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Sermon Date: 4/8/2007
Outline:
INTRODUCTION: This verse doesn’t sound very promising at all, but the promise is actually found in verse 20. If those things mentioned in vs. 13-19 are true of an un-risen savior, then the opposite must be true if there is a risen savior.
I. OUR PREACHING IS NOT VAIN. (VS. 14)
II. OUR FAITH IS NOT VAIN. (VS. 14)1. I have many heroes gave their entire lives to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
a. (Illus.) Curtis Hutson preaching “I’m on the winning side” while his body was filled with cancer.
b. (Illus.) Dr. Tom Malone, Sr.
2. If Christ isn’t a risen savior, all they accomplished was a waist.
a. If Christ is not risen, we’re all wasting our time.
b. If Christ is not risen, let’s act like the devil, party our lives away and not care about anything.
c. If Christ is not risen, preaching is just a bunch of foolishness.
3. But the opposite is that if Christ is risen, and He is, then our preaching is the greatest event man can have a part in on earth.
4. There’s nothing on earth a man can be involved in that will make a difference for eternity like old-time, Holy Ghost, Bible-Based, Christ lifting, Gospel centered preaching, Halleluiah!
III. WE ARE TRUE WITNESSES OF GOD. (VS. 15)1. I’ve been saved since I was just a little boy.
2. I go through trials just like anyone else. The Christian life is not a free ticket out of problems.
3. But I often wonder, “What must it be like to go through a trial without faith in God?”
a. I can’t understand why anyone would choose not to trust in an Almighty, Loving God.
b. I can’t understand why anyone would choose to believe that when you die, that’s it.
c. Why believe that you were some freak accident that has no meaning or purpose or design?
d. I can’t understand how a person can go through this wicked, horrible world without faith.
4. I feel sorry for people who put their faith in the wrong things.
5. When people don’t put their faith in God, they put their faith in some unstable things.
a. How can you put your faith in a little statue of a fat man that you can buy at any store?
b. How can you put your faith in burning balls of gas we see in space?
c. How can you put your faith in the spirit of animals, and trees, when we’re more intelligent than they are? How many people want a god that’s dumber than you?
d. How can we just put our faith in ourselves when we constantly let ourselves down?
6. I’m glad we have a God to believe in that is beyond our thoughts and understanding.
7. I’m glad we have a God that loves us enough to let His own Son die so we can live.
8. I’m glad we have a Savior that’s powerful enough to raise himself from the dead.
9. I’m glad our faith is not in vain.
IV. WE ARE NO LONGER IN OUR SIN. (VS. 17)1. Have you ever given advice to someone and it backfired on them?
2. Counseling is the scariest thing on earth, because I always think, “What if I give bad counsel?”
3. I could ruin someone’s life; I could ruin someone’s marriage; I could ruin their chance for happiness.
4. That’s why I always pray for God to give me wisdom.
5. (Illus.) A person that is dying comes to you with a vial of the cure and a vial of poison.
a. What if you pick one for him and it’s the poison?
b. You ever wonder, “What if instead of leading people to Christ, we’re really leading them to destruction?”
c. Every false religion out there truly believes that they are leading people in the right direction.
6. What makes our witness true? I can answer that in four words: The Resurrection of Christ.
7. We have the true answer because we have a risen savior.
V. WE WILL SEE OUR SAVED LOVED ONES AGAIN. (VS. 18)1. (Illus.) Lady that said she didn’t believe God because she didn’t want to admit she was a sinner.
2. She’d rather go on living in her sin, than to put her faith in one who could take her out of it.
3. Do you remember what a wretch you were when Jesus found you?
4. The verse doesn’t say that we no longer sin, but that we no longer are in our sin.
5. (Illus.) Mrs. Burke dumpster diving VS. Mrs. Burke living in the dumpster.
6. Because of the Resurrection, we no longer live in our sin.
VI. WE ARE OF ALL MEN MOST JOYFUL. (VS. 19)1. (Illus.) My Brother Michael
2. (Illus.) Amy’s Grandpa
3. If Christ isn’t risen, they’re just in the ground.
4. Nothing more depressing than a funeral where the family is unsaved.
5. Because of the resurrection, I’ll see Michael again.
1. Our hope lies beyond this life.
2. I’m sick of this woe-is-me Christianity.
3. I’m tired of hearing preachers say that serving God is nothing but misery and persecution.
4. There is misery and there is persecution, but overall, the Christian life is the best life you can live.
5. We have a good God. We have a merciful God. We have a hope that endures trials. We have a home in heaven. We have a purpose. We have a God that understands our deepest thoughts and needs. We have a family of brothers and sisters in Christ, what more could you want?
6. If you’re saved today, God’s done more for you than you could ever deserve.
CONCLUSION: I thank God for giving His Son to die on the cross, for it was there that my sins were purged. That’s why there’s no place called purgatory, because our sins were purged at Calvary. The payment was made in the death of Christ.
• But I also thank God that the victory was given in the resurrection. You see, our hope is in a risen Savior.
• When I was saved at the age of 10, the old sinful nature died just as Christ died on that old cross.
• But on that same day, I wasn’t left dead, for I was born again and a new nature was resurrected in me, just as Christ was resurrected on that faithful day.
Gal. 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
• There is a great illustration of the victory that can only be found in the resurrected Christ.
• There is a little boy here today that as far as man saw him, he was dead, but God chose to give him life.
• As Mark comes to tell us about him, I hope you realize that what God did for this little boy physically, He wants to do the same for your soul spiritually.
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