Sermon, by Bobby Deason
Maricamp Road Church of Christ
07-18-2010
That Our World is Messed Up Cannot
Be Denied by the Facts.
• We look at our broken world through our
tear filled eyes. Evil is all around us.
Murder, rape, lies, theft, hatred, sexual
abuse, even by public officials, teachers
and religious leaders.
• TV news reporting 24/7 the gruesome
details of terrorism, genocide, war and
the many other horrors facing us in our
world.
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“Everything is Broken,” sings Bob Dylan.
He names thirty broken things in his song.
Broken strings, broken threads, Streets are
filled with broken hearts, broken words
never meant to be spoken. Broken Laws,
broken bodies. Broken treaties, broken
Vows, people bending broken Rules.
Hound dog howlin', bullfrog croakin‘
Everything is broken
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Rom. 1:22-32 - Reads Like Our Daily News
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became
fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
images made to look like mortal man and birds and
animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires
of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of
their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served created things rather than the
Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen.
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Romans 1:26-28
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
Even their women exchanged natural relations for
unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural
relations with women and were inflamed with lust for
one another. Men committed indecent acts with other
men, and received in themselves the due penalty for
their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to
retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a
depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
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Romans 1:29-32 “Our Broken World”
29 They have become filled with every kind of
wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and
boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they
disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless,
ruthless.
32 Although they know God's righteous decree
that those who do such things deserve death,
they not only continue to do these very things
but also approve of those who practice them.
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Evil in the Mind of Man
• “If only there were evil people
somewhere insidiously committing evil
deeds, and it were necessary only to
separate them from the rest of us and
destroy them. But the line dividing good
and evil cuts through the heart of every
human being. And who is willing to
destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
(The Gulag Archipelago)
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God’s Assessment of our Broken Sinfulness
Matthew 15:19-20
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts,
murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft,
false testimony, slander.
20 These are what make a man 'unclean';
The heart is deceitful above all things and
beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jer. 17:9
We’ve Got Heart Trouble!
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God Says that All of Us are Sinners! Rom: 3:
9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any
better? Not at all! We have already made the
charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all
under sin.
10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous,
not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one
who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together
become worthless; there is no one who does
good, not even one.“
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HELP! HELP!
WON’T SOMEONE RESCUE US?
• We desperately need help for our human
dilemma – we are broken and dead in sin.
• We cannot help ourselves. We cannot rescue
ourselves.
• Edward Fudge writes in, The Divine Rescue:
we are dirty, diseased, disabled and dead.
• Our God knows our every thought; hears our
every word and sees our every deed. We
cannot claim pure hearts and pure deeds.
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God’s Eternal Purpose and Plan was and is
to Rescue Us From This Evil World.
• This is the story of the Bible from the
beginning to the end.
• Creation story – Genesis 1-2
• The story of man and woman – Genesis 1 to
Revelation 22.
• This is our story. We often say or hear it said,
“It is not about us, me, or you. It is all about
God.” Not so, it is all about God and You/me.
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Jesus is the Answer for our Sinful
Messed up and Broken world.
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JESUS FOCUSED
• The Focal and Pivotal Point Of God’s Revealed
Word, The Bible, To Man Is:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
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Genesis 3:15, 22:18 cf Galatians 3:16
Matthew 17:4-8 cf 2 Peter 1:16ff
Luke 24:27ff
John 12:21
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Hebrews 12:1-4 cf 1:3, 8; 3:1
Revelation 1:8; 22:16
• In 1226 Verses In The New Testament Jesus’ Name
Is Mentioned 1275 Times.
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Jesus Focused
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that
hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let
us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God.”
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Jesus Focused
Heb. 12:1-2
What does it mean to be focused?
1.
To have a clear image.
2.
Coaches say over and over again
- “stay focused.” Keep your eye
on the ball’
3.
Dominant Eye Illustrates this
point.
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The Anticipation Of Both Angels And
Prophets:
“The Fullness Of The Times”
Summarized.
1. The Law was focused on Jesus
Christ.
2. The Psalms were focused on Jesus
Christ.
3. The Prophets were focused on
Jesus Christ.
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The Entire Biblical Testimony
Focuses On Jesus Christ, Cont’d.
4.
The angels were focused on Jesus
Christ.
5.
God, the Father, was focused on
Jesus Christ.
6.
The Holy Spirit’s focus was on
Jesus Christ.
7.
The Apostle’s/N.T. Writer’s focus
was on Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Focused
Do you see Him? Is He in Focus?
Bible Examples of being Jesus Focused.
1.
Matt. 17:1-8 – “saw no one but Jesus”
2.
I Cor. 2:1-4 – “Jesus Crucified”
3.
John 12:21 – “We want to see Jesus”
4.
I Cor. 15:1-4 –“first importance”
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HAVE WE SEEN JESUS,
AS HE REALLY IS?
• Gospel of John 1:17-18
–exegeomai : exegete; to show the way;
explained; “…has made him know.”
• “If you have seen Me you have seen
the Father” John 14:8-9.
• “Transformed into His Likeness,” 2 Cor.
3:18.
• Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?
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Jesus As He Really Is!
• We must see Jesus as He really is!
Don’t Let Anything Block Your Vision of
Jesus.
• The Bible tells us who He really is.
• God, Creator, Baby, Boy, Man, Teacher,
Healer, Lover of People, Shepherd, The
Way, Friend, The Truth, The Door, The
Vine, The Judge, Savior, Lord.
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Jesus Name Above All Names
Phil. 2:5-11
Jesus,
Name above all Names,
Beautiful Savior,
Glorious Lord….
Emmanuel, God is with us,
Blessed Redeemer,
Living Word.
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There’s Something About That Name
Song by the Gaither’s, page 222.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; there’s just something
about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus, like
the fragrance after the rain; Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, Let all heaven and earth proclaim;
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but
there’s something about that name.
Acts 4:12
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My Motto, - A Short Phrase With A
Guiding Principle, A Goal - Is To Be:
• “Jesus Focused,
• Grace Oriented and
• Love Motivated”.
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On What Or Whom Are
You Focused?
• To what or whom are you looking?
“Doctrinal” fixation?
“Problems of the church” fixation?
“Issues” fixation?
“Traditions of men” fixation?
“A fixation of a ‘famous’ person”?
“A fixation of Self”?
• Do you see Him? Are your thoughts and
eyes fixed on Him?
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Why Grace and Love Are
Minimized?
• Until Jesus is in focus GRACE will not
be understood, appreciated, properly
received and administrated.
• Only when Jesus is one’s focus will it
be possible to LOVE, that is
“to love as he loves.”
(John 13:34-35)
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FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS!
• All human problems, within
and without the Body of
Christ, the Church are due to a
blurred and distorted view;
• a cock-eyed view, a wrong
focus.
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WITH JESUS IN FOCUS WE WILL BE:
• Firmly rooted in God’s Word in our
hearts.
• Solidly founded on “God’s
righteousness.”
• Joyful recipients of His grace.
• Desiring to be obedient to His will.
• Thankfully humble and grateful.
• Gracious, kind, long-suffering and
accepting of all fellow-believers.
• Non-judgmental, not contentious but
forgiving to all.
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BEING JESUS FOCUSED…
…We Shall Be Like Him, Our Lord
and Master, Truly “Salt and Light”…
• Seeing one another as Jesus sees us.
• Seeing ourselves as Jesus sees us.
• Being and becoming more like Jesus.
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“JESUS FOCUSED.”
Concluding Thoughts
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• Let Christ remain what He is, namely
the center, while various circles
surround Him.
• “Do not infect that heavenly
philosophy of Christ with human
decrees.
• Do not remove the target from its
position.”
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CONCLUSION
A. If we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, we have
to keep our eyes on each other too. To receive
His grace we must give it. To be loved we must
love.
B. So, let us fix our eyes clearly on Jesus,
receiving His grace and passing it on to others
as we love and minister the grace of God in its
various forms, I Pet. 4:8-10
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“Let us fix our
eyes on Jesus,
the Author and
Perfecter of
our faith…”
(Hebrews 12:2)
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JESUS FOCUSED
GRACE ORIENTED
LOVE MOTIVATED
If we will apply the meaning of
these six words,
WHILE LIVING IN THE DAILY PRESENCES OF
THE LORD,
Our hearts, our families, our businesses, our
work places, our churches and our
communities will be more likely transformed
into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
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Thank You Jesus
We Love You So Much!
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35
"JESUS LOVES ME"
"Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong,
We are weak but he is strong.....
YES, JESUS LOVES ME..YES, JESUS
LOVES ME...YES, JESUS LOVES ME,
THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
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JESUS FOCUSED…
GRACE ORIENTED…
LOVE MOTIVATED.
A Motto For Obtaining The Love and
Grace Of The Unity Of The Spirit
Among All Believers In Christ Jesus.
Larry Deason
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