

This is from

(NLT)

Northside Church

Easter Sunday “Perfectly Hidden”

4/17/22

Jamey Mills

Good morning Northside…

It is so good to be with you this Easter morning…

What an important morning it is… today as we gather… millions upon millions of people will gather around the world doing very similar things for the exact same reason…

Today… the world will likely see the single largest church attendance of 2022…

Probably the largest church attendance in several years.

Why do we do that… Why today?

The truth is…what we celebrate on Easter is huge… It's one of the most significant and life changing events and truths the world has and will ever know.

If I were to ask you what Easter is really about, what would you say?

Why are we here?

This last week I read a post of a friend of mine put up on facebook… I can’t remember who it is, so if it's you… thanks for helping me out… and sorry for what's about to happen.

The dangers of having pastors as friends on FB.

He said that under significant “pressure” he walked into the bathroom he noticed there was a female janitor cleaning… and he thought… well… this is awkward… he was super comfortable… but nature was calling in a way that wouldn't be denied, and so he hustled into one of the stalls… I just realized how far this probably is from what you expected to hear today…

As he was there, he began to wonder how the other people coming in would handle this…he could hear people coming and going… but no one seemed to care at all… he was in disbelief and then it happened… the stall door next to his swung open… someone walked in… and as he looked down he noticed they were wearing heels… and in that moment he realized something…

He allowed the urgency of the moment to distract him from looking at the signs… and he ended up in one of the scariest places known to humanity… a place he didn't belong.

That led to several minutes of stealth thinking… that turned into an hour… as he considered what his next move would be… he began to think about how Tom Hanks actually lived at the airport for a long time… but that would never work here.

He couldn't move in, He couldn't swim away… there was no fire alarm to pull.

I mean, for a while he could stay hidden and no one would know… but at some point there was no way around it, this whole situation would come to light… somehow… he was going to have to get out of there…

And so he waited… until it sounded like everyone was out… he flung open the door, put his head down… and moved as fast and as quietly as he could to the exit and on the way out he glanced and sure enough… in all of the business… and in all the “urgency” of life he missed the sign and led him to a place he did not belong.

It reminds me of this passage in

(NLT)

20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.

Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature.

So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.

And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like.

As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.

As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.

25 They traded the truth about God for a lie.

So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise!

Amen.

The signs of the reality of God are everywhere… the sun rise, your beating heart, your lungs at work, the majesty of our mountains and the consistency of the sea…

But for all kinds of reasons we miss them.

The pressure of the day… the demands of the day… the desires of the day…

If we ignore the signs, we end up in places we were never intended to be.

And what Romans is saying is… is that if we ignore the signs… if we refuse to see the reality of God all around us… we will end up in places we were never intended to be… our lives end up becoming about things they were never intended to become… and our hearts become hard… we begin to set up life away from God…

God becomes an afterthought… if any thought at all.

Allowing things, attention, money, other people, or our desires… to rule in our hearts and to motivate our days…

with God as an afterthought… allowing things… and desires to rule in our hearts and motivate our days… and even calling it “wisdom”... when truthfully… what it is… is empty and broken.

And this morning… I hope we can slow down enough to look around… to see the signs… and maybe even get real with ourselves a little…

Do you see the emptiness and brokenness happening all around us in our world?

Have we ever really stopped and considered… how it might be different if we didn't ignore the signs?

That sin really leads to brokenness… Lies, hate, lust, idolatry…

and that what God desires from us is actually for us and leads us to real life?

Honesty… generosity… kindness… that stems from loving God and people well…

I don't know how anyone can honestly look at that… and not realize there was something to it.

Here is another question…

It’s an unpopular thought these days… but it’s something I think we need to reconsider…

If it’s true… and God really does have something in mind for you…

Are you interested, would you care?

If he had something that was wiser and greater than what you think and feel…

Where real freedom… lives… not to do whatever you want, but freedom from the things that lead to brokenness and captivity in our life…

And where real fullness lives… no full things we “want” or that just make us “happy” but full of what really makes life meaningful and that God has desired for you all along.

If it’s true… who wouldn't want that?

Who wouldn’t want those things to be the things that mark your life… that other people see in you…

There are a lot of hard things that the Bible teaches… It’s okay to admit it’s hard…

One is this…

(ESV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

Not fun but true… there isn’t a single one of us… that this is’t true of.

If we were to use the earlier Rome 1 passage to define sin… it would be something like… looking past, ignoring or denying the realities of God in the pursuit of or preferring my own way of thinking and desires.

And

(NLT) talks about what sin does in our life…

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of sin… what sin earns… is death… denying God leads dying spiritually… it leads to distance and hardheartedness before the Lord…

Romans is basically saying… to one degree or another… that is the truth about our own “bathroom stall situation”… ending up in places… physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, relationally… we were never intended to be.

That’s what sin is and does…

But if that's all you ever heard… how hopeless would it be.

That we all sin… and it leads to spiritual death and separation from God…

There is no hope.

Let’s pray.

That’s not what scripture teaches… and that is not what Easter celebrates.

God’s word fully embraces and illustrates the brokenness and lostness of humanity…

It's often followed by two powerful words that preach the awesomeness of God’s life changing intervention… BUT GOD…

Two powerful words that preach the awesomeness of God’s life changing intervention… BUT GOD!

It’s everywhere in scripture…

But God’s gift is real and eternal life (Rom 6:23)

But God… is faithful when we’re faced with temptation (1 Cor 10:13)

But God… makes all things possible (Matt 19:26

But God… is my strength (Ps 73:26)

But God… intends it for good (Gen 50:20)

But God… brought me up from the pit (Jonah 2:6)

But God… was with me (Acts 7:9)

BUT GOD… demonstrated his love for you in this… while I was still trapped in the nastiness of my own bathroom stall… while I was still a sinner… Christ died for me.

And… you killed the author of life… BUT GOD raised Him back to life… Happy Easter..

The bible constantly talks about the brokenness and losteness of humanity apart from God. … and then sort of contrasts that with the perfect intervention of a perfectly loving God… that we have in Jesus… who calls you out of the shame, the hiding, the nastiness of the stall we’ve made for ourselves… and into HIS wonderful light…

I love this passage…

(NLT)

3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

What He’s saying is… without intentionally… willfully… putting Jesus in the right place in our lives… we’ll never experience what He has for us.

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

(It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.