The Sermon in a Nutshell: September 27

This week's sermon was the last one in our “Finding Ourselves In God's Story Series.” Since we were at the end of the Story this week, our sermon text was taken out of the book of Revelation, chapter 21:1-8. The sermon was called “The End is Just the Beginning” and the main idea was that when we find ourselves in God's Story, we find ourselves playing for keeps. We live in a throwaway society where almost everything is disposable. Our food comes in disposable aluminum cans and plastic wrap. We wash it down with water or coke out of disposable plastic bottles. We bring this food home from the store in disposable plastic bags. Then after dinner we brush our teeth with disposable toothbrushes. When the clothes we wear start to get worn out, most of us throw them away rather than have them clutter up our closets. Even if we give away our old clothes, they will be thrown away by someone else down the line. I'm not saying that all this throwing away is good or bad, but as Christians it does present us with a special challenge when it comes to our faith. You see, living in a world where so much is disposable can leave us with the mindset that everything is disposable, including our faith. This attitude towards faith finds people using Christianity when it “works” for them and throwing it away when it no longer “works” or “feels good.” By looking at the book of Revelation, we see that Christianity is one thing that is not disposable. Because we look forward to a time when Christ will return and all things will be made new (Rev 21:5), when we find ourselves in God's Story, we find ourselves playing for keeps. This future hope we have, this hope of heaven, is given to us to motivate us towards living lives of faithful discipleship in this life (Rev 21:6-8). This can be really important as life has a way of getting us down sometimes and we all know how sometimes it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My prayer for you this week is that you will find encouragement and even refreshment in the promise of heaven.