Easter Sunday Sermon

“The Story of God’s Love” by Chip Ingram

Sermon on April 8^th 2012

The following is based on the sermon of Chip Ingram and my thoughts/notes jotted down during. Firstly let it be said, Chip is freakin awesome!!! The way he talks if very heart-on-the-sleeve-down-to-earth. He doesn’t beat around the bush but he is well organized and builds his way to the main point. Very moving.

So when I recount this speech it is via notes taken on a handout given by the church so we can keep track of the main concepts and ideas. I honestly can’t tell whether the notes written are things he said or things I wrote –at least in general. I’ll do my best to distinguish between us. Basically: Outline format = Chip. “Notes by me” are by me. Thoughts in between are by me unless I specifically say Chip said something. There we go…

The first thing I wrote at the top of the pamphlet is: “Each of us has something only we can do as an individual”. Chip said this I believe. He was talking about based on our experiences, our views, our skill sets, and our ability to do things we as individuals see and do things that no other individuals can see or do. We each have something unique to bring to the table. I agreed with his point and it re-emphasized my own. I believe there is a basic blue print for human personality. People shift slightly within those confines based on education, experiences, culture… but for the most part most personalities can be distinguished. The thing that allows people to really be unique and individualistic is what they add onto their blue print via more skills, greater accomplishments, individual perspective, and differing lines of thought and focus. In the end, everyone can have similar life goals/ missions but differ in the way they accomplish them (or don’t accomplish them) and the logistics of how everything comes together.

The next thing I have written is what Chip said he would be talking about with regard to God, which is “The Greatest Romance Novel Ever Written”. Chip is one of those guys who talks about God’s love a lot –which can get a little sappy after a while, but then he brings it back to reality and truth so you continue to take in what he has to say. He’s the right combination of ideology and practicality.

The outline for this Sermon starts with “ACT 1 –How It All Began”. Since this was given on Easter Sunday the sermon was meant to be more generalized since some of the people coming there may not have been as familiar with the Bible or the church.

§  Creation – God made us for Himself. A perfect relationship in a perfect world; giving and receiving perfect love.

Luckily for me my friend Alex and I have read John and the beginning of Genesis so these weren’t new concepts to me. Adam and Eve were Vegetarian/Fruitarians. So no one can make fun of me now. Anyways, notes that I wrote around this heading include: “He wanted Genuine Love” and “Void in yourself until united to God”. I love deciphering through old, non-descriptive thoughts. Basically the thing that made God’s drive for love with humanity genuine was the fact that he gave man free will. He didn’t make man a puppet on a string or a slave that had to obey or act out of fear or obligation. He let man decide for himself whether to love God or reject Him. Which leads us to Act 2…

Act 2 –How It All Went Wrong

§  The Fall –God allowed us to choose to reject His love. Our choice to reject God’s love ushered in sin, death, and selfishness to every relationship, separating ourselves from God, ourselves, and others.

It is interesting that when you dig up people’s insecurities they tend to come from some fear of Denied Love or Self-Preservation. In fact all fear is either one or the other. Fear of Pain or Fear of Denied Love. It’s hard for me as a person to measure selfishness sometimes. Especially when you take Buddhism into consideration. Buddha said that we should remove a sense of “self” and we should feel a sense of “oneness” instead with the universe and all life around us. The ultimate goal then being that we would lose “self” and become a state of pure “bliss”. Which is bullsh*t. I never liked the notion of “Nirvana”. A state of non-self-existing in a state of pure energy and radiant bliss. This state doesn’t include God. You aren’t next to God or in relationship with Him you just cease to be distinguished as “self” altogether. Maybe it’s just me being “selfish” but I don’t like the concept of ceasing to me individually distinguishable. But I do also worry about thinking too much about me and not taking others into enough consideration. Like most things in life, it’s about finding balance between loving yourself and loving everything else equally as much.

Anyways, after man ruined things sin entered the world. It occurs to me now that since Hell is a place God created that was devoid of Him (as those who wanted nothing to do with Him desired it to be) then maybe the reason sin entered the world is because when man disobeyed God and let Satan in he brought things outside of God from Hell into the place God had created for man. These things outside of God that He had nothing to do with then tainted his creations. God didn’t invent disease. I imagine that since Satan was a fallen angel who had seen God create things, he may have tried to create some things as well. Like the serpent. And jealousy, gluttony, resentment… and other things that fell outside of God’s creation and jurisdiction. It’s not that man cast God out… it’s that they made the mistake of letting Satan in. It’s like your mom telling you not to open the door to let strangers in. Then you let a stranger in and he steals everything or harms the family.

But I don’t think God hates man for that action any more than a mom could hate a naïve child for disobeying. I think if God was angry at anything it was that man then placed blame elsewhere and started scapegoating. Notes written on this portion of the pamphlet include: “This is Not God’s desired world”, “They didn’t reject Him, they allowed themselves to be led from Him”, and “No one really loves you if they don’t have the freedom to say No to you”.

Act 3- How God’s Love Rescued Us

§  Redemption- “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” -John 15:13

o   God the Son took on human flesh, lived a perfect life to reveal God’s heart, then offered His life as a sacrifice and payment for the sins of all people of all time: that whoever would choose to receive new life may have it.

§  Love gives Light that leads to Forgiveness

I think God made a trade with the Devil and said, “I’ll sacrifice myself as a human man and die for all men who have chosen to love Me and have Me in their lives. In return for this life I give to you, all men who choose to believe in Me and have faith in Me will be forgiven of the darkness you tainted them with.” In doing so He defeated death because He is eternal and cannot die and He defeated sin because men could wash it away from themselves through Him. Imagine if the kid who was told by his/her mom not to open the front door for strangers, opened it for someone who then came in and threw mud over the furniture, the floor, the ceiling, and every room in the house. Then the mom said, “I will pay you to clean this house yourself and in return for my payment to you, you will never again cover mud over anyone or anything that enters this house.”

§  The Result: People get a Redue -2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Notes I wrote on this page: “God is personal. He can be hurt”, God is all powerful, but He is also vulnerable by being open to love and the pain it can bring. He is also perfect in it”, “Jesus = Mirror of God”, “He died for every individual”, “people still have a choice”.

Love is frightening because it requires you to be open and vulnerable. I think it’s hard for people to imagine the level of hate men have evinced against God. They have murdered His own children and used His name to justify it. The level of pain God is capable of feeling must be great. But His ability to overcome pain is what has given many the strength to overcome pain and suffering in their own lives.

Act 4 –How It All Will End

§  Restoration- Jesus will return again as promised and make all things right in Heaven and on Earth forever.

o   Every moral being will be justly judged (repaid) for their thoughts, choices, and actions. Sin, death, and Satan will be vanquished forever, and God will re-establish perfect relationships in a perfect world, giving and receiving perfect love.

o   Love leads to Restoration

This is why I believe life as of now to be a Test. You study for the test and are taking it every day. Then when it’s your time the teacher calls you up and THEN you are judged on how well you did. Until then everything is just progress being made to achieving the greatest goals in life you are able to reach. It is Not for us to judge others, but rather to help them study life and better understand it, themselves, and God. Also, a lot of people who don’t care about animal rights or environmental issues bank on the Final Judgment as an excuse not to care about what happens to the planet before then. But the fact is that the Earth is dying.

The more man chooses not to care about it, the more beings will end up suffering on this planet during the waiting period for it to be restored. It’s kind of like being told you will get an iPod player soon. For now you just have a CD player. If you drop the CD player a lot and don’t take care of it –it will break and stop functioning properly. Then you’ll be left without anything to play music on until you eventually get your iPod. Only instead of going without music, for people it will be: starvation, water scarcity, animal extinction, harsher environmental conditions, plague and wide spread disease, lower quality of life… Let’s try to make this waiting period as pleasant as we can.

Notes written on this section: “You can’t impart what you don’t possess”, “Came as Savior but will return as Judge”, “A God of love promises Retribution will be had. A Just God.” If God didn’t redeem the earth and make it new again His people would feel hopeless and alone. If we really were stuck with this planet as is forever we would not outlast the depletion of its resources. Millions of millions would die as the planet started to decay more and more. People would have no sense of security and no one to turn to. They would feel apart from and rejected by God.

#1- How Do We Know God’s Story is True?

“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death first came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” –Corinthians 15:19-22

It’s interesting the way they talk about death here. They act like death is a disease –a passing phase that can be cured. It “passes through”. We think of death as a permanent state, but maybe it’s only “permanent” from a physical stand point. From a spiritual stand point death isn’t the end, but just a phase in a cycle. There’s nothing “final” about it. Spiritual life goes on.

As for how we know the story is true… I think people who don’t acknowledge God exists are stupid. How can they really be that dumb? And it would be sad if millions of people throughout the millennia lived and died for the belief in Christ if he never actually lived and died and then lived again. It would be a tragedy. But I think the fact that He is very much alive today in the hearts and souls of men is proof that He once lived and was not conquered by death. Millions of people over centuries and centuries and wide varieties of cultures and times all coming to the same conclusion can’t be just a random coincidence.

#2 – How Do We Receive God’s Rescue?

The Facts of the Gospel:

1.     You are a Sinner. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” –Romans 3:23

2.     The penalty of sin is Death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 6:23

3.     Christ died to pay for All sin. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8

4.     You must personally receive Christ by Faith/Grace/Love. “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” –John 1:12

[Chip: And for those who do not want to be children of God, He created a place for them too out of compassion. A place devoid of Him and His presence. Hell is God’s place for people who don’t want to be with Him. ]

I think it’s interesting that the price of sin is death. Because death was also something that God did not create. It was a result of man’s error in being led astray by Satan. Therefore death doesn’t come from God, but from The Devil. When people give into sin they allow Satan into their lives and his price for that is death. Since Satan is the polar opposite of God it makes sense then that if you embrace God, your life will be without death and sin. At least spiritually. A soul cannot die. It can be twisted, contorted, withered, and frayed –but it cannot die. A soul can suffer and experience suffering. When God says souls can live forever through Him, I think He means that without Him souls die the way a body dies –by slowly decaying away into something unrecognizable from the life it once was. To “live” is not the same as to “survive”. If you’re living in suffering and pain you aren’t really “living”. If you’re dead on the inside you can’t say that you’re really “alive”. God created a way for men to live eternally like He intended them to.

Intellectual Acknowledgement v. Spiritual Faith and Participation

Us: Sin with wages of Death

God: Grace and Eternal Light

How we reach Him: The Cross; cross over into His life and let His life into ours

You can’t just play make believe and pretend you carry God within you when you don’t take Him into consideration, reflect on His teachings, and love Him as your Father. You can’t just mentally acknowledge God, you need to have Him in your life. It’s the difference between “saber” and “conocer”.  To know of someone is not the same as to know them personally.

 Discussion/Application Questions:

1.     What aspect of “God’s Love Story” is most intriguing to you? Why?

Well a lot of it is intriguing. A lot of it is also, not confusing, but just a lot of big concepts to take in. The problem with this portion of the Bible when it comes to understanding it is that it has been discussed so many times over the years over and over in various media forms and by various religious leaders. It gets kind of muddled after a while where you think you know everything about it and yet there’s still so much to grasp. I think the most intriguing part is how God conquered over the Devil who had ruined His creations from the beginning. Redemption.

2.     How does Easter and the Resurrection demonstrate God’s love to you?

It’s interesting because the only time of year I would usually go to church was on Easter Sunday out of love for my Grandma. She passed away a couple years ago, but I still made it a point to go to church on Easter Sunday out of respect. I think when you love someone, even if they can’t see the acts of love you are doing for them, the fact that you are expressing love to them makes you feel like at least you’re putting it out there and maybe in some way your love will reach that person. I think that’s what God did for His people.

3.     Have you ever received Christ’s personal gift of salvation to cover your sins and give you eternal life? Where? When? The 17^th of June 1968. It was a cloudy day…What the heck kind of question is this? It’s questions like this that lose people and make them decide, “Ok… church is getting a little weird now”. No, I have not yet been baptized.

4.     Is there anything keeping you from trusting Christ “right now” as your Savoir and Lord? Honestly it took a little time to warm up to the idea –mostly because of stereotypes related to Christianity that have been cleared away thanks to actually reading the Bible and hearing some of the sermons. Now there’s nothing holding me back from openly accepting God and Christ into my life. I am in a much better place with Christianity than I was before.

5.     Who could you talk to about experiencing God’s love in your life? Alex is the go-to-guy for Biblical discussions. As far as experiencing God’s love, I think I’d have to seek Him for that.